Dai-Manji

Dai-Manji

Information
Affiliation	Alien
HP at Level 1	8000
HP at Level 20	14000
HP at Level 25	15500
HP at Level 30	17,000
HP at Level 35	18,500
HP at Level 40	20,000
Stand. atk. Type	Single
Stand. atk. Range	Short
Spec. atk. Type	Spread
Spec. atk. Range	Long
AP Cost	700
Resistance	Air (Tank)
Movement Speed	Normal
Prod. Speed	Very Slow
Special Abilities
For more info about the terms used above, click here.

Overview

Penultimate boss of Metal Slug 2/X and a medium-health enemy in Metal Slug 3.

Normal attack: Rises before firing an electric zap downwards and slightly forwards. This is one of the strongest normal attacks in the game, but is extremely slow.

Special attack: Rises upwards if it hasn't already before slowly moving forwards and dropping five energy bombs that do not penetrate (unlike Donald Morden's special) before returning to the base.

If an enemy gets past its normal attack, it will return to the base as well.

*Although Dai-Manji's standard attack is listed as Single in the game, it can hit multiple opponents at once.

Formerly available from the Boss stage of the Event Map released in version 1.23.0. As of version 1.25.0, the map is no longer accessible.

As of version 1.37.0, it is available in the Event shop for 250,000 coins.

Tactics

• While not attacking, Dai-Manji flies low enough that it can be hit by a Metal Slug Attack.
• Although Dai-Manji's normal attack is extremely powerful, it is so slow that the enemy frontline often dies or is knocked back before it hits.
• Dai-Manji can be used as a wall for your air units (a common combo with Hairbuster Riberts), or can be used offensively. When being repeatedly pressured by knockback-happy rush units (Iori, Slug Armor) in the early game, saving up for and sending out Dai-Manji to stop them is an option that may turn the game around, as they run straight into the powerful normal attack.
• Dai-Manji is also a fantastic counter to early-game Ring Laser Mecha + Red Ring Laser Mecha 'rushes', knocking them back, interrupting their slow attacks and dealing huge damage while easily surviving the ring onslaught.
• Dai-Manji's normal attack hits twice. Thus, it is most effective against air units (needs a grounded target) or large units with complete or partial knockback resistance (e.g. Stone Turtle, Hairbuster Riberts), who tend to receive the full, powerful hit.
• Dai-Manji is at a disadvantage on maps with low ceilings (e.g. the bridge map from Metal Slug 1, Mission 2) as it will be hit by stray bullets that will not normally hit it.
• Dai-Manji's special attack is best used to destroy enemy air units (e.g. R. Shobu ver. PM), to escape from threats (Bull Drill, whose special 1-hit KOs Dai-Manji), or to pressure unprotected stacked enemies in the early-mid game (e.g Patrol Robot, Hyakutarou).
• Dai-Manji has two major counters: Bull Drill's special attack will destroy it in one use and canot be interrupted once it starts, and Parachuetruck does so much damage (even after the downgrade) that it will destroy Dai-Manji before it can zap the truck. Crablops should also be mentioned as a "soft" counter, but Dai-Manji blocking the overhead missiles may actually be advantageous for your other units.
• Overall, Dai-Manji is a situational unit that hard-counters several units but is itself easily-countered. As a free unit it is also very expensive to deploy, so a badly-deployed Dai-Manji will just be destroyed and feed massive AP to your opponent. In more recent versions, a new threat in the form of Allen O'Neil(Wrath) severely limits its usefulness, although it can crush some rush strategies on short maps.