X7 character build/item distribution

[Mustachious]

I've been thinking of a 'minimal revisit' stage order as well as how to divide up all the items and powerups you get throughout the game, thinking about ideal builds for a single playthrough starting from scratch (no new game+).

Here's what I've come up with so far:

The first four stages need to be ones wihtout X's upgrades in them, or Deep Forest is OK since you have to revisit it anyway. Axl and Zero will of course be absorbing all of the powerups from here. After that, X needs to be in the group for the next 4 stages, so he'll only have his chances to power up then.

So this is the stage order I've decided on, along with who will go:

1. Central Circuit AZ
2. Tunnel Base AZ
3. Battleship AZ
4. Radio Tower AZ
5. Deep Forest ZX
6. Lava Factory ZX
7. Air Forces ZX
-- Deep Forest (Revisit) A?
8. Cyber Factory AX

The exact order for the first four stages is just based on how I like to use the special weapons in the stages. Still not sure about the order of those. The last four are based on which upgrades I'd like X to have first. The Deep Forest revisit is to get the last rescue that only Axl can get.

There are 3 Wepaon-Ups and 3 Life-Ups per stage, with 2 Chip Items per stage. Whoever defeats the boss will be forced to get a Weapon-Up and Life-Up at the same time, so you have to distribute them with that in mind.

So here's the distribution of Weapon/Life Ups:

Weapon
AXL - 17
ZERO - 0
X - 7

Life
AXL - 7
ZERO - 14
X - 3

and here is the distribution of Chip Items:

1. Axl Speed, Axl Speed
2. Zero Power, Zero Power
3. Axl Speed, Zero Power
4. Zero Special, Axl Speed
5. X Speed, X Speed
6. X Speed, X Speed
7. X Power, X Power
8. X Special, Axl Special

Zero only gets 4 chips but he gets both Power+, Shock Absorber, and Super Recover, along with 14 Life-Ups, making him a powerful tank and fighter. I gave him all the Life-Ups since his battle style is much more dangerous without many ranged attacks.

Axl and X both get lots of speed, which gives you the fast hover for Axl and the fast charge for X. After that, Axl focuses on special weapons, getting 17 of the Weapon-Ups, while X focuses on powering up his Buster and Charge Shot, getting two more Power chips for both Power+ upgrades.

Axl gets more Life-Ups because he's frail and doesn't get armor upgrades like X does. X can handle his own with his powerful and fast buster along with the Glide Armor.

The goal of this distribution is to try to balance making all three Hunters strong with a specific focus each, all while collecting everything in the game with the smallest amount of necessary revisits.

I just like planning routes through MMX games, and with the way the upgrades and items work in this game, it makes it one of the most fun to think about routes for.

Does anyone else have any ideas, improvements, or critiques, or their own routes/distributions? Mine focuses on minimal revisits and balancing all three hunters just for the sake of doing so, but I'd be interested to hear ideas for a distribution that ignores one of the characters completely, since you can only ever have 2 characters with you anyway. A distribution that aims to make X and Axl as different in their utility as possible, for example, would be pretty interesting.

[Spaceboy]

thanks! this'll be very helpful since i've only ever beaten this game once lol

[Mustachious]

hey! I'm glad it's helpful. This isn't the easiest method through the game but it's not too bad. If you don't like Axl you can always modify it to focus on Zero for the first half and then X for the second half, too.

[Mustachious]

Just found a little problem with this exact setup -- there is one reploid in Lava Factory that requires Axl to rescue. That means I'd either have to revisit later with Axl (not too terrible since it's near the beginning) or take Axl through the stage instead of Zero the first time, which will mean sacrificing 2 Life-Ups for Zero and giving them to X or Axl isntead. Prolly couldn't hurt X to get 5 Life-Ups instead of 3.

Also, this route pretty much ignores using special weapons much on X, so the charged special weapons are not much of an option except for extremely situational use.