Secret music[edit]
Press and hold both "shoot" and "jump" while selecting Shade Man from the stage selection screen: the stage will play the music from Ghosts 'n Goblins. This secret is available only before Shade Man is defeated.
Items[edit]
- Energy Balancer (need Rush Search)
- Mega Bolt (need Rush Search)
- Proto Shield (need to have met Proto Man twice)
Stage walkthrough[edit]
When you beam down head to the right and down the ladder at the end of the screen. There is a bolt in the top left corner behind the coffin: after you defeat the enemy, just use the Rush Coil (or the Super Adapter). Head right; in the next area, the heads of the armor will jump down every so often, so be on your toes. At the end head up past the crows. In the next room there are bats above and you have to pass by the weights falling; just take your time and its a breeze.
There is a sub boss here. Now there's two ways to do this: you can either take out the inner or outer shell; each one takes you to a different path. It might not look like you're doing damage to the outer shell, but you are; it just takes a little longer. If it's your first visit to the stage, defeat the outer pumpkin. The path will send you to a picture of Dr. Wily where you can use Rush Search. No matter what path you take, you'll end up running into Bass. There will be a little dialogue, continue right and end up at Shade Man's room.
Robot Master: Shade Man[edit]
- Weakness strategy
Try to stay underneath him as he floats around, when he's about to dive, slide out of the way. When you have an open shot, release a charged Coil attack pressing up 
. Otherwise, he's pretty generic in his attacks, just slide when need be. You can also pin him against the wall if you're quick and smart about it. When the battle starts, jump up and use a Wild Coil. Shade Man should fall to the ground in a daze, and try to fly upwards again. If you jump up next to him and time your Wild Coil right, you can knock him back down again and repeat this process until he's defeated.
- Mega Buster strategy
Without the Wild Coil, you have no way of preventing Shade Man's attacks, so watch out! Avoid his swoops at all costs, or he'll latch on to you and absorb your energy, reducing yours and raising his. As he flies around the top of the screen, it's also quite hard to hit him, but fully charged Mega Buster shots at the peak of your jump may do the trick. When he comes down from the ceiling, it's time for his other attacks, but be ready for his petrifying attack and you should dodge it easily. Since you shouldn't be frozen by that, you're free to dodge his Noise Crush attacks that come afterward. Jump the low ones, slide beneath the high ones, and blast him whenever you can: this is the easiest time to return fire!
- Attacks
- Suck Your Energy: Dives down, grabs you, then sucks your energy, draining your health and reviving his! Make sure he doesn't do this too much, or you might have to fight the equivalent of two or more Shade Men!
- Solution: Stay underneath, then slide out when he dives. It's difficult to master the timing.
- Banshee Sight: Fires two glowing lasers that fire forward in a curving path. These will turn you to stone if you get hit, watch out!
- Solution: Jump, easy to dodge.
- Dual Noise Crush: Releases sequential sonic blasts after 'Banshee Sight.' Dodge these, and then watch out for his upgraded shots.
- Solution: If he is on the ground, jump over it, if he is off, then it should either go over your head or leave enough room to slide under.
- Absorbed Noise Crush: If shot with a Noise Crush, Shademan will release an upgraded version back at you. Most of the time he will then go into his Suck Your Energy routine after being hit.
- Solution: Don't shoot him with Noise Crush, dodge as best you can.
Re-visiting the stage[edit]
Re-visit the stage after you defeated Turbo Man and you met Proto Man twice (once in Cloud Man's stage and once in Turbo Man's stage). When you fight the sub-boss, destroy the inner pumpkin. In the path, there's a secret wall behind the first Sniper Joe to Proto Man. Proto Man is weak against the Mega Buster only. If you defeat him, he will give you his Proto Shield.