Mega Man X/Chill Penguin
Chill Penguin is the preferred choice for beginning players. He is the stage boss with the easiest difficulty to defeat, using a simple attack pattern you can memorize and react to with little effort on your end.
Aside from a few slippery patches of ice and floor gaps in the more rundown areas of the base, there's not much danger to behold here. This stage is also ideal to tackle first because it is the only one that houses an armor upgrade capsule out in the open. Since the upgrade is a "freebie", you can obtain it without having to go on a manhunt, and it will aid you greatly throughout the later stages. This level is a little soft, but don't worry, you'll still probably take a beating somewhere in this stage.
Snow Mountain, part 1
The first enemy you'll face off against is a... rabbit?!
The enemy count is low here because Chill Penguin's outpost has fallen into ruin from disuse and was discarded. Whoever thought an Arctic base would be useful had the wrong idea at the time. Not as many Mechaniloids are necessary to defend such a low-priority place, but the missile stock inside the abandoned base located in the mountains was important enough to have some machines on guard to keep it safe.
You'll soon come across an Axe Max.
Watch out for the Bomb Beens!
You'll soon run into a cave full of Batton Bone bats and Spikys, spiked wheels.
There is a tricky jump on the second level going up to the third; try to jump off the exact edge of the step and make sure to wall jump when your arm touches the edge of the platform.
Dr. Light's capsule
When you reach the top of this area, you'll discover a peculiar machine positioned in the way of your destination. Take a few steps forward for a surprise...
The capsule has transported a Foot Parts upgrade to X, now allowing him to dash! Tap while moving, and X will perform a dash. You can use this to gain a burst of speed and also better your dodging abilities. If you dash and press , X will leap into the air much faster than an ordinary jump and be able to clear a larger distance. Try out your new gift by practicing the dash jump by dashing, and then jumping over the nearby pits in the icy floor. Simple, isn't it? But beware: there's no way to continue onward from the capsule without using dash jumps. The floor might make for some clumsy movement, but you can use the slippery landscape to propel you forward even faster! If you get good at dash jumping, you'll be able to zoom through levels and avoid enemies and projectiles better.
Snow Mountain, part 2
Near the exit of the cave are some Flamingles.
Head out of the cave and once again into daylight! Well, not for long. You'll soon be trekking into a second section of the decaying base. Lucky for you, there is an abandoned suit of Ride Armor sitting in the snow, just waiting for a pilot to take control of it. You've already seen what Vile can do with on; how would you like to be the one with the mighty battle suit for once? Well, you finally can! Hop into the Ride Armor. Use the D-pad to control its movements, to jump high into the air, and to sling punches with its big fists. The Ride Armor is quite durable, but if you let it get heavily damaged, it will malfunction and overheat. You'll notice when it happens: you'll be unable to control the mech suit and it will start flashing. If it does, bail out right away! That mecha's gonna blow up on you! Press + and run away to avoid being hit by the blast radius. If you lose the Ride Armor or it explodes, you can always backtrack to where you first found it and it will reappear.
Take command of the Ride Armor and advance through the base ruins. It's capable of demolishing the igloo-shaped domes in the mountains, some of which are actually releasing dragonfly robots, Tombots.
At some point, you can use the armor to jump up onto a higher section of roofing from a crumbled part of the base, but to reach it, you'll have to dismount at the height of the jump and continue on foot by wall-kicking off the side to get to the top. You can avoid some Tombots and an Armor Soldier this way. Take notice of the igloo domes up here. You're not able to destroy them, now that the Ride Armor is gone, but when you obtain Flame Mammoth's weapon, Fire Wave, you won't need the armor to do the job. One of these domes hides a Heart Tank upgrade, a small pink item shaped like a heart. You'll need to use the Fire Wave to destroy the right dome and expose the Heart Tank. It will expand your life bar by two units. One Heart Tank is hidden in every one of the eight Maverick stages, letting you raise your life bar to a maximum of 32 hit points, doubling it from the initial 16.
If you have grown fond of the Ride Armor, you might opt for the lower path and pass through the broken room below. Watch out for gaps! If you have to, you can always bail by pressing +.
You can decimate most of the minor stage enemies with little sweat inside this suit, but sooner or later, you're bound to run into the dreaded Armor Soldier.
You'll run into a large blue wall soon after passing by it. The Ride Armor can't jump over this wall, forcing you to eject and leave it behind. Once you reach the far end of the cave, hop out of the mech and climb up the cliff.
You'll have to face off against rolling snowballs and the culprits of these incoming attacks, Snow Shooters, snowball throwing robots.
After you reach the top of the slope and defeat the final Snow Shooter, step through the vaulted door lock to face the first real boss.
Maverick boss: Chill Penguin
One of the easiest bosses of the game, Chill Penguin should only be able to damage you if you make a mistake like jumping in the way of fire. The best way to beat him is to let off a fully-charged blaster shot once you enter the room, then quickly scale the wall and continue to jump in the corner, as shown in the pictures. When you're in this spot, Chill Penguin will continue to launch attacks.
- Most of the time he'll create decoys of himself and either shoot ice pellets at them or slide around the room, instantly destroying them. Once you see him slide, jump down to the ground and shoot him with a fully-charged blaster shot. Scale the wall again and hide in the corner, and repeat this strategy.
- Sometimes, he may pull the handle at the top of the room, which initiates a blizzard, either blowing you away from him or towards him. The blizzard will also push any decoys in the direction it is going. When you are getting blown towards him, simply keep dashing until you reach a wall, and then hide back in the corner. You can also get a free shot at him during the blizzard, so make sure you take it.
- Chill Penguin might jump around the room randomly, but if you hide in the corner, he should not be able to touch you. Once again, you can get another free shot off once he's jumping.
Refer to the strategy above and you'll defeat Chill Penguin easily.
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Start off with a fully-charged blaster shot...
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...then let it go and hide in the corner, as shown.
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Dash when the blizzard is blowing you towards him.
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Chill Penguin is invulnerable when he's sliding.
Special weapon
X's Variable Weapons System will now copy the Maverick's signature weapon and bestow him with a new ability: Shotgun Ice! This shoots a single blast of ice that shatters on impact, spraying five shards of ice that do the same amount of damage as the first projectile backwards. You can shoot this against walls to spray projectiles towards your enemies from various directions.
When you obtain the X-Buster upgrade, you can charge Shotgun Ice to a second level and it will make a snowboard in the shape of Chill Penguin that you can ride for a while and send crashing into enemies.
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You get Shotgun Ice!
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Shotgun Ice demo.
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Normal shot
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Upgraded shot
Victory effects
After defeating Chill Penguin, Flame mammoth's factory stage will be affected. All floors covered in harmful molten metal will cool down, and will become safe to walk.