Square Machine

Note - Square Machine damage produces a very flashy screen.

Damage Table

Square Behavior

Square always only "comes together" when crossing the screen slowly. Otherwise, Square will progressively slow down, giving the "3 2 or 1 cycle" patterns we talk about. 

• The gif above starts with fast movement and is a 3 cycle
• if the gif started with the second medium speed screen crossing, that is a "2"
• the slowest coming together speed can be the only movement you see. That would be a "1"

You can dodge the Square by sliding under, or jumping through it as shown above. Jumping through it produces less lag than sliding under (and thusly is slightly faster by frames), but is more difficult. Failing and "getting crushed" is 4 damage to Mega Man.

Once square comes together, you can execute your attack pattern. You can at most get 5 hits in an attack cycle, so you'll always have 2 coming together cycles. Putting the two numbers together is what runners mean with by saying "I got a 3:3" or a "3:2". A 1:1 is easily the fastest, sometimes by double digit seconds.

Attack Pattern

Jumping up to get the first 2 hits "is easy."

The damage Mega Man takes in this gif is intentional - it allows Mega Man to be in i-frames to fire the third shot.

The jump to the side with the fourth shot draws Square's fire to the top left. This lets you get hits 4 and 5 in.

It is only necessary to get 4 hits for a "two cycle", as the boss takes 7 shots from Dust. Five hits simply "is faster" (only 2 hits needed the second cycle).

Given there are no checkpoint screens, surviving this fight is important to a good intermediate time. This is a very common place to use the Cosssak 1 Free E Tank.