Wily Robo Iron Golem

Wily Robo Iron Golem
In-Game Information
HP:	19 (each form, total 57)
Attack Damage:	1st phase: 4 (punch/slam) 2 (energy shot) 3 (square debris) 2 (girder debris) 1 (small debris) 0 (core contact) 2nd phase: 4 (mouth contact) 2 (antenna shots) 3rd phase: 10 (contact) 6 (bomb) 2 (bouncing ball)
Weakness:	Crystal Eye (1st part) Ballade Cracker (2nd part) Pharaoh Shot (3rd part)
Series Information
In-game Appearances:	Mega Man IV

Wily Robo Iron Golem (ワイリーロボ・アイアンゴーレム, Wairī Robo Aian Gōremu) is a giant robot that final boss in the Mega Man IV. It is an improved version of the Wily Machine I in Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge. Wily wanted to create a giant robot and began its development in the Wily Battleship. The Wily Robo Iron Golem is fought after the Robot Master rematches at the end. The robot's development was incomplete when Mega Man arrived, but is still able to fight.

Strategy

First phase

The Wily Robo Iron Golem stands tall above Mega Man, so tall that only its chest can be seen on-screen. This chest has a central circular orb which serves as the weak point, but it is too high up for Mega Man to hit it with the buster. During this phase, the Wily Robo Iron Golem primarily attacks with both of its arms, either with punches or slams. The punching fists are quick in speed and while that makes them difficult to anticipate, the robot's body shifts in the opposite direction that a fist comes from. The best way to dodge the fists is for Mega Man to simply jump straight up so he can land on the arm. The entirety of the arm is a platform, which Mega Man can use to hit the orb using his buster before the arm fully reels itself offscreen. The arms can also slam instead of punching, as mentioned above. The slam is not as quick and doesn't travel as far, but it does cause 3 pieces of debris to fall from the ceiling. These debris are distinct from each other (a square block, a girder, and a small pebble) and differ in the damage they deal, but they can all be destroyed. It is also harder to jump on the arms when they slam compared to when they punch, as there is debris falling and the arm retracts much faster. During these arm attacks, the orb passively attacks every 4-5 seconds by charging up an energy shot and loosely firing it in a straight line at Mega Man's position. It should be noted that the orb's projectiles can desync with the arm attacks, which can force Mega Man in an uncomfortable spot away from the middle, which is the best area to be for jumping onto the arms.

The first phase is only weak to Crystal Eye, which does 2 damage. Given the boss doesn't have i-frames, Mega Man can shoot out 2 Crystal Eyes in one jump to do 4 damage at a time. If the player doesn't want to platform off the arms, Power Stone is a good option: although it does 1 damage per hit, it can hit the orb from below quite easily and possible hit the orb with 2 of the 3 stones. As with most bosses, the orb takes 3 damage from a fully-charged buster shot.

Second phase

Once the first energy gauge is depleted, the orb and the arms get destroyed, and the Wily Robo Iron Golem is knocked down, enough that its head is level with the floor Mega Man stands on. From here, the head remains on the left side and cycles through 3 attacks in the same order every time. The first attack has the head open its mouth as to try sucking in Mega Man, in order to deal contact damage. While Mega Man can easily run against it, the open mouth is the Wily Robo Iron Golem's new weak point and Mega Man has to shoot inside of it. After the head closes its mouth, its next attack has it generate sparks from its 2 antennas. Once a spark is generated at the tip, it is shot in a straight line at Mega Man's position. 3 sets of sparks are always shot at Mega Man, for a total of 6. After the last spark is launched, the Wily Robo Iron Golem does its third and last attack: after pulling back a bit, it blasts forward to slam into Mega Man. Due to the head's size, it is impossible to dodge. However, Mega Man can hold off the head's attack by shooting it constantly with the Mega Buster, each shot briefly halting the head's charge. Mega Man has to keep shooting to essentially keep the head away from colliding into him. If done successfully, the head will give up and return to the left side, and restarts its attack order from there.

The second phase is weak to Ballade Cracker, which does 3 damage. It is still restricted to only doing damage by being thrown into the open mouth, however. If the Wily Robo Iron Golem tries to suck up Mega Man for too long, it is possible that the boss can be destroyed with just Ballade Cracker before the mouth can close. Crystal Eye is also viable for this phase and does 2 damage. As with most bosses, the orb takes 3 damage from a fully-charged buster shot.

Third phase

Once the second energy gauge is depleted, the Wily Robo Iron Golem goes down completely. However, Dr. Wily escapes the destruction and continues the fight using a Wily Capsule. This Capsule stays at the top of the screen at all times, but still disappears and reappears like the Wily Capsules before it. Every time Dr. Wily reappears, he always appears directly above Mega Man and attacks by dropping an indestructible bomb straight down before disappearing. Upon colliding with the floor, the bomb destroys 2 tiles of the floor, creating a bottomless pit. The Wily Capsule always uses this attack two times in a row, though instead of disappearing for a second time, he floats to the right of the screen, which also forces the camera to follow him. This means Mega Man MUST jump over the bottomless pits if he is to the left of them, but if there were 2 pits created next to each other, the only way to cross is with Rush Jet. As the Wily Capsule continues flying to the right, he attacks by dropping invincible bouncy balls, which simply move leftwards while bouncing in a short arc. They are indestructible and a bit hard to dodge. The Wily Capsule always drops 3 bouncy balls, one after the other, before the camera locks in place and he disappear again.

The third phase is weak to Pharaoh Shot, with a charged version doing 6 damage and destroying it in just 4 hits, or 3 charged shots and 1 uncharged. Speaking of, the uncharged version does 2 damage as well. The Ballade Cracker remains viable here and does 2 damage. Both of these weapons are useful with their multi-aiming properties, and as the boss does not have i-frames, it can be destroyed very quickly using them. Due to hanging high in the air all the time, the Wily Capsule can only take damage from the buster if Mega Man uses Rush Coil to get up high.

Once the third energy gauge is depleted, the Wily Capsule moves to the right in order to scroll off the bottomless pits. It is IMPERATIVE that Mega Man jumps over any remaining bottomless pits or he will have to start the fight over again. Once the camera locks in place, the Wily Capsule explodes and Dr. Wily gets knocked to the ground. He gets on his knees, bowing to Mega Man in defeat once again. However, using a specialized backpack, Dr. Wily launches a grappling hook to take him out of the scene.

Gallery

The Wily Robo Iron Golem in Mega Man IV.