Mega Man 7 This game heavily features 2 routes, for Any% and 100% Stages are listed in the Any% order. General Info Phantomire's MM7 Tutorial https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLu9v9BR8l89jfhqU6G9YllrApwy_sv2zs   Version Differences Weapon Get Cut Scenes The most obvious difference between the US and Japanese release of the game are the cutscenes after clearing one of the 8 robot stages. On the US cart, you only ever see Dr. Light talk to Mega Man. On the J cart, you can see any of Dr. Light, Roll, or Auto. Dr. Light is always the fastest conversation. Auto is usually the longest. The notable exception is "Burst Roll". Timing Differences Data courtesy PJ. Better Formatting in progress  Bass dialogue Segment NA (time) JP (diff) JP (Light) JP (Auto) JP (Roll) JP (Average) JP (Best) JP (Worst) Intro 123.278 -6.922       -6.922 -6.922 -6.922 Bass Dialogue 12.995 -0.216       -0.216 -0.216 -0.216 Cloud proto 14.459 -0.765       -0.765 -0.765 -0.765 Cloud weapon get 27.521   -3.611 0.799 0.666 -0.715 -3.611 0.799 Junk end load 2.446 -0.017       -0.017 -0.017 -0.017 Junk weapon get 28.686   -3.943 1.032 -0.566 -1.159 -3.943 1.032 Freeze weapon get 26.306   -1.048 5.075 3.278 2.435 -1.048 5.075 Burst weapon get 27.754   -4.210 2.363 6.872 1.675 -4.210 6.872 Pre-museum lab 49.900 -11.913       -11.913 -11.913 -11.913 Post-museum lab scene 7.338 -0.383       -0.383 -0.383 -0.383 Turbo proto 14.093 -0.599       -0.599 -0.599 -0.599 Turbo weapon get 25.973   -1.414 2.047 3.311 1.314 -1.414 3.311 Shade load 19.651 -0.050       -0.050 -0.050 -0.050 Shade proto 1 18.486 -3.611       -3.611 -3.611 -3.611 Shade proto 2 36.106 -2.313       -2.313 -2.313 -2.313 Shade weapon get 28.486   0.150 5.724 2.529 2.801 0.150 5.724 Slash weapon get 23.910   0.083 4.509 6.123 3.572 0.083 6.123 Spring weapon get 27.920   -3.877 1.464 -0.266 -0.893 -3.877 1.464 Lab cutscene 76.456 -6.805       -6.805 -6.805 -6.805 Bass 1 intro 10.532 1.980       1.980 1.980 1.980 Bass 1 end 7.754 -1.864       -1.864 -1.864 -1.864 Bass 2 intro 18.885 1.697       1.697 1.697 1.697 Bass 2 end 8.719 2.629       2.629 2.629 2.629 Route Differences - 100% Route Choices First 4 Robots From PJ on why the first four robots are what they are stage order is chosen to eliminate revisits and minimize buster usage on bosses, even though it means a pretty awful burst stage Freeze-Burst-Cloud-Junk: standard Freeze-Cloud(+19)-Junk-Burst(-15): +4 (time loss on Cloud from buster fight, time gain in Burst from having jet and weapons) Cloud(+19)-Junk-Freeze(-19)-Burst(-15)-Junk(+36): +21 (time gained on Freeze from having weakness, but needs Junk revisit) Second 4 Robots Form PJ on why Shade 5th Shade Man revisit (to the respawn point and exiting, since that is all the additional content): 2684 frames (44 seconds) Minus the cost of death abuse and respawn: 91411 - 90650 = 761 (11 seconds) Total cost of revisit: +33 Shade Man fight (first pixel to teleport frame): Hyper fist: 93758 - 92147 = 1611 (26.8 seconds) Regular S.Adapter: 71314 - 69692 = 1622 (27.0 seconds) Turbo Man: Good truck with T.Bolt: 9.8 (from slide-shot to movement after truck death) Other trucks with T.Bolt: 11.5, 10.5, 14.5 Good truck with Noise Crush: 6.8 Difference: -3-8 seconds, based on pattern Turbo Man fights (from first pixel of health to end teleport): Buster (good): 74931 - 71773 =  3158 (52.6 seconds) S.Adapter (good): 74725 - 71773 = 2952 (49.2 seconds) Noise crush QK: 106034 - 104966 = 1068 (17.8 seconds) Difference: 32-35 seconds (probably 33 best case, since health refill is needed) Total Turbo Man difference: 36-41 seconds with good luck on boss.  Probably -48 vs really bad luck. OVERALL route difference: 33 seconds lost during revisit and Shade Man fight without Hyper Fist, 36-48 seconds saved with Turbo Man QK and truck fight.  In all, 3-15 seconds faster. Route Info The two main categories being Any% and 100%. 100% collects all permanent upgrades, such as Protoman's Shield, the Energy Balancer, and the Exit Module. Any% Cloud Junk Freeze Burst Slash (use Ice) Spring Shade Turbo An alternate route would be to visit Shade early to get a second Quick Kill on Spring Man 100% Freeze (so avoid a Junk revisit) Noise Crush Quick Kills Shade Man's weapon bounces off walls, creating a unique opportunity to have a shot bounce around a robot master's room. In theory, this can be used to strike a boss the moment its life meter appears, reducing it from the first HP it gained to 0, killing it. In practice, even with the use of options to get Noise Crush early, there are only 2 viable places to use this trick - Spring Man and Turbo Man. Execution Mega Man must fire the noise crush as he moves into the gate, making the noise crush spawn on the other side of the gate and bounce around the room. As a slow method, you can tap right and Y at the same time to have Mega Man inch forwards. This is slow, but faster than the boss fight. Faster methods certainly exist. Weapon Notes The Mega Buster The charge speed is kinda awful. Lemons out DPS it against bosses (though if you do have free time to charge, do it). Wild Coil (Spring) This weapon can be charged. Charged springs do more damage (perhaps obviously), but can also bounce higher. Hold up when releasing Y to get a high bounce. This is extremely useful when fighting Shade Man and the Wily Capsule. Freeze Cracker Has 6 directional fire, hold up or down to fire diagonally. If you use it against Freeze Man, it will heal him to full HP. Rush Jet and Coil Rush can get hit in this game. If Rush takes damage, he will cease being a platform for Rush Jet, so be careful. Danger Wrap (Burst) If you hold down when firing, the bubble will not spawn, and Mega Man will simply put a bomb on the floor. This is extremely useful to make the Cloud fight faster. The bubble also flies up at a steeper angle if you hold up. Noise Crush (Shade) This weapon can be charged by firing a shot off a wall to bounce back into Mega Man. It really only needs Mega Man inside the weapons' hit box to make Mega Man absorb the shot and charge the weapon. This can be done with a quick "shot slide". This technique is used often, especially when a wall is not available such as the boss of Wily 3. Junk Shield It's really strong, but super laggy Fast Swap Weapon Wheel This section is not complete Pressing L+R at the same time resets Mega Man to the buster (just like most games). Jet, Coil, Rush Search, the Super Adaptor, and the Proto Shield are not part of the rotation. Otherwise, pressing R will select the next weapon on this list that Mega Man has available. Pressing L similarly goes backwards through the list to the next (previous?) available weapon. Buster - Freeze...........Spring Mega Man 7 Shop While the shop is generally not used in top level speedruns, knowing how to access it is useful for beginners as a means of accessing E-Tanks. Shop Access The shop can be accessed from the stage select screen by pressing select. Item Availability At the start of the game only "the usual" items are available, mainly E-tanks and 1ups. Beat Whistles can be purchased if you rescue Beat from Slash Man's stage. More items become available, and most basic consumables become half price, if you recover Auto's Super Bolt from Spring Man's stage. Auto's Bolt This is in the top left of the very large room late in Spring Man's stage and (will be) documented in that stage's notes. It is behind a wall that must be knocked out by one of the punch springs. Bolt Currency The screws recovered in stages either in the open or as drops are the "money" spent on items here. MM7 Damage Table Damage table taken from https://megaman.fandom.com/wiki/Mega_Man_7_Damage_Data_Chart     Mega Buster Freeze Cracker Junk Shield Danger Wrap Thunder Bolt Wild Coil Slash Claw Noise Crush Scorch Wheel Super Adapter Mad Grinder 1:1:2 1.5:1.5 1:2 2:3:4 3:1 2:3 1 2:4 4 4 Bass 1:1:2 1.5:1.5 1:2 2:3:4 3:1 2:3 1 2:4 4 4 Freeze Man 1:1:2 +4:+4 4:4 1:1:1 1:1 1:1 1 1:1 3 2 Junk Man 1:1:2 1:1 0:0 1:1:1 4:4 1:1 2 1:2 0 2 Burst Man 1:1:2 4:3 1:1 0:0:0 1:1 1:1 1 1:2 4 0 Cloud Man 1:1:2 1:1 0:0 4:4:4 2:2 1:1 1 1:2 1 3 Spring Man 1:1:2 1:1 1:1 1:1:1 0:0* 0:0 4 1:2 1 2 Slash Man 1:1:2 6:4 1:1 0:0:0 1:1 1:1 1 1:2 4 2 Shade Man 1:1:2 1:1 1:1 1:1:1 1:1 3:6 1 0:0 1 4 Turbo Man 1:1:2 1:1 1:1 1:1:1 0:0* 1:1 1 3:6 0 2 Shirokumachine 1:1:2 1.5:1.5 1:2* 2:3:4 3:1* 2:3 1* 2:4 4 4 Kanigance 1:1:2 1.5:1.5 1:2* 2:3:4 3:1* 2:3 1* 2:4 4 4 King Gojulus 1:1:2 1.5:1.5 1:2* 2:3:4 3:1* 2:3 1* 2:4 4 4 VAN Pookin 1:1:2 1.5:1.5 1:2 2:3:4 3:1 2:3 1 2:4 4 4 Truck Joe 1:1:2 1.5:1.5 1:2* 2:3:4 3:1* 2:3 1* 2*:4* 4 4* Sisi Truck 1:1:2 1.5:1.5 1:2* 2:3:4 3:1* 2:3 1* 2:4 4 4 Proto Man 1:1:2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Mash 1:1:2 1:1 0:0 4:4:4 2:2 1:1 1 1:2 1 3 Bass 1:1:2 2:1 1:2 2:2:1 2:1 1:2 1 2:2 2 6 Guts Man G 1:1:2 0:0 0:0 0:0:0 0:0 0:0 2:4* 0:0 0 2 Super Bass 1:1:2 2:1 1:2 2:2:2 2:1 1:2 1 2:2 2 4 Gamerizer 1:1:2 0:0 0:0 1:0:8 0:0 2:3 0 0:0 0 0 HannyaNED² 1:1:1 0:0 2:0 0:0:0 0:0 0:0 3 2:4 0 0 Wily Machine 7 1:1:2 1:1 0:0 0:0:0 2:1 0:0 0 0:0 2 1 Wily Capsule 0:0:1 1:1 0:0 0:0:0 0:0* 1:2 0 0:0 0 1 Other Notes Advancing Text Outside of the opening cutscene that always takes 2 minutes, you should hold START to advance text as quickly as possible. Note that the cutscene after the clown boss also lets you hold start. Always Center After Bosses Even the castle bosses. Intro Stage Intro Cutscene This honestly is only in its own page to not be missed. This is 2 minutes long and there is no button pushing to be done. Listen to the cool music and enjoy Mega Man's Met Helmet. Intro Stage - Movement There are 2 sections of this stage to really platform in. The first long section without pits, but with enemies, before the steamroller the broken highway with pits after the steamroller Both should be lots of sliding. Prepping for the Bass The final confrontation with Bess ends when Mega Man gets hit with low HP. As such, there are usually intentional hits taken along the way to the steam roller. Intro Stage - Steam Roller This page is a stub It has a name. Buster it in the head. Take a bunch of damage but not tooooo much damage. Intro Stage - Bass Bass is at the end of the intro stage. The confrontation is designed to end after either doing a lot of damage to Bass or when Mega Man takes damage and reaches low health. Given it is faster to take intentional damage from the many enemies in this stage before this point, the speedrun opts to take damage. Just make sure you have enough health to take the hit. Cloud Man Watch your step! Cloud Man - Screen 1 Slide to the right and start charging. Use short hops to start sliding again quickly, and get past the stream of 4 purple birds before they can dive to you. Slide as far as you can off the ledges to get over the up/down enemies in the pits, otherwise the jumps are spooky.  For the second jump , you can full jump and shoot the birds rather than trying to get under them. Shoot the lead bird to stop the rest from diving. On the last jump to the platform, you can again either fire at the bird's height to tag the lead bird and stop them from divind, or try to out-slide them. The the rain generator at the end, slide close to the end of the platform and back cancel - you don't need to be ON THE EDGE you just need to be close enough to slide off. While the white robot is high in its up/down cycle, slide off the edge while holding right. You should make it to the end. Remember to jump and grab the ladders as high as you can. Cloud Man - Screen 2 Charge the buster. Slide jump going right off the ladder's platform. Full jump then hesitate before sliding to get under the robot. Full jump off the edge of THAT platform, then release the charge shot at the birds. Remember to continue slide jumping as late as possible to get past the up/downs. For the drop down, you will likely get hit by the crawling suzy. You can try to back boost off it to gain a little extra speed to reach the end of the platform. Otherwise you can just eat the extra hit. Otherwise slide jump to the end. The last jump to the right though a normal jump is all you need. Definitely jump up high to get extra height on the next screen for its tight timing. Cloud - Screen 3 Fast Checkpoint This screen requires tight movement. If you can't go fast enough, taking a death is very likely. Use caution  as needed for your skill level in a no reset situation. Charge the buster, slide towards the end of the platform. Use a short hop before the end to defeat the floating turret, then full jump onto the cloud. Start charging again. Get across the next platform to the cloud, destroying the next enemy. Start charging again and wait on the left of the second cloud platform. Fast Clouds Screenshot credit to Phantomire's Tutorial When the cloud gets under the fan blade, slide jump off the cloud to the next one. Release the charge to kill th enext enemy as soon as you can. You need to just about immediately slide through the last cloud and jump to the final platform.   Cloud Screen 4 - Invisible Platforms Opening If you made it snow in the stage with freeze cracker, you can see these platforms covered in snow. This is obviously not possible in Cloud first but might be useful for learning the platform layout or in a hundo run with Cloud third. Shoot as you enter the screen to defeat the first enemy. Jump up the first step and medium jump to the next platform. Jump and shoot twice to destroy the bird egg. Slide over the two tile gap while holding right - you'll make it. Jump up the stairs, charge a shot, and slide off the ledge down to the next platform. Jump up the next steps of stairs, then slide to the next platform... Minor Hundo Route Divergence The Rush Power Adapter letter plate is up a ladder from this screen, above the next lower platform. See Hundo notes for the fastest way to acquire it, but it likely involves Rush. Any% Charge Shot the eff enemy and slide-jump to the next screen. Cloud Man - Screens 5 and 6 Screen 5 Screen 5 is a Sniper Joe and ladders. have a charge shot ready coming onto the screen, jump up to blast him when you can, and continue. (Optionally damage boost through if you have high health). Screen 6 Shoot the enemy in specifically the head from the ladder Slide right, and jump over the next enemy. Hundo Divergence Use Rush to reach the ladder above this second enemy. Proto Man awaits. This is required to acquire the Proto Shield later. Cloud Man - Final Screen 7 Screen Start Come on to the screen with a full charge. Jump up the first two ledges, but release the shot just before landing (you need some elevation). Immediately slide to spawn the bird and destroy its egg. Get raedy to kill the next bird that spawns at the next platform, then jump to it. You may need to jump again to destroy the bird. Then slide and jump to the next platform. Fan Enemies The fan enemies either pull you to them or push you away.  If they push, blast them. If they pull, you can jump at them and d-boost through (no back boost necessary). Do slide through if you d-boost both to avoid extra hits, and to avoid the winds changing on you. You will not make the jump to the last fan if it is pushing. Mash it down and destroy it if it's pushing. You should also destroy the last bird enemy no matter what for lag, then get to the boss gate and slide through to Cloud Man. Boss - Cloud Man This encounter features bright flashing lights Buster Fight If you are doing Cloud first (or otherwise before Burst), you will need the buster fight. Buster charge speed is abysmal in this game, and a full charge only does 2 damage. As such, avoid charging outside of periods where Cloud Man is invincible (such as when floating up to fire lightning bolts). Cloud's pattern is fairly predictable. Float around after Mega Man at ground level, just slide under him to dodge. Fire opening charge shots and lemons as you are able. When he floats up, charge while he is invincible or you are dodging. When he comes down and fires lightning along the ground, charge a shot while he shots himself, then add a lemon after his i-frames for "3 damage cycles." Be careful of the rain pushing Mega Man around and don't get pushed off the platform. Don't forget to Center Mega Man in the arena after the fight. Danger Wrap Fight If you use the Danger Wrap's "Down+Y" function to drop a bomb on the ground, it deals weakness damage to Ccloud without triggering the long weakness animation. This fight is likely to result in a lot of damage taken, as the wind will constantly push you into Cloud Man. But the speed of damaging Cloud more than makes up for it if you can survive. Safe Danger Wrap (Bubbles) Fight Cloud Man has a long if easily avoided "flinch" animation when attacked with a Danger Wrap Bubble, floating up to the top of the screen before it explodes to deal damage. With relatively good timing, you can get Cloud Man trapped in an infinite loop of getting Danger Wrapped. This is extremely effective and safe, but also significantly slower than the other Danger Wrap method. It is still faster than a buster fight. Junk Man Forgotten Factory Junk - Hundo Route Notes This stage is best visited in 100% after Freeze Man. This is because acquiring the Letter for the Rush Super Adapter (the jetpack) requires freezing a lava pillar.   Junk - Screens 1, 2, and the Elevator This stage heavily utilizes the Thunder Strike. This is also Junk Man's weakness, so make sure you save enough for the boss. Screen 1 Quick Swap to Thunder Strike. Slide, jump, and shoot/zap the first flying enemy. Jump the pit and slide off the ledge, then shoot-slide. The bug should get zapped where a lemon would fly over its head. Continue sliding to the end of the low floor, then full jump on top of the bug-junk-house. You don't need to destroy it and you can walk (and slide) on it. Climb and fall down the ladder. Screen 2 Slide through to the elevator door The Elevator Just hang out in the right corner and dodge things. Get through the door on the right as soon as you can. Junk Scren 4 and 5 - The Hundo Split This is the checkpoint screen Screen 4 Still with Thunder strike on, shoot slide and go right. Hop up to the ledge and continue going right as fast as you can (Don't slide into the lava). The initial thunderbold should strike a bug on the ground across the lava pits. Jump the first lava pit, shoot slide a bug and jump to the next ledge. 100% uses Freeze cracker here to freeze the "lava-fall" and walk behind it. The Rush Super Adapter Plate is below. I believe the hundo strat is to collect it and take an intentional death to respawn on this screen, then proceed on the top path for Rush Jet. Image showing the bottom right ladder going down behind the Lava-fall Jump up the ladder and slide right. SLIDE OVER THE LAVA GAP HOLDING RIGHT - you'll make it and it's faster. Then hop onto the bug-house and slide off holding right to the next screen. Screen 5 Slide to the bug house, jump on it for the extra height, then  jump up the ladder. Junk Screen 6 - Vertical Room Start the Power At the start of the screen, there is a innocuous looking machine in the background. Powering it causes the platforms to move, but importantly, the side you shoot it determines which way the platforms move. You MUST shoot it to collect Rush Jet on this screen. SHOOT IT FROM THE LEFT SIDE. To do this - climb the ladder enough to get onto the platform, then slide past the machine. When you right cancel to return, shoot-slide so you shoot it on the left side. Shoot slide back, since you need to move fast to catch the platform cycle. Jump high up the ladder then get on top of the orange platform before it gets too far away. Otherwise, just wait for the next one (it will take a while). Rush Jet Once you are on the platform, pause and switch to Rush Coil. After the left ladder stops and about midway up the right-side ladder, an orange platform should come down the left side (don't get crushed!). Cross to the left side and go up the ladder. Summon Rush Coil quickly at the top (you can summon him slightly before reaching the top of the ladder). Coil to the high left ladder and get the Rush Jet box. The Rest Quickly get back down. If you're fast, you can use the right side platform to gain a little extra height up the ladder by sliding across it - just don't get crushed. Climb all the way up, slide to the right, and jump up the ladder to the next screen. (You can use Rush Coil for a little extra height) Junk - Screen ,8,9 - Trash Snakes Safe Strat (Both Screens) The safe strat through this room that doesn't lose too much time is Rush Jet. Pause, switch to Jet, and summon Rush at the top platform level. Move far enough down to not bonk Mega Man's head on the ceiling magnets, and proceed. Don't look left, it will slow Rush down. At the end of the second screen, you can slide off Rush to get to the end faster, then fast swap back to Thunder bolt. Fast Strat   Screen 7 This is best describe as quickly slide through the room. Eat the damage from the snakes, and just go. Screen 8 The ladder at the bottom of the screen is from the Alternate Rush Plate route Slide up to the edge of the pit. Summon Rush at the edge. Double back left to despawn the block, then coil to the high floating enemy on the right of the pit. Slide and damage boost through the snake, then coil up to the high platform. Shoot the falling block from the right side, and slide jump to it. After that, slide to the end of the screen and drop down the ladder. Screen 9 Switch to Thunder Striker. Slide left and to the right as you would expect. Use T Strike to destroy the green ceiling turret, and the final purple turret (jump over the Met at the end). Boss - Junk Man junk Man has some long annoying patterns. If you let him get into them, he can generate lag and have long invincibility. Fortunately, he also has a huge flinch animation to Thunder strike, which can trivialize the fight. You should always enter this room with T. Strike equipped. These strats are the same in refights. The Flinch Animation Junk mam pops into the air when damaged by Thunder Strike. After landing, he jumps to the opposite side of the room, throwing a block of junk at you from mid-air. After landing, his attack sequence resets. His invincibility frames wear off about 90% of the way through the jump. Simple Safe Strat Open by shooting Junk Man with T-Strike. Junk Man will pop into the air (as described in Flinch Animation). Stand on the opposite side of the room, slide under his jump to dodge the attack, then repeat. Seven hits, and it's over. Faster Strat The premise of the faster strat is that there is a small window where you can hit Junk Man while he is still in i-frames, but the Split shots of T-Strike will hit him. This DOES NOT trigger the flinch animation, which while nice and easy to dodge, is slow. You want to jump and shoot at the same time coming out of your slide under Junk, staying close to him. You want to hit Junk twice like this on the left, not triggering the flinch.  DO TRIGGER IT  on the third hit - if you do not reset Junk Man's pattern, he will enter an invincible attack sequence. High jump on the third hit too, since Junk is about to slam the floor stunning Mega Man. Once he is on the other side of the room again, repeat hitting him three times without triggering i-frames. Note the 3rd of these is the 7th hit that will end the fight. If at any point of this sequence you send Junk into a flinch animation, don't worry. You can resume the strat on either side having only lost time. Missing the hit is effectively falling back to the safe strat. Freeze Man Don't Slip! Freeze Screens 1 and 2 Screen 1 Quick swap to T Strike, slide right. Use T-Strike on the walker enemy as you jump and slide up the stairs. Slide into the bear to D-boost, slide through it and full jump from the far right edge into the screen transition while holding up+right. Screen 2 If you did screen 1 right, you should grab the ladder and immediately climb up to screen 3. Screen 3 Press R to switch to Junk Shield, but don't use it yet. Slide into then again through the bear. Medium jump mid-air over the shield attacker and activate the junk shield, destroying the enemy. (Activating the shield mid-air also means you don't stop moving). Keep the shield on for the rest of the screen, jumping and sliding until climbing up the next ladder. The shield should naturally destroy the second sheild attacker. Freeze - Screen 4, 5, 6 Screen 4 - Long Icicle Screen Switch to buster and begin charging. Slide right until you reach the spike gap. Jump the first set of spikes. Wait for the next icicle dropper to be in position, then either jump across the icicle as intended, or try to d-boost off it sooner. Phanto's suggestion is hop 3 times as a timing mechanism, then jump into the icicle. Invincibility time is short, so move fast on the spikes Continue sliding to the right jumping when needed. Finally release your full charge into the next Icicle dropper, then jump across that pit. Wait for the Shield Attacker to fly overhead, then hop up the ledge and continue sliding right. D-Boost through the next Shield Attacker, then slide to the end. Hundo - Rush Power Adapter Board There is a ladder up at the end of this screen. Hundo must coil up to acquire the circuit board. The extra screen is pictured below. You can summon Rush on the lower left platform (from the ground level even) to save some time over jumping up as intended. Screens 5 and 6 Screen 5 is an empty checkpoint screen. Slide through it. Screen 6 is mostly the same, but has a Sniper Joe. You can either slide and damage boost through it, wait for it to jump and slide under it, or wait for it to become vulnerable and attack with T-strike. Freeze Screens 7, 8 - Rush Search Do We Get Rush Search? Any% can collect Rush Search for a chance at getting the "Good Boy Skip", you must acquire Rush Search. You can do that best on this screen for any% (technically you could get Auto's Super Bolt and buy it, but that is...slow...and expensive). Follow the strats on this page and just stay up top the extra jump to get Rush Search if you want it. It's otherwise not required and does not impact the rest of the run, and only loses a few seconds if you try it. Obviously(?) 100% runs should collect Rush Search here anyway. This is especially true since Rush Search can find secret versions of just about every upgrade needed for 100% to avoid buying them at the shop, including the Exit Module later in this very stage. Screen 7 - Top Route There isn't too much to screen 7 - just slide, jump the pits, and stay on top. Also Quick Swap to T. Strike. There is a 2 tile gap placed at an awkward location for sliding over between floating platforms 2 and 3, and Mega Man's first slide might end off the ledge. You can just jump it, or you can slide cancel it and slide again. Slide Canceling it would be slide, tap left, tap right and down to slide a second time over the gap, then slide jump a third time on the next platform to the 4th one. Stay up top the whole time if you are collecting Rush Search (on the 5th high platform) In either case, drop into the gap between platforms 4 and 5. Fire a T. Strike at the green turret on the way down.  If you miss the turret, just jump and shoot it. The floor enemy will probably hit you, just don't fall in the pit. Better to take the damage than a death. Continue sliding to the end, but at the end of the screen , full jump into the transition. This should be from the end of the third non-ice platform, before the bigger drop-off. Just like Screen 1 and 2, hold Up and Right through this transition. Screen 8 Screen 8 is a polar bear guarding an E-Tank. If you finished screen 7 properly, you should grab the ladder and quickly climb to screen 9. If you miss the jump, don't fight the bear. Quickly jump to the next screen. You can grab the e-tank if you want, but there are no real good strats for it. Try killing the bear the Junk or just D-Boosting if you trust your health, but this one is more trouble than it's worth. Freeze Screen 9 - Penguin Sleds Hundo Runners - The Exit Module is at the end of this screen before the Boss Gate Screen 9 Have T. Strike equipped. This long screen has 3 Penguin sled enemies. Most of your time is just slide jumping but you want to fire T. Strike at the right moments to take out the sleds. T. Strike not only collides with the sled destroying it, but the split shot takes out the high bouncing penguins. You still want to keep sliding towards the right as much as possible, not just for speed, but to avoid the front Penguin's long low lob at Mega Man. First Sled The first penguin sled is over the first pit Sled 2 You can slide up to the wall under it, avoiding these Penguins entirely. Note that if you wait too long, the Penguins will jump backwards at you. Get ready to shoot sled 3. Sled 3 As soon as you get to the ledge Sled 2 comes off, shoot slide with T. Strike. Slide after the shot until sled 3 is destroyed. Any% can continue sliding to the boss gate from here.  Quick Swap to Junk Shield. Hundo - Collect the Exit Module After dropping off the climbing ice platforms, there is a nautilus shell in the rocks. Summon Rush Search here to get the Exit Module. There is no specific reason to not collect the module in other categories other than losing time. Boss - Freeze Man Freeze Man is 3rd in traditional Any% and 1st in 100% routing. Freeze Man's Pattern Freeze Man typically walks back and forth between these steps. Freeze makes a small hop on being damaged, Freeze jumps over you and shoots down. This freezes the floor, so jump over the ice to avoid getting stuck. Freeze fires straight up and does not move Freeze jumps straight up then fires horizontally at you after landing - dodge this shot by jumping over it Repeat Junk Shield Strat Freeze Man has a flinch animation like most bosses in this game. Making Junk Shield collide with him will stop Freeze's movement. This will advance him to his next attack in the above attack pattern, where you should simply use junk again. Junk shield itself is a  very laggy weapon. This is best mitigated by summoning the shield next to Freeze so it gets destroyed almost as fast as it appears. In general, stand next to Freeze, and be ready for him to move. After the first hit, Freeze jumps over you and shoots down. After the second hit, Freeze fires straight up and does not move. If you got frozen to the floor from attack one, just wait with Junk Shield until he moves into you. After the third hit, Freeze jumps straight up then fires horizontally at you after landing - dodge this shot by jumping over it Repeat until you have hit Freeze 7 times. Buster Strat This is mostly relevant to the 100% and Buster Only categories - Any% should focus on Junk Shield. Enter the room with a charged buster shot. Hop and release the charge, then slide under Freeze when he jumps at you. Just like the Any% Cloud Man fight, charging is slow, so pummel Freeze with Lemons. When he does jump high to shoot down and freeze the floor, or otherwise jumps out of range, you can use the extra time to build a full charge. If you shoot Freeze while he is walking across the floor, use short hops with the lemons and be ready to slide under his jump. Refight Notes The refight should use the Junk strat, through there are 2 other notes about the fight to keep in mind. Freeze does take extra damage from Scorch Wheel. Freeze is  fully healed by Freeze Cracker - This makes a fun event gag if the run has gone wrong. Burst Man bomb bomber bombest Burst Screens 1,2,3 - Bomb Skips The early stages of Burt Man ask the player to activate some bomb platforms to clear space to advance. This is the usually safer if also slow option. You can also use Rush Jet to maneuver between the bombs. Screen 1 Screen 1 - First Skip Jump onto the back half of rush from the left side of the platform, and HOLD DOWN the whole time.  DO NOT  press up or right or left. When Rush gets to about the correct point, slide through the bombs. Screen 2 - Second Skip There are multiple methods to skip the second set of bombs. Rush Summon Rush on the left of the preceding platform, then steer Rush over the bomb then down through it. As Rush passes through it, slide and hold right to clear the spikes. Damage Boost You can get knocked back by the enemy, down to the spikes.  Mega Man 7 iFrames are notoriously short, so work FAST If you damage boosted directly onto the spikes, you may have enough time to slide far enough on the spikes to jump to the next platform. Screen 2 The speed route drops down on the left. Note that there is an E-Tank if you drop on the right. You should skip the fast strat on screen 3 if you get the etank and trigger bombs as expected. Screen 3 You want to summon Rush facing the bombs, then move Rush up and Down over the closer bomb. Mega Man should drop through. (If not, trigger the bomb(s) as normal. Burst Screen 4,5 - Water Screen 4 Quick Swap to T. Strike.  This room is cycle based, so if you move the same every time the enemies should be in the same position. Otherwise you might need to clear out extra enemies. Keep in mind the clear cellualar bomb things ... are exploding bombs. Keeps your distance when detonating them to avoid damage. First Spike Pit You can actually slide under the first bomb and jump to the next ledge without taking damage. If this is troublesome, just shoot the bomb with T. Strike before getting too close to it. DO shoot the second bomb up top with T. Strike. Going Under Slide off the platform and float down to the bomb, Slide off that to the next platform. Slide under the bomb enemy. Jump over the bomb and T-Strike the fish. Slide under the last bomb and fall to the next screen. Screen 5 Slide to the left and fall to screen 6. Quick swap to your desired weapon on the next screen here, Junk (safe) or Freeze (faster but harder). The health on the right is optional. Burst Screen 6 - Underwater Mets Burst Screen 7, 8 - Crab Screen 7 Crab Midboss The crab is surprisingly simple - use Junk Shield. Just stand inside its hit box and pummel it until it's dead. After defeating it, pause and switch to Rush Coil. Fast Climb The Game As Intended The game intends Mega Man to slowly float up after defeating the midboss. Once the last ceiling spike explodes, the game pushes Mega Man up. This makes Mega Man slowly approach the clear bomb enemies and eventually get to the top to proceed through the stage. Since the top rises and sinks, it is possible you reach the top at the low end of the cycle and have to wait. Our goal is to avoid that. The Faster Strat Your main goal is to be jumping up on the left side when the last spike explodes. This could be a normal jump, or it could be a bounce off Rush Coil. Jumping off Rush Coil too early can easily Spike Mega Man Jump from the left side of the room. You have to know how to wiggle through the bombs on the way up, but it's just a small stutter movement to the left. If done correctly, Mega Man should get to the top-top and be able to immediately proceed. Hitting a bomb will stop your upward momentum and make Mega Man float up at the normal slow speed. The good news is any amount of extra speed is still good. Get to the next Room If you are jumping off the high platform, a slide jump (and specifically a slide jump that gets a little extra distance off the ledge) can make it over the spikes. The higher you jump, the more Mega Man plunges in the water, so you will hit the spikes if you miss. Try to jump past the fish or otherwise damage through them - you need to summon Rush Coil to jump to the ladder, or wait for the tide to float Mega Man high enough to make it. Screen 8 Step right, then look left and summon Rush Coil. Use rush Coil to jump to the central pillar. Slide jump (SPECIFICALLY slide jump) to the ladder from here. With the extra distance from the slide, you should be able to reach the ladder. If you fall, try to quickly jump back up to the Yoku block and try again. Burst Screen 7.5, 8 Burst Screen 9, 10 - Yoku Blocks Screen 9 This screen has some spikes and Yoku blocks. Have Rush Jet equipped, the difference in the strats is when you summon him. Safe Strat You can summon Rush Jet from the right of the first high platform. Just get to the top of the screen, get past the blocks before anything weird happens. Faster Strat This strat is faster by introducing some more slides, and being lower on the screen.  Jump from the high platform to the first yoku block, and slide off to the low platform. You will make it just holding right through the slide. Summon Rush Jet on the low platform, then ride Rush to the end. Screen 10 Keep Jet equipped. Jump over the Frogs, one at a time, and get to the next screen. Burst Screen 11, 12 - Floaty Bubbles Screen 11 - The Bubbles For hundo runners - the Rush Super Adapter cirbuit board is relatively early on this screen. The rising and falling water here is still on cycles from all the way back when you defeated the crab midboss. Depending on your movement to this point, water height may vary. In general, if the water is high and you can advance, you should advance. Jet Strats Screen 12 Have ice equipped on this screen - you can always get there quickly with L+R (reset to buster) then R. Hold +left to walk to the ladder and then shoot ice up into the ceiling. The ice shard ricochet will kill the enemy in 2 hits. Optimally both hit on one actual shot, but if not just shoot again. Advance to Burst Man. Boss - Burst Man Burst Man can be deceptively difficult. The player needs to avoid bombs scattered across the floor as well as the bubbles in the air. A missed Freeze Cracker can also knock Burst "back" away from the wall, putting him in a worse position for Mega Man. Freeze Cracker Strat Get into the tile next to Burst Man as fast as you can (it doesn't need to be exact, just as long as you are "close"), then FULL jump, shoot a Freeze Cracker, and move away from Burst.(Full Jump here meaning hold the jump button and do not let go until you land and jump again. Do not short it - this jump is for timing). As soon as you land , full jump back next to Burst Man, and repeat with another close range Freeze Cracker. Do this 7 times while avoiding the bombs (Burst dies on the 7th hit) Backup Jump to gain height over the first shot when the bombs explode (avoiding damage). Fire the ice at Burst on a diagonal, repeat. Just be sure to connect with the main shot and not the scatter off the wall - The rebound will knock Burst Man into the middle of the room. You can continue this assualt from there, but it will be awkward. Clown Midboss Weak to Danger Wrap. Slash Man Jurrasic Jungle Slash Screen 1 and 2 - Logs Screen 1 Screen 1 has classic logs on waterfalls platforming. No matter your strat, start by sliding up to the first waterfall as fast as you can, boosting through the Dino. Timing matters. Safe and Slow Use Rush Jet. Get on top of the screen and maybe be wary of the birds at the end, but otherwise you should make it without a problem. The next screens call for rush Jet anyway, so switching isn't entirely bad. Faster and Dangerous Jump the the waterfall with logs (the first one you just jump over). The moment you see water cresting over the edge signaling a new log, slide to it. Jump to the next ledge. Repeat this with the next two water falls. When you see the next log appearing, immediately slide to it. The rest of the screen is just slide jumps and avoiding the birds. Get up the ladder on to screen 2. Screen 2 Climb to the top of the ladder. If you are not already on Rush Jet, pause and switch to Rush Jet (you need Rush on screen 3 anyway). Use Rush Jet from the top platform to the top of the left ladder and climb up. Slash Screen 3 and 4 - Dino Spikes Screen 3 Intended Strats Ride the dinosaurs across the spikes, shooting or avoiding the flying enemies as they go. Speed Strat Slide close to the dino, then summon Rush Jet. Remember Rush gets injured and teleports away when hit by an enemy. Ride Rush somewhat low through the first section, shooting lemons to kill the flying enemies. Once you pass the enemy that spawns just in front of the second dino, hold up to fly all the way up. There is one enemy that may come close but it will not hit you. When you see the ladder, climb it unless you want the E-Tank. There is an E Tank just past the ladder, high on the screen. You can collect it by flying high with Rush, then slide jumping back left to the platform near the ladder. This is not needed for any category and is just a safety. Screen 4 Just get to the ladder on the right side of the platform and go to screen 5. Use T. Strike on the Sniper Joe if you want to kill it. Switch to Junk Shield or Danger Wrap for the next screen. Slash Screen 5 - Dino Bot King Gojulus The next screen has some spike pits and a big dinosaur stomping up behind you. There are two main strats. Get onto the top right platform and switch to your weapon. Danger Wrap When the dino walks up, hold down and mash Y to drop bombs. If it backs away, drop to the lower platform and let bombs drift up into it. If you run out of ammo, switch to the Junk backup. Junk Shield A laggier but more consistent strategy is to use junk shield repeatedly. It should only take 2 or 3 shields.   Slash Screen 6 - Frogs and maybe Beat Frogs Shoot slide frogs, jump (and shoot) when needed. Get to the next screen Beat Beat is entirely optional for any% and a recommended skip. Beat is REQUIRED for 100% Use scorch wheel while touching the leaves of the trees. One of the last trees will reveal a ladder. Climb the ladder and find beat's cage. Hit it with a full charge buster shot to release beat. Slash Screen 7 - Eggs Slide through as much of the screen as possible, including sliding through 3 of the 4 eggs. Only the 3 egg gets avoided entirely at optimal pace. Slash Man Fight Slash Man has an annoying habit of jumping above the screen to "drop ketchup" after 2 hits. As such, a goal of the fight is to minimize the number of times he goes off screen. This can be done by delaying the shots of Freeze Cracker until after some charged Buster Shots have been delivered. a Four cycle fight is relatively simple - one charged buster shot and one freeze cracker per cycle. You must connect with both shots all 4 cycles. a Three cycle fight can be achieved by timing the second buster shot. You need Slash Man to commit to his slash attack when you hit with the second buster shot, so there is time to hit with the freeze cracker. You only need 2 cycles of 2 buster shots, but you do need all 3 freeze crackers. Alternate Weaknesses Slash is weak to both Ice and Fire. Fire is clumsy and not conducive to the above strategies, so we recommend avoiding it. Spring Man Boyoyon Paradise Spring Man - General Movement Info Spring Man's stage is full of...springs. Holding jump will usually make Mega Man go higher when he bounces, whether it is a floor or a wall spring (ceiling springs will always push you down. The red boxes near the end rotate as you jump on them. Spring Screen 1 & 2 Screen 1 Is just an intro just slide to the left and move on Screen 2 A lot of early Spring is a choice between using Junk to progress at the cost of lag, or using other weapons that are faster but potentially needing aim.   Spring Man - Large Room This Large Screen has Auto's Super Bolt! While only required for 100%, if you still need the shop for any% or are just playing casually, you may want to collect this item to improve the shop. Any% To The Next Screen At the start of the screen, use the low springs to reach the central platform, then summon Rush Jet on the far left. (It doesn't need to be the extreme left of this image, just mostly left) Get on Rush and hold up (only up) from here, shooting the blue floating enemy. When you pass the two boxes, jump to the little spring passage. (You can still make it if you get punched and look left at this height) Jump up to the ladders and the last screen from there. 100% - Super Bolt Instead of flying up and right in the room, navigate to the top left corner of the room. You will need the Ref punchy blocks to break a wall to its left to access the Super Bolt's screen.   Boss - Spring Man Spring Man is weak to Slash Claw. Standard Fight Immediately slide in and attack Spring Man with Slash Claw. This stuns Spring Man with a long set of iFrames and resets his attack sequence. Spring Man will jump to the center of the room, then jump straight up. With good timing, you can jump and slash him just as his iframes run out (pictured above). The timing is somewhat tight but doable. if you miss, Spring Man will throw two stretched out punches at you. Slide to avoid each, then use Slash on Spring as he comes down. Repeat. Quick Kill It is possible to execute a Noise Crush Quick Kill on Spring Man in his stage. If you Have Noise Crush this should be attempted. Other Fights It is possible to fight Spring primarily with Noise Crush (this is an actual fight in refights, as opposed to the quick kill with Noise Crush)   Shade Man Boss - Shade Man Any% Fight - Spring Enter the room with Spring equipped and preferably charged. Hit Shade Man only with fully charged springs (you can get a quick opening uncharged spring in, but it will not reduce the number of full charge springs needed). When Shade Man is hovering near the ceiling, hold up when releasing Charged Spring to make them bounce high. This will not work with uncharged Springs. Just be sure to slide out of the way when Shade Man dives. 100% Fight - Super Adapter The Super Adapter is highly effective against Shade Man, making him an excellent entry point to the second 4 robots on 100%. Turbo Man Boss - Turbo man Turbo Man is weak to Noise Crush. The fight without it can be laggy and annoying, but the standard Noise Crush fight is simple with audio cues. There is also a quick kill for the main stage. Noise Crush Quick Kill As mentioned here - https://goodboyrush.net/books/mega-man-7/page/noise-crush-quick-kills   "Mega Man must fire the noise crush as he moves into the gate, making the noise crush spawn on the other side of the gate and bounce around the room." It is possible for Noise Crush to miss, so don't put the controller down until it's over. This method only works in the stage, not in the Wily 4 Refights Standard Noise Crush Fight Noise Crush can be "charged" by bouncing it off a wall into Mega Man. You can also shoot-slide into it, but in the confines of this arena that should not be necessary. Look at the nearest wall, fire Noise Crush into it to build the charge, then turn and fire at Turbo Man. Using charged Noise Crush puts Turbo Man into a flinch animation loop for a consistent kill. Turn and shoot against the wall to charge Noise Crush again, then move about a quarter of the way across the screen to jump over. This leaves the only RNG as when to jump over him. You will hear the screeching tires before the engine revs with a roar. That VROOOOOOOOM is the cue to jump over Turbo Man. I do not know of any visual cue if the audio can not be heard. Buster Fight There are 100% routes that fight Turbo 5th with Buster. Notes have not yet been written for this route. Wily 1 Wily 2 MM7 Wily 2 - Screen 1 Use the Electrick Shock on teh sleds, and make your way to the ladder to climb up. There is a hidden E-Tank on the bottom of of the first screen, behind the pictured pillar. The ground to stand on is similarly not visible. Boss - Gamorizer General Info Gamoizer is weak to springs. Use charged springs as you can, but spam normal springs over charging. The turtle is also extremely weak to bubbled tiny turtles (Danger Wrap). Timing and execution for this is tight. General Notes from Discord To begin with, hold right is important when entering the boss. You advance an extra pixel which can make it easier to hit the turtle 4 times. (You can hit the turtle 4 times with good rng). - Ch0c Demo Video https://youtu.be/3vC9rtJ__X4?si=LoP4OBjmvHkCNq5y Stupid Facts Gamorizer is similar to the Fire Boa-Boa Island boss from Super Adventure Island 2. Wily 3 Wily 4 The Worst Capsule in the series Wily 4 - Refights Teleporter Room Layout Freeze Slash Junk Cloud Spring Turbo Shade Burst Good Boy Skip? If you are planning on attempting Good Boy Skip, your odds improve if you are missing at least 1 HP after refights. Keep this in mind during your final encounters. Boss Strat Differences There are few differences between weakness weapon strats presented in robot stages and the refights. Notably the 100% and Any% routes are slightly off, so they should all be documented. One notable difference is  you cannot use quick kills on Turbo or Spring Man .  For Any% , this means you have Burst Man's Danger Wrap for Cloud Man. You should continue to use Freeze Cracker over Scorch Wheel on Slash Man For 100% , use Freeze Cracker on Burst Man. If you shoot Freeze Man with Freeze Cracker, it restores him to full HP. Good Boy Skip It is possible to skip the first phase of the Wily fight through Rush Search breaking you out of the cutscene. To break out the cutscene you need to get a drop that fills one of Mega Man's energy meters. Rush Search itself will get you missing weapon energy, but your odds of breaking out go up if you do not have full HP. Even 1 missing HP is enough. According to PJ, there are three columns of "dark purple" like the one above Mega Man in the image above. The third one is when you want to summon Rush Search to make Rush actually spawn. If you get a HP drop or ammo drop, You will regain control of Mega Man. Much like the Turbo Man quick kill, you can damage the boss the moment it has 1 HP. This can be any weapon that does enough damage to reduce the machine to 0 HP, though timing can be tight.