Mega Man 11 officially launched on October 2, 2018 and players are going all out to find every secret and unravel the best paths through the game and its bosses. We know the speedrunners are doing their part and we’re here to do ours too. We’ve put together a handy little boss order guide to help you make a solid speedrun through the game.

For our experience, we found that Fuse Man is one of the easier bosses with a pretty easygoing stage to boot. You might think you want to jump into Block Man’s stage having played it in the demo and familiarity certainly helps. That said, Fuse Man’s stage has little adversity to offer and his pattern is easy to learn. You’ll end with Bounce Man on this path too, whose stage is easy and fun with a boss that doesn’t bring much difficulty to the fight. We beat Bounce Man without even using the weapon he was weak against just because he didn’t make it hard enough to consider easing the difficulty.

With that in mind, here’s the order we recommend for clearing the bosses and their levels:

1. Fuse Man
2. Tundra Man
3. Torch Man
4. Blast Man
5. Block Man
6. Acid Man
7. Impact Man
8. Bounce Man

Easily the most difficult stage in Mega Man 11 is Acid Man’s, whose stage features a bevy of spikes in its second half that will kill you quickly without the Pierce Protector item or steady and accurate jumping. Torch Man’s stage can also be difficult with the wall of fire that chases you through certain sections, but once you have the pattern of the level down and solid handle of your Speed Gear, it’s not as difficult to handle.

For your convenience, we’ve also provided a little extra detail on how each boss handles and what to look out for.

Fuse Man

Fuse Man’s attacks involve sending a couple sparks flying across a background grid while he zips from place to place firing bullets at you. That said, the grid makes the sparks easy to predict and avoid, timing up well with jumping and evading Fuse Man’s own attacks. Moreover, he sits in place long enough after firing each time for you to hit him with a full-charge Mega Buster. Just be careful not to take damage from the line between the places he travels. About halfway through, Fuse Man will activate Speed Gear to zip up to the ceiling and zip downwards in a diving attack several times. Use your own speed gear to easily dodge and counter him each time. If he has anything left at the end, more sparks will move along the grid and he’ll fire more bullets per attack, but he still leaves himself open to easy counters each time that should allow you to finish this boss off with little to no sweat.

Tundra Man

Tundra Man is a boss with plenty of pizazz and little offense to back it up. His entire attack involves skating back and forth around the stage. Pay close attention to him, jump over him when he stays on the ground, and slide under him when he jumps. Then turn and fire off a shot before preparing for the next round. Make use of your Speed Gear to help time your evasion When he gets frustrated, he’ll switch on his Speed Gear and zip back and forth rapidly. That’s your cue to switch your own Speed Gear on and dodge him. Eventually he’ll stop and let loose a tornado around himself, so make sure you’re not near him when he does it. Just evade him and let loose when he gives you the opportunity and you’ll put this boss on ice in no time.

Torch Man

Maybe the first notable challenge in this boss order for Mega Man 11. Torch Man is a bit tricky if you don’t have Tundra Man’s weapon to blast him. He’ll throw high and low fireballs at you, mixing it up with jumps and diving kicks that can knock you back and stun you. You can fire your Mega Buster under the high fireballs, but the low ones will block your shot entirely. The Tundra Storm with Power Gear can take him out in four shots, negate his fireballs, and make this fight a breeze though. Just be careful not to attack him when he switches on his Power Gear. He’ll turn invulnerable, jumping from end to end of the screen and throwing big fireballs that you can just barely jump over. After three shots, he’ll jump high and come down with a diving attack that sends a wave of heat out on either side of him. Slide out of the way to avoid it. Then he’ll go back to his normal attack pattern after which you can damage him again and finish him off.

Blast Man

For much of the battle with Blast Man, he’ll chuck bombs your way and change sides occasionally. Fortunately, there’s a good deal of space between the furthest shots to dodge and return fire, especially with Speed Gear. What’s more if you have Torch Man’s weapon, you can set his bombs off before he can, clearing further space for you to operate. When he’s almost down and out, this boss will activate Power Gear to start throwing larger bombs at you. Be careful. These ones can do a ton of damage if you take hits from the explosion. Use that Speed Gear to duck, weave, and hit him back for the win.

Block Man

Maybe the most complicated of bosses in the order, this fella has three stages. At first, he’ll just run towards you. If you hit him with a shot, he’ll jump to your location. Dodge out of the way. After that, he’ll drop blocks in a gapped fashion that are easy to evade. When you hurt him enough, Block Man will activate his Power Gear to transform into a giant stone golem. His three attacks include a downward slap (dodge backwards if you can), a forward punch (slide towards him), and a scoop of blocks for which there is a big gap between the furthest and middle block to dodge. Shoot him in his big red button to blow this form and send him back to regular form. At this point, he’ll desperately sit in the corner throwing waves of blocks at you. These waves actually block Blast Man’s weapon, so jump high enough to shoot over them or use the Mega Buster instead. A fully charge Mega Buster can destroy a wave of blocks and still hit him. Weather his frantic final attack and finish this boss off.

Acid Man

The fight with Acid Man isn’t just made easier by Block Man’s weapon. This boss uses a shield you’ll have to destroy with several shots unless you’ve got the Block Dropper weapon, which will break his Acid Barrier in one shot. He jumps around the stage firing acid shots at you. Just slide under him and dodge his bullets when he fires and let loose in return. When he’s had enough, he’ll activate Speed Gear to dive into the acid pool and rush towards you in a wave. When you try to jump over him, he’ll dive out to try to catch you in an upward secondary attack and shot. With Speed Gear, this is not only easily avoided, but you can turn and return fire on him and his wave easily. It’s a tricky boss fight without the proper tools, making Acid Man a suitably annoying encounter to cap off his unforgiving level in the order of Mega Man 11.

Impact Man

This one can be tough even with the acid barrier that Impact Man is weak against. Simply put, Impact Man will rush you frequently. And when he's not doing his rush attack, he'll jump and pound the ground to try to stun you for his next attack. Don’t try to raise the Acid Barrier and fire in the same go. Instead, jump to avoid his stun or rush, activate the barrier, wait for his next attack, and fire on the next volley. He’ll also transform into a three-prong machine to drop explosives on the ground. You can continue to fire at him through this process, but avoid the explosions and his landing. At the mid-point, he’ll turn into what looks like a giant jackhammer with three spikes via his Power Gear that tries to spring over you, smash down with the middle spike, and follow with the outer spikes. Use that Speed Gear and avoid him at all costs as taking a hit from him in this form will be devastating and you can’t hurt him in this form. Wait Impact Man out and he’ll turn back into his original form to go about his regular attack, after which you can finish this boss off.

Bounce Man

You’re in the home stretch of Mega Man 11 and the hardest battles are behind you (outside of Wily’s castle). Bounce Man is springy pushover, which makes him a great cap in this boss order. He’ll applicably bounce around the room. When you hit him with the Mega Buster, he’ll bounce in the opposite direction and bounce back faster like a big fat Pong ball. If he goes over your head, Bounce Man will slowly descend to try to smush you. Occcasionally Bounce Man will stop to switch a stretchy fist at you, which is slow and easily avoided. Just keep rebounding him. At the mid-point, he’ll desperately switch on Speed Gear and bounce rapidly up and down through the screen. Switch on your own Speed Gear and dodge him until he reverts to his normal weak and slow attacks. You can use Impact Man’s Pile Driver to target his weakness, but bear in mind that it makes him disperse into several pieces which are slightly harder to avoid than the one big, fat one. As mentioned before, we killed him easily without ever switching to the Pile Driver for lack of effort required.

And that covers all of the 8 Robot Masters in Mega Man 11. Bear in mind that this boss order was simply our recommended preference. The Blue Bomber’s latest outing is quite young and there are undoubtedly countless secrets to be found, but this guide will start you off easy, escalate to tougher challenges, and then let you back down easy to cap it off again. Much like a good workout, it just might be what you need for a speedrun that will go from smooth to tough, and back to gentle before the final run at Wily’s Castle.

Haven’t played the game yet? Check out what fans were saying about Mega Man 11 leading up to its release!