You might be wondering what path/items I used for this run. This might sound kind of lame, but I took the route from Prower's time attack on Bisqwit's site. There are two reasons for this:

1. I am almost positive this is the fastest route possible.

2. Beam Sabre not only saves a ton of time on the bosses, it also makes fighting Sigma a LOT easier.

I even copied the route down to the items used: Dash boots and Beam Sabre. I pick up the dash boots because they make some jumps easier and save time in specific areas (elevator section in Blast Hornet's stage). I collect the Beam Sabre to cut down time on the bosses. Yes, I have to make a detour and kill Vile to collect it, but I'm almost positive the time it takes to beat the bosses without the Beam Sabre more than makes up for it.

I did make one change in Prower's route, and the change is going into Neon Tiger's stage, then going into Volt Catfish's stage to fight Vile. Both ray splasher and spinning blade hurt Vile for 2 points of damage, meaning I don't need to resort to using the X-buster.

On to my stage comments:

Intro stage: I'm off to a fine start, no mistakes here.

Boss: About my strategy here, the boss's behavior with the ball and chains is quite random and I can't react fast enough to dodge it, so I just jump and shoot whenever possible, indifferent to taking damage.

Blizzard Buffalo stage: Other than getting hit and not jumping off a slope in the beginning, my run of this stage went fine.

Boss: No problems here, the air dashing is done to keep Buffalo in place

Toxic Seahorse stage: No big problems here, I just take an unnecessary hit from the miniboss.

Boss: This boss is just hilariously easy.

Tunnel Rhino stage: I do exceptionally well in this stage, only taking one hit from a drill bot. Usually I don't do as well because I always get hit by the drill bots when they shoot bombs.

Miniboss, Big drill bot: Everything goes well here, dies nice and fast.

Boss: I pretty much slaughtered him. Unfortunately, there is no way you can prevent him from performing the invincible dash.

Volt Catfish stage: This is a pretty good runthrough of the stage, I always get hit at least twice towards the end because there is just too much stuff on the screen at once, meaning it is not worth it to dodge the enemies (takes up too much time). That and lasers suck.

Bit: I do well here, managing to dodge two homing shots. The only reason why I get hit is because my frost shield failed to shoot instantly, so I had to wait a bit to shoot it (odd little bug that only happens during Tunnel Rhino and Bit). If you're wondering why I switch to using the buster on the final hit, it is because I don't want to destroy Bit, allowing me to fight the combined form of Bit and Byte rather than the Press Disposer (more on this at the Doppler stage 1 boss section)

Boss: I get hit whenever he sends out the three sparks not because I don't know how to dodge, but it saves time just taking a hit, then shooting Volt Catfish, rather than staying up on the wall to dodge his sparks. I use the X-buster initially for the same reason, the invincibility period after hitting with a tornado fang is about 3 seconds, which is longer than the time it takes to charge up an X-buster shot.

Crush Crawfish stage: My runthrough of this stage is near flawless, pretty much everything executed perfectly.

Boss: Well the first thing I immediately do is rush in to attack him too close, causing me to get stuck in a freezing glitch for a few seconds (making me look really stupid). Afterwards, I get Crawfish stuck in a loop involving vertical air dashes and triad thunders.

Neon tiger: Other than the beginning where I mess up on climbing a wall, costing me a few seconds, my performance is just fine throughout this stage.

Boss: I know my timing is a little slow with some of the spinning blades, but on my previous recorded attempts I always shot one at Neon tiger too early, so I just played it safe here.

Vile stage: You might be wondering why I air dash upwards when I take the elevator down to the teleporter. I do this to make the elevator disappear below me, allowing me to fall down rather than wait for the elevator to slowly take me down to the bottom. When it comes to climbing up the wall, I know you can use dash jumps to climb up onto the ledges, but I am really bad at it.

Vile: I do very well against him, it takes me a short amount of time to adjust to the timing of jumping over his punches and spamming ray splasher while Vile is still in his robot, which is the reason for the initial air dashes. I only get hit once due to brain farting while switching weapons.

Vile stage escape: I do incredibly well, I get some bad luck while climbing the wall and get hit by two rocks falling down, but those don't slow me down very much (though maybe I could have had 28 seconds left if that didn't happen).

Gravity Beetle stage: Other than a slight timing mishap in the beginning and a minor climbing mishap in the elevator area, I did pretty well.

Boss: This guy is pathetically easy, there is no way I could get hit by him.

Blast Hornet stage: Whee, I take no damage throughout this whole stage.

Miniboss: Spammed acid bursts kill the wheel nice and fast.

Byte: Really easy boss, I missed two drill shots, but it has hardly any effect on my time.

Boss: I got kind of unlucky this fight, whenever Blast Hornet sends out his hornets the game slows down horrendously. Usually he'll only shoot hornets once, but this fight he shot them twice.

Doppler stage 1: My run of the first area of this stage is total shit, I run into one of the missle shooting bots like an idiot, then when I climb up the wall right before the mini- boss I get hit not once, but TWICE (which never, ever happens). Then I collect the life capsule which turns out to be unnecessary because I don't take damage throughout the latter portion of the stage.

Boss, Godkarmachine O Inary: There are three reasons why I fight this boss rather than Press Disposer:

1. Ray splasher does 3 points of damage against Godkarmachine, while the weapon that works best against Press Disposer, tornado fang, only does 2 points of damage.

2. Press Disposer's trunk does a really good job of blocking your shots.

3. I find Press Disposer a lot harder than Godkarmachine, though that could just be me.

The reason why I kill Byte and not Bit to get this boss, is because switching out of a frost shield is a lot more convenient than switching out of a tornado fang (stays on the screen forever).

My actual fight against the boss is flawless. I don't get hit AND I don't miss with a single ray splasher.

Doppler stage 2: About the robots in the beginning, this is the fastest route I could come up with that prevents me from taking damage. I can't risk taking damage because one shot from the robots = 1/4 of my life gone, actually running into the robots = 1/2 my life gone.

This is the stage where I get the (drumroll please) BEAM SABRE! After I collect the beam sabre I end up getting shot by one of the robots, which causes me to try to hunt down a life capsule (this life capsule also ending up being unnecessary, ARGGHHHHH!) so I can perform my time saving trick which requires me to take damage. Fortunately I got lucky and collected the life capsule along the way, even if my method of acquiring it was really bad (mainly because I never got hit along the way to the elevator in my practice runs).

I think my time savers will require some explanation, the first time saver is pretty simple, when I get up near the peak with the first elevator, I air dash up, get hit by the little flying robot which allows me to activate triad thunder, jump off the spikes, and then jump and vertical air dash up to the platform above me.

The second time saver is also simple in concept, but it is harder to execute. Basically I want to get hit by one of those missles the robots shoot, jump in front of it, then jump off the wall onto the next platform. The biggest problem in performing this time saver is getting the robots to cooperate in shooting you, though it usually happens if you just jump up slightly above their height.

The third and final time saver involves a use of a bug I like to call the Beam Sabre Jump Cancel (BSJC). The BSJC involves using either a vertical or horizontal air dash, then cancelling it before the dash ends with a jump STRAIGHT up. The bug is not very hard to perform and it allows me to gain the height required to take damage from the final platform, then air dash to the left so I can jump off the wall and air dash up to the non-spiked wall. If you're being observant, you might notice that I probably could have just air dashed straight up, right after I took damage, then move right and climb up the wall. But most of the time when this trick works you will both take damage and take the purple cap off the platform, preventing you from air dashing up first thing. I just went with habit because it is safer.

Boss, Volt Kurageil: Very easy boss, cooperates with me and goes down in two beam sabre slashes.

Doppler stage 3: I do quite well throughout the boss fights, with only one obvious mistake sticking out.

First off, you might be wondering why I am switching weapons right after I slash with the Beam Sabre. This is a bug that allows you to cancel the post-slash recovery by switching weapons after X slashes, allowing you to charge your buster slightly more quickly, thus saving a tiny bit of time (and allowing you to dodge attacks more effectively).

Most of the boss battles go perfectly and aren't worth commenting about, but there are three that I have a little to say about.

Blizzard Buffalo: I get confused about the weapons I'm switching (look above on why), costing me more time than any of the Beam Sabre canceling saved.

Gravity Beetle: I didn't do anything wrong, I just got some minor bad luck when Beetle used his invincible charge attack.

Neon Tiger: I take the damage to save time, though I could have prevented the second time I took damage with some better timing. Not like it matters, because that second hit has a negligible effect on my time.

Boss, Dr. Doppler: Due to some good timing, this goes off without a hitch.

Final stage: There are just a couple of enemies here, what am I supposed to say?

Sigma: You might be wondering if there is a faster way to kill Sigma, the answer is yes, but only if you take damage. Seeing as anything Kaiser Sigma hits me with takes off half my life or more, I don't really want to risk taking damage.

Kaiser Sigma: Goes down nice and fast.

Sigma Virus: Easy segment, just takes a long time to complete because the scrolling is fixed. I go nuts with the color switching because there is nothing better to do.

Enjoy, and I am working on a naked run of this game, so if you enjoyed this run, you just might enjoy the naked run too =D

First off I have to give a big thanks for Radix for coming up with this route, without this route I probably wouldn't have bothered with this run. I also thank McBAIN for giving me the idea to take damage to get past the first elevator in Doppler stage 2 faster.

My play is good up until the 2nd half of Doppler stage 2, where you might notice my level of play goes down. There are two reasons for this:

1. Having all those items makes me feel invincible, and I know I shouldn't be so complacent but it's like my subconscious just knows I'm overpowered and I stop caring.

2. After completing the elevator segment of Doppler stage 2 (which I end up erring a bit) I feel like I have completed all of the challenging segments of this run, and to me the run is essentially over.

About this route, there might be a better one but I highly doubt it. There are two stage repeats in this run, but they work out well for these two reasons:

1. Going back to Gravity Beetle's stage is a smaller sacrifice to your time than going through the box segment in Blast Hornet's stage AND fighting Blast Hornet without his weakness.

2. Going back to Tunnel Rhino's stage isn't a big waste of time because the helmet upgrade adds time to every stage you enter. In addition, the tornado fang is needed to obtain both the arm upgrade and the robot armors, which in turn are needed to acquire more items.

This run could definitely be improved, but I'm not really motivated enough to do so.

A few notes:

-I mostly use the non-charged versions of special weapons because the charged versions are usually slower in a boss battle. The only exception is Toxic Seahorse, if you use the charged frost shield, Toxic Seahorse takes one less hit to kill.

-When I was fighting Neon Tiger, I was climbing up the walls when he was in the middle of the screen, because the usual tactic I use to dodge his shots doesn't work when he is in the middle of the screen. I spam shots at Neon Tiger after he uses his invincible attack because I couldn't hit him consistently when I tried to time a charged shot.

-I get hit a lot during the Vile battle, but it hardly costs me any time (it wasn't on purpose though).

-I finally manage a perfect runthrough of Doppler stage 1.

-I don't know why my second airdash didn't come out while attempting the shortcut in Doppler stage 2, I must have tried it too early.

-I don't know why my shots messed up like that against Volt Catfish, I thought I was going to swing my Beam Sabre at him.

-The hit I took while fighting Sigma was taken to save time, and yes my Kaiser Sigma battle was pretty crappy, but I really don't care.

If you look at this run closely you will probably notice that the play in this run is cleaner than my any% run with some optimizations and less mistakes, I will improve my any% run sometime, but not right now, if you haven't noticed I have played this game a lot =P.

I take the exact same stage order as my any% run (except I don't kill Vile) for two reasons:

1. I am used to the route, meaning I don't have to make many changes and it is already optimized.

2. This route just works really well in general. All the weapons come at the right time, meaning there aren't many areas I stop and slow down.

Overall my play was really good throughout and there really isn't much to comment on, considering I covered a lot in my last run, but there are a few key areas I want to have a say in.

-I take no damage in Blizzard Buffalo's stage and Crush Crawfish's stage =D

-The Tunnel Rhino miniboss was kind of a crap fight, the reason why I'm not shooting it more often is because I was too close to the wall when it charged, causing me to get stunned.

-In the end of Volt Catfish's stage I am taking hits because it is too much of a pain to dodge everything, plus dodging everything would involve waiting.

-If you're wondering why I'm jumping off the walls like an idiot during the two elevator sections (Gravity Beetle and Blast Hornet stages) it's because climbing up those areas with dash jumps off the wall is possible, just ridiculously hard. (I consider it a bonus if I make it)

-For some reason that stupid wall still owns me in Doppler stage 1, I have no idea why I always screw up so badly on that wall. You don't need to tell me the reason why I got hit, I already know what I did to screw up.

-It is probably possible to shortcut a part of the elevator section in Doppler stage 2 without the dash boots, but I have no idea how and it would be insanely hard to do so. I took damage because I was being stupid with weapon switching.

-I do really well against Vile. I got kind of lucky because he never used his beam shot while in the Goliath (the beam shot makes him invincible). I am staying kind of far away from him because when he uses a dash punch he goes slightly faster than X can dash. I pause and go into the weapon select screen so I can hit him with the spinning blade the moment I am allowed to shoot. In theory this might cost me time, but I don't think I can weapon switch quickly enough to hit Vile while he is on the ground.

-In Doppler stage 3 I use the weapon weakness against all bosses except Blizzard Buffalo, here's why:

1. His weakness, parasitic bomb causes him to be invincible for over 2 seconds, while a charged buster shot only makes him invincible for about one second.

2. You can't use the AI jump trick against buffalo if you shoot him with parasitic bombs, meaning he will most likely use an ice beam which renders him invincible while he shoots.

I tested it out and for these two reasons it is faster to use charged X-buster shots.

-If you are being observant you might notice Crush Crawfish is taking longer to kill the second time around. I have no idea why this happens, it's not like my timing is a lot different.

-My Doppler fight went really well, I am pretty much hitting him at every possible moment. If I hit him at other times he will either heal himself or be invincible to my shot. I do miss a shot, but that is pretty good considering how precise you need to be to hit him.

-My first form Sigma fight went great, nothing wrong happened. You might be wondering why I pause in hitting him when he's low on life, I do this because if Sigma has 6 units of life or less, he will throw his shield and it will fly up in the air then fly down again, covering the majority of the screen. Because I waited, Sigma just throws his shield along the ground, allowing me to easily dodge it.

-My Kaiser Sigma battle also goes really well, I only miss two shots and one really looks like it should have hit. About the damage I took, I could have avoided it if I didn't hold left coming off the wall, then dashed to the left. Yes, I was really nervous in the lava segment.

I'd like to thank these people:

• Mike Uyama for his Mega Man X3 run in 44:39.
• Tiki for his emulated NO UNINTENTIONAL DAMAGE run in 43:57.

This is my 4th game I have attempted to speed run, and after countless hours of practicing this game, I couldn't do much better. I did have a few major screw ups in the Doppler stages, such as the spike walls when I fell, and wasted about 20 seconds. Minus all of my stupid errors, I could take another 30 seconds off alone in the Doppler stages, but I did incredibly well on the 1st 8 stages, so I went with it anyway.

This game is the XCollection/PS version of X3, so there is no lag compared to the SNES, but there are additional cutscenes that do add quite a bit to the final time. The dialogue text goes by slower too.

Here is a list of every time difference I can think of and the approximate times:

• Dialogue: +1 minute
• Mac's Battle -2 seconds (when battling, he appears faster on the SNES version)
• Boss Battles - 1 minute (the SNES delays right when you enter a boss door, and the bosses take about 2.5 seconds longer to explode each.)
• Save Screens: + 24 seconds (2 second per save screen)
• Lag: -15 seconds
• Cutscenes: + 3 or 4 seconds (it is possible to skip the cutscenes, but it is very difficult.)

• Intro Stage: I have played this so much, yet I still can't do it 100% of the time. I have restarted this stage countless times to perfect it for my run, and it paid off.

• Blizzard Buffalo: No major screws ups at all and went rather fast. It is faster to beat the game without the air dash boots, but I grab them anyway because it makes the game a lot easier. BB himself is a retard as seen in the video.

• Toxic Seahorse: This run was by far the best I've done it! A slight screw up on TS himself because I can sometimes beat him before he jumps a 3rd time.

• Neon Tiger: It is pure luck on whether I can beat him without going into his invincible mode, which wastes nearly 7 seconds per time he does it. I managed to be lucky this time.

• Tunnel Rhino: I grabbed the Sub-Tank here because I take a little precaution in case I mess up bad later on. Only takes a few seconds, but ends up I didn't need it. The only thing I worry about is getting hit or not, because my rapid fire strategy to stand on the mini-bosses drill and shoot won't work without enough health.

• Volt Catfish: I fought Bit here which turned out to be ok. However, if he is killed with the Ice Shield, he explodes, which wastes about 10 seconds. Volt Catfish is easy enough to kill until he wants to go into his electric frenzy.

• Vile Stage: The only reason I went after Neon Tiger w/o his weakness weapon is so I can kill Vile here and not have to restart Volt Catfish's stage. I do however have to conserve ray splasher energy and need to fire off buster shots to weaken him.

• Crush Crawfish: The stage went fairly well itself. I could defeat Crush faster, but it is just luck on what the Triad Thunder does to him.

• Gravity Beetle: This stage is fairly easy once I have all those weapons on me, and Spinning Blade kicks butt. Gravity Beetle is extremely hard! (sarcasm)

• Blast Hornet: Had a bad wire frame mini-boss fight, and worried me that I fought Byte here because I don't want to get hit so much. Blast Hornet went down easily.

• Doppler Stage 1: Went pretty darn well. Killed Bit/Byte w/o getting hit, which I don't do often.

• Doppler Stage 2: Worried me that I hit the first enemy, so I took it safe for most of the level. Got the Beam Saber of course. Majorly screwed up on the spike wall. I don't even try to do the "hit and jump up" strategy simply because...I can't do it! Wastes about 20 seconds, plus my additional screw up I had which was another 20. This right here proves my time can be beaten by a human.

• Doppler Stage 3: Crush Crawfish harmed me badly so I tried to get a large tank from the thing in the center of the room. I did fortunately and beat Neon Tiger last since he is the worst to deal with. Doppler went down fast, but I took an unexpected hit.

• Sigma Stage: Beat Sigma fairly easily but I do take a safer approach to beating him than others do. I don't want to be trapped in the corner and be easily killed. That's another 8-10 seconds I guess, but I didn't want to screw up my good run so far.