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.