{=================} Table of Contents {=================} Introduction .................................... IN Contact Info .................................... CI Version History .................................... VH Notes .................................... NT Full-Walkthrough.................................... FW Regrouping.................................. F.1 Boost Ball and Space Jump................... F.2 Back to Phendrana........................... F.3 Thermal Visor............................... F.4 Spider Ball and Ice Beam.................... F.5 Gravity Suit................................ F.6 Sunken Ship................................. F.7 Into the Lion's Den......................... F.8 Bulking Up.................................. F.9 Back into the Lion's Den.................... F.10 Phazon Suit................................. F.11 Ridley and Prime............................ F.12 Brief-Walkthrough................................... BW Save 1...................................... B.1 Save 2...................................... B.2 Save 3...................................... B.3 Save 4...................................... B.4 Save 5...................................... B.5 Save 6...................................... B.6 Save 7...................................... B.7 Save 8...................................... B.8 Save 9...................................... B.9 Save 10..................................... B.10 Save 11..................................... B.11 Save 12..................................... B.12 Scan List Guide..................................... SLG Save 1...................................... S.1 Save 2...................................... S.2 Save 3...................................... S.3 Save 4...................................... S.4 Save 5...................................... S.5 Save 6...................................... S.6 Save 7...................................... S.7 Save 8...................................... S.8 Save 9...................................... S.9 Save 10..................................... S.10 Save 11..................................... S.11 Save 12..................................... S.12 Strategic Skills.................................... SK {incomplete} Credits .................................... CD Thanks .................................... TX Legal .................................... LG {===============} {Introduction-IN} {===============} Five years ago I rented this game when it first came out and played this game until my gums bled, my eyes were bloodshot, and I hungered for flesh of any kind. Well I didn't really play it that much. But I did play it alot, and roughly 3 months after having rented it the first time, I bought it and didn't stop playing it for about a year and a half I reckon. I'm a huge Metroid fan and that is the most I've ever gotten out of a game, probably the most I'll ever get and within the year and a half timespan I learned alot. More notably how to beat and swipe my way through this game as much as possible. I wasn't familiar with speedrunning until the game's sequel came out, but even before then I would play this game so voraciously that my intent of beating this game as quickly as possible became a normal way of playing this game. I have released versions of this guide at other places such as at the site/forum of an old acquaintance and at Nintendo's infamous and secret Luminoth Temple (I was known first as macleod there then later as bombos). The routes I have layed out for this game are the ones I established during that year and a half. They are true, tested and have given me a decent achievement of 100% items at 2:58 on normal mode without sequence breaking or tricks. This guide will show you how I achieve that accomplishment and will hopefully help you achieve or surpass it. Best of luck to all of you, now enjoy. {===============} {Contact Info-CI} {===============} I can be reached at numerous locations for any questions, suggestions, critiques(responsible ones), etc. My email- bombosmacleod@yahoo.com My youtube page- http://www.youtube.com/user/bomb0s If you wish to e-mail me with any questions about this guide then use the following title: MPG-bombos I will completely ignore your e-mail if you do not title it in such a way. My youtube page can be used to contact me as well through a PM or comments on my channel or on my various videos where I put the strategies I laid out on this guide into practice. Please do not spam me with b.s. Do not flame me or e-mail me with the attitude of an adolescent hormonal child. I am only taking intelligent conversations about my guide. {===============} {Version History} {===============} Version 1.0- After a year of toiling, yes a year, I am finally finished with this final product. There are no dents in its armor that I have noticed in the three separate instances I have used this guide to beat the game. But if there are, someone PM them to me and use the title I have established in the Contact Info. I will add the strategic skills later, they are the skills that I use regularly to get through the game. They can be performed easily by noobs or whoever. So look forward to them. {========} {Notes-NT} {========} I have broken up this guide into three different sections. First is the Full Walkthrough. It provides you a room-by-room walkthrough with the item you are supposed to get in the specific room right next to the room's name. Both the room and the item are underlined in order to clearly identify them. In this walkthrough I also lay out the specific "attack" strategy I use and/or recommend in order to get through this room quickly and at the same time accomplishing your task. This is for first time players of Metroid Prime or players who were looking for the "correct" strategy to each room. The Brief Walkthrough is the second section. It to me is the meat of the guide because it provides you the room-by-room walkthrough that I use in this game but it doesn't tell you how to get through each room. It just lays out the rooms you go through in order and identifies the items you'll pick up in a specific room. The way I have established this guide would probably have you scratching your head, but its actually very simple and intuitive. Below I have an example to demonstrate =============== Magmoor Caverns <===This is the area of the game that you are currently in =============== XX YY || || \/ \/ Transport to Chozo Ruins North>>Burning Trail>>Lake Tunnel>> The arrow pointing down with the "XX" on top of it labels the room. The arrow pointing down with the "YY" on top of it tells you that you will exit out of the room before the ">>" into the room after the ">>". So if you are in the "Burning Trail" in the Magmoor Caverns, following the guide's arrows, the next room you will go into will be the "Lake Tunnel". I will have the second section of the guide chain like that until a room comes up with an item inside that I want you to get when you step into that room at that moment in the game. When a room with an item comes up, I break the chain in order to clearly establish that the room is something to take notice of. You'll get used to it, trust me. This section of the guide is geared specifically for the veteran players of Metroid Prime who were wondering how I did it without having to read my boring explanations in the Full Walkthrough, :P. The third section of the guide is set up similarly to the second section, except its established for the Logbook scans and not toward items. It chains the same way the Brief Walkthrough does, except the chain breaks look a little different. Lets have a look below. GG || \/ Hive Totem: Creatures-Hive Mecha# Creatures-Ram War Wasp# Research-Missile Door Lock# /\ /\ || || MM ZZ Totem Access>>Ruined Gallery>>North Atrium>>Ruined Nursery>>Eyon Tunnel>> Nursery Access>>Main Plaza>>Ruined Shrine Access>> Ruined Shrine: Creatures-Plated Beetle Ruined Shrine Access>>Main Plaza>>Ruined Fountain Access>> When I break a chain of an item, I do that Enter-spacing and identify the room first with a ":" after it. Below the room's name are the Section of scans you will get, labeled "MM" with an arrow below it, and right next to the Section of the scan is the specific name of the scan that will appear in your logbook, labeled with a "ZZ" arrow below it. If a scan has a "#", then its a one-time only scan or red scan that you may never be able to get if you get to a certain part of the game. I have also established the scans in a room top-to-bottom so that the top is the first scan you'll get in the room, the bottom is the last. Below we have the "Hive Totem" room. When you get onto the platform in the room, after the cutscene, the first thing you will do is scan the "Hive Mecha" machine. After that you will scan the "Ram War Wasp" and then the "Missile Door Lock". Alot of the creatures can be scanned later on in the game, such as the "Plated Beetle". But I have you scan him at that moment in order to not establish an ingrained precedent that gamers who use this guide will get a certain scan down without worrying about having forgotten certain ones. It keeps things timely and in order for the sake of the guide. I have established an Anytime Scan List before the Scan List Guide starts. It consists of ammunition and energy scans that can literally be scanned at any time in the game. They are basically research scans that you shouldn't worry about missing out on or getting them in a certain order. <====================> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Full Walkthrough-FW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <====================> ==================== Space Pirate Frigate ==================== Exterior Docking Hangar- There is a blue force-field blocking your path with four red orbs on the two pillars holding it together. Shoot the red orbs and then pass through. On your right is a pillar with a scan panel on it, scan the scan panel. A cutscene will start showing a similar force field on the left with orbs just like the first force-field. The orbs on its pillars will glow red and you will shoot them all to bring down the force field. Once its down, go into the area it blocked. You'll jump over a small ledge, and then head left for a walkway. The walkway turn right and lead to a door. Shoot the door and go through. Once through the door, you'll be inside of a corridor with another door at the far end. Shoot the door as you go through this corridor and ready your scan visor on your way through the door. Air Lock- There will be a scan panel halfway through the corridor. Scan this scan panel to activate the door, shoot the door once its activated, and then go through it. Deck Alpha Access Hall- Another corridor, shoot the door at the far end of the room and go through it. Emergency Evacuation Area- In this room you'll find utter chaos and if this is your first time playing this game, then you'll probably be a little more cautious then you'll need to be in order to get through. After you take your first step through the door inside here, jump to a set of crates on your right and look down to your right. You'll see two little creatures in the floor below feeding on a body. These are simply called Parasites and if you are doing a scan-run, then you should scan them now. You will be able to scan them at later parts of this game, but doing it now like this establishes precedent for you and your scan-run when you encounter other important scans like these later in the game. Parasites are virtually harmless, they don't try to attack and infact run away from you if you get too close. So don't worry about this guy. Jump down to the floor they are at and head right for a set of steps. Turn left and you'll see more parasites feeding, go down that way as well and then turn left and go down those next steps and you'll be confronted with your first real enemy. Its a wounded space pirate, so wounded all it can do is shoot at you. I usually don't even bother with the pirate in this room, as I go down those last steps, I take an immediate right for the next door and go through it with your power beam charging. Deck Alpha Umbilical Hall- Another corridor, but with a set of debris blocking the way. Fire your charged power beam shot at it to destroy the debris and then get through the door. Map Facility- Once inside the corridor, a cutscene will start showing two parasites crawl into a hole. This hole is merely a pathway to a Map Station. If you choose to go into this room, you can access and get a full map of the entire level. In my opinion, its not necessary and just wastes my time. So just go through the door at the end of the corridor and go through with your scan visor ready. Connection Elevator to Deck Beta- Scan the scan panel you see infront of you and a hologram will activate in the middle of this room. Step into the hologram and an elevator will activate sending you to the lower floor. Once the elevator stops in front of a door, go through the door. Deck Beta Conduit Hall- Once inside the Hall, get in your morphball and start rolling through the room. There is an electrical short that sends a wave of electricity to shock you if you are in its path. This electrical short blinks on and off in a timed-basis, so you can time your way through this thing without getting hurt. But the damage it inflicts is pathetic, plus if you just roll on your way through this room without stopping or thinking about it, you can actually avoid getting hit as I always do. So just go through the Hall this way. Halfway through debris is blocking your way, but has enough space to get through with your morphball, hence using your morphball to get all the way through the Hall. When you get to the door at the end of the Hall, go through the door. Biotech Research Area 1- Stepping through this room, a statis tank is ahead with a large creature inside. Don't worry about that creature. Turn left and head in that direction. Then turn right and go to the door at the end. On your way there will be a wounded space pirate on your right who will try to shoot you as you go past him and another pirate near the door. I always just go through as if they aren't there and gun for the door. On my touchdown to the door, I feed the second pirate a charged power beam shot. Then go through the door with my power beam charged. Deck Beta Security Hall- Another Hall that quickly breaks leftward. On that leftward turn, a door will quickly come up with a gun turret at the end. You don't have to scan it now since you run into these things later on in the game. But the first time I get into this room, I always just feed it that one single charged power beam shot to snuff it. Then I go through the door with my scan visor ready. Biohazard Containtment- The major obstacle here is the gun turret that isn't really major to anyone but a noob. So when you take your first step through the door into this room, look out for a set of computers on your immediate left. Activate your scan visor and scan the one of the computers to disable the turret. The pirates are on the top floor and you can take them out with a charged power beam blast. And having to take out one pirate after another with a charged power beam blast is relatively easy since most of them are badly wounded; except that one that requires a charged blast and a couple of regular power beam rounds. Deck Beta Transit Hall- Another corridor, shoot the door at the end and walkthrough with your power beam charged. Cargo Freight Lift to Deck Gamma- When your barely passing through here, you should have a charged power beam blast ready to use on a gun turret on your upper right. A charged blast or a missile can take him out. But if you wanna be ballsy, than you can quickly scan the panel behind and below the turret and zip into the elevator that'll take you down. When the elevator hits the bottom of the lift, don't step out, instead first scan the panel on your right. Than charge your power beam and walk out of the elevator. Nail the pirate that falls down with a charged blast or a missile plus some power beam rounds. Then jump into the morphball hologram with your morphball and activate the door. The door will open and two gun turrets one on your right and left will open. You have two options dealing with these guys that apply to the room you're in now, and the room where the turrets are at which is a different room. From the Cargo Freight Lift to Deck Gamma, you can safely stare all day at the turrets with the door open and they won't shoot at you, at least they shouldn't and you can even gun them down with charged power beam blasts to each turret or a missile to each, which I prefer since its faster and more often than not you get missile ammo left over from the destroyed turrets. Reactor Core- Alright this is the boss fight and you can approach this two ways. First the safe way which is slow and will have you first scan the Parasite Queen to have the game allow you to lock-on to PQ's weakspot which is her mouth. After that you can wrestle through the match dodging her godzilla breath and nailing her mouth when you can squeeze shots in her mouth through the force field which is protecting her but not you! To keep pace with the slow and your undeniable noobness, you can also choose to watch the in-game movie. If you want to do this fast than you press start as soon as the game movie starts and get into the fight. You manually aim for her mouth and fire every missile you got by employing the rapid-fire missile technique. Not too long ago I used to be able to finish her with 10 seconds by just standing where the game has me start and just firing the missile at her mouth really quickly as the force field gives you a chance at the beggining of the fight. But now adays, I've lost and have to spend 20 or 30 seconds fighting her, what a drag. I scan her in order to get the lock on her mouth and the her scan because this is a one-time only scan, and then I fire missiles at her mouth. I employ rapid-fire missiles by firing a missile and quickly shooting my power beam, and then firing my missile again, and so on. Either way the PQ will fall quickly and you'll have to high tail it out of there. Deck Gamma Monitor Hall- Navigate the set of steps upward to the next door. The Hall should go up and then make a sharp right with the door at the end. Connection Elevator to Deck Beta- When the elevator takes you to the top and gets you into the corridor, make sure you scan the scan panel infront of you as it will deactivate the awaiting gun turret. Biotech Research Area 1- You'll come across a battle scene between two pirates and a parasite queen. They'll all die from an explosion, so don't worry. But as they are fighting, just head leftward and don't worry about what happens. A set of steps will form from the debris thanks to explosion. When you get to the top floor and are trying to get to that pipe corridor system, just run through the space pirates peacefully taking out only the first two and letting the third die from the blast erupting from the newly opened corridor. Go into the hole revealed by the explosion that killed the last pirate. Subventilation Shafts Section A & B- A set of corridor-shafts is what you are in here. When your passing through the tunnels that slope downward, use your morphball to go through this area. You can take advantage of the built up speed from going downhill and going in your morphball is generally faster anway, except uphill of course. Cargo Freight Lift to Deck Gamma- This area is basically the end of Subventilation Shaft Section B/Beggining of Main Ventilatio Shaft Section A. Alright this is that junction of the Ventilation Shafts where you think you've hit a dead end theres no door. But the Shaft will blow open a new path ahead of you. This usually takes a while so use some morphball bombs on the dead end of this shaft to blow it faster. I've found, and I've tested this, that if you use morphball bombs on this junction of the Ventilation Shaft system, you accelerate the opening of the new path faster. So do it; and besides if you took my advice about using the morphball seriously like I hope you did, than you'll be able to take advantage of the time by not having to get in and out of the morphball. Main Ventilation Shaft Section A- Basic shaft-corridor. Go through it as normal, ignore the parasites coming out of the vents near the end and go through the door. Main Ventilation Shaft Section B- At the door will be two gun turrets that will have you in their immediate sights. Shoot them with a quick missile for each one and shoot the door and go through. If no more missiles, then charged power beam shots, don't worry about the pathetic damage they deal. Go through the door while in your morphball. Main Ventilation Shaft Section C- Another corridor-shaft. Get in your morphball and go through this corridor taking advantage of gravity and the morphball to get through faster. Ignore the parasites halfway through, trust me, and go through the door at the end when you have it in your sights. Main Ventilation Shaft Section D- Go through this shaft walking, not with your morphball. Go through the door at the end. Main Ventilation Shaft Section E- A large piston will pump into the area ahead, when its retracting, go into the area it is inside of and then follow the piston as it retracts. A door will come up on your right as you follow the retracting piston, so look out for it. The main piston pumping in the Shaft won't kill you, or damage you, if you get in its way. I've tested this myself several times when I was lucky enough to beat the piston before it pumped. Main Ventilation Shaft Section F- Walk through this shaft as normal and go through the door. Biotech Research Area 2- Once you are inside the main area of this room, a cutscene will start introducting you to Ridley. When it ends, two spires will be dangling from the ceiling. The game will indicate that these are grapple points that you can lock onto with your L-button. So when they glow blue, click and hold your L-button to engage and swing from these grapple points. To get onto the next grapple point, let go of L when the next grapple point glow blue, and then quickly click and hold L again to swing to the other side. The only way you can get across to the otherside of this room is through those grapple points, so do it that way. Then go through the door at the other end. Connection Elevator to Deck Alpha- When you enter this corridor, make sure you scan the scan panel that you'll see as soon as you get through the door to deactivate a gun turret that'll come in on a following corridor. The corridor itself will run straight ahead, than make a right where a gun turret would have been waiting for you if you didn't scan it, than make a left where another corridor appears. This one will have a scan panel at the end but a flickering electrical short that can disrupt your progress by acting as a force field and even doing damage on you. My advice when you get to this part of the corridor is to turn into your morphball mode and hug the left side of the corridor as you pass through. When that electrical field is active, a small space, enough for a morphball, will be left open on the left. If you take it with your morphball, than you'll save time at the sacrifice of health which really won't matter as you won't face any more hazards after you take the elevator. I always do it that way, but the thing is though, after you scan the scan panel to deactivate the gun turret, you have to immediately turn into a morphball and really hug the left side of the corridor to get through the electrical field. Or you can time your way through the electrical short since it blinks on and off at certain times. No worries...Scan the scan panel to activate the elevator. The elevator will take you up to the top. Look for a passage way at the top, its almost indistinguishable, but look out for it. Go through it. Air Lock- Once you are through, wait for the doors to activate, shoot it and go through. Exterior Docking Hangar- Shoot the door at the other end and go through. After that everything's gravy. When you land on Tallon, save the game than quit the game or restart it and see your time. Compare your time to 6 minutes, my time, or 5 minutes which is the fastest time I've ever seen in speedrunning. Whenever I play this game and do the Space Pirate Frigate over 6 minutes, I always do the Frigate over by erasing the save file I started on and doing it again. Six minutes is my standard to go by and might want to be yours. ========= Tallon IV ========= Landing Site*- { F.1 } When you start the save file again, Samus will come out of her gunship. Don't put up with that movie, just press start, quickly aim for a door on your right and shoot it as you jump off the ship and start jumping on the ledges to the left of that door to get to it. Then go through. Canyon Cavern- Popping through your going to be in a cavern, proceed further through and you'll be intercepted by two Beetles bursting out of the ground. Just head for the door which will be at the end of the pathway on your left from the junction at which you found the beetles. Don't bother killing them as they're a waste of time. Tallon Canyon- When you step through you'll be inside of one of the pinacles of beauty inside Tallon IV. The Tallon Canyon provides an obvious path to the next door where you'll find Blood Sacs on your immediate left as well as a small creek up infront of you. Follow the creek to what looks like a half pipe; but ignore the ledges where the zoomers and blast caps are at. When you step into that half pipe, two beetles will pop out as well. Ignore them and just go through the door. They have an attack lag as they have to first pop out of the ground than position for attack. I advise to always do this when you meet beetles like this. Transport Tunnel A- More Beetles and and Blood Sacs in a narrow corridor. Just head for the door as quickly as possible and try to snake through the zoomers without having to shoot them. If they get in your way like an old lady during traffic hours than you gun them down. Transport to Chozo Ruins West- You'll see a sort of cage in the middle of this room with scan panel on it's right. Scan it and step into the hologram. =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Alot of Metroid Prime players have found their games to freeze as soon as the elevator is about to reach the top. If that happens than just reset the game or turn it off and then on again. Lets move on. Ruins Entrance- Infront of you will be a narrow hallway that will run into an open sand area with pillars with a set of ledges that lead to a door. When you step into the open sand area where the pillars are situated, two beetles will pop, just ignore their presence and run past them and jump up the little ledge for the door. Main Plaza- When you step through the door into this place, you'll get a formal introduction to the Chozo Ruins. Move directly forward to what seems to be a bridge made out of tree limbs ahead and well above the floor your on. On your way there several Beetles will pop out of the floor, ignore them and step toward that half-pipe than take the steps behind the half-pipe up. When you reach the top of the steps, look downward and to your left for a door. Go through that door into the next room. Nursery Access- Here you'll be in a narrow corridor much like those that were in the Space Pirate Frigrate. The corridor snakes around making one right, and then a left. When you're about to make the left, several little beetles called Scrabs will come crawling from the ceiling and plopping down on top of you. What you wanna do is hug the left side of the corridor as the scarabs greet you and not shoot them. Or you can take your time and wait until they all fall down and then shoot them. Than get through the next door. Eyon Tunnel- You're going to be inside of another corridor thats much more cramped. There will also be these "eyes" called Eyons coming alive within the walls and firing these green lasers. I like to just run through and carefully navigate my way in between the lasers. But if you wanna do this slow, than you can stop and shoot each Eyon, stunning it momentarily and giving you the time needed to get past it. Ruined Nursery- Stepping into this room, you'll notice a broken set of stairs on your right with a ledge that acts as an upper floor above it. Head for the stairs and take them to the top floor. On your way to the stairs you'll meet some Beetles that will conveniently pop out of the foot of the stairs. I always ignore them and just jump onto the stairs. When you get on the upper floor, War Wasps will come out of the hives in the ceilings and walls of this room. So just look for the door to the next room which is right in your face after the stairs and go through it. There are two doors actually, but the one thats in your face is the one you'll go to, not the one thats tucked away into a hallway that eventually leads to a save station room. North Atrium- Stepping into this room, follow the hallway right into a Roman atrium and quickly run to the other side of the room. On your left you'll see white Scarabs swarming along the walls then falling in the middle of your path to the next door. If they do get in your path than just shoot them to get through them. Out running them is easy so don't worry about getting past them on time. Ruined Gallery- Here you'll find an extremely ruined room once you step through the door. You'll find a door directly across on the other side of the room, as well as a wasp hive in the ceiling, and a few crumpled pieces of floor on your right that you can use as a ledgeway to get to that door. Run and jump across the many ledges on the right and ignore the wasps that come out. Just shoot the door and go through. Totem Access- Here you'll be introduced to the Plazmites with a narrow hallway as the setup. Theres also a junction in the pathway where a bunch of acidic-water acts as a moat to a piece of debris that you can use to step on to get to the other end of the access. As you make your way to the door, feel free to take out the Plazmites with a 2 or 3 rounds of the power beam. Hive Totem-missile launcher --------------------------- In this room, you'll find another moat that surrounds a circular platform as well as a machine on the left end of the room. The moat doesn't completely surround the platform, there is enough acid-free walking space to get to the foot of the steps to get on the platform. When you approach the bridge connecting the platform to the machine, the boss fight will start. If you are doing a "scan-run" through the game, this boss fight gives you two one-time only scans: the Hive Mecha machine and the Ram War Wasps it uses. To scan the Hive Mecha machine, its scan spot is located under the singular mouth where it releases the Wasps. The Ram War Wasps HAVE to be scanned if you want 100% scans for the game as they are also a different species from the other wasps in the game. Moving onto the boss fight now... The entire moat will be floated and you can't get off the platform. Hive Mecha, the machine in this room will start up and will release a Ram War Wasp, the two Chozo busts hanged up on the wall will also release a wasp. What the wasps will do is circle around you first several times before some or all decide to come to a complete stop, than they'll try to ram you and push you into the acid. Heres what you do, while they're circling you, your going to stand in the middle of the platform than your going to manually aim your arm cannon in one fixed spot that will intercept the wasps circular flight path. Than your going to shoot for dear life. If you manage to hit a wasp, he'll be stunned momentarily, than you can get a lock on him and then finish him off. While your doing that you're going to look at your radar for the orange dots. When you see one of the orange dots stop, you immediately turn so that the dot is facing north on your radar. This will put you and the wasp face to face and then you light him up with your power beam. When the wasps are about to ram you, they make a very distinct battle cry. If your killing one wasp, and you hear that battle cry from another, quickly strafe slightly to your left or right to evade the attack. After you kill the first three wasps, the machine's mouth will open and reveal its weak spot. Lock on to the red spot on the opened mouth and light it up with your power beam. The machine will only take so much damage and will close its weak spot, but you should maintain that lock on the weak spot. You might see a glitched lock appear as the machine rotates but keep that lock on and keep shooting your power beam. When the machine opens its mouth to let you have more wasps, the wasps will meet your power beam shots and you'll kill several of them. But remember there are still other wasps coming from the wall-mounted chozo busts. When the wasps come out of the machine and the chozo busts, they'll come outside disoriented and then get the grip of things and start circling you. You'll have to face three rounds of killing wasps and nailing the machine. The number of wasps increases by three after each round, I think. But all you have to do is repeat the process of firing in one-fixed spot in their general flight path, finishing each one off after you've stunned them from firing in the general flight path, keeping in eye on the other wasps by observing your radar, and nailing the machines weak spot. When you're done with Hive Mecha, the machine will open up and reveal a rocket looking thing. Thats the missile launcher, go grab it and when the game finishes prompting you about what you just got, fire a missile on the weird looking door infront of you. That was a blast shield that was provided to you to keep you from getting past the door. You have either two choices, you can either go through that door and pick up an energy tank which will permanently increase you health by 100 units or you can do as I recommend and return to the door from which you came and get that energy tank later for time's sake. On your way back to the Totem Access, some debris will fall from the ceiling allowing you to get back to this room. Totem Access- I'm going to assume you took my advice and didn't grab the energy tank and will do this many times to the chagrin of you noobs. But I'm aiming to save time, so lets move on. Take the door to get to the Ruined Gallery and remember to kill the plazmites, just don't take your time killing them. Ruined Gallery-missile expansion -------------------------------- Before you step in this room, from the Totem Access you can safely take out the wasp hive in the ceiling of the Ruined Gallery with only one missile. After you've destroyed the Hive, step into the room and look below for a small step or platform on the lower floor. Jump down to it, then turn completly around so that you're facing the door to the Totem Access from the small platform. If you look down and toward your left you'll see some Blastcaps sitting on top of some debris as well as a crumpled wall on the left corner of your view behind the Blastcaps. Scanning this wall I'm talking about will reveal it to be "vulnerable"; so you'll be able to identify it. Kill all the blastcaps with your power beam, and then destroy the crumpled wall with a missile from your missile launcher. Your first missile expansion will be revealed within the wall. Use the debris that the Blastcaps were sitting on to jump to the wall where the missile expansion is at. Then when you get the missile expansion, jump back onto that small platform using the debris where the Blastcaps were. After your on the platform, face the door to the North Atrium, if your not sure which way the North Atrium is than activate your map by pressing Z. You'll see a ledge made out of debris on your left, jump on it and then use the rest of the ledgeway to get to the door to the North Atrium. North Atrium- Make your way to the Ruined Nursery and look out for the scarabs coming out of the wall on your left. You can jump over them to avoid them if you like. Ruined Nursery- When you enter the room, immediately rush toward the door to the Eyon Tunnel. It'll be on the otherside of the room in the left corner if you forgot. Eyon Tunnel- Go through here as you went through here the first time avoiding the lasers and trying not to bother yourself with the eyons too much. Nursery Access- When you come through here, the scarabs will come out at the left turn you'll have to make to get to the door. I always find it real hard though to avoid the scarabs when I'm coming back to the Main Plaza; so what I do is quickly aim my arm cannon slightly down and then press L to lock it in place and release the R button while I'm running through. When I see the scarabs as I'm going through I just nail them as they hit the floor with power beam shots to get rid of them. Believe it or not the scarabs can kill you in the state your in now so I advise doing it my way. I of course do this very quickly so you might have to practice this a few times in order to do it within seconds. Main Plaza- When you come back out here head for the lower floor where the half pipe was at. On your way there from the Nursery Access' door to the half-pipe, some Beetles will greet you but just ignore them and get to the half-pipe. Once your at the foot of the half-pipe on the lower floor, look for a door on this level on your right. Its sort of tucked away with two small pillars; this door also has a blast shield that must be missiled and is the only door nearby. On your way there some 4 or 6 Beetles will greet you, ignore them as always. Just get through the door. Ruined Shrine Access- Once inside you're going to find another corridor just like the Nursery Access. The access will first snake left than right at which point you'll find some tree roots protruding from the wall and conveniently enough some Scarabs will also pop out. After the scarabs, the corridor will take a left turn and then another right at which point another set of scarabs will pop out. If your new to this game than I advise you to stop a few steps away from the tree roots/scarabs junction and take out all the scarabs when you meet them at both junctions. What I like to do is just run through without stopping as if they weren't there, but on my way to seeing them, I quickly aim my arm cannon up, lock it in place by holding L and shoot the scrabas as I go through the first junction. I have a much harder time at the second junction because the Scarabs at this junction like to make their stand quicker than the first ones. So I end up taking some damage. Whatever you choose to do, you'll see a door at the end that you're going to go through. Ruined Shrine-morphball ----------------------- Inside the room you'll see two steps separating you from a wall. Get on those steps and ontop of that wall. On the wall, you'll see a small pit below as well as the morphball upgrade on the other side of the room. When you jump inside, a sub-boss fight like the Hive Mecha boss fight will start. First several Beetles will pop out of the ground quickly numbering in 3 or 4. As you take out the beetles more will appear and you could end up facing 6 or 7 beetles at once. What your going to do is get a lock on one Beetle and start nailing it and then practicing lock-on orbiting, navigating yourself away from the beetle you have a lock on and through and in between the other beetles in the pit. When you've destroyed one beetle after several power beam shots, quickly click "L" to get a lock on to the next beetle and then repeat the process. If you've found 3 or more Beetles bunched up, use a missile. But don't use all your missiles, use enough so that your left with at least two. After you've killed off enough beetles a much larger beetle, the Plated Beetle, will pop out. This guy is like 3 or 4 times a normal Beetle's size and is invulnerable from his front face to damage. What you have to do is get behind and nail his butt to kill him. But this is my extremely quick strategy. When he first pops up, get a quick lock on him, and circle around him. When he rears back to charge at you, which he'll more than likely do as soon as he first appears, quickly dash-jump to the side by circling around him and pressing "B" to jump initiating the dash-jump. When you do that, you'll get a full view of his butt and the game will have moved your lock onto his butt for you. And then you fire a missile followed up by some real quick rounds of power beam shots. His butt will burst open and he'll absolutely die. The wall that separated you from getting to the morphball will come down and allow you to get it. When you get it and the game finishes prompting you about the morphball move, with your morphball still activated to the area where the Plated Beetle died and grab whatever ammo or health he left behind. Then look around in the right corner of the wall that separates you from the door to the Ruined Shrine Access for a morphball hole that you'll use with your morphball to get to the door since you can't jump over the wall yet. Ruined Shrine Access- Depending on how much health you have and how many scarabs you killed in this room the last time you were here, you should have an easy time getting through. No new scarabs will pop out than the last time you passed through here. If you killed all the scarabs than get in your morphball and just roll through to the door since the morphball is the fastest way to get through most places. If theres still some left than just try navigating through them with your morphball or get out of your morphball if your health is too low and finish them off. Either way, get to the door to the Main Plaza. Main Plaza- Get to the top floor that would have been used to get to the door to the Nursery Access. Again ignore the beetles. Instead head for a few ledges hugging the walls on this floor. If you were just barely entering the Main Plaza from the Nursery Access than these ledges would be slightly ahead on your left. When you get on them follow the path they lead to the bridge made out of tree vines hovering above the half-pipe. Take the bridge to the otherside to get to the door, that follows on your right. Two War Wasp Hives will be present, but I advise you to just ignore them and get to the door. As you step through, get in your morphball. Ruined Fountain Access- This access is just like all the other corridor access' in the Chozo Ruins, narrow, full of scarabs and you will use your morphball to get through. When you roll through with your morphball, and this is how you're going to roll through this corridor from now on, you're going to roll straight through as quickly as possible. If you take your sweet time rolling through here than you'll be intercepted by scarabs. But if you go through there quickly as you must, than you can avoid the scarabs, and get to the next door quickly and safely. Ruined Fountain- Now we're in a dark room with a fountain ahead along with acidic-water below. What you're going to have to do is snake around the room and then cut through it. First you take the makeshift ledgeway on your right, compliments of the debris, to get to the right corner of the room. Than you're going to look toward your left for a door on the other side of the room and some steps/platforms. What you're going to do is jump to and from the steps platform to get to the other door. The first step you jump to and from will get you on top of a platform that has a fountain in the middle of it, from the fountain-platform, you're going to jump to another platform where a plazmite is more than likely hovering above. Than you're gonna get to that door and go through it. There are 3 plazmites in this room that can get in your way, however they do provide light so just shoot really close to them if you want them out of the way but yet still want to keep the light source. This room can actually get pretty dark if you kill all the plazmites. Arboretum Access- Another access. First this hallway is going to make a right than a left, along with a blast shield at the end that must be missiled in order to get to the Arboretum. After the right turn your gonna meet up with some Shriekbats. They'll try to kamikazi you, I have a few different ways of tackling this. I always enter morphball mode when I first step through the door into this room and just roll straight to the other end of the access under the shriekbats as they dive-bomb themselves without hurting me. Or if your too scared to do that, you can always pop out from that first right turn and quickly dispatch all of them with one missile expansion or several power beam shots. Don't use a missile if you have less than three. Arboretum- A large tree will be present here along with several platforms and some living vines. The vines are called Reapers and will slash and knock you back if you get close enough, but luckily you don't have to be too close to know that you're too close because these guys like to swing their sickle-shaped ends around when you're not even that close. The first one you encounter will be hovering above a platform, get a lock on him and you'll aumtomatically target his eye. If you shoot them in their eye, then they'll retract back into the wall for a few seconds. Nail him and when he retracts, get onto the platform or ledgespace he was covering and clear the next space. You're objective is to use the platforms to get onto the platforms that hug the trees. When you get on the tree platforms, you should be able to see a door with a blast shield at roughly the same elevation as you are now. From here I like to get rid of the blast shield of that door and the make my way up the platforms to the ledgeway. From that ledgeway you're going to go left into another ledgeway where there are more reaper vines. Take them out with shots to their eyes as you make your way to the door. While going through the door into the next area, turn into your morphball. Gathering Hall Access- This area is very 1-dimensional and cramped therefore using your morphball to get through the other end is much more convenient. Not much to worry about here other than just getting through the door. Gathering Hall- There are three paths in the Gathering Hall: right, left or above. For now, look for a door on the left corner of the room. On your way to this door you'll run into blastcaps, but you can easily get through these guys by destroying them as quickly as possible. But I always jump from this concrete debris space thats near the edge of the acid water and jump over them from their left. Watery Hall Access-missile expansion ------------------------------------ First this room is gonna snake left, than right, right again, and then left. After the first right turn you'll be presented with some stairs and across from you will be some shriekbats. At the foot of the stairs is a crumpled wall that must be missiled for another missile expansion along with the start of the other stair case. I like to just quickly rush toward that crumpled wall and ignore the shriekbats, grab the missile and move to the other end of the second stair case. After your on the other side of the access you're going to have to be on alert. After the left turn you make in this side of the access, you'll be encountered by some shriekbats. On the door you're going to is a blast shield that must be missiled, so what I like to do is rush toward that door from the end of the second stair case and when I have the door and the bats in my sight, just missile the door. I almost always take out two birds with one stone; the missile destroys the blast shield, but the blast radius from the missile also destroys either most or all of the shriekbats. Its beautiful. Get through the newly available door either way. Watery Hall-charge beam ----------------------- Here we're going to have to be very careful because theres very little walking space, but tons of acidic water. On your right will be set of makeshift debris-platforms that you can use to get access to more formal platforms. Go up these make shift debris-platforms and once your on the second makeshift debris-platform you're going to look down and a little toward your left for a walkway creeping slightly above the water with lots of blastcaps sitting on it. There are actually two structures like this and both have blastcaps that you're going to need to destroy eventually so just destroy them both from here. But one of these, the one thats larger and housing more blastcaps is special since the blastcaps are right on top of a scan panel that must be scanned. When you get rid of the blastcaps, scan the scan panel that the blastcaps were covering. Than turn completely around and look for a wall with a scan panel. From the perspective you should be looking at it, the scan panel will be to the right of the door you used to get into this room and will have a few decayed tree vines or roots forming an archway over it or crowning it in someway. After you've scanned it, start making your way onto the formal platforms. I call them formal because these platforms actually look like platforms and not like the makeshift steps/platforms formed from the debris in this room. You'll follow these platforms rightward to a wall with runes on it, on your way to this wall will be a reaper vine on your immediate right. Nail him to get him out of your way than proceed onto the platform that is separated from the platform-walkway where you encountered that reaper vine on your right. From here you will look down and toward your right to the lower level for a scan panel, scan it and then nail the reaper vine in front of you. When he's out of the way, jump onto the platform he blocked then onto the platform that is right next to it. From here, you'll look toward your right for another scan panel to scan. Scan it and a panel will be revealed in the wall or cage that is obstructing the next area. Scan that last scan panel and the wall will come down revealing the charge beam upgrade. Jump over into the pathway to get to the charge beam and go grab it. When you do, a movie will start showing eyons in the walls of that pathway activate. What I advise you to do it to just turn into your morphball and roll quickly through the middle, oblivious of the intercepting lasers and down into a small ledge that you're going to have to hug the wall in order to stay free of the water. Yeah, you might get hit or burned by acid, but at least you don't have to bother yourself too much with destroying or stunning all the eyons just to get through. Or you can put your charge beam to use and fire charged power beam blasts to destroy the eyons, or a few and stun the rest with regular shots to get through. Anyways, you're going to use the makeshift floor that just barely creeps out of the acid to get to the door you came from. On the way back to the door, you'll find a reaper vine covering a platform, nail him and the crate he's covering to get some ammo or health and to move on. Watery Hall Access- Make your way back to the door to the Gathering Hall. On your way there, you should be intercepted by shriekbats again where the stairs are at. But this time they'll be positioned to get you from the Gathering Hall side of the access. So look out for that. Gathering Hall- Right here, you're going to head to the door of the Gathering Hall Access without going inside of the Access itself. Instead of going into the Gathering Hall Access, you're going to get on top of ledge that is above the door to the Gathering Hall Access. But before you do all that, take out the blastcaps on the ledge, than look toward your right for some shriekbats dangling below another ledge but right above some more blastcaps that also must be destroyed. Than use the ledge above the Gathering Hall Access door to get to the ledge where the destroyed shriekbats and blastcaps were. When you're there, look right again for another ledge and use it to get to yet another ledge. When you get on that second ledge from where the blastcaps and shriekbats were, get onto the nearby ledge that is literally staring you in the face and from here you're going to take out some blastcaps and shriekbats that would really obstruct you. Than get onto that ledge where the blastcaps were and then to the ledge where the shriekbats were sitted above. A morphball tunnel will be behind the ledge, use it to get to another ledge from which you will be across from several shriekbats. Jump to the porch they're situated on to get to the door and ignore the bats as they kill themselves and bite your dust, or kill them all and then get to the door. East Atrium- This room will be exactly as the Arboretum Access room. Except everytime you pass through here, your going to morphball to the other door. There will be shriekbats awaiting you at the left/second turn you make to get to the next door. So in order to not waste your time with the shriekbats, you're going to roll under them. But confront them if you feel you need ammo or health. Energy Core Access- Ahead you'll see like a mount of rubble or debris that it seems you're going to have to jump on to get through the access. However, the area above the mount has 3 eyons that could pose a problem. So what you do is just go through and shoot the eyes to stun them, but not to kill them and then go through the door at the end. Energy Core- The Energy Core has quite a lot of stuff for you to do in it. First though, you're going to look left for a passage way. Follow that passage way and you'll find yourself staring across the hallway to some stationed shriekbats. Proceed through as normal, and take them out with regular beam shots. Than follow the path by going right, at the end of this new path will be a morpball tunnel; situated a few feet away from that morphball tunnel will be an open space where you'll see a Stone Toad. These guys are utterly harmless, except until you get in your morphball and are within their breathing distance. So don't do that yet, instead just get into the morphball tunnel with your morphball and don't worry about these guys charging up at you to swallow you. Burn Dome Access- The access is really just a series of tunnels for the morphball to use, so just go through it as normal. Burn Dome-morpball bomb, missile expansion ------------------------------------------ When you step into the room, a cutscene will run signaling the start of a boss fight. What your fighting is the Incinerator Drone, the flamethrower machine rotating in the middle of the room and raising hell with its fire. If you are doing a scan-run then you should scan him at the beginning of the fight since its the easiest time to get a scan and also because appears only once in the game. Just lock on to the machine and circle around it to avoid turning into charcoal from the flamethrowers. The machine will act in several ways. First it'll stop completely with flamethrowers still on and shift its rotation and rotate its flamethrowers in another direction. It'll also reveal its weak spot while its rotating, a cap at the top of the machine will pop open and a cylinder with a red eye will reveal itself. Shoot that red eye. When the eye has taken enough damage, it'll retreat back within the machine and aim its flamethrower upwards to a Wasp Hive and flame it. Then war wasps that fire their stingers at you from a distance will appear. These guys are a pain in the neck and are a departure from other wasps as the other ones do close physical contact in order to damage and kill you. If you are doing a scan-run of the game, then scan them as soon as they pop-out because its the easiest time to scan them and they appear only once, they are a different species of wasps after all. After the wasps appear you'll have to consistently contend with the flamethrowers and the wasps at the same time as more and more wasps will come out despite how many you kill, really complicating the match. However, the drone will still reveal its red eye and you will have to nail that eye two more times to win the match. Each time you take out the eye, the drone will shift its flamethrowers upwards and use it upon the hive. Basically, what you want to do is just continue to orbit around the Incinerator Drone and dodge his moving flamethrowers. I like to orbit around the Incinerator Drone in the same direction as its rotation. The flamethrowers are a greater danger than the wasps, trust me. When the Drone stops to change directions or fire upon the Hive, turn your attention for that brief moment to the wasps and take them out. But as soon as the Drone gets back to business, focus on him again. After taking out the eye, the hive will be destroyed along with the drone revealing the morphball bomb. Grab it and then look for a morphball tunnel. The tunnel won't be revealed until you bomb a piece of the wall in the Burn Dome. The correct piece of the wall is the one where the small slit in the floor through which you can see the water flowing. The vulnerable wall that can be bombed can be scanned in order to be identified. So bomb the wall, go in and get the missile expansion, and get back to the Burn Dome Access. It leads to a wall that can be bombed with a morphball bomb. Follow the tunnel it gives you after you've morphball bombed it to another missile expansion. Grab any ammo or health from the crates if you feel you need it and then get out of this place and later the Burn Dome. Burn Dome Access- With the morphball you can perform ball jumps by being on top of the morphball bomb when you set one. So use the morpball bomb to bomb jump into the morpball tunnels that are elevated off the ground and get back to the Energy Core. Energy Core- When you get out of the access, the stone toad will be on your left this time, and some shriekbats will immediately try to kamikazi you. Head for the stone toad, get in your morphball and let him swallow you. When he swallows you, quickly morphball bomb him in his mouth so that he can explode and reveal a new area behind him. In this new area you'll find a morphball slot elevated off the ground, bomb jump into it and then activate the device by laying another bomb. When you do a machine will start that will drain the acidic water in the Energy Core and reveal a new area. A timer will also start, that gives you around 3 minutes to complete this puzzle. In the dilapidated/caged wall right next to the morphball slot you activated is a whole big enough for a morphball. Go through it with your morphball and you'll flop down into the area that used to have acid water in it. Get out of your morphball and hop into the new area where a morphball slot is at and activate that morphball slot as well. When you activate this one, some platforms will be elevated granting you access to yet another area. To use these platforms, get out of this morphball slot area and use the makeshift ledgeway on the right on this level of the room to get to the top level of the room. A ledge that you'll use to get onto those newly elevated platforms will be hugging a wall on your right. Which right? The right that you would go to if you barely entered this room from the Energy Core Access. But beware as you make your way to this ledge that hugs a wall on the right, shriekbats will be waiting and will dive bomb you if your within even a couple of feet from the ledge. I always just shoot them, but try and do it very quickly, which I usually do. After you use that ledge to get on the raised platforms, take the platforms to a ledge on the left. The ledge will quickly lead up and to the right where another bomb slot awaits. Activate it with a morphball bomb as well activating another platform that you'll use to get to a door later in the game. After you're done with that get to the Energy Core Access; we're going to return to the Arboretum. Energy Core Access- With your morphball bombs you can access a morphball tunnel under the debris mound and avoid the eyons. I still like taking the path where I would be intercepted by the eyons though since its faster and the eyons are easy to get through. But if you feel you want to avoid the eyons altogether, than bomb the wall in the mound to open up the morphball tunnel and then follow the tunnel to the other end where the wall must be bombed with a morphball bomb as well. You see, didn't I tell you the eyon way is the fastest? Oh and remember, you can activate the doors with your morphball bomb, but you can't remove blast shields with your morphball bomb. East Atrium- Again, roll through here with your morphball and just slip through the shriekbats to the door. Bomb the door, and roll into the room with your morphball. Gathering Hall- You're still gonna be in your morphball when your inside, I advise you to just fall straight to the floor, and try to fall as far left as possible while in your morphball to avoid the acidic water. Later in the game, you'll learn to fall spot on infront of the door of the Gathering Hall Access. Morphball bomb the door to the Arboretum Access and go through it with your morphball. Gathering Hall Access- Roll through the corridor with your morphball, exit morphball mode as you finish the corridor. Arboretum- Okay now we're going to make our way up and this one will be a bit complicated. First, on your left you'll find the ledgway lined with two reaper vines. Take them both out as you make your way up the ledge. But somewhere in between the first and second reaper vine, look into the water for a piece of debris that creeps out of the floor and has these little wiggly weeds that quickly sway back and forth. The debris is behind the bridge that connects the ledge that hugs the wall to the tree. Shoot those weeds and they'll retract revealing scan panel that you must scan. You might have to scan the panel twice as the game will prompt you that a scan panel appears to be present where you've just scanned instead of notifying you that the scan panel is actually activated. You also must do this quickly as the reaper vines will come back out and knock you into the acid water. After you've scanned it, go to the bridge that connects the tree to the ledge your on or were on. On the tree, right above the bridge will be a scan panel staring you in the face, you can't miss it. Scan it and then hop up onto the ledge that hugs the wall on your left, we're going to up the room using the wall on your left. As you make your way around the ledge, you'll spot a wasp hive on the tree, I advise you to missile the hive. But if you don't have more than 10 missiles, than you might have to just continue on and just fight off whatever wasps come out. Luckily the wasps from normal wasp hives aren't like the ones you fought in the Burn Dome. The hive will take its time churning out wasps for you after you've killed a set of three or four. Back to the ledge, pretty soon the ledge will come to a walk-able end and you'll have to get into morphball mode and enter the tunnel within the wall. Its sort of easy to fall down into the water since the space is so small so try to stay close to the wall. Bomb the blocks that obstruct your path along the tunnel wall to get to the end of the tunnel. When you finish the tunnel wall, you'll end up on a ledge that you can finally walk on and another scan panel will be in your face along the wall your traveling around, so please exit your morphball and scan the panel. You'll have to hop onto another set of steps to continue up, but look out for a wasp hive thats hiding along the tree. Its sort of not visible until you get to the steps, which is already to late many times as the wasps in the hive will come out. I like to creep up slowly to the steps taking care to see if I can successfully shoot the hive with my power beam from the steps and without the hive getting a full view of me. When I confirm that my power beam shots can hit the hive, I fire a missile to destroy the hive and then jump up onto the ledge to get to the wall tunnel. As you approach the tunnel wall, you'll see more of those wiggly weeds that are. These are Venom Weeds and are red and poisonous, unlike the white ones below. Shoot them so that they can retract in the floor, than travel along the wall tunnel. When you reach the ledge at the end of the tunnel, jump up onto a nearby platform above. A few platforms will be above you either huggin the wall or connected to the tree. Use these platforms to get to another makeshift tree bridge. From the makeshift tree bridge, you're going to jump to a ledge/porch. The jump doesn't look safe, but it is and not much effort has to be done to make it successful. When you get onto the porch at the top of the room, do a 180 turn and scan the scan panel on the tree removing a wall with the scan panel runes on it. A weird, crumpled looking wall be tucked into the floor of this porch. Morphball bomb that wall, or missile it if for some reason that doesn't work, and then roll inside. At the end of the tunnel will be a door with a blast shield that must be missiled to get through. Sunchamber Lobby- Coming into the Lobby, you'll notice lots more of the Venom Weeds, on the floor as well as some reaper vines along the walls. You're going to make your way through this hallway, shooting all the weeds and the reaper vines along the way to clear your path. Remember though, shooting the weeds or the vines doesn't necessarily kill them, even if you use charged power beam shots or missiles, so do it quickly. Than get through the door. Sunchamber Access- You'll find more of the what the Lobby offered in the access. Except much shorter and straighter. On the other end of the room will be the door which is separated from you by the reaper vines and the venom weeds. So clear them as you did in the Lobby. Than after you get through them, jump up the steps and feel free to take whatever ammo or health you can get from the nearby crates. Then go through the door. Sunchamber-Varia Suit --------------------- When you step into the room a cut scene will start introducing Flagghra, the boss of the Chozo Ruins and the source of the acidic water in the Ruins. This is the first real boss fight in the game and will have you doing quite a bit. First when the game starts the cut scene introducing Flagghra, you press start and aim up above on your left for a satellite dish-looking object. This object is actually a mirror feeding vital sunlight to Flagghra and essentially keeping it active. When the cut scene closes after you press start the fight will start and you'll have 5 or so seconds to aim for and shoot a little handle on this mirror. You can shoot this handle from any angle or side as long as you hit the handle. Your objective is to flip the mirror up, to do that quickly as I want you do it, you'll have to fire a missile, which I advise you do, or a charged power beam shot if you don't have a missile. Whether you did it on time as I asked you to, or it took you a while to flip this mirror, a cut scene will start showing Flagghra get paralyzed and fall down on the walkway you would be using to fight this match. When the scene ends, you should be straight infront of a morphball tunnel with a bomb slot at the end. Immediately get into that tunnel with your morphball, get to the slot at the end and use a morphball bomb on it; this is how you are going to really kill him. If you took your sweet time, which is around a full minute, than the vines that acted as reaper vines, but without the reaper's sickle-shaped tip will have come out of this tunnel and knocked you backwards. Than Flagghra would get back up and you'd have to flip the mirror again. But if you did it right, a cut scene will start showing Flagghra shrink and scower into its flower, than two new mirrors would flip on giving him more sunlight and bringing him back for round two. When round two starts you'll have to flip two mirrors, and the morphball tunnel you used earlier will be gone and you'll be able to use only 3 now. If you are doing a scan-run, there are two things to scan in this room that can only be scanned once: Flagghra itself and the tentacle that is protruding from the tunnel one would get inside of to bomb the slot at the end. Once the cutscene showing him shrink and wither into his base-plant, two mirrors will flip on now and Flagghra will be back in business. I advise keeping your lock on him so that you can monitor his actions, and do the dash jumping to get to the next mirror faster. You should be firing tons of power beam shots at him while you're dash-jumping around him to the next mirror. The part that sucks is that he is very resistant to damage from the power beam, infact you shooting him while you move to flip the next mirror will only serve in stunning him momentarily. You can accelerate him getting stunned momentarily by firing a missile on him. While you're moving, Flagghra will do several attacks complicating the match. First, he'll use his sickle-shaped arms to swipe at you; you can avoid this attack by backing up against the wall behind you as much as possible. Flagghra will also stick his head out at you and fire these energy spores like gun fire at you. Sometimes he'll even charge up the energy spores into a bigger blast, but the energy spore attack is also easily avoidable by dash-jumping or clever lock-on orbiting. Another attack of his is to throw his entire body onto your walkway, including yourself sometimes to make this huge rush of poisonous weeds and plants rush out of the ground he fell upon. This one sucks because if he does a direct fall on you, than many times you are gonna find yourself trapped in the middle of this poisonous bush watching your health get sapped. This also could obstruct your path to the next mirror. But you can keep this from happening by lighting him up with power beam and missile shots to stun him or by dash-jumping out of the way. Another thing Flagghra likes to do is to flip back on the mirror you flipped off. In order to bring him down in the second, third, and fourth round, you'll need to flip off all of the mirrors flipped on. If one mirror is still on when more than one needs to be flipped off, Flagghra will still be 100% active. However, everytime you flip a mirror Flagghra gets angry and frustrated and does a little jiggle for a few seconds giving you a possible opportunity to flip the next mirror. Their are 4 rounds in this match, with the number of mirrors you have to flip matching the round number you're in. Also, on each successive round, you'll have one less morphball tunnel and bomb slot to use to eventually kill Flagghra. Luckily there are 4 tunnels/slots and by the time your in round 4, you'll only have 1 more slot to go and the fight will be over. When the fight is over, the game will show you the infamous Metroid symbol in Orange with green indentations. This is the Varia Suit and you'll be staring at it once the game cut scene finishes. When it does jump up the steps to touch and to receive your Varia Suit. A really cool cut scene will start showing Samus receive her Varia Suit. When the game prompt on the Varia Suit is over, turn toward the door in the ledge above where you found your Varia Suit. To get to that ledge, you'll have to jump onto it from where you're at right now. It might be a little hard at first, even I have had a hard time sometimes getting up there, but this is how you're going to proceed in the game. Once your infront of the door on that ledge, go through. Sun Tower Access- The water in the Chozo Ruins is now completely clean, you'll notice from looking at it and from scanning it with your visor. Go ahead and jump into it to get to the other side of the Access, there is no other way. After you get to the other side, you are going to walk out of the water with your power beam charged and you'll take a right and go through a walkway. You'll then use your charged power beam blasts on the crates you'll find to reveal some health and ammo if the game wants to give you any. Follow the hallway to the next door where eventually you'll find a floating electrical orb called a Bombu. If you get close to it, than it'll electrically disrupt your visor and all you'll see is a bunch of static. If you charge your power beam when you're anywhere near it, then it'll get attracted to your charging beam and smack you in the face. Sometimes the bombus also likes to casually drop little electrical bombs that explode and do some nice damage. So look out for that. But since the passage way after the crates is so morphball friendly, just use your morphball to get to the door and to avoid the bombu hazards. Get through the door at the end of the Access while in morphball mode. Sun Tower- You'll be on a ledge once inside, you're going to fall straight down with your morphball. Once you hit the floor, head for the door tucked away in a sort of hallway, which you will bomb to get through. Do this quickly though as their are wasp hives at the bottom of the Tower. Transport to Magmoor Caverns North- Here you're going to scan a scan panel on your right and then step into the hologram to activate the next transport. =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Chozo Ruins North- Step out of the room and through the door to get the next area. Burning Trail- When you're out here, you're going to fall to the bottom just like you did in the Sun Tower, while in your morphball. On your way down, you'll notice some platforms rising and falling in pattern. Ignore them for now and follow the path into the hot smokey area ahead. Along the way you'll be greeted by some shriekbats so I advise going into the Burning Trail area with your morphball and slipping under the shriekbats. You're gonna take a left after the place where the shriekbats were perched and look out for a door with a blast shield on your left. Missile that blast shield, than go through that door. Save Station Magmoor A*- { F.2 } Ah relief, you first save station. Step into the quasi-capsule looking device to save your game. After that you can take a rest since the next save won't come for a while. After you save, I advise you to go back to the main menu by quitting this file. Try comparing your time to 19 or 23 minutes, my usual time. After that when your ready to start over again, start the file up and roll out of this room with your morphball. Burning Trail- Exiting the save station, you're going to take a left and then a right. Beyond the hallway are shriekbats perched straight above a piece of walkway where a snail like bug, called a Grizby, is crawling around aimlessly. Beyond that is the next door. When you approach to get on the floor that the Grizby is on, the shriekbats will initiate their strike. What I like to do is roll with my morphball from the save station to the that floor where the bug is crawling around and then exit my morphball mode as I'm about to roll off the ledge to get to that floor. You're going to continue moving forward as you exit morphball mode but you'll land on the floor that the Grizby is on and not in the lava that surrounds the piece of floor. Its a sort of trick that lets me maintain my speed, go under the shriekbats that'll be waiting for you in this room, and land successfully on the Grizby's floor. It doesn't come without its hazards though, the Grizby likes to crawl all over that piece of floor and many times he gets in my way and knocks me into the lava. And sometimes I don't even time the morphball exit correctly and end up in the lava anyways. However, if you do it right than you can proceed to the door with taking care not to get knocked back by the grizby. Or you can waste time by decimating the shriekbats individually and then jump onto the walkway where the Grizby is at and then get to the door. Lake Tunnel- You'll find another room here that presents another complication. Infront of you will be a huge pool of lava separating you from the door on the other side of the room. In the pool of lava are two pieces of floor that you can hop on to get to the other side of the pool. However, the two pieces of floor hugging the left and right walls of this room and you'll do some jumping to get to them. On the floor pieces are flamethrowers sticking out of the walls that go on and off, when the flamethrowers are on, the fire they spit shortens the space of the flooring you have to stand. To add to that, each floor piece also has another one grizby that can knock you back into the lava. What I like to do is just jump as far as I can into the lava and quickly run and jump out of the lava to get to the otherside in order to save time. But if you wanna play it safe, than you can either missile the grizbys and navigate around the flamethrowers through the floor pieces or not missile the grizbys and complicate your path trying to get across the lava pool safely. On the otherside of the lava pool that you're trying to get to is a little bug called a Burrower that will jump straight out of the ground and spit out an acid at you in the face and then go back underground. Quickly lock on to him as he jumps up and shoot him with one shot to kill him, if you touch him while he's burrowing underground, you'll also take damage. Lava Lake- Now we're going to be in a sort of cave where the floor is completely covered in lava. The lava isn't very deep, probably either waste or chin deep. But when you're about to approach the lava a movie will start introducing you to the Magmoor Caverns. When the movie ends, a large lava snake will pop out of the lava and shoot a nasty flamebreath at you. This snake is called a Magmoor and that flamebreath attack is pretty much their only attack. In the middle of the room is a large central pillar. Behind the Magmoor on the right are some platforms creeping out of the lava, sticking out of the wall, and floating in mid-air. Floating above and around some of these platforms are little round spunges expelling green gases. These are Puffers, and when you touch them, they'll explode and release nasty toxic gas that saps away your health quickly, the actual explosion can also knock you into the lava. Behind the magmoor you see on your left are a few crates tucked away into a wall. What you have to do is make your way to those crates. You can do it my way by zipping through the magmoor on his left, and jumping into the lava for a little bit and then jumping out onto the floor piece where you'll find the crates. Or you can go around the magmoor's right using the platforms to go around the room, through the puffers and a second magmoor to get to the crates. I've already explained my way, but if you do it the second way, than you're going to have to quickly shoot the puffers hovering above one of the platforms with quick power beam shots and than rush toward that platform they were on. Everytime you destroy a puffer they leave a bunch of gas for you to have to contend with so you should take this time to kill the magmoor with charged power beam shots. The charged power beam shots will knock him back and make killing him quicker. When the gas the puffers left over is gone, get to that platform they covered and then to another that sticks out of the wall. From this pillar you're going to have to go another where puffers will be covering and where another magmoor awaits. Quickly kill the puffers and then either risk the damage from their gas or take out the other magmoor for the gas to subside. After that, get to the floor where the crates are, and destroy the crates. Behind the crates will be a wall that can be destroyed with morphball bombs. So use that, than get inside of the newly revealed morphball tunnel with your morphball. At the end of the tunnel is another wall that must be bombed. After the wall comes down you'll be in part 2 of the Lava Lake room. Here you'll see a bunch of puffers floating everywhere throughout the room. A pillar will be on your left and a platform sticking out of the lava on your right, behind both of those is a ledge that has a pathway leading to the next door. What I like to do is just get to that ledge using the platform without shooting the puffers and by just carefully, but quickly, maneuvering through them. Or you can shoot them all and wait for their gas to subside and than get to that ledge and to the next door. Pit Tunnel- Infront of you will be a caged fence with a pillar sticking out high in the middle. The pillar has flamethrowers on it, but only above the caged fence. There is a hole for a morphball to enter at the beggining of the caged floor as well. This hole leads you into another small floor below the caged one where little creatures called Triclops dwell. These guys don't try to kill you, but they do try to keep you from getting through by sucking you in if your close enough. What you have to do is get through them to the otherside where another morphball hole is to get to the next door. You can do two things, you can kill them all one by one by laying morphball bombs really close to them; the triclops will suck in the bombs and then blow up. Or you can maneuver around them as best as possible, laying bombs if they start doing their suction attack and moving away from the triclops' immediate direction. This will cause the triclops to catch the bomb instead of you, than you can proceed ahead out of here. There are three triclops on this lower floor, once you get out of the lower floor, than you can exit morphball mode as I recommend and head through the door. Triclops Pit- Keep heading straight until you reach spot in this room where you can catch a view of a series of puffers floating above some platforms on your left. Also on the left will be a pillar that holds a platform you can and will use to get to a door at the end of this puffer trail. Straight ahead and to your right you will some other very large pillars and a lower caged floor at the bottom. Some puffers will be floating in and around the pillars and on your immediate right will be some crates obstructing some steps that lead down to the floor below. What you need to do is go left for the puffer-laden platform trail and get to that door. Before you start to head that way though, shoot all the puffers as I choose to do many times, but not all the times, so that as your going through to the door, some of the gas at the end will already have been expelled when you reach the spots where the puffers were at. Then start hopping to and from each platform to the door at the end. Alot of times, on my way back especially, I just maneuver through the puffers without shooting any of them. Its a bit risky since they can seriously knock you to the floor below, but I still like to do it alot. Monitor Tunnel- On your immediate left should be some crates that might hold some health or ammo, if they're not there than look out for some platforms that pump up and down like pistons. Above and around the pumping platforms are a series of puffers; below the platforms is a pool of lava. I always choose to go through the lava in order to save time by just jumping in as far as I possibly can to the other side than heading for the door. But if you wanna play it safe, than just shoot all the puffers and then use the platforms to get to the otherside. Either way, walk through the door out of this room with your charge beam charged. Monitor Station- When you get through the door, stop immediately and look up and ahead for a gun turret on a large building in the middle of the room. The building is the Monitor Station which I guess was used for mining and ore production. Try to get a lock on the turret and then fire you charged power beam blast, followed by a missile. Next to that turret on the left is another turret which I like to take out with two missiles. Behind that turret is another turret which I also like to take out with two missiles. On your left in the lava is a platform that you'll use to get to a shoreline where there are a bunch of crates. On that platform that sticks out of the lava is a floating puffer which I always ignore and maneuver around. After you've gotten to the shoreline where the crates are at, head under the station where you'll find lots of crates by using the bridge. Head left for a platform with a puffer floating above it, but before you get to the platform. Try looking up at a walkway connected to the station. You should find the fourth and last gun turret. Take it out with any means at your disposal, than proceed to the platform with the puffer. From that platform you're going to head to a ledge sticking out of the wall. Follow the ledge along the wall to a bridge that is also fixed in the wall and follow it to another ledge where along the way you'll find some puffers. At the end of this ledge, you'll find a dead-end, but you'll also find the walkway that was connected to the station. Jump from the ledge to this walkway, and the use the walk to get into the station. When you enter the station, you'll find computers on your right and another walkway on your left with a puffer covering it. Use your morphball to get through the walkway and to have a much easier time avoiding the puffer. Get through the door with your morphball by bombing the door and stay inside your morphball as you walk through the door. Transport Tunnel A-energy tank ------------------------------ Infront of you will be a morphball tunnel that you'll have to enter. When you enter it, you'll be panned out to a 2-D view with you on the right side of the screen. This is where we're going to put our bomb jumps to use. Very near you is a tunnel that goes up. If you sit below this tunnel that goes up, you'll also be sitting on a block that is destroyable visa-vi your morphball bomb. What you're going to do is double-bomb jump up the tunnel onto another floor above. Timing the placements of the bomb is critical since the block that you'll be sitting on will only take two bombs until it destroys. If the block is destroyed and your sitting onit than you'll fall into the lava directly below it. In order to be successful at double-bomb jumps, you got to figure out the timing. Lay the first morphball bomb, and as the first one is about to go out, lay a second morphball bomb. The first bomb will pop you into the air, and at the peak of your "jump", you'll lay the third bomb. The second bomb you placed will pop you back into the air where you'll make contact with the third. The third will be the one that gets you up onto the ledge in the upward tunnel. Knowing the timing is everything and so don't be surprised if you don't get it right the first time. But lets assume you did get it right and you double-bomb jumped your way up the tunnel onto that ledge. Well you would move leftward on this new section of the tunnel where at the end you'll be on top of another block that can also be destroyed with two morphball bombs. You'll double-bomb jump yourself up onto the next ledge as you did the first. You'll have to do this three times total in order to be able to get an energy tank that will increase your health. You'll come back to this room several times throughout this guide, but I advise trying to get it done right now. Whatever your move, move onto the left-end of the tunnel where a door awaits to a transport. Transport to Phendrana Drifts North- When you head in here, scan the scan panel on your right and then get in the hologram to go to the Phendrana Drifts. ================ Phendrana Drifts ================ Transport to Magmoor Caverns West- Shoot the door infront of you and walk through with your power beam charged. Shoreline Entrance- Ahead you'll see a wall of ice, you can missile this wall or you can nail it with your charged power beam. You'll have to do this twice more to get to the door at the end of this snake-turning corridor. Phendrana Shorelines- Stepping through you'll see a valley of rock formations and ice. When you step further into the Phendrana Shorelines you'll be introduced formally to the Phendrana Drifts. Up ahead in the middle of the shorelines lies a shallow creek with a few floating platforms. The creek that cuts through the middle of this area leads to a series of platforms on your right that you will use later in the game. On the left, the creek leads to a caged alcove in the wall. You're going to go this caged alcove and missile it. The cage will come down and you're going to look inside and find an ice-cone crowned bug, called a Crystallite, scurrying on the ceiling; behind it is a scan that you must scan. When the scan is finished, a lock on a door above the alcove will be disabled; now we're going to go to that door. First get on the shore thats on the otherside of the creek. Than head right for a series of steps that cling along a wall. On your way there you'll notice a cave hiding inside of the wall. This cave leads to a save station which you will never use in this guide unless your a noob and want to break my time goal. Whatever you choose, follow the steps protruding from the wall and use them and the platforms to get to the door you unlocked. Along the way you'll find several more crystallites that you can only get rid of with your missiles. When you're going through the door, be ready to break another ice wall with a charged power beam shot. Ice Ruins Access- Breaking the ice wall you'll find a bombu thats rotating within the corridor you want to use like a corkscrew, this version of the bombu is called a Scatter Bombu. You can't destroy it with your weapons yet, so what you do is get in your morphball and roll through the rotating beam tentacles of the scatter bombu. You'll have to roll through another scatter bombu before you get to the next door. Ice Ruins East- The ruins are very much like the Chozo Ruins but just covered in ice. Head forward over the mini-hill and then turn left. You'll quickly find some slick-ice mounds resting in the snow. If you approach them closer, you'll than find them come alive and the two slick-ice mounds will turn into ice predators called Baby Sheegoths. These guys are like a cross between the aliens from the movies series Aliens and the new breed of graboids from the movie Tremors 2. These monsters will always try to stay face to face with you. They are only vulnerable to damage from their ice-laden back which first must be destroyed, than you got to pump a few more rounds of beam shots into their fleshy backs. Their heads and skulls are invulnerable to weapons fire as the shots will bounce right off their heads. Their attacks include charging at you and taking a nice crunch at you. As well as simple ice breath which they use the same way a magmoor spits out fire at you. And they all fire ice-ball shots at you which also do some appreciable damage. But I advise you not to fight them and instead head straight up the set of steps on the right you'll take as you enter this room. You'll follow a makeshift path along the wall on your right that is made of debris from the ruins. The path will snake directly along the wall and you'll follow it until it ends in front of a rooftop where two crystallites are harmlessly circling around. Missile them to get rid of them or just get on that rooftop to get access to another rooftop with a large chunk of its roof ripped right open. For reference's sake, the rooftop you are going to get on from the rooftop where the crystallites were will be to the right of the entrance you made to get into this area. From the rooftop with the partially ripped roof, you're going to get through a hole with two other crystallites crawling around the walls of this hole. Missile one or both of the crystallites to get through, and after you do that, get to the door that you'll find on your right after the hole. Plaza Walkway- Finding yourself in a cave-like hallway, you'll notice more burrowers in this room. These burrowers are Ice Burrowers; but still have the same sort of attack as normal burrowers. Scan these guys right NOW if your doing a scan-run cause it'll be the only time you'll ever be able to scan them again. Make your way through these burrowers to the next door. Phendrana Shorelines- Stepping out you'll find yourself in the Phendrana Shorelines again, but high above in a ledge. Follow the ledgeway on your left to a door and enter it. Ruins Entryway- Pulse bombus will be floating above the ground and dropping more of their electrical bombs as you make your way to get to the next door. Do as best you can to get through them to the door. Ice Ruins West- You'll be on a porch with a pillar on your left and right. On your left up ahead will be a pathway that you'll have to take to get to the next area. This pathway is covered by two baby sheegoths that are conveniently embeded near the wall. There are actually three paths, but only one of them goes left, while the other two go right, so don't worry about being confused about which one. I want you to turn into your morphball and roll through the left path; the left path will will make a quick right turn after the second sheegoth, the path itself leads to a door with a blast shield. Missile off the blast shield and don't worry about the sheegoths following you all the way to the door as they won't. Canyon Entryway- Ahead will be another corridor like the one in the Ice Ruins Access. It'll be complemented with scatter bombus that you must roll through with your morphball. When you get to the door, go through it. Phendrana Canyon-boost ball --------------------------- The Canyon is no less than what its called: a canyon. You'll start on a porch like entrance to this area, just barely catching a glimpse of a half-pipe hiding behind the protruding rockface on your left. Ahead and on a floor below will be a broken bridge that you can freely use to walk on and a set of large crates behind it. Behind these crates is a Chozo Lore scan that many people never notice. If your doing a scan-run, get it now since this will be the only time you'll be in this room according to my guides. On your right from the entrance of the canyon will be a ledgeway with crystallies crawling around it. Below the bridge is a floor with a sleeping sheegoth. Behind the sheegoth are a set of steps that lead to a scan panel with a crystallie crawling around it. Stand at the end tip of that entrance and from there try to get a lock and fire a missile at the crystallite. Than activate your scan visor and get a lock on the scan panel either from the entrance of this room or from the bridge below the entrance. When your scan visor gets a lock on that scan panel where the crystallie is, jump forward into the floor where the sheegoth is at to start the scan. By the time you land, the scan will finish and a cut scene will start showing snow covered platforms rise from the half-pipe. When the cutscene ends, you'll find yourself face to face with a sheegoth, but more than likely he'll just be staring you down and won't attack, either way quickly get up the steps to the spot where the scan panel is. When you're there, look toward your left for a ledge that is connected to the half-pipe, a crystallite is crawling around here. If you want to save yourself a headache and you have a spare missile, than use it on the crystallite. Now observe the floating snow-covered platforms, they lead to an alcove high above the half-pipe. Use the platforms to get to the alcove by jumping from platform to platform quickly in order to get to the alcove; you must do this quickly as each platform will start to fall as soon as you step on it. If you take your sweet time and fall with the platform, than you'll have to scan the scan panel again and start the process of jumping from platform to platform to get to the alcove again. But if you did it right, than you'll find the boost ball upgrade in the alcove. Grab it, after the cut scene, exit your morphball and get to the edge of the alcove and observe the half-pipe below. You are going to have to use the boost functionality of the boost ball to get up the half-pipe. You'll do this by boosting up one side of the half-pipe, charging the boost ball again, and then as you fall from the boost, let go of the charge to get another boost up the other side. Its physics and you should let go of the second boost at a junction in between the horizontal and vertical planes of the half-pipe meet. You're going to use this boosting to get up on that ledge that is connected to the half-pipe where the crystallite you killed was. If you didn't kill him, than he might have knocked you back down into the half-pipe and you would of gotten the headache. Follow the ledgeway protruding from the wall on your right to get to the entrance of the Phendrana Canyon, the entrance to the Canyon is also the only way out of it. Canyon Entryway- Now that you have the boost ball, put it to good use by boosting through this corridor and the tentacles of the scatter bombu. Get through the door with you still inside of your morphball. Ice Ruins West- Boost up the hill where the sheegoths are at and then make a left turn and boost to the door to the Ruins Entryway in order to escape the sheegoths. The sheegoths have to wake up and realize your there before they attack, so don't worry about getting nailed by them when you pass through them, so long as you don't stop to say hi. Get through the door to the Ruins Entryway and be prepared to get back inside of your morphball. Ruins Entryway- Continue putting your boost ball to good use by boosting straight through the room and to the door. Get through the door with or without your morphball activated. Phendrana Shorelines- When you approach the tip of the ledge infront of you a cutscene will start showing Ridley glide carelessly right above your head and the Phendrana Shorelines. When its done you're going to have to jump down and get to the door of the Shoreline Entrance. Heres a trick to soften the recoil of a big fall. Turn into your morphball and roll down off the ledge, exit morphball mode at the moment you touch air and are no longer in contact with solid ground. You'll exit morphball mode and land on the ground below as if you jumped down 3 feet. If you just jumped down, than you would get stuck in the snow for a few seconds. When you land, head for the otherside of the creek to get to the door of the Shoreline Entrance. Proceed through the door with your morphball. Shoreline Entrance- When you enter this corridor again, boost straight through in short-charged bursts with your boost ball. From now on, whenever you go through this room, you'll do this maneuver to get through. Transport to Magmoor Caverns West- When you come in here, get in the hologram to go to the Magmoor Caverns. =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Phendrana Drifts North- Shoot the door infront of you, than roll through it with your morphball. Transport Tunnel A- Roll through the tunnel to the next door; when you go through the next door. Exit morphball mode. Monitor Station- The Monitor Station has all the turrets you destroyed earlier restored in their original place. The turrets will shoot you as soon as they spot you. What I want you do is to jump off the bridge into the lava on your left and rush toward the door to the Monitor Tunnel. You'll land in the lava and you'll have to quickly get back on the shore out of the lava. The turrets will spot you and try to shoot you, but do what I do: lock onto the turret on the left that you see from the door to the Transport Tunnel and than dash jump left into the lava. Than rush toward the shore and from the shore to the door to the Monitor Tunnel. If you don't think you can risk your health, than from the bridge that connects the monitor station to the door to the Transport Tunnel A, shoot the gun turret on the left and the one you spot on your right that is hanging from a poll that holds the station erect. When you take out the two gun turrets, jump from the bridge down to the floor under the station. The jump is safe and you won't fall in the lava; you will, though, be quickly confronted with at least one of the gun turrets, more than likely the one on your left as that will be the most probable side you take. However, you can quickly hide behind a central pillar under the station to cover yourself from gun turret fire. Its all a matter of popping out at the right time and taking out the turrets. When you take them both out, than you can head for the Monitor Tunnel. Monitor Tunnel- When you get in the Monitor Tunnel, do whatever you did to get through this room the first time you came through here to get to the door. Then go through the door to the Triclops Pit. Triclops Pit- Entering the Pit, you'll find yourself at the end of the Puffer Trail we had to contend with earlier. But coming down this part of the trail to get to the Pit Tunnel is alot easier than having to go up the Trail. So what I want you to do is jump from platform to platform and maneuver through each of the puffers without taking them out. Or you can play it safe and take out each puffer before you go down and then go down. Either which way, head for the door to the Pit Tunnel. Pit Tunnel- Go through this room as you did the first time you came here by going into the underground floor with your morphball and using the same tactics of dealing with the Triclops as I instructed you before. Lava Lake- You're going to be coming back from the Pit Tunnel, and like the Triclops Pit, coming down through the puffers is alot easier than coming up through them. Just literally jump in between them, I have many times jumped from the ledge to the other shore. When you get to the otherside of the Lava Lake through the morphball tunnel, I want you to take the lava path on your right to get to the door. You guys have got to start getting used to using the lava as a shortcut, honestly. Do you really want to waste your time going around the Lava Lake through the circus of platforms and puffers? Lake Tunnel- Nail the burrower that comes out to greet you and again, take the lava path and don't waste your time going from platform to platform. You'll save yourself some serious time and with just a little sacrifice. Burning Trail- Make your way beyond the snail's floor to the part where you'll be greeted by shriekbats. When you get past the grizby, get in your morphball and boost ball to the door to the Transport out of Magmoor. The thing that sucks though is that you'll have to use these platforms that go up and down in order to go up the shaft and get to the door to the Transport. You'll have to jump from platform to platform and I really could not explain this thing any further since its already too simplified. When you get to the top, jump from the platform to the ledge that'll take you to the door and go through the door. Transport to Chozo Ruins North- Step into the hologram to get yourself to the Chozo Ruins. =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Magmoor Caverns North- When you come back from the Magmoor Caverns, and infact everytime you come back from the Caverns, you'll be facing the door to the Vault Access. In this instance, shoot the door to the Vault Access, then go through it. Vault Access- Stepping through, look for a door on an open space on your right. The open space is very small and cramped but still big enough for you to walk in. In this open space is a piston pumping up and down. Get in your morphball and get on the piston, than ride the piston up to a morphball tunnel at the top. Boost through the tunnel to get to the other end. At the end of the tunnel will be some steps that lead to another, go up the steps and through the tunnel, than go through the door leading left. Vault-missile expansion ----------------------- Ahead you'll see large cage. Go around the cage to the side directly opposite the door you coming from and look out for three circular holes on this larger cage with cages covering them as well. These holes lead diagonally up and toward the right. The two lower holes have the cages on them that must be destroyed with a morphball bomb. Bomb the lowest hole with the cage to open the hole and then get inside it. When you're inside you won't be able to get out until you've layed another bomb which will disable the lock, which is the holes function. Do that for the other two/upper cages; but in order to get inside the rest of the holes, your going to have to bomb jump to them, and double bomb jump to the third and final one. When you disable all the locks, the cage will slide open and you'll have access to another missile expansion. Grab it, and then take the other door in the room that was facing the hole-locks on the large central cage. Plaza Access- The Plaza Access is a corridor but much larger and spacious than others. Somewhere in the middle of this corridor, as you're making your way to the other end of the corridor, you'll be confronted by some beetles. What I like to do everytime I pass through here is turn into my morphball and boost all the way to the other end of the room. The beetles won't be quick enough to get you as you boost through them so do it. Get out of your morphball when you get to the door and go through it. Main Plaza-energy tank, missile expansion ----------------------------------------- When you get through the door, an energy tank will be staring you right in the face. Grab it and then jump down to the floor below. Head left for the half-pipe under the tree-bridge in the Plaza and get in your morphball once you reach it. In a little cubby on the left side of the half-pipe, right under the bridge is another missile expansion. Use your boost ball to get up to that missile expansion. When you are finished, get down the half-pipe and head for the door to the Ruins Entrance. On your way there, a Plated Beetle, yes the beetle we fought to get the morphball, will come out on your left. From now on, a Plated Beetle will come out everytime you pass through here, but they are easily ignorable so don't worry. Ruins Entrance- Head for the door to the Transport to the Tallon Overworld. Transport to Tallon Overworld North- Step into the hologram to get to the Tallon Overworld. ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Transport to Chozo Ruins West- Step through the door. Transport Tunnel A- Make your way through this corridor to the other door and ignore the zoomers along the way. Tallon Canyon A- Infront of you will be that half-pipe where the beetles had popped out of. The first time we came here, we went straight through to the door to the Transport Tunnel A ignoring the beetles. But this time we're going to use the half-pipe and go up it on the right side. First off get into the half-pipe, as the beetles come out, missile one of them so that you can take out two birds with one stone, the missile's blast radius will kill the other beetle if its close enough. Than get in your morphball and use the boost technique to go up the right side of the half-pipe. When you reach the top, a zoomer will be crawling around and might knock you back down. So quickly decimate it with your power beam. Than follow a ledgeway that leads left and to a lowered hole in the wall. The hole is covered by a wall that can be destroyed with a morpball bomb. After you destroy the wall, get inside the newly revealed tunnel with your morphball and bomb the other wall to get to the next door beyond the tunnel. Gully- After stepping inside, you'll find yourself inside a dark corridor complemented by lush green and rock face on the walls. Along the walls, more specifically around a junction where the floor you're on meets with a lower floor you're going to get to, are zoomers that are barely visible and barely destroyable from the door you came from. Proceed forward and try to avoid bothering yourself with them as you proceed through to the next door. Landing Site- Your gunship will be ahead on your left(sort of), a ledge protruding from a wall on your further left will be straight ahead, for reference's sake this ledge will also be directly behind your gunship. Jump from the ledge you entered this room on to the ledge straight ahead, and behind the ship. Than from that ledge, jump to another ledge that is straight ahead, protruding from the wall on the left and that leads to a door. All these ledges that I mention are perfectly aligned in elevation so you really cannot miss them. When you get to the door at the third ledge, go through it. Alcove-Space Jump ----------------------- Jump down into the pit below and grab the item in the middle of this room. These are the space jump boots and will allow you to perform another jump in mid-air after your initial jump. Just so that you're aware of the limitations of this upgrade, you can't jump twice if you're already falling or are in mid-air for whatever reason. To put it simply, the space jump lets you jump once in mid-air. You might be like, "what? Thats it?". But you'll soon appreciate it as you can do dash-jumps when your circling someone alot faster and you can reach more areas. Put the boots to good use and jump back to the door you came from, there is only one door that leads in and out of this room, so don't get confused about it. Landing Site-missile expansion* { F.3 } ------------------------------ When you come back out, jump down to the floor where your gunship is at. Directly behind your gunship is a really small tunnel carved into the wall. The entrance into this tunnel is from the sides, and is directly behind the gunship. When you find it, get inside of it with your morphball and don't worry about the small white-weeds that wiggle. Follow the short and very narrow tunnel to a missile expansion. When you're done getting the missile expansion, go to your gunship and save the game. Yeah I know, alot of stuff to do from one save to another. After you save, reset the game to monitor your time so far. The fastest I've gotten is 31 min. When you come back and start the save file again, look toward your right for the door to the Canyon Cavern. I like to put my newly acquired space jump to good use by double jumping from my gunship to the elevated step infront of the door. The plan is to get back to Phendrana and pick up some stuff along the way. Canyon Cavern- Get to the door as I instructed you early in the guide by ignoring the beetles and following the trail on your left. Tallon Canyon- Follow the path to the door behind the half-pipe and again ignore the beetles that pop out of the half-pipe. Transport Tunnel A- Skim through to the other door and ignore the zoomers here. What I like to do everytime I pass through here is rip a charged power beam blast at one of the blood sacs in this room when I barely enter it. Doing that will kill the zoomers inside, or most of them and you can pick up all the ammo or health they left over by jumping into it or charging your beam. Transport to Chozo Ruins West- Get into the hologram to get to the Chozo Ruins. =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Tallon Overworld North- Step through the door. Ruins Entrance- Ignore the beetles as you make your way to the Main Plaza. Main Plaza- Your going to head directly to the Nursery Access. If you don't remember where it is, than go behind the half-pipe and take an immediate left for a door. Along the way you'll run into a Plated Beetle. On my way from the entrance of the Main Plaza to the half-pipe, I like to quickly get in my morphball and boost straight past the Plated Beetle to the half-pipe. Then, as I'm reaching the steps after the half-pipe, I get out of my morphball and hop up the steps. As you step in through the Nursery Access, get in your morphball. Nursery Access- Boost through this access corridor with your morphball to the other door. When the scarabs come out to greet you, they will either do no damage, depending on how quickly and how well you boosted to the door, or very little since you boosted through the door instead of walking and are wearing the Varia Suit, which ups your defense appreciably. Eyon Tunnel- Get through here the same way I explained to you the first time. Watch out for the eyon in the ceiling and casually fire power beam shots to some of the eyons to reduce your chances of getting pelted by their lasers. Ruined Nursery-missile expansion -------------------------------- When you step through, look to your right. You'll more than likely just see the steps that eventually lead to the North Atrium. But on the wall thats on your immediate right is a morphball tunnel etched into the wall like those we used in the Arboretum. We're going to use this tunnel to get to a new missile expansion. But before we do that, the hazards in this room. First theres the beetles that will pop-up where they will always pop up: in the corner of the room where the steps to the top floor are. Second are the war wasps, there are two hives in this room: one on a wall on your immediate left and one on a ceiling in the right-hand corner of the room. For reference's sake, you'll be at the door that you used to get from the Eyon Tunnel to the Ruined Nursery and the first wasp hive will be on a wall on your left but that is elevated so you're going to have to look straight up to see it. The second hive is, from the view point I described, in the ceiling in the right-hand corner of the room. Now you can do this my way, or the slow way. My way: part of the tunnel that we're going to use is slightly elevated off the lower floor and you can get inside of it by jumping into it, you don't have to use your morphball to get in. Once you are inside, get in your morphball and than bomb jump up and to the right to get next to a sand-like block. Bomb the block to cause another black block above it to fall in place. Than get out of this tunnel and down to the floor and exit your morphball, sometimes after I fall down to the floor below and find beetles still combing my area, I lay three bombs for them and then exit my morphball. Sometimes the bombs kill them, other times it doesn't because they aren't close enough or just buried themselves underground again. After you are on the floor, use your double jump, yes you can actually use your double-jump to do this, to jump all the way to the top floor without having to jump on any of the steps that you used earlier. The best point on the top floor to jump to is any point at which you are directly paralleled and close to the wall that has the tunnel etched into it. As you do this first part, the beetles in the corner will pop-out and start approaching you, they can't attack you while you are inside of the wall and really won't do much if you keep moving while your on the floor. When you reach the top floor, the wasps will come out, immediately look for the entrance into this tunnel on your right; remember that the tunnel runs along the wall on the right! Get inside the tunnel with your morphball and bomb jump into the rest of the tunnel. Follow the tunnel as it leads right and bomb jump when you need to get further. Along the way, the wasps will casually try to nail you, which they can even though there are some cage or fencing on some parts of the tunnel. What I like to do is just ignore them if they sting me since its really no big deal, many times when I stop to bomb jump in order to proceed, they make their move to sting me but run right into my morphball bomb and die. If for whatever reason you fall down to the lower floor, than just get back up their and do it again. Now the slow way: first missile the two hives, than approach the corner where the beetles would pop out and rip them with either a missile or a charged power beam blast. Then get through the tunnel from the lower floor to destroy the sand block and then get up the steps to start the tunnel-wall maze. When you get the missile expansion at the end of the tunnel, you'll fall back down to the lower floor and then you can go to the door of the North Atrium. My way is so much faster in practice. North Atrium- Make your way to the door for the Ruined Gallery and don't worry about the scarabs. Ruined Gallery-missile expansion -------------------------------- Before you step full through into this room, missile the hive in the ceiling in the middle of the room. Then go down to the floor below, the lowest floor, and look for a morphball tunnel on the right side of this wall elevated off the floor. You'll have to bomb jump into the hole which is part of tunnel that runs through the wall and leads back out into the room from another end with a missile expansion somewhere in between. You're going to grab a missile expansion at the end of this tunnel so don't fret. When you're done, jump up to the top floor and then go through the door to the Totem Access. Totem Access- Make your way to the door through the plazmites and shoot them dead if you find that they will get in your way. Hive Totem- Remember that door that had a blast shield and that we missiled after we finished the Hive Mecha boss. Go to that door and go through it now. Transport Access North-energy tank ---------------------------------- When you step through the door you'll see that precious energy tank. Grab it and then go through the small morphball hole behind it with your morphball. The hole leads to a tunnel that you'll have to navigate your way through. You'll be panned back to a 2-D view and have to guide your morphball up the tunnel using the pistons. When a piston lowers, you get on it and ride it up to the next level. After you get on the next level, move to the next piston and repeat the process. When you reach the top level, continue left to exit this tunnel. You'll end up infront of a door. Step through the door. Transport to Magmoor Caverns North- Step into the Hologram to get yourself to the Magmoor Caverns. =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Chozo Ruins- Roll through the door infront of you with your morphball. Burning Trail- When you come out here, drop to the floor with your morphball. When you hit the floor, boost ball to the area where the grizby surrounded by lava is. You'll pass right under the shriekbats. Now that you have your boost ball, you can do that trick of getting to the piece of floor the grizby is crawling on even easier. After you get to the grizby, exit your morphball and get through the door to the Lake Tunnel. Lake Tunnel- Put your space jump to use in here by space jumping as far as you can into the lava pool and then quickly jumping out onto the shore once you land inside. Nail the burrower that comes out to say hi, and then get through the door. Lava Lake-Chozo Artifact ------------------------ Alright, you guys remember this large central pillar in the middle of the first part of this room, the part you are in now? If you fire two missiles at the middle of that central pillar, a huge chunk will break off and will reveal a chozo artifact. This artifact is one of 12 throughout the game. Put your space jump to use once again and jump over to that chozo artifact. Folx, please, if ya don't know which one it is, its the one thats to the left of platform closest to you with puffers floating over it and to the right of the magmoor. After you grab it, which I prefer you do by not killing any puffers or magmoors, jump down to the crate area and get through the tunnel to part 2 of the Lava Lake. Than get through the door to the Pit Tunnel. Pit Tunnel- When you enter here, I want you to use your space jump and jump right over the fence that blocks you from getting to the otherside of the room. From now on you will get through this room this way everytime you come here. Its faster and safer, the flamethrowers are pathetic in the damage they inflict. Triclops Pit- When you come through here, again, treat this area as you did the first time or whatever suits you best. Just get to the Monitor Tunnel. Monitor Tunnel- Take the path through the lava and don't bother with the pistons. Have your power beam charged on the way through. Monitor Station- Again you'll find the turrets, later in the game you'll have to put up with obstacles in this area that are much more difficult to deal with. Use your power beam on the turret in your sights and follow the instructions I gave you on the first time we came through here. However, one thing changes, your jumping and you'll use this jumping to effect at a specific area. The spot is the highest ledge that protrudes from the wall and runs sort of parallel to the glass-walkway connected to the central station. From this ledge, you'll jump to the walkway connected to the monitor station. You can also space jump, as I always do, from this walkway, to the walkway that connects the station to the door to the Tranport Tunnel A, but for some reason you might find that not that necessary for time as you can walk through the station to the walkway. But if you still want to keep up with time as I like to do, than you'll do that and boost ball from the walkway to the door. You'll do things this way, as I recommend you do, everytime you pass through this area until the conditions in this room change than I'll recommend an updated strategy. Transport Tunnel A- When you come through here with your morphball, keep boosting to the door and through it. If you didn't get the energy tank the first time, try and get it again. Either way, get to the Transport beyond the next door. Transport to Phendrana Drifts North- Step through the hologram to get yourself to Phendrana. ================ Phendrana Drifts ================ Transport to Magmoor Caverns West- Roll throughthe door with your morphball. Shoreline Entrance- Boost through this corridor with your boost upgrade and exit morphball mode on your way out. Phendrana Shorelines- From here we're going to head to a temple that lies within the right wall in this area. For reference's sake, you just entered this area from the Shoreline Entrance and if you look right, you'll see a series of structures in the wall that are elevated high off your level of elevation. You're going to make your way to this structure, which is a Chozo Temple, by taking one of two routes. First route is the slow route and this has you follow the ledges in the wall that are opposite the door to the Shoreline Entrance, this ledge way is also the one we used to get to the door to the Ice Ruins Access. Once you get to the ledge-step where the second crystallite is, turn around and look for a platform floating in mid-air just a few feet from the wall. You're going to jump from the ledge where you found the second crystallite to the floating platform. After you get on the floating platform, you are going to turn slightly and look down at the same time for a platform also floating in mid-air but not floating as high off the ground. This new floating platform is floating just a few feet from the water just a few feet from the ledge that leads to the Chozo Ice Temple. You're going to jump from the first floating platform to the second floating platform, yeah I know its a big jump but its do-able. Then jump to the ledge to the Chozo Ice Temple. The second way is faster, easier to do, but less obvious and generally unknown to people. First thing you're going to see when you enter the Phendrana Shorelines, and turn about 30 or 60 degrees right is this large-cylindrical rock formation sticking out of the snow and the Chozo Temple just creeping out of the background. You're going to head for the creek by going behind that rock formation on the right and then jumping on one of the snow covered platforms that act as a lily-pad. From the platform, you are going to jump to a ledge that sticks out to the left, your left, of the ledge that we're trying to get to. This ledge lies a little lower in elevation to the ledge we're trying to get to. When you get to this lower ledge, you're going to jump to the floating platform, the second one, that is floating above the water. Than from this floating platform you're going to get to the ledge. When you are on the ledge, head right to the 4 pillars leading to a door. When you get to the door, go through it. Temple Entryway- You'll be in another one of these narrow corridors that I always tell you to morphball through. However, when you step through the door to this corridor, you'll find a wall of ice blocking the path. A Pulse Bombu is also dangling infront of it, so missile the ice-wall and than get in your morphball and boost to the end of the tunnel. You'll encounter some scatter bombus along the way, but just boost through it as I instructed. Chozo Ice Temple- The Ice Temple has two parts, the part you see ahead of you, and another part that is high above on another floor. At the end of the path you see ahead of you is a baby sheegoth along with a corridor of sorts that goes upwards. Inside of this corridor are various steps, ledges, and pathways etched into the wall that you'll have to use to get to the very top of the corridor. On some of these steps and ledges are crystallites and Ice Parasites, which are simply ice versions of the parasites we encountered at the Space Pirate Frigate at the beggining of the game. If you are doing a scan-run of this game, scanning those Ice Parasites right now is advised as this will be the only time you will encounter them! Use those ledges, steps, and pathways to go up and ignore the sheegoth when he wakes up. Its up to you stop and missile a crystallite whenever you encounter one; I usually do but I dont' destroy all of them. When you get to the top of the corridor, you'll see a slick bed of ice that covers the floor of a pathway you see ahead of you. From a ledge or step where ice parasites are crawling around, you'll jump to that new floor. When you get on this floor, look to your right and left and you'll see chozo busts or head statues adorning the walls. There are 4 of them, and each is separated from each other by a pillar. The chozo bust on the right that is furthest away from the vertical shaft you just came from to get up here is the one we want to look at. When you find it, shoot a missile at it to destroy it and reveal a morphball slot inside. Get in your morphball and bomb jump inside the slot and lay another bomb. The bomb will explode and a lock on the next door we want to head to will be removed. Go to that door, the game showed you a cutscene of this lock being removed and showed you the way to the door so you should know where this lock is. Get to the door and go through it with your morphball Chapel Tunnel- Immediately you'll be presented with a morphball in the floor that you'll enter. Once you step inside, you'll be panned-back to a 2-D view. A black-block, like the one we encountered at the Transport Tunnel A in the Magmoor Caverns, will be at the beggining of the tunnel. Bomb that block to go into a tunnel under the one you are on. When you get to this lower tunnel, continue traveling left to find some other blocks that must be bombed. There should be two that you have to bomb until no more can be destroyed. When you destroy them both, head back to the black block you used to get through here and get back up to the tunnel above. Continue left until you encounter another black-block that must be destroyed. Repeat the process from earlier of destroying the blocks and returning to the tunnel above. You bombed those blocks because they would have blocked your way through the tunnel to the next door. When you reach the end of the tunnel, get through the door with your morphball still active and boost through. Chaple of the Elders-wave beam ------------------------------ Keep boosting through to the other end of the room where you'll see a capsule with electricity within it, this is the wave beam. When you're about to touch it, a cut scene will start showing the wave beam retract into the floor; a bunch of walls in the 4 corners of the room lower and reveal some baby sheegoths. Usually my experience has been that the two wall-sets that come down are the ones nearest to the door that you used to enter this room. Which ever come down, you run up to one of the baby sheegoths with your power beam charged, and dash jump straight behind them. When you are behind it, let loose your charged power beam shot to break their ice shell, then quickly proceed with a few more rounds of beam fire on their fleshy back to finish them off. Repeat this process to kill the other sheegoths. In the last two corners that open up revealing baby sheegoths will be a few crates that you can destroy for some ammo or health, usually the dead sheegoths leave some health or ammo as well. When you are done killing the baby sheegoths, a cutscene will start showing another larger sheegoth burst from the wall behind the wave beam capsule you were going to get earlier. This sheegoth is simply referred to as a Sheegoth, the smaller ones are always baby sheegoths. Forgive me for using the terms sheegoth and baby sheegoths interchangbly, I'll make the change after this guy. This sheegoth is easily 10 times the size of a baby-sheegoth and has really annoying defenses. First his attacks include, like the baby sheegoths, firing ice balls, ice breath, and running up to you and taking a crunch out of you. His defense are a set of ice crystals on his back that absorb beam fire from your arm cannon; everytime you use one of your beam weapons, minus one which I will identify later in the guide, will be absorbed by the Sheegoths back. Whats worse is that even if you don't fire in the Sheegoths general direction, the crystals will suck the round you fired, charged or not, into the Sheegoths back. That means you have only two forms of attack: your missiles and your morphball bombs. If you want to use your missiles, which I don't recommend, then when he stops and takes a quick breather after launching one of his attacks you get in his face and shoot missiles at it. You don't have to stop and manually aim at his face, you can get a lock on him, which will give you a lock on his body, and just quickly position yourself in his face by using your dash-jumps. Try to maintain some distance between you and him, about 15 feet if you can imagine that, and stay face to face with him throughout the entire match if you decide to use your missiles. If he launches his ice ball, which you'll know by the particular sound made and the way he thrusts his head back, than just space jump up to the side. If he does his ice breath, than space jump up out of the way as well. If you want to use your morphball bombs, which I recommend, than what you'll do is circle around him through out the entire match, maintaining some distance between him. When he finishes one of his attacks, you get in your morphball and lay some bombs right under his butt or stomach. When you lay the bombs, quickly get out of there and exit your morphball and get away from him. If you really wanna kill him quick, try laying some bombs at his feet or under his chin, if the bombs hit the right spot than the Sheegoth will stagger backward and let out a nasty yell like as if he really got hurt. If you do at least one attack like this, than you'll do nasty damage on him and you'll probably only need one or two bombs on him that aren't targeting that weak spot. The morphabll strategy is more riskier for people because alot of them aren't adept at staying on their toes with this guy. You'll know he takes damage when you see him flash red. My strategy is to fight the entire match in my morphball and just roll around him the entire time trying to get as many hits with my bombs on that special weak spot that makes him reel back. Of course, if you fight the entire match in your morphball, than you better have some skill since the chances of you getting nailed with an ice ball and some ice breath are greater. If you do decide to do the morphball strategy, doing 7 or 8 rounds of laying 3 bombs in each round, under the sheegoth's butt or stomach is the estimate of what you'll need. If you hit his weakspot with a morphball, maybe 2 or 3. I absolutely do not know how many missiles it'll take since its been years, yes years, since I've used missiles on him. You'll know you are super-close to killing him when he stands back and lets out a nasty t-rex/godzilla roar. After he's done he'll stagger real quick like a baby-sheegoth and fall on his face. While he's doing that, I like to quickly get on the hole that the wave beam retracted into; halfway through the cutscene showing the wave beam come back out, another cutscene will start showing you acquire the wave beam. The wave beam is a really cool weapon with some notable advantages and draw backs. First, if you charge it and lock on to an enemy, the charged wave beam shot will follow the enemy like one of your missiles that you used while locking onto some thing. Like the power beam, you get infinite ammo. Some of the enemies you shoot with a charged wave beam blast will be stunned momentarily as a cloud of electricity engulfs them and keeps them from moving, and you can finally kill the bombus as they are made out of electricity and can only be killed by electricity. The draw back, the rate of fire is slower than the power beam and each individual round from the wave beam is really weak. After you get the wave beam, get to the door to the Chapel Tunnel, I like boosting to the door, exiting my morphball as I'm about to reach the steps, and quickly jumping over the steps. Chapel Tunnel- Boost through the upper/main tunnel you used earlier to get through here and get through the door to the Chozo Ice Temple. Chozo Ice Temple- When you come back out here, you'll find Pulse Bombus scattered throughout the area. Don't try and kill them with your wave beam. Instead, continue using your morphball and boost to the lower floor and get through the door to the Temple Entryway. Temple Entryway- When you get to Temple Entryway, continue boosting through the corridor to the next door. Phendrana Shorelines When you step back outside, I want you to take note of something. On both sides of the creek are baby sheegoths resting in the snow. From now on there will always be baby sheegoths resting in the very spots you'll find them. Where exactly are they? One is near ledges that you used the first time you came here to get to the door to the Ice Ruins Access; you know the ledges with the Crystallites crawling on them. The other baby-sheegoth is sleeping in the snow right next to that large rock pillar on the otherside of the creek. Well now that we know that, I want you to head for the door to the Ruins Entryway. You are going to have to use path where the crystallites on the ledges are at, and yes encounter the baby sheegoth. But you can easily avoid him as you get to the door to the Ruins Entryway, just make sure to missile the crystallites out of the way, if you can spare a missile or two. Ruins Entryway- When you enter here, there should still be some Pulse Bombus in the air, but the next time you come through here, there will be 3 or 4 baby-sheegoths lining the floor. Boost your way through and exit your morphball as you get through the door. Ice Ruins West- When you come back out here, you are going to take one of the paths that leads right. Remember the last time you came here you took the left path, well this time you will take the right path that is farthest to the right. The other path will lead to an open area with a stalactite hanging from a ceiling high above. A stalactite is basically a cone-shaped rock formation made by water dripping from the ceiling and eroding rock to look like a cone or spike is hanging from a ceiling; I know that I'm gonna get e-mails about this if I don't explain it. This path that has a stalactite directly above it is not the right path you want to take. Instead you want to take, again, the path that is farthest right and that sort of looks like your walking into a temple ruins. You'll know this is the right path when you see a crystallite in your way. This path way leads up to a ledge from which you'll be looking at the stalactite in the other path. Along the way you'll have to space jump from a ledge to the next upper ledge until you get to 3rd and final one, and you'll encounter some crystallies that I don't recommend you bother a missile with. When you get to the top ledge, you're going to lock onto the stalactite, or aim at a point where the stalactite and the ceiling sort of meet, and fire a missile, not a power beam or wave beam or charged any beam shot. The stalactite will fall to the ground and will form a platform to use. Jump down onto this newly formed platform and look for an elevated hole with crystallites crawling around its side. I recommend missiling these guys since its annoying not to have to shoot them as you are passing through such a narrow space. When you get inside, a dilapidated roof to a building will be infront of you. Follow the path of the roof that you can still walk on to a ledge or elevated platform. By the time you are on the roof, the baby sheegoths that are in here should have woken up if they didn't wake up when you got through that far-right space. You'll know this is the right one when some shriekbats try to take a dive at you. A quick note, these shriekbats that are perched above the ledge are called Ice Shriekbats and you can only find them here. The first time you encounter them will also be the last time so if you want to do all the scans, make sure you do this from the hole and not from the roof. If you can't make the scan because your too far, than creep a little closer, but not too close. When you're done with that and are on that ledge/platform, turn toward your right for a ledge infront of a door with a purple outline and a crystallite crawling around it. Space Jump over to that ledge, missile the crystallite if you can spare a missile or just take care not to get knocked off the ledge by it, and then shoot the purple door, and every purple door like this that you find with your wave beam. Then walk through the next door with your wave beam charged. Courtyard Entryway- This area is a corridor much like the access rooms in the Chozo Ruins. Its complimented with open sun-lit roofs and has some scarabs along the way. The room snakes around with two mildly sharp turns, the first one going right, and then left. Somewhere around the first turn are gonna fall a bunch of scarabs, after the first turn, the second turn will have more scarabs. And in between these turns is a pulse bombu. I want you to run through this corridor and ignore any damage the scarabs do to you, unless you are super low on health. When you run into the bombu, which is coming right at you because of your charged wave beam, let loose that charged wave beam blast to kill it. Than head through the door. You could also do this entire room by just running through and not charging your wave beam to kill the bombu. Either way, get through the door to the Ruined Courtyard at the end of this corridor. Ruined Courtyard-energy tank ---------------------------- Alright, now the start of another room with a long explanation. First there is large pillar in the middle of the room; it has a flat top that acts as a platform. At various areas of the walls in this room are ledges that can actually be walked upon. On the left and right ends of this room, on the level you are at right now are structures that are almost like pillars but are protruding from the wall, so they aren't really pillars. At the bottom, on your level, of these structures are devices called spinner-devices, that you will enter with your morphball. Protruding out of the water are platform/lily-pad like formations that you can use to get around various part of this area. One of these rising platforms protrudes really high, much higher than the rest and you will actually use it to get to a ledge with a morphball slot. First go to one of these spinner-devices, preferably the one on the right, and get inside it with your morphball. To use them, you are going to boost, press, hold, and release B; the device will lock you in place when you enter it and won't let you go until you finish using the device or lay a bomb. When you've boosted all that the device would let you boost, the device will let you go and deactivate permanently. I want you to take quick note of something, above this device that you just used is a ledge with a morphball tunnel right above it. Moving on... When you're finished with the first one, go to the second one on the left and do the same. When you finish using the second device on the left side, get up on the ledge above this device. You can get up to this ledge by using the snow platforms protruding from the water. When you reach the ledge, turn around and face the large central pillar in the room. In this room, are three flickerbats that will give you a headache if you don't take care of them now. What I want you to do is what you did when you fought the war wasps in the Hive Mecha boss fight. Pick a spot in their flight path that the flickerbats will fly in and fire your power beam like crazy at that spot. The flickerbats will always fly in one general flight path around the pillar so picking a spot is real easy. There are 3 of these things that you have to kill, each of them requires one or two shots from your power beam, and usually if you happen to hit one with a single shot, that one you shot will temporarily veer off in another direction but will eventually return to his flight path. These flickerbats make real distinct sounds when they die, so learn to recognize that sound, and after you've heard that sound three times, you've killed them all. When you are done with the flickerbats, turn around to the morphball slots and bomb jump into it, than lay another bomb to activate the morphball slot. The entire room will flood, and some of the make shift lily-pads in the water will float up with the rise in water. You are going to use the lily-pads to get to a ledge that is above the first spinner-device you used and that has a morphball hole above it. Get to that ledge using the makeshift snow-covered lily-pads and then get inside of the morphball hole which is actually a morphball tunnel. The tunnel eventually leads to an energy tank at the end. Grab it, and then return through the tunnel you came from slowly. As you exit back out of this tunnel, exit really slowly and carefully so that you are still on that ledge when you are done. Now above this ledge, is another ledge; I want you to space jump to this ledge. I know you noobs are gonna ask how so this is how: jump forward and up as much as you can and than do a second jump backward. Knowing how much to jump forward is really up to you to determine since you will be the only one who knows, but I will say that it really shouldn't be a jump that sends you completely away from the ledge, just a few feet away. If you nailed the jump and are on the other ledge, than I want you to turn to a wall with a ledgeway etched into it. This ledgeway snakes up the wall and the ledges themselves are more like steps that you'll jump to and from. If you are really confused as to which ledgeway I'm talking about, because there are actually two such ledges, than bring up your map by pressing Z and try to face the door thats purple. When you face this door outside of your map, than you'll be facing the side where the ledge way is. From this ledge, you are going to space jump to that ledgeway that snakes up along the wall. This jump is a big jump for beginners and requires some decent timing, so make sure you do it right. When you get to that ledgeway, follow the ledgeway along the wall up to the top of that large pillar. If you don't feel safe about jumping to the ledge above the ledge that leads to the morphball tunnel, then you can always use the ledges that stick out of the central pillar once you've flooded the area again, this is the slow way in my opinion. When you are on the second, slightly more elevated ledge, jump to the ledge that is protruding from the wall but that is on the side of the room opposite the purple door when you bring up your map. When you are on that other ledge, follow the ledges up to the top of that pillar. When you're at the top, look for a door with a blast shield on it there are three doors on this level of the room and only one of them has a blast shield. Missile the door with a blast shield from that platform, and then destroy some of the crates on this platform to get some ammo or whatever. After you're done with that, get to the door that had the blast shield on it. Save Station A*- { F.4 } When you step into this room, you'll find a save station. Go ahead and save. The next time you save won't be so long, as you'll save right here. When you're done saving, exit the room from the door you used. I usually like to stop and check my time before moving on. Its usually in the 40-45 minutes range. Ruined Courtyard- When you come back out here, you are going to head for the purple door. Remember to wave beam the door to open it. Before you walk through, let the door open and look out for a gun turret in the room. You have two choices, you can destroy this turret now and let one of Samus' old friends know shes here and then kill him from outside the room since he can't attack you through the door but you can attack him. Or you can walk inside, take out the turret and then the friend. Whatever you decide to do, use one fully charged power beam shot on the turret and two regularly charged power beam or wave beam shots on the friend. Specimen Storage- If you didn't do what I said you should do in the Ruined Courtyard, well than heres the explanation. In this room is a gun turret, which you already know about. Your old friend at the end of this corridor is actually a Shadow Pirate, a Space Pirate with a scythe built into its arm, the ability to cloak itself like the alien from the movie Predator, and great melee abilities. These shadow pirates can cover distances pretty quickly and like to run up to you and take a swipe at you with their scythe. Here's how you handle this room, rip one charged power beam shot on the gun turret and than quickly switch to your wave beam. As the turret explodes and you hear the shadow pirates battle cry, charge your wave beam and let it loose on the pirate as he comes at you. He'll be engulfed in electricity and stunned for a while, giving you enough time to charge another quick wave beam blast to let loose on the pirate. When you are done with him, go to the next door that is also outlined purple. Open it with your wave beam, and from this room look into the next room, Research Entrance. Don't go inside the next room, but stay REALLY close to the door and aim up manually. You're going to look for a gun turret in the ceiling of the next room; if you can't find it than use your scan visor to get a fix on its location. When you see it and get a lock on it from this room, or just get a nice steady aim at it if you can't get a lock, then fire two charged power beam or wave beam blasts. You might want to do the wave beam since you are going to need it in the next room and you won't have to switch to the wave beam. However, take note of this, everytime you destroy a gun turret with the wave beam, the turret will fire around aimlessly, some of the shots might hit you, and then blow up. While the gun turret is firing aimlessly, walk into the room. Research Entrance- When you step inside, a cutscene will start showing a security drone float down from the ceiling and sounding off an alarm. The door behind you will lock and a bunch of Space Pirates will storm out of the room, 6 is the max you'll get. Now that you've stirred the hornet's nest lets get to some strategy. First off these space pirates are THE Space Pirates, you'll encounter other kinds of space pirates along the way, but these are genuine, bare-bones Space Pirates who will be named as Space Pirate when you scan one. These guys come with everything the shadow pirates have, arm-mounted scythes, great melee and sprinting abilities, plus an arm-mounted laser cannon which fires irregular beam shots. These beam shots aren't that bad, but they are a distraction that can knock you back, and they can even blind and kill you as all the pirates will be shooting you creating lots of confusion and all you'll see is beam fire from the pirates. One or two will fall from the ceiling near where the gun-turret is at and run right at you. Meanwhile two to four others will hide behind a fence on the other end of the room, pop-out irregularly and fire at you. The one or two pirates that fall are your immediate thread, so what I want you to do is charge your wave beam, position yourself by a caged-wall that will provide a very minimal amount of protection from pirate fire and from there you'll shoot the pirates that come out with a charged wave beam shot and a missile to compliment. If you can't spare a missile, than two charged wave beam shots are good enough since the charged wave beam paralyzes them as well. But like I said, one or two pirates will quickly come running up to you so make sure to blast these upcoming pirates with charged wave beam blasts and if possible a missile. When you are done with the first one or two that run up, position yourself behind one of the four pillars in the room so that you can get better shots on the next set of pirates. Two or three more pirates will still be behind the fence and from one of these pillars, preferably the ones that are closer to the entrance of this room that you used, you will take out the pirates behind the protecting fence. There is also a pirate that is guaranteed to be at the foot of a walkway; occasionally, if you get close enough, he'll charge at you like those first one or two pirates you took out. If he does charge, than keep your lock on him and walk backwards and fire a charged wave beam blast to take him out. When you are done with the pirates, the locks on the doors will be removed and the fence will be lowered. You will use the walkway that the pirate was at; this walkway snakes along the left wall of this room, cuts through the middle of it and touches the right wall of this room after making a left turn, and then crawls along the right wall of this room after making another left turn. At the top floor that the walkway leads to are some crates that you should use after this ordeal, if you need it, and a purple door that you must get through. The previous strategy I gave you for dealing with the pirates is a slow one, my way is faster but requires that you bleed a little. Heres what I do, when the cutscene ends, I immediately start running forward as if no pirates were there and when the first one or two pirates fall from the ceiling, I let them eat a charged wave beam blast followed by a missile. Than I continue to the pirate that is at the foot of the walkway by navigating around the pillars that are on my left. While I'm going around the pillars, I'm readying a charged wave beam blast and when I see the pirate: wave beam blast and a missile. As I get to the foot of the walkway, I jump up on it from this lower floor with the pirates behind the fence still trying to take me out. I make my way along the walkway to the right wall and as I'm doing that, I fire charged wave beam blasts and a missile or two to finish them off. Sometimes, after I take out the two pirates that come from the ceiling, I go around the pillars on the right to navigate myself around the fence first. When I've navigated my way around the fence from the right, I'll take out the pirates that open themselves up for me and get behind the fence and finish the other guys. As I'm going through the pirates hiding behind the fence, I'm also going on my way to the walkway where I will find the pirate, I take him out as well. Thats my strategy for the pirates. And of course you're welcome to e-mail me about any confusion with these strategies. I do everything very quick and try to be consistent with time as I usually space jump from one level of the walkway to the next. Which jumps and from where do I make them to kill time? From the middle of the first walkway that goes up along the wall, I space jump to the middle of the next walkway that cuts through the middle of the room to the other wall. From the middle of this part of the walkway, I space jump to the middle of the third part of the walkway that goes up along the other wall. In text this doesn't sound like a big idea, but if you put it to use, than it'll make a difference. Either way, get through the purple door on the top floor. Hydra Lab Entryway- This is another one of those tunnel-corridors, like the Ice Ruins Access or Temple Entryway in Phendrana, that you'll find scatter bombus in and that you'll be advised to boost your way through to the next door and ignore the bombus inside. As you step through the next door, feel free to exit morphball mode. Research Lab Hydra- When you come back out here, you'll see a blue force-field infront of you. A scan panel that will disable this force field is in one of the corners. Scan it and get ready, we're about to stir the hornet's nest again. There are four levels in this room that go straight up. The first level has a bunch of computers and cryo-capsules on it. On the lower floor, carved out of the left and right walls are computers with a pirate attending each side; those are the only two pirates on this floor. There is also an elevator on this level that is somewhat hard to identify if this is your first time playing the game. Its on the complete opposite side of the room near the left corner. This elevator is sort of primitive since it doesn't have a capsule like the elevators we use in real life. Instead its just a platform that rises and takes you to the second level above. To activate this elevator, you'll scan a red scan panel that is to the elevator's side. The second level is really just the walkway above the lowest floor. As you use the walkway to get to the third floor, a space pirate will fall from the ceiling to the part of the walkway that cuts from the left wall to the right wall, many times right infront of you. As you are going to make the left turn on the third part of the walkway to finally get to the third floor, a space pirate hanging above the junction that connects the walkway to the third floor will come down as well. On this third level are a row of computers and a space pirate near some crates in the left corner. The third floor is connected to the fourth and final floor by a walkway that you will access on the left side of this room, after the pirate that is near the crates in the left corner. On the fourth floor are two capsules that connect from the ceiling to the floor of this fourth level like pillars. There is also another pirate at the junction on the walkway that connects the fourth and third levels. Behind the pirate is a gun turret in the right-hand corner; for reference's sake, the right-hand corner would be the one that if you were facing the door to the Hydra Lab Entryway to get back to the Hydra Lab Entryway, than that would be the right-hand corner I'm talking about. To the left of this gun turret, is a pirate doodling on some computers. Further left is the door to the next room, the door though is built into the ceiling, so you'll have to jump up into the next room when you shoot to open it. Alright so how do we tackle this one. First my way, than the slow-noob way. Immediately start running for that elevator on the other side of the room, as you are running to it, ignore the space pirate battle cries and scan the scan panel to activate and then jump inside. The elevator will take you to the walkway on the second level and as you get on the walkway, charge your wave beam. The pirates on the lowest floor will not make their way up. When you make that left turn around the walkway and the space pirate comes down. Shoot him with the charged wave beam blast and finish him off with another charged wave beam blast or a missile and charge another wave beam blast. As you make another left turn at the next corner, quickly get a lock on the space pirate that came down from the ceiling on the third level and nail him with the wave beam blast. Finish him off with a missile or another charged wave beam blast and go up the walkway to the third level about halfway. From here, you are going to jump up and fire a charged power beam blast at the crates that the space pirate in the corner is near. One of the crates is explosive and if your beam shot's blast radius hits the crate than the create will explode and incinerate, yes incinerate, the pirate. After that, you can choose to either reel in the pirate at the next walkway or not. You can also choose to destroy the gun turret, but only destroy it from the third level in this room. Either way, there is a piece of railing that sticks out on the third floor. It protrudes from the third level platform to the right side of the wall if, for reference's sake, you were coming from the Hydra Lab Entryway. If you can spot this railing, than jump on it, and than space jump to the fourth level. As you are jumping, the gun turret and the pirate at the walkway will be immediately alerted and gunning for you. However, the pirate doodling behind the computers will not. I swear, everytime I go through this room this way, whether I've killed the pirates and the gun turret or not, the pirate behind the computer will not notice you are there until you move to his left, which would be your right(I hope that didn't confuse you guys, too many references!). If you got on the fourth level, than I want you to immediately run for the door that is in the ceililng, shoot it with your wave beam and jump up into the next room. Now the slow way. Walk through this lower floor with your wave beam charged and dispatch both pirates quickly with a charged wave beam shot, followed by another wave beam shot or a missile. Pick which ever pirate you want to kill first, but just know to hide behind a capsule as you are taking out one pirate to shield you from weapons fire from the other. Than take the elevator up to the walkway on the second level. As you are going around the walkway, nail the pirate that comes from the ceiling with a charged wave beam blast followed by another charged shot or a missile and then continue on ahead. As you continue ready another charged wave beam blast for the next pirate that falls from the ceiling. Nail him with a charged wave beam shot and a follow up missile or wave beam blast. Proceed up the third part of the walkway halfway and fire a charged power beam shot at the crates that are near the pirate to incinerate him. Follow the path through the platform on the third level and from the third level, kill the pirate at the walkway connecting the third and fourth levels with a charged wave beam blast and a follow up missile or wave beam blast. From this third level, you'll also have to kill the gun turret with preferably a power beam shot because of the way the turret act when they are destroyed by the wave beam. Than get your wave beam activated again, charge it and use it on the pirate messing with the computers on the fourth level if he becomes alerted that you are around. Than make your way to the door in the ceiling. Observatory Access- Welcome to another corridor; this corridor isn't like the Hydra Lab Entryway or the Ice Ruins Access. Its alot more spacious and completely covered with snow. As you are jumping up into this access, you'll hear the sounds of gun turrets activating and readying themselves to fire. The part that sucks is that most of the time you jump up into this room from the Research Lab Hydra, you'll have your back turned to the turrets and sometimes they might nail you. So as you are jumping up into this area, quickly bring up your map and figure out which way you are facing in this access. When you know, which area you are facing, backup or walk into the wall that is opposite the direction of the next door you are going to get to. There are three gun-turrets in this room. One of them is really close to the door you came from but is also behind some crates which partially protect you from its shots. I always take my time to destroy these guys with a quick power beam shot and a missile, so don't feel ashamed to do the same and proceed onto the next door. Observatory-Super Missile ------------------------- Welcome to the Observatory, a large vertical room with many devices and computers to tinker with. Don't try to enjoy your welcome for too long though, there are at least 5 to 7 pirates in this room that need to be taken care of. Walking into this room with your wave beam charged, quickly lock onto one of either of the two pirates on the other end of this room and fire a charged wave beam blast at it followed by a missile. As you do this another pirate from a lower-floor in the main area of the observatory will jump to the pathway you are walking through and will be right infront of you. Take him out with a charged wave beam blast followed by another or a missile. You've taken out two pirates so far, but there are still more; telling you where exactly they are is difficult though because I've found that some of them shift to different positions except for one. These other pirates might be at the far end of the room, the end of the room, that had the pirate that you killed first. They also might be on the left or right of a large, somewhat circular object positioned in the middle of the floor below. There are a set steps that can be used to get from the lower floor of the observatory to the door to the Observatory Access; just don't count on any pirates using these steps though. The one that you can always count on to find in one specific area is a pirate standing on a ledge on your left as you get out into the main area of the Observatory. Kill him with the wave-missile or wave-wave strategy I've been telling you to use on all the past pirates. When you kill all the pirates on this floor below, two other pirates from the level high above in this room will come jump straight down to the floor below. They'll more than likely land in the lower floor on the left and right of the large, circular structure in the middle of the lower floor. Take them out as well and try to get to the otherside of the room as you are taking them out. Most of the killing I do of the pirates is at that ledge which acts as an entrance to the main area of this room; so don't try to move around the room because you think you need to do stuff. Infact, when you kill all the pirates, the game will finally activate the room and let you use some of the devices in this room. On the side of the room where the first two pirates we were gunning for were at are some computers with some crates with health and ammo there as well. There is a scan panel somewhere within these computers that you must scan. When you do scan it, two morphball slots will be activated in the room. These morphball slots are slightly elevated from two ledges that protrude from the wall, you can enter these morphball slot by bomb jumping into them when you are on the ledges. The bomb slot will be very close to where you are at, to the left of you after you turn around from scanning the scan panel. When you activate this bomb slot a ledge will pop out from the otherside of the room, from this next ledge you'll bomb jump into the next bomb slot. I want you to go that ledge where the I said a pirate was always guaranteed to be on. From this ledge, you'll jump to another ledge that crawls along this side of the wall slightly above the ledge you are on. The ledge is either or will eventually lead to the bomb slot that you will bomb jump into. When you activate this slot, the spinner devices on the large circular structure in the middle of the room will turn on. Go down to those spinner-devices and use them all to activate some levers that they are connected to. When you use all of the spinner-devices, a cutscene will start showing a capsule from the ceiling lower. The Observatory will also come into full activation as you'll see a large 3-D hologram of Tallon IV's galaxy. In this hologram you can scan the planets and learn about them including about Tallon IV and Planet Zebes from Super Metroid. After the Observatory has come into full activation, go up to the top level of the Observatory by starting at the ledge where I said a pirate is guaranteed to be at and by following the rest of the platforms up. Looking around after you reach the top, you'll see a door with a blast shield on it. This door has a save station behind it, but I don't recommend you go to it. Instead, turn completely around and look for a purple door on the opposite end of the door with the blast shield. This is the door we're heading to, but before that, we are going to grab that object that came down with that capsule. That object is the super missile and is an extremely prized upgrade. To use it, you charge your power beam and fire a missile. When you do a super strong missile will come out do super strong damage on an enemy or object. However, using a super missile costs 5 missiles, so you'll have to make the super missile shots worth it. Head for the purple door with your wave beam activated and charged. West Tower Entrance- When you come through here, you'll be in a traditional tunnel-corridor again. This one is more cramped though as the length of the corridor is shorter, the length of the corridor from one turn to the next is really short, and vertically and horizontally the room is very cramped. There are two scatter bombus, one at the end of the corridor, and one right in front of you when you enter the corridor. After the first turn, which will be a right, you'll encounter two crytallites crawling along the corridor; I hate these guys in this area because they always get in my way. I start off by walking through really simple and nailing the scatter bombu with a charged wave shot. Then when I see the two crystallies, I missile them if I can spare a missile, nail the next bombu with a charged wave beam shot as well and then missile the blast shield on the next door at the end of the tunnel. West Tower- Entering the West Tower, you'll spot a large elevator ahead. To the right of this elevator should be a scan panel that you will scan and that will activate the elevator once scanned. Get in the hologram to take the elevator up and as you go up keep your wave beam on. When you reach the top you'll see a purple door, shoot the door with the wave beam and walk through with your wave beam charged. Control Tower- In this room, all hell will break loose to a greater degree than before. On the otherside of this room there is another door like the one you just came from; in addition to that, the door leads to a tower like the one you also just came from. The first step you take out here, you'll see a stack of crates infront of you on the right and left. Behind the ones on the left are two space pirates. One of the space pirates, the one that is closer to the next door, is also right next to an explosive crate that won't incinerate him, but will light him up so that eventually he'll die from you giving him a few beam rounds or just die after 10 seconds from being inflames. Somewhere behind the crates on your right is another third pirate. I say somewhere because I've never been able to move around the room to exactly get a fix of where exactly he is in the room when we step into the Control Tower the first time. Here is how we are going to approach this: first you are going to run through the middle of those two crates with your power or wave beam charged like as if you are gunning for the door, but immediately as you can catch an eye beyond the stack of crates on your left, you'll make a quick aim at the explosive crate, which will be the very small, cube-like crate with a red marking on it, and fire your charged beam blast at it. By the time the pirates are alerted you should have already fired the shot at the crate. If you nailed it, the room will light up, really light up, and the two pirates, hopefully its two, will be lit on fire. This fire will be engulfing their bodies long after the crate explodes and if you didn't finish them off with weapons fire, as I choose to do many times, than the fire that engulfs them will kill them. If the explosion only caught one pirate than don't worry. Right after you successfully nailed the crate, try to get a lock on one of the two pirates that we were trying to get with the explosion and walk backwards to the right side of this area, side step behind some structure that will give you protection from hostile fire and let go of the lock, make sure you do this quickly. The other pirate should be around here and will come out for you as you are doing this, so when you break that lock with the pirates on the left, quickly get a lock and finish this guy with a wave-wave/missile or power-power/missile combo. If you didn't nail the explosive crate, than quickly try again with a missile this time or jump over the head of the pirate near the explosive crate and do a weapons fire combo. By the time you have killed the pirate on the right, you should know whether or not the other pirate was caught in the explosion. If he wasn't than get out into the open and do him with a weapons fire combo. When I first started playing Prime, I preferred using the Power Beam because of its rate of fire; but now that I'm a veteran who has done dozens of run-throughs, I choose to use the wave beam because it paralyzes the pirates. But in such a frantic fight like this, I can see why noobs might want to stick to the power beam. When you are done with all three of the space pirates, a cutscene will start showing another breed of pirates come out from the skies. These are Flying Pirates and are the most annoying in the entire game. These guys' attacks include beam fire like the kind the space pirates use except these guys have green beams, missiles which take out some decent damage, and a suicide attack where, if you killed them using a power-power/missile combo or wave-wave/missile combo instead of blowing them up with a super missile, they'll make a nose-dive right at you and blow up which gives you super nasty damage. The thing that sucks more than anything about the missiles though is the confusion they cause. The flying pirates like to fire more than two at once, believe it or not this kind of stuff blinds. When the missiles hit they do a blinding on you, but the most annoying thing is the way they knock you back. That drives me nuts. When the cutscene introducing the flying pirates ends, I'm already starting a charged power beam shot. I then move to the middle of the central tower and aim manually at the skies looking for the flying pirates. I don't use my radar though because the environment blinds your view of the radar. So I just quickly aim for the right and left side of this area and lock onto a flying pirate. When I get a lock, I fire a supermissile, if I can spare the missiles, at the flying pirate and then do the same for the next guy. If you can't spare the missiles, than fire power-power and power-missile combos. The wave beam doesn't stun these guys long enough to warrant its use; plus its quicker to follow up a missile after a charged power beam shot and then go back to your power beam than it is to do that with your wave beam. When the first two are taken out, I like to jump on top of one of the stacked crates by using the edges of the crates as landing/jumping spots on the crates and from the top of the stack I can get an early aim at the incoming flying pirates. If you don't have any stacks of crates because of all the hell the flying pirates caused or just can't get on top of them in time, then go to the structure that is above either one of the doors in this area. Above the doors is a space that you can actually jump on and use as standing space. There is also a sort-of cubby above this standing space as well, but I choose not to use is since the pirates usually fire their missiles pretty accurately inside while you can't get any accurate shots at them. If you want to use that cubby, than just stand in the open space that acts as a doorway into the cubby but don't get inside of it. You see, if you stick to the ground floor where you fought space pirates earlier, than you'll be vulnerable because the flying pirates will be overhead. The crates don't protect from their missiles, which often penetrate the crates and come to you. So its better to get to a higher level where you can get accurate shots at them. Their are 5 flying pirates in total, the first two that you took out, than a second two, and then only one left. Usually, when I'm sloppy and take my sweet time, the final flying pirate comes in as I'm looking for a way to take out the second two, so I have to fight three! When you are done, the locks on the doors will be removed, after that you can proceed to the next door, the door to the East Tower. 5 bucks says you go through the wrong door... East Tower- Entering the tower, look for a quick scan panel on your left or right near the entrance of the room. A hologram will open up in the middle of a platform infront of you. Jump into this hologram to take an elevator down. When the elevator hits the bottom, turn around and look for a door and go through it. Aether Lab Entryway- This entryway is another one of those cramped tunnel-corridors that I'll recommend you boost through. There are some bombus in here and boosting through to the next door is recommended. Research Lab Aether-missile expansion, energy tank -------------------------------------------------- When you step out here, you'll be in another lab that is remakably similar to the Research Lay Hydra. The floor levels are arranged the same with 4 floors going up vertically and each stacked upon each other. Right now though, you are in the top floor of this Lab and this part of the Lab is encased like a capsule. There is no walkway that will take you from the fourth to the third floor, but a way will be provided shortly. The third level has computers on it with pirates operating them, the second level has one pirate in a fixed place and the lowest level has two pirates in the room on opposite ends of the room from each other, one of these pirates is sitting below the pirate on the walkway in the second level. When you enter the main area of the fourth level a cutscene will start when you approach a capsule in this room. It'll show that a Metroid is in this capsule and this should give you a signal that metroids will play a part in this game as they have in the past titles; oddly enough though, these Metroids are much smaller than the ones in the past Metroid titles. To open up the new pathway to the third level, you have to get that metroid out of the capsule and kill it. You have two options to get it out, you can missile the capsule to break it, which I prefer, or you scan the metroid. When you do either of those two, he'll break out and within a few seconds make his move to attack you. For those of you unfamiliar with Metroid attacks, their attacks are simply to fly right at you and latch onto you with their teeth and suck your energy dry. In order to break free from this attack, you have to enter your morphball and lay a bomb to break them off you. In order to kill them you have to fire 2 or 3 charged power beam or wave beam blasts, you can also use what I prefer, a super missile. If you shoot him with the charged wave or power beam shots, you'll notice that he gets temporarily stunned and than quickly grows in size. Metroids live off of energy and thats what they were trying to suck out when they tried to latch onto you with their teeth. When that metroid is dead, you'll hear some battle cries from space pirates below. A pirate from the third level will jump through one of the windows into the level you are on and start his attack. I recommend that you use a wave-wave/missile combo on him and the rest of the pirates we are going to confront. When you kill him, go to the window he broke through and look down at the third floor. A second pirate that is on that level will do one of two things, he'll either stay on that third floor and start shooting at you or he'll run down to the second level of this floor, the walkway. If hes still on the third level, than give him a wave-wave/missile combo from the fourth floor, if not than jump down to the second level, yes the second since its just right below the window when you step out of it, and take him out. At the end of the walkway at the second level is another pirate. Sometimes, after you jump down to the walkway on the second level, he'll be aware of your presence and will start firing at you from where he's at. How he becomes alerted to your presence really depends on if you had to take out the pirate that was on the third level, on the walkway, he shouldn't be alerted to your presence by you just jumping down to the walkway though. But the pirates on the lowest level of this lab might be alerted to your presence and they alone might start taking shots at you. Whatever the case, once you jump down to the second level, activate your scan visor and look for a scan panel that is below the pirate standing on the end of the walkway on the second level. If you need a reference than jump out the window but do it in a fashion that you fall straight down to the walkway below the window, don't do a forward jump. When you land, you'll be facing the direction of the pirate on the end of the walkway. Try to back up against the wall on your left and look down to the floor below the pirate on the walkway for the scan panel. You can scan it from right there, doing this will activate an elevator taking you from the first to the second level. When you do that, regardless of whether or not the pirates on the first floor are firing at you, aim down to your feet and charge a wave beam shot. Than use a wave-wave/missile combo on the pirate that is on the walkway. If you take out the pirate on the lowest floor that is right below the pirate at the end of the walkway, then the pirate at the end of the walkway will be alerted and will have an easy shot at you. After you kill the pirate on the walkway, the pirates on the lowest floor, especially the one that is directly below the pirate on the second level, will be alerted to your presence but their weapon fire will have a little harder time hitting you since there are obstacles in between the both of you, like the part of the walkway the pirate is on and your level of elevation. The other pirate on the lowest floor that is on the otherside of the room will have a hard time nailing you with shots. When you kill the pirate at the end of the walkway, move further along the wall to the side of the room where the pirates are at, but don't jump down to the floor below. Try to find a spot along the walkway where you can find an opening to shoot the pirate on the lower level and quickly back up to evade his weapon-fire; remember the pirate that we are aiming for while doing this is the pirate that was below the pirate on the walkway. While you are doing this to take out the pirate on the floor below the walkway, the pirate that is on the opposite side of the room will try to shoot you. He might get a few hits on you, but not very many as he will not move very far from the capsules on his side of the room. His side of the room, is chock-full of capsules, some containing metroids, that he will foolishly get behind and shoot you from. The problem is that these capsules block his weapon-fire and yours. So don't worry about that pirate and just finish the pirate under the walkway and then take out the pirate on the otherside of the room. The last pirate on this side of the room should only be taken out with the wave beam and not a missile; but he might get himself so withdrawn into those capsules that you can't get any shots on him so just move up and down the walkway to get a shot or fire a missile at a capsule that you are sure doesn't have a metroid in it. To make sure, pull out your scan visor and scan the capsule in question. If it does got a metroid in it, then keeping navigating around the walkway to get some shots in on him. When you finally kill him, look up at the window the first pirate you took out came through. Somewhere below this window is a thin ledge that can be used to navigate around the ceiling of this room; there are actually two ceilings in this room: one that is much higher and lies above the third level of this room, and then there is the much lower one that lies above the lowest level of this room. The one that is above the lowest level of this room is the one we are using and it has the ledgeway under it. Once you spot this ledgeway, jump right onto the begining of it which lies against the wall its connected to. When you are on it, turn so that you can face the missile expansion that is plugged into the wall on the otherside of the room. When you see it, get in your morphball and start following the ledge to this missile expansion. Your view will draw in so that you can watch your navigation around the ledge so all you have to worry about is just navigating through the ledge without falling down. If you fall down, than get back up on that ledge via the walkway/second level and try again. When you are finished, or if you had fallen on your first try, missile a capsule that is stuck to a wall near some computers. An energy tank is inside it and you can go and grab it. After you've got those two items, look for a door carved into the floor. You can find it on this level by accessing your map and getting in the right direction to it. There are some crates blocking it, so feel free to destroy them and jump down through this door into the next room with your wave beam fully charged. Whew, this one was long! Usually I blaze through here really quick, but I follow the complex strategy of killing pirates in that certain order to get through this room really quick. Research Core Access- When you hit the ground an ice version of the beetle, simply called the ice beetle, will pop out of the ground. He'll rush you within seconds of popping out so make sure you kill him quickly with that charged beam shot you had ready and then charge another shot. When you proceed to the next door, another ice beetle will pop out of the ground, take him out with the charged wave beam shot and then shoot the door to open it. Before you proceed through, charge you wave beam, but make sure you do a concealed charge so as not to alert the pirate in the next room. With your wave beam charged and the door open, you are going to lock onto the pirate in the next room. This pirate is very visible and not that hard to identify, so lock on to him and then fire the charged wave beam on him and walk through the door. Research Core-Thermal Visor --------------------------- When you enter the door quickly fire a missile or another charged wave beam at him, then switch to your power beam. After that we're going to have to figure out what are strategy is for this room. You have two choices, you can go in here like a maniac, like I do it these days or you can do this slow. First the slow way, but before that a description of the room. The Research Core is a very large vertical room, most of the largess of this room is vertical, but there is plenty of lateral space. The room is littered with walkways that snake around the main/inner area of the Research Core which some of us might refer to as the "pit". The walkways act as identifiable floors or levels of the room since going up the room is such a huge hassle and only attainable by using these walkways. At the bottom of the pit are a set of computers encircling a capsule in the middle of the floor. Around the walls of the floor are two gun turrets which keep vigil of the floor and the walkway above the lowest floor to an appreciable degree. The floor/level/walkway, please get used to me substituting these terms for each other, above the lowest floor also has a set of computers on a given space along the walkway. Somewhere between the second to the lowest floor are two flying pirates. At the top there are a set of computers, the ones the pirate you killed was at, along the walkway. Here is the slow way of tackling this room: after killing the pirate at the computers, run to the railing that keeps you from falling down into the pit and manually aim down. Try to look for one of the flying pirates down at the bottom and get a lock on him. When you get the lock, quickly fire a super missile or a power-power/missile combo to kill him. In order to get the lock you'll more than likely have to jump up on top of the railing, but try not to fall down. After killing the first flying pirate, get a quick charge on your power beam and ready another power-power/missile combo to use on the next flying pirate who will fly up really fast to greet you. After you are done, go to the computers where the first pirate you killed was at and scan a red-scan computer that once scanned will lower one of three force-field around a capsule at the bottom. Once that is done, use a walkway leading down to a floor below, its sort of behind the computers with the scan you just used. Follow the walkway down and if there are any gun turrets I didn't identify in this guide, than don't worry and just casually tap left or right to evade their fire. Of course destroy them if they are there, and then continue to use the walkway down until you meet the floor with the set of computers with the next scan. Don't worry about knowing which one is the second computer you got to look for since the second one is just one floor above the lowest floor of the Reseach Core. When you get to this floor scan the red-scan computer to deactivate a second force-field; take care to avoid the weapon fire from the gun turrets on the lowest floor as you do this since they can get a good shot as you are making your scan. When you get that scan, look for the turrets and take both of them out with a power-power/missile combo. One of them is on your left if you are facing the computer that has the scan you want to make on the second to the lowest floor. Meanwhile the other one is on the otherside of the room from the computers you are scanning. When you nail them both, jump down to the bottom and look for a computer with a red-scan block. There might be more than one so just continue scanning all the red-scan blocks you see. When you find and scan the scan block, the last force-field will come down and the item that was concealed from you by the force-field will be yours to take. Grab it and you'll receive the Thermal Visor. The thermal visor is a great upgrade with lots of really cool stuff. First off, this is your night vision in a dark area and with it you can scan any weak spots an enemy might have if they could only be seen with the thermal visor. The coolest thing about the thermal visor is the color-spectrum it has and the noise it makes when you use it. It gives its use a Predator like feel to the gameplay which you will no doubt love and has that noise that makes everything feel really intense and like you are using a real-deal piece of hardware. Now my way, aka the maniac way. Heres what I do, I kill the pirate as planned, but after that I skip the flying pirates and quickly head for the computers on this floor. Than I jump down from walkway to walkway until I get to the next set of computers with the scan. If you didn't understand me jumping than let me explain it to you. What I do is jump into the pit and jump backwards into the next walkway below; this is a great way at cutting time. When I get the second scan, I jump down to the floor below, ignoring the fact that the gun turrets are there and firing at me and quickly get the next scan for the scan panel. When I get it, the next strategy starts. My way requires a little bleeding, but it gives a rush and gets you through this part of the area really fast. The thing that sucks though is that you have to contend with the alot more stuff plus the flying pirates you didn't kill. Okay now we have to get back up to the Research Core Access. But after you get the thermal visor, the door to the Research Core Access will power down along with the lights in the room and two shadow pirates will fall straight down from the ceiling to get you. Turn on your thermal visor. You can either take them out here using a wave-wave/missile combo or you can ignore them and head for the walkway to get yourself back up to the top (quick warning though, they will follow you to the top), the choice is yours. Whatever your choice, you are going to take the walkway up since its the only way you can get to the top and you are going to do this quickly since Metroids will burst from the walls of the "pit" and come right after you. I don't advise doing anything to the Metroids though, no matter what the strategy. When you reach the top and see the door, look to the right of it for a glowing rune or shape. Shoot that rune or shape with your wave beam until it lights up and the door reactivates. After you get the thermal visor and are allowed to move again, turn on your thermal visor and head for the walkway that'll lead you up. The flying pirates will either be with you on the floor or quickly approaching your level, the two shadow pirates will also come down. When you reach the walkway and are about to "walk it up", space jump up onto it. Believe it or not it can be done since a ledge of the walkway sticks out into the pit and from the floor you are on, you can actually space jump up to it as I always do. You will do this with all the walkways as you make your way up and will ignore the pirates and metroids that try to come at you. Just take their missiles if they come at you and if a metroid gets you, then just get in your morphball and bomb that metroid off of you. When you get to the top, the place will be crawling with Metroids, but shoot the rune next to the door and walk through it with your wave beam charged. Man was that crazy wasn't it!? Research Core Access- When you get back through here, there will be two robots patrolling the access called Sentry Drones. If they become alerted to your presence once you are inside the room, the sentry drones will lock down both the doors in this room so that you can't escape. Their attacks are short bursts of machine-gun type fire that are kind of pathetic when you compare them to the gun turrets. Their other attack, which can be registered as a defense as well, is the ability to screw up your visor. The closer you to get these drones, the more your visor will become scrambled and filled with static. To kill them, use the charged wave beam blast you walked into the room with on one of the drones. These drones will go down quick with one charged wave beam blast, but if you shoot them with any other type of weapon, they'll spin around violently in place and blow up sending out an electromagnetic field that will disrupt your visor even more so. If you are really close to the drone when he blows up like this, the visor will tune out like a tv with no cable signal and after a while will reboot. That doesn't cause any damage to you, but it does make you vulnerable if there are other enemies, like a pirate or another sentry drone in the area. I love watching my visor tune out and then reboot back up for some reason though. But remember to use the wave beam if you want to prevent that from happening since electricity is there weakness. When you are done, go up into the door to get to the Research Lab Aether with your thermal visor on. Research Lab Aether- Alright, now we are back in this room but this room is going to have some significant changes. First off the room is pitch black, there are shadow pirates littered throughout the 3 lowest levels of this room. The lowest level has a gun turret hanging from the wall on the opposite side of the room where the computers are at. Thee highest level of this room has a gun turret in the corner of the room where you found the metroid the first time you came here. I really do prefer my way since taking out the pirates and evading attacks from the gun turret are both annoying. But if you don't want to do something you are unsure about than we can do that as well. First a noob strategy and then mine. I want you to immediately run to your right and hide somewhere in between the capsules. A pirate will come down from the ceiling above but you will take him out with a wave-wave combo, don't use any missiles in here. When hes down another one or two pirates might come down, so look out for that and take them out if they do come down, take them out with a wave-wave combo as well. You shouldn't have to fight more than three pirates on this floor. I say taking out the gun turret from the capsules you are hiding within is the best strategy so take out the gun turret with your power beam. Trying looking up at the walkway above for a few more pirates that should be hiding on the second level above. Take them out with wave-wave combos, don't worry about them jumping down to your level, and then go up the elevator. When you are on the second walkway, a pirate may fall from the ceiling to get you or might not. Either way, take him out, if he does appear, use a wave-wave combo and look out for a pirate that'll come down the walkway from the third level. Take him out with a wave-wave combo and then get up to the third level. When you are at the third level, face the window that the pirate broke through the first time you came here. In the corner of the fourth level is a gun turret that you might want to take out with the power beam. When you take him out, space jump to the fourth level of this lab and get to the door to the Aether Lab Entryway. My way isn't for the faint of heart. What I like to do is just immediately gun for the elevator to get up to the walkway on the second level. It'll be on your left when you enter the lab so it'll be real quick. As the elevator is taking me up, I like to ignore the gun turret firing at me from the lowest level and space jump onto a part of the walkway that has some distance between it and the elevator. You see the thing is that a pirate is dangling from the ceiling and when he drops down, he'll drop down right next to you when that elevator takes you up to that walkway. So me jumping from the elevator to the walkway as the elevator is taking me up is a great way at avoiding that danger. However, when you do that, you shortcut yourself to the next danger, a pirate coming down from the another part of the ceiling onto the walkway, most of the time right infront of you. I just space jump right over him and the pirate that comes down the walkway from the third level. When I get to the third level, I jump straight through the window without care for the gun turret and immediately gun for the door. Throughout this whole ordeal, I'll be space jumping over space pirates and to the next part of my path, and space pirates will be right on my tail. The space pirates that are in, or came down to, the lowest level of the lab will not jump up to either the third or second levels. The pirates that you encountered on the second and third levels will also not jump up to the fourth level as you make your way up there, but will be on your tail while you are making your way up to the third level. Aether Lab Entryway- Stepping in here, again the corridor will be filled with the scatter bombus, but will also be dark. So you can make your choice to either kill each of the bombus with your wave beam or boost ball to the next door. East Tower- When you step in here, go to the hologram and take the elevator up. When you reach the top and open the door to get back out into the Control Tower, look at the door on the otherside of area. Shoot that door with the wave beam to open it and quickly get into your morphball as you go through the door. Control Tower- When you come inside here, you should be in your morphball boosting through to the other door quickly. When I'm about to reach the door, I exit morphball mode, shoot the door, and get through it. There were flying pirates in the Control Tower waiting for you to step out here, so by doing this you can avoid a real hassle. West Tower- Roll into the hologram and go ahead and exit your morphball. West Tower Entrance- There shouldn't be any crystallites or bombus on your way back here, so just boost through. Observatory- When you step out here, this room will also be dark, not as dark as the Research Lab Aether, but pretty dark. There are two pirates at the bottom of the room. Here is what you do, you jump down and a little bit forward, and then you are going to jump backwards so that you can land in the entrance of this room from the Observatory Access. This might be a little difficult for you noobs, so if you want you can activate your thermal visor and charge your wave beam and do wave-wave/missile combo on the pirates below. The pirates below will try to shoot you, but you can easily avoid it by locking onto them at the ledge and retracting and popping out into the ledge when they shoot you and when you can get a shot. That way is slow though, so do it the way I recommended. As you are going through the door to the Observatory Access, switch off your thermal visor and have your wave beam charged. Observatory Access- There are two sentry drones in this room, far away from the door you just came from. You can walk into this room and nail one without alerting the other drone. So try to kill one from the entrance you came from and then do a concealed charge of your wave beam to nail the next one. Then jump down through the door into the next room. Research Lab Hydra-missile expansion ------------------------------------ Alot of things in this room will change when you come back. First the lab will be pitch dark like Research Lab Aether. The gun turret at the fourt level of this room will still be at the same place but there will be shadow pirates in this room this time and they will be in different places of the lab than the pirates before. Pirates will be positioned at the third, second, and lowest levels of this lab. On the third level, they will be positioned at the corner above the walkway connecting the third and second level. Remember the first time we came here? A pirate was at a corner on the third level right next to some explosive crates that incinerated him when you shot them. Well above this position, hanging in the ceiling should be another pirate. There might be one more pirate at the second level of the lab, but for sure there are 3 pirates on the lowest floor of this lab. There are also two metroids in capsules in this lab. One of the metroids is at the top/fourth floor, where you are at, and the other is at the lowest floor. I'm only going to give you one strategy since its the safest and fastest. First, once you come down into the lab, a gun turret will immediately start up and begin firing at you. Turn around until you see the gun turret that is firing at you and take it out with power-power/missile combo. Than proceed to the capsules on the fourth level; Shoot a super missile at the capsule on this floor that doesn't have a metroid in it to reveal a missile expansion. Grab the missile expansion and from the fourth level, jump down to the second level of this lab. When you land on the walkway, which is the second level for those of you who don't remember, jump down to the lowest floor on the side of the walkway that would lead you directly to the door on the lowest level. You can start up your map and examine the room you are in to determine which direction you are facing and in which direction the door to the Hydra Lab Entryway is. When you hit the lowest floor, run for the door. An interesting sidenote for the guide readers, the metroids that are in the capsules will sometimes attack and kill the pirates in this lab. It doesn't happen always, so you might not want to try it, but when I break the capsules that are holding the metroids, they come out and start killing the pirates using there sucking attacks. The pirates swing their scythes at them, but it does no damage to the metroids. Its hilarious to watch if you get the chance to see it, which you will eventually. Hydra Lab Entryway- Another tunnel-corridor, boost through the corridor, but when you start getting your first sights of the door to the Research Entrance, exit your morphball. You should exit your morphball at the first step you make outside of the pipe where the bombus were rolling around in. Shoot the door with your wave beam, then switch to your power beam and charge it. Activate your thermal visor and get closer to the door until it opens and you can see a space pirate inside. Then start walking through the door and fire a super missile if you can. Research Entrance- Run straight through the path the pirate you killed was in and space jump forward to the walkway below and ahead. From the walkway I want you to space jump to the door to the Specimen Storage and to go through it; if you don't make the walkway than just run to the door to the specimen storage anyway. Now we've saved ourselves alot of time. Usually what I do these days is just rush through the Hydra Lab Entryway and Research Entrance without firing at anything. As soon as I walk into this room, I go to the right ignoring whatever attacks the gun turrett or shadow pirate give me and then jump straight down to the walkway and then to the door to the Specimen Storage. Specimen Storage- Boost through this room to the door to the Ruined Courtyard to save yourself some time. Ruined Courtyard- When you step out here I want you to make sure you have at least 5 missiles. Then I want you to get out onto that flat top that is the highest level of the Courtyard. On your right will be that door that isn't on and can't be used, go up to it and look above the door for a bronze/brown cap. You can scan it to identify it as an object that can be broken with a super missile. Use a super missile on this cap, if you don't got missiles than destroy some of the crates for missiles. If the crates don't give you missiles, than go ahead and go to the save station. If you could destroy that cap, than turn on your thermal visor and look at that cap with the thermal visor. You should see a glowing rune that you will shoot with your wave beam. After you shoot it with your wave beam, the door will get activated. You'll know the door is activated if it has that blue outline on it. After you activate the door, I want you to destroy whatever crates are on the platforms of this elevation to get some ammo and then I want you to go to the door to the save station. Save Station A*- { F.5 } Enter the door and save your game. I advise you quit the game, get back to the menu or take a break from playing since we are going to do quite a bit after this save. Check your time at the main menu and compare it to 51 min, thats my time when I've gotten this far. Exit this room when you are ready to continue. Ruined Courtyard- Stepping out here, I want you to immediately head for the door that we activated with the wave beam not too long ago. Head through the door. Quarantine Access- When you step inside here, be immediately aware of two pulse bombus patrolling the area. Navigate around them and don't try to bother with them, just get to the door. North Quarantine Tunnel- When you get in this next area, a morphball tunnel will be in the corner of the floor. Get in your morphball and go through the tunnel. The view will imediately pan back to something between a 2-D and 3-D view. But just keep boosting up through the tunnel and get through the door when you reach it. {Quarantine Cave-spider ball} --------------------------- You'll be in the entrance of the Quarantine Cave that leads to the main part of the area. As you approach the main area, you'll see a large pile of rocks in the middle of the room. Activate your thermal visor, switch to your power beam, and jump down into the main part of the Quarantine Cave. As you are going to hit the ground a cutscene will start introducing you to Thardus, the boss of the Phendrana Drifts. This guy's difficulty I would rank as slightly above Flagghra. His attacks are taking a nice big swipe at you with him arm if you are close enough, pounding the ground and sending a wave of ice that will freeze you solid if hits you, summoning rocks from the ground and throwing them at you, and rolling into a ball and rolling around the room to try and squish you. The last attack, the attack that has him rolling around, starts out with him trying to flatten you, but after he makes that initial straight roll forward, he'll make a turn to more than likely his right, a few times his left, and from there will roll around randomly in the arena. Heres the strategy: your thermal visor will be on and the match will start with you quickly charging up a power beam shot and looking at Thardus' leg or foot as he shows himself off to you. While he's doing this, take a look at that bright yellow or orange part of his leg; lock on to it and fire a super missile at it. The rocky shell around that part of his leg will be blown off and the core of Thardus' body will be exposed on that part of his body that you just shot. This will disrupt your thermal visor in a horrific way by creating an intense heat signature that blinds you as you have your thermal visor on, so switch it off quickly and get a lock on Thardus' leg. The lock you get on him will get you the lock on his part of the leg that is exposing his core. From there you are going to start firing charged power beam shots, do not use the wave beam, missiles or super missiles after you blast his leg with a super missile to expose his it. While you are doing this, he'll randomly do one of three attacks on you. He might do his favorite attack, the ice wave attack, summon rocks which is his second favorite but will do it more likely if you get too far away from him, or he might take a big swipe at you with his arm if you are close enough. I recommend you circle him throughout the entire match since he will stay in one place as you take him out. But when he leans backwards and has his arm up in there, you space jump up or you double dash-jump to your side to avoid the ice-wave attack, I recommend the space jump although you can use one jump if you time it right. If he sends his rocks out at you, then lock onto those rocks and fire regular, not charged, power beam rounds at those rocks to destroy them. Don't panic and use missiles on them. His big swipe attack will come real quick so just make sure you keep some distance, not too much distance, but reasonable distance between you and him. After you destroy the part of his body that you had exposed, he'll stagger back and regain his ground; as he is doing this, quickly switch your thermal visor on, charge your power beam, lock onto the part of his body that is glowing bright yellow or orange and fire a super missile at it. When he regains his footing, he'll start to turn into a ball and will roll completely forward. When you fire that super missile to expose his body, quickly get in your morphball and boost ball to your left or right, and then boost ball straight forward. Choosing which way to boost when you are going to boost left or right really depens upon which side has more space for you to move around in and how much you know you won't be backed up against the wall. This quick boost is meant so that you get straight behind him as he is going to roll down you. Lets say he's going to roll forward and the right side is the side that you have a pretty good feeling has alot of space to move around in, than you quickly boost to your right and then you'll boost to your left. If you are unsure about which direction to pick, then pick any direction since any direction is better than no direction. The strategy I've laid out for you to avoid his rolling attack is tried and tested to avoid getting hurt by it. So just remember, when he starts to get into his rolling attack, get in your morphball and boost to the left or right and then in a direction perpendicular to the first direction you boosted in. After you've made the two boosts to get behind him as he rolls at you, exit your morphball, look around for him and fire power beam shots, regular and charged at him to sneak some damage on him. If he comes rolling at you as you are shooting at him, then just move to your left or right, but don't get in your morphball and boost out of his way. Exiting the morphball as he is still rolling around the arena is meant so that you can keep in eye on him and take his exposed body part out as he rolls around and exits his ball form. After he loses about 40% damage, he'll stay in one place, close himself shut and flood the entire room in a blinding mist that makes you have to use the thermal visor as this mist is present. As he is creating that mist, you should charge another power beam shot, switch on your thermal visor and get ready to lock onto the weakspot that is that glowing part of his body. When you can get that lock, fire a super missile and repeat the strategy I explained. The heavy mist he created complicates the match though. So when you expose his next weakspot, you will have to get rid of your thermal visor even if you can't see him with the mist. So just switch off your thermal visor as normal and get close enough to him so that you can see and take him out. When he rolls into the morphball and you were successful in exposing his weakspot, then you'll do the strategy of avoiding his rolling attack as usual. But when you are behind him this time, whip out your scan visor. The scan visor will try to lock onto him and you'll see the targeting reticule move and follow him, even though you can't see him because of the mist. Use that movement of the scan targeting reticule to know where he is going. Its a great way to keep track of this guy as he is rolling in the morphball in the mist. If you are doing a scan-run of the game, this is also another great time to scan him as you will have the space and safety needed to scan him while this whole thing is going on. When he has lost 70 to 80% of his health, he'll stop, close himself shut again and suck in all the mist he created. From then on his only weakspot will be his chest/torso. Do the process of exposing and destroying his weakspot, but keep in mind that this weakspot will require two super missiles to expose, or if you can't spare it one more super missile and one or two charged power beam shots. After that he'll die and you'll be granted the spider ball along with some health and ammo. The spider ball lets you travel up magnetic tracks littered throughout the game by pressing "R" when you are near these tracks. The game forces you to use the spider ball in order to exit this room, so look for the spider tracks in this room. Its yellow, pegged and riding along the walls of this room. One of them will lead you to the next door. Telling you which one it is will be hard so I'll say that its the spider track that is connected to a bronze/copper/brown structure and that you must bomb jump onto to be able to latch onto it since its raised off the ground a bit. Follow this track up to the ceiling, you'll reach a dead end and you won't be able to get onto the track that is on the ceiling unless you lay a bomb to bomb jump yourself up to that ceiling. When you are on the track that is on the ceiling, follow the track left to the next door. The door will be on a ledge high above the arena where you and Thardus fought, but the track will follow just above this ledge. When you get to the door, go through it and get in your morphball once more as you enter the next area. South Quarantine Tunnel- Roll through the morphball tunnel in the corner of the floor and boost straight through it like the North Quarantine Tunnel. Transport to Magmoor Caverns South- Scan the hologram on your right. At the other end of the room is a spider ball track but don't use it yet since you can't get past the door. Just step in the hologram to get yourself to the Magmoor Caverns. =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Phendrana Drifts South- Wave beam the door and go through it with your morphball. Transport Tunnel C- This is a tunnel-corridor with flamethrowers on the ceiling from the door you used to the next. I say you should just boost ball straight to the next door to get it over with and get past with as little scratches as possible. When you get to the door exit morphball mode, shoot the door to open it, but don't go through instead, do a concealed charge with your power beam or your wave beam. Choosing which beam depends on the strategy you want to go with in the next room, so look at what I got for the next room and make your decision about this place before you go in. Magmoor Workstation-energy tank ------------------------------- Alright there are three flying pirates in this place, thats right three. Three times the missiles, three times the beam fire, three times the suicidie attacks that do vicious damage. If you want to do this slow than pick your wave beam. Or you can go with your power beam as I suggest now. There will be a flying pirate on the steps on your immediate right when you step out the door, two other flying pirates will be on the bottom part of the room below. Walk through the door and supermissile the pirate that is on the steps on your right, than quickly charge your power beam again and jump down to the floor below. There will be a rock structure sort of on the right that forms a sort of twin set of pillars or stalagmites/stalactites, when you hit the floor run and space jump behind those rocks and get a quick lock on the next pirate you see. When you get that lock on the pirate, fire a super missile at him as well. If it moves onto you and has a free shot than space jump over that rock formation and run to the steps to get another open shot and from there fire at him as well. The steps that the first pirate you killed was on, behind that rock formation, and somewhere on that caged floor are the best places to kill those flying pirates. I recommend that when you move from each of these places to the next in order to kill one of these guys, that you jump along the way as well so that you can avoid the blast radius of their missiles. When you are done with them, then look for some doors on this level of the room. There are three of these doors, each lit up with a colored light, one is green, blue, and purple. Go up to each of these door and look to the doors left for what looks like a vent, if you switch on your thermal visor, you'll see that its actually another one of these runes that powers up a generator when you shoot each of them with your wave beam. Shoot all three of them with your wave beam and then look for a piece of floor next to the lava pools in this room. This piece of floor is also very close to the steps where you killed the first pirate here, and when you get inside of it, you'll find a morphball tunnel in the corner of the floor. Get in the tunnel and you'll be panned back to something between a 2-D and 3-D perspective. There will be two triclopses in the main junction area of this tunnel, but everytime you pass through here, you should casually lay three bombs so that they can take the bombs and die. You'll want to take the tunnel on your left and go through it. Roll through the tunnel and at the end you'll find a room with a blue screen on the otherside of the room. Scan the blue screen and a cutscene will start showing a lava pool getting cooled in another tunnel. A timer will start so you should immediately get out of this area and get back to the main junction where the triclopses are at. If you take your sweet time from the one tunnel to the next after you scanned that first blue screen, than the lava that was cooled will be reheated and will be able to do you damage again, so don't take your sweet time. Exiting the tunnel, immediately head north and take a quick right for the next tunnel. Follow that tunnel to the end and scan the next blue screen you see, than exit this room and get back to the main junction area and head for the last tunnel on your right. Remember that if there are still triclopses around here than you should lay some morphball bombs for them. At the end of the tunnel will be an energy tank sitting on top of an elevated step. Exit your morphball and grab it and then exit this room and the rest of the tunnel. Sometimes, I wait and let the timer end before grabbing the energy tank so that the lava can be reheated and liquified, but then I grab the energy tank and then the lava is cooled so I can navigate through it. I know its stupid. When you exit this morphball tunnel maze, head for some steps behind that rock formation we used when were fighting the flying pirates. The steps are to the left of the door where the energy tank was at and lead to the next door, so go through it. Alot of times, I don't even bother killing the flying pirates, I just jump down like a maniac and start lighting up those vents with the wave beam to start the generator. In order to avoid the pirate fire, I just jump up and down on my way to each area. Then I commence the puzzle. When I'm in the morphball portion, I just keep moving as much as possible. The pirate weapons will penetrate through the grating and hurt you, so I just keep moving. Beats the hell out of wasting my time killing the pirates... South Core Tunnel- The South Core Tunnel is just like the Lake Tunnel here in Magmoor. Except there are two flamethrowers in one fixed place where the lava pool is at. The lava pool also features a Puddle Spore, a lava clam that opens its mouth and then spits out lava bubbles. On the otherside of the pool is a burrower. What you want to do when you enter this room is switch on your wave beam to open the next door and fire a regular or charged shot at the puddle spore when he opens his mouth. When the shot hits his mouth, he'll close shut and flip over on his side and turn himself into a makeshift lily-pad for you. Use him to get across the lava pool, don't time your jump to the otherside of the lava pool by whether or not you are going to get hit by the flamethrowers, just get to the otherside. Nail the burrower when he comes out and get through the door. Geothermal Core- You'll be inside of a very large room with a huge lake of lava. In the middle of the lava are several pillars that reach way up into the ceiling. There are some puddle spores and platforms that you can use to get to the otherside of the room. You can either use the puddle spores, which is the slow way, or you can space jump as I do to the platforms that are sticking out next to the puddle spores. Choice is yours. When you've figured out how to space out your space jumps, you won't ever bother with the puddle spores here, you'll just jump from lily-pad to lily-pad. Northcore Tunnel- In here there will be a pool of lava separating you from the next door. In this pool of lava is a magmoor and above the magmoor is a stalactite that when missiled will fall straight down killing the magmoor and making you a new permanent step to get across the lava pool. For those of you who don't remember what a stalactite is, its a rock formation that is shaped like an upside down cone. So missile the base at which the stalactite is connected to the ceiling and use it to get across the lava pool and to the next door. Twin Fires- This area will be very much in the mold of the Lava Lake. Its a two part room with your navigation through the first part, being similar to the navigation you had to make in the first part of the Lava Lake. In the middle of the first part of the Twin Fires room is a central pillar alot like the one in the Lava Lake, except you can't blow off a piece of this pillar with any weapons, infact you won't have any direct interaction with it at all. On your left is the shore that will lead to the next area of the Twin Fires. Coiling along the pillar's right is a path that will be put to use via some stalactites and platforms protruding from the wall. There is a quick way to get through here, and then there is the longer way to get through here that I never use. First the longerway, missile the stalactite that is on the ceiling to the right of that central pillar. Get on the platform created by the fallen stalactite and use it to get across the platforms that are protruding from the right. At the end of the second platform protruding from the wall, you are going to look up at the ceiling for a second stalactite. Missile it to bring it down and use the platform it creates for you to jump to the shore on the otherside of the room. Within the shore there will be a space you can walk through, but that has its walls lined with flamethrowers. I like to just walk through them since its just a quick burn that doesn't cost much, but you can morphball under the flamethrowers. When you are in the second area of the Twin Fires, you'll see another pillar on your left, a stalactite dangling on the ceiling above the lava pool, a magmoor poking its head right under the stalactite, and a door on the otherside of the room. Missile the stalactite to kill the magmoor and have another platform to use to get to the next door. To do it fast, I just space jump as far as I can to the other shore, and yes land in the lava, and then jump back out onto the shore. Then I walk through the flamethrowers and space jump as far as I can to the ledge that'll lead to the next door, I'll land in the lava, again, but when I land in the lava I try to jump out as quickly as possible. I've found that the best spot to land in so that you are assured that you won't have a hard time getting out of the lava will be to land on the left of the ledge, your left of course. But in reality any spot is fine and don't panic if you do this and you have a hard time getting out of the lava because you feel its sucking you in, just jump out as best as you can. On a sidenote, I've found that in the second area, if you position yourself somewhere in the room so that you can missile the stalactite without having the magmoor pop out of the lava, then the stalactite will come down but it won't kill the magmoor, or it might, but either way a magmoor will pop out right infront of the ledge to the door to the Twin Fires Tunnel if you can do this. When you get to the ledge, you'll find more flamethrowers except this time they seem to be coverying all the possible angles. I advise you to just walkthrough them and ignore the damage they do, when you play this game a second time after beating it, then you can choose to walkthrough or get in your morphball to time the strategy of what you plan on doing in the next room. Twin Fires Tunnel- In this room, you have two choices to decide what you want to do inside. You can either take the spider ball track on your left to get through this room and navigate safely above the lava pool. Or you can do what I do and jump straight into the lava. Of course I never just jump into the lava, I try to jump as far as I can into the direction that will lead me to the door. On the otherside of the lava pool is another shore that you can jump onto from the lava pool. When you are coming back from here you should take note of a few things. The lava is deeper in the shore that'll take you to the Twin Fires than the one that'll take you to the Transport to Tallon Overworld West. If you do my strategy, then you have nothing to worry about how deep the lava is to the next shore when you are heading to the Tallon Overworld West since its sort of shallow. Heading to the Transport to Tallon Overworld West, the lava is about waist deep, heading to the Twin Fires the lava goes right over your head. Transport to Tallon Overworld West- You'll be in a transport room, but I don't advise you to take the transport, instead just scan it as you head to the next door so you'll have it ready to be used when you DO use it. Transport Tunnel B- Another lava pool room. On your right will be a small ledge that you can navigate with your morphball, as well as a railway up ahead, and a lava pool right below it. The ledge on your right will lead to the rail, the rail will get you safely to the shore on the otherside of the room. On the otherside of the room though is a magmoor who won't do much. The lava in this room is extraordinarily shallow, so what I like to do is boost ball straight through it to the other shore. If you want to do that then be aware of the health you risk, but using the rail also costs time so the choice is yours. Fiery Shores-missile expansion ------------------------------ The first part of the Fiery Shores will featuer a corridor with a lava pool acting as most of the floor and two sets of flamethrowers on the ceiling acting as deterents that will try to prevent you from getting through. There will be ledges for you step around through this part of the corridor, so don't worry about having to go through the lava. In the second part of the Fiery Shores there is a much larger space to move around, except most of that space is covered by lava with minor pieces of flooring that keep you out of the lava. On these two pieces of flooring are triclopses, and in the lava is a magmoor whose situtated near the floor where the two triclopses are scurrying around. The third part features a narrow corridor as well, but this corridor is mostly covered in stable flooring. Midway through though, is a spot where a lava pool is deeply entrenched into the floor. Above the lava pool are two sets of flamethrowers. In between the lava pool is a ledge that can be used to get across to the next door. Here is what you are going to do, you'll either run through the lava and take whatever damage the flamethrowers throw at you to get through the first part and to get to the second part. Or you can just time your way through the first part of the Fiery Shores by proceeding whenever the flamethrowers give you a break. When you arrive at the second part of the room, you should see some crates on your left. Destroy the crates, pick up the ammo and health they leave you, and examine the small hole the crates were blocking. This hole can be navigated by a morphball so go into it with your morphball and follow it right. From here you will start a sort of maze to get to the end of this quasi-morphball tunnel. The path goes straight, and then up a bit which requires you to bomb jump, and then you have to navigate around some very narrow ledges with your morphball. As you are doing this, the magmoor will try to do his fire-breath attack on you, but ignore it. The attack damage is super-minimal and the magmoor might be too far away to even land any damage on you. What you should be concerned about is not falling down to the lava below. At the end of the morphball tunnel you'll find a missile expansion. Where you found the missile expansion is where this morphball path will end and you'll find that you'll be right above one of the flooring where the triclopses are at. This is what you are going to do, you are going to drop down into this flooring, and you are going to try to exit morphball mode as you fall. I like to just hit the floor in my morphball since all the cramped space sometimes won't let you exit morphball mode as you fall, and when I hit the floor I immediately lay all my morphball bombs and exit morphball mode. It sounds like its alot to do but it really isn't. The thing that sucks about falling down to that piece of flooring is that sometimes the triclops catches you and throws you right into the lava. Anyways, when you are on that floor, try to space jump to another piece of flooring in this room. You have a choice, you can either jump to the other flooring where the triclopses are at, or you can jump to a piece of flooring that is behind the wall that is behind you. To jump to this wall, you are going to get to this flooring's edge and then jump forward, and jump backwards onto that flooring. The flooring also happens to have some crates on it that might obstruct you getting on it. But its alot better than going to the flooring the magmoor is right next to. After you do that, jump over to the third part of the Fiery Shores and get through it. Again you can choose to wait for the flamethrowers to give you a break or you can just jump through. If you jumped through the first part, than you'll know how the flamethrowers will knock you down into the lava and get you some damage. But everything requires a little sacrifice if you want it done right. Shore Tunnel- This is another corridor that is about as narrow as the third part of the fiery shores. There are no dangers in this room, so I suggest you just get through here as quickly as possible, with your morphball or walking. Midway through you'll be in this glass walkway, but the glass can't be destroyed yet so just proceed onto the door. When you shoot the next door to open it, navigate slowly around the door to be able to look beyond a wall on the right. Behind that wall you'll see a flying pirate in the next room. You can choose to nail him here with a super missile, which I don't prefer or you can walkthrough with a wave beam that you'll choose to get ready with a concealed charge. Monitor Station- If you nailed the flying pirate in the Shore Tunnel than go ahead and proceed to the Monitor Tunnel and don't worry about a second flying pirate that'll come from behind the station. If you didn't destroy the first flying pirate, then at least nail him with that charged wave beam shot and get past him. I don't advise taking your time to kill him or the other one, just get to the Monitor Tunnel. On a sidenote, from now on, everytime you come through the Monitor Station, you'll have to encounter two flying pirates. The good thing though is that the two flying pirates are on different parts of the room and killing one might not alert the other, if one is alerted, than it'll take them a while to get to you in time. One will always be on that platform where you found him, and the other will always be somewhere behind the station, near the door to the Transport Tunnel A. Monitor Tunnel- Get through here using whatever tactics you want to use and get to the Triclops Pit. Triclops Pit- This place will sort of change when you come back here. If you didn't encounter the change already, than what you'll find when you come in here is that there will be two flying pirates in this room now and you will no longer have to deal with puffers. The two flying pirates will be somewhere in the lower pit, and when you come from the Monitor Tunnel, they won't know you are here until you make it to the third or second platform down. Sometimes from the entrance from the Monitor Tunnel or from the first step, I choose to take out the first flying pirate with a missile. You'll of course be aiming left, but you'll be aiming somewhere between the rock formation and capsule, if you are aiming from the first platform or entrance. But most of the time I do what I advise you to do and that is to do a concealed charge with your wave beam and then make my way down the platforms with the intent of heading toward the Pit Tunnel, and if a pirate gets in my way, then I let him eat a wave beam. I ignore whatever missiles or weapon fire the flying pirates throw at me and just head for the door to the Pit Tunnel. Pit Tunnel- Jump over the fence to get to the door to the Lava Lake. Lava Lake- Make your way to the other area of the Lava Lake as you did before. And make your way to the door to the Lake Tunnel as you had done before as well. Lake Tunnel- Make your way to the door to the Burning Trail, again you guys gotta learn to bite a lip and just take the lava path. Burning Trail- Do your best to get through the Grizby without killing him. When you are on that path that comes after the Grizby, get in your morphball and boost your way to those elevating platforms. Then use the platforms to get up the shaft and to get to the Transport. Transport to Chozo Ruins North- Walk into the hologram to get yourself to the Chozo Ruins. =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Magmoor Caverns North- Alright, you are going to take the door to the Sun Tower when you get here. Remember to bring up your map if you don't know which of the three doors in this room will take you to the Sun Tower. Sun Tower- Last time we came through this room, we literally zipped through here and made our way out as fast as possible. We don't have that option now because we have to get ourselves back up the shaft of the Sun Tower. Now that you have the spider ball, we can finally make our way up the spider track which crawls up the shaft of the Sun Tower. However, there are half a dozen problems getting up there. First, part of spider track is blocked by a shutter, for lack of a better word. Further up along the shaft are a bunch of round bugs with eyes on their backs, called Oculus or Oculae for plural, that navigate around the shaft, including the spider track, and will knock you off the spider track if they touch you. To add to that, the area where you will find the scan panels that will remove the shutter is guarded by 2 wasp hives, one on the left side of the room, and another on the right. What you are going to do first is pick the left side, and navigate along the left wall of the entrance to the Sun Tower. You are going to navigate around one of the left walls carefully so that you can see the wasps hives and shoot them accurately with the missiles without bringing any wasps out. Navigating along the left wall of the entrance to the Sun Tower, you will be trying to destroy the wasp hives on the right, and vise-versa when you are navigating around the wall on your right. On the left and right of the room, in between the wasp hives, are structures that house a scan panel on their top caps. This cap can be scanned in order to identify it. When you navigate around the wall to take aim at the wasp hives, aim at that structure in between the wasp hives and fire a power beam shot at it to make sure that your aim is true. Then when you got the right aim at the cap, fire a super missile. The cap that is blocking the scan panel, and the two wasp hives will be instantly destroyed. Using a missile on that cap that is blocking the scan panel is not an option since it can only be destroyed with a super missile. If the two wasp hives on the side of the structure with the scan panel aren't destroyed, then you can destroy them with a missile for each one that isn't destroyed. After you've destroyed the two wasp hives on the right, than you scan the newly revealed scan panel. There is another scan panel on the right side of the room as well and it is at the top of the pillar on the right side of the room that is further away from the spider track than the other pillar on the right side of the room. When you finish scanning the two scan panels on the right side of the room, position yourself against the right side of the wall on the entrance to the Sun Tower and do what you did with that structure in between the wasp hives as well. Scan the newly revealed scan panel, than go to the pillar on the left that is the closest to the spider ball track. Behind the pillar at the top is a scan panel that you must scan. Once you scan it, run to the spider track and get in your morphball. A cutscene will start whether you ran to the track and got in your morphball or not, but at least at the end of the cutscene you are ready to go up the shaft. When the scene ends, the shutter that was blocking the path of the spider track will be removed. Travel up the track, the track will hit an end just below a block with spider ball tracks on it. The 4 oculus will be navigating around the block in a clockwise motion. What you want to do is time your bomb jump so that you can get from the spider track to the block with the spider track. Since the noobs will be dying for the best timing, I would say that the best time to lay your bomb to bomb jump to the next block would be when the Oculus that gets in between you and that block is past the faint morphball track line on your left. The faint morphball track line that I'm talking about is the left line that is somewhat red and faint and indicates that the spider track in the shaft went straight up instead of having to use those blocks. Or you can do trial and error. You'll have to bomb jump three more times and from the one block to the next I advise that the best point from which to bomb jump to the next block is the corner that is on the top area of the block but that is not connected to the wall. I wish I could describe that better but so far I can't. When you bomb jump from a block with the spider track on it to the spider track block that runs directly along the wall, by all means travel up to the wall and bomb jump from there. However, make sure you time your bomb jump so that the oculae don't screw it up, since your view changes when you do this, it'll be up to you to figure out when to jump. When you reach the top of the shaft, you'll see a door ahead of you that you'll have to walk through. Sun Tower Access- When you open the door to go through it, you'll see a ghost run toward the wall and disappear. Keep following the room to the Sunchamber and destroy the crates that you see to get yourself some health and ammo. Sunchamber-Chozo Artifact ------------------------- The Sunchamber will be totally normal until you proceed further inside. When you get far enough into the room, the room will darken completely, which is kind of odd because the Sunchamber has a sun roof so that sunlight can get through. Then on three specific points of the room three Chozo Ghosts will appear. These guys are ultra annoying. These guys like to glide to and from various places around the room, th great thing about this is that you don't have to worry about them moving around the room like as if they were pirates. Their gliding around the room can be best decribed as a pinball going from one end of the machine, to the next. The spots where they choose to glide vary, but they usually constitute anywhere on the main walking area that you used to fight Flagghra. Their second favorite spot are these pedestals where the mirrors were at during the Flagghra fight, so you'll have to aim up when they are up there. Their other spot which they use a few times is on the very top of the large flower that Flagghra was in when you fought him. Their attacks can be pretty nasty, the main one will be white energy shots fired the same way Ryu from Street Fighter would fire them, sometimes they stop and hover above the air and do a super charge on their energy shots. The white energy shots will make you reel, literally, since whenever you get hit by these your visor will get disrupted as if you were hit by gun turret fire or if you were to close to a sentry drone and you'll also see Samus throw her arm back and lower her arm cannon for a second or two. The worst part about these guys is that they like to go invisible; they don't go invisible all the time and instead phaze in and out of visibility, sometimes to attack and sometimes just to look around. Everytime they attack though, they'll be visible, the only problem though is that they like to position themselves around you in order to attack while they are invisible. My strategy goes very quick so I hope you took my advice at the beggining of the guide to read every explanation of a room before you into it. Stepping into the room, I quickly take the pathway along the left and keep heading that way as if I'm going to the door. Somewhere between halfway along the walkway to the next door is where a Chozo Ghost will appear, you should go up this one that you spot along the left side of the walkway, get within 3 feet from him, get a lock on him, and charge your power beam. When these guys appear, they have to appear, develop, come to the ground, and then get a hang of whats going on. You can't fire at these guys to kill them when they first pop out, you have to wait until the right time. In my case, since I'm already right underneath one when they all appear, I wait until he throws his arm back as if to do his hado-ken attack and then I launch my attack. My attack is first a super missile and then another charged power beam shot. When he eats the super missile, he'll get knocked back big time, after you shoot the super missile you should immediately try to charge another power beam shot. When you got a shot that is even slightly charged, fire it at him to kill him. All of that has to be done very quickly, super missile, power beam charge, and fire. But sometimes you just can't do it in time and the ghost phazes out of visibility and glides somewhere else. Well then you have to quickly look in the direction that the ghost flew in and fire tons of regular power beam shots in the direction the chozo ghost flew in to reveal where he is at. Throughout this match you should be constantly moving around the room so that none of the other ghosts can nail you with their shots. If you are still on the first ghost, then keep firing the regular power beam shot and walk in the direction he was in. If he doesn't come out, then walk around the walkway as if you are circling the large flower in the middle so that you aren't a sitting duck. As you are walking around the walkway, keep an eye on your radar and look for any orange dots that might appear, if you see one that is within or closely within your line of sight on your radar, than turn to it to spot the ghost. Sometimes, you'll see the spot on the radar, and turn to it, but the ghost won't be there, thats because he'll be on one of those pedestals where the mirror was high above the walkway you were on. Just remember to fire charged power beam shots and a super missile for each ghost, but not more than one. When all three are killed, a chozo artifact will be revealed at the top of the large flower in the middle of the room. Grab it and go to the door to the Sunchamber Access. Sunchamber Access- Coming back from the Sun Chamber requires a different strategy to get through this room than going to the Sun Chamber to this room. But at least this time, getting through the room this way is alot easier than having to go up the room. I want you to try and space jump as far as you can to the otherside of the room. You'll land somewhere infront of a reaper vine who might be able to take a swipe at you but who cares. Just shoot him out of the way and get through the door to the Sun Lobby. Sunchamber Lobby- Get throughhere like you did the first time by shoot the reaper vines and the venom weed to get them out of the way. Head through the door to the Arboretum. Arboretum- When you step out here, jump onto that tree branch that has those wooden planks on it, when you are on that branch move closer to the right along the branch so that you can get a better view of that ledge where the door is at. From this tree branch you are going to look down and aim at the door to the Gathering Hall Access. Than you are going to jump down to the ledge infront of the door to Gathering Hall Access. Since I'm all about saving time, I'm going to teach you how to jump down all the way from this branch to the ledge infront of the door without having to recoil when you land. First you are going to jump directly to that ledge, but you can't fall directly down to it, so when you hit the end of that wall that is the ceiling above the ledge then you do the second jump. whether you land in the water or you land on the ledge infront of the door, you won't recoil, or you shouldn't. The point that I specified is ideal because you'll be able to control your path into the ledge infront of the door to the Gathering Hall Access after you make the second jump from there. Whenever I do this, I also always aim down manually and do a bluff-lock with my L trigger. To do that kind of lock, you will aim down manually at the door, then you will lock your aim at the door in place by holding the L button without it clicking. Then you let go of the R button. Your aim will be held in place even as you move, unless of course you push the L button down so that it clicks or let it go completely. Its a technique that I use to gain leverage when I space out my jumps and also when I move anywhere throughout this game. Gathering Hall Access- Boost ball your way through this area as always and get to the Gathering Hall. Gathering Hall-missile expansion -------------------------------- When you come back out here, I want you to make your way up to the door to the East Atrium. Get there by any means you want to get up there, but remember that you have the space jump and that you can shortcut alot of the path to the top. More importantly, there is a ledge to the left, and below, of the porch where the door to the East Atrium is at. From this ledge you are going to jump to this porch and you won't have to worry about any shriekbats nose-diving you in this room. When you are on that porch to the door to the East Atrium, look at some small steps or pedestals on your left and right. From this step/pedestal you will jop on top of a ledge that hangs above the porch. The shriekbats that are dangling on the porch are also hanging on that ledge that we want to get to. When you get on that ledge, get in your morphball and bomb a cage/fence in the wall. You'll notice that a missile expansion is in a wall that you can access by that ledge above the porch. So bomb the fence and grab the missile expansion with your morphball, then get out and get into the East Atrium. East Atrium- When you get in here, boost ball to the door to the Energy Core Access. Energy Core Access- Make your way to the Energy Core and navigate through the eyons as quickly as possible. Energy Core- When you step out here, you are going to head to the door that is on the opposite side of the room in the right corner. Its the one that is behind the shriekbats in the area of the Energy Core you are in now. To get to that door, you are going to have to take out those shriekbats and use the platforms along the right wall to get to that door. So go ahead and do it. I prefer to just walk up to the platforms, let the shriekbats come down, and nail them all with my power beam using regular shots as I make my way to the door. West Furnace Access- I hate this room because this is one of the two rooms in the game that has that glitch or bug where you are just walking through and the game freezes and you have to turn off and on your gamecube to start over again. Then you got to start from the save file all over again. But I've noticed that I get the glitch when I'm rolling through in my morphball and when I walk through with my combat visor. So what I do everytime I come through here is walk through with my thermal visor switched on, I have yet to have my game glitch when I walk through here with my thermal visor so go ahead and try it. This is an access room that is largely uneventful despite the game glitch that I have experienced so just get to the next door. Furnace- The Furnace has two parts to it, you are in one of them. A spider ball track will be on your left, get in your morphball and go up it. When you travel in far enough, the game will pan back to the view to a 2-D one. You are going to head right for the second part of the furnace; on your way you will encounter these sand blocks that will fade away a second or two after you get on them. You are going to have to rush through those sand blocks, not boost, and bomb jump onto the remaining part of the path, and then you are going to have to go through another series of sand blocks. At the end of the path is the second part of the Furnace, a large room with a white door on the otherside and a large kettle on your left. Behind that large kettle on your left is a piece of flooring slightly elevated above the main piece of flooring in this room, and beyond that is a morphball tunnel. Go behind that large kettle on the left and get into that morphball tunnel. Some beetles may or may not pop out of the main floor... Crossway Access West- At the end of the morphball tunnel is a dilapidated access. In the middle of the access is a bunch of debris that is doing a good job of obstructing your path, but you can get past the debris by getting in your morphball and rolling under the debris. When you get on the otherside get through the door to the Crossway. Crossway-missile expansion -------------------------- Alot to do in this room. Infront of you is a large half-pipe, to the right is a white door, behind you on the left is a shaft tunnel that travels upwards but that is blocked by a cage, across from you on the otherside of the room is a weird looking object etched into the wall that when scanned reveals that it can be destroyed with a super missile. First you are going to charge your power beam and fire a super missile at that object. The object will blow off a cap revealing another important object behind it. You are going to jump to the wall on the right that is above the half-pipe, this wall is also touching the white door, and are going to scan the object as you are jumping to that wall. When the scan is done, a cutscene will start showing a spider track open up above the half-pipe. When the cutscene ends, you are going to get in your morphball, as you are jumping in mid-air and are going to use the momentum of you coming down the half-pipe with your morphball to shortcut you usage of boosting up and down the half-pipe to get to the spider track on the right wall. When you get to the spider track on the right wall, you will follow the spider track to a bomb slot which you will activate by laying a bomb. When the bomb goes off, another spider track will be revealed on the side of the room that you entered this room from. When the cutscene showing the spider track open up for use ends, you will come out of the bomb slot and you will fall to half-pipe. Use the momentum of you falling to your advantage in order to make your climb to the next spider track above the half-pipe. When you get to the spider track, follow it to the bomb slot, activate the bomb slot that will open up the shaft that travels vertically and that will start a timer. When the cutscene ends, quickly fall to the floor, not the half-pipe, and get into that shaft quickly with your morphball. When you get inside of it, the shaft will take you straight up to a tunnel which leads left and that will take you to a missile expansion. Take the missile expansion, and then use the half-pipe to get to the side of the room where that object you blew off with a super missile is at. When you get to that otherside of the room, head into a pathway on the right that will eventually lead to a door with a blast shield on it. Missile off that blast shield and go through that door. Elder Hall Access- This is a very narrow access room. Midway through some scarabs will come through and litter the walls, ceiling, and floor of the middle part of the access. Since scarabs do minimal damage, just go head proceed through the access ignoring the damage they do and head through the next door. Hall of Elders- When you step inside, charge your power beam. Ahead on your right, beyond this hallway you are in, is a much larger room with a huge statue of chozo in it. When you jump down to this main area of the room, one, I repeat one, chozo ghost will pop out of the hands of the chozo statue. Remember the strategy I gave you when we first took on the chozo ghosts in the Sun Chamber and use it on this one chozo ghost. When he dies, the statue will be activated and ready to be used. Jump into its hands, turn into a morphball and hold R. A cutscene will start showing the statute launch you into this shaft which will then launch you into a spider track on a wall high above. The spider track follows to a bomb slot that you will activate with a morphball bomb. When the slot is activated, a cutscene will start showing three bomb slots on the otherside of the room, on a ledge high above and behind the chozo statue, power-up for use. These are unique because they each have a different colored-film that prevents you from actually getting inside the slots with your morphball. You are going to get up to these slots by first getting up to that ledge you jumped from to get down into the lower floor. When you are on, you are going to look above and to your side for another ledge that you will have to space jump onto. When you are on it, follow the ledge to the bomb slots and activate your wave beam as you do so. Shoot the purple slot with your wave beam to remove the film, and then get in that bomb slot and activate it. When the slot is activated, the shaft that the chozo statue threw you into will shift in a new direction. Get back down into the chozo statues hands and get in your morphball. The statue will throw you into the shaft and the shaft will launch you into a morphball tunnel etched into the wall. Follow the tunnel to the right and you will come out into a sort of closet with a door and a scan panel right next to the door. First scan the scan panel, which will remove a blue force-field that would have prevented easy exit from that part of the Hall of Elders to the main area of the Hall of Elders, and then go through the door. Reflecting Pool Access- Boost your way through this largely uneventful access room and go through into the next room with your morphball. Reflecting Pool- A large pool with stone toads on its side will be ahead with a scan panel between you and the pool. Forget the scan panel and roll into the poll with your morphball. In the middle of the pool, on the floor is a drainage hole that is covered by a cap or cage. This drainage cap can also be identified by scanning it and what you are going to do when you spot it is bomb the cap with a morphball bomb. When the cap is blown off, all the water, including some of the little fishies in the pool, will go down the drain leaving the pool empty. Now the pool is a half-pipe that you can use to get to the top floor of the room. So boost up the half-pipe on any side you feel like, all though I would prefer you land on the left side of the room on the top floor. As you are boosting, you might get sucked up by one of these stone toads, this is just a fact of life and just bomb them when they swallow you to get them out of the way. If you land on the right side fo the pool, then don't worry since just getting up on the top floor is whats most important. When you are on the top floor, you'll see three doors, a white one, and two with blast shields on them. Missile the two doors with the blast shields and go through one of the two. If you find that you are going through a door that will get you into a save station, then go through the other door. Don't worry about having to use the half-pipe to get to the other door though, you can use your space jump to jump from one side of the room to the other. So when you get to the door that has a room that isn't a save station, then go through it. Antechamber-ice beam -------------------- When you walk inside you'll find a capsule with a white glow in the middle; grab that object, its the ice beam. This object is my favorite beam and weapon in the entire game. First, alot of the stuff you shoot in this game with one regular shot from the ice beam will freeze solid for a few seconds. If you fire charged shots with the ice beam, then objects will freeze solid for alot longer. But the onion with this weapon is the way it interacts with some enemies and how you can use it with a missile. If you do ice-ice/missile combos on shadow pirates and space pirates, then you'll get the treat of watching them blow up and seeing chunks of frozen pirates fly all over the place. You can also fire a regular non-charged ice beam shot at a flying pirate, which will freeze him solid for a couple of seconds and that will give you the time to follow up a nasty missile and chunks of frozen pirate will burst out. The downside is that this, along with the wave beam, can't be used to damage chozo ghosts. And the ice beam has the worst rate of fire and accuracy in the entire game. The shots come out real slow, like a 12-gauge shotgun, and this makes hitting an object with the ice beam, charged or not, kinda hard. Oh and this weapon is the weakness of metroids. If you do an ice-missile combo on a metroid, they will instantly blow apart like pirates and that'll be the last of that metroid. Another advantage of the ice beam is that you get to open white doors, so open the one infront of you and go through it to get back out to the Reflecting Pool. Reflecting Pool- When you are back out here, space jump to the other door that has the save station in it and go through. Save Station 3*- { F.6 } Go inside and save your game. The next save is going to be a long one, but do expect that it will be in this very same save station. Reflecting Pool- When you come back out here, turn to your left and jump down to the door that leads to the Reflecting Pool Access. I do it in a special way that keeps in line with my goals of staying on time and multi-tasking. When I come out into this room, I turn and aim down at the door, and then jump down. As I'm jumping I fire a quick shot from one of my beams at the door. After I nail the door, I'll still be in mid-air, and I will get in my morphball and land infront of the door. Then I roll through the door. I'm sure that all doesn't register like much in plain text, but in practice its nice. Reflecting Pool Access- I boost my way through the access, lay bombs at the next door, and exit my morphball as the bombs explode. Hall of Elders- When I come out here, I jump out onto that ledge in the main area that leads you to the colored bomb slots. From that ledge, I jump down to a white door on the left shooting the white door with an ice beam shot as I do so, and getting in my morphball at the same time. Than when I hit the floor and the door opens, I boost through. However do that all very quickly as 3 chozo ghosts will appear. From now on, chozo ghosts will appear in this room everytime you come through here from now on, so get used to it. East Furnace Access- This access is a great shortcut to the furnace, better than going through the Crossway if you are trying to save time. Furnace-energy tank ------------------- Once you are in the furance, the room will darken and three chozo ghosts will appear. Let me tell you something about this room that you need to know. If you come inside this room from the East Furnace Access or from the West Furnace access, than chozo ghosts will appear. If you come from the crossway however, chozo ghosts will not appear. We will use this to our advantage for time's sake, for ammo's sake, for health's sake, for your sake later on. But going through the East Furnace Access is ideal right now because we are going to do something in here that won't require us to do anything in the part of the room the chozo ghosts will appear in. When you come through the door, I want you to go straight ahead, space jump from the elevated step the door from the East Furnace Access has, to the elevated step with the morphball tunnel above it. When you get to it, get in your morphball and bomb jump inside quickly. Then you are going to follow the tunnel through. When you reach that part of the tunnel where the sand blocks that disappear quickly show up, let yourself fall through to the lower part of the tunnel. When you do, roll to your right for a step that you can bomb jump into and that has another morphball tunnel on it. When you are in the morphball tunnel, follow it to where it ends which will be inside of that large kettle we navigated around the first time we came through the Furnace. Inside the kettle, to your delight, will be an energy tank. Grab it, turn around, and get inside of the morphball tunnel. Follow the tunnel to the West Furnace Access, which will be left and get through the door. West Furnace Access- When I come back from the Energy Core, through the West Furnace Access, I usually don't have any trouble with glitches so go through here as you please, just don't go through the next door with your morphball, and have your power beam or ice beam ready. Energy Core- When you come out here, quickly lock on the shriekbats and fire a charged ice shot or regular power beam shots at them. A charged ice beam shot works great on the shriekbats because it blows alot of them up because of the blast radius of the charged ice beam shot and that fact they are always so close to each other. Jump over to the door to the Energy Core Access, and ready a charged ice beam shot on your way through the door. Energy Core Access- Proceed through here, and casually use your charged ice beam shot on one of the eyons as you proceed through. As you are making your way through the door, get in your morphball. East Atrium- Boost through under the shriekbats and proceed through the door with your morphball. Gathering Hall- Fall through to the bottom floor infront of the door to the Gathering Hall Access with your morphball and roll through the door. Gathering Hall Access- Boost through the Gathering Hall Access and exit your morphball on your way through the door. Arboretum- Alright now this part is really gonna suck, but its good for time's sake and for you to get used to the sporadic franticness of this game. When you step inside, three chozo ghosts will appear on the lowest level of this room. What you are going to do is make your way up the room to the Sun Chamber Lobby. Don't panic, now that you have your space jump, you don't have to morphball through the tunnels etched into the wall. Just space jump from the ledge that starts off the beggining of the first morphball tunnel you had to use, to the ledge that ends the ending of the tunnel. You'll do this twice since there are two tunnels that you would had to morphball through if you didn't have the space jump, but you do have the space jump, so use it to jump from one ledge to the next. After the second ledge, you can space jump onto a platform directly above the ledge. Doing this saves you time since you don't have to go around the platforms to get to the top, you just have to jump to them. After that, get to the place that'll lead to the Sun Chamber Lobby, bomb the wall that has a morphball tunnel inside of it and go through the tunnel and get into the Sun Chamber Lobby. I know this is hard because its dark, and the chozo ghosts cause confusion but doing this any other way takes too much time. Sun Chamber Lobby- Get through here like you did the first time, don't use your ice beam though, since its rate of fire is so slow. Sun Chamber Access- Get through here like you did the first time as well and don't use your ice beam here also. Sun Chamber- Boost your way through the walkway to the door to the Sun Tower Access. The last time you came here, you fought chozo ghosts, but you won't ever have to worry about chozo ghosts after having fought them, especially when you come through it now. Sun Tower Access- Follow the access to the Sun Tower and boost your way through the hallway and through the next door. Sun Tower- Roll through and fall through the shaft to the bottom and get through the door to the Transport. Transport to Magmoor Caverns North- Step into the hologram to get yourself to the Magmoor Caverns. =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Chozo Ruins North- Nail the door and roll through it with your morphball. Burning Trail- Fall down through the shaft with your morphball and get through this area as I have explained so many times before. Lake Tunnel- When you come through here, go through the lava to get to the otherside. But take note of this, the flamethrowers that cover the platforms in the lava pool can be frozen solid by firing a regular ice beam shot. The greatest part about using the ice beam on the flamethrowers is that once they are frozen, they'll stay frozen until you leave the room you found them in and get into one or two rooms away from this one. On your way through the room, ready your ice beam. Lava Lake- Proceed through to the second part of the room and again, go through the magmoor to the left of the magmoor. Using a regular ice beam shot on the magmoor's head will freeze his head and keep him immobile for a nice long while, long enough to get to the second part of the lava lake without the magmoor bothering you. Then get through the second part of the Lava Lake as well. Pit Tunnel- Jump over the fence and get to the Triclops Pit door. Triclops Pit- Going up the Triclops Pit to the Monitor Tunnel is different and alot harder than going down to the Pit Tunnel. You can do this the slow way or my way, which you will have to bleed a little to get through. You already know that there is a flying pirate below in the lower pit of this room. So what you are going to do is a concealed charge with your ice beam, than you are going to move away from the door that you entered this room from and you are going to space jump up so that you can see down into the pit. You are doing this so you can spot the flying pirate and lock on to him. The place that'll afford the best spot to safely catch a lock on the flying pirate in the pit is somewhere along the left wall that doesn't go beyond the corner. From here, you'll jump up, get the lock, do the ice-missile combo of firing a charged ice beam shot and then quickly firing a missile. When you do that, be prepared for the second flying pirate to be alerted and to come right at you, also be prepared for your ice-missile combo to miss. Whatever the situation, start firing ice beam shots at the pirate you choose to take down first. The second flying pirate will be behind the pillar and will go directly up and then navigate around the pillar on the left, so when you start trying to fire those ice beam shots, its better in my opinion to strafe right in order to align your shots. The first pirate you tried to kill will come straight up out of the pit, and will also approach you in an arc from the left, you will strafe right as well to align yourself and the shot. If you find yourself having to deal with both of the flying pirates, fire a quick missile at one of them and then do your ice-missile combo. Doing that technique will get rid of one of them. You can even do a ice-ice-power combo where you fire two charged ice beam shots, back to back, and then a power beam shot to shatter them. The power beam is more of a concussive weapon then it is elemental so its do-able, but I prefer the missiles. My way though, is to just go straight for the Monitor Tunnel door without even acknowledging that the pirates are there. I literally just run and space jump from one platform to the next. This helps me avoid fire, especially the missiles, as I get to the door. Monitor Tunnel- Get through the Tunnel as I have explained to you before, nothing new here, nor will there ever be anything new here. Monitor Station- Do a concealed charge with your ice beam and slowly creep through the entrance. If you do it slow enough, you can catch a great view of the flying pirate sitting on the platform on the left. From here you can also do an ice-mssile combo. I do an ice-missile combo and make my way to the door of the Transport Tunnel A. After killing the first flying pirate, the second one will be alerted. So I quickly make my way to the ledges that I'll use to get to the station and along the way I try to take out the crates and their stuffings as I zip through them. When you hit those ledges along the wall to get to the central station The second pirate will make his stand, get stuck under the glass walkway like an idiot or take a rest under the station and just sit there. But you know that I prefer not to waste time, so just space jump from the highest ledge along the wall to the walkway protruding from the station and get yourself to the next door. Transport Tunnel A- Boost your way through the tunnel and get through the door. Transport to Phendrana Drifts North- Then step into the hologram to get yourself to Phendrana. ================ Phendrana Drifts ================ Transport to Magmoor Caverns West- Nail the door infront of you and roll through it with your morphball. Shoreline Entrance- Boost through the corridor and out the door. Phendrana Shorelines- From here you are going to make your way to the Ruins Entryway. I recommend that you use that ledge with the door to the Ice Ruins Access to get to the door to the Ruins Entryway. On the left side of that ledge with the door to the Ice Ruins Access is a step that you can get on from the floor and that you will use to space jump onto that ledge. Once you get on the ledge, make your way around to the ledges where the crystallites are at and then to the platforms that will lead you to the Ruins Entryway. Ruins Entryway- When you pop in here, you'll find two or three baby sheegoths sleeping up ahead. I recommend you just shoot the door on the otherside of the room and just run up to it and get through. Ice Ruins West- This is where you'll meet your first normal sheegoth, there won't be anymore baby sheegoths in this room anymore also, you'll only have to put up with one sheegoth in this room everytime you come inside. The first time you fought a sheegoth for the wave beam, he/she was HUGE. Well these sheegoth are pretty big, but not as big as the one you fought for the wave beam. If you ever decide to confront these guys, expect to encounter all the problems and use all the tactics you found with the first sheegoth you fought. For now, I want you to switch on your wave beam, and run for the path that is to the right of the sheegoth, this path is the path that also has that platform that we made earlier in the game by missiling that stalactite. You are going to go to the stalactite and turn around and run through that hole in the wall where we had found crystallites. When you jump through, you are going to use the roof to get to the platform the ice-shriekbats were perched above. Then you are going to space jump to the door to the Courtyard Entryway and fire on door to open as you do that as well. While you are doing this, the sheegoth will stomp around and make the room shake a little bit. This can throw off your jump if he hits the ground at the same time you decide to jump, so I advise to space jump from one spot to another instead of running or walking through. Walk through the next door with your wave beam charged. Courtyard Entryway- Ordinarily I'd tell you to go through this room and not to bother with anything inside. But what you do in this room influences what you'll do in the next. In the next room are three flying pirates perched at various spots in the room, you'll spot one when you open the door to the Ruined Courtyard from here. First use the charged wave beam blast on the bombu, and then charge your ice beam or power beam. If you charge your power beam, you'll use a super missile to take out the first pirate in the next room, if you use your ice beam, you'll do an ice-missile combo and will waste less missiles, but super missiles are more reliable at killing flying pirates. I like the ice beam if you ask me. Either way, after you make that left turn to get into the part of the hallway where you'll spot the door to the Ruined Courtyard, shoot the door and charge the beam you chose. The colored outline on the door should be down, but the door won't open so it'll be safe to charge your beam. If the door were open, you were close enough to it, and you had to fire one shot in order to charge your beam, then the pirate in the next room would have been alerted and that would have blown our cover. With your beam charged, and the colored outline on the door down, approach the door slowly. The pirate won't be alerted until you fire the beam or get through the door. From inside here, you'll get a lock on the flying pirate you'll see in that level of the room and then let loose the ice beam shot. Whether or not the shot hit, go through. Ruined Courtyard- If the shot hit him, fire a missile quickly, if it didn't, then make a quick choice and follow a strategy on how you want to approach this room. If you want to do this fast, but are willing to risk bleeding a little, then you'll space jump straight to the spider track on the wall on the otherside of the room. For those in Rio Linda, the spider track is on the side of room that has the door to the Specimen Storage on the top level. When you reach the spider track, get in your morphball and roll up the spider track to the top level, this is a great shortcut with the downfall of having flying pirates on your back. Ignore the missiles, even if they knock you off the spider track, if you fall off the spider track then try to hug the wall the spider track is on in order to stick to the spider track. If you fall off the track completely, then turn around and go ahead and do the pirates with ice-missile combos or super missiles. When I play, I don't ever have to worry about flying pirate missiles taking me off and I literally don't make any maneuvers to avoid missile fire when I'm traveling up the spider track. But every now and then I do take my time to take these guys out with super missiles because alot of times they can be a real hassle. Once you are up the spider track, use the ledges to get to the high-rise platforms and get to the door to the Quarantine Access. When you are walking through the door to the Quarantine Access, have your wave beam charged and ready. Quarantine Access- In this room you'll find sentry drones, infact you'll always find them in here from now. Nail the first drone and charge your wave beam for the second one. The second one will be near the door to the North Quarantine Tunnel. Nail the second drone when you see it. These guys are pathetic if they're alerted to your presence so don't panic if they spot you, just charge your wave beam and use it on them both. North Quarantine Tunnel- Get in your morphball and boost through the tunnel, then get through the door. Quarantine Cave- You have to be real quiet in this room. On the opposite end of the room is a sheegoth sleeping in the snow. He's pretty far away from the entrance to the Quarantine Cave, but if you make enough noise like firing your arm cannon or getting close enough to him, he'll wake up. So what you want to do is get in your morphball when you come through the door to the Quarantine Cave and roll through into the main area. Roll into the main area and take a quick right for the spider track on the wall that you will use to get to the South Quarantine Tunnel. This spider track that we are looking for is the same spider track you used to get out of here after you took out Thardus; if you still don't remember, its the one you have to bomb jump to get on. Follow the track to the door to the South Quarantine Tunnel, when you drop down off the track to get to the door, the sheegoth will wake up. Don't worry though, he really can't do much because of your elevation and he's too slow and stupid to close in on you or do any attacks. So just get through the door; if you blew it and woke him up, than just follow up the track to the door anyway. Since he'll be some distance from you, he'll fire his ice-ball attack. When you hear that sound he makes when he fires his ice-ball, roll backwards for a little bit in another direction so that the ice ball doesn't catch you and then keep rolling forwards to move on ahead. South Quarantine Tunnel- Get in your morphball and boost through the tunnel, then get through the door with your ice beam ready. Transport to Magmoor Caverns South- When you come back out here, look at the opposite side of the room. You'll see a spider track leading up into a hole behind the rocks that crown the transport platform. Make your way to the spider track and roll up those tracks. At the end of the tracks is a white door that you are going to get through. As you are going through, switch on your wave beam. Transport Access- A pulse bombu will be floating on your left, but ignore him and follow the trail on the left to the door, then go through the door. Frozen Pike- The Frozen Pike is a vertical chamber that acts as a junction from one part of Phendrana, this new part, to the earlier part of Phendrana. Approach the edge of the floor and look down. You'll see a bridge formed out of tree limbs or branches with a door coming out from the left. Jump down to that bridge. Slightly below the bridge is a ledge with a purple door that sort of creeps out of the wall. Jump down to this ledge and go through the door. Frost Cave Access- When you come in here you'll see a wall of snow with a hole slightly elevated off the ground. Jump to that hole and get in your morphball, then boost through the tunnel and exit your morphball. The tunnel leads to the second part of the Access where you'll encounter two ice beetles. Space jump over the beetles and proceed along the path where you'll encounter some scarabs blocking the entrance to the next door. Go through them shooting them if you choose to and get to the door. Frost Cave- When you come out here, switch on your ice beam. You'll hear a familiar screech in the room either as soon as you step into it or when you approach the edge of the floor. A Hunter Metroid will fly straight up and will either stay and examine you or turn his back side toward you. Hunter metroids are really dangerous, first they suck energy from you by shooting their tentacle at you and siphoning off your energy in one big hit. Whether they've had their fill of your energy or not, they'll also ram you like a bull. Things get more complicated by the fact that these guys are way more aggressive than regular metroids and more prone to attack you then metroids are. These guys are still weak to ice, so when you meet this guy, do an ice-missile combo to blow him apart like a regular metroid. When he's dead, look up at the ceiling to spot some stalactites, one of them will be on the right while the other will be in the ceiling near the door on the otherside of the room. The other door I speak of will be straight ahead from the door you came from to enter this room. When you missile them both, they'll all plop down and form platforms to use. Jump down the ledge and make your way along the platforms on the wall on the right to get to the door that is directly opposite from the door to the Frost Cave Access. Both stalactites will be used to get to a door, but one of them, the first one you encounter, will be for the door to a Save Station. Don't use that door, head to door that is accessed by the second stalactite on the path and when you are getting through the door, enter morphball mode. Upper Edge Tunnel- A morphball tunnel will be in the corner of the floor, enter it with your morphball and boost through to the end of the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel will be a purple door. Shoot the door to open it but don't walk through yet. In the next room are two flying pirates perched on a broken tree bridge, there elevation is about on par with yours so you can get a good glimpse of them with the door open and you looking into the next room from the door. If you shoot a round of one of your beams, then the pirates in the next room will be alerted. I'm explaining this to you because we will do some covert operations from this room on the flying pirates next time we come here, but for now run through the room. Phendrana's Edge- You are going to have to do this quick. Just ignore the flying pirates as well. There are several walk-able levels in this room, the lowest level is this pool of water where the door to the next room is located. In the water are these creatures called Jelzaps that can seriously impede our way to the next door. Jelzaps are underwater clams that float in one fixed point underwater. While hunting jelzaps will create a sphere of energy that splits their bodies in two and sucks prey, and you, in like a tractor beam. The closer you get to them while they are doing this, the more your visor will get disrupted and finally when you come in contact with them when they do that, you'll recoil in the game, keeping you from shooting for a while, and your visor will disrupt completely and have to reboot, which it shortly will. Sometimes, if you managed to resist long enough from getting sucked in, the jelzaps halves will close, even if you are close to them, and shut off for a little bit. To kill these guys you have to blast that sphere of energy while they are sucking you in. I recommend the ice beam with these guys if you ever have to confront them because then you can freeze them with a regular ice beam shot and move on, they'll stay frozen for a while. The ice beam is also the strongest weapon between all the beams you have so far, so all you have to do is fire like 3 or 4 regular ice beam shots and they are dead because they'll stay frozen after each shot and take damage. If you use your power beam or wave beam, you'll have to use one charged regular shot to kill them because regular power or wave beam fire will take longer to kill them or to just force their halves to close, meanwhile ice beam shots usually force jelzaps to close their halves after they are unfrozen anyways. The door to the next room is in the water, directly below you; the door is on your side of this room. One of the two jelzaps in the water will be sort of blocking the way to this door so a keen strategy should come to light. Heres what I like to do, I like to do one jump forward and going down into the water and when I land in the water, I'll do the second jump backwards, without turning around, to the door to the next room. The jelzap might nail you, but it won't be so bad because if he does, that means you won't have to worry about fighting off the jelzaps squeeze to get to the door. If you blew it and landed in the middle of the pool bewteen the two jelzaps, then pick the jelzap that is closest to the next door and go up to him. If he starts sucking you in, space jump up to get a good lock on him and fire your ice beam. As you are going through the next room, get in your morphball, surprisingly jelzaps can't really suck you in when you are in the morphball. Lower Edge Tunnel- A scatter bombu will line the corridor immediately and another one will line the corridor midway through. You just boost through the tunnel to the next door and ready your wave beam. Hunter Cave- When you pop out here, look up in the ceiling for three stalactites. One will be on your immediate right on the otherside of the room and will be later used to access the next door. The other two will dangle above the water. When you missile the two above the water, they'll fall on the jelzaps floating in the water and kill them, the one near the next door will fall onto a ledge or platform and form a platform or step to the next door. When all three stalactites are down, jump down onto the closest one to you and make your way to the one that landed near the door by using the other stalactite that fell in the water. Be careful when moving to and from a stalactite as their are flickerbats circling just above the water, their flight path intercepts the path you'll take through the stalactites in the water. But I don't recommend you take your time to shoot them. If you blew it and landed in the water, then use the wall that has the door you came from on it. Along that wall are some ledges, underwater and above, that you can use to get back onto those platforms. Proceed through the next door with your wave beam charged. Lake Tunnel- Nail the scatter bombu with the charged wave beam shot and get through the door. Gravity Chamber-Gravity Suit ---------------------------- You'll be in a cave that is mostly submerged underwater. You won't be able to get out of the water because the shores are too high to jump onto so what you'll do is follow a path that leads left. When you reach the edge of the floor you are on, you'll see a large pit beyond and below. There are two just like this and both feature three Aqua Reapers, which are reaper vines that are underwater, surrounding one jelzap. Shoot all the reapers with your power beam quickly to stun them and then charge your power beam. With your power beam charged, you are going to lock onto the jelzap and then jump down to it, as you come down, let go of the power beam blast when you see him open his mouth. Sometimes you might, fail, sometimes you might not. The reprocussions of killing that jelzap aren't that bad since he'll give you time to move on after you've come down whether you've killed him or not. However, you do want to quickly space jump onto the nearest ledge that is behind the jelzap on the right quickly. I know the noobs are gonna be screaming about not being able to space jump onto the ledges underwater, so the reason you guys can't get on the ledges when you are underwater is because you guys are brushing up against the ledges when you are trying to get on them. To get on them, put about a foot between you and the ledge, space jump straight up and then land on the ledge. If you took your sweet time stunning the vines, jumping down, dealing with the jelzap, and getting onto that ledge, than you'll have to put up with the fact that the vines have come back out and are swinging violently to do you damage and impeding your progress. If you blew it, then manually aim up and get a lock on each vine and nail each vine with the power beam to stun them again. If the jelzap is still there, then ignore him and his attack on you and tend to the reapers because the jelzap won't impede you as much as the reapers will. When you are up on the ledge, keep going up the ledges to get to the top. At the top will be a path that leads leftward and to the second pit reapers and a jelzap. Behind the reapers and a jelzap is another ledge that you noobs might have a hard time getting up on, but just jump on the ledge the way I explained it and you'll get on. Do with the second set of reapers and jelzap what you did with the first set and get on that ledge. You are going to try and reach the top ledge that has a cubby hole with an item in it, the Gravity Suit, so grab it. When you do get the Gravity Suit, the inescapable cutscene showing Samus acquire a new suit will start. This suit is great, first it gets you a sleek new color for your suit, improved underwater visibility so that your view underwater is no longer murky, and you can move through the water like as if you are moving freely on land(no more walking around like as if you are in real space suit). When the game finishes prompting you on your new suit, you'll see that the reapers are back, and the jelzap if you didn't kill him. Shoot all those guys to get them out of your way and jump straight across to the ledge that you used to get to the ledge you are on. When you're on it, there will be another set of ledges going up on your right, these ledges will lead you out of the water so use them to get out of the water. After that, look around the room for the other door. When you spot it, use the ice/snow shores above the water to get to the door. Get through the door with your wave beam charged. Chamber Access- In the middle of the room will be a sentry drone navigating infront of the path to the next door. Blast him with the charged wave beam and proceed to the door. Hunter Cave- When you come back into this room, you'll hear the familiar sounds of a flying pirate's jetpack. They'll be in the lower pit of this area that you had traveled through to get to the Gravity Chamber. But you'll be in the upper area of the room with some distance between you and the flying pirates. You'll follow a ledge along the wall on your right where at the end you'll find the next door. The flying pirates, who will be in this room everytime you come here from now on, will start flying their way up to you as soon as you enter the door, so just head along the path to the door and don't bother doing anything with them if they make their move. Hunter Cave Access- Next you'll be in a cavern partially submerged underwater. The cavern follows like a trail to the next door, and along this "trail" are 3 jelzaps stationed at various points. Upon entering the room, get in your morphball and boost all the way through the room to the door. Boosting through gets you past the squeeze of the jelzaps and through the room quickly. As you make your way through the room, activate your thermal visor and ice beam, and charge your ice beam. Frozen Pike- You'll be back again in the Frozen Pike but in the lowest level. There are three hazards about this room that you will encounter in this room now, and everytime you pass through here. Two flying pirates monitor the room and are stationed at the broken tree bridge a floor above the water-filled floor you're in and on a bridge a floor above that pirate. There is also a jelzap on your right. What you want to do is go up to the jelzap slowly so that he opens his mouth and you can maintain your distance, and then let him have the charged ice beam blast. After the jelzap is done, you want to have your thermal visor switched on and look to the floor above for the flying pirate. The spot to look at this pirate from shouldn't be anywhere past the spot where the jelzap was or anywhere on the ledges that are behind the jelzap. When you can finally find a spot where you can see and get a lock on him, do a concealed charge with your ice beam and give him an ice-missile combo. If you blew it for whatever reason and he starts flying around, then just take the ledges to the floor above the water where the flying pirate was at and take him out with a ice-missile combo or a super missile. Whether you finished the first pirate or not, as soon as you make it up those ledges, the second flying pirate from above will come down to confront you. Sometimes I go ahead and take him out, and sometimes I just make my way up the Frozen Pike with him trying to nail him me with missiles and beam fire, which he often does. If you choose to take him out, take him out with whatever means you chose to take out the first flying pirate and then make your way up the Frozen Pike. Your trail up the room will take you through the bridge that the first flying pirate was on and then at the end of the bridge will be a sort of alcove carved out of snow on your left. Jump into it and follow it along the wall on the right to some ledges and another wall alcove carved along the wall. Keep following the path along the wall up until you reach the other bridge in the room. Next to the bridge well be a very small ledge protruding from the wall, along the wall that has a ledge protrunding from it is a morphball tunnel that you will enter with your morphball and follow to the top of the room. This morphball tunnel is a Phendrana mirror of the morphball tunnel in the Arboretum of the Chozo Ruins so use it to get to the top of the room. At the top of the room will be a floating platform in between you and the door to the Transport Access. Use the platform to get to the door and get through. Transport Access- Head along the trail for the door and ready your ice beam for the next door. Transport to Magmoor Caverns South- When you pop out here, you are going to head for the door to the South Quarantine Tunnel, do not go into the transport to the Magmoor Caverns. South Quarantine Tunnel- Boost your way through the tunnel to the next door. Quarantine Cave- Either as soon as you come back out here or when you jump down into the pit of the Quarantine Cave, the sleeping sheegoth will wake up. When you jump down into the pit, you'll jump into the direction of the door to the North Quarantine Tunnel and will get in your morphball as you land. When you land in the pit, boost ball to the spider track that runs from the snow to the entrance of the Quarantine Cave/door to the North Quarantine Tunnel and ride the spider track up, then make your way through the door. North Quarantine Tunnel- Boost your way through the tunnel. When you reach the door, shoot it to open it and to charge your wave beam. In the next room are the sentry drones and you can take one out from the door. So go ahead and then walk through. Quarantine Access- Quickly charge your wave beam again to nail the next sentry drone and to unlock the doors. Then I want you to head for the door to the Ruined Courtyard. Along your way to the door, have your ice beam ready, shoot the door to open it when you have it in your sights and charge your ice beam. When the door opens to go through it and you see the flying pirate in the next room, fire the ice beam on him and keep firing your ice beam. Remember in the next room are flying pirates so be ready for the next room also. Courtyard- If you happened to freeze the pirate then go ahead and missile him ,but quickly go through the room and jump down on the right to the floor below where the door to the next room awaits. We're going to head for the door to the Courtyard Entryway. Ignore the other flying pirates along the way, occasionally I can manage to multi-task and kill one more flying pirate as I make my way down, but I only do it if it won't distract me from getting to the door. Courtyard Entryway- Run through the room and ignore the scarabs and bombu inside. Ice Ruins West- Head for the door to the Ruins Entryway, its up ahead on the otherside of the room. Along the way the sheegoth might wake up, but just ignore him and go through the door. Ruins Entryway- When you come out here, quickly shoot the door up ahead on the otherside of the room as you run through the sleeping baby sheegoths. Feel free to space jump if you here them make an attack. Phendrana Shorelines- Space jump to the otherside of the creek on the Phendrana Shorelines, even if you land near the baby sheegoth and head for the door to the Shoreline Entrance. As you go through the door, get in your morphball. Shoreline Entrance- Boost through the corridor and exit your morphball as you arrive to the door. Transport to Magmoor Caverns West- Get in the transport to get to the Magmoor Caverns. =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Phendrana Drifts North- Go through the door and get in your morphball as you do so. Transport Tunnel A- Boost through the tunnel and exit your morphball through the next door. Monitor Station- I don't even wanna hear any of you say how to deal with the flying pirates in here anymore. Just space jump to the left in the direction of the door to the Monitor Tunnel. When you land in the lava, hop to the door. Monitor Tunnel- Get through the Monitor Tunnel taking the lava and not bothering with the puffers or the pistons inside. Triclops Pit- Jump down the platforms and make your way to the door to the Pit Tunnel. Ignore the flying pirates that'll come up on your left. Pit Tunnel- Jump over the caged fence to get to the next door. Lava Lake- Whatever strategy you followed that I gave you, do it in here as well. Lake Tunnel- Do whatever strategy I gave you and that you followed earlier as well. Burning Trail- Make your way through the Grizby without killing him and remember to boost your way through the hallway part of the Burning Trail to get as quickly as possible to elevating platforms, you're going to head back to the Chozo Ruins. Transport to Chozo Ruins North- Step into the hologram to get to the Chozo Ruins. =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Magmoor Caverns North- You are going to head to the door you see infront of you, it'll take you to the Vault Access. Vault Access- Make your way through this access to the Vault as you have done in the past. Vault- When you pop out here, shoot the door on the other end of the room and then enter your morphball and boost through to the door. Plaza Access- Keep boosting through this room to get to the door to Main Plaza. Main Plaza-missile expansion ---------------------------- When you get back out here, I want you to make your way onto that tree bridge that you had used for the door to the Ruin Fountain Access. I want you to get to that bridge, but I don't want you to use it to get to the door to the Fountain Access. The rooftop of the porch for the door to the Ruined Shrine Access acts as a sort of platform or ledge that you can stand on. You can get on the rooftop of this porch from a spot that is a foot-step before the bridge. When you are on this rooftop, look for a tree situated against a wall near the door to the Ruin Fountain Access. On this tree is a plate that can be scanned to be identified as a plate that can only be destroyed with a super missile. Destroy the plate on that tree with a super missile to reveal a missile expansion within the tree! Space jump over into that cubby in the tree and grab the missile expansion. Then jump down and enter the door to the Ruined Shrine Access, switch to your wave beam on the way through and get through the door in your morphball. Ruined Shrine Access- Boost your way through this room to the door for the Ruined Shrine. Taking damage from the falling scarabs won't be that much on an issue since the Gravity Suit increases your defenses and you'll be minimizing damage from boosting through. As you go through the door, exit your morphball and switch on your wave beam. Ruined Shrine-missile expansion, missile expansion -------------------------------------------------- There will be three chozo ghosts in this room, they'll be on you every second you are in here and will try to do it from every spot you could dream of, so do this quick! What you are going to do is jump into the pit where you fought the beetles turn to your right, and get in your morphball. On the right wall, in the corner, is a wall that can be destroyed with a morphball bomb to reveal a small tunnel. The tunnel leads to a secret room where you'll find a missile expansion. When you get the missile expansion, quickly roll out of this secret room and exit your morphball. Jump onto the half-pipe on your left and go up the half-pipe. Since there are two sides to boost up on the half-pipe, then for reference's sake, you are first going to go up to the half-pipe side on the left if you were just entering this room from the Ruined Shrine Access. When you go up on this half-pipe, follow the wall to the right for a morphball size hole that you will enter with your morphball. The hole leads to another room with a missile expansion. When you get the missile expansion, quickly get out and get back to the half-pipe while still in your morphball. Since you are at the top of one of the sides of the half-pipe, you are going to use the momentum of going down from one side of the half-pipe to get to the other side. So roll down as normal and use that momentum of going down the half-pipe and boost yourself up the otherside of the half-pipe when the time comes. When you get on the otherside of the half-pipe, stay in your morphball and follow the wall left for another morphball-sized hole. This hole leads to a tunnel that eventually will turn into a spider track that runs along the ceiling to the next door. The problem is that when you using the spider track, you'll be exposed to chozo ghost fire. The only advice I can give you is just roll through without hesitation and that if you fall, then get back up the half-pipe and try again. You can try to quickly roll in another direction if you hear a chozo ghost charge up his blast or fire it, but that won't always guarantee it'll work since the blast radius is so big, the ghosts are so fast, and their aiming is pretty good. When you reach the end of the spider track, fall down, quickly exit your morphball and shoot the door to go through. I can usually avoid getting hit by chozo ghost attacks successfully as I'm getting from the spider track to the door to the Access. Tower of Light Access- Walk through the access as normal, don't boost, its no rush....Switch to your power beam on the way through the door. Tower of Light-wave buster -------------------------- This room is a large vertical shaft of sorts that will have you going up the room first, then down into the water. On the otherside of the room is a platform with another platform right next to it, either on the left or somewhat above it. Get over to that platform, then jump onto the other platform right next to it. After you are on the second platform, turn around and look for another platform that is situated in the middle of the room and is tethered to the walls. When you get on that platform you will look around the room from here and find 4 pillar blocks, these pillar blocks will be identified as vulnerable to super missile blasts when scanned and there are 8 other blocks just like this on the two floors above. Some or none will be occupied by an oculus navigating around the block. One of the blocks is situated under another platform along the wall. And straight above your head is another platform just like the one you are standing on. This is what you are going to do, you are going to fire one super missile at each pillar block. You are going to fire a super missile at the blocks, not at the oculus that are on them, the super missiles will ricoche off the oculus and fly somewhere else. So make sure you time the shot correctly as you are aiming at a block with an oculus on it. When all 4 blocks are destroyed, a cutscene will start showing the pillar blocks crumble under the weight of the entire room. Then the entire room will be lowered by one floor. When the cutscene ends, immediately turn around and look for the platform that you can jump onto to get onto the next level. You must do this quick as Plated Puffers will flood the floor you are on. The plated puffers are just like regular puffers but they can only be destroyed with missile or super missile shots, power, wave, or ice beam shots will not destroy them. On the next two floors you will repeat the process, the plated puffers will not move up to the next floor you've moved up to and at the third and final floor you'll find that the sun is blocking your view of one of the pillar blocks. Don't fret, just move around the platform until you can get a blind-free shot at the pillar. Once this floor is taken care of, look above and around for some platforms that lead up to the top of the room. At the top you'll find a rune puzzle just like the super missile but purple, this is the Wave Buster so grab it. The wave buster is a very mediocre weapon as far as I'm concerned. What you do is charge your wave beam and then fire a missile with your wave beam charged. A long tentacle of electricity will fire out paralyzing anyone that the wave buster is touching and feeding them continous rounds of electricity. To activate the weapon, you'll have to use 10 missiles, and 1 missile will be used per every second you continue to use the wave buster. Most of the enemies that are vulnerable to electricity die within 2 or 3 rounds of charged wave beam fire. When you are done, I want you to jump straight down to the floor below and get in the water. Underwater is a large hole that leads to another area, get through this large hole to the other area. Inside, you'll space jump up to a ledge along the wall that has a water-free breathing space with a door in the ceiling. Shoot the door and jump through. Tower Chamber-chozo artifact ---------------------------- Inside you'll find a chozo artifact, grab it and then get back the way you came to the Tower of Light. Tower of Light- Jump back in the water and get out of the secret area. Along the left and right is a ramp that you can use to get onto dry land above. Take either of the ramps and then head for the door to the Tower of Light Access. Tower of Light Access- Make your way through this room as normal and prepare your power beam. Ruined Shrine- When you come back out here, the chozo ghosts will be back. I want you to jump straight down to the half-pipe below. As you are landing on the half-pipe, shoot the door the Ruined Shrine Access to have it ready for opening. When you land, jump down to the door and get in your morphball as you go through it. Ruined Shrine Access- Boost your way through this room and exit your morphball on the way through. Main Plaza- From here you are going to head to the door for the Ruined Fountain Access, get in your morphball as you go through the door. Ruined Fountain Access- Boost your way through the room and exit your morphball on your way through the door to the Ruined Fountain. Ruined Fountain-missile expansion --------------------------------- First thing you are going to do here is space jump to the fountain spewing water on the otherside of the room. A plazmite is flying around right above it, a spider track is also right above the fountain in the ceiling as well. Are you getting any ideas yet? Jump into the fountain and get in your morphball, when the fountain shoots its water, the water will propel you into the ceiling while you are in your morphball and get you to the spider track. The plazmite will move out of the way of the water, but once the water is gone, the plazmite will do whatever it wants and yes he can knock you off the spider track. So once you are on the spider track, proceed along the spider track, when you are about to come in contact with the plazmite, lay a morphball bomb to get the plazmite to move out of the way. Keep proceeding along the spider track and laying morphball bombs if the plazmite ever gets in your way. The track ends in a cubby hole in the room that is only accessible via the spider track, in the cubby hole is a missile expansion. After you get the missile expansion, go up the spider track and return the way you came. You are going to stop and get off the spider track after you make your first right turn so that way you can try and fall infront of the door to the Arboretum Access. When you land infront of the door, get out of your morphball and go through the door to the Arboretum Access. Arboretum Access- I wanted you out of your morphball so that way you can get some missiles from the shriekbats perched up here. No doubt you are running low if you are noob or even me. Arboretum- When you get through here, the chozo ghosts will pop back out again. You'll space jump from platform to platform, not through the water, to get to the door to the Gathering Hall Access. Get in your morphball as you get through the door. Gathering Hall Access- Boost your way through the access and exit your morphball on the way through the door. Gathering Hall- Head left for the door to the Watery Hall Access. Watery Hall Access- Once in here head for the door to the Water Hall. Watery Hall- Alright now that you are in here, I want you to go to the exact spot where you found the charge beam in this room. I'm not going to type it out because that would be a waste and you can refer to the Watery Hall description from the first time you came here. Once you are at the spot where you found the charge beam, look to the left of one of the eyons on the right wall. On the side of this eyon is a piece of wall that can be destroyed with a morphball bomb and that will reveal a morphball tunnel. Destroy it and go through, at the end of the tunnel is a door with a blast shield that you must missile. Missile the blast shield and go through the door with your morphball. Dynamo Access- Once you are inside, boost to the end of the access to find another door with a blast shield. Missile the blast shield and walk through the door. Dynamo-missile expansion, missile expansion ------------------------------------------- On the otherside of the room, sort of on the right, is a missile expansion hiding within a cubby hole in the wall, and blocked by a caged fence or whatever. Missile that caged fence to open up the missile expansion and grab the missile expansion. Then behind you for a mechanical structure with a spider track on it. The spider track travels up a shaft that eventually leads to a missile expansion at the top. Within the shaft are two or three plazmites. Go up the shaft and lay morphball bombs as you go up to get the plazmites out of your way. When you are the top, grab the missile expansion, while still in your morphball and fall down the shaft again. Then exit your morphball once you are back down and go back to the Dynamo Access. Dynamo Access- Boost your way through the access to get to the Watery Hall. Watery Hall-missile expansion ----------------------------- Get in your morphball and roll through the tunnel, continue rolling through the eyons on the walls, and get your self into the water. There is a cave underwater that is hiding something very precious. For reference's sake, lets pretend you just got the charge beam and you are facing a particulardirection. Well you are going to head for that direction that you are facing to find the cave underwater. If you go straight, and head left for a little bit, you'll see that the floor goes down a bit into a secret room underwater. This room is partially submerged by water, to get to the part that isn't submerged underwater, you'll have to space jump out of the water and onto the dry land, which isn't that hard. Once you are there, you'll see the missile expansion. Grab it and then head back to the Watery Hall Access. Watery Hall Access- From here head to the Gathering Hall. Gathering Hall- From here head to the East Atrium, and please remember to use your space jump to shortcut your way to the top. East Atrium- Boost your way through here to the Energy Core Access. Energy Core Access- Navigate your way through the Energy Core Access to get to the Energy Core. Energy Core- Make your way to the West Furnace Access from here. West Furnace Access- Make your way through here, and take the precautions I take to not let your game freeze. Remember, switch on your wave beam and your thermal visor. It improves my odds of not letting my game freeze. Furnace- Switch on your ice beam and go up the spider track and head to the main area of the Furnace where you will find the chozo ghosts. Once you are in here, head through the white door to get to the East Furnace. East Furnace Access- Boost your way through the room and get out of your morphball once you are the door. Hall of Elders- From here, quickly head for the door to the Reflecting Pool Access. Remember to do this quickly since the chozo ghosts will come out. Reflecting Pool Access- Boost your way through the access to get to the Reflecting Pool. Reflecting Pool- Boost your way up the half-pipe to get to the top area of the Reflecting Pool. I've seen videos, and have even sometimes successfully done it myself, where people space jump from the first stone toad on the left to get to the top floor. They just basically stand on the toad and then jump up. I find it kinda hard to do though and I don't do it regularly. But go ahead and try when you've got the time. When you are on the top floor, go to the save station door. Save Station 3*- { F.7 } Once inside the save station, save your game. Man was that a long save. But we got a lot done, the next one won't be that long, but the two after that will be, the second will be the longest save we will ever do. When you are done saving, look to your left for a morphball tunnel on the wall and elevated off the floor. I swear to god someone will tell me, "I don't see it!". Lets pretend you just entered this room from the Reflecting Pool, to the right of the save station capsule will be this morphball tunnel. Get in your morphball and bomb jump into it. Then boost your way through the tunnel to the next door. When you get to the door, exit your morphball and get through the door. Transport to Tallon Overworld East- Scan the scan panel to activate the transport and get into the hologram. ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Transport to Chozo Ruins East- Nail the door in front of you and go through it. Transport Tunnel C- You'll be inside of a corridor littered with large tree roots and zoomers and geemers blocking your path. There is nothing noteworthy about this room, just go through it, you can space jump over the wall of tree roots to get over the otherside and roll under the wall of tree roots to get to the door. Overgrown Cavern-missile expansion ---------------------------------- When you get inside here, you'll be in another corridor that is much more narrower than Transport Tunnel C. There will be a wall of tree roots infront of you and up ahead at the end of the corridor with morphball holes to pass through. In between these walls of tree roots is a space covered with venom weeds and a missile expansion. Shoot ice beam shots through the hole into the venom weeds and then immediately get in your morphball and boost through. On your way through, grab the missile expansion and continue heading along to the door. Firing a shot into the venom weeds is intended more so that they don't hinder your progress. Frigate Crashsite-missile expansion ----------------------------------- Inside of this large room, you'll start out at a very high elevation in this room. Below on your left is the door to the next area we want to go to, 2 flying pirates and 3 extremely wounded space pirates near the door. You'll find the wounded space pirates to be as sluggish and vulnerable as the way you found some on the Space Frigate at the beggining of the game, the flying pirates won't be vulnerable though. On the otherside of the room, on your right behind the wall are two flying pirates just sitting down on the floor beside the water. Separating one side of the room from the other is a large pool of water that is very deep. Heres what you want to do, first you want to quickly jump down to the next lowest ledge and then jump down straight into the water in the direction that the two flying pirates who are sitting next to the water beside some crates on the otherside of the room. When you land in the water, look along the wall for a small cubby hole with a missile expansion. For reference's sake, you are in the water and you are facing in the general direction that the flying pirates that were sitting near the water beside some crates. If you take a 90 degree turn right, than you'll be facing the wall where the cubby hole with a missile expansion is at. Space jump into that cubby hole and grab the missile expansion. When you do, jump back out and turn left for some steps underwater that go up. While you are doing all this, the flying pirates will be right on you, but they can't do much because your underwater and can evade alot of their attacks, although some might still hit. The steps will go up two or three steps and then you'll have to turn right for some more steps and then left into a small cavern. When you go in the cavern, turn right for a small morphball hole that you will get into. At the end of the hole is another small cavern that will lead you out onto dry land and the otherside of the room where the wounded pirates are at. When you come out, more than likely a flying pirate will be right in your face, just ice beam him if he is straight up in your face and proceed to the wounded pirates. There will a wounded pirate with some crates behind and a white door behind him. Kill him with a single-regular ice beam shot, quickly destroy the crates with a charged ice beam shot and go through that door. Frigate Access Tunnel- You'll be in another super narrow cavern, halfway through you'll find weeds that will slow you down so just ice beam them and proceed through to th door. Main Ventilation Shaft Section C- Immediately get in your morphball and fall down through the shaft. When you land in the water, roll to your left into a corridor-tunnel. You'll end up boosting through some debris which has left you a convenient space for you to get through with your morphball. At the end of the tunnel will be the door. Before you go through the door, ready your ice beam. Then shoot the door and charge it. Main Ventilation Shaft Section B- In this room are two gun turrets on the left and right of the door, above the door is a vent. Immediately shoot ice beam shots at the two gun turrets and then activate your wave beam and thermal visor. Lock onto the glowing rune and fire a wave beam shot at it. When the shot hits, the door will have its power restored and you can now get through the door. After you go through this door, you'll have to go through one more door, don't know why they put it. But as you go through the door to the next room, switch on your wave beam and get in your morphball. Main Ventilation Shaft Section A- Boost straight through this corridor to the next door. Halway through you'll encounter Tallon Crabs. These guys can do you damage, but the damage they do is so minimal that I wouldn't even consider them enemies. Proceed through the next door with ice beam charged and your thermal visor switched on. Reactor Core- This room is very large and the only way through this room is down. Down along the room are various steps formed out of debris from the reckage that you can use to slowly go down the Reactor Core or go up the Reactor Core. At the bottom of the room are two Aqua Pirates. Aqua pirates are just like flying pirates except they're equipped for the water. They'll move slower than the flying pirates, but they strafe from side to side just as well as pirates do in order to dodge your beam shots. They can only fire missiles, which I guess would be called torpedoes when underwater, and those come at you REAL slow. Littered through out the room are 4 electrical vents that you will have to power up with wave beam shots. The vents power up a large door situated slightly above the bottom of the Reactor Core. To see the vents you'll have to have your thermal visor switched on, you'll find two along the walkway where the flying pirates are sitting on, one in the lower pit in the middle of this walkway, and one near the large door. The large door that you are trying to power by nailing the vents with wave beam shots is slightly elevated off the bottom of the Reactor Core, but you can use all the crapload of floating platforms and debris to make your way to the door. So how to tackle all this, first you are going to jump down onto the platform protruding just out the door. Our intention is to take out one of the aqua pirates and two of the electrical vents from right here; since both the pirate and the vent are way down at the bottom of the core and you are way up, you are going to look down to the bottom of the room from that platform. Your thermal visor comes in handy from here because you can easily lock on to the pirate and electrical vent below. When you can establish a lock on both, do a concealed charge with your ice beam and fire it at the aqua pirate you see, then follow that with a quick missile. After you've nailed the pirate, switch to your wave beam and fire a charged shot at the electrical vent to make sure it gets powered up. Then go ahead and jump all the way down to the bottom of the Reactor Core. The aqua pirate will be alerted, but there so slow its ridiculous. If you think its safer to just kill him, then give him an ice-missile combo. If not than just look for the other vent along the walkway, it should be on the otherside of the room opposite the first vent you nailed, then go for the vent in the lower pit. While you are doing this, the aqua pirate will do his torpedo attacks, but they are really slow. When you've nailed the first three, switch off your thermal visor and start making your way to the large door. Remember that if you don't know where it is, you can bring up your map to identify it. When you get to the large door, along the wall on the left will be the last electrical vent. Switching off your thermal visor to find the door might be real useful to you noobs, so I don't wanna hear anyone tell me that switching your thermal visor on and off is pointless. When all 4 of the vents are powered up, the door will be active and you can go through it. This door and the next one just like it are special, all you have to do is stand like 2 or 3 feet away from it and it'll open up, or start to on its own. Reactor Core Access- On the otherside of the room is another large door just like the one you came from and to your right will be a door leading to a save station.However, I don't want you going into the save station. What you are going to do is switch your thermal visor and have your wave beam activated again. You are going to look for another electrical vent in this room to power the next large door. There might be one or two, I'm never sure, but they'll be very close to the large door we are trying to power up. When you power up the door, go through it with your wave beam charged. Cargo Freight Lift to Deck Gamma-energy tank -------------------------------------------- Right now you are at the bottom of a shaft, literally an uphill climb. Up ahead you'll see an electrical vent on the right and a class window on the left. The charged wave beam shot is meant for the glass window and a regular wave beam shot is meant for the electrical vent at this level. You can of course catch eye of the electrical vent with your thermal visor, but being able to distinguish the glass window to the left might be a little harder. After you've broken the glass window and have powered up the electrical vent, go inside of that room the glass window was blocking. Inside is an energy tank, when you grab it, head back out the way you came. Now I want you to look up the shaft. You'll see a debris and platforms that you can use to make your way up the shaft. Along the way will be three aqua reapers situated along the shaft and covering two platforms that you'll eventually have to use to get to the top. One of the reapers will be in the middle of the shaft, while the other will be somewhere above the first reaper. In addition to that, there will be two more electrical vents you'll have to power up with your wave beam. The first of these other two vents will be on a wall either at the same elevation or slightly above the elevation of the first aqua reaper you encounter. This first vent will also force you to turn around and face the direction of the door to the Reactor Core Access because the wall its on will be behind you as you go up the shaft. Infact, one of the platforms you use in this room will have you facing this vent. The second of the two remaining vents will be at the top of the shaft on dry land, but you can activate it with a wave beam shot while you are in still in the water. Explaining to you which platforms to use to go up the shaft is so ridiculous that I won't do it. I will say that you shouldn't be afraid of firing a shot at the aqua reapers in order for them to retract out of your way. They'll give you like 15 to 30 seconds worth of time to make your move to the next platform after you've shot them out of the way. Space jumping underwater from one platform to another will be a necessity for some platforms so don't worry if you don't think you can make the distance, you can and will. Be prepared for a dead space pirate to fall right into the water just before you make your way out of the water. When you reach the top, the electrical vent will be to the left of the door, outside that little space reserved for the door that I guess you could call the door's entrance. Deck Beta Transit Hall- This is just another uneventful corridor with nothing to offer. Biohazard Containment-missile expansion --------------------------------------- In here are more electrical vents for us to put up with and some gun turrets that'll be a pain in the butt if we don't do things the right way. This room is partially submerged underwater, in the water are two Aqua Drones, underwater versions of the sentry drone whose attacks include the visor disruption and the laser fire. The two gun turrets will be sitting right next to each other and will be sort of behind the pillar-like structure in the middle of the room. When you enter the room, they will either start firing at you immediately or will start firing when you become clearly visible to them. To stay out of the range of their shots you'll have to use the large pillar to block their shots. Two of the three vents will be in the top floor, meanwhile the last will be underwater. The first one you'll catch sight of will be right infront of you when you first enter the room, on that large pillar-like structure in the middle of the room. The second will be along the wall on your right when you first enter the room, it'll also be on the wall that the door to the room you came from is on. The third will be in one of the capsule spaces left open underwater. Heres what you are going to do, first you are going to shoot wave beam shots at the first vent. Then position yourself behind the pillar so that the gun turret shots don't nail you and face right to see the next vent and nail it. Then approach the railing of the walkway and try to look into the water on the left side of this room, in the water will be the first aqua drone. If you are doing a scan-run, try and scan him right now as its the BEST time to do it. He won't notice your in the room until you drop down into the water and these guys appear only once after you've killed them. Charge and fire a wave beam shot to kill aqua drone and then quickly jump down into the water as you charge another wave beam shot. When you land underwater, follow the path right where you'll see the second aqua drone who you will greet with your charged wave beam blast. When he's done, look at the second capsule space that goes right for the third electrical vent and nail it with a wave beam. Then switch on your power beam, charge it and fire a super missile at the capsule space with a door/cap on it that is furthest to the right. It'll reveal a missile expansion that you will grab. After you've got the missile expansion, head for the door that was activated for use, the cutscene that started after you powered up all of the vents will show you where it is even though its the only door underwater. Deck Beta Security Hall- This is another corridor just like the Deck Beta Transit Hall, except its underwater and littered with aqua reapers along the walls. Nail them with your power beam to get through this corridor and to the next room. As you go through the room, switch on your thermal visor. Biotech Research Area 1- In this room you'll find three aqua pirates to contend with and three more vents to power up in order to activate a door. The first vent will be on your left as you use the walkway to get to the bottom floor and confront the aqua pirates. The second vent will be on the same wall as the first vent, but will be below the walkway you are on when you enter this room. The third vent will be on the otherside of the room below the walkway and the door to the next room. We can tackle this my way or the slow way. The slow way says you'll go get into this room with your ice beam charged and to the edge of the walkway and stop just a step before it ends to confront the aqua pirates. From the walkway you will perform ice-missile combos on the aqua pirates to kill them, remember that you can use a missile to stun them if they move around too much. You'll approach the aqua pirates with your thermal visor switched off, when they fire their torepedos, you will just walk backwards and let the torpedos go straight into the wall. When you are done with the pirates, you will proceed to take care of the vents. If you want to do this fast you'll walk into this room with your wave beam charged and will proceed along the walkway as normal and take out the first vent on your left. Then you will simply and quickly jump down, turn around and quickly the nail the second vent on your right. Then you are going to proceed to the otherside of the room by going directly to the capsule and circling around it on the left and then continuing for the third vent. Take out the third vent when you have it in your sights and then quickly look for some debris on the right that'll form some steps that you can use to get to the door that you just activated. Then simply go through the door. Now I know that sounds too easy and that the aqua pirates are still there, but you have to approach this as if the pirates aren't there, however, if one gets in your face, missile it to stun it for a little bit. The aqua pirates are pretty harmless so doing nothing is better than doing anything and wasting time. Deck Beta Conduit Hall- This room will be another corridor just like Deck Beta Security Hall where everything is narrow and uneventful except the aqua reapers. So just get them out of the way and get to the door. Connection Elevator to Deck Beta- When you step out here, an explosion will pop out and a body will float up the shaft. The Connection Elevator to Deck Beta is just a semi-long vertical shaft. Inside you'll find the Aqua Sac, the source of the explosion in this room. Aqua sacs are harmless, scanning them will tell you that they are related to blood sacs, but the explosions these guys let out are nowhere as powerful as the blood sac's, most likely due to the effects of water. Somewhere, elevated off the bottom of this shaft is the door to the next room. Get in your morphball as you go through the next door. Hydro Access Tunnel-energy tank ------------------------------- Roll through here, head for a morphball tunnel on your left, the tunnel will open out into a larger tunnel where you'll be panned-back to a side-scroller view. Things change when you are in a shaft like this that is flooded with water while you are in your morphball, your bomb jumping is accentuated astronomically. When you lay a morphball bomb in this tunnel, the explosion will propel you way up, higher than any double bomb jump you could do on dry land. We are going to use this to our advantage, when you reach the first part of the access tunnel that goes up, you will lay a bomb to propel yourself to the part of the tunnel that travels horizontally. The tunnel that runs horizonatlly will t-bone with another vertical tunnel that is very high vertically. At the top of this latest vertical tunnel is an energy tank that we must get. What you will do is the same thing that you did in the Transport Tunnel A in the Magmoor Caverns. But things change, the water takes you up real high real fast, and brings you down real slow. I can tell you that the best point to lay the second bomb in order to continue going up is below the imaginary line formed by the horizontal part of the tunnel. Now there is no imaginary line for the horizontal part of the tunnel you just came from so imagine it. The third bomb you are going to lay after you are sent upwards is for you to determine, practice will just have to be the name of the game for you fellas. When you finally get the energy tank, go back down the tunnel and proceed right, then get your self up this vertical part. The tunnel ends infront of a door to the next room. As you go through, make sure you have your ice beam switched on. Great Tree Hall- The Great Tree Hall has alot to it that must be explored, but for now we are only going to stick to doing a sliver of what is available. We are going to head for the first door that we find is on dry land. Up ahead is a path that goes straight ahead and has one jelzap waiting for you at the left turn, then another jelzap waiting for you at a right turn as this path turns into steps that'll take you out of the water. There is a rock formation on your left that goes from your side of the room to the otherside of the room like a bridge. To do this fast, you are going to jump onto the rock formation on your left, the part of this rock formation that you want to jump on is that sort of thin edge that sticks out in your direction. From the thin ledge, you'll walk up a little bit and then jump up onto the rest of the formation, walking the thing out of the water and onto the floor that'll lead you to the next door. When you see the white door, immediately shoot it and go through. Or you can do it the long way by going through the jelzaps and the steps that snake along the wall. Transport Tunnel E- In here you'll catch sight of an enemy that you could've seen in the Great Tree Hall, but we were in such a rush to get through that I couldn't introduce them. These enemies are called Seedlings, jellyfish like slugs that will fire a series of pins at you. The pins are pathetic when it comes to damage, but the seedlings fire them like homing missiles that will follow you as good as your missiles follow enemies that you've locked onto, they can also knock you back a bit. Seedlings can be destroyed with one regular ice beam shot, it might take a few more then that from your power and wave beam. Once you get on that narrow ledge/walkway in the middle of the room, you'll notice a warning sign on your screening telling you about intense radiation. If you look below and to your left and right of this walkway, you'll see Phazon, the jelly like mineral at the heart of this games storyline. If you touch the phazon, your health will quickly diminish for each second you have in contact with it, so make sure you stay away from it. What you are going to do is follow the obvious path down, taking out all the seedlings you encounter, to the next door. At the end of a path is a rock with a seedling crawling right behind out of your sight, the door is also right behind the rock as well. So do this when you see the rock, jump over it to the door behind it, as you are jumping, aim down and fire the ice beam shot at the seedling to kill it, then nail the door and go through. Transport to Phazon Mines East- Switch on your wave beam and then scan the panel to activate the elevator. ============ Phazon Mines ============ Transport to Tallon Overworld South- Wave beam the door infront of you and go through with your morphball. Quarry Access- Boost through the corridor and exit your morphball at the end of the corridor. Wave beam the door and walk through with your power beam. Main Quarry-missile expansion ----------------------------- When you take your first step out here, you'll get a formal introduction to the Phazon Mines. The Phazon Mines are the headquarters for Space Pirate operations on Tallon IV. As the name of the area indicates, the Space Pirates have set this area up to mine for phazon deposits. Folks, this is literally the lion's den, and from here everything will get a little more serious, but this place is as managable as any other area. The Main Quarry features a large mining platform on your left. The platform has a crane on top of it that can be used from some computers at the top of the platform. The large platform also features a half-dozen space pirates. At the far left corner of the room is the entrance to a door that we will go to later on. The entrance is blocked by a force field that can be disabled by two scan panels near some crates at the other end of the room. The entrance is also guarded by two Mega Turrets, gun turrets with enhanced shielding and fire power, which means that you'll have to fire a super missile or 3 to 4 charged power beam shots. Mega turret shots knock you back, deal some appreciable damage, and scramble your visor a bit. Up ahead on the right are some walkways that snake at the base of the large platform, across to the wall on the right, around the wall on the right, and finally connecting to another walkway that you can use to get to the rest of the platform. Up above on the right wall, on the otherside of the room, is a door that is currently unreachable. It has a scan panel right next to it, but the scan panel can't be used and you can't jump to that door. Here's what you are going to do, first switch to your power beam and charge it. You are going to proceed down the steps and to the walkway up ahead. As you go to the walkway, you will get a lock on one of the mega turrets and will fire a super missile if you can spare one, if you can't then just stand there and get rid of the mega turret with charged power beam shots, make sure to get rid of the second one as well since its such a pain sometimes. You'll be at the begging of the walkway, and from there you will look down into the floor below for some crates on the wall. The crates are concealing a scan panel, so you must fire a charged beam shot at the crates and then quickly scan the scan panel. One part of the force field on the left corner of this room will be disabled. Continue along the walkway to the right wall. From the right wall, you will destroy a set of crates near an explosive tank or pillar-like crate. These set of crates I'm telling you to destroy are in the floor below the beggining of the walkway. Firing a charged power beam shot at the explosive, pillar-like tank/crate will destroy all of the crates. When the second scan panel is revealed, switch to your ice beam, activate your scan visor and try to get a lock on the scan panel with your scan visor. More than likely you won't be able to scan the scan panel from the wall on the right, so just proceed along the walkway that'll take you to the walkway connected to the mid-section of the platform and you'll be able to scan the panel from somewhere on there. Halfway through the walkway that'll take you to the walkway connected to the platform, the space pirates will be alerted. You'll hear there battle cries, but I advise you to just proceed along the walkway to the platform. When you are on the mid-section walkway of the platform continue moving on to the walkway that goes under the platform. You'll encounter a space pirate that'll burst out from the belly of the platform onto the walkway you are using. Nail him with a charged ice beam shot and proceed. The walkway under the platform that you will be using leads to a wall and some steps that snake along the wall to the top of the platform. So get to the top of the platform with your ice beam charged. Navigate around the crane to its right, and use your charged ice beam shot at the space pirate you'll encounter here. You might have to encounter two, at the top of the platform, but taking them out with your ice beam is super easy. Once you are done with the space pirates on the platform, I want you to go to the edge of the platform and look down to the walkways you had used. You'll find space pirates who are trying to nail you with beam fire, you take them out with ice-missile combos, taking them out is kinda necessary for what we plan on doing next. When the one or two space pirates on the walkway are out, head to the crane on the top of the platform. Activate your thermal visor to look for an electrical vent that must be powered up. When you find it, shoot it to power up the computers. Then go to the computers that are encased in a glass room with no door. Scan the computers to move the crane, the crane will hit the wall and blow out a piece of it revealing a missile expansion. When that is done, look for a pillar with a spider track on this platform. It sits a few meters away from the main part of the crane. When you find it, get in your morphball, travel up the spider track, and follow the spider track to where it'll end above the "wrecking ball" piece of the crane. Drop down onto the wrecking ball and maneuver around it to the wall where the missile expansion is, then bomb jump yourself into that missile expansion. When you've got the missile expansion, drop back down onto the platform and scan the computers to move the crane to its original position. When that's done, I want you to jump down to the floor directly below the platform. In the floor below the platform is a spider track that leads to a purple door. Follow that spider track to the door and go through. Save Station Mines A*- { F.8 } Go to the end of passage way and scan the scan panel to open up the save station. Save your game and get ready, the next save will be really long, and kinda hellish. When you are done saving, head back out to the Main Quarry. Main Quarry- When you come back out here, head left to the area where the yellow force-field was. In that area you will find a white door on the right corner. Go up to that door and go through it with your scan-visor ready. Security Access A- Around the corner on your right are two mega turrets waiting for an intruder. When you go around the corner, they'll spot you and start firing and won't stop. You can retract back into entrance you came from and slowly take each turret out or you can do it the fast way and scan a scan panel on the far side of the room behind the turrets. The scan panel that will disable the turrets is around the right corner as well and is behind the turrets on the far side of the room on the right wall. How you are going to approach this situation is when you first enter the room, you are going to quickly approach the right wall of the entrance to this access. You are going to have your scan visor ready and you will then quickly pop out around the corner, look to the right wall and scan the scan panel. This will all be done very quick and without hesitation, and it is all very easy to do because scanning the scan panel won't take that long. If you blew it, then you'll retract back into the entrance hiding behind the wall. You are going to time your charged power beam shots or super missile blasts at each turret waiting for the second they will give you between each shot they will fire. When you've made it past the turrets, you are going to head for the white door at the end of the room and will have both your ice beam and thermal visor ready. Mine Security Station- This room will be littered with shadow pirates, the 5 or 6 of them in this room are already dangling on the ceilings. This room will be brightly lit, but the shadow pirates will still be cloaked of course. You'll start to encounter the shadow pirates 3/4 of the way through to the end of the first part of the walkway around the corner on your right, there will be a total of 3. Lots of pipes/fencing obstruct various parts of the pathway of this room, be aware of these because shadow pirates might side-step/jump behind them in order to negate your weapons fire, although the piping/fencing is set up so that some of your shots, and their's, can get through. So when you enter the room, do a concealed charge with your ice beam and get a lock on the first pirate in the ceiling. Nail him with an ice beam shot and follow it up with another quick charged-ice beam shot. When you are at 3/4 the way to the corner of the room, the other pirate who is around the corner hanging from the ceiling will come down to come get you. So what you are going to do is charge your ice beam after you take out each shadow pirate in order to have one ready for the next pirate, doing ice beam combos aren't necessary since two quickly charged ice beam shots will do the deeds. The third pirate will be a couple of yards away from the second pirate that is just around the corner, however, he'll close in real quick and sometimes will come down with the second pirate, meaning you have to take out two shadow pirates, which is already kinda easy. After you've taken out the three shadow pirates, switch off your thermal visor and switch on your wave beam; then continue following the path. Although the path is very linear, you may have already noticed that the path is also broken up into parts. Each part/hallway is divided by the fact that you have to go around a corner of the hallways in order to get to the next hallway. The first shadow pirate you encountered was on the first hallway which leads downward, the last two shadow pirates were on the second hallway which lead upward. The third hallway which has no pirates on it also leads upward, and the inclination of the path up is sort of steep. At the end of this third hallway, you'll take a right around the corner at the end of the hallway and find a flat/level path. From now on this path will be completely leveled out, but will also feature more piping to obstruct your way through. When you make it around the first piping-fence the fun will begin. You'll be treated to a cutscene where a new breed of space pirate will pop right out of the ceiling. These new pirates are called Beam Troopers, they're name actually varies according to what color they are, but in general I refer to them as Beam Troopers because they are a distinct breed of space pirate that is singled out according to which of your beams they are vulnerable to. Beam Troopers have the same two attacks that regular space pirates have, the arm-mounted beam fire and an arm-mounted scythe, however their attacks are 2 to 3 times stronger than space pirate attacks. What sets beam troopers apart from other space pirates are their aggressiveness: these guys will run straight up at you spewing beam fire and then either stop, do some side-steps, and do some more beam fire or finish their charge at you with a slash from their arm-scythe. You'll notice that the pirates have brighly colored patches on them, the color of the patches determines the beam-weakness of the troopers. Yellow troopers will have you using your power beam, purple troopers your wave beam, white troopers your ice beam; any other beam besides the corresponding one will be negated. When you combine the attacks, the damage dealt, and the trooper's aggressiveness, the beam troopers truly are the game's pitbulls...good times. Although these guys make the game more fun, its time to learn how to kill these guys. The troopers you'll face in this room will only be wave troopers, one wave trooper will come in real quick, within 2 or 3 seconds, to greet you. As the cutscene is ending, you should be charging your wave beam, position yourself behind one of the pipes that goes up vertically and release that charged wave beam blast on the wave trooper. He'll be paralyzed, and you'll have to follow that up with 1 or 2 more charged wave beam shots. You'll have to do that quick as well since the next 1 or 2 wave troopers will come up real quick behind him. My advice is to just charge your wave beam enough so that its slightly charged, that way you can fire the 2 or 3 wave beam rounds quickly to take these guys out, and to be ready for the next beam trooper. More than likley you'll have to catch 2 or all 3 of them at the same time, odds are greater that you'll catch the first two together. But just remember to get a lock on one of them and position yourself around one of those pipes that travels up vertically or any other sort of barricade in this pathway that you can use. You'll have the lock on one pirate and your charged wave beam blast, and you'll periodically pop out, fire your wave beam blast, and retract back in. For a veteran like me, these guys are no big deal, but for the noobs it might be a really big deal. You have to kill these guys because the doors in and out of the room are locked, so stand your ground and snuff them. When you are done with all three, proceed along the path way until you reach the end where you'll have to look for a door etched into the ceiling. Blast it and jump, switching on your thermal visor and ice beam as you do so. Security Access B- You'll be in another narrow access-corridor here. Two sets of pipe fences block your way through, and behind each fence is a shadow pirate. If you destroy even a small part of the pipe-fence, the shadow pirate behind that fence will pop out and come down. Blaze through there with your ice beam and do a charged ice beam shot on each shadow pirate you encounter. At the end of the access will be another door etched into the ceiling. Jump up with your thermal visor off but charge your ice beam charged. Elite Research-missile expansion -------------------------------- When you jump up here, you'll see a large capsule in the middle of the room. Around the capsule will be a bunch of computers with two space pirates working them. They won't notice you until you take about 5 steps forward or until you fire your charged ice beam shot so don't worry. There are three floors to this room though, you are on the first floor, on the second, are two wave troopers working behind a computer, and on the third floor is a power trooper working behind a computer as well. To access each of the upper floors, you'll have to scan a computer to bring up some platforms that will allow you to get to the next floor. First you want to get a lock on the space pirate on your right, go up to him and fire your charged ice beam shot as quickly as possible, if it doesn't blow him up, then use a missile. As you go up to him, quickly bust out your scan visor and scan the computer that he was using that has the red scan block. If the second pirate positions himself around the capsule to nail you, then go ahead and take him out with a charged ice beam shot and then scan the computer to bring up the platforms. Once their activated, you are going to use them. You are going to switch to your wave beam and make your way onto the second floor, by quickly popping up the platforms and heading for the walkway that travels along the walls, NOT the one that runs through the middle of the room with some crates in the middle of it. When you get to this walkway, the wave troopers will be alerted, and start going around the walkway that travels along the walls. The two wave troopers will go in opposite directions, so just pick a direction to go through, charge your wave beam and go through. Take out the first trooper you encounter with charged wave beam shots, if you make it around quickly enough through the walkway to that position where the wave troopers are at, the second wave trooper will turn around and return back to the original wave trooper position, hope that didn't confuse you. When you are done with both wave troopers, scan the red computer scan block on the right side of the computer. When you are done with that, the barricade that the wave troopers put up will be lowered, along with the platforms to floor 3. Switch your power beam and charge it, and then aim upward into floor 3. You are going to look at the power trooper on the third floor and will jump up through the platforms to the third floor until you can get a lock on the power trooper. You should be able to get a lock on the power trooper from the first platform and by jumping in place, not to the second platform. When you get the lock, make your way up the platforms and fire a super missile at him when you get the shot. If the super missile isn't a direct hit, then quickly charge and fire a charged power beam shot. You are going to head for the spot that power trooper was at. At that spot is spinner-device in the floor with a computer. First I want you to get in the spinner-device that was right next to him. When you are inside, you'll be panned back to a view where you'll be in the left hand corner and you'll see a large laser-cannon in the middle of the room. When you boost in the spinner-device, the laser-cannon in the middle of the room will rotate clockwise. Get the cannon to face directly north and then get out of the device, and scan the computer. The laser will fire and blow a hole into the wall revealing the door to the next room. Get back inside the spinner device and rotate the laser cannon to face exactly west and have it fire once more. The laser will blow a hole in the wall revealing a missile expansion. Get out of the spinner device and morphball mode and head over to the missile expansion. Jump over and grab it. Then head over to that door that you revealed with the laser-cannon and go through the door. Research Access- Keep heading forward and jump all the way down. At the bottom of the shaft you'll see the next door, switch your power beam on and go through. Ore Processing- Now the start of a very complicated room. There will be a large pillar in the middle of the room, on the otherside of the room, behind the pillar are two power troopers. First charge your power beam and be ready to fire a super missile or 2, if you can spare them. Then choose a direction, left or right, to go around the pillar, I always choose left. Start moving around the pillar to where the power troopers are at, the troopers will be alerted to your presence within a hair's sight. They'll let out a quick battle-cry and glance at each other, believe it or not, and start making their moves. The trooper on the direction you chose will come right at you, and the other will circle around the pillar on the otherside so that you'll have a trooper in your face and behind you. The first trooper you see you'll get a lock and fire a super missile on, and this will happen real quick, after he's dead charge your power beam. The second trooper, the one that was supposed to move behind you, will either stop half or a third of the way around the pillar and then turn around and go the other direction to get you. Finish the second trooper with a super missile, if you can spare it, or some charged power beam shots. You gotta be watchful with these guys because they like to jump up and cling on to the walls and can sprint really good. When they're dead, go to the device with the hologram the pirates were guarding. The device has a bomb slot for your morphball to use and through this device you will get through the room. Bomb jump yourself into the bomb slot and the camera angle will be panned back to a view showing you in the bomb slot, the hologram to your left, the large pillar in the middle of the room in the background, and you'll get a clear view of a blue spider track. There are 2 other bomb slots just like the one you are in on the upper levels of this room, these bomb slots will rotate clockwise when you lay a bomb and the bomb goes off. The bomb slots are placed at different levels/floors of the room in order to rotate separate sections of the pillar. On the pillar are spider tracks with blue, red, and yellow outlines to distinguish them from each other. The idea is to manipulate the pillar in order to align certain spider tracks so that you can proceed through the room. The hologram on the left of the bomb slot you are in acts as a guide, notice that it has blue, red, and yellow colored lines on it to show you where the spider tracks are at according to your perspective. First lay one bomb in the bomb slot, doing so will rotate the blue spider track once, and align it with a blue spider track protruding from the wall on the left. When thats done, simply roll out of the bomb slot, and then roll to the blue spider track on the pillar. Follow the blue spider track to where it ends just above and walkway which happens to be the second floor. Let yourself fall onto this walkway and roll your way to the right down the walkway where you'll encounter another bomb slot to manipulate another section of the pillar and bomb jump yourself inside the bomb slot. Once you are inside, lay two bombs to rotate the middle section of the pillar twice. When you lay the bombs, you have to wait until the section of the pillar finishes rotating so that it can get the signal to move. Doing this will align the red spider track on the pillar with the red spider track protruding from the wall. When you are done, jump straight down to the bottom floor and roll yourself into the bomb slot on this floor. Lay the bombs to rotate this section of the pillar three times in order to align the red spider track on the lower and middle sections of the pillar. Remember that you can keep track of your progress by examining the hologram as it'll show you how the spider tracks are aligned on the pillar. When the red spider track is aligned, get out of the bomb slot and roll over to it and ride the red spider track to where it'll end just above a walkway that is the third floor, switch to your ice beam when you land on the walkway. While you've been doing all this you no doubt heard some growling and roars that could only have been atributed to a space pirate. There is a wave trooper on the fourth floor of this room who's been completly oblivious to everything that's been going on. The walkway that goes along the wall on your right ends at a white door, what you are going to do is rush down that walkway to that white door. When the door is in your sights, nail it with an ice beam shot and go through it. A quarter of the way down the walkway, maybe even less that, the wave trooper will be alerted to your presence and will run and jump down right infront of the white door. The wave trooper will more than likely get to the door before you do so I suggest that you cut the distance around the walkway by space jumping from one part of the walkway, over the railing, to the other part of the walkway. I prefer to boost ball my way to the door, but really whatever makes you comfortable. The walkway runs like an arc and that'll slow you down big time, so space jumping this way will be like taking a quick shortcut to the other end of the walkway. If you just run it, then you'll have the wave trooper right in your face and he'll pick off some of your health. Then again you can switch on your wave beam, go around the walkway slowly and timidly and fight the wave trooper and then get through the door. Elevator Access A- When you get out here, you'll be in another large-vertical-shaft access. This shaft is lined with pulse bombus, theres a spider track at the edge of the floor that you can use to get through the bombus without taking damage, but we want this quick, so you'll just jump your way down the floor. When you are at the bottom of the shaft, head for the white door and go through it. Elevator A- Inside you'll see a scan panel, scan it to activate the elevator and get in the hologram to take the elevator down. Go through the white door at the bottom. Elite Control Access-missile expansion -------------------------------------- When you are in here, approach the edge of the floor, but don't go down to the next step! Look up ahead for an explosive crate sitting, or blocking, a vent. Blow it up with an ice beam shot and some explosions will take place. First the vent will blow off revealing a missile expansion behind the vent. Then some space pirates will fall out of some larger vents up ahead and die right on the spot, which means that you won't have to fight any pirates in here. Switch to your wave beam and space jump over to the thin ledge where the missile expansion is at and get in your morphball. Roll your way in or bomb jump yourself into the cubby hole where the missile expansion is at and grab it and get out. Then proceed down the steps and to the purple door. Shoot the door open and go through with your power beam switched on. Elite Control- Keep walking forward until you have an open view on your right. You'll see a large capsule sitting on the otherside of the room behind some computers. When you make a step or three forward to the computers or capsule, a cutscene will start showing something inside smash through the capsule. This overgrown monster is an Elite Pirate and really is nothing more than a big cuddly teddy bear if you ask me. First their attacks: their main attack is to pound the ground sending out a huge electric shockwave that'll disrupt your visor. These guys will also fire a red orb from a cannon on their back if you are too far away from them to reach you. If you are too close, they'll take a big nasty swipe with their claws. These are one of the few pirate also to sport a defense mechanism and their's is to hold up their hand where a yellow ball of energy will radiate, their energy-syphon system. This energy will suck in any type of attack you throw at it and negate or reflect it, whether it be beam fire, missiles, super missiles, etc. This defense mechanism more than anything will be what they will employ when you face them. In order to kill them, you'll have to wait until they aren't using their defense mechanism, and then you will simply fire 2 super missiles in order to kill them, or 5 or 7 power beam shots. The great thing about these guys is that they are so slow that you can literally run laps around them. These guys will constantly try to get up close to you and will take brakes to either do their shockwave or cannon attack. What you should do is keep your lock on them, back up slowly or circle around them while maintaining your lock to find that opening where they will stop using their energy-syphon system, and then you'll do your attack. When this elite pirate is dead, he'll fall to the ground creating an electric shockwave that'll disrupt a local force field on this floor. The force field will come down and you'll more than likely hear some space pirate battle cries. There are two ice troopers, yes ice versions of the beam troopers, on a floor just above. The funny thing is that one of them is freaked out about you being there and will be jumping and moving all over the second floor to get a look at you, while the other is just standing not realizing whats going on. You are going to switch on your ice beam, charge it, and aim toward the ceiling where you'll try to get a view of the two ice troopers on the second floor. If you position yourself correctly enough on the bottom floor you can get a clear shot of the ice trooper that isn't moving. The ice trooper that is will be hopping around and will sometimes jump right next to the ice trooper that isn't moving. Shoot the ice trooper that isn't moving with the charged ice beam shot and time it so that the ice trooper that is jumping around gets frozen when he jumps near the first ice trooper. They'll both be frozen and from there you'll fire a regular missile at them to blow them up. When thats done, go to the area that was opened up from the force field and follow the walkway up, charge your ice beam on the way up. The walkway will snail along the wall to another walkway that'll take you to the floor where the two ice troopers were at. When you step on that walkway, a third ice trooper will be alerted to your presence and will sprint down a walkway connecting the third floor to the second. Rush toward that walkway he's barreling down and nail him with the charged ice beam shot and give him a missile, if you don't want to waste missiles than just keep giving him charged ice beam shots to eventually blow him up. When he's dead go check out the computers on the third floor he was at, and bust out your scan visor. You'll notice another force field, to the left of the force field are two computers with red scan blocks. The second computer, the one that is further to the left of the force field than the other is the one that you should scan to bring down the force field. The force field will come down and will reveal an area where up in the ceiling will be a white door to jump up into. However, their are some crates on the third floor near the other set of computers you saw as you came up the walkway that you'll be happy to check out for ammo and health. If you face the computer you scanned to bring down the force field directly and do a 180 degree turn, you'll be facing these computers where the crates are at. Ventilation Shaft- When you land inside, you'll find yourself at the beggining of a large, horizontal shaft. Before you jump down into the rest of the shaft, aim down and look to the left side of the room. You should see a small passageway on the floor below on the left side of this room. Here is what you are going to do: hold L so that you are locked in place and jump down as far left into the shaft as possible, do a space jump before you land and try to further your distance leftward to get closer to this hallway. When you hit the floor, the shaft will start pumping poison gas and puffers into the room. The half-pipe part of the shaft will be enveloped with poisonous gas and will start to sap your health. So head along the small hallway on the left side of this shaft to the next door and go through it. Omega Research- Alot of people approach this room the wrong way all the time, and who can blame them? This room features two main floors with loads of stuff to keep you busy. You are on the top floor right now and you'll see some computers right infront of you on your right. Continuing beyond the area with the computers are at are two wave troopers. One is down a small corridor on the right as you exit the area with the computers, he'll be alerted to your presence within the first step you take beyond the area with the computers. The most likely thing is that he'll stay in the corridor and start pumping beam fire in your direction, his shots will have a hard time reaching you because his position in the corridor blocks a couple of his shots. Then again, this wave trooper might just jump up the corridor and barrel down toward you. If you proceed forward about 2 or 3 more steps, maybe even as soon as the first wave trooper spots you, a second wave trooper will come falling straight down the ceiling onto a floating platform that is some distance away from the floor you are on. On the floor below are the 3 power troopers, 1 will be on the side of the room that you entered this room from, and the other two will be on the complete opposite side of the room you came from. Of the two on the otherside of this room, one will periodically walk back and forth from a capusle where an Elite Pirate is being held, don't worry that elite pirate won't come out, to the other end of the room right infront of small alcove where the room to the next door is at. Since there is nothing in this room that we really want to do and we just want to get to that door, we are going to do something really crazy for you noobs. First have your ice beam ready. Then barrel forward and jump down to the floor below, the second you step beyond the computer area, the two wave troopers will be alerted and make their move, except their move is to stay in place and just shoot at you. You are going to try to land infront of the alcove where the power trooper is moving around, dash inside looking down at the floor for the door, and hit it with an ice beam shot to go through the door. I bet more than anything that you got nailed a couple of times by the shots from the power trooper, but imagine how much time you would have spent fighting everyone and how much damage you might have taken in the fight. I can't emphasize enough how much better going through this room this way is gonna be for you. Dynamo Access- When you land down here, rush toward the door. On your way to the next door, you'll see on your left a capsule holding an elite pirate. Ignore him, he won't wake up. Get through the door with your wave beam switched on. Central Dynamo-Power Bomb ------------------------- This is the central power station of the Phazon Mines. In the middle of the Dynamo is a large cylindrical device radiating with electricity. Patrolling the Dynamo device is a sentry drone that is invisible, you can't see it nor will you ever really be able to see it once you engage it. What you will see though are its attacks and from where those attacks are coming from, the sentry drone itself. Charge your wave beam and jump down to the floor where the Dynamo device is at. Halfway through your fall, or when you hit the floor, the sentry drone will be activated and make its move. It'll circle around you before getting in your face and starting its attacks: as always they include drifting to the side and firing machine gun rounds at you or streaming two lasers at you. You have to choices at attacking this thing, you can either activate your wave buster, which will automatically lock itself onto the sentry drone if you are facing in the sentry drones general direction, and loose 10 to 30 missiles. Or you can try and nail it with 3 or 4 charged wave beam shots, this way is harder and not recommended since the drone has shielding on its left and right that will reflect your wave beam shots. You'll have to hit the drone directly in the face with the wave beam shots in order to hurt it, and this thing really likes to move around making it a little harder. I myself choose to use the wave buster, most of the time. When the drone is done, he'll blow himself up opening a cap in the base of the Dynamo device that will reveal a space big enough for you morphball to get through. Get in your morphball and look for the new hole and drop inside. You'll be in an underground floor and you can't get back out until you finish this puzzle. This maze features electric walls that will give you a nasty jolt inclined to shave off your health, how much health depends on how long you touched the fence but touching the fence for too long can make a difference in how much health you loose. Luckily the fence pushes you away from it whenever you touch it. Unfortunatelythis maze is so random that me telling you which way to go would do you more harm than good, as someone who has beaten Metroid Prime more than 3 dozen times I can attest to it. The grid never stays the same for each game, it always changes which way you'll maneuver through it. I will say that you should pick a direction to go in and follow it until you find a dead end, then turnaround and find a new direction to go in, simple as that. At various parts of the maze you'll find yellow electric fence lines that will periodically go on and off, they'll go off long enough for you to go through them, take advantage of that. Also take advantage of small puddles littered throughout the maze, if you lay a morphball bomb in these puddles, some of the electrical walls around thepuddle will come down opening up the area appreciably. Ultimately this maze ends at a yellow orb that happens to be the Power Bomb. When you grab it, a cutscene will start showing Samus use it to destroy the Dynamo device and bomb jump herself out of the maze. As you saw from the cutscene, the power bomb is a very powerful weapon. One power bomb will instantly incinerate space and shadow pirates, most of the wildlife on Tallon IV, and will blow up all varieties of metroid instantly. This weapon won't have much effect on beam troopers, and will have very limited effect on elite pirates, it does some damage on them just not a whole lot. Don't be misled by this weapon though, first you can't use it an infinite number of times, you start with a capacity of 4 power bombs but the game takes one away because of the cutscene of Samus using one on the Dynamo device. Second, the range of this weapon is kind of limited, I've used this weapon on some pirates that ganged up on me once and one was alive because he was on the otherside of the room. I'll let you know when is the best time to actually use this weapon since ammo is so low and so scarce to find. When you are done, I want you to boost your way to the side of the room where a bunch of steps are at with a pile of rubble at the top Power bomb that pile of rubble then turn around and look on the right for a platform glowing a bluish-purple. Jump on over to that platform and start jumping across the other platforms dangling from the ceiling. You'll continue along one more along the wall, and then jump to two other sets that cut northeast through the middle of the room, then you'll go for the platforms that travel along the wall on the left. When you arrive at that platform after the two sets of platforms that are in the middle of the room, you are going to look down to the floor below for some crates, fire a charged ice beam shot to blow them up. Hopefully you'll see small yellow orbs with a purplish-yellow flare around them, those would be power bomb ammo. Charge your beam and let them come to you, then jump to the next platforms on your right. These next two platforms will coil around a wall on your left and will stop a short distance from the entrance where the door to the Dynamo Access is at. Shoot the door as you jump over to it and get in your morphball on the way through the door. You should have 4 power bombs left when you leave this room, if not then move on ahead anyway. An important note about power bomb ammo. All the way up to the next save station we get into, we will be in a constant and desperate search for power bomb ammo. So try to keep track of it as much as possible, know how many rounds you have left after you use one. If you find you need to use a power bomb, but don't have any ammo, then you can go back to the rooms you were leaving from and kill all the enemies there to get more rounds. Ideally though, you should be picking up ammo as you go through each room and are following my guide. After each room, I'll comment on how many rounds of power bomb ammo I typically have when I go from one room to another. Dynamo Access- Boost ball your way through the door and take a look at the top right hand corner of your screen to see how much power bomb ammo you have. There should be a hexagon with a number right beside it, if that number doesn't say 4, then we are going to do what we can to get more ammo later on. When you reach the door to the Omega Research, open it and get through, switching on your power beam as you do so. Omega Research- When you get back up here, this place will be completely empty, no beam troopers around here curiously enough. But when you step out into the main area, a cutscene will start showing an elite pirate burst through a force field. Again take him out with 2 super missiles or charged power beam shots. The great thing about this fight is that the computers are immediately blocking his path and sometimes make him a deer in the headlights. You can even make this fight a whole lot easier if you go up to the top floor and from there take him out. He can't reach you with his attacks and isn't prone to using his artillery canon, even though he just might, and even better is that he also isn't prone to using his energy syphon system. Once you are the top floor, take the time to also destroy some of the crates around here if you don't have 4 rounds of power bomb ammo. You'll only find crates on the top floor, so don't bother with the bottom. Whether or not you found ammo or not, head for the door to the Ventilation Shaft. Enter your morphball as you enter this room. You should have 4 power bomb rounds if you didn't get some in the Central Dynamo, if not then move ahead. ventilation Shaft-energy tank ----------------------------- There is a small single tile straight ahead that when exposed to a power bomb, will blow straight off. There is just one problem, the poison gas fills the room and leaves you the very small space with fresh air. What you can do, if you can't figure out where this tile is, exit your morphball upon entering the room, bust out your scan visor and try to look for a red scan block in the floor ahead. That red scan block is where the tile is at. You can also lay a power bomb at the exact spot where the air starts to turn poisonous and blow the tile right off. What I like to do is just roll ahead ontop of the tile, tough out the poison gas for a few seconds and lay a power bomb. When the tile blows off, you'll fall into a small tunnel where the air will be poison-free. The tunnel is big enough for your morphball and leads rightward behind the caged-vent/wall on the right side of the Ventilation Shaft. At the end of the tunnel you will exit your morphball and whip out your scan visor. Look around for a scan panel, when the scan panel is scanned it'll activate a fan that'll blow the puffers and poison gas out of the room and reveal an energy tank. Enter your morphball once more and use the tunnel to get back to the main/half-pipe area of the room. Go get the energy tank on the otherside of the room, get back to the half-pipe and enter your morphball. You are going to use your boost ball to go up the half-pipe to get to the other entrance of this room. You are going to go for the door to the Elite Control, in order to figure out which way to go you are going to activate your map and figure out which direction you are facing and which direction for the door to the Elite Control is. When you are done with the map, you can exit it and look up the half-pipe for the direction to the door for the Elite Control. Then just boost yourself up the half-pipe and get through the door to the Elite Control. I usually have three power bomb rounds after leaving this room... Elite Control- There are 6 shadow pirates in this room. The first three are dangling from the ceiling above the third floor, the second three are hanging from the ceiling above the 1st floor. First off feel free to use your thermal visor if you want to see the shadow pirates. This is how you are going to do this, you are going to make a straight bee-line for the ramp-walkway that takes you from the third floor to the second floor. On your way there, 2 pirates grouped together on the left will come down, a third on the right will come down straight on your bee-line to the ramp-walkway. You'll catch it in a split second and will strafe to your right in that split second continuing to the ramp-walkway, remember that the shadow pirates will try to continue following you where ever you go albeit rather slowly. Jump over the railing of the ramp-walkway to the open area of the second floor and then jump over the railing of this floor onto the ramp-walkway that'll send you to the first floor. You will stop at the left turn that you'll have to take to continue along the path down to the first floor and will instead look to your right. What you will see is an open space to jump through down to the first floor, you also will see the shadow pirates dangling above the 1st floor from here. So jump down toward the door to the Elite Control Access, remember you can always bring up your map real quick to get your directions straight. You are going to try and jump as far as possible to the Elite Control Access door, and will utilize your second jump, the space jump, to get further along to the door. When you hit the floor, the three shadow pirates hanging on the ceiling of the first floor will come down, and you'll switch on your wave beam head for the door, nail it with a wave shot and go through. Piece of cake. If you don't have at least 3 power bombs when you leave this room, then you can fight all the shadow pirates in this room and go through all the crates on the top floor to get some more, but it'll take time off the speed run goal. Elite Control Access- From here you will proceed onto the door to Elevator A. The last time you came through here, there were space pirates in the ceiling, but there won't be whenever you come back through this room from Elite Control to Elevator A. Elevator A- If you still didn't get any power bomb ammo at all, then this will be your last shot. At the entrance to Elevator A are 3 explosive crates. Destroy them for ammo or health, preferably power bomb ammo. Nail the door at the top and go through. Elevator Access A- This access shaft travels upward and you will have to access a spider track at the wall. As you travel up the track, you'll have to navigate through the pulse bombu tentacles. The great thing is that you don't have to worry about visor disruption, no other enemies to worry about on the way up, just avoiding the tentacles in order not to get knocked down to the floor will be your only worry. Ore Processing- Once you come back out here, look toward your right for a bomb slot device that is being blocked by some rubble. Jump over to it and lay a power bomb on that rubble to remove it. At this point I usually have 2 power bomb rounds left...When the rubble is out of the way get in the bomb slot and align the yellow line/spider track so that it aligns with the yellow spider track protruding from the top floor. Then you are going to have to jump down to the second and first floors to align the yellow spider tracks here with the yellow spider track at the top. When that is done, use the yellow spider track from the bottom floor to get to the top floor. You'll be plopped in front of a door, go through that door. Storage Depot-Grapple Beam -------------------------- In the middle of this room you will spot the grapple beam, grab it and then get out. If you don't remember what this is, its the device that lets you swing to and from select grapple points in the game. You actually had it at the beggining of the game but lost it. Now you got it back. Get back out to Ore Processing. Ore Processing- When you come out here, look leftward and rightward, you'll see some faint-orange circles with a claw like logo. These are grapple points, when you get close enough to use/swing from the grapple points, they'll glow a bluish-white. All you have to do then is just hold L to snap your grapple beam at the grapple point and swing to the otherside. However, I don't want you to use the grapple point, I want you to jump straight down to the bottom floor and to get through the white door. Research Access- The last time we came through here, we jumped down the shaft in order to save time. This time we don't have that option, the way is up, the only way up is a spider track, and at 2 points in the spider track are rotating blocks that'll knock you down if you get in their way as they pass through. Its very simple, just go up the spider track and wait for the opening through the block in order to get through. Then just get through the door while switching on your power beam as you do so. Elite Research-chozo artifact ----------------------------- When you get back out here, get in your morphball and drop straight to the bottom as quickly as possible since there might be gun turrets all over the top floor. Roll right next to the large capsule in the middle of the room and lay a power bomb. A cutscene will start showing a steroid-version of an elite pirate called a Phazon Elite burst through the capsule. If you are doing a scan-run, then scan him when he first pops out as he only appears once. He sports everything the elite pirates have except he moves a little quicker then the elite pirates and doesn't have his artillery cannon, which means his only long range attack will be his ground shockwave. Approach this guy like you would the elite pirates, get a lock on him and circle around him, navigating carefully between the computers so you don't get backed up against a corner. This guy has more health than elite pirates, so you will want to feed him 4 super missiles in order to kill him quickly. When he's dead, a chozo artifact will be revealed where the capsule was, go grab it and then head for the door to Security Access B. 1 power bomb left... Security Access B- Make your way to the Mine Security Station, remember that there are 2 shadow pirates in the ceiling behind each pipe fence. Kill them and pray for power bomb ammo as their prize. As you go through the door to the Mine Security Station, switch to your ice beam and charge it. Mine Security Station- When you drop back down here, proceed straight forward and an ice trooper will come straight from the ceiling. Give him the charged ice beam blast and missile him. Before you go any further, look for a caged-fence that is conceiling some computers. This fence is near the door to Security Access B. Lets say you just dropped down from Security Access B into this room, if you proceeded straight ahead say 4 or 5 steps, then you would have the ice trooper on your left, and the fence that I'm talking about on the right. This fence also has a red scan block if you try to scan it. You are going to lay a power bomb on it to reveal some computers, scan the computers when the fence is down to bring down a force field on another part of this room. Alright now we are going to make our way to the door to Security Access A. On the way down, you will deal with 3 ice troopers, you'll only have to deal with them in the area where you first dealt with wave troopers. The first of the three ice troopers you encounter will come down alone, but the last two will sort of come together. After the first ice trooper, you'll keep moving forward and encounter the second ice trooper, the third ice trooper is just around the corner and he'll come down as soon as the second ice trooper comes down and will join him to confront you. If you encounter the second ice trooper with the third nowhere nearby, by all means feed him a charged ice beam shot and missile him. But if you encounter both of them together then you are in luck because you can fire a charged ice beam shot and hopefully they'll both freeze and will blow up from one missile shot. Around the corner that'll take you to the other part of this room will be a mega turret. You'll encounter the mega turret in the steep hallway that goes downward to take you the other area of this room where you will encounter the wave troopers. When you see this mega turret, take him out and then proceed as planned down the hall. When you are going to turn left, you'll encounter the first wave trooper. He'll spot you and from that spot where you are about to turn left in order to continue down the hall you will no doubt stop and take him out from there since there is a wall on your left that you can use for cover. A second wave trooper will come to join him when you attack the first wave trooper, he might take his time in order to join him, but most of the time he will make an effort to. When you turn left around the corner and proceed further on through the hall, you'll no doubt spot the third wave trooper hanging from the ceiling around the corner, you can actually get a lock and land a shot on him on the first or third step you make around the corner from where you took out the first wave trooper. The third wave trooper will come down from the ceiling as soon as you shoot him or if you take a step or two beyond the pipe-fence thats closest to him. Around the corner on the right is the fourth wave trooper and he will come down as soon as you take a step beyond the pipe fence thats between you and him, or if you shoot him. I really want you to make an effort to kill all of the enemies in here and hopefully pick up power bomb rounds for later because really soon we are going to need them in a couple of big ways. So go ahead and take your time taking these guys out, cause I do it regularly. Security Access A- There are two shadow pirates that will burst from the ceiling in this room, stick to the left wall and rush down it to the door. The door will be at the end of the room on the left, so make sure you ice it quickly and go through. If you have low power bomb rounds or none at all, then do take them out with ice-missile combos and the crates in here as well. Main Quarry- Now we are going to haul @$$ toward the door to the Quarry Access. You are going to space jump onto the floor on your right, and will rush toward the steps up ahead switching on your wave beam as you do so. As you make it to the steps, charge and fire a quick wave beam shot at the crates and walk into any ammo or health, hopefully power bomb ammo. You are going to hop over each step to the door for the Quarry Access, home free. Quarry Access- Head for the door to the Transport to Tallon Overworld South at the other end of the room. Transport to Tallon Overworld South- Jump into the hologram to get yourself back to the Tallon Overworld. ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Transport to Phazon Mines East- Nail the door and go through, be ready for the seedling in the next room, take him out when you see him. Transport Tunnel E- Keep on going to the door to the Great Tree Hall, ice beam any seedlings you see here and go through the door to the Great Tree Hall. Make sure you ice beam the seedlings before you run into the spot they were at so you can run into any ammo they left. Great Tree Hall- When you come out here, you are going to jump to and from some platforms and ledges littered throughout this room that will take you to the top. The first platform is right across from you protruding from the huge tree in the middle of the room, the second is a ledge/platform protruding from the wall behind to the left of the first platform, the third is a ledge/walkway that snakes up along the wall to the right of the second platform, the fourth platform also protrudes from the huge tree in the middle of the room and is directly above the first platform. The first, second, and fourth platform all have seedlings on them. Once you step out into this room, nail the seedlings in the first and second platforms from the door to Transport Tunnel E. Then hop your way over to the first, second, and finally third platforms, pick up any ammo or health they left behind as you make your way across the platforms. When you are at the third platform, take out the fourth seedling by either shooting it or the blood sac next to it, then jump over to the fourth platform and collect anything that the seedling left for you. Once you are on the fourth platform, jump over to the ledge-walkway on your right. It ends at a spinner device that you will enter and use to bring down a fence. When it comes down, we will now have open access from the Chozo Ruins to the Phazon Mines. Continue traveling upward and you'll immediately spot the bloodflower to the right along the wall ice-missile combo it the second you spot it. And continue toward the ledge that is infront of the white door. As you reach it, make sure to quickly turn to the left and ice beam the seedling on the platform coming out of the wall, remember to charge your ice beam on the way over to that ledge. When you reach the ledge, turn completely around so that your back is facing the door and look up and ahead on the right for another blood flower, ice-missile combo him and make your way to the ledge he's at by space jumping over to the platform the seedling was at and then jumping over to the ledge the blood flower was at. The law of averages says that with all the enemies you killed from the Transport to Phazon Mines East to the ledge you are at in the Great Tree Hall, you must have gotten one power bomb round. When you land on the spot the blood flower was at, turn downward and to your left for a ledge with some sort of piping with spider tracks on it. Jump down to it and get in your morphball. Peg yourself to the spider track and ride it upward on this pipe, the track will end right next to another spider track that continue on upward. Bomb jump yourself onto the spider track to your left and ride it to the top. The spider track will end just a foot away from the ledge, so bomb jump yourself over to the ledge, or just let go of the track when you see morphball's shadow over the ledge (you'll see it very faintly so be careful). Then when you are on the ledge, go through the door and get back in your morphball as you go through as well. Life Grove Tunnel-missile expansion ----------------------------------- This part of the room is very small, and in the corner of the floor ahead of you is wall that can be brought down with a power bomb, the wall can also be identified with a red scan block. Put a power bomb in the wall and go through the newly revealed tunnel. When you are inside the tunnel, you'll be panned back to a 2-D view. Keep on traveling rightward, you'll eventually have to bomb jump yourself into a half-pipe. A large egg-shaped structure bordering the wall of this half-pipe forms a sort of race-track in this part of the Life Grove Tunnel. When you are in the half-pipe, boost up the half-pipe to the top of the egg-shaped structure in the middle of the half-pipe and lay a morphball bomb. You'll fall down into the egg-shaped structure landing through a missile expansion, a greater missile capacity for you, and bringing you back through into the half-pipe. Boost your way up the half-pipe and get into the morphball tunnel on the right in the middle of the half-pipe. The Life Grove Tunnel will eventually open up into the Life Grove, the next room, so just remember to continue rightward when you go through the Life Grove Tunnel until you get into the next room. Remember the number of power bombs you have as you go into the next room. Life Grove-X-Ray Visor, chozo artifact -------------------------------------- Exit your morphball when you are out of the tunnel, jump down onto the rock protruding out of the water like an island and grab the item in the middle of it. This is the X-Ray visor and with it you have all the visors in the game and a new way of looking at the world. The x-ray visor isn't a complete x-ray, instead it helps you see solid objects and enemies that are invisible with either the combat or thermal visors. This weapon is also great for use in the dark, many areas of the space pirate base in Phendrana are pitch black and the thermal visor is only good for seeing your enemies heat signature. But inanimate objects don't carry a heat signature, so with the x-ray visor you can get a healthy view of your surroundings in the dark. To add onto that, you can even use it in broad day-light where either looking into the sun, the exposed phazon rock on Thardus, or in the Magmoor Caverns without your x-ray visor overloading. Have you ever wondered what Samus' hand looks like inside her arm cannon? Well if you switch on your x-ray visor, you can see Samus' arm and how it changes from one beam to another. Her hands spreads and contracts according to the hand symbol on the beam-rune on your bottom left or right hand corner of your HUD. The bad thing is that this visor works from white to gray and distinguishing from one solid object to another can be difficult sometimes. When the game is finished prompting you, do one of two things, either go straight forward to the wall and lay a power bomb, or look around inside this dome for a seedling to kill. The game will give you a power bomb round when you kill the seedling, or eventually will, its guaranteed unless your games glitched. The walls will fall apart on the dome, when it does, I want you to go straight forward or to the bed of water where a waterfall is at. In the middle of this bed of water is a piece of tile that must be blown off with a morphball bomb. This tile features a red scan block for identification. When the tile is blown off, a cylindrical pipe will come out of the floor with a spinner device at its base. Get inside the spinner device and use it, doing so will run a mechanism that will rotate a ledge clockwise on "12", then raise the ledge a couple of feet off the water along with another cylindrical pipe that has a chozo artifact in it. You are going to get out of your morphball and jump onto the bank, dry land, on either the left or right of this newly revealed structure. From there you will space jump over to the ledge protruding out of the ground and head over to the chozo artficat. When you grab it, turn around so that you are facing the dome where you got the x-ray visor and switch on your power beam. You are going to go to the wall on the rightside of this room and will head for the area of this wall where you'll see morphball size tunnels ethced into the wall. There is a flat-rock coming out of the water near the base of the tree that is on this rightside wall, from this rock you will space jump up onto a ledge platform protruding from the wall with the morphball tunnels, this platform is almost straight above the rock from where you are jumping and the jump itself might look impossible, but this is the way you are going to get through the game. From this ledge/platform you will jump, yes jump, into the part of the morphball tunnel that is running vertically; it'll be just like the time you jumped into that morphball tunnel in the Ruined Nursery of the Chozo Ruins. When you are standing inside the morphball tunnel, you have a choice, you can either make your way to the makeshift bridge-step by turning around and space jumping over to it(which I recommend) or you can get in your morphball and use the morphball tunnel to get up there. But once you are on you are going to make your way to the waterfall. Around the tree are makeshift platforms and walkways that'll eventually lead to a ledge to the left of the waterfall. Within the 3 to 5 seconds of landing on this ledge, a cutscene will start showing 3 chozo ghosts pop out of the roof of the dome where you got your x-ray visor. This is where you x-ray visor shines, with the x-ray visor on, you will always see wherethe chozo ghosts are at; it'll pick them up when they phaze in or out of the regular visibility spectrum. The chozo ghosts will move to different positions of the room before they launch their attack. The positions they'll go to are at the roof of the dome where you got the x-ray visor, the ledge-walkways to the left and right of the waterfall, the steps or walkway on the two trees in this room, on top of the branches of the trees, and the platforms on the left and right sides of this room, basically anything you can stand on is where they'll launch their attacks. The great thing about chozo ghosts is that they don't like melee combat, they like to fire hadokens at you. These guys won't be shy about moving to the exact spot or right beside the spot you are on. You'll start off the fight against these guys by jumping over to the ledge thats on the otherside of the waterfall. When you land, have your x-ray visor ready and a charged power beam shot. The first two chozo ghosts will either move onto the bridge-ledge thats on the tree on the leftside of the room or on the concrete ledge-walkway on the otherside of the waterfall. That'll be the positionsthat they'll be more than likely to move to first, and then who knows where else they'll go since its really random(take it from a guy who's been through this game dozens of times). But I tell you where they might go so you can look at those spots or in those directions, get a lock, and then fire a super missile with a follow up charged power beam shot. This fight will be easy with the attainment of the x-ray visor, the only thing that'll disappointment me will be if you panic and jump down to the floor below. Do not do that, my advice with this fight is to stay on that ledge-floor/walkway whatever thats on the side of the waterfall and from here you will take out all 3 of the chozo ghosts. When the chozo ghosts throw their attacks, you will simply move a step or two tothe left or right, forward or backward but more than likely left and right. When they're all dead, the bottom beak of a chozo bust protruding above the dome where you found the x-ray visor will blow right off revealing a morphball hole under it. Now we are going to make our way over there; start by jumping over to the mini-bridge on the tree branch, then jump over to the ledge that protrudes from the wall on the left, from here you'll jump to another ledge that continues along the wall and then finally from that ledge onto the roof of the dome. Head over to the chozo bust and get in your morphball, drop down into the morphball hole. You'll land in the entrance that connects the Life Grove to the Life Grove Tunnel, continue into the tunnel. Jobs done... Life Grove Tunnel- In here you will continue leftward through the tunnel making your way all the way back to the Great Tree Hall. Great Tree Hall- When you come out here, switch on your x-ray visor and approach the edge of the floor. Look down and you'll spot a platform floating in mid-air on the otherside of the room down below. Infact, its above the ledge floor that acts as an entrance to the white door down below. You can choose to take out both of the blood flowers if you want, I usually do, but do them quickly. What I usually do is just take out the blood flowers on the left and right quickly with ice-missile combos really quickly and then jump down to the platform below, playing the game over and over again will give you the ability to speed and multi-task everything so quickly that doing these kinds of things won't drag on your time; remember that the blood flowers only require regular ice beam shots not charged ones. When you are on that invisible platform turn toward your right and look for a door behind and to the left, your left, of the tree. Space jump over from the platform to that ledge where the door is at and go through, don't worry about the seedling. Great Tree Chamber-missile expansion ------------------------------------ You'll see a missile expansion on a pedestal in the middle of the room. Grab it and get back out the way you came. Great Tree Hall- Jump down to the white door in this area of the Great Tree Hall and go through it, be ready for some seedlings in the next room. Transport Tunnel D- On your way through, kill the seedlings with ice beam shots, take advantage of the blood sac and shoot it to kill most, if not all, the seedlings in the room, make sure to pickup any leftover they leave for you as you go through the room. Transport to Chozo Ruins South- Scan the scan panel to activate the elevator and get into the hologram to get yourself to the Chozo Ruins. =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Tallon Overworld South- Nail the door ahead of you and go through Transport Access South- Proceed down the access to the door and go through the door. Reflecting Pool- Now we are back in the Reflecting Pool, you are going to go the Save Station door in this room, it'll be the door on the left-side on this floor. Save Station 3*- { F.9 } Get in the save capsule in this room and save your game. Next save will be quite possibly the longest one we do, but it'll also be the most eventful because we'll pick up alot of expansions for your missiles, power bombs, energy tanks, chozo artifacts, and the high-powered rifle of the game. When you are done here, get out of here and make sure you have your ice beam switched on as you do so. Reflecting Pool- You will head for the door to the Reflecting Pool Access, it'll be on your left in the floor below. If you don't have power bomb rounds, then kill all the stone toads and get the ammo they leave behind. Reflecting Pool Access- Upon getting inside, boost ball your way through the access, lay a bomb at the door and exit your morphball when you lay the bomb to open the door. Then go through and position your manual aim downward at 45 degrees and lock it with L as you go through the next room. Hall of Elders- We are going to go to the door to the Crossway Access South. This door is the other white door in the room, the white door that is directly across from the large chozo statue in the middle of the room. What I like to do is hop through the window, the space that had a blue force-field you brought down, onto that walkway that'll take you to the colored bomb slots. When I land onto this walkway I jump down to the bottom floor in the direction of the white door, which means you'll just be heading northward or straight ahead. Again here I like to do my little multi-task technique that I employed in the Reflecting Pool since I'm going to have to be in my morphball in the next room, I like to use it everywhere I can in order to save precious seconds. Crossway Access South- In the middle of the access is a pipe system that acts as a fence, there is just enough space at the bottom of these pipes for you to get through with your morphball. There was also a morphball tunnel on the left wall at the beggining of the access as well. You'll have seen it as a little red-brown stain or tile in the wall, its that indistinguishable. That little morphball tunnel will get you through to the otherside of the access as well, but its like a second longer through the access if you do it this way. Just go ahead and go under the pipe fence with your morphball and be ready for another white door at the end of the access. Crossway- You'll be back at the Crossway, turn leftward and go for the door. Crossway Access West- By now you already know what I'm going to say about this room since you've been through it a few times. Get through the pile of rubble in the middle of the room and get through that morphball. Furnace-missile expansion ------------------------- If we had went to this room through the other white door, in the room, then we would have fought 3 chozo ghosts in here. But going through Crossway Access South saved us from the fight and valuable time. Stay in your morphball as you enter this room and go straight ahead for the wall on the otherside of the room. On this side of the room should be a bumpy/rocky floor, lay a power bomb on it. The floor will crumble away revealing a half-pipe. On the wall, above the half-pipe, will be some piping or tubing of sorts with spider tracks connected to them with some parasites roaming them as well; the beggining of an interesting puzzle. Start boosting yourself up the half-pipe, your aim is to get yourself all the way up to the pipe with the spider track and latch onto the spider track. Becareful not to get knocked down by the parasites, if you see that one's coming at you, then you quickly lay a bomb and proceed leftward. Leftward will be the direction you will want to go in anyways since the path around the spider track will land just below another spider track path. Bomb jump yourself up onto the next spider track and follow it to another pipe. This pipe is connected from the wall to another wall on the otherside of the room, and it won't sport a spider track for you to use like the others you just used. Instead you'll have to gently roll across the pipe taking care not to fall down and not to get knocked down by the parasites crawling around this pipe. The parasites you'll encounter on this pipe will not come in your direction, but will instead stay at 3 fixed spots around the pipe and navigate around the circular part of the pipe. So as you make your way to the other end of this pipe, you'll have to stop shortly and see at which intervals along the pipe the parasites are crawling around; when you spot them just wait for them to get out of the way and then quickly get through the interval they are at. The great thing about getting through the spots where the intervals are at is that the parasites will give you a really nice amount of time to get through, just don't abuse it! At the end of the pipe will be another pipe right above it with a spider track on it. Bomb jump to it and latch on, then travel to the other end of the spider track. This spider track will end just above another spider track that you'll have to just fall down to, it doesn't get any simpler than just letting go of R, and then clicking and holding R midway down to the next spider track. Once you are on this next spider track, you'll find that it'll end just above another pipe without a spider track on it. The really huge problem with getting to this pipe is that the fall down to it is really high and the camera angle doesn't give you a clear enough indication of your position according to the pipe you want to get to. What you are going to have to do is look down at the pipe you want to get to for the shadow of the morphball. Move up and down the spider track you are on right now so that you can figure out at which spot on the spider track you need to be at. The shadow of the morphball will still be really faint, so it'll be hard to land anyways, but when you can see your shadow on the pipe below, just fall down to it. This part might be one of those moments in the game that'll really test your patience. When you land on the pipe, navigate to the other end where a spider track will be at as you did the other pipe. Then bomb jump yourself onto that spider track that travels upward and get over to that missile expansion. Getting through this part requires patience and not even I like to rush it when I do it. Although I still like to get it over with it as quick as possible without rushing myself, take whatever time you need. When you've got the missile expansion, get back down to the floor and then get through the tunnel to the other part of the Furnace. You are going to go to the West Furnace Access. West Furnace Access- Zip through here with the boost ball, exit your morphball and charge your ice beam as the door opens. Energy Core- You are going to go for the dor to the Energy Core Access which is on the otherside of the room. When you open the door and go through fire an ice beam shot at anyone of the shriekbats perched ahead. Killing them is good so that we can get some power bomb ammo for later on, but remember to do all of this passively and efficiently with regards to time. As always, multi-task with things like these, shoot the shriekbats on the first step you take into the Energy Core and continue proceeding ahead. As you continue onto the door to the Access, charge your ice beam and to bring in the ammo, and use it to nail the door up ahead. Energy Core Access- Make your way through to the East Atrium as quickly as possible, get in your morphball when you are entering the door to the East Atrium. East Atrium- Boost your way through the Atrium to the Gathering Hall, continue going through the Gathering Hall in your morphball. Gathering Hall- Roll on down all the way to the bottom trying to fall infront of the door to the Gathering Hall Access. Bomb the door and go through. Gathering Hall Access- Boost your way through the access to the door to the Arboretum, exit morphball mode on the way through the door. Arboretum- Now you are going to go to the Arboretum Access. The chozo ghosts will come out though so you are going to have to jump across the platforms to the door to the Access. You'll go around the right of the tree thats in the middle of the room, jumping from platform to platform until you get to the door, then just go through the door. Arboretum Access- We are going to need at least one power bomb round for the next couple of rooms. So if you don't have any here, what you will do is quickly fire a charged ice beam shot at the shriekbats that are in this room and will collect the supplies they leave for you, hopefully a power bomb round is in here. Ruined Fountain- Upon entering this room, turn left for a door tucked into the wall. Space jump over to the door and go through it, charging your ice beam as you do so. Meditation Fountain- This room will be like the many atriums you've been through in the Chozo Ruins, in the middle of the room are blast caps that you should kill with your ice beam shot. As always, don't bother yourself too much with killing and collecting ammo if you are aiming for speed run. Multi-task these kinds of things; walk through as normal, but fire the charged ice beam shot at the blast caps and run into the supplies they leave for you as you do so. Magma Pool-power bomb expansion ------------------------------- When you enter this room, a huge pool of lava will litter the lower floor. You'll be on a ledge safely away from the lava and another ledge just like it is on the otherside of the room. Dangling above the lava pool are grapple points which you can use to swing to the otherside this room to the other ledge. Swing yourself to the other ledge, and upon arriving destroy the crates nearby to get some supplies if you don't or aren't sure if you don't have power bomb ammo. Behind the crates is a wall that can be destroyed with a power bomb to reveal a power bomb expansion, this wall can also be identified with a red scan block. When you get the power bomb expansion, remove yourself from this little area where the power bomb expansion is and look for a purple door that is tucked deep into the wall, so deep that is might as well be a hallway to the door I'm talking about. Go through that door, and get in your morphball as you do so. Training Chamber Access-missile expansion ----------------------------------------- When you enter this room, boost your way through to the end of the access. At the end of the access is a small morphball tunnel covered by tree foliage on the left wall of this access. When you get in the tunnel, boost your way to the end where a missile expansion will be waiting for you, then boost your way back out. Exit your morphball, open the door, and switch on your power beam and x-ray visor as you do so. Training Chamber-energy tank ---------------------------- Continue proceeding forward while charging your power beam. After a few steps, 2 chozo ghosts will appear on the otherside of the room. When the cutscene ends, you lock on which ever chozo ghost you feel deserves to get pwned first and give it a super missile, then get your lock on the other chozo ghost and feed him a charged power beam shot, the second chozo ghost will more than likely zip toward a ledge on your right. Then get a lock on the first chozo ghost who will more than likely move over to the half-pipe in the middle of the room, give him a quickly charged power beam shot and then charge and fire a super missile at the second chozo ghost who will be on the other side of the room. This entire time you should stay in the exact spot you were at when they appeared and only side-step to dodge their hado-kens, thats the way I do it. As the second chozo ghost is dying, jump into the half-pipe and get in your morphball. I always space jump over to the right wall, enter my morphball at the peak of my jump, and hold B to start my boost. When the cutscene ends, start boosting yourself up the half-pipe to the morphball slot on the leftside of the room. When I space jumped into the right wall, entered my morphball, and started up the boost function - that was meant so that at the end of the cutscene I would use the momentum of going down the half-pipe thinks to gravity supplemented with the boost technique down the half-pipe to go up the leftside of the half-pipe into the bomb slot on the leftside of the room. You should aim to do this first if you are attempting a speed run, or even if you aren't since activating this bomb slot will blow the beak off a chozo bust on the side of the room the chozo ghosts were at revealing a morphball tunnel or the entrance to the next room. This will happen in a cutscene, and at the end of the cutscene you should start charging your boost ball. Go down the half-pipe and use the boost ball at the appropriate time to give you that nudge up to the bomb slot on the right side of the half-pipe. Folks, I'm going to be honest with you, I don't always do this perfect, but I try and meet those obstacles at 80% in order to save seconds. But I always try to do the bomb slot on the leftside first, and the bomb slot on the right second. When the bomb slot on the right is activated a spider track will open for service. Immediately exit your morphball and space jump up to the area identified by the cutscene. Look to your right, get in your morphball and roll inside a small plate tucked into the wall that'll immediately go up and take you to the ceiling. At the ceiling will be the newly opened spider track, bomb jump up into it and follow it to its end. It'll finish in a little room where an energy tank will be waiting for you. Grab it and then get out using the spider track you came from. When you drop down from the spider track, enter the morphball tunnel revealed from the chozo bust. Piston Tunnel- Now you are in the Piston Tunnel. Getting through this room is too easy to explain, just get through it as quickly as possible, oh an don't worry about getting killed instantly by the pistons. They won't "squish" you dead if you find yourself in that situtaion, though going through that will give you some damage. The end of the Piston Tunnel is the Main Plaza, be ready to get out of your morphball when it ends. Main Plaza-missile expansion ---------------------------- Exit your morphball when you come out here and be very careful, you're a foot away from going over the ledge and screwing this up. A line or rope will be drawn from where you are at to another ledge across from you. Its a big jump to the otherside, but in the middle of this line or rope will be a grapple point that you can use to swing your way across. However, you are going to have to aim up, lock your aim upward in place and space jump over to the grapple point, and then be ready to use the grapple point when it makes itself available. At the other ledge will be a missile expansion, grab it and then jump down to the lower floor of the Plaza. From here you will head to the Nursery Access, which is just beyond the half-pipe and steps. Get in your morphball as you get into the Nursery Access. Nursery Access- Get yourself through the Access using your boost ball, and exit your morphball as go through the door to the Eyon Tunnel. Eyon Tunnel- Make your way to the Ruined Nursery as I've instructed you so many times. Ruined Nursery- Once you are here, make your way to the door to the North Atrium. Remember that you can space jump to the top floor very easily. North Atrium- Get yourself to the Ruined Gallery and don't bother yourself with the scarabs. Ruined Gallery- I gave you instructions on how to get through this room, quickly hop across the platforms on the right to the door. Totem Access- Ignore or nail the plazmites as you head over to the Totem Access. Hive Totem- Space jump to the platform in the middle of the room and go for the door to the Transport Access. Transport Access North- Zip through the Transport Access as normal. Transport to Magmoor Caverns North- Get in the hologram to get yourself over to the Magmoor Caverns. =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Chozo Ruins North- Go through the door and enter your morphball as you do so. Burning Trail- Roll down the edge of the floor and let yourself fall to the bottom. Then...ah you already know, I've explained way too many times. Lake Tunnel- Make your way through here as normal, jumping in and out of the lava to get to the otherside is normal to me. Lava Lake- Get through the first and second part of the Lava Lake. On the first part remember to around the left of the magmoor that'll pop out, and on the second part remember to jump onto the platform on the left and to navigate safely as possible through the puffers as you do so. Pit Tunnel- Jump over the fence to get through this room again, switch to your ice beam on the way through. Triclops Pit-missile expansion ------------------------------ This room will be interesting this time, enter this room with my ice beam and to have it charged or charging as I go inside. What I'll do then is continue on forward, positioning my aim down manually at a roughly 45 degree angle and lock it in place by holding L and releasing R. I know that over the ridge-line of the floor is a flying pirate just waiting to zip himself in the air and come at you. So what I do is constantly hop up in place to get a view of the flying pirate. When I get my earliest glance at him, I let him have an ice-missile combo. Timing this is key and I don't expect the noobs to accomplish it. However, if that first flying pirate is dead, I would then turn rightward and switch on my x-ray visor. I would approach the assemblage of crates and look for a floating platform in mid-air. If you skipped the first flying pirate you killed in this room and instead went rightward toward the crates, you'd have a pretty good view of the platform. Needless to say, I immediately space jump over to the platform from the floor/step level you and the crates are on. When I land on this platform, I quickly turn slightly leftward for a platform sort of hiding behind a pillar on the left. I jump over to it as quickly as possible since the flying pirate is trying to nail me and the platform sinks further and further into the ground with my weight on it. After that, I turn left a little bit more for a platform that I can clearly see, thanks to the x-ray visor, has a missile expansion inside of it. Fire a quick missile or charged beam shot at it and then space jump over to that pillar to land into the space where the missile is at. When I've got the missile, I jump down to the floor adorned with metal grating below. I look toward my left, in the general direction of the door to the Pit Tunnel for a small cave. In the cave will be a morphball tunnel in the floor, sort of, that you will enter inside of. Once inside you'll be in triclops territory. Go rightward following the wall on the right as your guide that'll eventually lead you to another morphball tunnel in the wall. The morphball tunnel will be somewhat guarded by a triclops, but you'll be able to get to and through the tunnel. The tunnel will end in another room completely closed off from the rest of the Triclops Pit, minus the tunnel you just came from. It'll open upward where some steps will clearly lead to the next door. Get up and go through the door. Storage Cavern-missile expansion -------------------------------- This room is very straight forward, follow the pathway to the end, grab the missile expansion you find and then return the way you came. Triclops Pit- When you come back out here, get down to the bottom and go into the morphball. Once you are in triclops territory, navigate around the leftward side to get back to the cave that is the exit of this area. Once you are here, jump out of the cave, go rightward to get to those steps that'll take you to the top area of the Triclops Pit, and then finally make your way as quickly as possible to the door to the Monitor Tunnel. They're may or may not be flying pirates, but at this point in the game they pose no threat, other than slowing you down. Monitor Tunnel- Once in here, make your way as normal to the Monitor Station and charge your ice beam as you do so. Monitor Station- As you no doubt already know, there are two flying pirates and they can give us a headache on our mission through this room unless we do it right. Lets pretend your facing north when you enter this room from the Monitor Tunnel. Going west is a door to another room high above in this room. In order to get to this door you will have to get to the very top of the station itself, activate a bridge from the top of the station that'll get you a little closer to the wall, this wall has a narrow ledge running along it that you will use to get to the door we want you to get to. First flying pirate will be on a platform on your left, when you walk through the door into the Monitor Station, be ready to fire an ice-missile combo on the space pirate at the first glance you get at him. After the first flying pirate is dead, jump over to the platform he was on, then to the flooring behind the platform. Your aim is to get to the ledge along the wall that we used to space jump over to a walkway sticking out of the station itself; remember that the part of the ledge I want you to space jump from is the one that is highest elevated, I don't want you to go all the way around the wall to that point on the ledge that you did a regular jump from the first time you came here. You will keep moving forward from the moment you enter this room to the moment you arrive at this ledge, I don't even want you to stop to ice-missile combo the flying pirate. When you are on the ledge and are facing the walkway, you'll see that either the second flying pirate will sit right under the station totally chilled out or that he'll move through the underside of the station to be face to face with you. So as soon as you are on that ledge and are facing that walkway, space jump over to that walkway and then go to that bridge that'll take you from the station to the Transport Tunnel for Phendrana Drifts. Usually, when I'm jumping from the ledge to the walkway sticking out of the station, I take out the second flying pirate as he is under the station with an ice-missile combo, otherwise I kill him at any other chance I get that I know won't interfere with my progress through the room. when you are on this bridge, turn up and leftward to see a platform, jump on that platform. When you are on this platform, turn around to face another bridge or walkway that will be the very top of the station. Once you are the top of the station, look for a spinner device near the computers. Get in the device and use it to raise a bridge out of the station. This bridge will stick in a certain direction facing a wall that has a narrow ledge on it. Use a space jump from the bridge to the wall to get to this narrow ledge, yes it can be done and will be done. Now that you are on the wall that is on the ledge, follow the ledge along the wall to arrive at the door to the next room. Warrior Shrine-chozo artifact ----------------------------- When you step in this room, you'll see a huge chozo satute with a chozo artifact in its hands. At the feet of the statue is a tile that can be destroyed with a power bomb; this tile can also be scanned in order to identify it. First head on over to this tile and lay a power bomb next to the tile, but not on it so that you don't fall down to the next room. While the power bomb is going off, you exit your morphball, jump up and grab the chozo artifact and then get in the tunnel that was opened up by the power bomb you just used. Fiery Shores-power bomb expansion --------------------------------- You'll fall into a little room with a power bomb expansion staring you in the face. Grab the power bomb, then get in your morphball and bomb jump yourself into the morphball tunnel that is behind and to the right of the power bomb expansion you just grabbed. The tunnel will lead you out into the rest of the Fiery Shores; but don't exit your morphball just yet. You want to first get through the nearest door, the door to the Shore Tunnel. Use your map to figure out which way to turn and go through the door to the Shore Tunnel while still in your morphball. Shore Tunnel-Ice Spreader ------------------------- Keep going through the Shore Tunnel until you get to the glass-tube part of the Tunnel. Lay a power bomb in the middle of the tube to bring down the glass walls of the tube. A new area of the Shore Tunnel will be opened up on the left and right of the glass-tube walkway. Pegged against the left and right walls are ledges that you can use to safely get to the platform directly below the glass-tube walkway. When you get to this platform you'll find the Ice Spreader, so grab it. The ice spreader is an okay weapon were it not for its downsides. What you do is charge your ice beam and then fire a missile while its charging. A super missile with ice properties will come out and will make a certain impact depending on what it hits. If it hits the ground or a wall, the ground or wall will be showered with ice for a few seconds. If this thing hits a flying, shadow, or space pirate, it'll blow them instantly. If there are one or more minor enemies or non-beam trooper enemies huddled together, then the ice spreader would either just blow one of them up, all of them up, freeze them all in place, or freeze a few of them and kill the rest, however they all have to be really close to each other. I've found that most of the time this thing only freezes ice troopers in place, but doesn't kill or blow them up, you'll be able to test ice spreader effects on ice troopers later on in the game. This weapon will follow a flying pirate around just like a super missile. However, the really crappy thing about this weapon is that its blast radius is very small. I was in a room once where I found myself literally surrounded by beetles, I shot an ice spreader at the floor hoping that the beetles that were 4 feet away from me would be frozen or destroyed instantly. Instead the surrounding floor that both I and the beetles were standing on was frozen and they suffered nothing from the ice spreader. Even though the weapon is moderately useless, its still kinda cool to watch the wall get completely frozen, plus the sound the ice spreader makes when its fired is also pretty cool. When you are done with the ice spreader, then you can go back to the Fiery Shores. Fiery Shores- From here you are going to make your way to the Transport Tunnel B. You'll start by having your ice beam ready when you walk into this room. when you get to the area where pools of lava obstruct your path, remember to quickly take out the crates on your right for some ammo and the magmoor who rears his head with an ice-missile combo. When those two tasks are done, use the grapple points on the wall to get through this area of the Fiery Shores. Then make your way through the final area of the Fiery Shores taking care not to let the flamethrowers hold you up. Get in your morphball as you go through the door. Transport Tunnel B- You know I have a really painful way of getting through this room, but if you want you can wuss it out and take the morphball rail on your left to get to the otherside of Transport Tunnel B. Otherwise just boost your way into the lava, continue boosting around the right of the magmoor that'll pop and then boost to dry land. Doing that is not actually that painful. Transport to Tallon Overworld West- Go for the door straight ahead and go through it. Twin Fires Tunnel- When you get in here, make a choice at how you want to go through this room. You can take the spider track that is on your left, the long route, or you can take the shortcut and jump into the lava and make your way to the other end. Going through the lava is not for the faint of heart and you should be ready to take lots of damage, even if you hop up and out of the lava constantly to avoid the damage. Then just go ahead to the door to the Twin Fires. Twin Fires- When you step out through this room, rush through the flamethrowers and ignore any damage they give you. Space jump to the grapple point in the ceiling from the edge and use it to swing across the lava to the otherside. When you land, zip through the second set of flamethrowers ignoring any damage they give you as well. Then when you approach the lava shore, look up in the ceiling for a grapple point sort of facing rightward and then space jump to it. Latch onto it and use it to swing to the otherside. When you land, quickly switch on your wave beam and nail the door, then go through it. North Core Tunnel- This room will be real short, but I just want you to look out for the crates at the next door on the right. Ready a charged wave beam shot to take them out as you get to and through the door, and remember to charge your wave beam to bring them in. Geothermal Core- When you step in here, switch on your ice beam and make your way across the floating platforms to the door on the otherside of the room. When you land on the shore that has the door to the South Core Tunnel, look on your right and upward for a ledge that you can space jump onto. From here you will jump up to another ledge above it, then turn toward the huge narrow pillars that travel from the bottom to the top. Now the start of a really long annoying puzzle. Each of the pillars in this room has a rotating disc on it, working with the two will activate devices that'll raise the ceiling revealing a second puzzle that'll lead to the next room. To start, get a look at the grapple point hanging below one of the rotating discs on the pillar that is closest to you. Use that grapple point to swing to the disc on a pillar behind the pillar that is closest to you, for reference's sake you'll be swinging in the direction of the North Core Tunnel. When you land on the disc of this second pillar, walk around the right of the disc looking for morphball slot on the plug or cap or thing that comes between the disc and the pillar so that you can find a morphball slot. When you get inside this morphball slot with your morphball, you'll find that is a spinner device, so spin the living heck out of it to move a disc above the disc you are on. The morphball slot will spit you out when the disc has moved up as much as it can. When this disc you just moved is in place, get out of your morphball and turn 180 degrees. You should be facing the third pillar in this room with a disc on it. Space jump over to this disc and then go around it to find its morphball slot to get inside of with your morphball, then use your boost ball to crank it ALL the way up. Once you have moved the second disc in its place, get out of your morphball, and position yourself around the disc to go to the second pillar. You are going to jump to the disc you raised on the second pillar and then from there you will jump to the disc on the first pillar, essentially you are trying to get to the very top of the room via the pillar. When you are on the disc on the first pillar, get in its morphball slot and boost ball the disc upward. This will reveal a spider track that you will use to get up to the disc just raised. When you are on this disc, get out of your morphball and look for the third pillar that has its disc raised, then space jump over to it. When you are on the disc of the third pillar, get in the morphball slot with your morphball and use a bomb to get the gears working in this room. The ceiling will raise revealing a puzzle of spider tracks that'll lead to the next door and a pipe with a spider track will protrude out from the wall and intersect with the pillar you are on. Roll over to that pipe and use a single bomb jump to get yourself up to the spider track on the pipe, or just space jump on the spider track and get in your morphball. If you fall at any point during this puzzle, you will have to make your way all the way back up through the pillars, with very little trouble though, and start all over again. You are on the spider track, now follow it to where it'll end just below another spider track pegged on the wall. This spider track will run parallel to the wall, up the wall, and then along the wall ending above another spider track that is also running along the wall. From here, you will drop down to the spider track below clinging as much to the wall and holding R in order to latch onto the next spider track. Follow this spider track along the wall and then upwards where it'll end below another spider track which you will bomb jump yourself up to. Continue rightward along the track and then finally down to where it'll end above another spider track which you will fall and cling onto. Keep going right on this track, it'll end below a mini-spider track, from the mini-spider track you will bomb jump up to another spider track. This spider track will proceed rightward until it'll end just a foot or two away from a huge spider track grid. This spider track grid is all completely magnetic, even the parts that don't seem to be copper-coated, the only thing you have to worry about are the parasites crawling all over it. To get to it you will push yourself along the spider track you are on right now as rightward as possible, lay a bomb to bomb jump over to the otherside and push yourself against the wall to not fall all the way to the bottom and make sure you time this when parasites aren't in the way. When you get on the grid, you are going to continue straight rightward since thats where you'll find a ledgeway that will serve as the continuation through the puzzle. At this grid and at future ones you encounter in this room, feel free to kill a parasite in order to get yourself some precious power bomb ammo. This ledgeway is clinged along the wall just like everything else you've gone through, and you will find that it continues down in a very steep slope with a small gap inbetween it and a block with a spider track on it. This block will be the next piece of the route along the puzzle that we will use to get along to the next door. The gap is so small that you don't have to worry about not clinging onto this spider track block. When you are on this block, roll along it to the top of the block and then bomb jump to the spider track block above it. Then from this spider track block you will bomb jump up to a spider track that rides along the ceiling. This spider track will end just above a spider track block which you will fall down to, and then from this spider track block you will fall to another spider track block below it. From that spider track block you will fall down to the spider track below, proceed rightward on this spider track to another spider track grid. As always, try to make your way as rightward as possible. You'll have to go up the grid, then down the grid, then up, then down again until you finally reach a regular spider track. The spider track here will coil upward, it won't go completely up, but will fold on itself laterally like some steps so that you will have to bomb jump between spider tracks to finally get to a spider track that runs rightward along the wall. This next spider track will end way above another spider track below it, so fall down to it as carefully as possible pushing yourself along the wall during the fall. When you are clinging to this track, follow it rightward where it'll end at another spider track grid. The grid will end in the top right hand corner just above some spider track blocks that you will have to fall down to. Falling down to the middle spider track block isn't all that hard from here by now, when you get to it, get yourself to the next highest spider track on the right. From here, bomb jump yourself up to a spider track along the ceiling. Follow this spider track where it'll end just above the door to the next room. Fall down, exit your morphball, shoot the door with your ice beam and go through. Plasma Processing-Plasma Beam ----------------------------- When you enter this room, you'll see a capsule with a red orb inside of it. Thats the plasma beam, so jump over there and grab it. This weapon is the high-powered rifle of the game. One regular shot will give nasty damage to normal enemies, killing beetles, zoomers, geemers, wasps, you name it. Two or three regular shots will kill a space, and shadow pirate, a little more is required for flying pirates; and a charged plasma beam shot will literally incinerate space pirates, shadow pirates, flying pirates and baby sheegoths. One regular shot from the plasma beam on a flying pirate will leave it burning for a few seconds until it finally collapses and blows up, they won't kamakazi you the way they would with other weapons. This weapon won't fire at sheegoths the same way your power, ice and wave beam will. It'll fire straight like an arrow and give them nice damage. Its rate of fire is barely quicker then the wave beam, but not as fast as the power beam. But its speed and power is so deadly that you'll find yourself wanting to use it alot. You are really gonna love watching this thing incinerate pirates and baby sheegoths though. The only downside to this weapon is that burrowers are completely immune to plasma beam shots and a regular beam shot won't pack the same punch from long distances. If you are firing the regular plasma beam shots at enemies with some appreciable distance between you and that enemy, the shots will not connect. Regular plasma beam shots dissipate over a certain distance. You'd have to charge the plasma beam to have it hit an object really far away from you. After you've grabbed the plasma beam, get out of the room from the door you came and get back to the Geothermal Core. Geothermal Core- You'll step out back out into the Core, turn leftward and down to see the pillar that has the pipe with a spider track protruding into it. You'll now be facing the direction to the next door, so jump down to the disc on the pillar that you are looking at and jump down to the door all the way at the bottom of the room. Remember to nail the door as you are going down the room it, and remember to use your space jump to eliminate recoil when you hit the floor. Activate your wave beam as you go through the door. South Core Tunnel- When you enter this room, you'll spot the burrowers. Ignore them, and just move on ahead and you'll see the puddle spore. He'll have his mouth open when you see him, so as you are walking through this room, remember to quickly give him a wave beam shot to close his mouth. Then just use him to get to the otherside of the lava pool and open the door as you do that. Switch to your plasma beam on the way through and charge it. Magmoor Workstation- When you run through here, I advise you to blaze through the room to the door that'll take you to Transport Tunnel C. Remember that this door will be found sort of northeast of the direction you are facing when you enter this room. The door will be accessed by of course using the scafalding steps arranged along the wall up ahead. However, there are 3 flying pirates in this room that can give you a headache. They'll all be situated near the scafalding steps, two at the lower floor above the triclops' maze and one will be situtated right next to the scafalding if not on it. I tell you all this because I like to rush through here a certain way, and when I mean rush I really mean it. I'll walk into this room with my plasma beam charging with the intent of going to the door to Transport Tunnel C. As I start to go out into the open area where I'll catch my first glimpse of the flying pirates, the first one I'll see will be just sitting on the floor. I'll get a quick lock on him and let him have the plasma beam shot, this will incinerate him and I'll keep going to the scafalding steps with one flying pirate down. As I reach the part where the triclops are in that maze of their below my feet, I'll have both flying pirates in my face or flying around. I still try to make a point of heading for those scafalding steps, but I also like to adjust my aim manually upward as I run ahead and get the lock on either one of the flying pirates. If I catch my lock on one as I make my way to those steps, I give him three quick shots of the plasma beam, enough to keep him burning and eventually he'll be incinerated(he really will). When I reach the scafalding I've still got one flying pirate on me, but I ignore him from now on and switch to my wave beam as I go up the scafalding to the door. when I've got a clear enough shot of the door as I'm approaching it, I give it a wave beam shot and go through. All this is done very quickly, within 15 seconds or so and is all done with the intent of going through as quickly as possible with trying to remove any obstacles along the way. Lets face it, 2 or 3 flying pirates is alot of annoyance and will defintely obstruct my way through. Transport Tunnel C- Rush through here ignoring any damage the flamethrowers give you and get through the door. Transport to Phendrana Drifts South- Walk into the hologram to get to the door to Phendrana Drifts. ================ Phendrana Drifts ================ Transport to Magmoor Caverns South- When you arrive in Phendrana, switch on your ice beam and turn around. Go behind the large rock to see the spider track riding up the wall to the door to the Transport Access. Take that spider track up and go through the door. Transport Access-energy tank When you come in here, switch on your plasma beam and immediately shoot the ice-window that you'll see on the right the first step you take inside of this room. The window will break open, jump into it and walkthrough, halfway through you'll find an energy tank. At the end of this little hall will be another ice window that you'll break through with your plasma beam also. Then just go through the door with your wave beam. Frozen Pike- Go to the edge of the cliff and look straight down to the floor below. Try to find the purple door on the right side of the room, a flying pirate is sitting across from the purple door on the otherside of the room. When you get your bearings, jump down to the door and again remember to widen your space jump to soften recoil. Then go through the door. Pike Access- Switch on your ice beam as you come inside and nail the door ahead. Switch to your plasma beam and charge it as you go through the door to the Research Core. Research Core- Rush toward the glass walkway that is used to go up the Research Core, when you step into this room you'll go straight toward this walkway, but at the beggining of this mad rush toward the walkway you will release the charged plasma beam blast on the gun turret that you see on the otherside of the room. Make your way up the walkway as quickly as possible, a total of three metroids will pop out of their glass tanks as you make your way up the Core, you'll also have to contend with other gun turrets placed along the walkway. You'll have to destroy gun turrets with charged plasma beam shots at the first and second floor up the Core, any other gun turrets should be ignored. When your at the top, switch to your wave beam and shoot the door to the Research Access and just blaze through into the room, with your wave beam charged. Research Core Access- You've walked back into the room with the two sentry drones floating around, nail the first one with your charged wave beam shot and then kill the other one with some more quickly charged wave beam shots. Then go up the door in the ceiling to get to the Research Lab Aether. Research Lab Aether- Nothing will really change how you approach this room, it'll be the same as if you had just collected your thermal visor and were on your way to face Thardus. So just head for the elevator on the left, take it up, and then rush your way up the room to the Aether Lab Entryway. Remember that in this room you shouldn't try to kill any of the shadow pirates or gun turrets as it'll take time away from you, so just jump from one walkway to the other, overhead of each shadow pirates, and stay in constant motion, literally do not stop. Otherwise you'll just have to kill the rest of the pirates as you stop and take out just one. Aether Lab Entryway- As you can see the Entryway is nothing more than a narrow corridor with annoying scatter bombus lining the tunnel. Get through them in which ever way you find the quickest. East Tower- Step into the hologram and take the elevator up, switch to your plasma or power beam depending on what your strategy for the next room is as you go through the door. Control Tower-chozo artifact ---------------------------- There are two ways of approaching this room, either way charge the beam you chose as you take your first step out into this area again. Take in mind that you'll have to put up with 2 flying pirates as you come out into this area, and two more will come out if you kill the first two but I don't want you killing any flying pirates in this room at all. When you take your first step out through the door, jump up, then jump backwards to land on the porch thing that houses the door you just came from. Then turn around to see the inside of one of the look out posts here and jump inside. Alright, if you chose your power beam, shoot the largest crate you'll see to get rid of all the crates and to expose the ice-covered window. Quickly switch to your plasma beam and nail the ice-covered window to get rid of the ice. Rush over to the window and look at the tower out in the view. You'll see a little pack of colored canisters which are identified with a red scan block if you pull out your scan visor on them. Shoot them with a missile and a cutscene will start showing this one tower fall down right in the middle of the Control Tower revealing a secret spot at the spot where the tower landed. If you had walked out into the Control Tower with your plasma beam, then you wouldn't be able to remove ALL the crates, the biggest one will still be standing. But you could go directly to the ice-covered window, melt off the ice, and missile the tower to bring it down, you'd just have to put up with the biggest crate getting in your way. When the tower comes down, jump out of the look-out post and go to the spot where the Tower landed to see the hole in the ground. Get in your morphball and go inside, roll to your right to get into a makeshift hallway in this secret spot of the Tower, the great thing about this spot is that the flying pirates can't hurt you while inside. At the end is a chozo artifact, keep moving on ahead and grab the chozo artifact. In the corner on the right is a makeshift morphball tunnel that you can walkup to but you'll have to bomb jump your way inside. Once your inside this tunnel, follow it down where it'll spit you back out into the main area of the Control Tower. Once you are back out here, quickly bring up your map and figure out which direction the East Tower is at, exit your map, and then go to the East Tower. Do it quick since the flying pirates will be all over you! East Tower- Get in the hologram to get yourself down the Tower, then go through the door to the Lab Entryway. Aether Lab Entryway- Make your way through here in whichever fashion you find the quickest. Research Lab Aether- You are going to go to the Research Core Access, you remember the door thats in the floor at the bottom of this room. I suggest having your wave beam and thermal visor switched on as you go through this room. You start out at the top of this room, and what I like to do is just basically jump straight down to the bottom of the room and make my mad rush toward the door, theres no recoil when you hit the ground, so whats to lose? Make sure you face the direction that the door to the next room is in by checking your map before you do this so that you can make sure that you can get through to the next room quickly. Make sure you are charging your wave beam as you go through into the Access. Research Core Access- When you plop down inside the Access, quickly charge and fire the wave beam shots at the sentry drones to take them out, you can't get through this room without killing them since they lock the doors and quickly charged and fired wave beam shots do it right. If you had a charged wave beam shot going into the next room, as good Metroid Prime players would, then you could cut the time you spend killing the sentry drones further since a fully charged wave beam shot kills a sentry drone in one hit most times. Switch to your ice beam as you go through the door. Research Core- This one's going to be tough for you, but I got a way of going through this room to the Pike Access in a manner I really like. Normally I would jump straight down to the bottom floor of the room, spacing out my space jump to soften the recoil, but doing that is hard even for me. So what I do instead is land on the first walkway that goes up from the bottom floor/the third walkway that goes down to the bottom floor. I jump down the Core purposely in a direction that'll have me near the walkways that line the Core. And then when I see the third walkway, I use my second/mid-air jump/space jump to land on that walkway, then quickly jump down to the bottom floor, nail the door and go through it. Pike Access- Switch on your wave beam as you go through this room for the door ahead and the door in the next room. Frozen Pike- There will be two flying pirates in this room again, and they'll be at the same spots as always. The door to the Frost Cave Access will be down on the right; when you enter this room again you'll turn to the edge of the cliff on your right and look straight down. You'll see the purple door trying to conceal itself below a shelf of ice/rock above it, your mission is to get through and to that door. Since the flying pirates are here, you are going to just walk into the room really quickly, approach the edge of the cliff on the right and jump down to the purple door you see. Then open the door and go through. Frost Cave Access- Jump into the morphball shaped crevice and get in your morphball during the jump, then boost your way through this morphball tunnel where it'll open up into the second part of the Frost Cave Access. Then just head for the door from here, come on you've done this before you don't need an explanation on this one. Enter the next room with your plasma beam switched on. Frost Cave-missile expansion ---------------------------- The last time you came here there were hunter metroids, however there won't be anymore here. Instead you'll have to deal with two flying pirates down the bottom of the room. Start walking up to the edge of the cliff and charging your plasma beam, lit it rip on the nearest flying pirate and give a quickly charged plasma beam shot at the second flying pirate. When thats done approach the edge of the cliff and fixate yourself on the flying manta-ray in the ceiling. This is a Glider, a manta-ray that likes to fly around ceilings in this game. Its underbelly can be used as a grapple point to swing across rooms. These things can also be frozen for a while with a regular shot from your ice beam, though I don't recommend it since you usually want to use these guys for something and we don't want to waste time. This thing will fly in a random path around one specific area of the Frost Cave. It'll fly close to the edge of the cliff you are at to a wall on the opposite side of the room where some make shift steps form and climb rightward. These makeshift steps begin on the left side of this room and can only be accessed by swinging from the glider straight to them. Timing when to jump is key and the best spot when to jump is one where the glider is half the distance away from you to those steps, of course the most annoying part about all this is that your speed run time is at the mercy of the glider, but what are you gonna do right? So when you've found the right moment, space jump over to it and then hit L when that grapple beam icon lights up to swing to the otherside. Then when you land, take the steps up to very top of the Cave. At the very top of the steps, I want you to turn to the door you just came from, the door to the Frost Cave Access, and look up at the ceiling. See that stalactite, missile it to bring it down and to punch a hole in the ice at the bottom of the Cave. Then jump down into that hole where you'll be in the water, in the water is a missile expansion. The best way to find the missile expansion down here is to get on top of that fallen stalactite and turn 360 degrees until you see the missile expansion. Then go and grab it and get out of the water. When you're out of the water, go to the wall that has a ledgeway that you can use to make your way up the room. The ledge that you will want to be looking at is to the right of direction to the door to the Upper Edge Tunnel. Then just go through the door, getting in your morphball as you do so. Upper Edge Tunnel- Roll into the morphball tunnel in the corner of the room and boost your way through the tunnel. Exit your morphball, open the door, switch to your plasma beam and charge it. You gotta do the opening of the door, and the switching and charging of your plasma beam quickly so as not to startle the flying pirates in the next room. Then from inside this room, you will lock on and kill one of the flying pirates with your charged plasma beam shot, then you'll walk through the door. Phendrana's Edge- Quickly lock on the other flying pirate and feed him 3 or 4 regular plasma beam shots, it'll be enough to kill him ded, D-E-D ded. Then jump onto the structure that the second flying pirate you killed was on. This is half of a broken bridge that goes through the middle of the room, jump over to the other half of the broken bridge and look to your left for a small snow-covered ledge coming out of the wall. After that, click and hold R to aim manually. Aim upward first and then turn your aim leftward as you hold that aim upward, you should see a grapple point dangling below a ledge above. Hold L to lock onto the grapple point and to start swinging yourself, the grapple point will swing you in a direction very close to another grapple point dangling below another ledge. So as you swing from the first grapple point, move your joystick leftward to face the next grapple point directly, then release and click and hold L again to get a lock on the next grapple point. The second grapple point will swing you in the direction of a wall, so keep holding your joystick leftward to face the direction of another ledge on your left. When you land on this ledge, turn left to see a floating platform nearby, jump to it. When you land on this floating platform, turn left again to see another platform nearby but floating higher in elevation than the platform you are on right now. You can space jump from the platform you are on right now to the other higher-elevated platform or you can use a ledge that runs along the wall on the right and from there you'll space jump to that platform. I choose to jump from platform to platform. When you land on this platform, turn left to see the ledge where the second grapple point was swinging from. Jump over ontop of that ledge and lay a power bomb near the wall. If you had activated your thermal or x-ray visor then you would have noticed a door outline on the wall that you couldn't see normally, the wall would crumble away after the power bomb goes off revealing a door. Go through the door. Storage Cavern-chozo artifact ----------------------------- In the middle of the room is a chozo artifact, grab it and head back out of the room to Phendrana's Edge. Phendrana's Edge- When you come back out here, I want you to aim upwards to see the glider flying straight above you. Running northwest and north east are two ledges facing directly opposite each other. The ledge on the northwest is the path to the next room. You can do this several ways. You can either do the wussy way of jumping toward a small ledge that runs along the wall on your right and then from there jumping to the other ledge that runs along the right of the wall and finally using the glider to swing across to the other ledge. Or you can jump to the smaller ledge that runs along the wall on your right, and from here you can space jump up to the glider when it gets up close and swing from it to the ledge to the next room. Or you can, upon coming out of the Storage Cavern, just space jump from this ledge that you are on right now up to the glider, lock on to it and start swinging toward the final ledge to the next room. Whichever way you wanna doing this is fine, but the last two ways are faster and require a little more skill. When you get to this northwest ledge that I'm talking about, you'll see a small morphball tunnel whole in the wall/floor, get in your morphball and go through. Security Cave-power bomb expansion ---------------------------------- At the end of the tunnel is the Security Cave, and in the middle of the Security Cave is a power bomb expansion. Grab it and head back out of this room from where you came. Phendrana's Edge- When you come back out of this room, you'll be perfectly facing the direction to the next door only problem is that its at the bottom of this room in the water. So while still facing the direction you were facing when you came back out here, go to the edge of the ledge, aim down and start jumping down the floor. You can do this slow and jump level to level by landing on each thing that you see gets in your way to the bottom. Or you can do it like me and just jump down to bottom into the water, I of course use my space jump to maneuver my way down to the bottom since so much stuff is in the way if you try to jump down from the top to the water below. Don't worry about recoil since the water will slow your sink down to the bottom as you enter it, just worry about the annoying jelzaps. Then just head for the door and go through. Lower Edge Tunnel- Enter this room with your wave beam charging, let it rip when you see the pulse bombu and immediately get in your morphball. Start boosting your way through the tunnel until you get the door. Then get out of your morphball, open the door, switch to your plasma beam, start charging it and go through the door. Hunter Cave- Quickly approach the edge of the cliff and look down at the two flying pirates below. Quickly pick one and give him the charged plasma beam shot, then charge another quick plasma beam shot and give the other pirate that one. Then look up in the ceiling slightly on your left for a grapple beam, space jump to the grapple point and use it to swing across to either one of the ledges running along the wall on the otherside of the Cave. Then space jump up the ledges to be on the pathway where you can access the doors up here at the top of the room. Once you are here at the top, you will go to the door going right, the door to the Chamber Access. Switch to your wave beam, nail the door on your way to the door and charge your wave beam as you go through the door. Chamber Access- Let your wave beam shot loose on the drone and then proceed ahead to the door. Gravity Chamber-missile expansion --------------------------------- There are two scatter bombus in this room which tend to be annoying while we are gonig to do what we are going to do. So quickly get rid of both of them with two quickly charged wave beam shots. Then switch to your plasma beam and look up in the ceiling for a mound of ice crystals pointing downwards. Hit that mound with the plasma beam to break off the ice to reveal a grapple point. To the left of the grapple point will be a missile expansion sitting on a rock formation in the ceiling. What you are going to do is space jump to the grapple point and hold L and rotate your control stick to rotate yourself while holding your grapple beam. You'll eventually turn leftward enough to be supremely aligned with the missile expansion and you'll just let go when the grapple swing gets you as close as possible to the missile expansion so that you can literally fall into the rock formation. When you grab the missile expansion, jump down to the floor below and get back to the Chamber Access. Chamber Access- Head on up the steps and get through the door to the Hunter Cave. Hunter Cave- Two flying pirates will be back inside the Cave at the bottom. As you start making your way to the next door, they'll make their way up the top to greet you. So basically what you are going to do is just move as quickly as possible along the ledge way you are on to the Hunter Cave Access. Remember that the door will come at the end of the ledge way on your right. It'll take a while for the flying pirates to make their way up the cave so don't worry about them giving you a whole lot of trouble. Hunter Cave Access- You remember that this room had jelzaps inside of it right? Like last time, get in your morphball and boost through to the end of the room. Then go through the door to the Frozen Pike, switch on your plasma beam as you go through the door and charge it. Frozen Pike- Go up to the jelzap and give him the charged plasma beam shot when he opens his mouth to kill him. Whether it killed him or not, just start making your way up the Frozen Pike, don't worry about killing the flying pirate from here in the water. Switch to your thermal visor as you start coming out of the water and kill the flying pirates with your plasma beam as you go up the room. I usually do stay put at the bridge that just barely comes out of the water to kill the flying pirates even though it'll waste my time, but the plasma beam will cut the time it takes to kill a flying pirate, so thats good. And just basically make your way up the Pike as normal, switch to your wave beam on the way up the room. Transport Access- Switch to your ice beam as you enter the room and proceed as normal along the trail to the door. Transport to Magmoor Caverns South- When you are back inside this room, go to the door to the South Quarantine Tunnel, the other door in this room that'll take you to the room where you fought Tharuds. South Quarantine Tunnel- Get in your morphball and boost through the tunnel. Exit your morphball and go through the door. Quarantine Cave- When you step back out into this room, look to your right in the ceiling. A grapple point, or two, will be dangling from the ceiling. You can use these grapple points to swing along through the room to an elevated rock formation serving as a makeshift floor. Now there is only one problem with this and that is that you will have to space jump over to the first grapple point and many people tend to screw this up and fall straight to the bottom waking up the sheegoth. Space jumping over to the grapple point isn't that hard, just aim manually toward the grapple point and lock it in place holding L and letting go of R. Then just simply run and jump off the edge of the floor to the grapple point, remember to use your space jump in order to reach it and then just click and hold L when the grapple icon glows. When you latch onto the first grapple point, the sheegoth will wake up and might try to hit you with its ice ball shots if you spend to much time swinging around, so don't mess around on this part. When you get on this elevated floor, look for a morphball tunnel within the wall or a pile of rocks near the wall or whatever and get in with your morphball. If at any point you do fall down to the floor below, then just switch on your plasma beam and kill the sheegoth with it. Quarantine Monitor-missile expansion ------------------------------------ A missile expansion will be found in the middle of the room. Grab it and head out of here. Quarantine Cave- The sheegoth will no doubt still be stomping around as soon as you are out here. My advice is to face the direction of the door to the North Quarantine Tunnel, space jump in that direction off the elevator rock formation, get in your morphball as you are about to hit the floor and then boost your way to the spider track that'll lead you to the entrance of this room. Ride the spider track up to get to the door to the North Quarantine Tunnel, then get yourself into the North Quarantine Tunnel. North Quarantine Tunnel- Get in your morphball and boost through the tunnel. Exit your morphball and have your wave beam ready at the door. Open the door and go through. Quarantine Access- Quickly kill both of the sentry drones with quickly charged wave beam shots, no strategy needed here, and switch to your plasma beam when they are both dead. Then head for the door, shoot it to open it when its in your sights and charge it as you go through. Ruined Courtyard- You no doubt already saw the flying pirates when you opened the door in the Quarantine Access. You've gone through this room with flying pirates all over it before. Run through the platform and jump down to the floor. You are going to jump down to the floor on the rightside in order to get to the door to the Courtyard Entryway. Usually when I first step into this room, I let my plasma beam shot loose on the first flying pirate I have my eye on and then just run through the platforms, and finally jump down to the floor below for the door. Courtyard Entryway- Switch to your wave beam as you go through the room. Procceed through the Entryway as normal, scarabs and a bombu here as always. Switch to your plasma beam as you go through the door to the Ice Ruins West. Ice Ruins West-power bomb expansion ----------------------------------- There is a power bomb expansion in this room that will be our last and final one. It is in one of the elevated rock formations that forms a makeshift floor or step. Lets pretend you are facing north when you enter this room, if you go straight north to the second elevated-plateau rock formation pegged against the wall on the otherside of the room you'll find a small ice tile in the middle of it. I just know the noobs will be like, "which one?!!!11?". So I'll give you another reference. The first and only time you ran into shriekbats, they were perched above that platform or thing that you could jump on and walk on, Well the same structure that is right next to it is the thing with the ice-tile in it and the power bomb. If you shoot the tile with a plasma beam shot, it'll brake off and all you would have to do is jump down and grab the expansion then jump out and keep moving on to the Ruins Entryway. Ruins Entryway- Two or three baby sheegoths will be in this room sleeping. I like to just rush and space jump over the baby sheegoths to the door. Switch to your power beam as you go through the door. Phendrana Shorelines- When you are back out here, I want you to head to the Chozo Ice Temple. You remember it, the place where you got your wave beam. Go there and go to through the door. Remember to take advantage of the platforms here in the Shorelines on your way there. Temple Entryway- Boost your way through the tunnel, lay a morphball bomb at the door and exit your morphball. Switch to your plasma beam and walk through the door. Chozo Ice Temple-Chozo Artifact ------------------------------- There are only one or two hazards in this room nowadays, baby sheegoths. You'll see one at the very far end of this part of the room. But there won't be any parasites or crystallites crawling around the steps you would use to get up the Ice Temple. Its very simple, once you are inside travel up to the very top part of the room where the door to the next room is at. We didn't pay very much attention to it when we came here to get our wave beam, but there is a large chozo statue on the path to the door where the wave beam is at. This statute has ice running from its mouth down to its hands, which continue down onto a large igloo like container. Shoot the ice coming from the chozo statues mouth with your plasma beam to free up the hands of the chozo statue. Then jump into the chozo statues hands and get in your morphball to blow out a hole in the igloo like container below the chozo statue. Enter that hole with your morphball and you'll find a chozo artifact, grab it and then head out the way you came, get back down to the bottom of the Ice Temple and go through the door to the Temple Entryway. Get in your morphball as you go through the door. Temple Entryway- Boost through the tunnel and switch to your power beam as you go through the door to the Phendrana Shorelines. Phendrana Shorelines-missile expansion, missile expansion --------------------------------------------------------- The first missile expansion you want to get to is on your right at the top of a tower. To be able to get it, you'll have to super missile a cap from another one of those monolith things, the things that had the cap you had to super missile when you were in the Sun Tower, that is also on your right. As always, these caps can be identified under a red scan block with your scan visor. Once you super missile the cap, and scan the exposed rune piece, a cutscene will show a tiny door open up on the tower holding the missile expansion. Go up to that opened door and get inside of it with your morphball. Then ride the spider track within the tower to the top to get your missile expansion. When you've got it, go back down the tower and get out of it, then get down to the bottom floor of the Shorelines. There is a pillar in the Shorelines that contains another missile expansion inside of it. Lets pretend you just enter the Shorelines from the Temple Entryway and are facing north, this pillar that contains the missile expansion would be going northwest, somewhere between the 60-40 degree arc between north and west(I know thats going to confuse lots of you). When you've found the right pillar, you'll notice that a sheet of ice blocks you from getting the missile expansion, blow it straight off with a plasma beam shot and then get the missile expansion. When you are done, get to the door that'll take you to the Ice Ruins Access. Enter your morphball as you go through the door to the Ice Ruins Access. Ice Ruins Access- Boost straight through the room, and as you go through the door to Ice Ruins East, make sure you have your plasma beam switched on. Ice Ruins East-missile expansion, missile expansion --------------------------------------------------- Now pretend you are going to the door to the Plaza Walkway. On your way there you will see those set of steps straight ahead, the room with a partially blown out roof on your right, and the sheegoth on your left. You are going to go straight to the steps, but you are going to take a right when you reach them. There are actually two rights to take as you go to the steps, one has you going into this room with its roof partially blown out and the other is one where you run into a wall. Go to the one where you run into the wall, and turn right again when you see that wall to see another wall of ice. Shoot this wall of ice to melt it away and to reveal a little closet housing a missile expansion inside. After getting the missile expansion, make your way up those steps and on the pathway that'll take you along the walls of this room straight to the door to the Plaza Walkway. Along the pathway to the Plaza Walkway is a spot with a pillar that has a spider track on it running upwards. This spot comes before the spot where the crystallites are at, this spot is the spot from which you'll jump from to the roof/platform where the first crystallites are at. When you see the spider track on that pillar, ride it upward to a narrow tunnel where a missile expansion awaits you at the very end. You've got two missile expansions in this room, now get out of this room by going back through the Ice Ruins Access. Ice Ruins Access- Keep boosting through the tunnel and exit your morphball on your way through the door. Phendrana Shorelines- Head down the right to the door for the Shoreline Entrance and get in your morphball as you go through the door Shoreline Entrance- Boost straight through the Entrance to the door and exit your morphball as you go through the door. Transport to Magmoor Caverns West- Jump into the hologram to get yourself to the Magmoor Caverns. Kiss the Phendrana Drifts goodbye, you'll never have to see them again. =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Phendrana Drifts North- Shoot the door infront of you and get in your morphball as you go through it. Transport Tunnel A- Boost through the Tunnel as quickly as possible. Have your power beam ready if isn't switched on. Monitor Station- Space jump as far as you possibly can to the shore on the left, in the direction of the Monitor Tunnel. When you land in the lava, hop in and out of the lava to lessen the damage done to you by the lava and continue on toward the door to the Monitor Tunnel. Monitor Tunnel- Make your way around the right of the upward pumping pistons to get to the door to the Triclops Pit. Triclops Pit- Hop and space jump down the floating platforms to get to the door to the Pit Tunnel, ignore the flying pirates that are inside. Pit Tunnel- Space jump over the fence that barricades you from the door to the Lava Lake, then get through the door. Lava Lake- Make your way through the Lava Lake to the Lake Tunnel as normal. Lake Tunnel- Ignore the burrowers that pop out of the ground and do whatever you need to get through this room as quickly as possible. Burning Trail- When you get to the part of the trail where you start to encounter shriekbats, get in your morphball and start boosting through the halls to the other end of the Burning Trail where the steps that move up and down are at. Then take the steps up and go through the door to the Transport to Chozo Ruins North. Transport to Chozo Ruins North- Step into the hologram to arrive at the Chozo Ruins. =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Magmoor Caverns North- Turn leftward and go through the door to the Sun Tower, get in your morphball as you go through the door. Sun Tower- When you get inside of here, boost straight to the spider track in here and start riding it up. When you come to the point where you have to bomb jump to the blocks with spider tracks on them, some wasps will come out and start ganging up on you. Before I bomb jump up to the first spider track block, I lay a power bomb to kill any surrounding wasps. Doing that will kill off any wasps and keep them away enough time to let you get up the Sun Tower. However, if you're a cluts at getting up the Tower, then you should've taken out each wasps hive with a missile, gotten rid of any wasps that did make it out to greet you and then gone up the Tower. After you make it up the Tower, go through the door to the Sun Tower Access. Sun Tower Access- Nothing happening here, except maybe some crates that you might want to take out and use to refurnish yourself on the way through. Go through the door to the Sunchamber Sunchamber- Jump down into the main walking area of the Sunchamber and get in your morphball, then boost your way around the Sunchamber to get to the door to the Sunchamber Access. Sunchamber Access- Space jump your way as far as possible over to the other end of the Access from the beggining of this room, then get through the reapers to the door. Sunchamber Lobby- Make your way through the reapers and venom weed to the door to the Arborteum. Arborteum- Get in your morphball and go through the hole in the wall. Bomb the little wall in the tunnel that keeps you from getting into the rest of the Tunnel. When you are in the main area of the Arboretum, I want you to jump down to the tree bridge/walkway and look down to the door to the Gathering Hall Access. By now the Chozo Ghosts are no doubt already moving around the room, so just jump down to the door to the Gathering Hall Access and use your space jump to eliminate recoil. Get in your morphball as you go through the door into the Gathering Hall Access. Gathering Hall Access- Boost through the Access and be ready to exit your morphball on the way through the door to the Gathering Hall. Gathering Hall- Use whatever way you know to get yourself up the Gathering Hall as quickly as possible. You are going to go into the East Atrium. Get in your morphball as you go through the door. East Atrium- Boost through Atrium under the shriekbats and exit your morphball when you reach the door. Energy Core Access- Jump through this room to get to the Energy Core. Switch on your thermal visor as you get inside of the Energy Core. Energy Core- Whenever I'm in the Energy Core, I like to take a quick second or two and use my power beam on the shriekbats perched in ceiling before I head to the door to the West Furnace Access. Then as I space jump my way to the door the West Furnace Access, I charge my power beam to draw in ammo and supplies. West Furnace Access- Nothing exciting here, never anything here. Except that the game usually likes to freeze up, but you already know which measure I take through here to keep that from happening. Get in your morphball as you go through the door to the Furnace. Furnace- Ride the spider track up and go through the tunnel part of the Furnace as normal. When you get into the main area of the Furnace, you are going to go through the white door, the East Furnace Access, to get yourself straight to the Hall of Elders. Get in your morphball as you go through the door to the East Furnace Access. East Furnace Access- Boost ball your way through the East Furnace Access, and be ready to exit your morphball at the end of the Access. Switch to your power beam and x-ray visor as you go through the door. Hall of Elders-energy tank -------------------------- When you come out here, you are going to have to face off with 3 chozo ghosts. I have a rigidly clear starting strategy with these guys, to lock onto the chozo ghost that hits the ground first after appearing in mid-air and to give him the super missile and a follow up charged power beam shot. I've found that it is always going to be one specific chozo ghost. When the 3 chozo ghosts appear, they like to appear in a triangle, right next to each other at 90 or 45 degrees away from each other. Lets say that you are facing the large chozo statue in this room face to face, and that you are facing north. This chozo ghost would be the one that is north in this triangle of chozo ghosts and is closest to this statue. He is the last chozo ghost to appear, but he is also the first one to hit the ground after appearing in mid-air just like other chozo ghosts; remember that chozo ghosts won't take any damage until they have hit the ground. All 3 chozo ghosts in this triangle will hit the ground within a second of each other so it might not make a difference to you which ghosts to hit first with a super missile, but I still like to reserve a super missile for the ghost that appeared last and that hit the ground first. I always wait either a second or until he charges his arms back to do his hadoken in order to make sure that my super missile wasn't fired in vain. The other two chozo ghosts will scatter wherever they feel like, theres no pattern. However they're favorite spots are either on the left of the large chozo statue, your left not his, up on that ledge where the colored bomb slots are at, right next to the two white doors at the bottom of the Hall of Elders, at the very spot where they appeared and everything else is not so desirable, but used on some occasions. When you are done with the 3 chozo ghosts, go to the colored bomb slots at the top level of this room. Get in the white bomb slot and use it to reconfigure a tunnel that'll give you access to a secret room in the Hall of Elders. Get in the hands of the chozo statue with your morphball and it'll throw you into this room where you'll find an energy tank. Grab the energy tank, then get back into the tunnel that spit you out into this secret room. Get back to the colored bomb slots and use the red bomb slot to move the chozo statue which will reveal a white door in the floor behind the chozo statue. Jump down to the floor and get down through that door. Elder Chamber-chozo artifact ---------------------------- You are going to proceed on down through this room like its a basement and you'll find another chozo artifact to add to your collection. After you've got it, head back to the door from which you came and get back to the Hall of Elders. Hall of Elders- From here head to the Reflecting Pool Access and get in your morphball as you go through the door. Reflecting Pool Access- Boost your way through the Access and be ready to exit your morphball when you reach the next door. Reflecting Pool- Do whatever you need to get to the top floor, usually that would involve you getting in your morphball and boosting your way up the half-pipe to get to the top. When you are at the top, go through the door to the Save Station on this floor. Save Station 3*- { F.10} Get in the capsule and save your game. Congratulate yourself on quite possibly the longest and most eventful game save of the game. Even though you'll go through alot of rooms in the next two saves, it won't be such a huge ordeal. After you've saved the game, get back out to the Reflecting Pool. Reflecting Pool- Go toward the Transport Access South on the right, ready your ice beam on the way to the door. Transport Access South- Get yourself to the Transport to Tallon Overworld South. Transport to Tallon Overworld South- Get in the hologram to get yourself to the Tallon Overworld. ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Transport to Chozo Ruins South- Nail the door infront of you and go through. Transport Tunnel D- Go through here as you normally would, I usually like to kill the seedlings in here by shooting the bloodsac. The bloodsac explodes killing all the seedlings in the room, or most of them. Great Tree Hall- From here you are going to head for Transport Tunnel E. I like to go through this room by space jumping across the tree branch/tree root floor as far as possible when I step through the door into this room. I could walk, but I hate getting nailed by the seedlings annoying heat-seeking barbs. When you are in the second part of the room where the platforms and ledges with seedlings on them are at, bring up your map to get a reading of where exactly the door to Transport Tunnel E is. Many people make the mistake or choose to make the mistake of killing all the seedlings in here and using the platforms they were on to get to the door. But the ledge/walkway that has the spinner device on it hangs directly above the door to the Transport Tunnel, so use that instead. Transport Tunnel E- Go through and kill the seedlings in here as normal. Switch to your wave beam as you go through the door. Transport to Phazon Mines East- Get in the hologram to get to the Phazon Mines. ============ Phazon Mines ============ Transport to Tallon Overworld South- Nail the door and get in your morphball as you go through the door. Quarry Access- Boost your way to the end of the Access and exit your morphball when you reach the door. Switch on your ice beam as you go through the door. Main Quarry- You are going to make a straight Bee-line for the door to Security Access A. There is no simpler way of explaining the strategy through this room to the next room, just head straight for the door ignoring the pirates in this room. Don't worry, there aren't any mega turrets near the door like last time, so it'll be super easy. Get in your morphball as you go through this door. Security Access A-missile expansion ----------------------------------- There is a wall that'll fall apart from a power bomb in this room. When you step into the Access, it'll be straight ahead and on your left. This wall can also be identified with a scan. When you enter this room with your morphball, lay a power bomb on the wall, exit your morphball, switch to your plasma beam, and stay in place. When the bomb has gone off a small secret passage will be revealed with a missile expansion at the end, some explosives in the passage way will also go off and shave off some of your health but who cares. Go and grab the missile expansion, and head out of this passage way. As you are doing this you'll see the two shadow pirates in this room trying to get inside the passage way you are in, but they can't. They'll be bunched up together as they try to enter the passage way, so give them a charged plasma beam shot. Then try to get to the door to the Mine Security Station, quickly shoot the door ahead with your ice beam. Mine Security Station- Make a decision about how you want to go through this room: my way says you'll have your plasma beam on and the slower yet easy way says you'll have your wave beam on. You won't be to familiar with the door to the next room if you haven't played this game enough times or if you don't bring up your map. But the door to the next room is red and you'll get a clear view of it as you through the first wave trooper in this room. My way is a little crazy for noobs and the unacquainted, but it works fine. I'm going to the door to the Storage Depot A, which is the red door ahead. Two to four obstacles are in my way, two pipe-fences and two waves troopers, one of which will try and get directly in my face from the beggining. So I step through the door from the Security Access A and turn to my right. I already see that one of the wave troopers has already come down from the ceiling behind the first pipe fence. However I'm going to go around the left of the first pipe fence, when I am exactly to the left of the first pipe fence I space jump toward and over the second pipe fence. The elevation of the spot that is directly to the left of the first pipe fence is such that it gives me extra leverage in my space jump over the second pipe fence I'm trying to space jump over. I hope I'm not losing you so far, as I'm space jumping over the second pipe-fence I'm charging and will fire my plasma beam at the red door ahead, a second wave trooper will also come down the ceiling. And because of my space jump over the second pipe-fence, I'll land right next to the second wave trooper. But when I land I immediately start jumping over to the red door, shooting it with my plasma beam as I do that so the door can open and then I get inside the room. Whew! Was that hell or what? Thats how I kill time in the game, but if you want you can stop at each wave trooper you see and kill him with the wave beam until you get to the door to Storage Depot A. Storage Depot A-flamethrower ---------------------------- In the middle of the room is the flamethrower upgrade, so grab it. To use this weapon, charge your plasma beam and fire a missile to activate the flamethrower. What'll come out will be a stream of fire like the wave buster, except this weapon doesn't automatically lock and hold onto an enemy like the wave buster. The stream of fire will keep flowing as long as you hold A. If you ask me, this weapon is completely useless, it wastes missiles as terribly as the wave buster. Its only practical use would be against a horde of enemies, but you could effectively take them out with the plasma beam alone because of the rate of fire and power. Once you've gotten it, shoot the red door you came from and quickly go through it. Mine Security Station- This is what I do, but again you can stand and kill the wave troopers individually with your wave beam, I head for the pipe fences on the left. The first wave trooper from the last time you came through here will be on your left, and the second on your right; that's right they positioned themselves to confront you once you came out here again. So I head for the pipe-fence and try to go around the left of it, the first wave trooper will be positioned infront of it, to its left, or even positioned right infront of the entrance to the Storage Depot A. If the second wave trooper is positioned next to the first wave trooper, then more than likely it'll be when the first wave trooper is positioned infront of the entrance to Storage Depot A. Anyways, when I finally get past the first pipe-fence, I space jump up and over the second pipe fence and switch on my ice beam. Out of the 3 or 4 dozen times I've beaten this game, that strategy is tested and true by me. But if thats a little too crazy, you can position yourself behind the fence-pillars on the entrance to Storage Depot A and kill the wave troopers there. The third wave trooper that is around the corner in the passage way on the right won't come down unless you go up to the passage way on the right. Security Access A- Nothing exciting here anymore. Just head for the door to the Main Quarry, when I started out speed running, I would switch on my thermal visor, and go to the door to the Main Quarry staying very close to the wall on my left. Doing this would keep me clear of the shadow pirates that come down and be able to see when they come down as I go to the door. I usually space jump over the second shadow pirate when he comes down since he comes down quick enough to attack me. Nowadays I don't even use my thermal visor and just watch for the faint electrical static that flows around the second shadow pirate when he comes down. I almost always evade his attack by space jumping over him, but every now and then he nails me with a slash. Main Quarry- Out here in the Quarry, you'll get yourself to the top of the platform and of course have to kill the space pirates laying around here. When you are at the top of the platform, you'll jump to the "wrecking-ball" part of the crane where a grapple point is at and use it to swing toward the wall with the white door. You probably wondered how you were going to get to the door the first time you ventured through the Quarry, grapple swinging from the wrecking-ball of the chain was how. Because there are space pirates littered throughout the Quarry that can hamper your way to the next room, I always light them up with the plasma beam. Remember, 2 or 3 regular shots does them in. Waste Disposal- Around the corner on your left you'll see a tank of water. In the floor is a circular portal inside the tank, get in your morphball and go through. You'll be sucked inside the tank, but fret not because you can get back out the way you came anytime. But you don't want to do that, instead you want to continue rightward until you hit that little bump. Bomb jump yourself over that bump to get onto that little elevated floor piece in the tank and go rightward until you hit the wall. You'll see a steady stream of bubbles going upwards that I'll just call a jet stream for convenience sake. If you get in the path of this jet stream and bomb jump yourself upward, you'll be propelled up to a rock formation in the tank that acts as an elevated floor in the tank. On the leftside of this rock-formation is another jet stream that you'll use to bomb jump up to another elevated ledge on the left. When you are on this ledge, bomb jump up to another ledge above it. When you are on this ledge in the tank, quickly roll or boost rightward to go to another tank neighboring the first tank. Drop straight down to the bottom of this tank and continue rightward to fall into a third tank. You'll be at the bottom of the third tank, continue rightward until you hit the wall where a jet stream will be waiting. Bomb jump yourself up and slightly move yourself leftward as you go up and come down from the jump to land on a rock step in the tank. This rock step has a jet stream running up through it as well, so bomb jump yourself up and move rightward as you come down from the jump upward to land on another rock step. Then bomb jump to get yourself to the top of the tank where a tiny ledge will be found on the left. From this tiny ledge at the top of the third tank, roll or boost leftward to get to the exit of the water tank area of the Waste Disposal. When you come back out into open air, exit your morphball and turn around to see the door to Ore Processing. Ore Processing- Go down the walkway in the left and jump down to the walkway-floor below. As you jump down, nail the door so that its already open when you hit the floor and go through. Elevator Access A- Go down the Access to get to the door to Elevator A. Elevator A- Step in the hologram to go down the Elevator, then head into Elite Control Access. Elite Control Access- As you go through the Access to Elite Control, remember to ice beam the explosive crate in order to kill the pirates hiding in the vent. Elite Control- Going through this room is very simple, get to the door to the Ventilation Shaft at the top floor of this room. As you'll remember, there are two sets of shadow pirates dangling from the ceilings of this room. You'll start by going left to the walkway that'll take you up to the floor above, ignore the fact that there are shadow pirates running right behind you as you are doing this. Once you are on the second floor, continue to the third floor and head for the door in the ceiling here. Remember to watch out for the shadow pirates in the ceiling above the third floor. I always switch on my thermal visor after the first step I take into this room to help me navigate around the shadow pirates. Ventilation Shaft- There is no more toxic gas in the room, so you don't have to worry about taking damage as you go through this room to Omega Research. Omega Research- Go through this room to Dynamo Access exactly as I explained to you the first time you came through. Rush and jump down to the floor below straight into the lap of the power trooper in the upper far-left corner of the room. Then dash into the little alcove on the left where a door in the floor will be waiting. Quickly open it and go inside. Dynamo Access- When you land down here, switch on your power beam, start charging and start going through the room. As you are trying to get through the room, the an elite pirate will burst out of the capsule on your left as you head to the Central Dynamo. Turn around, get a lock on him, and feed him two super missiles. The doors out of the room will lock, so killing him is a priority. When he's dead, keep heading for the Central Dynamo and go inside. Central Dynamo- You remember that there were these two platforms dangling in mid-air in the middle of the Dynamo right? Well there are 4 ice troopers perched on these platforms in the middle of the room and they can very easily be alerted to your presence. I have many times started going through this room by killing two before I head for the Quarantine Access ahead without them suspecting it. But I prefer you head straight for the door to Quarantine Access A. This door is, of course, the door in the bottom, main floor of the Dynamo. The door was previously obstructed by a huge pile of rubble, but we removed the pile with a power bomb when we first got our power bomb. I don't even hesitate when I go through this room, I make a straight bee-line for the door ignoring the ice troopers and their beam fire. Switch on your power beam and quickly hide behind the wall on your left after entering the next room. Quarantine Access A- I hope you took my advice about hiding behind the wall on the left because there are 4 mega turrets in the middle of the room. Theres a scan panel to disable them, but its on the other end of the Access. So for now we'll just have to hide behind a wall and take out all the turrets with a super missile. Boosting through the room and laying a power bomb will be a huge pain because you'll get nasty damage on your way under them and the power bomb won't do them much damage. The super missile is the best way in my opinion since it has a healthy blast raidus that will take out at least 3 neighboring mega turrets, it not all. So do it that way and go through into Metroid Quarantine A when you are done. Metroid Quarantine A-missile expansion -------------------------------------- When you step into the room, quicky switch on your ice beam and then your scan visor. Then go up to the computers and a cutscene will start. Scan the computer with the red scan block and another cutscene will start showing a force field come down. A bunch of metroids will be free to roam in the room and kill the two space pirates in the floor below. Get down to the walkway connecting the upper and lower floors of this room, and then jump from it to the lower floor. You are going to head into the cave area the metroids were confined to. Quickly jump up to the top of the huge mushrooms on your left, get a lock on the metroid floating below, give him an ice-missile combo to kill him. Switch on your x-ray visor to see two platforms moving back and forth between the wall, use the platforms to get safely across the phazon field below these platforms. Landing on the otherside you'll quickly notice that there are two metroids floating around various phazon pools slightly to your left, you will without hesitation jump up on a mushroom on your right and then onto an elevated rock-formation acting as a floor with some explosive crates on it. When you are on this rock formation, quickly switch on your x-ray visor, turn 90 degrees rightward, or at least until you see a platform moving at the same elevation as you. It'll be moving back and forth from the rock-formation you are at and another one just like the one you are on. When you land on the second rock formation, lay a power bomb on the wall on the left. No doubt that the metroids have been all over you by throughout this entire ordeal, but avoiding them as we have been doing herds them together behind you until you stop at the second rock-formation, lay your power bomb, and they all die, or most at least. When the wall comes down, in an area will be opened up, it won't look like it since its so dark and all you see is brown and black. But try and walk through where the wall used to be, if you switch your x-ray visor on and off you'll see an outline of a pipe with a rail behind the wall. Lay a power bomb there to bring down this wall, hopefully anymore metroids you didn't kill are already dead with this second power bomb. After the wall is down, approach this pipe studded out with a rail and you'll see that its got a spider track on it. You know what to do, jump up onto that pipe, get on your morphball, cling to the track and ride it to the other end. At the end of the spider track will be another rock-formation acting as a ledge. Switching on your x-ray visor, waiting for a few seconds after you are on this ledge and you'll see a platform going up and down to the ledge you are on. Jump on the ledge when it comes down and ride it up to another ledge above where a missile expansion awaits. When you've got the missile expansion, turn left and look down over the edge. You'll see the moving platform that took you from the first rock-formation to the second. Switch on your x-ray visor to see where the platform is and jump down to it, and from that platform to the second rock-formation. If thats too big a job for you, then turn slightly right after looking straight down at the platform below to see the first rock-formation and the mushroom next to it. Then you can use the platform to get to the second rock-formation. Once you get to that second rock-formation, bomb jump up to the spider track riding along the wall. Spider tracks will continue to run rightward along the wall until you they end just above the ledge where the door to the next door is. When you are done with the spider track, go through the nearby door. Elevator Access B- You'll see in the Access a floor with little gopher trails. You know those are burrowers, so just get to the otherside of the Access through these burrowers as best as possible, meaning ignore them. Elevator B- As you come inside the elevator, quickly scan the panel on the right and jump into the hologram to get yourself down to the Fungal Hall Access. Charge your plasma beam as you go through into the Fungal Hall Access. Fungal Hall Access-missile expansion ------------------------------------ Approach the edge and look down to see a space pirate, quickly give him the plasma beam shot. If you look straight down at the bottom of this shaft, you'll see the bottom is completely covered with phazon patches. You'll see a big mushroom on one side and a small one on the other. I know this is going to sound crazy, but you are quickly going to drop down into these phazon patches and will enter your morphball on the way down. When you land, quickly try to navigate your way around an open spot under the mushroom to find a missile expansion. While you are doing this you are going to be taking damage, but if you do it fast enough, you can avoid taking too much damage. So after you've touched the missile expansion, quickly get out from under the mushroom, get out of your morphball, and jump up onto the mushroom. From the mushroom you are going to jump to the ledge where the space pirate you incinerated was since thats where the door is going to be. Then go into the next room with your ice beam switched on and ready. Fungal Hall A- There are 4 hunter metroids littered throughout the Fungal Hall, this place is also oozing with more of those giant phazon mushrooms. When you first step into this room, you'll be on top of a mushroom, and will see two other mushrooms running along the wall on the left and two smaller, but usable, mushrooms running along the wall on the right. You'll notice the first hunter metroid floating back and forth behind the mushrooms on the right wall and into clear view as well. I like to start by getting a lock on him, holding that lock down, and jumping sideways to the mushroom on the left. When I land on the mushroom, hes setting himself up to spit out his tentacle at you, but I then give him an ice-missile combo and he's dead. After I've killed the first hunter metroid, I, from the mushroom where I killed the first hunter metroid, get a lock on a second hunter metroid I see farther into the cave. I continue holding onto the lock and jump rightward toward the mushrooms running along the right wall. I'm going to jump and land on the mushroom that the second hunter metroid is floating above. As I'm jumping from mushroom to mushroom, I fire ice beam shots at the hunter metroid and give it a missile when its frozen, the hunter metroid will be blown up by the time we've landed on that mushroom. The advantages of killing the metroid this way are saving time, and being able to hit him with a shot since he'll be moving back and forth, and your constant firing while moving will more than likely assure, believe it or not, a direct hit with the ice beam. After I land on the mushroom that the second metroid was floating above, I look up on my left where we'll see a mushroom running along the wall. The third hunter metroid is hiding behind this mushroom and will try to attack you by either floating above or below the mushroom so that both you and him can get a clear shot at each other. There's a fourth metroid floating in the floor below near the phazon ditch, but he won't notice you unless you fire in his general direction. So basically just give an ice-missile combo to the third hunter metroid when he makes himself available, the thing that sucks about dealing with this guy is that sometimes he'll stick his tentacle at you straight through the mushroom, but you still don't have a clear shot at him, but just try to recover as best as you can. After the third metroid, I aim, from the mushroom where I killed the third metroid, at the fourth metroid near the floor and give him an ice-missile combo. If this is taking too long, then give him a missile first, then an ice-missile combo. I've noticed that charged ice beam shots always fly out faster to targets than regular shots, so feel free to use that. After the fourth metroid is dead, jump on the second mushroom running along the wall on the right, and then from that mushroom jump to the mushroom running along the wall on the left that the third metroid was hiding behind. I then turn rightward to see a single large mushroom separated from the other mushrooms in the room and notice a glider flying from where you are to where the large mushroom is at. I choose to grapple swing from the mushroom the third metroid was hiding behind to the single large mushroom that'll eventually lead you to the next door. I like to wait until I see that the glider is halfway between my mushroom and other large mushroom I'm trying to get to and then I jump once toward the glider and use that one big swing to get over to the single large mushroom. However, you can jump all the way to end of the mushroom trail running along the wall on the left to get a smaller gap in your grapple swing between you and the single large mushroom you are supposed to get to. Anyways when you are on the large mushroom, jump over the ledge to see the door and get in your morphball as you go through it. Now if going through the Fungal Hall like tarzan is too tall an order and you just want to get through this room alive then I've got some real easy points for you to take. Kill the first metroid with an ice missile combo from the first mushroom you step on when you first enter this room. Kill the second metroid from either one of the three mushrooms running along the wall on the right. You can also try and kill the third metroid from these mushrooms as well, but it'll take a bit longer and you'll actually more than likely just drive him out from behind the mushroom is hiding behind. Kill the fourth metroid from where I told you to kill him. I actually gave you the slow way of killing the fourth metroid earlier, what I really do is get and keep on lock on the fourth metroid and fire ice beam shots and the missile as I jump up to the mushroom where I'll jump to the other large mushroom that'll take me to the door. Phazon Mining Tunnel- Lay a power bomb in the corner of the room, for some reason my game doesn't have it identified as a rock that needs a power bomb with a scan. A hole will be revealed that you'll have to enter. When you do, continue running left in this little tunnel maze until you drop down two steps. After you've dropped down the second step, you are going to charge your boost ball and start quickly boosting rightward across the disappearing floor. Do it quickly so that you don't fall down to the phazon floor below, keep boosting rightward if you do fall down into this floor because eventually you will reach a phazon free area, then just bomb jump yourself to make the floor above you disappear, and bomb jump yourself a second time to get above and over the phazon area. Whether you fell through the disappearing floor or not, continue rolling rightward until you are blocked by cone-shaped rock. From here you will turn and roll leftward and into the end of the Mining Tunnel. Switch on your plasma beam to open the door as you exit your morphball and ready which ever weapon you feel will help you kill regular metroids the fastest in the next room. Fungal Hall B- A fully charged plasma beam shot or an ice-missile combo will kill the metroids. There are 5 littered through this room, which has two chambers to it just like Fungal Hall A where you encountered Hunter Metroids. The thing that sucks about this room is that its really dark and getting your thermal visor on is a necessity. I start by jumping toward the mushroom on the right I see ahead and giving a quick ice-missile combo to the metroid I see. By the time I land on that mushroom, he's coming straight at me, so catching him with an ice beam shot is easy. Then I jump to another mushroom I see ahead and ice-missile a second metroid. Then I jump to a third mushroom I see infront of me and from here I take out the third metroid. Then I jump to a mushroom I see running along the wall on the right and from here take out the other two metroids with ice-missile combos. I always take out the metroid that is floating high above the ground, instead of the metroid floating near the floor. Just like in Fungal Hall A, there is a single large mushroom separated from the rest that you will grapple-swing to from the mushroom you are currently on via the glider flying high above. This swing is kind of difficult since the glider won't let you swing in the exact direction that the mushroom you are trying to get to is. So you can grapple swing to any of the two mushrooms running along the wall on the left to eventually get to the large mushroom that'll get you to the door. The first and nearest mushroom running along the wall on the left also has the entrance to a Missile Station. You can go in here to refill your missiles, but I don't advise it if you are trying to meet our time goals. But if you wanna have extra fire power for the upcoming boss of the Phazon Mines, by all means. When you land on the large mushroom JUMP, DON'T WALK, over to the mushroom connected to the door and then go through the door. Quarantine Access B- The Quarantine Access is a room where the door to the next room is separated by a ditch filled with phazon. There are two mushrooms placed along the walls to get you through this room to the door without touching the phazon, but 3 bombus, visible only by the x-ray visor, are floating above and around the mushrooms. For the purposes of time, I space jump as far as possible and as rightward as possible into the ditch and then quickly jump out onto the ditch infront of the door to the next room. Because I do it this way, I keep my plasma beam on for the door and for the next room specifically. If you wanna be a coward, you can kill the bombus with charged wave beam shots and jump from mushroom to mushroom to get to the door. Metroid Quarantine B-missile expansion -------------------------------------- Stepping out into this room, look up into the ceiling to spot two plasma troopers. They might come down if you step out too far into the room or if you fire your plasma beam. But you'll eventually have to kill them, so charge your plasma beam and start killing these two. I always just run straight up to them, give them charged plasma beam shots, and take whatever fire they give me, killing them is a necessity. After they're dead, get in your morphball and ride up the spider track. The spider track riding up will intersect above another spider track running perpendicualr to it, drop down to this spider track and ride it rightwards to a platform. Exit your morphball, charge your plasma beam, and jump to a second platform nearby. If the plasma troopers on the otherside of this room haven't seen or started firing at you, then aim up at the ceiling to see a grapple point in the ceiling way high above the phazon ditch below it, space jump up to that grapple point and swing from it to the otherside where the plasma troopers are at. If you don't want to be in the middle of the action with the two plasma troopers or if they did spot you and started to fire at you, then just start killing them with charged plasma beam shots, then swing to the otherside. You'll land from the grapple swing onto a platform and see a plasma trooper working on some computers behind the force-field. Switch on your scan visor and aim it at the computers on the left near the force-field and scan the one with red scan block to disable the force field. Then run up to that plasma trooper working on the computer and kill him with the plasma beam shots. In the area that was blocked off by the force-field was the plasma trooper in the lower floor and two wave troopers in the floor above. One of them is stationed infront of the door to the Elite Quarters Access, he'll stay there unless you fire something at him or until you go up to the floor he is at. The other wave trooper is situated in the right corner of the room at the walkway connecting the upper and lower floors. This wave trooper will fire at you from this walkway when he spots you go through into this area, but you won't bother him at all. In the lower floor, nearby the computers the plasma trooper was working at, is a capsule with a missile expansion in it. If you activate your x-ray visor and look at the capsule, you'll see the missile expansion. Super missile the capsule, grab the missile expansion. Then turn leftward until you are looking in the general direction that the wave trooper is and spot the red door on this lower floor. It'll be way down at the end of the room, go to that door and go inside the room. Save Station Mines C*- { F.11 } Save your game here and get ready for a boss fight and another quick save! Metroid Quarantine B- If you saved your game and continued playing the game, you would have to contend with the wave troopers you didn't kill. The second wave trooper that was stationed will try to come down and attack you just like the first and the both of them might even make an effort to come down to the first floor. If you saved the game and turned it off, then played the save file later, you would come out into this room finding it really dark. As you proceed further in the room, metroids will burst out from the once empty capsules in this room and try to come after you. I guess the space pirates put them there when you turned off your game....Either way, there won't be any beam troopers inside the Quarantine anymore, so quickly run up the walkway on your right as you leave the Save Station and follow it to the door. Elite Quarters Access- At the end of the room, a plasma trooper will come down from a vent in the ceiling and start attacking. Kill him and then look at the door. Its gated-shut because ice at the top of the gate won't let it open. So shoot the ice with your plasma beam to get rid of the ice and to open the gate. Then go through the door. Elite Quarters-Phazon Suit -------------------------- Switch on your power beam, then start running toward the large capsule at the end of the room. As you walk up to this capsule look rightward to see a door behind a phazon pond. Quickly bust out your scan visor and scan the panel to the right of the door to activate it, but keep going toward the large capsule. A cutscene will start introducing you to the Omega Pirate, the biggest pirate in the game and the boss of the Phazon Mines. This guy follows the same principles as the elite pirates, he has there same weapons, attacks, defense tactics, yet is two to four times their size. When the cutscene ends, you should already be charging your power beam and locking onto which ever part of his body you want. You can't do him any damage yet, you have to soften him up by feeding one super missile to either one of the bright blue phazon armor plates on his body. There are armor plates on his left and right upper arms/shoulders and on his left and right upper thighs; these spots are where you'll lock onto whenever you try to lock onto him. So try to successfully land a super missile per each armor piece on this guy, a super missile is much more accurate and effective than a charged plasma beam shot and will guarantee that the piece is blown off unlike a charged shot from any other beam. While you are trying to take out his armor, he'll always be moving straight toward you. Like the elite pirates, he might pull his palm up and use his energy reflector to negate all of your attacks. Like an elite pirate, he will give a nice heavy slash at you with his arm if you get too close or will fire those grenades from his cannon if you are too far away. The grenades take off nearly one energy tank every time they hit and have a better blast radius then cannon fire from elite pirates, but the his slashes don't take off that much even though they rock you back pretty violently. Also like the elite pirates, he'll slam the floor with his fists and cause that shockwave, make sure you space jump over those. Firing your super missile at him after he does his shockwave is the best way of ensuring that the missile actually hits him. You know that you are supposed to fire super missiles at his armor, but navigating around him is the onion in this match. So what you'll have to do is to back up until you are in the middle of the room and then start circling around him. Many gamers make the mistake of backing up all the time until they hit the wall behind them and find that there only way around the Omega Pirate once you hit the wall is walking through the phazon ponds. Your best strategy is to keep your lock on him constantly and circle around him in an orbit path that doesn't intersect with the phazon ponds located in the corners of the room. Navigating within this invisible orbit path in the middle of the room isn't an exact science, even I run into the phazon puddles sometimes. But what I try to is circle around him as best as possible within this orbit path, constantly dashing to my left or right as I circle in that direction. If I'm trying to take out his shoulders and have a lock them, then I use a circular structure I see above in the ceiling that has a series of yellow broken lines around it. This structure is actually a part of the floor above in this room. If I have a lock on his upper thighs and am trying to take them out, then I guide my circle around him by the sight of either of the three phazon ponds I see in this room. If you can manage to tell how close the Omega Pirate is to the phazon pond and how far away you are from him, then you can judge whether or not you've backed up too far and need to start stepping closer to him and moving sideways. If you are too far away from him and are getting within the phazon pond territory, then just take a step or three toward him, let him start moving a little bit toward you at about two steps and then start circling around him. You can also measure how far away you want to be between him and the phazon ponds by batting your eye at the danger-meter on the right side of your HUD. After you've blown off all his armor pieces, he'll stumble to the ground, let out some growls and start to turn invisible. Meanwhile, some beam troopers will start coming out from the top floor. The match gets even more complicated because now you are in a race against time to get these guys out of the way while the Omega Pirate plot and makes his next move. There will either be two or three of them, and the type of beam trooper that'll come out will be completely random. So while he is disappearing, I just look straight at him, but have my eye constantly on the radar in the top right hand corner of the screen. If I see any new orange dots appear in the radar I know that those are the beam troopers. Wait until you actually see a beam trooper to switch to the appropriate beam, then start taking them out. If two or more power troopers come out, charge and fire a super missile at one of them and that'll usually kill the other. Ice troopers are a blessing because you can pretty quickly just ice-missile combo them, and if you get lucky the other one or two ice troopers that came along with him will get frozen as well and will blow up along with him. With the power and ice troopers, never try to herd them together just try to kill one as quickly as possible and then move onto the next guy. If you get lucky and manage to kill two or three birds with one stone, then get up and do a little indian dance. But again, don't herd them to take them all out at once. The wave and plasma troopers are little bit more of a pain. Nailing more than one of these birds with a stone is a little harder with these two breeds, even harder with wave troopers. So just quickly lock onto one guy if you ever have to face a wave or plasma trooper and let them have it. Never give more than three charged shots to the wave or plasma troopers, two is usually enough but better to be safe than sorry. Always kill power and ice troopers before wave and plasma troopers, I recommended missile related attacks on them and the blast radius from a missile or super missile will sometimes do a little bit more damage to a fellow beam trooper, ice troopers always come before power troopers. I also always choose to kill the plasma troopers before the wave troopers since the plasma beam does much heavier damage then any other beam in the game and will sometimes leave the plasma troopers cooking for a little bit making them die faster. The wave troopers won't take as much damage from the wave beam since its one of the weaker, if not the weakest, beam in the game and the electrical static they get from it in my opinion doesn't add to their damage, but I could be wrong. So lets review which beam troopers to kill in which order: first ice, then power, next plasma, and finally wave. Once your done killing all of them, switch on your x-ray visor and your power beam. You have to try and kill the beam troopers as quickly as possible because the Omega Pirate will give you a minute or two before he starts moving onto another phazon pond and starts growing back his phazon armor plates. The only time you can do damage to him is when he is in the phazon ponds trying to repair himself. He'll make himself visible while repairing himself at any one of the three ponds in the room, which pond will be completely random. When he starts repairing himself, he'll only be visible if you have your x-ray visor switched on. So this is what I do, first I try and kill the beam troopers as quickly as possible, then I get in the middle of the room, switch on my x-ray visor, and start charging my power beam. I actually position myself in the middle of the room looking in the direction that the door from where I entered this room is. Doing this means I'll have a view of two phazon ponds in the room and have the third phazon pond to my back. When this guy appears, he'll make a sound that I've learned to recognize from all the years of playing this game. If he doesn't appear in either of the two ponds that I have in my sights, I instantly turn toward the phazon pond behind me. If he is in either of the two ponds that I can see on the left and right, then I get a lock on him and try to fire my super missile at him. Then I turn and start looking at the other two phazon ponds and start switching my view between those two since he won't go back to the one he was just on. When I see him at another one, I give him the second super missile and....Well two or three beam troopers will come back out from the top floor and try to get you again while the Omega Pirate is trying to navigate to the next phazon pond. So you have two choices from here, you can try and feed two more super missiles at the Omega Pirate while the beam troopers are giving you hell, or you can kill the beam troopers letting the Omega Pirate regenerate completely and having to blow off all his armor once again to get him moving around the phazon ponds once again. The second strategy is self-explanatory, but if you want to kill him while the beam troopers are bothering you, then what I do is just basically space jump around the room and out of the way from the beam troopers. Each time I do one jump, I take a quick look in the direction of a phazon pond as I'm in the air from the jump. The hard part about this strategy is that the beam troopers can throw you off with their beam fire and you might accidentally lock and fire the super missile at one of the beam troopers. I have sometimes screwed up so bad that the Omega Pirate is regenerated and I haven't even killed any of the beam troopers meaning I have to deal with the both of them! If that happens, then lock onto each beam trooper and try to kill them one by one. You'll navigate your way around him, the other beam troopers, the Omega Pirate, and the phazo ponds as best as possible by constantly jumping, believe me it helps! If the Omega Pirate does his shockwave, then thats a good thing because the shockwave does damage and kills the beam troopers! The bad thing, sometimes beam troopers cling onto a wall and stay up there firing at you from there. If they do that, then fire a missile at them or your weapon to bring them down. Since the Omega Pirate will be there on your @$$ and is using his reflector, then just tough it out and continue firing at him until he comes down. Always take out pirates that are clinging onto walls last, kill the pirates running around the floor first. If you decided to try and continue to kill the Omega Pirate as he is navigating between phazon ponds and have the beam troopers on your back, then let me advise you to switch to your plasma beam for the fourth and final shot at him. The Omega Pirate only requires three super missiles and one fully charged plasma beam shot or 4 super missiles if ya feel like it. I advise the plasma beam because it'll save your missile count and for something after you kill the Omega Pirate. So to review, circle around him maintaining distance between him and the phazon ponds behind you. Fire super missiles at his shoulders and thighs. When he disappears, quickly kill all the space pirates as quickly as possible. Then switch on your x-ray visor and look out for when he reappears in the phazon ponds. When he does, fire a super missile at him and repeat.Although it may seem a tall order, this boss can be beaten fairly easily and quickly. I regularly beat him around 2 minutes and the fastest I've ever beaten him is a little over a minute and a half. Others have beaten him under 1 minute! The trick is being very vigilant while circling around him and continuing to pelt him with super missiles while he is "repairing" in the phazon ponds after you've gotten him the first two times. After the fourth attack on the vulnerable Omega Pirate, a cutscene will start showing the Omega Pirate on or near a phazon pond looking solemnly at Samus. Samus is just a few feet from him and the Omega Pirate slowly starts to collapse forward onto Samus. He eventually does fall onto Samus and starts to boil over. You'll see Samus burst out from the Omega Pirate with a new super bad@$$ suit. If you used your plasma beam as the final weapon, then you'll understand the other benefit to using the plasma beam for the final shot against the Omega Pirate since it matches the rest of Samus' new suit. The Phazon suit is the last suit you'll get in the game, not only does it give Samus' suit the coolest paint job in the entire franchise, but it also rockets your defenses and makes you invulnerable to the effects of phazon. Thats right, you can walk through all the phazon and not take damage. Whatever the case, immediately get in your morphball and start boosting to the door to Elite Quarters Access, the door you came from to this room. Then go through the door to the Access. Elite Quarters Access- From here head to the door to Metroid Quarantine B. Metroid Quarantine B- Stepping back out here to the Quarantine, head straight to and jump over the railing to get down to the floor below. There are metroids all over the place, so stay on your toes. Once you hit the ground, you are going to head across the phazon ditch to the otherside of the Quarantine. You don't have to grapple swing to the otherside via that super high grapple point, just jump into the phazon ditch and then jump out of it to the otherside. Ya need to grapple swing across the ditch if you are heading toward the Elite Quarters Access, but not if you are heading for the Quarantine Access, which is where you are going. When you land on the otherside of the ditch, start heading for the mushroom to the next door. Metroids will try to catch up with you and will even block your way to door! So use your plasma beam and give them some charged plasma beam shots to the ones that you think are getting in your way. Then go through the door. Quarantine Access B- Stepping inside here, just jump in and out of the phazon ditch to get to the next room. Fungal Hall B-missile expansion ------------------------------- When you first enter this room again, you'll step out onto this mushroom. Below the mushroom is a false-floor with a missile expansion inside of it. You can see the missile expansion if you use your x-ray visor and look at the floor below the mushroom. You already know that this place is gonna be filled with metroids. So you are going to start this room by immediately getting in your morphball as you enter the room and falling straight down to the floor below the mushroom and will lay some morphball bombs to blow off the floor. Then you'll exit morphball mode and grab the missile expansion quickly as the metroids inside this room will start to gang up on you. If the metroids corner you while you are grabbing the missile expansion and get you, then get in your morphball and lay a power bomb. Then just start heading for the door to the Phazon Mining Tunnel. Remember that you have the phazon suit, so you can walk through freely in the phazon littering the bottom floor. Use your plasma beam to temporarily stop the metroids in there track as you get to the door to the Mining Tunnel. Phazon Mining Tunnel-chozo artifact ----------------------------------- Get in your morphball and enter the tunnel in the corner when you enter this place again. When you are in the tunnel part of the Mining Tunnel, roll to your right until you are blocked by the cone shaped block. Morphball bomb the cone-shaped block and continue rolling rightward into the soon phazon-laden part of the tunnel. You'll fall down a step and will continue going leftward into the tunnel to the end. Along the way leftward to the end of the tunnel you'll encounter more cone-shaped blocks that you must morphball bomb. At the end of the tunnel is a chozo artifact, bomb jump up to grab it. Now head back the way you came, which would be rightward and get yourself to Fungal Hall B. We could've done this the first time we went through the mining tunnel, but the phazon-laden tunnel would either have killed or left us with barely enough energy. I've never tried going through that tunnel without the phazon suit since I'm almost certain that all the time you spend bombing the cone-shaped blocks would without a doubt kill you from the phazon exposure. Fungal Hall B- Now that you are back in Fungal Hall B, use the same strategy I gave you to go through this room the first time. The strategy is just a few room entries behind this one so forget about me repeating it in this room entry. Quarantine Access B- Use the same strategy to go through this room as before, just jump in and out of the phazon ditch to get to the door and ignore the bombus. Metroid Quarantine B- Because there will from now on be nothing but metroids throughout this room, I approach this room a little differently. Upon entering this room, I space jump as far as possible toward the spider track goes upward and get in my morphball at the peak of my jump. When I hit the floor, I start boosting toward the spider track, latch onto it and start riding it up to the next spider track that runs laterally/horizontally and drop down to that one. If I find that more than one metroid is surrounding me at any point during this or one has latched onto me, I let off a power bomb if I have more than 4 power bomb rounds left, which we'll no doubt have. If you don't have more than 4 left, I just give him a morphball bomb and continue on my way, if you can't shake 'em all off and have a hard time getting through the spider tracks than you should get out of your morphball and get rid of all the nearby metroids with ice-missile combos, there should be no more than 3 to 4. Once you get up the spider tracks, use the platforms to swing yourself via the grapple-point across the ditch. Once you are across the ditch, start heading up to the floor above. The metroids on this side of the room didn't know you were on the otherside of the room making a ruckus so they'll react a little slowly to your presence. A quick tidbit about getting up the top floor, I usually like to walk about 3/4 the way up the walkway, turning completely around, and space jumping over the railing where the computers are at to the top floor. Then I head for the door to the Access. There are like 3 metroids dispersed throughout this part of the room so moving through quickly is paramount. Elite Quarters Access- Just head for the door to the Elite Quarters. Elite Quarters- Get in your morphball as you enter this room and start boosting rightward to the door on the rightside of the Elite Quarters since thats where an elevator to the top floor is. Remember that panel that you scanned in this room before fighting the Omega Pirate, well thats where the elevator is. When you are at the top, head for that huge phazon vein up ahead and then follow the walkway rightward. The walkway forks off in many directions, most notably to mechanical doors that the beam troopers used to get in this room when you were fighting the Omega Pirate. What you want to do is find a red door on this top floor and you'll find it if you go rightward after coming up from the floor below via the elevator. Becareful not to fall to the floor below, you won't get hurt or die, you'll just have a real annoying convenience. When you find the red door in this top floor, go through it with your scan visor switched on. Processing Center Access-energy tank ------------------------------------ You'll see an energy tank right in this room with a scan panel behind it. Scan the scan panel as you enter this room and grab the energy tank after you are done scanning. Then go through into the phazon-laden passage way revealed by the opening gates. At the end is a red door, go through it with your plasma beam charging. Phazon Processing Center-missile expansion ------------------------------------------ This is a big room with alot going on it. There are three main levels in this room, you are at the bottom. As you can see, the bottom level is completely covered in phazon. The level above is a small narrow walkway with a spider track that can be used to get to the top level where the only way you can get around is by space jumping from one platform and ledge to the next. There are 3 enemies on the bottom level, a plasma trooper on the right, a power trooper on the left, and a mega turret also on the right. The plasma and power troopers are a nice healthy distance away from you, about half the room. Meanwhile, the mega turret is dangling below a ledge above the entrance to this room that you are in, and connected to a wall on the side of the room you are on. Its so close that if you step out beyond the entrance of the Processing Center, you'll both see each other and it'll start firing at you. The plasma trooper is on a platform with some explosive crates right next to him, you are going to start off by backing up against the left wall of the entrance of this room that you are in right now, locking onto him, and firing your charged plasma beam shot at him. More than likely, the explosive crates next to him will explode giving him a nasty explosion that he'll be feeling. If the shot hits him, but not the crates next to him, quickly charge and fire a shot at the crates. And give him another one or two quickly charged plasma beam shots. Then aim up to the right to see the mega turret, lock on it, and give it a charged plasma beam shot. It might see you, but who cares, just give it plasma beam shot to finish it. Then switch to your power beam, charge it and give a super missile to the power trooper you see far ahead on a platform on the left. After those three are dead on the bottom level, make your way to the platform that the plasma trooper was on. There are platforms on the way there that you can use to jump up onto the plasma troopers platform. When you are on the platform, turn right to see a ledge running along the wall on the right and jump over to it. When you are on this ledge, aim upward to the second level to see a wave trooper on that walkway above you. Switch to and charge your wave beam and fire a charged shot at the wave trooper. If you are lucky, the wave trooper will get knocked off the walkway where he might fall to the phazon floor below killing him. Sometimes he'll fall onto a platform on the bottom level, so make sure you see him fall to the floor and die otherwise you'll have to kill him with some more charged shots. When thats done, jump to another ledge that continues along the wall on the right. After you are on this ledge, turn right to see a floating platform that you'll jump to. When you land on this first platform, you'll see two other platforms on your right that you'll have to space jump to. Sometimes, after killing the wave trooper from that ledge on the bottom level, the plasma trooper that is also on the walkway that the wave trooper was on will start firing at me as well. He'll have a hard time hitting you at at the first and second platforms you get on, but won't have such a hard time from the third floating platform to the right of the second. After you land on the second platform, quickly switch on your x-ray visor and you'll see two floating platforms slightly on the right or straight ahead depending in which direction you landed on the second platform. You can actually space jump fairly easily to the lower/closer of the two normally invisible floating platforms, so do that. I like to enumerate this platform as the fourth since most people, even me, probably first jumped to the visible platform to the right of the second platform and then jumped to the invisible ones, but thats just me. When you land on the fourth floating platform, turn to your left at the wall that has a ledge pegged against it. Before you jump over to that ledge, turn around and look up at the walkway above to see the plasma trooper up here. If he's not dead yet, kill him right there by space jumping up and down, locking onto him, and feeding him plasma beam shots. Then space jump over to that ledge and you'll see an open crevice with a missile expansion inside. Get in your morphball and lay a power bomb to remove a false-wall concealing the missile expansion. Then grab the missile expansion, turn around, look at the higher elevated/invisible/fifth platform, and space jump over to it. Then from the fifth platform, space jump up onto the walkway that is the second level. After landing on the walkway, turn to your left to see two spider track pillars riding upwards. The spider track that is furthest away from you when first land on this walkway will be the spider track you'll go to and use. But before you do that, you should first go to the other end of the narrow walkway that is furthest away from you to kill a power trooper on a platform above. When you are trying to use the spider track to get to a ledge above the walkway of the second level, this power trooper above will start firing at you and might knock you down straight to the floor below. This has happened to me so many times that I adopt a measure before going up the spider track to insure it doesn't happen. I go to that narrow walkway, on the walkway we are currently on, that is furthest away from us. If you still need guidance on which one it is, lets pretend you are looking face to face at the white door on this second level, well it would be the narrow walkway on the right. So go to it and stop about 3/4 of the way to get a reasonable lock on this guy and give him a super missile. If you don't want to do this, then you risk an inconvenience and time for the speed run. Whether or not you chose to take out the power trooper above the second level, go to the spider track I told you about, and ride it to where it'll end against a wall and above a ledge that you can get onto from the spider track. Once you are on this ledge above the second level walkway, get out of your morphball and turn left. You should see a platform situated away from the wall but still kind of close to you. Space jump onto it, immediately charge your power beam, aim upward into the ceiling and fire a super missile at the mega turret up in the ceiling. You should see the lock on reticule try to form around it as you look in the ceiling, but a moving platform might block it as it makes its trip around the room. So after the mega turret is down, space jump onto a platform to your northwest, and then space jump over to a platform situated on your northeast/right. Turn to your left to see an elevated ledge protruding from a pillar along the wall and jump over to it; the space jump over to this ledge is fairly easy, trust me. Then space jump over to a ledge on the left, running along the wall. Once you are on this ledge running along the wall, turn around 180 degrees to see another ledge pegged against that same pillar we just used and jump over to it. Then space jump over to a ledge up-ahead running along the wall on the left and then turn right. You'll see the moving platform making its route back and forth from the wall on the right to an entrance to another area on the left. Get on it when it comes by and take it to the new area on the left. The new area leads to a white door out of this room so go to that area and through the door.I'm not going to lie, I probably spend 5 minutes at the most in this room, I should only be spending 3. So the first time you go through here don't worry all that much about time, just about whats convenient to get in order to get through. Transport Access- Grapple swing across the grapple points to get to the otherside of the Access and go through the door. Transport to Magmoor Caverns North- Scan the scan panel on your right and get into the hologram. Kiss the Phazon Mines goodbye cause you'll never see them again. =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Phazon Mines West- Walk down the pathway up ahead and go through the white door at the end. Workstation Tunnel- Get in your morphball as you continue on down the path until you hit a pile of debris blocking your path through the glass tube. Power bomb the debris pile, exit your morphball as the power bomb is going off and continue on down the path opened up by the removed debris. Switch your wave beam on as you go through the door to the next room. Magmoor Workstation- Space jump as far as possible from the cliff down to the floor in the direction of the two flying pirates. When you land at the bottom floor, quickly continue rightward to the rock mound that leads to the next door. Then go through the door. South Core Tunnel- Give the puddle-spore a regular wave beam shot to shut him up and then space jump ontop of him. Then space jump over to the otherside of this lava pool and start heading for the door. Don't bother with the burrowers that pop out of the ground, I usually just kill one with a charged wave beam shot I've been charging from the moment I stepped in this room. Geothermal Core- Immediately jump up the two ledges on your left and use the second/highest one to space jump over to and swing from the grapple point under the disc on the pillar. When you land on the platform thing on the pillar, keep heading for the door to the North Core Tunnel. Space jump as far as possible off of the platform on the pillar to the door to the North Core Tunnel. North Core Tunnel- Proceed as normally down the path to the door to the Twin Fires, nothing exciting here. Twin Fires- Head down the path that goes rightward, space jump up to the grapple point dangling from the ceiling above the lava lake and use it to swing to the shore on the otherside. I always like to get in my morphball, mid-air through the grapple swing as I'm about to land on the shore on the otherside because then I'll have to get through the middle part of the Twin Fires where the flamethrowers are at and getting in my morphball helps me avoid damage. When you appear on the second part of Twin Fires, space jump and grapple swing over to and from the grapple point dangling above the ceiling to get to the exit out of the Twin Fires Tunnel. Then just keep going through the exit path to the door to the Twin Fires Tunnel. Twin Fires Tunnel- When you come back out here, choose to either use the spider track or shortcut yourself through the lava. I choose the lava because its easier jumping out of the lava to the other shore en route to the Transport to Tallon Overworld West. Either way, make sure you get into the next room. Transport to Tallon Overworld West- Jump into the hologram in the Transport to get yourself to the Tallon Overworld. ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Transport to Magmoor Caverns West- Shoot the door ahead of you and switch on your plasma beam as you go through it. Transport Tunnel B-missile expansion ------------------------------------ The Transport Tunnel runs leftward first and then pretty straight like a trail. Its got a few zoomers scattered along the way at various places, but the point of interest is in the middle where there'll be like a sort of bridge to the end of the Tunnel. Under the bridge is a missile expansion. What you are going to do is go down this "trail", plasma beaming the zoomers along the way. When you arrive at the bridge, go along the left or right to get under it and grab the missile expansion. Once you've got the missile expansion, space jump out of this 'ditch' and continue onto the end of the Tunnel. Root Cave-missile expansion --------------------------- The Root Cave is a really big cylindrical, vertical room that ends way up high. You are going to space jump up and over the three steps on the other end of the room on the left. The bottom floor where you'll see some sort of sand floor will have a bunch of beetles come out of the ground when you pass through, ignore them. After the three steps up, you'll continue leftward on down a path that'll end with some huge tree roots protruding out from the floor at the end of this path. Go up the huge tree roots and jump up onto a sort of platform on the left that has formed a small pond with water on it. Turn leftward to see another platform just like it with a zoomer, kill the zoomer and jump onto this one as well. Turn leftward a little more and space jump over to a door with a blast shield on it, missile the blast shield as you arrive to it but don't go through the door. Instead completely turn around to see this broken bridge of tree roots running through the middle of the room. On the leftside of this tree-root bridge is a blood flower that you'll give a quickly charged plasma beam shot, behind the tree-root bridge on the otherside of the room, sort of on the right, is a geemer crawling around a ledge protruding from the wall. Fire a regular plasma beam shot to kill it. Then space jump over to and swing from the grapple point on the leftside of the broken tree bridge to the ledge that the geemer you killed was on. The swing over to this ledge can be made, and will be made, so do it. When you land, turn rightward to see a ledge with another geemer on it. Kill the geemer and jump onto the ledge. Turn right again to see that you are on the broken tree-root bridge and jump over to the otherside. When you are on the otherside, look to the wall on the right to see a ledge with a zoomer on it. Kill the zoomer and jump on the ledge. Turn rightward after landing on the ledge and turn on your x-ray visor to see some platforms floating in mid-air. There is three of them that continue upward along the wall. Use them to get to a ledge with a roof over it and then turn right after you are on this ledge to see another platform floating in mid-air. Space jump over to it and turn to your left to see a missile expansion in a small alcove. Grab the missile expansion and get back on the floating platform. If you switch off your x-ray visor and look around the room, preferably leftward, you'll see a red door tucked away. You'll have to space jump over to that entrance to the door from the platform you are on right now. I know the jump might look intimidating, but it can be done. When the jump is made, just go through the red door. Arbor Chamber-missile expansion ------------------------------- A missile expansion is clearly visibe on a pedestal in the middle of the room. Grab the missile expansion, the last missile expansion you'll have to get for the whole game, and then head back out of this room from the way in which you came. Root Cave- When you come back out here, approach and look down over the cliff. Jump down to the broken tree bridge on the right using your space jump to soften the recoil and make your landing more accurate. Then jump down to the door with the blast shield that you removed and go through. Root Tunnel- Plasma beam the blood flower on your right as you head for the door on the otherside of the room. Tallon Canyon- Jump over to the part of the ledgeway where you'll see a zoomer scurrying around. From there, jump down to the floor below and then get to the door to the Canyon Cavern. Canyon Cavern- In here, head for the door to the Landing Site, ignore the beetles that'll come out on your left. Landing Site*- { F.12 } Head over to your ship and save your game. We have all the missiles, power bombs, beams, beam-combos, and energy tanks in the game. We just need one more thing. When the game is done saving or you continue your save file again, you'll see a door on the otherside of the room high above the floor. You are going to start your way to that door by going to a rock-pedestal on the left near the water. From this pedestal you are going to jump to the nearby ledge, to another nearby ledge continuing rightward, and up some steps coming out from the ledge. At the top of the ledge will be a trail running rightward. Follow it to the door and go through into the next room with your plasma beam ready. Temple Hall- As you step into the Hall, aim upwards, lock and kill all the seedlings in the ceiling with your plasma beam and then start heading for the door. Temple Security Station- A quarter of the way through the glass-tube part of the Security Station, a cutscene will start introducing the Chozo Artifact Temple to you. Continue on down through the glass tube to the next room. Missile the blast shield on the door when it catches your eye and go through the door. Temple Lobby- Fire a charged plasma beam shot at the door at the end of the Lobby, switch on your power beam, get in your morphball and boost toward the door. Go through the door while in your morphball and charge your boost ball up. Artifact Temple-chozo artifact ------------------------------ Ignore the interesting window in the wall upahead and boost down the path that runs left. Continue boosting down the left path down to a field with monoliths scattered around it. In the center of this monolith field is a central monolith with a chozo artifact under it. Go and grab that artifact when you arive in the monolith field. Now you've got all the items in the entire game, the game will even prompt you that you have all the items in the game. Soon after a cutscene will start introducing an old friend. Ridley is the hardest boss in the game; despite that, there is still a very orderly way of defeating him. Like the game says, he has the capability to fire a hail storm of missiles at you, launch a stream-line breath of fire, or drop bombs on you. Don't worry too much about his melee abilities, they won't come til' later. When the cutscene introducing him ends you should start charging your power beam, meanwhile Ridley will swoop up from a cliff infront of the monolith field and will start hovering above the field itself. Ridley's first move will more than likely be to stick out his neck and do his kinetic-breath, meanwhile you should fire a super missile as quickly as possible and start charging your power beam for the next super missile. When Ridley takes the first super missile, he'll recoil back, get himself together, and then strafe left or right. After strafing, he'll either do a pose for you or, more than likely, launch missiles. You'll have your power beam charging when he strafes to his side and starts to cover himself with his wings for the missile launch. The second you start to see him close his wings, you fire the second super missile. The super missile takes so much time to fire and land that if you fire it about the same time as Ridley closes his wings, you'll hit him and keep him from firing his missiles at you. You don't want the super missile to land on Ridley when hes covering himself with his wings and you don't want to let him launch those missiles because they'll just increase in quantity, power, and accuracy at you the more time you give him. But if you can manage to master when to fire your super missile at Ridley when he wants to do his missile storm at you, you can nail him with a super missile and prevent him from firing any missiles at all. But again, FIRE YOUR SUPER MISSILE AT RIDLEY AT THE SECOND HE CLOSES HIS WINGS. Usually Ridley will give you two opportunities to land super missiles on him just like I've explained, but he might give you a third shot by choosing to either do his kinetic-breath, missile storm or posing for you after that. After this initial sequence, Ridley will start these 'flights' where he'll turn to his left or right and fly to the mountains in the background after trying to do his two or three attacks on you. When he does these 'flights', I go to anyone of the monoliths that is closest to the area that Ridley hovers near. Then I'll position myself so that I'm facing the edge of the top of the monolith that is lower than the otherside. Then I jump up onto the monolith and literally stand on it, sometimes I jump in and around other monoliths nearby. Meanwhile, Ridley will fly in an arc to the mountains in the background and back to the Artifact Temple passing right above it. He'll pass right above it like a jet and fly back toward the mountains in an arc again and back to the Artifact Temple where he'll end his flight by swooping down the cliff infront of the monolith field. In these 'flights', he'll pass right above the Artifact Temple like a jet, when he does that he'll also do one or two attacks. He'll either do his kinetic-breath attack, drop bombs on you, or do both of the attacks at the same time. Why do I jump ontop of the monoliths? Well because I've found that its actually easier for me to avoid Ridley's attacks if I'm ontop of a monolith and space jump in-place as they are coming in. The attacks are meant to swarm the ground, not the air you are jumping into. Another thing I've noticed is that you are at a better elevation with Ridley when you are on the monolith. You can catch him swoop up the cliff into his hover-mode and you can connect super missiles onto him alot better on the monoliths. But watch out for the meson-bombs to destroy a few of the monoliths partially or totally. Its virtually impossible to land attacks on Ridley when he is in the middle of these flights, so don't even bother. But it is possible to land one when he starts his flights. The window of opportunity is so small though, and you might have to put up with the frustration of wasting missile ammo. Sometimes I get lucky enough to land these, sometimes not. Since my strategy in the first part of this fight has you relying on super-missiles so much, you may find that there may not be enough time to actually charge, fire one off, and have it land on him when he starts doing them. But the reliance on super missiles has given me quality results ever since I got this game so stick to my strategy of using them. Ridley's flights will always encompass two round trip flights from the mountains back to the Artifact Temple just like I've described above. He'll end the flight by going down the cliff under the Artifact Temple, but he'll soon come back up the cliff and start hovering above the monolith field just like the way the fight started. Because you were patient and held onto your charged power beam shot, you are going to wait until he swoops back up the cliff to hover above the monolith field in order to land another super missile on him. When Ridley starts to swoop up the cliff to hover, lock on him and fire another super missile at him. If you can time early enough when to fire and land a super missile on Ridley after he swoops up the cliff, then you can also give yourself more time to charge and fire a second super missile. After Ridley swoops up the cliff from his flights, he might go into hover mode and do either one of the three things that he did when the fight first started. More than likely though, he'll swoop down onto the monolith field. Ridley might actually do this when the fight first starts, but the likelyhood of that happening is sort of slim since its only happened to me a few times in the years I have played this game. So this is what'll happen, you fired off and nailed Ridley with a super missile after he swoops back up the cliff, then all of a sudden he starts floating to the field. The spot on the monolith field that you are in when he starts to swoop down to it is where he'll land. If you are on the far left corner of the field near the entrance to the monolith field when Ridley tries to swoop down there, then thats where he'll land. But theres a catch, you can back away from the spot that Ridley is trying to land on to avoid him landing on you. In my opinion, the best place to stand when Ridley tries to swoop down to the field is near the cliff infront of the field. Being in the center of the field is a bad idea because Ridley is really big, takes up alot of space in the field and will leave very little room for you if he is in the middle of the ring. If you are close to the entrance you used to get from the Artifact Temple to the monolith field, then you risk being cornered by Ridley or not having a clear shot on him. If you stand near the cliff infront of the monolith field, then you can give yourself space to back up and time to deliver a second super missile at Ridley as he swoops down to the spot you are in. If you are on a monolith, then space jump backwards making sure that you don't get too much height in your jump and are instead moving horizontally. After you've fired the second super missile at Ridley as hes swooping down to the monolith field, start charging your power beam again. Try to fit in a third super missile at Ridley when he lands on the monolith field. If you are lucky, you can even pull off a fourth on Ridley if he takes his time to try to turn in your direction, slash at you, or whatever else he'll choose to do. But the onion of this paragraph-strategy is that you were standing on one of the monoliths or you were near the cliff of the Artifact Temple. When Ridley comes swoops down onto the monolith field, he'll instantly destroy all of the monoliths he touches and you may find that you won't have any left. This is a mixed-blessing: first the good thing is that it gets the monoliths out of the way for when you want to get out of Ridley's way when he swoops down onto the field. The bad thing is that he'll have destroyed all the good monoliths in the field that you would have used to keep yourself out of the fray of his 'flight' attacks. After landing and doing whatever on the monolith field, Ridley will zip back up, over, and down the cliff again. Then he'll swoop back up the cliff and the cycle will start all over again. The last three paragraphs I've laid out are how Ridley will do what he does the first time. After he finishes his first flight' and swoops back up the cliff for the first time, he'll completely wing it anyway he wants from then on. But what he'll do and how to confront it is exactly how I've layed it all out. Eventually you'll lower his health so much that his wings will start to burn off and he'll have to land down on the monolith field. This is second/last part of the fight, its the mostinteresting and hardest because its Ridley's melee mode. You'll see Ridley landing down on the monolith field in a cutscene, the end of the cutscene will give you a clue about what you are going to do when the cutscene ends. If you see Ridley plant his forearms in the ground or stick out his neck forward with his mouth wide open, then that means he'll do his kinetic-breath attack. If he doesn't do either of what I just said previously or if you see him rear himself, then that means that hes going to do his rush attack. Ridleys kinetic-breath attack is where he'll throw his neck to the left or right, usually HIS left, and a continous stream of the kinetic-breath attack will fire out. He'll then pan his head rightward in an arc so that the stream goes across the field. While he is doing this if you will just simply space jump over it. Ridley's rush attack will have Ridley rearing himself backward, usually he'll rear back his left shoulder, and then start charging straight at you. This attack is super damaging, kind of hard to evade for noobs, and is his main attack! The worst part is that when the game is about to end and Ridley has only a little health left, he'll start to do this attack faster and won't leave you any time to evade it. In order to deal with Ridley when he wants to perform his kinetic-breath attack, you are going to fire a missile, or a charged beam shot, at Ridley's mouth when he has it wide open, and then you'll start charging up your power beam immediately after that. I prefer you fire a missile at Ridley's mouth when he does this instead of anything else because its more accurate, packs sufficient fire power, and is easier to fire. Ridley will be stunned by the missile impact and leave his chest exposed, meanwhile, you'll use that charging power beam to fire a super missile at his chest that you'll be able to get a lock on when Ridley exposes himself like that. This will be the absolute only way you'll be able to damage Ridley during this part of the fight, so make sure you do whatever is appropriate. Alot of noobs foolishly use the wave buster to kill Ridley contending that the wave buster inflicts constant damage on his chest and mouth. The problem with that strategy is that the kind of damage it does is both weak and passive. The wave buster does very little damage to Ridley in practice, while obliterating your missile ammo. And the wave buster doesn't have the physical thump of the power beam, super missile, or even missile. Ridley's body is also completely immune to attacks, aside from his mouth and chest, and there isn't a good guarantee that the wave buster will always transition well from the chest to mouth, to back again. What will happen is that the wave buster, in moving back and forth from chest and mouth, will also ride across another body part of his and that'll be what breaks the wave buster and the strategy behind it. A great way I've seen of finishing Ridley is using rapid-fire missiles. What happens is people stick with their power beam and fire missiles rapidly, Y and then A then Y again, and so on. People using this strategy manage to inflict decent damage on Ridley and then he goes back to opening his mouth so that you can continue the volley. There have been only a few instances where I've been able to finish the match decently that way. But with me Ridley sometimes breaks out of wanting to expose himself again and again, which is what that strategy wants to accomplish. The speedrunner way I've seen of killing Ridley quickly is to boost ball his chest when he swoops down onto the battlefield. What people do is that Ridley tries to land on the monolith field, they get out of the way, positioning themselves perpendicular to him. Then they get in their morphball and boost ball his chest when it touches the ground in the animation of this sequence. Those are the tricks and my dissection of them, but I still like my strategy which has helped me beat him under 3 minutes on many occasions. So I just stick with my super missile abuse, which pinches his health pretty bad already. When Ridley does the rush attack, you are actually going to get really close to him and will start strafing to your left. The idea is that when Ridley does this Rush attack, he'll actually do it at a slight arc. If you are inside of this arc and close enough to him, then Ridley won't have the space or time to adjust his attack on you. If you are outside of the arc, or too far away from him, then you give him the space and time needed to adjust his attack. Oddly enough sometimes, I've actually been able to stun Ridley when he is going to do his rush attack. What happens is that Ridley actually opens his mouth when he does it, but the problem is that there is way too small an opportunity for it to work, not to mention you aren't allowed to lock onto his mouth when he does it. Knowing what is the inside of this arc is how I get through this match as well. The shoulder that he rears backward and then finally forward when he does that actual rush is the outside of the arc. So if you see him rear his head back along with his left shoulder, you will go dash-jump left and inside/to him. The fight basically plays itself out like this. But this is also the fight that seems to spell doom for most first-timers. But I've given you a way of getting through with this that I've developed over the years. Remember that when Ridley has just a tiny amount of damage left, he'll start to do his rush attacks alot faster, so you better adjust also. When you kill Ridley, a cutscene will start where Ridley is snuffed out and then a portal is activated in the middle of monolith field. Go into it with your plasma beam ready. ============= Impact Crater ============= Crater Entry Point- You have a save station on your left and a red door on your right. Go ahead and save if you don't want to fight Ridley again inorder to get here. I, however, always keep a save file with me at the last save point before I fight Ridley since I like to practice on Ridley and the next guy. Whatever you choose to do, go through the door on the right. Crater Tunnel A- The Tunnel is really crazy looking passage way to the next room. The lower floor with the lava-ish color of goop or rock is actually phazon, but don't touch it. This phazon will do you damage because its a more radioactive strain then the blue phazon we've seen throughout this game. So what you want to do instead is space jump over it to the crevice floor or whatever on the otherside where you'll notice some little lizards crawling on. These lizards are called Lumijeks and they do barely any damage, consider them scarabs because they won't attack you but you will take a little bit of damage as you step on them or touch them. So jump to the spot they are crawling around, and when you get to that spot, space jump over to the other spot where the next red door is at and go through it. Phazon Core- Alot to do here, first walk away from the entrance and you'll notice a large central pillar in the middle of the room with more of that deadly phazon acting as a moat around it. Spiraling around the walls that surround the pillar and spilaring around the pillar itself are ledges and floating platforms that you will use to get to the top. Start by going around the left of the pillar, soon you'll see a floating platform with what seems to be a white ledge behind it and you'll hear the screech of a metroid. Just space jump over to that platform and then to the ledge behind it, charge your plasma beam as you do this. When you land on this ledge that I'm talking about, turn right to see two other ledges continuing down the wall rightwards. Near the second ledge is a floating platform that you can jump to either from the first ledge or the second ledge; I usually choose the first ledge since it helps cut time, but the second ledge is safer since you have to time a space jump really well to get there from the first ledge. When you land on that floating platform, continue space jumping up the next 3 or 4 floating platforms that continue to spiral rightwards along the pillar in the middle of the room. Now I know that you are going to take your time on this so I might as well lay it out now. The metroid that you heard screech will be right on your tail from the beggining and you won't be able to outrun him and the other two or three metroids that come along later in the room unless you rush through here like a true speed-runner. So if the Metroid gets you and you notice that he happens to be white, then take note that this is a new breed of metroid called a Fission Metroid. Maybe its the air, its gotta be because of all the radioactive phazon in the Impact Crater, but these metroids won't freeze solid like regular metroids from an ice beam shot or blow up from a fully charged plasma beam shot. Instead they'll take all the damage you give them and use it to split into two metroids. When they do this, they'll turn into four different colors that are completely random no matter what weapon you use. They'll either turn red, yellow, purple, or white; and like the beam troopers you have to shoot each colored metroid with the appropriately colored beam that they are colored to in order to kill them. Or you could use a power bomb which I don't have too much a problem with since you won't need it much. Moving on, we were at the floating platforms spiraling around the central pillar...they'll end with an opening in the pillar that you can space jump to from the last of these floating platforms. So do that and continue walking on down the branch-walkway so conveniently provided to you so that you can get to the ledge from the central pillar. As you are walking down the branch-walkway to the ledge, you'll faintly notice a red door on your right. Thats the door to the missile station, I don't think you'll need more missiles since they really only make the next fight easier and less time consuming. Its your choice, either way, when you get across the branch-walkway to the ledge, go down the ledgeway rightwards. You'll notice little phazon fishies swimming in a wall mounted tank, ignore them and turn rightwards once you get to a point in the ledge where the white wall on your right isn't blocking your view of the pillar. After you get here, you'll see a platform a little on the right and another fission metroid probably staring you in the face, but if you turn rightwards you'll then catch eye of a platform floating at a higher elevation then the last platform I described. Usually at this point I have no choice but to do something to one of these fission metroids, but I also want to get through this room as fast as possible. So what I do is fire off a charging plasma beam shot I always have ready when I'm going through this room at the fission metroid that is in my face when I get past the white wall and then turn right and space jump to the floating platform that is higher in elevation to the other one upahead. Its a harder jump, but it can be done. But its really just safer to just wait for either of the fission metroids to attack you and then power bomb them, then space jump up the platform I'm talking about, remember that by the time you get beyond that white wall that blocks your view of the central pillar in the room there will be 2 fission metroids. When you get on that floating platform, continue space jumping along to the other two floating platforms to eventually get to the top of the central pillar. Once you get to the top of the central pillar, walk down the branch-walkway up here to the door you'll see down the branch-walkway. The door is kind of concealed behind the wall, but you'll know that the door is there because the end of the branch-walkway is a dead end. When you get to the door, just get through. Crater Tunnel B- When you step inside you'll see a nice little pool of highly-radioactive phazon in the lower floor from where you are at, to the next door at the end of the Tunnel. There are a maze of spider tracks that you can use to get across safely through this tunnel with the maze starting at a spider track on your left once you step out into this place. You'll start off by bomb jumping into the spider track on your left and riding it forwards until it ends. This spider track will end just below another spider track above it, so lay a bomb when you are on the first spider track to bomb jump to the second spider track riding along in the ceiling. Then follow this short little second spider track along the ceiling where it'll end above a third spider track that you'll simply drop down to and continue riding forward. This third spider track will end above a fourth spider track that runs forwards to the door but makes a quick turn upwards to end just below a fifth spider track that starts in the ceiling. Bomb jump yourself to the fifth spider track from the fourth and ride this spider track until you see it end above a sixth spider track that runs laterally along the wall below the fifth spider track. Then just drop down from the sixth spider track when you reach the otherside clear of the killer-phazon. If you fall into the phazon pool, then you can either quickly exit your morphball and run to either side and jump out of the phazon or you can use the spider track that runs from the phazon pool to the "free and clear from phazon" zone like a moron. I like to space jump in and out of the phazon to get to the otherside. This little pool isn't that deep, and by widening out your space jump and treating the pool like regular lava, you can get across to the otherside with only one or two points of damage taken off of you. Make your choice. Once you get to the other end, shoot the door and go through it. Phazon Infusion Chamber- When you enter the room, a cutscene will start introducing you to the last boss of the game, Metroid Prime. Meeting Prime like this is incredibly poetic if you ask me. In the cutscene, you'll notice that the door behind you actually is locked with a security lock and you'll see Metroid Prime burrow through a wall behind her into another room. Make a random choice, either switch to your wave beam or your power beam. Then follow her! Subchamber One- When the cutscene ends, start charging your power or wave beam and lock onto her. If she's colored yellow, then look for a clear shot at her eyes and give her a super missile, if she is purple, then you give her just a regular charged wave beam shot. Alright, earlier you saw the skin between Prime's shell glow white, and all of a sudden its either purple or yellow. Well she has developed defenses much like the beam troopers and fission metroids have developed, these different colored skins will from now be called screens. These defenses, like I said, work like beam trooper and fission metroid defenses; if she switches to a yellow screen then she'll be weak to your power beam, if her screen goes red then she'll be weak to your plasma beam, etc. The only weak spot on her body, the only place where you can lay damage to her is on her face and the only locks you'll be able to get on her are on her face so don't worry. Firing at any other part of her body will make your attacks literally bounce right off, sometimes right at you which could cause you damage. She has a variety of attacks at her disposal, but for now you'll only have to put with three which include missile, beam, and melee attacks. Her missile attacks will have her withdraw herself inside like a crab and then she'll fire some missiles from her back. These are easily avoided by just keeping the lock that you'll have on her and quickly dashing away from the spot you are at when she actually fired them. Her beam attack will have her open her mouth, which is really big, and then a stream of energy will come out that'll match the flavor of the screen that Prime is using currently. If she has a yellow screen, Prime's beam attack will do weak damage since it'll actually just punch you and push you back away. I have literally just stood there infront of these beam attacks when she launches them and it really does just do a quick tiny snip of damage and pushes you out of the way not letting you take anymore unless you continue to try to get hit by the beam. Prime's purple screen will have her fire a purple beam that on contact will actually scramble your visor so bad that you can't lock onto her temporarily and your visor will have to reboot whenever its scrambled by electricity. These beam attacks will be fired at the spot you are at when she started the attack, so what you just got to do is just space jump up and to your left or right of the position that you are at when she pulled this attack. Her melee attack will be where if you get too close to her, she'll rear back and then lunge forward with her two front legs to slice you with them. Not really a whole lot of damage done here, but if she does want to do this to you, then you can avoid it by space jumping up. Chances are though that you'll won't pull off the space jump successfully and that you'll get sliced by her, but no big deal. I've actually seen videos where people use this melee attack of hers to distract her so that she can't do anything else and they just feed her damage. But I don't see the point, I just find it easier to give her what she asks for from afar. Whenever I fight Prime, I keep some distance between me and her like most gamers. Alright, so Prime is on one side of the room, and you are on another where there are 6 to 7 pillar-like rock formations. The pillars are set up in rows of threes with the middle pillar having a flat top that you can use like a step to stand on, I frequently use it. So you started out the fight by firing either a super missile or charged wave beam shot at her, well you have to follow up with more attacks to scare her into the next room. To get her into the next room, you have to get her to give up using two of her screens, the power screen and the wave screen. Like I said, if you started the match with her using the yellow screen, then you'll give her two super missiles. If two super missiles make their hit on her, then she'll switch to her next screen or go into the next room. If she is using the purple screen, then you'll have to fire as many quickly charged wave beam shots as possible. Its useless giving you how many you would have to fire since its relative to how long you charged the beam and I'm not dumb enough to try to count. You could actually use the wave-buster on her, but that weapon wastes way too much missiles, doesn't do enough damage, and might get broken off since she can continue to move while receiving the attack. So my advice is to just give her charged wave beam attacks until shes either forced to change her screen or go into the next room. There are 3 more rooms to go to after this one, until you finally get to the last room where you'll do the last fight with her. After each room, she'll add another screen and you'll have to put out another screen after each room. In the next room, she'll add only one screen and force you to put out three of her screens. In Subchamber Three, you'll have to put out four, but in Subchamber Four you'll still have to put with four, but she'll mess around a bit with the pattern of the fights in the first three Subchambers. So remember, just switch your arm cannon to the beam that matches her screen color and give her what I recommended. Remember to keep your distance, but allow yourself enough space so that you aren't cornered or blocked by the pillars around you. And if she does the missile or beam attacks, then just dash to your left or right for the missiles when she fires them and space jump up, over, and to your left or right when she does the beam attack. One more thing, I know I'm gonna get alot crap about calling Prime "her" or "she", but we all know that she becomes a she later in the series and why. Its also just real convenient for me to call Prime her or she since I know I remember getting a scan that called Prime "her" but forgot which one it was, and because only women could be as vicious as Prime is. Moving on... Subcamber Two- In the next room, Prime will be on one side of the room and you on the other, there are also two more of those pillar rock-formations on your side of the room. In between both of you are 3 trenches running straightward from you to her. The first screen she decides to go with in this room can be either one of the three that she'll decide to use in this room, Prime will go with whatever screen she wants at random. So quickly switch the beam on your arm cannon to the screen color Prime is currently using. Alright now Prime will also start incorporating other attacks in her battles against you. These will include: toxic-gas missiles, ice-wave, tractor beams, energy orbs, and a take-down attack. Prime's toxic-gas missiles will be just like the regular missiles she used in the first Subchamber, except that when they explode a cloud toxic-gas will lag behind where they exploded. Prime for some reason really likes to use these when she has her white-screen on, but she has and might use them while she has her other colored screens on as well. You can avoid these just like her regular missiles by quickly dashing to your left or right. Prime will also double the attack of her regular missiles by firing two or even three in a row. She'll withdraw herself inside, fire her first volley, do a second, and maybe even a third. What you'll do is just your first dash left or right, and then dash away from the spot you are currently at. Look out for both of these new missile attacks because they can do you damage. Prime's ice-wave will have her smash the ground with her forearms and a wave of ice will flow from her straight to you. If you let the ice-wave touch you, then you get frozen solid, have to put with a little bit of damage and are temporarily at the mercy of Prime's next attack. This is easily avoidable, just dash to your left or right out of the way or you can even space jump in place and land on the trail of ice left over. I do it frequently. This attack is not really that impressive. But if you are frozen solid, then just keep trying to jump in order to break out of it. Her tractor-beam will have her fire two green beams straight at you and she'll start pulling you toward her. If she pulls you close enough, then she'll smash you down with her forearms giving you some decent damage. I find it impossible to avoid getting trapped by this thing, so what I do when she fires it at me is yank back on my control stick and keep it there to try and walk backwards. Doing this will slow the pull toward her and give you time to either break free or give her some damage. If she's got her yellow screen on, use the fact that she's not moving around to charge and fire the one or two necessary super missiles to put her away. If shes got her white-screen on, then use this tactic to fire an ice spreader at her. Yes I said an ice-spreader, one ice spreader will freeze her face solid and put out her white-screen. From now on you'll use an ice-spreader on her whenever she switches to her white-screen, but I'll explain to you later on how to manage this tactic. If Prime uses her purple-screen, then use this tactic and feed her charged wave beam shots. Obviously I don't want you to use you wave-buster and the wave beam shots won't put out her screen, you are going to also turn your joystick to the right and backwards. Pretend you facing Prime is like facing north, well using this refined tactic will have you moving southeast from her. If you continue to back up and be face to face with her, then she'll eventually be able to hit you with her forearms at the end of the pull. This could also come in handy when your using the power beam on her or we can't catch a break while resisting the pull of the tractor beam. Super missiles take time to charge, fire, and then there is also the second or two of waiting between each super missile. So use the back and rightward pull away from her when you start to get to close to her. You can also break off the tractor beam by jumping into two of the three trenches I told you to use when you and Prime switch room sides. You'll get locked in the trench or slow the tractor beam down so much that it'll just give out. Prime really likes to use this tactic when she has her yellow screen, but won't be too shy about using it with her other screens so stay on the look out. Your best shot to slow down the tractor beam pull is at the beggining when Prime fires it at you, so start pulling back on your joystick as soon as you see the two green beams coming at you. Don't try to jump out of it, just keep holding back and ripping damage on her. Prime's worst attack in my estimation is her energy-orb attack. What happens is Prime withdraws herself back and forms two orbs of energy from her back. These orbs will then flow in an arc from her back straight at you. The worst part is that these things will follow you like heat-seeking missiles, you really will either have to destroy them or take the damage they give you, which is pretty bad itself. The damage they do to you is specialized and varied. If she has her yellow-screen on, then the orbs will take roughly 70% of one energy tank and make you recoil real bad. A purple-screen orbs will do a little more or less one energy tank of damage, scramble your visor, and prevent you from locking until your visor reboots itself. A white-screen orb will do roughly one energy tank of damage and freeze you solid. Remember to continously press B in order to break free from your frozen status. I'll explain what Prime's red screen orb is like in the next room. To destroy the energy orbs, you have to lock onto both of them that come out and destroy them with the beam corresponding to the screen Prime used when she created them. If they're purple, then use your wave beam, if they're white, use your ice beam. You'll find it kind of easy to destroy these things with your wave and power beam since both of them have great accuracy, speed, and power for this task. The ice beam will be hard because of the accuracy of the ice beam. So what I do is just use a super missile and an ice spreader to destroy one of the two yellow or white orbs that Prime has coming my way. I usually take out one energy orb with one ice-spreader and then take out the other with regular charged ice beam shots since they travel faster and snuff the orbs easier. The purple energy orbs will be taken out with charged wave beam shots, usually two quickly charged shots are needed for each orb, so don't worry. The great thing is that the orbs move sort of slowly and give you enough time to destroy them. However, Prime will also try and do something else at you while you are dealing with those. She might do her energy-beam attack or fire some missiles, so stay on your toes and try to put out those two energy orbs as quickly as possible. If she does an attack on you, like her energy-beam or missile attacks on you while you are contending with the energy orbs, then just dash jump to the side out of the way or space jump over the attack. You can help yourself out by firing at the energy orbs as they are developing behind Prime. The window of opportunity is there and you can take it by getting up close to her when shes creating the energy orbs. I know you don't want to stay close to Prime, so just start walking backwards when you see them actually start to move toward you. But I can always tell when shes making them and even use the animation-time of her developing those orbs to quickly plan out how exactly I will take them out. Sometimes while she's making them, I even pull off my attack to get rid of them just as they are about to make their trip toward me. I charge and ready whatever beam I have to use and then as soon as I get the lock, I fire it on the orbs. Remember that these things won't get out of your hair unless you destroy them or let them hurt you. But when she creates these orbs, destroying them is a top priority and you need to get rid of them before you take out her screens. Prime's fourth attack is her take-down which has her abandon any of her screens completely and rush at you like a football player. Prime does this every time you put out one of her screens, except for the last one she'll use before she changes into the next room. Eveytime you put out of Prime's screens, she'll recoil and give you time to do a few really quick and important moves. So while Prime is recoiling and starting up her charge toward you, you are going to go to one of the three trenches in the middle of the room and get in your morphball. There are three trenches in the middle of the room, but only two are truly safe and those are the ones on the sides. Don't use the trench in the middle since Prime's back leg will give you some damage on her way to your side of the room. Prime will rush toward your side of the room and mean while you'll boost toward the side of the room that Prime is rushing AWAY FROM. You see, everytime she does this attack, you'll both have to switch sides in the room. She'll get your previous side of the room, and you'll get hers, until the next time you switch sides again after putting out her next screen. While I get in the morphball and inside the trenches, I also quickly switch to the next beam to correspond with the next screen I think Prime will switch to. Prime will change her screens at random, there is no way of telling which screen she'll use after the first screen so its a guessing game which I sometimes get right. But after putting out two of her screens in this room, you can safely guess which screen color she will use next and have your beam ready for that one. So to review, as soon as you take out her screen, get in one of the side trenches in the middle of the room. Get in your morphball and boost to the otherside of the room as she makes her way to your side of the room as well. Then get out of your morphball as quickly as possible and turn toward Prime and get back into business with her. One more thing before the next room, the energy orbs are so freaking dangerous and will be really dangerous in the next two rooms for reasons which I'll explain later. But right now you have to becareful not to feed an attack at Prime that'll make her switch screens and move to your side of the room after she's fired these energy orbs. Think about it, your charging your ice beam and fire it at Prime when she's trying to start her energy orbs. If you fire it at the exact same time she was going to start her energy orbs and you freeze her face solid while she was starting them up on her back, they'll develop and start coming at you. Meanwhile, Prime's face will only stay frozen for a few seconds and she'll start to make her take-down attack. Those few seconds after Prime had her face frozen will not be used to destroy the two energy orbs because you need to get in the trench to get to the otherside of the room safely. But when you get to the otherside of the room, the energy orbs are still following you and will be in your face more than likely. What I'm trying to say is becareful when you do the finishing blow on Prime's screens. If you just want to be able to beat this game, then wait about a second after or do it while Prime does her tractor beam, missile, ice-wave, or energy-beam attack to give her that second super missile to put out her yellow screen or that one ice-spreader to put out her white-screen. The wave beam...don't worry about it too much because its homing function while charged will help you take out the energy orbs while they are developing, developed, and while Prime is recoiling from her screen being removed. Subchamber Three- Alright now take everything that I said in Subchamber Two and do it in here. But also add a fourth screen, the red-screen. With this screen you'll have to use your plasma beam and there are a couple of things for you to note about this screen. Prime's energy orb and energy beam attack do horrific damage while she has her red-screen. Both attacks take at least one energy tank, sometimes some more and leave you reeling. The good thing is that you can get rid of the energy orbs alot faster with the plasma beam since each orb only takes like three or four regular shots. Remember that the plasma beam shots have great speed, accuracy, and power, so only a few shots for each orb is necessary. A charged shot from the plasma beam can also be used to effectively take out the orbs while Prime is creating them, so feel free. One fully charged plasma beam shot packs the same amount of firepower as a super missile, if not more. If two super missiles can easily remove Prime's yellow screen, then two fully charged plasma beam shots can easily remove the red-screen. If you are too frantic to use two fully charged plasma beam shots, than three quickly charged ones should do it.Prime doesn't really prefer to use any other attacks with this screen like others. But she won't be too shy about using her tractor beam and missiles during the red-screen. And that is it, really just transfer what I said in Subchamber Two and apply it to this room, along with Prime's red-screen. Subchamber Four- Alright now Subchamber Four will be a bit different and you won't like it. You have to take out all four of Prime's screens: yellow, purple, white, and red. Plus she is going to use all the attacks she has been using before. The thing that'll change is that Prime will change her screens without waiting for you to put one of them out. Lets say you are facing against Prime and she has her yellow screen on and shes doing whatever. Well all of a sudden, she'll stop and change her screen to another color which means you'll have to switch to another beam weapon. In earlier rooms Prime would have a screen on and keep it until you did enough to damage to her to make her switch to another screen. But now she'll switch screens whenever she wants. This can throw you off really bad. Imagine Prime has her purple screen on, and does her energy orb attack. She develops them and they are coming at you, while they are coming at you she might switch to a completely different screen. Obviously destroying the orbs always come first, so destroy them before you deal with Prime in her other screen. Here are a couple of things to relieve your worries though. If Prime creates an energy orb pair in one screen, but switches to another screen, she won't create another energy orb pair on this new screen and you won't have to worry about destroying 4 energy orbs. Also, Prime will retain any damage you put on her first screen onto any new screen she switches to. So lets say Prime has her red-screen on, you give her a fully-charged plasma beam shot, and she switches to a yellow-screen. After she switches to this next screen, you switch to the power beam and give her one super missile, she'll formally lose a screen like in the other rooms, and you guys will switch room sides. However, even if you remove Prime's yellow screen she still might use it later. Me and Prime were starting this room once with her having her white-screen. She did her energy beam, I space jumped out of the way, and gave her an ice-spreader. She took it, we switched room sides, and she chose to use a red-screen, but 5 seconds later she switches to her white-screen once again and I giver her another ice-spreader! So it can come at an advantage sometimes. As in the previous room, Prime makes herself vulnerable during attacks and there are lots of things to look out for and take advantage of just like in the previous rooms. If Prime does her energy beam attack with either screen, then space jump out of the way and then give her an appropriate attack. If she has her white, red, or yellow screens on, then thats a blessing because you can do an ice-spreader, two fully charged plasma beam shots, or two super missiles in the start up and end of Prime's energy beam attack. Prime also makes herself vulnerable when she uses her tractor beam so take advantage of it. Like I said earlier, Prime will usually use her yellow or red screen with the tractor beam, so this will give you time to put out one of her screens with the attacks I was telling you about earlier. It gets even better if Prime wants to use her tractor beam while she has her white-screen on. As far as all the constant screen switching, really just try to switch to the next beam weapon as quickly as possible and remember that up is yellow, right is purple, down is white, and left is red. One thing that will suck is that Prime will also do her take-down attack off-schedule. You remember the attack where she rushes to your side of the room after you knock out her screen. Well even if you don't knock out her screen, she'll do the attack and y'all will switch sides in the room. Its not all that rare that she'll do it two or three times consecutively in a row. She'll even do this right after summoning out the energy orbs. This part really sucks because you'll have to switch to her side of the room while they are coming at you and they'll be like only a few feet away from you. When she does this you will switch to her side of the room before taking out the energy orbs and then take them out after switching to the otherside of the room. To avoid getting punked by Prime with this tactic, I always stay near the the beginning of the side trenches when I'm facing her. By doing this, you can just get in your morphball, quietly roll into the trench and out of her way. You are more vulnerable to get snatched by the tractor-beam, but the trench also helps by wedging you and possibly even breaking the lock because of it. You are also more vulnerable to the missiles, so just dash jump quickly to the side out of the way. If you feel that she will fire two or more consecutive volleys of missiles, then just dash jump all the way to the otherside. You will apply all the same techniques from Subchamers 2 and 3, but you will stay near the trenches this time and you will have to be more vigilant about changing beams appropriately and room-sides with Prime. Folks, most of how you handle this room will be based on your abilities. However, you guys did manage to get through Ridley and this far at the very least so don't panic. Besides, there is only one room left after this and its really easy. Follow down through the hole Prime made when you are done with her. Metroid Prime Lair- You'll fall straight down into a room way below and watch a nice cutscene of Prime's true-self come out. Get a lock on Prime and hold it. Don't bother attacking her because you can't damage her with any of your weapons, but I'll explain how you'll damage her three paragraphs down. First thing Prime will do is her main attack, the shockwave. Notice when you first enter this room that there are a bunch of spires littered throughout the room. Prime's shockwave will have her swing her tentacles up in the air and then slam them on the ground creating the shockwave. This will immediately destroy all the spires in the room, space jump over it to avoid getting damaged. This attack does decent damage but nothing dramatic; you'll loose roughly 45 units of health from this attack. Prime will also move around the room alot. She'll strafe from one side to another. She might 'step' back away from you or 'step' forward to you. You'll find that she'll actually ram or headbutt you when she 'steps' forward, but this won't cause much damage. In the middle of all this moving around the room and doing her shockwave, you'll also see Prime stick her face out at you. She'll stretch her face out at you in what looks like her attempt to intimidate you possibly causing you some minor damage. Keep an eye out on whether or not Prime sticks her face out at you like this because what she might do next is very important. Sometimes, when Prime sticks her face out at you, she'll draw her tentacles on the ground and create a phazon puddle. Immediately switch to your x-ray visor and rush over into the phazon puddle she created. The first time Prime does this a cutscene will start showing Prime miraculously disappear. Just go to that phazon puddle, stand in it and stay in it. You arm cannon will grow veins all over it, although you will barely notice it, and will turn into the phazon beam. You can only get the phazon beam by standing in these puddles that Prime creates. So when you are in the puddle and have the phazon beam on, manually aim and look around the room. More than likely you'll bump up against Prime and she might knock you away from the phazon puddle because of it. But try to get back inside and get a clear sight of Prime. You see what happened was that Prime didn't disappear after creating the phazon puddle, she just turned invisible so that you could only see her temporarily with another visor. So when you see Prime, lock onto her and hold A. A stream of phazon will be fired right into her, paralyzing her, and giving her nasty damage. Your phazon beam is being powered by the phazon puddle and eventually it'll run dry. But if you managed to use all of the phazon puddle on Prime, she'll loose about 1/4 of her health. Alright after this phazon puddle has run dry, your phazon beam will be deactivated and you'll have to put up with her using her shockwave and moving around the room alot until the next time she creates another phazon puddle. After creating a phazon puddle, she'll become invisible. Like I sort of explained earlier, shes actually switching visibility spectrums and you'll have to switch to the appropriate visor to be able to see her. You'll start out this room seeing her with your combat visor, but when she creates her first phazon puddle, you'll have to switch to your x-ray visor to see and fight her from then on. But the next time she creates a phazon puddle, she'll become invisible again and you'll have to see her with your thermal visor. If she turns invisible again while you are using your thermal visor then just switch to your combat visor, which is your regular visor. But watch out, Prime might switch to another visibility without creating a phazon puddle at all. Sometimes, she'll just stop and switch to another visibility and you'll have to switch to another visor. Which visor she'll switch to is very predictable, it goes combat visor <=> x-ray visor <=> thermal visor <=> combat visor. It goes clockwise from combat to x-ray to thermal and back to combat visor once again. Prime will not switch to thermal visibility if you have your combat visor on nor will she switch to x-ray visor visibility if you have your thermal visor on. It always be a cyclical switch rightwards on which visor you'll have to use. The first time Prime creates a puddle, she'll just create it and turn invisible and you'll have to switch to the next visor. But the second time she creates a phazon puddle, she'll also create two metroids. The third time she makes a phazon puddle she'll create two hunter metroids, and the fourth time she creates a puddle she'll make two fission metroids. So when she starts to create her second, third, and fourth phazon puddles, I get in my morphball and boost straight forward into the phazon puddle and lay a power bomb in it. After laying the power bomb, I exit morphball mode and switch to the appropriate visor. Don't switch to the appropriate visor before you boost ball over to the phazon puddle, do it after. The metroids, whether regular, hunter, or fission, will be right in the middle of the phazon pool so doing this gets rid of the metroids and gets you in the phazon puddle. Sometimes the metroids will block your way to the phazon puddle, but just give them the power bomb where they block and keep trying to get to the phazon puddle. If any of the two metroids survived for whatever reason, then just shoot them with your phazon beam and they'll die instantly. So lets go over what to do with Prime. First get a lock on her and hold onto it. Space jump over her shockwaves and watch out for when she sticks her face out. When she creates her phazon puddle, get in your morphball, boost over into it, and lay a power bomb to get rid of any metroids. Then get out of your morphball and switch to the appropriate visor. Then lock on to Prime and shoot her with the phazon beam. Do this 4 times to kill her and the game is completed. You'll be treated to a cutscene that I won't bother explaining. However, when the games credits start rolling, hold the joystick down to make the credits run faster and end. <= Da End => <====================> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brief Walkthrough-BW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <====================> ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Landing Site*[B.1]>>Canyon Cavern>>Tallon Canyon>>Transport Tunnel A>> Transport to Chozo Ruins North>> =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Tallon Overworld North>>Ruins Entrance>>Main Plaza>> Nursery Access>>Eyon Tunnel>>Ruined Nursery>>North Atrium>>Ruined Gallery>> Totem Access>> Hive Totem-Missile Launcher>> --------------------------- Totem Access>> Ruined Gallery-Missile expansion>> -------------------------------- North Atrium>>Ruined Nursery>>Eyon Tunnel>>Nursery Access>>Main Plaza>> Ruined Shrine Access>> Ruined Shrine-Morphball>> ----------------------- Ruined Shrine Access>>Main Plaza>>Ruined Fountain Access>> RuinedFountain>> Arboretum Access>>Arboretum>>Gathering Hall Access>>Gathering Hall>> Watery Hall Access-Missile expansion>> ------------------------------------ Watery Hall-Charge beam>> ----------------------- Watery Hall Access>>Gathering Hall>>East Atrium>>Energy Core Access>> Energy Core>>Burn Dome Access>> Burn Dome-Morphball bomb, missile expansion>> ------------------------------------------- Burn Dome Access>>Energy Core>>Energy Core Access>>East Atrium>> Gathering Hall>>Gathering Hall Access>>Arboretum>>Sunchamber Lobby>> Sunchamber Access>> Sunchamber-Varia Suit>> --------------------- Sun Tower Access>>Sun Tower>>Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Chozo Ruins North>>Burning Trail>>Save Station Magmoor A*[B.2]>> Burning Trail>>Lake Tunnel>>Lava Lake>>Pit Tunnel>>Triclops Pit>> Monitor Tunnel>>Monitor Station>> Transport Tunnel A-Energy tank>> ------------------------------ Transport to Phendrana Drifts North>> ================ Phendrana Drifts ================ Transport to Magmoor Caverns West>>Shoreline Entrance>>Phendrana Shoreslines>> Ice Ruins Access>>Ice Ruins East>>Plaza Walkway>>Phendrana Shorelines>> Ruins Entryway>>Ice Ruins West>>Canyon Entryway>> Phendrana Canyon-Boost Ball>> --------------------------- Canyon Entryway>>Ice Ruins West>>Ruins Entryway>>Phendrana Shorelines>> Shoreline Entrance>>Transport to Magmoor Caverns West>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Phendrana Drifts North>>Transport Tunnel A>>Monitor Station>> Monitor Tunnel>>Triclops Pit>>Pit Tunnel>>Lava Lake>>Lake Tunnel>> Burning Trail>>Transport to Chozo Ruins North>> =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>>Vault Access>> Vault-Missile expansion>> ----------------------- Plaza Access>> Main Plaza-Energy tank, missile expansion>> ----------------------------------------- Ruins Entrance>>Transport to Tallon Overworld North>> ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Transport to Chozo Ruins West>>Transport Tunnel A>>Tallon Canyon A>> Gully>> Landing Site>> Alcove-Space Jump Boots>> ----------------------- Landing Site*[B.3]-Missile expansion>> ------------------------------------ Canyon Cavern>>Tallon Canyon>>Transport Tunnel A>> Transport to Chozo Ruins West>> =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Tallon Overworld North>>Ruins Entrance>>Main Plaza>> Nursery Access>>Eyon Tunnel>> Ruined Nursery-Missile expansion>> -------------------------------- North Atrium>> Ruined Gallery-Missile expansion>> -------------------------------- Totem Access>>Hive Totem>> Transport Access North-Energy tank>> ---------------------------------- Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Chozo Ruins North>>Burning Trail>>Lake Tunnel>> Lava Lake-Chozo Artifact>> ------------------------ Pit Tunnel>>Triclops Pit>>Monitor Tunnel>>Monitor Station>> Transport Tunnel A>> Transport to Phendrana Drifts North>> ================ Phendrana Drifts ================ Transport to Magmoor Caverns West>>Shoreline Entrance>> Phendrana Shorelines>>Temple Entryway>>Chozo Ice Temple>>Chapel Tunnel>> Chapel of the Elders-Wave beam>> ------------------------------ Chapel Tunnel>>Chozo Ice Temple>>Temple Entryway>>Phendrana Shorelines>> Ruins Entryway>>Ice Ruins West>>Courtyard Entryway>> Ruined Courtyard-Energy tank>> ---------------------------- Save Station A*[B.4]>> Ruined Courtyard>>Specimen Storage>>Research Entrance>> Hydra Lab Entryway>>Research Lab Hydra>>Observatory Access>> Observatory-Super missile>> ------------------------- West Tower Entrance>>West Tower>>Control Tower>>East Tower>> Aether Lab Entryway>> Research Lab Aether-Missile expansion, energy tank>> -------------------------------------------------- Research Core Access>> Research Core-Thermal Visor>> --------------------------- Research Core Access>>Research Lab Aether>>Aether Lab Entryway>> East Tower>>Control Tower>>West Tower>>West Tower Entrance>> Observatory>> Observatory Access>> Research Lab Hydra-Missile expansion>> ------------------------------------ Hydra Lab Entryway>>Research Entrance>>Specimen Storage>> Ruined Courtyard>>Save Station A*[B.5]>>Ruined Courtyard>> Quarantine Access>>North Quarantine Tunnel>> Quarantine Cave-Spider ball>> --------------------------- South Quarantine Tunnel>>Transport to Magmoor Caverns South>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Phendrana Drifts South>>Transport Tunnel C>> Magmoor Workstation-Energy tank>> ------------------------------- South Core Tunnel>>Geothermal Core>>Northcore Tunnel>>Twin Fires>> Twin Fires Tunnel>>Transport to Tallon Overworld West>>Transport Tunnel B>> Fiery Shores-Missile expansion>> ------------------------------ Shore Tunnel>>Monitor Station>>Monitor Tunnel>>Triclops Pit>>Pit Tunnel>> Lava Lake>>Lake Tunnel>>Burning Trail>>Transport to Chozo Ruins North>> =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>>Sun Tower>>Sun Tower Access>> Sunchamber-Chozo Artifact>> ------------------------- Sunchamber Access>>Sunchamber Lobby>>Arboretum>>Gathering Hall Access>> Gathering Hall-Missile expansion>> -------------------------------- East Atrium>>Energy Core Access>>Energy Core>>West Furnace Access>> Furnace>> Crossway Access West>> Crossway-Missile expansion>> -------------------------- Elder Hall Access>>Hall of Elders>>Reflecting Pool Access>>Reflecting Pool>> Antechamber-Ice Beam>> -------------------- Reflecting Pool>>Save Station 3*[B.6]>>Reflecting Pool>> Reflecting Pool Access>>Hall of the Elders>>East Furnace Access>> Furnace-Energy tank>> ------------------- West Furnace Access>>Energy Core>>Energy Core Access>>East Atrium>> Gathering Hall>>Gathering Hall Access>>Arboretum>>Sunchamber Lobby>> Sunchamber Access>>Sunchamber>>Sun Tower Access>>Sun Tower>> Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Chozo Ruins North>>Burning Trail>>Lake Tunnel>>Lava Lake>> Pit Tunnel>>Triclops Pit>>Monitor Tunnel>>Monitor Station>> Transport Tunnel A>>Transport to Phendrana Drifts North>> ================ Phendrana Drifts ================ Transport to Magmoor Caverns West>>Shoreline Entrance>> Phendrana Shorelines>>Ruins Entryway>>Ice Ruins West>>Courtyard Entryway>> Ruined Courtyard>>Quarantine Access>>North Quarantine Tunnel>> Quarantine Cave>>South Quarantine Tunnel>>Transport to Magmoor Caverns South>> Transport Access>>Frozen Pike>>Frost Cave Access>>Frost Cave>> Upper Edge Tunnel>> Phendrana’s Edge>>Lower Edge Tunnel>>Hunter Cave>> Lake Tunnel>> Gravity Chamber-Gravity Suit>> ---------------------------- Chamber Access>>Hunter Cave>>Hunter Cave Access>>Frozen Pike>> Transport Access>>Transport to Magmoor Caverns South>> South Quarantine Tunnel>> Quarantine Cave>>North Quarantine Tunnel>> Quarantine Access>>Courtyard>>Courtyard Entryway>>Ice Ruins West>> Ruins Entryway>>Phendrana Shorelines>>Shoreline Entrance>> Transport to Magmoor Caverns West>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Phendrana Dirfts North>>Transport Tunnel A>> Monitor Station>>Monitor Tunnel>>Triclops Pit>>Pit Tunnel>>Lava Lake>> Lake Tunnel>>Burning Trail>>Transport to Chozo Ruins North>> =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>>Vault Access>>Vault>>Plaza Access>> Main Plaza-missile expansion>> ---------------------------- Ruined Shrine Access>> Ruined Shrine-Missile expansion, missile expansion>> -------------------------------------------------- Tower of Light Access>> Tower of Light-Wave Buster>> -------------------------- Tower Chamber-Chozo Artifact>> ---------------------------- Tower of Light>>Tower of Light Access>>Ruined Shrine>> Ruined Shrine Access>>Main Plaza>>Ruined Fountain Access>> Ruined Fountain-Missile expansion>> --------------------------------- Arboretum Access>>Arboretum>>Gathering Hall Access>>Gathering Hall>> Watery Hall Access>>Watery Hall>>Dynamo Access>> Dynamo-Missile expansion, missile expansion>> ------------------------------------------- Dynamo Access>> Watery Hall-Missile expansion>> ----------------------------- Watery Hall Access>>Gathering Hall>>East Atrium>>Energy Core Access>> Energy Core>>West Furnace Access>>Furnace>>East Furnace Access>> Hall of the Elders>>Reflecting Pool Access>>Reflecting Pool>> Save Station 3*[B.7]>>Transport to Tallon Overworld East>> ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Transport to Chozo Ruins East>>Transport Tunnel C>> Overgrown Cavern-Missile expansion>> ---------------------------------- Frigate Crash Site-Missile expansion>> ------------------------------------ Frigate Access Tunnel>>Main Ventilation Shaft C>> Main Ventilation Shaft Section B>>Main Ventilation Shaft Section A>> Reactor Core>>Reactor Access>> Cargo Freight Lift to Deck Gamma-Energy tank>> -------------------------------------------- Deck Beta Transit Hall>> Biohazard Containment-Missile expansion>> --------------------------------------- Deck Beta Security Hall>>Biotech Research Area 1>> Deck Beta Conduit Hall>>Connection Elevator to Deck Beta>> Hydro Access Tunnel-Energy tank>> ------------------------------- Great Tree Hall>>Transport Tunnel E>>Transport to Phazon Mines East>> ============ Phazon Mines ============ Transport to Tallon Overworld South>>Quarry Access>> Main Quarry-Missile expansion>> ----------------------------- Save Station Mines A*[B.8]>>Main Quarry>>Security Access A>> Mine Security Station>>Security Access B>> Elite Research-Missile expansion>> -------------------------------- Research Access>>Ore Processing>>Elevator Access A>>Elevator A>> Elite Control Access-Missile expansion>> -------------------------------------- Elite Control>>Ventilation Shaft>>Omega Research>>Dynamo Access>> Central Dynamo-Power Bomb>> ------------------------- Dynamo Access>>Omega Research>> Ventilation Shaft-Energy tank>> ----------------------------- Elite Control>>Elite Control Access>>Elevator A>>Elevator Access A>> Ore Processing>> Storage Depot-Grapple beam>> -------------------------- Ore Processing>>Research Access>> Elite Research-Chozo Artifact>> ----------------------------- Security Access B>>Mine Security Station>>Security Access A>> Main Quarry>>Quarry Access>>Transport to Tallon Overworld South>> ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Transport to Phazon Mines East>>Transport Tunnel E>>Great Tree Hall>> Life Grove Tunnel-Missile expansion>> ----------------------------------- Life Grove-X-ray visor, chozo artifact>> -------------------------------------- Life Grove Tunnel>>Great Tree Hall>> Great Tree Chamber-Missile expansion>> ------------------------------------ Great Tree Hall>>Transport Tunnel D>>Transport to Chozo Ruins South>> =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Tallon Overworld South>>Transport Access South>> Reflecting Pool>>Save Station 3*[B.9]>>Reflecting Pool>> Reflecting Pool Access>> Hall of Elders>>Crossway Access South>>Crossway>> Crossway Access West>> Furnace-Missile expansion>> ------------------------- West Furnace Access>>Energy Core>>Energy Core Access>>East Atrium>> Gathering Hall>>Gathering Hall Access>>Arboretum>>Arboretum Access>> Ruined Fountain>>Meditation Fountain>> Magma Pool-Power bomb expansion>> ------------------------------- Training Chamber Access-Missile expansion>> ----------------------------------------- Training Chamber-Energy tank>> ---------------------------- Piston Tunnel>> Main Plaza-Missile expansion>> ---------------------------- Nursery Access>>Eyon Tunnel>>Ruined Nursery>>North Atrium>>Ruined Gallery>> Totem Access>>Hive Totem>>Transport Access North>> Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Chozo Ruins North>>Burning Trail>>Lake Tunnel>>Lava Lake>> Pit Tunnel>> Triclops Pit-Missile expansion>> ------------------------------ Storage Cavern-Missile expansion>> -------------------------------- Triclops Pit>>Monitor Tunnel>>Monitor Station>> Warrior Shrine-Chozo Artifact>> ----------------------------- Fiery Shores-Power bomb expansion>> --------------------------------- Shore Tunnel-Ice Spreader>> ------------------------- Fiery Shores>>Transport Tunnel B>>Transport to Tallon Overworld West>> Twin Fires Tunnel>>Twin Fires>>North Core Tunnel>>Geothermal Core>> Plasma Processing-Plasma Beam>> ----------------------------- Geothermal Core>>South Core Tunnel>>Magmoor Workstation>>Transport Tunnel C>> Transport to Phendrana Drifts South>> ================ Phendrana Drifts ================ Transport to Magmoor Caverns South>> Transport Access-Energy tank>> ---------------------------- Frozen Pike>>Pike Access>>Research Core>>Research Core Access>> Research Lab Aether>>Aether Lab Entryway>>East Tower>> Control Tower-Chozo artifact>> ---------------------------- East Tower>>Aether Lab Entryway>>Research Lab Aether>> Research Core Access>>Research Core>>Pike Access>>Frozen Pike>> Frost Cave Access>> Frost Cave-Missile expansion>> ---------------------------- Upper Edge Tunnel>>Phendrana’s Edge>> Storage Cavern-Chozo Artifact>> ----------------------------- Phendrana’s Edge>> Security Cave-Power bomb expansion>> ---------------------------------- Phendrana’s Edge>>Lower Edge Tunnel>>Hunter Cave>>Chamber Access>> Gravity Chamber-Missile expansion>> --------------------------------- Chamber Access>>Hunter Cave>>Hunter Cave Access>>Frozen Pike>> Transport Access>>Transport to Magmoor Caverns South>> South Quarantine Tunnel>>Quarantine Cave>> Quarantine Monitor-Missile expansion>> ------------------------------------ Quarantine Cave>>North Quarantine Tunnel>>Quarantine Access>> Ruined Courtyard>>Courtyard Entryway>> Ice Ruins West-Power Bomb expansion>> ----------------------------------- Ruins Entryway>>Phendrana Shorelines>>Temple Entryway>> Chozo Ice Temple-Chozo Artifact>> ------------------------------- Temple Entryway>> Phendrana Shorelines-Missile expansion, missile expansion>> --------------------------------------------------------- Ice Ruins Access>> Ice Ruins East-Missile expansion, missile expansion>> --------------------------------------------------- Ice Ruins Access>>Phendrana Shorelines>>Shorline Entrance>> Transport to Magmoor Caverns West>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Phendrana Drifts North>>Transport Tunnel A>> Monitor Station>>Monitor Tunnel>>Triclops Pit>>Pit Tunnel>> Lava Lake>>Lake Tunnel>>Burning Trail>>Transport to Chozo Ruins North>> =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>>Sun Tower>>Sun Tower Access>>Sunchamber>> Sunchamber Access>>Sunchamber Lobby>>Arboretum>> Gathering Hall Access>>Gathering Hall>>East Atrium>>Energy Core Access>> Energy Core>>West Furnace Access>>Furnace>>East Furnace Access>> Hall of Elders-Energy tank>> -------------------------- Elder Chamber-Chozo Artifact>> ---------------------------- Hall of Elders>>Reflecting Pool Access>>Reflecting Pool>> Save Station 3*[B.10]>>Reflecting Pool>>Transport Access South>> Transport to Tallon Overworld South>> ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Transport to Chozo Ruins South>>Transport Tunnel D>>Great Tree Hall>> Transport Tunnel E>>Transport to Phazon Mines East>> ============ Phazon Mines ============ Transport to Tallon Overworld South>>Quarry Access>>Main Quarry>> Security Access A-missile expansion>> ----------------------------------- Mine Security Station>> Storage Depot A-Flamethrower>> ---------------------------- Mine Security Station>>Security Access A>>Main Quarry>>Waste Disposal>> Ore Processing>>Elevator Access A>>Elevator A>>Elite Control Access>> Elite Control>>Ventilation Shaft>>Omega Research>>Dynamo Access>> Central Dynamo>>Quarantine Access A>> Metroid Quarantine A-Missile expansion>> -------------------------------------- Elevator Access B>>Elevator B>> Fungal Hall Access-Missile expansion>> ------------------------------------ Fungal Hall A>>Phazon Mining Tunnel>>Fungal Hall B>>Quarantine Access B>> Metroid Quarantine B-Missile expansion>> -------------------------------------- Save Station Mines C*[B.11]>>Metroid Quarantine B>>Elite Quarters Access>> Elite Quarters-Phazon Suit>> -------------------------- Elite Quarters Access>>Metroid Quarantine B>>Quarantine Access B>> Fungal Hall B-Missile expansion>> ------------------------------- Phazon Mining Tunnel-Chozo Artifact>> ----------------------------------- Fungal Hall B>>Quarantine Access B>>Metroid Quarantine B>> Elite Quarters Access>>Elite Quarters>> Processing Center Access-Energy Tank>> ------------------------------------ Phazon Processing Center-Missile expansion>> ------------------------------------------ Transport Access>>Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Phazon Mines West>>Workstation Tunnel>>Magmoor Workstation>> South Core Tunnel>>Geothermal Core>>North Core Tunnel>>Twin Fires>> Twin Fires Tunnel>>Transport to Tallon Overworld West>> ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Transport to Magmoor Caverns West>> Transport Tunnel B-Missile expansion>> ------------------------------------ Root Cave-Missile expansion>> --------------------------- Arbor Chamber-Missile expansion>> ------------------------------- Root Cave>>Root Tunnel>>Tallon Canyon>>Canyon Cavern>>Landing Site*[B.12]>> Temple Hall>>Temple Security Station>>Temple Lobby>> Artifact Temple-Chozo Artifact>> ------------------------------ ============= Impact Crater ============= Crater Entry Point>>Crater Tunnel A>>Phazon Core>>Crater Tunnel B>> Phazon Infusion Chamber>>Subchamber One>>Subchamber Two>>Subchamber Three>> Subchamber Four>>Subchamber Five>>Metroid Prime Lair>> <= Da End => <====================> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Scan List Guide- SLG ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <====================> #-denotes rare scans that should be scanned on the spot ================= anytime Scan List ================= research-small energy research-save station research-missile ammunition research-large energy research-ultra energy research-power bomb ammunition ==================== Space Pirate Frigate ==================== Emergency Evacuation Area: Creatures entry-Parasite # Map Facility: Research entry-Map Station# Deck Beta Security Hall: Creatures entry- Auto Defense Turret Biohazard Containment: Pirate Data entry-Fall of Zebes# Reactor Core: Creatures entry-Parasite Queen# ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Landing Site*[S.1]: Research-Gunship Canyon Cavern: creatures-Beetle Tallon Canyon: creatures-Sap Sac Creatures-Blast Cap Creatures-Zoomer Creatures-Geemer Transport Tunnel A>>Transport to Chozo Ruins North>> =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Tallon Overworld North>> Ruins Entrance: Chozo Lore-Fountain Main Plaza>> Nursery Access: Creatures-Scarab Eyon Tunnel: Creatures-Eyon Ruined Nursery: Chozo Lore-Exodus Creatures-Hive(War Wasp Hive) Creatures-War Wasp North Atrium>>Ruined Gallery>> Totem Access: Creatures-Plazmite creatures-Tangle Weed Hive Totem: Creatures-Hive Mecha# Creatures-Ram War Wasp# Research-Missile Door Lock# Totem Access>>Ruined Gallery>>North Atrium>>Ruined Nursery>> Eyon Tunnel>>Nursery Access>>Main Plaza>>Ruined Shrine Access>> Ruined Shrine: Creatures-Plated Beetle Ruined Shrine Access>>Main Plaza>>Ruined Fountain Access>> Ruined Fountain: Chozo Lore-Hatchling Arboretum Access: Creatures-Shriekbats Arboretum: Creatures-Reaper Vine Gathering Hall Access>>Gathering Hall>>Watery Hall Access>> Watery Hall: Chozo Lore-Meteor Strike Watery Hall Access>>Gathering Hall>>East Atrium>>Energy Core Access>> Energy Core>>Burn Dome Access>> Burn Dome: Creatures-Incinerator Drone# Research-Locked Door# Creatures-Barbed War Wasp# Burn Dome Access>> Energy Core: Creatures-Stone Toad Research-Morphball Slot Energy Core Access>>East Atrium>>Gathering Hall>>Gathering Hall Access>> Arboretum: Creatures-Venom Weed Sunchamber Lobby>>Sunchamber Access>> Sunchamer: Creatures-Flagghra Tentacle# Creatures-Flagghra# Sun Tower Access: Creatures-Pulse Bombu Sun Tower>>Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Chozo Ruins North>>Burning Trail>>Save Station Magmoor A*[S.2] Burning Trail: Creatures-Grizby Lake Tunnel: Creatures-Burrower Lava Lake: Creatures-Magmoor Creatures-Puffer Pit Tunnel: Creatures-Triclops Triclops Pit>>Monitor Tunnel>>Monitor Station>>Transport Tunnel A>> Transport to Phendrana Drifts North>> ================ Phendrana Drifts ================ Transport to Magmoor Caverns West>>Shoreline Entrance>> Phendrana Shorelines: Creatures-Flickerbat Creatures-Crystallite Ice Ruins Access: Creatures-Scatter Bombu Ice Ruins East: Creatures-Baby Sheegoth Plaza Walkway: Creatures-Ice Burrower# Phendrana Shorelines>>Ruins Entryway>>Ice Ruins West>>Canyon Entryway>> Phendrana Canyon: Chozo Lore-The Turned Canyon Entryway>>Ice Ruins West>>Ruins Entryway>>Phendrana Shorelines>> Shoreline Entrance>>Transport to Magmoor Caverns West>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Phendrana Drifts North>>Transport Tunnel A>>Monitor Station>> Monitor Tunnel>>Triclops Pit>>Pit Tunnel>>Lava Lake>>Lake Tunnel>> Burning Trail>>Transport to Chozo Ruins North>> =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>>Vault Access>> Vault: Chozo Lore-Beginnings Plaza Access>>Main Plaza>>Ruins Entrance>>Transport to Tallon Overworld North>> ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Transport to Chozo Ruins West>>Transport Tunnel A>>Tallon Canyon>>Gully>> Landing Site>>Alcove>>Landing Site*[S.3]>>Canyon Cavern>>Tallon Canyon>> Transport Tunnel A>>Transport to Chozo Ruins West>> =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Tallon Overworld North>>Ruins Entrance>>Main Plaza>> Nursery Access>>Eyon Tunnel>>Ruined Nursery>>North Atrium>>Ruined Gallery>> Totem Access>>Hive Totem>>Transport Access North>> Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Chozo Ruins North>>Burning Trail>>Lake Tunnel>>Lava Lake>> Pit Tunnel>>Triclops Pit>>Monitor Tunnel>>Monitor Station>>Transport Tunnel A>> Transport to Phendrana Drifts North>> =============== Phendran Drifts =============== Transport to Magmoor Caverns West>>Shoreline Entrance>>Phendrana Shorelines>> Temple Entryway>> Chozo Ice Temple: Creatures-Ice Parasite# Chapel Tunnel>> Chapel of the Elders: Creatures-Sheegoth Chapel Tunnel>>Chozo Ice Temple>>Temple Entryway>>Phendrana Shorelines>> Ruins Entryway>> Ice Ruins West: Chozo Lore-Cipher Research-Stalactite# Creatures-Ice Shriekbats# Courtyard Entryway>> Ruined Courtyard: Research-Spinner Save Station A*[S.4]>> Ruined Courtyard>> Specimen Storage: Creatures-Shadow Pirate Research Entrance: Creatures-Space Pirate Hydra Lab Entryway>> Research Lab Hydra: Pirate Data-Security Breaches Pirate Data-Mining Status Pirate Data-Phazon Analysis Pirate Data-Parasite Larva Pirate Data-Glacial Wastes Observatory Access>> Observatory: Pirate Data-Contact Pirate Data-Phazon Program Research-Tallon IV Research-Zebes West Tower Entrance>>West Tower>> Control Tower: Creatures-Flying Pirate East Tower>>Aether Lab Entryway>> Research Lab Aether: Pirate Data-Meta Ridley Pirate Data-Metroid Studies Creatures-Metroid Pirate Data-Phazon Infusion Pirate Data-Metroid Morphology Pirate Data-Metroid Forces Research Core Access: Creatures-Ice Beetle Research Core Research Core Access: Creatures-Sentry Drone Research Lab Aether>>Aether Lab Entryway>>East Tower>>Control Tower>> West Tower>>West Tower Entrance>>Observatory>>Observatory Access>> Research Lab Hydra>>Hydra Lab Entryway>>Research Entrance>>Specimen Storage>> Ruined Courtyard>>Save Station A*[S.5]>>Ruined Courtyard>>Quarantine Access>> North Quarantine Tunnel>> Quarantine Cave: Creatures-Thardus# Research-Spider Ball Track South Quarantine Tunnel>>Transport to Magmoor Caverns South>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Phendrana Drifts South>>Transport Tunnel C>>Magmoor Workstation>> South Core Tunnel: Creatures-Puddle Spore Geothermal Core>>Northcore Tunnel>>Twin Fires>>Twin Fires Tunnel>> Transport to Tallon Overworld West>>Transport Tunnel B>>Fiery Shores>> Shore Tunnel>>Monitor Station>>Monitor Tunnel>>Triclops Pit>>Pit Tunnel>> Lava Lake>>Lake Tunnel>>Burning Trail>>Transport to Chozo Ruins North>> =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>> Sun Tower: Chozo Lore-Contain Creatures-Oculus Sun Tower Access>> Sunchamber: Creatures-Chozo Ghost Sunchamber Access>>Sunchamber Lobby>>Arboretum>>Gathering Hall Access>> Gathering Hall>>East Atrium>>Energy Core Access>>Energy Core>> West Furnace Access>> Furnace: Chozo Lore-Cradle Crossway Access West>> Crossway: Chozo Lore-Infestation Chozo Lore-Hatchling's Shell Chozo Lore-Worm Elder Hall Access>> Hall of the Elders: Research-Missile Station Reflecting Pool Access>>Reflecting Pool>>Antechamber>>Reflecting Pool>> Save Station 3*[S.6]>>Reflecting Pool>>Reflecting Pool Access>> Hall of the Elders>>East Furnace Access>>Furnace>>West Furnace Access>> Energy Core>>Energy Core Access>>East Atrium>>Gathering Hall>> Gathering Hall Access>>Arboretum>>Sunchamber Lobby>>Sunchamber Access>> Sunchamber>>Sun Tower Access>>Sun Tower>>Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Chozo Ruins North>>Burning Trail>>Lake Tunnel>>Lava Lake>> Pit Tunnel>>Triclops Pit>>Monitor Tunnel>>Monitor Station>> Transport Tunnel A>> Transport to Phendrana Drifts North>> ================ Phendrana Drifts ================ Transport to Magmoor Caverns West>>Shoreline Entrance>>Phendrana Shorelines>> Ruins Entryway>>Ice Ruins West>>Courtyard Entryway>> Ruined Courtyard>> Quarantine Access>>North Quarantine Tunnel>>Quarantine Cave>> South Quarantine Tunnel>>Transport to Magmoor Caverns South>> Transport Access>> Frozen Pike>>Frost Cave Access>> Frost Cave: Creatures-Hunter Metroid Creatures-Glider Upper Edge Tunnel>> Phendrana's Edge: Creatures-Jelzap Lower Edge Tunnel>>Hunter Cave>>Lake Tunnel>> Gravity Chamber: Creatures-Aqua Reaper Chamber Access>>Hunter Cave>>Hunter Cave Access>>Frozen Pike>> Transport Access>>Transport to Magmoor Caverns South>> South Quarantine Tunnel>> Quarantine Cave>>North Quarantine Tunnel>> Quarantine Access>> Courtyard>>Courtyard Entryway>>Ice Ruins West>> Ruins Entryway>>Phendrana Shorelines>>Shoreline Entrance>> Transport to Magmoor Caverns West>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Phendrana Dirfts North>>Transport Tunnel A>> Monitor Station>>Monitor Tunnel>>Triclops Pit>>Pit Tunnel>> Lava Lake>>Lake Tunnel>>Burning Trail>>Transport to Chozo Ruins North>> =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>>Vault Access>>Vault>>Plaza Access>> Main Plaza>>Ruined Shrine Access>>Ruined Shrine>>Tower of Light Access>> Tower of Light: Creatures-Plated Puffer Tower Chamber>>Tower of Light>>Tower of Light Access>>Ruined Shrine>> Ruined Shrine Access>>Main Plaza>>Ruined Fountain Access>>Ruined Fountain>> Arboretum Access>>Arboretum>>Gathering Hall Access>>Gathering Hall>> Watery Hall Access>>Watery Hall>>Dynamo Access>>Dynamo>>Dynamo Access>> Watery Hall>>Watery Hall Access>>Gathering Hall>>East Atrium>> Energy Core Access>>Energy Core>>West Furnace Access>>Furnace>> East Furnace Access>>Hall of the Elders>>Reflecting Pool Access>> Reflecting Pool>>Save Station 3*[S.7]>>Transport to Tallon Overworld East>> ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Transport to Chozo Ruins East>>Transport Tunnel C>>Overgrown Cavern>> Frigate Crash Site>>Frigate Access Tunnel>>Main Ventilation Shaft C>> Main Ventilation Shaft Section B>> Main Ventilation Shaft Section A: Creatures-Tallon Crab Reactor Core: Creatures-Aqua Pirate Reactor Access>>Cargo Freight Lift to Deck Gamma>>Deck Beta Transit Hall>> Biohazard Containment: Creatures-Aqua Drone# Deck Beta Security Hall>>Biotech Research Area 1>>Deck Beta Conduit Hall>> Connection Elevator to Deck Beta: Creatures-Aqua Sac Hydro Access Tunnel>> Great Tree Hall: Creatures-seedling Transport Tunnel E>>Transport to Phazon Mines East>> ============ Phazon Mines ============ Transport to Tallon Overworld South>>Quarry Access>> Main Quarry: Creatures-Mega Turret Research-Grapple Point Save Station Mines A*[S.8]>>Main Quarry>>Security Access A>> Mine Security Station: Creatures-Wave Trooper Security Access B>> Elite Research: Pirate Data-Elite Pirates Creatures-Power Trooper Research Access>>Ore Processing>>Elevator Access A>>Elevator A>> Elite Control Access>> Elite Control: Creatures-Elite Pirate# Pirate Data-The Hunter Pirate Data-Metroid Prime Creatures-Ice Troopers Pirate Data-Hunter Weapons Pirate Data-Prime Breach Pirate Data-Chozo Ghosts Pirate Data-Chozo Studies Pirate Data-Chozo Artifacts Pirate Data-Prime Mutations Ventilation Shaft>>Omega Research>>Dynamo Access>>Central Dynamo>> Dynamo Access>> Omega Research: Pirate Data-Omega Pirate Ventilation Shaft>>Elite Control>>Elite Control Access>>Elevator A>> Elevator Access A>>Ore Processing>>Storage Depot B>> Ore Processing: Research-Grapple Point Research Access>> Elite Research: Creatures-Phazon Elite# Security Access B>>Mine Security Station>>Security Access A>>Main Quarry>> Quarry Access>>Transport to Tallon Overworld South>> ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Transport to Phazon Mines East>>Transport Tunnel E>> Great Tree Hall: Creatures-Bloodflower Life Grove Tunnel>>Life Grove>>Life Grove Tunnel>>Great Tree Chamber>> Great Tree Hall>>Transport Tunnel D>>Transport to Chozo Ruins South>> =========== Chozo Ruins =========== Transport to Tallon Overworld South>>Transport Access South>> Reflecting Pool>>Save Station 3*[S.9]>>Reflecting Pool>> Reflecting Pool Access>>Hall of Elders>>Crossway Access South>> Crossway>> Crossway Access West>> Furnace: Creatures-Plated Parasite West Furnace Access>>Energy Core>>Energy Core Access>>East Atrium>> Gathering Hall>>Gathering Hall Access>>Arboretum>>Arboretum Access>> Ruined Fountain>>Meditation Fountain>> Magma Pool: Chozo Lore-Newborn Training Chamber Access>>Training Chamber>>Piston Tunnel>>Main Plaza>> Nursery Access>>Eyon Tunnel>>Ruined Nursery>>North Atrium>>Ruined Gallery>> Totem Access>>Hive Totem>>Transport Access North>> Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Chozo Ruins North>>Burning Trail>>Lake Tunnel>>Lava Lake>> Pit Tunnel>>Triclops Pit>>Storage Cavern>>Triclops Pit>>Monitor Tunnel>> Monitor Station>>Warrior Shrine>>Fiery Shores>>Shore Tunnel>> Fiery Shores>>Transport Tunnel B>>Transport to Tallon Overworld West>> Twin Fires Tunnel>>Twin Fires>>North Core Tunnel>>Geothermal Core>> Plasma Processing>>Geothermal Core>>South Core Tunnel>> Magmoor Workstation>>Transport Tunnel C>>Transport to Phendrana Drifts South>> ================ Phendrana Drifts ================ Transport to Magmoor Caverns South>>Transport Access>>Frozen Pike>> Pike Access>>Research Core>>Research Core Access>>Research Lab Aether>> Aether Lab Entryway>>East Tower>>Control Tower>>East Tower>> Aether Lab Entryway>> Research Lab Aether>>Research Core Access>> Research Core>>Pike Access>>Frozen Pike>>Frost Cave Access>>Frost Cave>> Upper Edge Tunnel>>Phendrana’s Edge>>Storage Cave>>Phendrana’s Edge>> Security Cave>>Phendrana’s Edge>>Lower Edge Tunnel>>Hunter Cave>> Chamber Access>>Gravity Chamber>>Chamber Access>>Hunter Cave>> Hunter Cave Access>>Frozen Pike>>Transport Access>> Transport to Magmoor Caverns South>>South Quarantine Tunnel>> Quarantine Cave>>Quarantine Monitor>>Quarantine Cave>> North Quarantine Tunnel>>Quarantine Access>>Ruined Courtyard>> Courtyard Entryway>>Ice Ruins West>>Ruins Entryway>>Phendrana Shorelines>> Temple Entryway>>Chozo Ice Temple>>Temple Entryway>>Phendrana Shorelines>> Ice Ruins Access>>Ice Ruins East>>Ice Ruins Access>>Phendrana Shorelines>> Shorline Entrance>>Transport to Magmoor Caverns West>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Phendrana Drifts North>>Transport Tunnel A>> Monitor Station>>Monitor Tunnel>>Triclops Pit>>Pit Tunnel>>Lava Lake>> Lake Tunnel>>Burning Trail>>Transport to Chozo Ruins North>> ================ Chozo Ruins ================ Transport to Magmoor Caverns North>>Sun Tower>>Sun Tower Access>> Sunchamber>> Sunchamber Access>>Sunchamber Lobby>>Arboretum>> Gathering Hall Access>>Gathering Hall>>East Atrium>>Energy Core Access>> Energy Core>>West Furnace Access>>Furnace>>East Furnace Access>> Hall of Elders: Chozo Lore-Hope Elder Chamber>>Hall of Elders>>Reflecting Pool Access>>Reflecting Pool>> Save Station 3*[S.10]>>Reflecting Pool>>Transport Access South>> Transport to Tallon Overworld South>> ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Transport to Chozo Ruins South>>Transport Tunnel D>>Great Tree Hall>> Transport Tunnel E>>Transport to Phazon Mines East>> ============ Phazon Mines ============ Transport to Tallon Overworld South>>Quarry Access>>Main Quarry>> Security Access A>>Mine Security Station>>Storage Depot A>> Mine Security Station>>Security Access A>>Main Quarry>>Waste Disposal>> Ore Processing>>Elevator Access A>>Elevator A>>Elite Control Access>> Elite Control>>Ventilation Shaft>>Omega Research>>Dynamo Access>> Central Dynamo>>Quarantine Access A>>Metroid Quarantine A>> Elevator Access B>>Elevator B>>Fungal Hall Access>>Fungal Hall A>> Phazon Mining Tunnel>>Fungal Hall B>>Quarantine Access B>> Metroid Quarantine B: Creatures-Plasma Trooper Pirate Data-Special Forces Save Station Mines C*[S.11]>>Metroid Quarantine B>>Elite Quarters Access>> Elite Quarters: Creatures-Omega Pirate# Elite Quarters Access>>Metroid Quarantine B>>Quarantine Access B>> Fungal Hall B>>Phazon Mining Tunnel>>Fungal Hall B>>Quarantine Access B>> Metroid Quarantine B>>Elite Quarters Access>>Elite Quarters>> Processing Center Access>>Phazon Processing Center>> Transport Access>>Transport to Magmoor Caverns South>> =============== Magmoor Caverns =============== Transport to Phazon Mines West>>Workstation Tunnel>>Magmoor Workstation>> South Core Tunnel>>Geothermal Core>>North Core Tunnel>>Twin Fires>> Twin Fires Tunnel>>Transport to Tallon Overworld West>> ================ Tallon Overworld ================ Transport to Magmoor Caverns East>>Transport Tunnel B>>Root Cave>> Arbor Chamber>>Root Cave>>Root Tunnel>>Tallon Canyon>>Canyon Cavern>> Landing Site*[S.12]>>Temple Hall>> Temple Security Station: Pirate Data-Artifact Site Temple Lobby>> Artifact Temple: Chozo Lore-Statuary Chozo Lore-Binding Creatures-Meta Ridley# ============= Impact Crater ============= Crater Entry Point>> Crater Tunnel A: Creatures-Lumigek Phazon Core: Creatures-Fission Metroid Crater Tunnel B>>Phazon Infusion Chamber>> Subchamber One: Creatures-Metroid Prime# Subchamber Two>>Subchamber Three>>Subchamber Four>>Subchamber Five>> Metroid Prime Lair: Creatures-Metroid Prime(Core/2nd form) {=================} { Credits-CD } {=================} I have only one person to credit for one simple little suggestion. Everything else about this guide is basically me. spam/spameroo- missile expansion: Fungal Hall Access A: Phazon Mines The first time I released a speedrun guide in Metroid Prime, I released it on the Luminoth Temple forums. Before releasing it though, I let some small-time amateur review and make suggestions for improvement. What he suggested was getting the missile expansion under the mushroom regardless of the minute damage it deals players. Its a good idea and one that came natural to me given the way I had been playing the game for years already. {==============} { Thanks-TX } {==============} -I would like to thank Retro and Nintendo for revitalizing the franchise through this game in such a memorable way. -I would like to thank Nintendo for picking a Texas-based studio to make the game. -I would like to thank all those who have known me throughout these years for even caring about my guide or my approach to this game. -I would like to thank you the reader for caring to read my guide and for any kind and intelligent words. {============} { Legal-LG } {============} Let me lay out clearly for everyone regarding the legality of this guide- This guide may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed whether partial or in whole on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly anywhere. The only website or entity that I will allow to host this guide is GameFAQs and Gamespot. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. If violations of these copyright guidelines are encountered, they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.