Mega Man Zero 2/Power Room: Phoenix Magnion

For this particular mission, Elpizo is acting on a rumor that an arms factory is situated close to the Resistance Base. His scouts found reactors that give it a steady supply of electricity, and if Zero were to destroy them, it would reduce the amount of troops Neo Arcadia would have at the ready.

If you succeed with this mission, you'll discover that every single type of Pantheon in all of the first four mission areas will be eliminated, permanently. This will make a lot of the missions far easier, but hinder your chances of higher kill rates in the levels.

Unlike the other missions you can pick, this one isn't set in a linear path. In order to complete it, you need to find four reactors and destroy them. The last one you destroy will trigger the boss to appear, and also affect the difficulty of the battle. This also means you'll need use of the Escape function should you chose to come back.

There are even hidden side areas you can enter, and a higher-than-normal time limit to complete this mission and get full points, but what you need to focus on is the fastest and safest path to get there so you can come back. You'll find the Sub Tank from the Forest of Dysis is definitely your best friend here.

Entrance and Branching Paths
When you first reach the Power Room, you'll be a short distance outside. Go slightly further and you'll run into Pantheon Gunners. Blast your way through with short Charge Shots and keep dashing on.

Right after you climb a stairwell and get past a Pantheon Gunner, you'll reach a generator that sends out infinite numbers of Tellybombs, a throwback to the original Tellies from classic Mega Man. Only one comes out at a time, and one won't appear unless the last is destroyed. However, these enemies can be a severe nuisance, as they don't just fall apart when destroyed; they explode, damaging you if you get in the blast range. They home in on you, but go flying if hit by any weapon, then explode when they crash into anything.

As it so happens, a Cyber-Elf Box is right next to the first Tellybomb generator. Lure one close enough to whack it with your Z-Saber, although any weapon will do(just as long as you don't pull it to you if you use the Chain Rod). With a proper strike, it will smash into the flimsy wall blocking access to the Cyber-Elf Box and blow it apart. Then, you can obtain Cyber-Elf Stocttus from the box. Additionally, after you make four Tellybombs explode, you'll get Cyber-Elf Bomphew.

Go just a little further and climb down the ladder to find another thin wall. Knock the Tellybomb that comes out into it to open the path into the Power Room's inner chambers.

When you enter the chambers, you'll be greeted by an odd new Pantheon, the Pantheon Hopper. These Pantheons mimic prowling beast and crawl low enough to the ground to avoid Buster shots unless they're charged. If you or they get within attack range, they'll leap into the air and strike with their attack claws. Carefully slash them before they can retaliate, and keep moving.

As you head in deeper, you'll find the Power Room doesn't get any friendlier. Several pits of molten slag are located throughout the area. One wrong step into them means immediate death without Putick's help. Be very cautious as you jump over them, and even more wary of the combination of Pantheon Hoppers and Tellybombs coming out to attack between the pits.

Signaloid Annoyances
When you get across the slag smelter pits, you'll reach an area filled with Tellybombs above, but a new, feisty set of enemies below. Signaloids, stationary attack cannons, reside here, which have special gimmicks to their attacks and require deeper explanation; they can interchange weapons between all three elements, Fire, Thunder, and Ice, depending on the light shown.

Normally, Signaloids will randomly change elements, but if you switch elements in front of one, their color and attack patterns will correspond to the element you equip, and change colors if you switch to a different element. Red means Fire, yellow, Thunder, and blue, Ice. When they're red, it shoots flames from its right or left side (depending on which side of it you stand in front of) like a flamethrower and then shoots a small fireball. When they're blue, it shoots two snowflakes that rebound off surfaces in a very hectic manner. When they're yellow, they shoot an electric blast that has a short range, but splits into two more blasts when they get to Zero. All three attacks do rotten amounts of damage, and Signaloids can even switch elements at will. Even if you don't have an element equipped, they remain on the color they're currently set at. Memorize what Signaloids do, because they will appear lot more in the game. For now, there's no reward of a Cyber-Elf for killing so many, and they only guard a Life Energy Capsule down at the end of the lower path, so it's best to avoid the Signaloids altogether.

When you reach the area with the Signaloids, you have the option of going straight forward, or doing something otherwise. If you wish to ignore the hidden path, skip down to Power Reactor #1. If not, here's your chance to find it.

Optional Side Path #1
Right before the area where the pink ledge starts, try to lure a Tellybomb over to you until you're directly below the blue ceiling paneling. Knock one into the ceiling in the right place, and you'll blow open a hidden side path. If you're a little sloppy, you may accidentally blow up part of the ledge or paneling and need the Chain Rod to get up there. Now, you are free to take a detour.

The reward for uncovering the hidden path is very pleasing. Not only do you get a free Life Energy Capsule, but a Cyber-Elf Box, with Cyber-Elf Grandie inside. This precious Nurse Elf is doubles your entire HP bar, giving it a blue layer, a lucky find indeed at this early stage in the game.

Go a little further up, and you'll encounter Panel Cannons, flying guns with panel propellors. They can tilt the angle of their guns to fire three shots as soon as you come in range. Just stay back and shoot them out of your way as they come. Destroy 7 to get Cyber-Elf Beestin. Panel Cannons only reside in the side areas, which means you'll need to head up this way or the other side path to find them.

Heading even further becomes a bit of a mess, because you'll have to cross unsteady girders to get over a smelting pit. Be wary, as they will collapse as you touch them, and avoid the attacks of the Panel Cannons.

You'll finally reach a ladder at the other end of the room, but when you climb up, you'll find this side path had one catch to it... a giant Mechaniloid.

Optional Sub Boss: Gazamir
By climbing up the ladder, you'll encounter a Gazamir. This huge crab Mechaniloid is hovering right next to the ladder, and guards the upper chambers the ladder leads to. You'll have to fight it from the ladder the whole time, which means Buster shots or Chain Rod strikes are your only real means of attacks. Using the Z-Saber is dangerous and risky. If you fall off the ladder, you may meet a molten death below. The X Form is very useful for doing faster and quicker damage in this fight. If you still suffer the knockback effects from damage because you don't have or didn't use Gambul, you'll have more trouble hanging on to the ladder.

Gazamir stays in close range to you by hovering right beside you as you climb the ladder. You can tear away at its health by hitting its face, the only weak point. Everything else is indestructible. The best attack method is with the Buster, and with normal shots, while Gazamir hovers, because its period of invincibility between hits is very brief.

Gazamir may be an easy target, but be on the lookout for its sudden attacks. It will try to block its face by blowing black foam bubbles, then launch them towards you. These are easily blasted to bits, but the sheer number can be a problem. However, Gazamir's other attacks put its heavy-duty pincers to work. At some point, it may grab the ladder right in between you and start to scale it up or down. You have to keep climbing with it to stay away from the moving pincers, and it becomes a mess to keep shooting away. Fortunately, this attack doesn't last forever, and Gazamir will stop before you reach the bottom of the ladder. The worst attack it can muster will be when you've nearly defeated it. It will grip onto the ladder and rocket down the edge, trying to knock you off. To dodge, either climb down very fast, or drop straight off the edge and grab ahold of the ladder again before you land into the smelter pit. With luck, you'll be able to send Gazamir to its doom before it can get this attack off.

Sadly, this Gazamir, nor its counterpart in the other path, won't give you a Cyber-Elf upon defeat. Instead, all they do are seize up and fall into the smelter pits. Fried crab, anyone?

End of the First Side Path
After passing by Gazamir and getting up the ladder, you'll reach a place with an old enemy, Top Gabyoall. As you might recall, this sucker is invincible, and only stops rotating for a few seconds when hit. Just ignore it for the most part, unless you to score some E-Crystals, in which case, pull them to you with the Chain Rod.

Climbing to the very top of the Power Room will get you over to an area with more Panel Cannons, but at the end, drop you right off at Power Reactor #4. Since the path there also branches, refer to the guide to find out which way to go.

Should you take the detour all the way through, simply backtrack through the path it takes to get to the other two generators.

Power Reactor #1
Should you skip the detour, you'll find your way to the first power reactor. This one is the best one to destroy last, because it has only two smelter pits (you'll see what happens when facing Phoenix Magnion). This one, along with the rest of the reactors will endlessly shoot bullets from several turrets, some of them rebounding if they hit lava pits. Because no bullets rebound here, you can take it easy and unleash a payload of shots or strikes to the reactor to destroy it. Depending on which reactor you destroy first, you'll recieve Cyber-Elf Beelanch. This is the only Cyber-Elf that you can truly miss and have to play all the way through the game if you do, so don't be eager to rush out of the room yet.

Spikes Everywhere
The room following the power reactor is loaded with a sadistic amount of instant death traps. There are molten metal pits below, and many, many spikes, so many that it becomes nearly impossible to avoid them. However, you can actually destroy spikes for once and get your revenge! Send Tellybombs crashing into them to clear them away. If you have the Thunder Element, you can short them out with a Charge Shot right above the spikes and make them drop down and clear out even more rows. Get rid of as many as you can Due to the small size of the Gameboy Advance, it may be hard to tell where you're going to land. Even worse, Signaloids are rather fiendishly positoned here. Try to eliminate them with Charge Shots before they can attack, and keep a close eye on your jumps. Use the Chain Rod if you need some help getting over the pits.

After getting over the other side of the spike traps, you can once again choose to switch over to a side path. If you do, continue reading the next section. If not, skip to Power Reactor #2.

Optional Side Path #2
In order to reveal this hidden passage, knock a Tellybomb into one of the cracked blue walls right before the shutter door to break it open. Should you still be in the middle of the mission (which isn't the best of ideas, rankingwise), there will be Pantheon Guardians to get past. Climb your way down from here.

The second hidden route is full of worthwhile rewards, such as E-Crystals and Life Energy Capsules, but a huge number of Tellybomb generators and Top Gabyoalls in the way. You need to use the Tellybombs to blow open the pipes all throughout the passage, but obviously not the ones over the molten slag pits. Expiriment with the Tellybombs to find your way through.

When you reach the end of the pipe maze, slide down the last pipe to find a Cyber-Elf Box. Try to knock a Tellybomb into the pipe to gain access to it and get Cyber-Elf Culoppe.

As it turns out, this hidden path has another hidden path. As you head ot of the pipe maze, try to get a Tellybomb to follow you. Creep your way to a pipe covering what looks like a pit and try to knock it into the pipe. You'll tear open a new secret passageway with a suspiciously-placed Life Energy Capsule. Sure enough, the next room has a nasty suprise...

Optional Sub Boss: Golem Type F
You'll bump into another new type of Golem, the Golem Type F. This one has a set of superheated flamethrowers for arms, and a helmet that resembles that of a war soldier. It has two attacks. It always starts by spinning its arms in a circle to create a ring of fire, which, naturally, you can jump through like a stuntman. Golem Type F will then open its mouth to drop a fire bomb onto the floor, which will send flames crawling toward you. For this one, you can hug the wall. After shooting another ring of fire, it will instead aim this attack up the wall, so you will need to be very cautious.

Unlike Golem Type E, this time, you might have use of this Golem's element weakness. Switch to the Thunder Chip, and attack with it to stun the Golem Type F and bring it down very quickly, earning you Cyber-Elf Lanite. This elf will immediately wipe out all non-boss and sub-boss enemies in an area if you need to use it. Not a bad reward for going this way. The room Golem Type F was guarding turns out to be an E-Crystal storage room, also stashed with a Z-Panel, a lucky find.

If you go back to the hidden path from here, you'll reach an area filled to the brim with Tellybomb generators. Blow your way through the pipes again, and you'll reach a ladder. This upper path has some health and E-Crystals, and then leads over to a section near identical to the first hidden path, with several unsteady girders, Panel Cannons, and, you guessed it, even another Gazamir.

End of the Second Side Path
After you get past Gazamir, you'll find a few more rewards in an area with more Top Gaboyalls, and then up further, a path branching over with some Panel Cannons again. Just like the other hidden path, this one drops you over at a power reactor, this time Power Reactor #3. Again, backtrack if need be.

Power Reactor #2
Skipping the side path will bring you to the second power reactor. Unlike the first, this one is tougher to destroy. The bullets from the reactor here won't cancel out as much, because the floor has four smelter pits with grates that actually cause some bullets to ricochet. Aside from a few rebounding shots, it's not much of a difference.

When you head into the following room, be careful jumping over to the ladder due to the slag pit. Wall-jump on the wall right beside it if need be.

When you get up the ladder, you'll encounter one of the most hateful obstacles of the game; a conveyor belt with buckets of slag will activate, and you'll have to avoid the the buckets going up to avoid damage. The Ice element will freeze them so you can stand on them, but only the bucket you hit. Beware; should you end up stuck on a bucket as it climbs out of the room, you'll be crushed and lose a life.

Toitanks and U4
When you pass by the buckets, you'll be greeted by a series of rather odd enemies called Toitanks, all of which shoot a multitude of lasers from their guns. Avoid these if you are in the mission, because they lead to one of the most challenging Cyber-Elves to get. Come back to attempt the challenge:

Fighting off the Toitanks is sort of like Space Invaders: Shoot them all before they go offscreen, and avoid their shots. First, a slow set of green Toitanks will come. A few rapid-fire Buster Shots from the ladder will do, because the forward approach with the Z-Saber isn't the best idea. You should climb the ladder down into the room to get an edge, because there won't be as any slag buckets yet. If you have Spark Shot, it will have a miraculous affect on the Toitanks by several them all at once should it split in the right place after hitting one.

After the green Toitanks, a faster wave of purple ones will come out. Quickly destroy these. The speed boost requires better reaction time to destroy these.

Last, a wave of extremely fast blue Toitanks will come out. Be very precise with destroying these to reveal a hidden enemy.

Should you elminate all three Toitank waves, a U4 will reveal itself, a security robot patrolling the Power Room. When you hear a siren, that's your clue it's coming. It won't attack, but it will speed by incredibly fast up one of the two tracks at the very edge of the room. Should you miss it, you'll have to start all over again. Since it's more durable than the Toitanks, you need to hit it with an extremely well-timed Charged Shot. If you successfully wipe out a U4, your reward will be Cyber-Elf Dable (wait for it to come down so you can grab it if it's out of reach). This Cyber-Elf will double the effect of every item you receive. That means double HP restored, double E-Crystals, and even double extra lives. The reward is well worth the wait.

Going beyond the Toitank room will lead to an area with another split path. The path on the left can be blown open with a Tellybomb, but it only leads to some hard to reach items between enemies. Ignore it and go to the shutter door on the right to reach the third power reactor.

Power Reactor #3
This reactor is even tougher to destroy. There are seven slag pits here, allowing every shot from the reactor to rebound. Stay off to the side and destroy the reactor with caution.

Fortunately, you don't have to go much further to get to the last power reactor. Just go through the shutter door on the right to reach an empty hallway. This is a relief compared to the scores of enemies and traps elsewhere. Better yet, the hallway leads to another door, which will take you to the fourth and final power reactor.

Power Reactor #4
The final power reactor stands out as the worst. The entire floor is covered with slag pits, which not only allows every shot to rebound, but even causes the bullets from the central turret to split into two when they hit the floor. There's not much else to do but attack it and avoid as many bullets as possible by standing in the right places where they don't reach.

Upon the destruction of all four power reactors, whichever one you destroyed last will be where Pheonix Magnion appears. He makes his entrance with an imposing display of power in a magnificent, blazing fireball, followed by a burst of flames from his body. Phoenix takes it as an insult to have Zero up to no good in his area, and decides to "purify" his mind with his phoenix flames...

Boss: Phoenix Magnion
Phoenix Magnion is by far one of, if not the toughest, boss you'll face. His intelligence is off the charts, and he has a few hidden abilites thanks to special data codes on past Mavericks. He's a clever trickster when it comes to fighting him. Being Fire-element, his weakness is Thunder. Without it, the difficulty of the battle will become unbelieveable.

Unlike the other bosses, Phoenix Magnion is much more strategic; he won't attack unless you do first. Once you lash out at him, he will vanish in a blue haze and counterattack. You're almost doomed if you choose to slash like a madman at him. Should you choose not to attack, he won't do anything for a while, but he'll eventually attack, nontheless. The clever way around this trick is by inching up to him enough so that you don't get hurt, but scare Phoenix enough that he warps away. While you do this, charge up a Thunder-element to turn the tables on him and strike him down before he can.

Phoenix Magnion's attack patterns begin as soon as you get him to vanish. His most common attack is to swoop in from the side of the screen and try to clip you while ablaze. Due to the awkward grip and shape of the walls in any of the four reactor rooms, it isn't the best idea to try and wall-jump over the attack. You can either dodge it by jumping with lightning reflexes, or stop it altogether with a lightning-filled strike from the Z-Saber or Buster.

His second offensive attack will be shooting six feather arrows from his body in different directions. Strike him with a Thunder attack to stop him.

Phoenix's direct approach is bad enough, but he also stoops to confusing you. He will appear in sets of four, three of which are copies. All four will launch their talons at you, and it's very tricky to get the timing right on a dodge. Phoenix will briefly reveal himself by flashing brighter then the rest, but it's still a pain trying to hit the real one.

If his tricks didn't annoy you enough, there is one attack you must avoid, no matter what. Phoenix might try to swoop in and grab you with his talons. Should he succeed, you will be doomed to suffer the wrath of his following attack. Pheonix will drag Zero into the air and read his mind, causing four illusions to appear. These illusions will then attack, all at once. They are actually none other than past bosses from the Mega Man X series; Vile from Mega Man X, Agile from Mega Man X2, Bit from Mega Man X3, and Colonel from Mega Man X4. You will be at the full mercy of Phoenix Magnion until he releases you if you do get caught.

EX Skill: Rising Flame
When Phoenix Magnion loses about half of his health, he will resort to his EX Skill if you're at A Rank or higher, trying to astral-project into Zero. During this time, his body will turn a transparent gold, and he will be impervious to any kind of attack. Pheonix will try to lunge into you several times, and you'll need to dodge every attempt to posses you to avoid the attack. If Phoenix does grab succeed, this attack will be just like his illusionary attack; you'll be forced to take a set of hits. Pheonix will pull Zero into the air, and then reappear wrapped in flames. Pheonix Magnion will fly straight up and tackle Zero, causing a vicious blow to your HP. Again, you'll lose control if he possesses you until he wrenches you away.

Aside from all the attacks Phoenix Magnion has, another ocassional annoyance is from the smelter pits. Pheonix can force them to erupt at any given time, flooding the room with a wave a molten bursts of metal. This attack can be ignored if you're at the first reactor, but to a lesser extent on the second, and even less for the third. If you wound up destroying the fourth reactor last, you can only take cover by ducking under the small space by the shutter doors. Try to defeat Phoenix Magnion before he can do this, or you may take a serious hit.

If the boss fight goes on for about a full minute, Phoenix Magnion will abandon his defensive tactics and attack without cease. If you are skilled enough, you'll extinguish this vain phoenix without much problem. If not, this fight can prove to be a disaster.

Even upon defeat, Pheonix Magnion refuses to let Zero's misdeeds go unpunished. He vows to return, no matter how many times it takes to get the job done, then dies.

After you defeat Pheonix Magnion, you'll be rewarded with the  Flame Chip . Just like the one Zero had from Guard Orotic back in the first game, this Element Chip allows Zero to use Flame-based attacks. You can use this chip to set foliage ablaze, and do graduall amounts of damage to enemies by setting them on fire as well, but it won't stun them.

If you had A-Rank or higher after beating Phoenix Magnion, you'll also receive the very handy EX Skill Tenshouzan. This EX Skill, translated as Heaven Rising Slash, enhances your Z-Saber skills. Equip it and press + Saber on the ground. Zero will perform a rising uppercut with the Z-Saber. This can be used to do devastating amounts of damage to enemies, and does a good job at sending Tellybombs flying into the ceiling. If the Flame chip is equipped, the attack becomes a Flame-element and goes higher, burning things on contact, which saves time looking for hidden items in the Forest of Dysis.

Along with the reward from this battle, you'll also wipe out every single Pantheon in the first four areas of the game where Mutos Reploids are. The challenge of this mission alone deserves this great result.

When Zero returns to base, Elpizo is pleased with the results. With another concern handled, his operations can run smoothly, and he has great confidence in a success.