GlitchMan's Mega Man 5 TAS - This TAS is 4942 frames (82.367 seconds) faster than the published run!

Emulator Used

Priorities

• Uses no passwords

• Aims for fastest time

• Abuses programming errors in the game

• Takes damage to save time

About the Game

• You can't charge your weapon while you are sliding

• You lose the Mega Buster charge-up when you take damage (Mega Man 6 has that problem too)

• This NES Mega Man game has the fastest screen transition (60 frames)

• This is the only NES Mega Man game where the boss gates are shorter than usual

• This is the only NES Mega Man game where if you fire a level 2 charged shot you can't fire any uncharged shots

• Enemies in this game have an 8 frame invincibility every time you hit them

• The sound effect of an enemy getting hit is different from the sound effect of killing an enemy

• This is the only NES Mega Man game where if you revisit a stage the boss intro screen doesn't come up

• You can't jump during a slide when you are underwater, near a ladder, or behind a level background (such as the clouds in Gyro Man's stage or the teleporters in Wily Stage 3)

• When you press the jump button for one frame Mega Man keeps jumping for an additional frame (it took me a while to get used to this).

• Sliding mechanics are the same.

• This game and MM4 are the only two NES Mega Man games where sliding is a way to zip through a wall.

• Bosses have a temporary invincibility of 48 frames.

• Shooting/throwing animation can't be cancelled out by grabbing a ladder (MM2 does this too).

• The dust particle animation behind Mega Man doesn't start over every time he starts a new slide.

• It is possible to slide towards a wall repeatedly by pressing turbo A and down but only at a left wall.

• They have the same type of Rush Jet where it goes one horizontal direction and you can move it up or down.

• There is a boss at the end of the stage with the rematches against the 8 robot masters.

• They are the two longest NES Mega Man games.

Mega Man 5 Physics

The Super Arrow

• It has an average speed of 4 pixels per frame.

• Its acceleration goes like this: 0.33, 0.66, 0.99, 0.CC, 0.FF, 1.32, 1.65... It keeps accelerating at a rate of 0.33 until it reaches 4 pixels. The subpixel addresses for the Super Arrows are located at 03A9, 03AA, and 03AB.

• The Super Arrow's memory address goes in this order (from left to right): 3rd arrow, 2nd arrow, and 1st arrow.

• The Super Arrow takes one unit for every five frames you stand on it.

• You can stand on the Super Arrow to make it accelerate faster when you fire it, but if you stand on it at the wrong frame it will take five more frames longer than it should have to accelerate and a unit of Super Arrow will be wasted.

• The weapon vertical velocity is located at addresses 03F1, 03F2, and 03F3. You can use Napalm Bomb or Water Wave (you have to have a ledge for this one for gravitational acceleration) to get Mega Man to fall off the Super Arrow faster which, as stated above, makes it possible for him to fall off the front of it.

• The vertical placement of the Super Arrows is 0379, 037A, and 037B for the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st arrow respectively.

• If you are ≤12 pixels near a wall and you fire the Super Arrow, it will be in the exact same x-coordinate as you are.

• When using the Super Arrow for jumping it takes 5 frames for him to land on it unless you fire it near a wall then it takes him 2 frames less.

Tricks and Glitches Used in This Run

Super Arrow Scrolling Glitch

Super Arrow Zipping

High-Gravity Super Arrow

How to Handle Lag

Improved Boss Fights

Stage Improvements (Including an Improved Boss Route)

Star Man

• Room 1 I decided not to charge up in this room because, like I said in the "How to Handle Lag" section it causes lag. I also slide backwards for one frame at a particular part and slide forward again to manipulate the asteroids for the most reduced slowdown.

• Room 2 I throw three uncharged shots at the first enemy and jump at the end of the ledge to charge up to a level 2 shot, which has a larger hit zone, so I can kill the cannon popping out of the ground earlier. I kill as many enemies as I can to reduce lag in this room. I use more jumping/walking speed but the reduced lag more than makes up for it.

• Room 3

• Room 4 (checkpoint 1) I charge up to a level 2 shot so that I can kill the first enemy without having to jump so high. I kill one more enemy behind me at the end of the room for reduced lag.

• Room 5 There are 3 rockets in this room and they cause a lot of lag. If a rocket hits a wall it explodes into 3 pieces but if you kill one it explodes into 4 pieces (which results in a lot of on-screen sprites). To reduce lag I pause at the frame where that frame of lag would occur and there would be no lag. I pay attention to the jumping acceleration at address 03F0 (Mega Man's instantaneous gravitational acceleration). When you jump on one frame it equals 5.00 pixels for two frames, jumping on the second frame equals 5.00 pixels for one frame, and jumping on the third frame it starts right at 4.C0 pixels. If I jump at the right time I can get optimized jumping (and reduced lag too).

• Room 6 I charge up to the level 2 shot to hit the cannon sooner. I also hit my head on the ceiling to get a faster falling acceleration.

• Room 7 For the giant robot you have to hit it right in the weak spot with uncharged shots but you can hit it right in the body with a level 3 (fully charged) shot because of the large hit zone and fast velocity (5 pixels) but the pixelation has to be right.

• Room 8 There were a lot of enemies in this room and I have to kill the first one at the right time for optimized lag. I also walk for one or two frames to optimize the lag too.

• Room 9 I kill more enemies to reduce lag in this room. At the end of the room when I get hit by the second rocket I fall faster as if this was normal gravity rather than low gravity because of the time my gravitational velocity changed. Talk about defying the laws of physics! While I was in the "taking damage" phase I pressed left for a few frames to get the pixelation right for reduced lag.

• Room 10 I jump past the giant robot because I need to charge up my weapon.

• Room 11 (boss gates/checkpoint 2) - I used a new trick here where as soon as Mega Man regains control after the gate closes I press left for one frame to cancel the slide and Mega Man will zip to the right.

• Room 12 (Star Man) For this boss fight I throw the charged shot from a long distance because I can throw my uncharged shot sooner and it would still hit him. At the end of this boss fight I got him as close to the edge of the screen as possible which is what you want in this game to get the energy balls off the screen sooner since you don't have to kill the boss right in the center!

Gravity Man

• Room 1 It is faster to walk off a ledge than to jump off it. When you are walking your gravitaitonal velocity is already at FF and walking off causes it to go instantly to FE.

• Room 2 I don't throw the charged shot right away because there would be lots of lag.

• Room 3 While I was taking damage off the spiked ball I pressed left to get the optimized pixelation for the next room.

• Room 4 I kill the first enemy in this room rather than take damage off of it. I throw two uncharged shots at the second enemy which may have been the reason that there were only 5 frames of lag in this room even though there were a lot of enemies.

• Room 5

• Room 6 (checkpoint 1) I charge my weapon at the end of this room so I can kill the two cannons in the next room.

• Room 7 I throw my charged shot at the two cannons then immediately switch to Super Arrow. I slide for a bit so that I wouldn't have to get a big weapon refill for it (those cost 40 frames each).

• Room 8 I jump off the Super Arrow at the end of the previous room so that I can use the Super Arrow at the beginning of this room to get better horizontal speed. If you are on the Super Arrow when you launch it the Arrow will accelerate sooner. I can also use that Super Arrow to hit the first enemy in my way and use one more to kill it. I used a new strategy in this room where I position two Super Arrows just right so that I can keep the speed of the Super Arrows. I do this by jumping repeatedly when the gravity is reversed, which means I can't stand on the Super Arrow, but I can get the 4 pixel speed every other frame by turbo jumping to touch one of them. I slide to the end of the second Super Arrow to get the optimized horizontal speed.

• Room 9 I use Star Crash to kill the two enemies.

• Room 10

• Room 11 (boss gates/checkpoint 2)

• Room 12 (Gravity Man) There's not much to say on this boss since he is not luck manipulative so see Improved Boss Fights for details.

Gyro Man

• Room 1

• Room 2 I switch to Super Arrow in this room. I have to be at the middle of the screen to make the instruction for the screen self-scrolling part to occur. I shot three bullets just for entertainment purposes (obviously). : )

• Room 3 I get to the top of the screen so that when I jump off my Arrow when I do the slide-jump-slide-jump thing there will be almost no frames of lag whenever Mega Man's sprite disappears off the top of the screen (part of the invisible Mega Man state he can obtain) but I still have control of him.

• Room 4 I don't get the energy refill here. I avoid those as much as I can because, unless it's for vertical advancing, the Super Arrow horizontal speed is not worth it if you are actually using the Super Arrow HP because of the tremendous amounts of lag that the Arrow causes. If you are using the Super Arrow and that is your last HP of it to use then it's okay to save time with it because you won't run out and you can ride it as long as you want.

• Room 5 I get to the top of the screen and position the third Super Arrow high enough so that it kills the enemy at the end of the room but avoids the two enemies before it that are in the way. I found a way around this by making Mega Man jump over top of the screen and the floating enemies float downward (they think I'm at the bottom of the screen). It's another one of those screen wrapping glitches in this game where if your character is at the top of the screen you come out through the bottom.

• Room 6 I use one Super Arrow for jumping on it and at the same time to kill an enemy. Right when it's killed I jump off and create another Super Arrow and use one HP of that. I like to get as much use of Super Arrow as possible without wasting it. That way I'm still able to use the three Super Arrows in the next room.

• Room 7 I turn the second Super Arrow the opposite direction so that it goes off screen and the first one will just get stuck at a wall after it starts going. By the time it scrolls off the screen to the left it will just be you and the third Super Arrow you are riding on the screen. There is no slowdown during this timeframe, that is until the enemies come on screen. I also take damage by the enemy that the Super Arrow kills so that I won't have to jump over the next one (this saves 5 frames).

• Room 8 I try to get the Super Arrows to hit the giant robot on the first frame possible without getting hit for reduced lag.

• Room 9 (checkpoint 1) I position the first Super Arrow so that it kills the enemy and the second Super Arrow has to be at a very specific height so that you have room enough to slide under the falling enemy but at the same time it hits the last enemy in the room.

• Room 10 This room is an auto-scroller. I try to keep it as entertaining as possible by having Mega Man go into the ground by jumping at the same time he would have been crushed by the ceiling above. At the end of this room I have to use a Super Arrow to get to the top of the screen for a new strategy in the next room.

• Room 11 I get to perform the first Super Arrow screen scrolling of this run in this room. To optimize the lag I start my slide at the back of the Super Arrow and while enemies are on screen I slide to the front of the second one. I jump when there are the least amount of sprites on the screen because you reduce the most lag when you jump over the top of the screen.

• Room 12 Because of the screen scrolling glitch I can get to the door automatically (really the right side of the screen). This has to be the shortest room in this entire run. ; )

• Room 13 (boss gates/checkpoint 2)

• Room 14 (Gyro Man) I do have to wait for him to land for the boss to load since I am so high up. I take Gyro Man down with Gravity Hold. I get him to the edge of the screen and kill him so that the explosion disappears faster.

Crystal Man

• Room 1 I don't use Super Arrow here because the time for the Super Arrow usage was not worth it. I just kill enemies in this room regularly.

• Room 2 I charge up in this room so that I can kill the enemies in the next room. I also don't need to waste Super Arrows on these two enemies.

• Room 3 I have to luck manipulate the falling crystals here so that none of them get in my way. I wait until the end of the room to use Super Arrow because I don't want to drain too much of the HP by using it for horizontal speed. I can use it to climb the ladder at the end because vertical advancement from the Super Arrow does save a lot of time and I can also grab the ladder over top of the screen which can zip me up to a certain point of the ladder in the next room.

• Room 4 I don't have to get the weapon energy capsule from Eddie here (less luck manipulation) but it ended up coming out as one of those anyway even though I didn't need it.

• Room 5 I have to take damage here so that I can get more sliding speed in. I use a Super Arrow at the end of this room to climb the ladder.

• Room 6 I end the slide to make the platform start moving and I keep sliding for a bit and then jump on it for optimized lag but I did have to catch up to it.

• Room 7 Here is the first time the Super Arrow zipping glitch by sliding is used. Not only can I advance through the wall at an average rate of 8 pixels per frame but I don't have to worry about using Super Arrows to kill those two enemies. The downside to this glitch is that while you are zipping you get pushed to the right side of the screen and if the screen isn't centered properly and you try to go to the next room you die because the game still thinks it's a pit that you fell into. You have to go left for a bit to get the screen centered properly.

• Room 8 (checkpoint 1) I skip this room by using Super Arrow scrolling (another really short room).

• Room 9 I almost got hit by the third enemy that was coming my way.

• Room 10 I use three Super Arrows here so that one of them can make it all the way across the room. I switch to Gyro Attack at the end of the room so that the Super Arrow disappears and I can exit from the front.

• Room 11

• Room 12

• Room 13 I got the V! : D

• Room 14 I kill the enemies at certain frames to reduce lag. I also get an extra life from the last enemy. : )

• Room 15

• Room 16 I kill the giant robot here. I have to walk for a bit because if you slide while the Gyro Attack is still going, the Gyro Attack ends up going downward and it won't hit the enemy.

• Room 17 (boss gates/checkpoint 2)

• Room 18 (Crystal Man) The four small crystal balls cause a ton of lag. I want to get as much off the screen as possible. I take damage at the same time I fire the second Gyro Attack so that one of the small crystal balls disappear. I only end up with four frames of lag by jumping and taking damage at specific frames. Also, if you advance further than a certain point there would be one more frame of lag than there should have been. Before I kill Crystal Man I want to take damage so that I can get as far away from the explosion as I can.

Napalm Man

• Room 1 The growling sound from the robotic tigers causes a lot of lag. I block it out with an enemy-taking-damage sound effect (these don't cause much lag) by firing an uncharged shot at it.

• Room 2 I charge up in this room and avoid another tiger.

• Room 3 I throw a fully charged shot at the first enemy (this one requires four shots to kill) and another uncharged shot eliminates it.

• Room 4 The spiked cylinders coming at me require three shots to kill and I have to kill them at a certain frame for reduced lag.

• Room 5 It's okay to use a Super Arrow here for horizontal speed with HP being used since I'm able to slide on the ground since I'm close to it which saves even more Super Arrow and there's no additional sprites on screen which means there's no lag to waste frames.

• Room 6 I get to the top of the screen for the next room. I have to be careful not to hit my head on the ceiling though since that's the highest you can go in that room but I can keep jumping in the next room since there's no ceiling.

• Room 7 I have to save three Super Arrow HP to kill the enemy that's in my way. I slide to get the detonator to go down and out of the way so that the Super Arrow won't hit it.

• Room 8 I have to get a Super Arrow refill from Eddie in this room so that I can use them for the next room. I use two in this room for faster vertical advancement. To get rid of the shooting animation, what I like to do is place the Super Arrow near the ladder, slide on it, grab the ladder, then jump. It saves just as much time.

• Room 9 (checkpoint 1) I get a refill from the second enemy in this room so that I can use a screen scroll glitch.

• Room 10

• Room 11 I can ride the Super Arrow with my one last HP of it and it destroys one of the rockets and I can get a refill.

• Room 12 More Super Arrow screen scrolling!

• Room 13 I zip a few pixels to the right by using the bottom of the ceiling. I use two more Super Arrows to kill the enemy in the way then use my last Super Arrow to ride across the gaps at the end of the room.

• Room 14 (boss gates/checkpoint 2)

• Room 15 (Napalm Man) He wasn't too hard. I had to take damage to get him as close to the right side of the screen as possible. After he jumps though I have to be a certain distance away from him or else he fires two Napalm Bombs (the bombs themselves cause a bit of lag). These cause the two spiral explosions (9 explosion sprites on the screen for each!) and I have tried to do it this way and it is impossible to avoid the lag completely. I just got him to fire the three missiles at me and just worked from there.

Stone Man

• Room 1 I get to kill the enemies that explode into smaller ones in this room which cause a bit of lag. I also had a bit of enemy manipulation so that the smaller enemies don't jump too high up for me to kill without wasting too much time.

• Room 2 I had to find a way to manipulate the small enemies from jumping too high again.

• Room 3 I kill the detonators and then switch to the Super Arrow for less sprites on the screen and minimum Super Arrow usage.

• Room 4

• Room 5 I do another Super Arrow glitch where I slide through the wall. I felt that it was better to use one Super Arrow to ride for horizontal speed and another to finish climbing the ladder at the end so that I wouldn't have to kill the enemy that was in the way.

• Room 6 I have to take damage in this room so that I can slide past the enemy blocking my path. I have to kill the bomb for less explosions on the screen.

• Room 7 I don't have to switch weapons in this room which is faster because weapon switches cost at least 77 frames each depending on what you're switching to.

• Room 8 I kill the first bomb enemy in this room so that I can jump up to the ledge.

• Room 9 (checkpoint 1) I do different combinations of sliding and jumping for optimized lag. I get a refill near the end of this room and use two Super Arrows to climb the ladder.

• Room 10 I use a Super Arrow here to climb the ladder which saves 10-12 frames. I do have to wait for the shooting animation to go away since there's no way to get rid of it.

• Room 11 I get a big refill and a small refill here. I make minimal use of the Super Arrow for this room and the next room.

• Room 12 I grab the ladder to zip several pixels to land on the platform to the left of me.

• Room 13 I use the second Super Arrow to ride on and the third one to kill the enemy. I switch to the Napalm Bomb while I'm at the front of the Super Arrow for faster horizontal advancement. I use Napalm Bomb to kill the enemies.

• Room 14 (boss gates/checkpoint 2)

• Room 15 (Stone Man) He was really hard to luck manipulate because I ended up having to play the end of the 13th room several times until I got him to do his low jump. For his second low jump I had to take damage becuase I needed to be at a certain part of the room. I could not get him to go to the edge of the room because of how hard he was to luck manipulate. I had to keep jumping to reduce lag from the explosion.

Charge Man

• Room 1 I slide for a bit to preserve Super Arrow HP then use one Super Arrow to jump off (this one gets hit by a bomb) and turn the second Arrow the opposite direction so that when the enemy hits it, the Arrow will bounce off in the direction I'm going and I can slide while I'm going upwards which means faster horizontal and vertical advancement. I use the third Arrow to slide and jump on but I can't jump over top of the screen or else the game thinks I'm at the bottom of the screen and the enemies will drop their bombs which causes tons of lag even when I'm over top of the screen.

• Room 2

• Room 3 I create the first two Super Arrows to jump off. For the third one I create that one the frame before the first one goes off screen then after the first one exits the screen I create another one so that I can perform a Super Arrow scrolling glitch at the end of this room. The train enemies cause a lot of lag and there are a lot of these in this room.

• Room 4 (checkpoint 1) The graphics and third sub-palette weren't able to change because of the scrolling glitch and as a result everything looks like a complete mess of random graphics tiles. This glitch enables me to kill enemies as soon as they come on screen for reduced lag. I unfortunately am not able to kill the bats in this room though (they're too high up and they have a shield protecting them). I use only one Super Arrow to climb the ladder at the end because the ladder zipping wouldn't matter for the next room since the top of the ladder is at the very bottom of the screen.

• Room 5

• Room 6 I use the same technique as Room 3. I also have to watch out for those bomb throwing enemies so that their bombs don't hit one of my Super Arrows.

• Room 7

• Room 8 (boss gates/checkpoint 2)

• Room 9 (Charge Man) He was really hard to luck manipulate because if you jump on a certain frame or fire Power Stone at a certain frame or even start sliding on a certain frame he will turn red and fire three pieces of coal down the screen. He is invincible in this state and it takes a while before you can hit him again. There was not much I could do about the lag during the boss explosion because of the Power Stone. For further details on how the Power Stone was used see Improved Boss Fights.

Wave Man

• Room 1 I take damage twice in this room to get by the obstacles since you can't kill them and I don't have to Charge Kick and I have reduced lag because I don't have to use it while I'm sliding.

• Room 2

• Room 3 I had to adjust pixelation here so that I didn't get stuck on the edge of the pipe when I was falling. When he lands he goes into a stance position instead of continuing to walk. This glitch is also present in Mega Man 4 when you are in the air and you switch weapons.

• Room 4 I equip the Super Arrow in this room. I place the Super Arrow so that I can get it off the right side of the screen and it is faster to do it this way because there's less lag. I also reduce lag by exiting the Super Arrow after a certain point in the room because the small spiked ball still causes lag even when it's off screen to the left and I have to advance to get it completely out of the room.

• Room 5 I use a small bubble to travel upwards into the next room.

• Room 6 I only use one Super Arrow (and two more HP for riding it a bit) to wait for more bubbles and place it low enough so that it hits a wall that was at the right side of the previous room. I also only use one Super Arrow to jump up to the higher bubble.

• Room 7 I use two Super Arrows here for faster vertical movement. I place the second one high enough so that I can get up on the Arrow and start sliding onto the ledge sooner.

• Room 8 (checkpoint 1) I use two Super Arrows to do the glitch for the next room where Mega Man walks on water. This time I get more sliding speed in (which is why they are placed lower) and I don't have to jump off at the end so that I can get more Arrow speed in.

• Room 9 Yay! I finally get to walk on water! I'm defying even more laws of physics! It turns out that the water is actually made of solid ground. Another auto-scroller here which means I have to keep this as entertaining as possible. Shots go slower than normal going right and faster than normal going left. I get extra lives in this room and the room after the next. : D

• Room 10 The octopus I have to kill in order to advance to the next room. I charged up for this mini-boss so that I can hit it on the earliest frame possible with the charged shot's large hitzone. I have to take damage here because I can slide past octopus as he's coming back up and when I can hit it again I turn backwards and shoot it.

• Room 11 I don't need to do invisible Mega Man in this room because I am able to reduce all the lag in this room with him still on screen. I also got the E in this room!

• Room 12 Normally Mega Man would walk to the end of this room but with the walking-on-water glitch I am able to slide in this room.

• Room 13 (boss gates/checkpoint 2)

• Room 14 (Wave Man) I had to manipulate him to do two low jumps which is the fastest way to kill him. You can't use Charge Kick while you're in the air. I deplete my health to 1 HP. I also drain the Charge Kick after the boss fight and notice that the Charge Kick animation doesn't occur when Mega Man slides into the left side of the wall but the sound of it can be heard.

Dark Man/Proto Man Fortress Stages

Stage 1

• Room 1 This is the room where I tried so many different strategies because there was a sliding zipping glitch opportunity through a 10-block wall. My first one was riding the Super Arrow across the room. My other one was playing the stage regularly then when I got to the wall I zip through it with the Super Arrow. The problem with that is there was an enemy in an unreachable location near the wall and I couldn't kill it in time before it fired two shots (more lag). I used my original strategy because I did make as much use of the Super Arrow as possible because I'm killing enemies to reduce lag and I also get more use of the Super Arrow even after it runs out because I can just ride on it for the rest of the room.

• Room 2 I have to get a refill here to save some Super Arrow for the next room.

• Room 3 I create two Super Arrows at the beginning of this room: one to get rid of the detonator and the other needed to be set at an exact height so that I could kill the detonator near the spikes to get another refill. I use some Super Arrows to get over the tall obstruction and use the remaining Super Arrow to just ride on until it hits the detonator at the end of this room and I get another refill. I use a Super Arrow screen scroll at the end of this room.

• Room 4 I could not find a way to kill the enemy, not take damage, and still be able to land on the ledge. This is also going to cost me 12 frames while using the M tank because I take 3 points of damage and each bar of replenishing your energy costs 4 frames.

• Room 5 (checkpoint 1) Because I used a scrolling glitch in the previous room it saved the trouble of me going to the left to kill an enemy and come back to the right in this room. I'm also at the very right side of the screen so I need to move back and forth a little to get the screen oriented right so that I can climb the ladder at the end to make the screen transition. If I try to climb it without centering the screen properly, Mega Man will just climb the ladder offscreen.

• Room 6 I slide for a bit to keep myself from having to get a refill for the rest of this room and the start of the next stage.

• Room 7

• Room 8 I fire a Super Arrow here and slide on it to get it going to kill the enemy in my way.

• Room 9 (boss gates/checkpoint 2) I cancel a slide and restart a new one at the end of this room so that I can be in walking position for the boss.

• Room 10 (Dark Man I) On the one frame that I still had control after the gate closed I fire a Super Arrow right before the boss starts. You couldn't do that while Mega Man was sliding into the gate. The Super Arrow hits the boss on the first possible frame it finished loading then I immediately switch to Water Wave. After killing the boss I demonstrate what the sliding near a wall is like.

Stage 2

• Room 1 I have to charge up here so that I can kill the enemy in the next room.

• Room 2 I throw a charged shot at the enemy and switch to Super Arrow. To save one Super Arrow I use the ledge to jump up. Another thing I noticed about the lag is when I grabbed the ladder there was a frame of lag when I faced the right but when I faced the left there wasn't a frame of lag which tells me that this game is somewhat left-oriented.

• Room 3 I have to get a big refill to still have enough Super Arrow to kill the floating enemy in my way so that I could get the Super Arrow across the room. I tried everything I could so that I didn't need to do that. I tried jumping over the enemy but the ceiling was too low. I even tried taking damage while facing left to make him go towards the right placing the Super Arrows far away from each other but nothing worked. I just went with this strategy and it still saved more time than just killing the enemy and sliding for the rest of the room.

• Room 4 Because of the Water Wave from the previous boss fight, I'm not able to fall off the Super Arrow as fast as I normally would because the Water Wave actually has a gravitational velocity of FF, just like Mega Man's when he is standing on the solid ground. As a result, the Super Arrow falling velocity is not as fast.

• Room 5 I only create one Super Arrow here so that I can only focus on launching one Super Arrow as soon as possible. I ride that and use the remaining Super Arrow to kill the enemy in my way. The Super Arrow I'm riding on kills the next enemy and I get a big refill, create two Super Arrows, kill enemies to reduce lag, then one of the Super Arrows kill the enemy at the end of this room (also notice that the lower Super Arrow kills it). I get a small refill here because that's all will I need for the room after the next.

• Room 6 I take damage from the crystals that the crystal-making robots make. I was not going to use Super Arrow on them because it costs 3 Super Arrow to kill just one of them (24 frames) and that did not seem worth it!

• Room 7 I use my Super Arrow here and kill the floating enemy at the end of this room to get a big refill.

• Room 8

• Room 9 (checkpoint 1) I use a Super Arrow to ride on in this room while using more Super Arrows to kill enemies. There would already be too much lag in this room due to the enemies' shots so I might as well use my Super Arrow to ride on. I get a small refill then a big refill so that I can have enough to climb the ladder at the end and kill the enemy in the next room.

• Room 10 I kill this enemy to get a big refill then jump on the left ledge so that I can get better jumping height to reach the top of the ladder.

• Room 11 I slide for a bit to get the tiger to eat up the Super Arrow when I fire it to jump on to reduce lag then I kill the enemy in my way and reduce lag then ride the Super Arrow to where the 2nd to last tiger of this room is. I can't slide past it without taking damage or the Super Arrow being eaten up by the tiger because the ceiling is too low and the tiger's jumping would be cancelled out by the ceiling. I switch to Napalm Bomb to kill the tiger in my way then arrive at the gate.

• Room 12 (boss gates/checkpoint 2)

• Room 13 (Dark Man II) I don't fire Napalm Bomb before the boss loads because it can't stay on screen long enough to hit the boss before it explodes. I lower my health to 2 for this boss fight (just for fun : D)! Also, this is one of the only bosses in this whole game where there were absolutely no frames of lag from the boss explosion (not counting the frame of lag from the boss being killed). I also drop a few Napalm Bombs here to preset the memory address for the gravitational velocity of the third Super Arrow (FB).

Stage 3

• Room 1 I shoot the detonators from a distance because if I try to shoot them when I'm within a certain range, they get too low for me to be able to shoot them unless I charge up partially (for a wider range shot) but since I can't charge up while sliding I can't do that. I use my regular uncharged shots to kill two detonators to get a big refill then a small refill from them then jump up the ladder with Super Arrow.

• Room 2 I use as few Super Arrows as I can to climb the ladder.

• Room 3 I get a big refill from the shield enemy.

• Room 4 I use one Super Arrow here to get the platform moving right so I can reach the ladder.

• Room 5 There was not enough Super Arrow HP to be able to jump on the platform moving right and climb the ladder at the end. I need to have enough Super Arrow for the next room so I just used one Super Arrow to jump on the platform to move it left.

• Room 6 I jump on one Super Arrow which kills an enemy nearby. I also need that first Arrow to be high enough to create two more to kill the giant cannon enemy to get a big refill. This avoids having to make a double weapon switch. I get another big refill from another giant cannon enemy so that I can have enough Arrow HP to jump up the ladders. I make a Super Arrow as I jump to that ledge so that I can ride on it and use only one HP of it then use that same Arrow then two more to jump up the ladder.

• Room 7 The strategy I used here was 9 frames slower than just killing the enemy and jumping up with another Arrow (not counting the small refill). To my surprise a small refill came out when I killed the enemy anyway not that I needed it.

• Room 8 (checkpoint 1) I make my way to the top of the screen so that I can perform a scrolling glitch at the end of this room. Because of the high gravitational velocity of the Super Arrow (it has to be set at exactly FB) only one Super Arrow is needed instead of the usual two.

• Room 9 I use part of the ceiling to zip to the left then take damage from this giant robot which is unavoidable.

• Room 10 I don't switch to Charge Kick right away because it would cause lag with the giant robot on screen. I wait until I'm right next to him then switch to the Kick. I have to position myself just right so that the giant robot takes longer to land so that he is as far away as possible when I keep going. Just like the rolling spiked balls, the giant robot can be off screen but his coordinates will stay in the memory bank until I am a certain distance away from him then he will have exited the room completely (less lag). I Charge Kick my way through more shield enemies until I get a big refill from one of them. I switch to Super Arrow then get another big refill then jump up the ladder.

• Room 11 I ride the Super Arrow at the bottom of the ladder because the giant robot is in the way. I get the E tank then use two more Super Arrows to climb up.

• Room 12 I climb this ladder from the bottom with two Super Arrows then do a slide zip against the wall because when I tried to jump and create the Arrow immediately there was a frame of lag. At the end of the room you can see how fast Mega Man falls when I exit the Arrow from the front! I have to switch to Gyro Attack to get rid of the lag from the Super Arrow.

• Room 13 (boss gates/checkpoint 2)

• Room 14 (Dark Man III) Another boss whose weakness deals no more than 2 points of damage. At the end of this boss I get hit by the shots that turn Mega Man white and frozen. This reduces all the lag from the explosion even if the boss isn't at the edge of the screen because I have completely lost control of Mega Man for that moment.

Stage 4

• Room 1 When destroying the stone blocks the explosion still counts as a "shot on screen" like in Contra Force and you're only allowed to have a certain number of shots on screen. On one particular frame when the screen starts falling you can hit the stone blocks. I keep the long falling times the longest and the short ones the shortest so that there would be a faster average falling velocity. After the last stone block is destroyed, I charge my weapon for the boss. Before the gate I jump up to do another slide in the next room. I can't cancel out a slide and do another to be in walking position because the ledge is too short for a full slide.

• Room 2 (Dark Man IV) This boss was really frustrating because of the immense lag in this stage. I also couldn't do the charge shot from a distance then shoot an uncharged shot like in Star Man's boss fight also because of the lag. Even when I got the boss as close to the edge of the screen as possible and killed it there was still a ton of lag but I never figured out way. Maybe it had to do with the auto-scrolling and breakable block section (Room 1).

Dr. Wily's Castle Stages

Stage 1

• Room 1 For these next few rooms it's nothing but falling down a long shaft.

• Room 2

• Room 3

• Room 4 I start charging up in this room.

• Room 5

• Room 6 I have to position my distance from the right side of the screen just right so that the rolling spiked balls start coming to get them out of my way and I won't have as much lag from the charged shot being on screen. I get a big refill from the last enemy on this screen. For the rest of this run it will just be big refills I will be collecting.

• Room 7 The cannon enemies take two Super Arrows each to destroy and I get refills from the two cannons that I destroy. Also, during the refill time the enemy invincibility starts to wear off. I use this to my advantage here when killing the second cannon enemy. For the other two cannons that have two-block tall ledges to the left of them I just jump over because the sliding time would not make up for using a total of 4 Super Arrows (32 frames) on those two.

• Room 8 I position the Super Arrow just right so that when I reach the end of the Arrow I slide on the ground then back on it again. This is the best way to save the Super Arrow when you're riding it.

• Room 9

• Room 10 (checkpoint 1) There was a ton of lag in this room because of the rolling spiked balls.

• Room 11 I reduce as much lag as I can in this room. There's also the shootable pieces of background where even if you throw a charged shot at it that one block will eat it up! Once again like in Dark Man Fortress Stage 4 the explosions count as shots still on screen. I slide zip my way through the end of this room as the ceiling tries to crush me.

• Room 12 I jump past the giant robotic chicken before it fires another walking egg. I'm still not sure if these are luck manipulative or not. One time when I was playing this (in Gyro Man's stage) it launched 3 walking eggs at one time!

• Room 13

• Room 14 I partially charge up my weapon so that I can kill the floating enemy sooner. The shield enemy takes two uncharged shots to kill and if I'm close enough I can kill them.

• Room 15 (boss gates/checkpoint 2)

• Room 16 (Big Pets) Jumping on only the lower platform is faster because you can get high enough to hit the boss. The only way to jump on the platform with a big spike on both sides (they don't instantly kill you) is to fire a weapon at it. Much like Super Arrow, when you are on the spiked platform it will take you that direction.

Stage 2

• Room 1 I kill the falling enemies in my way. I didn't kill the last one because there was no need to.

• Room 2

• Room 3 I shoot the enemy to get a refill and I wait until my slide is finished since you can't jump during a slide underwater and because of lag. After jumping off the Super Arrow which kills the enemy I create two Super Arrows so that they start accelerating and I can jump on them. There was a lot of lag at the next part due to those darn rolling spiked ball enemies and avoiding the lag was almost impossible. Then one of the Super Arrows kills the enemy. The only thing left to worry about now is the luck manipulation for the next refill. I found a way to get the enemy to turn the other way and get him to shoot the opposite direction. This requires you to be at the front of the Arrow so that it fires then slide back to the end of the Arrow to get him to shoot the other way. Now I don't have to worry about the extra sprites on the screen when I get the refill.

• Room 4 The jumping in the underwater section is the same as in Star Man's stage. If you jump at a certain frame you'll either start jumping at the velocity of 05 (lasting one or two frames) or 04. I have to time my jumps carefully while watching out for lag.

• Room 5 (checkpoint 1) I create two Super Arrows while still grabbing the top of the ladder so that they're low enough to do the sliding zipping glitch into the wall (one of them has to be low enough to kill the enemy). They have to be a certain distance away from each other so that I can grab the refill and still be able to reach the end of the Arrow to do the zipping. Since I'm too far to the right of the screen I have to move back and forth. I also take damage here so that I can land in the spikes in the next room to do another sliding zipping glitch. I still have to be in the recoil animation because if he gets out of the recoil before the screen transition, the invincibility wears off. The counter for invincibility time keeps going during the screen transition (probably because of the spikes in Room 5 of Dark Man Fortress Stage 2)!

• Room 6 I land in the spikes to place the Arrows low enough for the sliding zipping glitch. I have to adjust my pixelation so that I don't end up landing in more spikes below after sliding through the wall. I take damage off one of the mice so I can slide past the rest of them which is faster than jumping over them because of lag. I have to do more screen centering here to progress to the next room.

• Room 7 I got really lucky and got a refill from the mouse! I also got another refill from the robotic chicken.

• Room 8 I only use two Super Arrows instead of three to get up to the ladder and because of lag.

• Room 9 I use another wall sliding zipping glitch to zip through the four-block wall which saves about 20 frames.

• Room 10 (boss gates/checkpoint 2)

• Room 11 (Circling Q9) I luck manipulated the boss to open its hatches as soon as possible so that I can kill it faster.

Stage 3

• Room 1

• Room 2 (boss rematches/checkpoint) I go to the boss teleporter that is closest to me everytime I go back to the boss rematches room (this room). I used the same strategies as my previous encounters with them. Just like Mega Man 6 you have to get the power up in order to exit the boss refight and you have to wait for the power up to land in order to get it. There are some differences though:

• Room 3 (Wily Press) I luck manipulated the Wily Press to go down and pull the ground up at the earliest times possible. I preserve the Star Crash so that I can get full use of it. When you fire it manually it uses 2 HP but when you hit an enemy while you still have it on it uses 3 HP. I deliver the final hit with 1 HP when it really should've counted for use of 3 HP (similar to what I do with Super Arrow).

Stage 4

• Room 1 I take damage off the laser shot from the giant robot.

• Room 2 So far, this was THE hardest luck manipulation yet! I manipulate not one but two big refills for my Super Arrow. Then I make a Super Arrow screen scroll here.

• Room 3

• Room 4 I take damage off the giant robot itself since I'm so close to the right of the screen.

• Room 5 (boss gates) I wait for a bit so that Wily Machine No. 5 uses the vacuum to suck me in.

• Room 6 (Wily Machine No. 5 and Wily Capsule II)

Closing Remarks