Note: This route was written in December 2021 with 1:58 as the goal based off Oatsngoats' World Record at the time, which did not incorporate such timesaves as Corpius First or Adam Save Skip. Therefore at the current time, these tricks are not included in this version of this detailed walkthrough.
You'll begin where the cutscene with Raven Beak ended. Start off running to the right and hop up the path leading to the next room. This next area is going mostly downhill with two Klaidas in your path. Keep running and take them out with Missiles, free-aiming and firing to make it faster. Slide under the low wall and get to the end of the path where you have to fire at the reddish blob in the ceiling to expose a new path. Continue upwards and left, then wall jump up the vertical passage. Ignore the Chozo Recharge Point to the left as you don't need it, then keep going up and to the right to reach another set of wall obstacles. Fire a Missile at the bottom part of the first wall and shoot regular beams to clear the others. Slide past the next obstacle and continue into the Network Station. Skip the cutscene by pressing + and -, then mash A to get through Adam's text as quickly as possible and exit the Network Station to the right.
Here, drop down off the ledge and destroy the Kreep at the bottom, then take the lower path under the low wall to reach a Melee Counter tutorial. Follow the prompt to counter the Muzby, then move on to the right. Ascend the zig-zagging platforms by Ledge Jumping, eliminating the Plys and Kreeps along the way until you reach the top with a blocked path. Here, you're supposed to go to the right and shoot a red blob in the wall to break some rocks to expose the next path with a Missile Tank to reach the game's tutorial encounter with E.M.M.I.-01P (lovingly named "Elaine" by the members of the community), but you can actually completely skip this encounter and still get the two items here on a later trip. Doing this skip technique means that you'll have to learn and perform a Pseudowave, which lets you sort of shoot through walls like the Wave Beam would. The basic gist of a Pseudowave is that you are trying to get Samus' gun to just slightly clip through the wall, so you can then shoot through it.
For this first Pseudowave, you are going to need four shots. The first three will be done underneath the rock and the last one will be done to the left. If you do the fourth one from the same position, the rocks will collapse on top of you and kill you. To start, slide towards the wall without sliding through the narrow gap to proceed normally. Slide Jump at the wall so you spin against it, then at the peak as you're in the upper right corner, fire a Beam shot. You should get the blast to clip through the wall and hit the red blob. Once you've hit it three times, back away to the left and aim a Slide Jump at the left edge of the collapsing area. This time you want to aim slightly down away from the red blob to make your shot properly go through the wall - holding just Right as you jump makes Samus shoot up for some reason. This fourth shot is trickier but is easier with practice. Once you can get this trick reliably in under six seconds, you're good to go.
Once you've collapsed the path, jump up and take the door to the left. Bypass this Save Station and continue to the left. In the next room, there are two paths you can take; the bottom path leads to another scripted E.M.M.I. encounter which, like the first one, can be skipped. To do this you'll need to perform another Pseudowave similar to the one you did in the last area. For this one, start just underneath the red blob and Slide Jump to the left while turning and holding the L Stick diagonally up towards the red blob. Holding L is important here since your beam fire needs to go in a specific direction with specific timing or else it won't work. It should take only two successful shots to pierce this red blob and blow up the path that leads up, but keep in mind that this is pretty difficult to get consistently. Practice, like everything else in a speedrun, is highly recommended.
Once you have successfully destroyed the red blob, there are two choices. The path to the left is what this walkthrough follows and gets Charge Beam first, or you can take the path to the right and go immediately fight Corpius. The difference between these two paths is a potential big time save, but only if you have become proficient enough at Corpius to fight him only with the 15 Missiles you currently have in your inventory and no Charge Beam. In this regard, Rookie Mode makes this sequence easier since you begin with 30 Missiles and don't need to worry so much about resource management. If you choose to take the Corpius First path, defeat him and then link back up with the main walkthrough below en route to Charge Beam, and just proceed straight to Cataris after acquriing the Spider Magnet.
From here, jump up and head left past the two Infesters to reach a portal leading to an E.M.M.I. Zone.
It is of the utmost importance that even though you will be taking the most streamlined path through each of these Zones, you cannot control where the E.M.M.I will spawn in each one, and as such there may be times where you need to improvise. Therefore it is equally important that you memorize not just the optimal path to take, but that you also memorize the layout of the room itself in case you need to make a circular path to dodge an incoming E.M.M.I. From the start here, you need to slide into the portal and then jump out of the slide (a Slide Jump) so that you don't immediately fall down. Slide Jumping here allows you to cross the gap and land so you can collect a Missile Tank (017/275) that you would ordinarily get after defeating the E.M.M.I. if you were taking the intended path. Shoot the wall in front of you and fall down the left-hand side of the room and go through the Power Beam door.
Skip the cutscene where you're introduced to E.M.M.I.-02SM (the names don't really mean anything since it just signifies the number of the E.M.M.I. followed by two initials for the upgrade it uses). Immediately after skipping, fire at the ceiling area above you to blow part of it up, then work on climbing up to the highest path leading to the right. Head into the next room and jump up to the upper ledge here, then take the path to the next room and slide under the lower wall into the small water pool. E.M.M.I.-02SM can't follow you in here, so just need to wait for the alarm to stop. Once it does, the door will unlock and you can exit this Zone.
After exiting, run across the waterfall cave to the right and ascend the platforms leading up to the top of the room. The doors to your bottom and top right are blocked by gates, but you can stop quickly and grab a Missile Tank (019/275). Turn and jump to the upper left path and take the Power Beam door to reach the next Network Station, where Adam will check in and talk to you about the E.M.M.I. Mash A to get through the dialogue, then jump up and take the upper left door out of this room. This area has a few red blob walls that you need to shoot along with a Missile Tank, but you can't get it just yet. Blow up the walls to collapse a path that will let you continue on to the bottom left, which leads back into the E.M.M.I. Zone.
Take the path to the left and hit the sloped area, sliding down to the area below you. Run left and jump up to the next platform to take the Power Beam door into the next room. Run forward, jump up two levels and you should be relatively close to where E.M.M.I.-02SM should be spawning in this room. Avoid it as best as possible and take the Power Beam door at the left. In this next room, head down and slide to the level below you, then run to the left while shooting the walls out of the way to clear your path. Run into the next room, sliding under the low wall to reach the exit.
This drops you into a room partially filled with water. Fire a few Missiles to clear out the Redenki swarm and the wall-clinging Sunnaps, then keep on proceeding to the left. Climb to the next ledge and take the Power Beam door and run through the Save Station to reach another long vertical section with sloped walls. You can't do much here, so just fall all the way to the bottom and take out the Kreep down here. Continue right while spin jumping forward to make your underwater movement a little bit faster, then in the next small room fire a single Missile at the Redenki swarm to kill it quickly. Continue on into the next room and fire at the red blob in the right-hand wall to blow it up so that water floods into this new area. Return two rooms to the left and use the newly-revealed ledge to jump up and reach a Power Beam door. Keep going past the Map Station, then drop all the way down to the right in the next room to reach another E.M.M.I. Zone portal.
This first room is just a straightforward path. Slide under the floating Autool so that it doesn't alert the E.M.M.I. to your presence and go on into the next area. This next wide-open room has many platforms, but the objective is to reach the bottom of the area and use the Interactive Device to trigger water to flow into an adjacent area that raises a platform to give you access to a small tunnel that you can slide into. However, there is a way to bypass this section that, if mastered, can save close to ten seconds that would otherwise be spent standing on the platform and waiting for water to flow. This speed trick involves going down to the bottom of the room, but instead of utilizing the platform device and sliding through the tunnel, you're instead going to perform an advanced wall jump maneuver similar to Magus Skip (a sequence break for bypassing E.M.M.I.-02SM's activation sequence that isn't covered in this particular route). Go down to the right-hand wall in this area where you can see that there is a path above you and to the right. Start off by jumping towards the wall, then wall jump off at the peak. Hold the L Button and aim right during your wall jump. Critically, watch as Samus sort of "bonks" against the sloped ceiling to the left, then immediately press B to start a spin jump while holding Right on the L Stick back towards the right-hand wall. Wall jump off the wall again and hold Right to grab the ledge above you, then head into the next room and go all the way down to the bottom and take the path to the left to reach the Zone exit.
If you cannot manage the platform skip (it's recommended to practice this trick when the E.M.M.I. isn't actively chasing you so you can memorize the inputs and timing), then just stick with the intended method of standing on the platform, firing diagonally-left to distract the E.M.M.I., then slide back to the right across the raised platform into the passage going diagonally down to the right to drop into the room that loops around to the exit.
This room leads to an area with a Chozo Recharge Statue. Bypass it and take note of the two pools of water at the top of the room while continuing on to the left. In the next area there is a cold room to the left that you can't enter, but there is a path through the lower-left floor that you can shoot. Destroy this to reach a path leading down to a Missile Door, then head in and take the looping path down to a small passage in the floor. Slide into this next room to reach a Chozo Statue that holds the Charge Beam. Keep in mind that now you have access to the Quick Charge trick where you can speed up the time it takes to reach a full charge by spin jumping, and your spin jumps now carry an electric charge that you can use to pseudo-Screw Attack. With the Charge Beam in hand, take the door immediately to your right to get back to the previous hallway and use the next door to get right back to the starting area of the game.
From here, follow the same path you did at the beginning and spin jump over the Muzby in your path. Continue along the path but take the Charge Beam door at the far right before the split that leads up, and head up and over to the right to drop into an area that holds the first Energy Tank (01/12). Slide through the narrow opening to the left, then work your way to the top and take the next Charge Beam door into the area right before the Melee Counter tutorial occurred. Slide into here, take out the Muzby or jump over it and continue to the right. Now climb all the way back up to the top, taking the left-hand path at the end like you did before. Bypass the Save Station again to reach the area where you did the second Pseudowave again, and head back up past the two Infesters. This time, take the path leading to the right through the Charge Beam door to reach another long hallway with waterfalls in the background. Run through here and slide under the low wall to reach the next room, where you'll find a path leading up and one leading to the right. Take the right-hand path and you'll see a rather ugly beast guarding the door in front of you. These little beasts are called Gobblers, and will be found on just about every door that leads to a boss encounter. Get up very close to the Gobbler and use a Melee Counter at the right moment to kill it quickly, then head into the next room for the first real boss fight.
The battle against Corpius still reinforces the need to free-aim. Start the fight by firing as many Missiles as possible into Corpius' face in order to get the battle to the second phase as soon as possible. You'll usually get a full recharge of your Missiles from doing this, so when the phase starts get up close to the now-cloaked Corpius and try to manually aim where you see the outline of his head. Keep firing until you run out, focusing just on scoring as many hits as possible. Dodge his tail whip attacks and the tail spike attack; when the tail stabs into the ground, fire at the white orb with your Power Beam as much as possible.
When you have inflicted enough damage to the tail, Corpius will once again become visible and arch off of the ground. Slide under his exposed carapace and quickly hit X at the flash for a cinematic Melee Counter, which lets you unload a ton of Missiles in a quick-time event (QTE). You want to cause damage as quickly as possible to kill him before he can do his attack where he covers the floor in poison gas. Make sure your Missiles are impacting on their target and this fight should be over quickly.
Defeating Corpius grants you the powerful Phantom Cloak Aeion ability. With it, you can depress the R Stick to activate the Cloak and disguise yourself and mask the sounds of your footsteps at the cost of movement speed. This will be an effective tool that you should always keep at the ready in case a speedy trek through an E.M.M.I. Zone finds you running afoul of one in patrol mode. Exit this room and wall jump to the path above you. These Sensor Lock doors ahead require the Phantom Cloak to bypass, but you can speed it up by Slide Cloaking, which is just pressing the R Stick down at the same time you initiate a slide move. Doing this allows you to cloak yourself without the
whole "walking in stealth mode" part and should be used for every Sensor Lock door you encounter from here on. Climb back to the top of this vertical room and Slide Cloak through the Sensor Lock door to the upper right to reach a room with a bit of an enclosed area. There are red explosive blobs in the ceiling that you need to blast by firing diagonally; take both of them out and head up through the ceiling to reach a room with two Plys. Ignore them and take the door to the right to get to a long tunnel overlooking the main geothermal power generator. Run to the end of the tunnel to the next room and drop all the way to the bottom. Once here, go through the only door here that doesn't lead to a heated room to reach a Save Station. Bypass it and continue to the left to reach a Thermal Redirect Device. As you stand on the platform, fire to the right to blast a hole in the wall with a Missile and reveal a Missile Tank and a Power Beam door. Your goal is only to open the door so you can access it later from the other side. Redirect the thermal flow to the left, which will open up a new door.
Take this new path to the left to get to the bottom of the room you were in just prior to the long horizontal tunnel. Jump up past the Plys and take the Sensor Lock door to the left to return to the room that was just before the fight with Corpius. Take the upper left path again to the Network Station, mash A to get past Adam's prattling about how thermal energy is the main power source for the planet and take the Thermal Door to the left. The Charge Beam door at the upper right leads to the infamous Jaffe Room*, but we won't be taking that path and seeing the wonder of that room until cleanup later in the game. For now, head left and run past the Chozo Recharge Statue in the next hallway to reach another part of the E.M.M.I. Zone.
This room is named the Jaffe Room after David Scott Jaffe, the director and developer of the God of War and Twisted Metal franchises. He gained some infamy for his critique of Metroid Dread's design as "bush league" stuff that "shouldn't get a pass" after he got stuck in this room and couldn't figure out the path forward as he staunchly refused to use the free aim mechanic or recall the tutorial that told him to shoot his surroundings if he encountered a dead end. He made multiple YouTube videos about how awful the game was (rating it a 3/10), criticized the game for not telling him what to do or how to proceed, and further argued with anyone pointing out that his take was bad, calling them either "f!@#ing morons" or "Nintendo fanboys". He has therefore dubiously earned the honor of having this room named after him.
In this Zone, proceed through the split platforms all the way to the lower left to get to a previously-locked Thermal Door. Do the same in the next room to get to the lower left Thermal Door and take the path into a room to find a rotating Flipper-style gate. Stepping on this causes it to rotate and if you aren't careful, it will drop you to the bottom of the room. Go forward just enough to trigger it to flip, and then either spin back to the right to grab the ledge so you can just drop down, or spin and wall jump off of the Flipper as it rotates. Either way, you want to land on the platform adjacent to to the gate without falling down to the bottom to avoid having to navigate your way back up in the next few rooms. After you land on the ledge you need to be on, go through the door, take the path to the lower-right door and destroy the Autool if you need Missile refills, then climb up the upper path in the next room to reach the door that leads to the Central Unit room.
Every Central Unit and E.M.M.I. fight proceeds in the same exact manner; the only differences are the HP each Central Unit has and the method that you must employ to actually take down the ensuing E.M.M.I. For this first Central Unit, stay in the center of the room and pour Missiles into the Unit's protective shield. You should avoid the blasts from the Central Unit Cannons and use the Dash Melee on the Rinkas that get fired in your direction both to get rid of them and to get HP and Missile refills. Once the shield is destroyed, target the exposed brain itself with Missiles and it should go down very quickly. If you run out of Missiles, you can damage the shield with Charge Beam shots and the exposed brain with plain Power Beam fire.
When the Central Unit is destroyed, Samus will absorb the energy from it and gain the Omega Cannon. This is the method you will use for each and every E.M.M.I. encounter. Start by pressing L to enter Aim Mode and fire the normal Omega Stream at the wall orb to melt the shield. You can hold down the L Stick to manually aim the Stream, and this is a very important skill to master as you will often have to engage subsequent E.M.M.I.'s at varying heights. You'll get a feel for when the shield is about to explode; when it does, press and hold R to charge up the Omega Cannon. Unleash a fully-charged shot at the central orb to blow apart the door, then exit the room to engage with E.M.M.I.-02SM itself.
Exit the room and run across the platforms to the left. Climb up and you should just start to see E.M.M.I.-02SM entering the room from the door. There are two ways to do this part: you can stay right here and start blasting E.M.M.I.-02SM's face shield and stop only right as it is about to reach you, quickly spin jump over its body and head left through the door, then turn and keep firing as it turns around. The other way is to ascend to the very top in the first room and head to the wall at the far right and use this as your vantage point to destroy the face shield. The first method is faster, but also much riskier. Choose whichever method works better for you, then once you have destroyed its face shield, take down the E.M.M.I. for good with a charged Omega Cannon blast directly to its eye.
Defeating E.M.M.I.-02SM gives you the Spider Magnet upgrade, which allows you to climb the blue magnetic walls and platforms. An added bonus of this suit upgrade is that you can single wall jump on these types of walls. The same strategy used in Super Metroid and Metroid: Zero Mission applies here as well - jump at a wall, jump off and curve your jump back towards the starting wall. Since you stick to these types of walls, the technique is made even easier. Use this method to quickly climb long stretches of these magnetic walls as you progress through the game.
Leave the area where you destroyed E.M.M.I.-02SM and head for the door at the upper left. Run through here and use the Spider Magnet wall in the next room to reach another door that leads to a platform you can pull down by hanging from it. Drop from the platform and take the door it was blocking to reach the room again where you destroyed the Autool for Missile refills. Take the top-right path through the Charge Beam door to get back to the large vertical room you were in when you first entered the E.M.M.I. Zone. Head back to the top, shoot through the wall and cling to the Spider Magnet wall that covers the exit portal to make it move out of the way, then spin jump off of it and curve back to the right to exit the Zone.
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