Revision as of 10:39, 14 June 2013

General Movement Tips

• Run as much as possible, and jump as little as possible. Jumping is horizontally twice as slower than running.
• Land as little as possible. Every time Samus land, she has a landing animation and must then accelerate to start running again.
• Avoid taking hits as much as possible, as Samus gets knocked back very far, and you typically lose almost a second for each unintentional hit.
• Killing enemies in the way is generally faster than jumping over them or taking hits. It is even better to kill them without stopping. This is usually done by aiming diagonally down while running and using charge beam or missiles to finish off the enemy in the first half of the game.
• If you have power bombs and there are bomb blocks to destroy, plant power bombs as early as possible that can reach the bomb blocks, as this is faster than using normal bombs up close.
  • This applies more to 100%, but screw attack destroys individual bomb blocks as well.
• Every eye door after charge beam can be destroyed in one shot. For Zazabi's and Serris's eyedoor, use a close-range charge beam shot to hit with the flare to one hit KO it. All eyedoors after that can be destroyed by a single missile (since you should have super missiles or stronger), or a flare-hit charge shot.
• Whenever the morph ball fall from a high height and lands, it spends a little time stopping and bouncing. If you have fast fingers, you can avoid this by unmorphing and morphing again a few blocks before landing, so you don't bounce.
• If given the option between the two, always space boost (or jump with speed boost) instead of shinespark, as shinesparking has a considerable startup and bonking lag that makes it usually slower.
• There are several spots in the game where there is a one-sided gate right after a door. The easiest way to shoot them without stopping is to charge your beam and hold L to aim diagonally up before going through the door before the gate. During the door transition, let go of B but keep holding L. Samus will shoot the beam at the earliest possible frame, which will always unlock the gate.
  • One exception where this may not work is the gate after Ice Missiles and/or Power bombs in Sector 5. If you started running from too far left, then Samus will activate her speed boost before shooting the gate, and thus she'll run into the gate before opening it.
• Avoid power gripping whenever possible. Use jump extends or walljumps to avoid power gripping, as it is relatively slow to climb up ledges.

Wall Jumping

Walljumping is a technique to gain height and/or cross longer distances to speed up certain rooms.

If walljumping off of a right wall, spin jump towards the wall and press right against the wall. After touching the wall, press left then A to walljump off of it. Samus can walljump off of any physical object as long as the bottom of her hitbox is touching the object she is attempting to walljump off oit.

Walljumping is useful to reach a higher height more quickly. Furthermore, the spinjump from a walljump also has 50% more horizontal speed than a normal spin jump, so it is useful for horizontal distances, or simply crossing horizontal gaps more quickly.

• You cannot walljump on a single wall and gain height (unless done underwater without gravity suit).
• You cannot walljump anymore after obtaining space jump.
• You can pull change direction quickly in a walljump by pressing A again during the walljump. This lets you pull back towards the wall quickly and walljump again on the same wall if you like (but you can't gain height).

R Shoot

While Samus has her beam charged, tapping R makes her automatically shoot it. However, an R shot is different from shooting her beam normally as R shooting does not affect Samus's current state. In other words, Samus's movement will continue as if she did not shoot at all.

The R shot allows you to shoot your beam while spin jumping, without breaking out of spin. This is the most practical use for R shots, and is required to open doors while spaceboosting. It is also useful for shooting your beam while climbing across ceiling bars without stopping.

Shinespark

Shinesparking is a basic technique that speeds up many parts of the game. While running with a speed boost, crouch at any time to Shine Charge. To shinespark, press A from the ground without pressing a direction. During the start-up animation, press a direction to shinespark in that direction; Samus can shinespark horizontally, up, or diagonally up in either direction. Samus will then shoot herself in that direction, and will not stop until she hits an object.

To shinespark in the air, press A with a shine charge while samus is in aerial standing position, then press a direction during the startup. Samus can spinjump with a shine charge without shinesparking, but to shinespark, you must break out of her spin before trying to shinespark.

If Samus shinesparks horizontally or diagonally into a slope, and the horizontal direction on the d-pad is held, then Samus will continue running on that slope with speed booster. You can then shine charge again and repeat.

Shinesparking is the fastest form of movement in the game, and is very slightly faster than speed boosting and space boosting. However, there is a considerable startup animation and a long bonk animation, which makes shinesparking primarily useful only if you can cancel the bonk by hitting a slope, or usually only for long rooms. In other words, avoid shinesparking short distances, and if you can, space boost.

Space Boost

Space boosting is space jumping while speed boosting. This move horizontally as fast as running on flat ground with speed boost. This is one of the best forms of movement after obtaining space jump, as there is no start up nor delay unlike with shinesparking. However, it is also the most difficult technique to master, as touching any solid object besides a ceiling from below will stop Samus. Pressing any direction besides forward will also stop the space boost. Shooting anything will cause Samus to break out of spin, which stops the space boost, meaning to open doors while space boosting, you need to charge your beam and R shoot the door while space boosting.

Though space boosting is used in all categories, it is most prominently used in 100%, particularly during Sector 6 Cleanup.

Double Missile

The standard technique for double missiles is used for defeating the core-x of bosses more quickly. Typically, against a normal core-x, you hit it with a single missile then it is invincible for a few seconds, and you repeat. However, by hitting it with two missiles on the same frame, you can skip one round with each successful double missile.

The key to double missiling a core-x is the fact that the core-x's hitbox is a square. The standard method is to lure it to come sideways from high up, and shoot two missiles upward as closely together as possible. If done correctly, the side of the core-x's square hitbox will hit the two missiles and both missiles will hit it.

With the standard method, while aiming up and holding R, fire a missile up, immediately jump vertically, then while still rising in your jump, fire the second missile as early as possible. The first missile will have been fired as low as possible, and the second missile as high and early as possible, so both will be very close together.

If you have normal missiles, you can also hit the core-x easily if it's low. Simply stand near the core-x, and while it's forming, fire two missiles quickly. If done at the right time, both missiles will be inside the core-x by the time it forms, and it will be hit by both.

The timing for the double missile varies depending on what kind of missiles you have. Each upgrade to your missiles increases the cooldown after firing a missile, and the missile also travels faster than the previous type. Thus each upgrade makes it more and more difficult to double missile. The player should be able to master the timing for all four types (normal, super, ice, diffusion) to reliably double missile all standard core-x.

Beam Core-X are near impossible to double missile, mainly because the hitbox is much, much smaller, so both missiles must be at the same spot on the same frame. It is unviable to double missile any beam core-x besides the charge beam core-x.

List of Core-X and how many missiles they take:

• Arachnus - 3
• Charge Beam - 4
• Zazabi - 4
• Serris - 5
• Mega-X - 6
• Wide Beam - 4
• Yakuza - 6
• Nettori - 5
• Nightmare - 6
• BOX-2 - 4
• Ridley - 6

Ladder Jump

This is a technique used primarily in 100%.

This can only be done after obtaining space jump. Samus can jump off the ladder, pull back towards the ladder, and grab it again, then repeat. If done quickly, this is faster than space jumping manually, as you never lose any height for each jump.

Assuming Samus is facing a left ladder, simply press right, press A, immediately press and hold left until she grabs it, then repeat.

The only use for it in any% and 1% is the short ladder immediately after obtaining diffusion missiles. However, this technique of climbing rooms is used often during 100% cleanup.

Jump Extend

Every time Samus breaks out of her spin in the air, her vertical velocity is set to a constant and she stays in the air for a very slight amount of time. This gives her a very slight boost in horizontal distance for a jump, hence the name. By linking multiple jump extends in one jump, Samus can gain a few extra pixels of distance. The most common way to jump extend is while spin jumping, alternate between pressing B and A.

While it is a very minor technique, it helps turn several pixel-perfect jumps into just difficult jumps. It can also make the difference between power gripping a ledge and landing on it.

Underwater Wall Jump

Samus can walljump on a single wall and gain height if she does it underwater without Gravity Suit. However, she gains very little height with each walljump, and it requires very fast fingers. After doing a walljump, immediately pull back towards the wall and walljump again.

This technique is almost useless, except for one trick. After speed booster, you can leave backwards from Serris's tank and get out of the alcove with the underwater walljump. If done quickly and on the first try, this saves less than a few seconds than taking the standard route.

Weapon Information ^[1]

• Charging the diffusion missile does not do any more damage. However, the spreading flakes do 1 damage.
• Plasma, Wave, and Ice Beam have the property to travel through most enemies, including some bosses. Thus they deal damage for every frame they travel inside the target.
• There can be a maximum of three beams, two missiles, four bombs, and one power bomb on the screen at a time.
• Ice and Diffusion Missiles have the property that they do not one hit KO enemies they freeze on the first hit.
• It is very obvious that the wide, plasma, wave, and ice beam have three parts. However, the charge beam is actually two shots put into one; you can confirm this by shooting a wall and noticing two hitboxes that hit the wall. As a result, for strats relying on charge beam, it's important to make sure both parts hit, rather than only half of the beam.

References

1. ↑ Dump of damage data for Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and Metroid: Zero Mission by PJ Boy - http://tasvideos.org/PJBoy/Dump.html