Alpha Splinter

You can skip this fight (and the small splinter fight before this) in any% by simply space jumping over the wall.

In 100% or ILS-less categories, you want to make sure you're at 10 missiles at the start. Use two charge shots, a missile, and a third charge shot with a few uncharged to finish off the light version.

On the Dark Alpha Splinter, alternate between fully-charged beams and missiles until you're at 3 missiles left. Use another charge shot then two missiles in a row, then uncharged shots to finish it. You want to make sure you're at exactly 1 missile left since you want it to get the e-tank by Temple Assembly Site right after leaving Great Temple.

Bomb Guardian

This strategy assumes you are fighting Bomb Guardian without using ILS.

After it goes dark, charge your beam and strafe around to its tail. Make sure you have a clear shot, as you can only hit the tail from behind, and not from the side. Shoot a charge beam with a few uncharged shots to stun it. Quickly strafe around and fire one uncharged power beam shot with a missile, then a fully charged shot. This will bring it just below 50% health left. Stun it again the same way, then use a missile and a fully charged shot to finish it in two rounds.

When Bomb Guardian is stunned, you can't hurt it from the back of its head with your beam. If you're in a bad position the moment it's stunned, use a missile first as it can hit it from behind, while strafing around, then use an uncharged shot (if it's the first round).

Jump Guardian

Jump Guardian can be cheesed easily without actually fighting the boss by taking the path backwards. Not only does this allow for an easier, faster Jump Guardian fight, but the path taken to go to Judgement Pit backwards is much, much faster than taking the intended path.

In Dark Agon at Portal Site, there are two paths Samus can take: the left path with a morph ball bomb slot, and the right path that is normally inaccessible without space jump. Use a 2BJ or 3BJ, and unmorph at the top of the bombjump to access the right path to Portal Access. Make sure you're not physically pressing against the wall while bombjumping, and press forward during the unmorph.

In Portal Access, when facing the higher ledge, l-jump on the bladepod on the right, then jump diagonally forward-left to land on the ledge. After falling off the other side, grab health from the bladepods, as the next door is loading regardless.

In Judgement Pit, go to the unactivated light beacon on the higher ledge on the left and aim towards the statue in front of the green door. Start alternatively shooting charge beams and missiles at the spot in front of the statue. You will start damaging jump guardian, because jump guardian's hitbox is present at that location before the fight is not yet triggered. How many charge beam shots and missiles to use depends on how many missiles you currently have.

You cannot finish Jump Guardian before actually triggering the fight. As such, any attack that would normally finish Jump Guardian will not actually damage him. So use some uncharged power beam shots when you think Jump Guardian is nearly dead, then fall down to the ground to trigger the fight. The fight should start with him having nearly no health; you should easily be able to finish him with power beam shots.

Doing ILS makes this trick useless for any%, as Samus already has space jump anyways, and does not need to fight Jump Guardian. However, this saves significant time for 100% or ILS-less categories.

Dark Samus 1

Power Bomb Method

If you already have the early power bomb from Temple Grounds, then Dark Samus can be killed in one hit with a power bomb. The most consistent method is to morph immediately when the fight starts (without pressing any direction), then roll to the left and around the center pillar until you roll into Dark Samus. Plant a power bomb just as you touch her, as she will use her force field attack and stay in place.

No Power Bomb Method

If you did not get the early power bomb, or are doing 100%, then you will have to actually fight Dark Samus.

The best way to deal damage is to repeatedly use fully charged power beam shots. As the power beam travels somewhat slow, you want to stay close to dark samus as much as possible.

Dark Samus will almost always use her force field when a missile is fired within her vicinity, or if Samus herself is almost touching Dark Samus. This is very useful for manipulating her AI and making her stay still. Occasionally, the missile will actually hit Dark Samus, stunning her and dealing damage, which is good. By manipulating her to put up her force field, she stays still, giving enough time for you to charge a power beam charged shot and hit her before she jumps away.

In the first phase of the fight, stay close to Dark Samus as much as possible, as you want to avoid using missiles because they do waste time; only use missiles if Dark Samus is far away. (If you have trouble staying close though, then feel free to use missiles).

The second phase is where missiles become important, as Dark Samus has two attacks where she is completely invincible for several seconds. You want to constantly make sure she has no opportunity to use these attacks by firing a missile at her, then shooting a charge beam, then shooting a missile at her again to keep her in place, and so on.

Amorbis

Amorbis is a very straightforward fight, assuming you're coming in with light beam. In a speedrun, the only time you should ever be fighting amorbis is after you get light suit, in 100%.

You need, at minimum, 60 light ammo (more is recommended for rollshots). There will be one amorbis snake about to come out. Have your light beam charged and lock on and shoot it when you see it (use your radar to help). It'll instantly go to the center after diving once; hit it with a charged light shot again, morph, and drop bombs as it sucks you in to damage it permanently.

Repeat, except there will be two snakes; use a charged light shot for each. After blowing up both snakes with bombs, you will resume one last phase with three snakes. Do the same here.

After blowing up one snake at the central phase, you can do a rollshoot to start charging your light beam early while unmorphing.

Alpha Blogg

This boss fight after obtaining gravity boost can be skipped quickly.

After starting the fight, roll to the wall on the left and do a BSJ on the wall. Use the gravity boost to reach the platform opposite of where you started; this platform is not normally accessible until after finishing alpha blogg. Hover to the higher platform by the door and exit via the blue door to skip the fight!

When doing the BSJ, make sure you are actually using a wall. You can't BSJ on the gates that closed at the openings of the arena (those aren't actual walls).

Grapple Guardian

Phase 1

First scan Grapple Guardian. You can't lock on to his eye if he is not scanned.

Three normal light beam shots in the eye stuns Grapple Guardian. When he is stunned, strafe around him, and shoot his back with a fully charged light shot. Try to sneak in a few normal light beam shots on his back while he slowly turns around after the charged shot. Then repeat; this round should go down in 3 sets of attacks on his back, if done properly.

If Grapple Guardian attempts to grapple you, then let him grab you and shoot a single normal light beam shot into his eye. This will instantly stun him, and you can damage his back more quickly.

Phase 2

Phase 2 starts when Grapple Guardian goes into an animation where he roars in pain and loses the armor on his back. While waiting for this animation to end, you can use a power bomb to blow up the gate at the dark door as you generally should be leaving that way.

Try to stay close to his front to manipulate him into try to attack you with his horn. You want to avoid him using his grapple attack, since if he grapples you and you stun him, you can't damage him for several seconds. If he does grapple you, let him reel you in and hit you, as it's faster than either letting him miss repeatedly, stunning him, or letting him grapple a pillar. Of course, don't do this if your health is low.

Stun him with three shots in the eye again. Immediately after the third shot, charge your light beam and hit his eye with it as soon as possible. Usually he will have a sliver of health left; if you were fast enough, you can sneak in an extra light shot or two to finish him off.

After Grapple Guardian is dead, morph near his body as the game warps you by where Grapple Beam spawns anyways, and when Samus is morphed, all of his drops move towards Samus in this part of the game.

Chykka

Blow up each of the four tendons with a missile each, or a set of seeker missiles. Prepare your light beam and scan visor.

Larvae Phase

Pay constant attention to your radar. Wherever it jumps or dives out of the pool, the radar will always tell you ahead of time.

Turn left, scan it for a half second, then charge your light beam. Jump close and shoot it when it dips out of the pool. Finish scanning it (scanning chykka larvae is necessary to be able to lock on its chest), and shoot it with a second charged light beam when it dips out again. Do not shoot it anymore; damaging it more will make it not jump out of the pool after its finished swimming. Instead, wait (shoot the spawned enemies for ammo/missiles if you need too) until it's finished swimming.

Look at your radar, charge your power beam, and aim where it's about to pop out. The moment it jumps out, shoot a super missile into its chest.

Chykka Larvae will return to its swimming phase. Attack it with charged light beam shots every time it dips out, until it's done swimming.

It should now lean over the platform you're standing on. There are multiple ways to deal with this:

• If you have annihilator beam, start spamming annihilator beam shots and get close to its chest when it reveals it, so more annihilator beam shots can hit. If you're fast, you can finish it off right here on the first round.
• If you don't have annihilator beam, then use uncharged dark beam shots until it reveals its chest. Slam a super missile into it.
• If this is the second time it's leaning on the platform, then you should use 3 charged light beam shots and one uncharged to reveal its chest, then hit it with a super missile. This is to conserve dark ammo.

After this round, it'll go back to swimming around. Damage it the same way as before, and it should lean on the platform again; finish it off with one of the above methods.

Light Adult Chykka

This is easily one of the most difficult fights in the game, and takes a lot of practice. Light Chykka is weak to dark beam, so the best way to stun it is with dark beam; the first light phase can be stunned by one charged dark shot, and the second light phase is stunned by one charged and one uncharged dark shot. However, because the dark beam travels very slowly, this can be very annoying. It is recommended to NOT lock onto chykka while aiming your dark beam, as ammo is generally low and you want to hit with as many shots as possible.

When it is stunned, watch it to see which way it turns (it'll always turn its back to one of the three platforms), then get on the appropriate platform, keeping your dark beam equipped. Stand as far away from chykka as possible, on the platform, so your missiles take longer to reach it (meaning more time to charge dark beam).

• If you have seekers, fire one set of seeker missiles at all four wings.
• If not, then lock on one wing and fire two missiles at it. If it's the last wing, then use one super missile (you don't use supers on the first three wings, since the cooldown doesn't let you charge your dark beam quickly enough).

Whichever method you use, immediately start charging your dark beam, walk close to it and aim, and shoot it.

• If this is the first light phase, and you do this quickly enough, you can stun it before it turns around, meaning you can blow up its wings from the same platform you're standing at.
• If this is the second light phase, then shoot a few more uncharged dark shots to stun it, as it takes more hits to stun this time. It WILL turn around, so you won't be able to just hit its wings from the same platform.

If you run out of dark ammo, then using charged light beam shots to stun it is a good alternative. Uncharged annihilator shots is also a good alternative if your aim with dark beam is bad.

Dark Adult Chykka

Four almost-fully charged light beam shots finish off dark adult chykka easily. You can easily finish it off before it attacks. However, if you're low on beam ammo and/or missiles, then you want to fire three charged light beam shots and wait for it to release chykklings. Shoot a charged light shot to get dark ammo, or uncharged dark shots to get light ammo, or uncharged annihilator for both, if you have it. After getting the ammo you need, finish its dark phase off.

Dark Missile Trooper

Shoot a charged dark shot and use a missile to one-hit KO it.

Spider Guardian

Power Bomb Guardian

Dark Samus 2

You should be fighting Dark Samus 2 in 100%, as echo visor is skipped in any%.

This fight is mostly straightforward. Charged Dark Beam Shots are key to defeating Dark Samus 2 as quickly as possible, as she is weak to dark beam (ironically), and charged dark beam deals much more damage if the chasing ooze hits her as well. As such, try to stay close to her to manipulate her into using her force field attack so she stays still while you hit her with the charged dark shot (meaning the ooze will damage her).

If Dark Samus morphs, use a charged dark shot to break her out of her boost attack (you can only do it AFTER she's done morphing).

Every time Dark Samus returns from Dark Visor Mode, when she's in the air, shoot a charged dark shot the moment she lands. She is vulnerable at this moment, and standing still, so the ooze damage can deal extra damage.

Quadraxis

Quadraxis Skip

Quadraxis can be skipped by wallcrawling past him.

(todo - video and details)

Fighting Quadraxis

If you are not experienced with aether jumping, do not wish to skip quadraxis, or are doing 100%, then you can fight Quadraxis with these strategies.

Phase 1

Each leg part takes one fully charged light beam shot and two normal light shots to destroy.

Start with the closest leg on the right, as it will always be flashing first. Then work on the legs in a clockwise-fashion. Every time a leg part is destroyed, make sure to spend a few seconds using charge beam to collect the drops, as you will need the health, assuming you are fighting Quadraxis without dark suit.

After two legs are destroyed, Quadraxis has a tendency to use his annihilator attack, which wastes time. Manipulate him into using his stomp attack instead by staying near his leg, making sure there's a leg between you and his main body.

If you desperately need health, and Quadraxis's leg parts aren't giving you health drops, let Quadraxis use his spinning attack and power bomb him. This will almost always give you four ultra energies, which is 400 health.

Phase 2

You shouldn't have echo visor during this fight (you should either be skipping it in any%, or delaying it in 100%). You can still damage the antennae without echo visor, fortunately.

When the central antennae goes up, screw attack and bonk slightly to the side of it to destroy it; if it's not blown up, use a few uncharged light shots to finish it off. Quadraxis will now be stunned; screw attack to where he is (to conserve energy) and charge your light beam. Aim up, jump towards where one of his antennae is, then shoot it as close as possible so as many of the light shots hit. Aim and fire a few more uncharged light beam shots to finish off the antennae.

Charge beam to draw in the health, rinse, lather, repeat two more times. Ignore the dark quad that appears. The central antennae will take some time to go up the second time; the third time, it will go up instantly, so be ready to screw attack it immediately after destroying Quadraxis's second antennae.

If you're out of light ammo, use super missiles to replace charged light shots, and missiles to replace uncharged light shots. It will be hard to aim them at Quadraxis's antennae when he's stunned though...

Phase 3

The game will always spawn you at the same spot, and Quadraxis's head will come around to your right. Charge your light beam, wait until it's slightly to the right of the leg near you, and stun the head. Immediately spider onto the nearby leg, and watch the head. If it goes left, then boost onto it; if it goes right, then immediately let go and go around counter-clockwise and get on the next leg. The direction that the stunned head floats in is random.

After blowing up one slot, suck in the health if necessary, and stun him again. Wait a second to confirm which direction he's floating in, then spider on the appropriate leg and finish him off.

Emperor Ing

Phase 1

Use an uncharged light shot for each tentacle to take them out. When its weakness shows up, either spam uncharged annihilator shots, or use four super missiles to finish it in one round. Annihilator shots are considerably faster, but if you skipped annihilator beam, you have to use super missiles instead.

Phase 2

Roll around and use power bombs to take out multiple tentacles at once. Try to roll between two close holes, wait a bit, then plant a power bomb and roll to a further hole to lure out the third tentacle, so all three are taken out in one power bomb. If you can't use power bombs, or are at an isolated hole, then just use a set of 3 beams when the tentacle comes out.

Phase 3

Emperor Ing 3 takes considerable damage when Samus screw attacks it below its main body. Use a low-height screw attack to hit the air beneath it.

If it jumps, then do a high screw attack to deal massive damage to it. Otherwise wait for it to stay in place, then screw attack it to finish it quickly.

Dark Samus 3+4