Rolanmen1's Mega Man X6 "100%" TAS in 56:47.18.
The In-game time is 23:03.
Recorded using: PCSX RR v0.1.3
Aims
- Hardest difficulty
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
- Use deaths to save time
- Manipulates luck (not much)
About the Game
This game is Mega Man game which was rushed, with untranslated voices and bad translation. Some bosses were poorly designed and look like a mess as well. Some stages are also poorly designed, being impossible to pass with the wrong armor or character, or structure randomization. The difficulty of the game is very hard, even on Normal.
In fact, things in this game exist just to kill you, that's for sure. Not to mention that Xtreme mode turns entire stages into enemy soup. This game also introduced a new hazard enviroment system, wich means that a stage will have some enviroment variations depending on the stages that you went previously, some of these being incredibly annoying and some not being much of a problem. A Stage will only have 1 hazard at a time, meaning that if you went to 2 stages that would cause hazard in a stage, only the later one will take place. This game has 8 different hazards, and those are:
- Nightmare Bugs: After going to Commander Yammark Stage, this stage along with Blaze Heatnix and Shield Sheldon stages will have this hazard. They are just some bugs that will fly along the player, sometimes you will be getting hit if you go to fast, these can only be destroyed by Commander Yammark power.
- Nightmare Wind: After goung to Rainy Turtloid Stage, Commander Yammark and Ground Scaravich Stages will have some kind of wind that will slow the player a bit.
- Nighmare Mirror: After going to Shield Sheldon Stage, Rainy Turtloid and Blizzard Wolfang Stages will appear some kind of illusion of the other player you are not playing with, after appearing, they will ram at you, you can only avoid this using Shield Sheldon's Power.
- Nightmare Ice: After going to Blizzard Wolfang Stage, Ice will appear on the floor of Metal Shark Player Stage, this can be destroyed by using Blizzard Wolfang Power.
- Nightmare Fire: After going to Blaze Heatnix Stage, in Blizzard Wolfang and Infinity Mijinion Stages will appear falling fire balls that will constantly hit the player, these can be destroyed using Blaze Heatnix's Power.
- Nightmare Darkness: After going to Infinity Mijinion Stage, Commander Yammark and Rainy Turtloid Stages will have darkness that will make the player not see most of the stage.
- Nightmare Iron: After going to Metal Shark Player Stage, Blaze Heatnix, Infinity Mijinion and Ground Scaravich Stages will have iron rectangles that will smash down the player and sometimes even block you, these can be destroyed using Metal Shark Player Power. Also, when getting hit by these, it allows you to pass through other Nightmare Irons before your Invulnerability runs out.
- Nightmare Cube: After going to Ground Scaravich Stage, in Shield Sheldon and Metal Shark Player Stages some cubes will appear in different colors, some of these can be destroyed and some can only be pushed, these can happen only by using Ground Scaravich Power.
About the Run
There are 3 ways to reach the fortress stages:
- Beat all 8 Mavericks.
- Beat High Max in a secondary area.
- Obtain 3000 Nightmare Souls.
For this 100% run the first method is fast, since this game has a lot of stuff to collect, i needed to revisit 7 of the 8 stages twice.
This is the route used:
- Intro Stage (X)
- Rainy Turtloid 2nd Area (X)
- Shield Sheldon (Zero)
- Infinity Mijinion (Zero)
- Commander Yammark (Zero)
- Metal Shark Player (Zero)
- Ground Scaravich (Zero)
- Blaze Heatnix (Zero)
- Giant Turtloid (Zero)
- Blizzard Wolfang (Zero)
(All 8 Bosses Beaten)
- Shield Sheldon 2nd Area (X)
- Metal Shark Player 2nd Area (Zero)
- Ground Scaravich 2nd Area (Zero)
- Infinity Mijinion 2nd Area (Zero)
- Blaze Heatnix 2nd Area (X)
- Blizzard Wolfang 2nd Area (Zero)
(100% Achieved)
- Gate 1 (X)
- Gate 2 (X)
- Final Stage (Zero)
Run Notes
Intro Stage:
This was hex editted from my Any% run i did with FractalFusion, the reason is that it would look the same anyway, the only difference could be the "messing arround" part near the end.
Rainy Turloid 2nd Area:
Hazzard: None
The idea here was to unlock Zero, along with getting all the reploids in the secondary area, some of these also have Hyper Dash and Saber+.
Shield Sheldon:
Hazzard: None
Since the player gets 200 Nightmare Souls per boss kill, the idea is to get to the shortest stages so Zero is able to use 500 Nightmare Souls to use Hyper Dash, also got some of the reploids in the way.
Infinity Mijinion:
Hazzard: None
Since this is the second shortest stage, this is ideal to make Zero get some souls, plus, this stage is full of Nightmares. Only got the reploids in the way.
Commander Yammark:
Hazzard: Nightmare Darkness
Zero now has Hyper Dash equipped. Since you can get all items in this stage without a revisit, i went ahead and did so, in other to achieve this, i need to die once, since you can't go back. Picked up all the 16 reploids, the heart container, the tank and the Armor Piece.
Metal Shark Player:
Hazzard: None
I went here to make Nightmare Iron Hazzard effect on some stages, and it makes it benefitial. Also picked up the reploids in the way and a Heart Container.
Ground Scaravich:
Hazzard: Nightmare Iron
Zero now has Saber+ equipped. Got all the reploids i got in the way and a Armor Piece.
Blaze Heatnix:
Hazzard: Nightmare Iron
You need to die once to get all the reploid in 2 visits. Got all the reploids in the way.
Rainy Turloid:
Hazzard: Nightmare Darkness
Got all the reploids left, the heart container and the armor piece.
Blizzard Wolfang:
Hazzard: Nightmare Fire
Abused the ice glitch here, while jumping with dash speed, before you touch ground you release forward, and you will slide, that plus dashing allows zero to travel at great speeds, this can only be done in plain ice terrain. I also used the Invencibility Glitch wich is achieved by using Rainy Turtloid Power in a momment where you can't finish it because of an absent floor,in other words, i got a fast slide because of ice, used the technique, since i leave ground before it finishes, i end up being invincible. Later i manipulated the final ice rows part. All 8 bosses beaten.
Shield Sheldon 2nd Area:
Hazzard: Nightmare Cube
Decided to use X because he is the key to beat the Gate stages really fast and he needs to be able to use Hyper Dash and because he can do the laser puzzle part faster than Zero. Got all the remmaining reploids, heart container, tank and armor piece.
Metal Shark Player 2nd Area:
Hazzard: Nightmare Ice
(Before you ask, the Nightmare Ice is only in the main route). Got here to cause Nightmare Iron effects on the next stages, also used the Invincibility Glith. The 2nd Area is an auto-scroller, this auto-scroller can be scrolled a bit faster when Ground Scaravich Power is used, wich is the reason why i used it a lot, also using this technique, you cancel your invencibility until you hit groud, so abusing this and Zero's BIG HP, i managed to use it a lot, i also used a full tank to replenish health and do it again.
Ground Scaravich 2nd Area:
Hazzard: Nightmare Iron
Manipulated the rest of the areas to get the remmaining reploids and the heart container.
Infinity Mijinion 2nd Area:
Hazzard: Nightmare Iron
Used a combination of Shield Sheldon Power and Rainy Turtloid Power. The first one to increase the ammount of hits i can do and the second because it's the weakness of the midboss. These 2 in combination can kill the midboss in one attack. Got the remmaining reploids, the heart container and the armor piece.
Blaze Heatnix 2nd Area:
Hazzard: Nightmare Iron
X now has Hyper Dash equipped. Picked up X with his new Blade Armor because he can kill midbosses more faster than Zero. He also is capable of air movement, since he can dash vertically aswell. He also can destroy Nightmare Iron faster. Got the rest of reploids, the heart container, the tank and the armor piece.
Blizzard Wolfang 2nd Area:
Hazzard: Nightmare Fire
Ice glitch + Invincibility Glitch again. Got the rest of the reploids, the armor piece, the heart container and the tank. 100% Achieved.
Gate 1:
X has D-Barrier now equipped (it doubles Invincibility Period). X is chosen because he can fuck off the boss.
Gate 2:
Same reason as above.
Final Stage:
Sword-Dash-Cancel For-The-Win. I didn't get enough luck to get an optimized Sigma 2 fight, luck wasn't in my side for this battle.
Tools
Other than the usual tools, I created 2 Lua Scripts that helped me a lot in the process of making this TAS. The First one is a script that just show you the values of the common adresses you would be using on RAM Watch, these includes: Player's HP and Inv values, Souls collected by X and Zero, the X and Y Speeds and Positions with SubPixel of the player, the dash meter and a charge meter that only shows when the charge of any of the 2 weapons is greater than 0, that prevents it for showing when using Zero. It also shows the Boss HP and Inv if there is one.
The Second script makes Zero use his Giga Attack then restart and delay a frame and do it again until it has been done 15 times, then the script moves Zero 1 pixel to the right and do it 15 times again and again and again. This script is used for Nightmare Snakes (midboss in Blaze Heatnix stage). The user would have to determine the fastest/convenient set. Sadly enough, it can only be done in flat terrain.
FractalFusion: Judging.
FractalFusion: It's a TAS well-done and more interesting than I would have guessed. Accepting for publication alongside the existing published X6 runs.
Aktan: Processing...