Impact Man, known as Pile Man in Japan, is a Robot Master who appears in Mega Man 11. He's an all-purpose construction robot who specializes in piling. Impact Man is dedicated to his job and has never been one to leave a task unfinished. Even after being stolen and modified by Dr. Wily, Impact Man continued to carry out his duties as he rounded up a gang of construction robots and took up residence in an abandoned construction zone so he and his comrades could continue working on it.
This dropdown contains the synopsis of Impact Man’s story. Read at your own risk as you may be spoiled otherwise!
Impact Man's battle consists of a number of attacks in which he'll try to impale Mega Man with his drill spikes. Usually, he will dash across the room to try and ram into Mega Man with his spikes. After defeating Impact Man, Mega Man gets a special weapon called Pile Driver that mimics this attack. Oftentimes Impact Man will try to jump on Mega Man; due to his heavy weight, he can stun Mega Man when he lands, unless Mega Man jumps before Impact Man hits the ground. Impact Man will also sometimes jump into the air and turn into a three-sided drill, after which he'll jump across the room in an attempt to crush Mega Man. He'll also leave behind a spike wherever he lands.
When he's lost most of his health, Impact Man will activate his Power Gear and turn into a gigantic jackhammer. In this form, Impact Man will jump around the room and generate massive explosions by slamming his enlarged spikes into the ground. After doing this three times, Impact Man will break apart into nine Impact Brothers who will fly across the screen. Impact Man will then respawn in his normal form and continue the battle.
Impact man is weak to Acid Barrier, but since the barrier won't damage him unless used with Power Gear, and its projectiles can only be fired with the barrier up, it can be difficult to use it against him.
In the Superhero difficulty, Impact Man's attacks are much faster and do more damage. He also has less cooldown between his jumps, and he can enter his Power Gear form earlier in the fight with four attacks instead of three before reverting back.
Alignment:Lawful Good (Initially was a construction support robot built to withstand the toughest working conditions and will follow the rules of robotics), Lawful Evil after being reprogrammed by Dr. Wily (Reprogrammed by Dr. Wily to help him conquer the world and destroy Mega Man)
Power Gear: Power Gear is a red gear that increases the power of robots. When used by Mega Man it makes his default shots bigger (but he can only fire two at a time instead of three) and allows him to shoot two Charge Shots together (a regular charged shot followed by a red colored charge shot), knocking Mega Man back a little due to its power. The Power Gear also increases the power of his Special Weapons. If the Mega Buster is fully charged when the meter reaches its limit, it will be possible to fire an extra-powerful Final Charge Shot, but at the price that the cooldown period from overheating cannot be prevented. Notably even if the gauge meter reaches maximum, Mega Man will not enter cooldown mode while charging until he either fires the Charge Shot, deactivates the gear, or is damaged. If the Shock Absorber part is installed, it can prevent the recoil effect from using these special Charge Shots.
Notable Techniques
Pile Driver: Pile Driver, known as Pile Drive in Japan, is Impact Man's Special Weapon in Mega Man 11. This power allows him to attack foes he rams into which shoves them off into an explosion. It can also function as an Air Dash attack as well, though its range is slightly shorter when used in the air. Using this weapon with the Power Gear enhances this attack, giving Impact Man a longer dash and generating greater explosions.
Other
Standard Tactics: Impact Man will attempt to implae his opponent with his drill spikes, after losting most of his health, he will activate his power gear and turn into a gigantic jackhammer where he will jump around the rooom and generate masive explosions.
Weaknesses: Weak to Acid Man's acid barrier. If his data is corrupted, he will be incapable of coming back.
Trivia
Impact Man is the fifth Robot Master that can transform into a vehicle or machine, the other four being Turbo Man, Ground Man, Galaxy Man, and Nitro Man respectively based off of the order of games being released in chronological order.
Impact Man attacks Mega Man even before he reaches the boss room; in certain sections of his stage, Impact Man will show up as the Impact Brothers, which will fly across the screen as they try to ram into Mega Man.
This makes him the first boss in the classic series to attack the player while they're still in the stage, but not the first in the franchise, being preceded by bosses like Jet Stingray and Gigabolt Man-O-War.
Impact Man is the second Robot Master in Mega Man 11 with a giant form, the first being Block Man.
He's also the first Robot Master in Mega Man 11 with a different name in the Japanese and English versions, the second being Bounce Man.
Impact Man's weakness to Acid Barrier is a reference to acid being able to corrode most types of metal. This is very similar to Tunnel Rhino's weakness against Toxic Seahorse's Acid Burst.
Impact Man's accent sounds like a mix of Italian and Russian.
According to the relationship chart found in the production notes that come with the complete edition of Rockman 11, Impact Man reads Boom Monthly, the same magazine Blast Man writes for.[22]
Impact Man and Block Man are work colleagues, both manufactured by Nakaume Heavy Machinery and designed for construction.
Impact Man's stage theme has similarities to Mega Man 4's Wily stage 3 and 4 theme to the point that some parts of the two songs fit perfectly when played at the same time.[23]
Impact Man shares some similarities with Guts Man:
Both are construction robots with a bulky build.
During battle, both Robot Masters create quake tremors while stomping on the ground.
Impact Man is the first Robot Master to be made of three individual robots, as the Impact Brothers combine to form him.
References
↑PEACE HAS COME TO THE WORLD. Dr. Wily has reformed, and he and Dr. Right have joined forces, working together to develop a giant peace-keeping robot named “GAMMA”. “GAMMA”…… It was the life-long dream of Dr. Right, a giant robot to protect and serve world peace. Their research almost complete, all that remained was to combine 8 energy elements that were scattered about the uncharted planets, and bestow them to “GAMMA”… –However, each planet met with an unexpected incident. The robots who were mining the energy elements suddenly began going berserk!! Upon learning of this from Dr. Right, “ROCKMAN” immediately set out on a path for the uncharted planets–a new battle was about to begin!!
↑Q. What kind of foods does Rockman like to eat? A. Well… Actually, Rockman’s body is powered by “Solar Energy.” Therefore, he doesn’t really eat, but there are some things that are okay for his consumption… Around the lab, he enjoys drinking “Energy Juice.” As responsibly as he behaves, he’s still a kid after all.
↑Q. The shots that the Rockbuster fires from the hand, what are those exactly? A. The Rockbuster on the arm fires something called a “Solar Bullet”, essentially emitting a compressed form of solar energy that’s very powerful.
↑Weapon: Transforming Rockbuster, fires a solar bullet
↑Q. Do robots like those made by Dr. Wily or Dr. Cossack have self-awareness, and can they talk? And do they run on solar energy like Rockman does? A. I take it you’d like to know if Wily and Cossack’s robots possess “sentience”? Naturally, they each have a “consciousness”, although the level of every “cognitive circuit” embedded inside each one of them varies, producing as many different “personality” types as found in people… Just like you or I, they can speak, and have emotional responses like shyness, or anger, just as we do. Regarding their energy systems, many of them do utilize “solar energy” in some way.
↑PEACE HAS COME TO THE WORLD. Dr. Wily has reformed, and he and Dr. Right have joined forces, working together to develop a giant peace-keeping robot named “GAMMA”. “GAMMA”…… It was the life-long dream of Dr. Right, a giant robot to protect and serve world peace. Their research almost complete, all that remained was to combine 8 energy elements that were scattered about the uncharted planets, and bestow them to “GAMMA”… –However, each planet met with an unexpected incident. The robots who were mining the energy elements suddenly began going berserk!! Upon learning of this from Dr. Right, “ROCKMAN” immediately set out on a path for the uncharted planets–a new battle was about to begin!!
↑PEACE HAS COME TO THE WORLD. Dr. Wily has reformed, and he and Dr. Right have joined forces, working together to develop a giant peace-keeping robot named “GAMMA”. “GAMMA”…… It was the life-long dream of Dr. Right, a giant robot to protect and serve world peace. Their research almost complete, all that remained was to combine 8 energy elements that were scattered about the uncharted planets, and bestow them to “GAMMA”… –However, each planet met with an unexpected incident. The robots who were mining the energy elements suddenly began going berserk!! Upon learning of this from Dr. Right, “ROCKMAN” immediately set out on a path for the uncharted planets–a new battle was about to begin!!
↑Q. What kind of foods does Rockman like to eat? A. Well… Actually, Rockman’s body is powered by “Solar Energy.” Therefore, he doesn’t really eat, but there are some things that are okay for his consumption… Around the lab, he enjoys drinking “Energy Juice.” As responsibly as he behaves, he’s still a kid after all.
↑Q. Do robots like those made by Dr. Wily or Dr. Cossack have self-awareness, and can they talk? And do they run on solar energy like Rockman does? A. I take it you’d like to know if Wily and Cossack’s robots possess “sentience”? Naturally, they each have a “consciousness”, although the level of every “cognitive circuit” embedded inside each one of them varies, producing as many different “personality” types as found in people… Just like you or I, they can speak, and have emotional responses like shyness, or anger, just as we do. Regarding their energy systems, many of them do utilize “solar energy” in some way.
↑Dr. "I’m Always" Right Breaks It Down Q. What kind of foods does Rockman like to eat? A. Well… Actually, Rockman’s body is powered by “Solar Energy.” Therefore, he doesn’t really eat, but there are some things that are okay for his consumption… Around the lab, he enjoys drinking “Energy Juice.” As responsibly as he behaves, he’s still a kid after all.
↑Q. The shots that the Rockbuster fires from the hand, what are those exactly? A. The Rockbuster on the arm fires something called a “Solar Bullet”, essentially emitting a compressed form of solar energy that’s very powerful.
↑Weapon: Transforming Rockbuster, fires a solar bullet
↑Power Source/ R.S. Power Reactor (Micro-sized) Right Solar Power Pile Dr. Right-made Solar Energy Generator
↑Q. Do robots like those made by Dr. Wily or Dr. Cossack have self-awareness, and can they talk? And do they run on solar energy like Rockman does? A. I take it you’d like to know if Wily and Cossack’s robots possess “sentience”? Naturally, they each have a “consciousness”, although the level of every “cognitive circuit” embedded inside each one of them varies, producing as many different “personality” types as found in people… Just like you or I, they can speak, and have emotional responses like shyness, or anger, just as we do. Regarding their energy systems, many of them do utilize “solar energy” in some way.
↑PEACE HAS COME TO THE WORLD. Dr. Wily has reformed, and he and Dr. Right have joined forces, working together to develop a giant peace-keeping robot named “GAMMA”. “GAMMA”…… It was the life-long dream of Dr. Right, a giant robot to protect and serve world peace. Their research almost complete, all that remained was to combine 8 energy elements that were scattered about the uncharted planets, and bestow them to “GAMMA”… –However, each planet met with an unexpected incident. The robots who were mining the energy elements suddenly began going berserk!! Upon learning of this from Dr. Right, “ROCKMAN” immediately set out on a path for the uncharted planets–a new battle was about to begin!!
↑By swapping out the program data of all the robots Dr. Wily has constructed, this robot is able to adapt other robots’ moves as its own. With the powers of all robots combined into one, this is truly one dreadful robot.
↑This all-purpose robot can take on the same abilities of every other robot merely by switching its program data. Still, if it just copies the powers of robots that Rockman has already been able to defeat, one might expect for Rockman to overcome them again…
↑Q. Do robots like those made by Dr. Wily or Dr. Cossack have self-awareness, and can they talk? And do they run on solar energy like Rockman does? A. I take it you’d like to know if Wily and Cossack’s robots possess “sentience”? Naturally, they each have a “consciousness”, although the level of every “cognitive circuit” embedded inside each one of them varies, producing as many different “personality” types as found in people… Just like you or I, they can speak, and have emotional responses like shyness, or anger, just as we do. Regarding their energy systems, many of them do utilize “solar energy” in some way.
↑PEACE HAS COME TO THE WORLD. Dr. Wily has reformed, and he and Dr. Right have joined forces, working together to develop a giant peace-keeping robot named “GAMMA”. “GAMMA”…… It was the life-long dream of Dr. Right, a giant robot to protect and serve world peace. Their research almost complete, all that remained was to combine 8 energy elements that were scattered about the uncharted planets, and bestow them to “GAMMA”… –However, each planet met with an unexpected incident. The robots who were mining the energy elements suddenly began going berserk!! Upon learning of this from Dr. Right, “ROCKMAN” immediately set out on a path for the uncharted planets–a new battle was about to begin!!
