The
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\__ \| ' || _/| _> | /
<___/`___'|_| |___>|_\_\
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| \ \| __>|_ _|| . \| . || || . \
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Pure Speed Run Walkthrough
(AKA. Any% or Sub-Hour Speed Guide)
___________________________________________________________
By: Richard Rodríguez (aka. Smokey)
E-mail:
[email protected]
*Last Revised on 12/23/09*
Version 1.05
___________________________________________________________
Legal Disclaimer
________________
This document may not be reproduced nor retransmitted in any form, in part or
in whole, without advance permission from the author. This guide can be found
at the following websites:
www.gamefaqs.com
This guide is to be used only for private, personal use. It may not be sold,
altered, edited, given as an incentive to buy, published, etc. without prior
consent from the author.
All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their
respective trademark and copyright holders.
This document is Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2009 Richard Rodríguez.
===============================================================================
Table of Contents:
__________________
I. Introduction
II. Basics
- Useful Glitches
- Notes
- Speed Tips
III. Walkthrough
- Ceres Station
- Crateria
- Brinstar
- Norfair I
- Wrecked Ship
- Maridia
- Norfair II
- Tourian
IV. Revision History / Updates
V. Credits
===============================================================================
I. Introduction
===============================================================================
Thanks for reading this guide. It's my first one, so I hope you find it
valuable. The main goal of this guide is to show you how to beat the game in
UNDER AN HOUR (0:59) with a minimum of items.
Many people have found numerous ways to get through the game to achieve
this, and have beat the game with the best ending and the lowest time stamp,
but why not do it with the best route at the moment? This guide covers the
latest way to date to do it wisely. Besides, it contains easy/useful items to
get along the way without slowing you down. And of course, for completing this
task will involve some sequence breaking tricks, which means tricks that alter
or break the sequence of the game that the developers intended for you to go.
Sure, in this run you are free to get an extra item along the way if you
are in desperate need of energy/missiles, or if you can't seem to continue the
run with the items you have. However, if you find this guide a bit complicated,
I suggest you first try some speed runs of your own, practice a bit in the
game, bosses, etc., or at least, see one of my movies.
===============================================================================
II. Basics
===============================================================================
There are many complicated tricks and glitches I won't cover in this run
because as I previously said, the main purpose of this document is to help you
obtain a time of under an hour. In case you're curious about the rest of the
tricks, or just want to stay updated, visit:
http://www.metroid2002.com/3/
Here I'll list some useful, basic moves commonly used throughout the run.
- Wall-Jump: spin-jump on any wall (let's say you're spin-jumping
towards a wall to your right) and once you make full
contact with that wall, press away from it (press the
left).
Just for an instant, after you press left, you'll notice
Samus touching the wall with her feet; THIS is the time
to press and hold down the 'jump' button while still
pressing the left to do it. Very useful in practically
any place you want to climb up faster.
- ShineSpark or Super Jump (for all directions): When you have the
Speed Booster, press the 'dash' (B button by default) while running
and Samus will run faster. At this point you have to press 'down' on
d-pad while STILL holding the dash button, and she'll begin to
flash. You can now press:
a) the 'jump' button. Samus will fly on a vertical position.
b) press 'R' and then the jump button at any direction. This will
make Samus fly on a diagonal.
c) tap the jump button, then press forward and the jump button again.
Samus will do a horizontal super jump.
Here is how to do a Horizontal Super Jump while in mid-air:
Charge your Speed Booster to full speed and press 'down' to trigger 'super
jump' mode. Now do a normal spin jump, and while in mid air, tap 'up' _or_
the 'R' button (to activate the super jump position). Now just press
'forward' and the 'jump' button.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Useful Glitches
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Quick-Charge-Boost: This glitch significantly reduces the space needed
to perform a charge boost, allowing you to charge it
quicker.
You will need the Speed Booster to do this:
Press forward (take two steps), and then press and hold down the dash
button. Below is my uber sketch of how Samus will look right when you
press the dash button.
o
/\|\/
|
Correct animation ------> \/ \
\
- Mock-Ball: When performed, Samus will be rolling on the ground with the
same amount of speed when she was running. This glitch lets
you get the early Super missiles in the game, allowing you to
entirely skip Spore Spawn's fight, as well as doing a couple
of things faster.
You'll need the Morph Ball to perform this, and you can also do this
without the Speed Booster.
1- Dash at full speed (or at desired speed), do a normal spin
jump, and hold down the 'jump' button.
2- Whilst in mid-air, press down _one_ time while STILL holding
the 'jump' button, so Samus will aim down.
3- Now, as you make _contact_ with the ground, press down again
(you'll morph now) and then press forward as fast as you
can (in the direction you were running).
It has to be a smooth transition between landing, morphing
and pressing forward. If you morph earlier you'll bounce,
which cancels out the Mock-ball effect. It's also crucial to
do all of this while holding the 'jump' button, at all times,
otherwise it will not work.
The next glitches aren't required to complete this run, but it never hurts
to try them ;).
- KagoBall Glitch:
You can do this glitch practically with every sprite you see in
the game. To practice the glitch, quickly look for a nearby enemy
and freeze it. Step on it, jump, and while in the air press 'down'.
Now, at the very last second (or frame) before you land on the enemy
press 'down' again to roll into a ball and you'll go right through
the enemy to the floor.
- Kraid's Quick-kill Glitch:
The key to this glitch is precise timing. Right after he appears
from the ground, shoot a *charged beam* at his face to make him
open his mouth, then quickly select your super missiles. For some
odd reason, shooting a charged shot will stun his hands, allowing
enough space for you to shoot some super missiles. Before he makes
the growl (but still with his mouth half-opened), load a super
missile in his mouth. This is where the glitch comes in.
Firing a super missile into his mouth, before he even makes the
growl, will keep his mouth open for a second. Use this time to load
all the super missiles you have in his mouth before he closes it.
It's pretty hard to do, but completely worth it and it only takes a
few seconds to kill him with this glitch.
I highly recommend practicing this glitch, because it truly SUCKS
if you fail it. You'll end up shooting all (or most) of your super
missiles into his evil left hand, thus having none left for the
rest of the battle.
- Zebetite Glitch:
As you enter to Mother Brain's hall, you will notice some red
barriers (called zebetites) in your way. Equip your Ice Beam (and
*un-equip* the Screw Attack, if you have it on) and freeze the lower
Rinka as soon as it spawns (the orange ball that spawns from some
tubes). Then spin toward the zebetite to be hit by it. Now, spin
again, land, and then press the jump button and forward. This will
take the next three zebetites in your path, granting you total
access to MB without using a single missile or super missile. Note
that if you break the first zebetite, after skipping it, will cause
the next three zebetites reappear.
- Murder Beam Glitch:
The best place to test/use this glitch is before the fight with Mother
Brain (when her head is on the floor). Make sure you have the four main
beams. First off, equip Ice/Wave and Plasma beams. Charge your beam and
then press start and go to Samus' screen. Now equip the Spazer Beam,
and move the cursor to any of the boots items. Next, try to press the
left and the action button (the 'A' button is default) at the same time,
equip both the Spazer and Plasma beams simultaneously. If you did it
correctly, you'll see mysterious letters showing 'VAR' right beside
the Plasma Beam.
Then press 'start' again while HOLDING the fire button to not fire it,
otherwise you'll crash the game. Step near MB's head and release the
fire button. Press start again and un-equip the Spazer or Plasma Beam
(mostly the Spazer) to have the beams return to normal and to not crash
the game.
The battle will be slow-paced but the glitched beam will continue
damaging MB in the entire battle regardless. At the cinema, when the
Super Metroid is dying, you'll see MB with a red color, indicating
that she'll die soon. Just five seconds after you get the Hyper Beam
MB will begin to explode! Highly useful if you want to cut-off about
15 seconds at the third phase of the battle.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this run you will *probably* have to skip the following Mini-Bosses and
Items:
Mini-Bosses:
- Spore Spawn (Optional)
- Crocomire
- Golden Torizo (Optional)
Items:
- Grapple Beam
- X-Ray Scope
- Spring Ball
- Screw Attack (Optional)
Why? It is because none of the above is necessary to beat the game. However,
skipping Spore Spawn requires the Mock-Ball glitch, which could be difficult.
As for the Screw Attack, you can collect it. It would be very handy to get
through Lower Norfair easily; this will also make easy to avoid Ridley's
fireballs, and it doesn't take too much time to collect it. Additionally,
you'll have to collect all the beams to finish the boss' fights (especially
with Ridley and Mother Brain) MUCH faster.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPEED TIPS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Never go out of your way to save the game unless I tell you so. This could
add around 15 seconds to your run. (Saving and continuing).
- Ignore most of the enemies unless they get in your way. Only kill them if
you have to recharge your supplies or to unlock a metal door.
- While doing speed runs, you'll learn to ALWAYS open red doors _and_ eye-doors
with Super missiles, unless you don't have any, or if you have a few of them
left before facing a boss.
- Never use the Ice Beam. Freezing enemies along the way will only slow you
down. The only purpose it has here is to add damage to your beam when facing
bosses, and to easily take out the metroids in Tourian.
- Pause whenever you're doing a continuous flow in the game; such as running,
falling, jumping or if you're waiting for something: such as before a Boss
fight begins. Pausing when neither of these events are present is likely a
slow move to make. In addition, time stops when you pause the game. This tip
applies more to those hardcore gamers...
- Time stops when a room transition takes place, when you get an item, when
the game asks you to save, and when it tells you the game was saved.
(Unfortunately, time continues to run during the save animation and while
riding an elevator).
- Wall jumps are 2x faster than space jumps.
- The 'RESET' button is your friend. If you've screwed something up again and
again for about 15-20 seconds, hit RESET. You'll never want to get an extra
minute at the end of your run. Just reset and do it more carefully the next
time.
- Always hold the 'dash' button.
===============================================================================
III. Walkthrough
===============================================================================
If you have a broadband connection, go to the link below to watch an example
of this run, done by myself:
http://www.archive.org/details/SuperMetroid_036
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ceres Station
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time: 00:00
Ok, there's not much to do here. Run through the empty corridors until
you reach the metroid larva. In this room, hug to the right corner and duck,
so you can get hit by the tail of Ridley as soon as he appears. You'll want
to do this so you can end the fight sequence as soon as possible. When Ridley
appears, just jump to his tail, since it's the only spot of him where you can
lose more energy. In five hits, you'll have 24 energy remaining in your status.
End the fight quickly and escape, while trying to avoid the steam-gases and
ceiling parts on your way out.
*NOTE: It's very possible to get a time of 0:44.xx remaining seconds at the
time of escape. Use it as a reference number.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crateria
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time: 0:01 (1 min.)
As soon as you land on the lonely planet Zebes, head left and open the door.
Keep running left until you see a wall and an opening. Drop down, and shoot the
blue door at the bottom. In this long, vertical shaft, go to the right wall and
stay close to it. Watch as you fall without stepping at the platforms, and at
the end, open the door. Follow this old wrecked corridor, shoot the door on
the other side and step on the elevator.
Get the Morph ball to your left and continue to the right to get your first
set of Missiles that are in the lower room.
Return, skip the missile in the red door and run back to the elevator to
Crateria. Carefully climb the vertical shaft using wall jumps, killing the
Space Pirates as you progress up, and reach the top. Keep heading up (like if
you were heading to your ship), and there will be a little passage that leads
down. Use the morph-ball there and fall down. Proceed to get the Bombs and
face the Torizo.
-----------------
Mini-Boss: Torizo
-----------------
The best way to kill the Torizo quickly, is shooting _one_ missile each
second. Don't fire them rapidly; just wait a second and then fire. When you
run out of missiles, simply reload by shooting the bombs that the Torizo
shoot.
Don't get too much damage because if you do, and if you run out of missiles,
the only thing that's going to spawn if you shoot his bombs will be energy
cells and thus slowing the fight. In the aftermath, reload all your missiles
and go back two rooms.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here, you can either escape this part by using wall jumps on the left side,
morphing at the last pixel to enter the hole (the little tunnel which you
entered) which can be a bit difficult, or taking the right side with the
blocks. It's up to you.
If you escape through the left side in one try you can save around 10
seconds which are pretty good. Run to the left, bomb the fake wall and go
through the door. Collect your first Energy Tank (1) at the end of the cave
and enter the next room. Walk through the Space Pirates (ignore them), ignore
also the red-door to your right, and turn left to go down to Brinstar.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brinstar
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Go down a bit and open the first red door to your right.
*NOTE*
(Remember that this part is OPTIONAL. If you don't know how to perform a
mockball correctly, you can skip ahead and fight Spore Spawn to get the
first set of Super missiles).
Run and jump right as you get through the door and do the Mockball trick to
get past the gates. At the end, shoot the ceiling and work your way up to grab
your first Super Missiles. NOTE: After getting the super missiles, you might
want to get the nearby missile pack to open the red door at the back of this
room (to not use a super missile to open it), and get the Reserve tank and the
two hidden missile packs, in case you really want to be very well-equipped.
This will allow you to save a whole minute of your run, completely skipping
the fight with Spore Spawn. Return to the main path, and open the right red
door at the bottom with a super missile. Keep dashing right until you come to
the 'main room'. Head down and collect both the Missile and the Charge Beam.
Go back out, use the morph ball and open the green door. Drop down and keep
dashing right and collect the pipe-secret missile. Drop down and keep running
to the right until you see the door gate. Open it and go through the blue door.
Kill the two nearby Cactacs with missiles or charged shots to get some free
super missile refills and then dash through the bridge above-- or the NooB
Bridge! At the end, shoot the green door first and then kill another Cacatac
closely by the door to get another super missile refill. Enter through door.
Head south in this red, vertical corridor and shoot the blue door to your
right (You can open the green door to the left if you're low on energy). Travel
to the right, wall jump up, and get the Spazer Beam. Now backtrack and dash
right. Pass the Marida-glass hall and select your super missiles.
In the Norfair elevator room, shoot the lowest rightmost super missile
block and morph by it. Now at the lowest edge of the room, try to run right
and do a diagonal jump onto the monster's face. If done correctly, you can wall
jump onto the ledge to keep heading into Kraid's Hideout without traversing
Norfair (to get the High Jump Boots). Now, run all the way to Kraid's room.
*NOTE: If you are willing to do Kraid's quick-kill glitch (see the Basics
section), it will be good to save in the room at Kraid's lair, since the glitch
is hard to pull off; it's unlikely to succeed on the first try and failing will
drastically slow down that part.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Reset your game and look at the game-time clock. It should read:
0:09 mins OR LOWER. If you got somewhere around this, you're on
the right track for a goal time of 0:59 (UNDER ONE HOUR).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time: 0:09 (9 mins.)
From the save room, head all the way to Kraid's room, making sure to kill
the mini-Kraid with a super missile to reload all of your super missiles.
When you come upon the eye door, shoot it with a super missile and enter the
boss room.
-----------
Boss: Kraid
-----------
There are two ways to kill him:
1- The easy, but slower way:
As soon as he appears, shoot a charged shot at his face and quickly select
your super missiles. When he opens his mouth, quickly fire one super missile
(or two if you can time it right) to quickly lower his health.
Repeat this strategy after the other half of his body comes up. Try
dodging all of his projectiles, or simply blast them if you need missiles,
super missiles or energy. It could take around 15 seconds to kill him this
way-- IF YOU'RE FAST ENOUGH.
2- The hard, but faster way:
Here you can use the Kraid's Quick-kill glitch to beat him in just five
seconds. (Check the Basics section). When the battle is over, pray to collect
at least one or two super missile refills in the room.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Either way, after you beat him, go to the east part of the room to collect
the Varia Suit and then go back out three rooms. Kill the mini-Kraid with a
super missile to reload all your supers, and then with missiles, continue
blasting away the next three Ki-Hunters in your way.
Keep going back until you see the flashing door and enter. Once in the room,
let all the enemies attach to you and then select your missiles, aim up and
shoot one to kill all of them at once. Get the hidden Energy Tank (2) at the
ceiling and continue your way out and return to the Norfair elevator room.
Take it to go down to Norfair.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Norfair I
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Drop all the way down and blast the red door to your left. Get the Energy
Tank (3) and fall down to one of the false blocks. Kill the Greemer quickly and
turn back to open the flashing door. Turn back and roll through the passages.
Proceed into the room and grab the High Jump Boots and the Missile pack on
your way back. Go through the blue door directly in front of you and SAVE.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Reset your game and look at the game-time clock. It should read:
0:12 mins OR LOWER. Load your game.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time: 0:12 (12 mins.)
Head through the blue door to your left and go up toward the elevator. At
the top, open the blue door on the right and continue on to the 'bubble room'.
Now wall jump up to the west part of the room (where a blue door is) and use
this small space to dash right, then jump off the ledge as high as you can and
use a few wall jumps off the eastern ledge (watch out for the Cacatac above)
to reach the northeast part of the room.
Open and proceed through the green door and head northeast. At the end of
this wide corridor is a red door. Look above it and shoot the bubbles to reveal
a secret Missile pack. Blast the red door, get the Speed Booster and return to
the big 'bubble room'. Drop down through the first opening and walk down the
stairs-like bubbles to reach the east part of the room, where another blue
door awaits you. Avoid the enemies that pop up from the floor and open the
red door below.
This room can be somewhat tricky to get past and would be easier to
un-equip the Hi-Jump Boots so as to not get hit by the ceiling. Otherwise
you'll be failing most of the jumps and you'll probably fall down accidentally,
which will look dumb. Jump over the rising platforms carefully, open the door-
gate and get the Missile pack behind it.
Use your speed booster and jump as far as you can off the ledge. As soon as
you hit the wall on the other side, wall jump up to the red door. Collect the
Wave Beam and go back out. Fall to the center of the spikes (the fake ones) to
not lose your energy. (You can also shoot the spore to recharge your supplies).
Morph through the little tunnel, head left and take the door. Now work your way
up and return to the bubble room.
In the bubble room, jump and fall down into the center of the room and shoot
the floor to reveal some tunnels. Kill the Greemers and find your way through
the maze. At the end of the tunnels, there will be two blue doors. Take the
one on the left and dash straight-forward. At the end you'll return to the save
room where you previously saved. Head left, go up toward the elevator and go
through the green door on your left.
Use the speed booster to pass the gates, and before you reach the end,
press down, open the blue door and do a horizontal super jump. That's the
easiest, fastest way to enter the room, but if you didn't make it just proceed
into the next two room. As you exit the last door, you will see an opening
directly above the blue door. Jump and at the peak of the jump, quickly morph
into a ball and work your way up through the tunnels to get the Ice Beam.
Return the way you came. Head to the elevator to go up to Brinstar.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now keep traveling left until you get to the red vertical room. If you are
low on energy, you can take the left door to recharge them.
Use some wall jumps on the right wall to work your way up and freeze the
last floating turtle you see to use it as a platform. Keep going north and do
the same thing with the other flying turtles at the top. Shoot the fake block
at the summit, and enter the next room. Jump pass through the little platforms
until you get to the other side of the room. (Try to not fall down to the
sucki-flowers below).
In the next room, destroy the two visible fake blocks below, open the green
door and get your first and probably last Power Bombs of the run. Backtrack
and leave this room.
As you climb up, select your power bombs and lay one to open the yellow
door. (We'll be coming back through here later, so you might want to have this
door blue already, so you don't have to waste any power bombs later). Kill the
two Cacatacs to get some super missile refills and skip both the save room and
green door, and focus your way up to the elevator. Now take it to return to
Crateria.
Open the yellow door and go up. Lay a power bomb as you go up to open the
yellow door at the bottom and continue going up (again, we'll be coming back
here). Proceed up, shoot the fake block and lay another power bomb at the right
side of the room to open the yellow door BUT, don't enter. Instead, go back to
the far-left side of the room, kill the Ki-hunter and stand near the blue door.
This will allow enough space so you can perform a Quick-charge-boost (see
Basics' section). Then, run right, crouch to use the shinespark and hop up
to do a horizontal-super jump through the opened yellow door.
You'll get the Missile pack on your way. Open the blue door, but again, do
not enter. Stand near the ledge and use another Quick charge-booster. At the
other side of the room, you'll begin to use the Speed booster sooner before
you reach the shore. Just press 'down' and use another horizontal super jump
to reach the Wrecked Ship's entrance quickly, leaving behind the completely
useless Grapple Beam during this run, as well as the entire Crocomire fight.
Select your super missiles to open the green door and welcome to the Wrecked
Ship.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wrecked Ship
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dash through this tight corridor and take the blue door at the end of the
hall. Head downward until you see a metal door to your left, and lay a power
bomb there to clear all the blocks down in your way. Make your way through the
tunnels and use a super missile to enter the next lower room. Take it east and
morph under the wall and use a bomb to get through.
Blast away the eye-door, un-equip your Ice Beam (in fact, by doing this
you'll makes the boss fight faster) and go inside.
--------------
Boss: Phantoon
--------------
First, shoot his blue fireballs to refill your supplies. Phantoon's attack
pattern is completely unpredictable. He'll toss his circle of blue fireballs at
you in any moment, whether he is invisible or not.
The essential move here is to be ready to do a spin jump, with your charged
Wave Beam toward him, right when he's tossing the wave of blue fireballs to
avoid damage (doing a Pseudo-screw attack) and quickly release the charged Wave
Beam into his eye. This is important because after this, he'll be exposed to
two more charged shots. Also, by doing this, you won't have to wait an extra
round for him to reappear. Why charged shots? Well, you can use the missiles,
but the idea is to not waste them here. This opens the chances of appearing
more super missile refill-drops after the fight.
If you missed the pseudo-attack, he'll automatically turn invisible. :-S.
Continue shooting his blue fireballs and then charge your beam. As soon as he
reappears, quickly release your charged shot at him before he disappears again.
Another tip is to never use super missiles on him, because it'll lock himself
up in the room, repeatedly firing a wave of blue fireballs without stopping for
some seconds... seconds that will eventually add to minutes if you keep using
them.
Repeat and repeat this strategy. After he's gone, refill your supplies and
leave the room.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return to the area where you set off the power bomb and take the left
flashing door to easily grab some Super missiles. Leave this room and bomb the
right wall to collect the next Super missiles. Now go back to the vertical
shaft and head north, and shoot the blocks at the ceiling to continue further
up and open the blue door at the top. Next, select your power bombs and place
one in the middle of two Ki-Hunters to kill both at the same time. Then select
your super missiles (or the missiles, if you want to conserve super missiles)
and start going to the right side of the room killing all the enemies you see.
Once finished, run to the left side of the room and blast away the rest of
them. When you're done, open the flashing door at the west side of the room.
You'll now emerge at the unexplored, northeast side of Crateria.
Travel to the far-left side until you see some tunnels below. Shoot the
ground to reveal the path-entrance to the small crawl space leading to the
right. Use the morph ball there, follow east and be sure to refill AT LEAST
TWO ENERGY TANKS by killing the flying creature at the pipe or by killing the
creatures in the next room.
Follow right until you come to the horizontal spike room. First off, did
you recover AT LEAST two Energy Tanks before? Since you don't have the Grapple
Beam to cross the room, you're going to RUN through the spikes.
Just run, and when you get hit by them you will be invincible for about a
second. Use this time to boost more and spin-jump as far as you can until you
reach the standing Chozo statue. Morph into a ball while in its hand and watch
the slow and painful cinema of the Chozo taking you through the floor. When
you regain control of Samus, open the blue door and get the Gravity Suit.
Rush through the blue door and go outside again. Stay along the right wall
until you reach the bottom of the lake. Now, dash to your left and right before
you reach the end do a huge leap out of the water to reach the door quickly.
From here, just travel west to your ship. Before you save at your ship, open
the green door to the right-side of your ship, because you will be coming back
here after you reload and save. Reload everything while at your ship and save
your game.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Reset your game and look at the game-time clock. It should now
read: 0:24 mins OR LOWER. Load the game and continue on.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time: 0:24 (24 mins.)
From your ship, dash right and go through the blue door. Kill the Ki-hunter
in your way and shoot the block below and open the blue door. Step onto the
elevator.
Walk down and open the left blue door. Now just keep heading all the way
down until you reach the Maridia-glass hall. In the glass hall, lay a power
bomb to break the glass and head up.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maridia
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ignore the red door, go up and immediately to your right where a blue door
is, at the end of a tunnel. Use some wall jumps to reach up and go through the
blue door at the top. (You can freeze the fish here to use it has a platform).
On the left wall, climb up and you'll see a crab crawling along, and it'll
enter through a hidden tunnel.
Morph into a ball through the tunnel and quickly place a power bomb to kill
the crab and collect the Super missile in the alcove. Roll back and fall. On
the floor, start dashing right and, as soon as you see the second opening, do
a diagonal super jump through it to reach the upper right blue door quickly.
Shoot the block in the middle and fall down. Proceed right, open the green
door, and in the next room, place a power bomb and fall down through the
opening.
Wall jump up the wall (or do a diagonal super jump) to reach the north-
west part of this big room. Open the blue door at the ceiling and make your
way through the pipes. Use the speed booster to reach the blue door and face
Botwoon.
------------------
Mini-Boss: Botwoon
------------------
In the first phase of the battle he is always slow (with normal health),
so this is the right time to use your super missiles. Don't use all of them,
four or five supers should be enough. Then when he gets fast (when he is low
on health), switch to your ice/wave beam and camp in the left corner of the
room, which is the key spot. You will never get hit from this point unless
Bot shoots you grime.
Now, just deliberately shoot charged shots in the middle of the room while
jumping, each time you see Bot swimming. You'll most likely miss some of your
super missile shots when he's swimming fast, so the best option here would be
to use charged shots.
After victory, continue on to the next room.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Proceed to the right and roll up to collect the Energy Tank (4). Get back
to the left and kill all the creatures along the way. From the door you came,
start speed dashing through this room and right after you see the blue door at
the other end, press 'down' to activate the Shinespark and then pass through
the door.
Here, do a diagonal Super jump to the right to reach the door on the upper
right corner and enter. In this huge room filled with Mochtroids, you will be
forced to do a series of difficult wall jumps to reach the east side, so take
your time here and do it carefully. At the other side, go through the top door
and refill. (Save. Optional)
Drop down and open the green door. Drop through the first false spikes you
see and open the eye door with a super missile to enter the Boss room.
-------------
Boss: Draygon
-------------
Some tips for the fight:
1- Destroy the 3 turrets in this room (two on the right side and one in the
left) with missiles to prevent them shooting lasers at you.
2- When Draygon is flying around, dodge him with your morph ball form. Place
yourself in the middle of the room and try to snipe him when he's flying.
Fire some missiles/supers at his belly and dodge him again with the morph
ball.
3- When he appears spewing gunk at you, just place a power bomb to clear them
all, then continue pounding him with missiles and switch to super missiles.
4- If Draygon picks you up; don't panic, just press 'right' and 'left'
repeatedly on your control pad to get off his claws as soon as possible.
5- If you run out of ammo, wait for him to spew gunk at you again and shoot
some of them to reload your missiles/supers and repeat this process.
Just make sure to take your time here, dodging his fly-by's with your morph
ball and finding those good moments when he's completely vulnerable to your
shots. Continue until he's gone.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enter the flashing door and grab the glorious Space Jump. From this Chozo
room, head back out towards the 4 rooms and enter into the flashing door in the
middle. Here, kill all the Cactac you see to get some super missile refills and
continue straight/forward until you come to a sand room.
Quickly reload your supplies here by killing the enemies and then open the
blue door. Speed dash through this underwater sandy hall and fly ALL the way to
the top and enter the flashing door. Take it north and blast the blue door at
the top. Get the Plasma Beam, kill all the space pirates scattered throughout
the room and return to the big yellow-sandy room.
Head to the middle-west side of the room and blast the green door at the
floor. This tube will take you ALL the way down to southern Maridia. Walk down,
lay a power bomb and take the left door. Space jump through this room and open
the blue door at the end. Open the other one and kill the two crabs that'll
come from the invisible hole on the floor, then morph down there.
Ignore the red door and go through the blue door at the left. Keep heading
left, shoot the green gate and fall. Proceed right to Norfair.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Drop all the way down and enter the save room. Save if desired, then open
the right door. Speed boost through this corridor and open the door to go
through. Head down and shoot the floor, look to your left, shoot both the door-
gate and the door and run through. Head all the way down and open the door at
the bottom. Take the right and open the next one. The main intention of this
path is so you can reload your energies in this room. Shoot the next door and
space jump all the way across the room. Shoot the metal gate and morph through
the hidden tunnel while selecting your power bombs. Lay one as you fall to
open the yellow door below.
In Ridley's room, you must fall into the boiling acid and do so space
jumps to get to the northwest part of this room (where Ridley's face statue
is). SAVE in the next room and reset your game.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Reset your game and look at the game-time clock. It should read:
0:36 mins OR LOWER. Load up the game and continue on.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Norfair II (Lower Norfair)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time: 0:36 (36 mins.)
*NOTE* (From this point, you can go to the left to get the Screw Attack
if you don't feel right in proceeding with the next part without
it).
From the elevator, space jump to your right and head into the door. Select
your power bombs and lay one to reveal a secret entrance in the center. Fall
down and refill your bombs from some of the dead enemies and open the door at
the right (make sure you have your power bombs selected). In this room the lava
will slowly rise... use the power bombs to destroy all the columns in your way
and go through the door to the east.
With your charged ice/plasma beam, kill the three Golden pirates in this
room and head up. Lay a power bomb at the top to get rid of all the blocks,
fall back down and then climb up further. Carefully dodge all the enemies here
and enter the blue door at the top-right. This big chamber will quickly fill
with lava, so use the space jump to fly above the Space pirates and head to
the northeast side and go through the door. Open the next door while quickly
selecting your super missiles.
Shoot the monster that is attached to the wall then descend through the
opening and space jump east toward the Energy tank (5). Now return to the door
where you came from. Shoot the blocks in the floor to reveal a secret area.
Here is a small glitch that allows you to pass right through the red Ki-hunters
without getting a hit: just shoot them right before the very last moment you
go running through them.
At the bottom of the room, lay a power bomb to destroy the blocks blocking
the little tunnel, morph right and then proceed into the yellow door. Here,
take the left tunnel and keep running to the left while ignoring the enemies.
When you get to the end, place another power bomb (if you run out of power
bombs, there's a secret room on the left side of this room that contains a
power bomb pack) to blow up the statue. Below the statues, you'll see some
reversed-spike platforms for you to step onto, but instead of waiting for the
first one to go down, you can use the Kagoball glitch on the spike platform
(check out the Basics section) to skip it and go right to the other one,
saving around 6 to 8 secs at most. Head left to the next room.
Now it's time to face some armored golden Space Pirates. Fly above the
first one but make sure the screen isn't showing the left golden pirate,
and then proceed to land. You want to do this so you can take one at a time.
Never shoot them, instead, wait for them to attack you until they throw the
ninja kick at you and turn yellow. Dodge that kick with a simple jump, and
now it is your time to aim back and shoot some super missiles or charged
plasma shots.
Continue on to the next 2 rooms and open the eye-door, making sure to
reload all of your missiles, super missiles and energies before entering the
next room. Then, go inside...
------------
Boss: Ridley
------------
When Ridley appears, select your super missiles and shoot some of them at
him, and once he flies up, follow him up with your space jump and pound him
some more with super missile, and make sure all of them count.
Missiles here won't help you that much because of their poor, hit damage.
So when you run out of your super missiles, equip your Ice Beam and use
charged/ice/plasma beam shots at Ridley to end the fight as soon as possible.
I'll list some tips here to counter his attacks:
1- At the first phase he'll be tail-bouncing most of the time. Simply
use your morph ball form to roll under his tail, stand up and quickly
shoot some super missiles or charged/ice/plasma shots to his back.
2- Now if he gets rough and goes up, follow him up quickly with your Space
Jump to watch him. Everytime he does this it means that he'll perform his
U shape swoop attack. Luckily, the U shape attack takes place at the
platform of the stage, and he does it so slow that right before he does it,
you can charge up your beam while in the air and shoot him one time after
he completes the U shape.
3- As for his fireballs, well, just space jump up to avoid them. Don't go
completely up to the ceiling because that will make him automatically
go up and do another U swoop, so when you space jump always try to keep
the screen showing Ridley at all times to avoid this.
Another good tip is staying in the left corner of the room when Ridley is
*facing* to the left and bouncing on the ground. You won't take any damage,
and this spot is quite advantageous for leaving Ridley open to free shots.
After the fight, collect all the refills and enter the next room to...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grab your last Energy Tank (6) and backtrack all the way to the save room.
Save if you want, and head up to the right door. Keep climbing up and go past
the boulders and fireballs. At the top, ignore the door and go through the wall
on the left. Rush through this secret passageway and open the door. Fly west,
climb up and open another blue door at the left.
Space jump through this corridor and you will find some red Ki-Hunters at
the other side of the room. If you get to this part low on energy, take a
moment to kill them using charged shots, otherwise just ignore them if you're
good on energy. Fly above them until there's a visible door at the top.
Destroy the blocks with a regular shot and continue to the left.
You'll be back in a room after the bubble room of Norfair. Now just take
it all the way back to Brinstar. Now instead of taking the red-Brinstar path
to go to your ship, the fastest way is heading through the Maridia-broken
glass hall, and go up into the big room with the grappling blocks. Fly up
through the door on the ceiling and morph through the secret path at the
top left corner. Open the green-gate and morph through the tunnel. Step
on the elevator to return to Crateria and now save at your ship.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Reset your game and look at the game-time clock. It should read:
0:48 mins OR LOWER! Continue on.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time: 0:48 (48 mins!)
Finally, the last segment. Twelve minutes should be enough for you to clear
up this last part. Trust me. From your ship, take the left and just dash your
way while destroying everything on your path to reach Tourian's elevator room.
After you watch the statues collapse, step on the elevator...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tourian
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the next couple of rooms you will be killing Metroids, so use the Ice
Beam on them and then use one Super missile. Make sure to get everything they
leave behind. If they manage to catch you, don't waste time using your power
bombs, just leave the room and re-enter. Later, run past the Torizo-sand statue
and go to the Metroid scene (you can un-equip the Varia and Gravity suit, so
the big metroid can drain your energies faster).
After the scene, reload all your energies in the computer, then head right
and open the eye-door. Drop to the bottom and enter left.
Now here you can use the Zebetite Glitch (check out the Basics section) to
skip the red barriers. If you did it right, you'll pass the zebetite without
using any missiles or super missiles. But the really useful thing is that the
next 3 zebetites will be gone.
If you don't know how to execute this move flawlessly, then shoot all
the zebetites with a few missiles or super missiles until you get to Mother
Brain. To open the glass, first use the missiles and then use all of the super
missiles you have to awaken the Mother Brain. *NOTE: If you run out of missiles
you can always reload them at the missile recharge computer from the previous
rooms, just in case you don't have any before breaking her glass.
------------------------
Final Boss: Mother Brain
------------------------
There are two ways to kill 'her':
1- The fastest way is using the Murder Beam glitch (see Basics section) to
finish off the battle right after you get the Hyper Beam or:
2- Staying in the right corner of the room, avoiding all of her beams and
using your charged/ice/plasma beam on her head until she uses her mind-beam.
Now here, if you have more than 3 energy tanks, you can purposefully lower
your energy until you have three energy tanks. You want to do this so you don't
have to wait for MB to lower all of it for you. Keep shooting her until she
finally unleashes her mind-laser beam. Now watch the time consuming cinema of
the super Metroid (yeah, I call it like that) sucking up Mother Brain's energy,
and then it'll reload all of your energies in a matter of seconds.
When the baby Metroid explodes, the last bits of its energy will fall down
to Samus, and granting her final beam. As Samus quickly wrestles herself to a
standing position, you'll have your newly obtained Hyper Beam! Do some lower
jumps while shooting at her so to never give her a chance to step forward and
shoot something back at you. Finally, when the epic battle is over, the
infamous bomb sequence time will begin.
----------------
First room: 3:00
----------------
Break the columns with your Hyper Beam and open the door with a diagonal
shot.
-----------------
Second room: 2:57
-----------------
Fall down to the right and quickly aim down to open the door.
----------------
Third room: 2:55
----------------
Take the bottom path and speed dash all the way to the right, and then do
a vertical super jump through the ceiling and jump through the door.
-----------------
Fourth room: 2:45
-----------------
Go up and shoot all the space pirates. Keep going up, turn right, and then
go down. Now, do some wall jumps in the nearby wall you see and go up again.
Remember that wall jumps are faster than space jumps. Shoot the exit and
speed boost into the next room.
-------------------------
Fifth Room: 2:25 (Aprox.)
-------------------------
You'll return to the long, vertical shaft of Crateria. Now crouch to use
the shinespark and hug on the far right wall to use a nice vertical super jump
to get to the top quickly. A VERY useful trick.
----------------
Sixth Room: 2:15
----------------
Now the rest is just getting back to your ship. If you did it faster, you
can do it in less than a minute from Mother Brain's room. Board your ship and
watch your time. Hopefully, it will say less than an hour.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-GOAL TIME: 0:59 (59 mins)-
Congratulations! You have beaten the game in less than an
hour! Now just practice more to do it perfectly the next
time. ;-)
-----------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
IV. Revision History / Updates
===============================================================================
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
V. *(1.05)* (3:53 PM 12/23/09)
Just rewrote some of the paragraphs to present everything nice and readable.
Most of the past, minor updates you noticed during this year were about the
same thing (changing and deleting stuff), so I'm glad to finally take this
time to fix everything. Happy New Year!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
V. *(1.04) (2:17 PM 09/21/04)
An update devoted to the correction of grammar and spelling errors
throughout the guide. Thanks to Jay for the generous job.
Added the crappy Super Metroid ASCII artwork.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
V. *(1.03) (1:04 PM 08/31/04)
Long time no news, huh? I've decided to remove the High Scores section,
mainly because some people have been e-mailing me with their submissions
(precisely the same people) almost daily, again and again, which drove me to
do this.
In any case, the same High Scores list can be found at samus.co.uk in the
Super Metroid section. I just wanted to notify you of this.
Added a few hints at the Speed Tips section, supplied by rah0070.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
V. *(1.02) (9:16 PM 10/31/03)
Fixed a minor error on the shortcut section and in the Credits section.
Added a small High Scores section for the players' scores in general runs.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
V. *(1.01) (8:56 PM 09/11/03)
A short revision to the guide. Added a few touch ups at the end of the
guide thanks to dracokl (dracossphere).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
V. (1.00) (9:31 PM 08/30/03)
First version of the guide. Everything is complete; from Introduction to
Credits section. Anyway, from time to time I'll be updating with small
changes. Enjoy the walkthrough.
===============================================================================
V. Credits
===============================================================================
- Andrew Mills for inspiring me to write this guide.
- CJC for hosting this guide at GameFAQs.
- Ultima4701 for the route and for most of the tricks. Also for some
info on the speed run tips at his site. (Which gave me incentive
to make this).
- Nate and Radix for converting and hosting my SM VHS movies at
speeddemosarchive.com
- Red Scarlet for the KagoBall trick at LN and for the Murder Beam info.
- rah0070 for providing the 'pause and time stopping' info in the Speed
Tips' section.
- Many special thanks to Jay (HSO) for kindly taking apart his time to fix
this guide from grammar/spelling errors. Excellent job.
- Special thanks to Cerberus for a nice glitch at the Lower Norfair
section.
- The people from the Super Metroid Board at GameFAQs for their great info
at times.
- Nintendo for making such a CLASSIC game.
---------------------------------------------------
Fin.
---------------------------------------------------
If you have any comments, questions, suggestions or
anything else about this guide, contact me via e-mail:
[email protected] and I will respond to you as
soon as I can.
Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2009 Richard Rodríguez
All Rights Reserved.
___________________________________________________
- EOF -
