Mother Brain Room
| Mother Brain Room | |
|---|---|
| Zone | Tourian |
| Utility | Boss |
| Theme | Tourian |
| Tourian Escape Room 1 | Adjacent rooms | Rinka Shaft |
|---|---|---|
Room state 1 & 2
Room state 3
Contents
- 1 Without Zebetite Glitch
- 2 Zebetite Glitch
- 3 Escape
- 4 See also
- 5 External links
Without Zebetite Glitch
A rough guess is that a beginner needs around 80 Missiles and 15 Super Missiles to get through Mother Brain 1 without the Zebetite Skip.
With optimal ammo usage, the following Missile + Super Missile loadouts suffice:
- Five refills (after each Zebetite and after fully breaking Mother Brain's glass): 20+4.
- Four refills (after each Zebetite): 5+20; 10+13; 15+7.
- Four refills (after each Zebetite except one, and after fully breaking MB's glass): 20+5.
- Three refills (after each two Zebetites and after fully breaking MB's glass): 30+0; 25+2.
- Three refills (after each Zebetite except one): 15+10 … 10+15.
- Two refills (after each two Zebetites): 40+0; 25+5 … 20+10 … 15+15 … 10+20 … 5+25.
- One refill (after 4 Zebetites): 45+0.
- One refill (after 3 Zebetites): 50+0; 35+5 … 25+10 … 20+15 … 15+20.
- No refills: 80+0 … 65+5 … 50+10 … 35+15 … 20+20; 10+25; 5+30; 0+32.
If the player also wants to avoid an initial trip to defeat the Gadora in Tourian Eye Door Room and/or to open the red door in Rinka Shaft, to these numbers should be added roughly either 10 Missiles or 2 Super Missiles.
A player who has capacity for less than 30 Missiles will risk a soft lock at this part of a run, if they prematurely run out of Super Missiles — which cannot be refilled in Tourian to continue the fight. MB1 is only vulnerable to Missiles and Super Missiles.
Zebetite Glitch
The Zebetite glitch, also known as "Zebetite skip" (typically shortened to "Zeb skip"), allows for bypassing the Zebetites preceding Mother Brain. By passing through the first or second Zebetite (without destroying it), it causes all remaining Zebetites to not spawn. This saves over a minute in categories where minimal ammo is acquired, conserving both ammo and potentially health compared to trying to bust through the Zebetites.
The Zebetite glitch can be performed with either Ice Beam, Speed Booster, or (if out of bounds is permitted) X-Ray Scope.
Getting the Zebetite Skip is dependent on Samus's subpixel positioning. Both horizontal (x) and vertical (y) subpixel values can cause the skip to fail sometimes, even is the technique is performed correctly. Setups that normalize the x and/or y subpixels can increase the rate of success.
Ice Beam (Wave Beam)
This version of the Zebetite glitch is by far the easiest to execute, and is slightly faster than most of the other versions.
- Upon entering the room, jump and land next to the first Zebetite
- Crouch while using angle down to aim at the spawn location of the Rinka that spawns beneath the Zebetite
- Freeze the Rinka once it spawns beneath you (before it moves)
- Take a hit that gives you invulnerability (whether it be from the Zebetite itself, a Rinka, or a turret shot - invulnerability is required to pass through)
- Do a small Spinjump to align to the right side of the frozen Rinka
- Jump and hold left (not a spinjump) to clip through the Zebetite before your invulnerability wears off.
If executed correctly, you should pass through the first Zebetite.
After the Rinka is frozen (step 3), doing spin jumps against the Zebetite will, most of the time, let Samus take a hit from the Zebetite (deals 0 damage), granting i-frames; doing the same but with i-frames will, most of the time, position Samus to pass through the Zebetite. Therefore, if the initial setup fails, a common backup is to do small spin jumps into the Zebetite to get pass it.
Screw Attack must be turned off for this method of Zeb Skip. See below for techniques that can be done with it turned on.
Ice Beam (Low%)
If you do not have Wave Beam, such as in 14% Ice, freezing the Rinka below the Zebetite is a bit trickier. The main difference is that you will need to fire directly up at the Rinka from below its location before attempting to spin through the Zebetite.
- Upon entering the room, run directly left under the first Zebetite
- Press against the wall and aim directly up
- Freeze the Rinka once it spawns above you
- Jump up next to the Zebetite
- Spinjump through the Zebetite once you have gained invulnerability
You can effectively combine steps four and five by aligning to the right side of the Rinka from a spinjump from the floor. Being struck by the Zebetite will not deal any damage, which is helpful for lower-percentage categories.
In Randomizer, if you have only Plasma and Ice without Wave, you will need to either turn Plasma off, or crouch and aim up for this to work.
Ice Beam (Screw Attack)
If you have Screw Attack enabled, such as in 100%, GT Classic, and Reverse Boss Order, it will affect how you can perform the Zebetite skip. Because spinjumping with Screw Attack equipped will reset your invulnerability, passing through the Zebetite by freezing a Rinka without spinjumping is only possible by performing one of the methods below.
Downbacking
- Upon entering the room, continue to run forward and run off while holding forward until you have landed on the floor
- Jump up into the Rinka above (should be able to do this immediately upon landing)
- Perform a downback after being struck by the Rinka
- As you are performing the downback, freeze the Rinka once it spawns beneath you
- Jump through the Zebetite
It is important to remember that for step four, you continue to hold the inputs for the downback until you have landed, so that you become partially clipped into the Zebetite, so that you can perform a normal (non-spinjump) jump through the Zebetite to pass through.
This method is also slightly faster than the standard spinjump method even for Any%, as long as you're consistent at executing it.
Downbacking with Subpixel Normalization
It is possible to normalize Samus's horizontal subpixel value by bonking the T-shaped small platform in front of the Zebetite during your jump:
- Spin jump towards the Zebetite making sure to bonk the T platform
- Keep holding left after the bonk, but release left (and other dpad inputs) before the Rinka damage
- Once damaged, perform a downback and freeze the Rinka right before landing
As long as you bonk this platform, and you're NOT pressing left on the D-pad at the moment you contact the Rinka, you will be guaranteed a good horizontal subpixel for the Zeb skip
In the practice hack, the player can activate the "X Position" infohud mode to check if the bonk is happening. As in the video above, the player should see Samus's X position stop at 837.8000 on the way up; then 837.0000 on the way down. After you you successfully clip into the zeb, your horizontal position will become 836.0000.
Samus's vertical subpixel positioning depends only on the frame on which you start your downback. After the top Rinka knocks you back, there is a pattern of "good frames" and "bad frames" where starting a downback will or will not give you the correct positioning. The pattern is: 4 good frames, then 1 bad frame, then 5 good, 2 bad, 2 good, 5 bad, 1 good, then all the rest are bad. Therefore, it's best to start your downback relatively early to aim for the clusters of 4 or 5 good frames.
This method normalizes the x subpixel to a "good" value and, if the player can execute the downback correctly in a "good frame", then the y subpixel will also be in a "good" value. Therefore, this setup depends only on the player and can be up to 100% consistent.
Screw Attack + Space Jump
Because Screw would destroy the Rinka in the above setup, other normalization options are necessary.
With Space Jump, it is possible to bonk the turret small wall at the top for x subpixel normalization:
- Spin jump to bonk the turret wall at the top and hold left to reach the Zebetite
- Space jump and immediately break out of spin (still holding jump)
- Once damaged by the Rinka, proceed to the downback and then freeze the Rinka right before landing
- After Samus is crouched in place, release dpad to jump then hold left.
Screw Attack
Without Space Jump, a Morph method that uses the wall at the top of the Zebetite is:
- Jump against the Zebetite, Morph mid air, and hold left
- Once damaged by the Rinka, still holding left, Samus will make contact with the top wall only, which normalizes x subpixel
- Unmorph, do the downback and freeze the Rinka right before landing.
It is important to properly manipulate the timing of the bottom Rinka so it spawns by the time Samus is nearing its position. This can be accomplished by staying more or less time within the aggro range of the bottom Rinka before jumping.
The height the unmorph happens and when the downback is initiated can affect the y subpixel. Unmorphing at or bellow the middle of the Zebetite appears to be better.
Without Downbacking or Spin Jump
- Upon entering the room, continue to run forward and run off while holding forward until you have landed on the floor
- Jump up into the Rinka above
- Move left so that you are right next to the Zebetite as you are falling
- Freeze the Rinka right before you would land next to the Zebetite
- Jump through the Zebetite
The timing of the shot is frame-perfect and is based upon when you would land next to the Zebetite, so this method is not recommended, it is simply possible.
Spring Ball Method
There is an additional method that's possible if you destroy the first Zebetite with missiles or super missiles, and then do the Zeb Skip on the second Zebetite using Spring Ball. Jump into the frozen Rinka, and Samus should be put into a crouching pose. Then just morph, and then use Spring Ball to jump through the Zebetite.
This method is used in GT Classic in an attempt to reach and defeat Mother Brain 1 and 2 with full health, in order to do the Standup Glitch without pausing to fill from reserves.
Morph Bomb Method
This method is similar to the Spring Ball Method, but the timing is tight due to the iframes potentially running out before the bomb goes off. A Bomb (or Power Bomb) can also propel you into the proper position to skip the second Zebetite.
Remorph Method
Where the Spring Ball and Bomb methods can use straight jumps to get into the crouched position, you can also spin jump into the frozen Rinka, then morph, unmorph, and morph again.
Zeb Skip Grapple Boost
If you have Grappling Beam, once you're standing partially within the wall and aligned to the frozen Rinka, you can shoot the Grappling Beam into the Zeb, and it will move you up to the level of the bottom of the Zebetite, so you can just run forward, without needing to jump an additional time.
This was discovered by Sniq while making the 100% TAS in 2019.
Grapple can also similarly be used to speed up the Remorph method shown above. Once you're in position, shoot the Grappling Beam, then morph and roll through.
Speed Booster
This version of the Zebetite glitch is required in a 14% Speed run. It can also be performed to avoid having to perform one of the "with Screw Attack" Ice Beam methods listed previously; however, due to the ease of the standard Ice Beam version, usually people simply disable Screw Attack before performing the standard Ice Beam version rather than attempt this version.
- Short charge a shinespark from the bottom right wall of the Rinka Shaft
- Run directly left under the first Zebetite (with the shinespark charged)
- While holding angle up, facing left, and pressed against the wall, activate the shinespark
- As the shinespark's crash animation ends, hold down on the directional pad while mashing the jump button (otherwise, you will become stuck in the bottom portion of the Zebetite)
- Once fully inside the Zebetite, move left to escape (before your invulnerability runs out, which would allow the Zebetite to potentially eject you towards the right instead of the left)
X-Ray Scope
This version of the Zebetite glitch is required in a 12% run.
This version of the trick is very particular, because you can't take more than 4 hits from Rinkas, your invulnerability frames run out while x-ray is active, taking a Rinka hit while standing will knock you out of the wall, and the beam's cooldown is delayed by x-ray.
Tutorials
Escape
When you finish the Mother Brain fight, you'll see the message on-screen "Time bomb set! Escape immediately!" In most categories you'll have Hi-Jump Boots, so if you do a full jump along the left wall when you see the entire word "Escape" come on screen, you should be able to hold left and leave the room while the timer still reads 03'00"00. Hold Angle Down as you leave the room so you can shoot the first set of barriers as soon as the next room loads.
If you don't have Hi-Jump Boots, as with most 14% categories, then you can do the same full jump slightly earlier, around the time the 'c' in "Escape" comes on screen.
