Cheapie

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This article is about characters that are focused on engine exploits. For characters that are conventionally overpowered, see cheap character.

A cheapie (occasionally known as a cheapo or uber cheap character; referred to as 論外 in Japanese-speaking communities) is a colloquial term for a type of character that uses code that breaks characters rather than being overpowered by the conventional definition of the term. 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 are completely A.I.-controlled.

A common trait with cheapies is the ability to hit a character that lacks hurtboxes, as well as the inability to be K.O.'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 controllers within them. Most cheapies, especially earlier ones, work on WinMUGEN only, due to the methods that they use.

Types of Cheapie

A typical top-tier Nuke cheapie. Note the large amount of helpers (click to enlarge).

Cheapies are divided into several groups based on the method they use to defeat other characters. Common methods used by lower-level cheapies include the F1 Killer, Devil's Eye Killer, Direct Death, and the %n bug. In terms of defense, lower-level cheapies use methods such as Pseudo-Changestate (a method that locks the character's state to a single state while retaining the ability to "change" states), Helper NOKO, and various others. Higher-level cheapies simply either win or lose at the start of the match, and as such don't really have offensive or defensive "methods" like lower-level ones.

Below is a list of commonly accepted groups, sorted roughly in order of "strength" based on their methodology:

1. Null-tier Cheapies, which use exploits in the engine involving the Null state controller to K.O. the opponent such as the %n bug or Direct Death/Alive Change.
2. Void-tier Cheapies, which utilize an overflow in AssertToClipboard and DisplayToClipboard to defeat the opponent, considered a variant of the Null-tier.
3. Secretary-tier Cheapies, which use an .exe to remotely control M.U.G.E.N. More specifically, these .exe files act as a trainer, modifying the opcodes and memory values found in M.U.G.E.N to make K.O.ing the enemy easier.
4. Postman-tier Cheapies, which use a .bat file. In weaker cases, this loads a far weaker character that comes with the Postman cheapie itself instead of the character that was intended to be loaded, Others will delete the files of the opponent specified. Recent Postman characters use a Command Line Overflow to execute arbitrary code.
5. Assembly-tier Cheapies, which come with a modified mugen.exe, usually versions of WinMugen modified through assembly level debuggers such as Ollydbg, considered a predecessor to Omed/Ethos-tier.
6. Supernull-tier Cheapies, which use methods such as Statedef Overflow, Command Trigger Overflow, and AssertSpecial Overflow. This causes the cheapie to be able to inject arbitrary code into M.U.G.E.N by overflowing a memory region found within M.U.G.E.N.
7. Receiver-tier Cheapies, which use a Java-powered M.U.G.E.N clone to nullify exploits of lower tiers. Scarcely used due to the instability of JMugen and Omed/Ethos tiers being capable of doing the same thing.
8. Letter-tier Cheapies, which use a .vbs file. This is often combined with the Postman method. Scarcely used since Microsoft deprecated the .vbs format.
9. Whale-tier Cheapies, which aren't really characters as much as they are websites. When loaded, at its weakest, a video of a cheapie is opened winning the match and, at its strongest, downloads a character and opens M.U.G.E.N. Scarcely used due to the cheapie community's lack of desire to use WebASM.
10. Omed-tier Cheapies (Also known as Ethos-tier), which essentially combines SuperNull state overflows with their own modified .exe to prioritize their arbitrary code above others.
11. Hypernull-tier Cheapies, which use a method known as Heap Overflow to overflow M.U.G.E.N with useless memory until it reaches the character's own code. After the code is executed, the cheapie "starts" M.U.G.E.N normally.
12. Frost-tier Cheapies (Also known as Isolato-tier), which are upgraded versions of Omed-tier cheapies in terms of coding. These cheapies use C# rather than M.U.G.E.N's standard C as their programming language, and can have a varying amount of .exe files at their disposal, considered a variant of the Omed/Ethos tier. These cheapies are the first on this list to be considered malicious by disabling the task manager and potentially corrupting the OS.
13. Ultranull-tier Cheapies, which are packed with a replacement Alleg40.dll file.
14. Anti-Malware-tier Cheapies, which can either run semi-automatically or automatically, making them far more dangerous than Frost-tier cheapies. There are various sub-tiers, currently known are the Alpha tier that relies on autorun.inf (Scarcely used since Microsoft deprecated autorun.inf ), the Beta tier which modifies the user's registry to open on startup, the Gamma tier which installs a rogue driver to execute its payload, and the Delta tier which uses a bootkit to open before the OS starts.
15. Dragon-tier Cheapies, which are capable of completely rewriting a computer's BIOS or UEFI. More powerful variants of Dragon tiers are computer worms with the capability of spreading to other computers through any network it can access. Due to the implications of creating and especially sharing Dragon-tier cheapies, knowledge of the few that could exist is kept private. There is no evidence of a completed Dragon-tier ever existing, contrary to popular belief.

Sometimes cheapies use more than one method at once, like Crazy Catastrophe who uses a combination of Nuke and Null tactics.

Cheap War

The Cheap War is a term coined by the cheapie community that refers to the period wherein a surge of characters were made with the sole purpose of being more powerful than each other, resulting in the discovery of numerous engine quirks and exploits, as well as alternative methods to simultaneously defeat the opponent and avoiding being defeated. With the revelation of real-time memory editing from within the engine itself allowing for arbitrary code execution, characters could autonomously execute external code once loaded to effectively alter or remove the opponent and anything else from the user's computer in a manner similar to malware; although external code or files being supplied with the character wasn't new, they previously had to be manually run by the user.

Other Uses

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Some cheapies are not designed specifically to instantly defeat an opponent, but rather make use of the same exploits for unique functionality not normally possible with M.U.G.E.N's scripting capabilities. One example of this is WINMUGEN_PAINT, which implements support for the mouse cursor and allows the user to paint on the screen using these exploits. Another notable example is okihaito's version of Metamon, which duplicates its opponent verbatim upon the start of the match.

Examples

• 2nd Death Star
• A-Bomb
• Angle Draw Sphere
• Guanyin
• Many Ronald McDonald edits
• Many Colonel Sanders 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 (12th palette)
• All of Merufimu's characters (12th palette)
• The Strongest
• Giygas_XXX

Controversy

Due to not functioning at all like regular characters, their inability to be K.O.'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.

External cheapies (such as Postman, Secretary, Assembly or Omed tier) use executable files and arbitrary code execution to defeat characters (up to and including deleting them outright), but can also potentially disrupt the system by removing important system files and causing it to behave erratically or not work at all. This has only further contributed to the controversy in cheapie characters outside of the community, particularly the higher-level cheapies that are effectively indistingushable from malware.

In 2014, the MUGEN Database stopped allowing further cheapies to be added to its articles to prevent malicious characters being on the site.