The _____ / ___/__ ______ ___ _____ \__ \/ / / / __ \/ _ \/ ___/ ___/ / /_/ / /_/ / __/ / /____/\__,_/ .___/\___/_/ __ ___ /_/ _ __ / |/ /__ / /__________ (_)___/ / / /|_/ / _ \/ __/ ___/ __ \/ / __ / / / / / __/ /_/ / / /_/ / / /_/ / /_/ /_/\___/\__/_/ \____/_/\__,_/ Pure Speed Run FAQ/Walkthrough _________________________________________________________________ By: Smokey E-mail: dagonhx0@hotmail.com Version 1.04 *Last Revised on 09/10/04* _________________________________________________________________ Links: Metroid's Speed Runs Movie Files: http://www.metroid2002.com http://www.planetquake.com/sda/others/ http://www.samus.co.uk/ ZSNES 'ZMVs' files (ZSNES movie files) http://www.classicgaming.com/msr http://www.elazulspad.net/ultima http://www.geocities.com/smokeysmr Metroid Series' Related Info. http://www.samus.co.uk/ http://www.classicgaming.com/mdb http://www.gamefaqs.com/ ============================================================ ____________________________________ ============================================================ Legal Disclaimer This document may not be reproduced nor retransmitted in any form, in part or in whole, without advance permission from the author. This guide can be found at the following websites: www.samus.co.uk www.gamefaqs.com This is to be used only for private, personal use. It may not be sold, altered, edited, given as an incentive to buy, published, etc. without prior consent from the author. This document is Copyright © 2003-04 Smokey™. =========================================================== Table of Contents: __________________ I. Revisions II. Introduction III. Basics - Useful Glitches - Notes - Speed Tips IV. Walkthrough - Ceres Station - Crateria - Brinstar - Norfair I - Wrecked Ship - Maridia - Norfair II - Tourian V. Possible Big-Time Saver Shortcuts VI. Credits =========================================================== I. Revisions =========================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------ V. *(1.04) (3:34 PM 9/10/04) Thanks to Jay for generously cleaning and smoothing out the FAQ from grammar and spelling errors, everything now is pretty much understandable. Added the Super Metroid ASCII art work. ------------------------------------------------------------ V. *(1.04) (1:04 PM 8/31/04) Long time no news, huh? I've decided to remove the High Scores section, mainly because a lot of people have been e-mailing me with their submissions (precisely the same people) almost daily, again and again, which drove me to do this. I even think some, that are already on the list, have improved upon their times, which makes the list very outdated... but I really don't care much about that. In any case, the same High Scores list can be found at samus.co.uk in the Super Metroid section. I just wanted to notify you of this. heh. Added a few hints at the Speed Tips section, supplied by rah0070. ------------------------------------------------------------ V. *(1.04) (9:16 PM 10/31/03) Fixed a minor error on the shortcut section and in the Credits section. Added a small section for the players' scores in general runs. ------------------------------------------------------------ V. (1.04) (3:41 PM 10/07/03) Added some info on the shortcut section for the Green Gate glitch and in the Credits section. ------------------------------------------------------------ V. *(1.03) (8:56 PM 09/11/03) Another short revision to the FAQ. Added a few touch ups at the end of the FAQ thanks to dracokl (dracossphere). ------------------------------------------------------------ V. (1.03) (3:18 PM 09/04/03) A short revision to the FAQ. Fixed some big spelling errors in most of the sections. ------------------------------------------------------------ V. (1.00) (9:31 PM 08/30/03) Added the Credits section and corrected some spelling errors. Walkthrough is completed. ------------------------------------------------------------ V. (0.85) (10:56 AM 08/29/03) Finished the Norfair II and Tourian Sections and added the Possible Shortcuts section. ------------------------------------------------------------ V. (0.50) (9:31 PM 08/27/03) Finished the Wrecked Ship and Maridia Sections. ------------------------------------------------------------ V. (0.25) (3:16 PM 08/25/03) Finished the Norfair I section. Corrected a few spelling errors. ------------------------------------------------------------ V. (0.10) (10:22 PM 08/24/03) Started the walkthrough. Added the Introduction and Basics sections. The Ceres - Brinstar Sections are completed. ------------------------------------------------------------ =========================================================== II. Introduction =========================================================== Thanks for reading this FAQ. It's my first one, so I hope you find it valuable. Keep in mind that this is a COMPLETELY different speed guide from the others, because the other ones are for a 100% item collection in less than 1:30 (one hour and thirty minutes). This guide is to get a time stamp in LESS THAN AN HOUR with a minimum of items, which has a completely different path to take. The main goal of this guide is to show you how to beat the game in UNDER AN HOUR (0:59) with a minimum of items. My best time to date is 0:36 on a console run with the same route I used in this FAQ, (impressive you say, huh?) which also involves some sequence breaking tricks instead of taking a typical route. Many people have found numerous ways to get through the game to achieve this, and have beat the game with the best ending and the lowest time stamp, but why not do it with the best route at the moment? This guide covers the latest way to date to do it wisely. It contains an easy path, great short-cuts, tricks in various rooms and easy/useful items to get along the way without slowing you down. Sure, in this run you are free to get an extra item along the way if you are in desperate need of energy/missiles, or if you can't continue the run with the items you have. However, if you find this run a bit complicated, I suggest you first try some speed runs of your own, practice a bit in the game, bosses (the zebetite and mockball glitches) etc., or at least, see one of my movies. This is also important: this route was designed to take an extremely low percentage of items (especially missiles and super missiles), so to take advantage of the zebetite glitch at the Mother Brain's chamber, and to not go back to the recharge station. So it would be good to start off by learning that glitch. Unless you want to do various trips to the recharge station, getting more missiles and super missiles during the run to take the zebetites away, and overall, just wasting a bunch of time doing that. =========================================================== III. Basics =========================================================== For detailed information on how to perform these moves you can go to: http://www.gamefaqs.com/ search for Super Metroid, and read the mrFergo's and BrickRoad's Move and Glitch FAQs. Here, I'll list some useful moves and tricks to make the Pure Speed Run easier. - Wall-Jump: jump on any wall and (let''s say you're jumping on a right wall) and then press left on the control pad (the opposite direction) and press 'jump' again to do this. Very useful in practically any place you want to go faster. - ShineSpark or Super Jump (all directiions): When you have the Speed Booster press the 'dash' (B button by default) while running and Samus will run faster. At this point you have to press 'down' on d-pad while still holding the dash button and she'll begin to flash. You can now press: a) the 'jump' button. Samus will fly on a vertical position. b) press 'R' and then the jump button at any direction. This will make Samus fly on a diagonal. c) press the jump button and forward (d pad) and Samus will do a horizontal super jump. Here is how to do a Horizontal Super Jump while in mid-air: Charge your Speed Booster to full speed and press 'down' to trigger 'super jump' mode. Now do a normal spin jump, and while in mid air, tap 'up' _or_ the 'R' button (to activate the super jump position). Now just press 'forward' and the 'jump' button. ------------------------------------------------------------ Useful Glitches ------------------------------------------------------------ - Quick-Charge-Boost: Press forward (taake two steps) and then press the dash button. You will charge up the speed booster quicker. This is preferably the fastest way to enter into the Wrecked Ship with a quick- charge boost for a super jump, but it takes damage though. - Mock-Ball: You'll need the Morph Balll to perform this, and you can also do this without the Speed Booster. 1- Dash at full speed, do a normal spin jump, and hold the 'jump' button. 2- While in the air, press down _one_ time while still holding the 'jump' button, so Samus will aim down. 3- Now, as you make contact with the ground, press down again (you'll morph now) and then press forward as fast as you can (or in the direction you were running). Samus will be rolling on the ground with the same amount of speed that she was running before the jump. This glitch lets you get the early Super missiles in the game, allowing you to entirely skip the fight with Spore Spawn, as well as doing a couple of minor things faster. - KagoBall Glitch: You can do this glitch practically with every sprite you see in the game. To practice the glitch, quickly look for a nearby enemy and freeze it. Step on it, jump, and while in the air press 'down'. Now, at the very last second (or frame) before you touch the enemy press again 'down' to roll into a ball and you'll go right through the enemy to the floor. Pretty useful to cut a few seconds at the spike platforms in Lower Norfair before the ninja Golden Pirates. - Green Gate Glitch (GGG): Basically, you'll only need to start speed-boosting toward the door you want to open (from the wrong side), and as soon as you make contact with the gate press JUMP and fire a Super missile at the top of the gate. Useful if you want to take the Screw Attack and make your life easier while traversing Lower Norfair. - Kraid's Quick-kill Glitch: The key to this glitch is precise timing. Right after he appears from the ground, shoot a beam at his face to make him open his mouth, then quickly select your super missiles. Before he makes the growl (but still while his mouth is semi-opened), load a super missile in his mouth. This is where the glitch comes in. Firing a super missile into his mouth, before he even makes the growl, will keep his mouth open for a second. Use this time to load all the super missiles you have in his mouth before he closes it. It's pretty hard to do, but completely worth it and it only takes 5 seconds to kill him with this glitch. I highly recommend practicing this glitch, because it truly SUCKS if you fail it. You'll end up shooting all (or most) of your super missiles into his evil left hand, thus having none left for the rest of the battle. - Zebetite Glitch: As you enter to Mother Brain's hall, you will notice some red barriers (called zebetites) in your way. Equip your Ice beam (and *un-equip* the Screw Attack, if you have it on) and freeze the lower Rinka as soon as it spawns (the orange ball that spawns from some tubes). Then spin toward the zebetite to get hit by it. Now, spin again, land, and then press the jump button and forward. This will "take out" the next three zebetites in your path, granting you total access to MB without using a single missile or super missile. Note that if you break the first zebetite, after skipping it, will cause the next three zebetites reappear. - Murder Beam Glitch: The best place to use/test this glitch is before the fight with Mother Brain (when her head is on the floor). Make sure you have the four main beams. First off, equip Ice/Wave and Plasma beam. Charge your beam and then press start and go to Samus' screen. Now equip the Spazer beam, and move the cursor to any of the boots items. Next, try to press the left and the action button (the 'A' button is default) at the same time, equip both the Spazer and Plasma beam simultaneously. If you did it correctly, you'll see mysterious letters showing 'VAR' right besides the Plasma beam. Then press 'start' again while HOLDING the fire button to not fire it, otherwise you'll crash the game. Step near MB's head and release the fire button. Press start again and un-equip the Spazer or Plasma beam (mostly the Spazer beam) to have the beams return to normal and to not crash the game. The battle will be slow-paced but the glitched beam will continue damaging MB in the entire battle regardless. At the cinema, when the Super Metroid is dying, you'll see MB with a red color, indicating that she'll die soon. Just five seconds after you get the Hyper beam MB will begin to explode! Highly useful if you want to cut-off about 15 seconds at the third phase of the battle. ------------------------------------------------------------ NOTES ------------------------------------------------------------ In this run you WILL have to skip the following Mini-Bosses and Items: Mini-Bosses: - Spore Spawn - Crocomire - Golden Torizo Items: - Grapple Beam - X-Ray Scope - Spring Ball - Screw Attack (Optional) Why? It is because none of the above is necessary to beat the game. However, if you want, you CAN collect the Screw Attack to get through Lower Norfair easily; this will also make the fight with Ridley easy, and it doesn't take too much time to collect it. Additionally, you'll have to collect all the beams to make the fight with the bosses (especially with Ridley and Mother Brain) much FASTER. ------------------------------------------------------------ SPEED TIPS: ------------------------------------------------------------ - Never go out of your way to save the game unless I tell you so. This could add around 15 seconds to your run. (Saving and continuing with the main path.) - Ignore most of the enemies unless theey get in your way. There's a metal door to open or if you need to recharge your supplies. - Always open red doors _and_ eye-doorss with Super missiles (aside of green doors) unless you don't have any, or if you have a few of them left before facing a boss. - Never use the Ice beam unless you havve to freeze something to go up or to defeat all the bosses (with the exception of Phantoon). Freezing enemies along the way will only slow you down. - Pause whenever you're doing a continuuous flow in the game, such as running, falling, jumping, or if you're waiting for something: such as before a Boss fight begins. Pausing when neither of these periods are present is likely a slow move to make. In addition, time stops when you pause the game. - Time also stops when room transitionss takes place, when you get an item, when the game asks you to save, and when it tells you the game was saved (unfortunately, time continues to run during the save animation). In other words, time stops whenever a black box shows up. - Wall jumps are 2x faster than space jjumps. - If you've screwed something up for abbout 15-20 seconds, RESET. You'll never want to get an extra minute at the end of your run. Just reset and do it more carefully the next time. - Always hold the 'dash' button. =========================================================== IV. Walkthrough =========================================================== To watch the best example of this run go to any of these links: http://www.metroid2002.com/3/ http://www.planetquake.com/sda/other/supermetroid.html http://www.samus.co.uk/super_metroid/speed_runs.shtml You must have at least the latest version of DivX Codec installed in your computer to watch the movie(s). ------------------------------------------------------------ Ceres Station ------------------------------------------------------------ Time: 00:00 There is not much to do here. In the first room, spin below the platforms pressing right and left to avoid all of the of them without stopping. Run through the empty corridors until you reach the metroid larva. In this room stay to the corner and duck so you can get hit by the tail of Ridley as soon as he appears. Just jump to his tail since it's the only spot of Ridley where you can lose more energy. In five hits you'll have 24 energy remaining in your status. End the fight quickly and escape, trying to avoid the jet-gas at every opportunity. It's very possible to get a time of 0:44.xx remaining seconds at the time of escape. *SOMEWHAT POINTLESS SMALL NOTE* (It only takes around 16 seconds in-game time to reach the metroid larva's room from the elevator and vice versa. It's good to have this as a point of reference to know how well you did in the intro, but meh) ------------------------------------------------------------ Crateria ------------------------------------------------------------ Time: 0:01 (1 min.) As soon as you land on the lonely planet Zebes, head left and open the door. Keep running left until you see an opening. Drop down, and blast the blue door at the bottom. In this long, vertical shaft, go to the right wall and stay close to it. Watch as you fall without stopping at the platforms, and at the end, open the door. Follow this old-Mother Brain corridor, shoot the door on the other side and step on the elevator. Get the morph ball to your left and continue to the right to get your first set of Missiles (5). Return, skip the missile in the red door and go back to the elevator to Crateria. Climb the vertical shaft using wall jumps, killing the Space Pirates as you jump, and shoot the door at the top. Keep heading up (like if you were heading to your ship) and there will be a little passage. Use the morph-ball, fall down, get the Bombs and face the Torizo. -------------------------- Mini-Boss: Torizo -------------------------- The best way to kill him quickly is using _one_ missile each second (don't fire them rapidly, just wait a second and then fire). If you run out of missiles, reload when the Torizo is tossing bombs at you. After the fight, reload all your missiles and go back two rooms. ------------------------------------------------------------ Here, you can either escape this part by using wall jumps on the left side, morphing at the last pixel to enter the hole (the little tunnel which you entered), or taking the right and using bombs to take out the blocks. If you take the left side you can save around 10 seconds. Run to the left, bomb the fake wall and go through the door. Collect your first Energy Tank (1) at the end of the cave. Open the door and walk through the Space Pirates (ignore them). Ignore the red-door to your right, turn left and then go down to Brinstar. ------------------------------------------------------------ Brinstar ------------------------------------------------------------ Go down a bit and open the first red door to your right. *NOTE* (Remember that this part is OPTIONAL. If you don't know how to perform a mockball correctly, you can skip ahead and fight Spore Spawn to get the first set of super missiles). Run and jump right as you get through the door and do the Mockball trick to get past the bridge. At the end, shoot the ceiling and grab your first Super Missiles (5). NOTE: After getting the super missiles, you might want to get the nearby missile pack to open the red door in this room (to not waste super missiles), and get the reserve tank and the two hidden missile packs, in case you really want to be very well-equipped. This will allow you to save a whole minute of your run, completely skipping the fight with Spore Spawn. Return to the main path, and open the right red door at the bottom with a super missile. Keep dashing right until you come to the 'main room'. Head down and collect both the Missile (10) and the Charge Beam. Go back out, use the morph ball and open the green door. Drop down and keep dasingh right (skip the pipe-secret missile if you want), open the door gate, the blue door and now kill the two Cactacs with missiles to get a free super missile and then run through the bridge above-- or the NooB BriDge as some people call it :p. At the end, shoot the green door and kill the nearby Cacatac to get another super missile. Enter the opened green door. Head south in this vertical corridor and shoot the blue door to your right (You can open the green door to the left if you're low on energy). Travel to the right, wall jump up, and get the Spazer Beam. Now backtrack and dash right. Pass the Marida-glass hall and select your super missiles. In the Norfair elevator room, shoot the lowest rightmost super missile block and morph by it. Now at the lowest edge of the room, try to run right and do a diagonal jump onto the monster's face. If done correctly, you can wall jump onto the ledge to keep heading into Kraid's Hideout without traversing Norfair (to get the High Jump Boots). Now, run all the way to Kraid's room. NOTE: If you are willing to do Kraid's quick-kill glitch (see the Basics section), it will be good to save in the room at Kraid's lair, since the glitch is hard to pull off; it's unlikely to succeed on the first try and failing will drastically slow down that part. -------------------------- Boss: Kraid -------------------------- There are two ways to kill him: 1- The easy, but slower way: As soon as he appears, shoot a regular shot at his face and quickly select your super missiles. Wait for the precise moment when he's going to open his mouth and when you hear his growl, quickly fire one super missile (or two if you can time it right) to lower his health rapidly. Repeat this strategy after the other half of his body comes up. Try dodging all of his projectiles, or simply blast them if you need missiles, super missiles or energy. It could take around 15 seconds to kill him with this technique-- IF YOU'RE FAST ENOUGH. 2- The hard, but faster way: Here you can use the Kraid Quick-kill glitch to beat him in just 5 seconds. A good tip: When he appears, wait until his left hand is down. Then fire a normal shot at his face and QUICKLY select your super missiles. You'll need precise timing to shoot a super missile in his mouth BEFORE he makes the growl. Shooting a regular shot when his hand is completely down will give enough space for the first super missile shot to pound Kraid's mouth without his hand blocking it. If you did this right, he'll leave his mouth shoot for another second or so, giving you time to fire your three remaining super missiles into his mouth, killing him before he closes it. When the battle is over, try to collect super missile refills in the room. ------------------------------------------------------------ Either way, after you beat him, go to the east part of the room and collect the Varia Suit. Go back out three rooms. Kill the mini- Kraid with two missiles to reload all your supers, and then with missiles, continue blasting the next three ki-hunters along the way to open the gray door. Get the Energy Tank (2) at the flashing door on your way out and return to the Norfair elevator room. Take it down to Norfair. ------------------------------------------------------------ Norfair I ------------------------------------------------------------ Drop all the way down and blast the red door to your left. Get the Energy Tank (3) and fall down to one of the false blocks. Kill thenGreemer quickly and turn back to open the flashing door. Proceed into the room and grab the High Jump Boots and the Missile pack (15) on your way back. Shoot the blue door to your right and SAVE. (This should be your first SAVE or the second if you saved at Kraid's lair during your run). ------------------------------------------------------------ * Reset your game and look at the game-time clock. It should read: 0:12 mins OR LOWER. If you got somewhere around this, you're on the right track for a goal time of 0:59 (UNDER ONE HOUR). ------------------------------------------------------------ Time: 0:12 (12 mins.) Head through the blue door to your left and go up toward the elevator. At the top, open the blue door on the right and continue on to the 'bubble room'. Now wall jump up to the west part of the room (where a blue door is) and dash to the right, then jump off the ledge as high as you can and use 1-2 wall jumps off the eastern ledge (watch out for the Cacatac above) to reach the northeast part of the room quickly. Open and proceed through the green door and head northeast. At the end of this narrow corridor is a red door. Look above it and shoot the bubbles to reveal a secret Missile pack (20). Blast the red door, get the Speed Booster and return to the 'bubble room'. Drop down from the blue door you came from to the east part of the room, where another blue door awaits you. Avoid the enemies that pop up from the floor and open the red door below. This room can be somewhat tricky to get past and would be easier to un-equip the Hi Jump Boots so as to not get hit by the ceiling. Otherwise you'll be failing most of the jumps and you'll probably fall down accidentally, which will look dumb. Jump to the rising platforms carefully, open the door-gate and get the Missile pack behind it (25). Use your speed booster and jump as far as you can off the ledge. As soon as you hit the wall on the other side, wall jump up to the red door. Collect the Wave Beam and go back out. Fall to the center of the spikes (the fake ones) to not lose your energy. (You can also shoot the spore creature to recharge your supplies.) Morph through the little tunnel and use your speed booster again. Before you reach the blue door, press the jump button and hold it while avoiding the rising plat-forms and you can reach the blue door at the top without using the lower one. If you screw up, try again. If you still can't do it, just take the lower door and return to the bubble room or, if you want, just reset the game to do it again to 'perfection'. *sigh* In the bubble room, climb down to the south area and shoot the floor to reveal a secret tunnel (not the one to get the missile). Kill the Greemers if you want and escape the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, there will be two blue doors. Take the one at the left and continue straight/forward. At the end you'll return to the save room where you previously saved. Head left, go up toward the elevator and open the green door on your left. Use the speed booster to pass the gates, and before you reach the end, press down, open the blue door and do an horizontal super jump. Proceed into the next blue door. Go up, get the Ice Beam and return the way you came. Head to the elevator to go up to Brinstar. ------------------------------------------------------------ Now keep running to the left until you get to the vertical room. You can take the left door to recharge your energy. Use some wall jumps to work your way up and freeze the last floating turtle you see to use it as a platform. Proceed north and do the same thing with the other flying turtles at the top. Shoot the fake block at the summit, and shoot the blue door. Jump pass through the little platforms until you get to the other side of the room. (Try to not fall down to the sucki-flowers below). Open the blue door at the end. Blast the two fake blocks below, shoot the green door and get your first and last Power Bombs of the run (5). Backtrack and leave this room. Climb up and lay a power bomb to open the yellow door. (We'll be coming back through here later, so you might want to have this door blue already to not waste any power bombs refills later). Kill the two Cacatacs to get super missiles and skip both the save room and green door. Head up to the elevator. ------------------------------------------------------------ Wrecked Ship ------------------------------------------------------------ Lay a power bomb to open the yellow door and go up (again, we'll be coming back here). Proceed up, shoot the fake block and kill the two Ki-Hunters. Open the yellow door at the right side of the room BUT DON'T GO THROUGH IT. Instead, go back to the far-left side of the room and stand near the blue door to make enough space to use the quick-charge speed booster (see Basic section). Then, press 'down' to use the shinespark and hop up to do a horizontal-super jump through the opened yellow door. You'll get the Missile pack on your way (30). Shoot the blue door, but again, DON'T GO THROUGH IT. Stand near the ledge and use another Quick-charge booster. At the other side of the room you'll begin to use the speed booster sooner. Just press 'down' and use a horizontal super jump to reach the Wrecked Ship's entrance quickly, leaving behind the completely useless Grapple beam during this run. Open the green door and enter into the Wrecked Ship. Dash through this tight corridor and shoot the blue door at the end of the hall. Head downward and lay a power bomb at the bottom left side to clear all the blocks in your way. Open the green door at the bottom. Take it east and morph under the wall and use a bomb to get through. Blast away the eye-door, (you must have at least 1 or 2 super missiles left) un-equip your Ice beam and go inside. -------------------------- Boss: Phantoon -------------------------- Shoot his blue fireballs to refill your supplies. Phantoon's attack pattern is completely unpredictable. He'll toss his blue fireballs at you whether he is invisible or not. This is essential to keep in mind, because when you feel when and where he will toss then, you'll be ready to do a spin jump, with your charged Wave beam toward him, to avoid damage (doing a Pseudo-screw attack) and quickly "get in" after the circle of blue fireballs to release the charged Wave beam into his eye. This is important because you won't have to wait for another round for him to reappear. How can we detect his attack pattern with ease? By fighting him a lot. Let's get back to the point. If you did this right, recharge your Wave beam and shoot three more at him to finish the round quickly. It only takes 4 rounds to beat him with this strategy without letting him become invisible. If he does turn invisible, continue shooting his blue fireballs and then charge your beam. As soon as he reappears, quickly release your charged shot at him before he disappears again. Repeat, repeat and repeat this strategy. After he's gone, refill your supplies and leave the room. NOTE: It is important to get _at least_ 4 power bombs refills in this room after the fight. First, place one in the upper room in the Wrecked ship to kill the creatures faster; use one to blow up the glass tube to enter Maridia; use another to kill the crab in the tunnels to get the super missile pack; and finally one to power bomb the blocks in your way at Maridia before facing Botwoon. If you didn't get them, you'll have to take a moment to refill them in the room before the room of your first power bombs (by killing some crawling enemies around). It isn't necessary to have the four of them, but having them will get you through the rest of the next part fairly easy. ------------------------------------------------------------ Return to the area where you set off a power bomb, and take the left door to get some Super missiles (10). Head north and shoot the the blocks at the ceiling to continue further up and open the blue door at the top. Next, select your power bombs and place one in the middle of two Ki-Hunters to kill both at the same time. Then select your super missiles (or the missiles, if you want to conserve super missiles) and start going to the right side of the room killing all the enemies you see. Once finished, run to the left side of the room and blast away the rest of them. When you're done, open the flashing door at left side of the room. You'll now return to the curious, unexplored northeast side of Crateria. Travel to the far left side until you see some tunnels below. Shoot the ground to reveal a small crawl space. Follow east and be sure to refill AT LEAST TWO ENERGY TANKS by killing the flying creature at the pipe or killing the creatures in the next room. Shoot the door and avoid (or kill) all the monsters in the next room. Follow right until you come to the big spike room. Since you don't have the Grapple beam to cross the room, you're going to RUN through the spikes. Just run and when you get hit by them you will be invincible for about a second. Use this time to boost more and spin-jump as far as you can until you reach the standing Chozo Statue. Morph into a ball while in his hand and watch the slow and painful cinema of the Chozo taking you through the floor. When you regain control of Samus, open the blue door and get the Gravity Suit. Rush through the blue door and go outside again. From here just travel to the west side to your ship. Before you save at your ship, open the green door to the right-side of your ship, because you will be coming back here after you save. Reload everything while at your ship and save your game. ------------------------------------------------------------ * Reset your game and look at the game-time clock. It should now read: 0:24 mins OR LOWER. Load the game and continue on. ------------------------------------------------------------ Time: 0:24 (24 mins.) From your ship, dash right and open the blue door. Kill the Ki- hunter in your way and shoot the block below and open the blue door. Step onto the elevator. Walk down and open the blue door (if you have less than 4 power bombs go down and kill the crawling-creatures to refill them. It's up to you). Now just keep heading all the way down until you reach the Maridia-glass hall. In the glass hall, lay a power bomb and head up. ------------------------------------------------------------ Maridia ------------------------------------------------------------ Ignore the red door, go up and immediately to your right where a blue door is, at the end of a tunnel. (You can actually use a Quick charge boost here to perform a diagonal Super Jump into the next room). Use some wall jumps (or the diagonal Super Jump) to reach up and head through the blue door at the top (you can freeze the fish here to use it has a platform). On the left wall, climb up and you'll see a crab crawling along, then it'll go through an invisible tunnel. Roll into a ball and go through this tunnel for some Super missiles (15). Go back and dash right, do a diagonal super jump to get to the upper right blue door quickly. Shoot the block in the middle and fall down. Proceed right and open the green door and in the next room place a power bomb and fall down. Wall jump up (or do a diagonal super jump up) to reach the north- west part of this big room. Open the blue door at the ceiling. Make your way through the tunnels and use the speed booster to reach the blue door. Face Botwoon. -------------------------- Mini-Boss: Botwoon -------------------------- If you have more than 10 super missiles, use a few of them at the beginning. Then just go to a corner of the room (preferably the left side) and switch to your ice/wave beam. Charge it up and shoot it in the middle of the room right before Botwoon is coming out of the holes. This is good because almost every time he comes out of a hole he will show his face in the middle of the room whether he is slow (with normal health) or fast (if he is low on health), and this allows you to fire simple straight-charged-shots in the middle of the room with- out worry. After he's gone, continue to the next room. ------------------------------------------------------------ Proceed to the right and roll up to collect the Energy Tank (4). Get back to the left and kill all the creatures along the way. Speed dash through this room and right after you see the blue door at the end, press 'down' to do the Shinespark and then pass through the door. Here, do a diagonal Super jump to reach the door on the right and enter. In this room, you will have to do a series of wall jumps to reach the right side of the room. Go through the top door and refill. (Save. Optional) Drop down and open the green door. Drop through the first false spikes you see and open the eye door with a super missile to enter to the Boss room. -------------------------- Boss: Draygon -------------------------- Since you don't have the Grapple beam, this fight will be a bit difficult. So don't be mad about dying on your first try with such a low amount of energy tanks. Blast the 3 cannons in this room (two on the right side and one in the left) with missiles to prevent them shooting electric balls at you. Now wait for Draygon to appear. As he's flying around, dodge him with your morph ball form. If you can snipe him while he's flying, fire the missiles/supers at his belly. While he's spewing gunk at you, just place a power bomb to clear them all. Then continue pounding him with missiles and switch to super missiles. If you run out of ammo wait for him to spew gunk at you again and shoot some of them to reload your missiles/supers and repeat this process. Continue until he's gone. ------------------------------------------------------------ Enter the flashing door and grab the Space Jump. From this Chozo room, head back out towards the 4 rooms and enter into the flashing door in the middle. Here, kill all the Cactac you see to get some super missile refills and continue straight/forward until you come to a sand room. Quickly reload your supplies here and then open the blue door. Speed dash through this underwater sandy hall and fly ALL the way to the top and enter the flashing door. Take it north and blast the blue door at the top. Get the Plasma Beam, kill all the space pirates scattered everywhere and return to the big room. Head to the middle-west side of the room and blast the green door at the floor. This tube will take you ALL the way down. Walk down, lay a power bomb and take the left door. Space jump through this room and open the blue door at the end. Open the other one and kill all the crabs that come from the invisible floor, then morph down there. Ignore the red door and run through the blue door at the left. Keep heading left, shoot the green gate, and fall back into the room after the Marida glass hall. Proceed to Norfair. ------------------------------------------------------------ Drop all the way down and head to the save room. Save if you want, then open the right door. Speed boost through this corridor and open the door to go through. Head down and shoot the floor, look to your left, shoot both the door-gate and the door and run pass through them. Head all the way down and open the door at the bottom. Take the right and open the next one. You can reload your energies in this room if you are low. Shoot the next door and space jump all the way to the end. Shoot the metal gate and head down to open the yellow door. In Ridley's room, you must fall into the boiling acid and do space jumps to get to the northwest part of this room (where Ridley's face statue is). Shoot the blue door. SAVE in the next room and reset your game. ------------------------------------------------------------ * Reset your game and look at the game-time clock. It should read: 0:36 mins OR LOWER. Load up the game and continue on. ------------------------------------------------------------ Norfair II (Lower Norfair) ------------------------------------------------------------ Time: 0:36 (36 mins.) *NOTE* (From this point, you can go to the right to get the Screw Attack using the Green Gate Glitch (see Basics section) if you don't feel right in proceeding with the next part without it.) From the elevator, space jump to your right and head into the door. Select your power bombs and lay one to reveal a secret pass way. Fall down and refill your bombs from some of the dead enemies and open the door at the right (make sure you have your power bombs selected). In this room the lava will slowly rise... use the power bombs to destroy all the columns in your way and open the door to the east. With your charged/plasma beam, kill the three golden pirates in this room and head up. Lay a power bomb at the top to get rid of all the blocks and then climb up further. Carefully dodge all the enemies here and blast the blue door at the top-right corner. This big chamber will quickly fill with lava, so use the space jump to fly above the Space pirates to the northeast side. Open and go through the door. Open the next door and quicly select your super missiles. Shoot the monster that is attached to the wall, climb down and get the Energy tank (5). Now return to the door where you came from. Shoot the blocks in the floor to reveal a secret area. Here is a small glitch that allows you to pass right through the red ki- hunters without getting a hit: just shoot them right before the very last moment you go running through them. At the bottom of the room, lay a power bomb, morph right and then proceed into the yellow door. Here, lay another power bomb to reveal the path to the left and go through it. Rush through this room and ignore all the enemies until you come to the end. Here lay a power bomb to blow up the statue. You'll see some reversed-spike platforms for you to step onto but instead of waiting the first one to go down, you can use the Kagoball glitch on the spike platform (see Basics section) to skip it and go right to the other one, saving around 6 to 8 secs at most. Head left to the next room. Use the space jump above one of the golden pirates to get their attention, and when one of them stops shooting at you, it will try to kick you. Jump to dodge it and blast away at it with some charged/ plasma beams or with super missiles. Do the same with the other one and reload. Continue on to the next 2 rooms and open the eye-door. Reload your missiles, if you need some more, to take on Ridley. Take a deep breath and go inside. -------------------------- Boss: Ridley -------------------------- Select your power bombs and lay one to lower his health quickly before even starting the fight. When Ridley appears select your super missiles and shoot all of them at him and make sure all of them count. After you run out of your super missiles, equip your Ice beam and use charged/ice/plasma beam shoots at Ridley to end the fight quickly. Another good tip is staying in the left corner of the room when Ridley is bouncing on the ground. You won't take any damage, and this spot is quite advantageous for leaving Ridley open to free shots. ------------------------------------------------------------ Grab the Energy tank (6) in the next room and backtrack all the way to the save room. Save if want and head up to the right door. Keep climbing up and go past the boulders and fire balls. At the top, ignore the door and go through the wall on the left. Rush through this secret passage way and open the door. Climb up and open another blue door. Space jump through this corridor and you will find some red Ki- Hunters. Ignore them. Fly above them until there's a visible door at the top. Destroy the blocks with a regular shot and continue to the left. You'll be back in the bubble room of Norfair. Now just take it all the way back to Brinstar. Head through Maridia-broken glass hall and go up into the room with the grappling blocks. Fly up through the door in the ceiling and morph through the secret path. Open the green-gate and morph through the tunnel. Step on the elevator to Crateria and save at your ship. ------------------------------------------------------------ * Reset your game and look at the game-time clock. It should read: 0:48 mins OR LOWER. Continue on. ------------------------------------------------------------ Time: 0:48 (48 mins.) Twelve minutes are more than enough to beat the game from your current position. In fact, if you are skilled enough, you can even beat the game in just seven or eight minutes from here. Anyway, dash left from the ship and shoot the door. Get rid of the fake wall at the far left corner and go through the door. Rush quickly through the cave and shoot the door at the end. Kill a series of space pirates and blast the red door. Enter to the Boss' statue room and wait for all of them to collapse *sigh*. Then, go down to Tourian. ------------------------------------------------------------ Tourian ------------------------------------------------------------ In the first four rooms, use the Ice beam on each Metroid and one Super missile. Make sure to get everything they leave behind. Later, run past the Torizo-sand statue and go to the Metroid scene (you can un-equip the Varia and Gravity suit, so the big metroid can drain your energies faster). Reload all your energies in the computer, open the eye-door WITH MISSILES and go through it. Open the red door at the bottom. Now here is a useful glitch: as you enter to Mother Brain's hall, you will notice some red barriers (called zebetites) in your way. Now instead of using your missile and super missiles, just equip your Ice beam (and *un-equip* the Screw Attack, if you collected it before) and freeze the lower Rinka as soon as it spawns (the orange ball that spawns from the tube) then spin toward the zebetite to get hit by it. Now, spin again, land, and then press the jump button and forward. If you did it right, you'll pass the zebetite without using any missiles or super missiles. But the really useful thing is that the next 3 zebetites that you "should" break will be gone. (Note that if you break the first zebetite after skipping it, the other ones will reappear) If you don't know how to execute this move flawlessly (or at least you don't know how it works) then shoot all the zebetites with a few missiles or super missiles until you get to Mother Brain. Since you have low missiles and super missiles, they won't be enough to take away all the zebetites (let alone breaking the glass and awaking MB) so you might want to go back to the recharge station to reload your missiles. To open the glass, first use the missiles and then use all of the super missiles you have to awaken the Mother Brain. -------------------------- Final Boss: Mother Brain -------------------------- There are two ways to kill her: 1- The fastest way is using the Murder Beam glitch (see Basic section) to finish off the battle right after you get the Hyper Beam or: 2- Staying in the right corner of the room, avoiding all of her beams and using your charged/ice/plasma beam on her head until she uses her hand-beam. Now here, if you have more than 3 energy tanks, you can purposefully lower your energy until you have three energy tanks. You want to do this so you don't have to wait for MB to lower all of it for you. Keep shooting her until she finally unleashes her mind-laser beam. Now watch the time-consuming cinema of the super Metroid (yes, I call it that) sucking up Mother Brain's energy, and later it'll reload all of your energies in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, like dramatic movies, MB will come alive from the bits of hidden energies that remain to kill your baby super Metroid slowly and painfully. When the baby Metroid explodes, the last bits of its energy will fall down to Samus, going through the suit system, and granting her final beam. As Samus quickly wrestles herself to a standing position, you'll have your newly obtained Hyper beam to burn the hell out of Mother Brain! Do some lower jumps while shooting at her to avoid the shots from her hand and also to never give her a chance to shoot something back at you. Finally, when the epic battle is over, the infamous bomb sequence time will begin. -------------------------- First room: 3:00 Break the columns with your Hyper beam and run into the door. -------------------------- Second room: 2:57 Fall down to the right and open the door. -------------------------- Third room: 2:55 Take the bottom path and speed boost all the way to the right, and then, do a vertical super jump through the ceiling and through the door at the right. -------------------------- Fourth room: 2:46 Go up and shoot all the space pirates out of your way. Keep going up and then go down. Now, do some wall jump in the nearby wall you see and go up again. Remember, wall jumps are faster than space jumps. Shoot the exit and speed boost into the next room. -------------------------- Fifth Room: 2:22 You'll return to the long vertical shaft in Crateria. Now press down to use the shinespark, stand on the far right wall and use a vertical super jump to get to the top quickly. A *VERY* USEFUL TRICK. -------------------------- Sixth Room: 2:15 Now the rest is just getting back to your ship. If you did it faster you can do it in less than a minute from Mother Brain's room. Board your ship and watch your time. Hopefully, it will say less than an hour, if not, keep practicing to get slightly better the next time. ------------------------------------------------------------ -GOAL TIME: 0:59 (59 mins)- Congratulations! You have beaten the game in less than an hour! Now just practice more to do it perfectly the next time. Or maybe try it again to beat the record... who knows? ------------------------------------------------------------ =========================================================== V. Possible Time Saver Shortcuts =========================================================== Some time saver shortcuts (that weren't proposed by me) for you to try them in your run. Some involve mastery tricks. 1- Skipping Spore Spawn at the beginning to get the Super Missiles sooner. (Using the Mock-ball trick). *PROS: Self-explanatory. You'll never face Spore Spawn to get the first set of Super Missiles allowing you to gain 1-2 minutes of your game-time during your run. *CONS: You only need to master the Mock-ball trick before attempting this, and it will take several tries to get it correctly. *2- Instead of going down to Norfair to kill Kraid and get the Varia Suit, you can go up and face Phantoon as the first BOSS of the game and get the Gravity Suit sooner. (This requires using the DIAGONAL BOMB JUMP on the moat). *PROS: You will have to face Kraid very late in the game but it'll only take around 2 minutes to kill him, get the Varia Suit and return back. You'll only do a single run to Norfair instead of two, plus, next to you is Maridia which is very near from your location (Norfair). Because of this you can cut about 3 minutes off your run. *CONS: If you're not good at bomb-jumping, it'll take you *a lot* of time to reach the Wrecked Ship using the Diagonal Bomb Jump. Or you can just save at your ship, go to the moat and if you mess up two times or more, reset the game and come back again. 3- As soon as you land in Norfair II (Lower Norfair), go to the right and open the door. Use a power bomb and go down to the left door. BUT before you open it, select the super missiles and start running to the opened door. In the next room, press jump before you touch the gate and fire a super missile at the opposite spot of the green block. You'll open it because of the waves allowing you to take the Screw Attack without fighting the Golden Torizo. *PROS: You'll get through Lower Norfair more easily and quickly. The fight with Ridley will be much more easy and faster, and you'll reduce more damage along the way. This saves at least a minute if done correctly. *CONS: This doesn't have a BIG CON, but you'll have to give away almost 25 seconds of your run to get the Screw Attack and return back with the normal route to Ridley. =========================================================== VI. Credits =========================================================== - Andrew Mills for inspiring me to write this guide. - CJC for hosting this guide at GameFAQs. - Ultima4701 for the route and for most of the tricks of the run. Also for some information on the speed run tips at his site. (Which gave me incentive to make this). - rikuescrawl and janchi for a big inspiration in this game. - Many special thanks to Jay (HSO) for kindly taking apart his time to fix this FAQ from grammar/spelling errors. Excellent job. - dracokl for pointing some grammar errors at Tourian's section. - Nate and Radix for converting and hosting my SM VHS into video format at their sites. - Pinkfloyd for pointing out a minor error on the Shortcuts section. - rah0070 for providing the 'pause and time stopping' info in the Speed Tips' section. - Special thanks to Goofyman for starting the High Score topic. - Red Scarlet for the KagoBall trick at LN and for the Murder Beam info. - MathOnNapkins for his 'opening the green gates from the wrong side' glitch. - Special thanks to Cerberus for a nice glitch at the Lower Norfair section. - The people from the Super Metroid Board at GameFAQs for their great info at times. - Nintendo for making such a CLASSIC game. ----------------------------------------------------------- Fin. ----------------------------------------------------------- If you have any comments, questions, suggestions or anything else about this FAQ, contact me via e-mail: dagonhx0@hotmail.com and I will respond to you as soon as I can. Copyright 2003-04 Smokey. All Rights Reserved. __________________________________________________________ - EOF -