SM Redesign: Axeil Edition FINAL

[Drewseph]

Freeze times are based on music track. I have a check for LN theme and set a different imer based on his.  As for health drops it is gravity suit .

Certain blockades are determined by a few factors.  All of them have a special plm which removes similar tiles permanently.  I simply assign these plms an index matching bombs, which you cannot get in EPBC. Sometimes its the same index as WJ.  other times its a different variable set by door asm. Such as the blockades that appear after booster is aquired. 

As for the LN acid, there is an air tile that checks for the EPBC event.

Axeil is unlocked to smile so you can see these triggers there.

[Foxhound3857]

Okay, big post coming up. I found that it is indeed possible to circumvent needing the Wave Beam for the Eastern Crateria Guardian. It involves a very precise chain of shinesparks to get around the SB blockade in the room. I'll be using a lot of screenshots to outline how this works. Space Jump and Hi-Jump are necessary to pull this off, otherwise you cannot ascend the room to the necessary ramps fast enough.

[spoiler]Step 1: Clear this segment of SB blocks:



You can do this by going to the room below and to the right, a long hallway with two Scisers.



Plenty of room to charge a shinespark in here. Do so running to the left, and charge it just before the door.



Carry that charge to the ramp above you in the next room, about three jumps up. To this exact spot on the ledge.



Shinespark straight up from that spot. You will maneuver around the ledges above and crash through the barrier above. Exit through either room and come back in, and the barrier will be gone.



Step 2: Breaking the barricade in the left room:

Repeat Step 1 until you get to the first ramp where you shinesparked to bust through the barrier.



Use the ramp to refresh the charge. Now it gets tricky. Halfway up this shaft is another ramp you can use to refresh the spark. With the charge in tow, you need to QUICKLY ascend the shaft until about the halfway point, roughly 4 jumps or so.



This ramp is very small, so you'll have to stand on the very edge as far as you can to be able to refresh the spark, otherwise you'll crash and lose it. This one might take a few tries.

Once you've refreshed the charge, QUICKLY ascend the shaft the rest of the way, until you're right in front of the left door. Shoot it and shinespark straight to the left.



You'll hit the barricade head on. The game will likely force you into a crouch here, refreshing the charge. Unmorph and keep shinesparking it until you've cleared it, then exit to the left. When you come back, it will be gone.



Step 3: Break the Super Missile blocks to open the shortcut, and proceed as normal to the Guardian.





The whole area around and beyond the shutter normally requiring Wave Beam is unexplored.[/spoiler]

PHEW.

Oh, and Eastern Crateria Guardian, by the way.

[spoiler]

While it might be possible to shinespark across to the Guardian, there's no way to get one for the return trip. Therefore, Space Jump is mandatory for this one.[/spoiler]

Hope this helps.

Update: Unavoidable Missile Pack.

[spoiler]


Directly blocking access to this Guardian.
[/spoiler]

Update 2: Unavoidable Power Bomb Pack.

[spoiler]


The one that Elm was talking about. Beyond it is the hidden path leading to the Central Brinstar Guardian. No way around it.



This E-Tank, however, IS skippable with bomb jumps or Spring Ball. Store the charge beforehand, get over it, and shinespark left. If you come back to this room later, all the SB blocks will be gone, including the pedestal that you didn't break.[/spoiler]

Update 3: Finally made it to Tourian.

[spoiler]




17.5% Tourian. Shit gets real now.
[/spoiler]

[CaRmAgE]

Step 1

Wouldn't it be easier to charge a shinespark in the room after Phantoon?

[Foxhound3857]

Step 1

Wouldn't it be easier to charge a shinespark in the room after Phantoon?

Probably, that might actually be how I did it the first time. Either way works fine.

Right away I'm faced with a new obstacle in Tourian: The Metroids. The Ice Beam alone cannot freeze them uncharged. Only charged shots can freeze them. The two-metroid rooms are still doable with this, but I'm afraid I'm going to find out that the three-metroid rooms will be impossible to deal with because of the variably short freeze timers, the time it takes to charge a shot, the slow firing rate of supers, etc. Might be possible by delaying respawns via not picking up refills, but without more beams it's going to be a hell of a lot harder for sure.

Beam Combo and Plasma might be necessary here.

[CaRmAgE]

Right away I'm faced with a new obstacle in Tourian: The Metroids. The Ice Beam alone cannot freeze them uncharged. Only charged shots can freeze them. The two-metroid rooms are still doable with this, but I'm afraid I'm going to find out that the three-metroid rooms will be impossible to deal with because of the variably short freeze timers, the time it takes to charge a shot, the slow firing rate of supers, etc. Might be possible by delaying respawns via not picking up refills, but without more beams it's going to be a hell of a lot harder for sure.

Beam Combo and Plasma might be necessary here.

[spoiler]Ice SBA will also freeze them and it freezes them the normal amount of time.  Typically, you'll only need 1 or 2 PBs to take care of all the Metroids in a room using the SBA (depending on whether they need to respawn or not before the door will open).  You have 5, which should be more than enough.[/spoiler]

[Foxhound3857]

Right away I'm faced with a new obstacle in Tourian: The Metroids. The Ice Beam alone cannot freeze them uncharged. Only charged shots can freeze them. The two-metroid rooms are still doable with this, but I'm afraid I'm going to find out that the three-metroid rooms will be impossible to deal with because of the variably short freeze timers, the time it takes to charge a shot, the slow firing rate of supers, etc. Might be possible by delaying respawns via not picking up refills, but without more beams it's going to be a hell of a lot harder for sure.

Beam Combo and Plasma might be necessary here.

[spoiler]Ice SBA will also freeze them and it freezes them the normal amount of time.  Typically, you'll only need 1 or 2 PBs to take care of all the Metroids in a room using the SBA (depending on whether they need to respawn or not before the door will open).  You have 5, which should be more than enough.[/spoiler]

Okay, so save my Power Bombs for the threetroid rooms and the feeding pit then.

Anyway, yeah, with the prospect of doing LN via the alternate route, I'm pretty sure this number can be reduced to at least 15.5% if WJB are omitted. They become moot anyway once Space Jump is acquired, so you just need to get by without them until then.

The downside is that Tourian will be even harder if this happens because I'd be grabbing the fake early PB in Brinstar instead of Crocomire's pack, which means a grand total of 3 Power Bombs to work with instead of 5.

Interesting side note: The minimum 17 Missiles that I made it down here with are JUST enough to break death laser zebetites, without needing supers. Pretty uncanny how it just ends up working out.

[Technomagus]

One trick that I've found in dealing with three Metroid rooms is to let two of them latch, bomb them off, then freeze and kill the third before working on the first two.  The third Metroid doesn't always immediately latch onto you after releasing the other two, giving you a moment to unmorph, freeze, and kill it before it realizes what's going on.

[Foxhound3857]

One trick that I've found in dealing with three Metroid rooms is to let two of them latch, bomb them off, then freeze and kill the third before working on the first two.  The third Metroid doesn't always immediately latch onto you after releasing the other two, giving you a moment to unmorph, freeze, and kill it before it realizes what's going on.

Unfortunately there's no time for this with low% because you have to actually charge a shot to freeze them with just the Ice Beam. The third latches on before you can do this.

The Ice SBA does work here, but the freeze window is still a wildcard (some stay frozen forever, some a normal period, and some still thaw out instantly), and you have to be careful not to lose it to overfreezing (meaning hitting the same metroid with too many), while accounting for the metroids moving away from you while they're stunned. I've cleared two of these rooms so far.

Drew, in the next version, please, please, PLEASE put an Energy Recharge Station next to the Ammo Station under the elevator. There is no reason for one not to be here, especially since I constantly have to come back anyway for refills to break open doors. I shouldn't have to leave Tourian and go farm Zoas to get my energy back after a bad rumble with metroids.

Then again, I did bring this madness upon myself, so what right do I have to complain?

Edit: Wow, Rinka's actually drop health here. I'm stupid.

Update: Dozens of refills later, made it to the energy recharge station and the save point. I'm halfway there.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

The feeding pit lies ahead.

Update 2: Two hours and many refills later:

[spoiler]

Finally I've earned the right to challenge Mother Brain.[/spoiler]

Update 3: Finished! Now with 100% more Save the Animals.

[spoiler]

Mother Brain took two attempts. The fight was much shorter than I was expecting it to be. Ice Beam by itself actually does reasonable damage in Axeil. And Hyper Beam did indeed deal 439 damage, so the equivalent of 4 E-Tanks is necessary here.

So this next run I'll be going for the alternate entrance into Lower Norfair. The goal will be to drop the two extra Super packs and omit the WJB's. So that means I'll have to do a partial EPBC and get Bombs early. I'll have to utilize IBJ a lot in this run, but I'm getting more comfortable with it now, so we'll see.

And that run starts now.

[Foxhound3857]

New post because this is a new run.

Housten, we have a problem.

[spoiler]



Okay, so apparently the EPBC flags are set in place, even though I clearly don't have early power bombs (yet). I initiated the EPBC route by making it back to my ship without setting off tripwires, but once I made it to my ship and saved, I immediately set off the nearest wire. The reason I did this was to get early bombs, since I wouldn't be able to reach them otherwise without Wall Jump Boots (which I'm skipping in this run), and I only used this route so I could reach the bombs, and then set off the nearest wire to shut off the EPBC so things could progress as normal. I did get my bombs, but now I've run into two blockades that I know for a fact are set off by the EPBC flag, which I should NOT be flagged for because I aborted it part way through. I clearly do not have Power Bombs here, yet the blockades are here.

I guess this isn't a big deal for Spore Spawn since I wasn't going to grab WJB anyway, but I WAS going to grab his Super Missile pack, and now I don't know where to get one. And worse, now that I know these two blockades are here, I'm worried about what other rooms have been altered like this, and I'm starting to worry if skipping WJB is even going to be possible at all in this regard.

So, one, where can I get Super Missiles now?

And two, are these the only changed rooms for getting early bombs, or is there more to follow?

Or am I basically softlocked now?

Oh, and this.

[/spoiler]

[CaRmAgE]

I'm pretty sure the second image is normal.  It states in the readme that passage to WJBs is blocked if you get Bombs early.

You may have to get the other Super Missile expansion that is east of the elevator.

As for the third image, it's a missile door on the other side I think, so it would be one of those doors I mentioned earlier that must be unlocked from one side.  That might explain the second image instead of the normal EPBC blockade for WJBs (so you can't save in a permastuck situation).  Try opening the door first before going through the early PB maze.

[Foxhound3857]

I'm pretty sure the second image is normal.  It states in the readme that passage to WJBs is blocked if you get Bombs early.

You may have to get the other Super Missile expansion that is east of the elevator.

As for the third image, it's a missile door on the other side I think, so it would be one of those doors I mentioned earlier that must be unlocked from one side.  That might explain the second image instead of the normal EPBC blockade for WJBs (so you can't save in a permastuck situation).  Try opening the door first before going through the early PB maze.

Did not know that. Thank you for clarifying.

I tried to go that way to get the Super Missile tank over there (IBJing up the shaft next to the elevator). The door is locked and I'm pretty sure killing Spore Spawn is the trigger to open it.

Oh yeah, forgot about that. Even so, I can't do the early PB maze without Supers since there's a green switch you need to hit inside.

[Drewseph]

If the door is locked something might be broken. I will look when i get home in an hour

[Foxhound3857]

If the door is locked something might be broken. I will look when i get home in an hour

The door immediately up the shaft is not locked, but the one beyond it is (the greenish room with the side hoppers and the PB blocks in the middle). Killing the Side Hoppers did not unlock the door. I'll get a screencap for you.

Here you go.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Drewseph]

If there is another alternate route then I honestly must have forgotten about it during the process of making axeil.  I honestly think I might have fubard up somehow...  this is another issue to figure out for the FINAL release.  Let me ponder it for a while and get back to you.


Edit:  Looks like in following some feedback in testing, a PURPLE door was changed to a green door. breaking the no WJ run.  there should have been a way to obtain a super somehow to open up another path to progress, but looks like I need to insert some more codes so find a fix.

[Foxhound3857]

If there is another alternate route then I honestly must have forgotten about it during the process of making axeil.  I honestly think I might have fubard up somehow...  this is another issue to figure out for the FINAL release.  Let me ponder it for a while and get back to you.


Edit:  Looks like in following some feedback in testing, a PURPLE door was changed to a green door. breaking the no WJ run.  there should have been a way to obtain a super somehow to open up another path to progress, but looks like I need to insert some more codes so find a fix.

So the Early Bombs route is basically borked for the time being then? Well, thanks for letting me know, I was prepared to sink a few hours into making progress when there was likely none to be had.

So I guess the best I could do then is get WJB and Bombs as normal, then get the early fake PB pack in Brinstar and early Speed Booster to unlock the back door to Lower Norfair to skip the two Super packs. So for the time being, I should still be able to shave this down to 16.2%.

[personitis]

EPBC is still able to be completed in 1.52. Also, I believe some number crunching was done and it was found that lowest percent would be done using EPBC. And I mentioned in an earlier post, since things are to be changed, don't sink/waste too much time planning on 1.52 unless you think we won't see 1.6 for a while.

[Zero Dozer]

Drew indeed plans to have a Final version, he however has to balance his hacking with family life, so it might take a while.

Also, me and another guy are living proof that the EPBC can be completed.

[Foxhound3857]

EPBC is still able to be completed in 1.52. Also, I believe some number crunching was done and it was found that lowest percent would be done using EPBC. And I mentioned in an earlier post, since things are to be changed, don't sink/waste too much time planning on 1.52 unless you think we won't see 1.6 for a while.

EPBC can, but if Drew is correct, Early Regular Bombs currently cannot, which makes WJB's 100% unskippable outside of EPBC. And I'm mostly doing it for practice right now, but when 1.6 comes around I will probably devote time trying to plan it, at least for non-EPBC.

And I did some number crunching as well, and compiled a list of what I assume to be the (theoretically) absolute minimum requirements for completing EPBC (taking into account that you don't need to grab the expansions that are forced upon you while hunting for Guardians).

15 Missiles
3 Super Missiles
3 Power Bombs
4 E-Tanks
Charge Beam
Ice Beam
Grapple Beam
Varia Suit
Morph Ball
Hi-Jump
Speed Booster

This stuff all comes out to roughly 12% or so. We already know a minimum of 4 E-Tanks are required to survive Mother Brain's Hyper Beam attack (439 damage), and 18 combined missiles are required to break the glass barrier. 15+3 covers the required 18 to crack the barrier and deal the 3,000 necessary to send MB into phase 2 (Missiles do 50, Supers do 750). With perfect timing, I've also discovered that 15 missiles are JUST enough to break a death laser zebetite, but 15 + 1 super covers it as well. And all the other items listed are the ones that I recall Elm had in his EPBC run.

Basically, for EPBC this leaves two questions up in the air, and Elm answered one of them to a degree.

1. Can Lower Norfair be done in EPBC low% without needing to Crystal Flash?
2. Exactly how many Power Bombs are actually necessary to complete EPBC (and in particular dealing with three-metroid rooms in Tourian)?

Three seems to be the absolute minimum from what I've seen (two to stun the three metroids, one to activate Ice SBA). Four might be required for the magmoor morph ball tunnel in Hell's Run?

[Drewseph]

I Will find a way to fix the bombs issue, even if I need to hard code a few doors to go away. Actually I just thought of a solution, change the super missile switch in the alt EPB puzzle into a missile switch.

[Foxhound3857]

I Will find a way to fix the bombs issue, even if I need to hard code a few doors to go away. Actually I just thought of a solution, change the super missile switch in the alt EPB puzzle into a missile switch.

Why not just remove the wall blocking access to WJB's? Block off the bottom door in Spore Spawn's room instead. This would allow Spore Spawns Supers to be collected as intended and still keep Spore Spawn as a mandatory fight, then you could go complete the fake EPB puzzle right after. It would even fix the problem with that locked door east of the elevator.

[Drewseph]

Actually you just reminded me of something, the blockade was originally to stop WJ for EPBC before I decided to give the WJB room a new state.  , I also intended the spike pit supers to be obtained. so the locked door might be redundant
someone look at the original redesign and tell me if there is a locked door in the spike room to the top right of brinstar elevator?  maybe it can simply be removed?

[Foxhound3857]

Actually you just reminded me of something, the blockade was originally to stop WJ for EPBC before I decided to give the WJB room a new state.  , I also intended the spike pit supers to be obtained. so the locked door might be redundant
someone look at the original redesign and tell me if there is a locked door in the spike room to the top right of brinstar elevator?  maybe it can simply be removed?

Here you go Drew.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

I thought I was going to be prevented from doing this because I'd have to kill Spore Spawn, the supposed trigger, but the bottom door was already unlocked when I got there, so I didn't have to fight him.

[Drewseph]

okay I settled on an alt route.  I also sent you a PM

[Beardy]

I'm thinking about doing a tool-assisted EPBC playthrough (and making a snes9x movie file). Has anybody done this already? Should I not bother?

[Quietus]

Even if somebody has already recorded one, there's no harm in having another. :^_^: