Characters / Mega Man X: Zero

Mega Man X | Main Character Index
Heroes (X | Zero) | Villains (Sigma | True mastermind) | Maverick Bosses | Supporting Cast

Zero

Voiced by: Ryōtarō Okiayu (JP), Wayne Doster (EN, X4), Jack Merluzzi (EN, X7), Lucas Gilbertson (EN X8, Command Mission, Maverick Hunter X), Johnny Yong Bosch (EN, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Teppen)

The last creation of the Doctor, DWN-∞.

The Breakout Character of the series, Zero has been described by his designer Keiji Inafune as, "the other main character who gets all the good scenes."

The final creation of Dr. Albert W. Wily, Zero was created to destroy Mega Man once and for all, but a programming error in his system forced his creator to seal him away. After a violent rampage upon waking up, Zero was quelled following a fateful fight with Sigma, becoming a high-ranking Maverick Hunter and close friend to X.

A-I

• The Ace: In the original Mega Man X, his portrayal boils down to "Here's Zero, he's infinitely cooler than you are, but if you Dare to Be Badass you can be as cool as Zero". His later appearances take him down a few notches (or, more accurately, depict X as having caught up to him), but he's still consistently considered the highest rank Maverick Hunter and, in X5, the best spaceship pilot on the roster.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: He's remarkably cordial and polite towards his allies in Maverick Hunter X and the accompanying OVA Day of Sigma; especially towards X. In fact X, of all people, is shown to have a surprisingly greater aggressive side in contrast to most of his portrayals (though not to Adaptational Jerkass levels).
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: An inverted version. According to the Zero Collection's story, the reason he was berserk before he joined the Maverick Hunters was because a programming error occurred in Zero that caused him to become violent and uncontrollable, and it was for this reason that Wily had him sealed away (apparently he couldn't control him without risk of him being killed by him). Ironically, the Maverick Virus was the only reason Zero became somewhat pacified after being defeated by Sigma.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: He was originally designed by a certain Mad Scientist for the express purpose of destroying all in his path before losing his memory. The only difference between then and now is he's one of the good guys.
• Anti-Anti-Christ: Red body armor with pointy horns? Check. Aryan-esque blue eyes and golden hair? Check. Destined to become a destroyer of Reploids everywhere? Check. Depicted to rival the power of the "Father of Reploids" and Messianic Archetype, X? Check. Heck, the only thing separating him from being The Antichrist is Identity Amnesia, as the bad end of X5 can attest.
• Anti-Hero: In the early X games up to the confrontation with Iris in X4, Zero is a well-meaning guy who is just a bit more willing to pull the trigger on a Maverick than X was. Once he has to kill Iris and effectively breaks down near-entirely afterwards, he becomes a contrasting opposite to his best friend; cynical, blunt, and downright focused on doing his job with nary a complaint because someone has to do it, all the while gradually blaming himself more and more for everything wrong with the world thanks to his Dark and Troubled Past. Notably, this lasts into the next series, even with a severe case of Laser-Guided Amnesia, and becomes Zero's defining characterization in all extended media.
• Arm Cannon: The Z-Buster is always there. We just can't use it sometimes because stuff.
• Ascended Extra: Somehow pushed his way from Mauve Shirt status to the co-protagonist role — even after being killed! Invoked by Word of God, as Zero was Inafune's first design for X that got snubbed, so he decided to just have him overshadow the main protagonist instead.
• The Atoner: He served the Maverick Hunters to stop what he started, i.e Maverick uprisings. It doesn't help that the original virus came from him by design.
• Ax-Crazy: Before his Heel–Face Turn, he was Laughing Mad and sporting a Slasher Smile, cutting down anything in front of him.
• Back from the Dead: He was killed in X1 and X5 but was later brought back in the following games. Justified since he's a robot, but noteworthy in that a sticking point in the X series is that generally there's no one around capable of rebuilding him or X if they go down, being far too advanced for anyone to rightly puzzle out.
• Badass Back: He pulled this out after teleporting in a stage, or after killing bosses. This was carried over to Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
• Badass Boast:
  • From X2:
  "You should have read the blueprints closer. There is only one Zero!"
  • In later games, if Zero finds the power-up capsules meant for X, Dr. Light will lament not being able to design any upgrades for Zero. Zero doesn't mind, since he's good enough that he doesn't need upgrades.
• Badass in Distress:
  • He was kidnapped by Vile as a bait for X in the first game. Then, after Vile gets his hands on X, Zero breaks out of the cage and then he does the Heroic Sacrifice to destroy Vile's Ride Armor.
  • Something similar happens in Maverick Hunter X, where Zero is knocked out and Vile immediately captures him without battling him. Zero regains consciousness and then proceeds to do the aforementioned Heroic Sacrifice.
• Barbarian Long Hair: His very long hair is frequently used to make him look more badass.
• Battle Aura:
  • In his Superpowered Evil Side.
  • Also when X (or himself) is beaten in Vile Mode's Dual Boss fight in Maverick Hunter X, he (or X) would emanate an aura, which tells the player that he's pissed.
• Berserk Button: Iris's death in X4. After that, he didn't care who he was fighting until the end of the game...
• The Berserker: Maverick Zero. Upon his release from his capsule, Zero goes on a rampage, massacring Reploids (presumably belonging to Gamma's unit in the Maverick Hunters) left and right. Sigma shows up, whips out his Laser Blade, and Zero holds his own with nothing more than a metal pipe and later his fists, going Laughing Mad once he corners Sigma and starts tearing him limb from limb. In X5, however, Zero's awakened form is far calmer and fights with his usual finesse, which arguably might make him scarier.
• Big Damn Heroes: He manages to pull at least one per SNES game, with the last marking his debut as a player character. The best example is his Establishing Character Moment below.
• Big Brother Mentor: Towards X in X1.
• Black Box: Same case as X, though not as pronounced.
• Blood from the Mouth: The first game has him with blood/mech fluid/oil/some red substance running from the corner of his mouth after sacrificing himself to destroy Vile's Ride Armor. Notably, he does not bleed from anywhere else despite having been torn in half. This also happens in his ending in X5.
• Bootstrapped Leitmotif: X's theme in the first game, "Variable X", became more associated with Zero, as it played when he talks to X after the opening stage and when he dies later on. As such, it was later used as the intro song to the US version of X5, a game that focuses heavily on Zero's backstory, and when he is found by X in X6.
• Breakout Character: He was initially meant to be an example of everything X could become with enough hard work, dying at the end of the first game. The fans loved him so much, he became a series staple, even getting a Sequel Series dedicated just to him.
• Bring My Red Jacket: He's a red robot, and he mainly uses melee attacks, and he's a Glass Cannon. Do the math.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": The stylized "Z" insignia on his shoulder(s). According to a certain flashback, Wily's own insignia can be found on his Power Crystal. Also, in Mega Man Zero 3, "DWN-∞" can be found in the background of one of the areas — likely Zero's designation. His DiVE Armor in X DiVE also projects a pair of Z-shaped wings from his back.
• Calling Your Attacks: Started in X8 to keep X company.
• The Cameo: He appears as a trophy in the Wii U version of the fourth Super Smash Bros., and in the same game his armor and Z-Saber are DLC for Mii Swordfighters.
• Celibate Hero: With Iris's tragedy still fresh in his mind, he believes he's not ready to have another romantic pursuit. This is seen with Layer, although he's also just plain oblivious to her advances.
• Character Development: Post-X4, in spades. After Iris' death, his character changes dramatically. His carefree personality turns into a grim, serious, no-nonsense one (as evidenced by his victory pose changing from a thumbs up to a simply head turn). He's still a good friend to X, but is less willing to hold his hand through tough situations, and is more than willing to call him out for his naivete and idealism as seen in Command Mission. His originally witty humor becomes dry, biting, and cynical. Even his theme music changes from energetic rock to slow, solemn, and even outright melancholic.
• Chick Magnet: One tragic girlfriend in X4, and two more "admirers": Mega Man X8's Layer and Ciel in the Mega Man Zero series. It doesn't seem impressive compared to other examples, but the Mega Man franchise has few other romantic relationships, not to mention that Ciel is human. There's also Leviathan, who really enjoy fighting Zero, an e-Reader NPC in Zero 3 who surprises Zero with a kiss, and Prairie, who loved Giro because he reminded her of Zero.
• Climax Boss:
  • Serves as the penultimate boss in X2. Much of the game is spent building up Zero's return, and if you don't collect all his parts, he returns in the final stage Brainwashed and Crazy.
  • Alternative to the article that X also has above. It was all because of a little misunderstanding. Most of it went according to Sigma's plan, though. In the path to the Bad Ending, however, the stakes are much, MUCH higher...
• Close-Range Combatant: From X4 on, he focuses on his Z-Saber rather than his Buster, to the point that he loses all ranged weapons entirely in X7 and X8.
• Color-Coded Characters: Red, of course.
• Counter-Attack: His Gokumonken technique in X7. He does a special stance that can reflect projectiles and automatically retaliates a close-range attack.
• Crutch Character: In his original playable appearance in X3, Zero amounted to a potent Mighty Glacier who, while incredibly useful early on, paled in comparison to a fully-upgraded X. In the RPG, Command Mission, he is the strongest member of your party early on, but leaves for a long stretch of the game. When he returns, however, he's still very strong.
• Cynic–Idealist Duo: After the events X4 he takes on a more jaded view of the world and forms this dynamic with X who still tries to see the best in everything.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Zero was designed as the ultimate counter-piece to Mega Man X, and as all things seem to imply with his original virus, he was very much intended to mercilessly destroy all of Light's creations and everything that stemmed from them, Reploids included. What little he can remember comes as horrific nightmares to him in the present. When the virus transferred to Sigma, Zero's mind was cleansed — at the cost of Sigma going Kill All Humans, which ties Zero's own creation into the eventual multiple apocalypses.
• Dark Is Not Evil: As Black Zero, all the red parts of his armor turn black.
• Dash Attack: Some of his acquired techniques, like the Shippuuga in X4, F-Splasher in X5 or Raikousen in X8.
• Deus Exit Machina: Before he became a playable character, he was only around when the plot needed his power. And then, later, Command Mission also puts him out of commission for a good portion of the game.
• Deuteragonist: To the point where he got his own series.
• Difficult, but Awesome: From X4 onwards, Zero was balanced around fighting with the Z-Saber, making him a Glass Cannon with high mobility and a very damaging melee attack, but also with weaker defense and very few ranged attacks. He's a lot harder to use effectively than X since you have to get close to enemies to attack, his special attacks require specific button inputs instead of just selecting them, and he just plain dies faster than X, but with fast enough reflexes and finger speed you can rip through enemies and bosses extremely quickly and stylishly.
• Distant Finale: Zero's ending in X6 (where Zero seals himself to get rid of the virus within him) is stated to happen long after the end of the whole X series.
• Divergent Character Evolution: In X1, Zero was essentially just a stronger X. It wasn't until X2 that he got his signature Z-Saber, and following X3, his Buster was de-emphasized in favor of the melee-oriented gameplay most associate him with. After losing his buster in X4 only to get it back for the next two games, he completely drops ranged weaponry again in X7 and X8, and wouldn't pick up a gun again until his own series.
• Diving Kick: Can use this attack in X8 with the K Knuckle and the Enkoujin. He also can use it as a boss in Vile Mode of Maverick Hunter X.
• Do Not Run with a Gun:
  • Zero is the one who really takes it on the chin here; in several of the games, he puts away his Z-Saber after each attack or combo, and you can't move until he does this (you also can't move until his ponytail finishes falling.) The PS2 X games fix this by having him keep the saber out at all times. You can also slash while dashing in said games, but doing it while walking will instantly stop him.
  • In X5 and X6, his buster requires him to be still in the floor to work.
• Doppelgänger Attack:
  • In X5, his Sougenmu (Twin Dream), gained from Spike Rosered, has him projecting a copy in front of him that mimics his attacks. His Hayate (W Shredder), gained from Spiral Pegasus is a lesser version, with his copy appearing mid-dash to slash the foe.
  • Has one of these in Command Mission thanks to his Heat Haze sub weapon, though boss enemy Ferham's (Crimson Shade) is stronger (or at least more durable).
• Double Jump: In X4 and X5, Zero learns a move which allows him to do a double jump in midair (accompanied by the spinning attack mentioned below). It's part of his default skills from X6 onward (like X's dash post-X1).
• Dual Boss: With X in Vile Mode of Maverick Hunter X.
• Dual Wielding: Rare, but some of the weapons he adquires in later games come in pairs. In X7 there's the V-Hanger (twin daggers held in Reverse Grip), in X8 the B-Fan (war fans capable of deploying an energy shield), and in DiVE his DiVE Armor variant wields a second Z-Saber.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Appears in Bass' ending in Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters in Dr. Wily's blueprints.
• Elemental Weapon: Some of his copied techniques involve giving an element to his saber.
• Establishing Character Moment: X getting his ass handed to him by the very first Hopeless Boss Fight in the series? Cue an Arm Cannon being charged, the awesome Theme Music Power-Up, and then Vile goes Oh, Crap!
• Everything's Better with Samurai: He's supposed to be a robot version of these feudal warriors, if his exaggerated Samurai Ponytail and katana-esque Laser Blade didn't tip you off. Contrasts nicely with the kunoichi Marino.
• Evil Knockoff: Zero has been unfortunate enough to pick up a few of these over the years. The first was the fake Black Zero that appears in X2 should X succeed in obtaining all of Zero's parts from the X-Hunters, followed by Nightmare Zero in X6, an unstable and neurotic creation of Gate's using Zero's DNA. Zero 3 would add Omega, though with a twist — Omega is a Cyber Elf personality program inhabiting Zero's original body (encased within what is essentially a self-healing Power Limiter), with Zero (and his A.I./consciousness) revealed to be housed inside a supposedly inferior copy of said body.
• First-Episode Resurrection: Well, okay, he dies in the first game and is resurrected in the second, but he otherwise fits the trope entirely.
• Flashback Nightmare: In the beginning of X4, Zero has a nightmare about the circumstances of his creation, as well as slaughtering several Reploids upon being reactivated. It's also implied that he's had this nightmare at least once before.
• Foreshadowing: A subtle one from X5: part of the start menu theme is actually Zero's death theme from the first game. Guess what happens at the end of the game...
• Glass Cannon:
  • He's a devastating fighter with his saber, and he takes lots of damage. Even more with his Black Zero upgrade in X8, which doubles the damage he deals and takes. Even more with the Red Lotus Saber in Command Mission, which adds his defense stats to his power stat, but sets the defense stats to zero. This stays true to his appearances in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
  • X3. He's far more powerful than X to begin with, and still on par with X even after upgrades. However, if Zero dies even once in the game, whether from losing all his energy or falling into a Bottomless Pits, he can't be used again unless you restart from scratch (or use a password generator to get him back).
• Good is Not Nice: He tends to shoot first, ask questions later when encountering Mavericks. What makes it worse is that those Mavericks sometimes have a point about what they did. After his Cynicism Catalyst, he gets even less nice.
• Good Old Robot: In a similar way to X; he isn't truly a Reploid, as he was made with advanced high-level technology as X was, and due to being meant to be the original carrier of the Maverick Virus, he's strengthened by it instead of being weakened and/or crazy. It's a completely different story with the stronger Zero Virus strain however...
• Grand Theft Me: Subverted. The heroic personality we see isn't his original one. His original personality was an Axe-Crazy maniac intent on destroying all he came across. After Sigma knocked him out hard enough to scramble his circuits, he awoke with the personality we know him by.
  • A few X series games subplots play on this by his original personality reappearing. And it is a key plot point in the Mega Man Zero series, where his original personality regained full control, while his divergent personality was copied to a new body.
• Gratuitous Japanese: His Command Arts list. Averted in X5's English dub, though written in Romaji in all the other games.
• Ground Punch: His Giga Attacks in the platformers are all this. In Marvel vs. Capcom 3 he does so with a charged buster.
• Guest Fighter: In Project G. Prior to that, his Zero series incarnation appeared in Onimusha Blade Warriors, alongside MegaMan.EXE.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: In X5, X vs Zero — No matter what character you use and Zero's condition (being Maverick or not), your fight will end in a Double Knockout.
• Healing Factor: It's not utilized as a gameplay element, but he has an auto-repair system that can regenerate entire body parts. This is apparently how he is revived in X6.
• Heartbroken Badass: In a variant, he lost his lover because she went berserk on her own merits and he has to put her down himself. Zero can only blame Sigma for putting up the whole conflict in the first place. After X4, because of those events, he becomes more serious and straight-laced.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Starts off an uncontrollable Maverick, then becomes a Hunter to the day of his (first) death. A potential ending sees him ressurected but Brainwashed and Crazy, but quickly returned to the side of the heroes after X beats him. And yet another potential ending sees him returning to his Maverick self.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Part of his Character Development in X4 is the ending where he anguishes himself over not being able to save and/or protect any of the people he ever cared about, and wondering why he should bother continuing the fight. Although the Hidden Heart of Gold doesn't seem noticeable from previous games, this is most probably where it came to a head.
  • He experiences a relatively minor one in Command Mission when he learns that not only did Redips manipulate the entire events of the game to both get the Supra-Force Metal and get rid of Epsilon, but that Redips also posed as Spider for an undeterminant part of the game. While the others are rushing off to chase Redips, Zero is hesitant to go with them, and then tells X "Spider was actually just Redips?! How badly have we been duped here?!" before X snaps him out of it by reminding him that Redips is going to use the Supra-Force Metal, and that they can't let him do so.
• Heroic Resolve: In the end of X5, after he gets shot by Sigma while trying to defend X and loses his lower half, he retaliates and gives Sigma one final shot to kill him.
• Heroic Sacrifice: If there's any story about Zero, this will always wind up happening to him. The two Sequel Series (plus one drama track, where Zero manages to pull off two sacrifices) can attest to that.
• He's Dead, Jim: After he accidentally killed Iris, he realized she was dead after calling her name and trying to shake her back to consciousness.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Deep down, he really is a very nice guy. Don't let his portrayal in Command Mission fool you. He blows up at X for letting "the dregs of Giga City" (Marino and Spider in particular) join his mission, saying they could betray the team at any time and go Maverick. As Cinnamon correctly points out, he acts this way because he's scared of trusting people, likely because of what happened with Iris. Lampshaded in the same game, when he actually apologizes for acting like a jerk at one point.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: And he is the original of his kind, in fact.
• Humble Hero:
  • This comes into play in X5 during the Eurasia Crisis. See "More Hero than Thou" below.
  • In his X6 ending, when he seals himself, he told the scientist who helped him in the sealing that his friend, X, will always be the better hero between them, and that the world would be fine with X still alive at the time.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Here are all of Zero's weapons in X7 and X8:
  • D-Glaive
  • Sigma's Σ Blade, made out of scrap much like Sigma's true body.
  • T-Breaker
  • K-Knuckle, with attacks that are nods to the Street Fighter series, again.
  • B-Fan, which somehow projects a Beehive Barrier (after Zero got the appropriate power from one boss).
• I Am Who?: Zero struggles with various levels of amnesia in the this series. He keeps getting flashbacks of his creator, Dr. Wily, but remembers nothing else from before Sigma captured him.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: Even in the future, it looks cool. Zero starts and ends every combo with his Z-Saber sheathed on his back. Averted in X7 and X8.
• Iconic Item: His Z-Saber.
• Identity Amnesia: We learn in X4 that he was an evil Maverick when Sigma first found him, and he lost his memory in the fight, waking up sane and sober. The bad ending of X5 shows us what would happen if his Maverick self ever resurfaced, and it ain't pretty.
• Infinite: DWN-∞ is the serial number of Zero; it's implied that his creator sees Zero as having an unlimited potential.
• Informed Attribute: Ever since the second game, he's gained the position as the leader of the 0th Maverick Hunters Unit. Never does any of that help him in the games afterwards — and worse, some of his subordinates also turn Maverick (like Blast Hornet) or otherwise leave the service (like Web Spider).
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight:
  • He is on the receiving end of this in X2 and X5, should (in the former) you fail to collect Zero's parts or (in the latter) the shuttle mission failed and Zero goes Maverick.
  • His fight against Iris, as he tries to bring her back in self-defense. Unfortunately, just after she's going back to normal, she dies because of her injuries. Cue Zero's infamous agonizing scream about his (lack of) reason of fighting.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Iris' death results in a more serious, stoic Zero, and his ending in X5 has him remembering her before he dies (again).
• The Immune: He takes it one step further: he's immune to the Maverick Virus, and he even becomes stronger the more the virus infects him, as shown in X5's gameplay (where he doesn't lose health upon coming in contact with the Sigma or Zero Virus and briefly turns invincible once fully "infected"). It has to do with Zero being not only the original source of the virus itself, but he is actually made to be able to use it as a power source.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: His Raijingeki move in X4 and Youdantotsu in X8.
• Irony: His best friend happens to be the creation of his creator's nemesis. Yet, neither X nor Zero have any ill will towards each other. Of course, neither of them had any idea about each other's creators, not to mention Zero doesn't appear to ever comprehend who made him.
• It Gets Easier: He's not totally heartless, though — he just sees it from a different perspective. When Middy dies with Techno (because they shared a CPU) in Xtreme, he told the upset X that he knew the consequences and he should honor his sacrifice instead of bemoaning it. However, when his love interest Iris dies in a cruel and pointless war, he didn't take it well.
• It's Personal: Very much so in X8. Seems like he's taken way too long to hate Sigma's guts — he's mainly angry about the events of X5 (surprisingly, no mention of Iris) — but other than that, it makes perfect sense.

K-W

• Katanas Are Just Better: In the official arts, his Laser Blade is often depicted in a katana-like form.
• Killed Off for Real: X5 supposedly has this happen to him, to end the series. Of course, Capcom didn't make it stick...
• Knight, Knave, and Squire: The Knave to X' Knight and Axl's Squire. Zero is the more cynical and no-nonsense foil to the more straightforward and optimistic hero that is X. Though just as dedicated to achieving peace and justice, he shows little reservation with killing his opponents.
• The Lancer: While the X series has yet to form a distinctive Five-Man Band (the secret characters of X8 and the cast of Command Mission notwithstanding), Zero fits this archetype nonetheless.
• Laser Blade: Post-X4, his Z-Saber. He actually receives the Saber in X2, but only uses single slashes in conjunction with Buster Shots until X4, where the Saber becomes his primary. In later games he can also acquire a laser spear, laser pair of knives and laser Combat Hand Fan.
• Leaking Can of Evil: The Maverick Virus was infecting Reploids long before Zero woke up.
• Laughing Mad: How he reacted when fighting Sigma in X4 (not to mention later beating Sigma to a bloody pulp when the latter was at his mercy). Toned down in the English dub.
• Lip Lock: This is the reason for Zero's infamous "WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOOOOOOOOOOR?!" line in X4, since his lip movements have his mouth open wide when he says it. (The lip sync matches the original Japanese lines.)
• Magnet Hands: In the 3D games.
• Master Swordsman: Starting with X4, he begins wielding the Z-Saber with finesse rivaling a Jedi Knight, and with the skills he gains with each boss, he only gets better.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The games only gives vague allusions to what Zero really stands for, although Fanon speculated that it has a similar meaning to X, i.e. a fixed power that cannot grow, but is already beyond comprehension, neither positive nor negative. It can also mean limitless potential, just in a different way.
  • Another possible meaning is "Multiple by Zero," which is to say, turn everything to nothingness. Given how fond he is of slicing Reploids apart, "Divide by Zero" is equally apt; meaning to destroy utterly.
  • Another possible meaning would be Patient Zero.
  • His serial number, DWN-∞ (infinity), also hints at his own limitless potential.
  • In Marvel vs. Capcom 3 at least, Captain America (a WWII veteran) gives allusion to the famous Japanese fighter plane — Mitsubishi A6M Zero — if he encounters Zero. As both the plane and the robot are Glass Cannons that fight up close and deal devastating damage, as well as being known for doing Suicide Attacks, it's pretty much apt.
• Meet My Good Friends Lefty and Righty: As Absolute Zero in Command Mission, his sub and main weapons are his claws and feet. Since they need names on your attack panel, say hello to Killer Left, Brutal Right, and Crimson End.
• The Mentor: To X in X1.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: He's watched over X from the beginning of the game, forcing Vile to retreat after X couldn't touch him. Obviously, he's the badass of the story, but he's not the title character, so he performs his Heroic Sacrifice, leaving X to face Sigma alone, with no chance at a last second rescue. Incidentally, the placement of the Vile fight in the remake justifies the over the top dialogue X uses when he faces Sigma, as it happened at the end of the previous stage, and not at the start of the fortress, making X's fury still fresh. And even though Zero gets better, he's been surpassed by X by the time he returns, and they work as a team from X3 to X8.
• More Hero than Thou: In X5, in order to stop the Colony Drop, one of the heroes has to maneuver a shuttle into crashing into it. Zero volunteered himself, as he stated that, whether or not he (Zero) survives the crash, the world is still in danger, and X is needed more than he is.
• Multi-Melee Master: In X7 and X8, where he can acquire other melee weapons.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After he beats Iris.
• My Hero, Zero: Duh.
• Mysterious Past: Even after all this time, all Zero knows of his "father" is a silhouette; but that didn't stop him from learning that he is the cause of most of the hardships in the world up to that point.
• Nightmare Sequence: Has one in at the start of X4 and another at the end of X7.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: He is a samurai robot who is also supposed to be some sort of The Antichrist- though it canonically didn't happen.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: In the flashback cutscene in X4, in his fight against Sigma, at first it seemed like Sigma is controlling the fight, but Zero just keeps getting up, laughing, and finally winning a Single-Stroke Battle, fist to Beam Saber, and then turns the tables completely and goes to brutally maim Sigma. Zero is only beaten when his head crystal glows, causing him a headache, and then Sigma punches it, rendering his opponent unconscious.
• Not So Stoic: His Freak Out in X4 after Iris' death.
• One-Man Army: Same as X, he's capable of taking out entire opposing forces of Mavericks all by himself.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: If you fail the stop the Colony Drop hitting the Earth, Zero will remember his original programming, and remembers his objective to defeat X.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In X6, with some loss in translation (not that everything else wasn't): he speaks much more politely than he usually does when asking if Dr. Light knows anything about his Unexplained Recovery.
• Overflow Error: According to the design timeline dock of the series◊, this is why Zero is a good guy in the current events of the series. Zero was designed to be as evil as possible, back when he was originally designed by Dr. Wily, but a cognitive error made him incredibly violent (as in, he will destroy and kill everything in sight) and uncontrollable (Wily sealed him inside a capsule, as he cannot risk releasing him without getting brutalized by his own creation), and was forced to infect him with what would become the Maverick Virus. Because Zero was already designed to be evil, this created an overflow error that not only 'reset' his personality, but stabilized him into becoming rational. It also explains why he is so resistant to the virus.
• Palette Swap: Several times.
  • In X2, collecting all of Zero's parts meets you with a black replica of him in the final Sigma stage. You seem poised to fight, but the real Zero destroys him in one shot before you get the chance.
  • From X4 onwards, excepting X7, Zero's substitute for an ultimate armor changed his hair to a silver-white color and his armor to jet black, named Black Zero. The effects of this vary across games (Purely cosmetic in X4, improved defense and some minor bonuses in X5 and X6), but most people accept the X8 version of it as the standard version: Improved dash distance and doubled damage, but halved defense.
  • Zero Nightmare is an Ax-Crazy clone of Zero colored primarily with purple and green. Fortunately, he's much weaker than the real thing.
• The Paragon Always Rebels: Zero is the pinnacle of Dr. Wily's robotics career, and was originally intended as Wily's post-death revenge. Fortunately, Zero dedicated himself to fighting the Sigma virus and completely subverted Wily's intentions.
• Parrying Bullets: One of Zero's recurring skills is an upgrade to his sword that can block projectiles.
• Patient Zero: He (and arguably Sigma) was the very first robot to get infected by the Maverick Virus (stated to be leaking out from Zero's hibernation capsule). Subverted in that he's The Immune (see said entry above), but he is indirectly the source of the other viral infections of the series.
• Perpetual Frowner: After Iris dies, he not only stops smiling, practically at all, but loses essentially all of his Badass Boasting personality and becomes The Stoic.
• Personality Chip: In a series where every Reploid has free will, Zero is unique in that it's left ambiguous if he has the same level of free will as others or is following some form of hardcode Dr. Wily put in him. Since he was designed specifically to take down the original Mega Man it's hard to believe Dr. Wily would find reason in giving him truly free will since it wouldn't aid in that purpose outside of the old motive of trying to prove himself better than Dr. Light in all ways possible. He does seem to display the same level of decision-making skills as other Reploids, yet he also isn't nearly as conflicted about taking down Mavericks with lethal force as X is, the sole exception being Iris, who he was dating at the time.
• Person of Mass Destruction: This was Zero's original purpose, and when he rediscovers his full functionality both in the Bad Ending of X5 and when his body does as Omega in the Zero series, he more than has the power to prove it.
• Pietà Plagiarism: In Iris' death scene, he carries the dead Iris as he screams in despair.
• Pillar of Light: His Giga Attack in X8. Before that, in X6, he can summon a screen-filling shower of beams.
• Popularity Power: He proved to be popular after his awesome deeds in X1.
• Power Copying: His Command Arts/Learning System.
• Power Gives You Wings: The "Absolute Zero" armor from Command Mission. He even resembles his brother's Treble Boost. Also seen with his DiVE Armor variant in X DiVE which gives him Z-Shaped energy wings.
• Pragmatic Hero: He's every bit as determined to achieve an everlasting peace as X is, but is more willing to fight than his friend is. Because of this, Zero often keeps X reassured of their goals when the toll of war starts to get to the latter.
• Predecessor Villain: Before his Heel–Face Turn, he was both the original Maverick and carrier of the virus.
• Pretty Boy: Even lampshaded by Bass, who called him "too girly" to be the strongest robot, as Wily claimed it.
• Promoted to Playable: In X3 by pushing the L button on the pause screen. In X4, he becomes fully playable.
• Red Is Heroic: Contrasting with X's blue, his armor is primarily red.
• Recurring Boss: X2, X5, X6 (sort of), and Maverick Hunter X (Vile's route only, as a Dual Boss with X), complete with Secret A.I. Moves.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: To X's Blue Oni, yet after certain time the relation is reversed: Zero is more cautious and always keep his head cool. Most likely have something to do with his Character Development.
• Retcon: Rockman Perfect Memories states that Zero was the original host of the Maverick Virus and that it transferred from him to Sigma. Rockman Zero Collection Timeline changes this to the Maverick Virus being contained in Zero's capsule and infecting them both, curing Zero of his insanity and driving Sigma insane.
• The Rival: Colonel. Both are swordsmen who fight for what they want to protect. Zero is more concerned with getting the job done by any means necessary; Colonel is so beholden to his honor that it gets in the way.
• Robo Family: Sigma, at least, considers Dr. Wily to be Zero's father. Making Bass a crappy big brother before he was even born. His ending in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom gives a nod to this, where Dr. Wily actually calls Zero his son.
• Sacrificial Lion: In X1. With the help of Popularity Power, he's revived in X2.
• Samurai Ponytail: He has his hair styled this way.
• Satellite Character: His role in the SNES games was little more than a source of inspiration to X, giving him the courage to grow stronger. As the two became equal in power, Zero started to deviate from this trope and became a fleshed-out character in his own right.
• Screw Destiny: One of the most important character themes for Zero is how he gives destiny the middle finger and defies it every step of the way. Or tries to, anyway. As Colonel and Iris (and very nearly X) demonstrate, he's still a threat to those close to him under the wrong circumstances — which Sigma is all too willing to provide.
• Sealed Badass in a Can: Both at the beginning and the "end" of this series.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: In the beginning of the series.
• Secret A.I. Moves:
  • The iconic "two charge shots, then Sword Beam" combo; it's first used in an X2 cutscene, and multiple times during his boss fights — even Omega Zero gets in on the fun — but the player never gets to use the move in the main games playing as Zero. X can do it in X3 if you find a way to take Zero's saber and get the arm armor, Model OX can do it as well, and this is one of Zero's Hyper moves in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.
  • Awakening Zero has plenty of these. The shots from his Buster combo turn into halo-like disks that gain homing capabilities, and he gets a One-Hit Kill attack that takes the Sword Beam up a notch.
  • In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, he does get that Sword Beam as a Level 3 Hyper...except that it does a lot of damage instead of being an instant kill. The player also gets to let him use it in Project × Zone as a Multi-Attack.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Being the Bishōnen of the two, that's saying something that he is the Manly Man. In contrast to the more peaceful X, Zero has little compunction or hangups about killing his opponents. He is overall more cynical and pragmatic, not backing down from the frontlines like X does in X7.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: In the later games.
• Short Range Guy, Long Range Guy: His focus on rushing the enemy and point-blank strikes contrasts X's defensive fighting style.
• Shoot the Dog: Zero does this in the manga version of Mega Man X4. During the Repliforce rebellion, Iris is working as a nurse treating both sides and has been severely injured and put in a stasis pod in her base due to a computer terminal blowup caused by Cyber Peacock. Zero gets the vaccine from Slash Beast to cure her of the bugs that are killing her. Colonel breaks military regulations to go to the base save his sister Iris and clashes with Zero, telling him it is their destiny to fight because of their irreconcilable ideals. Zero agrees and holds nothing back, slicing off Colonel's right arm. Zero then notices that Iris's right arm was suddenly corroded in her pod, and realizes that because Colonel and Iris are Reploid siblings, damage to one sibling is extended to the other. Colonel charges at Zero one last time with his remaining arm, and Zero, with a very pained look on his face ultimately kills Colonel by slicing him in half, despite knowing that Iris would die as well, and the fact that he could have been able to stop him without killing him. Sure enough, Iris does die a short time later, directly because of Colonel's death. Colonel himself did not die with hate and bitterness in his heart, and even smiled at Zero in the end, realizing that Zero did what he felt was necessary to stop a lethal opponent and to end the Repliforce war.
• Shout-Out:
  • Several of his recurring techniques are straight out of Street Fighter. His staple rising sword uppercut is also based on the Shoryuken. Equipping the K-Knuckle in X8 will make his uppercut an actual icy Shoryuken, complete with Calling Your Attacks.
  • In Command Mission Zero can gain a second, incredibly powerful Hyper Mode armor. It has black bat-like wings, adds smaller bat wings to his helmet, claws on his hands and dark armor on his body and legs. It's a nod to his predecessor Bass and his power armor upgrade, the Treble Boost.
  • His Black Armor Mode turns him into a black clothed warrior that wields a green Light Saber. Someone clearly saw Return of the Jedi.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • In Maverick Hunter X:
  Vile: "Hmpf... Zero... Why would someone as powerful as you align yourself with X? He's just a B-Class Hunter, nothing more!"
  Zero: "Vile... You're nothing but a Maverick now."
  • He delivers another to Vile at the top of the Jakob Orbital Elevator in X8.
  Vile: "Don't you ever get tired of the whole 'justice' thing?"
  Zero: "Don't you ever get tired of being Sigma's lap dog?"
• Spam Attack:
  • His infamous "dash cancel saber" technique amounts to this. His first and second slashes wouldn't trigger a boss's Mercy Invincibility and you can dashi after the second slash and then slash again after the dash. Do the math. ^note The exception of this is if you take the W-Shredder in X5, which is actually optional, and in the 3D games.
  • Also his Renyoudan technique in X8, done with his D-Glaive.
• Spectacular Spinning: In X4 and X5, Zero learns a move which allows him to do a spin-slash in midair, which replaces his normal air slash. X6 somewhat keeps the technique, but only during the aforementioned Double Jump, unlike Kuuenzan and Mikazukizan (Ensuizan would be the X6 version, but functions differently). And in X6, X7 and X8, he still gets more spinning moves.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Inafune wanted him to be the main character. Even after Capcom forced him to change his mind, Inafune didn't change his plans.
• Spring Jump: With an acquired ability in X6. If he high jumps into the ceiling, he can cling to it and can shoot icicles from his saber.
• The Superego: In relation to his teammates X and Axl. The coldest of the bunch, only concerned in missions, likes to take shoot-first-ask-questions-later approach. He's still a nice guy deep down, though. Oddly, he wasn't like this prior to X4, being closer to The Id with his more spirited personality.
• Suicide Attack: Capable of one in X1 which he uses to obliterate Vile's upgraded Ride Armor. It's clearly treated as a Godzilla Threshold, but it's never seen again in the series after the first game (and its remake).
• Superpowered Evil Side: Two of them: Maverick Zero, the state Sigma finds him in pre-X1 where his mind is still damaged without the Maverick Virus, is Laughing Mad, Ax-Crazy, and strong enough to take down Sigma with a lead pipe. Awakened Zero, made by overwhelming Zero's body with a new strain of the Sigma Virus found at Eurasia's impact point, is surprisingly sane, being a Soft-Spoken Sadist who's even more powerful than his Maverick state. It shows in gameplay too: If X takes too long to defeat Awakened Zero, he'll become Unwinnable by Design and One-Hit Kill X. Ultimately, both invert the trope because, as Sigma points out, both of these states are achieved by following Wily's original plan and thus are his true self, making his normal state more of an Underpowered Good Side.
• The Stoic: Downplayed at first, being simply a confident, mellow guy who, while he didn't tend to raise his voice much, has some kind of spirited mentality to his fights. After X4, however, this is played fully straight.
• Sword and Gun: Technically starting from X2's "bad" scenario where he's a boss, which gave birth to the famous "buster-buster-Sword Beam" combo of his. In the next game where he's playable, his buster is still more emphasized, with the saber only coming out for delivering a strong attack. On X4 onward, as a Divergent Character Evolution, the saber gets emphasized more.
• Sword Beam: In X2, he can do this during the boss fight with him after firing 2 busters (see above); also in X5 and X6. The latter games also introduce the infamous Genmurei (aka Genmu Zero). In X7, we're then treated to 4 kinds of sword beams, including one that homes in opponents.
• Sword Plant: Some of his acquired moves has him falling from above saber-first, such as Hyouretsuzan in X4 or Rakukoujin in X6.
• Take Up My Sword: After his Heroic Sacrifice in X1. A more literal version occurs in X3 where the Z-Saber is an Infinity +1 Sword (if you meet the required conditions) and at the end of X5.
• Technicolor Ninja: Implied. He's the commander of the 0th "Special Ops" unit, a squadron of what are essentially robot ninjas, but bright red armor and Anime Hair are hardly suited to not being noticed. As the leader, he must be that good regardless.
• Token Heroic Orc: The only one of Wily's creations who turned good.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Iris' death changes his world view for the worse and his mannerisms become far less cheerful. This also serves to further contrast him with X as they form a Cynic–Idealist Duo dynamic.
• Too Long; Didn't Dub: Probably done for Rule of Cool, all of Zero's moves were left untranslated in X4, X6, X7 and X8. Even most of his X5 moves get this treatment whenever they appear in later media or crossovers.
• Typhoid Mary: It is said that Zero unknowingly spread his virus around as he ventured around the globe. This leads to him sealing himself, to stop the spread, in his ending in X6.
• Video Game Flight: At least as a bug in X8. Kinda funny, and it lets you bypass the worst parts of the final dungeon — could you ask for more? Oh, and Layer can do it, too.
• The Virus: He is the source of the Maverick Virus.
• We Can Rebuild Him: After he died in the first game, the second had the X-Hunters rebuild him, or at least the parts of it, which X had to steal for the Maverick Hunters to rebuild him.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In Command Mission, he chastises X for being so trusting all the time, stating that it's because of such naivete that Shadow managed to betray them.
• When He Smiles:
  • He's also visibly glad to be reunited with X in X6, highlighting just how strong a bond these two share.
  • One of the more notable instances of Zero actually expressing some degree of happiness in the post-X4 titles is when he gives a little grin while alone in his thoughts during the ending of X8, wondering if the end of the New Generation Reploids' revolt means he finally will be able to lay down his sword. Alas...
• White Hair, Black Heart: In his Zero Armor. Played with; he's obviously one of the heroes, but he was created by Dr. Wily to be evil.
• Wolverine Publicity:
  • Aside from starring in two (arguably three) out of the seven series, he was referenced and cameoed in two more (Legends, Battle Network, with the latter even including a Captain Ersatz) and finally, appearing in a roster in two three games of the Capcom vs. series, and, along with X, in Project × Zone and its sequel. Whew...
  • Even though he wasn't playable in the fourth Super Smash Bros., he still managed to have a cameo in the form of a trophy. The only other Mega Man characters with trophies were either Classic characters or those who appeared in Mega Man's Final Smash. Not to mention he got his own Mii Fighter costume. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he is promoted to Assist Trophy.
• World's Strongest Man: By Dr. Wily's design, Zero manages to be this for the entirety of the classic Mega Man timeline...Well, at least until X caught up to him in X5. Still, the margin he surpassed Zero by can't be too large if Omega was any indication. Even well into Mega Man Zero, despite the fact that his body is centuries or so old by that point and would logically be outdated by the terms of the era he's in, it's still incredibly dangerous and powerful in comparison to the other Reploids at the time. Dr. Wily really built him to last.

22XX

Mega Man Zero | Main Character Index
Zero | Allies (X) | Antagonists (Weil)

I won't hesitate. If an enemy appears in front of me, I will destroy it!

I made a promise to a friend...

Voiced by Yuuto Kazama (Zero series, SNK vs. Capcom), Ryōtarō Okiayu (JP, Onimusha Blade Warriors), Rino Romano (EN, Onimusha Blade Warriors)

The Zero series Backstory ends with the eventual ending of the Mega Man X series. By the time the Zero series starts, both X and Zero are bona fide legends. However, X is nowhere to be seen (for reasons revealed in Zero 2), and Zero is found in an underground laboratory, nonfunctional and lacking in weaponry, memories, or even arms. At first, Zero seems to be a loner, more distant than he ever was in X, but over the course of the series, he comes to define himself as a soldier who fights to protect people he believes in; primarily Ciel, but he also grows to include the rest of the Resistance members and 4's caravan of human refugees.

---

• Adaptational Comic Relief: The Rockman Zero manga makes anyone who's played the games suffer whiplash. Zero goes from being a stoic antihero to a dork who is prone to making a fool of himself.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: Averted in Zero 4; when Zero switches sides while he's hanging from something with his Z-Knuckle, we can see him switching his hand. Played straight almost everywhere else. In fact, during the third swing of the basic triple slash attack, he'll swap which hand holds the Z-Saber. Seems Zero actually IS ambidextrous.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: Zero suffers this in the transition between the X series and this series. While he stays a hero in between both series, his memory was lost during hibernation, including one crucial detail: that the body he was inhabiting was a duplicate. That being said, only a few people at the present knew who he was like; people at large thought he was a legendary hero, which he has to roll with.
• Amnesiac Hero: Starts off with nothing other than vague feelings of what kind of person he is. He even has to be told that his name is Zero, providing brief inner conflict and then Character Development when Weil reveals his body is a copy.
• Amnesiac Resonance: Despite suffering from amnesia, he can instinctively feel that Copy-X is weaker than the real X, after their fight.
• Anti Anti Christ: One of the biggest examples. Just like in the X series, he was made to wreak havoc in the world and destroy civilization, but later he decides to save it instead.
• Anti-Hero: Of the Good Is Not Soft kind; he solves most of his problems by bisecting them, but always to help others. He's not interested in justice or heroics, just upholding Ciel's (and by extension, Dr. Light's) ideals of peace and coexistence between humans and Reploids.
• The Atoner: Basically what he's been doing throughout his entire life. Especially when he finally learns that, even after Sigma's demise, The Virus remained a threat because traces of it remained in his original body, being spread wherever he went.
• Attack Reflector: Aside from the usual Shield Boomerang, the Reflect body chip in the fourth game allows his regular saber to do the same to bullets.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Proto Form, the reward for beating Zero 2. It not only makes Zero a Glass Cannon, but it disables the upgrades the players have made to their weapons (eg. the Z-saber's combo). Hard Mode forces you to use it.
• Badass Creed: His last speech in the first game — "I'll do what you want... rest for a while. I will handle it, you can count on me. I won't stop! If an enemy appears... I'll terminate it."
• Badass Longrobe: In the Z2 intro. Right after that...
• Bad Butt: One of his very first dialogue lines in 1, while fighting the Golem.
  Zero: "Rats!"
• Bag of Spilling:
  • Zero puts himself to sleep at the end of Mega Man X to fully eliminate The Virus. 100 years later, he is violently woken by a scientist under attack by mooks, so his restoration is incomplete and he needs to remember his previous skills with the weapons.
  • He never gets to relearn to do an air dash.
  • Played literally and justified in the second game. After travelling the wastelands for a year, Zero's weapons are damaged (one, the Triple Rod, was even beyond repair), and when Zero returns to the Resistance base, his weapons are restored (the Triple Rod was replaced), but he has to level them up again.
  • Thankfully averted from Zero 3 onwards. Your weapons already start at full power, saving the tediousness of leveling them up, although your Cyber Elves and chips are gone and the Shield Boomerang and the Rod substitute are not available in the first stage. You also have to relearn the acquired skills.
  • In Zero 4, there is no Shield Boomerang nor Rod.
  • Zero also loses the upgrades he obtains from Cyber-elves and/or chips in between games.
• The Berserker: His Z-Saber encourages you to use this fighting style, dashing forward and getting into the face of the enemy and chopping him half without stopping. If you have good reflexes, it's extremely effective.
• Big Damn Heroes: Subverted twice in the following instances:
  • Zero 2, where he attempts to thwart Elpizo's attempt to destroy X, but he immobilizes Zero and then proceeds to destroy X.
  • Zero 4, where he comes too late to prevent Craft from firing Ragnarok at Neo Arcadia.
  • At the opening of Zero 4, to the Human Caravan.
• Bookends: Zero's final words in Zero 1 and Zero 4 echo each other:
  Zero 1: I'll do what you want... rest for a while. I will handle it, you can count on me. I won't stop! If an enemy appears... I'll terminate it.
  Zero 4: I never cared about justice, and I don't ever recall calling myself a hero. I have always only fought for the people I believe in. I won't hesitate... If an enemy appears, I will destroy it!
• Bottomless Magazines:
  • The Buster Shot is technically a normal gun with a magazine system, except that Zero loads the Z-saber into it, giving it a practically limitless energy source.
  • In the fourth game, many Z-knuckle weapons have unlimited use, while some are limited...unless you equip the A-Filling chip, in which the ammo will refill itself to full after a few seconds as long as you don't outright empty it.
• Bring My Red Jacket: He's all red-themed (when not in the Palette Swap modifications, that is), and we all know his Heroic Sacrifice tendencies. And with the Nintendo Hardness of the game, expect him to die a lot in the stages.
• Broken Ace: Zero may be a badass fighter, but he's plagued with amnesia and bad publicity. All things considered, though, they don't seem to trouble him personally. However...
  • The Ace: Arguably develops back into this in the end, when compared to the other protagonists of the Mega Man series. He was obviously stronger than Classic Mega Man or Volnutt to start with, the ZX protagonists face weaker versions of the Weil Zero killed, and he even surpasses X himself, defeating (with a little help) a threat X and Zero together only barely stopped previously, that had Came Back Strong. And despite all the crap he goes through, he never undergoes any sort of Wangst like X, or his previous self did. All this makes him the greatest hero in the Classic Timeline. It's pretty clear if he were still around after Zero 4, absolutely nothing would've been able to threaten the world. Not bad all things considered, since he was originally supposed to be its destroyer.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": His Z-Knuckle is a Z-shaped imprint on his palm, in which a special chip is inserted, allowing him to take the enemy's weapons.
• Building Swing: With his Chain Rod in Zero 2.
• The Champion: To the entire Resistance and Ciel especially, Zero is the biggest proponent to their cause. Eventually, this extends to what remains of humanity as well, solely as their greatest defender by series end.
• Character Development: Gets some at the end of Zero 3. After defeating Omega, he comes to terms with his new body and life, wholeheartedly believing he is Zero and becoming more empathetic and emotional.
• Characterization Marches On: Zigzagged; a combination of trauma from the Great Offscreen War and Identity Amnesia makes him The Stoic in the first game, but as the series progresses, he starts to become more and more of a Deadpan Snarker.
• Charged Attack: A series standard. Handwaved by claiming that X installed the technology that controlled his own Arm Cannon to the saber before giving it back to Zero. This explains why the Rods and the Shield Boomerang can charge (they're all variants of the saber), but no such explanation for the Z-Knuckle.
• Chaste Hero: Whether he's this, a Celibate Hero, or simply too stoic to express himself is up in the air.
• Chick Magnet: Aside from the ones in the X series, there's also Ciel, Leviathan, and a random Resistance girl in Z3 all getting attracted to him to differing extents. And he's clueless to them all.
• Combat and Support: The combat to Ciel's support.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Zero's Proto Form is a nod to his infinity plus one armor from X, the Black/Zero Armor, minus the silver hair. In addition, its stats mimic that of the X8 version of the armor. Reversed, because X8 came out after the Proto Form's debut in Z2 and reappearance in Z3.
  • Plus, when Zero died in X5, all X found was his sword. Guess who gave Zero his signature weapon back?
  • Another one of Zero's Forms (see Palette Swap below) is the X form. Guess what color this form is based on, as well as what weapon it specializes in?
  • He claims that he never cared about justice or peace during his "No More Holding Back" Speech at the end of Zero 4, which is what big brother Bass said in Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters. However, while Bass claims that he only fights for himself, Zero says that he fights for the people he believes in.
• Cool Helmet: His iconic red one gets an overhaul from the previous series. It's also the last we saw of him after he destroyed Ragnarok.
• Cool Sword: The Z-Saber gets cooler in this series. Aside from being able to kill a (normal) Golem in one hit, it can also have multiple functions.
• Dash Attack: Unlike in the X series, he has a dashing saber attack by default.
• Deadpan Snarker: Has more moments than people give him credit for. Whenever his opponent gives a Badass Boast, his response in later games is usually along the lines of "Are you done yet?".
  Ciel: Please promise me you'll never do something that crazy again.
  Zero: ...
  Zero: I'll think about it.
• Destroyer Deity: Of a heroic sort. Neo Arcadian propaganda hypes him up as an unfeeling ancient evil the Resistance awakened to lay waste to humanity. Not completely incorrect, given his past. Anubis Necromancess V even refers to him as the "God of Destruction," a title usually reserved for Omega. Taking into account that Omega has Zero's old body and Zero could very well have been as unbelievably strong and crazy as Omega, this is a perfectly reasonable thing to call him.
• Determinator: He fights nonstop between the events of the first and second games. Just in case you were wondering, that's a whole year in-universe of repelling Neo Arcadia's military might by himself.
• Deus Exit Machina: After locating the new body Zero's previously stolen mind has been moved into, X awakens him to help fight the final battle and end the Elf Wars. Zero gets sealed again after that because he is tired of fighting.
• Do Not Run with a Gun: Averted with Zero's Z-Saber and Buster Shot, as combat with these weapons is far more fluid than it is in the previous series. His other weapons downplay it, though; the Rod weapons and the Knuckle force Zero to stand still if he uses them while on the ground, but you can negate this downside by always using them while jumping. The Shield Boomerang on the other hand prevents dashing, but otherwise doesn't hinder Zero's movement.
• Double Jump: Although it was one of Zero's signature abilities from the X series, it doesn't make a return until Z3, and even then, it's not something Zero can learn as an innate skill. You need to equip different items to use the ability.
• Elemental Weapon: Zero can load elemental chips to his weapons, and their charged attacks (as well as some of his EX-skills) become elemental.
• Effective Knockoff: He is revealed to be inhabiting a reproduction of his original body. Despite that, he cares little about it and just proceeds to defeat the one inhabiting his original body, Omega (when no other people have done before). There is some implication that losing his original body wasn't entirely bad; for one, he no longer suffers from the potential of going crazy due to the programming of his original body.
• Empty Shell: Subverted. It's still Zero you're playing as and he has the same sense of justice, but after his resurrection, he has lost his cocky and hotheaded personality and become a complete blank slate. Averted later on, where he ends up developing a new personality, albeit a stoic and standoffish one.
• Evil Knockoff: Interestingly inverted. Technically, Zero is using a knockoff body while Omega is Zero's original body. However, Zero still has his original mind, while Omega's is a new one that is influenced by Zero's residual viral data.
• Evolving Attack: In the second and third games, Zero's EX Skills have two variants: a normal version, and a slightly improved variant when equipping the right elemental chip.
• Evolving Weapon: In the first two games, using Zero's weapons a set number of times allows him to learn additional skills with them.
• Expository Theme Tune: Clover, from the Idea tracks. It details Zero grappling with his amnesia, and how he's unable to remember the name of a certain flower he held dear but finding a still-blooming clover that he chooses to protect instead.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: Played with throughout the series, ending with a subversion.
• Famed In-Story: He is well-known as a Maverick Hunter even a hundred years after he went missing, and the reactions of who he meets differ depend on which side of the war they're on, with the Resistance and Ciel viewing him as their resurrected savior, and Neo Arcadia viewing him as a Fallen Hero who now works for terrorists.
• Forced to Watch: He catches up to Elpizo while X's body (the seal of the Dark Elf) is still intact. However, Elpizo shoots a beam that paralyzes Zero, leaving the former to destroy X's body while Zero helplessly watches on. Elpizo just rubs it in further after absorbing the Dark Elf's power by "thanking" Zero for waiting.
• Gameplay-Guided Amnesia: He woke up with almost no memory of his past. Since he's been asleep for 100 years, this doesn't make much difference to the plot; the real point is to explain why the "legendary hero" has skill level 1 with his own sword. It also conveniently allows the X games to continue without affecting what Zero should remember later on. Zero 2 and 3 get better mileage out of the amnesia by "revealing" things that happened between the X and Zero series that Zero was actually around for in the past.
• Glass Cannon:
  • Zero is very strong with his weapons, but his health bar always starts small.
  • Zero using his Proto Form and Junk Armor from Zero 2 and 4, respectively, doubles the damage he deals AND receives. Hard Mode will force you to use it, even in 1 and 3.
• Good All Along: A downplayed, and rather interesting variant. While he is unquestionably on the morally right side for most of the game series (Briefly on the wrong, or at least neutral side, given they were led by Elpizo rather than Ciel for a while), he himself never really talks about morality or what is good for most of the series, only ever talking about the morality of others, to the point he comes off as a Nominal Hero at times, something that is even pointed out by the bosses, who see him as a Fallen Hero. However, as the series goes further on, small remarks he makes here and there make it very clear he has a moral compass underneath his stoicism.
• Good Is Not Soft: He's mostly stoic, with some of his quotes implying that, for his quotes of not caring about justice or heroics, that he does have that deep down, but doesn't believe he's the one to follow them. Having said that, he will cut you in half if you get in the way of those he believes in.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: "Rats!"
• Guest Fighter: In Onimusha Blade Warriors.
• The Hero Dies: His most likely fate at the end of the series, sacrificing his life to stop Doctor Weil. However, Ciel believes Zero is still alive.
• Heroic Sacrifice: It's Zero. He still can't resist doing this every so often. At the end of the series, he forgoes his chance of escaping the falling space station Ragnarok in order to stop Weil once and for all — and he succeeds. His actions have finally brought peace to the world, after centuries of war. It's also his final one, by the way.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Neo Arcadia established to its citizens that Zero and La Résistance are nothing but extremists. This is an important plot point in Zero 4, with human refugees not appreciating the helping hand given to them, at least until after halfway through the game; they then realized that Zero was indeed fighting for the greater good of everyone.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: What he does all the time is just fighting for the people he believe in; he never considers himself a hero.
• Holding Your Shoulder Means Injury: Zero does this when at a critically low level of health. He also does this in the intro stage of the second game regardless of how much health he has, showing the toll one year of non-stop fighting and Walking the Earth has exacted.
• Humans Are Flawed: Played with. In Zero 4, he condemns humans fleeing from Weil's iron fist as cowardly beings who would do nothing about their refugee leader getting kidnapped just to avoid another war. However, he also thinks that, as a machine designed solely to wage war, he cannot change the world, but instead believes in the humans who can. In the end, he believes that Humans Are Bastards, but he also believes that they can change for the better and then change the world. In short, it comes as a Reconstruction.
• Humble Hero: Evident in his "No More Holding Back" Speech. In addition, he doesn't think a battle Reploid like him could change the world; he instead fights for those who he believes are able to do so.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: Once again, though of a different sort: He doesn't have a sheathe for the Z-Saber like in previous games, so Zero replicates the effect by activating the Z-Saber the instant after he starts swinging.
• I Am Who?: He's lost his memory of the X series — everyone tells him that he's a "legendary Reploid" and he just has to take their word for it. Also see the Locked Out of the Loop entry below.
• Identity Amnesia: At the start of the series, he doesn't seem too sure that he's the legendary Zero everybody thought of him as.
• Immune to Mind Control: He's among the very few that can withstand the Dark Elf's mind control abilities.
• I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: One of his most prominent traits. See also his "No More Holding Back" Speech above.
• Inspirational Martyr: Zero's Heroic Sacrifice at the end of the series inspires the human and reploid sides, and Ciel in particular, to work on the peace that, after so long, has finally been achieved.
• Irony: It is Zero, the creation of Dr. Wily, who finally fulfills the dream of Dr. Light, his creator's nemesis, to bring peace between robots and humans. Mega Man 11 adds an extra layer of irony on top of this with the revelation that Dr. Wily wanted to make heroes of robots before he became consumed by revenge and lost his way. Even though he made Zero purely to fulfill his own petty revenge, he eventually became exactly the kind of hero his old self would've wanted to make.
  • While Zero doesn't consider himself a hero and thinks he's not the right one to actually change the world, his actions in the four games as a member of the Resistence managed to turn the tides against a corrupt government, his speech to the human refugees ended up planting the seeds for the new peace between humans and reploids, him helping Ciel resulted in the development of a better energy system that would end the energy crisis eventually thanks to his protection, and eventually he's the one who finally kills Weil and kickstarts a lasting era of peace. In a way, despite believing he's a Living Weapon not worthy of being the one to change the world, his actions along the ones of his loved ones like X and Ciel ended up changing the world for the better in it's own way.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Averted; in Zero 1 and Zero 2, Zero's Z-saber is roughly shaped like a katana, but this is merely a matter of simplistic sprites. Box art has always depicted it as the triangular shape that has since become synonymous with Zero in this series.
• The Kingslayer: He becomes infamous with this in the third game where he killed Copy-X and then Dr. Weil spreads the word, making things worse for the protagonists. This also gets referenced in the fourth game where the leader of the Caravan has a grudge against "the killer of Master X" (unaware that he's talking to Zero).
• Knight in Sour Armor: As soon as he wakes up, he has to fight a war in a Crapsack World. He also knows that changing the world is difficult, but he still fights for Ciel, who hopes to change the world by solving the energy crisis.
• Kubrick Stare: In almost all of the official arts.
• Laser Blade: Z-Saber, as well as laser spears, bullet-reflector shields that can double as a boomerang, whips, and tonfas.
• Late to the Tragedy: In the second game, arriving at Neo Arcadia only to find every Resistance soldier involved in the Operation Righteous Strike dead (with the exception of one).
• Legendary in the Sequel: Although he only knew glimpses of it from the comments of the people around him. And obviously, by the time ZX rolls around, his achievements have become even more well-known.
• Life Drain: One of his EX-Skills in Zero 2 is this, using the Chain Rod.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Not only Weil, but also X know about the relationship between Zero and Omega, with X blatantly not telling Zero about it up until Weil himself let the secret out.
  • The Guardians, especially Phantom, are implied to know about it as well, considering they're not at all surprised when they saw two Zeros in the ending, and also knowing which Zero to attack. One of the drama tracks seems to clear it up — Phantom found out in Cyberspace; Leviathan and Fefnir had a Near-Death Experience in which they met Phantom and X. X gave them one final order to stop Omega, presumably giving them a heads up.
• Loud Gulp: He lets out one when he's fighting inside the missile containing Omega and realizing that the missile is about to crash.
• Magikarp Power: Zero's weapons in the first two games apply, as well as the "Mimic elf" in the fourth.
• Meaningful Echo:
  • From the first game, Zero was repeatedly told that "You are Zero". This is a big deal because he had Identity Amnesia. At the end of the third game (after he encounters an issue of what he really is), he says to Ciel "It's just me... I am Zero." It signifies that he has affirmed his identity.
  • Ciel has told Zero a number of times that she "believes in him". In the end, right before his fight with Weil, he tells her "Ciel...Believe in me!" And it's his last words, too.
• Meaningful Name: As well as everything that has been stated about his name in the X series, Zero's name becomes amazingly apt once Dr. Weil attempts to stop Zero from harming him by reminding the Reploid about the laws against hurting a human. Weil forgot about the Zeroth Law...
• Morally Superior Copy: It's revealed that the body he inhabits is a copy. Zero doesn't give a damn about it and cuts down the doppelganger inhabiting his original body without hesitation, deciding that it's the mind that matters, not the body.
• Multiform Balance: the Forms, vaguely. Your starting Normal Form is a Master of None, the Active Form is a Fragile Speedster, the Energy and Power Forms are Mighty Glaciers (the former specializing in defense, the latter offense), the Defense and Erase Forms are Stone Walls, the Proto Form is a Glass Cannon, and Rise and X Forms are Lightning Bruisers. The Ultimate Form is pretty much the Infinity +1 Form.
• Multi-Melee Master: Although he also has a gun.
• Multi-Ranged Master: Can use a gun (several, in fact, in Zero 4) and a Boomerang.
• Musical Nod: Zero's badass leitmotif from Mega Man X comes back in Zero 1's intro.
• The Musketeer: Zero wields the Z-Saber, whose hilt also serves as the magazine for the Buster Shot.
• Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups:
  • Only one of his Buster EX-Skills can be active at a time.
  • In the first through third games, he can only equip one elemental chip at a time. As well, in the third and fourth game, he can only use one head chip, one body chip and one foot chip at a time. This is why the best foot chip in the third game is the one that has most of the other foot chips' powers in one.
  • Also true for Croire: Only one of the seven abilities of each elf type (Nurse, Animal, and Hacker) can be active at a time, although you can use one of each type at the same time. And in Ultimate Mode, this is averted: using the abilities of the higher level also activates the ones in the lower levels.
• My Hero, Zero: Ciel couldn't have said it better herself.
• Never Found the Body: All that remained is a broken helmet, and it's not even stated if they found that either. Inafune once mentioned he was dead and the series was over. However, the Complete Works book states Zero's fate was unknown. However, it's implied that Ciel eventually did find what remained of Zero and created Biometal Model Z from it in the ZX series.
• Nice Guy: A bit hard to notice, and given his stoic behavior you'd be forgiven for thinking he's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but it's there. While he isn't sunshine and rainbows, he treats everyone in the resistance with genuine kindness and believes in X and Ciel's causes and ideals, and sacrifices his life even though he easily could've escaped. He also doesn't think himself as worthy to rule due to being a weapon of mass destruction.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His murder of Copy-X at the end of the first game inadvertently sets things in motion for Big Bad Weil's return. Weil's specialty of DNA resurrection is put to good use when he brings Copy-X back to life under his control in the third game, allowing him to use the Reploid for his own ends and gain control over Neo Arcadia.
• "No More Holding Back" Speech:
  • He has one during the Elf Wars (detailed in drama tracks), aimed at Omega.
  Omega, I finally knew because I fought with myself. What kind of fighting I have done so far? What exactly my hesitation has been so far? Now I can say that my power is not for destruction. It's for my friends; my power is to protect my friends' beliefs! Be gone, my nightmare!
  • In one of the series' most famous examples, his Badass Creed evolves into this:
  "I never cared about justice, and I don't recall ever calling myself a hero. I've always only fought for the people I believe in. I won't hesitate... If an enemy appears in front of me, I will destroy it!"
• No Social Skills: One Lower-Deck Episode highlights how clueless Zero can be in matters outside battle, although knowing him, this is justified.
• Not So Stoic:
  • He has his occasional moments of snapping at others in annoyance and being a Deadpan Snarker, and there's his moment with the missile in Zero 3, but probably one of the only moments in the entire series where his expression visibly changes is when Elpizo destroys X's physical body. The resulting scene graphic shows him scowling in unadulterated anger, and he drops all snark and commentary altogether to kick Elpizo's ass for it.
  • He also appears to have been genuinely shaken by Craft's death, possibly in part because his parting words serve as an Ironic Echo of X's. It rattled him enough that when speaking to Neige, he ends up accepting and agreeing with Neige's belief that even if he's doing it for a good cause, his perpetuating violence makes him much like Weil, requiring Neige to assure him in his actions.
  • At the end of the final game when he knows he's about to be sent on a suicide mission, Zero takes a moment to comfort Ciel in a very rare show of emotion.
  • He does so again in the final encounter, offering some choice last words to Ciel.
  Zero: Ciel... believe in me!
• Number Two: Zero isn't a natural field commander, so he isn't the type to give orders. That being said, within the Resistance, he more or less fills a secondary leadership role under Ciel, since everyone knows to turn to him for crisis scenarios, and while he doesn't give many orders out on the field, he can get Resistance members in over their head to transfer back to base on his urging. About the only time where Ciel takes direct orders from him is when they're together during dangerous operations, as Ciel respects his authority on combat; otherwise, Zero takes orders from Ciel (and, to a lesser extent, Rouge and Joan, as his Mission Control) and more or less comes to the conclusion in the opening of 2 that without Ciel to direct him, he'll simply default to mindlessly destroying Pantheons - good for securing the wastelands and lessening the number annoying the Resistance, certainly, but not exactly useful for making any actual progress on resolving the ongoing conflicts.
• Oblivious to Love: Just like in X8. He doesn't seem to understand that Leviathan is trying to invoke Dating Catwoman and Ciel "believes in" him, though he debatably gets past the last one.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • He had this reaction when faced with the possibility of fighting all three remaining Guardians at the end of Zero 1.
  • Yet another time is when he realizes that he can't stop Omega's missile while riding it. As this means he's about to get hit by an ICBM, he's rather less subtle in this case, giving a Loud Gulp before turning around and spamming his dash.
  • The possibility of facing the Einherjar Warriors all together (which, fortunately, didn't happen) is one of the other few times in the series that Zero had this reaction.
• One Bullet at a Time: 3 bullets, to be exact. Zero can only have three buster shots on screen at a given time. Through different means in each games, the number of shots can be upgraded to 4-5 shots.
• One-Man Army: It's a surprise that La Résistance (mostly made up of civilian Reploids) managed to survive Neo Arcadia's persecution until Ciel found Zero. 2's opening introductory scene explains that he's been fighting off near-constant pursuit of the Neo Arcadian army for a year, and in 3, Copy-X even states that Zero's penchant for being this trope is one of the Resistance's strongest advantages, alongside Ciel's energy source. In Zero 4, it's played very literally; he's the only being in both the Resistance trailer and the Area Zero settlement that pulls any weight in all its battles, even though there's Faucon and perhaps others in the settlement who could fight.
• Overrated and Underleveled: ...but he gets much, much better.
• Palette Swap: Hard and Ultimate Modes clothe Zero in black and deep crimson colors, respectively. The Forms system (and the Body section of its successor, the Customisation Chips) gives him even more colors.
• Parrying Bullets: Several upgrades across the games allow him to block enemy bullets by attacking them with his saber.
• Perpetual Frowner: It takes effort to go four entire games without smiling once.
• Person of Mass Destruction: He was designed to be one, by Dr. Wily. But after his Heel–Face Turn, what he does isn't much different...
• Phrase Catcher: "You are Zero."
• Pietà Plagiarism: In the Zero 1 intro level, Zero and Ciel go through the level until they find a dead end. Then the floor under Ciel crumbles and then she falls down. Zero saves her by doing the pose.
• Pillar of Light: When he's resurrected in the first game, this happens.
• Powers as Programs: In order for Zero to use his EX skills, he must "activate" them on the menu first; the various Buster Shot EX Skills can only be equipped one at a time. A more literal take on this would be the Custom Chips from Zero 3 beyond.
• Power Copying:
  • The EX techs from X4 onwards are back starting in Zero 2, and the Z-knuckle rips weapons off Mooks, although some of them can survive even after the weapon is stolen.
  • Zero 3 also takes it further by having Zero obtain custom chips that grant him innate non-combat abilities from other Bosses. The system was further expanded in the next game, where chips obtained from some enemy parts also grant that mook's innate ability.
• Punched Across the Room: The Recoil Rod's Charged Attack is a powerful thrust attack (aimable forward, downward or upward) that can push most mooks far away backwards (or upwards, or downwards) if it hits. A few minibosses and bosses can also be pushed this way, which will interrupt their actions, notably Deathtanz Mantisk.
• Really 700 Years Old: You'd never know from his looks (what with being ageless and all), but with X being a Cyber Elf now, he's the oldest robot that still functions. He's 200 years old at minimum.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Not counting his past in the X series, the populace sees him as the warrior of the Resistance who is a Fallen Hero, and his red and black color scheme seems to reinforce it...of course, the player would know better that he fights for a good cause.
• Red Is Heroic: He's mainly colored red (outside of his special forms at least) and he's the hero of the story.
• Resurrection Sickness: Or as Ciel puts it, "hibernation sickness". It gave him Identity Amnesia.
• Riding the Bomb: In Zero 3, he tries to stop a missile containing Omega from launching into a city block containing the Mother Elf. However, as he approaches the missile, it starts to fly off. Zero's next solution? Jump inside it and then destroy it from within.
• Rolling Attack: An upgrade for your saber attack is making Zero able to do this with the saber, whether in midair or while dashing. Interestingly, you can keep tapping the attack button while he's doing the rolling dash and he'll roll nonstop, provided that he isn't stopped by the terrain or the enemy who doesn't die instantly by the attack (and the attack is actually pretty weak, mind you).
• Rookie Red Ranger: He joins the Resistance at the start of the first game; the Resistance soldiers quickly follow him as their field leader of sorts (Ciel, their actual leader, is an Actual Pacifist).
• Sealed Badass in a Can: At the start of the series, in an abandoned lab.
• Secret Character: In SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos.
• Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: All the box art features him staring forward and brandishing his sword.
• Series Mascot: Of the non-cute kind, he's a big one for the Mega Man series and Capcom in general.
• Set Bonus: The Junk Armor in Zero 4 will only show its effect (doubling the damage Zero deals and takes) when you equip all three of the separate parts and disable your Elf.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Being amnesiac aside, he has seen many tragedies in the past. Now, he seems to care only about missions, and is frequently emotionless.
• Shoot the Dog: In the final battle, Weil boasts how a heroic Reploid like Zero would be incapable of killing a human. This is in spite of Zero calling him a Maverick that needed putting down in the previous game, and how Zero just tried to kill him. Weil just doesn't get it. So Zero gives him his best speech, and does to him what should have been done a century ago.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • After Weil's gloating in Zero 3:
  Zero: I bet most decent humans wouldn't understand, either. You look like another Maverick, to me. All I gotta do is dispose of you like any other Maverick.
  • His "No More Holding Back" Speech is also used as a response to Weil saying that a "hero, fighting for justice and humanity" like him should not kill a human like Weil.
• Something Else Also Rises: In Zero 3, a female Resistance member gives Zero what awfully sounds like a kiss (*SMOOCH*) as thank you for rescuing her in the previous games. Zero's E-crystal count goes up (complete with a suspicious sound). Made worse by her finishing remark:
  Don't tell Ciel about that, OK? Human girls get angry over little things like that.
• Speed Echoes: Like in the previous series, dashing will create afterimages of him.
• Spin to Deflect Stuff: In the artworks, it's shown that his Shield Boomerang is actually the Z-Saber spinning really fast.
• The Stoic: Oh so much, in stark contrast to his more openly emotional and laid-back portrayal in the X series. Even in the drama tracks (see Lower-Deck Episode below), he can't talk about anything other than things about his missions.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: As a robot, which is a good thing for navigating water levels. Though played with in the submarine mission in the fourth game; due to the stage being so deep in the ocean, he has to find the entry into the submarine under a time limit or he'll be crushed by the oceanic pressure.
• Swiss-Army Weapon:
  • Zero's saber can be a razor shield (doubling as a boomerang), a pogo extending spear, a whip/hookshot, tonfas, and a gun magazine. Really?
  • Zero's Z-knuckle is capable of a lot of things, depending on the weapon it stole.
• Sword and Gun: Zero replaces his old body's Z-Buster with Milan's Buster Shot gun.
• Taking You with Me: Done in the final game; Zero, knowing that he has sacrificed his chance to escape from the Colony Drop, goes on to defeat Weil to ensure that the Ragnarok will explode in space, likely killing himself as well.
• Teleportation Rescue: A few times he has to rescue someone, he'll walk to their location, then gives the rescuee a teleport beacon so the Mission Control can teleport them to the base. Due to the base not being advanced enough for it in the first game, you'll be forced to go through an Escort Mission to rescue characters.
• Three-Strike Combo: The basic skill for the Z-Saber. With the right upgrades, he can modify the third slash into a different slash that fits the situation.
• Took a Level in Badass: Implied to do this each game. Justified, as he is regaining the skills of his past life as well as new abilities, plus likely being upgraded by cyber elves. Notably, the guardians have 3 health bars in the first game, 2 in the second, and aren't even worth a boss fight (except for Phantom, who may be strengthened by cyberspace). Omega, who Zero then easily defeats, easily defeats Leviathan and Fefnir.
• Tuck and Cover: In the first game, he does this to Ciel to cover her from the Golem's blast because she's too weak to move.
• Tyrannicide: Played with when he slayed Copy-X. He's a tyrant to Reploids, but he created an utopia for humans on top of it, and people at large loved him. Played straighter when he slayed Dr. Weil, who ruled Neo Arcadia with an iron fist.
• Uncertain Doom: Though he defeats Dr. Weil at the climax of Zero 4 and stops Ragnarok from decimating Earth, he appears to go down together with the satellite, and all that's left of him is his shattered helmet in an isolated desert. Ciel, however, remains hopeful that he is still alive.
• The Unchosen One: Ciel wakes Zero up amnesiac and he questions whether or not he's really Zero, although saving her leaves the latter more than convinced. He is the consciousness of the X series Zero, but that consciousness was implanted in a replica body. In short, this Zero is no longer Zero by original design in any capacity.
• Underestimating Badassery: Most of the bosses mock Zero's "Legendary Hero" status and the fact that he was out of commission for about 100 years since the X era. How wrong they are.
• Universally Beloved Leader: For the Resistance at least, Zero is considered one of its leaders together alongside Ciel. When Zero is brought to the new base in Zero 2, many soldiers (the ones who formed the original Resistance before Elpizo's group joined up) are shown heading for the infirmary where he was recuperating, shouting his name in joy, to the noticeable discomfort and annoyance of Elpizo. This is justified, since Zero has done a lot for them in the first game alone.
• Utility Weapon: the three Rod weapons all have secondary functions aside from dealing damage: the Triple Rod can be a pogo stick, the Chain Rod is, of course, a Grappling-Hook Pistol, and the Recoil Rod can boost Zero's jump as well as move/destroy certain blocks.
• Walking the Earth:
  • From the end of Zero 1 to the beginning of Zero 2.
  • Key members of the La Résistance join him in Zero 4, although they weren't exactly walking...
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • In Zero 4, Neige and her Caravan call him out on all his and the Resistance's actions throughout the series, up to and including bringing the war to Area Zero, even though Zero and the resistance didn't even go to Area Zero until Weil's troops were already approaching it. Zero later calls the Caravan out for attempting to abandon Neige when she was kidnapped.
  • Notably, they also call him out for killing Copy-X (that was really Weil who caused his death, but Zero was trying to kill him) that allowed Weil to take over Neo Arcadia. In that case, Zero didn't seem to think that part through.
• What the Hell, Player?: In Zero 2, in the intro level, if you just stand on the first screen killing the endless stream of mooks, he'll say "This isn't fun anymore..."
• World's Best Warrior: He's no longer the World's Strongest Man, as that body and all its power has belonged to the Omega persona since he transferred out of it. What defines the Zero of this age is his potent, multifaceted arsenal and his peerless skill in using it to its fullest.
• You Are Too Late: Zero arrives at the final boss barely in time (which is an improvement over his usual tardiness) to stop the destruction of the last good land on Earth...but must sacrifice any chance at escape for himself. Earlier, he had many moments like this, such as when he comes late to stop the missile in the third game or when he comes late to stop Craft from destroying Neo Arcadia with Ragnarok.
• You Shouldn't Know This Already: ALL of Zero's sword skills in this series are adapted from the skills he learned in the X series. Yet, thanks to his amnesia, he has to relearn them again. He also totally forgot techs between each game from Z2 onward.
• You Will Not Evade Me: One of Zero's skills with the Chain Rod is pulling things, including enemies, towards him.
• Zeroth Law Rebellion: Played with copious amounts of irony via Zero's final decision in dealing with Weil. The irony here is twofold: while Zero was NOT designed to be Three Laws-Compliant, yet he CHOOSES to obey them of his free will, and in how Zero's actions are in perfect compliance with law zero. Note: The spirit of Law Zero is a threshold law with a very specific trigger (such as a mass murderer) for it to be appropiate. And for this instance being notable at all is because Weil noted that, being a Reploid hero, Zero should protect humans like Weil, invoking Three Laws-Compliant in the process. Of course, aside from not thinking of himself as a hero to begin with, the Law Zero allowed Zero to kill such a bastard like Weil anyway.