General Notes

Major Route Choices

Long Beam

Brinstar Cleanup

There is an area in upper Brinstar with one missile tank and one e-tank (and Varia Suit, but that isn't collected) that can either be cleaned up immediately after obtaining bombs, or immediately before going to Tourian.

Early Brinstar Cleanup

+ Extra early e-tank allows for the option to take the AWS route and skip refills in norfair

- Requires two extra infinite bomb jumps, one of which must be done very quickly to avoid losing time to ripper placement.

Late Brinstar Cleanup

+ More consistent and easier for most players.

+ Upper Brinstar Area is faster thanks to more major upgrades.

- One less e-tank for the first half of the run, meaning health management in norfair is more difficult. This means you cannot do AWS.

- Upper Brinstar Area is more of a detour.

Acid Worm Skip

You can decide whether to do acid worm skip (AWS) or not on the first trip to Kraid. It is highly recommended to not do AWS when starting out, as it is extremely difficult and requires the horizontal bomb jumping method.

No AWS

+ Much easier, safer, and more consistent.

- Acid worm area is significantly slower in early kraid than during cleanup.

AWS

+ Faster than not doing AWS.

+ Acid worm area is much faster, especially the acid worm fight itself.

+ Can skip refilling before the Kraid fight.

-Extremely difficult to HBJ, and messing up more than once loses the time you would've saved.

- One less e-tank in the early-game as you don't get the zipline e-tank when leaving Kraid if AWS is done.

- Cannot do Late Brinstar Cleanup, as doing Norfair with only 2 e-tanks is impossible.

Kraid Cleanup

After taking the first left zipline in the main Kraid area, you can choose to either go straight to the Unknown Item in Kraid, or collect the missile tank by the two giant sidehoppers and the zipline missile tank requiring the four kinetic cannons. The Early Kraid Cleanup route collects both missile tanks before fighting Kraid, whereas the Late Kraid Cleanup route delays both missile tanks until the endgame cleanup section of the game.

Early Kraid Cleanup

+ Faster in RTA by roughly 10 seconds, thanks to fewer door transitions.

- Need to worry about having enough missiles for the two giant sidehoppers after defeating acid worm.

- Slower in-game by roughly 3 seconds.

Late Kraid Cleanup

+ Kinetic Orb cannon room is done very cleanly and quickly with a space boost.

+ Giant sidehoppers are killed much more quickly with plasma beam and screw attack.

+ Good backup if you don't have enough missiles to do early kraid cleanup after fighting acid worm.

+ Faster in-game by roughly 3 seconds.

- Slower in RTA by roughly 10 seconds, due to several extra door transitions.

Ice Beam

There is a section in upper-right norfair where you obtain ice beam and two missile tanks. You have the choice to either collect ice beam after getting power grip, before going to lower norfair, or get ice beam immediately after finishing the Ridley area.

Early Ice Beam

+ Imago Cocoon is easier thanks to being able to freeze the ripper.

+ Can freeze the blue orb to make the pillar room easier in Ridley.

+ Can freeze pipe flies to make two rooms faster and easier, without requiring bomb jumps.

- Doing an extra heated room in norfair before lower norfair makes health management more straining.

- Ultimately slower.

Late Ice Beam

+ Ice Beam area is done much more quickly and easily with screw attack and hi jump.

+ Ultimately faster.

- More difficult Imago Cocoon (not necessarily slower).

- Must walljump the pillar room in Ridley (not necessarily slower).

- Room after fighting Ridley is slower, since you must bomb jump up instead of freezing the pipe fly.

- A missile tank while exiting Ridley is slower since you must bomb jump up instead of freezing the pipe fly.

Norfair Cleanup