Mega Man X2 Guide > Walkthrough > Intro Stage

Right away, you'll start in front of an enemy. It's called a Cannon Driver, but this one has seen better days, so we'll wait until we find a normal one to go into details. For this one, just hop over its cannon balls when it fires them and shoot it until it explodes.

If you've played the first Mega Man X, you'll be pleased to find that X starts with the ability to dash this time, and you won't have to go hunting for the leg upgrade to use it. For the uninitiated, dashing is one of the main things that sets Mega Man X apart from the original Mega Man series. You can press A (or a shoulder button, if you mapped it to one, which you definitely should have) to dash along the ground. If you jump while dashing, you'll move more quickly (and, as a result, farther) through the air than you do if you just jump while standing or running. If you shoot a regular shot while dashing, it will do twice as much damage as a it otherwise would, for two points of damage instead of one. Dashing is an important skill to master, so why not try it out and dash to the right? You'll meet a pretty harmless new enemy.

Bar Waying

All this thing really does is get in the way. It doesn't even really damage you if you touch it. Still, you'll have to destroy it if you want to proceed. They pose no threat at all in this stage. Shoot it 9 times to take it out and meet up with another new enemy.

Scriver

Scriver is a very basic enemy with very little HP and a simple movement pattern. It pretty much just hops. Take it out with two regular shots or one slightly charged shots.



Speaking of charged shots, let's learn about how they work. If you hold the Y button, you'll store energy in your X Buster to do a more powerful attack. You can tell how much energy you have by the aura around X and the sound it makes. A blue aura will do a small charged shot, which does 2 points of damage, or twice as much damage as the regular X Buster shots. A yellow aura will do a large charged shot, which does 4 points of damage. Regular enemies are best taken care of with a flurry of shots, if possible, since it takes more than four times as long to charge a shot than it does to fire four regular shots. However, bosses will be invincible for a little while after taking damage, so it's best to hit them with fewer, more powerful blasts.

Keep heading right past some more Bar Wayings (Bars Waying?) and Scrivers. You'll eventually run into your first flying enemy.

Scrambler

Scramblers float around and occasionally dive at X to smash into him. They're another very basic enemy. They only have three HP so take them out with one charged shot. Keep heading down these steps and deal with another Scrambler. Don't fall into the electrified debris at the bottom of the steps, you'll take damage.

You'll reach a conveyor belt with machines that build Scramblers. There's not much you can do here, besides avoid touching the pieces of the Scramblers as they move along. If you see one be completed, it will attack you. At the end of the conveyor belt is a device called a Mecha-Arm. These won't hurt you directly, but they will grab you and move you. This one will try to drop you into the electrified pit, forcing you to either take damage or learn about the wall grab.



This is another thing that sets the X series apart from the original Mega Man series. Hold the dpad towards a wall while you're in the air and X will grab onto it and slowly slide down. You can shoot while grabbing a wall, as well as jump. Jumping away from a wall and back towards it will allow you to ascend. If you press the dash and jump buttons at the same time, you'll jump with the same properties as a regular dash jump, despite not actually dashing. Keep this in mind. It's very useful during a lot of bosses.

It's good that you know how to wall climb, because you'll need that skill now. First use it to reach the ladder, then use it again to climb the walls above before they close in and crush you to death. Make it to the top to find the source of this problem.

Slidame

These aren't very common. They pretty much just do what this one is doing now. They grab walls and pull them together. If you make it to the top and then ignore it, it will fly away. Feel free to destroy it for revenge/any items it might drop. Proceed.



Hey, robots. You look more intimidating than you are. Head down the hole to the right to reach the end of this stage.

Gigantic Mechanilod CF-0

But not before fighting a boss. Like I said, it looks tougher than it is. The spiked balls on its arms can hurt you, as can its feet (if you even go low enough to touch them) and its head. Its head is its weak point, and how weak it is. You can beat this guy with a few charged shots. Even if you don't go out of your way to avoid its attacks, you'll probably still survive if you just shoot a few charged shots at it. If you fall to the ground, use the ladders or just wall jump from the sides of the platforms to get back up to its head. Easy as pie.

What's Next

This is where the game opens up. You can fight the Mavericks in any order you choose. Each Maverick will give you a weapon and each Maverick is weak to one of those weapons. Some secrets can only be uncovered using these weapons. If you want to collect everything, you'll have to visit some stages multiple times. You can start anywhere you like. I like to start with Overdrive Ostrich. Let's visit him.

NEXT: Overdrive Ostrich