__ __________________ __ ______ _ __ _ __ ______ / |/ / ____/ ____/ | / |/ / | / | / / | |/ // ____/ / /|_/ / __/ / / __/ /| | / /|_/ / /| | / |/ / | //___ \ / / / / /___/ /_/ / ___ | / / / / ___ |/ /| / / |____/ / /_/ /_/_____/\____/_/ |_| /_/ /_/_/ |_/_/ |_/ /_/|_/_____/ Author: Jesse "King Meteor" Geddert E-Mail: [email protected] Began: August 21, 2010 Completed: August 28, 2010 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =Table of Contents= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 1. Story 2. Items and Upgrades 3. Viruses 4. Hunter Rank 5. Boss Levels 6. Parts 7. Weapons/Techniques 7.1 X's Weapons 7.2 Zero's Techniques 8. Armors 8.1 X 8.2 Zero 9. Walkthrough 9.1 Training Stage 9.2 Opening Stage 9.3 Grizzly Slash - "Chase the Truck!" 9.4 Duff McWhalen - "Obliterate the Battleship!" 9.5 Dynamo 9.6 Squid Adler - "Electric Trap!" 9.7 Izzy Glow - "Fortress Lab Infiltration!" 9.8 Dark Dizzy - "Escape the Space Trap!" 9.9 The Skiver - "Destroy the Time Bombs!" 9.10 Dynamo Returns 9.11 Mattrex - "Red-Hot World!" 9.12 Axle the Red - "Into the Jungle!" 9.13 Zero Virus Stage 1 9.14 Zero Virus Stage 2 9.15 Zero Virus Stage 3 9.14 Zero Virus Stage 4 10. Maverick Names 11. Codes 12. Frequently Asked Questions 13. Copyright 14. Contacting Me =-=-=-=-=-= =1. Story = =-=-=-=-=-= Sigma has hired a bounty hunter to hack the controls of the space colony, Eurasia, and set it on a collision course with the earth. In doing so, Sigma plans to spread his own virus along with another virus aboard the space colony in attempt to bring Zero back to his true self: the person he was before he'd ever encountered Sigma. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =2. Items And Upgrades= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= -Life Energy Capsules- These are grey and yellow capsules that enemies occasionally drop. They come in different sizes and restore different amounts of life energy proportionately. -Weapon Energy Capsules- These are blue orbs that enemies occasionally drop. These capsules will restore weapon energy for the special weapon you have equipped or the one with the lowest weapon energy if no special weapon is equiped. These also come in different sizes and restore different amounts of weapon energy proportionately. -Extra Lives- These are shaped like X or Zero's helmet (whichever character you're playing as and give your character an extra life. -Injured Reploids- Yellow Reploids with the word "HELP!" flashing in green above them. Just simply touch them and they'll restore some of your health and disappear. -Heart Containers- A heart-shaped container. These will increase your life energy bar, increasing the maximum life energy you can have. -E-Tanks- Previously called "Sub-Tanks," these tanks can hold extra life energy for you to restore your life energy when you need to. Whenever you pick up a life energy capsule, energy will be added to your tanks. It's best to use these when they are full, otherwise, they won't do a whole lot. You will usually only need these when fighting a tough boss. You'll find them in Grizzly Slash and Dark Dizzy's stages. -W-Tank- Much the same idea as the e-tanks only is restores weapon energy. You'll find it in The Skiver's Stage. -EX-Tank- This doesn't do much. It just means that you start the game with 4 lives instead of 2. It's found in Izzy Glow's Stage. -Dr. Light Capsule- A large (big enough for a person to fit inside) capsule with a message from Dr. Light. Enter this capsule after hearing the message (or skipping it) to receive a part for an extra armor. The four stages on the left of the stage select screen will have parts for the Falcon Armor. The four stages on the right will have parts for the Gaea Armor. (I'll go into more detail later.) =-=-=-=-=-=-= =3. Viruses = =-=-=-=-=-=-= One of the new features in X5 (and one I don't really care for) is the addition of the Viruses (they look like big purple Sigma Heads.) The bottom-left corner of the screen will tell you your status. If you keep getting touched by viruses, your status will increase to "Caution," then to "Danger," and then to "Virus" at which point you will be infected. If X is infected, you'll gradually lose a bit of life energy and your controls may slow down or get reversed. If Zero is infected, your life energy will be fully restored and you'll become temporarily invincible. After being infected for a short amount of time, you'll go back to "Normal" status. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =4. Hunter Rank = =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= At the start of the game, X will have a hunter rank of B and Zero will have a hunter rank of SA. This rank can be brought up or down as the game goes on. Any time you return to the stage select screen (after completing a stage, exiting a stage, or returning to the stage select after getting a Game Over,) Alia will give you your Mission Report at which point you'll see the time it took you to complete the stage, the number of enemies you destroyed, and the amount of damage you took. Your hunter rank will improve if you completed the stage in little time, destroyed few enemies, and took little damage. Your hunter rank can be either E, D, C, B, A, SA, GA, PA, or MMH, but most of the time, your rank will probably be between B and SA, maybe GA or PA if you do really well. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =5. Boss Levels = =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Anothing thing you'll notice about this game is that the bosses have levels. These values will simply correspond to the amount of life energy the bosses have. I believe the bosses in the intro and final stages as well as Dynamo have fixed levels, but the levels of the 8 Mavericks will vary, depending on a few factors. The first factor is the number of hours left until collision. Each time you return to a stage select screen will take up one hour. 16 Hours = +1 15-14 Hours = +3 13-12 Hours = +5 11-10 Hours = +7 9-8 Hours = +9 7-6 Hours = +11 5-4 Hours = +13 3-2 Hours = +15 1-0 Hours = +17 The second factor is your hunter rank. E-A = +0 SA = +2 GA = +4 PA = +8 The third factor is the number of the 8 Mavericks you've already defeated. Each one will add 1 to the level of the next boss. Suppose you've defeated Grizzly Slash, Duff McWhalen, Squid Adler, and Izzy Glow; there are 10 hours left until collision; and the character you use in the next stage has a rank of SA. The next Maverick you fight would have a level of 13, 7 because there are 10 hours remaining, plus 2 because your hunter rank is SA, plus 4 because you've defeated 4 of the 8 Mavericks already. In short, the fewer hours remaining, the more Mavericks you've defeated, and the higher your hunter rank, the higher the boss's level will be. This system only applies on Normal and Xtreme difficulties. If you're playing on Easy difficulty, all bosses will be at Level 1. Also, the bosses' levels will only affect how much health they have. It won't have any effect on their attacks or patterns. =-=-=-=-=-= =6. Parts = =-=-=-=-=-= If you defeat one of the 8 Mavericks at Level 4 or higher, you'll get a choice of Weapons & Life or Weapons & Energy. If you defeat one of the 8 Mavericks at Level 8 or higher, you'll get the same choice, but you'll also get a Part based on what you chose. If you press L on the stage select screen, you'll be taken to a screen where you can equip Parts. Different characters and armours can equip different numbers of Parts. There are a total of 16 possible Parts you can obtain and the ones you've obtained will be at the bottom of the screen. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 1. Shock Buffer (Grizzly Slash, Weapons & Life) This part reduces the amount of damage you take and eliminates the recoil form taking damage. Some armours will already have this effect built in, in which case, the effect will not be double, but part will just become worthless. It is quite useful for armours that don't have it built in, though, but if Grizzly Slash is the first Maverick you fight, he probably won't be at a high enough level for you to obtain a part. 2. Virus Buster (Dark Dizzy, Weapons & Energy) This allows you to damage and destroy the Sigma Viruses. Not worth it, especially for Zero, since the viruses actually make him stronger and the negative effect on X isn't that severe, so just avoid them. 3. Speedster (The Skiver, Weapons & Energy) Makes you walk/run faster. 4. Jumper (The Skiver, Weapons & Life) Let's you jump higher. 5. Hyper Dash (Gizzly Slash, Weapons & Energy) Makes your dashes faster and increases the distance of your air dash. Like I said before, though, if Grizzly Slash is the first boss you fight, you probably won't get a part. 6. W-Energy Saver (Duff McWhalen, Weapons & Energy) Cuts the energy requirements of special weapons in half. Some armours will already have reductions on weapon energy requirements in which case this part will replace those requirements, not double them. 7. Super Recover (Duff McWhalen, Weapons & Life) Increases the life energy recovered from capsules by 50%. 8. Anti-Virus Guard (Dark Dizzy, Weapons & Life) Doubles the number of viruses required to infect you, making it much more difficult to get infected. Like I said before, completely worthless for Zero as the viruses make him stronger and X doesn't get affected that much anyway, so he can just avoid them. 9. Buster Plus (Mattrex, Weapons & Energy) Increases the damage done by Buster shots. Not worth it as it's not much of an increase. 10. Speed Shot (Mattrex, Weapons & Life) Let's the Buster shoot faster. Not worth it. 11. Burst Shot (Izzy Glow, Weapons & Life) (X only) Let's you have 5 X-Buster shots on the screen instead of 3. Probably not all that useful. 12. Ultimate Buster (Axle the Red, Weapons & Life) (X only) You'll automatically shoot charge shots. Not worth it as there will be delays between shots and it doesn't take too long to charge manually, especially if you have... 13. Quick Charge (Squid Adler, Weapons & Life) (X only) Let's X charge his Buster and other weapons in half the time. This is a really good part to have. 14. Z-Sabre Plus (Axle the Red, Weapons & Energy) (Zero only) Increases the damage done by Zero's Sabre. It's not much of an increase and it doesn't work on special techniques, so don't bother with it. 15. Z-Sabre Extend (Squid Adler, Weapons & Energy) (Zero only) Increases the length of Zero's Sabre. It's not much of an increase, though, and it doesn't work on special techniques. Get the Quick Charge, it's MUCH better. 16. Shot Eraser (Izzy Glow, Weapons & Energy) (Zero only) Let's Zero destroy enemies' shots with his Sabre. Might be useful. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =7. Weapons/Techniques= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 7.1 X's Weapons --------------- -C-Shot- Obtained from: Grizzly Slash Normal (48 uses): Shoots a small crescent in a random direction, either straight ahead, up at an angle, or down at an angle. Charged (8 uses): Creates a shield around X that damages enemies. -Tri-Thunder- Obtained from: Squid Adler Normal (48 uses): Shoots 3 bolts of electricity, one up, one down, and one straight ahead. When they hit a wall, floor, or ceiling, they'll turn into small energy balls and run along the floor, walls, or ceiling. Charged (24 uses): Some random bolts of electricity will be shot from the top of the screen to the bottom. Not very useful. -F-Laser- Obtained from: Izzy Glow Normal (8 uses): Fires a firefly-shaped missile that can be controlled manually. X will be unable to move until it is destroyed and if he's hit, the shot will be cancelled. Charged (6 uses): Shoots a massive laser that lasts for a few seconds. This can be very damaging. -Goo Shaver- Obtained from: Duff McWhalen Normal (48 uses): Shoots a wave of ice that runs along the ground, much like Jet Stingray's Ground Hunter from MMX4. Charged (8 uses): Launches some blocks of ice in front of him and behind him. -Wing Spiral- Obtained from: The Skiver Normal (24 uses): Shoots a tornado upward. If you're holding a directional button, it will upward at an angle in the direction you're holding. Charged (8 uses): Shoots a large tornado in the direction you're facing. -Spike Ball- Obtained from: Axle the Red Normal (24 uses): Shoots a green spiked ball forward a shoot distance and then retracts it. Charged (8 uses): Shoots a purple spiked ball that bounces all over the screen. -Dark Hold- Obtained from: Dark Dizzy Normal (48 uses): Freezes time and all the small enemies on the screen, consuming about 2-4 "uses" per second. You can cancel it by using a Giga Attack or selecting another weapon in the pause menu. -Ground Fire- Obtained from: Mattrex Normal (48 uses): Shoots out a fireball, which shoots out a couple of smaller fireballs in random directions. Charged (8 uses): X shoots a large stream of fire in front of him and behind him. 7.2 Zero's Techniques --------------------- -C-Sword- Obtained from: Grizzly Slash Controls: Jump and press the attack button. Zero will flip, swinging his Sabre around him, and a crescent-shaped shield will form in front of him. This technique also allows Zero to double jump. This is basically an equivalent of Kuuenbu/Kuuenzan from MMX4. -E-Blade- Obtained from: Squid Adler Controls: Press Up and the attack button on the ground. Zero charges his blade with electricity and does a little bit of a dash upward, much like Ryuenjin from MMX4, only with electricity instead of fire. This can be a risky technique to use as it's easy to hit the enemy you're attacking. -C-Flasher- Obtained from: Izzy Glow Controls: Press the Giga Attack button. Zero shoots a bunch of shots in all directions above him. This weapon has limited uses, but recovers weapon energy from taking damage (as well as from capsules.) It's just like Rakuhouha from X4. -F-Splasher- Obtained from: Duff McWhalen Controls: Press the dash button in the air. Zero will do an invincible air dash with a mist around him. You can hold Up or Down to angle the dash slightly. -W-Shredder- Obtained from: The Skiver Controls: Dash and press the attack button A silouhette of Zero will dash forward and slash the first enemy it hits. -Twin Dream- Obtained from: Axle the Red Controls: Press the special weapons button when it's selected. Creates a doppelganger of Zero, much like X's Soul Body in X4, which will do whatever Zero does. It normally lasts for about 10 seconds, but will get cancelled if Zero gets attacked. -Dark Hold- Obtained from: Dark Dizzy Controls: Press the special weapons button when it's selected. Exactly the same as X's version -Quake Blazer- Obtained from: Mattrex Controls: Jump and press down and the attack button. Zero will quickly wall downward, pointing his sword, which is in flames, much like the Hyouretsuzan in X4 only with fire instead of ice. =-=-=-=-=-=-= =8. Armours = =-=-=-=-=-=-= 8.1 X ----- -X- This is simple X without any armour. X can hold up to 4 Parts. -Fourth Armour- This is X with all the upgrades his got in Mega Man X4 (hence the "Fourth.") You get this armour if you play as X in the opening stage. The Fourth Armour allows X to air dash, hover, and charge special weapons. It also reduces the amount of damage X takes and the amount of energy required for special weapons. The Fourth Armour can hold up to 2 Parts. -Falcon Armour- When you've obtained parts from the four Maverick stages on the left side of the stage select, X can equip the Falcon Armour. The main feature of the Falcon Armour is that it lets you fly for a good distance by pressing the jump button again after doing a normal jump. While flying, you will be immune to most attacks. The Falcon Armour also gives X a Giga Attack in which a bunch of energy shots move up and down the screen. It also reduces the amount of damage X takes and the amount of energy required for special weapons. Overall, the Falcon Armour is designed for mobility, not power. The stages will be easier with the Falcon Armour, but the boss battles will be harder. The Falcon Armour can hold up to 2 Parts. -Gaea Armour- When you've obtained parts from the four Maverick stages on the right side of the stage select, X can equip the Gaea Armour. The Gaea Armour has a few features. For one, it gives X immunity to spikes. It also allows X to break the black blocks with "V"s on them with a charge shot or push them by dashing. It allows X to stick to walls as well as reducing the amount of damage X takes. Lastly, it gives X a Giga Attack in which X throws a charged punch that lasts for a few seconds. However, these features come at a great cost. X will be much slower and less agile and he won't be able to use any special weapons. Furthermore, the Gaea Armour cannot hold any parts. Pretty much the only time you'll want to use the Gaea Armour is for obtaining items that can't be obtained without it (due to either spikes or the black blocks.) -Ultimate Armour- The Ultimate Armour can be obtained from a secret Dr. Light capsule in the 3rd Zero Virus stage. It can also be obtained at the beginning of the game with a cheat code. This armour has all the same features as the Fourth Armour except that it also has a Giga Attack. X will perform his Nova Strike from X4, which is a long invincible air dash, which is very powerful and can destroy many enemies with ease. This attack can be used unlimited times, which makes it pretty cheap if you ask me. 8.2 Zero -------- -Zero- This is simply Zero without any armour. Zero can equip up to 4 Parts. -Black Zero- Black Zero can be obtained the same way as the Ultimate Armour: in a hidden Dr. Light Capsule in the 3rd Zero Virus stage or at the beginning with a cheat code. Unlike the Ultimate Armour, this is not a separate armour; it replaces normal Zero. Black Zero has built-in Shock Buffer, Shot Eraser, and Virus Buster and reduces the amount of energy required for special weapons. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =9. Walkthrough = =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This is probably the main reason you're reading this guide. This section will take you through the game. Since the basic gameplay is pretty straightforward, I'll mainly be focusing on the hidden items, boss strategies, and other particularly difficult obstacles. I'll also be providing basic maps to give you an idea of the layout of the stage and where the hidden items are. Please note that these maps are NOT perfectly to scale. -Legend- S -> Start H -> Heart Container E -> E-Tank W -> W-Tank X -> EX-Tank L -> Dr. Light Capsule ] -> Door M -> Mini-Boss B -> Boss 9.1 Training Stage ------------------ Recommended Character: Either (depends who you wish to train with) Items: None _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |S _ _ _ | |_ _ _ _ |_ _|_ _ _ _]B| This stage is by no means necessary, but it can really help to give you a feel for the game. As you're playing the stage, Alia will walk you through all your basic abilities and the basic concepts of the game. If you're new to the series, it's probably a good idea to play this stage. Just select "Training" in the opening menu. -Boss: Magma Dragoon mk2- Weakness: X-Buster/Z-Sabre If you've played Mega Man X4, you'll recognize this boss. Rest assured, this boss is MUCH easier. He'll start by shooting some flames at you from his hands. You can crouch to avoid his high shots, but you're better off to just wall kick to avoid them. After shooting some fire he'll jump to the other side of the battlefield. Just stay in the middle. When he gets down to 1/2 health, he'll learn 2 more attacks. For his first one, he'll shoot two small flames at you (a high one and then a low one) and then a large stream of fire. Wall kick to avoid it. The other attack he learns is a flying kick. Dash underneath him to avoid it. If you're playing as X, charge up while he's attacking you and then shoot at an opportune moment. If you're playing as Zero, avoid his attacks and try to attack him with some 3-slash combos. This boss shouldn't give you much trouble. -After Completing the Stage- Either train as the other character or start the game for real. 9.2 Opening Stage ----------------- Recommended Character: X (ALWAYS use X for the opening stage! I cannot emphasize this enough!) Items: None _ _ | ]B| | | | | _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _| | |S _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _| Oh, the joyous openign stage. I think this is actually one of the trickier opening stages of the series, but still not hard. First off, let me explain why you should NEVER do this stage with Zero. Basically each character gets something special when you do the opening stage with them. X will get the Fourth Armour, which includes all his upgrades from Mega Man X4. This is really good to have as I've found that without it, X sucks so bad I never used him. So if you want to use X at any point in the game (and you should,) start the game with him. All Zero gets of you do the opening stage with him is the Z-Buster. It's a slow weapon that only works on the ground and isn't all that useful. Zero is better off just slashing with his Z-Sabre. Before the stage, you'll see a cutscene where a mysterious voice talks to a mysterious man about their plan of letting a space colony fall and scattering a virus. The topic of showing Zero his true self also comes up. I don't think I have to tell you who this "Mysterious Voice" is, but who is he talking to? Now onto the stage. You'll encounter some falling rocks about half-way through the stage. You'll also have to jump across some platforms that will quickly fall and grab onto a cable (hold UP to grab it.) Finally, in the vertical section, you'll have to move quickly to avoid some closing walls. Don't worry, you don't have to be that fast as they close rather slowly. Once you reach the top, you'll reach the head of a statue. X and Zero will meet up at the top and talk about how they are searching for Sigma. They both agree that he is very close by. Suddenly, the head of the statue will explode, revealing... -Boss: Sigma- Weakness: X-Buster/Z-Sabre And close by he was. Don't worry, he's not very hard. He only has three attacks and he only uses two of them at the start. For his first attack, he'll shoot a bunch of small, blue energy balls. If you crouch, you should be able to avoid them and if you take a hit, it's not a big deal; it won't do much damage. For his other attack, he'll shoot two green energy ball from his eyes, which will home in on you. Wall kick up to about the level where they are. Jump over the first one as it comes toward you and air dash. You should be able to avoid both of them, using this technique. You'll only be able damage Sigma by shooting him in the mouth when it's open. Hit him with charge shots or 3-hit Z-Sabre combos. When he gets down to 1/2 health, he'll gain one more attack. He'll shoot a giant purple laser from his mouth. Don't be intimidated, just crouch to avoid it (or you can wall kick above it, but crouching's easier.) Keep attacking him like you were before and he'll be defeated in no time. -After Completing the Stage- After you've defeated Sigma, there will be a cutscene revealing that the Sigma Virus has now been spread and that the space colony, Eurasia is on a collision course with the Earth. Frankly, I don't know why Sigma would spread the virus all over the Earth if he's just going to destroy it with the space colony. Moving on, the Maverick Hunters' only hope is to destroy the space colony, using a very old particle cannon called the "Enigma" or by having someone pilot a space shuttle into it, which would be an almost certain death for whoever pilotted it. But right now, the Maverick Hunters are focusing on using the Enigma. In order for the Enigma to be functional, parts must be obtained from the four Mavericks on the left side of the stage select screen. -Stage Select- Grizzly <"L" Parts "R" Weapon> The Slash Skiver Extra Stage Squid Axle Adler the Red Izzy Dark Glow Stage Explanation Dizzy Duff Mattrex McWhalen Along the left and right sides are the Maverick stages you cna select. When they're been completed, the icons will have a purple tint. At the bottom, you'll see a picture, and explanation of the stage, and the number of hours left until collision. If you press "L", you'll be taken to a screen where you can equip parts. If you press "R", you'll be taken to a screen where you can check the status of the weapon you're using (the Enigma or the Space Shuttle) or you can fire it prematurely. If you happen to be successful (unlikely), you'll be able to enter the final stages right away without having to defeat the rest of the Mavericks. After the 2nd and 6th stage you complete, an extra boss (I won't say the name) will appear in the spot that I've marked "Extra Stage." Once the final stages are accessable (by a successful launch of the weapon or by defeating all 8 Mavericks), the final stages will also appear there. I'll be walking you through the stages in the recommended order. It is not the most efficient for item-collecting, but it is the easiest. One more note, when I list X as the recommended character, I am not talking about normal, unarmoured X, I'm talking about X with the Fourth Armour unless I specifically say otherwise. 9.3 Grizzly Slash - "Chase the Truck!" -------------------------------------- Recommended Character: Either, but I lean a bit more toward Zero Items: Heart Container (Gaea Armour or Falcon Armour required) E-Tank Leg Parts F (C-Sword recommended) _ _ _ _ Trucks |_ _ H| _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _| | |_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |S _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _|_ _|_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ E _ _ -> Warehouse _ _ _ |L|_| ] | -> _ _ _|B| This is probably the best stage to start with since Grizzly Slash is probably the easiest boss to defeat without his weakness. Proceed until you reach the cab of the first truck. Alia will inform you that the blue core is the weakpoint and that if you destroy it, the truck will explode. At that point, you'd better jump to the next one. X will have to get on to the hood of the truck in order to attack the core. Zero can actually attack the core from the roof with a 3-slash combo, giving him a slight edge over X. You'll soon get get to a large box trailer. Proceed through it until you find large box trailer. You'll notice an opening between the trailers that will let you get on top of the roofs of the trailers. The Heart Container is on the roof of the second trailer (it will be on the right of the opening.) However, the roofs of the trailers are covered with spikes, which means that you will need the Gaea Armour to get it. You could also fly over the spikes with the Falcon Armour, but you will most likely die in the process. And since you don't have either of those armours yet, we're going to have to come back to this stage. Eventually, you'll get to the point where the trucks start exploding by themselves. On the hood of the second truck you'll see the E-Tank (it's in plain sight.) Quickly get it and jump to the next truck. The trucks are no longer exploding. When you've moved ahead to the front of the truck, it will crash into another truck. After the crash, you'll find yourself in some sort of cave, which is presumably Grizzly Slash's secret warehouse. Here, you should an opening in the ceiling that looks like this: | | | 2|_ | 1| __ ______| |__ Stand on the little mound sticking out of the ground and then jump up to the spot I've labelled as Point 1. Then quickly do a dash jump from there up to Point 2. This may take you a few tries to do. If you find this too difficult, you can come back here with Zero once you've beaten Grizzly Slash and use Zero's double jump to jump directly to Point 2. Once you've reached Point 2, you can simple wall kick up the walls and you'll find a Dr. Light Capsule to the left of the opening, containing the leg parts of the Falcon Armour. After listening to the message from Dr. Light, jump into the capsule to obtain the parts. From here go back down and proceed through the cave until you reach the boss door. -Boss: Grizzly Slash- Weakness: Spike Ball/Twin Dream If you're following the guide, you will not have defeated Axle the Red yet, and therefore, will not have Grizzly Slash's weakness, so just use the X-Buster or Z-Sabre. Grizzly Slash will start the battle by shooting three small crescents. You can easily avoid these by crouching the in the indentation in the ground. Then he'll jump. This jump is long and slow, which gives you plenty of time to attack him, especially if you're playing as Zero. When 1/3 of his life energy is gone, he'll start diving from the ceiling into the floor. If you're in one of the indentations, he'll pop out of the ground and point a large drill in one direction. If you're standing on one of the higher points, he'll pop out of the wall and try to slash you. Avoid him, by constantly moving from one point to another and attack him when he appears. When 2/3 of his life energy are gone, he'll use another move. He'll land back on one of the higher points of the battlefield and start shooting some big crescents at you: a high one and a low one. The low one can be avoided by crouching in one of the indentations. The high one can be avoided by jumping off one of the higher points. You'll need to be rather quick to avoid taking a hit. He'll jump around a couple of times and then shoot the crescents again. If you're playing as X, you can easily avoid his attacks and attack him from a distance. Just shoot him with charge shots. If you have the Spike Ball, then just keep hitting him with it. He'll get stunned and restart his pattern with every hit. If you're playing as Zero, you won't be able to keep your distance as much, which means you'll often have to wait until he's not attacking you to attack him without taking damage. If you have the Twin Dream then activate it and slash away at him. You should be able to get a couple of slashes in for each Twin Dream. Each time you hit him with the Twin Dream, he'll be stunned and restart his pattern. -After Completing the Stage- You got the C-Shot and C-Sword If you get the choice between Weapons & Life and Weapons & Energy (which is unlikely at this point,) choose Weapons & Life. If you get a part (even more unlikely at this point) you'll get the Shock Buffer, which is far more useful than the Hyper Dash. After returning to Hunter Base, you'll get a transmission from an unknown source. It's that guy you saw in the opening cutscene. He'll introduce himself as Dynamo. If you didn't get the Leg Parts F before, be sure to revisit Grizzly Slash's Stage with Zero and get it. It will be much eaiser with Zero's double jump. 9.4 Duff McWhalen - Obliterate the Battleship! ---------------------------------------------- Recommended Character: Either, although again I lean a bit more toward Zero Items: Heart Container (Gaea Armour, Falcon Armour, or E-Blade required) Body Parts F (Goo Shaver required) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |M]_ B| |S _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ M | | | | | _ _ _ _| | | |_|H _ _ | | | | _ _ _ | | |M _| |L _| Ugh! This stage is long and tedious. You may notice that the music is a remake of Bubble Crab's stage from Mega Man X2. Well, that's about the only enjoyable thing about this stage. Throughout this stage, you'll bed fighting against the submaring, U-555. Much of this stage will have a scrolling screen. You'll start off in front of the U-555. Shoot or slash the front end of it to destroy its weapons. Don't just destroy the guns, but destroy the front end of it. If you just destroy the guns, they'll regenerate. Also avoid or destroy the enemies that come out of it. A charge shot or C-Sword slash will do it nicely. Occasionally, and injured Reploid will also pop out of the "mouth" so be sure to "rescue" (touch) them for an extra life and some extra energy. Soon you'll get to the point where the U-555 will shoot giant lasers out of its mouth. Jump into the indentations in the ceiling or crouch in the ones in the ground to avoid it. Eventually the screen will stop scrolling and you'll fight the U-555. -Mini-Boss: U-555 - Front- Weakness: X-Buster/C-Sword The U-555 will attack you in pretty much the same way it did before. When it fires the giant laser, just don't stay on the ground and it will go over you. Attack the cannon in the mouth with either a charge shot or a C-Sword slash. These should also take care of any enemies that come out of the mouth. After destroying the front of the U-555, you'll move on to a section where you'll be moving down. You'll now be fighting the tail end of the U-555. It will have four guns in the back that will shoot torpedos at you. The torpedos and guns can be destroyed although the guns will regenerate. Eventually you'll reach the bottom and the screen will stop scrolling. Time for another fight with the U-555. -Mini-Boss: U-555 - Tail- Weakness: X-Buster/C-Sword Same idea as when the screen was scrolling. The tail will be shooting torpedos at you. Keep hitting the guns with a charge shot of C-Sword slash and avoid or destroy the torpedos. You shouldn't have much trouble. You'll now enter a section that appears to be in a sunken ship. For once, the screen will not be scrolling and you won't be fighting the U-555. Enjoy it while it lasts. Go up the wall and proceed to the right. You'll see a cracked block in the ceiling. This block is breakable with Zero's E-Blade and leads to the Heart Container. If you're following the guide, however, you won't have the E-Blade. There is another way up there, though. If you keep going, you'll see an opening lined with spikes in the top. You can go up there on top of the spikes with the Gaea Armour or fly up there with the Falcon Armour (Gaea Armour would be safer, but it makes getting here more difficult.) Unfortunately, you don't have either of these armours yet, so we'll be coming back to this stage. Go down where you see the opening and you'll see a Dr. Light capsule to your left. Between you and the capsule, you'll see a cracked block of wood, a bomb, and a small gap. You'll need to shoot the Goo Shaver through to gap to set off the bomb and destroy the wood, or just hit the bomb with a charged Goo Shaver. I actually recommend using the charged Goo Shaver because it can be difficult to get the normal Goo Shaver through the gap and if you move too far away, you'll actually move on to the next section and miss your chance. But. since you haven't beaten Duff McWhalen yet, you'll need to come back to this stage to get it. Move on to the next section. The screen will start scrolling up and you'll be on top of the U-555. If you're playing as Zero, you can actually destroy the guns with a 3-slash combo or C-Sword slash (if you don't jump very high) although they do regenerate quickly, so it may not be worthwhile. If you're playing as X, you'll just need to avoid them. Make sure you also avoid the big blocks of ground as you're moving up or you could get crushed, which is and instant death. Eventually, the screen will stop and you'll be at the top. You know that this means... -Mini-Boss: U-555 - Core- Weakness: X-Buster/C-Sword Avoid the guns like you did before and attack the core when the window opens. This is the only time you'll be able to damage it. When it does, hit it with a charge shot or C-Sword. Keep doing this until it's destroyed. At last the U-555 is destroyed for good. Now on to the real boss. -Boss: Duff McWhalen- Weakness: C-Shot/C-Sword Alright, now this boss is trickier than the last one. Still, if you attack him with this weakness, he should be much trouble...this time, anyway... Duff McWhalen will start by generating a bunch of ice blocks, forming some sort of maze. After which he'll shoot a couple of Goo Shavers that will run along it. He'll then begin to move the maze to the right toward the spikes on the side of the battlefield. Avoid the spikes at all costs as they result in an automatic death. As the maze is moving to the right he'll be shooting torpedos at you. As soon as you attack him with his weakness, however, the ice blocks will all shatter and he'll start over. So if you attack him with the C-Shot or C-Sword right away, you can actually attack him before he's really even done anything. In fact, you can repeat this process until 2/3 of his life energy is gone and never take a scratch. When Duff McWhalen is down to 1/3 health, then the fight really gets tricky. He'll move across the battlefield and then start attacking you from the left side instead of the right. He'll now be shooting a bunch of ice blocks toward the spikes on the right side, trying to push you into them. These block move very quickly and can be difficult to avoid. Do your best to avoid them and avoid being pushed into the spikes. Hit him a few more times and you'll destroy him. Zero has a slight edge of X in this battle as the direction of X's C-Shot is random, so he's more likely to miss. -After Completing the Stage- You got the Goo Shaver and F-Splasher Choose Weapons & Life (this is the option you'll be picking more often.) If you get a part (you probably won't, though) you'll get the Super Recover, which increases the amount of life energy that capsules restore by %50. Upon returning to Hunter Base, you'll receive a report that Dynamo is attacking the base. 9.5 Dynamo ---------- Recommended Character: Either -Boss: Dynamo- Weakness: Wing Spiral/W-Shredder If you're following the guide, you won't have Dynamo's weakness yet, so you'll have to stick with the X-Buster/Z-Sabre. Dynamo's really easy this time around. He only has two attacks. One of them involves him throwing his pink blade at you. It will come back like a boomerang. Just jump over when it's going out and jump over it again when it's coming back. If you're playing as X, his second attack will involve him jumping across the battlefield and swinging his blade at you. Dash toward the other side of the arena as soon as he starts jumping and you should be able to avoid his blade. If you're playing as Zero, Dynamo will jump across the arena and shoot a small energy shot downward, which will split into two when it hits the ground. Simply dash underneath Dynamo when he starts jumping and jump over the energy shot when it comes toward you. -After Completing the Stage- At this point, let's revisit Duff McWhalen's Stage to get the Body Parts F, now that you have the Goo Shaver. Make sure you use X as Zero can't reach the Dr. Light Capsule. Once you've obtained the Body Parts F, exit the stage and proceed to the next one. 9.6 Squid Adler - "Electric Trap!" ---------------------------------- Recommended Character: Zero Items: Heart Container (Gaea Armour required) Head Parts F _ _ S>>>>>>>>>>> ]L| _ _ _ _| | |] _]_ _]_| | |_ _ _ |_] |_ _ _|] H|_ _ |_ _ _] | _]_]B| |_ _| You'll start this stage on the Ride Chaser (the section marked with the arrows on the map.) During this section, you'll see a bunch of light blue orbs. You'll need to collect these in order to obtain the Head Parts F. Here's an idea of what the Ride Chaser section looks like. The orbs will be marked by circles, the thinnner barriers will be marked by single quotation marks ('), and the thicker barriers will be marked by double quotation marks (") _ o _'' __ _ _o "" o |_______________________ \__ _ | | _o o__ | \ _ _____'''o'_""__"_"_"_"_-> | |\_ | | | | __ __ | \_____ ____ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | _| |_________ ->_ o _"_''"""o| | | | |___ | | |_"""_ This map might help you device a strategy for getting the energy capsules, although it's not a perfect representation of the section. I think the best advice I can give you is to keep practicing. This section requires more skill than strategy. Keep practicing and familiarize yourself with the course. Figure out, based on trial and error, what you need to do to get the orbs, or at least get through the section alive. Once you've completed the Ride Chaser section, Alia will begin talking to you about the orbs during the section and how they seem to be corresponding with the door in front of you. Your character will then start shooting the door with them. If you collected all 8 of them, the door will open and you'll gain access to the Head Parts F. If not, you can come back for them later. Proceed downward through the stage. You'll begin to notice a prominence of injured Reploids. Saving them is not required but it is awfully helpful as they give you an extra life and some life energy. You should soon notice some broken spring-like lock systems and doors of the same colour. Simply attack the lock system to compress it. When it is fully compressed, the door of the corresponding colour will open. This is one reason why I recommended Zero for this stage. Zero can attack the lock system multiple times, much quicker than X's X-Buster. I should also point out that once you've fully compressed the lock, the door will only stay open for a short amount of time, so you'll need to be quick. Keep moving left and you'll see another door of the same type. Same idea except this time, you'll have to hit the lock while holding on to the wire. Eventually you'll start seeing two doors and lock systems of two different colours. The different lock systems will open the doors of the same colour. Here's where it starts to get a bit tricky. You'll need to alternate attacking the two different lock systems. Don't just attack one of them first and then the other because there's a good chance that the first door will close while you're trying to open the second one. You'll need to open the two doors at relatively the same time. You'll be faced with a few pairs of doors, each one trickier than the last, but if you alternate attacking them relatively evenly, you should be able to get them open without too much trouble. Often one of them will be about ground level and one of them will be in the air. I suggest that for the ones at ground level, you do a 3-slash combo (assuming you're using Zero as I recommended) and do a C-Sword slash on the airborne ones. Eventually, you should reach the top of a ladder and see an orange door in the ceiling to your left. This path will lead you to the Heart Container. However, the section above it is covered with spikes, so you'll need to come back for it once you've got the Gaea Armour. So, for now, go to the right and you'll encounter one last pair of doors before the boss. -Boss: Squid Adler- Weakness: Goo Shaver/F-Splasher Squid Adler will start by moving and shooting 3 bolts of electricity at you, which become energy balls when they hit a wall, floor, or ceiling. Sometimes he'll also create a block in the centre of the tall, narrow battlefield. When he's down to 3/4 health, the block will become electrified, so make sure you avoid touching it. When he's down to 2/3 health, he'll start electrifying the floor for a good amount of time, so make sure you wall kick to avoid it. When he's down to 1/3 health, he'll gain one more attack. He'll spread his arms and shoot several bolts of electricity. These can be difficult to dodge, but there will be gaps between the bolts big enough for you to jump through. As before, they will become energy balls when the hit the floor, walls or ceiling. This is the other main reason I recommended using Zero for this stage. The F-Splasher works extremely well. Any time you hit him with it, he'll be stunned. Just make sure you pass him in the middle of the air dash and not at the end because at that point, you'll be able to take damage. If you keep air dashing across him, you should be able to bring his lefe energy down pretty quickly. Unfortunately, X's version of Squid Adler's weakness is not all that effective. Since it mainly runs along the ground, you'll either have to be very close to him or high above him. You can also charge the Goo Shaver which works quite well and is almost a guaranteed hit as long as he's not right below you. If you don't have his weakness, then attack him with charge shots or C-Sword slashes and do your best to avoid his attacks. -After Completing the Stage- You got the Tri-Thunder and E-Blade Definitely choose Weapons & Life. If you happen to get a part, you'll get the quick charage, which allows X to charge his X-Buster, much faster. If you don't get a part, the extra life energy is still useful. Now that you have the E-Blade, you can get the Heart Container in Duff McWhalen's stage with Zero. If you'd rather revisit the stage with the Gaea Armour or Falcon Armour, you can also do that, but I'd suggest doing it now with Zero. 9.7 Izzy Glow - "Fortress Lab Infiltration!" -------------------------------------------- Recommended Character: X Items: Heart Container (Falcon Armour or Gaea Armour required) EX-Tank (Ground Fire required) Arm Parts F (C-Shot/C-Sword required) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _|X| _ _ _ | _] -> _ _ _ _ _ _ M _ -> |S _ _ _ _ _| |_ _| |_ H| _ _ _ | _]B| | | | | | |_ _ _ _|_ |_ |L _ |_|_ | | _ _ _ _| |_ | -> _ _| A very short distance into the stage, you'll see a drawbridge. If you go off the edge of the drawbridge (slide down a wall to avoid dying) you'll find a bunch of spikes in the bottom. You'll see a small alcove to the left with an injured reploid in it. To the left, you'll see a much larger alcove, which is where the Heart Container is. Unfortunately, the bottom is lined with spikes, so you'll need the Falcon Armour or the Gaea Armour to get it, so we're going to be coming back here. Proceed to the right of the drawbridge into the castle. As you go along, you'll see a couple of wooden blocks in the ceiling. Above them, you'll see some spiked platforms being dropped on chains, an injured reploid, and the EX-Tank. The wooden blocks need to be burned with the Ground Fire, but since you don't have it yet, you'll also need to revisit this stage for that. Eventually, you'll reach a section where you're in a spiral staircase, much like the one in Split Mushroom's stage in MMX4. Keep going up the staircase and you'll reach a mini-boss at the top. -Mini-Boss: Laser Heads- There will be four cables hanging down from the ceiling. Three of them will have some robot heads on them. Two of them will be pink and one of them will be black. The black one is the one you need to destroy. Each of them will shoot a laser that will cover about 1/3 of the screen (and there are 3 of them.) But don't worry. If you hit the black one with a charge shot, C-Sword, or 3-slash combo (if it's ground level) then you should be able to destroy the black head before it fires its laser, giving you a place to avoid the other two laser. Remember that you can grab on to these cables, as I've forgotten that at times. Anyway, keep destroying the black head and avoiding the lasers from other ones until its life meter is gone. Once you've defeated the mini-boss, proceed onward to the teleporter, which will take you to the final section of the stage. You'll see these green weapons in the wals that shoot orange plasmas at you. These can be destroyed with the C-Shot or C-Sword. Move right, and then up the ladder, and then left, and then up a wall, and then move to the right a bit. The floor will start to slope up at this point. As you're going up the slope, you'll notice a gap in the ceiling with the right edge sticking down a bit further than the left. It will look something like this: ______ |___ Wall-kick up the wall and you'll see another one of those green, plasma- shooting weapons. Destroy it with the C-Shot or C-Sword and you'll find a path hidden behind it. This path will lead to a Dr. Light capsule that contains the Arm Parts F. This is the final piece of the Falcon Armour. Once you've obtained the upgrade, continue through the level, dodging or destroying some more of those green cannons, until you reach the boss doors. -Boss: Izzy Glow- Weakness: Tri-Thunder/E-Blade For much of this battle, Izzy Glow will fly for a bit and then teleport, repeating these two steps several times. This can make it difficult to hit him. Sometimes, he'll stop to fire an F-Laser at you. At this point he won't be moving, so this is probably your best chance to attack him. You can destroy the F-Laser, but if you do, he'll immediately go back into his flying and teleporting routine or another attack, so focus on avoiding the laser and hitting Izzy Glow. When 1/3 of his health is gone, he'll start shooting charged F-Lasers. He'll start off in one of the top corners of the battlefield and move downward. You can avoid these by crouching or simply by standing against the wall on the side of the room he's on. When he's down to 1/2, he'll start doing his routines faster. When he's down to 1/3 health, he'll gain two more attacks. For one of them, he'll start shooting charged F-Lasers downward and move across the room. This attack is pretty much unavoidable unless you stun him with his weakness or use a Giga Attack. For his other new attack, he'll shoot a bunch of yellow energy balls on to the floor, fly to the other side of the room, and then retract them. To avoid this attack, quickly move to the side of the room opposite from where Izzy Glow is going TO (you'll be on the same side as he was before.) You should be in the opposite corner of the room from Izzy Glow when he starts retracting the energy balls. Just jump over the first one and you'll be fine. If you're playing as X, Tri-Thunder works extremely well. the Tri-Thunder fires in three directions, so you can hit him even when he's well above you. Just be a bit careful because whenever you hit him, he'll get stunned and fall, so if you attack him when he's straight above you, he can fall on you if you're not careful. The Tri-Thunder bolts will also turn into blue energy balls when they hit the floor, walls, or ceiling. This is great because Izzy Glow will be near ceiling level a lot of the time, so you can even hit him when he's not directly in front of you or above you. Izzy Blow will be vulnerable to the Tri-Thunder pretty much any time he's doing an attack. Unfortunately, if you're playing as Zero, the E-Blade is quite a risky weapon to use. Often you'll end up hitting him. You have to be really well-positioned and well-timed to pull of using the E-Blade, especially since he'll get stunned and fall when you hit him with his weakness. You're probably better off just using the C-Sword. Yes, this is one battle that's definitely quite a bit harder for Zero than for X. -After Completing the Stage- You got the F-Laser and C-Flasher Choose Weapons & Energy. This option gives you a better part when Weapons & Life. You now have all the parts to the Enigma that you needed to collect. When you get back to hunter base, there will be a cutscene where the Maverick Hunters will attempt to destroy the space colony, Eurasia. If the launch happens to be a success, the colony will be destroyed and you'll be able to access the final stages right away. More often than not, though, the launch will be a failure, in which case, the Maverick Hunters will have to resort to their backup plan: the space shuttle. Frankly, I'm a bit surprised they still use space shuttles in the year 21XX as that's about 100 years from now, probably more. Even now, there's talk about developing a spacecraft to replace the shuttle. Maybe it's a REALLY old space shuttle. Just like with the Enigma, you'll need to collect parts for the space shuttle to be operational. The four Mavericks on the right side of the stage select hold the parts to the space shuttle. On a completely different note, the Falcon Armour is now complete, so you'll be able to access some items you couldn't before. If you want, go back and get the Heart Containers in Grizzly Slash and Izzy Glow's stages and Duff McWhalen's stage if you haven't already. If you'd rather wait until you have the Gaea Armour (as it's safer) then you can do that too. 9.8 Dark Dizzy - "Escape the Space Trap!" ----------------------------------------- Recommended Character: X (Falcon Armour) Items: Heart Container (Falcon Armour or Gaea Armour recommended) E-Tank (Falocn Armour recommended) Head Parts G (F-Laser required) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |S _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ E -> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ->|_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ H _ _ _ _]B| |L| Let me just point out that the while the Falcon Armour makes the stages (and getting items) easier, the boss battles will be harder as the Falcon Armour is designed more for mobility than power. So if you'd rather use the Fourth Armour and revisit the stage with the Falcon Armour for the items, you can do that. This is a very interesting stage. At first you'll see a bunch of stars in the background. After awhile, the stars will disappear, during which time, there's supposedly a bit of a time slow-down, although I've never really noticed it. When the stars reappear, there will be some constellations, which Alia says she's picking up Maverick readings from? When the galaxy disappears again, the constellations will turn into groups of bats that will drop spikes. These spikes will kill you in one hit, so avoid them. The next time the consteallations appear, the spikes will disappear. Eventually you'll get to a section where you'll be on a moving platform. The pattern will continue and there will be very limited room to avoid the spikes the bats drop, if any. The Falcon Armour makes dodging the spikes a bit easier. Try to destroy the bats before they close in on you and drop the spikes on your moving platform. Another tip is to actually let yourself get hit by the bats. This will give a a bit of temporary invincibility, during which time, the spikes won't kill you. Near the end of the section with the moving platform, you'll see a small platform with an E-Tank on it. If you're using the Falcon Armour like I suggested, you can just fly up there and get it. You can also get up there easily with Zero's double jump. Keep going right until you are teleported to the second half of the stage. The second half of the stage has arrow-shaped beams that will flip the stage if you jump into them. It's a lot like the second half of Cyber Peacock's stage in X4. Keep going until you see a Heart Container underneath a small platform, between two blocks, on top of the spikes along the floor. At this point, the Heart Container will be completely enclosed, making it impossible to get. You'll need to go back to the last arrow-shaped beam you went through and touch it again, causing the stage to flip again. Now the blocks enclosing the Heart Container will be on the ceiling, which means that they'll fall if you go near them, opening up access to the Heart Container. There's still one little problem, though: the spikes on the ceiling. If you're using the Falcon Armour carefully fly between the platform and the spikes to get the Heart Container. Or you can just hit an enemy, giving yourself temporary immunity to the spikes. You'll need to be quick if you do this though, as your invincibility will wear off very quickly. If that's too difficult, you can come back with the Gaea Armour although I really don't think you'll need to. Keep going until you're just about at the boss doors. You'll see a hole in the ground just before the door. Go down the hole and you'll see a Dr. Light capsule on the other side of a door as well as a weapon energy capsule. DON'T PICK UP THE WEAPON ENERGY CAPSULE YET! To get to the Dr. Light capsule, you'll need to navigate the F-Laser through a little maze and hit the other side of the door between you and the capsule. This is really difficult and will probably take you many tries to do. There's a good chance you'll need to refill your weapon energy so grab the capsule only when your weapon energy is low. Once you've obtained the Head Parts G, proceed to the boss. -Boss: Dark Dizzy- Weakness: F-Laser/C-Flasher Dark Dizzy will most likely start off just flying from corner to corner. He'll never fly diagonally, so use that do your advantage. One of his starting moves will be creating swarms of bats. Take them out with a charge shot or just fly through them with the Falcon Armour. If you're playing as Zero, keep slashing them. Sometimes, he'll swoop down and try to grab you. If he does, he'll suck out your life energy and recover his own. Fortunately, you can predict this attack. If he's in one of the upper corners, he'll stay there a bit longer than usual. If he's in one of the lower corners, he'll move to the top a bit faster than usual. When he swoops down, stay in one of the lower corners. When he's only got 1/3 of his life energy left, he gains some new moves. One of them involves him shooting some large sound waves across the room, much like Shade Man in MM7. You can crouch below the higher ones, but you'll need to wall kick to get over the lower ones. After doing so, he'll fly into an upper corner and start charging up the Dark Hold. If he executes it, you'll be frozen for a few seconds. If you stun him with his weakness as he's charging it up, the attack will be cancelled. I suggest saving the F-Laser/C-Flasher for the later part of the battle as your uses of these weapons are quite limited. Hitting him with the F-Laser can be a bit tricky because if it hits one of the bats, it will be used up so try to avoid it. Zero's C-Flasher does a crap load of damage against Dark Dizzy and plows through the bats with ease. This boss really isn't that hard. -After Completing the Stage- You got the Dark Hold Choose Weapons & Life. Neither of the parts you get are all that useful, but the extra life energy is. Upon returning to hunter base, there will be a cutscene where Zero will be talking about the virus, which turns Reploids Maverick, but for some reason, he isn't harmed by them. He actually becomes stronger. Signas and Lifesaver go on to discuss the matter further. Signas suspects that Zero has Maverick antibodies within him. Lifesaver points out that the bodies of X and Zero are very mysterious. Signas and Lifesaver both fear that Zero's positive reaction to the Maverick Virus could be very serious and that something should be done about him. Once you return to the stage select, revisit Dark Dizzy's stage with Falcon Armour X and get the items if you didn't get them already. I should also point out that at this point, the number of hours until collision is probably getting low and each stage revisit takes up an hour, so you may want to wait on the stage revisits until the space colony is destroyed. 9.9 The Skiver - "Destroy the Time Bombs!" ------------------------------------------ Recommended Character: X (Falcon Armour) Items: Heart Container W-Tank Body Parts G (Falcon Armour required) _ _ _ | _] | | |_|B| | H| | |_ _ _ _ _| _| | _ | _| _| | | | |_ _ _| _| _ _ _ _| | | |L | |S _ _ _ _| |W| | | | | |_]_ _ _ _| As I mentioned in Dark Dizzy's stage, the Falcon Armour will make the boss battles harder and The Skiver is a harder boss than Dark Dizzy. So just like with Dark Dizzy's stage, if you'd rather do the stage with the Fourth Armour or with Zero and revisit the stage with Falcon Armour X, you can do that. However, if you revisit the stage it will take another hour and as I mentioned before, you're probably beginning to run out of time at this point, so it's probably a good idea to keep your stage revisits to a minimum until the colony is destroyed. Anyway, this is a pretty fun stage. Throughout this stage, you'll see several time bombs. They don't have to be destroyed, but if they're allowed to go off, the section of the stage will start blowing up and you could take a fair bit of damage. X has a slight edge of Zero as he can destroy them from a distance. Also, make sure you're not too close to the bombs when you destroy them or you'll take damage. Keep going until you get to an elevator that will start moving down when you get on it. Now jump off the lift and down the shaft. You'll see a couple of barriers in the shaft that will be broken when the elevator comes through. Let the elevator break through the first two barriers. Now, on the third barrier, you'll see the W-Tank between two big yellow mechs. Quickly get the W-Tank before the elevator breaks the barrier. If the elevator breaks the barrier, you'll miss your chance to get it. It's not hard to find, you just need to be quick to get it. Keep going down until you reach the bottom and proceed through the door on the right. Now, if you're using the Falcon Armour like I recommended, fly upward and you'll see a platform with a Dr. Light capsule on it. Fly up to the capsule and collect the Body Parts G. It's probably best to start your flight from the right end of the platform you're on. Once you've got the armour parts, drop down from the platform and get on the lift. As the left is moving up, a Sigma Virus will come up behind the lift. Don't worry, it won't close in on you, it will just stay there beside the lift. At one point, there will be a spiked platform above you. To avoid it, you'll need to stand on the right side of the lift and crouch. In fact, to be safe, you can just assume this position from the get-go since there's nothing else you'll encounter on the lift that could hurt you. Once the lift reaches the top, proceed on to another elevator. This elevator will start moving up. As you're going up, you'll see an alcove on your right, with an injured Reploid and a blue robot with a gun. Alia will most likely interrupt you at this point to tell you that there are time bombs that need destroying. When the elevator stops, go into the alcove and you'll see a time bomb. If you have the Falcon Armour, you can just shoot through the blue robot and the time bomb, destroying them both in one charge shot. Once you've destroyed the bomb, the elevator will start moving again. As you continue to go up, stick to one of the sides of the elevator as there will be a spiked platform in the middle. The elevator will then stop at another alcove. You'll find another injured Reploid, another time bomb, and the Heart Container. Seriously, you can't miss it. Destroy the time bomb, get the Heart Container, and get back on the elevator. As the elevator goes up, there will be a couple more spiked platforms, one on the right and one on the left, so position yourself accordingly. Once the elevator reaches the top, you'll see the boss door on your right. -Boss: The Skiver- Weakness: Dark Hold Yes, the Skiver is the one boss that is not immune to the Dark Hold. However, I strongly advise that you wait until the later part of the battle as it will get used up very quickly. The Skiver starts off with three attacks. First off, The Skiver will dash across the battlefield. If he hits you, you'll get knocked back a fair distance, even if you have the Shock Buffer. This can be pretty bad as there are no walls in this battlefield, so you can actually fall off the edge. Just jump over him as he's dashing toward you and at the very least, try to make sure you're close to the middle if he hits you. For his second attack, he'll fly into the air, pause, and then dive toward you. To avoid this, either dash underneath him as he's diving or jump over him when he lands. For his last attack, he'll stand still and shoot a hologram of himself at you. Simply jump over the hologram. It disappears quite quickly. Once he's down to 1/2 health, he'll get a lot tougher. First off, he'll fly off the screen and then start flying across in various directions, much like Storm Eagle in X1. This attack can be unpredictable and you'll get knocked quite a distance if you get hit. Keep moving across the screen. It doesn't really matter where you move, just don't stand still. After flying across the screen, he'll return to the battlefield and start shooting tornados across the screen. These will get gradually bigger as they move across the battleield. Try to jump over them as soon as he shoots them because if you wait too long, they'll get too big to avoid. Like I mentioned before, you'll want to save the Dark Hold until the second half of the battle as you'll exhaust it very quickly. The first half of the battle is easy enough without it. When you do use it, you'll want to do as much damage to him as possible. This is where Zero has an edge of X because Zero's Sabre can do a lot more damage in less time than X's Buster. This is especially difficult if you're using Falcon Armour X because his Buster is not that powerful. If you keep attacking him and dodging his attacks, though, you will be able to defeat him. -After Completing the Stage- You got the Wing Spiral and W-Shredder. Choose Weapons & Life as usual. The part you get isn't all that useful, but the extra life energy is always good. Alright, 6 Mavericks down and only 2 to go. When you return to hunter base, you'll receive another report that Dynamo's attacking the base. 9.10 Dynamo Returns ------------------- Recommended Character: Zero -Boss: Dynamo- Weakness: Wing Spiral/W-Shredder Dynamo has the same two attacks that he did last time plus one more. To refresh your memory, is first attack is throwing his blade like a boomerang. If you're playing as X, his second attack will be jumping across the screen and swinging his sword. Dash underneath him to avoid it. If you're playing as Zero, his second attack will be jumping across the screen and then shooting an energy shot downward, which will split into two. Dash underneath him and jump over the energy shot. His new attack is a big one. A spark will appear in his hand and then various light beams will come out of the floor. The first time, they will be in alternating positions. The second time, they'll be in the half of the battlefield where Dynamo ISN'T. And the third time, they'll be in the half of the battlefield where Dynamo IS. Stand right next to Dynamo to avoid the first two and then quickly move to the other side of the stage to avoid the third. This time, if you're following the guide, you WILL have Dynamo's weakness. Unfortunately, X's version isn't all that effective. Since the Wing Spiral goes upward, you need to be pretty close to Dynamo to hit him. Zero's version is very effective as the W-Shredder moves horizontally, giving Zero quite an edge over X in this battle. If you attack Dynamo with his weakness, you'll often be able to stun him before he does anything all that damaging. Even if you don't have his weakness, Dynamo isn't that hard a boss. -After Completing the Stage- On to the next stage. 9.11 Mattrex - "Red-Hot World!" ------------------------------- Recommended Character: Zero Items: Heart Container Arm Parts G _ |S| | | | | | | | | | |_ _ _ _ _ _ |_ _ |_ _ | _ _]B| |_ _ |_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _| | | _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _]_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ M _] L| |H| |_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _| You start the stage off in a large shaft. Head downward and watch out for the flame throwers. If you hit the flames, you'll take a lot of damage, so wait for them to stop before proceeding. When you reach the bottom, proceed to the right, avoiding the flame throwers as you did before. Keep going until you reach a gap in the ground. Alia will warn you about the lava down there. Wait until the lava has gone by. You'll notice the screen start to vibrate a bit before the lava comes. If you touch the lava, it's an automatic death. Once the lava is gone, go into the hole. If you go to the left, you'll see another hole in the ground. That's where the Heart Container is. Quickly go down there and get it. Be careful as the Heart Container is right next to a flame thrower. There will also be an extra life on the ledge above the Heart Container so be sure to get that as well. Once you've gotten both of those items, get out of there. Now the stage gets interesting, you'll be proceeding through the area where the lava gushes. As you proceed through the stage, you'll notice that in the rocks in the background, there are these black boxes. This sections are where you need to be when the lava comes as they're the only spots that will cover you. Some of the black sections aren't at ground level, so you'll need to wall kick to keep yourself up there. At a few points, you'll come across barriers that you'll need to wait for the lava to destroy. Hide in a black spot until then. Remember, only go as far as you're absolutely sure you can go safely. If there's any doubt as to whether or not you can made it to the next safe zone, don't go for it. It's not worth the risk. Eventually you'll get to a door that Alia will tell you to destroy. Destroy the door and proceed to the next part of the level. In the next section of the level, you'll see a Ride Armour in the lava. If you're in the Ride Armour, you can actually come into the contact with the lava and survive. There will also be a junction just ahead of the Ride Armour. You can either go straight on ahead or down into the lava. If you take the upper path, you won't be able to take the Ride Armour, you'll have to fight a mini-boss, and it will be harder to get the Dr. Light capsule. So let's take the lower path. Once you're in the lava, your life depends on your Ride Armour. If your Ride Armour gets destroyed, you're done for. The Ride Armour can take a bit of damage, but if it takes too much, it will get destroyed, so the less damage you take, the better. When in the Ride Armour, press the attack button once to stab and press it twice to swipe. You can also swipe by jumping and pressing the attack button. While you're in the lava you'll see a bunch of bats and other guys in Ride Armours. The swipe attack will take care of both of these types of enemies nicely. Eventaully, you'll reach another junction in the lava. If you go up, you'll be taken to the surface. But we don't want to go to the surface quite yet. So go down. You'll eventually get to the surface and to your right, you'll see the Dr. Light capsule. Now, getting out of the Ride Armour without getting burned to a crisp is tricky. What you'll want to do is dash jump toward the platform on the right (the one with the Dr. Light capsule on it) and then jump out of the Ride Armour (press Up while jumping) when you're at the highest point of your jump. If your timing is just slightly off, you won't make it. This may take a few tries to get. Once you're on the platform, go up to the Dr. Light capsule and get the Arm Parts G. If you happen to land in the Ride Armour on the platform, just jump out of it. Once you've gotten the armour parts, get in the Ride Armour on the platform and then dash jump over the gap. You should land on a rock that's rigth at lava level. To your left, you should see a bunch of green cables. Jump out of the Ride Armour and grab on to one of the cables. You may want to jump toward the cables in the Ride Armour and then jump out. Now, let's say you decided to take the upper path instead of the lower one. (If you took the lower path, you can skip this part.) Get in the Ride Armour and jump over the gap. You'll soon get to a rock in your way, at which point, you'll need to jump out of the Ride Armour and on to the rock. Keep jumping across the rocks. A dragon enemy will start following you and shoot fireballs at you. Avoid the fireballs and keep going. Eventually there will be a rock in your way. Destroy the rock with either charge shots or C-Sword slashes and proceed. You'll soon reach another rock in your way. Same idea. Grab on to the cable and jump on to the next platform. Keep going and you'll encounter yet another rock in your way. You know what do to. Proceed a little bit further and you'll see two platforms moving up and down. At this point, you'll have to actually fight the dragon. -Mini-Boss: Dragon- Weakness: X-Buster/Z-Sabre (as far as I know) You'll need to fight the dragon from the two moving platforms. The dragon will mostly just shoot fireballs at you. Sometimes, it will dash into the wall on the right side. If you're playing as X, hit him with charge shots. If you're playing as Zero, hit him with 3-slash combos if you're close enough, otherwise hit use a C-Sword slash. The Shot Eraser is a really good part to have because it will let you actually destroy the fireballs. In any case keep attacking the dragon and it should get destroyed without much trouble. I'd say the thing you have to worry about most is falling off the platforms and into the lava, which if you're careful, shouldn't happen. Once you've defeated the dragon, proceed through the door and you'll see a a bunch of green cables. Jump off the edge and grab on to one of the cables. Proceed upward by grabbing on to the cables and you should see the boss door on your right. -Boss: Mattrex- Weakness: Wing Spiral/W-Shredder Ugh! I hate this boss! This boss doesn't have much of a pattern so he's really unpredictable. He'll spend a lot of time jumping around. You can dash underneath him when he jumps. Sometimes, he'll also dash into a wall. When he does this, wall kick up the all he's going to and then jump over him when he gets there. Sometimes, he'll alsospit out two Ground Fires at you. Wall kick up a wall to avoid them as they're called GROUND Fires for a reason. When 1/3 of his life energy is gone, he'll gain a couple more moves. Both of them will involve him jumping on to one of the walls. For his first move, he'll shoot three or four fireballs at you. Jump over the first one. The second one will go over you. Now do that again to avoid the third and fourth. The other thing he might do from the wall is just dash toward you. When he does this, go up the other wall and then jump over him when he lands. Whan he's only got 1/3 of his life energy left, he'll gain a few more moves. First off, he'll spew fire across the entire length of the floor. He'll then do one of his other two attacks. For one of them, just simple dash at you from a wall. Avoid it just like you did before. His other on involves him charging along the ground and leaving behind a bunch of small flames. These flames will burst into larger flames once Mattrex has charged across the room. To avoid them, try to position yourself between two of them. If you manage to hit him with his weakness, the wind will put out his flames and Mattrex will be stunned, making one of the funniest stunned expressions in the series. If you're playing as X it's going to be difficult to hit him with the Wing Spiral. Since it moves upward, you'll need to be pretty close to him in order to hit him. The charged version works fairly well, but takes time. If you don't have the Wing Spiral, hit him with charge shots and do your best to avoid his attacks. Like with Dynamo, the W-Shredder works will if you're playing as Zero. If you don't have the W-Shredder, you'll need to get pretty close to him to slash him with your Sabre. And getting close to him while avoiding his attacks is no easy feat. -After Completing the Stage- You got the Ground Fire and Quake Blazer Choose Weapons & Life, not because of the part you get, but because of the extra life energy. Alright! Only one Maverick left. If you think you can spare the time revisit Izzy Glow's stage and get the EX-Tank. If you don't think you have enough time, do it after you've beaten Axle the Red. 9.12 Axle the Red - "Into the Jungle!" -------------------------------------- Recommended Character: X (Falcon Armour) Items: Heart Container (Gaea Armour required) Leg Parts G (Falcon Armour required) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ | _ _ _ _ _ _ _ | | | | | _ _ _ _ _ _ _| |_ _ _ _ _ _ _| |_ _ _|A|_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |S _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ H _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _]B| Like any other stage I've suggested the Falcon Armour with, if you'd rather do the stage with the Fourth Armour or with Zero (as the Falcon Armour will make the boss battles more difficult,) then you can revisit the stage with the Falcon Armour to get the Leg Parts G. I'm not going to say too much about this stage because it's pretty straightforward. As soon as you start this stage, you'll see a bunch of roses in the background and some buildings that look a lot like guns. Hmmm...guns...roses... Anyway, keep going to the right until you enter a cave. You'll see some black blocks with "V"s on them and some vines, letting you go upward. Since you don't have the Gaea Armour, you'll need to go up. (You can skip the next paragraph for now.) If you have the Gaea Armour (which you won't unless you're revisitng), you'll be able to destroy the blocks. As you go through the lower section, you'll eventually see a stack of three blocks right next to a platform, another block on top of the platform, another block beneath the platform, and an indentation in the ground. This block puzzle can be tricky to figure out, but there's actually a simple solution. You really only need two of those five block to get the Heart Container, so go down to the left of the stack. Fire a charge shot, destroying the block beneath the platform and the bottom one of the stack. There should now be a stack of two block and another block on top of the platform. Now fire another charge shot, destroying the lower of the two blocks in the stack. Now dash into one of the blocks (it doesn't matter which) and push it into the indentation in the ground. Now you'll be able to get the other block across the gap. Push the other block as far right as you can without pushing it off the edge. You should be able to push it until a little more than half of it is off the edge (you'd probably think the block should fall off, but it stays there.) Jump on top of the block and you should be able to reach the platform where the Heart Container is. Go up to the top and proceed to the right. When you see the purple rose enemies, shoot/slash them when they're open. You'll also encounter some thorny vines that will pop out of the ground or ceiling. Fortunately, these spikes are not an instant death. Hit them in the red core to destroy them. When you've gone right as far as you can, start going down. Go down a couple of steps and drop down. Go to the right and then jump down again. You'll see another gap on your left. Jump down the gap once again, but this time, make sure you're holding Up so that you'll grab on to the cable at the bottom as there's no floor. You could also hold Left so that you land on the platform to the left. Once you reach the bottom, start heading to the right along the cables, avoiding the spiked enemies that ride along them. Eventually, you'll see a large opening in the ceiling. If you're using the Falcon Armour like I recommended, fly up there and grab on to a wall above the thorns. Then start flying from the wall, past another set of thorns (be careful as the gap is quite narrow) and there you'll see a Dr. Light capsule. This capsule contains the final piece of the Gaea Armour. Once you've got the armour part, jump down from there. Make sure you're holding Up so that you'll grab the cable. Keep going right, avoiding or destroying the purple roses, and eventually, you'll reach the boss doors. -Boss: Axle the Red- Weakness: Ground Fire/Quake Blazer The first thing Axle the Red will do is make a copy of himself. While the clone is present, Axle the Red will be invincible, but the clone will quickly disappear. This is the only time he'll ever use that move. Kind of dumb, if you ask me. His main attack will be throwing Spike Balls. He'll usually start by throwing a purple one, which will bounce all over the room. These can be destroyed with relative ease. He'll then shoot a green one, which will go out a short distance. These aren't as easy to destroy, but they're easier to avoid, so you're probably better off just avoiding them. Often, between shooting Spike Balls, he'll jump around quite a bit. Try to dash underneath him. When 1/3 of his life energy is gone, he'll gain two more moves. For one of them, he'll make a copy of himself, just like Split Mushroom. You'll need to keep your eye on the real one as you won't do any damage to the copy. If you've lost track of the real one, try to attack both of them. For his second attack, he'll shoot out a vine whip. If you get caught in it, button mash to get free. When 2/3 of his life energy is gone, he'll gain two more moves. For one of them, he'll shoot a bunch of flower petals, which will float down the screen. These petals can be difficult to avoid as their movement is somewhat unpredictable, but they are pretty easy to destroy. For his last move, he'll create a copy of himself and both him and his copy will shoot out a vine. Wall kick above them to avoid them as this is the only safe spot. There will most likely still be flower petals falling though, so you might take a bit of damage from them. If you hit him with the Ground Fire/Quake Blazer, he'll be stunned and his copy will immediately disappear if it's there. Honestly, if you have his weakness, this is a pretty easy battle. You can keep hitting him and stunning him without him ever getting much of a chance to do anything. Just make sure you keep your eye on the real one and this can easily be a no-damage battle. If you're using Zero, just be careful as it's easy to hit him while using the Quake Blazer. -After Completing the Stage- You got the Spike Ball and Twin Dream Once again, choose Weapons & Life, not for the part, but for the extra life energy. You will now have the parts you needed for the Space Shuttle. Upon returing to hunter base, there will be a cutscene where the Hunters will try to destroy the space colony again, this time with the space shuttle. Zero will be the one to pilot the space shuttle. There's a chance the Zero won't survive the attack. More often than not, Zero will survive. After destroying the colony, Alia will pick up readings of another virus like the Sigma Virus, which formed when the Sigma Virus and the scraps of the colony combined. She calls this virus the Zero Virus. Well, the Earth has been saved the from space colony Eurasia, but now the danger of the Zero Virus is afoot. If, by chance, Zero didn't survive the attack on the colony or the colony crashes into the Earth, Zero will become a Maverick and you won't be able to use him for the rest of the game. However, I'm going to assume that Zero survived the attack and destroyed the colony. Now that the Gaea Armour is complete, you'll be able to get the Heart Containers in Grizzly Slash, Squid Adler, and Axle the Red's stages, so it would be a good idea to revisit these stages before doing the Zero Virus stages. 9.13 Zero Virus Stage 1 ----------------------- Recommended Character: X _ |S| | | | | | | | | | | | |_ _ _ |_ _ _ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |_ _ _ _ _ |_ _ _ _ _]B| The good news is, it's time for a trip down memory lane. The bad news is, it's a memory you'd probably do anything to forget. This stage is basically a remake of Quick Man's stage from MM2. Grab the extra life at the beginning of the stage and then start heading down. As you're going down, you'll notice that the laser beams from Quick Man's stage are back. There isn't really much strategy to avoiding the lasers, you mainly just need to be fast. Try to spend as little time moving horizontally as possible. If you see items on the side, they're usually not worth going for unless you're REALLY fast, but it's extremely dangerous, so I advise you don't risk it. You can also use the Dark Hold to freeze time if you find the lasers too difficult to avoid, but the first stretch is easy enough that you shouldn't have to resort to it. When you reach the bottom, there will be a weapon energy capsule, which you'll need if you used the Dark Hold as this probably isn't the last place you'll use it. Proceed to the right. You'll begin to see some Zero Viruses (they look like Zero instead of Sigma heads.) These will infect you quicker than the Sigma Viruses. Keep heading right until you reach another shaft. As you're heading down, you'll notice there will be more lasers. These will be more difficult to avoid than the ones earlier in the stage, so this would be the time to use the Dark Hold. When you reach the bottom, you're going to need to dash to the right as fast as you can to avoid the vertical lasers. If you still have any Dark Hold energy, use it. You'll soon reach the boss doors. -Boss: Black Devil- Weakness: Tri-Thunder/E-Blade Time for some more nostalgia. The music that plays during this battle is a remake of the Wily Stage Boss music from the original Mega Man. The boss is also another one of the "Devil" monsters, which have appeared in numerous Mega Man titles. I hope your E-Tanks are full because this is possibly the hardest boss in the game. Right from the get-go, Black Devil will be broken up into 16 little blobs, which will fly to the side of the room, one at a time. Jump over the ones at ground level and crouch to avoid all the others. When all 16 blobs, have flown across the screen, they will form the shape of the Black Devil. A red eyeball will appear somewhere in its body. This eyeball is its weakpoint. Usually it will be in the central part of its body, but sometimes it will be in its foot. The eyeball will then shoot a couple of fireballs. Black Devil will then repeat its first attack, except this time there will be a great outline where it used to be. These outline causes a lot of damage if you touch it, so make sure you avoid it. Then 1/2 its health is gone, it will gain two more moves. For the first one, it will break up into 16 little blobs again and 8 of them will fly across the screen, so half of them will be on one side of the room and half on the other. At this point, these blobs will start flying across the screen in both directions at the same time. Often they'll be at the same level, but sometimes they won't be. Avoid them in the same way you did before, jump over the ones at ground level and crouch to avoid all the others. This may be difficult to pull off if the blobs are not at the same level, though. For its other attack, the Black Devil will form into a skull tank, which will charge across the room and then start jumping with spikes underneath it. These spikes are not an automatic death, but they do a lot of damage, so avoid hitting the spikes at the tank itself at all costs. The eyeball will appear when the Black Devil is in this form which means you will be able to hit him. X's Tri-Thunder works very well. It won't stun Black Devil but it will do a lot of damage. As usual, the E-Blade is NOT advised as Zero will often end up hitting the Black Devil itself or one of the fireballs it shoots out. If you're playing as Zero, you're much better off using the C-Sword. Stay focused and use your E-Tanks if you need them. -After Completing the Stage- Nothing to do here. Move on to the next stage. 9.14 Zero Virus Stage 2 ----------------------- Recommended Character: Zero OR X (Gaea Armour) _ _ _ | ]_ B| | | | | | | | | | | _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _| | | _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _| | | _ _ _| | |S _ _ _ _ _ _| Ready for some more nostalgia. This stage is a remake of Sigma Stage 1 from Mega Man X1. As you start the stage, you'll be faced with a bunch of soldiers in Ride Armours. Zero's E-Blade works well for destroying them (how about that, E-Blade DOES have a purpose.) Just make sure you're far enough away that you don't actually hit the enemies yourself. X's plasma shots also work well. Keep going right until you reach a series of moving platforms, just like the ones in X1. You'll need to start by working your way across three moving platforms. You'll be progressing up at an angle to the right. When you're on the third moving platform, you'll come across two platforms that aren't moving. These platforms will fall when you step on them, so you'll need to get across them quickly. After jumping across the falling platforms, you should be on a platform moving up and down. From here, you'll need to jump on to two more platforms moving from side to side and you'll reach some solid ground. Proceed to the right. You'll see a couple more enemies and hammers pounding down from the ceiling. Although these hammers have spikes, they are not an automatic death, but do try to avoid them. If you're using Zero, you can just use the F-Splasher to dash through them. You'll soon come across some spike pits. Dash jump or air dash over them. When you get to the point where you'll see some spikes on the bottom and the right wall, do the same thing. Zero's double jump also works well. You can also jump on to the wall above you and then dash jump or air dash from there. You'll see a couple more soldiers in Ride Armours and then a ladder. Start going up. You should see a soldier in Ride Armour on a large step above you. Take him out and then start wall kicking up the wall on the left side. There will be another Ride Armour soldier on there and there will be a couple of small enemies shooting at you as well. I suggest taking out the small enemies first and then jumping on to the ledge and taking out the soldier. Now wall kick up the right wall and you'll see another ledge on the left with another Ride Armour soldier on it. You'll be in the same scenario. Destroy the small enemies and jump on to the ledge. Start wall kicking up the left wall again. Soon, you'll see a ledge and a vertical cable to your right and some spikes above you. If you dash jump from the wall, you should be able to grab the cable. Start moving up. There will be some enemies along the way, but it's probably easier to just avoid them than to destroy them. When you reach the top of the cable, you'll see a ladder and a soldier in Ride Armour on each side. Jump and air dash over one of them and start climbing up the ladder. Once you've reached the top, you'll see the boss door on your right. Don't go there yet, though. Jump on to the ledge on your left and go through the wall. You'll find an extra life and a large life energy capsule. Grab the two items and move on to the boss. -Boss: Rangda Bangda II- Weakness: Red Eye - Tri-Thunder/E-Blade Blue Eye - Ground Fire/Quake Blazer Green Eye - C-Shot/C-Sword Nose - Goo Shaver/F-Splasher Man, there sure is a lot of nostalgia in these Zero Virus stages, this boss is a remake of the boss in Sigma Stage 2 in MMX1. The music is also a remake of the music that played for the Sigma Stage bosses. Basically, this boss is a face on a wall. It has three different eyes that will attack you and a "nose" which really looks more like a fireball. Basically, there are two main things this boss does. For one of them an eye will appear and start attacking you. The different coloured eyes attack you in different ways. -The green eye will shoot a bunch of blue projectiles at you. Use the C-Shot if you're playing as X and the C-Sword if you're playing as Zero. -The blue eye will try to home in on you. Shoot it with the Ground Fire if you're playing as X. The Quake Blazer is not recommended for Zero as you'll often end up hitting the eye yourself. You're better off using the C-Sword. -The red eye will start shooting an energy beam out of each side and then rotate them. You'll need to wall jump over the eye to avoid them. Even though you can't see the walls, they're there. Use the Tri-Thunder if you're playing as X. If you're playing as Zero, as usual, the E-Blade is not recommended. Zero's better off just using the C-Sword for all the different eyes. You really can't go wrong with the C-Sword. The other thing the boss is close the walls. Spikes will appear on the bottom and the "nose" will start moving around. The nose will only move across, up, or down, never diagonally. Use this to your advantage. I also recommend that you don't start attacking the nose until the eyes are destroyed. If either the nose or the eyes are destroyed, the walls will stay closed permanently. If the nose is destroyed first, then you'll have to avoid the eyes attacks with the walls closed, which is a lot more difficult. When it comes time to attack the nose, Zero's F-Splasher works REALLY well. Use it when the nose is moving across. And because of your limited horizontal space, X's Goo Shaver should work well too. When 1/2 its life energy is left, spikes will appear from the walls when they're closed. This is the hardest part about this battle. The spikes will come out from two of four sections: upper left, lower left, upper right, and lower right. These spikes will only be there for a few seconds. For a brief moment, you'll be able to see the spikes and they won't hurt you. Quickly move to a section where there aren't spikes. You may also want to take a hit from the nose to give you a bit of invincibility. If you find that the spikes are just too much of a problem, you can use the Gaea Armour for this boss, although it will make the stage more difficult and you won't be able to use the boss's weaknesses. -After Completing the Stage- Again, nothing. On to the next stage. 9.15 Zero Virus Stage 3 ----------------------- Recommended Character: X (no armour), Zero, and then X (Ultimate Armour) OR X (no armour) and then Zero Items: Ultimate Armour (unarmoured X required) Black Zero (Zero required) _ _ _ |S _ |_ _ |_ _ |_ _ |_ _ |_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _]B| |_ L| Let me clarify my character recommendations. You can obtain both Black Zero and the Ultimate Armour, but not in the same stage visit. Once obtaining one of them, you'll need to kill yourself until you get a game over and then enter the stage with a different character. X also cannot equip the Ultimate Armour in the middle of the stage, so you will need to re-enter the stage with Ultimate Armour X. Proceed to the right, avoiding the spikes on the ceiling and the few on the floor. You'll soon get to a point where the floor is covered with spikes and you'll need to get across on a series of cables. Jump and grab on to the first cable. Move down and then dash jump and grab on to the next cable. This one's a bit longer. Dash jump on to the next cable. This cable will be horizontal (the first two were angled. Move along the cable, avoiding the enemies. You'll soon reach solid ground. At this point, a large pit of spikes will be in front of you with a platform moving back and forth over them. Simply jump on the platform. Next you'll have to cross a bunch of spikes on a series of platforms that will fall when you step on them. Quickly jump across from platform to platform until you reach some ground. Now you should see a platform moving up and down and a narrow stretch with spikes on the top and bottom. Jump on the platform. When it's low enough, jump and do an air dash through the stretch. You'll land on a platform that will fall, so quickly jump off it on to the ground on the other side. There will be a gap in front of you with a platform on the left side of it. Now jump partially into the gap and slide down the right wall. You'll find a secret alcove with a Dr. Light capsule in it. This is where the Ultimate Armour and Black Zero are obtained. The Ultimate Armour cannot be equipped in the middle of the stage, so I suggest you kill yourself until you get a game over and then return to the stage select and re-enter the stage with Ultimate Armour X. Also, make sure X is not wearing another armour or he won't be able to obtain the Ultimate Armour. Get out of the pit and keep going to the right. You'll have to jump across a series of platforms. The first three will be stable. The next three will fall when you step on them. When you get up to the third falling platform, it will be very close to the ceiling, so let it fall a bit before jumping to the next platform. The next platform will be another falling one. Quickly jump to the next platform. There will be a platform moving up and down right underneath some spike and another falling platform just past it. I recommend jumping straight to the other falling platform. From this falling platform, you'll be able to jump on to the wall and the boss door will be right above you. The boss you fight in this stage will depend on which character you're playing as and whether or not Zero became a Maverick. -Boss: Zero- Weakness: X-Buster X and Zero have an argument that ends up turning into a fight. At this point, you should have the Ultimate Armour equipped. Zero only has two attacks. For one of them, he'll fire two large Z-Buster shots and then slash his sword, shooting out a small crescent. For his other one, he will pound the ground and a bunch of energy shots will come out of the ground, which narrow spaces between them. Try to stay as far away from Zero as you can and try to anticipate where the shots and the empty spaces will be. Most likely, you'll end up taking a hit when he does this attack, though. Keep hitting Zero with charge shots (or Nova Strikes if you feel like being cheap) and Zero shouldn't give you too much trouble. -Boss: Maverick Zero- Weakness: X-Buster If the space colony crashed into the Earth or Zero didn't survive the attack on the colony, he'll become a Maverick. Here you fight him in his Maverick form. He'll be stronger and have twice the stamina. Maverick Zero only has two main attacks, but that doesn't mean he's easy. The first one is the one that normal Zero has where he pounds the floor and energy shoots shoot up. However, Maverick Zero uses this attack a lot more often and more relentlessly than regular Zero. For the other one, Zero will shoot out two spinning rings and then slash his sword, shooting out a small crescent. The rings will then home in on you, one at a time. If Maverick Zero is at low health for a few minutes, he'll gain one more attack. He'll slash his Sabre upward and shoot out two large crescents that will cover the entire height of the room. This attack is unavoidable and will surely kill you. The only way not to get killed by this attack is to defeat him quickly enough that he won't start using it. -Boss: X- Weakness: Quake Blazer If you played this stage with Zero, you'll be fighting X. X will be in his Ultimate Armour and use his attacks from X4. He can be tough, but you'll be able to see his attacks coming since they all require charging. X starts off with two attacks. For one of them, he'll simply shoot a charged X-Buster shot. For the other one, he'll turn a yellow-orange colour and shoot five Soul Bodies at you, one at a time. These will home in on you and can be hard to avoid. Use the walls. There's a good chance you'll take at least one hit from this attack. When 1/2 his life energy is gone, he'll gain two more moves. The first one is the charged Frost Tower. X will turn light blue and then jump into the air. At this point, a giant icicle will fall, then two of them, and then three. The gaps between them a just big enough for you to fit between, so this can be a difficult attack to avoid, but it is doable. His other one is the charged Double Cyclone. X will turn green and yellow and then shoot a green cyclone in front of him and behind him. Just simply wall jump or double jump to avoid it. Although the Quake Blazer does a lot of damage, it's probably not a great technique to use because X moves around a lot and you can easily end up hitting him. You're probably better of to just slash him with, you guess it, the C-Sword. -After Completing the Stage- There will be a cutscent where X and Zero are lying on the floor after their fight. Sigma will appear and Zero will fend him off. For now, at least. Now it's been oficially revealed that Sigma was behind everything, although you probably should have figured out that the mysterious voice in the beginning was him. In any case, there's only one stage left, so let's do it! 9.16 Zero Virus Stage 4 ----------------------- Recommended Character: X (Ultimate Armour) T -> Teleporter _ |S| | | | | _ _ _ | |_ _ _ _ _ _ _| |_ _ |_ _ _ _ |_| _|_ _| |_ _ _ _ _ _| _| |_ |T T T| | V | _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ V _ _ _ _| _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _]B| |_ _ _ _ | | |_ _| Whether you beat this stage with X or Zero depends which ending you get. Although I recommend X for the sake of the stage, you may want to use Zero to get his ending. It appears that Capcom was trying to make this stage a dance club. I mean, listen to the music and look at the background. Total dance club. After you're done dancing, jump down from the starting platform and proceed to the right. You'll encounter some enemies along the way. Use a charge shot or C-Sword to destroy them. Be careful not to hit the spikes on the ceiling and some of the wall. You'll soon get to a section where there are a bunch of spikes on the floor. Jump across the platforms until you can't see any place to jump to. At this point, it will be safe to jump down from the platform. You should see a gap in the floor. Before going down there, jump across the gap. Go to the right and you'll find an extra life and a life energy capsule. Once you've gotten them, jump down the gap. There you'll find 8 teleporters. If you've played any Mega Man games before, you'll know exactly what this means. It's time for the rematches with the 8 Mavericks. This time, though, they'll be at Level 96 for maximum health (Unless you're playing on Easy difficulty in which case all the bosses will be at Level 1.) Once you've beaten all 8 Mavericks, a teleporter will appear in the middle, which will get you out of there. The layout of the teleporters is like this: Mattrex Exit* The Skiver Dark Dizzy Axle the Red Izzy Glow Grizzly Slash Squid Adler Duff McWhalen *Only once all the Mavericks have been beaten. Once you've beaten all the Mavericks, get into the yellow teleporter in the middle. Proceed to the right, avoiding the big round enemies. Trust me, it's easier to avoid them than to destroy them. You'll soon see a couple of steps and a ledge above it. There's a large life energy capsule behind the big round enemy on the ledge. You may not need it, but if you want to, let the enemy roll off the ledge and then get the capsule. Proceed down the steps. When you've reached the bottom, start going upward. There will be several of those small, triangular enemies that home in on you. Use a charge shot or C-Sword slash to take them out with ease. Once you've reached the top, proceed to the right and soon you'll find one of those joyous segments from the classic series where you have to jump across on blocks that appear for a short while. And this time, you don't even have a Rush Jet to just fly across. Fortunately, these are A LOT easier than the ones in the classic series. You shouldn't have too much trouble getting across. When you get to the point where you don't see any blocks appearing in front of you, dash jump from the upper block and you should be able to reach the other side. Here, you'll find two large energy capsules, one for life and one for weapon energy, and the boss doors. This is it. Time to face Sigma. -Boss: Sigma- Weakness: Tri-Thunder/E-Blade Sigma starts off with only two attacks, which are both very easy to avoid. His first one involves him jumping or dashing from wall to wall, like he did back in X1, although he'll go much higher with his jumps, making them easier to avoid. For the other one, he'll shoot a bunch of blue energy balls out of his hands. Simply wall kick to avoid them. When 1/2 his health is gone, he gains two more moves. For his first one, he'll form three Sigma Viruses which will surround him. These will not infect you, but simply hit you like a normal enemy. He'll often start his wall jumping again with the Viruses surrounding him. You'll want to destroy the viruses quickly because they allow Sigma to cover a much wider area, making it harder to avoid him. A couple of charge shots or C-Sword slashes should do it. For his other attack, he'll teleport to the right side of the screen and start shooting large energy waves across the screen. These leave quite little room to avoid them. The high waves can be avoided simply by crouching. To avoid the low ones, wall jump or use Zero's double jump. Sigma might also shoot a low wave and the high one, leaving a gap in the middle to air dash through. It can be difficult to know at exaclty what altitude you need to dash, though. The Tri-Thunder works really well if you're playing as X. You can also Nova Strike across him when he's in the middle of the screen if you feel like being cheap. As always, the E-Blade is not recommended for Zero. If you're using Zero, you're better off just using the C-Sword. This battle can be tricky, but it's NOTHING compared to the next one. -Boss: Gamma Sigma- Weakness: Spike Ball/Twin Dream The last piece of nostalgia in the Zero Virus stages. This boss bears a fair resemblance of the final boss in Mega Man 3 and the final boss in Mega Man X1. Sigma's weakpoint is the red circle on his forehead. You'll only be able hit Sigma when he's solid, as he changes between being solid and being a wireframe. A lot of the time, Sigma will be attacking you with his giant hands. The spikes on the hands are not an automatic death, but they do a lot of damage, so avoid them. You can safely stand on top of the hands, which can help you get high enough to attack Sigma's weakpoint, especially if the hands are moving up at an angle. Sometimes, the hands will also open and shoot a purple energy blast. You can avoid this by crouching or by jumping up one of the walls, above the hands. When the hands disappear, Sigma will shoot four energy balls on to the floor, which will home in on you. These aren't too hard to avoid. You just need to familiarize yourself with their movements and then move accordingly. When 1/2 his life energy is gone, then the battle really starts to get hard. At this point, when the hands disappear, Sigma may move one of his hands to the top of the room and start shooting electricity from his fingertips. The hand will locate itself directly above you, so you'll most likely be caught between the current from his thumb and the current from his index finger. The hand will then slowly start moving. To avoid taking a hit, you must move at the same speed as the hand. Your best bet is probably to take a hit and then get out of there. You can try destroying the hand if you want as it might drop a life energy capsule if your lucky (it's happened to me ONCE.) Otherwise, just attack Sigma as he's still perfectly vulnerable (although his is still switching between solid and wireframe.) The other attack he may use when the hands disappear is his most powerful one. Sigma will form an large energy block on top of you about five to seven times. Once the energy block is completely formed, it will move quickly across the room, trying to crush you. The block will either move horizontally or vertically, never diagonally. Use this to your advantage. Make sure your are NEVER directly above, below, or across from the energy block. This attack does a crapload of damage if it hits you, so avoid it at all costs. If you're playing as Ultimate Armour X and feel like being cheap, just Nova Strike across the room about 16 times and he'll be dead. If you want to fight him the honorable way, the Spike Ball works pretty well. It won't cancel any of his attacks, but it does good damage. If you're attacking from the right wall, you can actually hit Sigma without jumping from the wall. The left wall will be too far away, though, so you'll need to jump from the wall to hit him. Charge shots also work really well. If you're playing as Zero, don't bother with the Twin Dream. You're better off using the one solution to every problem: the C-Sword. The F-Splasher also works pretty well, but the C-Sword is still your best bet. Make sure both your E-Tanks are full for this battle. I can almost guarantee you'll need at least one of them. (Unless you're being cheap and killing him with Nova Strike) -After Completing the Stage- You'll get one of three endings to the game: one if you beat the stage as X and Zero did NOT become a Maverick, one if you beat the stage as X and Zero DID become a Maverick (this one's a long one), and one if you beat the stage as Zero. After watching the ending and the credits sequence (and listening to the beautiful music in the background), you'll be shown your play time and your final hunter rank for each character. Congratulations! You've beaten Mega Man X5! How does it feel? Great? Now you can go out and brag to all your friends. They probably won't care, but the fact that you CAN brag about it is...something. I'll shut up now. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =10. Maverick Names = =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The Japanese Maverick Names are relatively normal. However, the North American ones are pretty strange. Ever wonder why? It's because the North American Maverick names are references to a member of Guns N' Roses. Japanese Name: Crescent Grizzly North American Name: Grizzly Slash GNR Reference: Saul "Slash" Hudson, lead guitarist from 1985 to 1996 Japanese Name: Tidal Makkoeen (presumably Japanese for "whale") North American Name: Duff McWhalen GNR Reference: Duff McKagen, bass player from 1985 to 1997 Japanese Name: Volt Krakken or Bolt Krakken (Japanese actually doesn't have a "V" sound, so when written, it's represented with a "B" sound. Since both of these names make sense, we may never know which one it actually is.) North American Name: Squid Adler GNR Reference: Steven Adler, drummer from 1985 to 1990 Japanese Name: Shining Hotarunicus (which I'm guessing is Latin for "firefly") North American Name: Izzy Glow GNR Reference: Izzy Stradlin, rhythm guitarist from 1985 to 1991 Japanese Name: Dark Necrobat North American Name: Dark Dizzy GNR Reference: Dizzy Reed, keyboardist from 1990 to present Japanese Name: Spiral Pegacion (presumably some variation of "Pegasus") North American Name: The Skiver GNR Reference: Michael "High as the Sky" Monroe. He wasn't actually a member of Guns N' Roses, but he did collaberate with them on a number of occasions. Japanese Name: Burn Dinorex (combination of "Dino" and "Rex") North American Name: Mattrex GNR Reference: Matt Sorum, drummer from 1990 to 1997. Personally, I think this Maverick should have been called Mattsaurus if they wanted a reference to Matt Sorum. Japanese Name: Spike Rosered North American Name: Axle the Red GNR Reference: Axl Rose, lead singer from 1985 to present. I guess they thought calling him "Axle the Rose" was too blatant a GNR reference. =-=-=-=-=-= =11. Codes= =-=-=-=-=-= You can actually start the game with Ultimate Armour X or Black Zero. To start the game with Ultimate Armour X, have X high-lighted on the character select screen and then press Up twice and Down nine times. Up, Up, Down, Down, Down, Down, Down, Down, Down, Down, Down To start the game with Black Zero, have Zero high-lighted on on the character select screen and then press Down twice and Up nine times. Down, Down, Up, Up, Up, Up, Up, Up, Up, Up, Up =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =12. Frequently Asked Questions = =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Questions that have been asked by my readers will appear here. As of now, I have not been asked any questions. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =13. Copyright= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This guide is copyright 2010 Jesse Geddert This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =14. Contacting Me= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= I can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] If you know something I don't or have an alternate strategy for something (like a boss fight) feel free to inform me. I'll be sure to mention it in my guide and give you credit for it. You can also e-mail me any questions you have, but if you do that, please READ THE GUIDE before asking me. I don't want to answer questions about stuff that I've clearly covered in the guide. Also, please read the "Frequently Asked Questions" section to see if someone else has already asked the same thing. When e-mailing me, please mention the game title in the subject.
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