Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Walkthrough Copyright 2004, 2005 by James Spairana jparagons at gmail.com Version 1.01 Last update: February 05, 2005 ================================================================================ _I_ Table of Contents ================================================================================ I) Table of Contents II) Notes about this walkthrough III) Landing Site/Beginning of Game IV) Boss: Alpha Splinter V) Agon Wastes VI) Boss: Bomb Guardian/Item: Bombs VII) Dark Agon Wastes VIII) Boss: Jump Guardian/Item: Bombs IX) Boss: Dark Samus/Item: Dark Beam X) Item: Light Beam XI) Boss: Amorbis/Item: Dark Suit XII) Torvus Bog XIII) Item: Super Missile XIV) Boss: Boost Guardian/Item: Boost Ball XV) Item: Seeker Missile XVI) Item: Gravity Boost/Boss: Alpha Blogg XVII) Boss: Grapple Guardian/Item: Grapple Beam XVIII) Boss: Chykka Larvae XIX) Boss: Adult Chykka/Item: Dark Visor XX) Sanctuary Fortress XXI) Boss: Spider Guardian/Item: Spider Ball XXII) Boss: Power Bomb Guardian/Item: Power Bombs XXIII) Boss: Dark Samus 2: Dark Samus's Revenge/Item: Echo Visor XXIV) Boss: Caretaker Class Drone XXV) Item: Screw Attack XXVI) Boss: Quadraxis/Item: Annihilator Beam XXVII) Item: Light Suit XXVIII) Sky Temple XXIX) Boss: Ing Emperor XXX) Boss: Dark Samus 3: Back With a Vengance. . .and Some Phazon To find a specific section, just hit Ctrl + F (or whatever brings up the "find" function of your browser) and search for "_#_" without the quotes. . .and of course with the appropriate roman numeral in place of the #. ================================================================================ _II_ Notes/Legal Stuff ================================================================================ - This is NOT a 100% complete run. This is an essentials-only guide, made for using when you're stuck at a specific point. There are a couple things like Energy Tanks and Missile Expansions thrown in, but for the most part anything that isn't necessary to progress from area to area is left out. - Consequently, you'll be missing out on a lot if you don't do some scanning and exploring on your own. You can get through the game, but the bosses will be harder without the extra missiles, energy tanks, beam ammo expansions, etc. And you'll be missing story stuff from scans. - If I don't tell you how to get somewhere, it's probably because you've been there before. Check your map! - I'm writing this walkthrough as I play the game. So it's not just a simple matter of remembering what to do and writing it down, I actually have to do it first. That means if I get stuck, there won't be any updates for awhile. :P - This may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. - Once again, to reiterate, this guide is only authorized to be posted on GameFAQs. - All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. ================================================================================ _III_ Landing Site/Beginning of Game ================================================================================ From the landing site, head east. Shoot the node-like things in the center of the webs to knock them down so you can proceed. At the fork, head right and watch Samus drop down the hole. You can blow up these crates, but since you have full energy you don't need to. Go south to the door. It's locked--look to the left and scan the thingie next to it. Then lock onto the two locks that are on the top corners of the door and blast them off. In the next hallway, there's another panel you have to scan. It's just after the Splinter bodies, on the right side, nestled in a little alcove. You can see power cables leading to the door from it. Scan it and advance. Make sure to get the map data from the glowing orange hologram, then shoot the web barrier and move into the next room. Stand at the doorway and hold the R button to stay in place. Look around and hit the L button when necessary to lock on to the enemies and blast them. They don't pose much of a threat. Move on to the next area. Hit X to go into Morph Ball mode and roll underneath the large. . .thing that's blocking your path. Get rid of the little Splinters and then use the Morph Ball mode again to go through the little hole in the wall. At the end of that tunnel, hit A to use bombs and blast through. In the next room, on the other side of the pillar, is a Bomb Slot. In Morph Ball mode, move next to it, lay a bomb, then sit there until the bomb explodes (only takes a second), and push the control stick to land in the bomb slot. Lay another bomb. Now, the Dark Aether force will appear and infect the dead Federation troopers, making them attack you. They're easy enough to kill--you can even charge up your beam (hold A) and possibly take out multiple troopers at once. Back through the tunnel, three more troopers and then you're safe. FOR NOW. Scan the panel just on the other side of the large thing that you had to roll under before. Right behind you a gate opens, and four more troopers. In the next room, there'll be some containers blocking your way. Charge up your beam and blast them apart. Enter the next room and see the Dark Trooper open the portal to Dark Aether. Go through, watch the scene, and get most of your equipment stolen. At least you don't have one of those annoying time bomb scenarios like in MP1. Go down to the door. On the right side is a path that you can get through, since you still thankfully have Morph Ball mode. More troopers. Still not a problem. On the right/north side of the room are some crates, blast them to find a door that leads to a Save Room. Now go back through the other door to the elevator. Scan the panel and ride the elevator up. Go left at the fork and there's another one of those doors with the locks you have to shoot. In the open area, head straight across from the door and scan the panel to life the large crate and open a new path. If you see the little cocoons on the opposite wall, blast them now. If you don't, some enemies will jump out at you and annoy you slightly before you kill them. Jump up the ledge on the south/west side of the screen and move along the wall. The bridge has those locks you have to shoot as well. Keep going through, Morph Ball your way through the tunnel, move into the next open area. More little Splinters. Move up onto the platform and scan the panel. The crate will be lowered partway, lock onto the weak part of the cable and shoot it to lower it the rest of the way. Use it to jump across. In the next hallway, scan the panel on the left side. A couple more Splinters and go through the door into the open area to meet. . .more Splinters. Go down the path, kill some possessed Troopers, and in the next room make sure to take out the Turret that's hanging from the ceiling. On the right side, there's a Morph Ball path. Go through, scan the panel, then go back and roll underneath the malfunctioning gate. Try not to get squished. Now, you come into an open area. After the cutscene, look to your left at the large crate that glows yellow. Charge up and blast it, and get your Missiles back! Move towards the ship, you should see a ramp that'll take you into the ship. Kill the enemies that appear (they're stronger than regular Splinters, but you can still kill them with the beam) and head onto the ship. Scan the door and go into the Map Room. Turn around and on the right side of the ship, there'll be a hole with some flaming wreckage next to it. Jump out of it onto the ledge. Scan the panel to activate the Kinetic Orb Cannon, then switch into Morph Ball mode and roll on top of the orange hologram to be launched. Go forward from where you land, jump off the ledge and onto the ledge with the shielded door-- launch a missile at it to break the shield off. Roll through the right-side tunnel in the next room, kill the War Wasps, then look up to find a panel that you have to scan. In the next open area, look to the left and up. See the crack in the wall? Shoot it with a missile. Head down and stand on the orb cannon platform. Don't see the scan panel? It's nestled in the wall to your left. I managed to get stuck on that point myself for a bit, what an odd place to put the panel. Anyway, get launched up through the wall, then roll through the little hole in back and make your way to the door. Scan the panel to turn the elevator on, and ride it. Head through the door, wait for the bird-things to pass, then look closely at the left wall--see those cables? They lead to a Save Station. Head through the door. Boss fight! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _IV_ Boss: Alpha Splinter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kill the little Dark Splinters (don't waste missiles), and the Alpha Splinter will drop down into the arena. Blast it with your Charge Beam a few times while dodging its lunges and it'll turn into Dark Alpha Splinter. NOW you can use your missiles. Stay locked on, and be sure to tap B while moving left or right to dodge its dark energy beam and its lunges. Just keep hitting it with missiles and charged shots to kill it. Your reward? An item that you can't even use yet. Oh well--go through the next door, and use the elevator. Watch the cutscene, then go back down to the boss-fight room. On the East side (to the right from where you're entering), you'll see a door with a purplish hologram in front of it. Since you can translate those now, scan it to open the door. Watch out for the light-energy enemies, than can sting you from a short distance. Might wanna take them out before you get near them. Head through and you're back in one of the open areas you were before. Head to the shielded door on the right side, and the dark energy will try to infect some Splinters. Try to kill the Splinters before the darkness overtakes them, but if you can't, just kill them afterwards. :P Blast the shielded door and go through to get an Energy Tank. Backtrack to the open area where the huge crate first was (to the South) and find another purple door you can scan open. Head through, when you reach the elevator look to your left--shoot the webbing to find a Missle Expansion. Now you can hold ten missiles! Ride the elevator down. In the next room, stand near the entrance and look around, locking onto any of those flying things (Lumites) you can find and blasting them. There should be four. Head through into the Agon Wastes. ================================================================================ _V_ Agon Wastes ================================================================================ Drop down and an caterpiller-ish enemy will pop out of the ground. Lock onto its eye, shoot, then when that eye "dies", the one on the other end will activate. Repeat until dead. Until the monster's dead, I mean. Not you. You shouldn't be dead. Anyway. In the door there is a Save Station. See all the sandfalls in there? Don't bother with them just yet. Save and go back out. Head northeast and just skip the second Sandigger. Jump onto the ledge, then climb up to the right. At the end of that ledge, you'll see a big stone towering overhead. Look at the base. See the cracked area? Blast that with a missile. You can even lock on if you need to. Walk over the bridge, kill the Sandbats if you have to. To kill them, just watch the path they're flying in, pick a spot that they move through, and just shoot at it. They'll pass through it and run into your shots. Another bridge, more Sandbats. A couple jumps, a bridge that was already there with more Sandbats. Through the door, through the tunnel, and in the next area, some Space Pirates will show up (!). Shoot them. Climb onto the ledge, don't bother with that first door yet. See where that little crawly thing is, the Brigzee? From there, you can jump onto the pillars where one of the Space Pirates was attacking from. Watch out for the sand rivers on the other side (they can sweep you back down) and blast the stone's weak point with a missile, making another bridge. Missile the shielded door, blast the crates to hopefully replenish your missiles, then go through the door. In the next hallway you'll meet some Skeegoths, who dive from the ceiling at you. They don't dive until you're in range, so you can just shoot them from afar if you like. Or you can get a little closer and just rapidly tap L and A to lock on and shoot them quickly before they get to you. Head through the door and into the large arena-like room. Boss fight! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _VI_ Boss: Bomb Guardian/Item: Bombs -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This guy is similar to the Sandiggers you fought before, only powered up with dark energy. He lays bombs. . .YOUR bombs. Shooting his head causes damage, but ONLY after you've shot his tail a bunch. So while he's moving around, shoot his tail with your beam (lock on and do the dash thingy to stay behind him). When he roars and you can lock onto his head, fire a missile or two. Eventually you should win. You get your Bombs back! Use the bombs to blow up the gates. Head through the North door (only one you can go through at this point) and use the Bomb Slot. Go around the grey statue-thing and scan the yellow hologram; watch the cutscene. Go back to the pillar room. Open the yellow-hologram door to get a Missile Expansion. Remember the morph-ball tunnel you came from? Go there. In the middle when you get into side-view, bomb the floor to get yourself boosted up to an Energy Tank. Go back to that door in the pillar room I told you not to bother with before. Roll into the orange hologram to get yourself blasted upwards, then roll down to the other side of the wall. Behind the dead guy is a Missile Expansion; avoid the hologram when you're rolling to it. Go through the door, into the big room. Kill a couple Space Pirates, and more will beam down. Some dark energy will appear, and the Space Pirates try to shoot it, but they get possessed anyway. They're strong, so keep dodging as you kill them. After they die, you'll see the bomb slot get powered up. Use it, then ride the little elevator-ish thing. Bomb the blockage, roll down to the ledge, kill the War Wasps (and use the Charge Beam as a tractor to get any health-replenishing items they leave), and jump across to the next Morph Ball Elevator. Repeat. In this next bit, you'll have to use bombs to launch yourself up like you do when you use Bomb Slots. You can also use bombs to hurt the Pillbugs. After you destroy the blockage, light will come through and turn on the machine on the other side of the room. Scan it to open a portal to Dark Aether. ================================================================================ _VII_ Dark Agon Wastes ================================================================================ When you get through, watch the cutscene. The dark atmosphere hurts Samus, and there are glowing "Safe Zones" that you have to use as relay points to stay alive in this environment. If you see a little glowing point of light, shoot it and it will create a temporary safe zone for you. Move to the other side of the room and use the Bomb Slot. You may notice something a little weird going on here--that's because the two worlds are connected. Actions in one world affect actions in the other. So that hatch that was locked in that spot on Light Aether is now open. Of course, you can't get back to Light Aether just yet. Brave the darkness and move forth. In the next Safe Zone, you'll be attacked by Inglets. ("Ing" is the name of the Dark Aether species.) They launch dark energy at you from outside the safe zone. Lock on when they appear and blast them. Move on and blast the shielded door with a missile. In the next room, hide in the safe zone and take down the one Inglet. Move farther down, activating safe zones and blasting Inglets (or just dashing through, if you have enough energy to last). At the end of the hallway, there's a Save Station! Now isn't that considerate. Save. Head into the next room and go to the safe zone on your left, and meet Warrior Ing. Kill it. Go up the ledges towards and past the Lightbringer (a friendly monster that creates a mobile safe zone). Keep going, and. . .Boss fight! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _VIII_ Boss: Jump Guardian/Item: Space Jump Boots -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Basically a Warrior Ing with a powerful jump. Not particularly hard. Just sidestep his beam attacks and shoot him. He has a lot of life, so use missiles. Congratulations, you got your double-jump back. Head up the ledges and around, making liberal use of your double-jump. Reach the shielded door and hit it with a missile. Head through and then left, then left again to find the first Dark Key. Then, head back to where you first came from, and go back to Light Aether. Move forward a bit and get ambushed by a few Space Pirates. Kill them. Go to the Bomb Slot that you use in Dark Agon and head down the now-open shaft; use the Bomb Slot in the next room to open the way to a Missile Expansion. Go back to the pillar room ("Mining Staton B" on your map). Use the double jump to get to the statue in the sand river, then look up to your left. Jump up there, go through, and scan the panel. Go back, use the statue as a stepping stone to get to the door you just opened the gate to. Kill the Space Pirates and then get ready for a lot more Space Pirates. The last two even decide to load themselves into big turrets to shoot at you. But they're easy enough. In the next room, notice the grates in the corners--bomb them, bomb the crates underneath, and sneak through turning right when you get the chance to get another Missile Expansion. Go back and take the other path to get on top. Get rid of the Space Pirates, activate the elevator and go up, kill more pirates, then a door will be unlocked. Go through and you'll see Dark Samus (whom you saw just before your equipment was stolen) locking the gate and stopping you from proceeding. Take the path to the right and scan one of the panels to open the blast door. Take out the turrets and dodge the laser beams (wait until they're in the upper-right position then just run under them) and go through a door which leads you to a room with. . .more Space Pirates. And METROIDS! Don't worry though, they're all in captivity. Kill the Space Pirates, use the elevator to get up top. Go around the big metroid tank and past more turrets, then a Bomb Slot. This will bring you to a big room with Pirate Aerotroopers, flying Space Pirates with Missile attacks. Not too hard, but worse than regular Space Pirates. After you kill them, you'll see a panel activate; go scan it. Segmented pillars will pop up in the middle of the room. On the other side, there are panels that will raise and lower sections of the pillars. The southernmost one should be lowered three times. The middle one should be lowered twice. The northernmost one should be lowered one. Then use your double jump to ascend the stairs you just made. Energy tank! Then reverse the southern and northern platform levels, and climb them. Bomb-jump into the opening, then bomb-jump your way through the little maze, avoiding the laser beams. Watch the timing. Once you're past that, you get to a Save Station. Go on and around, making it to the control room, where. . . Boss Fight! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _IX_ Boss: Dark Samus/Item: Dark Beam -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dark Samus can throw up a shield to block your attacks, which she mostly does when you fire missiles. Other than that, Dark Samus will mainly do two things: fire a spray of blue energy at you, or hover for a bit then dive-bomb you. For the former, hide behind one of the pillars. For the latter, do NOT hide, as Dark Samus will just smash through the pillar, breaking both it and you. Just dodge and keep shooting. You can get more missile hits in early on. After you win, take the elevator up, go through the door, and get the Dark Beam! Go back, and head through the southernmost door (left of where you originally entered). Keep going south into the room with the Dark Portal. Watch out for the Pirate Grenadiers--the two in this room can take off a good portion of your health if you get surprised. After they're dead, use the Dark Beam on the portal to open it and go through. After you enter Dark Aether, look up for a bit. Kill those things that are floating around now and save yourself the trouble of dealing with them later. Go to the temporary Safe Zone on your left. Look at the pillar near you--see the little protrusion on the left side (opposite where you came in)? Hit it with a missile, then go around and shoot into the hole you made with the Dark Beam. Hop onto the platform and wait in the safe zone to recharge your life and to kill any of the Dark Preeds you might've missed earlier. Double-jump onto the next platform (somewhat tough jump, so keep trying if you don't get it), run and activate the temporary safe zone. Open the blackened door with your Dark Beam and go through. In this next room, you'll have to face a Warrior Ing, which are annoyingly hard to kill but not very dangerous. Next room, take care of the Inglets and head to the right. Keep going through, and on the other side of the pillar in the 'Hall of Stairs', you can either use the Bladepods as stepping stones, or you can shoot the marker on the top of the pillar to lower it. Either way, go up top and move into the next room, where you find a Save Station. In this next room, morph into a ball, then go through the tunnel. Bomb-jump into the area above, and bomb-jump over the opening. Otherwise you'll fall into a pit of Phazon, which is just like the Dark Aether atmosphere. In the next room, ride the elevator down and move to the ledge on the right. While in the temporary safe zone, scan the panel to turn off one of the three locks on the exit. Next, jump across the floating platforms (activating the safe zones as needed) and get to the second panel, which is right above the exit. Next, jump down to the eastern side of the room (left from where you entered). From the temporary safe zone, take out the crates to the East with chaged shots to reveal the final panel. Scan it, then exit. In the next room, hop across the platforms quickly to avoid the dark matter attacks (you can't kill those huge Ingclaws) and replenish your life in the safe zone if needed. In the next room, stay in the safe zone and shoot all those little flying things (Nightbarbs) using the same trick you used on the Sandbats. Then go to the left and down, along the wall to your right and into the safe zone. Look up, shoot the Light Lift Crystal with your Dark Beam, and hop on. Look down to your right and find the temporary safe zone. From there, activate the other Light Lift Crystal. Go back to the first pillar, then to the second, then to the door. Next room. . .Light Beam! And you didn't even have to fight a boss! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _X_ Item: Light Beam -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Defeat enemies with the Light Beam to get ammo for the Dark Beam, and vice versa. By now you're probably pretty low on Dark Ammo, so take out some of the enemies that appeared in that last room with the Light Beam to restock. Go to the white door and open it with the Light Beam, and also use that to take out the Webling. You'll wind up back in the room you first came upon when you entered this part of Dark Aether, except with a few Dark Splinters as an added bonus. Take care of them, then double-jump up and get the Dark Temple Key. You could have done this earlier, but since you have the Light Beam now you can go through the door past the door on this ledge. Keep going and you'll come to a room with the third and final Dark Temple Key. Drop down and it'll be stolen by a bunch of Warrior Ings. :/ Kill them all (takes awhile, even with the Light Beam), and you'll get it back. Now you have all three Dark Keys! Exit through the only available door and you'll find yourself, once again, in the entry room. Go back up through the dark-beam door and to the Light Portal, which you can now activate. Head left at the fork first if you're low on ammo to reach a Recharge Room (remember those from Fusion?). Now, from Light Aether, go aaaaaaaall the way back to the very first portal you used to get to Dark Aether. Now go back to where you got the first Dark Temple Key. That's the Dark Temple. Anyway, wait in the safe zone before you activate the door, make sure you have full health left. . .you're gonna need it. Boss fight! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XI_ Boss: Amorbis/Item: Dark Suit -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can't damage the sphere in the center, so don't bother shooting it. First, you'll see a huge worm leaping out of the ground and then diving back into it like a dolphin does to water. While it's out of the ground, shoot it. This won't hurt it, but you still gotta do it. After a decent amount of damage, the Amorbis will attach itself to the sphere in the center. Lock onto the head of the worm and just blast away with regular shots or charged shots. When the horns break, go into Morph Ball mode and let it suck you in, lay a bomb, and finally you cause some damage. Next, you'll have to deal with two of them at once, and when they go into horn mode they like to fire a beam of dark energy at the ground and sweep it along, almost certainly catching you in the wake. Ouch. It is possible to dodge by moving forwards and backwards, and a few seconds in the atmosphere is better than being smacked by that laser. Also, this does happen when there's only one but it's less likely--when not using their Dark Laser of Darkness, they tend to fire globs of dark energy at you, and can shut off a Safe Zone temporarily if they hit the node. Having fun yet? When you beat the two, you have to go for three. Anyway, it's not EXTREMELY hard, but it's harder than anything else so far. When you win, you get the Dark Suit! So now you can move around in the Dark Aether atmosphere without being hurt. As much. That's right, you still get hurt. Only half as fast. Pfft. When you're done, head north and you'll find a Bomb Slot much like the one on Light Aether. Welcome to the Dark Temple. No, it doesn't get its own special section--it's like one room. Watch the cutscene then go back to the temple on Light Aether. Watch out for Warrior Ing on the way. When you get to the temple, you'll see a little cutscene and now you have to go back to the Great Temple, the first temple you ever went to. This means you have to go to "Transport to Temple Grounds" on your map. Then, when you get there, to "Temple Transport B". On the way there you'll see one of those markers that you can shoot with your light beam; if you want to, blast it, and it'll reveal a Dark Portal. Activate it, go through, and explore a little to find a Missile Expansion. Finally, go to the Main Energy Controller, watch the cutsene, and go back to the four-door room; since you've been able to open Amber-scan doors for awhile, open the door to the west and head to Temple Transport C. Pretty soon, you'll have to go through a Dark Portal. When you go, go down the hallway and reach the area with the transport. On the ledge behind it, in the side walls there are Morph Ball sized elevators for you to ride. Start with the one on the right and do the first Bomb Slot, then go up the elevator on the left, and go ALL THE WAY AROUND to the farthest Bomb Slot you can, activate it, and then the second-farthest, then the nearest. Ride the transport, watch out for the flying enemies, and then go through the Light Portal. In this next section you'll have to use your Light Beam to activate a bunch of markers. Not a huge problem. Welcome to the Torvus Bog. ================================================================================ _XII_ Torvus Bog ================================================================================ When you first get here, you'll watch a little cutscene introducing you to the landscape. Doesn't this remind you of the Tallon Overworld? Beautiful. Almost immediately, three Shredders pop out of the water and move towards you. They reach you, they explode--so take them out quick. Missiles are warranted here (you should have at least fifty by now anyway, I think). Up to the left is a door you can reach--it's a Save Station. Save! Go back out and go underwater. Behind the tree is a Dark-beam door. Farther along, you'll meet Shriekers. They appear for a bit, shoot at you, then go invisible. Just lock on when they appear and shoot while moving side to side a little to dodge their attack. In that room, the door across leads to a tunnel that leads nowhere you can go yet, but turn around and you'll see a shielded door. Two rooms down, more Shredders, and then you run into a couple Grenchlers. Remember them from MP1? No, of course not. But you probably remember something similar from the snow area--whatever they were called. Anyway, if you do, you know how to fight them, shoot them from behind. When you beat them, climb up and cross the bridge to a Dark Portal. From here, it's pretty simple. Cross the bridge, use the Bomb Slot, then go back to the pivot point of the bridge and jump across to the mushrooms under the portal. Then go back to Light Aether. p.s. watch out for the water in Dark Aether. It's. . .acidic, I guess. Hurts more than the atmosphere. When you get there, you meet Dark Pirate Commandoes. It might just be one that can warp around, or it might be a bunch, I'm not sure. Anyway, they have an attack that can mess up your vision for a few seconds (but you can stay locked on). You may want to just skip them entirely and make a dash for the exit. Once you're done there, cross the bridge, get the Missile Expansion, enter the door and keep going. Scan the panel to activate the Kinetic Orb Cannon then use it. Watch out for the Shriekbats, and go through the dark-beam door. In the narrow hallway of the next room, examine the floor. See those panels? Bomb the first one to get an Energy Tank! You can't get right back up, unfortunately, but you can go right back to the room with the Kinetic Orb Cannon. When you get back up and go through the next dark-beam door, you'll have to deal with a couple Pirate Aerotroopers, then four Space Pirates. Your reward is the Super Missile (!) and an elevator. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XIII_ Item: Super Missile -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hold A to charge your regular beam, then hit Y to fire the Super Missile. It opens Green-shielded doors and uses 5 missiles per shot. Ride the elevator up to the inner Temple area and discover that you need to find another three keys. You can also now open the doors with the Emerald holograms. When you go back, that last area will be filled with Shriekers. Fight them if you want, but I don't recommend it--just scan the hologram and go down. If you want, take the Green-shield door back to the Great Bridge and use the hologram-door to get to the Map Room. You can also go back and open the few green doors in the Temple Grounds and Agon Wastes now, but for the most part all you'll find are dead ends, at least until you get even more gear. You can get a couple Missile Expansions, but they're not necessary; at this point you shouldn't waste your time unless you're missing an Energy Tank (you should have four by now). Next, go to the door somewhat to the right of where you come back in (from the Great Bridge). If you see a large round room with rotating platforms, you're in the wrong room. The room you want should be more of a hallway with water. When you get in the shallow water, a Grenchler will emerge at the end of the narrow hallway. Tough to get around, but even tougher to kill in this environment, so just skip it. Go into Morph Ball mode and roll through the gap in the left side of the end of the hallway. At the end there will be a couple of those plant things that grab you if you're in Morph Ball mode. . . I forget the names. Easy enough to kill, also easy to skip if you want. In the larger open area (Torvus Grove), you will want to head to the North, then by following that path you'll reach a portal generator. Head through. In Dark Aether, you'll enter a big room with lots of platforms. You may find some Hunter Ing here; if so, be careful, as they can be somewhat dangerous. Aim for the dark-beam door. Soon you'll find a Save Station. You've got a hard boss coming up, so save! The save station is in a pit, so it can be tough to find the ledge you're supposed to get back out onto. . .but it's towards the door you came from. Go through, and you'll find a boost-ball slot that's based in Light Aether, and a locked gate right near it. Hmm. . . Anyway, go down the path that you CAN go, and through a tunnel. In the next room you'll see a Warrior Ing turn into a Morph Ball and zoom through a little tunnel. He has the Boost Ball ability; he's the Boost Guardian. Wait in the safe zone until you have full HP, then go through. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XIV_ Boss: Boost Guardian/Item: Boost Ball -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a TOUGH boss. Use either a Super Missile or a fully-charged Light Beam blast on it. If you can, do it twice. It'll then turn into a black morph ball and start bouncing around the room. If it hits you, it does a lot of damage. Once he's gone into Boost Ball mode, he'll alternate between bouncing around, and chasing you as a reddish version of the puddles that those Ing things turn into. The puddle isn't as damaging, I don't think, but it's still painful. When he's a puddle, go into Morph Ball mode, and run away from it while laying bombs. When you've bombed him enough, you'll automatically see a little cutscene in which he turns back into regular Warrior Ing mode, and you'll automatically be back in regular fighting mode. Again, either Super Missile or charged Light Beam. He'll keep going back and forth between these two things, sometimes using different/stronger attacks in regular mode as his life goes down. Two things you should remember: first, if he smashes one of the four pillars in the room, it leaves behind health for you to pick up. Second, after a little bit, Inglets will start to show up while he's in Boost Ball mode. Kill them and take the health they leave behind. You most likely will need it. Lots of people have loads of trouble with the Boost Guardian, but with the strategy above and four energy tanks, you should be able to beat him. Once you've beat him, go back out and into the half-pipe room. Use the Boost Ball (hold B while in Morph Ball mode) to boost up the walls a little, then on your way down hold B and boost your way up the opposite wall. Keep doing this until you reach the Dark Temple Key on the left side of the halfpipe (left coming from the Boost Guardian room). You also have to use this trick to exit the room, and then again to get across the breaking blocks in the tunnel. Get back to the Save Station and save. Go back to the portal generator and go back to Light Aether. Back in the larger room with the trees (Torvus Grove), go to the South, and use the half-pipe near the door and go on the ledges along the wall to reach the dark-beam door to the East. Follow the path up, then you'll reach the Spinner (boost ball slot) you saw in Dark Aether. Use it. Don't bother trying to go to the area you fought the Boost Guardian in yet; all you'll do is run into some Dark Pirate Commandos and find that you need the Spider Ball to advance. For now, go back towards the Great Temple. You'll find a half-pipe on the way, boost up it and then in the tunnel you'll go into afterwards, hold a Boost until you get to a side-view section, then boost over the breakaway blocks. You'll find yourself in a large room with an item in the middle. On the walls are four Spinners. Use them to arrange the panels in the middle; just keep boosting until they light up. Note that you'll be turning both the panel connected to the Spinner you're in AND the panel just inside it, too. So you should probably start with the outermost one, though I forget which one that is. When you're finished, you get the Seeker Missile! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XV_ Item: Seeker Missile -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To use the Seeker Missile, hold Y and then look around. You'll automatically lock on to up to five targets at once; when you release Y, all the missiles will be fired at once. Use this to open those doors with the purple blast shields. You might be thinking, "Hey! Pressing Y shoots a missile, so I have to use SIX missiles to open those doors--one will shoot out when I first press Y to hold it down!" True. There are ways around this, though. Hold Y when exiting Morph Ball mode, when exiting the menu or the map--anything like that tends to work. (Don't waste a Super Missile by accident using this trick. :P) You entered by Morph Ball tunnel, but you have to leave by Seeker Missile door. Use this opportunity to test out your Seeker Missile skills. When you get through, you'll find yourself back at your ship! It's not fixed yet, but at least you get to save your game. Now go back to that little underground room in the Torvus Bog. This time, go through the tunnel opposite the entry door (assuming you enter from the Great Bridge). You should find yourself in a room with a large pillar and two pairs of platforms rotating around it--this room would be the Hydrodynamo. The music is a remake of the Lower Brinstar music from Super Metroid. This is probably the best song in the entire game, which kinda sucks if you think about it--why can't they remix Kraid or Brinstar from the first Metroid? Pfft. The door up top leads to a Save Station. Down in the water is a bunch of stuff. Before you go in, be warned that there are enemies called Bloggs in there. When they spot you, they open their mouths and charge. Not all that damaging, but since you're underwater they can sneak up on you really easily. You can only damage them when they're charging at you, though there are Blogglings, which you can just blast from a distance. Anyway, hop towards the middle of the room. You'll land on a platform. There's another platform in the center below you--get to that one. Look around, on the outer wall there will be ledges, one of which will contain a panel that you'll have to scan. You have to scan from the ledge, though, because it wouldn't be very difficult or time-consuming if you could just scan them normally. When that's scanned, a platform will extend from one of the ledges up higher. In the middle of the platform is a Kinetic Orb Cannon, use it to get back up, then come back down to the first middle platform and you can reach the ledge. This ledge has a Seeker-missile door. Make sure to aim at it from the platform that was extended, and jump before you shoot--otherwise some of the missiles will hit a wall. Anyway, go in that door. Down the path, and uh-oh, Dark Samus is back! Don't worry though, you don't have to fight her just yet. In the water are some Bloggs. Kill them, then the Spinner will activate. Spin until the center section lights up a little, then go down the hole it's connected to (the part where the lights form a circle). Stay in Morph Ball mode and follow the path to reach either a light-beam door or a dark-beam door. Either way, when in the door, roll over the little bubbly vent while in Morph Ball mode to get into the orb cannon. But remember, once you've finished one of the doors, SAVE! You can't save once you've cracked all the locks, and the boss can be difficult, so by saving now you potentially avoid having to re-do all of this if you get smacked around by the boss. If you've taken the light-beam door, go through and bomb your way down to the Bomb Slot underneath. Then the bubbles will help push you back up, and you will have to bomb the little reappearing block there. Head left towards the fan, and you'll get pushed up and can go through it. In the next room, get underwater and kill the Bloggs. There's a Dark Portal there; activate it and go through. In this next room, some Dark Pirate Commandos will appear. All you have to do is get up to the platform right above the portal and use the Spinner, so you might not want to bother with the Commandos. Once you've used the Spinner, go back. Some platforms will have extended, allowing you to get up to a light-beam door. Through here is a panel for you to scan, unlocking another one of the locks. If you're going through the dark-beam door, just roll to the end and float up, boost left to get into the pipe despite the push of the bubbles, then go right. In the next room, get underwater and kill the Bloggs. Aim up and lock on to the targets floating on the water and shoot them with the Dark Beam to flip them over. Get back up to the entrance and hop onto the platforms you just made to get to the other side. Dark-beam door, another lock. If you already did the light-beam door, that's the last one. Go down into the center area, and through the door. Follow the path and you'll reach a large circular room. On one side is a door, go through and get the Gravity Boost, which works sort of like an in-water jetpack. It lets you move in water with the same agility you do in air, and after a double-jump you can hold B to hover for a bit. After you exit. . .boss fight! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XVI_ Item: Gravity Boost/Boss: Alpha Blogg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I said before, this can be a tough boss. It's about as difficult as the Boost Guardian, I'd say. This boss has two attacks; it shoots sonic waves at you in threes, and it charges at you. Try to stay on the other side of the room from it. It's easy enough to dodge the sonic attack, but it's only vunerable when it's charging, which makes it difficult to both attack and dodge the charge. Timing it is tough, but eventually you get the hang of it. I found using a Seeker Missile (since you can target the same enemy multiple times, it counts as five missiles) to be easier than a Super Missile, but either one can work well enough. When you're finished, use your Gravity Boost to get up to the exit. In the Hydrodynamo Shaft (first room after you exit), right above the spinning thing is a Dark Portal. Go through, grab the Temple Key, and exit. (You need Power Bombs to do anything else in there right now.) Go back to the Save Station in the main dynamo room and save. Now go back to the area past the dark-beam door (which you can get to right from the main dynamo room by going through the dark-beam door in there), and you'll be able to reach the Bomb Slot underwater, which will in turn let you reach the Dark Portal above. Go through. To your right is an exit, go there. Through the tunnel, and you'll have to keep going left and falling down until you can't anymore, then bomb-jump your way up. (Shades of 2-d metroid games. . .) In the next room you'll be underneath something that has very heavy footsteps. Watch out for the Hunter Ing, and climb the rocks to your right if you want a look at what you're going to fight in a minute. Go through the light-beam door to the West to exit. Shoot the crystal in front of you with the Dark Beam to energize it, and move quickly as you make your way along the extending/retracting platforms to the light-beam door above the Light Portal. Drop down, use the Kinetic Orb Cannon to boost up like you've done in Light Aether, and you can now reach the Save Station if you want to. After that, drop down into the only opening in the grating, go into the middle, then use the Bomb Slot to rotate the grating so you can go through the other door (the non-light-beam one). Go through the hallway, blasting the storage plants to regain health and missiles, and emerge into the room of the next Boss Fight. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XVII_ Boss: Grapple Guardian/Item: Grapple Beam -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This boss is basically a really big Grenchler. (At least it's not another Warrior Ing). There are two main differences, besides the size. First, you can shoot the eye to stun it. Second, it doesn't shoot electricity, it shoots a Grapple Beam and draws you in for more damage. First of all, SCAN IT so that you can get the ability to target it from behind. Anyway, shooting the eye won't hurt it, but enough damage will stun it for a bit so that you can get behind it and shoot its weak point. If you hide behind one of the pillars in the room when it tries to use the Grapple Beam on you (or if you stand in front of the pillar and dodge), it'll get itself latched onto the pillar, pull itself in, bonk its head, and be stunned for a little bit. Take advantage of this to blast it with a Super Missile. Also, once you deal a lot of damage to it, its back will be damaged (like with regular Grenchlers), and now when it's stunned from eye-shots you can just damage it by shooting the eye. This boss isn't as difficult as the past couple bosses, but hey. . .not much in this game is. When you win, you get the Grapple Beam! Now all those grapple points will be highlighted, and you can swing from them by looking at them and holding L. Release L at the right moment to let go and hopefully land on the platform you're aiming for. (It takes some practice.) Now, head back to Light Aether and to the Forgotten Bridge. Go through the portal there and then through the Super Missile door on the south side. You have to kill the Dark Pirate Commandos first, unfortunately. Go through the Brooding Ground, using your Morph Ball as necessary, and make it to the Venomous Pond. What's that floating off to the right? A Dark Temple Key! Directly to your left is a morph-ball tunnel, roll through and you'll be at a good distance and angle to use the Grapple hook to reach the key. To the South is a Save Station. Almost directly opposite of the light-beam door in the Venomous Pond is a dark-beam door. Through the Seeker Missile door there is a Beam Ammo Expansion, which will allow you to carry 100 rounds for both Light and Dark beams! By this point you probably run out of Light Ammo pretty fast. After that, head through the light-beam door. Through the tunnel, and you'll reach the Dark Torvus Temple. Before you head into the temple, there's a tunnel opposite the entrance with a Super-Missile door that leads to an Energy Tank! There's also an Ammo Recharge Room to the left of where you came in (right if you're coming from the Energy Tank room); roll underneath the vegetation to reach the door. Now head into the center platform to activate the elevator--the room is flooded with water (the poisonous Dark Aether kind), but the platform you're on floats. See the big thing on the wall there, and the four targets? Shoot them with your regular beam until all four break, and get ready for a two-tier boss fight. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XVIII_ Boss: Chykka Larvae -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First, scan it so that it'll let you target the belly. Then, be prepared for a long but fairly easy fight. This boss does three things; swim around while occasionally releasing Dark Shredders, jump out of the water and do a belly flop which sends a wave of Dark Aether water your way, and flop up onto your platform, tilting it and trying to latch onto you and draw you in with his tongue. While he's swimming, he bobs up and down a little, and you can try to manually aim for his face to cause a little damage. When he jumps into the air, have a charged shot ready and blast him in the belly. When he lands on the platform, go all-out and use a Super Missile. You're constantly being healed thanks to the safe zone around you, and neither the Chykka Larvae nor the Dark Shredders do all that much damage (at least not if you take care to avoid attacks, which isn't hard). This is an easy fight, but a little time consuming. When you beat him, the platform splits into three and the Chykka Larvae becomes the Adult Chykka. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XIX_ Boss: Adult Chykka/Item: Dark Visor -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This fight isn't as hard as the Boost Guardian or Alpha Blogg, but it is longer and more difficult to figure out exactly how to beat. First off, scan. At first, the Adult Chykka has basically only one attack; spew a bunch of Dark Water at you. You can double-jump over this. (If you don't, you'll probably be knocked back into the water.) While he's doing this he'll bob back and forth, sometimes even breaking your lock on him. Just re-target. Keep blasting with regular Power Beam shots; anything else moves too slow to hit him. After a little bit, he'll be stunned and float in one place, while red circles appear on his wings. You have to shoot these, but YOU CAN'T DO IT FROM THE FRONT. I wasted five minutes stunning and trying to shoot him from the front afterwards. >_< You have to use the Grapple points to get around to his back (should only have to move one platform over), THEN you can lock on and shoot them. Blast one with a Super Missile and it'll be damaged, then repeat the process over again. After you've got all four, he might back up and then divebomb you. If this happens, just Grapple over to another platform and you'll be fine. What he always does after all four wings are damaged, however, is fall into the water. He'll emerge, then become charged with Dark Energy (he'll turn all purply-blackish). Scan him again so that you can target his tail. Charged Light Beam shots work, but you have to time them--he bobs back and forth, so wait until he's just reached the far left or far right to shoot. While in this form, he releases a swarm of slow-moving insects that come at you. Blast them for Missile and Energy refills, and switch to the Dark Beam to shoot them if you're low on Light ammo. After you do a decent amount of damage, he'll turn back into the regular Adult Chykka. Repeat the whole process over again, hopefully you only need do to it once more (if you damaged him enough as Dark Chykka the first time). When you win, the platforms will reassemble, and you'll get the Dark Visor. The Dark Visor works similar to the Thermal Visor from MP1; it lets you see some things that have vanished from regular sight. You get to test this out right away when a series of platforms floats up and disappears; switch to the Dark Visor to see and scale them. Enter the Dark Temple, use the Bomb Slot to reach the Energy Controller, and watch the cutscene. Now head back to the Torvus Bog temple on Light Aether. p.s. on the way you can use the Dark Visor to stay locked on to those Dark Pirate Commandos! Return the energy to the Energy Controller in the Torvus Bog temple, then go back to U-Mos in the Great Temple. He'll tell you to go to the Sanctuary. Go through the emerald-scan door to reach Temple Transport B. You've been here before, remember? Anyway, you'll come across an area with a door which, if you scan, says that the interface controls aren't visible in this timespace thingy. So switch to the Dark Visor, and you'll see that it's a Seeker Missile door! Go through, fight some regular Space Pirates in the GFMC compound area, and open the emerald-scan door to reach the transport to the sanctuary area. Inside, you'll meet a Luminoth Turret, the strongest one yet. Keep going through to the elevator and enter the Sanctuary area. ================================================================================ _XX_ Sanctuary Fortress ================================================================================ When you get here, some more Turrets. Then, enter the larger open area, and a short cutscene gives you a nice little view of the area. Not quite the Torvus Bog, is it? And the music is annoying. Hopefully this won't distract you from the FIVE Pirate Commandos that will be smacking you around soon. No, not Dark Pirate Commandos, just regular ones. So you can't just charge the Light Beam and switch to the Dark Visor. Plus, these guys have shields, so they can block your Super Missiles. The only real advice I have is to take it slow and try to pummel them from afar, taking them one by one if you can. I almost died here. >_< Anyway, go into the Light-beam door when you're done, and stand a bit away from the Octopedes as you blast them with your charged Power Beam. Further down, there's another one of those Seeker Missile doors that you need the Dark Visor to shoot. When it opens, this weird floating thing will come out and attack you. Kill it quickly, with a charged Dark Beam shot and then a missile. If it lives long enough to put up its shield, it'll infect your suit with a computer virus once it brings its shield down! You'll have problems seeing and moving, and you'll be unable to attack. You'll have to hold L and R then hit B to reboot. Odd. In the next section, there's a four-legged robot you have to fight; go into Morph Ball mode and bomb it repeatedly. If it starts spinning, smack it with a Boost Ball attack. Then the head will come off and float around. Watch the energy that's hovering around it; if it's dark, shoot it with the Light Beam. If it's bright, shoot it with the Dark Beam. Go to the right and blast the shielded door with a Missile to reach a Save Station. Save! This area is difficult, as you've already experienced. Back in the Reactor Core, go into the center area and climb the platforms. You can take out the enemies there if you prefer, but extended fighting with them is probably a bad idea. Through the door to the left, you'll find the Minigyro Chamber. Scan the panel then look to the left. Go through the tunnel, and deposit a bomb in the bomb slots according to color as the game said: Amber (brown), Emerald (green), Crimson (red), Cobalt (blue). If the rings don't stop, sit in the Bomb Slots after you lay the bomb until they do. When you've got all four stopped, go across the bridge you just made in the center. In the next area, there'll be a bunch of those four-legged robots. Go all the way through into the next room and use the Dark Portal. When in Dark Aether, you can go through the door to the East for a Missile Expansion, but watch out for the Dark Metroid. Go into the Culling Chamber (west). See the Dark Temple Key? You can't get it just yet, but remember where it is and come back for it after you get the Spider Ball. Go through the dark-beam door to the North to reach an elevator. Ride it and then in the next room, shoot the Nightbats from afar (aim with R) like you've done with other little flying enemies, then grapple across. When you're on the other side, turn around and put on your Dark Visor. There are Seeker Missile targets on the wall on the other side of the pit! Target them all, then jump and grapple to make sure that none of your missiles hit the Grapple Point. You'll bring down the shield on the west side of the Light Portal; go through it. Through the dark-beam door and into the next area; off to your right (North) is a door leading to a Save Station. To get there, you have to go through the little Morph Ball tunnels nestled in the walls, around to where there'll be a Bomb Slot. Use it to make a puzzle appear; there are nine panels, three of three colors: red, green, blue. There are also three lasers coming from the left wall hitting the leftmost panels. You can rotate four of the panels at a time by shooting the small markers just around the middle panel. Your goal is to make all the red panels line up on top, and then the green and blue beneath that; basically the lasers should be hitting all panels of their own color. Doing this will stop the outer ring, which will let you go around and reach the Save Station. The light-beam door leads nowhere for now, go through the other door into the Temple Access. Watch out for the Dark Quad CM/MBs; you beat them exactly the way you beat the regular kind, but they're stronger. Climb the platforms at the far end of the room and grapple your way to the Southern door to reach the Sanctuary energy temple; scan the hologram projector and get the ability to open the doors with blue-gray ("Cobalt") holograms in front of them. Go back into the larger open room, and grapple your way to the door to the right (east). Hop across the floating platforms to your right, then turn around and scan the marker on the second one to activate the Kinetic Orb Cannon. Use it. In the next room, there will be a tunnel. Entering this tunnel begins the next "Boss Fight", which is really just a puzzle. . .a puzzle that can KILL YOU. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XXI_ Boss: Spider Guardian/Item: Spider Ball -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This boss was the toughest for me, though oddly enough it can actually be the easiest if you really know what you're doing, because the boss doesn't actively attack you. The Spider Guardian uses your Spider Ball technology to ride the magnetic rails around the four rooms. Your job is to smack him with bombs until the Bomb Slot activates, then to get over to the Bomb Slot and use it before it deactivates. The boss has three states. - Normal, moving at a medium speed and having a blue aura around him - Aggravated, moving at a fast speed and having a red aura around him - Weakened, moving at a slow speed and having a green aura around him After one bomb, the boss will go from blue to red. After a few more, he'll go to green. While he's green, the Bomb Slots are active. You can smack him with more bombs to keep him in green-mode. If you touch the aura around him, you get damaged. There are times (right after he's hit with a bomb) where there'll be no aura; you can roll right past or through him at these points. Useful to know on the fourth section. In the first room, he just moves in a square path around the center. Use your bomb-jump to get up and to the left, then over to the right where the Bomb Slot is. Second room, you'll have to use your Boost Ball, and when he's green, a small platform will extend that you can drop onto and use to reach the Bomb Slot. Third room, more Boosting, more platforms that only extend when he's green, but a trickier path. Fourth room, there are three Bomb Slots. You have to get the first one, then the first AND the second, then all three. Not only that, but the second and third are above hills, so if you go slightly past the peak of the hill, it's that much harder to correct yourself. The main thing to remember is that you can keep him green if you keep hitting him with bombs, and that you can get across small gaps (one or two blocks wide) with a Boost. It might take a few tries (took me three, the other 'tough' bosses only took two), but it's possible to win. After you beat him, bomb jump up to the point that he died, and roll through the tunnel to get the Spider Ball. Use it to get back through the boss area. To use the Spider Ball, you of course have to be in Morph Ball mode. Hold R when near a magnetic rail and you'll latch onto it and be able to roll along it as if it were regular floor. You can use the Boost to propel yourself from a Spider Ball track, which you'll have to use on your way back. You can also do a bomb-jump to jump between tracks when there's a small gap between them. In both Boost and Bomb-jump situations, you still want to be holding R at all times. From here, get back to the Culling Chamber (the Dark Aether version of the Hall of Combat Mastery, and ride the Spider Ball tracks to reach a Dark Temple Key. (Note: You may want to save this part for later, so you can get two Dark Temple keys in one fell swoop.) You now have to make your way back to the Torvus Bog, to the room where you fought the Alpha Blogg. Going back through the Sanctuary from the Spider Guardian area will force a new route that makes use of your Spider Ball ability, and brings you into the path of a new enemy. Remember those robots that were in the walls and looked kinda like decoration? Yeah, they're trying to kill you now. And they're pretty good at it. You can skip them if you want. At the entrance to the Sanctuary, Dark Samus will appear and break the bridge. There's a Spider Ball track on the wall left of the door you came from. You'll have to use the boost-launch trick at the end of the first Spider Ball track to get to the second. In the Alpha Blogg room, there's a Spider Ball track that you can ride up to a Dark Portal. Go through and meet the Power Bomb Guardian. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XXII_ Boss: Power Bomb Guardian/Item: Power Ball -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is another boss that's more of a puzzle than a fight, but at least this one actively attacks you. The PB Guardian is a big plant (like the ones that sprout and attack you when you're in Morph Ball mode) that spits Power Bombs at you. They move pretty slowly, and their blast radius isn't quite as huge as you might think, so it's not as bad as it seems. Your goal is to use the Spider Ball track to get up to the four bomb slots on the wall just below the ceiling. Once you've got all four, the Power Bomb Guardian dies. One trick to remember is that he likes to shoot ahead of you to try to get you to run into the blast, so moving backwards can mess him up sometimes. Also, do NOT use your Boost to get between tracks, all it'll do is send you to the floor. All things considered this is a fairly easy boss. When you're done, you get the Power Bombs. To use them, roll up into Morph Ball mode and press Y. If you haven't done it already, I strongly suggest you go back through the Agon Wastes and Torvus Bog to open any doors and reach any areas that you couldn't before. You only start with two Power Bombs, so getting some of those Power Bomb expansions can't hurt, and there are some Energy Tanks waiting for you as well. Keep in mind that Power Bombs can destroy anything made from Denzium, so it's not just yellow-shielded doors that you can get past. Anyway, when you're done exploring, go all the way back to the Sanctuary. Head back up to the Main Gyro Chamber (near the second Save Station and the big spinning thingy that you stopped the outer ring of). On the top floor, there is some clutter that you can scan, it says that there's Denzium in it. So use your new Power Bombs to blow it up. A Bomb Slot will raise, using it will activate a three-color puzzle like you solved before. If you didn't solve it before, go look at the previous section to figure it out, because you'll have to solve the puzzle for the outer ring, too. When solved, the inner ring will stop, revealing a Spider Ball track. Go to it and when you reach the end of it, Boost-launch yourself from the track through the window to the yellow-shielded door. Power-Bomb it open. In the next room you'll see a bunch of Dark Space Pirates fighting Dark Samus. She'll kill them all easily enough, and start gathering Phazon. Go to the right, the blast door will open automatically. In this next section, blast the crates to restore as many Missiles and as much Light Ammo as you can, then go through the next door, through the small hallway (not a tunnel, but it kinda looks like one), and into the elevator room. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XXIII_ Boss: Dark Samus/Item: Echo Visor -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another Dark Samus fight. You remember how to beat her from last time, right? Well, she's stronger and tougher and has more attacks, but the basic principle is the same. Dark Samus can now charge up her phazon beam and use it to sweep a laser across the room, which will cut through the various pillars (as well as you). She can go into Morph Ball mode and boost around the area, and she can also disappear, forcing you to use the Dark Visor to target her (and once you do a decent bit of damage, she'll scramble the visor and then be visible again). It's a long fight, but it's not difficult. When you win, she breaks a window and jumps out of the tower, and that's a pretty long fall. Of course, if YOU fall that distance, you just get hit for 10 health and get returned to the entrance of the room or whatever platform you fell from, so. . . Anyway, on the little platform outside facing in, there's a ledge to the right. Go along it and reach a Dark Portal. Go through, back along the ledge and into the tower again via Spider Ball. Use the Spinner to turn the Spider Ball tracks, then ride them and boost off them to reach a ledge, from which you can jump to a Light Portal. From that ledge, jump to the Echo Visor ledge and get it. To use the Echo Visor, just hit down on your control pad and look around. Everything will go dark, except for occasional flashes of light--this is the Visor's sonar system. If it hits something, an icon will appear on your screen indicating where it is. In this elevator room you're in right now, you have to test it out--there are three locks in the room, turn on the Echo Visor and you can target them and shoot them. When you've got all three, the elevator will re-activate and you can ride it down. Now, go back down to the Reactor Core. Take the yellow-shielded (Power Bomb) door into the Transit Station. If you want, go back and forth through portals and ride Spider Ball rails to get a Power Bomb Expansion. Afterwards, head West into the Main Research room. You can ride the Spider Ball tracks on the walls to reach an Energy Tank if you like (and I recommend you do so). Get rid of the bots in the room so you don't get gunned down while you're solving the puzzle, then switch to your Echo Visor and look around. Note: Killer Snail (mmmm_bacardi@hotmail.com) e-mailed me, noting that you get a Missile Expansion rather than an Energy Tank right there. Once you've used the Echo Visor to shoot the echo emitters (there are three), there should be a door that opens up, letting you get to a portal to the Dark World. It would be on the South side of the room; from where you entered, it's on the left. Once you've gone through, there should be more targets to shoot while using your Echo Visor. When you've got all four of those, a door should open on the North side of the room (directly opposite the portal you came through) that will only turn out to be a small alcove, which contains a panel that you can scan with your Scan Visor. Scan it, and part of the floor in the center of the room should change, which will let you drop down into the area beneath the floor. Down there is another portal, go through it back to Light Aether. When you exit the portal, there should be a Spider Ball track right in front of you that you can use to go up. So go up into the shaft and get ready to fight a mini-boss. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XXIV_ Boss: Caretaker Class Drone -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm not sure this really qualifies as a boss, but I'll count it as one for the sake of breaking this guide up into more sections for easier navigating. There's a Spider Ball railing surrounding the chamber. Bomb-jump onto it and stay on no matter what; if you fall off, the boss will electrocute the floor, which can be unpleasant. The boss will send arms down that will circle around the chamber, shocking the walls; avoid these. The best trick is to just use your Boost to jump to the other side of the chamber altogether. The boss will periodically extend a small glowing bit; use your Boost to smash into it. After a few of these, it'll extend a larger piece right in the center for you to crash into. Then it'll rise up. Bomb-jump up to the next Spider Ball tracks and repeat. The second section has the Spider Ball railing split into two sections (meaning you can fall off easier), the third has it split into three. Not very difficult, but easy to lose a lot of health in the start before you've gotten a feel for the style of the fight. When you win, go up through the Morph Ball tunnel and emerge onto a ledge with a door. Go through into the Central Area Transport West elevator. Ride up and emerge into a large open area with a big pit and a couple Rezbits (those robots that can infect your Suit with a computer virus). Take them out (Dark Energy works well if you're close enough) and jump onto the rotating platform, then onto the ledge on the other end. If you like, get to the Light Beam door to reach a room with an Energy Tank (again, recommended strongly). You can also use this time to get back to a Save Station; scan the panel to lower the Grapple Beams, then swing across to reach the Main Gyro Chamber. When done, get back to the Watch Station. To the left of the light-beam door is a platform from which you can bomb-jump onto a Spider Ball track. Ride it, bomb-jump onto the one above, use the Kinetic Orb Cannon, ride more Spider Ball tracks (including some moving ones where you have to time the bomb-jump) to reach a Bomb Slot, which opens the way to a Dark Portal. From the portal, get to the door on the right. Grapple across (you have to move left and right to reposition yourself so you can reach the next Grapple Point), hop on the platform to your left and then the ledge beneath the one you just hopped from, and take the Light Portal. Hop back up and go through the door. Go to the end of the bridge, hop down and around then scan the panel to lower the bridge so you can reach the Dark Portal. Grapple across to reach the Portal Generator and go through. From here, you have to go left and right to reach four Spinners. There are four Rezbits along the way, in better position to use your Dark Beam against than the last ones were. Once you're done, go back through the Portal Generator, grapple over to the other portal, then head back over to the middle section. Use the Bomb Slot to remove the shielding, then get the SCREW ATTACK! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XXV_ Item: Screw Attack -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is just the coolest item in the game. Double-jump while moving forward, then at the peak of the second, hit B again to go into Screw Attack mode. Hit B at the bottom of each 'bounce' to bounce back up and keep going. It's a bit tough to get the hang of, but it's a lot of fun and lets you cross chasms, pits, gaps, canyons, and all sorts of other things! You can only air-bounce five times, unfortunately. Of course, you have to try it out right away to even be able to leave the room. Screw Attack your way from the middle section to the door, then across the next room, the Grand Abyss, to reach the Watch Station again. There are now some Pirate Aerotroopers, which I normally would prefer to Rezbits, but with the Screw Attack it's a lot easier to kill Rezbits. Go to the Dark Portal and go through it. Get to the Elevator room, on the right side (coming from the portal)--it's the farther door. In this room, you'll have to Wall Jump. Use your Screw Attack to hit the wall, then hit B to bounce off it. The timing can be a little tricky, but you have a very short grace period after you hit the wall, so try hitting B just after Samus has touched the wall, not just before/right when she hits it. Keep doing this and you'll go up the chamber. Go through the door and get the Dark Temple Key. Now you have to go to the Dark Aether version of the Main Gyro Chamber, the Hive Gyro Chamber. Go to the Culling Chamber, go through the dark-beam door, ride the elevator up, and you'll reach the Hive Dynamo Works. You've been here before. Grapple across, go through the light-beam door, and use your Echo Visor to find the sonic locks and open the door. You'll reach the Main Gyro Chamber. In here is a big sphere that's basically a round Spider Ball track. There are Dark Tentacles coming out of it at points. Get onto it (there's a Spider Ball track on the floor if you fall) and roll around it, avoiding the tentacles, to reach the third Key. From the platforms, you can also get into a couple extra sections of the room. Go to the section above the one you came from and you can enter the main room of the Sky Temple and fight Quadrxis. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XXVI_ Boss: Quadraxis/Item: Annihilator Beam -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This boss is pretty easy, all things considered. He's really really big, which might be imposing at first, but he's not all that tough. Like many bosses, he's a big, modified version of a regular enemy--the Quad. (Quad CM/Quad MB.) At first, you'll notice that the areas between his feet are glowing. In this stage, you have to go into Morph Ball mode and either boost into one of the toes or plant a bomb so that it hits the glowing portion. While you're trying to do this, he'll generally be lifting up one of the feet and smashing it into the ground, sending a shockwave at you. When you've got all four feet, his knees will glow. You have to shoot them from the side or from behind. A single charged Light Beam shot will do the job. While this is going on, he likes to fire slow-ish missiles at you. Later on, he'll lock onto you (you'll see red beams converging on you) and blast you with a missile that will scramble your visor and stun you for a couple seconds. You'll have to repeat this a couple times. Eventually, his body will break. The head will detach (like the regular Quads). Now, you have to switch to the Echo Visor. Target the antenna coming out of the top of the damaged body, then when that's down (two Super Missiles work), target the three antennas coming from the floating head of Quadraxis. When all the antennas are down, his shielding goes down and. . .he's still not quite open to damage yet. In this next stage, lock onto him and blast him with a Super Missile, which will stun him. He'll then float around the room in a circle pattern for a bit without attacking or anything. While he's doing this, ride the Spider Ball tracks on the legs of the damaged body, then boost yourself on top of him when he's near you (the top of his head acts like a Spider Ball track). There are two Bomb Slots on his head. Get both and he's finally dead. Afterwards, grab the Annihilator Beam. Now you can open every door in the game, although there are still some areas you can't go due to Dark Aether water and the Ingstorm (small Ing that float around in an area and drain your health faster than anything else in the game). Coincidentally, behind one of the Annihilator Beam doors right near here (not right from this room I don't think) are two small patches of Ingstorm that you can subject yourself to (just run through them to get past, they're not that thick). You can also now hit the sonic locks scattered around that you couldn't activate before. To activate the second kind of sonic lock, turn on the Echo Visor, then target the center of the door and shoot it with the Annihilator Beam. A sequence of tones will play; there are three tones, one of which plays twice. Each lock plays a specific tone when you shoot it with the Annihilator Beam. So if there are three tones, let's say a high, middle, and low one, and the door when shot plays the sequence high-low-low-middle, you'd have to shoot the panels corresponding to the tones in that order. A little complicated, but eh. Anyway, since you've beaten Quadraxis, ride the Spider ball track up and Screw Attack your way to the door leading to the Energy Controller. Get the energy, then head back to Light Aether, to the Sanctuary Energy Controller, and restore the energy to the temple. Now head back to the Great Temple. Go back through the main entrance of the Sanctuary and get to the room just before Temple Transport A. Go through the Dark Portal and trigger all the sonic locks in the right order to open the door to a Beam Ammo Expansion. Then go back to the Great Temple for real this time. Go to U-Mos, watch the cutscene, and get the Light Suit! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XXVII_ Item: Light Suit -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This protects you from the Dark Aether air COMPLETELY, meaning you will take NO DAMAGE AT ALL from just standing around in Dark Aether. FINALLY. You can also go through Ingstorms and dive into Dark Aether water. After you've gotten the Light Suit, the center of the room will have a hologram similar to the elevator ones; this one will teleport you from Temple to Temple within Light Aether. So step inside and take a ride to one of the three Light Temples! Now you have to go hunt down nine keys scattered throughout Dark Aether. The keys are protected by an invisible enemy that just kinda floats there. You can see it with the Dark Visor, and when you shoot it, it becomes visible. Kill it and the key is released. You can also see the outline of the enemy from the Light World if you are in the corresponding room and use your Dark Visor. (i.e. if there was one in the Duelling Range in the Dark Agon Wastes--which there isn't--and you were in the Mining Plaza, you could switch to the Dark Visor and see the outline of it. If you don't want the exact locations of the keys but still want a little hint, go to the Hall of Eyes in the Temple Grounds, go through the portal, head South, then go through to the Sky Temple Gateway and scan all the pillars. They'll each have a clue as to the locations of the keys. If you just want to know the locations of the keys, here: In the AGON WASTES: - There is a key in the Dark Oasis, which is parallel to the Main Reactor. Power-bomb the wall (scannable) and go underwater to find it. - There's a key in the Battleground, which is parallel to the Central Mining Station. Go through the top door from the Command Center and use the Dark Visor to see the platforms you'll need to ride to reach. In the TORVUS BOG: - There's a key in the Dungeon, which is parallel to the Catacombs. Go into the Dark Water and activate the Light Beacons to get the Watchdrones to move out of the way of the Morph Ball tunnels. - There's also a key in the Poisoned Bog, which is parallel to the Torvus Lagoon. It's underwater on the Eastern side. In the SANCTUARY FORTRESS/ING HIVE: - There's a key in the Hive Entrance, which is parallel to the Sanctuary Entrance. Screw Attack across the gap and walk into the pillar of light to be transported to the ledge above you, screw attack to the upper ledge on the other side and use your Dark Visor to find the key-creature. Don't step into the reddish beam on that side, though, it'll drain your health, haha. - There's a key in the Hive Dynamo Works. Just get to the larger open area, then make it across the pit and on the ledge is the key-creature. In the TEMPLE GROUNDS: - There's a key in the Ing Requilary, which is parallel to Storage Cavern A. Use the portal in the Sacred Path, head to the Phazon Grounds (watch out for Dark Metroids!), then head right through the Ingstorm that blocked you earlier to the Requilary Grounds. On the top ledge of the South side is the door to the Ing Requilary. - There's a key in the Accursed Lake, which is parallel to the Industrial Site. Get there from the portal in the Temple Assembly Site. The Key enemy is just floating around and not hiding anywhere, I actually found it completely by accident while searching around before I even got the Dark Visor. - There's a key in the Defiled Shrine which is parallel to the Landing Site. (!) Watch out for the few Warrior Ing in the room, but there's nothing special you have to do to get the key. I recommend you get this key last since you'll wind up right near the Sky Temple Gateway. When you're done with all 9 keys, head to the Sky Temple Gateway. To go there, go from the Defiled Shrine to the room with all the laser-eyes, and go through the door that doesn't lead to the Defiled Shrine and doesn't involve going through a Morph Ball tunnel. Go to the center and the keys will emerge and return to their keeping places, unlocking the Sky Temple, the last area in the game. If you have not backtracked for items yet, DO IT NOW, because the upcoming area is even tougher than the Sanctuary Fortress. Remember that yellow pillars of light will take you to new locations now, remember that you can Screw Attack your way across big gaps, remember that anything you can blow up with a Power Bomb you can scan beforehand. Anyway, when you're done backtracking (or have decided to go for a low % game), head into the center of the room, the glowing light, to be transported to the Sky Temple. ================================================================================ _XXVIII_ Sky Temple ================================================================================ Right away you'll be in the Sky Temple Energy Controller, but the ceiling will be stained with Ing and tentacles will come down to take the Energy away. There are platforms on the East side for you to climb, to reach a Save Station. Go around the ledge on top to reach the door on the other side. Looks odd, huh? Seems to be an upside-down version of the Great Temple. Go through the door and initiate a Screw Attack to wall-jump up and reach the next door. Go through and meet the Ing Emperor. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XXIX_ Boss: Ing Emperor -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Probably the toughest boss in the game, which is expected. There are three stages to get through. In stage one, he'll have tentacles extended; blast these (a few missiles each), and when they're all hurt, the core will expose. There will be a shield around it, but it won't protect a small area in the front/back, so maneuver around to get a good shot in. This will repeat, with more and more tentacles being out there as his health drops. His favorite thing to do is to spin around with the tentacles in tow, slapping you with them. He also draws the tentacles up and sends an energy blast at you. Later on he can also teleport one of the tentacles to stab at you. . .I don't really know why he does this, it's not like you can get out of the reach of the tentacles in the first place. . .anyway. After you damage it some, the Ing Emperor will coil up into its shell. At this point you need to go into Morph Ball mode and Spider Ball your way onto the Emporer itself. The air is pretty damaging, so you'd want to do this even if you wanted a break. On him, there are several little glowing openings. Smack these with Power Bombs. There will be tentacles coming out of some of them, as well as Ing puddle-things (I assume Inglets) chasing you around; bomb them for pickups. Keep in mind that you have to stick around to 'see' the bomb destroy the opening, or it won't work. You can also hang around as long as you want and kill the little Inglets that chase you around for pickups, since even though the scan says the Emperor is regenerating, he never actually will go back to his first form. I'd say do this until you have at least seven full energy tanks, but the more the better. You won't really need missiles. When you've got all of those, the Ing Emperor will turn into a giant Warrior Ing-like creature. Now you have to shoot it in the mouth with your Power Beam (any weapon will do, but there's no reason to waste ammo) until it changes color. Then switch to either the Light Beam or the Dark Beam, depending on the color it changes to. If it's white, use the Dark Beam. If it's purplish, use the Light Beam. There's also an opening behind the Emperor in this form that you can shoot to damage him while he's in this form. It'll take awhile, but when you win, the Dark Temple energy will reappear, and Samus will absorb it to bring it back to Light Aether. When she does, the planet will become 'unstable' and begin quaking. You have 8 minutes to get to and fight the last boss. It only takes a minute to get outside, so you should have plenty of time to fight. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _XXX_ Final Boss: Dark Samus -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Supercharged with Phazon, and yet even easier than her last version. She has the ability to go invisible and yet not be detected on your Dark Visor, but now you have the Echo Visor. You also now have the Annihilator Beam, and hopefully enough ammo to last awhile. So pump her full of that when she's vunerable (you should remember her pattern decently enough from past fights). The only really new trick she has is used when she's at half-empty health. She will go into the center of the arena and turn into a big glowing ball of Phazon energy. At this point she has two attacks; launch a big blast of homing phazon at you, and launching a small flurry of phazon energy at you. Stand against the wall in one of the sections where there isn't any Phazon to damage you. Charge your Power Beam, keep your aim locked onto her, and stand still. If she fires a big burst of phazon, dodge it and it'll smash into the wall, then stand still again. When she fires the small flurry of phazon at you, let go of L, then hold R and point your beam so that you 'collect' the phazon. Then when your beam turns blue, lock on again and blast Dark Samus. Note that I tell you to stand still because the little bits of Phazon do NOT home in on you like the large blasts do, so collecting them if you've moved out of their target area is tough. After one of those, she'll turn back to regular 'ol Dark Samus, and after a very short time she'll go back to the levitating-ball-of-phazon mode. After you beat her, you've beaten the game. Watch Samus escape (and see her use the Scan Visor from a third-person perspective), watch the Luminoth bow in thanks, and watch her return to her ship. Depending on how many items you collected, the ending will be changed a little bit. I believe the first change is at 75% and the second at 100%, but I'm not sure. ================================================================================ The End/Credits ================================================================================ That's it. If you have any questions that aren't explained well enough in the guide, go ahead and e-mail me. . .or, for a faster solution, check one of the other guides. :P But seriously, if there's something wrong with the guide, let me know so I can fix it. *begin scrolling text* SPECIAL THANKS: Kraid Fish Man Randi, Purim, and Popoi And. . . You