Dark Moon

From this point on, you do not regain weapon energy/ammo between stages. Any ammo used in this fight is not restored before the following stage (without refilling it at the shop, or continuing from password or game over)

The Dark moon fight starts with this Yellow Devil like enemy flying across the screen left to right. Remember you can press up to slide cancel if needed.

After Dark Moon crosses the screen, it will take 5 steps and open its eye. There are 3 general strategies from here.

• Safe & Slow - 2 cycle fight
• One Cycle - Tremane Method
• One Cycle - Nooblar method

The two cycle is fairly consistent as long as you land at least 4 hits on each side. The one cycle fight (eithe rmethod) is extremely tight, and relies on good timing of iframes.

One cycle may not be possible on 3DS Virtual Console due to iframe differences (see Jupiter Weapon Get).

Dark Moon is weak to Mars's Photon Missile. It takes 7 Missiles to kill.

Safe And Slow

The two cycle fight is very consistent, but loses about 20 seconds to a one cycle fight.

Stand in approximately the middle of the screen. Around the time the eye opens, jump to the left (always away from Dark moon), circle back right, and fire a single missile at the peak of the jump. You can land 5 hits in the cycle, though only 4 are needed to two cycle.

The weaving back and forth is to misdirect and dodge Dark Moon's shots.

Dark Moon will cross the screen, then repeat this on the left side of the screen (mirroring the jump pattern to jump "away" from Dark moon).

Dark Moon Crossing

For all subsequent screen crossings, the order of Dark Moon's pieces is the same, but the top pieces bounce. As such, the center of the screen is not safe.

One Cycle - Tremane Method

This method relies on very precise positioning and Photon Missile usage. The key thing that happens are the two jumps you fire two missiles - you must immediately hit with one, then place the second missile far back enough that it "wind up" before firing across the screen is enough to miss Dark moon's iframes.

1. Stand with Mega Man about in Dark Moon's toe. You must be positioned so you are not hit by Dark Moon's body, but a Photon Missile shot immediately hits the eye.
2. Jump up to shoot the eye immediately. (1 hit total)
3. Immediately on landing, jump again and "plant" a second missile into the eye. Then Wiggle away from Dark Moon in mid air, and place a second missile in the air, while landing at your original position. This lets the second missile (of this step) pause and strike after the iframes wear off. (3 hits total)
4. Repeat step 3 (5 hits total)
5. Do 2 jumps with one hit. (7 hits total)

Remember you must act fast - your window to one cycle is very tight.