Berkana

"I admire your speeches. But now, allow me to test the result of my experiment on you. Let me see who is the strongest Reploid! This is my final experiment."

- Berkana

Berkana (ベルカナ) is one of the main antagonists of Mega Man Xtreme 2. She is one of the few female villains of the entire Mega Man X series. Players will face her if they are playing X's story.

Characteristics
Berkana appears as a blond-haired Reploid with an overall witch aesthetic. Her armor is mostly blue and white, and she wears a stylized mage robe that extends past her feet, ending in golden spikes. Her helmet has a wizard shape with a red crest that extends to a winged form. She wields a golden scepter in battle.

Berkana is a selfish and reckless individual who has no regard for others, having no qualms over stealing DNA Souls to boost her own strength. She cared little for the concerns of even her right-hand-man Gareth, and arrogantly believed that she could defeat X or Zero even after they had defeated their Maverick guardians. Even Sigma admitted that she was far too ambitious for her own good.

Mega Man Xtreme 2
Berkana is a Reploid shrouded in mystery, her creator and time of production being unknown. She works with Reploid research and development and is the creator of her right-hand-man Gareth. She is the one behind the Erasure incident, specifically the major event which occurred at Laguz Island and prompted the intervention of the Maverick Hunters.

She first appears after X or Zero have defeated two Mavericks. While Gareth believes they should be destroyed immediately, Berkana disagrees, instead wishing for them to grow stronger so she can analyze their data. She then expresses her excitement at the thought of meeting them.

When X or Zero have defeated their respective four Mavericks, Gareth challenges them to come fight. Upon their arrival, Berkana and Gareth split up to wait for the Hunters, forcing X and Zero to also split up. X goes after Berkana, who reveals that this battle will be her final experiment to see if she has become the strongest Reploid via the power of all the DNA Souls she has acquired. Berkana is destroyed by X, and as Zero defeats Gareth, the DNA Souls the two Soul Erasers had stolen returned to the bodies of the various Reploids they'd once belonged to. This put an end to the Erasure crisis.

If the player is in Extreme Mode, it is revealed that Sigma is the one who planted the seeds for Berkana's plan. However, in a rare instance he admits that Berkana's greed went too far and that she needed to have some sense knocked into her.

Strategy
Berkana has mainly two types of attacks: she will throw two varieties of bouncing spheres in X's direction, red spheres with an A on them and blue spheres with a B on them. The letters on the spheres correspond with the Game Boy buttons that will be disabled. If X is hit by the magic shot A, he will be temporarily unable to jump, spikes will appear in the walls, and Berkana will shoot red projectiles that split in two when they touch the floor; and each part slides through a direction of the floor. If hit by the magic shot B, X will be temporarily unable to attack, spikes will appear in the floor, and Berkana will attack with icicles that appear from the bottom and top of the screen. After losing half of her energy, sometimes she will release a spiked iron ball that slides slowly through the floor. Her main weakness is the Ray Claw, but she must be struck twice in a row, as the first hit will simply paralyze her and do no damage. If X happens to have Sonic Slicer with him, however, he can make short work of Berkana as it will damage her outright.

Archie Comics
Berkana appeared as a member of Sigma-1's Maverick army, having been cloned by him using the power of the Genesis Portals. She went to the world of Golden Axe, where she is destroyed by Tyris Flare.

Etymology

 * Berkana may be named after the rune berkanan (ᛒ), which means "birch".