Topic: Metroid Dread

@NEStalgia If you've got as far as RB, YOU CAN DO IT!

Metroid games always draw out the "Woah, that boss was a killer, it took me like 3 tries before I could no-hit kill them in 9 seconds!" crowd, but just forget about that, take the deaths and analyse where you're taking hits that can be reduced. I don't think there's anything about RB that requires significantly greater skill than you've already employed beating the other bosses.

@Ninfan Special Edition or not, Gold points for physical games are always determined by the RRP of the physical game by itself and the amount is equivalent to 1% of RRP. Digital games give you 5% of the current price in Gold Points at the time of purchase.

@NEStalgia Don't give up. It feels fantastic finally kicking RB's butt. Only real advice I can give is abuse the Storm Missiles and use Flash Shift to get out of tight spots rather than trying to run out of the way as Flash Shift covers a lot of distance.

@MarioBrickLayer I didn’t finish it because you can’t save…but I got through 3 EMMI rooms and got a little past picking up the map. That was enough for me to see the level layout, determine the relative difficulty of the EMMI rooms (less stressful than SA-X imo but I’m assuming they will become more complex/difficult.) and get used to the controls.

@rallydefault I’m not a fan of the genre or Metroid (despite having a deep respect for the significance of Samus’ character since as a female there weren’t a ton of cool female characters to play as in the late 80s early 90s that weren’t in fighting games) however I do own all the games in the series in some fashion (except dread) and I have been working on my backlog and thus trying games that have been left un-beaten. That being said, the demo was interesting enough that I am excited to buy the game rather than merely buying because I don’t want to have to pay a scalper later (all games having a digital version has mitigated this some except for licensed/fifa games) if I change my mind.

I will say the level design keeps gameplay fluid which makes sense for sections where you can be one shot/stabbed by an enemy.

@NEStalgia
Took me about 10-15 tries to finally beat Raven Beak. What exactly is it in phase 2 that's given you problems? For me, I screwed up on the jumping occasionally and wasn't always reading his tells to switch to the morph ball in time to avoid his dash. Get those down, and you should be able to get past him. Phase 3 is actually easier than 2, imo. Just be ready to use the power bomb.

@NEStalgia IDK what your issue is with dodging his attacks. As long as you're using Flash Shift (for the downward charge) and Slide (for the sideways charge), you shouldn't have much issue, you don't really need super quick reflexes to beat Phase 2.

@gcunit @MS7000 @Gamer83 @Bolt_Strike Thanks, all! I struggle enough with phase one, though I realized my initial struggles were that after the melee counter you're supposed to fire missiles relentlessly. Nothing in the game or the animation hinted at that to me, so I'd keep waiting for the next counter that never came, literally extending the first phase infinitely until I'd run out of missiles. I'm better at that now and can get to phase 2 with at least half health at least half the attempts. I think there's still 2 energy tanks I don't have, but I think where I'm failing, 2 more tanks wouldn't save me.

Phase 1 I struggle with the black hole balls. I can storm missile them maybe half the time, but despite 4 lockons it usually misses half the time, and then he does the beam into the air, and I have to avoid it, then avoid the followup with space jump, and end up landing on it anyway. I also end up in the air beam zone often, and end up missing space jumps when he backs me into the corner enough to get hit periodically. Phase 1 is mostly slow attrition.

If I get to phase 2, my sucky reaction times, and my sucky speed/ability at identifying small otherwise similar tells and responding accordingly get me. It's not unique to RB, it's why I suck at MH and Souls. I've always sucked at that, even as a kid, and after thousands of gaming hours logged, it's a sure bet I'm not going to get better at it (queue classic gif of baseball going past kid, then kid swings at it.) That's me in these "react to the telegraphed attack' games. I've simply never had reaction times at processing that well. He's started into the attack by the time my brain processes what attack it's going to be and what to do about it. His circular machine gun thing will get me once or more than once every time, even when I do everything well, and most of the time I mess up the gravity jump to go over and around. His side-to-side attacks devastate me. I know I SHOULD slide, but I unfortunately know that AFTER he's passed by. And If I figure it out in time, I usually end up jumping or shooting, or dashing instead. The solid beam is ok, but gets me occasionally.

I did get to phase 3 once, and only once. And I have no idea what I'm doing on that one, I had very little health left and got pummeled right away.

Why Storm Missiles? The black hole stuff is easier and faster if you shoot 4 normal missiles at it.
Destroying them gives you health and missiles back, so you can enter phase 2 maxed out.

I don't get why people don't try the simplest things, but instead adapt horrible anti-strategies and give up.

@NEStalgia
Once you see him go into the motion for the black hole, run away then fire four regular missiles at it after release. Gives more health and ammo. I also struggled with phase 1 the first time or two, not realizing you had to shoot at him after countering.

Or just use power bombs lol

Charge one the moment he starts charging and you don't have to even think about it while getting free damage on him.

Currently speed running the game and admittingly he bent me over on my first playthrough but once you start using power bombs you basically get to ignore phases with how much they counter what he does. Its phase 3 you gotta brute force and have good dodging mechanics for. That's the only phase I still have trouble doing 0 damage taken runs with and its mainly due to how fast his lazer suddenly fires and space boots being finnicky sometimes when he's shooting all around him.

So here's something fun: right now Metroid Dread is the 22nd best rated game on Metacritic for 2021.

Now that might not seem that special, but if you take away multiple versions of games and re-releases and DLC, its actually 6th. (technically 5th, but Fate of Morgana did not have a Metacritic score before the Switch port, so I'd count it as a 2021 game if we still count Among Us as a 2020 game).

@NEStalgia This was my tactic. As long as you can stay composed enough so that, as soon as an orb appears, you go into morph ball mode and hold R to charge the power bomb, then lay it immediately and make sure you're far enough from the orb that the bomb will detonate before the orb touches you, those attacks are easy, and refill your power bomb stash and supply health. He uses the orbs so much that you should be able to maintain high health from all the top-ups dropped when your bombs detonate. And it takes the panic out of having to aim your cannon accurately.

When he's doing the rapid fire, I found it best to move in a fairly tight vertical ellipse around him, rather than a circle. So when he's about to start firing, jump to the side to enter the spin, then the next jump should be up, then back across (might have to be diagonal up-across if you're not clear of his head) over his head, then DROP down the other side of him rather than jumping further across - the dropping down buys you more space/time as he continues his rotation, otherwise I found I was constantly so close to where he was firing that one tiny error on my part meant I took damage.

@gcunit ya thats what I do, just when you do it several times and you're bound to accidentally 'bump' into one of the bullets messing up your 0 damage run, especially if he's doing the attack while being right next to the wall, leaving you with very little room.

I can do pretty much all of them no damage except for the experiment (the floor goo sometimes clips you and is easy to overshoot the flash and land on) and escue (the missile barrage thing is just really cheap lmao. Its dodgable but waaaay too tricky.)

@Araquanid I've done Escue no damage... With early Screw Attack, if that counts. All his attacks are wrecked by the screw attack, and you take no damage jumping into him with it.

As for the experiment... Honestly, I did it once, but it was mostly luck + a whole heck of a lot of attempts. Oh, and early kill with shine spark. No idea how to do it consistently.

Edit: I've never brought the Screw Attack to the expirement... That might be a viable strategy.

Anyone know if progress in the demo goes to the full game?

There! After 20 hours game completed 100%. Some item-puzzles have been created by true sadists, it was insane. But I did it. Endboss was amazing. Very cool, very challenging. And of course: Raven-beak for the next Smash!

Every Switch game I've ever played a demo for has transferred the data across to the full game once I've bought it, can't see why this would be any different!

@thiz eh, hang in there. Explore every nook and cranny and shoot everything. You'll get there ..

@thiz that's totally fine though. There's really no rush in these types of games. Just take your time.

@thiz I'm skeptical that many people finished the game, on their first playthrough and without following any guides or watching any videos, in 5-8 hrs.

And even if they did, WGAF? Just play for your own enjoyment. You will hit moments of frustration, but they can all be overcome with a bit of persistence and attention to detail.

My first playthrough clocked in at 12 hours on the in-game timer and around 15-16 IRL (Deaths don't count and loading screens don't count on the in-game timer). Just take your time, enjoy the scenery.