Mercury

Mercury (マーキュリー) is one of the first four Stardroids Mega Man must fight in Mega Man V for the Game Boy. His body is made of liquid metal, allowing him to take any form and dismantle himself to attack, similar to the Devil Series. His main weapon is the Grab Buster, an attack that can steal energy and items from enemies and absorb them to recover his health. Sometimes Mercury also uses the Grab Buster on his allies. He has a loose tongue, and as a result he doesn't have many friends. He doesn't get along with Pluto.

Most walkthroughs recommend taking on Mercury first, since he seems to be easily beaten with the Mega Arm (this strategy also saves the player from losing valuable small Energy Tanks to the Grab Buster as there are none in Mercury's stage). Later on, when the player faces him again in Wily's Space Lab, Mega Man can use the Black Hole to defeat him quickly.

Strategy
Mercury starts the fight by firing a flurry of nine dangerous Grab Busters, which will steal the player's E-Tank parts, P Chips, Weapon Energy and even S-Tanks. The player has to jump in the same place over the first, fifth and last ones from its place to avoid all of them. After that, he will become liquid and divide himself into several small blobs, which come in two patterns: one in which three blobs jump twice and stop at the other side of the screen, which has to be avoided by standing at half-screen and slide when a blob comes, then return there again and repeat the process for the remaining blobs; and the other pattern consists of dashing while deploying three blobs that return to him, which has to be avoided by jumping fast so Mercury does not tackle Mega Man while he dashes and again over the farthest one of him. His Grab Buster flurry can be interrupted if either Mega Man or Mercury get hit, which he retaliates immediately by dismantling and attacking as above. As said before, his weakness is the Black Hole, which has the same effects as the Mega Arm when battling him and deals even more damage, but can only be tested on the rematch against him in Wily's Star. On the other side, it takes him out in four shots.

Stage enemies
Enemies in Mercury's stage:
 * Chainsoar
 * Chunco
 * Doncatch
 * G.S.Q
 * Soshi Breaker
 * Tamp

Damage Data Chart
Displays the amount of damage in units that Mercury will receive from each Special Weapon from Mega Man V. {| align="center" border="1px" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%; border-collapse:collapse; line-height: normal; font-size:95%; border: 2px solid #1466B8;"
 * colspan="12" style="text-align: center; background-color: #1466B8;"|

Mega Man V

 * style="text-align: center; background-color: #C6E2FF;"|Mega Buster/Arm
 * style="text-align: center; background-color: #C6E2FF;"|Grab Buster
 * style="text-align: center; background-color: #C6E2FF;"|Bubble Bomb
 * style="text-align: center; background-color: #C6E2FF;"|Photon Missile
 * style="text-align: center; background-color: #C6E2FF;"|Electric Shock
 * style="text-align: center; background-color: #C6E2FF;"|Black Hole
 * style="text-align: center; background-color: #C6E2FF;"|Deep Digger
 * style="text-align: center; background-color: #C6E2FF;"|Break Dash
 * style="text-align: center; background-color: #C6E2FF;"|Salt Water
 * style="text-align: center; background-color: #C6E2FF;"|Spark Chaser
 * style="text-align: center; background-color: #C6E2FF;"|Tango
 * style="text-align: center;"|1:3
 * style="text-align: center;"|0
 * style="text-align: center;"|1
 * style="text-align: center;"|1
 * style="text-align: center;"|1
 * style="text-align: center;"|5
 * style="text-align: center;"| --
 * style="text-align: center;"|1
 * style="text-align: center;"|2
 * style="text-align: center;"|1
 * style="text-align: center;"|1
 * }
 * style="text-align: center;"|1
 * }

Other media
In the manga Mega Man Gigamix, the Stardroids are powerful space robots that are attacking Earth, destroying several robots in the process, Mercury defeating Yamato Man and Gravity Man. Mercury, Saturn and Uranus fight against Mega Man, Cut Man and Elec Man. The battle is difficult for Mega Man's side as Mercury shows no sign of damage from attacks like the Rolling Cutter and the Super Adapter. When Dr. Cossack's robots appear, Uranus is destroyed and the remaining two Stardroids retreat. When Mega Man and other robots go to space to stop the Stardroids, Mercury, Neptune, and Mars fight against Shadow Man and Proto Man. After Neptune's defeat, Shadow Man and Mercury began falling to Earth, Mercury apparently melting when entering the atmosphere. Quick Man appears with the Mecha Dragon and saves Shadow Man, but Mercury is shown to be still alive and attacks them. Quick Man rapidly slashes Mercury with his giant boomerang, apparently at a speed faster than Mercury is able to regenerate as he is finally destroyed.

Trivia

 * Mercury is named after the planet Mercury, which is named after the messenger of gods from Roman mythology. His name may also be based on the element Mercury, as he can become liquid and dismantle himself like the Yellow Devil to attack.
 * Strangely, Mercury likes Communism despite being greedy - Communism believes that everything should be seized and distributed fairly, while Mercury only seems to adhere to the first part of this philosophy.