Falcon Armor

The Falcon Armor (ファルコンアーマー) is an armor found in Mega Man X5 and Mega Man X6.

Characteristics
Fitting for its name, the Falcon Armor has a streamlined design with many birdlike traits; the curves on the arms and legs resemble talons and the chestplate has a beak. The back has a long pair of wings with their tips pointed upwards and a smaller pair on its helmet. The helmet and ankles have red gems at the front and green ones on the chest and gauntlets.

The Falcon Armor focuses less on raw power and more on precision and mobility; its aerial maneuverability is unsurpassed. The armor's main feature is its flight function, which allows for multi-directional maneuvering in a Nova Strike-like air dash. While in flight, X is invulnerable to everything except for instant-kill objects such as spikes and lasers. However, it sacrifices the ability to charge Special Weapons for this feat. The Falcon Armor's charged shot is a small, fast-moving, thin beam similar in appearance to a needle. The shot can pierce through walls and shields.

In Mega Man X6, the player begins the game with the Falcon Armor. Alia had to repair it quickly, and its flight function is offline for the entire game. The charged shot is now essentially a fast-moving, smaller projectile with no piercing properties, but can now charge Special Weapons. The Falcon Armor's Giga Attack stays the same in the transition between games. It causes needle-like projectiles to dart up and down across the screen

Functions

 * Note: Specific parts do not have effects as this armor can only be equipped when complete.


 * Head Parts - Increases the maximum shot capacity for all Special Weapons by 50%. In Mega Man X6, this also decreases Special Weapons energy usage by 33% when equipped.


 * Body Parts - Halve damage taken and reduces recoil. X can use the Giga Attack, which unleashes a wave of Spear Charged Shots all across the screen, severely damaging enemies that it hits.


 * Arm Parts - X obtains a new high-powered charged shot named "Spear Charged Shot" that can penetrate surfaces, terrain and shields when fired. However, this also disables X's ability to charge Special Weapons in X5. In Mega Man X6 however, this has been weakened in a way that the Spear Charged Shot is unable to penetrate obstacles and its damage power is reduced to somewhat close to the level of Normal X's Charged Shot. To compensate for this, the Arm Part of the modified Falcon Armor can now charge Special Weapons used in Mega Man X6, complementing to the Z-Saber weapon added to its modified suite of arsenal in the latter.


 * Foot Parts - Enables X to execute "Free Move" that allows him to stay airborne for a limited period of time, in which X gains invincibility against collision damage, allowing him to fly through enemies without taking damage and also reach places where normal jumps are unreachable. Enemy attacks and projectiles, however, can still damage him. As X flies, a barrier is generated around him, damaging enemies upon contact. Also, the Foot Parts in this game sacrifices the air-dash for the flight function. In Mega Man X6, the flight ability is weakened (due to the armor being repaired after suffering heavy damage), and it instead allows X to perform a damaging air-dash. As compensation for this drawback, normal air-dashing is possible which works the same way as the flight ability in that game, albeit having two different air-dash distances: The air-dash distance executed by double-jumping in place of the "Free Move" will be shorter than the regular version, both which can damage enemies upon contact.

Head Parts
Squid Adler's stage: The player must collect all eight plasma balls during the Ride Chaser section. At the end, Zero/X will shoot the plasma balls into a door. The player can get inside if they successfully collected all eight plasma balls.

Body Parts
Duff McWhalen's stage: After the second encounter with the U-555, dropping down into the next area, the capsule will be clearly visible behind a damaged wooden wall to the left. Also in the capsule room is a small explosive device. To destroy the wall as X, the player has to use the Goo Shaver and fire it so that it slides under the wall and strikes the device. The player must take care not to move too far to the right or else they will trigger the final U-555 encounter. If X happens to equip any Armor in the game that can charge special weapons, using Goo Shaver's Charged Shot makes it much easier to do this as the ice blocks can strike right through the wall.

Arm Parts
Izzy Glow's stage: The Arm capsule is found by climbing up into an opening in the ceiling near the start of Area 2 of Izzy Glow's stage. The large energy cannon blocking the way can be destroyed with either the C-Shot (X) or C-Sword (Zero).

Foot Parts
Grizzly Slash's stage: The Foot capsule is found by climbing up into an opening in the ceiling immediately after the truck collision, near the end of Grizzly's stage. It is much easier to reach the area as Zero. As X, the player has to dash jump to get there.

Production Notes
Developer Comments This really is a ?? armor. (grin) My intention was to make an armor that was above all the rest, so I ended up taking the offensive. (sweat) The source material being the previous game's Fourth Armor also worried me a lot. I discarded any number of designs proposed by Seito, the designer in charge. (bitter laugh) I was very particular about it design-wise when I made it, since it would be the "poster armor" [as in "poster child"] for selling the game. From the fact that it can fly, he designed it using the image of a hawk. Its name has its origins in that too. I like the beak on the chest. Did you all notice it?

Designer Comments This was the toughest. I caused trouble for a lot of people when I couldn't make it very well. Sorry. Consequently, though, it may be the one I like the best. I drew it with the image of a hawk in mind, and changed its name from Wing Armor to Falcon Armor. This was fun. I'm touched it'll shown up in commercials and in vending machines (since it's the first time for me).

Trivia

 * The Falcon Armor's Giga Attack is one of two that is immediately available at the start of the game (in this case, Mega Man X6). The other is the Giga Attack of the Ultimate Armor, one game earlier.
 * The armor has a strong resemblance to the Second Armor from Mega Man X2.