A red scan item, a Cordite Statue, that apparently has some sort of power switch behind it. Can't seem to access it right now. But can now access the upper west path.
More bombu enemies... that means I'm getting close to ANOTHER powerup item the Chozo left here for Samus.
Chozo Ice Temple... this music right now omg
An easy space jump platforming segment... Up at the top is a bunch of Chozo statues with red scan marks, and a statue with a frozen water fountain coming out of its mouth... probably an item here later to get with the Plasma beam.
The door leading further west is blocked off by chozo statue technology.
A statue depicting the bust of a Chozo shaman adorns this door. A symbol is carved into its forehead. The translation reads, "To pass my gaze, seek my twin within this room."This is a really easy puzzle.
These 4 Chozo statues on the wall... a Chozo Architect... a Chozo Philosopher, a Chozo Warrior, and a Chozo Shaman... only the Shaman's statue is weakened and can be destroyed with a missile to reveal the bomb switch behind it.
Chapel of the Elders
A bunch of Baby Sheegoths get released just as I try to approach the item... These enemies are actually kind of a threat when there's a lot of them at once.
Sheegoths are invulnerable to most Beam weapons. The crystals on their back absorb energy, which they can fire at prey. Sheegoths have poor stamina. They hyperventilate after using their breath attack, making their mouth area vulnerable. The soft underbelly of a Sheegoth is susceptible to concussive blasts.
This boss was a pushover. You can't just shoot their backs anymore like the baby ones, but unlike the baby ones, the Sheegoth's ice breath doesn't freeze you... and the fact that it has to catch its breath after using it, makes this fight a pushover. You can literally just stand in front of it, jump over its breath attack, shoot some missiles into its mouth, and rinse repeat.
Got Wave Beam... I can think of quite a few places I needed this.
So this is the "west temple" the pirates put into lockdown phase 2? They didn't do a good job of keeping me away from that wave beam if that's the case lol... Did they literally just luck up some Sheegoths inside this place and set it up so they'd be set free if anyone went near the Wave Beam?
The Chozo Ice Temple has Pulse Bombu enemies in it now, to give you a chance to demonstrate your Wave Beam.
Oh damn, and now there are baby Sheegoth enemies in the Shorelines area.
The closest purple door to where I am is in Ice Ruins West, leading further south... That's the opposite direction Ridley flew towards. I guess that means he came from here.
Now in Ice Ruins West with the Space Jump I can get a stalactite, which I think is a missable logbook scan... it's a bit of a maze to find where this is due to all the ruined building walls hiding stuff in this room.
I didn't realize this at the time, but there's another missable scan here that I missed. The Ice Shriekbat. This is the ONLY time in the game that you can encounter this enemy for some strange reason.
Ruined Courtyard
From here there's like 3 high up paths in 3 different directions... this room has 3 platform towers with spinner devices on 2 of them. These 2 spinners open up the 4 statue mouths at the top, and enable a bomb slot, which makes water come out of those statues' mouths and temporarily raises the water level. This enables access to a morphball path with the 5th energy tank, as well as all 3 of the high up doorways... The flickerbats actually get in your way and ram into you up here...
The the door going east is disabled and requires a bomb slot behind a cordite statue to be activated.
The grey door to the west is Save Station A.
Sweet, more pirate flavor text in this save station... meh, it's mostly just directions meant for employees or something.
Next, the purple door going even further south into the pirates Research Lab.
Specimen Storage
A select group of Space Pirates have access to sophisticated cloaking technology. This gear drains high levels of power, however, forcing them to rely solely on melee weapons in battle. Use enhanced detection gear when fighting these units.lol I guess this one doesn't know how to use his stealth device.
Research Entrance
Suddenly I'm in a hallway with a turret that's very reminscent of Frigate. A security drone alerts all the Space Pirates in the area.
Space Pirates wield Galvanic Accelerator Cannons and forearm-mounted Scythes in combat. This species seeks to become the dominant force in the galaxy, and their technology may help them realize this goal. Ruthless and amoral, the Pirates care little for the cost of their ambition. Only the results matter, and they take these very seriously.These enemies are way more aggressive than the slightly injured ones I fought on the Frigate, but they're still kinda easy. They go down in two fully charged wave beam shots, and their aim isn't any better than turrets... I expected much worse on "Veteran mode".
Map station... by now it's very obvious that the purple door always means it's the path forward and the blue doors are side paths.
From the map, I see that the path behind the Cordite statue door east of the Ruined Courtyard leads to another big Sunchamber-like room... probably something big there like an artifact or whatever... but for now I can only go further into the Research Lab, which seems to be a mostly linear path through a bunch of rooms that are shaped similarily to the Frigate rooms.
Oh, also there's more Pirate Lore in this map room.
They're developing Thermal Imaging technology in order to help locate sources of Phazon, and to detect weak areas in the blast-resistant Phazon ore. They worry about this weakness being found by aggressors...
Also it seems like they've started doing more Phazon experiments here.
Project Titan specimen is immobilized in Quarantine Cave. Relocation is recommended due to increased violent activity.East Quarantine Cave restricted to Blue-level security, requires bio-scan from authorized personnel.
Phendrana Drifts - Research Lab Hydra
This single room is its own section, just because of how much lore and other details there are to cover.
So this is the forcefield they were talking about.
There's a ton of Space Pirates here... They get really annoying when they get up in your face... but from a distance they are easy to take out. Just a charged shot followed by a missile kills them very quickly.
Some red pirate lore logbook scans... They've been doing phazon experiments on the wildlife here, trying to test how strong they can become before they die from it... The level 3 phase makes some of them too wild and dangerous that they have to be euthanized.
One of them talks about how they completed building the security checkpoints on Tallon IV, but local creatures keep breaching it. They realized there must be small creatures coming in through these small tunnels, and they're trying to seal up all the tunnels they can, but have little faith in being able to block off all of them...
(so I guess that explains why some creatures are missable and can't be found again later in the game).
They detected Phazon that seems to have come from a meteor that leaked it into the environment.
Mining operations have begun near the crater where Phazon appears to be most concentrated. Daily Phazon yields have increased 44%, and our mining system becomes more streamlined as personnel and equipment flows increase. Several incidents of Phazon-induced madness have been reported, prompting augmented life-support regulations in the deeper chambers. Symptoms include loss of equilibrium, erratic respiration, muscle spasms, and in the most extreme cases, hallucinations. A timeline reassessment for the refinery operation is recommended, as the material proves more unstable than initial analysis indicated.Woah... this plot is so good.
Got the 50% log book completion notice just now.
Most of these orange research note scans aren't very interesting, but one of them says:
Xenome 5-a is undergoing relocation to Lab Hydra. Subject's transfer ordered after a pronounced increase in aberrant behavior. Security Clearance ADR-13.This must be the specimen that became too powerful and was immobilized...
The orange research notes up at the top report about a virus contained in one of the Phazon-mutated batches, and that's why they needed to put certain sections under containment.
One last pirate logbook scan here...
Research outpost Glacier One in the Phendrana Drifts region of Tallon IV's mountains is operating at 85% capacity. Sub-zero temperatures have made the Metroids sluggish and easy to control, even those well into Phazon-infusion cycles. Cold-containment stasis tanks are sufficient for the juveniles, but some of the larger Metroids have been moved to quarantined caves for safety purposes. Security doors remain an issue, as malfunctions due to ice occur every day. Large predators in the wastes are also a concern, as they continue to kill personnel and breach secure areas. Unfortunately, it has become clear that our containment teams cannot neutralize all of them without a vast increase in munitions and soldiers.Man... these pirates really got in over their heads with this phazon shit... they should be as spooked about it as the Chozo were, but they're not cuz they're dumb.
Phendrana Drifts - Observatory and Control Tower
Just realized the groups of Space Pirates are a lot easier to deal with if you use just slightly charged Wave Beam shots to stun them.
More pirate lore
Scans of the Spiral Sector detected a massive energy spike emanating from a Wanderer-class planet identified as Tallon IV. Scout reconnaissance was immediately dispatched to the center of the spike, a land mass at heading mark 40.08.02, returning with planetary samples and atmospheric imaging. Analysis shows the energy source to be an unstable radioactive material of enormous potential. We are unable to form an accurate risk assessment at this time, but we are unlikely to find an energy source this powerful again. Analysis will continue, but currently Tallon IV appears to be a viable secondary headquarters.
Phazon mining is under way. Several garrisons have been established and terraforming of the Chozo Ruins is under way. Security systems are operational, and Science Team continues to make progress in their biotech research. The Phendrana Drifts have proven to be an optimal location of Research Headquarters, and soon it will be joined by a fully operation Combat base and starport. If Command's predictions are half true, we shall rise dominant of this sector within a deca-cycle. Truly, these are glorious times.Completed the little space jump platforming and boostball spinner puzzle to activate the holographic projector showing the planetary system.
Planet Zebes is shown on here... as well as this planet, Tallon IV... as well as a few uninhabitable planets...
Ecosystem studies indicate that Tallon IV was a biological paradise prior to the impact of an extraterrestrial object. What remains of the biosphere is slowly fading due to exposure to Phazon radiation. At current rate of decay, Tallon IV will be a barren Class XIII wasteland in approximately 25 years.
Planet's crust is primarily Urthic ore, making it ideal for subterranean construction. A class XIX planet, Zebes is inhospitable to most bioforms. The world was considered unremarkable until it became a base for Space Pirate forces.
After activating the observatory, some of the platforms have moved just a bit so that you can barely get up to the top with Space Jump, where the Super Missile is. In this game, the Super Missile requires shooting a missile while charging the power beam. This is what is needed to destroy Cordite...
I wonder if I should go back to destroy that one Cordite thing I saw earlier in the research lab... actually maybe not, looks like this pirate base map only goes on for another 3 big rooms leading to a dead-end, so I'll go there first... then find a good place to save and quit as I backtrack through to the Phendrana Shoreline.
Two Doors at the top of the Observatory. One goes to a save station.
Also there's a couple more boring orange bulletin scans in this save room, talking about the observatory needing maintenance/upgrade...
And the other goes to an elevator leading up to the Control Tower.
This flying space pirate battle barely did like an energy tank of damage on me. Is this really Veteran mode?
There's another thing here I need to come back to with the Plasma beam.
Phendrana Drifts - Research Lab Aether and Research Core
The dominant species of planet SR388, Metroids can suck the life force out of living things. A Metroid will latch onto its prey and drain energy, growing larger as it does. The only way to shake an attached Metroid is to enter Morph Ball mode and lay a Bomb.As soon as I finish reading that, the Metroid busts out of its containment and attacks. It takes a well-aimed Super Missile to kill it (in this game, Super Missiles are charged missile shots that take up 5 regular missiles).
And then after the Space Pirates saw me defeat the Metroid, they broke open the containment glass from the other side and attacked... But since I have the high ground in this case (unlike in Research Lab Hydra where I came in from the bottom), it took no time at all to kill all of them.
More Space Pirate lore...
Initial transfer of Metroids to Tallon IV research facilities has been completed. Three were terminated in an incident at the landing site, but the others were pacified and transported safely. Initial Phazon infusion testing is under way. We are eager to observe the effects of Phazon on Metroids, especially their ability to absorb and process the energy give off by Phazon sources. Early research suggest a considerable growth in power and size. Whether the creatures will stay stable thereafter remains to be seen.
The reconstruction of geoform 187, code-named Ridley, was recently completed. After his defeat on Zebes, Command ordered a number of metagenic improvements for him. Though we were able to implement these changes in a cycle. The metamorphosis was painful, but quite successful in the end. Early tests indicate a drastic increase in strength, mobility, and offensive capability. Cybernetic modules and armor plating have been added as well. We believe our creation, now called Meta Ridley, will become the mainstay of our security force, a job he will certainly relish.
Confidence is high regarding Phazon applications. We know enough about Phazon now to begin combining it with Space Pirate DNA. The code name for this venture will be 'Project Helix'. Preliminary studies indicate that Phazon infusion could produce radical Pirate genomes. Benevolent mutation levels are high in current test subjects. Phazon madness is a concern, but refinements in the infusion process should reduce or neutralize the the odds of mental degeneration.
An orange scan a bit lower down says to use missiles against Metroids, after you've already defeated one.
That one Metroid that escaped its stasis tank just now is a special one that has grown immunities to cold environments.
The last 2 logbook scans in this room talk about how they plan to use tamed Metroids as weapons.
Metroid dissection continues to produce more questions than answers. Our research teams have isolated the energy conduits that run from the invasive twin mandibles to the energy core in the creature's quadripartite nucleus, but the manner in which the Metroid actually extracts the life force from its pray remains an utter mystery. The victim does not lose blood or any other vital fluids, and yet the Metroid extracts energy; identifying this energy is our central problem. It takes no physical form, and yet without it, the victim dies. We will continue to research this matter, as the isolation of this life-giving essence could be the key to our ascendance.
Studies of Metroid biology continue, though with limited progress. It seems likely that we will be much more successful using the Metroids for our means rather than trying to reproduce their powers. If they could be adequately tamed, we would have no need of a proper understanding of their metabolism. A small force of disciplined Metroids could wipe out entire armies, and once we find a way to shield them from cold-containment weapons, they will be invincible. Furthermore, if we could then harvest the energy they'd consumed, we would have a near-limitless source of power at our disposal.
I've gathered that this "Project Titan" specimen is probably in the East Quarantine Cave, and is probably the next boss battle.
Finally, the last room of this huge research lab section, Research Core.
At least for now, until I get the Ice Beam... apparently there's an ice beam door in here that continues on past the area covered by the Phendrana Drifts map...
This place is really dark... I guess this is where the Pirates keep their Thermal technology, as well as where they keep a bunch of Metroids in containment.
Three of red scans found somewhere on the way down through this room unlock the forcefield surrounding a new visor.
The lights go out as soon as I pick up the Thermal Visor... Then I'm fighting Space Pirates and Metroids in a dark room with thermal vision...
Found the hidden wave beam switch that requires a Thermal Visor to see, which turns the purple security door back on so I can go back the way I came.
Now there's Sentry Drone enemies on the way back that caught me off guard.
Sentry Drones have limited intelligence, but do their assigned tasks well. Being machines, they are susceptible to electrical attacks. When alerted, Drones initiate a security lockdown, then attempt to neutralize the intruder. Their electronic warfare suit can scramble Visor technology as well.Every room of that research lab/combat base had all the enemies respawn, plus you had to fight them in the dark with the Thermal Visor. Thermal scans don't pick up everything though, like Turrets and Bombus are still hard to see.
There, out of the dark lab... back to Ruined Courtyard. Obviously I know where to go next... path west of here blocked by a Cordite statue... stopping here for now since there's a save point right here, and the room up ahead looks like a big boss room.
Total Time Played so far: 5:28
33% Item Completion
60% Log Book Completion
80 missiles
6 energy tanks
3 more arm cannon upgrades to get
2 more morph ball upgrades to get
2 more suit upgrades to get
1 more visor upgrade to get
1 more secondary item to get
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