Big Boy Room
| Seaweed Room | Adjacent rooms | Dust Torizo Room |
|---|---|---|
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.
Contents
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 in the 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-right 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 commiting. 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.
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.
Space Jump Method
A very basic explanation of the Space Jump variant's beginning is pictured below.
3 Jump and 4 Jump skips shown below:
Springball Method
Possibly the most inconsistent method of Baby Skip. Developed by Behemoth (and Kottpower?).
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 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.
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.
If you reach 1 hp during the door transition, there's a decent chance you will be softlocked in the crouching position.
