01-Any% Kraid First Beginners Tutorial by CHX (2021)

This is a quick beginner tutorial I made in one night. The edits are sloppy and I run through this info very quickly. If you need more help with learning the things covered in this video, we can start a forum for info on learning the game, but this should give a solid start to learning the basics of the Kraid first route until the advanced tutorial comes out.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1023373649

02-Mazimov's All Bosses Tutorial

Nearly 2 hours of routing, walkthrough, strats, and explanations for the All Bosses category... courtesy of the accomplished and prolific runner, Mazi!
Plus he's a cutie pie :P

Check out Mazimov on Twitch and give him a follow: https://www.twitch.tv/mazimov

https://youtu.be/S2yA6LkVSC8

03-All Bosses in-depth guide (Ridley first, Iceless)

04-Yogi's Big 20 2-boss guide

Covers most things you need to know. He also has a safer route one and big 20s 1 and 3 had single boss strats, but this is the only one you should need for two boss:

Follow Yogidamonk on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/yogidamonk

https://youtu.be/qg_VHl6N_tE

05-Any% Starter Guide

I haven't watched this in awhile but McFly's video is gone so posting it up.

https://youtu.be/9eBj90_Fk_s

06-Kraid First 101

The bare basics on how to kill Kraid without freeze. I'm no master, but took what McFly taught me and what I learned and spent an hour taking questions, etc. Sorry about the game sound. And sorry if its a little slow and long, but its better than nothing!

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/217685165

For input from Master Mcfly, here's a clip of a random fight. Looks like he switches back and forth from claw to standard grip to make unmorphs a little easier: 

https://clips.twitch.tv/SpeedyLovelyMacaroniDatBoi

07-Tycon's tutorial for wrong way door glitch in Kraid's lair

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxwjgR9Pu1I

08-Tycon's tutorial for long wraps and damage boost into Kraid's room

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxzYpFe3Dd8

09-TerrifyingBridge's 100% Deathless Slideshow Guide!

This guide covers the entire Hundo Deathless route step-by-step. Easy-to-follow bullet points w/convenient screenshot maps. Great for learning the circuitous route through Zebes... Keep it nearby so you don't get lost!
[Note: In-depth explanations of tricks/glitches/exploits was out-of-scope for this guide. Those are better served by individual tutorials]

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CraL-tf2y4kl43AZih2faVQFM2zYRZKVznhiIg0GX3g/edit#slide=id.p

[ TerrifyingBridge (aka BreadForBrunch) is an accomplished 100% & 100% Deathless runner. He grinds Hundo on the reg, watch his stream here: https://www.twitch.tv/terrifyingbridge ]

10-Enmet's sloppy 100% Warpless tutorial

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/167538755

Map: https://i.imgur.com/EWGc6nv.png

11-Basic: Some maps

Map & Checklist for 100% (courtesy of DragonDarch)
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/352974275700850698/353049956916920321/MetroidMapNotes.png

Complete Map with Enemy Spawns (courtesy of Koh1dendy)
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/352974275700850698/536933446321176586/MetroidCompleateMap.png

Advanced Kraid wrap tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7-YU2gNF4c

Aurora X's 100 Deathless Tutorial (Uncompressed)

A year and half ago I made a video tutorial for Hundo deathless that was meant for Dyceron when I saw him struggling with the game. The video is slightly outdated now, but a "compressed" version is still planned that will have the newest tech, and obviously shorter.

Link to full video tutorial:
https://youtu.be/AHqKK7Tku0M

Global patterns

# **Introduction**

In this document I have gathered everything I know about the global patterns in Metroid. Most of it is based on anecdotal evidence, i.e. trying out different things and asking around. It is not intended to be a complete, finished guide, because there are still many aspects of the global patterns where we don’t have large enough sample sizes or hard enough data to give a final answer. This is merely a collection of loose data points for future players to build upon and draw their own conclusions from. Please take everything in this document as-is, additional jank is guaranteed to occur and new exceptions to every rule will be discovered in the future.

----

***"Whatever, just gimme the good Ridley"***

Say no more, I got you :) [Stop reading and watch this video guide instead](https://youtu.be/_8_5fZJjt7w?si=lJuRscewYnWeqW9E), it'll save you a lot of time and headache.

***Famicom/FDS***

Nothing in this document applies to the japanese FDS version, stop reading and enjoy your non-broken version of the game.

----

# 

# **What is a global pattern?**

It is a game state aspect that determines the movement schemes of these enemies: Kraid, Ridley, hoppers, jellyfish and seahorses.

Your game will be locked into one of these four patterns at any given time, and it will never change unless you die or reset.

A global pattern will not affect whether enemies spawn in or not, nor will it affect what direction a spawned enemy will travel in. That has to do with spawn memory slots, and you can get more info about that [in this explanation with a map](https://www.speedrun.com/metroid_nes/resources/anxxo) and [a demonstration here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iig_qei0A8).

# **The four global patterns**

A common misconception about global patterns is that there are two of them, often referred to as the “good pattern” and the “bad pattern”. This usually relates to Ridley and hoppers, since they only have two different movement schemes. The truth is that there are four global patterns.

Here’s a diagram of four patterns and the enemies that are affected by them:

![](/static/blob/rz27xqkn.png)

For example, if a purple jellyfish does medium jumps, that means you’re on A2, which means that Ridley will shoot long fireballs, the seahorses will always fire, and the hoppers will always do low jumps. Since every relevant enemy except Kraid has three or less movement schemes, it can be hard to determine which pattern you’re on by looking at just one enemy. If the hoppers are doing low jumps, you’re on either A1 or A2, and to determine which of those patterns you’re on, you will have to go look at an enemy that doesn’t have the same movement scheme for those two patterns, such as Kraid or purple jellyfish. Just make sure you don’t die on the way.

*Note: I'll add B2 for red jellyfish later.*

# **How patterns are set and cycled**

Every time you power on your console or boot up your emulator, your setup will start the game on the same global pattern. This means that if you use the power button or the power cycling function in the emulator to reset between runs, you’ll be on the same pattern every time. Which of the four patterns you’re on, however, will be different from one console to another, or from one emulator to another. You can read more on that under Hardware and Emulation below.

As shown in the diagram above, the pattern order is A1-B1-A2-B2 and then it loops back to A1 again. You will skip one step ahead to the next pattern every time you die, either naturally or by using up+A. You will also skip one step ahead every time you use the reset button on your console (or emulator equivalent). So if you’re on A1 and you die or reset, you will be on B1, and if you die or reset again, you will be on A2, and so on.

There’s a very important caveat to that: Sometimes it will skip two steps ahead instead of one (i.e. it will go from A1, skip B1 and go straight to A2. This seems to happen about 10% of the time, but please note that this number is based on anecdotal evidence, not a proper investigation or insight about how this works on a hardware level. At this time, nobody seems to know why this happens, exactly how often it happens, what might trigger it or how it may be avoided, so it’s something we have to live with.

If you’re stuck with a setup that gives you an undesirable pattern, you should try to use the reset button to cycle your way to the pattern you want. For example, if your console gives you B1 from a power on and you want to start on A2, you should try to power cycle your console and then hit reset once. The leaderboard rules may also allow you to set up a desired pattern by starting the game, dying right at the start of the game to cycle the patterns as desired, and then starting your speedrun timer when you press start on the password screen. This is allowed at the time of writing, but make sure you check the current leaderboard rules.

Global patterns will be locked in save states. If you turn off or on, reset or die, then load a save state, the pattern will be the same from that save state every time.

*Note: If you're gonna speedrun this game for a while, I heavily recommend that you seek out a setup that gives you the desired pattern on power on every time. Trying to cycle the game to the correct starting pattern will be too unreliable and annoying in the long run.*

# **Hardware**

Gray frontloader NES consoles are different from each other. One will give you a certain starting pattern, and another console will give you another pattern. We don’t have any knowledge on how this correlates to production dates, serial numbers or other things, so the only way to find out is to try it. We do not know if all four patterns can be a console’s power on pattern, but we do know that some start on A1 and that some start on an unspecified B pattern.

Original Metroid game carts versus flash carts (Everdrive, PowerPak etc) may give you different patterns on the same console. This will happen more often than not. According to my tiny sample size of about 11 different consoles with both cart options, getting opposite patterns (A and B) is more common than not, with a split of 9:2. This means that if you have a console and one cart option (Metroid/flash cart) that gives you an undesirable pattern, you might want to try the other cart option before you go console hunting.

According to [CHX42s any% beginner tutorial](https://www.speedrun.com/metroid_nes/guides/6z4lg), all US toploaders are the same, and they will give you a B pattern from a Metroid cart. dr1ox1 is using a Japanese toploader (AV Famicom) with an Everdrive, and that gives him pattern A1 from a power on.

All Metroid carts are identical, so trying different Metroid carts on the same console will always give you the same pattern.

While most consoles seem to give you the same pattern from a hard power cycle, CScottyW reported to me that his front loader gives him two different patterns seemingly at random. Those patterns are A1 and A2.

CHX42 reported that he has to leave the power off for a good second, or his frontloader would swap patterns (presumably from A to B, acting like a reset), so it’s probably a good idea to not power off and on again too quickly.

# **Emulators**

Most emulators will give you a B pattern from a boot up/”power cycle”, including NES Classic (the mini console), the NES application on Switch and Metroid Prime. If you’re using a software emulator on PC, you should be able to use its power and reset functions as equivalents to the power and reset buttons on console.

Some emulators have a menu where you can set the power on state for RAM. You can use this to set your power on pattern. Here’s a screenshot from Shauing that shows how to set an A1 pattern on Mesen2RTA. It should be similar for Mesen/Mesen2 and MesenRTA. If you’re using a different emulator, see if it has a similar menu and try out different things there.

![](/static/blob/dz49d0kn.png)

# 

# **Kraid patterns**

Here's a video to help you identify the four different patterns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3I-AHcxek4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3I-AHcxek4

***Hey, you forgot to cover the popcorn cannons!***

![](/static/blob/wzxk0pdn.png)

The polyps in Norfair, yeah… I have no idea what’s going on with these things, they will start/stop shooting when I move back and forth through the room. Their behaviour may somehow be tied to the global patterns and then buried underneath endless layers of jank, I don’t know and I'm honestly not interested. Go to the Norfair entrance, play around with save states and figure it out yourself. If you do figure it out, let me know and I'll add it here.

Name	Autor
01-Any% Kraid First Beginners Tutorial by CHX (2021)	CHX42 5 years ago
02-Mazimov's All Bosses Tutorial	AceEbb 5 years ago
03-All Bosses in-depth guide (Ridley first, Iceless)	Yogidamonk 5 years ago
04-Yogi's Big 20 2-boss guide	mitch3a 5 years ago
05-Any% Starter Guide	Retrogaming2084 5 years ago
06-Kraid First 101	mitch3a 5 years ago
07-Tycon's tutorial for wrong way door glitch in Kraid's lair	Gelöscht 5 years ago
08-Tycon's tutorial for long wraps and damage boost into Kraid's room	Gelöscht 5 years ago
09-TerrifyingBridge's 100% Deathless Slideshow Guide!	AceEbb 5 years ago
10-Enmet's sloppy 100% Warpless tutorial	Enmet 5 years ago
11-Basic: Some maps	AceEbb 5 years ago
Advanced Kraid wrap tutorial	MissilesPlz 1 year ago
Aurora X's 100 Deathless Tutorial (Uncompressed)	AuroraX 3 years ago
Global patterns	MissilesPlz 21 days ago
How to get the good Ridley pattern	MissilesPlz 2 months ago
Sprite memory slot manipulation (enemy patterns)	MissilesPlz 2 months ago
Tutorial for the ice climb from bombs to Varia in 100% Classic	MissilesPlz 1 year ago