Mega Man Zero 2/Power Room: Phoenix Magnion

Items to collect
As a general rule, ignore all the Cyber Elves and concentrate on clearing the mission with a high score. You can come back later and collect every Cyber-Elf without pressure, as well as upgrade the level of some weapons by using them.

Elves to obtain (8):
 * [[File:MMZ Hacker Elf Icon.png]] Cyber-Elf Stocttus
 * [[File:MMZ Animal Elf Icon.png]] Cyber-Elf Bomphew
 * [[File:MMZ Nurse Elf Icon.png]] Cyber-Elf Grandie
 * [[File:MMZ Animal Elf Icon.png]] Cyber-Elf Beestin
 * [[File:MMZ Animal Elf Icon.png]] Cyber-Elf Beelanch
 * [[File:MMZ Nurse Elf Icon.png]] Cyber-Elf Culoppe
 * [[File:MMZ Hacker Elf Icon.png]] Cyber-Elf Lanite
 * [[File:MMZ Hacker Elf Icon.png]] Cyber-Elf Dable

Other items:
 * [[File:MMZ1-3 Flame Chip.png]]  Flame Chip 
 * EX Skill: [[File:MMZ2 Tenshouzan Icon.png]] Tenshouzan (A or S-Rank only)

Mission requirements

 * Clear Time Limit: 6:40
 * Enemies Killed: 51

EX Skill walkthrough
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.

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.

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. If not, here's your chance to find it.

Secret path n.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.

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. 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 an imposing enemy called a Gazamir, which instantly engages you in combat. This huge crab Mechaniloid hovers beside this ladder, guarding the upper chambers that are can be accessed from this ladder. Since the ladder is the only thing separating you from a trip into the boiling smelter pool below, you'll be confined to it while you battle the Gazamir. If you fall off the ladder and can't get back on it in time, you may meet a molten death below.

Battle Strategy
Gazamir imitates the sideways movements of a real crab, using hover jets in place of legs to fly up or down in a vertical line. It also mimics your movements as you climb the ladder, taking great care not to let its exposed face line up parallel to you, which would leave it vulnerable to attack. Gazamir's face is its only weak spot: everything else is clad in an armored exoskeleton too thick to penetrate.

Under normal circumstances, you could hack and slash your enemies with the Z-Saber, but its range is limited to direct attacks. Because you can't hit the Gazamir directly without jumping from the ladder, you need to rely on a ranged weapon. The Shield Boomerang works, but Zero cannot move while he's using it. Gazamir is a very skittish enemy that won't stay in one place for very long, which leads to an accuracy problem; your Boomerang is likely to miss and cost you valuable time as you wait for it to return. The Chain Rod can hit Gazamir, but it's like a spring loaded boxing glove. It does some damage, then you have to wait on it as it comes back, which isn't a viable strategy when you need to kill your enemy without delay.

Your Buster is the ideal weapon against this sub-boss, able to hammer the Gazamir with bullet after bullet very without wasting time, and you can scale the ladder to line up your shots with Gazamir's face as it moves. Assault it with a hail of Buster bullets when it stops moving, and when it tries to evade you, follow it while you're shooting bullets to keep it from getting away. If you have the X Form, switch to it immediately. It amplifies your Buster Shot Gun's rounds to do more damage per hit and shoot four bullets at once, so the damage inflicted on Gazamir stacks up a lot faster.

Take one thing into consideration: if you still suffer the knockback effects from damage because you don't have Cyber-Elf Fubuffa's recoil countermanding ability (the dog Cyber-Elf from the Computer Zone), you'll have more trouble hanging on to the ladder, because every time Zero is hit, he loses his grip and falls. Unless you recover your grip, you'll take a plunge into the boiling metal. Also, Cyber-Elf Atti (the monkey Cyber-Elf from the same stage as Fubuffa), enhances your ladder climbing speed, which is quite helpful to keep up with Gazamir.

Gazamir may be an easy target, but be on the lookout for its sudden attacks. It will try to block its face by gargling black foam bubbles, then spits them in your general direction. All you have to do is shoot the bubbles to disperse them, but the sheer number can be a problem. They move slowly enough to pop with little trouble.

Gazamir's other attacks put its heavy duty pincers to work. At some point, it could grab hold of the ladder and box you in, between its two claws. It will start to scale the ladder up or down, trying to slam its claws into you. You have to climb with it to stay away from the moving pincers, and since it has become a moving target, it becomes a mess to keep shooting away. Fortunately, this attack doesn't last forever, and Gazamir will immediately stop if it leads you to the bottom of the ladder. If it went any lower, it would dunk itself in the smelter pit.

The worst attack it can muster will be a desperation move, 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 the side very fast, or take a leap of faith: let go and fall straight down, then grab onto the ladder again before you land into the smelter pit. With luck, you'll be able to send Gazamir to its doom before it decides to start playing dirty like this.

Sadly, this Gazamir, nor its counterpart in the other path, won't give you a Cyber-Elf upon defeat. Instead, all they do is give you a humorous death- they seize up as they malfunction from taking too much damage, lose their grips on the ladders, and crash into the smelter pits to get melted down in the boiling liquid. Fried crab, anyone?

End of the secret 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 want 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 n.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 n.4
This 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. Equip the Shield Boomerang and deflect as many bullets back at the reactor, and at the same time jump to dodge those that run along the floor, or hurry to stand between the center left and center guns, and time your jumps as they fire to avoid being shot while you use the Z-Saber to destroy reactor.

Power reactor n.3
Leave the reactor room from the door on the left, and access another door that will instantly bring you near the next one.

This reactor is easier to destroy. There are seven slag pits here, allowing every shot from the reactor to rebound. Equip the Boomerang shield again and destroy the reactor with caution, or get into the same spot and cut it down.

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.

Branch and slag buckets
Going beyond the reactor 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 and back to a reactor that you destroyed already. Therefre, ignore that path and go down the ladder at the bottom.

In the next area, 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 later to attempt the challenge.

When you get dow 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.

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

Power Reactor n.2
If you followed this walkthrough, you should get now to the second power reactor. This one is even easier to destroy. The bullets from the reactor here won't ricochet as much, because the floor has just four smelter pits with grates. Aside from a few rebounding shots, it's not much of a difference.

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 Game Boy 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. You can still die from even the slightest contact on the sides of the spikes, not just the tips.

Right under the entrance of this area, you can once again choose to stay on the main path or switch over to a side path, but it's better to leave this for a later visit. Therefore, continue reading the next section about the Power Reactor n.1.

Power reactor n.1
If you followed this walkthrough closely, 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 as usual use your Shield Boomerang to bounce back a payload of shots to the reactor to destroy it, or use the saber as before.

Boss: Phoenix Magnion
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...

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 also a notorious and clever trickster when it comes to fighting. Being Fire-element, his weakness is Thunder. Without it, the difficulty of the battle will become unbelievable if you're reckless.

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 (about ninety seconds), but he'll eventually tire from the stalemate and break it by going ballistic, beginning to attack repeatedly without delay. Since he won't teleport if you slash far away enough from him you can set up a charged slash without provocation, then shoot at him with the Buster to bait him, and swat him with the saber once he reappears.

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. This attack can be stopped if you time a charged Thunder attack and hit him with it (a non-elemental charge won't do) as he's about to crash into you. If that's not an option, then you can either dodge it with a properly timed jump, or hurry to whichever wall you're closer to and kick off it (just under the top of the platform will do) to clear him more easily.

His second offensive attack will be shooting six feather arrows from his body in different directions. Hitting him quickly enough with a saber slash, even a non-elemental or uncharged one, will stop it before it begins.

Phoenix's direct approach attacks are bad enough, but he also stoops to confusing you. He will appear in sets of four, three of which are copies. All four will swing their tails at you at once, and it's very tricky to get the timing right to dodge them all. Phoenix will briefly reveal himself by flashing brighter then the rest of his doppelganger copies, but it's fairly subtle, and that means it's still a pain trying to hit the real one. The defensive reaction is to just stay dead center and jump as he attacks, but with a little finesse you can put a charged slash over two of them at once after the attack, giving you about a half chance of landing the hit.

If this blasted bird's tricks didn't annoy you enough, there is one attack you must avoid, no matter what. Phoenix Magnion might try to swoop in and grab you with his talons. Should he succeed, you will be hopelessly trapped in their grip and doomed to suffer the wrath of his following attack. Phoenix Magnion will drag Zero into the air and invade his mind, causing four illusions to appear- ghosts of the past come back to haunt him. These illusions will immediately strike down Zero, one at a time, reaping a severe chunk of health away after the damage has racked up. 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 and lose control of Zero until he releases you if you do get caught. This too can be be stopped before it begins by hitting him as soon as he appears. A strategy that I found to work well is to use the shield, being able to stand back and charge it unpunished and usually hitting Phoenix Magnion with the return trip of the shield.

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. Phoenix will try to lunge into you several times, and you'll need to dodge every one of his attempts to possess you. If Phoenix does succeed in hijacking your body, this attack will be just like his illusionary assault; you'll be forced to take a set of hits, only far, far worse damage will be inflicted. Phoenix will pull Zero into the air, and then reappear, wreathed in flames. The firey terror will fly straight up and tackle Zero, sacking a vicious blow into your HP. As mentioned before, you'll lose all control of Zero if he possesses you until he wrenches you away and lays into Zero.

Aside from all the attacks Phoenix Magnion has, another occasional annoyance comes from the smelter pits. They will erupt about every thirty seconds or so, flooding the room with a wave a molten bursts of metal straight up from each one. The difficulty of avoiding the attack escalates as you go deeper into the Power Room. It can be casually ignored if you're at the first reactor, because their are only two grates in the room where he can stream out the molten metal from the floor. This is why it is crucial to destroy this generator last, since it offsets the difficulty of the boss fight. You can still dodge the molten slag in the second generator room, but to a lesser extent, due to the presence of four grates as opposed to just two.you have even less dodging space for the third and fourth generators, because you must stand between very narrow spaces separating the pits. For the fourth, space yourself so that Zero's feet are on either side of the space, with the space between his legs being over it. If and when the screen starts to shake, hold back on trying to attack Phoenix. If the fight hasn't taken too long, he'll just wait and let you ride out the rising fire uncontested, at which point you can resume the offensive.

If the boss fight goes on for about ninety seconds, Phoenix Magnion will lose patience to the point where he abandons his defensive tactics and attacks 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, Phoenix Magnion refuses to let Zero's misdeeds go unpunished. Although he is about to die, he vows to return to make him pay for his insult, no matter how many times it takes to get the job done- a phoenix is eternally reborn from the ashes of its deaths.

After you defeat Phoenix Magnion, you'll be rewarded with the  Flame Chip . Just like the one Zero obtained from Guard Orotic back in the first game, burnt out from overuse, this new Element Chip allows Zero to use Flame-based attacks again. You can use this chip to set foliage ablaze, and do gradual amounts of damage to enemies by setting them on fire as well, but it won't stun them like the Thunder and Ice Chips. Ice-element foes suffer horrific damage when they get hit by Fire-element attacks. It's a well-known fact that fire melts ice, and it's certainly no different here.

If you had A-Rank or better 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, because you've disabled Neo Arcadia's primary source for all the Pantheons it manufactures, they'll withdraw their Pantheon forces from all nearby areas to conserve their troops. This wipes out every single kind of Pantheon in the first four mission areas of the game where Mutos Reploids are standing guard. The challenge of this mission alone deserves this great reward.

Cyber-elves walkthrough

 * 1) 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 [[File:MMZ Hacker Elf Icon.png]] Cyber-Elf Stocttus from the box.
 * 2) After you make four Tellybombs explode, you'll get [[File:MMZ Animal Elf Icon.png]] Cyber-Elf Bomphew.
 * 3) 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 [[File:MMZ Nurse Elf Icon.png]] 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.
 * 4) Destroy seven Panel Cannons to get [[File:MMZ Animal Elf Icon.png]] 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.
 * 5) Depending on which reactor you destroy first, you'll receive [[File:MMZ Animal Elf Icon.png]] Cyber-Elf Beelanch. This one of the few Cyber-Elves that you can truly miss and be forced to replay the game if you do, so don't be eager to rush out of the room yet. The power reactors are permanetly destroyed following this mission, which means it's a one-way deal.
 * 6) When you reach the end of the pipe maze in the, 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 [[File:MMZ Nurse Elf Icon.png]] Cyber-Elf Culoppe.
 * 7) Still in the secret path, bring down the Golem Type F (Fire) to earn [[File:MMZ Hacker Elf Icon.png]] 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.
 * 8) If you successfully wipe out all the, your reward will be [[File:MMZ Hacker Elf Icon.png]] 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.

Secret path n.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 surprise...

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 closer to 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 n.3.

Toitanks and U4


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 effect on the Toitanks by several them all at once should it split in the right place after hitting one. Otherwise, if you have the X Form its ability to fire a fourth buster shot will support you in keeping a consistent stream of shots for them to run into.

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, a security robot patrolling the Power Room, will reveal itself in response to the wanton destruction you unleashed on an entire force of Toitanks, emerging to investigate what happened. When you hear a siren, that's your clue it's coming. It won't attack, but it will zip by incredibly fast up one of the two tracks at the very edge of the room. Should you miss it, you'll have to ascend the ladder and start shooting Toitanks 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 don't have the X Form. If you do, then simply fire a stream of shots between the buckets for it to run into, as the Form's increased Buster power will destroy it in a single uncharged hit. If you successfully wipe out 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; the floor is quite literally lava). 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.

Afterword
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.

If you've stayed in order with the guide, you'll be down to the last boss of the four, Hyleg Ourobockle. This boss has no elemental weakness, but the Flame Chip you just obtained will clear away most of the foliage in the Forest of Dysis, allowing for an easier trek. If you've instead taken the poorly edited in advice to take this stage first, then you'll want to go at Poler Kamrous next. Aside from all that, the Top Gabyoalls in the Power Room make for an easy time leveling the Z-Saber and Chain Rod (a good idea is to get the Chain Rod to at least Level 2 first, then start whacking with the Z-Saber while charging it. Because the Chain Rod's charged attack hits several times, using it between Z-Saber smacks will allow you to max it out in no time), while the molten buckets can be used for the Buster and Shield Boomerang. For the latter, stand a little ways away from the buckets, then jump and throw it to hit one. Done correctly the shield will rebound and start orbiting you in a circle, never actually getting caught. This will allow you to simply wait for it to level up to max without having to charge it over and over.