In we go. We start outside of the fortress in an area with some Tortoises and Jammingers.
When you reach a spot with floating platforms, charge up your Rolling Shield (if you have the arm upgrade) and hop on. The shield will protect you from the Jammingers, and they're a real pain in the butt without it. It's really easy to fall to your death here. It can be tough to judge when and where you're moving when all you can see is the background. Remember that you can jump farther with dash jumps.
Once inside, you'll fight a few common enemies and make your way to Vile! He'll run off and Zero will chase after him. Follow them.
When I was a kid, someone told me that you could beat Vile here by hitting him with eactly 100 hadoukens and then he'd explode and X would die and you'd get to play the rest of the game as Zero. I could never quite pull it off but his dad worked at Nintendo so it was definitely true.
Don't waste your Sub Tanks. After he beats the tar out of you for a while, Zero will make the ultimate sacrifice and die forever and ever until Mega Man X2. Then things get real.
Vile
An actual, winnable fight with Vile, without his Ride Armor. Thankfully, your health will refill on its own before the fight starts. His weakness is the Rolling Shield, but it won't completely dominate him on its own. He dashes around and shoots energy balls at different angles. Those can stun you. He can jump pretty high and hover for a moment dropping bombs that send energy along the floor in both directions. There are no walls for you to use so dodge as best you can. The Rolling Shield does enough damage that you'll probably kill him before he kills you no matter what. Vile is also weak to the Homing Torpedo, but you'll need that weapon in a little while.
After this fight, you'll get a dramatic scene with Zero, where he'll give you the arm parts if you didn't get them from Flame Mammoth's stage.
Proceed onward, through an area with lasers and turrets. Those blue things on the ground and springs that will generally propel you into the lasers if you touch them. If you want to feel cool, dash into the first spring you see and you'll harmlessly fly from spring to spring until the end of the area, avoiding all enemies along the way. Try it! It's fun! Next is a vertically scrolling area with all of the enemies that were a pain in your butt in Boomer Kuwanger's stage. At the top of this area is Boomer Kuwanger himself!
Yes, you'll have to fight all of the Mavericks again, but they're no tougher than they were the first time, and you definitely have all of their weaknesses this time. Boomer's weakness is still the Homing Torpedo.
Next is a hallway with some Metalls. Spineys, and Jammingers. Nothing you can't handle at this point. Then you'll come up against an actual new boss.
Bospider
This guy will start at the top of the stage and make his way down using the pillars and paths between them. The paths move around from time to time, but Bospider will always take the path to another pillar whenever it comes to one. It never continues in a straight line unless it has to. Use this to predict where it will land and ready a Shotgun Ice blast (his weakness) when he opens his eye. Be quick, it only opens for a moment. If he shoots out tiny spiders, avoid them, but don't bother to kill them. They're mostly just a distraction and will leave on their own. Your reward for killing him is a big fat nothing.
What's Next?
If you used some sub tanks or died, you can go back to Armored Armadillo's stage and grind. Otherwise, continue to the next Sigma stage.
NEXT: Sigma Palace 2
