Unlike the previous series, Mega Man X starts you in a specific stage with no real reward for completing it other than the basic skills you'll need to survive the rest of the game. It's not very difficult and there aren't really any secrets, but there are a few things you might want to watch out for, including a bunch of enemies you'll be encountering for the first time. First up you'll meet:
Spikey
These guys aren't very tough. If you're quick, you can hit them with three quick blasts from your regular weapon to kill them. If you only shoot them twice, they'll fall over and slide towards you for a moment before stopping and exploding. Ideally, you'll have a charged shot ready to go and take them out with one blast. Alternatively, you can just jump over it and it'll helplessly roll away.
Now's as good a time as any to talk a bit about the X Buster. Your default weapon does one point of damage with a regular shot, but you can hold your fire and charge your weapon by holding the Y button for a few seconds.
There are two levels of charge which are shown by the colour of the glow around X's body. If it's green, you'll do a small charged shot that does 2 points of damage. A yellow glow means you'll fire a bigger shot that does 4 points of damage. Bosses are invincible for a moment after you hit them so it's more efficient to use charged shots when possible, but regular enemies will take more damage per second from rapid uncharged shots, rather than stopping to charge every time. This is handy information to have as we fight our next enemy:
Gun Volt
Gun Volt has 16 HP and is stationary, but has two different attacks. It will either fire two missiles at two different heights, or a pair of electric spheres that will run along the ground. The simplest way to avoid both of these attacks is to jump over them. Be careful: the missiles will block your shots if you hit them. Try not to waste a charged shot on them.
Progress a bit more and you'll run into one of this stage's gimmicks, and the enemy responsible for it.
Crusher
Crushers aren't very strong, but their spiked weights can damage parts of the ground. If the ground is damaged enough, a hole will appear, which can lead to death if you're not careful. Once you destroy a crusher, its weight will drop and damage the ground if it lands on a damageable part of the highway instead of a support pillar, so be careful. If you hit them just right, the weight will be destroyed along with the enemy, but that's tricky, so don't count on it. Crushers only appear in this stage.
You'll progress forward, dealing with Crushers and the occasional Gun Volt, until eventually running into this bullet sponge:
Bee Blader
Another enemy unique to this stage, Bee Bladers are huge and take 32 regular shots to defeat. As they take damage, they'll gradually move towards you, but they look more dangerous than they actually are. They have three ways to attack. They're constantly firing a machine gun at a 45 degree angle, but it's so short range that you'd basically have to be going out of your way to get hit by it. What you really need to watch out for are its missiles. Jump over then and to the right when they get close, and be mindful of the fact that they'll curve towards you when you do. Finally, they can also drop a certain lesser enemy for you to deal with.
Ball De Voux
These enemies are as weak as they are common. Just one lightly charged shot or two regular shots are enough to take care of them. They have no special attributes and are pretty much the simplest enemy you'll encounter in the game.
After the Bee Blader is defeated, it will land on the bridge and cause it to collapse. But don't worry! You'll be fine. This is just an opportunity to introduce you to one of the game's fun new mechanics.
If you dash towards a wall, you'll cling to it and slowly slide down. From there, you can jump away from the wall and move back towards it to cling to it again and gain height. This is a simple but important skill to master for both platforming and boss fights. Remember that you can still fire any of your weapons while clinging to a wall.
If you've taken damage, you can use your new wall sliding technique to slide down the next hole and collect a two health pickups. Otherwise, continue on. You'll fight some Balls De Voux and another identical Bee Blader before running over some damaged ground that will collapse beneath your feet. Be careful here. Just keep moving or jumping whenever you see ground that doesn't look 100% stable and you'll be fine, since you'll move all the way across it before it drops if you don't stop. You'll also meet another weak new enemy.
Bee Bomber
You'll run into a lot of these. They're not tough to deal with, with only 2 HP. They might drop tiny little bombs that stop on the ground and explode for a moment to do a tiny amount of damage. (The tiniest amount of damage, really. One point of your life gauge.) They're nothing to worry about.
After a few more Bee Bombers and collapsing bridge sections, you'll meet yet another new enemy.
Jamminger
These guys will get right up in your face, but won't hit you right away unless you walk into them. They don't have much health, so when you see one, stop moving and shoot it before it decides to start moving again and fly into you.
Destroy a few more Jammingers and progress. Be careful of the hole that you'll probably need to wall jump to get past. Jump as far right as you can and hit the wall just below the ledge and climb up with the wall jump. Then get ready for another new enemy.
Road Attacker
These guys will drive at you in their cars and occasionally shoot you. They only appear in this stage and if you just destroy the robot in the car and jump over it, it will harmlessly drive away. You can also destroy the car entirely if you want. If you don't destroy the robot, it will eventually turn around and come after you.
Fight a few more Road Attackers and you'll run into an airship that will drop yet more Road Attackers on you, followed by a sort-of boss fight.
Vile
Vile is an actual character with dialogue and everything! You'll fight him, but thanks to his overpowered Ride Armor, you can't really win, so just take a few hits and he'll eventually stun you, you'll get some smug dialogue from Zero, and this intro level will finally be over.
What's Next?
This is where the game opens up and you can pick any of the eight Mavericks to fight. Each Maverick will give you a new weapon which is particularly strong against one other Maverick. Defeating certain Mavericks can also have an effect on other stages, but more on that later. Feel free to do whatever you want, but I strongly suggest visiting Chill Penguin's stage first, because his stage holds something very important that changes the way the game is played.
NEXT: Chill Penguin
