The Nightmare Zero You Haven’t Seen

Following Mega Man X2‘s 1-Up trick, here’s another X series secret you’ve likely not seen. This time, however, it’s due to a glitch. In the not so revered title Mega Man X6, it’s supposed to be possible to face an ultra-powerful Lv. 4 Nightmare Zero. Not only that, but beating him unlocks Black Zero, which otherwise is only available by using a code when starting a new game.

This doesn’t turn out to work, though. Why? To reach Lv. 4 Nightmare Zero, you need to collect 5,000 Nightmare Souls. But the game is also set so that upon gathering 3,000 Nightmare Souls, the Gate stages open up and encounters with Nightmare Zero and High Max no longer occur in the regular stages. In other words, Nightmare Zero goes away before you can get the requisite 5,000 Nightmare Souls. The only way to access this battle with Nightmare Zero now is via hacking.

I’m supposing the unlock code is in the game at all either because a programmer realized this flaw, or because someone decided not to include the Lv. 4 encounter in the game. Or perhaps it really has been a huge oversight all along. Considering X6 as rushed out exactly a year after X5, it’s certainly possible…

Thanks for the tip, Flame!