Metroid: Zero Mission: Metroid: Zero Mission - AP Boss Rush 
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Metroid: Zero Mission - AP Boss Rush is a fan-made modification of Metroid: Zero Mission for Game Boy Advance that eliminates exploration elements, prioritizing boss encounters. Players can choose between three paths to face bosses: sequentially without healing, sequentially with healing options, or in any order. The hack is designed for challenge-focused gameplay, providing a unique experience for fans of the Metroid series.
This is a hack of Metroid: Zero Mission that removes the exploration element of Metroid to focus on the boss combat. The game begins in a series of hallways where Samus can collect any and all of her power-ups. Following this are 3 different paths that lead to the 3 different ways you can fight the bosses.
More information on the features and quirks of this hack can be found in the readme.
This was originally created primarily for use on Arcade Pit, the online retro gaming game show. Sadly, Metroid and Metroidvanias were deemed poor fits for the show, and as such this hack does not appear on there. Now it merely exists for people who want to try out the bosses of Zero Mission in their own self imposed challenges.
Check out more about Arcade Pit at https://www.twitch.tv/arcadepit
Thanks for downloading the Metroid: Zero Mission - AP Boss Rush hack
This is Version 1, released on July 27, 2016
This was created by Trivial Man
This was created primarily for use on Arcade Pit, the online retro gaming game show
Check out more about Arcade Pit at https://www.twitch.tv/arcadepit
This hack was created using the Metroid Advance Game Editor (MAGE) by Biospark
Download that here: http://forum.metroidconstruction.com/index.php/topic,3969.0.html
or here: http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/1212/
--- Patching questions ---
Q. So how do I use this patch?
A. You need a program that can apply bps (beat) format patches and a copy of the rom
for the USA release of Metroid: Zero Mission.
A compatible patching tool can be found: here http://byuu.org/tool/beat/
Or here: http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/893/
For the rom, you'll have to rip a copy yourself. Piracy is bad and all that.
Q. Which patch do I use?
A. This hack supports the roms identified as "good" by the No-Intro set and the GoodGBA set.
There's detailed info on which to use in the ROM Version Info text file, but a simple
way to identify which to use is this:
If your rom is named "Metroid - Zero Mission (USA)" use the No-Intro patch
If your rom is named "Metroid - Zero Mission (U) [!]" use the GoodGBA patch
--- General questions ---
Q. What is this hack?
A. This hack is designed to cut out the exploration and difficulty in finding power-ups
in the normal version of Metroid: Zero Mission so that players can get straight to
the boss fights. It also allows for a great degree of customization in what players
can fight the bosses with. In addition to most of the power-ups being skippable,
any that are collected can be toggled on and off from the status menu with Select.
Q. Why are some of the power-ups not skippable? Why are the rooms set up so I have
to get the Bombs, Ice Beam, etc.?
A. The intended method to beat the bosses requires some of these power-ups.
Please note that if you don't want to use them, you can turn them off in the status
Menu (Pause then press R) by highlighting them and pressing Select. However by making
sure you pick them up and can toggle them back on, I tried to remove any possibility
of players accidentally getting stuck in an unwinnable state.
Q. How do I turn power-ups on and off?
A. Pause the game and press R to bring up the Status menu.
Highlight the upgrade you want to toggle on or off and press Select.
You can only toggle upgrades you've collected.
You cannot adjust the number of missiles, energy tanks, etc. that you have.
You cannot toggle the "Unknown" power-ups until you obtain the fully powered suit.
Q. Why are some of the items listed as "Unknown"?
A. Bear with me for a minute.
After beating Mother Brain, Samus crashes her ship and ruins her suit. In her Zero Suit
she has to fight a boss, the Chozo Warrior Engraving, to get a new one. This new one
is apparently "fully powered" and able to use the previously unknown power-ups.
The power-ups are the Plasma Beam, Space Jump, and Gravity Suit from Super Metroid.
--- Pathing/Location questions ---
Q. What is this machine I have to activate in the middle of getting power-ups?
A. That machine activates the zip-line like machines in Kraid (the area). If they aren't
activated, one of the bosses, Mua the acid worm, won't spawn.
Q. Where's the Charge Beam?
A. That particular power-up is only dropped by the first boss, Deorem the giant centipede.
Stick around and watch him explode to get it. Sorry, but I couldn't find a way to put
it in the start with all the others, and since Deorem is the first boss I figures it
wasn't too big of a deal.
Q. The path branches after the save room. Where do I go?
A. I tried to put instructions in the game, but I understand they're hard to read.
Sorry, I wish I knew how to make that stay on screen longer.
In any case, there are 3 different options for how you want to take on the bosses.
1. The upper path makes you fight all the bosses in sequence without any healing stations.
2. The middle path makes you fight all the bosses in sequence, but between each fight
there is a save station that also fully heals you and replenishes your weapons.
3. The bottom path opens to another large room with many doors where you can choose
any boss to fight in any order you want. It also allows you to heal whenever you
want, or even back out and choose one of the other paths.
Q. Why is there an empty room after the centipede boss? Did I miss something?
A. Deorem, the centipede boss, can flee if it isn't killed quickly enough. If it does,
then it travels to this second room. If you do kill it in the first room, there's
nothing there though. Just keep moving.
Q. I'm stuck in this lava room. Did the boss not spawn?
A. Ride the zip-line like machine across the lava and Mua, the acid worm, will spawn.
Once you kill it, the doors will open and you can keep going.
Q. I just beat Mother Brain and got the Zero Suit and now there's another branching path.
Where do I go?
A. Overly long background info:
Due to Some Programming Bullshit, once you board Samus's ship after the escape sequence
you always end up in the same place in Chozodia. In order to allow players to use Boss
Select to fight Mother Brain whenever they want, I had to put in a door back to the Boss
Select area here. This should be the only part of the sequential boss rush modes that
allows you to leave go backwards, even if somewhat indirectly. Even in a romhack, Metroid
can't avoid some sequence breaking.
Long story short:
Go left if you are fighting the bosses in sequence to continue to the next boss.
Go right if you are using Boss Select mode to return to the boss select area.
Q. The map is fucked up.
A. Yep.
No but seriously, who cares? You don't really need to know where you are in this hack,
and even if you did the way I connected rooms makes literally no spatial sense. It'd be
just as confusing even if the map was in there and working right.
--- Boss questions and strategies ---
Q. The centipede boss with one eye just left? Did I win?
A. Deorem, the boss in question, can flee if it's health gets low. If this happens, just
go to the next room and it will spawn there. If it flees from this room, go back to the
first and fight it again. You'll know when it dies because it will start exploding and
drop the Charge Beam.
It is skippable though. If you'd rather not fight it when it flees a second time, that's
fine. Skipping it won't break anything. It's absolutely faster to just kill it during
the first or second fights though.
Q. How do I beat Kraid?
A. Shoot his face with missiles to make him roar, then feed him more missiles.
If he destroys your footing, you'll have to use his weird belly projectiles as platforms.
Q. Holy cow, Kraid/Ridley take a long time to die. And what's with this cutscene?
A. When Kraid and Ridley die in the normal version of Metroid: Zero Mission they unlock
stuff. Unfortunately the cutscenes of them unlocking stuff is tied to their AI scripts,
and editing those is way beyond my capabilities. For now just ignore it and keep moving.
Q. How do I kill these pill bug looking bosses?
A. Use the Wave Gun on the vulnerable underbelly of the first.
For the second, use your gun to push it back and lay bombs that it will run over when
it tries to charge you.
Q. How do I kill this Sporespawn looking hanging thing?
A. You'll have to freeze the little flying enemy (Ripper), use it for a platform, and
blast the tendrils holding it to the ceiling with missiles. Destroy 3 on each side
and it should go down.
Q. I hate this bee! How do I kill it?
A. This is probably my worst boss. You have to shoot its stinger with missiles. I hope
you have a lot going into this fight because I'm not even sure if you can get more.
Good luck.
Q. Ridley is wrecking my shit.
A. Just shoot him with missiles. No real tricks here except not hitting his tail.
Q. What are these barriers and rings? Where's Mother Brain and how do I beat her?
A. I really thought getting to Mother Brain was an important part of the fight with her,
so I left that in instead of just warping you straight to her. To destroy the barriers
you'll have to use missiles, I think 7. You have to use them quickly though because
the barriers regenerate if you aren't blasting them.
As for Mother Brain herself, first destroy her glass shield, then shoot her eye.
She only opens it after she fires one of her energy blasts, and only keeps it open if
you don't fall off the platforms. You have to duck to be on level to hit it, and you
have to use missiles.
Q. I have to do the escape sequence?!
A. Unfortunately, much like Kraid and Ridley's short cutscenes, the escape sequences that
trigger when you defeat Mother Brain and Mecha Ridley are also tied to their AI scripts.
I tried to make this as painless as possible by putting you right outside the ships
you need to enter to stop them when they happen though. Use the time the cutscenes are
playing to meditate before your next encounter.
If you are playing boss select and are confused about the escape sequences, you can read
more about that in the boss select question section.
Q. What the hell is this mirror?
A. That is the Chozo Warrior Engraving. To fight it you have to wait for Samus's pistol to
fully charge, then shoot it when it glows and stops showing her. You have to do this 4
times and you basically can only take 2 hits yourself. Touching it hurts you, and it can
also shoot lightning. This boss is kind of bullshit honestly.
Defeating it will give you your fully powered suit though.
Q. Mecha Ridley is wrecking my shit even harder.
A. Yeah he'll do that. I'll note right here that if you have 100% item collection he becomes
about 10x harder than he normally is. More HP, more damage dealt, etc.
Anyways, to beat him you have to shoot the glowy light on his chest. You have to use
missiles to do it too. I'm not going to outline every attack he has and how to dodge them
though. If you practice on him enough you'll start to get a feel for it. Good luck again.
--- Boss Select specific questions ---
Q. So how does Boss Select work?
A. If you take the lowest path after the first save room you'll enter a very long room
with a ton of doors. This is the boss select area. The doors above you each lead to
a boss. In order from left to right:
1. Deorem the giant centipede
2. Mua the acid worm
3. Kraid
4. Kiru Giru the caterpillars
5. Ensnared Kiru Giru the caterpillar larvae hanging from veiny tendrils
6. Imago the giant wasp
7. Ridley
8. Mother Brain
9. The Chozo Warrior Engraving
10. Mecha Ridley
Furthermore, at the end of the boss area you will find another door that leads to a
healing save room. If you have triggered it, there may also be a door to a ship, either
Samus's or a space pirate's, past the save room.
Q. In Boss Select Mode I blew up Mother Brain's glass shield thing, but it's still there?
What's going on here?
A. That's just the graphics getting messed up. Her shield is in fact gone, it just looks like
it isn't. I have genuinely got no idea why this happens since the exact same data is being
loaded as in the normal fight with her. Oh well.
Q. I beat Mother Brain in the Boss Select area, but the countdown won't go away.
A. Follow the hallway to the save room and you'll find there's another door there now.
Enter this door and you should find your ship outside. Board it and watch the cutscenes.
Any time after defeating Mother Brain (but before beating Mecha Ridley) you can enter
this door and board the ship again to change to Zero Suit Samus. I don't recommend this
in general though because without missiles Zero Suit Samus can only beat the Chozo
Warrior Engraving. (I think. I admit I haven't tested that extensively.)
Q. In Boss Select Mode I beat Mecha Ridley and there's a countdown again. What do I do?
A. Once you beat Mecha Ridley the save area's second door will appear and allow you to
steal a space pirate ship and start the credits. Unfortunately Mecha Ridley effectively
ends the game, and I don't really have a way to stop that from happening right now.
You'll have to simply face him last, or be ready to defeat all the other bosses within
5 minutes if you fight him earlier.
The download contains 2 different patches designed for the roms identified as "good" by the No-Intro set and the GoodGBA set.
Information on the GoodGBA version of the rom:
Metroid - Zero Mission (U) [!]
SHA1: 5DE8536AFE1F0078EE6FE1089F890E8C7AA0A6E8
MD5: EBBCE58109988B6DA61EBB06C7A432D5
Information on the No-Intro version of the rom:
Metroid - Zero Mission (USA)
SHA1: 912A13C8F4D03724E4EF235765440C7A131CCAE2
MD5: 1FF19802B28F60357BA0629C26B9AEDF
More information on the features and quirks of this hack can be found in the readme.
This was originally created primarily for use on Arcade Pit, the online retro gaming game show. Sadly, Metroid and Metroidvanias were deemed poor fits for the show, and as such this hack does not appear on there. Now it merely exists for people who want to try out the bosses of Zero Mission in their own self imposed challenges.
Check out more about Arcade Pit at https://www.twitch.tv/arcadepit
Thanks for downloading the Metroid: Zero Mission - AP Boss Rush hack
This is Version 1, released on July 27, 2016
This was created by Trivial Man
This was created primarily for use on Arcade Pit, the online retro gaming game show
Check out more about Arcade Pit at https://www.twitch.tv/arcadepit
This hack was created using the Metroid Advance Game Editor (MAGE) by Biospark
Download that here: http://forum.metroidconstruction.com/index.php/topic,3969.0.html
or here: http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/1212/
--- Patching questions ---
Q. So how do I use this patch?
A. You need a program that can apply bps (beat) format patches and a copy of the rom
for the USA release of Metroid: Zero Mission.
A compatible patching tool can be found: here http://byuu.org/tool/beat/
Or here: http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/893/
For the rom, you'll have to rip a copy yourself. Piracy is bad and all that.
Q. Which patch do I use?
A. This hack supports the roms identified as "good" by the No-Intro set and the GoodGBA set.
There's detailed info on which to use in the ROM Version Info text file, but a simple
way to identify which to use is this:
If your rom is named "Metroid - Zero Mission (USA)" use the No-Intro patch
If your rom is named "Metroid - Zero Mission (U) [!]" use the GoodGBA patch
--- General questions ---
Q. What is this hack?
A. This hack is designed to cut out the exploration and difficulty in finding power-ups
in the normal version of Metroid: Zero Mission so that players can get straight to
the boss fights. It also allows for a great degree of customization in what players
can fight the bosses with. In addition to most of the power-ups being skippable,
any that are collected can be toggled on and off from the status menu with Select.
Q. Why are some of the power-ups not skippable? Why are the rooms set up so I have
to get the Bombs, Ice Beam, etc.?
A. The intended method to beat the bosses requires some of these power-ups.
Please note that if you don't want to use them, you can turn them off in the status
Menu (Pause then press R) by highlighting them and pressing Select. However by making
sure you pick them up and can toggle them back on, I tried to remove any possibility
of players accidentally getting stuck in an unwinnable state.
Q. How do I turn power-ups on and off?
A. Pause the game and press R to bring up the Status menu.
Highlight the upgrade you want to toggle on or off and press Select.
You can only toggle upgrades you've collected.
You cannot adjust the number of missiles, energy tanks, etc. that you have.
You cannot toggle the "Unknown" power-ups until you obtain the fully powered suit.
Q. Why are some of the items listed as "Unknown"?
A. Bear with me for a minute.
After beating Mother Brain, Samus crashes her ship and ruins her suit. In her Zero Suit
she has to fight a boss, the Chozo Warrior Engraving, to get a new one. This new one
is apparently "fully powered" and able to use the previously unknown power-ups.
The power-ups are the Plasma Beam, Space Jump, and Gravity Suit from Super Metroid.
--- Pathing/Location questions ---
Q. What is this machine I have to activate in the middle of getting power-ups?
A. That machine activates the zip-line like machines in Kraid (the area). If they aren't
activated, one of the bosses, Mua the acid worm, won't spawn.
Q. Where's the Charge Beam?
A. That particular power-up is only dropped by the first boss, Deorem the giant centipede.
Stick around and watch him explode to get it. Sorry, but I couldn't find a way to put
it in the start with all the others, and since Deorem is the first boss I figures it
wasn't too big of a deal.
Q. The path branches after the save room. Where do I go?
A. I tried to put instructions in the game, but I understand they're hard to read.
Sorry, I wish I knew how to make that stay on screen longer.
In any case, there are 3 different options for how you want to take on the bosses.
1. The upper path makes you fight all the bosses in sequence without any healing stations.
2. The middle path makes you fight all the bosses in sequence, but between each fight
there is a save station that also fully heals you and replenishes your weapons.
3. The bottom path opens to another large room with many doors where you can choose
any boss to fight in any order you want. It also allows you to heal whenever you
want, or even back out and choose one of the other paths.
Q. Why is there an empty room after the centipede boss? Did I miss something?
A. Deorem, the centipede boss, can flee if it isn't killed quickly enough. If it does,
then it travels to this second room. If you do kill it in the first room, there's
nothing there though. Just keep moving.
Q. I'm stuck in this lava room. Did the boss not spawn?
A. Ride the zip-line like machine across the lava and Mua, the acid worm, will spawn.
Once you kill it, the doors will open and you can keep going.
Q. I just beat Mother Brain and got the Zero Suit and now there's another branching path.
Where do I go?
A. Overly long background info:
Due to Some Programming Bullshit, once you board Samus's ship after the escape sequence
you always end up in the same place in Chozodia. In order to allow players to use Boss
Select to fight Mother Brain whenever they want, I had to put in a door back to the Boss
Select area here. This should be the only part of the sequential boss rush modes that
allows you to leave go backwards, even if somewhat indirectly. Even in a romhack, Metroid
can't avoid some sequence breaking.
Long story short:
Go left if you are fighting the bosses in sequence to continue to the next boss.
Go right if you are using Boss Select mode to return to the boss select area.
Q. The map is fucked up.
A. Yep.
No but seriously, who cares? You don't really need to know where you are in this hack,
and even if you did the way I connected rooms makes literally no spatial sense. It'd be
just as confusing even if the map was in there and working right.
--- Boss questions and strategies ---
Q. The centipede boss with one eye just left? Did I win?
A. Deorem, the boss in question, can flee if it's health gets low. If this happens, just
go to the next room and it will spawn there. If it flees from this room, go back to the
first and fight it again. You'll know when it dies because it will start exploding and
drop the Charge Beam.
It is skippable though. If you'd rather not fight it when it flees a second time, that's
fine. Skipping it won't break anything. It's absolutely faster to just kill it during
the first or second fights though.
Q. How do I beat Kraid?
A. Shoot his face with missiles to make him roar, then feed him more missiles.
If he destroys your footing, you'll have to use his weird belly projectiles as platforms.
Q. Holy cow, Kraid/Ridley take a long time to die. And what's with this cutscene?
A. When Kraid and Ridley die in the normal version of Metroid: Zero Mission they unlock
stuff. Unfortunately the cutscenes of them unlocking stuff is tied to their AI scripts,
and editing those is way beyond my capabilities. For now just ignore it and keep moving.
Q. How do I kill these pill bug looking bosses?
A. Use the Wave Gun on the vulnerable underbelly of the first.
For the second, use your gun to push it back and lay bombs that it will run over when
it tries to charge you.
Q. How do I kill this Sporespawn looking hanging thing?
A. You'll have to freeze the little flying enemy (Ripper), use it for a platform, and
blast the tendrils holding it to the ceiling with missiles. Destroy 3 on each side
and it should go down.
Q. I hate this bee! How do I kill it?
A. This is probably my worst boss. You have to shoot its stinger with missiles. I hope
you have a lot going into this fight because I'm not even sure if you can get more.
Good luck.
Q. Ridley is wrecking my shit.
A. Just shoot him with missiles. No real tricks here except not hitting his tail.
Q. What are these barriers and rings? Where's Mother Brain and how do I beat her?
A. I really thought getting to Mother Brain was an important part of the fight with her,
so I left that in instead of just warping you straight to her. To destroy the barriers
you'll have to use missiles, I think 7. You have to use them quickly though because
the barriers regenerate if you aren't blasting them.
As for Mother Brain herself, first destroy her glass shield, then shoot her eye.
She only opens it after she fires one of her energy blasts, and only keeps it open if
you don't fall off the platforms. You have to duck to be on level to hit it, and you
have to use missiles.
Q. I have to do the escape sequence?!
A. Unfortunately, much like Kraid and Ridley's short cutscenes, the escape sequences that
trigger when you defeat Mother Brain and Mecha Ridley are also tied to their AI scripts.
I tried to make this as painless as possible by putting you right outside the ships
you need to enter to stop them when they happen though. Use the time the cutscenes are
playing to meditate before your next encounter.
If you are playing boss select and are confused about the escape sequences, you can read
more about that in the boss select question section.
Q. What the hell is this mirror?
A. That is the Chozo Warrior Engraving. To fight it you have to wait for Samus's pistol to
fully charge, then shoot it when it glows and stops showing her. You have to do this 4
times and you basically can only take 2 hits yourself. Touching it hurts you, and it can
also shoot lightning. This boss is kind of bullshit honestly.
Defeating it will give you your fully powered suit though.
Q. Mecha Ridley is wrecking my shit even harder.
A. Yeah he'll do that. I'll note right here that if you have 100% item collection he becomes
about 10x harder than he normally is. More HP, more damage dealt, etc.
Anyways, to beat him you have to shoot the glowy light on his chest. You have to use
missiles to do it too. I'm not going to outline every attack he has and how to dodge them
though. If you practice on him enough you'll start to get a feel for it. Good luck again.
--- Boss Select specific questions ---
Q. So how does Boss Select work?
A. If you take the lowest path after the first save room you'll enter a very long room
with a ton of doors. This is the boss select area. The doors above you each lead to
a boss. In order from left to right:
1. Deorem the giant centipede
2. Mua the acid worm
3. Kraid
4. Kiru Giru the caterpillars
5. Ensnared Kiru Giru the caterpillar larvae hanging from veiny tendrils
6. Imago the giant wasp
7. Ridley
8. Mother Brain
9. The Chozo Warrior Engraving
10. Mecha Ridley
Furthermore, at the end of the boss area you will find another door that leads to a
healing save room. If you have triggered it, there may also be a door to a ship, either
Samus's or a space pirate's, past the save room.
Q. In Boss Select Mode I blew up Mother Brain's glass shield thing, but it's still there?
What's going on here?
A. That's just the graphics getting messed up. Her shield is in fact gone, it just looks like
it isn't. I have genuinely got no idea why this happens since the exact same data is being
loaded as in the normal fight with her. Oh well.
Q. I beat Mother Brain in the Boss Select area, but the countdown won't go away.
A. Follow the hallway to the save room and you'll find there's another door there now.
Enter this door and you should find your ship outside. Board it and watch the cutscenes.
Any time after defeating Mother Brain (but before beating Mecha Ridley) you can enter
this door and board the ship again to change to Zero Suit Samus. I don't recommend this
in general though because without missiles Zero Suit Samus can only beat the Chozo
Warrior Engraving. (I think. I admit I haven't tested that extensively.)
Q. In Boss Select Mode I beat Mecha Ridley and there's a countdown again. What do I do?
A. Once you beat Mecha Ridley the save area's second door will appear and allow you to
steal a space pirate ship and start the credits. Unfortunately Mecha Ridley effectively
ends the game, and I don't really have a way to stop that from happening right now.
You'll have to simply face him last, or be ready to defeat all the other bosses within
5 minutes if you fight him earlier.
The download contains 2 different patches designed for the roms identified as "good" by the No-Intro set and the GoodGBA set.
Information on the GoodGBA version of the rom:
Metroid - Zero Mission (U) [!]
SHA1: 5DE8536AFE1F0078EE6FE1089F890E8C7AA0A6E8
MD5: EBBCE58109988B6DA61EBB06C7A432D5
Information on the No-Intro version of the rom:
Metroid - Zero Mission (USA)
SHA1: 912A13C8F4D03724E4EF235765440C7A131CCAE2
MD5: 1FF19802B28F60357BA0629C26B9AEDF
Time to Beat
Main Story 4h 19m
Main + Extras 5h 0m
ttb_all 4h 50m
Speedrun Avg 1h 19m
Speedrun Full 1h 51m
Release Date
Jul 27, 2016
8 years ago
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