================================ ========Mega Man 8 Guide======== ================================ by Tim : http://megaman.retrofaction.com : tim@megaman-network.com ====== Index: ====== 1. Introduction 2. Boss Weaknesses / Recommended Order 3. Power-Up Uses and Locations 4. Island stage 5. Grenade Man's stage 6. Frost Man's stage 7. Tengu Man's stage 8. Clown Man's stage 9. Wily Cave stage 10. Aqua Man's stage 11. Sword Man's stage 12. Search Man's stage 13. Astro Man's stage 14. Wily Tower, stage 1 15. Wily Tower, stage 2 16. Wily Tower, stage 3 17. Final stage 18. Boss Weapons 19. Bolt Locations 20. 10th Anniversary Bonuses 21. Secrets and Tips 22. Legal ================ 1. Introduction: ================ Welcome to the official Mega Man Network guide for Mega Man 8, the eighth installment in the Classic Series. Refer to the index above for an easy reference guide, and go to http://megaman.retrofaction.com/mmc/guides to find guides for all of the other games in the Classic Mega Man series. Happy gaming. ======================================= 2. Boss Weaknesses / Recommended Order: ======================================= -Grenade Man –-------- Mega Buster / Thunder Claw. -Frost Man –---------- Flash Bomb -Tengu Man –---------- Mega Buster & Ice Wave -Clown Man –---------- Tornado Hold -Aqua Man –----------- Mega Buster / Astro Crush -Sword Man –---------- Water Balloon -Search Man –--------- Flame Sword -Astro Man –---------- Homing Sniper =============================== 3. Power-Up Uses and Prices: =============================== Note: Unlike MM7, all power-up parts with the exception of the Rush Adapters must be built with Bolts at the Lab. Also unlike MM7, you only have a limited number of Bolts, so spend wisely. Power-Up Use Price ---------------------------------------- Power Shield - Eliminates recoil; don't get knocked back when struck - 6 Bolts. Spare Extra - Start with 4 extra lives instead of 2 (EX Tank) - 6 Bolts. Shooting Part - Have up to 5 shots on the screen - 6 Bolts. Rapid Part - 3 shots are fired whenever you shoot - 6 Bolts. Energy Balancer - Refills weapons when not equipped with them - 5 Bolts. Exit Unit - Exit any stage you've completed already - 4 Bolts. Laser Shot - Charged shots fire as a giant laser; very useful - 5 Bolts. Arrow Shot - Charged shots fire as an arrow that splits if it hits something - 5 Bolts. Auto Shoot - Charging is disabled in favor of auto-firing - 5 Bolts. Step Booster - Climb ladders faster - 5 Bolts. Energy Saver - Increases number of times you can fire weapons - 6 Bolts. Super Recover - Gain more energy from refills - 5 Bolts. Spare Charger - Allows you to always have a life in reserve - 4 Bolts. Hyper Slider - Mega Man slides faster with a puff of smoke - 5 Bolts. H. Speed Charge - Charge up faster - 7 Bolts. Boost Part - Mega Man's shots are blue and fly faster (Turbo Accelerator) - 5 Bolts. Exchanger - Life energy collected when meter is full turns to weapon energy - 4 Bolts. Rush Bike - Rush turns into a little motorcycle - Defeat Grenade Man's mini-boss. Rush Charger - Rush comes and drops a random power-up - Defeat Clown Man's mini-boss. Rush Bomber - Rush flies overhead and drops bombs - Defeat Sword Man's mini-boss. Rush Health - Rush flies by dropping health power-ups - Defeat Aqua Man's mini-boss. Surprise Shell - drops powerups - found in stages randomly. ================ 4. Island Stage: ================ This is a very straightforward introductory stage. Start off heading right until you encounter a tree. Shoot it repeatedly to destroy it, and get ready for a cannon to pop out of the second one. After this, you'll deal with some Mets and jellyfish-like robots that sit atop small pedestals. Shoot them to make them fall off, and they'll usually roll down an incline and wipe out any enemies in your path. After a short while, Rush teleports in to give you the Mega Ball upgrade, which gives Mega Man a soccer ball-type thing to play around with. Experiment with it for now, there'll be a few places later on that you'll use it. Continue heading right until you reach a skull switch. Knock one of the jellyfish robots off its perch to activate it, then head back left and enter the Skull Elevator to go to an underground part of the stage. As you enter this short underwater section, you'll learn that Mega Man no longer just jumps around in water - but by pressing the Jump button repeatedly while submerged, Mega Man can actually swim around. Head through this area, activating the skull switch to gain access to a new area. Swim up to the top of this area and head to the right to reach a short section with chain platforms. Ride them up while avoiding the jelly- fish robot to the top to grab a handy Bolt and use the Skull Elevator to return to the surface. Once back up top, just head to the right destroying the enemies in your path. You'll eventually reach the site where the intro battle takes place. Giant Snapper Strategy ====================== A couple of people recommend the Mega Ball, but I think it takes too long. Just use the normal Mega Buster on it instead. Fire a charged shot at the eyes to make it open up, then fire a shot or two inside to do some more damage. Slide away from it as it leaps high into the air, then turn and repeat this strategy until you have defeated it. Using the Mega Ball just requires that you kick the ball into the exposed eye area, so if you can get the timing right, feel free to use this method. ======================= 5. Grenade Man's Stage: ======================= This stage starts off semi-hazardous from the get-go. Make your way through the first section, destroying the worms, Bubble Bats, and flying cannons in your path, but be careful of what dynamite you blow up! Sometimes you will destroy your chances of getting stuff by blowing up everything in sight. When you reach the room with the green blocks, the pattern you have to create is rather simple, but I'll outline it here. Drop down and destroy the one directly in front of you. Slide through the small gap and destroy the next lowest one on the right. Turn left and destroy that block, then blow up the next one to the left and drop down. Now turn right again and blow up the next two in successive order until the metallic block drops down. Destroy one more to gain access to the passage leading out, or jump up and destroy the block above you and use the Mega Ball to bounce up to a Bolt and reach an alternate exit. Either way, head out of this section until you reach the large gap. Ride the platforms over while defeating annoying Sniper Joes and you'll reach a boss gate. Junk Eyebot Strategy ===================== This boss is really simple. It has three primary attacks, all of which can be avoided relatively easily. The basic idea is to keep shooting the center of the junk pile and hit the eye. You can use either charged shots or the Mega Ball to do so, but watch out for its primary attacks: Sweep (it half-circles the room; run away to dodge), Junk Rain (move in close if far away, and back up if you're in close to avoid it), and the dive attack where it goes underground and pops up trying to damage you. Just keep firing charged shots and you'll eventually bring it down. After beating it, collect the Rush Bike Upgrade and you'll grab the Continue Point. Starting off in a new section of the factory, head up the ladder and cross the hammers section. Be careful here, the hammers take off a good chunk of life. You can jump them as the reach their lowest point. After this, you’ll cross some platforms that have wicks sticking out of them. Come back here later with the Flame Sword to ignite them and grab a Bolt! Keep heading to the long pit and head across the exploding blocks. Each time you cross under a dispenser, a Flaming Met will come down and light a wick. Cross this area quickly, and grab the Bolts only if you have the time. At the end, climb the ladder, and cross some more of the hammers. Destroy the enemies in your path to reach the boss gate. Grenade Man Strategy ==================== Voice Cues: Intro – “Crush everyone! Ha, ha, ha...”, “I’ll be nice on you!”, “I’ll punish you!”, “Ha, ha, ha...say hello to my cute bombs!” Mid-battle – “Hee hee”, “Oh yeah”, “Crush!” Death – “That felt good!” The only thing that makes him tough is that he moves around so much. Basically you have to keep your Buster charged and hit him when you have a clear shot (usually after he fires a Flash Bomb or lands from doing something). His primary attacks consist of shoot- ing bombs at you either horizontally or diagonally, dashing at you (“Crush!”), or jump- ing over you and throwing mines down at you. After you take him down a ways, he’ll destroy the floor and you’ll drop to an uneven section that makes it harder to hit him, but learn to avoid these attacks, and recognize his vocal cues, and you’ll beat him. ===================== 6. Frost Man’s Stage: ===================== You start out on a frosted-over highway section. Proceed through the short sections, and remember that you can jump to slow down your momentum if you find yourself heading towards a pit. Once you make it inside, ride the elevator up while dodging/destroying the Bubble Bats that come to attack you. At the top, you'll face the first of the "Jump Jump, Slide Slide" jetboard sections. Since it's really fast-paced, and entirely based upon vocal cues, I cannot really write down what you're supposed to do. There are two tough to get Bolts in this section, though. Just pay close attention to when the com- puter says to Jump and when to Slide, and you should make it through. At the end, you'll blast through a giant snowbank to the rest of the stage. In this new section, you'll be crossing another (much longer) iced highway. Your new enemy to face are the sliding penguins. They rebound off walls, so watch your step. You'll also want to be wary of the ice blocks that come flying on the screen at various points; to stop them, you'll have to destroy the floating ships at the top of the screen that are dropping them. Continue through this section until you reach the end. Here you have to make a vertical ascent on ladders using some of the ice blocks. Destroy the cannon robot at the top and head into the next section. Cross these pits while avoiding the random flyers - but be careful - their smoke trails get annoying and can block your view. Once through here, head up another elevator to reach the second jetboard section. This one is extremely fast paced, with Jumps coming immediately after slides and so forth. Do not let yourself get trapped in a corner as there are plenty of ways for you to get stuck. Once you brave this last section, you'll cruise through another snowbank to reach the boss gate. Frost Man Strategy ================== Voice Cues: Intro – “Freeze!”, “I’ll crush you...I’ll make a Popsicle of you!”, “I’ll crush you...I will...beat you!” Mid-battle: “Ow! Dat hurt!”, "Guaahh!" Death: “Arggghh!” Smashing those ice Mega Mans is kinda cute...He's awfully big and packs quite a punch, but Frost Man is more of a pushover. The Flash Bomb does decent damage while stunning him at the same time, so it's a good one to use on him. The only real attacks you need to be aware of are his Ice Punch (slide out of the way to avoid it), and his Ice Wave (which he does quite rarely). Jump over any ice blocks he sends your way, and keep using the Flash Bomb to send this one packing. ===================== 7. Tengu Man’s Stage: ===================== This entire stage takes place outside. The first part has you crossing an aerial bridge while avoiding a lot of enemies (which mostly consist of Mets). But the primary hazard is the wind that pushes you along, so jump carefully so the wind doesn't shove you into a pit. When you get to the floating platforms, the idea is to hop on them and immediate- ly jump to the next one, as the screen is scrolling horizontally. After you make it through this first hazard-filled section, you'll get the chance to experiment with the first set of bubbles. Hop on the generator, and lightly guide yourself around the floating spikes. Here, you want to immediately head right to avoid the first set of spikes, then immediately start floating back to the left, weaving between the spike rows. Once up top, continue heading right while bypassing the Met-dropping ship and you'll reach the first Rush Jet section. Note that unlike previous games, Rush Jet cannot be summoned; he only appears in certain "flying" sections. This short flight is merely squaring off against many enemies, including birds, flying masks, dragons, and large ships. Along the way, you can shoot the Surprise Shells and pick up the Character Icons to call a Helper to assist you. You can get either a Rush Cannon upgrade, Auto, Beat, or Eddie to fly alongside you and attack in their particular manner. Each of them attack when you hold down the fire button, so it's sometimes easier to sit back and let your helpers do the attacking while you dodge. Keep flying until you've eliminated all the enemies and you'll reach the mid-point. The next part of the stage continues in a flying segment, so just eliminate the enemies you come across. You'll navigate through part of a ship here, dealing with some flying cannons and tons more Mets, but you have three Surprise Shells you can pick up too. If you're choosy, I recommend trying to get Auto, Rush, and Eddie to help out during this part. As you progress through the ship, you'll eventually reach a giant laser cannon. Simply get up close to it and let your helpers blast away at it, while occasionally peppering it with shots of your own. Just watch out for that giant laser shot, though. Destroy the cannon and move on, where you'll hop off Rush Jet and start traveling on foot once again. Immediately following is another bubble part. For this one, start off maneuvering in between the first two moving sets of spikes, then float to the right past another moving set, then slowly work back to the far left to make it past this one. Once up top, it's just another extended platforming section across the balloon platforms to reach the boss gate. Tengu Man Strategy ================== Voice Cues: Intro – “It’s just a kid…don’t make me laugh!”, “Are you worthy of my challenge?”, “Kid, you’re almost not worth the effort!”, “I’ll take you on. Be ready!” Mid-battle: “No!”, “Nuts!”, "Yamahatze!!" Death: “It is regretful…” He hovers in the air just high enough for the majority of your shots to miss. For the majority of the battle, I recommend using the charged Mega Buster to fire potshots at him when he dips low enough. The main attacks you want to watch out for are his whirl- wind attack ("Yamahatze!!") - this you can jump over, and his telegraphed Tornado Hold - you can stop this one cold with an Ice Wave. There are occasions when he'll shout out "Here you go!" and do a dive attack. Jump over him and wait for him to land, then freeze him with the Ice Wave and blast away with the Arm Cannon while he struggles to free himself. This fight shouldn't be too hard. ===================== 8. Clown Man’s Stage: ===================== This stage, as you might expect, is more fun and puzzle-based. The first stretch starts off in a toy room of sorts, filled with little Ice Men, Gutsdozers, and dinosaurs from MM7. How cute. Defeat the cannons and snakes, use Rush Bike to grab a Bolt, then race through the next section on the Bike to avoid a lengthy trip on trains and such. After you pass this short train section, you'll deal with a short puzzle section filled with X, O, and Square blocks. Watch the robots in the background - as they ding the bells, you want to be on O blocks; you get hurt if you're on X or Square ones. Get through this section and you'll head to a platform, which then has toys piled on top of it, and it collapses into a room with a mini-boss. Bouncing Coin Strategy ====================== Use either the Mega Buster or Flash Bombs on this annoyance. Shoot the mini-coins and other small annoyances that this large annoyance spits out at you. Slide under it when it's doing its crazy bouncing routine, all the while shooting it to death. Beat it to gain the Rush Charger upgrade. After beating it, you'll head into another section filled with puzzle blocks, except Skull blocks have been added to the fray. Skull blocks drop you if you're on them when the bell tolls, and they're almost always over pits. Watch out for the multitudes of enemies, and get through this section. Ride the lift up to the funhouse entrance, and navigate this simple area. Exit out and head to another puzzle block section, this time going vertically. To go from level to level, you have to trigger the correct blocks marked with question marks. From the start, head to the right-hand one. Go up to the second level, and head to the far right side again. Repeat for the third level, then move one block to your left to reach the fourth level. Defeat the three floating cannons up here and move on past them to reach a Surprise Shell. Shoot it to get a powerup, then head right some more for another lift platform that leads down to the boss gate. Clown Man Strategy ================== Voice Cues: Intro – “Yo geeky!”, “Weakling! This is no laughing matter!” Mid-battle: “Ouch!”, “Mommy!”, “Hey, what are you doing!?”, “What have you done to me??” Death: “See you in my dreams…” Clown Man follows a bit of a random pattern, but you can counter him by using the Tornado Hold on him. The best time to use it is when he's bouncing around the room, or when he starts his trapezee swing. Set one off in the center of the room, and it's a guaranteed hit. Spend the rest of your time dodging his attacks (his Thunder Claw attack is particularly nasty, though if you watch the floor, you can usually see it coming). Slide under him to avoid his bouncing "Thunder Carnival!" while continuing to use the Tornado Hold and you'll beat him with a minimum of effort. Anytime he's stunned and on the ground, try supplementing your attack with the Mega Buster. =================== 9. Wily Cave Stage: =================== This mostly vertical stage is very straightforward. From the cave entrance, head right and destroy the two cannons. Drop down the short pit and fight some more of the cannon enemies. The next pitfall has yet two more, but they're difficult to hit and thus get them out of the way. To deal with them, stand near the incline and kick a Mega Ball; it'll rebound off the wall and come back to hit the cannons. After they're gone, just keep heading down through the mess of cannons and Mets until you reach the bottom. Take out the Sniper Joe and head on through the boss gate. Duo Strategy ============ Flash Bombs, the Mega Buster, Ice Wave...use whatever works for you. His pattern is relatively easy to gain an understanding of, so you shouldn’t have too many problems. Duo for the most part just hops around, but be sure to jump his dash punch attack; if you get caught in a corner, Duo can follow up with a hurtful combo attack. His other attack is a bouncing energy ball move where he rebounds around the room off the walls. You can hear it coming when he yells out "Get ready!", and you can just slide to avoid damage from it. Other than that, just keep pelting away to win. ===================== 10. Aqua Man's Stage: ===================== Remember having to swim in the intro stage? You'll do it a lot more here. Start off by heading to the right down the relatively straight path. Deal with the oyster robots and the claw robots along the way and head over the small platformer section until you reach a part where a water current pushes you backwards. Constantly slide into it to get into the next room, which is a vertical ascent filled with those jellyfish robots from earlier, claw robots and more oysters. Swim up the passages defeating all the enemies in your path until you reach another water current. Swim against this one, take out the oysters in your path, and then narrowly swim through the spike channel to get into the next room, which is another vertical room filled with oysters and jellyfish robots. Deal with them, swim to the top and defeat a Sniper Joe, then climb the ladder to reach the mini-boss. Giant Crab Strategy =================== This mini-boss swims in and out of the waterfall in the background, and the way the fight is done is impressive, to say the least. For anyone who's played The Wily Wars and fought Buster Rod G, this battle imitates the fight while constantly falling down a long and seemingly never-ending shaft. The best weapon to use here is the Flash Bomb, seeing as you can get in multiple hits with a single Bomb. Keep dropping and sliding from platform to platform to avoid the Crab, and keep firing off shots at it to defeat it. You won't reach the bottom until it's defeated, so you can fall for as long as you like with no worries. Defeat this boss to claim the Rush Health Upgrade. After you defeat the Crab, you'll teleport to a new section of the underwater cave. From the start, climb down the ladder to deal with another new enemy, the wall walker variety. Ignore it and head to the right, sliding under the jellyfish for now. The next room entails a cautious path through a minefield studded cave section. This room is also filled to the brim with claw robots and oysters, so move with caution. Climb the ladder at the top, defeat the Sniper Joe, and head on into the next section. This large vertical room consists of a drop down while moving on the timebombs. Many of the bombs are stationary, so you don't have to worry about them moving. The descent is full of Sniper Joes, flying cannons, and wall-walkers, though. Hug the left side on the first part of the drop to grab some refills as well as a Bolt, then continue on down. The last leg here has you moving across some of the walking timebombs, over spike traps as well. Don't worry much about getting hit by the enemies, just concern yourself with not getting dropped onto any of the spikes, and drop all the way to the bottom. The very last part of the stage is another short watery section filled with wall walkers and oyster robots, but you've gotten this far, so you shouldn't have any troubles. Defeat the Sniper Joe at the top of the ladder and head on to the boss gate. Aqua Man Strategy ================= Voice Cues: Intro – “Hi! I’m Aqua Man, but you can call me handsome, k?”, “Finally it’s my turn! I’m Aqua Man!” Mid-battle: “No!”, “(some sound effect that I can’t pronounce)” Death: “That was luck!” No doubt about it, Aqua Man is tough with just the Mega Buster, but it's the only weapon you have to use against him right now, although Flash Bombs do seem to momentar- ily interrupt his attacks. For attacking Aqua Man, having the H. Speed Charge and the Arrow Shot enhancements do seem to help out a bit. Your greatest advantage lies in the fact that Aqua Man tends to stay in one place when he's executing his rather easy to avoid attacks, which consist of "Water Cannon" (he shoots a jet of water that will randomly change path, though it's easy to find a crevice to hide in), and "Water Ball- oon" (he shoots a stream of water bubbles that follow you across the room - slide or run to avoid it), and a lot of jumping (slide under him to avoid taking crash damage). If you need to, use Rush Health in the middle to refill yourself if you find Aqua Man beating you up too badly. Just don't let up, and you should beat him. ====================== 11. Sword Man's Stage: ====================== Get ready for a puzzler. Sword Man's stage starts off with a bit of a tricky puzzle that you must complete to move on. Start off heading to the right, take out the Flaming Met and hop on the switch to activate the giant mask. Head inside to a room where there are four statues. Each one must be removed, but only by entering the four teleports above you and using a Master Weapon from the last round of Robot Masters to trigger a crystal gem. Here's a quick layout of what is where, and how to trigger each crystal: Upper left: Use the Tornado Hold and Arm Cannon to move locking mechanisms into place, then head through each section to the crystal at the end. Upper right: Use the Ice Wave to freeze the lava eruptions as you make your way across. The best way to do this is to start by dropping the Ice Wave into the lava flow so it just goes to the right freezing anything in its path. Just be sure to slide quickly to keep up with it. Lower left: Use the Thunder Claw to latch onto and trigger the switches as well as swing from the grappling points to reach the crystal. You must move quickly since there are spike traps moving that try to corner you off. Lower right: Use the Flash Bombs to illuminate the rooms to see the colored patterns on the walls. At the end, input the colored block sequence correctly to get to the crystal. After you successfully unlock all four statues, you get a energy boost, and immediately drop down to face the mini-boss. Wall Walker Strategy ==================== This thing sticks on the wall firing shots at you. Fire Flash Bombs whenever it opens up and exposes its core. Do so quickly so the hammer in the background doesn't start destroying your foothold. Four Bombs will destroy it, after which you can claim the Rush Bomber Upgrade. Starting in this new section of the stage, you'll start using rafts to navigate around. You'll use the switches on the platforms to trigger different directions, so start off on the first one by riding the first lava spout upwards to the top. The next section has a few of the large hammer enemies that pound platforms into the lava as well as tons of Vampire Bats. Destroy the bats first, then make your way across the platforms while destroying the statues, doing so quickly so that the hammer doesn't destroy your perch. Once through here, hop on the next platform, but don't start moving. Wait for the two lava jets to finish spouting, then ride all the way to the right. As the first one propels you up, wait for the second one to appear, then move the raft over to that one, and jump and climb the ladder. Head through the next short section full of walking statues, and climb the ladder to the top to reach another raft session. This one is extremely short, but you can take a bit of a shortcut, as well as grab a Bolt by using the Flash Bomb on the brown section of the wall and climbing the ladder. Grab the Bolt to the left and head into the teleport to be deposited right in front of the boss gate. Sword Man Strategy ================== Voice Cues: Intro – “I’m Sword Man.”, “Let’s make this a fair fight.”, “Nothing personal…but I’ve got orders.” Mid-battle: “Not yet.” Death: “Nice shot.” With the Water Balloon handy, Sword Man is a cinch to beat. His voice cues are sometimes hard to determine, since he tends to mutter them, but you can see his attacks coming a mile away. You'll want to keep pelting him, and slide out of the way if he summons the giant stone structure that pounces on your location. If he separates and starts to spin, wait three seconds (I think, or just wait until he starts to move) then slide under him. When he re-forms, continue blasting him with the Water Balloon. I haven't figured out what triggers it, but at times, you can stun him enough that smoke starts coming out of him, and from there, blast away to an easy victory. ======================= 12. Search Man's Stage: ======================= This foresty stage is mostly just a winding maze of sorts. Start off heading to the right; you'll soon encounter some giant robots that chuck rocks (and later on, other objects) at you. Quickly defeat them with the Mega Buster and move on. If you have the "skills" at using the Thunder Claw as a grappling beam, then you can grapple across part of an open expanse, otherwise stick to the ground area. Head up and inside a giant rock structure where you can take the lower path and use the Flame Sword to cut through some spike traps. Use the Sword again on the giant rhino robot at the top, and climb on up to reach the stage mid-point. This second part of the stage requires near mastery of the Thunder Claw since there's many a grappling section interspersed through the stage. This second part is mostly just simple platforming. Head to the right while taking out the numerous giant robots until you reach a small barrier. Shoot it open and proceed through. Use the Flame Sword on the rhino robot and take out the nearby cannon enemies, then climb the ladder. Keep on defeating the enemies in your path, and climb another ladder. Here you have to quickly shoot open a gate, then grapple through it. WIth some practice you'll be able to do it with ease. Keep on going until you reach a long stretch filled with birds and giant robots. Defeat them, climb down the ladder and grapple across the spike pit, grabbing the nearby Bolt as well. Drop to the lower level and just blaze through the assortment of robots (large ones will drop from the trees; ignore them and keep going). Use the Flame Sword on the few rhinos, then get through one more gate shooting-grapple section to reach the boss gate. Search Man Strategy =================== Voice Cues: Intro – “Begin mission? Yes, sir!”, “Ready? Yeah, let’s go!”, “Hey boy! Come on!” Mid-battle: “Ouch!”, “Oh no!” Death: “(another sound effect I can’t distinguish)” Search Man may be your first real challenge in the game. He hides behind one of three bushes in the room and it's up to you to find which one. Slash the bushes with the Flame Sword, and if you get him, he'll retreat backwards and often start a "Homing Sniper!" attack, which is very difficult to avoid. If you get one of his clones, nothing will happen, so keep trying. Near the end, Search Man will abandon his bush attack and just blast you outright while jumping around the room. You'll have to stay in close and slash away with the Flame Sword if you want to take this guy down. ====================== 13. Astro Man’s Stage: ====================== Astro Man's stage is a bit difficult, mainly due to the strategy required to get through it. The stage itself is divided into five parts, each of which I'll go over below. - Section 1: This part is just a straight path to the Skull Transport, however you need to make use of the disappearing platforms to cross gaps and clear obstructions, all while avoiding the multitudes of enemies. Get to the end to warp to the first maze. - Section 2 (Green/Yellow Maze): From the start, head to the right and activate the red switch. Go through the new opening, and down the ladder. Head right some more until you reach a ledge. Bounce up with the Mega Ball or Tornado Hold, then head right and activate the next green switch. Head right some more to the next ladder, then head down the ladder. At the bottom, head left and use the Tornado Hold to clear another high wall and get to the orangish circle on the floor. You'll now see the exit revealed above you, but instead of going up, go down one level and head left through the narrower passages until you wind around to a red switch. Activate it to move a gate below you, then wind your way back to your starting point below the exit. Use a Mega Ball to bounce up to the ledge, then use another to get up even higher to the next ledge, where you can just slide under the small opening to get the Bolt for this maze. Now just drop down and head right to the exit. - Section 3: This section requires you to ascend a sinking tower section. Move quickly, as the quicksand is swallowing the tower very quickly. To save time, try not to worry about the enemies as you make the trip up. Parts of this section require quick sliding or climbing up retracting platforms, so hurry it along. Near the top is a Bolt if you have the time to grab it. Get to the top and the next Skull Transport. - Section 4: This is a platform section similar to Section 1, except with a lot more platform hopping. Be wary of the flying enemies here, as they have a real tendency to knock you into a pit. Near the end is a rather easy Bolt, after which you can just hop up two more platforms to reach the Skull Transport. Section 5 (Blue/Purple Maze): Head to the right and go down the ladder. Head past the few Mets, then head down the ladder. Head to the left, jump over onto the ledge and activate the red switch. Now go left and activate the green switch, then keep heading left and circle around back to the red switch. Ignore it and use the Mega Ball to boost up to the green door, then continue going left. Climb down the next ladder and hit the red switch in the floor, then keep heading right. Use a Mega Ball to bounce up to the nearby ledge, activate the green switch, then drop and grab the Bolt, then drop again and head right to reach the exit. From here, you'll be deposited right in front of the boss gate, so collect the Surprise Shell powerup and head inside. Astro Man Strategy ================== Voice Cues: Intro – “I’ve come here, but I don’t know what to do!”, “Oh how did you find me? I feel so embarrassed.” Mid-battle: “I hate it when that happens! I can’t take this anymore!” Death: “Good grief!” Astro Man is a bit tough, unless you exploit his pattern. He circles the room in that spaceship body of his, and uses his two orbiting orbs to attack you. The best way to defeat him is to trap yourself between him and his one of his orbs - then use the Homing Sniper to blast away at him. Each time he recovers, you'll have to jump so the Sniper hits him faster. This is the best way of beating him while taking the least amount of damage. Just a quick warning, though, you may have to fight a bit harder to get in between his two orbs the second round. ======================== 14. Wily Tower, Stage 1: ======================== The game designers apparently thought it would be fun to start the castle off on a jetboard section. Beware as this section is (a) much longer, and (b) much tougher than the last two you faced. With a bit of practice you can make it through. But guess what? Ending the jetboard section places you at the mid-point, and if you lose all your lives, you start way back at the beginning. Try to come here with as many lives as possible to be safe. Some really good advice is to try and stay towards the far left to give your- self as much preparation time to jump or slide (though you'll be mostly jumping). Once you make it to the end, Mega Man will hop off the jetboard and continue on foot. Keep heading right while destroying any Flaming Mets in your path. Eventually you'll reach some grappling hooks. Switch to the Thunder Claw and swing across them until you start seeing the golden hooks. Pay attention to these; these hooks are the ones you want to use to cross the last expanse. Swing across them to collect a handy 1-Up, then drop down to the boss gate. Quad Pod Strategy ================= Now you knew you were going to have to actually use that Mega Ball at some point in the game, right? Lucky for you, you get to use it on the first fortress boss. Don't worry too much, with a bit of practice, this battle becomes fairly routine. First off, look at the boss. There are four pods hanging from the ceiling. One has the creature you want to hit inside of it, two others are cylindrical, and another is cube shaped. When the last three drop, the cube one will drop weapon refills if shot, and the cylinder ones shoot Missiles at you. Do whatever you can to avoid letting these pods hit you as they inflict a lot of hit damage. Stand in between them and as they fall, use the Flash Bomb to destroy them as well as shield you from any retalitatory fire. When the cylindrical ones have been destroyed (and the cube one if you happen to get it in there too), move to a position (I can't tell you where because the main pod changes locations) to where you have a clear shot and drop kick a Mega Ball at the pod. Your objective is to rebound it off the wall so it hits the pod on the underside. Once you get the pattern down, it's just a matter of waiting for a clear shot, and this fight gets easy. ======================== 15. Wily Tower, Stage 2: ======================== This stage is actually fairly short, mainly because the latter half takes place on the Rush Jet. Start off heading to the right. Destroy the cannon and other enemies in your path, then climb the ladder at the end. This vertical section is filled with the flying masks and wall-walker robots. Defeat them and continue to move on upwards. At the top, head right some more, take out the Sniper Joe on the pedestal, and head to the end of this hallway. Destroy some more walker robots and start shooting the dynamite blocks (similar to Grenade Man's stage) to create a path going down. After you reach the bottom, just head right until Rush Jet appears. This part of the stage is where it gets tricky. This section is chock-full of enemies that you have to maneuver around, but fortunately you get three Helper Shells along the way. A real piece of advice once you're past the initial section (the one with the bird hordes) is to start staying to the far right hand side of the screen - later on there is some real tricky maneuvering, and you'll need all the room you can get. Navigate this passage dealing with the giant dispenser tanks and the onslaught of enemies and you'll reach the section where you have to thread a twisting passage. Safely get through here, take out some spiraling Dragons beyons here, and you'll start speeding up on the Jet until you encounter the stage boss. Flying Ship Strategy ==================== This boss can be a bit tricky at first, but as with the Quad Pods, it falls easily once you have its pattern down. There are three parts of the Ship that can open up to launch attacks at you, and two of these are weak points. The tail can open up and launch semi- homing Missiles at you (you can cancel the attack by firing charged shots at the tail when it opens up, though), and the two wings can open up to fire either Missiles or shoot damaging lasers at you. You need to fire charged shots (the Arrow Shot is a must have for this fight) at the exposed wing structures to damage the Ship. For the most part, this is really simple, but the game sometimes scrolls you over, so you'll have to be quick to keep up with the camera so you don't get shoved into a collision with the Ship. When it starts launching bombs at you (the red things that slowly float back), you can use Flash Bombs at close range to blow them up and hopefully gain energy refills in case the Ship's Missiles and laser attacks start hurting you badly. Just keep up with the Ship's attacks until you blow it out of the sky. ======================== 16. Wily Tower, Stage 3: ======================== Start off heading right until you encounter a giant rock chucker. Use a charged shot to get it out of the way, then continue on past the few acid-droppers and the Sniper Joe until you reach the ladder. Climb up it, destroy the few wall walker robots here, and climb up to a time bomb section. Leap from bomb to bomb as you make your way up. Part- way up, you'll have to jump over a moving spike ball to get to another time bomb and the next ladder, but this shouldn't be too much trouble. Climb up and ride the moving time bomb to the next ladder, and head up. Head right through another time bomb section across a large spike pit until you reach the end where a rock chucker will throw a giant rock onto the spikes. Jump off the time bomb so you don't die, and destroy the rock chucker above, then use the Tornado Hold to give yourself a boost to the ledge. Jump to the next ladder and head right to the mini-boss gate to meet up with Bass and Treble. Bass and Treble Strategy ======================== Bass appears to be up to using the Super Adapter again (or as Mega Man & Bass calls it, the Treble Booster). This battle is pretty similar to Tengu Man's, except Bass hovers more in range. Constantly blast him with charged Mega Buster shots (the Arrow Shot up- grade helps out here) until he lands, then jump over his two Buster shots while contin- uously blasting him. When he flies to the center of the screen, slide around so his vertical flamestrikes don't hit you, and when he flies to the upper left or right corner of the room, launch away with the Astro Crush to cancel out his meteor attack. Keep damaging him and you'll show Bass once more who is the most powerful. After defeating Bass, move on through the gate, get past the first few enemies, then drop down, holding left so you land on a platform where you can grab a large energy refill. Drop all the way to the bottom, destroy another rock chucker and head to the spike pits. Defeat more rock chucking robots and get to the next ladder. It's a bit too high for you to reach, so drop a Mega Ball on the edge of the ledge, then bounce off of it to reach the ladder and move on up. Kill the Sniper Joe up top and grab the 1-Up he was guarding, then head right across one final, but rough, platform jumping segment to reach the boss gate. Green Devil Strategy ==================== Definitely come in here equipped with the Laser Shot; it literally screws with the Green Devil's anatomy. As soon as the Devil forms up, shoot a charged shot into the eye to create a hole, then repeat twice more to deal some significant damage. At this point, the Devil will dissolve into its liquid state, and perform one of two attacks - either the standard blocks-going-across-the-screen move, or by sinking into the floor grates and creating gelatin spikes that shoot out of the floor. The latter is the easiest to avoid, but the former can be dodged by simply jumping and sliding around the blocks as they come at you (rather slowly, I might add). Once the Devil reforms, repeat the same strategy until you defeat this boss. ================ 17. Final Stage: ================ Here it is: the final stage. It helps to have all available parts equipped, and all of your weapons full. You'll start off in a room where you'll engage in rematches against the Robot Masters. The order layout goes like this: Tengu Man Frost Man Astro Man Sword Man Clown Man Grenade Man Search Man Aqua Man Once you've eliminated all eight again, a teleport appears in the center of the room. Hop on it to travel up to another boss gate, where the final battles begin. Dr. Wily Strategy (1st Battle) ============================== Duo will assist you in destroying the large cannon, but it's up to you to bring the rest of the skull contraption down. Equip the Arrow Shot and fire charged shots at the eyes to inflict damage, and spend the rest of your time dodging Wily's deadly attacks, which include cannon fire, energy orbs, a giant spinning wheel (which can either be jumped over or slid under), and a large cannon blast. You can cancel out the cannon blast by firing the Astro Crush whenever you see it start to charge up, which is a good thing. Concentrate mostly on not getting hit; you'll need as much energy as you can keep for the second form. You could also try using Flash Bombs to deal more damage. Dr. Wily Strategy (2nd Battle) ============================== Wily attacks very similar to the MM7 fight, though he's not nearly as hard (mostly due to the fact that you have no Energy Tanks). Wily still appears and disappears randomly, and he still uses orbs, but they're not elemental as they were in MM7. His attacks are much easier to dodge as well; the orbs can be slid under or jumped far easier. The optimum weapon is the Flame Sword since it inflicts the most damage, but naturally is the most difficult weapon to use. As an alternative, equip the Arrow Shot and fire off charged Mega Buster shots at Wily whenever he's far away, and if you have the chance, slash at him with the Flame Sword only if he's in range. Continue sliding to dodge his spinning and wall-traveling energy orbs, and with enough practice, you'll be able to win against this final boss. Don't be afraid to use Rush Health either, you most likely will need it. ================= 18. Boss Weapons: ================= -Flash Bomb – Mega Man shoots out a bomb which explodes on impact, creating a short burst of light. Very handy against a few bosses, and it has some other goody uses as well. -Ice Wave – Similar to the Ice Slasher (Mega Man 1), Mega Man shoots out a wave of ice which freezes anything in its path. -Tornado Hold – Mega Man shoots out a tornado in front of him which can levitate him to new heights. If used properly, this one can take the place of Rush's Coil adapter. -Thunder Claw – Mega Man gains a grappling hook. Not useful for much of anything else, it can grapple to the small grappling hooks found in various stages. -Water Balloon – Mega Man shoots a small burst of water in front of him. -Flame Sword – Mega Man swipes Slash Claw-style with a short blade. It can be used to ignite things. -Homing Sniper – Mega Man shoots out a small collection of homing missiles. As you might expect, you first have to point them at a particular target for them to work properly. -Astro Crush – Mega Man raises his hands and sends green flaming meteors sailing diagonally across the screen. Can be used in certain places to break things. -Mega Ball – This is a fun little item that is given to you during the Intro stage. Mega Man can kick it, bounce off it, or dribble it like a soccer ball. It can be advantage- ous in reaching hidden items, so make sure you experiment with it. =================== 19. Bolt Locations: =================== There are a total of 40 Bolts hidden throughout the game that you need to collect if you want to build upgrade parts. Here's the locations of each of the Bolts and how to get them. Island Stage ============ 1. Inside the Skull Elevator, swim through the gates and head up, then go left to reach a small alcove. The Bolt is at the bottom. 2. One room over to the right, ride the chain platforms going down. 3. In plain sight before the exit elevator. Grenade Man's Stage =================== 4. In the room with the giant green blocks, follow the path outlined in the walkthrough, then use the Mega Ball to bounce yourself up to the ledge where the Bolt sits. 5. In the large room before the mini-boss, use the time bombs to get up to the ledge. 6. In the second section, just after the swinging hammers. Use the Flame Sword to ig- nite a wick that blows some dynamite out of the way. 7. During the section with the Flaming Mets, in plain sight beneath you. Move quickly to get it. 8. At the end of the Flaming Mets section, to the right of the ladder. Move quickly! Frost Man's Stage ================= 9. During the first jetboard section, the path will split high and low. Take the high path and slide under a low wall to get the Bolt. 10. Also during this ride, this one is tough to get. Partway after the ice platforms, you'll ride over some tiles that collapse underneath you. After the second one, just push forward to drop onto the small ledge the Bolt is on. 11. In the second part of the stage, this one sits on a ledge. Use the Mega Ball to get a boost to the ledge. 12. This one is later in the same section behind an ice block. Activate the first dis- penser by jumping on the switch, and ride the ice block over to another dispenser. Take out the penguins, then activate this dispenser's switch and ride the second ice block to crack the one blocking the Bolt. 13. Inside the small vertical section, use the Astro Crush to break the ice floor, then use a Flash Bomb on the ice block to find this one. 14. Midway up the vertical section, this one is hidden inside an ice block. Use the Flash Bomb to shatter the ice and get it. Tengu Man's Stage ================= 15. It's in the beginning part of the stage; maneuver across some of the floating platforms and jump off the highest one to reach the ledge. 16. Before you reach the cannon mini-boss, there's a panel on the ceiling with a Bolt drawn on it. Stay to the left and plaster this panel with Homing Snipers until it breaks and the Bolt drops to the floor. Quickly go down and grab it. 17. Right after the cannon mini-boss, in plain view below you. 18. It's located in the last part of the stage on a low ledge. Ride the bouncing plat- forms over and carefully jump to the ledge. Clown Man's Stage ================= 19. It's near the beginning, right before the first drop. Right before the drop, use the Rush Bike to make the long leap over to it. 20. In the second part of the stage, it sits behind a Sniper Joe. Wait for the machines in the background to ding the bell, then defeat the Joe and slide across the skull boxes to reach it. 21. Inside the Funhouse, use the Mega Ball to bounce to a platform just above you. Ride it up and head left, using the Flame Sword to break the wooden block and get the Bolt. 22. Directly across from # 21, use the platforms leading up to the ledge to make the jump. 23. Near the end when you're ascending the section with the question mark blocks, get up to the third level and move one block to your right to be dropped down to a room with some Mets and flying Cannons. Use the Tornado Hold to create a whirlwind that will propel you up to the Bolt. Wily Cave ========= 24. First room from the entrance, use the Mega Ball to reach the high ladder. Climb up and head left through the enemies to reach it (Note: In the Saturn version, Cut Man shows up here to fight you). 25. Once you have # 24, head right into the next room, and use the Thunder Claw to grapple across the pit to the Bolt. Aqua Man's Stage ================ 26. In the second part the stage, use the Astro Crush in the second room to crack the ceiling, then climb up to the Bolt. 27. In the flooded room with the spiked balls and claw robots, you can use the Tornado Hold to clear a stationary mine out of the way, then slide into the hidden room with the Bolt. 28. Destroy the ceiling from # 26, and head to the right. The room will be filled with more water, and you can use the water to swim over to a new area of the stage. Head to the right, go through the spike section and go up, then fall down the long shaft filled with time bombs. Stay to the left to grab the Bolt on the way down. 29. During the vertical section with the spiked balls and time bombs, hold left while dropping to reach the Bolt. Sword Man's Stage ================= 30. In the section where you have to use the Thunder Claw, it's on a low ledge in plain sight. Be quick to grab it before you get crushed by the grinders, though. 31. It's in an indentation in the floor in the Flash Bomb room. 32. Near the end while riding the raft over the lava, use a Flash Bomb to crack the brown section of wall, and climb the ladder. Head up, then left to reach this one. Search Man's Stage ================== 33. Near the entrance to the large cave section, check the lower right foliage to find the hidden Bolt. 34. In the large room, head along the lower path to the right and use the Flame Sword to clear a path to the Bolt. 35. In the same room, head up the alternate path, and use the Flame Sword to clear part of the spiked foliage away. Use the Tornado Hold to raise yourself high in the air, then quickly switch to the Thunder Claw and grapple across the grapple points to reach a ladder leading to the Bolt. 26. A little past the midpoint, as you reach the long spike pit you have to grapple across, this one is on a ledge to the left. Keep grappling across to reach it. Astro Man's Stage ================= 37. This one's located above the exit to the green and yellow maze. See the walkthrough for directions to it. 28. In the sinking tower section, move quickly to slide under a section to reach it. 39. This one is before the Transport to the second maze, on a low ledge. 40. In the purple and blue maze. It's right in your path on the way to the exit. ============================= 20. 10th Anniversary Bonuses: ============================= Mega Man 8 was released during the 10th Anniversary Celebration of Mega Man's initial release. To commemorate the event, Capcom made sure that fans got special features with their copies of the game. Here's a quick runthrough of what was available: PlayStation owners ================== 1) A full color, 185-page Anthology Book that detailed the Japanese art for the previous seven Rockman releases, plus art for the Robot Masters and other miscellaneous art work, plus histories and biographies and such. Really a fun little item to have as a commemoration gift. 2) A really cool decorative cardboard box if you got one of the first editions released. Sega Saturn Owners ================== 1) Special in-game bonuses including fan-submitted art from the Rockman 8 Design Con- test, official artwork, voice and music tests. 2) The opportunity to fight reincarnations of Wood Man and Cut Man for two of the Bolts. Cut Man possesses a Bolt in the Duo mini-stage, and Wood Man appears as a mini-boss in Search Man's stage. For Saturn owner reference, I'll go ahead and include the boss strategies for them here. Cut Man Strategy ================ The Mega Buster will work fine on him; but he changes his pattern up from the first game. Here he tends to stay farther away and chuck his Rolling Cutter at you while jumping. Flash Bombs will stun him, allowing you to defeat him easier. Wood Man Strategy ================= You can use Flash Bombs to penetrate his Leaf Shield, or just wait until he tosses his protection away and toast him with the Flame Sword. It deals damage to him in a manner that the Atomic Fire did in MM2. ===================== 21. Secrets and Tips: ===================== 1. Have Rush Health and Rush Charger handy in case you find yourself getting knocked out in the middle of a battle (particularly the last Wily battle). 2. A good item layout to have includes the High Speed Charge, Laser Shot, Arrow Shot, Energy Balancer, Super Recover, Power Shield, and the Energy Saver. If you don't have too many problems with getting hit, you might really consider the Energy Saver since it gives you three more shots for the Astro Crush, which can be a lifesaver during the fight with Wily. ========== 22. Legal: ========== This guide must always be shown in full form with credit given to the author, and a link and credit must be given to Mega Man Network (http://megaman.retrofaction.com/). All associated characters and games are copyright to Capcom.