Quick Links
- Step 1 - Begin In The Southeastern Part Of Artaria
- Step 2 - Get The Positioning Down
- Step 3 - Do The Slide
- Step 4 - Shoot The Block While Samus Is Partially In The Ceiling
Performing skips can be an excellent way to cut down the time of one's next playthrough of Metroid Dread or even allow players to find opportunities to speed up a current run by noticing new exploits in this complex game. There have been quite a few found so far, so here's another--this time to grab the Phantom Cloak earlier than normal.
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The Phantom Cloak can already be obtained fairly early, due to it being a drop from the Artaria region's Corpius, the first boss in the game. Players can reach this mighty foe even sooner and completely bypass having to get the Spider Magnet from taking down the deadly E.M.M.I. robot in Artaria. However, this maneuver, while simple, may take a bit of practice. Though, with that said, the principle applied to perfect it can be used elsewhere with similar terrain layouts in Metroid Dread.
Step 1 - Begin In The Southeastern Part Of Artaria
To find the place where this skip can be done to get around needing the Spider Magnet to reach Corpius the normal way, players will have to head to an orange room in the southeast part of Artaria. From this room, go to the left and into the next screen through the door to find an underground passage with a thin ceiling directly after exiting the orange room. This entire skip is basically about getting through this ceiling.
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Normally, players would have to go into the E.M.M.I. zone to the west, defeat the robot to get the Spider Magnet, and then use the new power to scale the magnetic blue walls nearby to reach the hallway leading to the boss room belonging to Corpius.
Step 2 - Get The Positioning Down
The goal is to hit the red and squishy Diffusion Block in the top right of the screen, however, at this point in the game, it's not usually possible thanks to the lack of the Charge Beam and Wave Beam upgrades that gamers can't often get until later on.
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How This Skip Technically Works
The range of Samus' arm cannon is actually greater than it seems and the attack hitbox of its regular energy shots don't get immediately blocked by terrain. Essentially, this means that Samus can shoot into the ground and deal damage to things inside terrain, though, only very specific kinds of blocks can be destroyed this way--the Diffusion Block being one of them.
Diffusion Blocks are programmed to take damage from pretty much any weapon, and, in this spot, the developers seemed to just assume that the Diffusion Block is out of range from below due to the ceiling, however, when the attack hitbox of Samus' shots enter the ceiling at just the right angle, it can touch the Diffusion Block--though just barely. As such, positioning and timing are immensely important.
Proper Positioning
Players will need to line Samus up to be as close to the ledge as possible while still being able to slide and jump without falling. Getting as close as possible to the ledge is vital in order to get the slide and jump for shooting correct, however, don't let Samus' leading foot get too far to the left, as, if any of it is overhanging the ledge, this is too far. It's best to line her leading foot up with the ledge and then take a step or two to the right.
Step 3 - Do The Slide
Carefully and quickly, players will have to slide and then jump directly up while making sure not to just slide down. The timing is tricky, and the window is small, so gamers will have to almost push the jump button at the same time that the slide animation begins--this will likely take a bit of practice.
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Make sure to jump vertically, as, for the next step, Samus will need to be in a very specific spot after aiming, and, since aiming moves Samus a bit in the air, jumping straight up gives players the least amount of position variability before they aim their shot at the Diffusion Block.
Step 4 - Shoot The Block While Samus Is Partially In The Ceiling
After jumping straight up after the short slide, players will have to aim Samus' cannon to the top-right and fire as many shots as they can to hopefully clip through the terrain enough to damage the Diffusion Block. A good sign that it's possible to do this is when Samus' head and cannon arm are pretty much in the rocky ceiling.
Furthermore, players will have to perform this maneuver multiple times in relatively quick succession, as Diffusion Blocks take more than a single shot to break. However, once done, the way is clear to Corpius' boss room, where one can defeat the big beast and claim the Phantom Cloak.
Metroid Dread is available on the Nintendo Switch.