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Mega Man 4 Guide > Robot Masters > Skull Man

The final robot stage you'll encounter looks like it was carved out of the bowels of a giant dinosaur. It's surrounded by volcanic ruins and will keep you hopping and firing.

First things first. Start by moving toward the right. You're on the ground level, and you'll soon enter a narrow corridor. Repeatedly fire the arm cannon as you move right, and you'll destroy a domed cannon there. Move beyond that and there's another of the cannons at the same level. Loop back around the bone platforms and head back to the right, until you're standing on a ledge overlooking a gap and another platform over solid, bony ground.

You should see a spike tipped robot gliding toward you. Aside from the spikes, it looks sort of like a soda can or a car's oil filter. Shoot that robot and head forward, where you'll need to disable another of the domed cannons.

You'll find more of the domed cannons and flying enemies ahead, before climbing a ladder that leads up into the next room. There, you'll find an enemy that tosses bones toward you. Jump and hit it with a powered mega buster shot and it will vanish (a regular arm cannon shot will only cause it to collapse temporarily into a heap of bones). Climb the ladder on the screen's left side, which leads upward to the next passage.

With that out of the way, head quickly to the right. There are two levels here, but the bottom is a dead end. Move far enough right to lure the red-shielded robot, then hit it in the back as it retreats. Move to the ledge it occupied and continue right, where you'll find more bat-like robots filling the air above a series of ledges. Cross over those ledges while defeating bats, and you'll find more multiple paths with bats and red-shielded robots.

None of those hazards should do much damage to you, and you'll soon come right to a ladder that will allow you to climb to the next room. Fliptop is waiting for you here, so grab whatever he drops and then climb the ladder into yet another room.

This ladder extends directly to the top of the screen, so you may choose to avoid heading to the right if you like. However, that would mean passing up an energy tank. Instead of doing that, I suggest taking a short trip to the right. You'll find a series of three ledges suspended over the ground level. Climb up to the second one and work to the right, being ready to jump over the red-shielded enemy. Alternately, you can go along the top ledge, which makes it easier to dodge the red-shielded enemies, and then loop back by using the balloon item to climb up to the ledge from its right side. At the edge of that ledge, you'll be able to grab an energy tank before heading back left to the ladder and climbing up into the next screen.

Here, you'll need to loop around more bony ledges, where domed enemies await you. You can only hit the side with their eyes showing. There are also worms here. As you head right along the top level of this particular heap of bones, you'll notice another energy tank situated precariously on a ledge. You can't approach that from the left, but you'll want to loop back from the right momentarily.

For now, head right along the top ledge. As you follow it, there will be more cannons and a worm will drop from the ceiling. Take out that worm and press to the end of the ledge. Now another worm will drop and land on the ledge below you. Follow it down to that ledge, defeat it, and proceed toward the left. The way to do this is with the Balloon adaptor. You can set one over the first pit, hop onto it, and slide to the next ledge. Once you do so, switch to the arm cannon to take out the worm there, and continue left to collect the energy tank. Then use your balloons to climb up the hole to the left there, and push back to the right.

This time, instead of dropping down and heading back left, drop down and leap from there to the next ledge to the right. A worm will appear, so take it out with the arm cannon. Another will fall just between you and the ladder. When that one is taken care of, descend the ladder into the next
area.

You're now in the final portion of the stage before its end. It's a series of ledges, inhabited by the bone-tossing enemies you should recognize from earlier in the stage. You should take them out one at a time, and also carefully defeat the floating enemies in the area. There's not really a single jump here that is all that difficult if you take things slowly.

When you reach the right edge of that area, you'll find the gate that leads into the battle with the last of the eight robot masters.

Skull Man


Get ready for the fellow that is arguably the toughest of the robot masters. You'll want to have the dust cannon ready, as it will do the best job of defeating your enemy.

Dust Man attacks mostly by dashing around the area and firing his arm cannon. Though his shots don't do much damage, coming into contact with the robot himself will do a lot to decimate Mega Man's life meter.

For the most part, you can fire the dust cannon shots whenever you like. The only time you shouldn't is when a skull shield encircles Skull Man, at which point he is invulnerable. Since the dust attack moves slowly, you'll need to move cautiously and be ready to leap over your opponent. Remember that he often stops a charge just short of either side of the screen, so don't stand all the way against either side and expect a jump to carry over your opponent. Instead, you're almost safer at the center of the screen.

When the battle ends, that's the last robot master out of the way. Time to find out about Dr. Cossack!

Password: A-1,4, B-5, E-2, F-1,3

NEXT: Dr. Cossack's Castle