Weakness Wisdom – A Look Into Mega Man/Powered Up’s Weakness Chain

by Jon Causith

Before I begin reviewing this set, I want to thank you all for reading my last post and for giving your wonderful responses! I’m also very grateful to the folks at The Mega Man Network for posting my writing here, so to each and every one of you, thank you very much!

Now to start this party off, we’re going to dive in the game that started everything… the story of how the Rock became the ‘Man. The Mega Man!

As we look into the first game, we can see there’s nothing really out of the ordinary: Fire burns the Bomb’s fuse, Bomb shatters the Guts-y rock, and so forth. Sure, we have the head-scratcher where Fire is beaten by Ice, but back when we were little, we always thought that Ice gets melted by Fire, so we don’t usually take in account the other small details. But other than that bit of weirdness, everything seems to check out.

That is until Oil and Time are added into the mix.

With the weakness wheel reinvented, now we have some really strange strategies: Oil beats electricity? Time beats guts?? Ice beats fi–??? oh. Well the more things change, the more they stay the same, eheh.

So for this time on Weakness Wisdom, we’ll be looking into both the original and the Mega Man Powered Up variants of the weaknesses. Let’s get started!

Cut Man

Well not too surprising, rock beats scissors. But if you really think about it, he really is allergic to rock: Both by Super Arm and the “Rock” Buster.

I mean, he does flinch against Mega Man’s weapon, and… he is kinda weak and… heh… eh… *crickets chirp* …oh.

Anywho, with the force of the rock tossed against Cut Man’s small and lanky frame, it’s easy to see why he’s weak to Super Arm. Also, his scissors are durable enough to cut through trees (keep this in mind. This will be important later!), but aren’t strong enough to cut through solid rock.

Guts Man

Okay, so for the first game: Guts Man was weak to Hyper Bomb. Seems reasonable, since bombs can break through solid rock, and no one was more solid than Guts Man himself! (Actually Ice Man was more durable, but let’s say Guts Man’s stronger to make him feel better.) Also, the force and utter shock from the exploding bombs could also flinch Guts Man from properly lifting his boulders, so that’s another way to look at it.

And as we get into Powered Up: Guts Man is weak to Time Slow. A strange choice at first, but if you truly think about it, the shift of time and space could double the gravity on Guts Man, causing extra strain on the poor guy if he had to carry boulders during the time shift.

And really, who wants to be stuck in a slowed time zone where you’re carrying something huge and heavy for a seemingly long period of time?

Ice Man

And so we move onto the ever-so adorable little arctic scout that could, Ice Man! For his first appearance, he was weak to Thunder Beam. As a kid, I didn’t really know why, since I never put ice and water together as the same element, since one involved water itself and the other involved a change in temperature, no matter if water was present.

However if you really think about it, lightning is a super-hot flash of energy that can pierce and heat up anything in merely seconds! Also, it can be argued that Ice Slasher is produced through the cooling of liquids, which may include a mixture of water or perhaps some kind of nitrogen compound, making it potentially vulnerable to electricity!

For the remake, he is now weak to Hyper Bomb. Now this is very justifiable, since no matter how hardy Ice Man is, he’s still small and light, so the force of a great explosion would send him back a few feet. It’s the laws of matter and motion, in motion! Furthermore, the heat of Hyper Bomb could easily defrost Ice Man’s winter chill, making it super effective against the little guy.

Speaking of bombs, let’s have a blast with…

Bomb Man

No matter which appearance he made, original or Powered Up, Bomb Man is completely  straight forward. In the original, he’s weak to Fire Storm, because extreme heat can trigger the explosion from bombs easily, plus a fuse is lit with fire. (“And when it rains, people get wet~.”)

And in Powered-Up, he’s weak to Rolling Cutter, due to bombs being diffused when the the trigger is severed. So yup, that about covers it.

Fire Man

Excuse me a moment, please.

*cough* Right! Back to business.

As I said before, I couldn’t wrap my head around ice beating fire back when I was little, since ice is technically melted by heat. Now keep in mind, there are ways around that logic without even using the ice melting into water to douse fire logic.

One way of looking at it, Ice Slasher could be seen as a really cold and sharp burst of wind that blows out the fires made by Fire Man, effectively a colder version of Wind Storm beating Flame Man. Another way of looking at it: Fire Man is producing fires at an alarmingly high temperature, making him susceptible to thermal shock if he was smashed by something extremely cold. No matter which way you look at it, science saves the day!

(Nooo!!! Fire Man…)

Elec Man

Considered the driving force of the Robot Masters, Elec Man supplies the city’s electrical power, so he’s packs a mean punch! In the original, he’s vulnerable to Rolling Cutter. This weakness is pretty clear, since the main purpose to Rolling Cutter was to cut down trees, so in a sense, it’s like cutting down a power line. (See! I told you this was important! Okay, not really.)

Also, metals are highly conductive, so if Elec Man was cut by the giant sheers, the collision of his generator and the metal would end up shocking himself, thus making him as much a danger to himself as he would be to Mega Man!

And now we come to the big oddity: Elec Man is weak to the Oil Slider in the remake. Now keep in mind, oil is not a conductive substance at all. In fact, you can stick a wired cooling fan under oil with the darn thing still running, so it’s not like oil could fry circuitry. (If anyone can prove me wrong, please do so.)

However it could really stain everything, and given Elec Man’s diva sort of personality, it only makes sense that he would hate getting ruined by something as stubborn and murky as oil.

Time Man

The highly experimental Robot Master who can control time in a short burst, Time Man is vulnerable to Thunder Beam in the same way that Magnet Man is vulnerable to Spark Shock: Alarm clocks produce an electromagnetic field that allows it to keep track of the time.

An electrical disturbance in the field would cause Time Man’s field to be subdued. And keep in mind: he’s an unfinished prototype, so he is most likely electrically unstable, making him susceptible to electric shocks.

Oil Man

You know, despite the controversy behind the guy, I actually kind of like Oil Man. His design is goofy, and the fact that he produces the city’s oil makes him a nice addition to the original Robot Masters. But enough about that.

Oil Man is about as straight forward as Bomb Man: Oil is extremely combustible, making him weak to Fire Storm.

So yeah, this is a pretty clear-cut bunch! Oil Slider against Elec Man aside, there is very little that truly questions logic. Until next time, Pakatto 24s: Do the Mettaurio!

(Special thanks to Thor Thorvaldson for letting me use the Time Man pic!)

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Jon Causith is a member of The Mega Man Network’s User Content Submission System, and the views expressed here reflect the views of the authors alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Mega Man Network.