Research Access
| Connecting Rooms | ||
| Elite Research Ore Processing |
Research Access is a room located in the Phazon Mines region of Metroid Prime. It consists of a large vertical Spider Ball track that normally must be climbed in order to get to the top of the room. However, speedruns that don't get Spider are forced to climb this room without Spider instead. Due to the similarity to the room Elevator Access A, this room is alternatively known as the second Spider Shaft, or Shaft 2.
Without Spider Ball
Traversing this room without Spider is important in the fastest any% routes. This involves climbing the room using various standable spots. In order to climb this room from the bottom:
- Jump onto the top of the metal arch
- Slope Jump onto the nearby portion of the support beam that barely sticks out
- You will not need to worry about spinning cogs, because Samus is standing above them
- Jump onto the rock above. This is the most difficult part, as only a small portion of the rock is standable
- When the upper cog is in the right position, jump onto it when it intersects with the Spider track
- Once this jump is made, you have a limited amount of time to make your next jump
- From here, you have two options. Either:
- Jump onto the pipe that is sticking out of the wall, or:
- Jump onto the nearby support beam that has standable collision
- Jump to the top of the room, completing this sequence
Timesave Comparison
The video below compares a minor timesave in which the load trigger to Elite Research is activated slightly earlier during the climb. This strategy is shown on the right of the video below, and saves a small amount of time.
Wii
This climb is also doable on the Wii version of the game.