Mega Man Battle Network 2 Battle Chips are very useful, so players shouldn’t be afraid to use them.
After Lan Hikari and MegaMan.EXE beat WWW, they and their friends have to deal with a new threat in Mega Man Battle Network 2. This time, the terrorist group Gospel is the enemy. Even though the core gameplay and story flow of Mega Man Battle Network 2 are similar to those of its predecessor, the game’s technical parts are just as customizable and flexible, especially for players who know how the game’s battle system works.
For people who just got the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection, playing Battle Network 2 again or for the first time will show them how much the game has changed since the first game. Battle Network 2 gives players more ways to mix and match their chips thanks to the addition of more folders, more chip codes, and the visually impressive Style Change feature. But which chips in Battle Network 2 stand out from the rest?
FreezBom
When fighting tricky opponents like the evil Dr. Wily in Battle Network, it’s sometimes more important to slow down the enemy’s attack so you have time to plan a counterattack than to hit them hard. In this way, FreezBom can be a must-have for players who want to slow down the progress of their enemies. FreezBom is a secret chip you can get in high-level NetBattles when the title screen has three or more stars. It freezes an enemy for a set amount of time.
This affect is similar to other chips that stun, but when used with the right chips, FreezBom is a very effective deterrent. The ice-block transformation works with Zaprings and even Toadman to stun foes for a long time, leaving them open to attacks that do more damage. By pulling out a FullCust and FoldrBak, players always have a way to mix up the cards in their deck.
Anubis
Damage suppliers in any RPG know that damage over time can be annoying, and poison attacks are often used to represent this. Players of the Battle Network series can also focus on poison, and Anubis can be the center of attacks that use DOTs. Anubis can be bought from PharoManV3 or the Marine Harbor Chip Trader. It calls forth a coffin that gives poison damage to the panels in front of it until it or its user is destroyed.
Poison damage is usually only 10 Attack per second, but when combined with other poison suppliers like Anubis, it can be the center of a cool DOT kit. For example, Anubis works best with Geddon3 because Geddon3 turns the enemy’s side into swamp tiles that are always deadly. Putting a PoisMask or PoisFace on top of this can add another layer of poison to the field. If PoisMask/PoisFace lasts for about 20 seconds, players can do up to 800 Attack without directly attacking. For best effect, Battle Network 2 players might want to think about adding AreaGrabs to their game so that enemies get stuck in this DOT nightmare.
Meteors
There isn’t a single “great” chip in any Battle Network game because most of them are “core” chips that are used to make huge combos. Meteors is an example of this. It is a Fire Attribute chip that gives 40 Attack 30 times in a given area (all panels x3, three panels x4, all panels x3). Meteors’ base 90-120 Attack is good for a general attack chip, but when it’s used as part of a combo, it can become a real threat.
Meteors’ full potential takes a lot of chips to reach, but if done right, it can easily beat almost any boss. Players need to use three AreaGrabs to trap opponents in a single panel. They can then use GrassStg to turn all the panels into grass and get rid of the Holy panels that reduce damage. After that, Meteors must be used with four Fire+40 chips. This gives Meteors a base Attack of 200. Since there is only one Grass panel left, the first meteor hits for 400 Attack (Fire-type Meteors deal with Grass) and the other 29 for 200 Attack, for a total of 6,200 Attack.
SnakeMn
If Battle Network teaches you anything about games, it’s that winning smartly is better than winning the old-fashioned way. In Battle Network 2, this is called “exploiting the system,” and SnakeMn is a seemingly weak battle chip that can be used in this way to do a lot of damage. At its core, using SnakeMn does 50 Attack on top of the 50 Attack each of the snakes he releases from holes. But players who know that SnakeMn lets them break panels to lock opponents in place will know that it can be the center of a good move.
SnakeMan works best with the Geddon chip family, which is made to break panels, especially Geddon2, which breaks all empty squares at once. When SnakeMan is modded with four Wood+40 chips and used in this way, he has a base Attack of 210. With this combo, SnakeMan can do a 15-hit combo that can give up to 3150 Attack to an opponent.
LifeAur3
Damage reduction is just as important as defense for RPG players, and LifeAur3 gives Battle Network 2 players a way to do that. LifeAur3 is the most powerful member of the LifeAur family. In Battle Network, it will stop all powers with less than 200 Attack. You can get this by beating BassDelux. Its Aur2 (repells 150) and Aur1 (repells 100) can be bought from the ACDC Station Chip Trader and different Scuttle virus family members. Even though a 200 Attack shield doesn’t seem like much in terms of defense, it can be very annoying to enemies when used in a combo.
The best way to use LifeAur3 is with Sanctuary, which turns all of the player’s panels into the Holy Attribute. When a player stands in a Holy panel, all damage they take is cut in half. When this is used with any LifeAur, players can get twice as much protection. On the other hand, enemies can only break through LifeAur3’s 200 Attack shield in the Holy panel if they first deal up to 400 Attack. HolyPanl, which turns the player’s front into a Holy-element panel, is a cheaper option to Sanctuary.
VarSwrd
Fans of the Mega Man X spinoff will like Battle Network because ProtoMan.EXE and the VarSwrd chip make references to the warrior Zero. The VarSwrd is an item that can be bought from the Netopia Chip Trader, the Marine Harbor Chip Trader, and a number of Mole2 enemies. It lets players use combos to perform powerful strikes.
The VarSwrd and its various combos are a reference to the fact that Zero could get slash combos instead of Mega Man X “stealing” an enemy’s powers in Mega Man X. When you learn Sonic Boom (Hold A and then press Left, B, Left, B), you’ll be able to send out three wide cuts that reach the other side of the battlefield and could kill multiple generic enemies along the way. Viruses can be easily gotten rid of if you know how to use this combo.
Guardian
When it comes to fighting in Battle Network, Battle Network 2 shows players right away how important it is to have good control over the battlefield. Instead of shields, obstacles can be used as blockers to stop strikes from getting through. And in Guardian’s case, trying to get rid of this problem should get him in trouble.
When you buy Guardian from the Marine Harbor Chip Trader, it calls a figure to the battlefield that stays there. The figure is special not just because of how it looks, but also because of what it does. When hit, the Guardian quickly uses its Punishment attack, which gives the person who hit it 200 Attack. This is a strong counterattack that can kill most enemies and make it easy to kill tougher ones.
Prism
The Battle Network series is mostly about controlling the environment to make sure attacks hit foes instead of just using powerful combos to attack. This is also why it’s important for players when holes and other objects show, because they can stop attacks from both sides. In Prism, players get an item that makes their damage last longer.
Prism is an item that can be bought from both the Netopia Chip Trader and the Marine Harbor Chip Trader. When shot, it spreads damage to nearby tiles. This can increase the range of most basic strikes and could even let you use direction-based chips like CrossGun’s diagonal hit to cover the whole field.
AreaGrab
Battle Network 2’s mechanics are highly based on positioning, just like most other Battle Network games. Since both players and enemies can move around a battlefield, attacks only hit enemies that move in the same direction as the strike. This makes chips like AreaGrab important for control because they make it easier to hit enemies. Using AreaGrab right away takes up a column in front of the player, giving them more room to move and making it harder for the enemy to move.
At first look, AreaGrab seems to be great for melee players, but its benefits when it comes to controlling an area are very important to a player’s strategy. Players who want to deal multiple hits of damage to their opponents can just AreaGrab the field until it is empty and lock their opponents in a single panel.
FullCust
The Custom Gauge is the most important part of Battle Network. It’s a meter that lets Mega Man choose new chips on the Custom Screen during each turn. Mega Man has to buy time to hit enemies and avoid their attacks until the Custom Gauge is full. Battle Network 2 players who are more skilled should be able to pull off most attacks in one or two Custom Gauges. And FullCust is a must-have chip for players who want to fight quickly.
As the name suggests, FullCust fills up the Custom Gauge right away, which opens the Custom Screen by itself. FullCust is one of the most important useful chips in Funny Shooter 2 game. Not only does it let you choose more chips right away, but it also lets you set up combos without having to wait too long for the screen to come up.
Right now, you can get Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection on PC, PS4, and Switch.
