I pondered whether to even provide a walk-through, since this game is so linear that it is difficult to get stuck. Maps, I think, would be more valuable (since the in-game mapping system is rather lame), but at the moment, I haven’t time to create something that detailed. Still, I finally decided to go ahead and write a basic walk-through touching on some of the highlights of the game, for people who like to read my ramblings. 
For a discussion on the various Action Triggers and why they aren’t mentioned much here, see the separate commentary.
It should go without saying that this is not a spoiler-free walk-through. I’m going to be discussing the plot points and cut scenes (and posting screen shots of the same) where it suits my fancy. If you just want to know how to fight the bosses, skip down to here. You have been warned.
This outlines only the main plot path of the first play through the game. Secret areas and the “clear game save” extras are not covered.
Chapter 1: Infiltrating Giga City
X, Zero, and Shadow have been sent to some ruins to find a Maverick named Epsilon. Just inside, they are separated by a collapsing column. X heads out alone, and naturally, you have control of him.
Party Member Profile: X
“Here we go! Final Strike!”
- Not surprisingly, you have him from the beginning of the game. X is a well balanced character with acceptable stats, four slots open for Force Metals, and a decent main attack. Also, X can get many weapons which hit weaknesses to the various elements, although this is both an advantage and a drawback, since you cannot change weapons in the middle of a battle, so if you go into a battle with an enemy that absorbs the weapon you’ve got equipped, you’re kind of stuck. Still, when used wisely, X’s element weapons can do significant damage.
- Hyper Mode: X Fire
- This is X’s Ultimate Armor from Mega Man X4+ with increased LE and defenses. Also, his normal attack in this mode seems to be of type Fire (thus the name), regardless of what you have equipped on him (his Action Trigger, however, is not). X’s Action Trigger changes slightly when he’s in hyper form—you operate it in the same way, but instead of hitting multiple enemies, it is a multi-hit single-target attack that can do insane amounts of damage at 100%.
- Action Trigger: Charge Shot
- X’s Action Trigger is probably the best of the group, which I suppose is a good thing since he is the one who’s always in your party. His Action Trigger strikes all enemies, although often for lesser damage than a concentrated attack on one would do. However, at 100% WE he will get a guaranteed critical hit. Usually you’ll want to blow away all of your WE when you use this Action Trigger, but you have the option not to.
There is only one real path here, so it’s difficult to get lost. Check all of the doors along the way, however. You will find your way to a room full of Reploid production pods. So, uh, I guess Reploids are produced inside pods and then they leave the pod when completed, kind of like lizards hatching out of eggs...
Anyway, you eventually find another pod that has Epsilon’s name on it, but it says there was an error during production. Interesting.
In another room, X and Zero have to simultaneously open a door switch. This is a sort of minor mini-game. It’s interesting to watch them cooperate, however. When X leaves the room, he’s attacked by a guard. You gain Force Metal from this fight, and the game automatically opens the help screen for it.
Zero joins X on the fourth floor, and you immediately fight a boss battle. As should be expected, this boss is not all that difficult, being the first boss in the game. Notice you can target the missile on his back separately from the rest of him.
Party Member Profile: Zero
“Hardly a fight...”
- Zero is a melee character. His standard weapon is actually a two-hit combo, and the damage is calculated for each hit separately, which means he could miss with one and hit with the other, or get a critical strike with one hit but not the other, and so forth. Zero’s damage potential is pretty high, but he doesn’t have very good defense (how classic!) so you will need to compensate for that.
- Hyper Mode: Black Zero
- I’m not joking—they actually call it this. This seems to increase his attack and defense, but I’m not sure yet if it has other effects.
- Action Trigger: Command Arts
- You use controller button combinations to add moves to a combo. The more moves you can input in the allowed time, the more hits in the resulting combo. Not a bad Action Trigger if you’re good at the input.
Outside, the party encounters Epsilon. Shadow betrays them, but X and Zero do a double attack on Epsilon. However, a bunch of Epsilon’s buddies come and interfere, knocking Zero off the building and surrounding X. X aims at Shadow, saying he can’t forgive him, then fires at the floor of the roof and jumps off, falling down into the mists.
Bye bye Zero.
Chapter 2: Recapture Central Tower
X awakens in “New Hope” where some Reploids belonging to a “Resistance” (resistance to a rebellion—now I’ve seen everything) revive him. This is a town of sorts; you can talk to people and buy items, and rest, like an inn. You get attacked while walking around here.
Explore around until you get a cut scene where Colonel Redips tries to contact X. At the same time, the resident Reploids receive an alert about an intruder on the premises. I think that’s you. Even though the guys down below helped you to recover, you’re an intruder. And yet you can just wander out after the cut scene and talk to people and no one raises any alarms. Whatever.
Keep wandering until you end up outside, where X is attacked in a cut scene. A bounty hunter named Spider shows up to blow the guy up, then he attacks X because he wants to turn X in for a pretty penny. You can use Hyper Mode to take him down pretty easily, because Spider is weak against melee attacks during this battle.
Later, you meet Aile, a member of the Resistance. He talks without moving his mouth. Since X has decided to rescue Chief R, Aile pulls a gem off of his chest and hands it to X, saying it’s an ID that will get him into the governor’s areas. Then some enemies attack. Aile pushes X through the door and closes it, then blows himself up to defeat them. (Kind of a useless gesture; X could have defeated them by himself...)
In a cut scene, a tiger (Jango) offers Spider as much money as he wants if he defeats X. (Didn’t Spider already try that?) Meanwhile, X fights his way into a prison or something where he frees some Reploids who were trapped in there. One of the Reploids gives X a key to the Data Backup Room where Chief R is being held. (Uh, why do the good guys have the key to where the bad guys are holding their chief prisoner?)
When you reach the door where you need the ID, Spider attacks X again in a cut scene. But when Spider sees the ID that X was using, he changes his mind and gives the ID back to X, then runs off to fight some enemies that have shown up.
Through the door, you end up with a minor boss battle. This one seems to use electric attacks, so I hope you bought a Lightning barrier...
Humorously, when you rescue him, Chief R says, “Uh, thanks, but who are you?” Heh. Anyway, Jango contacts them via a monitor and has captured Spider and says he’s planted a bomb in the building. X is going to go diffuse it; the chief says he will guide him. You have limited time to get there. However, time spent in battle doesn’t seem to count.
After X turns off the auto-destruct sequence, he has to chase Jango to the roof. It’s right past the save spot. (Remember the location of this save spot; you’ll be using it a lot later.)
Outside, Jango and X have a little scuffle. (Boy, X can’t hang onto that ID.) Jango picks up the ID, but Spider attacks him, furious that he’d touch it. Spider joins the party just before the boss fight.
Boss: Wild Jango
Party Member Profile: Spider
“Good card, eh?”
- Spider’s initial equipment puts him as the game’s thief character, even though Marino is supposed to be the thief. Ah well. Spider uses long-ranged weaponry and most of his main weapons have interesting and useful side effects when he is at 75% WE, so I would recommend you try to keep his WE relatively high. WE-boosting Force Metals are quite useful for him. Also, Spider is one of the better Final Strike characters, because after a couple of seconds he will start doing a machine gun type rapid fire that can really rack up the hits.
- Hyper Mode: Trickstar
- Best Hyper Mode in the game (perhaps second to X’s), but Spider can only hold it for a couple of rounds. Spider turns translucent gray and cannot be harmed by any attack. The damage he deals out also seems to increase a bit, but the real benefit to using this is the invulnerability.
- Action Trigger: Fortune Card
- Worst Action Trigger in the game. That’s okay, though—Spider works better with high WE anyway. This attack draws a poker hand, but the damage seems to be minimal for many of the combinations that you can get, so it’s quite a gamble.
Chapter 3: The Paper Hero
So, for some reason, X decides to join the Resistance, as if he’s forgotten about being a Maverick Hunter. And who cares about searching for Zero anyway? I’m sure he’ll turn up...
X and Spider go to rescue some POWs. Just inside the prison, they meet up with a cowardly hero in green armor, Massimo, who joins.
Party Member Profile: Steel Massimo
“Kaboom!”
- Massimo begins the game pathetically weak, with average LE but no offensive or defensive strength to speak of. However, you should take note that he starts at level 1—and even at level 1, his LE is close to that of X at level 10 or so. So you should start to see that Massimo will kick the other party members’ tails once he matches them in level. And he does in terms of his maximum LE, which shoots past that of the other characters quickly. He also has a strong attack which can be boosted significantly with a Power Charge. Massimo’s main weakness is, well, his weaknesses. He’s inherently weak against all three of the elements, requiring you to either use up his Force Metal slots to bring him back to the resistance level of the other characters, or just put up with him taking extra damage from many attacks. Overall, Massimo is basically your tank character, so he should be used accordingly.
- Hyper Mode: Glint Armor
- Massimo turns gold and gains the usual advantages of a hyper form. I haven’t yet noticed any significant changes.
- Action Trigger: Berserk Charge
- Charge this by mashing the
(damage) and 
(status ailments) buttons (and later, you can add other meters to it as well). Unfortunately, this Action Trigger doesn’t really do that much damage, even at 100% WE. I tend to use Massimo’s WE on sub weapons instead. Having said that, if you go into Hyper Mode first and then use this Action Trigger, you can start to get damages close to that of X’s Charge Collider. I believe a Power Charge used before the Action Trigger will also contribute to the damage, if you don’t mind having less WE for the Action Trigger itself.
You have to do a mini-game here where you must avoid being caught in the sensors of guard robots. This isn’t terribly difficult, but it’d be easier to just blast the stupid things to smithereens. There’s one door guarded by two robots at once that just leads to items; if you want, you can skip it for now and come back later, when the guards are gone.
You can use the Final Strike in these battles because you now have three party members. Also, you will soon get the Thunder Buster which hits a weakness on a lot of the enemies (since this place is underwater).
Notice that the Dober Men call for backup. If you want, you can use this as a way to gain extra zenny or experience by beating each one down to low health using X and Massimo, letting it call a backup, then finishing it off with Spider’s 75% WE attack. Rinse, repeat. You can keep this up with almost no damage to any of your characters as long as the Dober Men remain cooperative, since SOS uses up their turn.
On the other hand, the Mini Shark is a stupid attack. Not only does it take forever and it’s so slow that you can see it coming from a mile away (I know this is an RPG, but it still looks stupid that the character doesn’t dodge), but it also does ridiculously high damage. Feh.
Anyway, eventually you find some guards and have to fight them to get through to the prisoners. Not unexpected. Soon after that you unlock some prison cells, though they are all empty of prisoners except for two, and one of those is a fake prisoner (he attacks you). Talk to him after you beat him. The other prisoner gives you a prison ID. He also warns you about the prison warden, Silver Horn.
Backtrack to the previous room (the one with the save device) and then go through the door that was locked before. You eventually end up in something called “Dark Room” where you are attacked when you walk in. Beating the guards, you save Nana, who says she will stay there to help out while you guys go on ahead to save the POWs. Meanwhile, Steel Massimo asks about whether there is any record of himself being in the prison, and Nana says that the records say Massimo was executed.
In the next room you get a transmission from Nana who explains the order to press the tiles on the floor. Note that she only gives you the codes to open the doors. To get the items, you have to guess them yourself. But I’ll be nice and give you the codes. For room two, the sequence is yellow, red, blue. Room three has two: blue, yellow, red (item crystal) and red, yellow, blue (door). Room four is green, blue, red, yellow.
At the end of the road you get a cut scene. While Nana is trying to open a lock, Massimo wanders off and locates the real Massimo (yep, I thought so). The real one has been stripped down to practically nothing and hung out to dry. The fake Massimo finds him and cries over him. The real Massimo tells the fake one that he’s glad he gave him his armor, and that he can be a strong fighter if he tries.
Meanwhile, back with X and Spider, head through the door that was being blocked by security guards before to recover Massimo into your party. Back upstairs, go to the left through the door there that used to be locked.
You find Silver Horn, who has his foot on Nana and X doesn’t even bother to shoot him off her. Oh well, the boss fight begins soon enough.
Boss: Silver Horn
After you beat the boss, Massimo tells the others that he’s a fraud (we already knew that), but Spider and X simply encourage him by continuing to call him Massimo.
Chapter 4: Gaudile Laboratory
The Sky Room and Deployment Center open right about now. You can use the Deployment Center to send Mechaniloids to scout. You can find more during the game. I’d recommend always having scouts deployed somewhere. In the Sky Room you can put up posters, watch videos of the game’s cinemas, play music, and so forth. There’s also a computer where you get statistics on your battles and game play. It will also tell you which areas you have found all of the items in.
Anyway, back to the mission. Go through the first door and fight a battle. The Preon Elite uses “Order” which is almost identical to “Influence” in Breath of Fire 3—when it works, the other enemies get a “Yes Sir!” over their heads, and a target cursor is shown on the character they will be attacking. (Note: This affects “Berserk” (confused) allies too!) Rabbids can call for help too, just like the Dober Men. Pararoids can use Parasite and sacrifice themselves to boost the stats of another enemy. They also have an insane dodge rate. Mettaurs are weak against melee attacks like Massimo’s, and some varieties can be knocked over with a melee attack which makes them vulnerable to shot attacks. They tend to recover when their next turn comes around.
The thief you’ve been hearing about comes along behind you, then goes down a hall to a locked door. Continue the other way and into the elevator. On the next floor, pick up the Preon and go through the door. In the next area, you have to dash over panels set into the floor without landing on them. If you miss, though, it’s not a big deal; you fight a battle, then the panel remains inactive for a few seconds so that you can get off it without triggering it again.
The next room has a save device. From here, avoid the hall with the security panels briefly and go through the other door for some items. After that, continue upward.
At the top of the slope, you get a cut scene where Psyche (he looks like NumberMan) tries to convince Gaudile to join the Rebellion. X enters the room and points his arm cannon at Psyche. (X has a habit of pointing his arm cannon at people in this game. Considering that in the classic games he’s usually trying to plead with them not to fight, this is a marked improvement. Now if only he’d actually fire the cannon...) Psyche turns and sics his guards on you.
After the fight, you will discover that Psyche and Gaudile have managed to completely disappear while you were occupied. Meanwhile, Marino (the thief) has met Cinnamon and tells her she relieves people of their valuables and that she’s here for the Force Metal Generator. (At least she’s honest.) Cinnamon reveals that she is the Force Metal Generator and Marino then teases, “Well, I guess that means I have to steal you, then.” At the same time, Psyche is watching on a computer monitor and goes crazy that the generator is about to be kidnapped.
So we rejoin the party back in a room with items in it. Head up the slope, again, past the security panels, and eventually go up the elevator.
In the next section you will see a save device. You can also see Gaudile nearby. Run over for a cut scene. Gaudile says he won’t help the Rebellion or the Resistance, because he won’t let anyone use his inventions to harm anyone. Gaudile also cries that Cinnamon was kidnapped by Dr. Psyche of the Rebellion Army. After that’s done, go through the door next to Gaudile.
Inside the next room you trigger a cut scene. Marino is trying to fight off Psyche, but she gets beat down. Cinnamon runs over and starts healing her. Psyche laughs, saying he doesn’t need Gaudile anymore, that he will make Cinnamon into the perfect warrior. (He doesn’t seem at all bothered that Marino is being healed...)
After this you get a transmission where Gaudile finally decides to start being helpful. He tells you that the right path is a shortcut and the left path is the long route. Now, let’s take a brief departure from the plot for an explanation.
Basically, this area is a running-battle survival challenge maze. The same section repeats over and over; if you choose the left path each time, you face successively more difficult enemies. If you choose the right path twice, you are able to exit...but the enemies get more difficult on the right path as well based on how many times you chose the left path. I’ll go ahead and warn you now—unless you have been doing some serious leveling up before this point (and I do mean serious), you have no hope of surviving very long in the left path. Also, the rewards are generally not that great, so even though you could possibly make it four or five doors in right now, you won’t get much for it. If you’re interested, you can come back here later once you are powered up. For now, just take the right path twice and get out of here. (Or, if you are so inclined, you can probably reach Spider’s Joker weapon at your current level; go right, left, left, left for it. I recommend doing this sooner rather than later, even on your first trip if possible, since it won’t be of any value later on.)
You end up in the rare item room—this is where you will receive your rewards on the left paths. If you took nothing but the right path, there are no items here, even though the man inside tells you to feel free to take anything you want. Anyway, the left door here will be locked for now; later, it will be unlocked, but it puts you back in the maze, so beware of that.
Once out of the maze, go through the next door to find Marino. Believe it or not, she introduces herself as a thief. (See, she’s honest.) She also claims that her reason for joining the party is so that the Rebellion can’t steal things that she could be stealing. And all Massimo manages is a “Whoah...”
Party Member Profile: Marino
“Now the real fun starts!”
- Marino is a light melee or dagger-tossing character. Like Zero, she usually does two or more hits with her main weapon. She enters the party with an item that allows her a guaranteed 100% hit rate on any enemy—use this on the Pararoids. Marino is a fairly quick on her feet but her defense is only average.
- Hyper Mode: Quicksilver
- She turns black, almost like a black cat type costume. Her speed rating shoots through the roof when she uses this—often she’ll get two or three (or more!) turns in a row because nobody else is fast enough to interject.
- Action Trigger: Emotional Reel
- This is a slot machine. Depending on how you line up the slots, you get different attacks. Even if you don’t end up with three icons of the same type, you still get an attack of decent damage, so it’s not a complete gamble like some of the other characters’ Action Triggers.
Anyhoo, Marino joins the party. Now you can choose who you want to put in your front lines. Whee. Also, as an interesting feature, you can actually take X out of the fighting force, though of course he will always be shown on the overworld. Also, characters not involved in the battle still gain experience, although I’m not sure if they gain the same amount as active members. Note that when you switch characters around in battle, the change will persist even after the battle ends.
Soon after Marino is another save point. You know what this means. Yep, boss battle. Psyche says that they (the good guys) have no idea how far the Rebellion has taken Reploid development. Then he attacks.
Boss: Dr. Psyche
Like the classic games, this boss has two modes, and the second one is the real battle.
Boss: Mad Nautilus
(Parents: You may wish to fight this boss for your kids, unless they are so young that they won’t understand the references. I’m not going to say anything else beyond that.)
After you beat the boss, you get a cut scene where Gaudile still refuses to cooperate, but Cinnamon asks him to let her fight with her new friends. (Her voice acting is pretty bad here...she sounds like she’s a drone speaking in monotone, which makes her “I’m not being manipulated!” line sound hilarious.) Cinnamon also asks Marino to join them, and says that she knew that Marino had a good heart, so that’s why she let Marino kidnap her. So X welcomes them both aboard.
Party Member Profile: Cinnamon
“Sorry! But I did warn you!”
- As might be expected, the party healer is a pretty wimpy fighter. She can sometimes do decent damage, but often her attacks are minimal. Although one interesting thing is that Cinnamon is one of the best Final Strike characters in the game. I’m not sure why that is, but there you go. Cinnamon has average defense and good starting resistances, so at least you don’t have to worry about her dying on you too terribly easily.
- Hyper Mode: Iron Maiden
- This one looks like a black maid outfit. Oh well. She does gain some health and attack power, but I haven’t noticed any other effects outside of the stat bonuses.
- Action Trigger: Angelic Aide
- Arguably the best Action Trigger in the game, or at least second to X’s. This heals your entire party for no cost except her WE. This is an excellent way to conserve your Sub-Tanks. Stack Cinnamon with WE-enhancing Force Metals, pop her in the party to heal, then drop her back out and let someone else do the attacking.
You can now use the Force Metal Generator (FMG). You get a help screen regarding it at this time. This is a method where you can consume various items and weapons from your inventory to create new Force Metals.
Chapter 5: Maverick Hunters Join Forces
You get a cut scene where X finally gets around to contacting Colonel Redips. Redips tells X that they’ve received a signal from point A6. Somehow, X knows this means it’s indication that Zero might be there. What’s amusing is at one point the Colonel’s text is transcribed as saying “...momentary... Zero... Point A6” but in the audio you can clearly hear him say, “We’ve made momentary contact with Zero at point A6.” X actually gets decisive at this point and says “Let’s move out!”
Off to Ulfat Factory. A few steps down the hallway and you’ve already set off the alarm. Of course, Marino thinks someone else set it off because it’s too soon for them to have been noticed...but I say, what’re security cameras for?
Anyway, in the next room you get introduced to the security system here. When the room turns red, you have to not be moving, or you’ll be attacked. Basically, you will hear three beeps, then the fourth beep will be when the room turns red. You could just let yourself be attacked if you prefer. Actually it’d be neat if you could hide behind crates and things, but oh well. Don’t worry about walking past the security robots—or even bumping into them—because they won’t notice you unless you are moving when the screen is red (yes, it’s strange).
Once you’re out of the network of rooms where those robots patrol, you don’t have to worry about the screen turning red.
Eventually you come across some storage rooms that aren’t being guarded. Here you will meet Axl, and he joins the party.
Party Member Profile: Axl
“That wasn’t too bad.”
- The gun-slinging Axl comes with a ranged two-hit main weapon. Aside from his Hyper Mode, there’s really nothing that stands out about Axl, either good or bad. He seems to be basically a step down from X, and you can use him in much the same way.
- Hyper Mode: Stealth Mode
- Axl shares the same Hyper Mode as Spider, and thus he’s tied for the best Hyper Mode in the game. Like Spider, he not only gets the usual boost in stats, but he’s also invincible for the duration of the mode.
- Action Trigger: DNA Change
- You have limited time to punch in the buttons to lead along a path to the listed boss. Selecting a particular boss would probably require memorizing the sequence since you rarely have time to look at the image and make decisions. However, you could just madly mash the buttons and just take whatever you get. If you don’t do it in time, or if you choose a path that leads to a boss you haven’t unlocked yet, all you get is a normal, weak attack. Otherwise, Axl transforms into the boss you chose and performs one of that boss’s attacks on the enemies, then changes back. This is very much like a summon from the Final Fantasy games. You unlock bosses by beating them throughout the plot.
In a refining room you meet Fire Globs which look like Yellow Devils (well, Red Devils to be exact). Equip your Ice weapons and Fire defenses for those. Generally many of the enemies here are weak against Ice (you should have obtained an Ice Buster by now as well), but note that the Preon Tanks are massively weak against Fire instead. Even so, I wouldn’t equip a Fire-based main weapon because many enemies here absorb Fire. (The puffers are funny, they use Mega Fire on themselves to restore their health.)
In the next series of rooms, you can use the control panels to reverse the direction of the conveyer belts. You also meet up with guards here that attack you. (“Destroy the intruders! This time get it right!”)
After that section, you come into a room with lots of downed Reploids. Then you get a cut scene showing Zero walking in on Jentra. Meanwhile, save your game and head up to find more signs of Zero. Search all of the bodies to pick up some items (you notice everything here is anti-Fire and plus-Ice?). Then head through the door.
A few hallways later you come across Zero just in time for X and Axl to save him (that’s a switch). After that, you receive a warning message about Duboar. Equip Zero and chase Jentra.
Boss: Mach Jentra
After you beat Jentra, he says that Duboar will go berserk now that he’s dead, then explodes. When he’s gone, a bunch of Preons attack. They’re relatively weak; however, after you defeat the first group, you get another group, and so forth. Once you destroy a few groups, you get a cut scene where more of them approach. Axl transforms into Jentra and orders Duboar to stop the attack. While he’s confusing Duboar, Zero and X simultaneously attack it. (Why didn’t they just do this to begin with?) That ceases the attack, and X and the crew return to the base.
Chapter 6: The Meaning of Friendship
Zero, being a jerk as usual, dismisses X’s allies and leaves the party at the start of this chapter. Colonel Redips tells X not to worry about it. Uh huh. Anyway, when you walk out of the command center room, there is a cut scene where X sees a bright blue light. Then Spider walks out from where the light had been and greets X. They chat briefly, but the blue light is not mentioned.
(By the way, talk to Massimo twice; the second time, he suggests that Axl shape-change into Zero. “That would kinda be like gaining a new ally, right?” Heh.)
Anyway, go back and talk to Nana again to get a cut scene and open up the ability to start the next mission. Head on out to the Gimialla Mine. There are creatures here that are strong against Fire, which is kind of a pain given you just got X’s newest Fire Buster. Ah well.
Wander around finding items; eventually, you’ll come across a security guard. (These guys are take-offs from the Roader enemy in the original series.) When you win this battle you’ll get Booster Parts. These are necessary to break through the boulders that have been blocking your way.
After you have all of the items, go through the door blocked by boulders right next to the save point. There is a control panel inside; operate it, then go back to the elevator.
On basement 3 you will come across Shadow. He mentions the Supra-Force Metal that the Rebellion is studying. When the others ask what that is, Shadow says he doesn’t have to tell them, he can show them. And he attacks.
Boss: Shadow
After you beat on Shadow for a while, you get a cut scene where Shadow starts to attack X and is stopped by Zero. Note that your party formation gets shifted to the left so that Zero can be placed into your fighting force, so whoever you had on the left hand side of your lineup will get knocked off the end. Shadow has much more damaging attacks now, so keep your health up.
When you beat Shadow you get an interesting cut scene. In brief: X tells Zero he’s glad that Zero is back. But Zero says that X is too soft, and that this has always been his problem. Meanwhile, Shadow tries to fire a last-ditch shot at Zero, but Spider blocks the hit and blows Shadow away with a card. Spider’s arm is damaged from the shot, however. Zero asks Spider why the heck he did that, and Spider says, eventually, that it was because he felt like it. By the end of the cut scene, Zero tells Spider that he’s earned his respect, and holds out his hand for a handshake. Then he realizes Spider can’t take the proffered hand because it was his right arm that was injured. So, showing a rare moment of kindness, Zero holds out his left arm instead, and they shake with their left hands.
Anyway, back to the game. Near the save point is a Reploid who says that he needs Electric Components to fix the control panel. He thinks the owner of a pickaxe took them by mistake. Give the pickaxe to the red Mechaniloid not far from the control panel room. You can give the yellow pickaxe to the yellow guy nearby. Keep trading like this until you get the Trade Sheet.
Take the Electric Components and the Trade Sheet to the man by the control panel and he will, mysteriously, help you out quite cheerfully. I guess he aids any intruder that happens to wander into the mine...
Now you can go to basement 4. This is my kind of place. The door ahead is locked by Fire, Water, and Lightning guardians. In one room you find three resist-boosting items, one for each. In the other room there are three sections, each containing an elemental solider, one for each type. You need to beat all three to unlock the door. Hint: You can see which type you’re facing off with next before you talk to him and fight him, so optimize your characters’ equipment first. Note, though, that they mix in one Glob of a different type for each battle—thus you get two of the type that you’re fighting, and one of another type. Still, optimizing for the primary type is helpful. Lightning is weak against Fire, Fire is weak against Ice/Water, and Water is weak against Lightning, though Ice will freeze the Liquid Globs, paralyzing them and making them susceptible to attack, so I actually recommend using Ice against them instead of Lightning.
Boss: Incentas
After the battle, Incentas locks everyone in and then sets the place to blow up. Rather than do the logical thing like use the computer terminal to turn off the self-destruct sequence, Spider grabs Incentas and drags him over to the door, then blows the both of them up. (It figures—the best character in the party is invariably the one that dies.) At least Zero finally admits to being a jerk. Kind of too late for that, though.
Chapter 7: Block Transmissions!
X is trying to contact the Colonel again, but there is too much interference. So the gang decides to go to a place built in the desert in order to get rid of the jammer that’s messing up their transmissions.
You arrive in a sandstorm. The idea here is move in a straight line in the direction of the wires on each jammer antenna to the next one, and so forth, until you find the door. (Why don’t they just blow up the jammers here?) You can actually see the door from quite a distance because of its lights. Also, although your subscreen map is useless, the radar in the lower right will show you what direction you are moving and where the door is (if it’s within range). Finally, feel free to wander around a bit if you want—there are items to find by searching the Mechaniloids in the sand, and you can’t truly get lost, since despite appearances, this map is a bounded rectangle with invisible walls so you can’t wander too far away. Here is a rough map of the place.
The enemies around here can be a drain. The Mega Tortoise opens every battle by poisoning and blinding the entire party (the only two status ailments that don’t wear off after battle, stupidly enough), so if you have a chance, it’s a good idea to defend for the first round of such battles. The D-Rexes, Wild Dogs, and Mega Mantors have enough hit points to take a beating and still dish out a pounding. Oh, and you may occasionally bump into a Meltdown. These explode for 9999 damage on your entire party after three rounds. A Meltdown has an insane amount of LE, and if you can’t beat it down before it self-destructs, the only hope you have of surviving the explosion is to use Axl’s Hyper Mode. Therefore, it’s a good idea to just run from them.
Enough of the digression. When you’re ready, follow the jammers to the door, where Zero will say that the door isn’t responding and tell you to look around. From here, go to the 100% jammer nearby, face in the direction of its wires (straight west), and walk that way for a bit. After a short span you will get a cut scene.
Ferham, the winged woman with the whip who you should remember from the beginning of the game, swoops down to attack the party. But X gets sucked up by quicksand. Massimo grabs him, and Zero grabs Massimo. Ferham starts hitting Zero to cause him to lose his grip. X tells Zero to let go, and Massimo agrees, urging him, “Defeat her, even if you have to do it alone!” Alone? Whatever happened to the other party members? Well, anyway, Zero refuses, saying he isn’t going to let another friend die. All three sink into the sand.
You land in an underground room. (Never mind the mystery of how you actually got in the room without dumping sand everywhere.) Massimo comments (humorously enough) that he didn’t know Zero cared about his friends so much. Zero just responds that he already owes Spider, and he didn’t want to owe anyone else.
Inside the next area, press the switches to unlock the doors. You need to find three of them for the red, one for the blue, two for yellow. Open these doors for items. Beyond another door is a lift in the floor that offers to take you to another level when you step on it. You are currently on B1F. You can go to 1F or 2F. This elevator will act as a central hub for you for a while.
Side note: Among other things, there are Preon Nurses in this area. These Preons heal and boost the stats of their allies. While normally you would want to focus on the healers in a particular battle and take them out first, in this case, if you leave the Nurse alone and destroy all of the other enemies on the battle field instead, the Preon Nurse will surrender in its next turn and heal your entire party. After that, defend until the Preon Nurse’s next turn, and it will leave the battle with a “Thanks.” This is a convenient way to regain the health of your party for free.
Go to 1F and go to the room in the corner that is not locked. There are green beams here. You should get a brief comment from Axl when you enter the room. Search the reflectors to adjust the direction of the beams. You want to shine the beams on the yellow panels on the wall to unlock the doors upstairs. If you shine them on the orange panels, you get attacked. Shine the beams on the green panels to unlock the items in the rooms upstairs.
Go to 2F to the room that matches the one you were just in and activate the control panel there. This will unlock some of the other rooms. Return to 1F and do the same thing in the other three rooms there. You will probably need to take multiple trips to get all of the items.
Note that if you end up outside, in the desert again, you are going the wrong way. This is where you will come in if you decide to revisit this area. Ignore it for now and go back inside.
When you disable all of the jammers, you receive a transmission from Botos “inviting” you to the top floor. Go down to save first. Also go hunt yourself down a Preon Nurse to heal you up.
Boss: Botos
So, in the next cut scene, Botos falls over and his Supra-Force Metal conveniently rolls to a stop at X’s feet. Botos then flees the scene. Luckily, the characters do seem to realize that this stinks of a trap, but they nevertheless ignore the warning signs and take the Supra-Force Metal back to the base, where Gaudile wants to examine it. I just know they are going to regret this...
Chapter 8: The Ultimate Weapon
So Gaudile says that the Supra-Force Metal is as strong as 10,000 normal Force Metals, but that it’d require a lot of metal to make it, and the only place that has that much Force Metal is the Melda Ore Plant. So I guess the goal now is to prevent the bad guys from gaining and using Supra-Force Metal by shutting down their plant, although if you ask me, it’s far too late already.
You end up outside in the snow, although your feet don’t leave tracks. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the enemies here would be strong against Ice and weak against Thunder. (I wish they’d put the old battle music back...)
Enter the building. You see a brief cut scene, then you can go on. Right in front of you is the door that you need the Melda Key for, which is kind of convenient for when you come back here later after scouting it up. For now, go down the elevator.
When you enter the next room you will get a cut scene. You must snap more images for Gaudile. Pick a room and look for more peep holes. You can see that the layout of this place is largely a half circle. When you have snapped all of the shots on that floor, go down the elevator. Go around looking for peepholes and gathering items here too. When you are done, go downstairs again. Ditto for this floor. There is a locked door here, preventing you from going the wrong way.
When you enter the room with the last peephole, you receive a cut scene as soon as you enter the door. Once this scene is over, get the item and unlock the door using the control panel. This leads to another elevator down. You’re on B5 now. Save your game and go through the door.
Ahh, lookie here, if it isn’t Mr. Weirdo again. Botos is there to block the door. Except that this isn’t much of a battle. Botos has almost no hit points this time around. Just ignore his helpers and blow him away.
When the battle closes, go through the door in front of you and you are at the base of the missile silo. Through there and you are back at an elevator, only this time you want to go up. Save, go through the door, and didn’t we just do this? Anyway, Botos splits himself into two and dances off.
Unless they randomize this, if you go left, you must fight a copy Botos with silly music. This Botos has more LE than the one you just dusted off, but he uses Bit Shift instead of his normal helpers, and he isn’t anywhere near as deadly. He also isn’t weak against Ice anymore for whatever reason.
Go right and find the elevator. Upstairs you will see Botos split up again. Go through the right door for the real Botos. This time he has his Q-bits, but Botos himself runs away immediately, leaving only the bits, so this battle is a piece of cake. You can go left for an item.
Past the save point, go up. Again. This time, you simply see Botos run through a door, and the other two doors are locked. No choices here; chase after him. But instead of Botos, you encounter Ferham.
Boss: Ferham
After you defeat her, Ferham falls down below, and afterward, the good guys realize that she has the key (oops), so now you have to run all the way back down to get it from her. Go down the elevator to trigger a cut scene. Continue all the way down until you reach the base of the missile again, and you will find Ferham. As we already know, Botos now has her key. Head back the way you came—when you go up the elevator, you will receive a cut scene where Botos gloats that the Supra-Force Metal is all his, and that the ends justify the means. Then suddenly someone says to him, “I think you may be on to something.” Guess who? (I have a bad feeling he’s gonna turn out to be a Maverick...)
Back to X. Go through the doors that used to be locked and up the elevator. You get a cut scene where the good guys find a dead Botos, and the Supra-Force Metal is gone, and they wonder what happened. The chapter ends at this point.
Chapter 9: When Giants Duel
As this chapter opens, there is an attack on Air City (for some reason, New Hope turned into Air City). Get there via the Air Bus. Once you get off the bus, it’s busting time. (I really hope you remembered to change your equipment before this fight.)
Boss: Scarface
After defeating Scarface, he talks about the ideals of the Rebellion and how Reploids have free wills and such. He then retreats, and you are left just standing there.
Go talk to the people standing on the roof. Then go into the city and talk to everyone else. You will hear about how Scarface didn’t attack people unless they attacked first, and he even helped fix one guy’s wound. Sounds like Scarface might actually have some honor about him; if he weren’t Epsilon’s goon and a probable Maverick, he might have been a good addition to the party.
When you’re done shopping, return to the base. (And yes, the chapter hasn’t even officially started yet!)
Off to the Rebellion Grave Ruins Base. The first door is blocked off. Another one is nonfunctional. Go through the only door that you can enter. You get locked in immediately, and when you approach the red beam, an alarm goes off and some Preons teleport in and attack. After the battle, you have a limited amount of time to get out before the beam resets and you are locked in again.
Go through the door that is ahead of you and continue onward. You end up an area of winding passages and lots of doors that must be unlocked using the beam thing. In some cases, you must disarm multiple beams at once to open any of the doors.
At the end of one hall you will find a control panel that turns off the bands of electricity that were blocking the door earlier. When you have all of the items here, return to where you entered the base.
Go through the newly-unlocked door and into the teleporting hatch. Do the beam thing again and fight more Preons. Go through another teleporting hatch. Save.
Through the next door is a battle field with lots of items. Incidentally, you may wish to save some of these “Build” items rather than use them, since you often need them to refine Force Metals.
When you enter a room in the next area, you see two columns rise, then you have to pick one. Depending on which you choose, you end up in different rooms (and the map as usual is useless). The right column moves two slots; the left three. Some rooms have items, and some hold enemies which attack when you walk through the door. Eventually you should reach the hallway which leads to the teleporting hatch to the next floor. Save.
Walk through the door—there are three Preons blocking the way, and they say that Commander Epsilon is beyond the door. Of course, if they really didn’t want you to pass, they’d bring something better than those three Preons to guard the door.
In front of you is the “Final Gate” (no joke). But it’s locked, of course. That piddly little locked door is barring your way much more effectively than Epsilon’s guards...
Go up the ramps instead and in the doors there. There are no red beams to worry about here, so just walk through doors getting items. (If Epsilon had any sense, he’d lock every door in this place.) Use the control panels to unlock the door. You need to find two, one on each path, of course.
Go back and save if you want, then through the Final Gate and in the teleporter there.
Soon you meet up with Epsilon, and X actually fires his arm cannon at him! Whoo whee! But Scarface appears and blocks the hit. He stands in front of Epsilon and urges Epsilon to allow him to defeat them. Scarface adds, humorously enough, that X learns new powers when he fights, and so what would happen if he defeated Epsilon..? Heh. I just wish this was true, but it’s not, in this game—X and Zero can’t gain new weapons or techniques from bosses here like they can in the classic games. Oh well.
Boss: Scarface
He just doesn’t learn.
Boss: Epsilon
Epsilon has two forms—after you bring him down the first time, he activates his Supra-Force Metal and powers up, also conveniently restoring his health.
Boss: Eject Epsilon
After beating Epsilon, X asks him why. Epsilon says that without power, no one would listen to their ideals. After all, the Federation has already labeled them Maverick, he points out. What choice did he have? He also begins to threaten that as long as he is alive, he will fight for his ideals...and while he’s doing that, he leaves himself open, and Zero calls to X, “Now, X!” and X shoots Epsilon and destroys him.
X picks up the Supra-Force Metal that Epsilon was using and seems to feel a little bad about it, but Zero tells him that they did the right thing, and Axl chimes in.
Colonel Redips shows up and commends X, then tells them that they will be returning to base soon, and that a plane will arrive shortly to pick them up.
The chapter ends... Notice that the game isn’t over yet? I had a feeling Spider would be the final boss...
Chapter 10: In the Name of Justice
Go talk to everyone in the base for some nice, mushy character development. (Hmm, so Spider was at the place where Axl’s chameleon ability was developed...) When you are done, notice that Zero is standing inside the hallway instead of in his usual spot outside. Guess where the plane will be coming to pick you up?
When you are ready, go outside for the ship...which comes along and tries to blast everyone to smithereens. Colonel Redips claims that he has decided that X was a traitor and that he was after the Supra-Force Metal...and thus Redips has come to put an end to the “resistance.”
So the good guys end up...somewhere. There’s a save device ahead of you, and you can talk to the man standing nearby to buy/sell things. Just inside the building are the three saleswomen from Lagura who have the newest and latest stuff, so don’t blow all your zenny on the guy outside. (Question: why can you still buy weapons for Spider?)
Entering the fortress, you will go up an elevator and end up in a tactics simulation center. Guess what? You are approaching this game’s equivalent to the teleporting hatch room! You face off first with Wild Jango.
Cut scene: Redips learns that there are intruders, but nobody bothers to tell him that it’s X, Zero, Axl, and the rest of the gang. Meanwhile, X and all marvel that they just fought Jango again. Axl says that it was someone with a copy ability like his. So they figure, someone with that copy ability got into Central Tower. But whoever it was, he’s dead now.
Up the elevator is a teleport terminal. In a large room off to the side is a save spot, a shopkeeper, and a nurse who acts as an inn. You can use this as your central hub for a little while.
Through the purple glowing doors are hatches leading to bosses. If you look carefully, you can see the image of the upcoming boss on the purple door before you open it. Or, you can go through, then when you open the door to the boss, look to see who it is before you walk forward into the room.
Since you can restore your Sub-Tanks and buy new items in-between each battle, don’t feel afraid to go all out.
When you have cleared all of the hatches, it is now time for the fortress bosses. Actually, there’s only one.
Boss: Depth Dragoon
You can go back and save and restore your health first if you want. When you’re ready, continue onward and upward.
You end up finally at an area called “Final Gate.” There is a save point up here, and some items. Past that point, you meet Redips, who says that he will be the ruler of everything, and thanks the team for getting rid of Epsilon for him. X cries out, “You...you Maverick!” and the battle begins.
Boss: Redips
After the cut scene where (as I figured) it turns out that Spider is the final boss (because he was actually Redips), you end up in a room with one exit and an item. Right. Just how did we get in this room? (Actually, on further reflection, Redips isn’t “really” Spider, because he was using a copy ability, which means he had to copy someone. I wonder if the Spider we met was the real Spider for a while, but then somewhere along the line, Redips disposed of him and stole his identity. Probably, though, the real Spider had been gone for a long time, at least before X encountered him, since of course, he was disappearing whenever they contacted Redips and stuff.)
In the Blue Earth Tunnel, heal everyone using your Sub-Tanks before you pick up the yellow item, because it’s an infinity and will restore your Sub-Tanks to full no matter how drained they are.
Boss: Great Redips
Not far into the battle you should get a cut scene where Ferham comes down and takes one of the Supra-Force Metals off Redips’ shoulder. After this, the battle starts again...but your characters are still in whatever condition they were at before Ferham came along. Heal up fast and spare nothing to get back on your feet—this is the final battle.
Final Boss: Great Redips
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