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 created by Gate to withstand extremely hot temperatures. He was made part of a disaster prevention team, but because he was so powerful, Heatnix would ignore his coworkers in dangerous situations (seeing them as weak and useless) resulting in many losses. Demands were made to weaken Heatnix, but Gate refused. This resulted in Heatnix's disposal sometime later for his behavior. Gate later revives Heatnix as a one of his Nightmare Investigators.

Strategy
Blaze Heatnix will yell "Magma Stream!" 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.

If the magma is at ground level:
 * Blaze Heatnix will "dive" into the magma and "swim" around in it, then try to jump up at the characters current position.
 * When he jumps up, he may spit fireballs. Destroy these with any weapon available.

If the magma has descended from the ceiling:
 * Drops of lava will fall down.
 * Blaze Heatnix will fly from one side of the screen to the other. Crouch if he flies high, jump and air dash if he flies low.
 * Blaze Heatnix will fire crescents either high or low. Crouch if they go high, jump and air dash if they go low.

Blaze Heatnix will also fly 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.

X can battle Heatnix well with Ground Dash, but with Zero's Sentsuizan, the player must use caution to avoid falling into the magma.

Stage enemies
Enemies in Blaze Heatnix's stage, the Magma Area:
 * Sub-bosses: Nightmare Snake
 * Nightmare Bug
 * Nightmare Iron
 * Nightmare Virus

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!

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 a water and an ice-based weapon at X's disposal.


 * His 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.