Rockman Zero 4 FAQ/Walkthrough version 0.75 by WhiteBase (Lightningtheargent@yahoo.com) <-------If this is not one continuous line, change your browser settings------> ******************************************************************************* LEGAL DISCLAIMER I don't own Megaman Zero, this is Capcom's game, blah blah. Standard deal here, really. This guide may not be reproduced except for personal use, and is only permitted to be on GameFAQs (gamefaqs.com). If you're reading this from somewhere else, they stole my work, and that's never cool. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction & FAQ a. What's with that gibberish at the end of everything on the ToC? (FAQ01) b. WhiteBase, do you know Japanese? (FAQ02) c. Gimme a ROM d00d! (FAQ03) d. WhiteBase, my ROM is broken. :( (FAQ04) II. Walkthrough a. Intro Stage 1 (ST001) b. Intro Stage 2 (ST002) c. Pupla Cockapetri (ST003) d. Pegasolt Ekrehl (ST004) e. Fenrir Lunaedge (ST005) f. Intermission 1 (ST006) g. Intermission 2 (ST007) h. Heat Gemblem (ST008) i. Noble Mandrago (ST009) j. Tech Kraken (ST010) k. Mino Magnas (ST011) l. Sol Titanyan (ST012) m. Final Stage 1 (ST013) n. Final Stage 2 (ST014) o. Final Stage 3 (ST015) p. Final Stage 4 (ST016) III. EX Skills (EX001) IV. Items a. Cyber Elves (IT001) b. Data Chips (IT002) c. Sub Tanks (IT003) d. Misc. Items (IT004) V. Version History (V001) VI. Contributions/Thanks ******************************************************************************* I. Introduction and FAQ Rockman Zero 4 came out for the Game Boy Advance on April 21, 2005. It's the latest in a long line of popular side-scrollers from Capcom, renowned (by most) for being very challenging. Hopefully this guide will educate the masses, and I might learn some new things as well. So here we go. a. So what's with that gibberish in the Table of Contents? (FAQ01) This is a time-honored tradition at GameFAQs, that lets the user skim around the guide really quickly. Just use the browser or text editor's 'search' function, search for the string at the end, and BAM! you'll go right to that section. b. WhiteBase, do you know Japanese? (FAQ02) Heck no. So don't bother asking me to translate the story or anything. I only know how to do anything with Chip Recipes thanks to a kind soul on the RMZ4 boards. >_> Anyway, this means that I have no clue what the stages are really called, the translations of the bosses names are courtesy of what I can recall from Planet Megaman, and I totally made up the names I used for the EX Skills. So you have been forewarned. c. Gimme a ROM, d00d! (FAQ03) No. Please drop dead. d. WhiteBase, my ROM is broken. :( (FAQ04) I'm sure it is. I don't know whether it's a bad dump, or whether the game has so much new stuff in it that it can't be emulated properly. Whichever. Either way, some things (especially attacks) won't be displayed, and some foreground layers will not be displayed transparent (you can toggle BG2 off to get around this). If Kraft is kicking your ass because you can't see what he's doing, well, I guess it's time for you to get an honest copy of the game. :P ******************************************************************************* II. Walkthrough INTRO STAGE 1 - THE CARAVAN (ST001) After three games in the Zero series, plus six in the X series where you can play as Zero, you should have some idea of what you're doing by now. If not, it's still pretty simple. Just go forward from car to car, clearing out all the enemies. Experiment with the Z-Knuckle if you feel like it, but it's not really necessary. After a while, a submersible sand battleship (shades of Xenogears!) appears ahead, and Zero jumps over to Ciel's truck to intercept it. You'll automatically jump onto the battleship. There will be two health-ups I don't know how to reach above you, so just ignore them and press on. Be careful of the missiles, they take more than one slash of the Z-Saber to blow up so it's probably best just to ignore them. Eventually you get inside the ship, and find your first boss. BOSS 1: SHIP CORE Health: Two Bars Attacks: Giant Laser, Rebound Laser, Mechaniroids Strategy: This guy isn't too terribly tricky. The Giant Laser is a big blue beam of light that you have no hope in Hell of dodging unless you dash under it. It'll often fire three or so in a row, so be careful. The Rebound Laser sends two 'beams' (consisting of three spheres each) bouncing off of the roof and the floor; they're fairly predictable. The big stickler here is the mechaniroids, these wierd little drill-looking guys that fire lasers. They're not too tough either, but the problem is that when they come up the central core will continue to attack...so you have to worry about them /and/ the core. Just keep moving and don't attack when the Giant Laser bursts are out, and you should stay safe. User Tip (Submitted by DarkZV2Beta): See those light blue wires underneath the core? Don't they look tempting? Well, fire up the Z-Knuckle and rip them out, then you don't have to worry about the Giant Laser. This is great if you're doing a speed run, I'd imagine. STAGE CLEAR! Now you're introduced to Niege and company. Poor Niege doesn't seem to be sleeping very well, look at the lines under her eyes. >_> She also says something that makes Ciel look like she's about to cry, so boo! Apparently she's been having some trouble with that rascally Dr. Weil, which she explains complete with dramatic music and junk before driving off. You end up at the Resistance caravan (lots of trucks around these days, huh?), not to be confused with Niege's. You automatically get taken to the save screen, and after some dialogue are free to wander. There's not a lot to do, so if you want just talk to Ciel again to advance the plot. Something happens, there's dramatic music, and Zero warps off. Hoorj! More combat. INTRO STAGE 2 - AREA ZERO (ST002) You end up in a forested area. After a while of moving forward, you'll come across what looks like a watery area. Resist the temptation to drop in, because it's a bottomless pit and you'll explode. Eventually you'll have no choice, though, so take the plunge....luckily it's shallow here, so you don't die. Keep going and you'll come to a series of waterfalls, culminating in more shallows. You'll enter a base of some kind, which is a little hazardous because there are several areas where you have to wall-climb and those frikkin' turning cannons will be waiting for you. A charged Z-Saber will let you swat them down, though. Try and conserve your health because a boss awaits. BOSS: Giant Mechaniroid Health: Two Bars Attacks: Missile Barrage, Laser Rings, Rocket Punch Strategy: This guy reminds me of the Giant Mechaniroid from X2. Unlike that boss, though, this guy doesn't really do much physical attacking. You /can/ take damage if you by some chance touch his head, but that's about it. He primarily attacks with a barrage of missiles or green energy rings. The missiles can be dealt with by judicial dashing, or by dropping down to the lower part of the room. The laser rings can be dealt with in a similar fashion. Sometimes when you're up level with his head, he'll try to punch you; it's pretty quick, albeit telegraphed by a brief flash, so be careful. The best time to attack is when he's firing missiles, because it takes a second or so for them to come arcing back down, and if you've been charging the Z-Saber you can get in one charged shot and a couple of extra swipes. After the fight, push onward. You'll run into Pupla Cockapetri (a cockatrice), one of Weil's Einharjar, making a lot of noise at a computer terminal of some kind. Then there's a loud howl, and the whole lot of them show up; for amusement value, take notice of Sol Titanyan perched on Heat Gemblem's shoulder. After some banter, their apparent leader, Kraft, appears. He talks some more with Zero, then teleports out. The rest follow. STAGE CLEAR! Back at the Resistance Caravan. If you've got some E-Chips and recipe parts, now might be a good time to visit Alouette in room 001 and Cervaeu in the lab. If you don't know your Japanese you're probably going to be SOL with Cervaeu, though. Once you're done screwing around, head to the right of the Resistance caravan and you'll find Niege's tent-city. More conversation, Niege and her goon being rude or something, and then you're back in the Resistance HQ van. Select the first option the Operator gives you, and you can go to the Stage Select screen for the first time. There will be eight 'dots' around the map, with little squares next to them showing the weather. There are also two icons, one for the Resistance caravan and one for Niege's tent-city, plus a grey icon that notes the location of Area Zero. When you select an area that a boss is in, you have three options: go there, shuffle the weather, or cancel (not sure on the last one). If you select the shuffle option, then all of the weather icons change. I think you can do this as often as you like, but what the hey. Anyway, I decided to go with the cockatrice first, because his voice annoys me and I want him to die. Do yourself a favor and shuffle the weather until it's sunny in his stage. Trust me, just do it. STAGE 1: THE CITY (ST003) Cockapetri's stage is a city of some kind, oddly enough. Just keep going forward, it's not too hard. Eventually you'll come to an area with tracks on the walls. The things that are moving on the tracks can be grabbed (jump and hold the up button), and then they take Zero around. The first track loops around, passes a health-up on the right wall (if you need it), and then in the upper left corner approaches a spike bed and another track. Jump carefully, you want to grab the second handle-thing instead of spiky doom. If it doesn't look like you can make it, don't panic...as long as you don't hit the spikes you can try as often as you like. Going through to the next area, you'll find blocks that move up and down or side to side. Do try not to get pinned between a block and a wall or it's instant death. Thankfully it's not too hard if you're fast. In the next area, you're back out in the city; proceed forward for a brief bit of dialogue. You now have to hurry and smash all of those purple handlebar-looking things on the walls, floors, and ceilings of the red tower. Despite the dramatic music I don't think there's a time limit, so be careful of the two enemies who fly around and fire homing projectiles. Apparently you were bashing support struts of some kind, because the tower proceeds to drop into the ground. You can now descend from the roof of the tower, and go right into a tunnel. Keep going, you'll run into some new enemies that aren't so tough, and eventually drop through a 'door' into a room that has three such doors. There's the one you fell through, one on the left, and one on the right. The left one doesn't do anything, so go right. METOOLS! Aww, so cute. So destructable. If you don't know how to kill these guys by now, you can't call yourself a Megaman fan. Past the Mets, there's a long vertical area with more moving blocks. This time there's the addition of spikes, so it's double the instant-kill goodness! Again, though, it's not too hard to discern the patterns, so be careful, and move quickly. You'll find yourself in a room with more handlebars on tracks; be careful because there's a teleporting enemy in here. Do yourself a favor and go to the upper left corner of the room, because there's a childishly easy 1-Up there and you can always use those in a Rockman Zero game. The exit is in the upper right corner, but there's a Ceramic Titanium sitting on a shelf as you pass by...do grab it, since it's free. Now we're at the boss, yay. BOSS: Pupla Cockapetri Health: Two bars Attacks: Charge!, Feather Toss, Stone Vision, Pellet Toss, Eggs (eww!), Pellet Rain Strategy: Cockapetri can raise parts of the room, so keep that in mind. He's kind of erratic; he'll sometimes charge towards you beak-first with surprising speed, other times he hops around rather slowly. At times he'll throw out his feathers to either side. They'll drift down slowly, so try not to stand too close to them as they'll drift back and forth a bit. He'll also stop and toss out a blue...something. Eyes? I can't tell. Anyway, don't let that touch you or you'll be turned into stone (and have to button-mash until Zero breaks out of it). He can throw green pellets of some kind that briefly spout smoke, and he can also turn around and 'lay' an egg in your direction. It takes two swipes of the Z-Saber to break an egg (eww), and if you fail, it'll 'hatch' and create a little Cockapetri that runs around causing a distraction. When he's really hurting, he'll go up to the center of the screen, use his stone vision (don't be facing in his direction when he does this), and create a series of those wierd green pellets. You can't avoid those either, but an overhead slash of the Z-Saber should clear any falling towards you....and if you have a charged slash ready, you can quite probably nail him as well. This guy's a pansy, really. STAGE CLEAR! More of the same. Upgrade elves, make items (if you can), etc. etc. Let's go after the pegasus (Pegasolt Ekrehl) next. Make sure it's cloudy when you go. STAGE 2: PARK (ST004) Ah, the things we do for EX Skills. This stage is a tad more complicated when it's cloudy, since the clouds sometimes conceal enemies and the strong winds make jumping difficult in places. Regardless you shouldn't have too much trouble here, just keep moving forward. When you get to the first area where the wind starts to affect you, be careful when you start jumping from column to column. Some of the lower columns will be almost totally covered by the clouds, making it difficult to stay on in the high winds. Anyway, press on, being careful since the clouds obscure platforms and enemies. Eventually you'll come to a mini-boss. MINI-BOSS: Green Dragon Attacks: Thunder Laser, Tail Laser, Grab Strategy: The dragon will fire a series of three green orbs from it's mouth; they'll travel out a ways, then pause, and turn into lightning bolts that go down (as well as up, but that's irrelevant). Try not to be under them when they pause. The dragon will also swoop down and slowly move along the ground towards Zero; this is a good chance to get some damage in, as the only way to stop him is to beat him up a bit. He'll also, rarely, do a move where he fires a laser from his tail that skims the ground, then one at head level, then another ground one. Just jump, then stay where you are, then jump again and you'll be fine. Not too hard. After the dragon bites it, continue on. There's not a lot I can help you with here, so just be careful. It's not too much longer until you reach the boss door. BOSS: Pegasolt Ekrehl Health: Two Bars Attacks: Thunder Spear, Thunder Line, Spear Thrust Strategy: Primarily, the danger here is the fact that you're on two platforms with a bottomless pit below you. And, it's raining. And, the wind is blowing, so you'll be moving around unintentionally. The wind /also/ changes directions seemingly at random. Pegasolt's almost a distraction, really. ;) His primary attack is to fire one of his spears at you, in a diagonal path. It'll stick in the ground for a bit, so be mindful of that. He usually fires them in pairs, and if both are on screen at once they'll create an arc of lightning between them. His EX attack appears to involve him charging up and shouting, then firing a line of electricity that stretches across the screen. You can eat the damage, but if you're brave try clinging to the side of one of the platforms and it should miss. He'll also occasionally make a series of jabs with his spears, or try and ram you. Very rarely he'll charge up like he's going to use Thunder Line, but instead he'll come charging across the screen surrounded by a corona of energy. This hurts like hell and semi-homes, so get one of the two higher platforms and dash-jump like your life depends on it. The best way to kill Pegasolt is with the charged Z-Saber; you can try the Z-Buster, but every so often when he sees it coming, he'll snicker and fly up out of its path. He doesn't do this with the Z-Saber. STAGE CLEAR! Yay. You did what I suggested and hit Pegasolt while it was cloudy, right? So you should have your second EX Skill now. Yay! Do whatever you need to do at the Resistance Base, it's time for our next target: Fenrir Lunaedge. Make sure it's snowing when you hit him up. STAGE 3: STORAGE FACILITY (ST005) You did come here while it was snowing, right? Well, it may not be actively snowing, but there are blocks of snow laying about. When you come across those guys who look like Vile (shoulder cannons and all), use the Z-Knuckle on them. Along the right wall of this area you should see some snow on the opposite side; use the gun you nicked from them to create some fire, which will melt the snow. Now climb up and drop down, and there will be a door revealed there. Keep moving on and you'll come to an area with several conveyor belts, and some enemies on them. The enemies are something-something type Bs, and have spheres of junk they'll toss at you. You have to go down, so do so while avoiding the something-something Bs. Eventually you'll reach terra firma, but get the Z- Knuckle ready (ditch whatever you're holding if you've used it previously). As you move on another of those guys will charge towards you, but this is a something-something C. The C stands for Card, as in Card Key, which you can nab if you use the Z-Knuckle on them. Now, for the love of god, whatever you do... DO NOT LOSE THAT KEY. Keep moving, and you'll come to a sub-boss. Yay? MINI-BOSS: Gear Generator Attacks: Spawn Gear (yep, that's it) This guy is so easy it hurts. The generator has four openings, and when one lights up, it'll spew a line of rolling gears that will move along the walls, floor, and ceiling...they do one revolution, before going back into the hole they came from. Your objective is to smash all four openings, and avoid the gears. Charged Z-Saber is your friend; you can hit three (or all four) openings with one blow, and one charged slash plus a few follow-ups will easily kill any of the gear rushes. If you lose any more than half your life here, hang your head in shame. ;) Past the sub-boss, you'll come across some hanging wires. Navigate across in the usual way. I found the Z-Buster helpful with dealing with the enemies, but once again, DO NOT UN-EQUIP THE Z-KNUCKLE. You'll lose the Card Key if you do. After that you can climb up to an area with two strange yellow things on the wall. Hitting the left yellow panel will cause the elevator you're standing on to descend. Hitting the right one (use the Z-Buster) will cause it to rise. So, shoot the one on the right. You'll stop with more panels, and enemies on either side. Kill both enemies, shoot the right panel. Lather, rinse, and repeat until you finally can take the elevator no further. Now you can go it alone, and you'll see an electrified door in the background. Press the button you have the Z-Knuckle attached to, and Zero will swipe a card-key out. Swipe it against the object next to the electrified door, and you can now go in. Inside is a Sub- Tank. YAY! Moving on, you'll pass some cryo-tubes. Baby Dark Elves will pop out of some of them. Don't panic! These aren't super-uber ones like Crier and Prier from MMZ3. All they do is reanimate the robot corpses nearby, which turn into the zombie- bots that Anubis Necromancess used. If you kill the zombie-bots, the baby elves will pop back out. They're indestructible, so just keep going. You don't even need to kill the zombies, but you can get a recipe part off of them, so why not? The next door you come to will lead to the boss, so prepare for MORTAL KOMBAT! BOSS: Fenrir Lunaedge Health: Two Bars Attacks: Roll, Slash, Double Slash, Combo Slash, Charge, Pounce Strategy: Boy, this guy sure likes his blades. Well, load up a Fire-type EX Skill if you have one, and get ready to rock. When he starts to spin in one place, he'll begin to bounce towards you like a big ball of metal. Dissuade him by dashing under him as he bounces upwards. He also leaps around and slashes at you, tries to pounce on you, or impale you on his blade, and sometimes he'll launch into a combo (one slash, then a pounce, then he bounces off of the wall and flies towards you). Be especially careful of Double Slash, where he creates two blades (one on the ceiling, one on the ground) that zip towards you. Quickly climb the wall to avoid the ground blade, then drop to avoid the ceiling blade, etc. Kinda like Earthrock Trilobyte from X8, huh? An alternate strategy would be to have a charged shot ready, because he can be knocked out of this attack. There's not a lot I can do to help you beyond this, though, because he's incredibly fast. STAGE CLEAR! Uh-oh, the Bat-Signal! I mean...a transmission! I don't know a lick of Japanese, so I don't know what they're saying, but it sounds important! Ciel prompts you to save, so do so if you want, and you get teleported off to.... INTERMISSION 1: EASTER ISLAND (ST006) Okay, so maybe it's not really Easter Island (what, no Maoi?). But it's pretty and green and there's a big statue/tower/whatever in the background, so...eh. Once again, the water here conceals bottomless pits, so be careful and keep moving from column/platform to column/platform. After a while of this you'll find that you've reached Niege's tent city, and it's under attack! =O Some of the tents are on fire, so I recommend seeking out the spigots on the ground and using the Z-Knuckle to nab them. Then you can spritz water on the fires to put them out, so do so. You'll also have to go into the tents and trucks, because Niege's soldiers are inside being hassled by mechaniroids. Nothing too tough, really. Once you've rescued everyone you can proceed to the right, past the gathered soldiers, and meet a familiar face. BOSS: Kraft Health: Three Bars Attacks: Giant Missile, Missile Spread, Cannon Stab, Beam Cannon, Mine Strategy: Kraft's favored attack is a large homing missile that he fires at you ....you really only have one option, and that's to hit it. Be careful because it leaves a small explosion in its wake. More rarely, he'll act like he's going to do this move, but instead he'll fire a spread of three missiles. If you're using the ROM (piracy!), here's where it really starts to glitch. Kraft's cannon will pull a blade from out of nowhere, and he'll dash forward almost one full screen length to try and stab you with it. If he hits you, you take additional damage from something that the emulator doesn't show. He has another attack where he'll charge up and fire a large beam ala` the first stage boss; it comes out very fast though, and if you're using an emulator you can't see the beam itself. So, in short, consider this boss your punishment if you've been using the ROM. ;) After beating Kraft, a conversation ensues. Niege appears, talks with both Kraft and Zero...and then gets herself kidnapped. Dumbass. Well, at least you get taken back to the Resistance base, so do whatever you need to here and get ready to rescue Niege. Return to the CMD door, talk to the Operator, and off you go to the Stage Select screen. Go to the only orange dot available. INTERMISSION 2: THE PEN (ST007) Apparently Niege is doing twenty-to-life for Felony Midriff Possession, or something. Do we really have to bail her out? I guess so, so get moving. Eventually you'll find an air vent being guarded by a turret and one of those Vile mechaniroids, so go in and drop down. At the bottom, start busting fans so you can get through. You'll come to a T-intersection, where you should probably go up; this way the fan you come across will be pushing you, rather than pulling you (and thus making you take damage if you smack into it). Either way you end up in the same place. You can find some health and E-Crystals if you go up or down, but make your way right and you'll come to the exit...and a boss. BOSS: Loud Mechaniroid Health: Three bars (I think) Attacks: Punch, Double Punch, Boxes, Crush Strategy: Why does this guy have to shout? Oy. X_x He seems fairly similar to the first boss from Megaman X3, and attacks similarly. He'll try to do individual punches every now and again. Try and stay near the walls, because when he raises both fists overhead he's going to bring them straight down and create waves of energy that you can really only avoid by wall-climbing. As soon as you've dodged the wave, drop down and get moving, because part of the ceiling or something will come down. The boxes don't do anything except hurt, if they fall on you. He also has a move where he holds both arms out, then swings them together and tries to pin Zero in between for massive damage. Get towards the center when he does this, and jump /right/ before his fists collide. The challenge here is that the boss is pretty big, and the room is pretty small, so it's easy to get boxed in and pounded for massive damage. Hopefully you have a Sub-Tank by now to help. Continue on, and hey...it's Niege! Watch the scene that ensues, because it rocks. Kraft teleports in, there's some talking, then Weil appears as well. It seems like all is lost, but all of a sudden Niege snickers and throws a flash bomb. The screen blacks out, you hear an explosion, and when it's gone Zero and Niege have busted through the floor. Kraft and Weil are all 'wtf?'. Owned. =D After some more dialogue with Niege, she teleports off and part 2 starts. Basically you're trying to get the hell out of Dodge. Keep moving and pwning everything that comes your way. Use the Ice Blade EX Skill to clear out multiple Vile-clones (or whatever they are). When you get to the end of this hall, there's a handlebar you can grab. Press up to go up, down to go down, etc. You can nab a Full Health item if you want (if you've kept your health up, this is pretty much a free full Sub Tank), but eventually you'll want to go all the way up. Past here you'll find some moderately devious traps; spikes that retract into the ceiling, but only for a short time, when you press or pull a yellow switch. Do so, and use the boost to get through! (err....) As you keep going, you'll come to a ramp leading down. As you go down, giant spheres start falling down and chasing you like Indiana Jones. Just run, and do your best to jump over the enemies that will be coming up the ramp towards you. When you get to the end, there's some dialogue, and then you're home free. STAGE CLEAR! Hoorj, finally got that out of the way. Anyway, by now you should have an Ice EX Skill, and two Thunder EX skills. Let's get some fire. Heat Gemblem is next on our hit list. Make sure it's sunny in his stage before you go. STAGE 4: GIANT BEAM CANNON (ST008) You start out on some kind of power array or something. Keep going on and beating up enemies as usual. Drop down, continue left...hey, haven't we beaten this guy before? MINI-BOSS: Red Dragon Attacks: Flame Column, Tail Laser, Grab Strategy: Remember the Green Dragon from Pegasolt's stage? Similar strategy here. The big difference is the Flame Column; when he shoots what looks like a red sphere, it'll erupt into a column of fire that sucks you towards it. Keep dashing away to avoid getting burned. Other than that, ho hum, you've killed him before. He's faster, though, so Quick Charge would be a big help here if you have it. After killing the boss, you drop down into the barrel of the cannon. When the lights start flashing a certain way, the cannon will fire. Try not to get hit, I'm sure it couldn't possibly be good for your health. Press on, and don't forget that where there are protrusions from the ceiling, you can climb to avoid the beam (sometimes you have to, as there won't be a trench to hide in). After you reach the projector, drop down and continue on. You'll have to climb back up another 'hall', and there are smaller beams going back and forth to bar your way. If you time your climb just right, you'll avoid every single one. Hopefully you haven't lost too much health, because the boss awaits. BOSS: Heat Gemblem Health: Two bars Attacks: Megalomania, Hadoken, Shoryuken, Fire Spin, Mega Particle Cannon Strategy: This guy is either a gigantic gamer, or he studied under Magma Dragoon back in the day. His primary attack is a sort of sine wave of fire that resembles I-No's Megalomania (if you've played Guilty Gear XX), and he also does a sort of hadoken motion to send bolts of fire towards you. Furthermore, he does a leaping uppercut that also creates fire (shoryuken!). He'll also start spinning around while surrounded by flames, but this is childishly easy to dodge. The big threat comes in the attack where he turns himself into a giant particle cannon. You can't see the beam if you're using an emulator, but suffice to say that where his head used to be there's a big beam of pain coming your way. He rotates in a circle while projecting the beam, and there are two smaller gouts of flame to either side of him. This is extremely painful, and I haven't quite figured out a good system for dodging it. Your best bet might be to wall-climb and try to dash-jump over the beam while avoiding the flamethrowers. Hopefully you have full health and a Sub-Tank ready. STAGE CLEAR! Back to Resistance-La. Do yourself a favor and whip yourself up a Double Jump chip if you can, you'll want it when we go after our next punk..err, boss: Noble Mandrago. Make sure it's sunny before you go. STAGE 5: NATURE PRESERVE (ST009) Go right, and enter the first door you come across. You'll be inside a tree, or something like that. Drop down, move right, and load up a Fire EX Skill (the one you got from Heat Gemblem is ideal). See those vines blocking your way? You have to knock them down to keep going, and it takes one charged Z-Saber swipe per vine. So, burning them is the ideal way to get past quickly. Move on, ignoring the upper path lined with spikes, until you get to another path leading up. The vines can be grabbed, but that's rather slow; wall climb, and use the Z-Buster to clear out those rotating cannons. At the top is a door, and the sub-boss. MINI-BOSS: Insect Mechaniroid Attacks: Flamethrower, Mines Strategy: This guy is tedious, but not hard. He moves around fairly slowly, using a flamethrower attack that extends a short distance in front of him. Move around the room in a circle, and use the Z-Buster to peg him when you have a good shot. He starts to speed up eventually, and also begins to lay mines in his wake. These hurt bad, but explode after a short time, so they shouldn't really bother you. Just be careful, because he can also change the direction he's running in, and might surprise you that way. After that's taken care of, you'll find yourself in a room with a spiny column of some kind in the middle. There are spikes all over the walls and such here, and you can grab the 'spines' hanging off of the column (which is in the back- ground), so use those to carefully make your way down. They fall apart after a short time, so don't get complacent. Go through the door, and in the next room you'll see one of those helicopter-cannon things. Kill it, then keep going until you see another one. You have two options here: you can kill it and grab its helicopter blade to go up, or if you have Double Jump you can use it to grab the vine hanging up there. Be careful of the spikes, and you'll find that you've gotten up to a small area with a Sub Tank and some other goodies. Hoorj! Drop back down, and continue on. You'll find an intersection with some more vines; burn through them instead of going up, and you'll find a Full Health. Burn through to the right, and you're back out in the stage again. Keep going, and you'll come across more hanging vines. Use the Z-Buster to clear out the helicopter-cannon, and keep it handy as you move along; it's a good way of dealing with any enemies that come your way. Go right, and you'll eventually be able to go up. There are some more of those breaking spines that you can use to climb, so quickly move up and enter the door on the right. It's boss time! BOSS: Noble Mandrago Health: Two Bars Attacks: Flail, Goo Shot, Drill, Cannon Seed, Flytrap Seed, Bee Seed, Pirouette, Magic Sparkle Strategy: This is one freaky chick. She can drill into the ground or ceiling, and pop out at random, like some kind of mole. Her tentacle/leaf things are usually flailing around, and can smack you if you aren't careful. She will occasionally throw out blobs of greyish goo that can stick to you and slow you down, so be careful. She can also drill into you when she comes up out of the ground, so watch out for that as well. She can also throw around seeds that will quickly hatch into trouble depending on where they land: venus flytraps on the ground, cannons on the ceiling, or bees on the walls. While this is going on she'll frequently start doing a really fast pirouette that can really hurt, or create these sparkles with a weird noise..which restores some of her health. Yeek. The good news is that when she starts throwing seeds and crap out, she's mostly immobile, so this is a good time to start letting her have it. STAGE CLEAR! Resistance, elves, blah. Let's go after Tech Kraken now, while it's snowing. STAGE 6: UNDER THE SEA (ST010) I'm not sure what the deal here is, but it seems like you have a time limit to get out of here. Mykas0 has an excellent map that should help you get through this area, but bear in mind: YOU CAN ONLY DO THIS ONCE. As such, try your best to get all the items and get parts from at least two of the puffer-fish (if you know how to make chips). Disable BG2 if you're an emulating bastard, so you can see. You should have no trouble getting everything and escaping within the time limit. Now, on to part 2. Proceed through the rotating door and you'll find another mid-boss. MINI-BOSS: Blue Dragon Attacks: Ice Daggers, Tail Laser, Grab Strategy: Man, these guys are everywhere. This one is about as fast as the Red Dragon, and his unique attack is to use his freezing breath to create icicles. These fly at you in a staggered pattern that I have no clue how to dodge, and thankfully he doesn't use this much. This guy seems to prefer using his laser and grab attacks. Make him sorry he ever decided to hassle you. Past the dragon, you'll want to go right as usual, killing enemies as you go, then go up when you see the lift-wire that you can grab. Just hold up and you'll shoot right past all the enemies along the way. The boss awaits. BOSS: Tech Kraken Health: Two Bars Attacks: Squid Ink, Torpedoes, Ice Javelin Strategy: This guy is a push-over, end of story. He primarily projects a cloud of ink or something that allows him to disappear. While he's 'gone', every so often a cloud of ink will appear and his tentacles will lash out for you. Very easy to dodge, you see it coming from a mile away. When he gets tired of this he'll re-appear, occasionally firing torpedoes at you or using the Ice Javelin. This is his EX attack; it creates spheres of ice that move around and create ice spears along the walls. Stay towards the middle and you should be in the clear. STAGE CLEAR! Now's a good time to start making some chips for Zero. Quick Charge lvl. 3 is especially useful. The next two stages are particularly dangerous, so you have been warned. Anyway, let's hit up Mino Magnas while it's thundering. STAGE 7: MINE (ST011) This area is very electrically active for some reason. When you find patches of ground where it looks like rocks are floating, that means you can jump really high. When you find patches of ground where it looks like rocks are shuffling around, that means you can't jump very high at all. If you have Double Jump, try using it in a 'floating' area. 'scuse me while I kiss the sky! =D Anyway, once you've had your fun, start heading right as usual. Go through the door and you'll eventually come to a blue terminal. Walking through it causes an energy field to spring up around Zero, and he gets magnetized. While in this state, those red floating things will be attracted to you (they explode, so watch out!), red floors will attract you (so you can't jump as high), and blue floors behave normally. If you go into the red terminal, the opposite holds true. Either way, head right, then up when that becomes the only way to progress. There are electrified platforms here, so try not to get caught on them when they light up. At the top is a door, so go through it. Continue for a mini-boss. MINI-BOSS: Electric Crab Attacks: Floor Raise, Mini-Crabs Strategy: I hope you're hungry, because there's a lot of crab here. The crab can use electricity to raise parts of the floor; this doesn't do much except restrict the path of the mini-crabs, although you can take some damage if you touch the beam he uses to raise the floor. His other attack involves spewing a small legion of red and blue mini-crabs. Continuing the magnet theme for this stage, if a red and a blue mini-crab meat (err, meet), they explode. Use normal saber swipes to clear them, saving your charged slashes for the big guy. He should go down in nothing flat. Now, would he go better with marinara or tartar? Past the mini-boss (no more crab puns, I promise), you'll be back outside. The fresh air is lovely, isn't it? Just watch out for those fugly cannons that shoot arcing lasers, they're everywhere. Of course, you also have the option of using the power lines (you can grab them), but be careful. Not only do you have to watch for the surges of electricity, but there are also at least two kinds of enemies up there waiting for you. Whichever route you take, you end up in the same place: right outside the boss door. BOSS: Mino Magnas Health: Two Bars Attacks: North Pole, South Pole, Getter Robo GATTAI!, Junk Press, Junk Slash, Junk Weight Strategy: This guy is bizarre. Not only that, he's tough too. He kinda reminds me of Byte, only more uber. He can create blue spheres of energy that draw you towards him, so dash away to avoid this fate. He can also create red spheres of energy (south pole!) when he hits you, which can make you jump slower as well as making it easier for him to stick junk on you (this makes you move /very/ slow). His worst attack by far, though, is where he starts splitting his body up; his legs dance along the floor and then climb the walls, while his arms slam together towards the center of the screen. Jump over his legs, then move towards the wall to avoid his arms. He'll also create blocks of junk over your head, which follow you for a while as they (very slowly) form. They stop doing this when they drop, though, so dash away then. The block will remain on the ground until Mino leaps up, falls down, and cleaves it in twain...this sends two pieces skimming along the ground, so jump or wall-climb. While he's weak to Ice, it's very hard to hit him with either of the two Ice EX skills, so forget that and focus on hammering him with the Z-Saber's charged slash. He's easily the toughest boss you'll face amongst the eight Einharjar. STAGE CLEAR! I'll warn you straight out, you're probably going to die in the next level. Many, many times. If you happen to get caught in the lava/plasma gunk for too long you take some pretty hefty damage, the mid-boss is absolutely sick, and the boss is no slouch either. If you don't have at least three sub-tanks, elves at level 3, and/or some decent chips, you won't be able to handle it. Start buffing yourself up. Trust me. Anyway, our last target is Sol Titanyan, but make sure it's sunny. STAGE 8: LAVA FACTORY (ST012) Man, this stage is hot. Seriously. At the top of the screen is a percentage; this goes up when you're in the lava or plasma or whatever it is. When it reaches 100%, you take damage. This stage is rather vertically aligned, so make your way up; you'll see small patches in the lava/plasma that you can stand on, so use those as platforms to get up there. Those damn snap-trap enemies will be a real pain, but you can use the Z-Knuckle to kill them. If you don't want the weapon they give you, just de-equip and then re-equip the Z-Knuckle and it'll be back to normal. At some point you'll reach a door that you can enter (press up), inside is an enemy and a strange red crystal. You can break the crystal, but I don't know what it does. Continue on and eventually you'll reach a mid- boss. MID-BOSS: Crystal Core Attacks: Swarm Strategy: Man, I hate this guy. I'm ashamed to admit I tackled Sol's stage early, so I had to use a cheat code here. This thing is /insane/. It's surrounded by mechaniroids that fire large energy spheres, or sometimes smaller bullets, really fast. Once you've destroyed all of them, if you manage to live that long, it'll fire in a clockwise circular pattern /without stopping/, and it takes at least five or six charged Z-Saber shots to die. Christ. If you can beat this guy without cheating, I salute you. Once that guy finally dies, you have to keep moving upwards. If you're using an emulator (you pirating bastard!), it might help to disable BG2 so you can see where you're going. That means you won't be able to tell if you're in the lava except for when the percentage indicator starts moving, though. After that torturous midboss, this isn't so bad. Eventually, you find.... BOSS: Sol Titanyan Health: Two Bars Attacks: Flame Tongue, Flame Fan, Firework Mines, Micro Sun Strategy: So cuuute! Her voice is adorable. But her battle skills are hardcore. There are two safe spots in the room, underneath the two ridges on the roof. Otherwise, you'll risk taking damage as usual for this stage. Sol's main attack is to move across the screen projecting a line of fire diagonally; the end of the flame moves in and out, kind of like a butterfly's proboscis. Dash when the line is shortest, and you should clear it. Ignore her giggling. If you dodge once, she might very well come back from the other side to try again. Then she usually moves into the Flame Fan move, where she creates two projectors that make big feathery-looking fans of fire. They can be destroyed, but it takes more than one charged Z-Saber, so it's not very efficient. She'll also do a move where she starts bobbing up and down across the screen. While this is a good time to start pounding her, be wary of the mines she leaves on the ground in her wake; they explode after a short time, raining sparks around them. You can destroy these as well, so I recommend trashing the nearest one and waiting it out. Her ultimate attack is where she creates a small sun (actually about as big as she is, but pretty small as suns go) and tosses it diagonally down. It explodes into six fragments, and if you're unlucky enough to get hit by the sun and some fragments it's pretty much all over. Childishly simple to dodge, though; if you're standing somewhat under her and jump, you'll leap over the only one that comes anywhere near you. STAGE CLEAR! Well, so much for the mighty Einharjar. Zero returns to base, and dialogue ensues. The blonde Operator (who was missing the whole time) radios in with some kind of distress call, then Weil butts his ugly mug in. He has a super laser gun in orbit, and is probably bragging about how it'll pwn everything. Unfortunately, Weil made a slight miscalculation...see, when you build someone to bring about the end of the world, /you/ are also a valid target. Apparently Kraft is going to blow up Weil too. Zero heads off to put a stop to this. FINAL STAGE 1: Ragnarok (ST013) I assume this is the Ragnarok space station that the Einharjar were involved with (and that was seen in the previous cinema). Anyway, move along, nothing to see here except some enemies. After climbing up some moving platforms you'll come to a spike wall. If you can jump onto the ledge above the spikes you can nab a 1-Up. Jump down, grab the health, and head through the door. On the other side are some moving platforms on tracks; the one you can reach heads right into some spikes, so as soon as you see the platform coming down, jump onto it, then jump up onto the ledge to the left. There should be an enemy there and a health-up. From here jump up onto the next moving platform, then jump up again to the third platform that's heading straight up. Disembark, head up, then right over some more platforms. Be ready to move, because eventually you'll come across a platform that passes /right/ under some spikes; you have no way of avoiding these, except by dropping down (down+jump) and then quickly pressing up again to grab onto the side. Get ready, because there's a boss door when you finally hit terra firma again. As you approach the end of the corridor leading to the boss, there's a brief scene; Kraft has fired the Ragnarok and, presumably, obliterated Dr. Weil. That was awfully considerate of him, but we have to kick his ass anyway. BOSS: Kraft Redux Health: Three Bars Attacks: Giant Missile, Missile Spread, Cannon Stab, Beam Cannon, Mine, Spread Beam Strategy: Same ol' Kraft. He literally hasn't changed a thing, except for the addition of one new attack. He'll leap upwards like he's going to do his Mine attack, except instead he'll fire a beam diagonally downwards...then he'll swoop across the screen and raze everything...except the area directly underneath where he started, so wait there for him to finish. If you got this far it shouldn't be too hard to beat him down. A scene follows. After some dialogue, Kraft dies, and Zero returns to base. The Resistance have sent soldiers to rescue people from wherever Kraft blew up with the Ragnarok...remember Colbor from the very first game? He's the officer on scene. Whee. :D All seems well, until suddenly the Ragnarok opens fire again! It hits extremely close to the Resistance caravan, as Zero and Ciel are both thrown to the ground. When the Operator presents you with options, select the bottom one and you can wander. Start buffing up; get your elves to as high a level as you can, make chips, gather all the sub-tanks, etc. etc. Final Stage 2: MISSION CONTROL (ST014) You start in a room with exits to the left, right, and bottom. It doesn't really matter which way you go, since you have to cover all the paths anyway. I went left first. The left path has you going over some lava pits (time carefully, because there are junk blocks being dropped into the lava that can knock you down), and eventually you reach a room where spike-firing enemies spawn endlessly. Don't worry, you can beat these guys up as much as you want... when you get bored, use the Z-Knuckle on the handlebar in the bottom left corner, and they stop. Now go all the way back, and through the right door this time. Head all the way right, through the watery area, to another room with endlessly spawning enemies and a handlebar. Z-Knuckle it, and backtrack to the central room. Go down this time. As you head down, you'll eventually come to some orange and grey boxes that you can't seem to scratch. Notice the floating bomb enemies that come your way. Hit them with the Z-Saber and they go flying; if you jump and slash them, they fly downward, and will explode on the boxes. This is how you get down, so clear a path, and go down until you reach a 'door' in the floor; here's the third handlebar room. Take care of it, then backtrack to the central room. You can now go up, so do so. Past the wires and the Vile mechanoids, you'll come across the fourth and final handlebar room. Go back to the central room, and an alert starts up, with actual English voices. The computer starts laughing at you. wtf? Kick his ass! BOSS: Laughing Computer Health: Three Bars Attacks: Pinball, Red Reaverbot Eye, Blue Reaverbot Eye, Lasers Strategy: For as late in the game as this is, this guy is a real wimp. He bounces around at a rather average speed, then goes to the center. When he does, he'll either start firing lasers in a semi-circle (or, more rarely, a full circle), or he'll disappear. If he disappears, then after a short time a red eye that resembles a Reaverbot eye from Megaman Legends appears. It charges up for something, but if you have Quick Charge lvl. 3 and charge as soon as the boss disappears, you can easily swat it down, start charging, and be ready to go when the eye reappears. The red eye will appear a few more times, then the boss returns. Sometimes he'll do an attack where the wall will reveal a series of blue Reaverbot eyes, each of which fires a projectile at you. They don't all do it right away, though, so if you keep moving they'll mostly spray the room ineffectually. You might take one or two hits, but they're almost not worth the effort to notice them. I went through this guy not having any idea what to expect, and still had more than half a life bar left (this after taking some dings from enemies on the way). STAGE CLEAR! You've been getting items and crap along the way, right? Hopefully you have at least two Sub-Tanks, filled, with at least level 4 elves and some chips. Just to be safe, y'know. Anyway, back to work. FINAL STAGE 3: SPACE STATION (ST015) This is another stage that I have no clue what it's intended to be. Oh well. Move along, and after going down a ways and heading right you'll see something new. These strange rotating spheres that project bolts of lightning in three directions. They pause, rotate a bit, and then project in a slightly different pattern. If you stand slightly to the side when one is pointing down, then as soon as they start rotating you can dash past to safety. This becomes harder to do shortly, when there are more of these guys and those fskin' arcing cannons in the same area. If you take any damage here, you might want to pause and use Auto Recovery chips if you have any. After you get through that, you can go up a little bit. There's another of those rotating projectors underneath a wire that you can hang from. If you go up and grab the wire, you can nab a Full Health, but it's not necessary really. Continue on, dealing with Mets and projectors as you head right. As you move on you'll see a path leading downward with spikes on the walls; if you have one of the spike-beating chips (Strong/Stronger/Strongest), you're more than welcome to go see what's down there. I didn't particularly care, or want to risk it, so I went right. Eventually you go up, right, then down again, and see the opposite end of whatever path you go on if you were to have gone down the one I skipped. Keep going right, and you'll pass a door, then a corridor with another door at the end. Here you'll fight some very easy green blob enemies, and find some moving platforms. The first 'ring' of platforms is pretty safe, but be careful of the next one because it'll scrape against some spikes on the roof and you'll die unless you're able to drop down and grab the side of the platform....or you can leap across to the second platform on that 'ring', and continue on. You'll get to a blue block that's relatively safe, but look out because the rest of the blocks you have to cross are electrified. The side that's being juiced rotates, so move across while the tops aren't shocking (bad pun, I know). Luckily this part is short, and make sure your HP is in good shape because there's a boss door coming up. BOSS: Computer Core Health: Three bars Attacks: Ram, Triple Jelly Strategy: Y'know, after some of the mind-warps that Capcom's thrown in this series, this is almost getting sad. This guy's only real means of attack is to float around the two platforms at a reasonable clip, and spit three goopy things at you; you can't destroy these, but you can keep them at bay with rapid swipes of the Z-Saber until they fade away. Use the Z-Buster to pelt the thing with charged shots and it'll die in nothing flat. STAGE CLEAR! Want to know a little secret? If you're looking for easy health, go back to Final Stage 2. Remember the rooms where those mechaniroids spawned endlessly? Beat them up for an endless supply of health-ups and parts. The health is nice because you can use it to fill Sub Tanks, unlike the Auto Recovery chips. Anyway, once you're done screwing around, it's time for Final Stage 4. Whatever you're planning on doing do it now, because there's no turning back once you've started this level. FINAL STAGE 4: RAGNAROK CORE (ST016) Are your Sub Tanks in good order? Your chips excellent? Very well then. Let's roll. Go right, as usual, until you come across a zip-line leading up. Take it, eventually you'll see another like it...so take that one up, swap again once you have the chance, and now you can go left on a hanging wire. Be careful of the enemies in your way. When you get all the way to the left, go up, then head right once more. Follow the path down, right, up, right, and through the door. Oh look, teleporters. Joy, we get to fight the Einharjar again /just like every Megaman game/. All eight of them are in this room, and if it matters for some reason, here's the layout: Pegasolt Ekrehl Sol Titanyan Fenrir Lunaedge Noble Mandrago ---------------------------------- Pupla Cockapetri Tech Kraken Heat Gemblem Mino Magnas If your Sub Tanks aren't full for some reason, use Auto Recovery after every battle to recover your HP; /then/ take the free health ups, so they go to your Sub Tanks. Hopefully you won't need to dip here. After that's done, go through the door on the right. You'll end up in a long vertical corridor. Use the hanging bars on wires to go up, but be careful because if you drop anywhere near the left side you'll most likely hit the spikes at the bottom. So don't do that. Eventually you'll find yourself in another vertical corridor, this time with zip lines. Move carefully to avoid the flamethrowers waiting for you. Go left, go up, make sure you're ready to go because a boss door awaits. The last boss door in the game, as a matter of fact. Yep, that's right, it's time to fight...DR. WEIL! Holy crap, he survived getting nuked by Kraft. And now you can see he's a cyborg, which makes you wonder what the point of the life-support tank thing was...maybe it's full of orange kool-aid? Anyway, he merges with the sword-looking thing in the background and gets the tank back. Yeah, he likes the kool-aid. Well let's kick his ass anyway. BOSS: Dr. Weil Health: Three Bars Attacks: Iron Sphere, Boulder Crash, Shin Boulder Crash, Bushin Sapou God Shadow, Death Spear, Dark Elf Strategy: Man, this guy is hardcore. He often starts the fight off with Iron Sphere, where he creates an arcing line of metal...things...that he starts firing off at you. Jump as appropriate. He'll also create a line of rocks along the ceiling that will start dropping towards you in a very slow predictable fashion; watch out, because the 'Shin Boulder Crash' (his followup) homes a great deal better. Some of the rocks are differently colored, which should mean you can break them to help with dodging. After you've pounded him for a bit, Weil starts going into overdrive. He does a move where he seems to split into four (which reminds me of the Bushin Sapou God Shadow from G-Gundam, hence the name I gave it), but oddly enough this doesn't seem to do anything, and fades after a moment. Maybe he counter-attacks if you hit one of the images? I dunno. Anyway, he'll also drop spears from the roof, but the good news is that by moving closer to (or under) Weil you'll avoid the worst of it. The spears stick around, so try to deal with them as you go about your business. If you use the Z-Knuckle on them you can get a weapon that is only available here. Cool huh? He also has a move where he seems to transform himself into something like the Dark Elf, or some kind of energy sphere, and fires little bolts of energy around that will trail along the floor. Be careful because he does this after dropping the spears, which limits your ability to dodge. Hopefully you've been keeping up on elves, chips, and sub tanks, because most of Weil's attacks really hurt, and you'll find yourself really dead otherwise. Try to conserve some health, though, because it's not over yet! BOSS: Weil Ragnarok Health: Three Bars Attacks: Burst Shot, Laser Web, Spike Thrust, Super Particle Cannon, Centipedes Strategy: Holy CRAP! That guy's huge. Even worse? You have a time limit. You have 120 seconds to beat this guy before Ragnarok enters earth's atmosphere. And on top of that, Weil has a shield; that wierd white-ish projection over the yellow dome where his head sits protects him from attacks. Well, at least, it's supposed to; if you equip the Burst Shot EX Skill then your charged shots will 'burst' on the projection and damage him anyway. This is probably how you're going to beat him before time runs out. Weil /really/ goes into overdrive now. He fires a trio of plasma spheres that hang around for a bit, move around the screen, and split into smaller blasts. Luckily for you, you can hit these with your weapons to break them up. Do so. He'll also create green energy webs; these don't do damage, but if they hit you, they float you up in front of Weil where he shouts "Ikuze, Zero!" and fires a big-ass cannon at you. This /really/ hurts. So dodge the webs as best you can. He'll also fire off his 'shield', which is rather easy to dodge...just jump over it, but remember it'll come back the same way, so jump again. When he starts to get low on life, Weil will start using his super OMGWTF cannon from the 'Laser Webs' attack. He'll usually start about at the middle of the screen and go down, or at the very bottom and go up. This is very similar to the move that Omega's second form used at the end of Zero 3; to avoid the first version of the attack, move to the right end of the platform you're standing on and cling to the side. To avoid the second, jump or double-jump. He'll also create green spheres of energy that summon some of those centipede mechaniroids, but these ones explode and rain debris all over...so deal with them first. If you've still got Sub Tank energy left, use it often, because Weil's a freaking beast. This will test every skill you've honed thus far, so don't blow it. STAGE CLEAR! Now you can sit back and watch the ending. *sneef!* ******************************************************************************* III. EX Skills Stone Shot (Cockapetri, when sunny) - the charged Z-Buster fires a sphere of energy, which turns into a field of some kind when it hits something. Anything that isn't slain outright by the blast gets immobilized (with a wierd eye floating over them) by the field. Thunder Spear (Pegasolt Ekrehl, when cloudy) - While dashing, press whatever button the Z-Saber is assigned to and Zero will perform a dashing spear attack. It's Thunder-element, so use it appropriately. If you hit a wall, it'll send two balls of electricity flowing along the walls, ceiling, and floor. Magnet Sphere (Mino Magnas, when thundering) - Charging the Z-Buster creates a sphere of energy that can absorb enemy shots, and counter-attack with increasing force. Kinda 'meh', really. Ice Javelin (Tech Kraken, when snowing) - The Z-Buster's charged shot becomes a somewhat slow spear of ice. Useful for the elemental damage (Ice, natch) but not much else. Ice Blade (Fenrir Lunaedge, when snowing) - Press down and the Z-Saber button, and Zero will swing his sword once; this creates a tiny blade of ice that travels along the ground. It's Ice elemental, can hit multiple enemies in a group, and can freeze. Pretty nice. Burst Shot (Sol Titanyan, when sunny) - You've seen this before. The Z-Buster's charged shot becomes a sphere of energy that explodes into fragments when it hits a target. It's Fire elemental. Ryuenjin (Heat Gemblem, when sunny) - Ah, the old standby from X4, that came back in Zero 2. Pressing up+Z-Saber button causes Zero to make a fiery sword uppercut. Shoryuken! Drill Stab (Noble Mandrago, when sunny) - Pressing down+Z-Saber while in the air causes Zero to do a downward stab, which sends two rocks flying off in opposite directions when it hits the ground. ******************************************************************************* IV. Items a. Cyber Elves (IT001) Unlike previous games in the series, you don't have to run around collecting Elves. Even better, you're actually able to use them without totally screwing up your Rank. Basically, it works like this: when you talk to Alouette in the Resistance base, you have two options. Select the top one. You're now taken to the Cyber Elf screen, where you can see three bars, plus associated icons. The top one, with the heart icon, is for Nurse-types; the middle one with the sphere is Animal; and the bottom one with the funky T is Hacker. You should know this if you've played the series before. When you spend E-Crystals, the level of all of your elves increases accordingly; you can have a set number of total levels equal to the higher of the two numbers in the upper-right corner of the screen. The menu you can select from has three options; the top-most lets you feed E-Crystals, but only if you have enough to cause a level up. The game will tell you how many you need when the little error message pops up. The middle option lets you set levels; you can have more levels than your current capacity, but that will cause you to take a hit on your score. So try not to do that. The third option doesn't seem to do anything. When you have an elf equipped (i.e., at least one level of that elf is active), you see an elf floating near you in-game, and have certain effects. Unless otherwise noted, the effects do not stack (e.g., if you have level 3 Nurse and level 1 Animal, you have +8 HP and +25% speed.../not/ +12 HP, +25% speed, and random health-ups). Anyway, effects of the elves are as follows: NURSE Level 1 - Elf randomly drops health-ups Level 2 - Health meter increases by 4 Level 3 - Health meter increases by 8 Level 4 - ??? Level 5 - ??? Level 6 - ??? Level 7 - ??? ANIMAL Level 1 - +25% running speed Level 2 - Slides down walls slower Level 3 - Elf randomly fires at the enemy. Level 4 - ??? Level 5 - ??? Level 6 - ??? Level 7 - ??? HACKER Level 1 - ??? Level 2 - Third slash with the Z-Saber becomes an uppercut, if the up button is held while doing it. Level 3 - ??? Level 4 - ??? Level 5 - ??? Level 6 - ??? Level 7 - ??? b. Data Chips (IT002) The chips introduced in Zero 3 are back. This time you get them by combining parts (the little wrench icons) dropped by enemies. You talk to Cervaeu at the Resistance base to do this, and combining specific parts. If you have no idea how to read Japanese, don't even try this, you'll only end up confusing yourself. c. Sub Tanks(IT003) There are four (!) Sub Tanks to get in this game. Like usual, they allow you to stock up extra health for an emergency. The four Sub Tanks are located as follows: Sub Tank 1: Fenrir Lunaedge's stage. See walkthrough. Sub Tank 2: Noble Mandrago's stage. See walkthrough. Sub Tank 3: ??? Sub Tank 4: ??? d. Misc. Items (IT004) TO BE CONTINUED ******************************************************************************* V. Version History v.0.75 - (4/24/05) Walkthrough up to Final Stage 1, all EX Skills, some items. v.1.0 - (4/25/05) Walkthrough complete, addition/tweaking of some boss strategies. ******************************************************************************* VI. Contributions and Thanks These are a list of people who've helped with this FAQ, in some form or another. If you contribute something to the FAQ, you might find /your/ name up in lights too. =) -My parents -Capcom -Zero, for not dying when all those people say he should have! -Nintendo, for making the DS. I can see what I'm doing! Yay! -DarkZV2Beta, for a neat little trick for the first boss.