Mega Man 2/Heat Man

The Heat Man stage is fraught with danger, and is perhaps the most difficult stage after Quick Man's. Most of the danger is presented by the molten lava, which kills instantly, and the numerous bottomless pits.

Floating cylinders identical to the ones in the Crash Man stage fly towards Mega Man while he must jump from disappearing blocks over the lava. A midair collision with one of these robots could cause Mega Man to fall, so the Leaf Shield and the Metal Blade are quite useful at this point. Also, Mega Man must use the disappearing blocks to cross a very long bottomless pit, but no enemies attack while he navigates this obstacle so with the proper timing of jumps, there is little danger. If Air Man has been defeated, Item 2 can be used to cross the huge pit much quicker and easier than using the disappearing blocks.

Robot Master
Heat Man resembles a large Zippo lighter with arms and legs, and attacks by firing three fireballs at Mega Man which errupt into columns of flames. Attack him using Bubble Lead. Every time Heat Man is hit, his body ignites and he becomes temporarily invulnerable. He then turns himself into a jet of flames and flies horizontally across the room. Wherever he comes to rest, he resumes his attack by again firing the three fireballs and repeating the pattern.

By attacking with Bubble Lead and then jumping over his jet attack, he can be quickly defeated with minimal damage. The fireballs can be quite difficult to avoid, so it's a good idea to go into this battle with a lot of energy.

Defeating Heat Man grants his fireball attack to Mega Man, which can be charged by holding down the attack button before releasing in order to throw larger fireballs (at the expense of extra weapon energy). You'll also get Item-1, which will be very useful.