Tips Ben 10

The Original Omnitrix, its Ultimatrix replacement, and the "finalized" version that is the New Omnitrix are the central elements of the Ben 10 story. They are all alien devices developed by Azmuth that transform the user into any one of a number of alien beings (originally 1,000,903, but the number has increased by 11 because of the transformations that have been unlocked throughout the series via the "Scan Mode" of every version of the Omnitrix). Despite many seeing the Omnitrix as a weapon, its true purpose was to allow the diverse beings of the universe to understand each other by "walking in each other's shoes" and to resurrect all of the intelligent species in the universe that may go extinct (including the human race). Both of these facts are revealed in the Alien Force episode "War of the Worlds." The second function cannot be achieved by the Ultimatrix because of Albedo's modifications. It is not yet confirmed if the New Omnitrix can achieve it.

The Omnitrix appears in the first two incarnations of the franchise (Ben 10 and Ben 10: Alien Force), but Ben had to destroy it and use the Ultimatrix in the Ben 10: Ultimate Alien series. In the final episode of Ultimate Alien, Azmuth takes the Ultimatrix from Ben and replaces it with the New Omnitrix – the original version having been a prototype. The new version had all of the same features as its predecessors. In Omniverse, Azmuth reveals that Ben's habit of slamming his hand on the Omnitrix's core (and inadvertently the scroll pad) randomizes the time-out function, causing Ben to sometimes transform back to normal much earlier than expected or to transform into a random alien.

In Ben 10: Omniverse, the Nemetrix, a knock-off of the original Omnitrix used by a bounty hunter with an alien dog which uses the Nemetrix, is introduced. Unlike the Omnitrix and its succeeding models, the Nemetrix uses the DNA of the natural predators of the sentient alien races such as a giant worm, beetle, etc., which throughout the Omniverse series have the sole purpose of hunting Ben. Thus, only an animal can use the Nemetrix, as users of higher intelligence are unable to use it themselves without incurring mental and/or genetic damage. In Omniverse, Albedo recreates the Ultimatrix by using a Polymorphic Crystal to stabilize his transformations, making it so that he can stay in any form as long as he wants. It also allows him to transform into the Ultimate Forms of his aliens without first turning into their normal forms.