------------------------------------------------------------------------- S U P E R M E T R O I D E N E M Y W E A P O N D A M A G E G U I D E Version 1.0 - 06/18/01 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Written by Asaic ========================================================= TABLE OF CONTENTS ========================================================= 1) Introduction 2) In The Beginning.... 3) Boss Hit Points 4) Enemy Hit Points 5) Weapon Damage 6) Conclusion ========================================================= Section 1 - INTRODUCTION ========================================================= Have you ever wondered why it takes a different number of hits to defeat a boss if you use different combinations of weapons? If you're like me, you've wondered quite often. This quick guide will help you to understand the nature of the damage system in Super Metroid. ========================================================= Section 2 - IN THE BEGINNING.... ========================================================= To tally damage information quickly, it was necessary to find a boss character who could take a lot of punishment and didn't move around a lot. The obvious choice is the second form of the Mother Brain. I experimented a little bit, seeing how many hits it takes to get it to the point where the Mother Brain begins charging the big blast. These were my findings: Regular Super Charge Charge Ice/ Missiles Missiles Beam Wave/Plasma -------- -------- ------ ----------- Test 1 180 0 0 0 Test 2 60 40 0 0 Test 3 45 45 0 0 Test 4 15 55 0 0 Test 5 0 60 0 0 Test 6 0 0 300 0 Test 7 0 55 25 0 Test 8 0 50 50 0 Test 9 0 0 0 20 Test 10 0 6 0 18 Test 11 18 0 0 18 Thus: 9x Missile = 3x Super Missile = 15x Charge Beam = 1x Charge Ice/Wave/Plasma So if we say that one missile does 20 hit points of damage, then we could estimate the Mother Brain's first form to have 600 hit points (HP) and the second form to have 3600 HP. ========================================================= Section 3 - BOSS HIT POINTS ========================================================= If the other bosses in the game take the same amount of damage from the various weapons as the first two forms of the Mother Brain, we can conclude the following: Boss/Sub-boss Hit Points ------------- ---------- Ridley I 400 Torizo 160 Spore Spawn 200 Kraid 200 Phantoon 300 Botwoon 600 Draygon 1200 Golden Torizo 2700 Ridley II 4800 Mother Brain I 600 Mother Brain II 3600 Mother Brain III 7200 ========================================================= Section 4 - ENEMY HIT POINTS ========================================================= Calculating the damage done to regular enemies is more difficult than that of the bosses; most enemies are more resistant to one type of weapon than another. For example, it takes five missiles to destroy a Metroid (100 damage), yet it only takes a single super missile to destroy it (60 damage). Here are some stats for a few normal enemies: Enemy Hit Points ----- ---------- Geemer 4 (or less) Waver 6 Zeela 6 Nova 6 Rio 10 Side Hopper 12 Cacatac 12 Mochtroid 20 Desgeega 24 Fake Kraid 80 vs beams/40 vs missiles Giant Desgeega 160 Holtz 180 ========================================================= Section 5 - WEAPON DAMAGE ========================================================= Here is the damage break down for each weapon: Weapon Damage ------ ------ Missiles 20 Super Missiles 60 Bombs 6 Power Bombs 40 (can hit twice) Grappling Beam 20 (300/sec vs Draygon*) Beam 4 Ice Beam 10 Wave Beam 10 Spazer 8 Plasma Beam 30 Ice/Spazer 24 Ice/Wave 24 Wave/Spazer 14 Ice/Wave/Spazer 36 Wave/Plasma 50 Ice/Wave/Plasma 120 Charge Beam 12 Charge Ice 18 Charge Wave 30 Charge Spazer 24 Charge Plasma 90 Charge Ice/Wave 36 Charge Ice/Spazer 36 Charge Wave/Spazer 40 Charge Ice/Wave/Spazer 60 Charge Ice/Plasma 120 Charge Wave/Plasma 150 Charge Ice/Wave/Plasma 180 Scew Attack/Speed Dash** 180+ Hyper Beam 200 *Taking Draygon's HP into account, we can estimate the damage-per-second of the grappling beam trick. It takes four seconds to drain Draygon's 1200 HP, so the damage is 300 HP/second. **Screw Attack and Speed Dash are impossible to calculate since they instantly kill any enemy that can be damaged by them. The only thing we know is that they do at least 180 damage, since that is the most HP any normal enemy affected by them has. Grappling Beam has a similar problem; 20 hit points is the most HP any enemy affected by it has. ========================================================= Section 6 - CONCLUSION ========================================================= There you have it. It took me the better part of a day using ZSNES and numerous save states to obtain the above information. I hope you enjoyed it. Send any questions or comments to the author at smetroid3@home.com. If I missed anything important, let me know!