Metroid Fusion 1% Run
Behold the mighty reference map, and all it's glory.
Nightmare
Here he is. The biggest of the big. The worst of the worst. The legendary biggest pain in the neck for anyone who's ever tried a 1% game.
The KING of the Terrible Trio of bosses. Yakuza is random to the max and a major bother for 1%ers, Nettori is either tricky or terribly time consuming with only 15 missiles, but nightmare beats them both out. This fellow is just not 1% friendly no matter how you slice it.
In fact, this fellow is ESPECIALLY unfriendly to someone doing a no-hit game. It's very easy to get into positions where you have no way out and get it. The dude is massive. Just outright MASSIVE.
But I'll go into that in a little bit. First
M: The last time we'll have to see Mustard Samus load. Thank goodness.
L: Landing is bad
N: Time on the ground is faster than time in the air. What is this, back to basics? You know all this already I'm sure.
See how I grabbed onto the ledge after only one mid-air jump? That takes a very efficient space jump to do, I made sure I did that for the segment though. Nothing is too good for you guys.
And death to boss door. He was very cooperative, I must say I'm impressed. And no need to stop and refill as we have all our missiles.
O: Don't grab the e-tank. crumble and rumble
P: P is for pest, which is Nightmare all over.
Alright, the first thing we need to talk about is how freaky crazy nightmare's damage zones are.
Remember Nettori? The actual "hurtz" part of nettori was this little rectangle which was much smaller than the sprite for the guy. Nightmare is more complicated, and really freakish with his damage zones.
I'm not going to bother taking precice measurements, as I'm lazy, but lemme half-ass up a quick diagram for you, as it's easier than describing:
And here we have a close up of ole ugly.
This is a general approximation of what's going on with the fellow. Cross a red line and you get hit. As you can see, it only barely matches up with his sprite. And don't e-mail me telling me how the circle isn't high enough or the arm is too wide, this is a 10-second approximation to give you an idea, not a precice map of the fellow.
As you can see nightmare has invisible pieces that will hurt you as well as pieces which you can see but don't really exist.
Having a general knowledge of how he's shaped will help immensely in fighting the fellow while avoiding damage. Knowing for instance that you can pass through that left pointy thing on top of him all you want, but you don't want to go anywhere near the top one. And knowing that his back is larger than it appears. So on and so forth.
But the most relevent thing that comes out of this is that left arm. (our left, not his)
notice just how much of it isn't really there. Also notice that his armpit has a kind of safe zone. We'll make use of that in a bit.
Anyway, now that you have an idea of what's going on, let's get on with the video.
Maaaaan, could this guy take any longer to show up?
Alright, nightmare will lose his mask after 5 shots to his ball. Glad there's no referees around.
By now you're probably wondering why I face left as he rises and becomes vulnerable. If I had faced right, I would have done full damage to this fellow. All 3 plasma shots plus the extra animation near the gun.
If I had done full damage, he would have immediately gone into gravity mode after just one shot. And he's take 4 more to come out of it.
However, since I only do a little damage to him with my first shot, he goes into gravity mode on shot 2. Then he only takes 3 more shots to lose his mask.
A lot of stuff works out better if you do it this way. A big one is that his lasers won't hit you when you're morphed and hiding in his armpit, which they kind of tend to do if you do the 'gravity mode in one shot' route.
Anyways, yeah, kneeling his ball won't hit you, and you can take that second shot to him when he goes back up. Gotta be careful not to stand too early though, obviously.
As far as weird gravity mode goes, one needs to jump up to the ball to do full damage to it, but it takes a loooong time to jump while gravity is wiggy, so jump way early to get there in time to release a charged beam.
Once the third shot is fired and his ball is flashing, he's going to lose his mask. But not before he tries to crush me. But using our newfound knowledge of his zones, we can morph and hide in his armpit. Isn't that great?
Remember, a lot of that arm isn't really there, so it's a good haven. Just stay away from that flashing ball.
Then at some point he'll decide to actually come out of that phase. At this point we land on the ladder, hanging on as low as we're able (don't worry, I don't think his lasers can hit you no matter how low you are on the ladder).
Wait a couple seconds after he explodes, then release a charge and all your missiles into his face. With proper practice and timing one can get the beams to hit right as his mask goes.
Ugh, I kind of wish the mask stayed on.
If you missile quickly, there's enough time left over to charge your beam and release a full damage into his fugly mug. Remember, that left spike isn't there, so you have plenty of room to climb the ladder and jump away even if it seems like he's about to crush you.
We're almost done! Kind of.
Actually now's where the REAL nightmare fight begins. I call this his assy phase. This is when he just bloats around trying to shove you with his ass.
Seriously the guy is just plain bulky, and can turn on a dime unless he's got a lot of momentum going.
Alright, when the mask comes off he'll either move up or down at you. I don't know if this is random or depends on your movements, because for me he seriously favored moving down.
Now, as you probably are aware, during this phase nightmare's only attack consists of flying around the room trying to hit you. Where and how he moves depends on how you do. He's basically a real ugly mega-x who has weird damage zones and a tiny weak spot.
There's one exception to this, sometimes nightmare will stop in his tracks and start shooting you.
This is a very important thing, for it makes him a sitting duck. It's much easier to hit something that's not moving, as if I had to say it.
One of the great questions of the ages is just what exactly causes nightmare to stop. Well after much study I can finally say... I'm not sure...
It definitely depends on your movements. The same set of movements were able to yield the same results, just as with mega x. There seems to be a kind of... spot... that's nice for him to be in, and if you're left and a bit down of him, he'll stop there. Also it seems to be good if he's not off screen or about to go off screen. That seems to be about it.
In any event, I found some movements that work really well, as the video will show.
Both times (after his initial mask blow up and after the first stop) he decided to move down at me, but the premise is the same for moving up. Draw his movements to get him to that general area while you also are in the general area I was in. If you'll look, that was kind of the spot he was in when he lost his mask in the first place. I don't know if that's coincidental or not, but it seems a good thing.
Alright, I pump a looot of full damage charges into him while he's standing still. And his face gets squishier and squishier.
U-G-L-Y you ain't got no alibi you ugly
Once again, keep in mind what's there and what's not when dancing around. You can get pretty close to that face as the rim and spike aren't there, just don't touch the actual face (or empty space where the face used to be)
In fact, even when his face is all squishy and red and small, you can still fire into the empty space where his face used to be and deal all the damage to him.
Then he starts with the assy phase again, then I draw him into practically the exact same spot and he stops again, go figure, and I kill him.
Now just like BOX, the nightmare will move over to a certain spot on the screen when he dies, so kill him close to it. I kind of did, but the spot is kind of to the right and I kind of had to kill him leftish because of the fact that he moves left during his shootings, and it's still faster than making him go assy a 3rd time.
So he loses his arms and things and the core-x appears. A practically perfect nightmare kill in every way.
At this point I was kind of on edge, it was actually the first time I managed to do that without getting hit.
See I'm out of missiles now, and when the core-x appears it will spawn green x's for me, but the problem is they will move AWAY from me no matter where I am.
Usually I'm down and to the left of the core x when it appears and the guys move up and right, so I tried to jump and take advantage of that, but I jumped hella early, and the x's moved up and left.
I wasted I estimate 2 seconds over when I WOULD have gotten my first green x, but there's no way to grab them fast in any event, not without risking severe collisions with the core itself. Overall I don't mind if you don't, and i saved hours on a perfect nightmare fight so a couple seconds here won't make me lose any sleep.
Also after that boo boo I got really into my zone for the core x fight, that was as perfect as nightmare. Sweet.
And that's that, gravity suit acquired, hurrah!
And we never have to see ugly mustard samus again. Now it's yummy grapevine samus. See grape for purple and vine for green. ISN'T THAT CLEVER?!?
ahem
Alright, that door on the left is stupid. We need to build a boost upon leaving, but if we just run to it we'll hit it and stop.
One must run left to open the door, run right to boost distance, then left again through the open door. Quite retarted, but it must be done.
Phew, nightmare finished. Quite a show, eh?
Now all that's left is the cleanup.
Q: A-boosting we will go
L: A-boosting we will go
K: High ho the dario... oh
alright, shine and spark for maximum speeeeedo
J: And to the bottom of the room we go. Now kill the fishes and the pirate there. That same pirate that was a semi-random factor last time we were in this room is one again.
If he moved right, he'll shoot at you. If left he won't. If he does, kneel and be on your way. This was the case for me, and used a bit of time, but I won't sweat it.
Using the marks on the floor as reference, we move until we're at boost distance, and away we go.
R: A-boosting we will go
S: A-boosting we will go
AQA, what do you know
A swift jump through the speed boost blocks and shoot some fish and at the save point.
:39 on the clock! Can any 1% game boast such a time after nightmare, I ask you. Thus ends the terrible trio of bosses for 1%. Only BOX, Ridley and the final battle to go. Almost finished!