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The Shadow Armor (シャドーアーマー) is a set of Armor Parts for X found in Mega Man X6. It grants him black and gold armor with abilities similar to a ninja.

Characteristics[]

Themed akin to a ninja, the Shadow Armor acts as the proverbial darkness to its sibling Blade Armor's light; while the Blade Armor is evocative of a samurai warrior blindingly cutting down all in its path at light speed and making its user known to battle, the Shadow Armor turns its wearer into a literal ninja, traveling just as fast, but defeats all without a trace, and without opposition even knowing it. The Shadow Armor appropriately is defined by its majority use of black in color, and like the Blade Armor, goes for more of a human like appearance, drawing upon clothes worn by ninja in their lore; this includes dogi and hakama like details, a net mesh pattern on the chest to represent chain mail worn underneath clothing, a full face mask to hide its user's guise, and the feet split at the tip to evoke tabi socks. As a unique detail, the Shadow Armor bears fins that point backwards on its helmet and legs, artistically drawing out the idea of motion blur while in movement. In line with more esoteric ways of thought that ninja also followed in their arts, the use of white and its more solid full form appear to evoke a further yang quality, which is believed to be best for male ninja by natural affinity by the ways of Onmyodo and Taoism, while the use of gold is used to evoke the state of taiji or ultimate balance, and both a feeling of mastery and a mark of accomplishment, akin to a ninja master.

The Shadow Armor acts very similar to the Gaea Armor from Mega Man X5, but unlike its predecessor, the Shadow Armor focuses on technical agility, martial skills, and high offensive output bolstered by nonstop attacks. It keeps many of the main features and drawbacks of the Gaea Armor, including invulnerability to instant-kill spikes, sticking to walls without sliding down, the lack of an air dash, and the inability to use Special Weapons.

The X-Buster has been heavily modified for the Shadow Armor. X's normal shot fires shurikens, and behaves similar to the C-Shot from Mega Man X5. The direction of the shurikens are fired randomly in three different angles: straight forward, or slightly up or down. X's Charge Shot produces a Z-Saber slash that also makes a crescent at the tip of the saber slash and can strike multiple times per slash. This technique is officially called Engetsurin. Additionally, normal Z-Saber slashes are performed at a faster rate. X's Giga Attack creates powerful spinning orange crescents that encircle him for a brief moment, severely damaging all enemies in his vicinity. That technique is officially called Enkourin (円光輪 lit. Circling Halo/Circling Light Ring).

The Shadow Armor sacrifices the Gaea Armor's ability to push V-Blocks with its dash for a ninja-like maneuver: If the UP directional button is held while jumping, X will jump to the top of the screen. If there is a ceiling, X can grab hold of it and hang upside-down (in a manner similar to Zero's Hyoroga). At this point, X can fire shurikens downwards in groups of three. After several volleys, X will automatically drop down. X can also perform a short dash along the ceiling to compensate for the lack of an air dash, but this causes him to drop down after the dash is finished.

The Shadow Armor's ninja-like abilities are heavily toned down with the use of the Ultimate Buster part, as his ability to fire down at enemies from the ceiling produces no shots at all. This alters X's strategy into a full-on Z-Saber fighter instead of a stealthy ninja.

Functions[]

Note: Specific parts do not have effects as this armor can only be equipped when complete.
  • Head Parts - X can swing the Z-Saber at a faster rate than other Armors in the game.
  • Body Parts - Damage is reduced by 50% and the reduced damage will go to the Giga Attack bar, which can be accelerated by obtaining Life and Energy Refills. Once completely filled up, X can use the Giga Attack: a double Enzukirin attack that encircles himself three times in opposite clock directions, dealing massive damage to any enemy hit by them. 
  • Arm Parts - The X-Buster's normal shots are shaped like shurikens (which fire in random directions like X5's C-Shot), and the charge shot is replaced by a powerful saber slash called Engetsurin (円月輪 lit. Circling Moon Ring) that deals massive multi-hit damage to enemies. Similar to the Gaea Armor from the previous game, this Arm Part has only one charge level, although the charge speed is the same as X without any Armor equipped. Special weapons are disabled for this armor.
  • Foot Parts - X can stick to walls and safely walk on spikes. He can also stick to ceilings by pressing ↑ + Jump Button, which launches him upwards (similar to Zero's Hyoroga). While upside-down on a ceiling, he can dash before falling, or he can fire shuriken shots downwards.

Locations[]

Location
X6 FootParts-S
X6 FootParts-S
Shadow Armor Foot Program
North Pole Area (Blizzard Wolfang)
After the stretch of pits and falling Nightmare Ice, use Zero's Double Jump or X's Ice Burst to jump off the top of the downward slope and find the capsule sitting on a ledge.
Location
X6 BodyParts-S
X6 BodyParts-S
Shadow Armor Body Program
Inami Temple (Rainy Turtloid)
In the final acid rain area before the boss shutter, enter the spiked alcove in the top right corner of the room. The best ways to get through are with the Blade Armor's Mach Dash or damage boosting off a Batton Bone.
Location
X6 ArmParts-S
X6 ArmParts-S
Shadow Armor Arm Program
Magma Area (Blaze Heatnix)
After the second Nightmare Snake, climb the vertical passage instead of entering either of the shutters. Zero's Double Jump or X's Blade Armor can reach the ledges, with the capsule at the very top. Alternatively, stand on any Nightmare Iron blocks to climb up (however, be sure to have Metal Anchor/Rakukojin to destroy them if you do).
Location
X6 HeadParts-S
X6 HeadParts-S
Shadow Armor Head Program
Recycle Lab (Metal Shark Player)
At the end of the second Nightmare Press corridor, continue left instead of descending the ladder (may require destroying Nightmare Cubes with Ground Dash/Sentsuizan). Pass the press and descend to find a large gap; it can be crossed in a number of ways, including moving the Nightmare Cubes, jumping off an Ice Burst with Jumper, or the Ultimate Armor. The capsule and Another Route portal wait across the gap.


Other game appearances[]

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • Whereas the normal shots of the armor are reminiscent of C-Shot, the Giga Attack is similar to a large C-Shot from Crescent Grizzly, although the latter lasts longer and goes off screen. Its Charged Shot resembles a more powerful version of Zero's C-Sword technique.
    • Interestingly, a full pair of unused animations exist for Shadow Armor in which X is seen actually firing off a normal Charged Buster Shot.[1]
  • The lack of an air dash renders the Shadow Armor incapable of progressing through the second stage of Gate's Laboratory without parts that enables higher mobility and speed than it is originally configured to have, coupled with precise skills of the player using the ledge-grabbing ability. Ironically, the Shadow Armor is the best armor for easily navigating through the first stage of Gate's Laboratory, which is laden with spike traps, as well as dispatching the boss of that stage, the Nightmare Mother.
  • Although X can't use any Special weapons in this armor, he can still use the very edge of the crescent energy coming from the charged shot to damage both Dynamo (as if he were hit with his weakness, Meteor Rain), and High Max.
    • Interestingly like Gaea Armor, a full set of unused Special Weapon palettes exist for Shadow Armor and are accessable via hacking but firing a Special Weapon using any of these palettes will freeze the game.[2]
  • The Shadow Armor slightly resembles High Max with the black armor motif, and the gold and white highlights.
  • Due to its ninja motif, some fans speculate that the Shadow Armor is the basis for Hidden Phantom, one of the four guardians from the Mega Man Zero Series.
  • Shadow Armor is the first armor in the series (if not counted the secret Hyper Chip's golden scheme in Mega Man X3) not to feature the color blue anywhere in it's design, followed by the Neutral and Icarus Armors in Mega Man X8, and the X Fire Hyper Mode in Mega Man X Command Mission.
ShadowBladeCannon

Shadow Blade Buster

  • In Mega Man X DiVE, the weapon Shadow Blade Buster, known as Shadow Buster (シャドーバスター Shadō Basutā) in Japanese, is based on the Arm Parts with the "blade" on the Head Part of Shadow Armor. The weapon functions like the Shadow Blade from Mega Man 3.
  • In Mega Man X DiVE, instead of the "shuriken" shot as seen in Mega Man X6, the second EX skill, known as "Shadow Shot", fires three giant shuriken that ignores terrain.

References[]

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