O-------------O | MEGA MAN II | O-------------O FAQ/Walkthrough, v1.0 All the tips for Mega Man's second adventure! Written by Snow Dragon (C) 2002 All rights reserved ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= Story, Intro, and Notes Basic Concept Items Walkthrough Credits & Legal Disclaimers ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- STORY, INTRO AND NOTES ====================== Here is the story of Mega Man II, as taken straight from the game's introductory cinema: "In the year of 200X, a super robot named Megaman was created. Dr. Light created Megaman to stop the evil desires of Dr. Wily. However, after his defeat, Dr. Wily created eight of his own robots to counter Megaman." [At this point, the camera moves up the skyscraper at right to approximately somewhere in the upper stratosphere. At the top is Our Hero, decked out in the classic blue we've all come to love, his hair blowing wildly in the breeze. It's clear that this is a hero who doesn't take orders from just any old schmuck.] [Also at this point, you can choose the difficulty mode you want to play in. Mega Man's helmet crawls magically onto his head and he zips upward into the sky, leaving you to choose whether you want to dive into the stage select or enter a password.] Hi, and welcome to my FAQ/walkthrough for Mega Man II, my personal favorite in the entire series after 3 and 7. Though as far as Mega Man games go this is probably one of the easiest - okay, it IS the easiest, it's still an engrossing game and a platformer that should not be missed out on. In it, you'll fight classic Robot Masters such as Bubble Man, Air Man, Quick Man, and the rest. If or when published, this will be my 24th published FAQ on the Internet. Before we get started though, there are circumstances that call for me to include these notes at the beginning of every walkthrough of mine, which I've written in some form or another so many times by now that they just feel obligatory. This introductory section will help you get past your confusion and give you a little bit of insight on how I like to write. ** Unlike most other walkthroughs covering this game, I play through the Robot Masters in a different order than the other authors covering this game. I just feel as though this sequence may help people who take things a little slow and laid-back, or it's good if you want to shake things up and do things different for a change. Hey, I'm not the boss of you. Do what you want. ** The Items section will give you great insights not only on what your items do, but ways you can use them effectively and creatively. Sometimes thinking outside the box is a really cool thing. ** If you want to write down the passwords, that's fine, but I'm not going to. Passwords vary depending on what items you picked up in a level, among other things, and can safely be called random. Unless you do everything I do to the letter, you won't get the same password as me. Therefore, we're not going to mess with passwords in this guide. ** I played through this game on the Difficult setting to get as much substantial information into this FAQ as I could. If you are playing on Normal mode, these guides ought to be more than enough for you to get by on, as what is in Difficult mode often is not a part of Normal. Difficult isn't that much harder than Normal anyway, so take a stab at it, if you would be so brave. ** If you need to get a hold of me for any reason whatsoever, I have one e-mail address and one e-mail address only: . Inform me of mistakes in any of my FAQs (not just this one), comment on my methods, make suggestions for things that could be added, or make a request of any sort. That address is the place to write to. There are three criteria I now have in regards to sufficient e-mail (I've added one with this walkthrough). If you want to know what makes an e-mail that makes me happy, read these three things. 1. Put the name of the game, or, even better, the specific place or aspect you are having trouble with in the subject line. I love to know exactly what my readership wants additional help with, so if you would do that first and foremost, it would be greatly appreciated. If you don't put anything in the subject line, it could get dismissed as spam or other useless mail, which I've been getting lots of lately. I need to be able to weed out the crap from the stuff I need to see, and this will help me out a lot. Also, the filesize will tip me off as to whether your e-mail is relevant or not. If it's over 20k, I often won't read it, as it's either unnecessarily long or a virus. 2. Please, for the love of God, triple-check the guide you're looking at to make sure I haven't already answered your question. It rarely happens, but I do occasionally get mail from people who obviously didn't make an effort to look at the walkthrough before e-mailing me. Should this happen, I have now decided that I won't even gratify you with a reply. Instant deletion will commence, and your question will be duly ignored. You have been sufficiently warned. 3. Since my address is a Hotmail address, I do have MSN Messenger. It's all good and everything if you want to e-mail me a question, but please, DON'T ADD ME TO YOUR CONTACT LIST. Right now, my entire family shares the computer, and they'll start buggin' out if they find total strangers on my contact list. I have been approached by many to be on their buddy list, even those who just want to make some friends and talk for fun. The only people on my list are friends and family, and until I move out or whatever, that's how it stays. I doubt I'll ever allow this, but for now, I don't. Just e-mail me. I don't have time for people to be bothering me with their questions in real time. ** That should be all for now, so enjoy playing Mega Man 2! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- BASIC CONCEPT ============= As we all know by now, Mega Man is the hero in just about all of these games (the NES Mega Man games, anyway - let's not go messing with that X junk right now). For now, it is safe to assume that Mega Man is the hero, yes. He is in this one. For all purposes of logic and whatnot in this FAQ, Mega Man is the hero. I may have overclarified that a bit, but oh well. Anyway, as Mega Man, you will first face off against eight Robot Masters, each of which can be connected to another in terms of weaponry, weaknesses, and other relevant factors. With your regular gun, some of these bosses are nearly impossible to tackle, but the weapons of certain Robot Masters will take down some of the other Robot Masters with ease. You'll have to employ strategy to figure out which weapons will be effective in which scenarios. Let's take a look at the eight Robot Masters exhibited in this game: (starting from the upper left corner of the Stage Select screen and going clockwise) -> Bubble Man -> Air Man -> Quick Man -> Wood Man -> Crash Man (also Clash Man) -> Flash Man -> Metal Man -> Heat Man After putting findings to the test and killing all eight Robot Masters, you will then proceed to Dr. Wily's castle, which will usually consist of a few random bosses followed by having to face the original eight all over again in one big lump, and then a path to the mad doctor himself. This is the way of most Mega Man games - it's worked for the past fifteen years, why go against formula now? Along with knowing what's up in the fierce struggle ahead, you should also know how to control your little Blue Bomber. Here's a list of the commands you can summon while exercising your power over the Man In Blue: D-Pad: -> Move up, down, left, or right as the case may be. Select: -> Cycle through menu commands. Start: -> Confirm menu choices. -> Bring up the submenu. -> Exit the submenu. B Button: -> Fire the current weapon. A Button: -> Jump. Hold Left or Right to jump in that direction. Mega Man is easily controlled in midair. -> Enter the red dots that make up passwords. That's pretty much the gist of Mega Man 2's control scheme - the little bugger is not hard to get a grip on. Armed with the above controller commands and all the aforementioned basics, there's no reason that you shouldn't be able to take on Mega Man 2 after a few deep breaths and the caffeinated beverage of your choice. If I may, I suggest Dr Pepper or Pepsi. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ITEMS ===== We all know that if the fate of the world in the 2000's were left up to only Mega Man's normal gun, the Mega Buster, we'd all be in serious trouble and, quite possibly, an insufferable bout of indentured slavery right now. (What do you call this decade anyway? The Millennial Beginning? The Zero-Zeroes? The Aught-Aughts? What?) Fortunately, Mega Man comes programmed with the ability to absorb and "learn" the abilities of those Robot Masters which he has successfully defeated. When you learn an ability, it goes down under your submenu listed as the first letter of that boss's name (e.g., Flash Man's would be F). You can use these abilities to defeat other bosses. Mind you, however, that not every weapon is effective against every Robot Master. Most weapons will have nearly the same effect as your normal gun, with one being that RM's weakness. Usually, any given Robot Master has an immunity to one or two weapons as well (i.e., the Quick-Boomerang isn't likely to work on the time-freezing Flash Man). Keep this in mind as you read the descriptions of and nifty uses for the items listed below. ---------------------- Robot Master Abilities ---------------------- (starting from the upper left corner of the Stage Select screen and going clockwise) -------------------- Bubble Man ABILITY: Bubble Lead -------------------- Bubble Man's Bubble Lead is basically that, a bubble, though I suppose why it's called Bubble Lead is that has a tendency to gravitate quickly toward the ground. When it hits the ground, it will travel along it until it hits something, presumably an enemy or a wall. There are some enemies that Mega Man's normal bullets will travel right over because of their lack of height. Use the Bubble Lead to get at these short-statured foes. -------------------- Air Man ABILITY: Air Shooter -------------------- What this particular weapon does is shoot a tornadic stream of air at a parabolic curve upward. It can be used to reach enemies on higher-up ledges, or, for enemies that jump around a whole lot, the Air Shooter can put them in their place. ------------------------ Quick Man ABILITY: Quick-Boomerang ------------------------ Quick Man may be the fastest Robot Master on two feet, but his weapon moves in an outward curve with considerably less speed. While not really effective in day-to-day scenarios, I would most recommend the Quick-Boomerang against enemies that are excessively slow and have an inexorable tendency to be in your way all the time. This includes some bosses, so stay alert for those particular opportunities. -------------------- Wood Man ABILITY: Leaf Shield -------------------- The Leaf Shield will immediately surround Mega Man with a protective layer of foliage that works until he is hit too many times or shoots it off in someone's general direction, usually forward. I'd use this if you have a thing for getting unnecessarily hit a lot, but you don't get too many of them, so use them sparingly. There is only one situation where it really needs to be used, but if you take a lot of damage, the Leaf Shield may assist in alleviating some of your woes. ------------------- Crash Man ABILITY: Crash Bomb ------------------- Crash Man's Crash Bomb will latch onto a wall or enemy and blow them up with a dangerously explosive bang. It shoots straight forward and is hard to attach to faster enemies. Its best use lies in using it to blow up certain types of walls - those that are a different color than the rest of the terrain and usually hide paths to beneficial items such as energy tanks. --------------------- Flash Man ABILITY: Time Stopper --------------------- A humongous drawback to Flash Man's Time Stopper is that while using it, you can't access the submenu to use any other weapons. The Time Stopper must be waited out for its entire duration. Everything during this time is brought to a halt, leaving you to move forward in peace and quiet. In this regard, you can use it to get some of the other Robot Masters off your back for a while. It can also be used to run from fast-moving obstacles that can easily catch up to Mega Man. Remember, during this time, EVERYTHING is frozen, so if you're a coward, you can make a getaway before any other enemies even notice. -------------------- Metal Man ABILITY: Metal Blade -------------------- The Metal Blade is merely a sawblade that goes out and comes back to you. It would be totally ineffectual in normal battle were it not for the fact that about four shots equal one energy bar, meaning you're not going to run out of Metal Blades anytime soon. While not great for casual shooting, it has a fair impact on most Robot Masters, so if you're at a loss for stuff, whip this gadget out. Chances are it will do fair damage. -------------------- Heat Man ABILITY: Heat -------------------- Even by itself, Heat Man's weapon is a potent flamethrower, and not to be discounted in light of the other weapons, but it has an even greater power: if you hold down the B Button long enough, Mega Man will start glowing. Release the B Button to shoot an enormous fireball as big as the Blue Bomber's whole body! Don't go flaunting this one, though - one of those big shots takes up nearly half of its weapon energy, so save the big bang for a really good occasion. ------------ Common Items ------------ SMALL WHITE DOT Refills two segments on Mega Man's energy bar. LARGE WHITE BALL Refills approximately half of Mega Man's energy. SMALL BLUE CAPLET If Mega Man has any weapon other than the Mega Buster equipped, it'll fill up two segments on that weapon's energy bar. LARGE BLUE CAPSULE Refills about a third of any weapon other than the Mega Buster that Mega Man currently has equipped. ENERGY TANK Mega Man can carry up to four of these beauties at a time. If he uses one up, his energy, no matter what level it is at, will be totally replenished. EXTRA LIFE Looks like Mega Man's head. Grab one to add a life to your count. You can have up to nine lives, like the as-yet-not-conceived Robot Master Cat Man. THE SUPER REFILLER I've only ever found one of these, so technically it's not a very common item, but it is a great item nonetheless. In Dr. Wily's castle, you'll find an icon with a lightning bolt on it. Go to enough trouble to get it, and all your weapon energy and other energy bars will be totally refilled! Don't not get this - hurry up and find one today. ------------------- Dr. Light's Add-Ons ------------------- Yes, the Good Doctor himself is not without a few tricks up his sleeve. He has created three items for Mega Man that will aid him greatly in his quest. He'll receive one after beating Heat Man, Air Man, and Flash Man. Each of these is sort of a vehicular mode of transportation that will help Mega Man out at some point during his quest. ITEM-1 A platform with a rotor blade on bottom that moves slowly upward until it peters out. Mega Man can only make use of three of these at a time. ITEM-2 A jet platform that moves forward until it hits a wall. It sucks up energy faster than a CD player, so your ride is going to be very short when you use this thing. ITEM-3 A platform that bounces along the ground until it hits a wall, at which point it will start going up. Jump on and enjoy the elevator ride. You will only ever use one at a time, though I believe if you're having Fits of Whimsy(tm), you may fire more at once. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- WALKTHROUGH =========== NOTE: The following list of Sections within this walkthrough displays the sequence I follow when fighting the first eight Robot Masters. You may disagree with it, but I find it easy to use and convenient in getting the Dr. Light add-ons in order from first to third. SECTIONS -------- + ROBOT MASTERS -> Bubble Man -> Heat Man -> Wood Man -> Air Man -> Crash Man -> Metal Man -> Flash Man -> Quick Man + DR. WILY'S CASTLE -> Mechadragon -> Wall Boss -> The Guts Tank -> The Crash Bomb Scenario -> Robot Master Reunion -> The Final Battle T H E R O B O T M A S T E R S ---------- Bubble Man ---------- You'll start out on a ledge in the middle of a waterfall, the only direction to go being right. Shoot the robot frogs that shoot mini-frogs (tadpoles, what have you) from their mouths. If you destroy all three mini-frogs in a group, the mother frog will shoot out three more. As you decimate each mother frog, run as far away from the little ones as you can - eventually you should lose them. After these mother frogs come a series of platforms that fall under your weight. Touch them lightly enough and they won't even fall. However, don't stay on any of them too long or you'll fall to a miserable death. Once at the safe ground to the right, drop down and hug the wall on the left. Shoot each hermit crab robot. On Normal, they will die; on Difficult, their shells come off and they move faster. Avoid or shoot them as the case may be and move on down. You'll land on a ledge that is sort of the like the diving board into the subterranean ocean below. Hang to the right so that you don't land on another of the hermit crab-bots below. Either skip or kill the ones you can and drop down below. The ocean expands to the right to a horde of shrimp-like robots. Stay back as they come at you. They're coming from the stationary robotic lantern fish up ahead. Sock it to him in the lantern while fighting off the innumerable shrimp spraying out of his mouth. While you're down here, make doubly sure not to jump too high in here - the spikes kill you in one hit regardless of your health status. At the next point, you'll have to navigate a twisty corridor while dealing with jellyfish robots that come from above and below the boundaries of the screen. If they get down to your level, they'll start weaving at you, so take them to lunch before they can accomplish that. When you drop down between the two walls lined with spikes, you'll run into more shrimp-bots and another docile lantern fish. It's a little harder to kill this one in such close quarters, but do what you have to and move on. Proceed to the next area, where you'll see the mother frogs from the beginning of the level. Their tiny companions, like you, have much more mobility in this deep water, but that also makes them easier targets (and easier to avoid). Kill the mother frog first, then deal with the babies until you get to the outside part of the level back at the waterfall. You'll now have to go around some falling crabs, who will bounce comically upon hitting a platform and will then walk after you. They're easy to shoot on the way down. Just make sure you don't jump into one while you're over a pit or it's bye-bye Blue Bomber. After the barrage of crabs, you'll be at the lair of your first Robot Master, Bubble Man. Bubble Man is slow in the water and is therefore an easy target, but his constant firing can make him a nuisance if you're not careful. Walk under the bubbles as they bounce along the ground and shoot him as he makes a beeline down to the turf. He will then shoot some fast white bullets in your direction that are easy to jump over. The key to Bubble Man is jumping and staying on the ground at the right times. Do this and you'll have the victory in your pocket. As a reward, you'll get the Bubble Lead, a useful item against the next Robot Master in our journey. -------- Heat Man -------- Walk forward and kill the green guys who wind themselves up to jump. Tap the fire button as fast as you can and walk past them, jumping over the deadly lava. After a few of these guys, you've got a whole different kind of enemy to deal with, and it comes out of the holes in the background. Shoot each one as it comes toward you in that eerily irregular way. You might be caught in a mess of them if you don't try to move forward at every available opportunity. Jump to each stationary block positioned over the bottomless pit and make your way to the little floor-crawlers up ahead. If you must, use your Bubble Lead to hit them. To jump over them is admittedly pretty difficult, so if you have to off one with your bubbles, be my guest. Going down the ladder, you'll have your first experience with the sequentially appearing and disappearing blocks. Jump on top of the first one, then jump straight up immediately to catch the next one. It's the only way you'll get out of here alive. Once on the highest level, jump to the left all the way to the ladder opposite the one you came down. You'll have hell to pay if you get caught in the lions' den, so to speak, with that little floor- crawler. Go down the next ladder and get the screw machines that come out of the holes. You'll have to fend them off while jumping to more disappearing and reappearing blocks. Since you don't have Crash Man's ability yet, you can't break through the walls here. Keep going until you get to the floor- crawler. Jump to the platform above him the moment you see him and get ready to do some major block jumping. Again, here the blocks appear and then disappear, and they throw in some of that above-your-head junk to throw you off and make you start over. You're far enough back right now that you can go back to the platform and try again if you fall, but if you get in a groove, you'll have to go with it. Hop to the first one, the second one, and the third one. At the third one, make as big a jump from the edge of that block as you can and hold Right. If you make it, continue to do that with the next few. From that block that you just made the huge leap to, wait until you go down to the middle row, then repeat that jump at the second of those blocks. The path from here remains straightforward until you get over a pit, when it becomes really scary. You need to count when you drop from really high to really low. That first low block is "one"; at "three," repeat the stretching jump. A few more blocks and you should be on stable ground. Drop down the ladder and prepare to face a gunner in a large hopping machine. On Normal, he's easy enough to kill. If you're playing Difficult, let him hit you once and then pass by him, jumping to increase your lead on him. If you let him wail on you, you won't have enough strength left for the epic battle with Heat Man. Luckily, he's just down that next ladder. Get away from the hopping gunner as quickly as you can and equip the Bubble Lead before entering his lair. Heat Man is impossible to beat with the stupid Mega Buster because he moves so dang fast. However, Bubble Lead will ensure victory. Fire one at him from the edge of the room to start the round. After being hit by anything once, he charges at opponents in a ball of flame. Jump over it, but stay close to him so he can't fire more tiny fireballs that turn into fire walls. Whenever he regroups, toss another bubble in his mouth. Eventually the mighty Heat Man will succumb, and you'll get not only Atomic Fire, but also Dr. Light's awesome Item-1, a useful floating platform that will get you to places you can't ordinarily jump to. (This system predates the mighty Rush Coil by a good two years.) In any case, it's time to engage in some lawful deforestation. Let's hit Wood Man's stage next. -------- Wood Man -------- The beginning of this stage is full of woodland creatures that are anything but cute and fuzzy. First off, take on the swarm of mechanical bats that come at you. Make sure the area is cleared of them before you move on, and be sure to advance rather slowly. It's a good idea, considering the mechanical purple rabbits riding your tail. When they stop hopping, they'll fire deadly carrots at you. While it may not _sound_ threatening, it most definitely _is_ threatening. Once at the ladder to the right, descend and kill the three bats before descending once more. Here you will take on a series of large blue wolves that paw the ground, a sign that they're about to send an arc of flames your way. There is a method for killing each one while taking minimal damage, though. I'm sure you're interested in hearing them; they're listed below in sequential order. Wolf #1 Stand on the step opposite him and jump when he blows fire. Shoot until he dies. Wolf #2 While the corridor may be narrow, it's still not impossible to remain unscathed. When he blows fire, jump over it to the right while shooting. As he prepares to blow more fire, walk left. Jump over the fire when he blows more. In this way, you'll be moving in a half-circle pattern. Fire until he is deceased. Wolf #3 The hardest, but there's an easy method to it. See the small piece of ledge jutting downward in front of the wolf's forehead? Every time you jump, catch yourself on it. Move in the same semi-circular pattern as with Wolf #2, but let yourself catch on that small stalactite. When you fall straight down, you'll avoid the fire while at the same time getting in a few hits. Repeat until he's gone. After this, proceed to the ladder going up. Since it's impossible to totally bypass the two bats in the next room, shoot them down and head on up. You'll come out of the cavern to a bamboo ledge. Don't walk too far forward yet - robotic monkeys spring up from the pit, latch onto the ledge, and jump up to get you. Stay as far back as you can and pump them full of plasma when they hop up to your level. Be sure also to keep an eye peeled for the birds that drop the eggs. Don't ever let these touch the ground, because a swarm of baby birds will home in on you if they hatch prematurely. Once at the other end, you'll be back in a cavern. Go down the ladder to fight one rabbit per room. Just cram a boatload of bullets into the first one, get the second one from the step above the one he lands on each time he hops, and take out the third one as he jumps from a safe ledge. When you get past these three Little Robot Foo-foos, you'll be back in a wooded area much like the one you started in. Do not attempt to shoot any of the chickens. If you freeze as soon as one pops up on the screen, it should jump over you. When it does clear you like a hurdle, walk past it to make sure it doesn't land uncomfortably on you. Repeat this until you find yourself at the foot of Wood Man's lair. A lot of people will tell you to use the Metal Blade here. I, however, find Atomic Fire a much more effective weapon for the job, since a fire can decimate a forest much faster than saws and bulldozers can. In case you didn't know, Heat Man's Atomic Fire can be charged up into a super-shot of sorts if you hold down the B button. Charge it up as much as you can (it takes about three or four seconds), all the while jumping over the Leaf Shield as he tosses it at you. One of these maximum-charge shots will be enough to kill Wood Man instantly on Normal, while two will get the job done on Difficult. Don't waste these shots. They take up a substantial portion of your weapon energy. ------- Air Man ------- With the Leaf Shield in your arsenal, you're now ready to take on Air Man. Enter his stage and move forward to the enemy that pops up. Wait for the rotating spikes to go back in before you jump on each one. A block between each of them will help you cross along them faster. Kill those floating enemies that come out the sides until you get to a series of cloud men that throw lightning. Shoot rapidly at the first one and board his cloud. You'll have to kill the next few quickly to get to their respective platforms. If the cloud you're on revolves out of the line of sight after you kill one of the cloud men, you'll have to kill him again when he comes back around. Board each cloud until you make it to the sturdy ground. Shoot the bird eggs (watch out, they ambush from behind clouds occasionally) until you get to the end. Fall behind the cloud to go down. Jump past the machines that spit out little upright energy worms and fall behind the cloud to the left. You'll come down in an area much like the beginning, except now you have to jump from one of the big machines that appears in the air to another one. When you accomplish this, you'll have to kill some robots with fans in their stomachs. These are like weaker versions of Air Man himself, so just push against them and keep firing. Deal with these guys and more of the egg-dropping birds as you trudge forward through air currents and baby bird attacks. Once you're finally through the seemingly endless assault, you'll be in Air Man's domain. Equip the Leaf Shield, but don't bust one out until he's open. There are a few different patterns he has on his tornadoes. It's not them that are keeping you back, but the fan lodged in his torso. It's kind of hard to jump through the tornadoes while that stupid thing is going, but find gaps that you can get through and press B twice immediately - once to activate a Leaf Shield and again to throw one at him. Don't let too many of them hit his tornadoes or you'll run out of Leaf Shield power and you're essentially toast with only your Mega Buster to use. Three or four hits with the shield ought to take him out, so you do have some leeway. At the end of this level, you'll also receive Item-2 from Dr. Light. From here, go to Crash Man's level. --------- Crash Man --------- Kill the turning enemies that come out of the pipe as fast as you can. They appear in the first two screens and have a tendency to hoard the ladders, making it hard for you to get up there. Know your stance and their points of regeneration and shoot the ones that are keeping you from upward mobility. Kill the hardhat guys at the first side-scrolling area and head up the ladder. Here you will have to ride the platforms on the guided paths. There are three that you must hitch a ride on while avoiding more turning floaters, and each is more complex in design than the one before it. When you get past all of them, move to the right. The slithering column robot will toss his pieces at you if you playing on Difficult, and will die in one hit on Normal. If you're playing Difficult, run to or stay in a safe place when you shoot him the first time, then kill him the second time. Head up the ladder to the right. Keep going up until the night sky turns pitch black. Here you will have to choose between two ladders, one on the left and one on the right. Head up the one on the left, and then from there the one in the middle. This path has the biggest payoff, as eventually you will come to an Energy Tank. Grab it and use Item-1 to get to the ledge from where you can access the next ladder up. Take the one on the left to go all the way up to an extra life. Watch out for the wind-up jumpers though - they'll land right on top of the ladder you're trying to get to the top of. When you get the extra life, don't worry about killing them. Walk under them when they're airborne and you'll soon come face-to-face with Crash Man. Crash Man is one of the easier bosses. It just takes a little bit of calculation with the upward curve of the Air Shooter to make sure you score the hit. He'll stay on the ground unless you fire that Air Shooter - he seems to be afraid of it when he sees it. Get up close to him and fire it then to ensure a hit, or try to get him when he's in the air. In any case, this isn't a difficult battle - in fact, it'll probably be over a lot faster than you think. When you're through with him, go to Metal Man's level. We don't have anywhere else to go right now, so we'll tackle his (easy) stage. --------- Metal Man --------- Jump to the left-moving conveyor belt at the beginning and jump against its push for an easy Energy Tank. Get past these moving floors and wait on the spikes hanging from the chains. Pay attention to the direction that the floor carries you in so that you move against it and you don't plant your face in some major spikage. Next is a set of screw robots that dart from the floor to the ceiling and vice versa. These guys provide a good way to build up energy and extra lives. They're a little harder once you hit the conveyor belt, but when you come out on the other side, things get a little easier. Jump along the conveyor belts and use Item-1 to get the extra life if you need. Once you have it or have decided to pass it up, move down two screens and start going right. You'll have to face some small clown-like robots decked out in pink garb that use gray gears as vehicles. Shoot these gears and the pink guys will take care of themselves. You'll also have to deal with the tall column-bots from Crash Man's stage. Stand at the edges of the raised steps when you shoot at them to avoid the pieces they fling at you. Only go for the second Energy Tank in the level if you are confident that you can get past the hole. You can't jump your way out, so Item-1 ought to do nicely. Just ahead, after a few more gearheads, is Metal Man. This could very well be the perfect battle for a five-minute staredown a la Dragonball Z. Metal Man won't fire a single Metal Blade unless you provoke him. Stay on your side of the screen at all times and jump constantly to get in hits on him here and there. Jump forward when he throws sawblades at you and you'll successfully clear them nine times out of ten. It takes a little more effort to steer clear of him when he changes the direction of the conveyor belt to right, but as long as you're not on his side, he won't move from that spot. Repeat the jumping and firing until he's dead. --------- Flash Man --------- Take the low road as often as possible at this point in the level. When you find the point where you can get to the highest floor possible from the bottom floor, use Item-1 to get there and you should come upon an extra life. Use it again at the next section to remain on the top floor. Use three Crash Bombs to get through and take the pit at the far right to the area below. From here, if you follow the correct path, you will absolutely breeze through this level. Taking that far right pit allows you to stealthily go under the jumping robot. While under him, take the hole downward nearest you. Keep going down until you land opposite a Crash Bombable wall with a large energy refill behind it. Blow it open and get it. Keep Crash Bombs equipped for this fall. When you get to the bottom, your CBs will be nearly replenished to the max. Go down the winding steps and take the pit to the near left. You should soon land on a ledge above a jumping robot. Take the path over him, then fall down the pit ON THE RIGHT. You'll be in a safe place above a bunch of nasty jumping robots. Stay on this upper path (you'll get an Energy Tank along the way) until you have to Crash Bomb an opening at the end. By this time you'll be at Flash Man's oddly-shaped main chamber. He'll freeze time whenever he gets to the middle of the room. While you're suspended, he'll take the time to fire shots at you - badly, I might add, like the villains in action films who fire 500 rounds but never hit the good guy target. Fortunately, you have the upper hand with the Metal Blade. Fire it at him constantly while jumping around and over him. It doesn't matter if you get hit a few times, and if you use it fast enough, he may never get to freeze time once! When you beat him, you'll get the Time-Stopper and Dr. Light's final add-on, Item-3. It's a sort of elevator that travels along walls. --------- Quick Man --------- Old Speedy is the last stop on our tour of the eight Robot Masters. Start his level by using Item-1 to get the easily accessible 1-up, then fall down and jump past the leech shooters from Air Man's stage. The next screen will make you have to take a big drop, and what's down here may or may not shock you, so take a deep breath and get ready. The beams that come out from the sides of the screen can kill Mega Man in one hit regardless of his health status, so you'll have to move fast to get past them. At the second screen of these, head off to the right and stay moving in that direction on the third screen. If you fall in the right place, you'll be rewarded at the end with an Energy Tank, an extra life, and a large weapon energy refill. Use that weapon energy refill on your Item-1, then head back to the left. When you fall down into the next room, you'll meet some guys who keep the room lit. Shoot each one until he is dead and you'll notice how the room goes dark (it also goes dark when you pause, for some reason). Reach the next one to re-illuminate the room, then shoot him. Continue the alternating spells of light and dark until you get to the end of the room, at which point the place will light up again. Once you go down the hole, you're going to have to move to get out of the way of this series of beams. There are several items placed in the path that are tempting to get, but DON'T GET THEM. They're too far out of the way and you'll probably die in the process of going after them. Always take a path that will give you as big a headstart on the next set of beams as possible. If you hit one, you'll have to start back at the beginning of them. Also, I cannot stress this final beam-related point enough: D O N O T U S E T H E T I M E - S T O P P E R H E R E ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Even though it will stop the flow of beams long enough for you to escape and most likely take a detour to get a few items, you will need it at the end of the level in the fight against Quick Man. When you do get out of this situation, you've got some jumpers to deal with. Only take them on one at a time - you don't want that nasty backtracking regeneration to get in your way. The second one is the hardest to deal with. Back up too far from its starting point and you'll have to fight them indefinitely. They are by far easier to deal with on Normal. Once you're past them though, Quick Man awaits not far from there. Use Time-Stopper on Quick Man first thing. It will drain half his energy while he is suspended in midair. He'll come right after you as soon as the match starts, so have it out when you go in there and press B as soon as his energy is up to the top. After Time-Stopper wears out, equip Crash Bombs and shoot them at him until he dies. All in all, an easy fight. Now that you've beaten all eight Robot Masters, it's time to navigate Dr. Wily's castle! D R . W I L Y ' S C A S T L E Note that at this point, your weapon energy will not be automatically refilled when you beat a level. You must power them up yourself along the way. MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! -------------------- Level 1: Mechadragon -------------------- As soon as you start to move forward, birds will start dropping their eggs like bombadiers. Shoot them before they hit the ground. The air attack will stop as soon as you come to a large gray brick wall. Use Item-1 to get up to the top of it, and when you come down, shoot as many of those leech things as possible. It's a great way to catch up on health and lives. You'll have to use Item-1 one more time to scale another large wall. Use Item-3 at the very end. It's more dependable than Item-1, given the situation. Up one screen is a guy that shoots three bullets at a time, then holds up a shield while he's not shooting. Make it so that Mega Man's head is above the ladder at the top but he's not standing on the ladder. When you point to the left, Mega Man will be able to shoot the guy in the foot. When he's gone, refill either of your add-on items using the large weapon energy refill that was behind the guy. Use the same tactic on the next one. Once past that screen, you'll see a little floor-crawler going very slow. Wait until he's off the screen to come up and go up the next ladder. You'll need to use four Item-1 platforms to get to the ladder in the opposite corner. Shoot the first one from your position on the ladder to make it there. While it's true that you can't have more than three Item-1 platforms on the screen at the same time, just make the fourth one when the first one disappears and you should do fine. Be sure to equip the Mega Buster once you get to the ladder, because you'll have to shoot those annoying turning floaters on the way up. Once at the top of the ladder, start going right. As you jump along the blocks, a large Mechadragon should start following you, destroying all the ledges in your wake. Don't let him touch you or you'll die instantly, and be sure not to fall while you're running away. Hug the right side of the screen while you're retreating until you feel uncomfortable doing that, then wait for ledges to come to you. Once at the three blocks that he backs you up against, use only the middle one. Jump to make his flames go up near you, then shoot when you land. Repeat as necessary until he's down for the count. Use the upper block if you have to, but never the lowest one. This battle doesn't take long using the Mega Buster. You don't want to waste any precious weapon energy on this guy. ------------------ Level 2: Wall Boss ------------------ There's a large weapon energy refill behind you. Use it to fill up Item-1, then proceed forward. You'll have to make your way through a persistent blockade of those wind-up jumpers from Heat Man's stage, but once you're through, equip Item-2 and hop onboard. Ride it until you get to the second ladder along the way. If you deplane, so to speak, at the first ladder, you'll have to use your Crash Bombs to get by, and there's a special purpose for them a little later in Wily's Castle. Instead, hop off at the second ladder to get an Energy Tank. Go down the ladder behind it and keep Item-2 equipped. Obtain the extra life and refill your Item-2 jet bit by bit with the tiny weapon refills. Once you have all those, de-equip it and change back to Mega Buster before continuing. You don't need the extra man and the Energy Tank behind the Crash Bomb walls. Keep falling (avoid the narrow spikes) and you'll eventually come to a narrow corridor. Patiently shoot your way through the screws from Metal Man's stage until you get to the end, where you should use Item-3 to get to the top. It should have enough staying power for you to wait on the spike chain to go back up. Move forward through them, but be careful at the more closely spaced ones. They're harder to avoid. Once they are behind you, however, fall down the pit and watch out as you take the plunge. Those spikes can really hurt. After two screens you'll land in a room with purple walls. This room is the boss. Sections of the wall will come out two at a time and pursue you. Stay in the middle of the room and wait to see where you'll need to walk to shoot them. They get progressively faster as you take them down (about three shots per pair), but the process of deducing where they'll come from next becomes much easier. Jump over them and try not to take too many hits. It would be bad to have to waste an Energy Tank here. The room will flash and explode when you've killed every pair of panels, and you'll move on to the next level. ---------------------- Level 3: The Guts Tank ---------------------- Ignore all items on the way down to the brown muddy water. When you get there, take as large a jump as you can to make it over each set of spikes (remember that water increases your jumping power). At the pits, large mechanical fish will jump to get you. If you're moving, you shouldn't have to worry about them grabbing you. Make sure at the long pit that you adjust where Mega Man falls ever so slightly so that you won't find yourself at the mercy of a spike. It gets easier as you go down. Once out of the water, you'll probably have to take one hit each from the three adjustable cannon enemies, but that shouldn't affect you too much. Just get to the door and fight the Guts Tank (which I call that boss because he bears an uncanny resemblance to the Robot Master from MM1). Quick-Boomerang gets the job done here, 'cause you see, he's all slow and everything. A constant barrage of them aimed directly at his face will be more than enough to do him in in a matter of seconds. Just avoid the fist and the little micro-digger-bots and this one will be a piece of cake. -------------------------------- Level 4: The Crash Bomb Scenario -------------------------------- Use the two weapon energy refills here to give aid to the items that need it most. I'd recommend choosing Item-3 and another one of your add-ons or Quick- Boomerang, even though none of the latter items mentioned really need a replenishing. Go up the ladders until you get to the one that appears to be in plain sight. There are pieces of terrain here that look stable but that Mega Man will drop through like there was nothing there. Jump over those and go up the ladder again. There is a large pit of spikes below the thin ledge, and you just KNOW there'll be something funny there. Fortunately, the faux tile is right next to the ladder, so just jump over it and hang on to the ladder. The Energy Tank at the next screen is not worth the time, so just keep on going up and around. Do not just let go of ladders at this part. You will need to hang onto them and then drop onto the moving rails when the time is right. The third one, involving having to jump over spikes and escaping those turning floaters from Crash Man's stage at the same time, can be the most difficult if you are ill- prepared. Just bust out a Leaf Shield and don't move, or it'll go away. Two of these will get you through unscathed. At the final one, drop to the lone block over the spikes, then jump left twice in succession as the rail comes to you going right. Below are two hopping robots and two of those shield gunmen by themselves. They're extremely hard to pass, and you may need to use an Energy Tank to get past them. Just make it to the door and prepare to fight the most puzzling boss yet. Only Crash Bombs can hurt the devices on the walls, and you have just enough weapon energy with full Crash Bombs to destroy them all. However, you can't bust through all of the green walls or you'll run out too soon. Bearing that in mind, you'll have to work around them creatively to get the most out of your Crash Bombs. Use Item-1 and get to the floor above. Shoot the wall to the left and then the gun behind it. Go down to the gun in the lower right corner and eradicate that wall and the one behind it. Then, of the three left, use Item-1 again to get back up to where you were and kill the middle one. Head left and use Item-1 to get to the one secured in the upper left corner. (NOTE: This one can be extremely difficult to get to.) Barring that reassuring parenthetical note, kill the last one without bombing any green walls when you've gotten the hard-to-reach one. You should be out of Crash Bombs, but then again, you'll have beaten the level. ----------------------------- Level 5: Robot Master Reunion ----------------------------- Use the same strategies against the Robot Masters this time as you did the first time. Some of them should be easier to fight now that you have plain square rooms to battle in with no special quirks. Here's a basic diagram showing which teleporter leads to which boss. Heat Man Flash Man Air Man START Metal Man Wood Man Bubble Man Quick Man Crash Man If you need a major pick-me-up in a hurry, fight Metal Man. Metal Blade kills him in one hit on Normal, two hits on Difficult (what a maroon!), and every Robot Master gives you a large energy refill upon their defeat. When you have 
defeated all eight for the second time, a teleporter pops up in the top 
center portion of the room. Go in to face Dr. Wily in one of his super-
destructo-vehicles.

Start off by equipping your Metal Blade and shooting the transparent center. 
Energy spheres emanate from the bottom of the ship and go upward in an arc. 
Don't let too many of these hit you. Just jump over them while firing Metal 
Blades at the ship as fast as you can pump them out. Under no circumstances 
should you touch the ship. That takes away a whole lot of life, and you don't 
want to have to use an Energy Tank this early on. Make sure you have at least 
three of them for this battle, by the way.

The second part of this battle involves Dr. Wily himself. The energy spheres 
will now bounce, and you need to get out the Quick-Boomerang. There is a 
pretty good chance that this where your Energy Tanks are going to get used in 
a hurry, but that's all right, because the last boss is VERY easy. When you 
defeat Dr. Wily after throwing your endless Quick-Boomerangs at him, he will 
make a getaway while the floor beneath you collapses, causing you to get 
trapped underground.

-------------------------
Level 6: The Final Battle
-------------------------
Hang right as you fall through the enormous pit (reminds me of the Wookie 
Hole from Battletoads, except you don't have a bungee cord to hold you up). 
When you get to the bottom, walk without stopping and you should pass every 
one of the droplet things without ever taking a hit. That's good, because 
full energy is a must-have for this final boss, even though he is easy.

Go through the door. It looks as though Wily is prepared to take you down 
mano-a-mano, kung fu style ... but no! He morphs into an alien! Is this 
really the Dr. Wily we love to hate??? An alien, is he?!? NO!!! It sounds too 
much like something out of Men In Black! Anyway, equip Bubble Lead and get 
ready to rock.

Although Bubble Lead is a very weighty weapon, it is what is required to take 
down this final boss. It's the only weapon that will hit him. He floats 
around the area in a predictable sideways figure eight path (the infinity 
sign - I guess Wily assumes he'll last forever), all the while shooting at 
you occasionally. This shooting makes the Bubble Lead risky to use, because 
it requires close-range combat against a guy with some deadly bullets. Only 
jump when the bullets come to you. Likewise, only shoot bubbles when the 
alien Wily is at the bottom of his figure eight path. Repeat the process 
until the easiest boss in the game (am I right, folks?) is ... OUT OF 
ORDER?!??

Yes, folks, the final boss in the game was a hologram! Oh my God! You mean 
Wily's not man enough to take on Mega Man himself in the last epic battle of 
the game? What a loser! Fortunately, Mega Man knows that Wily is a loser, and 
banishes him to the land of Video Game Villains who just don't learn, and 
Wily has to share a cell with Bowser. Now THAT'S a funny ending. Sit back and 
watch Capcom's version of the conclusion, now that you've beaten a horde of 
evil robots on your own.

Congratulations on beating Mega Man II! I strongly recommend that you play 
the others in the series as well.

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                        CREDITS & LEGAL DISCLAIMERS
                        ===========================

First of all, I'd like the following organizations and individuals that make 
such an FAQ possible.

** Capcom for making this game and the others in the series, except for V and
   VI which are unforgivable blemishes on the Mega Man name.

** Nintendo for making the system it plays on and licensing the game and
   bringing it to America when I was but a child of three years.

** Emulators make this hobby of mine so much easier. (Can't truly call it
   work, now can I?) The emulator I used to write this FAQ, FCE Ultra, is a
   great program that deserves recognition.

** GameFAQs and anyone who choose to post this on their site. This is my 24th
   published FAQ on the Internet.

** My dad, for officially passing his laptop down to me. It's a bit old, but
   it gets the job more than done.

** All those who can rightfully claim a part in developing the grammar and
   writing skills I needed to make this more than just a sloppy jumble of
   words and symbols on a page.

What follows now is what to do and not to do with my walkthrough.

        D O N ' T   D O   W H A T   D O N N Y   D O N ' T   D O E S !

Now that that moderately obscure Simpsons reference is behind us, I can get 
to the point. First of all, all your mail will reach me at 
. This is where I go to sit back and read what my 
Teeming Readership(tm) has implored of me. Write me here if you choose to put 
this or any of my other walkthroughs on your website. Make your request for 
permission short and sweet, and the answer will most likely be yes. I like to 
see my work published elsewhere, as long as it's not being ripped off and 
such. I haven't had to deal with Thieves Of Intellectual Property(tm) yet, 
and I don't really ever want to. See the Story, Intro, And Notes section to 
see what I consider a good e-mail. Even though Gainful Employment(tm) now 
severely limits the time I have to write these things and respond to your 
questions, I do get around to it all eventually.

If you do get my blessing to use the walkthrough, you must not change the 
text in any way. I stand by what I write, and I don't need some goofball 
messing with it. All text must remain exactly formatted as it is here, but 
its position may be changed if you feel the need to HTML-ize it and insert 
some screenshots. That's cool by me.

Don't link directly to the FAQ if you're using a link and not the actual 
document. I figure while I'm sending my material in to GameFAQs, it wouldn't 
hurt to go by some of their rules. If you are using the file itself, this 
rule shouldn't affect you. Also, don't sell this document for personal gain, 
pecuniary or otherwise. Give it out to those in need of it for free. And 
above all, DON'T PLAGIARIZE MY WORK. Not only is that illegal anyway, since 
anything published tangibly in any format is automatically copyrighted by 
U.S. Federal Law, but it's dumb. I'll know if my work's been stolen. I check 
around occasionally.

This version of this FAQ/walkthrough (1.0) is (C) July 28, 2002 by Snow 
Dragon, all rights reserved. The latest version of this guide can always be 
found first at GameFAQs.

Have a great day, and have fun playing Mega Man II!