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Stage: This is the boss rush stage of the game so there’s not much ‘stage’ to speak of other than a handful of Sniper Joe’s spriteswapped to look like shadow versions of Proto Man and a few easy spike pits. Instead of the usual stage analysis, I’ll be listing the boss locations and their weaknesses in clockwise order starting from the upper-right capsule:
- Coal Man – Soak Rain
- Dagger Man – Magic Missile
- Axe Man – Flash Dagger
- Trash Man – Coal Barrage
- Soak Man – Zap Barrier
- Wizard Man – Trash Attack
- Zap Man – Leaf Boomerang
- Leaf Man – Giant Axe
Boss: Proto Man is, unsurprisingly, the final boss of this stage. He has his shield and it can negate any attack, limiting the opportunities you have to damage him. Proto Man fights somewhat like he does in official Mega Man games as he spends a good deal of time jumping around and shooting bullets while in the air. When Proto Man decides to jump and shoot he always shoots six bullets in two sets of three and he can’t use his shield while in the air. It’s a potentially good time to land a hit, but it can be difficult to line up a shot while also dodging his attacks. Proto Man also has a slide followed by a jump. There’s not much to say about his slide attack other than to make sure to either jump over it at the very start or to run under him while he’s jumping. Finally, Proto Man has two types of charge shots which he alternates between. He can do a short charge to fire off a single medium shot which is easy to dodge, but his shield only stays down for a split second so you need to fire your own buster shot a little before he drops his guard if you plan to land a hit. His second charge shot consists of a much longer charge time and he’ll quickly fire off two large buster shots followed shortly after by a final large shot. This second charge is the best chance to hit him because his shield stays down for the entire attack. It’s a straightforward enough fight, though Proto Man is one of the more aggressive bosses and can be challenging to deal with if you fall out of rhythm while fighting him.