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Now heading into the crashed Frigate... immediately you can tell what this place is because it looks similar to the ventilation shaft on the other Frigate that you escaped from at the beginning.
Reactor Core... a huge room with platforms that looks like it'd be a huge pain to get back out of if you came here before getting the gravity suit. And the Aqua Pirates here will pretty much guarantee you fall to the bottom while fighting them.
There's a bunch of machinery down here that looks scannable, but of course being underwater it's all unusable. Although the power conduits to open the door are still usable. This door is on a ledge that I think is unreachable without the gravity suit.
In the next room, which has a door to a save room and another power conduit door, you can see glowy radioactive stuff underneath the crumbled floor. I dunno what the pirates would be doing in this crashed frigate... maybe trying to salvage materials or something?
Got my 9th energy tank for free, just basically lying in plain sight on the linear path through the Frigate.
Another conduit door, just up out of the water... damn should have saw that coming.
Biohazard Containment... literally the same room as on the earlier Frigate level... except there's nothing to scan, here. And the lower part of the room is underwater and has Aqua Drone enemies (very easy to take out if you keep shooting partly charged wave beams)
Biotech Research Area 1, some more Aqua Pirates... This whole crashed Frigate area is very uninteresting, which I guess suits the feel of the Tallon Overworld region... just a straight linear path calling back to the first area in the game, and all the enemies are relatively as harmless to Samus now as the injured pirates were back then. Also, practically every single room requires you to hunt down power circuits. Really nice music here though.
At the end there's a morph ball tunnel, with the 11th energy tank on a bomb jump ledge...
That leads to the bottom of Great Tree Hall, which is where I came to from one of the Chozo elevators before but couldn't do anything there yet. I still need power bombs to go through the area past the upper white door, but now I can access the bottom white door.
The bottom of the Great Tree Hall... it's a bridge similar to the bridge to Magmoor at the bottom of Root Cave... except the ground below the bridge is highly radioactive blue stuff, instead of nearly molten rock.
Found the elevator to Phazon Mines East.
Phazon Mines - Upper Level
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Very similar look and feel to Magmoor Caverns. The pirates have built a mining facility here too just like in Magmoor.
Main Quarry
Not much enemies in this big room besides a couple turrets, and some surprise pirates dropping in from out of nowhere. And now I have like, 3 options I think... Scanning some things opens the forcefield blocking the south white door, and there's a south purple door... and at the upper area there's a crane I can enable by seeking out power conduits, and that will probably let me get to the north white door that's too high up to jump to.
Okay that's what I thought, the purple door is the save room. The crane just leads to a missile.
Main Security Station
This room is much bigger than it looks... zigzags around and up like a parking lot. with some Shadow Pirates and Wave Troopers along the way.
These pirates are getting smart lol... now they have paths blocked off by Bendezium and locks that require pirate DNA in order to hinder Samus.
Elite Research
There's some more lore scans here, but nowhere near as obnoxious as the earlier pirate research areas.
Initial Project Helix experiments with Space Pirate embryos were disastrous. The Phazon-infusion process degenerated brain tissue even as it augmented muscle mass. None of what we have termed 'Elite Pirates' lived to maturity: the few that survived their infanthood suffered severe psychotic breakdowns as juveniles, killing anything within their zone of perception. Research from team Sclera made a recent breakthrough, in which parasite studies with a Phazon strain code-named 'Vertigo' were highly successful. Since then, we have fused Vertigo Phazon with Space Pirate DNA with great success. The latest batch of Elite Pirates have reached maturity successfully and are ready for field testing and training.
These Wave Troopers are as easy as the normal space pirates, except they take one extra charged wave beam shot. The Power Troopers however... you can't stun them with the Wave Beam, and they shoot and move around much faster than the regular space pirates.. I'm not looking forward to the Ice Troopers, the Ice Beam is so slow... The platforming in this room together with the enemies makes this room kinda annoying.
At the top there's a big laser turret and a device to rotate it around and shoot it at all the walls to reveal paths. Although only one of the walls has a prize behind it (the last one that you can aim towards).
Ore Processing
Here there's a rotating spider rail puzzle tower thing, where you rotate the 3 parts of the tower around to join one of the 3 colored spider ball rails together to get to a higher level. I can't get to the highest level yet, due to Bendezium rubble blocking the top machine, but that looks like it probably only leads to a shortcut back to Main Quarry.
At Elevator A, leading further down into Phazon Mines, you can see the bottom of Impact Crater out the window, with the floating landmass up above... The elevator takes you down below the bottom of the crater.
Phazon Mines - Lower Level A
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Elite Control
Fought an Elite Pirate, in a room full of machinery making it hard to dodge. He's only vulnerable to missiles, and can sometimes shield your missiles with his hand.
and yeah now I see these special beam pirates are quite formidable, and actually managed to take half my health by now. Even the Wave Troopers, they don't stay stunned for long enough for you to recharge, and they shoot much faster and more accurately and can quickly get a hit or 2 in between stuns.
Scans everywhere... this is as crazy as the research facility in Phendrana was now...
Security Command issued an all-points alert after the fall of Zebes. The alert concerns bioform Samus Aran, also known as the Hunter. Subject is a female hominid, and is heavily armed and extremely dangerous. Subject uses a powered armorsuit of unknown design in battle, along with a number of potent Beam and concussive weapons. All combat units are instructed to terminate Aran on sight, preferably in a fashion that will allow salvage of her powered armorsuit and weapons. A considerable bounty will go to the unit who delivers Aran to Command. Dead or alive, it matters not
Investigations into a possible ingress point for the impact crater continue to meet with failure. The shield of strange energy that protects it is impermeable, and all attempts to tunnel past it have proved fruitless. Our continued futility in this matter is made all the more significant in light of the recent life form readings we've discovered emanating from deep within the crater. Analysis of the readings indicates that a massive creature is gestating there, absorbing enormous amounts of Phazon from the Phazon core at the heart of the impact crater. This discovery makes accessing the crater doubly important - not only will it open the door to the vast deposits of Phazon within, but it will also lead us to this creature, whatever it may be.
Science Team is attempting to reverse-engineer Samus Aran's arsenal, based off data acquired from her assaults on our forces. Progress is slow, but steady. Command would dearly enjoy turning Aran's weapons against her. We believe we can implement Beam weapon prototypes in three cycles. Aran's Power Suit technology remains a mystery, especially the curious Morph Ball function. All attempts at duplicating it have ended in disaster; four test subjects were horribly broken and twisted when they engaged our Morph Ball prototypes. Science Team wisely decided to move on afterward.
We even find out that the space pirates are now aware of Samus cracking into their system and reading their encrypted data.
Analysis continues on these accursed ruins and the Chozo temple that hovers near them. We are now completely certain that the containment field denying us access to the impact crater is linked to strange artifacts that belong in the temple... but we are no closer to finding them or deciphering the riddles that seem to cover every wall of this ruined place. Command grows increasingly anxious for a resolution to this matter, so we must redouble our efforts. X-ray squadrons will begin terrain sweeps within days - until they begin, patrols are instructed to report any and all architectural anomalies to their commanders.
There have been numerous incidents involving spectral entities at Chozo Ruins sites. Several personnel have been assaulted by these Chozo Ghosts; few have survived. Survivors speak of swift attacks from nowhere, brief sightings of the enemy, then nothing, only to be followed by another attack. Science Team believes these attacks are in response to our efforts to recover Chozo relics and Artifacts. Somehow, these entities are able to interact with the physical world, and it appears they wish to keep their Artifacts to themselves. We will make them pay for such arrogance, for even ghosts can be destroyed.
Results are in from field studies on extinct bioform group Chozo. We believe that Tallon IV was once a stronghold in a great Chozo empire, brought low by the meteor strike. Planetary devastation brought an end to the Chozo, yet remnants of their society remain. We are studying these relics in an attempt to harness their power. What is of no use to us, we destroy. In time, we shall have all we need from this dead race, and shall wipe this planet clean of their ugly ruins. The dead should serve the living, not hinder them.
Although we are no closer to finding the artifacts of the Chozo, we have at least produced a viable hypothesis for their function. It appears that each of the artifacts corresponds to one of the statues on the temple platform, and that each one acts as a small key to a huge lock. Judging by the number of statues, we assume there must be twelve artifacts. Once we find the resting spots of all twelve, we can bring them here, unite them with their statues, and open the gate system at long last. Once we do, the impact crater - and whatever creature it shelters - will be ours for the taking.
We have come to another dead end. It is clear now that we will never discover the locations of the Chozo's artifacts until we can decipher the messages carved into the statues in this abominable temple. Our language databases are woefully inadequate, and our linguistic analysts can come up with little more than vague theories. The best hypothesis we can offer is that finding the artifacts will require items spiritually linked to the Chozo civilization. However, without these items, we are lost, and Command grows more impatient by the day. Results must be produced soon.
Now there are 2 white doors to choose from. One seems to go further up through this elite pirate feeding facility, the other goes further west. Oh wait nevermind, that west path is blocked by Bendezium rubble, of course.
Omega Research
A bunch more scans here... the lore dump just doesn't end...
Elite Pirate Upsilon's propensity for Phazon has enabled our research team to infuse it far beyond our safety restrictions, and the results have been extremely encouraging. Its constant Phazon diet has increased its mass exponentially, but it has retained all mental faculties and shows dexterity with all Elite weaponry, including Plasma incendiary launchers and the chameleon manta issued for cloaking purposes. Elite Pirate Upsilon exhibits miraculous healing abilities; when injured, it seeks out Phazon deposits and coats itself in the substance, which instantly mends the creature's wounds. The subject, which we are code-naming Omega Pirate based on these developments, shows potential to be a new standard for our armies. Our only concern at this point is its potential overdependence on Phazon.Central Dynamo
This place looks very unique... There's 2 white doors going north and south... lemme guess, one path is blocked by Bendezium...
Yep, but this is where I actually get the power bombs... after a really tough fight against an invisible sentry robot. You can see where it is from its lights, but you can't target it without the X-Ray visor.
There's a lot of stuff I could go back for now... but first I'll continue on this linear path as far as it'll take me. That south white door leads to a much needed save point.
Metroid Quarantine A
lol that was awesome... instead of going down to fight the Space Pirates, I disabled the quarantine force field and watched the Metroids kill the pirates for me.
It seems to be a dead end for now... I can't cross this phazon pit. I don't see a grapple beam point either... I guess this'll probably be one of the things I need the X-Ray visor to see the path? This quarantine area is much less mechanical... seems to be just a cave with phazon fungi growing everywhere for the Metroids to feed off of.
Now I can go through that other door in Omega Research... but had to fight another Elite Pirate before that. These enemies aren't hard at all, they're just like the Sheegoth enemies in Phendrana, they just take a while, and like 20 missiles. Finally got to the Map Station.
The Metroid Quarantine leads to another elevator going down to the 2nd underground level of Phazon Mines... but I also see there's another path a bit further back that also goes down to that lower level.That's obviously where I'm supposed to go next. Besides that, I do see at least one other room in the upper level of Phazon Mines I can probably access now, but I don't wanna go that far back until I can't progress to new stuff anymore.
... er, actually, I see from this missables list that there's a missable enemy "Phazon Elite" in the Elite Research area of the upper level after I get the power bombs... I'd better go do that now just in case.
Phazon Mines after Power Bombs
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Got the Grapple Beam on my way back through the upper section of this area... and then fought the Phazon Elite that I only knew to go back for because of the missables list... although I guess this isn't the kind of missable I was thinking of. You have to fight this thing to get the Artifact of Warrior. It's basically the same as the Elite Pirate but faster.
Now to go down through to the 2nd lower level of Phazon Mines...
Phazon Processing Center
You can see out the window here, even though this is apparently deeper underground... they must have mined a really huge hole or something.
Wow, this bottom section looks like quite a long series of rooms... but seems I can't do the rest of Phazon Mines just yet... The door at the bottom of the phazon pit is red... but there's a platforming path leading to the white door at the top... This leads to Magmoor Caverns South.
Magmoor/Tallon/Chozo after Grapple Beam
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Oh, I see... this is the other side of the Workstation Tunnel that was blocked by Bendezium... so I was right about that way being a path into Phazon Mines.
I think I know where I wanna go next... Geothermal Core, there's a high up white door I can now get to with the grapple beam.
Got the Plasma Beam after a fun spider ball obstacle course.
Wow, now I have almost every ability... except the X-Ray Visor, and the last beam and suit upgrades.
I guess there's nothing stopping me now from doing the rest of Phazon Mines... however I think I'd rather go do some artifact hunting first. There doesn't seem to be anything left to do in Magmoor, but there is some stuff in Phendrana to do with the Plasma Beam now, as well as at least one thing in Chozo Ruins to check out... and then there's 2 paths in Tallon Overworld to check out... which is perfect because one of those is right near the first Phazon Mines entrance.
First I'll go up the Tallon elevator that leads to the bottom of Root Cave. There's a path at the top of Root Cave I can access now.
Oh wait, I can't yet without the X-Ray visor I guess.
Went to return a couple more artifacts to the temple... but didn't get any new hints.
There's actually 2 things in Chozo Ruins to check out. Passed Magma Pool, is Training Chamber, a forced fight against some chozo ghosts, and the 12th energy tank and a missile... also in the Magma Pool I power bombed a suspicious looking wall and got a power bomb expansion and Chozo lore.
The power of our temple has been enough to halt the spread of the poison on Tallon IV, but that which remains thrives and grows more concentrated, gnawing on itself in the dark passages beneath the planet's surface. Whether it can ever be truly destroyed is not for our eyes to see. But there is something else. We Chozo are drifting, tumbling through space and time as the Great Poison eats away at our sanity. We wake in dreams. As the veil of lunacy descends, as past and future blend and shuffle, one image appears and flickers through the landscape, wraithlike. It is the Hatchling, the Newborn, walking the path of corruption, a lone figure shining in the toxic shadows. She comes dressed for war, and her wrath is terrible. Do our eyes look backward, seeing the Hatchling as she once was? Or does she approach even now, arriving in our race's last hour, a savior clothed in machines crafted long ago by Chozo hands? Poisonous clouds drift across our vision.Now we're finally at the part of the game where there are hidden things that don't show up on the scan visor.
At the Hall of Elders, now there's 3 Chozo Ghosts attacking me at once. The Plasma Beam switch opened the path to the Artifact of World.
Then I went to the top of Great Tree Hall... That leads to Life Grove, which has the X-Ray Visor, and if you use it immediately in that room, you find the Artifact of Chozo. Then there's a forced Chozo Ghost fight to get back out of the room. These enemies are so much faster to kill with the X-Ray Visor.
Well... now I feel like I can pretty much go anywhere and collect everything else there is to get before returning to finish Phazon Mines.
Deposited 2 more artifacts... now I have all the artifact hints. I think I know where all of them are. One more of them seems to actually be in Phazon Mines.
At the top of Root Cave is just a couple missile expansions.
Got Ice Spreader by destroying a glass bridge in Magmoor, on my way to Phendrana. This attack looks really cool.
Stopping here for now. I think next time I play, I can probably go and clean up the rest of the artifacts and other items I'm missing, then finish Phazon Mines and end the game at as close to 100% completion as I can get without a guide.
Here's where I'm at now, at the end of this 4th session:
69% items aquired
92% log book completion
155 missiles
4 power bombs
12 energy tanks
1 more beam cannon upgrade
1 more suit upgrade
and probably 1 more beam combo (the plasma one)
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