Techniques: Infinite Speed
Discovered byMaster ZED
Infinite Speed is a glitch in the game's collision detection that can be used to collect items without touching them. This allows for many early item sequence breaks.
To perform the glitch, first you must get Samus stuck in a wall in Morph Ball form. A common way to do this is to stand next to a crate and morph. It can also be done on normal walls in situations where you can trick the game into thinking you are in a different room (sometimes this can be done just by edging into a room very carefully).
Once you are stuck, experiment with holding the Control Stick in different directions to roll the Morph Ball in place for some time. Your goal is to get the Morph Ball to seemingly slow down (even though you are still holding the stick) - but instead of stopping completely, it will quickly flash back and forth between two positions. Once you find the right direction on the Control Stick to achieve this flickering effect of the Morph Ball, keep holding in that direction for about one minute. Even though it looks like nothing is happening, the Morph Ball is continuing to build up speed the whole time, eventually becoming too fast for the game to process correctly.
After about a minute has passed, things become very glitchy. You will see the Morph Ball disappear, leaving just the glowy particle effect. Now you can let go of the Control Stick. If you were stuck in a wall, Boost to get out. If you were stuck in a crate, you can lay a Bomb to destroy it and get out.
Now, if you Boost while in this glitchy state, you will automatically collect nearby items, even ones hidden behind walls.
Unfortunately, you cannot unmorph in most places while the game is in this glitched state, or you will be blind due to glitched graphics in first person view. In order to cancel the Infinite Speed glitch, you need to make your way to an elevator or save station, then unmorph directly on top of it. Activating a cutscene such as the ones that play when Samus first enters an area also works.
If you have no choice but to unmorph somewhere else while the game is glitched, you have one remaining option: turn off "HUD lag" using the pause menu. This will allow you to see your location on the minimap in the top right corner of the screen as you try to navigate with a glitched screen.
Also note that you will only be able to open doors by laying Bombs: shooting them will not work, which means that you can't open Wave/Ice/Plasma doors!
Examples of Infinite Speed include Early Power Bombs and Early Sun.