Bright Man

Bright Man - Screen 1

Whether first or second, the first section (nay, the whole first half) of Bright Man's stage is the same

Movement on this screen is fairly precise, and the timing of kills matters to avoid the lights going out at the wrong time.

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For example, the first shot is fired after one slide. This way the second enemy (a dark enemy) can be shot before the fireworks from the first green (light) enemy stop, which keeps the room lit up.

Do note the last shot to kill the last enemy is important - if it misses, the enemy will likely knock Mega Man into the pit if you are moving at speed.

That said, the last jump should be after sliding off the high ledge, jumping almost as soon as you land. It's a tight jump.

Examples of Mistakes

Shooting the first enemy means the lights stay out instead of coming back on when shooting the black-out enemy.

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Not sliding off the last ledge may make the distance needed to jump too far.

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Not shooting before the last jump makes killing the enemy when you land difficult, likely resulting in getting tossed into the pit.

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Bright Screens 2 - 4

Screen 2 - Grasshoppers

The second screen of Bright Man features Grasshoppers. They can jump at two speeds - fast needing 2 jumps before they turn around, or slow requiring 3 jumps.

On the slow pattern for the second grasshopper, you can make an early jump to the ladder platform, but it is extremely tight.

Screen 3 - Gumball Machine

Option 1 - mash down the machine. The kill can be faster but it is hard to do this faster than the other options. This is the fastest option.

Option 2 - Slide damage boost. Slide into the machine and immediately slide further through to get high enough on the ladder to not get hit a second time.

Option 3 - Back boost. Stand in front of the machine facing right, and after being shot, jump and climb the ladder before being hit again.

Screen 4 - Hanging Enemies

This screen is fairly self explanatory from videos. The enemies take 2 hits. It can be tight to jump and destroy them from a "Step" down.

Bright Checkpoint Screen - Grasshoppers

The checkpoint screen of Bright is the infamous grasshopper screen. There are two strats through here.

There is a ladder going down to a side room with an E-Tank. This is completely ignored in the speedrun.

Normal - No Balloons

Switch to Pharaoh Shot at this screen if you did Pharaoh First. Its primary use is killing the Totems in 3 shots instead of 8.

It is important to recognize when you are on a "slow" grasshopper vs. a "fast" grasshopper. Jump distances will be different if not unmakable, and you may want to damage boost across spikes.

For the two long spike sections, look at the totems. If you have fast grasshoppers, destroy the totem as quickly as possible (8 lemons or 3 uncharged pharaoh shots). If you have slow grasshoppers, fire enough shots to almost kill them, but look for a shot to damage boost against. Look left to get boosted right, then slide across the spikes quickly to the next grasshopper. Note you are not guaranteed a shot, or may receive an unfavorable one (at the lowest height). In those cases, just destroy the totem and move on.

Expert - Balloons

This strat is difficult to perform without losing time. This is due to the immense amount of lag it generates. Each balloon and each moving grasshopper create lag. Combined with not destroying the totems, things can go very slow very fast. 

As an extra bonus, remember sliding on a balloon against the ceiling can easily kill Mega Man.

The goal of this strategy is to use balloons instead of grasshoppers whenever possible, eliminating the RNG of grasshopper speed. It does require some damage boosts on totems.

(To be added)

Bright Man - Last Long Screen

The last screen has a set of swooping platforms. It is likely to be played in the dark, as it is full of the enemies that turn off the lights.

The Enemies

The first enemy is a tight shot. Angle up with Pharaoh, or use a charged shot to hit it.

Other enemies can be defeated to reduce lag.

The Platforms

You can't walk off the front edge of these platforms while they are moving (once they stop, you will fall). As such, you can walk all the way up to the front. You can stop walking to stand on the ledge safely if you wish (the platform still falls).

Going from platform 2 to 3 can be troublesome. Jumping "normally" can have a weird interaction that triggers the platform early. However, there's also a "clip" that just bumps Mega Man from the front edge of platform 2 to 3 without jumping. You may get caught on the left edge of platform 3 in this scenario (see below).

If you get caught on the left edge of any platform, unable to walk forward, slide forward and hold right. You do not need to stop the slide or jump off early (Mega Man will walk against the right edge as long as the platform is moving in the same direction. This will get you to the right edge, able to jump to the next platform.

Just slide to the door, shooting enemies on the way.

Bright Man Boss Fight

Damage Tables

To Bright

Mega Buster 1:1:3
Rain Flush (Toad) 4
Pharoah Shot 1:3
Skull Barrier 2

From Bright

Contact Damage 8
Shots 4

Strategy

Avoiding Flash

No matter the order, the key thing to remember about Bright Man is when he flashes the screen.

Bright only uses Flash with 16, 8, and 4 HP remaining.

Robots have 28 Max HP. Given full charges do 3, you can avoid all of those values by hitting bright with an uncharged shot (buster or Pharaoh) once within the first 4 hits (doing a total of 10 damage, putting Bright at 18 HP). From there, only use full charge attacks, reducing Bright Man's HP down the 3x table from 18-15-12-9-6-3-0.

The Rest - Main Stage Fight

You should always enter the room (for Bright Man in his stage anyway) with a full charge ready, either buster or Pharaoh.

Bright Man Always Jumps To Start The Fight. So don't waste your charge shot.

If you don't have Pharaoh, remember to hit with one uncharged shot early then only use full charges after. If possible, hit with the "lemon" while Bright Man is standing on the ground, so you can charge the buster during his jumps, while Bright is out of reach.

If you DO have Pharaoh, remember the Pharaoh Charge bug. You can hit Bright with the charge shot over Mega Man's head easily when Bright Man is jumping, by being brave and getting close to Bright Man to swing the shot into him (a technique you must use on Ring for the fastest time), or using invincibility frames from a shot or outright tanking a hit against Bright. We do not recommend tanking hits early in fights, since most Robot Masters do 8 HP of damage to Mega Man.

After connecting with the shot over Mega Man's head, you can fire the full charged shot diagonally when Bright is jumping (or even down if you are jumping Bright Man's shots).

Be careful with the shot over Mega Man's head - if Bright Man hits it before it is fully charged, you get the double whammy of that shot doing 1 point of damage, throwing Bright Man off the damage track to avoid getting Flashed, but you also stop charging the shot at all, and need to release it to start again.

Dodging Attacks

It's easy to jump over Bright Man's three shots. He fires 3 in sequence, one straight ahead, one low, one high. The order of directions is random.

Refight Differences

There are two main differences for the refight in the teleporter room.

Rain Flush

Bright Man's true weakness is the full screen Rain Flush. It needs exact ammo, so you need all 7 to defeat Bright Man from full health. Remember if you do this that Bright Man will land on HP values he can use Flash, so you might want to hit him with a lemon first.

Skull Barrier

If you are following most speedrun routes, you will see Skull Barrier to open the refight. Skull is Bright Man's soft weakness, doing 2 points of damage. The Shield weapon is a little risky to hit with since you need to get close, and Bright Man can easily jump into you, or just shoot the shield to negate it.

The reason to use Skull is the route calls for 2 other uses of Rain Flush, and additionally has no Pharaoh to spare.

Because of this, using Skull an odd number of times (to keep Bright off of 16, 8, and 4 HP remaining) is a fast way to make up the difference, especially if you enter Bright's Capsule immediately after Dive (thus you already have Skull equipped and do not need to menu to it). Otherwise, stick to Toad.