This guide is in a draft state and may not be complete.
Only accessible on v2.1.0 or higher, the Boss Rush minigame allows the player to challenge themselves to defeat 12 main game bosses. The bosses that are included were specifically selected by the developers.
Boss Rush has three modes:
Survival Rush is covered in a separate guide. The remainder of this guide will concern only the Normal Rush and Dread Rush modes.
Both Normal Rush and Dread Rush modes end when you defeat Raven Beak. Normal Rush will not refill health between bosses; it instead scales up the health that you end with to the new energy tank capacity that Samus has at the start of the next boss. (This health scale up is not well documented at the moment.)
We use the In Game Timer (IGT) to time runs as it seems accurate. The timers pause whenever a boss has died or when their final counter animation plays (in the case of Elite Chozo and Raven Beak). Dying in either mode will add 15 seconds to the IGT, so staying alive is preferable.
For information on what a Boss Rush run needs to be accepted to the leaderboards, see the Ruleset Reference.
These guides will go over various strategies for each of the bosses and will be labeled as to how difficult the strategies are, how much time they save, and what mode they are best used for.
Note: Bomuhey skew will not be covered in this guide, as its uses are currently not documented well enough in these modes.
Corpius is heavily luck-based to get a fast time on. Normally, he has three phases, but he can be defeated without starting the third phase. Missile spamming his head is the main strategy here, but Corpius constantly moves his head into up, middle, and down positions randomly to avoid incoming missiles, so constant aiming is required. The beginning of the fight will always start with his head on the ground, so aim there first.
The attacks are the exact same in the second phase, except he won't spit anymore. You only have 29 missiles for this fight. 12 missiles are needed to defeat his first phase (which replenishes 20 missiles) and 26 missiles are needed to deplete the remainder of his health in the second phase.
In the second phase, Corpius turns invisible. As such, it is far more likely you will miss your shots and run out of missiles near the end. If this happens (it will most likely happen a lot), make up for it using quick charged shots as they deal roughly the same damage a missile does. Unfortunately, doing this is slower and will end up costing you time. To get the best possible time you will want to defeat him before running out of missiles, but you can only miss a total of three missiles to achieve that.
You do not want to be hit by Corpius at any moment because he will send you flying and ruin your missile timing. If you are hit by his tail stab, there is a chance he can completely lock you out from dealing damage.
Headlock is a glitch that occurs when you interrupt some of Corpius' attacks in a specific frame window by triggering his second phase. Corpius's head will remain in the down position until the end of the fight, making missile spam far more reliable.
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This frame window is extremely small for the tail swipe and tail stab, but generous for the spit attack. You can either wait for Corpius to spit and guarantee the Headlock every fight at the cost of time due to luck, or you can spam missiles and hope he does the spit attack when you want it, ideally after one or two tail swipes. It is up to you, since this is the first fight and you can easily reset. It is worth to note that while Headlock makes Corpius easier, it is not as fast as landing 26 missiles without Headlock. This difference is only one or two seconds.
There is no real difference between Normal Rush and Dread Rush for Corpius, so they use the same strategies.
The Kraid fight is divided into two phases.
Kraid begins the fight chained up in restraints and is unable to attack you directly, so standing still while spamming missiles is perfectly safe for about five seconds. While Kraid is struggling in his chains before actually attacking, damage dealt to him will be halfed so dealing as much possible damage during this time is not necessary to get a fast time. Once he begins attacking he will switch between two types of attacks: throwing his nails and spitting out fire along with small chunks of his stomach contents. If he throws the nails, a single missile (or two to three beam shots) will destroy them.
You will want to either be shooting missiles constantly into Kraid's mouth or doing charlies. (Charlie shooting is the faster method, but it is harder to do.) When Kraid closes his mouth, shooting a missile or charge beam at it will open it right back up. If Kraid begins with the nail attack, attempt to jump over them as they are thrown so you do not get hit and allow for more damage dealt to Kraid himself.
In the very beginning of the fight, you will be able to shoot a missile as soon as the screen fades in. If you aim slightly downwards when you shoot it, you should be able to get the missile to deal damage to Kraid. This is largely unimportant to do, but it is noteworthy.
In phase two, you are on the ground at Kraid's feet. Since you can only deal damage by getting charge shots or missiles in Kraid's mouth, you will need to find some way to get close enough to it to do damage. Luckily, there is a magnet rail you can use.
Kraid's bottom half can shoot out three kinds of projectiles:
There are several ways you can get to the magnet wall and end this part of phase two:
Once you are on the magnet, you can start damaging Kraid.
Make sure not to get hit at any point. Taking any hit will detach you from the magnet wall, causing you to fall to the bottom of the arena.
Kraid will do three types of attacks during this part of the phase:
You should be able to defeat Kraid before seeing three of these attacks, but sometimes luck will not be in your favor and may force you into a longer than normal phase two. Usually getting two Mega punches will let you kill Kraid the fastest while getting the hand swipe will lose you time every time it happens.
If you are hit right before defeating Kraid, instead of climbing back up, do a wall jump and then charlie towards his mouth. Do this multiple times and you will be able to do enough damage to end the fight without needing to climb.
The strategies used in Dread Rush are the same as in Normal Rush, but are more dangerous.
Start the fight by constantly firing missiles into it. When you have dealt enough damage, the central unit's shield will come off. You can not deal damage during this transition, so take time to position yourself directly under it. This is a boss where learning to efficiently fire missiles becomes really important.
The rings and beam shots from the central unit are always targeting your location. One missile or one charge shot will destroy a ring.
Shooting missiles only will get you around 11-12 seconds for the fight. If you do missile weaving during phase 2, you can get 10 seconds.
Same method as Normal Mode. Use the transition time to clear the area of projectiles and position yourself properly. Jump to bait out a laser beam from the top turret to make it easier to dodge once the central unit's shield comes off.
Start the fight by constantly firing missiles into the tentacle right above Drogyga. Be careful aiming as the tentacle is more difficult to shoot at than you might assume at first. As you are firing missiles, Drogyga will do one of two attacks: 2 tentacle swipes or 3 fireballs. If he does the tentacle swipes, all you need to do is jump as they swipe across the floor beneath you. The second swipe is harder to dodge as the jump timing is different, but if your missile firing is good enough the attack will stop before the second tentacle swipes. If 3 fireballs come out, there will be 2 blue ones that can be destroyed and 1 red one which can not be destroyed. They will all slowly fall down. The red one will take a path down depending on your position, so keep that in mind. The blue ones will most likely get in the way of your missiles and will take about 2 of them to destroy. Once enough damage has been done to the tentacle, it will retract and Drogyga will slump over. Immediately fire a quick charge shot at the button on your left and then grapple up to the magnet. The water will start to drain as you are doing this. Once you are on the magnet, begin charging a beam shot. There are two methods to get to the right of Drogyga while activating the button on the right with a charge shot:
Once the water is drained, the magnet you are on will start moving to the right. Flash shift once to make it over Drogyga, press B to put Samus into a spin, and fire the charge shot at the button. Under normal circumstances, the button should turn red, but sometimes, even when the charge shot is seen hitting the button, it will not turn red. We have no idea what causes this since sometimes it works and sometimes it does not, so if this happens you will need to do another quick charge at the button to activate it. This method is considered unreliable to some, and it is unknown if this method saves time or not. If you want a more reliable strategy for this, check the Riding the magnet tab.
Instead of flash shifting, charge the beam shot and ride the magnet. When you are about halfway across Drogyga, aim 45 degrees (this is just an estimate) downwards and shoot a charge shot. This should work as long as it is not too early.
Once you have activated both buttons, the water will fully drain. Drogyga will be exposed soon after it fully drains.
Right before countering the tentacle, you can stand far away from the weak and aim right above it to fire 1-2 missiles right before hitting the counter button. This will allow you to hit Drogyga up to 2 times before the counter sequence begins. We are unsure if this saves time or not yet.
This is a recently discovered trick that allows you to kill Drogyga nearly 20 seconds early. Everything is the same strategy as normal, but when you first go to damage Drogyga, get very close and shoot a full charge beam plus 5 missiles. Once you do that, take damage by sliding into Drogyga and fire as many missiles at Drogyga's weak point as possible. You will need to fire and land 4 missiles before he does his counter move. If done correctly, you will defeat Drogyga before he closes up, saving a full 20 seconds of time.
Same strategies as normal mode, however, the tentacle charge attack is far more dangerous. After shooting the tentacle for a while, jump and grapple the magnet celling to avoid the tentacle dash attack for safety. You lose only about 1 second of time doing this.
This fight is heavily random and is also based on your movement. In the end, it is up to you to decide what is best.
Begin the fight by spamming missiles. The robot will do one of two moves: shoot 3 beam shots of varying speeds or move closer to you. Keep shooting him properly if he moves closer. If he shoots beam shots, slide under them onto the lower platform while still shooting, and then prepare to dodge a third shot depending on his speed.
When he gets closer to you, he will do one of 4 attacks: a charged beam shot, beam shots, his counter move, or the red dash. If he does the red dash or the beam shots, make sure that you slide into him before getting hit by the main attack as you will take less damage this way while also not being affected by recoil as much. You will be able to constantly keep firing missiles during this. If he does a counter move, do not take the counter as that will waste time, instead either jump over it if possible or slide into him as soon as you see him charge it up. This can be an incredibly fast move, so it can be difficult at times to dodge it. When he does a charged beam shot, just jump over the shot while still firing missiles. If you slide under the shot, he will immediately do a counter move. Either take the counter (not recommended) or just jump right after sliding under it. If you did not take any counters, your missile count will be near 80 missiles when he is dead.
Because of the robot's randomized movement, this is one of the harder bosses to do hitless. The normal strategy uses damage boosting, so the dread strategy will be very different this time. When he does a beam shot, make sure you are far away enough so that you can easily dodge them no matter the timing. There is a more advance trick of sliding under the shots and jumping out in between the shots to keep firing missiles, but this is dangerous and requires a lot of risk for little gain. If he is close and does the fastest beam attack, you can slide under it safely, but if he is too close, press the counter button to bounce off without taking damage. If he does the red dash, jump immediately and flash shift past him. Reacting too slow means you will get hit. Make sure you are ready for his counter move as that can easily catch you off gaurd. Either take the counter or jump over him. A flash shift after the jump is not necessary, but it does put distance between you and him. This fight will most likely be different every time you attempt it.
This is another boss that is heavily luck based.
Escue's fight will always begin the same way, there will be a small period of waiting and then Escue will fly into the room exposed. There are three methods of dealing damage before Escue puts on an electric shield:
Escue will put up an electric shield soon after coming in, so you only have to focus on dodging attacks for now. His first attack will always be a shadow orb that will fire at you. If this attack hits the ground, it will electrocute the entire ground, wasting some time. Instead, jump right before it is fired so that it hits a wall and cancels faster.
After the first attack, Escue will do one of three attacks: The shadow orb, storm missiles, or the charge tackle. Storm missiles are somewhat tricky to dodge, but you should have no real problems with it since getting hit in this fight is not a big deal. You will be waiting for Escue to do the charge tackle as that exposes him and lets you deal damage. Make sure to keep a charge shot at the ready and when he does the tackle, flash shift back and release the charge shot. You will then follow up by constantly firing missiles at him. If you are a beginner, it will most likely take 2 cycles before Escue turns into the Core X.
In order to deal with that, do Charlies against it three times. There will be invulnerable moments between these shots, usually the Core X will flash 10 times before you can attack again. If you land the Charlies properly, the Core X will turn into a smaller X parasite that will travel to the center of the room for you to absorb. The timer only stops once you have collected the X parasite and complete the battle, so try and defeat the Core X while it is in the center of the room to minimize the time loss. Here are a few methods to lower the time:
It is possible to kill Escue after the first time he does the charge tackle. When you flash shift back, release the charge shot and then start movong towards Escue while firing missiles at him. The aiming is somewhat precise, but after practice it will become easier to do. Once Escue reaches the other wall, he will stop and do an attack, either the shadow ball or the storm missiles. Make sure to keep firing missiles at all times. If he does the shadow ball, the preferable option, let it hit the floor and just jump over the electricity. He will then follow up with the storm missile attack, which is difficult to fire missiles through. If enough of your missiles make it through, however, Escue will transform into the Core X before putting his shield on again.
If Escue the storm missiles first, it will become much harder to do a one cycle against him as he puts on his shield faster. It is still possible to do, however, but it is difficult.
When Escue changes from his normal form to the Core X, there is a small transition animation that happens. During this very small period, it is possible to hit it twice without it turning invulnerable. With good positioning and fast inputs, it is possible to hit the Core X with two charlies before it becomes invulnerable, letting you essentially two cycle the Core X and save around 3 seconds in the total fight. This is always something you should go for, even though it is difficult there is no risk attempting it.
Escue's attacks can be very difficult to dodge in dread mode.
The hardest attack to deal with is the storm missiles. There are various ways to dodge them, but sometimes you can just get unlucky and take a hit. It is recommended that you practice your own method of dodging them consistently.
One cycle Escue is much harder in dread mode and requires that Escue does the shadow ball attack first after becoming vulnerable since you will be wasting time dodging the storm missile attack. You might just have to settle with killing Escue in the second cycle.
As soon as the fight begins, aim up and shoot two missiles at Z-57. He will either attack you with his arm swipe or use his laser attack to sweep across the ground. The arm swipe is easy to dodge, but he is invulnerable during the move, so you lose time anytime he does it, about 5 seconds each time. He will only do it a maximum of 2 times. The best case scenario is Z-57 starting with his laser attack and sweeping the floor. Keep firing missiles at him while avoiding damage as much as possible, although you can tank some damage. If you fire enough missiles at him, you should see him transition to phase 2. The best cycle is Z-57 doing the laser sweep attack 3 times so that you lose no time to his arm swipes.
In the transition to the phase 2, Z-57 will place 4 of his arms onto the walls randomly. Charge up storm missiles before he does this, wait a bit of time after the arms latch onto the wall, then quickly swipe to target all of them with storm missile locks, and then shoot them to destroy them all and go into the third phase.
Z-57 will the do the flappy bird attack, giving you many blasts to jump through. These attacks are not randomized and will give you the same pattern every time you do the fight. Space jump through most of them to, and when you jump over the attack with 2 of the blasts stacked on each other, start charging speedbooster. You will need to keep the speed booster through the next few attacks which are easy to avoid. Get closer to Z-57, charge the shinespark, wait for his head to come back into the room, then jump and shinespark into him for the kill. Do not shinespark too early as this could lead to you missing him completely.
Instead of using just missiles during the first phase, attack him with Charlies. If done properly, you can bring Z-57 to phase 2 before he finishes a second laser attack. There is a variation to Charlies called Space Jump Charlies, however these are not necessary for this fight.
Mostly the same, only real difference is to jump and flash carefully to a safe section of the floor when Z-57 is doing the ground laser attack.
You can also attempt to do space jump charlies so that you do not need to worry about the floor at all, but this strategy is extremely dangerous as failing it leads to death.
You will need a lot of health for this fight, so make sure not to lose much during the Z-57 fight. These guys have the same exact attacks as the single robot boss. Start the fight by charging storm missiles immediately. The two robots will appear from the background, so when they do, jump and put two locks on the upper robot and three locks on the lower robot. Once you fire the missiles there are three routes you can choose.
After firing the first storm missile, mash as much as you can and then jump and flash shift to the top platform while charging a second storm missile shot. At this point, you will need to balance putting storm locks on the robots while dodging attacks. While putting locks on the left robot, run towards it. Interestingly, this will force the robot only do the counter attack. Fire the storm missiles and jump over the counter attack. Keep up with either mashing beam or shooting storm missiles at the two robots until they are defeated. There are many ways this fight can go, so you will need to improvise on the spot as their attacks are difficult to dodge.
Golzuna will always move towards you to do his claw attack first. Right at the begining, start charging storm missiles and dodge the attack by sliding under him. Fire the missiles once you get a full 5 storm locks and then spam missiles. Golzuna will then either turn around towards you or move backwards and do cross bomb attacks. If he turns around, space jump and flash shift to his other side to continue attacking him. When dodging the cross bomb attacks, you are likely low on health after the Twin Robot fight, so damage boosting is not the best option as Golzuna deals a lot of damage. If he covers the entire area while the balls, fire as many missiles as you think you can get away with and then quickly jump over to the other side to avoid damage. If he makes a rectangle with the balls, carefully space jump in the area not covered by them to avoid damage. It is also possible to nuetral jump over them, but that is damgerous. If the balls start targeting your location, the first ball will take a while before it is activated compared to the other ones. Get the timing down, jump, and move away right before activation so the ball activates harmlessly above your head. The next few ones will activate faster, so makes sure you are ready for that.
When it enters the Core X form, charge storm missiles. Put three locks and fire them to kill it. You can also put two storm locks on it and screw attack into it after firing the missile to end the kill it. Be careful to time your screw attack to avoid taking contact damage as it is somewhat difficult to time.
There are much faster methods to defeating Golzuna using shinesparks, however they are quite difficult to pull off.
(This version of Double Spark requires that Golzuna does not turn around while you are charging the speedbooster) After avoiding his first claw attack, dash into the small space between his legs and start a turnaround speedboost. If done correctly, you will get a speedboost right on the edge of the left wall, and once you have it, do an instantspark and release it on Golzuna. Goldzuna will turn around during this recoil, so flash towards him once and run into his claws to get i-frames for another turnaround speedboost. It is somewhat difficult to get the second speedboost, but practicing it will make it easier. When you get the speedboost this time, keep the shinespark stored and get to Golzuna's weak point to unleash it proper. You can also jump right after getting the speedbooster and wall jump then space jump to land on the other side of Golzuna to do an instaspark, but this relies somewhat on luck to pull off. If you have been charging storm missiles the entire time, you will be able to instantly lock onto the Core X without waiting.
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(This version of the Double spark assumes that Golzuna does turn around while you are charging the speedbooster) Once you get the speedbooster, store it instead of doing an instaspark. Wait for Golzuna to come to you and do another claw attack, morph, roll under his weak point and morph spark up. This will force Golzuna against the wall and allow you to do a turn around speedboost and get another shinespark in. This makes you lose about 5-7 seconds compared to the regular double spark. You will have enough time to know if Golzuna turns around or not to determine which version of the double spark to do.
Dodging the cross bomb attacks are already detailed in normal mode, but it is important to know that the corss bombs have a bigger hitbox than you might assume at first.
The normal mode double spark cannot be done as it requires a hit, but there is a version meant for dread mode.
This method is very hard as it deals with hitboxes that seems to change and requires careful movement. You need to start out the fight by jumping over Golzuna as he does the claw attacks, it is recommended to continously space jump into the corner and then flash shift once to the left. Position yourself somewhat close to Golzuna's weak point. When Golzuna lunges forward, dash inbetween his legs and start a turn around speedbooster. The hitboxes between his legs are very hard to understand where they are and Samus's movement make this trick difficult to pull off without getting hit. If you do it successfully, and if Golzuna does not turn around, you can instaspark into Golzuna. Golzuna will be forced into the right wall, but if you were fast enough, Golzuna will not turn around during this recoil, allowing you to do another turn around speedbooster without taking any damage. After this, it is the same as the regular method.
Same as Normal Mode as you do not need to be hit to do it.
Mashing beam shots and Missile Weaving in this fight have no real differences in terms of damage, so we will reference the mashing method only.
Start the fight by firing two missiles and then charging storm missiles once the Chozo brings out his shield. He will do either a lunge attack with his spear or he will jump onto a wall and then lunge downwards to your position. He deals a lot of damage so make sure to avoid them properly. Fire your storm missiles as soon as his shield goes away and then fire regular missiles until his shield comes back after his attack. This will happen a total of 3 times before he enters his second phase.
The Chozo will not take any damage when he begins transitioning into phase 2, so make sure to charge storm missiles. Fire regular missiles as much as possible until you need to dodge. If you need to dodge at anytime and use flash shift, start charging storm missles instead to make up for not firing missiles.
He has 3 attacks during this phase, a spear lunge attack that covers more area than in phase one, jumping onto the wall and shooting sludge towards you, or jumping from the wall and either lunging downwards towards you or in the middle of the room. When he does the sludge attack, slide towards him to avoid damage and keep firing missiles. The fight will end when you are put into a counter animation.
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Instead of just firing storm and regular missiles, mash beam shots whenever the Chozo is vulnerable. If done correctly, you can start phase 2 after two cycles. It is somewhat hard to pull off.
If you are comfortable with mashing, you can shave off a lot of time in phase 2. Always start with storm missiles when the transition happens, but then start mashing beam as fast as possible. You can either take damage when the Chozo lunges towards you, or you can just jump over him and continue mashing on his other side. When he goes onto the wall, start mashing with only one finger and aim at him to end the fight.
Essentially the same as the normal mode, just make sure to not damage boost.
With only missiles, this fight is the exact same as the Artaria Central Unit fight, however, in the second phase, you can use your screw attack to instantly end the fight.
The room is just barely big enough to charge your speedbooster and store a shinespark. One shinespark is enough to bring the Central Unit into phase 2.
Same method as Normal Mode. You will need to be more careful if doing the shinespark since some of the turret shots could kill you after you expose the Central Unit.
The beginning of the fight starts with Raven Beak with a damage absorbing shield. Doing damage to this shield is not enough to bring Raven Beak into phase 2, he will only take damage during his counter animations. Raven Beak will do one of his three attacks to start off: The laser field attack, claw attack, or his shadow ball attack. His laser field attacks requiers that you need to get close to avoid taking damage, just know he will immediatley follow up with his claw attack. It is rare that he starts with his shadow ball attack, but it only takes 4 missiles to detroy it. You can easily jump over his claw attack.
You should begin the fight by firing missiles and placing cross bombs near Raven Beak. In phase 1, cross bombs do heavy damage against his shield. Once his shield glows red, Raven Beak will flash away from you and do a force field attack which you need to duck under to avoid. After avoiding it, Raven Beak will then do an attack you need to counter in an animation, letting you begin to damage Raven Beak directly. Using just missiles is not enough to bring Raven Beak to phase 2, so after this animation, Raven Beak's shield will glow gold and in this state, Raven Beak is immune to all attacks. You will need to wait for Raven Beak to do a counter move himself before you can deal damage again.
It is possible to completely skip Raven Beak getting his gold shield by dealing enough damage the first time you counter him. It is detailed here in Gold Skip
gold_skip.mp4
For those who can't mash great, fire 9 missiles at Raven Beak and wait for him to do a counter attack. Deal as much damage as you can during this counter animation and then fire a missile right after which will inflict enough damage to Raven Beak so he does his force field attack. This method is slow, but the fastest known way without mashing.
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Constantly fire missiles at Raven Beak. He will be flying and has many moves you need to be able to respond to:
Phase 3 is very similar to phase 1, however, Raven Beak no longer has his shield and he has a few more attacks he can do:
Missile Weaving in Raven Beak Phase 2 and Phase 3 can save 10 seconds. It is a very hard to learn trick and will take a lot of practice to mash that fast while aiming.
Same method as Nomral Mode. You just need to make sure not to take any risks.
Everything is basically the same as in normal mode, but the beam burst attack is tricky to dodge using the counter as sometimes you will take damage during the beggining of the attack, killing you. If you pay close enough attention to Raven Beak and immediatley take up the counter position, it is possible to dodge the beam burst without taking damage. When Raven Beak first starts aiming at you for the attack, if his wings are up, that means he will not hurt you as long as you went into the counter position a good while before he started shooting. If his wings are down when it starts, he will hurt you no matter what. This is very difficult to notice and may vary depending on your position, so it is not advised.
Instead, space jump around Raven Beak to dodge the move. Charge storm missiles as you are jumping around him since you can not fire regular missiles that often.
Mostly the same as normal mode, but the Shinespark attack and Giant Laser attack are harder to deal with.
Sum of best time for all Normal Mode and Dread Mode bosses
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