Game Breaker/Mega Man X

• In the earlier games, X can find some well-hidden Street Fighter II-inspired Easter Eggs that let him perform a one-hit kill (or close to that) attack, thus making the game a whole lot easier after finding them. There are drawbacks on this in that X can only use those moves when at full health, as well as demanding the player to input a Street Fighter-like input that makes them difficult to use in battle. Examples of this are the Hadoken in X1 (known to be quite hard to aim against Sigma's second form, and in the first version he was even immune to it), and the Shoryuken in X2.
  • Like the Street Fighter moves, X3 has the ´Gold Armor/MAX Hyper Armor. Normally, you'd only be able to pick one out of 75% damage reduction, a weapon that allows you to spam Charge Shots, the power to dash twice before dropping to the ground, or a Healing Factor that can even fill your Sub-Tanks. However, if you get none of them, but get every other item in the game, you can find the Hyper Chip early in the fortress, which gives you all of these upgrades and gives X's default form a nice golden palette swap. This makes X unstoppable in comparison to every other upgrade he ever had save for the Ultimate Armor, even if you can't save the armor with you on the passwords. No wonder X3's armor is called the Hyper Armor...
• X1's Storm Tornado. Storm Eagle isn't particularly a hard boss if you choose him first, and the weapon he gives you can mow down pretty much every non-boss in one shot, and do a lot of damage even to bosses.
  • Homing Torpedo can shoot homing missiles with a fairly cheap energy consumption. The only drawback is that it's also a rather weak weapon.
  • Chameleon Sting, when charged, makes X invincible for a period of time. It makes one of the hardest parts of Sigma's Fortress a cakewalk when you can just zip through everything unscathed.
  • Rolling Shield is just as broken on charge. It generates a shield that damages enemies around X for a limited time, or until it finds something stronger than it. The trick? X can use it on the vertical shaft right before his fight with Sigma to refill his Sub-Tanks with the weak enemies on the way. And Maverick Hunter X had this weapon buffed.
• X2 has the Spinning Wheel. Fires a sawblade that runs along the ground, mowing down enemies and opening up secret passages, with the charged version spamming projectiles all over the screen as it rolls.
  • Sonic Slicer is a Razor Wind attack that ricochets off walls and cuts through mostly anything. Its charged version, however, is violent, raining down blades around X and doing big damage even to minibosses.
  • Speed Burner is a rather fincky weapon to use, but it's incredible when properly used, especially when charged. After all, getting a second Air Dash while still doing damage (which also resets X's air so he can do a third dash) is something a lot of players love.
• X3 has X wielding Zero's beam saber, which is more versatile as it is an upgrade to the charge shot and doesn't need a health requirement to fire. With a proper hit, it kills any non-boss instantly and pierces any enemies beyond if they are weak enough. Bosses, however, still get huge damage from this, with a well-landed hit destroying up to 50% of their life, and even Sigma is not immune to it. Combine that with the Cross Buster from the Hyper Armor, and you have a robot that can destroy tons of things with a six-second charge.
  • Spinning Blade also counts. Just imagine Kirby's Cutter power, but you fire two at once (one goes up, the other goes down), and it's powerful enough to cut through enemies. It can do high damage, even more if spammed at point blank, and its charged shot sends a giant yoyo that shreds everything in the direction you desire.
• X4-X6 gave X the Ultimate Armor, with infinite Nova Strike, while X8 had an upgraded version of this. Unlike X and X2, none of these required you to have full health. None of them were one-hit finishers either, although several were two-hitters.
  • Ultimate Armor allowed, as previously indicated, infinite Nova Strikes. In other armors Giga Attacks are nifty screen fillers that just do weak splash damage, or strong small-area attacks (like the Gaea and Shadow Armors), and all of those require X to take damage in order to charge these attacks. The Ultimate Armor has no such drawbacks: it allows Nova Strikes to be chained indefinitely, and they differ greatly as well, turning X into an invincible jet that causes collision damage. The Ultimate Armor also allows X to spam Nova Strikes in rapid succession, making X able to take out any boss in about ten seconds, and also traverse difficult platforming sections by granting the ability of unimpeded flight.
  • While not an intended Game Breaker and rather a Good Bad Bugs case, Zero has the "Saber Cancel" trick: you can cancel any part of his three-hit combo into a dash, and then the dash back into a saber combo. As the first two slashes trigger no Mercy Invincibility on bosses, you can basically tear down their life bars faster than using the intended method. There's a drawback on X5, however; if you get the Wind Shredder from The Skiver, it replaces Zero's Dash Slash with the technique, which motivates players and speedrunners to just skip Skiver and launch the shuttle anyways.
• Xtreme 2, a game for the Gameboy Color, had a part system like the one in X5. X could equip up to four upgrade parts as long as he didn't have all his armor parts, if he did only two were possible. So as long as your were willing to give up the upgrade for the Street Fighter moves, much weaker than the console versions, you could skip the helmet, which was identical to the X1 version. The best part loadout was Buster +1, Buster +2, Ultimate Buster, and Speed Shot, letting you forget the special weapons and just blast away with a high speed barrage of double-strength charge shots from the X-Buster. Or you could skip Speed Shot for the Hyper Dash, which makes you invincible when dashing, and add some defense to your still hideously overpowered offense.
• X4 gives to X the Plasma Buster upgrade on his Nova Armor. It fires a large, damaging plasma ball that penetrates everything and leaves up to two lesser plasma trails that keep doing damage where they are. The fact that this Buster is the one always installed on every version of the Ultimate Armor says something.
  • On X5 this Buster is nerfed, however; it can't go through walls anymore, and only leaves one plasma trail, also triggering the bosses' Mercy Invincibility.
  • The helmet upgrade was no slouch either. It says a lot when a helmet gives infinite ammo for uncharged Special Weapons, and the first Ultimate Armor also had it. Obviously, like the Buster, it was also nerfed in X5 to only halving the energy use of those weapons.
• X5 had the Falcon Armor, which you could get pretty early on if you knew where to look. As the name says, it gives X the ability of flight. Not an upwards dash like the Hyper Armor, or a float function like the Nova Armor, it is outright the ability to fly wherever you want, and with good speed at that. It also comes with a Battle Aura that damages enemies that get too close, but can't exactly plow through everything. Aside from not being able to charge Special Weapons and a rather small and weak Charge Shot, there was no real drawback to it: the Charge Shot pierces pretty much anything, and he gets a screen cleaner of a Giga Attack. It had to be severely nerfed on X6, with the flight reduced to an Air Dash, the Charge Shot losing the ability to go through walls, and severely weakening the Giga Attack, but in turn it allowed X to charge his weapons. It's indeed the biggest Game Breaker the X series had next to the Ultimate Armor, and the biggest nerf it had during game transition as well.
  • The Gaea Armor is no slouch as well. Slows down X to a crawl, has no Air Dash, disables his Special Weapons and access to parts, but in turn it makes him impervious to most damage, able to walk on spikes as if they were solid ground, cling to walls without sliding down, and gives X a powerful Charge Shot that takes even enemy shots down and charges in less than a second. Have we mentioned they also ignore the bosses' Mercy Invincibility?
  • X5 is also the point Zero's Black Armor stops being just an aesthetic change. It change Zero's Fragile Speedster status into full-blown Lightning Bruiser territory by giving him the Shock Buffer (reduces damage and stunlock by half), Shot Eraser (allows his saber to destroy projectiles), and increases his Weapon Energy reserves by 50%, while also allowing Zero to equip any four parts he wants to. Savage.
    • In X6, the Virus Buster the upgrade also confers Zero is exchanged for a much more useful Saber Plus.
  • The Firefly Laser isn't exactly game-breaking -- it fires a firefly-shaped missile that you can guide with the directional, while leaving X a sitting duck on his position and has a high energy usage per shot. It leaves a trail of light (You know the ones the motorbikes in TRON leave? That fashion), that, while it doesn't do lots of damage, will harm anything that touches it for a time, allowing X to take down swarms of enemies or even Dark Dizzy with a single shot. Its charged version is outright a big spreading laser that fires continuously for a few seconds. It's just a damn shame the huge energy consumption and the boss' Mercy Invincibility makes it utterly useless for the very boss it was intended for: Dark Dizzy.
  • The Crescent Shot has in its charged version the successor to Rolling Shield: it encases X in an all-damaging barrier of slashing energy for a few seconds that does tons of damage if well-exploited. Zero gets the Crescent Sword instead, which also gives him the ability to Double Jump and do rolling slashes, with more damage due to the technique's properties. The kicker? You get those from Grizzly Slash, the weakest Maverick of the game.
• X6's parts system still has its limitations, but even this won't stop you from turning X and Zero into either a walking death machine, the god of speed, or the ultimate tank.
  • For Zero (without the Black Armor), a defensive load would be Saber Plus, Energy Saver, Damage Barrier, Shock Buffer and Life Recover for the Limited Part. This means enhanced strength, 50% more weapon energy, double defense, double time for Mercy Invincibility and what amounts to be a third Sub-Tank.
  • A mobility loadout will always involve a combination of Speedster (increases horizontal speed), Jumper (increases jump height) and Hyper Dash (increases dash speed and distance), allowing them to reach hard-to-get items and other stuff. It also helps an immense deal in Gate's Lab, as it allows X to traverse the massive death trap of a stage it is.
  • The Shadow Armor is X6's answer to the Gaea Armor. Like that armor, it disables X's Special Weapons, and gives X immunity to spikes and the ability to cling to walls. It also allows X to cling to ceilings in the same fashion as Zero's Hyoroga technique, makes the Buster a spread shuriken shot, and turns the Charge Attack into a powerful Z-Saber slash. It also has a powerful Giga Attack that hits everything around X, and still allows him to use his parts, which in turn allows for combinations that make X into a Lightning Bruiser when properly used.
  • The Metal Anchor. It allows X to destroy most enemies in one shot, and if you charged it up, the attack hits the majority of the screen and destroys mid-bosses, regular bosses, and even Sigma. Ouch.
  • The Guard Shell, possibly the most broken weapon in the X series for Zero, and a candidate for the most broken thing that ever existed, on par with the Ultimate and Falcon Armors. Basicaly, the shield normally only reflects attacks as its name and the game text would imply. However for Zero it has two effects. One is the written effect, and the second effect is multiplying the hit number of close range attacks, and it ignores boss immunity frames. Essentialy, you can beat most bosses in the game at two seconds using this move.
  • Yammaa Option is considered the best shield weapon in the series. They're dragonfly-shaped Attack Drones that protects you from enemies and gives you long-range options as they shoot alongside you, and weapon energy is only used when these drones are summoned. The charged version makes these drones temporarily invincible and shooting at multiple directions as you move. And the best part? Zero has access to the weapon.
  • Zero's Ensuizan is the Crescent Sword on steroids, but it works differently: it can be done both midair and on the ground. Holding the special attack button in midair makes Zero freeze on air while spinning, allowing anything without Mercy Invincibility to be shredded by the technique before it ends. Just take note that Zero himself is not immune to attacks while doing this.
• In X7, X himself is a Game Breaker. His Charge Shots have incredibly high damage output, sometimes hitting bosses harder than their weaknesses. If you put X7's mechanics into factor (like the aiming system), you can get an idea of why they decided it was a good idea to restrict him from the start.
  • Explosion deals absurd damage to anything that dares staying in place, hitting up to four times per shot. Despite its enormous energy usage, X can make good use of its charged shots, even if he has to fall back on the Buster once the ammunition ends. The weapon itself is not what makes it broken, though; it's how Axl handles that weapon that is broken: he gets along with it the Grenade Launcher, a weapon that does damage on par with X's Charge Shot while being faster than X on Quick Charge. While it has a limited range and impedes Axl's movement while shooting, this is basically Explosion with better range and infinite ammo. The only way for things not to be destroyed with this weapon is either being Vanishing Gungaroo and Flame Hyenard (highly agile bosses who won't sit still). And the mere fact that he can "dodge-roll" incoming attacks allows Axl to, if not surpass X, come at least close.
• X8 brings the Sigma Blade to the table. It has incredible attack power, and is huge enough to easily cover the screen on a jumping attack. How much power it gives Zero, you ask? Too much.
  • Even without the Sigma Blade, Zero is a Game Breaker. Rasetsusen with the D-Glaive makes Zero into a long-range buzzsaw that can turn the Troia Base Intermission into a joke.
  • So, shall we talk about the Infinity +1 Armors the heroes get for New Game+?
    • Zero's Black Armor this time turns him into a Glass Cannon, doubling his offense in exchange for halved defense, and he gets extra agility on top of that.
    • X's Ultimate Armor makes a return with a vengeance. The Nova Strike becomes finite, but this time it has just enough power to destroy almost all of a boss' life gauge. X4's Nova Armor helmet function is back, but now gives infinite energy for charged weapons as well. The Buster is also the good old Plasma Buster from X4. To finally complete the kit, the boots gather the best of both Hermes and Icarus, making X a monstrous speedster on top of all this brute force. Yeah. It has become even more broken than the original incarnation.
    • Axl also gets an upgraded armor of his own; the White Armor gives him infinite hover time while firing, faster dashing and unlimited A-Trans time. Feel free to smash the game with this.
  • The Armor customization system of the Neutral Armor allows X to be a murder machine. Combining the Hermes Helmet and the Icarus Buster allows X to near-instantly charge and fire full Charge Shots (not the Wave Motion Gun variation present on Icarus), in a similar fashion to what he once could do with the Gaea Armor. Combine that with the Boots and Chest of your choice, and go to town.
• Mega Man X Command Mission had Bait/Stealth Form, which allowed Axl to always be the target of any targeted attack and not take damage. Not a perfect lock, as attacks that hit the whole party would still be able to hit your other characters, but good enough to make many boss battles a lot easier.
  • And then there's X's Ultimate Armor and Zero's Absolute Zero armors, which increase your attack power to the point that 25K damage can be done with each character. Boss battles will NOT last long enough for the power-ups to eventually wane like they do after a few turns if you use Build Hypers to increase the time the power-ups last. Add SFM Fragment Alpha and you can get a Limit Break out EVERY TURN.
    • It should be noted, however, that the Ultimate Armor and Absolute Zero are more infinity plus one forms rather than actual game breakers. Both require you to defeat a ridiculously hard Bonus Boss for each one (The Mole Brothers for Absolute Zero, Rafflesia for Ultimate Armor X). The aforementioned SFM Fragment Alpha can only be obtained using Marino's Limit Break on the Final Boss of the game.
• In Maverick Hunter X, you get to play as Vile. He's got a few breakers up his sleeve, too. One example is the Stubborn Crawler which absolutely MURDERS anything on the ground and on a wall faster than you can blink. In addition, not one, but TWO bosses are weak to it. Then there's the Parasite Sword, which can hit anywhere on the screen if you're positioned properly. It cannot be destroyed, and it's pretty powerful, too. The kicker? There's no limit to how many times you can use ANY of his weapons.
  • From the Vulcan-type weapons, there's the Distance Needler, which has slow firing speed, but long range, the ability to trample through even shielded enemies, and deals good damage. The fact that it can also be equipped along with the Stubborn Crawler and Parasite Sword confirms Vile's status as an one-Reploid army.
  • The Popcorn Demon Missile-type weapon fires a missile that splits into three, but has a fast enough firing rate to allow you to spam them, to the point you can fill half the screen with missiles. On the UMD version, this causes a big slowdown akin to Bullet Time that you can keep as long as you're still spamming missiles. The PSN version took care of that slowdown, however.
  • The game also tweaked some of X's weapons. The arm upgrade you get from Zero is stronger than the normal version, making the buster a good alternative to Rolling Shield against Sigma's second form. Chameleon Sting now has a better, stronger spread that doesn't wait to split from a single laser, and its charged version now lets you change weapons while invincible. Charged Electric Spark now covers the whole screen, making it easier to hit Armored Armadillo. Rolling Shield got the most out of it though, as you can switch weapons while the charged barrier is up, so you can have the free hit and fire anything (including the fireball).
    • If you're holding the charge with a special weapon, you can still shoot with the X-Buster without dropping the charge. You can even remap the buttons in the PSP to make this easier to do.