Video Game / Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team Colonel and Team ProtoMan

aka: Mega Man Battle Network 5 Double Team DS

Spoilers for all Mega Man Battle Network entries preceding this one, including Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun and Blue Moon may be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

Mega Man Battle Network 5 is an Action RPG created by Capcom for the Game Boy Advance in 2005. It's the fifth installment in the Mega Man Battle Network series, and like every game in the franchise since Battle Network 3, there are two versions: Team Colonel and Team ProtoMan.

Nebula and Dr. Regal have reemerged, kidnapping Lan's father and confiscating his friend's Navis during an assault on SciLab. The returning crime syndicate quickly takes over the entire Net while Lan and MegaMan are temporarily out of commission, but it seems to be a distraction to allow its leader more time to work on his real goal. The ever-busy duo of heroes cannot take on an emboldened Nebula alone, however, and must now work together with new allies to stop the Dark Chip Syndicate once again and free the Net, with their teammates differing depending on the version. Team Colonel focuses on a new character named Baryl and his NetNavi Colonel.EXE as well as many familiar teammates, while Team ProtoMan focuses on familiar faces Chaud and ProtoMan.EXE with mostly newcomers joining the team.

One of the main features of Battle Network 5 is Liberation Missions. As the "Team" in the titles may have hinted at, these missions require the player to control multiple Navis — not just MegaMan — to clear maps infested with Dark Panels in a fashion similar to turn-based Tactical RPGs. Each Navi that makes up the team has their own fighting style and an ability specific to them, which they can use to buff allies, increase the amount of panels they liberate, or other effects. Liberation Missions also require all combat encounters to be completed in just 3 rounds to add more pressure on the player, which the game enforces by opening the Custom Screen as soon as the Custom Gauge is filled.

The games also received an Updated Re-release for the Nintendo DS on July 21, 2005, aptly named Double Team DS. This version has access to both games on one cart, a few quality-of-life improvements, graphical touch-ups, a redone soundtrack, voice clips for Lan and MegaMan, and other gameplay additions like the new Party Battle System.

---

This game provides examples of:

• 11th-Hour Superpower: Subverted; during the cutscene after MegaMan successfully defeats Nebula Grey, it regenerates and then tries to take over MegaMan's body. All hopes seem lost...when suddenly MegaMan turns into his full Hub form and wards off Nebula Grey with little effort. The subversion comes when he turns back to his normal form - and Nebula Grey goes back to strike him yet again. Fortunately there's Colonel (and others) to help him defeat Nebula Grey with a final, supercharged Mega Buster.
• 13 Is Unlucky: If the Chaos Unison's charged shot is unleashed while the charge is green, the attack will fail and Dark Mega will appear on the field to attack the player for thirteen seconds.
• Advertised Extra: Bass is prominently featured in the opening cinematic of Double Team DS, despite only appearing as a completely optional Superboss with zero story relevance in all versions of the game. He doesn't even appear in person if you don't have Bass Cross unlocked — the fights with Bass are the Lord of Chaos taking on his appearance and fighting style.
• After-Combat Recovery:
  • Auto Heal, a new NaviCust program, gives MegaMan a small amount of HP after every battle. Virus battles will also occasionally drop a decently sized heal instead of loot.
  • Fighting battle image data of teammate Navis restore MegaMan's HP to maximum before and after the battle.
• All in a Row: In Double Team DS, your chosen battle data of your Navi ally will follow you around the net as semi-transparent running sprites. ProtoMan/Colonel call them "ghosts".
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The plot is set in motion when Nebula assaults Scilab and captures Yuichiro. Later on, Scilab is compromised again, forcing Team Colonel/Team ProtoMan to relocate their base to the back room of Higsby's shop.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Liberation Missions are a major shake-up to the gameplay, so they're very lenient with mistakes unless you're going for a low turn count to get a bonus prize. The only way to reach a failure state is to have every team member knocked out at once, and knocked out Navis will recover after two turns. You can also have Navis heal 50% of their max health by making them skip their turn.
  • Whenever the story mandates to go the deepest areas of the Oran Isle mines, you will be brought back to the entrance after completing said compulsory task. Really handy since the mines have a somewhat labyrinthian layout.
  • Conveyor belts, the most annoying aspect of the DrillComp dungeon, are fortunately turned off on subsequent visits (including one late-game story event).
  • Unlocking the Nebula Area causes all Random Encounters to be upgraded. If you're hunting for low-level chips you may have missed, it's possible to re-seal the Nebula Area (by talking to the same Mr. Prog that opened it) and return the viruses to normal levels.
  • The GBA versions prevent opening the menu during Liberation Missions, not only making it impossible to edit the chip folder, but also restricting the ability to save the game to a once-per-turn command that can only be used by the team leaders and ToadMan/Meddy. The DS version doesn't feature this restriction, greatly alleviating the Liberation Missions' difficulty.
  • The DS version adds maps for all areas of the net that clearly mark vendors, jack-in ports, and teleporters, which makes navigation much easier. This is especially true of the final levels in the Nebula HQ, which have very complex layouts and require you to control up to three different Navis to specific obstacles only they can remove: each area hands you the map data right at the start of the level so you can find your way around.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Only 5 characters can take part in Liberation Missions. When at least 6 people are present, one of them (you can't choose who) will get left behind to stay on guard and watch for surprise ambushes, which of course never happens. It's especially strange to see Colonel leaving ShadowMan on guard and then talking about the need for speed in the mission. Postgame Liberation Missions simply have the absent Navis not respond to the call to assemble for one reason or another. Not even the final postgame Liberation Mission would let you have the power of a full team for once.
• Artificial Brilliance: The BubbleWrap chip surrounds MegaMan with a bubble barrier that can only nullify a single hit, but automatically reforms itself within a few seconds. The latter property makes it one of the better defensive chips in the game; however, if the player uses it against the final boss, the A.I. will respond by repeatedly using Dark Thunder, which deals double damage if MegaMan's bubble is active and prevents it from reforming.
• Ascended Glitch: In Battle Network 2, the Flappy virus (known for the "Quake" BattleChip series) was supposed to randomly jump panels one to five times before attempting to squash MegaMan, but almost always attacked after two hops due to a programming glitch. In Battle Network 5, the Powie virus is deliberately coded to always attack after a second hop... but now its AI has a different glitch that virtually eliminates the tiny chance of an attack after a single hop.
• Attack Its Weakpoint: The Final Boss generates a giant, invincible avatar. The actual target is the seemingly-harmless fireball that rotates around its avatar.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • MagnetMan's Command lets him shield the party from attacks outside of battle for a turn at the cost of a rare Order Point...and MagnetMan's turn. Since field damage is pitiful and can't bring HP below 1, it's very rarely worthwhile to use it instead of choosing to liberate a panel.
  • Meddy's Twin Liberation ability targets a panel for liberation, then if another Navi liberates the panel on the far end of the row, all panels between the two are liberated. Odds are if you're using this ability, the panel at the other end is a single empty tile surrounded by dark panels, so the only Navi who can get there is GyroMan, a Fragile Speedster who is terrible at fighting enemies when surrounded. Plus, due just to how the maps tend to be laid out, you don't often get a chance to use Twin Liberation in circumstances where it could be useful.
  • In Double Team DS if you're attempting to Liberate and you have allies nearby who haven't taken their turn yet, you can recruit up to two or them into the fight using the Party Battle System, like how Mega does outside of story dungeons. However, doing so will spend the turns of all participants, which is not good for action economy unless you're good at using the Combination Attack feature for a quick Liberation.
  • Dark Chips in this game have their own codes that you can add to your folder, and you can only have a maximum of three Dark Chips in your folder at a time. Their colossal MB requirement makes it impossible to set them as a Regular Chip. This makes drawing your Dark Chips much more inconsistent compared to the previous game, which in turn makes it difficult to push Mega into his Dark Soul mode so that you can start accessing the Evil Chips and DS Navi Chips. In comparison, the previous game enables consistent access to two Dark Chips each turn once you intentionally perform poorly enough for them to start appearing. On the other hand, they're much more useful if you sacrifice them in a Chaos Unison.
• Back Stab: ShadowSoul can charge Sword-type chips and warp behind an enemy before activating them.
• Balance Buff: Charged shots used under Double Soul now scale their damage based on Buster Power instead of being static values like in Battle Network 4. This gives a good fallback attack when out of chips and encourages upgrading the MegaBuster with the NaviCust.
• Bait-and-Switch: Lan is sent to a gala on the Queen Bohemia to protect a special booster system from being stolen by Nebula, and quickly comes across one of their agents. When the system is inevitably stolen, it turns out that the Nebula goon didn't take it; he's beaten to the punch by someone else.
• Beach Episode: Lan, Mayl, Dex, and Yai take a vacation at Oran Island's beach near the beginning of the game to take their minds off the abduction of GutsMan, Roll, and Glyde. Things quickly head south when they go explore the island and everyone but Lan falls into the mines.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation:
  • The Shachihoko atop End Castle are translated as Gargoyle, even though the shachihoko are quite obviously fish and gargoyles are typically depicted as winged humanoids.
  • The Queen Bohemia hint varies depending on the version; the Japanese version is a Goroawase Number riddle — the mnemonic is "Good country, good meat" (spoken as "ii kuni, niku ii", and can be written out as 11922911). Meanwhile, the English version translates the mnemonic into something almost nonsensical — not only does it write too instead of two, you're also meant to interpret "tonight" as "two nine". The Italian version takes it even further with "double 0 on head and double 0 on tail, the heart is 81".
  • The DS version was the only version translated into other European languages, including Spanish; unfortunately, the Spanish translator was very incompetent at their job, leading to some unintentional comedy such as the Chivalry NaviCust part being translated as "I knew it! He's using my vibrator!".
• Boring, but Practical:
  • The Buster Up chip boosts Attack by 1, but its * code and low memory cost will be helpful for most of the game until you get more NaviCust programs. This is especially useful in liberation missions where most Navis deal only 1 damage with their normal attacks; Buster Up effectively doubles their firepower.
  • Vulcan chips. They deal average damage, but the attack's long duration means you might accidentally counter an enemy attack to trigger Full Synchro even though you didn't time things quite right. They also come in codes compatible with many other chips, and the base Vulcan1 even comes in * code. Also, because they deal their damage over multiple weak hits, they work very well with ATK+ chips, which power up each individual hit. If you're playing Team Colonel where you can acquire Number Soul and Chaos Number Soul, the chips can deal ludicrous damage, with a powered up Super Vulcan dealing up to 1440 damage provided all hits connect.
  • Higsby's shop in this game introduces the Bargain Bin, where you can purchase low-level chips at * code. It's not bad for helping to streamline a folder, but you can also turn excess Zenny into easy Chip Trader fodder.
• Boss Rush: The final chapter has two sets of boss rushes involving the Team Navis and the Darkloids, respectively. It starts off with Lan and MegaMan having to stop four of the Team Navis from being brainwashed by the SoulNet's microservers scattered across Electopia. After retrieving the team leader from Nebula's grasp, the heroes storm the Nebula HQ, where they are greeted with the Darkloids guarding the path to Regal.
• Broken Bridge: Each Liberation Mission's location is guarded by some sort of defense set up by Nebula. MegaMan and the team initially attempt to break in to no avail, forcing them to retreat until they recruit a new teammate whose specialization can conveniently bypass Nebula's defenses.
• Call-Back:
  • The game starts with a flashback in Dr. Tadashi Hikari's lab, near identical as it was from the ending cutscene of Battle Network 3. A visual recreation of said lab is later visited on the Cyberworld just like right after 3's Final Boss is defeated.
  • Majority of the Navis returning from past entries are from the second game, such as ToadMan and MagnetMan.
  • The second villain scenario is prefaced by a recreational trip with Lan and friends, coupled with having to do a Pixel Hunt around the place to craft things.
  • ShadowMan/GyroMan's teammate scenario has them steal KnightMan/MagnetMan's essential programs, including a "movement program". One of the tests set-up for the B-License exam in 2 is retrieving a similarly-named Walk Program.
  • The final boss is an amalgamation of small bits of harmful data, like how Gospel being made of Bug Frags.
  • The shield blocking the route to ACDC 3 easily destroyed by ProtoMan/Colonel resembles a larger, more detailed version of the shield doors from the ProtoMan scenario in Blue Moon.
  • The Katana chip series is a retooled version of the HawkCut series from Battle Network 4, down to having the exact same chip description in the English version. The difference is that ProtoMan is summoned to perform HawkCut, while MegaMan himself performs Katana.
• The Cameo: The DethPhnx and Phoenix chips are based off of creatures from the Duel Masters franchise. Duel Masters received a card based on Bass in return. This was cross-promotion for the respective MegaMan NT Warrior and Duel Masters anime movies, which were shown in Japanese theaters as a double-feature.
• Can't Catch Up: Your Navi teammates will pull their weight just fine in most of the storyline Liberation Missions. However, they gain no benefits from the Navi Customizer and they can't use Soul Unisons or Dark Chips, which makes them struggle in the lategame while MegaMan's options continue to grow. By the time you begin liberating the post-game Nebula Areas, they'll get brutalized by the higher-level viruses swarming them and you'll find MegaMan doing most of the heavy lifting. While you can upgrade your Party Battle teammates in Double Team DS with their own Party Customizer programs, the actual Navis in the Liberation Missions don't get to enjoy these perks.
• Cash Gate: When first exploring the mines on Oran Island, Lan comes across doors with electronic locks that he is unable to open without a key. The key has to be bought from a Navi in Oran Area 1 for 1000 Zenny.
• Chekhov's Gunman: On the first trip to Oran Island, MegaMan has to buy a key off of a Navi that's randomly in an isolated area of the Net only accessible from one of the deserted island's terminals. The Navi is owned by a retired miner who used to know Lan's grandfather, and ends up holding a clue they need to find a VisionBurst.
• Combat Medic: Subverted with MeddySoul. MegaMan fuses with a Recovery Navi so medicine-themed that her name is a play on the word "medical", yet the soul's primary gimmick has almost nothing to do with healing. Instead, the focus is largely on adding offensive Status Effects to chips. Meddy Chaos is a slightly more traditional example in that MegaMan gains the absurdly powerful Dark Recover.
• Combination Attack: In the DS version you can do unique combo attacks with a Navi you have on standby if you switch them in during Full Synchro. Only certain Navi duos work, however.
• Comeback Mechanic: Dark Chips and DS NaviChips in this game deal damage based on the number of times that MegaMan has flinched from enemy attacks, encouraging players to use them to turn the tables on an opponent that is repeatedly landing hits.
• Convection, Schmonvection: The central room of Nebula's headquarters is filled with boiling magma, yet everyone can walk across it with no apparent ill effects.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: During their beach day on Oran Island, Lan and Dex have a competition to see who can catch the most fish. Lan almost snags a decently large one but ultimately comes back empty-handed. Dex catches twelve, with five of them being caught in the span of 10 minutes.
• Cutting Off the Branches: While both versions of Battle Network 5 were announced simultaneously, Team of Colonel released months after Team of Blues in Japan and features an expanded ending where Wily is revealed to be behind Dr. Regal's Laser-Guided Amnesia. Indeed, the events of Battle Network 6 continue from Team Colonel.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Parodied with the Houdini of the Beach. The process involves putting your suit over your underpants and taking it off from underneat the suit. This lets you switch to your bathing suit without ever getting naked. The catch is that you have to stretch your underpants over each leg. This puts immense strain on the underpants and can eventually lead to them ripping in half. Dex's underpants don't survive when he attempts it during the Beach Episode.
• Dark Reprise: The Undernet theme, "Depth", is a solemn remix of "Network Space", the regular net's theme.
• Defend Command:
  • MagnetMan's Command shields the entire party from field attacks for a turn.
  • ProtoSoul can call up a damage-negating shield with B+Left. The timing is pretty strict to compensate for it being free, unlike Guard chips.
• Demoted to Extra: While Lan's friends are still present, their PETs get confiscated by Nebula at the beginning of the game and are thus unable to contribute fighting back. Their Navis are also almost completely absent until they are rescued in the climax.
• Difficult, but Awesome:
  • If you win a Liberation battle in one turn (i.e. a little less than 10 seconds), you will free all Dark Panels in a one-tile radius of your Navi. Busting a group of viruses or a Guardian that fast is difficult — especially if the panel formation leaves you surrounded in battle — but it's significantly more turn-efficient and can save you Order Points.
  • Chaos Unison allows you to use the incredible power of Dark Chips without any of the associated permanent consequences, and turns them into your reusable charge shot. However, the transformation only lasts for one turn, you have to draw Dark Chips from your folder randomly like any other chip to fuel it, and mistiming the charge shot will immediately end the Unison while also summoning an invincible Dark MegaMan to attack you.
• Disadvantageous Disintegration: NapalmMan and TomahawkMan both have Order abilities that clear out a large amount of Dark Panels, but using them also destroys most item panels hit. The game also spites you by not destroying traps and instead triggering them as normal, often resulting in extra damage or turn-costing paralysis.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • The bonus panel roulette for the ACDC liberation mission has a chance to reward a Boomer V or Tornado D chip; the former hits a large part of the enemy area for good damage, the latter deals multiple hits to a single panel for high damage. If you have the patience to farm them from the bonus panels, they will be of great use against most enemies. In Team ProtoMan, Tornado chips can see usage into the endgame to fuel Gyro Soul, and D is a very good code to work with.
  • In the drill computers before the Oran liberation mission, you'll find a Longsword S, which gives you the tools for what is probably your first Program Advance, Lifesword.
  • When you first get to Oran Area shortly after your first liberation mission, you can find a vendor selling the Guardian chip. If you feel like grinding out the Zenny to get it, the Guardian chip deals 200 damage to all enemies on-screen if one of them attacks it, piercing guards and Mercy Invincibility. It'll be in your folder for the rest of the game most likely, especially when it gives easy One-Turn Liberations.
  • If playing the Wii U Virtual Console release, you can unlock the Secret Library chips and Bass Cross by opening the otherwise useless Comms menu. While the Secret Library is mostly made up of the opposite version's Team Navi chips, having access to things like NapalmMnSP and TmhwkMnSP (chips that are effectively screen nukes) way earlier than intended can let you stomp virus battles and do huge damage to the first set of bosses. Bass Cross, meanwhile, gives MegaMan an early HP boost while granting a powerful NaviCust program and a significantly better Charge Shot that will scale with Buster Attack upgrades.
• Disconnected Side Area: Undernet 1 has a side area that is only accessible through a warp from End Area 1, containing the DarkPlus Dark Chip and the Optional Boss LarkMan.
• Do Not Go Gentle: After the final battle, Regal attempts to taint MegaMan once more, saying that if he cannot destroy him, he might as well turn him into his servant. As MegaMan is slowly consumed by evil energy, he begs his operator to forgive him, but Lan refuses to let him give in to the darkness and tries to communicate directly with his soul via the SoulNet. With the help of his grandfather's spirit, Lan manages to pierce through the darkness and tell MegaMan they are always linked, awakening the Navi's inner power and saving him from complete corruption.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect:
  • Some Liberation Missions have differing rewards for clearing with the near-par and below-par turn counts instead of handing out a Navi chip and its SP version, respectively. In these instances, purposefully lagging a few turns to get the "lesser" reward for beating the mission with near-par is necessary if going for 100% Completion.
  • After beating the Lord of Chaos for the first time, his form will differ on subsequent fights based on the total time you take to defeat all the Dark Soul Navis. Beat them too fast or too slow and you get MegaMan DS or Nebula Grey, respectively, neither of which drop any rewards. Do it in just the right amount of time and you face Bass, who drops a Giga Chip necessary for 100% Completion.
• Doppelgänger Spin: ShadowMan's boss fight has him employ illusory copies of himself to distract you. They can be dispatched extremely quickly since they have negligible HP, but will also reform eventually and are able to attack MegaMan on their own.
• Downer Beginning: The game opens with Nebula storming SciLab, kidnapping Yuichiro Hikari, and confiscating the Navis of Lan's friends. They successfully take over the Net shortly afterward while Lan is unconscious from sleeping gas.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: There's a big aversion early in Team Colonel, where Baryl cites Lan's past victories against the WWW, Gospel, and Nebula as reasons why he's chosen to be the operator during Liberation Missions. In most other points in the game, though, various allies are willing to "test" Lan and Mega despite his reputation.
• Dwindling Party: The Liberation Team gets picked off one after another during the raid on the Darkchip Factory.
• Easter Egg: In Double Team DS, it's possible to summon a Navi from the version opposite the one you're playing to sub in for that Navi's counterpart during Liberation Missions. (e.g. replacing MagnetMan with KnightMan in Team ProtoMan.) If you do this and have a summoned Navi fight Dark Colonel or Dark ProtoMan in the final Liberation Mission, they have unique pre-fight dialogue for the occasion.
• Easy Level Trick: The Nebula Area 5 Liberation Mission was deliberately designed to be frustrating, as most of the map is covered in barrier panels whose keys have been hidden in fiendish locations◊. However, the mission is made significantly easier if the player is aware that ToadMan's Life Melody skill, which lets his teammates liberate five panels in a row, bypasses barrier panels, allowing you to get the keys much earlier than intended.
• Elite Mooks: Liberation Missions are home to a group of special viruses called Guardians. Guardians are significantly stronger than normal viruses, sporting much higher HP and the ability to damage your Navis out of combat.
• Excuse Plot: Nebula taking over the internet; Regal directly states that it was just a distraction to buy time while Nebula searches for the Macguffin he needs for his real plan.
• Fake Difficulty: Liberation Missions are an Unexpected Gameplay Change whose difficulty quickly escalates.
  • Later missions force the player to check every item panel for keys to unlock barriers, but some of these panels actually hold traps that deal damage equal to half a Navi's max HP or stun them for a turn. Without a guide or trial and error, the only reliable way to find the keys is by using SearchMan or NumberMan's skills, but these require order points, which are limited in supply.
  • Viruses naturally grow stronger in later missions, with more HP, more dangerous attacks, and faster movement. However, your party members' stat growth leaves a lot to be desired, since most of them lack firepower of their own and don't have as much HP as MegaMan in the endgame. This problem exacerbates in the postgame when viruses get upgraded an entire tier, and your teammates Can't Catch Up as they lack a Navicust as extensive as Megaman's.
  • The maps are designed in a way that makes liberating dark panels surrounded by other dark panels inevitable. In this scenario, your field is limited to just two rows, though your range of movement may be further restricted by obstacles like rocks or enemies packing the Area Grab battle chip^note Which leaves you with one column to move in, making it impossible to avoid most attacks.
• Fake Longevity:
  • You'll only face first-tier viruses throughout the main game. To fill out more of your chip library, you have to open up the Bonus Dungeon, which causes all virus encounters to upgrade so you can fight their advanced versions for their stronger chips. The green Mystery Data also updates with new stuff, so you're encouraged to engage in Backtracking to fill out the empty library spots, especially when you're forced to get 140 Standard Chips in your Library to progress deeper into the Bonus Dungeon. After you open the second gate that upgrades viruses to their third tier, you're expected to go backtracking again since you need a full Standard Library to enter the deepest sectors of the area.
  • Several chips can only be obtained in Liberation Missions, either in item panels or bonus panels. The latter cycles between a selection of four chips, which means one has to replay each mission at least four times to get every reward out of it.
  • The "Gow is missing" subplot seems purposefully designed to waste your time. The game has you backtrack through several areas to follow a trail leading to his possible location, and you're eventually made to go the depths of Oran Island's mines for a third time to enter a VisionBurst located in the final DrillComp. After all this running around, you proceed to watch Gow get captured by Nebula agents. The kidnapping might as well have happened offscreen considering how you learn almost nothing of importance from the whole ordeal that required a visit to the VisionBurst.
  • The midgame and late-game ask you to traverse the expansive End Area and the Undernet multiple times, which involves traversing a number of maps filled with powerful viruses and labyrinthine layouts sprinkled with one-way conveyors and teleport pads to screw you over. To add insult to injury, a shortcut to the deepest parts of the Undernet exists, but it's in the endgame Nebula HQ area and only really useful for accessing postgame content.
• Game-Breaking Bug: In the Japanese GBA version, ending a Liberation Mission while MegaMan's maximum HP equals very specific numbers will punt control back to Lan but without MegaMan in the PET, preventing jack-ins and softlocking the game. Thankfully, the overwhelming majority of these numbers require specific DarkChip usage, and the glitch was addressed in all other versions of the game.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Full Synchro is explained as Navi and Operator's consciousnesses acting as one, increasing their combat prowess as a result. It's still possible to trigger the mechanic with the Party Battle System in Double Team DS, even though the versions of the Team Navis you're lugging around are stated to be replicated combat data of the real ones and just empty shells.
• Gas Mask Mook: The standard Nebula Mook attire in this game. According to one ex-member of Nebula who's willing to sell his Nebula ID to Lan, it's also a Clingy Costume that requires a special key to take off.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Nebula. While ShadeMan and LaserMan had at least some personality in Battle Network 4, here all four Navis that make up Nebula (ShadeMan himself included) only appear in a handful of cutscenes outside of liberation missions and have no characterization beyond "mwahahaha Dark Is Evil!"
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: After MegaMan gets captured by Nebula in the aftermath of the third Liberation Mission, Lan goes through a Heroic BSoD and cannot bring himself to continue helping Team Colonel/ProtoMan. In Team Colonel, Baryl ends up tired of Lan's moping and slaps him to snap the kid out of his funk so he can rescue his brother.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • Outside of the freebie given by a tutorial, nothing in the games tells you what chip combinations will create Program Advances. Double Team DS alleviates this issue with an NPC who will provide you with hints.
  • Some Beta and Omega random encounters were hard to find without looking it up.
    • GridMan and LarkMan Omega appear as random encounters at specific locations (Oran Area 2 for the former, Undernet 2 for the latter) instead of talking to Mr. Famous and LarkMan after defeating their Beta versions.
    • The four Darkloids don't seem to have any such encounters, until they are defeated in the final chapter's Boss Rush. While three of them appear where their Liberation Missions take place, CosmoMan inexplicably appears in Undernet 4 instead of End Area 5.
• Hard Mode Mooks: Going through the main storyline only gets you to fight the first-tier enemies and earn first-tier chips. After you beat the Final Boss, you can open the special gate into the Bonus Dungeon (the Nebula Area) to upgrade the enemies, making them faster and stronger and yield better chips, and some enemies even get additional effects to their attacks. As you progress into the postgame, you eventually open another gate that further upgrades the enemies to earn the third and final tiers of chips.
• Harder Than Hard: The Post-End Game Content contains three completely optional Liberation Missions situated in the Bonus Dungeon. These missions have viruses and bosses much stronger than the normal endgame and large, complicated map layouts filled with barrier and trap panels. The first mission immediately pits you against second-tier viruses while you still only had first-tier chips from the main game and you're starting to feel your teammate Navis taper off in strength. The second has an absurd density of trap panels. The final mission lacks traps, but is jam-packed with Dark Panels and even has two Darkloids positioned close enough to each other to have overlapping attack ranges. Trying to beat any of these under par on the first attempt is a huge task.
• Hate Plague: Nebula's endgame is to turn humanity evil via the power of SoulNet. A small scale test with microsevers leads to people becoming irritable and violent jerkasses to each other.
• Heal Thyself: You can have your Navis heal some HP during Liberation missions by passing their turn.
• Healing Factor: Wood-aligned viruses and TomahawkMan/TomahawkSoul will slowly restore HP as long as they stand on grass panels.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: At the end of the game, Dr. Wily appears in front of a defeated Dr. Regal and uses SoulNet to wipe the last 10 years of his son's memory. Dr. Regal ends up reformed as a result and is hired at SciLab.
• Heroic BSoD: After MegaMan is captured, Lan's confidence in himself is heavily shaken and he almost quits Team Colonel/ProtoMan. A pep talk with his leader and being temporarily entrusted with Colonel/ProtoMan convinces him to keep going to save his brother.
• Immune to Flinching: MagnetMan, KnightMan and Knight Soul will not flinch when hit by attacks. The aptly named "Super Armor" NaviCust program can also give this ability to MegaMan.
• Industrialized Evil: The Nebula HQ is a factory that mass-produces Dark Chips, and the Team storms this place in the endgame.
• Inventory Management Puzzle: The Patch Card system is retooled to make it more challenging to use powerful cards together. Each Patch Card is now assigned an MB rating, with the player being limited to 80MB total. Rather than each card giving a single effect, most cards give multiple buffs, while occasionally giving multiple nerfs as well. Some of said nerfs include disabling effects granted by other Patch Cards or the Navi Customizer (such as Buster changes or Undershirt), making it less than ideal to use certain combinations together.
• Invincibility Power-Up: One of the prizes you can get from a Bonus Panel during Liberation Missions is invincibility for every Navi for one turn. It doesn't last very long in combat, but the free immunity to damage may allow you to push for a 1 Turn Liberation.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: At the end, Wily erases the memories of his own son Regal so the latter's vendetta against the world will be over.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Nebula tries to trick Lan and MegaMan into thinking that Raika and SearchMan (in Team ProtoMan) or Higsby and NumberMan (in Team Colonel) are double agents working for them. The two Operator/Navi duos end up fighting over this, though they thankfully figure out what's going on before permanent damage is done.
• Level Scaling: The Dark Soul Navis faced in the final postgame Nebula Area scale their damage and HP based on MegaMan's max HP value (excluding anything granted by the NaviCust). Their damage output can potentially be lower than in their original boss fights if you didn't pick up any HP Memories for the entire game.
• Loophole Abuse: Activating a Chaos Unison doesn't count as "using" the associated Dark Chip that fueled it, relieving players from the permanent HP reduction and karma penalty that accompanies Dark Chip abuse.
• Made of Evil: A Navi in SciLab's Homepage says that Dark Chips are made of people's hate, hence why they're so corrupting.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: Lan and MegaMan end up doing the majority of the legwork for Team Colonel/Team ProtoMan. They scout out areas before missions, recruit most of the members, and deal with several Nebula plots unassisted. Lan even operates every single team Navi during Liberation Missions by himself, though it's at least explained that this is because interference from Nebula bottlenecks communication.
• Maximum HP Reduction: Just like in the previous game, using a Dark Chip will permanently reduce MegaMan's HP by 1. This does not apply to sacrificing them to fuel Chaos Unions, thankfully.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter:
  • GyroMan and ShadowMan are the only Navis that can traverse over Dark Panels in Liberation Missions, and this is completely separate from their Command. This allows them to go deep within the Liberation zone (Barrier Panels permitting) to snipe specific panels without having to clear the way first, though they still need to engage from a free panel.
  • NapalmMan is the only playable Navi without a Charged Attack — holding down B will instead make him rapid-fire weak shots. This functions identically to Vulcan chips, though it lacks the ability to make the target flinch during the counterattack window.
• Mini-Boss: Guardians (not to be confused with the Mega Chip with the same name) in Liberation Missions, larger than normal viruses that appear on the map and even have their own field attacks. They come in three variants:
  • Big Brutes warp around the battlefield and breathes a plus-shaped fire blast.
  • Tin Hawks are giant fliers that swoop from the sky, only vulnerable within the short period of time they reach the ground.
  • Bladias resemble Swordy viruses from the first three games, but larger and more heavily armored. They can shield non-breaking attacks with their greatsword and smash a column of panels to crack them.
• Mirror Character: Each Navi between Team ProtoMan and Team Colonel fills the same roles as their counterpart in the team's hierarchy, but the manner in which they go about those roles tends to contrast the other.
  • ProtoMan is a melee fighter who slashes his sword at enemies and needs his shield to reflect ranged attacks, while Colonel is good at range thanks to his charge shot and special chip, but his slow charge speed and its unusual hitbox means he's not good at close-up enemies.
  • MagnetMan attacks singular enemies from range with magnet missiles while KnightMan swings his mace to hit enemies around him, and both of them have Super Armor and the highest base HP among the team. While they both protect teammates in the field, MagnetMan needs to give up an Order Point to generate a barrier to protect the entire team across the field, while KnightMan passively defends allies without Order Points but only if they're right next to him.
  • GyroMan and ShadowMan can move over dark panels to get to hard-to-reach areas, and GyroMan's ability lets him liberate a dark panel without a fight while ShadowMan's lets him take out Darkloid Guardians without a fight. Both of them are Fragile Speedsters in battle: GyroMan's charge shot is powerful against ranged enemies and can hit several targets, but he has to hold still to use it, while ShadowMan can dodge enemy attacks with his charge shot but it only hits one enemy, so he has trouble against multiple targets.
  • NapalmMan and TomahawkMan can clear large areas of dark panels with their liberation abilities, NapalmMan in a cross-shape ahead of him and TomahawkMan in a rectangle before him. In battle NapalmMan is better at fighting immobile enemies since he can stand in place and rapid-fire at them, while TomahawkMan's charged attack hits over a large area at once. Both of them are also Glass Cannons due to their middling HP and exploitable elemental affinities, and they can be quickly taken out.
  • SearchMan/NumberMan are Support Party Members who specialize in retrieving items from dark panels, SearchMan searches for items in a line and actually has to fight and liberate the item panels, while NumberMan searches in a grid formation and gets the items without a fight, but doesn't liberate the panels. In battle, SearchMan stands in place and uses his sniper-style buster to rapid-fire a single target, while NumberMan throws bombs that deal random damage over a large area and whiff if they hit an enemy directly.
  • Meddy and ToadMan are also supporters, but they set up allies to liberate large sections of dark panels with their abilities: Meddy has to work with an ally to use Twin Liberation, ToadMan gives up his turn to let an ally liberate a long path of dark panels on their own. In battle both are Squishy Wizards with charge shots and unique chips that are difficult to use safely, and they're good at fighting Darkloid Guardians but not so much normal enemies who can overwhelm them.
• Missing Main Character: MegaMan gets kidnapped by CloudMan at the end of their battle and becomes the boss of the next Liberation Mission as MegaMan DS. This sends Lan into a Heroic BSoD until Chaud/Baryl snap him out of it and offer their respective Navi as a replacement until MegaMan is rescued.
• Mook Maker: The Dark Hole panels found in Liberation Missions will spawn Guardian viruses every turn. Liberating a Dark Hole will also erase all Guardians it has spawned.
• Musical Nod:
  • Both this game's rendition of the ACDC Town theme and the ending credits contain a few notes from the recurring theme of the first three Battle Network games.
  • While Battle Network 5's theme is a remix of the title theme of its immediate predecessor, the Triumphant Reprise that plays during heroic moments is specifically based on the Battle Network 4 rendition. This mirrors how the heroic themes of Battle Network 2 and Battle Network 3 call back to the full version of "Running Through the Cyberworld" from the first game instead of their respective title themes.
  • Both the battle and boss themes shares the first few beats with "Fire Field", FireMan's stage from the first game.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Barrier Panels in Liberation Missions cannot be crossed or liberated by your Team Navis, but Guardians are still able to move through them.
• Mythology Gag: Just like in Battle Network 4, you can obtain a chip based on Zero's Z-Saber (erroneously mistranslated as "Z Saver").
• Nerf:
  • Each individual Program Advance can now be used only once per battle. This makes it impractical to stack your Folder with a bunch of the same chips to spam whatever Program Advance they enable.
  • Dark Chips now have to be included in the Folder like normal chips, you can only hold 3 of them, and being in the Evil state no longer forces their spawn. This subjects them to the luck of the draw and makes it harder to manipulate their appearance than in Battle Network 4.
  • The Slow Gauge chip has been given a significantly higher MB rating to ensure it can't be used as the Regular Chip. While the chip is normally meant for PVP, it's been made Not Completely Useless for singleplayer since it extends the turn timer during Liberation Missions, and Capcom clearly didn't want players to cheese that.
  • FullSynchro can no longer be triggered on random hits, removing a Light karma perk from Battle Network 4 that could easily be abused with multi-hitting chips.
  • The speed at which TomahawkSoul recovers HP on Grass Panels has been drastically reduced compared to previous Wood-based Souls/Styles, to offset the fact that this Soul sets up an entire Grass Stage when activated.
  • Boomer is reduced to a single chip series as strong as its first tier form. It also triggers bosses' Mercy Invincibility while other Wood chips still remain untouched.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Regal's Evil Plan requires him gaining access to the Hikari Report — research done by Tadashi Hikari on an alternate form of networking — but said report is incredibly well-hidden. He's only able to obtain it because Lan and MegaMan go snooping around out of curiosity and uncover the hiding spot.
• No Ontological Inertia: If a Dark Hole is liberated, any Guardians it spawned will immediately disappear.
• Noob Cave: The first Liberation Mission in ACDC Area is the simplest one to help get players accustomed to the new gameplay style. You only have one other Navi to control (the team leader), the map is incredibly small and linear, and Order Points and a Heart are strategically placed on the path to ensure they're obtained and illustrate the contents of item panels. You're also only asked to liberate two Dark Hole before being good to fight BlizzardMan.
• Not Completely Useless:
  • The Slow Gauge chip slows down the rate in which the Custom Gauge is filled. Outside of NetBattles with other players (who are also affected by the slower gauge) or gimmicky Gauge-dependent chips, this chip is completely useless...except in the Liberation Missions, where slowing the gauge extends the three-turn time limit you are given to beat the viruses. Unfortunately for players, Capcom foresaw the possibility of setting Slow Gauge as the Regular Chip to make Liberation Missions easier and more than tripled its MB rating, making this the only Battle Network game where Slow Gauge is ineligible to be bookmarked.
  • KnightMan's charged shot swings his wrecking ball around the 8 panels around him, which is by far the worst option among his peers in most scenarios and makes it nearly impossible to liberate in any scenario where he can't take care of the enemy exclusively through chips. However, if he deliberately liberates in such a bad position that he's flanked by the enemies on both sides, this same charge shot pattern makes him able to hit enemies behind him without turning around, giving him an excellent shot at pulling off a 1-Turn Liberation to erase a massive number of panels at once.
• Old Save Bonus: Double Team DS allows you to plug any of the previous GBA games in the series (including the GBA versions of 5) into the DS system's second slot for various bonuses, such as replacing the battle theme with a remix of the one from the corresponding game. If you have GBA version of 5 game in the second slot, you can port the save file's main folder into the DS version as an Extra Folder, letting you fill out the library ahead of time or tear up the opposition with a folder filled with postgame chips.
• One-Hit Kill: Rolling "Major Hit" from a Bonus Panel kills the nearest Guardian virus. If no Guardians are present it will instead hit the Liberation Mission's specific Darkloid for 20% of their max HP.
• Order Versus Chaos: The theme of this game. Nebula's goal is to introduce global anarchy and destruction, while the Liberation Team, naturally, opposes this. It helps that the special orbs of light that endow the team to use their special abilities are called Order Points.
• Oxygen Meter: Parts of the ShipComp are flooded in a vein similar to the AquaMan scenario in Battle Network 4, and you have to deal with a limited air meter while diving. You can recover air by touching bubbles or walking up ramps leading back to the surface, while some obstacles will drain the meter faster. An empty air meter thankfully doesn't lead to any immediately dire consequences, just constant Damage Over Time while out of combat.
• The Paralyzer:
  • CloudMan's overworld attack and some trap panels will stun Navis for a turn. While not at all lethal, having one less teammate active for any amount of time makes it harder to beat Liberation Missions under par.
  • DarkSonic spawns a Trumpy virus whose melody paralyzes the opponent.
• Phlebotinum Rebel: MegaMan is captured and infused with a Dark Soul. Unfortunately for Nebula, Lan gets MegaMan to wake up and take control of himself - which unlocks the Chaos Unison ability, letting you use the powerful Dark Chips as much as you want without any permanent drawbacks. Be very careful, though, as if you mess up trying to control it, your Dark Soul will hop out and start taking shots at you.
• Post-End Game Content: Beating the game unlocks a new area called Nebula Area. Nebula Area has stronger Viruses, new chips, three extra Harder Than Hard Liberation Missions, and Dark Soul versions of your team's Navis as Optional Bosses.
• Pre-existing Encounters: Each boss has has replica data that lingers in specific spots in the net, with your Team Navis being found by the entrance of their debut Liberation Mission. Interacting with said data will trigger a fight with their Alpha versions.
• Promoted to Playable: Many members of Team ProtoMan/Colonel are Navis encountered in previous games, who are all now playable via Liberation Missions. This includes ProtoMan, MagnetMan, NapalmMan, SearchMan, KnightMan, ShadowMan, NumberMan and ToadMan.
• Random Effect Spell: If the number of different colored programs in the Navi Customizer exceeds four, MegaMan is afflicted with a bug that grants a random status effect at the beginning of the battle. Out of the four possible outcomes, two are negative (Blindness and Confusion) and two are beneficial (Invisibility and Invincibility).
• Ret-Canon: Princess Pride has had a complete 180 in her personality, becoming a much nicer person compared to her previous appearance as a member of Gospel in Battle Network 2. This makes her more in line with her portrayal in the NT Warrior anime, which gave her Adaptational Heroism.
• Secret A.I. Moves: The boss versions of your Navi teammates have access to attacks that you cannot use while controlling them, such as ShadowMan's Fire no Jutsu or MagnetMan's double Magnet Missle.
• Secret Test: Dusk/Charlie and ShadowMan/GyroMan won't join the team initially until they have a chance to test Lan and MegaMan. They do this by pretending to be antagonistic to the brothers to get into a Net Battle, after which they decide Lan and Mega are worthy teammates.
• Sequel Hook: Team Colonel expands the ending of Team ProtoMan to show that Wily is still alive, and Baryl has been working for him all along
• Situational Damage Attack:
  • DS Navi Chips get a boost to their power based on the amount of times MegaMan flinches (read: takes damage) in a battle before using them.
  • Bug Charge fires a number of shots equal to the amount of bugs MegaMan has when it's used. While potentially devastating since each shot does 200 damage, won't work at all if Mega doesn't have any bugs.
  • The CustomVolt chip series, like CustomSword, deal damage based on how much the Custom Gauge is filled. The difference is that CustomVolt removes some charge from the Custom Gauge when used.
• Skewed Priorities: In Team Colonel, Higsby and NumberMan ditch the mission to liberate End Area 5 because... Ms. Mariko's Navi needs an escort through the Net. The operation has to be canceled over this since NumberMan's expertise is necessary to open the path. The Team ProtoMan version of the scenario has Raika and SearchMan leave because a criminal they've been hunting is spotted in the area, which is more understandable but still probably less important than fighting Nebula.
• Spoiler Opening: That demonic face behind Regal in the opening of Double Team DS? That's Nebula Gray, the game's final boss! Downplayed in that it also makes it look like Bass is going to be a major antagonist, but nope, he is just an Optional Boss...again.
• The Squad: Both games have you gradually form one, as each member is recruited to fill a specific position the team needs against the escalating thread of Nebula, and their gameplay also reflects their role.
  • The Leader: ProtoMan/Colonel, whose operators actively begin putting the team together to start liberating the net from Nebula, and they're the ones who oversee all missions and strategies.
  • Number Two: MegaMan, who gets most of the extra work outside of Liberation Missions and acts as the leader's right-hand man and most trusted and effective ally. While MegaMam starts out comparatively weak among the team, in the late-game his customization options make him the most versatile and effective.
  • The Defense: MagnetMan/KnightMan, recruited for heavy defense against Nebula artillery. Their abilities protect allies in the field from damage during Darkloid turns.
  • The Scout: GyroMan/ShadowMan, recruited for their skill in scouting and recon to bypass a tricky Nebula barrier. They can move over dark panels freely to get to far-away areas and gain a foothold.
  • The Powerhouse: NapalmMan/TomahawkMan, recruited for their heavy firepower to take down a powerful Nebula gate. Their abilities liberate large areas of dark panels at once.
  • The Hacker: SearchMan/NumberMan, recruited for their intelligence and computer skills. They specialize in retrieving items from dark panels and disarming traps that could hurt their allies.
  • The Medic: Meddy/ToadMan, they aren't actively recruited but end up joining the team after they prove themselves and demand to be allowed to help them. Their abilities support their allies to let them liberate large areas of dark panels.
• Stationary Boss: Unlike Guardians, Darkloids will not move from their spawn position in the Liberation Map. They make up for this with a dangerous out-of-combat attack, such as ShadeMan's ability to hit a Navi near any dark panel on the map or CloudMan causing paralysis.
• Stock Video Game Puzzle: The weighted switch variety appears in each of the final dungeon's factory computers.
• Tag Team: Double Team DS features this, in form of Party Battle System.
  • As ProtoMan or Colonel explains, it's a system that saves a battle data of MegaMan's Liberation Team allies for him to use. During virus busting and Navi fights, MegaMan can switch with the chosen battle data, whether in the Custom Screen or in the middle of battle; you'll then play as the Navi of choice. He can have 2 active battle data with him at any given time. The number of switches are limited, which can be expanded with the right Navicust Program. If you equip a "Support" program to the specialized Party Customizer, you can make them support you, like Meddy healing you in between turns or TomahawkMan appearing from time to time to attack with Tomahawk Swing. There's also a program like this for MegaMan's own Navi Customizer that lets him do support as well. This system is disabled during plot-mandated dungeons.
  • In Liberation Missions, this system happens differently: MegaMan can't use the battle data Navis like normal, but when you're liberating a panel with teammates (who haven't taken their action) in close proximity, you can recruit those teammates into the same Party Battle System for that Liberation. This can also be done using Navis other than MegaMan.
  • The system also comes with a powerful Combination Attack that can be performed when your active character gets a Full Synchro, then you switch with another character; the screen will then dim, and the two Navis will do said attack before the switched-in Navi takes over and the Full Synchro is gone. Examples include MegaMan and ProtoMan's Double Hero (like a Program Advance in early games) or MagnetMan and ProtoMan's Magnetic Slash. Not all Navi combinations have one, however.
• Too Long; Didn't Dub: Several Combination Attacks in Double Team DS are left transliterated unlike the rest of the content; the ones that stand out are those involving ShadowMan ("E-SAPPOU" and "G-OTOSHI").
• Traveling at the Speed of Plot: Oran Island is far enough off the coast of Electopia that it's effectively deserted due to a lack of inhabitants, and Lan and his friends make a day trip out of their first visit. The game proceeds to quickly forget the travel time issue, as Lan is required to go to the island multiple times throughout the story as if it's just a 10 minute boat ride away.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: The liberation missions are Turn-Based Strategy segments.
  • The heroes get a turn to cut their way into Dark Panel territory, and then villains spend their turn trying to destroy the heroes and deploying their Dark Guardian minions to do the same. Panels are usually liberated one by one to clear paths to special Dark Holes that must be destroyed before the player can attack the boss. Upon beating him you get a reward based on how many rounds it took you to clear the area. To say the premise is a slight change-up from the normal gameplay is an understatement.
  • Battles during Liberation Missions are also modified. First, battles are now timed. You have exactly three turns to defeat the enemies or the boss - the instant the Custom Gauge is filled, the menu appears, one turn down. If enemies are still left, that NetNavi ends his turn without having achieved anything except a possible loss of his own HP. (Luckily, the area boss and minibosses will also maintain lost HP after incomplete battles). This is made all the more difficult by the fact that, depending on how you start your battles, territory changes will factor in. You can literally be stuck in the center two columns with enemies on either side, which is even more difficult with enemies that can warp between the opposite columns of their territory.
• Unexplained Recovery: At the end of Battle Network 4, Dr. Regal is shown jumping off a building with the intent to kill himself after his plans fail. He's totally fine now, and none the worse for wear with no explanation as to how.
• Updated Re Release: Mega Man Battle Network 5: Double Team DS, which contains both Team Colonel and Team ProtoMan on one Game Card. It also expands upon the Navi-swapping mechanics that the GBA games hid behind the the Japan-exclusive Progress Chip Gate, creating the Party Battle system.
• Vampire Refugee: MegaMan himself. After subjugating Dark Mega, Mega gains access to the powers of Chaos Unison, though every use runs the risk of backfiring.
• Villain Decay: In Battle Network 4, ShadeMan was an recurring Invincible Villain that could only be damaged by Dark Chips, was second in command to LaserMan (Regal's personal Navi), and could only be fought "legitimately" as a postgame Superboss. Here he's just another one of the four Darkloids without anything particularly threatening or special about him, being encountered in the second Liberation Mission.

---