Mega Man ZX - Hard Mode No Damage Run [Part 4]
31This is part 4 of my Mega Man ZX hard mode no damage run. This time, I’ll be concluding the main story missions of the game by fighting Prometheus and Pandora, and ascending Slither Inc. to take the fight to Serpent.
-Area O bears the unfortunate distinction of housing not one, but two minibosses, both of which are recycled from previous stages, adding insult to the already blatant padding. That aside, the second room is genuinely exciting, an assault of Galleon Burners demand rapid forward progress, lest you be burned to a crisp. The set of three pits right before the end are deliciously evil; jumping past these without halting requires that you intercept the Bee Rockets with well-placed jump slashes while also jumping immediately upon contacting the ground, avoiding the inevitable flame jets.
-The battle against Prometheus and Pandora is perplexing. Most of the moves they use are easier to avoid than in their standalone fights; a result of the extra space you have to maneuver granted by the lack of walls. Pandora in particular suffers greatly here: her homing bolts give you an insanely wide berth while the ice doll now bounces in its entirety rather than splitting apart. Prometheus’ flames still present an issue, but the graciously spaced arena now affords even easier manipulation methods, dulling their presence. Their combo attack is where things get interesting, and it’s where I choose to apply a bit of extra sauce to the fight. By far the easiest method to cripple this attack is to stand of the left side on the arena and slice all of Pandora’s ice shards; I showcase this method first. Though unnecessary, landing a glancing slash on Prometheus as he recklessly dives down is possibly the most satisfying retaliation point in the game. The second dodging method is to weave between the projectiles as they shift across the arena; there’s no payoff here so I don’t recommend this. Finally, you can simply stand between the two projectile streams and shuffle in accordance. I most certainly dragged this out longer than I needed to, but that’s par for the course given my other fights against these two.
-Serpent had the right idea when building his lair, Slither Inc. may be the most effective deterrent yet devised for a final level thanks to the presence of narcolepsy-inducing elevator sections. Only the very last one of the four snoozefests presents any real issue; I didn’t even bother memorizing the first three. None of the other platforming sections are noteworthy, so onto the refights.
-I finally decided to break out the power of Overdrive for the refights; the stage is honestly such a bore that I didn’t want to dally. I do still eschew charge attacks, but only for the sake of completing the game without them, barring Model X of course. Hivolt and Hurricaune fall to just a few ice-powered slashes while Lurerre and Leganchor are greeted by a barrage of quad-damage flame-augmented shots. HX takes the driver’s seat on the rest, slicing apart Fistleo and Flammole with the tried-and-true 5-hit combo. The level 4 victory against Fistleo was unintended but nice. The lack of elemental weaknesses gives the Model P Psudeoroids the honor of greatest threat, not that it means too much in the face of HX Overdrive.
-The difficulty of Serpent’s first form scales entirely depending on how much you play using improvisation versus precognition. I choose the latter, engaging in pattern manipulation, which requires well-researched positioning and slash timing. All of my failed attempts here — of which there were 3 I believe — were not from taking damage, but rather, engaging in a sloppy fight due to incorrect pattern manipulation. As a general rule, stay at a close to medium distance from Serpent, long-range combat is inadvisable; you’re liable to take a barrage of bullets from his V-shot, which increases its spread as it travels. This does put you at risk of getting hit by his slide or Shoryuken of course, but these moves are within reasonable reaction time limits. This is muddied by the introduction of his own Overdrive though, once he activates it, you need to shift strategies immediately and treat him as sort of an Omega-lite. Overdrive Serpent’s recovery time on attack animations is virtually nullified; overly aggressive play will be punished. Waiting this out before attacking is a dependable strategy.
-Final Serpent is comparatively lax, favoring a barrage of small projectiles over the blistering pace of the first battle. His most dangerous attack, which he doesn’t use, is a set of dark blobs that stick to you and stymie your movement. Even then, this is only an issue during the second phase; in phase three, you can simply stand slightly off-center and all of them will miss. Aside from that, every single attack is well telegraphed and consistent.
00:00 - Repel the Army | Prometheus & Pandora
05:05 - Destroy Model W | Serpent
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