Mega Man X3/Blizzard Buffalo

Blizzard Buffalo is residing in a residential area he has frozen over. If you've finished Volt Catfish before coming here, there will be fewer icy floors partway through the stage.

Frozen Town
Slippery ice, Helits, and spiked pits are all over this first room. Before moving forward you should take some time to get used to the physics of running and jumping on ice while you're not in immediate danger. Then take your time to destroy the Helits as you see them. If they hit you with their weapons while you're over a pit you could be in danger if you don't get out of it fast enough. You'll also find that icy slopes move you quickly once you've touched them, be ready to jump off them at a moments notice and try to land on flat sections of ice. There's a ladder at the end of this first room.

There's a Ride Armor platform here, which is probably the safest way through this room if you've unlocked it. Otherwise, carefully destroy the Helit above the second icy slope, and be ready to jump off it once you step on, it leads directly to a spike pit. After the pit is more Helits and a slope. You're safe to let this one carry you down as the level progresses down this gap.

Climb up the wall at the end of this small passageway and you'll end up with a room with several Notor Bangers. If you want to get a large health refill, use the ladder and destroy the two top Notor Bangers and dash jump over to the platform the second one was on then drop back down to where the first two are. Destroy one or both of them to continue to the right and fall down another gap.

At the bottom is yet another couple of Notor Bangers and a large health refill, and you continue even further down some gaps. At the bottom is the shutter to a Bit or Byte room.

Past that room is a dark icy corridor, and at the end a long slope down. There's a large health refill at the top of the slope that you can get easy if you have the leg upgrade, or can use the wall above the slope to dash jump off of to reach. At the end of the slope is just another tunnel.

This is where the ice will be melted for you if you've defeated Volt Catfish. As you're running through it you'll find a couple of Ice De Voux. A charged shot should blow off their armor, and a single shot should be able to finish them off after that. At the end of this hallway is a ladder with a gap below it. If you're ready to face Vile you can fall down this pit while hugging the left side. You'll find a teleporter to his stage.

Climbing the ladder there is a Notor Banger that will hit you if you don't wait to finish climbing it. The ladder above there will bring you to a large health refill and a gap in the ceiling. Wall jump up the gap to a small ladder to a new area.

As you start moving across this room a snowstorm begins. This doesn't really affect anything except your visibility. Carefully destroy the Helits and Snow Riders in your way as you continue. At the top of the room you'll see a stream of air going up. This won't harm you and will only push you up, but is coming from the machine causing the snow storm if you want to fall down a little further on and destroy it. Just be careful, as soon as you pass by the street lamp up here, a Snow Slider will head right for you. A charge shot should destroy it and leave just a Snow Rider for you to kill. There's a split in the path here. You can dash over this gap to skip the remaining enemies, or you can go down below where there are some Snow Riders and another Snow Slider. Finally, at the end of this room is the boss shutter.

Maverick boss: Blizzard Buffalo

 * HP: 32
 * Attack: 5 damage on contact, 5 damage with horn attack, 3 damage with ice hazards
 * Weaknesses: Parasitic Bomb: 3 damage, Cross-Charge: 3 damage, Charged Shot: 2 damage

Blizzard Buffalo's primary attack is to just charge at you to try to get you stuck on his horn. You should dodge it by wall jumping above him and air dashing past. He doesn't physically hit the wall, so you won't be knocked off. Getting hit by him or get stuck on the horn aren't any worse than the other as you take the same amount of damage.

Occasionally he will stop dashing and start throwing ice around. The ice will damage you both while it's in the air and while it's planted. You can blow the planted ice away with a semi-charge shot, or wait for Blizzard Buffalo to destroy the ones on the ground by charging through them.

Once he is down to half health he will also start doing an ice beam attack that is effectively useless. It will freeze you on the ground but you just wiggle left and right to break out. You can break out of the ice and get refrozen several times during the ice beam, and also be able to free yourself towards the end without much issue.

With the X-Buster, charge a shot while you're running away from him charging, use the wall to avoid him, then fire the charge shot back to hit him. While he's throwing the ice hazards, shoot him with a charge shot at the beginning, then charge a shot to take out any hazards in the way of your safety.

With Parasitic Bomb each shot will knock him out of an attack. You can't completely stun lock him so be wary of the next attack coming for you, but you should be able to shoot him twice for each charge shot you would have used with the buster. The charged Parasitic Bomb is even better since it homes in on him when you pass by close to him so you can focus on avoiding his attacks.

Once you defeat the boss you'll get the Frost Shield weapon.