A Beginner’s Guide to Mega Man X DiVE Offline

By LBD “Nytetrayn” and ShadowRockZX

—–

“Hello, Player! Welcome to the Deep Log!

“While Mega Man X DiVE Offline is full of memories from the Mega Man X games and beyond, it’s also a lot more intricate than those games, and can be a little bit daunting for newcomers (and occasionally even experienced players!). But we’re here to help you with this guide, so you can fully immerse yourself in the world of the Deep Log, and get the most out of your experience here!

“Of course, Mega Man X DiVE Offline is still pretty new, and while we’ve spent some time with it, a lot of our knowledge comes from how things worked in the online version of Mega Man X DiVE, so we might get a detail wrong here or there, and will try to correct any errors we encounter as soon as we become aware of them, so please be patient!”

Table of Contents

(Use Find function)

• When starting the game, who’s the Character I want to get ASAP?
• When starting the game, which Weapons do I want to get ASAP?
• How reliable is the auto-save? / When should I manually save?
• Is there a recommended way to utilize the multiple save slots?
• When can I play Event Stages?
• What does increasing Difficulty in Events do?
• The time ran out before I could finish the Event I was running. Do I still get to keep the items I collected?
• Where are Ryu/Zinogre Iris/X Dante Trigger/(insert crossover Character here)?
• I heard this game requires you to be online to play, despite very clearly being named Mega Man X DiVE “Offline.” Is this true?
• What is Zenny used for?
• What are Elemental Metals used for?
• Why can’t I use (Character/Weapon) yet? I thought this game was supposed to have everything available?
• What are those tickets used in the Event Store? How do I get them?
• Auto-aim? I’ve been playing Mega Man since 1987, I don’t need no stinkin’ auto-aim! Can I turn it off?
• “Precise jump”? “Charging aid”? What are all these options when I bring up the menu in a stage?
• What does the Gallery do? Do I need to keep updating it?
• What do the orange dots on the icons in the Character/Weapon/Chip menus mean?
• Well, what if I don’t want to devote resources to some of those Characters/Weapons/Chips right now? Can I make the orange dot go away?
• It says I need a [Material] in order to level up a Character/Weapon/Chip, but I don’t have any, and they aren’t in the Store. How do I get them?
• What is my Total Power level?
• What is Recommended Power?
• What does Power Guidance do?
• What does the Acquisition Guide do?
• What’s the difference between using Level Up and Quick Level Up? Which one should I use?
• What is a Memory?
• I just bought a new Character/Weapon, but it still says they’re not unlocked. What happened?
• What are Active Skills?
• What are Passive Skills?
• What do all these percentages mean?
• If an Active Skill does 147.45% damage, does that mean it will instantly kill anything?
• What does Rank do?
• What’s the difference between increasing Rank and increasing Level?
• What is DNA Code?
• What does it mean if I Favorite a Character? Is there any sort of bonus?
• What is a Card?
• Do I need to use Cards?
• What are Loadouts?
• I keep getting more of a Card I already have. Should I just sell the extras?
• What does Status Buff mean?
• What do the red, blue, green, and yellow circles on Cards mean?
• When I’m equipping a Card, why do the icons at the bottom say “Inactive”?
• What is the difference between a Power Up and an Item Power Up for Cards?
• What does Level Estimate mean on Cards?
• What’s the difference between a Card and a Chip?
• What does it mean to Analyze a Chip?
• What does it mean to Protect a Card?
• What does it mean to Reset a Weapon?
• The Weapons I’ve unlocked show a Maverick Hunter insignia with a number in the corner. What does this mean?
• What does Armor do?
• What does Combine Armor do?
• What does Armor Enhancement do?
• What does Dismantle Armor do (and why would I want to)?
• What is a Set Bonus, and how do I get it?
• Can I still get a Set Bonus if I mix and match parts from different sets of armor?
• I’ve completed a new set of Armor; why doesn’t my Character look any different?
• What are Skills?
• What are Parameters?
• What is Power Growth?
• What is a Total Level?
• Do I have to play the Challenge versions of Levels?
• I want the hardest this game has to offer. Is there a way to just play the Challenge levels in the Story instead of the Normal levels?
• What are Deep Elements?
• How many Deep Elements are there?
• Do I get anything for collecting them?
• How many levels does this game have?
• AAAH, I died! Are there extra lives or continues?
• Why does the Recommended Power change so much from one Story level to the next? I just got enough to take on one level, and now the next one is WAY higher! How do I keep up with that?
• It seems like no matter what I do, some enemies (like the guys with the poison sprayers) always wind up hitting me. What can I do to avoid them?
• Mini-glossary
• ShadowRockZX’s Pro Tips

When starting the game, who’s the Character I want to get ASAP?

Mega Man X DiVE Offline’s Story mode is easy enough, as long as you keep your Total Power at least on par with the Recommended Power for each stage. You could theoretically get through it with any Character. So, we will give you a quick and easy road map of what we have used and if you need more recommendations, read on below.

Start: X
Chapter 2: Replace X with S-Class Hunter X
Chapter 4: Use S-Class Hunter Zero if you wish.
Chapter 5: Third Armor X
Chapter 16/17: Get Super Bass or wait until Chapter 17 for DiVE Armor X.
End of Story: For the rest of the game, any of the DiVE Armors or Shadow Armor X will serve you well.

Starting out:

B: Axl is great for his Dodge Roll skill that ignores damage for the duration. At Star Rank 2, he can deploy a shield every time he performs a Dodge Roll. You get him for free after Chapter 2-3.

A: Most of the A ranks are decent starting out, go with your favorite if you are so inclined, or wait to unlock them normally through stage completion rewards.

S:

Black Zero – At Star Rank 4, he summons a beefy shield every time he casts Raikousen. That should help you tank a good majority of the game.

Second Armor X – A solid unit possessing Double Charge Shots and a screen nuke with Giga Crush (he gains invincibility during Giga Crush at Star Rank 4).

Cinnamon – She is the best healer and defensive unit in the early game. At Star Rank 2, she can recover HP with Angel Aura, while giving herself attack and defense buffs that allow you to survive tough battles. Angel Aura even grants a shield at Star Rank 4.

Ultimate Armor X – Ironically, he is outclassed by Armors obtained later in the game. However, Ultimate Armor X is still a useful unit early on with his powerful Plasma Charge Shot. If you want to zoom, his Nova Strike dash can be used twice in a row, assuming the first Nova Strike connects with a target (also grants temporary invincibility during use).

Ferham – Decent damage per second with her Crimson Shadow skill. She gets a mighty shield upon casting Crimson Shadow at Star Rank 2.

Super Mega Man – He can fly real high with his jet pack on. With his Rocket Fist out, he’s one tough robot! “DK Rap” references aside, this Super Fighting Robot is unique for having a 3rd jump, if you need the extra height.

Chapter 2: You get S-Class Hunter X for free, which is a direct upgrade over the X you have been using up to now. After all, he was just a B-Class Hunter, nothing more! Use S-Class Hunter X if you have nobody else powered up.

Chapter 4: You obtain both Zero and S-Class Hunter Zero for free. Both are solid units. Zero can summon a shield after casting Rakuhouha at Star Rank 2. S-Class Hunter Zero gets his shield at Star Rank 5, so it is a lot more costly. Both units get a chance for a movement speed buff upon getting hit right away, at least, so S-Class Hunter Zero is great even at 0 Stars.

Chapter 5:

Awakened Zero – A solid unit that can wipe most of the screen with his Genmu Zero skill.

Third Armor X – I didn’t like TAX’s Charge Shot in the original Mega Man X3. In the Deep Log, the Cross Charge Shot is very powerful (especially if you cross the streams right on top of the enemy). TAX also has a chance to summon a shield and can enter his Hyper Armor mode for attack/defense buffs. At Star Rank 3, he can heal himself when you stand still. Or you can grab one of his exclusive Cards to heal every time he enters Hyper Mode (make sure to rank the Card up to 5 Stars!). Lastly, TAX is another unique Character that gets a 3rd jump while in Hyper Mode.

Chapter 11:

Falcon Armor X – “What is platforming?” That is what you will be asking yourself, once you experience FLAX’s ability to fly in mid-air (Star Rank 1 required). If you want to perform cool skips and/or trivialize platforming, FLAX is your man.

Bass GS – Another unit with a screen nuke, thanks to his Vanishing World skill. Life Aura at Star Rank 3 is not too shabby, either.

Zero Nightmare – Perfect for Buster + Melee weapon mains with his passive skill buff. His Buster skill deals good damage and he gets not one, but two Genmu Zero Kais to wipe the screen at Star Rank 5!

Chapter 16:

Super Bass – Let’s be real. If you care about raw power, you shouldn’t be using anyone else at this stage. Insane damage per second potential with the defense debuffs from his Bass Buster (3 shots at Star Rank 4), and you will be zooming through stages in the blink of an eye with his Sweeping Laser skill. Did I mention he can spam both Active Skills twice in a row at Star Rank 5 and he has a chance of blocking damage at Star Rank 4? Amazing unit, well worth investing in all the way if you don’t want to wait for the end-game Characters.

Chapter 17:

DiVE Armor X – A bit outclassed by the other DiVE Armors you unlock at the end of the Story, but for now, he can handle most everything thanks to his decent damage output, protections against negative status effects, and HP healing (at Star Rank 2) when his Nova Aura is summoned. Great for riding through the Jakob Orbital Elevator.

Chapter 18:

Bass Cross MegaMan – Has his own screen nuke (Vanishing World Kai), gets Life Aura (Star Rank 4), gets speed buffs (Star Rank 3), and hits hard. Almost everything you could ask for in a near-end-game Character.

Gaea Armor X – If you don’t want to wait a couple more chapters for Shadow Armor X and stage hazards like spikes, lava, and press machines are giving you a hard time, then use GAX to ignore damage from all of them! This walking tank of an armor also has the unique, rad ability to cling to walls indefinitely, at the cost of a lower base dash speed.

Chapter 21 and on:

Any of the DiVE Armor Characters, Shadow Armor X (that can also cling to ceilings and ignore stage hazard damage), and True ViA. They will all allow you to plow through anything the game can throw at you, which is why they don’t want us using them until the end.

Event Exclusives (Unlocked at Player Level 60):

Swimsuit Roll – Great damaging Water Shield and speed.

Halloween Vile – Good damage, Pumpkin Bomb tracks the target and Batwing Boomerang steals HP from victims.

Halloween Sigma – His Penta Bat Shot tracks the enemy and steals their HP (at Star Rank 4).

Halloween Roll – Great damage, buffs, and healing (at Star Rank 5).

Christmas Ciel – Insane defensive and offensive skills.

ViA – A super version of ProtoMan.EXE and Zero with strong attacks. Can clear screens with his own Rakuhouha (Style Sword Technique – Blue) and close in on foes quickly with Style Sword Technique – Swift.

Next DiVE Armor X (unlocked after Final Chapter) – The last DiVE Armor and Character to be released before end of service. He’s essentially the “Ultimate Armor” version of DiVE Armor X, bringing his power up to speed with his fellow DiVE Armor users. He is able to stock up to 4 ultra powerful Charge Shots and comes complete with three swappable Active Skills (Super Giga Crush, Nova Strike, and DiVE Sword)!

When starting the game, which Weapons do I want to get ASAP?

Like with Characters, I’ll tell you what I used and you can see further recommendations below.

What I used:

Starting out: X-Buster and Z-Saber, or upgrade to Gravitational Pulse or Biochemcial Buster and Triangular Saber.

Chapter 11: Upgrade Triangular Saber to Nightmare

Final Chapter: Ultimate Blast, Red Lotus Saber, and the other end-game Weapons will plow through anything if you want a truly mind-numbingly easy experience.

Further recommendations:

Starting out:

B:

Burning Spray Gun – Early game continuous burn status inflictor.

A:

Triangular Saber – The best early game melee Weapon to use since it deals extra dash slash damage on the ground at Star Rank 4. Perfect for the somersault slash (aka “Pizza Cut”) technique.

Snowy Spray Gun – At Star Rank 4, it grants the user a strong shield after exhausting its energy. Can also inflict Slow on foes.

Gatling Gun – Fast rate of fire for mowing down fodder enemies.

S:

Poisonous Cloud Spray Gun – Has a longer range than the other Sprayer Weapons at this point and inflicts continuous poison damage.

Extraordinary Mortar – At Star Rank 2, it grants you a shield every 10 seconds when you take a hit.

Gravitational Pulse – A solid, fast Buster that has a chance of summoning lightning (that has a chance to stun) on your position. A fitting match for Ultimate Armor X, too.

Biochemical Buster – Inflicts continuous poison damage, and at Star Ranks 1 and 5, it gains additional scatter shots, making it a solid crowd clearer.

Savage Tusk of Thunder – Probably the best Machine Gun-type Weapon you can get right now.

Chapter 11:

Purchased with Zenny:

Pyro Executioner – A direct upgrade over the Burning Spray Gun.

Explosive Blower – A burst-type Sprayer with a large blast radius and a chance to inflict stun.

Shooting Dragon – Hey, remember Mega Man Star Force? This Green Dragon Buster can inflict continuous burn damage.

Ancient Relic – If you get it to Star Rank 5 and draw the Protective Rune Hidden Skill, you get a shield whenever the Weapon runs out of energy. A few Pizza Cut maneuvers (don’t forget about your 10% Dash Slash damage bonus!) should activate it quickly.

Nightmare – A direct upgrade over the Triangular Saber. Another good Weapon to use with Pizza Cutting and its Passive Skills provide further attack buffs.

Falcon Ballista – A decent Machine Gun-type with scatter shots that can rebound off the walls at Star Rank 1.

Purchased with Elemental Metals (EMs):

Boomerang Blade Buster – At Star Rank 4, it can fire tons of piercing blades. Great crowd clearer.

Jet Vortex Buster – The Slow status inflicted by this Buster’s Air Vortex can bring the enemies down to an insanely slow crawl.

Atomic Disintegration – Is that a Ride Chaser as a gun?! Anyway, this is an upgrade over the Falcon Ballista. Up to 7-way scatter shots and wall rebounding for some good crowd clearance.

Chapter 18:

Purchased with Zenny:

Death Diffusion – Pretty fast for a Launcher-type and causes continuous burn.

Gator Fangs – With the combination of Predator (Star Rank 2) and Rapid Reload (Star Rank 4), this burst-type sprayer can fire off shots rapidly when you are within close proximity of a target, leading to amazing damage per second potential. Also inflicts Slow, so the victim is less likely to run away.

The Monoclonius – Large projectiles, lowers enemy defense, and spawns tracking missiles at Star Rank 2.

Purchased with EMs:

Deicide’s Will – Kraft’s Launcher became a staple in PvP builds in the online version immediately after release. Its Ultra Beam Wave fires a laser that ignores terrain and travels so far that it can hit a target on the other side of the map. Every shot will ignore terrain at Star Rank 2.

Freezing Dominator – WHALE! This is the S Rank upgrade over the Snow Sprayer. Still has the Breeze Shield after running out of energy at Star Rank 2, inflicts an even stronger Slow effect, and deals additional damage to slowed targets.

Final Chapter:

Purchased with Zenny:

Red Lotus Saber – Causes continuous burn, increases your movement speed (Star Rank 3), and unleashes a huge pillar of fire every 5 seconds (Star Rank 4). This was Zero’s ultimate Weapon in Mega Man X: Command Mission, and it is one of the best in Mega Man X DiVE Offline, too.

Purchased with EMs:

Ultimate Blast – Ultimate is right. If you want a “press attack to win” Weapon, look no further than DiVE Armor X’s Buster. Rank this baby up to send a quick flurry of targeting shots that completely ignores terrain and clears crowds in seconds. Has a chance to fire an additional laser and can inflict stun. It definitely lives up to the hype as the ultimate Buster in Mega Man X DiVE Offline.

Light Bender – The ultimate Sprayer is an energy chainsaw that is able to destroy the Miru Toraeru (“Stun Orbs”) from Mega Man X4 like swords can. Can summon terrain-ignoring saw wheels, gets energy back upon hitting (Star Rank 3), and grants attack buffs when hitting a target (Star Rank 4).

Fantasia Comet – Based on DiVE Cross MegaMan, this is the game’s best Launcher. Numerous and fast tracking attacks that penetrate terrain.

Miracle Blade – Don’t let the ordinary Z-Saber look fool you – this is another broken DiVE Armor tier Weapon. It has a faster cooldown time, can launch energy blades that penetrate terrain, inflict slow, and lower enemy defenses.

The Deconstructor – Modeled after DiVE Armor Axl, this is the best Machine Gun/Gatling-type and the last new Weapon to be released in the online version. Like everything else in the end-game, it penetrates terrain, lowers enemy defense, increases your damage when hitting defense-weakened targets, and fires lots and lots of barraging shots.

Seasonal:

Festive Specialty – At Star Rank 4, it can restore HP after destroying an enemy once every 10 seconds.

How reliable is the auto-save? / When should I manually save?

The game appears to auto-save upon closing it, so that’s good in the event of an accident, barring losing power suddenly. Regardless, you should make a manual save often following missions or finishing some upgrades/adjustments. The auto-save gets overwritten when you start a new game, so make sure you have an up-to-date manual save before starting a new file.

Is there a recommended way to utilize the multiple save slots?

No, unless you want to experiment with different Character/Weapon builds before fully committing your resources. It’s up to you how you use those extra slots.

When can I play Event Stages?

Player Level 20 for the permanent Event Stages that earn you materials, Zenny, and EXP. Player Level 60 for the Seasonal and Special Event Stages.

What does increasing Difficulty in Events do?

Increases the recommended power level. The higher the difficulty, the more materials, Zenny, EXP, or Event Coupons you earn.

The time ran out before I could finish the Event I was running. Do I still get to keep the items I collected?

Nope, you have to complete the stage. Any items picked up during the stage only serves to add points to your score. You get the real reward upon stage completion, based on your performance rank calculated by your score.

Where are Ryu/Zinogre Iris/X Dante Trigger/(insert crossover Character here)?

Not in the game at all. It hasn’t officially been stated why they were removed from Mega Man X DiVE Offline, but IP licensing costs do exist even under the same company. No future DLC is planned either. Though development staff have stated that they will monitor the reaction and sales of Mega Man X DiVE Offline, however you wish to interpret that.

There is good news on this front, however. The fan modding community has already begun work on restoring the removed content which includes those crossover Characters. At the time of writing, you can find a download for X Dante Trigger and Zero Vergil Trigger (featuring the Devil May Cry series) on Nexus Mods, with more on the way. We will leave you to your own devices to figure out how to install mods, but perhaps we will come back with a modding guide in the future as the scene develops.

I heard this game requires you to be online to play, despite very clearly being named Mega Man X DiVE “Offline.” Is this true?

Nope! You can play this game offline, as the title suggests. What was posted on the official website was just a weird way to say “you need an internet connection to download this game”.

What is Zenny used for?

Buying Character/Weapon memory fragments, cards, etc. from the in-game shop, for the purposes of unlocking or upgrading.

What are Elemental Metals used for?

Ditto what I said about Zenny. Elemental Metal requirements tend to be reserved for (previously) limited Characters, Weapons, and cards back in the online version.

Why can’t I use (Character/Weapon) yet? I thought this game was supposed to have everything available?

You need to progress through a certain point in the Story first before the Character/Weapon becomes available to purchase (click on a locked item to see the unlock conditions). This was done so the player doesn’t become too powerful too fast, since a lot of the end-game Characters/Weapons frankly makes the game mind-numbingly easy.

What are those tickets used in the Event Store? How do I get them?

Event Coupons are acquired by playing Special and Seasonal Events, and you can buy anything with them except the Next DiVE Armor X Character, who unlocks when the main Story Mode is completed.

Side note: Even though Special/Seasonal Events unlock at Player Level 60, the recommended power level for each stage we tried was essentially double the Total Power we had at Level 60 (15~k/30~k). The difficulty options found in the online version appear to be removed in favor of one standard difficulty level. That being the case, the Events are definitely intended to be late-game content, but you can attempt to power through if you want some Event Characters/Weapons early.

Auto-aim? I’ve been playing Mega Man since 1987, I don’t need no stinkin’ auto-aim! Can I turn it off?

If you really want to, you can turn off “auto-aim” in the pause menu while you are in a stage. I don’t recommend it, though, since this game was clearly designed with auto-aim in mind. It expects you to attack targets from all 8 directions, unlike your typical Mega Man game. Thus you may have a bad time without auto-aim if you aren’t good with the manual aim function (assigned to the right stick).

“Precise jump”? “Charging aid”? What are all these options when I bring up the menu in a stage?

Precise Jump – On: Your jump height depends on how long the button is pressed. Off (default): You will always jump to the maximum height with a tap.

Charging Aid – On (default): Auto-charge for charging skills like X’s Charge Shot when tapped once. Off: You have to hold the skill’s button to charge.

Double Click to go down – On: Double tap + jump to drop through thin platforms. Off (default): Press down + jump once.

Button tip – Show or hide the controller/keyboard button prompts underneath the on-screen action icons (on by default).

What does the Gallery do? Do I need to keep updating it?

The Gallery keeps track of your completion with each Character, Weapon, and Card. Completion essentially means upgrading their Level, Rank, Skills, and Passive Abilities to the max. Gone are the days of idly PvP grinding to complete your Gallery in the online version, thankfully. You do get a slight power boost from completing the target goals, so if you care about min-maxing and it is within your means, sure, do everything you can. It is easier than ever to do so in Mega Man X DiVE Offline.

What do the orange dots on the icons in the Character/Weapon/Chip menus mean?

The orange dots are the game’s way of letting you know that you have enough materials to upgrade something about a Character/Weapon/Chip/Card. Whether that be unlocking Passive Skills or upgrading their Star Rank. If you see the dot, it may be worth taking a look, just to be sure you don’t miss an important upgrade.

Well, what if I don’t want to devote resources to some of those Characters/Weapons/Chips right now? Can I make the orange dot go away?

Unfortunately, no. As long as you have the requisite materials, the orange dots are never going to go away. This was an annoyance in the online version as well, and it is something long-time Player-sans of the Deep Log have learned to just live with.

It says I need a [Material] in order to level up a Character/Weapon/Chip, but I don’t have any, and they aren’t in the Store. How do I get them?

Some items need to be acquired by completing Story or Event Stages. Clicking on the item you need and then “Acquisition Methods” will tell you which Events will yield the items.

What is my Total Power level?

Your Total Power level is a numerical representation of every aspect of your current build. Your Player Level, DiVE Trigger levels, Armor equipment level, and the levels of your currently equipped Weapons, Cards, and Chips. The more you level all of these things up, the higher your power level will be.

What is Recommended Power?

It is the recommended power level that is displayed at the bottom of the Character prep screen before entering a stage. As the name implies, your Total Power number should match or exceed what the recommended number is if you want to have a fair chance at surviving. Being underleveled can lead to things like being one-shot-killed by everything and/or dealing literally 1 damage to enemies in the worst case scenario. Being overleveled enough leads to you becoming the one-shot Hunter of mass destruction.

Remember, this is not your average Mega Man title — this is an action RPG where stat numbers actually matter. So if you find yourself having trouble, make sure to pay close attention to the Recommended Power level, and hit the menus to level up every single little thing you can. The good news is when you get to Challenge mode, you can stop worrying about power levels as you and your foes are automatically set to level 1. Thus, you could say Challenge mode is as close to a true Mega Man experience as you will get in DiVE.

What does Power Guidance do?

All that menu does is point you in the right direction of what exactly you need to level up to increase your power level. Or I can just tell you: Remember to periodically level up your Main Weapons, Sub-Weapons, Chips, DiVE Triggers, Cards, and Armor equipment, and you will be on your way to success.

What does the Acquisition Guide do?

This menu breaks down the ways you can acquire Elemental Metals, Character Memory fragments, Chip memory fragments, experience points, Weapon Memory fragments, and Armor. Complete with hyper-links to take you to the relevant menu you need. At first glance, it might not make a lot of sense to someone new. Just remember that “Star rewards” refers to the rewards for clearing every stage in a Story chapter with a 3-star rank. (You are 3-star ranking every Story stage, right?)

What’s the difference between using Level Up and Quick Level Up? Which one should I use?

Quick Level Up will automatically calculate how many materials needed to reach the specific level you want, instead of just clicking on the EXP materials manually. For the sake of your time and sanity, just use Quick Level Up.

What is a Memory?

If you have ever played a gacha mobile game before, you might recall the “shards” that you must collect a certain number of the same type to unlock or upgrade the corresponding Character. Well, even if this is your first mobile game, that is Memories in a nutshell. For example, buying or collecting 40 “Ultimate Armor X memory” fragments will allow you to unlock him from the Character prep menu. Just remember, every Character and Weapon has their own specific type of Memory, and you cannot mix and match them. Typically, it is 20 memories for a B rank, 30 for an A rank, and 40 for an S rank. The Memory fragment requirements only increase from there for each successive Star Rank, so be prepared to buy a ton of the same type of Memory to get the most out of the Character/Weapon you wish to main.

I just bought a new Character/Weapon, but it still says they’re not unlocked. What happened?

Assuming you bought enough Memory fragments, follow the orange brick — I mean, follow the orange dots over to the Character or Weapon menu. You should see an “unlock” message over the Character/Weapon icon at the bottom, where the scrolling list is. Click on that to get to the specific Character/Weapon’s page and hit that big yellow “unlock” button. Congratulations, you can use it now!

What are Active Skills?

Essentially the main two attack skills each Character will have. For “X” they are “Charge Shot” and “Tracking Missile”. In the Active Skill menu, you can read up on what the skills do, their stats, and increase their level, which I recommend always doing to maximize their damage output. You will also find Chips (usually unlocked upon raising the Character’s Star Rank) that provide various buffs to that skill (or for certain Characters, changes the attack entirely, like Hub Style MegaMan.EXE’s four swappable Program Advances) when equipped.

What are Passive Skills?

Accessed from each Character/Weapon’s “Passive Skill” menu, these are unlockable Passive Abilities that provide important buffs to their existing Skills or introduce whole new powerful effects and abilities. Need to get Bass.EXE his trademark Life Aura? What if you could spam your ultra powerful Active Skills twice or even thrice in quick succession? What about crazy buffs, healing, speed, or extra attacks that can wipe the whole screen? If true power is what you seek, look no further than the Passive Skills.

What do all these percentages mean?

Pretty much exactly what it says. “Mobility” reduces the cooldown time of a corresponding Active Skill by 20%. If another Passive Skill says it decreases damage taken by 15%, or increases movement speed by 35%, then that’s what it does. Don’t ask me about the base parameters they are using as a reference, though. You will mostly feel the effects of those percentage buffs/debuffs when you test them out on the battlefield.

If an Active Skill does 147.45% damage, does that mean it will instantly kill anything?

Not at all. Even skills that say they can do 400%+ damage don’t necessarily always one-shot things. That is because if your Active Skill deals 147.45% attack damage, it is only dealing 147.45% of whatever your base attack stat is. Whether you can instantly kill anything or you get instantly killed goes back to your overall Total Power rating. If your power isn’t high enough, then those percentage numbers being thrown around won’t matter. Honestly, I wouldn’t sweat the percentages too much, and just go with the logic of “bigger numbers = more damage”.

What does Rank do?

Well, there are at least two types of Ranks you will encounter in Mega Man X DiVE Offline, so I may as well explain both.

Letter Rank (C, B, A, and S): Kind of like Hunter ranks in the Mega Man X series, it’s an at-a-glance representation of how powerful the Character/Weapon should be. However, since 99% of everything is an S rank in Mega Man X DiVE Offline, anyway, that doesn’t help much, especially as early units are always power-crept by units introduced later on. The letter rank system is a remnant of Mega Man X DiVE once being a gacha game. Using the Characters as an example: All the B and A ranks mostly consisted of the base versions of the playable Characters from past Mega Man games (and a couple of extras, like Bit), and thus were given out for free or earned by simply playing. The S ranks were the “premium” Characters that the player was generally expected to get lucky enough to pull through the “Capsule” gacha system, which explains why S ranks take up the vast majority of the roster.

In gameplay terms, the letter rank determines how many passive abilities the Character/Weapon gets (3 for B, 4 for A, and 5 for S). Generally, higher letter ranks mean their Active and Passive Skills are stronger overall, too. And of course, the higher the letter rank, the more memory fragments you will need to unlock and increase their Star Rank.

Star Rank: Star Ranks go from 0 to 5 and you will need a specified amount of Character/Weapon/Boss Chip/DiVE Trigger memory fragments (extra copies of the same cards in the case of Cards) to increase their rank. In the case of Character/Weapons, you will unlock access to additional Active Skill chips, Passive Skills, and DNA Code Skills or Hidden Skills upon each rank up. It is highly recommended to raise the Star Rank of your favorite Characters and Weapons to make them more useful. And well, there is no reason not to increase the Star Rank of your Boss Chips, DiVE Triggers, and Cards at the earliest opportunity for the power boost and skill percentage increases.

What’s the difference between increasing Rank and increasing Level?

Increasing Star Ranks unlocks access to more Active Skill chips and Passive Skills to activate. Increasing the levels of various things mainly serves to boost your overall stats, and thus your Total Power rating. If you didn’t notice already, this game is a dream for min-max type players.

What is DNA Code?

DNA Code is a mid-game feature (unlocks at Player Level 50) that was originally added to the online version late in its life in an attempt to address the power-creep problem, breathing new life into old and new Characters alike through three additional Passive Skills to bolster them. Unlocking all three Passive Skills in a Character’s DNA Code will give them a shiny border around their Character icon — a mark of true mastery.

DNA Code used to be a rather complex system in the online version, but in Mega Man X DiVE Offline, Capcom took the opportunity to simplify it. The “Recombined DNA” system that once allowed you to unlock even more passive stat buffs and negative status resistances (like those seen on Cards) and the “Inherited DNA” system that let you link up two Characters to share those buffs, have been completely cut. You no longer have to buy extra Character Memory fragments to unlock the Fixed DNA Skills either — just get the Character up to the appropriate Star Rank and use your Zenny!

The Mega Man X DiVE Offline version of DNA Code is muuuuuch easier on your brain and wallet, even if that means sacrificing some permanent stat buffs for your Characters. I don’t think it matters for Single Player in the grand scheme of things, though.

What does it mean if I Favorite a Character? Is there any sort of bonus?

No bonuses. It’s just a way to bring your “favorite” Characters to the top of the list when you sort by “Favorites” in the Character menu.

What is a Card?

They are like collectable trading cards featuring Characters from across the Mega Man multiverse. Each one has their own stat bonuses and Passive Skills that apply to a Character when you equip it to them. A number of cards are Character-specific and contain a Passive Skill exclusive to that specific Character. You can spend EXP materials to raise their level, giving you a power boost. Combine extra copies of Cards together to increase their Star Rank, upgrading their Passive Skill’s rank.

Do I need to use Cards?

I recommend leveling up your cards for the added Total Power boost (so you don’t fall behind in power level) and for the passive abilities they provide. Many cards are Character-specific, giving them much needed buffs, so keep an eye out for those.

What are Loadouts?

Loadouts was a quality of life feature added to the online version to allow players to save their equipped sets of 3 Cards. You can save and load from up to 5 Loadout slots. So if you find a Card combination you really like that fits most situations, you can save it so that you don’t have to manually redo your Card setup *every time* you change Characters. You Mega Man X DiVE Offline players are lucky you didn’t have to go through that slog from the early days of the online version!

I keep getting more of a Card I already have. Should I just sell the extras?

Never sell the extras, unless you really do have too much. You are intended to combine the extra copies together to raise the Card’s Star Rank (same Cards only) and Level. I would only sell the extras if you have no use for them or need to make space, since you do not get much Zenny for them.

As a pro tip, you can set up multiples of the same Card with varying Star Ranks, since Passive Skills with the same Rank do not stack. If I have two of the same Rank 2 Passive Skills that raise my attack by 6%, the Character will only receive that 6% boost, not 12%. But if I have a Rank 1 at 4% and a Rank 2 at 6%, those *do* stack.

What does Status Buff mean?

The boost to your ATK, HP, and DEF that the Card provides. Increased with level ups.

What do the red, blue, green, and yellow circles on Cards mean?

So every Card has 1 assigned color (red, blue, green, or yellow). The Cards that have Passive Skills need to be paired with specific colored Cards (noted underneath the Card’s Passive Skill where it says “Active Condition”) to properly activate. For example, the “Comrade Forever” Card is red. It needs to be paired with another red Card and a blue Card in the same Loadout to meet the conditions for activating both of its Passive Skills, which are “Boss Sentinel II” (red & blue) and “Boss Killer II” (2 reds and 1 blue). When putting together your Card Loadout, make sure you pair together the right colors of Cards, so the Passive Skills you care about don’t end up Inactive.

When I’m equipping a Card, why do the icons at the bottom say “Inactive”?

You probably didn’t pair together the right Card colors to meet the Passive Skill’s Active Condition. Or the Card needs to be equipped on a specific Character like X, Massimo, etc. to activate the Passive Skill. Refer to the Active Conditions under each Card’s Passive Skill to determine the colors or Character you need.

What is the difference between a Power Up and an Item Power Up for Cards?

Power Up means sacrificing cards to increase the level of another (or increase its Star Rank if you are sacrificing duplicate copies of the Card). Item Power Up is an alternate way of achieving the same effects using items instead. Use Card EXP Programs to increase the level and Universal Star Cards to increase the Star Rank.

What does Level Estimate mean on Cards?

The level the Card will reach based on the Cards or Card EXP Programs you selected to power up with.

What’s the difference between a Card and a Chip?

Cards are those trading cards that can provide stat buffs and Passive Skills to an equipped Character. Boss Chips are like the Special Weapons from the main Mega Man games, except in Mega Man X DiVE Offline, you can equip one Boss Chip attack to a Weapon at a time. The Boss Chip’s attack or effect activates automatically when you attack with the equipped Weapon or fulfill the conditions (like taking damage in the case of Sting Chameleon’s Boss Chip).

What does it mean to Analyze a Chip?

Doing this grants you a portion of the Chip’s stats when it isn’t equipped. For instance, if a Chip has a stat of 1000 Attack and an Analysis rate of 25%, that means when its equipped, your Attack is raised by 1000, but if it isn’t equipped, you’ll still enjoy an Attack bonus of 250. As a result, it’s another thing that will contribute to your Total Power.

What does it mean to Protect a Card?

If you “Protect” a Card, that Card cannot be accidentally sold nor combined with another Card, because they will be hidden from the sell/combine lists. I would always protect your important S rank Cards, limited Cards, and Favorites. You know, just in case.

What does it mean to Reset a Weapon?

Resets the Weapon to its default level and parameters, returning all the materials and Zenny invested into it back to you. It’s kind of like re-specing, except you can take the returned resources and put it into a different Weapon that you like better. That way, you don’t have to feel like you wasted resources on a Weapon you end up not using.

The Weapons I’ve unlocked show a Maverick Hunter insignia with a number in the corner. What does this mean?

The number next to the Maverick Hunter insignia shows how many times you have upgraded the ATK, HP, CRI, HIT, or Luck parameters of the Weapon using Zenny in the Upgrade tab. The number is tracked separately for each individual stat.

What does Armor do?

After Player Level 20, you will have a new set of Armor you can craft every 10 Player Levels. The Armor does not do anything special, but it will increase your stats, and thus your Total Power rating. So like with everything else, it is important to keep upgrading your Armor, so you don’t fall behind in power.

What does Combine Armor do?

That is where you craft your Armor pieces for each slot using Armor Parts (obtained via the Armor Enhancement Event Stage). In Mega Man X DiVE Offline, they took the random number generation out of the crafting process, so the armor pieces are guaranteed to be 3 Star Rank.

What does Armor Enhancement do?

Permanently increase the base power of each Armor slot using Shock Absorber materials (obtained via the Armor Enhancement Event Stage).

What does Dismantle Armor do (and why would I want to)?

Allows you to sell off your unwanted Armor pieces for Zenny and Armor materials. You only need 1 Armor piece per slot so you will end up with a number of extras. Go ahead and sell them off to get some of your resources back.

What is a Set Bonus, and how do I get it?

Simply equip all 6 slots with an Armor piece from the same set and letter rank (A or S) to receive the set bonus, which is just an additional stat/power boost. Nothing that special, I’m afraid.

Can I still get a Set Bonus if I mix and match parts from different sets of Armor?

No.

I’ve completed a new set of Armor; why doesn’t my Character look any different?

Armor is just one of Mega Man X DiVE Offline’s many arbitrary ways to boost your Total Power and doesn’t serve any other purpose, not even visually. There used to be more otherwise meaningless systems in place solely to increase Total Power in the online version (like “Backup”), but while it looks like some of the fat was trimmed for Mega Man X DiVE Offline, Armors are an exception.

What are Skills?

Those are the DiVE Triggers. Basically think of the “Giga Crush” special moves that X’s armors have in the Mega Man X games, except DiVE Triggers can only be used once per stage. At least you get one DiVE Trigger per equipped Weapon for a total of two per stage. DiVE Triggers range from straight healing like the Sub Tank to “charged” versions of the Special Weapons from the Mega Man Classic and Mega Man X series. Increasing the Level and Star Ranks of the DiVE Triggers provide boosts to your Total Power (no matter if they are equipped or not), so you should always power them up when you can.

What are Parameters?

The base stats of the Player. Although many parameters are shown, a lot of them like “BR”, “CHRR”, “CHR”, “BRR”, “Dodge”, and “Block DR” aren’t used at all by the Player Character, but enemies do use them.

What is Power Growth?

It is a chart (shown by pressing the “i” icon next to “Status Growth” in the Level Up tab) showing the stat growth of your Weapon from your initial level to the level you plan to advance to.

If I level the X-Buster from Level 1 to Level 4, the chart will look like this:

ATK: 30 -> 40
HP: 15 -> 20
CRI: 0 -> 8
HIT: 0 -> 8

What is a Total Level?

The levels of all of your individual DiVE Triggers combined. Mostly used as an unlock condition for the rest of the DiVE Triggers.

Do I have to play the Challenge versions of Levels?

No, but you miss out on a lot of Elemental Metals and other goodies if you ignore them.

I want the hardest this game has to offer. Is there a way to just play the Challenge levels in the Story instead of the Normal levels?

No. The Challenge levels are only unlocked after clearing the Story Chapter on Normal first.

What are Deep Elements?

Those purple orbs you find in hidden places (and sometimes in plain sight) throughout the stages. RiCO points one out to you on Highway 1-2. There are Achievements for collecting a bunch of them.

How many Deep Elements are there?

Each stage will tell you how many are found within on the info page before clicking “Execute”. The game’s tracker and Achievements do track which Deep Elements you have picked up already even though they respawn each revisit, so try to collect them all in one go to be sure.

Do I get anything for collecting them?

Just the Achievements and their rewards.

How many levels does this game have?

Let’s see, uhhh… The official trailer advertises “over 900 stages,” but let’s do the math. 20 Story Chapters with 6 stages each. That’s 120 Story stages right there. 123 Story stages when you add the 3 Story Chapters that have a single stage. 246 counting Challenge mode variations. 175 Jakob Orbital Elevator floors, 525 total if you count all 3 difficulty levels you have to clear. Then you got 23 Seasonal Event Stages and 17 Special Event Stages, for a total of 40 Event Stages. Oh and don’t forget the 4 permanent Event Stages (with several of their own difficulty variations). Put it all together, and you are looking at… at least 342 stages (815 with all difficulties)?! Capcom probably got their number from including Race Mode and every difficulty variation that I didn’t count in my math, so close enough. Suffice to say, Mega Man X DiVE Offline has enough content to keep you playing for a while. All we are really missing are the Co-Op stages, Boss Challenges, Total Power Battle stages, and so on from the online version.

AAAH, I died! Are there extra lives or continues?

Yes, but only in Story mode. You can purchase extra lives (Reorganization Programs) from the shop for a steep 50,000 Zenny each. Using one after dying will revive you on the spot where you left off for uninterrupted progress. If you played the online version from the beginning, they used to hand out extra lives like candy, so you could plow through anything with enough persistence. Now that Mega Man X DiVE Offline is strictly a single player experience, though, I suppose they didn’t want to make it too easy.

Why does the Recommended Power change so much from one Story level to the next? I just got enough to take on one level, and now the next one is WAY higher! How do I keep up with that?

Just the way Mega Man X DiVE Offline goes. It doesn’t help that back in the online version, a new Story chapter was added every 10 Player Levels, so they had to space out the recommended power levels somehow. Each time you find yourself underleveled for a stage, it’s time to review all the prep menus and upgrade what you can. Even forgetting about one aspect to power up can spell a bad time for you. Technically, you don’t need to meet the recommended power level, though… if you don’t mind a challenge.

It seems like no matter what I do, some enemies (like the guys with the poison sprayers) always wind up hitting me. What can I do to avoid them?

Those Sprayer New Generation Reploids and other enemies that can hit through walls are particularly nasty because there isn’t much you can do about them other than anticipate them coming and/or destroy them before they get too close to you (even while they are still off-screen if you have to). Otherwise you will just have to tank it. This is not a game we recommend trying a no-damage run with, to say the least (not without a Character that can summon a strong shield, anyway).

Mini-glossary

CRI – Increases both CRIR and CRID.
CRIR – Critical Rate – The higher the CRIR, the higher chance you have of landing a critical hit.
CRID – Critical Damage – How much damage your critical hits do.
RoF – Rate of Fire
Damage Rate – How often continuous damage like poison occurs.
ATK – Attack – How much damage you do with an attack.
HP – Health Points
DEF – Defense – How much damage you can resist from attacks
HIT – The accuracy of your attacks, makes attacks miss less when going into stages underpowered. (Yes, enemies can spot-dodge your attacks. It sucks.)
Range – How far the attack can travel before disappearing.
Move – Movement speed
Energy – Weapon ammo capacity before a reload is needed
Reload – Cooldown time
EXP – Experience Points

ShadowRockZX’s Pro Tips

• I know a lot of stats, numbers, pie charts, and terminology gets thrown around, but don’t sweat the stat parameters if you do not understand it. A lot of information that Mega Man X DiVE Offline feeds you is just fluff. For Story progression, the only relevant number you should ever worry about is your Total Power rating, which is a culmination of your overall stats. As long as you stay on top of upgrading every aspect of your build and adhere to the Recommended Power of each stage, you will be in good shape.
• Remember when we said Mega Man X DiVE Offline is an action RPG? That means unlike your traditional Mega Man title, there is in fact a dodge mechanic in play. But it only applies to enemies, not yourself. If you are too underpowered (or even if you aren’t), you will often see your attacks missing their target (denoted by a “Dodge” message when it happens), even when it looks like it should connect. That’s right! Through the powers of RNG, a stationary turret can spot-dodge Second Armor X’s Giga Crush (a screen nuke, mind you) just because of bad luck. It is definitely an annoying quirk that Deep Log dwellers will have to be aware of. Increase your Total Power and HIT stats to help mitigate the chance for missed attacks.
• If it doesn’t already feel like the mechanics are stacked against you, enemies have a chance to “Block” your attacks, too, so they receive no damage. Blocking can be the result of a special defensive skill, shield, or because of RNG (especially if you are underpowered). Thankfully, you can block attacks, too, through your own deployed shields and defensive skills.
• Did you know that minor enemies don’t have a collision hitbox in the Deep Log? Seriously, try standing inside of an enemy. See? No contact damage! Now you only need to worry about attacks and projectiles. About time a 2D action game does this. Unfortunately, mid-bosses and bosses still deal contact damage, so you will want to step away from them.
• The technique that we call “Pizza Cutting” still works in Mega Man X DiVE Offline. It was controversial in the PvP days, but now that the Deep Log is strictly single player, who cares about playing fair? Grab a good melee Weapon (Triangular Saber, Nightmare, and Red Lotus Saber are literally built for this purpose), then hold down the attack button while repeatedly tapping the dash button in rapid succession. For every tap of the dash, your sword will hit once more. This way, you can rack up damage quickly on grounded targets. There are a few melee Weapons that won’t work as well with the Pizza Cutting technique, due to their different methods of handling cooldown. But if you stick to my recommendations, you will be fine.
• Do you hate the look of that ugly aura around your Character when you equip a Boss Chip? Me too. To retain the Boss Chip’s effects without muddying the Character’s look in special effects, go to the Graphics Settings and turn “Effect” to “Low”. Much better!
• If you are playing the game on Steam Deck (which Mega Man X DiVE Offline runs great on), press the Steam button while in-game, go to controller settings, and set Right Trackpad Behavior to “As Mouse”. This should help you get around the menus a bit easier, since y’know, this version still lacks competent controller support for menu navigation.
• If you are a Steam user like me and fancy switching between playing on PC and the Steam Deck, a useful feature for facilitating that is Steam’s ability to store your save data in the cloud, which it does automatically for most games. For Mega Man X DiVE Offline however, you may find that your save does not automatically show up on your secondary device when you boot up the game. If that happens, you will have to go through a couple extra steps to get Cloud Sync working. Here is how:
  1. On your main device, go to the title screen and bring up the “Load Game” menu.
  2. Click on the top-right icon that looks like a cloud with an upward arrow, then click “OK” to enable Cloud Sync for your current save data.
  3. Close the game and your save data will automatically upload to the cloud if you have the feature enabled.
  4. Boot up Mega Man X DiVE Offline on your secondary device and head back to the “Load Game” screen.
  5. This time, click the other top-right icon that looks like a computer monitor with a downward arrow.
  6. Click “OK” to overwrite your game progress with the save data stored in the cloud.

  If the correct save file(s) pop up, you are good to continue your adventures in the Deep Log! Just remember to perform the same steps over each time you switch devices. You know, just to be safe.

Thanks for reading! And in case you haven’t heard, re-upping our hosting for the next few years took a big bite out of our bank account, so if you like what we’re doing here (and want more of it), would like to see us survive and thrive, and can kick in a few bucks to our Patreon or buy us an E Tank on Ko-fi, we’d greatly appreciate it!

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Update Log:

9/29/23 – Added table of contents. Reapplied minor edits throughout. Added elaboration on Boss Chip Analysis from “homogenized.”