Weakness Wisdom – A Look Into Mega Man 2’s Weakness Chain

by Jon Causith

Okay guys and gals, I’m gonna say it right now: You rock. Thank you to all of you who pitched in theories about the different weaknesses in my last post, especially about Elec Man being weak to Oil Slider! I completely forgot that Oil Slider would make his super fast movements almost uncontrollable! This is what makes these theory articles all the more awesome to write!

With that said, it’s time we move on to one of the super beloved game of the Classic series: Mega Man 2!

Since the older set of Robot Masters were industrial, they were not meant for fighting. Sure, Bomb Man has explosives, Ice Man has a durable frame for harsh-weather resistance, Guts Man is super strong, and Elec Man is lightning personified, but they don’t have the full battle-ready potential Dr. Wily hoped.

As a result, Dr. Wily learned from his mistakes and decided to improve on Dr. Light’s designs and create the (then) perfect combat robots. And they succeed at giving a run for the Blue Bomber’s bolts! They had extra durable armor, enhanced agility, and nearly impenetrable defenses to boot!

So how did Mega Man defeat them all? Sheer willpower. And much like the foes he fought before, they all had flaws in their designs. And this is where the fun begins…

Metal Man

Ah, Metal Man: The stylish, acrobatic improvement of Cut Man. Outfitted with sharp reflexes, tougher armor and more aerodynamic blades, Metal Man is quite the fighter! However, not all of his body is armored, so anything that severs his unarmored parts (namely his arms and legs) can reduce his agility considerably!

Quick Boomerang has the speed, unpredictability and sharp edges to cut through his defenses. To try and avoid a barrage of flying blades is like trying to avoid getting hit by hail; unless you’re in the right spot, you’re going to get hit again and again and again…

Air Man

Slightly based on Ice Man’s flurry of offenses and unleashing attacks through the air, Air Man is a tough cookie to get through! To rip through the vortex, you have to go through the generator, in this case, his propellers. Being thin enough to get through and sharp enough to cut Air Man on the inside, Leaf Shield is perfect to send this fan back to the depot for good.

Bubble Man

While Ice Man technically had water areas, and in a sense waterproofing is trying to add protection much like anti-climate armor, Bubble Man takes a page from Oil Man by using chemical solutions that have certain reactions underwater. Unlike Oil Man, he is not at all vulnerable to fire, nor does the liquid from his bubbles rise to the surface, making him a good prototype for underwater combat!

But much like a bubble, Bubble Man can be wrecked by sharp objects, especially the sharp edges of Metal Blade! To have any waterproof coating cut can severely damage poor Bubs’ internal machinations while underwater, thus rendering him ineffective. Not only that, but Metal Blade has the perfect trajectory to fire at Bubble Man while he’s swimming, thus making the evasion of his shots a non-issue.

Quick Man

A robot that boasts Elec Man’s speed tenfold and boomerang blades that work a little like Cut Man’s Rolling Cutter, Quick Man is easily Wily’s most deadly Robot Master of the bunch. Due to his fantastic top speed, Quick Man is truly a demon on the battlefield! To defeat him unscathed is almost impossible, let alone defeating him at all!

So to defeat a spastic gremlin like Quick Man, one must take advantage of his speed. The lack of time progression with Time Stopper definitely works by shutting Quick Man’s speed down, but how would it actually work in real life?

Well the Mega Man comics have had two different theories: Mega Man MegaMix claims that Quick Man is actually heavy and a time field only makes him appear faster, and the presence of a distortion of time rips him apart. Meanwhile, Archie’s states that Mega Man slaps Quick Man around while the time has stopped.

Honestly, I believe that Quick Man overheats by the lack of movement due to his processors working at full speed so that he could actually make his move. Think of that level in Viewtiful Joe after beating Another Joe where you have to Slow down time to add pressure to a rocket’s engine, and then release it to fly him out of there. Basically, all that pent-up speed from the time manipulation takes a toll on Quick Man’s systems to the point of burnout!

Another way to beat Quick Man is to take advantage of his will to run and his rash impatience: Set a trap where he’ll be moving. Crash Bomber is the perfect trap in which the massive explosion would do serious damage to his light, agile body frame.

Crash Man

To think that a demolition robot more destructive than Bomb Man could exist. Not only are Crash Man’s explosives loud and able to decimate any target in a matter of seconds, he has padded armor that shares almost the same kind of thickness as Guts Man while retaining quite a bit of agility, making him a rather deadly foe to fight!

The best way to take him out would be to use his weight and his strategy to stay airborne as much as possible against himself. The sheer force from Air Shooter sends the poor guy more upward than he would like to be. Also, his lightweight bombs can be blown right back into Crash Man, which normally firing one into him wouldn’t necessarily hurt him, but the sheer force from both the explosion and the whirlwinds would bust him up horribly.

Flash Man

The perfected time-manipulator. (And my favorite of the bunch.)

Whereas Time Man could only slow down time, Flash Man can stop time around him. Due to his cumbersome armor, he is not a deadly speed demon like Quick Man. However, he makes up for it by using his Time Stopper strategically and unleashing a hail of plasma bullets from his machine-gun arm cannon, thus making him speedy and deadly to the untrained eye.

However due to the fact that he needs to stand in place for a few seconds to use the Time Stopper, a well-placed Crash Bomb would blast him to dust! Not only that, but his thick armor could only coat so much of his body, and any openings would be blown up and completely tear up his time-manipulation technology.

Heat Man

…why would I do that?

Why would I tell you all how to destroy a beloved member of The Mega Man Network and one of the nicest guys arou–??

Ohh!! That Heat Man!

(Doesn’t matter, the other left; you can do what you want with him, too. –Ed.)

Heat Man, Fire Man’s more destructive and super-blazing successor, has a thick armor that keeps his internal machinery from completely burning up. However, just because he doesn’t completely burn up doesn’t mean he’s completely heat-resistant. Not only do the Archie comics explain this, but his temperatures go extremely high, so he is not the most mobile fireball, the poor guy.

The most straight-forward way of beating him is with Bubble Lead. The chemical make-up of the bubbles are questionable: It is claimed to be made of a sulfuric acid, which could really do a number on Heat Man’s atomic blaze-proof armor and cause all generated heat to really tear him up on the outside and inside.

Another thing to look at is that Bubble Lead is water-based and it crawls on the ground, right where both Heat Man and the explosive ground flame resides, so it’s extremely logical in both the elemental and trajectory sense.

Wood Man

Ah, Wood Man. The mountain hiker version of Guts Man made from metal and trees. Despite being mostly constructed from hinoki cypress, he is very much hardy and tough like his Light counterpart. However, he attacks with stomps and manipulating synthetic leaves with electromagnetic levitation rather than throwing boulders.

Unfortunately for him, Wood Man has been constructed from wood, meaning he has three exploitable weaknesses: Fire, metal, and wind.

Due to only having a metal coating and being comprised almost entirely of wood, Atomic Fire would make him into the burning living kindle for the harsh winter, while the Metal Blade can also be used to cut through his thick wooden hide. Lastly, his frame is huge and sturdy, but like a tree against a hurricane, he can fall over and crash by a well-aimed Air Shooter!

And that about wraps up this bunch! Not too hard to dissect their weaknesses. They’re actually clearer-cut than their predecessors!

Wait, what’s that? Why didn’t I explain why Metal Man and Flash Man are weak to Metal Blade? Weeeeell I’ll be explaining that and more in the next “Weakness Wisdom”!

Source:  Mega Man 2 Damage Data Chart

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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.