Mega Man 9 - Hints & Boss Info v1.2

• Hornet Man - (Easy)   ** Recommended First**  (Weapon allows you to get hard-to-reach items)

• Splash Woman - (Easy)
• Concrete Man - (Medium)
• Galaxy Man - (Medium)
• Jewel Man - (Medium)
• Plug Man - (Medium)
• Tornado Man - (Medium)
• Magma Man - (Hard)

Difficulties if you are using the standard Mega Man blaster gun.  If you exploit their weaknesses, they are all very easy.

If you wish to start at a different boss, use this order, but put the top bosses down below Magma Man, keeping the same order.  Use the previous boss' ability on the current boss.

• Once you memorize the first half of the level, you can generally just run across the level.  You will jump right over the flying shield guys (almost) every time if you just keep going.  At one point near the end you just stay still though.  Yeah, their locations are cheap, but once you memorize it, they won't touch you again.
• The midpoint boss is doable once you learn to jump the fireballs.  Here is the order I use for defeating the dragon without getting touched:

1. Fire just as the dragon appears on screen
2. Dodge first fireball (front) and shoot
3. Dodge second fireball (front)  and shoot
4. Let the third fireball go behind you, run towards the dragon's tail side, and jump over the third once you're clear of the tail
5. Repeat

• Don't get touched by the pouring lava

Here are some tips on defeating the bosses, and their weaknesses.  If you have their weakness, it should be a very quick battle and perhaps you won't even get hit.

You will definitely need to exploit their weaknesses in the Dr. Wiley stage later on, but if you want to try a challenge by just using the standard Mega Man blaster, here are some basic strategies.

Weakness: Magma Man

Hornet Man is a relatively easy boss.  You should be able to beat him without any special weapons.

His attack is shooting three hornet chasers in the air, which home-in on Mega Man stopping and changing directions a couple times.  Meanwhile, he runs across the bottom of the screen to the opposite side.  The hornet will disappear once he reaches the other side, and he will then shoot three new ones.

Even with the standard Mega Man gun, you can kill a few of the hornets right away, leaving one or two to dodge.  If you use the Magma gun, you maybe able to kill them all in one or two shots.  After defeating a couple of them, shoot the boss, dodge the bees and the boss, then shoot a few more times.  Get good at shooting in bursts and try to time it to kill the hornets in one jump.

Weakness: Hornet Man

Splash Woman is very easy if you have a special weapon.  You are underwater for this battle and have high jumping ability.

Her attack is "jumping" (really, swimming) from bottom to the top, spawning several fish to swim straight across the screen (non-homing).  Then she follows you across the top of the screen shooting down tridents at you.

If you have Hornet Man's weapon, just spam it while dodging her attacks.  The fight is extremely easy if you use that.  You can shoot the fish and kill them in one hit if necessary.

Weakness: Splash Woman

Concrete Man is easy once you understand his shooting pattern and learn to jump before he crashes into the ground.

His attack is shooting three concrete blocks toward you, which if hit, will stun you in place.  He also sometimes crashes in the ground which will also stun you unless you are in the air.

You should be able to defeat him easily if you can dodge the concrete blocks, jump on them and fire at him.  When he rushes toward the blocks, jump over him (you should have plenty of clearance since your on the block), and shoot him again.  Repeat.  Just run around and dodge him if he starts jumping and dive-bombing.

Weakness: Concrete Man

Galaxy Man is easy, especially if you have Hornet Man's weapon.

His attack is less of an attack and more just him flying around and shooting a black hole down towards you.  This shot will suck you towards it, but not hurt you.  Instead, Galaxy Man teleports right next to the black hole and just hopes that you touch him and get hurt.

Using Hornet Chasers, you can take about half of his life down by shooting while he is flying around.

Weakness: Galaxy Man

Jewel Man isn't too difficult because you can control his movements.  Easily doable without special weapons.

His attack is shooting four jewels at you, while running back and forth across the screen.  He will jump every time you jump.  Every once in a while he will shoot a jewel or two straight forward at you.  Once they are depleted, he replenishes his shield with them.

Basically, you make him jump when he's about to run into you, but don't hold the jump so you can go under him.  Then just dodge hit attacks.  And shoot.  It helps not to jump when all of his jewels are gone, so you can stream bullets at him.

Weakness: Jewel Man

Plug Man is manageable once you get good at dodging his shots.  The basic Mega Man blaster is sufficient for most of the fight.

His attack is to shoot electric shots that follow the path of the ground toward you, and continue up around the screen to the ceiling, which will fall straight down on your position.  Meanwhile, he jumps towards you and tries to trap you into a corner.

Hornet Chasers can help you a little here to shoot him when you are running away, but generally just get good at running around on this level and dodge all of his shots from below and above.  To dodge the falling shots, just run around a lot.  It is beneficial to shoot less and dodge more.

Weakness: Plug Man

Tornado Man is an average boss battle.  You should be able to manage even with no special weapons, once you get good at dodging his tornado attacks.

His attack is to shoot four tornadoes up from below the screen which move straight up but come from your general vicinity.  He also flies toward the top of the screen about half the time, making it harder for you to hit him.

Using Magma Man's gun will let you easily hit Tornado Man both when he is on the ground or in the air at 45' degrees above you.  Of course, get good at falling between the tornadoes and you will last a lot longer.

Weakness: Tornado Man

Magma Man is quite difficult if you just use the standard Mega Man blaster.

His attack is shooting a triple fire shot.  One straight, one up, and one down.  He also jumps while shooting, making it more difficult to predict where the shots will come from.  He will always jump in your direction, and almost always to land on your space.  Sometimes he will over shoot and jump beyond Mega Man, especially if you are in the air too.

Get an easy shot right off the bat (don't move for his first shot) and learn to jump and dodge his second attack (back towards the door, about half a jump).  After this you can get a good three or four shot before he makes it all the way to the entrance.  From here on, just run around and try to shoot him as much as possible.  Take advantage of times where he jumps over you, as you can get two or three shots on him, whereas maybe only one shot if he's jumping right onto your square, since you need to evacuate!  Try to run away from him as far as possible, but don't neglect spamming your gun as often as possible.  He generally doesn't hit you if you are one space above him, because he will jump and shoot above your head, meanwhile you shoot him once and jump out of the way at the last second.  If you make him climb the stairs one step at a time, this is a relatively safe way to do damage.

I hope this guide helps you.  It's a tough game!  But you should know this about Mega Man already!

Open to Edits.