| "Skullker" redirects here. For the machine in Mega Man: Upon a Star, see Wily Machine 1. |
Wily Machine 4 (ワイリーマシン4号) is Dr. Wily's fourth Wily Machine, a skull-shaped flying machine that shoots energy balls from its mouth. It appears as the penultimate boss of the Wily Castle from Mega Man 4. The Wily Machine 4 also has a brief appearance in the opening scene of Mega Man 8.
Mega Man 4[]
The Wily Machine 4 is the boss of Wily Stage 3.
Attack Pattern[]
The first phase of the Wily Machine 4 dons a giant skull-face, and the entire façade makes up the boss's weak point. This boss has a very simply pattern of hovering up and down, without any horizontal movement. It attacks by shooting large purple energy shots from its mouth. The Wily Machine 4 always attacks by shooting 3 in a row, and they simply travel in a slightly slanted-downwards straight line. As such, the player can easily hide underneath the shots (don't actually be under the Wily Machine, as the bottom goes low enough to it you) and take shots at the jaw in between rounds.
After depleting the first energy gauge, the skull face is destroyed, revealing Dr. Wily at the controls and the mouth's cannon. The new weak point is the bright blue gem above the cannon. The second phase's pattern is a reverse of the first: Wily Machine 4 now only moves sideways in a semi-random pattern but generally goes left and right. The large purple energy shots are now fired in a continuous streak with no break, and are always aimed at the player. While it may seem extremely hard to dodge given these factors, there is a fail-safe strategy: the player should move in a general loop as to bait 2 of the energy shots to aim at the ground: this is done by baiting the first to aim very low then going backwards, then jump forward to dodge the 2nd energy shot, and get a shot at the weak point, having the 3rd shot aim straight forward. The blue gem is high enough that normal buster shots can't actually reach it without Rush Coil: only a charged Mega Buster shot at the apex of a jump can hit it.
Once the Wily Machine 4 is destroyed, Dr. Wily escapes using a small pod. Mega Man then goes to the last stage, Wily Stage 4, to face the Wily Capsule, the first of many Capsules to come for the rest of the series.
Weaknesses[]
The first phase is weak to Ring Boomerang, which does 3 damage and can destroy the skull in 10 hits. A charged Mega Buster and charged Pharaoh Shot also do 3 damage, but given the Ring Boomerang does not need to charge, it is the most recommended option.
The second phase is weak to Drill Bomb, which can destroy the Wily Machine 4 in 7 hits. Due to the blue gem's altitude, the Drill Bomb will ding off the body. As such, you'll need to time the button press as to detonate the Drill Bomb so the explosion hits the gem. As with most bosses, Wily Machine 4 takes 3 damage from a fully-charged buster shot, but is immune to Pharaoh Shot.
A lesser known way of attacking the second form of the Wily Machine 4 is to walk underneath the machine and use the Wire adapter to hit the vulnerable gem. If the player is lucky, the wire will hit the gem once on the way up, and potentially again on the way down. While each hit that Wire deals only does 1 damage, if Mega Man is far enough underneath the machine, the Wily Machine 4's energy orbs do not aim at Mega Man.
Data[]
Rockman Complete Works data[]
ドクロじょうのフロントカバーを破壊するとビームのいりょくがアップする。 ビームはよけにくいので弱点武器でさっさとたおそう
Translation[]
When the front cover of the skull is destroyed, the beam's speed is up. The beam is hard to come by, so let's quickly use a weak weapon.
Damage data chart[]
| Mega Buster | Flash Stopper | Rain Flush | Drill Bomb | Pharaoh Shot | Ring Boomerang | Dust Crusher | Dive Missile | Skull Barrier | Wire | |||
| Form 1 | 1:3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1:3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Form 2 | 1:3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0:0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
Other media[]
Mega Man (cartoon)[]
Skullker in the Mega Man cartoon show.
In Ruby-Spears' Mega Man animated series, Dr. Wily's main transport is a machine named "Skullker", which appears to be based on the Wily Machine 4. The Skullker has several features such as retractable arms, a tractor beam, ejectable seats, the Wily Capsule and the ability to attack with laser beams. In the episode Incredible Shrinking Mega Man, Wily equipped a shrink ray on the Skullker, but Mega Man turned the ray in the Skullker's direction when it was ready to fire and made it shrink, forcing Dr. Wily and Proto Man to abandon the vehicle. A weakness of the Skullker is that when it has water near or it gets wet, it doesn't work properly.
Other appearances[]
The Wily Machine 4 appeared in Rockman 4Koma Dai Koushin.
Gallery[]
See also[]
Trivia[]
- This is the first Wily Machine to be graphically rendered so as to be seen in a roughly 3/4 profile. The first and second Wily Machines are shown in full-on side profile, and the third faces forward towards the screen; each of these three were drawn in a flat perspective without any depth. In the case of Wily Machine 4, the angled view implies depth, which allows for a more three-dimension persepective in spite of the two-dimensional graphics.
- After defeating both forms, it is possible to "kill" Wily by using Rain Flush when he is going out of the screen. However, the player must turn the power off or reset the console, as they are left in space after "killing" Wily. However, in the Legacy Collection, the player can use the rewind feature (
) to rewind the Rain Flush shot.
