Summary

• Ultra Instinct in Dragon Ball has the power to stop psychic opponents in their tracks, as demonstrated by Goku against Hearts.
• Hearts, a villain with mind-reading abilities, is unable to anticipate Goku's movements when he is in the Ultra Instinct state.
• Ultra Instinct allows Goku to act and move without conscious intervention, making it impossible for psychics like Hearts to read his mind and predict his actions.

Fans of Dragon Ball are well aware of the power that Ultra Instinct wields, but the incredible transformation actually has one more important effect that's rarely brought up: it can completely stop a psychic opponent in their tracks. This special benefit of Ultra Instinct was put on full display in one chapter of Super Dragon Ball Heroes, where Goku overcame the villainous Hearts.

In Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Universe Mission chapter 7, the god-slaying villain Hearts, allied with Zamasu and several others, is battling against the warriors of Universe 11, who have been ed by Vegeta and Future Trunks. The fight is going rather poorly, with even Top, wielding the power of a Destroyer God, struggling against them. Hearts' main advantage is that he can read the minds and hearts of his opponents, allowing him a window into their next actions and making it trivial to avoid taking damage.

Hearts is even able to use this against the insanely fast Dyspo, proving that his reaction time is up to the task. All of that begins to change, however, when Goku makes his appearance on the field of battle.

Goku's Ultra Instinct is a Psychic's Worst Enemy

Goku arrives and enters Ultra Instinct Sign, rescuing the Supreme Kai of Universe 7 from certain death. Hearts is shocked that he couldn't anticipate Goku's movements, and Goku proves his power by quickly handling the Evil Saiyan, Cumber. Hearts begins to realize that it's nearly impossible to read Goku's mind in this state--and that if it were Perfected Ultra Instinct, it would literally be impossible. Hearts is forced to rely on numbers and eventually heads to Universe 7, leaving the fight entirely.

Hearts was unable to read Goku's mind to predict his movements because of the very nature of Ultra Instinct--it's consistently described as allowing the body to act and move on its own, without the need for conscious intervention on the part of the warrior harnessing it. That means that Goku's thoughts are completely unconnected to his movements, and that even if Hearts was able to read his mind, there wouldn't be much of anything there to learn. Ultra Instinct is the bane of psychics, and allows martial artists with access to that power to defeat them with ease.

Psychic warriors, of course, are pretty rare in the Dragon Ball universe, but not completely unheard of. Characters ranging from General Blue and Chiaotzu all the way to Cell and Frieza have utilized psychic abilities to varying extents throughout the series. Mind-reading in particular is used by a surprising number of major characters, usually to communicate telepathically, but occasionally in battle the way Hearts does--the Supreme Kai does this to Piccolo in his first appearances, for example.

Ultra Instinct's ability to resist this kind of psychic manipulation is definitely one of its strongest assets, even if it's not likely to come up very often. It makes sense that a divine technique like Ultra Instinct would be beyond mere psychic powers, and Hearts quickly realizes that his normal way of fighting is going to be useless against Goku, forcing his retreat. Goku's Ultra Instinct is undoubtedly one of his most powerful forms in Dragon Ball, and its immunity to psychic opponents is befitting of such a phenomenal power.