Saturday, September 20, 2014

PrinceWatercress plays Mega Man X - Part 2 of 8

Time to power up!

Storm Eagle


The yellow robot with the hook arms that you'll see at the beginning of this stage will grab you, fly around with you in its grasp and explode in an attempt to take you with it unless you fire at it and mash the buttons to get loose.

If you get to the top of the platforms at the beginning and make a dashing jump to the left, you'll find a red, heart-shaped icon with metal on the top and bottom. This is the the Heart Tank for this level. The Heart Tanks add to your maximum health, and collecting all of them will give you as much health as the bosses! You may be asking "Well, PrinceWatercress, why do we have so little health?" This is why. You take less damage from all the enemies in the game compared to previous Mega Man games, but you have half the health of the original Mega Man to balance out the difficulty. If you want the same amount of health as the bosses, you'll have to earn it.

You'll also see windows and gasoline tanks that you can shoot down and take out to find some secret stuff.

The Mettaurs here will pop out when you're close enough and try to run into you. Thankfully, they have the same vulnerability as they did in 20XX: as soon as they show their face, they can take a bullet there.

After the "Airport 1001" sign, use the platforms that go up and down to find a window you can shoot out. Blow out one side of it, and you'll destroy all of the windows. You'll find a Sub-Tank here. These are like the Energy Tanks in the classic series, but with a twist: they're re-usable and can only be filled by picking up health power-ups while your health is full. There are four in the game to collect, and filling them up prior to a boss battle will give you a definite edge.

Some of the flying platforms contain turrets that shoot a line of flames at you. They can be easily taken out with a fully charged X-Buster shot, and their weapons don't have a very good range.

Near the end, there is a wall of gasoline tanks that can be shot down. This leads to a secret area that leads to another upgrade capsule. This will upgrade X's helmet, and allow him to break certain blocks with his head.

You'll reach some platforms at the end. They fall into the abyss shortly after you stand on them, so get to the other side quickly! These lead to a jet. You may remember this jet from the intro stage. Guess what? If you go through it, take down the two turrets along the way and stand on the lift platform, you'll tear this jet apart.

You'll then have a flat ground to fight Storm Eagle on. He'll swoop down at you from one side of the screen (which is best dodged with dashing jumps), spit eggs that send out four birds at you, and try to push you back with either his Storm Tornado weapons or with his wings (walk and dash towards these to keep from being knocked off the sides of the jet).

If you have the Chameleon Sting weapon, you'll be able to beat him more quickly. If not, go at him with the X-Buster. Storm Eagle is one of the easiest Mavericks to beat with the good ol' arm cannon.

Beating Storm Eagle gives you the Storm Tornado. This shoots a tornado that goes forward and does multiple hits to all enemies it touches.

Flame Mammoth


Flame Mammoth is not only the easiest Maverick to take down with the X-Buster, he's also where the weakness cycle repeats itself.

If Chill Penguin's stage hasn't been completed yet, the lava circling this stage will be red hot, and there will also be lava plumes halfway through the level. There also won't be snow everywhere, either.

The conveyor belts push around both robot heads (which don't do anything) and robots that will fire lasers at you. If either of these enemies fall off of the conveyor belts, they break apart and die.

Once you make it past the conveyor belts, you'll see the platforms where the lava plumes are supposed to come out through the cracks. Since you have the Helmet and Dash upgrades, you can now make a dashing jump off the left edge of the first of these platforms and break the blocks to the left. Break the blocks with your head, and you'll be able to find the fourth and last upgrade capsule. This will change the appearance of X's arms and power-up the mega buster, giving him a third charge level. You'll notice it when you hold the fire button longer and X glows purple instead of yellow. This makes for an even more powerful shot that can go through enemies and take out even more that are behind it.

This also allows you to charge up all of the special weapons. Fire a special weapon when X is glowing purple, and you'll be able to perform a unique ability that you wouldn't be able to do otherwise. Of course, this uses more weapon energy, but sometimes it's worth it. Amongst the best charge-ups are for Chameleon Sting (which turns X translucent and has his sprite cycle through the color spectrum, making him invincible and giving him the ability to run through enemies)

The miner robots will throw pickaxes at you.

The lower-right corner of this area hides the Heart Tank for this level. If you've completed Chill Penguin's level, this is a lot easier to obtain. If you can make it to the end and go all the way to the left, keeping to the top of the area, you'll be able to break some blocks that block your way to another Sub-Tank.

You'll see some more conveyor belts just like those in the beginning of the level, but you'll also see crushers. If you use your Dash ability, you'll be able to move past them without a hitch.

The last section of this level has you dealing with pipes. Lava droplets leak out of them at certain points, and you'll have spikes that move back and forth while spinning around.

Flame Mammoth is perhaps the easiest boss to beat with the X-Buster, but the Storm Tornado takes him out even more quickly. Flame Mammoth has a few attacks. The most notable one is that he can shoot flames out of his trunk, as well as blobs of oil. You'll also be fighting Flame Mammoth on a conveyor belt. If he raises his arms and roars, the conveyor belt will change direction. He also jumps around.

If he shoots out a blob of oil and then hits it with his flame attack, it will ignite and cause a huge flame that you'll have no choice but to use the walls to avoid.

If you hit Flame Mammoth with the Boomerang Cutter, his jump attack will be the only thing he can do, as his other attacks will be made useless, including reversing the conveyor belt's direction.


Beating Flame Mammoth gives you the Fire Wave. It's a short-range flamethrower.

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