Item

An item is an object within the games that can be collected by the player's character that are often beneficial. Items have varying functions, like recovery and equipment, and some are needed to progress in the story.

Life Energy
Life Energy (ライフエネルギー), also known as Energy Pellet and Power Capsule, is an item that recovers health. It usually comes in 2 sizes, small and large. Some games have extra large versions of them that usually restore to full health. In the Mega Man ZX series, the larger ones can be sliced with a saber weapon to create smaller and different types of energy. The small ones traditionally restore 2 bars, or units, depending on if the energy meter has visible "bars" of health in all the 8-bit games. This may be true of all games, but when the energy meter is "solid" it's difficult to discern.

Interestingly, in Mega Man 7, a giant Energy Pellet can be found in Spring Man's stage, using Rush Search (in the area with a lighter star in the background). This giant Energy Pellet only appears in this stage and has made no later appearances in the original series.

Weapon Energy
Weapon Energy (武器エネルギー), also known as Weapon Capsule, recovers the energy for Special Weapons. Like Life Energy, it usually comes in two sizes, small and large. They restore an equal amount of weapon energy as the same sized Life Energy pellets and capsules. In some games like Mega Man 8 and Mega Man X5, it also comes in extra large versions that restore full weapon energy.

In Mega Man ZX and Mega Man ZX Advent they are called Biometal Energy (ライブメタルエネルギー, Livemetal Energy in Japan), and the larger ones can be sliced with a saber weapon to create smaller and different types of energy.

1-UP
A 1-UP, also known as Extra Life, is an item present in all platform Mega Man games that grant an extra life to the player. The player can have a maximum of nine lives in most appearances, usually starting with two lives. However, when the number of lives says 0, dying once will trigger a game over, so 9 lives counts as 10 lives before a Game Over. The EX Item increases the amount of initial extra lives.

The extra life had various appearances, the first being a face of the player's character (Mega Man, Proto Man, Bass, X and Zero) from the first Mega Man game to Mega Man 7, Mega Man 9, Mega Man 10, Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge to Mega Man V, Mega Man: The Wily Wars, Mega Man X, Mega Man X2 and Mega Man X3. Later, the item changed to the character's helmet in Mega Man 8, Mega Man & Bass, Rockman and Forte: Mirai Kara no Chousensha, Mega Man X4 to X6, Mega Man Xtreme and Mega Man Xtreme 2. They are named Spare Body in Mega Man & Bass and Rockman & Forte: Mirai Kara no Chousensha.

In Mega Man X7 the item is a blue sphere, if one looks closely it seems to "morph" into a helmet shape and back into energy again. In the Mega Man Zero series, the item is called Z Panel (Zパネル), and its appearance can be modified in Mega Man Zero 3 by using the Mod Cards. In the Mega Man ZX series, the item has the shape of a "ZX" in Mega Man ZX and an "A" in Mega Man ZX Advent. In Mega Man: Powered Up, it is a heart. In MegaMan Network Transmission, they appear as Backup chips. MegaMan can only carry two at the start, but can increase the maximum to the traditional nine. In Mega Man X8, extra lives are Retry Chips.

Life Up
Life Up (ライフアップ) is a item that increases the maximum health of the player by 2 units onto the life bar of whichever character obtains them. It first appears in Mega Man X, where it was also known as a Heart Tank. While it can usually be found in the stages, some games (Mega Man X5 through Mega Man X8) allow the player to make them.

Absent from the Mega Man Zero series due to the Cyber-elf system, they reappeared in the Mega Man ZX series. Here, there were only four of them, but they gave double the health they previously did to compensate.

Energy Up
Energy Up (エネルギーアップ), also known as Weapon Up (ウェポンアップ), increases the maximum weapon capacity of whichever character obtains them. It first appears in Mega Man X5 as an item that can be created. In Mega Man X6 and Mega Man X7 they are obtained from some Rescuable Reploids, and in Mega Man X7 one is obtained by the character that gives the finishing blow against a boss. In Mega Man X8 they must be bought as Chips.

In Mega Man ZX Advent, the BM Upgrade increases the Biometal gauge. There are four of them located in the Oil Field, Highway, Quarry, and Bio Lab.

Energy Tank
The E-Tank is an item that can only be used once to replenish a player's life energy. The player can usually carry several of those at once, up to a maximum of four or nine. Also, in Mega Man IV and Mega Man V there are mini E-Tanks which if you collect 4 you get an E-Tank.

Weapon Tank
The W-Tank is an item that can only be used once to replenish a player's single special weapon with weapon energy. The player can usually carry several of those at once, usually to a maximum of four. In Mega Man 7, a single W Tank will refill all of Mega Man's used Weapon Energy. In Mega Man 10, making their first true "NES" 8-bit appearance, Mega Man can carry 9 of them.

Super Tank
The S-Tank is an item that can only be used once to replenish all of a player's special weapons with weapon energy and also the player's life energy. The player can usually carry only one at a time.

Mystery Tank
Same as the S-Tank, simply a different name used in other games in the series. It has the bonus effect of turning all on-screen foes into Extra Lives if used while the player has full health and all weapons are full.

?-Can
Can be destroyed to reveal its contents. Generally contains life or weapon energy, or sometimes even a 1UP or E-Tank.

Sub Tank
The Sub Tank is a item similar to the E-Tank, but instead of being used once, it remains with the player and can be refilled after usage, usually by picking up more life energy when the player's life energy bar is already full. It appears in the X, Zero and ZX series. In Mega Man X4, X5, and X6, the tanks fill with energy regardless of whether the player's health is full at the time a Life Energy is obtained. Also depending on the game, using a Sub Tank may drain all of it's saved energy despite the player having lost only a couple of units worth.

Yashichi
Yashichi is a recovery item that refills the health and the energy of all weapons. It can be found in the last stage of Mega Man and is given by the Rush Charger in Mega Man 8. It is also commonly seen on Easy Mode in Mega Man 10.

Special Weapon Item
The Special Weapon Item (特殊武器アイテム) is a blue sphere from Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters that appears after defeating a boss that leaves a weapon. The player must get the item to gain the special weapon, or else it will be lost. With two players, the first to take the item gains the weapon. The item also appeared in Mega Man's ending in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes.

Energy Crystal
Energy Crystal, known as Energen Crystal (エネルゲン水晶) in Japan, E-Crystal (Eクリスタル) for short, is a item from the Mega Man Zero series that serves as energy resource for Reploids. In the games it is used to grow Cyber-elves, and occasionally as a currency. They are also used as the currency in the Mega Man ZX games and are used to repair Biometals in the first game.

P Chip
P Chip (Pチップ) is a special energy item from Mega Man IV and Mega Man V that Dr. Light needs to be able to create items for Mega Man in his laboratory. They appear in two sizes and Mega Man can stock up to 999 P Chips. They were replaced by Screws in later games.

Screw
Screws (ネジ), also known as Bolts, are used to obtain items in Mega Man 7, Mega Man 8, Mega Man 9, Mega Man 10, Mega Man & Bass and Rockman & Forte: Mirai Kara no Chousensha.

CD
CDs contains data for the database from Mega Man & Bass. There is a total of 100 CDs hidden through the stages.

Secret Disk
Secret Disk (シークレットディスク) are disks that contains data for the database from Mega Man Zero 3, Mega Man ZX, and Mega Man ZX Advent. In the ZX series, they come in four categories: Boss (Enemy Mega Men, Pseudoroids and the intro and final bosses), Enemy A (stronger-than-average or special story event enemies, usually mini-bosses), Enemy B (weaker, common enemies) and Other (mostly people), each with its own code letter (B, M, E and O respectively).

Score Ball
Score Ball, or Bonus Ball, is a item that appears only in Mega Man and remakes. It increases the score in the end of the stage.

Shock Guard
Shock Guard (ショックガード) is an item that protects the user from spikes. However, if you get crushed by moving spikes, you will still die. They can be purchased from the shops from Mega Man & Bass, Rockman and Forte: Mirai Kara no Chousensha, Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10.

Also, in Mega Man X8, the Shock Guard returns as the Prickle Barrier and must be purchased in the R&D Lab. Like Shock Guard, it can only protect the player from spikes once - not once per character, but once per use. If the player uses it by stepping in the spikes, his character's health will be reduced to 1 and either characters will instantly die if the player steps on spikes again.

Chips
Found in Mega Man Zero games, Chips will increase the status of Zero. In the first game, Zero could only equip Element Chips, in Mega Man Zero 3 he could equip Body Chips, which replace Element Chips if using any, and onwards Body Chips, Foot Chips and Head Chips.