Mega Man X3

Shoots a bubble of green acid in an arc. Not a lot of range. Press up while firing to shoot one straight up. Charge up to create large acid bubbles which will bounce around the room.

The name is a misnomer. The Frost Shield fires an ice arrow. When the arrow hits something, it falls to the ground and forms an ice spike that damages anything that hits it. Charge up to form an ice spike on the end of your arm cannon.

Sends out a pod that apparently creates gravitational disturbances; however, it only seems to affect certain things. When charged, the Gravity Well will reverse gravity for all things but the user.

A large mine which flies straight and explodes when it hits something. When charged this surrounds X with targeting cross hairs that automatically lock onto and fire hornets at nearby enemies. (Keep holding down the button for this.)

The name of this weapon is neat but a bit misleading, as it is not shooting rays. Rather it shoots spheres of energy, like a pulse cannon, actually. It fires a volley of shots from the arm cannon if uncharged, and if charged, it creates a projector that will, for a brief time, fire shots itself.

Fires two red blades that arc out, then back, one going over the user’s head and the other under his feet. Charging this weapon results in a giant version of the same blade.

A drill which can cut through certain surfaces. Press the button rapidly to create a spread of them. Charge up to end up with a drill-tipped arm cannon.

Creates three orbs which surround the user in a triangle formation, letting loose electrical blasts between them. When charged, the user slams a fist into the ground, sending bursts of electricity sparking along the floor and walls.

Energy pellets refill your life meter. The small ones refill 2 units—not a whole lot, but it can really add up. They will also fill your Sub-Tanks if your life meter is full.

These globes are the same as energy pellets except that more energy is refilled.

The colored pellets are weapon energy. They refill your current weapon when picked up. If you aren’t equipped with a weapon or your weapon is full, the energy goes to another weapon that needs it.

These are the same as weapon energy pellets except that more energy is refilled.

Extra lives. If you have one of these when you bite the dust, you’ll be given another chance at the stage.

This adds two units X’s energy meter. That’s two units to his maximum health—you can literally increase the total size of your energy bar with these.

These are permanent containers that can be used to store spare energy and carry it around until it is needed. They are reusable and can be refilled as often as necessary. To fill a Sub-Tank, acquire energy when your energy meter is full, and the energy will go to your tank instead. Tanks which are not completely full may still be used, but they won’t restore much of your energy. A full tank, on the other hand, will always completely refill your health no matter how large your energy meter is. Passwords record which Tanks you’ve found, but they never make note of how full they were; thus whenever you restore a game, all of your tanks will be empty. You must refill them whenever you start the game.

This is the critical piece, for you need this one before you can use any of the others. This is pretty much your standard Ride Armor; it can jump and punch, but nothing fancy. See the information on Ride Armors in previous games for more details on how to use them.

This Ride Armor has spikes on its fists for more impressive punching.

This ride armor has no troubles going under water; in fact, all of the others will short out if you try to take them into water. It shoots torpedoes when you press the fire button. It’s somewhat challenging to use since it hops rather than walking, and jumps instead of dashing.

This armor fires missiles from its arm-mounted cannons. It also hovers when you jump (hold down the jump button).

The armor enhancement is just that: it increases protection to X and decreases damage inflicted onto him.

Although X can dash normally, he must obtain a special enhancement to air-dash. This enhancement is a little different than the one in the previous game in that it lets X air-dash sideways or even straight up.

When you gain the helmet, the map shown on the stage select screens thereafter will be decorated with text declaring what items are yet to be found in what stages. The helmet is also capable of auto-mapping levels for you.

Lets X charge special weapons, and allows him to perform a “cross-over” attack: if you charge both arm cannons and fire off both super shots in a certain timing, the shots will merge into a larger, more powerful blast.

This super enhancement allows X to air-dash twice with each jump. This can be quite useful for getting to new areas, enhancing your dodging ability, or just plain keeping yourself out of trouble.

A great super enhancement to have: this refills X’s energy whenever he stands still for a while. Although the rate of recharge is slow, this is an invaluable tool especially before facing bosses. Stop whenever you find a quiet place and recharge. As an extra bonus, the helmet also fills whatever Sub-Tanks X may be carrying!

The super enhancement for the armor doesn’t provide anything over the first except an added level of defense against attacks.

The Hyper Cannon is the super enhancement for the X-Buster. It stores energy and is basically a permanently-charged arm cannon. This fires super shots with the press of a button, at the expense of some energy loss. The Hyper Cannon’s charge level depends on X’s current abilities; the cannon is permanently charged to whatever is his maximum charge.

Commonly called simply “X,” this robot was built by Dr. Light for reasons unknown. He fights Mavericks to aid both humans and Reploids, but an inner hatred for violence prevents him from being as good of a Hunter as he could be.

A skilled Maverick Hunter who lets nothing hold him back. After being destroyed and rebuilt, Zero fights with X and the other Hunters full time.

Sigma is one of the Reploids Dr. Cain built from information gleamed from X himself. After going Maverick, Sigma has apparently determined that the human race is inferior to Reploids and must either be enslaved or killed. Like a persistent bug, he always returns even after he is defeated, usually in a new form, since though his bodies are defeated, apparently his programming continues to live on to cause more damage.

A reclusive Reploid that probably through no mistake looks like Boba Fett from Star Wars. Vile seems to harbor a hatred for X and Zero and is driven to destroy them.

A Reploid scientist created with incredible intelligence, Doppler was designed to bring humans and Reploids together in harmony and create a sort of Utopia. This didn’t last long, however, before Sigma reduced him to a puppet of the Mavericks.

The smaller of a pair of robots that Dr. Doppler called in to exterminate X and Zero. Combines with Byte to form a giant conglomeration war machine.

Larger, tougher, and more of a pain. Byte can team up with Bit to form a huge robot, although he’ll try to take on X on his own before resorting to that.

This is the man who uncovered Dr. Light’s laboratory during a dig. He released X and built the Reploids, which were robots built with the help of X’s design.

The creator of X who manifests only as holograms in capsules. His capsules give X upgrades for his struggles ahead.

He’s tall, fast, and can fly. Not a good combination seeing that he can swoop onto you almost faster for you to get out of his way (watch out for that stinger!). This guy can be a pain if you don’t hit him strong and hard with the Gravity Well—his little hornet robots will swarm you to death otherwise.

This giant is very reminiscent to Flame Mammoth except Buffalo is of the ice variety, not fire. His battle room is about twice the width of the screen, which means you will have to be sure at least part of him is visible or your shots will not hurt him. Take him out with Parasitic Bombs.

This guy has some massive blades attached to his pincer claws. If he catches you with his little floor and wall climbing projectiles, he’ll nail you with his claw, so try to stay in the air, and keep moving to avoid his swipes. Or you can fry him with the Triad Thunder.

This guy has the most unusual head I’ve ever seen, and one of the stranger weapons as well. His Gravity Wells circle the room growing larger as they travel, making them increasingly harder to dodge. The best thing to do is avoid them altogether by using the Ray Splasher.

This guy is active and doesn’t really have much repetition to his attacks. However, once you learn how to maneuver around him, you can take him somewhat easily even with the X-Buster. Or try the Spinning Blade on him.

Toxic Seahorse tosses acid at you, but you can dissipate the bursts with shots from your arm cannon. If you rapid-fire him, quite a number of your shots should make it through to strike the Maverick without X taking a scratch. Or you could try using the Frost Shield.

He’s big, ugly, and charges a lot. His drill-like Tornado Fangs delay before they begin moving, which can throw you off guard. Don’t be on a wall when he slams into it—he’ll knock you off. Blast him with acid to slow him down.

This guy has a lot of shocks and likes to use them. You can forestall some of his moves with the Tornado Fang, but eventually he will be going faster than your drills. Even so, the Fang is the easiest way to go.