Insane Difficulty: Mega Man 3 - Subweapons Only - Insane Difficulty

I've always extolled upon the virtues of the subweapons in Mega Man games, 3 in particular, and so I've decided to pretty much take that claim to the ultimate level: using them exclusively.

So here are the rules:

• The regular gun is banned completely unless required. This means that you're only allowed to use it on the first stage/boss and against Break Man. Note that *only* the Needle Canon works on the little spermies in Gemini Man's stage, so you have to fight Needle Man before him (and you can't use the regular gun against Needle Man unless it's your first stage).

• The Rush adapters are also banned unless required, so you can't just get the jet and fly over everything. The only stage that requires the jet is the second Needle Man stage (the coil can be used for Wily 3-2) and only the second Gemini Man stage requires the Marine - you aren't allowed to shoot anything while piloting either one.

• This is also a speedrun, so the less time you spend dicking around, the better.

And that's about it, actually. It's pretty easy in the second half of the game since I'm used to playing that way anyhow, but it really changes things up early on. Hardest stage would be the second one you do since you can't really shoot much due to needing to conserve your ammo for the boss.

For the record, this was the path I took:

Magnet Man -> Hard Man -> Top Man -> Shadow Man -> Spark Man -> Needle Man -> Snake Man -> Gemini Man

Interestingly, I used a few weapons less frequently than I would playing *without* these restrictions, since the path I was forced to take for this challenge differed from my normal path (I usually do Snake Man much earlier, killing him with the regular gun, but that's not doable here since his weapon isn't enough to carry you through a stage). Conversely, I found myself using the Shadow Blade a lot more than I normally would.

(There's no video because I'm a total n00b at recording, but eventually I'll figure it out and record a run - preferably after perfecting my strats)

I might try to record and give this a shot, after a bit of practice. Thanks for the challenge idea!

Any thoughts to doing one of these for Megaman 2? I get the feeling it would be about as challenging if not more.

Following BTB's list, MM2 would be easy even on hard mode thanks to Metal Blades.

Metal Blades can go in 8 directions, hit many things better than your normal buster, and have ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE USES before running out. And that's assuming you don't pick up any refills. Any MM2 challenge should ban Metal Blades before anything else.

Thunen, on 19 June 2014 - 09:15 PM, said:

Agreed. Maybe they are banned unless the boss fight requires? Can't remember if any boss fight explicitly requires (I know they are effective against Bubble Man, but can't remember if he is immune to the rest).

Bubble Man was vulnerable to Quick Boomerang as well I think.

As far as bosses go, Metal Blade is strong against Bubble Man, Flash Man and Metal Man. Yes, Metal Man is weak to his own weapon. Metal Blades are just that crazy.

Thunen, on 19 June 2014 - 09:15 PM, said:

elchupateta, on 20 June 2014 - 01:39 PM, said:

Actually, the *REAL* weapon you want to ban is in fact, the Quick Boomerang. It's glitched in the original game and can destroy every single enemy in the game, including enemies that aren't supposed to take damage (except Metalls when under the hat). The ONLY things in the ENTIRE game that the Quick Boomerang is ineffective against are Wood Man, Flash Man, Quick Man, Boobeam Trap, Wily Machine form 1, and Alien Wily. Literally everything else in the game can be taken out by the Quick Boomerang. Metal Blade just gets the versatility of being fired in 8 directions and destroys the bosses that QB can't do, except Quick Man who just reflects it, Boobeam Trap because it's only weak to Crash Bomb, and Alien Wily is only weak to Bubble Lead.

Plus, Quick Boomerang gets 224 uses on a full bar without weapon pickups. Sure, you have to get in range, but honestly? I find it way more broken than the Metal Blades as far as the actual use and ammo consumption goes. Not to discredit Metal Blades which are broken in their own right.

Hi, forum noob here.

Anyway, just wanted to pop in and comment on this challenge There's actually a similar, somewhat-popular challenge for Mega Man games which is much like this (some people call it 'kirby' challenge or something weird like that, I like the term 'gadgeteer') where not only are you limited to only special weapons, but you may ONLY use the one you gained in the previous stage (until you've cleared all the 8boss stages, then you can use any).

https://www.youtube....h?v=QZut1UDxIz0

Here's YT user Mineyl doing one for MM3. They don't necessarily go for speedrun, but they take no damage and go pretty fast anyway (some places could be sped up by taking damage, I'm sure).

But yeah, while I don't think that a run like this is particularly challenging (since special weapons in general are stronger than the regular buster), it does make the game a lot more fun. I think for players who use the special weapons a lot already this would be a cakewalk to simply cut out your buster usage.

I think doing it where you can use any weapon as long as you've acquired it is a bit more fun, though. This kind of playthrough really lets you appreciate the special weapons more.

Mega Man 2 is pretty easy because of Quick Boomerang and Metal Blade. The other weapons are completely situational, so if you ban those, the game becomes more of a pacifist run with a little extra leeway than anything. Atomic Fire is probably your most useful weapon overall after Metal Blade and Quick Boomerang. Time-Stopper will help you skip entire portions of some stages, Leaf Shield is virtually useless (except in a couple specific areas, like the ladders at the end of Crash Man's stage), Air Shooter is pretty much useless except against those big purple mech things with the Sniper Joes riding them, and Bubble Lead is pretty powerful but rarely useful because of the stage designs. If you allowed either Metal Blade or Quick Boomerang, the game would become so easy the challenge becomes pointless.

Mega Man 1 is an interesting game for this type of run. Half of the weapons are pretty powerful, but energy conservation becomes much more of a concern in that game.

Mega Man 4 is fun for this kind of run; it has a lot of good/useful weapons for various scenarios.

I'll be watching this. I have to get back to my Not so Mantis playthrough of X1.