Air Man

**Air Man** (エアーマン *Eāman*) is a Robot Master from the *Mega Man* series created by Dr. Wily specially for combat, debuting in *Mega Man 2*. Air Man has his face built into his torso instead of a head - an unusual design, said to be intimidating. This body supposedly worked out so well from a design perspective that it was dubbed the "Air Man type" design, and would be used as a basis for future creations such as Needle Man. Air Man's main method of attack is to generate powerful winds with the propeller in his torso - in particular, he is able to push enemies away or pull them or other items towards him, generate typhoons, and can use his Special Weapon, the Air Shooter, to attack foes with rapid barrages of tornadoes.

Air Man is something of an egotist; whilst generally an individual of good character, he can be condescending and has a tendency to bore his colleagues by talking about himself for long periods of time. In his spare time, Air Man enjoys Wind Surfing, and is skilled at the Japanese card game Menko. He dislikes the autumn season however, due to falling leaves clogging up his propeller - the same reason he is weak to Wood Man's Leaf Shield.

## CD Data

 **Dislike:** | Fall of the leaf

## Official Appearances

### *Mega Man 2*

#### Attack Pattern

Air Man has a simple pattern. He will use his Air Shooter to create a whole formation of tornadoes that fill up the screen (6 at a time) which block shots. After a second of these tornadoes staying in place, Air Man will blow the tornadoes away (and the player away) at a gradually increasing speed. He will set up 3 tornado formations before he jumps two times to the other side, with the 2nd jump being higher. Once he reaches the other side, he will then repeat his pattern of 3 Air Shooter formations. It should be noted that 2 of his tornado formations are frame-perfect/near-impossible to dodge. One strategy is to stay at the corner that Air Man jumps to (as he always stands just ahead of the corner), damage him behind his back as much as you can, then use Air Man's wind blowing to jump over him and return to being in front of his face.

In *The Wily Wars,* Air Man has a longer rest between his actions. The gradual increase of his wind blowing is also more extreme, speeding up faster at the cost of being shorter. One of the tornado formations also has no tornadoes that force Mega Man to jump. The tornadoes themselves are harder to dodge because of Mega Man's size increase.

#### Weapon

Air Man's weapon is Air Shooter, which fires 3 blue tornadoes simultaneously. These arc upwards and fan outwards from each other. In general, the weapon not only can hit enemies high above the player, but can also act as a shotgun if you stack up the tornadoes against an enemy. The latter usage is particularly effective against, but not limited to, Sniper Armors. Each shot uses 2 ammo.

#### Weaknesses

Air Man's weakness is Leaf Shield, which will kill him in 2/4 hits. However, the tornadoes will still block the attack (to prevent an easy cheesy victory), so players have to find openings to throw the shield at Air Man. The Mega Buster and Quick Boomerang are also secondary weaknesses that do 4/2 damage, and actually allow high-health players to blitz-tank the fight given the short boss i-frames. Lastly, Atomic Fire if at least half-charged will kill Air Man in 3/5 hits, with the half-charged variant being enough to take him down.

### *Mega Man 3*

Air Man makes a cameo appearance when his data gets copied by Doc Robot, like all other Robot Masters from *Mega Man 2.* The newly-formed "Doc Air" is the first of the two to be fought in Needle Man's Stage.

Doc Air's attack pattern functions pretty much the same as Air Man's did before. However, the tornadoes have increased hitboxes which makes them even harder to dodge, and it doesn't help that the frame-perfect patterns have returned as well. The 'wind-blowing' acceleration is also dramatically slower as it severely lags the game.

Doc Air shares the same weaknesses as Magnet Man: Spark Shock and Magnet Missile, both of which will kill him in 7 hits. As Spark Shock costs less ammo, it is the more optimal weapon to use. Doc Air also still takes 2 damage from the Mega Buster.

### *Mega Man II*

Air Man is part of the first wave of 4 Robot Masters, which all come from *Mega Man 2.*

#### Attack Pattern

Air Man has an identical pattern to his NES fight, but it has been simplified. He now only shoots 4 tornadoes at a time and will always be blowing the player away from him, independent from the tornadoes' own movements. The tornadoes themselves do not accelerate, only moving at a set speed. Air Man's jumps are a little shorter in height, but the player has a slide to make it easier to dodge him anyway. The player also cannot hide behind Air Man anymore.

#### Weapon

Air Man's weapon is Air Shooter, which functions similarly as in the NES game. The key difference here is that the tornadoes don't spread out from each other as much. Each throw uses 2 ammo.

#### Weakness

Air Man's weakness is still Leaf Shield, though this time it's the only weapon that does extra damage, and he dies in 3 hits to it. Given Leaf Shield's unique properties in this game, Air Man can get hit twice with one shield, and as the leaves only ding off of the tornadoes individually, there's a chance one of them may pass through and still hit Air Man.

## Trivia

* Air Man and Wind Man are rivals.
* Air Man is the first robot master to have one arm cannon.
* The infamous Airman ga Taosenai is based on one player's ridiculous struggles with beating Air Man.
* Air Man's fan blades are bright blue in his artwork, but due to the color limitations of the NES, they are yellow in his *Mega Man 2* sprite.
* If Mega Man is standing on Item-1 during the battle with Air Man in the NES version of *Mega Man 2*, he will not blow his tornadoes.
* If Mega Man is hit with an Air Shooter while standing on Item-1 next to the boss gate, a glitch will occur, transporting Mega Man to a glitchy location that is similar in layout to Wily Stage 2. The level cannot be cleared, thus forcing the player to reset the game.
* As with all other Robot Masters in *Mega Man II,* Air Man has a stage theme that is unique from his *Mega Man 2* theme, with this one being inspired by Bubble Man's stage theme.
* As with the other Robot Masters in *Mega Man II,* Air Man is not fought again because there are no rematches.