Released in September 2002, Mega Man Zero is the start of a new Mega Man series featuring X's blonde, pony-tailed pal, Zero. Zero is reawakened after a 100 year slumber by a scientist named Ciel. Zero ends up helping Ciel and her reploid resistance base fight against the forces of Neo Arcadia.
Skipping missions by giving up is treated as a separate category because it is similar to warping in Mario games
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Hard Difficulty with Mission Skips: 0:10:31 by 'Elpis T31'
Ultimate mode, Normal Difficulty: 0:09:05 by 'Elpis T31'
S-Rank, Normal Difficulty: 0:34:03 by Mike Uyama
Author's comments:
Some people on the SDA forum wanted a few stats on each run so here goes:
-Goal: Get an S-rank every stage
-Single-Segment
-No deaths
-Takes damage to save time.
-No glitches (don't know any helpful glitches)
-A gameboy player + VCR was used to capture the run.
-and at Gorash's request: "This video was made without additional electronic aid."
-I would like to thank McBAIN because he is one of the few people who is willing to talk strategy about the Mega Man Zero series.
A little mini-faq for those interested:
Q: Why do you take time to kill enemies in some stages?
A: Because I need to kill enough enemies to get an S-rank. All the other requirements I meet just playing through the stage.
Q: S-rank?
A: Your rank in this game is depends on 6 categories: mission accomplished, clear time, number of enemies killed, how much damage you take (lower being better), number of retries, and number of cyber elves used (if you don't use any you get full points here). To get an S-rank you need a combined total of at least 96 points per stage (out of 100).
Q: If you only need an average of 96 points per stage, then why don't you kill less enemies in a few stages to make the run faster?
A: Because this is a true S-rank run. Radix and I agreed I should get 96+ points in every stage. There is not a single stage where I go below 96 points.
Q: Why didn't you collect the shield boomerang?
A: I felt like it wouldn't save any time, due to how long it takes to collect it. Plus, I really hate using it. I never tried collecting it, so I could be completely wrong.
Q: Why didn't you cut Maha Ganesheriff's cord when he uses the wrecking ball attack?
A: I didn't know how to cut the cord when I did the run. I found out afterwards.
Q: Why didn't you jump on one of the submarines during the stop the hacking mission?
A: If you know how to do this, please tell me. I tried a bit, but I don't think it is possible to jump on one (maybe through a glitch?).
Q: Why didn't Fefnir rain fireballs on you both fights?
A: I really lucked out.
Q: Are you planning on running the other Mega Man Zero games?
A: Of course! I will definitely do a speedrun of both MMZ2 and MMZ3 sometime.
Now for some comments:
-Most stages went really well, I manage to get through most stages really fast without getting hit more than once or twice. I make minor mistakes throughout the run, but nothing that would make me want to redo the run anytime soon.
-In theory I could have killed less enemies overall and still had an S-rank, but that would screw up my leveling up method. In addition, there is greater risk of failing S-rank if you kill less enemies.
-There is one trick I learned after the run that would save a few seconds on some of the bosses, but I'm not going to retry this run anytime soon.
-In the Find Shuttle mission, I would rather take a hit (I only get hit once) than let the soldier get hit. If the soldier gets hit once, I automatically lose 2 points from my score.
-I admit, my Octadragon Eye fight was not very good. I tried to prevent invincibility by hitting the boss with the flip slash, but my timing was so horrible I merely ended up doing less damage.
-The mission where you destroy the giant drill can be done faster, but my luck with the enemy spawns prevented me from destroying the drill more than a second or two faster. If I had good luck with enemy spawns, I could get a time in the low 40 seconds range. I took that hit on purpose, but now that I look at it, it was pretty stupid and it didn't even save any time.
-Yes, you have to kill a shitload of enemies during the Duel in the Desert mission. Notice how I go above 80 kills and I still don't get the full 15 points. My method of killing enemies at the spawn point looks weird, but it is done this way to level up my saber in time for Fefnir. If you look closely, I am able to charge my saber merely a few enemies before I fight Fefnir.
-My enemy killing area in the mission, Find Hidden Base, might look slow but I'm sure it's the fastest place to spawn enemies.
-I hesitated on the platforms during the Rescue Colbor mission because I have died there an embarassing amount of times.
-My Hanumachine battle was shit, I hate fighting him.
-My Neo Arcadia Shrine 1 run was great in terms of damage taken, but a little slow. This is mostly due to my Sword Dancer fight. Part of it was bad luck in attacks (kept on throwing his arms), but another part was due to me playing overly safe (when he threw the rings, I didn't have to run away).
-My run of the final stage went very smoothly. I sacrifice speed for safety in a few areas because this stage has 10 boss fights, and I cannot afford to lose more than 15 life. If I lost more than 15 units of life, I could get 95 points maximum and I would have to start the run over again from the beginning.
If you have any questions and/or comments just email me or contact me on the SDA forum. I hope you enjoy this run, and look forward to my future runs of the Mega Man Zero series.
Hard Difficulty with Deaths: 0:22:59 by 'Elpis T31'
Author's comments:
Improvements over last run:
-Manipulates Aztec Falcon.
-Uses Death to manipulate Maha Ganeshariff.
-Uses Bird-type cyberelves to shave off time in missions 06 and 14.
-Route changed due to repetitive failure at mission 08.
-Doesn't stand still on the moving platforms in mission 08.
-Doesn't get caught by a freaking Pantheon Guardian in mission 09.
-Skips one submarine in mission 11.
-Manipulates Shitennou bosses better.
-Wallpins CopyX.
The Cyberelf and Death abuse are my personal discoveries but Mike (Uyama) showed me stuff like how I could improve mission 08, my battles with Leviathan and Phantom and using a pogojump to skip a submarine, and probably some other stuff I forgot.
TIME REFERENCE LIST//
Boss /Run /PR /Consistency
Golem /0'23 /0'22 /0'23 (99%)
Falcon /0'47 /0'46 /0'47
Ganesh /1'15 /1'15 /1'17
Anubis /3'07 /2'59 /3'06
P.Core /1'06 /1'00 /1'04
Orotic /1'01 /0'58 /0'59
Hittide /0'17 /0'16 /0'20
Phantom /1'24 /1'18 /1'22
Smirnoff /1'56 /1'51 /1'53
Harpuia /0'33 /0'32 /0'34
Leviathan/1'13 /1'12 /1'12
Fafnir /0'42 /0'38 /0'39
Hanu /0'32 /0'29 /0'31
Heracleos/1'27 /1'25 /1'28
R.Devil /1'27 /1'26 /1'30
CopyX /4'00 /3'43 /3'49
BREAKDOWN//
01/Forgotten Laboratoy [vs.Golem] (0'23)
Smooth as a Z saber through robutter >.>
02/Old Ground City [vs.Aztec Falcon] (0'47)
Little hickup before the shutter, but overall flow was ok, boss went as planned.
Killing 5 Spiking will give me Birsky wich will allow me to use my new "Cyberelf Abuse" strategy in the Discarded Factory.
03/Forgotten Laboratory [vs.Maha Ganeshariff] (1'15)PR!
Stage is prep for Death Abuse on boss, using it will make it so he doesn't use his rolling attack, saving alot of time...without DA, Ganeshariff is probably the most random time damaging boss next to Anubistep.
04/Desertification Area [vs.Anubistep Necromancess III] (3'07)
The first part went great, my flashy planned obtaining of Birfly (5th Condoroid) worked out good, alas my R button is slightly fucked up, wich is the cause of me releasing my chargeshot before it would hit the 1st Techtwister...
I got hit by Anubistep's pillars because I care XD luck wasn't great, so the battle could not have been faster...as it seems that the amount of pillars he uses are completely random. I wish you could kill that freaking pilot, having to escort him back is so gay.
05/Ruins of Subway [vs.Pantheon Core] (1'06)
Had a padmiss against the midboss, and I completely botched the boss, the stage was as planned.
06/Discarded Factory [vs.Guard Orotic] (1'01)
Fumbled when tried to pogo of BarrierCounter, something I don't usually fuck up, and shortly after got raped by R button again (released charge shot I was saving to dispose of the Floppers at faster rate), my disposing of the fans was great, but had trouble with the last one >.> I employed CE Abuse like planned, but had another small error after killing the last Securipider.7 the boss was perfect. (I LOVE DAMAGE ABUSE)
07/Old Ground City [vs.Hittide Hottide] (0'17)
Could've been a little better, but I have died here by accident so many times... (killing the boss while above spikes >.>)
08/Discarded Factory [vs.Inshou Phantom] (1'24)
Shield throw was R button failure >.> took way too much damage in the boss battle so I had to be cautious around the Garms, as they tend to switch between jumping or running onscreen. After that there was only one more hickup, caused by my failing to react to the lag caused by recovering energy >.>
09/Underground Fortress [vs.Blizzack Stagroff] (1'56)
The only thing wrong with this is the fact that smirnoff wasn't co-operating. He actually did THREE launch icicles, he has NEVER done this to me before.
10/Ruins of Subway [vs.Kenshou Harpuia] (0'33) Stage went super, just as planned, had a little problem with the boss, but it all worked out in the end, wasting a second, tops.
11/Underground Fortress [vs.Youshou Leviathan] (1'13)
Could've bounced on the submarine sooner, my switchblading the servers was slow. Other than that this stage and boss went like a charm.
12/Desertification Area [vs.Toushou Fafnir] (0'42)
I thought I was doing a good job at the stage (no damage) but I did horrible against the boss, I came way to early and overall messy.
13/Resistance Base [vs.Hanumachine] (0'32)
Got cockblocked by a Pantheon Warrior. playerhater >.> Boss = perfect.
14/Neo Arcadia Entrance [vs.Heracleos Anchortous] (1'27)
I freaked out on the Pantheon Aces, normally I do enough damage so I can kill them both at the same time...bumped into a Gyrocannon, came too slow with mah rang on Ashura...at least the CE Abuse and Boss went well.
15/Neo Arcadia Tower [vs.Rainbow Devil] (1'27)
Got hit because I care. Stage went super overall and the same goes for the boss, but I did get hit more than usual against the boss.
16/Neo Arcadia Core [vs.CopyX] (4'00)
You can probably imagine the stress I was under when I started this stage, it was my dream to break 23 minutes, and here I was nonchalantly recording a run that could possibly be my first sub23 run...while I coped quite well with the stress on the entirety of the stage, my hands were trembling insanely at the final boss. And the mosquitos didn't help either. bloodsucking fuckers.
Regardless, I only messed up the start of Ganeshariff, the end of Heracleos and the entirety of SeraphX after the second tossed rang, I also got hit by a Prison Halo like I did in my other run...lol.
CREDITS//
-McBain for Ashura and Harpuia tactics.
Special credits to Mike Uyama, for without him, I would have never broken the 23 limit, thanks for pushing me in the right direction.