Gaea Armor

The  is found in Mega Man X5. It is a heavy armor that sacrifices maneuverability and special weapons in exchange for both greater offensive and defensive strength.

The armor grants X complete immunity to spikes at all times, as well as mitigating the damage he receives. Additionally, X is surrounded by a green field which pushes back blocks with a tell-tale "V" on them when he dashes, and his grabbing strength is increased, allowing him to hang onto walls without sliding indefinitely.

However, in exchange for the strength that the the armor offers, it has its own set of drawbacks. It has a notably slower running and dashing speed, cannot air dash, and relinquishes the use of any special weapons.

The armor's buster functions differently from most others, as well. Its shots dissipate after a moderate distance, but are notably stronger than normal buster shots and a fully charged shot can destroy certain enemy projectiles by shooting them. Its charge time is also much faster, completely omitting a half-charged shot. The Charge shot is also capable of destroying the V Blocks. Its Giga Attack is extremely short in range, but also very powerful. When executed, X pulls his hands back and charges a large sphere of green and black energy, then thrusts it forward, severely damaging anything directly in front of him.

Production Notes
Developer Comments Once again, a ??? armor. (sweat) Finally, you could walk on top of the thorns. Once you make me crouch down on my heels, I've started my mad dash. (grin) Is it because the concept of X5 is a mad dash? (grin) I lie. In order to contrast it design-wise with the Falcon, I had it made with no projections and colored black. All sorts of ideas cropped up, like making the arms symmetrical, and I'm glad the design turned out as fantastic as it did. Actually, this will be the first armor the designer Sensei designed.

Designer Comments It was to look hard, heavy and strong, so I tried giving it a thudding, weighty feel. The chest is a point to note. I even tried making its color subdued, just using the vivid colors seen on armors to date as a point. This was to distinguish it from the other armors.

Trivia

 * The Gaea's leg part is the very first in a Mega Man game that offers protection against instant-death spikes.


 * Some fans speculate that the Gaea Armor is the basis for the character Fefnir in the Mega Man Zero series.


 * The Giga Attack of this armor is most likely a nod to Street Fighter's Chun-Li, who uses a similar attack as a Super Move in most games.
 * The Manual for Mega Man X5 labels this armor as the "Gaia" Armor. While probably a mistranslation/typo, technically still correct.
 * The helmet part of the Gaea Armor in Dark Dizzy's stage is very difficult to accomplish since you have to navigate the F-Laser through a very small space. Although there is a small weapon capsule in front of the wall that needs to be destroyed, 10 misses with the F-Laser and the player will be forced to reset the stage.