Mega Man Zero 3 Archipelago

Welcome to my project. Things are still under development, but here you will find my development of a custom Archipelago World for Mega Man Zero 3 on the GBA. You should probably read everything here so you know what to expect before playing! s

General Information (IMPORTANT)

• Locations: All 180 secret disks, stage clears, an A+ rank clear in each of the 15 stages, the nine armor chips, both sub tanks, Cerveau's Recoil Rod and Shield Boomerang, ten extra life pickups, and eleven miniboss fights.
• Item pool: 180 secret disks, the four weapons as progressive upgrade unlocks, nine armor chips, twelve EX Skills, two sub tanks, fifteen stage access items and two Story Progress items. E-Crystals are filler.
• There's a modified mission select screen, which allows you to select from any level as long as you have its access item.
  • Boss portraits are in groups of four like in vanilla, but now you can tab between the pages with left and right on the d-pad (the shoulder buttons work too).
  • Hovering a level tells you its name, how many of its disks you have found, whether it's LOCKED / OPEN / CLEARED, as well as your best rank on that stage if it has been cleared.
  • Picking a level you have already beaten asks you how you want to run it. EXPLORE is the vanilla revisit for picking up disks you missed. RETRY MISSION plays the level as a real mission again, so the boss is back and you get another attempt at the A rank check.
• To beat the game, clear the Abandoned Research Laboratory. It won't open until you have cleared every other stage AND you are holding a configurable number of secret disks (default: 120)
• Later NPC conversations, and the checks attached to them, are gated behind the two Story Progress items.
• EX Skills are awarded based on your score on the level you just completed, rather than on your average score going into that level. (Yes, that's how they worked in the vanilla game). Your global rank score is calculated based on your average of all of your highest scores on completed levels.

Weapon Progression

Each of the four weapons is a progressive item. For example, the item pool holds several copies of "Progressive Z-Saber", and every copy you receive moves that weapon one step up its upgrade path. This feature works very similar to the weapon XP system from Zero 1 and 2.

The first copy sends you the weapon itself, the ones after it unlock that weapon's abilities, and the last three are attack power boosts (ripped from the E-Reader cards).

The upgrade progress is shown in game as stars in the pause menu, like in Zero 1 and 2.

Weapon	Progressive Upgrades
Buster	weapon, semi charge, full charge, damage (+1, +2, +3)
Z-Saber	weapon, 2nd slash, 3rd slash, charged slash, damage (+1, +2, +3)
Recoil Rod	weapon, charged rod, damage (+1, +2, +3)
Shield Boomerang	weapon, charged throw, damage (+1, +2, +3)

Note: Anything you list in starting_weapons begins at step 1. You will still have to collect the progressive items in order to upgrade it.

Cerveau Shop

Cerveau now has a shop, visit it by pressing L or R on his secret disk analysis screen. Items are purchasable by using e-Crystals. Prices and amount of items are configurable using YAML options.

Quality of Life Stuff

• The pause menu shows you how many secret disks are required to collect in order to unlock the final stage.
• All skippable cutscenes are skippable by default.
• You can leave any level at any time.
• Pressing SELECT during gameplay does one thing of your choosing. By default it swaps sub weapons, configurable by an option.
• When MultiworldGG gives you an item, a small icon pops up over Zero's head with a unique icon displayed for each item, and for a secret disk the game's own message box names it along the bottom of the screen for a moment.
• Collecting certain lore related secret disks will simultaneously unlock a random e-Reader graphical change. A full list can be seen here.
• Your player rank is based on the average of your best clear in each stage.
• Pressing select on the secret disk analysis screen will open all of the disks that you own.

Options

• required_secret_disks:
  How many disks you need to be holding before the final stage will open (In addition to clearing every other level). Default is 120, max is 180.

• final_stage_rank:
  The rank every other stage's best clear must reach before the final stage opens. Default is F, which means any clear will do. none drops the clears entirely: the final stage opens as soon as you hold the required secret disks.

• starting_weapons:
  Which of the four you begin with. To give all, use starting_weapons: ['Buster', 'Z-Saber', 'Recoil Rod', 'Shield Boomerang']

• ex_skill_rank:
  The rank a stage clear needs to send that stage's EX Skill check (the "A+ Rank Clear" locations). Default is A, matching vanilla. Set to F to get the check on any clear. The fusion elf that increases your rank works to unlock that check on one stage per fuse.

• extra_life_sanity:
  The game's ten static 1-UPs become location checks. Unchecked ones display in game with the Archipelago logo.

• itemsanity:
  The game's 82 static life capsules and E-Crystals become location checks. Unchecked ones display in game with the Archipelago logo.

• select_button:
  The select button's functionality. Choose between Cycling the sub weapon (default), the main weapon, the head, body or foot chip, or use the fullest subtank.

• weapon_damage_upgrades:
  On by default. Off, the last three steps of each progressive weapon (the damage increases) do nothing when received. The items stay in the pool.

• cyber_elves:
  Modifications to Cyber Elf usage. Satellite elves remain unmodified.

  • Vanilla: Unmodified Vanilla.
  • No Penalty: Fusing an elf does not affect rank.
  • Auto: Every passive elf received via disk is automatically opened and applied. Does not affect rank. Gives the game a nice sense of progresion, but makes it a lot easier.

• infinite_lives:
  Infinite Lives.

• disk_name_popup:
  On by default. When a Secret Disk arrives from MultiworldGG, a small message box names it for a moment. Every other item is obvious in game.

• randomized_palettes:
  Every stage is drawn in a randomly chosen color scheme.

• shop_slots / shop_price_scale:
  How many slots Cerveau's shop has (default 16, max 48) and how expensive they are, as a percentage.

• start_inventory_from_pool:
  Starting inventory but the items don't appear in the pool.

• death_link:
  Standard DeathLink. Dying sends, and receiving kills you.

Hinting and Tracking

Items and locations are sorted into groups. Try using !hint.

locations
per stage	Resistance Base (all three mission sets), Aegis Volcano Base, Sunken Library, and so on
by type	Secret Disks, Stage Clears, Chips, A+ Rank Clears, Subtanks, Weapons, 1-UPs, Minibosses, Itemsanity, Shop

items
by type	Secret Disks, Stage Access, Chips, Body Chips, Foot Chips, Head Chips, EX Skills, Subtanks, Weapons

For example: !hint Stage Access or !missing Sub Arcadia.

Known Bugs.

• There have been repeated issues of trackers reporting currently unobtainable items as obtainable. Be sure to report any instance of that.
• The item popup only shows one at a time, skipping multiple if they arrive at the same time, or if you received them during a cutscene.
• I hope to soon bring this world from unstable to stable, so report anything that seems off, not just bugs!

Planned Features.

• A weapon wheel on SELECT for swapping chips and weapons without opening the menu. Right now it just cycles sub weapons.
• Breakable containers and other collectables as location checks.
• Level geometry, enemy, or entrance randomization.
  • Enemy Randomization is currently being worked on.
• Option to change the rank required to earn an Ex Skill check (higher or lower).
• Something to do with the minigames.

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If you have any questions, feel free to contact me on Discord: Stingrays110, though I'd prefer if you kept it to the Zero channel on the Archipelago Discord.

And if you'd like to see the source code for the ROM, check it out here!.

Huge thanks to akatsuki105, whose WIP decompilation of RMZ3 laid the groundwork for this world!

And a thank you to Shadyrix Phantom (@OfficialPhantomX) for the logo artwork.