Character analysis: Megaman Volnutt(Feat Lousy)

Background

Originally called Mega Man Trigger, Volnutt was designed as a Purifier Unit (essentially a peace keeper) for a species of artificial humans known as 'Carbons', and the right-hand assistant to ‘The Master’, the last original human alive. Under The Master’s orders, Volnutt and him ventured out of the artificial planet Elysium to observe the Carbons. After seeing the lives the Carbons lead, The Master, now dying due to his body not being able to adapt to the atmosphere outside of Elysium, gave Volnutt one final request: Destroy the Master System, a device put in place to control the population of carbons.

Volnutt attempted to carry The Master's final request out, but was stopped by the System's overseer, Sera. Both of them stalemated one another, wiping away Volnutt's memories of his past. In the end, both were ultimately sealed by a 3rd robot, Yuna.

An unknown amount of time later, the planet would be flooded, and the carbons,

searching for new sources of energy, would begin mining for a crystal-like energy source known as refractors. The explorers who would brave these ruins came to be known as 'diggers’. Volnutt just so happened to be dug up by the digger, Barrell Caskett, who took Volnutt in, and raised him alongside his granddaughter, Roll. Becoming a digger himself, Volnutt would go on to uncover a multitude of ruins and refractor cores, stop the Bonne pirates multiple times, and eventually destroy the Master System, as The Master had asked him to do, prior to Volnutt's bad case of amnesia.

Important things to note…

-Several instruction manuals and wiki sources cite Volnutt’s age as 14, though they likely mean in physical appearance. Canonically, Volnutt has existed for at least several centuries, albeit, in a comatose state for most of it.

-In terms of physiology, Volnutt is the probably the incarnation of Mega Man that most closely resembles a ‘human’. He’s a Carbon, essentially an artificially made organic human that can replace or swap out segments of their body parts with mechanical devices. Think a mix of Replicants from Blade Runner with a more traditional cyborg. Volnutt himself seems to be mostly mechanical, however, given his swappable arm, and numerous mechanical attachments.

-Volnutt normally can only have one special weapon on-hand at a time. However, given it would be tremendously unfair to give him just one special weapon, and the fact that he can swap out special weapons on the fly in Tatsunoko VS. Capcom, I think it’s fair to give him access to all of his weapons for this fight.

Experience

-Despite only two mainline games under his belt, Volnutt has a share of experience facing a variety of foes. Prior to being discovered by Barrell, Volnutt was a Purifier Unit, and The Master’s right-hand assistant. His job was to eliminate threats to the Master System, so he should presumably have a fair share of combat experience handling different threats from Aberrant Units. He also battled and stalemated, Sera, the Mother Unit and Volnutt’s equal. He did lose his memories of these events, but later got them partially restored around the end of Mega Man Legends 2.

-After being re-discovered, Volnutt gained more experience as a digger exploring different ruins overrun with hostile machines.

-Throughout the Legends series he has also put a stop to the Bonne pirates multiple times. Stopping these ploys has required him to stop threats to the surrounding city, battle on ship, and in the sky.

-In Legends 2, this group of pirates expanded to an entire coalition of several pirate groups, all of whom Volnutt defeated.

-Volnutt of course put an end to Juno, a machine who upon awakening, attempted to purge all Carbons from the planet using the colossal space fortress, Eden.

Arsenal

Mega Buster: An arm cannon that can fire energy shots, the parameters of which can be modified with Buster Parts. These parts improve things like the power of shots, the rate of fire, and the range. In Tatsunoko VS. Capcom the weapon can also fire a charge shot.


Special Weapons

Shining Laser: Volnutt’s most powerful weapon. It fires a massive, focused laser, that pierces through most enemies, and can kill the most powerful entity in the original game (Juno) in just a few shots. All while possessing unlimited ammo.

Machine Buster: A rapid fire weapon that shoots gatling rounds in rapid succession.

Machine Gun Arm: Similar in function to the Machine Buster.

Spread Buster: A gun that shoots several explosive shots to cover a larger area of effect.

Active Buster: A notoriously powerful weapon from the original Mega Man Legends. Fires homing missiles in rapid succession, and has arguably the 2nd highest damage rate in the original Mega Man Legends.

Homing Missiles: A weapon with a similar function to the Active Buster, but with better homing capabilities.

Hyper Shell: An explosive gun arm that creates a modestly sized AOE explosion.

Hunter Seeker: Fires a drone that seeks out the enemy Mega Man has targeted with its own flurry of lasers.

Buster Cannon: A large cannon with great range that fires a focused energy shot.

Powered Buster: Fires energy shots with a slow rate of fire, but incredible power.

Blade Arm: Produces a close quarters energy sword.

Drill Arm: A melee drill primarily used to dig through stone, but that also substitutes as a melee weapon.

Splash Mine: Shoots proximity mines that detonate after a set amount of time, or upon contact.

Crusher: A mechanical arm that produces bombs that detonate upon contact.

Grenade Arm: A grenade launcher that fires off bombs that can ricochet off walls before detonating.

Reflector Arm: Similar in function to the Grenade Arm.

Grand Grenade: Fires more powerful explosives than the Grenade arm that detonate on contact.

Ground Crawler: A glorified bomchu that rolls on the ground, and explodes on contact.

Shield Arm: Produces an energy shield to protect Volnutt from attacks, and in Tatsunoko VS. Capcom, reflect projectiles.

Armor

Guard Helmet: The best helmet Volnutt typically has. Helps guard against knock-back, and allows him to instinctively roll out of danger upon taking damage.

Kevlar Jacket: Reduces damage taken by ¾.

Jump Shoes/Spring Shoes: Increase Volnutt’s jump height.

Jet Skates: Allows Volnutt to enter a low hover, and jet around at high speeds.

Hydro Jets: Similar to the Jet Skates, but used underwater.

Safety Shoes: Prevents Volnutt from being affected by hot, cold, and electrical surfaces.

Rebreather: Lets Volnutt breath underwater.

Miscellaneous Items & tools

Life Shield: An ever present shield on Volnutt’s body that absorbs the impact of various attacks.

Flame Barrier: Protects Volnutt from fire attacks.

Light Barrier: Protects Volnutt from lightning attacks.

Defense Shield: Gives Volnutt some degree of invulnerability for a set amount of time.

Chameleon Net: Makes Volnutt invisible for a period of time.

Alarm Lamp: A motion sensor of sorts that gauges when enemies are close by or not.

Abilities

-Beyond superhuman strength, speed, and durability, Volnutt’s powers and abilities stem primarily from his equipment and weaponry.

Feats

Strength & Destructive Power

-Drill can pulverize a large stone wall. (0.156 Tons of TNT)

-Can completely pulverize a large tank. (Between 0.167 Tons of TNT and 0.54 Tons of TNT)

-Can lift large stone blocks and machines. (9.58 U.S Tons)

-Created a large mech explosion (10.60 to 34.22 Tons of TNT)


Speed & Agility

-Can dodge gatling gun fire from various machines. An M61 vulcan generally has a muzzle velocity of 1050 m/s (Mach 3.06).

-Can time and shoot missiles out of the sky (Mach 1 to Mach 5).

-Can evade meteors (Mach 33).

-shining laser is light speed



Durability & Survivability

-Can survive bombs from the Bonne Pirates (0.041 Tons of TNT).

-Can survive meteors from Sera (17.849 to 38.802 Tons of TNT)

Scaling

-Volnutt has regularly foiled the Bonne Pirates’ plans, and shown himself himself to be superior to any of Tron Bonne’s tech. It is safe to say he scales above any of her mechs, including the one that can…

-Lift a very large boulder (159.54 metric tons).

-Blow through a mine passageway (21.76 Tons of TNT).

-Volnutt defeated Sera in the end of Legends 2, and stalemated her before losing his memories. As such, the destructive power of his best weapons should scale to her meteors (17.849 to 38.302 Tons of TNT).

-He also Scales to the storm made by the machine/robot on the forbidden island(400-600 gigatons of tnt)

Weaknesses

While he does have items in Legends 2 to help recover his weapon gauge, most of Volnutt’s weaponry is taken from the same energy source, which can be depleted if used excessively. Despite being exceptionally powerful, Volnutt can and has been incapacitated by tech comparable to his own, as evident from the time Mega Man Juno managed to trap him in an electric field, something he needed outside assistance to escape from. He is also in many ways the most ‘human-like’ incarnation of Mega Man, and may very well have more vulnerable biological components. Although this has never explicitly been shown to be a problem. Lastly, it’s not a ‘disadvantage’ per-say, but for a series notorious for many spinoffs, sequels, and different incarnations, the amount of media for the Legends series is surprisingly sparse, and Volnutt’s own journey technically ends on a cliffhanger.