Charade Man (Rock Force)

**Charade Man** is an acting robot that can perfectly imitate the movements and mannerisms of those he studies. He is used to fill in for human actors that have fallen ill or are on temporary leave. He regrets that his creators only made him capable of mimicking other performers, rather than permitting him to add his own flare to the characters. He can only mimic the performances of people or robots he has studied thoroughly through visual cues.

## Fan Game Appearances

### *Mega Man Rock Force*

#### Attack Pattern: First Encounter

Charade Man serves as the midboss of his own stage. During this fight, Charade Man will mimic the movements of two Robot Masters from previous games, but without their projectile attacks. The Robot Master he's currently mimicking is displayed on the back wall.

* Toad Man from *Mega Man 4.* Charade Man will stay still and dance in place until the player shoots. If the player shoots, he will leap to their position. Is the first Robot Master on Easy Mode.
* Gemini Man from *Mega Man 3.* Charade Man will run back and forth along the arena. He will jump if the player shoots, though he will continue moving. Is the second Robot Master on Easy Mode.
* Shadow Man from *Mega Man 3.* Charade Man will jump 3 times (2 the first time) at varying heights, while slowly advancing towards the player. Once his jumps are done, he will slide forward. He'll repeat the pattern from there. Is the first Robot Master on Normal/Hard Mode.
* Quick Man from *Mega Man 2.* Charade Man will jump 1-3 times in the player's direction. These jumps are variable in terms of speed and height. Once his jumps are done, he will run forward for a few seconds. He'll repeat the pattern from there. Is the second Robot Master on Normal/Hard Mode.

#### Attack Pattern: Second Encounter

During the fight, Charade Man is restricted to the left or right sides of the room. One of his actions is to jump from one of the other. Charade Man attacks by throwing a blue ball at the player, which will bounce around for several seconds before eventually exploding into an x-shaped spread of 4 bullets. He can throw this on the ground or in the air, jumping straight up to do so. Charade Man can also throw a red ball with a ? mark. When this explodes (either on its own or getting shot down), a Charade Clone comes out, and will simply jump around the arena. These Charade Clones can be destroyed, but they explode and can hurt a player who touches it.

On Easy Mode, his blue balls do not release any projectiles. He also throws at a slower rate.

On Hard Mode, the balls move at a much faster speed, and the blue balls release 8 projectiles in an 8-spread instead of 4 projectiles.

Upon beating Charade Man, Tornado Man is freed and can be used moving forward.

#### Weaknesses

He is weak to Crypt Cloak and Knight Crusher, both of which can instantly destroy the red "?" balls.

#### Weapon

His weapon is Charade Clone, which allows the player to create a clone that is fully controllable and temporarily substitutes for the real thing. If the clone touches anything harmful, it explodes and the camera returns to Mega Man. If the clone attacks, the real thing teleports to where the clone is.

It uses up 4 bars of ammo. Like all explosive weapons, it does an extreme amount of damage and can one-shot most midbosses.

#### Fusion Masters

If any of the diagonal Robot Masters are defeated last (Charade Man included), Charade Man fuses with Circuit Man to create Port Man.

If any of the cardinal Robot Masters are defeated last, Photon Man fuses with Charade Man to create Flare Man.

## Trivia

* Charade Man's mugshot changes each time the player revisits the stage select. There are a total of 6 mugshots, and he's the only Robot Master in the game with this trait.
	+ He's in neutral position.
	+ He has his mouth open.
	+ He's upside down.
	+ He's lower down the mugshot and holding the borders.
	+ He's in a different angle and tipping a hat.
	+ He's wearing a blonde wig, lipstick and eyelashes. The name under changes to **Charade Woman** in this case.
* His sprite has the same pose as Skull Man.
* Very rarely upon selecting Charade Man, as he's jumping to the center, there's a chance he may not stop and continue falling, with the death sfx cutting off the music.
* The *READY* seen before the player drops into the stage is replaced by *BREAK A LEG*, a typical English idiom used in the context of theatre or other performing arts to wish a performer “good luck”.
* Charade Man is the only Robot Master from *Mega Man Rock Force* to be a midboss.
	+ Because of this, Charade Man and Shock Man are both fought three times throughout the game.
* Charade Man's weakness to Crypt Cloak could be explained by how Charade Man's goofy nature gets contrasted with stealth, death, and all those serious themes.
* Charade Man's stage music is one of the songs composed by GoldwaterDLS for the game. The original stage theme for Charade Man was a lot more hectic, and the melody was slower. However, it was updated on April Fools 2015 to be in swing-tempo and more easy-going.