Mega Man Battle Network/Liberation Guide

Liberation missions, a part of Battle Network 5, is a special gameplay mode that combines turn-based strategy and virus busting. Here, Lan is able to control up to five navis in an attempt to get to the boss of the stage. The mission is successful if the boss is deleted, and fails if either:


 * the team retreats (by pressing Start and confirming the decision to retreat)
 * MegaMan is deleted (or, in the case of mission 4 against Dark MegaMan, Colonel or ProtoMan is deleted)

Team Members
There are up to seven members on each team, with up to five available for missions: MegaMan is the team's second-in-command. The others are as follows:

All navis share the same folder and regular chip. However, the Start menu is inaccesible during the mission, thus SubChips cannot be used, nor can the e-Card settings, NaviCustomizer, or chip folder be modified. All teammate navis also have a default chip that can be used once in each battle, which either acts as a weaker version of their navi chip or a different chip entirely. The damage of said chip increases as more Liberation Missions are completed.

Panels
The area to be liberated is filled with a various assortment of panels. In order for the navis to reach the boss, they must liberate certain panels. There are several types of panels They are:


 * Clean Panels - these are liberated or unaltered panels, allowing your team to move about at will. Guardians (except for Bladias, which will turn them into dark panels before attacking) cannot move on them.
 * Dark Panels - these have a purple color, preventing your team (except for the team scout) from moving. Guardians may move about them.
 * Item Panels - identical in appearance to a Dark Panel, but with a small grey stud on top. These contain certain items, and, if the team planner is present in the mission, traps.
 * Dark Holes - these are special Dark Panels that will spawn Guardians (but only one Guardian at a time). If the Dark Hole is liberated, the corresponding Guardian disappears (but the panel they are on is not liberated).  Note that some Guardians are not associated with any Dark Hole.
 * Barrier Panels - these numbered panels prevent your team from passing without a corresponding key. Once the appropriate key is found, every corresponding barrier panel is changed to a clean panel.
 * Bonus Panels - these panels with question marks over them will give the liberator a certain reward, determined by a roulette-style selection. This does not count as a turn.

Clean Panels and Bonus Panels are said to be liberated. Panels surrounding the mission's boss, indicated by a purple block on the panel, are not liberated until all Dark Holes are liberated - and then they are turned to Dark Panels.

Enemies
Each mission has one central enemy (ie. the boss), who is surrounded by special Dark Panels such that they turn into normal Dark Panels only after all Dark Holes are eliminated. Defeating the boss will result in the success in this mission. The boss remains stationary, but has an out-of-battle attack that can deal significant damage.

Other enemies that appear in liberation missions are the Guardians, which are, for all intents and purposes, minibosses. There are three types of Guardians: the BigBrute (a bear-like enemy that breathes fire), the Bladia (a monstrous variant of the Swordy enemy), and the TinHawk (a large bid that flies out of range), each with varying attack strengths, ranges, and movement rates. Whenever you attack a Guardian, you will face the Guardian one-on-one, but whenever you liberate a Dark Hole, you will face the Guardian associated with the Dark Hole in addition to other viruses. If a Guardian affiliated with a Dark Hole is destroyed, then a new one will respawn. If a Dark Hole is liberated, any Guardian next to the Dark Hole, as well as the Guardian associated with the Dark Hole, will disappear.

Liberation Battles
During the liberation missions, no random battles are fought - battles are only fought through liberation. Liberation battles differ from ordinary battles in the following manner:


 * A turn ends when the custom gauge is full, although chips will carry over between turns.
 * All viruses must be deleted within three turns.

All members can perform liberations. However, only MegaMan benefits from NaviCustomizer parts, e-Cards, DarkChips, and DoubleSouls. All other navis can only use five chips in the Custom screen. However, each navi (except MegaMan) has a preset chip that may be used once per battle. Note that the start menu is not accessible: this means that the folders, NaviCustomizer, and e-Card settings may not be changed, nor can a player link battle. A player can save during a phase if either the team captain or the team supporter has not made their turn (if the captain and supporter are both in the mission, saves must be performed through the captain).

Note that these customizer parts will not work during Liberation missions as a result of having no random battles or being unable to link battle:
 * SneakRun, OilBody, Fish, Battery, Jungle (Attracts viruses, liberation missions have no random encounters)
 * Collect, Millions (no reward at end of virus battle)
 * Rush, Beat, Tango (PVP exclusive functionality, won't work otherwise regardless)
 * SoulTime+1 (Technically works, but is useless because liberates are limited to 3 turns, the default Double Soul/Soul Unison time)

With the exception of Bonus Panel liberations, liberations, successful or not, end a navi's turn. If an unoccupied Dark Panel or Item Panel is liberated in one turn, every surrounding unoccupied dark panel and item panel is also liberated. If a Dark Hole is liberated, every unoccupied Dark Panel and Item Panel around the Dark Hole, except for traps, is also liberated (but no one-turn liberaion bonus is received), and any miniboss next to the Dark Hole or generated from the Dark Hole disappears (although the panel they are on remains dark).

The layout of the battlefield for liberation battles changes based on the unliberated panels around it. Consider the diagram below, where X is the panel being liberated and where O is the navi (and the navi at O is facing X):


 * If either E is unliberated, or both C and D is unliberated, the battle will begin with the navi in control of the two middle columns. In this case, pressing L or R will reverse the direction the navi's facing (as a navi, in general, cannot attack viruses behind them).
 * If only one of C or D is unliberated, the battle begins with the navi in control of the first two columns. The navi will also begin in this situation if they are in the pincer situation against the boss of the mission.
 * If either A or B is unliberated, the battle begins as normal.
 * If A, B, C, D, or E are all liberated, then the battle begins with the navi in control of the first four columns.

Order Points
At the beginning of each mission, three order points are given, and up to eight order points can be held at any time. Order points are obtained through item panels or through bonus panels.

Order points are used to activate a navi's special ability. They tend to not have one-turn liberate effects. The navi then ends its turn after using it. The special abilities of each navi are as follows:


 * MegaMan - LongSword - MegaMan liberates the two panels in front of him instead of one panel.
 * Colonel - ScreenDivide - Colonel liberates the panel in front and the two panels beside it. Naturally this ability becomes useless when you are able to one-turn liberate consistenly with Colonel (but can be useful if you need to liberate areas in front but, because of traps behind you, you need to liberate in two turns).
 * ProtoMan - WideSword - same as Colonel's ScreenDivide.
 * KnightMan - KnightMan has no special abilities requiring order points, although he receives no damage from out of battle, and can shield anyone within one panel from out-of-battle damage.
 * MagnetMan - MagnetBarrier - MagnetBarrier shields the entire team from out-of-battle damage.
 * ShadowMan - SneakAttack - ShadowMan attacks bosses and minibosses one or two panels ahead, dealing them a fixed amount of damage (depending on mission), but cannot kill them outright. This ability is pretty much rendered useless if ShadowMan himself can deal more damage through actual liberation battles.
 * GyroMan - BombLiberation - GyroMan can liberate any unoccupied Dark Panel without a liberation battle. Funnily enough, this is closer to a Sneak Attack rather than ShadowMan's, as he does not enter battle.
 * TomahawkMan - TomahawkSwing - TomahawkMan liberates a 2x3 area in front of him, but any items there (except traps, which are set off, and barrier keys, which are collected) are destroyed in the process. This move, however, does not gain benefits from one-turn liberations.
 * NapalmMan - Napalm - NapalmMan liberates the four panels ahead, as well as the two panels adjacent to the third panel ahead. However, any items (except traps and barrier keys) are destroyed in the process.  This move does not gain benefits from one-turn liberations.
 * NumberMan - NumberCheck - NumberMan checks the 2x3 area in front of him and claims any items while disarming any traps. However, no panels are liberated.  Typically, NumberMan is used to get keys that are surrounded by stun traps (with Team Colonel, damage traps are less of a factor thanks to KnightMan).
 * SearchMan - PanelSearch - SearchMan checks every unoccupied Dark or Item Panel in a continuous line, and liberates all Item Panels. Any traps are disarmed in the process, while the remaining items are collected.
 * ToadMan - LifeMelody - ToadMan will sing a song to a teammate in an adjacent panel. The teammate's normal liberation will now liberate all the unoccupied Dark or Item Panels in the five panels ahead, ignoring barrier panels.
 * Meddy - TwinLiberation - Meddy will target the first and last panels in a continuous line of unoccupied Dark or Item Panels. A second navi (typically GyroMan) must be sent to the other end of the line and perform a normal liberation in order for every panel in between to be liberated.  Any traps that are tripped by this liberation affects the second navi.

Phases
The objective is to eliminate the boss of the stage within a certain number of phases. Liberation missions can continue past the number of phases indicated, but will receive lesser rewards.

During each turn, the player has a phase, followed by the Darkloids. In each of the player's phases, the player controls each navi until it performs a liberation (except Bonus Panel Liberation), uses order points, or passes its turn to heal itself. Then, the Darkloids have their turn. During this time, minibosses and the boss itself can heal themselves, and then move around and attack the player's navis. Guardians will heal up to half of their maximum HP per turn, while bosses will heal 100 HP for each unliberated panel around them.