Mega Man X Walkthrough

Acquiring All Items
The fastest route through the game to acquire all the items (quick summary). These steps assume that the player is defeating each Maverick while they are in the stage or are exiting the stage if the boss is already defeated.:
 * 1. Chill Penguin's stage.  Acquire dash.  (1 / 16 items)
 * 2. Storm Eagle's stage.  Acquire heart, helmet, and energy tank.  (4 / 16 items)
 * 3. Flame Mammoth's stage.  Acquire heart, energy tank, X-Buster.  (7 / 16 items)
 * 4. Chill Penguin's stage.  Acquire heart.  (8 / 16 items)
 * 5. Spark Mandrill's stage.  Acquire heart.  (9 / 16 items)
 * 6. Armored Armadillo's stage.  Acquire heart and energy tank.  (11 / 16 items)
 * 7. Launch Octopus' stage.  Acquire heart.  (12 / 16 items)
 * 8. Boomer Kuwanger's stage.  Acquire heart (13 / 16 items)
 * 9. Spark Mandrills stage.  Acquire energy tank.  (14 / 16 items)
 * 10. Sting Chameleon's stage.  Acquire heart and armor upgrade.  (16 / 16 items)

Intro Stage
Here it is, the first stage. Head right to meet your first enemy of the game: a Spiky (a spiked wheel). Charge up your X-Buster and defeat it. Behind it is a Gun Volt (a blue robot with no arms and two legs). Jump over it's sparks and missles and destroy it. After it, jump across the gap and run past the semi in the background. You'll find around 8 Crushers (robots with spikes) that can tear up the highway. Defeat them. Moving on, you'll find another Spiky and another Gun Volt. Get rid of them. You'll soon find another Gun Volt. Dispatch it. Jump over the gap and face your first miniboss: A bee helicopter called a Bee Blader. Quickly dispatch it by rapid-firing at it until it dies, killing the Deerballs it creates when nessessary. When it crushes the floor, wait until everything stops falling, and climb the support pylon to the right.

Jump over the pit and kill the Deerball, and advance to the next Bee Blader miniboss. Kill it as usual. Climb the support pylon to the right, and jump over the pit when X reaches it. Watch out for the Spiky; X can either bite the bullet and ignore it, dodge it with a jump, or rapid-fire to kill it. When X reaches the cliff ahead, it will crumble to the ground. Quickly jump to the safe ground, and watch out for the flying mechaniloid that releases timed mines.

The next few platforms have crumbling highway sections, so quickly scurry across them to the supported beams. Ignore the Jammingers (flying robots); they can't do much to hurt X if he stays low. Continue along the straightforward path, avoiding the mechaniloids.

The final stretch of the stage includes several Road Attackers (car-riding mechaniloids); X can destroy the riders and ride on top of the cars, but cannot steer them. A large aircraft, named the Death Rogumer, will lower itself into X's view and will start dropping more Road Attackers! Destroy enough of these to start the battle with Vile...

Vile Ride Armor
This is an unwinnable battle; simply allow X to be obliterated down to one unit of health, and put him in the path of one of Vile's electric projectiles to end the battle.

Chill Penguin's Stage
The stage begins in a snowfield. Continue to the right, killing the Ray Bit (rabbit enemy) and the Axe Max. Watch out for more Bomb Beens until X is safe inside the building.

The path through the building is straightforward; there are no forks in its road. The Bat Bone are useful for recovering X's health and weapon energy, but are otherwise an annoyance. Continue cautiously, as the Spikies will often appear out of nowhere. When about to reach the third floor, don't get frustrated trying to reach the platform; it's difficult, but very possible. You must wall-jump immidiately upon touching it. At the top of the building rests the Leg Capsule, one of the most crucial items in the game.

Continue to the right, practicing the dash-jump, a common technique pulled off by jumping out of a dash. While descending the steps, kill the Flammingles (ostrich enemies), as they will become an annoyance if left alive.

After exiting the building, jump into the Chimera Ride Armor. It can punch enemies as well as execute the dash X just learned. Destroy the igloo with a punch, and continue under the covering. Watch out for other enemies that pilot Ride Armors; they can quickly knock X's armor into a pit, killing him. If all else fails, X can eject by holding Up and jumping. Eject from the armor when he cannot continue any further with the Armor's lack of wall-climbing techniques.

Climb up the wall to the right. If X has the Fire Wave, dash-jump to the left and destroy the igloos with it to find a Heart Tank. If not, continue to the right and hop over the divider. Hop over the pit and dash forward! Snowball-throwing enemies lurk ahead, and when they are not on the screen, they will use powerful, hard-to-avoid attacks. When on the screen, they only use pathetic attacks. Kill them up close, and enter the boss gate...

Chill Penguin
Chill Penguin has a wide variety of attacks, and using the Fire Wave, his weakness, will not put him into a predictable pattern, unlike other bosses. He will use the following attacks:
 * Shotgun Ice: A chunk of ice fired at the other side of the screen
 * Reflect Shotgun Ice: A chunk of ice that bounces and slides along the ground
 * Frost Rebound: A belly slide attack, going across the screen and bouncing off the opposite wall
 * Penguin Jump: A jump attack, difficult to dodge
 * Freeze Wind: Pulling a chain at the top of the screen, creating a wind to the left or right
 * Chill Wave: An ice breath attack, freezing X and creating two penguin sculptures
 * This is always followed by either an Shotgun Ice attack, a Frost Rebound, or the Freeze Wind attack

Dodge the Shotgun Ice attacks by staying on the walls. Chill Penguin is invincible during the Frost Rebound, so don't bother trying to attack him then. If X is on the wall too long, Chill Penguin will use his Penguin Jump attack. The Chill Wave attack is slow, but if X is caught in it, he will freeze and will be subject to any of Chill Penguin's attacks.

The Fire Wave will quickly destroy Chill Penguin, but using the X-Buster is effective as well. A few shots of either weapon will quickly decimate Chill Penguin.

Reward: Shotgun Ice

Items

 * Leg Capsule: At the top of the building; It is impossible to miss.
 * Heart Tank: After the Ride Armor segment, jump onto the roof to the left and use the Fire Wave to destroy the igloos.

Storm Eagle's Stage
At the beginning of the stage, jump onto one of the cargo platforms that moves along a track. Carefully "wall-climb" on the side of one of the cargo platforms above X to scale it. Stay away from the Sky Claws; they will drop X into the pit at the bottom. Jump off of the cargo lifts at the top, and continue over the top of the "Airport 1001" sign.

There will be several rotating cannons on top of towers that raise and lower periodically. Destroy the front cannon and ride the tower. If X has the Leg Upgrade, dash-jump onto the control tower and shoot the window. Inside will be a dangerous robot; Kill it with repeated shots to break the windows. Continue forward to score a new Sub-Tank.

There will be several platforms with Flamers (fire-shooting robots) on them. Kill the Flamers quickly, and jump onto the platforms. Repeat this to reach the other side of the chasm. Repeat this to cross the adjacent chasm. Continue forward to reach a tall tower.

If X has the Leg Upgrade, drop down immidiately. Dash-jump from the edge of this platform to reach a ledge next to several explosive canisters. Fire at them to destroy them, and continue into the alley to find the Helmet Capsule. Make your way back up to the tower.

Continue along the straightforward path, killing Mettools and walking enemies along the way. Eventually, X will reach a cruiser dock, which is a set of platforms that disappear quickly upon contact. Don't look back; scurry across the docking platforms and land on the wing of Storm Eagle's cruiser, which if you notice, is the Death Rogumer from the intro stage. Destroy the Death Rogumer's cannons to reach the boss gate...

Storm Eagle
The difficulty of Storm Eagle depends on wether X has the Leg Upgrade or not. If he does, it'll take some practice, but it will be very easy; if not, be prepared for the worst. Storm Eagle uses the following attacks:


 * Wing Gale: A wing-flapping attack that steadily pushes X towards the edge
 * Storm Tornado: A modified Storm Tornado that pushes X very far towards the edge
 * Homing Eaglet: An egg-firing attack that will hatch four homing eagle chicks
 * Ace Assault: A diving attack that swoops diagonally from the top

Both attacks that push X towards the edge can be easily thwarted by repeated dashes with the Leg Upgrade; without it, X can simply hope for the best and run against the wind. The Homing Eaglet attack can be avoided with erratic movement, or completely destroyed by shooting the egg. The Ace Assault attack can be avoided if X keeps moving in one direction.

The Chameleon Sting can make short work of Storm Eagle, but charged X-Buster shots work just as well. He is vulnerable during all of his attacks. He can be struck during his Homing Eaglet attack if X jumps as high as he can. Hitting him during his Ace Assult cycle requires difficult timing, but drastically speeds up the battle.

Reward: Storm Tornado

Items

 * Helmet Capsule: Drop to the right of a tower near the middle of the stage. Dash-jump to a ledge to the right, and destroy the canisters to the right to reveal the Helmet Capsule.
 * Sub-Tank: Near the beginning of the stage, destroy the cannon on top of the tower that raises and lowers itself. Ride the tower to the control tower, and shoot the window to open up a path. Kill the robot inside to break its windows and reveal a Sub-Tank.
 * Heart Tank: At the beginning of the stage, while on the lifts, leap to the left from the top lift. The heart tank will be on top of the building to the left.

Flame Mammoth's Stage
If X has defeated Chill Penguin, this stage will be much easier than normal; all lava in the stage has been iced over.

The level begins in a factory which builds two kinds of robots: "Dummy" robots that just take up space, and robots from the torso up that shoot laser beams from their eyes. X can sit on top of the dummy robots without being hurt, but the laser robots are just like any other enemy. Both robots go onto conveyor belts and are destroyed in lava when the conveyor belt ends.

Hop across the conveyor belts, keeping in mind these two kinds of robots. When X is past two conveyor belt sections, he will reach an energy pellet and a pit. Jump down the pit and continue to the right. If X has the Head Capsule, prepare to make a difficult jump. Notice the blocks that fill the space between two sections of the ceiling: these are breakable. Dash-jump from the platform half-submerged in lava to this breakable section. Keep on wall-climbing on this section, and parts of it will break off. Don't fall off! Keep breaking this breakable section and climb up to find a passage with the Arm X-Buster Capsule in it. Enter the capsule and jump down.

X is now in an area with several Dig Labors and flame geysers. If Chill Penguin has been defeated, there will be no geysers, and this allows a Heart Tank to be received. Dash along the icy ground, staying low, and X will eventually come to the Heart Tank.

Climb to the top of the room with the heart and continue to the left side of the room. If X has the dash upgrade, jump on the wall that is guarding the Energy Tank, which will destroy it. Enter the hold and grab the Energy Tank. If you've played your cards right, you will have acquired three items in almost no time at all.

Find your way to the right side of the room and climb the walls until you find the next room.

This room contains conveyor belts, but there's a new twist: There are crushers that crush anything in their vertical path, and that includes X! Run quickly underneath them, or face destruction. Drop down the pit to enter the next section.

Final Sigma Stage: Sigma's Machine
This stage is simple, just wall climb, defeating the Creepers and fill up your Sub-Tanks, your Rolling Shield, your Shotgun Ice, and your Electric Spark. When you're ready, climb up the walls and enter the gates. At the top, you'll find Sigma himself, but first he talks a bit, then he sics his pet dog, named Velguarder, at you. Velguarder is very agile, and can breathe either ice (wich moves in a rainbow pattern) or fire (which travels in an upwards arc). Dispactch Velguarder with the X-Buster, the Hadouken, or the Shotgun Ice. After a second speech Sigma removes his cape and draws his lightsaber, then the fight begins. Avoid his lightsaber and hit him with the Electric Spark when he's on the walls. After the fight, Sigma becomes his final form: Velguarder Sigma. Sigma's head will attach itself to a large wolf-shaped machine. Sigma is too high to hit, so you'll have to jump on his claws when they fall down (you'll get hit if you stand underneath them), but beware, as he shoots lightning from them. Sigma can also fire lasers and breath fire.