Time to blow through over 25% of the game.
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 plaforms 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. Among 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.
Spark Mandrill
Oh, wow. If you've beaten the Storm Eagle stage, you'll finally find out where that jet crashed: Spark Mandrill's stage. Usually, there are a lot of areas to walk around in with electric currents forcing you to jump every couple of seconds, there's not as much. Also, the power will go out in a few spots at the beginning.
You'll see a few flying enemies that shoot out a beam of light as they quickly pass by. Take them out with fully charged shots, or better yet, use the Storm Tornado to get rid of them as easily as possible.
You'll see a mid-boss shortly after you begin the stage. This is some red robot in some blue gelatinous material. It will shoot four small blobs of this stuff at you, and if it touches you, you'll be stuck to the floor for a while. This mid-boss will move across the ceiling as well as the floor, and when it's on the ceiling, it will also shoot lightning bolts at the floor. If you've beaten Storm Eagle's stage, however, it won't be able to do that.
You'll also see ceiling turrets that spin around and shoot, as well as gold robots with two spike arms and one wheel that move around and try to chase you down.
You'll also see large tortoise style robots that shoot bombs with parachutes at you. Like most enemies, they're fairly easy.
After the first tortoise, you'll see the Heart Tank for this stage. You can press A and B at the same time to do a dashing jump off of the wall to get it, even though you're normally expected to get it by doing a dashing jump towards it and grabbing it with the Boomerang Cutter.
Through the second half of the level, the power will keep going on and off, and it will also be dim in some parts. Keep your weapons ready and be prepared to make some wall jumps, as some more of those flying robots from this level will show up near the end.
Spark Mandrill's weakness is the Shotgun Ice. While you can directly hit him with it, the weapon also splits into five smaller crystals that scatter at linear angles if it hits a wall.
Spark Mandrill sends large shockwaves along the floor, walls and ceilings, and he can also climb on the ceiling to get the drop on you. If you hit him with the Shotgun Ice, he'll be frozen for a few seconds. If you can time it right, you can keep hitting him with the Shotgun Ice and repeatedly freezing him.
Beating Spark Mandrill gives you the Electric Spark.
Armored Armadillo
The mine cart at the beginning of the stage lets you power through quite a bit of stage and almost set a land-speed record in the process. Don't worry about taking damage from enemies, as this spiked and seemingly unstable cart plows through them. Of course, you'll have to jump off before it sends you down a pit.
You'll then be chased by a digging robot. It takes a bit of abuse before it goes down, but if you go back to where it was, you'll find the third Sub-Tank. The spike pit will kill the digging robot, but it goes down in mere seconds with the Fire Wave.
After some more mine cart madness, you'll see another digging robot. Take it out with the Fire Wave. This makes it easier to get the Heart Tank for this stage, since the digging robot hasn't destroyed that part of the ceiling.
You'll then see the last mine cart, which will help you breeze through the last of the stage. Keep your X-Buster ready, so you can actually hit the birds near the end.
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