Mega Man X Perfect Challenge: Blaze Heatnix (No Damage, Buster Only)

Difficulty: 9/10
Luck Factor: 7/10

Note: I opted to allow use of charge shots in this run because the run would be both unbelievably long and insanely difficult without them. This run without charge shots is not a challenge I am interested in. Ratings given to this run are ratings applied to a run with charge shots allowed and have no bearings on the ratings that a run without charge shots would receive.

Who thought it was a good idea to force you to fight five Nightmare Snakes to get to Blaze Heatnix? These five Nightmare Snakes make this stage an absolute marathon gauntlet of danger. The second, fourth, and fifth Nightmare Snakes are easy (except very occasionally when the second one can hit you right off the bat with no way to escape), but the first and fourth ones cause plenty of issues. The first Nightmare Snake barely gives you room to jump over it and barely gives you room to run away. This forces you to deal with its shots constantly and always in close proximity which makes the first Nightmare Snake inconsistent even if it isn't insanely hard with practice. Luckily, the fourth Nightmare Snake isn't as bad as it may initially seem. If you put in a lot of practice to memorize what you need to do in every situation along the climb, all it comes down to is executing these slightly tricky maneuvers. Once you reach the top, though, there is still a luck element in whether you get shot when the Nightmare Snake pops up on the right side. Once you finally get through the stage, Blaze Heatnix isn't even free. If he uses his Magma Shot (meteor) attack multiple times in a row, it can easily come down to luck on whether you live or not because it will be much more difficult to destroy the Magma Shots beyond the first one, thus allowing them to split and possibly hit you before you can react. In addition, his low Magma Waves require precise jumps to avoid, and his God Bird attack requires very quick reaction times three times in a row for every time he uses it (I can't believe I avoided this three times in this fight). I really wanted to give this run the perfect 10 on difficulty, but putting a ton of practice into the fourth Nightmare Snake and getting better at fighting the first one made me realize the stage can be much more consistent than I initially thought. It's still very difficult as making a single mistake anywhere in the marathon of a run can get you hit, there are areas of luck involved, there are precise dodges to be made, and Blaze Heatnix will very likely throw at least one or two difficult things at you when you fight him, however, sufficient practice makes it just a bit too consistent to warrant a perfect score.