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 Chimera 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 Hawk ride armor, heart tank, defeat. (18 of 20)
 * 10. Toxic Seahorse: Acquire heart tank, Kangaroo 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.

Armory: Blast Hornet
Straight forward will be a few Notor Banger's and a slow lift. As it rises, Head Gunner's will be on either side of the lift stand on ledges, they can be seen early and taken out with ease. Once at the top, a short ways over will show a shaft leading up to a ride armor platform, which is needed to access a secret almost immediately. Right further will take you to a large pit, if you have a ride armor, you can dash jump across it to clear it, and end up on the other side, where the Helmet Super Capsule will be hidden away. Jumping down into the pit is a series of conveyer belts and Notor Bangers. Fall down twice, and in the third hole, fall to the left, avoid a bottomless pit below, and instead landing a platform with a large life capsule. Going right will lead to the mini-boss doors to fight Shurikein.

This is more annoying than it is hard, however if you have Acid Burst you can defeat it in only a few shots. You will have to start by climbing on a wall and staying up there until it stops moving, then coming down and shooting it as fast as possible. When it starts spining very fast, climb the wall and wait for it to move, at which point a dash-jump is needed to avoid it as it goes up the wall and ceiling. Begin blasting it again when it comes to its original spot, then climb the walls again when it starts moving once more. This is the pattern to defeat it, it's long and annoying, but following this method will make for minimal damage done unto you.

Follow the hall to come to an outside area with buildings to climb. There are numerous amounts of Notor Banger's and Helit's, both of which can be made far less of a nuisance with Gravity Well. On the second bridge between the second and third hanger are boxes that may be blown up, taking you to a path below. To the left, Tornado Fang is needed to take out the wall, followed by another box to destory. Jump down the long pit, to discover a ride armor being "held captive" by a Hangerter. Shoot it a few times and claim your prize of the Chimera Ride Armor, which now gives you the ability to use other ride armors (this one must be freed first before you are allowed to use the ride armor platforms at all). Take the machine up the other end of the shaft and up the platform, punch your way through the walls to return and pass the point you came from. Keep heading forward into a very open outside area, where, if Gravity Beetle is not defeated, you will come across a Doppler airship, which will have Carry Arm's dropping off cargo on a platform. Once they put two on the platform, a Meta Capsule will appear and shoot at you. Simply blow up the crates (destorying the Carry Arm carrying it yields no bonus) for a dozen or so times, before this ship packs up and flies away. Ship or no, you'll reach this end of the outside area to the next building, but if you have the leg upgrade, you can upward dash to catch the first ledge, or with the ride armor, jump with it then jump out to grab the ledge, and climb above to a small path to find the heart tank. Fall back down and go to through the sub-boss doors.

Past theses there is another pit with more conveyer belts, when you reach the last one with spikes on the right of it, drop down and fall to the right to avoid a bottomless pit again. Keep going right to fight Head Gunner's and stacks of crates, which when destoryed, will start periodically dropping crates from above, so time accordingly when to dash to avoid them. At the end, the boss doors await you.

Blast Hornet
This is quite a challenge without Gravity Well. He will start by flying around the room in a set pattern, then produce his stinger, and swoop down and try to nail you, and finally move up into a corner while facing you, and fire off a line of bees, which will stick to you and cause reoccuring damage for a short while. He will repeat only this pattern until half health, wherein he will speed up and change his flight pattern slightly, and charge his Parasitic Bomb to a pink reticle to home in on you, can call upon more bees to follow you until they stick to X, or are destoryed.

Blast Hornet my not have many attacks, but they are effective, such as trying to avoid one attack and end up being hit by Blast Hornet himself. You will need to climb the walls frequently in order to hit him with buster shots and to destory his bees. If timed right, you can have a charged shot ready from the opposite side of the room and on the wall, and fire it as he is launching his bees out, and destroy them all in one shot, and hitting Blast Hornet. You can even follow him to his side of the room after he tries to sting you, and stand right against the wall under him, which will make him turn around (to face you) and launch bees into the wall. The first part of this fight isn't too bad if you can lure his bees away correctly. The second half is where it gets complicated with trying to avoid being hit by him, and shooting down his bees when you get targeted. When he starts flying away, climb the wall and shoot him a few times, time it correctly and you can shoot the bees he creates around him, then shoot the bees whe they fly towards you to avoid them landing on X.

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.

Giant Dam: Toxic Seahorse
To begin this level you will be faced immediately with two Victoroids (of which will not be seen again until the final stage), then the path will take you down into the sewers, past two Notor Bangers and to a large sewer pit with a path leading upwards in which sewer water is streaming down from. Make you ascent upwards, wary of Earth Commanders and Notor Bangers on your climb. Upon reaching the top, you can venture forth into the level or keep climbing the left side of the screen to a small area with the heart tank. Resume making your way further into the level, where the sub-boss doors will be found promptly.

Past the doors, there will be a pit leading down into the water and a path leading right leading to a ride armor platform. Ride armors will not work underwater except for the Frog ride armor, the others will be destoryed moments after entering the water with them, also the Frog ride armor is needed to access a secret. Fall into the water, where upon you'll meet the Mine Tortoises which are the only underwater reploids in the game, and are great in number in this area. If you have the Frog ride armor, it will change the way it operates underwater, such as shooting minature homing torpedos and holding A during a jump to activate the propellers on its back for a small boost forward. After crossing the first pit, there is a secret right above its location, which requires the arm upgrade and Frost Shield. Stand next to the pit and charge Frost Shield and release at it's full charge, which will produce a large glacier of ice instead of a shield, and begin to rise. Jump on it and ride it to the top of the water to discover a platform with the Kangaroo Ride Armor. Now there are two ways to access the secret to the far right and top of this area. The proper way is to jump back down into the water and remount the Frog armor, taking it to the right (which will become more difficult the further you go), and destorying the fans producing the gust of water pushing you away, allowing you to dismount and climb beyond them to a landing on top, revealing the Leg Super Capsule. The other way to access the super capsule, in case the Frog ride armor is not aquired yet, is to, from the Kangaroo ride armor, jump onto the water surface, but rapidly tapping the jump button, making X hop on top of the water, of which will allow you to jump across to the landing with the super capsule. Either way, after claiming your prize(s), decend to the lowest point of the water, which is covered in rocks. Keep heading right to encounter the mini-boss doors to Hotareeca.

Hotareeca is pathetically easy, it is weak to Triad Thunder, but is not needed, as Hotareeca will go down in around a dozen or so buster shots.

Beyond the doors, the water will drain down, and you will once again have to climb to the top, but with only one Caterkiller to annoy you. At the top will be an outside area and a nice view of the dam, and a few Head Gunners to slow you down. At the end will be a path down with a spike pit and another Head Gunner, guarding the ladder down to the boss doors.

Toxic Seahorse
He may seem wild at first, but Toxic Seahorse does not pose much of a theat. He makes large leaps that span across the room to try and land on X's position, one to three times in a row, and shoot an Acid Burst, which will travel slowly upward and bounce between the walls a few times before evaporating. Occasionally, he will glow to a white outline, form into a liquid state, and sink into the ground, diappearing for a moment, and reappear from the ground where X is standing. When he is deforming and reforming with the white outline surrounding him, he is invincible during this time. At lower health, he will release a charged version of Acid Burst, which causes more damage and follows X on the ground, moving faster and bouncing several times before evaporating.

Toxic Seahorse will start the battle by jumping onto your position, perhaps twice or three times, then release a slow moving Acid Burst. This is is main pattern, and is rather simple to handle. When he jumps, you dash; when he fires an Acid Burst, you can destroy it with normal buster shots. There's not much of a need to climb the walls, especially since he is a high jumper and can reach you even at the top of the wall. The only time when to climb a wall, is when he disappears into the ground, which you will need to evade his reforming beneath X by staying on a wall, letting him start to reform beneath you, and dash-jumping over him to reenagage. When he is at low health you will need to take a distance from him after his second leap to allow yourself enough time to blast away the charged Acid Bursts, however they can be avoided completely by wall climbing, although this leaves you open to being hit by a jump from Toxic Seahorse, as the Acid Bursts will bounce below you for several seconds before disappearing. The most annoying part to this fight is the charged Acid Bursts, as you will likely take a hit or two from them before they evaporate or you eliminate them.

Power Control Center: Volt Catfish
Begin by going forward and meeting two enemies that are found often and throughout the entire level, Trapper's and Crablaster's, the former of which is invincible. You will quickly come across a platform above a spiked gap in the floor, which will begin taking X downwards once stepping on it, to a Vile capsule, if Vile has been previously defeated, the platform will not move. Keep going right to reach a lift to take X upwards. Going up the shaft will be two acloves on the left side with Head Gunner's guarding large life capsules. Once off the lift, continue left past more enemies, up a small shaft, and right again to another lift, this time with spikes on the sides. Halfway up will be the path to continue throught the level, however, riding the lift past this to the top will reveal a small room with spikes and the heart tank. It can be aquired by either a well-time dash jump from sliding down the left wall, or more easily with the leg upgrade. Go back to the first exit halfway up the shaft, and repeat the process after the previous lift, by going left, defeating enemies such as Wall Cancer's and Meta Capsule's, up, and then right to yet another lift. This lift has two exits as well, the first leads to the rest of the level, and the upper exit leads to a secret, however, Gravity Well and the arm upgrade is needed to acquire it. Once on top, set onto the structure in the next shaft, and fire a charged Gravity Well to be taken upwards, uncovering the Body Capsule. Continuing on with the level, will take you to a bridge outside with Earth Commander's and more Crablaster's, and into the next building, starting with the sub-boss doors.

Proceed forward a bit to come to paths leading up and downwards, with electrical fields on the walls. If you have the ride armors unlocked, climb upwards to find an area with a ride armor platform. Select and hop in any ride armor, and fall down where you came from, all the way down, whereupon the floor will break, taking you down further to a secret area, with a few more enemies, come power-ups, and a sub-tank. Climb up and out (leaving the armor behind) and take the first path you see. The pathway is narrow and lined with Crablaster's, and later widens out with more Trapper's and Caterkiller's going downwards several times. At the bottom begins another path heading up lined with more electric traps, followed by more Head Gunner's and a final long shaft leading downwards to the bottom of the level, where the boss doors lie in wait.

Volt Catfish
As implied, Volt Catfish is a powerful, however he is remarkably agile as well. He can jump across the room in a single and quick leap, landing on X before having time to react. Upon landing, he will immediately either jump again, or send out a large energy ball, following along the ground and then up the wall. He will do this a time or two before calling out a Triad Thunder, sending out a cone of three energy balls, charging them, and drawing them back in. When his health is low, he will jump to the center of the room, call down electricity, and set up invincible barriers on either side of him, while sending out sparks from above his head to fly and rain down randomly across the screen for several seconds, ending with charging to the wall of whichever side X is on. This is nigh on impossible to avoid damage from, and makes the fight drag out longer due to Volt Catfish being invincible during the attack, and the limit vulnerable time when he uses it again.

Without his weakness Tornado Fang, this could turn into a fight of taking a significant amount of damage. His very first move upon entering will be to jump on top of X, avoid by dashing out from under him, the room is too small and Volt Catfish is too large to try jumping over him. A very quick reaction time is needed to read what his next attack is, it is almost impossible to tell, so you may need think fast on what do you when he is executing his attack. His Triad Thunder move is incredibly difficult to avoid unscathed, it can either be avoided by climbing the wall when you think he will use it, or, after taking the initial hit, climbing the wall above where it is or climb the wall above Volt Catfish, and dash-jumping off as he is sucking the orbs back in. When he jumps to the center of the room and becomes invincible, there's nothing you can do to damage him, you can only climb one of the walls and stay in the top corner, take the hits that follow, and wait it out until he drops his shield, which then you have to chance to blast him more. If you do not have Tornado Fang, you may certainly need to be able to take a lot of hits, and a sub-tank certainly doesn't hurt.

Shipyard: Crush Crawfish
You will start off on a ledge, seemingly next to a bottomless pit, falling down however, will land you on the platform below. If you have the arm upgrade and Triad Thunder, go to the right, blasting away the Helit's, and stand on the grey platform right after the small wall you must climb over. Charge up Triad Thunder and release to blow away the small section of the floor, dropping down to a small area with the Hawk Ride Armor. Climb back up and go to the left now, past where you fell, to a ride armor platform. Summon any armor except the Frog ride armor, and head back to the right all the way. You'll come to a platform where a Hamma Hamma drops and breaks through the floors. Dash jump to the other side with the ride armor, and fall past two platforms on the right side. After the second broken platform, on the right side will be a cracked wall, blast through it with the ride armor to find a heart tank. Drop below once more and deal with the Hamma Hamma that broke the floors. Immediately you will come to a pit, but with a different backround surrounding it. Drop down the pit, and use the ride armor to blow open the cracked wall here as well to discover the Body Super Capsule. Beyond the pit is an actual bottomless pit and the mid-boss doors.

Keep going to encounter Walk Blasters, and a ledge above a platform with a large energy capsule underneath, but beware, it is a trap to fall through the middle of the floor, dropping you to a Vile capsule. If Vile has been defeated however, the floor will be solid, leaving you to get the life energy. To the right further are ladders leading downwards, which will take you to a submarine. There are a few Hamma Hamma's as guards on top of the ship, the second one will destory the floor below it, granting you access to the inside of the submarine. This is a very large room with conveyer belts as the platforms and Helit's trying to shoot you off. In the top-right corner is a wall that can be destroyed with Tornado Fang to access two extra lives. The bottom-right of the room is your goal to the next room. Shoot the generator to cause an explosion, tiling the room on it's side 90 degrees, making the rest of the level somewhat difficult to climb without the leg upgrade. There are Wall Cancer's in this last leg to annoy you on your way up to the top, which is where the boss door lies.

Crush Crawfish
The key to this fight is to stay as far away from Crush Crawfish as possible, which may prove difficult. If you are on the ground, he will dash towards you in an attempt to grab you with his claws and lock you in a pincher-like postion, making X unable to move and take several hits; this is the main attack to avoid. If you are on the walls, he will launch a claw to the top of the corner of the wall you are on. If this is evaded with you still on the wall, he will send little critters that will knock X off the wall, and send his claw either to the top corner again, and straight ahead, depending on your postion. When he is low on health, his dash will become faster, and he will dash backwards, but other than that, there is no change.

This fight isn't too terribly difficult overall, just the right strategy is needed. The key is, to always stay on the walls, and you will be nigh invulnerable. If you are high enough and in the top corner on a wall, when he sends up his critters to drop you, you should be right about the ground by the time he sends his claw out, which will always read you as being on the wall, therefor, launching his claw into the top corner, at which point you may begin climbing the wall again. This pattern can be repeated throughout the entire fight, and X remain untouched.

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.

Nightmare Police: Bit and Byte
Upon defeating any two bosses, Dr. Doppler will, along with Vile, send out Bit and Byte to dispatch X. They may be encountered randomly in the sub-boss doors in each level. They can be defeated normally, but unless they are defeated using the weapon they are weak against, they will retreat and reappear in the first stage of the Doppler's Lab as the Godkarmachine O Inary, even if one or the other is defeated.

Bit
Bit is fast, annoying, and is capable of tearing down X's life gauge with ease. His attacks are limited but effective, he will start off by either throwing a ring across the room, which will bounce back and forth a few times before it disappears, in an effort to grab and freeze you, leaving you open to one free attack by Bit, or will launch a homing fireball at you, which will circle around a few times before going off the screen. Bit's primary attack is jumping to the elevation of X's position, then producing a pink shield which he uses to charge across the screen with. When he is low on health, he will either start launching two rings, or two fireballs at once to home in on you, making it even mroe difficult to dodge.

Having a filled sub-tank or two helps in this fight as a back-up, especially if you are fighting him without Frost Shield. What makes this fight hard is avoiding two attacks at once, and later, three. Bit will always start with either a fireball or a ring. If it's the fireball, you have to move around with jumping until Bit jumps to your elevation and begins his dash, while you can then evade anywhere to avoid the fireball. If it's a ring, it will fly across the room, drop, and hover along the ground for a little bit before fading away, in which case you have to maneuver on the walls and in the air around Bit, which is where the leg upgrade comes in handy if you have aquired it before this fight. When he is low on health and firing off two fireballs and dashing into you, evading even harder, in which case you may have to take some hits and try to finish off Bit even faster, dodging the two rings isn't as hard as the two fireballs, stick with the same strategy as if there was one. Having a decent size life guage or the armor upgrade will help out immensely, as often there is practically no way to avoid taking damage. Finish him off with Frost Shield if you have it to make sure he never comes back.

Byte
With Bit being fast and annoying, Byte is slow and strong, and still annoying, which can make for a very difficult fight. Byte only has one pattern that he uses over and over again, but it's effective enough that that is all that is needed for him. He will start his pattern by throwing an anti-gravity device against the opposite wall (pulling you towards him), and dash to run into you in an attempt you engage you in his combo, or missing you and charging into the wall, destroying his device. His combo consist of tossing you once into the air, hitting the ceiling, falling down to him and punching you again, and forward into the wall. This combo hits for four times, and is very difficult to break. His combo will be done unto you every time you come in contact with Byte, not just when he is dashing toward you with the anti-gravity device present.

Byte hurts, a lot, therefor it is hopeful that you have collected most of the heart tanks, the body upgrade, and some reserve power stored in your sub-tanks. The leg upgrade makes evasion much easier as well. When he throws his anti-gravity device, you will not move if standing on the ground, but you will need to immediately climb the wall, which will quickly become difficult as the device gains more power, pushing you away and towards Byte, thus making evasion difficult. What is needed is a dash-jump off the wall at the correct time as he starts to charge, propelling you over Byte. This is easier with the leg upgrade, as you only need to jump, then air-dash over Byte. If you are caught in his combo, you can escape before or after the second hit when you are in the air, with an air-dash from the leg upgrade. If you are able to escape his combo, he will keep spinning his arm though, waiting to come in contact with you again. After escaping or being hit by his combo, immediately evasion is needed to evade his charge and avoid re-entering his combo. The ideal way to defeat him is to fire off Tornado Fang, his weakness, climb up the wall around twice (three times if possible without the leg upgrade), and dash over him as he charges, then turn around and fire Tornado Fang again and repeat. With the leg upgrade and proper timing of learning when to jump over him, this should be a hard fight, otherwise if you are having problems, a sub-tank may certainly be needed.

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).

X will be transported to a warehouse, cut off from contact with Zero. There are various enemies to be encountered here, and a lift, that if Volt Catfish is defeated, power will have been restored to, otherwise it is out of order, and you must climb the walls with falling debris. Up the walls however, are large energy capsules. Push forward to come to the boss doors.

Vile
As in X1, he is in a ride armor, this time a modified version of the Kangaroo armor. He will simply dash to your location and give a single punch. If you are on a wall, he will punch the fall, forcing X to drop down. After his armor is defeated, he will dismount his ride armor as it detonates and refill his life gauge, and now fight him one-on-one. His attacks are limited two only two attacks, he will either jump across the room and firing a firebomb onto X's location, which then turns into a moving column of flame traveling across the floor and up a wall, followed by him rising into a corner and shooting six bullets towards X's location at the time of each bullet's release, and finally dropping back to the ground. Note that to permanently put him down AND gain access to Zero's Z-Saber later, the final blow must be with either Ray Splasher or Spinning Blade.

Vile is not very difficult, especially with the body upgrade, which then his attacks inflict pitiful damage upon X. The first half of the battle with the ride armor is easy enough, with dash-jumping off the walls, turning around and shooting, then climbing the wall and dash-jumping again, and repeat until his armor is defeated. If you fall and Vile keeps chasing after you and harassing you with punches, remain calm and climb the wall and resume dash-jumping over him. The fight gets a little more difficult in the one-on-one fight, but Vile's attacks are still simple enough to dodge. For the fire attack, simply dash where Vile was standing, and jump over the column of fire (X's regular jump can clear it), and climb to the top of the nearby wall and hang there until Vile begins firing his bullets, at which point, simply slide down and move forward on the ground slightly to dodge all shots. If you fight Vile towards the end of the game, this should be an easy fight, especially with a large life gauge and armor upgrade, just make sure to finish him with either Ray Splasher or Spinning Blade.

Once Vile is defeated, the boss door on the opposite side of where you came in will blow, leading to an exit from the warehouse, which will begin a countdown to detonation once you begin leaving. There is only 50 seconds, so there is no time to fight enemies, just run. The Drill Waying's at the bottom will attempt to slow you down, blast through them with Triad Thunder or Frost Shield to take them out in one hit. There is another elevator here, take it if possible to get to the top sooner. The final stretch will have collapsing floors, there's nothing at the bottom if you fall, but it will slow your escape even more. The final collapsing floor is gone halfway across, make a dash-jump on the final piece of floor to reach the other side, and run to the capsule at the end to escape. After escaping, you will be teleported to the last checkpoint of the level you were playing

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.