Skipping the Spider Ball: Artifact of Wild
Discovered byKyuenjin
|
(download video) |
Notes:
- The Sun Tower is the room right after Flaahgra, the one that has that incredibly huge Spider Ball track. With some fancy Bomb Jumping, you can get the Sunchamber to reset (see the explanation at the bottom), in turn eliminating having to fall down and get the Spider Ball. This trick is required if attempting to complete a 23% or lower run.
- After beating Flaahgra, enter the Sun Tower, go past the Pulse Bombu, and walk to the end of the top ledge, then turn to the wall on your right. Jump in between the wall and the vertical bar next to it, getting as far in as you can. Then quickly morph while still in the air and hold the Control Stick up and to the left; from this point on, keep the Stick held there until I say otherwise.
- You'll fall down part of the shaft rather quickly, and land on one of the four Oculus enemies patrolling the Spider Ball track cubes. Now, the only way for this to work is to get hit by an Oculus, and let it carry you up until it begins to stop and starts moving to the right. Now you'll have to start a Bomb Jump back to the top ledge, before you fall off the Oculus. Only put down one bomb at a time, and each subsequent bomb should be placed just after the previous one explodes (not immediately, but less than 1/4 of a second). The timing here is critical.
- The result is an Infinite Bomb Jump that will get you back to the top ledge. Under normal circumstances, the timing of these bombs would not work, but by touching the Oculus and keeping the Stick held up-left, you can slow Samus' fall rate in ball form enough to keep her ascending with only one bomb. And because your stock will always refill before you can use up all three bombs this way, you can keep going until you reach the top ledge.
- After 10 or so bombs, Samus will be at the exact same height level as the top ledge or a bit higher / lower. Put down one last bomb, then move the stick to up or up-right and morph out right after it explodes. This will make Samus land safely on the top ledge if done correctly. Make sure everything is done quickly after the last bomb explodes, because your fall rate will return to normal as soon as you take the stick off up-left. Note that this does take quite a bit of practice.
- Now that you've gotten back to the top ledge, head back the way you came to reach the Sunchamber again. Upon entering, you'll find that the room has reset, and the Chozo Ghosts now inhabit the room. Defeat the trio to gain the Artifact of Wild.
- Explanation of why this trick works: In order for the gamer to accomplish the objectives in the game, certain things must happen in order for others to occur; these are commonly called "trigger points." The reason this trick works is quite simple, actually - the designers programmed the Sunchamber to reset after (a) Flaahgra was defeated and Samus has the Varia Suit, and (b) Samus has fallen off the ledge, and climbed back to the top. Since Samus indeed does go off the ledge, and gets back up using this trick, the trigger activates just as it would if Samus came back up having used the Super Missiles and Spider Ball.
Additional info:
- It's possible to change the ball's rate of fall by moving the Control Stick. Specifically, you can make the ball fall more slowly by angling the stick slightly up (toward 12 o'clock). In other words, instead of holding the stick purely up and to the left, try rotating it slightly clockwise from there. With some experimentation, you can arrive at a rate of fall that matches your intuition about when to lay the next bomb.
- It's even possible to adjust the ball's rate of fall while you are actually performing the trick. For example, if you see that the ball is not going to make it to the bomb you laid before it goes off, you can rotate the stick slightly counter-clockwise in order to make the ball fall more quickly. Vice versa also works: you can slow the ball so that it doesn't drop below your bomb before it goes off.
- This trick is actually used in the above video, though it's hard to see. I noticed that the ball was falling too slowly to meet the eighth bomb, so I increased the ball's rate of fall for a split second.
- Sometimes the ball's rate of fall seems to change even if you don't move the stick at all, making success elusive unless you take control yourself by rotating the stick in those cases.