That is impressive to get 100% on your own. I'm not sure I've played a game and gotten 100% without help.

Super Mario World, the Donkey Kong Country games, Tomb Raider, there were always a few that I needed help with.

Nice story about writing letters to "game counselors". Do you still have those letters?

That's nice that the library had issues.

The NES Metroid might be a game where I found 100% of the items. However, there wasn't a screen at the end to verify this, so I can't be sure. I did find a few of the passwords that I had written down, yesterday, but they seemed to be early in the game, and not further along. I think by the time I had dial up internet, I was using it for help with SNES games, not NES games.

I feel like I must have shot or bombed so many walls in NES Metroid that I probably found every missile at some point.

I always needed help with 100% in BotW. I don’t know how DJ or Specs do it.

I don't remember if I still have those letters; they're likely at my parents' place somewhere.

I've got 100% in a few games as an adult, like Psychonauts, Guacamelee, Antichamber, and The Swapper. There are also some others that I didn't have the patience to do it without looking things up, like Hollow Knight.

Ok, I've tried a few things, and am now ready to try another run, to get under 3 hours.

These are the things that I tried that worked for me. There's a few other things I tried, but decided they were too hard to do consistently. Experts can do them, but not I.

1. Shinespark in Maridia in giant grapple room. This is the room with the Poweramps that can also be used to grapple too.

If I start on the bottom, then charge up the speed booster, I can shinespark diagonal up and to the right through the room. Therefore, a room which could take a few minutes if I missed some of the grapples, can now be done in about 5 seconds.

2. Use the spring ball back out of the room, after getting the missile in Norfair. This is the room where I have to morph to the left to get to the missile.

The problem I was having before was getting back out of the room, through the top entrance.

Thanks to FrenchLightningJohn's suggestion, I saw I can use the spring ball to jump onto the platform above. Then I don't have to worry about pit blocks. This makes it much easier.

Previously, I had to restart from my last save point several times, because I kept falling through the pit blocks, and when I did, it would set me back a bit.

3. I tried Desmous's suggestion to use the spazer SBA in Norfair room with the seahorses. This works well (and is for fun too). The best way to do this is to start charging when on the platform below, then jump up. Then as the attack is launch, they will hit the seahorses as they're jumping up through the ground.

4. I tried using the same attack at the bottom of bubble mountain. While it does kill the enemies, it's a little annoying that it doesn't break the bombable blocks. So it's easier to use power bombs if I'm back in this room with power bombs. Or, just regular bombs, in the pipe maze. So I can break the bombable blocks too.

5. Wall jump in bubble mountain to go up the right side, and get speed booster and wave beam that way. Instead of going from the bottom of bubble mountain, and around the side.

This takes me a few tries, as I'm not as good when I have to wall jump on one side of the wall. So this might not save much time. But, there is a save room in bubble mountain, so if I'm taking too many attempts, I can reset. If I can do this on my first 2 or 3 attempts, it might save 2 or 3 minutes.

6. I watched a lot of this video. This is a normal player, who makes a lot of jumping mistakes, and takes some damage, that the experts don't make. And this person still finished with 2:30. So I can use this as a reference.

There was a slight variation in the route. This person likes collecting stuff in Green Brinstar after the Wrecked Ship. I liked collecting those items on the way to the Wrecked Ship.

Since this person finished with plenty of time to spare, even if I deviated from the route a little bit, but could still keep pace at other checkpoints, it might not matter much.

7. The one thing that I tried to do, which could have saved time, and looked cool, but I couldn't do, was shinespark in Crateria to the right, in that big open room with the grapples. Watch the end of 20:22 - 20:43.

8. (That is supposed to be 8 paranthesis, but it got converted into an emoticon.) Beating Draygon early in Maridia, and getting the space jump, will definitely both save time, and help in collecting the other items.

Started a new file. Here are some checkpoints for me so far:

0:07: Entered Green Brinstar.

0:11: Did mockball and got the super missiles, reserve tank, and missiles and saved.

0:18: Defeated Spore Spawn, got charge, spazer, energy tank, high jump, saved in Norfair.

0:24: Defeated Kraid, got 3rd energy tank, saved in bubble mountain.

More checkpoints:

0:44: Leaving Norfair after collecting everything that I could.

1:02: At starship, about to go to Wrecked ship. I skipped a few items in Red Brinstar that I got at this point last time, will get them after leaving the Wrecked Ship.

So I'm roughly 27 minutes ahead of the last file's pace, not accounting for those items I had gotten in Red Brinstar last time.

I missed the missile tank that was right before the door with the speed booster.

At this point, I guess the next best time to get it would be after defeating Ridley, when I'm exiting Norfair.

1:30: Beginning of Maridia.

I finished getting those items in Red Brinstar.

I'm 29 minutes ahead of the last file's pace.

Maridia is where I need to make a big improvement, as I think I spent 50 minutes last time. Beating Draygon early will help. But since I also like beating him without the grappling gun electrocute trick, the fight time can vary.

@FrenchLightningJohn, I tried using SBA on Phantoon, but it's too hard to time it just as he's opening his eye. I could only use it for the initial eye opening. After that, it was hard to get the timing right, so I used super missiles instead.

I suspect Botwoon might also be difficult, as the timing of when he appears out of the holes is particular too.

x-factor is more of a speedrun strat, also you don't use x-factor when phantoon open his eye, you hurt him then plan your x-factoc acording to where he will try to ram you there are tutorial on that here https://wiki.supermetroid.run/Main_Page and here https://crocomi.re/

Thanks. I watched some videos of Botwoon, and was able to use x-factor and super missiles to beat him even more easily than before.

I also think that plasma SBA is easier to hit Botwoon with, than Phantoon, just due to the differences in their movements, and when they disappear.

I'm at 1:59 entering Ridley's hideout. A little concerned with time, only because I don't remember where I was at on my old file anymore. Partly because I knew I was going to surpass 3 hours at that point, so I didn't restart from my last save point at much, in pursuit of a better time.

So in my last file, when I got stuck in that energy tank room and had accidentally destroyed all of the firefleas, and it took me 6-8 minutes to get out of it in the dark, I saved that run, because like I said, at that point the time didn't matter as much (unless I took an hour to get out).

Also a little concerned because I missed that missile right next to the speed booster door, so on my way out of Norfair, I will have to get it, and that will probably cost me about 2 minutes.

If I use plasma SBA, do all 4 particles have a good chance of hitting? If not, then charged shots and super missiles are better. I didn't have much problems with Ridley before. According to the damage chart, a charged shot would do more damage than a super missile, so maybe I'll try only that this time.

Phanton is always the one that seems to give me problems, no matter what. I think I do a better job on offense and defense with every other boss.

you can't use plasma SBA on botwoon due to the fact you need to kill draygon to get plasma and to get to draygon you need to kill botwoon, also plasma SBA deal a ton less DMG than a plasma/ice/wave charge shot, a charge shot take 1s to shoot for 900 DMG while a SBA take 2s to activate to deal 300 DMG per partile and if it hit ridley tails it dissapear, you have the chance to dealing 1200 DMG max, in 2s with normal charge shot you can deal 1800 DMG, so totally not worth

I missed a word in my previous post. I meant to ask about plasma SBA on Ridley. But I forgot to type Ridley, haha.

But thanks for the breakdown on the seconds and damage. I will use charge shots on Ridley.

Another random question. Is Draygon male or female? I saw different info in different places (none were official sources).

some would say male some would say female, i say female because she has babies with her

I was unhappy with the time I took after beating Draygon, to collect the remaining items in Maridia. Above I posted I was 1:59 entering Ridley's hideout.

So I went to my backup save file, and re-did from Draygon onwards.

I shaved 1 minute off on the Draygon fight (I like fighting Draygon with super missiles rather than any of the other techniques), and I shaved 1 minute off the collection of the remaining items.

So I ended up with 1:57 entering Ridley's hideout.

Ended up with 2:16 saving at the starship before heading to Tourian.

Finished the game with 2:28. I was happy with the time, and this whole run. I finally got 100% with the best ending. Remember, my previous file was 3:41.

I fought Ridley a few different times. I decided it was taking too much time to charge my beam, then aim. Especially with the moonwalk controls (which I like for most things, but when fighting Ridley who moves side to side, maybe it's not the best).

It was much faster to use Super Missiles, then using charged beams. I could fire them much faster.

One question. I was kind of low on super missiles. After using some on Botwoon, then Draygon, I never got a chance to refill them. Is there any place in between the rest of Maridia, and before Ridley, that I can fill them up?

I didn't like room with the Zebbos, too slow.

I noticed today that there was that room with the red rippers in the green gate room, in the Ridley's Hideout area. Those rippers tend to drop super missiles. One power bomb or two can take them out, and I have a good chance of collecting 5-6 super missiles. That's not too bad.

Is there anything better than this?

Just to recap, so after beating Draygon and getting space jump, there's 6 items I have to collect in Maridia; then I enter Norfair; then I collect that one missile that's a little below the ice beam room, that's near a collapsible ledge, by using space jump; then I speed boost towards Ridley's Hideout.

So if there's any other rooms along this route where you think the enemies drop super missiles, I'll try that.

The last thing I want to do with this game, is to learn the green gate glitch, and stand on top of the Maridia Pipe.

I want to start a new game, enter Maridia from the Wrecked Ship, go south, do the green gate glitch, then stand on top of the Maridia tube. Then, use a power bomb while standing on top of it.

I've spent two days trying to do the green gate glitch after watching videos (I'm practicing in Norfair). I'll try a little more, but if it's too hard, I might just give up.

I'm surprised no one has made a video standing on top of the Maridia Tube. That was the first thing I thought about doing, once I learned about this glitch, a few weeks ago.