------------------------------------------------------------------- The 14/15% Walkthrough for Super Metroid ------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 1.5 ------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: If you are not a pro at this game, SKIP THIS WALKTHROUGH. This is not a walkthrough to easily beat the game, this is a walkthrough to challenge people's skills and beat the game with a minimum of items. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction This walkthrough will get you through the whole game with only 14/15%. Some parts of the game are pretty hard and will take a long time to perform, but everything in here CAN and HAS been done. I'm going to assume you have at least a basic knowledge of the game and its areas in general. Also, I'll refer to the enemies with generic names so you don't have to look them up. Although 14% is possible, it is only possible with the aid of glitches. Because many people don't like to abuse glitches, the glitchless 15% path will remain in this walkthrough. If at any time, you want to get something in the 14/15% ahead of time, go right ahead. Just don't get it later when I tell you to. This walkthrough is the first one of mine, so there's obviously going to be a few errors, or things that could easily be improved on. For a ZSNES Movie of one path possible, go to http://Kejardon.tripod.com/Metroid/1-3.zip http://Kejardon.tripod.com/Metroid/4-5.zip http://Kejardon.tripod.com/Metroid/6-9.zip The ZSNES version used was Windows 1.30 (1.02). Other old ZSNES versions also work. Please note that the movie with Mother Brain doesn't work, unfortunately. The 7th movie also often breaks near the very end of it. Tourian doesn't seem to like movies. And please ignore the 8th movie, that was a joke movie. :P Other ZSNES movies inside this file use ZSNES 1.36 unless otherwise stated. ___________________________________________________________________ Index 1) Updates I'm finally keeping track of what's updated when 2) The Essentials What you need, and what you need to know. 3) The Walkthrough The whole journey from Ceres to Tourian. 4) Thanks Sources of ideas and support. 5) Misc. Whatever info that doesn't fit up above. ___________________________________________________________________ A quick note: The buttons that are written in this walkthrough are the default buttons. Keep that in mind if you messed around and made your own button configuration. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Updates ------------------------------------------------------------------- _____________________ 1.0 (1/31/01) - Began the Walkthrough. Completed every part, though many weren't that thorough _____________________ 1.1 (6/24/01) - Elaborated on a few sentences - 14% branch-off - Added a few moves - Added more orginization - Added a few credits _____________________ 1.2 (6/4/02) - Removed 14% branch due to Varia Suit requirement - Removed Horizontal Bomb Jump - Added Charged Bomb Spread - Added more information on getting through areas - Added Gravity Jump. Suicide rate for SM players fell dramatically - More information on Ridley _____________________ 1.3 (12/29/02) - Added Updates section - Better orginization - Fixed the Items typo - Rewrote many sentences in the walkthrough - Major rehash on Ridley strategy _____________________ 1.4 (1/11/03) - Rewrote Mother Brain section and part of the ending. _____________________ 1.5 (7/13/03) - Minor typos fixed, also included link to the ZSNES movie - 14% path discovered and put in - 15% glitches removed - Many more moves and glitches put in below for new paths ------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) The essentials ------------------------------------------------------------------- The most important peice of equipment for beating the game at 15% is going to be your skill. You'll have to pull off some really crazy things in this, but it's impossible to beat it without doing them. ______________ Required Moves ______________ _________________________________ Bomb Spread / Charged Bomb Spread Charge up your beam, then roll into a ball and let go of down. Samus will release five bombs. If you hold down down, Samus will remain flashing for a few seconds. During this time, the bomb spread is charged, and the bombs will be thrown farther the longer you charge it. At a certain point, the bombs will be fired even if you hold the down button. Releasing the fire button anytime during this will make the charge disappear without laying any bombs. You can stand up from this by pressing the jump button, and Samus will keep the charge. This is very useful against Ridley, when you want to be able to pseudo-screw attack as often as possible. _________ Wall Jump Perform a spinning jump(be moving while you jump) and run into a wall. Press away from the wall, and immediatly afterwards, as it looks like Samus is holding onto the wall, hit the jump button. You should be able to do this flawlessly, time after time after time. If you can't master this, then chances are you'll be hopeless against Ridley, Bomb jumping, and other things you'll have to do. Also, if you want to Gravity Jump into Lower Norfair, you have to be able to wall jump up two blocks and away a block. A good place to practice this is the wall left of Samus's ship. I would definitely practice it some. _____________________________ Psuedo-Screw Attack Wall Jump Long name for an easy move. Charge your beam and do a spin jump. That's a psuedo-screw attack. Now, to wall jump with it, you'll have to do some fast button combos. Do a psuedo-screw attack by rolling your thumb first onto jump, then off of fire. You will be doing a psuedo-screw attack, but not holding the fire button. Now do a wall jump off a wall, and you will still be spinning. Now you can jump on walls with a charged weapon. If you are holding fire when you hit the wall and do a wall jump, you will stop spinning and do a normal jump. The drawbacks of this are: You are vulnerable while Samus is doing the wall jump. Not while you're spinning in air, if you do that you're safe, but while Samus pushes off of the wall, you can get hit. Also, as soon as Samus lands on a flat surface, she will automaticlly fire off the charge beam, because you aren't holding the button down. If you have excellent timing, you CAN press and hold the fire button as Samus lands and keep the charge, but it's not easy. This move is a must against Ridley. Using it will increase the damage you can do to him and simultaneously decrese the damage he does to you ____________ Bomb Jumping This is the trick of: 1) laying a bomb, then 2) laying another right before the first one explodes, then 3) getting knocked into the air, and laying another one as you come back down, then 4) get knocked back up by the second one, and laying another as you fall, and so on. *********************************************************** *********PLEASE READ THIS, EVEN IF YOU'RE AN EXPERT******** *********************************************************** Later on, you have to either wall jump or bomb jump up the Norfair Lava Pit, since you won't be collecting the Space Jump. The wall jump is easier, but requires a glitch. Also, the Ice 14% path requires exceptional bomb jumping skills with strange types of bomb jumps. There are actually many types of bomb jumping. One is where you go up at a slow place by doing as mentioned above. Another one is crucial if you want to bomb jump into Lower Norfair. The second type of bomb jumping you need to know is Double Bomb Jumping. The timing of the bombs is like this: Bomb 1: Anytime on the ground Bomb 2: As bomb 1 blows up, before the green explosion is seen Bomb 3: At the height of the bomb jump Bomb 4: As bomb 3 blows up, before the green explosion is seen Bomb 5: At the height of the bomb jump Then just repeat 4 and 5. Here's a diagram of this move: Samus is propelled |Then, at the height|Back up on the top, up by the first |of her jump, Samus |Samus lays another bomb, and leaves a |lays a third bomb. |bomb when the third second bomb on the |Going back down, |bomb blows up, and ground like in the |she is bumped back |is bumped up.Repeat first style. |up by the 2nd bomb | B if | | S S needed | S B B | S B B S | S S | _S_ _B_ |_B_ _B_ ___ |___ ___ ___ To bomb jump to Lower Norfair, you will have to know and be able to perform BOTH of these, and then to mix them together. The 14% Ice Path will require you to either Horizontal Bomb Jump or Diagonal Bomb Jump, both of which are extremely difficult. The Horizontal Bomb Jump is easier, but takes more bombs to reach your destination. The Diagonal Bomb Jump is harder, but only requires a few bombs to make it across the lake. Both require you to know Hovering first. Hovering is a subset of the normal bomb jump. However, Hovering will not move you significantly either up or down. Instead of laying a new bomb as you fall back down, you lay a new bomb while or after the first bomb explodes. If you time it perfectly, it's possible to actually go down slowly with this move. If you slip up by just one frame, however, you'll fall to the ground. For a visual of this, go to http://Kejardon.tripod.com/Metroid/HoverBomb.zip Horizontal Bomb Jumping requires you to first be Hovering at the height you want to start moving left or right. Also, you want to be facing the direction you want to go in when you start bomb jumping (yes, you face a direction as a ball). When you're ready to move, tap forward at the height of a bomb jump. If you are pressing a direction as the bomb explodes, you will be propelled too far to return. Lay a bomb when the first explodes, like normal hovering. Immediately after the bomb explodes, hold back. If you timed everything right, you'll be able to get back over to the bomb with little difficulty. After you're close to it, however, you have to tap forward again to be facing the direction you want to go in. If you're facing the bomb as it explodes, you'll again be propelled too far to return to it. When the bomb explodes, lay another bomb, hold back, etc. For a visual of this, go to http://Kejardon.tripod.com/Metroid/HBJ.zip Diagonal Bomb Jumping is a mix of Horizontal and Double. They actually don't affect eachother; Samus's horizontal and vertical movement are completely independant. The only real change is that because Samus has to be hovering for the Horizontal Bomb Jump, the 2nd and 4th bombs in the above example have to be placed as late as possible. Then again, I have to admit I've done very little test work with the Diagonal Bomb Jump, so if anything's wrong, please e-mail me. _________________________________ Break through Floors and Ceilings Currently, it isn't confirmed if you can break through a full sized floor, so that part will be skipped for now. As for a ceiling, you simply need to freeze an enemy at the right height, then jump and do a quarter-circle forward into them, though in very few cases is it an easy task to freeze them at that height. Fortunately, the enemy you have to freeze will stay at just the right height. Anyways, the quarter-circle forward has to be timed so that you press forward at the same moment at which you hit the roof with your head. If you do it right, Samus will be standing on the enemy, with her head through the roof. ____________ Gravity Jump This is an interesting and very helpful glitch I found that makes getting into Lower Norfair easier if you prefer wall jumping. Anytime under water, when you have the Gravity Suit equipped, press the pause button. Before the screen completely blacks out and you can't see anything, press the jump button. Unequip the Gravity suit, then unpause the game and hold jump. Samus will be flying upwards at a ridiculous rate. Pretty simple. _________ Blue Suit When Draygon dies, Samus's position is set to Standing. This is for when you use the grapple to kill Draygon. The catch is, it doesn't set other things it should set. So if Samus is at full speed, which sets a certain byte, Draygon's death will not change that byte back to 0. The easiest way to do this is simply to Super Jump into Draygon. Blue Suit introduces a number of odd things into the game. Samus can kill most enemies simply by walking into them, and go through many other, but her status is normal if she's not moving. By simply crouching down at any time, you have a super jump charge available. However, Samus doesn't get any invincibilty time while you have the blue suit, something about it overrides that. The Blue Suit is lost if you run, fall into quicksand, use a super jump, die, or turn off the system. As for the quicksand, you can safely run on it from certain heights. Anything at least 5 blocks high is generally safe, but I've seen occasional heights which don't work. Make sure you hit the ground running, and don't turn around or stop. A movie of getting the Blue Suit and getting past the sand: http://Kejardon.tripod.com/Metroid/BlueSuit.ZIP Okay experts, you can go on to the walkthrough section now. __________ Speed Jump With the speed boots equipped, run until Samus is flashing, then hit the down button. Samus will be flashing white now. There is a simple trick to charge up slightly faster. 'Walk' about 3 blocks, then run. Samus will reach full speed slightly faster than normal. This can be useful in a few spots. You can jump in 5 directions. \ | / \|/ ---- ---- To jump straight up, simply hit the jump button while standing still. To jump diagonal, hold R and hit the jump button while standing still. To move horizontal, hold the jump button followed by the left or right button while standing still. Mid air speed jumps can be preformed also. Perform a running jump, so that you don't do a super jump. To super jump up, hit R in mid air. To jump diagonal, hold R followed immediatly by jump. To jump horizontal, hold the direction, then hold R followed by jump. __________________ Required Equipment __________________ To achieve 15%, you're naturally going to have almost everything early in the game. In the order you get them... Morphing Ball (1) Missiles (2 or 3) Bombs (1) Energy Tanks (3) Charge Beam (1) Super Missiles (2 or 3) Varia Suit (1) Speed Boots (1) Power Bombs (1) Gravity Suit (1) ------------------- (15) There are actually two alternatives for 14%. Technically, you can get many different comboes for 15%, but they all require glitches. Morphing Ball (1) Missiles (1 or 2) Bombs (1) Energy Tanks (3) Charge Beam (1) Super Missiles (2 or 3) Varia Suit (1) [Speed Boots OR Ice Beam] (1) Power Bombs (1) Gravity Suit (1) ------------------- (14) The Speed Boots and the Ice Beam both allow you to pass two spots in the game with different methods. If you pick the Ice Beam, you'll have significantly more firepower, but you'll have to bomb jump over the missile lake. If you pick the Speed Boots, you'll have to kill Draygon and Mother Brain in one sitting - no saving in between. The Missile/Super Missile explanation (15%): You need either 10 missles and 15 super missles or 15 missiles and 10 super missles to get past the Zebetites and Mother Brain's first phase (those red barriers are the Zebetites). 15 missles and 10 super missles makes Mother Brain slightly easier, while 10 missiles and 15 super missiles makes Ridley significantly easier. I'll let you decide which combination to use. The Missile/Super Missile explanation (14%): Technically, 5/15 is the best combination for 14%. However, the set on the missile lake is extremely hard to avoid if you have Ice. You'd have to Horizontal Bomb Jump over the entire lake. Fortunately, it is still possible with 2 missile sets and 2 super missile sets. And that is everything you need. Give or take a billion tries. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Walkthrough ------------------------------------------------------------------- _____________ Ceres Station Do I really need to write something here? Go fight Ridley, beat him (he takes 100 hits) or just let him beat you. ________ Crateria This, being the beginning of the game, will be the easiest part. Enjoy it while you can. Go down and get the Morphing ball, then go to the right and get the first missle set. Back track to the bomb room. Blow the door open, reload your missles on the small flyers, then go in. Grab the bombs, then wait for the Torizo to get up. Fire *1* missle at a time at him. Like Samus(and unlike all other bosses), he is invincibile for 1/2 a second after each time he's hit. 8 missles will end the fight. Head back up and left, bomb the left wall, then go in. Follow the path left into Brinstar, getting the energy tank on the way. ________ Brinstar Go all the way to the bottom, and go in the right red door. SLOWLY edge to the right(kill the two crawlers while you're there) until a bit of the flying creature is on your screen. Snipe him down while he can't move. You'll be doing a lot of this in Norfair. Go all the way right and into the huge room. Make your way down to the Charge Beam, and get the missiles if you want 3 sets for 15%. Then hike all the way up to the top and go through the red door after reloading on the nearby pipe. Kill the Ki-Hunters, then go face Spore Spawn. Nail him with 10 missiles and move on. Follow the passage and grab the super missles. Now head on down and to the right. Reload your supers on the cacti. Head right and down, and just follow the path until you reach an elevator room. Shoot the right wall with a super missle and go through the hole. On the middle ledge, run and jump, then do a wall jump on the end of the platform, then go in Kraid's Lair. Or you can bomb jump up to the platform for practice. Onto the lair, Make your way to Kraid. _____ Kraid There's a trick to kill him in no time at all. Shoot Kraid's mouth, wait a moment, then jump up and hit him in the mouth as it's about 1/2 open. On your way back down, shoot another super. Then do it again. For some reason, Kraid will stay there as you nail him if you do it right. If you mess up, no big deal, just kill him. Get the Varia and head back. Don't forget the energy tank on the way back in the flashing door. As soon as you open the door shoot 4 or 5 missles in there and you'll get all the leeches, or let them latch onto you, jump and shoot a missile straight down to kill them. The tank is hidden in the roof. Go back to the elevator and take it down. _____________ Upper Norfair ------------------------------------------------------------------- 15% or Speed 14% First door on the right. Follow the path to the bubble room, then either bomb jump up, or go around in the long circle. Either way, get to the door on the top right, then follow the path to the Speed Boots. Backtrack to the bubble room, then take the left door in the bottom-left corner. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Ice 14% Open the green door on the left. Stand on the ledge, then run left into the room. Perform a mockball as soon as you can, and roll under the pillars. Follow the path to the ice beam, then head back to the elevator room. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Grab the energy tank before the High-Jump boots, kill the crawler, then leave. Go back up the elevator. Go left until you find the corrider with the rippers. Kill them all with super missiles and bomb-jump up the corrider (or if you have ice you can use that). Go up and into the blue door, and reload on the cacti. Then go up past the next set of rippers. If you don't have ice, you'll have to wall jump up. You'll see two small 1x1 blocks on the left wall near the roof. That's about where you have to wall jump from to get into the roof. Once you make it up there, go all the way right then down. After some tricky jumping, grab the power bombs and head back. This time, go up to the elevator. ____________ Wrecked ship Use a power bomb on the door and enter, then use another one to kill the 2 creatures and reload. Go up and open the door to the right, then go left, and reload in your ship and save. Go back and kill the Ki-Hunters, and open the door again. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 15% or Speed 14% Go to(not in)the door on the left, run right to charge the speed jump, then perform a mid-air horizontal speed jump through the door. If you're going for Speed 14%, start the speed jump high so you miss the missile set. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Ice 14% Here's the most annoying part for Ice 14%. You have to bomb jump across the lake, either Diagonal or Horizontal. If you choose to use Diagonal, you can get it in just one bomb jump if you do it right. Simply do a Diagonal Bomb Jump like normal, but mess up the last bomb to propell yourself farther to the right. If you want to Horizontal Bomb Jump across, it will take you more bombs. Chances are, you'll want to just take the missile set in the middle of the lake for the headstart. If you're a master at the Horizontal Bomb Jump, you can try to bomb jump over it all the way from the left side of the lake. ------------------------------------------------------------------- From your position, open the door to your right, and do a running jump over the first platform, but fall before you hit the low wall. You should then either land on the next platform, or be able to wall jump onto it. From there, just keep going with running jumps until you make it to the wrecked ship. Inside, go straight to Phantoon. If you need to, reload on the ghosts. ________ Phantoon He can be beaten fastest with a lot of missiles. When he starts raining fire on you, hit him with 2 missles, wait a second until he begins moving around, then fire three more at him. Not too hard, but can be a pain with such low amounts of weapons. Don't worry too much about damage, he doesn't live too long. Just don't go running into fireballs. After he's gone, there's no more ghosts. Instead, there's tons of blue-green globes. Go up to the shaft, then go left and grab the supers. If you're getting three sets, go right and get the extra Super Missle pack. Go back up, through the fake floor, and into the top room. Kill all the creatures, then go left. Out here, find the weak spot on the floor far left, go in and follow the path. RELOAD YOUR HEALTH! At the spikes, make running jumps and you may only be hit twice. If not, that's okay. Go to the chozo and then get the Gravity Suit. That's the last of your items. ___________________________________________________________________ Here, you can either face Ridley or Draygon, your choice. This walkthrough is written in the order you're supposed to, so if you want to kill Ridley first, skip ahead till you see Lower Norfair Break-In. However, if you intend to beat the game with Speed 14%, you may want to kill Ridley first, because you need to mantain a blue suit from Draygon to the end of Tourian, and you can't even save after you use it. ___________________________________________________________________ _______ Maridia Head to the glass tunnel. Lay the power bomb to blow it up, then go up and into the second door. Freeze the creature if you can, and use them to get up to the door on top, otherise either do a run jump onto the wall, or bomb-jump your way up. In this next part, you have a few options of how to get up. A Diagonal Super Jump is probably the fastest, followed closely by the Gravity Jump, then bomb jumps. Whichever way, go in the top right door. Shoot the floor and head right. Lay a power bomb where it's needed, then wall jump up around the wall. Enter the door and head right. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Ice 14% Considering that you don't have any speed boots, it's fairly obvious you can't take the normal path to Botwoon. Lure a mochtroid to the bottom right corner, by the speed blocks you have to get past. Make sure it's touching the ground, morphing into a ball if you need to, and freeze it there. Walk up to it, then jump, hold down, and right as your head hits the ceiling, press right. If you do it correctly, your head will go through the roof. Jump again and you'll break the blocks for good, and you can easily go through the fake wall to the right. ------------------------------------------------------------------- _______ Botwoon The bosses begin to get a bit harder. Shoot his head when it appears with missiles or super missiles. Use whatever strategy you like. For the second half, it may help to know that if you're as far left as you can go, Botwoon can't hit you. Go to the room at the right, and run across the quicksand (or go up and use bombs to navigate through the maze), then refill on the bugs that fly out of the last quicksand hole. Then just follow the path. Save, then go fight Draygon. _______ Draygon This would be the third hardest fight of the game. To be able to keep from getting killed, you have to know what he's doing. Luckily, he only has 2 attacks. If he's not doing one, he must be doing the other. So if he's flying around, just dodge him, and if you can snipe him while he goes by. If he's not, head towards the wall you last saw him at. He'll be there spewing gunk at you. He will only start this when he's on the screen, and he always shoots off about 15 of them. Head to the other side and snipe his gunk. If you have more than 2 tanks and 10 missles or 5 supers, when he comes over, hit him as fast and with as much as you can, until he plows right into you. Ignore the damage. If you didn't have that much life/missles, snipe his gunk to make more, then run under him and collect it. Fortunately, if you get hit by gunk on accident, you can press left and right rapidly to escape when Draygon catches you. Or you can stay away from Draygon long enough for the gunk to fade. If you have 15% with 10/15, you might be able to kill Draygon extremely fast like this: Shoot Draygon in the stomach at least nine times with the Charge Beam. Then, next time he starts to spew gunk, find him IMMEDIATLY, lay a power bomb, then when it gets rid of the gunk, run under Draygon, aim straight up and walk with him at the same speed, and pummel him with every missile and super missile you have. If every shot hit, he will be (just barely) dead. If you're going for Speed 14%, make sure you finish off Draygon with a super jump. For reference, Draygon has 6000 hp. Super Missiles do 300 damage, Missiles do 100, and your Charge Beam does 60. The Super Jump will do 150 damage every frame you're touching him. However, he also hits you as you hit him, so it'll drain your hp fast too. Also, after he dies, he can still hit and be hit for another 1/2 a second, and if you hit him it restarts his death. You can easily kill yourself like this if you're low on hp when you hit him. To be safe, have at least two full tanks. When the battle is over, save, then leave Maridia and go to Ridley, if you haven't already. If you have, skip the next section and go to Tourian. ______________________ Lower Norfair Break-In Head to the lake of lava that leads to Lower Norfair. Here, you can either gravity jump or bomb jump up the lake. I recommend not bomb jumping. Bomb Jumping into Lower Norfair Go all the way left, so that the skulls are shooting at you, then turn around and go back right, without pressing the jump button. You should be positioned so that the skulls to your left are off the screen, and you yourself are positioned like this: ______ ___S| I know, Samus is bigger than that, but it's to give you the idea of where you should be. For those of you who can now do the second form of bomb-climbing in your sleep, PLUS do them from a hovering bomb-climb and rarely miss a bomb, congratulations! I sure can't. Skip the next two paragraphs. For those who can not hover or do so good at bomb-climbing, you'll have to rely on chance. Read the below paragraph. Start going up using the slow bomb technique, until you are just under the skulls fireballs. Switch to the double bomb jump style. Chances are, you're going to get hit. Don't fret, just keep trying. You'll get it eventually. At least there's only ONE skull. Once you clear the skull, switch to the slow bomb jump, and when you're about level with the platform, hit left for about 1/4 of a second. The next bomb will propell you to the left and into the mouth of Ridley (a nice, positive picture). Go on to Lower Norfair. For the people that have the bomb jumps down perfect, bomb jump up till you're just under the fireballs at the height of your jump, then begin to hover. Wait until a fireball goes over your head at or directly after the height of your jump, fall, then go into the second form of bomb jumping. Once you pass the skull, switch to the slow bomb jump, and when you're about level with the platform, hit left for about 1/4 of a second. The next bomb will propell you to the left and into the mouth of Ridley (a nice, positive picture). Go on to Lower Norfair The above is actrually possible. For proof, there is a ZMV (ZSNES Movie) of it at http://Kejardon.tripod.com/Metroid/bombmvi.zip _______________________________ Gravity Jump into Lower Norfair The funner and easier path. From the deepest part of the lake, go right until you find a skull facing left. Stand as far right on the platform below it. Basically, you're going to do an running Gravity Jump, re-equip the Gravity Suit at the peak of your jump, and then wall jump to Lower Norfair. From the position above, hold the run button. When there's an opening, press start, run left, and jump at the last possible instant. Unequip the Gravity Suit, then unpause the game and hold jump. Just before the peak of the jump, press start again (you want to have it pause *at* the peak of the jump) and re-equip the Gravity Suit. Unpause, and immediatly wall jump off the wall to your right. Regain your balance, then when there's an opening, wall jump up to the skull and quickly wall jump off of it to the left. Wall jump off the platform, then up and into Lower Norfair. _____________ Lower Norfair Once past the lava, save and go in the elevator. Go right, lay a power bomb, then go down and collect the two power bombs there. The next part is going to be tricky. Reload your energy if you want, but it'll be slow. Make sure your power bombs are equipped, and go inside. Do a running jump, turn into a ball, and lay a powerbomb RIGHT AGAINST THE PILLAR. Follow the blast, and lay another at the next standing pillar. Again, follow the blast. If you're good, you may take no damage at all, but chances are you'll lose about 1/2 a tank. In the next room, you have to kill all the gold pirates with your peashooter. Take your time not to get hurt. Then you have to bomb jump up to the roof twice to lay bombs on it, and a third time to get through it. Don't use a powerbomb to clear it, you want to save those for later. And that's the end of the bombs. Skip the next two pirates, then snipe the third. Then go in the room. Yep. It's the acid. A good thing to know before you attempt this room is that a running jump is lower but farther, while a walking jump(no dash button) is higher but slower. Make your way up hopping over the pirates, then into the next room, where we head on down into Red Ki-Hunters. Snipe them carefully, as they can kill you swiftly. SAVE. Once past them, go through the bottom to the right, and enter the door. To be safe, use a charged bomb spread to activate the pillar to your left, then jump over the flame and turn into a ball, then roll into the hole. Roll up to the block, lay a bomb, and stay in that spot till it explodes. Hold left, lay a power bomb when you're almost at the statues, then jump in the hole. If you're surrounded, try to wait until the nearby enemies are hit by the power bomb, that will make them temprarily intangible (they can't hit you). Now, in the hole, you can snipe the enemies for refills, if you're desperate. Go inside, and there're the two metal pirates. This is a much easier fight than you'd expect, do the following and you shouldn't get hurt at all. When you enter the room, go to the middle platform, as far right as you can. Shoot the pirate to your left to get his attention, then jump his second projectile. Run and jump over him, and get about 1/3 a screen away. He should do a spin jump over you. When he jumps again, jump with him, aim down, and snipe him. It doesn't matter what you use, you'll reload your weapons and energy real soon. Keep jumping and sniping until he dies. Run to the next pirate, again about 1/3 of a screen away, and he should spin jump over you. Kill him too, then go left. Finally! Just what we needed: Sniper friendly enemies and pipes to refill on. Snipe the first two fliers with whatever you want then jump over. Snipe the third as well. Reload after it dies, then jump onto the next platform. Snipe that guy with 3 supers, reload, then move to the left edge of the platform you're on. If you can see the edge of a flyer, snipe it. If not, go to the other edge of the platform you're on, then go back until you do see it. After it dies, jump over and snipe the last one, then reload. That was nice and easy. In the next room, with full life and missles, kill the blue spheres to replenish your power bombs. At the end of the corrider is a eye door. Kill it then reload on the lava pipes. Personally, I think it's worth going back and saving, because then you can blaze through that part, since you should have plenty of health, and you'll be travelling through it quite often. Now, go face Ridley. Good luck. ______ Ridley ______ 18000 hp Super missiles do 600 Powerbombs do 200 a hit(they can hit twice per powerbomb) Missiles do 100 Charged beam does 60 Charged Ice does 90 Ice SBA does 90 x 4, if all hit (not a good weapon) Flame does 15 Tail does 30 Body does 40 (You know you've been playing Super Metroid too long when you personally found these values from the game itself. Anyways...) Arguably the hardest fight with low percent. This is definitely going to be a long, tiring fight. I'll use a lot of "If"s to tell you what to do when. When you reach the end of a "If" tree, you should be in a familiar position. _________ Beginning When you see his eyes, wait about a second, then fire a charged shot, then follow it up with another charged shot. He'll fly up, then stand near the right, and when he comes down, get in another shot, then morph and roll under his tail when possible. _____________ Tail Bouncing Ridley will only bounce on the ground, nothing else, when he has more than 14500 hp(A bit more than 1/4 of his life). When he's bouncing, there is almost ALWAYS an opening to go under if he's moving towards you. There is only one time, when Ridley hits the platform with the tip of his tail 1/2 way inside it, then does his smallest bounce at his slowest speed, that you can't manage to roll under it. Fortunately, this rarely happens, maybe once per fight. Anyways, with practice, you should be able to tell when to roll against him. A critical thing to note: If you change direction as a ball, you will still spend 1/10 of a second to turn around. Small, but vital in timing. Quick rule of thumb: Always stay about 3-4 blocks from Ridley's tail-tip when he's bouncing. Also, try to stay on the side of the screen he isn't on, the exception being when he's facing left on the left side. When Ridley is facing left, there is a 'safe' spot on the far left of the platform (If you're facing left, Samus's left-most foot must be about 1/2 off the platform or more). This isn't safe from fireballs, however. Go there, unless Ridley is in the middle of the platform. If he is left of the middle of the platform, stand in the safe spot and just shoot straight up when he moves above you. Easy shots. If you know you can kill him with the missiles and super missiles you have, start using them. But remember he'll change attacks every 6 to 8 bounces, so don't waste supers. 10 missiles and 15 supers: Use them after he speeds up once. 15 missiles and 10 supers: Wait ~25 shots then use them. The reason is, you don't want to face Ridley after his last speed change, as he gets immensely harder, even though it's a relatively small speed change(about +15%). If he is right of the middle of the platform, stand about 3-4 blocks away from him, charge your beam, and see the below if tree. But remember that since he's facing left, you can switch "Shoot once and roll into a ball" with "Stand in the safe spot and shoot him" When Ridley is facing right, there are no safe spots to stay at. Just stay as a ball and keep rolling. If Ridley moves his whole body left past the middle of the platform though, he CAN hit you with his fireballs (and if he's going fast, he can even hit the platform with fireballs without having to be all the way left in the lava!) If he does move far left, stand up and charge up your beam. Stand close to him (about 3-4 blocks from his tail-tip) until your beam is fully charged (he shouldn't have time to go into the lava before this, so there's no way he can hit you if you do it fast). When your beam is charged, stay a tad bit farther from him, so you can spin jump without risking hitting him. If he breaths fireballs that you can't walk under, scroll down three paragraphs. If he goes towards you (he ususally does) just hit him with the charge beam, then roll under him like in the beginning. You may not have enough time to pull this off when he speeds up, though. Still, this is the most preferable outcome, since there's not much risk of getting hit, and early on it provides an easy shot. If you can't pull it off in time, keep the charge as a ball, never know when you may need it. If he goes backwards in the lava, be ready to spin jump through fireballs. If he breaths the fireballs at you, spin jump, then if the fireballs will miss the platform, fall right away. Otherwise hold jump for a second. He will occassionally breath fireballs twice within a second, if he does this you should be spin-jumping so they'll go right through you and hit the wall behind you. Because you jump, though, he will often go up as well. If he turns around, you're fine. Just shoot him, if you can, then morph into a ball and go left to the safe spot. If he hovers for a moment, then he will bounce, towards or away from you, and often breath fire at the same time. This is an annoying move. Spin jump through the fire (there's usually two), then if he went towards you, you can shoot him once then roll under him. When he speeds up, you might not be able to pull this off in time, just keep the charge as a ball for later. If he went back into the lava and breathed twice, you can get a safe shot off, and he will either hover or continue bouncing. If he goes up, but doesn't turn around, that means he's going to swoop down in a U. (Only after 14500) If, by some stroke of luck, he ignores the fact that you jumped, you're back to the beginning, watch to see if he goes towards you or back into the lava. If he doesn't breath fireballs at you, you're lucky; he almost always does. He'll make his way back towards you. Shoot him once, then roll under him. ________ U Swoops He'll start using these in his attack pattern at 14500 health. This is where he goes up to the corner of the room and then comes down in a U shape, ending up in the other top corner. Ridley goes into this by accellerating upwards, and not turning around as he would with his tail bounce. After he does it once (his first one is quite often very high and fast) equip your power bombs. The next time he goes up to repeat it, IMMEDIATLY wall jump up the opposite wall, go outwards, and lay a powerbomb ASAP. Then run up to the wall again, wall jump up, and lay a powerbomb again, this time further out. If he is near the top, lay it at the peak of your jump, and if he is near the bottom, lay it lower, just before you reach the middle of the screen. Keep repeating it until you're out of powerbombs; every time Ridley will rush towards you when you lay it, then retreat. And every time he will be hit twice by it. That's a free 2000 damage if you do it right. There's only once catch: When you're done, it's hard to predict what he's going to do, and you have a fair risk of getting hurt. I'd still say it's worth it. Besides that power bomb spree, the other U swoops should be handled by psuedo-screw attack wall jumping up the wall opposite of him. He will occassionally breath fire. This usually doesn't do anything as it usually hits the roof and you never even see it. However, it will sometimes hit the wall opposite of him, which is why you'd want to psuedo-screw attack. Note: Sometimes, at this point, he will breath fire and immediatly swoop at you, and it is impossible to dodge, as far as I can see, since you can't wall jump while touching the fire. This seems to happen most often when Ridley goes up at about 45 degrees towards a wall. Pick the lesser of the two evils, get hit by his fireball, or if you can't reach it in time, roll into a ball to hit his tail instead of his body. Fortunately, this is fairly rare. When Ridley goes down in his swoop, and is at about the bottom of it, wall jump over him, quickly turn and fire a free shot, then charge up your beam and jump. If you were a bit behind on the wall jump over him (he was past the middle of the screen when you wall jumped) jump up early, even if you haven't charged up your beam yet. If you don't jump at the right time, Ridley will try to ram into you, and it is pretty hard to dodge. Fire again at him, then wait to see what he does next. If he accelarates back up, then he's going to do another swoop. If he goes down, he's going to tail bounce. And occasionally he just hovers. Respond accordingly. __________________ 0 health - Berserk As far as I can tell, the best method at this point is to keep jumping (only spin jump if you have a full charge already) and shooting him with charged shots. Hopefully he'll fall into the pattern of moving forward when you land, and moving back when you jump, effectively doing nothing. If he does, you should be able to kill him at this point fairly easily; ~7 shots from anything and he should die quickly. ___________ Misc. Notes -When tail-bouncing, every 6 to 8 bounces Ridley will switch directions, hover, or fly up if you don't cause him to change first. -Ridley includes U swoops in attack pattern at 14500 health -Ridley speeds up to about 150% normal at 9000 health. Marked by a color change -Ridley speeds up to about 175% normal at 1000 health. Marked by a color change -Ridley goes berserk at 0 health (Not sure if speed changes) He will die from grabbing you, or some other trigger I think is related to shooting him. Not marked by a color change, but you CAN tell when it happens -Your health should match up like this: 300+ health at first attack pattern change, 225+ health at first speed change, 100+ health at berserk, and 1+ health when he dies. Those seem to be about average for me, at least. After the epic battle is over, leave the room and refill your power bombs and most of your life. Fortunately, escaping Lower Norfair is pretty easy, just so long as you take your time. Save anyways. I know, I just said you had a slim chance of dieing, but you also had a slim chance of killing Ridley. As you snipe the Red Ki-Hunters on your way out, remember that as long as 1/16 of your charge beam isn't touching a wall, it can practically go through the wall. So let them bounce against the ground as you shoot through it to hit them. Make your way back to Crateria, reload and save on your ship, and then go all the way back to that red door you passed after your first energy tank. Follow the path to Tourian. From now on, do not use another super missile unless told to. _______ Tourian The first thing you may realise is that you're facing Metroids and you have no ice beam(well, you might not). What to do? Get all 4 onto the screen at one time(psuedo-screw attacks help alot) and then lay 3 power bombs. One down. Go back to your ship and reload, then go to the next room. Kill those two, reload, kill the next 3, reload, next 3. After the last 3, reload once more, then come back. Continue on until you reach the Zebetites, preferably saving before them. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 15% If you have 10/15, use 10 missiles then *one* super missile on each Zebetite. If you have 15/10, just use normal missiles on each one till it dies. Reload your missiles after each Zebetite. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Ice 14% Run into the bottom left corner immediatly, aim up, and freeze the Rinka the moment it appears. Do a spin jump onto the platform, landing as far left as possible. You should get 'hurt', but take no damage. This is actually the Zebetite hitting you; because you're so close to the Rinka when you land, the game automatically puts Samus just barely on it, slightly inside the wall and touching the Zebetite. While you're invincible from the Zebetite's hit, do another spin jump onto the Rinka. You'll be one pixel inside the wall; quickly jump up and through the Zebetite while you're still invincible. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Speed 14% First off, you're crazy for keeping the blue suit all the way to there. Anyways, run to the bottom left corner, charge for a Super Jump, then do a diagonal left Super Jump. Do NOT press down-jump- aim up. If you press the buttons in that order with nothing in between them, you will hit your head on the platform. Stand before you do the super jump, hold aim-up before you press jump, charge before you reach the corner, just don't press the buttons in that order. With that warning over, you should be imbedded inside the wall. You have a few options on how to get through. Painless but tricky: Face right, and press Jump-down-left. It has to be seperated, but one right after the other. Keep holding left after you do it, then simply jump again. Even though this says painless, it's still extremely likely that you'll get hurt by a Rinka once. Painful but somewhat easier: Wait until a rinka hits you, then press jump and down at the same time, then hold left. Afterwards, simply jump through the Zebetite. This method guarantees at least one hit, and makes it likely that two will hit you. Pressing jump-down causes Samus to get hit by the Zebetite. The first method uses an obscure move not documented anywhere, as far as I know, but actually part of the game's engine: A mid-air roll- back-from-hit, all you do to activate it is hold back the moment you're hit (which is why you have to face right). The second method simply makes it so you're invincible, and can jump through the Zebetite without it pushing you back. ------------------------------------------------------------------- When you reach Mother Brain taking care to take as little damage as possible(you have to have at least 301 energy when you 'beat' Mother Brain), fire every missile first, making sure every one hits Mother Brain once the glass opens up, then use super missiles. With 15/10, you should have 3 super missiles left over. With 10/15, you should have just 1. ____________ Mother Brain ____________ This could be harder or easier than Ridley. Harder, because you need 301 health when you finish Mother Brain, or easier because Mother Brain has an extremely hard time hitting you. HP: 18000 Hand Beam at under 4500 Charged: 60 Ice: 90 Missile: 100 Super Missile: 300 Powerbomb/Ice Shield: 90 damage per Ice (not recommended) At the beginning, you'll get a few free shots. Take them. Fortunately, Mother Brain isn't too complex. She has no secondary attacks, only main attacks. Bombs, blue circles, and an eye beam. For the whole fight, stay on the far right, and don't jump unless she forces you to. Just aim up and keep shooting, over and over and over. If she tries to move forward, shoot her in the head a few times with your uncharged shots, it doesn't have to do damage to move her back. _____ Bombs If Mother Brain drops a bomb while standing, watch her mouth; she often follows it up with the circles. If she does, wait as late as you can, then jump as high as you can. Position yourself to land precisely where the bomb exploded from (if there's a chance you might hit the explosion). If you get it right, it doesn't even matter if you get hit by it; the center explosion does 0 damage. If she doesn't follow it up with the circles, just jump at the last moment to about the middle of the wall, then land where the bomb exploded. If Mother Brain crouched down to drop the bomb, she'll rarely follow it up with the circles. Jump just when it's about to hit you to the middle of the wall, and land where it exploded from. Occassionally, she will follow it up at a random time with circles. Either jump as high as you can to dodge them, or run left just after you land, whichever one you can do. If Mother Brain manages to drop a bomb from her second step (never let her do this if you can help it), then jump as late as you can, as high as you can. Very rarely will she be able to hit you. If you want to be perfectly safe, do a psuedo-screw attack wall jump in the middle of the wall, and be ready to jump up if she uses her circles. The downside is that this gives Mother Brain a chance to move forward, never a good thing. ____________ Blue Circles Very simply, wait as late as you can, then jump as high as you can. No difficulty avoiding these. ________ Eye Beam Even more simply, just keep shooting. These will never have a chance to hit you. _________ Hand Beam At 4500 health, she'll start using hand beams. This point is a bit cheap; sometimes Mother Brain will hit you faster than you can react, or while you're in mid-air. The safest thing to do would be to count out the shots, and around 220 normal, or 145 with ice, shoot only when you're on the ground, and pay very careful attention to her hand. Then when she uses her hand beam, just jump over it. From my experience, if you don't prepare for it, it'll hit you about a third of the time. This part requires good reaction skills. Pay the most attention to Mother Brain's hand. She'll most often simply just use her hand beam. However, she'll often move her head around a bit, to distract you, and then fire the hand beam while you watch her head. Focus primarily on her hand, secondarily on her head. Also, for this part you can't be as trigger happy as you used to be; only fire two shots after she uses her hand beam then wait. *EVERY* jump should be a psuedo-screw attack. Yes, you're actually invulnerable to her hand beam when you psuedo-screw attack. _____ Bombs Easier than the last time, but still the most dangerous. For these, wait till the last second, then spin jump as high as you can. Again, she may fire blue circles while the bomb is bouncing, just spin jump before it hits. If she uses her hand beam when you're in the air, wait till you're back on the ground, then get in your two shots. Otherwise, just wait for what's next. ____________ Blue Circles Spin jump at the last second as high as you can. If she uses the hand beam in mid-air, wait till you land then fire twice. _________ Hand Beam Spin jump, wait till you land, then fire twice. It is possible to spin jump as late as possible, fire a shot in the air, then fire two more after you land, and still have enough time to charge your beam for whatever's next, but I don't think it's worth the risk. One hit from the hand beam and you have to restart. Eventually, she'll finally resort to her final attack. Wait through the whole scene. Mother Brain's last form is no serious challenge. From where you recover, simply fire up and left, and jump whenever needed. Don't stop firing, if you stop she *will* step forward, and that's really the only major threat. 30 shots will end the fight, so your 400 energy should be more than enough to survive. The space pirates in the next part do 3 damage a hit, so there's little chance of them killing you. A minor glitch to help you out at the end: In the last Tourian room, when you're at the door to the exit, run right and charge for a super jump in the next room. Run to the right wall (you MUST be standing) then do a super jump straight up. If you have enough energy, you'll fly almost all the way up to the top. Hold left and you'll land on a nearby platform. Save the animals if you want, board your ship, watch the credits, and take a picture of your percent. Congratulations. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Credits ------------------------------------------------------------------- hpsolo, from the GameFaqs Message Board, for inspiration to complete this insane project. Mr Dan, from the same board for reminding me to finish my ZSNES movie, which in turn reminded me to rewrite this walkthrough Aw, why not. The other veterans from the same board for other inspirations and support. mrFergo, SaviourV, metroid composite, HotShot, Brickroad19, and whoever else I missed. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Miscellaneous ------------------------------------------------------------------- I can only think of a few things to put here. My e-mail is Kejardon@Juno.com, for contacting me. I use AIM, MSN, and Yahoo, which I can be found as Kejardon. For that matter, if you ever see me, it'll be as Kejardon. A great site is www.classicgaming.com/MDb/, the first major Metroid website I found. Contains general and background information for all the games, as well as its own message board. http://cgi.gamefaqs.com/boards/gentopic.asp?board=9418 is the board that I most often visit, made for Super Metroid. If, for some reason, the link doesn't work, it's GameFAQ's Super Metroid Discussion board. Go to www.gamefaqs.com, find Super Metroid, then click on Message Board near the top. On IRC, you can join #SuperMetroid on the server irc.beyondirc.net to find me and a few other friends. ___________________________________________________________________ Kejardon's 15% Walkthrough Written and Copyright Kejardon, 2000-2003