General Information

Route Information

Naturally your route depends on the category

Any%

Almost all routes start with Penguin to get the boots so you can dash.

The record any% route from here is low%. It goes to Kwanger second, then follows weakness order from there.

There are several easy to collect safeties along the way, even if the record run collects none of them. Mandril, Armadillo, Mammoth, Eagle, and if you can Iceless Kwanger, have relatively simple to collect Heart Tanks. A Sub tank for Final Sigma, and potentially the Armor Chestplate, are other potential safeties.

  1. Chill Penguin
  2. Kwanger
  3. Chameleon
  4. Eagle
  5. Mammoth
  6. Mandrill
  7. Armadillo
  8. Octopus

100%

100% route starts with Penguin, and has variants based on skill level and how early you want to acquire items.

Kwanger Second

Kwanger Second is the record route. To run this route (without additional revisits), you must be able to do the "Iceless" jump to collect the Kwanger heart tank without the boomerang or charged-ice.

This route does Eagle and Mammoth shortly after, allowing runners to use the "Magic Carpet" glitch in Eagle (aka Neymar's Magic Platform Phantom Carpet Boeing UFO Grab Ride 77747™)

It may also do Chameleon Third (see below). This route is designed around both having weapons that go fast early, and avoiding as many revisits as possible. (A run with additional revisits is valid, if obviously slower.)

  1. Penguin
  2. Kwanger
  3. Chameleon*
  4. Eagle
  5. Mammoth
  6. Mandrill
  7. Armadillo
  8. Octopus
  9. Penguin Revisit*
  10. Armadillo Hadoken Revisit

Chameleon 3rd or 5th or 8th?

The record route goes to Chameleon Third, and uses the Item collection glitch to get the heart tank in Chameleon without the aid of the Octopus Water or the Charged Ice "Waterless" technique. This ends up being a very inconsistent option, but decidedly produces the fastest time due to the speed of the heart tank grab and having Chameleon's weapon for Eagle.

Chameleon 5th or 8th is debatable. Going 5th requires "Waterless" to collect the heart tank, but gives you early access to Sting Chameleon's weapon (safe, but laggy), and the armor defense upgrade. Going 8th is then slightly faster when done optimally, but does not have the other advantages.

Eagle Second

Eagle Second is a strong beginner route. It does not have access to the Magic Carpet, but removes most challenging tricks from the run. Charged Ice will be available to collect the Kwanger Heart Tank and other items (such as Chameleon's "Waterless" heart tank)

It likewise can decide to clear Sting Chameleon's stage at any point after Kwanger depending on the player's comfort with waterless and desire to have the Armor.

Weakness Order

While referenced above, true Weakness Order is not typically used in speedruns of this game due to item collection and wanting certain weapons for certain stages. It is presented here for reference

  1. Chill Penguin (Boots, takes extra damage to half and full charged shots)
  2. Spark Mandrill
  3. Armored Armadillo
  4. Launch Octopus
  5. Boomer Kwanger (takes extra damage to half and full charge shots)
  6. Sting Chameleon
  7. Storm Eagle
  8. Flame Mammoth

The Hadoken

The Hadoken is the secret upgrade only collectable under specific circumstances. It deals 32 damage to enemies, which happens to be the size of a boss's life meter.

Requirements to Collect

You must have 100% other than the Hadoken:

You must also see a specific pixel on the screen at the end of Armadillo's stage 4 times, and the capsule will appear& on the 5th "visit". This is the right edge of the screen behind the life drop above Armadillo's boss door.

Although it is not required to take deaths here, most runners do. Jumping into the pit to restart at the midpoint of the stage is faster than exiting the stage through other means.

The number of visits requires collecting a 1up on an otherwise deathless run if you use the jump into the pit method. The route usually collects the 1up in the open of the second half of Chameleon's stage.

The other classic technique for farming extra lives is to use charged Armadillo at the start of the stage, and continuously kill and respawn the "classic mega" ball bat. It is known to have a high 1up drop rate.

You must also have full health when you arrive for the final visit to collect the hadoken. You do not need full subtanks.

The hadoken is typically not retained across using a password, but there is a way to keep it.

The hadoken is performed as it is in Street Fighter, by rolling the thumb from down, down-forward, forward, then shoot. You must have full HP and the buster equipped. The timing takes some getting used to, as the Mega Man hadoken requires pressing Y after forward. 

The detection of diagonals is slightly off, so you may be able to press down-down-forward to achieve a hadoken.

Stage Environment Changes

There are 3 stages that impact 3 other stages in Mega Man X. Typically it is to the player's advantage to impact the second stage.

  1. Defeating Chill Penguin causes Flame Mamoth's stage to freeze over. Flame before Penguin means the factory is hot and active, with laggy lava eruptions.
  2. Defeating Storm Eagle causes Spark Mandril's stage to have fewer sparks in the floor of the opning section, making is much more manageable. It also makes portions of the stage darker.
  3. Defeating Launch Octopus causes water to appear in Sting Chameleon's stage. This is mostly cosmetic, however it is the intended way of collecting the stage's heart tank.