History GameBreaker / MegaManBattleNetwork

** Full Custom instantly fills the Custom Gauge, letting you immediately access new chips after expending what you've loaded. It always comes in *-code so it goes into any folder. In multiplayer, it forces an opponent with unexpended chips to consider discarding them for a new hand. This chip was an even bigger problem in the second game, where it debuted, as the player could put ''five'' of them in their folder, allowing the player to demolish bosses by unloading Program Advances in quick succession. Its MB requirement was also very low, allowing anyone to use it as a Regular Chip without needing to search for many [=RegUp=] items. Later games rebalanced it by both increasing the MB requirement and allowing the player to only run 1 copy of it in any folder.

** The Silver Bullet combo involves using attack boosting chips (And optionally a stunning chip) with one of the Vulcan Chips. Now, with your standard Vulcan chip (three 10-damage shots) this isn't so bad... but later in the game you can obtain a Mega Chip known as the Super Vulcan (twelve shots) and they had the Color Point chip mentioned above. And every shot doesn't allow for mercy invincibility, and stuns the victim long enough for the next shot to hit. With Double Point, that's approximately 70 damage per shot, which is 840 damage with two chips. This is commonly augmented with the double damage bonus from Full Synchro. For those not adept with Counter Hits, certain transformations will happily provide the x2 multiplier:

*** In ''[=BN4=]'', Metal Soul's chip charge ability allows a neutral chip to do double damage and gain the Breaking attribute, letting the combo work without needing to trigger Full Synchro. Is it any wonder Break-type souls were nerfed after this game to stop affecting neutral chips?

* The second half of the series [[NoExportForYou in Japan]] was compatible with the E-Reader accessory, allowing players to further customize [=MegaMan=]'s stats and change his Buster Shot to infinite uses of certain Battlechips. This can be used for some utterly ridiculous techniques like [[https://twitter.com/rfodgbkpte/status/1550035733117009921 locking any boss in place]] with Anubis and a volley of Energy Bombs.

!!''Battle Network''

!!''Battle Network 2''

** Battle Network 2 has several powerful Program Advances. Life Sword 3's components are all easily obtainable in *-code so it can be used anywhere (although these only appear in the BonusDungeon). Bodyguard deals 18 100-damage hits (before boosting), allowing it to singlehandedly destroy most bosses at once. [=UltraBomb=] ([=LilBomb+CrossBomb+BigBomb=]) hits a 3x3 area for 400 damage, cracks all panels within, and ''pierces armor'', meaning that not even Dominerds were safe.

** In the Japanese version, throwing a [=ForestBomb=] on a Prism results in neither object disappearing after the hit; instead, the [=ForestBomb=] repeatedly hits the Prism, which then deflects the damage onto the surrounding 8 panels. This worked especially well on bosses.

!!''Battle Network 3''

!!''Battle Network 4''

!!''Battle Network 5'' and ''Double Team DS''

!!''Battle Network 6''

* Any method of passively increasing the number of chips the player can select from per turn increases their power far more than any other stat, such as Custom Style in ''2'' and ''3'' or the Custom+ Navi Customizer parts from ''3'' onward. You get a wider selection of chips each turn, giving you the capacity to set up combos or even devastating Program Advances with ease.

* Prism. Any non-breaker attack that hit it will be reflected to all spaces around it. This made it easier to aim attacks as you just had to hit a stationary object if you managed to land the prism in the middle of the opponent's field. Problem is, it also turned attacks that hit a wide area into multi-hit attacks that have all the hits register at the same exact time. The way it worked is if you hit the opponent but the attack also hit the prism, the opponent would take damage from the hit AND the damage from the splash damage reflected on to them. This effectively doubled damage and was used well with [=LifeSword=], [=DoubleHero=] (which turned a GameBreaker into a Game Destroyer) and was the basis for Disco-Inferno, a chip combo that utilized the normally average Heat Spread Program Advance.\\

The idea was, as a spreading attack, it would hit the opponent for 300 damage, with another 300 from the prism. Couple that with Grass Stage and you instead deal 600 damage with 600 reflected back, leading to ''1200'' damage instantly. If the opponent is weak to fire, then the first hit is doubled, having 1200 damage with 600 reflected back, leading to ''1800'' damage. If you're playing multiplayer, very rarely will you find someone who has more than this, and if you do, there's a high chance they won't be much trouble anyway.

** Proto Chaos and Toad Chaos are a 400 damage {{BFS}} and a 300 damage {{BFG}} that wipes the entire field, respectively. Both make it extremely easy to S rank most random encounters.

* Any method of increasing the number of chips the player can select from per turn increases their power far more than any other stat, such as Custom Style in ''2'' and ''3'' or the Custom+ Navi Customizer parts from ''3'' onward.

*** [=BN2=] this combo existed in the form of the Program Advance, Arrows [[note]]Double Needle + Triple Needle + Quadruple Needle C or I[[/note]], which fires 10 arrows each doing 100 damage per hit before damage modifications were factored. It is technically the true origin of the silver bullet combo. A notable thing to mention is that [=BN2=] is the only game that allowed you to use more than one [=Atk+30=] chip in their folder (all sequential entries made [=Atk+30=] a Mega chip -- preventing you from having more than one of them in your folder), meaning that two of these added to the [=PA=] increases the individual damage to 160 per arrow, or 1600 total damage. Most bosses in [=BN2=], even most [=V3=] bosses, rarely had more than 2000 health, so getting off two of these effectively ends the fight.

* The moment the Number Lotto becomes available (third game onwards), you can immediately begin putting in all the number codes that you've jotted down (or learned online) to get several powerful chips or power ups [[DiscOneNuke way before the game expects you to have them]]. This comes to a peak in Double Team DS where one of the chips obtainable in this fasion is a secret Giga chip that hits ''the entire enemy area for 500 damage'' - enough to one-shot every virus encounter.[[note]]The game ''does'' provide the code by itself, but the NPC that does so only appears after you've finished the BonusDungeon.[[/note]]

* Folder Back from ''Battle Network 3 Blue'' returns every chip to your folder, including ''itself''. It also functions as a Full Custom, restoring the turn gauge so you can instantly pick your freshly recycled chips and continue your assault. And it's got the * code, which means it goes in ''everything''. Folder Back becomes available as soon as the player gets free access to Hades Isle, which requires clearing the Desertman scenario, and obtaining 200 Bugfrags -- which are easy to farm in this game.

** Full Custom instantly fills the Custom Gauge, letting you immediately access new chips after expending what you've loaded. It always comes in *-code so it goes into any folder. In multiplayer, it forces an opponent with unexpended chips to consider discarding them for a new hand.\\

This chip was an even bigger problem in the second game, where it debuted, as the player could put ''FIVE'' of them in their folder, allowing the player to demolish bosses by unloading Program Advances in quick succession. Its MB requirement was also very low, allowing anyone to use it as a Regular Chip without needing to search for many [=RegUp=] items. Later games rebalanced it by both increasing the MB requirement and allowing the player to only run 1 copy of it in any folder.
* Anti-damage. There are several chips of this type, but each are specific counters to types of chips (Anti-fire, anti-wood, even Anti-navi and Anti-recover), but as the name implies, Anti-damage will counter ANY source of damage. By which we mean it negates the attack and fires back with a near instantaneous barrage of nigh-undodgeable shurikens. [=BN3=]'s Anti-damage fired off three shurikens for 100 damage each, and these chips were UNLIMITED. It was nerfed in later games to only throw one, and made so some attacks could bypass it, but still a respectable chip in its own right.
* Prism. Any non-breaker attack that hit it will be reflected to all spaces around it. This made it easier to aim attacks as you just had to hit a stationary object if you managed to land the prism in the middle of the opponent's field. Problem is, it also turned attacks that hit a wide area into multi-hit attacks that have all the hits register at the same exact time. The way it worked is if you hit the opponent but the attack also hit the prism, the opponent would take damage from the hit AND the damage from the splash damage reflected on to them. This effectively doubled damage and was used well with [=LifeSword=], [=DoubleHero=] (which turned a GameBreaker into a Game Destroyer) and was the basis for Disco-Inferno, a chip combo that utilized the normally average Heat Spread Program Advance.\\
\\

* The light path perk in ''Battle Network 4'' is commonly considered to be the most broken passive effect in the entire series. Full Synchro, normally a status effect that is achieved through counter hits, doubles the attack power of your next chip. The light path perk gives you a rather high chance to enter Full Synchro with any successful attack, counter hit or not. This, when used along with chained multi-hit battle chips, can almost immediately destroy any boss that is not immune to being stunned. So broken that the perk was completely removed in the fifth game.

* There are fifteen extremely powerful chips whose strength is balanced out by their rarity. Most can only be obtained randomly by S-Ranking [=PvP=] battles against opponents of a certain power level, and the remaining were only available through limited-time events in Japan. Since the Wii U Virtual Console release does not support [=PvP=] battles and the events for the remaining chips are long over, the game just outright ''hands'' these chips to you by accessing the Network menu. You can get them the moment you take control of Lan for the first time, and they far outclass just about anything you'll find up until nearly the postgame. The Gospel Breath chips in particular outright trivialize almost every common virus encounter and even some bosses.

* Navi Recycle from the ''White'' version replicates whichever Navi chip was used last. This includes Giga Chips like Serenade and Bass, though Navi Recycle comes with the added benefit of not requiring a [[UselessUsefulSpell a Hole panel on the field]] in order to be activated. Even better, it keeps any attack bonuses you had when you used the first chip.

* There are fifteen extremely powerful chips whose strength is balanced out by their rarity; most can only be obtained randomly by S-Ranking [=PvP=] battles against opponents of a certain power level, and the remaining few were only available through limited-time events in Japan. Come the Wii U Virtual Console release, [=PvP=] battles are obviously a thing of the past, and the events for the remaining chips were ''long'' over. So what does it decide to do? Why, it just outright ''hands'' these chips to you simply by accessing the Network menu. You can get them the moment you take control of Lan for the first time, and they far outclass just about anything you'll find up until nearly the ''postgame'' (the Gospel Breath chips in particular outright trivialize almost every common virus encounter and even some ''bosses''). They're so absurdly powerful that the Network option might as well be relabeled "Easy Mode" in the Virtual Console version.

** The legendary example is Gater, a Program Advance that deals 900 damage (''before'' boosting, this Summon-type Program Advance hits all hostile targets nine times each for 100 damage a hit, and Attack Plus chips raise the damage of each individual hit, so Attack Plus 10 boosts it to 990 damage, Plus 20 to 1080, and Plus 30 to 1170), freezes time, and hits everywhere. Once you gain free reign to explore and jack in at Netopia, you can find a merchant who sells 2 parts of that Program Advance in *-code (Wind and Fan *-code chips), and the *-code for the last chip can be easily obtained from the Super Chip Trader, also in Netopia. The final piece of the PA, [=Gateman.EXE's=] Navi Chip, can be acquired from battling Mr Match in several places in the game, and it eventually becomes possible to rematch him repeatedly, allowing you to field a folder loaded with a full set of 4 Winds, 4 Fans, and 4 Gateman chips (and yes, all versions of Gateman work for the Program Advance, from V1 to V3).
** Battle Network 2 had several other powerful Program Advances. Life Sword 3 had its components all easily obtainable in *-code so it can be used anywhere (although these only appear in the BonusDungeon). Bodyguard dealt 18 100-damage hits (before boosting), allowing it to singlehandedly destroy most bosses at once. [=UltraBomb=] ([=LilBomb+CrossBomb+BigBomb=]) hit a 3x3 area for 400 damage, cracked all panels within, and ''pierced armor'' meaning that not even Dominerds were safe.
** ''Battle Network 2'' is notorious for the Darkness ([=DarkMessiah=] in Japan) PA (Bass V3 X + [=AntiNavi=] X + Any Gospel chip X), where Gospel appears and uses his dark breath on the front and middle columns of the enemy's side of the field. If anything survived the initial onslaught, Bass would attack the back column. The kicker? Both attacks did 3000 damage each. The first attack alone is enough to [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame kill the final boss himself in one hit]]-- and it pierces shields, so you don't even have to wait for him to open his mouth! However this was actually balanced out by the fact the Gospel chips were hidden, event-only chips that never saw official release outside of Japan, and so this PA was unobtainable without hacking... until the virtual console release of ''Battle Network 2'', which made available the event chips (plus the secret chips obtained through netbattles) by just accessing the Network option in the game, in compensation for the lack of connectivity between cartidges, so have fun with that.
* The [=ToadMan=] navi chip from the second game. Back then, you could have up to 5 of the same Navi chips, as long as you only have, at most 5 (or 8 with Team Style) Navi chips in your folder. The [=ToadMan=] chip stuns and tracks the target. Basically, you can spam them over and over again, and put in some combo extending chip in the middle of [=ToadMan=] spam. Oh, and one of the chips from T code ([=ToadMan=]'s code) is Tornado variants.
* [=SnakeMan=] from the second game. Easy to set up (some Area Grabbing, Geddon for holes), massive damage especially after boost, and it doesn't give MercyInvincibility upon hitting. It is, alongside Gater, considered the easiest and cheapest folder to pick up and kill bosses.

* The Japanese version of ''[=EXE2=]'' also had a game-breaking glitch: Throwing a [=ForestBomb=] on a Prism would result in neither object disappearing after the hit; instead, the [=ForestBomb=] would repeatedly hit the Prism, which would then deflect the hit onto the surrounding 8 panels. This worked especially well on bosses.
** A similar glitch exists with Prism and [=VarSword=]. Basically, in 2, [=VarSword=]'s shockwave is multiplied 5 times when it hits the Prism. With some area locking, and timing, you can basically throw the prism, unleash the [=VarSword=] shockwave, and win against the boss without much effort.

* Prism. Any non-breaker attack that hit it will be reflected to all spaces around it. This made it easier to aim attacks as you just had to hit a stationary object if you managed to land the prism in the middle of the opponent's field. Problem is, it also turned attacks that hit a wide area into multi-hit attacks that have all the hits register at the same exact time. The way it worked is if you hit the opponent but the attack also hit the prism, the opponent would take damage from the hit AND the damage from the splash damage reflected on to them. This effectively doubled damage and was used well with [=LifeSword=], [=DoubleHero=] (which turned a GameBreaker into a [[UpToEleven Game Destroyer]]) and was the basis for Disco-Inferno, a chip combo that utilized the normally average Heat Spread Program Advance.\\

** Search Chaos uses Dark Circle, which hits seven panels for 300 damage. With a single Area Grab, Search Chaos's charge shot is unavoidable.

* Multi-hitting attacks can get quite powerful because Atk-boosting chips boost every single hit - more hits will multiply the overall damage boost. When it comes to chips that do many weak hits, stacking boosts on them will result in damage that can shred bosses. This only got emphasized with the introduction of Color/Double Point[[note]]Sacrifices your front row's panels for +10 or +20 Atk per panel to the next chip[[/note]] and Full Synchro to amplify any multi-hit chip. The following are notable examples across many games, but most chip-based {{Game Breaker}}s detailed further below are this in one form or another.

* The S code (especially in ''Team Colonel'') is notorious for being rich in practical chips with respectable power, such as the components of the Life Sword, Big Noise and Wild Bird Program Advances, along with Air Hockey and Super Vulcan chips.

*** [=BN2=] this combo existed in the form of the Program Advance, Arrows [[note]]Double Needle + Triple Needle + Quadruple Needle C or I[[/note]], which fires 10 arrows each doing 100 damage per hit before damage modifications were factored. It is technically the true origin of the silver bullet combo. A notable thing to mention is that [=BN2=] is the only game that allowed you to use more than one [=Atk+30=] chip in their folder (all sequential entries made [[=Atk+30=]] a Mega chip -- preventing you from having more than one of them in your folder), meaning that two of these added to the [=PA=] increases the individual damage to 160 per arrow, or 1600 total damage. Most bosses in [=BN2=], even most [=V3=] bosses, rarely has more than 2000 health. in their [=V3=] forms.
*** [=BE3=] has the Bubbleman [=NaviChip=], which had the benefit of doing Aqua damage, benefiting from Navi AND Aqua boosting chips, and to top it all off freezes time, ensuring that all the hits land at once. Many folders have been built around stacking as much damage into a Bubbleman chip, then unleashing it to shred the target's health.

* In ''Operate: Shooting Star'', the ability to play as [[VideoGame/MegaManStarForce Geo Stelar]] replaces the Fire, Aqua, and Wood Armors. While he comes late in the game, only becoming playable after defeating [=ElecMan=], his ability to use both a Shield to negate most hits and the Mega Attack, an ability originally introduced in ''Battle Network 6'' as part of that game's super mode, makes him significantly more attractive of an option than the default [=MegaMan=] due to making several powerful chips with small range more usable. The only thing that Hub has over Geo is a stronger charged shot, and the game lowers your rank in battle for relying on your buster.

* The Air Hockey series of battle chips takes advantage of this perk the most. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a965t3iHCvE You know it's broken when even the Bonus Boss easily falls to this]]. That's 3000+ damage in under 11 seconds with no Program Advance in sight. Even BassXX (the STRONGEST form of Bass, only accessible via e-reader, hacking or playing the Wii U re-release which allows you to bring him out without any of the previous 2 methods) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsU4qvb4mU8 can be defeated in less than 10 seconds with this trick, all with just 4 Air Hockey chips and Area Grab.]]

* The Gyroman line of chips normally bombs every enemy panel on the same row, but by holding L + R button, it will instead bomb the closest enemy in the same row. Normally this results in a three hits, but if you activate it on a row with more enemy panels, this combo will deal more hits on a single enemy. This behavior synergizes perfectly with Color/Double Point as the panels you've given up also make Gyroman land more hits, each of them boosted. A maxed-out Gyroman SP has a base damage of 140, and if you combine it with Double Point, [=Atk+30=], and [=Navi+20=] he'll hit four times for 250 damage each. Under the effects of Full Synchro or any other damage-doubling effect, that totals 2000 damage which is enough to take out most bosses in one go!

This chip was an even bigger problem in its debut game as the player could put ''FIVE'' of them in their folder, allowing the player to demolish bosses by unloading Program Advances in quick succession. Its MB requirement was also very low, allowing anyone to easily set it as a regular chip. Later games rebalanced it by both increasing the MB requirement and allowing the player to only run 1 copy of it in any folder.

* Multi-hitting attacks can get quite powerful because Atk-boosting chips boost every single hit - more hits will multiply the overall damage boost. When it comes to chips that do many weak hits, stacking boosts on them will result in damage that can shred bosses. This only got emphasized with the introduction of Color/Double Point[[note]]Sacrifices your front row's panels for +10 or 20 Atk per panel to the next chip[[/note]] and Full Synchro to amplify any multi-hit chip. The following are notable examples across many games, but most chip-based {{Game Breaker}}s detailed further below are this in one form or another.
** Tornado (2nd game and beyond) is a humble standard chip that does 8 20-damage hits. The basic strategy of adding boosts applies, but the third game onward introduce terrain that doubles the damage of the Tornado, after applying boosts. This also stacks with Full Synchro.

** The Silver Bullet combo involves using attack boosting chips (And optionally a stunning chip) with one of the Vulcan Chips. Now, with your standard Vulcan chip (3 10 damage shots) this isn't so bad... but later in the game you can obtain a Mega Chip known as the Super Vulcan (12 shots) and they had the Color Point chip mentioned above. And every shot doesn't allow for mercy invincibility, and stuns the victim long enough for the next shot to hit. With Double Point, that's approximately 70 damage per shot, which is 840 damage with two chips. This is commonly augmented with the double damage bonus from Full Synchro. For those not adept with Counter Hits, certain transformations will happily provide the x2 multiplier:

* The moment the Number Lotto becomes available from the third game onwards, you can immediately begin putting in all the number codes that you've jotted down (or learned online) to get several powerful chips or power ups [[DiscOneNuke way before the game expects you to have them]]. This comes to a peak in Double Team DS where one of the chips obtainable in this fasion is a secret Giga chip that hits ''the entire enemy area for 500 damage'' - enough to one-shot every virus encounter.[[note]]The game ''does'' provide the code by itself, but the NPC that does so only appears after you've finished the BonusDungeon.[[/note]]
* The [[ImmuneToFlinching Super Armor]] [=NaviCust=] program. It stops Mega Man from flinching, meaning only outright paralysis can stun him. Not only does this stop enemies from interrupting your attacks and allow you to perform under heavy fire, it also prevents you from losing Busting Rank from getting hit, meaning that, unless you get paralyzed, you're given a Busting Rank of 5 at minimum for each battle.

* In ''Operate: Shooting Star'', the ability to play as [[VideoGame/MegaManStarForce Geo Stelar]] replaces the Fire, Aqua, and Wood Armors. While he comes late in the game, only becoming playable after defeating [=ElecMan=], his ability to use both a Shield to negate most hits and the Mega Attack, an ability originally introduced in ''Battle Network 6'' as part of that game's super mode, makes him significantly more attractive of an option than the default [=MegaMan=] due to making several powerful chips with small range more usable. The only thing that Hub has over Geo is a stronger charged shot, and the game lowers your rank in battle for relying upon your buster.

* Hub Style in Battle Network 2 combined [[AllYourPowersCombined the abilities of every single Style, and then some]]. The drawback to this, however, is that the player's maximum HP is halved (not that it's an issue with a good enough folder), and the player needed to S-Rank ''every boss in the game'' to acquire it on their next Style Change. Naturally, this required being able to access all of the BonusDungeon, which in turn has its own set of requirements. By the time you get it you only have one last undefeated enemy worth using it on, otherwise it crosses into BraggingRightsReward territory.

* Folder Back from ''Battle Network 3 Blue'' returns every chip to your folder, including ''itself''. It also functions as a Full Custom, restoring the turn gauge so you can instantly pick your freshly recycled chips and continue your assault. And it's got the * code, which means it goes in ''everything''. Folder Back becomes available as soon as the player gets free access to Hades Isle, which requires clearing the Desertman scenario, and obtaining 200 Bugfrags-which are easy to farm in this game.

* The Air Hockey series of battle chips takes advantage of this perk the most. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a965t3iHCvE You know it's broken when even the Bonus Boss easily falls to this]]. That's 3000+ damage in under 11 seconds with no Program Advance in sight.[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsU4qvb4mU8 Even BassXX(the STRONGEST form of Bass,only accessible via e-reader, hacking or playing the Wii U re-release which allows you to bring him out without any of the previous 2 methods) can be defeated in less than 10 seconds with this trick, all with just 4 Air Hockey chips and Area Grab.]].

* Roll Soul. Megaman's Charge Shot becomes Roll Arrow, a weak projectile that, on hit, destroys any battle chips the opponent has stocked. While this ability is already pretty good on NewGamePlus when you start fighting viruses with Battle Chips, it's really a gamebreaker in PvP because the ability to erase an entire hand of attacks from your Charge Shot greatly tips the fight in your favor. The other very powerful perk about Roll Soul is that every Battle Chip Megaman uses heals 10% of his max health, allowing him MUCH more staying power in any fight, both single-player and multi-player. Roll Soul is so problematic that many tournaments banned it outright, and its equivalent in Battle Network 5 contains a vastly different set of abilities that don't promote braindead gameplay.

* The Gyroman line of chip normally bombs every enemy panel on the same row, but by holding L + R button, it will instead bomb the closest enemy in the same row. Normally this results in a triple bombing, with a base damage of 80 but the amount of bomb from the focused bombing are directly proportional to the bomb that would have been dropped normally, creating an interaction with chips that reduces your own area of movement such as Color/Double Point. Being a Navi chip, Gyroman is also compatible with Navi+20 making it much easier to boost its damage. The damage can get obscene pretty fast, even with few damage boost. For example Gyroman SP which maxes at 140 damage, at the maximum amount of bombing at 5 and full Synchro already does 1400 damage unboosted. Most SP bosses sits around 1800 HP, which means Gyroman SP can deal lethal damage with +40 extra damage which is more than covered by just 1 Color Point and Navi+20.

* Number Open is a Customizer part that lets you begin each battle with a full 10 chips to select from, just like Number Soul in the previous 2 games. With a good folder, you get to easily deploy combos that will destroy the opposition, despite the program ''being a whopping 5x5 block'' and leaving you with little to no room for other utility programs. There's a reason why it's only available in the postgame.

* The Django SP chip, available via a chip trader code as soon as the Numberman Trader is available. Drops a coffin on the first enemy in front of Mega Man's row, then zaps them and all eight squares around them for 150 damage that pierces guards, breaks rocks, ignored in-battle [=GMDs=], and against Darkloid bosses inflicts a permanent HP drain for the rest of the battle. Presuming you can set it up to hit all enemies, which is often easy, Django will end most random battles in one shot until you get to the final dungeon.
* In ''Battle Network 5'', you could combine Dark Chips with [[PowerOfFriendship Soul Unison]] to produce "Chaos Unison". It gave you ''the Dark Chip as a free charge attack''. It's at least as convenient as it sounds. Proto Chaos and Toad Chaos are popular for getting easy S-ranks on RandomEncounters - a 400 damage {{BFS}} or a 300 damage {{BFG}} that wipes the entire field. They only lasted for a turn, but that's if somehow you need to enter the Custom Screen again.\\
\\
The way it works is that the charge cycles between purple and green (the timing changes with each successful use). Releasing the charge when it is purple uses the Dark Chip with no ill consequences, but missing the timing and releasing the charge when it is green again disables the ability and releases an invincible [=DarkMega=] on you. While Chaos Unison was supposed to have a 50/50 chance of backfiring, the timing for attacking isn't too hard to get right at least twice and you can also [[PauseScumming abuse the pause button to stop the cycling]]. If it is purple, you can safely release the B button and resume, for it will successfully fire every time.
** Shadow Chaos's Charge attack, [=DarkInvis=], makes you invulnerable to ANY attack for a long period and causes Mega to go berserk. Although you can order him to use other equipped battlechips, he teleports around and doesn't respond to other controls... while able to use ANY chip or [[LimitBreak Program Advance]] you've used previously. It's a random ability so sometimes Mega Man might waste it on normal Buster shots, but there no downside whatsoever to playing with it.
** Search Chaos uses Dark Circle, which is very potent on area-locked enemies. Unlike other Circle Gun chips that only trace and hit 4 squares, Dark Circle traces ''seven''. With a single Area Grab, Search Chaos's charge shot is unavoidable. Lock them to a column, and the target will easily take 2 to 3 hits, totaling 600 to 900 damage. The only thing that will completely prevent taking damage from this is a Life Aura + Sanctuary combo, and everyone knows how hard that is to set up.
** Number Chaos has Dark Plus. Charge it up and your next attack is now 50 points stronger. Unlike most other transformations, this bonus also works on Program Advances. This makes some multi-hit attacks extremely powerful without the aid of other chips; for instance, the Super Vulcan mega chip now deals ''720'' damage, and the Infinite Vulcan Program Advance[[note]]Which normally cannot be boosted due to how the PA is formed[[/note]] can do ''1680''. The real kicker is that you can do this ''with every chip that turn'' if you happen to have more than one powerful chip drawn.
* In this game, the S code (especially in ''Team Colonel'') is notorious for being rich in practical chips with respectable power. With the Life Sword, Big Noise and Wild Bird Program Advances available, along with Air Hockey and Super Vulcan easily obtainable in that code, it allows one to at least have a easy time playing the game to the end.

** One of the Extra Folders you can obtain in-game has chips that create holes on the field, allowing you to abuse Snake, a watered down (but still pretty powerful) counterpart to Snakeman from the second game. Snake deals decent damage and doesn't cause MercyInvincibility, so you can chain multiples of them in quick succession. Said Extra Folder is pretty powerful on its own and is usually recommended for tackling the game's [[ThatOneSidequest Time Trials]].

* Dark Chips from ''Battle Network 4'' made the game a joke. If you used them enough when you got the option, you'd eventually get the option of starting out the battle with them. Of course, they removed 1 HP permanently every time you used them (it stops at 499 uses, so you'll end with [[GlassCannon 501 HP]] if you collected every HP Memory) and caused glitches during battle, but it was a relatively small price to pay for being able to curbstomp everything in the game in one or two turns flat. Also, once per battle, being deleted while having low karma [[LastChanceHitPoint triggers]] [=DarkInvis=] instead, causing [=MegaMan=] to become completely invincible for a while and attack randomly with any attack used through the game, including Program Advances.
** Unfortunately, it comes with three major drawbacks.
*** First: You can not use Dark Chips against the final boss, so good luck fighting him with reduced HP.
*** Second: It prevents you from using Full Synchro, Double Soul and "Light" chips like [=GunDelSol=], Sanctuary or Navi chips other than those from villains. While this is supposed to balance out the fact that you can now use "Evil" chips like Muramasa, Anubis and DS Navi chips it ends up failing hard, as the Light chips are vastly superior.
*** Third: You'll get wrecked in multiplayer.
** Of course, to compensate for the permanent reduction of HP you can easily place a pair of HP+500 programs in your Navi Customizer, as customized HP can't be permanently lost from Dark Chip usage.

* Folder Back is ''Battle Network 3 Blue'''s resident Bad Idea. It returns every single chip to your folder, including ''itself''. It also functions as a Full Custom, restoring the turn gauge so you can instantly pick your freshly recycled chips and continue your assault. Your opponent also gets the intermission screen, but they're not the ones with a totally fresh deck. And it's got the * code, which means it goes in ''everything''.[[note]]Folder Back becomes available as soon as the player gets free access to Hades Isle, which requires clearing the Desertman scenario, and obtaining 200 Bugfrags-which are easy to farm in this game.[[/note]]
* Its ''White'' counterpart Recycle, in the right hands can become a Game Breaker too. How so? It will recycle ANY Navi chip that was used last. That includes fellow Giga Chip Bass (which deals a truckload of damage and [[UselessUsefulSpell normally requires a special panel to exist for it to work]]), even if the Dark Hole that's needed to use the actual chip is nowhere to be found. Let's also not forget that it can also recycle any of the OTHER Navi chips, essentially letting you use the same Navi chip TWICE (which is especially bad for your opponent if you happen to use a multi-hitter that they're weak to -- like [=BubbleMan=] or [=PlantMan=]). Even better, it keeps any bonuses you had when you used the first chip - e.g. Atk+30s.
* Most of the Navi chips count: Entire ''folders'' have been built around [=FlashMan=], [=PlantMan=] and [=BubbleMan=]. The first ignores MercyInvincibility, pierces guards and stuns, the second ''also'' pierces guards (Looking at you [=DrillMan=]), hits multiple times, and immobilizes enemies, and the last hits an insane number of times (the final one hits 10 times), with each hit possibly doing over 120 damage depending on how many Aqua +30s you attached.
* P, F, and E codes are very strong in this game, mainly due to the strong chips and Program Advances at their disposal:

** F code has [=FlashMan=][[note]]Hits everywhere, pierces guards, paralyzes and bypasses MercyInvincibility[[/note]] and the powerful Hyper Ratton Program Advance.
** E code has Sanctuary[[note]]Turns your field into damage-halving Holy Panels[[/note]], Sensor 3, Variable Sword, the Barrier 500 PA, Bubble Spread, Life Sword and Lance, along with several area-stealing chips to support the strategy.
* This is the game where the Navi Customizer made its debut, and you can perform some game-breaking things with it:
** You can eventually find the [[{{Synchronization}} HubBatch]] program, which, like the Hub Style in the previous game, gives you [[AllYourPowersCombined the abilities of the original four Style Changes and then some]], at the cost of a bug that cuts your maximum HitPoints in half while it's set. The effects it bestows includes SuperArmor, an expanded initial Custom Screen capacity, additional Mega Chip capacity, the ability to block attacks with a shield, the ability to walk over most harmful terrain, a LastChanceHitPoint, and the ability for your Buster shots to break guards. Of course, it's also an InfinityPlusOneSword of the highest order -- merely getting it requires you to make it to the last stage of [[BonusDungeon Secret Area]] (which itself requires several kinds of OneHundredPercentCompletion), and survive a ''twenty''-round chain battle featuring some of the toughest and most annoying viruses in the game. And then you have to know [[GuideDangIt the key input to shrink it and the enabler code unique to your Style]].\\
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The kicker is that after compressing it, it fits perfectly with the Buster MAX program, that maxes out all your Buster stats but has a drawback that forces you to use all your chips as soon as possible. No matter, because this then dovetails nicely into the game's Bug Stop program, which nullifies all bugs including the HP penalty from Hub Batch and the chip problem from Buster MAX. You have very little space left for other programs, but it's not likely you're going to need that space, seeing how much these three programs alone do for you. It's no wonder that subsequent games {{nerf}}ed Hub Batch by dramatically expanding its size, making it nigh-impossible to use with other programs.
** Once you gain access to the Mod Tools, you can input EX codes while booting [=MegaMan=] up from the Navi Customizer, provided you don't have any compatibility errors in the first place. [[GuideDangIt You're going to need to search around to find a list of codes to use first]], but these codes basically give one of many kinds of bonuses, with the more dramatic ones imposing bugs if you use them. One of these codes grants SuperArmor, and doesn't have a drawback, letting you fight battles with lower risk and better Busting Ranks without needing to grind for Guts Style.
** Imagine a magic user being able to cast one specific spell whenever he likes, so long as said spell is on the second page of his spellbook and he's wearing three magic rings on one hand. That's the essence of the [[GoodBadBug 11th Chip Glitch]]. Initially, players are allowed to select from five chips per round. By earning or trading certain programs, players can boost this up to ten. With duplicates, players can boost their chip selection [[UpToEleven up to or past eleven]]. As the game only has 10 spaces, this results in a glitch which gives players unrestricted access to whatever chip happens to be in the second slot of their unshuffled folder.
* Wood Style, which heals the user while standing on Grass panels, the Undershirt program, which bestows a reuseable LastChanceHitPoint, and [=SetGreen=], which made the battle stage start off as Grass panels. Against non-fire enemies and enemies who could not crack floor panels -- which included the non-secret final boss -- this was unbeatable and simple. (A perfect example of a trick that breaks the game itself into tiny pieces but will utterly destroy you in multiplayer, by the way.)
* Bug Style can be a Game Breaker -- occasionally, the negative effects of the style (Forced movement, HP loss, being unable to stand on middle tiles, and your buster glitching up) don't appear and instead you only get the positive effects (Buster Max, a Barrier at the start of battle, or having ten chips selectable at once). At most, and [[LuckBasedMission if you're lucky]], you can get one of the negative effects but all of the bonuses ''at the same time''. Nice.
* In ''Battle Network 3'', Variable Sword was an even bigger Game Breaker than its future counterpart. It only did 160 damage, but with the right button combo, this could be turned into four attacks, one in each element, which meant that if your opponent had any sort of elemental affinity, it would do an easy 800 damage (160 x 5) without boosts. And unlike Neo Variable Sword (detailed further below), this version was just a standard chip, meaning that you could have up to four copies of it in your folder.
* Variable Sword is considered the second most broken standard chip in ''[=BN3=]''. The most broken goes to the Sensor family. What did it do? It puts a Killer Eye in front of you that checks in a straight line had it been put on the middle line (diagonal otherwise). If it hits, it does damage that pierces MercyInvincibility, stuns the victim, breaks obstacles and you can move away immediately after using the chip. It doesn't deal as much damage as Variable Sword did, but since it locks down the center row, the opponent is [[MortonsFork forced to the sides and become open to attack, or cross the Killer Eye and risk getting paralyzed.]] Catching someone in the Killer Eye's sights leaves them vulnerable to your own attacks, and while they're recovering from your heavy hits, the Killer Eye will fire again and stunlock them. It's even deadlier if you supplement this chip with Ice Stage, as electric attacks deal double damage on ice panels. With this combo, most of the bosses can be taken down quickly and you can easily obtain the V4 chips. The Sensor chips return in ''6'', but they react much more slowly, allowing the opposing player to deal with them before risking triggering the beam.
* Ever wonder why area locking was nerfed after 3? There were quite a few chips that deal more damage depending on how little space the opponent has. Like Meteor, which deals 40 per hit, and normally has 30 hits spaced out over 9 tiles, meaning a single target (which takes up only one) will get hit 3 (or 4) times, for 120 to 160 damage. Not so bad, right? Arealock the target to one square, and you have a single target being hit ''30'' times. That's ''1200'' damage. Oh, and it's multi-hit, which means you can stack attack-boosting chips, and due to the incredible number of hits this card makes, the damage reaches ludicrous levels capable of instantly killing [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]]. Because of this and subsequent shenanigans, in ''4'' onwards, you can never steal your opponent's last column.
** A variation of this strategy is actually offered by one of the Extra Folders you can obtain in-game, allowing its otherwise horribly inaccurate chips to connect. Not only does it create holes to corner the opponent, but it also features Snake - a slightly watered down (but still pretty powerful) counterpart to Snakeman from the second game. After area-locking the opponent, you create holes in your entire area, then unleash a series of boosted Snake chips to pepper the opponent to oblivion. They don't cause MercyInvincibility, so you can chain multiples of them in quick succession. Said Extra Folder is recommended by many for tackling the [[ThatOneSidequest Time Trials]], but you can also adopt its strategy and build your own Snake folder with more efficient chips...
** [=MomQuake=] is ordinarily not a very powerful Program Advance on its own because it randomly pelts the opponent's squares on the field. ''However'', in this game, you can steal the opponent's territory down to locking them in one panel and the attack will ''always'' hit that one panel while your opponent is trapped there and forced to take the brunt of all the hits. But if you buff up the multi-hitting strikes of the PA with the +30 Attack Mega Chip and then stack on a few +10 Attack, you have yourself a move that can '''one-shot''' '''''Bass Omega''''', the toughest enemy in the game aside from Alpha Omega.
* Speaking of Blocking or Reflecting, they were also subject to a much needed nerf after 3. Why? With a little practice and some rhythm, you can keep the shield/reflector up basically whenever you're not moving or attacking, leaving precious little opportunity to attack. Reflect was worse, as not only did it block attacks, it reflected ALL damage back to the entire row the reflector was on, meaning if you're trying to attack while the opponent is spamming the shield, you better not be directly in front of them in the very likely chance the attack will simply bounce off. This is why Navi Chips like Flashman were so good as they went through the reflection. This was nerfed in later games as they added a cooldown time to the shield, reduced the power of Reflect, and breaking attacks (which shields couldn't block) became much more common, getting their own element in later games.
* The Bug Frag Trader in the third area of the BonusDungeon offers a chance to obtain any chip in the game at the price of 10 Bug Frags (Giga Chips and the Navi Chips of Bowlman/Mistman excluded), with a 25% chance the chip you get will be a chip you don't already have (if applicable). And Bug Frags are laughably easy to obtain in Battle Network 3.
* Geddon 3 to make the entire area poison, Sanctuary to turn all of your panels into half-damage safe zones, and Life Aura to make you immune to any damage that's not 200 or more (now 400 thanks to Sanctuary). With this setup, even the extra-powerful secret boss Serenade becomes a simple matter of patience.

* In 'Operate: Shooting Star', the ability to play as [[VideoGame/MegaManStarForce Geo Stelar]] replaces the Fire, Aqua, and Wood Armors. While he comes late in the game, only becoming playable after defeating [=ElecMan=], his ability to use both a Shield to negate most hits and the Mega Attack, an ability originally introduced in ''Battle Network 6'' as part of that game's super mode, makes him significantly more attractive of an option than the default [=MegaMan=] due to making several powerful chips with small range more usable. The only thing that Hub has over Geo is a stronger charged shot, and the game lowers your rank in battle for relying upon your buster.