Mega Man X3 Guide > Walkthrough > Neon Tiger

I hope you like My Michelle by Guns N' Roses, because that's the background music for this stage. Neon Tiger is the second from the lower right on the map. Let's get to it.

Tombort

Tomborts are actually harmless as long as you don't shoot. You can even climb on top of them and use them as floating platforms. If you press the shoot button while they're moving, they'll shoot three projectiles. It's weak to the spinning blade, and will drop to the ground and explode if hit with one. Save the spinning blade for the boss, though. Tombort is another enemy that will always drop health if destroyed with the Frost Shield or weapon energy if destroyed with the Acid Burst. This is a great stage to build up your sub tanks for that reason.

Head through this little structure. There's a shortcut here if you want to take advantage of it. Air dash straight up to get to a ledge with some life on it, then wait for the Hamma Hamma to stop attacking and head up to the ladder. You don't want to do that this time, though. There's something to collect.

Wild Tank

This thing has a spike that it can throw at you like a javelin. That's it. They're weak and predictable.

Head right and climb up. Destroy the Hamma Hamma from a distance without hurting the Tombort.

Sub Tank

Jump on the Tombort and then jump up to the right. There's your sub tank.

Head left across the platforms, destroying Hamma Hammas. If you fall down, feel free to use the shortcut I mentioned. Go up the ladder and to the right, dealing with the familiar enemies. Go all the way to the right, like you've just been dumped by Bizarro Beyonce.

Arm Parts

Use the Tornado Fang on the cracked wall. Dash jump across, because there are spikes directly below. Use the leg upgrade's upward air dash to reach the platform with the upgrade capsule. This upgrade to your X Buster will let you charge Maverick weapons for special effects. It also adds new features to your regular X Buster. When you have a purple aura, let go to shoot a new type of shot that will break apart and spread out when it hits an enemy. You'll also have a small charged shot stored, the way Zero stores charged shots. Hold the button until you're red to replace the small charged shot with a large one. Fire the large charged shot at the new type of charged shot and they'll combine into a powerful large shot surrounded by four smaller shots that spread apart and sweep across the screen. This takes some getting used to, but it's pretty handy. Go back to the ladder.

Head down the ladder. Try to grab the health if you want it, or just drop down to the floor. Go through the door to fight a miniboss.

Worm Seeker-R

This thing will dig into the ground and pop out in a different spot, dropping bouncing bombs when it does. The bombs can be destroyed with your weapons. It will always emerge from the same surface it dug into. (If it digs into the floor, it will come out of the floor, for example.) Its only weak point is its head. It takes extra damage from the Triad Thunder or Frost Shield.

Head through the door, over the pit, and up the ladder. There's a platform for summoning Ride Armor to the left. Use it if you can/want to. Defeat the Hamma Hamma and Meta Capsules and continue. All the way to the right is the empty Nightmare Police room, so just go through it. Head right and down the ladder. Drop past the Meta Capsule and hold to the right so you don't touch the spikes. These particular spikes won't one-shot you but it's best to avoid them anyway. They were made by a new enemy.

Atareeter

These basic enemies just move forward, chomping on the ground. Any ground they pass over will be covered in spikes. They take a moderate amount of damage to go down. Kill them quickly. Keep going right. Farm the Tombort for health if you want.

Heart Tank

Before entering the boss room, dash jump or air dash to the wall above it. Climb up and grab the heart tank. You might need it.

Neon Tiger

This guy is fast! And he's got those claws.

The Hard Way

A lot of people say that Neon Tiger is a tough boss, but I think it's pretty easy to trap him in a pattern. He can block your charged shots, so only use them while he's doing something else. He won't block your regular, uncharged shots. If he starts to glow, he's going to dash across the room and slash at you. He'll follow this dash with a jumping slash, so don't be on the wall above him.. Wall jump over him when he does this. He can stand back and shoot a spray of bullets erratically. These actually always travel in a specific pattern, and most of them will miss you if you stand still. Stand on the ground and just hop over the ones that travel straight ahead. He can grab the wall and hang there, shooting at you, or he'll either drop down or leap back across the room. It's possible to trap him in a pattern where he'll leap up to the wall, you dash under him, he'll leap back, you retreat and turn and hit him with a charged shot as he lands. From here he'll probably either leap again or do his easy-to-avoid spray attack. The trick is dashing to lure him down from the wall.

The Easy Way

He's really easy to hit with a Spinning Blade when he jumps or climbs. He'll always jump to a wall after getting hit with the Spinning Blades, so it's even easier to trap him in this pattern.

Ray Splasher

This sends a spray of bullets out ahead of you. This weapon continues to fire for a few moments, so you can hit the shoot button and just let it do its thing while you move around. Charge it up to shoot out an orb that fires shots in all directions. It's not very useful.

What's Next?

You have a lot of backtracking to do if you waited until now to get the arm parts. If you haven't already, head to the Toxic Searhorse stage (for the Kangaroo Ride Armor), Tunnel Rhino stage (for the head parts and Heart Tank), and Crush Crawfish stage (for the Hawk Ride Armor).

NEXT: Gravity Beetle