Notes on SM. Digital Cube any% TAS
Mechanics:
Beam-shots cause a much larger cooldown time than in the original game, and one can get echoes from running with Speedbooster already after the first magic pose.
Only without Highjump, walljumps suitless in water give a lot of upwards speed.
Fanfares still take their usual time, and heat seems to do damage at a much higher rate (and the damage pattern is roughly like this: 1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0 and repeat, so about twice as much damage than normally).
Bomb explosion hitboxes seem to stay up for a few frames, and the initial Missile pack and Super Missile pack and Powerbomb pack adds 32 ammunition instead of 5 (but other packs can add different amounts).
Bombs don't give Samus any knockback and explode immediately, and bombs only give very little cooldown.
It also seems that certain enemies are designed to only drop certain ammunition types so one can open door shells since those respawn.
Suit items do not cause the suit-animation, but just add the new suit immediately.
Requirements:
Bombs are needed early on to get past bomb-blocks.
Grapple is needed in order to get to Golden Torizo's room where the planet explosion can be triggered via certain air tiles. Wave is required for a Blue Gate at the bottom left of the cube, and X-Ray (which doesn't force any detour anyways) is needed to skip the otherwise long GT fight.
Speedbooster is needed to get past some speed-blocks, and Powerbombs, Missiles and Super Missiles are needed for door shells, and thus, Morphball is required, too.
Route:
One can take over control over Samus from the title screen demos, but continuing from there isn't possible since items don't spawn in rooms and one doesn't have Grapple.
Missiles are required for some doors, and the only place to get them is from the room to the left of the starting room. After Missiles, the only available path is downwards to Super Missiles which are required, and Charge can be skipped since neither GT nor the white and black pirates need to be fought.
Highjump is skipped, since the time it takes is rather long compared to the benefit for travelling vertically can make up for during the remaining rooms.
Spazer can then be skipped by clipping into the enemies at the door (the way as it is done in the Test-TAS movie file) for which Spazer was intended.
Gravity can only be taken after getting Super Missiles, but from that point on, getting to Gravity and back would be a long detour through 5 additional rooms. Having Gravity could speed up a few rooms that are filled with water and could eliminate Pause Abuses aswell as possibly use few more damage-boosts, but all this seems rather small of a benefit from taking Gravity considering there is Varia on the way later on.
Then Powerbombs and Wave are taken, followed by Speedbooster with a hellrun right afterwards during which X-Ray is picked up. Then Varia is taken on the far left, since all rooms afterwards are heated, except Plasma room and Ice room.
Plasma and Ice are skipped aswell, but Grapple is taken next and is the final item before ending the game in GT's room.
Strategies:
There are a few rooms under water, so it might be worth taking Moonwalk, but most of the the rooms are 16 tiles by 16 tiles large, and centering doors will be a major concern.
Since GT is skipped, ammunition can be used much more loosely than in my Test-TAS movie file.
The common SM platforming concepts apply.
One needs to take Morphball before getting Bombs, because otherwise one is stuck in the room with Bombs, and preferably, if it is possible with some CWJ similarly to the Blue Brinstar CWJ done in the RBO TAS for the E-Tank in the ceiling, one would want to enter the room with Bombs directly from below (and maybe Moonwalk or some partial door-skip for more running speed could help to make this happen), instead of looping clockwise to get to the Bombs room.
In the first room, one probably wants to land soon while moving to the right to gather running speed for a spinjump through the door (probably without any armpumps) to Morphball, and shoot the capsule, land next to it and probably grab it via walljump-check from as close as possible to then do a running jump to the left and either bounceball or mockball (probably the latter to keep speed just into the next room where one will unmorph early on), and maybe ball pumps can be used in the tunnel.
Afterwards, it depends on if the CWJ to reach the top door can be executed, and if such setup is possible, even if it takes some setup time, it should still be worth using. Otherwise a running spinjump through the left door to Missiles where one lands early after opening the capsule and climbs up through the top left, and in the room above, one probably wants to shoot the pirate before morphing and rolling through the tunnel, since the beam-shot cooldown time is so long and would delay the door opening afterwards.
If one comes from the left into the room with bombs, then one probably can do an ICWJ at the opening blue-shell from the previous room to land on the bombs probably while morphing, and here, one wants to kill the Geemers with bombs as soon as possible (probably done by initially freeing and or killing the central Geemer followed by some short running jump and midair morph to kill the top Geemer maybe even with just 1 bomb, and then bomb the Geemer the crawls up the left wall, while falling down) and unmorph as high as possible while the last Geemer is killed to shoot the bottom shell and keep fall-speed on the way down (via wiggling), possibly.
If one entered the Bombs room from below, then more room time will have passed probably and the free Geemer's position might be further up at the wall.
Then back in the starting room (maybe after morphing and unmorphing on the way down to shift Samus down), one probably wants to gain running speed for a spinjump to the left and (either grab the Missile pack and continue downwards or) shoot the red shell open whiel falling, and wiggling on the shell towards the left and in such a manner, that Samus skips through the solid floor high up in the next room by spawning low enough inside the room.
Down there, one can get rid of the left pirate with a Missile and use a running jump (probably with armpumps) with midair morph to bomb out the bomb-block at the left side and continue into the gap as ball to transition to the left.
In the next toom with the Beetoms, a running spinjump to the left can be done and the Beetoms can be shot to not lose health here already, then one would roll to the right, open the bottom shell and probably build up vertical speed in spinning pose while moving to the right, to be able to walljump in the room beneath and to transition into that room quickly (unless one can enter the transition while morphing and still get into the tunnel in the next room before falling past it), and then enter the tunnel (probably after a walljump, extending Samus' box properly to adapt the height for morphing to the height of the tunnel) and roll to the right and bomb the blocks out of the way, and unmorph into the transition (unless falling as ball can save more time due to screen position for the transition).
Landing on the left platform in the next room quickly (for which one maybe can afford diagonal downwards knockback from touching the left pirate), killing both pirates with Missiles (and shooting a pea shot towards the right door) while setting up a running spinjump with CWJ through the right door (unless shooting both pirates and the door on the way to the ground and doing a long running jump from down there is faster). But maybe one can also damage-boost (which though costs health) off of the left pirate towards the right, to get over there immediately and do a running jump through the door.
Since one wants to go rightwards in the room with Super Missiles, if one eused a CWJ to get to the room, one maybe could grind along the ceiling by morphing and keeping vertical speed to land (and maybe unmorph) on the Super Missile capsule, then open the right shell and do a running jump to the right (with good falling speed), while preparing for a bounceball suitless in water in the next room.
Bombing the bottom block without bonking against the wall to continue the bounceball, and probably unmorphing during the contact with the Multiviola to keep rightwards momentum and kill the fish with a Super Missile before climbing up with quick walljumps, down-grabbing the sloped ground, opening the shell (unless one added 1 more shot after killing the fish before climbing up), and continuing the climb while staying on the right side.
In the room above, one can drift to the right for a walljump (and from there it might be possible top shoot the top shell and rise towards it and get upwards knockback to trigger the transition, which would cost some energy again) and can shoot the top shell and kill the pirate to land on his platform (and might need to get rid of a Multiviola) and climb up from there.
Alternatively, it might be viable to get hit initially from the bottom right pirate to have invulnerability frames to climb up while being allowed to ignore damage from spikes and enemies.
Back in Morphball room, one continues most likely with a running spinjump through the right green shell (maybe with falling speed, depending on how early one needs to land in the next room to climb up afterwards, and depending on from where one can kill the enemies in the next room in a fast manner).
In the next room, one probably wants to kill Multiviolas quickly with Super Missiles (and one can multi-hit 2 of them with 1 Super Missile early on as my Test-TAS movie file shows), and either travel close to the left side of the bottom shell so shoot upwards to open the top shell after the Multiviolas are killed (followed by climbing up from the left wall towards the top), or one wants to stay at the left side and open the left shell as soon as possible, land there and open the top door with a diagonal shot and then walljump to and through the top.
From the previous room's final walljump, one continues the climb in the room above and morphs instantly, bombs the top left block to roll through it, followed by some mockball to the right (while another block is taken care of using a bomb), and on the way down to the right, one can downback beneath the Boulder and extend Samus into it for (40 damage and) invulnerability frames (and can maybe cancel the knockback to the left to stay close to the right) and then clip into the Boulder again to jump and midair morph past this barrier at the right door (and technically one could get hit by the boulder another time to use the knockback to travel through the water-filled room afterwards faster, but the health costs for this might not be worth it).
In Springball's room, one can kill the pirate early on and use Moonwalk to build up momentum quickly and then keep the momentum through a running jump with midair morph (and possibly use ball pumps in the tunnel near the ceiling while rising to land later and thus keep the speed longer). Then one continues downwards into the complicated room with the many flying bugs.
The flying bugs should probably at least partially be used to refill some energy (depending on how much is needed), but it might be faster than farming initially using bombs, if one unmorphs into this room to avoid knockback (or to holds forwards while entering this room unmorphed to land early), and then possibly use either a running jump with kept momentum through a midair morph to get past the gap or to get through the gap with some quickly manipulated enemy knockback and try to kill some bugs on the way down in the shaft and collect their drops meanwhile or at the bottom, before triggering the bottom transition while going leftwards (possibly while getting downwards knockback from a flying bug, or as ball to bomb the blue gate in the next room on the way down).
In the room beneath Springball's room, after opening the gate, one could shoot a pea-shot through the opening gate horizontally to the left to open the blue-shell (or one could fire a Missile to the left while crouching), and then either start running with Moonwalk or use small, quick turnaround spinjumps to travel to the left past the opening gate early on which might be faster.
For powerbombs, one spinjumps towards them from the previous room (and maybe a CWJ off of the right closing shell in the powerbomb room can speed Samus up^to move from higher up downwards to the left towards the item as ball), and one probably wants to grab the powerbombs while moving down from above it (possibly while already being morphed and opening the capsule as ball, then grabbing powerbombs, falling a bit further down right next to it and lay the powerbomb a bit further down shortly afterwards). Then one would probably unmorph early on and build up falling speed into the room beneath.
In Wave's room, one might want to shoot the top shell immediately, followed by shooting out the capsule while landing on the item and starting a Flatley-jump upwards back into the room above while midair-morphing to lay a powerbomb immediately in the next room.
Back in the powerbombs room (after laying a powerbomb), one would use a running jump to the left and might already start wiggling for the crumble-block in the next room.
In Highjump's room, one might want to actually get hit by the green pirate (and maybe do some forwards-damage-boost inputs to start falling into the opening bottom door shell) to gain invulnerability frames to not get hit by the fish in the lower room and be able to just move through the fish (and maybe farm health back form it or the Viola) on the way down.
Speedbooster room probably should be entered as ball to lay a powerbomb immediately (possibly while spawning a bit inside the item, so one can start turnaround spinjumps leftwards afterwards) during the hellrun that starts here, and then either roll or rather spinjump (so one can wiggle past the crumble block in the next room) towards the left door (while pausing the game without entering the menu, if needed due to 00 health).
During these next rooms, pause Abuse probably will be used while the rooms are traversed, since Multiviolas cannot drop health. In the room after Speedbooster (after wiggling past the crumble-block), one would likely start a running jump (with speed-echoes or Super Missiles to get Multiviolas out of the way) to the left or possibly damage-boost through the left door.
And in the next room, in the running jump case, one could shoot a Super Missile past the speed-block wall to open up the red shell early (but shinesparks still stop at 39 or less health), and then burst through the speed-block wall and continue through the door probably with a running jump towards X-Ray; and in the damage-boost case, one could land close to the speed-block wall and short-charge for speed-echoes nearby, jump through the speed-blocks and get rid of the shell to continue.
In X-Ray's room, one probably would spinjump to the far left of the chozo statue and collect X-ray during a running jump to the right past the speed-blocks in the ceiling (unless one can do the same but while going leftwards already).
In the room above X-Ray, the health refill needs to be taken in a delayed manner, and in the leftwards running jump case with speed-echoes, one can probably get rid of parts of the left speed-block wall (using temporary bluesuit), and damage-boost over towards the refill station, then lay the powerbomb (from where on one cannot pause abuse anymore, so one needs to get energy back by then) while building up running jump speed towards the left (and maybe one can run along the bottom opening yellow shell somewhat); and in the rightwards running jump case with speed-echoes, one probably would use the refill station as soon as possible (and then maybe damage-boost to the far left) to be able to lay a powerbomb early (and survive said powerbomb), and use a running jump with echoes to get into Varia's room (where Varia it collected probably with walljump-check while moving down-rightwards).
In the room beneath Varia, one can get downwards knockback on the way down to start a jump to the left quickly (or one could kill enemies along the way, and possibly morph and unmorph on the way down).
The next room would probably be entered as ball to lay a powerbomb as soon as possible, since X-Ray (for a force-stand inside the tunnel to get past a hurdle) cannot be used during the powerbomb explosion that needs to happen before the force-stand via X-Ray, and then one would shoot out the top left Super Missile block, go down the shaft behind the Super Missile block while using a Wave-shot to open the gate and morph into the tunnel (and possibly use ball pumps there), followed by force-standing, firing a Super Missile to open the green shell, and maneuvering past the hurdle (similarly to how it was done in my Test-TAS movie file), and then start a running spinjump into the next room to the right where a CWJ can be applied and the right blue shell can be opened to continue the movement into the next room.
In Plasma room, one just runs along the ground to the right and spinjumps into the next room to the right (possibly while morphing either to shoot the left Metroid immediately to manipulate it to the right, or to lay a powerbomb immediately in Screwattack room).
In Screwattack room, powerbombs are used immediately 1 after another while the Metroids are lured close together (maybe using shots to change their floating trajectories) to let them stop moving fast (and get hit by the next powerbombs quickly) while reducing lag by staying in ballform mostly, and at the end, falling speed is built up by wiggling on the far right side of the shell (to fall to the bottom in the next room, but one could aswell try to use some running spinjump approach to CWJ in Ice room to the right).
In Ice room, one probably would build up some runing jump through the right door and maybe ICWJ off of the opening blue-shell and insta-morph right after, in order to allow to rise into the next room high enough to only bomb out the 2 very top left bomb-blocks (as opposed to the top left 4 blocks) and land on the central bomb-blocks to continue upwards with walljumps (or one possibly could use speed-echoes to destroy bomb-blocks in Samus' way).
In the red Multiviola room above, one probably could early on use some backwards knockback to the right (either from a spike or an enemy) and turnaround-spinjump to the right to continue.
In the next room with Beetoms, one would probably lay a powerbomb immediately and use Moonwalk to travel to the right, where the right door would need to be entered at its bottom tile, probably via walljumping from the right wall, insta-morphing and mirroring the momentum towards the right while rising as ball, or otherwise via crouchjump and morphing and touching the transition block as ball while falling (and one technically could use some knockback from the Multiviola possibly before it dies from the powerbomb explosion).
In Grapple room, one would walljump climb up, and in the room above, leftwards knockback can be used and one maybe can push Samus to the left via diagonally grappling the bottom Grapple-blocks to enter the left door faster.
In the following room, one would probably kill the pirates with Super Missiles and travel to the left with Moonwalk past their platforms (unless some crazy Grapple-pushing or -swinging can be done).
Speedbooster room would probably be entered as ball high up so one can lay a powerbomb immediately and unmorph and grapple diagonally onto the blocks to travel down there and start wiggling to build up fall-speed (or sets up some spinjump with proper low fall-speed trying to avoid the next room's central blocks by killing some Multiviolas on the way down or getting knockback from those downwards).
The next room after Speedbooster room is a mess and laggy, and one cannot sink past the central blocks from above in a fast manner (since the Multiviolas cover the upper area and one cannot gain invulnerability frames to dodge them). And one probably wants to exit the room as ball at the bottom right.
Back in the green Metroid room, one can mash bombs to get rid of bomb-blocks and to throw the upper Metroid into different directions away from Samus, and then continue travelling to the right probably with a spinjump upwards to grapple onto the top Grapple-block in the next room.
In pre-GT room (after grappling the top block), one might shoot a Super Missile on the way down to open the red shell before the Grapple block disappears, and then start a running jump (maybe with CWJ) with midair morph past the opening block, and walljump-check the door to set up an X-Ray-Climb in GT's room (unless one can set up a Superjump via taking damage from GT and landing on the slopes immediately afterwards for X-Mode to get to the top of the room quicker).
In GT's room, one would X-Ray-Climb until one can jump out of the wall and use turnaround spinjumps to the left to climb up the wall and use some running jump (with echoes through GT, if the damage is too much, unless one can damage-boost off of him to the right side) to get to the top right door, open it off-screen (probably with Grapple) and trigger the Planet Explosion air tiles.
Room order:
Right, Left, (Up, Down) or (Left, Up, Right, Down), Left, Down, Left, Down, Right, Right, Right, Up, Up, Right, Up, Right, Down, Down, Left, Down, Up, Left, Down, Down, Left, Left, Left, Up, Left, Down, Down, Right, Right, Right, Down, Right, Up, Right, Right, Up, Left, Left, Down, Down, Right, Right.
