Ring Man
Ring Man is typically the 3rd stage of the any% route.
The Climb
The first section of Ring Man's stage goes up. These strats largely depend on having balloon. If you do not and are still playing (presumably a no reset scenario), Bright is the ultimate backup for all things MM4.
Screen 1
As soon as Mega Man teleports in, pause and switch to balloon. Unpause, jump towards the ladder with a balloon, and grab the ladder as close to the top of the screen as you can.
You have to act fast as the first turret can shoot you out of the air and off the starting platform.
Screen 2
Jump straight up and face right. Place a balloon in the air - not in the wall (don't despawn it). The fastest path involves getting hit by the turrets, so you will get knocked down onto the balloon after the hit, then jump through to continue on.
There are various ways you can speed up the process. They get progressively harder as we go, so you are free to pick the one you feel the most consistent with.
The most obvious is to add an extra balloon to reach the top of the ladder faster
To go even faster with the same method you can very quickly turnaround to the left as you are about to take damage just so you dont move backwards. This allows you to jump immediately to place the 2nd ballon and save some frames
The last most difficult way is to gamble for the turret to shoot you so you can damage boost while facing left very quickly to reach the right side of the screen.
This specific turret has a 25% chance to shoot. Therefore, you need to able to react very quickly in case the turret doesn't shoot.
Shot pattern
No-shot pattern
It's worth noting that we place this balloon slightly higher to make sure when we get the bad pattern, Mega Man gets boosted upwards, so he doesnt get any knockback to the left.
Screen 3 - Balloon Despawn Jump
You need to place a balloon high enough to jump to the platform above, and in the wall but still able to land on it for the 16 frames. There is a bit of a rhythm to this, described in the balloon jump technique page.
Just like the previous screen, you can add an additional jump to grab the ladder quicker and save extra frames.
Screen 4 - Two Turrets
Move as fast as you can to the top left under the turret. The turret can shot and the space to slip through can be tight, so unless it is actively firing you may want to just try your luck.
Estimating the percentage on whenever the turrets can shot is quite difficult as depending of the pattern the will do they may call the RNG more than once. Here's a quick rundown on the RNG for the turrets
| 25% chance of shooting bullets | |
| Bullets | Odds in % |
| 1 | 12,5 |
| 2 | 25 |
| 3 | 75 |
So if you see bullets right away, there's a good chance it will be 3 shots hence its probably better to not go for the instant jump
Good RNG case
Bad RNG case (failed gamba)
Bad RNG case (no gamba)
Most top runners will always try to go for the gamba as the time difference isnt very massive.
Screen 5 - Just go
As you climb up the ladder menu to Pharaoh and just slide to the right.
While it's possible to do the last part without the jump, it's extremely unreliable due to subpixels and the timesave is really not worth going for in RTA runs.
Ring Man - Hippos
Though the second hippo is later in the stage, the strategies are similar.
Misc Hippo Notes
The Hippo does not spawn until Mega Man is standing on the floor of the room.
Pharaoh Skip
Fire an uncharged shot at the Hippo's pillar, then slide up to the pillar. Then jump, fire another shot, then face left.
Your goal is to destroy 3 chunks of the pillar - 1 with the first shot, 1 with the overhead part of the second shot (even without charging), and one with the actual second shot. Turning left knocks Mega Man back to the right, hopefully over the pillar.
If Mega Man falls to the ground, just jump over the pillar.
Balloon Skip
Get under the hippo. Jump and fire one balloon, then jump into the hippo. You should land on the balloon. Proceed through the hippo.
This is slightly slower than Pharaoh shot, and primarily useful as a way to conserve Pharaoh ammo.
Pharaoh Kill
The hippo can be killed with 2 full charge shots of Pharaoh plus 2 uncharged shots of pharaoh.
The easiest way to do this is hold B entering the room to charge Pharaoh shot while the hippo rises. As soon as you gain control, approach the hippo and jump to connect with the overhead charge. Then position Mega Man to fire the full charge into the hippo (likely by firing diagonally).
After that, jump slightly to the left of the hippo, and fire an uncharged Pharaoh shot up at it. Your goal is for both the uncharged overhead shot and the actual shot to damage the hippo, and not any missiles, destroying the hippo.
This is slower than the other strategies and uses more Pharaoh ammo. However, killing the hippo means you do not take damage, so it is useful if you are low on health.
Note that if you were low on health and accidently got a health drop from destroying a missile, all drops on the screen disappear when you kill the hippo, so collect drops you want first.
Ring Screen 7 (After Hippo 1)
If you haven't already, switch to Pharaoh. Note ammo usage is extremely tight for the rest of the stage.
There is a large energy drop on this screen that can be collected between the platform spawning and regenerating, but you have to be quick. it is best to ignore this drop.
Movement vs. Lag Reduction
Most movement in this room looks simple - fire a Pharaoh Shot, then slide after it. There are only two Saturn-type enemies you must to defeat to go through the screen (and perhaps the final buzz saw). The rest are all for lag reduction (and thus optional for beginners, or saving ammo).
Note that you want to hold B after shooting the third Saturn (the high one), so you can hold Down to release a fully charged shot at the final Buzz saw of the screen later.
Whopper
There are two Whoppers in Ring Man's stage. The first MUST be destroyed to advance. The second (coincidently the final enemy in the stage before Ring Man himself) can be skipped.
Fastest Strat - Pharaoh Boost
The fastest Way of destroying the first Whopper is standing on the right edge of its platform, holding a Pharaoh Charge, looking right, and letting its shot damage boost you into it.
Positioning is important - if you stand too far, you won't boost backwards fast or far enough to hit it. If you stand too close, the Pharaoh shot will "Dink" harmlessly off it, and you will need to use a backup.
Besides the advantage of being the fastest strat, this also consumes zero Pharaoh ammo.
Possible Backup
If you lose the full charge to a dink, you can intentionally get damaged by the Whopper to fire the full charge from close range as soon as it opens. Not boosting early will have Mega Man get hit by the rings, and he may not recover fast enough to fire into the eyes.
Normal Kill
Use a full charge Pharaoh shot or 3 full charge buster shots (across 3 cycles). Stand far away and react to its shots to shoot it when it opens.
Damage Information
| Whopper's Body | 8 HP |
| Whopper's Rings | 4 HP |
Ring Half 2
Technically the Second Hippo is the screen before the checkpoint. See notes on Hippo one, and pass this screen in roughly the same fashion.
There are two long screens (with a short screen thrown in) to end the stage.
Main Strat - Use Pharaoh
Checkpoint Screen
The checkpoint screen has a slowly rising stair case full of spinny enemies, followed by another disappearing bridge section. (It starts with the ladder overhead that leads to an Eddy screen.)
Start holding a Pharoah charge. Jump over enemies 1 and 3, use charge Pharaoh shots on the second and fourth enemies.
On the bridge section, your goal is to destroy enemies while sliding as much as possible, both to move fast and to not fall through the platforms. Keep in mind that sliding from the start of the platform (the big block not the bridge) will keep Mega Man's hit box off the ground, delaying the bridge's disappearing pattern.
Jump to the first bridge, shoot and slide.
You can shoot a normal Pharaoh shot from under an enemy, and the shot will destroy an enemy over your head.
You can make the jump under the last Saturn enemy on this screen if you're fast. If you kill the enemy (possibly with an up-angled Pharaoh shot), remember to HOLD A through the jump in case you collect a drop.
Backup - Use Bright
As for most of the second half of the robots, Bright Man's Flash Stopper is the ultimate backup. Remember the Saturn enemies will not move and you will not have charge shots or angled Pharaoh shots, so adjust your shots (or wait for enemies to fly into range) as needed.
Final Whopper
Optimal speed is to slide through the whopper, just remember it does 8 contact damage.
If you are low on health but have over 4 HP, stand on the ledge of its platform and look left to back boost through. The ring shot will deal 4 damage and give you a chance to slip through. (You could also opt to do this simply to save 4 HP over contact damage)
Whichever option you choose, move quickly. You are likely down to your last hit, and you do not want to find out how long it takes Whopper to fire a second shot.
(You may, of course, also defeat the Whopper as intended. Watch your Pharaoh Ammo if you do, and be careful dodging the rings.)
Ring Man - Boss
About Ring Man's Pattern
Many new players find Ring Man frustrating. With a little practice, you can recognize a consistent pattern.
- Ring Man fires a boomerang along the ground. Jump over it. When it returns to Ring Man, it will fly up.
- Ring Man jumps high and fires a boomerang on an angle. Slide under it, then jump over Ring Man
- Ring Man will walk to your position. He may fire a boomerang as he walks.
- Repeat.
Your job is to avoid nearly all of these shots and pummel Ring Man.
Optimal Strat
Hold B entering the room to charge a Pharaoh shot. As soon as the fight begins, release the shot and begin charging another.
Slide right up to Ring Man's position and stop short. The overhead Pharaoh shot should bump into him. Avoid Ring Man as he walks forward, and shoot him with the latent charge. Immediately begin charging again. Jump the next low Ring, hit Ring with the full overhead Pharaoh charge. Fire the shot after iframes to finish Ring.
Its also very important to kill Ring in the center or as close to the center as possible, as a corner kill will loose about 2 seconds over an optimal center kill.
Fortunately, there are a few ways to do what is mentionned at the top.
Slide + Walk strat
As we go back, we walk so Ring stops sooner which makes killing him in the center quite trivial.
