Cheapie

Not to be confused with cheap characters, a cheapie (also known as a cheapo or uber cheap character) is a type of character that far surpasses the cheapness levels of a regular cheap character, instead using code that breaks characters rather than overpowered moves and a lack of hitboxes. Also unlike regular cheap characters, cheapies tend not to attack directly, instead using helpers and various code workarounds to defeat the opponent (such as Chaos/F1 Killer and Devil's Eye Killer), complete with many visual effects that are known to slow down older computer systems. For the most part, they're completely AI controlled.

A common trait with cheapies is the ability to hit a character that lacks hitboxes, as well as the inability to be KO'd via the debug keys, or through normal means for that matter. Most cheapies use the Chaos/F1 Killer method to exploit the weaknesses of another character, mostly by using the states 110, 115 and 5210 which all have HitBy controller within them.

Cheapie War
The Cheapie War is a term coined by the cheapie community. The war involves ongoing battles between cheapies to see which one is the strongest, typically the one with the "superior" code. A good example is a series of M.U.G.E.N videos called MugenGodSpeedCrash, which has many characters of the cheapie tier or higher to see which can kill fastest or which can defeat one another.

Another great example of a Cheapie War/Tournament is MTR (Mugen Top Rankers).

Types of cheapie
Cheapies are divided into several groups based on the method they use to defeat other characters. Common methods include Chaos/F1 Killer, Devil's Eye Killer and sometimes even the Selfstate 120 method (a method which locks the character's state to a single state).

In order of deadliness, with 1 being the weakest and 10 being the strongest:

Sometimes cheapies use more than one type at once, such examples being Crazy-Catastrophe who uses a combination of Chaos, Direct Death and %n.
 * 1) The Nuke Method, which doesn't use any exploits or special files, but still defeats quickly.
 * 2) The Null Method, which uses exploits in the engine to KO the opponent such as the %n bug or Direct Death/Alive Change method.
 * 3) The Secretary Method, which uses an .exe to trick M.U.G.E.N.
 * 4) The Postman Method, which uses a .bat file.
 * 5) The Assembly Method, which comes with an alternate mugen.exe.
 * 6) The Super Null Method, which uses C++ in the .cns to temporarily alter mugen.exe
 * 7) The Receiver Method, which uses a Java-powered M.U.G.E.N.
 * 8) The Letter Method, which uses a .vbs file.
 * 9) The Omed Method, which is a combination of all of the previous methods except Nuke.
 * 10) The Y (AKA Anti-Malware) Method, which protects a user's computer from malware cheapos by altering the computer, but as such, may be considered malware in its own right.
 * 11) The Dragon Method, which is a dangerous virus that has a possiblity of ending the cheap war entirely, not even Anti-Malware is capable of stopping this tier. Thankfully, this tier has yet to be released and chances are it may never be released.

Examples

 * A-Bomb
 * Angle Draw Sphere
 * Guanyin
 * Most Ronald McDonald edits
 * Solitary-ZERO's Tears of Solitude
 * Mr.Dragon-JC (11th & 12th palette)
 * Orochi G3
 * Will of Prison Flame
 * Bloody-Roa
 * Heaven's Gate (12th palette)
 * Crazy Catastrophe
 * Ice-Oro-Mizuchi
 * R-Masamune
 * GENJINSHIN
 * Most of okihaito's characters
 * General_L (6th palette)
 * Demon_Of_Murder Rena
 * Most of STG's edits
 * Pierrot
 * A few of Pre-To's characters

Controversy
Due to not functioning at all like regular characters, their inability to be KO'd through normal means and that they cannot be controlled by the player, among other things, cheapies have been the subject of dispute outside the cheapie community.

More recent cheapies (known as Postman, Secretary, malware or virus characters) use external .exe, .bat, .vbs, .dll and/or .ini files to remove characters from the user's computer, but can also disrupt the system by removing important system files and causing it to behave erratically. Because of this, the MUGEN Database stopped allowing further cheapies to be added to its articles to prevent the risk of malware characters being on the site.