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Octo's Guide to Megaman X: Soul Eraser
Octo’s back, this time with a review of MMX: Soul Eraser (better known in the States as MM Xtreme 2). Certainly a step above the previous game, Cyber Mission, in terms of gameplay and challenge, this game is only playable on GameBoy Color or GameBoy Advance; it cannot be played on the original GameBoy like the other one can. Story: This one takes place between MMX3 and MMX4. A diabolical pair of Reploids named Berkana and Gareth are stealing the souls from Reploids, and are using their data to enhance their own powers, as well as revive numerous Mavericks from MMX1 thru MMX3. X and Zero are dispatched to their base of operations on Laguz Island to put a stop to these ‘Erasure Incidents’. A young Reploid named Iris, a new recruit from Repliforce, assists X and Zero in her first mission with the Maverick Hunters. Graphics: I can say the same thing for the graphics as I did for Cyber Mission. Only difference is that the cut scenes look even better than before. Plus, I didn’t have as many problems with transparent sprites. Sound: All of the BGMs are simply 8-bit versions of tunes from X1, X2, and X3. Gameplay: Plenty was added to this game. First of all, Zero is playable. At the start, you get to pick X or Zero as your main character. Who you pick determines which Mavericks you fight, as well as the final boss (Berkana is X’s final boss, and Gareth is Zero’s). Zero plays like in X4; he only has his saber to fight with, no Z-Buster. He still gains various powers from the Mavericks he defeats, just like X, although many of them are executed with button combos, and some use weapon energy, drawn from on single energy bar. After the four initial Mavericks are beaten, you can switch between X and Zero at any time by pressing Select. Enemies will often drop ‘souls’, blue or yellow diamond-looking things. You can use the souls you’ve gathered to create power-ups. To use them, you must equip them. X can have four parts equipped at a time, but that decreases to two when he gets all four of Dr. Light’s upgrades. Zero can equip up to three. After beating the game with both X, you can play Zero’s game with all of the powers gained from X’s Mavericks, and vice versa. After completing the game using both X and Zero, you’ll unlock Extreme Mode, which has more to it than simply having all eight Mavericks to choose from. More on that later. Complete Extreme Mode to unlock the Boss Attack Mode. I’ll get to that later as well. Mavericks: X’s Mission – Neon Tiger Launch Octopus Volt Catfish Flame Mammoth Zero’s Mission – Wire Sponge Blast Hornet Overdrive Ostrich Tunnel Rhino X’s Weapons: Unlike the last GameBoy game, most of X’s weapons work much differently than they did before.
Acquired from: Neon Tiger Normal: Slashes at nearby enemies with a light blade. Charged: Fires a spread of plasma shots (just like X3’s Ray Splasher).
Acquired from: Launch Octopus Normal: Creates a swirling whirlpool around X. Charged: Fires a four-way spread of fish projectiles.
Acquired from: Volt Catfish Normal: Fires electrical orbs in three directions. Charged: Discharges lightning all around X.
Acquired from: Flame Mammoth Normal: Shoots a fireball that falls to the ground, and then causes the entire floor to erupt in flame. Charged: Causes fireballs to rain from the sky.
Acquired from: Wire Sponge Normal: Fires a wire and hook straight ahead. It can grab walls and pull you to them. Charged: Fires a wire with a larger hook.
Acquired from: Blast Hornet Normal: Fires a bee-shaped projectile that homes in on enemies. Charged: Creates a barrier of bee projectiles that circle X, warding off enemies.
Acquired from: Overdrive Ostrich Normal: Fires a laser boomerang that rebounds off walls. Charged: Causes several boomerangs to rain down from the sky.
Acquired from: Tunnel Rhino Normal: Shoots a trio of drill-tipped missiles. Charged: Mounts a large drill on X’s arm, ripping through any enemies in his path. Zero’s Weapons: Rising Acquired from: Neon Tiger Activated by: Up + B on the ground Function: Upwards slash attack. Fish Fang Acquired from: Launch Octopus Activated by: Up + B in midair. Charged: Fires a pair of fish projectiles at a downward angle. Triad Thunder Acquired from: Volt Catfish Activated by: Select from menu Function: Discharges lightning all around Zero. Fire Wave Acquired from: Flame Mammoth Activated by: Down + B on the ground Function: Shoots a fireball that falls to the ground, and then causes the entire floor to erupt in flame. Lightning Acquired from: Wire Sponge Activated by: Select from menu. Function: Causes thunderbolts to rain from the sky. Earth Gaizer Acquired from: Blast Hornet Activated by: Select from menu. Function: Causes an explosion, damaging all on-screen enemies. Dash Acquired from: Overdrive Ostrich Activated by: Select from menu. Function: Does a dashing attack straight ahead. Drill Crush Acquired from: Tunnel Rhino Activated by: Down + B in midair. Function: Downward thrust. Heart Tank Locations: Neon Tiger – Near the end of the first ride armor section, look for a tree with two places to break. Hover up to the top section and break it for the Heart. Launch Octopus – In the section with all of the whirlpool machines, Take one of the last ones up to the top, and use the Foot part to air dash to the platform above. The Heart is up there. Volt Catfish – The Heart is in plain view in the part with the electrified water. You’ll simply have to go out of your way for it, and you may end up having to sacrifice one of your lives. Flame Mammoth – In the large area with the pickaxe-throwing robots, look in the lower right section to find the heart. It’s over the lava, though, so you’ll have to be able to take some damage for it. Wire Sponge – At the very beginning of the stage, climb the wall to your left. There’s a hidden nook with the Heart inside. Blast Hornet – After the first checkpoint, jump off the platform instead of climbing up onto the bee platforms. Climb down the ladder you see and cross the platforms to the right to find the Heart. Overdrive Ostrich – On the second speeder bike section, keep going until you reach a high point, followed by a drop down. Fall, don’t jump, and maneuver into the lower section to find the Heart (I know that sounded confusing, but it’s hard to describe; you’ll know it when you see it). Tunnel Rhino – When you get your ride armor, head to the right as far as you can go, taking care not to fall though the broken floor. When you reach the wall, fly the ride armor as high as it can, then jump out onto the ledge with the Heart. Sub-Tank Locations This game only has two sub-tanks. You shouldn't need anymore anyhow. Flame Mammoth – In the large area with pickaxe-throwing robots, Make your way to the upper-left corner, and use the Foot part to clear away the blocks in front of the Tank. Wire Sponge – Instead of crossing the first spike pit on the moving platforms, head up to the cluster of platforms. You should find a 1-Up, along with your Tank. X’s Upgrades Foot Upgrade Location: Volt Catfish (In the long vertical climb, keep climbing even once it seems you reached the top. You’ll find the capsule on a ledge higher up) Function: Lets you dash in mid-air (left, right, and up), as well as break certain walls by kicking against them. To air-dash, press A in mid-air. Hold Up while doing this to dash upward. Helmet Upgrade Location: Neon Tiger (Right after the flying platform section, you should see the capsule blocked by a wall that can be destroyed with the Fire Wave.) Function: Allows you to break certain blocks by head-butting them from underneath. Armor Upgrade Location: Launch Octopus (Destroy the large green ship to get rid of the spiked floor, then defeat the red serpent to find the capsule right past it.) Function: Raises your defense power, and allows you to execute a Giga Attack once you’ve absorbed enough damage. Buster Upgrade Location: Flame Mammoth (Look for a cluster of blocks on the ceiling right after dropping down the first shaft. Use a combination of the Foot and Helmet parts to break them away.) Function: Allows you to fire two charged shots at a time, as well as charge special weapons. Zero’s Upgrades Yep, there are upgrade capsules for Zero now, too. Foot Upgrade Location: Wire Sponge (At the first elevator, fall down instead of riding up, and veer right. It’s in the same spot as the X-Hunter room in X2.) Function: Lets you break certain walls by kicking against them. (Zero starts with the air-dash ability, but he can’t dash up) Helmet Upgrade Location: Overdrive Ostrich (Right after the part with the sand-whirls of doom, take a big dash jump to the left and climb the ladder.) Function: Allows you to break certain walls by head-butting them from underneath. Armor Upgrade Location: Blast Hornet (When on the deck of the main ship, go around the turrets instead of destroying them. Take out the wall that you find with the Drill Crush.) Function: Raises your defense power. Buster Upgrade Location: Tunnel Rhino (After falling through the floor in the ride armor section, go left instead of right and use Lighting to break the blocks.) Function: Allows you to use Zero’s Final combo move. Parts On the Stage Select screen, you can choose “Part” to buy power-ups from Iris using the Souls you’ve gathered. Common Parts (Can be equipped by X or Zero) Hyper Dash: Lets you become invincible while dashing. Cost: 1000 souls Super Recover: Recover more from health and weapon capsules. Cost: 200 souls Energy Saver: Special weapons use less energy. Cost: 100 souls Barrier Extender: Extends the amount of time you have invincibility when hit. Cost: 100 souls Extreme Mode: Unlocks Extreme Mode. Cost: 2000 souls Boss Attack Mode: Unlocks Boss Attack Mode Cost: 3000 souls X Parts (Can only be equipped by X) Buster +1: Raises the X-Buster’s attack power. Cost: 200 souls Buster +2: Raises the X-Buster’s attack power even more. Cost: 400 souls Speed Shot: Causes X-Buster shots to travel faster. Cost: 100 souls Ultimate Buster: X-Buster only fires charged shots. Cost: 500 souls Hyper Charge: Reduces X-Buster charge time. Cost: 1000 souls Armor: Equips all armor parts Cost: 2000 souls Zero Parts (Can only be equipped by Zero) Saber +1: Raises the Z-Saber’s attack power. Cost: 200 souls Saber +2: Raises the Z-Saber’s attack power even more. Cost: 400 souls Ultimate Saber: Z-Saber always does large, single slash. Cost: 800 souls Walkthrough You will have the choice of playing as X or Zero. Let’s start with X for now. Most of my walkthrough will assume you’re using X. If you’re playing as Zero, just substitute his weapons for X’s. You’ll also have to remember that Zero doesn’t have much long-range action going for him, so you’ll have to substitute Z-Saber for X-Buster as well. Laguz Island Base This has the same backgrounds and music as the intro stage in X2. But it does have a different layout, and you’ll take a different route depending on whether you have X or Zero. This stage is easy enough where I shouldn’t have to hold your hand through it. Trust me, the tough stuff is yet to come. Skull Maverick: This mechanoid shouldn’t be any trouble. Just don’t stay underneath it, as it may fire a beam from its mouth straight down, as well as spawn other robots. As you may have guessed, the head is the spot to aim for. X will probably have an easier time defeating it, since his X-Buster can hit him from a distance while Zero must get up close and personal. I can say the same thing for most bosses. Now, if you’re playing X’s mission, you have four Maverick stages to choose from: Neon Tiger, Launch Octopus, Volt Catfish, and Flame Mammoth. Let’s start with Tiger. Neon Tiger Stage Tiger’s stage now resembles Sting Chameleon’s level in terms of appearances. After fighting your way past lumberjacks and bats, you’ll then find an easy-going ride armor section. Near the end, look for a tree with two places to break. Hover up to the top section and break it for the Heart. The second part of the stage is where it gets a little tricky. There are large chasms, with broken branches that collapse when you step on them. You’ll have to move quickly. After that are flying platforms with flame-shooting cannons. You must destroy the cannons to ride the platforms across. After that platform section, you’ll see a capsule with a wooden wall guarding it. You’ll have to come back later with the Fire Wave to destroy it and claim the Helmet upgrade. Your last obstacle is another ride armor section, this time with pits and flying robots aching to knock you into them. Destroy them before trying to fly across the pits.
Volt Catfish Stage The first section of the stage has sparks shooting across the floor, followed by a large climb up a chasm. It’s pretty easy, just don’t miss the Foot upgrade. When you think you reached the top, keep climbing to find it. The second half of the stage is where it gets tricky. When the screens starts shaking and you hear water rushing in the distance, head for high ground immediately, because the entire lower-half of the screen will become flooded with water! The first wave is harmless; it just pushes you backwards. After that, though, the water is electrified, and will kill you on contact! There’s a Heart to be found in the third flood section. It’s in plain view; you’ll just have to hurry to get it. You may have to sacrifice a life to get it if you’re too slow.
Launch Octopus Stage Octo’s stage will often branch between a high and low road. The high road is usually easier, but there’s one instance where you’ll want to take the low road. There’s one section with numerous whirlpool machines. Hop inside a whirlpool to be lifted to the surface. Take one of the last ones up to the top, and use the Foot part to air dash to the platform above. A Heart Tank is up there. Right after that, is another whirlpool that takes you to a large ship. Shoot the jewel in the middle of it to destroy it. That will also destroy the spike pit below it (same as in X1). Head down from here and fight the big red sea serpent. You’ll have to aim for the head or the tail to damage it. After that, you’ll see a capsule with X’s Armor upgrade.
Flame Mammoth Stage This stage is identical to its SNES counterpart. Look for a cluster of blocks on the ceiling right after dropping down the first shaft. Use a combination of the Foot and Helmet parts to break them away. Climb the shaft they were guarding for X’s Buster upgrade capsule. Fireballs will shoot through the floors directly over the lava. Proceed slowly to avoid being hit, especially on Extreme mode, since they kill in one hit on that mode. In the large area with the pickaxe-throwing robots, look in the lower right section to find a Heart Tank. It’s over the lava, though, so you’ll have to be able to take some damage for it. In that same area, make your way to the upper-left corner, and use the Foot part to clear away the blocks for a Sub-Tank.
At this point in X’s mission, you’ll now challenge the fortress stages. If you’re starting Zero’s game, or are playing Extreme mode, continue on. Wire Sponge Stage Again, this stage is almost identical to the SNES version. Be sure to climb the left wall right at the beginning of the stage to find a hidden Heart Tank. Shooting the orbs will cause it to rain, which will also blow you to the right. Instead of crossing the first spike pit on the moving platforms, head up to the cluster of platforms. You should find a 1-Up, along with a Sub-Tank. At the first elevator, fall down instead of riding up, and veer right (same spot as the X-Hunter room in X2). There, you’ll get Zero’s foot part. The last elevator has some spikes added to it. Luckily, it’s slow enough to be able to avoid them without much trouble.
Overdrive Ostrich Stage You get to drive a speeder bike throughout much of the stage. Press B to do a wheelie, which damages enemies you run into and destroys barriers. Afterwards is a section with numerous sandwhirl machines. Unlike the ones in Octo’s stage, these ones kill you if you touch them, so proceed quickly and carefully. After the sand-whirls of doom, take a big dash jump to the left and climb the ladder for Zero’s useless Helmet upgrade. I say that because there’s never a spot in the game where Zero will have to use it. Another speeder bike section, and tougher than the first. When the course slopes up for a while, fall, don’t jump. You’ll find a hidden passage with a Heart Tank.
Blast Hornet Stage Most of the stage involves simply hopping from one bee-ship to another, while evading the bee drones that swarm all over the place. After the first checkpoint, jump off the platform instead of climbing up onto the bee platforms. Climb down the ladder you see and cross the platforms to the right to find a Heart Tank. When you reach the main ship, head to the right, but don’t destroy the turrets at the far right side. Continue and use Zero’s Drill Crush to uncover his Armor upgrade. There’s a mini-boss here that consists of four turrets that flash red before firing at you. You must destroy all four to proceed, but you can only damage them when they turn red. There are also more bee drones here.
Tunnel Rhino Stage The first part of the stage just has lots of boulders. Wait for them to pass or just destroy them. Those drill-shooting robots can be annoying. When you destroy them, they always send out a pair of drills as a last resort, making them tough for Zero to destroy without getting hit. When you get your ride armor, head to the right as far as you can go, taking care not to fall though the broken floor. When you reach the wall, fly the ride armor as high as it can, then jump out onto the ledge for a Heart Tank. Fall through the floor in the ride armor section, then go left instead of right and use Zero’s Lighting to break the blocks. You’ll find Zero’s Arm upgrade. Your last obstacle is a section with periodically rising lava. Stick to any nearby high ground until it recedes, then continue.
You can now access the fortress stages. Research Facility: 1st Station Air dash to cross the track platforms. After that, most of this stage is easy. There is one potentially hazardous spot with the ride armor. There are numerous gaps you must hover across without getting knocked into them by the bats flittering about. Velguader: The doggy’s back. His attacks include a long tongue of fire, and sparks. X can tear him up with the Ray Claw easily enough. Zero may have a harder time if he doesn’t have a Saber upgrade. Research Facility: 2nd Station Now things start getting hairy. There’s one section where you must slide down a pair of moving platforms just right or you’ll end up on an electric barrier, which has the same one-hit-kill properties as spikes. Now there’s an upward chasm with lots of those electric fields. X’s upward air dash pays off big-time here. Don’t jump down the downward shaft. There’s plenty of electric floors waiting for you. Slide down the walls instead. The final leg has more rising lava just like in Rhino’s level. Maverick Sphinx: This is without a doubt the hardest boss in the game. You pretty much have to make good use of both X and Zero to beat this behemoth. This thing has two heads which must be destroyed. The top head fires electrical shots while the bottom one fires missiles into the air that converge on wherever you’re standing. X should stand on the floating platform and unload everything his has into the top head. You should bring the Fire Wave or the Buster +2 upgrade. Use a Giga attack if you can also. When you’ve destroyed it, switch to Zero and go for the bottom head. Again, you should have a Saber +2 upgrade by now. Slash at the drill to avoid having it crash into you, just be careful that it doesn’t hit you in the process. Then, just slash away at the bottom head. Research Facility: 3rd Station (Berkana) The first section is easy going. When it splits up, things turn ugly really fast. Where you go to depends on who you’re controlling; X goes to Berkana’s stage while Zero goes to Gareth’s. Berkana’s section is an obvious attempt by some sadistic level designer to quite simply piss off as players as possible. The worst section by far is a spot where you must do an upward air dash onto a pair of platforms and maneuver past them perfectly without falling onto an electric field or more electrified water that flows through here. Even I don’t have an easy way to get past this. It’s more luck than anything. The last section is an upward climb through another electrical shaft. Thankfully, it’s nowhere near as insane as that last part. Just air dash upwards from platform to platform.
Research Facility: 3rd Station (Gareth) Luckily for Zero, Gareth’s stage is nowhere near as cheap as Berkana’s. The only really tough spot is the free-fall at the end. After sliding past two moving platforms, veer to the right without touching the walls to avoid landing on the electrified floor.
Extreme Mode After completing the game using both X and Zero, Extreme Mode will be unlocked (You can also purchase it from Iris). When in this mode, you can switch between Z and Zero at any time you wish. Also, all 8 Mavericks will be open. Maverick weapons will only be acquired by whomever strikes the final blow. Heart Tanks will also go only to the one who picked them up. In addition to that, there are a few added challenges in the Mavericks’ levels: The fireballs that shoot from the lava in Flame Mammoth’s stage kill on contact. Mammoth himself will cause fireballs to fall from above, aimed for wherever you’re standing. The turret mini-boss in Blast Hornet’s stage fires two shots at a time instead of one. Hornet fires two Bee Bombs at a time instead of one. Finally, the coup-de-gras is an additional stage you must do after defeating Gareth or Berkana (you’ll only fight one of them, determined by who you’re using on stage 3). At this time, Sigma will finally reveal himself to be the true mastermind behind the erasure incidents. It’s a straight-forward stage, mostly navigating flying platforms and bats. You’ll find the anticipated teleporter room, where you must fight the Mavericks again. Capcom got another lazy streak like in MM5; they didn’t design fortress boss rooms for the Mavericks, they just send you back to the original boss rooms form earlier. After clearing all of that, you fight Sigma.
Boss Attack Mode This interesting mini-game is unlocked after finishing Extreme Mode. Here, you’ll be faced with a pair of teleporters waiting to transport you to one of two courses. These courses consist of a teleporter room where you must fight and defeat eight Mavericks as quickly as possible. You have all of your weapons and power-up items, so don’t be afraid to use them. Course 1 consists of the Mavericks from Cyber Mission, Course 2 has the ones from this game. The Cyber Mission Mavericks have the following weaknesses: Chill Penguin > Fire Wave Spark Mandrill > Strike Chain Storm Eagle > Sonic Slicer Flame Stag > Marine Tornado Wheel Gator > Tornado Fang Magna Centipede > Bomb Bee Armored Armadillo > Triad Thunder Morph Moth > Ray Claw And the Soul Eraser Mavericks, for easy reference: Neon Tiger > Tornado Fang Launch Octopus > Triad Thunder Volt Catfish > Ray Claw Flame Mammoth > Marine Tornado Wire Sponge > Fire Wave Blast Hornet > Sonic Slicer Overdrive Ostrich > Strike Chain Tunnel Rhino > Bomb Bee As always, if you’re using Zero, substitute his versions of the weapons. Oddities and Observances The intro scenes call Berkana’s base the ‘Reploid Research Lavoratory’. Either she and Gareth ate some really bad tacos, or she thinks a bathroom is the perfect hideout for some evil, demented reason. If you cut off Launch Octo’s arms using the Ray Claw, they mysteriously reappear when he explodes. If you defeat Wire Sponge with the Fire Wave, he becomes sliced in half as he explodes, like in X2, after beating him with the Sonic Slicer. When Zero gets an upgrade capsule, X’s silhouette is shown afterwards, with X’s armor parts. Don’t even get me started on how robots are supposed to have DNA or souls. (Hell, X4 showed us they can bleed, so why not?) Of course, it could simply be their term for ‘data’. You can unlock the Extreme and Boss Attack modes in Iris’s shop without spending all of those Souls on it. Granted, you must gather the required number first, but once you buy them, just press A, B, Start, and Select to do a soft reset (don’t save!!). And Voila! You have them available, and you’ll still have your Souls to spend on other stuff! Even though Sting Chameleon and Boomer Kuwanger aren’t present in this game, their stages are still alluded to. Neon Tiger’s stage had a similar background to Chameleon’s (and a couple of similar sections), and the second elevator portion of Wire Sponge’s level was vaguely reminiscent of Boomer’s elevator section. |
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Ray Claw
Marine Tornado
Triad Thunder
Fire Wave
Strike Chain
Bomb Bee
Sonic Slicer
Tornado Fang
Neon Tiger: Tiger should be easy. He just bounces between the walls of his rooms, periodically firing Ray Splasher shots at you. He also moves slowly for a tiger. Just keep to the opposite wall and shoot him with charged shots. If you’re on Extreme Mode, or are using Zero’s save data, he also succumbs quickly to Tornado Fangs. 
Volt Catfish: Catfish has a shocking (sorry for the bad pun) variety of attacks. He can shoot sparks that travel along the walls, floor, and ceiling, as well as suck you towards him while lightning arcs between the floor and ceiling. When his health gets low, he’ll also charge up and fire off a huge barrage of electrical shots. If you’re going at it with only the X-Buster, this might be difficult, but the Ray Claw makes him beyond easy. Just keep smacking him around with the Claw, and he won’t get to do anything at all.
Launch Octopus: Octo can be a problem if you don’t have at least the Ray Claw. He hops around constantly, and often using the Marine Tornado to suck you towards him and take a nice chunk of health off if he hits you. Slash him once with the Ray Claw to cut the tentacles off, disabling his Tornado. He then hops around firing barrages of torpedoes in sets of two. Dodge as best you can and finish him with the Triad Thunder. 
Flame Mammoth: Mammoth uses his same attacks as in the SNES game, he’ll jump and try to crush you, he’ll shoot fireballs, and globs of oil, causing a big flame to erupt if a fireball lands one. On Extreme mode, he can also cause fireballs to fall on wherever you’re standing, so try to keep moving while that’s going on. Other than that, stay on the walls and wait for him to get close. When he does, hit him with the Marine Tornado. 
Wire Sponge: Sponge spends most of the time in a corner, trying to smack you with his Strike Chain. He’ll also dangle from the ceiling, tossing spores in sets of four. The last one will sprout a damaging tendril. If you have Fire Wave, you can just burn him to ashes with it. If not, just use charged shots. With Zero, it always helps to have a Saber upgrade part. When his health is reduced by round 2/3, he’ll turn red and will sometimes cause lighting bolts to fall from the sky. Keep moving to avoid them. Sponge is invincible while calling it anyhow.
Overdrive Ostrich: Ostrich will run or gallop across his arena, stopping to jump up and rain Sonic Slicers upon you. Several will fall form the sky, and one will be fired at wherever you’re standing. When he moves to the background, watch him, and keep moving to avoid being stomped on. X should use Strike Chain or charged buster shots. Zero should use Lighting and focus on dodging.
Blast Hornet: Hornet’s repertoire consists of siccing more bee drones on you, and lunging you with his large stinger. The latter attack hurts, so avoid it at all costs. Thankfully, he shoots nowhere near as many bees as he did in X3 (one or two as opposed to a whole bloody swarm). You can own him with Ostrich’s weapon, whether you have X or Zero. Actually, unlike X3, he’s quite manageable with just the X-Buster.
Tunnel Rhino: Rhino spends most of his time charging back and forth, sometimes firing a Tornado Fang. Stick to the walls, but jump off before he charges into them or you’ll get knocked off. You can beat him easily with Bomb Bees or Earth Gaizer. When Rhino flashes as he charges, watch for falling rocks.
Berkana: Berkana can be a little annoying, but she’s not that hard. She warps from one side of the room to the other, firing orbs at you with either an ‘A’ or a ‘B’ on them. If one hits you, you lose whatever function is associated with its corresponding letter (if the A orb hits you, you can’t jump, if the B orb hits you, you can’t fire). If that happens, Berkana will change the room to for a few moments, then you regain control again. Luckily, the orbs aren’t super-tough to dodge. Just equip the Buster +2 and Blast her with charged shots. Or, if you beat Zero’s game already, the Sonic Slicer works especially well.
Gareth: Gareth simply requires a little patience. A Saber +2 upgrade helps also. Gareth spends most of his time offscreen, chucking spears at you. Then he’ll drop back down, then jump and toss some more spears, this time staying onscreen. You’ll have to dash behind him to hit him, because he can block any frontal attacks. Just bide your time and keep moving to avoid the spears until an opportunity presents itself to hit him from behind.
Sigma: Sigma battles you in his X2 guise. He’ll slash at you with his claws, and shoot electric orbs five at a time. He also fires electric walls just like Mandrill’s charged Electric Spark. Stick to the walls and use Marine Tornado whenever he gets close. 
Final Sigma: Sigma now attacks in a large, odd-looking battle body that changes colors at random. Only X can damage it when he’s yellow or blue (and only with fully-charged shots). When Sigma turns red, only Zero can damage it. You want to aim for the large lion-head emblem on his chest. Once you’ve hit it enough, Sigma will revert briefly back to his normal form. That’s your chance to attack! Hit Siggy with all you have using Tornado Fangs or Zero’s powered-up saber. Most of his attacks are tough to dodge, but if you have two full Sub-Tanks, you should be fine.