As always, buffer your jump to gain some frames. This first screen it's important to play consistently since enemies will spawn consistently from the pits as a result. If you're slightly off, the first screen can become really dangerous. It's sort of foreshadowing for this stage in general. Wily 1 is a stage than when explained and looked at is really straightforward, but consistent execution can be really challenging and there are so many instances where instant death can be readily available and deeply troubling. Ideally after your buffered jump you shoot two shots at the three rolling enemies as you jump up, get to the top to shoot the rock from the bird, high jump over the first pit safely, then full jump over the second pit and hit the next rock and bird, then jump over the next pit and shoot the rock, prepping to menu to Jet and summon it as shown below, shooting the enemy spawning from the pit. Done ideally, you'll have Jet equipped the entire stage until partway through the pusher fight. This is a completely consistent and predictable room if done the same. From the spot below, go diagonally to reach the ladder above.
The next screen is simple, just summon Rush after the ladder jump and go to the ladder, grabbing as high as possible.
The following screen, ladder jump and then summon Rush high enough so that you can go up without hitting the platform, but still get the ammo as depicted below.
After collecting this ammo while staying on Rush, move upwards and then go above the spikes to fit in the small opening, move to the small platform below and hop up, prepping to ladder jump shortly into the next screen.
On the spot shown above, after the ladder jump, summon Rush high enough that you can quickly go at a diagonal, get to the right platform above, then d-boost off the shield enemy, then jump and grab the ladder at the peak of your jump. The next room is straightforward too as you just summon Rush before you get on the ladder so you can mash down the enemies as quickly as possible and make your way to the dragon mini-boss return.
This fight potentially changes depending on mash speed and comfort. The ideal strat is to do a ladder jump with a full height jump to the right, do a second full jump to land around the middle, summon Jet at around the height shown above, then get to mashing. Depending on your mash frequency you'll either stay low and weave a bit and jump off on a fast mash or go at an upwards diagonal and mirror the dragon's movement on a medium pace mash. If done correctly, a 10Hz mash can kill the dragon before it leaves the screen in 15 hits. If you feel you can't get it consistently you can get the last few shots on the return or you can use concrete. Concrete can be used like Nero does when you coil and shoot the dragon on the far right, or you can replicate the fight from Magma.
The disadvantage of concrete is that you now have used too much concrete ammo to get through Wily 2 ideally. However, that said, a 31 is still very much possible with concrete so don't dismiss the validity of the strat as Nero and HJA have one using concrete.
After this summon Rush close enough to the tellies that it stays on screen and you can take them out to get safely to the ladder.
As seen above, you're going to use Rush in this room as well. The window to get over this beam is deceptively tight. Top runners will ladder jump to the summon which is a very small, scary window. You have enough time to get to the top of the ladder, summon Rush and hop on. It gives a tiny bit more flexibility. If you aren't comfortable with this you can switch to Coil and wait for the beam to go by.
Summon Jet as shown above after your small ladder jump then go on the diagonal to the final ladder. This as well is a deceptively tight a window, but not nearly as bad as the previous room. If you want more wiggle room, jump up to the left platform and summon Rush from there. Then make your way up the ladders and get to the swing room.
Walk to around the point and jump to Rush above so you don't have to swing back and forth to get to the teleporter. In the next room make your way to the right, get to the top of the ladder and then summon Rush where comfortable as early as possible. But as shown below, you need to make sure you summon Rush early to gain some time, but not so early that it gets stuck in the spikes, then ladder jump on good boi.
The next room can be sped up quite a bit as you hop quickly on Jet as a tiny platform and avoid both enemies as shown below.
The final screen before the boss, if you've used Rush correctly and not got any ammo drops, you'll have enough ammo to hop on Rush to get over the shield enemy and drain the last of the ammo to make the pusher fight easier with the mash because you don't need to wait for Rush to summon and you can keep your rhythm.
The pusher fight can be done in three ways:
- Just mash with buster the entire time and avoid damage where possible; this is the slowest strat
- Kill seven pushers (see the health above for what this looks like) then switch to Plug and use that to push the spike balls back. The reason for seven pushers is that if you've taken out the second from the bottom and bottom pushers out fast enough the top two will have just changed to their forms where they are shooting the arrows, so the spike balls are securely in place from there. Be more mindful with plug ammo as the balls get pushed on fixed distances, so you don't want to waste ammo on dead spots where it doesn't help, it's a rhythmic, not absolute fastest mash using plug. This was you can get in a few shoots that travel back as your alternating and get in early hits to speed the fit up (watch SlurpeeNinja's PB for an example)
- Kill ten pushers (see health above for what this looks like) and then for the last four hits you'll pace out tornado shots to hit all four spike balls at once and kill all of them at the same time.
The difference between the tornado and plug strat seem to be more based on preference and level out when considering the tank refill in Wily 3.