Mega Man X3 #27 X and ZERO Battle the Doppler Effect

Introductory Stage

Head on in and there are three Notor Bangers before reaching the end where you need to head down a ladder though do not worry about the Caterkiller. Upon heading down the ladder there is another Caterkiller that sends out an attack wait for it to go as far as it can then dash under it then dispose of it and take care of the Notor Banger. As there is another Caterkiller on the wall but ignore it as you make your way through the room and past the three Notor Bangers to reach the next ladder. Head on down and to the bottom platform.

As you get in the next room you run into another Hunter known as "Mac" but there is only one problem he has decided to leave the Hunters to join Doppler's team. Mac will take X hostage and when it seems as though that there is not any hope to get out of there, it is time to take control of Zero. it is up to using Zero to free X so he can continue on stop Dr. Doppler from this madness. Make your to the right watch out for the any sections of the ceiling that drop down at any given time.

Along the way there are two Earth Commanders and two Head Gunner Customers that are in the area before going to the next section to deal with one more Head Gunner Customor before you can wall climb to get to the ladder. Head up the ladder then to the right and start wall climbing from the left then quickly to the right. The reason being is to watch out for the Ganseki Carriers that are trying to knock you down with spiked balls. Keep up with this until you reach the top and through a boss gate to deal with Mac.

Sub-Boss: Mac

As you square off with Mac it is not going to be much of a battle against Zero at all. All you need to do is charge up to the fullest before entering the gate and after Mac appears hit him with both buster shots then walk over to finish him off with the Z-Saber. Once you have done that wall climb to free X. After the fight with Mac it is time to take control of X to head out wall climb to enter the boss gate and deal with the boss of the stage, "Moah the Giant."

Boss: Maoh the Giant

Strategy: This is an easy boss. Jump and and blast his head with and X-Buster charge or many X-buster bullets. Just watch out for his hands because they hurt, and the make holes in the ground.

Notes

• You may start with any of the 8 stages, and go in any order you wish.
• The recommended order of levels are Blizzard Buffalo, Toxic Seahorse, Tunnel Rhino, Volt Catfish, Crush Crawfish, Neon Tiger, Gravity Beetle, Blast Hornet, then back around again.
• It is suggested to start with Blizzard Buffalo to get the Foot-P to be able to use the Air Dash.
• After defeating 2 Mavericks, three more of Doppler's machines will be available to battle. You fight Bit in either the 3rd, 4th, or 5th Maverick stage, and Byte in either the 6th, 7th, or 8th Maverick stage. It appears to be random when you battle them. You must find one of the three tele-porters to get to Vile's level to battle him.
• Defeating Vile results in slight changes in storyline, but it must be done before you beat the last boss. Lastly, boss strategies are within the stage's walkthrough itself.

⤴ ↳

Blizzard Buffalo

Items: Life Up, Sub Tank, Leg Upgrade

Weapons Aquired: Frost Shield

Armor Upgrades: Leg Upgrade

Cast of Enemies

• Ice De Voux
• Helit
• Notar Banger
• Snow Rider
• Snow Slider

Slippery ice, Helits, and spiked pits are all over this first room. Before moving forward you should take some time to get used to the physics of running and jumping on ice while you are not in immediate danger. Then take your time to destroy the Helits as you see them. If they hit you with their weapons while you are over a pit you could be in danger if you do not get out of it fast enough. You also find that icy slopes move you quickly once you have touched them, be ready to jump off them at a moments notice and try to land on flat sections of ice. there is a ladder at the end of this first room.

there is a Ride Armor platform here, which is probably the safest way through this room if you have unlocked it. Otherwise, carefully destroy the Helit above the second icy slope, and be ready to jump off it once you step on, it leads directly to a spike pit. After the pit is more Helits and a slope. you are safe to let this one carry you down as the level progresses down this gap.

Climb up the wall at the end of this small passageway and you end up with a room with several Notor Bangers. If you want to get a large health refill, use the ladder and destroy the two top Notor Bangers and dash jump over to the platform the second one was on then drop back down to where the first two are. Destroy one or both of them to continue to the right and fall down another gap.

At the bottom is yet another couple of Notor Bangers and a large health refill, and you continue even further down some gaps. At the bottom is the shutter to a Bit or Byte room.

Past that room is a dark icy corridor, and at the end a long slope down. there is a large health refill at the top of the slope that you can get easy if you have the leg upgrade, or can use the wall above the slope to dash jump off of to reach. At the end of the slope is just another tunnel.

This is where the ice will be melted for you if you have defeated Volt Catfish. As you are running through it you find a couple of Ice De Voux. A charged shot should blow off their armor, and a single shot should be able to finish them off after that. At the end of this hallway is a ladder with a gap below it. If you are ready to face Vile you can fall down this pit while hugging the left side. You find a teleporter to his stage.

Climbing the ladder there is a Notor Banger that will hit you if you do not wait to finish climbing it. The ladder above there will bring you to a large health refill and a gap in the ceiling. Wall jump up the gap to a small ladder to a new area.

As you start moving across this room a snowstorm begins. This does not really affect anything except your visibility. Carefully destroy the Helits and Snow Riders in your way as you continue. At the top of the room you see a stream of air going up. This won't harm you and will only push you up, but is coming from the machine causing the snow storm if you want to fall down a little further on and destroy it. Just be careful, as soon as you pass by the street lamp up here, a Snow Slider will head right for you. A charge shot should destroy it and leave just a Snow Rider for you to defeat. there is a split in the path here. You can dash over this gap to skip the remaining enemies, or you can go down below where there are some Snow Riders and another Snow Slider. Finally, at the end of this room is the boss shutter.

Heart Tank

If you have unlocked the Ride Armor, or have defeated Tunnel Rhino you can destroy the squares of ice after the first slope. The Heart Tank in this stage is hidden behind them, but watch for the spikes and the slope before that leads right back into them.

Sub Tank

Above this ladder is the sub tank. You need the leg upgrade at the other end of this room to grab it. From the floor with the Helit above it you can do an air dash up to the platform with the Sub Tank.

Light Capsule: Leg Upgrade

Another reason to take the top path. If you dash jump from the second street lamp you should just barely be able to wall jump up the protruding ledge across the way. If you fall, just head back to where the path split was and dash jump and wall jump back up. Once you make it, talk to Dr. Light's hologram and hop in the capsule.

Boss: Blizzard Buffalo

• HP: 32
• Attack: 5 damage on contact, 5 damage with horn attack, 3 damage with ice hazards
• Weaknesses: Parasitic Bomb: 3 damage, Cross-Charge: 3 damage, Charged Shot: 2 damage

Blizzard Buffalo's primary attack is to just charge at you to try to get you stuck on his horn. You should dodge it by wall jumping above him and air dashing past. He does not physically hit the wall, so you won't be knocked off. Getting hit by him or get stuck on the horn aren't any worse than the other as you take the same amount of damage.

Occasionally he will stop dashing and start throwing ice around. The ice will damage you both while it is in the air and while it is planted. You can blow the planted ice away with a semi-charge shot, or wait for Blizzard Buffalo to destroy the ones on the ground by charging through them.

Once he is down to half health he will also start doing an ice beam attack that is effectively useless. It will freeze you on the ground but you just wiggle left and right to break out. You can break out of the ice and get refrozen several times during the ice beam, and also be able to free yourself toward the end without much issue.

With the X-Buster, charge a shot while you are running away from him charging, use the wall to avoid him, then fire the charge shot back to hit him. While he's throwing the ice hazards, shoot him with a charge shot at the beginning, then charge a shot to take out any hazards in the way of your safety.

With Parasitic Bomb each shot will knock him out of an attack. You cannot completely stun lock him so be wary of the next attack coming for you, but you should be able to shoot him twice for each charge shot you would have used with the buster. The charged Parasitic Bomb is even better since it homes in on him when you pass by close to him so you can focus on avoiding his attacks.

You are now awarded with Frost Shield.

CODE: With Leg-Armor and Sub-Tank : 1678 2838 3146 2221

⤴ ↳

Toxic Seahorse

Items: Life Up, K

Weapons Aquired: Acid Burst

Armor Upgrades: Super Leg Enhancement

Cast of Enemies

• Caterkiller
• Earth Commander
• Head Gunner Customer [before completing Blast Hornet's stage]
• Head Gunner Masspro [after completing Blast Hornet's stage]
• Hotareeca
• Mine Tortoise
• Notar Banger
• Victoroid

This stage's first room begins with 2 Victoroids in your way. After them there is a hole in the ground you must descend. Following the route after this shaft will lead you to 2 Notor Bangers and a vertical shaft you must climb up. This section also introduces the sewer water running along the walls that have a small effect on your movement physics.

As you ascend this shaft you will run across several Earth Commanders and Notor Bangers. Behind one is a large health pickup. Both of these enemies are quickly dispatched by spinning blade (Crush Crawfish's weapon), if you have it. Near the top of the shaft, a large health pickup will fall from above you pushed by the water, if you are on the right side of the wall you should be able to grab it in time.

Following the natural exit to the shaft you will come across a lone Notor Banger guarding the hall just before the Bit/Byte room. The following room will present a fork in the road, continue forward and you will come to a dead end with a ride armor access platform. Summon the frog ride armor for the following segment if you have it. Downwards at the fork will lead you to an underwater section, greeted by a few mine tortoises, a bottomless pit, and several options.

Next you are presented with another fork in the road, if you have the ride armor equipped you may take the top path where you can destroy the fans that would normally push you back, allowing you to exit the ride armor safely and climb the wall. There is a fake-out ledge but if you continue climbing you will come across the leg chip upgrade, allowing you to dash twice in the air. Following the bottom part of the fork will have you traversing a hallway littered with insta-defeat spikes on the ceiling, bottomless pits, and many more mine tortoises. This then leads to the door of the mid boss of this stage Hotareeca.

Heart Tank

Follow this shaft upward past its natural exit and you will come across another Notor Banger guarding a heart tank.

Ride Armor Module

If you have both the arm parts and the frost shield (Blizzard Buffalo's weapon) you will be able to get the kangaroo ride armor. To do this, charge frost shield and ride the ice block up to where the ride armor chip is, optimal placement is somewhere on the right ramp leading out of the bottomless pit.

Mini-Boss: Hotareeca

This boss is fairly straight forward, its movement mostly consists of moving left and right rhythmically across the screen alternating missile and mine attacks, both of which can be destroyed with a buster shot. The missiles have slight homing capabilities, however they can be easily dodged by dashing under Hotareeca once the missiles have been launched. The tentacles do not have a hitbox so do not worry about taking damage from them. As for the mines, once initially launched they float to the ground exploding on impact, they can be avoided by spacing yourself between two of them to avoid the explosion. overall one of the easier mini bosses

Great Dam

after the mini boss room there is another vertical shaft with a few cater-killers along the walls. once on top of the dam you are met by a bottomless pit and three head-gunners along the top of the dam. once past these make sure to slide down the wall as there are some spikes on the floor in the room below. after one more head gunner, the ladder down leads you to the boss room.

Boss: Toxic Seahorse

• HP: 32
• Attack: 2 damage on contact, 4 damage with orb, 2 damage with orb splash, 4 damage on contact when materializing

You are now awarded with Acid Burst.

A mini-scene occurs. If this is the second stage that you have beaten, where Dr. Doppler ponders how to defeat X, Summoning Bit and Byte, two of his Mavericks, he tells them to bring X to him, alive.

A mysterious Maverick comes in telling the Doctor that he has his score to settle, and that he will do it his way. As he leaves, the Doctor comments to himself that he cannot believe X beat his master twice before.

CODE: With Heart Tank 5665 4884 5356 4241

⤴ ↳

Tunnel Rhino

Items: Life Up, Sub Tank

Weapons Aquired: Tornado Fang

Armor Upgrades: Helmet Upgrade

Cast of Enemies

• Drill Waying
• Drimole-W
• Ganseki Carrier
• Hell Crusher
• Iwan De Voux
• Wall Cancer

beware of the enemy who drops the big boulder, it can be shot at but it does hurt, so does the enemy when it falls. Keep heading on, you will head underground. Go down, left, down and right, jump over the gap, and you will reach an enemy which blocks your way. Shoot its head, with the face on it and it should die. A bouncing enemy comes after that, shoot it. Climb up the wall and head left, not right, although there is a heart tank there. Its unreachable at this point in time, come back when you have TRIAD THUNDER.

GO up, and past the conveyor belt, which above it has some sort of sludge shooter, and go past the spikes which has the same thing above. Head up and around till you hit a gap going down. Refer to items section on how to get the most simplest sub-tank. Go in between the enemies, defeat them, go left and down, right into a boss door. You most likely will face Bit here. After that defeat new enemies and climb up the right wall. Jump to the left. Defeat the blocking enemy and grab the big life tank, which you will need if you fought Bit. Go right and let the boulder fall, then defeat the blocking enemy. Go right, wall jump and then jump dash to the other side of the WALL. A boulder will fall where you just were. Jump over the spikes and jump back, let the boulder pass. Go up, and another one of the boulders is blocking.

Go right, and hug the wall, and the boulder will fall. Hug the wall down the right, and meet Hell Crusher, the mini boss. He's easy, shoot his body and when you can go at the back of him. He'll also dispatch himself from the lower body so shoot him up there. Head right, defeat enemies and go up stairs. Defeat the wall enemies and go up and right. Go up the stairs, defeat the enemy and go up the stairs, and left to Tunnel Rhino.

Sub Boss: Hell Crusher

• HP: 32
• Attack(s): 2 [contact, torso], 2 [contact, spike], 2 [back spike], 3 [claw]
• Weakness: None

This is one of the interesting Sub Boss that you will fight in the game and maybe the most intriguing. The best strategy to use against it is to dash over it if it comes toward you at the start of the fight then work your way over to the far right to do a air dash to get up on the wall.

Once it comes over near you and wants to attach itself to the ceiling then dash jump out of there. This is where you need to do is to make sure it keeps heading back up on the ceiling so you do not receive too much damage during the fight and being able to get every hit on it that you possibly can. By doing this you should have a good shot on making it past him without much worry unless you mess it up but you do not want to do that at all. Keep to it and this should be a easy battle.

Once that you beat it and head on out there will be a Drimole-W and a Iwon DeVoux that will try to be in your way as you head to the ladder to head up it. When you have to do some wall climbing there will be a few Wall Cancer as you head along the way and a Drimole-W once you reach the top. Make your way across then up the ladder only to see another Drimole-W there, and you can avoid it if you wish to get to the next ladder. Move up the ladder and you should see the boss gate to enter on through to face off against Tunnel Rhino.

Boss: Tunnel Rhino

• HP: 32
• Attack(s): 3 [contact], 4 [mini shoulder drill], 4 [normal drill], 4 [Tornado Fangs], 5 [Invincible Dash]
• Weakness: Acid Burst

The main attack to watch out for is the Tornado Fangs as he can send one to three of them at a time toward you. But when the battle goes on you will have to watch out for the Invincible Dash and no weapon can harm him during that time not even the Acid Burst. When going against him using just the X-Buster can be a challenge but it is not that much different than compared when using the Acid Burst on him. While you may have the Acid Burst acquired by this point and use it on him he will be trying to come at you after each hit but you want to make sure to keep an eye on his movement just in case he stops to and comes toward you instead of going all the way to the side that you came from. When he starts shooting up to three Tornado Fangs while using the Acid Burst you want to time it right that it hits him and his attack. By doing this you should have him down in no time.

You are now awarded with Tornado Fang.

CODE: With Sub-Tank: 7773 5832 2548 1456

⤴ ↳

Volt Catfish

Items: Life Up, Sub Tank

Weapons Aquired: Triad Thunder

Armor Upgrades: Body Upgrade

Cast of Enemies

• Caterkiller
• Crablaster
• Earth Commander
• Head Gunner customer [before completing Blast Hornet's stage]
• Head Gunner masspro [after completing Blast Hornet's stage]
• Meta Capsule
• Trapper

There will be two Trappers along with around four or so Crablasters as you make your way through. When you make your way through there will be a platform that can take you down to face Vile [optional] if you wish to go ahead to face him if you want to but you do not have to. Once that you get to the end, take the lift up to the next section but there will be some Head Gunners that will try to fire at you and as you make your way up there will be a Crablaster along with another Trapper. Head on through and there will be two more Head Gunners along the way then head upward and there will be a Crablaster once again on the ceiling. Make your way past it to hitch a ride on another lift and if you take this one to the top you should be able to head off the ride to obtain the Life Up but it may not be easy since it is on spikes. Get on the wall then dash toward the next wall to claim it but you can get back over to the other side without dying. Fall down to you hit the lift to head back up so you can head to the first one that you come to your left.

Once that you get in that section there will be two Meta Capsules, Head Gunner, and followed by a Caterkiller as you have to climb up to the nex section. When you get up there and head to the right until you come to another lift get on it to head to the top but do not take it all the way up cause you will need Gravity Well from Gravity Beetle and the Arm Upgrade to get the armor piece from this stage. Head to the one on the right to continue on and there will be two Earth Commanders along with two Crablasters that will be on the bridge to the sub boss gate. If you have already fought Bit you will not have to worry about Byte until there is more Mavericks defeated but if you haven't fought Bit yet be prepared just in case. Upon heading out there will be a Crablaster before you drop down and there will be two more Crablasters. If you had the ride armors available you could gone up to the top to get one and drop down to obtain the Sub Tank from this stage but let's focus on getting through.

there will be three more Crablasters, one Trapper and one Caterkiller before dropping down while there will be two more Caterkillers on the way down. Drop down near two Crablasters jump over them then drop down and there will be a Caterkiller that will try to make a move on you before you drop down again. Drop all the way down then across then have to make your way back up once you get to the end. there will be Crablaster and a Caterkill before going down once again then there is a Head Gunner there waiting for you. Drop down head to the right to enter the boss gate to face off with Volt Catfish.

Boss: Volt Catfish

• HP: 32
• Attacks: 2 [contact], 2 [floor lightning], 2 [Triad Thunder], 6 [back generator charge], 4 [electric barrier contact], 2 [mini spark], 4 [Barrier Dash]
• Weakness: Tornado Fang

For the first little while, he will jump on you. When he does so, Dash underneath and hit him with a charged shot. When he shoots his electric charge, just jump, and when he sends out the three electrical charges onto the walls, try to Dash Jump over him onto the other side before he sends out the second part of the attack.

After a while, he will go into the middle of a room, a bolt of lightning will come down and strike him, rendering him invincible for a while, and he will send out electric sparks. I recommend staying near the top of walls for this.

With Tornado Fang

Get close to the wall, but not touching it. When Volt Catfish comes jumping at you, retreat completely to the wall, and hit him with a Tornado Fang. While he is stunned, jump up the wall and dash over him to the other wall. he will come jumping at you again, yet when he jumps down, he will be hit by the same Tornado Fang, while you jump back to the original position. Repeat. After a while of that, he will suddenly jump into the middle and try to absorb the lightning. Get close to him, and as soon as he finishes his jump, hit him with a Tornado Fang. he will keep trying to perform the move, so hit him with Tornado Fangs until he is defeated.

You are now awarded with Triad Thunder.

CODE: With Heart Tank 2761 1881 2658 7688

⤴ ↳

Crush Crawfish

Items: Life Up, H

Weapons Aquired: Spinning Blade

Cast of Enemies

• Hamma Hamma
• Helit
• Walk Blaster
• Wall Cancer

At the start of the stage you will be teleported onto a crane like structure and head on out but without dealing with a Helit before dropping down. If you stick to the top there will be four more Helits to deal with but if you go down not so much. Head on to the next area when you will enter an area and looks like there is no way to go any further until a Hamma Hamma will drop out of nowhere to break through the floor to make way so you can head down. As you drop down and at the second floor that it passed through there is a crack in the wall but you need a ride armor to break through it, so keep on going down. You want to be on the far right so you can defeat the Hamma Hamma as soon as you drop to the very bottom if you wish. Head on through until you come to a sub boss gate and if you have fought Bit already, Byte will not be making his appearance to most like around the last to around second to last stage that you will go to.<>/p>

Head on out through the other gate and over the gap and there will be a Walk Blaster in your way. Make your way past it do not worry about the health capsule underneath and if you haven't fought Vile by this point there will be part of the floor that you will fall through if you haven't yet. Keep going to the right as there will be another Walk Blaster and a Wall Cancer before you can head down the ladder. Head down the ladder as there will be a Wall Cancer and a Walk Blaster down there. Dispose of the Wall Cancer then head on down the ladder to the next section.

Make your way over the gap to the ship like structure as there will be two Hamma Hamma's and the second one is the one you want to deal with most since it is the only way to go further in the stage. Try to stay on the top as the only thing you will deal with then are the Helits and once you get as far as you can on top head on down but watch out as you drop from the last belt as there is a spike on the floor so move to the right as you drop down. Head through a sub boss gate but do not worry as there will not be anything to fight but rather destroy to get upward. It should only take a couple of good hits to get it destroyed and now you have to head up instead of straight. As you make your way up there will only be a couple Wall Cancer and one Walk Blaster to deal with before you get to the boss gate to fight Crush Crawfish.

Boss: Crush Crawfish

• HP: 32
• Attacks: 4 [contact], 4 [claw], 0 [Spinning Blade], 3 - 6 [rapid crush], 4 - 6 [Wall Slam]
• Weakness: Triad Thunder

Fighting with the Crawfish shouldn't be too hard of a fight with or without the Triad Thunder. One of the best things not to do is not to get too close to him or he will trap you in one of his claws and you do not want that to happen. Similar to when fighting Blizzard Buffalo if you go about wall climbing all he'd send his claw up to attack you. As I said if this battle will be easy to do if you go about doing that but if you go about using the Triad Thunder you can get close to him. Although you can still wall climb and time it right for the lightning to hit him just right to be just as effective. This shouldn't be too much of a difficult battle to get through anyways and can be done in just a matter of a couple minutes or so.

You are now awarded with the Spinning Blade.

CODE: 4668 4288 2328 7547

⤴ ↳

Neon Tiger

Items: Life Up, Sub Tank

Weapons Aquired: Ray Splash

Armor Upgrades: Arm Upgrade

Cast of Enemies

• Atareeter
• Caterkiller
• Drill Waying
• Hamma Hamma
• Meta Capsule
• Notor Banger
• Tombort
• Wild Tank
• Worm Seeker-R

When this stage starts you can easily make it through and past some Tomborts without them really bothering you at all as you make your way past them. As you get close to the end jump over the spikes and continue until you come to a Wild Tank that you need to get through before you can perform a jump or dash jump over another pit of spikes. there will be two more Wild Tanks before you can go up to the next section as there will be a Hamma Hamma that you want to destroy before head over there. Once there hop on the Tombort to get a lift to get the Sub Tank from this stage. Once obtained head in the direction you were originally heading in. Head on through and there will be two more Hamma Hammas before reaching the end then head up the ladder. Ignore the Caterkill and make your way dealing with three Drill Wayings before you get to the end where there is a Caterkiller as well as Notor Banger.

If you take a look at the wall before you head down the ladder there is some cracks in it, use the Tornado Fang on it to open it up and to claim the arm upgrade. Dash jump then and perform a dash into the air to get up to the capsule so you can get it.

Dr. Light hologram will appear, and he will tell you to enter this capsule. You will be able to receive an X-Buster upgrade, which will allow you to charge to a further strength, and shoot two charged shots at once. If they overlap, they can create a special attack. In addition, you can charge your special weapons.

Once you head down the ladder if you want to get down quicker just let yourself fall down to the bottom then through the sub boss gate to face the Worm Seeker-R.

Miniboss: Worm Seeker-R

• HP: 32
• Attack: Spiny Mine
• Weakness: Triad Thunder and Frost Shield

This miniboss will disappear into the walls and appear only to spawn two bouncing projectiles. The projectiles will hop around for a while unless you destroy them. The miniboss will either move vertically downwards from the left or right side, move vertically up from the middle, or appear at one corner, then arch horizontally (it will not cross the room) and disappear into the other corner. The easiest way to fight it is with charged shots, because you only get a few seconds to shoot whenever it appears.

Sub-Tank

When you reach the first red robot with two spiked balls, defeat it without destroying the dragonfly bot that floats above it. Hop on top of the dragonfly bot and dash jump up to the right to reach the Sub-Tank.

Heart Tank

Before you reach the second locked door, jump from the dragonfly bot to the far right and scale the wall above the locked door.

Miniboss: Neon Tiger

• HP: 32
• Attacks: 3 [contact], 2 [Ray Splasher], 8 [surprise slash], 8 [Ray Claw]
• Weakness: Spinning Blade

Neon Tiger is a fast boss who gives you little room and time to avoid his attacks. He starts the fight by flying diagonally up above you, and then he will return to his starting spot. After that, he will perform the following, randomly:

• Neon Tiger's Ray Splasher: he fires five yellow orbs from his tail. If you are on the ground, he shoots below you, above you, at you (small hop over it), above you, and below you again. Whenever he uses this attack, the pattern is the same for the projectiles. However, if he shoots at you while you are on a wall, the direction of the projectiles can be confusing (so stay off the wall if he is shooting).
• Dash: Like his initial behavior, he will fly diagonally across the room and then do one of two things:
  • Fly back down (like his initial behavior).
  • Pause, then drop down to where you are and slash. This can be difficult to avoid, as well as make the fight harder, because he may drop in the middle of the room if you are crossing there. He usually begins Ray Splasher after this attack.

At lower health, Neon Tiger begins his special attack. You know he is performing it when you shoot at him and he is invincible. He will raise one claw in front of his face, then both claws extend. He turns orange, then charges across the ground and leaps up into the top corner. To dodge this, scale the wall, then dash jump to the other side of the screen. When he drops back to the ground he will return to normal, and then perform one of his attacks again.

This point in the fight can be annoying because he may perform his special attack over and over again. Try to cause the AI to do something different: go up to the top left corner and wait there (he may dash up there), or stand closer to him. it is dangerous, but it may speed things up.

As you fight Neon Tiger he will be using the Claw and Ray Splash move a lot throughout the course of the fight if you go about using the X-Buster. Also if you just use the X-Buster some shots he will block as it heads toward him. When he uses the Ray Splasher he will either be hanging from the wall or on the ground when he does. If he's on the ground that is a good time to go about a hit on him before he has a chance to block it if you do not use any of the special weapons. Although when using the Spinning Blade on him you should be able to get the hits in on him with no problem due to after each hit he will be heading up on the wall to avoid you but jump to hit him with the Spinning Blade which should be easy to keep track of him that way.

You are now awarded with the Ray Splash.

CODE: 4615 4263 4322 7547

⤴ ↳

Gravity Beetle

Items: Life Up, Sub Tank, F

Weapons Aquired: Gravity Well

Armor Upgrades: Super X-Buster Enhancement

Cast of Enemies

• Blady
• Earth Commander
• Head Gunner Customer [before completing Blast Hornet's stage]
• Head Gunner Masspro [after completing Blast Hornet's stage]
• Notor Banger
• Wall Cancer

You start just outside of the carrier. You quickly run into a Head Gunner. Take it out and head into the cargo area. This room is full of boxes, Head Gunners and Notor Bangers. Make your way up and around the boxes, and you can climb up the ladders and wall jump out of this room.

Through this hallway above is the shutter to the room where you can encounter Bit or Byte if you are defeated enough Mavericks. Past this room is a ladder to the top of the aircraft carrier.

Up here are some Notor Bangers and Earth Commanders. Once you wall jump another ledge some Bladys will also be added to the mix. At the end of the room is a big energy refill and a ladder back down into the aircraft carrier.

This hallway leads to an elevator. There are 3 levels with a Head Gunner guarding a couple large energy refills and large weapon refills, the middle one has an extra life instead of a weapon refill. At the top of the elevator is a shutter that does not lead to a mid-boss or boss room. If you have Ride Armor available to you, wall jump up the wall above the shutter in this new room to reach the Ride Armor platform for an easier time in this room.

Be careful in this room, the floor that looks like large ammunition will fall when you step on it. Thankfully, you only deal with Notor Bangers in this short section. Next is a quick climb up a couple of ledges on each wall with a large energy refill at the top. The next section is 3 more Head Gunners then you reach another section where you have to wall jump up to progress.

This last section has a couple of Notor Bangers and a Wall Cancer, but right after them is the boss shutter at the top of the room.

Heart Tank

Once you have beaten Blast Hornet the crates in this room is gone. Climb to the top and head to the left to find the Heart Tank.

Ride Armor Module

On top of the aircraft carrier if you wall jump up the left wall you see the Frog Ride Armor Module sitting on a ledge above you. You can try to get it without the leg armor, but it is easier to use a midair dash up from partway up the wall to reach the ledge.

Light Capsule

If you take a ride armor to the end of this hallway you see some large crates. Break these and cross the spikes to reach the capsule with the buster upgrade.

Boss: Gravity Beetle

• HP: 32
• Attack: Gravity Well: 8 damage, large energy ball: 8 damage, dead lift: 6 damage, medium energy ball: 4 damage, contact: 3 damage, small energy ball: 2
• Weaknesses: Ray Splasher: 3 damage, Cross-Charge: 3 damage, Parasitic Bomb: 2 damage, Charged Shot: 2 damage

When fighting against Gravity Beetle the attacks that you need to watch out most for is the Gravity Well attack. As the the fight goes on and more health is drained from him the bigger the attack will be thrown at you during the fight. Also during the fight but will not happen mostly until the end of the fight and he's almost defeated that he will toss a gravity well up toward the top of the room sucking anything toward it so be careful. He can be an easy fight just the X-Buster alone but one move that he may try to pull toward the end of the fight is a double gravity well. If you use the Ray Splasher, he does not have time to try using a Gravity Well at all until toward the end of the fight where he throws one up in the air but you should be able to stop him from using it altogether is about all he'd do when using the Splasher against him. All in all this should be fairly an easy fight to do.

You are now awarded with the Gravity Well.

CODE: 4513 4266 4322 7347

⤴ ↳

Blast Hornet

Items: Life Up, Sub Tank, R

Weapons Aquired: Parasitic Bomb

Armor Upgrades: Chimera Armor and a Heart Tank

Cast of Enemies

• Carry Arm [Before completing Gravity Beetle's stage]
• Genjibo and Shurikein
• Hangerter [holding Ride Armor]
• Head Gunner Customer [Before completing his stage]
• Head Gunner Masspro [After completing his stage]
• Helit
• Meta Capsule [Before completing Gravity Beetle's stage]
• Notor Banger

Blast Hornet is hiding in some warehouses and distributing the rest of the Mavericks with plenty of Head Gunner customers. Defeating him will downgrade all Head Gunner customers in the Maverick stages to Head Gunner masspros which are a fair bit less dangerous.

The first room has a couple of Notor Bangers you can take out easily. At the end of the room is an elevator that goes up, and a Head Gunner customer. If you are quick, a charge shot and a couple quick uncharged shots. If you are not quick enough it'll shoot a missile angled toward your position though you can shoot it to destroy it.

As you ride up the elevator you see two more Head Gunner masspros waiting for you. Carefully time a jump between the missile shots to defeat one of them and stand on its platform for a short bit. Once you are above them they lob a different weapon like the Notor Bangers toward you and if you just stand on the elevator you are sure to get hit. You can take this time to defeat the other one and hop back on the elevator before it gets too high, or just wait on the wall until its new weapon will not longer be able hit you to get back on. At the top of the elevator is a clear passageway with a large gap at the end.

This gap is not a bottomless pit and is safe to fall straight down. You end up on a conveyor belt with a Notor Banger. Continue to head down two more gaps to lower conveyor belts, but be careful heading down from the third one. Hug the left side and you end up on a platform with a large energy refill next to a pit you would have fallen down if you just fell straight down. Wall jump up the opposite side to continue.

You have another Notor Banger that may seem hard to hit, but if you use a charge shot you actually hit them from the platform before them even though it fires above them. At the end of this room is a shutter to the mini-boss.

Head Chip

You notice a very suspicious gap in the ceiling while running through this room. Once you have the leg upgrade you are able to dash up there. You find a Ride Armor platform. it is recommended you use the Hawk Ride Armor, the Normal one to cross the gap above the conveyor belts. Here you are able to install the head chip if you already have the head upgrade.

Mini-Boss: Shurikein

• HP: 18
• Attack: none
• Weaknesses: Acid Burst: 3 damage, 5 when charged, Cross-Charge: 3 damage, Charged Shot: 2 damage, Thunder Triad: 2 damage when charged

A robot called a Genjibo will come in and create a wireframe enemy called a Shurikein and fly away. The Shurikein has a couple of ways of attacking you. It usually starts by doing a slow spin in place, then rolling back and forth on the ground and jumping when hit by a weapon. You can either hide on the top of a wall while this attack is going on to avoid any damage, or you can time your shots so that it jumps over you, hits the wall, and reverses without ever touching you.

Its next attack is usually to start spinning in place very fast, start moving toward you on the ground, then loop around the edges of the room by climbing the floor and ceiling. You can again climb the wall and jump over it on the ground to avoid damage. You should be able to get a lot of shots on it as it comes back to its starting spot.

Another attack it has begins by it spinning on one of its points. It continuously jumps back and forth. Once again you be safe hugging the top of a wall during this, but if you are fast enough you should fall off the wall, shoot at it a couple times, then climb back up the wall after avoiding it.

The best time to hit it is while it is transitioning between these attacks. A charged shot is not really worth using unless you charge it while avoiding an attack because the Shurikein does not have a long invulnerability timer after being hit. You can get in several uncharged shots in the time it would take to charge a shot.

Leaving the Shurikein's room, you end up in an outside area with garages. You have to climb up the side of one and cross over them from above. As you are climbing up, watch out to your left where there will be a Helit. Avoid its missiles and try to destroy it if you want. Do destroy the Notor Banger in the center of the top of the garage. Between each garage are more Helits, and on the top of each is a Notor Banger for the 3 garages in this area. Once you make it to the end you can head into the last garage and in the back hidden behind the foreground is a large energy refill.

If you have beaten Gravity Beetle you be able to head straight to the shutter to the next room. If you haven't though, a Dr. Doppler aircraft will land and Carry Arms will start placing boxes of supplies on it is lowered platform. You should destroy the boxes as quickly as possible. If they place two a Meta Capsule will start appearing and firing at you to protect them. This will continue until you destroy a box after a certain amount of time has elapsed. Since the boxes have a small chance of dropping small health or weapon refills it is best to destroy as many as you can.

Once the airship flies away you can enter the shutter to the room where Bit or Byte might fight you if you are far enough into the game and haven't died in this stage.

Past the second shutter is another drop down onto more conveyor belts with more Notor Bangers. Some of these ones are oriented more toward the center of the room, so you likely fall past several of them. When you get to the belt with spikes behind it, hug the wall and get ready to do a dash jump. If you do nothing you fall directly in a pit and die.

You have a Head Gunner customer in front of you, destroy it quickly, then shortly after you see another one to defeat. After this one are some stacked boxes. Shoot them to destroy them, then be careful as they start being dropped from the ceiling. Getting hit by a falling one is almost guaranteed to be death. Time your jump over carefully. There is another Head Gunner customer, afterwards more boxes, this time there is not pit after destroying them, but being crushed by a falling one is still just as deadly. There is one last Head Gunner customer and stack of boxes, but once you are through you are at the final boss shutter for the stage.

Chimera Ride Armor

You need Tornado Fang from Tunnel Rhino. After the second garage roof are some boxes you can shoot at and blow up to create a hole down, or after all of the roofs you can go into the last garage where the energy refill is. You can then use T.Fang to destroy the cracked walls at the left of the garages. In the middle garage is another box you can destroy to head even further down. You find the Ride Armor being held by a Hangerter you have to destroy. Once you hop into it, you are able to use Ride Armor platforms to spawn the Normal Ride Armor and unlock transformations for it. To the left is an elevator you can use to ride the armor up. It can destroy any cracked walls and boxes you did not break getting to the armor.

Heart Tank

Before the shutter to the special mid-boss room you can use either the Ride Armor if you just unlocked it, or the leg upgrade to scale the wall above the shutter. At the top you find the Heart Tank.

Boss: Blast Hornet

• HP: 32
• Attacks: 3 [contact], 2 [Bomb Bee], 8 [Stinger Dive], 2 [Parasitic Bomb]
• Weaknesses: Gravity Well

Phase 1

Blast Hornet will fly down from above, show off it is very dangerous stinger, and then the battle will begin. He should start his most dangerous attack right from the start where he'll reveal his stinger, it will shine at which point he has targeted the position you are standing, and will fly in to attack with the stinger. It is extremely important you never get hit by this attack as it does massive damage and you be unlikely to survive his second phase.

Luckily, it is pretty easy to manipulate and avoid. Stand near the center of the stage so that he targets there. Then once you see the shine, dash out of the way. If you are running the same direction he'll be flying you should be able to get out of the way without even dashing. Then turn around and shoot him.

Once he flies back up he'll send out several Bee Bombs aimed toward you. If they latch onto you they can cause damage quickly. You should start charging a shot after hitting him from the last attack unless you have Gravity Well which should work just as well, manipulate Blast Hornet to aim the Bee Bombs toward the wall opposite him, then dash under them as they are being fired, turn around and fire the charged shot or Gravity Well shot to destroy them. It is ideal to be toward the center of the room at this point as Blast Hornet has an erratic flight pattern and is likely to hit you if you are too close.

After flying for a short bit, he'll start the stinger attack again. This cycle continues until you get him to around half health. You know you transitioned to phase 2 either once you notice he has been flying for longer than usual without doing the stinger attack, or once you see a red circle start moving around the screen trying to target you.

The Gravity Well weapon can hit him and his Bee Bombs from pretty much anywhere, just keep on firing it and you should be fine.

Phase 2

In this phase Blast Hornet will send a targeting reticle around the screen to target you. He'll also create Bee Bombs around him. Once the reticle has located you, he'll fire the Bee Bombs he's made around himself toward you. If they aren't destroyed, they'll latch onto you and do some damage over time. If a lot of them manage to grab onto you this can be bad. Your best choice is to not avoid the targeting reticle, but to get targeted by it as quickly as possible. That way you have only a couple bees, and possibly even none aimed at you for the cycle.

Without Gravity Well your best bet is to get into a corner against a wall, and just keep jumping and firing semi-charged shots. They won't do extra damage to Blast Hornet, but they will do more to the Bee Bombs surrounding him and destroy them faster, even before being targeted.

You are now awarded with Parasitic Bomb weapon.

CODE: 4758 1865 4422 7788

⤴ ↳

Dr. Doppler's Lab

After defeating all of the main bosses, Zero will come to tell you that you need to infiltrate Sigma's fortress. In we go. We start outside of the fortress in an area with some Tortoises and Jammingers.

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4