Wily 2 is arguably the most challenging, intricate, deadly stage in the whole game. There's a lot that can go wrong for a variety of reasons. Ammo and health management are critical and you especially need to factor in the length of the stage. There's basically no limit to the amount of practice you can put into this stage , especially when pushing for ideal strats as you only have one shot at trying many of them (eg. concrete ammo is exact for the first half of the stage). So for this stage it will be done screen-by-screen covering the ideal strats and the backups where necessary, some which are based off how Wily 1 is played.
The first screen the goal is to land a concrete block approximately at this height so that you have enough room to get onto it and hop to the ledge above. If you used concrete on the dragon in Wily 1, then you'll instead jump up the ladder to the ledge on the left side, then corner jump around after picking up the ammo and continue on the stage as normal. Since this first block can be easy to miss the placement of you can go collect the ammo as just described or ignore it and go up the ladder and continue as normal. The advantage of collecting the ammo is that it's a small time loss to give an extra concrete shot to use if the backup is needed.
Ladder jump your way up to seen above, the hit the Met as soon as it's vulnerable to make a platform to get above, as well as avoid getting hit by its shots. After this you'll jump before the edge, or do a small jump to get more on the left side of the gray platform so you'll have enough space to not trigger the Met too early, then hop over its shots to the ladder to the right. The alternate strat is to d-boost off of the bullets then hop to the ladder.
Ladder jump and shoot a concrete shot to the platform shown above. This will give you just barely enough time to hop onto the block, hop up the the block just above you, then hop to the right to the next room. You'll want to hop quite far on the right of the upper block so as to not get hit. This is a very small window, so it must be done quickly. If you're having trouble with this strat, the backup would be to switch to Coil and summon it on the lower block to go straight to the highest platform. It doesn't lose too much time over the concrete strat for safety, but it is a time loss due to the double menu and now potential extra ammo refill time from the M tank in Wily 3 or 4 (ideally 3).
Next back d-boost off the green blob and use the i-frames to walk across the spikes to do a jump-shot to make a platform as shown above. The window here is also very tight as the i-frames give barely enough time to get across the spikes and setup the platform of concrete. Be mindful that this has to be planted high enough so you can hop to the ledge above, but not too high so you can reach it. If you have extra Jet ammo from Wily 1, a backup is to jet across the pit and jump above but adds the summon time and double menu. The next spike pit up top is way more generous. As you're falling from the top platform, shoot a concrete shot that you'll then jump on and go across the pit.
This is a truly awful screen that gives a lot of players trouble. There are a few subtle things to make the room much more manageable though:
- Wait a tiny bit at the top of the ladder and don't move left until you see the Joe shooting to the right.
- Hop up below the Joe and shoot the concrete block approximately as shown above. The exact x position isn't critical, it's mostly positioning Mega that's the challenge.
- The one tile gap above is deceptively difficult to deal with if you're trying to just wing it. It's likely best to develop a visual cue that will allow this jump to be consistent. As shown above you can line up Mega's butt with the purple bars in the background just at the edge of them to ensure you consistently get up. There might be other cues to use, find what works for you and stick with it.
- There will be a slight delay to things when you get to the middle platform as you need to hit the Joe with the concrete shot early enough to not get shot, but not too early so it eats the shot with its shield. If you aren't confident in this you can always shoot the block on the wall but you're taking damage you don't need to and you don't want to worry about time loss from health drops or the danger of having low health forcing you to be less aggressive with the boss.
- From the block jump to the ladder above and wait for the green thing to fly by.
- Both jumps can be done with coil as a backup.
Do a ladder jump coming into the jump, the make your way left and jump to the platform above. There's just enough room to not deal with the ladder and not get hit by the bullets. If you've done this quickly enough you can aggressively go towards the Joe to around the point shown above and hop right over him to the ladder and ladder jump into the next room. Otherwise take the d-boost as a back d-boost and continue on.
If you have done the stage entirely with concrete and not wasted any you'll have just enough shots to delay a tiny bit at the start of this room then do jump shots to each of the green platform makers to turn them to concrete, get on the block, then jump-shoot off the first block to make the second one a platform, then jump to the ledge above. If you've wasted concrete ammo or aren't confident in doing this it's better to have more ammo for the flower mini-boss, so back d-boost off the green platform maker and adapt as needed.
Ideally when you get into this spike room you won't stop walking and will just jump approximately as shown above, the further right the less likely you are to hit the spikes before the pit, but you also have to worry about just walking off the ledge and dying to spikes there. If you aren't confident in being aggressive with this, use Jet to get across if you have the ammo, or tiptoe to a spot you know is safe and hop from there.
The flower is fought no differently than in Hornet, you just need to know that you have exact concrete ammo by this point and you need to be focused on dropping in the transition to setup for a continuous drop as shown below.
When dropping from the screen above move right immediately to maintain momentum and just drop straight to the bottom screen. If you want backup ammo or health it's available but ideally these should be avoided.
When you make your way below, kill the octopus however you are confident in doing so. If done correctly you don't need to stop or take damage but it doesn't hurt your time if you stop a tiny bit for safety. You'll make you way above and avoid the first two mines, which is more straightforward. The challenging one that can catch runners off guard are the final two. After dodging the second mine you'll fire a trident down the middle line of pipes in the background. Even though you can't see them yet, you'll walk towards the final two mines that you've now triggered and can comfortable dodge to make your way to the room above.
You'll want to jump to approximately the height shown above to trigger only one of the fish. This means you can easily hop over it and just keep walking forward and prepare for the corner jump in the next room. If you triggered both fish you can do a tiny hop between them, which is a tiny window but save time over shooting either with trident. The time loss is minimal as all it does is add very, very minor refill time with the m-tank so it's basically negligible for most players. But as indicated earlier, this minor time losses through this run can add up very quickly considering the length of the run so keep that in mind throughout.
Corner jump to the ledge below and shoot a trident shot behind you almost immediately to kill one fish. From there, go above and destroy the block in front of you and any fish that are coming your way in front. If you don't slow down the fish behind you won't hit you so be aggressive. Then make your way to the spot below.
This is a terrifying jump, so don't be afraid to tiptoe this if needed. But ideally you'll have destroy the block, drop straight into it and don't stop walking and do a big enough hop to clear the pit below but not hit the spikes above. The further right you do this the more of a chance to succeed and not bonk your head and just plummet to your death, but it's easier said then done and is executed very much by feel if you don't tiptoe.
After this terrifying corner jump is over you safely hop over the pit towards the ladder, then jump as high as you can before dropping and climb the ladder from there.
Ladder jump to trigger this fish and kill it, but jump low enough to not trigger the second. If done correctly you'll do a small enough jump over the spike pit to get to the middle tile then jump as high as you can to climb the ladder.
Follow the path shown above. The most difficult part is being confident in the ladder drop to the block, after that it's fairly safe to make your way under the hop above to get to the ladder. When you get near the screen transition you'll jump beforehand to setup a corner jump.
If you haven't used Coil up to this point you'll kill the UFOs with the trident and switch to Coil beforehand if there are ammo drops as you can collect them safely without the timeloss as Coil should have full ammo right here. You can then summon Coil to get as high up on the ladder as possible.
When you get to the top of the ladder to a tiny hop to the right, then turn around and summon Coil onto the ladder. As soon as the UFOs are out of the way and before the enemy on the right wall shoots, hop on Rush to the ladder above.
Summon Rush early and mash anything that will obstruct your jump that's in the way. You'll be aiming to jump to the right wall as shown below in the screen transition.
Get onto the platform and corner jump as high as possible.
There's a pixel-perfect ladder jump that can be done to avoid the UFOs, but you'll likely be taking a d-boost off of them. Summon Rush below so it gives you more time to mash down the stomper in front of you. If your mash is really slow you can d-boost and keep going if you aren't worried about health. If health is a concern, mash it down.
Summon Rush to bounce over the next stomper. If you desperately need health here, switch to hornet to get the health behind the Wily logo then switch back to coil for the boss.
After you hop on Coil you can immediately switch to trident and shoot the Shark on the way up and down. If the back closes, you have to destroy the missiles for it to open again. Ideally this should be killed before it can get back out of range of standard jump shots.
The second form of the Shark is very much done by feel. You'll hop at the appropriate heights and do quick wiggle shots to hit both turrets. You will take damage during this fight so make sure to get hit by the sharks it drops, not the spikes because the spikes do way more damage. The quicker and more aggressive the wiggle shots the better.
The final form it's best to watch the techniques of a lot of runs on the board and possibly runs on the leaderboards of the respective Legacy Collections. You can get a maximum of six trident shots on the shark's mouth, but how this is done is very much by feel and the patterns of when it opens up and starts shooting. You'll generally want to avoid taking damage so you can be aggressive with shots, but sometimes the i-frames allow for the aggressiveness over playing conservatively. Ideally you should see if open its mouth for one full cycle, then only a part of a second opening.