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. He is a greedy Stardroid whose body is made of liquid metal, and is thus able to take any form and dismantle himself to attack, similar to the Devil Series, and is quick at running away after causing mischief. 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, and he has a loose tongue, which doesn't give him many friends as a result, He also doesn't get along with Pluto, and hates people who gossip maliciously about him.

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 his weakness, 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 items, including 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 run into 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.

Mercury's weakness is the Black Hole, but it can only be tested on the rematch against him in Wily's Star. 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;"|2
 * 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
 * }

Manga
Mercury’s visible form is nothing but a temporary construct; his true shape is much akin to a force field. The sentient energy entraps surrounding material within itself and gives it the shape and movement of a person, creating what is called “Mercury” by onlookers. That physical body is little more than a doll; no matter how much damage it is dealt, Mercury himself remains untouched. Although it may appear to be a perfect ability, maintaining the force field in that state takes a tremendous amount of energy, leaving Mercury with little to no extraneous power, be it for attack or defense. The Stardroids’ creators considered this “simple immortality” as a flaw, and attempted to dispose of Mercury, until the development of the Grab Buster provided him with the means to attack while replenishing his energy at the same time, providing him with a practical use.That history of constant threat of disposal is what caused him to develop such a twisted personality. In the manga Mega Man Gigamix, the Stardroids are powerful space robots that are attacking Earth, destroying several robots in the process, with 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.

Mega Man (Archie Comics)
In the Archie Comics Mega Man series, Mercury and his fellow Stardroids are the robotic "children" of the evil Ra Moon.

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's primary concept is that everything should be seized and distributed fairly, while Mercury only seems to adhere to the first part of this philosophy.
 * He being made of liquid metal resembles mimetic pollaloy from the Terminator Franchise.