Rockman & Forte

A two-block tall wave shoots forward in a slight sinusoid. If it hits a solid block, it pauses for a second before disappearing. Can pass through multiple enemies if it’s not reflected. Knocks out certain walls.

Split into four mini-Fortes and fly wherever you want (as in through enemies, through walls, out of bottomless pits, etc.), damaging anything you touch at shorter intervals than the Flame Mixer. Hold the button to maintain at a rate of 4 energy per second. Just...don’t rematerialize inside a wall.

Hold the fire button to charge (weapon cost doesn’t change), then release to dash forward four blocks. Not deterred by shielded enemies.

A four-flame shield that rotates slowly, damaging enemies and absorbing some shots (ones you can normally shoot down). Hold the button to maintain the shield at a cost of 1 energy per second, or release to toss it upward.

Hold the button to create a short line of up to three small flames (weapon cost doesn’t change), release or jump to release them straight upwards. Cannot fire when airborne.

This is Forte’s version of the Barrier Wind.

Fires a small powerful homing shot that passes through walls and will loop through shielded enemies until they become vulnerable or the shot flies offscreen. Lets you kill most normal enemies in one shot.

Fires three slow overlapping bullets which break apart after two blocks. The center one flies straight, the top and bottom immediately begin making four-block-radius arcs to the top and bottom of the screen respectively. All bullets pass harmlessly through shielded enemies (no damage).

This is Forte’s version of the Time Switch.

Stops all enemies and their shots for a short time. You can’t fire while this is active, but you can walk straight through anything that is frozen without suffering damage.

Energy pellets refill your life meter. The small ones refill 2 units—not a lot, but it can really add up.

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 or adapter rather than your life energy. Weapon energy changes color according to which weapon you are currently equipped with. Before picking up a pellet be sure to equip a weapon that needs the energy.

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

These are the same thing as P-Chips from the Game Boy games. Gather these to build items. Bolts are found in two sizes; small ones are worth 3 and large ones are worth 10.

Extra lives. If you have one of these when you bite the dust, you’ll be given another chance at the stage, restarting at the furthest continue point that you’d reached.

A single-use item that gains you the benefits from both the classic games as well as from Power Fighters. Using Beat makes you invulnerable (even to spikes) for about 20 seconds while Beat flies around you destroying enemies.

This single-use item allows you to summon Eddie, who comes and delivers a random power-up item to you, then leaves.

In this game, you already have the effects of the Energy Balancer. With this upgrade, even if you have a weapon equipped, all weapon energy collected will go to the weapon with the least amount of energy remaining.

This is a single-use item that allows you to exit a cleared stage in the middle of the stage.

This is a single-use item that allows you to summon Gospel (Treble) to morph with Forte (Bass) and allow him to fly around. This lasts roughly 20 seconds, but there is no visible meter of how much time you have left, so watch out.

Forte’s shots can travel through walls and ceilings and floors. They are still as weak as normal (and don’t look any different), but you can use this strategically with the correct placement.

This is a single-use item that plants a surprise shell (which contains a random item power-up) at the end of the current stage.

Having this item halves the energy required to fire your special weapons. For continuous-drain weapons, the time between drains is doubled rather than halving the per-drain cost.

This single-use item is the same as the Eddie item, except it summons Reggae instead (Wily’s hench-bird who cameos in Mega Man 7 and Rock Board).

This is a single-use item that allows you to summon Rush to springboard Rockman into the air.

This allows you to land on spikes once without dying (you’ll become briefly invincible instead, just as if you had struck an enemy—so better hurry off those spikes!). After that the item is used up, and you’ll be vulnerable to spikes again.

Halves the damage inflicted on your character. This is one of the most useful items in the game and should be obtained as soon as possible.

With this, Forte’s shots become twice as powerful (equal to Rockman’s uncharged arm cannon shots). The shot appearance doesn’t change to give any indication that it is in effect, but you can tell based on how many shots it takes to defeat enemies.

This is a single-use item that will refill all of your weapons.

Increases the amount of energy you or your weapon recover when you pick up an energy pellet or capsule. This can really get you out of a jam when you’re deep in a fortress.

This is a single-use furry furball of fury. Tango follows you approximately, taking out any enemies he touches, until one or the other of you leaves the screen. One big exploit with this item is Tango never goes away when used against a boss, because you never leave the screen.

Those things that Aircon Man throws sideways are boulders. They will kill you if they crush you, but you can stand on them (and get a better shot at the boss) as well. Forte can also shoot angled shots from the corners during the boulder phase of the battle.

This is no Gemini Man, but they can still make things difficult. As time-stop attacks go, the Clock Men let you off easy, but they spend a lot of their time at the top of the screen. Double-jump with Forte, or use FS with Rockman, or just wait and use BW/FC from the ground.

Compas Man splits, with his upper torso dropping on you from the top of the screen, and his legs running back and forth just to get in your way. He’s vulnerable on the ball on top of his legs while split. As Rockman, DC is at just the right height to deal multiple hits per use. Forte can pretty much hang out on top of him with DA or FM until he’s dead.

This is a pretty unremarkable battle. He basically jumps across the room and fires himself back. He’s easy to hit with BW/FC, which will usually hit multiple times for massive damage.

This guy can be tough. His clones are invincible, and in the way of your shots most times he’s vulnerable. BW/FC takes him down quickly, but you have to wait for a chance to use it (usually means charging through his clones and taking damage). Forte can alternatively stand on top of him and grind away with FM, and if you have it, Rock’s RV can pierce through the clones and deal decent damage.

Knowing his pattern helps a lot: three clones from the right which fire a 3-shot spread three times from above (stand between any two clones and jump as the shots converge), then they merge to the center and dash left (slide/dash right; as Rockman try to unload a charged shot while he’s vulnerable). Then repeat the whole pattern from the left side. After that, the entire pattern repeats from the right side except the clones merge and stay in the center this time (shoot like mad here), then Komuso Man stands in the center summoning painful flame columns from below on both sides. (For Forte, you will need to spend a lot of time dodging, but Rockman should focus on hitting him with super-shots because this is your best chance to damage him.)

Stand between the first and second falling flames closest to him and jump over the flame pillars, unless you can take out the falling flames and give yourself more foot-room.