Metroid Fusion/Any%
From SDA Knowledge Base
![SDAlogo runner.png](/images/3/3e/SDAlogo_runner.png)
The Any% category for Metroid Fusion is the easiest and most straightforward category. The player does not need to worry as much about dying and missile management like in 1%, nor does the player have to worry about item placement and advanced room strategies like in 100%.
Thus, it is highly recommended for new players to start learning with Any%, as everything players learn in Any% can carry over to both 1% and 100% categories. This category forces the core basics and strats that all players should learn and practice for all categories.
A tutorial video series for Metroid Fusion Any% is available in a youtube playlist by kirbymastah
Contents
- 1 Current Fastest Time
- 2 Expansions
- 3 Route
- 3.1 Main Deck Beginning
- 3.2 Sector 1: Charge Beam
- 3.3 Sector 2: Bombs & Hi Jump
- 3.4 Sector 4: Speed Booster
- 3.5 Sector 3: Super Missiles
- 3.6 Sector 6: Varia Suit
- 3.7 Sector 5: Ice Missiles
- 3.8 Meltdown
- 3.9 Save the Animals
- 3.10 Sector 5: Power bombs
- 3.11 Main Deck: Space Jump
- 3.12 Sector 2 - Plasma Beam
- 3.13 Sector 5 - Gravity Suit
- 3.14 Sector 4 - Diffusion Missiles
- 3.15 Sector 6 - Wave Beam
- 3.16 Sector 1 - Screw Attack
- 3.17 Endgame
- 4 References
Current Fastest Time
Unrecorded: 0:46 by Biospark
Leaderboards for Metroid Fusion Any% can be found here
Expansions
Due to the straightforward nature of Metroid Fusion's progression, there is no significant routing. Simply knowing where to go to beat the game generally follows the ideal route.
Routing differences in Metroid Fusion generally comes down to which energy tanks and missile tanks to collect.
Energy Tanks
The ideal number of energy tanks to collect is exactly one, as the others do not help with speed in any way.
However, it is strongly advisable to collect more energy tanks, especially in races, depending on your skill level. Considering that Biospark gets 2 energy tanks in races, and the next best players (kirbymastah, jaggerg, and dragonfangs) collect 3; new players should opt for several more. Below is a list of cheap extra energy tanks that the player should get, ordered by top priority (most helpful and least time-costly) to bottom. In other words, the player should get the energy tanks near the top of the list until they are comfortable.
1. E-tank in sector 6, the room before the SA-X encounter, before Varia Suit. This costs less than a second to get as long as you plant the bomb before getting the e-tank, so the bomb goes off during the acquisition animation. This e-tank should NEVER be skipped.
2. First e-tank in the game, just before Arachnus, in plain sight.
3. E-tank before Yakuza, in the room with the space pirates, in plain sight.
4. E-tank in sector 1, in the toad room after the first stabilizer, in plain sight inside a morph ball tunnel.
5. E-tank in sector 2, just before Zazabi, in plain sight.
6. E-tank after BOX. Be sure to shinespark left in the hall above BOX so you can get the e-tank from above.
7. E-tank in sector 5, just before fighting Nightmare, in plain sight. Use the morph ball tunnel above to get it. If you can get this with the crumble block strat instead, then get this instead of e-tank #6.
8. Second e-tank before Arachnus. Shoot a missile at the left block of the right part of the ceiling to reveal a tunnel and climb through. This costs a lot of time, but gives you another early e-tank to work with for the rest of the game.
When starting a run, it is recommended to try collecting all 8 above in a run. The player should see how many e-tanks the player can take off, and remove e-tanks from the bottom of the list until the player is comfortable.
Missile Tanks
For any%, missiles early on save a significant amount of time. The viable missile tanks to collect are listed below.
1. Missile tank on Main Deck, in the dark shaft after getting Missiles, in plain sight on the right side.
2. Missile tank on Main Deck, in the room left of Missile Tank #1.
3. Missile tank on Main Deck, above the navigation room Samus stops at after obtaining Morph Ball.
4. Missile tank on Sector 3, notoriously named BOB as it is unskippable on console. You can't miss this.
5. Missile tank on Sector 6, in the second room after the recharge room by bombing the left wall.
6. Missile tank on Main Deck, on the bottom floor of the animals room, after saving the animals.
7. Missile tank on Main Deck, found by speed boosting into the left wall of the Main Elevator that goes down to the sector selection hall.
8. Missile tank on Main Deck, just past the spitter room. Use a power bomb to uncover the path to it.
9. Missile tank on Main Deck, in the large room just before Yakuza with the space pirates.
The first three missile tanks give just enough missiles to reliably complete sector 1 and 2 without heavily relying on missile drops. BOB is not skippable. Thus the first four missile tanks are always collected, leaving you with 30 missile capacity. This gives reliably enough missiles to clear the entire mid-game until after Yakuza.
Using optimal strategies, the least costly to most time-consuming missile tanks after BOB are as follows [1]:
- Missile Tank 5 - 4 seconds 8 frames. This is the fastest missile tank to get, but also the hardest as it requires a very difficult spring ball out of the ledge for it to be faster. This is also useful as a backup in case you fail the shinespark the barrier in sector 6, or don't have enough missiles to destroy it.
- Missile Tank 6 - 4 seconds 18 frames. This is a standard missile tank to get, as it's very easy to get.
- Missile Tank 8 - 4 seconds 34 frames. This is a good back-up missile tank to get if you fail to get the speed boost in the spitter room.
- Missile Tank 7 - 4 seconds 35 frames. This is an easy missile tank to get.
- Missile Tank 9 - 5 seconds. This is the most costly, but if a newer player wants an extra 5 missiles, the option is there.
The ideal number of missile tanks to get after BOB is one of the above for a total of 35 missiles, but this can be very straining on nettori and nightmare and even yakuza, so 40 is generally the standard.
Route
This section will detail strategies for every single room in the Any% Route of Metroid Fusion. Each bullet point is one room (sub-bullet points are additional notes for that current room). Any line that starts with "Navigation Room" means step on the switch and go through the text from the computer.
Numbered expansions refer to those in the Expansions section
Main Deck Beginning
- After being beamed down by the ship, run left
- Run left into the next room
- This room is notorious for a complicated set of walljumps, dubbed the Sesshomaru walljump strategy. There are two methods to start the strategy:
- Jump along the left wall then walljump at the peak, walljump off the adjacent yellow platform, walljump higher up on the same wall, walljump three times between three yellow platforms, walljump at the top left corner, then land on the second-top yellow platform
- Immediately upon entering the room, walljump off of the left side of the yellow platform above, and land on the yellow platform to the left of it. Run left, then walljump off the top of the left wall adjacent to it, walljump three times between three yellow platforms, walljump at the top left corner, then land on the second-top yellow platform.
- If the sesshomaru walljump strategy is too difficult, then feel free to simply do the first walljump of the second strat above, grab the ledge of the platform above and climb, do it again, then climb the ledge of the yellow platform to the left. This is a few seconds slower and not as sexy.
- Keep running left. Be sure to not shoot the ground out of boredom, as there are two breakable blocks that will slow you down if you shoot them.
- Keep running left.
- Navigation Room. Go left.
- Do two short hops to climb the platforms to the left, then two more to the right. Grab the ledge of the platform high above, hop off of it to grab the ledge of the top-left platform and climb it. If this is too difficult, then feel free to simply climb up the first ledge then jump to the second one, though this is marginally slower.
- Run off the ledge, then go into a spin before touching the left platform.
- Get on the second platform, then while aiming diagonally down, do a vertical jump and shoot a few shots. At least two need to hit the toad to kill it. Return through the right door.
- Climb up the left ledge of the center platform. Either walljump off of the left platform, or climb the ledge of the top platform. Walljumping is marginally faster if a proper unspin cancel is done on the top platform.
- Run off the ledge then immediately go into a spin to the left. Make sure not to press left while spinning or else you'll grab the ledge too. When you land on the left side, run right, doing a short spin jump to skip the gray platform.
- Navigation Room. Go right.
- Either walljump the right edge of the gray platform, or simply climb the right ledge. Walljump off of the top of the right wall to reach the higher gray platform, then go through the door on the right.
- Run right. If the toad somehow finishes spawning here, you're doing something wrong.
- Save Room. Run right.
- Grab the right ledge of the gray platform above and climb it. Jump right once, then jump high to grab the left ledge of the top gray platform. If the zombie is spawned on the right side, he will hit you unless you are nearly perfect with your execution; it is recommended to shoot it if it is on the right side unless you can consistently get past it without getting hit.
- Navigation Room. Just before the door transition on the right, do a spin jump.
- Jump up the steps and go through the top-right door.
- Take the elevator and go through the monologue.
- Go left.
- Run left until you see the ledge. Jump up of it, then do another jump to grab the ledge by the door.
- Run left through this Navigation Room.
- Get MISSILES.
- Run right
- Navigation Room. Go right.
- Jump across the two midair platforms and use a missile to blow open the hatch on the right. Run through the hidden path.
- Immediately fire three missiles to the right to destroy the barrier. Drop down the crumble blocks and hold left to grab the ledge of the pillar. Climb up of it, fall to the left and shoot the bottom left corner and run off of it. Spin to the right and fall down more crumble blocks. Run left and fall down more crumble blocks. After the crumble blocks, spin right then immediately jump to climb the ladder. Climb it, then fall to the right and spin left. Fall off of the following landing, and spin right to grab MISSILE TANK 1. Run left.
- Run left and use a diagonal shot to uncover MISSILE TANK 2 in the top block of the steps. Get it, then run right.
- Run right.
- Jump up the platform, shooting the two zombies in the way, and approach the eyedoor. Kill it, get the Red X, and run in.
- Do two walljumps to reach the top quickly. Fall down and spin left to walljump to the next platform. Get ENERGY TANK 2 and fall down the following crumble blocks to fight Arachnus. Defeat him to get MORPH BALL
- If you want another early e-tank, feel free to get the back-up ENERGY TANK 8.
- Roll into the tunnel in the bottom left. Climb the ledge of the giant block and fall left. Climb the ledge into the wall and roll through.
- Roll of the ledge, unmorph just as you roll off, spin right and walljump off of the wall to reach the top of the ladder. Roll off and into the tunnel at the bottom, then grab the ledge on the left. Ledge hop, shoot twice to clear the two blocks, grab the ledge, and roll through. Unmorph as you roll off the ledge, and start firing diagonally down to kill the zombies while running left. Morph through the following tunnel.
- Go left.
- Go left past the save room.
- Go left.
- Run off the ledge then spin right. Use a jump extend to clear the ground without landing on it, then spin left as you pass it. Run left without grabbing the platform.
- Navigation Room. Go left.
- Do two short spin jumps to climb the first two platforms. Climb the next two with short spin jumps, then morph into the tunnel.
- Grab MISSILE TANK 3, then roll back left.
- Climb this room the same way as earlier in the run.
- Either jump all the way across the gap, or run off the ledge then immediately jump upon landing. Roll through, then unmorph and run left.
- Run left.
- Take the elevator down, and watch the SA-X cutscene.
- Go left after reaching the bottom of the elevator
- Take the elevator down to Sector 1.
Sector 1: Charge Beam
Note: Missile management is very important before obtaining Charge Beam. If Samus is at full health, all drops are guaranteed to be missile drops. As such, it is important to take as little damage as possible, to guarantee as many missile drops as possible.
Note 2: Furthermore, every stabilizer has two possible placements upon entering the room. Adapt accordingly; those that significantly change strategies will be noted.
- After arriving via elevator, go right
- Navigation Room. Go right.
- Go right.
- Go right.
- This room can be done quickly in two ways. If properly done, both are exactly the same speed.
- The easier and more consistent method is to run off the ledge, spin left, then spin right after passing the left platform. Run right through the bottom-right door.
- The swag method is to do a pixel-perfect spin jump to the right, just before running off the ledge. If done perfectly, you will make it past all the platforms without landing.
- Run right. Spam your beam forward. The second-to-last bubble needs to be shot diagonally up-right or else it will suck a few health from you. Just after running up the small slope, shoot three fast missiles forward to destroy the barrier without stopping.
- Grab the ledge above, then do another jump to the top. Run right, fall into the gap and run left. Stand on the platform by the stabilizer and shoot three horizontal missiles. While waiting for the door, grab as many drops as you can.
- If the stabilizer is going down the moment you enter the room, you have little room for error to be able to shoot missiles into it from the platform before it goes too high. If you are too slow, you will either have to wait, or try to do short-hop missiles while waiting.
- The moment you enter the room, shoot a missile diagonally down, (wait about 1/4 of a second) then two forward, then one diagonally up-right. If timed properly, the first four toads will all be killed without stopping. Jump on the ledge and shoot a missile diagonally-down to kill the last town without stopping.
- ENERGY TANK 4 is available here if you want it. Simply shoot the left wall beside the e-tank and roll through after killing the first four toads.
- Run off the ledge, then spin left. Go into the left door.
- Run left. There are three armored enemies on the ground here; use diagonally-down missiles to kill them without stopping. The last one may be on a higher slope; if so, shoot a missile forward while on flat ground to kill it.
- Run off the ledge then spin right. Shoot a missile down along the right wall to kill the first pirate there. Start falling against the right wall and shoot two missiles downward; morph after the missiles to slow down, so the missiles fly ahead of Samus. The two missiles should hit up to two pirates on the right wall. If you want to be safer, after one missile hits a pirate, feel free to unmorph, shoot another missile down, then morph again, in case there are three pirates on the right wall.
- Regardless, there is no guaranteed way to make sure you never get hit; sometimes a pirate on the left wall may jump into you as you fall, which a missile won't hit because it was previously on the left wall
- Run right, using a diagonal missile to take out the underwater crab.
- Jump on the first platform. Fall off and grab the right ledge of the platform you were standing on, then spin jump right off of it. Get on the ladder on the far right, climb up, and shoot three missiles left into the stabilizer. While waiting for the door to open, kill the toads on the bottom with your beam to grab their drops.
- Run right, using a diagonal missile to take out the armored enemy.
- Climb the shaft with two chained walljumpgs. Grab the ceiling rungs and climb right, and fire one missile into the stabilizer. If the stabilizer is going up, fire two more; if it's going down, then wait until it rises again, then fire two more. Climb left, fall on the lower platform then jump on the pillar. Make your way to the bottom-right door quickly before it opens.
- During second half of the door transition, hold up and R, then immediately press B to fire a missile along the left wall to take out a pirate. Grab the left ledge of the yellow platform and spin jump off of it to the left ladder. Use a series of jumping from the left ladder to the yellow platforms to climb this room. While on a yellow platform, if there are pirates on the ladders, take the time to use missiles to kill them.
- While running left, spam your beam diagonally up to open the gate.
- Keep running left and into the water, shooting your beam forward to kill the grab at the bottom left. Before reaching the left wall, shoot your beam diagonally up to uncover the morph ball tunnel above. Jump to grab the ledge of it, ledge hop and shoot your beam to uncover the rest of the tunnel, then morph through and go left.
- Fall down through the crumble blocks, morph through the tunnel, then walljump off of the ladder to reach the eyedoor. Kill it, grab the Red X if you have fewer than 8 missiles, and run through the door.
- Fight the Charge Beam Core-X here and get CHARGE BEAM.
- Upon acquisition of Charge Beam, grab the right ledge of the platform closest to your left. Spin jump right off of it to grab a platform to the top-right, and climb it. Jump across the two small gaps and go through the door.
- Shoot diagonally before jumping to clear a square block. Jump again to reach the door.
- Run right while spamming your beam to kill the toads. To destroy the stabilizer in one shot, have a beam charged, then jump into it from above and take damage. Hold left, and release your beam the moment the entire beam is inside the weak point, so both the beam and the flare hit. Charge your beam and take the door on the bottom-right after it opens, while holding L to aim diagonally up.
- Release B during the door transition so the gate immediately opens upon entering the room. Run right.
- Walljump off of the left ledge of the top platform to reach the top-left door, and go through it.
- Jump on the left platform, then right, then walljump to reach the next left platform, then right, then go through the top-right door.
- While running right, shoot your beam diagonally down then forward to clear the blocks without stopping. Keep shooting forward to kill the toads as you run to the right side. Jump on the next level, shoot as you run left, then shoot up to clear the blocks above. Get on the next level, run right, and shoot a curved missile diagonally down to kill the last toad from far away. Charge your beam as you run below the stabilizer, then shoot it and two missiles up (three is ok if you want insurance from missing the charge beam). Run right to fall down crumble blocks, then head back to the bottom-left door and exit when it opens.
- Run off the ledge, land on the platform, then immediately jump left and continue. Have a beam charged.
- Use your charged beam and two missiles (or three if you forgot to charge your beam) while aimed diagonally and running left to kill three toads without stopping.
- Run up the hill then jump on the right ledge (so you don't power grip). Jump left to the top level, run across. When you run off the ledge, spin right then left as you pass the left ledge.
- Run left, spamming your beam to kill the bubbles. Taking light damage isn't a big deal here.
- Run left up until the center of the room. Jump on the lower left platform (shooting diagonally down as you land to kill the zombie, or using a pseudo screw), then jump on the higher left platform. Head left.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Navigation Room. Go left.
- Take the elevator up to the Main Deck.
- Go right.
- Go right.
- Take the elevator down to Sector 2.
Sector 2: Bombs & Hi Jump
Note: Sector 2 is one of the more difficult parts of the game, due to the Red Zoros dealing 45 damage (which is very high at this point in the game). Take care to not take too many hits to die, and constantly have your charge beam charged, as you will be using it constantly.
- Run right.
- Navigation Room. Run right.
- Run right.
- Run right. If you are very paranoid about Sector 2 killing you, then feel free to take the refill here, but it will cost you several seconds.
- Follow the zigzagging path, but do not kill any red zoros in the left half of the room while climbing down. On the second downward left hill, shoot the beam down-left to take out only the right breakable block at the end, so you can fall down it without touching the red zoro by it. Charge your beam as you fall down, then shoot it right as you run right to take out the red zoron on the small hump. Climb up the left side of the platform above. If you are fast and the red zoro on the right wall is lower, then you can walljump on the left wall and skip it. Otherwise you want to stand below it and kill it with a charge shot, then walljump the left wall. Climb the right ledge, then the right side of the higher platform, then jump up to the highest platform and go into the top-right door with a charged beam.
- Run right and use the charge beam diagonally down to kill the first zoro. Time two missiles appropriately to kill the second without stopping.
- The timing for the two missiles on the second zoro depends on which way it's crawling. If it's crawling towards you, you need to fire them a lot earlier than you think. If it's crawling away, then fire them later.
- The timing of the double missile here is very difficult and tight. Feel free to stop and shoot the second zoro if you can't get it consistent, as you're better off stopping to kill it than taking damage and slowing down even more.
- While charging a beam, jump up the higher ledge. If the zoro on the higher right wall is lower, then you can skip it; otherwise kill it with your charge beam. Walljump on the 2-block left wall, then the right wall, and land on the second-highest platform (charge your beam while doing this). Climb up the highest platform then kill the top red zoro with a diagonal charge shot while running left.
- Fall off and unlock LEVEL 1 LOCKS, then run right through the blue door.
- Make your way to the bottom-left door, ignoring the zoros, and charging a beam through the door.
- Traverse this room the same way you traversed it the first time.
- While charging a beam and aiming diagonally down-left, run off the ledge, and fall down the one-space gap between two platforms. Don't move left or right until you land, then run off, fall straight down, and kill the red zoro there. Run left and open the door, while charging a beam.
- Let go of B during the door transition to kill the one zoro on the higher ground. Keep running left.
- Walljump off of the left wall of the ceiling above to grab the left ledge on the top floor. You should easily pass by the flying enemy if you're reasonably quick; if not, have a charged beam so you will pseudo screw attack it. Run left, jump on the higher ledge, the go into the left door.
- Get BOMBS. Run right.
- Have a charged beam. Run off the ledge, then spin jump to pseudo the flying bug, and also land on the one-block higher ledge. Run off the right ledge and spin left while charging your beam. Kill the one grounded zoro with your charge beam, then bomb the bottom-left corner of the room. Roll through the following tunnel, then as you pop out, unmorph and run left, firing two missiles straight to kill both flying bugs. Stop to kill the red zoro with two missiles if it's close to the right; otherwise charge your beam to kill it as it will be on the left.
- Morph and follow the morph ball tunnels, using bombs to bomb jump. After rolling left then right, fall down and spin left. There may be a red zoro or two blocking the left bomb block; if so, use 2 missiles each to get rid of them then bomb it. While bombing the second bomb block after the pit, charge your beam, unmorphed. After it's destroyed, shoot it and two missiles right to kill the two red zoros blocking the morph ball tunnel before rolling through. While waiting for the bomb on the right to go off, charge your beam again, then when you land, morph to automatically shoot it to kill the last red zoro. Proceed through the morph ball tunnels and take the bottom-left door.
- Fall down, spin right, and go through the next door with a charged beam.
- Just as you run off the ledge, shoot your beam to kill the flying bug charging at you, then plant a bomb on the floor below. Fall and spin left, then fall and spin right, avoiding the crumble blocks below.
- If you fall down the crumble blocks, you'll fall into the notorious blue zoro pit, the only spot in the game with a blue zoro. At all costs, do NOT touch the blue zoro. Even if the blue zoro is crawling next to a red zoro, touch the red zoro to run through the blue one. Bomb the single block on the right to get out.
- Climb into the first ledge which will make you morph. As you roll off, unmorph, spin left, then walljump to clear the gap with the red flat enemies. Bomb the spot two spaces from the right wall to uncover a pillar. Stand on it and climb & morph into the next tunnel. If the next red enemies are on the left, then roll off, unmorph, spin left, and walljump over again. If they are spread out, or on the right, then fall to the ground, then use missiles to kill them while running to the door.
- Jump on the center platform, then the right platform, then the platform above with a red zoro. Jump on the wedge above, walljump on the left wall next to you, then land on the right side. Jump again on top of the two-space pillar, then fall to the right to the door with a charged beam. You should not have to kill any red zoros.
- There is a strange hopper enemy in the middle that will shoot spikes when you damage it. Just when you land on the bottom floor, release your charge beam and shoot two missiles. Do a short spin jump over the spikes that are shot, and keep going right.
- One full charge beam shot is enough to kill it. However, it may crouch at a certain time, meaning only half the charge beam will hit, and maybe even one missile will fly over it. Two missiles are enough to guarantee you will kill it.
- Go right, ignoring the red zoro. Do not shoot the ground.
- Go right of this save room.
- Go right, taking the bottom path. The owtch should be nowhere near you to hurt you.
- As you enter the room, shoot down while falling straight down, then spin right after you pass the broken floor. Charge your beam to one-shot the eyedoor whenever it becomes vulnerable.
- If you want to get ENERGY TANK 5, instead of shooting down to break the floor as you enter, run right and get the e-tank on the higher ledge. Run left off the ledge, shoot straight down and spin right to land by the eyedoor.
- Defeat Zazabi and get HI JUMP. Use two hi jumps to grab the ledges and get out of the room on the left.
- Use a walljump at the spot you broke in the left part of the ceiling to reach the door on the top-left
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Go left. Have a beam charged.
- Run left, getting rid of the enemy the same way you did before. Bomb the floor on the left side of the room and fall through.
- Wait against the left wall for the SA-X to go through the door. A safe cue to start running right is just when the SA-X fires its beam to open the door. Run to the right, shoot diagonally down to destroy the blocks, then run left.
- If you have over 300 health, you can skip waiting for the SA-X. Refer to the 100% section on how to do it, but if you are good enough to do the SA-X skip, then you are good enough to skip some of the e-tanks you have.
- Jump on the block high up to your left, then on the higher ledge to the left. Jump on the cocoon to the right, then walljump off the top of the right wall to reach the left side of the higher ground. Jump on the cocoon on the left, then the higher platform. Jump on the platform above, with a tunnel blocked by a cocoon, then jump right to reach a wall. Jump on the cocoon against the left wall, then jump again and morph. Bomb the block here, then spring ball and bomb the higher block. Go through to the top-right door.
- Go right, having your beam charged.
- Run right, and just as you run down the tiny slope, release it to kill the hopping enemy. Jump over his project, and walljump off the bottom lip of the morph ball tunnel on the left wall, then again on the bottom lip of the tunnel on the right wall. Roll through.
- Bomb the block in the way and unmorph out of the tunnel. Get on the platform above, then jump on the right cocoon then left cocoon then the ledge just above it to the left. Walljump off the left edge of the center platform above to land on a ledge sticking out of the giant wall. Bomb the bottom-left part of it to uncover part of a shortcut; bomb it again to go through. Make your way to the top-left door.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Navigation room. Go left.
- Take the elevator up.
- Go right.
- Take the elevator down to sector 4.
Sector 4: Speed Booster
- Go left after coming down the elevator.
- Navigation Room. Go left.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Jump on the first platform. Then jump across the entire gap; to make it without power gripping, you will probably need a few jump extends. Drop down the left and go through the door.
- Go left, with a charged beam.
- Jump to the platform above, then spin jump to the top left of the corridor, pseudo-screw attacking the crab in the top-right corner. Plant a bomb at the 2x3 block, then run through it and run off the ledge to the left, while charging your beam. Just when you touch the electric water, jump on the square platform. Hope across the set of square platforms, using R-shots and/or pseudo-screw attacks to kill the two crabs occupying them. Go to the top left door with a charged beam.
- Immediately shoot your charged beam diagonally down to kill the crab immediately in front of you, and charge your beam again. Jump across the water, then run off the ledge and go into a spin to pseudo-screw attack the crab on the left wall. Go through the bottom-left door with a charge beam while holding L to aim diagonally up.
- Let go of B during the door transition, while holding left and L; you will instantly kill the crab on the ceiling. At the edge of the platform you're starting on, morph then spring ball left, planting a bomb against the ceiling. Unmorph and you'll land in the electric water, on a higher platform. Jump left to land on the left platform (you may need a few jump extends), then jump right and around out of the water to the higher ground. Use a missile or charge beam to kill the crab on the ceiling while running left, and plant bombs to destroy the wall. Keep going left, and through the door, making sure to have your beam charged.
- Let go of B while holding up to shoot your charge beam up, destroying both the block above and the owtch lurking above. Walljump off the wall above the door to land on the left wall directly above. Instead of climbing across the ceiling rungs, run off left, then spin right and walljump across. Shoot up, get on the higher level, then shoot a charge beam or missile + normal beam to both take out the owtch in front of you and the block. Roll through the tunnel, unmorph and charge your beam while walljumping off the right wall. You should pseudo-screw attack the last crab. You may get hit by an owtch overlapping with the crab; if so, use a missile to kill it or the crab (whichever the pseudo-screw doesn't get). Climb across the runs, shoot down and fall on the left, then shoot up once to destroy both blocks, walljump the left wall, and go through the door.
- Run down the slope of this save room while shooting your beam to destroy the crack in the wall. Jump and morph and roll through.
- Bomb the blocked tunnel. Go through the door, jumping as late as possible before going through the door if you can.
- Straightforward room. Go left.
- Jump on the left ledge, then right. Walljump off the higher right wall, then left wall, to reach the top. Charge your beam as you fall into the water and kill the eyedoor.
- Defeat Serris and get SPEED BOOSTER. Go through the top right door.
- Run right across the stretch of land and shine charge at the end. Go to the lower floor and use a low-height shinespark to the left to kill all the owtch. From the left wall, run right to start a speed boost and destroy the blocks on the bottom-right, while charging your beam.
- To do the low-height shinespark here, make sure you're in between the vertical 2-block gap. Either press A twice very quickly without pressing a direction, then press left, or while holding left, alternate between A and B repeatedly until you shinespark.
- Fall straight down while aiming diagonally down-left. When you land on the bottom floor, run left, using the charge beam to kill any owtch in your way. Fall down at the far left, having your beam charged.
- Fall off left and spin to land on the square block, killing the crab on it with a pseudo screw attack. Use another pseudo screw attack or a well-placed diagonal missile to kill the second crab as you jump on the left block. Go through the top-left door with a charged beam.
- Do this room the same way as before.
- Do this room the same way as before.
- Go left nonstop.
- Run left to start a speed booster, and shine charge just as you step on the button to lower the water level. Shinespark right when you regain control. Go through the right door.
- Go right.
- Go right and roll through the one-space gap. Fall down and run left, using diagonal-down missiles or charge beam to kill crabs in the way. A few spaces right from the open electricity, start running right to start a speed boost. Do NOT touch the wires.
- Keep speed boosting right.
- Keep speed boosting right. The moment you destroy the far right speed boost blocks, press B and start holding it as you go through the door.
- Just when you land from the speed boost, release B to kill the bottom crab. Start charging your beam, stand in the center, and shoot it up when the gold crab spawns on the ceiling. Go right.
- Jump up both ledges. Jump right across the giant gap, using a few jump extends if necessary. Jump across the last gap and go through the door.
- Go right.
- Go right.
- Navigation Room. Shinecharge on the switch, then shinespark right after talking to Adam. Jump with speed boost before going through the door. You should do this upon exiting every single sector from now on.
- Press up or B just above the center of the elevator to stop your speed boost, then go up the elevator.
- Go right.
- Go right.
- Go right.
- Go right. Take the elevator down to Sector 3.
Sector 3: Super Missiles
Note: Sidehoppers can be hit by shooting forward instead of diagonally down, meaning straight super missiles or three straight normal missiles from far away will kill them. However, only half a charge beam will hit when shot forward, so to OHKO a sidehopper without missiles, you must aim diagonally down and hit them with a flared charge beam.
Note 2: You need 10 missiles minimum for BOX (you probably want a few more for insurance), and two more afterwards to guarantee you won't lose time. After that, to do the start of sector 6 optimally, you need three super missiles to destroy the missile barrier. Take care to keep an eye on your missile count.
- Go right.
- Navigation room. Go right.
- Go right.
- Go right.
- Keep holding right to start a speed boost and break through the wall until you start falling down crumble blocks. After you reach the bottom, run left, shooting your beam to break the blocks, and go through the bottom-left door.
- On the second set of speed boost blocks you break, if you press down the frame you land, you can shine charge, fall down, then shinespark left from the floor to save a little bit of time. Pause buffering is recommended; if you press down too early, you won't destroy all the blocks and you'll have to run around.
- You'll start a speed boost as you enter this room. Shine charge, spinjump to the ceiling, then shinespark left against the ceiling. Morph, go into the top-left corner and bomb it to go into the hidden room.
- Step on the switch for LEVEL 2 LOCKS. Start going right.
- You'll start another speed boost. Just before reaching the second short hill, do a full jump while speed boosting to go through the speed boost blocks, then start running right again.
- Run right nonstop, shooting your beam to destroy the blocks in your way. You'll speed boost a slight bit.
- Jump right and around to the platform above, then up to the next platform. Morph so you can roll under the stretchy, and roll to the right wall to fall through crumble blocks. Shoot the gate, go left a bit, then starting 1-2 blocks from the door, start running right.
- Keep running right and you'll destroy some speed boost blocks. Fall through and take the bottom-right door.
- A faster but more difficult strategy is to shine charge just as Samus destroys the first speed boost block (a visual cue for it is the black pillar in the background). Samus will shine charge just over the ledge of the non speed boost block, but also destroy it. Fall down, go through the door, and shinespark up the next room, taking care to avoid the stretchy in front of you.
- Assuming you're not shinesparking up here, jump to the ladder above, and just keep climbing. Neither stretchy should hit you. Go through the left door at the top.
- If you want to speed this up a little, do a walljump off the right wall just above the second stretchy to skip a small chunk of climbing. If you walljump earlier, the second stretchy will notice you earlier and hit you, slowing you down more.
- Bomb the center of the wall ahead to uncover a morph ball tunnel. Roll through to get BOB, or MISSILE TANK 4; try to plant a bomb just before you get BOB, so the bomb goes off to destroy the 2x2 square block above BOB during the item acquisition cutscene. If not, just unmorph against the left wall and shoot it. Regardless, morph and hop into the top tunnel, and plant a bomb near the right side to destroy a ceiling block. Unmorph, hop and shoot into the next tunnel to destroy the block at the end, then roll through it and go through the top-right door, charging your beam.
- Just after landing from running off the ledge, release your beam and start spamming missiles. As long as you're not very unlucky, you should easily kill all three sidehoppers without stopping, and then you can speed boost jump through the door after opening it.
- You should make sure to have at least 10 missiles after this room; it usually takes around 9-10 missiles to do this room cleanly. If you have fewer than ~20 missiles, then it is recommended to just stop and use diagonal flared charge beam shots to kill some sidehoppers to compensate.
- Keep running right nonstop into the right door.
- Step on the button to get SUPER MISSILES.
- There is a difficult trick that saves a little time called the data room spark. Pause buffering is highly recommended, as it is a very precise trick. The idea is to shine charge as late as possible, but also stay on the button as long as possible before shine charging. So just when you're on the left edge of the button, hold left to start skidding and slowing down, then press down just as Samus is about to run off the button. She'll stay on the button for a little bit longer and shine charge on the right edge of the button, and get super missiles. You then have a very small window to shinespark left after acquiring super missiles, and then you have to make sure that you open the door so you don't run into it. If this is done correctly, you'll speed boost through the entire hall before super missiles.
- Assuming you don't get the data room spark, run left.
- Keep running left and you'll start a speed boost through the door.
- You have two options here. You can either shinespark left to activate the BOX fight then go back right, or do a precise speed-boost jump just after the door transition. Shinesparking is much easier, but also a half second slower; regardless, there is a big gap in the room. Either use a full spin jump with a few jump extends, or drop to the block below and jump across.
- If you want to do the speed boost jump strat, you must know exactly where the BOX fight is triggered. After the jump, cross the gap, then run left until you touch the very right edge of the large black box in the background, then start going back right.
- Note that the trigger for BOX and the trigger for the rumbling sound are actually different. If you trigger the BOX fight from as far right as possible, you will not hear the rumble.
- If you want to do the speed boost jump strat, you must know exactly where the BOX fight is triggered. After the jump, cross the gap, then run left until you touch the very right edge of the large black box in the background, then start going back right.
- Fight BOX. Climb out of the room by standing on the stalactite that fell, then walljumping off the ledge of the right higher platform. Do two full high jumps to climb out. Alternative, you can do a chain of three walljumps, but if both strats are done optimally, walljumping is slightly slower.
- After climbing out of the pit, run left, charging your beam. Aim diagonally up to take out the flying red enemy, then shoot a super missile forward before running down the slope to take out a sidehopper (if you're low on missiles, use a diagonal flared charge beam on the sidehopper instead). You'll start speedboosting through the left door.
- Hold down during the door transition to shine charge. Fall down, then shinespark into the bomb block by the morph ball tunnel (this is faster than bombing it). Morph into it, then as you fall out of the tunnel, unmorph and fire a super missile diagonally down-left to take out the first sidehopper. As you run left, fire another one straight left to kill the second sidehopper. Bomb the blocks at the left, then roll through the tunnel.
- Pop out of the tunnel and just follow the zig-zag path back to the top-left corner, using your beam to take out the first flying enemy, and a pseudo-screw attack for the second one.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Navigation room. Shinespark left.
- Take the elevator up to the main deck.
- Go right.
- Go right.
- Go right.
- Go right.
- Go right.
- Take the elevator down to Sector 6.
Sector 6: Varia Suit
Note: After obtaining Varia Suit, you'll encounter one of the most annoying enemies in the game: Puffers. Damaging and/or killing them causes them to release smoke, which has a huge hitbox and will damage you in return. Thus, it is best to just avoid them all together, or even just run into them sometimes. A pseudo-screw attack will not kill them with your current beam either.
Note 2: To make matters worse, each puffer has four possible random behaviors (most enemies have 2). You will have to basically improvise every time there is a room with at least two puffers.
- Run right after taking the elevator.
- Navigation Room. Go right.
- Go right.
- Go right, having a beam charged and starting a speed boost.
- Do a speedboost jump from the edge of the ledge you start on, to jump almost all the way across the room. The charged beam is there as insurance to make sure you don't get hurt by the bottom-right bug; if you jumped a little too early, you will pseudo-screw attack it instead.
- Make your way to the bottom of the room and shoot three supers to destroy the barrier. Go to the top-right door. Get MISSILE TANK 5 if you want it.
- If you don't have enough super missiles for the barrier, then an alternative strat that is barely slower is to shinespark. So upon entering the big room after the recharge room, shine charge, jump on the safe spot on the floor between two bugs, then shinespark right into the slope. As you enter the next room, shine charge, make your way to the bottom, then shinespark right through the barrier.
- If you fail the shinespark method, and you don't have enough missiles, then getting MISSILE TANK 5 is faster than farming for missile drops or recharging in a previous room.
- Run right, stunning the ice-x if you want.
- There's another ice-x at the top-right; stun it if you want. Just fall down this room as typical and head for the bottom-right door.
- Run right and you'll reach a stack of 3 square blocks; there is an ice-x hidden in the bottom one. Get past this among one of three ways listed below. Just when starting to fall, hug the left wall and shoot the one-layer wall to go through it. Spam your beam forward as you run left, jumping over the gap; you should usually stun the ice-x up ahead and be able to run under it. Go through the bottom-left door.
- The fastest method at the start of this room is to shoot forward twice to uncover and stun the ice-x , then shoot diagonally up once to break both blocks above. Then do a short hop over the stunned ice-x and fall down the shaft.
- The easier method is to destroy only the bottom block and keep running right, tanking the hit from the ice-x. While you take damage, by the time you recoil, you will be up against the left wall while falling, so there won't be much recoil.
- The slowest but safest method is to simply shoot the top two blocks and jump on top of the bottom block. This is slower as you're landing an extra time and running off the edge, but is recommended if you're low on health and can't afford to risk getting hit by ice-x.
- Run left under the three ice-x and shine charge at the ledge, just as you destroy the speedboost blocks. Fall to the bottom, then shinespark left into the slope, opening the door on the left and running through it.
- Jump over the energy tank while speedboosting, then plant a bomb against the bottom-left corner. Immediately get ENERGY TANK 1, so the bomb goes off during the item acquisition cutscene. Roll into the hole, roll through the tunnel, then as you unmorph above the door, shoot down to open it and run or roll right.
- Go to the right wall and plant a bomb to go in the bottom morph ball tunnel to see the SA-X. The power bomb it plants does 20 damage, so if you have less than that (this should only happen in 1%), then hide in the bottom-left corner to avoid it. Otherwise just stay below where it plants the power bomb until it goes off. Then after the SA-X starts walking again, do a very short hop to catch its attention, and stay standing right by the morph ball tunnel. It will run left and jump over you; immediately get on the higher platform and run right, taking care to jump over the one-space gap. Fall down the crumble blocks and go to the left door.
- Shoot left at the bottom floor, then go through the tunnel to get away from the SA-X safely.
- Shoot diagonally down-left to destroy the center block, then fall down; land directly below the left side of the gap. Shoot right exactly once to destroy two square blocks, and go through the door with a charged beam.
- Shoot ONCE. Remember that the charge beam is two beams put into one, so if you shoot twice, then you will uncover an ice-x on the right side.
- This part is tricky. Aiming diagonally up-right, just as you land on the bottom floor, shoot your charge beam, then immediately super missile straight forward. The flare will kill the closest flies, and half of your charge beam will kill two of the farther flies each. The missile will kill the one on the far bottom-right. This clears your path to do a clean jump over the pillar without stopping. Kill the eyedoor with a flare charge beam or a super missile. Be sure to get the Red-X if you have fewer than 6 missiles, more if you want to attempt to double-missile the core-x.
- Watch the Mega-X absorb the Varia Suit data. You can missile it for fun, but it doesn't do anything. Go right.
- Defeat the Mega-X and get Varia Suit. Go through the right door.
- Go right.
- Do a short hop then a full jump to reach the ladder. Climb up to the top and go through the top-right door with a charge beam.
- You can speed up climbing the ladder a little with two walljumps. The first one, walljump from the left wall when it sticks out towards you, then back to the ladder. The second one, walljump off of the ledge to your left near the very top.
- Whether you can walljump or have to wait and climb up the ladder a bit depends on the puffer placement. Regardless, you have a charge beam so you can pseudo-screw attack the worm on the ladder. Use your best judgement to determine whether to walljump underneath the puffer or climb up the ladder and jump over it. Have a charged beam as you go through the top-right door.
- Use an R-shot or pseudo-screw attack to kill the owtch on the ceiling and go through the tunnel. At the exit of this hidden area, hang off the very edge in morph ball. You can then spring ball straight up, unmorph at the peak, and grab the ladder, then do a series of two more walljumps to reach the top quickly. Use diagonal missiles to kill the owtch on the floor in your way as you run to the top-right door.
- If you miss the spring ball, and fall down, a good backup strat is to jump into the right wall and walljump at the very peak, then you can use a series of walljumps to reach the top quickly.
- After running off the starting platform, shoot a missile up just to the left of the ceiling above you. There is an owtch where half the time, it'll be right there in the way of your climb. While charging your beam, jump up to the ceiling platform, then walljump off the right wall (pseudo-screw attacking the owtch if it's on the wall). Grab the ladder on the left, climb up a bit, then jump off and make your way to the top-left door.
- There may be a puffer in the way of your jump from the ladder. Use your best judgement; if it's lower, you can jump over it. If it's directly in the way, then take a hit and jump through it.
- If that darn puffer isn't in front of the ladder, then it's in front of the door that you're trying to go through. Either jump over it or roll underneath it, but killing it is slower as you will take damage from its smog.
- Run left, using a missile to kill a worm on the floor. Charge your beam as you go through the left door.
- Release B during the door transition; there is a worm on the left wall that may get in your way, and the charge beam will kill it if it gives a bad pattern. Proceed through this room, using super missiles to kill worms in the way. Avoid killing puffers; rolling underneath or jumping over them is preferred. As you go through the top-left door, have your beam charged and aimed diagonally down, holding L and B while running through the door.
- During the door transition, release B while holding L to kill the fly directly in front of you. Just after you run down the first slope, shoot two missiles forward to kill two flies in your way, then just before reaching the wall, one more missile diagonally down to kill the one lurking in the corner.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Navigation Room. Shinespark left.
- Take the elevator up.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Take the elevator down to Sector 5.
Sector 5: Ice Missiles
Note: Conserve missiles if you can. You don't have any free refills up until the end of meltdown, and you want as many ice missiles as you can have for meltdown. That being said, don't waste time to save missiles; use charge beam whenever possible, but don't be too stingy with missiles.
- Go right.
- Navigation Room. Go right.
- Go right.
- Go right.
- Just after you speed boost off the ledge, without holding right (so you don't grab the ladder on accident), shoot the top-right corner of the alcove, then shoot a super missile at the wall enemy, then after you land in the alcove, jump up and fire a missile into the uncovered tunnel (there's a missile block there). Roll through and go through the right door.
- Fall to the bottom with your beam charged and kill the first grounded enemy with charge beam, the second one with a super missile. Walljump off the right ledge sticking out to reach the higher left ledge and climb up the ladder while charging your beam. Grab the ledge at the very top, then during Samus's ledge climb animation, release B to shoot your charge beam to kill the first enemy. Run across, charging another beam to kill the second enemy. If you fail the first charge beam, use missiles on both enemies. Run off the right ledge and fall down, spinning left halfway then right. Just after you pass the ceiling above the bottom-right door, use a jump extend to land on the ground in front of the door rather than the lower floor.
- The timing for the charge beam while climbing up the ledge is a small window. Too early and only the top half of the beam will come out and not kill the enemy on the ground. Too late and the charge beam will be too high, so only the bottom half will damage the enemy.
- Have your beam constantly charged during this part, since the wavers die to a pseudo screw attack. Make your way to the right side of the room, using charge beam or super missiles to kill wavers in the way that pseudo screw attack doesn't take out. After falling down on the right, run left, then shoot down as you run off the ledge. Run left through the door on the left.
- You need to give yourself distance by running left then start running right for a speed boost. There are two strategies for this.
- The consistent, slightly slower strategy is to start running from beneath the ceiling enemy. This can't go wrong.
- The slightly faster strategy is to run a few blocks left from the door (you should almost get hit by the ceiling enemy's shot), then start running with a charge beam. You will have to aim the charge beam diagonally down, as the waver in the next room may be in your way before the speed boost starts. There is also a slim chance that the ice-x will be in front of the waver, which you can't do anything about, and will have to start over.
- Speedboost to the right, regardless of which method you used above, then fall down while charging your beam. Run off the small ledge to the left, spinning if there's a waver in your way. If you don't see any wavers, then there will be two in front of you just as you run across the center of the floor; shoot your charge beam forward then immediately missile diagonally up-left to take out both without stopping. Run off to the left wall, then run right. Bomb the block in the morph ball tunnel, and keep going right, using charge beam or missiles to take out the two wavers on this floor as appropriate.
- Bomb the wall. Wavers will attempt to attack you by stabbing themselves into the wall; you can kill them with your beam or missiles while waiting for the bomb to go off, as their hitbox comes slightly into the wall. Go right.
- Go left through this save room.
- Run off the ledge, fall in the center of the room and shoot down to break the floor while falling. Spin left just as you pass by the floor and go into the left door.
- Make your way left. It is recommended to slightly hug the corner of the plants, so you'll land frames earlier and can run across earlier.
- Go left.
- Unlock LEVEL 3 LOCKS. Go left.
- Alternatively, you can try to go for reverse ice missiles for swag, but it's not recommended unless you want to go for swag or you are JaggerG.
- Run left with a charge beam, then jump on the higher platform. Shoot the beam to kill the enemy on it (it's on floor one block higher than you) then jump around right and left to the higher platform with a charged beam. Jump into the left wall and walljump to the higher platform (you should pseudo-screw attack the enemy on this wall). On the right side of this platform, shoot up to clear a block, then walljump the left wall above, then the right wall, and R-shoot the crab on the ceiling here. Shoot diagonally up to destroy the ceiling then land on the left edge of the top floor and start running right, opening the door.
- Run right in the save room, making sure to aim diagonally up and charging a beam as you go through this door.
- Release B while holding L during the door transition to open the gate. You'll start speed boosting. Open the right door and charge your beam before entering it.
- When starting this speedboost, it's important to start running on the left edge of the top floor after destroying the right block of it; if you start running from too far left (meaning you only destroyed the far left block, and not both), then you'll speed boost into the gate and it won't open quickly enough for you to run through nonstop. If you start running from too far right, then the enemy will likely snipe you in the hall after the gate before your speed boost starts.
- Jump on the left side of the opening in the ceiling, then to the right; half the time, a waver will be here but you will pseudo screw attack it. Go right through the yellow door with a charged beam aimed diagonally up.
- Open the gate here again, by releasing B during the door transition. Go right.
- Get ICE MISSILES. Go right.
- Shoot the floor and fall down the center of the room. All three rippers will never be in the center of the room, so you will be fine. As you land, go through the left door.
- Jump and shoot diagonally up to shoot the center of the ceiling while waiting for the vine to form. Either freeze the vine then jump through, or (the faster method) jump over the vine just before it forms, freeze it from above, then get through the ceiling. Go left while charging your beam.
- Jump on the higher floor as you enter, then jump over the gap. Run left a little, then jump and shoot your charge shot left along the ceiling to kill the enemy in the top-left corner. Wait by the right side of your current platform with another charge beam, then kill it as it reforms. Go back to the far-right platform and wait for the vine to form, then as you run left, shoot a diagonal ice missile down to freeze it just before running across and through the door on the left.
- Speed boost through the blocks, and use normal spin jumps to climb to the top and out. Have your beam charged.
- Jump on the ledge on the left then right; you may pseudo screw attack wavers in your path. Use charge beam to kill any wavers in the way that you don't get with pseudo screw attack. Get on the higher right ledge, shoot the tiny alcove to uncover a hidden path. Walljump the right wall, then while hugging the top-left corner of this hidden room, shoot your beam left to uncover a tunnel and grab the ledge at the same time. Roll through, unmorph and charge your beam; another waver maybe in the way here. Climb out of this room like you did before, heading for the top-left door.
- You can do a difficult spinjump to reach the ceiling above you without falling but it's very precise; otherwise just drop to the bottom level then jump again. Climb up the ladder, then grab the right ledge of the top level; shoot your charge beam during the ledge climb animation like before to kill the first enemy, and also give you enough time to charge it for the second enemy. If you fail it, you will just have to wait for them to jump, as you don't have super missiles anymore. Fall down the left side, using charge beam to kill one enemy and wait for the other on the bottom floor. Go through the bottom-left yellow door.
- Just run left, ignoring all enemies, without shooting the floor.
- Meltdown will start. Grab the left ledge of the ceiling above and climb it. Then do a full jump up to barely grab the ladder directly above you; climb it for abut a block then spin jump left to reach the top-left door quickly.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Navigation Room. Shinespark left.
- Go up the elevator to Main Deck.
- Go right.
- Take the elevator down to Sector 3.
Meltdown
- Go right.
- Go right, ignoring the navigation room.
- Go right.
- Go right, starting your speedboost.
- Break through the speedboost blocks and keep going right.
- Go through this room the same way you did before. You can save a tiny bit of time by using two ice missiles on the stretchy to kill it while running.
- Speedboost through this room like before, except without shine charging since there is no use for the shinespark.
- Run off the ledge, spin left, and immediately fire two ice missiles down. After they kill the first stretch you fall towards, shoot two more to kill the second stretchy that you fall towards and go through the bottom-left door.
- Start charging your beam. Jump into the middle of the first lava pit and jump out to cross it quickly. For the second pit, spin jump into the ceiling rungs (pseudo-screw attacking the flying enemy in your way) and climb across. Do the same for the third pit. There's a flying enemy while you climb across the rungs for the long lava pit; use an R-shot with your charge beam so you can shoot it without stopping climbing across.
- Lava plumes can pop from the lava below and are random. If one is about to hit you from your right, then just keep holding up-left and you'll get knocked left, but you'll grab the rungs without falling, losing very minimal time. If one is about to hit you from your left (aka in the way), then stop, wait for it, then climb across.
- Run until you reach the edge, then spin jump high and left over the bottom stretchy. At the peak of your jump, pull back the spin jump right, then fire an ice missile down just when the stretchy comes out a little. You can then jump to the top without grabbing the ledge.
- An alternative, easier strat is to do a short hop and freeze the stretchy just as you enter the room, then jump on the bottom stretchy and reach the top of a ledge grab. This is, however, about 20-30 frames slower.
- Run right. You can't do much about the flame enemies on the ceiling dropping fire on you.
- Run right, and fire an ice missile diagonally up to freeze the first stretchy. Jump on it, fire a diagonal ice missile diagonally up-left to freeze the upper stretchy, then climb up.
- The ice missile must be early; remember that it will curve because you are running while firing it. If it is too late, then the bottom stretchy will snipe you before you shoot the missile. Have your beam charged as you go into the top-left door.
- Alternatively, just do a short hop and ice missile the bottom stretchy. Again, this is slower by a bit.
- While aiming diagonally up-left, jump on the first platform, then just before jumping from the left edge of it, fire your charge beam up-left. It should kill the flame enemy that will get in your way. As you jump a second time, shoot an ice missile left to freeze the first stretchy. Get on it, climb up and go right, freezing the flame enemies on the ground to run across. Freeze the top-right stretchy as you climb around, and run left, freezing the flame enemies and the last stretchy, and being careful not to fall down the crumble blocks. Fall down the left shaft and go into the bottom-left door with a charge beam.
- Do a full spinjump across, pseudo-screw attacking the flame enemy at the ceiling.
- Jump through the opening in the ceiling above, then climb to the top, using flared-charge beam to kill the sidehoppers, or freezing them with ice missiles. Kill the eyedoor and go through the top-left door.
- A faster, riskier strategy is to fire three fast ice missiles just as you enter, and keeping running left. You will kill the first sidehopper, and the second sidehopper on ground level will be frozen in the air. Use it as a platform to reach the top-left quickly. This is risky as if your ice missiles off-timing, or the second sidehopper gives a bad pattern and doesn't jump high, then you've wasted time running on the bottom floor.
- Assuming you're using the first strat, you can do a pixel-perfect jump from the left edge of the middle floor through a hole in the top floor. This skips a sidehopper. However, again, it is pixel perfect, and jump extends will not help you. This is not recommended.
- Defeat the Wide Beam Core-X and get WIDE BEAM. Be sure to shoot diagonally down left while running down the stairs to try to hit the scientist as early as possible. Leave via the right door after obtaining Wide Beam.
- Just hold right through this room, using your new awesome wide charge beam to kill the sidehopper in the way. Charge your beam as you go through the bottom-right door.
- Same way you did this room, except the opposite direction. Pseudo-screw attack the flame enemy on the ceiling.
- This room is tricky to optimize well. Jump up the left higher ledge, then the right higher ledge. Start charging your beam as you walljump off the left wall to reach the top. Then drop down the crumble blocks and immediately fire your charged wide beam down, followed by two ice missiles, to kill the stretchy below. When you fall down past the middle floor, hug the right wall (but don't grab the ledge), so you'll land on the single block instead of falling left of it and into the lava pool below. Shoot 3 normal wide beam shots up-right to kill the flame enemy near by, then hop across to go to the door.
- Just fall down and go to the bottom-left room, being careful not to touch the stretchies.
- Run to the left door, charging your beam as you go through the door.
- Run off the ledge, then spin right, using an R shot to kill the flame enemy in the way. If you're unlucky, it may drop a flame and hit you.
- Climb across the first two lava pits like you did before, using an R shot with the charged wide beam to take out the two flying enemies while climbing. Again, if a lava plume will damage boost you right, be sure to be holding up-right; if it's going to knock you left, dodge it and wait.
- The climb up this shaft can be done quickly by freezing the stretchies appropriately. Freeze the stretchy above you, jump on it, then get on the right ladder and climb up. Freeze the flame enemy above, freeze the stretchy above, then walljump off the right then left wall to get on it. Freeze the next stretchy above, jump left then right. Jump and freeze the last stretchy, then walljump right then left to land on it. Jump to the door on the top-left.
- A video demonstration can be seen here. Note that you can speed up the climb a bit by freezing two of the stretchies just before landing, rather than stopping to freeze them before climbing.
- Bomb the lower-left block and roll through to fall down.
- Charge your beam and go left.
- Release during the room transition to open the gate, and run through the left door.
- Keep firing your beam forward to clear blocks as you run through. Climb this room to the top-left door like you did upon exiting sector 3 the first time after super missiles.
- Don't shinespark anywhere. There is no use for it in this room.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Navigation Room. Shinespark left.
- Take the elevator to the Main Deck.
- Go right.
- Go right.
- Go to the center and take the elevator up to the Main Deck.
Save the Animals
- After taking the elevator up, run right through the destroyed door.
- Run right and start speedboosting.
- Speedboost through the wall and jump through the right door.
- Fall down this room like you did at the beginning of the game.
- Go right.
- With high jump, you can climb this room to the top-left corner more quickly. Jump to the right ledge, then either jump twice to reach the higher right platform (faster if optimally done) or walljump to grab its ledge (easier). Jump to the platform directly above you, then walljump off the left edge of the last platform above to reach the door.
- Take the elevator up.
- Go left.
- There are three strategies to climb this area and reach the top-left door.
- The slowest, easiest strategy is to climb normally. Wait until the bottom stretchy spawns, then jump near the left side to lure it out and freeze it. Get on it then the middle level and do the same to lure the second stretchy.
- The faster strategy is to immediately do a walljump as high as possible from the right wall, and do a few jump extends after the peak of the walljump to reach the center level quickly. This skips waiting for the first stretchy.
- The fastest but riskiest strategy is to wait a split second, then jump and shoot an ice missile down so the first stretchy spawns and then freezes while you're above it. Immediately walljump off the wall higher up, then pull back to the right, and fire an ice missile down just as the second stretchy spawns, so you freeze it from above. This is one second faster than the second strategy, but also the riskiest, because if you miss the second stretchy, you have to reset the room or wait for the first one to thaw.
- Run left, and shoot diagonally down at the second set of breakable blocks on the floor. Fall to the right, open the gate, run right a few blocks then start running left, shooting to destroy the wall and charging a speedboost. Like in sector 3, shine charge just as you break the first speed boost block on the floor so you break it and also shine charge, then fall down and go into the left wall.
- If you have the shine charge in this dark vertical chamber, then shinespark up. Otherwise climb up the room via freezing the stretchies and jumping back and forth.
- Go right and save the animals. After you regain control of Samus, run right and fall back down the same blocks you broke the first trip through. Then on the middle level, destroy the blocks directly to your left on the floor and fall down. Open the gate on the right, grab MISSILE TANK 6 on your way to exiting through the bottom-right door.
- The amount of time it takes for the animals to come out is luck. You can lose up to around 5 seconds with bad luck.
- Go right.
- Take the elevator down.
- Go right.
- Fall down the first part of this room between the sets of platforms. Run right then left and go into the navigation room.
- Navigation Room. Go left.
- Climb this room like before; you can skip some platforms now since you have hi-jump.
- Go through to the top-left door and start running.
- Keep going left to start a speedboost through the broken door.
- Speed boost left, past the elevator.
- Grab MISSILE TANK 7 after breaking the speed boost blocks if you want it. Go back right.
- Take the elevator down.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Take the elevator down to Sector 5.
Sector 5: Power bombs
- Go right.
- Navigation room. Go right.
- Go right.
- Go right, having your beam charged
- Shine charge just after you go through the door, without running off the ledge. Immediately do a very short spin jump off, hugging the left wall without grabbing the ladder so you pseudo-screw attack the enemy there. Land as far right as possible and, with a charge beam, spinjump through the door so you're at the top. The timing is very tight; you want to have your shine charge for the next room.
- You can spin jump over the shot by the enemy below instead of pseudo-screw attacking, but you also have to jump low enough below the ceiling enemy's shots. It is a very difficult jump, and should only be used as a back-up, in case you forgot to charge your beam.
- The shinespark is not that big of a deal. If you get hit, just keep going without shinesparking.
- During the door transition, let go of B and start mashing A while holding right. You'll fire your beam as early as possible to open the right door, and shinespark right through this room and the next one.
- If you got the shinespark, you'll shinespark into a ledge on the right. Hold A to pseudo-space jump and climb this room like you did the first time through.
- It is very difficult to one-shot the blue flat enemies on the very top of the room with wide beam. Instead, use a ledge-climb shot to damage the first one (probably won't kill it), then start running right and spam your wide beam forward. The first one will die from the bottom shot of the wide beam, and the second one will take damage; before reaching it, start aiming diagonally down-right so you hit it more and kill it without stopping.
- Go to the data room through the center-right door, as you did previously. Have your beam charged.
- Open the gate like before with your charge beam and go right.
- Get POWER BOMBS. Go right.
- Fall down this room like before. Be morphed before going into the next room.
- Plant a power bomb immediately and wait in morph ball by the center of the floor. After it goes off, roll into the gap and hold left; spring ball onto the left ledge and roll through.
- Roll through this room and plant a power bomb at the very end of the downward slope. Immediately unmorph and jump over the pillar and morph; be ready to spring ball into the tunnel as quickly as possible, as the SA-X will start shooting you when the power bomb goes off. Roll through, unmorph and run left through the door. Optimally, you won't need to jump over any ice beam shots, but if you're slow, then just use hi jumps to dodge her ice beam shots.
- Plant a power bomb just as you enter and shoot the enemies on the left wall (particularly the red one), so they won't get in your way when you climb out. Climb out via walljumping the left wall then the right part of the ceiling and go through the left door.
- Climb this room the same way as before, including running at the correct spot for the speedboost.
- Go right with a charge beam.
- Do this room the same way as after ice missiles. Speedboost right.
- Climb out of this room the same way as before. Be morphed as you go through the top-left door.
- Plant a power bomb immediately and stay crouched against the bottom-left corner with a charge beam while waiting for it to go off. When it goes off, morph and roll through the uncovered shortcut; the beam should go forward and damage the first blue enemy ahead. Unmorph and run forward, shooting your wide beam straight to kill the first blue enemy and damage the second; aim diagonally when you get closer to kill the second one without stopping. Go into the left door.
- Go left.
- Climb this room the same way as before. The enemies in the room shouldn't slow you down, but feel free to kill them if they're annoying you.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Navigation room. Shinespark left.
- Go up the elevator to the Main Deck.
Main Deck: Space Jump
- Go right.
- Take the big elevator and wait for it to power down. While standing and facing right, shoot your wide beam right 4 times then roll through the tunnel.
- Immediately plant a power bomb. As you fall down the crumble blocks, unmorph and start charging your beam so you can pseudo-screw attack the first enemy before the power bomb goes off. Roll right and into the top-right corner.
- Plant a power bomb while waiting for frozen ridley to crumble. You'll uncover the hole in the floor early, so you can fall through more quickly.
- This is the notorious spitter room; you may or may not get a speed boost through this room. After falling through the crumble blocks and getting on the slightly higher floor, constantly fire charged wide beams right while running. You should easily be able to destroy all the spike enemies in the way; however, a spitter in the ceiling may snipe you and there is nothing you can do about it. If that is the case, just keep running right into the next room.
- If you have a speed boost, run right to break through the blocks then speedboost-jump through the breakable blocks above on the right (shoot them if you missed the jump), then shoot up again and climb out and go right.
- If you lost the speed boost, plant a power bomb the moment you enter. Follow the cleared path and get MISSILE TANK 8 in the way (there is no way to dodge this if you don't speedboost through the blocks below). You can save a bit of time with the extra missiles on later bosses. You still ultimately lose time though, so speedboosting is preferred.
- Fall down this room without landing; while morphed, plant a power bomb just as you pass by the red door and wait on the bottom-left corner. Before the power bomb goes off, start running right to start charging a speed boost earlier; ideally you'll go through the door just as the blast touches the breakable blocks on the bottom-left.
- Keep running right.
- Keep running right with your speed boost and stop underneath your ship. To stop without skidding nor jumping, simply let go and tap the direction you're running in again (in this case, right). Talk to the computer, then leave and go left.
- This is a good opportunity to safety save for races, as you have to enter your ship regardless. However, if you save immediately upon entering the ship, then when you reload your save, you have to re-enter your ship to talk to the computer. To avoid this, after talking to the computer and leaving your ship, re-enter then save. This is slower, but will also cut down time on each reload. Use your best judgement on which to do.
- Keep running left
- Keep running left
- Morph through the tunnel and fall down the left side. Run right, shooting your wide beam diagonally down to break the blocks on the right. Fall through and go through the door.
- As you run across this stretch of ground, start aiming diagonally up-right and shoot your beam to clear some of the orange plants. You want to destroy the upper orange blocks, but also leave some of the lower ones for you to run across the upper part of this room. Shoot your beam diagonally down while running across the orange blocks and you should fall near the top-right door. Go through it.
- Run forward. Just after you run off a ledge, get ready to jump over a pirate. Run across the higher platform; the second pirate will either be on the left or right side of the floor. If it's on the left, jump over it and keep running. If it's on the right, run off the ledge, then jump over it just before it shoots you. Keep running right to get ENERGY TANK 3. You can dodge it with a short spin jump if you want to save a few seconds, but it is not recommended unless you are Biospark.
- You can also avoid the energy tank by bomb jumping over it. However, bomb jumping over it wastes just about as much, if not more, time than getting the e-tank itself.
- Run right, spamming your beam diagonally down until you fall into the hole you break open. Run left with a charge beam, and shoot it and two ice missiles while running left to take out a pirate. You may need to jump or crouch under his lasers. Keep running left and shoot down to fall to the next floor, and run right, taking out the pirate here the same way. Fall down the right side via shooting the floor, kill the third pirate here the same way, and shoot diagonally down on the left part of this floor. Plant a power bomb right here, and roll right to fall down to the very bottom. Unmorph, shoot left, morph, and roll through the hole you shot open in the wall. Keep going left, walljump off the ladder to reach a tunnel on the top-left corner of this alove (you broke it open with the power bomb), hop out of the hole, and take out the eyedoor on the left. Run through.
- To the left of the third pirate is MISSILE TANK 9. Shoot the wall on the left twice to uncover a tunnel, and roll through to get it. Only get this if you really need it; the optimal route does not get it.
- Fight Yakuza and get SPACE JUMP. Space jump out through the ceiling of the room and go left.
- Step on the switch and activate the station's auxiliary power. Go left.
- Navigation Room. Go left with a charge beam, aiming diagonally upward.
- Release the beam during the door transition to open the gate. Go left.
- Stop. Hi-jump left and climb on the platform to avoid the ki-hunter in front of you. Start space-jumping left and up; there should be no ki-hunters in the way besides maybe one that might dive below you. Break the orange plant blocks covering the hidden tunnel via wide beam, and roll through.
- Plant a power bomb immediately, and put one bomb against the closest block. The bomb will go off before the power bomb, saving a little time. Roll left as the power bomb goes off to enter Sector 2.
Sector 2 - Plasma Beam
- The first room you enter has the SA-X. Roll left, drop down the crumble block and unmorph, then fire an ice missile left to freeze it. Jump over it, morph, and roll to the left door quickly before it thaws.
- The SA-X can hear you plant a bomb/power bomb if you're in the tunnel. Do not do this; otherwise when you come down the crumble block, it will be on the right and directly below you, ready to kill you, instead of being on the left side, faced away.
- Plant a power bomb immediately. Unmorph, shoot ice missiles right until you hear the SA-X freeze; the power bomb should have broken the left wall by now. Escape to the left door.
- Keep running left, jumping over the ledges and shooting your wide beam diagonally up to open all three gates. Near the left door, shoot a missile down at a block, then while falling, shoot your beam two or three times to clear all the blocks below it to escape. Make your way to the bottom-left door.
- Start space jumping up and over the left wall. Quickly clear the vines to your left, run off the ledge, and shoot down to destroy more blocks while falling. Go through the door on the left.
- There will be a ki-hunter ready to snipe you from above. If you're reasonably quick, it won't get near you, but if you're slow, it'll dive down with its stinger. Feel free to freeze it if you're slow.
- Go left.
- Jump over the high wall in front of you, and space jump across the ceiling of this room until the opening on the left. Space jump to the very top and run right across the top floor.
- Keep running right past this save room.
- Run right; you'll start a speed boost.
- Jump and shoot your wide beam up to uncover a tunnel in the ceiling. Quickly space jump up before the ki-hunter notices you. While running right in this floor, shoot your wide beam right exactly three times, then follow it with an ice missile. You'll clear the vines in front of you, but not damage the ki-hunter; you'll just freeze it. Jump on the frozen ki-hunter, jump on the left ledge then right ledge, and kill the eyedoor on the right.
- Defeat Nettori and get PLASMA BEAM. Go through the right door.
- Make your way through this room and go through the bottom-left door. Don't shoot any of the walls.
- Run left, shooting your plasma beam to kill any ki-hunters in the way. Speedboost through the left door.
- Quickly shine charge and shinespark up the right side of the opening above before the ki-hunter notices you. Run right, shoot the flying bug, then jump on the center platform while charging your beam so you can pseudo-screw attack the top bug if it dives down. Go through the left door with a charged plasma beam.
- Release the charged plasma beam forward and start spamming uncharged shots to kill all the ki-hunters without stopping. Morph through the tunnel.
- You're back in the main room of sector 2. Plant a power bomb immediately and fall through the block that breaks. Space jump up the right side of this room; plant a power bomb when you pass the high left ledge so the bomb shortcut is uncovered earlier. Have your plasma beam charged to take care of the ki-hunter in the top-left corner as you make your way to the top-left door.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Navigation room. Shinespark left.
- Take the elevator up.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Take the elevator down to Sector 5.
Sector 5 - Gravity Suit
- Go right.
- Navigation room. Go right.
- Go right.
- Go right with a charge beam.
- Repeat the same shinespark you did before power bombs, except don't jump through the next door.
- Shinespark from ground level to the right.
- You should be shinesparking right.
- If you missed the shinespark, it is recommended to use the bottom floor of this room to start another shine and then shinespark right through the door. This is a good back-up strategy, but pause-buffering is recommended as there are only a few pixels of extra space to charge a shine here.
- You should be shinesparking right.
- You should be shinesparking right.
- You should be shinesparking right.
- You should be shinesparking right, and you'll hit the ceiling. Hold B and spin right as you fall to pseudo-screw an enemy on the floor. Shoot right to kill the second enemy.
- Run off the ledge and shoot down to fall into the water. Hug the right wall, firing your beam down to kill fish below you. Go through the right door with your beam charged before the pirate has a chance to snipe you.
- Release B during the door transition to kill the first pirate. Shoot charged beams to kill the other pirate and fish on the bottom floor here. There are two very precise charge shots you can fire to guarantee that the second pirate won't shoot you (todo: video demonstration), but they are near pixel perfect. Go to the right, jump to the higher ledge and kill the swimming pirate with a charged plasma shot, and go left with a charge beam.
- Release B during the door transition to kill the pirate here. Climb up two ledges, then jump to the highest to grab its ledge, and go through the door.
- Shoot your beam diagonally up-right to break the ceiling and space jump between the two enemies here. Go through the center-right path.
- Shoot your beam diagonally down and up as you run right to kill the enemies in this hall. Upon reaching the opening in the ceiling, space jump up it and kill the eydoor here.
- Roll into the tunnel and fall down the crumble blocks. Feel free to grab ENERGY TANK 7 if you want it.
- Defeat Nightmare and get GRAVITY SUIT. Run left to open the lighted door, then starting around 2-3 blocks from the right side, start running left to charge a speedboost.
- Keep running left to speedboost through the wall. Shoot diagonally to open the door before you run into it.
- Keep running left.
- Shine charge, then fall into the water, shoot the door open, and shinespark right.
- At the right wall, fall down and shoot charged plasma shots and/or ice missiles left to kill the fish and space pirates here. In the background is a small circular window; start running right from here and shoot open the door on the right.
- Keep speedboosting right.
Sector 4 - Diffusion Missiles
- Have your beam charged and run up the slope. Spin-jump just as you finish running up the second big slope, and space-boost through the door via a R shot.
- Weave right and left repeatedly to fall to the bottom of this room. Have your plasma beam charged in case a red fish gets in the way, so you can pseudo-screw attack it. Go through the bottom-left door here, morphed.
- Plant a power bomb as you roll across the center of the ground in front of you. Wait on the left side of the glass tunnel until the power bomb goes off, break the missile block, and jump through. Weave right then left, shoot the two metal blocks, and roll through. Start running from the right wall and go left.
- Keep running left. Do a very small spinjump the moment the speedboost starts; if you jump early enough and your jump is very shot, you'll jump through the bomb blocks below. If you fail it, just bomb the blocks. Plant a power bomb when you land on the square block, and wait morphed on top of the second gray block from the right. Fall down, roll right through the hidden tunnel (it's one square above where you'd land) while planting a power bomb as early as possible. Fall down the right block that is now destroyed, roll left through the hidden tunnel, then fall down the broken block by the bottom-left.
- Unlock LEVEL 4 LOCKS. Go right.
- Space jump up this shaft and take the door on the top-right.
- Jump over the small ledge in front of you, and go right.
- Go right with a charge beam.
- Shoot the charged plasma beam and an ice missile to guarantee killing the swimming pirate here. Go right and do the same on the second one, and go right with a charge beam.
- Shoot the charge beam diagonally up-right to kill both red fish, and climb up this room. You may freeze the seahorse enemy if you can, but you have to aim well and hit its yellow belly.
- Go right.
- Shoot your beam diagonally up-right to clear the two-space morph ball tunnel and roll through (stop in the tunnel if the second enemy fired a shot, and wait for it to pass). Run right, then by the door, climb up the platform above. Keep climbing left to reach the upper-left corner of this large room. Freeze the bug with an ice missile from far away and roll past it. After popping out of the tunnel, start running a few blocks from the left wall and run right.
- Keep running right.
- Shine charge the moment you speed boost through the enemy on the ground; it is a precise shine charge, so pause buffering is recommended. Then to take an unintended shortcut, stand on the two-block high pillar and shinespark right through the vine. You'll hit a slope; shine charge immediately, morph, roll right and fall down a vertical tunnel below a power bomb tank.
- Quickly go through the right door.
- Run right a few spaces and shinespark up. Space jump to the right side, fire a missile up, then climb into the morph ball tunnel above with your beam charged so it opens the door for you.
- If you miss the initial shine, then take the intended path; run left until you break the blocks on the far left, then run right through the horizontal room below.
- Power bomb immediately. Put a bomb by the left wall while waiting so you can move left a few spaces before the power bomb goes off. Go left.
- Fall down and go right.
- Get DIFFUSION MISSILES. Go through the door while holding R to charge your diffusion missile during the door transition.
- Shoot your charged diffusion missile forward to freeze the bug. Roll through the bottom tunnel, then run left, ladder jump up once and go through the top-left door.
- Space jump to the door on the right, above you.
- Go right.
- Go right.
- Navigation room. Shinespark right.
- Take the elevator up to the Main Deck.
- Go right.
- Take the elevator down to sector 6.
Sector 6 - Wave Beam
- Go right.
- Navigation room. Go right.
- Go right.
- Go right.
- Space boost across this room and open the door with an R shot.
- Stop space boosting at the wall and make your way around this room to the top-right door. Plasma beam makes life easier, but be careful about the puffers; freezing them is preferred over killing them.
- Go right, using the plasma beam to kill the worm on the ground.
- Just as you run right off the ledge, use an ice missile to freeze the puffer here before it gets in your way. Keep dropping down until the first door on the left; go through it.
- Plant a power bomb on the ground roughly 2-3 blocks to the right of the 2x2 block in the middle. Grab the blue-x if you're low on health while waiting. Go through the left door after the power bomb goes off.
- Run off the left ledge, and then go through the right door, using uncharged plasma shots to kill all the enemies here.
- Fall down the vertical column of crumble blocks then go left.
- Run left, using diffusion missiles to freeze puffers whenever necessary.
- Run left off the ledge and shoot down to kill bugs in the way and also break the blocks on the floor below. Take the bottom-left door.
- Run left and shine charge just before running into the gate; the warning will go off. Shinespark right, shine charge just as you hit the slope, and go through the right door.
- Move right 1-2 blocks and shinespark up. Go take the top-right door.
- Climb to the top-right door, freezing puffers in the way.
- Defeat BOX-2 and get WAVE BEAM. Go left.
- Traverse this room the same way as before.
- Fall to the bottom-left door the same way as before.
- Go left, using the wave beam to open the gate.
- Fall down the crumble blocks and go left.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Shine charge near the left wall, then shinespark right into the slope above and speedboost through the door.
- Stop just when you pass the center of this room, then run back left. You should hear the rumble.
- Go back down-right.
- Witness the SA-X blowing up the restricted sector. Space jump out of here to escape.
- Watch the cutscene of the restricted sector blowing up. Go right.
- Navigation room. Go right.
- Take the elevator up.
Sector 1 - Screw Attack
- After arriving via elevator, go right with a charged diffusion missile.
- Space jump up the wall in front of you, firing a charged diffusion missile into it to freeze the three rippers on the other side. Fall down the other side, morphing if necessary, and run right across the bottom. Get on the middle floor, freeze the ripper and jump through it, then get to the top floor.
- Roll through the acid to skip all the platforms and go right with a charged diffusion missile.
- Space jump up, shooting the charged diffusion missile into the wall in front of the higher right door to clear the missile blocks. Plant a power bomb on top of the left ladder, and go around with a charged wave beam. When it goes off, climb up the uncovered ladder and kill the pirate on top. Go left with a charged wave beam aimed diagonally down.
- Release B while aiming diagonally down and add a few uncharged shots to kill the first two spitters. While waiting for the first gold pirate to spawn, hug the left wall, and shoot uncharged shots diagonally down-left to kill two more spitters (you may need to straight jump and shoot). Plant a bomb. Then kill the two gold pirates with this trick and go left.
- Jump up the left wall, and fall down, taking the bottom-left door.
- Carefuly space jump left through this room without slowing down nor touching any rippers. Kill the eyedoor.
- Defeat Ridley and get SCREW ATTACK. Space jump out of this room.
- Go right through this room; you have screw attack, so there is no reason to worry about the rippers now.
- Climb to the top-right door of this room.
- Bomb the far right wall (it's a little faster than power bombing early), then run through the right door with a charged wave beam.
- Release the wave beam shot and fire a diffusion missile to guarantee killing the pirate. Bomb the block on the right side of the floor to uncover the ladder you used before; fall down, and make your way to the middle-right door that you used a charged diffusion to clear a path for.
- Jump and shoot your wave beam to open the gate. Go right.
- Screw attack the floor to go through it and fall down this floor, using screw attack to kill the pirate and the ripper in the way.
- Run across the room of this floor repeatedly, using small jumps to clear the screw attack blocks in the way. When against the right wall with the gate, do a high spin jump to clear the screw attack block, shoot the wave beam right, then grab the ledge and climb through.
- Space jump up this long vertical shaft, and then take the left door at the top.
- Go left, killing the shelled enemy with wave beam.
- Go left, and space jump up the tall wall. Keep going left via space jump.
- Go left, using wave beam to kill the crab in the way.
- Climb this room via space jump and take the left door into a room with lava.
- A faster way to climb this room is to repeatedly do hi spinjumps, without breaking yellow blocks. You can zig-zag around the yellow platforms, land on them via shooting or pressing up (so you don't screw attack them) then jump off of it. This means you won't lose any height per jump, as opposed to space jumping. Just be careful of the pirates.
- Basically just hold left the entire time and take the green door on the bottom-left.
- Space jump out of this room and to the top-right door.
- Jump on the higher platform on the left, then jump to the upper-left door.
- Go left.
- Go left.
- Do a quick-stop with speed boost (tap left while speedboosting left to stop without skidding nor shine charging) on the button and talk to the computer. After the first conversation, do a very short spin jump to step off the button and step on it as quickly as possible. After finishing the conversation, go left.
- Take the elevator up.
- Go right.
- Take the elevator up to the Main Deck.
Endgame
- Go right.
- Go right to start a speed boost.
- Immediately after destroying the wall with speed boost, start space boosting right through the open door. The door is always open, so you don't have to worry about having a charge beam to R shoot.
- Space boost into the top-right corner and grab the hidden ledge. Screw attack the wall behind, then grab another hidden ledge on the far right and roll through.
- Use a bomb to break the wall, and go immediately right to the center-right door.
- Go right.
- Hi-Jump on the platform directly above, then do a shorter jump on the platform to the right. Do a hi-jump on the right platform directly above, then go to the top-right door.
- Skip this navigation room and go right.
- Space jump over the ledges and go to the top-right door.
- Take the elevator up.
- Go left.
- Defeat the SA-X and go through the top-left door after watching the ice beam ability escape.
- Step on the switch to activate the escape sequence. Go to the left wall then start running right.
- You'll speedboost off the ledge; go into a spin and do a short space boost, and go to the bottom-right door.
- Take the elevator down.
- Go left.
- Spin jump over all the ledges here and take the door on the bottom-left.
- Go left.
- Either fall straight down in the one-space gap, or go into a spin and zig-zag right-left-right-left to reach the bottom quickly. Go through the left door.
- Go left.
- Fall down this room the same way you did at the beginning of the game. Go right.
- Keep going right.
- Hold down during the door transition to shine charge. Do a short spin jump to screw attack through all the yellow platforms, and shinespark right when you reach the ground.
- A low-height shinespark will let you shinespark right all the way into the Omega Metroid fight trigger.
- Assuming you miss the low-height shinespark, just keep going right.
- Go right until the screen stops scrolling, then run left to see the Omega Metroid pop out. Get near it, and get swiped before it takes a step to save time. After watching the SA-X get killed, fight Omega Metroid and defeat it. Get beamed up and you're done with the game!
References
- ↑ Dump of missile collection data by kirbymastah - https://m2k2.taigaforum.com/post/any_missile_expansion_data_dump.html