Mega Man X2/Weather Control

Items

 * Sub Tank
 * Heart Tank

Stage walkthrough
Immediately, when the stage starts, climb up the left wall of the starting room. There is a hidden wall in the top left that contains a heart tank. After this, continue right.

You'll find orbs on pedestals as you continue on. Each time you find one, it will change the weather to sunny or rainy. In the sun, grass turrets grow out of the ground and the frogs overheat, and the rain will push you back a little when you're jumping. The weather doesn't have a very noticeable effect so don't worry about it too much. You can destroy the orbs but it doesn't do anything. If you hit the orb with a special weapon, you can control the weather manually - Speed Burner makes it sunny, Bubble Splash makes it rainy, Crystal Hunter makes it foggy (makes less enemies appear), and Strike Chain makes it normal weather. Either way, continue on.

After the 2nd orb (it should be raining by this point) you'll find some platforms that float up and down. Jump on top of the first one and wait for it to rise to the highest point. Then, dash jump off to the left and walljump up the tree above the orb. From the tree, dash jump right and walljump up the thing that looks like a bunch of logs. From the top of the log thing, continue right and dash jump to the next log structure. A sub tank will be waiting for you at the end of this one. Jump down and continue on.

Next up is an elevator section. Screwdriver enemies will try to jump on you, so dash out of the way before they can. Continue right before the elevator crushes you on the ceiling.

Next is another orb section, this time with flying enemies that will drop seeds on you. If the seeds hit the ground, they plant themselves into more obstacles, so watch out. Just dashing away and avoiding them entirely is recommended.

Enter the next building which contains some simple enemies. There's a scorpion who takes a lot of hits but you can just stand below him to dodge his lasers - but he'll try and drop bombs if you take too long. After him, there's nothing between you and Mr. Sponge.

Maverick Boss: Wire Sponge

 * Weakness: Sonic Slicer

This guy's not too hard. He's weak to the Sonic Slicer (from Overdrive Ostritch) but you can kill him with the regular gun just fine and you fight him the same either way. The Speed Burner (from Flame Stag) is effective too.

He likes to swing his vine around in a circle in front of him, and when he does this you can't hit him, so charge up your shot while you wait. He'll throw it at you, at which point he's vulnerable. He also will pull himself up using his vine. He'll then shoot seeds at you that'll stick into the ground as spiky vines. You can destroy the vines as he shoots them, and try to walljump and get a few shots on him in the mean time.

When you get him to low health, he can use a desperation move. He'll start to turn red and become invulnerable. Then, he'll shoot a wave of lightning bolts which fall in a pretty predictable pattern.

That's all for Wire Sponge, who will give you the Strike Chain, which is effective against Wheel Gator in the Dinosaur Tank stage. If you destroy Wire Sponge with the Sonic Slicer, his body will be sliced in two as he explodes.