This game is brutal in some ways, but the stages are very Mega Man 2-esque. Generally easy, though there's a few nefarious points. And there are some stages that are just heck; Nitro Man's would be that stage...
NITRO MAN STAGE
You've had 10 games to get your jumping perfected, and you'll need it, because Nitro Man's trucks are EVIL:
Wave 1: Here's your introductory course; time your jump as you go right, trucks headed left.
Wave 2: Okay, now the trucks are heading right! Now time your jump again, but at least you can take a ride.
Wave 3: Now, let's really mess things up. Now the left-bound trucks have a high-roof cargo load! Jump twice to get over it, and watch for spikes!
Keep in mind that, if you can, you can jump up through the roof at some points and just walk over everything.
BOSS: NITRO MAN
Nitro Man is kinda tricky. I think maybe if you stay to the right, avoid his first two Wheel Cutters, then jump over him as he rams you, then you should be able to navigate through the rest of his attack. You also have a good chance at nailing this pattern by staying in the middle, then the double Wheel Cutters go outwards while you're in the middle, then just move left or right to avoid Nitro Man's ramming. Nitro Man likes to throw Wheel Cutters up the wall, then make them fall down, or lob off the ceiling at you (sorta).
Oh, and guess what freezes him in place? CHILL SPIKE. Shoulda brought the snow chains, buddy! Better to let him hit the spikes, does more damage. But, you can still freeze him.
STRIKE MAN STAGE
~Strike Man's stage isn't so bad. Shoot the Soccer Ball Lifts to make 'em go up. And you can walk into the sides of the spiked ones; no, they're not instant death if one falls on you, but it will whack Rock's head and hurt quite a bit.
MID BOSS: GOALIE
Okay, a little tricky, not too bad. A soccer ball will bounce in from either the left or the right; watch Goalie's eyes, that'll tell you. Avoid the bouncing ball, but then his fist will block it once, making it continue its ricochet, then slam down, shaking the ground and sending out small aerial shock blasts on both sides of his fist. You'll jump on his fist, which will rise to his head, then blast him. WEAKNESS NOT DETERMINED, although Capcom looks to suggest COMMANDO BOMB.
~Honestly, easy stage, just spam the buster.
~Oh, watch for the Blue Pitchers; they will throw a downward curving ball at you, then the ball will rocket back at you. Look out!
BOSS: STRIKE MAN
Normal Pitch: Throws RS straight at you, then does its rebounding. Strike Man will bounce high, then horizontal towards you.
Diamond Pitch: Throws RS diagonally down, then does its rebounding. Strike Man will bounce high, then higher.
When RS hits the roof, BEWARE, it won't continue bouncing at a 45-degree angle; it'll bounce off the roof at a MEGAMAN DEGREE ANGLE. Get out of the way of it! More importantly, manage to get Strike Man on the far left and right sides for an easier fight.
*Strike Man's weakness is indeed TRIPLE BLADE. He's a chump when you use that; it destroys Rebound Striker!
SHEEP MAN STAGE
~You can jump up and through the Charger Platforms in Sheep Man's Stage.
~The Satelliters seem pretty distracted by destroying their bodies. Do that, but their heads are the way to get 'em gone.
MIDBOSS: BULB BUB
You may have seen this guy on the 22nd Anniversary broadcast or in the trailer. Walk on the charging treadmills to give him power. When you do that, you can hit him after climbing up 2 square platforms that will appear, but beware the Floating Bulbs that will home in and slowly attempt to collide with you. They can be shot down. Shoot him with the buster for an easy, easy midboss; you can down him in one sitting depending on how long you charge him. WEAKNESS NOT DETERMINED
BOSS: SHEEP MAN
Watch out for his ground spark wave move; travels up and down in a wave like one part of Samus' Wave Cannon or MMBN3 Serenade's spark. There's a wide form you can jump or walk through, and a more straight line pattern which you must jump over.
Then there's Thunder Wool. Not too bad, just stay out from under the four randomly-patterned clouds, but watch the fourth cloud; that's Sheep Man AND that lightning will spread sparks like Cloud Man's lightning did.
I can't tell how many points yet, but REBOUND STRIKER is Sheep Man's weakness! Don't forget to angle it if you need to!
PUMP MAN STAGE
~You can shoot the purple shots of the Metool Slugs; goop will mess up your walking.
~The waterfalls aren't just there for decoration; they'll mess with your jump height. That's just annoying.
~Stage path splits into two. I took the water route because I'm a masochist like that. Not bad; just veer right as you're falling after the two bubble maker machines.
Bonus Note: Ha ha, air bubbles. Looks like Mega Man does gather some regulatory energy from breathing, though not necessary.
~Mega Man 1 fans will be happy to know the Eye Rocketeers are back; and yes, they're as numerous and annoying as ever.
BOSS: PUMP MAN
Pump Man is so easy, it's sad. He jumps, run under him. You can shoot Water Shield, like it matters; it's easy to avoid when he spreads the attack. He's just pathetic. But frankly? I'm enjoying the break!!!!!!!
*THUNDER WOOL is most definitely Pump Man's weakness! Tears through his lifebar, although it's a little tricky to set up. He tends to follow you, so use that to your advantage.
SOLAR MAN STAGE
~Other than suggesting that on the ladder parts, you wait for one cycle of Wisps then HURRY UP past any second cycles, I don't really feel like this even needs a walkthrough.
Bonus Note: By the way? I utterly LOVE the music! I can not WAIT for a metal remix!
~Oh, watch out for the Solar Flowers, though! You can only attack them after you've jumped over their huge beam attack. Fearsome stuff.
MIDBOSS: PHOENIX (2)
So now you're faced with two robotic Phoenix's. WATER SHIELD is these guys' weakness, but they're still simple. Their attack is a parabolic 3-spout fire attack, very very similar to how Heat Man would lob fire at you.
~Only other note I really feel I need to add is that you can get between the Pyro loops.
BOSS: SOLAR MAN
Sorry, no boss strat, he died just like that to Water Shield. I'll try and get one later, maybe.
*WATER SHIELD does tremendous damage PER each of the 8 drops! Don't get carried away, though; you block Solar Blaze, but he likes collision damage.
CHILL MAN STAGE
~Whoa, Chill Man's stage is already slippery, and slippery throughout! Watch out! Jump to stop yourself! Think Luigi.
~Okay, this part is a bit unfair. When you get to the third falling screen of breakable ice blocks? JUMP. There's a Shielder headed your way, facing you.
~In the room with the Jumper, blast your way through the block and Grind Hopper to the left. The Jumper can't bust horizontally through the block, so just unload on him.
~Uh oh, the Birdeggs are back, and this time, the egg doesn't have a whole bunch of birds inside; it stops before hitting the ground, then rockets towards you horizontally.
BOSS: CHILL MAN
Chill Man's pattern is simple, but exceedingly hard to master. He'll do one of a few things:
~Jump at you. Move left or right.
~Skate in your direction. Jump over him.
~Here's the killer, Chill Spike. First blast will target the floor in front of him, then he'll shoot one over your head! Your instinct is to jump, but DON'T! And don't get near him; he'll freeze you in place with the first Chill Spike, and that leads to a terrible, TERRIBLE beating.
*Yep. As expected, SOLAR BLAZE is definitely Chill Man's weakness. Does more damage if you hit him with the larger orb before it splits, though.
COMMANDO MAN STAGE
~Sorry, you can't walk under everything by sinking in the sand in Commando Man's stage.
~Jump and shoot at the Beetle Bombers before they activate the Antlibots.
~Continuing my masochistic streak, I took the right path, rather than the bottom. Sandstorm, but at least it's with your jumps. Just watch your step; walk against the grain in spurts if need be.
~Yeah, that's a really well-placed Antlibot...
~Okay, now the sandstorm's going against you; I don't suggest speeding through the first half of this section, but you can the second part.
BOSS: COMMANDO MAN
Much like the stage, the key to beating Commando Man is patience. Stay away from him, and attack after he attacks. His pattern takes 3 forms:
~Just shoot the Commando Bomb horizontally.
~Jump moderately and shoot the Commando bomb horizontally, and probably down at you.
~Jump high in the air, shoot the Commando bomb horizontally and probably down at you, and make you immobile when he lands! Jump to avoid that!
The Commando Bomb has a REALLY NASTY shockwave. That will be your biggest problem. But again, patience makes this battle easy. I don't have that.
*WHEEL CUTTER is Commando Man's weakness. Sawing through his shell? It does make avoiding his Commando Bomb easy.
BLADE MAN STAGE
~Whoa, watch out for the first 2 Axem's (points if you get the reference); they're placed close together, and there's not much room to dodge. Maybe just run past them as they're hovering up, or run left and destroy them.
MIDBOSS: FORTRESSER
First of all, stay on the left side of the first midboss, take out the middle eyes.
Then, make the left set fire left, then run right, jump on a wheel, avoid the right cannon's fire, start destroying the left eyes.
Continue to dodge the lobbed shots as you fight and take out the right set of eyes.
After you've beat 'em all, the castle midboss will raise a white flag, then explode and crumble. Continue right.
~Well, really, the puzzling in this stage isn't bad. Do not try to jump on the right Balance Pulley platform as it is moving right; odds are you won't make it.
~Oh, feel free to get that W Can with Commando Bomb; there's a large Weapon Energy right afterwards. And yes, the stage IS trying to tell you something.
BOSS: BLADE MAN
Alright, get him on your left side. Run right; gauge the distance, you can either walk between the bottom and middle blades, or jump over the middle blade. If you're fast enough, go far enough left that you dodge it altogether. He'll go to the roof, run left; you'll evade all the knives. He'll hit the right wall; head right to evade the blades again, or jump over the middle blade. Occasionally, he will try to ram you; jump over him. Repeat.
*COMMANDO BOMB is, in fact, Blade Man's weakness, but you gotta hit him with the shockwave for maximum damage.
Time for the Wily Stages!
Wily Stage 1:
~...what the, dark hip hop? Interesting. Blast your way through. Use Water Shield if you want.
BOSS: Weapon Archive 1
It's...it's a machine that generates attacks based on previous RMs!
Gemini Man: Gemini Laser, that sucker rebounds! Watch out while the generator floats. WEAKNESS NOT DETERMINED
Wood Man: A more tame version of Wood Man's pattern; jump over the smaller Leaf Shield, get between the leaves. WHEEL CUTTER.
Elec Man: Unllike Elec Man, this is more predictable. Just jump over the low blasts. WHEEL CUTTER.
~And now we're hearing the REAL Wily Stage 1! Much more energy!
~I'm taking the bombable paths. Seems...fairly brief, even if the enemies are a bit diabolically placed.
BOSS: Weapon Archive 2
Here we go again.
Ring Man: Not near as annoying as its counterpart, just stay out of the way of the 7-looking pattern. SOLAR BLAZE.
Napalm Man: Worse than the original. Jumps a little, spurts out 2 Napalm Bombs. REBOUND STRIKER.
Flame Man: Eh, jump over the fireballs, but watch out for the rising fire columns. WATER SHIELD.
~Avoid spikes, definitely expend the weapon energy to go through the bombable paths.
BOSS: Weapon Archive 3
Wily seems to have a heads up on Rock; Rock never keeps his weapons. Maybe Wily stole them?
Frost Man: IN 8-BIT?! I love it! Anyway, wow, this one's a pain, jump over the Frost Wave; pretty tall. COMMANDO BOMB.
Tornado Man: Har har. Reference the previous game. Spins in place, does a good ol' tornado attack, increases your jump height. THUNDER WOOL.
Slash Man: You'd think to be scared, but actually, it's not too bad; just a slash as it hops. WEAKNESS NOT DETERMINED
Wily Stage 2:
~Can I shake the hand of this level's designer? You start out on Conveyor Belts headed for spikes.
MIDBOSS: PHOENIX'S
Uh, WATER SHIELD. Really easy.
~CRIKEY! Insta-death Compactors! Just jump to avoid the Spring Crawlers!
MIDBOSS: BULB BUB
What, again? He's easy enough with the Mega Buster. WEAKNESS NOT DETERMINED
~Classic "falling among spikes" gag! Veer right! There's an M-Tank!
~Yes, that Dr. W sign is placed rather suspiciously...
BOSS: Crab Puncher
I'm guessing its weakness is THUNDER WOOL. The pincers and eyes are in a line; aim high. Everything else did mediocre damage.
You can shoot at this guy's main body to push him back some, but the killer diller is to destroy his pincers and eyes. He'll fling his pincers at you, one, then the other. Fortunately, there are platforms right-bound you can use to jump over or dodge them. These platforms also give you the height you need to hit the top pincer and eye. He'll also shoot out tons of bubbles in random directions; you can either stay back and try to shoot them down, let THUNDER WOOL act like a wall and block them all, or stay near below/under him (if you do this, one bubble or rarely two will try and hit you, but usually at the end, it's easy to get out of the way of). WEAKNESS NOT DETERMINED
Wily Stage 3:
~And much like Wily Stage 3 in Mega Man 9, there's more going up while spikes are above you. This time, though, it's not gravity, but an elevator that will go left or right depending on where you stand on it. The first elevator's intuitive, watch the second one; there's a pair of HeliMetool halfway up that can easily hit you and into spikes you go.
~Do take the Commando Bomb route near the end with the destructible wall; an E-Tank awaits you on the next screen. And you'll need it, because...
BOSS: BLOCK DEVIL
IT! IT IS BACK! Don't stand on the purple! And stay on the left side for this layout!
Wave 1: Middle left and right. Do nothing.
Wave 2: Bottom left and right corners. Might wanna walk right a bit, because
Wave 3: Left bottom, jump over it.
Wave 4: Right side. Do nothing.
Wave 5: Bottom left. Jump!
Wave 6: Right side. Do nothing.
Wave 7: Left side again. Jump! Or run right to avoid!
Wave 8: Right side. Do nothing.
Wave 9: Both sides again! Stand on the far, far left!
Wave 10: From the bottom. Stay put on that far left block, but head right once you're clear, then
Wave 11: From the top! Jump over the left block!
~Now, Block Devil's vulnerable eye will rise into place. First, he'll shoot a large orb diagonal down; quickly jump as it hits the platform you're on to evade it and the succeeding spreader. Or get to the other platform, and get pretty far, because the blast will split. BD will also shoot eye lasers at you; just time your jumps, and cross your fingers.
~He'll block up again; reverse of that list up there.
~And after that, his last attack will be to make all the pink blocks shoot out a little in a wave pattern, then return back to their spot. Try running left and right away from the downward wall wave and jump over the middle and bottom; top third goes away in time to spare you a bruising.
REBOUND STRIKER is its weakness.
Bonus Note: HOLY MEGA BALLS, I FINALLY BEAT IT. That...was as bad as Quick Man's stage, or any of the preceding Devils, save for R&F and 8's. Bring Cans the first time you fight him!
Wily Stage 4:
| Blade Man | Solar Man | Sheep Man |
| Chill Man | FINAL BOSS | Commando Man |
| Nitro Man | Strike Man | Pump Man |
After you've beaten the 8 Robot Masters:
[spoiler]FINAL BOSS: WILY MACHINE
Round 1: Arr! Well, me hearties, looks like ol' Wild Hair's made himself a pirate skull ship! And the mouth shoots missiles o' varying length! Jump and walk on them to hit him in the face/eyes! SOLAR BLAZE will give that scurvy, land-lubbin' scientist a sunburn! Ye can also shoot him with yer trusty Mega Buster, and ye might wanna, because there are also homing missiles!
Round 2: Down to business, now. First, Wily will shoot a rotating orb at you like Mega Man 1, but he's higher up and the range is narrower, so it's easily avoided. Now he'll also send out a Constrainer which will trap you; no damage unless Wily hits or rams you, and you can shoot out of it. The last trick up his sleeve is to send two sparks along the ceiling and wall, and create a moving wall of electricity to hit you! You can't avoid it! ...unless you stand right under Wily's ship, beside the destroyed missile cannon. Smart thinking on Rock's part. The Constrainer should be a hint; WATER SHIELD is the weakness this time.
And now, the endi--PSYCHE. Wily escapes in his UFO!
But wait, where does the map guideline go, now?! ...how about up...up...UP...UP...AND UP...TO WILY'S ORBITING SPACE STATION?!
WILY STAGE 5
~Ah, weren't expecting this, were you? Hey, you remember the drills from Mega Man 2? Just do your Mega thing, keep in mind the gravity gives you a high jump.
Attention New Mega Man fans: The drills are infinite and destructible. Just slowly progress and blast your way through, or you can try and speed through since they're much slower compared to past games.
~If you've got a W Can, it's very much in your interest to fill Commando Bomb and try for that M Can.
~Either way, there are E and W Cans for you to acquire after that. Use Rush Jet to get the other.
~Now fall...fall...falling...WAIT STOP. You're heeeeeeeeeere...
REAL FINAL BOSS: THE WILY TWINS
~You read that right; there are TWO Wily UFO's! Hit the more skin tone Wily; the other is a pale copy with the W on its forehead, probably a robot. Keep in mind, you still have that gravity high-jump.
Two main attacks:
1. Dr. Wily will pass a plasma orb to the copy, he'll shower you with column-blasts of that same orb, then Wily will do the same. Walk and dodge.
2: Dr. Wily, after he's finished sneezing..., will send a straight-line homing five orb attack after you, and they'll make 2 passes, then go back to their origin UFO.
*Smack the real Dr. Wily's UFO with CHILL SPIKE. That oughta mess with the stabilizers.
Repeat until you're done! Congrats! You have completed Mega Man 10!
[/spoiler]
STORY/ PLOT SUMMARY:
[spoiler]
4 BOSSES:
Roll's condition worsens. But I'm starting to get suspicious of Wily's cure. Mega and Proto are fine.
8 BOSSES:
Oh shi. Mega's down!
And, as you may have suspected, Wily made the Virus! And took off with the Medicine Making Machine! If you want the cure, you have to work for him! ...he sneezes at the end of his televised egotrip.
...ROLL SAVED HER MEDICINE FOR ROCK?! That...SNEAK! That...HEART! ...I'm not welling up...
Well, with Mega Man cured, it's time to take down Wily!
ENDING:
Good work! You downed...both...Wily's UFO's! The other was probably just a robot copy; remember the fake Wily from 9?
...whoa, heck of a fever Dr. Wily's got; he's steaming and turning pink! Rock, even after all of that, still has the heart to take Dr. Wily to the hospital.
A few days pass...
AND WILY ESCAPES!
...but....but a heaping pile of the Robotenza cure is left where Wily's bed was! Hooray!
...wait, only Wily had the cure...did...Wily just undo his own scheme?
END
[/spoiler]
IMPORTANT:
Your weapon energy DOES NOT refill when you die.
There is NO BREAK after beating a Wily Stage.
You keep your items after a Game Over. Your weapons are also refilled to max.
After 4 Bosses, you get Rush Jet.