Wily Capsule

Wily Capsule (ワイリーカプセル) is the teleporting escape pod that Dr. Wily rides and uses for combat after the destruction of his Wily Machine. First appearing in Mega Man 4, it is the final form of Wily in said game and onward, which torments Mega Man for the rest of the classic Mega Man series. It was arguably at its strongest in Mega Man 7.

Mega Man 4
In Mega Man 4, the Wily Capsule is equipped with an infrared leading system that allows Wily to move in the darkness without problems. It remains hidden in the darkness and attacks Mega Man with one large energy ball. The capsule is only visible in the brief second that the energy ball is fired, and will not take damage at any other time. Unlike later Wily Capsules, it was only vulnerable to Special Weapons, specifically, the Pharaoh Shot and Ring Boomerang. This was the first time the Wily Capsule made its appearance.

Mega Man 5 & Mega Man (Game Gear)
In Mega Man 5, the Wily Capsule II fades into sight before attacking Mega Man with four energy balls. It will occasionally drop energy balls that spread when they hit the ground. Mega Man could use Beat in this fight, who would track down Dr. Wily and hover to where he would appear to strike. If Beat's weapon energy was depleted or he was not obtained during the Robot Master stages, then the player should use the Gyro Attack; it will cause minimal damage, but it can strike Wily easily as its direction can be changed in mid-flight. Alternatively, the charged Mega Buster can be used. Gravity Hold does not cause any damage, but there is a glitch in which its flash reveals where Wily will show up next.

In the Mega Man game for Game Gear, the capsule is the same, but there is no Beat, so the player must use the Mega Buster.

Mega Man 6
In this game, the Wily Capsule did pretty much the same as the others. This escape capsule from the Wily Machine 6 would constantly appear and disappear from time-to-time to shoot four projectiles in every direction. Curiously, it is weak to Silver Tomahawk, the same weakness as the earlier Wily Machine. It's also weak to the charged punch of the Rush Power Adaptor, although it takes patience to be able to land a shot, as the punch has a very short range and the capsule usually appears out of Mega Man's jumping range or too far away from him for a shot.

Mega Man 7
In Mega Man 7, the Wily Capsule disappears and reappears much like in Mega Man 5 and 6, but instead of fading in, it pulls off a "cloak" of sorts. It also attacks with four laser balls, but the laser balls have varying elements: ice, fire, and electricity. The ice balls cause low damage, but they freeze Mega Man in place, usually resulting in a second hit. The fire balls also cause low damage, but Mega Man is set on fire for extra damage. The electric spheres don't have extra effects, but cause more damage than the other two. Also, the Wily Capsule might fire four thunder balls that travel across the floor after releasing its laser balls.

Wily Capsule is weak to a charged Wild Coil, which can be used to bound up and hit him if aimed with precision. When he is up high, the player must hold up on the D-Pad to make the charged coils bounce high enough. The Freeze Cracker is another option if Wild Coil is not as despite the fact Freeze Cracker only deals one damage, it can be aimed in the diagonally-upwards direction to make shooting him from higher up easier. If the player wants to prevent him from shooting his four elemental shots use the Thunder Bolt, which causes him to only release electric shot on the floor. Despite it didn't damage the capsule, but save it for the headache and repeat the process. This Wily Capsule is considered one of the toughest and most annoying bosses in the Mega Man series. According to Yoshihisa Tsuda, it turned out as tough as it did because Keiji Inafune said, "Let's make the very last fight insanely hard!".

Mega Man 8
The Wily Capsule Great (ワイリーカプセルグレート), usually referred only as Wily Capsule, doesn't do anything truly unique in this game. It uses exactly the same fighting pattern as all the others; Dr. Wily would make the capsule appear and disappear, and it would fire projectiles in all directions in varying patterns. A notable difference is that it would hover slightly after appearing and attack almost immediately after being struck, making attacking with its weakness, Flame Sword, even more difficult getting closer to hit and it can be easily damage by the machine to reducing your health rapidly, especially since there is no E-Tanks, S-Tanks or M-Tanks around except only Rush Charger providing Mega Man for the health recovered.

Mega Man & Bass
Just like all the others, specially the Wily Capsule Great, this capsule would appear, disappear, and shoot projectiles in all directions. Not only that, but this one had the ability to shoot bombs as well, which could be easily taken down by the Mega Buster and/or Bass Buster. One notable change is that only its cockpit was vulnerable, as opposed to the whole machine in previous fights. Magic Card is this Capsule's weakness—all other Special Weapons will otherwise do one unit of damage to it.

Mega Man 9
This Wily Capsule behaves the same as its previous incarnations; appear and disappear, and shoot projectiles in almost all directions. An advantage Mega Man has in this fight is the ability to nullify projectiles with the Black Hole Bomb or Tornado Blow. During one of its attacks, it's possible to avoid it by standing in between the projectiles that Dr. Wily fires. Its primary weakness is the Plug Ball, however Hornet Chaser (although dealing little damage) can hit Wily at any point he appears.

Mega Man 10
There are two Wily Capsules in Mega Man 10, one piloted by the real Wily and another by a decoy.

It shoots five homing projectiles three times, that then return to the Wily Capsule. Then one capsule shoots one big projectile to the other capsule, and drops down five big projectiles, and sometimes repeats the process two or three times. If hit, the decoy's capsule will fire a shot back, and will not be damaged. Some ways that the capsules can be distinguished from the real Wily and the fake is that the fake Wily has a red triangle on his head and has gray skin. The real Wily also sometimes sneezes. The real Wily Capsule can only be damaged with the Mega Buster, Proto Buster, Bass Buster, and the Chill Spike. Its primary weakness is the Chill Spike, which not only does considerable damage to the capsule, it seems to exacerbate Wily into coming down with a cold, hence his occasional sneezing during the battle.

Mega Man II
In Mega Man II, Wily uses an unnamed transport different from other capsules, as it does not look like a UFO, being a propelled machine. Also, unlike the others, it does not fight back. Instead, whenever one of the forms from the Wily Machine II is destroyed, this capsule will eject itself from the machine, and fly off to one of the other two remaining machines, restoring the boss' health meter. It is the weak point of the Wily Machine. After defeating the third form, Wily tries to flee away into space with this capsule, but it is attacked by Mega Man and Wily falls to his apparent death.

Mega Man IV
Used by Wily after the defeat of Wily Robo Iron Golem. While it could disappear and reappear like its previous incarnations, this one primarily attacked by dropping bombs on Mega Man, taking out sections of the floor. After dropping two bombs, he glides to the right and drops bouncing balls. Its weakness is the Pharaoh Shot. The Ballade Cracker is also useful against him, as it can shoot in more directions.

Mega Man: The Wily Wars
This unnamed "Wily Capsule" is the head of the Wily Tower's "Wily Machine", acting as its third form. It will follow above Mega Man and drop bombs, which sit on the ground and explode after a few seconds, they also hurt to touch. After a while, a puff of smoke will appear over Wily and it will fall to the ground for a bit, this is when the player can shoot him with the Mega Buster and one of his weaknesses, Hyper Bomb. Also Thunder Beam works well against him causing good damage and being able to hit him while overhead.

Mega Man: The Power Battle
This Wily Capsule creates a copy of itself, and the player must hit the one with Wily inside to cause damage. It moves very erratically. Wily can also switch places between the Wily Capsules, making the fight difficult. It does not attack, but the player only has approximately 10 seconds to destroy it. If it is not destroyed, Wily escapes.

Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters
This Wily Capsule simply teleports around the room. It does not attack, but the player only has approximately 10 seconds to destroy it. If not defeated before the timer reaches zero, Wily will taunt the player character and escape, but his capsule will somehow be destroyed anyway.

Rockman Strategy
The Wily Capsule α (威利膠囊α), also named Dr. Wily Robot, is fought in the final stage, "Dimensional Space". Skull Man, Bomb Man, Sword Man, Aqua Man, and some enemies also appear in the area to assist Wily.

Transport
In most games, Dr. Wily uses a spaceship as transport that is known as Wily UFO and Wily's spaceship. The spaceship first appeared in the first Mega Man game with a red and yellow color scheme. In Mega Man 2 onward, the appearance changed and the red color was replaced by blue, having minor design changes in some games. In Mega Man Powered Up, the spaceship is red and blue, and he uses it to kidnap most of Dr. Light's Robot Masters. The spaceship is equipped with a mechanical claw (used in Mega Man 7, Mega Man 9, and Mega Man Powered Up) and a tractor beam (used in Mega Man: The Wily Wars). Wily usually doesn't battle against Mega Man using only the spaceship, except for Mega Man IV (referred to as Wily Capsule due to being a boss) and the ending of Mega Man V, but it is attached to several of his Wily Machines.

Mega Man (Ruby-Spears)
Wily used the Wily Capsule once in the second episode to escape from the Skullker when it was about to explode.

Mega Man: Upon a Star
The Wily Capsule II from Mega Man 5 appeared briefly in the first episode of Mega Man: Upon a Star, where Mega Man was about to defeat Wily in the game world, but as the game is paused and Mega Man can't move, Wily takes the opportunity to escape to the real world.

Mega Man (Archie Comics)
The Wily Saucer also appears in the Archie Comics serial of Mega Man, debuting in the second story arc, Time Keeps Slipping, although the first one shown lacked the ability to fly, and also had an onboard projector. Wily uses an actual flying saucer in the end of the arc to escape, transmitting his voice to the fake saucer from the real one. So far, its only appearance after this was in issue 12 as part of the Wily Machine 2.

It appeared as Wily's personal transport in the Worlds Collide crossover, usually along with Dr. Eggman's Egg Mobile. Wily also used a miniature saucer inside the Wily Egg. The Wily UFO and Egg Mobile were also capable of becoming the cockpits from the Egg-Wily Machine X, each attached to one half of the machine.

Other appearances
The Wily Capsules and saucers also appeared in several media, like Mega Man Megamix, the Rockman manga series by Shigeto Ikehara, the Rockman 8 manga, Rockman & Forte manga, and Rock'n Game Boy.

Trivia

 * In the last stage of the minigame "Model a" from Mega Man ZX Advent, Master Albert uses a machine that resembles a Wily Capsule. After his defeat, he begs for mercy in the same way as Wily.
 * In Mega Man 4, the escape pod of the Wily Machine is not the Wily Capsule, but a smaller, light blue capsule.