Low Map

These are some notes that I am putting on the wiki for accessibility. If somebody wants to touch these up, great.

The goal of low map is to beat the game (NMG) while toucing the least number of map tiles. Note this can violate expectations in that this is not the "shortest" route: You will be doubling back over the same map tiles multiple times.

What counts as map tiles

As map completion runners know, there is a hack that has a tile counter. It counts 1244 tiles during a map completion run. However, there are actually 1262 tiles that count towards map completion. The missed tiles by the counter are:

- Kraid [4 tiles];
- Phantoon [1 tile];
- Draygon [4 tiles];
- Ridley [2 tiles];
- Crocomire [3 tiles];
- Terminator [2 tiles];
- Crocomire Speedway [2 tiles].

The first five are because bosses have a different routine to pink tiles. These tiles are automatically pinked (e.g., you do not have to jump high in Kraid's room). Thus any map completion run will get these tiles. But also any low map run will get these tiles.

For Terminator and Crocomire Speedway, these are because sloped tiles are handled a little bit weird. For certain such tiles, if you enter the top half before the bottom half then the bottom half gets automatically pinked. This skips the counter. You can see this in Terminator by doing the usual strat, and then instead go through Gauntlet and carefully roll up the room. In the first case, the counter goes up by 8. In the second, it goes up by 10.

This could potentially be relevant, since it means that Terminator and Crocomire Speedway each count for 2 more tiles than what is displayed. For Terminator, Gauntlet is the only other option and is much longer. For Crocomire Speedway, the room is too long to be useful even without this consideration.

Finally, there are tiles that are not "pink", but are also not Out of Bounds. The easiest one to access is the bottom right of Green Brinstar Firefleas. These tiles still count, if one were to access them.

Basic Description of the Route

Here, the route is discussed in broader terms first. Them some specific problem points are hammered out. Finally, some choices are given in their own sections following this.

The route is basically xChargeless. If you do not want to use underflow, following the xChargeless route is still shorter while taking a detour for Charge.

Saving

The hardest part about low map is that entering save rooms costs tiles. Thus, the run requires never saving if you want to be most efficient. If you are simply aiming for a completion, you can try to route in a couple save rooms that only cost a tile each. However, dependent on route choices, this may not be possible.

Wrecked Ship Access

It is shorter to enter Wrecked Ship by going right of the ship, even if you are getting alpha power bombs (see Section 3). It would exactly tie if you were G-moding into Maridia. This simplifies analysis, since we may just always assume you go right of the ship.

X-Ray and Lower Norfair

Entering the front of Lower Norfair is a huge commitment. It takes at least 43 tiles (not even keeping track of if this is possible). Entering the back instead takes 25 tiles, collecting X-Ray takes 10 tiles, and getting a Reserve Tank takes 1 tile. This makes G-moding in the back the shortest option. It also requires fewer difficult rooms, tile-wise: Both Lava Dive and Amphitheatre would be bad, where as entering backwards Bubble Mountain is the worst problem.

Maridia

Maridia is a particularly nasty issue. However, the basic route is: Go up the tube, up Main Street and into Fish Tank, up to Everest, go up and right in Everest (with a spark), down to Aqueduct and X-Ray climb towards Botwoon, and then go straight over to Draygon.

Since you spark for Everest, then you most likely want to handle pre-Botwoon with an R-mode clip (unless you are grabbing Charge and then can use a CF clip).

Tourian

For Tourian, the route seems fairly simple. Just don't save, and get baby skip to avoid the refill room.

Wait, get baby skip? With no Speed, no Wave, no Hi-Jump (if doing the L+R route, see Section 5)?

Yes, it is possible. Yes, it is slow. Yes, it is learnable.

But we have one more problem: Tourian Escape Room 3. To get the fewest tiles in this room requires sparking. Since there is no place in Tourian to get a spark, you must carry the spark through Tourian. This means you must baby skip and kill Mother Brain while maintaining a stored spark.

But it gets worse: since this is xChargeless, ammo is underflowed. This means you either have to use 32768 of every ammo type you underflowed (so you can perform another CF to get a stored spark), or you have to carry the spark from underflowing at Draygon all the way to Ridley (to kill with underflowed ammo), and then back all the way to Tourian and finally through Tourian. Since you are carrying a stored spark, even if you could save (either from passing through a save room or from getting extra map tiles) you can't.

Saving these last couple of tiles in Tourian is possible, but maybe should be the last cut made. It is only three tiles that this cuts.

• Note if you are not running the category with underflow, then this becomes much easier. You can save at the ship and elevator CF at the Tourian elevator to carry the spark through Tourian. You can make it even easier on yourself, not carrying the spark through Tourian, by instead performing a Mother Brain CF suit. However, note this may underflow your ammo so may be disallowed by whatever ruleset you are using.

Energy Tanks

Whatever route you choose may require getting an R-mode CF suit with a maximum of 10 power bombs, or may require R-mode clipping to get to Botwoon. The first of these requires having zero energy tanks, and the second functionally does for purposes of this category.

Thus, you may have to avoid Energy Tanks early on in the run.

Extra ammo

Although the backbone of the route is xChargeless, you can collect extra items. First, any items in the tiles you pass through are free (modulo Energy Tank concerns above). Thus the Missiles near Early Supers, Moat Missiles, and maybe a couple of others are free to pick up.

Also, though, if there are a couple of things that you dread doing in the run a small detour may stop them. For example, if you don't want to do an R-mode CF suit with a maximum of 10 power bombs, you can get two extra map tiles (dependent on route) and instead get Beta Power Bombs as your third power bomb pack. This would greatly shorten the route.

As another example, if you want to CF clip to Botwoon but plan on doing the Underflow route, you can pick up some extra items along the way. You can get an extra super pack for only one tile. Then, if you are running the Hi-Jump option, there are three extra missile packs on the route already. This would allow CF clipping to Botwoon, even without any drops from the Mochtroids or Puyos (although perfect ammo Botwoon is not very fun).

Extra helpful items

The items that would be most helpful are: Gravity, Grapple, and Ice.

Collecting Ice is a 9 tile detour. It mainly helps with getting to Botwoon, climbing Halfie Climb Room, and getting through Colosseum.

Collecting Grapple is a 29 tile detour (at least, dependent on route). It also allows saving tiles in Maridia (since you can then G-mode into Maridia, see Section 4).

Collecting Gravity is a 26 tile detour, at least (I just did a rough count, with some diagonal movement). If you also collect Grapple, X-Ray, and Crystal Flash ammo, it is only a 2 tile detour. In other words, if you plan on getting Grapple, then you may as well get Gravity.

If you opt to make these detours, then you may want to re-think the route entirely. The analysis is still sound, so the route should still hold. But it could be a lost flimsier.

Diagonal tiles

Some tiles are really bad. These are situations where you must move diagonally, without touching other neighboring tiles.

In the standard routes, there are three times this can come up:

1. Green Hill Zone (twice), if you opt to pass through this room (see Section 3).

2. Mt. Everest, which I have not found a consistent setup for it if suitless.

3. Bubble Mountain.

These can be thought of as essentially "frame perfect and pixel perfect" tricks.

Power Bomb routing (and Charge Beam)

The early game of a low map run is important. You need to get Supers and Power Bombs.

Fortunately, Early Supers is a very obvious choice.

Unfortunately, there are options for Power Bombs. These options are, basically:

1) Go through normally, and get Alpha Power Bombs.

2) Get Etecoons Power Bombs, either via PAL floor clip, TAS dance, moondance, or a terrible moondance.

2a) Then go via Retro Brin to get a second power bomb pack, and proceed to Red Tower skipping Big Pink.

2b) Then go to Red Tower via the top.

Thus, the routes converge at Red Tower, the square outside of Green Hill Zone. Note all routes proceed down Red Tower, since if you were to G-mode into Maridia getting back up to Red Fish Room is non-trivial. (This could break down if you are opting to get Gravity Suit. A brief count suggests that you would save a couple tiles by going down to get X-Ray and then G-moding in the back. This would add diagonal tiles to Everest.)

Of course, the route is xChargeless, so two more power bomb packs must be collected. The cheapest are always Retro Brin Power Bombs (costs two tiles for (1) and (2b); costs zero tiles for (2a)), and Wasteland (costs one tile).

Here are the relevant tile counts:

• Passing through Dachora Room, Big Pink, and Green Hill Zone: 30.

• Climbing Red Tower from Green Hill Zone (excluding square outside Green Hill Zone): 8.

• Collecting Alpha Power Bombs: 5.

• Passing through Retro Brin and Green Hill Zone: 19.

• Going down Crateria Kihunter Room until it connects with Alpha PB route: 8.

• Etecoons Power Bombs with floor clip or TAS dance: 19.

• Additive factor for traditional moondance: 5.

• Additive factor for terrible moondance: 4.

• Collecting Charge from Option 1: 1.

• Collecting Charge from Option (2a): 4.

• Collecting Charge from Option (2b): 7.

• Getting Retro Brin Power Bombs (for 1 and 2b): 2.

This ignores complications with potentially G-moding into Maridia, like the next section considers. But this gives the following tile counts:

Option 1 (no charge): 30 + 8 + 5 + 2 = 45.

Option 1 (with charge): 45 + 1 = 46.

Option 2a (no charge): 19 + 19 = 38.

Option 2a (with charge): 38 + 4 = 42.

Option 2b (no charge): 19 + 8 + 8 + 2 = 37.

Option 2b (with charge): 37 + 7 = 44.

Thus, note option (2b) is best if you are not getting charge, but option (2a) is best otherwise.

However, this assume PAL floor clip or TAS dance. If you are not getting charge, then (2b) is still best even with the usual setup. However, if you are getting Charge and cannot floor clip, then you may as well get Alpha Power Bombs instead.

Finally, since it may have some interaction with the following section, here are notes for additional tiles to setup G-moding into Maridia:

Option 1: 2.

Option 2a: 8.

Option 2b: 0.

Early Maridia Routing

All tiles after reaching Crab Shaft are the minimum number of tiles to reach Draygon. Thus, the only consideration in Maridia routing is how to get to the top right of Mt. Everest in the least number of tiles.

The smallest needed is from G-moding into Maridia, and then sparking straight right. This gets 10 tiles. The issue with this route is that you cannot get BACK this way, and thus escaping would collect additional tiles. If you are on PAL and have collected Hi-Jump Boots (see Section 5), you can escape this way (due to the higher jump height underwater) by having the right amount of Energy such that a spark lands just below this door. However, note this requires using your spark, and hence this is only really viable if you are doing this without underflow (so you can generate another spark to handle Tourian) or are just sacrificing the squares in Tourian Escape Room 3.

You also could if you had Gravity or Grapple, which both make it free.

Otherwise, your option appears to be entering from the Tube.

To climb from the Tube. you want to just get the two right side map tiles on the bottom of Main Street and then head over to Fish Tank. But how do you do this without Ice? The answer is to bring a spark, and spark with the correct amount of Energy to reach the Fish Tank ledge (or spark diagonally, in an appropriate manner).

Okay, then you climb Fish Tank to Mt. Evereset, and then spark through Mt. Everest.

But wait, we just sparked, so how do we then spark again in Mt. Everest?

Well, use the slow crab to R-mode into Fish Tank, and then use the fish to get an R-mode CF suit. This fish is actually a great spot to get R-mode CF suits, working with up to 10 Energy Tanks. So the timing isn't that tight if you have zero (or one) tank.

This basic route instead gets 15 tiles. By moving diagonally through tiles in Mt. Everest, you can theoretically save up to two tiles. I have not been able to get this to work.

L+R Wall Jumping vs Hi-Jump Boots

As indicated in Section 4, you have to get up Fish Tank. This requires single-wall underwater wall jumping. (Later, you also have to get up Halfie Climb Room, but it is technically possible to generate another R-mode CF suit in Crab Shaft to handle this.)

There are two ways to handle this: Either with L+R wall jumping, or with Hi-Jump Boots.

Hi-Jump Boots are a 6 tile detour. As noted above in Section 4, if you are playing on PAL they also allow a route that G-modes into Maridia saving 5 tiles (at least from the basic Everest route).

But there is also the Norfair routing to consider. The shortest way through Norfair is to take the Cathedral hell run to Bubble Mountain. This takes 13 tiles. However, if you have already gone down to Hi-Jump Boots, you can instead take Frog Speedway. This requires having a blue suit, but would only cost 12 tiles (11 for the run to Bubble, and one extra tile in Bubble). This saves one tile.

This means the total cost for Hi-Jump Boots is 5 tiles on NTSC, and is potentially a wash on PAL.

The issue is this "needing a blue suit" to save this last tile. This means you need a blue suit on the way in, but also on the way out. This means your entire time in Lower Norfair must be done with a blue suit. This makes some things easier (suck it Kihunters), but the Ridley fight is also more dangerous.

However, note skipping Hi-Jump Boots is dangerous due to Crab Shaft: Climbing up to the middle from the bottom requires a spark. But to save the most tiles, you need this spark for Tourian. Thus, you either have to waste 32768 of each underflowed ammo (so you can CF again and generate another spark), or you are doing a non-underflow route.

Full completed route

I have completed one run of this category, with a total of 391 tiles on the counter (so 404 tiles total). The route was approximately the following:

1. Collect Morph, Alpha Missiles, Bombs.

2. Skip Terminator Energy Tank.

3. Get Early Supers and Brinstar Reserve (and the Missiles under the bridge here).

4. Do the terrible Moondance (saving one tile) to get towards Etecoons PBs. May as well get Etecoons Supers.

5. Go back up, and to Retro Brinstar. Get the Morph Room Power Bombs. Maybe save at ship for Phantoon.

6. Go right, across the Moat (getting Moat Missiles) and kill Phantoon. Leave back the way you came, and go down Red Tower. Go to Kraid and get Varia. Go down and get Hi-Jump Boots (skipping the ETank but you can get the Missile). Save at Business Center.

7. Get X-Ray, and then go back up Red Tower and save at the ship. (Note you could do Phantoon now instead, there is no difference except for pausing to unequip Hi-Jump Boots.)

8. Double back to the Etecoons area. Get an R-mode CF suit with a maximum of 10 power bombs. Convert it to a blue suit, using a Crystal Spark (with a maximum of 10 power bombs). (Note: Unequip Varia while getting the CF suit, but re-equip it before turning it blue since you can't pause after you have the blue suit).

9. Go up and past the ship to get to Red Tower. Head down into Norfair. Go through Frog Speedway, and into Bubble Mountain. Move diagonally from the tile outside Rising Tide up and right, and then climb up Bubble on the right. G-mode into Maridia (note you have to setup your health in Reserves either before getting a blue suit or without pausing, to maintain blue). Proceed through LN as normal (getting no extra tiles though) until Wasteland PBs. Collect these, and leave out the same way you came (again moving diagonally in Bubble Mountain). Head through Frog Speedway. You can save now, but then you need to re-generate a spark.

10. Enter Maridia from the tube room with a spark. Spark to the Fish Tank ledge. Get an R-mode CF suit in Fish Tank. Climb Fish Tank with single-wall underwater wall jumps. Spark up and right in Everest (getting as few tiles as possible). Go down Crab Shaft, and X-Ray climb up Aqueduct. R-mode clip to Botwoon, and proceed through the Botwoon ETank. Climb Halfie Climb Room with single-wall underwater wall jumps. Cross Colosseum by jumping along the spikes.

11. Fall into Draygon. Here you must Underflow with keeping one of the turrets alive. I do this by keeping one of the rightside turrets alive. If you are morphed on the left side on the ground, it will usually not shoot you. This required me learning a new setup. Anyway, underflow, getting a spark. Now power bomb and kill a turret shot, which will clear permagoo (this is why we wanted a turret alive: Otherwise, you would have to enter the save room and save and reset to get rid of permagoo, which would also clear your spark). Convert the spark to a blue suit. Have Draygon carry you to the top, and snipe kill. X-Ray climb to escape, and then get up Colosseum.

12. Again cross Colosseum by jumping along the spikes. Proceed through the Botwoon hallways using your blue suit. Climb Crab Shaft (using Hi-Jump), and fall through Everest getting no new tiles. Return to Business Center, and get Hi-Jump Energy Tank.

13. Walk through Frog Speedway with your blue suit, and proceed back through LN as you did before (remembering you still can't pause to setup G-mode). Kill Ridley. Leave the way you came. Go back up Red Tower, and walk past the ship still with your blue suit. Get Terminator Energy Tank.

14. Get through the metroid rooms. If you take too much damage (or run out of power bombs), you will have to single-wall underwater wall jump to get back out.

15. Baby skip, with a blue suit with Hi-Jump but without Wave. Good luck. 16. Kill Mother Brain with underflown ammo, so free.

17. Walk through Escape Rooms until Escape Room 3 where you can finally lose blue suit. Be careful in Escape Room 4 to not get extra tiles.

18. Escape.

Note I did this run awhile ago, and all I have as record are screenshots of the map screen in each area and the final tile count. So I am guessing on the route above based on memory. I think it might be more likely that I only underflowed missiles, and then fired 32768 of them in the wall and saved at Business Center to generate more sparks.

Possible improvements

The above is near optimal, but can be improved in the following ways.

1) Four tiles can be saved, either by TAS dancing or using PAL to floor clip instead of moondancing.

2) One or two tiles can be saved in Everest, by moving diagonally through the relevant tiles.

3) Instead five tiles can be saved by G-moding into Maridia and somehow escaping through this door in Everest. The "somehow escaping through this door" can be done by:

• On PAL, having Hi-Jump Boots and using a spark;

• Theoretically, maybe you can use the reappearing shot blocks to setup an underwater "slopespark" (you don't actually need slopes, you just need to land quickly after a damage boost), so you can use the "first" spark to land on the grapple blocks and then use the slopespark to get through the door;

• Theoretically, maybe you can setup a door X-Mode on the right side and Jesuswalk Superjump to the grapple platform, and then use the resulting blue suit to spark through the door. It might also be possible to Jesuswalk into position and jump into the transition with Hi-Jump Boots, since you would be a bit higher than the grapple blocks. Maybe you can also set up X-Mode using the shot blocks in Crab Shaft, as in the potential slopespark idea.

4) L+R wall jumping can save 5 tiles by skipping Hi-Jump Boots, if they are not used in (3). Then you have to spark in Crab Shaft, so this does create its own problems. Note techincally you only need this to climb Fish Tank, since you can generate a spark for Halfie Climb Room.

5) TAS can save two tiles by only collecting two power bomb packs (skipping Retro Brinstar PBs), and performing underflow at Draygon with only a maximum of 10 power bombs.

• If you are doing a Charge route, this can also be done RTA since then sparks can be generated using R-mode. However, note that if you are doing a Charge route, the optimal route (with TAS dance or PAL floor clip) already gets two free power bomb packs, so this only saves one tile (skipping Wasteland PBs).

• Also note that if you are doing a Hi-Jump route, you can either skip Retro Brin PBs (if allowed by your routing) and then do the Cathedral hell run (since you can't get a spark yet for Frog Speedway), or skip Wasteland PBs. Both will only save one tile optimally.

Finally, I did not really consider more absurd applications of superjumps which could potentially eliminate tiles. I wouldn't really know how to go about testing such possibilities, so I didn't bother thinking about it.

Conclusions

The following are conclusions on count.

Confirmed: 391 counter, 404 actual.

RTA Minimum (PAL or L+R with TAS dance): 382 counter, 395 actual.

TAS, mostly confirmed: 378 counter, 391 actual.

• Everest squares aren't really confirmed, but ED says it's possible and I trust that.

Theoretical TAS limit: 375 counter, 388 actual.

Maps

For visual learners, here are maps of the above.

Note the following maps are the maps that I liked the best showing all of Zebes. The elevators are too tall, as it relates to pinked tiles. Every single bottom of an elevator has two tiles of elevator (e.g., Morph Room is 3 tiles high). Every single top of elevator has no map tiles exclusive to the elevator at all, EXCEPT Warehouse Entrance which has an additional elevator tile that is gotten when you go back up the elevator.

Ceres is also missing, which adds 11 tiles (for low map).

Backbone

These are tiles gotten across any minimal choice:

This should be your base if you want to make your own (minimal) route. X-Ray is always gotten, since G-moding in the back is always shorter. Thus, it is optimal, even if you are getting Gravity Suit and Space Jump and Grapple. If you don't want to learn G-mode, you should remove the LN escape tiles (since you should leave back out the front optimally) and the X-Ray tiles (since X-Ray may not be worth it anymore).

Optimal TAS

Here is the (confirmed) optimal TAS route:

The backbone is still in green. Additional tiles are in the confirmed case are in blue. An alternative theoretical route in early Maridia is in yellow.

The route does a max 10 power bomb underflow at Draygon, so only gets two power bomb packs.

Confirmed RTA

Here is the confirmed RTA route:

The backbone is still in green, with additional tiles in blue.

The route is xChargeless with Hi-Jump and bad moondance. The only diagonal movement is in Bubble Mountain (although with this routing, it is done four times: twice in each direction).

The confirmed potential improvements to this, for an RTA route, only come from skipping Hi-Jump (using L+R and taking Cathedral route instead of Frog Speedway) and TAS dance.

Theoretical RTA (PAL)

This is the theoretical easiest RTA minimal route which is PAL only:

This is PAL-only (confirmed, at least) due to having to get back out the top of Mt Everest. On PAL, due to the extra jump height, you can jump from the grapple block platform to then single-wall underwater wall jump on the door frame.

This is only four tiles more than the confirmed TAS minimum (seven tiles more than the theoretical TAS route). The additional tiles come from an additional power bomb pack (to avoid max 10 power bomb underflow at Draygon), and getting Hi-Jump (of which some is saved by G-moding in the top).