Mega Man Zero 3/Aegis Volcano Base: Blazin' Flizard

Boss Information Boss Name: Blazin' Flizard Nickname: Mandala Fire Crush Dragon EX Skill: Fear Sprinkler (Blazin' Flizard shoots fire from the collar around his neck in a specific pattern)

Stage Walkthrough When you first enter the stage, Ciel warns you that Neo Arcadia is creating a missile from this volcano base and that she would like to conduct an analysis. However, she can't do so due to time, therefore it's your job to have a little fun and destroy the base (thought I was gonna say have fun in another way, huh?) The first enemies you'll meet in this fire-infested stage is turrets built upon totem-pole like contraptions. Shooting them a couple times can do the trick. After the 2 turrets, here comes the next part. Judging from the terrain of the level, it's expected to see volcanoes in this stage, so guess what comes after turrets: volcanoes. These are relatively a cinch and not really too dangerous. As you pass the volcanoes in the background, they will shoot out rocks, which are rather easy to dodge. The main tip I could suggest is to keep moving and the rocks will be no problem, but keep an eye out for the turrets standing on the right side of the volcanoes. After this section, there should be a door that leads to Cyber Space. You can choose to go this way or the original route. For the sake of consistency, we'll go over the primary route first.

Passing by the Cyber Space entrance, you'll notice a sort of reactor-looking platform over a pit of lava. Simple enough, just walk past it, but expect to be greeted by Neo Arcadian forces. For a short path of straight terrain, you face off with a few Neo Arcadian soldiers, only to reach another reactor platform. Keep moving and you think it's easy enough? Think again! From out of the blue, there's an open lava pit and out comes a red ball. These red orbs then bust into two halves, which land on both sides of the lava pit and become fiery spider robots. My suggestion would be to use the Z-Saber to exterminate these bugs, although the Buster Shot can work as well when they're moving uphill. I'd also like to take this moment, if you haven't guessed already, '''DON'T TOUCH THE LAVA! YOU WILL DIE!!!''' Anyway, make sure to try and get some practice in with the spider killing, because you have several more along the path. After your spider-slaying days are over, you'll find yourself near a rather good-sized lava pit with platforms that raise up when lava spews up. And to make things more interesting, they put a Neo Arcadian soldier on the next platform.

Now, these platforms move at a distinct pattern, so try and memorize it. After you kill the robot, jump to the next platform. Now, this next jump is a bit tricky, so try and get as close to the edge as you feel fit, then jump when the platform rises to the top. When you reach the next platform, you'll notice a small ledge on the top. You can easily reach this by waiting until the platform rises, then perform a dash jump to reveal a data chip and a soldier.

This bottom route now is the only way to proceed and at first glance, you have your doubts about it. In reality, however, this is as easy as a simple dash jumps. The first platform below the spikes only goes a tiny bit up, so it's safe to stand there. As you can see, the next platform....eh, not so much. Now, just wait until the next platforms fall, then quickly dash jump across to safe ground. Congratulations, you are now inside the base!! But this mission is far from over....

The first stretch of the inside is a mix of ground turrets AND floating turrets. The floating turrets share a characteristic as the robots from Ice Man in Mega Man 1: they can seperate upon damage. That means you can attack the propeller and they will fall to the floor and continue to fire, or you can take out the base and destroy them altogether. As you climb up the ladder, so begins the thoughts of suicide and self-doubt.....a huge river of instant-death....dangerous.......boiling....lava. But there is hope!

Turning your attention to the ceiling, there are platforms that fall into the lava, however within seconds, they sink and *POOF*, there gone. Now, this section takes A LOT of practice, but it mainly uses consistent dash jumping from platform to platform before they sink. If you tend to get ahead of yourself, don't hesitate to stop for a second before dashing to the next platform. Trust me, I'm playing this level as I write this and I did it on my first try! However, I did get ahead of the platforms at one moment, so I stood still for a second and continued onward. Once that nightmare is over, enter the door on the right-side of the room.

The next hallway may make it seem like a mini-boss or maybe boss, but remember, boss hallways have different music (ha ha, thank you Capcom). Anyway, the next room or two is relatively a cinch as opposed to the rest of the level. Travelling along, you notice some nice scenery, a few props, and then a robot flamethrower. It's backside is covered with a shield, so the only reasonable way to hit him is dash jump over him and take him out that way. After this robot is retired, climb down the ladder and take out the few security guards walking around (yes, I mean Neo Arcadian robots). Now, remember me saying something about mini-boss time? Well, let's just call that part a delay, cause once you reach the bottom, another door will be there and THIS will be the miniboss.

MINIBOSS Speaking from experience, this has got to be a pretty grueling mini-boss if your not good with maneuvering. What I mean by this is that the miniboss is a 30-second survival test. The enemies consist of robots that appear from wireframe and shoot off 4 pins in a cross direction at + or X formation. I can speak in defense that these enemies have the tendency to spawn right on top of where your standing, so be on your guard at ALL times and you should be good. You don't have to kill the robots, but it's an easy way to ensure you don't take too much damage. When the challenge is all said and done, exit through the door on your right and we shall continue the level.

Walking down the plain, old hallway, you'll notice two things: an enemy and a Cyber Space doorway. As mentioned before, the Cyber Space area will be placed at the bottom after this run. Once again, for consistency purposes, we'll kill the soldier and travel upward. Now, in this upper area, a certain enemy from Phoenix Magnion might give you a hard time, but these are different.......ah, who am I kidding? These are the same spinning spike traps from Phoenix Magnion's stage in Mega Man Zero 2. However, they are carefully placed to allow you safe access from the left wall. Oh, and don't forget the data chip on the ledge to your right. Moving on to the left, you'll meet some friendly robots who want to kill you. Take them out and keep moving. Soon enough, you'll come face-to-face with Sir Burnalot (the robot with the shield who uses a flamethrower). Not only that, but to the left of him is a bed of spikes. Now, there is a data chip across the bed of spikes, but I have yet to find out how to get it, so my apologies on that. For now, let's just climb up the ladder and move on.

This next hallway holds a few enemies and as you keep moving, the floor turns to rock and you see a reddish tint on the horizon (Zero's point of view, love it lol). In short, there's another river of lava....and oh my goodness, this one flows!!

Now, just like we rehearsed. Use a combination of dash jumps to dash from platform to pla...oh my goodness!!! It goes DOWN!!!!! Yes, that's right. The lava river moves down. But don't worry, not too har....OH MY GOD, IT GOES UP NOW!!!! I totally misworded that, but the main idea is we have to dash jump up a river of lava using platforms that sink. It may take a bit of practice, but after a bit of 'trial and error', success will be yours. Now, take out the flamethrower and enter the boss door. As usual, take this moment to relax, listen to the mysterious boss hallway music. When your ready, enter the door and prepare for a heated battle (pun intended).

Blazin' Flizard: Mandala Fire Crush Dragon As you step into the arena, you are greeted by Flizard in his human form. He begins talking to you about his failure in searching for a worthy opponent. He accepts the challenge you never gave him and turns into his combat form (see picture for both forms). With a few last words, the battle truly begins.

Blazin' Flizard has 3 main forms of attack. The first primary attack he uses is simple enough: a flamethrower built into his arm. This attack can be avoided by just staying clear. However, if he has you in a corner, just climb to the top of the wall and you should be safe from the flamethrower. His next attack consists of his neck collar being thrown around the room. Similar in design of Armored Armadillo, it's easy to block. Once again, just stay clear of it and you should be fine. The third attack is a blast of 3 small, glowing orbs from Flizard's tail. Upon contact with the ground, the orbs set off a small fire that goes away relatively quick. Just like with every other move in Flizard's arsenal, just avoid it and keep attacking him. Now, his EX Attack is more of a pain to block. If you are currently Rank S or A, you'll most likely see this attack when his health bar drops to half. For his EX Attack, Flizard jumps into the middle of the room and begins spinning the collar around his neck and begins launching fire from the collar in a specific pattern. Once you have this pattern down, it should be easier to block when he uses it later on in the battle.

Once you deliver the final blow to Flizard, he'll go on and on about how Wiel will get destroy you and he keeps making metaphors about engulfing the world in flames and never extinguishing the flames of the new world. As his victo...I mean, death speech, comes to an end, he spontaniously combusts, we teleport out of there, and achieve not only our progress reports, but also the Flame Chip. In additon, if you get B Rank or higher, you can capture the EX Skill of Blazin' Flizard or any boss for that matter.