This places you in a confined area with a short Morph Ball maze that is full of Slidle spawn points. Get to the bottom and you'll drop back into the room with the large lizard structure. Go through the Morph Ball tunnel underneath it and ignore all of the angry roars. Get down to the bottom of the area, then shoot the walls above the door to reveal a new path. Head through this safe area into a room with a Morph Ball maze in the ceiling. Navigate this maze and collect the nearby Missile+ Tank (033/275), then continue upwards to reach the Red Teleportal that will take you back to Artaria.
This Teleportal places you into a familiar area that you traversed during the first trek through this area's E.M.M.I. Zone. Head down and to the left, then get out of the water and take the door at the top. Bypass the Save Station and now you can take the upper path in the next room via a Morph Ball tunnel. Grab the Energy Part (2/4) right in your path, destroy the Kreep nearby and
use the Morph Ball tunnel at the top right to reach another Morph Ball maze filled with Slidle spawn points. You can use the slide to get through the narrow drops in this maze without having to navigate the entire thing to make the trip slightly faster. Get into the next room and head up through the open Thermal Door to reach a Morph Ball tunnel at the top left. This room has a Kreep and an Obsydomithon that you can easily get past on your way to the door at the top right. Head into this next area to reach the Thermal Redirect Device.
Once you activate this one, the entire area will start to explode and rapidly heat up, which means you need to book it to the top so that you don't perish to the rising temperature. Take the newly-exposed path to the upper left, navigate the obstacles as they fall, take the Morph Ball tunnel below the fire jets, and head to the left-hand wall with the Spider Magnet rail. Climb it, shoot out part of the wall, morph into the tunnel and keep heading up. A little ways up, part of the path will collapse in front of a fire jet, so now take the upper path and race through the fiery jet areas to reach a small Morph Ball passage at the left to reach safety. Now that you are safe from the rising temperature, shoot the ceiling above you to expose the path to the Missile Shield, and take a few seconds to destroy some Slidles if you need to farm any health; you'll need to be at full HP for a small segment that is just ahead. Blast the Missile Shield to get through the door and head up and left to reach the Chozo Statue holding the Varia Suit upgrade.
Once you have it, drop down and take the lower-right door into the heated area. There are two Autclasts in this room clinging to the walls and ceilings that you either need to avoid or destroy on your way to the bottom. Right below you is a small lava pool; slide into it, then morph and roll left to grab the Missile+ Tank (043/275), then roll back and get out of the lava as quickly as possible. You should easily be able to do this if you have full HP, which is why you needed to farm any HP drops earlier. Once you acquire this Tank, take the door to get back to the area you were in before while you were escaping the rising heat. Take the path all the way back down to the bottom and take the right-hand door to reach a new room. Ignore the Plys in here, drop down and head left through the door below you, then take the path through the hole in the floor to Spin Drop all the way back down to the Red Teleportal, and take it back to Cataris.
Back in Cataris, head left to fall through the Pitfall Block all the way to the bottom and head to the right through the door. Backtrack out of the glass tube to the previous room and now drop down to take the door. Shoot the metal structure in front of you to bypass the lava pit, then continue heading down and to the right. The next set of winding paths has you navigating through many rooms that are filled with Obsydomithons; try to just tank the damage for now and bypass them as quickly as you can. Keep heading past them, but stop to take them and the Sclawks out if you need to. Avoid the lava pits and continue working your way to the right. In the next section you'll deal with more Obsydomithons as you now have to shoot your way through sections of the wall. Clear them and you'll reach a room with a red blob at the upper right wall. Destroy it, take the new path heading down, and there will be a door guarded by a Gobbler. Counter it at the flash to get a full health and ammo refill, then head into the next area and take the bottom path. Stop to blow up the red blob here, then continue along the path to reach a set of pitfall blocks that take you down to the source of all that angry roaring.
The big boy returns at last! Kraid has two phases to his fight, like his iteration in Super Metroid. In the first phase, you are standing on the platform, and your only goal is to fire Missiles into his mouth while you dodge any other attacks such as his claws, bombs and fireballs. Aim diagonally and fire Missiles as rapidly as you can into his mouth, then freely target his claws when they appear for Missile refills. If he does rear back and starts spewing bombs and fireballs, destroy the bombs for some refills and avoid the fireball attacks. After enough damage to his mouth, the fight will transition to the second phase.
This phase does have an intended "quick kill" method, but it requires that you save this battle until after you have acquired the Bombs. You would use a hidden Morph Ball Launcher in this room to fire yourself into Kraid's belly (like the Queen Metroid) and blast him to death. Unfortunately this cool method ends up being slower, so for the sake of speed we will do this a different way.
When you fall to the bottom, use the Single Wall Jump trick that involves wall jumping, morphing/unmorphing, then wall jumping again to climb the wall to reach the Spider Magnet platform at the top. If you can cling to this, it cuts out quite a bit of time as you can get right back to blasting Kraid in the mouth with Missiles. If you can't do the wall jump trick, you will either need to blast the purple hole in his belly so that he uses his spike attack that brings the platform down to you, or use his 1-2-3 spike attack to jump up. The single wall jump method is fastest, and is what I recommend practicing. Once you're at the top, continue firing your Missiles at his mouth to cause damage. He will keep firing claws at you and try for swiping and punching attacks, but you can dodge his punches by spin jumping up and back to the Magnet rail, and you can Melee Counter his swipe attack. From here it is possible to finish the fight, but if he hits you, you'll fall to the bottom. If this happens, single wall jump back up and keep going. If you do counter the punch attack (when his eyes glow red), you can enter a small QTE where you can openly blast his mouth in a short cinematic. Once you've depleted his HP, skip the death cutscene and
you'll wind up on the far side of the room.
Use the spike left embedded in the wall to climb up the Spider Magnet rail and use it to exit the room via the Morph Ball tunnel at the top. Roll your way through the tunnel to the exit in the next room, then turn and drop down to the left. Blast through the Missile door to get the bottom part of the room you were just in, then head to the Chozo Statue to get the Diffusion Beam. Use it immediately on the red blob to the right to exit the room, then shoot another red blob in the wall to the left above you. Take this path to reach a ledge with the Purple Teleportal that leads to Dairon.
Once you arrive back here, use the charged Diffusion Beam to blast a hole in the wall with the red blob below you, then drop through the path you created and run to the right to reach a superheated room. In here, weave your way around the Morph Ball tunnels while avoiding the Autclasts, then roll down the right-hand path. Jump and shoot the floor here to reveal a new path, then shoot the red blob in the wall down here to access a new door. This path will lead into a large room with a lake of lava that you aren't supposed to cross yet, but hey, sequence breaking is part of the game in speedrunning. You'll need to perform two Slide Jumps chained into Wall Jumps to get through this area, but it doesn't take long to perfect this sequence. Slide through the Morph Ball tunnel, jump out while holding left to reach the wall, then wall jump off to the right to grab the edge of the Morph Ball tunnel. Roll through it and drop down, then slide through the next tunnel, jumping out of this one to the right to grab the next ledge. Pull yourself up and drop down into the floor to reach the Charge Beam door that leads to another Elevator going down to Artaria.
Once you arrive here, take the door to the right and fall all the way down this long slanted shaft to reach the bottom. Take the door at the right and proceed into another room with a Missile Shield, then go in and run to the right, jumping up to reach the Chozo Statue that holds the Grapple Beam. Use your new toy immediately on the large Grapple Block to the left, then go up and open the Grapple Door to return the way you came. This time, Grapple across the room to the upper left door, and go back to the long vertical hallway. You can climb back up this room using the Grapple Beam to latch onto the Spider Magnet walls, so climb all the way back to the top and take the Elevator you just used to return to Dairon.
Once you get off the elevator, head left and Grapple up to the ceiling, then fire two Missiles at the right-hand wall to expose a hidden alcove. Morph and roll into it to grab the Power Bomb Tank (01/15); even though you can't use it yet, its still good to have for later. Grab it and fall through the Pitfall Blocks to the left, then head back to reach the room with the large lake of lava at the bottom. You now have to take the top path since you can't Slide Jump back across (well you technically can, but this is 100% and you need the item up top), so use the Grapple Beam to destroy the Grapple Block and take the upper path. Along the way, pick up the Missile Tank (043/275) that's sitting right in your path, then destroy another Grapple Block on the way down and head back to the previous room. Here, use the narrow passage to Morph Jump (just like a Slide Jump except you unmorph in mid-air and jump out of it) to jump up to the ledge that holds an Energy Part (3/4), then drop down and keep going to the left. Navigate this next room to reach the Charge Beam door at the end, and head into the Network Station for another chat with Adam. Mash A to get through his briefing about the powerless sector above you, then take the door to the left and use the Morph Ball tunnel to access the rest of the room. Either counter or avoid the Armadigger that's right in your path, then ascend to the next area up to reach an E.M.M.I. Zone portal.
In here, jump to the ledge above you, shoot the wall, and then continue up and to the right, using the Spider Magnet walls to single wall jump up. Shoot another wall in front of you and continue up and to the right, then loop back left to reach an exit.
This places you in the powerless section Adam was talking about. Use your new Grapple Beam immediately in front of you to destroy a Grapple Block, then make your way to the door at the upper right. In this new area, climb up to the top of the room, destroying the enemies along the way, then take the path to the left to reach a Map Station. Race past it since it doesn't have power, then head through the large room ahead of you to the bottom. Head right and latch onto the Spider Magnet section to get past the water section to reach the passage above you. In here, jump up to the central structure to engage the power generator and turn the power back on. While the platform is being activated, aim down-right at the red blob in the lower right corner and try to destroy it to save a couple of seconds. Once the power has been restored, blow up the red blob if you didn't already and take the newly-revealed path back to the main vertical hallway. Climb all the way back to the top here, blasting the two Armadiggers away and use the Missile Door at the top right to reach a Chozo Statue holding the Bomb upgrade.
Use your new Bombs to escape the room via a path in the floor and use them to create a path to the Missile Tank (047/275) that's right in your way. Use the Morph Ball Launcher below you to send you through a route in the floor that returns you to the bottom of the room you were in just a moment ago. Drop to the very bottom and take the door on the bottom left, then continue heading down to reach another Morph Ball cannon that will send you through the floor into a new area. Pay no mind to the creature here in the background periodically getting shocked by electricity and twitching; after all, there's absolutely no way you're going to fight that thing later, right? Take the door on the other side and drop all the way down in this room to reach another Morph Ball Launcher that deposits you in a small room. Bomb the wall slightly above and to the right of the Power Beam door to reveal a hidden Missile Tank (049/275), then head on down and take the Morph Ball Launcher into the next room below you. This path leads to another E.M.M.I. Zone, but before you enter, blow up part of the ceiling here to find another hidden Missile Tank (051/275). Once you have it, enter the E.M.M.I. Zone.
In here, you need to zig zag down as quickly as you can going right, left, then right, then left again to reach a Power Beam door. Slide under the wall to go down, slide again, then wall jump up and use the Spider Magnet to reach a high ledge leading to the Zone exit.
This path takes you to a cave-like area of Dairon. Navigate the small pools of water as you go. You'll encounter flying Nailongs here that look like wasps as well as floating/flying Dredheads that can charge at you without warning. Navigate the tunnels as you make your way down and to the left to reach the door that takes you to a Shuttle. Hop on board this one for a trip to the watery world of Burenia.
From the shuttle transport pad, run to the left through the door to get to a large vertical space. Head downward past the Rodotuk to where the large fan blows you to the right. Bomb through the floor to drop down to a new area and head left towards a Grapple Block. Destroy it with the Grapple Beam, then morph through the hole and take the door to the left above you. This next long room has a ceiling-mounted Shelmit that fires a large laser downward. Tank the hit from it and run past the flying Nailong as you cross from right to left, then head up via the Morph Ball path in the ceiling and loop your way around back to the door at the left to reach a Network Station. Mash past Adam's briefing and continue on to the left. In the next room is a dangerous new creature called a Daivo; quickly get down and Melee Counter it before it has a chance to release its heavily-damaging Daivo swarm that will pursue Samus. Drop down and hold right to fall past the Slidle tunnels to the bottom where you'll see a Spider Magnet section along with a Dropter and a Rodotuk. Fall into the water and diagonally aim your Grapple Beam up at the Spider Magnet ceiling to get past these two enemies, and head through the door to the right.
In this next area the path splits into an upper and lower path. Take the top path first, navigating with the Grapple Beam along the Spider Magnet section and shoot a wall in front of you, then roll to a small alcove with a Missile Tank (053/275), then backtrack and take the bottom path, dropping through the small Morph Ball maze with the Slidle burrows. Once you reach the bottom, you need to cross some watery pools, which you can make faster by Slide Jumping off to get over the water easier. Do this for the two pools, then morph into the small wall tunnel and drop down to the next level. Head down and right to an area with two Nailongs, then head to the left past a third and continue following the path down. Head to the right past another Nailong and you'll encounter a large shutter the ones like you saw back when you first encountered E.M.M.I.-04SB. There is a minor sequence break called a Hover Bomb you can do here that again saves quite a bit of time because it eliminates a lengthy trip through some water. Jump up and head to the right to the yellow platform and let the door close. What you need to do here is manipulate a series of Bomb Jumps to keep yourself airborne so that the door can reopen. Start by morphing, then jump into the air and set a Bomb. Fall down and place another one, then Morph Jump into the first Bomb as it explodes and let it pop you up. Set another Bomb at the peak of your jump here, then fall back down into the second Bomb you placed so that you hit the explosion. Set another Bomb right before being popped up and again set one at the peak. You will continue to place Bombs in this fashion, diagonally going back and forth to stay airborne while the shutter has time to reopen. As soon as it does, push forward on the L Stick while you're being propelled upwards in one of your Bomb Jumps to hit the room transition before the gate shuts again. This skips an entire underwater sequence of navigating to this room normally and saves about 20 to 25
seconds if done correctly. Getting into the next room triggers the Aeion cutscene, so skip it to pick up the Flash Shift, then use the ability to get back out of the door you just came in from. From this point on, this walkthrough will only specifically mention Flash Shifts when absolutely necessary for movement or boss strategies, but you are more than free to use it as a movement technique whenever the need arises.
Now backtrack the way you came to where the group of two Nailongs were above you. Here you can use the Flash Shift to cross a row of Pitfall Blocks so you can reach a Spider Magnet wall and then jump to an alcove for an Energy Tank (03/12), then Flash Shift back across. Take the path to the upper right that is directly above you and Flash Shift through the sensor door here to reach the other side of this room. Drop into the water and take out the two floating Batalloons with Missiles, then climb up to the door on the right side of the area. This takes you to another area that's mostly submerged in water; follow the path down past three Batalloons and head to the left to shoot at a red blob in the wall. Blow it up, then jump up and use the Grapple Beam to shoot directly above you to reach the Missile Tank (055/275) before the water fills the area, then drop down and head to the right-hand side of the area. Here, use a Bomb to blow apart the wall and take out the Redenki swarm, then fire at another red blob to raise water in this area. Finally, you can climb back up through the middle and take the intended path up and around, or you can do a Water Bomb Jump from the middle platform. To succesfully do the WBJ, first morph and set a Bomb, then unmorph while you're being bounced up so that you land standing up. Now in a smooth sequence, jump, morph, set a Bomb, unmorph, land, jump and morph into where you set the Bomb. This trick takes some practice to get the timing down on, but if done correctly, the Bomb you placed in the air will explode and pop you up as if you weren't in the water. Use your extra height and hold right on the L Stick to grab the ledge above you, pull yourself up and blast the red blob in the wall above you to expose a path to the Power Beam door, then head on through to reach a second shuttle that goes back to a different part of Dairon.
Head to the right from the shuttle area through the Power Beam door, and take the bottom path through this room past the Nailongs and the Slidle swarms. Get to the other side of the room, slide under the Dredhead and prepare for the E.M.M.I. Zone right in front of you.
This trek through is made a little complicated because of the water in the area. Fortunately, the E.M.M.I. also has no Gravity Suit, so the two of you are at least matched in terms of mobility. Head to the right, drop into the water and spin jump through to move a bit faster. Use the Grapple Beam to latch onto the small section of Spider Magnet wall at the far right to pull yourself out of the water, spin jump to the platform above you, then go and single wall jump up the long Spider Magnet wall to your right. Hop off just halfway up, go slightly left, jump up to the ledge above you, and slide under the low wall and continue on downward to the Power Beam door at the left. In the next room, jump up to the Morph Ball tunnel above you, go up and head to the left, slide under the wall and run to the left-hand wall. Climb up the platforms here, go to the right, morph through the low tunnel, and from here you can do one of two things. The path leads around to the left all the way to the right to get where you're supposed to go, but you can also jump up at the Morph Ball tunnel, spin jump off the wall, and use the Flash Shift to "stall" yourself in the air by going left, then right very quickly, and you'll have the air time needed to actually fit into the tunnel here. This path leads directly to the Central Unit room, so however you get here via these two path choices, head inside to engage the mini-boss.
This Central Unit is no different than the last one you battled. Continue to use Missiles and Dash Melee attacks on the Rinkas to gain refills until you have destroyed the shield, then attack the exposed brain itself. Use the Omega Cannon to melt the door shield and blast it open, then head out into the previous room to challenge E.M.M.I.-04SB.
The fastest way to take down E.M.M.I.-04SB out is to hop slightly up to the ledge in front of you and enter Aim Mode immediately so that you can trap the E.M.M.I. as it enters the room via the ceiling opposite your location. Fire the Omega Stream up at its faceplate as it crawls across the ceiling, and begin charging the Omega Cannon as soon as you see the visual reeling indicator that the shield is about to explode. You want to hit this one with a charged shot as soon as possible because it will use its Speed Booster ability to get to you quickly. Blast its eye with your charged shot to destroy it.
And now the speedrun can truly begin... Defeating this E.M.M.I. grants you the Speed Booster upgrade, and part of the appeal of this game lies in learning all of the interesting manners in which this version of the Speed Booster can be utilized, because this is the most refined version of the Chozo technology seen yet. Drop down to the long hallway below you and start charging the Speed Booster while running to the right. You'll shatter a set of Speed Booster blocks and continue into the next room to shatter another barrier. After the second, stop and go back to the left to climb into a newly-exposed tunnel that holds an Energy Part (4/4) to give yourself another full Energy Tank (04/12). Now drop down and run to the right, charging up the Speed Booster as you go to shatter another set of Speed Booster blocks and continue running at full speed outside of the E.M.M.I. Zone exit.
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