Item Randomizer

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List of Randomizers

See Randomizers

Logic and gameplay

"Logic" or "skill settings" refer to the way that the randomizer sets restrictions on each item location to ensure that no progression item is placed behind an obstacle that requires it to continue. For example, if Varia Suit is after Draygon, Gravity Suit cannot be in a location that requires Varia, like Lower Norfair(in most settings).

There are several other minor changes made to the game. The goal of these changes is to balance out item distribution, minimize idle time in the game, and minimize the chance of a soft lock.

Tournament Randomizer specific

Tournament Randomizer

There are a few restrictions on certain items.

Minor changes to the game can be can be found on the randomizer information page.

Major Item Locations

Major items are all 14 Energy Tanks, all four Reserve Tanks, and all unique items.

Wrecked Ship would have very few such items and Upper Norfair would be stacked with them. Therefore, one change is made in most or all Major-minor (M/m) rando software: the Energy Tank (Hi-Jump Boots) location is considered minor, and the Super Missile (Wrecked Ship East) location is considered major.

Routing

Due to the random nature of the item placement, there is no one optimal route. Much of the routing decision-making process boils down to where you are and what you have access to at any given time. It's generally a good idea to visit the closest location you can that has the most items, and that you can completely clear out so as to minimize backtracking.

A key difference between this run and most other runs is that you may not find Charge Beam until very late in the game, or it may not be in a location you can check without a significant time loss. It's important to know the ammo requirements for each boss, as you may not be able to fall back on charged shots, and on some bosses this can lead to a soft lock.

Super Missiles deal 300 damage (more on some foes), Power Bombs deal 200 damage twice, and Missiles deal 100 damage. For comparison, a fully charged Ice + Wave + Plasma beam deals 900 damage.

  • Botwoon has 3,000 health, which is 10 Super Missiles
    • His hit boxes can be misleading, so care should be taken if your ammo count isn't much higher than required
  • Ridley has 18,000 health, but takes 2x damage from Super Missiles, so you only need 30
    • Power Bombs can hit him twice if timed correctly
  • Mother Brain 1 requires 19 hits with at least 3,000 damage total
  • Mother Brain 2 has 18,000 health, which is 60 Super Missiles, on top of whatever you use for phase 1

In addition, if you don't find ice beam, you can clear all of the Metroids in Tourian with 12 power bombs. If you can't hold that many, you may need to leave Tourian and farm drops to kill all of the Metroids.

Techniques

You can also browse and enable/disable many techniques in the VARIA randomizer skill preset editor

Universal

While the randomizer can't generate the vanilla game due to the switching of the Hi-Jump Energy Tank and the Wrecked Ship East Super Missile, it is entirely possible to generate a seed that requires no advanced techniques. It's also possible to generate a seed that is significantly easier than the vanilla game, commonly referred to as a "free" seed. That being said, there are some techniques that will be useful in every seed for minimizing backtracking.

Common

Most seeds will require at least one of these techniques to complete, or to prevent a soft lock when searching for items.

Uncommon

Rare

It's rare that any given seed will require any of these techniques, but it is possible for a seed to generate that requires one or more of these techniques to complete.

Max difficulty

Some of these can make your run a bit faster, but most settings (including the whole Tournament Randomizer) will never generate a seed where these tricks are required to complete. Unless you are very consistent with them, attempting these tricks is generally slower than just going back and looking for the required items.

Offline Randomizer

Offline Randomizer