Metroid Prime 2: Echoes//General Speed Tricks

General Movement

Listed are various movement forms and their speeds:

• Standard walking (10.8)
• Walking while holding L (11.8)
• Rolling (20)
• Boosting (up to 40, depends on how flat of a surface you boost on)
• Screw attacking (20 but begins decelerating eventually)
• Roll Jumping (16-17)

Some other notes:

• Holding L also improves jumping height/speed the same way it is better for walking
• Grappling is faster than screw attack, so in rare situations where you have both items and can use either, then you should grapple
• Screw attacking starts at 20 speed but decelerates as you start to fall during the screw attack. So, if you don't need to go a particularly far distance, then try to minimize the time between screw attacks
• You can cancel any of your first 4 screw attacks by spamming B. This can help you land sooner if you have already screw attacked far enough
• You can cancel the Super Missile cool down by bringing up Scan Visor after firing it, saving around a second in some situations
• If you have cannonball, you can open doors that previously had a blast shield on them by simply touching the door

Movement Tricks

• Boost Jump
• Roll Jump
• Dash Jump

Underwater Movement

• Underwater Dash
• Air Underwater
• Reverse Air Underwater

Double/Triple Bomb Jumps

While bomb jumping in Prime 2 doesn't have nearly the variety of the Prime 1, it is still a useful technique to know. It is particularly important for its role in bomb space jumps, which are discussed later. The only two special bomb jumps in this game are double and triple bomb jumps, with the latter giving slightly extra height if done well. To do a double bomb jump, just press A to lay a bomb, and then right before that initial bomb goes off, press A two more times. If doing a triple, then spam A three times right before the initial bomb goes off.

Instant Unmorphs/Morphs

Normally, unmorphing and morphing are fairly lengthy animations that can cost time in certain areas of a run. Thankfully, in Prime 2 you can completely (or sometimes just partially) skip either animation, which can save lots of time over the course of a run. There isn't any one guaranteed way to do an instant unmorph or morph; it depends on what direction you are facing, which room you are in, and what's around you. However, the general rule is that the game will cut the animation whenever the camera is obstructed.

Common ways to obstruct the camera include:

• Rolling off a ledge
• Having your back against a wall
• Quickly boosting around a wall
• Jumping up towards a ceiling
• Being in an area where you are cramped in between lots of nearby objects

In runs, the most common usage is to jump into the top of door frames and morph, which in almost every door in the game can give you an instant morph. While these techniques add nice detail to your movement, they are most notable for their role in two more significant speed tricks that are described below.

Bomb Space Jump (BSJ)

A bomb space jump is a height technique that takes advantage of instant unmorphs as mentioned above. It allows you to immediately unmorph and jump after you have done a single, double, or triple bomb jump. To do this, you want to lay a bomb (or 2 or 3), and within 21 frames after you have been propelled upwards by that bomb, press X to instantly unmorph and B to jump. It also helps to hold L after you have started jumping so that you can jump higher/farther. The key is to be in an area in which you are able to get an instant unmorph, as it otherwise is impossible to do this technique. The most common and applicable way to be in a good position is to have your back against a wall. An easy way to achieve this camera position is to have your back to the wall, and then briefly move forwards and morph. Also, you want to be moving backwards as you are popped up from the bombs in order to facilitate getting the instant unmorph (assuming that you are doing the standard setup where you back is to a wall). There are some other cases in which you might want to be moving forward as you are launched up. Again, it all depends on what it takes to get the instant unmorph.

Optimizations

• Roll Shot
• Spider Tracks