Detour through Crateria - Super Metroid Guide - IGN

Once you've got the Power Bombs, you can take a detour through Crateria and Brinstar to mop up some helpful upgrades.

Leave the room with the Chozo Statue where you got the Power Bombs to head back to the vertical shaft to the right.

Stop at the save room and then go to the remaining green door, toward the top. Unlock it with a Super Missile.

This room has a walkway over a thorny floor with Yapping Maws, a thorned ceiling, and three Side Hoppers who immediately come after you. Use your Charge (Ice) Beam to take them down. This will unlock the gray door to the right.

Roll over to the left side and drop a Power Bomb. Most of the metal walkway will be blown up.

The flower to your immediate right is actually not alive. You can drop through it to a hidden room below the floor.

Pick up the Power Bomb Expansion from the pedestal in the lower left corner.

Jump back up and use the metal blocks to jump over the Yapping Maw back onto solid ground (ie, the part of the walkway that wasn't blown up), and exit the room.

Climb the shaft and take the east elevator up to Crateria.

Now that you've got a few Power Bombs, you can open the way up here. Roll up into a ball and drop a Power Bomb to open the yellow hatch.

Climb the vertical cave, dispatching of the Sciser crabs you encounter on the way.

Sciser is a slow-moving crab alien that is found in multiple areas. While its stats are always the same, its colors differ depending on the environment. Scisers are weak to the Grappling Beam.

There is a double row of destructible blocks you need to shoot at the top.

You're now in the Crateria overworld again. There's a path to the right, via a yellow door, you shouldn't yet take. Instead, head left, blasting the Kihunters on the way.

Open the blue door and go through the glass pipe tunnel to the left.

You'll find yourself in the clearing where you landed your ship. There's a wall in the way that you could bomb, but it's a much better idea to build up your Speed Booster. Are you up for a challenge?

Since the runway is too short, start on the right side of the glass pipe, fire your blaster to open the door, then hold B and run to the left.

Keeping running! Samus will start flashing blue and purple, indicating that her Speed Booster is active. Smash through the wall and you'll get back to your ship.

With the Speed Booster active and Samus flashing, sprint just past the ship, then hit and briefly hold D-pad Down . This will store the Speed Booster energy in Samus's suit, to be unleashed at the press of a button. Samus is flashing orange and you now have three seconds to turn the energy into a Shine Spark, which will let Samus rocket through the air with the same destructive force as the Speed Boster.

In this case, we want to do the Shine Spark diagonally to the top left.

To do this the easy way, hold the right shoulder button, R , which makes Samus aim diagonally, face left and hit jump ( A ).

Samus will blast through the air and smash into the left rock wall, breaking the blocks there.

You can use regular bombs or a Power Bomb to clear a horizontal tunnel to the left.

Go through this tunnel and open the blue door to the left.

This room has a rising and lowering acid pool that will damage Samus when she attempts to cross. To make things worse, Yapping Maws (that cannot be destroyed) try to pull her into the acid.

To start, roll into a ball at the edge and drop a Power Bomb.

This blows up the destructible blocks hanging from the ceiling, and another one in the middle. These blocks can be destroyed with normal bombs, too, but you have to pick your battles.

What follows is an obstacle course that can be completed much more easily later in the game, so if you're struggling with it, just make a note to come back later.

You'll have to make your way to the left side of the cave, using frozen Wavers as platforms to avoid the rising acid, then dropping bombs to destroy the blocks in your way. Freeze any Maws in your way on the ground to get past them ssafely.

Use regular bombs to preserve ammo whenever you can, but don't be afraid to take the easy route and use Power Bombs when you have to.

Exit through the blue door to the left to find a Chozo Statue holding an Energy Tank!

Are you up for more? Again, the next path is easier later, but since you're here and you've got full health now...

Bomb or Power Bomb the girder to the right of the Chozo Statue, then drop down and bomb the block. You have to move fast if you use regular bombs and you will certainly take damage.

Roll to the left and emerge in a room with metal pillars. Shoot the one to the left to open the path.

What follows is a bit of a repeat -- a moving acid pool with rock pillars that can be bombed. You can get close to the first and second one and stand on the edge without taking damage.

The last one requires you to move fast, however, as lingering in front of it will certainly damage you. A Power Bomb will take care of it easily, but you need to make sure that you have at least one left for the final obstacle.

Wait until the acid is just above the first metal block to the left, jump over to it, keep heading left and drop a power bomb to destroy the metal spikes and wall on the left side of the chamber.

The last platform to the left is safe, except for the Maw above and a spawn pipe with Zebs flying out of it.

Open the blue door. But don't rush through the next room. There are brittle blocks ahead.

Basically, there are two Missile Expansions waiting below, but you cannot easily get them in one go.

There is a well of brittle blocks at the center that can only be broken by standing on them, but the walls that protect the two tanks can be shot with your Beam.

We'll get the left one for now and leave the second one for a future visit when you've got a new power that makes the experience very different.

When entering the room, blast away the blocks in front of you to create a horizontal opening. Basically, bricks four and five (each two regular blocks wide) from the right are brittle and will break when you step on them.

If you want the left Missile Tank, hop across the first brittle block and stand on the left. The blocks will break and you will descend downward.

When you're near the Missile Tank, blast to the left and create an opening to jump over to it.

As you drop, note that there are two hidden Beetoms behind destructible blocks to the left and the right.

You can bomb or shoot the floor in the center to drop down, then roll to the left to fall through more brittle blocks or use a Power Bomb to create an opening on the right side.

The blue door to the right leads back up the slanted cave where you found your first Energy Tank. Let's take that path, this time, so we can pick up some more collectibles.

Run up the ramp and enter the blue door. Blow up the wall.

Drop down the first cave opening and go to the bottom of the vertical cave with all the Geemers.

Open the blue hatch at the bottom and drop down the long shaft with the Space Pirates, as well.

You're in the room from the very beginning, where the battle with Mother Brain took place in the Metroid 1 flashbacks. There are Space Pirates here.

You have bombs now, so bomb the area under where the glass tank with Mother Brain sat to find a secret passage and another few bombable blocks.

Drop into a hidden chamber below to find another Missile Expansion.

We'll have to take another detour to get an Energy Tank.

Shoot all the Space Pirates to open the doors, then exit this room to the right and catch the elevator down to Brinstar.

Remember the end of the cave to the right, where a watchful eye couldn't stop you from snagging a Missile Tank? There's an Energy Tank there, too.

Head right from the elevator until you get to the blue room with the overhanging blocks.

Seven blocks to the left, from the overhang, there's an Energy Tank embedded in the ceiling. Shoot the ceiling, then use your Hi-Jump to grab it.