Murphy, also known as Elite Cop, is an enemy from Streets of Rage 4. He is a police officer from the Wood Oak City Police Department, who fight both syndicate enemies and the vigilante heroes. He serves directly under the Commissioner, and first appears on Stage 2, after the heroes are arrested.
Overview[]
Murphy is a police officer wearing a riot helmet and a Kevlar vest with shoulder pads. He utilizes a wrist-mounted energy shield on one hand and a tonfa on the other hand.
Before engaging in a fight, he will activate his energy shield. While holding the shield, he's completely immune to any kind of damage (even if attacked from behind); attacking the shield and dealing roughly 68 damage shatters it, stunning Murphy for around 2.5 seconds. If not broken, the shield will start to regenerate if Murphy is not attacked after 4 seconds. Once the shield is broken, he'll employ it again if not attacked for around 6 seconds.
When holding a weapon and with his shields up, Murphy will slowly walk towards the player and whack them with it. If the shield is destroyed and he drops his weapon, he'll slowly walk towards it in an attempt to retrieve it; if his weapon is not available (either by being in possession of the player or broken), he'll attack with a quick punch that briefly staggers the player. If the shield is activated, but doesn't have a weapon in hand, he'll perform a shield bash that staggers the player and pushes them back. Unlike the tonfa strike, the shield bash can be interrupted by hitting Murphy.
Like other police force members, they will fight any Syndicate members on sight until Stage 11.
Variants[]
Murphy has four variants, each having different health and shields values as well some differences:
- Dunphy, wearing a white uniform with black vest and helmet, also wields a tonfa, and moves much faster while wielding his weapon. His shield takes around 80 damage to break.
- Sand, wearing a beige uniform and armor, wields a taser, performing a quick lunge attack to stun opponents. He moves much faster while wielding his weapon. While not dealing high damage himself, he is potentially the most dangerous variant when accompanied with more powerful enemies. He has the same health as Dunphy, and his shield takes around 80 damage to break.
- Shadow, with a pitch-black uniform and a mask covering his face. He's unique in that his attack patterns are completely different than other variants. He moves quickly, circling the player, and throwing shurikens. He doesn't hold his shield like the others, instead quickly projecting it to block any projectiles thrown at him. He has around the same health as Murphy.
- Ralphy, with a red uniform and black vest, wields a halberd, which grants him a lot of range and damage. He moves significantly faster than Murphy and Sand, but almost as fast as Shadow while his shield is broken. He has the same health as Dunphy and Sand, and his shield takes around 112 damage to break.
Outside Survival Mode, Dunphy and Sand both only appear in stage 11; Shadow only appears in stage 12, while Ralphy is exclusive to Mania+, where two of them appear during Estel's second fight in Stage 7, entering around 10 seconds after the two Commissioners appear.
Strategy[]
Murphy and his variants (aside from Shadow) can be dangerous in large groups, especially if the player is facing other types of enemies. They provide a solid frontline with their shields, which can be hard to penetrate. While holding weapons, they'll prepare to attack right when the player approaches, which can make difficult to actually hit them to break their shields. However, there are various ways to circumvent this, such as moving up or down in the Y-axis after hitting them, or timing jumping attacks and Blitz Attacks right when they attack (since they grant invincibility frames). All four of the standard Murphy variants will only move in straight lines along the X or Y axis unless a weapon is available to be picked up, in which case they can move diagonally to get to it. Since their movement is so limited, it is sometimes best to outright ignore them to target faster enemies first.
Shadow, on the other hand, is quick and elusive, circling the player around and throwing shurikens to stagger the player. While they're not very dangerous, they can be difficulty to deal while the player is using slower characters, as reaching them can be difficult. When facing large groups of Shadows, they can quickly chip away the player's health with their shurikens. The player should avoid being on their line of sight and try to approach. Using aerial attacks is useful as they can avoid the shurikens while also helping close the gap. Additionally, the player can spam the pick-up button to parry their shurikens. The two Shadows that appear if the player breaks the knight armors during Ms. Y's fight, in Chapter 12, have more health than usual (about the same as Ralphy).
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- He is named after the same character from the comic adaptation.
- Murphy's design closely bears a resemblance to the Officer that helped Axel, Blaze, and Adam in the first game. It's likely they're the same person.
- He serves as Estel's fire support during the 1st fight, and is the officer (possibly the very same one who provided fire support for her) that hands Mr. Y a rocket launcher in Stage 7's end scene.
- Murphy and his variants are absent in Stage 7, despite being part of the Police force; except for on Mania+ difficulty where Ralphy is present during the boss fight against Estel and the Commissioner.
- Murphy, along with Feroccio (silhouette only) and Gold are the only non-boss enemies to appear any one of the game’s in between level cutscenes, and among them, Murphy appears in the most numerous.
- Ralphy, the red uniform variant, was originally an unused variant until the Mr. X Nightmare DLC update. The unused version attacked with his shield instead of a weapon. Interestingly, his file name is "sprsor4elite_l3_gold", which implies that Stage 3 was originally going to feature him.
- Shadow, the black uniform variant, has a fighting style reminiscent of Mifune, from previous titles.