The Mega(man) Battle Network LP!

Weather viruses are basically upgraded forms of the Drop Down viruses from BN1 and BN2.




But instead of shooting super powered Wood Towers, they all use T-shaped elemental breaths that modify the target panels (Ice breath freezes them, Wood breath turns them into grass panels, Elec breath cracks the panels, and Heat breath turns them into lava). Their chip drops are the exact same as their attacks.

Oh, and as a side Gaia viruses no longer attack your entire area. Instead, they’ll just drop a few rocks and crack random panels.




Park 1 also leads to the underground section of Town 3. Aside from a PMD, the only thing of note here in Blue Moon is



This guy.

After this I made a huge mistake in a virus battle and took a pretty large chunk of damage, so I decided to just jack out. But on my return trip…



Yeah.



Thankfully, my last save was at the entrance to Park 1. Anyways, Molokos are pretty annoying. They’re essentially slower Fishys, only their fur must be destroyed before they can be damaged. They drop Moloko Rush chips, which summon three Molokos to run across the area. From what I’ve heard it’s a pretty fun chip.



This crack in the road will not be crossed for a very long time.




This is the first place in the game you can buy Unlockers.

Park 1’s accessible BMD held a RegUp 2.



Our man is near the entrance of Park 2. To be honest, I could ignore him and further explore Park Area, but I want to get this over with.






*Insert easy battle*

That period is supposed to be a comma.



How do you guys take yourselves seriously?





Whelp, that’s the end of this forum.



What was “Get used to it” supposed to mean?



The navi jacks out.





Lan’s use of the word “the” makes it sound like he already knew about Nebula. The English language is funny like that.




So take it to SciLab/the Center/Mamoru.

Lan decides it’s time to jack out. Megaman agrees.

“Fix”?



Dude, you’re the one who dropped the Dark Chip in the first place.









Next time: “Romance”!

Current Folder

Cannon A
Cannon * x2
Air Shot A x3
Heat Shot C x3
Wide Shot C x4
Sword S
Wide Sword S x2
Long Sword S
Air Hockey 1 F x4
Rock Cube *
Area Grab S
Invisible * x3
Attack +10 * x3
Top Man T

Total codes (not counting * code): 5

Alright, Roll’s turn.



Roll spent a very long time introducing herself (the above picture is her last line out of something like twelve) before letting me use the menu.



Roll also has three overrides. If it’s like Bass and Megaman, two will be something useful while the last will just be her buster.



Roll’s sprites all look fine except for this one.




Roll has Fast Barrier for some reason.



The first of Roll’s overrides was a free Barrier. Unfortunately, she has to stand still and charge for a while before she can activate it.



As I expected, the second override was buster spam.





Roll’s last override was another (much faster) charge shot, Roll Arrow. Note that anything hit by this arrow will lose any chips it was holding.



What the heck?





Okay, seems Roll boosts her HP through special HP Memories.

Huh, Numberman is back. I guess navis don’t share obstacle cleared?



Nothing interesting happened on the way to Net 3.




So according to a guide I checked, over here I can pay 690 Z for an Exam Ticket.




With it, I can open this gate in Net 1. If you’re wondering why I had to get a ticket again, it seems Key Items don’t carry over between navis.

Past the gate was a BMD with 600 Z and bunch of stairs leading to the upper area of Net 2.



After a bunch of gibberish, this guy gave me the first part of the exam: a ten question quiz. Then he asked me to go find a Big Hammer 1. Finally, he asked me to go back to the guy who sold me the Exam Ticket.



A nearby warp led to this BMD and a one-way panel to the main part of Net 2.



Turns out that thing I paid 500 Z for last update was a key to this door.








It’s really annoying not knowing what these people are saying. Anyways, apparently Roll got a License.

After jacking out, Roll gave an e-mail alert.










According to the guide, this e-mail is from the Officials. Apparently it says that there’s a navi in Net 3 that needs to be stopped.



Huh, I don’t remember this program.







Huh? Oh whatever, off to Net 3.

It appears my mission is to do some ghost busting.




This battle took forever.



I got another e-mail after jacking out.



The guide says this e-mail instructs us to go to Net 5, and that I’ll need a Silver Ticket to go there.

But that’s for next time.

Next time: Come on guys, pick who’s up next.

Current Folder

Cannon x3
Air Shot x3
Vulcan 1 x3
Heat Shot x3
Thunder 1 x3
Sword x2
Wide Sword x2
Recover 10 x2
Recover 50
Area Grab x2
Barrier
Attack +10
Roll
Gutsman
Numberman
Topman

From the looks of things, while every navi shares the same bag they each have different folders. This will be very annoying.

Lan’s PET rings. Megaman alerts Lan that he has a phone call.



I know he probably just looked at the caller ID, but it’s still kind of funny that Lan didn’t even ask who it was.




Lan runs over to a corner to hide the conversation from Haruka, apparently forgetting that she has ears.




Since Lan hasn’t rescued Mayl lately, I can only assume Mayl is finally paying Lan back for Bubbleman’s scenario. Unless they meant Megaman’s rescue of Roll.






Lan freaks out.

She wants to go together? What, does Mayl split apart every now and then?





Haruka orders Lan to go with Mayl.




So yeah, Lan just got forced into a “date” with Mayl.

Haruka giggles.






Once Lan finishes dressing, he gets an e-mail.



YES.





So Haruka took away the Navi Customizer, a program that’s sole purpose is to boost Megaman’s abilities, so Lan and Megaman would be safer? What?

Anyways, Yuichiro also sends a tutorial. I’m going to skip through it.

The Navi Customizer’s opening animation is pretty nifty, but it gets annoying fast.



One of the things that really bugs me about BN4 is how badly the Navi Customizer was nerfed. Not only have Extra Codes and Compression Codes been removed, the vast majority of programs have had their shapes/colors changed to extremely useless versions, and quite a few programs have just been outright removed.

Not only that, but for reasons you’ll see later Megaman’s max Custom in normal form has been reduced to 8.

BN4’s Navi Customizer does have one good thing though. See those four boxes at the top? While in BN3 you had to install programs that matched the colors in those boxes (or just use an Error Code), in BN4 you’re allowed to use any color you want as long as you don’t go over four different colors. If you do, unlike BN3 where you couldn’t even RUN, Megaman will just get a fairly harmless bug.



Aside from the Navi Customizer, Yuichiro also sent an Extra Folder.




Lan hasn’t even met up with her yet.



Now that Lan has the Navi Customizer, Higsby’s Number Trader has been unlocked. Like in all games with the Number Trader, you can get some seriously broken stuff from it.





In particular, however, are these.



Gun Del Sol EX is one of BN4’s many Secret Chips. As you might have guessed just from looking at the chip image, this chip is one gigantic reference to Boktai, a fun game that I’d LP if I didn’t suck at it so much.




Gun Del Sol chips all have pretty much the same basic effect: until you hit the chip’s time limit (a time limit that increases if Lan jacked in from an open area), Megaman will release a wave of light on the column (or in the case of Gun Del Sol EX, columns) two panels in front of him for as long as you hold the A button. This wave (from now on “spread”) instantly shatters any obstacles it hits, doesn’t remove Full Synchro (actually, Gun Del Sol chips can’t be boosted at all), pierces mercy invincibility, and most importantly drains HP at an absurdly fast rate. To put it in perspective, the Mettaur in that image lost all 40 HP in under a second.

Not only that, but all four Gun De Sol chips share a common code: G. In fact, Gun De Sol 1, 2, and 3 form a special Program Advance that any person who’s played Boktai can probably guess the identity of. Sadly, the Gun De Sol chips are all very rare (Gun De Sol 1-3 G are given to you in side quests), so making folders out of them is quite the difficult task.

The Gun De Sol series are all extremely fun chips to use, but sadly all appearances past BN4 nerfed them. Thankfully, other awesome Boktai chips would show up to take their place.



Next up, Buster Pack. As the description says, it gives +3 to Attack, Speed, and Charge. While this wouldn’t have been very useful last game (I used Buster Max, yes, but that was mainly due to the fact that Hub Batch removes the need for the majority of programs), BN4’s buff to the Mega Buster and nerf to the Navi Customizer leaves this thing as one of the best programs in the game. Not only that, but BN4’s viruses eventually get absolutely absurd, so a free fifty damage is a huge blessing.

As a side note, turns out I was wrong about Soul charge shots. Their damage is set, so Aqua Soul is always just going to do 20 damage. However, their charge time is affected by Megaman’s Charge level, and I imagine Guts Soul’s Guts Machine Gun will be bolstered by a higher Attack.

As for Air Hockey 3, well just look at the images. It did 280 damage (and it could have been 350) unboosted. Add the fact that immediately after it ends you can fire off another one to continue the combo, and every Omega boss without Super Armor dies a painful death.




And have a look at Gun Del Sol EX in action against a boss. Note how little the Custom Gauge filled, how much damage Aquaman Omega took, and the fact that Lan jacked in from an indoor area.




Just three updates ago I couldn’t even come close to beating Aquaman Omega. With just the addition of those two chips I can do it without a single Program Advance.

Why yes, BN4’s chips are ridiculously unbalanced, what about it?



Last, and most definitely least, there’s Z-Saber. This Secret chip can only be obtained by linking BN4 with a Megaman Zero 3 game, and if used Megaman will do a three slash combo of Sword, Wide Sword, and Fighter Sword, with each slash doing 100 damage. It sounds impressive, but the chip only comes in Z code so it’s pretty much useless. And, as you‘ve probably noticed, this chip has two amazing translation errors: Z-Saver and Repliroid.

By the way, getting this chip is kind of a hassle. In theory, it’s not too hard. You just have to go to Ciel’s room in Z3, select “Link with BN4”, and then select a chip from BN4 to trade over to Z3. Problem is, the game designer of Z3 got the bright idea of having every Z3 cartridge only hold one Z-Saber chip. Even resetting the game won’t restore the chip, so if you got a used copy of Z3 to finish up BN4, you’re going to probably just find a Guard 1 chip on it.




Getting back to the Number Trader, you can also get these two programs. Custom 2 does the same thing it did last game, and I’d use it if my Navi Customizer wasn’t so small. As for Body Pack, it gives you Super Armor, Under Shirt, Float Shoes, and Air Shoes.



It’s also way too big.



Variable Sword is back too, but Elemental Sonic Wave is gone so it’s not ridiculously broken anymore. Still useful though.



Finally, you can get two Unlockers from the Number Trader. This is a lot more helpful than you’d think.

He’s supposed to be saying that Lan can’t hold any more, not that Numberman ran out.

Alright, enough stalling. Time to get to Castillo.




After I open up some PMDs of course.



Argh.



I forgot the safety spots for the miniature tops. Oh well, time to start over I gues-



Oh my God are you kidding me.



Died again. Thankfully, Topman Omega didn’t show up again.



Blinder is a really awesome chip. As the name implies, it gives every enemy on the field the Blind status effect. And unlike other games that do things like that, Blinded enemies will actually completely miss with their attacks. More importantly, Blinder also removes mercy invincibility and Invisible.





More parts.





Alright, time to go meet up with Mayl.




So I admit I’m no expert on Japanese culture, but I’m fairly certain you’re not supposed to buy gifts for amusement park employees.

Inside is a Sub Memory.













While you’re supposed to head straight to Park 3, Castillo has some stuff worth checking out.

You know, in hindsight I probably should have just shown the “Introducing” images and typed out the actual story.

Wow, that story is both long and inaccurate.









Inside is a HP Memory.




(The last thing on his list is a Custom 1)

Castillo’s homepage has this guy, but none of the programs he sells are very good.

There goes my last Unlocker.



Park 3 starts off with a choice of stairs. The two on the right lead to dead ends (one has a BMD with a Bug Frag) and the two on the left lead to the end of Park 3.

I don’t know why the narration suddenly decided to start talking to Megaman.



“on-line”?




Lan asks what’s wrong.




I could probably make a drinking game with all of these typos.

You can just feel the romance.








That’s an odd way to put it.

Nanako freaks out.






Lan’s fine with that.

Yeah.

After assuring Nanako that he won’t tell anyone, Lan heads back to Mayl.






Mayl walks off, but Lan just stands there.












The two people in front of them enter the ride.



Lan and Mayl enter as well.

Mayl giggles and declares it’s time to go to the next ride. She then walks through the door behind her.



Lan follows.








The perspective on this castle is seriously screwed up. As the Metroline image for Castillo showed, it’s supposed to be as big as Jomon Electric if not bigger.




Two of the same typo in a row. Impressive.

Another example of two lines that would work well independently but fail when mixed together.






Mayl runs off.












Try reading that last sentence aloud.




So it popped out of its own mouth?

Looks like it’s spreading its cloak to me.






Because when people are scared they monotonously cheer.











Hell yes.

Lan’s quite the deep thinker you see.




Seems Lita’s gotten her hair dyed.



You can't tell from this image, but while Lan’s on these tiles the screen shakes.



Lan wonders where Mayl is. As he looks around, a man runs up to him.



A grown man is asking a kid for help.








How the hell did Lan miss that when he left the Manor?

Lan skates over to Mayl.








Next time: A really boring dungeon and a really poorly executed game mechanic.

Current Folder

Cannon * x2
Heat Shot C x3
Wide Shot 1 C x4
Gun Del Sol 1 G
Sword S
Wide Sword S x2
Long Sword S
Air Hockey 1 F x4
Air Hockey 3 V
Area Grab S
Blinder *
Invisible * x4
Attack +10 * x4
Gun Del Sol EX G

Total codes (not counting * code): 5

Several hundred drinks...

Gundesol is still one of my favorite chip series :P
Also, I own chip #168 for BN 4.5, always wondered what that was for lol

So as a complete side note, I finally got around to finishing Battle Network 2's Hard Mode. Turns out you do get the Congratulations image after all. Makes me wonder why BN3 removed it.



More importantly, a new chip has been added to my bag in my normal save file: #266, Sanctuary.

Despite all the stuff I had to get through to get Sanctuary, it's honestly pretty worthless. Defense is rarely that necessary in Battle Network games, and Hub Style's Fast Barrier and my current folder's Life Aura 2 and Shadow 1 are far more than enough.

I did get kind of lucky though. Like most BN2 chips, Sanctuary has 5 chip codes. Which one I get is completely random, but I got E, which is pretty good.