Mega Man X3/Upgrades

Leg Upgrade

 * Location: Blizzard Buffalo's stage
 * Requirements: none (Zero for an easier jump)
 * What it does: You can air dash horizontally or vertically by holding Up on the directional pad, jump, then dash.

Near the end of the stage, stand at the end of the last bridge, and do a dash jump. Make sure you are touching the edge and get in to reach the capsule.

Arm Upgrade

 * Location: Neon Tiger's stage
 * Requirements: T. Rhino's Tornado Fang & Leg Upgrade
 * What it does: When you charge up your X-Buster and fire twice in a row in succession, the shots will combine and become much more powerful. You can also charge up the special weapons.

Get Tornado Fang and Leg Upgrade. When you see a dark gray cracked wall, use the Tornado Fang to burst through the wall, get in the secret room, and use the Leg Upgrade to reach the capsule. Technically, it is possible reach the capsule without the Leg Upgrade, by dash jumping off of the wall underneath the overhang and reaching the platform leading to the capsule, however this is extremely difficult.

There is however another, much easier, and much sneakier way to reach the capsule without the Leg Upgrade. It involves exploiting a glitch where changing to Zero in mid-air extends how far you can travel without dropping too much. After breaking the wall with Tornado Fang, climb up the wall to near the ceiling. Slide down a little, then dash jump off the wall. Travel as far to the right as X can go, then, just as he starts to descend, pause the game. Switch to Zero. Hold right as you unpause. Travel to the right briefly as Zero, perhaps half a second, then pause again. Switch back to X. Hold right again as you unpause. X should make the distance all the way to the overhang, and you can wall jump up to reach the capsule. You only have one shot at this, since you can only switch to Zero once. You will have to get game over or revisit the stage if you fail. It may be wise to get practice until you are confident with the jump before you start coming to Tiger's stage without the Leg Upgrade.

Body Upgrade

 * Location: Volt Catfish's stage
 * Requirements: Arm Upgrade & G. Beetle's Gravity Well or Leg Chip or Leg Upgrade & Arm Upgrade (Neon Jump)
 * What it does: It reduces the damage by half. When hit, a barrier will appear that reduces the damage even further for five seconds.

Get Gravity Well and Arm Upgrade. Ride the elevator just before the outdoor catwalk all the way up to reach to the large green-colored platform surrounded by spike walls, and get on it. Charge up and release the Gravity Well to make the platform go up, and go right to the capsule. The upgrade can also be reached with a double vertical dash by utilizing the Leg Chip. Alternatively, by exploiting the infamous 'Neon Jump' trick for extra height after a vertical air dash, you can reach the non-spiked part of the wall and wall jump up to the capsule.

Helmet Upgrade

 * Location: Tunnel Rhino's stage
 * Requirements: Arm Upgrade & V. Catfish's Triad Thunder
 * What it does: On the Stage Select screen, it will tell you what items you have. The pink text indicates the items you haven't found yet, grey text what items you have found. Chip capsules are marked by '?????'. When you enter a stage, a map will be shown by X's helmet. The flashing red circles are the items you haven't found yet. Press the fire button to close the map and resume play. The map cannot be opened again once it is closed without re-entering the stage.

Get Triad Thunder and X-Buster Upgrade. After the Bit/Byte room, reach to the place with the giant boulder blocking the path on the left. Charge up the Triad Thunder, release it, and proceed left to the capsule.

No matter what, Tunnel Rhino's stage must be revisited for this upgrade, since it requires the Arm Upgrade, which in turn requires Tunnel Rhino's Tornado Fang.

Enhancement Chips
Note that you can only have one enhancement chip at the time. Therefore, choose it wisely.

Arm chip

 * Location: Gravity Beetle's stage.
 * Requirements: a Ride Armor, or Leg Upgrade
 * What it does: Adds Hyper Cannon to your arsenal. It will automatically charge up your X-Buster with limited uses due to its ammunition meter. It can get refilled by absorbing enemy projectiles, even if you don't equip the Hyper Cannon.

Unlock Ride Armors. Just after the tall vertical area with an elevator, go up the hole in the ceiling. Get on the Ride Armor platform, select a Ride Armor (except Frog), and proceed until you find a wall made up two crates, just before the final vertical section leading to Gravity Beetle. Smash it, progress over the spikes, jump off the Ride Armor, and scale the wall to reach the capsule.

An alternate way, using only the Leg Upgrade, is to wall jump up to the ledge, and jump off the wall, then dash jump up, immediately move left onto the wall, and quickly wall jump up. This is a very tricky maneuver to do, but it will allow you to get the Arm Chip without any Ride Armor.

Body chip

 * Location: Crush Crawfish's stage
 * Requirements: a Ride Armor
 * What it does: Further reduces the damage, and when you take a damage, the barrier will appear and further reduces damage for five seconds.

Unlock Ride Armors. Get on the Ride Armor platform, select any of them (except Frog), progress to the first 'pit' of the stage, just after the vertical drop, but it's actually a secret area. Drop down, and burst through the cracked wall on the left, jump out of the Armor and proceed to reach the capsule.

Leg chip

 * Location: Toxic Seahorse's stage
 * Requirements: Frog & Chimera Ride Armors or Arm Upgrade & B. Buffalo's Frost Shield
 * What it does: You can perform double air dashes.

Unlock Ride Armors (including Frog). Get on the Ride Armor platform, select the Frog Armor, go underwater, destroy the fans on the right wall, get off the Ride Armor, and go right to the capsule. Alternatively, charge up the Frost Shield before reaching the part of the water where the fans push you back. Release it to create a large ice block and jump on it to float to the surface of the water. Then, simply jump/air dash to the right across the surface of the water to reach the area with the capsule.

Energy (head) chip

 * Location: Blast Hornet's stage.
 * Requirements: Chimera & Hawk Ride Armors or Chimera/Kangaroo Ride Armor or Leg Upgrade or Leg Upgrade & Arm Upgrade (Neon Jump)
 * What it does: When you stand still for a while, your health meter and Sub-Tanks will be refilled automatically. This is useful before boss battles, however it fills slowly.

Unlock Ride Armors (including Hawk). Reach the Ride Armor platform, in the ceiling just after the elevator, early in the stage. Select the Hawk Armor. Progress momentarily until you reach a gap. Dash jump, then hold the jump button for the Hawk Armor to fly over the gap and over the spike wall on the other side. The capsule is just over another wall. It is also possible to make it with just the Chimera or Kangaroo Armors by dash jumping off the ledge then jumping out of the armor to fly over the spike wall. But, be warned, you only have one shot at this since you can't go back to the Ride Armor platform afterwards.

However, the capsule can in fact be reached without Ride Armors. Fall down the gap, on top of the first conveyor belt, then go to the right to the wall. Wall jump up until you reach to the spiked part, dash jump directly upward, hold right to grip the small ledge to reach the capsule. This is difficult and will result in death if failed. The jump can be made easier by exploiting the infamous 'Neon Jump' trick to gain extra height after the vertical air dash, although this will also require the Arm Upgrade. It is also noteworthy that the capsule area can be reached even easier by way of the Leg Chip's double vertical dash, however this holds no practical purpose since you obviously cannot utilize the Head Chip if you have the Leg Chip.

Any Ride Armor method of reaching the capsule will absolutely require a revisit to Blast Hornet's stage, as Ride Armors are needed to be unlocked later in Hornet's stage before they can be used this early.

Hyper Chip

 * Location: Doppler's fortress, stage 1
 * Requirements: All 4 "blue" Upgrades, all 8 Hearts, all 4 Ride Armors, all 4 Sub-Tanks

Acquire every available item in the game (Heart Tanks, Sub Tanks, Ride Armor Modules, Armor Upgrades) and forego obtaining any chip enhancements (don't use any pink Dr. Light capsules) before heading to the first Dr. Doppler stage (after the eight Mavericks are defeated). In the first Dr. Doppler stage, kill the mini boss and proceed. Make sure you have full health before sliding down the left side of the first pit you find (where spiked wrecking balls fall) until you reach a portion of the wall that you can walk through. There will be a pink upgrade capsule that will give you the Hyper chip enhancement. This chip is the package deal: it gives you all four armor upgrades, and X becomes so powerful, his Third Armor turns a striking gold color. This is your reward for holding off on the individual chip enhancements, and it should make the final stages a breeze.


 * What it does:
 * Recharge your health and Sub-Tanks by standing still
 * All damage inflicted cut by 50%, use an upgraded, orange defensive barrier that will last a full 5 seconds after X gets damaged and cut additional damage by 75% while it is active
 * Utilize the Hyper Charge, X's Giga Attack: allows use of unlimited crossover Charge Shots, so long as the weapon has energy; it refills by a bar for every two hits X takes. With the Hyper Chip, it uses less weapon energy.
 * Dash twice in mid-air

Zero's Saber

 * Location: Doppler's fortress, stage 2
 * Requirements: (1) Destroy Vile in the Junk Factory using Spinning Blade or Ray Splasher to finish him off; (2) play as Zero in Dr. Doppler stage 2's mini-boss fight.

On the second Dr. Doppler stage, play as Mega Man X until you reach the first instance of shutter doors in the stage. You can switch to Zero this once, whereas if a mini boss was on the other side of the doors, X would usually intervene. You'll find a mini boss has indeed appeared in this room, Mosquitus. Defeat it it using Zero, and the mini boss will make a final effort to take Zero with it. Zero will be pinched in a death grip as Mosquitus explodes, doing extreme damage to the Reploid. X immediately transports himself to Zero's location, concerned about his partner's injures. Zero affirms that his power generator is crippled, and he has to return to Dr. Cain's lab for repairs. However, Zero passes on his Z-Saber to X before he goes.

From here out, X's charge shot will reach a fourth stage past the dual Charge Shot that you can overlay. X will swing the Z-Saber and do copious damage to whatever he cuts up. If the saber is used on the ground, it launches a shockwave of beam energy that repeatedly chops up the enemy it hits. The beam wave can effectively reap giant chunks off a boss's health in seconds flat. Unfortunately, Zero will be unable to assist X for the rest of the game, which will make some of the enemies of the rest of the stages harder(excluding bosses), and will also result in a change to the game's ending.


 * Z-Saber Unlock password: 1454 3535 6162 7162