A complete guide to Super Metroid speedrunning - User contributions [en]

Phantoon

2025-10-11T22:58:39Z

NobodyNada: spaaaaaaace

{{Boss info
|title=Phantoon
|image=Phantoon.png
|location=[[Phantoon's Room]], [[Wrecked Ship]]
|health=2500
}}

= General Information =

Phantoon has 2500 health.

Phantoon is only vulnerable to damage through his eye when it is exposed, where [[Missile|Missiles]], [[Super Missile|Super Missiles]], [[Charge Beam|charged shots]], and [[Charge Beam Combos|special beam attacks]] will deal damage.

Super Missiles will deal 600 damage to Phantoon instead of their normal 300; however, using a Super Missile on Phantoon that does not finish him off will enrage Phantoon, causing him to spend roughly 18 seconds sending waves of flames down from above before starting another pattern.

Phantoon's flames can be negated by [[Pseudo Screw Attack|pseudo-Screw]] or [[Screw Attack]].

Phantoon will perform one of six patterns to begin the fight, and then will perform one of six different patterns in the second round, as well as remaining rounds thereafter. (12 total patterns)

A "round" consists of the time from which Phantoon appears to begin a pattern, to the point he disappears to start another pattern or perishes.

Both Phantoon and his flames will deal 10 / 20 / 40 damage to [[Gravity Suit]] / [[Varia Suit]] / [[Power Suit]] Samus, respectively.

Multiple flames can strike Samus at once. If you are on top of Phantoon's eye without invulnerability as he opens and produces eight flames, they can all collide with Samus at once, which usually spells death, and is referred to as the "Sunrise Surprise."

= Interactions =

== Figure 8 ==

Phantoon will move in a figure 8 type of motion around the room until he opens his eye, dropping flames as he does so. These flames can [[Enemies#Bosses|drop items]].

Phantoon can open at either a 'fast', 'medium', or 'slow' speed. A 'fast' opening will have Phantoon open his eye around one second after becoming visible. A 'medium' opening will take about five seconds longer than a 'fast' opening, and a 'slow' opening will take about five seconds longer than a 'medium' opening.

===First Round===

In the first round, Phantoon will start at the top center of the room and then choose to move to the right or to the left, each with 50% chance. A right side figure 8 will always be the same pattern, with Phantoon opening his eye in one of three possible positions, named "fast", "mid" and "slow". Similarly, a left side figure 8 will always be the same, with the three possible positions for the eye to open named "fast", "mid" and "slow". Given a right or left side pattern, fasts and mids have 25% chance each, while slows have 50% chance of occurring. The frame Phantoon starts moving is what sets where Phantoon's eye will open.

===Second Round===

For the second and subsequent rounds, Phantoon will start at either the top right or top left of the room and proceed to move in a figure 8 pattern. Even though these two figure 8 patterns are different from those of the first round, they also are always the same and each have three different eye opening spots, "fast", "mid" and "slow". The percentages for each eye opening spot [https://milde.no/public/sm/science/PhantoonRng.txt have been simulated to be]

* left: fast 24.52% | mid 0.70% | slow 24.87%

* right: fast 0.35% | mid 36.80% | slow 12.76%

Therefore, the compounded percentages for second round and above are:

* left 50.09% | right 49.91%

* fast 24.87% | mid 37.50% | slow 37.63%

===Flames===

Whenever Phantoon is moving in figure 8, flames will drop from his eye as if tears. There are four possible flame patterns, each with 25% chance of being chosen and with a roughly 3 second cooldown between them. Indicating a flame by "F" and a 16 frames interval by "-", the four flame patterns are:

* F-F-F (quick 3)

* F--F--F--F--F (moderate 5)

* F---F---F---F---F---F---F (sluggish 7)

* F-F--F----F--F----F-F (varied 7 or 322)

A flame pattern that is interrupted by Phantoon's eye opening will be paused and continued later, when Phantoon closes his eye and starts doing figure 8's again (this still applies if Phantoon turns invisible).

Phantoon's flame patterns during the first round are strongly correlated with his movement direction: if Phantoon moves left, he is unlikely to choose a "moderate 5" or "sluggish 7"; while if Phantoon moves right, he is unlikely to choose a "quick 3" or "varied 7" (less than 0.5% each):

Left:
Pattern | Chance
---------+--------
22222 | 0.833%
111 | 24.123%
3333333 | 0.921%
2124241 | 24.035%

Right:
Pattern | Chance
---------+--------
22222 | 24.254%
111 | 0.746%
3333333 | 24.079%
2124241 | 1.009%

Correlations can also be found between Phantoon's second-and-later-round movement patterns and flame patterns, but they are dependent on the previous rounds' movement and flame patterns.

== Eye Open ==

When Phantoon's eye opens from a pattern, he will produce eight flames that will spiral outward across the screen. The image below shows the probability of a given pattern in a given round, the position where Phantoon will open his eye, and the position(s) that will give the best chance of destroying all of the flames with one shot.

[[File:Phantoon-patterns.png|thumb|none|600px|alt=Probability of each Phantoon pattern by round, with positions of eye opening and where to stand to shoot the flames|Phantoon Pattern Probabilities by Round]]

After Phantoon takes damage during this opening, he will fly around the room in a similar manner, attempting to ram Samus. Samus's positioning will influence his movement.

Phantoon can be damaged at multiple points during an opening. If Phantoon takes 300+ damage during one barrage, he will disappear to start another pattern, so make sure to keep your shots spaced out enough. If Phantoon has taken a total of 400+ damage after the third barrage (example - Missile hit, wait for a second, repeat three times), he will disappear to start another pattern. If Phantoon is struck with a Super Missile at any point during his opening, he will disappear to begin an enrage phase. If Phantoon is not made to disappear from one of these conditions, he will naturally disappear on his own after about six seconds of flying around.

If Phantoon does not take damage after opening his eye (from a figure 8 pattern), he will close his eye, disappear, and start to move in a figure 8 pattern but now invisible (flames continue to drop). When invisble Phantoon opens his eye, instead of sending a spiral of flames out, he will rain flames down in a horizontal line from the ceiling. After the first time he opens in this manner, he will continue to disappear and reopen every couple of seconds while continuing to rain flames until he takes damage.

Phantoon can close his eye at either a 'fast', 'medium', or 'slow' speed. The amount of time the eye stays open and its chance percentages are: 15 frames, 25% | 30 frames, 37.5% | 60 frames, 37.5%.

If Phantoon was hit with a charged plasma shot in the previous round, he will become vulnerable seven frames later than usual after opening his eye. This reduces his window of vulnerability: for a fast eye close you only get an 8 frame window to hit Phantoon rather than a usual 15. This occurs because the charged plasma shot gives Phantoon 16 iframes, but he disappears and becomes invulnerable after 9 frames. The game does not process iframes while Phantoon is invulnerable, so his 7 leftover iframes are preserved until the next time he opens his eye.

== Enrage ==

As stated previously, Phantoon will enrage if struck with a Super Missile that does not destroy him. Phantoon cannot be damaged while in this state. He will stay at the top of the screen where he will send waves of flames whipping down from the ceiling that will alternate from left to right. The waves happen at 128 frame intervals.

After eight waves, he will disappear to start another pattern.

With appropriately-timed beam shots, you can destroy many of these flames at once, thus farming them. Alternatively, you can perform a pseudo-Screw throughout this entire phase to avoid all damage.

=== Enrage Skip ===

If a Super hits Phantoon on the specific frame as he starts moving around the room, he will not become enraged. If implemented in a run this would allow for killing Phantoon in a single round, though it would be very difficult.

{{#ev:youtube|CEqi68cc70o}}

[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KVWUEc_Z7pG_1ycbEB5FIhKkPLBaeKAxrJ4javr2i5M/edit?usp=sharing FreyasSpirit's analysis of Phantoon's AI to explain this behavior]

= Categories =

== Phantoon First ==

=== Any% PRKD ===

The primary method for destroying Phantoon in this category is through the use of the "[http://tasvideos.org/GameResources/SNES/SuperMetroid.html#Phantoon doppler]" technique. Basically, whenever Phantoon takes damage that would make him disappear (excluding being struck with a Super Missile), he will attempt to close his eye; however, Phantoon needs some time (approximately ten frames) for that to happen, making it possible for him to continue to take damage if this time is interrupted, which it can be if Missiles are fired at the appropriate rate.

The cooldown for missiles is 9 frames, but to avoid having an input not register by being too early, the ideal doppler spacing is 10 frames. This gives a tempo of 360 beats per minute, which this video essentially gives a metronome for.

{{#ev:youtube|-mWsZ3mqFPw}}

The easiest method for performing a doppler on Phantoon is to allow him to fly off-screen, then hold a forward direction while mashing the shot button with Missiles selected until you are right next to Phantoon. Doing so, you should be able to consistently have three to four Missiles connect with Phantoon before he disappears.

A typical round utilizing the doppler in this manner will look something like this:

* Fire an uncharged beam shot towards Phantoon to extinguish the flames he generates upon opening from a pattern
* Fire two Missiles at Phantoon, then wait briefly
* Fire two Missiles at Phantoon, then let him gain some distance
* Fire as many Missiles as you can while walking towards him right as he would re-enter the room

Even doing something as simple as this, you can become consistent at defeating Phantoon in under four rounds. In the last round, you will want to fire a Super Missile at the end of your third barrage. If you managed to doppler efficiently enough in the first two rounds, then you may not need to doppler anything at all in the third round.

It is possible to slay Phantoon in under three rounds if you incorporate stuttering during your doppler to have more Missiles land. Ideally, you will be able to strike Phantoon with ten Missiles total in the first round (2-2-6) and nine Missiles with the Super Missile as a finisher (2-2-5+S) in the second round. It is possible to still two round even with a worse first round, but every additional Missile needed makes it that much more unlikely.

{{#ev:youtube|cl7ETKGNflQ}}

Another option for this fight is to incorporate charged shots between Missile barrages. Two charge shots will reduce the amount of Missiles normally required by one, potentially making a two round fight easier in that regard.

A concern for this strategy is having enough ammo to defeat Phantoon in these few rounds. Although fast patterns are certainly ideal for speedrunning, multiple fast patterns can cause the player to run into an issue where they are not equipped with enough Missiles from drops to defeat Phantoon accordingly with the doppler technique.

Being familiar with how Phantoon will move off-screen and how Samus can influence his movement is important here. Without proper manipulation of Phantoon, there will be certain patterns where he will fly directly over your attempt at a doppler if you allow him to fly off-screen. For these patterns, having Samus jump up a certain height right as Phantoon swings off-screen can influence him into having a lower positioning when he swings back into the room.

For each pattern, there's also a way to doppler Phantoon while keeping him on-screen, which is a few seconds faster than letting him go off-screen. This may involve a very difficult move such as an Air Doppler.

{{#ev:youtube|fiuQTIZCXOg}}

{{#ev:youtube|gc_i6AGMOzQ}}

Slower patterns tend to be the hardest to punish due to the time in which Phantoon will lay flames before opening, as well as the position in which Phantoon will open from these patterns. It is recommended to practice those the most, especially since you are likely to receive them the most in runs.

The optimal manner of dealing with the eight flames Phantoon produces when he opens his eye from a pattern is to fire a single beam shot at them, such that the beam shot consumes all of the flames at once, leaving Phantoon's eye directly exposed to Missiles, and leaving a cluster of drops floating in the air. You can alternatively dodge them with pseudo-Screw or possibly by being morphed. In case you miss the opening beam shot, you can try intercepting flames with the beam as well.

Something you may have to get used to is that the hitbox of the uncharged [[Power Beam]] is small enough that it can appear to pass through flames.

Due to the lack of Varia Suit, everything will deal at least 40 damage, making large energy drops much less effective than in Phantoon Second routes since it would require two of them to nullify a flame's damage. It can also put you in an awkward position where, if you end up between 30 and 40 energy, you will be low enough to die to a single flame, but not low enough to force the 'health bomb' effect to occur.

If Phantoon begins to rain flames, you can crouch or morph to lower the chance of Phantoon appearing on top of you, and hold angle buttons appropriately to shoot the flames that would fall on top of you, while also striking Phantoon with a Missile or two when you have the opportunity. For maximum safety, you can strike Phantoon with three Missiles in a row so that he will disappear and start another pattern.

=== 14% ===

Basically, all information for [[Any% PRKD]] also applies here; however, in 14% categories, the chance of executing a two-round on Phantoon is reduced due to always having a cap of 10 Missiles, making well-timed Missile drops more important than in Any% PRKD.

== Phantoon Second ==

There are multiple good strategies for fighting Phantoon second depending on skill level, category and future goals.

For beginners, starting with Ice/Wave/Spazer Charge shots is recommended. Adding in missiles can improve this approach to a 3 round fight.

Intermediate/Advanced players should decide between x-factors or missile doppler strategies to accomplish 2 round fights. X-Factors are only relevant to certain categories but are much easier to master than dopplers. Dopplers are applicable to every category but take much longer to become proficient with.

=== Any% KPDR (Ice/Wave/Spazer Charge Only) ===

Beginner strategy. With Charge Beam, [[Wave Beam]], and [[Spazer]] equipped, you can slay Phantoon in four rounds.

Strike Phantoon with a charge shot when he opens, then hit him with two more and he should disappear. Repeat this process three more times and he should perish. This can be sped up slightly by the inclusion of a Super Missile in the last round - charge shot when he opens, then Super Missile.

It can help to fight from the corners of the room (probably the left corner) to minimize damage. The flames Phantoon drops will rarely reach the corners of the room before being shot. You can crouch in the bottom left corner when flames are raining down, and aim up to shoot the flame that would land and fall on top of you during this scenario. Phantoon's body should rarely (if ever) touch you when performing this strategy.

To minimize damage taken, fight from the corners, usually the left corner. Flames he drops while moving around rarely touch the corners before you can shoot them. Then crouch in the bottom left corner when he is in the rain state. You should rarely, if ever, get touched by his body doing this. Aim up and shoot to kill the flame that would land and fall on you. Strike Phantoon in the middle or right side of the screen to help prevent him from drifting into you, which should give you time to hit with the three charge shots needed to make him disappear before he would fly into you. Jumping and shooting across the center of the screen to hit him off-screen works in most situations; however, you should listen for Phantoon's cry to confirm that you actually damaged him.

This method should also work with [[Ice Beam]] instead of Wave Beam in this combo; however, it would be much more difficult to execute since the beam would not penetrate the walls. There is also essentially no reason to not have Wave Beam at this point anyway, so this is simply a note for knowledge purposes.

=== Any% KPDR (Charge Plus Missiles) ===

In the 2018 Any% Tournament, runner MassHesteria demonstrated a good technique for runners who pick up both Spazer, and Early Ice. For each round, fire two missiles, then two missiles, then a Charge Shot. This will kill Phantoon in 4 rounds. This allows the runner to save on pauses compared with the Beginner technique listed above.

It can finish in 3 rounds if you use a Missile and a Super Missile in a mini-doppler pattern on the third round. This technique can save ample time over a three-round doppler if you still need phantoon to fly offscreen in order to hit enough missiles to achieve the 3 round, since the first two rounds don't need to wait for Phantoon to come back on-screen.

{{#ev:youtube|vpZ6TnEXlKQ}}

=== Any% KPDR (popTOON - X-Factor Plus Missiles) ===

With this strategy you do not need to know every eye open position that Phantoon has and is a strat for easy 2 round Phantoons once you get the hang of it. While it can certainly help to know them it is not explicitly necessary.
The hybrid strat for Phantoon is 2 missiles, 2 missiles, xfactor, 2 missiles, 2 missiles, super missile (2 missiles, 2 missiles, xfactor, 2 missiles, 2 missiles xfactor - this is if you have no super missiles for round 2). When Phantoons eye opens, you want to shoot two regular missiles (reds) into Phantoon, then dash to the left wall, do a full jump and at the peak fire two more regular missiles (reds) into Phantoon. Immediately press and hold right and menu over to power bombs. As soon as you are towards the lower portion of Phantoons body you will want to start charging to perform an X-Factor. Continue holding right until you reach the right side wall, you want to make your way to this wall without using dash. Once you reach the wall, perform a full jump (with no spin) this will pull Phantoon to the top of the screen where your X-factor will connect with all four shots. From there you will want to shoot 2 more missiles into Phantoons eye when it opens next, wait a moment, fire two more missiles, and then immediately a super missile. That will finish off Phantoon. If you do not have a super missile to finish the fight, simply repeat the pattern for round 1 and do a double x-factor instead.

[https://youtu.be/G7_vN68P6Fw?si=OLtzowm3gzSyrdPh Popplars' popTOON explanation]

=== Any% KPDR (X-Factor Only) ===

One optimal strategy for defeating Phantoon is to utilize the [[Charge_Beam_Combos#Wave_Shield|X-Factor]] to attempt to defeat Phantoon in only two on-screen rounds. This saves some time over popTOON and 2 round dopplers.

You will want to open every time with a pseudo-Screw (from your charge shot that you are about to use) to avoid the flames from Phantoon's opening, then use the charge shot directly on Phantoon, followed by the X-Factor, performed accordingly based on the speed and position of Phantoon's opening.

Below are guides which will provide strategies for each variation of Phantoon's openings. These different setups will be explained via crude drawings and text summaries.

The drawing of Phantoon is based on where he is going to appear on the screen. The black arrow is where you want to fire the charge shot for the opener. The X is where you are going to be hitting him with the X-Factor. The green line indicates the direction and way you need to move to make the X-Factor connect. For the left slow opening of the second round, the red line indicates how Phantoon is going to move.

'''1st Round'''

[http://i.imgur.com/AqMF7.png Left Fast] - Phantoon is going to appear on the bottom left and you want to make sure that you jump through the flames and hit Phantoon on his right side to initiate the setup. From here, he will recoil back, so you need to immediately start charging and run to the right. Once you hit the right wall, you need to jump to the top of the room immediately. So long as you do not turn around and you move as the green arrow indicates, it should connect every single time.

[http://i.imgur.com/JVdIQ.png Left Medium] - This is one of the easier patterns. Simply jump up, shoot him, and then face left in the middle of the room while trying not to move. If for whatever reason Phantoon is moving in an usual manner, you can make adjustments by performing turnarounds to delay the X-Factor, or by walking to the right (if you were too slow). Jumping can sometimes help, but it is not recommended. This is also the most common setup for this method of quick kill.

[http://i.imgur.com/ApvVA.png Left Slow] - Another pattern where you pretty much just shoot and stay in the middle of the room while facing left. Once again, make adjustments if it looks like it is about to fail.

[http://i.imgur.com/0FdAM.png Right Fast] - This pattern is ideal for speed and ease.

[http://i.imgur.com/MdTZN.png Right Medium] - This one is a tad tricky. You can actually hit him from three different places - the middle of the room, the top right corner, and the place displayed in the image. The place displayed in the image is probably the easiest to use, but feel free to test all three to see which of them you prefer.

[http://i.imgur.com/OVn5x.png Right Slow] - Not much needs to be said here.

'''2nd Round'''

[http://i.imgur.com/t5bhv.png Left Fast] - Similar to first round's Left Fast, you want to jump in the air, and upon landing, run to the right wall, then jump towards the ceiling.

[http://i.imgur.com/6akbt.png Left Slow] - This is by far the most complex X-Factor to setup, but so long as you move the same every time, it should connect properly. Basically, you just want to spinjump into him and as soon as the shot hits, hold left. '''Do not stop holding left and do not face right'''. After you have landed, you want to immediately jump up to the ceiling so you can manipulate Phantoon into a fixed Y-position. After you have touched the ceiling, you want to start charging up a shot right as you're about to touch the grey door to your left. Upon landing, just jump back up to the ceiling as phantoon approaches and it should hit. This one will probably require a little bit of practice since it's the only one that's timing based instead of being solely position based.

[http://i.imgur.com/oIw2u.png Right Medium] - This is by far the most common second round pattern. For the most part, it is pretty simple. As long as you stand in the middle of the room and adjust your positioning based on Phantoon's movement, it should connect.

[http://i.imgur.com/wK1kR.png Right Slow] - For this pattern, it is very helpful to run to the left wall to make it connect. You can execute from the middle of the room as well, but it is not nearly as consistent.

Below is a simple summary of the above regarding how to respond to patterns. "Track" means to predict Phantoon's movement to allow all X-Factor particles to connect. This vague description is only used when it should be relatively simple to accomplish. "Shoot" means shoot Phantoon's eye - it is implied that you begin charging the X-Factor after shooting.
{|
! Pattern (Round, Position, Speed) || Response
|-
| 1st, Left, Fast || shoot, hop, walk right
|-
| 1st, Left, Medium || jump, shoot, track
|-
| 1st, Left, Slow || jump, shoot, track
|-
| 1st, Right, Fast || jump, shoot, track
|-
| 1st, Right, Medium || shoot, hop, walk right
|-
| 1st, Right, Slow || jump, shoot, track
|-
| 2nd, Left, Fast || jump, then quickly: shoot, turn right, charge, land, move right
|-
| 2nd, Left, Slow || jump, shoot, jump, shoot, charge when in middle of screen, jump
|-
| 2nd, Right, Medium || shoot, track
|-
| 2nd, Right, Slow || jump, shoot, track
|}

The way you move after striking Phantoon when he opens his eye is much more crucial to be aware of than the speed and fluctuations of his patterns. Moving in a consistent manner and then making tiny adjustments in case of incorrect initiation of an opening is crucial for consistent execution of an X-Factor two-round.

Phantoon's speed is directly correlated to the location of Samus as she delivers the opening shot and the distance she is from him while he moves around the room. Phantoon will recoil more if Samus is nearby and speed up if Samus is far away.

For the most part, the most consistent thing a player can do is move around as little as possible to ensure that Phantoon always performs the same movement during an opening; however, there are some patterns where this is not possible.

Adjustments during the fight can be made in two ways - either moving to the the left or right depending on Phantoon's position, or turning around while charging. Performing turnarounds while charging the beam will delay the X-Factor by a small amount of frames per each time.

Behemoth's method of this fight involves opening up with a charge shot per usual, then firing a Missile right after the first X-Factor particles collide, before Phantoon disappears from the damage, and then firing 3 Missiles and a Super Missile in the second round to finish him off.

An alternative second round method is to open with the charge shot like normal (or shoot out all the flames as phantoon opens akin to PRKD and shoot 2 missiles), and follow it up with two Missiles shortly afterward. Let Phantoon fly off screen, then at the appropriate time, fire two Missiles followed immediately by a Super Missile towards Phantoon. This is sometimes slightly slower than a second X-Factor, but conserves a [[Power Bomb]] as well as allows the player to collect the flame drops from the open on the second round if they opt to mirror the PRKD strategy. These two bonuses to the missile second round allow a player to potentially skip certain farms on the way to Phantoon if they so choose which saves even more time and is generally why the missile second round is regarded as the most optimal way to do the fight by players at the highest level.

If you were only able to damage Phantoon with one particle of the second X-Factor, then on the third round, you should be able to defeat Phantoon with two charge shots and a Super Missile.

If an X-Factor particle hits a flame (usually referred to as being "flame lamed"), you won't output enough damage to defeat Phantoon in two rounds without adapting. One way to adapt is to shoot an extra charge shot shot before the X-Factor in the second round, which entails another set of setups.

'''Video Of Every Pattern, by Nutella'''

[https://www.twitch.tv/nutella4eva/v/97258557 Every Phantoon Pattern]

=== Max% GT Code ===

Phantoon is much more difficult in this category due to only having 99 health, 5 missiles, and having to rely on Phantoon's eyedrops for more missile drops. There are a few strategies to get a semi-consistent Phantoon fight. If doing dopplers, shoot out a missile so that you have 4 missiles at all times. By doing that, you can shoot the eyedrops until Phantoon's eye opens and pick up the drops as you are performing the doppler. This is most reliable if you are at full health so the drops are always either missile drops or super drops. Alternatively, since drop rng is not something you want to depend your run on, a slightly easier variation of this doppler includes utilizing super frames which allows you to shoot a super at Phantoon without enraging him. [https://clips.twitch.tv/ObeseEagerOrangeArsonNoSexy Here is an example of a 2 round using super frames.]

Instead, if you collect charge beam, you can use a fully charged beam particle to replace the super missile. This method is much more consistent since you don't have to shoot a frame perfect super. [https://youtu.be/9-y5pfm1cEo Here is an example of a 2 round using charge beam] However this method is much more dependent on missile drops.

Another method is using [[Charge_Beam_Combos#Spazer_Shield|Golden Showers]] to replace x-factors since grabbing wave takes too much time compared to getting spazer. An optimal fight using golden showers would be to fire 2 missiles immediately after Phantoon's eye opens, waiting a bit, then firing two more missiles. Then, as Phantoon flies offscreen, select power bombs and charge as quickly as possible. If done correctly, both particles should hit and Phantoon can be beaten in 4 rounds. [https://www.twitch.tv/videos/351591951 Here is an example of that.]

This [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCwpP47E-0A video] summarizes some 2-round strategies for the common item combinations.

== Phantoon Third ==

=== Reverse Boss Order ===

Assuming you obtained [[Plasma Beam]] and thus have charged Ice/Wave/Plasma at your disposal, Phantoon will only require seven Missiles and two charge shots to defeat. You can strike Phantoon with three Missiles and a charge shot in the first round followed by four Missiles and a charge shot in the second round, or visa versa.

== Phantoon Fourth ==

=== GT Classic ===

Having the items from [[Golden Torizo Code|GT Code]] allows for the [[X-Plasma]] exploit to be performed by activating X-Ray Scope multiple times as a charged Ice/Wave/Plasma shot passes through Phantoon during an opening.

Since charged Ice/Wave/Plasma deals 900 damage, you can slay Phantoon in this manner with only one charge shot with proper X-Ray Scope activations.

Phantoon needs to be struck by a source other than the charge shot ''before'' attempting this exploit, otherwise he will simply disappear once struck without allowing the exploit to occur. Try using Missiles when he opens (a well-timed Missile can consume all of the flames when they spawn, and a second will strike Phantoon) so he will start to fly around, then perform the exploit. Be careful not to accidentally strike him with more than two Missiles in this manner, otherwise he will disappear.

{{#ev:youtube|tox6blvT5Ao}}

= Tutorials =

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1jy3dejsgQ DbX] - Explains methods for how to X-Factor not only Phantoon, but [[Botwoon]] and [[Draygon]] as well.

[https://m2k2.taigaforum.com/post/learning_about_phantoons_patterns.html M2K2] - Metroid 2002 thread about Phantoon patterns.

[https://milde.no/public/sm/science/PhantoonRng.txt Pinkus] - Further research into Phantoon's pattern RNG.

[https://www.twitch.tv/videos/351589490 MrGuyAverage] - Shows how to deal with Phantoon in Max% GT Code

[https://youtu.be/G7_vN68P6Fw?si=OLtzowm3gzSyrdPh Popplars] - popTOON strat (2 round).

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6uispJt8zk Dr_Girl_Friend] - Phantoon double X-Factor tutorial.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjdDQWAPfQ4 ShinyZeni] - Phantoon Patterns and Doppler Quick Kill Tutorial

[[Category:Bosses]]

Phantoon

2025-10-11T22:58:19Z

NobodyNada: add information about RNG correlations between Phantoon's movement and flame patterns

Phantoon

2025-03-22T21:51:41Z

NobodyNada: add note about plasma shortening phantoon's vulnerable window on the next round

{{Boss info
|title=Phantoon
|image=Phantoon.png
|location=[[Phantoon's Room]], [[Wrecked Ship]]
|health=2500
}}

= General Information =

Phantoon has 2500 health.

Phantoon is only vulnerable to damage through his eye when it is exposed, where [[Missile|Missiles]], [[Super Missile|Super Missiles]], [[Charge Beam|charged shots]], and [[Charge Beam Combos|special beam attacks]] will deal damage.

Super Missiles will deal 600 damage to Phantoon instead of their normal 300; however, using a Super Missile on Phantoon that does not finish him off will enrage Phantoon, causing him to spend roughly 18 seconds sending waves of flames down from above before starting another pattern.

Phantoon's flames can be negated by [[Pseudo Screw Attack|pseudo-Screw]] or [[Screw Attack]].

Phantoon will perform one of six patterns to begin the fight, and then will perform one of six different patterns in the second round, as well as remaining rounds thereafter. (12 total patterns)

A "round" consists of the time from which Phantoon appears to begin a pattern, to the point he disappears to start another pattern or perishes.

Both Phantoon and his flames will deal 10 / 20 / 40 damage to [[Gravity Suit]] / [[Varia Suit]] / [[Power Suit]] Samus, respectively.

Multiple flames can strike Samus at once. If you are on top of Phantoon's eye without invulnerability as he opens and produces eight flames, they can all collide with Samus at once, which usually spells death, and is referred to as the "Sunrise Surprise."

= Interactions =

== Figure 8 ==

Phantoon will move in a figure 8 type of motion around the room until he opens his eye, dropping flames as he does so. These flames can [[Enemies#Bosses|drop items]].

Phantoon can open at either a 'fast', 'medium', or 'slow' speed. A 'fast' opening will have Phantoon open his eye around one second after becoming visible. A 'medium' opening will take about five seconds longer than a 'fast' opening, and a 'slow' opening will take about five seconds longer than a 'medium' opening.

===First Round===

In the first round, Phantoon will start at the top center of the room and then choose to move to the right or to the left, each with 50% chance. A right side figure 8 will always be the same pattern, with Phantoon opening his eye in one of three possible positions, named "fast", "mid" and "slow". Similarly, a left side figure 8 will always be the same, with the three possible positions for the eye to open named "fast", "mid" and "slow". Given a right or left side pattern, fasts and mids have 25% chance each, while slows have 50% chance of occurring. The frame Phantoon starts moving is what sets where Phantoon's eye will open.

===Second Round===

For the second and subsequent rounds, Phantoon will start at either the top right or top left of the room and proceed to move in a figure 8 pattern. Even though these two figure 8 patterns are different from those of the first round, they also are always the same and each have three different eye opening spots, "fast", "mid" and "slow". The percentages for each eye opening spot [https://milde.no/public/sm/science/PhantoonRng.txt have been simulated to be]

* left: fast 24.52% | mid 0.70% | slow 24.87%

* right: fast 0.35% | mid 36.80% | slow 12.76%

Therefore, the compounded percentages for second round and above are:

* left 50.09% | right 49.91%

* fast 24.87% | mid 37.50% | slow 37.63%

===Flames===

Whenever Phantoon is moving in figure 8, flames will drop from his eye as if tears. There are four possible flame patterns, each with 25% chance of being chosen and with a roughly 3 second cooldown between them. Indicating a flame by "F" and a 16 frames interval by "-", the four flame patterns are:

* F-F-F (quick 3)

* F--F--F--F--F (moderate 5)

* F---F---F---F---F---F---F (sluggish 7)

* F-F--F----F--F----F-F (varied 7 or 322)

A flame pattern that is interrupted by Phantoon's eye opening will be paused and continued later, when Phantoon closes his eye and starts doing figure 8's again (this still applies if Phantoon turns invisible).

== Eye Open ==

When Phantoon's eye opens from a pattern, he will produce eight flames that will spiral outward across the screen. The image below shows the probability of a given pattern in a given round, the position where Phantoon will open his eye, and the position(s) that will give the best chance of destroying all of the flames with one shot.

[[File:Phantoon-patterns.png|thumb|none|600px|alt=Probability of each Phantoon pattern by round, with positions of eye opening and where to stand to shoot the flames|Phantoon Pattern Probabilities by Round]]

After Phantoon takes damage during this opening, he will fly around the room in a similar manner, attempting to ram Samus. Samus's positioning will influence his movement.

Phantoon can be damaged at multiple points during an opening. If Phantoon takes 300+ damage during one barrage, he will disappear to start another pattern, so make sure to keep your shots spaced out enough. If Phantoon has taken a total of 400+ damage after the third barrage (example - Missile hit, wait for a second, repeat three times), he will disappear to start another pattern. If Phantoon is struck with a Super Missile at any point during his opening, he will disappear to begin an enrage phase. If Phantoon is not made to disappear from one of these conditions, he will naturally disappear on his own after about six seconds of flying around.

If Phantoon does not take damage after opening his eye (from a figure 8 pattern), he will close his eye, disappear, and start to move in a figure 8 pattern but now invisible (flames continue to drop). When invisble Phantoon opens his eye, instead of sending a spiral of flames out, he will rain flames down in a horizontal line from the ceiling. After the first time he opens in this manner, he will continue to disappear and reopen every couple of seconds while continuing to rain flames until he takes damage.

Phantoon can close his eye at either a 'fast', 'medium', or 'slow' speed. The amount of time the eye stays open and its chance percentages are: 15 frames, 25% | 30 frames, 37.5% | 60 frames, 37.5%.

If Phantoon was hit with a charged plasma shot in the previous round, he will become vulnerable seven frames later than usual after opening his eye. This reduces his window of vulnerability: for a fast eye close you only get an 8 frame window to hit Phantoon rather than a usual 15. This occurs because the charged plasma shot gives Phantoon 16 iframes, but he disappears and becomes invulnerable after 9 frames. The game does not process iframes while Phantoon is invulnerable, so his 7 leftover iframes are preserved until the next time he opens his eye.

== Enrage ==

As stated previously, Phantoon will enrage if struck with a Super Missile that does not destroy him. Phantoon cannot be damaged while in this state. He will stay at the top of the screen where he will send waves of flames whipping down from the ceiling that will alternate from left to right. The waves happen at 128 frame intervals.

After eight waves, he will disappear to start another pattern.

With appropriately-timed beam shots, you can destroy many of these flames at once, thus farming them. Alternatively, you can perform a pseudo-Screw throughout this entire phase to avoid all damage.

=== Enrage Skip ===

If a Super hits Phantoon on the specific frame as he starts moving around the room, he will not become enraged. If implemented in a run this would allow for killing Phantoon in a single round, though it would be very difficult.

{{#ev:youtube|CEqi68cc70o}}

[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KVWUEc_Z7pG_1ycbEB5FIhKkPLBaeKAxrJ4javr2i5M/edit?usp=sharing FreyasSpirit's analysis of Phantoon's AI to explain this behavior]

= Categories =

== Phantoon First ==

=== Any% PRKD ===

The primary method for destroying Phantoon in this category is through the use of the "[http://tasvideos.org/GameResources/SNES/SuperMetroid.html#Phantoon doppler]" technique. Basically, whenever Phantoon takes damage that would make him disappear (excluding being struck with a Super Missile), he will attempt to close his eye; however, Phantoon needs some time (approximately ten frames) for that to happen, making it possible for him to continue to take damage if this time is interrupted, which it can be if Missiles are fired at the appropriate rate.

The cooldown for missiles is 9 frames, but to avoid having an input not register by being too early, the ideal doppler spacing is 10 frames. This gives a tempo of 360 beats per minute, which this video essentially gives a metronome for.

{{#ev:youtube|-mWsZ3mqFPw}}

The easiest method for performing a doppler on Phantoon is to allow him to fly off-screen, then hold a forward direction while mashing the shot button with Missiles selected until you are right next to Phantoon. Doing so, you should be able to consistently have three to four Missiles connect with Phantoon before he disappears.

A typical round utilizing the doppler in this manner will look something like this:

* Fire an uncharged beam shot towards Phantoon to extinguish the flames he generates upon opening from a pattern
* Fire two Missiles at Phantoon, then wait briefly
* Fire two Missiles at Phantoon, then let him gain some distance
* Fire as many Missiles as you can while walking towards him right as he would re-enter the room

Even doing something as simple as this, you can become consistent at defeating Phantoon in under four rounds. In the last round, you will want to fire a Super Missile at the end of your third barrage. If you managed to doppler efficiently enough in the first two rounds, then you may not need to doppler anything at all in the third round.

It is possible to slay Phantoon in under three rounds if you incorporate stuttering during your doppler to have more Missiles land. Ideally, you will be able to strike Phantoon with ten Missiles total in the first round (2-2-6) and nine Missiles with the Super Missile as a finisher (2-2-5+S) in the second round. It is possible to still two round even with a worse first round, but every additional Missile needed makes it that much more unlikely.

{{#ev:youtube|cl7ETKGNflQ}}

Another option for this fight is to incorporate charged shots between Missile barrages. Two charge shots will reduce the amount of Missiles normally required by one, potentially making a two round fight easier in that regard.

A concern for this strategy is having enough ammo to defeat Phantoon in these few rounds. Although fast patterns are certainly ideal for speedrunning, multiple fast patterns can cause the player to run into an issue where they are not equipped with enough Missiles from drops to defeat Phantoon accordingly with the doppler technique.

Being familiar with how Phantoon will move off-screen and how Samus can influence his movement is important here. Without proper manipulation of Phantoon, there will be certain patterns where he will fly directly over your attempt at a doppler if you allow him to fly off-screen. For these patterns, having Samus jump up a certain height right as Phantoon swings off-screen can influence him into having a lower positioning when he swings back into the room.

For each pattern, there's also a way to doppler Phantoon while keeping him on-screen, which is a few seconds faster than letting him go off-screen. This may involve a very difficult move such as an Air Doppler.

{{#ev:youtube|fiuQTIZCXOg}}

{{#ev:youtube|gc_i6AGMOzQ}}

Slower patterns tend to be the hardest to punish due to the time in which Phantoon will lay flames before opening, as well as the position in which Phantoon will open from these patterns. It is recommended to practice those the most, especially since you are likely to receive them the most in runs.

The optimal manner of dealing with the eight flames Phantoon produces when he opens his eye from a pattern is to fire a single beam shot at them, such that the beam shot consumes all of the flames at once, leaving Phantoon's eye directly exposed to Missiles, and leaving a cluster of drops floating in the air. You can alternatively dodge them with pseudo-Screw or possibly by being morphed. In case you miss the opening beam shot, you can try intercepting flames with the beam as well.

Something you may have to get used to is that the hitbox of the uncharged [[Power Beam]] is small enough that it can appear to pass through flames.

Due to the lack of Varia Suit, everything will deal at least 40 damage, making large energy drops much less effective than in Phantoon Second routes since it would require two of them to nullify a flame's damage. It can also put you in an awkward position where, if you end up between 30 and 40 energy, you will be low enough to die to a single flame, but not low enough to force the 'health bomb' effect to occur.

If Phantoon begins to rain flames, you can crouch or morph to lower the chance of Phantoon appearing on top of you, and hold angle buttons appropriately to shoot the flames that would fall on top of you, while also striking Phantoon with a Missile or two when you have the opportunity. For maximum safety, you can strike Phantoon with three Missiles in a row so that he will disappear and start another pattern.

=== 14% ===

Basically, all information for [[Any% PRKD]] also applies here; however, in 14% categories, the chance of executing a two-round on Phantoon is reduced due to always having a cap of 10 Missiles, making well-timed Missile drops more important than in Any% PRKD.

== Phantoon Second ==

There are multiple good strategies for fighting Phantoon second depending on skill level, category and future goals.

For beginners, starting with Ice/Wave/Spazer Charge shots is recommended. Adding in missiles can improve this approach to a 3 round fight.

Intermediate/Advanced players should decide between x-factors or missile doppler strategies to accomplish 2 round fights. X-Factors are only relevant to certain categories but are much easier to master than dopplers. Dopplers are applicable to every category but take much longer to become proficient with.

=== Any% KPDR (Ice/Wave/Spazer Charge Only) ===

Beginner strategy. With Charge Beam, [[Wave Beam]], and [[Spazer]] equipped, you can slay Phantoon in four rounds.

Strike Phantoon with a charge shot when he opens, then hit him with two more and he should disappear. Repeat this process three more times and he should perish. This can be sped up slightly by the inclusion of a Super Missile in the last round - charge shot when he opens, then Super Missile.

It can help to fight from the corners of the room (probably the left corner) to minimize damage. The flames Phantoon drops will rarely reach the corners of the room before being shot. You can crouch in the bottom left corner when flames are raining down, and aim up to shoot the flame that would land and fall on top of you during this scenario. Phantoon's body should rarely (if ever) touch you when performing this strategy.

To minimize damage taken, fight from the corners, usually the left corner. Flames he drops while moving around rarely touch the corners before you can shoot them. Then crouch in the bottom left corner when he is in the rain state. You should rarely, if ever, get touched by his body doing this. Aim up and shoot to kill the flame that would land and fall on you. Strike Phantoon in the middle or right side of the screen to help prevent him from drifting into you, which should give you time to hit with the three charge shots needed to make him disappear before he would fly into you. Jumping and shooting across the center of the screen to hit him off-screen works in most situations; however, you should listen for Phantoon's cry to confirm that you actually damaged him.

This method should also work with [[Ice Beam]] instead of Wave Beam in this combo; however, it would be much more difficult to execute since the beam would not penetrate the walls. There is also essentially no reason to not have Wave Beam at this point anyway, so this is simply a note for knowledge purposes.

=== Any% KPDR (Charge Plus Missiles) ===

In the 2018 Any% Tournament, runner MassHesteria demonstrated a good technique for runners who pick up both Spazer, and Early Ice. For each round, fire two missiles, then two missiles, then a Charge Shot. This will kill Phantoon in 4 rounds. This allows the runner to save on pauses compared with the Beginner technique listed above.

It can finish in 3 rounds if you use a Missile and a Super Missile in a mini-doppler pattern on the third round. This technique can save ample time over a three-round doppler if you still need phantoon to fly offscreen in order to hit enough missiles to achieve the 3 round, since the first two rounds don't need to wait for Phantoon to come back on-screen.

{{#ev:youtube|vpZ6TnEXlKQ}}

=== Any% KPDR (popTOON - X-Factor Plus Missiles) ===

With this strategy you do not need to know every eye open position that Phantoon has and is a strat for easy 2 round Phantoons once you get the hang of it. While it can certainly help to know them it is not explicitly necessary.
The hybrid strat for Phantoon is 2 missiles, 2 missiles, xfactor, 2 missiles, 2 missiles, super missile (2 missiles, 2 missiles, xfactor, 2 missiles, 2 missiles xfactor - this is if you have no super missiles for round 2). When Phantoons eye opens, you want to shoot two regular missiles (reds) into Phantoon, then dash to the left wall, do a full jump and at the peak fire two more regular missiles (reds) into Phantoon. Immediately press and hold right and menu over to power bombs. As soon as you are towards the lower portion of Phantoons body you will want to start charging to perform an X-Factor. Continue holding right until you reach the right side wall, you want to make your way to this wall without using dash. Once you reach the wall, perform a full jump (with no spin) this will pull Phantoon to the top of the screen where your X-factor will connect with all four shots. From there you will want to shoot 2 more missiles into Phantoons eye when it opens next, wait a moment, fire two more missiles, and then immediately a super missile. That will finish off Phantoon. If you do not have a super missile to finish the fight, simply repeat the pattern for round 1 and do a double x-factor instead.

[https://youtu.be/G7_vN68P6Fw?si=OLtzowm3gzSyrdPh Popplars' popTOON explanation]

=== Any% KPDR (X-Factor Only) ===

One optimal strategy for defeating Phantoon is to utilize the [[Charge_Beam_Combos#Wave_Shield|X-Factor]] to attempt to defeat Phantoon in only two on-screen rounds. This saves some time over popTOON and 2 round dopplers.

You will want to open every time with a pseudo-Screw (from your charge shot that you are about to use) to avoid the flames from Phantoon's opening, then use the charge shot directly on Phantoon, followed by the X-Factor, performed accordingly based on the speed and position of Phantoon's opening.

Below are guides which will provide strategies for each variation of Phantoon's openings. These different setups will be explained via crude drawings and text summaries.

The drawing of Phantoon is based on where he is going to appear on the screen. The black arrow is where you want to fire the charge shot for the opener. The X is where you are going to be hitting him with the X-Factor. The green line indicates the direction and way you need to move to make the X-Factor connect. For the left slow opening of the second round, the red line indicates how Phantoon is going to move.

'''1st Round'''

[http://i.imgur.com/AqMF7.png Left Fast] - Phantoon is going to appear on the bottom left and you want to make sure that you jump through the flames and hit Phantoon on his right side to initiate the setup. From here, he will recoil back, so you need to immediately start charging and run to the right. Once you hit the right wall, you need to jump to the top of the room immediately. So long as you do not turn around and you move as the green arrow indicates, it should connect every single time.

[http://i.imgur.com/JVdIQ.png Left Medium] - This is one of the easier patterns. Simply jump up, shoot him, and then face left in the middle of the room while trying not to move. If for whatever reason Phantoon is moving in an usual manner, you can make adjustments by performing turnarounds to delay the X-Factor, or by walking to the right (if you were too slow). Jumping can sometimes help, but it is not recommended. This is also the most common setup for this method of quick kill.

[http://i.imgur.com/ApvVA.png Left Slow] - Another pattern where you pretty much just shoot and stay in the middle of the room while facing left. Once again, make adjustments if it looks like it is about to fail.

[http://i.imgur.com/0FdAM.png Right Fast] - This pattern is ideal for speed and ease.

[http://i.imgur.com/MdTZN.png Right Medium] - This one is a tad tricky. You can actually hit him from three different places - the middle of the room, the top right corner, and the place displayed in the image. The place displayed in the image is probably the easiest to use, but feel free to test all three to see which of them you prefer.

[http://i.imgur.com/OVn5x.png Right Slow] - Not much needs to be said here.

'''2nd Round'''

[http://i.imgur.com/t5bhv.png Left Fast] - Similar to first round's Left Fast, you want to jump in the air, and upon landing, run to the right wall, then jump towards the ceiling.

[http://i.imgur.com/6akbt.png Left Slow] - This is by far the most complex X-Factor to setup, but so long as you move the same every time, it should connect properly. Basically, you just want to spinjump into him and as soon as the shot hits, hold left. '''Do not stop holding left and do not face right'''. After you have landed, you want to immediately jump up to the ceiling so you can manipulate Phantoon into a fixed Y-position. After you have touched the ceiling, you want to start charging up a shot right as you're about to touch the grey door to your left. Upon landing, just jump back up to the ceiling as phantoon approaches and it should hit. This one will probably require a little bit of practice since it's the only one that's timing based instead of being solely position based.

[http://i.imgur.com/oIw2u.png Right Medium] - This is by far the most common second round pattern. For the most part, it is pretty simple. As long as you stand in the middle of the room and adjust your positioning based on Phantoon's movement, it should connect.

[http://i.imgur.com/wK1kR.png Right Slow] - For this pattern, it is very helpful to run to the left wall to make it connect. You can execute from the middle of the room as well, but it is not nearly as consistent.

Below is a simple summary of the above regarding how to respond to patterns. "Track" means to predict Phantoon's movement to allow all X-Factor particles to connect. This vague description is only used when it should be relatively simple to accomplish. "Shoot" means shoot Phantoon's eye - it is implied that you begin charging the X-Factor after shooting.
{|
! Pattern (Round, Position, Speed) || Response
|-
| 1st, Left, Fast || shoot, hop, walk right
|-
| 1st, Left, Medium || jump, shoot, track
|-
| 1st, Left, Slow || jump, shoot, track
|-
| 1st, Right, Fast || jump, shoot, track
|-
| 1st, Right, Medium || shoot, hop, walk right
|-
| 1st, Right, Slow || jump, shoot, track
|-
| 2nd, Left, Fast || jump, then quickly: shoot, turn right, charge, land, move right
|-
| 2nd, Left, Slow || jump, shoot, jump, shoot, charge when in middle of screen, jump
|-
| 2nd, Right, Medium || shoot, track
|-
| 2nd, Right, Slow || jump, shoot, track
|}

The way you move after striking Phantoon when he opens his eye is much more crucial to be aware of than the speed and fluctuations of his patterns. Moving in a consistent manner and then making tiny adjustments in case of incorrect initiation of an opening is crucial for consistent execution of an X-Factor two-round.

Phantoon's speed is directly correlated to the location of Samus as she delivers the opening shot and the distance she is from him while he moves around the room. Phantoon will recoil more if Samus is nearby and speed up if Samus is far away.

For the most part, the most consistent thing a player can do is move around as little as possible to ensure that Phantoon always performs the same movement during an opening; however, there are some patterns where this is not possible.

Adjustments during the fight can be made in two ways - either moving to the the left or right depending on Phantoon's position, or turning around while charging. Performing turnarounds while charging the beam will delay the X-Factor by a small amount of frames per each time.

Behemoth's method of this fight involves opening up with a charge shot per usual, then firing a Missile right after the first X-Factor particles collide, before Phantoon disappears from the damage, and then firing 3 Missiles and a Super Missile in the second round to finish him off.

An alternative second round method is to open with the charge shot like normal (or shoot out all the flames as phantoon opens akin to PRKD and shoot 2 missiles), and follow it up with two Missiles shortly afterward. Let Phantoon fly off screen, then at the appropriate time, fire two Missiles followed immediately by a Super Missile towards Phantoon. This is sometimes slightly slower than a second X-Factor, but conserves a [[Power Bomb]] as well as allows the player to collect the flame drops from the open on the second round if they opt to mirror the PRKD strategy. These two bonuses to the missile second round allow a player to potentially skip certain farms on the way to Phantoon if they so choose which saves even more time and is generally why the missile second round is regarded as the most optimal way to do the fight by players at the highest level.

If you were only able to damage Phantoon with one particle of the second X-Factor, then on the third round, you should be able to defeat Phantoon with two charge shots and a Super Missile.

If an X-Factor particle hits a flame (usually referred to as being "flame lamed"), you won't output enough damage to defeat Phantoon in two rounds without adapting. One way to adapt is to shoot an extra charge shot shot before the X-Factor in the second round, which entails another set of setups.

'''Video Of Every Pattern, by Nutella'''

[https://www.twitch.tv/nutella4eva/v/97258557 Every Phantoon Pattern]

=== Max% GT Code ===

Phantoon is much more difficult in this category due to only having 99 health, 5 missiles, and having to rely on Phantoon's eyedrops for more missile drops. There are a few strategies to get a semi-consistent Phantoon fight. If doing dopplers, shoot out a missile so that you have 4 missiles at all times. By doing that, you can shoot the eyedrops until Phantoon's eye opens and pick up the drops as you are performing the doppler. This is most reliable if you are at full health so the drops are always either missile drops or super drops. Alternatively, since drop rng is not something you want to depend your run on, a slightly easier variation of this doppler includes utilizing super frames which allows you to shoot a super at Phantoon without enraging him. [https://clips.twitch.tv/ObeseEagerOrangeArsonNoSexy Here is an example of a 2 round using super frames.]

Instead, if you collect charge beam, you can use a fully charged beam particle to replace the super missile. This method is much more consistent since you don't have to shoot a frame perfect super. [https://youtu.be/9-y5pfm1cEo Here is an example of a 2 round using charge beam] However this method is much more dependent on missile drops.

Another method is using [[Charge_Beam_Combos#Spazer_Shield|Golden Showers]] to replace x-factors since grabbing wave takes too much time compared to getting spazer. An optimal fight using golden showers would be to fire 2 missiles immediately after Phantoon's eye opens, waiting a bit, then firing two more missiles. Then, as Phantoon flies offscreen, select power bombs and charge as quickly as possible. If done correctly, both particles should hit and Phantoon can be beaten in 4 rounds. [https://www.twitch.tv/videos/351591951 Here is an example of that.]

This [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCwpP47E-0A video] summarizes some 2-round strategies for the common item combinations.

== Phantoon Third ==

=== Reverse Boss Order ===

Assuming you obtained [[Plasma Beam]] and thus have charged Ice/Wave/Plasma at your disposal, Phantoon will only require seven Missiles and two charge shots to defeat. You can strike Phantoon with three Missiles and a charge shot in the first round followed by four Missiles and a charge shot in the second round, or visa versa.

== Phantoon Fourth ==

=== GT Classic ===

Having the items from [[Golden Torizo Code|GT Code]] allows for the [[X-Plasma]] exploit to be performed by activating X-Ray Scope multiple times as a charged Ice/Wave/Plasma shot passes through Phantoon during an opening.

Since charged Ice/Wave/Plasma deals 900 damage, you can slay Phantoon in this manner with only one charge shot with proper X-Ray Scope activations.

Phantoon needs to be struck by a source other than the charge shot ''before'' attempting this exploit, otherwise he will simply disappear once struck without allowing the exploit to occur. Try using Missiles when he opens (a well-timed Missile can consume all of the flames when they spawn, and a second will strike Phantoon) so he will start to fly around, then perform the exploit. Be careful not to accidentally strike him with more than two Missiles in this manner, otherwise he will disappear.

= Tutorials =

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1jy3dejsgQ DbX] - Explains methods for how to X-Factor not only Phantoon, but [[Botwoon]] and [[Draygon]] as well.

[https://m2k2.taigaforum.com/post/learning_about_phantoons_patterns.html M2K2] - Metroid 2002 thread about Phantoon patterns.

[https://milde.no/public/sm/science/PhantoonRng.txt Pinkus] - Further research into Phantoon's pattern RNG.

[https://www.twitch.tv/videos/351589490 MrGuyAverage] - Shows how to deal with Phantoon in Max% GT Code

[https://youtu.be/G7_vN68P6Fw?si=OLtzowm3gzSyrdPh Popplars] - popTOON strat (2 round).

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6uispJt8zk Dr_Girl_Friend] - Phantoon double X-Factor tutorial.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjdDQWAPfQ4 ShinyZeni] - Phantoon Patterns and Doppler Quick Kill Tutorial

= See also =

* [[Bosses]]

Race Hall of Fame

2025-01-12T07:15:07Z

NobodyNada: add AGDQ 2025

[[Category:History]]

A list of close, exciting, or infamous races that the community feels are must-watch.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! scope=col | Date
! scope=col | Event
! scope=col | Runners
! scope=col | Commentators
! scope=col | Category
! scope=col class=unsortable | VOD link
! scope=col class=unsortable | Comment (possible spoilers)
|-
| 2014-02-04 || AGDQ 2014 || Garrison, Krauser, Zoast, Ivan || sinister1, Golden || Any% || [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmfV8IhsHq0&t=1062s Youtube] || <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:400px; overflow:auto;">First big race after speedrunning started becoming popular, with a close finish. Considered one of the classic races out of all of GDQ.</div>
|-
| 2016-06-17 || 2016 Any% Tournament || WildAnaconda69, Leodox || Mishrak, typwo || Any% || [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE33upeigNk Youtube] || <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:400px; overflow:auto;">This race was PRKD vs KPDR, and synced up right at the end of MB2.</div>
|-
| 2016-06-17 || 2016 Any% Tournament || duckfist, zoast || dingus, goop.Q || Any% || [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEDL7z7nKXw Youtube] || <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:400px; overflow:auto;">Both runners died without safety saves. The race went so long that Speedgaming put the next race on-screen in a 4-way layout.</div>
|-
| 2018-03-09 || 2018 Multi-Category Tournament || Andreww, sloaters27 || Kipp, xAncient_Gamerx || GT Classic || [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTQmLgGLsp0 Youtube] || <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:400px; overflow:auto;">The race made wild swings back and forth as both runners made costly mistakes, and ended very close.</div>
|-
| 2018-07-21 || 2018 Any% Tournament || Croakomire vs nhammen, ShinyZeni vs HyzrQL || MisterJGiggles, sloaters27 || Any% || [https://youtu.be/A2CBrNeOA9c Youtube] || <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:400px; overflow:auto;">Zeni PRKD vs Hyzr KPDR, ended up being very close!</div>
|-
| 2018-10-20 || 2018 Any% Tournament || zoast, Zmusic || Kipp, sloaters27 || Any% || [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRaMqJyayhI Youtube] || <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:400px; overflow:auto;">Zmusic had recently broken the 43 barrier for KPDR, zoast ran "hybrid route" (PKDR) to make this Bronze Match race more competitive.</div>
|-
| 2020-06-04 || 2020 Multi-Category Tournament || ShinyZeni, Azder|| FreyasSpirit, serberoth || Low% Ice || [https://youtu.be/JdohrEuSRSw Youtube] || <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:400px; overflow:auto;">This race was part of the Multi-Category Tournament in 2020.</div>
|-
| 2020-06-19 || 2020 Multi-Category Tournament || ShinyZeni, Zoast || Mishrak, serberoth || 100% || [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhugk1yB9XM Youtube] || <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:400px; overflow:auto;">This race was Game 2 of the Finals of the Multi-Category Tournament, Best of 3 with Zoast up 1-0 on Zeni.</div>
|-
| 2021-06-13 || SpeedRunning Underground || ShinyZeni, Behemoth87 || SpikeVegeta, JHobz296 || 100% || [https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1099925976 Twitch] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJbA1acTMjw Youtube] || <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:400px; overflow:auto;">This race was part of the old SpeedRunning Underground Series, and was hype to play and watch! Alternate commentary by Sephy and Hockey on Zeni's Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRz6k2uYAdQ.</div>
|-
| 2022-09- || 2022 Any% Tournament || ShinyZeni, Zoast || Oats, TheHockeytowner || Any% || [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i-iMOiys5U Youtube] || <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:400px; overflow:auto;">A missed baby skip leads to a very close finish.</div>
|-
| 2022-09- || 2022 Any% Tournament || Oats, ARealCutie || Eddie, TheHockeytowner || Any% || [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG-LfwJzlwk Youtube] || <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:400px; overflow:auto;">Semi-final of the Winner's Bracket, very tense Tourian.</div>
|-
| 2022-10-02 || 2022 Any% Tournament || ARealCutie, zoast || Antinomy, sloaters27, TheHockeytowner || Any% || [https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1607951516 Twitch] || <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:400px; overflow:auto;">Best-of-3 match in the finals of the Winner's Bracket.</div>
|-
| 2025-01-12 || AGDQ 2025 || Andy, Eddie, imyt, Oatsngoats || || Map Randomizer || [https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2349330917?t=42h11m13s Twitch] || <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:400px; overflow:auto;">AGDQ 2025 finale; race within 1 second.</div>
|-
|}

Draygon

2025-01-09T05:40:08Z

NobodyNada:

{{Boss info
|title=Draygon
|image=Draygon.png
|location=[[Draygon's Room]], [[Maridia]]
|health=6000
}}

Most top Super Metroid runners would agree that Draygon is overall the toughest fight to execute completely properly, especially in runs. Any missed timing during the fight can lead to disaster. Do not become discouraged if your ability to execute the fight well feels semi-consistent at best. Simply keep practicing and learning.

= General Information =

Draygon has 6000 hit points, and her underbelly will change color based on her remaining health:

[[File:Draygon_health_thresholds.png|600px|The HP thresholds where Draygon changes color]]

Draygon's core is vulnerable to [[Missile|Missiles]], [[Super Missile|Super Missiles]], [[Charge Beam|charged shots]], and [[Charge Beam Combos|special beam attacks]].

Draygon is vulnerable to [[shinespark]], [[Pseudo Screw Attack|pseudo-Screw]], and electricity.

Draygon will always begin the fight by swooping from the left to the right.

Draygon will either swoop again or spray mucus after a swoop cycle.

Draygon will never do two mucus cycles back-to-back.

Any part of Draygon's body will deal 40 / 80 / 160 damage to [[Gravity Suit]] / [[Varia Suit]] / [[Power Suit]] Samus, respectively.

Draygon's turrets will deal 32 / 64 / 128 damage with their shots, 4 / 8 / 16 damage when their electricity is touched by Samus's body, and will drain 1 energy per 4 frames / 1 energy per 2 frames / 1 energy per frame when their electricity is touched by Samus's [[Grapple Beam]], to Gravity Suit / Varia Suit / Power Suit Samus, respectively.

= Interactions =

== Swoop ==

Draygon's swoops can be completely avoided by staying morphed on the ground in one location.

As Draygon's health lowers, the speed of her swoops will increase.

Draygon will appear to swoop much faster (roughly two seconds faster) after a left-to-right mucus cycle than vice-versa.

Draygon's swoops can be taken advantage of by firing into her core as she swings down, then morphing afterward to avoid the swoop, and repeating this process until the swooping ceases. Draygon will be more prone to taking damage in this manner earlier into the fight as Draygon's swooping speed will not be as high.

== Mucus ==

Draygon will release mucus when she becomes visible during this cycle, moving somewhat slowly across the screen while bobbing slightly up and down. This means you will want to be as close to Draygon as possible during the beginning of this cycle so that the mucus spray ends as early as possible.

Draygon can give indications of her performing a mucus cycle after a swoop. She will take longer to appear on-screen compared to a swoop, and will make a noise every time she produces a mucus particle.

Draygon's mucus cycles will last the same amount of time regardless of her health.

Draygon's mucus [[Enemies#Bosses|will drop items]] when destroyed by beams, Missiles, or Super Missiles.

[[Power Bomb|Power Bombs]] will destroy all mucus particles within the explosion; however, they will not drop items when destroyed in this manner.

If you are afflicted by a mucus particle, you can remove it with a pseudo-Screw, [[Screw Attack]], [[Blue Suit Glitch|blue suit]], or shinespark. Draygon will immediately fly directly upwards if this occurs. Alternatively, such as situations where you cannot charge a pseudo-Screw in time, you can try [[damage boosting]] off of an exposed turret and/or walljumping away from Draygon until the mucus particle fades.

Draygon's mucus particles will linger for a short period of frames after they have been shot - an indication of this is if you shoot a particle and immediately run into its location, you should appear to have taken a hit. This does not cause damage to Samus, however.

== Grab ==

Draygon will move towards you and attempt to grab you when afflicted by a mucus particle. If the particle disappears, Draygon will fly directly upwards, and then swoop from the left.

Draygon moves upward in a spiral that will become more violent as the upwards movement progresses and will randomly strike Samus with her tail. Mashing on the directional pad will eventually free Samus from the grab, after 60 directional pad inputs have occurred. At the end of the spiral, Draygon will strike Samus multiple times before freeing her, so it is important to force yourself free before this occurs.

Draygon will not always attempt to grab you if you become afflicted by a mucus particle. Sometimes, Draygon will not attempt to grab you if you become afflicted right at the end of Draygon's mucus spray.

If Draygon grabs onto you, you can use the Grapple Beam on an exposed turret to damage Draygon. This is the second fastest method to killing Draygon (third if you include [[GT Classic]]'s method). Electricity will deal 256 damage to Draygon in a 16-8-8-8 pattern, meaning that in a series of four, the first 256 damage will happen after 16 frames of conductivity, and the remaining three will happen after 8 frames of conductivity. If Draygon is at full health, it will take 238 frames (3.97 seconds) for Draygon to be defeated in this manner. It is easier to grab onto the exposed turrets on the left side with Grapple Beam. If Draygon has returned to the center of the room with Samus and has begun spinning around, it is not possible to grab onto the lower right exposed turret, and the upper right exposed turret can be quite difficult to grab onto, even if you aim at it from above by angling down.

== Death ==

Draygon's corpse can still act as a source of damage for a short period of time after her demise, and this short period can be reset depending on how Samus interacts with Draygon's corpse.

Draygon's corpse must float to the horizontal center of the room before the death animation can proceed. Finishing the fight while Draygon is closer to the center of the room can save time as seen below:

{{#ev:youtube|zMpNVWTZc8U}}

If Draygon dies while considered off-screen on the left side, this will cause Draygon to, instead of sinking back into the center of the sand, move across the entire out of bounds area until she has looped back to the area. She will continue moving left as a corpse until she has looped back to the right, then sink into the sand as she should. Because of how enormous of an area the out of bounds is, this process takes approximately 18 minutes and 10 seconds.

This video shows the wait for Draygon to return in full:

{{#ev:youtube|GpST4TpXweM}}

== Turret ==

Draygon's turrets have 300 health each and can only be destroyed by Missiles or Super Missiles.

Every 64 frames, the turret firing routine will randomly select one of the four turrets to charge and fire a shot. Since one of the turrets is inactive and cannot shoot, 25% of the time no turret will shoot. As more turrets are destroyed, those too will be considered inactive and unable to shoot, thus increasing the number of 64 frames intervals where no shots are fired.

The turrets will fire much less often during mucus cycles.

A turret will determine, based on Samus's current position on the frame it begins charging a shot, where to aim the shot. In other words, the turrets will attempt to anticipate Samus's movement and fire accordingly.

= Categories =

== Any% (Beginner) ==

Consider retrieving extra Super Missiles before reaching Botwoon. Although [[Any%]] will always acquire the [[List_of_Super_Missiles#Wrecked_Ship_1|Wrecked Ship (Left) Super Missile pack]], you can also acquire the [[List_of_Super_Missiles#Wrecked_Ship_2|pack to the right of that location]], as well as the "[[List_of_Super_Missiles#Maridia_1|Crab Supers]]" stowed away to the left of the [[Mt. Everest|Maridian mountain]] (a.k.a. "Mount Doom") that are accessed through a hidden morph tunnel, or the [[List_of_Super_Missiles#Maridia_2|pack in the upper right corner of]] [[Aqueduct]]. If you only want one or two of these packs, the Maridia packs are similar in speed to each other, and both are faster to obtain than the Wrecked Ship (Right) pack; however, acquiring the Aqueduct pack by itself would involve a tight jump over the nearby Missile pack, assuming you did not want to obtain it.

After Botwoon, you can then fill up on Super Missiles from the fish ([[Zoa]]) on the right side of the [[Botwoon Energy Tank Room]].

Enter Draygon's room, and use Missiles to destroy the three turrets. Make sure all of your beams are enabled ([[Charge Beam|Charge]], [[Ice Beam|Ice]], [[Wave Beam|Wave]], and [[Spazer]] if obtained). Generate a charge with the beam and hold angle up while crouched in the center of the room, facing left. When Draygon swoops, fire the charge shot into her core, immediately morph, unmorph after Draygon passes by, charge the beam up again, and face right while crouched and holding angle up. Repeat this process alternating between directions until a mucus cycle.

A variation of the above strat can follow the charge shot with missiles and super missiles to significantly increase the damage done to Draygon during the first swoop. After destroying the turrets, stand near the right side of the room and charge a shot. When the last Evir in the background disappears, release the charge shot, then move forward slightly, crouch, and begin firing missiles. Once Draygon gets close, switch to supers and fire one, then turn around, move right, and fire two more as she swoops over Samus. Afterwards, continue the fight as normal. Done properly, this opener can deal comparable damage to a shinespark, but with significantly less risk:

{{#ev:youtube|dNuGOX6Bt7o}}

As explained previously, there will be both a visual and auditory indicator for the mucus cycle. Lay a Power Bomb near Draygon, then retreat a short distance. After the Power Bomb clears away the mucus, you can freely deposit your ballistics (primarily Super Missiles) into Draygon's core.

If you do not wish to Power Bomb the mucus, or have ran out of Power Bombs, you can also farm the mucus for drops (including Power Bombs). Have Draygon appear on-screen to begin the mucus cycle, then run to the opposite corner and begin firing uncharged beam shots at Draygon's direction. Performing short hops in-between shots should provide additional vertical coverage. Once mucus has been cleared, you should have a chance to get in a few Missiles or Super Missiles before needing to roll under Draygon.

If your health becomes low, you can always morph on top of the sand to avoid swoops and then farm or roll away from mucus.

== Any% (Intermediate) ==

A shinespark opener without the X-Factor used in the optimal strategy can still do 2250 damage. After this, you can go to the side of Draygon's room that she will appear from, and if you hear the mucus cycle start, you can run to the opposite corner. If you're starting to incorporate other shinesparks into the fight, you can charge one at this time. If you fail to charge the spark, or choose not to, then you can shoot the mucus. Since you started the mucus as early as possible during the cycle, this will give you much more time to fire off ordnance after she stops firing mucus. You can also open the damage with a charge shot, jumping over the last of the mucus.

{{#ev:youtube|7kS36bJJLOM}}

If you spark through Draygon's head from left to right during a right-to-left mucus cycle, you can damage boost off of the bottom right turret to a nice position to fire off missiles upward as you move with her.

If you have Ice/Wave/Spazer equipped and land the shot at the start of the goo phase, or if you have Super Missiles still available, it's possible to kill Draygon during this ballistic phase. Given that Blue Suit only saves a few seconds in Any% KPDR, this might be preferable for some runners compared with waiting to kill Draygon with a spark on a later phase, especially with the health saved in the process.

{{#ev:youtube|kM6gws7VC5M}}

It's also possible to kill Draygon with three shinesparks and no other damage, but with the ideal Draygon patterns it's only faster if you're able to do two shinesparks in the goo phase, which is very difficult.

== Any% (Optimal) ==

One way to perform the [https://archive.org/download/DeanydBosses/DraygonAny.mp4 optimal opener] for the Draygon fight is the following:

* With Power Bombs selected, begin moving forward to [[Short Charge|shortcharge]] a shinespark once the Evirs reach this location: [[File:Drayopener1_v2.png]]

* Begin charging the beam once Samus reaches this location (on top of the claw): [[File:Drayopener2.png]]

* After charging the shinespark (once it is possible to do so), have Samus be around this position as the [[Charge_Beam_Combos#Wave_Shield|X-Factor]] is produced: [[File:Drayopener3.png]]

* Once the X-Factor crosses through Samus, perform a medium [[spinjump]] to the right

* Activate the shinespark, and after a short wait (around a quarter of a second), shinespark towards the left

When executed properly, the opener should deal around 3000 damage to Draygon, with the maximum normally being 3450 as shown by the example video. [https://www.twitch.tv/videos/27381557 A few runners (video by StaticNine) have hit for 3600], [https://youtu.be/rwBokkdWL7Y?t=360 ShinyZeni has a setup that will do this much damage optimally consistently]

There are a number of ways to perform the actions above with different visual, or even auditory, cues. If you happen to find something that works better for you, use it!

Afterward, two shinesparks should finish Draygon off. Ideally, you would be given a mucus cycle right after the initial swoop, so that you can charge the first of the two shinesparks right before Draygon floats on-screen, and charge the second right after Draygon is done spraying mucus, leaving just enough time to jump and activate it in front of Draygon. This is what is sometimes referred to as "two with blue" (explained in Mackemagi's tutorial at the bottom of the page), which means Draygon is defeated in only two rounds total (one swoop, one mucus).

Draygon's body is made of four distinct hitboxes. An optimal shinespark will hit both the top and upper-middle hitboxes to maximize the number of frames that Samus is passing through Draygon.

[[File:Draygon_Hitboxes.png]]

A potentially faster alternative to performing three shinesparks is to perform two shinesparks and utilize ballistics (primarily Super Missiles) instead of performing a third shinespark. It has the potential to conserve energy at the expense of ammunition, and can guarantee at least a three round kill independent of patterns provided.

{{#ev:youtube|6dxlshQM5vo}}

Finishing Draygon while in an active shinespark can gift Samus with a blue suit that can be carried to and used at the [[Colosseum]] to save substantial time in Any% PRKD, or a few seconds in Any% KPDR. [[Blue Suit Glitch#Draygon|Read more about this here]].

Attempting to finish off Draygon with a shinespark comes with a risk from Draygon's "[http://chain.spazer.link/ chain damage]" effect. This occurs when Samus dies while inside the hitbox of Draygon('s corpse) with blue suit - Draygon will continue dealing damage to Samus until she has exited her hitbox due to the blue suit, which is worsened by blue suit causing Samus to have a much lower invulnerability period than normal. Due to this, it is risky to attempt to shinespark Draygon to finish her off when under a tank of energy and/or in the back of her head, as Draygon will then move backwards into a Samus that was attempting to move forward through Draygon, typically producing a nasty result. Letting go of the dpad can help avoid Samus being damage boosted further inside Draygon's hitbox, while aiming down can [[Hitbox Manipulation|compress Samus' hitbox]], sometimes causing fewer rounds of chain damage to occur.

Because Blue Suit requires the Dash value to be 0, you can avoid chain damage by killing Draygon with a shinespark after dashing, with no turnaround. This means no Blue Suit to get across [[Colosseum]], but it does at least allow you to finish the fight quickly and survive.

If you fail to gain blue suit after Draygon dies, you can attempt a possible, but rather difficult to execute, backup option known as the "[[Yellow Suit Glitch#Spikes|spikesuit]]." Runners will sometimes choose to turn their Blue Suit into a Spikesuit in order to grab Draygon's drops with minimal time loss, but this carries the risk of losing the Blue Suit if they hit the "bad frame" when attempting it.

This information also applies to the 100% categories.

For [[Any% PRKD]], because of the time save from skipping [[Space Jump]], as well as the time save from skipping Draygon's drops, you want to be more conscious of your energy so that you survive the fight with over 135 energy, along with a blue suit. Having less than 135 energy will cause the shinespark from the blue suit to stop at an earlier point in its flight back across the Colosseum. In the event you have too low of health to reasonably use the blue suit, you will want to acquire Draygon's drops before performing a [[Gravity Jump]] to escape Draygon's chamber. Otherwise, you will want to perform an infinite bomb jump as soon as Draygon perishes to reach the upper door as it unlocks, as it is a bit faster than gravitation jumping due to pausing not being required. If your health is close to critically low, then assuming you have enough time to do so, it may be wise to damage yourself against the electricity of Draygon's turrets to bring your health into the critical amount (below 30) such that a "health bomb" is forced for Draygon's drops.

=== Raindance ===

An alternate setup for the X-factor starts on the left side, and uses visual cues to time the shot well before you short-charge. Read the description of the video for an explanation of the cues.

{{#ev:youtube|tcH3yLqsBLE}}

=== 2 X-Factor ===

This video goes over a setup for a second X-factor, which reduces the reliance on other types of ammo. This can make the fight less reliant on drops after Botwoon, and can conserve Supers for Tourian in Any% PRKD.

{{#ev:youtube|e1l1Z8Iimic}}

== 14% Ice ==

The optimal opener to use against Draygon is to wait on the edge of the left ledge (next to the Space Jump door), then generate an [[Ice Shield]] and morph. Once the first Ice particle connects with Draygon's core, hold right to roll off the ledge, and the remaining particles should connect with Draygon's core without you taking damage from the swoop. You can continue using Ice Shield throughout the fight after mucus cycles.

An efficient way to punish swoops is by using a pseudo-Screw. 200 damage is significant compared to the 90 damage from charged Ice Beam that will, as the fight progresses, be harder to incorporate. Pseudo-Screws will allow you to conserve your Missiles and Super Missiles for the ends of mucus cycles, where Draygon will be moving slowly without protection. Pseudo-Screws consume 40 energy per application, but your energy is mostly free to expend during the fight, as you should receive it back either from Draygon's drops, the Zebbos that spawn at the [[Red Fish Room|Red Brinstar <-> Maridia connector area]], or the [[Landing Site|Gunship]]. You shouldn't need much energy to survive the trek back to Crateria after the fight.

Try to keep track of how much damage you have inflicted to Draygon over the course of the fight so you will know when you can potentially finish her off at the end of a mucus cycle with the remainder of your ammo, rather than allow her to perform more swoops.

You have the option to leave a turret or multiple turrets up during the fight to give yourself more ammunition to work with, but it is obviously not recommended for inexperienced players to do so.

== 14% Speed ==

Just like Any%, the shinespark is your strongest weapon. Due to lacking Wave Beam, your opener should simply be a shinespark. Three well-placed shinesparks can slay Draygon; however, it will be more difficult than in Any% to execute the shinesparks due to lacking [[Hi-Jump Boots]]. It is recommended that you hold angle down before jumping into the air to shinespark so that you have more height than if you ran and spinjumped before shinesparking - the Speed Booster by itself will substantially reduce the height of your running jumps. Angle down can also prevent accidental early shinespark activations as a shinespark cannot activate while angle down is being held.

Super Missiles are the next best weapon to use against Draygon, especially if you cannot get a shinespark off for whatever reason.

Just like Any%, you should be attempting to gain blue suit when the fight ends, and can attempt the "spikesuit" backup in case one is not gained.

== Reverse Boss Order ==

You will want to be at a low energy amount before entering Draygon's chamber since you will be performing a [[Crystal Flash]] mid-fight. Most people connect to a turret using Grapple Beam to drain away some health, then have Draygon strike them once to reduce their health to the appropriate amount.

You can open the fight with a handful of Missiles and/or Super Missiles if you so desire.

You will want to preemptively place a Power Bomb down (for Crystal Flash) before Draygon begins a mucus cycle. You may need to react quickly to not hearing a mucus cycle being performed so that you do not accidentally Crystal Flash during a swoop.

Draygon interrupting a Crystal Flash by grabbing onto Samus will gift Samus with a [[Yellow Suit Glitch|shinespark suit]]. After this occurs, break free of Draygon.

Wait on Draygon to perform another mucus cycle. Right before Draygon would grab onto Samus, activate the shinespark suit. If executed properly, Samus should now have a blue suit due to Draygon interrupting the shinespark with another grab. From here, wait until Draygon swings into the appropriate position, then activate the Grapple Beam to latch onto a turret and electrocute Draygon.

Afterward, you may collect Draygon's drops or ignore them, then acquire Space Jump. Once back inside Draygon's chamber, you will want to perform infinite grapple jumps off the lower right turret to return to the door above. It should only take three to gain enough height with which to reach the ledge. Use the shinespark from the blue suit to escape Draygon's entry chamber. The second block on the pipe floor provides a great visual cue for doing so.

If you are having difficulty performing the infinite grapple jumps necessary for escaping, you may find it worthwhile to maintain enough ammo to be able to perform a Crystal Flash to regain health so you can continue attempting the infinite grapple jumps.

Alternate strategies to the Draygon fight that involve having shinespark suit after Draygon perishes instead of blue suit will need to be careful not to accidentally activate the shinespark suit during the infinite grapple jumps.

Attempting to kill Draygon with the shinespark suit to generate a blue suit is extremely risky due to chain damage in this category, but is technically an option.

If you're unlucky, Draygon's goo [https://www.twitch.tv/speedgaming/clip/LittleBraveLatteAsianGlow-nNuuZnQOSmJn0dCm might miss Samus] while she is in crystal flash. If this happens, Samus will likely die due to chain damage (since Samus has no iframes in crystal flash). The chances of a successful goop ranges between 67% to 99.997% depending on Samus's position in the room and the direction Draygon is gooping from. The below color-coded image indicates the odds of a successful goop for each position in the room (green means Samus is more likely to be grabbed by Draygon from this position).

[[File:draygon_goop_right.png]]

[[File:draygon_goop_left.png]]

== GT Classic ==

Having the items from [[Golden Torizo Code|GT Code]] allows for the [[X-Plasma]] exploit to be performed by activating X-Ray Scope multiple times as a charged Ice/Wave/Plasma shot passes through Draygon's core.

Since charged Ice/Wave/Plasma deals 900 damage, you can slay Draygon in this manner with only one charge shot with proper X-Ray Scope activations.

= Tutorials =

[https://www.twitch.tv/videos/45470281 Garrison] - Provides players with a place to begin for learning Draygon in Any%. (0:00 to 4:30 - beginner strategy | 4:30 to 12:00 - "my first shinespark" | 12:00 - 17:20 - advanced strategy | 17:20 to end - blue suit)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jipQ3Id1bPI Mackemagi] - Explains "two with blue" strategy. (0:00 to 2:40 - X-Factor and damage avoidance | 2:40 to 3:55 - optimizing first shinespark | 3:55 to 5:00 - optimizing second shinespark | 5:00 to 6:00 - optimizing third shinespark | 6:00 to end - "what if things go wrong?")

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1jy3dejsgQ DbX] - Explains methods for how to X-Factor not only Draygon, but [[Phantoon]] and [[Botwoon]] as well.

You may also want to check out any recent Any% or 100% tutorials as they should cover Draygon in a similar manner.

= See also =

* [[Bosses]]

File:Draygon goop right.png

2025-01-09T05:39:18Z

NobodyNada: NobodyNada moved page File:Output right.png to File:Draygon goop right.png

Probabilities of getting grabbed by Draygon from a crystal flash while Draygon is gooping from left to right. Darker red indicates decreasing odds of a successful goop, down to about 67% at the lowest.

File:Output right.png

2025-01-09T05:39:18Z

NobodyNada: NobodyNada moved page File:Output right.png to File:Draygon goop right.png

#REDIRECT [[File:Draygon goop right.png]]

File:Draygon goop right.png

2025-01-09T05:38:23Z

NobodyNada: Probabilities of getting grabbed by Draygon from a crystal flash while Draygon is gooping from left to right. Darker red indicates decreasing odds of a successful goop, down to about 67% at the lowest.

File:Draygon goop left.png

2025-01-09T05:37:47Z

NobodyNada: Probabilities of getting grabbed by Draygon from a crystal flash while Draygon is gooping from right to left. Darker red indicates decreasing odds of a successful goop, down to about 67% at the lowest.

Probabilities of getting grabbed by Draygon from a crystal flash while Draygon is gooping from right to left. Darker red indicates decreasing odds of a successful goop, down to about 67% at the lowest.

Draygon

2025-01-09T05:34:38Z

NobodyNada:

{{Boss info
|title=Draygon
|image=Draygon.png
|location=[[Draygon's Room]], [[Maridia]]
|health=6000
}}

Most top Super Metroid runners would agree that Draygon is overall the toughest fight to execute completely properly, especially in runs. Any missed timing during the fight can lead to disaster. Do not become discouraged if your ability to execute the fight well feels semi-consistent at best. Simply keep practicing and learning.

= General Information =

Draygon has 6000 hit points, and her underbelly will change color based on her remaining health:

[[File:Draygon_health_thresholds.png|600px|The HP thresholds where Draygon changes color]]

Draygon's core is vulnerable to [[Missile|Missiles]], [[Super Missile|Super Missiles]], [[Charge Beam|charged shots]], and [[Charge Beam Combos|special beam attacks]].

Draygon is vulnerable to [[shinespark]], [[Pseudo Screw Attack|pseudo-Screw]], and electricity.

Draygon will always begin the fight by swooping from the left to the right.

Draygon will either swoop again or spray mucus after a swoop cycle.

Draygon will never do two mucus cycles back-to-back.

Any part of Draygon's body will deal 40 / 80 / 160 damage to [[Gravity Suit]] / [[Varia Suit]] / [[Power Suit]] Samus, respectively.

Draygon's turrets will deal 32 / 64 / 128 damage with their shots, 4 / 8 / 16 damage when their electricity is touched by Samus's body, and will drain 1 energy per 4 frames / 1 energy per 2 frames / 1 energy per frame when their electricity is touched by Samus's [[Grapple Beam]], to Gravity Suit / Varia Suit / Power Suit Samus, respectively.

= Interactions =

== Swoop ==

Draygon's swoops can be completely avoided by staying morphed on the ground in one location.

As Draygon's health lowers, the speed of her swoops will increase.

Draygon will appear to swoop much faster (roughly two seconds faster) after a left-to-right mucus cycle than vice-versa.

Draygon's swoops can be taken advantage of by firing into her core as she swings down, then morphing afterward to avoid the swoop, and repeating this process until the swooping ceases. Draygon will be more prone to taking damage in this manner earlier into the fight as Draygon's swooping speed will not be as high.

== Mucus ==

Draygon will release mucus when she becomes visible during this cycle, moving somewhat slowly across the screen while bobbing slightly up and down. This means you will want to be as close to Draygon as possible during the beginning of this cycle so that the mucus spray ends as early as possible.

Draygon can give indications of her performing a mucus cycle after a swoop. She will take longer to appear on-screen compared to a swoop, and will make a noise every time she produces a mucus particle.

Draygon's mucus cycles will last the same amount of time regardless of her health.

Draygon's mucus [[Enemies#Bosses|will drop items]] when destroyed by beams, Missiles, or Super Missiles.

[[Power Bomb|Power Bombs]] will destroy all mucus particles within the explosion; however, they will not drop items when destroyed in this manner.

If you are afflicted by a mucus particle, you can remove it with a pseudo-Screw, [[Screw Attack]], [[Blue Suit Glitch|blue suit]], or shinespark. Draygon will immediately fly directly upwards if this occurs. Alternatively, such as situations where you cannot charge a pseudo-Screw in time, you can try [[damage boosting]] off of an exposed turret and/or walljumping away from Draygon until the mucus particle fades.

Draygon's mucus particles will linger for a short period of frames after they have been shot - an indication of this is if you shoot a particle and immediately run into its location, you should appear to have taken a hit. This does not cause damage to Samus, however.

== Grab ==

Draygon will move towards you and attempt to grab you when afflicted by a mucus particle. If the particle disappears, Draygon will fly directly upwards, and then swoop from the left.

Draygon moves upward in a spiral that will become more violent as the upwards movement progresses and will randomly strike Samus with her tail. Mashing on the directional pad will eventually free Samus from the grab, after 60 directional pad inputs have occurred. At the end of the spiral, Draygon will strike Samus multiple times before freeing her, so it is important to force yourself free before this occurs.

Draygon will not always attempt to grab you if you become afflicted by a mucus particle. Sometimes, Draygon will not attempt to grab you if you become afflicted right at the end of Draygon's mucus spray.

If Draygon grabs onto you, you can use the Grapple Beam on an exposed turret to damage Draygon. This is the second fastest method to killing Draygon (third if you include [[GT Classic]]'s method). Electricity will deal 256 damage to Draygon in a 16-8-8-8 pattern, meaning that in a series of four, the first 256 damage will happen after 16 frames of conductivity, and the remaining three will happen after 8 frames of conductivity. If Draygon is at full health, it will take 238 frames (3.97 seconds) for Draygon to be defeated in this manner. It is easier to grab onto the exposed turrets on the left side with Grapple Beam. If Draygon has returned to the center of the room with Samus and has begun spinning around, it is not possible to grab onto the lower right exposed turret, and the upper right exposed turret can be quite difficult to grab onto, even if you aim at it from above by angling down.

== Death ==

Draygon's corpse can still act as a source of damage for a short period of time after her demise, and this short period can be reset depending on how Samus interacts with Draygon's corpse.

Draygon's corpse must float to the horizontal center of the room before the death animation can proceed. Finishing the fight while Draygon is closer to the center of the room can save time as seen below:

{{#ev:youtube|zMpNVWTZc8U}}

If Draygon dies while considered off-screen on the left side, this will cause Draygon to, instead of sinking back into the center of the sand, move across the entire out of bounds area until she has looped back to the area. She will continue moving left as a corpse until she has looped back to the right, then sink into the sand as she should. Because of how enormous of an area the out of bounds is, this process takes approximately 18 minutes and 10 seconds.

This video shows the wait for Draygon to return in full:

{{#ev:youtube|GpST4TpXweM}}

== Turret ==

Draygon's turrets have 300 health each and can only be destroyed by Missiles or Super Missiles.

Every 64 frames, the turret firing routine will randomly select one of the four turrets to charge and fire a shot. Since one of the turrets is inactive and cannot shoot, 25% of the time no turret will shoot. As more turrets are destroyed, those too will be considered inactive and unable to shoot, thus increasing the number of 64 frames intervals where no shots are fired.

The turrets will fire much less often during mucus cycles.

A turret will determine, based on Samus's current position on the frame it begins charging a shot, where to aim the shot. In other words, the turrets will attempt to anticipate Samus's movement and fire accordingly.

= Categories =

== Any% (Beginner) ==

Consider retrieving extra Super Missiles before reaching Botwoon. Although [[Any%]] will always acquire the [[List_of_Super_Missiles#Wrecked_Ship_1|Wrecked Ship (Left) Super Missile pack]], you can also acquire the [[List_of_Super_Missiles#Wrecked_Ship_2|pack to the right of that location]], as well as the "[[List_of_Super_Missiles#Maridia_1|Crab Supers]]" stowed away to the left of the [[Mt. Everest|Maridian mountain]] (a.k.a. "Mount Doom") that are accessed through a hidden morph tunnel, or the [[List_of_Super_Missiles#Maridia_2|pack in the upper right corner of]] [[Aqueduct]]. If you only want one or two of these packs, the Maridia packs are similar in speed to each other, and both are faster to obtain than the Wrecked Ship (Right) pack; however, acquiring the Aqueduct pack by itself would involve a tight jump over the nearby Missile pack, assuming you did not want to obtain it.

After Botwoon, you can then fill up on Super Missiles from the fish ([[Zoa]]) on the right side of the [[Botwoon Energy Tank Room]].

Enter Draygon's room, and use Missiles to destroy the three turrets. Make sure all of your beams are enabled ([[Charge Beam|Charge]], [[Ice Beam|Ice]], [[Wave Beam|Wave]], and [[Spazer]] if obtained). Generate a charge with the beam and hold angle up while crouched in the center of the room, facing left. When Draygon swoops, fire the charge shot into her core, immediately morph, unmorph after Draygon passes by, charge the beam up again, and face right while crouched and holding angle up. Repeat this process alternating between directions until a mucus cycle.

A variation of the above strat can follow the charge shot with missiles and super missiles to significantly increase the damage done to Draygon during the first swoop. After destroying the turrets, stand near the right side of the room and charge a shot. When the last Evir in the background disappears, release the charge shot, then move forward slightly, crouch, and begin firing missiles. Once Draygon gets close, switch to supers and fire one, then turn around, move right, and fire two more as she swoops over Samus. Afterwards, continue the fight as normal. Done properly, this opener can deal comparable damage to a shinespark, but with significantly less risk:

{{#ev:youtube|dNuGOX6Bt7o}}

As explained previously, there will be both a visual and auditory indicator for the mucus cycle. Lay a Power Bomb near Draygon, then retreat a short distance. After the Power Bomb clears away the mucus, you can freely deposit your ballistics (primarily Super Missiles) into Draygon's core.

If you do not wish to Power Bomb the mucus, or have ran out of Power Bombs, you can also farm the mucus for drops (including Power Bombs). Have Draygon appear on-screen to begin the mucus cycle, then run to the opposite corner and begin firing uncharged beam shots at Draygon's direction. Performing short hops in-between shots should provide additional vertical coverage. Once mucus has been cleared, you should have a chance to get in a few Missiles or Super Missiles before needing to roll under Draygon.

If your health becomes low, you can always morph on top of the sand to avoid swoops and then farm or roll away from mucus.

== Any% (Intermediate) ==

A shinespark opener without the X-Factor used in the optimal strategy can still do 2250 damage. After this, you can go to the side of Draygon's room that she will appear from, and if you hear the mucus cycle start, you can run to the opposite corner. If you're starting to incorporate other shinesparks into the fight, you can charge one at this time. If you fail to charge the spark, or choose not to, then you can shoot the mucus. Since you started the mucus as early as possible during the cycle, this will give you much more time to fire off ordnance after she stops firing mucus. You can also open the damage with a charge shot, jumping over the last of the mucus.

{{#ev:youtube|7kS36bJJLOM}}

If you spark through Draygon's head from left to right during a right-to-left mucus cycle, you can damage boost off of the bottom right turret to a nice position to fire off missiles upward as you move with her.

If you have Ice/Wave/Spazer equipped and land the shot at the start of the goo phase, or if you have Super Missiles still available, it's possible to kill Draygon during this ballistic phase. Given that Blue Suit only saves a few seconds in Any% KPDR, this might be preferable for some runners compared with waiting to kill Draygon with a spark on a later phase, especially with the health saved in the process.

{{#ev:youtube|kM6gws7VC5M}}

It's also possible to kill Draygon with three shinesparks and no other damage, but with the ideal Draygon patterns it's only faster if you're able to do two shinesparks in the goo phase, which is very difficult.

== Any% (Optimal) ==

One way to perform the [https://archive.org/download/DeanydBosses/DraygonAny.mp4 optimal opener] for the Draygon fight is the following:

* With Power Bombs selected, begin moving forward to [[Short Charge|shortcharge]] a shinespark once the Evirs reach this location: [[File:Drayopener1_v2.png]]

* Begin charging the beam once Samus reaches this location (on top of the claw): [[File:Drayopener2.png]]

* After charging the shinespark (once it is possible to do so), have Samus be around this position as the [[Charge_Beam_Combos#Wave_Shield|X-Factor]] is produced: [[File:Drayopener3.png]]

* Once the X-Factor crosses through Samus, perform a medium [[spinjump]] to the right

* Activate the shinespark, and after a short wait (around a quarter of a second), shinespark towards the left

When executed properly, the opener should deal around 3000 damage to Draygon, with the maximum normally being 3450 as shown by the example video. [https://www.twitch.tv/videos/27381557 A few runners (video by StaticNine) have hit for 3600], [https://youtu.be/rwBokkdWL7Y?t=360 ShinyZeni has a setup that will do this much damage optimally consistently]

There are a number of ways to perform the actions above with different visual, or even auditory, cues. If you happen to find something that works better for you, use it!

Afterward, two shinesparks should finish Draygon off. Ideally, you would be given a mucus cycle right after the initial swoop, so that you can charge the first of the two shinesparks right before Draygon floats on-screen, and charge the second right after Draygon is done spraying mucus, leaving just enough time to jump and activate it in front of Draygon. This is what is sometimes referred to as "two with blue" (explained in Mackemagi's tutorial at the bottom of the page), which means Draygon is defeated in only two rounds total (one swoop, one mucus).

Draygon's body is made of four distinct hitboxes. An optimal shinespark will hit both the top and upper-middle hitboxes to maximize the number of frames that Samus is passing through Draygon.

[[File:Draygon_Hitboxes.png]]

A potentially faster alternative to performing three shinesparks is to perform two shinesparks and utilize ballistics (primarily Super Missiles) instead of performing a third shinespark. It has the potential to conserve energy at the expense of ammunition, and can guarantee at least a three round kill independent of patterns provided.

{{#ev:youtube|6dxlshQM5vo}}

Finishing Draygon while in an active shinespark can gift Samus with a blue suit that can be carried to and used at the [[Colosseum]] to save substantial time in Any% PRKD, or a few seconds in Any% KPDR. [[Blue Suit Glitch#Draygon|Read more about this here]].

Attempting to finish off Draygon with a shinespark comes with a risk from Draygon's "[http://chain.spazer.link/ chain damage]" effect. This occurs when Samus dies while inside the hitbox of Draygon('s corpse) with blue suit - Draygon will continue dealing damage to Samus until she has exited her hitbox due to the blue suit, which is worsened by blue suit causing Samus to have a much lower invulnerability period than normal. Due to this, it is risky to attempt to shinespark Draygon to finish her off when under a tank of energy and/or in the back of her head, as Draygon will then move backwards into a Samus that was attempting to move forward through Draygon, typically producing a nasty result. Letting go of the dpad can help avoid Samus being damage boosted further inside Draygon's hitbox, while aiming down can [[Hitbox Manipulation|compress Samus' hitbox]], sometimes causing fewer rounds of chain damage to occur.

Because Blue Suit requires the Dash value to be 0, you can avoid chain damage by killing Draygon with a shinespark after dashing, with no turnaround. This means no Blue Suit to get across [[Colosseum]], but it does at least allow you to finish the fight quickly and survive.

If you fail to gain blue suit after Draygon dies, you can attempt a possible, but rather difficult to execute, backup option known as the "[[Yellow Suit Glitch#Spikes|spikesuit]]." Runners will sometimes choose to turn their Blue Suit into a Spikesuit in order to grab Draygon's drops with minimal time loss, but this carries the risk of losing the Blue Suit if they hit the "bad frame" when attempting it.

This information also applies to the 100% categories.

For [[Any% PRKD]], because of the time save from skipping [[Space Jump]], as well as the time save from skipping Draygon's drops, you want to be more conscious of your energy so that you survive the fight with over 135 energy, along with a blue suit. Having less than 135 energy will cause the shinespark from the blue suit to stop at an earlier point in its flight back across the Colosseum. In the event you have too low of health to reasonably use the blue suit, you will want to acquire Draygon's drops before performing a [[Gravity Jump]] to escape Draygon's chamber. Otherwise, you will want to perform an infinite bomb jump as soon as Draygon perishes to reach the upper door as it unlocks, as it is a bit faster than gravitation jumping due to pausing not being required. If your health is close to critically low, then assuming you have enough time to do so, it may be wise to damage yourself against the electricity of Draygon's turrets to bring your health into the critical amount (below 30) such that a "health bomb" is forced for Draygon's drops.

=== Raindance ===

An alternate setup for the X-factor starts on the left side, and uses visual cues to time the shot well before you short-charge. Read the description of the video for an explanation of the cues.

{{#ev:youtube|tcH3yLqsBLE}}

=== 2 X-Factor ===

This video goes over a setup for a second X-factor, which reduces the reliance on other types of ammo. This can make the fight less reliant on drops after Botwoon, and can conserve Supers for Tourian in Any% PRKD.

{{#ev:youtube|e1l1Z8Iimic}}

== 14% Ice ==

The optimal opener to use against Draygon is to wait on the edge of the left ledge (next to the Space Jump door), then generate an [[Ice Shield]] and morph. Once the first Ice particle connects with Draygon's core, hold right to roll off the ledge, and the remaining particles should connect with Draygon's core without you taking damage from the swoop. You can continue using Ice Shield throughout the fight after mucus cycles.

An efficient way to punish swoops is by using a pseudo-Screw. 200 damage is significant compared to the 90 damage from charged Ice Beam that will, as the fight progresses, be harder to incorporate. Pseudo-Screws will allow you to conserve your Missiles and Super Missiles for the ends of mucus cycles, where Draygon will be moving slowly without protection. Pseudo-Screws consume 40 energy per application, but your energy is mostly free to expend during the fight, as you should receive it back either from Draygon's drops, the Zebbos that spawn at the [[Red Fish Room|Red Brinstar <-> Maridia connector area]], or the [[Landing Site|Gunship]]. You shouldn't need much energy to survive the trek back to Crateria after the fight.

Try to keep track of how much damage you have inflicted to Draygon over the course of the fight so you will know when you can potentially finish her off at the end of a mucus cycle with the remainder of your ammo, rather than allow her to perform more swoops.

You have the option to leave a turret or multiple turrets up during the fight to give yourself more ammunition to work with, but it is obviously not recommended for inexperienced players to do so.

== 14% Speed ==

Just like Any%, the shinespark is your strongest weapon. Due to lacking Wave Beam, your opener should simply be a shinespark. Three well-placed shinesparks can slay Draygon; however, it will be more difficult than in Any% to execute the shinesparks due to lacking [[Hi-Jump Boots]]. It is recommended that you hold angle down before jumping into the air to shinespark so that you have more height than if you ran and spinjumped before shinesparking - the Speed Booster by itself will substantially reduce the height of your running jumps. Angle down can also prevent accidental early shinespark activations as a shinespark cannot activate while angle down is being held.

Super Missiles are the next best weapon to use against Draygon, especially if you cannot get a shinespark off for whatever reason.

Just like Any%, you should be attempting to gain blue suit when the fight ends, and can attempt the "spikesuit" backup in case one is not gained.

== Reverse Boss Order ==

You will want to be at a low energy amount before entering Draygon's chamber since you will be performing a [[Crystal Flash]] mid-fight. Most people connect to a turret using Grapple Beam to drain away some health, then have Draygon strike them once to reduce their health to the appropriate amount.

You can open the fight with a handful of Missiles and/or Super Missiles if you so desire.

You will want to preemptively place a Power Bomb down (for Crystal Flash) before Draygon begins a mucus cycle. You may need to react quickly to not hearing a mucus cycle being performed so that you do not accidentally Crystal Flash during a swoop.

Draygon interrupting a Crystal Flash by grabbing onto Samus will gift Samus with a [[Yellow Suit Glitch|shinespark suit]]. After this occurs, break free of Draygon.

Wait on Draygon to perform another mucus cycle. Right before Draygon would grab onto Samus, activate the shinespark suit. If executed properly, Samus should now have a blue suit due to Draygon interrupting the shinespark with another grab. From here, wait until Draygon swings into the appropriate position, then activate the Grapple Beam to latch onto a turret and electrocute Draygon.

Afterward, you may collect Draygon's drops or ignore them, then acquire Space Jump. Once back inside Draygon's chamber, you will want to perform infinite grapple jumps off the lower right turret to return to the door above. It should only take three to gain enough height with which to reach the ledge. Use the shinespark from the blue suit to escape Draygon's entry chamber. The second block on the pipe floor provides a great visual cue for doing so.

If you are having difficulty performing the infinite grapple jumps necessary for escaping, you may find it worthwhile to maintain enough ammo to be able to perform a Crystal Flash to regain health so you can continue attempting the infinite grapple jumps.

Alternate strategies to the Draygon fight that involve having shinespark suit after Draygon perishes instead of blue suit will need to be careful not to accidentally activate the shinespark suit during the infinite grapple jumps.

Attempting to kill Draygon with the shinespark suit to generate a blue suit is extremely risky due to chain damage in this category, but is technically an option.

If you're unlucky, Draygon's goo [https://www.twitch.tv/speedgaming/clip/LittleBraveLatteAsianGlow-nNuuZnQOSmJn0dCm might miss Samus] while she is in crystal flash. If this happens, Samus will likely die due to chain damage (since Samus has no iframes in crystal flash). The chances of a successful goop ranges between 67% to 99.997% depending on Samus's position in the room and the direction Draygon is gooping from. The below color-coded image indicates the odds of a successful goop for each position in the room (green means Samus is more likely to be grabbed by Draygon from this position).

[[File:draygon_goop_left.png]]
[[File:draygon_goop_right.png]]

== GT Classic ==

Having the items from [[Golden Torizo Code|GT Code]] allows for the [[X-Plasma]] exploit to be performed by activating X-Ray Scope multiple times as a charged Ice/Wave/Plasma shot passes through Draygon's core.

Since charged Ice/Wave/Plasma deals 900 damage, you can slay Draygon in this manner with only one charge shot with proper X-Ray Scope activations.

= Tutorials =

[https://www.twitch.tv/videos/45470281 Garrison] - Provides players with a place to begin for learning Draygon in Any%. (0:00 to 4:30 - beginner strategy | 4:30 to 12:00 - "my first shinespark" | 12:00 - 17:20 - advanced strategy | 17:20 to end - blue suit)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jipQ3Id1bPI Mackemagi] - Explains "two with blue" strategy. (0:00 to 2:40 - X-Factor and damage avoidance | 2:40 to 3:55 - optimizing first shinespark | 3:55 to 5:00 - optimizing second shinespark | 5:00 to 6:00 - optimizing third shinespark | 6:00 to end - "what if things go wrong?")

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1jy3dejsgQ DbX] - Explains methods for how to X-Factor not only Draygon, but [[Phantoon]] and [[Botwoon]] as well.

You may also want to check out any recent Any% or 100% tutorials as they should cover Draygon in a similar manner.

= See also =

* [[Bosses]]

Draygon

2025-01-09T05:31:14Z

NobodyNada:

{{Boss info
|title=Draygon
|image=Draygon.png
|location=[[Draygon's Room]], [[Maridia]]
|health=6000
}}

Most top Super Metroid runners would agree that Draygon is overall the toughest fight to execute completely properly, especially in runs. Any missed timing during the fight can lead to disaster. Do not become discouraged if your ability to execute the fight well feels semi-consistent at best. Simply keep practicing and learning.

= General Information =

Draygon has 6000 hit points, and her underbelly will change color based on her remaining health:

[[File:Draygon_health_thresholds.png|600px|The HP thresholds where Draygon changes color]]

Draygon's core is vulnerable to [[Missile|Missiles]], [[Super Missile|Super Missiles]], [[Charge Beam|charged shots]], and [[Charge Beam Combos|special beam attacks]].

Draygon is vulnerable to [[shinespark]], [[Pseudo Screw Attack|pseudo-Screw]], and electricity.

Draygon will always begin the fight by swooping from the left to the right.

Draygon will either swoop again or spray mucus after a swoop cycle.

Draygon will never do two mucus cycles back-to-back.

Any part of Draygon's body will deal 40 / 80 / 160 damage to [[Gravity Suit]] / [[Varia Suit]] / [[Power Suit]] Samus, respectively.

Draygon's turrets will deal 32 / 64 / 128 damage with their shots, 4 / 8 / 16 damage when their electricity is touched by Samus's body, and will drain 1 energy per 4 frames / 1 energy per 2 frames / 1 energy per frame when their electricity is touched by Samus's [[Grapple Beam]], to Gravity Suit / Varia Suit / Power Suit Samus, respectively.

= Interactions =

== Swoop ==

Draygon's swoops can be completely avoided by staying morphed on the ground in one location.

As Draygon's health lowers, the speed of her swoops will increase.

Draygon will appear to swoop much faster (roughly two seconds faster) after a left-to-right mucus cycle than vice-versa.

Draygon's swoops can be taken advantage of by firing into her core as she swings down, then morphing afterward to avoid the swoop, and repeating this process until the swooping ceases. Draygon will be more prone to taking damage in this manner earlier into the fight as Draygon's swooping speed will not be as high.

== Mucus ==

Draygon will release mucus when she becomes visible during this cycle, moving somewhat slowly across the screen while bobbing slightly up and down. This means you will want to be as close to Draygon as possible during the beginning of this cycle so that the mucus spray ends as early as possible.

Draygon can give indications of her performing a mucus cycle after a swoop. She will take longer to appear on-screen compared to a swoop, and will make a noise every time she produces a mucus particle.

Draygon's mucus cycles will last the same amount of time regardless of her health.

Draygon's mucus [[Enemies#Bosses|will drop items]] when destroyed by beams, Missiles, or Super Missiles.

[[Power Bomb|Power Bombs]] will destroy all mucus particles within the explosion; however, they will not drop items when destroyed in this manner.

If you are afflicted by a mucus particle, you can remove it with a pseudo-Screw, [[Screw Attack]], [[Blue Suit Glitch|blue suit]], or shinespark. Draygon will immediately fly directly upwards if this occurs. Alternatively, such as situations where you cannot charge a pseudo-Screw in time, you can try [[damage boosting]] off of an exposed turret and/or walljumping away from Draygon until the mucus particle fades.

Draygon's mucus particles will linger for a short period of frames after they have been shot - an indication of this is if you shoot a particle and immediately run into its location, you should appear to have taken a hit. This does not cause damage to Samus, however.

== Grab ==

Draygon will move towards you and attempt to grab you when afflicted by a mucus particle. If the particle disappears, Draygon will fly directly upwards, and then swoop from the left.

Draygon moves upward in a spiral that will become more violent as the upwards movement progresses and will randomly strike Samus with her tail. Mashing on the directional pad will eventually free Samus from the grab, after 60 directional pad inputs have occurred. At the end of the spiral, Draygon will strike Samus multiple times before freeing her, so it is important to force yourself free before this occurs.

Draygon will not always attempt to grab you if you become afflicted by a mucus particle. Sometimes, Draygon will not attempt to grab you if you become afflicted right at the end of Draygon's mucus spray.

If Draygon grabs onto you, you can use the Grapple Beam on an exposed turret to damage Draygon. This is the second fastest method to killing Draygon (third if you include [[GT Classic]]'s method). Electricity will deal 256 damage to Draygon in a 16-8-8-8 pattern, meaning that in a series of four, the first 256 damage will happen after 16 frames of conductivity, and the remaining three will happen after 8 frames of conductivity. If Draygon is at full health, it will take 238 frames (3.97 seconds) for Draygon to be defeated in this manner. It is easier to grab onto the exposed turrets on the left side with Grapple Beam. If Draygon has returned to the center of the room with Samus and has begun spinning around, it is not possible to grab onto the lower right exposed turret, and the upper right exposed turret can be quite difficult to grab onto, even if you aim at it from above by angling down.

== Death ==

Draygon's corpse can still act as a source of damage for a short period of time after her demise, and this short period can be reset depending on how Samus interacts with Draygon's corpse.

Draygon's corpse must float to the horizontal center of the room before the death animation can proceed. Finishing the fight while Draygon is closer to the center of the room can save time as seen below:

{{#ev:youtube|zMpNVWTZc8U}}

If Draygon dies while considered off-screen on the left side, this will cause Draygon to, instead of sinking back into the center of the sand, move across the entire out of bounds area until she has looped back to the area. She will continue moving left as a corpse until she has looped back to the right, then sink into the sand as she should. Because of how enormous of an area the out of bounds is, this process takes approximately 18 minutes and 10 seconds.

This video shows the wait for Draygon to return in full:

{{#ev:youtube|GpST4TpXweM}}

== Turret ==

Draygon's turrets have 300 health each and can only be destroyed by Missiles or Super Missiles.

Every 64 frames, the turret firing routine will randomly select one of the four turrets to charge and fire a shot. Since one of the turrets is inactive and cannot shoot, 25% of the time no turret will shoot. As more turrets are destroyed, those too will be considered inactive and unable to shoot, thus increasing the number of 64 frames intervals where no shots are fired.

The turrets will fire much less often during mucus cycles.

A turret will determine, based on Samus's current position on the frame it begins charging a shot, where to aim the shot. In other words, the turrets will attempt to anticipate Samus's movement and fire accordingly.

= Categories =

== Any% (Beginner) ==

Consider retrieving extra Super Missiles before reaching Botwoon. Although [[Any%]] will always acquire the [[List_of_Super_Missiles#Wrecked_Ship_1|Wrecked Ship (Left) Super Missile pack]], you can also acquire the [[List_of_Super_Missiles#Wrecked_Ship_2|pack to the right of that location]], as well as the "[[List_of_Super_Missiles#Maridia_1|Crab Supers]]" stowed away to the left of the [[Mt. Everest|Maridian mountain]] (a.k.a. "Mount Doom") that are accessed through a hidden morph tunnel, or the [[List_of_Super_Missiles#Maridia_2|pack in the upper right corner of]] [[Aqueduct]]. If you only want one or two of these packs, the Maridia packs are similar in speed to each other, and both are faster to obtain than the Wrecked Ship (Right) pack; however, acquiring the Aqueduct pack by itself would involve a tight jump over the nearby Missile pack, assuming you did not want to obtain it.

After Botwoon, you can then fill up on Super Missiles from the fish ([[Zoa]]) on the right side of the [[Botwoon Energy Tank Room]].

Enter Draygon's room, and use Missiles to destroy the three turrets. Make sure all of your beams are enabled ([[Charge Beam|Charge]], [[Ice Beam|Ice]], [[Wave Beam|Wave]], and [[Spazer]] if obtained). Generate a charge with the beam and hold angle up while crouched in the center of the room, facing left. When Draygon swoops, fire the charge shot into her core, immediately morph, unmorph after Draygon passes by, charge the beam up again, and face right while crouched and holding angle up. Repeat this process alternating between directions until a mucus cycle.

A variation of the above strat can follow the charge shot with missiles and super missiles to significantly increase the damage done to Draygon during the first swoop. After destroying the turrets, stand near the right side of the room and charge a shot. When the last Evir in the background disappears, release the charge shot, then move forward slightly, crouch, and begin firing missiles. Once Draygon gets close, switch to supers and fire one, then turn around, move right, and fire two more as she swoops over Samus. Afterwards, continue the fight as normal. Done properly, this opener can deal comparable damage to a shinespark, but with significantly less risk:

{{#ev:youtube|dNuGOX6Bt7o}}

As explained previously, there will be both a visual and auditory indicator for the mucus cycle. Lay a Power Bomb near Draygon, then retreat a short distance. After the Power Bomb clears away the mucus, you can freely deposit your ballistics (primarily Super Missiles) into Draygon's core.

If you do not wish to Power Bomb the mucus, or have ran out of Power Bombs, you can also farm the mucus for drops (including Power Bombs). Have Draygon appear on-screen to begin the mucus cycle, then run to the opposite corner and begin firing uncharged beam shots at Draygon's direction. Performing short hops in-between shots should provide additional vertical coverage. Once mucus has been cleared, you should have a chance to get in a few Missiles or Super Missiles before needing to roll under Draygon.

If your health becomes low, you can always morph on top of the sand to avoid swoops and then farm or roll away from mucus.

== Any% (Intermediate) ==

A shinespark opener without the X-Factor used in the optimal strategy can still do 2250 damage. After this, you can go to the side of Draygon's room that she will appear from, and if you hear the mucus cycle start, you can run to the opposite corner. If you're starting to incorporate other shinesparks into the fight, you can charge one at this time. If you fail to charge the spark, or choose not to, then you can shoot the mucus. Since you started the mucus as early as possible during the cycle, this will give you much more time to fire off ordnance after she stops firing mucus. You can also open the damage with a charge shot, jumping over the last of the mucus.

{{#ev:youtube|7kS36bJJLOM}}

If you spark through Draygon's head from left to right during a right-to-left mucus cycle, you can damage boost off of the bottom right turret to a nice position to fire off missiles upward as you move with her.

If you have Ice/Wave/Spazer equipped and land the shot at the start of the goo phase, or if you have Super Missiles still available, it's possible to kill Draygon during this ballistic phase. Given that Blue Suit only saves a few seconds in Any% KPDR, this might be preferable for some runners compared with waiting to kill Draygon with a spark on a later phase, especially with the health saved in the process.

{{#ev:youtube|kM6gws7VC5M}}

It's also possible to kill Draygon with three shinesparks and no other damage, but with the ideal Draygon patterns it's only faster if you're able to do two shinesparks in the goo phase, which is very difficult.

== Any% (Optimal) ==

One way to perform the [https://archive.org/download/DeanydBosses/DraygonAny.mp4 optimal opener] for the Draygon fight is the following:

* With Power Bombs selected, begin moving forward to [[Short Charge|shortcharge]] a shinespark once the Evirs reach this location: [[File:Drayopener1_v2.png]]

* Begin charging the beam once Samus reaches this location (on top of the claw): [[File:Drayopener2.png]]

* After charging the shinespark (once it is possible to do so), have Samus be around this position as the [[Charge_Beam_Combos#Wave_Shield|X-Factor]] is produced: [[File:Drayopener3.png]]

* Once the X-Factor crosses through Samus, perform a medium [[spinjump]] to the right

* Activate the shinespark, and after a short wait (around a quarter of a second), shinespark towards the left

When executed properly, the opener should deal around 3000 damage to Draygon, with the maximum normally being 3450 as shown by the example video. [https://www.twitch.tv/videos/27381557 A few runners (video by StaticNine) have hit for 3600], [https://youtu.be/rwBokkdWL7Y?t=360 ShinyZeni has a setup that will do this much damage optimally consistently]

There are a number of ways to perform the actions above with different visual, or even auditory, cues. If you happen to find something that works better for you, use it!

Afterward, two shinesparks should finish Draygon off. Ideally, you would be given a mucus cycle right after the initial swoop, so that you can charge the first of the two shinesparks right before Draygon floats on-screen, and charge the second right after Draygon is done spraying mucus, leaving just enough time to jump and activate it in front of Draygon. This is what is sometimes referred to as "two with blue" (explained in Mackemagi's tutorial at the bottom of the page), which means Draygon is defeated in only two rounds total (one swoop, one mucus).

Draygon's body is made of four distinct hitboxes. An optimal shinespark will hit both the top and upper-middle hitboxes to maximize the number of frames that Samus is passing through Draygon.

[[File:Draygon_Hitboxes.png]]

A potentially faster alternative to performing three shinesparks is to perform two shinesparks and utilize ballistics (primarily Super Missiles) instead of performing a third shinespark. It has the potential to conserve energy at the expense of ammunition, and can guarantee at least a three round kill independent of patterns provided.

{{#ev:youtube|6dxlshQM5vo}}

Finishing Draygon while in an active shinespark can gift Samus with a blue suit that can be carried to and used at the [[Colosseum]] to save substantial time in Any% PRKD, or a few seconds in Any% KPDR. [[Blue Suit Glitch#Draygon|Read more about this here]].

Attempting to finish off Draygon with a shinespark comes with a risk from Draygon's "[http://chain.spazer.link/ chain damage]" effect. This occurs when Samus dies while inside the hitbox of Draygon('s corpse) with blue suit - Draygon will continue dealing damage to Samus until she has exited her hitbox due to the blue suit, which is worsened by blue suit causing Samus to have a much lower invulnerability period than normal. Due to this, it is risky to attempt to shinespark Draygon to finish her off when under a tank of energy and/or in the back of her head, as Draygon will then move backwards into a Samus that was attempting to move forward through Draygon, typically producing a nasty result. Letting go of the dpad can help avoid Samus being damage boosted further inside Draygon's hitbox, while aiming down can [[Hitbox Manipulation|compress Samus' hitbox]], sometimes causing fewer rounds of chain damage to occur.

Because Blue Suit requires the Dash value to be 0, you can avoid chain damage by killing Draygon with a shinespark after dashing, with no turnaround. This means no Blue Suit to get across [[Colosseum]], but it does at least allow you to finish the fight quickly and survive.

If you fail to gain blue suit after Draygon dies, you can attempt a possible, but rather difficult to execute, backup option known as the "[[Yellow Suit Glitch#Spikes|spikesuit]]." Runners will sometimes choose to turn their Blue Suit into a Spikesuit in order to grab Draygon's drops with minimal time loss, but this carries the risk of losing the Blue Suit if they hit the "bad frame" when attempting it.

This information also applies to the 100% categories.

For [[Any% PRKD]], because of the time save from skipping [[Space Jump]], as well as the time save from skipping Draygon's drops, you want to be more conscious of your energy so that you survive the fight with over 135 energy, along with a blue suit. Having less than 135 energy will cause the shinespark from the blue suit to stop at an earlier point in its flight back across the Colosseum. In the event you have too low of health to reasonably use the blue suit, you will want to acquire Draygon's drops before performing a [[Gravity Jump]] to escape Draygon's chamber. Otherwise, you will want to perform an infinite bomb jump as soon as Draygon perishes to reach the upper door as it unlocks, as it is a bit faster than gravitation jumping due to pausing not being required. If your health is close to critically low, then assuming you have enough time to do so, it may be wise to damage yourself against the electricity of Draygon's turrets to bring your health into the critical amount (below 30) such that a "health bomb" is forced for Draygon's drops.

=== Raindance ===

An alternate setup for the X-factor starts on the left side, and uses visual cues to time the shot well before you short-charge. Read the description of the video for an explanation of the cues.

{{#ev:youtube|tcH3yLqsBLE}}

=== 2 X-Factor ===

This video goes over a setup for a second X-factor, which reduces the reliance on other types of ammo. This can make the fight less reliant on drops after Botwoon, and can conserve Supers for Tourian in Any% PRKD.

{{#ev:youtube|e1l1Z8Iimic}}

== 14% Ice ==

The optimal opener to use against Draygon is to wait on the edge of the left ledge (next to the Space Jump door), then generate an [[Ice Shield]] and morph. Once the first Ice particle connects with Draygon's core, hold right to roll off the ledge, and the remaining particles should connect with Draygon's core without you taking damage from the swoop. You can continue using Ice Shield throughout the fight after mucus cycles.

An efficient way to punish swoops is by using a pseudo-Screw. 200 damage is significant compared to the 90 damage from charged Ice Beam that will, as the fight progresses, be harder to incorporate. Pseudo-Screws will allow you to conserve your Missiles and Super Missiles for the ends of mucus cycles, where Draygon will be moving slowly without protection. Pseudo-Screws consume 40 energy per application, but your energy is mostly free to expend during the fight, as you should receive it back either from Draygon's drops, the Zebbos that spawn at the [[Red Fish Room|Red Brinstar <-> Maridia connector area]], or the [[Landing Site|Gunship]]. You shouldn't need much energy to survive the trek back to Crateria after the fight.

Try to keep track of how much damage you have inflicted to Draygon over the course of the fight so you will know when you can potentially finish her off at the end of a mucus cycle with the remainder of your ammo, rather than allow her to perform more swoops.

You have the option to leave a turret or multiple turrets up during the fight to give yourself more ammunition to work with, but it is obviously not recommended for inexperienced players to do so.

== 14% Speed ==

Just like Any%, the shinespark is your strongest weapon. Due to lacking Wave Beam, your opener should simply be a shinespark. Three well-placed shinesparks can slay Draygon; however, it will be more difficult than in Any% to execute the shinesparks due to lacking [[Hi-Jump Boots]]. It is recommended that you hold angle down before jumping into the air to shinespark so that you have more height than if you ran and spinjumped before shinesparking - the Speed Booster by itself will substantially reduce the height of your running jumps. Angle down can also prevent accidental early shinespark activations as a shinespark cannot activate while angle down is being held.

Super Missiles are the next best weapon to use against Draygon, especially if you cannot get a shinespark off for whatever reason.

Just like Any%, you should be attempting to gain blue suit when the fight ends, and can attempt the "spikesuit" backup in case one is not gained.

== Reverse Boss Order ==

You will want to be at a low energy amount before entering Draygon's chamber since you will be performing a [[Crystal Flash]] mid-fight. Most people connect to a turret using Grapple Beam to drain away some health, then have Draygon strike them once to reduce their health to the appropriate amount.

You can open the fight with a handful of Missiles and/or Super Missiles if you so desire.

You will want to preemptively place a Power Bomb down (for Crystal Flash) before Draygon begins a mucus cycle. You may need to react quickly to not hearing a mucus cycle being performed so that you do not accidentally Crystal Flash during a swoop.

Draygon interrupting a Crystal Flash by grabbing onto Samus will gift Samus with a [[Yellow Suit Glitch|shinespark suit]]. After this occurs, break free of Draygon.

Wait on Draygon to perform another mucus cycle. Right before Draygon would grab onto Samus, activate the shinespark suit. If executed properly, Samus should now have a blue suit due to Draygon interrupting the shinespark with another grab. From here, wait until Draygon swings into the appropriate position, then activate the Grapple Beam to latch onto a turret and electrocute Draygon.

Afterward, you may collect Draygon's drops or ignore them, then acquire Space Jump. Once back inside Draygon's chamber, you will want to perform infinite grapple jumps off the lower right turret to return to the door above. It should only take three to gain enough height with which to reach the ledge. Use the shinespark from the blue suit to escape Draygon's entry chamber. The second block on the pipe floor provides a great visual cue for doing so.

If you are having difficulty performing the infinite grapple jumps necessary for escaping, you may find it worthwhile to maintain enough ammo to be able to perform a Crystal Flash to regain health so you can continue attempting the infinite grapple jumps.

Alternate strategies to the Draygon fight that involve having shinespark suit after Draygon perishes instead of blue suit will need to be careful not to accidentally activate the shinespark suit during the infinite grapple jumps.

Attempting to kill Draygon with the shinespark suit to generate a blue suit is extremely risky due to chain damage in this category, but is technically an option.

If you're unlucky, Draygon's goop [https://www.twitch.tv/speedgaming/clip/LittleBraveLatteAsianGlow-nNuuZnQOSmJn0dCm|might miss Samus] while she is in crystal flash. If this happens, Samus will likely die due to chain damage (since Samus has no iframes in crystal flash). The chances of a successful goop ranges between 67% to 99.997% depending on Samus's position in the room and the direction Draygon is gooping from.

== GT Classic ==

Having the items from [[Golden Torizo Code|GT Code]] allows for the [[X-Plasma]] exploit to be performed by activating X-Ray Scope multiple times as a charged Ice/Wave/Plasma shot passes through Draygon's core.

Since charged Ice/Wave/Plasma deals 900 damage, you can slay Draygon in this manner with only one charge shot with proper X-Ray Scope activations.

= Tutorials =

[https://www.twitch.tv/videos/45470281 Garrison] - Provides players with a place to begin for learning Draygon in Any%. (0:00 to 4:30 - beginner strategy | 4:30 to 12:00 - "my first shinespark" | 12:00 - 17:20 - advanced strategy | 17:20 to end - blue suit)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jipQ3Id1bPI Mackemagi] - Explains "two with blue" strategy. (0:00 to 2:40 - X-Factor and damage avoidance | 2:40 to 3:55 - optimizing first shinespark | 3:55 to 5:00 - optimizing second shinespark | 5:00 to 6:00 - optimizing third shinespark | 6:00 to end - "what if things go wrong?")

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1jy3dejsgQ DbX] - Explains methods for how to X-Factor not only Draygon, but [[Phantoon]] and [[Botwoon]] as well.

You may also want to check out any recent Any% or 100% tutorials as they should cover Draygon in a similar manner.

= See also =

* [[Bosses]]

Draygon

2025-01-09T05:30:43Z

NobodyNada:

{{Boss info
|title=Draygon
|image=Draygon.png
|location=[[Draygon's Room]], [[Maridia]]
|health=6000
}}

Most top Super Metroid runners would agree that Draygon is overall the toughest fight to execute completely properly, especially in runs. Any missed timing during the fight can lead to disaster. Do not become discouraged if your ability to execute the fight well feels semi-consistent at best. Simply keep practicing and learning.

= General Information =

Draygon has 6000 hit points, and her underbelly will change color based on her remaining health:

[[File:Draygon_health_thresholds.png|600px|The HP thresholds where Draygon changes color]]

Draygon's core is vulnerable to [[Missile|Missiles]], [[Super Missile|Super Missiles]], [[Charge Beam|charged shots]], and [[Charge Beam Combos|special beam attacks]].

Draygon is vulnerable to [[shinespark]], [[Pseudo Screw Attack|pseudo-Screw]], and electricity.

Draygon will always begin the fight by swooping from the left to the right.

Draygon will either swoop again or spray mucus after a swoop cycle.

Draygon will never do two mucus cycles back-to-back.

Any part of Draygon's body will deal 40 / 80 / 160 damage to [[Gravity Suit]] / [[Varia Suit]] / [[Power Suit]] Samus, respectively.

Draygon's turrets will deal 32 / 64 / 128 damage with their shots, 4 / 8 / 16 damage when their electricity is touched by Samus's body, and will drain 1 energy per 4 frames / 1 energy per 2 frames / 1 energy per frame when their electricity is touched by Samus's [[Grapple Beam]], to Gravity Suit / Varia Suit / Power Suit Samus, respectively.

= Interactions =

== Swoop ==

Draygon's swoops can be completely avoided by staying morphed on the ground in one location.

As Draygon's health lowers, the speed of her swoops will increase.

Draygon will appear to swoop much faster (roughly two seconds faster) after a left-to-right mucus cycle than vice-versa.

Draygon's swoops can be taken advantage of by firing into her core as she swings down, then morphing afterward to avoid the swoop, and repeating this process until the swooping ceases. Draygon will be more prone to taking damage in this manner earlier into the fight as Draygon's swooping speed will not be as high.

== Mucus ==

Draygon will release mucus when she becomes visible during this cycle, moving somewhat slowly across the screen while bobbing slightly up and down. This means you will want to be as close to Draygon as possible during the beginning of this cycle so that the mucus spray ends as early as possible.

Draygon can give indications of her performing a mucus cycle after a swoop. She will take longer to appear on-screen compared to a swoop, and will make a noise every time she produces a mucus particle.

Draygon's mucus cycles will last the same amount of time regardless of her health.

Draygon's mucus [[Enemies#Bosses|will drop items]] when destroyed by beams, Missiles, or Super Missiles.

[[Power Bomb|Power Bombs]] will destroy all mucus particles within the explosion; however, they will not drop items when destroyed in this manner.

If you are afflicted by a mucus particle, you can remove it with a pseudo-Screw, [[Screw Attack]], [[Blue Suit Glitch|blue suit]], or shinespark. Draygon will immediately fly directly upwards if this occurs. Alternatively, such as situations where you cannot charge a pseudo-Screw in time, you can try [[damage boosting]] off of an exposed turret and/or walljumping away from Draygon until the mucus particle fades.

Draygon's mucus particles will linger for a short period of frames after they have been shot - an indication of this is if you shoot a particle and immediately run into its location, you should appear to have taken a hit. This does not cause damage to Samus, however.

== Grab ==

Draygon will move towards you and attempt to grab you when afflicted by a mucus particle. If the particle disappears, Draygon will fly directly upwards, and then swoop from the left.

Draygon moves upward in a spiral that will become more violent as the upwards movement progresses and will randomly strike Samus with her tail. Mashing on the directional pad will eventually free Samus from the grab, after 60 directional pad inputs have occurred. At the end of the spiral, Draygon will strike Samus multiple times before freeing her, so it is important to force yourself free before this occurs.

Draygon will not always attempt to grab you if you become afflicted by a mucus particle. Sometimes, Draygon will not attempt to grab you if you become afflicted right at the end of Draygon's mucus spray.

If Draygon grabs onto you, you can use the Grapple Beam on an exposed turret to damage Draygon. This is the second fastest method to killing Draygon (third if you include [[GT Classic]]'s method). Electricity will deal 256 damage to Draygon in a 16-8-8-8 pattern, meaning that in a series of four, the first 256 damage will happen after 16 frames of conductivity, and the remaining three will happen after 8 frames of conductivity. If Draygon is at full health, it will take 238 frames (3.97 seconds) for Draygon to be defeated in this manner. It is easier to grab onto the exposed turrets on the left side with Grapple Beam. If Draygon has returned to the center of the room with Samus and has begun spinning around, it is not possible to grab onto the lower right exposed turret, and the upper right exposed turret can be quite difficult to grab onto, even if you aim at it from above by angling down.

== Death ==

Draygon's corpse can still act as a source of damage for a short period of time after her demise, and this short period can be reset depending on how Samus interacts with Draygon's corpse.

Draygon's corpse must float to the horizontal center of the room before the death animation can proceed. Finishing the fight while Draygon is closer to the center of the room can save time as seen below:

{{#ev:youtube|zMpNVWTZc8U}}

If Draygon dies while considered off-screen on the left side, this will cause Draygon to, instead of sinking back into the center of the sand, move across the entire out of bounds area until she has looped back to the area. She will continue moving left as a corpse until she has looped back to the right, then sink into the sand as she should. Because of how enormous of an area the out of bounds is, this process takes approximately 18 minutes and 10 seconds.

This video shows the wait for Draygon to return in full:

{{#ev:youtube|GpST4TpXweM}}

== Turret ==

Draygon's turrets have 300 health each and can only be destroyed by Missiles or Super Missiles.

Every 64 frames, the turret firing routine will randomly select one of the four turrets to charge and fire a shot. Since one of the turrets is inactive and cannot shoot, 25% of the time no turret will shoot. As more turrets are destroyed, those too will be considered inactive and unable to shoot, thus increasing the number of 64 frames intervals where no shots are fired.

The turrets will fire much less often during mucus cycles.

A turret will determine, based on Samus's current position on the frame it begins charging a shot, where to aim the shot. In other words, the turrets will attempt to anticipate Samus's movement and fire accordingly.

= Categories =

== Any% (Beginner) ==

Consider retrieving extra Super Missiles before reaching Botwoon. Although [[Any%]] will always acquire the [[List_of_Super_Missiles#Wrecked_Ship_1|Wrecked Ship (Left) Super Missile pack]], you can also acquire the [[List_of_Super_Missiles#Wrecked_Ship_2|pack to the right of that location]], as well as the "[[List_of_Super_Missiles#Maridia_1|Crab Supers]]" stowed away to the left of the [[Mt. Everest|Maridian mountain]] (a.k.a. "Mount Doom") that are accessed through a hidden morph tunnel, or the [[List_of_Super_Missiles#Maridia_2|pack in the upper right corner of]] [[Aqueduct]]. If you only want one or two of these packs, the Maridia packs are similar in speed to each other, and both are faster to obtain than the Wrecked Ship (Right) pack; however, acquiring the Aqueduct pack by itself would involve a tight jump over the nearby Missile pack, assuming you did not want to obtain it.

After Botwoon, you can then fill up on Super Missiles from the fish ([[Zoa]]) on the right side of the [[Botwoon Energy Tank Room]].

Enter Draygon's room, and use Missiles to destroy the three turrets. Make sure all of your beams are enabled ([[Charge Beam|Charge]], [[Ice Beam|Ice]], [[Wave Beam|Wave]], and [[Spazer]] if obtained). Generate a charge with the beam and hold angle up while crouched in the center of the room, facing left. When Draygon swoops, fire the charge shot into her core, immediately morph, unmorph after Draygon passes by, charge the beam up again, and face right while crouched and holding angle up. Repeat this process alternating between directions until a mucus cycle.

A variation of the above strat can follow the charge shot with missiles and super missiles to significantly increase the damage done to Draygon during the first swoop. After destroying the turrets, stand near the right side of the room and charge a shot. When the last Evir in the background disappears, release the charge shot, then move forward slightly, crouch, and begin firing missiles. Once Draygon gets close, switch to supers and fire one, then turn around, move right, and fire two more as she swoops over Samus. Afterwards, continue the fight as normal. Done properly, this opener can deal comparable damage to a shinespark, but with significantly less risk:

{{#ev:youtube|dNuGOX6Bt7o}}

As explained previously, there will be both a visual and auditory indicator for the mucus cycle. Lay a Power Bomb near Draygon, then retreat a short distance. After the Power Bomb clears away the mucus, you can freely deposit your ballistics (primarily Super Missiles) into Draygon's core.

If you do not wish to Power Bomb the mucus, or have ran out of Power Bombs, you can also farm the mucus for drops (including Power Bombs). Have Draygon appear on-screen to begin the mucus cycle, then run to the opposite corner and begin firing uncharged beam shots at Draygon's direction. Performing short hops in-between shots should provide additional vertical coverage. Once mucus has been cleared, you should have a chance to get in a few Missiles or Super Missiles before needing to roll under Draygon.

If your health becomes low, you can always morph on top of the sand to avoid swoops and then farm or roll away from mucus.

== Any% (Intermediate) ==

A shinespark opener without the X-Factor used in the optimal strategy can still do 2250 damage. After this, you can go to the side of Draygon's room that she will appear from, and if you hear the mucus cycle start, you can run to the opposite corner. If you're starting to incorporate other shinesparks into the fight, you can charge one at this time. If you fail to charge the spark, or choose not to, then you can shoot the mucus. Since you started the mucus as early as possible during the cycle, this will give you much more time to fire off ordnance after she stops firing mucus. You can also open the damage with a charge shot, jumping over the last of the mucus.

{{#ev:youtube|7kS36bJJLOM}}

If you spark through Draygon's head from left to right during a right-to-left mucus cycle, you can damage boost off of the bottom right turret to a nice position to fire off missiles upward as you move with her.

If you have Ice/Wave/Spazer equipped and land the shot at the start of the goo phase, or if you have Super Missiles still available, it's possible to kill Draygon during this ballistic phase. Given that Blue Suit only saves a few seconds in Any% KPDR, this might be preferable for some runners compared with waiting to kill Draygon with a spark on a later phase, especially with the health saved in the process.

{{#ev:youtube|kM6gws7VC5M}}

It's also possible to kill Draygon with three shinesparks and no other damage, but with the ideal Draygon patterns it's only faster if you're able to do two shinesparks in the goo phase, which is very difficult.

== Any% (Optimal) ==

One way to perform the [https://archive.org/download/DeanydBosses/DraygonAny.mp4 optimal opener] for the Draygon fight is the following:

* With Power Bombs selected, begin moving forward to [[Short Charge|shortcharge]] a shinespark once the Evirs reach this location: [[File:Drayopener1_v2.png]]

* Begin charging the beam once Samus reaches this location (on top of the claw): [[File:Drayopener2.png]]

* After charging the shinespark (once it is possible to do so), have Samus be around this position as the [[Charge_Beam_Combos#Wave_Shield|X-Factor]] is produced: [[File:Drayopener3.png]]

* Once the X-Factor crosses through Samus, perform a medium [[spinjump]] to the right

* Activate the shinespark, and after a short wait (around a quarter of a second), shinespark towards the left

When executed properly, the opener should deal around 3000 damage to Draygon, with the maximum normally being 3450 as shown by the example video. [https://www.twitch.tv/videos/27381557 A few runners (video by StaticNine) have hit for 3600], [https://youtu.be/rwBokkdWL7Y?t=360 ShinyZeni has a setup that will do this much damage optimally consistently]

There are a number of ways to perform the actions above with different visual, or even auditory, cues. If you happen to find something that works better for you, use it!

Afterward, two shinesparks should finish Draygon off. Ideally, you would be given a mucus cycle right after the initial swoop, so that you can charge the first of the two shinesparks right before Draygon floats on-screen, and charge the second right after Draygon is done spraying mucus, leaving just enough time to jump and activate it in front of Draygon. This is what is sometimes referred to as "two with blue" (explained in Mackemagi's tutorial at the bottom of the page), which means Draygon is defeated in only two rounds total (one swoop, one mucus).

Draygon's body is made of four distinct hitboxes. An optimal shinespark will hit both the top and upper-middle hitboxes to maximize the number of frames that Samus is passing through Draygon.

[[File:Draygon_Hitboxes.png]]

A potentially faster alternative to performing three shinesparks is to perform two shinesparks and utilize ballistics (primarily Super Missiles) instead of performing a third shinespark. It has the potential to conserve energy at the expense of ammunition, and can guarantee at least a three round kill independent of patterns provided.

{{#ev:youtube|6dxlshQM5vo}}

Finishing Draygon while in an active shinespark can gift Samus with a blue suit that can be carried to and used at the [[Colosseum]] to save substantial time in Any% PRKD, or a few seconds in Any% KPDR. [[Blue Suit Glitch#Draygon|Read more about this here]].

Attempting to finish off Draygon with a shinespark comes with a risk from Draygon's "[http://chain.spazer.link/ chain damage]" effect. This occurs when Samus dies while inside the hitbox of Draygon('s corpse) with blue suit - Draygon will continue dealing damage to Samus until she has exited her hitbox due to the blue suit, which is worsened by blue suit causing Samus to have a much lower invulnerability period than normal. Due to this, it is risky to attempt to shinespark Draygon to finish her off when under a tank of energy and/or in the back of her head, as Draygon will then move backwards into a Samus that was attempting to move forward through Draygon, typically producing a nasty result. Letting go of the dpad can help avoid Samus being damage boosted further inside Draygon's hitbox, while aiming down can [[Hitbox Manipulation|compress Samus' hitbox]], sometimes causing fewer rounds of chain damage to occur.

Because Blue Suit requires the Dash value to be 0, you can avoid chain damage by killing Draygon with a shinespark after dashing, with no turnaround. This means no Blue Suit to get across [[Colosseum]], but it does at least allow you to finish the fight quickly and survive.

If you fail to gain blue suit after Draygon dies, you can attempt a possible, but rather difficult to execute, backup option known as the "[[Yellow Suit Glitch#Spikes|spikesuit]]." Runners will sometimes choose to turn their Blue Suit into a Spikesuit in order to grab Draygon's drops with minimal time loss, but this carries the risk of losing the Blue Suit if they hit the "bad frame" when attempting it.

This information also applies to the 100% categories.

For [[Any% PRKD]], because of the time save from skipping [[Space Jump]], as well as the time save from skipping Draygon's drops, you want to be more conscious of your energy so that you survive the fight with over 135 energy, along with a blue suit. Having less than 135 energy will cause the shinespark from the blue suit to stop at an earlier point in its flight back across the Colosseum. In the event you have too low of health to reasonably use the blue suit, you will want to acquire Draygon's drops before performing a [[Gravity Jump]] to escape Draygon's chamber. Otherwise, you will want to perform an infinite bomb jump as soon as Draygon perishes to reach the upper door as it unlocks, as it is a bit faster than gravitation jumping due to pausing not being required. If your health is close to critically low, then assuming you have enough time to do so, it may be wise to damage yourself against the electricity of Draygon's turrets to bring your health into the critical amount (below 30) such that a "health bomb" is forced for Draygon's drops.

=== Raindance ===

An alternate setup for the X-factor starts on the left side, and uses visual cues to time the shot well before you short-charge. Read the description of the video for an explanation of the cues.

{{#ev:youtube|tcH3yLqsBLE}}

=== 2 X-Factor ===

This video goes over a setup for a second X-factor, which reduces the reliance on other types of ammo. This can make the fight less reliant on drops after Botwoon, and can conserve Supers for Tourian in Any% PRKD.

{{#ev:youtube|e1l1Z8Iimic}}

== 14% Ice ==

The optimal opener to use against Draygon is to wait on the edge of the left ledge (next to the Space Jump door), then generate an [[Ice Shield]] and morph. Once the first Ice particle connects with Draygon's core, hold right to roll off the ledge, and the remaining particles should connect with Draygon's core without you taking damage from the swoop. You can continue using Ice Shield throughout the fight after mucus cycles.

An efficient way to punish swoops is by using a pseudo-Screw. 200 damage is significant compared to the 90 damage from charged Ice Beam that will, as the fight progresses, be harder to incorporate. Pseudo-Screws will allow you to conserve your Missiles and Super Missiles for the ends of mucus cycles, where Draygon will be moving slowly without protection. Pseudo-Screws consume 40 energy per application, but your energy is mostly free to expend during the fight, as you should receive it back either from Draygon's drops, the Zebbos that spawn at the [[Red Fish Room|Red Brinstar <-> Maridia connector area]], or the [[Landing Site|Gunship]]. You shouldn't need much energy to survive the trek back to Crateria after the fight.

Try to keep track of how much damage you have inflicted to Draygon over the course of the fight so you will know when you can potentially finish her off at the end of a mucus cycle with the remainder of your ammo, rather than allow her to perform more swoops.

You have the option to leave a turret or multiple turrets up during the fight to give yourself more ammunition to work with, but it is obviously not recommended for inexperienced players to do so.

== 14% Speed ==

Just like Any%, the shinespark is your strongest weapon. Due to lacking Wave Beam, your opener should simply be a shinespark. Three well-placed shinesparks can slay Draygon; however, it will be more difficult than in Any% to execute the shinesparks due to lacking [[Hi-Jump Boots]]. It is recommended that you hold angle down before jumping into the air to shinespark so that you have more height than if you ran and spinjumped before shinesparking - the Speed Booster by itself will substantially reduce the height of your running jumps. Angle down can also prevent accidental early shinespark activations as a shinespark cannot activate while angle down is being held.

Super Missiles are the next best weapon to use against Draygon, especially if you cannot get a shinespark off for whatever reason.

Just like Any%, you should be attempting to gain blue suit when the fight ends, and can attempt the "spikesuit" backup in case one is not gained.

== Reverse Boss Order ==

You will want to be at a low energy amount before entering Draygon's chamber since you will be performing a [[Crystal Flash]] mid-fight. Most people connect to a turret using Grapple Beam to drain away some health, then have Draygon strike them once to reduce their health to the appropriate amount.

You can open the fight with a handful of Missiles and/or Super Missiles if you so desire.

You will want to preemptively place a Power Bomb down (for Crystal Flash) before Draygon begins a mucus cycle. You may need to react quickly to not hearing a mucus cycle being performed so that you do not accidentally Crystal Flash during a swoop.

Draygon interrupting a Crystal Flash by grabbing onto Samus will gift Samus with a [[Yellow Suit Glitch|shinespark suit]]. After this occurs, break free of Draygon.

Wait on Draygon to perform another mucus cycle. Right before Draygon would grab onto Samus, activate the shinespark suit. If executed properly, Samus should now have a blue suit due to Draygon interrupting the shinespark with another grab. From here, wait until Draygon swings into the appropriate position, then activate the Grapple Beam to latch onto a turret and electrocute Draygon.

Afterward, you may collect Draygon's drops or ignore them, then acquire Space Jump. Once back inside Draygon's chamber, you will want to perform infinite grapple jumps off the lower right turret to return to the door above. It should only take three to gain enough height with which to reach the ledge. Use the shinespark from the blue suit to escape Draygon's entry chamber. The second block on the pipe floor provides a great visual cue for doing so.

If you are having difficulty performing the infinite grapple jumps necessary for escaping, you may find it worthwhile to maintain enough ammo to be able to perform a Crystal Flash to regain health so you can continue attempting the infinite grapple jumps.

Alternate strategies to the Draygon fight that involve having shinespark suit after Draygon perishes instead of blue suit will need to be careful not to accidentally activate the shinespark suit during the infinite grapple jumps.

Attempting to kill Draygon with the shinespark suit to generate a blue suit is extremely risky due to chain damage in this category, but is technically an option.

If you're unlucky, Draygon's goop [might miss Samus|https://www.twitch.tv/speedgaming/clip/LittleBraveLatteAsianGlow-nNuuZnQOSmJn0dCm] while she is in crystal flash. If this happens, Samus will likely die due to chain damage (since Samus has no iframes in crystal flash). The chances of a successful goop ranges between 67% to 99.997% depending on Samus's position in the room and the direction Draygon is gooping from.

== GT Classic ==

Having the items from [[Golden Torizo Code|GT Code]] allows for the [[X-Plasma]] exploit to be performed by activating X-Ray Scope multiple times as a charged Ice/Wave/Plasma shot passes through Draygon's core.

Since charged Ice/Wave/Plasma deals 900 damage, you can slay Draygon in this manner with only one charge shot with proper X-Ray Scope activations.

= Tutorials =

[https://www.twitch.tv/videos/45470281 Garrison] - Provides players with a place to begin for learning Draygon in Any%. (0:00 to 4:30 - beginner strategy | 4:30 to 12:00 - "my first shinespark" | 12:00 - 17:20 - advanced strategy | 17:20 to end - blue suit)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jipQ3Id1bPI Mackemagi] - Explains "two with blue" strategy. (0:00 to 2:40 - X-Factor and damage avoidance | 2:40 to 3:55 - optimizing first shinespark | 3:55 to 5:00 - optimizing second shinespark | 5:00 to 6:00 - optimizing third shinespark | 6:00 to end - "what if things go wrong?")

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1jy3dejsgQ DbX] - Explains methods for how to X-Factor not only Draygon, but [[Phantoon]] and [[Botwoon]] as well.

You may also want to check out any recent Any% or 100% tutorials as they should cover Draygon in a similar manner.

= See also =

* [[Bosses]]

X-Mode

2024-06-29T05:26:59Z

NobodyNada: Samus can move by shinesparking in X-mode

X-mode (X-Ray mode) is one of the three X-Ray Scope glitched modes, the other two being [[R-Mode]] and [[G-Mode]]. This is the mode enabling Superjumps. Thus, it is the most useful for [[TAS]], but RTA applications tend to be few and far between.

X-mode requires the fewest items, only requiring [[X-Ray Scope]]. However, most set-ups require additional items. The easiest set-up requires [[Morphing Ball]]. The set-up that allows its usage seemingly anywhere in TASes requires [[Ice Beam]].

In current routes of categories, X-mode has very few applications. There is Jesuswalk, used in [[14% xAmmo]] (and an option in other 14% categories, although usually more difficult than a different choice). Additionally [[Max% GT Code]] has a route that crosses [[Bowling Alley]] by using Spike X-mode.

[[Blue Suit Glitch#X-Ray Mode|X-mode may be used to generate a blue suit]] which has uses in 14% categories.

Other than these, most applications of X-mode to speedruns are theoretical, via use of Superjumps. Perhaps the most famous is GT Superjump.

The below is some base information, that should be further fleshed out.

=Entering X-Mode=

X-mode is entered by frame perfectly using X-Ray the frame before knockback ends. This cannot normally be done, so there are different set-ups to make it possible.

==Spike X-Mode==

The easiest method is Spike X-Mode. This requires [[Morphing Ball]]. To perform: Bounce in Morph near spikes so that you will land on them, select X-Ray and hold dash, hold forward before the spikes damage Samus, and unmorph frame perfectly.

Therefore, this is easiest because the dash input for activating X-Ray is buffered due to the unmorph animation.

To tell if you got the correct frame, here is what happens at various unmorph frames:
*More than 8 frames early: X-Ray is used before knockback occurs.
*2-8 frames early: Knockback occurs after the unmorph so X-Ray fails.
*1 frame early: The unmorph fails.
*Correct frame: X-mode is entered, see below
*1 frame late: X-Ray is used while standing.
*2 or more frames late: Knockback occurs before the unmorph.
*2 frames late: X-Ray is used while crouched.
*3 or more frames late: Samus will be in the air so X-Ray will fail.

If done correctly, Samus' legs will be moving as if she were running and X-Ray will be active, but Samus will not be moving.

This can also be done by hitting spikes twice in a row. This requires having more health, but may be easier to learn. The first spike hit is used to bounce in morph form, and then the unmorph happens frame perfectly just before the second spike hit.

Rather than bouncing in morph, you can instead bonk into the side of something (such as a platform or a frozen enemy) prior to landing on the spikes. Below are examples of the 3 methods described above.

{{#ev:youtube|WUgiEkJMEwI}}

==Slope X-Mode==

Similar to a [[Yellow Suit Glitch#Slopes|slopespark]], a slope may be used to land before knockback frames are over. This allows using X-Mode.

It appears that in order to do this, a frame perfect switch from holding forwards to holding backwards may be required, to get downwards knockback and land as soon as possible. Thus this has questionable RTA viability, but this requires further testing.

{{#ev:youtube|58W13owPo5w}}

==Door X-Mode==

This is a variant of Slope X-Mode: While doors are closing, they act like slopes.

This is done by taking damage while going through a transition (while facing away from the transition), similar to getting door stuck for an [[X-Ray Climb]].

Like Slope X-Mode, many of these set-ups seem to require a frame perfect switch from forwards to backwards. There is at least an exception for Jesuswalk on PAL.

==Frozen Enemy X-Mode==

Using a frozen enemy, Samus may land very quickly. This is what TAS does to do Superjumps basically anywhere.

This method would not be very RTA viable, since it may require pixel perfect enemy and Samus positioning and hence many frame perfect inputs. For any particular application, a set-up could possibly be found. It would still be very inconsistent.

==Reserve Tanks==

The reserve tank automatic refill can extend the knockback timer. This can be used to allow entering X-Mode where it would otherwise be impossible.

The most famous example here is GT Superjump.

=Effects=

X-Mode is exited by stopping the use of X-Ray.

Samus will appear to be moving forward. In some instances of X-Mode, Samus will automatically move forward (TODO: When does this happen?). In most instances, Samus will only actually move forward by arm pumping or shinesparking. Samus will move straight forward, without falling, walking on air).

Touching a wall will crash the game.

Crouching in X-Mode will cause Samus to crouch and be unable to move until X-Mode is canceled.

Jumping while in X-Mode will cause Samus to be in a jumping state. Just as she does not move forwards, she will not actually move. If X-Mode is released, she will gain that momentum. This is useful for getting off of the spikes when Spike X-Mode is used.

If X-Mode is entered with non-zero dash speed, a shinespark may be charged. Since Samus is (most likely) not moving, this allows charging a shinespark in a very short distance.

X-Mode may be entered with a [[Yellow Suit Glitch|shinespark suit]], despite the use of X-Ray. Note if the method of entering X-Mode requires a damage boost, this may not be possible since the damage boost may use the spark.

==Superjumps==

If Samus shinesparks while in X-Mode, every frame her vertical momentum is increased by 7 pixels. After X-Mode is cancelled she loses horizontal momentum but retains her vertical momentum, and she is put in a falling state.

This allows gaining absurd amounts of speed, and will frequently cause Samus to go flying [[Out of Bounds]]. The precision in placement and X-Ray release needed for applications makes this extremely difficult to be useful RTA.

=Speedrun Uses=

Current routes of categories use X-Mode infrequently.

==X-Mode Blue==

X-Mode is a fairly simple method of generating a [[Blue Suit Glitch|blue suit]], especially the spike method. It can frequently be the fastest choice. For example, in [[14% xSpeed]] before entering Maridia it should be fastest to get a blue suit in [[Hellway]] via X-Mode.

To generate a blue suit with X-Mode, simply shinespark while in X-Mode and cancel it before the crash.

Given the tendency of Superjumps to go Out of Bounds, it is safest to cancel X-Mode during the windup for the shinespark. Note that if a Spike X-Mode is used, this means that Samus will be on spikes and will now have a blue suit. Thus, damage can be taken very quickly.

{{#ev:youtube|bzEiVtFew2c}}

==Bowling Alley==

A Spike X-Mode may be used to cross [[Bowling Alley]] with no tanks and no suits. This is one of the possible routes of [[Max% GT Code]], which collects Gravity but no Varia.

{{#ev:youtube|noH_LMFjN4Q}}

To do this, bounce on the ledge and then X-Mode on the spikes. Samus will appear to be running in place. Release forward, and Samus will move slowly across the room. The Chozo will eventually come into sight. When you think you are close enough, press jump, then release dash to exit X-Mode. If you do this too late, you will run into the wall and the game will crash. If you are worried that you'll go too far, you can hold forward to stop Samus from moving, then arm pump to move her closer to the Chozo pixel-by-pixel.

==Colosseum==

Crossing [[Colosseum]] suitless without Space Jump, Grapple, or Ice Beam can be quite tricky. This is especially true going from right to left, where the last jump from the spike is extremely precise.

Instead, a short Spike X-Mode can be used to make this jump easier. This isn't too terrible, despite being frame perfect, due to the nearby Save Room.

==Jesuswalk==

A door X-Mode may be used to cross [[Mt. Everest]]. This is required in [[14% xAmmo]].

There is a relatively simple set-up, by taking damage from a crab during the transition while low in the door in a spinjump. This allows buffering all of the inputs (backwards, jump, angle, and dash). Then the trick reduces to releasing backwards and jump frame perfectly.

There is a method to cross Mt. Everest with a Superjump using via a door X-Mode. It is claimed this only works on PAL, and the only clip of it requires a frame perfect switch from left to right to get a downwards knockback. If this method is humanly feasible, it would allow [[14% xSpeed]] to be completed without the use of L+R wall jumping. However, the segment containing this trick would be extremely difficult, requiring: G-moding into Maridia, managing to get a [[Yellow Suit Glitch|shinespark suit]] afterwards, performing this Jesuswalk Superjump, continuing with the blue suit while fighting Botwoon, sparking up [[Halfie Climb Room]], and then traversing [[Colosseum]] with minimal equipment before being able to save.

==GT Superjump==

This is a well known application from the 100% TAS. It uses a reserve tank extended knockback to get X-Mode in [[Golden Torizo's Room]], to collect GT Missiles without Space Jump by using a Superjump.

This would enable a single Norfair route of 100%.

Not only is this method incredibly precise and thus fairly infeasible, it is also believed to not be faster for RTA 100%. Getting through Lower Norfair with this equipment is significantly slower, thus losing all of the gained time.

=Other Uses=

Here, other uses (including theoretical applications to categories) can be documented as they come up.

[[Category:X-Ray Scope Glitches]]

Standup Glitch

2023-04-23T01:34:54Z

NobodyNada:

This page will explain how the stand-up glitch works and how to properly utilize it.

The stand-up glitch allows Samus to stand up and then move around during the cutscene after rainbow beam, which will allow you to deal damage to the health of [[Mother Brain]]'s third phase.

The normal way to perform the glitch requires Samus to have a minimum of 700 [[Energy Tank]] energy on the frame that rainbow beam connects. [[Reserve Tank]] energy does not count.

There is an alternative, unorthodox method that involves [[Blue Suit Glitch#Mother Brain|shinesparking at the right time before rainbow beam connects]], so that the stun is removed from the [[shinespark]] crash animation. 700 Energy Tank energy is not required with this method.

After the rainbow beam has ceased, you can force Samus to stand up by pressing up. To guarantee enough time for the next phase of the glitch, spamming up is recommended.

If your energy is above a certain threshold after rainbow beam subsides (which will be the case if you have [[Varia Suit]] active), you will need to damage yourself for the cutscene to progress.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Suit !! Threshold
|-
| Gravity || 100
|-
| Varia || 180
|-
| Power || 340
|}

Mother Brain's leg is an ideal damage source, since it does not grant invulnerability. Note that you do not need to have Varia Suit disabled to perform this glitch, it simply makes it less risky. This is because after the first rainbow beam with Varia Suit enabled, if the player does not damage themselves quickly enough, Mother Brain will decide to fire another rainbow beam due to Samus having too much health, which can be disastrous.

{{#ev:youtube|TMUAfjELonM}}

The game will attempt to reapply the kneeling pose upon Samus at the moment the Super Metroid appears on screen to attack Mother Brain, as well as the moment the Super Metroid detaches from Mother Brain's 'corpse.' You will want to be airborne during these moments to avoid this reapplication. Alternatively, you can morph into a ball and lay a bomb to break yourself free after the kneeling pose is forced. Don't use this method in randomizers or romhacks that speed up the first phase cutscene as the acid will not drain far enough to avoid accidental contact.

If you are forced back into a kneeling pose after standing up, a single activation of the [[X-Ray Scope]] should free you. Alternatively, if you are close enough, being struck by Mother Brain's leg should free you as well.

Mother Brain will be given the health of her third phase the moment she becomes fully gray (as the Super Metroid stops shaking, right before it detaches). It is pointless to fire beam shots at her any earlier than then.

Mother Brain's third phase has 36000 health, which is equivalent to 40 charged [[Ice Beam|Ice]]/[[Wave Beam|Wave]]/[[Plasma Beam|Plasma]] shots. It can be difficult to output that many charge shots into Mother Brain before [[Hyper Beam]] is gained, but you can consistently come very close, to where you would only need a couple of Hyper Beam shots afterward to finish her off.

{{#ev:youtube|YrTUaX8QXuk}}

==Baby Manipulation==

After Mother Brain has fired 10 sets of rings at the Baby Metroid, the Baby will detach, move off the right side of the screen, then charge in for the final blow. Except if you have maximum health, as with [[100%]] runs, in which case the Baby will detach just before an 11th set of rings. For this category you can bring the Baby to the top right side of the screen at this time to manipulate it into the cutscene earlier.

==Softlock Conditions==

If you are changing pose on the same frame as one of the Force Stand conditions, you could get stuck in midair. This is most common when walljumping as the Baby Metroid comes on screen. If Mother Brain can't hit the baby from this position, it's a softlock.

You will want to be cautious of your positioning when the Super Metroid attempts to detach from you. It will attempt to do this once you reach full energy again, and can also detach frequently during the remaining cutscene duration while you are moving around. Depending on where it detaches, you may softlock the game due to Mother Brain not being able to kill the Super Metroid with her rings.

This form of softlock is particularly hazardous in [[GT Classic]], since you have exactly 700hp to work with, so the Baby Metroid will finish refilling your health very quickly unless you damage yourself on Mother Brain.

{{#ev:youtube|AnwH1TlUFjk}}

You will also want to be cautious about firing the beam during the moment in which the Super Metroid starts exploding, as well as the point in which Hyper Beam is gained (the room becomes lit again), as during these points, the beam can cause the game to lag a tremendous amount - so much so that the game may never resume normal speed, effectively bringing an end to your speedrun.

You should be able to squeeze in up to seven charge shots after the Super Metroid starts exploding, but before Hyper Beam is gained. If you want to be safe, do less. If you are holding a charge when Hyper Beam is obtained, the game will lag tremendously. You can hold item cancel (or item select if an item in the HUD can be activated) to end the charge and clear the lag.

{{#ev:youtube|qp52EpixJzE}}

Wait until the room becomes illuminated to start firing Hyper Beam to deal whatever remaining damage you need to deal.

The game can also slowlock if you are in an unusual pose (such as morphed, facing to the right, or frameperfectly starting a jump) at either the moment the Super Metroid starts exploding, or the moment you gain Hyper Beam. If this occurs, hold a button that triggers any pose transition (such as turning around, aiming, or jumping) and the game will return to normal speed within a few seconds.

== External links ==

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol7c5WOFLIg Saturn's original video]

* [http://www.twitch.tv/straevaras/v/49249418 Straevaras's explanation of the stand-up glitch with Varia Suit equipped]

* [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jhuyiERCdIcYMZrOS3i06-c1SJDFORR2fVDuFlGSnCo/edit#gid=0 Spreadsheet of energy thresholds for stand-up glitch]

Mother Brain Room

2023-01-11T21:58:46Z

NobodyNada: add information about normalizing subpixels for the downback zeb skip

{{Adjacent rooms
|west=[[Tourian Escape Room 1]]
|east=[[Rinka Shaft]]
}}

[[File:MotherBrainRoom.png|x300px]]

Room state 1 & 2

[[File:Mother_Brain_room%2C_state_1%262.png|x300px]]

Room state 3

[[File:Mother_Brain_room%2C_state_3.png|x300px]]

== 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 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]].

=== Tutorials ===

{{#ev:youtube|OTJ8UrI1oOI}}

{{#ev:youtube|oqazt8i9ggs}}

{{#ev:youtube|i3HQhtXTkzc}}

{{#ev:youtube|xKWm3T9du3s}}

=== Ice 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. Screw Attack must be turned off for this method of Zeb Skip, see below for techniques that can be done with it turned on.

{{#ev:youtube|GBXi3MSpGZg}}

=== 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.

{{#ev:youtube|DTntye5_pGY}}

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 [[RBO|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.

==== [[Hitbox Manipulation#Down-backing|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.

{{#ev:youtube|eQW6ZCe4Zns}}

{{#ev:youtube|6wK3tzYT-bM}}

[[File:DownbackZebBad0.png|frame|The first bad frame for starting a downback.]]

[[File:DownbackZebBad12.png|frame|The beginning of the second cluster of bad frames.]]

[[File:DownbackZebBad34567.png|frame|The beginning of the third cluster of bad frames.]]

This technique is dependent on Samus's subpixel positioning. Both horizontal and vertical subpixel values can cause the skip to fail sometimes.

You cormalize Samus's horizontal subpixel value by bonking the T-shaped platform during your jump. 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:

{{#ev:youtube|z_Z76CPNbm4}}

You can use the "X Position" infohud mode to see if you're doing the bonk correctly. As in the video above, you should see Samus's X position stop at 837.8000 on the way up; then 837.0000 on the way down. As long as you see these two values, your horizontal positioning was correct for the zeb skip. If you still fail the skip, then either there was a problem was with your vertical subpixels, or you messed up an input. 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.

==== Without 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
*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.

{{#ev:youtube|_tCbF1WCehA}}

==== 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.

{{#ev:youtube|3SHoWEyPhW0}}

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.

{{#ev:youtube|w48spD5TR24}}

==== 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.

{{#ev:youtube|gAWHhbkeuY4}}

=== 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.

{{#ev:youtube|gs5iaoRPAQ0}}

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.

{{#ev:youtube|9hNUeXxiNO0}}

=== 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|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)

{{#ev:youtube|sMThL7TbzHs}}

=== 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.

{{#ev:youtube|KyND-o20Vg4}}

== 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.

{{#ev:youtube|JNeqAcdN8mw}}

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.

{{#ev:youtube|mtNU4tFBwHY}}

== See also ==

* [[General Movement|Individual rooms]]
* [[Mother Brain]]

== External links ==

* [http://tasvideos.org/GameResources/SNES/SuperMetroid.html#PassingThroughZebetites TASVideos description]

File:DownbackZebBad34567.png

2023-01-11T21:05:06Z

NobodyNada: Start of third cluster of bad frames for the downback zeb skip (5 frames)

Start of third cluster of bad frames for the downback zeb skip (5 frames)

File:DownbackZebBad12.png

2023-01-11T21:04:32Z

NobodyNada: Start of second cluster of bad frames for the downback zeb skip (2 frames)

Start of second cluster of bad frames for the downback zeb skip (2 frames)

File:DownbackZebBad0.png

2023-01-11T21:03:31Z

NobodyNada: First bad frame for the downback zeb skip

First bad frame for the downback zeb skip

Practice Hacks

2022-12-04T01:08:14Z

NobodyNada:

=Infohud Practice Hack=

The practice hack (aka Infohud) is a romhack designed to assist speedrunners in practice. Notable features include pre-made savestates to jump to different parts of a speedrun, timers for individual rooms/segments, displays for useful RAM addresses, and equipment/event toggles.

All versions of the practice hack should offer an option with the "SD2SNES" savestate feature enabled, and another option without. If you are NOT playing with the SD2SNES/FXPAK cartridge (or Super NT with latest "jailbreak" firmware) then you should not choose this option. This feature will likely cause crashes or major graphical glitches if used with emulators, everdrives, or virtual consoles (SNES Classic included).

Recent versions of the practice hack offer an alternate savestate implementation which works on almost all platforms -- including most emulators, Everdrive, and MiSTer. This "tinystates" version works by saving only essential game state and filling in the gaps from the cartridge ROM, allowing it to work on platforms with limited RAM. This comes at the cost of increased loading times and a higher risk of graphical glitches. Virtual Console (including SNES Classic) is the only platform known to be incompatible with tinystates.

If neither implementation of savestates works for you, use the savestate features built into your platform or the load preset feature available in Infohud 2.0+.

The D-pad on controller 2 features speed controls and frame advance. Emulator users should ensure that their input bindings on controller 2 do not match controller 1.

Some releases of Infohud may require you to apply an IPS patch to your copy of SM. More info about patching roms at [https://metroidconstruction.com/howto.php Metroid Construction].

=Current Versions=

[https://smpractice.speedga.me/ Infohud version 2.5+] '''<-- RECOMMENDED'''

This should be the most up-to-date version of the Infohud practice hack used by speedrunners. It offers a how-to-use tutorial on its [https://smpractice.speedga.me/help Help page] and should be read by first-time Infohud users. PAL versions are also supported.

[https://github.com/tewtal/sm_practice_hack Github repository]

This is the source repository for the Infohud practice hack, allowing you to see how it works, adapt it for SM romhacks, contribute to the project, or build your own customized copy from the files available. This would also be a good place to report bugs if you're not on [[Discord]]. The [https://smpractice.speedga.me website] source is hosted in the same repository.

=Romhacks=

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/HackROMBase/releases Generic patch with greater hack compatibility]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Airy/releases Airy]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Ancient-Chozo/releases Ancient Chozo]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Cliffhanger/releases Cliffhanger], [https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Cliffhanger/releases Cliffhanger Redux]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Containment-Chamber/releases Containment Chamber] (Presets included)

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Contamination/releases Contamination]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Decision/releases Decision]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Eris/releases Eris]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Escape-II/releases Escape II]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Hyper/releases Hyper Metroid]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Ice-Metal-Uninstall/releases Ice Metal Uninstall]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Kaizo-Possible/releases Kaizo Possible]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Life/releases Life]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Nature/releases Nature]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/NewWetDream/releases New Wet Dream]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/otherRotation/releases otherRotation]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Oxide/releases Oxide]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Redesign-Axeil-Edition/releases Redesign] (Presets included), [https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Redesign-Axeil-Edition/releases Redesign: Axeil Edition]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Reimagined/releases Reimagined]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Retroid/releases Retroid] (Presets included)

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Rotation/releases Rotation]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Super-Zero-Mission/releases Super Zero Mission] (Presets included)

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Blue-Plague/releases The Blue Plague]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/VITALITY/releases VITALITY]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Yfaster/releases Y-Faster], [https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Yfaster2/releases Y-Faster 2], [https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Yfaster2f/releases Y-Faster 2 Furious]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Z-Factor/releases Z-Factor]

=Savestates Only=

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/SM_Savestates Savestate-Only Patch]

A pre-made IPS patch is included with the source, but it can also be reconfigured to support more hacks or change button inputs.

=Obsoleted Versions=

[https://milde.no/public/sm/smhack/ Pinkus Infohud Branch]

This is a branch of the 1.42 version of Total's Infohud. It added an additional Rerandomize feature which changes the rng seed every time a savestate is loaded, and also permits users to set specific patterns for Botwoon and Phantoon. These features are also present in the version 2.0 rewrite.

[https://hacks.speedga.me/sm.html Total's Infohud Romhack]

This was Total's last official release of the Infohud practice hack before version 2.0 by Pinkus. Older practice roms for Kaizo Possible and SZM, as well as a guide to adding the SD2SNES savestate feature to other romhacks, are also available here.

Practice Hacks

2022-12-04T01:03:35Z

NobodyNada: document tinystates

=Infohud Practice Hack=

The practice hack (aka Infohud) is a romhack designed to assist speedrunners in practice. Notable features include pre-made savestates to jump to different parts of a speedrun, timers for individual rooms/segments, displays for useful RAM addresses, and equipment/event toggles.

All versions of the practice hack should offer an option with the "SD2SNES" savestate feature enabled, and another option without. If you are NOT playing with the SD2SNES/FXPAK cartridge (or Super NT with latest "jailbreak" firmware) then you should not choose this option. This feature will likely cause crashes or major graphical glitches if used with emulators, everdrives, or virtual consoles (SNES Classic included).

Recent versions of the practice hack offer an alternate savestate implementation which works on almost all platforms -- including most emulators, Everdrive, and MiSTer. This "tinystates" version works by saving only essential game state and filling in the gaps from the cartridge ROM, allowing it to work on platforms with limited RAM at the expense of increased loading times. Virtual Console (including SNES Classic) is the only platform known to be incompatible with tinystates.

If neither implementation of savestates works for you, use the savestate features built into your platform or the load preset feature available in Infohud 2.0+.

The D-pad on controller 2 features speed controls and frame advance. Emulator users should ensure that their input bindings on controller 2 do not match controller 1.

Some releases of Infohud may require you to apply an IPS patch to your copy of SM. More info about patching roms at [https://metroidconstruction.com/howto.php Metroid Construction].

=Current Versions=

[https://smpractice.speedga.me/ Infohud version 2.5+] '''<-- RECOMMENDED'''

This should be the most up-to-date version of the Infohud practice hack used by speedrunners. It offers a how-to-use tutorial on its [https://smpractice.speedga.me/help Help page] and should be read by first-time Infohud users. PAL versions are also supported.

[https://github.com/tewtal/sm_practice_hack Github repository]

This is the source repository for the Infohud practice hack, allowing you to see how it works, adapt it for SM romhacks, contribute to the project, or build your own customized copy from the files available. This would also be a good place to report bugs if you're not on [[Discord]]. The [https://smpractice.speedga.me website] source is hosted in the same repository.

=Romhacks=

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/HackROMBase/releases Generic patch with greater hack compatibility]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Airy/releases Airy]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Ancient-Chozo/releases Ancient Chozo]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Cliffhanger/releases Cliffhanger], [https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Cliffhanger/releases Cliffhanger Redux]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Containment-Chamber/releases Containment Chamber] (Presets included)

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Contamination/releases Contamination]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Decision/releases Decision]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Eris/releases Eris]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Escape-II/releases Escape II]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Hyper/releases Hyper Metroid]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Ice-Metal-Uninstall/releases Ice Metal Uninstall]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Kaizo-Possible/releases Kaizo Possible]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Life/releases Life]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Nature/releases Nature]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/NewWetDream/releases New Wet Dream]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/otherRotation/releases otherRotation]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Oxide/releases Oxide]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Redesign-Axeil-Edition/releases Redesign] (Presets included), [https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Redesign-Axeil-Edition/releases Redesign: Axeil Edition]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Reimagined/releases Reimagined]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Retroid/releases Retroid] (Presets included)

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Rotation/releases Rotation]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Super-Zero-Mission/releases Super Zero Mission] (Presets included)

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Blue-Plague/releases The Blue Plague]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/VITALITY/releases VITALITY]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Yfaster/releases Y-Faster], [https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Yfaster2/releases Y-Faster 2], [https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Yfaster2f/releases Y-Faster 2 Furious]

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/sm_practice_hack/tree/Z-Factor/releases Z-Factor]

=Savestates Only=

[https://github.com/InsaneFirebat/SM_Savestates Savestate-Only Patch]

A pre-made IPS patch is included with the source, but it can also be reconfigured to support more hacks or change button inputs.

=Obsoleted Versions=

[https://milde.no/public/sm/smhack/ Pinkus Infohud Branch]

This is a branch of the 1.42 version of Total's Infohud. It added an additional Rerandomize feature which changes the rng seed every time a savestate is loaded, and also permits users to set specific patterns for Botwoon and Phantoon. These features are also present in the version 2.0 rewrite.

[https://hacks.speedga.me/sm.html Total's Infohud Romhack]

This was Total's last official release of the Infohud practice hack before version 2.0 by Pinkus. Older practice roms for Kaizo Possible and SZM, as well as a guide to adding the SD2SNES savestate feature to other romhacks, are also available here.

13% xCharge

2022-11-11T18:35:21Z

NobodyNada:

[[Category:Full Category]]{{Category
|catname=13% xcharge
|cattype=Full Category
|rtwr=2:26:54
|gtwr=1:47
|wrholder=Kingofthehill476
|wrlink=https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1312635398
|wrtext=Twitch Highlight
|percentage=13%
|items=[[X-Ray Scope]]
|minibosses=[[Bomb Torizo]], [[Botwoon]]
|bossorder=KPDR
|xrayclimb=Yes
}}

13% xCharge is the only in-bounds [[13%]] category that has been completed RTA. A total of 13 items are picked up during the entire run.

==Prerequisites==
To finish this run, you need to know how to:
*[[Mockball]]
*Infinite [[Bomb Jump|bomb jump]]
*[[X-Mode#Jesuswalk|Jesuswalk]]
*[[R-Mode]] pre-Botwoon clip
*Navigate Maridia without [[Gravity Suit]], [[Hi-Jump Boots]], or [[Ice Beam]]
*[[Lava Dive Room|Lava dive]] without [[Gravity Suit]] or [[Hi-Jump Boots]] ([[G-Mode]] entry of Lower Norfair can be done instead)
*[[X-Ray Climb|X-Ray climb]]
*[[L+R Walljumping|L+R underwater walljump up Halfie Climb Room without Hi-Jump Boots]]
*[[10 Missile Zebetite Kill|Destroy Zebetites while only using 10 missiles]]

==Collected Items==
[[Image:morphball.png]] [[Image:bombs.png]] [[Image:charge.png]] [[Image:xray.png]] [[Image:varia.png]] [[Image:etank.png]] [[Image:etank.png]] [[Image:reserver.png]] [[Image:missiles.png]] [[Image:missiles.png]] [[Image:supermissiles.png]] [[Image:supermissiles.png]] [[Image:powerbomb.png]]
*[[Morphing Ball]]
*[[Bomb|Bombs]]
*[[Charge Beam]] (for bosses)
*[[X-Ray Scope]] (for Maridia traversal)
*[[Varia Suit]] (to survive [[Mother_Brain#MB2|MB2's]] rainbow beam)
*2 [[Energy Tank|Energy Tanks]] (to survive MB2's rainbow beam)
*1 [[Reserve Tank]] (for use of X-Ray Scope glitches and to survive MB2's rainbow beam)
*2 [[Missile]] Packs ([[List of Missiles#Brinstar 1|Awakening]] and [[List of Missiles#Crateria 2|Moat]]) (to open red doors and defeat [[Mother_Brain#MB1|MB1]])
*2 [[Super Missile]] Packs ([[List of Super Missiles#Brinstar 2|Early]] and [[List of Super Missiles#Wrecked Ship 1|Wrecked Ship (Left)]]) (to open green doors and defeat MB1)
*1 [[Power Bomb]] Pack ([[List of Power Bombs#Brinstar 1|Red Brinstar Elevator (Lower)]]) (to open orange doors)

== Discussion of Route ==

This category is too new to have a well-defined route. Here are some brief notes.

The current preferred method for killing the Zebetites requires taking damage from a Rinka every missile. This requires 220 energy. Reserve health could be used, but this currently suggests collecting 2+1 Energy+Reserve tanks.

The R-mode clip to Botwoon requires having more Reserve Tanks than Energy Tanks. With 2+1 Tanks, this suggests having 0+1 Tanks at this point in time. Thus, the Terminator Energy Tank should be skipped and the Brinstar Reserve Tank should be collected.

In order to escape from Draygon, you can either backdoor Wrecked Ship or exit via the sand halls. If the former option is chosen, then the Moat Missile need not be collected. It would also mean Spore Spawn Supers should be taken instead so that both Super Packs are available before Draygon.

Given the restriction on Tanks for Botwoon, it would be considerably easier to fight Ridley after handling Draygon.

Kraid needs to be handled before Ridley. Varia Suit is helpful for Maridia, but is not strictly required.

This gives the following possible general routes:

*KDPR: Moat Missile is skipped.
*PDKR: Moat Missile is taken, X-Ray is collected and then Red Tower is climbed again, and escape from Draygon is done out the bottom. This would also be the suggested route if you wanted to skip G-moding into Maridia by going through Forgotten Highway: Then, X-Ray should be collected before going to Phantoon.
*DKRP: Same as PDKR, but horizontal bomb jump over Moat Missile.
*KPDR (current WR route): Same as PDKR, but Varia is taken to help with Phantoon Maridia. Also in the G-mode-less route, this would be the same as PDKR but collecting Varia for safety.
*PKDR: Same as PDKR, but Varia is taken to help with Maridia.
*KRDP: This route is more viable if 1+2 Energy+Reserve Tanks are preferred. Norfair Reserve is collected as the second Reserve Tank. Varia and X-Ray are collected, everything is taken care of down, and then Red Tower is climbed to G-mode into Maridia.

== PAL vs NTSC ==

On the PAL version, jump height while underwater is higher. This allows climbing up the left side of Mt. Everest to set up Jesuswalk without using any underwater walljumps.

On NTSC, it is not so simple. Instead, a harder version of L+R Walljumping must be used to get up to the door. Thus, NTSC is much harder due to this one room.

The only known streamed or single-segment completions of this category have been on the PAL version.

A segmented "proof of concept" RTA completion was done on NTSC, minimizing the use of L+R. This can be found [https://vimeo.com/showcase/8997023 here].

Wraparound Shot

2022-10-19T01:09:19Z

NobodyNada: Redirected page to Wrap-around Shot

#REDIRECT [[Wrap-around Shot]]

Wrap-around Shot

2022-10-19T01:06:41Z

NobodyNada: add information about the obscure left-side and ceiling wraparound shots

A shot that travels out-of-bounds can exhibit strange behaviors such as "wrapping around" to another part of the room. The exact behavior depends on the direction the shot is traveling, the layout of the room in memory, and quirks of the game's projectile collision detection. The most common application involves firing a beam shot diagonally off the far right side of a room to open a door that is on the far left side of a room.

To understand wraparound shots it's helpful to know how room tiles are stored in memory. Every room is stored one row after another, in the same order that you read (English) text on a page: left-to-right then top-to-bottom. For example, consider the [[Plowerhouse Room]]:

[[File:PlowerhouseRoom.png|x256px]]

The middle portion of the room is stored like this in memory:

[[File:PlowerhouseRows.png]]

If we can take advantage of a bug to "trick" the game into reading past the end of a row, it will therefore read from the beginning of the next row. This is the basic idea behind a wraparound shot.

Note that a shot will despawn once it goes fully offscreen, so wraparound shots require the front side of the beam to be out-of-bounds while the back side is onscreen. Naturally, this is easier with a longer beam, so enabling [[Spazer]] or [[Plasma Beam|Plasma]] or firing a [[Charge Beam|charged shot]] may be required for some setups. Wave beam is always required to perform a wraparound shot, since a non-wave shot will collide with a wall before going out of bounds. Also note that a wraparound shot only interacts with tiles, and not enemies.

== Right to Left Wraparound ==

A shot that is traveling diagonally off the right side of the room will wrap around to the next row and interact with tiles on the left side of the room. This is commonly used to open doors in order to shinespark through them:

{{#ev:youtube|79Zmx8eLdkc}}

{{#ev:youtube|LkkEK5-9Nno}}

{{#ev:youtube|Zl16u8Bs6aM}}

It experiences the most use in categories involving a large amount of item collection, such as [[100%|100% Items]], [[100% Map Completion|100% Map]], and [[RBO|Reverse Boss Order]]. The two rooms where this is primarily performed are the [[Landing Site]], to open the door leading to the [[Gauntlet Energy Tank Room|Gauntlet Energy Tank]] so that Samus can [[shinespark]] through towards it, and [[Crocomire's Room]], to open the door leading to [[Post Crocomire Power Bomb Room|his Power Bombs]] so that Samus can shinespark or [[Space Jump]] through towards it.

Beams disappear as soon as they are off-screen, so the beam must be at full width as it reaches the edge of the screen in order to trigger the door. You should hear the sound of the door opening if performed correctly.

=== Tutorials ===
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6Tmu8w9yIQ&t= FrenchLightningJohn] detailed tutorial on wrap-around for both NTSC and PAL
* [https://www.twitch.tv/videos/207533150 WildAnaconda69] tutorial for Plasma wrap-around

== Left Side Wraparound ==

A shot fired diagonally off the left edge of a room triggers an underflow that causes the shot to wrap around exactly 4095 tiles forward in memory, or 16 screens (minus one tile). The underflow affects the entire beam -- not just the off-screen portion -- so a sufficiently wide beam will interact with a few tiles further to the right as well. This only has an effect in sufficiently large rooms, as the shot has no effect if the underflow places it entirely beyond the room's tile data.

A left side wraparound can be used to open the door from [[Green Brinstar Main Shaft]] to [[Green Brinstar Beetom Room]] before falling all the way down the shaft. Since this room is 4 screens wide, shifting 16 screens forward in memory is equivalent to 4 screens downward. Therefore, a diagonal shot that passes through the red door to [[Green Brinstar Firefleas Room]] will hit the blue door at the bottom of the shaft.

== Ceiling Wraparound ==

This is an extremely specific trick with very strange effects. It only works in rooms that are 8 screens wide (such as [[Frog Speedway]] or [[Crocomire's Room]]), and the beam shot must travel diagonally upwards through the ceiling on the right half of the room.

To understand its conditions and effects, it helps to look at the code. The bug lies within [https://patrickjohnston.org/bank/94#fA352 this routine], which checks for collisions between a projectile and all the tiles along its forward edge (i.e. the left edge if it's travelling left, or the right edge if it's travelling right).

;;; $A352: Beam horizontal block collision detection - wave beam ;;;
{
...
$94:A368 BD 78 0B LDA $0B78,x; Load projectile Y position
$94:A36B 38 SEC
$94:A36C FD C8 0B SBC $0BC8,x; Subtract projectile Y radius (to get the top edge)
$94:A36F 4A LSR A
$94:A370 4A LSR A
$94:A371 4A LSR A
$94:A372 4A LSR A ; Divide by 16 to get Y position in tiles
$94:A373 E2 20 SEP #$20
$94:A375 8D 02 42 STA $4202 ; Set as multiplication operand A
$94:A378 AD A5 07 LDA $07A5 ; Load room size in tiles
$94:A37B 8D 03 42 STA $4203 ; Set as multiplication operand B
$94:A37E C2 20 REP #$20
...
$94:A38B BD 64 0B LDA $0B64,x; Load projectile X position
... ; ... add/subtract X radius to get left/right edge
... ; depending on projectile direction of travel
$94:A3A6 4A LSR A
$94:A3A7 4A LSR A
$94:A3A8 4A LSR A
$94:A3A9 4A LSR A ; Divide by 16 to get X position in tiles
$94:A3AA 18 CLC
$94:A3AB 6D 16 42 ADC $4216 ; A = (y tile * room width) + x tile
; (i.e. the index of the tile in memory)
$94:A3AE 0A ASL A ; Each tile is 2 bytes, so multiply by 2 to get a byte offset
$94:A3AF A8 TAY
...
$94:A3CF BB TYX

; Loop for each tile in the block span
$94:A3D0 20 B5 A1 JSR $A1B5 ; Handle interaction with the beam and this tile
$94:A3D3 8A TXA
$94:A3D4 18 CLC
$94:A3D5 6D A5 07 ADC $07A5 ; Add 2*room width to advance to the next row down
$94:A3D8 6D A5 07 ADC $07A5 ; BUG
$94:A3DB AA TAX
$94:A3DC C6 26 DEC $26
$94:A3DE 10 F0 BPL $F0 ; Loop until we reach the bottom of the beam

; All done, clean up and return
$94:A3E0 FA PLX
$94:A3E1 AB PLB
$94:A3E2 18 CLC
$94:A3E3 6B RTL
}

If the projectile's Y position is -1, its tile Y position is computed as 0xFFF. This truncated to 0xFF before multiplying by the room width, which is 0x80 for an 8-screen-wide room. The result of the multiplication is 0x7f80; we then add the projectile's X position in tiles and multiply by 2 to get a byte index of A = (0xFF00 + X*2). This is an entirely nonsensical value, and the collision-handling routine at $A1B5 recognizes this as out-of-bounds and does nothing.

However, when we add the room width to advance to the next row, things get weird. If the tile X coordinate is greater than 0x40 (so A is 0xFF80 or greater), the first ADC instruction overflows to an in-bounds value and sets the carry flag -- which causes the second ADC (the line marked BUG) to add an extra 1 (since the developers didn't bother to reset the carry flag as they didn't expect this to ever overflow). Since each tile is 2 bytes, this extra byte offset causes the code to end up misaligned in the tile data and incorrectly interpret part of the tile graphics data as block type information.

The only known application of this is the Speedless Speedway technique to traverse [[Frog Speedway]] right-to-left without speed booster. Exploiting this bug in Frog Speedway causes the routine to interpret tile graphics data in the ceiling as a large number of respawning shot blocks, which can be used to overload PLMs.

== See also ==

* [[Weapon Techniques]]

== External links ==

* [http://tasvideos.org/GameResources/SNES/SuperMetroid.html#WrappingBeamShotsAround TASVideos description]

File:PlowerhouseRows.png

2022-10-18T23:21:46Z

NobodyNada:

Big Boy Room

2022-10-14T19:37:43Z

NobodyNada:

{{Adjacent rooms
|west=[[Seaweed Room]]
|east=[[Dust Torizo Room]]
}}

[[File:BigBoyRoom.png|x256px]]

[[File:Big_Metroid_room%2C_state_1%262.png|x300px]]

In all categories, the player should move left as quickly as possible in order to start the Metroid cutscene as soon as possible. For categories with Space Jump this will mean retaining jump speed through the door transition, then Space Jumping until the camera locks. For all other categories, the optimal strategy is to shoot the dust enemies, then mockball on the ground between the first and second pillars sticking out of the ground.

= Metroid Skip =

By doing careful jumps manipulating the Baby Metroid's position, you can exit the room without the Metroid draining your health, followed by the cutscene where you're temporarily locked in place.

== Non-Space Jump Method ==
Begin running after Baby rises all the way to the top and starts moving back downwards. You can delay the start quite a bit before Baby will come down and grab you. Jump as late as possible to maximize the horizontal distance traveled. You can jump as early as the first sandy floor tile and still make the jump past the next protruding floor tile. If you accidentally run into the floor tiles without jumping, turn around and run back under Baby and try again. You can usually fail this way twice before Baby will grab you. Aiming down throughout this first jump can grant you a bit more distance and put Baby in a more favorable position for the next jump.

The second jump will need to wait until Baby has passed by and begins changing direction back toward you. Run forward and jump over Baby rather than turning around to increase your distance traveled. Try not to jump too high and hit the Dust Geemer on the ceiling. If you choose to shoot out all of the dusty obstacles (which can cause around a second worth of lag frames), you can fire a horizontal shot after you start falling and Baby is in approximately the 2 o'clock position. You may need to shoot the Dust Ripper on the floor depending on how well you perform these first two jumps. Aiming down and firing just before landing on the Dust Ripper will make Baby swing further to the left, but may require tighter execution. An angle shot may be easier if you're not clearing as much distance on these two jumps.

The third jump is where the "jump-rope" movement comes into play. Immediately turn around upon landing and run about 1-2 tiles distance to the right and spin jump over Baby when it's coming toward you in the 8-7 o'clock position. Try not to jump too high (about 3/4 of the way to the ceiling) even if you cleared the way with your beam. Higher jumps will give you less overall distance and puts Baby in a higher position on the next jump. Focus on getting into a good position to jump-rope with Baby.

Take the time to become proficient at this jump-rope technique before incorporating the shots at the vines. You'll want to know how to correct Baby's movement if things get out of hand. If it goes too high, or starts circling in a tighter pattern, you may want to sacrifice some forward progress by running further backwards before jumping. Try to tune your jumps to be around a tile's distance (16px) over Baby. Any runner that is consistent at Baby Skip should be able to keep Baby in a loop for as long as they want.

Once you've mastered this technique, begin working on clearing out the vines with your beam. You'll want to clear out all or most of the vines that are at or above door height. Horizontal shots can be the easiest if you have cleared out the ceiling dust, but may require extra jumps if Baby circles too high. Angle shots are best for clearing the top portion, but requires releasing jump before Samus will break spin and aim diagonally. Be careful about breaking spin too early as Baby tends to close the distance quickly if you're too close.

Leaving at least one row of vines at the bottom can help you get into position when the time comes for the final jump. The single, top-left tile of vines can be ignored, but no other tiles in the top corner should be left in place. You'll want to manipulate Baby's pattern to be low and wide for the final positioning. Take the time and extra jumps to get Baby in a favorable position before committing. Try to get into position against the tiles (or on the foreground vines if you destroyed them all) quickly and wait for Baby to swing low, around the 7 o'clock position. Jump straight up as late as possible and mid-air morph immediately. Hold left to bounce into the door transition. It's possible to get in the door with a spin jump, but may require a closer starting position. On PAL, the final spin jump can be easier due to poor horizontal movement with air ball in that version.

{{#ev:youtube|c4Gff6OJp7w}}

{{#ev:youtube|JFy4SjbjCrs}}

Baby Skip Tutorial focusing mostly on the first, second, and last jumps of baby skip, along with some analysis on what went wrong when things go wrong during the tutorial.

{{#ev:youtube|IELruthj6ZI}}

Some runners lay bombs during the final jump, but this is not advised. The sound of the bomb explosion can cause [[processing]] delays before the door transition starts, during which the Baby will continue moving. This can drastically increase the chance of getting grabbed during the transition, causing the slowdown effect as described below.

== Clockwise Method ==

First demonstrated by Stashiocat, this method has promise to be the fastest for Any%. As a bonus, it skips needing to unmorph in the next room.

{{#ev:youtube|ppB2PwOT7y0}}

This skip can be done [https://clips.twitch.tv/ObservantGoldenJellyfishSpicyBoy-Y3RTYpTsha9V-n49 in as few as 3 jumps].

ARealCutie has a bomb jump setup to normalize the timing for the first run and jump:

{{#ev:youtube|otHfekSRTqI}}

== Space Jump Method ==

A very basic explanation of the Space Jump variant's beginning is pictured below.

[[File:Babyskip.png]]

3 Jump and 4 Jump skips shown below:

{{#ev:youtube|aOZh7S5yoDM}}

== Springball Method ==

Possibly the most inconsistent method of Baby Skip. Developed by Behemoth and Kottpower.

{{#ev:youtube|4qGH9FHybns}}

== Randomizer ==

With Hi-Jump but no Speed Booster, the running cues will be slightly different than the Non-Space Jump method listed above.

{{#ev:youtube|_5NbbHy9f2I}}

= Metroid Skip Skip =

For runners who can't get the Metroid Skip, they would be faster damaging themselves as much as possible on the side hopper, before jumping straight into the Metroid's grasp. The side hopper damage can be sped up by [[Pseudo Screw Attack|pseudo screwing]] into it, since a pseudo screw resets the invulnerability period. This is done especially in [[14%]] categories, since runners lack both Wave Beam and High Jump Boots, making the Baby Skip much more difficult and time-consuming.

If you fail the Baby Skip (or succeed at the Skip Skip), you should face right before you reach 1hp and get locked in the crouch position. When facing left, Samus goes through the animation of standing back up slowly. Facing right skips this animation and saves 35 frames.

{{#ev:youtube|OPKdyDcfRTo}}

= Slowdown =

If you go through the door transition while the Baby Metroid has a hold of you (including if it grabs you during the fadeout), you will be in a permanently slowed down state in terms of your horizontal velocity. You can complete the game like this, but the escape sequence will be significantly more difficult.

To remove the slowdown, you'll need to get to the save station, save, then reset your console.

{{#ev:youtube|8hfgX2CkV9E}}

If you reach 1 hp during the door transition, there's a decent chance you will be softlocked in the crouching position.

= See also =

* [[General Movement|Individual rooms]]

Big Boy Room

2022-10-14T19:36:55Z

NobodyNada:

{{Adjacent rooms
|west=[[Seaweed Room]]
|east=[[Dust Torizo Room]]
}}

[[File:BigBoyRoom.png|x256px]]

[[File:Big_Metroid_room%2C_state_1%262.png|x300px]]

In all categories, the player should move left as quickly as possible in order to start the Metroid cutscene as soon as possible. For categories with Space Jump this will mean retaining jump speed through the door transition, then Space Jumping until the camera locks. For all other categories, the optimal strategy is to shoot the dust enemies, then mockball on the ground between the first and second pillars sticking out of the ground.

= Metroid Skip =

By doing careful jumps manipulating the Baby Metroid's position, you can exit the room without the Metroid draining your health, followed by the cutscene where you're temporarily locked in place.

== Non-Space Jump Method ==
Begin running after Baby rises all the way to the top and starts moving back downwards. You can delay the start quite a bit before Baby will come down and grab you. Jump as late as possible to maximize the horizontal distance traveled. You can jump as early as the first sandy floor tile and still make the jump past the next protruding floor tile. If you accidentally run into the floor tiles without jumping, turn around and run back under Baby and try again. You can usually fail this way twice before Baby will grab you. Aiming down throughout this first jump can grant you a bit more distance and put Baby in a more favorable position for the next jump.

The second jump will need to wait until Baby has passed by and begins changing direction back toward you. Run forward and jump over Baby rather than turning around to increase your distance traveled. Try not to jump too high and hit the Dust Geemer on the ceiling. If you choose to shoot out all of the dusty obstacles (which can cause around a second worth of lag frames), you can fire a horizontal shot after you start falling and Baby is in approximately the 2 o'clock position. You may need to shoot the Dust Ripper on the floor depending on how well you perform these first two jumps. Aiming down and firing just before landing on the Dust Ripper will make Baby swing further to the left, but may require tighter execution. An angle shot may be easier if you're not clearing as much distance on these two jumps.

The third jump is where the "jump-rope" movement comes into play. Immediately turn around upon landing and run about 1-2 tiles distance to the right and spin jump over Baby when it's coming toward you in the 8-7 o'clock position. Try not to jump too high (about 3/4 of the way to the ceiling) even if you cleared the way with your beam. Higher jumps will give you less overall distance and puts Baby in a higher position on the next jump. Focus on getting into a good position to jump-rope with Baby.

Take the time to become proficient at this jump-rope technique before incorporating the shots at the vines. You'll want to know how to correct Baby's movement if things get out of hand. If it goes too high, or starts circling in a tighter pattern, you may want to sacrifice some forward progress by running further backwards before jumping. Try to tune your jumps to be around a tile's distance (16px) over Baby. Any runner that is consistent at Baby Skip should be able to keep Baby in a loop for as long as they want.

Once you've mastered this technique, begin working on clearing out the vines with your beam. You'll want to clear out all or most of the vines that are at or above door height. Horizontal shots can be the easiest if you have cleared out the ceiling dust, but may require extra jumps if Baby circles too high. Angle shots are best for clearing the top portion, but requires releasing jump before Samus will break spin and aim diagonally. Be careful about breaking spin too early as Baby tends to close the distance quickly if you're too close.

Leaving at least one row of vines at the bottom can help you get into position when the time comes for the final jump. The single, top-left tile of vines can be ignored, but no other tiles in the top corner should be left in place. You'll want to manipulate Baby's pattern to be low and wide for the final positioning. Take the time and extra jumps to get Baby in a favorable position before committing. Try to get into position against the tiles (or on the foreground vines if you destroyed them all) quickly and wait for Baby to swing low, around the 7 o'clock position. Jump straight up as late as possible and mid-air morph immediately. Hold left to bounce into the door transition. It's possible to get in the door with a spin jump, but may require a closer starting position. On PAL, the final spin jump can be easier due to poor horizontal movement with air ball in that version.

{{#ev:youtube|c4Gff6OJp7w}}

{{#ev:youtube|JFy4SjbjCrs}}

Baby Skip Tutorial focusing mostly on the first, second, and last jumps of baby skip, along with some analysis on what went wrong when things go wrong during the tutorial.

{{#ev:youtube|IELruthj6ZI}}

Some runners lay bombs during the final jump, but this is not advised. The sound of the bomb explosion can cause [[processing]] delays before the door transition starts, during which the Baby will continue moving. This can drastically increase the chance of getting grabbed during the transition, causing the slowdown effect as described below.

== Clockwise Method ==

First demonstrated by Stashiocat, this method has promise to be the fastest for Any%. As a bonus, it skips needing to unmorph in the next room.

{{#ev:youtube|ppB2PwOT7y0}}

This skip can be done [in as few as 3 jumps|https://clips.twitch.tv/ObservantGoldenJellyfishSpicyBoy-Y3RTYpTsha9V-n49].

ARealCutie has a bomb jump setup to normalize the timing for the first run and jump:

{{#ev:youtube|otHfekSRTqI}}

== Space Jump Method ==

A very basic explanation of the Space Jump variant's beginning is pictured below.

[[File:Babyskip.png]]

3 Jump and 4 Jump skips shown below:

{{#ev:youtube|aOZh7S5yoDM}}

== Springball Method ==

Possibly the most inconsistent method of Baby Skip. Developed by Behemoth and Kottpower.

{{#ev:youtube|4qGH9FHybns}}

== Randomizer ==

With Hi-Jump but no Speed Booster, the running cues will be slightly different than the Non-Space Jump method listed above.

{{#ev:youtube|_5NbbHy9f2I}}

= Metroid Skip Skip =

For runners who can't get the Metroid Skip, they would be faster damaging themselves as much as possible on the side hopper, before jumping straight into the Metroid's grasp. The side hopper damage can be sped up by [[Pseudo Screw Attack|pseudo screwing]] into it, since a pseudo screw resets the invulnerability period. This is done especially in [[14%]] categories, since runners lack both Wave Beam and High Jump Boots, making the Baby Skip much more difficult and time-consuming.

If you fail the Baby Skip (or succeed at the Skip Skip), you should face right before you reach 1hp and get locked in the crouch position. When facing left, Samus goes through the animation of standing back up slowly. Facing right skips this animation and saves 35 frames.

{{#ev:youtube|OPKdyDcfRTo}}

= Slowdown =

If you go through the door transition while the Baby Metroid has a hold of you (including if it grabs you during the fadeout), you will be in a permanently slowed down state in terms of your horizontal velocity. You can complete the game like this, but the escape sequence will be significantly more difficult.

To remove the slowdown, you'll need to get to the save station, save, then reset your console.

{{#ev:youtube|8hfgX2CkV9E}}

If you reach 1 hp during the door transition, there's a decent chance you will be softlocked in the crouching position.

= See also =

* [[General Movement|Individual rooms]]