Pirate Homeworld Redux

Land at the Research Facility here and start making your way towards the marker on your map. As you proceed, Admiral Dane will give you a new command: disable the planetary defense system so that the armada can launch its assault.

Anyway, your first goal is to find something to protect yourself from the acid rain. There are some goodies on the way, though. Head up into the Scrapvault here and climb up to reach the grab ledge that lets you roll into the Scrapworks. There's a Ship Missile Expansion floating in one section of this area, so use your spiderball to get under it, then bomb yourself up to it. It's a tricky bombing situation where you need to make a precision jump to a narrow ledge, then a doublejump up to the item, so it's not easy.

Eventually you'll reach the room that's marked on your map as being the location of the Hazard Shield. From the observation room, roll up into a ball and use the spidertrack to get up and into the acid-filled room itself; you'll be protected by the tubes.

Nabbing The Suit

You'll come to a small puzzle here involving two spinner devices and a ball rail. To begin with, enter the rightmost spinner and spin it around until you have a complete track of steamjets leading up to the right balltrack at the top of the central cylinder; that'll lead you to a Missile Expansion. Then return to the spinners and use the right one again until the topmost of the two rotating parts shows a spiderball track that lines up with the exit at the top of the screen. With that done, rotate the other spinner until the entire track lines up and go to the control room. Use the panel there to put on the Hazard Suit, which will protect you from lava and acid rain hazards.

After the aerotroopers bust through the windows, kill them, then drop down and flip the switch below you. That'll let you jump up to the platform you recently left. From there, return back to the Metroid Processing room. If you now head into the Creche Transit room, you can jump out into the acid rain and grab the grab ledge to boost yourself up. Smash the phazon plant with a hyper missile to move on.

Metroid Creche

In the Metroid Creche, enter the spinner on the floor and pop yourself up to the ceiling. Bomb the bombslot there to open another spinner. Repeat the process here to unlock…a boss fight?

Boss Fight: Metroid Hatcher
We're giving this one an extra-small header since it's arguably the easiest boss in the game. The Metroid Hatcher only has two phases and only one semi-harmful attack, although if you're not careful it will launch metroids at you. With care, though, that's easily avoidable.

Begin by shooting away at the four tentacles that dangle beneath the hatcher. They move around a lot and are difficult to hit, but spamming your shots will hit some of them eventually. During this phase of the fight, the Hatcher will continually attempt to spin around and ram you. It hurts, but not much, although it's somewhat difficult to dodge. (You might want to try rolling into morph ball form.)

When all of the tentacles are retracted, the Hatcher will float off and begin dispensing metroids. Just follow him to where he goes and shoot him in his big purple mouth. That'll cause him to be stunned, allowing you to grab onto his tentacles and pull them with your grapple beam. Repeat the process four times, and he'll die off.

Moving On Up

Return to the spinner here and use it to activate the wall panels that'll let you move on. There's also an Energy Tank here. To find it, use the last spinner again and find the hole in the last little bit of metal piping that leads to a spiderball track above you. Follow the trail to the tank, and move on to the save point. When you've saved, move into the transit station and take the train.

You'll come back to the original lift area that you were at when you first entered the Pirate Homeworld. Head all the way to the bottom floor and generate up the lock on the door here with your grapple energy. That'll lead you to another elevator shaft, but this one's busted. Fire a missile at the tether atop the elevator, then jump across for a Missile Expansion.

Who'll Stop The Rain?

Now, you have two objectives: getting past the rain on the third floor here, and also shutting down the defense network. We'll start with the former. Head back to the elevator and ride it up to the top, then take a left and head back out into the exposed area where acid rain is pouring down. Kill the Pirates, then de-power the terminal to shut down the shield generator.

Head on through to reach the Skyway Access room. Kill all of the enemies here, then roll up into a ball and enter the rolltube that opened on the right side of the room. That'll deposit you back into Defense Access, where you were previously. Power down the shield here, but instead of moving into the hallway, head up the spiderball trail to reach the transit station that'll lead you to the Mining Facility.

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