**This is a work in progress so check back from time to time to see if there is an update**
Ok…I have played this game many, many times and have decided to put together a brief guide. First I will list the available cheat codes as found on other sites.
When “press start” appears press left, circle, up, triangle, down, x, right, square, L1, R1, L2, R2. It will verbalize the words “Mega Man X8″ if put in correctly…this allows you to fight cutman from the original series at the end of Troia Base.
When “press start” appears press L3, L3, R3. Do this a total of 4 times. It will verbalize the words “Mega Man X8″ if put in correctly…this makes the sigma blade available for purchase. This chip also becomes available for purchase after you have beaten the game. I found myself having trouble figuring out where L3 and R3 are on the controller so…to help others I will explain. The left analog stick is L3…just push down on the middle of it. The right analog stick is R3.
When “press start” appears press down, R1, up, L1, square, x, triangle, circle. This code makes the Alia Buster chip, the chip that allows you to play as Alia, available for purchase. This chip also becomes available for purchase after you have beaten the game.
When “press start” appears press L1 twice, R1 twice, and L1 four times. This code gives you the option of using black armor Zero. This increases attack power and dash length, but decreases defense. Meaning you take more damage from a hit than with the regular red armor for Zero. This armor for Zero also becomes available after you have purchased all of Zero’s chips.
When “press start” appears press square twice, right, x, R1. This code makes the Layer Rapier, the chip that allows you to play as Layer available for purchase. This chip also becomes available after you have beaten 4 stages with Layer as your navigator.
When “press start” appears press R1, x, left, square twice. This makes Pallet Bullets, the chip that allows you to play as Pallet, availble for purchase. This chip also becomes available when you have completed 4 stages with Pallet as your navigator.
When “press start” appears press left 3 times, right 3 times, left 4 times, and right 4 times. It will verbalize X saying “Roger” if put in correctly. This code gives you the ultimate armor for X. This armor is purple and gives you the uppercut move from Mega Man X2, no recoil when hit, the plasma charge shot, the ability to jump higher with invincible dash, and the nova strike. This armor also gives you unlimited use of weapons gained from mavericks. I personally prefer to just use the nova strike and double attack on the mavericks, but if you prefer to use the maverick’s weakness weapon you have unlimited use of it with the ultimate armor. The uppercut move can be done by pushing up on the directional pad and triangle. To do the nova strike you have to jump and press triangle. The nova strike will bring a boss down to 1 bar of life on normal mode and 4 bars of life on hard mode. If you use the code and have not already bought the weapon plus chips it will take more strikes with the nova strike to kill a maverick. This also becomes available after you have beaten the game and have all of X’s chips and all 8 armor parts. This is, to my knowledge, the first and only game in the series where you can get the ultimate armor without a code. This, to me, is a good thing because it allows you to gain this great thing without a cheat code. When I first used this code I was frustrated that I didn’t start the introductory stage with the ultimate armor. After completing the introductory stage and selecting another stage I saw it was available.
When “press start” appears press L2 three times, R2 three times, L2 three times, R2. This code makes Axl’s white armor available for use after the introductory stage. Based on what I’ve seen this has the same effect as Zero’s black armor. This armor also becomes available when you do the final blow to Lumine with Axl and have all of Axl’s chips. A recommendation for getting this armor without the code is to use the double attack on Lumine. You should wait until you have broken the barrier of his wings, which you will do three times and it is very important that he has only about 1/4 life left otherwise you will have to build up the attack gauge again…and then use Axl as your character and do the double attack.
This next thing is more a trick than a code. It is for 9,999,999 metal. What you do is get one of the life tank chips, then use up enough metals so you have less than 50 left, then purchase a life charge. This will reset the metal counter. From there you can purchase all the chips you have found rare metals for. When you are done and go into another stage the first metal you get will make the meter count up to 9,999,999 metals. It starts slow…but you can make it reach that point faster by pausing the game.
Controls:
x=jump
triangle =special attack or weapon gained from a maverick
circle=dash
square=fire/slash
start=pause
select=open dialog when message indicator shows at the bottom
L1=change weapon
R1= change weapon
L2=character change
R2= double attack
Now I will go over the stages including the items in each stage. There is no right or wrong order to do them in. The order listed is my preference…feel free to use a different order.
X and Axl get weapons from defeated bosses, while Zero learns a technique. Zero’s technique in the pause screen is not always the same as what is shown in the weapon get screen. I do not know why…my listing of his techniques is what you see when you pause the game.
Noah’s Park: This is the introductory stage. You start with X and Axl. You start out fighting some basic enemies, then you come to a mini boss. It is a giant crab. The way to defeat it is to fire shots at it’s head. After 4 or 5 charged shots from the X buster the crab releases some metal and disappears. You are then left with just Axl. Use the hover to cross the chasm. If you fall or don’t make it you will not die, but you may be damaged by the small crabs. The first rare metal of this stage is on a ledge after the chasm. But unfortunately you can not get it your first time through. You will need to go back and use either Zero’s double jump, or X with the foot parts icarus. This chip is weapon bottle full. You will then fight some other enemies. Next you will come to a room with bats. Kill all of them and collect the metals. You will then come to the part where Zero joins Axl. There is a rare metal on a ledge above you. But as with the other rare metal in this stage you can’t get it yet. You will need to come back with X with head parts icarus to break the rock. This rare metal is Axl’s shock absorber, which prevents him from being knocked backwards when hit. You will then fight the second mini boss. It is the giant crab again but this time it is behind a waterfall. You can only hurt it when it’s head pokes out of the water. If you have completed the game and purchased the sigma blade it is the best way to deal with this guy. If not use the double attack. Afterwards you fight some enemies as Zero. You come to a giant bee…just hack away at him avoiding the shots it shoots towards you. Just before the giant bee there is a blocked doorway. This leads to the Dr. Light capsule containing buster parts icarus, but you can’t get it yet. Return with X and the doorway will be open. Then you will fight a multitude of smaller bees. Next you regroup with X. Fight some more enemies. You will come to a spot where you can wall-jump up to a doorway that is blocked. If you go down and to the right there is a switch. Hitting it will open the walls above you as well as remove the block from the upper level. Then you fight a few more enemies. There is a ledge above you that you can jump to to hit a switch which will move a conveyor belt to the right…go up there to get some metal and an energy pellet before fighting the stage boss. The stage boss is still the crab but this time it just walks towards you. Buster shots and z-saber attacks work well…the double attack works best though.
Dynasty: This stage is basically a ride on a jetbike chasing the stage boss. Hit it enough and you’ll trigger the boss fight. The boss is Gigabolt Man-o-war. He is weak to Bound Blaster which is the weapon Axl acquires from Earthrock Trilobyte. The weapons obtained are thunder dancer for X, and plasma gun for Axl. Zero learns the raikousen technique.
Central White: This is another stage with a “bike”. The point of the stage is to maneuver around the enemies and holes. There are two mini bosses. Both are a flying craft that looks like a sting ray. When you beat the second one you are at the end of the stage. There is a rare metal here. Use Zero to reach a high ledge and use Axl’s hover to reach it on another ledge to the left. There is another way to reach this one, a way without Axl. What you do is use Zero’s double jump to get on the ledge before the door to the stage boss. Then jump to the left and use Raikousen. It is tricky because you have to get over far enough but still do it before you get too low in your jump. This rare metal is Zero’s shock absorber which prevents recoil when hit. When you have obtained shining ray from Optic Sunflower return here…use Zero to reach the ledge again and use shining ray with X to melt the ice blocks. Then you will come to the capsule with head parts hermes. This allows you to charge your weapons faster. The boss here is Avalanche Yeti. He is weak to thunder dancer. You acquire drift diamond for X, ice gattling for Axl, and Zero learns hyouryuushou.
Primrose: This stage is mostly about switching gravitational pull. There are 2 reploids with copyable DNA in the second part of the stage. Use Axl’s copy shot, triangle. to make their DNA core available then get their DNA core so you can walk freely on spikes. When you get to a room with many steps you are in the location of one of the rare metals. Use Axl to hover to the ledge from the third step going down then use a charged crystal wall with X to get the rare metal. This one is k knuckle. After this part you come to a mini battle. If you have followed in the order I have…this is a battle against Vile, see below for how to handle him. If you chose a different order, or have come back to the stage there will be a row of 6 blocks above you. They have a giant spike poking out from the bottom and when they are all on the bottom of the screen the spike comes out of the top. To get through this you will need to walk to the right. I’m listing the blocks 1-6 with 1 being on the left. Walk across and jump on top of block 6 after it has dropped. Then jump onto the wall continuously until the other blocks drop. Next block 3 will go up…use the hover to go over to the right side of it. Drop down. Then block 2 drops down, when it is down jump on top of it and then onto the wall to the left. Jump continuously on the wall. Block 6 will go up…ignore that and hover to the left side of block 3 as it goes up, drop down under it. Then block 4 goes up walk to the right so you are under block 4, then after block 3 goes down and back up walk to the left so you are under block 3, then under 4, and then 3 again. At this point the blocks blow up, dropping items and you can proceed. The next part of the stage is where the armor part is. This one is head parts icarus. To get it you need to switch the gravitational pull around a couple of times. Then use Axl’s transform ability to change to the reploid with the ability to walk on spikes. Walk across the spikes and you’ll come to a teleporter that takes you to the capsule with the armor part. There is another rare metal in the section after the one after you get the armor part. Once again you need to use Axl’s transform ability. After transforming drop down off the ledge you start on in this room and go to the left This rare metal is B fan. Then you come to the boss fight. The boss is Gravity Antonion. He is weak against shadow runner for X, and dark arrow for Axl. From him you get squeeze bomb for X, spiral magnum for Axl, and Zero learns juuhazan.
Inferno: This stage is one with platforms travelling up while the screen scrolls down. When you get past the first scrolling part you are in an area where there are 2 rare metals and an armor capsule. The first rare metal you come to you need the flyer DNA with Axl. To get this you need to go to the bottom of this part and copy the flyer’s DNA. To copy it’s DNA press triangle until a little thing appears on the ground, walk to it to pick it up. You can transform by pausing/using R1 and L1 to get to the bottom weapon option for Axl and pressing square. Once you have it you will need to die to start back at the beginning of this part. Make sure you use a retry chip and don’t return to the R&D lab. After you start this section over you will see a hole to your left right after dropping down one level. Go to the second ledge down and transform, then jump and hit the jump button again and left on the directional pad at the top of your upward climb. This lets you fly into the room with the rare metal. This gives you the t breaker for Zero. The next rare metal you need the t breaker for. You have to actually purchase it…not just find the rare metal. To get this rare metal you need to equip the t-breaker and press triangle on the ground where the round enemy is. This enemy has some kind of barrier on it, watch for that to know where to go. You will need to have the juuhazan technique from Gravity Antonion to do this. After using the t-breaker go down the hole you created and use your favorite method to destroy the box. The rare metal will be there for the taking. This one is X’s double barrier which increases the invincibility period following a hit. The next item in this section is the armor part, foot parts hermes. This gives you a boost in speed and the invincible dash. To get to it use Zero to jump up the wall to the far left, avoiding the spikes, after getting the aforementioned rare metal. The last part of the stage has a rare metal and is also a scrolling part. To get the rare metal jump up the platforms and jump-dash to the right from the highest one. The rare metal is in this room. This one is weapon tank. The boss for this stage is Burn Rooster. He is weak to ice attacks. He gives you melt creeper for X, flame burner for Axl , and Zero learns Enkoujin.
Metal Valley: This stage is mostly evading a large mechaniloid. You go through the stage until you get to the bones you can jump on. Hop on all of them and at the last one use Zero’s double jump to get the first rare metal in this stage. This one is life bottle full. As you reach a battle with the mechaniloid you will notice a capsule but you can’t get to it yet. After defeating the mechaniloid you will be able to use melt creeper to get rid of the barrels and get the armor part. This one is body part icarus and reduces damage by half and prevents recoil when hit. After getting the armor part head back up and use Axl to hover across the beams. You will need to have hit the switch on the way to the mechaniloid battle to get there. The last one has the next rare metal. This one is Zero’s double barrier which increases the invincibility period following a hit.The last rare metal of this stage can not be retrieved until you have defeated Earthrock Trilobyte, the boss of this stage. After you have defeated him return to the stage and at the part where there are two yellow metals with a space between them use a charged crystal wall to pull the rare metal up. You have to defeat the first miniboss again before you can do this. This one is metal discount which takes 10% of the cost of a chip off the price. Continue through the stage until you fight the mechaniloid again. Then you go to the boss room. This guy has some tough armor. Use Zero’s Juuhazan, or X’s squeeze bomb to break it and then just slash/shoot away. You get crystal wall for X, bound blaster for Axl, and Zero learns rekkyoudan.
Booster Forest: This stage has ride armor in it. There are 4 items in this stage. The first is after you leave a room you have fought some ride armor in. The best strategy for them is to take Axl in the stage. Jump up out of the ride armor and towards the door you came in and fire to the bottom right. You will stay in position and destroy the armors after some time. The item is foot part icarus which allows you to jump higher than usual. To get it you need to get on the elevating platform with your ride armor then jump out, go to the left a little and slide down the wall till you see the switch. Hit the switch and it moves the ride armor up. Climb back up and into the armor. Then go to the left edge of the platform. Jump up, to the left and hit your dash button…when you see the spikes hit up and jump to exit the ride armor and dash again to get on the platform without hitting the spikes. The next item is a bit tricky…earlier in the stage there was a reploid that rolls up into a ball. You need to copy it’s DNA and use the transform to turn into the ball. After getting the armor part leave your ride armor on the ledge and travel right. Just at the bottom is a small hole…go through there with the ball to get the first rare metal in this stage. It is X’s weapon converter which is supposed to take away weapon energy instead of life energy…but I have never seen it happen. Next you go through a series of conveyors. To get the next rare metal you need to hit a switch for the ride armor to land on…then hit the same switch again to move it up. There will be boxes you can get rid of with the ride armor. Then you do a charged crystal wall at the left end of that ledge. This is Axl’s double barrier which increases the invincibility period following a hit. The next rare metal is very very tricky. You need the ride armor. There are two ways to do this. You can jump out of the ride armor and let the spiked conveyor move it to an “elevator” which carries it past this part then fight the enemies inbetween fast enough to catch it before it falls down completely, or you can time your jump dash right and walk to the end then jump while inside the ride armor, break the floor, get on the elevator, and pick up the rare metal on the way. This is Zero’s shield armor which increases defense power. The boss for this stage is Bamboo Pandamonium. He is a power type reploid so try not to get too close to him. X’s melt creeper, and Axl’s flame burner are his weaknesses. You get green spinner for X, blast launcher for Axl, and Zero learns youdantotsu.
Troia Base: This stage is training mostly. You are given a time limit in various parts to destroy set enemies. The Sigma blade makes this easy, all you have to do is equip and use it on the enemies. The best method otherwise is to use the giga crash attack with the full icarus armor. Which means you need to obtain all 4 icarus armor parts before coming to this stage. I recommend having all of the weapon up chips before doing this…and you will have to let the gauge for the giga attack refill between sections. The first one you have to kill at least 90 bulbrites in one minute. The second one is a falling bulbrite that you have 10 seconds to kill. The third is moving platforms with a Bulbrite, that you have 5 seconds to kill. The fourth is a pair of bulbrites, one on each side of you that you have 10 seconds to kill. The fifth is a gigantic bulbrite that you have 10 seconds to kill. The sixth is a flying bulbrite that you have 10 seconds to kill. The seventh is two sentinels that you have 10 seconds to kill. If you fight Vile in this stage you will see him instead of the 2 sentinels. Use the ice weapon as you would any other time against him. The last one is a bulbrite surrounded by a mechaniloid that you have 40 seconds to kill. Right after the pair of bulbrites there is an armor capsule with buster part hermes. To get to it jump and dash to the left at the door to the next section. Make sure you don’t get too close to the door before trying to go over. Once you are on the platform use squeeze bomb to break the wall and get to the capsule. Right before the two sentinels there is a rare metal. As you are climbing you jump-dash to the right…slide down some and dash more to the right. This rare metal is Zero’s weapon converter. When you clear all of the sections of this stage in the time I specified you get the metal generator chip which basically builds up your metal count slowly as you walk. This adds 24 metal for a certain amount of walking in any direction. If you only clear 5 in the time allowed you get the life tank chip. From Optic Sunflower, the boss of this stage, you get shining ray for X, ray gun for Axl, and Zero learns tenshouha. Optic Sunflower is weak to green spinner for X, and blast launcher for Axl.
Pitch Black: This stage can be difficult or easy depending on what point you do it at. If you have the plasma gun for Axl, and thunder dancer for X it can be simple. You will need to use Axl to copy one of the guards. Then when you get to a point where you can go left or go down go left instead. Before you climb the wall to the left use Axl’s transform to turn into a guard. When you reach the guard who keeps nodding off press triangle. This will salute him and he will open a door. In the room is a generator. 4 shots of either electric weapon will start it up. The first rare metal to get is also in this room. Once you’ve turned on the generator use a charged crystal wall with X over the triangle to bring this rare metal up. This is a life tank. Next you go out of the room, but instead of going down go to the right where you came from. There are platforms that you can get on now. Hop from one to the other until you get to the rare metal. This is Axl’s shield armor. The last rare metal in this stage is Zero’s d glaive. To get it use Zero’s double jump or X with foot parts icarus near a door to the right after you go down after getting the other two rare metals. There will be platforms…jump on them. You can’t see this rare metal…but it is on the last platform to the right on the wall above the door. The armor capsule containing body part hermes, which makes you invincible to weak attacks is at the end of this level. When you get to the third area with the boxes going down jump up and to the right. If you go high enough you will get to the capsule. The boss for this stage is Dark Mantis. He is weak to ray gun. You get shadow runner for X, dark arrow for Axl, and Zero learns rasetsusen.
Jakob: This stage is the jakob elevator. All you need to do is fight the enemies till you reach the top. When you do you will fight Vile for the 3rd or 4th time. You will fight Vile at various stages in a random order. Not all of them…but at least three. I’ve noticed it seems to be every third stage with the exception of Sigma Palace as that doesn’t fit into the every three set-up. The ice weapon is best for him.
Gateway: This stage is mostly a fight against all of the stage bosses, except for Vile, again. Defeat them all and then head back to where you started. When you get there you will fight Sigma’s first form. Weapons obtained from Dark Mantis work best.
Sigma Palace: This is a stage set on the moon’s surface. You will go through and reach a room where you face Vile one last time. Use ice weapons as you did before. He will stand on a ride armor this time. Use a barrier break to knock him off then use your ice attack. After defeating him you will move on and fight multiple Sigma copies. After a while you come to the final battle with Sigma. Ray gun seems to work best. After defeating him you find out that Lumine was behind the whole thing and fight him twice. The first form is when he uses the final attacks of the various bosses. He is also weak to that bosses weakness. You will know what to use based on the color of the ball he throws up. The color corresponds to the colors of the teleports in Gateway. My experience is that this form is harder than the second. After defeating his first form he changes into a Seraph. With this form you just hit him with whatever works for you. After you get him down so far he does paradise lost. Which basically makes the sky black and gives you 30 seconds to kill him. You will need to break his barrier three times to hurt him again. I recommend using the double attack. Once you have defeated this form the game is over. After the credits you will be given the option to save your clear data. This saves all of your chips and armor parts and lets you start the game over with all the items and X’s ultimate armor and Axl’s armor.
