Mega Man Battle Network - Buster Only S-Rank Boss Fights

After having gone through the ordeal of getting a Buster Only S Rank against SharkMan, I figured I’d give some other bosses a shot under the same stipulations. With the exception of ProtoMan, whose shield precludes the challenge from being completed, I’ll be taking on the rest of the Navis operated by Lan’s fellow NetBattlers. While none of the fights are nearly as rigorous as SharkMan’s was, there’s still a decent amount to go over, so here are the details. GutsMan: A surprisingly difficult battle to optimize for speed. Beating him in under 30 seconds is fairly trivial, but hastening the process requires decent reactions and luck in equal parts. What you want to see is GutsMan spending as much time in his front column as possible, as mashing shots at close range is considerably faster than charging. The overall strategy revolves around pelting him with half-charged shots and having a fast trigger finger whenever he dares to get in your face. Fully charged shots are a no-go; the 80 damage inflicted crosses GutsMan’s threshold for receiving i-frames, resulting in a time loss. One caveat that applies to all battles is that mashing shots too soon after unleashing a charged shot can lead to canceling the charged shot animation before it connects. It’s a rather annoying occurrence that cost me enough attempts to become noteworthy, so exercise temperance when following a charge with a barrage. NumberMan: This may seem like a mindless endeavor, and in a way, it is, but there are two critical points to highlight here. First, NumberMan’s incessant conjuring of NumberBall eliminates charged shots as a viable strategy. Given that he lurks on his back column and never moves, your instinct might be to mash buttons as fast as you physically can, but oddly, doing so is counterproductive. There’s a specific pace that needs to be maintained when firing uncharged shots at distant enemies. Exceeding this pace slows down your rate of fire dramatically, so don’t be hasty. The second point of interest is that you can save time by performing a completely gratuitous bit of showmanship, which is to make a frame-perfect step between the rolling explosions of his TimeBomb or Dice. Doing so shortens the battle slightly by obviating the need to destroy said obstacles. Is the exertion worth it? No, not really, but it looks cool, and that’s what matters. WoodMan: Pure RNG and button mashing, at least if your goal is a sub 20-second victory. Sensible players can save themselves from early-onset arthritis by leisurely landing charged shots and ensuring that WoodMan’s orchard-growing efforts bear no fruit. Evidently, the prospect of seeing 19.xx on the results screen enraptured me to the point of spending over an hour hoping for the ponderous tree to leap to the front row and not turn MegaMan into a shish kebab. IceMan: Another luck-fest, though this one is infinitely kinder on the fingers. Each IceCube that IceMan breathes to life is functionally just more HP to break through. If he sculpts more than one set, your ambitions end there. To stand a chance at an S Rank, he needs to be at 520HP or less before moving after throwing his first FreezeBomb. Luckily, the IceCube’s hitboxes don’t manifest until they're fully formed, so you’ve ample time to potshot IceMan. It’s a subtle detail, but FreezeBomb is capable of inflicting damage to IceMan’s own cubes. Luring it properly is a crucial component of the fight; the sooner you shatter the bottom cubes, the more lenience you have for point-blank rapid fire. The remaining cubes will break naturally, so spending any resources on them is unquestionably a waste. Until the cubes depart, you simply have to hope that IceMan pays a visit to the bottom row now and then. Once the field is free of clutter, your task is to accurately track the evasive fellow as he hops between rows. The blessing to pray for is maximum FreezeBomb usage; each attempt to send MegaMan to the ice age keeps IceMan in place for a long duration. SkullMan: A combination of clever manipulation compounded with a small need for good fortune. SkullMan always leaps to MegaMan’s row, so buying some charging time by keeping him active is the play to make. SkullMan’s detached arms move relative to MegaMan’s position; there’s no deviation in their behavior, so guiding them across the battlefield is a matter of research, not reaction. Destroying them is less stylish and slower, so the position-tracking bones remain intact primarily for amusement. That leaves SkullMan’s column selection as the only random element. When he summons the bones, he needs to be in either the middle or back column; otherwise, MegaMan will be charred by the ghostly flames. Likewise, prior to landing the final shot, SkullMan needs to be in the front or middle column to give the flame time to dissipate before the bones converge. Timestamps: 00:00 - GutsMan 00:31 - NumberMan 01:06 - WoodMan 01:34 - IceMan 02:11 - SkullMan Thanks for watching!