Mega Man 3 Walkthrough

Level Strategies
Although it is possible to complete the eight main levels and four Doc Robot stages in any order, this walkthrough provides a recommended order that will make defeating bosses and some enemies easier. However, there is no need to follow the order given, and each level strategy can be read alone.

Needle Man Stage: Needle City
Mission: Secure Needle City and destroy Needle Man. The first thing you will have to pass are a few Needle Harrys (large hedgehogs). They shoot their needles at you and then roll towards you. Jump over them when they roll if you can't kill them in time, make your way past them and climb down. You'll see two paths; the lower one is a dead end but has a large weapon capsule guarded by a Met. Taking the top path to continue, shoot the Cannons when they open to shoot. Next will be a series of Mets and Yambows (dragonflies), (and are those Giant Mets buried in the ground?) pass them and go down. Needle Presses periodically shoot from the celeing to the floor in this room. Slide through the passageway when the first spike is retracted, then go down and repeat the process. Run under the next sets of Needle Presses quickly or slide under. Jump onto the platform here, time your next jump to avoid yet another spike, jump to the ladder and climb. There will be another Needle Harry here, this one is harder to avoid because of the uneven ground. Jump over him and, if you want to, use Rush Coil to reach the energy tank. Climb up and defeat the Hammer Jacks here. You can only shoot this enemy when its eye is open, and you can slide under or jump over his mace. Climb again and slide under the Bouncer when it jumps. It's hard to kill this enemy, and it will cause significant damage to you, so be careful. Needle Man has two attacks. One is the Needle Cannon: he jumps high into the air and shoot four needles at you, the other is Needle Crown: He bends forward and extend the spikes on top of his head. Jump carefully inbetween the thrown needles, but be more cautious of the head spikes as they do a high amount of damage. Slide under him when he jumps to avoid this attack. You can shoot him at any time, his weakness is Gemini Laser, and if you use that, you can fire it anywhere and it will probably hit him because of his erratic jumping. You get the Needle Cannon and Rush Jet for defeating him. Mission Complete. Needle City secured and Needle Man stopped.

Snake Man Stage: Snake Tower
Mission: Infiltrate Snake Tower and take out Snake Man!

The first enemies here are a Dada (bouncing enemy) and a Petit Snakey (snake head attached to the platforms). The Petit Snakey cannot move but shoots pellets at you. Kill them and move on, passing more of each enemy, then go up the ladder. Here you will see three Petit Snakeys, these ones are hard to dodge because of the uneven ground. Take them out and climb up to face a Snakey (giant snake head). Dodge his shots by standing at the left and jumping forward over them. Do not step onto the waving platform or you will have a hard time aiming. Once you kill him, move into the next room where more Petit Snakeys are waiting, as well as an Droppot (enemy that dive-bombs you). These snakes can push you into the cliff if you jump when they shoot, so be careful. Pass them, pick up the 2 large energy capsules if you need to, and go down the ladder. Here is a large room with more of the Droppots and Bubuffoons (pole-vaulting enemies). Try to get the Bubuffoons to jump over you, then turn around and shoot them before they come running back at you. After this room, go up and defeat the Hammer Jack, and go up again. The right ladder leads to 2 mystery capsules, which contain a random item. Defeat the Hammer Jack and climb the left ladder, and kill the Snakey at the top. In the next room Bubuffoons will attack you, kill them as before. The pit you must jump looks wide, but it is narrow enough to jump across without assistance. Get the large energy capsule if you need it and climb the right ladder. Kill the Ant on the ladder and climb again, you are now at the top of the tower. The next part is a tricky jumping bit, if you have Rush Jet you can use it now to bypass it entirely. The wide platforms with grilles release Cloud Chariots that zigzag upwards, you will need to use these to cross. Hidden Bombs (cloud enemies) will zigzag toward you, shooting them reveals a bullet that flies straight. After the cloud platforms you will need to jump across some small, non-moving platforms. Dodge the Hidden Bombs here and you will be at the boss room. Snake Man jumps around a lot, and shoots little snakes at the highest point of his jump. These snakes crawl across the floor and walls, so jump over them. the trickiest part of this battle is the uneven floors, which can make things a pain. Fortunately, you can shoot through the central platform. Snake Man is weak to Needle Cannon, and he gives you Search Snake upon defeating him.

Gemini Man Stage: Space Glacier
Mission: Secure the Space Glacier and destroy Gemini Man.

Top Man Stage: Spinning Greenhouse
Mission: Secure the Spinning Greenhouse and stop Top Man from crashing it.

Shadow Man Stage: Sewer System
Mission: Destroy the invaded Sewer System and limit Shadow Man's troops. From the starting platform, fall down and kill the Shothead. Drop down and kill the Mecha Keros and the Picket Man Bull and drop down again. You'll land in an enclosed room and the mysterious red robot you saw in the Space Glacier will appear and fight you. He isn't hard. He just runs and jumps while firing.

Spark Man Stage: Mega Power Plant
Mission: Destroy the Giant Generator and limit Spark Man's energy gathering.

Boss
Spark Man jumps 3-4 times. Then shoots eight sparks in all directions. After that, he throws a big spark: the Spark Shock. He repeats that. Shoot him whenever you have a chance.

Magnet Man Stage: Giant Electromagnet
Mission: Shut down the Giant Electromagnet and stop Magnet Man.

Hard Man Stage: Rocky Plateau
Mission: Infiltrate the mines of Rocky Plateau and wrest them from Hard Man.

Spark Man Stage Revisited: Broken Giant Generator
Mission: Giant Generator has been partally rebuilt. Investigate. When you enter the stage, you'll see that the ladder is gone. Use the Rush Coil and destroy the Peterchy, then climb the ladder, using Shadow Blade to defeat the Ant.

Shadow Man Stage Revisited: Wrecked Sewers
Mission: Enemy robot activity dected in Sewer System remains. Investigate.

Gemini Man Stage Revisited: Space Glacier Sector 2
Mission: An abandoned area of Space Glacier has been invaded. Investigate.

Needle Man Stage Revisited: Wrecked Needle City/Ancient Airship
Mission: An crashed airship has been reactivated in Needle City. Investigate.

Break Man/Proto Man Battle: Rocky Plateau Arena
Mission: A mysterious robot has been detected in the Rocky Plateau. Investigate.

Wily Stage 1: Courtyard and Sewers
Mission: Infiltrate Wily Tower.

Wily Stage 2: Lair of Yellow Devil MK II
Mission: Wily is rebuilding something. Investigate.

Wily Stage 3: Defense System
Mission: Destroy Wily Tower's defence generator.

Wily Stage 4: Pipeworks and Teleporter System/Cyberspace
Mission: All Robot Masters have been rebuilt. Destroy them.

Wily Stage 5: Pinbot Arena
Mission: Defeat Wily, the cause of all this.

This area only consists of two rooms: one to fill up your weapons and the next one where you take on Dr. Wily. It's a two part battle like most Dr. Wily fights in the series. For part 1, the machine that Wily is piloting will slowly walk left and right while firing electric bolts that move in a circular pattern. You need to destroy the cannon on the underside of the machine. Four hits from the Spark Shock will take it out and open the top hatch where you can now see the mad scientist himself. The attack pattern will also change a bit. Wily will now fire pellets down at you in an arc pattern and the machine will lower after each step left or right and try to crush you. Since the weak spot is so high up off the ground, Shadow Blade and Hard Knuckle are good weapons to use. But the best weapon for this part of the fight is........RUSH JET! That's right folks! Hop on Rush Jet and hover parallel with Wily and fire pellet shots at him. Since he has no invulnerability period, just keep firing and you will drain his energy rather quickly. This fight seems too easy, namely because after he's beaten, it's discovered that Dr. Wily merely placed a robotic decoy in the cockpit and controlled the machine from a remote location. Oh well, time for another fight!

Final Wily Stage: Gamma's Construction Site
Mission: Gamma must be destroyed as to prevent Dr. Wily from using the giant robot to fulfill his evil plot!

The level begins in a room full of power-ups. FYI, this game is extremely generous with items. So grab what you need (or want) and proceed through the doors. Gamma is waiting for you and is ready to attack. When you're on the floor of the boss room, Gamma will fire pellets in an arc where you are standing, so keep moving. If you get up onto the higher platform, he'll fire three straight pellets left and right. Shadow Blade and Hard Knuckle are the weapons to use here. Once Gamma's health drops to half, the head will explode and Dr. Wily (the real one this time) will drop down and attach a new head onto Gamma's body and take full control of the giant robot. Now he will fire fast laser balls at you and a giant spike fist will run along the floor from the right side of the screen from time to time. Wily cannot be hit with most of the weapons this time around. The two weapons that work on him are Search Snake and Top Spin. When using Search Snake, jump off the high platform and fire a snake at the hole on top of the new head of Gamma. If it goes in, Wily takes a hit. When using Top Spin (this is the better weapon to use), jump towards Wily and start spinning. Keep pressing the B button upon contact to keep spinning and Wily will go down for good. As Wily begs for mercy (like he usually does) the castle will start to crumble. Wily will get crushed, but so will Megaman. Afterwards, a blue, shadowy figure will show up wondering what became of Wily and realize he's already gone. Then, he'll break apart the boulder that fell on Megaman and get him out of there. Following these events, it's discovered that it was in fact Proto Man that saved Megaman's hide. Cue the end credits and the game is done!