Rockman X4 Hints

These game hints are courtesy of Metool, a tribute to the "death" of his page.

Rockman X4/Megaman X4 Players Guide
for Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation
version 1.6 by Max "Metool" Hagedorn
(static@intex.net)
Contents:
(1) The game
(2) The story
(3) Special items
(4) Stage notes and item locations
(5) X:
(5a) Boss weapon charts
(5b) Dr. Light capsule locations and descriptions
(5c) Boss patterns
(6) Zero:
(6a) Boss weapon charts
(6b) Attack Descriptions
(6c) Boss patterns
(7) Secret Codes

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(1) THE GAME

The latest installment of the X series offers some new suprises, the biggest of which being the jump to the 32-bit Playstation and Saturn systems. In X4 you can play as either X or Zero and the storyline is different for either character, even though the stages are the same. As X, you will get information on stages and enemies from a reploid named "Double". As Zero, you will recieve information from a female reploid named "Iris". X still gains special weapons when he defeats the bosses but Zero will use a "learning system" instead. With the learning system, Zero will gain new abilities and fighter game style attacks each time he defeats an enemy. While the object of playing as X is to figure out what weapon to use on each boss, with Zero you must learn which attacks and patterns work best in defeating each enemy, much like in a fighting game.

NOTE: A lot of the information in the later parts of this guide could be considered as "spoilers". If you want to be suprised by the events in the game, it's best to only read this guide when you are stuck.

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(2) THE STORY

While in a recharging bay, Zero is haunted by a strange vision of an old man with wild hair, a big mustache, and a lab coat. This silouette tells Zero that he controls him and controls his life. As Zero tells the man to stop, he suddenly clutches his head and sees flashes of a lab in ruins, monitors showing his design schematics, robot bodies torn apart, and his own hands with blood on them. This "dark half" of Zero's memory is incomplete but dangerous. As Zero gets up from the floor, an alarm sounds warning him of an invasion on Irregular Hunter Headquarters.

A dark alliance has been formed and reploids all over the world are being enlisted to join "Repliforce". Reliforce was originally created to work with the irregular hunter in stopping Irregular Reploids but something has gone wrong. Headed by the powerful reploid called "General", Repliforce now plans to unite the Reploids of Earth in an effort to destroy mankind.

X and Zero must rush out to stop General and the Repliforce. One of thier former allies, named "Colonel" has joined Repliforce. Colonel was a good friend to Zero and the older brother of "Iris", a female reploid that works with the Irregular Hunters. Iris hates to see Zero and Colonel fighting and, though she is helping the Irregular Hunters, she is torn between her friendships to Zero and relation to Colonel.

X is aided by "Double" as he tries to stop the 8 main commanders of Repliforce and find their "Final Weapon" before they can use it to destroy the world. Though he appears to be an ally, there is something strange about Double. Little is known of his past but he offers support for X even though he has a habit of being a bit clumsy at times.

The world hangs in the balance as Repliforce grows in power and General and a mysterious figure plot to destroy mankind. It's up to X and Zero to stop Repliforce before it's too late!

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(3)SPECIAL ITEMS

Life Energy Capsules: These capsules will give back life energy to your power bar. There are three sizes: Small, which gives back a little energy or 1 unit to an E-tank, Medium, which gives back more energy or 2 units to an E-tank, and Large, which will refill your life power bar completely or give 3 units to an E-tank.

Weapon Energy Orbs: These orbs are like the Life Energy Capsules only they refill weapons. If you have a weapon selected, picking up a Weapon Energy Orb will refill it. If the weapon is full or there is no weapon selected, the orb will refill the weapon with the lowest energy, or add to the W-Tank if all weapons are full.

Heart Item: In each stage there is one Heart Item, for a total of 8. Each Heart Item will add a little bit of energy to your life bar. Find all 8 Heart Items to increase your character to full strength.

E-Tank: There are 2 E-tanks in the game. Once you gain the E-tanks, you will have an energy reserve that you can use if your energy gets low. To Fill the E-tanks, collect energy capsules when your life bar is full.

W-tank: There is one W-tank in the game. The W-Tank is similar to the E-Tanks except that it refills weapon energy instead of Life Energy.

EX-Item: The EX-Item will allow your character to start a stage with 4 lives instead of 2 when you continue.

RIDE ARMORS:
Raiden Armor: Found in the Slash Beastleo and Magmard Dragoon stages. Press the fire button to punch. Hold down the fire button to charge up and release the button to do a dashing punch. The armor can't move while you are charging up.

Eagle Armor: Found in the Storm Fokuroul stage and the second final weapon stage. Press the jump once to jump, press the jump button again in mid-air to hover, and press the jump button while hovering to drop. You will also drop when you are hovering if you get hit by enemy fire. Hold the fire button to charge a shot up and release it to fire. You can't walk while charging up a shot but if you are hovering when you hold down the button, you can still move.

Motor Bike: Found in the Jet Stingren stage. Press the fire button to shoot at obstacles and enemies, use the jump button to jump over puts and mines, and press the dash button to do a dash-attack.

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(4) Stage Notes and Item Locations

OPENING STAGE:
Stage: Sky Lagoon
One of the Irregular Hunter bases that is under attack by Repliforce.
Boss: King Dragon
-Area 1 - Dash to avoid his attacks and hit his hands to defeat him or destroy the big door and enter the base and he'll leave.
-Area 2- Get close to him and jump and hit him in the head and chest to defeat him.

MAGMARD DRAGOON:
Stage: Volcano
"He betrayed the Irregular Hunters and hid himself in a volcano"
The entire stage is set in a volcano. You'll have to move quick and climb walls or dash and jump to avoid the burning rocks.
Mid-Boss: None - Just shoot the door until it's destroyed at the end of the first area.
Heart: Dash-Jump onto a cliff to the left when you see the falling meteor- like rocks in area 2.

FROST KIBATODOS:
Stage: Snow Base
"He protects the secret weapon hidden in the Snow Base"
There is a lot of ice in this stage and you will slide if you aren't careful.
Mid-Boss: Ice Claw - Use the Rising fire or Dragon Flame Blade to keep him at bay. Hit him and then get back. If he flies off the screen, keep moving. If he floats back and forth, run under him when he moves up.
1-up: Climb up the rock area right above where you first start in area 1 and head to the right. Use the web for X or double-jump for Zero to get around the cliff and collect the 1-up.
1-up: In the third cavern at the beginning of area 1, there is a 1-up hidden in the left wall. Jump from the dissapearing ice platforms to get to it.
Heart: Use the Rising Fire with X or Rising Flame Sword with Zero to break the block in the ceiling of the first part of area 1.
EX-Tank: on the slopes above the spikes in area 1, head to the far right wall and climb up it. Use the web for X or Sky Waltz for Zero to get to it.
W-Tank: Hidden in an ice block near the middle of area 2. It's in one of the last ice blocks you see, just left of the straight passage at the end.

JET STINGREN: Stage: Marine Base "He destroyed the city and then escaped to the sea"
The entire stage is a Jet Bike race so you'll have to think quick. When Jet Stingren flies by in area 2, use the Dash attack on the hoverbike quickly to take him down. He flies by twice during the stage.
Heart: In area 1, don't jump over the third pit and you'll land on the platform holding the Heart.
E-Tank: In area 2, jump from the platform just before the tank and then dash with the bike to break through the blocks and pick up the tank.

SLASH BEASTLEO:
Stage: Military Train
"He protects the train that carries supplies to the enemy army"
The entire stage is set on a moving train. be sure to move quickly when the box cars get cut off.
Mid-Boss: Spiked Car- Destroy all three of the spikes in the front and the cannon on top. The Rising Fire or Dragon Flame Blade work well on the spikes and the regular weapon works well on the cannon on top.
Heart: In area 2, get in the riden armor and punch the second car you come to after you get the armor to reveal the Heart.

WEB SPIDUS:
Stage: Jungle
"He protects the secret weapon in the Jungle"
The entire stage is a Jungle. Pay careful attention to the beehives and snakes.
Mid-Boss: None - Just shoot the door until it's destroyed at the end of the first area.
Heart: Use the Rising Fire with X or Rising Flame Sword with Zero to burn the second tree-trunk looking block in area 2.

SPLIT MUSHROOM:
Stage: Bio Laboratory
"He occupies the laboratory and will attack whoever visits there"
Move quick and watch out for traps.
Mid-Boss: Spike Beetle - He'll hover under you, stop and fly straight up, destroying the block above him. Stand on the far right block and when he stops, quickly move one block to the left and hit him with either fully charged X-Buster shots as X or the Thunder God Attack as Zero.
Heart: In the second part of area 2, you have to quickly jump on top of the falling section and then jump over to the Heart.

CYBER KUJACKER:
Stage: Cyberspace
Mid-Boss: None
"He lives in Cyberspace and wants to destroy the network system"
The entire stage is a virtual simulation, but the danger is real.
1-Up: Get an "S" rating in the first section of area 1 if you are playing as Zero. To get an "S" rating, you must go through the section as quickly as possible. If you see "HURRY UP" under your character and some arrows pointing down appear to the right of your character, you're too late. Use the Soul Body with X or the Sky Waltz attack to keep the yellow orbs out of the way and dash or dash-jump through as much of the stage as possible.
Heart: Get an "S" rating in the first section of area 1 as X or the second section of area 1 as Zero.
E-Tank: Get and "S" rating in the second section of area 1 as X or the third section of area 1 as Zero.

STORM FUKUROUL:
Stage: Air Force
"He left with a space fortress to conquer the air"
The entire stage is high above ground as you move from one airship to another in order to get to Storm Fukuroul's space fortress.
Mid-Boss: Wall-eye - Destroy any air cannons that appear on the middle or lower row on the screen and attack the red "eye" on the right wall when it is open.
Heart: Get it off of the platform in area 1 before the beam destroys the platform it's on. It's easier if you don't have the armor on when you go after the Heart.

Final Weapon - Stage 3 teleporter layout

+---------+ Key:
| WS | MD | MD = Magmard Dragoon
+----+----+ FK = Frost Kibatodos
| CK | SF | JS = Jet Stingren
+----+----+ SB = Slash Beastleo
| JS | FK | WS = Web Spidus
+----+----+ SM = Split Mushroom
| SM | SB | CK = Cyber Kujacker
+---------+ SF = Storm Fukuroul

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(5) X:

(a) Boss Weapon Charts

These charts will show what weapon to use on an enemy as well as what weapons you gain from each enemy.

Mid-Boss
the Colonel >

----------------------------------
|Colonel |X-buster |
+----------------+---------------+

Final Stages:
Spaceport:
----------------------------------
|Colonel |X-buster |
+----------------+---------------+

Final Weapon:
Stage 1:
----------------------------------
|Double |Double Cyclone |
+----------------+---------------+

Stage 2:
the General

----------------------------------
|General |Twin Slasher |
+----------------+---------------+

Stage 3:
--------------------------------------
|Stage Bosses |Respective Weapons |
+----------------+-------------------+

(b) Dr. Light Capsule Locations and Descriptions

Boots: Found behind a waterfall in Area 1 of the Jungle (Web Spidus) stage. Press the jump button twice to use them to hover or press the dash button in the middle of a jump to do an air-dash.

Arms: Found in Area 2 of the Space Fortress (Storm Fokuroul) stage. Shoot the web from the right distance to barely cover the spikes that line a hole in the ceiling right before the first door in the Area 2. There are 2 different arm upgrades but you can only use one at a time. The first capsule (on the right) will allow you to store up 4 fully charged shots to fire one after another. The second capsule will give you a super shot that will leave a lingering energy orb that damages anything that touches it. Either arm upgrade will allow you to charge up your special weapons.

Helmet: Found in area 1 of the Cyberspace (Cyber Kujacker) stage. Get an "S" rating in the 3rd section to get to the capsule. Use the Soul Body to Keep the yellow orbs out of the way and use the dash and dash-jump as much as possible. The helmet will allow you to use weapons uncharged without losing energy. Your weapons will only use up energy when you charge them.

Body: Found in Area 2 of the Volcano (Magmard Dragoon) stage. Dash-jump from the cliff just above where you see the Riden Armor onto a ledge above the lava. Use a fully-charged Twin Slasher shot to break the rocks. The body armor upgrade will give you the Giga Crush attack. You can fill up the Giga Crush power bar by either getting hurt or picking up energy or weapon capsules.

(c) Boss Patterns

Magmard Dragoon: Use either the Riden armor or the Double Cyclone. In his stage, you can use the Riden armor to walk through the lava. At the end of the lava is a tunnel that you can punch through with the armor. If you've managed to get to Magmard without taking a hit in the armor, then just keep attacking him with the armor to defeat him. If you are using the Double Cyclone, attack him and he'll jump to the other side of the screen. Follow him to the other side and attack him again to make him jump to the opposite side of the screen again. Repeat this pattern until he's dead.

Frost Kibatodos: Hit him with the Rising Fire and climb the wall that he heads towards when he turns into a tank to avoid him. Jump off the wall and repeat this until he starts to form the icicle in the air. Stay just to the side of the icicle and when it falls, run to where it landed to avoid the smaller icicles. When he advances forward, hit him with the fire and repeat this pattern until he's dead.

Jet Stingren: When he starts to drop down from the sky, jump up directly beneath him and fire off the Frost Tower to freeze him. He'll fly off and drop down again. Repeat the pattern until he's dead.

Slash Beastleo: Hit him with the ground hunter to trip him then jump to a wall or use the hover boots to avoid his dash attack. Repeat the pattern until he's dead.

Web Spidus: Attack him with the Twin Slasher and jump to the walls and off of them to get over his webs. When he spins his web on the screen and starts moving around, just keep firing at him with the Twin Slasher and avoiding his webs.

Split Mushroom: Stay in the center of the screen and fire a Lightning Web at him each time he jumps onto a wall.

Cyber Kujacker: Keep moving but stay near the center of the screen and when he appears, fire off the Soul Body so that the double hits him.

Storm Fukuroul: Use the Aiming Laser to lock onto him and fire at him when he tries to attack.

Colonel - Mid Stage: Be sure to have the boots when you get to him. When he dissapears, jump and hover until he swings at you twice. Hit him with a shot as he dashes to the side of the screen and then jump and hover to avoid his shots.

Colonel - Space Port: Try and get him to appear in the center of the screen so he'll do his lightning attack. Hover between the green tiles on the ground to avoid the lightning and hit him with shots. Follow the same pattern as in the mid-stage battle for the rest.

Double- Hit him with the Double Cyclone and jump and hover to avoid the big blue balls he fires at you.

General- Hit him in the head with the Twin Slasher. There is a safe spot in the upper-left corner that you can use to avoid taking excessive damage. Just remember to move up and down the wall a bit to avoid the rings that he shoots at you when his arms detach.

Bosses: See above.

Sigma:
Part 1 (Grim Reaper): Shoot Rising Fire shots up at him just as he appears the first 2 times and then climb one of the walls to avoid him the third time. Repeat this until his power is depleted.

Part 2 (Main Body): For the first attack, dash under him when he jumps to avoid the sickle and hit him with the Lightning Web. On the second attack jump to the wall to get him to hit the wall with sickle and drop down before it hits you. Dash-jump to the wall behind him before he fires the lasers to avoid being injured. Repeat until he's defeated.

Parts 3 and 4 (Giant Robot body and Giant Head): There are 2 parts here you have to destroy. One is a giant robot with a gun which will appear on the right side of the screen and the other part is a giant head that appears in the lower-left part of the screen. The yellow, blue, and red heads will attack every other attack. The attacks are in a sequence of 4: first the colored heads, then the giant head in the corner, then the colored heads again, and then the giant robot. Destroy the yellow and red heads quickly to avoid a lot of damage and climb on the red and yellow heads when the blue one spits water at you. Stay near the right of the screen when the giant head appears. If it tries to blow you into the spikes, dash to stay away from them and fire when you can. If it tries to suck you in let the yellow head block your path and keep firing charged shots at the head to destroy the rocks it spits. For the giant robot, stay in the upper left corner until it appears. Fire off a shot and if it raises it gun and fires along the ground, stay in the corner. If it fires off the straight beam, keep jumping and firing between shots to draw it's fire up.

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(6) ZERO

(a) Boss Weapon Charts
These charts will show what attacks to use on an enemy as well as what attacks you learn from each enemy. (The attack names listed here are the Japanese names for the attacks. The US names may vary.)

Final Stages:
Spaceport:
-------------------------------------------
|Colonel |Sky Waltz |
+----------------+------------------------+

Final Weapon:

Stage 1:
--------------------------------------------
|Iris |Attack the Purple Crystal |
+----------------+--------------------------+

Stage 2:
----------------------------------
|General |Beam Saber |
+----------------+---------------+

Stage 3:
--------------------------------------
|Stage Bosses |Respective Attacks |
+----------------+-------------------+

(b) Attack Descriptions
(The names in parenthesis are the romanized pronunciations of the original Japanese names)

Dragon Flame Blade (Ryuuenjin): Press Up and the Special button and Zero will jump up while thrusting a flaming sword upwards.

Ice Stab (Hyoretsuzan): In mid-air, press down and the Special button and Zero's Sabre will become an ice lance that he will drive into anything below him.

Fallen Phoenix Crush (Rakuhouha): Press the Giga Attack button and Zero will punch the ground, sending a spread of shots in a fan outward.

Sky Command (Tenkuuha): This is a beam sabre Level-up. You can block enemy energy shots by hitting them with the sword. It won't block missiles or projectile attacks, only the small energy shots.

Flying Jump (Hienkyaku): In the middle of a jump, press the Dash button to dash in mid-air.

Thunder God Attack (Raijingeki): While standing, press the Special button and Zero will thrust forward a powerful electrified sword.

Sky Waltz (Kuuenbu): In mid-air, press the Jump button to jump again, for added height. Also, when you press the regular Attack button, Zero will do a spinning attack that will damage anything he touches.

Hurricane Fang (Shippuga): In the middle of a dash, press the Special button and Zero will do a horizontal slash forward while dashing.

(c) Boss Patterns Magma Dragoon: If you are in his stage, take the Riden Armor through the lava and confront him. Keep punching away and you will take a lot of his energy away if not all of it before the ride armor is destroyed. Otherwise, it's a lot like a fighting game, you just have to anticipate his moves and try and dodge them, usually by dashing or jumping over him. Jump behind him when you can and hit him with the Thunder God Attack.

Frost Kibatodos: Hit him with the Dragon Flame Blade and then climb the walls and jump over him to avoid him when he slides along the ground. When he starts forming the icicle, stay to either side of it and as soon as it hit the ground move to where it landed to avoid the smaller icicles. You can attack him when he's forming the icicle, just don't let it land on you while you are in the middle of an attack.

Cyber Kujacker: Stay near the middle of the screen and the moment he starts to appear, hit him with the Dragon Flame Blade. When he starts appearing to the sides, move over a little and quickly hit him with the Rising Flame Sword and get back to the middle.

Storm Fukuroul: Stay near the center of the screen and hit him with the Fallen Phoenix Crush. You'll have to take a few hits or strike at him when he lands because you won't have enough Giga Attack energy to finish him off otherwise.

Jet Stingren: Get up to the upper-left corner. When he flies up and starts to drop down, quickly hit him with the Ice Stab. It takes a lot of practice and perfect timing, but if you do it right, you can trap him in the corner without taking any damage.

Web Spidus: Use the Sky Waltz to get over the webs he throws at you and hit him while you are in the air. When he spins his web, just keep attacking him and dodging the webs and spiders that he throws at you.

Split Mushroom: Hit him while he's on the wall and then use the Thunder God Attack on the "real" one (the one that appers to be more solid) when he splits in two.

Slash Beastleo: Dash out of the way when he tries to land on you and use Sky Waltz to avoid his rushing attacks and Twin Slasher attack.

Colonel: When he dissapears, double-jump to avoid his attacks. Wait until he appears in the middle of the screen and does the lightning attack. Stay off the green spots on the ground and double jump to avoid the lightning. Jump over the beams he fires and strike at him when he's doing the lightning attack or sword attacks.

Iris: Each time you hit her, she drops air-mines. Hit her armor until the purple crystal is released and then attack the crystal and not her. When the crystal gets under you, stay away from the wall until it stops and then dash-jump to the wall to avoid its blast.

Colonel: Stay to the left side of the screen. When he moves over towards you, quickly jump up to the upper-left corner and hit him in the head from behind when he comes over to your side.

Bosses: See Above

Sigma:

Part 1 (Grim Reaper): Use the Dragon Flame Blade on him just as he appears the first 2 times and then climb one of the walls to avoid him the third time. Repeat this until his power is depleted.

Part 2 (Main Body): For the first attack, dash under him when he jumps to avoid the sickle and hit him with the Sky Waltz. On the second attack jump to the wall to get him to hit the wall with sickle and drop down before it hits you. Dash-jump to the wall behind him before he fires the lasers to avoid being injured. Repeat until he's defeated.

Parts 3 and 4 (Giant Robot body and Giant Head): There are 2 parts here you have to destroy. One is a giant robot with a gun which will appear on the right side of the screen and the other part is a giant head that appears in the lower-left part of the screen. The yellow, blue, and red heads will attack every other attack. The attacks are in a sequence of 4: first the colored heads, then the giant head in the corner, then the colored heads again, and then the giant robot. Destroy the yellow and red heads quickly to avoid a lot of damage and climb on the red and yellow heads when the blue one spits water at you. Stay near the right of the screen when the giant head appears. If it tries to blow you into the spikes, dash to stay away from them and use the Hurricane Fang when you are close enough. If it tries to suck you in let the yellow head block your path as you destroy it with the Thunder God Attack and keep attacking the big head after the yellow one is destroyed to destroy the rocks it spits and to do damage to it. For the giant robot, stay in the upper left corner until it appears. If its raises it gun and fires along the ground, stay in the corner. If it fires off the straight beam, get in close and use the Sky Waltz to hit it as well as destroy the red head under it since the gun barrel itself won't harm you.

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(7) Secret Codes

Turn off background noise: If you press start to go to the sub screen on the Marine Base or Jungle stages and then press start to return to the game, the background noise caused by the jet bike on the Marine Base or the waterfalls in the Jungle will be turned off. The bike noise will return when you do a dash attack.

Super Armors-

There are hidden special armors for X and Zero that you can access through special codes on the character select screen.
To activate the "Ultimate Armor" for X:
Playstation:
At the player select screen, highlight X.
Press the "X" button twice.
Press Left on the D-Pad 6 times.
Hold L1 and R2 and press start.
Saturn:
At the player select screen, highlight X.
Press the "B" button twice.
Press Left on the D-Pad 6 times.
Hold L and R and press start.
If you do this correctly, you'll notice that the light blue parts of X's armor are now purple. When you enter any of the special armor capsules, you will be given the full Ultimate Armor suit. With this armor, you can do the Giga Dash attack without using up any of it's energy.

<---Before After--->

(Note: The "Ulimate Armor" is the special armor that X has in the "Mega Armor Series" action figure that was packed in with the Japanese "Special Limited Pack". The "Special Limited Pack" is a limited edition version of the Japanese Rockman X4 game that came packed in with the first figure in the Japanese "Mega Armor Series" of X and Zero action figures.)

Zero's Dark Costume:
To activate the black and white armor for Zero:
Playstation:
At the player select screen, highlight Zero.
Hold the R1 button and press right 6 times.
Release the R1 button, hold the X button, and press start.

Saturn:
At the player select screen, highlight Zero.
Hold the R button and press right 6 times.
Release the R button, hold the B button, and press start.

Outside of the different outfit, I haven't found any significant difference between the regular Zero and the dark version.

<---Before After--->

The coolest part is that you can save these armors in memory, so you don't have to put the code in every time.

There is a hidden option in the option screen, but I don't know what it is or how to access it. If anyone has any information on this, let me know.

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Acknowledgements: Thanks to Alcoseba (saalco@hkstar.com) for the location of the EX-Item and help on beating Sigma.

Thanks to "Teh TzeFong" (tehtf@hotmail.com) for the PSX codes for the special armors. The codes were originally posted on the Capcom Japan homepage.

Thanks to my brother for helping me look up all the Kanji on Zero's Learning Moves so that I could have proper translations of the attack names.

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Megaman, Rockman, Megaman X, Rockman X, and all related characters and logos are TM and (C) Capcom and Capcom Entertainment. This file was created for non-profit purposes only. It is freely distributable, but is not to be sold or used for profit.

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hint guide version 1.2 by Max "Metool" Hagedorn (static@intex.net)

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