The real gameplay begins! We start off by taking down Frost Walrus and Jet Stingray will grabbing a bunch of pick-ups that will help us survive later on.
Snow Base
You'll see Blizzard Buffalo's frozen, battered body at the start of the stage. Blizzard Buffalo was in the third game.
The white gorilla robot will try to attack you with snow. Stay a good distance away when you shoot at him.
Shoot down the ice block above you shortly after the start with Rising Fire to get a Heart Tank. (We don't have this yet, but when we do...)
The snowman robots will try to dive at you when you're close enough to them.
The snow platforms will break when you wall-jump onto them or land on them. You'll have to wait a few seconds for them to reset. Some of the larger ones will be situated above spikes and will have snowboarding robots that will get in your way with their extreme sports escapades. Shoot them down with a charged shot.
The upper-right corner of the stage has an item that we can't get to quite yet...
Near the end, you'll be seeing ice platforms rising from a bottomless pit. Yes, there's a bottomless pit, so you want to make sure you have something to land on as you drop towards the door to the mini-boss.
The mini-boss here is a sphere-shaped robot that encases itself in ice and becomes a three-pronged ice claw. Shoot it in its red center, then dash under it as it flies around in a sine wave pattern. When it takes enough damage, it balls up, jumps through the ceiling and comes down on the floor hard, causing some of the icicles on the ceiling to fall down. It will also try to dash at you, trying to catch you and put you in a vice-grip, so you'll want to wall-jump over it when it does that.
At half-health, the mini-boss turns into a large ice crystal and bounces around the room at 45-degree angles, shooting diagonal ice crystal spikes every so often.
Throughout the battle, you'll want to use Rising Fire (if you have it) as it will do more damage than the X-Buster. Just wait for it to be above you and let loose. Otherwise, fire off nothing but fully-charged X-Buster shots.
Whenever you enter a new area, your health and weapon energy will be refilled. Keep this in mind as you progress through the game.
There are ice blocks to shoot down here. Some will contain Mettaurs and miniature flying enemies that fly back and forth and shoot at you, while others will contain bombs that take out whatever is above and below it.
There is also a whole field of ice blocks, and the upper-right most one contains the W-Tank of the game. This will collect weapon energy if all of your special weapons are full.
The ice birds will try to freeze the entire screen, and you'll want to destroy them as soon as possible. If they do freeze the screen, watch out for the icicles that are produced, as they will fall and cause damage. If any enemies are on the screen at the time, they'll be frozen.
To beat Frost Walrus, equip Rising Fire and fire it when you're right under his arm. This assumes you have it. If you don't, fire at him from a distance with nothing from fully-charged shots from the X Buster,
When Frost Walrus slides forward, do a dashing wall jump over him as he will not stop until he hits the wall.
Frost Walrus' freeze breath will create an icicle that he will shoot at you. Thankfully, it's very easy to take out, but if you can't get near where it lands so the six smaller icicles it splits into won't hit you.
Beating Frost Walrus as X will give you Frost Tower. It creates a huge ice block that acts as a shield, but it can also trap enemies if they're caught in the arctic chill while you create it.
Jet Stingray
Believe it or not, Area 1 and Area 2 maps are the same area.
You'll be on a jet-bike here. Keep on firing so you can take out any enemies when necessary. If you go up or down a slope, the projectiles will tilt upwards or downwards accordingly. Be ready to jump over pits.
Watch out for the bombs. If you run into them, you're going to take damage.
There are tons of ways to die, and you won't be able to heal yourself, so bring plenty of lives.
Halfway through this part, you'll see an upper path and a lower path. Jump and juke around so that you land on the lower path and get the Heart Tank.
Press the Dash button (Circle) while in the air to stay airborne a little longer.
The bridges explode when you take them. Shoot down the walls to get them out of your way.
Now for the second area.
You'll be outside and in the water, Shoot down all the jet bikers as well as any bombs that are in your way. Be ready to jump through gaps in the walls so you don't get crushed by the screen scrolling.
As you take to the water, you'll meet Jet Stingray. For the first time, you meet the stage boss before the end. Avoid or shoot down the miniature stingrays that he shoots at you.
Near the end, Jet Stingray will lower himself to the lower-left and attack you from behind with stingrays that skim the water. Stay away from him and the projectiles, and be ready to jump to a platform, then jump again and dash. You'll get a Sub-Tank if you can pull it off. Once you've seen three yellow boxes (a single box followed by a pair of them), you'll know when to gun it for the Sub-Tank.
Unlike the previous three games, you only get two Sub-Tanks and one W-Tank...so be careful.
Sadly, you won't be able to damage Jet Stingray until you take him on for real. (Sorry.) You'll be able to heal yourself fully before taking on Jet Stingray, so take the opportunity to do so after the hardest Maverick level in the game.
Jump up and get close to Jet Stingray and use Frost Tower. You'll freeze him if the chilling crystal touches him. When he jumps up after breaking out of the ice, be ready to jump up and hit him with it again. If you can keep the rhythm going, you can beat Jet Stingray without him landing a single attack. (This isn't the only aquatic enemy that this happened with in the series. Toxic Seahorse fell the same way with Frost Shield in the third game.)
Jet Stingray will dive at you, fly up and down the screen and also shoot Ground Hunter at you if you let him...but he's so easy to beat with Frost Tower if you know what to do.
If you have trouble beating Jet Stingray, wall jump up to the upper-left corner of the room and stay there. Jet Stingray will slowly drop down from there every single time, and if you hit him in the feet as he descends, you'll be able to freeze him. You can repeat this until he goes down.
Beating Jet Stingray with X gives you Ground Hunter. It's the miniature stingrays you've seen Jet Stingray shoot at you. They move across the ground and is effective against enemies on walls and floors. Press Down while the Stingrays are on the screen to command them to fall.
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