After over a century’s worth of technological development, Zero returns to his pre-X1 roots and holsters his obscenely powerful energy saber in favor of an iron pipe. Nothing like a good old-fashioned chunk of metal to get the job done. Given that the iron pipe is one of the more obscure Z-Knuckle weapons, the first order of business is to show where in the Hibernation Chamber it’s located. Take the main entrance rather than the bottom door that’s barricaded by the snow. After falling past the elevator, slice through a pair of Variant Fire, and the iron pipe will be lying in wait as a background element that can be grabbed by the Z-Knuckle.
Honestly, this is just an excuse to showcase some of the fun that the Auto-Fill head chip allows you to have while getting a bit fancy with Fenri’s attack pattern. Unsurprisingly, the offensive layer of this fight is very basic: swing the iron pipe, deal 6 damage, wait for the occasional refill, win. The Auto-Fill chip will only begin its 10-second countdown to a refill once your ammo count is at least 1 below its maximum-something to keep in mind. Not that it matters here, as I’m preoccupied with joining Fenri in his “happy-go-lucky leaping all over the place” routine.
Defensively, Fenri presents the same problem that he always does. His more elaborate, telegraphed attacks are fairly easy to avoid, but his jumps and lunges around the arena can catch you off guard. There are a myriad of methods that you can use to frolic around his proper moves. Tenro Shikku (where he rebounds off walls while launching diagonal ice waves) has some wonky hitboxes that you can play around with. Both Gunroken (ice clones) and White Fang (EX Skill) have an interesting property that I’ll discuss later. Fenri channeling his inner Wheel Kirby is his most difficult attack to evade, but it shouldn’t present much of an issue once you clue-in to how the ice physics function.
Understanding Fenri’s locomotion is crucial to a flawless victory. He has four specific types of jumps: a high jump that precedes Tenro Shikku, a low jump that precedes Gunroken, a marginally different low jump that leads to White Fang, and a leap directly at Zero. It can be difficult to discern between Gunroken and White Fang; there is a positional difference, but in the heat of battle, it’s common to mistake them for each other.
The most precarious position you can find yourself in is Fenri occupying the middle of the arena; this typically occurs after his wheel antics. Here, you’re in danger of falling victim to his sometimes blisteringly quick stab or of getting tackled as he leaps around. Quick reflexes and a sound strategy are needed to even have a chance at avoiding these attack options. For my money, jumping up and briefly clinging to the wall shortly after Fenri exits his wheel form is the best move you can make. His stab is faster than a potential leap to Zero; by jumping, you give yourself a chance to wall jump higher in the event of a stab, and if he decides to pounce, his contact hitbox is forgiving enough that you can land and dash underneath Fenri before he lands. Unfortunately, there is a massive inconsistency that can throw a wrench into this method: the amount of time it takes for Fenri to initiate a stab or lunge varies, so you can’t rely on memorization; there’s still a lot of guesswork involved.
Now for a rather major hitbox-related quirk I found concerning Gunroken and White Fang. For White Fang, if you manage to jump over and get behind Fenri after he leaps to initiate the attack, but before he jumps straight up to the ceiling and launches the first wave, you’ll be completely unharmed. You can lounge in the corner as Fenri emphatically attempts to slice apart empty air. Even after the attack ends, you can escape by wall jumping, or you can begin a combo; so long as you act before Fenri turns around, you’ll be safe. The same applies to Gunroken; standing in the corner behind Fenri will have him and his ice buddies fruitlessly barrel toward the other side of the room.
As you might expect, the jump timing to pull this off is quite strict; it’s significantly more taxing than dodging either attack in the intended manner. Combine that with showboating and creating a circus act out of Tenro Shikku, and it becomes very challenging to leave this fight alive, let alone to win without talking damage.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Iron Pipe Location
00:39 - Fighting Fenri
Thanks for watching! Any questions or comments you may have are welcome as usual.