A Pseudo-Wave Beam, more commonly referred to as a pseudo-wave or pseudo, is a glitch that allows the player to shoot through collision without the use of Wave Beam. This can be performed in a variety of ways, typically involving pushing Samus's arm cannon through a wall, then firing a shot.
¶ Slide Jump
Normally when breaking a spin jump with a slide, Samus will immediately snap to facing straight up. However, when jumping out of a slide, this will not be the case and Samus will temporarily be rotated with her arm cannon facing up. If Samus is hitting a ceiling at the same time this happens, her cannon will be inside of it, allowing a shot to be released from within the terrain.
This is most often used to shoot a blob around the same height as the ceiling, as only very shallow angles will allow the shot to clip.
¶ Applications
- Broken EMMI/Elaine Skip
- Early Cloak
- Hell Pseudo
- Second Switch Pseudo
- Drogyga Skip
¶ Double Turnaround Slide
Often referred to as a DT Slide, this method is performed by sliding into a wall, buffering a turnaround, then turning back towards the wall and firing a shot. The turnaround animation temporarily prevents Samus from being pushed away from the wall, allowing her cannon to be pushed inside of it while shooting. When performing a DT slide, the player will be able to shoot about 75 degrees up or down before the shots will no longer clip.
This can also be done with the Grapple Beam, allowing grapple blocks to be pulled from the opposite side. This particular application is known as as a DT Grapple.
This pseudo also allows missiles to be shot through walls, unlike most types of pseudos. This makes it possible to abuse the fact that missiles can hit blobs in other rooms, allowing tricks like backdooring the Bombs generator.
¶ Applications
- Drogyga Skip
- Backdoor Bombs Generator
- Diffusionless Z-57 access
- Hanubia DT Grapple
¶ Melee Morph
The Melee Morph Pseudo relies on combining two mechanics:
- When Samus does a dash melee and holds free-aim, she holds a low pose with her leg extended.
- If you hold a Charge Beam and press Morph, the shot will immediately be released.
If the player is aiming away from Samus's extended leg by even one degree, the shot will be released from where her leg was, rather than her center of mass. Performing the dash melee next to a wall will allow you to shoot at a very high/low angle from inside of it.
This pseudo is useful when you need to shoot something above/below a ceiling/floor, since the shot will be angled slightly towards back in-bounds. It can also be used without a wall to push a diffusion shot lower into the floor.
¶ Crouch Morph
A variation of the Melee Morph Pseudo, performed exactly the same except for crouching instead of doing a dash melee. Used in some setups where you need to perform the pseudo without a wall.
¶ Applications
- Early Space Jump
- Diffusionless Speed Booster
- Artaria Red TP escape
- Above Cataris Blue TP Pseudo
- Reverse Waterfall Flipper
¶ Crouch Turnaround Pseudo
Normally when pressing free-aim while flush with a wall, the game will push Samus away from it. However, this can be circumvented by shooting on the same frame that free-aim is pressed. Due to the extreme difficulty of pressing free-aim, aiming correctly, and shooting on the same frame, this should always be pause buffered. They are sometimes also called Pause Buffer Pseudos because of this.
This pseudo can be done with the following steps:
- Push against the wall you want to pseudo
- Crouch
- Turn away from the wall
- Charge a shot
- Pause
- Hold free-aim, hold the direction you want to shoot in, and let go of the shoot button
- Unpause
This pseudo allows shooting roughly 45 degrees up or down. This is mainly used underwater before Gravity Suit, as the DT Slide isn't available, but it's also used in some cases where the wall has a morph tunnel the height of the arm cannon.
¶ Applications
- Burenia 1 Underwater Pseudos
- Dairon Darkroom Pseudo
- Diffusionless Blob under Screw Attack from the left side
- Drogyga Skip
¶ Wall Stick
Jumping towards the wall then free aiming will cause Samus to stay stuck to it, even if the player presses free-aim. This can be used to shoot shots straight down with the following steps:
- Jump towards the wall, tap free-aim, and let go of any direction
- After landing, crouch, then turn around
- Hold free-aim and shoot straight down
This works with normal shots, charge shots, and grapple, but can only shoot at very limited angles.
If the platform you're crouching on is small enough, this doesn't require the setup, as the game can't push Samus any farther from the wall.
¶ Applications
- Blob under Screw Attack from the left side
- Above Cataris Blue TP Pseudo
¶ Underwater Melee
On walls where the bottom tile is a morph tunnel, a pseudo can be performed by hugging it, doing a standing melee facing away from it, then free-aiming towards the wall and shooting as the melee ends. Once you get Gravity Suit, this is obsoleted by DT Slide, as they allow similar angles.
¶ Applications
- Diffusionless Blob under Screw Attack from the right side
- Backdoor Burenia Green TP
- Blob at the right side for lowering water level after getting Flash
¶ Miscellaneous Pseudos
- Doing a dash melee and free-aiming inside a one-tile vertical tunnel will easily clip the arm cannon through the wall. Unlike the Melee Morph Pseudo, the player can simply shoot wherever they want from this position, with no additional inputs needed.
- Auto-morphing into certain tunnels while holding a Charge Beam (i.e. Dairon Freezer) will allow blobs to be hit on the other side.
- Releasing a shot during a room transition can sometimes clip it through collision in front of the door.
¶ Resources
¶ Pseudowave Angle Guide
The below image shows the angles needed for the most common pseudowaves at a glance.
