Metroid Prime - Space Jump Boots First

US Method Discovered by: Devilbit
PAL Methods Discovered by: zOidi

It's now very possible to acquire the Space Jump boots as the very first item in the game, even before missiles. This opens up a whole pile of new opportunities, such as completely skipping the Hive Mecha battle for the Missile Launcher, and loads more. The actual method between the US and PAL/Japanese/US Player's Choice versions of Metroid Prime varies, but the principle and execution remains the exact same.

If you want to enlarge the screenshots below, simply click on them.

.:US Version Only:.
As soon as you land and get out of your ship, move back to the flame on the turbine to your right (or your left if you turn around to get your bearings). Make sure you're facing the spidervine, which is located just up and to the right of the door leading to the impact crater, and start a scan.

Now, this step is very important, if you are to accomplish this successfully, you must use L to scan the spidervine. Don't worry that it's too far away to actually scan, this is how we need it to be. Now, as soon as you get a lock on with L, immediately press right and B to perform a dash. Now, as soon as you see that you're dashing, you MUST very quickly release L, if done correctly, you will zip right and land on the ledge leading to the Space Jump. You know that you will have done it correctly when your standing in the same area as shown in the screenshot below. This trick is so fast, that the less likely that you think you've done it, the more likely that you have done it.

.:PAL/Japanese Versions/US Player's Choice:.
Thanks to Retro Studios removing the ability to dash while locking on in Scan mode, we had to devise a way around this. And thankfully, someone DID devise a cunning plan to get around it. It takes around 40 seconds to do from once you leave the ship until you land on the ledge leading to the Space Jump, but the actual method of dashing to the ledge as described above is almost identical. There is a second PAL method that is around 30 seconds or more faster than the original PAL method, but it's a LOT harder to do. I'll post the method for that for those who are going for a PAL speed run...

.:Method 1 (Slower But Easier):.
As soon as you land, make your way to the blue door that leads to the impact crater. In here you will see 3 Seedlings. The idea is to L-Lock onto the FIRST one that's closest to you. Now the next set of steps must be done very carefully if you're not to lose this enemy lock-on, as this is what's used to dash to the ledge.

Once you have a Lock-on, move to the left of the door at about halfway between the door and the wall to your left. Now, the next few steps must be done going BACKWARDS. Start jumping backwards towards your ship WITHOUT letting go of L at all. You will encounter 2 ledges behind you that will stop you dead. Just jump up and back to get past them. As soon as you reach the ship, get behind the left booster that you see facing the ground and then jump up and to the right.

     

Now you must carefully position yourself for the jump. The best angle seems to be where you can see the bottom of the light that leads to the entrance of your ship. You need to be almost right on the right of the ship.

Now dash to the right with a tap of right and B, and as soon as you start dashing at speed, LET GO of L and if timed correctly, you will land on the ledge leading to the Space Jump boots! The movie for this trick can also be found here:

.:Method 2 (Faster But Harder):.
This method is used in PAL speed runs as it cuts out the long trek to the seedlings room. Jump off of the ship and head to the room on the right with the 2 beetles in it. Jump to the edge of the path just before the gravel where the beetles appear, jump back to the door while turning to it and then open the door.

Turn around quickly and lock onto the RIGHT hand beetle and shoot it a couple of times while moving back out the door and go right. Now, this will take a LOT of practice, but perform a dash jump to the right just before you fall of the ledge near the door. You should get a boost up from the rock face and onto the ledge leading to the SJ boots. It's tough to do, but possible.