MegaMan.EXE joins a team led by either Lan's and MegaMan.EXE's rivals Chaud and ProtoMan.EXE or new characters Baryl and Colonel.EXE, and the members of this team assist MegaMan in various ways. MegaMan.EXE can take on the attributes of one of his teammates with a Soul Unison. The team plays its largest role in Liberation missions, wherein MegaMan.EXE and the rest of his team enter a part of the Nebula-controlled Internet to free the area via a time-limited battle with a group of viruses. Also new to "Mega Man Battle Network 5" are "Dark Chips", which are more powerful Battle Chips. While they appeared randomly in "Mega Man Battle Network 4" when MegaMan.EXE was badly damaged, they act more like normal battle chips in this game in that they can be added to the battle chip folder like any other chip. Using Dark Chips has a downside: MegaMan.EXE will no longer be able to achieve Soul Unison, and every time MegaMan.EXE uses a Dark Chip, he permanently loses one point from his maximum hit points (HP). He can, however, use a Dark Chip for a Soul Unison; this is called a Chaos Unison, which resembles a normal Soul Unison with the main difference being that the Mega Buster is replaced with the effects of the Dark Chip he used for the Chaos Unison. While using this effect doesn't cause HP loss, it has to be done with careful timing, as charging with poor timing will end the Chaos Unison and cause an invincible, evil version of MegaMan.EXE to join the viruses and attack him for a short period of time using random battle chips. Much like previous games in the series, Game Boy Advance copies of "Mega Man Battle Network 5" can connect using the Game Boy Advance link cable to battle head-to-head or to trade battle chips.