Get Equipped Analysis: Super Arm

by Redmage1987

Here it is! The last of Mega Man’s armaments from Mega Man 1, the Super Arm!

Damage Data: The numbers represent the amount of hits it takes to kill each enemy. If there is a zero, then the enemy isn’t hurt by the weapon.

The Super Arm grants Mega Man additional strength for throwing gigantic blocks, and is obtained by defeating Guts Man. It allows Mega Man to pick up and throw specific blocks, which are indicated by standing next to them while the weapon is equipped. If the block flashes, you can throw it.

When thrown, the block will travel slightly upward before falling back down at an angle. If the block connects with an enemy or any terrain, it will split into four smaller blocks that will spread out and potentially hit more enemies. You can only throw one block at a time, and you can’t lift another one until the previous one has left the screen.

It uses two bars of energy per throw, thus giving you fourteen uses to a full bar of weapon energy.

In terms of strength, the Super Arm is even more powerful than the Hyper Bomb! Its biggest drawback, however, is that you can’t fire the weapon directly, but instead your ammunition has to be supplied to you by the stage itself.

As if that wasn’t enough, Bomb Man, Fire Man, Ice Man, and Dr. Wily Stage 2 don’t even have throw-able blocks at all! Plus, Guts Man and Dr. Wily Stage 3 only have throw-able blocks in the boss lairs. As for the other four stages? Elec Man’s stage has eight, Cut Man’s stage has nineteen, Dr. Wily Stage 1 has ten, and Dr. Wily Stage 4 has three.

With only four stages for you to truly play around with it, the Super Arm’s overall usefulness really takes a hit. In fact, there are so few throw-able blocks in most stages that it’s impossible to run out of energy. There are only two ways for you to completely drain Super Arm of its weapon energy: You can drain its energy if you throw at least fourteen blocks in Cut Man’s stage, or at least fourteen blocks throughout multiple Dr. Wily stages.

Plus, to add insult to injury, the Thunder Beam can also remove the blocks!

It’s worth pointing out that If you make it past a check point and die, any thrown blocks will not return. However, if you died before making it past a check point, all thrown blocks will come back. Likewise, if you make it past a check point, throw some Super Arm blocks, and then backtrack to an area before the check point and die, you’ll respawn at the beginning of the stage and any and all Super Arm blocks (before and after the check point) will be back.

The best bosses to use Super Arm on are Cut Man and CWU-01P. Cut Man goes down with only two hits from the weapon, and it’s worth noting that you can take an extra block into his lair if you carry one through the boss gates. Each of the CWU-01P bubbles only take one hit apiece to destroy. However, with only four blocks to use, you’re going to have to fight three of them with a different weapon, so it’s best to save the blocks for the last four bubbles.

So where would be the best places to use this weapon? Well, since the choices are so limited, why don’t we take a look at each area and discuss its usefulness that way?

Starting off with Cut Man’s stage, we’re treated to nine throw-able blocks in the opening stretch. You could use the first eight to fight off the two waves of Bladers, but you would have to kill all three of them in both waves using only one block, otherwise you’ll be left open and mostly likely take a hit as you try to grab another block. You could also use it to avoid climbing the ladders, but unless you plan on fighting the Bladers with the Super Arm, that wouldn’t save you any time.

The constant pausing to switch between weapons would make it take just as long as if you had climbed the ladders. The final block could be used to destroy either of the Beaks that are guarding the ladder at the end. However, they are just as easily disposed of with the Mega Buster. Use the Super Arm here only if you’re confident that you’ll kill all of the Bladers with just one block, or if you just really like using it. Otherwise, stick to the Mega Buster or another attack weapon.

The next block is located directly after the first Super Cutter dispenser. Assuming that you’ve destroyed all of the enemies before reaching it, you’ll only be able to use the block to take out a couple of Octopus Batteries. They’re in a good enough position that you could easily take two of them out with a single block. This could be a good place to use the weapon, but you could also just shoot through the wall to safely dispose of them as well.

Climbing up from there, you’ll go through three screens filled with Octopus Batteries, and each screen has one block for you to use. You could use the blocks to destroy a handful of the enemies if you wanted to, but their positioning gives them other uses. The first one can be used as a stepping stone to avoid climbing the first ladder, the second one can be used to gain more height before climbing up the ladder, and the third one acts as a stepping stone to reach the upper left platform without climbing the ladder while also keeping one of the Octopus Batteries from reaching the left side of the room.

The next set of blocks are located right before the boss doors. There are four of them at the far left of the final stretch of the stage. These are in a great position because you can either use them to take out the Big Eye completely, or you can throw the bottom two blocks to create a safe place to attack it from with another weapon. This is an excellent spot to use Super Arm!

The last two blocks in Cut Man’s stage are located in his boss room. Obviously, these two are definitely worth throwing since it’s Cut Man’s weakness.

Moving on to Elec Man’s stage, we have eight blocks to throw, the first of which is one screen below the Magnet Beam. You could use it to attack the Watchers, but you would have an easier time taking them out with the standard Mega Buster. You could also use the Super Arm to switch which side of the area that you’re climbing at. However, there isn’t much of a point to that because it’s the last screen before the end of that particular climbing segment. Plus, the threat is the same on both sides.

No matter which side you’re climbing, you’re going to have to deal with Watchers attacking you. Use Super Arm here if you really want to switch sides, otherwise just use the Mega Buster or another attack weapon to deal with the Watchers.

On the next screen, we have three blocks that are keeping us from reaching the Magnet Beam. This is another great place to use Super Arm because without it, you would have to return here later to get it with Thunder Beam.

We have yet another block just one screen up from the Magnet Beam. Just like before, you could use Super Arm to change which side you’re climbing up, but unlike before, the threat isn’t the same on both sides. Plus, you have the option to change sides early on in the climb.

You could also use the block to destroy the top two Gabyoalls if you don’t have another attack weapon. You would have to be careful to avoid taking damage from the lowest Gabyoall as you get the block, but it’s in a good enough position that dodging it shouldn’t be an issue, and you can easily stun it with the Mega Buster and then quickly grab the block before it returns to normal. This is an okay spot to use Super Arm.

The next block is at the top of that climbing segment, and is only throw-able if you took the right path as you climbed up. There is no way to get out of the right path without throwing it (assuming you don’t have the Thunder Beam), so this is another spot where Super Arm can be used.

The last two blocks in Elec Man’s stage are located in his boss room. He takes four damage from each block, so you could try to quickly throw them at him to take out a decent chunk of his health, but taking your eyes off of him even for a second is risky and could result in a painful Thunder Beam to the face. You could also try to throw the blocks to level out the battle field.

You’re better off focusing entirely on Elec Man and ignoring the blocks here.

In the event that you returned to Guts Man’s stage, you could use the Super Arm to throw either of the boulders in his room. They only do one damage, though, so only use it to level out the battle field.

Moving on to Dr. Wily Stage 1, we have ten blocks to throw. The first five are at the end of the opening stretch with the Big Eyes. At this point you could just use the Thunder Beam to remove them, but why waste energy in such a great weapon?

There is absolutely no reason to throw either of the bottom two blocks. Only throw the top three. This is another good spot to use Super Arm.

We find the other five blocks just one screen before the check point. The bottom three prevent you from progressing while the top two are in the way of an optional Energy Pellet. The blocks at the top are too high for you to jump and grab; you’ll either have to use the Magnet Beam to create a platform and jump right before it disappears, switch to Super Arm, and then grab the one on the right as you fall back down, or you can destroy it with the Thunder Beam.

This is one instance where the Thunder Beam is clearly better for removing a block. Use Super Arm for all except for the upper right most one.

All four blocks that are found in Dr. Wily Stage 3 are located in the boss’s lair, and are the weakness of CWU-01P. Just remember to defeat the first three with a different weapon.

Finally, we have three blocks in Dr. Wily Stage 4. These are preventing you from progressing, and if you want to get the weapon energy on top of them, then you can either throw the middle block and then jump out and around to grab the top one, or you can use the Thunder Beam to destroy them.

Just be careful not to break the lowest block if you decide to use Thunder Beam. Once you’ve grabbed the Weapon Capsule, you can proceed to carry the lowest block down the hall and use it to destroy the first Screwdriver that you come across.

Occasionally an odd glitch might occur when trying to lift a block, and Mega Man might pull a block out of a block! Another oddity that I’ve noticed is that the bottom-most shattered block doesn’t hurt enemies. It’ll just pass right through them as if they aren’t there!

By inputting the Game Genie code that you see above (ZPXNGNNY), you can instantly place a Super Arm block in Mega Man’s hand anytime by pressing the B Button. This allows you to use the weapon in places where it otherwise couldn’t be used.

What’s that? It Mega Man holding… himself?! Yes, that’s right! If you attempt to throw a Super Arm block in a stage that doesn’t have any, it’ll create a sprite of Mega Man in his hand instead of a block. It acts just like a normal block when thrown, except it doesn’t shatter into the smaller blocks if it hits the wall, ceiling, or floor. Instead, it’ll just disappear upon making contact! There are two exceptions, though…

In Guts Man’s stage, it’ll created a garbled mess of random sprites. It still functions as a regular block, however, and will still split upon hitting the ground, floor, or ceiling.

In Dr. Wily Stage 2, Mega Man will hold a normal Super Arm block! This suggests that the level probably had blocks in it originally (most likely in Cut Man’s rematch room, if not anywhere else), but were taken out.

By using this Game Genie code, you can attack any enemy in the game, and thus the damage changes. Observe:

While the Super Arm works great against the stage enemies, the bosses are mostly unaffected by it. The only exception is Dr. Wily, who only takes minimal damage during both phases.

So is Super Arm as “Super” as the name implies? Not so much. As a matter of fact, if it didn’t share the same arsenal as Hyper Bomb, then it would definitely be the worst weapon in Mega Man 1. While one could make a convincing argument that this is actually worse than Hyper Bomb, I would still place it above that because it’s more powerful and easier to wield (when the game allows you to wield it, that is) than Hyper Bomb, more bosses are weak to it, and it saves you an extra trip through Elec Man’s stage by allowing you to get the Magnet Beam on the first run through.

Overall, I would rate it as the second worst Robot Master weapon. It’s extremely powerful, but far too situational. It’s also not helped by the fact that Thunder Beam can also remove the blocks, which is the primary function of this weapon. If you could pick up blocks at will, or if there were more for you to use, then this could have been more useful, but as it stands there aren’t enough places to get the most out of it.

One final side note: For anyone who has every wondered what would happen if you maxed out your score… nothing happens, it just resets.

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Redmage 1987 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.

Previous Mega Man 1 “Get Equipped Analysis”:

• Get Equipped Analysis: Thunder Beam
• Get Equipped Analysis: Ice Slasher
• Get Equipped Analysis: Hyper Bomb
• Get Equipped Analysis: Rolling Cutter
• Get Equipped Analysis: Fire Storm