--- Mega Man 2 FAQ ---
--- by UltimaterializerX <Ultimaterializer@gmail.com> ---
--- Version 1.3, 2/8/2005 ---

+++++++++++++++++++
+ Version History +
+++++++++++++++++++

Version 1.3 - I have recently switched to gmail, and as a result am updating
              my contact information on my guides. CJayC also went and 
              renumbered the game boards on GameFAQs, so I'm updating the 
              links at the bottom as well.

Version 1.2 - Thanks to gotspork, I added a few things, most notably an 
              alternative strategy for defeating the Wall Bots.

Version 1.1 - Fixed a couple of minor errors.

Version 1.0 - This is the first version of the guide, so there will obviously
              be typos and errors and such. I will limit them with a spell
              checker of course, but not everything can be perfect. If you see
              anything that is glaringly wrong and feel the need to contact me
              about it, be my guest. I'm always open to people pointing out my
              mistakes in anything I write.

+++++++++++++++++++++
+ Table of Contents +
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   I. Introduction
  II. Weapon List
 III. Enemy List
  IV. Item List
   V. Walkthrough
      i. Air Man
     ii. Metal Man
    iii. Flash Man
     iv. Bubble Man
      v. Heat Man
     vi. Wood Man
    vii. Crash Man
   viii. Quick Man
     ix. Dr. Wily Stage 1
      x. Dr. Wily Stage 2
     xi. Dr. Wily Stage 3
    xii. Dr. Wily Stage 4
   xiii. Dr. Wily Stage 5
    xiv. Dr. Wily Stage 6
  VI. Boss Flow Chart
 VII. Credits/Special Thanks
VIII. Disclaimer/Contact Information

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+ I. Introduction +
+++++++++++++++++++

Hey there, and welcome to my Mega Man 2 guide. If you've already seen my guide
for the original Mega Man, then you can probably guess what comes next. Like
that guide, the guide for Mega Man 2 is being written for the Playstation 2
Mega Man Anniversary Collection version of the game. This wouldn't make much of
a difference under most circumstances, but such is not the case for Mega Man
2. 

For starters, the NES version of the game had Normal and Hard difficulty 
settings. The Normal setting in that game was nothing short of a joke. 
Virtually all of the robot masters took four bars of damage, and the enemies
throughout the levels were little more than ants scurrying to get out of your
way. For example, there are Hermit Crabs in Bubble Man's stage that died in one
hit in the NES version. In the MMAC version, where the only difficulty present
is the NES Hard difficulty, one shot to those same Hermit Crabs will only cause
their shells to fly off, and you're left with an enemy that you can't hit with
the Plasma Beam under most circumstances. 

In essence, you have to dish out twice the damage to be successful in the MMAC
version of the game simply because you're in the NES Hard difficulty right off
the bat. It isn't all that big of a deal to most players considering that the
NES Hard version of Mega Man 2 is about as difficult as any other Mega Man
title, but for the purposes of writing an FAQ, it makes a huge difference.

Another huge thing to make mention of is that the MMAC version of the game has
an autosave feature. This means that even though the passwords show up at the
end of all the levels, it's useless to list them. All you need to do to get
back to where you were in the MMAC version of the game is to turn the game on.

Aside from being in NES Hard to start and having an autosave feature, the MMAC
version of Mega Man 2 is exactly the same as the NES version. But of all the
games that appear in Mega Man Anniversary Collection, Mega Man 2's transition
is the easiest to notice.

A lot of improvements were also made after the glitched debacle that was the
original Mega Man. This isn't to say that the original Mega Man wasn't a good
game, but anyone who has ever tried Ice Man's stage without the Magnet Beam
knows just how glitched that game truly was. In Mega Man 2, all of that was
fixed. No more falling through solid ground, and no more inconsistencies
in gravity. When you fall, you fall at one speed. No dropping like a rock
at random times. Lastly, remember how Mega Man acted as if he were on
roller skates throughout Mega Man 1? Capcom fixed his traction in this
game. No more sliding all over the place.

And finally, I trust that you don't need to be told what every button on
the controller does, how to run, how to climb a ladder, or how to switch
weapons. You're a smart guy/girl, right? =)

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+ II. Weapon List +
+++++++++++++++++++

The best part of Mega Man 2 is that there are a ton of interpretations about
the best way to go through the game. The boss loops are easy enough to come up
with, but thanks to the challenges that lie within the level design of some of
the levels in the game, a lot of people change things around to make it easier
on themselves. For example, Crash Bombs are very effective against Wood Man,
but because of all the moving platforms and ladders in Crash Man's level, it
may be better to get the Leaf Shield from Wood Man before going into Crash
Man's stage. The following weapon list is written in the order with which this
guide recommends getting them in. With that said, please remember that this is
only a _recommendation_. On a side note, Mega Man 2 may very well have the 
single best lineup of weapons of any game in the entire series. 

Plasma Beam --- Your default weapon. Some people call it the Arm Cannon, some 
people call it Plasma Beam; personally, it doesn't matter what you call the 
thing. As long as you're using it to kill enemies, call it Tom Brady for all
I care. One thing of note is that in the first three Mega Man titles, the Mega
Buster had yet to exist. This means that you can't charge the weapon yet, but 
if you're playing MMAC, you have a rapid fire button to offset this.

Air Shooter --- After clearing Air Man's stage and kicking the crap out of the
main man himself, you get the Air Shooter. I've always liked doing Air Man's
stage first, simply because the entire stage, from the start to the finish,
isn't overly difficult. There are a few bottomless pits and such, but overall,
it's a very simple level. Your reward is a weapon that fires three miniature
tornadoes. When fired, the tornadoes go slightly outward, then fly up to the
sky. The weapon not only covers a large area, but causes a lot of damage and is
very useful for defeating enemies that are above you.

Item 2 --- After defeating Air Man, you also get Item 2. Item 2 is what the
Rush Jet was called before Rush even existed. When fired, a small jet appears
in front of Mega Man. After you jump on it, Item 2 flies straight ahead until
you either run out of energy for the item or run into a wall. The entire 
reason I like to get Item 2 so early is because of Heat Man's stage. There is
a large area within the stage in which you must jump across an absolute ton of
disappearing blocks over lava and bottomless pits. For the whimps among us, 
simply deploy Item 2 and fly across the damned thing. It's cheap, but it's far
less stressful than trying to jump across all of those blocks, dying, then 
doing it all over again.

Metal Blade --- You get the Metal Blade from Metal Man (duh), but with that 
said, the Metal Blade may very well be the best weapon in the entire series. 
It even rivals Mega Man 1's Thunder Beam. It may seem like the Metal Blade is
little more than a buzz saw that fires straight ahead, but oh no. The Metal
Blade can fire in eight, count 'em, EIGHT directions. This allows you to hit
virtually any enemy on the screen from any position, but it gets even better.
The Metal Blade is so damned cheap to use that given a full energy bar for the
weapon, you can fire off ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE Metal Blades before running out
of energy. That wasn't a typo. Most Mega Man games have that one weapon that
serves as a nuclear weapon, and in this game, the Metal Blade serves that
purpose. You can't get through the game with the Metal Blade alone, but
there are few situations in which the Metal Blade can't be used as a crutch.
For this reason, I always go through Metal Man's stage second. I would go
through it first, but I've always felt that Item 2 was more important than 
the Metal Blade.

Time Stopper --- Like the name suggests, the Time Stopper stops time, but 
there is a huge catch. Once the Time Stopper is activated, you cannot turn
it off. This means that when you use it, you use it until its energy is
gone. I know you want to use it to stop the Quick Beams in Quick Man's
stage, but don't. You need it to take down Quick Man.

Item 3 --- As an added bonus, you also receive Item 3 after taking down
Flash Man. Item 3 is odd, to say the least. When fired, it bounces around
until it hits a wall. Once it does, it begins climbing the wall. Item 3 is
good for scaling walls, but it becomes somewhat useless after you take down 
Heat Man and earn Item 1.

Bubble Lead --- After ripping through Bubble Man's stage with the Godly Metal
Blade, you earn the Bubble Lead. The weapon looks like it sucks, but it 
doesn't. When the Bubble Lead is fired, it jumps on the ground and rolls
toward the first enemy it hits. For those who don't feel like using the Metal
Blade to rip through everything, the Bubble Lead is a nice weapon that can
serve to kill enemies in odd places. There are also two bosses in the game who
absolutely detest Bubble Leads.

Atomic Fire --- When you fight Heat Man, all you see is a ton of fire all over
the place. After you kill him, you get one of the game's most powerful weapons,
Atomic Fire. Atomic Fire is unique in that it is the first weapon in the Mega
Man series able to be charged. Atomic Fire has three levels of power, depending
on how long the weapon is charged. The first level is a standard blast that
causes minimal damage, the second level is a blast roughly the size of a Metal
Blade that causes a good deal of damage, while the third level lets forth a
spherical matter of pure nuclear hell upon anyone dumb enough to get in your
way. The problem is that Atomic Fire eats up energy like no tomorrow, so I
suggest only using it in emergencies.

Item 1 --- Like the Magnet Beam in Mega Man 1, you cannot beat the game without
Item 1. I'm not quite sure about whether or not the other two Items are 
required, but I know for a fact that there are parts of the game that you 
cannot clear without Item 1. When Item 1 is fired, a top-like platform appears
in front of Mega Man and rises until it disappears. It doesn't cover all that
much of an area, but this is balanced out by the fact that you can have three
such platforms on the screen at any given time. Very useful for reaching some
of the weird places in the game, and once you get this, Item 3 serves virtually
no purpose whatsoever.

Leaf Shield --- I've seen people complain about the Leaf Shield being a 
horrible idea for a weapon, but anyone who has ever used the Leaf Shield
effectively knows how good it is. You receive the Leaf Shield after taking down
Wood Man, and when you use it yourself, you are encased within a shield of
leaves. The catch is that when you move, the Leaf Shield fires off in the
direction that you move in. But despite this, no one ever said that you have
to move while using the Leaf Shield. See all those moving platforms in Crash
Man's Stage? Slap on the Leaf Shield, stand still, watch all the enemies die,
then jump on the ladder. See all of those Bird Bombers trying to knock you off
of the ladders in Crash Man's stage? Put up a Leaf Shield, watch as a bunch of
birds kill themselves, then commence climbing unharmed. My path through the
levels may be somewhat odd, but having the Leaf Shield before going into Crash
Man's level is never a bad idea.

Crash Bomb --- When you take down the (supposedly) difficult Crash Man, his
Crash Bombs are all yours. During the fight, you'll notice Crash Man firing 
bombs into the ground. Crash Bombs resemble the Hyper Bombs from Mega Man 1,
except they don't suck. Crash Bombs stick onto a wall, then explode after a 
couple of seconds. Because of their accuracy, they serve as much better weapons
than the horrific Hyper Bomb in Mega Man 1. Furthermore, you'll occasionally
notice walls in the game guarding items and such. you can blow those up with
Crash Bombs. Because of the path that this guide recommends, you may miss out
on a few items guarded by walls earlier in the game, but the bright side is
that the levels aren't nearly as difficult to get through. 

Quick Boomerang --- It sucks that you're getting such an amazing weapon so
late, but it isn't like you don't have an arsenal of other weapons to work with
as well. After killing Quick Man, his Boomerang is all yours. The Quick
Boomerang is exactly like the Rolling Cutter from Mega Man 1, only it's much,
much faster. As an added bonus, the weapon is cheap as hell to use. With a
full energy bar on the weapon, you can fire 224 Boomerangs before running out
of energy. The best part is that you can hold down the fire button and fire
them all in a row if you feel like it.

+++++++++++++++++++
+ III. Enemy List +
+++++++++++++++++++

The enemies in Mega Man 2 are bigger and badder than they were in the original
Mega Man title, and there are more types of them to boot. You'll recognize some
of the enemies, but others are completely new.

Acid --- Acid appears in one place: Dr. Wily Stage 6. It does nothing more
then drip at you from the ceiling, and the only thing you can do about it
is to avoid it completely.

Baby Frog --- Instead of attacking you, Frogs spit out three of these
Baby Frogs at you. If all three die, then the Frog spits out three more.
The Baby Frog's attack is nothing more than jumping back and forth over
your head, but three of them at once can be quite the annoyance. They
die in one shot, but they're small enough for the Plasma Beam to be 
rendered useless if they're on the ground. The trick to taking down the
entire Frog family is to let one Baby Frog live, then use your free
space to kill the Frog itself.

Bat --- If you see a black circle hanging above you in your travels, know
that that is no ordinary black circle. That's a Bat, and when you get close
enough it will start to fly towards you, albeit very slowly. If it hits you,
it simply flies off the screen. Not that it should ever get close given
its speed, of course.

Bird --- Birds appear after a Bird Bomber's egg has landed on the ground.
When this happens, eight birds will "hatch" from the egg and begin flying
at you. The easiest way to avoid this is to kill the Bird Bomber's egg 
before any of this is able to happen, but in the worst case scenario,
you have some options depending on the weapons that you have. The safest
thing to do, especially when in a bad place like a ladder or a moving
platform, is to slap up the Leaf Shield and watch all of the Birds kill
themselves. But until you get the Leaf Shield, your only option is to 
either kill or avoid the Birds as best you can with whatever you have.

Bird Bomber --- If you let Bird Bombers hang around for long enough, they
will make your life a living hell in this game. Their pattern in simple. Bird
Bombers simply fly across the screen, drop a giant egg, then fly off. Seems
simple enough, but the eight Birds that lie within that egg is nothing to 
sneeze at once the egg hits the ground and explodes. The Birds themselves 
don't cause a lot of damage, but they have a habit of showing up at the
worst time possible. The easiest way to avoid this is to kill the Bird
Bomber's egg before the egg is able to let forth the Miniature Birds
of Hell upon thy blue rump. Once you get the Metal Blade, however, the 
strategy can change a little bit, especially if you're in need of
weapons or health. Fire a Metal Blade at the egg JUST as it hits the ground,
and watch eight Birds all die at once. You're sure to get a lot of powerups
this way.

Crab --- Crabs are really stupid enemies. When they show up, they slowly
come down from the top of the screen alternatively from your left and 
right sides. If they happen to touch solid ground, they bounce a couple
of times before walking at you. They pose no threat whatsoever due to 
them dying after a singular Plasma Beam shot, and they only exist to
annoy you when you have multiple gaps to jump across. To get around this,
only jump when a Crab is coming down on your left side.

Drill --- Drills always show up by the ton. They're little more than tiny
drills that burrow through the ceiling and floors in an effort to deal 
damage to you, but once you know how to deal with them, they're nothing.
Drills _NEVER_ appear on your left. They always stay in front of you on
the right, and this essentially means that if you stand still, you'll
never get hit by them. You can't beat a level standing still, but you
can kill a couple of Drills, move forward a little bit, then repeat the
process all over again. Not only does this ensure that you'll take no
damage, but all of the items dropped by the Drills can restore you or
your weapons to full energy in no time.

Fan Fiend --- I was literally two seconds away from naming this guy the
Fanny, but better taste prevailed. Fan Bots are blue enemies roughly twice
the size of Mega Man, and have fans in their stomachs. They have no direct
attack, but they have no issues against using their giant fans in an 
attempt to blow you off of platforms and into bottomless pits. Thankfully,
the speed with which Fan Bots are able to blow you away is quite slow, and
you have ample time to both run against the air current and kill the Fan 
Bot before anything drastic happens.

Flame Dog --- Flame Dogs are found within Wood Man's level, and are a
rare type of enemy in that they can actually cause problems. Flame Dogs
spit flames at a downward arc that eventually winds up flying off of
the top left corner of the screen. It's a weird pattern similar to throwing
a beach ball downward underwater, but in the end, it's still a pattern.
Study the timing of the fire, avoid it, and get your shots in in the
process. After taking enough punishment, the Flame Dog will drop.

Frog --- Frogs are... well, frogs. The odd thing about Frogs is that they
don't attack you or jump at you. They would much rather sit on their fat
asses and do nothing but spit out Baby Frogs at you three at a time. 
Frogs are easy enough to kill, but their Baby Frogs don't stop coming
until the Frog itself dies. The trick to killing Frogs easily is to let
a lone Baby Frog live. The Frog won't spit out any more Baby Frogs at 
you (it never spits out new Baby Frogs unless all three of those currently
on the screen die), and you have far less resistance between you and the
Frog itself.

Gear Rider --- In Metal Man's stage, you'll come across gears in the sky.
When you get close, a clown-like enemy will jump on the gear, knock it down
to your level, then begin walking toward you on the gear as if it were the
circus. Trying to kill the entire thing only means that you'll wind up
running away to the point of the Gear Rider respawning later on from you
backing up too much. The key to getting past these things is to shoot
the Gear Rider itself, not the gear. The gear will remain, but you'll 
easily be able to jump over it afterwards.

Guillotine --- These things mostly appear in Metal Man's stage, and they're
nothing to take lightly. They cannot be killed, and serve more as an
automated enemy than anything else. When you get close to them, they drop
down to the ground in an attempt to catch you under their spikes. The 
spikes don't kill you, but they cause quite a lot of damage. The one and 
only way to get past a Guillotine is to get close, wait for it to drop 
down, then run under it as it travels back up. Don't be slow about it,
because you don't want to be anywhere near this thing when it comes down
again.

Hermit Crab --- The Normal difficulty in the NES version on Mega Man 2
made these things a joke, as it did for many other enemies in the game.
Thankfully, Mega Man Anniversay Collection puts this to rest. When you
first shoot a Hermit Crab, their shell flies off. What you're left with
is a pissed off Hermit Crab that moves with the speed of a pissed off
Spring Bot, not to mention the fact that said Hermit Crab cannot be
shot by the Plasma Beam if you're still standing on his platform
afterwards. But you have Metal Blades, so all is good.

Hopper --- They're back, and they're better than ever. Hoppers still 
retain the normal attack of jumping on your head and being damned near
impossible to avoid in the process, but they have a new attack this time
around. Every once in awhile, you'll see the Hopper stop in front of you.
He isn't sightseeing, as much as you would like to think he is. He's 
getting ready to launch a complete arsenal of bullets at you at blinding
speed. Both attacks cause a ton of damage, and unlike the original, your
one way past him is to kill him. This means that you have to cause damage
faster than he does, and thankfully, the Air Shooter can do this for you.

Hornette --- When you land on top of a Hornhead, expect Hornettes --- 
miniature versions of the Hornhead itself --- to alternatively be released
from either side of the Hornhead until you jump off of it. Unlike Hornheads,
you can actually kill Hornettes. Rather easily, in fact. All you really
need to do is stand in the middle of the Hornhead, jump and kill a Hornette,
turn around, jump and kill the Hornette behind you, and so on and so forth.
The catch to all of this is that you eventually need to jump off the 
Hornhead, and because of all of the obstacles thrown at you from the
Hornheads themselves, it's harder than it seems.

Hornhead --- Remember those moving platforms in Ice Man's stage in Mega Man
1? They were platforms, but they were also your enemy. Hornheads follow the
same pattern. No, they don't fly all over the place and have a glitch that
allows you to fall right through them. Hornheads stay still, and because 
they are nine times bigger than the platforms of Ice Man's stage, you'll
have no problems staying on them. What makes them an enemy however are the
fact that they don't like being jumped on. For starters, they have horns
that expand and contract on their left and right sides. If they hit you,
not only will you take damage, but you'll likely miss jumping on them and
die. Secondly, once you're on a Hornhead, it releases Hornettes 
alternatively from its left and right sides until you jump off. The
horns themselves don't stop coming up either, so you don't exactly have all
the space in the world when dealing with Hornheads. With all of this said,
Hornheads aren't exactly the most difficult enemy in the world to deal
with. You simply need to take care when traversing across them.

Hothead --- Remember the Fireballs from Mega Man 1? Hotheads use those
guys as projectile weapons. During Quick Man's stage, you'll come across
a hallway that stays dark until a Hothead appears on the screen. The
hothead does nothing but stand still and fire Fireballs at you after a 
few seconds, and its main purpose is to light up the hallway. They're
easily dealt with by using the Bubble Lead three times before they start
shooting at you at all.

Jellyfish --- Jellyfish always travel in groups, and when you see them
in Mega Man 2, prepare to see then indefinitely until you leave their 
area. They aren't hard to deal with, but they love to show up in 
underwater areas in which you need to make difficult jumps. To make
life easier on yourself, clear away as many Jellyfish as possible with
the Metal Blade before jumping.

Jumper --- Jumpers are another of the game's enemies that will appear 
infinitely if you let them. As you progress through the game, you'll come
across certain gaps in the ceiling. Jumpers will come down through this
gap one at a time, and after they touch down, they'll make a flying jump
to wherever you're currently standing. They're a difficult enemy to avoid,
so your best bet is to kill them before running past their entry points
into the level. It takes awhile to kill these things with the Plasma
Beam, so bust out the Metal Blade and watch as any Jumpers dumb enough
to sit in its way go down.

Kingfish --- Kingfish act exactly like Frogs, only they're a hell of lot
bigger. Like Frogs, Kingfish would much rather sit on their asses, open
their mouths, and spit out a ton of little minions to do their dirty
work for them. In this case, the minions are Shrimps; considerably more
dangerous than Frogs, but whimps if you have the right weapon equipped.
That weapon is the Metal Blade, which can take down any and all Shrimps
in its path in one shot. Considering how cheap the Metal Blade is to use,
have fun killing off Shrimps until all of your weapons and health are at
full capacity. When you're finally ready to take down the Kingfish, 
stand just far enough away so that you can hit the light above his head
with a standing Metal Blade that is fired upward at a 45 degree angle. 
From there, alternate firing Metal Blades at the light with firing Metal
Blades forward. This both causes damage to the Kingfish and eliminates
any and all Shrimps that show up in the process. He'll die eventually,
and then you're free to pass.

Lightning Lord --- Lightning Lords are horrendous when it comes to being a
threat. All they do is fly around on a cloud and wait eons before deciding
to actually throw lightning bolts at you. And once they do, the lightning 
itself is very slow and easy to avoid. However, the Lightning Lord still 
serves a good purpose. After killing it (which should be a breeze), its 
cloud serves as a platform.

Metool --- The Metools are back (they're in every Mega Man game, after
all), and they're much faster this time around. They still open up and
fire three bullets at you when you get too close, but those same bullets
are much faster and more difficult to avoid this time around. Not only
that, but the Metool fires them at the exact time it open up. If you
try to get the jump on a Metool, you'll likely find yourself taking 
damage. The best way to handle the Metools this time around are to let
them fire at you, avoid their bullets, then kill them before they close
back up again. Another good strategy to use, assuming you're hell bent
on killing the Metool when it first opens up, is to get close, fire
a shot, then jump _with_ the bullets. If done fast enough, the Metool
will die and you'll barely avoid everything.

Monkey --- Monkeys only appear in Woodman's level high in the trees. 
When you see a Monkey hanging from a branch that you're standing on,
don't get too close. It will jump up and hit you that way. Instead,
stand back and wait for the Monkey to jump up to your level. When it 
does, blast it to bits.

Ostrich --- This guy, like the Crab, is just an absolute dumbass. He's
big, he's fast, he causes a lot of damage, and when he runs at you, he'll
jump over your head. Instead of wasting time trying to kill it, just let
it run past you. To do so with 100% accuracy, run at the Ostrich until you 
are right in front of it, then turn around and quickly run backwards. The 
Ostrich will jump, and you're then free to run under it. These guys show up 
infinitely, so running after them to kill them will only breed more later. 
Besides, they appear on but one screen in the entire game: the screen 
before Wood Man's boss door. Pretty bad guards, if you ask me.

Quadbarrel --- These guys are interesting little enemies. They're made up
of four barrels that slowly wiggle towards you. You can only cause damage
to them by shooting them in the barrel containing the eyes, but when you
do, the three remaining barrels will come flying at you. After they
disappear, the Quadbarrel will then reform. One more shot to the head
will drop him.

Quick Beam --- Quick Beams aren't a traditional enemy, but anything that
can kill you in one shot deserves a mention. In Quick Man's stage, there
are two sets of screens that you must go down while avoiding Quick
Beams. If you get hit by any of them, you die. It's as simple as that.

Rabbit --- The Rabbits in the world of Mega Man aren't the cute, cuddly
kind. Ironically enough, Rabbits follow the exact jumping pattern as
Hoppers, right down to the height and distance. And just like Hoppers,
the time to attack Rabbits are when they land to shoot at you. Don't
worry, the carrots that the Rabbit fires at you are much easier to avoid
than the Hopper's attack, and all you need to do are avoid the carrots
while shooting at the Rabbit.

Shark --- Sharks are a rare enemy that only appear in Dr. Wily Stage 3.
During the underwater section when you're jumping over all of the
spikes, you'll see some bottomless pits along the way. Sharks will jump
out of those pits and nail you if you're slow enough, but so long as
you jump across the pits as if there were no enemies there, you'll be
fine. If you absolutely have to kill a Shark, then use the Quick
Boomerang. It's the only weapon that causes any damage at all, but it
kills the Shark in one hit.

Shooter --- Shooters, as you may guess, shoot bullets at you. They don't
cause a lot of damage, but the bullets themselves are difficult to avoid,
and the Shooters themselves are oftentimes difficult to reach. They're
red enemies that stick out an arm to fire at you, and even though it
looks like the Shooters fire in a set pattern, they don't. Shooters can
and will change the trajectory of their shots to adapt to where you
are, so be prepared. 

Shrimp --- Shrimps are, you guessed it, shrimps. You can boil 'em, broil
'em, sautee 'em, fry 'em, make 'em into shrimp kabobs, shrimp stew, shrimp
potatos.... oh wait, this isn't Forrest Gump? Dammit! Sadly, that's about
all the fun you'll have with Shrimps in this game. Shrimps appear from 
the mouths of Kingfish, and will continue to do so until the Kingfish
dies. Shrimps can be a pain without the right weapon in hand, but simply
equip the Metal Blades to end any and all would-be annoyances.

Sniper Joe --- Sniper Joes are another enemy brought in from the original
Mega Man title. They're yellow instead of green this time, and they still
have their shield. Their pattern is a bit easier to see this time, though.
Sniper Joes drop their shields, fire three bullets, then put up their 
shields again. So long as you keep shooting at him and know how to avoid
his bullets, he'll go down well before you do.

Spinner --- Spinners follow the same exact movement patterns as Hornettes,
and like Hornettes, they go down in one shot from virtually any weapon of
your choosing. Spinners aren't made for a challenge as much as they are
made for annoyance. They show up infinitely until you move past their
areas, and they show up in the worst of places. Lava, pits, gaps, 
difficult jumps, moving platforms... you name it, and Spinners may
very well show up there. In most cases, you need to clear out the
area of Spinners before making a jump, but on moving platforms, the
Leaf Shield is your answer. Deploy it, don't move, and watch as the
Spinners all kill themselves.

Spring Bots --- The Spike Bots are back, and they're far more annoying
this time around. They follow the same pattern as before in that they
move across a platform slowly, then faster if you land on their 
platform. Should they hit you, a little head will bounce all over the
place to laugh at you. Bastard. Because of how low they are to the 
ground, you're better off simply avoiding them. Until you get the
Quick Boomerang, that is.

Worm --- Worms are strange enemies, but they're fairly dangerous. All 
through the game, you'll see little things close to the ground that
resemble the Spike Bots from the original Mega Man. They do nothing but
sit there, but given a few seconds, they'll eventually spit out three
Worms that will jump at you until they die on their own. The funny thing
about Worms, aside from the fact that they die on their own, is the fact
that their life span is only about two seconds. For this reason, I 
suggest avoiding these enemies altogether until you have a way of killing
their source, the Wormer. Constantly killing Worms without being able to
take down the source is little more than a waste of time.

Wormer --- All through the game, you'll encounter little enemies close to
the ground that resemble the old Spike Bots from Mega Man 1. These things
are actually called Wormers (thanks for another of those award-winning
names of yours, Trace =P), and as you can guess, they spit worms at you.
The Worms come out three at a time, and after the Worms disappear, three
more will come out. Unless you have a way of killing the Wormer, I
suggest doing nothing but running past the enemy as fast as you can. If
you don't, you'll be killing worms until the end of Creation as we know
it. Of course, this guide suggests going after Metal Man second, so it
isn't like you'll have this problem for all that long.

+++++++++++++++++
+ IV. Item List +
+++++++++++++++++

Energy Pellet --- Energy Pellets do exactly what they did in the original;
they restore health. The main difference this time around is their appearance.
Unlike the original game in which the Energy Pellets looked like nothing more
than Weapon Capsules turned sideways, the Energy Pellets in Mega Man 2 have 
their own color scheme. Granted it's nothing more than a black ball with a 
white circle that flashes, but still, it's something. Energy Pellets will be
your best friend in Mega Man 2, because unlike the original game, the enemies
will come flying at you with blazing speed from all angles. You'll need to 
heal, so keep your eye out for them. As always, the small Energy Pellets
restore 4 bars to your health, while the large ones restore roughly 30% of Mega
Man's health back to him.

Energy Tank --- The Energy Tank makes its first appearance to the series in 
Mega Man 2, and you will quickly learn that it is one of the most useful items
in the game. They're little more than tiny barrels with the letter E on them,
but after you get one, they are so much more. Instead of dying after getting 
your ass kicked, press start when you're low on health. There will be little
circles next to the letter E in the Start menu --- one for each Energy Tank 
that you have collected. Highlight the E, press Start again, and watch as your
health returns to maximum. I'm pretty sure that knowing this, you can guess why
Energy Tanks kick ass. They're most useful when you're in trouble during a 
drawn-out boss fight, such as the final form of Wily.

Extra Life --- If you see Mega Man's head lying in a level somewhere, go 
get it. It's an Extra Life. That is, of course, assuming you didn't give
yourself five lives to start with in the MMAC version of the game. In this
case, you don't exactly need a ton of extra lives. Pansy.

Weapon Capsule --- The Weapon Capsules are back, and even though they look
slightly different than they did in the original, they still change colors to
reflect the weapon you have equipped and still serve the same purpose. They're
exactly like Energy Pellets, except that they restore energy to your weapons.
Be warned however that unless you have the weapon equipped, you won't restore
any energy to it. The small Weapon Capsules restore 4 bars to the total, while
the large Weapon Capsules restore roughly 30% of the weapon's total energy back
to it.

++++++++++++++++++
+ V. Walkthrough +
++++++++++++++++++

"In the year of 200X, a super robot named Mega Man was created. Dr. Light 
created Mega Man to stop the evil desires of Dr. Wily. However, after his
defeat, Dr. Wily created eight of his own robots to counter Mega Man..."

-Mega Man 2

After reading the back story to Mega Man 2, the camera shoots to the top of a 
skyscraper to show Mega Man without his helmet, pondering the meaning of 
things. After listening to some of the best title music ever, press Start and
begin the absolute treasure that is Mega Man 2. 

=== i. Air Man ===

Mega Man 2 is unique in that unlike the rest of the Mega Man series which is a
bit more defined in what to do, virtually any path through Mega Man 2 is a good
one. With that in mind, this guide is written based upon personal preference.
I've always liked going through Air Man first, but hey, knock yourself out if
you feel like taking down Quick Man first.

Neither Air Man nor his level are overly difficult, and they provide a good
initiation for getting used to the game. Gone are the days of sliding around
all over the place, dropping at irregular speeds, and working your way through
glitches. Instead of having bad design being the cause of the game's 
difficulty, the game is hard for the _right_ reasons. Air Man's stage doesn't
show this as much, but some of the other levels sure do.

You begin the level on a platform with heads in it. Creepy. Go right to the end
of the platform and a bottomless pit. Don't worry, you aren't stuck. One of
many Hornheads will appear out of thin air. Hornheads serve as platforms, but
don't be fooled. They don't take kindly to being jumped on, and they will take
every measure they can to make it as difficult as possible for you to do so.
The Hornhead has two attacks, the first of which is obviously the horns 
themselves. As you can see, there are two horns on top of the Hornhead that
expand and contract. Avoiding them isn't necessarily hard, but screwing up and
getting hit by one of them while trying to jump on the Hornhead itself means
certain death in a bottomless pit. When you're ready, find the gap in the 
Hornhead's pattern and jump on him.

While on the Hornhead itself, you'll see the Hornhead's second attack, and that
is that the Hornhead will release infinite Hornettes at you from its right and
left sides until you jump off of the platform. Hornettes are released 
alternatively from the right and left side of the Hornhead in a very obvious
pattern. To deal with them, all you need to do is stand in the center of the
platform, jump, shoot a Hornette, then turn around and do the same thing. While
this may be good target practice, you won't conquer the level this way and must
eventually jump off of the Hornhead and onto the platform to your right. The
best time to jump is after killing a Hornette to the right and while the horns
themselves are down. Stay in the middle until you see this break in the 
pattern, then jump for it.

After reaching the platform, another Hornhead will appear. Kill any Hornettes
that may still be after you, then jump on. After killing three Hornettes on
this particular Hornhead, there will be a break in the pattern that allows you
to jump off the Hornhead and onto the next platform. Take care however, because
this next platform is all of one panel wide. There will also be two Hornettes
behind you, so turn around and kill them before moving on. With the coast 
clear, jump onto the next Hornhead. After killing three Hornettes, jump off of
the Hornhead and onto the next platform. Kill any Hornettes that may be behind
you, then jump onto the next Hornhead. Do what you must, then jump off of the
Hornhead and onto yet another midair platform. From there, jump onto the final
Hornhead for now. 

After jumping off of him, you finally see something new. The enemy that you 
will soon see on your right has been called many things by many people, but 
for once, Capcom actually gave him a name themselves. The Lightning Lord likes
to fly around on his little cloud and give you all the time you need to kill 
him before he actually decides to start throwing lightning bolts at you. And 
even when he actually decides to start attacking you, the lightning itself is 
so slow and pathetic that you should be able to avoid it with ease. The true 
purpose of the Lightning Lord is its cloud. After killing the enemy, the cloud
will remain and serve as a platform.

You can't control where the cloud goes, so just stand still and watch as the
cloud flies to the right. Another Lightning Lord will soon show up. Quickly 
blast him
to hell and jump on his cloud before the two clouds separate. You'll soon be
taken behind a giant cloud on the screen, but don't worry about anything. 
Simply stand still and go where the Cloud takes you. The next Lightning Lord 
is a bit tricky to take down. The two clouds won't stay close together for 
very long, so you'll have to jump up, kill the Lightning Lord, and take his 
cloud very quickly. The best time to take your initial jump is right when the 
Lightning Lord comes on the screen, simply because you'll be able to shoot at 
him. 

While on the next cloud, you'll be taken into the background as another 
Lightning Lord appears on screen. Wait until the Lightning Lord is on your 
left, then kill it. From there, wait until his cloud materializes from the 
background, then jump on it. Once on this cloud, you have one final 
Lightning Lord to take down in the sequence before finally being able to 
move on. Wait until he is on eye level with Mega Man, then kill him, take 
his cloud, and use it to finally jump to solid ground.

The break doesn't last long, because as soon as you begin going right, a Bird
Bomber shows up. Bird Bombers will fly across the screen, drop their egg full
of Birds, then fly off. The egg is filled with eight Birds, and all of them
will fly directly at you if you let them. You can't kill the Bird Bomber quite
yet, but you can shoot down the egg before it touches the ground. Doing so
avoids the entire mess altogether. If you're unable to do this, then your one
and only option is to shoot down what you can and avoid the rest. You'll likely
take a hit, but it isn't a lot of damage. The Bird Bombers will show up
indefinitely in this area so long as you let them, so while on this platform,
run right as fast as you can. You'll only have to deal with three or four Bird
Bombers this way, and as you continue to go right, you'll eventually find 
yourself in the next area.

Instead of the traditional method of, you know, actually going with physics,
you are teleported to an area below where you just were. It leads me to wonder
how falling off of a platform in the above area would actually kill you, but
maybe it's just me. Regardless, the two red enemies you see in this area are
called Wormers. They do nothing but sit there, but after a few seconds, they'll
both start spewing forth Worms three at a time. The Wormers are too low to the
ground for you to hit with your current arsenal, and the Worms themselves are
a waste of time to kill, so this tiny little screen is about little more than
moving as far to the left as you possibly can as fast as you possibly can. Once
there, you are gracefully teleported to another area below you.

Hey look, it's the platform with the heads in it again, just like the 
beginning of the level. And as you may guess, the end of this platform isn't
_actually_ a bottomless pit. A Hornhead will show up, and thus the long 
sequence of Hornheads begins once again. 

Actually, I lied. There are only two of them this time, but the catch is that
they're both right next to each other. Obviously, you'll need to jump from the
first Hornhead to the second before being able to land on solid ground. The
problem here is that the second Hornhead retracts its horns before the first
Hornhead does. This leaves you a VERY small window with which to jump in, and
that's assuming that there is no Hornette in your way. There is an easy way and
a hard way to do this. The hard way is what I just mentioned. You can wait for
both Hornheads to have their horns down, then jump. The easy way is to take a
hit intentionally, then use the temporary invincibility to jump from one 
Hornhead to the other. Either way, your goal is the solid ground to the right
of the second Hornhead.

More platforms with heads in them. Lovely. As you move right, you'll encounter
another new enemy, the Fan Fiend. Fan Fiends have no direct attack; instead, 
they use the giant fans conveniently placed within their stomachs in an 
attempt to blow you off of platforms and into bottomless pits. Thankfully for 
you, the speed with which this actually happens is quite slow. You should 
easily be able to run against the current and land a few well-placed jump 
shots to kill him.

After moving past him, you'll have to deal with jumping across narrow platforms
and Bird Bombers. To get past this area as painlessly as possible, stand still,
wait for a Bird Bomber to drop its egg, kill it, them jump across a few 
platforms. It's the safest way to traverse across this area, and trying to jump
too fast is nothing short of suicide. A Bird Bomber, egg, or one of the Birds
themselves can easily knock you out of the air and kill you if you aren't
careful.

You'll eventually encounter another Fan Fiend. Jump to his platform, hold 
right, and unleash Plasma Beam of Rapid Fire +5 upon his ass. After he dies, 
you'll have some more Bird Bomber-infested platforms to jump across. Go across 
them in the exact manner that you did before, and you'll eventually reach a 
nice stretch of solid ground that symbolizes the end of the level. The boss 
door looks a lot more stylish this time around, doesn't it? And unlike the 
original, none of the boss hallways have enemies in them. Go through the door 
and prepare to face your first boss.

      Boss: Air Man
    Weapon: Air Shooter
  Weakness: Leaf Shield
Difficulty: 6/10

Air Man isn't a particularly difficult boss, but because his attack is so 
difficult to avoid, the battle comes down to dishing out damage faster than you
take it. Air Man has but one attack. He unleashes a horde or tornadoes across
the screen, then sends them flying towards you. As they fly towards you, the
are current causes you to go flying backwards at a speed slightly faster than
the speed with which the Fan Fiends were causing, and because of this, the Air
Shooter is a difficult weapon to avoid. After three waves of Air Shooters are
fired, Air Man makes a small jump, then a large one to go to the other side of
the screen. From there, the pattern starts all over again.

The Air Shooter causes a surprising amount of damage, but you can easily 
counter this by keeping a constant stream of Plasma Beam shots firing towards
Air Man himself. Air Shooter may cause a decent amount of damage to you, but 
you'll be amazed at how quickly he dies if you keep the pressure on him. When
the battle first starts, you'll have to deal with three waves of Air Shooters
flying at you. It's impossible to fire through any pattern that has a tornado
right on the ground, but it's hunting season whenever a pattern without a 
tornado on the ground shows up. When the Air Shooters fly at you, try your best
to avoid them all, and if you are unable to do so, use the temporary 
invincibility to land some more shots on Air Man. After three waves of Air
Shooters pass, a completely unguarded Air Man will make a small jump, then a
large jump to get over your head and to the other side. Air Man has no defenses
during this time, and this is where you'll win the battle. If you unleash holy
hell upon Air Man with the Plasma Beam during his phase of vulnerability, then
you'll surely be able to drop his health down to some very low levels.

Once he's on the other side of you, you'll have to deal with three more phases
of Air Shooters. Keep the pressure on, and if Air Man doesn't go down during
this phase, then he'll assuredly drop once he starts jumping again. After the
battle, both the Air Shooter and Item 2 are all yours.

=== ii. Metal Man ===

Metal Man isn't weak against the Air Shooter, but I'm still partial to going
into his level second. One, you have Item 2 going in. This allows you to get a
couple of items that you wouldn't be able to get otherwise. Two, there's a 
certain weapon that you'll receive for defeating Metal Man called the Metal
Blade which just so happens to be one of the best weapons in the entire series.
You don't have a lot of weapons when it comes to getting through this place,
but the level itself isn't exactly difficult and you should have no problems.

As you can guess, Metal Man's stage is all about metallic goodness. Conveyor
belts, buzz saws, drills, gears... you name it, it's probably here. The level
may seem intimidating at first, but trust me, it's not that bad at all. In 
fact, the level is pretty damned fun to go through. The conveyor belts only
move you about as fast as the Fan Fiends did in Air Man's stage, and nothing in
the level poses all that much of a challenge. As for Metal Man himself, he's
absolute cake to take down even with your limited arsenal of weapons.

Right when the level starts, you'll find yourself on a conveyor belt that 
pushes you to the right. Before falling off the end, make sure you jump onto
the next conveyor belt. This one tries pushing you left, but Mega Man is fast
enough to be able to run against the belt's momentum. Instead of jumping to the
conveyor belt up top, run under it and all the way to the end of the belt 
you're currently standing on. Your first Energy Tank lies there. After 
collecting it, ride the belt back to the left, then jump onto the conveyor belt
above you. It will try to push you left, but it doesn't matter much. Move to
the right, and get ready to see your first enemy of the level.

Well, it isn't exactly an enemy. More like an automated trap. These things are
Guillotines, and if you get too close, they'll drop down to the ground in an
attempt to catch you underneath their spikes, much like the Thwomps from the 
Mario games. You can't kill them, but you can get past them without incident.
Get close to the Guillotine, then let it fall. As it goes back up, you're free
to run under it and jump to the next conveyor belt. This Guillotine is the 
first of five that you must get past in this area. None of them are difficult
to move past, but one wrong move means a ton of damage. Take your time and move
past them as slowly as you need to. Once you're finally on the other side of
the Guillotines, jump down and into the next area.

As you move to the right, you'll notice a ton of Drills coming from out of the
ceiling and floor, flying across the screen, then burrowing back through the
ceiling and floor. Trying to get past this area too quickly almost ensures you
getting clipped by a few Drills across the way, but thankfully, Drills fall in
a very set pattern. For one, Drills never show up behind you or on top of you.
This means that if you stand still, you'll never be hit by a Drill. Secondly,
after a wave of Drills goes through the screen, an eternity passes before the
next wave of them shows up. This means that you can stand still, let a ton of
Drills pass you, run forward a few steps, then repeat the process until the
Drills stop coming. Better yet, use this to your advantage to kill Drills until
you're at full health. You may need to if the Guillotines got the better of 
you. Thankfully, Mega Man Anniversary Collection has a rapid fire button that
makes this task rather simple.

Getting past the Drills that show up while on solid ground is simple enough,
but a conveyor belt lies in wait. You have two choices. You can try to move
along the belt slowly like you did on the solid ground, or you can wait for a
wave of Drills to pass before making a run at the end of the belt. Either way,
make your way to the end of this conveyor belt and to the end of the Drills.
For now. Drop down to the next belt. This one will push you left, but there are
no enemies to worry about. Make your way right and up to the conveyor belts in
midair. Equip Item 2, then get ready to do some jumping. Jump onto the 
conveyor belt that pushes you right, then use it to jump onto the conveyor belt
that pushes you left. Instead of dropping down to the lower area, deploy Item 2
to your right and jump on it. Jump off of it and onto the conveyor belt 
suspended high in the air so that you can reach the Extra Life up there, then
drop down to the lower conveyor belt. From there, go right and drop down the
pit into the next area.

Nothing here but a conveyor belt that pushes you left. How stupid. Take the 
belt left and drop down into the next area. You'll be on a conveyor belt that
pushes you left, but you of course need to move right. After going against the
belt's direction for awhile, you'll see a giant gear in the sky. Don't go too
far, because a Gear Rider will soon land on it and knock it down. The Gear 
Rider will then start walking that gear towards you, and thanks to the Gear
Rider being far too big to jump over at this point, you'll need to deal with
it yourself. The gear itself can take far too much punishment before going
down, but one blast from the Plasma Beam is all it takes to kill the Gear 
Rider. The gear will remain, but it will move at a much slower pace afterwards
and you'll be able to jump over it with ease.

Continue to the right, and you'll see another Gear Rider coming toward you.
Jump up, kill the Gear Rider, then jump over the gear itself after it drops
down to your level. After he's gone, you have no enemies getting in your way
of jumping up three conveyor belts in front of you. Jump down to the large
conveyor belt and prepare to take on another Gear Rider. Take care however,
because the conveyor belt is working against you here. Regardless, get past
the first Gear Rider, then move right and get past the second. Jump off the
conveyor belt, enjoy the solid ground, and get past yet another Gear Rider.

Another new enemy will show up in a few seconds. His name is Quadbarrel, and
anyone with a concept of vision and/or English can guess that Quadbarrel is
an enemy made up of four metal barrels. He resembles the Cactus seen in a 
couple of Mario's games, but in Mega Man 2, you can only damage him in one
place: the barrel with the eyes on it. Your best best is to shoot it from a
small distance, because after you do, the other three barrels will come flying
at you in a manner reminiscent of the Poppers in Mega Man 1. Remember those
things? It's the same deal, only instead of the barrels exploding as soon as
they hit the ground, they sit there for a few seconds before simply 
disappearing. The Quadbarrel's head will soon materialize into a full-fledged
Quadbarrel again, but your next shot will kill it. What follows is a gigantic
staircase, complete with two more Quadbarrels. Take them both down, and at the
tail end of this staircase, you need to make a rather long jump to the solid
ground below.

Before going right, turn left and deploy Item 2. Ride it left, grab the Energy
Tank, then deploy another Item 2 and ride it back to where you were. The next
two platforms are infested with Spring Bots. They act exactly like the Spike 
Bots from the original, except that when they hit you, a little head will
bounce all over the place to laugh at you. You sadly have no weapons that can
damage these things yet, so all you can do for now is avoid them. As you know,
they move faster when you're on their platform, but when you go to jump over
them, they slow down to their normal speed. Use this knowledge to get past all
of the Spring Bots and to the boss door. You know what's next.

      Boss: Metal Man
    Weapon: Metal Blade
  Weakness: Quick Boomerang
Difficulty: 4/10

Yes, I think that Metal Man is easier to kill with the Plasma Beam despite the
fact that each Plasma shot does one bar of damage to him. Shoot me. Before
going into this fight, there are a couple of random things to know. The ONLY
reason I'm grading this battle anything higher than a two is because with the
path that this guide suggests going through the game, you don't have the Quick
Boomerang yet. You have to chip away at him with the Plasma Beam, but it's not
like doing this is anything extraordinary.

Metal Man himself isn't difficult at all. Through the entire battle, he never
moves from the spot that he starts on. He jumps a lot, but him staying within
the same vertical plane for the entire fight makes the fight a lot easier.

Metal Man has one attack. He jumps up and fires Metal Blades at you. That's it.
If you can avoid the Metal Blades, you essentially have the battle on 
lockdown before it even starts. The blades themselves come at you in three
different patterns. The first pattern is simple. Metal Man throws one Metal
Blade at you. Jump it. Simple enough, right? That one blade will eventually be
thrown above your head, so in this case, let it fly over you.

The second pattern is that Metal Man throws two Metal Blades at you
consecutively. They always come in at the same angle, thus making them very
easy to avoid once you know how. To avoid them, you have to make a jump to the
right. Standing still won't do the trick, because you'll get clipped by the
second Metal Blade that way. But if you make a jump to the right, both blades
pass harmlessly beneath you.

Finally, Metal Man has a pattern in which he throws three Metal Blades. It
sounds like a threat, but it isn't. Simply jump over the first two blades in
the exact manner that you did before, then watch as the third blade flies right
over your head. And because this exact pattern is used every time Metal Man
throws three blades at you, you can always avoid it in the exact same way.

With this in mind, avoiding all of Metal Man's attacks, and thus the actual
battle, become a breeze. One thing to remember about Metal Man is that he is,
for the most part, a counterattacking robot master. If you keep firing at him
indiscriminately, he'll constantly be airborne launching Metal Blades at you.
But if you just sit there, Metal Man stays still for quite a long time between
attacks. When you shoot at him, he is guaranteed to jump up and fire back.
The easiest way to win this fight is to jump up, fire two shots from the Plasma
Beam, then jump over whatever Metal Blade pattern is fired at you. One of the
shots will catch Metal Man, and because the exact same jump can be used to get
past all three blade patterns, this fight comes down to nothing more than 
jump up, fire some shots, jump past the Metal Blades, then rinse and repeat
until Metal Man dies.

There is of course one final catch. This entire battle takes place on a 
conveyor belt. It doesn't necessarily make the fight harder, but when you see
the screen flash, be prepared to deal with the belt changing direction. You
don't want to accidentally run into Metal Man. 

With all that said, this battle is very simple. Trust me. Once it's over, the
Metal Blade is all yours. This thing fires in eight directions, and given a 
full energy bar, you can let loose 112 of them before the weapon's energy runs
out. Most of the game's normal enemies are but mere ants in the face of the
Metal Blade, simply because you can hit nearly any enemy from any point on the
screen.

=== iii. Flash Man ===

Flash Man's level is another of those levels that you can do at any point in
the game, and Flash Man is yet another robot master who goes down with ease to
the Plasma Beam. Not only that, but he's so damned weak that you can also rip 
him apart with Metal Blades, Atomic Fire, or Crash Bombs. This guide suggests
a singular weakness loop for the bosses during the walkthrough itself, but the
boss flow chart at the end shows that a few robot masters are weak to multiple
weapons.

As for the level itself, it's really short, yet really odd. The flashing blocks
that you see encase virtually the entire level, and they're more than mere 
blocks. That's ice, and Mega Man will be sliding quite a lot in this place. 
Furthermore, a great deal of the level features multiple paths to take. None
of them are all that hard, but it serves to give in to the odd nature of this
place.

From the start, go right. The little red guy below you is called a Shooter, and
no matter where you are, he can likely hit you with his shots. Taking him on
slowly only means that you'll be taking damage, so get down there and kill him
before he causes too much of it. After killing him, do NOTHING but run right.
Ignore the Shooters above you, because they aren't guarding anything 
whatsoever. After passing two Shooters, you'll see a gap that allows you to
jump up. Do so, then take out the Shooter to your right. Before moving on, bust
out Item 2. Turn left, make a small jump, then deploy Item 2 to your left. You
can use Item 2 to reach the high ledge and an Extra Life if you need it. 
Either way, the two paths eventually merge into the same thing again. You'll
eventually come across a Shooter that is facing right. Bust out the Metal 
Blade, stand under him, and kill him from underneath. With him out of the way,
you're free to scale the path and drop down into the next area. But trust me,
you want to have the Air Shooter equipped before you do so.

NOTE: If you decided to kill Crash Man before coming to this stage, then you
can take the high road here. Use Item 2 to get to the high ledge, then use
Crash Bombs to take down the Crash Blocks. This path allows you to avoid the
enemy in the next area.

When you drop down into the next area, you'll notice that the Hoppers from Mega
Man 1 are back, and with a ton of upgrades. Unlike the original, Hoppers don't
indiscriminately jump at you. They'll still attempt to jump at you (and still
cause a ton of damage in the process), but they have another trick this time
around. Instead of jumping on your head, you may see the Hopper stop in front
of you and let loose a barrage of bullets at you. This attack causes a lot of
damage and is very difficult to avoid or jump over. How do you respond?
Simple. The Air Shooter. As soon as you drop down into this place, turn left
and unleash hell. Two Air Shooters should drop the Hopper with ease, but when
he goes down, his pilot comes down to attack you.

And the Hopper's pilot is none other than Sniper Joe himself! Save the reunion
for later and bust out the Plasma Beam. Joe's pattern is similar to the 
original game, except he fires three bullets when he drops his shield this time
around. They don't come in very fast, but they're close enough together to 
where you'll need to use short jumps to avoid them. With that said, just 
remember to keep up the pressure when his shield is down and he'll drop like a
bug. When he's dealt with, you have two paths to take. The left path will lead
you to a Shooter, while the right path is the safe route. Take the right path,
obviously.

NOTE: If you die at any point after this, you'll start on the right side of
the Shooter. Kill it, then simply take the right path.

Once on this next screen, you'll see a Shooter facing the wrong way. Laugh at
him, then bust out the Metal Blades and smack him around from directly over his
head. Afterwards, drop down the right path. There is a Crash Block guarding an
Energy Pellet here, just in case you're taking the game in a different order
than what this guide suggests. For the rest of you, simply drop down to the
next area. It's infested with Wormers, but you have the Metal Blades. From
where you currently stand, you can kill both Wormers with two well-placed Metal
Blades. From here, drop down the right path again. Walk right past the 
Quadbarrel, and as you drop down into the next area, hug the left wall.

In doing so, you'll land on a platform high in the air. Now, you have two 
choices. You can either go down there and deal with a lone Hopper now, or you
can take the left path and deal with an army of them later. Not exactly a 
choice, is it? Equip the Air Shooter, then drop down to the Hopper's left and
take him down. Take down the Sniper Joe with whatever you choose afterwards,
grab the Energy Pellet, then go down to the area below you.

Once here, you'll find yourself on a safe platform well above the Hopper in
this area. Had you taken the left path, you would have to deal with him. From
your cozy little ledge, move to the right. You have two choices. You can either
go right by jumping across a ton of ice blocks that are one panel wide, or you
can bust out Item 2 and fly across the entire chasm with ease. Either way, get
across all of the blocks and to the Energy Tank at the end. If you took the 
order suggested in this guide, then you'll have to retreat left after getting
the Energy Tank. If you happen to have the Crash Bombs, blow up the Crash Block
and jump over to the boss door.

For the rest of you, you have to deal with a Hopper. Don't worry, he isn't bad.
In fact, he a cinch. After dropping left, run right and under the platform that
the Hopper is jumping on. While under there, use the Air Shooter to kill both
the Hopper and the Sniper Joe that follows. From there, use the platform to
jump up to the boss door.

      Boss: Flash Man
    Weapon: Time Stopper
  Weakness: Crash Bomb
Difficulty: 1/10

I've listed Flash Man's weakness as the Crash Bomb, but that's simply to avoid
listing the Metal Blade as a boss weakness more than once. The truth of the
matter is that Flash Man is so damned pathetic that you can use Crash Bombs,
Metal Blades, Atomic Fire, or even the plain old Plasma Beam to take him down.
He sucks, plain and simple. His attacks barely causes any damage, his Time
Stopper is lame, and he himself takes a ton of damage from your attacks. Flash
Man is so bad that the main threat in this fight is not any of Flash Man's
attacks, but Flash Man himself running into you. It can happen quite a bit 
given how he's almost impossible to avoid, but with all of the damage that he
takes from your attacks, there is virtually no way that he'll go down before
you do.

Before the battle starts, equip the Metal Blade. This makes the battle even
easier than before (like that was even possible). Flash Man will begin by
doing nothing more than jumping at you. Fire the Metal Blades of Unholy
Smiting +11 at him, and make sure that you aren't parallel with him. You
wouldn't want to get caught being in front of Flash Man when he stops time and
unleashes his pathetic little array of bullets or anything.

Assuming you keep up constant pressure with the Metal Blades, Flash Man will
be able to use the Time Stopper _ONCE_. That's about as pathetic as it gets,
and it's a true disappointment that such a cool level ends like this. Oh, well.
Once the battle ends, the Time Stopper is yours. As you can guess, it stops
time. Take care when using it however, because once you activate the Time 
Stopper, you cannot turn it off until it runs out of energy. As an added bonus,
you also get Item 3 once the level is cleared. Item 3 is little more than a 
poor man's Item 1 until you actually get Item 1, but don't worry. Item 1 will
be yours two levels from now.

On a side note, even though this guide suggests taking down Flash Man before
Crash Man, all you've really missed in this level as a result of not being able
to destroy the Crash Blocks are a Weapon Capsule, Energy Pellet, and an easier
way to reach the boss. Nothing extraordinary, in other words.

=== iv. Bubble Man ===

Bubble Man's stage absolutely rocks. The music owns, the enemies are awesome,
and once you get past the first few parts of the level, you go through the
entire level underwater, including the fight with Bubble Man himself. To make
it even better, Mega Man jumps over twice as high underwater as he does on dry
land. But beware of the MASSIVE amounts of spikes that lie around Bubble Man's
level, because they will all kill you instantly.

Drop down to the platform on your right, and stand directly in the middle of 
it. A Frog will spit three Baby Frogs at you, but so long as you're directly in
the middle of the platform, you're safe. The pattern for the Frog family is
that the Frog does nothing but sit there and spit out Baby Frogs at you three
at a time. If all three Baby Frogs die, the Frog spits out three more. The 
trick here is to let one Baby Frog live, then use your increased space to kill
the Frog with ease. After he goes down, jump on his platform and stand 
directly in the middle. Another Frog will spit Baby Frogs at you, but thanks
to you being in the lone safe spot on this platform, you'll never get hit. Use
the breaks in the Baby Frog jumping patterns to jump up and shoot the Frog 
until it dies. After it does, drop the Baby Frogs and move on. There aren't
any enemies to deal with on the next platform, so quickly jump onto the next
platform and run right. A Frog lies on this platform, but if you're quick
enough, you can run under all three Baby Frogs. The safe spot here is directly
in front of the Frog. From there, blast it in the face until it goes down, then
kill its little pet.

After dealing with the three Frogs, you have to jump across a bunch of blocks
that looks like Crash Blocks turned sideways. It seems simple, but it isn't.
As soon as you land on one of these blocks, they drop down into the waters
below. If you go down with them, you die. Obviously, you'll need to jump across
the blocks as fast as you can. It isn't that hard, but if you hesitate, you'll
lose a life. When you're ready, jump across all of the platforms and to the
solid ground on the other side. The only place to go from here is down, but
make sure you're hugging the left wall as you drop down. Make sure you equip
the Metal Blades before you do, though.

As soon as you hit the next area, turn left and fire five Metal Blades at the
Hermit Crab. The first one will knock its shell off, while the next four will
kill it. The reason I suggest Metal Blades is because if you shoot off the
Hermit Crab's shell while standing on its level, you're left with a Hermit
Crab that you cannot touch. But with the Metal Blades, you can blast away until
it dies. Even better is the fact that you can kill the other two Hermit Crabs
on this screen from where you currently stand. Simply hold the D-Pad in the 
direction of one of the Hermit Crabs and fire away. When you're done with them,
drop down into the next screen.

Hey, it's water. Here's the part where this level starts to kick some ass. A
few quick notes before diving in. In terms of traction while walking, you would
never know that Mega Man is underwater. He handles just as if he were on any
other surface. The major difference comes when Mega Man is jumping and/or 
falling. If you perform a full jump while underwater, you can literally reach
the top of the screen from any point whatsoever. This doesn't have _that_ much
of a use, but it's important to remember. Another note to keep in mind is that
Mega Man only falls at around half speed while underwater as opposed to being
on solid ground. It doesn't make that much of a difference, but again, it's a
good thing to note.

Got all that? Good. Dive into the ocean at around the center of the screen, but
make sure you still have those Metal Blades equipped. As soon as you fall into
the next area, turn left and shred the Hermit Crab to bits. From there, rip
the two remaining Hermit Crabs apart from the top platform. Be careful of their
shells flying off though, because they can cause damage to you if they happen
to come in contact with you during their flight. When the three Hermit Crabs in
this area are dead, drop down into the next area.

This should go without saying, but don't jump into the spikes above you.
Remember, full jumps are usually suicide while underwater so make sure you
have a feel for cutting off your jumps before moving on. And make sure you 
still have the Metal Blade equipped, as well. Move right a little, and you'll
eventually see an infinite army of Shrimps coming at you. You should be a 
master of firing the Metal Blades in all directions by this point, so take down
any and all Shrimps without jumping. The beauty of the Metal Blade here is that
it will kill any and all Shrimps dumb enough to get in its way. Continue right,
and you'll see the source of all of these Shrimps, the Kingfish. He looks mean,
but he's nothing more than a lazy bum. He sits there, mouth wide open, and 
expects all of his Shrimps to do his work for him. But despite how stupid the
Kingfish is, those Shrimps have no problems with coming out of the Kingfish's
mouth at an infinite rate until their master dies. Of course, you could use
this to your advantage. Sit there and kill Shrimps for as long as you need to
until your weapons and energy are filled. Thanks to how cheap it is to use the
Metal Blades, this should be a rather simple task. When you're good and 
healthy, stand just far enough away from the Kingfish so that a Metal Blade
fired upward at a 45 degree angle can hit the light on its head. This is the
only part of the Kingfish that takes any damage at all. From there, alternate
firing Metal Blades at the light and firing them straight ahead. This will both
nullify the threat of Shrimps and kill the Kingfish. With him out of the way,
continue right.

After a loooooong walk to the right, you'll eventually see the ceiling come
lower. This next area involves jumping across some uneven ground while dealing
with an infinite school of Jellyfish. Jellyfish are exactly like Shrimp in that
it only takes one Metal Blade to take them down, and because you're a master
of firing the Metal Blades directionally, this area should be cake... right?

Not exactly. The Jellyfish are easy enough to deal with, but the jumps aren't.
Remember, you're underwater. All you need to do is forget this once, and you'll
take a full jump into the spikes on the ceiling and die. For this reason, you
need to be very careful while jumping. The best advice I can give is that while
underwater, Mega Man virtually stops moving up after you release the jump 
button. After you release the jump button mid-jump, Mega Man barely moves up
at all afterwards. Knowing this makes these jumps far easier to deal with, so
all you need to remember now is to constantly get those infernal Jellyfish out
of your way before jumping. The spikes won't kill you during your temporary
invincibility following a hit like in the original Mega Man, but constantly
taking damage from Jellyfish isn't fun. The Metal Blade is cheap, powerful, and
fires in eight directions. USE IT.

This entire area is about moving forward with care, so do so. Kill any 
Jellyfish close to you, make a jump or two, then rinse and repeat until this
section is over. When you reach the section with vertical stacks of spikes
lined up three panels apart, the Jellyfish stop showing up. But there is one
final thing to note about the Jellyfish section:

MM~~*
MM~~*
XX~~*
XX~~*

M = Mega Man
X = Solid Ground
~ = Water
* = Spike

The above picture isn't a great one, but it still works. Mega Man himself is
two panels wide, as well as two panels tall. The above picture assumes that
Mega Man is standing on solid ground with a two panel wide column of water to
his right. The spikes in this picture are _hypothetical_. See the spike all the
way up top and how it's eye level with Mega Man? If you walk off of that 
platform and hold down the Right button while underwater, you cannot hit that
spike. You CAN, however, hit any and all would-be spikes in the other three
positions. This information is very useful during the Jellyfish area, so use it
well. In the event that you come across a fall like this with spikes in the 
way, simply tap the Right button and inch off of the platform until you fall.

With the Jellyfish section finally done and over with, you have to get down to
the area below those vertical columns of spikes. The way to do this is obvious,
but it sure as hell isn't fun. If you screw up, you go all the way back to when
you first jumped in the water. To avoid this, jump up, get to the exact center
of that column, then drop down. 

You still have the Metal Blades equipped, right? Good. As soon as you make your
fall through the two columns of spikes, you have to deal with another Kingfish.
DO. NOT. JUMP. There is a wall of spikes to your left, a wall of spikes on the
ceiling, and the Kingfish barely gives you any space to work with. If you take
damage from Shrimps while on the ground, don't worry about it. It's a better
fate than jumping into those spikes. Then again, you have the Metal Blades.
Not one single Shrimp should be able to get near you in the first place, and
after ripping into the Kingfish's light a few times, he'll go down with ease.
Go right, then carefully make the jumps into the gap on the right side of the
screen.

When you drop down into this next area, you'll notice that the Frogs are back.
Stick to the Metal Blades here, because it allows you to attack the Frog 
without ever having to jump mid-battle. Carve up any and all Baby Frogs, then
run as far right as you can. You'll be standing right under the Frog. Killing
the Frog here is similar to the way you killed the Kingfish. Fire Metal Blades
at the Frog, and detour to kill the Baby Frogs whenever he spits them out.
The best way to do this is to alternate between firing Metal Blades at the Frog
and firing them straight up in the air. You'll rip the hell out of the entire
Frog family this way. When the Frog goes down, jump up to his platform, move
right, and repeat the entire process with a second Frog. After he goes down,
move to the right, then jump out of the water and onto some solid ground.

The next section involves jumping across a ton of platforms infested with
Crabs. Crabs are among the dumbest enemies in the game, and serve no purpose
other than to annoy you as you jump across these platforms. The pattern for the
Crabs are simple. They come down from the top of the screen alternatively on
your left and right sides, albeit slow as hell, and should they touch solid
ground, they'll bounce around a little before walking at you. Thankfully, they
all go down to one simple shot from the Plasma Cannon. To get past this area
as efficiently as possible, only jump when a Crab is coming down on your left
side. If you jump when a Crab is on your right, you're apt to get knocked out
of the air and into the pit below. With this in mind, jump across all of the
platforms. On the other side of all of this is a small drop into water and the
boss door. Equip the Metal Blade, then go in.

      Boss: Bubble Man
    Weapon: Bubble Lead
  Weakness: Metal Blade
Difficulty: 5/10

Bubble Man is another of those bosses who would be at least somewhat difficult
if you didn't have his weakness already in hand. With that said, he can 
provide a decent challenge due to the odd nature of the fight.

The first rule of Bubble Man is not to make a full jump.

The second rule of Bubble Man is not to make a full jump.

The third rule of... you get the idea. See those spikes on the ceiling? I'm
sure you're smart enough to figure out the reasoning behind this. 

That's the first issue, and with that out of the way, let's analyze Bubble Man.
His pattern is a unique one. He starts out on the bottom right corner of the
screen. After letting loose a basic attack or two, he will let loose two or
three bouncing bubbles (which is the Bubble Lead) and swim to the top left
corner of the room. During this time period, you need to avoid those bubbles.
Practice doing it now, because the final form of Wily uses an identical attack.
The pattern of the Bubble Lead is rather simple one, because all you need to
do is position yourself so that the first bubble bounces over your head. If
done correctly, the rest of the bubbles will follow suit.

From here, Bubble Man descends to the floor on the left side of the screen, 
then repeats the entire pattern in reverse. The one thing to remember about
Bubble Man is that it's okay to take a hit from his basic shot. The Bubble Lead
does a LOT more damage to you than that shot does, and avoiding the Bubble Lead
itself should be your primary concern. Remember, all it takes is one wrong jump
to kill yourself. But as difficult as all of this may sound, you have the Metal
Blade. Use it, and use it well. You can literally hit Bubble Man from virtually
any point on the screen, and if you remember to keep firing Metal Blades 
upwards at Metal Man, he'll go down before he's able to cross the screen twice.
Because of this, you can completely screw up avoiding the Bubble Lead and still
win this fight with ease.

When it's over, the Bubble Lead is all yours. When you fire it, you won't see
three bubbles bouncing across the screen; instead, you'll see a singular bubble
slightly jump out before landing on the ground and rolling until it hits an 
enemy. It sounds lame, and it is, but it has its moments.

=== v. Heat Man ===

Heat Man's stage is really intense, just like Fire Man's stage was in Mega Man
1. As you can guess, Heat Man's stage is fire-based. The catch is that Heat
Man's level was the one chosen for one of the most annoying puzzles in the
entire game. Also, you'll see lava flowing all throughout the level. If you
touch it, you'll die.

Go right. See the gap with the flowing lava in it? If you fall down there, you
instantly die. Not that the gap is hard to jump over, or anything. The catch
comes in the form of those holes on the ceiling. Jumpers will come out of those
holes for as long as you let them, and thus exist to annoy the hell of you as
you try to jump across these lava-filled gaps. To make this easy on yourself,
bust out the Metal Blade. Jumpers go down in one shot to this thing, and 
because you're the king of directional shooting by this point, those Jumpers
will soon turn into mere ants scurrying to get out of your way. All you need
to do is keep the Jumpers away from you as you jump across the gaps. None of 
the jumps are hard, but they can be if you let the Jumpers get the initiative
on you. 

Once on the other side of this series of jumps, you're treated to a whole new
set of infinitely appearing annoyances, the Spinners. See those holes in the
background wall? Whenever you see those, Spinners will infinitely regenerate
from them. Spinners are exactly like the Hornettes of Air Man's stage. They
have the same movement pattern, and it takes all of one shot to kill them. 
Seems easy enough, but the problem is that you have to deal with infinitely
respawning Spinners while making a very difficult series of jumps. Like the
Jumpers in the last series of jumps, the entire key here is to clear out the
area of Spinners, then make a jump or two when the coast is clear. If you take
this area slowly and carefully, you shouldn't have any problems whatsoever
making the jumps at all. I recommend using the Metal Blade here, simply because
it allows you more range when getting the Spinners away from you. Just
remember not to rush things. You're better off standing still, waiting for a 
Spinner to show up from the hole next to you, _THEN_ jumping. You'll avoid
getting knocked out of the air this way.

Two final things of note about the area with the Spinners. One, only three
Spinners can be on the screen at any given time. If you see three Spinners
behind you, you have a free pass to make the next few jumps. Just don't rush
it, because once they're off the screen, new Spinners will begin showing up.
Secondly, there is a certain block pattern set up like this:

XX~~~~~~XX
XX~~~~~~XX
XX~~~~~~XX
XXYY~~~~XX

Of all the jumps in this area, this is the only one necessary of making a note
about. See the singular block on the bottom labeled Y? IGNORE IT COMPLETELY. 
You can't make the jump from that block to the next column, and you must 
instead jump the gap from the top of the left column.

When you're finally past the Spinners and all of those crazy jumps, you'll 
get no relief. You have to jump across five singular midair blocks before you 
finally reach some solid ground. Just take your time and you'll be fine. Once 
on the other side, bust out the Bubble Lead. There are two Spring Bots 
guarding your way into the next area, but thanks to you FINALLY having a 
weapon that can take them down, they're cake. Stay off of their platforms, 
and simply launch Bubble Leads at them from a distance. Three Bubble Leads 
will drop each of them, and when the coast is clear, jump up the platforms, 
then drop down to the ladder. Make sure you keep the Bubble Lead equipped.

As soon as you drop down into the next area, go to the bottom of the ladder,
turn left, and fire three Bubble Leads. This will kill the Spring Bot below
you. You have to jump across disappearing blocks to get past this screen, and
you don't want him down there in case you fall. As for what to do and when,
here is your map:

+----------------------------+
|XX                    XXLLXX|
|XX                      LLXX|
|XX        1B            LLXX|
|XXLLXX            22    LLXX|
|XXLLXX      33          LLXX|
|XXLLXX                  LLXX|
|XXLLXX            1A    LLXX|
|XXLLXX                  LLXX|
|XXLLXX                  LLXX|
|XXLLXX  XX    XX    XX  XXXX|
|XXLLXX                    XX|
|XXLLXX                    XX|
|XXLLXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX|
|XXLLXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX|
+----------------------------+

 X = Solid Ground
 L = Ladder
1A = Block 1A (appears at the same time as Block 1B)
1B = Block 1B (appears at the same time as Block 1A)
 2 = Block 2
 3 = Block 3

This room may seem confusing at first, but it's rather simple. And this room
has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING on the hell that awaits you in the next area, I assure
you. Your goal here is the ladder on the left. To reach it, you'll need to jump
across blocks that appear, then disappear in a set pattern.

The pattern goes as follows:

-Blocks 1A and 1B appear
-Block 2 appears
-just as Blocks 1A and 1B disappear, Block 3 appears
-Block 2 disappears
-just as Block 3 disappears, Blocks 1A and 1B reappear

The pattern repeats infinitely like this, and it's rather easy to get out of
this room when you see what's going on for yourself. But just in case you need
it, here's a step by step rundown of what to do and when:

1 - Jump on Block 1A. You will need to be in midair before the block appears
    to do so.
2 - Jump straight up in the air. Block 2 will appear under you.
3 - Block 3 will appear on your left. Jump on it.
4 - From Block 3, you can reach the ladder on the left. Jump over to it.

If you need extra assurance of reaching the ladder, you can always wait on
Block 3, then jump straight up and slightly to the left. If timed correctly,
Block 1B will appear under you, and from there you can reach the ladder with
ease. Equip the Metal Blade, and drop down the ladder into what I feel is one
of the single coolest areas to ever grace video games. It could also be one of
the most annoying, depending on your point of view of things.

I call this area the Hallway of Hell. There are a ton, and I do mean a ton, of
disappearing blocks to jump on. The first area is just like the area from the
very beginning of the level in that you need to avoid Spinners that infinitely
respawn from holes in the background walls. This isn't all that bad so long as
you have good accuracy with the Metal Blade, but jumping on disappearing blocks
while avoiding the Spinners is a real pain in the ass. And once that's over,
you have a nice, long series of blocks to jump over all while suspended over a
gigantic chasm of lava, then a bottomless pit. The bright side is that you're
at the end of the level once this is over.

Column 1:

       XX
       XX
     11XX
       XX
XXXXXXXXX~~XXXXX

X = Solid Ground
~ = Bottomless Pit
1 = Block 1

You could probably jump over the column in your sleep. When Block 1 appears,
jump on it. From there, jump to the top of the column, and from there, jump
over the bottomless pit. It's easy to do, but make sure you don't get knocked
out of midair by any Spinners mid-jump. After you're past this, Column 2
awaits.

Column 2:

          XX
        22XX
          XX
          XX
        11XX
          XX
          XX
~~XXXXXXXXXX~~XXXXXX

X = Solid Ground
~ = Bottomless Pit
1 = Block 1
2 = Block 2

NOTE: The bottomless pit on the left is the pit that you jumped over when
scaling Column 1.

Column 2 isn't hard to jump over. Wait for Block 1 to appear, then jump on 
it. From there, wait a split second then jump straight up again. Block 2 
will appear under you, and getting over the column is easy from there. It 
should go without saying that you'll need to keep the Spinners away from 
you long enough to allow yourself to make the jump in the first place.

As a final note about this particular column, there is an occasional glitch 
that will prevent the blocks from ever showing up. If you encounter this, bust
out Item 3. Stand one panel away from the wall, deploy it, and it will then
hug the wall and travel upwards. Jump on Item 3 right after you deploy it, and
you'll be just fine. After you clear this column, it's off to the next one.

Column 3:

         XX
         XX
       11MM
         MM
XXXXX~~XXXXXXXX

X = Solid Ground
~ = Bottomless Pit
M = Crash Block
1 = Block 1

Aside from keeping the Spinners off of you (still), there are two things of
note about this column. One, see the metal blocks? Your Metal Blades, or any
other weapon in your arsenal for that matter, cannot go through it. Two, do
not jump over the pit and next to the column. When the block appears, you may
be forced one panel to your left and into the bottomless pit. The way to get
over this column is to clear the Spinners, wait for the block to appear, then
jump on it from the left side of the bottomless pit. From there, it's common
sense.

Column 4:

         XX
         XX
       22XX
         MM
         MM
       11XX
         XX
XXXXX~~XXXXXXXX

X = Solid Ground
~ = Bottomless Pit
M = Crash Block
1 = Block 1
2 = Block 2

This column works like all the rest, though there is a small change in the 
timing as to when blocks 1 and 2 appear. They never appear on the screen at
the same time; when one block disappears, the other appears. This means that
the only way to get over the column is to jump on Block 1 when it appears, then
jump straight up just before Block 1 disappears. Block 2 will appear directly
under you, and from there the column is easy to scale. 

Like the last column, you don't want to jump over and hug the column while 
waiting for the first block to appear. It can knock you one panel left and into
the bottomless pit. As for the Metal Blocks, they're just there for show. In
the time it takes for a Spinner to actually travel through them and hit you,
you'll already have cleared the column.

Whew, only one more to go.

Column 5:

         XX
         XX
         MM
       11MM
XXXXX~~~~XXXXXXXX

X = Solid Ground
~ = Bottomless Pit
M = Crash Block
1 = Block 1

After clearing four of these columns, this one is cake. The one thing of note
here is that the block appears over a bottomless pit, so make sure it's 
actually, you know, THERE before jumping on it. 

After clearing the fifth and final column, you have two simple, enemy-free pits
to jump over. But before doing so, equip the Bubble Lead. After jumping the 
second pit, fire two Bubble Leads and run after them. They'll nail a Spring
Bot, and from there, fire a third Bubble Lead to kill the thing.

NOTE: If you took a different order than what this guide suggests and 
took down Crash Man before Heat Man, you can blow holes through the final
three columns and jump through them a bit easier. Not that using the blocks
is that big a challenge or anything.

What's next is one of the coolest challenges ever. To put it in simple terms,
there is a looooooong set of disappearing blocks that you must jump across in
order to reach the end of this hallway. It sounds difficult, but it's actually
not as bad as you might think. There are only three jumps that cause headaches,
and two of them take place over the solid ground right at the very beginning.
After the solid ground portion ends, the lava portion begins. The blocks in
this section are spaced out almost evenly, so one set jumping pattern, for the
most part, is all you need to get past the lava. The problem with this entire
section comes in the form of the bottomless pit at the end. There is a jump
here that kills virtually everyone who doesn't know what they're doing.

Before tackling the jumps, bear in mind that this one section of this one level
is one of the reasons I wrote this guide in the order I did. Taking down Air
Man before Heat Man means that you currently have Item 2 in your possession. If
you want to take the easy way out, then don't even bother jumping on the midair
platform that is the starting gate for the block jumps. Run under it and to the
right. When you see the lava, jump on the tiny platform that comes before it.
Deploy Item 2 to your right, then jump on it. There is an Extra Life lying on
a similar platform at the end of the lava section, so jump off and grab it if
you feel that you need it. If not, then keep riding Item 2 all the way to the
solid ground on the other side of the bottomless pit. Either way, Item 2 has
enough energy to give you an easy way past the block puzzle.

For the rest of you (TRANSLATION: The real men among you), I made a map of this
entire area:

START ------------------------------------------------------------------------>



                     55    44          99    88    AA
                                                         
                                                         BB    CC    DD    EE
         11    22    33          66    77
XXXXX
XXXXX

                                         XX
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X = Solid Ground
~ = Lava
1 = Block 1
2 = Block 2
3 = Block 3
4 = Block 4
5 = Block 5
6 = Block 6
7 = Block 7
8 = Block 8
9 = Block 9
A = Block A
B = Block B
C = Block C
D = Block D
E = Block E
F = Block F
G = Block G
H = Block H
I = Block I
J = Block J
K = Block K
L = Block L
M = Block M
N = Block N
O = Block O
P = Block P

Whew, that's insane. There are 25 blocks that span over 130 panels of space,
and assuming you do this correctly, you'll touch all but one of the blocks. The
two most difficult jumps in this entire thing are thankfully over solid ground,
so this entire thing isn't as bad as it might seem. It's the size of it all
that intimidates everyone.

Before I even try explaining this mess, let me reiterate that you have Item 2.
If you want to take the easy way out, you have it. If not, read on.

The first thing to remember about this whole thing is that it is NOT as bad as
it may look. There are only three jumps that will cause you any problems, and
two of them are over solid ground. Only the third one is of any concern, and it
can be bypassed when the time comes. The other thing to remember is that even
though the blocks appear in a set order from start to finish, the times that
the blocks appear are not stagnant. There are some pauses that are longer than
others, but again, you luck out. The only time when this really causes a 
problem is when you're over solid ground.

In short, you have all of one problem after getting past the solid ground
section of this particular block puzzle. The parts over the lava and bottomless
pit may _seem_ harder, but they aren't. Those sections being harder is an
intimidation factor more than anything else.

To start this off, jump on Block 1, then Block 2. Wait a split second, then
jump on Block 3. From there, wait a split second, then jump straight in the
air. You'll land on Block 5, and from there you need to hurry up and jump onto
Block 4. Once here, jump three panels to your right to land on Block 6. The
pattern that you used to get from Block 2 to Block 4 is the _exact_ same 
pattern that you need to recognize to get from Block 6 to Block 8. Jump over to
Block 7, then wait a split second and jump straight in the air. Block 9 will
appear under you, and from there it's smooth sailing for a long, long time.

Take a quick look at the entire block pattern. Notice how every single jump to
your right is three panels? Because of this, it's smooth sailing for quite
awhile after you get onto Block 9. From Block 9, all you need to do until the
end of the entire course is to get onto a block, wait a split second, then jump
three panels to your right. Some of the blocks take longer than others to 
appear, but because of the split second wait on each block, any block's
respective delay is nullified.

There is, however, one very notable exception to the three panel rule: Block
M. _DO NOT_ wait a split second before jumping off of this block. As soon as
you get onto it, either jump straight up or three panels to the right. If you
hesitate on this block, you will most likely die. Block M is the block that
trips everyone up for this very reason. After you jump on it, blocks N and O
appear in rapid succession afterwards. Any delay means bouncing off of the 
bottom of Block N and to your death. The way to avoid this is to know it's
coming before it happens. There are three blocks lined up on the same 
horizontal plane over the bottomless pit; blocks K, L, and M. Knowing this, you
can easily prepare for Block M before you even touch it. Once off of Block M
and onto another block safely, all you need to do is follow the three panel
rule until you reach the solid ground on the other side.

Once you're finally past all of this nonsense, equip the Air Shooter. You'll
want to be prepared going into the next screen, because take a wild guess as to
what death means. Don't worry, if you happen to die and feel like using Item 2
to get across the block puzzle, I won't blame you =P

When you're ready, drop down the ladder and make sure you're facing left when
you do. As soon as you land on the ground in the next screen, unleash Air
Shooters until the Hopper goes down. From there, the only enemy standing in
between you and the end of this level is a Sniper Joe. You aren't going to let
a measly old Sniper Joe deter your progress after what you've just been 
through, right? When he goes down, climb down the ladder. Don't worry, there
are no enemies down there. There's just the boss door, and remember to equip
the Bubble Lead before going in.

      Boss: Heat Man
    Weapon: Atomic Fire
  Weakness: Bubble Lead
Difficulty: 7/10

Heat Man is one of those bosses that has the potential to be hard, but is
substantially watered down due to you possessing his weakness. Heat Man's 
pattern isn't difficult at all to see; it's the damage that he causes when he
hits you that makes this fight difficult. Heat Man has one pattern, and like I
said, it's very easy to see. He stands completely still and shoots Atomic Fire
at you until you hit him with something. Once he takes the hit, he lights up in
a blaze of fire for a split second, then turns into fire itself and flies 
across the screen to wherever you were standing when he first took flight. The
catch to Heat Man's pattern is the fact that he stands there and shoots Atomic
Fire until you hit him. Atomic Fire comes at you in a set of three fireballs
that form miniature columns on the ground upon impact, and even though the 
first set is usually easy to avoid, Heat Man's accuracy after that is amazing.
For this reason, you want to prevent him from getting the chance.

The way to tackle this fight is by knowing Heat Man's pattern going in, then
using it against him. If this battle is done correctly, it's done as one fluid
motion until Heat Man dies. When the battle first begins, Heat Man throws 
Atomic Fire at you. It's nearly impossible to avoid, and I personally suggest
not even trying. Right when the battle starts, let loose a Bubble Lead. Both
you and Heat Man will each take a hit, but he takes a lot more damage than you
do. 

From there, Heat Man will light up and fly across the screen at you. His 
destination is the exact spot that you're standing on when he first takes 
flight, so avoid him by running and jumping over him. For as much damage as
Atomic Fire does, contact with Heat Man himself does nearly twice as much. 
Avoid letting him hit you at all costs. As soon as he's on the other side of
you, turn around and let loose a Bubble Lead. If you're fast enough, it will
hit him before he's even able to let loose Atomic Fire, and assuming this 
happens, he'll light himself up and fly across the screen before ever shooting
Atomic Fire at you in the first place. In the event that you're unable to hit
him before he fires upon you, the first Atomic Fire is easily avoided by 
simply running away from him. Just make sure you fire that Bubble Lead before
you do.

Once the Bubble Lead hits Heat Man, he flies across the screen and the pattern
starts all over again. The Bubble Lead causes a ton of damage to Heat Man, and
even if you screw up and get hit by Atomic Fire a couple of times, he'll still
go down well before you do if you avoid contact with him throughout the fight.

When it's all over, both Atomic Fire and the godly Item 1 are yours. Atomic
Fire can be charged to three different levels by holding down the fire button,
with the first level being the weakest and the third level being the strongest.
A fully-charged Atomic Fire is no joke, but it sucks up weapon energy like no
tomorrow. As for Item 1, you'll never have any problems reaching anything
again. It's like Item 3, only it's far better. You can have three of them on
the screen at the same time for starters, and they're also far easier to jump
on after you let them loose. Item 3 may be good for climbing high walls, but
Item 1 can be used to reach ANYTHING that is too high to reach. For a level as
difficult as this one was, the payoff is sure as hell worth it in the end.

=== vi. Wood Man ===

After the literal hell that was Heat Man's level, Wood Man's level will seem
very tame. It's a laid back level set in a forest, and for the most part, the
enemies and traps pose no threat whatsoever.

Equip the Metal Blade (gee, there's a shocker) and go right. When you get close
to the black circles in the trees, the circles reveal themselves as Bats. Bats
move with the same speed as Spinners and Hornettes, and are frankly little more
than an annoyance. They aren't any threat whatsoever, and thanks to the Metal
Blade's ability to be fired upward, Bats go down with ease. The only catch is
that you can't kill them until they actually reveal themselves.

After getting past three Bats, a Rabbit will show up. It takes five Metal 
Blades to bring him down, but considering that Bats also lie in wait above the
Rabbit, it's best to leave the Metal Blade equipped. Rabbits follow the exact
jumping pattern as Hoppers, and like Hoppers, wait until the Rabbit lands
before attacking it. Touching a Rabbit won't cause as much damage to you as
touching a Hopper, but still, damage is damage. Once the Rabbit starts firing
carrots at you, avoid them all while firing Metal Blades at the Rabbit. After
it goes down, keep going right. Two Rabbits and a ton of Bats later, you'll see
a ladder. You know what to do.

As soon as you climb down the ladder, don't move an inch. Let the three Bats
show themselves, then simply cut them to bits by firing Metal Blades down at
them. When they're gone, go down the next ladder. The next screen features a
big, nasty-looking enemy called the Flame Dog. The Flame Dog's attack is to
let loose a ton of fireballs at timed intervals. The flame itself travels in
an odd pattern; it starts by going down, then arcing upward until to flies off
of the top left corner of the screen. 

Of course, none of this matters to you at the moment. As soon as you enter this
area, simply hang on the ladder and fire Metal Blades downward at a 45 degree
angle until the Flame Dog dies. None of its fire can hit you from where you 
are, so enjoy the target practice. After he goes down, go right and into the
next screen. When you get there, don't move. Another Flame Dog will show up,
and this time, you can't weasel your way past him with the Metal Blade from
an odd angle. You can however equip Atomic Fire, charge it to the maximum,
then run up and kill it in one shot. When that's over, go to the next screen.

In the next screen, you have to deal with another Flame Dog. Thankfully, you
can be cheap and take him down with ease by using Metal Blades again. If you
stand on the second platform, a Metal Blade fired at the apex of a jump can hit
the Flame Dog. Without getting anywhere near the damned thing, fire Metal 
Blades using this method until the Flame Dog goes down. Once it does, go into
the next screen. There's nothing there but a lone ladder itching to be climbed,
and the next area has nothing but two Bats itching to be sliced apart. After
they're dead, climb the ladder they're guarding.

The next area not only features a new enemy in the Monkey, but those infernal
Bird Bombers as well. First, the Monkeys. If you're standing on a branch and
see a Monkey hanging from it, stop moving. Monkeys can and will jump up to nail
you if you get too close, and you'll instead want to hang back until the Monkey
jumps up to your level. And when it does, blast it to holy hell. This will
sound like a broken record, but yet again, Metal Blades are recommended here.
Not only does it take a mere three hits to drop a Monkey, but those same Metal
Blades will make it much easier to deal with the Bird Bombers as well.

As for those Bird Bombers, they will appear all through this area in infinite
fashion. Use the Metal Blades, which you didn't have back in Air Man's stage,
to kill the eggs before they touch the ground. If the eggs do touch the ground,
Metal Blades can usually kill most of the birds before they ever get close.
A wonderful strategy to take against Bird Bombers, assuming you're able, is
to fire a Metal Blade _just_ as the egg touches the ground. You'll kill all
eight Birds at once, and will likely receive a ton of powerups in the process.
It is crucial to make sure Atomic Fire is at maximum before leaving this area.

With all that in mind, begin the trek through this area. A Monkey will jump up
and hang from the first branch. Wait for it to come to your level, then carve
it to bits with the Metal Blade. As you continue right, the Bird Bombers will
start showing up. Do whatever you can do about them, then jump to the next 
branch. Another Monkey will show up, and by the time you're able to kill him,
another Bird Bomber will show up. Slice the both of them to bits, then drop 
down onto the next branch. After another Monkey and more Bird Bombers, jump
to the next branch. This is the last branch featuring a Monkey, and once you
move past him, both the Monkeys and the Bird Bombers stop showing up. Thank
goodness.

You still have the Metal Blade on, right? Good. Drop down the ladder, and make
sure you're facing left before you fall into the next screen. If you start 
firing Metal Blades to the left as soon as you touch down in the next screen,
the Rabbit here won't have time to fire a single carrot at you. After you kill
him, switch over to the Bubble Lead, then drop down the next ladder. Once 
there, don't move. The Rabbit's carrots can't hit you, and it takes but three
Bubble Leads to kill the Rabbit here. Switch back to the Metal Blade, then drop
down the next ladder. As soon as you land in the next screen, fire Metal Blades
downwards and to the left at a 45 degree angle. If done fast enough, the Rabbit
here won't fire a single carrot upon you. After his miserable death, go down
yet another ladder.

Another tree area, but don't worry, this is the last screen of the level. 
Before doing anything, remember not to fire any weapons at all here. Ostriches
roam the area, and they like to run at you, then jump over you. Let them.
Trying to kill them is an absolute waste of time, and this entire screen is
little more than a straight run to the end, with the occasional pause to let
an Ostrich jump over you. Your destination is the boss door, and once in the
hallway, slap on Atomic Fire. You know what's next.

      Boss: Wood Man
    Weapon: Leaf Shield
  Weakness: Atomic Fire
Difficulty: 4/10

Wood Man, like so many other bosses in this game, is an easy boss whose sole
difficulty comes from the fact that he can cause a lot of damage, not
necessarily because the fight itself is hard.

Wood Man will stand in his initial spot, throw up a Leaf Shield, then send 
leaves off the top of the screen. As four leaves rain down from the top of the
screen, Wood Man fires the Leaf Shield. After the Leaf Shield and the four
raining leaves are off the screen, Wood Man jumps closer to you and repeats
the pattern all over again. Because Wood Man's attacks cause so much damage,
this fight has the potential to be difficult.

Of course, potential is the key word here. You possess Atomic Fire. As soon as
the fight begins, charge it. Jump over the Leaf Shield when Wood Man finally
decides to let it loose, then unleash the Level Three Atomic Fire of Nuclear
Hell upon his wooden ass. 

After doing the exact same thing once more, the battle ends. Time for some pie.
You get the Leaf Shield for killing Wood Man, which is quite the underrated
powerhouse. The Leaf Shield is brilliant to use when a ton of little enemies
are flying at you (Bird Bombers and their infernal little pets are a perfect
example), as well as when you're on a moving platform that prevents you from
defending against enemies well. In fact, another reason this guide is written
in the order that it's in is so that you have the Lead Shield before going into
Crash Man's level. You'll see why.

=== vii. Crash Man ===

Under most circumstances, Crash Man's level is an absolute pain in the ass. 
There aren't a lot of traps, but there are a lot of little enemies that are
positioned in the most annoying of places. There are a ton of ladders to climb
while dealing with Bird Bombers, not to mention a few Spinner-infested moving
platforms to scale as well. But you have a lovely arsenal of weapons that will
effectively nullify all of that.

For once, the beginning of a level has something other than going right and
killing things to start off. The first few screens of Crash Man's level are all
about going up while avoiding Spinners. This would present a mild challenge if
you didn't possess the Metal Blade and Lead Shield, but thankfully, we went off
and got those weapons already.

The first screen is a small one, and features three ladders to climb. There are
three pipes present on this screen, and like the holes in the walls during Heat
Man's stage, the pipes release Spinners indefinitely. This screen could be 
quite the annoyance, but again, you have the Metal Blade. Slap it on, kill the
three Spinners (the maximum allowed on the screen at any given time), then jump
up to the second ladder. You should be able to use that ladder to climb up and
out of the screen before any more Spinners even get close.

After climbing the ladder to the next screen, use the Metal Blade to kill all
three Spinners on the screen. Jump over to the ladder on your right, then climb
it. The Spinners will reappear by this point, but all you need to do is kill
the one on your left side, then jump over to the ladder and climb out of the
screen.

In the next screen, you'll discover that the Metools are back. They're much
faster this time around, and even though they still have the same pattern of
opening up and firing three shots at you after you get too close, the Metools
will then run at you afterwards. The bullets themselves are much faster this
time around; not only that, but they are fired at the exact moment the Metool
pops up from under its hard hat. The way to deal with this newer, faster
Metool is to not try getting the jump on it. It will easily be able to counter
you; instead, concentrate on avoiding its bullets, then killing it before it
closes up again. It only takes one Plasma Beam attack to off the little guy, so
this isn't a particularly difficult task. Simply run up to the Metool until it
opens, retreat, then kill it once you scale the bullets. After disposing of
the three Metools in this area, climb the ladder and move on.

The next few screens involve jumping on moving platforms, then staying on them
until you're close enough to jump to the ladders that allow you to move on.
The first two screens are easy enough, but the third such screen is one of the
big reasons why this guide suggests going after the Lead Shield before coming 
to this place. Jumping on a platform and waiting until you reach a ladder is
easy, but having to avoid or kill infinitely respawning Spinners in the 
process is not. In all three of these screens, the Spinners appear from the 
left and right sides of the screen itself in infinite fashion, but again, only
three Spinners can be on the screen at any given time.

The first screen is very easy. The platform's path is a giant rectangle that
serves as a very direct route to the above ladder. Slap on the Plasma Beam, 
then jump on the platform when it gets close. You'll find yourself on the left
side of all three Spinners soon enough, and from there you can easily kill all
of them. The rest of this screen is nothing but a simple ride to the ladder at
the top, and once you're there, hop on.

NOTE: If you need to recharge weapons or energy, this is the screen to do it.
The Spinners are a joke to kill, and they never stop coming. You could
conceivably do this on either of the next two screens as well, but why wait?

The next screen features a platform that takes somewhat of an irregular path
to get to the top ladder, but again, it's easily done with the Plasma Beam.
When the platform gets close, jump on it. Kill the Spinner on your left when
you're able, and if you feel like it, drop one of the Spinners on the right as
well. From there, it's an easy ride all the way up to the ladder.

The third and final screen in this sequence is the one that causes the 
headaches. The platform takes absolutely forever to get you to the ladder up
top, and you have to stay safe on that platform for a very long time if you
want to move on. Thankfully, there is an easy way to get past this. Bust out
the Leaf Shield, jump on the platform when it gets close, then put up a Leaf
Shield. The ride on this platform may take awhile, but so long as you don't 
move an inch, the Lead Shield will stay up. Have fun laughing at all the 
Spinners as they haplessly kill themselves on your Leaf Shield, then jump up
to the ladder once you're finally near it. 

Even though the next screen is rather large, it's nothing more than one 
Quadbarrel guarding a ladder. Better yet, the ground is perfectly even. This 
makes dealing with the Quadbarrel quite simple. Shoot it from as far away as
you can, then watch as the three barrels fall harmlessly in front of you. 
Repeat this once more to kill it, then climb up the ladder it was guarding.

The next screen is nothing more than a climb up the same ladder, so have fun
holding Up for awhile. On the next screen, the ladder finally ends. Once at the
top, you'll see a ladder on the left side of the screen and three midair
platforms. The left platform houses a Metool, the center platform is empty, and
the right platform is the one you're currently standing on. To get past the
Metool, you'll need to jump to the center platform, shoot at it, then quickly
jump back to the right platform. If done fast enough, the Metool will die and
you'll barely avoid all of the bullets. With him out of the way, you're free
to make yet another climb upward.

Once on the next screen, you have two ladders that you can take and a Metool
to kill. First, drop the Metool by using the exact strategy from the last
screen. From here, you have a choice to make between the two ladders. Save 
yourself the hassle and go up the right ladder. The left ladder leads to en
Energy Tank, but you have to go through a Shooter to get it; furthermore, you
can still get the Energy Tank even by going up the right ladder. The left
ladder, for all intents and purposes, is a complete waste of time that will 
only cause more trouble than what it's worth.

Regardless, remember to equip the Leaf Shield before climbing. The thing to
remember all throughout these next few screens is that you are about to be
hammered mercilessly by Bird Bombers, and while on ladders no less. The only
way to get past all of this painlessly is to deploy a Leaf Shield as the Birds
get close. They'll all die, and you're free to continue climbing. There are
two catches. Obviously, you don't want to get hit here. Taking a hit means that
you'll get knocked down a ladder a little bit, and in areas in which you don't
have solid ground on either side of you, this means that you'll not only fall
down the ladder, but into the next screen as well. Secondly, you may gain
Weapon Capsules or Energy Pellets while sitting there and letting Birds kill
themselves in your Leaf Shield. If this happens on a ladder, Mega Man will drop
off of the ladder as if he let go of it. In this case, you'll need to press Up
to catch the ladder again. Your Leaf Shield will fly up when you do this, so
you will need to deploy another one if Birds are still close by.

Got all that? When you're ready, climb up the right ladder. In the next area,
you're given another choice between two ladders. Drop off the ladder that 
you're currently on and take the ladder on the far right of the screen. 
Remember to keep those Leaf Shields up when dealing with the Birds, and you'll
be just fine. In the next screen, you have a straight climb up a ladder that
features solid ground on either side of you. This is an absolute blessing,
because if you happen to take a hit from one of the Bird Bomber's little brats,
you're guaranteed to fall straight down. In this instance, all you need to do
is press Up, catch the ladder, and continue your climb. The beauty of this 
screen is that it's the last screen featuring Bird Bombers. Whew. You'll also
notice a Shooter on your left that happens to be facing the wrong way. Had you
taken the left ladder at the beginning of all this, you would have had to deal
with him. But from where you currently are, you're safe.

At the top of the long climb, you'll see the Energy Tank mentioned earlier. To
reach it, you can easily drop down to where it is, and after that, a simple
Item 1 is all you need to get back up to where you were. Thanks to Item 1, you
can avoid the hassle that is choosing the left ladder at the beginning of all
this nonsense and still wind up with the Energy Tank at the end. 

Before climbing the next ladder, take note of the suspended ladder on the left
side of the screen. If you want an Extra Life in the next screen, bust out Item
2. Deploy it while facing left, then ride it until you're under the ladder. 
Jump up, and you're in business. But in the next area, don't climb all the way
up. There are Jumpers here, and before climbing up to get the extra life, let
two Jumpers fly over you. A small gap shows up in their appearance pattern 
after this, and this gives you more than enough time to run up, grab the Extra
Life, and equip the Metal Blade.

The only thing standing between you and the boss door at this point are three
points from which Jumpers originate from. But you have the Metal Blade. Carve
the hell out of them while moving right, then break for the boss door. Make 
sure you equip the Air Shooter before entering the battle against Crash Man.

      Boss: Crash Man
    Weapon: Crash Bomb
  Weakness: Air Shooter
Difficulty: 3/10

Crash Man is one of the most overrated bosses in the entire Mega Man series,
to be blunt. 

As soon as the battle starts, run left. Do not jump or shoot. Crash Man will
run at you and do nothing. When he is bearing down on you, jump, then fire an
Air Shooter to the right. Crash Man will jump into the Air Shooter, go flying
over your head, then plant a Crash Bomb in the ground behind you as you easily
run away from it all.

Now, continue running to the right side of the room. When you're about to reach
the right wall, jump right, then turn around and fire another Air Shooter at
Crash Man on your way down. He'll jump into the shot and over your head again,
and all that's left from here is to hit him with a third and final Air Shooter.

With a good knowledge of this pattern and a little practice, you could 
probably beat him with just the Plasma Beam if you felt like it. But with the
Air Shooter in hand, an easy fight becomes even easier. It sucks that the part
of this level that you actually had to prepare for were the ladders with the
Bird Bombers, but hey, it happens. When the battle is over, the Crash Bombs are
all yours. Don't let the battle with Crash Man fool you; the Crash Bomb kicks
ass, and it's most notable for its ability to break Crash Blocks. As a weapon,
the Crash Bomb fires straight ahead, locks onto a wall, and explodes. If it
hits an enemy, it will usually do [a lot of] damage without exploding.

Seven robot masters down, one to go. Both Quick Man and his level are easily
the hardest robot master and level among the original eight, so make sure 
you're good and ready before moving on.

=== viii. Quick Man ===

This level is nice and fast, but it's also hard as anything. The highlight of
this level are the Quick Beams. There are two sets of screens on which you must
spiral downward as fast as you fast while barely avoiding Quick Beams time and
time again en route to the bottom. If you touch any of the Quick Beams, it
means instant death. It's difficult to pull off, but this is one of those 
levels in which it's fun getting your ass kicked. The music and level design of
this place can do that to you =)

When the level first begins, you'll see an Extra Life on a high wall to your
left. If you want it, then bust out Item 1 or 3 and go grab it. From there,
equip the Metal Blade (gee, WHAT a surprise) and drop down into the next 
screen. Once there, you'll have two Wormers to deal with. The Wormer to the far
left is easily taken down by a Metal Blade, but for the one closest to you, 
you'll need to jump over it, then fire a Metal Blade downward. The screen after
this has nothing substantial on it. All it is is the calm before the storm, in
a sense. As soon as you drop down into the next screen, you'll have Quick Beams
to get past. 

When you go down into the next screen, make sure that you jump as far to the
left as you can. Also, slap on the Bubble Lead.

Screen 1: The first Quick Beam screen is relatively tame. There are only two
          Quick Beams, and as long as you jumped as far left as possible in the
          last screen, you'll easily avoid them. To get past the Spring Bot in
          this area, land on the step above it to its right. The second Quick
          Beam cannot touch you here, and you're free to use the Bubble Lead to
          kill the Spring Bot. From there, you're free to drop down into the
          next screen.

Screen 2: This screen is a straight shot downward. As soon as you enter the
          screen, direct Mega Man so that he falls just to the right of the
          midair platforms.

Screen 3: As you fall into this screen, you'll land right on a Spring Bot. This
          is a good thing, because the temporary invincibility from the damage
          caused will give you a free pass to run to the right and drop down
          into an area with powerups on the next screen. Even if the Quick Beam
          manages to clip you, you're invincible. 

In this hidden area, you'll find an Extra Life, an Energy Tank, and a Weapon
Capsule. Not bad. Grab them all, make sure the Bubble Lead is equipped, then
drop down into the next screen. Don't worry, you don't have to deal with any
more Quick Beams for a bit.

In the next area, the screen goes dark. It will remain this way until you go
farther right and encounter a Hothead. Hotheads serve little purpose other than
lighting up the screen, but they will happily launch Fireballs at you if you
let them be for long enough. When you encounter a Hothead, run up to it and
fire the Bubble Lead at it three times. If you're fast enough, you'll kill it
before it even shoots. This hallway is rather simple. All you have to do is
run right, jump every once in awhile, and paste the Hotheads with Bubble Leads
when they reveal their ugly mugs. There are three Hotheads in this area 
altogether, and once you reach the end of the hallway, you'll see a pitfall 
that serves as a drop into the next screen. You know what's coming next. 
Through the next _SEVEN SCREENS_, you have to get past a ton of Quick Beams.
You could conceivably get past the first two screens, then activate the Time
Stopper, but I recommend against this. First of all, the Time Stopper is a 
HIGHLY recommended weapon for the battle against Quick Man himself. He is a
difficult boss, and the Time Stopper will syphon away half of his life before
the battle actually starts if you go in with the Time Stopper at full energy.
The other problem with using the Time Stopper to get past this set of Quick
Beams is the fact that the only enemies left in this stage are Hoppers. You
COULD kill the Hoppers over and over until Time Stopper is fully regenerated,
but it's much easier to simply go through the screens without using the Time
Stopper at all. I recommend only using the Time Stopper if you are absolutely
stuck and feel like you absolutely cannot get past the Quick Beam screens
otherwise.

When you're ready, drop down the pit, and for the love of God, hold down Left
when you do.

Screen 1: Assuming you held Left when dropping down into this screen, you'll
          land to the right of a suspended platform that is two panels wide.
          Make a jump that only covers enough height to get on the platform,
          then run left. As soon as you begin to fall off the platform, hold 
          down the Right button. Mega Man will run all the way to the platform
          at the bottom of the screen with Quick Beams whizzing by his head the
          entire time. The _VERY SECOND_ that you drop off the right side of
          the bottom platform, hold down the Left button.

Screen 2: If you fell to the left enough, you'll land on the center platform.
          Go right until you're at the right side of the bottom platform, and
          the _VERY SECOND_ you begin to begin to drop off the right side of
          this platform, hold down the Left button.

Screen 3: This screen is not difficult, but it helps if you got the jump on it
          by having Mega Man fall to his left before entering the screen in the
          first place. You'll land on a platform high in the air, but you'll
          easily be able to run off of it before anything bad happens. From
          there, continue running left until you're out of the screen. This
          should go without saying, but ignore the Weapon Capsule. As you drop
          into the next screen, hold down the Right button.

Screen 4: If you got the jump on this screen by having Mega Man go right from
          the very start, then you should be able to clear this screen without
          incident. You'll land on the top platform to start, but a simple run
          to the right will get you past all of the Quick Beams. The most
          difficult Quick Beam to avoid here is the last one. The only way to
          do it is to be as fast as possible at the beginning of the screen,
          and then as soon as you begin falling off of the third platform, hold
          down the Left button. This should buy you enough time to get past the
          final Quick Beam. As you drop into the next screen, hold down the 
          Left button.

Screen 5: The key to this next screen is not to touch ground. You'll miss out
          on an Extra Life, but you've already gotten two Extra Lives in this
          level as is. Another Extra Life would simply be overkill. As soon as
          you enter this screen, direct Mega Man so that he will fall into the
          next screen by way of the panel that lies to the left of the platform
          with the Extra Life on it. And as you fall into the next screen, hold
          down the Right button.

Screen 6: This screen is very easy, so long as you came into it at the right
          spot. You'll land on a platform high in the air. Run right until you
          drop off the first platform, run left until you drop off the second
          platform, and as you go into the next screen, hold down the Right
          button.

Screen 7: Last one! From where you currently stand, run right and drop off of
          the platform. Drop straight down (ignore the Weapon Capsule,
          obviously), and as soon as you land on the bottom platform, bolt to
          the left and get out of this place.

As you can see, the main idea behind getting past the Quick Beam screens 
without dying is to get the jump on the next screen before you're even there.
Even if you have trouble here, it will eventually come with practice, and even
if you run out of lives a couple of times, it isn't hard to get back to those
screens. Just keep at it, and you'll eventually surprise yourself as to how
easily you got past the screens. The first two screens are the most difficult,
and the final five are all about knowing where to go before you go, and
preparing accordingly. Ignoring any and all items that you see also helps,
obviously.

As soon as you drop into the area below the Quick Beam screens, there is no
rest for the weary. A Hopper will bear down on you, so make sure to bust out
the Air Shooter upon entering this screen. Take out the Hopper with the Air
Shooter, then have fun killing the Sniper Joe however you please. From there,
bust out the Air Shooter again. You have one final Hopper/Sniper Joe duo to
kill before finally reaching the boss door.

NOTE: After killing the second Hopper, DO NOT go backwards. Not only will the
first Hopper respawn, but the second one will come back as well.

When all of that is finally out of the way, enter the boss door. If you don't
have full health at this point, I recommend letting Quick Man kill you once.
Even with full health and the Time Stopper, he is an absolute chore to bring
down. Finally, when you're good and ready, bust out the Time Stopper and enter
Quick Man's chambers.

      Boss: Quick Man
    Weapon: Quick Boomerang
  Weakness: Time Stopper
Difficulty: 9/10

Quick Man may use a weapon similar to that of Cut Man from Mega Man 1, but 
unlike Cut Man, Quick Man is no joke. For starters, Quick Man is fast (as if
you couldn't tell by his name). Quick Man isn't just normal fast, either. This
guy runs all over the room and jumps all over the place so quickly that he's
insanely difficult to even hit. To make matters worse, the ground in his room
is uneven. This not only makes hitting him difficult, but trying to avoid 
contact with him is difficult as well. 

Oh, but it gets even better. You can't weasel your way past him by using the
Metal Blade, either. The Metal Blade, as well as the Bubble Lead and Leaf 
Shield, do no damage to him at all. On top if that, the Air Shooter, a weapon
that is actually able to hit him somewhat consistently, only does two bars of
damage to him.

On top of all _that_, there is still the matter of Quick Man's weapon to deal
with. When he fires the Quick Boomerang, he actually fires three of them. They
fly at you with blinding speed, stop, then fly at you with blinding speed once
again until they fly off the screen. These Boomerangs are damn near impossible
to avoid, and cause quite a bit of damage when they inevitably hit you.

But thanks to saving Quick Man for last, you have options. First and foremost,
bust out the Time Stopper and use it right when the fight starts. A full Time
Stopper will take off half of Quick Man's health right off the bat, and even
though you'll likely take your hits later, you already have a two to one edge
on Quick Man in terms of health. It makes the fight a lot easier, especially
considering you have other weapons that can cause a fair amount of damage to
him once the Time Stopper is finished.

As soon as the Time Stopper runs out, bust out either the Crash Bombs or Atomic
Fire. If you manage to hit Quick Man twice with a level three Atomic Fire, he
dies. If you decide to use Crash Bombs, you only need to hit Quick Man four 
times.

Believe it or not, it's much easier to use Crash Bombs to finish off this 
fight. Atomic Fire may be the sexier option, but you only get one shot at 
hitting Quick Man once you spend all of that time charging the weapon up. With
Crash Bombs, however, there is a larger margin for error. My favorite strategy
here is to stand on the left side of the room and plant a Crash Bomb in the
left wall. Not only is Quick Man apt to jump right into the blast, but he has
a habit of standing there while the same explosion hits him two or three times.
Do this once or twice, and Quick Man will go down.

When the battle is over, the Quick Boomerang is all yours. The Quick Boomerang
is an amazing weapon, even though you receive it last. Given a full energy bar,
you can fire off 224 Quick Boomerangs before running out of weapon energy on
the thing. The Quick Boomerang follows the exact trajectory as the Rolling
Cutter in Mega Man 1, though this time around, it's much faster. Not only that,
but you can hold down the fire button and let loose a barrage of Quick 
Boomerangs on any enemy dumb enough to stand in front of you for too long.

=== ix. Dr. Wily Stage 1 ===

As soon as you're done with the robot masters, you see Wily's saucer fly across
the screen and eventually into Wily's castle. Unlike Mega Man 1, you can 
actually see how far you have to go before you reach Wily thanks to a map of
the levels that appear on screen. It's a nice touch that sticks around all the
way until the end of the series.

When the level first starts, bust out the Metal Blade and begin running right.
Bird Bombers are about to show up, but you're well aware of how to tear them
to shreds by now. Keep running right along the somewhat level ground, keep
taking out the Birds, and run until you see a gray building. The only way to 
scale it is with either Item 1 or Item 3, so deploy whichever one you wish and
use it to reach the top of the building. Once at the top, bust out the Metal
Blade again. Before jumping off the building, take note of the Wormer below 
you. Kill it with the Metal Blade from where you currently stand, then drop
down. Continue right, and you'll encounter four more Wormers in succession. 
Kill all of them with the Metal Blade, then run right until you encounter 
another gray building. Scale it with either Item 1 or 3 again, then equip the
Metal Blade upon reaching the top. There is another Wormer to the right of this
building for you to shoot down. Once it's dead, drop down to its area. There 
will be another Wormer on a ledge above you, but it goes down easily to a
well-placed Metal Blade. From there, the only way up is with either Item 1 or
3. Bust out Item 1, and deploy it so that it will squeeze through the narrow
passageway on the right. If you want the Extra Life, then jump off Item 1 and
go grab it. From there, equip Item 3, drop down to the area below you, and
deploy Item 3 on the right wall. Ride it up, then jump onto the ladder.

On the next screen, you'll see a Sniper Joe guarding a Weapon Capsule. Instead
of climbing up to meet the Sniper Joe, stay where you are and fire Metal Blades
at him from underneath. When he goes down, equip whatever weapon needs to be
recharged the most (most likely either Item 1 or Item 3), grab the Weapon 
Capsule, then climb the ladder up into the next screen. Make sure you equip
the Metal Blade before climbing, though.

On the next screen, you'll see another Sniper Joe waiting to shoot you at the
top of the ladder. Luckily for you, you can kill him without moving. Stay 
where you are, blast the hell out of him whenever he drops his shield, and 
laugh at his miserable demise. After he goes down, climb the ladder he was
guarding. 

When you reach the next screen, don't move. Stay on the ladder and wait for the
Spring Bot to pass over you, _then_ climb the ladder that you're on. From 
there, bust out Item 1 and climb the ladder on your right. 

The next screen seems simple enough to get through with Item 1, but the trick
is that you'll need four platforms to reach the ladder on the other side of the
screen. To pull this off, don't move after entering the screen. While still
hanging on the ladder, deploy an Item 1 to your left. From there, quickly climb
the ladder and jump on the Item 1 you just created. Once on it, deploy another
Item 1 to your left. Jump on the second Item 1 and deploy a third Item 1 to 
your left. Wait for the first Item 1 to disappear (you can't have more than
three of them on the screen at any given time), then let loose another Item 1
to your left. This fourth Item 1 will be close enough to the ladder to allow
you to jump on it. 

Climb the ladder into the next screen, and do NOT stop climbing. There are
Spinners on this screen, and if you hang around to confront them, you may get
knocked off the ladder and be forced to go through the Item 1 screen again.
Simply climb up the ladder past the Spinners altogether. Once at the top, you
have nothing more than a straight run to the boss of the level.

Sort of. Equip the Quick Boomerang, then begin running right. You'll eventually
find yourself in a dark room with a couple of long platforms. No big deal, 
right? Not exactly. As you continue right, you'll have to start jumping across
suspended blocks in midair. It seems simple, but it's not. First of all, the
Mech Dragon will shoot up from behind you while you're jumping right. If you
touch the Mech Dragon, it's instant death. The other challenge with this area
is the fact that the screen will eventually start moving by itself. The 
tendency is to jump forward a little bit, then watch as the next block in the
sequence goes under you, but it doesn't work that way. You have to make every
jump as if the screen weren't moving at all, because once you stop in midair,
you move left along with the screen. It's a pain, but that's the way it works.
The best advice I can give when jumping away from the Mech Dragon and to the
right is to always have a running start when jumping.

When you finally reach the end of the jumps, you will see three blocks laid out
like so:

XX


    XX

XX

Once there, the Mech Dragon's health bar will appear and the fight begins.

      Boss: Mech Dragon
  Weakness: Quick Boomerang
Difficulty: 9/10

A great deal of the Mech Dragon's difficulty comes from the fact that you 
cannot screw up. One slip means instant death at the hands of the bottomless
pit below, and if you accidentally touch the Mech Dragon, you will also suffer
instant death. And even when going about the fight normally, the Mech Dragon
is no joke when it comes to causing damage. Even if you manage to stay on
solid ground after taking a hit, his singular fireballs cause a lot of damage,
and the damage caused by a long chain of fireballs is unheard of. Furthermore,
the only way to really stay on solid ground after taking a hit is if you get
shot while on the top platform. 

Thankfully, there is a really easy way to get past all of the drama surrounding
this battle.

1 - Stand on the middle platform.
2 - When the Mech Dragon shoots a fireball at you, jump to the top platform.
3 - Shoot five Quick Boomerangs.
4 - Jump to the middle platform. Mech Dragon will shoot a Fireball that goes
    well over your head.
5 - Repeat until Mech Dragon dies.

As pathetic as that looks, it works like a charm. All you need to do is to make
sure to hit your jumps. When that's over, it's off to the next area of Wily's
Castle.

=== x. Dr. Wily Stage 2 ===

This is a level that is absolutely filled to the core with spikes, so be ready.
When the level first starts, you're handed a Weapon Capsule. Refill whatever
you need to refill, then equip the Metal Blade and move right. Jumpers will
soon show up, but the Metal Blade nullifies them completely. There are three
points in the ceiling from which Jumpers originate, and after moving past all
three of them, you will see spikes and a Weapon Capsule. Refill whatever you
need, then bust out Item 2.

The only way to get past these spikes, obviously, is to use Item 2. Deploy it,
then jump on. After a looooong ride on Item 2, you'll notice an easy to reach
ladder. Ignore it. There is a second ladder at the tail end of the spikes, and
even though it may not look like it, you can jump just BARELY high enough to
reach it. Do so, and grab the Energy Tank that is in this secret ledge. The
level splits in half at this point, but you have the better end of it by far.
Go down the ladder here, and treat yourself to an Extra Life and nine Weapon
Capsules. Equip the Plasma Beam, then climb down the ladder into the next 
screen.

Once here, blast the topmost Shooter, then stay still. When the second Shooter
on the screen changes the trajectory of its bullets, go down and blast him as
well. From here, you have access to two ledges containing an Extra Life and an
Energy Tank, respectively. All you need to do is equip the Crash Bombs and blow
away the walls guarding the items.

Take care when going into the next screen. There are spikes, so you don't want
to simply fall into the next screen; instead, climb down the ladder into the
next screen, then guide Mega Man right and through the hole in the floor. The
next area absolutely rocks. The Drills are back, and thanks to the fact that
they never know when to quit, you can sit in this hallway as long as you want
until all of your weapons an energy are filled. When the time comes for you to
finally move past this section, you have two options. You can use the same
strategy you used in Metal Man's stage (wait for a wave of Drills to pass, move
right a little, wait for a wave to pass move right a little, etc.), or you can
bust out the Leaf Shield and unleash all that is unholy upon yon evil Drills in
one fell swoop. The choice is yours.

At the end of the Drill hallway lies a Guillotine. You remember how this works,
right? Get close enough so that the Guillotine drops, then run under it as it's
going back up. After you get past that Guillotine, you reach a wall. The only
way to scale it is to use Item 3, so equip it. Deploy an Item 3 on the wall, 
and as you jump on it, the Guillotine that is guarding the top platform will
come down. Item 3 will bring you to the top of the wall as the Guillotine 
rises, and if you make a small jump when getting to the top of the wall, you
should be able to barely scoot under it. After getting past three more 
Guillotines, you will see a ladder. Take a wild guess as to what you need to
do next. The only catch is that you have to fall into the next screen, but 
that's fine. Don't move in either direction, and in the next screen, you'll
land on a midair platform high above some spikes and a hole in the floor. From
there, jump to the platform suspended over the hole in the floor. 

When falling into the next screen, hold left. You'll land on a midair platform,
and from there you'll be able to use Item 2 to reach an Energy Pellet. From 
there, jump into the hole in the exact center of the floor and to the boss of
the level.

      Boss: Wall Bots
  Weakness: Bubble Lead
Difficulty: 5/10

The easiest way to tackle this fight is to know what's going to happen before
it actually happens. 

First and foremost, the Wall Bots resemble Protobubbleman of Mega Man 1 fame in
that you aren't killing a singular enemy. In the case of the Wall Bots, you
have 14 enemies to take down in a row. Secondly, a Wall Bot appears by way of
two of the blocks in this room coming together from opposite sides. When the
Wall Bot materializes, it will then fly at you while firing bullets at you. 
The bullets are nothing to worry about, but contact with a Wall Bot, be it 
while the blocks are coming together for their fusion or from the Wall Bot
itself, will cause a lot of damage.

The entire key to defeating the Wall Bots are to have the Bubble Lead in hand
and know where the Wall Bots are coming from. If you can manage this, then you
already have the fight won. The following diagram depicts the order that the
Wall Bots appear in:
           
         _     _
        |_|   |_|
 _ _ _ _|_|   |_|_ _ _ _
|_|9|D|4|B|   |_|8|5|C|_|
|7|                   |7|
|_|                   |_|
|1|                   |1|
|_|                   |_|
|6|                   |6|
|2|                   |2|
|_|                   |_|
|A|                   |A|
|3|_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _|3|
|_|D|9|B|4|_|_|8|5|C|_|_|

The Wall Bots come out starting with 1, and ending with D. One point to 
remember about this battle is that the best place to be is the center of the
room. The blocks are never used for Wall Bots, and it gives you more than
enough time to react to everything. Another thing to remember is that Wall Bots
1 and 7 cannot be hit as soon as they appear unless you decide to use something
other than the Bubble Lead against them. Finally, don't fire a Bubble Lead upon
a Wall Bot right when the blocks fuse together. Wait a split second, THEN fire
it. 

With all that in mind, this battle should wind up being rather simple. After
all, it only takes one Bubble Lead to kill a Wall Bot. 14 Wall Bot deaths
later, and you're on your way.

Gotspork also suggests that the Metal Blades are a good weapon to use here. It
only takes three of them to take down a Wall Bot, and because you can hit the
Wall Bots from virtually any position, it's a good strategy for those who don't
like trying to hit the Wall Bots in midair with the Bubble Lead.

=== xi. Dr. Wily Stage 3 ===

This level is short, but like the last one, it's filled with spikes. From the
platform that you start on, drop down into the screen below from the right side
of the platform. You'll land on a midair platform, and with the help of some
Crash Bombs, you'll be able to reach an Energy Tank. From there, go down to the
other midair platform, then break through the next set of Crash Blocks and 
refill your Crash Bombs with the Weapon Capsule.

When dropping down into the next screen, jump and hold right. You don't want to
miss landing in the next screen altogether. You'll land on a platform opposite
a Hermit Crab. Bust out the Metal Blade and shred it to bits when it goes right
a little. To reach the two Weapon Capsules here, go to where the Hermit Crab
was and use Item 1. When you've grabbed both Weapon Capsules, drop down into
the next screen. But when you do, make sure you use the panel to the direct
left of the central platform.

When falling into the next screen, you'll go underwater and land on a platform.
The jumps in this area would typically be impossible, but thanks to the fact
that you're underwater, you'll be able to clear them just fine. There are no
enemies to start off, so all you need to do is to start jumping. None of the 
jumps are difficult, but make sure not to rush into anything. You're still 
dealing with spikes and bottomless pits, so one wrong move means death. You'll
occasionally see a Shark jump up after you after you clear a jump. They're 
barely a threat, but it's funny to drop them with one hit by using the Quick
Boomerang =)

After clearing the jumps, you'll find yourself in a hallway with spikes lining
the ceiling. They can't touch you, but they're nice and intimidating. At the
end of the hallway, you'll see that the only way to move on is to go down, and
the only way to go down is by dropping down a spike-infested drop.

The next few screens are one giant free fall, and in all of them, spikes 
litter the walls. Don't worry, it isn't all that bad, and it doesn't come 
anywhere close to being as annoying as the Quick Beams. After dropping down
from the initial screen, move left a little bit. Once in the next screen, move
left a little bit more. Stay still after that, because it's nothing more than
a straight drop onto some solid ground. 

There are no enemies here, so all you need to do is avoid the spikes en route
to the passageway at the bottom of the screen. Once there, fall down into the
next screen, but make sure to hug the right wall. When you drop down into the
next screen, you'll barely avoid two well-placed spikes before dropping onto
some more solid ground. From there, it's a small walk and a quick jump before
you're out of the water and onto land again.

Don't jump down below yet, however. Bust out the Metal Blade, go right a 
little, and have fun taking out the Shooter with ease. Drop down to where the
Shooter was, and from here, the only thing standing between you and the boss
door are two Shooters. Bust out the Leaf Shield, laugh as they each go down 
from one attack each, equip the Quick Boomerang, and get ready to take on an
old nemesis.

      Boss: Guts Dozer
  Weakness: Quick Boomerang
Difficulty: 6/10

Remember Guts Man from Mega Man 1? He's back with a vengeance, if you can count
being in the form of a giant bulldozer vengeance. 

The Guts Dozer follows a rather basic pattern. After taking an eternity to drag
his ugly ride onto the screen, he starts firing shot at you from his head. The
shot are fast, but because they start from such a high point and go up before 
finally going at you, they're easy to avoid. If you let the Guts Dozer hang
around in the battle long enough, the little door on his stomach will open up
and begin bouncing Metools at you. The Metools don't stop to fire, and instead
continue bouncing until they fly off the left side of the screen.

The key here is to act quickly and take the initiative. With the Quick 
Boomerang in hand, jump onto the Guts Dozer. Avoid his bullets as best as you
can while jumping up and firing Quick Boomerangs at his head. It only takes 14
Quick Boomerangs to drop the Guts Dozer, and even if you get hit a few times,
you should still be able to win this fight with relative ease. If you're fast
enough, the Guts Dozer will go down before the Metools even show up. Either 
way, the Guts Dozer will be nearly dead by the time you have to deal with 
Metools, but if you want to pull back and deal with them, knock yourself out.
Just remember that the Quick Boomerang can be rapidly fired by holding down
the fire button, and you'll be just fine.

When the Guts Dozer goes down, you move on to the final Wily stage before you
reach the skull on the map of Wily's Castle. Almost there!

=== xii. Dr. Wily Stage 4 ===

This is the second to last level in the game, and within it, there are trap
floors all over the place. But you're reading an FAQ, so they shouldn't cause
too many problems =)

At the beginning of the level, IGNORE THE WEAPON CAPSULES. You'll see why 
later. Just climb the ladder. On the next screen, a Metool guards the top of
the ladder. Climb the ladder, fire at the Metool when it opens, then go back 
onto the ladder. If you're fast enough, the Metool will go down while you avoid
his attack. Ignore the Extra Life and climb the ladder the Metool was guarding.

When you reach the next screen, you'll see a Metool on a small ledge, a ledge
above the Metool, and two ladders. The ladder on the left is your way to get
the Extra Life you just saw, and both ladders can also be used to reach the
next screen. The catch here is that there is a false floor above the Metool.
To kill the Metool, get on its ledge, run at it, shoot it as it opens, then run
back to the ladder and climb. After the Metool's bullets pass you, go back to
its ledge and equip Item 1. The final two panels on the left side of this ledge
are a false floor, so use Item 1 to simply ride through the ceiling. Jump off
of Item 1, go left, and drop down into the area below to claim your Extra Life.
Climb the ladder back up to the screen above this, then climb it to get out of
this screen.

If you try to walk right, you'll fall through a false floor and you'll be stuck
in the room below. Before that happens, bust out Item 1 again. The third and
fourth panels of the floor above you are fake. You can jump and see for 
yourself. When you know where the fake floor is, deploy Item 1, ride it through
the fake floor, and then climb the ladder into the next screen.

This screen features a short walk to a ladder on the right, followed by a short
walk over a seemingly solid floor over some spikes. Getting to the ladder is
easy enough, but as you can probably guess, there is a fake floor above the
spikes. Lucky for you, there is no more than one fake floor, and you can easily
see where it is by firing a Bubble Lead after climbing the ladder on the right
side of the room. After firing a Bubble Lead, you'll see that the fake floor is
composed of the two panels to the right of the ladder on the left side of the
screen. With this is mind, run across the floor, jump over the false floor, and
climb the ladder.

The best way to deal with the two Metools on this screen is with the Metal 
Blade. Run to the right, then fire a Metal Blade at the Metool above you once
it opens. Continue running right to avoid its attack, but not so far as to
aggrivate the second Metool. When the first Metool's attack is off the screen,
climb up to the ledge that housed the Metool that you just killed. Run right,
blast the Metool below you with the Metal Blade after it opens, then continue
running right to avoid its attack. To get the Energy Tank on the third level,
use Item 1 to ride through the false floor to the Energy Tank's left. When all
that is done and over with, climb the ladder on the left up to the next area.

The next screen is nothing but a giant hallway that serves as a passageway to
the next ladder. Equip the Leaf Shield, then go down. The next few screens 
feature the moving platforms from Crash Man's stage, complete with Spinners to
annoy you and spikes to kill you if you fall. But you have the Lead Shield. 
Drop onto the platform when it's close, then put up a Leaf Shield. Don't move,
watch as all the Spinners drop like rocks, and jump off the platform when 
you're close to the ladder on the bottom left of the screen.

There are no Spinners in the next room, but there is a nasty trick that will 
kill you if you don't notice it before it happens. When the platform is below
you, drop onto it. When the platform is roughly two thirds of the way across
the screen, jump up to the small platform above your head on the left. The
platform will go right, squeeze through a narrow opening (which would kill you
if you were still on it), then come back to you. When the platform is within
jumping distance, hop on until you're close to the landing on the top right of
the screen. Jump on, then go down to the next ladder.

On the next screen, deploy the Leaf Shield while hanging from the ladder. It
takes awhile for the platform to get close, and the Spinners will reach you
first. When the platform is finally below you, press the jump button and drop
onto the ladder. Believe it or not, your jump button won't cause the Leaf 
Shield to go flying off. Once on the platform, you're in business. Just make 
sure you jump onto the midair platform that is suspended above the midair
spikes, then get back on the platform once it's on your left. All you need to
do from there is to throw up a Leaf Shield and ride the platform all the way
to the end.

One more platform room to go, and it seems impossible. If you try to ride the
platform across, you'll find that you're too short to go under the platform
that you're currently standing on. Thankfully, there is a tiny little platform
suspended in midair. Equip Item 2, use the platform as a stepping stone to 
reach that platform, then use Item 2 to reach the ladder on the left side of 
the screen. Equip the Quick Boomerang before going down.

When you drop down into the next screen, you have Hoppers to contend with. But
they drop like flies to the Quick Boomerang, which rocks. As soon as you enter
this screen, a Hopper will show up on your right. Drop both it and its idiotic
pilot, the Sniper Joe, with the Quick Boomerang. Go into the small hallway and
prepare to meet another Sniper Joe. You can't avoid his shots in such a 
confined space (unless you feel like using a high level Atomic Fire, which is
a waste), so just take your shots and hit him when you can. After getting out
of this hallway, you have to deal with one more Hopper, the Sniper Joe riding
it, and a Sniper Joe guarding the boss door. Work your magic and crush them
all.

      Boss: Turret Room
  Weakness: Crash Bomb
Difficulty: 8/10

At first glance, this boss is, in fact a room with five Turrets. Case closed,
time for some cake. Upon further examination, however, you will notice that
the only way to kill a Turret is with a Crash Bomb. Thanks to the fact that
it's very difficult to avoid the Turret attacks and reach the Turrets
themselves, this battle suddenly becomes tougher. With one notable exception.

The only reason that this "boss" is difficult at all is because you don't have
enough Crash Bombs to take down all five Crash Blocks and all five Turrets. If
you try to do it all at once, you'll come up just short every single time. It's
possible to destroy all five Turrets at once, but it's a gigantic headache. But
if you absolutely must do this the hard way, the thing to keep in mind is that
you only need to destroy the Crash Blocks that directly guard Turrets. There
are only two Crash Blocks that you HAVE to destroy, in other words. The other
three Crash Blocks can be left alone, and you can reach the Turrets not guarded
by Crash Blocks by using Item 1 or Item 3. Bear in mind that this is no easy
task. The Turrets cause quite a lot of damage, and one miss with a Crash Bomb
means death. 

For those who want to take the easy way out, DESTROY NOTHING BUT THE CRASH
BLOCKS, then allow yourself to get killed. You'll wind up back at the long
hallway before the rooms with the moving platforms and the Spinners. Remember
those Weapon Capsules that I told you to ignore at the very beginning of the
level? Go back to the beginning of the level, recharge your Crash Bombs, then
make your way back to the end of the level. I recommend making a pit stop at
the room with the two Metools on three levels however to make sure your Crash
Bombs and Leaf Shield are up to speed. You'll need to go past the moving 
platforms all over again, and you'll want enough Leaf Shields to do it.

When you make your way back to the Turret Room... surprise! The Crash Blocks 
are all gone from the room. It's nothing but target practice at this point, so
have fun. Bear in mind that even though the fight is very easy with the Crash
Blocks gone, you can't be completely careless. The Turrets still cause a lot 
of damage, and you still need to use either Item 1 or 3 to reach the three
Turrets that are up high.

=== xiii. Dr. Wily Stage 5 ===

When you reach the skull on the map of Wily's Castle, you aren't exactly
forced into a level per say. It's a room with eight warps, and in those eight
warps lie rematches with all eight of the robot masters of Mega Man 2. This
room starts a tradition that appears throughout the rest of the Mega Man 
series, so get used to it.

The layout of the warp room is as follows:

+---------------------------------------+
| _ _ _           _ _ _           _ _ _ |
||     |         |     |         |     ||
||  1  |         |  9  |         |  8  ||
||_ _ _|         |_ _ _|         |_ _ _||
|                                       |
| _ _ _                           _ _ _ |
||     |    XX             XX    |     ||
||  2  |                         |  7  ||
||_ _ _|                         |_ _ _||
|                                       |
| _ _ _ XX     _ _ _ _ _ _     XX _ _ _ |
||     |      |     |     |      |     ||
||  3  |      |  4  |  5  |      |  6  ||
||_ _ _|      |_ _ _|_ _ _|      |_ _ _||
+---------------------------------------+

1 = Heat Man
2 = Air Man
3 = Wood Man
4 = Bubble Man
5 = Quick Man
6 = Crash Man
7 = Metal Man
8 = Flash Man
9 = Dr. Wily

You've fought all of these bosses before, so they will all seem like simple
rehashes of what you've already done. And they are. What makes this part even
easier is the fact that after each boss, you're given a large Energy Pellet.
This means that even bosses like Quick Man who could actually give you a decent
challenge aren't that bad. Most of the time, the damage dealt to you is 
nullified after the fight. All you need to do is know who you're fighting 
before you fight them, and prepare accordingly.

Just for reference's sake, here's a quick rundown of the robot masters and
their weaknesses, in the order that they are listed above:

Bubble Lead > Heat Man
Leaf Shield > Air Man
Atomic Fire > Wood Man
Metal Blade > Bubble Man
Time Stopper > Quick Man
Air Shooter > Crash Man
Quick Boomerang > Metal Man
Crash Bomb > Flash Man

This is, of course, a mere reference that "assigns" each weapon to a boss. In
reality, Mega Man 2 is a game that doesn't force you to take one weapon into
each boss fight. The most notable exception to this is Metal Man. Instead of
using the Quick Boomerang when fighting him, use the Metal Blade. He'll die
in two hits. Another exception to the above list is Flash Man. Save your Crash
Bomb energy for the battle against Wood Man, and instead use Metal Blades on
Flash Man. 

Likewise for the battle against Quick Man. Use the Time Stopper,  then the 
Plasma Beam. If you refrain from using Crash Bombs against Quick Man, you 
can use them against Wood Man. By doing this, you can free up the energy on 
Atomic Fire for the first battle against Wily.

And yes, Crash Bombs are quite effective against Wood Man. Wait for him to
put up his Leaf Shield, then fire a Crash Bomb into it. It will hit Wood Man
twice. 

When you drop all eight of the robot masters in the rematches, a ninth warp
opens up. Equip Atomic Fire, then jump in.

      Boss: Dr. Wily Form 1
  Weakness: Atomic Fire
Difficulty: 4/10

The first form of Dr. Wily is quite easy in this game, especially if you laid
off of using Atomic Fire to take down Wood Man in the warp room. Wily floats 
around in his ship and fires orbs at you from the cannon below the ship.

Remember the Flame Dogs from Wood Man's stage? So long as you stay on the left
side of the screen, that's the pattern that the orbs will come at you. They're
easy to jump over, and you can easily avoid the orbs and contact with Wily's
ship for the entire battle. It takes two level three Atomic Fires to bring Wily
down, but even if you decided to use Atomic Fire earlier, taking down Wily with
even the simple Plasma Beam is easy in his current form.

Once you deplete the health on Wily's first form, the front of the ship flies
off and the second battle with his ship begins. Joy.

      Boss: Dr. Wily Form 2
  Weakness: Quick Boomerang
Difficulty: 10/10

Remember the Bubble Lead pattern that Bubble Man used in your battle(s) with
him? Dr. Wily's second form uses the exact same pattern, though his attack is
far more lethal than Bubble Man's. 

When the fight starts, Wily will periodically send bouncing orbs at you in a
similar pattern to that used by Bubble Man. The catch here is that these things
are flat-out deadly. Getting hit by them causes a ton of damage, and you lose
control over Mega Man for a much longer period of time then normal afterwards.
It may be Wily's only attack, but it's a deadly attack that is difficult to
avoid. To defeat Wily, you have two options. You can either finesse your way
through the battle and avoid the orbs as best you can, or you can simply 
gung-ho your way through the battle, go shot for shot with Wily, and outlast
him with Energy Tanks. If you're good at avoiding the orbs, then by all means,
avois them. If you're having trouble, those Energy Tanks are there for a 
reason. Use them. This is the hardest fight in the game, so don't be afraid to
go all-out here. 

As for which weapons to use, only one weapon does more than a bar of damage to
Wily: Crash Bombs. If you have any left (which is unlikely unless you 
Continued, considering you just came off of that battle with the Turret Room),
use them. Otherwise, your best choice is the Quick Boomerang. They only do one
bar of damage each, but you can hit Wily multiple time at once with them due to
its rapid fire feature.

When you're finally able to take Wily down, which is quite a chore, the game
ends. 

.....or does it?

After Wily's ship goes down, the ship blows up, Wily's saucer flies off, and 
the floor disappears from under Mega Man. You're then thrown back onto the map
of Wily's Castle, and a second skull level appears.

=== xiv. Dr. Wily Stage 6 ===

This level isn't exactly a level at all. After free-falling down a few screens,
you find yourself in a gigantic hallway. All that's here is a run to the boss
door. This _would_ be simple if you didn't have to deal with Acid dropping on
you from the ceiling. Acid can kill you in three hits, so as you move right,
take care not to get hit by it. Acid follows the same pattern as Guillotines in
that it drops when you get close, then gives you time to run underneath it. By
using this wait and go strategy, you should be able to reach the boss door
without incident.

But like so many other facets of this game, there is a cheap way out. As soon
as the level starts, hold down the Right button and don't let go until you
touch the ground. When you do, bolt to the right and never stop moving. You'll
easily be able to run under all the Acids until you reach the boss door. Equip
the Bubble Lead and get ready for the final battle of the game.

      Boss: Alien Wily
  Weakness: Bubble Lead
Difficulty: 7/10

After entering the boss door, you see that the reason Wily is so smart is 
because his true form is that of an alien. 

The Bubble Lead isn't exactly a "weakness"; it's the only weapon that causes
any damage whatsoever to Alien Wily. You have to hit Alien Wily 28 times before
he finally dies, but despite this, the battle isn't that hard. 

Wily flies around the screen in the sideways figure eight pattern that is 
almost identical to the movement pattern of Bubble Man (ironic, isn't it?). 
While Wily is flying around the screen, he lets loose a barrage of simple 
shots at you one after the other. When Wily is close to the ground, jump over
the shots. When Wily is high in the air, run under him. You'll easily avoid
all of his attacks this way, and even though his lone attack causes a lot of
damage, this means nothing if the attack itself is easily avoided. Just 
remember to stay away from Wily so that you have enough time to react to him,
and you'll be fine.

All you have to worry about now is dealing the damage to Wily. Avoiding him is
easy enough, but you need to attack him if you want to kill him. The best time
to do this is when Wily is low to the ground and getting ready to fly to the
top of the screen. Jump over an attack, then jump at Wily and let loose a 
Bubble Lead. From there, run under him to start the chain of avoiding his 
attacks again. 

After an eternity of avoiding Wily's attacks and getting your own shots in when
able, Wily will go down. The game ends after this.

No seriously, it does. Enjoy the ending, because you've sure earned it.

+++++++++++++++++++++++
+ VI. Boss Flow Chart +
+++++++++++++++++++++++

This chart is similar to the weapon list from earlier in that it is listed in
the order in which this guide is written. You don't _have_ to follow the order
of this guide; it's only a recommendation. It should also be noted that the
weakness listings for the Mech Dragon and Wily's second form are also mere
recommendations.

+=================+=================+=================+
|    Boss Name    |    Weakness     | Weapon Received |
+=================+=================+=================+
|     Air Man     |   Leaf Shield   |   Air Shooter   |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
|    Metal Man    | Quick Boomerang |   Metal Blade   |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
|    Flash Man    |   Crash Bomb    |  Time Stopper   |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
|   Bubble Man    |   Metal Blade   |   Bubble Lead   |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
|    Heat Man     |   Bubble Lead   |   Atomic Fire   |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
|    Wood Man     |   Atomic Fire   |   Leaf Shield   |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
|    Crash Man    |   Air Shooter   |   Crash Bomb    |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
|    Quick Man    |  Time Stopper   | Quick Boomerang |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
|   Mech Dragon   | Quick Boomerang |      None       |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
|    Wall Bots    |   Bubble Lead   |      None       |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
|   Guts Dozer    | Quick Boomerang |      None       |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
|   Turret Room   |   Crash Bomb    |      None       |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| Dr. Wily Form 1 |   Atomic Fire   |      None       |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| Dr. Wily Form 2 | Quick Boomerang |      None       |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
|   Alien Wily    |   Bubble Lead   |      None       |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+

Because of the nature of Mega Man 2, the above boss chart is a very loose 
interpretation of the boss weaknesses that simply makes sure that each boss is
"assigned" a certain weapon. But the game is odd in that some bosses have 
weaknesses to more than one weapon. The following is a list of the bosses that
have more than one weakness, and what those weaknesses are. You'll notice that
in every extraneous case, the Metal Blade is involved. Not that this should 
be a surprise or anything.

Metal Man --- Also weak against Metal Blade.

Flash Man --- Also weak against Metal Blade.

Wood Man --- Also weak against Metal Blade and Crash Bomb.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ VII. Credits/Special Thanks +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Last, but not least, the Credits section. 

Capcom --- For making the game, maybe? The folks over there were also nice
           enough to release Mega Man Anniversary Collection, which is the 
           only way that I was able to play the game in the first place.

CJayC --- He is one man, and happens to maintain the best site on the 
          internet. There is no way in hell that this is an easy task,         
          especially with the fact that GameFAQs is growing at an exponential 
          rate. I can't thank him enough for all of the hard work. 

Meowthnum1 --- I named a lot more of the enemies myself in this guide than in
               my Mega Man 1 guide, but Trace was still nice enough to let me
               borrow a few names off of him.

Heroic Mario --- Until Heroic Mario told me that the name of Mega Man's default
                 weapon was the Plasma Beam, I was referring to it as the Mega
                 Buster. I suck.

Super Saiyan Gnome --- Helped me out with the names of a couple of the Wily
                       Castle bosses.

Board 8 --- You guys are a bunch of lunatics, but I don't know what I'd ever do
            without you <3

gotspork --- She proves to be smarter than me (physics majors can do that to
             you quite a bit) by pointing out a few typos for me. Thanks, hun
             ^_^

Stealth Snake Zero - Pointed out some errors.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ VII. Disclaimer/Contact Information +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This guide is copyrighted by UltimaterializerX, with all rights reserved, and 
can not be reproduced in any way, shape, or form without expressed written 
consent of the author.

This guide may only be posted at <www.gamefaqs.com> at the time of the release
of this document.

If you wish to e-mail me, my address is <Ultimaterializer@gmail.com>, just
like it says at the very beginning of the document. Feel free to contact me 
with anything relevant. Furthermore, you can always catch me hanging around 
one of the following places on www.gamefaqs.com:

The SCC Board - http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/gentopic.php?board=584617
 The SC Board - http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/gentopic.php?board=8

SC stands for Summer Contest, by the way. I have wasted more time on that
board than on any other, so if you're randomly trying to catch me on gamefaqs,
that's your best bet. It's a social board with no topicality, so you can try
reaching me however you choose. If I'm not there, however, post something on 
the SCC board. It's a guarantee that I'll see you sooner or later.
_______________________________________________________________________________
                        -Copyrighted 2004 Ultimaterializer, all rights reserved

~FIN~