Zero's Forms

List of forms available for Zero in the Mega Man X and Mega Man Zero series.

Power Up Parts
Similar to X's armors, Zero can use power-up parts in Mega Man Xtreme 2. Each parts upgrade his skills when he enters in Dr. Light capsules. Unlike X, Zero's appearance will not change.

Black Zero
Black Zero (ブラックゼロ) is a hidden version of Zero appearing in Mega Man X4, X5 and X6, as well as Mega Man X8 and Mega Man X: Command Mission. It usually appears as a black colored version of Zero with grey to white hair and a recolored Z-Saber blade. While it is purely a recolor in X4, it features several abilities during its following appearances. In X5 and X6, it increases Zero's attack and defense capabilities. In X8, the Zero Armor appears once again; however it is more balanced than its previous incarnations. It still doubles Zero's attack strength but at the same time decreases his defense power by half. Finally, Black Zero is available to Zero right from the start in Command Mission as his Hyper Mode, boosting all of his stats. Other than in Command Mission, the Black Zero armor has to be unlocked by either a cheat code put in at the game's title screen or by clearing certain objectives (such as finding Dr. Light's secret capsule in X5 or obtaining all Rare Metals for Zero in X8).

Absolute Zero
Absolute Zero (アブソリュートゼロ) is an additional Hyper Mode for Zero obtainable in Mega Man X Command Mission. It can be gained by defeating the secret boss Duckbill Mole located in the Melda Ore Plant. Its design is often compared to that of Bass from the original Mega Man series when combined with Treble due to its color scheme, helmet design and devil-like wings. Aside from this, it boosts all of his stats vastly, even doubling his attack power, and has the ability to break through any defense. He does not usually use weapons in this form, since he can use his claws in powerful melee moves. His Main Weapon becomes the attack Crimson End (クリムゾンエンド), and his Sub Weapons the Water-attribute attacks Killer Left (ジェノサイドレフト) and Brutal Right (ダムドライト). His Action Trigger becomes Calamitous Arts, which makes an input screen come up, and commands must be entered in. Missing one will not perform that specific strike. The total time in which the Action Trigger lasts is determined by the amount of WE available.

Absolute Zero also appeared as a playable character in Rockman X DiVE. His active skills are Crimson End and Calamitous Arts. Crimson End is a forward dash done while swinging both claws, damaging all targets along the path several times. Absolute Zero is immune to damage during the dash. Calamitous Arts unleashes quick short ranged attacks that leaves targets slow for a while.

Rockman X Mega Mission armors
In the Carddass Rockman X Mega Mission 2, Zero got the Neo Buster (ネオバスター) by combining his own buster with the remains of the X-Buster he found when he went to rescue X, who was captured by the Order Breakers. As X's buster was infected with the Limited, it now also infected Zero and allowed him to use Special Weapons X had used in the past.

After defeating Magna Centipede L, Zero finds a capsule and receives the Energy Armor (エネルギーアーマー) from Dr. Light, which only has a body part and gives more power to his buster, allowing it to fire a powerful light projectile called the Energy Shot (エナジーショット). The Energy Armor is later upgraded to the Neo Armor (ネオアーマー) after absorbing energy in the power plant that exploded during the fight against Spark Mandrill L, with the body part modified and the appearance of foot parts. The Neo Buster is now more powerful, and the armor makes Zero immune to the Limited Field that had weakened X. After rescuing X, they fought against Tackione, the leader of the Order Breakers. Damaged because of the battles, Zero gave the Neo Buster, Neo Armor and his saber to X for him defeat Tackione's final form, becoming the Giga Armor.

In Rockman X Mega Mission 3, Return iX was shot in his back by Enemice HL, and to fight him he fused with Zero and X to improve their power, becoming the iX Armor (イクスアーマー Ikusu Āmā), which has a buster and body part. When Zero was knocked out, the part of Return iX that was on him moved to X, improving his armor.

Form System
Appearing in Mega Man Zero 2, the various forms are unlocked by completing missions under certain circumstances and grant Zero special abilities. Note that only one form can be obtained per mission, after the initial mission. The Proto Form and Ultimate Form are also available in the game Onimusha Blade Warriors, but are depicted as the X and Energy Forms.

Chips
The Chips from Mega Man Zero 3 and Mega Man Zero 4 replace the forms from Mega Man Zero 2. Although not technically a form, in Mega Man Zero 4 there is a set of Chips (Junk Head, Junk Body and Junk Foot) that will change Zero's stats when all three are equipped.

Merchandise

 * The additional shoulder and buster upgrades Zero receives in Mega Missions 3 were made into model kits in Bandai's Mega Armor model kit series. Originally available only as bagged add-on pieces for the existing Zero model kit (along with add-on pieces for the X model kit), they were later repackaged into a single model kit, with the Zero kit being molded in transparent red plastic.

Trivia



 * In Mega Man X4, Zero was actually going to have his own Ultimate Armor, known as "Mega Armor", instead of his Black Zero recolor. The designer of the original X's Ultimate Armor said, "The truth is, Zero was going to have a Mega Armor, too. For various circumstances, we wound up with just X this time. You want to know what his Mega Armor would have been like? Well, it has to do with Zero’s connection to W… actually, I’m not allowed to say any more than that. But, at least I can show you the rough design. I hope that sometime it will see the light of day. That’s all for now! Enjoy Rockman X4!"
 * Absolute Zero's design bears some resemblance to some of Dracula's forms in the Castlevania series. Zero's Japanese voice actor in the X-series, Ryōtarō Okiayu, had previously voiced Dracula's son Alucard in that series, and later would provide the dub voice for Trevor Belmont in the Netflix series.