12%
 World Record Holder:
Sniq
WORLD RECORD RECORDING
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Category Details
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12% is the lowest amount of items in which a human can beat the game via defeating all major bosses while using out of bounds. It is perhaps the most difficult humanly possible category to optimize (or even complete), and has been completed in a single sitting by a very small number of runners.
Contents
Branches
Human
For humans, the items that make up 12% are the following:
Morphing Ball is required to 'awaken' the planet and utilize Power Bombs.
Power Bombs are required to open orange doors and destroy other destructible surfaces that block the way. They are also required to kill Metroids as Ice Beam is skipped.
Charge Beam is required to defeat bosses, as otherwise, an extremely high percentage of ammo would be required instead, which would defeat the purpose of this low% category.
Varia Suit is required as otherwise, Mother Brain's Rainbow Beam would deal 600 damage instead of 300 damage, as it only checks for Varia Suit - not Gravity Suit. Varia Suit would otherwise require three additional Energy Tanks (or an applicable mixture of Energy Tanks and Reserve Tanks) in its place, which would defeat the purpose of this low% category.
Related to the above, three Energy Tanks (or two Energy Tanks and one Reserve Tank, or one Energy Tank and two Reserve Tanks) are required to survive Mother Brain's Rainbow Beam.
One Missile expansion and three Super Missile expansions are required to open appropriate doors and cause Mother Brain to change from her first phase to her second phase. The first Missile pack in the game is required to 'awaken' the planet, same as Morphing Ball. You can alternatively acquire a second Missile expansion instead of a third Super Missile expansion depending on your route.
X-Ray Scope is required as it not only allows the Zebetites to be skipped while still allowing access to Mother Brain (same as Ice Beam and Speed Booster), but allows "X-Ray climbing" to be performed to travel through rooms such as Draygon's entry chamber and enter some rooms' out of bounds (such as Halfie Climb to avoid use of L+R), which is the primary exploit of the run.
Human (Theoretical)
Theoretically, a human could complete the game with the following itemset with the use of 10 Missile Zebetite Kills:
Gravity is collected to allow escaping Precious Room and to ascend Halfie Climb Room without the use of L+R. Additionally, although downwards doorskips can be performed suitless, Gravity makes them much faster and easier, as well as drastically speeding up the Maridia section of the run and making bossfights much easier.
To get past Botwoon Hallway, one would need to perform a downwards doorskip, then go far enough right Out of Bounds such that transition blocks to Botwoon's Room are exposed in room copies below the room. This can be performed suitless (see the section at the bottom for more info), however Gravity makes this and the accompanying OoB navigation much easier and faster.
Without the use of Out of Bounds, six Power Bombs would be needed to escape Lower Norfair (three to escape Wasteland, two to break the bomb blocks in Red Kihunter Shaft, and then another one to bomb jump up the one tile in Kihunter Shaft), requiring a 4% drop from a Deesgeega in Wasteland. However, one can avoid three of those Power Bombs by performing a downwards doorskip in Kihunter Shaft, then navigating to a transition block to Amphitheatre (fast but difficult), or Lower Norfair Fireflea Room (slower but much easier).
After all this, one would then need to perform 10 Missile Zebetite Kills to access Mother Brain due to not being able to skip Zebetites. Good luck to all potential runners!
A variation on this itemset, 12% GravPb, would replace Charge with a Power Bomb pack, then perform Draygon Ammo Underflow with a maximum of 10 Power Bombs. The resulting sparksuit could then be used for Reverse Halfie, and all subsequent bossfights would be much faster and easier, as well as eliminating 10 Missile Zeb Kills.
Yet another theoretically human-viable itemset would collect Ice Beam as its special item, as well as replace Charge Beam with a Power Bomb pack to allow Draygon Ammo Underflow:
Ice Beam would be used to climb Main Street and Mt. Everest by freezing enemies. It would also be used for Mochtroid Clip in Botwoon Hallway, as well as allow for climbing Halfie Climb Room without the use of L+R. It also would make Colosseum much more lenient, as well as making the Tourian Metroid Rooms much faster and easier.
The Power Bomb pack replacing Charge would allow for Draygon Ammo Underflow with a maximum of 10 Power Bombs, forcing the runner to rely on a 4% drop chance and drop positioning from Draygon Goop. Following Draygon snipe kill, they could then use that sparksuit to escape Precious Room, and the rest of the run would be rather simple from there.
Yet yet another theoretically human-viable itemset would essentially be identical to 12% Xray, but with required Draygon Ammo Underflow to skip Charge:
X-Ray Scope would be used to skip Botwoon and avoid L+R in Halfie Climb Room by X-ray climbing Out of Bounds and using a room copy from above the room to enter Colosseum instead.
As previously explained, performing Draygon Ammo Underflow with a max of 10 Power Bombs is no easy feat- requiring both a 4% drop chance and good positioning from Draygon Goop, but otherwise identical to normal ammo underflow. The resulting sparksuit can then be used to escape Precious Room, or the runner can instead X-ray climb out instead, and use the sparksuit to avoid snipe kill instead.
Tool Assisted
TAS can use the following item set instead:
Speed Booster is a second means of entering the out of bounds, as depending on when one pauses during a shinespark, they can pass through door transitions. TAS would not need Speed Booster for such a thing as it would only require it for escaping Draygon's entry chamber and skipping Zebetites; however, using a shinespark to pass through a horizontal door transition would be much faster than without, as passing through a horizontal door transition without Speed Booster would require multiple pauses and frame-perfect movement inputs as opposed to a single pause and a frame-perfect/position-perfect timing of the shinespark.
This branch of 12% is considered TAS-only because the only known way to reach the Maridian mountain with these items and a retained sparksuit is by entering it from the Red Brinstar connecting area, which involves entering the Red Brinstar elevator room's out of bounds area. Normally this would not be an issue for humans as you can enter the out of bounds by shinesparking through the upper left door, but because you need to keep the aforementioned blue suit retained before entering Maridia, shinesparking is not an option. Additionally, one would need to perform Everest Slopespark to preserve the sparksuit up to Pre-Botwoon, where it would then be used to gain access to Botwoon. However, L+R would then have to be used to ascend Halfie Climb, and then one would perform speedkeep shenanigans in Colosseum to obtain a sparksuit to escape from Draygon's room.
An alternative, more human-friendly (but still exceptionally challenging!) route would obtain a sparksuit, then perform Broken Tube Jump from on top of the tube to gain access to Fish Tank, where one would then perform Fish Tank Climb with a stored sparksuit, simply to avoid TAS doorskip to reverse enter Maridia.
A very similar itemset that replaces Charge Beam with a Power Bomb pack would have essentially the same progression, but then would have to rely on a 4% Power Bomb drop from Draygon Spit to perform Draygon Ammo Underflow with a maximum of 10 Power Bombs. The only upside to this route would be that one could then use the resulting sparksuit to escape Precious Room, meaning speedkeep in Colosseum would not be required.
In addition to 12% Speed, TAS can also use the following itemset:
This itemset is functionally similar to 12% Speed, but with required Draygon Ammo Underflow and the ability to convert a sparksuit into blue suit without utilizing suit upgrades.
Theoretically, this is a much more human-viable category than 12% Speed due to being able to avoid L+R by sparking up Halfie Climb with a blue suit, but it still requires the Morph horizontal doorskip to reverse enter Maridia if one wanted to avoid Fish Tank Climb and Forgotten Highway to Tube Jump. In a manner similar to 13% Chargeless, 13% Speed, and theoretical 12% Speed, one would need to perform Everest Slopespark to keep a sparksuit to Aqueduct, which could then be converted into a blue suit to get past Pre-Botwoon and then spark up Halfie Climb, therefore avoiding L+R.
Draygon Ammo Underflow would then be performed, and in combination with snipe kill, one could then use the resulting sparksuit to escape Draygon's entry chamber.
Tool Assisted (Theoretical)
Theoretically, TAS can also use the following item set:
All three tanks are replaced with Grapple Beam, Wave Beam, and Ice Beam. X-Ray Scope is capable of creating an artificial Varia Suit in the out of bounds area above Mother Brain.
TAS can trigger Mother Brain to enter her second phase while stuck in the right wall via Rinka freezing (making Ice Beam necessary), then X-Ray climb up into the ceiling and fight Mother Brain's second phase from the ceiling. Wave Beam is required as it, and only it, allows charged shots to pass through the ceiling and strike Mother Brain (however, by freezing Rinkas and sinking into them, like with Botwoon Skip, it may even be possible to drop Wave Beam and only acquire 11%).
Before rainbow beam is fired (which can strike the player no matter where they are in the out of bounds and drag them immediately back into the room), TAS would have to reach the proper position in the out of bounds to create the Varia Suit and then acquire the Varia Suit, which is only possible by being touched with the Grapple Beam, else the game crashes.
Acquiring the Varia Suit immediately places Samus back in the middle of Mother Brain's chamber, and allows the game to be paused during rainbow beam, which allows pause abuse to be used (thus no Energy Tanks are needed!) until the Super Metroid refills Samus's energy. Then everything can finish like normally.
Future Applications
Suitless downwards doorskips have been proven possible by Bobbob, meaning that not only can one obtain Super Missiles before Missiles as shown in the below video, but also that Main Street, Fish Tank, and Everest can all be skipped entirely in favor of a specific OoB transition block that will warp the player to Crab Shaft.
Additionally, this means that one can access Botwoon using a downwards doorskip in Botwoon Hallway to circumvent the Speed Blocks. Both tricks would result in much easier, faster routing for 12% Speed, 12% Chargeless, and potentially open up more 12% categories such as 12% Hi-Jump Boots (PAL-exclusive due to being able to escape Precious Room and ascend Halfie Climb Room with L+R and Hijump, would require 10 Missile Zebetite Kills), or complete 12% Speed-Pb, 12% Chargeless and 12% Speed entirely without the use of L+R, TAS doorskip, Fish Tank Climb, or Everest Slopespark.
Tutorials
- Sniq - Shows how to complete 12% using the KRDP route with a hitbox viewer present. Not necessarily a tutorial, but is currently the best resource for learning the category.
- Chabo - A playthrough based on Sniq's video, with accompanying notes that detail setups for the Out of Bounds navigation.
