White Steel

First of the Four Forcemen, **WHITE STEEL** represents the D.O.D. ARMS faction, and can be fought on **Wednesdays** and **Sundays** within Max's Area. Equipped with his own unique armor set, he fights players using the deadly combo of his Spike Crusher mace and Static Massager blaster. Defeating White Steel on higher difficulties may reward the Blueprints for his gear, as well as the D.O.D. ARMS 44CE Metal needed to upgrade it. All Forcemen equipment is known for completely unique armor and weapon designs with some of the highest durability in the game.

Though considered the weakest Forcemen, he is sometimes encountered early due to his low placement within the Tower, but will likely kill players who haven't defeated the final Don fairly quickly. However, beating White Steel for his equipment is a popular strategy to approach Battle To The Top (41F+), as it's simple to build, as strong as Tier 4 gear, and has outstanding durability. A large majority of shroom types are still allowed against White Steel - a strategy much more restrictive against other Forcemen.

## Location/Rewards

As with all Forcemen, White Steel can only be fought on **Wednesday** and **Sunday** rotations of the Tower. If you don't see the floors on your map, you may still be on the previous day's rotation, and should enter and exit the Waiting Room to reload the Tower.

All Forcemen can be fought on each difficulty for **free**, once-per-day, each new day they appear. After fighting them for free once, subsequent attempts the same day will have a KC cost. If you die after starting the fight, there will be no cost to revive your Fighter with KC Salvage. This counts even if you win, so intentionally dying after the fight is over is often used to return to the Waiting Room quickly. After the fight, a gate to the Reward Chest in the back of the arena may be opened, for one of the rewards of the corresponding difficulty. Extra Forcemen Blueprints can be sold for  **50000 KC**. The Jackals will still spawn on Forcemen floors, provided the Forcemen has been defeated.

### Farming

If you wish to fight a certain difficulty multiple times, there are certain methods and routes that may help you travel there and back faster. As a general rule: The **Treasure Hunter** decal will be the biggest help towards locating the floor faster. A non-Premium version can be purchased from the Mushroom Club for 2 Golden Skillshrooms. You could also consider using double **Marathon Runner** decals for infinite sprint, or, if you were lucky, **Spy** and **Ultra-Marathon Man**. You should also carry a weapon with you, not meant for the Forcemen, to deal with enemies along the way.

For White Steel, there isn't anything in the arena to kill you after the fight is over, so you'll have to use something yourself (e.g. the Assault Rifle Rage). However, Nightmare White Steel is already right next to an elevator, so choosing to walk back doesn't take nearly as long as it would for some other Forcemen.

* **NORMAL:** 4F REGINAKA
	+ This difficulty is ironically the hardest to reach of the three. The quickest path will be taking the elevator to 5F HYAKUDORI, head right out of the elevator, down to 3F KAMI-IKEDOI, and up to 4F REGINAKA. The lock going down from HYAKUDORI must have already been unlocked from KAMI-IKEDOI first.
	+ An alternate route is to go through 1F IKEGARA and 2F WANOKI first, though this passes an extra floor, and WANOKI being fairly large will make this take longer. The one benefit is that you could stop by 3F OMOKI for Gyakufunsha, if you wanted.
* **HARD:** 5F OMENO-INARI
	+ Take the elevator to 3F TAMATA, go left from the elevator, and go up to 5F OMENO-INARI.
	+ This escalator will actually be locked until you kill 6F JIN-DIE, even though someone who just did that would be far from defeating Hard. This was probably more as a preventative measure to not encounter this fight too early.
* **NIGHTMARE:** 8F KO-ONI
	+ Take the elevator to 9F NASHIYOGUCHI, and look at the hallway to your left. If you can see Dustin, go there and head down to 8F KO-ONI. If you don't see Dustin, then it's the wrong escalator down, and you'll need to head to the other down escalator on the floor.

## Fight Strategy

 Ideally, you should approach this fight with (at least) a fully levelled Grade 6 All-Rounder, purchasable after defeating the final Don. Grade 5 strategies are also possible with enough shrooms and good equipment. You should try and use at least Tier 3 armor; the particular armor doesn't matter as much as having enough Defense. Once the fight begins, you will be under a time limit to defeat White Steel. If the time limit runs out, the statues on the wall will shoot lasers from their eyes, killing you instantly. If you choose to revive with a Death Metal (either from the statues or the Forcemen killing you), the timer will reset, but the Forcemen's health will not.

The following strategies are more about preparing for Hard or Nightmare, rather than Normal. Even Fighters under Grade 5 can defeat Normal with little preparation. As Normal does not drop any significant rewards (aside from the occasional Quest), it serves as more of an introduction to what the fight looks like rather than an actual challenge.

* NORMAL: 03:00 min.
* HARD: 04:00 min.
* NIGHTMARE: 03:30 min.

### Arena

 Unlike other Forcemen, White Steel's arena has no special features besides the time limit. There are no buffs or debuffs, nothing in the arena changes, and there is no cover to hide behind. Therefore, the only thing to rely on in this arena is your own movement.

### Shrooms

 Once you pay the Battle Fee at the Entry Box, the fight will begin. However, before doing so, you can take this time to eat various shrooms to give you an edge in this battle. Nearly all buff shrooms will work against White Steel, but in particular, stacking several Stingshrooms and/or Red Stingshrooms will prove the most effective. Crushrooms can be used instead, though they do not stack with Stingshrooms; the effect of the last type eaten will be used. Remember to eat a (G) Lifeshroom before starting the fight. Several shroom effects can be used here, such as Toughshrooms (to mitigate the Stingshrooms), Staminungus to run more, Umbrella Rib Fungus for invis, Cateye Shrooms for slow motion, Dragonshrooms for infinite ammo, or even Vampire Fungus for lifesteal. If you don't feel as confident, you can also bring Golden Beasts or Barbmeat to heal you during the fight. Feel free to use whichever strategy available to you that you're comfortable with.

One method you could try is throwing a Decoyshroom close to the gate before entering. If using this strategy, you should skip the entry cutscenes, as the Decoy timer will still go down during it. It will distract White Steel once he gets close to it, though he will not be able to reach it to blow it up. Use this opportunity to recover, reload, or get some attacks in. The decoy will eventually dissipate without exploding. He will also go after Decoys thrown in his arena, though the explosion does little damage and will not stagger him.

There are a couple of shroom effects White Steel will immediately attempt to dispel using a wave attack. Blocking this wave will still remove the effects, essentially preventing these shrooms from being used. On all difficulties, White Steel will immediately attempt to negate the following mushrooms:

While the Exploshrooms can deal damage and sometimes knockdown, the damage is very little, and he will recover from being knocked down almost immediately. Shockshrooms will only deal a miniscule amount of damage, and the Electricity will not stun him at all. Doomshrooms will only deal 5 damage per tick at most, and being Poisoned doesn't impair his moveset, nor make him stop to vomit.

### Weapons

#### Piercing Weapons

 Since White Steel has a **-42%** resistance to Piercing damage, any Piercing weapon will perform well against him. The most popular choice is a Tier 4+0 Kamas or Kamas RE, as it is both easy to use and useful for higher climbs in the Tower. As the Kamas scales 100% with DEX, Strikers or weaker fighters like Collectors are not recommended. Ideally, use at least the G6 All-rounder, or a G5 Shooter. You can also use the Kamas Rage on yourself after the fight is over to return to the Waiting Room quicker. That said, nearly any other Piercing weapon upgraded enough would work just as well.

The only things to keep in mind with this strategy are when to shoot and when to reload. One of these problems can be solved by eating Dragonshrooms before the fight. Either way, White Steel taunting provides ample opportunity to do both. Eat your shrooms, shoot him when there's an opening, reload when he taunts, repeat.

#### Longsword Rage One-Shot

 Using either a Tier 4+0 Longsword or Longsword RE (often shortened to **DBSS**), this strategy takes advantage of the Sword's Rage Move to kill White Steel in one hit. The Rage Move of the Sword is a counter; activate it before getting hit, and upon being hit, take no damage and follow up with a powerful counter-strike. Before entering the fight, make sure you have at least 2 Rage Bars to use it, then eat a Stingshroom and an Oakshroom. Be careful, as you do not want to attack with any other move besides the Rage. Activate the Rage Move right before he swings his mace at you, then once he collides, the Rage Move will activate and counter him, killing him instantly. Using shrooms and enough damage decals, this will easily kill him, even on Nightmare.

#### Tier 4

The abuse of Stingshrooms (or even Golden Stingshrooms) allows for pretty much any Tier 4 weapon White Steel doesn't resist to take chunks out of him easily. All you need to avoid are Blunt or Electric weapons, as even Slash weapons that he's neutral to still do plenty of damage to him, as evidenced by the Longsword strategy. Any Uncapped weapon will obviously perform even better, but he can be defeated on Nightmare well before uncapping anything. While White Steel can still be killed by weapon types he resists, these should not be your main choices for your first attempts at defeating him.

### Decals

 **One Shot One Kill** and **Giant Killer** are useless, as Forcemen do not take bonus headshot damage and do not have levels. Decals from the Mushroom Club which will work include **Barbarian** or **Dual Wielding Master**, **Samurai**, **Slugger**, **Four** and **Five-leaf Clover**, **Superalloy**, and **Vampire**. A strategy using **Bull** x2 + **Raging Bull** x2 (aka **Quad Bull**) can also work, but much more caution must be taken when using that strategy. **Crowd Pleaser** from Lost Bags can also provide a small bonus.

In general, any decals you own that give you more damage or crit will work here. **Barbarian** and **Drill Sergeant** can help for the Kamas strategy, while **Dual Wielding Master**, **Samurai**, **Superalloy**, and **Wizard** can help with the Longsword. Any reload effect like **Juggler** can help most Piercing weapons. **Clovers** will work with both, though you should use more with the Longsword, as you want to make sure the Rage crits.

### White Steel's attacks

**Wave** - Unlike the other Forcemen, White Steel will not use this attack **at all** unless you have a forbidden shroom effect activated. If you do, he will use this attack immediately to remove the effect. It will not knock you back or otherwise interrupt your movement at all. While the wave can be perfect blocked, it will still remove the offending effect even if you do so.

**Dash/Lunge** - White Steel will essentially move the same way as a Hater, though he is also able to dash in any direction to close distances quickly. He will often use this at the start of the fight to dash directly towards you, and in general over the course of the fight if you're too far away.

**Spike Crusher Combo** - This is White Steel's main attack, as well as his strongest, utilizing the Spike Crusher in his right hand. The full combo is a swing to his left, a swing to his right, and a final overhead smash. This smash is actually two hits, as it also creates a small explosion when it hits the ground that also deals Piercing damage. White Steel will often run up to you and swing the Crusher in an attempt to land the first hit of this combo. If he does, he'll continue the rest of it, and it's usually not possible to escape the combo after being struck by the first hit. You can block the hits if you're fast enough, though he'll just continue the combo, so this attack is better dodged. The best way to deal with this is to simply be constantly moving, and move the opposite direction from him as he tries to swing. After he whiffs his swing, you have an opportunity to get some hits in with the Kamas, or a faster melee weapon, before he fully recovers.

**Static Massager (Spray)** - White Steel raises his Static Massager in his left hand, walking forward and spraying 3 streams of Electricity in a three-pronged Ψ shape. He cannot be knocked out of this, and will deal multiple hits of damage to you in rapid succession while you're caught in it. Thankfully, this move doesn't stun or knock you back at all, meaning you're free to move away if you get touched by it. It's better to always be slightly to the side of White Steel instead of directly in front of him due to this move. This can be dodged by moving in circles around him, being slightly easier to dodge by moving to your right. If you're far enough away, this can be a good opportunity to attack with a ranged weapon.

**Static Massager (Shots)** - White Steel raises his Static Massager and shoots 5 long-range bolts of Electricity. He will often combo this attack twice in a row, and likes to use it when you're further away from him. Similar to the spray attack, the shots won't stun or knock you back, and you can dodge it the exact same way; by moving in circles around him. As long as you stay moving, don't change directions, and don't run out of room, these shouldn't hit you.

**Taunt** - For some reason, after doing any of his attacks, White Steel will prove he's the strongest Forceman by making the brilliant choice to stand completely still in one spot to Taunt the futility of your efforts. This essentially hands you the win on a silver platter, as you can attack him with literally anything during this period, and he won't react at all. If you can, hitting his back will deal even higher damage. Also, while not quite a Taunt, White Steel will start to stomp in place briefly out of anger once he's lost enough health. This doesn't really change anything about the fight, as none of his moves change, and he can even go from stomping right into another Taunt.

**Rage Moves** - Despite the Spike Crusher and Static Massager both having their own unique Rage Moves, White Steel will never use either of them.

## Uncle Death Mail

**FORCEMEN-White Steel**
```
Dear Senpai,

It's me!
Listen, Senpai!
Don't freak out, but I just heard
the 4 FORCEMEN are in town!
They're all tough as shit and
decked out in the latest armor!

Supposedly they like to turn up
on Wednesdays and Sundays
every week... Could you swing by
REGINAKA on the fourth floor and
check it out? I hear that's where
you can fight White Steel,
whoever that is. It's gonna be a
crazy battle though, so be sure
to stock up, Senpai!

Oh, and one last thing...
I heard some mushrooms
don't work against him...
Sounds like a recipe for trouble!

No matter what happens, though,
I'll always be here to
support you from the sidelines!

Catch you later!
```

**4 FORCEMEN, FULL 4-CE!**
```
Dear Senpai,

It's me!
Listen, Senpai!
I heard you already challenged
the 4 FORCEMEN!
Shoulda known you would!
Always looking for a challenge,
aren'tcha!
That's cool as shit!

So about this White Steel thing…
Bleh, that's too long.
Can we call it WS?
Anyway! I hear certain shrooms
don't work on it! Yikes.
What a hassle!

Oh yeah! Another thing, Senpai.
You prolly want a WS Blueprint,
don'tcha...
Well, rumor has it they only drop
in Hard or Nightmare difficulty.
Hey now, I'm not saying
Normal's a waste of time!
You could use it for practice
or something, right?
Then again, someone with
your mad skills could jump
right into the action with
no problem, huh?
My bad!

Anyway, still rooting for you!
Catch you later!
```

**New 4 FORCEMEN Rule?!**
```
Dear Senpai,

It's me!
How's it hanging, buddy?
Been challenging the 4 FORCEMEN
at all lately?

Man... Seeing you always chasing
after stronger opponents... I got
nothing on you! I'm a worm!
I oughta lick your boots!
Just kidding. Too far? LOL!

By the way, that new "Red Napalm"
character's added a new rule!
Apparently Hard and Nightmare
modes now negate any previous
mushroom doping effects!
Totally hash... I mean, harsh!

I was just minding my own
business, munching shrooms,
the usual... Then as soon as I
tried to fight, some dude from
the entry box zapped me with a
mushroom null gun!
(OK, it was kinda awesome.)

But don't get mad at him, OK?
He's just doing his job, IMO.
Besides... he kinda seems like
a cool dude, y'know? I mean,
I could be wrong, I dunno...

Oh, and by the way, it looks like
WS still allows doping up with
mushrooms ahead of time.
(WS = White Steel, in case you
forgot.) Anyway, keep up the
good fight! I'm rooting for you!

Well, later!
```

## Video

 Kamas Strategy
 Video by Kuttinski

## Trivia

* White Steel was introduced in Version 1.6 on April 26, 2017, though Hard and Nightmare were not available until the following Sunday on April 30th. The KC Entry Cost was discounted by 30% until May 10th. This update also added the first Tier 4 weapons, though was before the addition of Grade 6 Fighters.
* You can listen to White Steel's theme here.
* White Steel uses the bald 6th Male Fighter as a base model, though, like all Forcemen, he stands about a head taller than normal Fighters.
* After defeating him, White Steel giving a thumbs up as he sinks below the floor is a reference to the ending of *Terminator 2: Judgment Day*.
* On Hard, while other Forcemen will only drop the Faction Metals for their own faction, White Steel drops them for all factions.
* The icons for White Steel's armor were originally much darker.
* Meijin incorrectly calls his weapons the Spik**y** Crusher and **Electric Shock** Massager in his Meijin Tips.
* Fitting for D.O.D. ARMS, White Steel's armor is cobbled together from several workshop tools, pieces of metal, wire, duct tape, and blunt/sharp objects. Keeping with the "Do It Yourself" theme of D.O.D, his large rubber apron, collection of tools, and White-heavy color scheme may be meant to invoke a sort of Back-Alley Doctor trope. In his case, White Steel attempts to work on your insides with less-than-surgical precision.
* As rubber doesn't conduct electricity, White Steel may have had some semblance of safety in mind when designing his outfit for use with his Static Massager. The padding of his outfit, particularly his rubber apron and boots, is likely why the set resists Electricity.

* If you look closely, several of the items that make up White Steel's armor and weapon can be made out. (Expand to view)

* There is a large bent saw fastened to a thick gear on either side of his helmet. The handle of each saw appears to have a half inch (or larger) drill bit tied to it with wire. The saw itself is similar to a normal handsaw, but doesn't actually have enough teeth to work effectively as one (though they had more teeth in his concept art). Any teeth that may have been at the ends have been completely removed to form a spike shape instead. While every Fighter in the game already wears a gas mask by default, the padding and wire bars around White Steel's mouth could possibly be imitating the folds of a surgeon's mask as well. The spike on the very top of his head may also be meant to simulate a very small lightning rod.
* The body piece is mainly built around a large rubber apron, adorned with the 44CE logo at the bottom corner. He wears a very large pair of bolt cutters on each of his shoulders, the handles of which are built into the apron. Also on his shoulders are 3 curved saw blades poking out of each side of the apron. At the bottom of the apron are six pouches, with several screwdrivers and a pencil sticking out the ends. Other parts of the body piece include armbands and a choker of nails, and large armguards made of metal rods bolted together. He also wears loose metal rings and half-rings around his elbows, which are completely disconnected, so it's unclear how they stay on. He also wears a large "cape" of wire fencing, which for some reason he's tied a knife, scissors, pliers, a hammer, and a yardstick to the bottom of.
* White Steel's leggings are a marvel of modern craftsmanship. In reality, they're simply a pair of blue jeans, but he's tied and taped so much else to them you can hardly tell. On the top half, he's wearing a sort of work belt/apron combo tied to his legs with straps, with plenty of pouches, pockets and holsters, nearly all of which are full. This includes 9 screwdrivers, 10 markers, 4 pens, 3 rulers, 2 square angles, 2 bolt cutters, 2 loose bolts, and 3 and a half pairs of scissors. A couple of these are very inconveniently on his lower thighs, with one screwdriver somehow in a pouch on his inner thigh. His highest pockets on each side also have two devices linked with wires, though their purpose is a mystery. He has a strap of bolts just above each of his knees, and he's nailed and duct taped knee pads onto each side of the leggings. Below these are actually a pair of bright blue rubber boots, but there's so much taped to them they're hard to make out. The boots are actually nailed in where they meet the pants, and just below that, also each have a ring of bolt nuts. He's duct taped two claw hammers upside-down with padding on the handles to each side of both of his boots. The backs of each boot each have two small red crowbars duct taped behind them, with the right boot having an additional piece of padding. But the feature that really stands out is the "laces" made of 7 carpentry pincer heads on each side. The top one is a full pincer tool; the rest are simply the heads of other tools pinched onto themselves. Ironically, despite all the duct tape, nothing else seems to be securing these additional pincer heads. Finally, at the very bottom, each boot ends in a semicircle of what seems like ice picks pointing straight up, several of them bent, bloody and broken. These somewhat resemble syringes as well.
* It is unclear what the Spike Crusher used to be, if anything. It seems to be a folding metal rod connected by springs that White Steel decided to stick every tool under the sun onto. It's simply a giant mass of tools fashioned vaguely into the shape of a mace tied together with wire. There's several knives, blades and scissors, as well as screwdrivers, drills, cutters, chisels, pencils, rulers, ice picks, and even just a broken piece of wood. And somehow, despite being called the *Spike* Crusher, with nearly every object inside it ending in a sharp point, it deals *Blunt* damage. It's also one of the few melee weapons that has ammo, causing explosions which deal Piercing damage. What exactly the explosions are is unclear; presumably, it's the shrapnel from all the pointy bits on this thing falling apart.
* Somehow, the device which shoots Electricity is the least confusing part about White Steel's gear. It's an electric coil mounted to his hand with bits of metal. There's a piece of metal on top of each fingertip connected by a wire, except on the Index finger. The coil overloads and fires electric waves from the fingertips. When the hand is closed, it fires electric bolts out of the glass on the device instead.