- In the first game, the Magnet Beam is not optional for completing the game, as the first Wily stage requires the item to pass. You must find the Magnet Beam by throwing blocks out of the way in Elec Man's stage using the Super Arm or destroying them with the Thunder Beam, which is entirely skippable if one goes to the stage without having defeated Guts Man, does not replay the stage after beating Elec Man, or otherwise oversights this. The only solution is to get a Game Over, which gives you the option of going back to the stage select to go grab the Magnet Beam.
- Mega Man 2:
- If you reach the final boss without having enough Bubble Lead (BubbleMan's weapon) energy (from using it all up against earlier enemies in Wily's fortress), fail to connect said weapon with the boss too many times, or were foolish enough to use any other weapon (which restores the boss' health!), then it is impossible to win the last fight. That's not all: when you start your next life, the checkpoint where the game dumps you at has no enemies; therefore, it is impossible to recharge the weapon required to win the fight. So your only recourse is to get a Game Over.
- Also, make sure your weapon energy for Crash Bomber is filled before facing the Buebeam Trap in the fourth Wily stage. The boss can only be hurt by it, and you want to make them all count — Crash Bomber has seven uses when filled, and there are 5 turrets, two of which are protected by walls (also destructible only by Crash Bomber). With intimate knowledge of the Crash Bomb explosion hitbox, careful placing of the bombs, and Item use to navigate around the room, it is possible to clear the boss with one bomb to spare — but it's a boss that's guaranteed to trip up every new player of the game at least once. The game is also merciful enough to not respawn the breakable walls if you die and make it back to the boss.
- Mega Man 3:
- While revisiting Gemini Man's stage, if you were to drain all weapon energy for Rush Coil and Rush Jet early on, you would come to a wall that's impossible to scale immediately after the first Doc Robot battle. There aren't any enemies to kill you, so unless you can cheat using the second controller to clear it, you'd be forced to reset the game.
- Speaking of Gemini Man, he starts the fight with there being two of him, and when he takes enough damage, the clone vanishes and it becomes a one-on-one fight. However, occasionally the script to vanish the clone misfires, causing both of them to vanish. This doesn't count as killing him, though, so it just leaves Mega Man stuck in an empty room until you restart the stage.
- There's also a one-up high on a ledge in the revisited Needle Man stage that requires Rush Jet. However you need Rush Jet later so if you go for it you might not have enough energy to finish the stage, and energy isn't replenished when you die.
- In Mega Man 4, if you use Rain Flush after beating Wily's second phase as his saucer is flying upwards, Wily explodes and the game is softlocked. You'll have to reset the game, since there's no way to reset. (Mind, this really isn't something you'd do in normal gameplay.)
- In Super Adventure Rockman, the game offers chances to rematch against the Robot Masters and you're given a decent amount of energy tanks to refill health in the midst of a battle. However, in Disc 2, all the battles after Crash Man do not and ends with a Non-Standard Game Over. If all of the energy tanks were used up, and you managed to spare a bit of health before the end of a fight, you'll end up stuck with only minimal health that has no way to refill, and will end up likely losing the next battle, forcing you to restart Disc 2.
- In Mega Man X6, the Amazon Area has a portal to an alternate exit. This area requires the air dash ability to cross a bottomless pit. If you reach this area with X's Shadow Armor, which is incapable of air dashing, then you're screwed.
- The same can be said for Ground Scaravich's Stage. The gimmick of the stage is having a random room every teleport you have to go through. Sometimes, one of the rooms contains a jump that requires Air-dash. If you are wearing the Shadow Armor, or if you're crazy enough, no Armor, you really don't have much choice but to die, and hope the stage doesn't teleport you to that room.
- The same room can also spit out a gap that requires the Mach Dash ability from the Blade Armor to cross. What's that? You don't have it yet because the fourth part is later on in this level? Too bad!
- Unless you also happen to have a specific combination of upgrades equipped (Hyper Dash and Speedster) and a specific one NOT equipped (Jumper), meaning you can get through if you know about this beforehand. Oh, and the necessary parts are permanently missable if you fail to save the reploid holding them.
- There's a jump almost exactly like this in the final stages. The same situation can arise, requiring either an air-dash or the parts listed above. The penalty for being unable to perform this jump is much more severe: you'll have to replay quite a few stages and bosses.
- A similar problem arises if you're trying to get the Dr. Light capsule in Metal Sharkplayer's stage. There is a large chasm you have to jump that requires a certain combination of upgrades, and possibly Blizzard Wolffang's weapon. If you don't have those, then you can't make the jump. Die, and you respawn directly in front of that chasm with no way to get back to the stage's main path. And if you kill your remaining lives off to get a game over, don't hit continue, or else you'll once again respawn in front of the chasm with a full allotment of lives.
- And for a 6th example, just from X6: It is possible to get locked into a path where you must fight High-Max without having any special weapons available. High-Max is invulnerable if you don't have at least one to use. Your only option, as in the above cases, is to get a game over and return to the stage select screen.
- Mega Man X7 has one in Snipe Anteator's stage. Axl can transform into the samurai enemies seen throughout the stage, which are able to go through otherwise impassable walls... and if you run out of energy before going back through that wall, you're stuck unless there's another samurai that you can copy. If this happens before you've beaten the stage? Your only option is to reset and load your last save file.
- Berkana's level in Mega Man Xtreme 2 contains a room that can only be passed by doing an upward midair dash. You need X's Foot Part to do that, and it's completely possible to get to this level without it. You can go back and get it, of course, but if you're already in the offending level, you can't get out except by getting a Game Over.
- In Mega Man Battle Network 2, the detonators in Quickman's stage cannot be jacked out from. This means you cannot recover your health out of battle (except with Subchips) or go out and get new chips for your folder, except for the ones dropped by viruses inside the detonators. If you're having trouble...hopefully you didn't save inside the detonator.
- In the first Mega Man Star Force game, it was possible to get stuck between an NPC and a wall. If you did this while not on a Wave Road, then the only way to get out was to reset and load from your last save; hopefully, you knew better than to save while stuck. Later games fixed this problem by briefly allowing you to run through NPCs if you get stuck.
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