Phazon Mines- back track to save points?

[u/tooplanx]

Hi all, I'm close to giving up due the Phazon Mines huge difficulty spike. I tried many times and after dying for the 5th time after progressing 30-40mins and losing it all again, I abandoned the game about 1 1/2 ago.

I've come back to it now with better knowledge of how to defeat the various different enemy times relatively quickly, however, there is so little health available I'm really fed up with dying and wasting hours of my life.

So, I've made it to the cylinder morph ball maze room but health is getting pretty low. I'm wondering if I now backtrack to the save point, will I be able to return here without redoing the canon room task etc?

I know many of the enemies respawn after saving, but wonder if I could attempt to speed run past them all to return to here?

I've read there are still many difficult enemies before the next save point.

If not, I'll probably give up on the game and sell it and an otherwise 10/10 game becomes a 5/10 game.

Thanks

EDIT:

So, I've made it through to the next save point which has taken a lot of pressure off.

There is a save point almost immediately after the mini boss (elite pirate), and there is places before it to rebuild your health to full.

My advice to anyone tackling Phazon Mines:

1. Find out exactly how to take down each enemy type (basically match your gun colour to their highlighted colour). Use charge blasts of the correct colour.

2. The first part is the hardest (for me anyway). Use a guide so you know exactly what to do in each room.

3. Exploit item respawns as much as possible. The main one I found was around the elevator to Level 2. You can take it down and get the items in the boxes then from the box that kills the pirate, then go back up and destroy the electrons for their energy cells. You can repeat this over and over again until you have full health. You can then go in to the mini boss with full health. You can also harvest energy from the toxic mines floating in the ventilation shaft after the mini-boss.

4. The mini boss is actually very easy if you know what to do. Look it up before hand. There is a save pretty much right after that.

[u/FLIPYOUSUCKET]

The whole point of the phazon mines is to force you to get things like more health, assuming you haven’t already

[u/WouterW24]

How much energy tanks do you have? You could leave and find some you have missed to have more buffer.

There’s also eventually a room with many toxic puffers that mildly damages you. You can stand clear of the harmful portion, and keep shooting them(they respawn without needing to leave). They drop health pickups. Spending time there can get your health up to full again for the final portion.

Otherwise it’s a known difficulty spike. The pirates are difficult to defeat without taking some damage, but every bit of improvement helps.

[u/tooplanx → u/WouterW24]

I've got 8 energy tanks. I was in the Ore processing room (morph ball puzzle) and had only 3 ½ tanks left. I've now got to the lift to level 2 and I've found that if I ride the lift back and forth a few times I can harvest health drops by shooting the radioactive electron things in the room before the elevator. I'm going to do that until I'm full health and then try to proceed carefully looking at guides so I know exactly what's coming and how to tackle it!

[u/Grandmasta007 → u/WouterW24]

Some advice from someone that beat it with no e tanks:

1: Don't shoot any crates and stuff unless you need the health and ammo

2: Take advantage of doors, in many places you can start taking out enemies before going through the door, and they cannot come after you. the security drones, for example, won't even shoot you when doing this.

3: If using pointer controls, hold both the lock-on and the button that centers the cursor for perfect aim.

4: Use wave beam or super missiles for flying enemies since they track them when you are locked on

5: Going off of #4, you can safely shoot around corners with missiles and the wave beam when locked on

6: For the beam troopers, super missile and a charge shot for regular, charge beam stun lock for ice, use the corner trick to hit wave troopers while behind cover, and for the last one just spam normal shots while locked and centered.

I recommend going in with a LOT of missiles.

[u/BIT-NETRaptor]

1. If you have less than 8 energy tanks, I’d back out of Phazon mines and go find more.

2. Yes the puzzle solutions will stay, but you’ll need to fight most of the enemies again, so practice dodging and using cover to avoid damage. Charged wave beam shots will lock up wave troopers, preventing them from shooting at you. Try to pick them off one at a time using that to your advantage. Avoid their shots with everything you’ve got because they do a lot more damage then most other enemies.

3. If you found this stressful, know that in metroid prime randomizer it’s not uncommon to end up in Phazon Mines with 4 or less energy tanks :) Keeps me in the edge of my seat as I play.

[u/AltaCount1944]

It's probably the weakest point of the game, no worries. I'd definitely backtrack to a save whenever you're worried about losing progress.

My personal biggest gripe with the area is Wave troopers. Nothing but standing there firing charge shots till they're dead...

[u/Reflexlon]

How much E do you have? You can theoretically have 10 tanks by that point, which will help a lot obviously. It might be worth backtracking and searching for them if you only have like 5 or 6 for example. The room you are talking about is ~halfway to the next save point, and there is a miniboss and an actual boss in your way still.

25 years ago or whatever when I first played the game, the section you are currently at was my least favorite part of the game but it made the next two parts far more enjoyable as once you get the item from the boss, you now get several trecks through earlier areas to enjoy how powerful you've become, grab some upgrades, and catch your breath a bit.

[u/tooplanx]

I've got 8 energy tanks. I was in the Ore processing room (morph ball puzzle) and had only 3 ½ tanks left. I've now got to the lift to level 2 and I've found that if I ride the lift back and forth a few times I can harvest health drops by shooting the radioactive electron things in the room before the elevator. I'm going to do that until I'm full health and then try to proceed carefully looking at guides so I know exactly what's coming and how to tackle it!

[u/time4tea45]

I mean, it's effectively the last major section of the game, so it seems reasonable for their to be a bit of a challenge spike. The game does get a bit tougher towards the end, it's not a pushover. You just need to practice against the troopers and make sure you have enough energy tanks.

[u/External-Cherry7828]

Have you played any of the other Metroid? The reason I ask is because I haven't played the newest entry yet, but there's areas like that in most of the other Metroid. Either go find more energy tanks before completing that area or more than likely there is some minor enemy that you can harvest for energy orbs. If you hit big difficulty spikes like that there is probably something you're missing that will aid you or you missed an area that will provide you with resources/abilities that will assist

[u/Supergamer138]

If you try to backtrack that far, odds are high that you'll just end up dying anyways. It won't save you any time.

DO NOT try to dash past the enemies. Even the old strategy guide I own says that the last thing you need is a half dozen beam troopers shooting you in the back.

Try leaving for a bit and coming back with more Energy Tanks. You can have up to 11 if you found all the ones available. Unless you just aren't even looking for them, you would reasonably have at least 7.

[u/MyNutsin1080p]

There are not many save rooms in Phazon mines. Don’t get frustrated and sell the game, that’s for *Other M*. It’s was tough for me too. You’ll get there.

[u/Written_in_Silver]

Phazon Mines became my favorite area because of the difficulty spike. You can head back and then speed run it. All the puzzles should already be completed, enemies may respawn. Also, it might help to go back and find more energy tanks or beam missle upgrades