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METROID ZERO MISSION
Platform--Game Boy Advance
Publisher--Nintendo
Genre--Action
WALKTHROUGH/FAQ
Version--1.10
Last updated--May 16th, 2004
Author--Paul Byrne/consummate gamer
E-mail--consummate_gamer@yahoo.com
AIM--consummate gamer
Web site--www.geocities.com/consummate_gamer
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This FAQ is for the North American version of Metroid Zero Mission.
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Version History
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Version 1.00 (April 10th, 2004)--initial public release.
Version 1.10 (May 16th, 2004)--As far as the walkthrough goes, I fixed a few
errors (mostly grammatical arrors and a directional mistake in section 3.A),
added a few more differences about the hard difficulty, and added three more
short cuts. Also, I added some obscure game play mechanics, added the last two
gallery pictures, corrected the Metroid Fusion link mistake, and added Kong
IV's discovery. Lastly, I changed a few enemy names, and updated a few enemy
stats in the bestiary.
There were some pretty big mistakes that took me forever to update, but I'm
still going to do another update sometime around the month of July.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1. Introduction
A. Preface
B. Story
2. Rudiments
A. Controls
B. Power-Ups and Techniques
C. Game Play Mechanics
3. Walkthrough
A. Skipping the Long Beam
B. Acquiring the Varia Suit Early
C. Defeating Kraid Early
D. Acquiring the Super Missiles Early
E. Defeating Ridley Early
4. Zebesian Regions
5. Secrets
6. Bestiary
7. Credits
8. Copyright Information
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1.) INTRODUCTION
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1.A.) PREFACE
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"Metroid Zero Mission" is another great installment to the Metroid series,
which should come as no surprise when considering Nintendo's successful
delivery of previous sequels/prequels. Zero Mission, as its name implies, sets
the stage for Samus' very first mission. This game takes place back on planet
Zebes where the Metroid series first took root. It plays much like "Metroid
Fusion" (the last handheld Metroid game that Nintendo released), but it's set
in the same environment as "Metroid"--the original, eight-bit game. Take
Fusion's graphics, controls, and game play, give it Metroid's world map, and
you've got Metroid Zero Mission.
Zero Mission is a retelling of the original Metroid, but it's not quite what
you can call a remake. It's almost like the same story being retold from a
different perspective, except it's still being told from the same perspective.
The corridors and secret passageways that made up the original world map have
been dramatically redesigned, and rehashed areas from "Super Metroid" have been
thrown in as well; there are plenty of fundamental changes in the game to make
it a completely new experience but with the assurance that it will be on par
with the original Metroid. Zero Mission's nostalgic value, alone, makes this
game well worth playing (of course, you'd have to have played the original for
this to matter). Even if you didn't play the original, you will still enjoy
this game.
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1.B.) STORY
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Here's the story behind Metroid Zero Mission, taken directly out of the
instruction booklet (note--this is almost identical to the story in the NES
Metroid's instruction booklet):
PROLOGUE
In the year 2003 of the Cosmic Calendar, representatives from the many
different planets in the galaxy established a congress called the Galactic
Federation, and an age of prosperity began. A successful exchange of cultures
and civilization resulted, and thousands of interstellar spaceships shuttled
back and forth between planets. Soon, however, Space Pirates began to attack
the spaceships, threatening the galactic peace. The Galactic Police and
Galactic Army struck against this aggression, but the pirates' attacks were too
powerful, and it was impossible to catch them all in the vast reaches of space.
So, the Federal Bureau called together powerful bounty hunters to battle the
Space Pirates. In the year 20X5 of the Cosmic Calendar, a terrible incident
occurred. The Space Pirates attacked a deep-space research vessel and seized
capsules containing samples of an unknown species that had been discovered on
planet SR388. The Space Pirates' objective was to acquire this life-form: known
simply as Metroids, these floating organisms were incredibly dangerous, as they
could latch onto any other organism and drain its life-energy. Furthermore, it
was possible to replicate Metroids in vast numbers by exposing them to beta
rays. The hypothesis that the Metroids were responsible for one of the greatest
mysteries in the entire galaxy--the extinction of planet SR388--was generally
accepted as fact.
If the Space Pirates were able to breed Metroids and use the creatures as
biological weapons, the destruction of all galactic civilization would be near
certain. After a desperate search, the Federation Police discovered the Space
Pirates' base of operations on the fortified planet Zebes. They launched a full
assault on the planet, but pirate resistance was strong, and the planet could
not be taken. All the while, in a room hidden deep within the center of the
pirate fortress, the preparations for multiplying the Metroids was progressing
steadily.
As a last resort, the Federation Police decided on a risky strategy: to send a
lone space hunter to penetrate the pirate base and destroy the mechanical life-
form that controlled the fortress and its defenses--the Mother Brain. The space
hunter chosen for this mission was Samus Aran. Considered the greatest of all
the bounty hunters, Samus had successfully completed numerous missions that
others thought impossible. Despite her accomplishments, much of Samus's true
identity remained wrapped in mystery.
Alone, Samus Aran successfully landed on the surface on Zebes, which was, in
fact, the planet where Samus was raised as a child. Burying all her memories of
the planet, Samus agreed to carry out this mission and face the traps of the
Mother Brain. But the question remained: could Samus Aran truly complete this
task and return peace and order to the galaxy?
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2.) RUDIMENTS
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2.A.) CONTROLS
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The controls for Metroid Zero Mission are identical to Metroid Fusion's
controls, except for the use of Select:
Control Pad--moves Samus in the corresponding direction (pressing down once
causes Samus to kneel and pressing up undoes this)
Start--brings up the map for the current region
Select--toggles between Missiles and Super Missiles (if applicable)
A Button--makes Samus jump
B Button--makes Samus shoot her arm cannon
L Button--angles Samus' arm cannon upwards to a forty-five-degree angle
(press down while holding the L Button to angle downwards to a forty-five-
degree angle)
R Button--Missiles/Super Missiles/Power Bombs (needs to be held down)
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2.B.) POWER-UPS AND TECHNIQUES
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Power-Ups
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There are a total of one hundred items--or power-ups--in this game. Most of
them increase your abilities to allow further progression in the game, but some
of them just allow you to hold more ammunition or units of energy.
Morph Ball--also known as the Maru Mari, this item allows you to turn into the
form of a ball, so that you can roll through the many narrow passageways found
on Planet Zebes. Press down twice (once to kneel and again to morph) to use
this ability, and press up twice (once to kneel and again to unmorph) to stand
up again. This item is located in Brinstar to the left of where you begin the
game.
Long Beam--this beam allows you to shoot all the way across the screen and adds
extra firepower (equal to half the firepower of the Short Beam) to your current
beam weapon combination. This power-up can be found in Brinstar (see part 1 of
the walkthrough).
Missile Tanks--gives you the capability to fire Missiles, which open Red
Hatches. Each Missile Tank adds five Missiles to the maximum amount that you
can carry, except on hard where they only add two Missiles to your maximum.
There are a total of fifty Missile Tanks throughout the game; they can be found
in various regions of Planet Zebes (see each region's distribution chart in
section 4).
Charge Beam--this beam allows you to charge up each shot for a blast that's
four times more powerful than normal. You can also use the charge during a spin
jump as a mock Screw Attack or "Charge Attack" (see "techniques" below). This
is acquired from the centipede mini-boss in one of two places in Brinstar (see
part 1 of the walkthrough).
Energy Tanks--this will increase the maximum amount of energy that you can
hold. On easy and normal, this will add a hundred units to your maximum, but,
on hard, it'll only be fifty units. There are a total of twelve Energy Tanks
throughout the game; they can be found in various regions of Planet Zebes (see
each region's distribution chart in section 4).
Bomb--this item allows you to lay bombs whenever you're using the morph ball
(press the B Button). Bombs can blow open secret passageways, damage enemies,
and propel you through the air. You can even use its propellant capabilities to
"bomb jump" to high, out-of-the-reach ledges (see "techniques" below). This is
acquired in Brinstar (see part 1 of the walkthrough).
Unknown Item [1]--this item allows you to destroy the mystery blocks in the
region where it's found. Analysis on this item will not yield anything, but it
will be listed under your beams on the Status screen. This is acquired in the
Chozo Ruins [1] sub-region of Crateria (see part 4 of the walkthrough).
Power Grip--this item allows you to grab onto ledges. From there, you can
either pull yourself up onto the ledge, drop off, or jump up and away from the
ledge. This is acquired in the Chozo Ruins [1] sub-region of Crateria (see part
4 of the walkthrough).
Ice Beam--this beam allows you to freeze enemies and adds extra firepower
(equal to half the firepower of the Short Beam) to your current beam weapon
combination. This power-up can be found in Norfair (see part 6 of the
walkthrough).
Unknown Item [2]--this item allows you to destroy the mystery blocks in the
region where it's found. Analysis on this item will not yield anything, but it
will be listed under your miscellaneous items on the Status screen. This is
acquired in Kraid's hideout (see part 8 of the walkthrough).
Speed Booster--this item allows you to run at sonic speeds. Speed boosts can
destroy enemies and Boost Blocks that are in your way, and they can also be
used to perform a "Super Jump" (see "techniques" below). This is acquired after
defeating Kraid in his hideout (see part 8 of the walkthrough).
High-Jump--this item allows you to jump much higher than normal and, even,
gives you the ability to jump while in Morph Ball form (press the A Button).
This is acquired in Norfair (see part 10 of the walkthrough).
Varia Suit--this upgrades your Power Suit by providing immunity to acid, fleas,
and extreme temperatures. It also reduces enemy damage by a fifth. This is
acquired in Brinstar (see part 11 of the walkthrough).
Screw Attack--this item allows you to kill almost any enemy by spin jumping
into them (as though you are using a Charge Attack), and you can also use it to
destroy Screw Attack Blocks. This is acquired in Norfair (see part 12 of the
walkthrough).
Wave Beam--this beam allows you to shoot through walls and adds extra firepower
(equal to half the firepower of the Short Beam) to your current beam weapon
combination. This is acquired in Norfair (see part 12 of the walkthrough).
Super Missile Tanks--gives you the capability to fire Super Missiles, which
open Green Hatches. Each Super Missile Tank adds two Super Missiles to the
maximum amount that you can carry, except on hard where they only add one Super
Missile to your maximum. There are a total of fifteen Super Missile Tanks
throughout the game; they can be found in various regions of Planet Zebes (see
each region's distribution chart in section 4).
Unknown Item [3]--this item allows you to destroy the mystery blocks in the
region where it's found. Analysis on this item will not yield anything, but it
will be listed under your suits on the Status screen. This is acquired in
Ridley's hideout (see part 13 of the walkthrough).
Plasma Beam--this beam allows you to pierce through most enemies, so it will
actually hit an enemy multiple times with the same shot, and it adds extra
firepower (equal to half the firepower of the Short Beam) to your current beam
weapon combination. This is acquired after defeating the Chozo hieroglyphic
mini-boss in the Chozo Ruins [2] sub-region of Chozodia (see part 20 of the
walkthrough).
Gravity Suit--this upgrades your Power Suit by providing immunity to lava and
allowing you to perform any action underwater the same as you would on land. It
also reduces enemy damage by a half. This is acquired after defeating the Chozo
hieroglyphic mini-boss in the Chozo Ruins [2] sub-region of Chozodia (see part
20 of the walkthrough).
Space Jump--this item allows you to jump continually in midair using spin
jumps. This is acquired after defeating the Chozo hieroglyphic mini-boss in the
Chozo Ruins [2] sub-region of Chozodia (see part 20 of the walkthrough).
Power Bomb Tanks--gives you the capability to detonate Power Bombs, which open
Yellow Hatches. Each Power Bomb Tank adds two Power Bombs to the maximum amount
that you can carry, except on hard where they only add one Power Bomb to your
maximum. There are a total of nine Power Bomb Tanks throughout the game; they
can be found in various regions of Planet Zebes (see each region's distribution
chart in section 4).
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Techniques
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Wall jump--also known as the "Triangle Jump," this is the only technique that
doesn't require any power-ups. To wall jump, spin jump into a wall, and jump
again but move in the opposite direction once you're touching the wall (the
timing for this is different from other Metroid titles). If you're having
trouble, try pushing away from the wall a split second before jumping the
second time.
Charge Attack--this technique requires the Charge Beam. To perform a Charge
Attack, make sure your arm cannon is fully charged, and spin jump into an
enemy. This should be used with caution, though, since you will get hurt by
using this technique on enemies with many hit points (although it will still
transfer the damage to the enemy). The amount of damage this attack inflicts is
equal to a fully charged shot from your arm cannon.
Bomb jump--also known as the "Turbo Bomb," this technique requires the Bomb
power-up. To do this, you will need to lay the initial Bomb, and, right as it
goes off, lay another Bomb. Right when the second Bomb goes off, lay another
Bomb, and repeat. Each progressive Bomb will hit you higher and higher into the
air, but the timing for this is different from other Metroid titles and may
require a bit of practice (more than the wall jump). Additionally, you can also
adapt this technique into a diagonal bomb jump: Lay the initial Bomb, but move
a bit to the left/right, and lay the next Bomb when the first goes off (so
you'll be using the same timing as a normal Bomb jump). Once you've got it
started, move against the force of the Bombs; when the Bombs knock you away,
move back towards the blast. From there, it can even evolve into a horizontal
bomb jump, using, still, the same general timing. You'll need to delay each
Bomb by a fraction of a second, and you should only move back towards each
blast just enough for the explosion to barely hit you. It takes a lot of
practice to advance this far into bomb jumping, though.
Super Jump--this technique requires the Speed Booster. If you press down during
a speed boost, it will temporarily store the kinetic energy from the speed
boost (for about five seconds) which you can use to perform a Super Jump,
although it will put a stop to the initial speed boost. Press the A Button to
release this energy (you CANNOT be moving when you press the A Button), and
you'll have about half a second to choose the direction of the Super Jump. The
default direction is up, but you can also jump left, right, and diagonally (up
and to the left or up and to the right at a forty-five-degree angle). When
performing a Super Jump, you will shoot off in the direction that you chose,
until you hit a solid wall. Super Jumps can also be performed in ball form, but
you'll need the High-Jump item. Super Jumps in ball form operate the exact same
way that they when standing.
Shinespark--this technique requires the Speed Booster. If you ever Super Jump
into a ramp or sloped surface, you'll begin speed boosting on the ground again;
this is called a Shinespark. From this point, you can continue speed boosting
in the direction that you're running, or you can even link another Super Jump
to another Shinespark (there are a lot of really annoying puzzles that require
the use of this technique). Shinesparks can also be executed in ball form, but
you'll need the High-Jump item. Super Jumps in ball form operate the exact same
way that they when standing.
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2.C.) GAME PLAY MECHANICS
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This section isn't quite complete yet, but it explains the less-important
details of how the game operates, including how damage--both yours and the
enemy's--is calculated.
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Samus
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Most of Samus' capabilities are already outlined in section 2.B, but there are
a few unimportant things I thought I'd cover in a separate section:
--you can start a spin jump while in midair by pressing the A Button
--you can stop a spin jump while in midair by pressing the down, up, or the
B Button
--when shooting directly up or down, the direction you're facing makes a slight
difference
--without the Long Beam, you'll actually shoot a bit farther while running as
oppossed to shooting while standing (this applies diagonally too)
--your long-ranged attacks do not travel much farther than a screen's length,
unless you actually follow them across the screen
--getting hit by an enemy will take away the "Super Jump ready" status
--you cannot use a save station or map-data port while in Morph Ball form
--you cannot pause the game during cut scenes (including when the gateway to
Tourian is lighting up); while moving from one room to another; while using a
save station; while the prompt from using a save station/map-data port/Chozo
Statue, or collecting an item is still on the screen; or, oddly enough, while
setting off a Power Bomb
--you will fall off any ledge during a Power Bomb detonation
--you can move through frozen enemies when pulling yourself up from a ledge
--morphing into the ball will cause any charged beam shots to automatically
fire off
--with the emergency space suit, you cannot crawl and fire at the same time
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Interaction with The Environment
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Again, most of this stuff is already explained somewhere in this
FAQ/walkthrough, but there are a few unimportant things I thought I'd cover in
a separate section:
--some hidden areas will be made transparent when you move into them, and
others are revealed only after moving past a specific point in the room
(e.g., areas where Space Pirates are lying in wait for you), while others
remain opaque regardless
--by setting off a Power Bomb, you can see into hidden areas
--some Fake Blocks can be destroyed by any weapon, but some cannot be destroyed
by the Screw Attack
--some Bomb Blocks can be destroyed by the Screw Attack
--some blocks regenerate every few seconds, others only regenerate after
re-entering the room, and some remain permanently destroyed for the rest of
the game
--although most Red, Green, or Yellow Hatches are protected on both sides, only
one side of the hatch needs to be opened to remove the protection.
--most of the enemies in a given room have two movement patterns (i.e., they'll
be in two different places each time you enter the room), but some enemies
will always be in the same place
--after riding an elevator to another region, none of the enemies in the
elevator room will move until you do
--non-flying enemies can be knocked onto the floor (if they're not already
there) by using a Power Bomb, Super Missile, or Super Jump
--like the Pirahna Plants in "Super Mario Brothers," if you stand too close to
a Zeb/Gamet/Geega/Zebbo pit, they will not come out
--activating a goal-oriented Chozo Statue (i.e., one that marks a location on
your map) may bring about certain changes in another room (e.g., extra
enemies), but these changes can also be initiated by completing the
identified goal before activating the Chozo Statue (this will also cause the
Chozo Statue to activate itself and sit down)
--if you skip the Varia Suit, it will automatically be removed from Brinstar
and added to your Status screen once you get the Gravity Suit (so you can
make a nine-percent run easier on yourself by getting the Varia Suit)
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Taking Damage
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The amount of energy you lose from getting hit by an enemy is based on three
factors: The strength of the enemy attack, what suit you're wearing (e.g., the
default Power Suit, Varia Suit, or Gravity Suit), and the difficulty you're
playing on. The strength of an enemy attack can be found in section 6, and the
difficulty acts as a multiplier: On normal, an enemy's strength is twice as
powerful as on easy, and, on hard, it's four times as powerful as on easy. The
Varia Suit reduces the damage taken from enemy attacks by a fifth, and the
Gravity Suit reduces the damage taken from enemy attacks by half. The default
Power Suit is the standard, so it doesn't reduce any damage. Also, the
emergency space suit, damage-wise, is the same as the default Power Suit.
A piecewise function is required to make a formula out of this. The variable
for attack strength is "A," the variable for the difficulty is "B," and the
variable for total damage is "C." If the difficulty is set on easy, B = 1, if
the difficulty is set on normal, B = 2, and if the difficulty is set on hard,
B = 4. Don't forget the order of operations (parentheses, exponents,
multiplication/division, and, then, addition/subtraction).
If you're wearing the default Power Suit, C = A(B)
If you're wearing the Varia Suit, C = 4/5 A(B)
If you're wearing the Gravity Suit, C = 1/2 A(B)
Important--any fractions are truncated AFTER total damage (C) has been
determined, UNLESS total damage is less than 1 (in which case the fraction is
rounded up).
However, the damage you incur from environmental hazards, Parasites, Metroids,
or Ridley's grab attack is calculated differently, and there appears to be no
universal formula behind these drain attacks. While wearing the default Power
Suit, Parasites take off 2 units of energy per second, acid takes off 7.5 units
of energy per second, lava takes off 20 units of energy per second, super-
heated rooms take off 10 units of energy per second, Ridley's grab attack takes
off 16 units of energy per second, and Metroids take off a whopping 100 units
of energy per second. While wearing the Varia Suit, lava takes off 12.5 units
of energy per second, Ridley's grab attack takes off 8 units of energy per
second, and Metroids take off 15 units of energy per second. Finally, that
green goop in Tourian takes off 15 units of energy per second (you can't get
this far without the Gravity Suit). Difficulty makes no difference, as you'll
take damage at the same rates. Also, if two of these conditions occur at once,
the damage rate does not get stacked: Priority goes to the highest-damaging
condition. For example, if you're wearing the Varia Suit in lava with a Metroid
latched onto you, you'll only lose 15 units of energy per second.
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Dealing Damage
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Not all enemies can be hurt with a specific weapon. Some enemies, like bosses,
can only be hurt under very specific circumstances. With that being said, each
weapon/attack does a different amount of damage. The weakest weapon is your
default Short Beam, so I've arbitrarily given it a strength of 1. Any time you
receive a new beam power-up, it is added to your current combination beam
weapon to produce its own unique attack. With the exception of the Charge Beam,
each time you add a new beam power-up, the strength of your beam weapon grows
by .5 (1/2). Note--Plasma Beams hit enemies multiple times. While the Charge
Beam does not add any extra power to your beam weapon, it gives you the
capability to charge your beams up to a much more powerful strength. This will
quadruple the beam's strength, but, if the beam isn't fully charged, it'll have
the same strength as it normally does. For example, if you have the Charge
Beam, the Long Beam, and the Ice Beam, a fully charged shot would have a
strength of 8 (and so would a Charge Attack). As far as your other weapons go,
Bombs have a strength of 4, Missiles have a strength of 10, Super Missiles have
a strength of 50, and Power Bombs have a strength of 25. Lastly, there's the
Screw Attack, Super Jump, and speed boost. These attacks pretty much kill any
non-boss enemy in one hit, so, if a strength can even be assigned to them, it's
at least 100.
Short Beam--1
Short Beam and one other beam--1.5 (6 with fully charged shot)
Short Beam and two other beams--2 (8 with fully charged shot)
Short Beam and three other beams--2.5 (10 with fully charged shot)
Short Beam and four other beams--3 (12 with fully charged shot)
Bomb--4
Missile--10
Super Missile--50
Power Bomb--25
Screw Attack, Super Jump, or speed boost--at least 100
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Dropped Items
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During your travels, you'll destroy many enemies, and you'll sometimes be
rewarded with an item. The five items that an enemy can drop are small energy
capsules, big energy capsules, Missiles, Super Missiles, and Power Bombs. A
small energy capsule restores five units of your energy, while a big energy
capsule restores twenty units of energy. Dropped Missiles restore two of your
Missiles, and dropped Super Missiles also restore two of your Super Missiles.
Dropped Power Bombs, though, only restore one Power Bomb.
Most enemies drop items while others don't, and the enemies that do drop items
may not always drop an item every time one is destroyed Some enemies can drop
any of the five items, yet others can only drop one of the five items. Usually,
if you have a full stock of a particular item, enemies that are capable of
dropping the item(s) that you need will do so. However, a few enemies will drop
one item over another regardless of whether or not you need it.
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Time
----
Basically, game time only runs while Samus is on the Game screen. This includes
saving your game (when you first save your game AND when you're restarting from
that save point), downloading map data, using Chozo Statues, and collecting
items. Additionally, the game time also runs during any circumstance where you
have no control over Samus and she isn't even visible but on the Game screen
nonetheless: When Samus is first landing on planet Zebes; the first cut scene,
where you have just arrived in Brinstar; and when escaping in the space ship.
However, the game's timer will not run during any other cut scenes, during the
two segments where the gateway to Tourian lights up, during the segment where
Mother Brain's room and the next two rooms explode (after escaping in your
ship), or while the game is making the transition from one room to another.
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3.) WALKTHROUGH
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If you've played the original Metroid, then this game will probably be a whole
lot easier for you--as far as finding your way around goes. Additionally,
having played any of the other Metroid games will also help: The boss battles
mostly resemble those of Super Metroid, and there are a lot of shinespark
puzzles and other elements from the previous Metroid titles.
This walkthrough explains how to obtain every item, and they are covered in a
very time-efficient order (though, not the most efficient order). Generally,
each part of this walkthrough is separated by region transition, so some
sections are quite large in comparison to others. Save Rooms, Map Rooms, and
Chozo Statues are acknowledged for your convenience, but you don't necessarily
need to use them every time you see one. Be advised, though, that the damage
you take from enemy attacks is double on normal and quadruple on hard. Also,
some rooms will have more enemies, harder enemies, or both for higher
difficulties (among other surprises).
The five sections at the end of this walkthrough are for completing the harder
goals earlier than usual or skipping them completely. A knowledge of the game's
layout and Samus' techniques is required for these sections, as they mostly
explain the part that deviates from the norm. In addition, the locations of
power-ups are, also, not explained in these sections for the same reason.
Lastly, if you happen upon a secret passageway that doesn't seem to have any
practical use, it's probably just there for a nine-percent run: Beating the
game with only the Morph Ball, one Missile Tank, the Bomb power-up, the Power
Grip, the three Unknown Items, and the Gravity Suit (if you don't have the
Varia Suit, the game gives it to you just out of spite). Important--a nine
percent run is impossible on hard because you NEED an extra Missile Tank or a
Super Missile Tank or the Screw Attack as your tenth item.
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1--Brinstar
-----------
You'll begin in the same spot as the original Metroid, so the Morph Ball--or
the Maru Mari, as it was known in the original Metroid--is just to the left of
the platform you're standing on. To get to it, just jump over the rock
formation (press the A Button), and simply pick it up. Use your Short Beam
(press the B Button) to destroy the Zoomers that are crawling around on the
ceiling, the walls, and the floor of this room. If you're playing on the easy
or normal difficulty, all of these Zoomers will be the weaker, yellow kind,
whereas, on the hard difficulty, all of these Zoomers will be the stronger,
purple kind.
After acquiring a new ability, the game will shift to the Status screen to
explain how to use your newfound ability. With the Morph Ball power-up, you can
now morph into a ball by pressing down twice (once to kneel and again to morph)
and roll through narrow passageways. Use this technique to get back to the
platform where you started, and continue proceeding to the right. Once you get
to the Blue Hatch at the end of the room, blast it with your Short Beam to open
it. Any hatch that is colored blue can be opened with a simple blast from any
of your weapons. On easy and normal, the next room just has a single yellow
Zoomer crawling around the middle structure. However, if you're playing on
hard, the Zoomer will be purple, and there will also be a ton of those
Parasites, so move through the room quickly. There is more below the floor,
but, right now, you cannot get to it. Continue moving right, but be careful of
the Skrees in the next room: They're hanging from the ceiling, and they will
attempt to dive bomb you when you get near them. On easy and normal, there will
be three green Skrees, but, on hard, there will be five gray Skrees instead.
Running all the way to the right without stopping will get you safely past
either group of Skrees, but you can also angle your arm cannon up (hold the
L Button) to shoot them on the way down. If they find their way to the floor,
and you still haven't destroyed them, get away from them because they will
explode and hurt you. At the end of this room, there is a narrow passageway
that leads to a Chozo Statue.
Stand in the statue's opened hands, and morph into the ball. This will cause
the statue to move into a sitting position, exposing a secret path, and it will
replenish your energy and show you where your next destination is on the map
(press Start). Any other Chozo Statues you come across will also replenish your
energy, but they do not always identify your next target on the map (if you can
carry Missiles, Super Missiles, or Power Bombs, they will re-supply you with
those too). Following the secret path leads you to the bottom of Brinstar's
main shaft. To your right is a Save Room, where you can save your game. Just
enter the room, and stand on top of the device in the center, and you will be
asked if you want to save your game. Should you restart the game or get a game
over, the last Save Room that you used is where you will begin your saved game
from.
---------
Long Beam
---------
Your next goal will be to attain the Long Beam, but it's possible to skip this
item, although it will make the game more difficult. If you'd like to skip the
Long Beam, go to section 3.A. Otherwise, continue reading. Move up the long,
vertical shaft, but ignore the brown Rippers you encounter (the things moving
back and forth in midair): You cannot destroy them until later, so just work
your way around the Rippers. Don't hold back on the Zoomers, though. You'll
probably need to angle up or down (hold the L Button and press down) in order
to shoot some of them. On easy and normal, the Zoomers in this shaft will all
be the yellow kind, but, on hard, they'll all be the purple kind. Head up
towards the top of the shaft, until you reach a hatch on the left (you'll pass
a hatch on the right, but ignore it). Go into this room and destroy the green
Skree on the ceiling. Then, blast apart the three Fake Blocks to the left,
which are covering the entrance to a narrow passageway. This passageway leads
to some more green Skrees and an Item Room containing the Long Beam. To acquire
the Long Beam, just shoot the Item Ball in the Chozo Statue's hands, and pick
up the resulting item. With the Long Beam upgrade, you'll be able to fire all
the way across the screen, and each blast will inflict one and a half times the
amount of damage as the Short Beam did.
Back outside of the Item Room, there is another narrow passageway directly
above the previous one. This passageway leads up into another room where you'll
need to use the Morph Ball to navigate under two large Fake Blocks. Then, blast
the large Fake Blocks apart, and continue moving up through the room. There
will be another large Fake Block then two green Skrees then one final large
Fake Block before you exit left into the next room. This leads up into the
middle of a corridor. You'll need to go right, but the hatch leading into that
room will be colored gray. This means that there is some event or miscellaneous
requirement that must be fulfilled before this door will open for you (usually,
you need to defeat all the enemies in the room to get the hatch to open). In
this case, you just need to head left into the next room. Stay out of the
orange-yellow acid pools along the floor, as you make your way left towards the
next room. Coming in contact with the acid will only drain your energy bit by
bit, so you'll have plenty of leeway if you accidentally fall into it. The room
to the left is the ominous gateway to Tourian, the area of Zebes where Mother
Brain is housed. The statue that will be facing you is a rendition of Kraid,
and the other statue is a rendition of Ridley. You'll need to defeat both
before they'll grant you access into Tourian. Once you've entered the room with
the Kraid and Ridley statues, the Gray Hatch in the other room will unlock for
you... but a Dessgeega will come out of the ceiling and attack you, as you get
near the hatch. Shooting it rapidly will slow it down a good bit which should
give you enough time to kill it before it can jump into you. If you need to,
you can also run under the Dessgeega when it jumps, although, sometimes, it
won't jump high enough for you to run under it. If you know how to wall jump,
you can even get back up to the platform on the left and shoot it safely from
there. The next room contains another Chozo Statue that will point out your
next target on the map. Activating this Chozo Statue allows you to get back out
into the main shaft.
------------
Missile Tank
------------
Go back down the shaft to the Blue Hatch you saw earlier on the right (you'll
have to blast through two large Fake Blocks to get back down there). With the
Long Beam, you can now destroy all of the Fake Blocks within the outlined
narrow passageway that lead to this hatch. Inside it is a short corridor that
connects the main shaft to another long shaft on the right. Go down this second
shaft, avoiding the brown Rippers and destroying the Zoomers as you go (the
second hatch on the right is a Save Room). Again, on easy and normal, most of
the Zoomers in this room will be the yellow type, but, on hard, they'll all be
the purple type. Additionally, a bunch of Parasites will appear here on the
hard difficulty. These tiny, annoying, flea-like creatures will also appear
here on the other difficulties but in much smaller numbers. Parasites will
attach themselves to you if you move over them, but they'll only be able to
hurt you in groups of four or more. For now, you won't be able to destroy
Parasites, but you can get them off of you by jumping and shooting downwards
(they have to be on your lower body for this to work) and also by going into
another room. At the bottom of the shaft, go through the hatch to the right.
Immediately after entering this corridor, you'll notice the walls shaking.
Ignore this, and make your way across the room to a pipe that has Zebs coming
out of it. These insect creatures slowly rise from their origin and, once
they've reached your elevation, charge towards you. They'll continuously emerge
from certain pipes and pits, so these are great places for restoring energy or
ammunition for your weapons you'll soon attain. Past this are three green
columns amidst an acid pool. The middle column contains a Missile Tank which
you need to open the Red Hatches (you should have seen one immediately after
entering the second shaft). To fire Missiles, hold the R Button and press the
B Button. On easy and normal, each Missile Tank will add five more Missiles to
the maximum amount that you can carry. On hard, each Missile Tank only adds two
Missiles to your maximum. For time being, you should use them sparingly (the
Missile icon at the top of the screen will keep track of how many Missiles you
have left).
---------------------
Mini-Boss--Beam Beast
---------------------
After picking up the Missile Tank, go back to the second shaft. As you get
close to the hatch, though, the creature responsible for all the earlier
rumblings will come out and attack you. As it burrows in and out of the floor
and ceiling, it will make two walls out of its centipede-like body and trap you
between them, so be sure to stop running when you see this happening.
Otherwise, you'll run straight into the creature and take damage. The Beam
Beast's weak point is its eye, but you'll only have a limited window of time to
hit it, as the creature will have it's eye closed for the duration of the time
you're fighting it. The higher the difficulty you're playing on, though, the
less time you'll have to hit the exposed eye. Its head will be situated in the
top-center of the screen. Only Missiles will work on the exposed eye, but don't
stand underneath it too long: The creature will come charging down from the
ceiling to attack you after a few seconds (anytime you see it biting its
mandibles together, that's your cue to get out of the way). After charging you,
it will either charge at you again or shed thorns off of its body towards you.
These thorns come from whichever side you are closest to, and four are shed--
starting from the bottom and going up. You can shoot the thorns with your beam
weapon to destroy them, and they will usually leave stuff behind too (restock
your missiles if you need to). After, taking its first hit, the Beam Beast
likes to mix things up by consciously seeking after you when it charges rather
than just coming down from the ceiling in a straight line. To dodge this, wait
on one side of the screen, until it begins charging towards you, and run to the
other side of the screen. It takes three Missile hits to kill the Beam Beast.
-----------
Charge Beam
-----------
The centipede has a chance at running away, and, if it does, you'll see it
again very soon. It takes three hits in the same encounter to destroy the
Beam Beast. If you succeed in destroying it, it will leave behind the Charge
Beam: Hold down the B Buttton to charge up your arm cannon, and release it for
a blast four times more powerful than normal. You can also perform a pseudo-
Screw Attack on enemies by spin jumping while fully charged. This should be
used with caution, though, since you will get hurt by using this technique on
certain enemies (although it will still transfer the damage to the enemy).
After your encounter with the Beam Beast, go back up the second shaft to the
Red Hatch you saw earlier. Open this door by shooting just one Missile at it,
and enter to begin making your way to the far-right side of Brinstar. On your
way, Parasites will periodically drop out of the ceiling, but ignore them, and
continue moving; go right through this next corridor, avoiding the pools of
acid and shooting the Mellows that follow you across the room. Don't get
obsessive about clearing the room of enemies, as another Mellow will flock to
this room every few seconds. The next room is a short shaft, but don't go down
it yet. Instead, proceed through the hatch on the right. Move through the
upper-left corner of this room (there's a hidden passage) where you'll find
some sort of Mellow hive, a sac-like organism, blocking your way to a Missile
Tank. These can be destroyed using just the Long Beam, but they'll take many
hits before they'll die, and they have four Mellows swarming around them that
get in the way of your shots. You can get around most of the swarming Mellows
by shooting the lower or upper part of it. After gaining the Missile Tank, head
right, jumping from platform to platform along the top of the room. There are
two more of these Mellow hives blocking your path.
The next hatch leads to a similar short shaft which you cannot descend into.
Again, go through the hatch on the right. This places you in a corridor that
contains a pillar of large Fake Blocks with a group of four Fake Blocks
underneath them. The bottom-right-most Fake Block contains a Missile Tank.
Also, this room is where you can encounter the Beam Beast again if you haven't
already defeated it. The same strategy as outlined three paragraphs above
should be used for it. If you still can't defeat it, it will alternate between
reappearing back where you first encountered it and here, at this spot, again.
If you've already defeated the centipede, there will just be three green Skrees
in its place (unless you didn't pick up the Charge Beam). Right after this part
of the room, there are some more pools of acid and an Energy Tank atop a
metallic column. Pick up the Energy Tank to increase the maximum amount of
energy that you can hold. On easy and normal, this will add a hundred units to
your maximum, but, on hard, it'll only be fifty units. Past this Energy Tank
are two more pillars of large Fake Blocks. These pillars are in the middle of
an acid pool, so be sure to blast them apart before jumping towards them.
You'll encounter three (more) green Skrees and a few more acid pools before
exiting right into a third long shaft.
----
Bomb
----
At the bottom, there's a Red Hatch on the left leading to a Map Room. You can
use these rooms to download partial maps that are added to your current Map
screen. Just move Samus up to the device that is lowered from the ceiling, and
it will take care of itself from there. The downloaded map generally helps a
great deal in pinpointing exactly where your next destination is but not so
much on how to get there, and they hardly ever identify where the more secluded
secret areas are located. Back out in the third long shaft, go up to the third
hatch on the right (above where you initially entered this shaft), and enter
it. Inside, you'll find three yellow Zoomers roaming around a platform and
another yellow Zoomer above that. There will be two hatches on the left side of
the room: The bottom one leads to a Save Room, and the top one leads to a
seemingly uninhabited room. This top room has a narrow passageway running along
the ceiling that leads to a Red Hatch. Blow it open with a Missile and pick up
the Bomb power-up that you find in the resulting Item Room. You can use this
item to lay bombs whenever you're using the morph ball (press the B Button).
Bombs can blow open secret passageways, damage enemies, and propel you through
the air. You can even use its propellant capabilities to reach high, out-of-
the-reach ledges. In earlier Metroid games, this "bomb jump" technique required
much more practice than it does in this Metroid game: You can, usually, just
uncontrollably mash the B Button to get a bomb jump started.
Before leaving the Item Room, morph into the ball, and bomb away the Fake
Blocks in the passageway under the Chozo Statue. This will reveal a not-so-
secret room behind the Chozo Statue containing a Missile Tank. Blast away each
Fake Block. Then, bomb yourself up onto the next floor to get to the Missile
Tank. After leaving the Item Room, Gray Hatches will block both your exits.
You'll need to go towards the hatch on the right and bomb the small column of
Bomb Blocks: More of those Parasites are hiding in this platform, and they're
going to pour out of the hole you'll make. However, with the Bomb power-up, you
can destroy them. Lay a bunch of Bombs everywhere--even before the initial Bomb
goes off--and that should take care of most of them. Then, roll through what's
left of them, allowing the Parasites to grab onto you, and lay a Bomb, but
remain near the explosion. Once they've all been destroyed, the hatches will
become open-able again. Make your way back out to the third long shaft then
back through the room where you found the Energy Tank then to the second of the
short shafts (the one on the right). The area below the floor is accessible now
that you have the Bomb power-up. Blast the Bomb Blocks with your Bombs, and
head through a combination of yellow and purple Zoomers and a single brown
Ripper to the hatch at the bottom-left of this shaft. Inside, you'll encounter
five Wavers which are flying creatures that move diagonally and reflect off the
walls, ceiling, and floor. Behind the Red Hatch at the left side of this room
is another Chozo Statue that will identify an area of Norfair as your next
target on the map.
Make your way back towards the first of the short shafts. As you're going back
through the room with the Mellow hives, If you destroyed all three of the
Mellow hives, they'll be gone for good and so will the Mellows in the next two
rooms after that. If you didn't get all three of them, you'll only need to
destroy one of them when you're heading towards the hatch on the left side of
the room. Once you've reached the other short shaft, lay Bombs a few spaces
away from the left hatch to reveal the opening that leads down the shaft.
There's a Missile Tank down there, but it's a little frustrating to acquire
(you may just want to wait until later to get it): While in midair, you'll need
to bomb an opening into a short passageway containing the Missile Tank, and
you'll need to get back up to where you dropped from, so you can attempt to
roll into the passageway as you're falling. If you don't do this quickly
enough, the passageway will reseal itself, and you'll need to start all over
again. Unfortunately, if you didn't clear out the Mellow hives, you'll be
repeatedly bombarded by the Mellows the whole entire time you're trying to
accomplish this. To get out of this shaft, blast your way up through the Fake
Blocks on the left wall. Be selective about which blocks you shoot, though:
You'll need some of them as a platform to reach the higher ones. Theses blocks
will also regenerate, if you accidentally destroy the wrong ones.
From this point, it's possible to get the Varia Suit early, but it requires a
lot of precision that isn't completely necessary if you choose to get it later.
Refer to section 3.B if you want to get the Varia Suit now. Additionally, you
can also defeat Kraid at this point, although it will be about as difficult as
acquiring the Varia Suit early. Refer to section 3.C if you want to fight Kraid
now. Otherwise, keep reading. To get into Norfair, go back to where you
acquired your first Missile Tank (near where you first fought the centipede
mini-boss), and continue moving right towards the end of the corridor. There
will be a rock formation attached to the ceiling over a pool of acid that you
can blast apart with a single Bomb. Afterwards, there will be a few more acid
pools and pits with Zebs emerging from them, as you move right to the end of
the corridor. From there, a Blue Hatch leads into the elevator shaft that takes
you into Norfair. As you're riding the elevator down into Norfair, you'll view
a short cut scene of Samus' activities being observed by the Mother Brain.
----------
2--Norfair
----------
Although your next target is situated to the right of the elevator shaft in
Norfair, you'll need to go through the hatch on the left first (there is a Save
Room through the hatch on the right, but don't bother going past that). Also,
don't go down through the center of this room where the purple Rippers (they
hurt more than the brown ones do) are hovering back and forth: Bomb along the
floor on either the right or left side, until you blast open a Bomb Block. You
may notice another type of block while bombing: Screw Attack Blocks. These
blocks cannot be destroyed until much later on. Under either Bomb Block, you'll
find a Pit Block. These blocks disintegrate whenever you stand on them. They'll
reappear about a second afterwards, but, from underneath them, there's nothing
you do to get them to disintegrate again.
Going through the hatch on the left takes you into a corridor with intermittent
lava pools and two insect-dispensing pipes. Note that there is a difference
between lava and acid other than color: Lava depletes your energy quicker than
acid does. In Norfair, the pipes are inhabited by Gamets which are just a
slightly stronger version of Zebs. Past the Gamet pipes are a few Novas on
platforms above the lava. Novas are fiery creatures that roam along the
surfaces of the room they inhabit, like Zoomers (they, too, are slightly
stronger than their counterparts in Brinstar). Above one of these platforms is
a Missile Tank near the ceiling. Skip it for now because it'll be much easier
to obtain in a few minutes (though, it's not too hard to bomb jump up there
anyway). Past the Missile Tank are some Mellas (unless you're playing on hard)
which are just Norfair's version of Mellows. On easy and normal, purple Gamets
will come out of both pipes, and there will be two purple Novas and two Mellas
in this room (on normal, there will also be an orange Nova). On hard, red
Gamets will come out of both pipes and the lava pit to the left of the Missile
Tank, and there will be four orange Novas. The left wall contains a secret
passageway that connects to an adjoining room. Shoot or bomb the bottom of the
wall to reveal this passageway, and roll through it with the Morph Ball. At the
other end, there is another narrow passageway atop a rock formation. Past that,
you'll find a few more Mellas (three on easy, and five on normal and hard) and
a hatch leading left into the next room. Move up through this room, and take
the elevator into Crateria (on hard, a purple Ripper appears below the
elevator).
-----------
3--Crateria
-----------
Upon reaching Crateria, move right through a pillar of Fake Blocks and into the
next room. This takes you into a water-filled area with several platforms that
lead right to a Yellow Hatch. You won't be able to open this door for a long
time, so forget about it. In the water below, are several fish-like creatures
called Skulteras. These enemies take many hits to destroy, but they swim
somewhat slowly towards you, giving ample time to kill them before they can
hurt you. Take note of the effect water has on your mobility, as you will move
a lot slower (both running and jumping) and bombs will have no propellant force
on you. At the shore, where you entered this room, lies a secret passage to a
Missile Tank. Bomb or shoot your way to the lower-left corner of the room
through a Fake Block and three large Fake Blocks to an opening containing a
Missile Tank and a single Skultera. Shoot the wall on the left to reveal the
Missile Tank then the Fake Block underneath it, so you can walk into it without
having to use the Morph Ball. Come back up to the surface and board the first
few platforms, moving into the upper-left corner of this room. There's a chunk
of Bomb Blocks that you may need to blast apart first (it's possible to go
around it using the wall jump). After that, there's just a large Fake Block
preventing you from moving through a narrow passageway up into the next room.
------------------
4--Chozo Ruins [1]
------------------
This is actually a sub-region of Crateria, so you haven't actually left
Crateria. Move through some more narrow passageways, using Bombs to clear a
path towards the hatch on the right side of the room. Along the way, you should
notice a suspicious block that you cannot destroy. The next room is an Item
Room that is half filled with water and contains four more of these suspicious
blocks. The Chozo Statue is holding a mysterious Unknown Item that will be
listed under the beams on your Status Screen. Analysis on this item will not
yield anything, except that "Item [is] incompatible with current suit." Despite
this, you'll now be able to destroy the suspicious blocks with any blasts from
your weapons. You'll need this ability to get back out of the water and to
acquire the Missile Tank near the door to this room. There are also two Fake
Blocks to the left that you'll need to destroy in order to get out of the
water pit containing the Missile Tank.
----------
Power Grip
----------
Outside of the Item Room, destroy the mystery block, go up through the opening,
and head left. There's some stuff to the right, but you can't do anything with
it yet. There are four platforms leading up to a door on the left (the door is
encompassed in the mouth of a gigantic statue). This door leads into a room
decorated in Chozo relics and a bridge made of Pit Blocks. Go ahead and fall
through the floor, then shoot at the left wall, destroying a large Fake Block.
Behind it, there will be a small column of three Fake Blocks. Destroy these
too, and jump up into the small area above. Bomb yourself into the narrow
passageway and move left. You'll move onto a Pit Block and fall through, but
keep moving left to exit into the next room, as there's another Pit Block
directly below the first one. This is another Item Room, except the Chozo
Statue is just a part of the background. Grab the Power Grip item, and use it
to head back out into the other room: Jump up into the ledge (you'll grab onto
it and hang there), and press up to crawl onto the ledge. While on ledges, you
can also press the A Button to drop off the ledge, or you can press the
A Button while holding left/right to jump up and away from the ledge. Note--you
HAVE to be moving towards a ledge in order to grab onto it; you cannot just
jump/drop next to a ledge no matter how close you are to it. Note--once you
have the Power Grip in your possession, you won't be able to re-enter this room
again, as the upper Pit Block outside will be replaced with a solid,
indestructible block.
Back out in the room with the bridge of Pit Blocks, a green pillar will rise in
the background, forming six ledges for you to use to get back up to the top.
The bridge of Pit Blocks will be gone, and a hatch on the left is your exit
(the hatch to the right is locked). This leads out into an area with three
smaller but tangible pillars. Atop the second one is a large Fake Block that
you should blast out of your way, and atop the third one is a narrow passageway
filled with two Fake Blocks that need to be destroyed. Grab onto the ledge of
the third pillar and roll up into the narrow passageway (just press up to pull
yourself up from a ledge and directly into a narrow passageway). The door to
the left leads out of the Chozo Ruins and back into Crateria.
-----------
5--Crateria
-----------
You'll emerge onto the Planet's surface on a cliff that stretches out into the
large vacant space of this room. Down below is your goofy spaceship where you
can save your game and restore your energy/weapons at the same time. Just jump
on top of it, and you'll automatically be lowered inside and prompted to save.
Again, there's a few secrets in this room, but you won't be able to do anything
about them until later. The hatch leading back to Norfair is to the right of
your spaceship. Go into the next room where you'll find two Rippers. Jump
across the water, or wade through it, and pull yourself up and out of it.
There's another mystery block you need to destroy at the end of a short, narrow
passageway. The passageway dumps out onto a Pit Block and into another short,
narrow passageway which dumps out onto the other side of the room. Take the
hatch on the right out to the room where you originally entered Crateria from.
Then, take the elevator back into Norfair.
----------
6--Norfair
----------
There's an out-of-the-way Missile Tank you may want to pick up. If not, head
back to the elevator shaft where you first arrived in Norfair, continue past
the Save Room, and skip ahead to the next paragraph. Once you're back in
Norfair, move down to where the first hatch on the right is at. Then, climb
into the narrow passageway on the left using the Power Grip ability. Move down
the room, destroying the Novas and avoiding the purple Ripper in the lower-
right corner. On easy, there will only be a single purple Nova on your way
down; on normal, there will be three purple Novas; and, on hard, there will one
purple Nova and two orange Novas. At the bottom, go through the hatch on the
right into another corridor filled with pockets of lava pools, Mellas, and one
of those Gamet pipes. Past the pipe are some Novas roaming around platforms and
some more Mellas. On easy, there will be two purple Novas; on normal, there
will be three purple Novas; and, on hard, there will be three orange Novas and
one purple Nova. At the end of the corridor, there is a Missile Tank sitting
atop a metallic column. After grabbing the Missile Tank, go back to the
elevator shaft where you first arrived in Norfair, and continue moving right
past the Save Room.
You'll be in another room with lava, but a tall wall to the right forces you to
move upwards, so you should grab onto the ledge above where you entered the
room. Pull yourself up onto the ledge, jump to the next platform, grab onto the
ledge near the ceiling, and pull yourself up onto that ledge. There will be
rock platforms leading down to the other side of the wall where you'll
encounter a purple Nova and a Polyp, a wierd, inorganic enemy on the floor that
launches balls of lava at you. You can destroy the balls of lava with just a
shot from your beam weapon, but the Polyp, itself, will require stronger
firepower (a single Missile will do the job). Move right and up onto more
platforms leading you over another tall wall. There will be even more rock
platforms leading down and another Polyp on the other side of this wall. From
here, move right over a bridge of Fake Blocks which has a Squeept trapped
underneath it and past an orange Nova and some more rock platforms leading up
into an empty corner of the room. Ignore all of this, for now, and continue
moving right through the hatch leading to the next room (if you didn't get the
Power Grip, a strange, gooey life form will be blocking your way to the next
room).
--------
Ice Beam
--------
You'll be in the main shaft of Norfair which leads upwards past three purple
Novas and a brown Ripper. On hard, though, this area will have three brown
Rippers and two purple Novas. Do not take the second hatch up on the right: It
leads into a room where the intense heat will deplete your energy as though
you're standing in acid. Take the first hatch up on the right instead. This
leads you into a room with a few tiny platforms over an expansive lava pool and
some purple Novas. On easy, there will just be two Novas, but, on normal and
hard, there will be five. Also, on hard, there will be three Dragons in this
room. These creatures look like sea horses, but they dwell in lava pits and
come up to shoot balls of fire at you when you're within range. Both the
Dragons and their fireballs can be neutralized using just your beam weapon (the
fireballs may even leave an item behind). You may not always have a clear shot
at the Dragons, though. Carefully move left across this room, as the sparse
platforms are barely big enough for you to stand on them. Also, you'll need to
make good use of your Power Grip ability too. The door on the left side of this
room takes you to an Item Room where you'll receive the Ice Beam. Combined with
the Long Beam, shots from your arm cannon will, now, be twice as powerful as
the Short Beam by itself. In addition, you can also freeze most enemies with
the Ice Beam and use the frozen enemies as a platform to stand on (generally,
enemies get frozen by the first shot).
You can't go back out the hatch you just came in because it will be sealed by a
Green Hatch, and, like the earlier Yellow Hatch, you don't have what's needed
to open this kind of door. However, you can roll under the Chozo Statue with
the Morph Ball and blast away two Fake Blocks which will lead you into another
room. In it, a purple Ripper is hovering back and forth between two columns.
Freeze the Ripper, and use the newly created platform to help you get over the
column on the left and out into the next room. This will be a short shaft with
three more purple Rippers and a Save Room through the left hatch. On hard,
there will also be an orange Nova on each wall and an extra, purple Ripper
moving along the ceiling. Freeze the Rippers, and use them as platforms to
reach the hatch at the top of this shaft on the right. To facilitate this
process, freeze them all when they're on the right side of the shaft, but try
not to have them all frozen on top of each other (wall jumping also helps you
get from one to the next). Inside the next room, there are two Squeepts that
you'll need to freeze and use as platforms to get across the lava. After the
second Squeept, you'll come upon another Chozo Statue. For some reason, though,
this Chozo Statue is moved right to the edge of the lava pit on hard, so that
you end up grabbing onto its hand when jumping across the lava. Regardless,
this Chozo Statue will direct you to your next destination in Kraid (also known
as "Mini-Boss hideout I" or "Kraid's Hideout" in the original Metroid).
After the Chozo Statue, continue heading right. You'll need to freeze three
Squeepts to get across a large stretch of lava, then head right through a Blue
Hatch. This will take you into yet another room where you'll need to make
platforms out of frozen enemies. This time, there won't be any lava to fall
into if you miss. When you freeze the first two purple Rippers, make sure
they're spread out, so you'll be able to reach and climb over the wall to the
right. The next wall to the right contains a Missile Tank one space down from
the ceiling: Blast away the Fake block, freeze the purple Ripper, and use it to
get to the Missile Tank (grab onto the ledge and pull yourself into the alcove
containing the Missile Tank). Below this, there's a large Fake Block and, on
the normal and hard difficulties, there's another purple Ripper past that. Take
the hatch to the right to get back out to Norfair's main shaft. You'll be at
the very top of the shaft with a purple Nova and a brown Ripper (on the hard
difficulty, the Ripper will be hovering along the floor for some reason). If
you'd like to defeat Ridley early (or obtain Super Missiles or the High-Jump
early), go to section 3.E. Otherwise, go to the far-right wall, and you'll drop
through some Pit Blocks. Go back down the shaft, and take the third hatch on
the left. You'll be back inside the room with the Squeept trapped under the
bridge of Fake Blocks, but there will be a lot more enemies added to it
(activating that last Chozo statue or completing its objective--acquiring the
Speed Booster--triggers this). To let the Squeept out, you'll need to blast the
Fake Block directly above it and the one on to the right as well. When the
Squeept is at the peak of its jump, freeze it, and use it to grab onto the
ledge above it. Grab the Missile Tank to the right and head towards the
elevator shaft that will take you back into Brinstar (this will be the first
one you come across when going right through each room). Freeze the two Rippers
to get back up to the elevator, and take it back into Brinstar.
-----------
7--Brinstar
-----------
With the Power Grip. it will be easier to acquire the Varia Suit, although
you're not supposed to get it until later (according to the Chozo Statues), and
you don't really need it to get through Kraid. If you want to get the Varia
Suit now, refer to section 3.B. Start moving left back to the middle long shaft
in Brinstar. In the upper-left corner of this shaft, there's a secret room you
can reach by freezing the two brown Rippers. This is a little out of the way,
so you might want to get this Missile Tank later before acquiring the Varia
Suit or on your way into Tourian. If you insist on getting it, though, try to
freeze both Rippers towards the left side, so the narrow passageway that you'll
need to pull yourself into is more accessible. On hard, there will only be one
Ripper, so you'll have to make up for that by wall jumping the rest of the way.
Inside this secret room, there's a Missile Tank. After picking it up, blast the
bomb block beneath where the Missile Tank was. There is a Pit Block underneath
the Bomb Block that will dump you out into the main shaft of Brinstar.
To get into Kraid, head all the way back to the very beginning. As you're going
down the main shaft, you'll see a suspicious formation on the left that looks
like it could serve as a narrow passageway (a little ways down from the
corridor that links the main shafts to the middle shaft). Freeze the nearby
Ripper and use it to jump onto the ledge. Destroy the Bomb Block, enter the
passageway, and move left into the semi-secret room. Move to the left wall,
eliminating the two Skrees as you go. Drop through the two Pit Blocks and shoot
the other Skree as you fall. Here, there will be six Zoomers moving around a
rock formation. On easy and normal, they'll be four purple and two yellow
Zoomers, but, on hard, they'll all be purple. Under the Zoomers lies two more
Pit Blocks and another Skree when you drop through them. Get the Missile Tank
to the left and roll into the passageway on the right. You'll fall through
another Pit Block and see a Super Missile Tank. Boost Blocks prevent you from
taking it, and there's nothing you can do about it until later. Roll into the
narrow passageway to the right to exit back out into the main shaft. Move down
the shaft and through the hatch on the left. Roll through the narrow passageway
and clear the room of all the Skrees. Three spaces away from the passageway,
there's a Fake Block in the ceiling hiding an Energy Tank (there's an Energy
Tank hidden here in the original Metroid and Super Metroid as well). Bomb jump
your way up to it (if you can), or freeze the far-left Skree to get up to it.
If you have problems getting it, new Skrees will appear after defeating Ridley
(unless you're playing on hard) that can be frozen closer to the Energy Tank.
Now, go through the hatch on the left. Blast away the Bomb Blocks to get under
the floor and move down the shaft where you'll find a redundant combination of
brown Rippers and purple Zoomers. At the very bottom is a hatch that leads into
the elevator shaft that leads to Kraid.
--------
8--Kraid
--------
As you enter the main shaft of Kraid's hideout, take special note of the
kick-ass background music that is a favorite to many Metroid fans. If you've
already got the Varia Suit, getting through Kraid will be a breeze. If not,
then take special care to stay out of the acid because there are various places
where you can get caught up in it for a few seconds. Take the first hatch down
on the left which takes you into a Save Room. There's a hidden passageway three
spaces up from the floor in the left wall (you can't grab onto it, so bomb
yourself into it). In the next room, move left, bombing the two blocks in the
in the narrow passageway. You'll see five stair-like columns over an acid pit
with a Missile Tank atop the middle one. Grab it, and head back towards the
main shaft.
Outside of the Save Room, the Red Hatch to the right leads to the power station
for the zip lines. Shoot a Missile at the Red Hatch, and head inside. Move
right across the large acid pit, and jump across two platforms. You'll see a
similar formation of stair-like columns (seven this time) with a Missile Tank
atop the middle one. Pick up the Missile Tank, and continue moving right
through the corridor, until you see the two Side Hoppers trapped between the
four large Fake Blocks. First, shoot only the bottom Fake Block, and attack the
Side Hopper on the floor (you may want to use Missiles, since you'll only need
two for each of them, and they're likely to leave Missiles behind anyway). When
you've destroyed the bottom one, go ahead and clear away the top Fake Block, so
you can shoot the Side Hopper on the ceiling. Next, you'll come across a Geega
pipe. Geegas are Kraid's version of the Zebs/Gamets. Almost all Geegas will
attack in pairs (the two exceptions are noted). Right past the Geega pipe are
two more Side Hoppers in the same scenario as before, except you'll have to
deal with both the Geegas and the Side Hoppers at once. To counter this,
destroy the Geegas, but do not pick up whatever item they may leave behind.
New Geegas will not come out, until you've picked up all items from them or the
items they left behind disappear (you'll have about ten seconds before the
items finally disappear). Destroy the Side Hoppers during your reprieve from
the Geegas. Then, go through the hatch on the right. You'll see a Zeela roaming
around a platform and a tall, transparent tube of some sort with many brown
Rippers in it (Zeelas are Kraid's version of the Zoomer/Nova, except slower).
On hard, almost all of the Zeelas in Kraid's hideout will be the red type (the
only place where they're the yellow type on hard is the main shaft). The red
Zeelas are especially different from the yellow ones, and, quite possibly, the
coolest enemy in a Metroid game ever: When you destroy them, their eyes burst
from their eyestalks and explode!!! Just make sure you don't get hit by the
exploding eyes, or you'll take minor damage. Move next to the tube, and bomb
the Fake Block in the floor to reveal a Morph Ball launcher. Destroy the Bomb
Blocks over the launcher to get down to it, and lay a Bomb inside of it (stay
in Morph Ball form afterwards). Once the bomb has energized it, the launcher
will shoot you straight up into the air, only stopping when hitting a solid
platform or ceiling.
The launcher will only get you up about halfway through this room. You'll pass
a Missile Tank on the way. To get it, stay in Morph Ball form and drop back
down into the top-most narrow passageway. This will drop you into the
passageway containing the Missile Tank. Directly after acquiring the Missile
Tank, dropping down to the next part of the passageway will place you on top of
a Pit Block that will take you back down to the Morph Ball launcher. If you
know how to wall jump or feel like bomb jumping back to the top of the room,
you can roll out of the way of the Pit Block and proceed back up to the top of
the room without using the launcher. Once there, use the alcoves on both sides
as something to grab onto. Shoot any Zeelas or Fake Blocks in your way, and
jump from alcove to alcove (angling your arm cannon will help in hitting your
targets). Once you're on top of the mess, head up and left through the hatch at
the top of the room. This leads into a corridor with two Fake Blocks over a
Geega pit (these Geegas do not attack in pairs). The Fake Blocks fill a
passageway in the left wall that you'll need to grab onto and pull yourself
through. Move left past a Geega pipe (these Geegas also attack one by one).
Then, jump over an acid pool, and exit through the hatch on the left. Shoot the
three large Fake Blocks and drop down the hole, shooting against the wall on
the right side. This should have hit a Fake Block and opened up a small hole
which you'll grab onto (the Fake Block is colored blue instead of gray). If you
missed, you'll find another Morph Ball launcher and a group of four Zeelas
moving around on the same platform at the bottom of the room. Use the launcher
to get back up to the top of the room and try again. You may find it easier to
use Bombs and roll into the secret passageway. Once you're inside, you'll be
able to see into the hidden area which will reveal a Fake Block that you should
bomb. There will be another group of four Zeelas moving around on an identical
platform and a Red Hatch to the right. Open the door with a missile, and enter.
This is where the power station for the zip lines is located. Jump onto the
structure, morph into the ball, and fit yourself into the groove in the center
of the structure. This will give power to the zip lines throughout Kraid.
Directly above the power station, you'll find a red, circular device imbedded
in the ceiling. Shoot this to get the zipper to come to your end of the line.
To ride the zip line, simply jump near the zipper, and you'll automatically
grab onto it and swing across the room. You'll automatically drop off the zip
line once you've reached the end too, but you can also drop off manually by
pressing the A Button. This zip line takes you to an Energy Tank and drops you
off next to a Geega pit. Make use of them to refill your Missiles and energy,
and move right through the Save Room and into the next room after that. You'll
be back in the room with the transparent tube, except you'll be confined to the
left portion of it. Move right, fall through the Pit Block, and go through the
hatch on the left. Head left through this small, empty corridor and into the
next room which contains a mini-boss. This room is filled with acid, and there
are four blocks over the acid (two on each side) that serve as platforms. If
you entered this room before activating the power station for the zip line,
there just would've been two yellow Rios in it (these are somewhat big, flying
creatures). Move into the room and take the zip line across the acid pit...
--------------------
Mini-Boss--Acid Worm
--------------------
Halfway across the acid pit, a huge, worm-like creature will come crashing
through the floor and into the ceiling (barely missing you). It's weak spot is
the orange part of its body directly below its head. When you get to the other
side, take a few shots at this area of the Acid Worm's body (all attacks work,
but Missiles will kill it quicker). Shortly afterwards, the worm will retreat
into the acid. It will bite its fangs together twice before attacking you. This
is your cue to jump on the zip line and ride it across the acid pit: The Acid
Worm will attack the spot where you were standing when it was biting its fangs
together, so, if you were waiting on the upper block, the worm will immediately
retreat back into the acid when it misses you. However, if you were waiting on
the lower block, the Acid Worm will accidentally latch onto the upper block
when you jump onto the zip line. At this time, its weak spot will once again be
exposed, and you should begin firing at it once you drop off of the zip line
(you can turn around while on the zip line, so you'll be facing the worm once
you get across the acid pit). If you cannot get out of the way of the worm's
attack, it will latch onto you and pull you into the acid pit. Also, if you're
waiting on either side of the room, the worm will rise from the acid and spit a
group of three purple balls at you. You can shoot these to restock your energy
or Missiles. As you continue to damage the Acid Worm, it will gradually speed
up its attacks (if you're playing on hard, the attacks will be sped up much
more quickly). If you're playing on the normal or hard difficulty, the worm
creature will begin raising the level of the acid after taking fifteen hits
from the Missiles (you'll see its fangs remain outstretched while it's raising
the acid level). You'll need to get up on the higher block to avoid the acid.
When the acid lowers back down to its original level, take the zip line across
the pit because the Acid Worm will follow up with its previous attack method
immediately afterwards. Once you've shot it with thirty Missiles, it dies, and
the acid pit will begin to drain.
Once the acid has drained enough, go down into the pit, and bomb the area where
the worm was coming out of the floor. You'll destroy two Bomb Blocks, but there
are two more right below those, so bomb them as well. Go down into the hole,
and move left across the remaining acid. Shoot the Fake Block at the very top
of the left wall, and climb into the hole you create. Bomb the large Fake Block
at the end of the narrow passageway to reveal a secret room with three yellow
Zeelas crawling around a column over an acid pit. On hard, these Zeelas will be
red, but there will be four of them. Freeze one of the Zeelas, so that you can
use it as a platform to acquire the Missile Tank atop the column. After getting
the Missile Tank, go back out into the mini-boss room and take the hatch in the
upper left which leads back to the room with the Morph Ball launcher. From
there, work your way back to the main shaft. Also, there won't be any more
Geegas in the next room, and the second pair of Side Hoppers in that first
corridor will have also disappeared, but a new Geega pit has formed just
outside of the main shaft (between the two platforms near the hatch).
From here, take the second hatch down on the left (under the Save Room). This
takes you into an acid-filled room. Shoot the two Fake Blocks that fill the
passageway to the left, and pull yourself into it. Behind the Fake Blocks are
two Bomb Blocks. Past this is a Fake Block you'll drop onto and a zigzagging
passageway that you'll have to bomb yourself up through. Take the zip line left
across the room, but shoot as you go because there are five large Fake Blocks
in the zip line's path. After dropping off of the zip line, take the hatch on
the left into a room with an acid pit, some Zeelas, and a brown Ripper. Move up
the platforms through the room and take the upper-right hatch. This leads into
a room with some sort of spider creature that looks a bit like a Side Hopper.
This one will only hop towards you, so stand near it while kneeling, and shoot
it. You should also morph into the ball whenever it jumps over you to ensure
that it won't hit you. Towards the right of this room, there's a passageway
that you'll have to pull yourself up into. This leads up then back to the left
into a narrow passageway that takes you above another spider creature. The
ceiling is too low for it to jump, so the spider thing can only run into you.
The passageway above it dumps out near a Gray Hatch on the left, but the spider
can get to you there. Shoot the spider, but, if you need to, go back into the
passageway, and move to the other side. The passageway above the spider is made
up of Fake Blocks, so you can destroy one of the blocks and drop down to shoot
the spider again. Then, when it starts getting close to you, jump back up into
the passageway, and find another spot to attack it from. The more you damage
it, the quicker it will move (it will also change color accordingly). If you
just use Missiles, you should be able to destroy the spider before it can even
get near you (it takes ten Missiles to kill it). For some odd reason, only the
spider at the top of the room will appear if you've already defeated Ridley,
unless you're playing on hard. Additionally, neither of these spiders will
re-spawn, although the other ones in Norfair will.
Once you've defeated both spider-like creatures, you can leave through the
upper-left hatch which will lead back out into the very top of the room you
just came from. Bomb yourself into the narrow passageway and move left until
you fall through a hidden hole to get the Missile Tank below. You'll, then,
land on a Pit Block which drops you onto another Pit Block which drops you back
down to the two Zeelas and the Ripper. At the bottom of the room, you may
notice another brown Ripper moving through the acid. This acid is just an
illusion and can't hurt you. Lay a single Bomb to blast apart the floor, then
drop down to reveal that this is actually a long shaft. On hard there will be
two Rippers below the floor, so watch out for it. At the very bottom, you'll
find two more Zeelas and a hatch leading right. Through this hatch are two
similar, short corridors leading right. In the second corridor, there's a Red
Hatch to the right and what looks like a tunnel leading to a room below. Shoot
a Missile at the Red Hatch, and enter the room to the right first. There is a
zip line, three Side Hoppers, and six purple Rippers in this room. Move right,
until you see the Rippers along the top of the room. A little further right,
you'll see four rows of green blocks imbedded in the floor: These have a Bomb
Block in the center of them that cover the Morph Ball launcher under each one.
You'll just need to use the launchers to clear away the Rippers and the Boost
Blocks directly below the zip line. If you have trouble hitting the Rippers,
freeze them directly over the launchers, and they'll be sitting ducks for your
attack. Once all the Rippers and Boost Blocks are gone, get the zip line on the
right side of the room, and use the right-most Morph Ball launcher to grab onto
the zip line. You'll need to stay in ball form to get to the Missile Tank you
saw back on the left side of the room.
----------------
Unknown Item [2]
----------------
Once you've attained the Missile Tank, go left back into the short corridor.
Bomb the floor over the tunnel, and drop down. This takes you into a room where
you'll be standing near the top end of a similar tunnel. There will be a
mystery block to the right, but it's different from the previous ones, so you
won't be able to destroy it. Again, bomb the floor over the tunnel, and take
this one down to the bottom part of the room where you'll find two Geega pipes
and some Zeelas. The hatch on the left leads to a Save Room, and the hatch on
the right leads to an Item Room. Outside of the Item Room, there's a platform
with a large Fake Block above it. To the right of this block, there's a
regular-sized Fake Block that's covering a secret passageway into the adjacent
Item Room. Destroy both of these blocks, and pull yourself up into the narrow
passageway that leads inside of the Item Room. The Chozo Statue holds another
Unknown Item. This one will be listed under the miscellaneous items on your
Status Screen, though. Upon receiving this item, you'll be able to destroy the
new type of mystery blocks with any blasts from your weapons.
Shoot the mystery block to get back outside of the Item Room. Then, get in
between the two Geega pipes where another mystery block separates two halves of
a narrow passageway. Directly below this mystery block are two Missile Blocks.
These can be destroyed with a simple missile blast. After clearing out this
area, go left through the narrow passageway above. You'll come across a few
more Zeelas, but continue moving to the upper hatch on the right. This leads
into a corridor where a yellow Rio and a Side Hopper will simultaneously attack
you at several intervals. Use Missiles to destroy the duo; use one for the Rio
and two for the Side Hopper (when firing at the Side Hoppers, you should kneel,
or wait for them to jump). The next room to the right is another Save Room
followed by a short corridor. Take the hatch on the right into a small room
with a red Zeela on a platform above a Geega pipe. On hard, there will be two
red Zeelas on the platform. If you've been playing on easy or normal, and this
is your first encounter with a red Zeela, just remember not to shoot them from
close by because their eyes come off and explode (!). Use the Geega pipe to
replenish your Missiles and energy. From here, you can either go to Kraid's
lair, or, if you don't think you're ready, you can head back to the main shaft
(Kraid's pretty easy, though).
To reach Kraid's lair, go to the second paragraph after this one. Otherwise,
continue reading. Pull yourself onto the platform near the ceiling, stand in
the middle, and shoot the Fake Blocks above you. This creates a tunnel up into
the room above where you'll head left through a Blue Hatch. This takes you into
yet another short corridor that leads left into the next room. There are two
Zeelas in this room. Move all the way to the left, and shoot the Missile Block
above you. Now, bomb your way up to the Bomb Blocks above which will create a
short, narrow passageway to a large Fake Block on the left. Alternatively, you
could've gone up along the right half of the room, through some large Fake
Blocks, and down a series of Pit Blocks to get here, but this way is shorter
and will make it easier to return to this part of Kraid's hideout (the Missile
Block you destroyed prevents this, as does another in this room). On the right
side of this room, there's a blue Missile Block above you. Shoot a Missile at
it, and pull yourself into the narrow passageway above. Then, navigate your way
to the hatch on the upper-left, and go through it. This room is kind of tricky:
The two structures on the side are comprised of Bomb Blocks, and the one in the
middle is comprised of Pit Blocks, but you'll need to go across the zip line in
bomb form to get to the hatch on the left. To do this, get on top of the column
of Bomb Blocks, shoot the red instrument in the ceiling to get the zip line on
your side of the room, morph into the ball, and lay a single Bomb. The blast
will lift you up to the zip line and take across the room. The door on the left
leads to the bottom of the main shaft. You can get back up to the top by
grabbing onto ledges, freezing three brown Rippers, and destroying the left-
most, large Fake Block above the frozen Rippers (just make sure the top Ripper
is frozen towards the center of the room). If you feel like exploring, though,
take the left hatch at the bottom of the shaft, and continue reading.
In this room, there's another Geega pipe and five Side Hoppers. The Side
Hoppers on the left side of the room are clumped together. Clear them from far
away, so they can't gang up on you (use Missiles). The hatch on the left leads
into another room with a glass tube, a Morph Ball launcher, Zeelas, and a lot
of brown Rippers. In this room, there's a Red Hatch to the left, but it's only
keeping you from getting into a Map Room, so you may want to skip it. Morph
into the ball, and roll under the platform in the center of the room and into
the launcher. After shooting yourself to the top of the room, take the hatch on
the right into the next room. This room contains three Side Hoppers and a
Missile Tank. After clearing the room of the Side Hoppers, climb ON TOP OF the
platform with the red instrument for the zip line. Make sure the zip line is on
the right side of the room, morph into the ball, and lay two Bombs about a
quarter of a second away from each other (the first will activate the zip line,
and the second will lift you up onto the zip line). If you've timed the second
Bomb a little off, you can always move left/right to make up for the late/early
timing. If you succeed, the zip line will take you left to the Missile Tank
while in ball form. Make sure you drop off the zip line as soon as you're over
the Missile Tank, or the zip line will drop you in the wrong place, and you'll
have to start over. Once you've attained the Missile Tank, take the hatch on
the right to get back out into the main shaft of Kraid's hideout.
The corridor back out to the left contains another tunnel leading to a room
below: Blast the Bomb Block a few spaces away from the right hatch, then drop
through the hole. You'll fall past two adjacent mystery blocks into a room with
many red Zeelas. Make your way back up to the two adjacent mystery blocks,
shoot them both, and proceed to the left through a Blue Hatch. This takes you
into the short corridor outside of Kraid's lair. The hatch on the left is
covered by an eye creature. This particular hatch eye will not attack you. When
the eye is exposed, shoot it with either a Missile or a charged up blast from
your arm cannon, and it will die, uncovering a Red Hatch. After entering
Kraid's lair, you'll view a short cut scene of Kraid emerging from the floor,
and, then, the battle begins.
-----------
Boss--Kraid
-----------
This encounter with Kraid is done in the style of Super Metroid rather than the
original. You'll begin the battle standing on a ledge that's five spaces long.
Kraid's weak spot is his opened mouth. To get Kraid to open his mouth, you'll
need to shoot his eyes with either a Missile (preferred because they're
quicker) or a fully charged blast from your arm cannon. Additionally, you'll
need to use either of these two attacks to damage Kraid once his mouth is open.
This will be somewhat difficult because Kraid repeatedly flings a pair of his
claws at you (on hard, these claws will travel through the air much faster than
usual), and they'll often intercept any shots you take at Kraid's head. These
claws may leave behind items when you destroy them, though, so it's not a total
loss. Still, these claws are annoying because Kraid aims for you, and, with the
limited amount of space that you have, it's not that easy to dodge them AND
shoot at Kraid. There's a Missile Block directly above the door that you may
want to destroy to give yourself more room (you can't hit Kraid from it, but it
IS useful to grab onto when dodging the claws). If you happen to fall off of
the ledge early in the battle, Kraid will shoot two horns out of his stomach
and into the left wall directly below the area where you came in. These will
destroy most of the platform you were using earlier, but you can use the horns
to get back up to what remains of the platform. Be careful not to get hit by
them, though (you can kneel on the first one to avoid the second one). Shortly
afterwards, The horns will systematically explode from the bottom up
(strangely, the explosions don't hurt you), so don't dawdle.
If he hasn't already, Kraid will begin launching the bottom two horns from his
stomach after you've hit the inside of his mouth with four Missiles. At this
point, Kraid will periodically swipe at you with his other hand. When you see
him lift the other hand up, you'll have about a second before he swats the
small area directly in front of him. If you time it right, you can jump
straight up to dodge this attack, or you can just drop off the platform to the
right. While his hand is raised, you won't be able to hit his eyes or mouth, so
time your shots correctly. After shooting the inside of Kraid's mouth with
eleven missiles, he'll begin shooting a third horn from his stomach. This will
destroy what's left of the platform, and you'll have to take the rest of your
shots from atop Kraid's horns. When the horns begin exploding, be careful not
to get hit by the next one as you fall down. After shooting the inside of
Kraid's mouth with fifteen missiles, you'll have defeated him. As he's sinking
back into the ground, the game will cut to a shot of the gateway into Tourian
and Kraid's statue lighting up: The first half of the gateway into Tourian will
now be unlocked.
-------------
Speed Booster
-------------
After Kraid perishes, head left into an Item Room, destroying the three Bomb
Blocks that are in your way. The Chozo Statue holds the Speed Booster power-up
which allows you to run at hyper speeds. To activate this ability, just move
left/right like normal, except you'll need enough room on a flat surface to
build up speed for the boost. When speed boosting, you'll eradicate almost any
enemy you come in contact with (some exceptions are the gooey, pillar-like
organisms with the circular object in the center of them and the purple
tendrils found in the lower part of Norfair), and you'll also be able to
destroy Boost Blocks and Fake Blocks. You can test this new ability out by
starting a speed boost from under the Chozo Statue back out into Kraid's former
room. When done correctly, you'll begin leaving an afterimage once you reach
the right side of Kraid's former room. This is the point in a speed boost where
you'll be able to destroy enemies and barriers, so you'll plow right through
some Boost Blocks and into the next room. Note--when performing a speed boost
through multiple rooms, don't forget to open any doors in your path (you'll
have enough time to do this while running, though).
There's another group of Boost Blocks that you should break through in the next
room, so keep running, or you'll lose the speed boost. If you happen to get
stuck between the groups of Boost Blocks, there's a Fake Block in the ceiling
of the green-colored room that takes you up into a zigzagging narrow passageway
and onto a Pit Block that drops you on the other side of the Boost Blocks. If
you've still got the speed boost going, continue running until you get to the
next room on the right. Otherwise, clear the room of any Zeelas that will
prevent you from building up enough speed (getting hit by an enemy causes you
to lose any speed that you had built up), and speed boost into the next room on
the right. This room is a long shaft, and there's another set of Boost Blocks
that you need to break through, so keep running until you're past them (there
are also three Pit Blocks before this, but you'll zoom across them). If you
press down during a speed boost, it will temporarily store the kinetic energy
from the speed boost (for about five seconds) which you can use to perform a
Super Jump, although it will put a stop to the initial speed boost. Press the
A Button to release this energy (you CANNOT be moving when you press the
A Button), and you'll have about half a second to choose the direction of the
Super Jump. The default direction is up, but you can also jump left, right, and
diagonally (up and to the left or up and to the right at a forty-five-degree
angle). When performing a Super Jump, you will shoot off in the direction that
you chose, until you hit a solid wall, which is why you may find it useful in
the vertical shaft (use it one space to the right of the last Boost Block).
If you didn't use the Super Jump, you can get up the shaft by freezing the
brown Rippers and making good use of the long column of Fake Blocks along the
right wall. The Power Grip and wall jump are a lot of help too. The first hatch
up on the left leads into a corridor with a Geega pipe and a waterfall of acid
amidst an acid pool. It's possible to build up a speed boost from the room's
entrance to the Geega pipe on the left and super jump to the end of the
corridor (you can also shinespark and reuse the Super Jump to get back to the
beginning of the corridor). Alternatively, there are some stair-like columns
over the acid that you can also use to get there (a few of them are home to a
red Zeela). Either way, you'll move through the acid waterfall to get across,
but this only incurs a minimum of damage (even less with the Super Jump). At
the left wall, there's a Fake Block concealing a Missile Tank in the bottom
space.
Back outside in the shaft, move up to the top of the room. The hatch on the
right takes you to a Save Room, and the hatch on the left takes you into a room
with a zip line and a long stretch of acid. You need to take the zip line to
get across, but a hoard of green Rios (ten) will attack you as you cross the
acid. Shoot Missiles at them, and go nuts if you have to because you don't want
them to knock you off the zip line: There is no floor to this room, and you'll
end up in the room below with the acid waterfall (but you can't just go back up
through the acid). At the other end of the zip line, you'll land on a small
platform with a mystery block to the left of it. Shoot the mystery block, and
take the narrow passageway left where you'll bomb a large Fake Block covering
the other end of the passageway. Exit left into the main shaft of Kraid's
hideout. There will be a high wall directly in front of you that you need to
get to the top of. Eventually, a yellow Zeela will come down the wall, and you
can freeze it to get to the other side. You can also wall jump or bomb jump to
get there faster. However, there's a large Fake Block directly in front of it,
so, if you don't know how to bomb jump correctly, you'll end up dropping down
to the bottom of the shaft. If this is the case, you can get back up to the top
by grabbing onto ledges, freezing three brown Rippers, and destroying the left-
most, large Fake Block above the frozen Rippers (just make sure the top Ripper
is frozen towards the center of the room). There are two more items you can
pick up before leaving Kraid, though. If you don't want to bother with them,
continue reading from part 9.
Once you're on the other side of the high wall, enter the hatch to the left.
This room contains three Side Hoppers and a Missile Tank. After clearing the
room of the Side Hoppers, climb ON TOP OF the platform with the red instrument
for the zip line. Make sure the zip line is on the right side of the room,
morph into the ball, and lay two Bombs about a quarter of a second away from
each other (the first will activate the zip line, and the second will lift you
up onto the zip line). If you've timed the second Bomb a little off, you can
always move left/right to make up for the late/early timing. If you succeed,
the zip line will take you left to the Missile Tank while in ball form. Make
sure you drop off the zip line as soon as you're over the Missile Tank, or the
zip line will drop you in the wrong place, and you'll have to start over.
Once you've attained the Missile Tank, take the hatch on the right to get back
out into the main shaft. Shoot a missile at the Red Hatch up on the right, and
enter (you may want to save before going in here). There are four Rios in this
room and an Energy Tank at the very end. The Energy Tank is surrounded by Boost
Blocks, so you'll either need to perform a speed boost jump (more convenient)
or a Super Jump (less risky). If you want to perform a speed boost jump, run
right through the four Rios (eliminating them) across the bridge of Pit Blocks
and, when you get to the very end of the bridge, jump across the acid to the
Energy Tank. If you don't jump near the very end of the Pit Block bridge, you
probably won't destroy any of the Boost Blocks, or you might just destroy the
bottom one (in this case, you can pull yourself up into the area with the
Energy Tank). If you want to perform a Super Jump, run until the instant that
the speed boost has been initiated (this should be right before the bridge of
Pit Blocks), and press down to save the energy. While you're doing this the Rio
closest to you will probably attack you, so shoot it with a missile before it
can. Then, move back to the left, until you've reached a slightly higher
elevation, and Super Jump to the right. If you somehow end up in the acid on
the right side of the room, and you haven't destroyed the bottom Boost Block,
it's possible to wall jump out of the acid. If you can't wall jump, though,
quickly head left through the Pit Blocks, until you're out of the acid (this
will really drain your energy because you'll grab onto and fall through each
Pit Block without ever leaving the acid. Once you've picked up the Energy Tank,
ride the zip line back to the beginning of the room, go up the main shaft, and
take the elevator to Brinstar.
-----------
9--Brinstar
-----------
After leaving Kraid, you'll view a foreboding cut scene of Ridley with a mean
scowl on his face while he's traveling through space in the Space Pirate
mother ship (unless you've already defeated Ridley). When the elevator comes to
a stop back in Brinstar, the head-like rock formation to the right will fall
apart, revealing a hidden area with a three yellow Zoomers. You'll find a Red
Hatch to the right which takes you to another Chozo Statue. This one will point
out your next destination on the map, and it'll be somewhere in Norfair.
At this point, there's another place where you can get the Super Missiles
early. If you want to get them now, go to section 3.D. Otherwise, continue
reading. To the left of the elevator shaft, there's a Morph Ball launcher
hidden within the rock formation in lower-left corner. You'll be able to see it
once you blast away the Bomb Blocks and fall into it (the outer rock will
temporarily become see-through). This launcher sends you crashing through
platforms all the way to the top of the shaft, through the ceiling, and into a
hidden area. When you start falling back down, hold right to roll into the
alcove containing a Missile Tank. Now, make your way back to the elevator that
takes you into Norfair, but, as you're going up Brinstar's main shaft, there's
a secret passageway in the right wall that contains a Missile Tank. The
passageway is located five spaces up from the first ledge on the right (just
past the first Ripper). Inside, move as far right as possible and lay a Bomb.
This will destroy a series of Bomb Blocks, giving you access to the Missile
Tank above. Also, there's an exit on the right that leads out into the middle
long shaft. Move right through this exit until you drop through a Pit Block.
Continue moving right through the narrow passageway, blast the Bomb Block above
you, and proceed to the elevator shaft that leads to Norfair.
-----------
10--Norfair
-----------
At the bottom of the elevator shaft, run from the far-left side into the Save
Room and past that to the next room on the right. When you get into this room,
you'll have just enough speed built up to perform a Super Jump. Choose right as
your direction, and you'll rocket through the room until you hit a ramp. If you
ever Super Jump into a ramp or sloped surface, you'll begin speed boosting on
the ground again. This is called a Shinespark. From this point, you can
continue speed boosting in the direction that you're running, or you can even
link another Super Jump to another Shinespark (later, you'll come across a few
really annoying puzzles that require the use of this technique).
---------
High-Jump
---------
You'll need to speed boost into the main shaft on the right, so keep running
(if you screw something up, you don't need to start all the way back by the
elevator shaft). Once there, you'll break through some Boost Blocks in the
floor and uncover another part of this long shaft. Below, enter the hatch on
the left. You'll be inside a corridor with a purple Nova crawling around
amongst a group of Fake Blocks (on hard, this will be an orange Nova). Shoot
these out of your way, and go past the two Polyps to the far left of this room.
If you're playing on the normal or hard difficulty, you'll find a Dragon in the
lava pool here. From here, speed boost back out into the vertical shaft again
(if you're playing on the hard difficulty, a Polyp on the floor will just
barely allow you to build up a speed boost, although you can just destroy it
anyway), and you'll reveal yet another hidden area under the floor. Under this
floor, there will be a Missile Tank behind a tall wall to the right, but you
should ignore it for now. Move left through another hatch, and you'll be in a
corridor with lava along the floor and some Gerutas (Norfair's version of the
Rio). On easy, there will be two purple Gerutas and one green Geruta; on
normal, there will be four purple Gerutas and one green Geruta; and, on hard,
there will be four green Gerutas and one purple Geruta. Jump across the
platforms to the Red Hatch on the left which protects an Item Room containing
the High Jump power-up. With it, you can jump a good bit higher, and you'll
also be able to jump when you're morphed into the ball form (in ball form, you
can only jump about as high as you could when you were in regular form without
the High Jump ability).
If you don't already have the Varia Suit, you'll probably want it to get, as
the next two rooms to the left are hot enough to drain your energy. There is
another way into Ridley, though (refer to section 3.E), but you'll miss out on
an awesome ability and a useful addition to your beam weapon. However, if you
do possess the Varia Suit, skip ahead to part 12. Otherwise, go back out into
the main shaft, and pull yourself up over the high wall. Pick up the Missile
Tank, and drop down as far as you can go. On the left, there's a large Fake
Block separating you from a Blue Hatch, but don't bother going through it.
Instead, take the next hatch up on the left into a room with another Chozo
Statue. This one will show you where to get the Varia Suit. There's a hatch
above the Chozo Statue on the right that takes you back up the main shaft. Go
through it, and move right, until you find a Morph Ball launcher (there's a
pair of Missile Blocks past the launcher that you can blast through to access
this area as well). Use it to shoot yourself back up towards the top of the
middle of the shaft. Then, make your way back to Brinstar (don't forget that
you can speed boost through the next room).
------------
11--Brinstar
------------
The Varia Suit is up the middle long shaft and through the corridor to the
right. As you're approaching the middle shaft, get a speed boost started from
the area where you fought that centipede mini-boss through the hatch on the
left to the bottom of the middle long shaft. Store the energy before running
into the rock formation on the left (you won't have very much room), spin jump
onto the lowest part of the rock formation (the second space from the edge),
and super jump in an upwards direction. It'll only take you about half of the
way up the shaft, but it's little things like this that help make the
difference when you're trying to beat the game as fast as you can.
Keep going up the long middle shaft of Brinstar, until you reach the hatch on
the right. Take this hatch into a long corridor with one yellow Zoomer and some
purple Zoomers (if you enter this corridor before getting the High-Jump, it'll
also have two Skrees here). Once you pass two metal columns you can shoot the
red stripe on the second one to get it to move up one space (which isn't really
helpful since the High Jump allows you to get over it), there will be two Bomb
Blocks protecting an area with four narrow passageways that are stacked on top
of each other. Blast through the Bomb Blocks, and take the top passageway, but
be careful forpurple Zoomers in it (before getting the High-Jump, these
Zoomers--as well as the purple one at the far-right end of this corridor--
would've just been the yellow type). Use Bombs to eliminate any Zoomers in
these passageways, but avoid doing this on top of Fake Blocks. Once you're out
of the passageway, jump over the acid pit, and proceed to the right. You'll
come across a Living Barrier, a strange, pillar-like organism that's blocking
your path (this also appears after acquiring the High-Jump, and it looks a bit
like a miniature version of the final boss to "Contra"). Shoot the Fake Block
near the top of the ceiling, and go through the resulting narrow passageway. A
Pit Block will drop you down to the floor, forcing you to move through the
hatch on the right into a short corridor with a single Waver. Here, there are
two columns of Fake Blocks situated four and five spaces away from the hatch on
the right (three Fake Blocks in each column for a total of six). Shoot away
these Fake Blocks, and pull yourself up into the secret area. The left side of
the floor up there is comprised of Pit Blocks, so you'll need to jump from the
Fake Blocks to the ledge on the left side. Once on this ledge, shoot the two
Fake Blocks above you, jump up to the next area, and go through the hatch on
the left.
----------
Varia Suit
----------
Inside the next room are two more of Living Barriers. Wait for some Parasites
to come out of the ceiling, and they'll eventually swarm all over them and kill
the two obstacles. This is the only way to remove these things, but they don't
re-spawn upon re-enetering a room, like regular enemies do, so you'll only have
to deal with them once. Bomb yourself or jump through the hole on the left, and
jump over the acid to grab the ledge near the ceiling. Pull yourself into the
narrow passageway, roll leftwards, and drop down onto a Pit Block. This Pit
Block will hold together a little longer than others, so use this limited time
to jump up, and grab the next ledge (as you're falling onto the Pit Blocks, you
should be unmorphing out of the ball form to speed things up). Repeat this
process once more, and a Pit Block will drop you on a platform in the middle of
the acid. To the left there are four more of these slow Pit Blocks (one of them
is just barely level with the acid, so it's hard to see). Use the first two as
platforms to get across the acid once more, and pull yourself into the narrow
passageway near the ceiling. Move onto another slow Pit Block at the end of the
passageway, and roll left, as you fall through it. Further left, there's a row
of Bomb Blocks four spaces up from the ground that you'll need to blast apart.
This will release some more Parasites onto another Living Barrier. Wait until
they destroy it. Then, proceed left through the hole in the wall (there's a Pit
Block below this hole that will drop you into the acid, so be careful of it),
and fire a Missile at the Red Hatch to the left. Inside this Item Room lies the
Varia Suit.
After attaining the Varia Suit, your armor will change to an orange color, and
damage taken from enemy attacks will be reduced by a fifth. Also, you will no
longer take any damage from acid, fleas, or super-heated rooms. Use this new
immunity to retrieve the Energy Tank from the acid in the last room. Shoot
along the bottom of the acid pool, until you destroy large Fake Block. Move
into the hole you created, kneel, and repeatedly shoot the Fake Blocks in the
left wall. Now, roll through the passageway with the Morph Ball, and pick up
the Energy Tank. Go back through the hatch on the right and down the room with
the two Wavers. Now that you have the Varia Suit, some Parasites and an
additional Waver have appeared in this room. Also, some more Parasites have
appeared in the corridor to the left, but you won't be able to get them down to
the Living Barrier, unless you have Super Missiles (in which case shoot the
Super Missile Block at the left end of the above passageway), so head right
into the Save Room.
Keep moving right past a Zeb pipe and onto another metallic column containing a
Missile Tank. Past the Missile Tank is a wall containing a narrow passageway
above an acid pool. There is an area below the floor in the acid pool, but it
is blocked by another one of those Living Barriers. Shoot the Fake Block on the
far left, and jump into the narrow passageway while in Morph Ball form (if you
try to bomb your way up there from within the acid, you'll go through the
floor, although it will help later on to have these Fake Blocks cleared away)
where you'll find another of those metallic columns that move when you shoot
the red stripe. Behind the column are the needed Parasites (they also appear
only after acquiring the Varia Suit), so let them attach themselves to you, and
take them down to the Living Barrier (be careful not to accidentally bomb
anything while transporting them). Once it's destroyed, proceed to the right,
and take the narrow passageway into the next room. Once you get out of the
acid, there will be a Chozo Statue to the left. It's blocking the way to a
narrow passageway that leads back into the last room where the Parasites were,
so go ahead, and activate it. It will identify your next destination to be at
the bottom of Norfair. Keep moving right; you'll pass three gray Skrees on the
ceiling and a Zeb pipe, and you'll go through a hatch out into the far-right
long shaft. Drop down, but watch out for the two brown Rippers you'll pass as
you free fall. Go back to Norfair, and, if you never got the Missile Tank in
the short shaft to the left of where the Mellow hives appear(ed), you should
pick it up along the way.
-----------
12--Norfair
-----------
Back in Norfair, go down to the Item Room where you just received the High Jump
power-up. From there, head left through a narrow passageway under the Chozo
Statue. This takes you into the center of a rock formation inside a super-
heated room. Go as far to the left as you can, and bomb through the two Bomb
Blocks. Immediately after this are two more Bomb Blocks in the ceiling. Blast
them apart, and jump up into the area with the Nova. There's one more set of
Bomb Blocks to the left that you'll need to destroy before getting out of the
rock formation. Now, head left over the wall and through a Blue Hatch into
another super-heated room. There are a bunch Fake Blocks and some sporadic Bomb
Blocks strewn along the floor of this room. You'll have to destroy them all to
make room for a speed boost (the very first Fake Block will reappear). There
are ten Mellas along the ceiling, so make sure you clear them out of the way
too, or they'll swoop down and interfere with your speed boost. Also, on easy
and normal, there will be two purple Novas and three orange Novas, and, on
hard, there will be five orange Novas; they may also get in the way. When
you're ready, run from the right side of the room to the left, and jump through
the barrier of Boost Blocks hanging from the ceiling. Then, take the Blue Hatch
on the left into the next room.
------------
Screw Attack
------------
There's another one of those spider creatures from Kraid in this room. This one
will both jump and run towards you (as will all others from now on), but, like
usual, you should be able to shoot enough Missiles at it before it can even get
anywhere near you. Past this is a Save Room which leads further left into a
short corridor with green walls. There, shoot through the ceiling next to the
hatch on the left (this requires four Missiles). This takes you into a hidden
area with a Blue Hatch on the left. Go left through the hatch and into a room
with some Ripper IIs (these are just a tougher version of the Ripper). On easy,
there will be four of them, but, on normal and hard, there will be six of them.
Freeze the Ripper IIs to get through the room, but ignore the Missile Tank in
the center of the room, and proceed left to a Red Hatch. Open it with a
missile, and enter the Item Room to retrieve the awesome Screw Attack ability.
With the Screw Attack, you can create a lethal vortex whenever you spin jump.
This attack will instantly kill enemies that you come in contact with, but it
doesn't work on certain enemies (e.g., bosses and a few other special enemies).
It can also be used to break Screw Attack Blocks, like the ones surrounding the
Missile Tank outside of the Item Room. Try out the Screw Attack on the
Ripper IIs, and break your way through the Screw Attack Blocks to the Missile
Tank. Afterwards, head back out into the room to the right, and use the Screw
Attack to break through the floor on the right side. Just so you know,
acquiring the Screw Attack will cause two more spider creatures (for a total of
three) to appear in the room to the right of the Save Room.
Below, you can either shoot through the floor near the hatch on the right, or
you can just take the hatch on the left into the next room. Both paths lead to
the same place, but the bottom path seems quicker. If you choose to go through
the floor and take the bottom path, it leads to a corridor with three Gamet
pipes and an undulating floor. On all difficulties, there will be two orange
Novas in this corridor, but, on easy, the Gamets will all be the purple type,
while, on normal and hard, the Gamets from the first and last pipes will be the
red type. If you choose to take the top path, it takes you through a room where
you'll need to freeze enemies to make it over three high walls (a Gamet then a
Ripper then a Squeept) to the Blue Hatch at the left. Both paths lead out to a
shaft with more green walls, two purple Novas, and a Multiviola--a gaseous
enemy that bounces from wall to wall. Multiviolas are slow enough, though, that
they pose very little to you. There's a Red Hatch down to the left that's
protecting a Map Room and a lava pit below that.
The lava pit is actually another illusion that leads down into a tight space
with two purple Novas. From there, you can shoot two Fake Blocks on the right
and drop towards the real bottom of this shaft, passing two Ripper IIs and
another purple Nova along the way. There's another lava pit down there, but
this one is the real deal, so go through the Blue Hatch on the right. This
takes you into a room with lava running along the floor and columns made out of
large, red and green bubbles. The top of the first column (near the Dragon) is
made of two Fake Blocks, so don't let it surprise you when you break through
them with the Screw Attack. Jump from column to column across the lava,
avoiding the Novas and the two swooping Gerutas as you go. On easy and normal,
there will be three purple Novas and one orange Nova, while, on hard, there
will be one purple Nova and three orange Novas. Be very careful not to fall
into the lava near the center of this room: Unless you know how to wall jump,
you won't be able to grab the top of any columns to get out of the lava,
although you'll still have the option to roll through the lava under the
columns and take heavy damage. Take the hatch on the right back into another
short corridor with green walls.
These short corridors are all connected to each other, but you'll need to be
able to break through Boost Blocks to get through some of the floors. There's
another large Fake Block in the floor to the right (this area is very
repetitive), so shoot it, and go down below. On easy and normal, you'll find a
purple Nova, an orange Nova, and a purple Ripper down there. On hard, you'll
find three orange Novas, a purple Ripper, and a Polyp. There will also be a
Blue Hatch on the right which you should go through to attain two more Missile
Tanks. This will be another room with those freaky, green and red bubbles and
lava running along the floor. Head right past two Squeepts and a purple Nova.
When you come upon the third Squeept, shoot the top-most bubble in the wall to
the right to uncover a hidden Missile Tank. Continue to the right side of this
room to gain another Missile Tank. Then, head back out into the room with the
green walls. From there, take the next hatch up on the right into a corridor
with Gerutas and some plant-like tendrils emanating from the floor and ceiling.
---------
Wave Beam
---------
The purple Vines (the ones that have ensnared green Gerutas) require two
Missiles to be destroyed, but all the other ones can be cleared using normal
shots from your arm cannon. The purple Gerutas can be freed from their green
Vines (unlike the green Gerutas that are tangled in the purple Vines), but they
can be destro