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Leaderboards for Metroid: Zero Mission Any% can be found here

Routes

The Ridley First route is confirmed to be faster than the Kraid First Route, both in-game and RTA time. This is the standard route used for any% today. The Kraid First route is rarely used, the primary reason being that it includes an extra cutscene, requires horizontal bomb jumping for acid worm skip, difficult kraid fight, and is ultimately slower in both in-game and RTA timing. Thus this guide will go over the details for the Ridley First route.

The general route:

1. Brinstar - Get Morph Ball, Missiles, Bombs, maybe Charge Beam, go to Norfair.
2. Norfair - Go to Crateria.
3. Crateria - Get Unknown Item and Power Grip.
4. Norfair - Get Ice Beam and refill there. Go to Ridley.
5. Ridley - Get two super missile tanks, Unknown Item, and beat Ridley.
6. Norfair - Get Hi Jump on the way back up to Brinstar.
7. Brinstar - Go to Kraid
8. Kraid - Do AWS, get Unknown Item and beat Kraid. Get Speed Boost and leave.
9. Tourian - Clear this area
10. Chozodia - Do suitless section, then clear the game without getting power bombs.

This section will detail strategies for every single room in the Any% Route of Metroid: Zero Mission, following the general route above. Each bullet point is one room (sub-bullet points are additional notes for that current room).

Brinstar

• Run left and immediately get MORPH BALL. Go right.
• Roll under the platform and continue right.
• Keep rolling until you reach the chozo statue. Activate it to watch the map, then go right.
• Climb up this shaft, using jumps and walljumps. When you reach the second door on the right, shoot the ceiling above it to fall through without having to get long beam.
• Go right.
• Fall down this shaft and go through the bottom-right door.
• Grab MISSILE TANK 1. Go left to fight the cave worm. Leave via left.
  • Try to make sure you're at full health, since you will want missile drops for the hive room.
• Climb up this shaft and blow up the red door on the center-right. Make sure you have at least 3 missiles after blowing up the door; otherwise you should either reset or farm for more missiles.
  • While climbing up this shaft, if you're not full on missiles, kill a few geemers to grab some missile drops, as you will need them for the notorious hive room.
• Run through this hall right.
• Go right.
• The hive room. Go into the hidden tunnel at the top-left corner of it and destroy the hive to get MISSILE TANK 2. Go right, and destroy the second and third hives, then go through the door.
  • Each hive has 64 health, meaning they each take 3 missiles and two normal beam shots. You will need a total of 9 missiles to clear this room very quickly, though 8 is ok since using only 2 missiles on the first hive for missile tank 2 isn't a big deal.
  • The easiest method to deal with the second and third hive is to jump into them, fall down, and let all the flies chase you. Run around the room, fire 3 missiles at the corresponding hive (all the bugs are gone now since they're chasing you) and shoot it as you jump towards it.
  • You can also let the flies from the first hive chase you and damage boost you right into the second and third hive, so you can stand by the hive while taking damage and blow it up quickly without having to fall down. This is very difficult and luck-dependent however.
• Go right.
• Go right and shoot the bottom of the big wall, uncovering MISSILE TANK 3. Hop across the pillars and get ENERGY TANK 1. Keep going right.
• Climb up this room and take the first door on the left above you.
• Go to the top-left door.
• Jump over the gap and run left.
• Get BOMBS and exit right.
• Fall down and go through the left door below.
• Go left, hopping across the acid gaps and ignoring the flying enemies as they should miss you.
• Go left.
• Wall jump up to the higher floor and go left.
• Go left.
• Go left, hopping across gaps as necessary.
• Fall down this shaft and take the door on the bottom-right.
• Grab CHARGE BEAM if you like; it wastes a few seconds but helps a lot in later areas of the game. Go right.
• Take the elevator down to Norfair.

Norfair & Crateria

• Bomb the left floor after the elevator and take the door.
• Navigate this room by traveling left, using pseudo screw attack or missiles to take out pipe enemies and flame enemies in the way. When you reach the wall, crouch and shoot once then shoot a missile (your beam won't clear the block on the other side) and roll through.
• Climb up this room and take the elevator up to Crateria
• Shoot out the wall to the right and go right.
• Jump on the first platform, then walljump to reach the higher one. Climb out of this room.
• Navigate the morph ball tunnels and go right.
• Go right to get UNKNOWN ITEM 1. Clear the activated blocks and get MISSILE TANK 4 on the way out.
• Climb out of the morph ball tunnels and go to the top-left door.
• Fall down the chasm and clear the breakable block on the left. Take the upper morph ball tunnel once you're in the wall.
• Get POWER GRIP and leave the room to the right.
• IBJ up this room to escape before the statue activates the platforms; if you mess up, feel free to walljump up to the top appearing platform but this is a bit slower.
• Travel left through this room, walljumping over higher pillars.
• Run off the ledge and spin right, to the door on the bottom-right corner.
• Either jump over the ripper if it's moving left, or climb the first ledge if it's moving right. Have your beam charged and climb through the top ledge to hit the block without wasting time. Run right and jump over the second ripper.
• Take the elevator down to Norfair.

Main Norfair

• Take the door on the right.
• Travel through this room to the right, the same way you did before, making sure to grab MISSILE TANK 5 with power grip that's on the way in plain sight.
• Go right.
• Go right through this save room.
• Travel through this room right. You don't have speedboost so you can't shinespark through this room easily; use power grip to climb and descend areas of this room appropriately. There is an enemy in the center of the room that spits out projectiles; use a missile to take it out.
• Climb this room and take the first door above to the left.
• Have your beam charged while jumping across the one-square blocks, so you can pseudo-screw attack any enemies in the way.
  • If you fall in the lava, and are near a block, climb on that block; otherwise just run left through the lava until you're at the end and then walljump up.
• Grab ICE BEAM. You generally should refill unless you are nearly full on missiles. Go through the tunnel below, using two missiles before morphing to blow it up, and go left.
• Hop on the first platform, then walljump up the right wall. If a ripper hits you, respin and resume walljumping. If this prove to be too difficult, then feel free to freeze the rippers as normal and climb up.
• Jump across the first pit and walljump up the wall (freeze the enemy if you need it). You'll see a chozo statue blocking the way. Stand on the left edge of its hands, morph, plant a bomb, then inch right so you do a diagonal bomb jump into a gap on top of the statue, skipping the map. For the last lava pit, freeze the lava creatures and jump across.
• Walljump up the first wall and climb through. Shoot the second wall to uncover MISSILE TANK 6 and get it by freezing the ripper in front of it. Go right.
• Be careful here as there are pit blocks on the floor to the right. Shoot a missile into the top-right corner of the wall and either use the ripper to freeze it and go through, or just jump to it and power grip through. Bomb the next wall to uncover a tunnel; after bombing the three blocks, go into the next vertical tunnel, shoot out the block on the top and climb out to the right. Fall down this long vertical tunnel until you reach the bottom. Shoot a missile left while crouched, roll through, grab MISSILE TANK 7 on the way to the door on the left.
• Go left through this save room.
• Go left through this room, using missiles to blow up all the vines in the way. Stop at each vine to get its drop; you need every missile drop you can get from here on out.
• Defeat Imago Cocoon using the ice beam without hi-jump strategy. Go through the uncovered tunnel.
• Take the elevator down to the Ridley area.

Ridley

• Take the right door.
• Shoot a missile at the 2nd block in the ceiling from the left. Shoot your beam up to clear a block above that, then either IBJ up, or lure a bug and freeze it. Bomb the top-right corner of this gap to uncover a long tunnel. Climb through and follow the path to the right door, using missiles or your charge beam to take out or disable enemies.
• Fall off the ledge, then bomb the center of the floor here. Fall through and go to the first left door.
• Navigate this room left carefully, as enemies deal between 20-30 damage. Use charged ice beam or missiles to deal with them and do not shoot the horizontal pillars or else you may fall through.
• Go left, ignoring the missile tank here for now.
• This is the notorious pillar room with MISSILE TANK 8. You can walljump up but it is risky as you do not have screw attack to deal with the orbs. Instead, freeze an orb when it's in front of you and lower, then jump on it and go across to the left door.
• Move left a bit, crouch and shoot six missiles left to kill all the enemies on the floor, then roll to the left so the ceiling ones don't hit you.
• Grab SUPER MISSILE TANK 1 and go back right.
• Go right. If you have health, you can blow up the first enemy with a super as you walk through, then jump and take a hit to get knocked right. Make sure you have one super left.
• Navigate the pillar room to the right the same way you did the first time, taking care not to fall down.
• Bomb the tunnel and get MISSILE TANK 9. Bomb the gap in the left wall and climb up; shoot the one block covering the next tunnel with a super missile, and go right. Bomb the spiral to get SUPER MISSILE TANK 2. Go back left.
• Fall down the pillar room and go left.
• Go left through this save room.
• Go left, using a forward missile to take out the pipe bug. Approach the eyedoor, roll under its beam, then kill it with a super missile.
• Go left through this arena.
• Get UNKNOWN ITEM 2. Get ENERGY TANK 2 behind the activated block on the left, then refill. Go right with your super missiles equipped.
  • This energy tank is not necessary, but it doesn't cost too much time and it helps a lot.
• Defeat Ridley, starting with your four supers. Grab the drops he gives and go right.
• Freeze the pipe bug and jump off of it to reach the top; if it's not in the right place, you may have to IBJ up. Go right.
• Go right through this save room.
• Go right through the bottom of the pillar room.
• Go right until you reach the wall. Shoot the top of it and go over the clutter of enemies.
• Shoot the block on the floor by the ledge in front of you and fall through. Run through this tunnel to get ENERGY TANK 3. Keep going right.
• Climb this room like normal. Walljump off the door to reach the platform above, then just jump and power grip back and forth. Go to the very top past the activated blocks and go to the top-left door.
• Navigate this room to the left. When approaching the owl enemies, just grab the ledge and wait for them to dive, then run left. Missile the single block on the bottom-left corner of the owl hall and bomb the opening to fall through.
• Take the elevator back up to Norfair.

(WIP)