Blaze Heatnix

"You are strong compared to the others. I was bored because there is no strong Reploid left on the ground. Although I was not ordered to kill, it's too hard, isn't it? Hee hee hee."

- Blaze Heatnix

Blaze Heatnix (ブレイズ・ヒートニックス) is a phoenix-based Reploid boss in Mega Man X6 who serves as one of the Nightmare Investigators.

Characteristics
Blaze Heatnix is a fiery orange Reploid with a phoenix-inspired appearance, possessing a beak, large wings, avian claws on his feet, and a long tail. Fire is constantly emitted from the back of his head and along his torso and shoulderpads. He has a rhombus-shaped gem on his forehead, like all of Gate's creations.

Blaze Heatnix was a very cruel and arrogant Reploid, who delighted in the destruction of those weaker than himself. He had a strong "might makes right" ideology and enjoyed fighting, having waited for X to arrive for such a purpose. Oddly enough, he didn't appear to recognize who Zero was, or at least he didn't care.

History
Blaze Heatnix was specially designed by Gate with the ability to withstand extremely hot temperatures to search out subterranean hotspots, allowing him to freely explore those dangerous areas. Later he became a member of a disaster relief team to help minimize damage from a chain of recently erupting volcanoes. However, because Heatnix was so much more powerful than the other members, he would ignore his coworkers (seeing them as weak and useless) in dangerous situations, disregarding them if they ran into danger, leaving all who fell behind to perish. As a result, Heatnix was eventually disposed of deep underground for his behavior.

Later, Gate recovered his body and revived him to use him in the Nightmare investigation, and sent him to the Magma Area in southeastern China, where he is fought by the Maverick Hunters.

Strategy
Blaze Heatnix's primary ability is to fill up his battle room with magma, creating a constant hazard. To attack, Heatnix will fire off chunks of magma that break up into smaller pieces. He can also fire white hot blades of magma energy. As his ultimate attack, he will dash back a forth like a comet with a huge plume of fire surrounding him.


 * Magma Stream - Blaze Heatnix will yell the attack name and, depending on where he is on the screen, purple (non-fatal) magma will fill half the screen. If he's at the top of the screen, it will rise from the ground. If he's at the bottom of the screen, it will descend from the ceiling.

Low Phase
At this phase, as the magma is located under the feet. He will "dive" into the magma and "swim" around in it, and then try to jump up at the character's current position.
 * Magma Shot (マグマショット) - When he jumps up, he may spit fireballs. Destroy these with any weapon available.

High Phase
The magma will, however, levitate on the top half of the screen, which is against physics as it's a semi-molten rock. Blaze Heatnix will fly from one side of the screen to the other. Also, drops of lava will fall down continuously at the holes.
 * Magma Wave - He will fire crescents either high or low. Crouch if they go high, jump and air dash if they go low.
 * God Bird (ゴッドバード) - He flies off screen, then fly across as a blazing invulnerable phoenix. He can (once again) come either high or low, and from either side of the screen.

Other appearances

 * Blaze Heatnix is fought alongside Blast Hornet and Spiral Pegasus in two stages from the X Challenge in Mega Man X Legacy Collection and Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2.
 * Blaze Heatnix appeared as an unit card in TEPPEN.

When Playing as X
??: Welcome! I've been waiting for you! You are strong compared to the others. I was bored because there is no strong Reploid left on the ground. Although I was not ordered to kill, it's too hard, isn't it? Hee hee hee.

X: You must be Blaze Heatnix...

Blaze Heatnix: Brainwashing Reploids is lame. Don't you think so? Let's fight to see who's the strongest!

When Playing as Zero
Zero: It's too hot here. Let's finish this...

??: A vigorous guy! I've been waiting! You look so strong compared with the others. I was bored because there is no strong Reploid left on the ground. Although I was not ordered to kill, it's too hard, isn't it? Hee hee hee.

Zero: I'm not interested in your talk... Will you fight or not?

Blaze Heatnix: Good. Let's fight!

Archie Comics
Blaze Heatnix was one of the many Mavericks revived by Sigma-1 while his Mechaniloid army was attacking the Sky Patrol. Recreated by the power of the Genesis Portals and Unity Engines, he then joined an army of Mavericks deployed by Sigma against the heroes and then in an invasion of various worlds.

Trivia

 * Blaze Heatnix appears to be the only fire-based Maverick who is especially weak to a ground/earth-based weapon, despite there being both water- and ice-based weapons at X's disposal.


 * Blaze Heatnix's stage is widely considered one of the most annoying stages in Mega Man history. This is because X or Zero will have to fight six Nightmare Snakes to clear the stage, including one at the very beginning.
 * On that note, Blaze Heatnix's stage has the most sub-boss encounters out of any stage in the series.


 * Heatnix's lava drop attack calls to mind the final stage in Mega Man 2, where lava regularly falls from the ceiling on the way to the boss.
 * Blaze Heatnix is one of five Mavericks in the Mega Man X series based on a mythological or fantasy creature (in Heatnix's case, a phoenix). The others are Magma Dragoon from Mega Man X4 (Dragon), Spiral Pegasus and Volt Kraken from Mega Man X5 (Pegasus and Kraken) and Avalanche Yeti from Mega Man X8 (Yeti).