Worst Mask Power

[Podu]

Hmm. My second option would probably be Felnas.I mean, you gotta be careful who you are touching. If you touched a guy whose active power is suicidal explosion (like the Kardas), you'd be dead

[Aznat the Defender]

The zatth. being able to call for help is pretty cool, but if the help turns out to be some kind of ancient sea creature that you have no control over then that might put a stick in whatever plans you have... -.-

[Fractual Forever]

I guess the Arthron. I mean, what does it ACTUALLY do?

[Solaris Magnus]

The Elda. In essence, it was a plot device so the Inika could locate the Ignika, but, I don't think the Elda was what caused them to find it anyways :PAnd the stache.-Star

[The Iron Toa]

I guess the Arthron. I mean, what does it ACTUALLY do?

If you read the article and the rest of this thread, you'd have an answer. But to save you some trouble, I'll tell you it gives its user echolocation (the user doesn't need to make the noise, the mask sends out sonic signals that I think are inaudible to most beings). The mask is always on at low level, and doesn't provide the details sight does, but it can be used to detect targets whether they're artificially invisible (using a Huna for example), if they're in darkness, or otherwise shrouded by something non-solid (like murky water or fog). In contrast, the Elda and Rode can see invisible beings, but not through darkness, and the Ruru does the opposite: night-vision, but doesn't see through artificial invisibility. So the Arthron is really the best choice in a lot of situations -- the only downsides are the lack of detail and the fact that things that interfere with sound would interfere with the mask.

[Vengent Spectre]

I'm gonna say Clairvoiyance. Uncontrollable visions that leave you in a semi-vegatative state for the duration, and only for the near future? No thanks.

[Rahkshi Of Awesome]

None of the masks were specifically made to be useless, nor are any completely so. For example, the Kaukau would be useless if you were always on land and did not need to go in water. Now, if you needed to dive into water for say, your science report you need to hand up tomorrow, the Kaukau would be really useful, wouldn't it?

[Cederak]

I'd have to say it's the Elda. Even though it serves the purpose of locating the Mask of Life, the narrow scope of its abilities just seems like a downside, especially in terms of combat.-Ced

[Anti Nui]

I think the Zatth because you don't have any control on what you will summon. At least the Zelda has a definite power and it is useful for finding objects.

Elda. Zelda is a character in the video games of that name.

Speaking of that, whenever I think of the Rode: Mask of Truth I also think of this:I would say the Zatth is pretty useless. Either useless or incredibly dangerous. Especially since you can't control the Rahi in any way once you've summoned it, let alone send it away if it becomes a problem.

[alpha123]

Not that the Elda doesn't have its uses, but if I want to see invisible folk I'd use the Rode, and the Ignika needs to be found like once every 50,000 years or so. And whose brain-dead idea was it to have it give the user headaches? Really.Other than that, the Mask of Clairvoyance is somewhat suspect, given that you have no control over what you see and it's very tiring to use.The Shelek also seems rather pointless, except in certain situations I suppose, maybe to cut off communication.And sorry bones, but I think I have to give the top spots to the Mask of Conjuring and the Mask of Undeath. Conjuring is too limited and easy to backfire, and Undeath not only provides no benefit during life, it actually slows down the user's system. I'd say the one use for Undeath is a task that absolutely must be accomplished, at any cost, and I can't think of a task like that right now.

[bonesiii]

I'd say the one use for Undeath is a task that absolutely must be accomplished, at any cost, and I can't think of a task like that right now.

Really? There could be all kinds. Lemme say firstly that it was never meant to be a commonly useful mask, though, so there's validity in what you say, and was mainly invented for the Warzone world in the Expanded Multiverse. The warriors there would often want to take revenge on an enemy that had killed them, or continue guarding their clan. Toa there tend to be most "freed up" from the Toa Code, unlike canon Toa. Canonically the same principles could be extended to a lot of situations with villains, morally questionables, etc. who can use masks. A Toa who was desperate might even use it if the task was important enough.For a hypothetical, imagine that someone was systematically murdering the Toa Nuva prior to their awakening the Great Spirit, but the method of murder was not destroying their masks. One might seek a Mask of Undeath to try to ensure that the Task would succeed even if they died.

[Makuta Matata]

The Elda. In essence, it was a plot device so the Inika could locate the Ignika, but, I don't think the Elda was what caused them to find it anyways :PAnd the stache.-Star

Well, the Elda isn't just used for sensing the Mask of Life. It's also used for sensing things like Matoro's Spirit. I can probably sense other things as well. I mean, She only had it for a few days, so he never really got to test the full extent of her powers. It might be like a sixth sense.

[alpha123]

Really? There could be all kinds. Lemme say firstly that it was never meant to be a commonly useful mask, though, so there's validity in what you say, and was mainly invented for the Warzone world in the Expanded Multiverse. The warriors there would often want to take revenge on an enemy that had killed them, or continue guarding their clan. Toa there tend to be most "freed up" from the Toa Code, unlike canon Toa.

It's considerably more useful in the EM than in the MU, I agree with that. I just think it was a poor choice of mask to get approved for canon. Things like Energy Tracking or Adhesion seem much more suited to the MU.

For a hypothetical, imagine that someone was systematically murdering the Toa Nuva prior to their awakening the Great Spirit, but the method of murder was not destroying their masks. One might seek a Mask of Undeath to try to ensure that the Task would succeed even if they died.

That... seems highly contrived. Anyway, I'm not saying there aren't uses for it, there certainly are, they're just very few and far-between, enough that I think this counts as the Worst Mask Power (in the MU anyway).

[bonesiii]

It's considerably more useful in the EM than in the MU, I agree with that. I just think it was a poor choice of mask to get approved for canon. Things like Energy Tracking or Adhesion seem much more suited to the MU.

Fair enough. Energy Tracking also used an official shape; it's meant to imply that the Energy Hound head piece could work, so perhaps if we'd thought of that we could have asked for that too, though I have no idea how Greg would have responded. If we'd been using the Story Squad system at the time these sorts of problems could have been considered more carefully, but ah well, such is life.

That... seems highly contrived.

Well, it was one of the main examples that occured to me at the time, anyways. Greg had been hinting, in fact, that one of the Nuva might possibly die, and that there might be a way to work around that problem. The Mask of Undeath could have made that idea actually possible in story.

[Katuko]

That... seems highly contrived.

Well, it was one of the main examples that occured to me at the time, anyways. Greg had been hinting, in fact, that one of the Nuva might possibly die, and that there might be a way to work around that problem. The Mask of Undeath could have made that idea actually possible in story.

The problem is that it seems you would have to wear this mask for a long time before it's even remotely useful (if it siphons power over time) or otherwise have the time to switch to it before you are killed. As it actually makes your condition worse while wearing it, you wouldn't want it on at all times unless you were certain that you were going to die. Even then, if you are killed, chances are the undead body would still not be able to fulfill your task.Let's say Icarax is killing the Nuva, one by one. Tahu decided to don the Mask of Undeath. Icarax kills him too, and the body gets back up in order to attempt to wake Mata Nui. Icarax sees the brain-dead target and chops its head off. The mask is thus completely useless.Let's say my fellow Toa has been kidnapped and put under guard. I attack his guards, but get killed. My body reanimates and manages to kill the surprised guards. I open the prison door, get him outside, and expire. Mission accomplished, but with another mask (such as intangibility to get inside and kill them in a surprise attack through the wall) I might have survived.Let's say I get killed by something that does not leave a functional corpse. My leg or head is chopped off, or I get pushed into lava or half melted by a Toa of Plasma, or frozen solid by Ice. In this case it's impossible for my undead body to keep going anyways, rendering the mask useless once again.The only use I see for a Mask of Undeath is, as you say, revenge on a single target who better not know what mask you've been wearing or see you coming. Undead or not, it seems to me that the body could still be disabled fairly easily despite no longer feeling pain or caring about damage to itself.

[Master Inika]

If I had to guess, the Mask of Undeath was probably just the result of some disturbed foreign mask maker thinking, "Hmm, I wonder if I could really make a mask like this."

[-Jaller-]

Kongu's Zatth because even if he can summon rahi, he can't control them so they could turn on him.

[Dark Hunter Hunter]

The Ruru sounds pretty useless, as a matter of fact..anyone thought of the kaukau? Like, it's so circumstantial.

[Katuko]

Neither of those two are useless. Not at all. Night vision can be extremely useful if you're on a mission in the dark, which a lot of stealth operations would be. Toa of Earth, who often buy underground, have a good use for it. The same goes for water breathing. We got a lot of divers in real life, right? They prefer to dive with an air tank. Given that so much of the MU is composed of islands, water breathing is a good power to have on hand. Gali made good use of it on Mata Nui, Lewa almost drowned in a swamp because he didn't have one, and I'm sure it'd be useful in the chutes and waterways of Metru Nui.If the mutagen and the Ignika hadn't been there to make everyone natural water breathers in the Mahri arc, then you can bet that they would all have wanted a Kanohi Kaukau. Heck, they would all have drowned five minutes in if they didn't.Being circumstantial goes for every mask. The Hau is useless if you're not being attacked. The Kakama is useless if you're in a cramped space. The Pakari is useless if you're in a barren area and being attacked by lasers from the sky.I might go with the Zatth for most useless, since it's so uncontrollable and potentially dangerous for yourself to use.

Edited August 8, 2012 by Katuko

[The Iron Toa]

I'm not clear on something for the Zatth -- does it teleport random Rahi (as long as they suit the user's environment) to the user, or does it send a mental signal that commands nearby Rahi to come? Either way, it does seem rather unreliable. But if it always summoned something dangerous enough to provide a distraction -- no chance of summoning harmless little critters -- it could come in handy if the user just needed a distraction, or if he or an ally had a Mask of Rahi Control.The Mask of Undeath seems pretty lame, unless the reanimated body was very hard to stop because it was undead. Also, it depends on how complex the one programmed task can be. Regardless, it seems like something most beings wouldn't have a use for -- only ones that are very dedicated to a cause or mission and aren't opposed to the mask's unnatural power.

[Katuko]

I'm not clear on something for the Zatth -- does it teleport random Rahi (as long as they suit the user's environment) to the user, or does it send a mental signal that commands nearby Rahi to come?

The former. It grabs a random Rahi and teleports it to your location. The Rahi would have no idea of what happened, and would not feel any unnatural compulsion to follow the summoner in any way.

[turtleman]

KauKau, only ga-matoran and toa of water have it (as far as I know) and they can breathe underwater without it.

[bonesiii]

KauKau, only ga-matoran and toa of water have it (as far as I know) and they can breathe underwater without it.

Well, all the Toa Mata collected it in 2001, and had it in their Golden Kanohi. Which they lost when transformed into Nuva at the end of 2002 story (after defeating the Bahrag). But then Gali got a Nuva version of it which let her share the power with anyone nearby, so in a sense anyone near her could then get it from then on. :)And of course, we cannot rule out that other Toa, of the hundreds and maybe more we did not learn the details of or see in story, might have had one. Perhaps as a backup like the 2001 mask collecting, with a Suva. Would be a wise backup to have.And not sure if that final bit was a typo, but they can NOT breathe underwater without it. Only amphibious beings or beings that live in the water like Ruki fish can.

[Katuko]

Toa and Matoran of water have better lung capacity, but they can not breathe water naturally. Otherwise Gali wouldn't have worn a Kaukau at all.

[Marinder13]

Mask of biomechanics! Mask of fusion! Both of these ,while maybe not useless, are already worked out.

[Geardirector]

My least favorite Kanohi has to be the Mask of Undeath, I would really dislike turning into a zombie.

[Ektris]

For my sanity I'll just be ignoring the "Expanded Multiverse"-approved masks because too many are convoluted or require too precise of situations and conditions to ever really be viable...Well, I hate to be cliche, but I keep reading through the list of powers and just think "well that one's cool." But then we get to the Elda and its very limited displayed capabilities make it pretty bad. Sure it might be able to detect a lot of things, but when detecting the Ignika is a specific trait of it that it was pretty much only used for this - and it hurts the user while doing so? Yeah, not that great of a power.~|ET|~

[boston100]

Levitation. It is bacically a lame version of mask of flight and in 2008 it didn't do anything

[The Iron Toa]

Well, I agree that in 2008 it wasn't very useful, at least Lewa could have a backup in case his armor malfunctioned. But the Mask of Flight does not allow is user to hover in place, while the Miru does. That can be a useful ability.

[boston100]

Yeah I din't thing about that but I'd still rather have a mask of flight

[bonesiii]

Yeah I din't thing about that but I'd still rather have a mask of flight

Well, if you were a Toa of Air, able to propel yourself while hovering, or just hover with the Miru, you'd probably prefer the Miru. For most other elements, though, yeah, a Kadin is probably best.

[Toa Nidhiki05]

I think it is a bit easy to peg the Elda as it, but the sheer usefulness of it in the right hands is incredible. Keep in mind, few Eldas were made because and the Inika had absolutely no idea how to use it - that doesn't mean it is useless. Having a tool to help you avert the apocalypse is a useful thing when the need arises.I think most Kanohi do have uses and disadvantages, and most of them could be useful in some situation. To make a good judgement on the one with the lowest comparative value, one has to look at how strong the strengths are in comparison to weaknesses, as well as how useful it is as a Noble Kanohi. The ones that are the weakest in their advantages are the Mask of Clairvoyance and Mask of Elemental Energy.The Mask of Clairvoyance would be horrible if it activates in battle since you are essentially comatose until the vision ends, and you can't see very far into the future or do anything to change it. It also is emotionally draining and you have no control over when it is activated.The Mask of Elemental Energy is something most experienced Toa would never need to use, as it takes quite a while to run out of it and experienced Toa can regulate how much they use pretty easily. For a Turaga, it would be essentially useless since Turaga have much weaker elemental powers (slightly greater than that of Av-Matoran) and would probably never run out of it since they don't use it too often. Additionally, BS01 says it can only be used once - a massive drawback. It is just a weak mask overall and probably the worst one, as compared to all the others.-TN05

[bonesiii]

Additionally, BS01 says it [Mask of Elemental Energy] can only be used once - a massive drawback. It is just a weak mask overall and probably the worst one, as compared to all the others.

Uh, I don't think that's canon. They were one-use items in the mostly non-canon Bionicle the Game; that's probably what it's referring to. Canonically they can be used as often as needed, unless there's an official quote that says otherwise? All I ever heard from Greg was that the power itself (to recharge elemental energy) is canon. Plus, of course, that he said masks do not run out of energy, so there's no reason for it to be one use.

[Master Inika]

Additionally, BS01 says it [Mask of Elemental Energy] can only be used once - a massive drawback. It is just a weak mask overall and probably the worst one, as compared to all the others.

Uh, I don't think that's canon. They were one-use items in the mostly non-canon Bionicle the Game; that's probably what it's referring to. Canonically they can be used as often as needed, unless there's an official quote that says otherwise? All I ever heard from Greg was that the power itself (to recharge elemental energy) is canon. Plus, of course, that he said masks do not run out of energy, so there's no reason for it to be one use.

In No One Gets Left Behind, nothing implies that it's one-use, but BS01 still says it is.

[bonesiii]

Yeah, I just checked that part before seeing your post. There's no need for it to be one-use from that. Someone should look into why that line was put into that article. My bet is it's just assuming Greg canonizing the mask meant he canonized its exact in-game portrayal. But Greg has said he doesn't play these games; I'm not certain he didn't play Bionicle the Game but I doubt it, so he probably didn't even know about that part, let alone intend to canonize it. There would need to be a quote of him confirming it's one use.It's possible; I didn't read every single quote from Greg, but yeah... Doubt it.

[Ballom Nom Nom]

Yeah, I just checked that part before seeing your post. There's no need for it to be one-use from that. Someone should look into why that line was put into that article. My bet is it's just assuming Greg canonizing the mask meant he canonized its exact in-game portrayal. But Greg has said he doesn't play these games; I'm not certain he didn't play Bionicle the Game but I doubt it, so he probably didn't even know about that part, let alone intend to canonize it. There would need to be a quote of him confirming it's one use.It's possible; I didn't read every single quote from Greg, but yeah... Doubt it.

Well, if it could be used as often as possible, Toa could be constantly be firing off Nova Blasts. If the Mask of Elemental Energy isn't one-use, it probably would need a recharge time to not be overpowered. Personally, I think that as a one-use mask it would be on level with the Mask of Undeath, which exists as an only somewhat useful Kanohi which can often be a burden.~B~

[Noble Tehurye]

So there have been some pretty amazing mask powers in Bionicle history. There have also been some awful ones.Take Whenua for example. His mask can glow in the dark, big whoop. The other Toa could get the same effect by taping torches to their masks.What do you think is the worse mask power?

If you don't mind, I would respectfully disagree. The Ruru, Mask of Night Vision, is a very powerful mask. Not to mention pretty much my favorite.Not only does it allow the wearer to see perfectly in the dark (as though it was day, no silly green vision like humans use), but it also grants partial X-ray vision. Albiet partial. Plus, it can emit a dazzling beam of light to give assistance to other beings fumbling around in the dark, or perhaps stun an enemy.Look it up on Bioniclesector01. It's really a neat mask.

[Lielac]

Hmmm. I'd say that the worst mask power, where worst is defined as useful in the narrowest of situations... yeah, I'm going with the Elda. The only thing unique about it in canon is that it can find the Ignika, and that's via migrane. Everything else it does is also done by the Rode, and that is also a lie-detector. Now, if the Elda could be used to direct the wearer to whatever plot-important object they need to find, I'd take two asprin and suffer through its... unique... hot-cold system, but it can't so I won't. Of course, if you do need to find the Ignika for whatever reason it's an essential on your Suva, but otherwise... yeah, no thanks.If the Elda's been called enough names, my second-worst would probably be the Mask of Clairvoyance. Emotionally draining visions that knock you out of paying attention to reality at uncontrollable times? I'd probably be heading for the nearest mask maker. It admittedly depends on how good you are at taking what it shows you and affecting what happens immediately after the end of the vision. Depending on how it shows things (because that hasn't been shown yet I think) it could be more or less useful, but for now I'm sticking on a big post-it note saying "HARD MODE - EXPERIENCED TOA ONLY".

[bonesiii]

Yeah, I just checked that part before seeing your post. There's no need for it to be one-use from that. Someone should look into why that line was put into that article. My bet is it's just assuming Greg canonizing the mask meant he canonized its exact in-game portrayal. But Greg has said he doesn't play these games; I'm not certain he didn't play Bionicle the Game but I doubt it, so he probably didn't even know about that part, let alone intend to canonize it. There would need to be a quote of him confirming it's one use.It's possible; I didn't read every single quote from Greg, but yeah... Doubt it.

Well, if it could be used as often as possible, Toa could be constantly be firing off Nova Blasts. If the Mask of Elemental Energy isn't one-use, it probably would need a recharge time to not be overpowered. Personally, I think that as a one-use mask it would be on level with the Mask of Undeath, which exists as an only somewhat useful Kanohi which can often be a burden.~B~

Yeah, I agree it has a recharge time. Most likely it is the same as a Toa's. It's just that for the first use it is already charged, or for a use after more than enough time has passed. The power probably uses the same system to slowly recharge EE, plus an instant transfer of what is charged.In a short-term battle, it could be considered essentially one-use. But in the long term, it could be used as often as necessary. .Also, the Mask of Undeath isn't technically one use. The same one could be used by multiple people over time (which has probably happened). Also the user can use its chargeup power as often as they want while alive to prolong the duration of undeath. And the only barrier to it being used more than once (the main use) by the same person isn't part of the power's limitations but the user's -- death. Theoretically if someone could be revived like Jaller they could use it at least twice. Edited August 28, 2012 by bonesiii

[Katuko]

Also, the Mask of Undeath isn't technically one use. The same one could be used by multiple people over time (which has probably happened). Also the user can use its chargeup power as often as they want while alive to prolong the duration of undeath.

It has a charge-up power? I thought it automatically leeched life energy (slightly weakening you in the process) while worn and had no other function until the user died?