Mega Man 11

This creates a shield around Mega Man. The uncharged one blocks only enemy shots, not the enemies themselves. The charged one can damage enemies directly. Once the shield is up, you can use the fire button to shoot acid blobs in an arc; you can have up to three blobs on the screen at a time, just like with the arm cannon. You only pay the weapon energy cost to generate the shield; shooting the acid blobs is free. Furthermore, the acid blobs will deal added damage to enemies weak against this weapon. The shield has a limited duration; it gradually shrinks, and after a span of time it flickers and fails, and then you have to expend more weapon energy to put it up again. There is a delay when putting up the shield which is something to beware. (Since you have to have the shield up to shoot the acid blobs, if the shield gets taken out—by an enemy striking it, say—while you’re busy trying to fire at something, you’ll end up just putting the shield back up instead of shooting, which can throw you off.) Having said that, the shield does survive opening and closing the subscreen (assuming you still have A.Barrier equipped when you close it) and it survives scrolling to another screen.

This tosses a fireball a short distance upward into the air that then turns into a flame of fire that blazes downward at an angle for a certain distance. When charged, the fire is larger and it shoots off three streams in a downward fan-shaped formation. This weapon can light explosive blocks.

Drops blocks a preset distance in front of Mega Man. The individual blocks shatter when they damage something so each one is only good for a single hit. Normally this drops four blocks in a horizontal row spaced about one block apart. When charged, the number of blocks is greatly multiplied and they are grouped closer together so that there are no gaps between them.

Shoots three small balls that bounce around. They last for a few seconds or until they go off the screen; obviously, this weapon is more effective in an area where there are walls and a ceiling for the balls to bounce off. You can fire this twice and have up to six balls on the screen at once. When charged, this shoots twice as many balls, and you can still fire it twice, so you can have twice as many balls again all bouncing around. Obviously, this weapon needs very little in the way of aiming, but you can adjust how it fires depending on whether you’re holding or when you shoot.

This is a weird one that shoots bombs straight forward. They stick to enemies and to walls and obstacles and after a few seconds they blow up. You can detonate them early by using +fire. You can have up to four little bombs on the screen at once. If multiple bombs get near each other they “link up” and the explosion is larger in size. You also get extra bonus damage for every bomb you link up past the second. When charged with Power Gear, the bomb (and the resulting explosion) is much bigger and deals more damage (though linking all four small bombs produces slightly more damage for slightly less weapon energy cost). Overall this weapon does not really seem to do very much damage for the expense on minor enemies. However, on bosses it’s a different story. Using Power Gear is easier than linking the bombs and can be a good way to make bosses go boom. (One technique: switch on Power Gear, toss a bomb, then flip immediately to Speed Gear and dodge while the bomb does its thing.)

Mega Man dashes forward with a spike arm that will damage whatever it strikes. (Note that, unlike the Charge Kick, you activate this with the normal fire button, not by sliding.) If, while dashing, Mega Man hits a wall or block (or an enemy that isn’t defeated in a single hit), he will stick for a second and then there’s an explosion as he bounces backward slightly. (When striking enemies that are destroyed in one hit, he simply dashes straight on through.) The explosion can deal additional damage to your target; it also has a small area of effect so you can use it to indirectly strike an enemy if you don’t want to dash directly into it. (For example, for those situations where you will suffer damage if you aim for the enemy directly.) When used under Power Gear, the explosion is bigger. You can use this weapon while on a ladder but Mega Man basically just air-dashes off the ladder. This can also be activated in midair as a poor man’s air-dash.

This shoots two orbs downward that trace along the ground in either direction. If one strikes an enemy, the orb grows larger and stops in place, sparking there for a few seconds. Presumably this can deal additional hits of damage, but for bosses this usually doesn’t due to the boss being immune for a few seconds after being hit. You can aim this upward by pressing +fire. If you fire this weapon while on a free-floating platform (meaning a ledge not attached to any wall or floor), the orbs will continuously circle the ledge for a preset duration. You can have up to three sets of orbs on the screen at a time. When charged, the orbs are larger.

This produces a vertical ice tornado in Mega Man’s location. When charged, it hits the entire screen. Enemies that are destroyed by this are frozen briefly as they shatter. It doesn’t, however, appear to freeze enemies that it can’t defeat in one hit.

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.

Picking up one of these items reduces the heat in your Gear Gauge by a preset amount. This works whether or not you are actively using one of the gears, and can also help speed recovery when the Double Gear has overheated entirely and you are presently in cooldown mode. These items are thus rather situational, but they are often placed in the stages in locations where you are expected to be using Speed Gear, such as the flame wall sections.

These are the same thing as P-Chips from the Game Boy games. Gather these to build items at Dr. Light’s lab. The small Bolts are worth 10, and the large ones are worth 100.

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.

This is an entire stock of energy that Mega Man can carry around until needed. You use these off the subscreen. When used, Mega Man’s energy meter will be refilled completely.

These are tanks which carry a stock of weapon energy. This tank refills all of your weapons when used.

Once known as a Mega Tank. It completely refills Mega Man’s health meter and all of his weapons. If you use this when your health and weapon meters are all already full, then every minor enemy currently on the screen turns into a 1-Up. (This does not affect bosses or mini-bosses, of course.) Amusingly, this latter function of the tank was once a hidden feature, but now the game flat-out informs you of it right there on the subscreen.

This is a springboard which enables Mega Man to leap greater distances. Just call Rush and then jump onto him. You’ll rebound off and soar almost to the top of the screen.

Mega Man can hop onto Rush and ride him, much like a skyboard. Like the Item-2, you have little control of Rush in this game; he always flies straight forward, and you can only control up and down to degrees. You can jump off while traveling. Rush Jet consumes weapon energy steadily while in transit; when the meter runs out, Rush slows down and pauses briefly, then disappears. If Rush runs up against a block or a wall, he doesn’t immediately vanish unless you jump off him, but he will eventually go away, so beware. If you summon Rush while in midair, Rush Jet appears at the level where Mega Man’s feet were at that moment; this means if you are jumping upward, you can land directly on the jet. You can also use this to position Rush Jet at the height that you want.

If you detest bottomless pits, this item is for you. If you happen to fall, Beat will fly down automatically and catch you, flying you back up to safety. While Beat is carrying Mega Man, you can guide its flight with the control pad. Then when you’re over safe ground, press the jump button to hop off. If you don’t do this manually Beat will eventually wear out and drop Mega Man, so be sure to get him to solid ground quickly. Note that if Beat drops you and you fall straight back into a pit, and you still have Beat Calls remaining, Beat will swoop back down and catch you again rather than disappearing.

When used off the subscreen, Eddie appears and flies around nearby, dropping several power-ups at random. He has a slight delay between each item he throws, so you’ll want to call him in a safe place if at all possible (or in the middle of a boss battle works too in many cases). Among other things you can get E-Tanks out of this.

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 to safety!). This is a single-use item; once you’ve used them all, you’ll be vulnerable to spikes again.

When activated by using it off the subscreen, this reduces all damage you take by half. This one lasts for one stage or until you die.

Mega Man charges his arm cannons automatically whenever you are not firing. This can save some effort on your thumb, and also helps you to always be fully charged during chaotic battles. Obviously this part only applies while you are using the Mega Buster; when you switch to another weapon, it doesn’t function.

A super-charged Power Generator: with this, weapons no longer require weapon energy. At all. (This is technically one of the two parts that you automatically have equipped during the weapon demo screen, though you can’t see it.)

This appears to increase the odds that defeated enemies will drop Bolts. (You will still get other types of drops even with this equipped; this simply tilts the chances a bit.) Nicely enough, you can equip and unequip this as your needs dictate.

Building this part increases the number of Beat Calls and Eddie Calls that you can carry from 1 to 3. This is a permanent upgrade; once you build it, you can’t ever remove it.

This part makes Mega Man’s shots very slightly bigger, which helps a bit in striking targets. It appears to affect all three of the standard shot sizes, though it aids the smaller ones more than a fully-powered Mega Buster blast.

Like the Bolt Catcher, this seems to weight the game toward giving you weapon energy from defeated enemies. This would explain why you can only have one of these three related parts equipped at once.

This causes the Double Gear system to overheat more slowly and to vent heat faster, allowing you to use it more frequently and for longer periods of time.

Use Speed Gear and Power Gear infinitely. The overheat meter still shows up while they are active, but it doesn’t increase. Also, if you use the Double Gear technique at low health, there’s no penalty after it wears off. So you can just...use it right away all over again. Having this part equipped cuts the difficulty of Normal mode down to around 1 or so—which is probably why it requires a clear game save.

This allows you to pick up weapon energy and refill weapons even if you aren’t equipped with them. The EB machine will fill the weapon which needs the energy most first, but you can override its choices by equipping the desired weapon. If your current weapon is full on energy, the weapon energy will go to another weapon instead.

This variation of the Energy Balancer refills all of your weapons by the amount of energy that you just picked up. For example, if you pick up a weapon energy pellet, every weapon in your arsenal will be refilled by 2 units.

Along the same lines as the Bolt Catcher, this appears to cause enemies to drop life energy more frequently than other things. In my own personal experience, I find that by default enemies mostly drop weapon energy in this game; I rarely get life energy. So this can help tilt things in your favor if you need to recover Mega Man’s health.

This one is weird. When you activate it by equipping it, Mega Man’s current health is immediately reduced to 4 units remaining (the threshold for using the Double Gear technique). Moreover, picking up life energy will not increase his energy above this threshold. If you die, this part automatically unequips itself so that when you respawn you come back with a full life meter. Honestly, the worth of this part is somewhat dubious since you could just go out and get hit by enemies to get your life meter down to 4 units.

Reduces the Horizontal Recoil (as seen in the Stats section) to zero (0). Zippo. None. Note, however, that you can still be pushed around by things like wind and water. Also, Mega Man still freezes in place for a second when he takes damage, even with this active.

Amusingly, this removes the recoil from firing off Power Gear powered super-shots. It only affects Power Gear shots because unlike MMIV the regular Mega Buster doesn’t have a kick in this game.

Enables Mega Man to move at full speed while he has Speed Gear active. There are actually situations where this is a disadvantage, so it is handy that you can equip and unequip this part at will. In particular, Speed Gear gives you finer motor control, allowing you to more easily position your jumps, and you lose this advantage if you are moving at normal speed. Still, running at full speed can help for when you are using Speed Gear to race things like grinder tanks and walls of fire. So this part is definitely situational.

This reduces the amount that Mega Man slides on ice. He still slides very slightly, but it’s pretty negligible with this part equipped.

Building this part increases your maximum carrying capacity for E-Tanks and W-Tanks from 6 to 9. Honestly, I’m not even sure why this is in the game, since traditionally Mega Man has always been able to carry 9 tanks to begin with.

Mega Man was once a household robot named Rock, but when Dr. Wily turned evil, Rock was converted by his creator Dr. Light into the fighting robot known as Mega Man. This small blue robot is equipped with twin arm cannons and the Weapon Copy system which lets him take weapons from defeated foes.

This is the scientist that started it all, for he was the one who first created revolutionary human-like robots. He was responsible for creating Mega Man and Roll, and he worked with Dr. Wily for a time.

Dr. Wily was once Dr. Light’s partner, but then he turned against his former colleague and tried to take over the world. Even after being defeated repeatedly by Mega Man, he has yet to give up.

She was also built by Dr. Light as a housekeeping robot, and is Mega Man’s sister. Her name is designed to match Mega Man’s (Rock and Roll).

This is the robot Dr. Light built to man the Item Replicator. He’s kind of the happy bumbling type that doesn’t have a whole lot of sense, but is usually cheerful.

Mega Man’s canine companion, this is a robot dog built by Dr. Light to aid in Mega Man’s travels. Rush is always ready to respond to Mega Man’s call; when Mega Man needs use of a Rush form, his dog teleports in, does his thing, and leaves.

Once a little blue attack bird that Dr. Cossack and Dr. Light created together, Beat has now been commissioned to help save Mega Man from bottomless pits instead of fighting directly.

Dr. Light’s walking suitcase. Eddie brings Mega Man items and power-ups on the field.

He actually uses his weapon very much the way you do when you gain it as a special weapon. He puts up a shield first, then starts tossing acid blobs in arcs at you. You can keep shooting the shield to wear it down and eventually knock it off, or you can wipe it out instantly with certain weapons like the B.Dropper. Acid Man doesn’t appear to suffer any damage until his shield is taken out, and after it’s gone, he’ll tend to jump back and forth shooting acid blobs in straight lines instead of arcs. When he gets lower on health he’ll begin hopping into the acid pool at the bottom of his stage and jetting back and forth across the room, kicking up a spray of acid that you have to jump. Then he shoots upward trying to strike you, so be ready to dodge. (Note that he can be damaged while he’s swimming, by weapons like B.Dropper and T.Storm that can hit him down there.)

He spends a lot of time standing on the far side of the room throwing spreads of bombs. He either throws while on the ground or jumps and throws; the ones he throws when he jumps are in my opinion easier to dodge. You can destroy the bombs in mid-flight if you do enough damage to them. Then sometimes he will leap across the screen tossing down floating mines; these will try to seek you out if you get close to them and will also link together like the version of his weapon that you use. They blink red and then eventually explode. When Blast Man gets low on health he starts throwing huge bombs horizontally. His weakness, unsurprisingly, is B.Torch. It blazes straight through his bombs and deals good damage to Blast Man. I personally suggest not using Power Gear with B.Torch here because you tend to just run out of weapon energy before finishing off the Robot Master.

This battle is divided into three. He starts out by running back and forth, jumping when you shoot (he tries to land on you when he jumps, so beware), and at times he’ll stop and drop some bricks from the sky. Then as he nears half health he turns into a giant, restores all of his health in the process (yes, that’s right, he has two energy meters), and you have to hit the gem in the center of his chest. Once you finish off that form, you knock him back to his regular size and thus begins the final portion of the battle. At this point Block Man goes to one side of the room and begins flinging blocks in a never-ending stream. Honestly, although the C.Blast can do some decent damage earlier in the fight, at this point I’d ditch it and start just using the Mega Buster. Focus on jumping and dodging the blocks he throws while you charge up a super-shot (use Power Gear if you wish), then fire the super-shot straight through his blocks and into Block Man himself. Rinse, repeat.

This is one in particular where the battle is very different if you are using the weapon he is weak against. Under normal circumstances, he bounces weightlessly around the room, occasionally stopping to punch at you with his fist, which extends a great distance. If you go underneath him he’ll try to land on you. And if you hit him with a super-shot, he’ll start happily rebounding all around the room with his arms and legs held inward so that he’s basically a big ball. At half health he uses Speed Gear and bounces faster. Having said that, if you strike him with P.Driver, he splits apart into separate pieces (body, head, hands, feet) which all bounce around individually—which in some ways is even trickier to dodge. You can damage him some more by striking his main body part (the biggest piece) while he’s bouncing.

He teleports about the room, leaving a straight line streak of energy between his current location and his new position. Touching this line hurts you, so beware. When he appears, he tosses a burst of energy and then teleports again. Meanwhile, two balls of energy constantly circle the room. When he gets to half health, he uses Speed Gear and starts zipping in zigzags up to the ceiling and then slamming downward in a column of electricity. And when it wears off, he goes back to the normal routine except he shoots twice each time he appears and the lightning orbs move in different patterns. It should be noted that the B.Ball can take out the electrical spheres that circle the room as well as damage the boss.

He comes in three pieces. He tries to jump and land on you; when he hits the ground, he’ll stagger Mega Man if you’re not in the air at the moment (once again a callback to Guts Man, along with other games). He also charges across the screen. And at times he transforms into a triad of his three pieces, dropping little spikes in the ground. You can destroy the spikes by hitting them enough times. At half health he transforms into a giant jackhammer thing and lands on the ground, shaking the room again, and damaging you if you are anywhere nearby. He jumps several times, trying to land on you, then finally turns back to normal. Note: Jump a lot during this battle. You need to be in the air whenever he hits the ground, and to jump him when he charges.

He’s a jujitsu fighter. He throws fist-shaped fireballs at various heights, some of which you can slide under. And he jumps and does diagonal downward flaming kicks. He can also do roundhouse kicks which knock you backward if they hit (which causes Mega Man to land in a rather nifty-looking kneeling position). At half health he uses Power Gear, lights himself on fire, and starts throwing slow-moving rings of fire and jumping around and landing in a pillar of fire. He finishes by disappearing and reappearing above you and using a big pillar of fire. He’s weak against T.Storm, but it’s actually rather hard to hit him with it, and it doesn’t freeze him or put out his flames or anything.

He twirls back and forth, usually encased in a small tornado, sometimes going straight across the room along the floor and sometimes bounding into the air various times along the way. He can’t be hit with the normal Mega Buster while he’s spinning in the tornado, but he does slow his spin in the corners of the room and he can also be hurt when he’s just skating without the tornado. At half health he uses Speed Gear and starts zipping back and forth, then jumps to the center of the screen and forms a vertical tornado there that covers the height of the room in a vertical direction (so don’t try to slide underneath him at this time).

A fairly unique enemy; this little robot happily uses its welder on anything available—turning spots of the floor into molten metal. If you leave one of these innocent little guys alone for too long, it can make navigation tricky. Having said that, a shot of T.Storm can douse this robot’s handiwork.

The Bubble Bat makes a glorious reappearance that is slightly more involved than the singular cameo in Mega Man X, but still a rather sparse showing. You’ll only find these a couple of times throughout the game, but their presence is amusing nonetheless.

A Blader that has lost its rotor and instead floats by the assistance of some balloons. Contrary to appearances you can’t stand on the balloons. Both the Bunby and the balloons repel normal shots (this is probably so that you don’t shoot them by accident) but you can destroy them with a super-shot. If you super-shot the balloons, the Bunby falls to the ground and disintegrates. If you super-shot the Bunby, the balloons are released and spread apart, making a nuisance of themselves.

A traditional enemy that shows flashing lights when provoked. These move back and forth along a ledge, speeding up when you are level with them. The only weapon I have found that can touch one of these is the P.Driver. You can either dash straight through them, or strike a wall or block nearby and time the weapon’s explosion so that the Gabyoall gets hit in the blast.

The infamous Mets that hide under their helmets until you draw near, then pop up and shoot at you. You can stagger them with a super-shot, then finish them off with a well-placed follow-up shot. Or some special weapons can get through their shells.

Now this is a blast from the past. This guy from Guts Man’s stage lacks the shield here but is quite tenacious. They throw pickaxes in arcs and have shockingly good aim. You can destroy the pickaxes by shooting them in midair. If you block them with Acid Barrier, they break in half and bounce off. A Pickman will turn to face you as needed, but cannot throw his axe at you if you are standing directly beneath him.

Seen in other games, these robots are shielded from the front and move tirelessly back and forth. Their movements are not affected by your presence in any manner; they have preset paths and thus will always turn around at exactly the same place every time. Thus, you can predict where you will be able to stand and not be touched by them. Shoot them from behind to destroy them, or use a weapon which can negate their shields.

The mecha is back! A Sniper Joe pilots this machine which fires blue plasma shots at various angles. If you destroy the armor, the Sniper Joe will drop to the ground and fight you himself. But if you aim high, you can damage the Sniper Joe directly. Destroying the Joe while he’s still seated in the armor will cause the mecha itself to self-destruct.

These guys are a lot of fun (though you might want to qualify the word “fun” here). The traditional Sniper Joe has gotten quite clever in this game. If you come in from above, he will jump and shoot in an attempt to strike you. And don’t think you can take these guys from behind: if you try to jump over one, he’ll pursue you. Sniper Joes are vulnerable while firing. Their shields deflect normal shots, but you can knock them aside with a fully-charged super-shot. Many special weapons will also damage a Joe through his shield.

This shielded enemy is similar to a Met in functionality but is significantly larger. It never moves from where it sits nor will it turn around, so if you get behind one, you have easy pickings.

For me, the game these most remind me of is Mega Man 4, where they are right there at the start of Ring Man’s stage, among other places. These cannons can angle themselves toward you to a degree, but there is a limit to their movement; by learning this limit, you’ll know where is safe to stand.