an outbreak of... cholera   .       ,          .
                                               .  '  .  .  .
                                                           .. .
                                                             '   ..
                                                                ' ...
                                 .             --       _         ; ..
                                                 `    `;  . -.    .  ..
.----.__.----,.-------.-----------.----------...---------..-----.---------.
|            |     ___|__       __; . ':__ ;;.| .___. .: ;|  .. |.'; __.'  |
|            |    |___   |    ,| .|::. |__| ;:|/` .;:,.\/'|  ;..|   |  |   |
|    |\/|    |     ___|  | . . |..| . .'__;;''|\','_+-.'`\|  '  |-  |  |.. |
|    |  |    |    |___   |. '. |. |    |  |   |/;\-:.;__./|  .  |   |__|.  |
|v3.1|  |    |        |  |; .  |  |    |  |.:'|`._;.;   ' |' '  |          |
`----'  `----'--------'  `-----'  `----'  `---;`---------'`-----`----------'
                         ..;.            `,-;_;. ` . _
                           .. .                `` ' .  ;,  .
                             `                                      '
                              .   .
                               `   .     .
                                       `    .
                                                      ,        *

                              The METROID Story

      In the year 2000 of the history of the cosmos, representatives from
   the many different planets in the galaxy established a congress called
   the Galactic Federation, and an age of prosperity began.  A successful
   exchange of cultures and civilization resulted, and thousands of inter
   stellar spaceships ferried back and forth between planets.  But space-
   pirates also appeared to attack the spaceships.

      The Federation Bureau created the  Galactic Federation Police , but
   the pirates' attacks  were powerful and it was not  easy to catch them
   in the  vastness of space.   The Federation Bureau and  the Federation
   Police called together warriors known for their great courage and sent
   them to do battle with the pirates.   These great warriors were called
   " space hunters. "   They received  large rewards  when they  captured
   pirates, and made their living as space bounty hunters.

      It is now year 20X5  of the  history of  the cosmos,  and something
   terrible  has  happened.  Space pirates  have  attacked  a  deep-space
   research spaceship  and seized  a capsule containing  an unknown life-
   form that had just been discovered on Planet SR388.  This life-form is
   in a state of  suspended animation,  but  can be reactivated  and will
   multiply when exposed to beta rays for 24 hours.  It is suspected that
   the entire civilization of Planet SR388  was destroyed by some unknown
   person or thing,  and there is a strong possibility that the life-form
   just  discovered  was  the  cause  of  the  planet's  destruction.  To
   carelessly  let  it  multiply  would  be  extremely  dangerous .   The
   Federation  researchers had  named it "METROID" and  were bringing  it
   back to Earth -- when it was stolen by the space pirates !

      If METROID is  multiplied by the  space pirates and then  used as a
   weapon, the entire  galactic civilization will be  destroyed.  After a
   desperate  search,  the  Federation  Police  have  at  last  found the
   pirates'  headquarters,  the fortress  planet  Zebes, and  launched  a
   general attack.  But the pirates' resistance is strong, and the Police
   have been unable to take the planet.  Meanwhile, in a room hidden deep
   within the  center of the fortress,  the preparations  for multiplying
   the METROID are progressing steadily.

      As a  last resort,  the  Federation Police  have  decided  on  this
   strategy:  to  send a  space hunter  to  penetrate  the center  of the
   fortress and destroy  the Mother Brain.   The space  hunter chosen for
   this mission  is Samus Aran.  Samus is  the greatest of all  the space
   hunters and has successfully completed numerous missions that everyone
   thought were  absolutely impossible.  Samus is a  cyborg, who's entire
   body  has been  surgically  strengthened  with robotics,  giving Samus
   superpowers.  Even the  space pirates fear this  space suit, which can
   absorb  any enemy's  power .  But  Samus's  true form  is  shrouded in
   mystery.

      The planet Zebes is a natural fortress.  Its sides are covered with
   a special  kind of stone,  and its interior is a complicated maze.  On
   top of that, the pirates  have planted devices and  booby traps in the
   maze, and the pirates' eery followers lie in wait around every corner.
   Samus has now succeeded in penetrazing Zebes. But time is running out.
   Will Samus be able to destroy the METROID and save the galaxy ?

____________________________________________________________________________
"The METROID Story" copied from "_METROID Instruction Booklet_" (c) 1987, 89
___________________________ Nintendo of America Inc. _______________________

All characters, objects,  and their names are the (tm) trademark (c) copy-
righted property of Nintendo of American Inc. , and all images, names, and
objects are used without permission.

                 Unpublished work titled  "METROID Game Guide" v-3
                  Copyright 8-11-2001 (c) Gabriel Petrie "Eyenot"

  This guide is for private and personal use only. It can only be reproduced
electronically, and if placed on a web page or site, may be altered as long
as this disclaimer and the above copyright notice appear in full. This guide
is not to be used for profitable / promotional purposes; this includes being
used by publishers of magazines, guides, books, etc. or being incorporated
into magazines, etc. in ANY way.

   This guide was created and is owned by me, Gabriel Petrie
_eyenot@cyberspace.org_ _eyenot@lunarsurf.com_ All copyrights and trademarks
are acknowledged that are not specifically mentioned in this guide.  Please
give credit where it is due.

      The above disclaimer was copied from Kao Megura FAQ Disclaimer style

      Eyenot's Email:
      gabriel@arq.net
      eyenot@lunarsurf.com
      eyenot@cyberspace.org

   Please keep this guide available only at GameFAQs.com. They keep the same
site name and the same URLs over time, and nobody else seems willing to do
that. Nobody else but GameFAQs.com has permission to distribute this
document electronically. In the past I've been willing to give permission,
but please don't ask unless you are a special interest. For example someone
was circulating a petition on the net to keep the next Metroid game a 2d
shooter instead of a proposed first-person model. At their site they wanted
a lot of Metroid information, including my FAQ, so I agreed. If it's not
something cool like that, then please don't ask. If you need a cool FAQ for
your new FAQS page or if you're a commercialist capitalist imperialist dog
who needs more searchable material to drag people into their advertisement
suck zone, then also please do not freaking ask for my permission. Let me
just reiterate; I only want GameFAQs to host copies of my FAQs.

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________   TABLE OF CONTENTS:   _________________________

                         _Section_  ______Title______

                          top  .... Title Screen ........
                               .... Story of the Game ...
                         above .... Legal Information ...
                          toc  .... X-- You Are Here ....
                         01:01 .... About the Game ......
                         01:02 .... About the World .....
                         02:00 .... The Cartridge .......
                         02:01 .... The Control Pad .....
                         03:00 .... Vital Displays ......
                         03:01 .... The Ten Items .......
                         03:02 .... Enemy Characters ....
                         04:00 .... Zebes Outline .......
                          warn .... Information Warning .
                         04:01 .... Master Map ..........
                         04:02 .... Brinster Map ........
                         04:03 .... Norfair Map .........
                         04:04 .... Hideout I Map .......
                         04:05 .... Hideout II Map ......
                         04:06 .... Tourian Map .........
                         04:20 .... What Hidden Map? ....
                         05:00 .... Tiny Walkthrough ....
                         gloss .... Glossary?
                          thx  .... Special Thanks ......
                          URLs .... Other Site URLs .....

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 01:01   ABOUT THE GAME _________________________

   METROID is a very advanced game compared to many other cartridge games
that were out for the Nintendo Entertainment System at the time. In METROID,
there is full, smooth scrolling in four directions -- right, left, up, and
down. There is also retractable scrolling, meaning that you can move back
along a section of the game that you have already passed. By comparison,
Super Mario Brothers features full, smooth scrolling in one direction only,
to the right of the screen, and the scrolling is not retractable. However,
also by comparison, the Metroid world scrolls only in one dimension at a
time, either vertically or horizontally. There is no diagonal scrolling or
scrolling in both dimensions available in one corridor as there is in Super
Mario Brothers 3.
   The play action is from a flat side-view perspective. The character
maintains the center third-squared portion of the screen, and scrolling
commences when the character passes this boundary in any direction, unless
there is no region to scroll to.
   The action type is platform-jumper, and the gravity is approximately one
screen per second. By comparison, Donkey Kong gravity is approximately one
screen every six seconds. The gravity does not change throughout the entire
flat-projected region.
   Each region is divided into one of two bound types. The first type is a
scrolling region left-and-right, and the other is a scrolling region
up-and-down. ~Passing through almost every door forces scrolling from the
one bound type to the other, with the exception being doors into the Chozo
Vaults and Ridley's room forcing and holding a horizontal scroll.
   Each region contains the primary obstacles, which are variously shaped
and placed platforms, and the secondary obstacles which are far less
numerous and are mobile opponents. Triary obstacles include doorways which
require blasting to open and are sometimes keyed to particular blasting
items, and pools of water, lava, and acid which deplete the character's
life energy.
   The character, Samus Aran, defeats opponents by firing a missile weapon
in a straight line along one of the four cardinal directions; right, left,
up, or down. The range of the weapon can be increased from about six spaces
away, to the edge of the screen, by collecting an item. Other items add
special effects to the weapon including a wave-form pattern about three
spaces wide, and the ability to freeze opponents with a shot.
   The regional map is composed of spaces or "bricks", with each terrain
building block and each sprite in the game occupying a space within a square
or rectangular area of these spaces. The character occupies an area one
space wide by two spaces tall. Most opponent types occupy an area of only
one space, while some of the stronger opponents occupy areas of three spaces
or more.
   Passage from one major section of the entire regional map to another
requires acquiring abilities implemented through collecting items that
increase the character's jumping height, energy level, and ability to
sustain more prolonged contact with opponents, as well as the power to
destroy Boss opponents that guard the keys to the final regional zone.
   The game is timed, with the timer offsetting some functions of the areas
near to the end of the game, and changing the ending of the game altogether
as well as some of the character's attributes in consecutive missions.
   Game progress is saved using a password retrieval system. Passwords can
be retrieved at the end of a character's life, and can be entered just after
the title screen of the game for re-entry to the regional zone last occupied
by the character, implementing the same items so far accumulated by the
character, and setting the timer to the time when death occured. There is
also a button sequence that can be used to get the current password at any
time.

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 01:02  ABOUT THE WORLD _________________________

   The surface world of Zebes is largely unknown at the time of Samus's
first contact with the planet, though two major subsurface regions, Brinstar
and Norfair, are travelled extensively in order to pass to the three
secondary regions which are the two Bosses' hideouts and the final domain:
Tourian.
   The subterranian world of Brinstar is a labyrinth of inpenetrable, raw
rock surfaces that have given way to some alien refining, and many smooth
platforms can be found among the caverns. Some things that look like
lichens, shrubs, and other weak plantlike life forms have made their slow
way here. Some passages are lined entirely in shiny metals and widgets, and
others are adorned only with an occasional chiseled stone cap atop smoothed
rock pillars.
   The next world, deeper still below the planet's surface, is the seething
vulcan world of Norfair, a sizzling place where life is much less fair than
within Brinstar's cooled confines. Hot lava pools and lava beasts that dwell
just underneath their surfaces are primary concerns while traveling Norfair.
Aside the raw, virgin vulcan flesh of Norfair there lay great masses of
biomineral walls and shafts that grow among and penetrate the hot crevasses
of the planet's inner folds.
   And then there are the Bosses' domains, which are mainly composed of
metallic alloys held in place by masonry cut from the surrouding bedrock.
Here there grow greener, more lush organisms, and the natural opponents,
much stronger than their fellows out in the uncontrolled climates, are
stronger, and among their numbers are legions of robotic drones that may do
you great damage.
   Scattered throughout the world are energy-field-bubble doorways of
varying durability, that divide the various regions and hide behind them
secretly placed items that help you to defeat the creatures who guard them.
   Not all the world of Zebes that appears to be unreachable, is. There are
countless secret paths that you can take to get past walls several screens
thick and high, that can lead you to shortcuts and items that will hopefully
make defeating the game a breeze.
   Somewhere at the beginning of it all is the monster in charge of it all:
Mother Brain. And the METROIDS, too.

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 01:03 ABOUT THIS GUIDE _________________________

   I wrote this guide as a tool for people who don't have either the booklet
titled "_The Official Nintendo Player's Guide_" (which I have a copy of,
first edition,) or the booklet titled "_Metroid Instruction_" (which I also
have a copy of, second 'adventure series' edition.) Without these two books
the game can take awhile to dawn on the player. I hope to reproduce as much
information from these two books as possible, without requiring any graphic
or other files besides this one text file.
   There are already at least one or two "Walkthroughs" for this game, which
go into detail about a couple of different paths you can take through the
game to complete it in as little time as possible. So, I don't intend to
provide a complete walkthrough here. The biggest feature of this guide are
the ASCII maps which I have so far seen nothing like from other players, and
the illustrations of the Ten Items and the various enemy monsters. The
illustrations are just for fun, something I like to do. They can be a little
help though.
   There is also a Game Genie guide out there and a Boss Guide, too, so that
takes care of providing Game Genie codes and detailing other ways or other
orders in fighting the Bosses.

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 02:00    THE CARTRIDGE _________________________

   The Nintendo Entertainment System ROM cartridge is in some ways fragile
and in other ways is sturdy. If you take care of it properly, you will get a
long lifetime of plays out of it. Keep the cartridge clean using a good
cleaning solution and implements that do not violate the warning on the
cartridge concerning which solutions are safe to use.
   The METROID ROM cartridge does not contain a battery backup, so after you
turn off the power or reset the control deck, all current variables will be
lost. There is a password system built into the game to reproduce progress
so that you can get through the game in more than one sitting.
   Two major versions of the METROID ROM were released, the first one being
part of Nintendo's Adventure Series. This first cartridge was the uniform
grey color plastic, with a label and box featuring a blown-up and drawn-on
piece of screen shot from the game itself. I am unsure as to what the
instruction booklet looked like, though I suspect it was uniform with other
Nintendo-made games at the time, featuring a black color booklet with the
same screen shot from the game and icons noting the major features of the
game. The METROID title written on the box, the cartridge, and probably the
booklet looked like the same font that Super Mario Brothers and Tennis used.
   The second major release of METROID was in a bright yellow box and label,
with a drawing of Samus Aran centered. The cartridge was still the uniform
grey color plastic, and the screen shot had been removed. This cartridge
may or may not have been advertised as an "adventure series" game. The
instruction booklet was also bright yellow, and the contents were unchanged
from the original instruction booklet. The METROID title written on the box,
the cartridge, and the book was a stylized stencil-like font in italics and
all capitals, the M being slightly larger than the other characters.
   I am almost positive that there are no play differences between the two
versions of the game.

    UPDATE: E-MAIL FROM PC PROGRAMMER CLEARS UP DIFFERENCES
    DATE: Sat, 11 Aug 2001 17:46:40 UCT
    Curtis "Quasius" Himel is a PC programmer working on a project
    called "MetroidC", and he being well acquainted with the workings
    of the game cleared up my musings on differences between the two
    versions, and corrected me on several things I had wrong about the
    scrolling doors and the maps. Before paragraphs that depend on his
    knowledge, there will be a tilde-mark.

   ~Between the original release and the yellow-jacket release there is one
major difference in the code. The placement of one of the Ice-Beams is
changed and the code is different by 1 byte. That is all, and there is no
difference in difficulties, AI, or any game play.

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 02:01  THE CONTROL PAD _________________________

           This is the Nintendo Entertainment System Control Pad.

The control pad is composed of a cross-     .-----------------------------.
shaped piece that controls Directional      |   _   ::===========::       |
functions such as movement and aim;         | _| |_ ::-----------::       |
the two buttons Select and Start that       |[_ o _]::___________::       |
mainly affect game options;                 |  |_|  ::[SEL] [STA]::(B)(A) |
and the A and B buttons that control        |       ::___________::       |
most interactions such as fire and run.     `-----------------------------'
   _
 _| |_   Holding left or right on the directional pad makes samus run.
[_ o _]  Holding up aims the beam weapon up,
  |_|    pressing down rolls Samus into a ball once you have Maru Mari.
         You cannot aim in a downward direction or in a diagonal direction.
[Select] Pressing this button switches the weapon between beam and missile.
[Start]  Pressing this button pauses the game action and silences the music.
  (B)    Pressing this button shoots the weapon (or sets a bomb curled up.)
  (A)    Pressing this button makes Samus jump, upwards.
         If you hold towards one direction then press the jump button, you
         will perform a spinjump. If you have Screw Attack enabled, you can
         destroy most enemies with a single hit of your spinjump.

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 03:00   VITAL DISPLAYS _________________________

   The vital displays appear in the upper-left corner of the screen at all
times. These symbols and numbers actually represent Samus's life energy
level and number of missiles available to fire.
   When you first begin the game,
you will see only a display for the
amount of energy you have. This            [][][][]  the display looks
number will decrease if you get hit         EN..93   sort of like this
by a damaging obstacle, an                  +% 010   but better.
opponent's body or fire, or if you
fall into one of the hazards such
as lava. When this number hits below zero, you die. More on that later.
                                          At first, the energy number (next
                                       to the letters EN) can only go up to
 .-+=----+-.   an energy box           99, but later on you will collect
(^ |^ E  |^^)  looks sort of           Energy Boxes that allow you to carry
 `,|,---,|,'   like this but           up to 100 points more per each box.
==`='===`='==  much smaller.           If you've every played ZELDA then you
                                       could say that these boxes are heart
                                       containers, sort of. A box that has
full energy points is filled with blue, and a box that you have drained the
energy from to fill your primary level with is a hollow, lonely white
square. You can collect small red balls that fill your energy level back up
and even fill up emptied boxes, more on that later.
   As you progress through the game, you will also encounter Missile weapons
that allow Samus to fire Missile Rockets as well as the usual beam weapon.
Missile Rockets carry a much more
damaging punch that the beam
weapons do, and they will also                .:|:.    a missile box
blast open special doorways that               .+.     looks sort of
the beam weapon cannot. At first,           | .:|:. |  like this but
you will not be able to carry these         |"*:|:*"|  much smaller.
missiles around, but when you
collect a missile box you will be
able to increase the number of missiles you can carry from 0 to as high as
255 missiles. Pressing the Select button switches your weapon between the
Beam or the Missiles.

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 03:01    THE TEN ITEMS _________________________

                       The five sounds deafen the ear ,
                       The five colors blind the eye .
                                              - Lao Tsu

   The Ten Items, however, will not strike you deaf or blind. They will
actually aid you in your mission.
   Samus will have a much better chance of annihilating the METROID and
Mother Brain, not to mention getting through Zebes, if the Ten Items are
collected along the way.

         " Rooms containing Power Items are hidden somewhere in the
           fortress Zebes. Find the rooms and hit the crystall ball
           held by the statue, to make a Power Item appear. "
                                      - METROID Instruction Booklet

   The 10 Items are numbered in the order that I find is fastest and easiest
   to retrieve them in. Maru Mari is first -- it's right next to where you
   start. Energy and Missile Boxes are scattered everywhere, and so are not
   numbered. They are represented on the maps as "M" or "E".

   .|.    The Missile Box will add 5    .----.  The Energy Box will add one
 |_:|:_|  more Missile Rockets to the  ( ) E |) Energy Box to Samus's power
  ``"''   number Samus can carry.      _|====|_ meter, adding 100 energy.
     _                                   ___
  /.=  `\  1 Maru Mari allows Samus    //'_ `\  3 The Bombs blast open any
 (:"    ,) to roll up into a ball     |` (@) .| obstacle that is not totally
  \` _,//  for narrow passages.       [___=__|] solid. Drop when rolled up.
     _                                 .-._ .-.
  /'.. `\  2 The Long Beam lengthens   /; \  /  6 Varia raises Samus's power
 ( ||__  ) the range of the beams to  ("'  )( ) of resistance, cutting in
  \_`^^_/  the edge of the screen.     \.ÿ/_ \  half all damage taken.
     _                                 `-'_ÿ`-'
  /',  `\  4 The blue Ice Beam lets    /:*:::\  8 The yellow Wave Beam is
 ( '     ) Samus freeze the enemies.  (:*:::::) the strongest beam, and
  \. _ ./  Also cancels Wave Beam.     \.:::;/  cancels the Ice Beam.
   ,---,                                ÿ_ ,
   | /^^7  5 The High Jump Boots give  /::/(.\  7 The lightning-flashing
  _;-|_7'  Samus the power to jump    (:(( )).) Screw Attack damages the
 [___;_|   150% as high as before.     \:)/../  enemy during a spinjump.
                                         '
____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 03:02 ENEMY CHARACTERS _________________________

These are just a few of the enemy characters, not all of them by any means.
The characters below comprise probably HALF of the total number of enemies
in the game. However, most enemies are exactly like other enemies, so once
you get these ones down you've pretty much got it.

 -__,,__-  Mellow: These creatures can pass through walls. They like to
`-=;\/;=-' chase after Samus in groups.
    `'
  \_|_/    Zoomer: These are crawling creatures that stick to most of the
 `(`.')'   platforms in Zebes, clinging to the floors, walls, and ceilings.
  ^`^'^    They come in yellow and red variety, red being tougher.

 , (x) ,   Skree: Skree will hang upside down from the ceiling, waiting for
 |^\V/^|   you to get about five spaces away. Then they will drop down and
 |`,",'|   try to drill into Samus. If they hit the ground, they will stick
  \| |/    into it and explode dangerously. Blue ones are tougher.

|^\ .. /^| Rio: Rio will also stick to the ceiling, waiting for Samus to get
`-`(`')'-' close. Then it will fly down towards Samus, hovering along the
 (")`'(")  ground until Samus jumps, then it will hit the ceiling again.

  _.---._  Ripper: The Ripper will fly back and forth, turning when it hits
+'7,\_|_;' a wall. Only bombs or missiles will destroy them.

_.-'-'"._  Waver: This difficult to draw creature flies back and forth in a
-._ _  .-' room in a wavelike pattern, turning when it hits a wall. It will
   ' '"    fly higher or lower, trying to collide with Samus.

 |\../(,   Zeb: I know you can't tell by the illustration, but these are the
  ) );--'  hard-shelled bugs that fly at Samus with their horns forward.
 (/'|-"|   They come in red or yellow form, red being the tougher one.

 __.._.-.  Gamet: This is another flying bug with super-hard shells. These
  (_ |_.'  ones have just one horn, and they try to stick Samus with it.
  __;,/{   Between the red and the purple ones, the red ones are tougher.
  `-'`-'`  These, like Zeb, fly out of airholes and vents.

 _, ___.   Zebbo: Zebbo actually looks like a three-winged wasp, not like a
:')(._Z-.  gryphon. The blue ones take only one blast to kill, but those
.\'._\,-'  yellow ones take two. These also fly up out of air vents.

`)-._%-=(  Geega: Geega looks more like a deranged pygmy unicorn-dog than
[`^;7.`\(' this picture here. It is tough, the brown ones are the stronger
 `"'`;-=;' member of the species, and it flies up out of airholes and vents.

    (o)    Zeela: Zeela works alot like the Zoomers, crawling around only
 \(o)|_/   against a surface. They are a little tougher than Zoomers,
 /_,-,_\   though. Just blast away if you need something from them.

 _\-|;/_   Nova: This thing looks like somebody's hair caught on fire and is
 < _._ >   running around the surface of the planet. It also works like the
  `` ''    Zoomers, and is about the same strength.

  _,--,_   Squeept: This creature does nothing but pop in and out of lava
 =(.--.)=  constantly. Only a missile will destroy the purple kind, the
   <`'>    others are invincible. You can freeze these for platforms.

 .-, ,-.   Geruta: This monster attacks from the ceiling and is quick and
.-><_><-.  powerful. You should use a tactic like fighting Rio, but remember
(/(>-<)\)  Geruta is faster and more powerful than Rio.

  .<->.    Holtz: Holtz also attacks from the ceiling, and has greater
\->'^`<-/  defensive power than Rio or Geruta. Try using a missile instead
 `-`-'-'   of attacking it with your regular beam.

    _      Side-Hopper: This biomechanical being is one of the tougher
  .(_).    monsters on Zebes. You can either shoot it many times or else
.-`>_<'-.  just once with a missile. It will bounce from the floor, from
|, ` ' ,|  the ceiling, and from the walls.

   _._     Multiviola: These are balls of purple or yellow fire that spin
  (( _)    fast, bouncing off all surfaces. They are also tough, so use a
   `~      missile if you can. You will usually see many at once.

    _      Rinka: This is a ring of fire that mother brain breaths through
   (O)     the walls of Tourian. Only three will appear at any time.

  _.-._    Zeebetite: These are living walls containing bio-energy for the
  |;o.|    mother brain, and you will find them in the last chamber of
  |;o.|    Tourian. You must shoot them with over ten missiles before they
  ~-.-~    have a chance to regenerate. Once destroyed, they are gone.

                    LIFE FORM DISCOVERED ON PLANET SR388
                                  .- -- -.
                                .'_ ^()/-^`.
                               (._ ^()()-^_.)
                               :')`=,__,='(`;
                               `' `' ~~ `' `'
                  You have direct orders from the galactic
                  federation to destroy these creatures on
                  sight. Leaving even a single Mertido not
                  destroyed could mean the obliteration of
                  the entire galaxy and all life forms.
                  The best way to take them out is to fire
                  with an ice beam as soon as you see one,
                  freeze it, and fire five missiles on it.
                  If one gets on your, it will suck energy
                  right out of your shell. If you activate
                  the Maru Mari and lay bombs, it will let
                  go of you and you will have your chance.
                  Do not attempt to fire on this creature,
                  unless it is frozen or else it will only
                  absorb your attack and use its energies.
                  It looks like a jelly mold and aagghh it
                  sucky on your head ouch!

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 04:00    ZEBES OUTLINE _________________________

     _____________________________     _        __________________________
    |_  ()B()__________________() |   | |______                           |
   ___| |_____________________  | |   | ()_____                           |
  |     Here There Be METROID | | |   | |        Brinstar (Rocky Zone)    |
  |  ____                     | | |___| |______                           |
  | (__  )      Tourian       | | ()_() ()_____              _.-'-'"._    |
  |   (_(    (Central Base)   | | |   | |                    -._ _  .-'   |
  |     ()                    | | |   | |______                 ' '"      |
  |___________________________| | |   |_()_____                           |
      __________________________| |             _____________  ___________|
     |_M__S______() ()_________()_|            _____________|  |__________
                  | |__                       |                           |
                  |_() |                      |   Norfair (Fire Zone)     |
                 ____| |___________________   |______________  ___________|
                |      Mini-Boss Hideout I |   _____________|  |__________
                |                          |  |   Mini-Boss Hideout II    |
                |______Kraid_______________|  |                           |
                                              |______Ridley_______________|
S = Start , M = Maru Mari , B = Bridge

     " This shows you what the inside of the fortress planet looks like. The
   Mini-Bosses have their hideouts in Brinstar and Norfair. Find and zap two
   Mini-Bosses to build the bridge from the corridor that leads into Tourian
   and get to the Central base containing Mother Brain. Three kinds of gates
   will block your way. The blue ones open with one blast from your beam; it
   takes 5 missile blasts to open the red ones and 10 missile blasts to open
   the other ones. "
                                               - METROID Instruction Booklet

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ WARNING !!  WARNING !! _________________________

   The best thing about a game like METROID is that until you've mastered
the map yourself, you might find yourself adventuring over and over, taking
hours just to get through one simple spot. It might happen !
   That's what made METROID such a Mystical game for me, anyways. The fact
that it seemed impassable. Not an impossible game, not by far, since I not
only knew that many people had beaten it but also that a close friend or two
had mastered the game into a 50-minute spree. METROID seemed impassable, to
me, since I relied on no maps to gauge my location or destination, and since
so many secret passages are so well hidden. My progress through the game
occured mostly at random.

   If you read any further into this guide, you will encounter information
vital to the game's completion. You could discover these secrets, tricks,
and strategies on your own, but it will take alot of time. Something strange
about the last couple of years is that people seem unwilling to devote large
amounts of time to simple hobbies. Notice how easy Super Metroid is compared
to METROID ? I beat that game about as easy as snapping my fingers. METROID,
however, remains a challenge.
   See, you'll also encounter my opinions.
   So read forward at your own risk ! Don't say I didn't warn you.

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 04:01       MASTER MAP _________________________

         _________________   _ _______________
    |^| |v:b:___________: | | |_|6*_________:_|___________________
    | | |V|             | | | :_______|_|___:_:______M|_|_|E____: |
    | | | |    _________| | | |                        _________| |
    | | | |   |_|2*_____: | | |                       |3*_______: |
    | | | |             | |_| |_________________________________| |
    | | | |_____________| :_: :_________:_:_____:_:____E________:_|
    | | |_@___________* | | | |         | |_____| |_____________|_|
    | |               | | | | |         |_|4*___:_| :_|_|M_M__:_|
    | |               | | | | |_________|_|_____|_| |_|M_M_M__: |
    | |_______________| | | |_:__________M______:v|_:_|4*_|_|_: |
    |_:&____:_________*_| | |_|_________________|V|___________| |
                        | |   | :___|_|__M______:_:___________: |
     ___________________| |   |_:______M|_|M_M__|_|___________:_|
    |_|1_S____:_:___|E|_:_|  ___|7*___:_|_____________________| |
              | |  _______  | :_______:_:___:_:_____|_|5*_____: |
              | | | :___: | |_:_______:_:_________|_|_____:_| | |
              | |_| :___: | | |_____________________|E____:_| | |
              | :v|_:___: | |_:_____:_:_____:_:___|______M__|_| |
     _________|_|V|_____| | |_|     | |8*___:_|   | :_________:_|
    | :____M|_|_: *__M__:_| |_|     |_:__M_M|_|___|_:v|
    | :_________: *_|_|E|    _________|__M______:_|_|V|_________
    | |    _____| |_________| :___:E*___________:_:_:_:_______: |
    | |   | :___: *_______: | |___| |_________________________| |
    | |   | |___| |___|M__: | :___:_:_______: :____M|_________: |
    | |___|_:___:_:_: |___| | |  ___________| |_______________| |
    |_:_:_*__M______:_:_: | | |_|E*B:_______:_:_______________: |
        |_:_________:_:_:_| |_:__________M____________________:_|
                  |B*_:___:_|_|                               |_|
                   E

Legend:  M = Missile Box     E = Energy Box       vV = Elevator
         # = Item (See 03:01, Above)              _| = Walls / Passages
         : = Blue Door       * = Red Door          @ = Yellow Door
         B = Boss (Either)   b = Monument Bridge   & = Mother Brain
         ^ = The Way Out ?!?!

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 04:02     BRINSTAR MAP _________________________

             .-A                                  B        C
         _________________   _ _______________  ./       ./
        |v:b:___________: | | |_|6*_________:_|___________________
         V              | | | :_______|_|___:_:______M|_|_|E____: |  D
          \_Tourian_    | | | |                        _________| |./
               _________| | | |  b = Monument Bridge  |3________: |
              |_|2*_____: | | |                                 | |
                        | |_| |_________________________________| |
     M = Missile Box 2  | :_: :_________:_:_____:_:____E________:_|
     E = Energy Box  3  | | | |         | |_____| | .           |_|
     1 = Maru Mari      | | | |     F-. |_|4*___:_|  \
     2 = Long Beam      | | | |_________|_|_____|_|   E
     3 = Bomb           | | |_:__________M______:v|
     4 = Ice Beam       | | |_|                  V
     6 = Varia          | |                       \_Norfair_
     ___________________| |
    |_|1_S____:_:___|E|_:_|      |_| = Room with "Solid" Walls
              | |       |_|      :_: = Room with Blue Doors
              | |                *_* = Room with Red Doors
              | |_               @_@ = Room with Yellow Doors
              | :v|               v  = Elevator
              |_|V
                  \_Kraid's_Lair_

A : the road to tourian is out and you cannot build it without first
    destroying the two mini-bosses who are Kraid and Ridley. when you
    destroy the mini-boss, shooting his statue will raise it up.
B : the long horizon corridor with Zeb and Waver requires the bombs to get
    through. in the small green-brick corridor with the wavers and lava,
    shooting up lets you through to the room above. you will need to either
    lure a waver through the small refreshing hole, or else you will need
    the high jump boots, to get the varia beyond the door.
C : in the long corridor after the missile, you will need to shoot into the
    ceiling to find your way through the walls. use the bombs to propel
    Samus up and get through the third brick up in the small room with Rio.
D : looking up it seems like you will need to use the Ice Beam on those
    Rippers to get to the top. if you go through from the Gold Column from
    the left, you won't have to.
E : bomb through the floor of the righter chamber containing the wavers and
    lava here, and you will find the column that leads to the Ice Beam.
F : if you manage to get yourself into this bad room, you will need to use
    your jumping skills and your timing applied to the destructible blocks
    on the sides of the room. this is a trap, avoid it completely.

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 04:03      NORFAIR MAP _________________________

                                                   _
      |_| = Room with "Solid" Walls               |_|___________
      :_: = Room with Blue Doors      _Brinstar_  | :_|_|M_M__:_|
      *_* = Room with Red Doors                 \ | |_|M_M_M__: |
      @_@ = Room with Yellow Doors               V|_:_|4*_|_|_: |
       v  = Elevator           _________________|v|___________| |
                              | :___|_|__M______:_:___________: |   A
                              |_:______M|_|M_M__|_|___________:_| ./
      M = Missile Box 12     ___|7*___:_|_____________________| |
      E = Energy Box  1     | :_______:_:___:_:_____|_|5*_____: |
      4 = Ice Beam        . |_:_______:_:_________|_|_____:_| | |
      5 = High Jump      /  | |_____________________|E____:_| | |
      7 = Screw Attack  B   |_:_____:_:_____:_:___|______M__|_| |
      8 = Wave Beam         |_|    .| |8*___:_|   | :_________:_|
                            |_|   / |_:__M_M|_|.  |_:v|
                                 C              \    V
                                                 D    \_Hide_Out_II_

A : bomb through the purple floor of this column to reach the purple column.
    go through the first door down on the left for the high jump, and then
    bomb through the pipe beneath the statue to get to the underworld of
    norfair.
B : fall into the lava at the bottom of the green bubble column and bomb the
    floor underneath it to reach the column below it.
C : after you pass through the eyeball chamber with the big smashed bricks,
    enter the green bubble corridor and bomb the floor near the right door.
D : after the second eyeball chamber, the one with the narrow lava traps,
    enter the green bubble corridor with the firebreathing seahorse and bomb
    the leftmost part of the floor. drop down through the passage, down into
    and through the lava, and into the small green bubble column. go through
    the door on the left and along the metal corridor to the statue that
    holds the wave beam.

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 04:04    HIDEOUT I MAP _________________________

                   _______
      _Brinstar_  | :___: |    M = Missile Box 4
                \ | :___: |    E = Energy Box  2 !
        A -.     V|_:___: |    B = Kraid
     ___________|v|_____| |
    | :____M|_|_: *__M__:_|
    | :_________: *_|_|E|  .-D
  . | |    _____| |_________
 /  | |   | :___: *_______: |
B   | |   | |___| |___|M__: |
    | |___|_:___:_:_: |___| |
    |_:_:_*__M______:_:_: | |
        |_:_________:_:_:_| |
          .      .|B*_:___:_|.
         /      /  E          \
        C      F               E

A : bomb through the purple brick wall at the second brick up
B : in this grey brick passage with shrubs, when you see the yellow lava at
    the bottom of the screen, fall through it. keep to the right.
C : this chamber is guarded by the narrow trap in the short column right of
    the missiles that are by the red door. there is nothing in here useful,
    you can avoid this corridor completely ?
D : the third red door down the first white-stone coulmn is inacessible with
    normal jumping. you will need either the high-jump boots or the ice beam
    to get on the ledge near it. fall from the white bricks in the center of
    the column and hold right. you will land on a ledge beneath the red door
    and from here, either use a high jump to get to the ledge above, or else
    freeze the floating red ripper with ice beam and use it as a platform.
E : in the column before you enter Kraid's room, there is a geega. there is
    also a hole through the ceiling. this hole is linked with the closed-
    off chambers above. they are closed-off for a reason, there is nothing
    useful up there. you can avoid this corridor completely ?
F : Kraid is tough to defeat. he will toss many small boomerangs that bounce
    and wave at you, and are hard to get around. you must look for a pattern
    in these boomerangs if you want to get close to kraid. kraid himself is
    coated with layer of spikes that grow out of his body in your direction.
    after a little while they will shoot out for you and they do damage you.
    you must either get to his side that is exposed without spikes and fire
     missiles, or else find a spot on his body that he has fired his spikes
    from and shoot for that weak spot. you might use only missiles on kraid,
    and it will take around 25 direct hits to kill him. you might miss, so
    you should ready yourself with more missiles than just 25. if you can
    collect all the missile boxes in his hideout, you will surely have over
    twenty. along the way to this hideout you most likely gathered at least
    two or three other missile boxes, so you can expect to have around 40
    missiles when you face Kraid. go into this fight with your energy and
    missiles full, and if you need to refill, there is a column with Geega
    in it just outside of Kraid's room. since Geega will refresh itself,
    you can kill it many times until you are full. if you stop the fight
    with Kraid to leave the room, he might be regenerated when you return.
    of course, you can use another attack besides missiles but it will take
    longer.

    UPDATE: E-MAIL FROM GUIDE READER UNCOVERS HIDDEN ENERGY BOX
    DATE: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 22:30:40 UCT
    "Hi. I was reading your excellent NES Metroid guide on gamefaqs and
    couldn't help noticing you didn't have one energy box location
    written... I was fighting Kraid today, and in his lair if you fall
    into the narror pit of lava to the right, there is an energy tank
    if you shoot the right wall."
                                               - Douglas 'Karoz' Wilson

    Heck yeah there is! I played to verify it, and sure enough there was the
    box. The Energy Box in Kraid's room is hidden in the right wall, four
    bricks below the door. This is a precarious perch; you have to stand in
    the lava, jump, and fire at the first blue block above the grey-metal
    blocks, to find the Energy Box. Then, get up on Kraid's platform, roll
    into a ball, and hold right so you fall off the platform and fly smack
    into the Energy Box. You could try to get this after you kill Kraid, or,
    you could use it in the middle of the fight to completely re-energize
    all of your suit's damage points.

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 04:05   HIDEOUT II MAP _________________________

                               B   A
                                \.  \. ___________   V
      M = Missile Box 3      _________|__M______:_|_|v|_________
      E = Energy Box 2      | :___:E*___________:_:_:_:_______: |
      B = Ridley            | |___| |_________________________| |
                            | :___:_:_______: :____M|_________: |
                            | |  ___________| |_______________| |   C
                            | |_|E*B:_______:_:_______________: | ./
                            |_:__________M____________________:_|
                            |_|                               |_|

A : the first missile box is easy to get, fire through the ceiling of the
    second small green corridor to the left after the elevator.
B : the room containing the energy box has a hole in the floor. If you fall
    through you can get back up through the corridor on the left.
C : you might want the missiles from the bottommost horizon chamber which
    are very easy to get. go far to the left of the second horizon chamber
    from the bottom of the rightmost column and you will find Ridley. after
    you destroy Ridley, go through the door on the left go get an energy
    Box from the wall. Another way to get to Ridley is through the column
    chamber in the center of the map. You can bomb the floor in the upper
    room of this chamber and fall down to Ridley's level.

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 04:06          TOURIAN _________________________

           _Brinstar_
          /
    |^|  V
    | | |v|  @ = Yellow Door , 10 Missile Shots
    | | | |  * = Red Door , 5 Missile Shots
    | | | |  & = The Mother Brain , Many Many Missile Shots
    | | | |  ^ = The Way Out ?!?!
    | | | |_____________
    | | |_@___________* | As soon as you enter Tourian, you will be faced
    | |               | | with the terrible Metroid menace. The ONLY way
    | |               | | you should attempt to beat these things is by
    | |_______________| | freezing them with Ice Beam and shooting them
    |_:&____:_________*_| with 5 missiles. If you don't freeze them, they
                          will just absorb the blast. If they latch onto
                          Samus or absorb any weapon energy, it will just
    refresh their energy and you will have to freeze and fire again. If you
    try to outrun them, you'll definitely fail, I tried it many times. The
    one good thing about Metroids is that they leave behind energy and
    missiles that you can use for your benefit. You will need missiles when
    you enter Mother Brain's chambers. The Zebetites in your way will take
    more than ten, sometimes fifteen, missile shots to destroy. And if you</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
    stop firing on them for even a short period of time, they will refresh
    themselves. Once you destroy them, however, they are history. This means
    you might have to go back out and destroy more Metroid in order to get
    your missile supply back up.
    As far as Mother Brain, she is not so difficult but the Rinky fire rings
    she breaths through the walls are. They will head right for your
    location when they appear, and you will have to move out of the way or
    else get hit. There can only be three Rinkas on the screen at once, so
    you should freeze all three of them and then stand on the opening left
    by the Zebetite nearest the brain and fire into the glass enclosure.
    If the Rinkas star to thaw, freeze them again. They will survive through
    two freezes before they die and three fresh ones appear. If you want to
    try just killing the Rinka and clearing them out of your way, you are
    crazy but go ahead and use your spin attack to wipe them out. Just be
    careful of both the lava and the nearby rotating guns that will also
    work against your energy level. You will know the Brain is destroyed
    when you see it start to shake. As far as whether or not the Mother
    Brain will regenerate itself if you leave to fill up your energy and
    missiles on the Metroids, I don't know. I haven't had to try it. :)

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 04:20 WHAT HIDDEN MAP? _________________________

   Sometimes referred to as "The Secret World" or "Secret Levels", there are
some places in Metroid that are not necessary elements of the game and
appear to many people to be a hidden world of their own. This is not
entirely the best description of the nature of these hidden areas.
   See the map itself is just a series of "bytes", or six-bit chunks of
data. Each of these chunks gives the information about a particular room.
   The scrolling of a column chamber is up-and-down. It cannot scroll
left-and-right at all, and if the player tries to go through to the right or
left (which is usually impossible) they will just wrap around from the one
side of the screen to the other infinitely. The scrolling of a horizon
chamber is left-and-right, and cannot go up-and-down at all. If the player
tries go through the floor or the ceiling, they will hit a bar of invisible
"lava". The section at the very bottom of the screen in a left-and-right
scrolling chamber is a special location that sucks Samus's energy, which you
know if you have ever stood inside some lava. But it's not the graphics of
the lava itself that create the effect of sapping your energy, it's
actually that location at the bottom of the screen that does it. ~And, at
all screens that contain lava for you to stand in, there is a row of blocks
running all the way along the top of the screen. These keep you from falling
through the ceiling.
   And, normally, in a column chambers, there are blocks on the right and
left walls to keep you from walking around in a loop through the sides of
the screen.
   Now, I mentioned that room data. This data contains the actual location
of the blocks and enemies located in each room of the game. Not every single
block is represented in every room by its own character, but clumps of
blocks (and enemies) are represented by one character and the rest of the
blocks form around those based on the makeup of the clumps and enemies found
at another location in the program. If you ever notice a repetition of large
groups of blocks on the game (which would be hard to perceive, because the
programmers did well to preserve continuity without repetition,) then you
will understand what I mean about clumps of blocks. All those repeating
clumps are only signified by one foundation block, and the rest are assumed
to fit in around that. Each room also has a set number of available sprites;
sprites can serve as the place-holders for the foundation blocks of either
clumps of blocks or for enemies. The sprites are also ordained from 0 to
something like that 10th Sprite. ~Two or more overlapping clumps completely
overwrite the blocks surrounding each other from least sprite to highest.
   ~When you pass through a door in a chamber, into another chamber, this
will almost always switch the type of processing for the rooms you go into
from column to horizon, or from horizon to column. If you are in a column
and go through a door, you will usually end up in a horizon chamber. And if
you are in a horizon and go through a door, you will usually end up in a
column chamber. That's just the way the doors work. The exception are doors
that force a horizontal scroll, and these are located at the entrances to
Chozo Vaults and Ridley's room.
   There is nothing in any room's information that says whether or not the
room is actually part of a column or horizon chamber, it's just data about
the placement of clumps of blocks and enemies and such, which are held in
place by the sprites, of which there are a set number in any room.
   So. Let's say you use some trick to pass through a floor! There are some
Game Genie codes that will allow you to do this, and there is also the
door-wall trick.
   Let's say you use this trick in a horizon chamber, or right-and-left
scrolling room. What will happen is you will first hit a bar of stuff that
saps your energy like the lava does. Then your character will hit the
ceiling ! You can keep working through the floor at this point, and
eventually you will wrap around bottom-to-top and fall through the ceiling.
   Let's say you use this trick in a column chamber, or up-and-down
scrolling room. You will probably work your way through a thick screenfull
of nothing but solid bricks. Then, chances are you will pop through the
ceiling of a room. It could be any room, and since there are more
side-to-side scrolling sections of the game than there are up-and-down
sections, it's most likely you will fall into a room that is designed for
side-to-side scrolling. Thing is, you fell into this room from a vertical
chamber, so the last instruction to the game for scrolling was for column
scrolling, up and down! So the game thinks you are still in a column
chamber, even though it is reading in information originally intended for a
horizon chamber's room. Chances are, there won't be bricks on the sides of
the screen keeping you from walking straight through one edge of the screen
and walking around out of the other.
   If you encounter a doorway in any of these odd rooms, the glitching will
not end. In fact it might just get worse.
   So, all the secret world is, is the game processing sections of itself
not meant to be rooms, doing it as if they ARE rooms. And that's all.
   Because of all this, I won't be going into great detail about the hidden
rooms themselves. They don't go anywhere in particular, just to other rooms
in the same dungeon.
   The best way I can describe these areas is "Ghosts in the Machine".
   So that clears all that up. I hope.
   Oh, well, actually something I wasn't sure of the last time I wrote this
but I have been sure of since (it's been a year) is that there are two bytes
of code in the game that point to room data that isn't used anywhere else in
the game, and those two bytes are in locations unaccessible to normal game
play. I've seen the rooms, they are real, and that about sums up the hidden
world. There are lots of documents on the web that tell you exactly how to
get to them.

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 05:00 TINY WALKTHROUGH _________________________

This walkthrough is not intended to be a full dialogue of every turn you
need to take to get through Metroid. It will tell you how to reach some of
the more secretive places like the Wave Beam location or the Hide Out II.
I will also give you some very basic strategy on how to choose your
destinations wisely in order to save time, but not much on that. Looking at
the maps and thinking about how everything is set up should provide you with
all the strategy you need. I will tell you right now that I find I can cut
alot of time from the game if I kill Ridley before Kraid, but that is a
little odd to many people who are used to going through "Hide-Out I" before
"Hide-Out II".

     ___________________| |   Samus will start off where the "S" is on the
    |_|1_S____:_:___|E|_:_|   map. To there left you can see a map of a
              | |       |_|   small section from Brinstar -- this is the
              | |             corridor that you will start in. First thing
                              you should do is acquire Maru Mari which is
the ability to roll up into a little ball. From Start, head directly left
and hop up over the stairlike obstacle, then fall down from the top and land
on the shiny ball below. You will collect the Maru Mari and listen to some
organ music. Be careful because there might be a yellow Zoomer nearby and
at this point, these things can do you a nasty 2 points of damage. Now head
back to the right. Notice you can't jump back up over the obstacle the way
you came ? You will have to utilize Maru Mari at this point by pressing
Down on the control pad. Samus will roll up into a little ball, and you can
press Right to roll underneath the narrow passage underneath the obstacle.
Notice that pressing Jump (a) whil you are in Maru Mari will pop you out of
it. Also, pressing Up will pop you out.
   Now, head to the right being careful of the
Zoomers and Skrees nearby. Shoot open the blue        _________________| |
doors in your way (":" on the map) and keep          |___>_>_:_:_>_|E|_:_|
heading right. Notice that there is a column                 | |       |_|
chamber with some cracked bricks in it ? Those
are bricks that can be destroyed using Bombs. You don't have bombs right now
so keep going right. Keep bewaring the Zoomers and Skrees. Use Maru Mari to
get under the narrow passage under the huge growth coming from the ceiling.
Ignore the "E" on the map (an energy tank) because you can't reach it right
now. Keep going right and shoot through another blue door and enter a column
chamber. This is probably the tallest column chamber in the game. Remember
it by its color -- other chambers are other colors but this is the huge tall
blue one.

 | |   Now head upwards through the chamber until you get to the first door
 : |   on your right. Watch out for yellow and red Zoomers, the red ones are
 | |_  tougher. And watch out for the indestructable yellow Rippers and
 |>:_> their not-so-indestructable (you can use a missile if you had some)
 | |   red cousins. When you reach the first door on your right, shoot it
 | |   open and head through the spacey passageway to the right. Now you
 |^|   should find yourself in the yellow column chamber. The         _
 | |   yellow (or Gold) column chamber has only one exit out of      | |
 | |   it to the left and three to the right. For now, you want      | :
 |^|   to drop all the way down to the bottom door on the right      | |
_| |   and blast through it. You will enter a gold horizon           | |
_:_|   chamber with Skree and Zeb in it. Watch out for Zeb, it       | |
 |_|   will fly up out of a red pipe in the ground and come right   _| |
       at you. You can either stay still and shoot it when it is   >_:v:
near or jump high or roll up to distract it. As long as the item     | |
generated by a Zeb is still around, another Zeb won't come from      | |
that pipe. Keep going right and you will soon get your first box     |v|_
of missiles. 5 of them. You might be thinking you are supposed to    |_:_>
keep going right, but don't do that. Now turn back and go left       |_|
until you get to the gold column again. You have alot of choices at
this point, and by just looking at the map you can see where various things
are located and how you can get to them. The tricky part is, you can't just
go straight for one of the items and expect to actually get to it. Some of
the column passages require bombs or the ice beam to get through, as you've
seen already. I am just going to give you terse instructions on which item
to head for next, and when there is a tight spot or a place where a
particular strategy is needed or useful, I will be more verbose.

Long Beam: You are real close to it already so might as well pick it up.
Go left out of the gold column and back to the blue one. Head up and go
through the first door on your left. Make sure you keep all 5 missiles on
you, you will need them to break the red door that is in your way. This
means you will have to take out the large enemies on the ceiling with your
little gun. You can do it, just take your time and make sure you don't have
one chasing you while another one is blocking your way. If one is hovering
along the floor towards you, jump up and it will head back for the ceiling
again. Get the long beam and now your cannon fire will not stop until it
hits something.

Bombs: Now head for those bombs. Go to the blue column, through the only
door on the right and into the gold column. Go straight through the middle
door on the right and keep going right past Zoomer and Skree, through all
the doors in your way. Eventually you will find an Energy Tank ("E" on map)
in this long horizon chamber. Go through the last door on the right and
into the much smaller Gold Column. I will refer to this as Gold Column II
through the rest of the walkthrough. Oh, I almost forgot, while you are
doing all this don't drop into the yellow acid because it will quickly eat
away at your energy. You must be patient with the stuff, if you try to jump
out too quickly you may not be able to jump high enough to get out. Let
yourself settle into the stuff and then try jumping and you will get the
height you need. If you want to find a shorter platform to jump onto, then
dont' just walk through the lava -- move through it in a series of short
jumps which will keep you out of the lava except for a few points of energy
at a time, and you will also move faster.

Bombs: Now from Gold Column II, go up to the middle door on the left and go
left until you reach the red door. You better have 5 missiles to blast this
open with. Collect the Bomb. Now if you activate Maru Mari and press the
Fire (B) button, you will drop these little red circles that blow up after a
few game-seconds. These are your bombs, and you should use them to destroy
anything that's on the ground near you. You can also use bombs to get up
into the air as an alternative to jumping. It's hard to perfect the
technique, but if you drop a bomb and sit on it, the explosion will push you
up into the air. If you activate Maru Mari, drop two bombs a second apart,
and one will push you up in the air. While in the air, drop another bomb,
then while you are falling the second bomb will explode and push you up
again. While you are in the air, the bomb you dropped mid-air a second ago
will explode and will push you up even further. If you can perfect this
process, you can theoretically use your bombs to reach any height of any
column chamber.

Ice Beam: You might notice that it's nearly impossible to get up through
Gold Column II. There's some Rippers floating around in space up there but
what lies beyond seems unreachable. That is why you need the Ice Beam. Drop
down through Column II to the bottom door on the left and head all the way
back through the first blue door you reach. Stop! In this chamber with two
Wavers in it, first kill both wavers. You will be able to kill the waver
under the floor with your bombs. Keep trying... keep trying... takes
awhile... anyways, lay bombs all over the floor and while you're trying to
kill that waver, you will blow a hole in the floor. Drop through this hole
into A Little Gold Column and head through the blue door on the left. Don't
you waste your missiles in here, you will need 5 of them when you reach the
red door. How you take care of these little flittering bugs is your
business, I usually get near them and fire. Go through the red door on the
left, get your Ice Beam. Ta Daa ! Now when you shoot something it will be
frozen for awhile, just awhile, but long enough for you to stand on it and
use it as a platform to reach high places. Every time you freeze and
unfreeze something, it takes a hit of damage from the normal beam. If you
are refreezing your opponents to get them in the right position, eventually
they will be destroyed (unless they are not able to be destroyed by your
normal beam.)

At this point there are, once again, many different places you could try to
go to. With Bombs and the Ice Beam, there are few places that you cannot
reach. However, you will want to get the high-jump boots which will make it
alot easier to reach some things that the Ice Beam would take a long time
to make platforms for.

High Jump: You will need to enter norfair if you want the High Jump. High
Jump makes it easier to reach some other items in the game, and not only
does the High Jump make it easier to beat the mini-bosses, these other items
you can collect make it easier as well. So head to Norfair, and take the
first door on the Right. At the top of this column is a series of rooms
that contain five seperate missile boxes (!!!) and the other location of
the Ice Beam. The high jump is in the other direction, however. Go down
to the bottom of the column and bomb through the floor. Fall to the left and
take the first door on your left. The High Jump boots will be in here.

Screw Attack: If you also want to acquire the Screw Attack which will be
your most powerful attacks against normal creatures in the game, then bomb
underneath the High Jump item statue and pop out on the left side. Keep
going left until you get to a small chamber of green stuff. You can shoot up
through the wall here to reach the Screw Attack.

Wave Beam: The Wave Beam carries about twice the strength of your normal
beam and also attacks in a rotating wave pattern. This is a useful weapon
for defeating the minibosses, so go for it. From the location where you
shoot through the ceiling to get the Screw Attack, keep going left to
another green column chamber. Fall to the bottom and drop into the lava
there. Bomb through the floor, and fall through the green chamber below it.
Take the one door on the right and stay to the right. Pass through the
eyeball horizon chamber, and enter a small green corridor. If you bomb
through this floor near the right door, you will be able to reach some more
missiles below. Through the right door here, go through another eyeball
horizon chamber and into another small green corridor. Blow up the leftmost
part of this floor and drop through the tiny passageway and then through the
lava. This, by the way, is my favorite room in the entire game. At the
bottom of this column, go through the one door on the left to earn your Wave
Beam. Back up in the small green corridor, if you go right you will be able
to collect another missile. Bomb through the large green wall that is in
your way.

Let's see now you have the Bombs, the High Jump, either the Ice Beam or the
Wave Beam, and some missiles. Oh yeah don't dare pass up that Screw Attack,
it is too powerful a weapon to do without.

Since you have the High Jump, there are some places you will already be able
to reach so you could go with the Wave Beam. However there are also some
places where it would be useful to have both the Ice Beam and the High Jump,
such as the Energy Box closest to the beginning of the game. If you want to
get this Energy Box on your way back through Brinstar to the earlier
chambers of the game, then bring the Ice Beam with you. Just remember it
will be a long trip away from the Wave Beam, and time is everything. If you
take the Ice Beam with you only to go back and change it for the Wave Beam
again, you will end up wasting alot of time for just one energy box. To tell
you the truth, I personally find that Ridley is tons easier than Kraid to
destroy, and I prefer to go for Hideout II before Hideout I. This means that
you could just go through Norfair, Hideout II, kill Ridley with your Wave
Beam and Missiles, then go back through Norfair, catch the second Ice Beam
that is at the top of the map, back through Brinstar, on the way there get
the Energy Box, then kill Kraid. Sounds like a Plan.
                       This is the corridor that contains this oh so
 _________________| |  important Energy Box. Activate Maru Mari to get under
|_______:_:___|E|_:_|  the growth of stuff hanging from the ceiling, and
        | |       |_|  then look up. Shoot at the second brick from the left
                       of the growth, and an Energy Box will be revealed.
There should be a Skree near here, so use your Ice Beam to freeze it in a
good location that you can reach from the floor with your High Jump. Then
jump up and grab the Energy Box. Ta-da. Alot of effort for 100 more units of
Energy, and you can easily imagine that it will take you almost another half
hour to an hour, just to go back now and change your Ice Beam for the Wave
Beam. That's up to you, of course, but like I said time is everything.

Well that about does it. There's not much more that you need help on, the
maps should solve everything. Have a good day.

____________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________ GLOSSARY _________________________________

"Chozo Vault" n.: The creepy place with the statue that holds the powerup.
"Metroid" n.: 1. This translucent thing that sucks on your upper body.
              2. A game.
"Powerup" n.: Get the powerup and win the game.
"Ridley" ppn.: The boss of Norfair, or a movie director.
"Kraid" ppn.: The boss of Brinstar, or a jelly doughnut.
"Zelda" ppn.: Zelda is not in this game.

____________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________ SPECIAL THANKS _____________________________

   Lots of people informed me all year long, 2001, that I had all these odd
spellings of "Metroid" around the guide. That was an in-joke. The only thing
different from v3~v3.1 are spellings and some grammatical errors. Somebody
sent me an email 12-24-01 about a bug that hit them outside Kraid's room where
every missle they collected gave them even more missiles than the last one,
and that it put them over their limit of 40 missiles way up into 150. How
strange. Well the missiles weren't showing up anyplace special, they came out
of one of those psychotic bees, so I don't know how to explain it. Please
kill Kraid a lot, to raise the probability of this glitch occuring again,
and if you notice anything like that, drop me a line.
   Curtis 'Quasius' Himel explained the differences in Metroid version
releases and the difficulty-setting phenomenon that occurs in other
cartridges. He also corrected me on several things I had wrong about the
scrolling doors, and block placements, 8-11-2001. Thanks, Quasius!
   Douglas 'Karoz' Wilson showed me where the hidden Energy Box is in
Kraid's room, 8-22-2000, and prompted me to begin another version of the
guide. Thanks, Karoz!

                           EVERLASTING THANKS TO:
                       The Nintendo Player's Guide!
                          The CheatZilla server !
                           Nintendo Of America !
                                David Wonn!
  Last, but very far from least, the two servers GameFAQs and GameSages!

   Extra special thanks go to the Cyberspace.Org server which holds my
nintendo cart collection list and links site for free, and to Lunar Surf
Solutions which holds megabytes more of data than that for my home pages,
and to ARQ Internet Service Providers who make net access affordable and
friendly even when I bust into their offices ranting about nonsense.

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________       OTHER URLs       _________________________

                 I removed some site URLs because they changed
                 every freakin' month, and I got sick of keeping
                 track. I have to go back and change my NES
                 page every time they do that, because I have
                 this thing about reliability. Everybody left
                 should still be where I say they are.

                 THE METROID DATABASE !
                 www.classicgaming.com/mdb/metroid.html

                 GameFAQs server website
                 www.gamefaqs.com

                 GameSages server website
                 www.sages.ign.com

                 Nintendo Of America
                 www.nintendo.com
                 they dropped their NES hint
                 database, man i dunno

                 David Wonn
                 davidwonn.turokcave.com

                 CheatZilla game server
                 www.cheatzilla.com

                 Eyenot's NES ROM-Cart Collection List And Links Site
                 www.cyberspace.org/~eyenot

                 Eyenot's home pages
                 www.lunarsurf.com/~eyenot

- eyenot

                                TIME B0MB SET
                                GET 0UT FAST!

                                  TIME 759

____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________ 00:00                  _________________________
"METROID Game Guide" (c) 08-11-2001 Gabriel Petrie "Eyenot"
i will continue to work on future versinos weeoww El Dante Por Favor Ya!