Submission #2452: FractalFusion's SNES Mega Man X2 "Best ending, no upgrades" in 33:51.62

FractalFusion's Mega Man X2 best ending 0% in 33:52.

Used Snes9x v1.43 v15 for the most part, and v16 briefly for Wheel Gator rematch.

This movie file is over one year old. I stalled progress a few times. At one point, I stalled at the beginning of Crystal Snail rematch for a few months, resumed, doing one boss battle, then stalled at the beginning of the Bubble Crab rematch for a few months. I hate Bubble Crab.

The goals here are the inverse of the currently published run. That is, Zero parts, no items. Trying to do Zero parts and no items in an unassisted run of any kind is extremely difficult.

The X-Hunter cycle is as follows:

        A                    S                        V 
gator->moth->sponge->crab->stag->centipede->snail->ostrich->

A, S, and V are the starting points of the X-Hunters after you beat two Mavericks. They will not show up in any beaten stage, so their starting points might be bumped forward. After each stage completion or game over, they will cycle forward, skipping any stages which are already beaten. If a stage in which an X-Hunter appears is beaten, or the X-Hunter is beaten, he will disappear. When you beat the third X-Hunter, an extra cutscene will occur on completion of the stage, unless it was the last stage.

I planned the location of the X-Hunters so that they would fall in certain stages. Due to favorable exits, I need two X-Hunters to show up in Wheel Gator and Bubble Crab stages. The other would be either in Flame Stag or Morph Moth stage. I also need one X-Hunter to show up in the last stage and the other two as early as possible.

With that in mind, and the boss and miniboss weaknesses, I decided on the following order: Flame Stag, Magna Centipede, Wire Sponge, Wheel Gator, Morph Moth, Crystal Snail, Overdrive Ostrich, Bubble Crab. I fight Violen at Wheel Gator, Serges at Morph Moth, and Agile at Bubble Crab.

I saved 8 frames, due to an alternate method of reaching the first ladder and shooting the wall-mover to reduce lag.

I found that when Flame Stag throws flames, his invincibility turns off. This is related to why Bubble Splash hits him faster than other weapons.

The miniboss here is the reason I do Flame Stag first.

Speed Burner speeds up the level slightly by turning rainy weather (which slows X's rightward progress) to hot weather.

Thanks to one well-placed enemy, I don't need to ride the platform up to the X-Hunter room. Violen goes down in 16 dashing uncharged shots.

I don't use the Strike Chain in some places because it causes lag. Now for Serges, I figured out that pressing Y (not necessarily shooting, just pressing the button) every 10 frames or less disables his shield! I abuse this to the fullest. Serges has no chance to do anything in this fight.

As for Morph Moth, he is the only Maverick boss not to take 2 damage from dashing uncharged shots. So I use a combo of Speed Burner and charged shots on his first form.

No comments other than that Magna Quartz goes down quickly with Silk Shot, and parrot14green's skip crystal trick only works with X-Buster upgrade, which I don't have.

Nothing, really.

It's not that easy to destroy the giant fish, even with Sonic Slicer. However, I must destroy it only after it opens the door leading down, or else it delays the door opening. I destroy Agile with Magnet Mine and Silk Shot (Bubble Crab is the stage where Agile takes special damage to Silk Shot).

Nothing here, just Violen taking longer to be defeated.

I have to take damage in a few spots. The damage rationing barely works out at the end. Serges' Wall goes down with Silk Shot, and Serges with various weapons.

I take the lower route, and defeat Agile with Magnet Mines. It seems all different without Shoryuken.

Nothing too notable, just all the Maverick bosses beaten again.

I need to keep the Strike Chain energy up because of the final boss. I grab weapon energy from one of the purple blocks. Against the first Sigma form, I discovered that when he recovers from the slashing animation, his invincibility turns off. So I get him to slash all the time, while I repeatedly hit him with charged shots at the blue (green) level. It is actually strange to see a boss which takes only 1 (rather than the usual 2) damage from dashing uncharged shots, yet take 2 damage from shots at the blue level. As for Sigma Virus, I hit it quickly with Strike Chain, collecting weapon energy from one of the dispensed enemies. I delay one of the hits so that Sigma Virus doesn't warp.

Watch for Zero on the highway when X rides the bike, up until after the panel scrolls and he dashes in front of X. He will appear around the time "<RABBIT>" shows up on the left side. This easter egg only occurs if you beat the game without any Light capsule upgrades (heart tanks and sub tanks can be collected, thankfully).

Nach: A Superb highly entertaining run to augment the existing publication. Accepting.