Bomb Jumps

BSJ (Bomb Space Jump)

Discovered by XtraX

After the bomb space jump or BSJ was discovered in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, it was found that it also works (albeit in a more limited way) in Metroid Prime. The difference in Prime is that it is much harder to persuade the camera to give you an instant unmorph, which reduces the usefulness of the trick. Nevertheless, where they are possible, BSJs provide more height than any other type of jump known.

The idea behind a BSJ is to perform some sort of bomb jump such that a piece of scenery moves between Samus and the camera during the jump. This will cause an instant unmorph when X is pressed to unmorph after the jump. Under these conditions, it is possible to perform a full space jump immediately after the instant unmorph, giving you a full space jump's worth of height plus whatever you got from the bomb jump.

As in Echoes, the timing involved in pressing B for the jump after the instant unmorph is critical to making the trick work. It must be pressed immediately after the instant unmorph occurs. Indeed, it is probably impossible to press it too soon after the unmorph. You will almost certainly want to change your grip on the controller so you have one finger on X and another on B. If you are failing consistently to make a BSJ that is known to work, you are probably waiting too long after pressing X to press B.

Not all bomb jumps can be used in this way. The Triple Bomb Jump, UBJ and HBJ and some DBJs are for some reason not compatible with this technique. Single bomb jumps, 3BJs and "2BJs" (a 3BJ minus the last bomb) represent your best bet.

As mentioned, it is trickier in Prime to get the instant unmorph required for this technique to work. One guaranteed method is to roll through a door, keeping the camera behind you in the doorway, and bomb jump from this position.

Examples of the BSJ include Secret Worlds: North Quarantine Tunnel and Secret Worlds: Landing Site.

3BJ (3 Bomb Jump)

This trick gives you more height than a double bomb jump, but not as much as a well executed triple bomb jump. Like all of the advanced bomb jumps, you start by wasting a bomb. Before the bomb counter is refilled, lay a second bomb. The counter should refill before this bomb hits you. As it hits you, quickly lay three bombs as you ascend. The timing is tricky because if you wait too long to lay the bombs the first one will be too high, and if you lay them too slowly you won't hit the second or third and it'll just be a double bomb jump. If the trick is performed correctly, however, you will hit all three bombs as you ascend again and gain extra height.

TBJ (Triple Bomb Jump)

Discovered by Banks

Triple Bomb Jumping is a technique used to achieve greater height than Double Bomb Jumping allows. In a Banks Triple Bomb Jump, the first bomb is "burned" or wasted in order to shorten the Bomb Stock refresh time. This shortened refresh time gives you two extra bombs to work with.

Here's how it's done:

• 1st bomb: With a full stock, put down a bomb and let it blast you into the air.
• 2nd bomb: As soon as you land, put down your second bomb.
• 3rd bomb: Right before the second bomb explodes, put down your third bomb as if you were doing a Double Bomb Jump. The bomb has to be placed before your stock refills or you won't have enough bombs to complete the Triple Bomb Jump.
• 4th bomb: After the second bomb explodes, put this one at the peak of your jump.
• 5th bomb: After the third bomb explodes, put this one just below the fourth bomb. Make sure you put it down while you're still ascending, not at the peak of the jump or on the way down.
• 6th bomb: After the fourth bomb explodes and knocks you up further, place the last bomb near the peak of your jump while you're still ascending; do it about 80% of the way up. If the timing of everything was correct, you will fall down into bomb 5 after placing bomb 6, which explodes and propels you to bomb 6, which explodes and gives you almost double the height of a double bomb jump. The timing of bomb 5 and 6 is tricky, so it's not unusual to have problems getting bomb 5 to hit you, and to problems with bomb 6 hitting you after bomb 5 does.

Pressing against a wall will allow you to delay the placement of the final two Bombs, resulting in even greater height.

Morphing out at the height of the Bomb Jump will give you a final height boost.

Examples of Triple Bomb Jumping include getting across Magma Pool without the Grapple Beam and Gravity Suit and Bomb Jumping over the Arboretum Runic Gate.

HBJ/UBJ (H/U Bomb Jump)

Discovered by Corollax, Ekarderif

The highest currently known bomb jumps in Metroid Prime are the HBJ family of jumps, comprising the HBJ and the UBJ. As with the Triple Bomb Jump, it is necessary to waste or "burn" one bomb before starting the jump, which forces the bomb counter to reset half way through the procedure. This trick enables five bombs to be used in a row.

As for the Triple Bomb Jump, both these jumps' heights may be extended by performing them against a wall to slow the descent of the morph ball, and delaying the bomb timing accordingly. Against a wall, the HBJ provides more height. Without a wall, the UBJ plus unmorph provides more height.

Here's how the HBJ is done. In simple terms, bombs two to six are laid an equal amount of time apart in a steady rhythm. Each bomb carries you upwards and you then fall a short distance onto the following bomb, which sends you up higher, giving a sort of ladder effect.

• 1st bomb: With a full stock, put down a bomb and let it blast you into the air.
• 2nd bomb: After the first bomb has finished exploding and the bomb explosion graphics have completely disappeared, lay the second bomb where you sit. The delay between bomb one and bomb two is the same as for a 3BJ (i.e. wait slightly longer than you would for the Triple Bomb Jump).
• 3rd bomb: Before bomb two explodes, you need to lay bomb three on top of bomb two. It is worth practising for a while with just these three bombs, as the delay between bombs two and three is the same for the delay between all the rest of the bombs you will lay.
• 4th bomb: By now, you should be airborne from the detonation of bomb two. Bomb four should be laid on the way up from this explosion.
• 5th bomb: You will begin coming down from bomb two and, if you've timed it correctly, you will be popped up by bomb three before reaching the ground. Bomb five should be laid on the way up from the explosion of bomb three.
• 6th bomb: You will begin coming down from bomb three and, if you've timed it correctly, you will be popped up further by bomb four. Bomb six should be laid on the way up from the explosion of bomb four.

After laying all six bombs, you will fall from the bomb four explosion onto bomb five, and then fall from the bomb five explosion onto bomb six, completing the jump.

The UBJ works similarly, but bomb six is timed and placed differently, effectively giving you a mid-air DBJ. Steps one to five are the same as for the UBJ. Immediately after bomb three explodes, you need to lay bombs five and six on the way up from this explosion - the first in the middle of the bomb three jump (as for the HBJ) and the last at the peak of it. You will then fall into bomb four which will pop you up. On the way down from this you will fall into the DBJ formed by bombs five and six, completing the jump. An unmorph at the peak, as with all bomb jumps, will give you a touch of extra height.

Examples of the HBJ/UBJ include Secret Worlds: Observatory and Secret Worlds: Control Tower.

Jumping Tricks

Dash Jump

Discovered by Varsis Erion, TreborSelbon

Dash jumping is a technique that gets extreme distance, much more than any space jump is capable of. There isn't much height gained, but when something is very far away and not much higher than your starting point, this is usually the perfect thing to use.

The dash jump is actually derived from an intended move in the game, the regular dash where you press B while strafing to the side and locked on something. The difference comes in releasing L just after pressing B to remove the lock on; doing this causes Samus to fly off to the side at a high speed. Using your second jump makes her go even further and adds a respectable amount of height to the jump.

To explain it in full: first lock on something with L. When ready to dash, move left or right and press B, then let go of everything as fast as you can after pressing B. Never hold B or L; holding B makes you rapidly lose height until you hit the ground, and still holding L after you've started the jump won't let you dash jump in the first place. There are also very few situations where you'll want to actually hold left or right, so let go of the stick when you press B. These are all common mistakes to make when starting to learn dash jumps.

Dash jumps can be done with any visor. Valid targets are anything you can lock on: enemies, stalactites, grapple points (when you have the grapple beam and are close enough to attach to one), and so on. When using the scan visor, you can also dash from any scan point, but there is one thing to know about this. If the target is in scanning range and it's been previously scanned to completion, holding L for too long will cause the screen to freeze so you can read about the target. To be able to dash, you need to be fast enough that you release L before the screen freezes. This doesn't apply to objects that are considered out of scanning range, yet still close enough to be locked on.

Additional info:

• Scan dashes do not work in any version of the game but the original North American release.
• The height gained from a dash jump depends on whether you have space jump and use the second jump in the dash. The first jump gets very little height (almost nothing), while the second is more like a dash and a jump at the same time. Due to this, it's possible to dash to places higher than your starting point, as long as you use the second jump. A great example of this is the Observatory dash.
• If you need to move forward or backward in the middle of a dash jump, hold the stick up or down to slowly go in that direction. This is known as "bending" the dash. Some dashes are much harder (or can't be made at all) without bending. Two great examples are Geothermal Core and the Thardus dash. Bending a dash forward or backward doesn't reduce distance, so don't hesitate to do so if it'll help you avoid bumping into something. Turning left or right does, however.
• If you don't have space jump and need to test how high your destination is, fire at it with power beam shots. If they hit the ledge, it's higher than you are, and so you probably wouldn't make the dash.
• A dash jump can be stopped early by pressing or holding L. It reduces Samus' momentum at a very fast rate until she stops, and is very useful when you don't want to go too far.

Examples of Dash Jumping include getting the Space Jump without the Boost Ball, getting the Frost Cave Missile Expansion without needing the Grapple Beam, getting through Metroid Quarantine A without the Spider Ball and negating the Thermal Visor Glitch.

Ghetto Jump

Discovered by Paratroopa

Ghetto jumping is a pure height technique, done by L jumping against a specific nearby object to go quite a bit higher than regular jumps allow. The objects in question are different in every room, but it's often a wall, uneven ground, or something on the ground you can press against.

To do a ghetto jump, stand against an object and do an L jump in the direction of it. Either let go of the stick immediately after pressing B, or move away very slightly (until you're no longer against the object), depending on the situation. The reason for this is that most objects have a certain point in height where you can no longer be pressing against them; otherwise your jump will either be stopped, or you'll just be dragged back down. Being dragged down is especially common with underwater ghetto jumps.

In some cases, it's fine to stay pressed against an object, and sometimes this even increases height. It really just depends on what you're using for the ghetto jump, as everything affects your jump differently.

Ghetto jumps can be used underwater, and are even better without the gravity suit, as strange as that is. A great example of a regular ghetto jump is climbing the top of Frigate Crash Site. For an underwater jump, check out getting the artifact of lifegiver without the gravity suit.

Additional info:

• In some places, it's possible to do a sort of running ghetto jump. Start next to (but not touching) an object, then walk forward and L jump as you touch it, making sure to do so before you come to a stop.

Examples of Ghetto Jumping include getting the Artifact of Lifegiver without the Gravity Suit, collecting the Plasma Beam without needing the Spider Ball and passing Fungal Hall B without the Grapple Beam.

L Jump

Discovered by kip, CAL Foolio

L jumps are merely a standard jump with an added button press. Tap L just before, as, or after pressing B to jump. The timing isn't precise at all, so it's not very hard to learn. Samus should jump forward quite a distance, about twice as far as a standard jump. Once you're comfortable with them, L jumps should basically replace standard jumps. If doing a space jump of some kind, an L jump is also a great starter.

Additional info:

• L jumps only seem to give a boost on the first jump, not the second. However, doing a second L jump doesn't hurt the jump in any way, so feel free to do two.
• There's no need to press L all the way that it clicks (only do that to lock on), just enough that the targeting crosshair appears in the middle of the screen. This may save you some finger fatigue.

L-Lock Spring Space Jump

Discovered by DEVILBIT

L-Lock Spring Space Jumping is a technique used to achieve distances greater than regular Space Jumping but shorter than Dash Jumping.

To execute an L-Lock Spring Space Jump, lock your view down by holding R and pressing up (or down) on your Analog Stick until Samus is looking at the floor. Simultaneously release R and the Analog Stick and hold down L. You should have your view locked looking at the ground. Now jump forward and release the lock. Samus's jump is given an additional height bonus as well as a momentum bonus.

Different situations call for variations of the L-Lock Spring Space Jump. Try varying the amount of time before you release the L-Lock, or try releasing the L-Lock after you Space Jump, instead of after the first Jump. You can also opt to simply tap L as you leave the ground instead of locking your view down.

Turning while in midair can also help you to land on your target successfully. Samus's feet are toward the back of the space she occupies (the bounding box), so if you turn sideways in midair before landing, part of the back of the bounding box will be the furthest forward relative to your starting point.

Examples of L-Lock Spring Space Jumping include skipping the Hive Mecha battle, escaping Life Grove without fighting the Chozo Ghosts and negating the Thermal Visor Glitch.

Secret World Tricks

Wallcrawl

Wallcrawling is the general term for moving about in secret worlds. There are some general guidelines to follow.

• In general, the outsides of walls are sticky, except for edges between polygons, and platforms that extend beyond the walls of the room. For maximum speed, you must avoid contacting the sticky surfaces, and instead focus on jumping on the 'standable' surfaces. If you do land on a sticky surface, you can use bomb jumps to maneuver around and (hopefully) find somewhere to stand. Likewise, if a wall is moderately vertical, you can use a series of bomb jumps to climb up.
• Moving between rooms must also be done carefully. First of all, the only way to load an adjacent room is by interacting with the door to that room. Secondly, you must make sure to manually move the map along with you as you traverse through rooms. Loading adjacent rooms consists of the following steps (though in many cases not all are necessary).
  • In some rooms, simply strafing along the top of the door will fully load it and move the map over. In these cases, just jump on the door, moving as far toward the side facing the current room as possible. As you move along the door away from the room, it should load. Keep in mind that if the room in question is large, you may have to wait some time before strafing to give it time to load. If for some reason strafing across the door is not possible, you will have to jump across at the sides or bottom and hope for the best.
  • Rooms that do not automatically load have an extra step, manually loading it. Sometimes, this is very easy. While standing on top of the door, shoot it to grey it out. Then jump out slightly to the side of the door, and use your second jump to land back on it. If the door returns to its original color, then the room was loaded successfully. Simply strafe across the door as in the previous step to load the next room.
  • Sometimes, however, doing this will freeze the game. In these cases, you must also make sure to manually dump the previous room. Metroid Prime can only have two rooms fully loaded at a time, and if you attempt to do more, the game will freeze. Consider three rooms: A, B, and C. In this situation, we started in room A and wallcrawled over to room B without a problem. However, when trying to load room C, the game froze. In order to successful load C, we must manually dump A. This has two varieties.
    • Sometimes it is enough to return room A to a secretized state (where the room's collision detection is loaded, but textures are not). You can do this when you transition from A to B. After you have fully loaded B and also moved the map to B, stand on the B side of the door frame. You'll want to do the same methodology as manually loading a room: shoot the door, jump to the side, and jump back. If successful, room A will disappear. Hopefully, now when you try to load C the game won't freeze. If you are unsure of the exact requirements for a particular room and don't care too much about speed, it may help you out to do all three of the above steps when wallcrawling.
    • In the most extreme situations, however, even that isn't enough. If loading C still freezes after secretizing A, then you must manually dump A completely. How to do this differs in each room, but the general process is the same. When inside a room, each door has its own non-overlapping loading zone. When in a door's loading zone, that corresponding room is loading/loaded, while all others are dumped from memory. You can approximate these zones when inside a room by shooting a door and seeing how far away you can get before it reverts to its normal color. While in a secret world, these zones are typically bypassed, and so you are trying to load a room without ever moving to that door's loading zone. Thus, in some cases you must manually switch zones yourself. In most cases, the loading zones only extend beyond the room boundaries at very precise locations. The goal, however, is to touch the loading zone and completely dump room A (you can confirm this by shooting in A's direction and not hitting anything). This simultaneously secretizes room C, so you can confirm when you've hit it. Once that is complete, you can transition the room as normal.

Aether Jump

Door Warp

• Door warping is a method of re-entering a room from a secret world state. However, it does not work on all rooms (namely, those that load too quickly). There are two slightly different procedures depending on how the room in question loads.
• If the room automatically loads by moving near the door, then this trick is slightly more difficult. Start in an adjacent room, making sure that the room you want to enter is fully unloaded (if you shoot at it, you should not hit anything). The goal is to quickly move beyond the door into the next room, and have it load in a secretized state around you. If successful, simply shoot and maneuver back over to the door to cause the map to transition rooms into the one you have just entered.
• If the room does not load automatically, then you can move at your own leisure. Position yourself where, when the room does load, you will be inside it. Then simply shoot the door (making sure to enter its loading zone), and wait for the room to appear. Make sure not to get too close to the door though, or you may enter the boundaries of the previous room and fall down. Finally, once the room loads, touch the door and back away to transition the map over.

Wrong-Room Unmorph

• This is another method of entering rooms from a secret world state, and is much more durable than door warping. First, fully load the room you want to enter. Then, you will want to transition the map back to the room you were originally in. This can generally by done by carefully strafing back across the doors from the room you want to enter to the original room.
• Once the map if back on the original room, you must maneuver over to a spot on the adjacent room that is irregularly shaped (ie: If a wall is perfectly horizontal or vertical, this trick will not work. Try to find something curved or jagged ). Once you lodge yourself into the surface of your choice, morphing and then unmorphing should send you into the room. However, you will still have to manually transition the map by moving back to the door or starting a cutscene.
• Note: When wallcrawling in rooms that the map is not currently on, it is very easy to get permanently stuck. Stay away from vertical or near-vertical surfaces whenever possible, and try to morph only when you are ready to perform the trick. If you do happen to get stuck in a wall, you will have to reset.

Other Tricks

Rapid Fire Missiles

Switch to the Power Beam to fire Missiles much faster than you would normally. If you press A on the controller after firing a Missile with the Power Beam active, you can close the Missile Launcher and fire another Missile almost immediately. Repeat this to quickly dish out huge amounts of damage.

Tzyr adds: Take your thumb and point it roughly so that your nail is 90 degrees to the buttons. Now with just your nail, you are just flicking Y really fast. You will hit the part of the controller between Y and A, but because your thumb is fat enough, it will slightly hit A, which is all you need to reset the gun. So the faster you do it, the faster you will fire, but know you can only have 3 missiles in the air at once, so the closer you are to the target, the better.

Alternatively, you can simply switch to the Power Beam, then hold up on the C-Stick to rapid fire Missiles.

Examples of Rapid Fire Missiles include quickly killing Meta Ridley's ground form.

IS (Infinite Speed Glitch) / Flickerball