Mega Man X3 Walkthrough

Fastest Route For 100% Item Collection
This is the fastest route to collect all of the items and riding armors. It does not include the special chips, as avoiding them allows you to collect the Golden Chip in the first stage of Dr. Doppler's. This order assumes you are defeating the Maverick in that stage unless otherwise specified or they have already been defeated. Also, it states to die to exit the stage when the boss of that level is deemed to difficult to defeat at that level for the average player. If you are able to do so, have at it.


 * 1. Blizzard Buffalo's stage. Acquire energy tank and Double Dash. (die to exit stage) (2 / 20 items)
 * 2. Tunnel Rhino's stage. Acquire energy tank. (3 / 20 items)
 * 3. Neon Tiger's stage. Acquire energy tank, heart, and X-Buster. (die to exit stage) (6 / 20 items)
 * 4. Blast Hornet's stage. Acquire heart and N riding armor. (die to exit stage) (8 / 20 items)
 * 5. Volt Catfish's stage. Acquire heart and energy tank. (10 / 20 items)
 * 6. Tunnel Rhino's stage. Acquire heart and mapping helmet. (12 / 20 items)
 * 7. Crush Crawfish's stage. Acquire heart and H riding armor. (14 / 20 items)
 * 8. Gravity Beetle's stage. Acquire F riding armor. (15 / 20 items)
 * 9. Volt Catfish's stage. Acquire armor upgrade. (16 / 20 items)
 * 10. Gravity Beetle's stage. Acquire heart. (17 / 20)
 * 11. Blizzard Buffalo's stage. Acquire heart. (18 / 20 items)
 * 12. Toxic Seahorse's stage. Acquire heart and K riding armor. (20 / 20 items)

For experienced players, there is a faster route that requires the minimum amount of stage revisits. People forget that Tornado Fang can break the ice blocks guarding the heart tank in Blizzard Buffalo's level. After defeating Tunnel Rhino and Blizzard Buffalo, Bit and Byte may both be defeated, which is handy since they both can now be encountered at this point. Defeating Neon Tiger next also ensures that Vile may be permanently put down as well, whenever the player wishes to face him
 * 1. Tunnel Rhino: Acquire sub-tank, defeat. (1 of 20)
 * 2. Blizzard Buffalo: Acquire heart tank, leg upgrade, sub-tank, defeat. (4 of 20)
 * 3. Neon Tiger: Acquire sub-tank, arm upgrade, heart tank, defeat. (7 of 20)
 * 4. Gravity Beetle: Acquire Frog ride armor, defeat. (8 of 20)
 * 5. Blast Hornet: Acquire N ride armor, heart tank, defeat. (10 of 20)
 * 6. Gravity Beetle: Acquire heart tank. (11 of 20)
 * 7. Volt Catfish: Acquire heart tank, armor upgrade, sub-tank, defeat. (14 of 20)
 * 8. Tunnel Rhino: Acquire heart tank, helmet upgrade. (16 of 20)
 * 9. Crush Crawfish: Acquire H ride armor, heart tank, defeat. (18 of 20)
 * 10. Toxic Seahorse: Acquire heart tank, K ride armor, defeat. (20 of 20)

Intro Stage: Maverick Hunter Base
After X and Zero first destroy the giant bug-like helicopter (This will be an FMV on the enhanced version of the game), move along through the first set of enemies and down a shaft. From there, keep moving through until see the traitor Mac kiddnap X and Zero bust through the ceiling. Playing as Zero, move forward but cautiously, as parts of the ceiling collapses in certain spots. Eventually you will reach a shaft heading up with a bottomless pit below you and a life energy capsule. As you climb, large spiked balls will fall, bouncing from wall to wall. To avoid them, alternate the walls you climb by dash-jumping to the other side, starting with the left wall. Once at the top, go through the door on your right, and Mac will show up with the captured X. He can be defeated easiest with one shot of the Z-Saber, followed by a single yellow shot. Destroy the machine holding X, and Zero will warp out, leaving you to play as X again. Go right and climb up the next shaft. Enter through the doorway to appear on top of the base where you'll fight Maoh the Giant.

Maoh is simple to defeat, his only attack is sending down either of his spiked balls on your location, which hit for minimal damage. Jump and shoot charged shots at his head to take him out.

Town of Ice: Blizzard Buffalo
First thing you'll notice about the stage (besides the cool music) is that the entire ground is covered in ice, making traction difficult. This is especially important around spike pits and such. If Volt Catfish has been defeated, then the street lights will flicker on and off. Helit's are rampant in this level, as are Notor Banger's, however they are simple to defeat. Start going right, taking out a few enemies along the way and getting used to the slippery surface. Up the first ladder and to your left, you will find a ride armor platform, but it can only be used a short while. To the right are dark blue ice blocks, clogging a path downwards. They can be destroyed via N or K ride armor, or with Tornado Fang. A heart tank awaits you at the bottom. Go right past the blocks and you'll slide down a path, keep shooting and walking right (even while sliding) to destroy the enemies and glide over the spikes unscathed. In the next section has several Notor Bangers, and it is a great place to gather life energy capsules to fill sub tanks, as they respawn simply by going off-screen of where their spawn location is. Drop down the pit to find a few more of them and more energy, and eventually a sub-boss door.

To start the second half of the level, you'll be in an ice cavern that darkens a little ways in, unless Volt Catfish as been defeated, then spot lights will cover the bottom area, making it easier to see. Ice De Voux's can be found bouncing around down here, and are easily defeated. At the end, you'll see a ladder going up with a pit below it, however, this pit is actually a false pit, and sliding down the left side of it reveals a capsule that will transport you to Vile's stage. Up the ladders will take you outside, where it will darken somewhere and begin snowing, the snow has a very minor effect on your mobility, making it harder to move right and easier to move left. Enemies are numerous in this area, meeting Snow Rider's as you climb to the right while Helit's flank you from behind. Keep going right on the frozen highway, past the upwards wind tunnel and more enemies to an area where you can drop below. Do so, take out the enemies, and go left a ways to find a generator that's creating the snow storm. Destory it, and the snow will stop, as will you mobility to move more freely. Go back to the upper highway and stand on the VERY edge of the highway, and make a dash-jump to discover and ledge to catch onto and enter, to find the Leg Capsule. Return all the way back to where you first entered this area, on top of the ladder. Take out the first to ledges of enemies, then, from the first ledge, jump to the right, and upwards-dash to reach and ledge with a sub-tank on it. Now return all the way back by where you got the leg upgrade, below it (if you fell a time or two you probably noticed this before) is a small cave, leading to the boss doors.

Blizzard Buffalo
This boss room is HUGE, much like Flame Mammoth's stage from X1, only bigger (and with no conveyer belt floor obviously), this both works to our advantage and disadvantage. Blizzard Buffalo will commonly dash from wall to wall, in an effort to knock you down. However, he may stop mid-dash and begin shooting very fast chunks of ice at you, sticking to the floor and wall if they miss. If you are on the floor and close to Blizzard Buffalo, he may create small yellow horns, of which then he will charge you like a wall dash, in an effort to pick you up by them and slam you into a wall. When his health, he will do a motion with his hands and you'll hear a charging sound, followed by a VERY long light-blue beam of ice, if you are caught in the beam, you will freeze, similar to being frozen by Chill Penguin also in X1.

Simply dash over him to avoid damage when he charges the wall. Being charged while his horns are out and chasing you is no different than his regular dash, only that being nabbed by him will damage you more, rather than just being hit by him when he dashes. By far the most problematic thing with him is his Frost Shield icicles he shoots at you, which are deadly accurate to the location you were standing when he shot them, and are incredibly fast, thus, difficult to avoid. You must plan accodingly where you want to icicles to land, and where you have enough room to maneuver after they land. His large ice beam is thankfully very easy to avoid though, simply wall climb on the opposite wall and wait for it to stop. The leg upgrade aquired in this level greatly helps in this fight, air-dash is the way to go for evasion. All in all, this is boils down to a fight of jumping over the boss, and shooting him quickly when you land, and running away again.

Aerial Aircraft Carrier: Gravity Beetle
This level can change layout and enemies will change minorly if Blast Hornet is defeated, as in some blocks in the first hanger, and Head Gunner's will change from the customer series to the masspro series. Start by heading into the hanger ahead, which is filled with Head Gunner's and Notor Banger's. In the top left portion of the hanger is a ledge with the heart tank, however it may be walled off by the blocks that litter the hanger, until Blast Hornet is defeated. Find the way upwards and out in the top right portion of the hanger, and follow the short hallway to the sub-boss door.

A long ladder upwards and outwards greets you past the doors. If you have the leg upgrade, climb the wall to the left, make a jump to the right, and upwards dash to nab the ledge and climb upon to acquire the Frog Ride Armor. Continue right and over the aircraft and you will meet a myraid of enemies, now including Earth Commander's and Blady's. Tear through them one by one, and eventually you will find a large life energy capsule at the end and a ladder leading back into the ship. A short hallway later will lead to an elevator taking you upwards. There are small acloves on either side of the shaft while heading upwards, one side will have a Head Gunner while the other has power ups, which alternate as you go up. If you have the leg upgrade, feel free to climb the walls and upwards dash pass the acloves to reach the top sooner.

After going through the door, there is a shaft above you, leading to a ride armor platform, which an armor is needed for an upcoming secret. Head right to find an odd-looking floor, which will slowly begin to drop when to step or jump over it. Past two rows of these and a few Notor Bangers, you will find another shaft leading upwards with ledges. If you have a ride armor, you must dash-jump to make each ledge in order to keep the ride armor with you, otherwise just climb up with X. Fight you way through a few more Head Gunners to reach yet another shaft leading upwards, and more bricks on the right wall, however, these are destructable via an attack from the ride armor. Inside is long pit of spikes, and a wall to climb over with X, to which you will discover the Arm Super Capsule. The last leg of this level is just up the shaft, which is guarded by Notor Banger's and Wall Cancer's. Past these foes at the top, awaits the boss doors.

Gravity Beetle
Gravity Beetle is slow for the most part, but powerful, in that he has powerful attacks that eat your health away quickly. He will start simple with taking a small leap forward, then launching a Gravity Well forward, which bounces off the walls and grows as it bounces. He often times launches another one straight above him as well to also begin bouncing around, whereas one Gravity Well is simple to avoid, two makes it very difficult to not get hit. If he doesn't throw a Gravity Well, he will flash blue and red, and charge across the ground, in an attempt to throw you against the ceiling. When he is low on health he will throw across the ceiling a charged Gravity Well, which deals a huge amount of damge if come in contact with, it will also make Gravity Beetle jump higher, thus, overall making evasion more difficult. At this point, he will only use his charge attack.

While all that in the paragraph above sounds difficult, seeing it being played out is not too bad. The hardest part of this is trying to evade his dual Gravity Wells at the beginning of the fight, they can usually be avoided by slide down the wall in the right spot at the right time.To pull this off, as the Wells are making their last bounce to the wall you are standing near or are on, stay in the middle of the wall, as the Wells will hi the top and bottom area. His charge attack is simple to evade, just dash-jump over him at the right time, or air-dash if you have the leg upgrade. I would not recommend dashing under him when he is leaping towards you, his jump is small and it is hard to dash at the right time to avoid damage. When he gets to low enough health and shoots up the charged Gravity Well, the fight actually gets easier. He will continue to spam his easy-to-dodge charge attack, and with his higher jump, it is easier to avoid. If you have the leg up grade, air-dash over him when he charges, otherwise, simply dash under him when he jumps and jump off the wall and over him when he charges.

Quarry: Tunnel Rhino
Start by going right but keeping an eye on the Ganseki Carrier's holding boulders, either go before them and left the bould drop before defeating them, or dash quickly to avoid the falling boulder, then finish them off. Down in the quarry, you'll meet a Drill Waying blocking your way and a Iwan De Voux, then climbing upwards with another Iwan bouncing around and a room to your right, which contains an odd-looking boulder guarding the heart tank. A powered up Triad Thunder blast is needed to blow the boulder away. Continuing through the level, you'll come across machines dropping that shoot down brown soot, getting caught in these drags you down with them, and they are ususally placed as an annoyance or above a spike pit, caution is needed. After transversing conveyer belts towards the top of the section, you'll start heading down again, with two Wall Cancer's on either side, however there is a sub-tank in the upper-right corner, to which a dash-jump is needed to get to. Fall down the pit, passing a weapon energy capsule, and enter the sub-boss doors.

After the doors, you'll soon come across a Drimole-W, simply jump over it's drills and shoot to avoid damage. Up the small shaft is a Dill Waying guarding a large life capsule on the left, and move forward to the right you will begin to encounter falling and rolling boulders, caution is needed with these as they deal a great amount of damage. Continuing upwards past more boulders, you will come across another odd-looking boulder guarding a path on the left. A charged Triad Thunder will reveal the way to the Helment Capsule. Going right will uncover a boulder rolling and falling down a shaft, this time however, follow after the boulder but slide down the wall, as the boulder drops into a bottomless pit eventually, right next to the mini-boss door, where you will fight Hell Crusher.

The simple strategy to deal with him is to jump at the right time and climb the wall as he charges, and as you fall upon him hitting it, turn around and blast his body a few times before climbing back up. If you are too close to him, he will simply send an arm of this forward, almost hitting the wall. Climbing up the wall early and staying them will make him stick an arm into the ceiling, raising the vulnerable part off his carrier, and sticking the other arm forward, and having the carrier charge the wall, knocking you down. This attack is VERY difficult to avoid. Taking a hit and standing behind him is unwise, as he will back up and damage you, and park there while you take hits. Overall this, mini-boss can be simple if you are slow and steady with you shots and wall climbing, beware though, he hits for a large amount of damage.

After Hell Crusher, the last leg of the level will have sets of a few familiar enemies. After going up a ladder though, you will encounter a difficult scenario will a few Wall Cancer's on the walls, with a wide gap in between them. The Wall Cancer's are difficult to hit if they are right above you, but not impossible, the hard part is avoiding their energy shots, especially the charged ones, as they hurt for quite a bit. If you are having trouble, Zero is good to call here to take them out while taking a few hits. If you get really stuck, you can take a hit and climb past the enemies in your invincibility period. Finally, continue past a few more enemies and up a couple ladders and you will reach the boss doors.

Tunnel Rhino
Tunnel Rhino does not have many attacks. His main move is to dash across the screen into the wall, knocking you off. His other move is to use Tornado Fang, creating three drills that fire across the bottom of the screen, followed by him charging right behind them. Occasionally, but not very often, in the middle of his dash he will stop, then turn around and dash the other way. He may do this several times even, before charging into a wall. When his health it low, he will dash across the screen, but shine a rainbow color of invincibility, and only faster now. After doing his invincibly dash, he will likely use Tornado Fang immediately afterwards.

This isn't very hard of a fight at all, it just requires patience and correct timing. To start with, fight will consist of a lot of wall climbing, so make sure to stay on either side of the screen. When you enter, he will start by dashing into the wall, simply dash-jump over him to the other side, turn around, and pop him a few times. If he stops in the middle of his dash, you may have already dash-jumped over him in anticipation of him hitting the wall, this is tricky, as you will need to react quickly, by turning around to the wall you jumped off from and climbing back up it, and stay there until he makes his decision. The only difficult part is when he fires Tornado Fang, you need to time your dash-jump right to dash when they hit the wall, and over Tunnel Rhino. There is no change in strategy even when his health declines and he being his invincible dashing, the only change is timing your shots differently.

Safari Park: Neon Tiger
This is a long and large level with a variety of baddies. Start making your way forward, avoiding the obvious traps, and ignoring the Tombort's flying overhead, they can't hurt you. When you start coming across Wild Tank's and a wall, you'll need to climb upwards, and face a Hamma Hamma while standing in an aclove. They take many shots to take down, but if you can get behind them, they are vulnerable. After the first one is dead, jump on top of the Tombort to nab the sub-tank above the aclove, or use the leg upgrade to dash upwards to get to it. Continue left across the platforms and through more Hamma Hamma's and up a the ladder. Going right once more, will be Caterkiller's and some Drill Waying's to slow you down. Eventually you will come to a ladder in the floor leading downwards, and a cracked wall to the right, if you have Tornado Fang, use it on this wall to blow through it. Here is another wide open area with a tall ledge, the leg upgrade is needed to reach the ledge, where upon you'll discover the Arm Capsule. Go back to the ladder and fall to the floor below to reach the mini-boss, Worm Seeker-R.

Worm Seeker-R is a very weak mini-boss, he simply comes out of the ceiling or ground, lets go two bouncy pods that can easily be destroyed, and can be destoryed in a handful of buster blasts. Just aim for the head, use Frost Shield or Triad Thunder to speed up the process.

Continuing on, there will be a ride armor platform on top of a ladder, which calling a ride armor is recommended for this section of the level, to make taking out enemies like Hamma Hamma's and Meta Capsule's easier. Going right you will encounter numerous amounts of the aforementioned enemies, the buster upgrade, if aquired, will make things easier, and a ride armor makes this part a breeze. Eventually you will meet the sub-boss door.

Head down the ladder and slide down the right side of a pit to avoid hitting the spines (not spikes) below, these won't kill you but will inflict damage. To the right is their creator, an Atareeter, a simple to avoid enemy, but will cause you a nice chunk of damage if you are bitten by getting too close to it. After a few more of these, you'll begin decending again, but find one last Tombort. Hop on him and take a ride to the right, and dash-jump over to find the heart tank for this level. Drop down and the boss doors await you.

Neon Tiger
He's fast, but not too fast. The key to making this fight easy is knowing his attack patterns. Commonly, he will be on one side of the screen while he fires Ray Splasher at you. Shooting him when he is not attacking will make him put up his claws, deflecting any shot from reaching him. He jumps around the room a lot, but also in a pattern, from his starting position, he'll jump on the wall above you, then either attack with Ray Splasher from up there, bounce down to the position he was just at, or swoop down and swipe you with his claws. When he is low on health, he will very frequently put up his claws as if to deflect a shot, only to grow his claws more and glow orange, charging across the bottom of the screen, and up the wall behind you. It is crucial you dodge this attack, as it will drop your health by a large amount.

As stated before, what makes this battle not as hard is knowing his pattern. When he is on the ground and idle, simply don't fire. When he starts to use Ray Splasher, fire. The pattern to his Ray Splasher is in five shots, it goes up, down, middle, up, down, and as long as you stay against the wall, you only need to jump for the middle (third) shot, otherwise you can unload on him with yellow shots. When he jumps above you, stand still and read his pattern. If he jumps away, down to his original position, hold your ground and prepare to attack again, if he pauses up there, dash away, as he is either about to use Ray Splasher or swoop down and tear a chunk off of your health meter. If you keep calm and read his patterns enough to get him low on health, he will start using his orange charge attack almost consistantly, thankfully there is enough time to notice this and evade. As soon as he puts his claws up, he is preparing the attack, simply climb the wall behind you and dash-jump over him as he dashes across the bottom, then turn around and shoot more yellow pellets into him as he is cooling down. It is very likely he may do this many times in a row, but again, it is easy to read and evade. It is very possibly to not get hit in this fight.

Secret Stage: Maverick Factory: Vile MK II
After the defeat of two of the eight bosses, Vile's stage can be accessed from a teleporter hidden in the stages of Blizzard Buffalo (in a pit), Crush Crawfish (in a secret passage) and Volt Catfish (in a lift that only works if Vile is present).

Doppler's Lab
Depending on what combination of Bit, Byte, and Vile have been defeated before all eight Mavericks of Mega Man X3 have been defeated, and if Zero is available, the bosses and mini-bosses in Dr. Doppler's fortress will differ.

Part 1: Waste Disposal Area
Walk until the sub-boss room. REX-2000 appears regardless of what bosses have been previously defeated. If Zero is still alive, he will tone down the difficulty of this fight substantially - he'll prevent X from being crushed by the ceiling, as long as he stays on the ground.

The REX-2000 is quite harmless. It will fire shots at you and small homing missiles, but they deal negligible damage. Repeated uncharged shots will destroy it promptly. If Zero is not alive, the ceiling will impose a time limit on the fight by descending on the arena with spikes.

After this, take the Ride Armor and go to the Hidden Capsule Item.

There are two different bosses:


 * Godkarmachine O Inary appears when either Bit, Byte, or both are still alive. Bit and Byte will merge into one robot, and it is very well-armed. It can fire its fists at X and they will grab him and toss him around: This is nearly unavoidable without the air-dash. Godkarmachine O Inary may also use a pink beam sabre to slash at X. This attack also produces a forward projectile that splits into an upward and downward shot when hit hits the wall.


 * Press Disposer appears when Bit and Byte are both destroyed. It resembles an elephant that hangs onto the top-right part of the screen. A converyor belt scrolls enemy robots onto the screen, and then destroys them when they reach the right side of the screen.

The Press Disposer will grab X with a claw, dealling a lot of damage. It will use several other attacks with its "trunk", but when it is destroyed, damaging acid will fill the bottom part of the screen. Aim for the head above the trunk instead.

Part 2: Main Water Tanks/Broken Water Tanks
Mosquitus

There are two different bosses:
 * Vile appears if he wasn't defeated.
 * Volt Kurageil appears if Vile was defeated.

Part 3: Cyberspace Labs/Teleporters
Transporters with the eight bosses and Dr. Doppler.

Final Part: Underground Hanger
The final boss, Sigma.