GAME HINTS

Story

Three weeks after the crash of the space colony that almost obliterated the Earth, X is called into service once again to investigate the so-called “Nightmare Phenomena.” No one will say what exactly this whole Nightmare thing is, but it has to be stopped. Since Zero is missing and X is the only other Hunter worth his weight in salt, he’s assigned the job.

Special Features

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This game is essentially a continuation of Mega Man X5 with new stages, characters, and plot, and some bug fixes and added features (and irritations). The game looks and plays almost exactly like Mega Man X5 otherwise.

First of all, I’m just going to blow it right here: Yes, the “Hunter” mentioned in the manual is Zero. I have no idea why they tried to be so vague about it since it’s about as obvious as a monsoon. Even the 1-Up graphic is clearly Zero’s helmet. And what’s the point of X searching for Zero if he can’t find him? So yes, you can play as Zero if you discover him during the game. (It’s not hard, don’t worry; in fact it’s so easy to do I’m not even going to tell you how.)

Controls

One interesting feature in this game is that the special weapon button now has a purpose if you aren’t equipped with a weapon. X has Zero’s Beam Saber from the start of the game and can use it at will with the special weapon button. However unfortunately he’s not as good with it as Zero; his swipes are very slow and cannot be canceled, which means he leaves himself wide open to attack. X cannot do a triple-slash, and in fact cannot slash very quickly at all. Beware when using the Saber because X’s feet will be nailed to the ground until he finishes his slash. The Saber also isn’t overly powerful so its real use is against enemies which are immune to the X-Buster, or when the Saber’s unique range is needed.

Likewise, Zero has his Buster from Mega Man X5 which is fired using the special weapon button as well. It’s still limited, however, to only being able to be fired while Zero is standing, although his startup and recovery times are a bit shorter in this game.

Notes and Tidbits

  • The voice acting is all in Japanese in this game. Either this is Capcom getting beyond lazy, or it is them learning all the wrong lessons from the debacle known as Mega Man 8. Either way, though, doesn’t reflect very well on Capcom.
  • X begins the game with the Falcon armor; however it cannot actually fly here. The air-dash does damage enemies for a brief moment of its duration though, and you can charge special weapons with this armor.
  • As in Mega Man X5, you don’t have to clear all of the stages here. (Details are in the Secrets section.)
  • “Nightmares” are the floating black enemies with tentacles. When you destroy a Nightmare you get souls (the little blue or green spheres). However if you wait too long to grab a soul it will turn back into a Nightmare. Nightmares can possess rescuable Reploids, which turns them into enemies. If you destroy the result of this, that Reploid is listed as “death” on the rescue file screen (on the stage select screen). If you just walk away and leave him behind, he’s listed as “missing.”
  • Forget the hype; there are no random stage layouts in this game and no random bosses. Stages do gain or lose certain features based on what stages you had been in previously, and enemy layouts vary depending on what difficulty level you’re on, but these changes are not random. If you want to change the features of a particular stage, enter another one instead (as detailed below) and Exit out, and try again.

Bugs, Oversights, and General Stupidity

  • There are some (rather consistent) spelling errors (“overwright”) and grammatical errors (the writers love putting the words “are” and “the” in awkward places).
  • Even though the manual says (several times) that Zero is a special A-class Hunter, he starts off at level D.
  • Both X and Zero can use the Saber even after you find Zero. Evidently this is the reason only one of them can investigate a stage at a time. (“Here, take my Saber; I’ll just hang out here until you’re done.”)
  • When you start the game using the Ultimate Armor, Alia’s dialogue about fixing the Falcon Armor is still the same, even though you’re not wearing it.
  • The icons for the Hyper Dash and Speedster are interchanged.

FAQ

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  • Which of Mega Man X5’s endings is the correct one?
    Technically, X’s first ending (the laser fails, Zero blows up the colony with the space shuttle, and doesn’t turn Maverick). This one fits the best; X’s other ending is out (X doesn’t remember Zero in that one), and while Zero’s ending somewhat fits, the whole part about dying to save mankind is out as well (since obviously he never died). In any case Capcom took some liberties and altered some aspects of the endings. First of all, as was mentioned before Zero didn’t die (he’s just “missing”). Secondly, X’s ending in Mega Man X5 claims three years have passed; this was revised in X6 so that only three weeks passed.
  • How do you get the Ultimate Armor?
    Use the code listed below. If there is a way to get this from a capsule during the game I haven’t found it yet (I’ve found a few places where a capsule would be appropriate but never got one to show up). I am beginning to suspect there is no capsule, since this game actually gives you the codes after the credits. Therefore it’s not really all that hidden, and this means the Ultimate Armor is accessible to anyone who can beat the game. (Note: Naturally all of this applies to black Zero as well.) However I don’t yet know for sure.
  • How do I get through the first station of Gate’s fortress?
    Oddly, the game designers allow you to skip almost directly straight to the fortress, but they made it impossible to proceed without having beaten most of the rest of the game anyway. Near the beginning of Gate’s fortress are tall walls of spikes. You need one of the following combinations in order to make it up the walls:
    • X with any armor that has an air dash, the Jumper, and the Ice Burst weapon. Use Ice Bursts as platforms to give you enough height to air-dash over the spike walls and clear them without hitting them. Getting the Jumper requires Shadow X or the Ultimate Armor or something of that sort; see the Parts section below.
    • Zero, preferably with black armor, lots of health upgrades, Sub-Tanks, Parts, and optionally the Rakukojin weapon, so that you can actually beat the boss at the end of the stage once you get there.
    • Shadow X. I rather recommend against using Shadow X here because he has a harder time dodging the boss, but he can at least make it through, so give him a try if you want.

Review

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Play Control: 2
Certainly not terrible, but the controls are somewhat sluggish and irritating, particularly for Zero who has hideous recovery times for most of his attacks—for example you can’t move while he’s putting his Saber away (just carry the stupid thing you idiot!).

(Warning: Rant)

Zero also suffers from the “Namco syndrome” where pressing any number of combinations on the control pad plus either of the two fire buttons will yield all sorts of different results. Whether you’re pressing up, down, diagonal, sideways, or backwards on the control pad when you try to attack makes a huge difference, especially when you notice things such as the fact that Zero can’t fire his buster while ducking because he’ll perform his circle-slash instead (and get promptly wasted by whatever he was ducking). And whose bright idea was it to map pressing Up and a button with a sharp downward nosedive? Since when does up have anything to do with down? Not to mention you have to press Up to grab onto a rope (which is already fickle in its collision detection), so if you’re doing that and you try to slash your Saber at the same time...you got it, Zero will fling himself straight to his untimely doom.

There also seems to be a glitch (with either character) where pressing the special weapon fire button while in the air is sometimes mysteriously treated like the dash button instead, meaning your character air-dashes into his target rather than shooting at it—brilliant. Also the super jump seems random at best; sometimes it doesn’t occur, and usually it does when you don’t want it to. Both characters tend to turn around when they get hit, for no obvious reason.

Basically getting your character to actually do what you want in a split-second’s moment (all you’re allowed in an action game) is near impossible.

Graphics: 4
The graphics are oddly rather grainy in this game and not quite as good as Mega Man X4 or as clean as Mega Man X1. They also suffer from the overhead problem that has been plaguing Capcom’s more recent Mega Man titles which makes the trash compactor section in particular unnecessarily frustrating. I like the production/cutscene artist though.
Animation: 3
Pretty much just like Mega Man X5’s.
Music: 3
Nothing really jumps out at me. I don’t like heavy metal so the opening didn’t appeal to me, and the rest of the music is just sort of there. Zero’s theme remix isn’t bad however, and Zero gets his own victory tune when he beats a boss, which is cute.
Sound Effects: 4
Pretty much just like Mega Man X5’s.
Plot: 2
Well, the plot does have a lot going for it, since there is plenty of storyline and Zero to hunt for. Even the rescuable Reploids are individually named in this game. However much of the plot makes no sense whatsoever. You keep getting the impression as you play through that you were supposed to have played some nonexistent previous game to get correct background information that all of the plot seems to assume you already know.
Difficulty: 4 (irritating)
Fighting Mavericks isn’t really that difficult if you bring a suit of armor to the battle (and you begin the game with the Falcon armor). Even the Sigma battle is surprisingly easy, especially when compared to other X titles. However most of the stages in this game are downright ridiculously infuriating. Rather than being difficult, this game is just irritating.
Replay Value: 2
If you keep resetting the game to get Parts you missed, that may count as replay value. Overall though, this game suffers from the same problem as Mega Man X5: while it does get a little more fun with repeated play, it makes a lousy first impression.
Polish: 2
You can actually get yourself stuck in this game, with your only recourse to kill yourself off until you run out of lives, and choose “Stage Select” on the continue screen to get out of the stage you were stuck in. (Don’t pick “Continue”...unlike most other Mega Man games, continuing just sticks you right back where you were stuck, and you’ll have to kill yourself off all over again.) It is also possible to permanently destroy your chances of getting certain items in a split-second’s moment. While I suppose on one hand it’s interesting that the game keeps track of all your failures, it doesn’t make it terribly easy (or fun) to play.
Overall: 70%
Unfortunately the final result is this game comes across more irritating than fun. Which is a shame, since it had so much promise.

+ Plus:
Alia now only talks to you if you press the Select button. So if you’re impatient or you’ve already heard her speeches before you can skip them.
- Minus:
Unlike most any other game of its kind, in this game you can ruin forever your chance of getting some of the Parts. Heaven help you if the Parts you lose due to one little slip-up mistake are ones which would have been near essential to your survival later on. This is compounded by the fact that the game possesses lousy level design (I’d swear all of their game testers played using only the Ultimate Armor); there are certain places which simply cannot be navigated through conventional methods, leaving your only recourse to use Parts to get yourself through. If you missed the Parts you need, you may discover you have to start the whole game over from the beginning again (and then probably just miss a different Part instead).

Suggested Order

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Note: If you wish to pick up Zero right away, I suggest visiting the Laser Institute first. The crystal portal location is easy to get to (and through) even with Falcon X, and when you exit the stage you won’t have affected the Amazon one, so it won’t mess up the rest of the suggested order.

It doesn’t matter who fights Mavericks since both characters will get the resulting weapon, although you will only get an explanation of the motion to execute Zero’s version of the weapon if you are actually using Zero (you get X’s weapon description either way).

Teleporting Hatches

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You shouldn’t exit the teleport room with less than full Sub-Tanks. If you have to, keep killing yourself off at the Mavericks (you have essentially infinite lives) and getting the energy capsules at the top over and over again until your Tanks are full.

From top to bottom (zig-zag): Yammark, Wolfang, Heatnix, Shark, Scaravich, Turtloid, Sheldon, Mijinion
The most ridiculously huge teleport room I’ve ever seen...

Bosses

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Note: Do not enter the second station of the “fortress” (Gate Lab second level) with Shadow X or normal X. This level is, for all intents and purposes, “essentially impossible” to complete with these two characters due to sections later on (after High Max) which require a double-jump or air-dash (or an unconventional conglomeration of Parts). You have been warned.
Illumina: (Mini-Boss in Weapon Center)
At the end of each section is a wall with a gem on it—you hit the gem to damage Illumina. Use the Meteor Rain/Ensuizan to interrupt its attacks; the battle will be almost academic if you do this repeatedly.
Zero:
Try using the Saber on him. *evil grin* I warn you though, you’ll make him really mad. But it is a fairly easy way to defeat him.
High Max:
(Screen shot of winning a boss battle.)
They always go out with a bang.
As X, hit him with a super-shot (it has to be fully-powered), then use the Magma Blade on him while he’s frozen and blinking. As Zero, reverse this: use fire on him, then slash him with your Saber. (Actually I believe any special weapon will work, but I can’t test this at the moment, so give it a try.) In either case, once you damage him he flashes and you can’t hit him again until he stops. Usually he flashes long enough for him to get one attack in while he’s invincible, so you’ll have to dodge. Most of his attacks you can dodge by ducking in either corner—or sometimes just ducking. Some, however, you must jump or dodge in another way. These are pretty easy to tell once you see them. When he surrounds himself with a large sphere and begins firing lots of small spheres, dash back and forth across the screen to dodge them, and charge up the Yammar Option to damage him (it doesn’t have to be charged to do damage, but it’s easier to do that and focus on dodging while the Options fire themselves).
Dynamo:
When he’s throwing red blades, just keep moving; they’ll go where you were standing, not where you move to. They return to him after a few seconds so just wait it out if you can’t hit Dynamo because they’re blocking your way. When he puts his hand over his head with a sphere in it, climb the wall over him to avoid his laser attack. When he twirls his blade, keep moving as best you can. Generally try to stay close to him so you can get over him when you need to, but don’t stay so close that his blade swipe will get you. Try using Meteor Rain, Yammar Option, and/or as Zero use Zero’s buster (it does good damage believe it or not). You can fight Dynamo repeatedly by just visiting one of the boss rooms again.
Eye Blobs: (First Station of Fortress)
You can only hit the eyes when they are outside their blocks. Actually if you use a weapon which passes through the blocks, you can also strike the eyes while they are moving out of or into their blocks. They are, however, invincible while embedded fully. For X try the Metal Anchor. This doesn’t work as well for Zero because his anchors are harder to aim. It’s easier to just use the Saber.
High Max: (again)
As Shadow X you can just hit him with fully-powered super-shots (just make sure you hit him, not just his blocks). However I don’t suggest you bring Shadow X here (due to the stage after High Max; the battle itself is easy enough). With other versions of X, you must strike him with a super-shot, then follow up with a Magma Blade or another special weapon. Be sure to hit High Max himself, not his blocks. Zero needs to hit him with a magma slash first, then whack him with the Saber. You might try making a small hop while underneath him and hitting him from there, rather than trying to strike through his blocks. Note: If you want to use the Ultimate Armor’s Nova Strike, hit High Max with a fully-powered shot first, then Strike.
(Screen shot of Sigma speaking gibberish.)
Okay, he’s officially lost it.
Gate:
In order to damage him you have to destroy the spheres he shoots and hit him with the smaller spheres they burst into. This is probably one of the most frustrating battles in the game, not only because Gate won’t stay the heck out of your face, but also because if your character’s fingers decide to slip you’ll plunge into the pit that the level designers so thoughtfully placed at the bottom of the room and you’ll have to start all over again. Try to stay as far away from Gate as possible since once he gets to half health he’ll start attacking with a purple slash that will take out platforms besides just damaging you.
Sigma 1st time:
Rapid-fire/slash him, or try the Metal Anchor/Rakukojin. You can bat away his green oval-shaped shot by hitting it repeatedly. The purple slashes are pretty standard duck-or-jump dodging. Sigma himself moves pretty slowly so it’s fairly easy to stay away from him. Generally this form isn’t much of a threat.
Sigma 2nd time:
Now for a real battle. When Sigma opens his ugly mouth to fire his cannon, hit the cannon with the Saber. You can stand under his head (his body will not harm you but touching his head will) to avoid some of the green attackers he sends out although their shots will still find you under there. Use the Guard Shell to block some of them if you want. When Sigma fires his laser he’ll destroy all his little green helpers (except the spiked platform) so don’t worry about them at that point. The helpers also sometimes drop energy and 1-Ups when they are destroyed (either by you or by Sigma). When Sigma starts using the purple-black spheres you know he’s getting close to dead. At this point you’ll no longer be safe from his attacks while under his head so move out. You should have this battle made with a couple of times of practice and a Sub-Tank or two. In fact if you have Zero or Shadow X you could dust him in seconds, due to how their Sabers take multiple hits per slash. Overall Sigma’s pretty reasonable in this game, surprisingly enough—I guess the infuriating stage design makes up for it.

Passwords

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There are no passwords, just saved games. Also Capcom got lazy and only allows you to save to the card in slot 1, which isn’t prohibitive, just annoying. On the bright side, the save feature records practically everything, and you can still have eight saves per card.

Items

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Amazon Area:
    (Screen shot of a Nightmare next to two rescuable Reploids.)
    Act quick.
  • Heart Tank: It’s being guarded by a Nightmare near two rescuable Reploids. Look down a pit in the gray-green cave section.
  • Sub-Tank: Look for a small open area with some ledges high up, and a platform robot on a tiny ledge at ground level. To the up and right is a rescuable Reploid. Air-dash left and you’ll see the Sub-Tank on another ledge. Getting this Tank requires somewhat less than conventional methods; see the discussion on getting the Head Part S below for more details.
  • Leg Part B: Near the beginning of the stage there will be a vertical shaft with some ledges, and a green grasshopper maker robot at the right at the bottom. Go right past this green robot to find the capsule.
Central Museum:
  • Heart Tank: For me it was in the third “virtual reality” section that you teleport into by touching the totem poles. However I believe the sections you get are semi-random. It’s in plain sight so you shouldn’t miss it once you get the correct section.
  • Head Part B: Again, it’s in one of the “virtual reality” sections, in plain sight once you enter the proper area.
Recycle Lab:
  • Heart Tank: It’s in the second trash compactor section after the continue point. It should be in a niche with a rescuable Reploid next to it. Pretty much in the open.
    (Screen shot of Zero on the ceiling.)
    Lookit me, ma!
  • Head Part S: Use the Ground Dash to break the blocks at the left side of the second trash compactor section (if the blocks are there). It’s right after the first ladder you find leading down. Skip the ladder and go left, to another ladder over there, and climb down. You’ll find a large section with a huge pit; the capsule is on the other side of the pit. Warning: Once you come down here you are stuck unless you either make it across the pit or lose all your lives. I think you’re supposed to arrange the blocks to get across the pit. However I ended up using the Blade armor. I fired an Ice Burst block on the very extreme edge of the platform, so that the block was half overhanging the pit. I stood on it so that X was practically falling off the block as well. Then I made a mighty leap right, and air-dashed at the peak, and it was just enough distance to grab the wall right above the bottom of the screen and climb up. If you have Zero, he can cross the pit with his double-jump coupled with a Jumper or a Speedster. With the Ultimate Armor you can just Nova Strike your way across.
Magma Area:
  • Heart Tank: There’s a narrow corridor with two gates on either side; head up the vertical passage to the very top.
  • Sub-Tank: In the boss portion of the stage (after you go through the blue crystal portal). It’s in plain sight once you’ve climbed upward a little.
  • Arm Part S: It’s right near the Heart Tank. If there is a silver block barring the way, you can visit the Amazon area to get rid of it, although you will require a vertical air-dash or some other jump enhancement to get up the passage without the silver blocks. Note: A number of people have told me that the Metal Anchor/Rakukojin will destroy the silver blocks, so you can try that as well.
North Pole Area:
    (Screen shot of many stage features happening at once.)
    Talk about busy.
  • Heart Tank: Near the beginning of the stage there’s a place where the screen scrolls over. Look for a narrow gap just big enough for X/Zero to walk right, off the screen. You should see three rescuable Reploids and the Heart Tank. You need a Jumper or something to get up there. Note: The passage leading to this and the EX Tank is opened by the falling magma (visit the Magma Area first).
  • EX Tank: It’s right below where the Heart Tank is, down a shaft of spikes, on more spikes. You can get to the rescuable Reploid easily by climbing down the ladder to the right (you need a vertical air-dash or something to get you up there), but getting the tank itself requires hopping onto spikes.
  • Leg Part S: After the first section you’ll come to a downward-slanting hill. You need to jump up to the ledge high to the right; you need a double-jump or something to make it up there because you can’t climb the wall.
Weapon Center:
  • Heart Tank: It’s just to the left of the Blade Armor arm capsule.
  • Arm Part B: After destroying the Illumina boss at the beginning you’ll see a crystal-like portal. Jump in that and the capsule is right behind you. Turn around and go left. (Your character will say he senses something strange.)
Laser Institute:
  • Heart Tank: To the right of where X/Zero says he feels wind (see capsule location). It’s on spikes; you may have to lose a life for it.
  • Weapon Tank: It’s in the crystal portal section of the stage, just to the right and on spikes.
  • Body Part B: In the final section with laser beams and reflectors, right before the door that leads to the Maverick, use the laser beams to open the door that leads down. Then, head left where X/Zero says he feels a breeze (through a hidden gap in what appears to be a wall...there are some invisible platforms over there as well).
Inami Temple
  • Heart Tank: You will come to a large rainy room with vertical ropes. On either end of the area will be passages lined with spikes in the walls. It’s through one of these passages, about the second one down on the left I believe. You can use the Shadow Armor to get this, or use the method below for getting the Body Part S.
  • Body Part S: In the large rainy room, go through the passage in the upper right to find the capsule. You can get across the spikes either by making yourself invincible (let something hit you, and you’ll be invincible for a short time thereafter; you may want the Double Barrier activated before you try this), or by dashing with the Blade armor (or with anyone who has an air-dash, although it’s more difficult with others).

Parts

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You can get Parts by rescuing certain Reploids. I haven’t taken the time to work out which rescuable Reploid is where, outside of what stage they are in. However, there is one part I can tell you: to get the Jumper, one of the most critical Parts in the game, go to the crystal portal location in the North Pole area (see the Secrets section). This section of the stage involves sliding down a diagonal ice slope dotted with enemies and spike pits. At the end of this slope you’ll find a vertical rope. To the left of this rope is a passage. You will need Shadow X or the Nova Strike or something (you might also be able to use the same technique I describe in the Head Part S section) to get across the spikes to the Reploid (Dante) who has the Jumper. (The only good side to this is that you have virtually no chance of losing the Jumper because there are no Nightmares around to possess Dante.)

How many Parts you can equip at once is dependant on that character’s rank.

Items with a star (*) must be used off the subscreen. They can only be used once per stage.

Amazon Area:

Laser Institute: Central Museum Recycle Lab Magma Area: North Pole Area: Weapon Center: Inami Temple:

Tricks and Secrets

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(Screen shot of the results screen showing 999 damage received.)
I suppose it stops counting at 999...such a shame, I could have done so much better...
General Tips
  • Whenever you see a Nightmare enemy look for a rescuable Reploid because the two are almost always found together. Try to get the Nightmare to chase you rather than going after the Reploid. If you see a Nightmare moving slowly, particularly away from you, that’s bad, it’s going after a Reploid, so you’ll have to act quickly to save it.
  • Your rank is determined by how many souls you collect and not by your performance. You can do pitifully and still go up a rank if you’d collected enough souls along the way.
  • Zero’s buster is more powerful than his saber, curiously enough, so you might want to give it a try.
  • There are three ways to advance to the “fortress” stages of the game:
    • defeat all eight Mavericks,
    • defeat High Max, or
    • obtain 3000 or more Nightmare Souls with one of your characters.
    I suggest you try all three as the cut scenes are different.
  • Use the Yammar Option to destroy the little spy fly robots and they may drop energy.
  • In the Recycle Area stage, you cannot be crushed if you are in the Ride Armor. (The crusher just lands on your head and stops.)
Boss Room Locations

Every stage has a “hidden” section which you access via a glowing blue crystal-like portal. At the end of this section will be a boss room where you fight not the Maverick, but one of the bosses listed above (Zero, High Max, and finally Dynamo). The stage ends when you defeat this boss, even if you haven’t taken out the Maverick yet (you’ll have to start the stage over again to get the Maverick).

  • Weapon Center: Right after defeating Illumina, you should see the portal crystal right over your head.
  • North Pole: It’s right near the Heart Tank. You need to double-jump (or whatever) up through a vertical passage to the right, or come down from the right (you can’t climb the wall...in fact you won’t be able to climb the walls in the boss room either when you reach it).
  • Laser Institute: It’s to the right of the Heart Tank.
  • Amazon Area: It’s in a vertical passage; look for the entrance in the ceiling early on in the gray cave section (need a vertical air-dash or some other jump enhancement to get up there). After that you’ll find the crystal as you drop down another passage at the other end.
  • Recycle Lab: It’s just to the right of the Shadow Armor Helmet Capsule. (Note: There’s another crystal just below where the path branches, but it takes you to the Maverick’s room.)
  • Central Museum: I found it in the third virtual reality section. However the section the portal is in seems to come up randomly and might not always be on the third floor.
  • Inami Temple: It’s through the spiked passage to the very bottom left of the large room with the rain and vertical ropes. See the items section for information on how to get through the spiked passages.
  • Magma Area: It’s in the area where the Heart Tank and Capsule are. In fact, all of the items in this stage are in this section.
Stage Changes

Although the stage layouts themselves are static, certain elements of them are variable. When you visit one stage, it will have an effect on one or more different stages. This effect lasts until a new one is applied. Stage effects can’t overlap; they replace one another. So if one of these is restricting you, just exit the stage, visit another stage, exit out of that stage, and come back. Repeat with different stages until you get the features you wish. The below lists what effect a stage has and which stages it affects:

  • Amazon Area: “Spy flies” (Laser Institute, Magma Area)
  • Laser Institute: X/Zero-shaped “viruses” (Inami Temple, North Pole)
  • Magma Area: Falling magma boulders (Weapon Center, North Pole)
  • Central Museum: Breakable blocks (Laser Institute, Recycle Lab)
  • Recycle Lab: Silver blocks (Central Museum, Magma Area, Weapon Center)
  • Weapon Center: Spotlights (Amazon Area, Inami Temple)
  • Inami Temple: Rain (Central Museum, Amazon Area)
  • North Pole: Iced floors (Recycle Lab)
Armors
  • Falcon Armor: Under normal circumstances you begin the game with this. It cannot fly as in Mega Man X5, but it does reduce the damage X receives, allows him to charge super-shots, and allows him to air-dash (in fact, double-jumping with this armor is the same as air-dashing). The Giga Attack is a full-screen attack which rains down plasma shots. Note: The Falcon armor is toned down slightly if you begin the game with one of the armor codes below.
  • Blade Armor: Designed to focus more on using the Saber. Charging up the X-Buster, then pressing up while firing will produce a Saber-slash rather than a super-shot. Also the Giga Attack is a large slash, which moves across the screen if X is in the air when he pulls it off. With this armor, if you press jump or dash while in the air, X will freeze in place. Release the button while pressing a direction on the control pad and X will air-dash in that direction (limited to horizontal and vertical).
  • Shadow Armor: A modified version of the Gaea Armor from Mega Man X5. The arm cannon fires shrunken-shaped shots which fly in random angles. The fully-powered shot is actually a Saber slash (which will cause you to fall off ropes/ladders so beware). This armor cannot use special weapons, period. It also cannot air-dash at all although it does possess Zero’s super jump. The armor sticks to walls, rather than sliding down them. It also sticks to ceilings, similar to Zero. When he’s on a ceiling, X fires a cone-shaped blast of stars downward. This armor is totally immune to spikes; X can even climb walls that have spikes. The Giga Attack forms moon-shaped swipes which circle X briefly.
  • Ultimate Armor: The same as in Mega Man X4 and Mega Man X5 basically. It has very powerful super-shots which leave behind spheres that do additional damage. The armor can air-dash, hover (press jump while in the air), and use its Giga Attack (the invincible air-dash called the Nova Strike in other games) as often as desired.
  • Black Zero: Well, not really an armor, but it does raise Zero’s defense and enhance his Saber.
Armor Codes

You are given these codes by beating the game, which is a very good feature. But I’ll be nice and post them anyway. On the title screen before starting a new game, highlight Game Start, do one of the sequences of button-presses listed below, then press X or Start.

  • Ultimate X: Press Left three times and Right once
  • Black Zero: Press L1 three times and R2 once (on other systems press L three times and then R)
You can only have one of these codes active at a time; if you punch them both in, only the one you put in last will actually take effect. Note: If you use the black Zero code, you have to actually get Zero before you can use him, but he’ll show up with the black armor.

Endings

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X’s Endings
Once Sigma’s current form is destroyed, X pulls Gate out as he escapes, much to Alia’s surprise. No one is sure if Gate will survive, but they’re willing to take the chance. It’s interesting to note that Zero is in both of these endings; even if you don’t find him during the game, he crashes the party so to speak during the ending and pulls a Blues impression. It’s rather humorous. Incidentally, in the second ending Zero says there is something he needs to do; I believe he is referring to the events which happen in his own ending, below.

Zero’s Ending
Curiously, this doesn’t show anything about Gate or X or Alia. Zero’s ending merely shows Zero consulting with an unnamed scientist about curing some unnamed anomaly in Zero’s system. What’s disappointing about the ending is it claims Zero will be out of the action for 102 years (or more). So evidently either he won’t show up at all in Mega Man X7, or else someone will wake him up early. Zero doesn’t even say goodbye first. What a jerk. (Hey, don’t yell at me—I’m sure X would say the same thing if he knew.)