Gaea Armor

The Gaea Armor (ガイアアーマー) is a heavy type armor available in Mega Man X5. It was built by Doctor Light for Mega Man X. For security reasons it's divided into four program segments. Once all four parts are gathered, the armor will be complete and become available.

Characteristics
With a robust and tough looking aesthetic, the Gaea Armor incorporates more evident physically outward defensive features, including more prominent layered armor plating, the use of thick metal beams on the extremities, and stud bolting. Despite the heavy features, the armor utilizes streamlined designs, further evocative of practical functionality and the vintage of older technology.

The Gaea Armor focuses on power and defense, granting X complete immunity to spikes at all times, as well as mitigating the damage he receives. Additionally, X is surrounded by a green field which pushes back blocks with a tell-tale "V" on them when he dashes, and his grabbing strength is increased, allowing him to hang onto walls indefinitely without sliding.

However, in exchange for the strength that the armor offers, it has its own set of drawbacks. Due to the armor's weight, it has a notably slower running and dashing speed, cannot air dash, and relinquishes the use of any Special Weapons and Parts, being limited to its buster and Giga Attack. Combined, this further gears the armor towards use as a straight forward protective and enhancing armor to be used in exploration and steady and safe progress in dangerous and unknown areas.

The armor's buster functions differently from most others. Its shots dissipate after a moderate distance, but are notably stronger than normal buster shots and a fully charged shot can destroy certain enemy projectiles by shooting them. Its charge time is also much faster, completely omitting a half-charged shot. The Charge Shot is also capable of destroying the V Blocks. Its Giga Attack is extremely short in range, but also very powerful. When executed, X pulls his hands back and charges a large sphere of green and black energy, then thrusts it forward, severely damaging anything directly in front of him.

Functions

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


 * Head Parts - There is no known special effect.


 * Body Parts - Halves received damage and converts damage accumulation into Giga Attack energy. The Giga Attack releases a large energy shot directly ahead, similar to the Hadoken in Mega Man X; however, the energy shot will be released right next to X and stays there until the move is complete. X is invulnerable to attacks during this move's duration.


 * Arm Parts - The X Buster will only have 2 levels of charge; the Charged Shot "Gaea Shot" will be a green plasma blast that dissipates over a short distance. It is a very powerful shot despite the limited range. It can also destroy the "Gaea Cubes" - Black-colored blocks that have a "V" sign on them. Special weapons are disabled for this part, but X gains "Shot Eraser" capabilities which can neutralize enemy projectiles with the Charge Shot.


 * Foot Parts - X can stand on spikes without receiving damage and can cling to walls without slipping. X's can also move the "Gaea Cubes" - Black-colored blocks that have a "V" sign on them just by dashing straight at them. However, X's movement and dash speed are greatly decreased, limiting his mobility. In addition, X cannot air-dash with this armor equipped.
 * Side Note: Some guides familar with the Japanese version mentioned that this armor allows X to ascend/descend ladders at a faster speed than other armors or Zero.

Head Parts
Dark Necrobat: This area can be reached even if no other armor is equipped. Drop down the pitfall next to the boss door, landing in a secret room. To reach the capsule, the player must guide an uncharged F-Laser through a small winding shaft so that it can hit the button on the other side of the wall blocking the way to the capsule.

Body Parts
Spiral Pegasus: In an open area with a small elevator that rises diagonally, use the Falcon Armor's flight ability to reach the high ledge where it is located.

It is possible to reach this armor part with Zero using the Jumper Part and getting the Virus status which turns him invincible for a brief moment, allowing him to walk over a platform covered in spikes. Zero needs to do a Dash Jump from this platform to reach the Capsule.

Arm Parts
Burn Dinorex: On an open area with Batton Bones and a suspended rope that leads upwards to Mattrex's lair, the player must use the Falcon Armor or the Ride Armor to reach the far right side of the area.

Foot Parts
Spike Rosered: The easiest way to get to this is with the Falcon Armor equipped, however while difficult it is possible to reach it with Zero using the Jumper Part. It is found above a pitfall area more than halfway through the stage. The player can reach this area by flying up into an opening with spikes on the walls.

Production Notes
Developer Comments Once again, a ??? armor. (sweat) Finally, you could walk on top of the thorns. Once you make me crouch down on my heels, I've started my mad dash. (grin) Is it because the concept of X5 is a mad dash? (grin) I lie. In order to contrast it design-wise with the Falcon, I had it made with no projections and colored black. All sorts of ideas cropped up, like making the arms symmetrical, and I'm glad the design turned out as fantastic as it did. Actually, this will be the first armor the designer Sensei designed.

Designer Comments It was to look hard, heavy and strong, so I tried giving it a thudding, weighty feel. The chest is a point to note. I even tried making its color subdued, just using the vivid colors seen on armors to date as a point. This was to distinguish it from the other armors.

Trivia

 * The Gaea Armor's leg part is the very first item in a Mega Man game to offer complete protection against spikes.
 * The English language manual for Mega Man X5 erroneously labels this armor as the "Gaia" Armor.
 * It's also worth noting that the manual only mentions the Gaea Armor can't charge special weapons, where the armor itself can not use special weapons, even uncharged. In the early prototype build it was possible for Gaea Armor to actually use uncharged special weapons. But in the final build this feature was effectively removed and attempting to access this feature via hacking will freeze the game.
 * Even more interestingly within the final build is that leftover sprites for Gaea Armor's Special Weapon palettes still exist.
 * If the player selects the "Auto Charge" while in the Gaea Armor, the player could fire fully charged shots as soon as the charging animation appears.
 * The Gaea Armor's Giga Attack strongly resembles Street Fighter 's Chun-Li's Kikoushou technique, referencing the Hadoken and Shoryuken attacks from previous titles.
 * The limited range of the Gaea Armors uncharged shots is very similar to that of the Rush Power Adaptor's uncharged shots. Both armors are heavy and restrict movement in some way, so this could be intentional.