World's First Detailed Bolon FAQ v.1
by JEvangelista
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Contents:
I. Controls & Movement
II. Bolon's Attacks
III. Specials and Items
IV. Weird Stuff
V. Credits

I. Controls and Movement: If you already know how to play, feel free to skip.
	I am assuming that you're playing Techromancer on an arcade machine. If
you aren't, well, replace 'stick' with 'direction pad'. 'A' is your primary and
usually close-in attack, while 'B' is your secondary attack. G and J stand for
Guard and Jump, respectively. If you don't know what these words are, go find a
dictionary. Or a librarian.
	Pressing up or down on the stick does nothing. If you want to change the
angle of your heading, press a diagonal direction, i.e., 45-degrees up and right.
	Moving your character toward and away from an opponent can be executed by
performing the desired motions on the stick. In English, if you're on the left, 
facing toward the right, if you press right you go toward your opponent (who is
probably in the direction you're facing); left, and you walk away from him. Just
reverse the directions if your facing the other way.
	Tapping the stick toward your opponent twice and holding  it forward 
makes you run. Some attacks may only be executed while the robot is running. The
run ends if you return the stick to its neutral position, i.e., let it go. Note
that while running you can be hit by anything and if you do get hit, your run ends.
On the upside, if you jump while running, you get a higher jump.
	If you try to run while holding the guard button, you execute a Steel Dash.
Your robot charges forward and a blue shield surrounds it. This shield can prevent
some weak, fast attacks from hitting you out of the run, and if you slam into the 
enemy during this move, they will be stunned for about 2 seconds, which is enough
time to dish out a combo or a Super. 
	Some weapons can still hit you out of a Steel Dash, however. In addition,
if your SD doesn't connect (like it was blocked or jumped over or something) you
will be the one to suffer a 2 second stun. General rule: do not SD against a 
guarding or faraway opponent. Don't say I didn't warn you...
	On the other hand, tapping the stick twice away from the enemy causes you 
to jump back/slide back. Not that useful, IMO, unless your robot is quick.
	Pressing G+A or G+B will execute a Counterstrike. Not the insanely popular
FPS for the PC, but an attack executed after a sidestep. Speed of the attack is
dependent on which robot you're using.
	Pressing G+A+B will execute a Power Breaker. This move is used to damage a
guarding opponent. Its drawback is that it's slow, and the ball of energy gathering
between your robot's hand is visible a mile away. Still, it works sometimes...
	Those are the general controls for all robots in the game. Let's get down
to the specifics, specifically, how to pilot Pollin's robot.

II. Bolon's Attacks
A: Quick punch. If you chain three in a row, the animation is of Bolon giving the 
enemy two punches, and finishing with a drop kick. Damage is good, as well as the
amount of armor eroded, but be careful. Sometimes, the kick takes a little longer
to come out, and can be blocked.
B: Scoop Up. Bolon's power shovel arm digs in to the ground and does an uppercut, 
sending rocks flying up and forward. If the enemy gets hit by the arm itself, it
will get knocked up into the air, which means possible Super opportunity. (More
on Supers later.)
A+B (simultaneously): Whirlwind Spin. Bolon extends its 'arms' and spins in place,
creating a whirlwind. This will hit enemies above and around Pollin for decent 
damage. Doing this twice in a row causes Pollin to get dizzy and fall to the ground.
If this happens, you are in for it. Looks like a 70s super robot attack, IMO.
G+A (Counterstrike): Bolon jumps back and cannonballs into the opponent.
G+B (Counterstrike): Bolon skips around the enemy and does its B attack.
Forward+A: Yo-yo Iron Ball. The wrecking ball arm stretches out, doing decent damage 
and knocking enemies away. You can use this to be rude and interrupt certain moves
from your enemy.
Back+A: Aerial Iron Ball. Same as the above, except it fires in a 45-degree angle.
Useful against airborne enemies.
Back, Forward+A: Destroyer Drill. The wrecking ball turns into a huge drill, kinda
like the one used in a certain 70s super robot show. This move does a lot of damage
and eats up a lot of armor whether it is blocked or unblocked. Problem is, some of
the enemies can block and quickly counterattack a blocked Destroyer Drill. I'll leave
it up to you to find out which ones. :>
While jumping, A: Cannonball dive. Bolon spins in the air and hurtles toward the enemy.
What you might want to know is that you can charge, or hold the A button to delay the
dive. While this is handy in some situations, you can stay for only about 3 seconds in 
the air before Bolon automatically dives. Also, most Back+[attack button/s] moves hit
45-degrees upwards, and, well... :<
While jumping, B: Air Scoop. Bolon does its uppercut thing while in mid-air. If you're
low enough, the uppercut can even hit an enemy standing on the ground. Same warning
as with the previous attack.
While running, A: Running Crash. Bolon runs, jumps, spins, and continues into the 
opponent. Great for jumping over beam attacks. If the opponent doesn't get knocked
down by the hit, you'll land in a ready position. But if you don't hit at all, you
are sure to be punished like a naughty schoolgirl. :)
While running, B: Windmill Rush. Bolon runs toward the enemy while both arms are 
tearing up the ground. If your opponent sidesteps or jumps too early, Bolon will
chase it down. The individual hits do little damage, but taken as a whole, well...
Another move that must not be blocked for your own safety.

III. Specials & Items

Techromancer is a unique fighting system where you have items to help you in battle. To
cycle through your available items, hit the Start button. To use the highlighted item,
press A+B+J. 
 	There are two types of items, weapons and power-ups. Weapons come in diamonds 
that you find in the battlefield, colored red, yellow or blue. Each robot gets a different
weapon for each diamond color it picks up. To pick an item up, just walk over it.
For Bolon and Pollin, the weapon items are:
Red: Stun Hammer. This weapon is unblockable. It does no damage but automatically stuns
the opponent. Now if it only had more range... anyway, it can be used about three times
before it disappears from your inventory.
Yellow: Magic Pot. One of Bolon's arms becomes a pot, and from it spray out huge melons,
water melons, beach balls, and what not. The balls travel across the screen and if they hit 
anything they explode. Unfortunately, not too useful, as the balls can be jumped over. But
if they jump toward you, maybe you can use a Super as they land... hint, hint. 3 shots.
Blue: L.R. Express. Bolon releases a small train that runs around the battlefield and 
underfoot. It can't be destroyed, and has this annoying tendency to hit your enemies' feet
every so often, that their attacks get interrupted. Oh, too bad. :) 1 use.
	Power-ups come in multi-colored triangles. All of them have the same effects for
each character, except for Hero Mode, which varies per robot.
Orange: Offense up. Doubles your damage dealt to the enemy.
Purple: Defense up. Reduces damage received from attacks.
Blue: Speed up. Movement speed, including sidestepping via Counterstrikes, is increased.
Green: Hero Mode. Pollin summons a bunch of household items to surround Bolon. If Bolon 
attacks in melee/close combat, the junk also attack for more damage. In addition, while the
junk is still there, Bolon can use the Forward, Back+A command to have the junk fly out,
capture the enemy if he's dumb enough not to block , and return him to Bolon.
	Some items come in white squares. The one with the red cross repairs half your
damage taken so far in the round, assuming you stop blocking and run around for a while. The
one with the person icon on it repairs your armor back to 100%.
	That's it with the items. Now for the Supers. A Super is an attack command that 
requires 1 Super Bar. Check the gauge at the bottom of the screen; that's the amount of Super
energy you have already stored. The maximum is three. Usually, Supers do a lot of damage or
destroy a lot of armor, sometimes both at the same time. For Bolon and Pollin, the Super 
attacks are:
Back, Forward+A+B: Giant Destroyer Ball. Pollin turns Bolon into a huge black sphere not unlike
an oversized bowling ball and rolls over the enemy. You can be hit out of this move, as it
does not travel all the way across the screen, and the lag time at the end of this move is so
bad, the enemy can respond with their own Super.
Forward, Back+A+B: Giant Smasher Ball. Bolon shoves the enemy away, and throws the wrecking 
ball into the air. It comes down as a HUGE black ball on the enemy, causing HUGE damage.
Only if it isn't blocked, of course.
Back, Forward+B+J: Countdown. A timer appears over Bolon. If it reaches zero, Bolon stops and
self-destructs, damaging enemies around it. Bolon can still fight with the timer ticking, and
reportedly can do another Super as well. Have to verify this.

IV. Weird Stuff
	All the while I've mentioned something about armor. How does it work?
	Simple. If you have armor, you can block attacks and take very little damage from them.
If you get hit by certain long-range attacks or all close-range attacks, you armor percentage
decreases. If your armor reaches zero, the screen flashes "Armor Destroyed" and you get knocked
up into the air. Now if you block with 0% armor left, the attacks will do more damage, most
especially Supers and energy attacks.
	If you defeat an opponent in the first round, and deal him more than 50% damage on his
damage bar, the "Final Attack" message appears. This is a chance to execute a single, once per
match attack that guarantees death if it hits. It is executed by pressing G+A+B+J all at once.
Note that this move is blockable; you might want to use it after a Steel Dash, or after using
an item which paralyzes the enemy to make sure it hits.
	Bolon's, or rather Pollin's, Final Attack is funny. I call it Death by Table-Smash.
You have to see it to know what I mean. And it flashes a huge image of Pollin too. Ah, sweet
pink-haired little girl... (Drools.) Ooops. Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you.
	You might notice that your damage is actually two overlapping bars, a yellow and a red
one. The yellow bar is heat/shock/temporary damage. The red is structural/staying damage. The
first can be repaired by simply not blocking for a few seconds, meaning jumping around and 
sidestepping. The other can only be repaired by an item (See Special & Items, above.) The 
"Final Attack" chance happens when the damage taken fills up more than 50% of the bar. Even 
if the damage is all yellow, if it exceeds the 50% mark after a victory in the earlier round,
it will still activate final attack. Keep this in mind.
	Oh, by the way, I like cute schoolgirls. It's not just the pink-haired or magical ones
that I like. Just clearing up the air on that matter. 
	Besides, if you play Story Mode, choose the "I can't stand it" or something option
as opposed to the "Calm down, Junpei" option. If you choose the "I can't stand it" option, you
get the better ending. Although I can say I don't mind playing the Story Mode over and over
again, even if Goldibus whups my behind. The story looks like a loony rip-off of an anime
series with all those pretty aliens running around some poor guy's house. :)

V. Credits
CAPCOM, for making such a terrific game and horrific bosses. Honestly, how do you defeat Yale
and her robot without jumping even once?