Super Metroid Map Rando
Version: 45
Note: Even on the "Easy" difficulty, the seeds can be challenging, particularly in the early game. We are still working on improvements to better align the game's difficulty with the intended level.

Infinite Bomb Jump. Using consecutive bomb jumps to gain height indefinitely.
Jump off walls, as taught by the Etecoons
The ability to use the Speed Booster to store a charge, then fly in a direction until an obstacle is hit.
The ability to crouch before jumping to reach higher ledges. Commonly paired with a Down Grab.
The ability to aim down to reduce Samus' hitbox to reach higher ledges. Commonly paired with a Crouch Jump.
Navigating heat rooms without immunity to heat damage.
Navigating Maridia without Gravity. This is not required for simple underwater platforming where missing a jump does not leave the player stuck somewhere, or for falling down a submerged room.

The ability to start an IBJ from a jump. Can be required in strats that need Samus to IBJ up faster or to avoid something near the ground.
The ability to break blocks above Samus while maintaining an ongoing IBJ.
Taking advantage of the smaller hitbox of spinjump and down-aim to squeeze through two-tile gaps.
Using an enemy in a room to accomplish something that couldn't be done if it weren't there
Taking damage from an enemy to assist Samus in her movement
The ability to open a left-facing blue or green gate from the right, using missiles or supers.
Turning off Gravity Suit right after the start of an underwater jump to achieve higher height
Maintaining running speed while morphed, by holding jump and down (to crouch) during a lateral jump, then morphing as Samus hits the ground while holding jump and transition from holding down to holding forward. Sometimes referred to as a Machball.
Performing the same input as a mockball, but in midair, in order to maintain forward momentum while morphing in midair
Using a lateral mid-air morph to bounce off a surface with SpringBall while retaining previous momentum.
Can use Ice Beam to freeze enemies to use as platforms, or as walljump supports, to reach higher areas
Using a Mochtroid's movement to climb upwards by continually freezing it higher up
Quickly press and release forward and then immediately press jump (after stopping) to spin jump with no horizontal movement. Holding run produces a spin jump with very low horizontal speed.
This is an option that can be turned on in the special setting mode after selecting a save file. It is required for some tech.
Jumping off a ledge while moonwalking to fall with an uncapped speed.
Using a frozen Mochtroid to clip through a one-tile-high wall.
Basic variant of jumping into a two block high space and performing the actions needed to clip up through the ceiling. This often uses enemies, so is required for enemy clip enemies that are extensions of canUseEnemies.
Using i-frames to setup a jump from a spike floor or wall
A horizontal bomb jump using a single bomb. Since it uses one bomb, it works with PBs as well.
Piggybacking on top of a climbing snail to get up a wall
Force Samus to stand up, from a crouching position, by canceling use of the XRay Scope while turning around
The ability to reliably jump while landing on a crumble block. This may employ the small amount of jump buffering the game offers.
Using SpaceJump to carry SpeedBooster's blue suit into some speed blocks that couldn't be reached just by running and jumping
Performing a Crystal Flash.
Using a Crystal Flash to take advantage of the fact it forces Samus to stand up. This can be used while in a morph tunnel to jump through single tile thick ceilings.
The ability to get into the safe spot in the Golden Torizo fight, where Samus can attack while being safe from GT's standard attacks.
Climbing a wall with three or more consecutive walljumps without a mistake.
Using the momentum from jumping through a doorway from normal to water physics.
The ability to perform simple jumps with a shinespark charge timer running to get into position to shinespark. This reposition may be necessary to avoid obstacles, conserve energy, etc.
The ability to jump and shinespark midair: vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. This is not used to simply save energy.
Executing a jump that requires somewhat precise or unintuitive movement.

Executing a jump that requires very precise timing.
Navigating deep lava without Gravity. This isn't limited to the Lava Dive Room, but it does exclude all rooms with just shallow lava.
A walljump that needs to be performed at a fairly precise spot in order to yield the desired result.
The ability to pass through some enemies undamaged by shooting. May involve running through the enemy after making its hitbox inactive (e.g. Metal Pirates) or while the enemy has iframes (e.g. using Plasma).
A tech that involves mid-air morphing to drop a Morph Bomb or PB, then mid-air unmorphing to briefly hover above the bomb, then using the bomb blast to go just a bit higher than max jump height
Doing a gravity Jump in lava, causing Samus to take damage
A mid-air morph that has to be done within an elevation difference of 3 tiles (with a ceiling removing any extra room). It's a lot more precise than with more room.
Canceling an aim angle while crouching and turning around, to wiggle to the right
While performing a stationary vertical jump, it's possible to mid-air morph in a manner similar to a lateral mid-air morph. Doing this immediately gives lateral momentum equivalent to maximum walk speed. This is meaningless under normal physics, but has underwater applications.
Can use Ice Beam to freeze enemies in especially precise positionings.
Repeatedly freezing a crab to climb up a wall, using no other support. This does not include the simple act of using a frozen crab as a stepping stone, even on a wall or in midair.
Being proficient at avoiding Metroids
Setting up a Mochtroid climb from a sand floor, where failure in a suitless environment can mean death
Shooting a large number of off-screen shot blocks, overloading the memory and making it possible to clip through otherwise solid blocks. Made famous by its use in Frog Speedway.
The ability to clip into the Maridia tube from above.
The ability to get out of water by walljumping while the water is at its lowest point, and to do so in a timely manner, e.g. before a Yapping Maw drags you into a sand pit.
Using grapple to propel yourself upwards, then continuously morphing/unmorphing/jumping in midair to climb upwards Much more lenient with HiJump.
A horizontal bomb jump using two bombs. Longer range than single HBJ, much harder to execute, doesn't work with PBs.
Manipulating a snail's position to setup a ceiling clip.
From a submerged platform, setting up a single bomb jump above the water line to propel Samus up and out of the water.
The ability to shoot a Super Missile at a precise location to hit an offscreen inanimate target, e.g. a Super block.
The ability to reach targets on the other side of a room by shooting Wave Beam at the right spot in the opposite wall.
Moving along a 2-tile-high passage while standing up by repeatedly spin-jumping and then pressing down. The tech comes with softlock risks without Morph Ball, but this is the safer variant where Morph is available and no softlock can occur.
Reaching a higher than normal height with a jump, by morphing in mid-air and then turning on SpringBall while still climbing upwards. This makes it possible to use SpringBall while Samus is still climbing upwards, for an additional jump.
The ability to reliably spin jump while landing on a crumble block. This is much tighter than regular crumble jumps because the jump buffering does not help.
Being able to glitch through the Mother Brain zebetites by using a frozen Rinka and iFrames. Spinjump or Down-Back onto the rinka after acquiring iFrames to clip inside of the zebetite. Then jump through. Zebetites cause iframes but deal no damage.
Controlling wall jump height and positioning to dodge enemies or wait for something.
The ability to know which room is coming next and use that information to enter the room in a specific way. This could be achieved from remembering which rooms Samus has been to, using the map to figure out which room is coming next, etc.
Positioning Samus at the very edge of a platform, facing away, then turning around and jumping to initiate the jump from a position that is off the platform (and slightly below it) Sometimes referred to as a corner jump.
The ability to place a second bomb above the first during an infinite bomb jump in order to ascend faster.
Using unmorph as a way to reset fall speed.
Using Morph to retain momentum when transitioning to water physics.
The ability to make multiple movement actions with a shinespark charge timer running to get into position to shinespark. This reposition may be necessary to avoid obstacles, conserve energy, etc.
Turning around quickly so as to manipulate game physics. For using screw attack to break blocks and to shrink Samus hitbox following a walljump And for maneuvering sharply underwater.
Using as a weapon the Samus echoes that are emitted after a shinespark bonk.
Uses the uninteruptable frames of turning around in order to continue moving after hitting a solid object. Can be used to make it through an opening door, or barely just past a ledge.
Using two walls spaced 1 tile apart to climb upward underwater. Samus will not be able to move away from the wall while walljumping and so will be able to continuously gain height with fast jump presses.

Jumping during a spike in the speed-to-jumpHeight chart (when Speed Booster is active) to achieve a higher jump height than if done with all the available running room
Continuous Walljump. Without turning around, spinjump forward and then walljump off a solid object to retain all foreward momentum. The more speed Samus has, the smaller the frame window for the CWJ. A slow CWJ uses a wall or ledge near the initial jump point. A fast CWJ will walljump using the opposite side of a distant object.
The ability to IBJ to the ceiling and place bombs at a steady rhythm while also moving horizontally.
A precise walljump that additionally needs to done as far from the wall as possible.
A tech that involves multiple damage boosts with precise timing. No room for missing one of them.
Executing a gravity jump off a walljump
Getting up a 2-tile-high jump in a morph passage by mid-air morphing off the opposite wall. Morphing after a walljump only requires one down press.
Setting up an ice clip at exactly the right pixel, so the clip can work without the leniency allowed by an X-Ray standup
Being proficient at avoiding the baby Metroid
Using a series of rapid, consecutive wall jumps underwater, on two nearby walls, to climb upwards.
Managing to break free of the water while doing a sunken dual wall climb, without the help of space jump
The ability to start an IBJ off a jump on sand. Pretty obnoxious.
Climbing a wall with consecutive walljumps very quickly, e.g. for setting up a full halfie.
Using grapple jump off a Draygon turret. Usually done by bouncing off the wall for momentum.
The ability to identify a bug enemy that moves in a diving pattern (Mellow, Mella, or Menu) and inches upwards or downwards with each dive. Once that enemy has been identified, subsequently making it dive repeatedly until it is at the proper height to execute a strat.
Moving along a 2-tile-high passage while standing up by repeatedly spin-jumping and then pressing down. Comes with softlock risks without Morph Ball.
A springball jump that starts with a walljump to gain more height. It often relies on the momentum change when equipping or unequipping SpringBall while morphed and moving horizontally.
Using the SpringBallJumpMidAir twice during a single jump to gain even more height. This typically only works underwater with HiJump. This consists of a tight variant of SpringBallJumpMidAir, then turning off spring ball, then a second SpringBallJumpMidAir all while still climbing upwards.
All-purpose tech for X-Ray climbing by repeatedly using X-Ray's forced standup trick to climb up through walls. This tech is uncoupled from different setups that place Samus in a position to do this and only refers to the actual climbing portion.
Though using the same techs, the setup is a bit different for left-facing doors. It requires a dashing stationary spinjump into a doorcheck, then holding down as Samus arrives in the other room. Then use normal X-Ray climbing.
The combination of a crumble quick drop, and landing on a lower surface and jumping back over the crumble block before it re-forms.
Being able to glitch through the Mother Brain zebetites by using a shinespark and iFrames. The tech itself isn't that difficult, what makes it difficult with the vanilla layout is getting the short charge.
Being able to glitch through the second Zebetite barrier, clipping through it by morphing/unmorphing/remorphing on a frozen Rinka. Spinjump into the lower portion of the zebetite to becoming wedged between it and the frozen rinka. Morphing twice raises Samus to the right height to roll through. Also known as the Springball Zebetite Skip.
Executing a strat that requires waiting or doing the same thing over and over again for over 3 minutes, even with good execution
For delayed walljumps that require extreme precision, in the vicinity of pixel+frame perfect.
A tech common to all ice clips except Mochtroid (which lines up perfectly so is pretty trivial). It requires either pixel perfect enemy positioning or the ability to force a standup with XRay.
Using an attached Beetom to precisely freeze it in place to be used for a clip. Freezing an attached Beetom works best when facing right and vertical speed is low.
Using a frozen wall crawling enemy (such as a Zeela or Geemer) to perform a ceiling clip
Using a frozen Puyo to clip through a one-tile-high wall.
Using a frozen Multiviola to clip through a one-tile-high wall.
Using a frozen Mella to clip through a one-tile-high wall.
Enter the partner door (which faces left in the adjacent room) with a stationary spinjump moving away to touch the transition with momentum that will get you stuck in the destination door. That destination door is right-facing in the room where the X-Ray climb happens. Then use the X-Ray's forced standup trick to climb up through in-bound walls.
Using a Crystal Flash below a non-respawning crumble block to clip into the block while holding down to break it.
Using a Crystal Flash below a single tile thick ceiling, then using grapple to force Samus on top of it. To do this, select grapple as your health refills then hold down and mash shoot, the earlier you shoot the better.
The ability to accurately place a Morph Bomb or PB in midair following a walljump. Then using that bomb explosion to propel Samus forward. There is a timing component where the bomb is placed while rising then hit while falling, and a momentum component for maximizing horizontal distance.
Using a spinjump and down-aim to clip into a closing gate, allowing Samus to walk through the gate.
The ability to change the bomb placement timing in order control the speed with which you gain height.
The ability to IBJ with backspin which results in diagonal movement.
Quick: Key items, and Morph in particular, are placed earlier. Beams, tanks, and ammo are spread out uniformly. Multiple progression paths are generally possible from relatively early in the game.
Standard: Key items are spread out roughly uniformly. Beams, tanks, and ammo are spread out uniformly. Multiple progression paths are generally possible by the middle of the game.
Challenge: Key items are delayed. A single progression path may be forced until late in the game. Access to beams, tanks, and ammo other than Missiles is often delayed.

Fast: Key items are placed at double the normal rate, concentrating them in locations accessible earlier in the game.
Normal: Key items are placed at a uniform rate. By the middle of the game there will likely be many possible ways to progress.
Slow: At most one key item is placed at each step. This tends to limit the player to a linear progression sequence, with many key items not being accessible until near the end of the game.
Neutral: Key items are placed in random locations (among the possible locations at a given step).
Forced: Key items have some tendency to be placed in locations requiring difficult techniques to reach.
Key item priority
Note: These settings affect how the randomizer prioritizes placing key items, but the results will vary. Depending on the "Progression rate" setting above, key items are often constrained to provide progression, limiting how early or late a given item may be placed for a given map.
Filler items
Note: Filler items (which always include Missiles) may be placed regardless of if they provide progression. If an item with multiple copies (Supers, Power Bombs, Energy Tanks, and Reserve Tanks) is not selected as a filler item but is placed as a key item, then additional copies may be placed as filler.

Note: This is still in an alpha stage of development, so bugs are expected. If you encounter a problem, feedback is welcome on GitHub issues. Also feel free to stop by the Discord: let us know if you find a cool seed (or a broken seed), if you have questions or ideas for future development, or if you're streaming the game!
Change log
Note: Previous versions of the rando can be accessed by clicking the links below. These may take about 15 seconds to load.

Version 45 (2023-03-09):

  • Logic updates:
    • Enemy kill strats using ammo are now in logic.
    • Fixed a logic bug in the Climb involving breaking the bomb wall with Speedbooster.
    • Other logic updates (diff)
  • "Progression style", "Item placement", and "Item priority" settings are consolidated into a new "Item progression" group of settings.
    • This simplifies the process of generating a seed, by grouping multiple settings under a single preset.
    • Progression style (Open, Semiclosed, Closed) is replaced by more granular settings:
      • "Progression rate" setting is added. "Normal" is what Open mode used before, while "Slow" is what Semiclosed and Closed used. A new option "Fast" is also added.
      • "Filler items" settings are added. Enabling ammo, tanks, and beams as filler items is equivalent to what Open mode used before.
    • Three presets are introduced for "Item progression":
      • Quick: This corresponds to "Open", "Neutral", "Early Morph" from previous versions, except "Fast" progression rate is also now enabled. This mode is now the default, since it is probably the best choice for first-time players.
      • Standard: This corresponds to "Open", "Forced", "Default" from previous versions. The use of "Forced" here helps to bring the difficulty of a seed into closer alignment with the selected skill assumptions.
      • Challenge: This corresponds roughly to "Closed", "Forced", while also setting the most powerful items (Morph, Varia, Gravity) to Late priority, to more consistently provide a challenge.
        • Like the old Closed mode, "Challenge" mode has no filler items except for Missiles.
        • The placement of Supers and Power Bombs is more like the old Semiclosed mode: after one is placed as a key item, additional copies will be placed as filler.
        • There is more variability in the accessibility of E-Tanks and Reserve Tanks. Some seeds will have very late access to tanks (later than was possible with the old Closed mode) while others will have earlier access to a larger amount of tanks, leading to a higher probability of longer hell-runs with a more delayed Varia.
        • Players wanting the more consistent extra energy of the old Semiclosed mode can enable "ETank" and/or "ReserveTank" as a filler item.

Version 44 (2023-03-05):

  • A quality-of-life option is added to spawn all items from the start of the game, and is enabled by default:
    • This allows earlier access to items which would otherwise be locked by waking Zebes or defeating Phantoon.
    • The item in Wrecked Ship East Super Room remains inaccessible until Phantoon is defeated, due to the deactivated robot blocking the item.
    • The item in the ceiling of Blue Brinstar Energy Tank Room remains less accessible until Zebes is awake, due to the absence of enemies to use for a damage boost.
    • If enabled, this option is taken into account in the logic.
  • A quality-of-life option is added for fast door transitions, and is enabled by default.
    • Fade-out and scroll speeds are doubled.
    • To avoid disrupting strats on room entry, fade-in speed is unchanged (a difference from "fast doors" in other randomizers).

Version 43 (2023-03-04):

  • Gray doors are restored in a few special rooms to bring them closer to vanilla, while continuing to avoid surprise softlocks:
    • "Bomb Torizo"-type doors are added to Plasma Room and Golden Torizo's Room:
      • When entering Plasma Room, the door remains open until the item in the room is collected, at which point it closes gray and is unlocked by killing the Space Pirates in the room.
      • When entering Golden Torizo's Room from the right side, the right door remains open until an item in the room is collected, at which point it closes gray and is unlocked by defeating Golden Torizo. (As before, when entering from the left side, the right door is already gray and is unlocked by defeating Golden Torizo.)
    • Gray doors are added to Baby Kraid Room and Metal Pirates Room. The door through which Samus enters remains blue, but the door on the opposite side is now gray, unlocked by killing the enemies in the room.
      • In Baby Kraid Room, the two gray doors have separate state from each other (as they do in vanilla), but at most one is spawned at a time, which means that to unlock both doors the player must clear the room twice, once in each direction.
      • In Metal Pirates Room, the two gray doors share a common state, so after clearing the room once it will remain cleared when passing the other direction.
    • With these changes, Zebes can now be awakened by unlocking a gray door in any of the following rooms:
      • Pit Room, Baby Kraid Room, Metal Pirates Room, Plasma Room.
      • To help remember this list: These are exactly the rooms which require killing Space Pirates to unlock the doors (in vanilla, as well as in the randomizer).
  • Two earlier modes are brought back for marking items on the map. There are now four options:
    • Basic: All items are marked on the map with small dots.
    • Majors: Unique items, E-Tanks, and Reserve Tanks are marked with large solid dots; other items are marked with small dots.
    • Uniques: Unique items are marked with large solid dots; other items are marked with small dots.
    • 3-Tiered: Unique items are marked with large solid dots; Supers, Power Bombs, E-Tanks, and Reserve Tanks are marked with large hollow dots; Missiles are marked with small dots.
  • Fixed the closing animation for the door going left-to-right from Green Brinstar Main Shaft to itself (to Etecoons); this was a vanilla bug that caused the closing blue door to appear one screen to the left of where it should be.
  • Fixed a logic bug involving the flag for the Maridia Tube being broken earlier than it should be.

Version 42 (2023-03-03):

  • Escape timer base rate is reduced from 1.8 to 1.6 seconds per screen, and adjustments are made for elevators and speedways.
  • Item dot quality-of-life options are replaced with a single quality-of-life option featuring three item marker types:
    • Solid large dots: Unique items
    • Hollow large dots: Supers, Power Bombs, E-Tanks, and Reserve Tanks
    • Small dots: Missiles
  • Logic improvements:
    • Add cross-room strats:
      • X-Ray climbs are back (with many more strats than before).
      • Running through a door to gain extra space to charge a shinespark.
      • Charging a shinespark and using or carrying it into a neighboring room.
      • Using momentum through a horizontal door transition to execute a jump in (or into) the next room. This includes jumping through a door from a non-water environment to a water environment, to retain extra momentum similar to a Gravity jump.
    • Shinespark energy requirements are relaxed in cases where Samus goes far enough even when stopped by reaching 29 energy.
    • Added tech:
      • canCarefulJump, canCrossRoomJumpIntoWater, canMidairShinespark, canShinechargeMovement, canShinechargeMovementComplex, canMidairWiggle
    • Adjust how Open logic works: a key item is now considered to provide progression if it opens a return path from an item location that was already one-way-reachable. (We may apply a similar change to Semiclosed and Closed modes later.)
      • This leads to more diversity in the possible order of key item placement.
      • As a result, "Item priority" settings more consistently have the intended effect.
      • On average, early item progression tends to occur at a higher rate but with less powerful items.
      • It increases the likelihood of key items being placed in locations that initially are only one-way reachable (meaning the player may need to be more careful not to be fooled into going after such items with no way out).
    • Fixed a couple logic bugs involving waking Zebes and the Beetom ice clip.
  • Save stations are disabled again during the escape (fixes a bug introduced in version 39).
  • Bug where tiles sometimes wrap around vertically on the pause map is (mostly) fixed.

Version 41 (2023-02-26):

  • In the Tourian Blue Hopper Room, the left enemy position is adjusted four tiles to the right, so Samus can leave without taking damage when entering from the left.
  • The screen no longer flashes red when entering Draygon's Room (a bug introduced in version 39).
  • The message "Missile Reload Completed" is changed to "Ammo Reload Completed", to accurately reflect what the reload does.
  • The Crateria scrolling sky is restored.
  • A fake gray door no longer appears during the Phantoon fight.
  • When Grapple and X-Ray are collected with Hyper Beam (with "streamlined escape" option), they are now visible in the HUD.

Version 40 (2023-02-24):

  • In Open mode, beams now have a more reasonable chance of being accessible earlier.
  • "Early Morph" mode is available, along with the ability to customize item priority more generally.
  • "Forced" mode is available, making key items tend to be in locations requiring harder techniques to reach. Enable this if you want an extra challenge!
  • Fixed an issue in Semiclosed & Closed modes where a key item would needlessly be placed on steps where ammo/tanks being placed are enough to provide progression.
  • Strat notes are added to the spoiler log.

Version 39 (2023-02-21):

  • Speed up parts of the game where Samus does not have control or cannot do anything useful:
    • Save stations skip the confirmation prompt and have an accelerated animation.
    • Energy stations, refill stations, map stations, and the Ship have accelerated animations.
    • Message boxes (e.g. after item collection) can be closed slightly sooner.
    • The Baby Metroid cutscene in Big Boy Room is condensed. Baby Skip setups should be unaffected.
    • The delay before the start of Mother Brain 2 is removed.
    • Rooms load faster. This is a small change only noticeable when entering large rooms (not the same as "fast doors").

Version 38 (2023-02-20):

  • Refinements to balancing algorithm:
    • Map stations are placed in more accessible locations on average.
    • Save stations and refill stations are less likely to be at the end of a hallway.
  • Logic updates (diff)

Version 37 (2023-02-18):

  • Bomb Torizo's door now closes if you pick up the item in the room (rather than if you have Morph Bombs).
  • Improvements to Phantoon and Draygon logic which make the fights more lenient, especially at lower difficulty settings:
    • Proficiency settings are added to allow players to customize the difficulty (similar to the settings for Ridley and Botwoon). Lower values of these settings will ensure that helpful items such as tanks, suits, and beams will be obtainable before the fight is in logic.
  • A bug that prevented the "Save the Animals" setting from being taken into account in the escape timer is fixed.
  • Fast reload (L + R + Select + Start) now works during the death animation.
  • Pause-menu tiles next to area names are corrected to be black instead of transparent.

Version 36 (2023-02-14):

  • Map glitch in the top and bottom rows of tiles should no longer occur.
  • Samus animation is no longer glitched when transitioning from water FX to non-water FX rooms.
  • Fast elevators is now a Quality-of-life option so it can be disabled.
  • Waking Zebes is now in logic again (fixes a bug introduced in Version 35).
  • Other logic updates (diff)
    • New tech added: canMoonwalk, canConsecutiveWalljump, canStaggeredWalljump, canMomentumConservingTurnaround, canFlatleyJump, canDoubleBombJump, canDiagonalBombJump, canResetFallSpeed, canMellaIceClip, canCrystalFlashClip, canCrystalFlashGrappleClip, canWallJumpBombBoost, canCrouchGateClip, canStaggeredIBJ, canPrepareForNextRoom

Version 35 (2023-02-08):

  • Improvements to Botwoon and Golden Torizo logic which overall make the fights more lenient, especially at lower difficulty settings:
    • The possibility of killing Botwoon with ammo is taken into account (for left-side kills only); previously Charge was required. A new "Botwoon proficiency" setting is added to model the player's accuracy, firing rate, and ability to dodge Botwoon's attacks. For details see the code.
    • A new tech "canSafeSpotGT" is added to represent that the player knows how to use the "safe spot" during the Golden Torizo fight. Previously this was implicitly assumed at all difficulty levels, but now by default it is enabled only at Hard difficulty and higher. Also, to be in logic, very long fights now require "canBePatient".
  • Changes to the item placement strategies to try to make the game less punishing when the player chooses a "wrong" one-way path to go down:
    • When using Open item placement, eliminate a quirk where one-way-reachable item locations were very likely to contain only tanks & ammo. Now key items are placed more randomly, so if a player goes down a one-way path before intended, they have more chance of finding an item that could allow them to get out, though there is no guarantee.
    • For Semiclosed and Closed item placement strategies, although the game still fills one-way-reachable locations only with non-key items, it now tries to avoid creating situations with an excessive amount of one-way-reachable item locations to begin with. This should help cut back on extreme scenarios where the player could find themselves in large areas with dozens of items but no way out.
    • For all item placement modes, progression still should always be possible by collecting items that have a path back to the Ship without needing to use the new item.
  • Other logic updates (diff).
  • Some adjustments to the area-themed palettes.

Version 34 (2023-02-06):

  • Area-themed room palettes are here!
    • These are optional but enabled by default.
    • There are a few rough spots, mainly in Brinstar rooms using CRE colors from blue doors (making them hard to change) which we can hopefully improve later.
  • If "Streamlined escape" option is not set, then Mother Brain rainbow beam drains ammo, restoring the vanilla behavior.
    • The escape should always still be beatable since in this game Hyper Beam destroys Super, Bomb, and Power Bomb blocks and can open green (and blue) gates.
    • The only tricky case is going through the morph tunnel from left to right at the bottom of Big Pink. This requires following a Hyper Beam shot through the tunnel to destroy the Power Bomb block.
    • If "Streamlined escape" option is enabled then, as before, rainbow beam will not drain ammo.
  • Event flags are set at start of the escape instead of when entering the next room.
    • This ensures an open path even if the first room of the escape is Acid Statue Room or Shaktool Room.
  • When leaving Mother Brain Room at the start of escape, the door is turned gray to block the way going back to the right.
    • It was already impossible to escape back through the right, but the way was blocked only by the G4 barriers which was confusing.
  • The white whole-screen flashing after Mother Brain 1 is removed.
  • The setting to mark major items (as large dots on the map) is split into two settings, one for unique items and one for tanks.
  • Adjust the behavior of Shaktool Room:
    • In order to set the game flag that keeps the way cleared, Samus must first cross to the opposite side of the room from which she entered.
    • The cheesy strat (possible in vanilla) of simply entering, exiting, and re-entering the right door no longer works.
    • Note: To cross the room from the right to left, use the snails to dig through the sand. A Power Bomb is needed to cross in either direction until the way is cleared.

Version 33 (2023-02-01):

  • Improved logic for Ridley fight:
    • A new setting "Ridley proficiency" is added to adjust the logic for the Ridley fight.
    • The new logic is generally more lenient, ensuring that enough relevant items such as beams, ammo, tanks, and/or suits are obtainable before the fight. (Previously the logic required exactly Charge and Varia).
    • On the other hand, now neither Charge nor Varia are logically required for the fight (assuming "canHeatRun" is enabled) if enough ammo/tanks are obtainable.
    • If the fight is expected to require more than 3 minutes, it will not be in logic at that point unless "canBePatient" is enabled.
    • For details on how the proficiency setting affects the player's assumed firing speed & accuracy, dodge rate, etc., see the code.
  • "Streamlined escape" is converted to a quality-of-life option
    • If this is left on, then there is no change from previous versions (enemies are cleared during the escape, and all movement items are acquired with Hyper Beam).
  • Fixed a few bugs that occasionally caused the server to crash with "Service Unavailable".

Version 32 (2023-01-30):

  • Major items are now indicated by large dots on the map.
  • A few quality-of-life changes (including major item marking) can be switched off.

Version 31 (2023-01-29):

  • The website now remembers the user's settings (using local storage in the browser).
  • The "Random seed" field can be left blank and the randomizer will automatically choose a seed.
  • Seeds are saved and can be shared with other players by sending them the URL.
  • A "race mode" option is added, which prevents spoiler information from being generated. It also ensures that using the same random seed for a race-mode game will give different results than for a non-race-mode game.
  • The server validates that the input ROM is the correct vanilla ROM before generating a game. After the game is generated, the base ROM can still be customized.

Version 30 (2023-01-27):

  • Fix an issue that caused the game to crash when entering Tourian Eye Door Room.

Version 29 (2023-01-27):

  • The randomizer is rewritten in Rust. This is an internal change but it has some observable effects:
    • The randomization runs much faster.
    • Improved flexibility in the implementation allows some logic issues to be resolved (more to come soon):
      • The Baby Metroid drain is taken into account.
      • Reserve energy is taken into account properly. As a result, Reserve Tanks may now be placed as progression items (Previously they were the only item that could not be; they would only be placed at the end.)
      • The Shinespark minimum of 29 energy is taken into account properly, and as a result the logic assumes (and spoiler log shows) an initial maximum of 99 energy instead of 70 as it was before.
    • With an overhaul like this, it is expected that inevitably some bugs are introduced. If you notice problems, please let us know (on GitHub or the Discord)!
  • Escape time is reduced by 10%.
  • Spoiler maps are now drawn using in-game map tiles, so they show items, saves, bosses, etc.
  • Minor changes to spoiler log:
    • Routes show total resources remaining (e.g., energy, Missiles, etc.) instead of resources consumed in a given step.
    • Escape route shows cumulative distance instead of distance on each step. If applicable, the routes to and from the animals are shown separately.
  • The pause-menu map is now centered in the available space (instead of being skewed to the top-left corner).
  • Elevator tiles are restored to their vanilla form with blue/pink pixels indicating if they have been explored.

Version 28 (2023-01-10):

  • Overhaul of the item placement algorithm:
    • The algorithm now runs faster, especially on Easy and Open modes, which should greatly reduce or eliminate timeouts that were common before.
    • Key items are now only placed at locations that are both able to be reached from the Ship and able to return back to the Ship without the use of the new item.
      • This means it is now less likely for a player to need to take a leap of faith down a path that they apparently cannot return from.
      • Note, however, that the return path back to the Ship doesn't necessarily need to be the same as the path to the item from the Ship. This means that in some cases a leap of faith can still be required, unless the player has enough map information to either identify or rule out the possibility of a return path back to the Ship with their current items.
    • The structure of the spoiler log is updated: consistent with the new placement algorithm, for each key item a possible route is indicated for how to get from the Ship to the item and back.
    • Various quirks of the old algorithm are eliminated:
      • Key items are no longer biased to be placed in rooms with obstacles such as Big Pink.
      • It should no longer happen that extra unnecessary key items are sometimes dumped right at the beginning of the game (which occasionally happened before).
  • A new item placement strategy "Semiclosed" is added:
    • This is similar to "Closed" except it does not have the same tendency to withhold Energy Tanks and additional Supers & Power Bombs (only the first Supers and PowerBombs).
    • See the updated descriptions of all three item placement strategies.
  • When going down Warehouse Entrance elevator, an elevator map tile is revealed which was previously missed.

Version 27 (2023-01-08):

  • Enable Bowling Alley chozo during escape (to be able to activate bowling).
  • Adjustments to escape timer, which overall make it more lenient:
    • Make corrections to distances for rooms where a straight-shot path is not possible.
    • Simplify the computation to assume a speed of 2.0 seconds per unit of map-tile Manhattan distance on Expert settings (eliminated an upper-confidence limit calculation that was used before).
    • Adjust the difficulty presets so that the default escape timer multipliers align with resource multipliers (with Expert now having a multiplier of 1.0).

Version 26 (2023-01-06):

  • Fix the far right platform in Mother Brain Room to be solid tiles instead of slopes, to avoid the possibility of falling through the tiles and being trapped by running into the room (since the attempted fix in Version 19 didn't go through).
  • Fix the area names in the spoiler log.
  • Logic updates from sm-json-data (diff).

Version 25 (2023-01-04):

  • Arrows on the pause menu map are colored according to the destination area:
    • Dark gray = Crateria
    • Green = Brinstar
    • Red = Norfair
    • Yellow = Wrecked Ship
    • Blue = Maridia
    • Light gray = Tourian

Version 24 (2023-01-03):

  • When Samus dies, skip game over screens, reloading immediately from last save.
  • Reload from last save during gameplay by pressing L + R + Select + Start.

Version 23 (2023-01-03):

  • A couple improvements applicable before acquiring the area map:
    • When using elevators, mark its tiles explored (fixes a gap in map tiles which previously affected elevators).
    • When crossing areas, mark the corresponding arrow tiles as explored.
  • Restore the vanilla message box font (which was unintentionally changed in Version 19 as a side effect of the new map patch).

Version 22 (2023-01-02):

  • Fix crash that happened in Version 21 when picking up X-Ray.

Version 21 (2023-01-02):

  • Escape timer is tailored to the seed based on the distance back to the ship.
    • A multiplier is available under "Customize skill assumptions" to adjust the escape time.
    • An option is available to include the extra distance needed for saving the animals.
  • Samus collects & equips all items (excluding beams, ammo, and tanks) when acquiring Hyper Beam.
    • Items collected in this way do not count toward the "rate for collecting items" shown after the credits.

Version 20 (2023-01-01):

  • During the Kraid, Draygon, Ridley, and Golden Torizo fights, restore gray door locks, making it no longer possible to run through the room without defeating the boss.
    • The door through which you entered is kept blue, so it is still possible to back out of the fight.
  • Allow Samus to move freely during the Kraid fight (instead of being constrained to the left half of the room during the first phase), making it possible to exit to the right if you entered from that direction.
    • Note: The camera is still constrained to bottom screens during the first phase of the fight, which means it is possible for Samus to go off-camera here.
  • During the escape, allow passage through the Acid Statue room (by spawning the Acid Chozo "enemy" that stopped spawning in Version 19).

Version 19 (2022-12-30):

  • During the escape, enemies and bosses no longer spawn.
  • During the escape, entering Kraid's room no longer cancels the escape music.
  • Fixed glitched graphics when pausing during Kraid fight (caused by map changes in version 18).
  • Fixed some issues with the Mother Brain room:
    • Prevent (non-existent) door from closing when entering the room from the left.
    • Fixed the far right platform to be solid tiles instead of slopes, to avoid the possibility of falling through the tiles and being trapped by running into the room.
    • During the escape, the escape door on the left is now always open.
    • During the escape, the invisible spike tiles where Mother Brain used to be are now gone.
  • Corrected a few map tiles: right door in Fish Tank, item dot in West Ocean, and passage in Green Hills (errors in version 18).
  • The map station on the title screen is animated.

Version 18 (2022-12-29):

  • Improvements to map/mini-map:
    • Doors are shown as 2-pixel-wide openings (vs. as solid walls in vanilla).
    • False walls/passageways within rooms are shown as 4-pixel-wide openings (vs. as solid walls in vanilla).

Version 17 (2022-12-27):

  • Music is based on map area! (This causes some glitches with sound effects which can be fixed later.)

Version 16 (2022-12-26):

  • Tech is partially cleaned up and grouped by difficulty for easier navigation.
  • Logic updates (diff).

Version 15 (2022-12-26):

  • Refining the behavior introduced in version 10 on how Phantoon's Room is placed:
    • Phantoon's Room will always be two rooms away from the Wrecked Ship Map Room (which is as close as possible).
    • The Wrecked Ship Save Room will always be in the same area as Phantoon's Room and the Wrecked Ship Map Room.
    • These rooms no longer have any tendency to be in a smaller area.
    • They can still be in an area with any name, including possibly Crateria.
  • Bugfix: Include Frog Savestation in the algorithm for balancing save stations.
  • Include good farm rooms (those with 5x Gamet spawns) in the algorithm for balancing refills.
  • Add "Map Rando" to the title screen.

Version 14 (2022-12-24):

  • With the rolling save functionality introduced in version 13, also advance the current save slot. This ensures that after a reset the default save slot to load will be the one most recently saved.

Version 13 (2022-12-23):

  • Supers now do double damage to Mother Brain 2.
  • Saving at a different save station from the last save will advance to the next slot before saving (wrapping back to slot 1 if the last save was on slot 3).
  • Fix graphical glitches that sometimes occurred when leaving Phantoon's Room before defeating Phantoon.

Version 12 (2022-12-23):

  • Fix an issue that caused new games (other than the first new game) to start at the wrong save location.
  • Fix graphical glitches that sometimes occurred when leaving Crocomire's Room before defeating Crocomire.

Version 11 (2022-12-22):

  • Using a Missile Refill station refills all ammo types: Missiles, Supers, and Power Bombs.
  • The current tile can be un-explored (i.e., turned back to black/blue on the map) by pressing Angle Up and Item Cancel simultaneously. To be effective, these inputs must be held while exiting the tile, since otherwise the game will immediately re-explore the tile.
  • Max ammo is shown in the HUD.
  • Restore rising acid in Tourian Escape Room 4 (unintentionally removed in version 8).

Version 10 (2022-12-21):

  • Replace the special behavior for Wrecked Ship introduced in version 9 with the following instead:
    • The Wrecked Ship Map Room and Wrecked Ship Save Room will always be in the same area as Phantoon's Room.
    • The area with Phantoon's Room will tend to be smaller than the other areas.
    • Note: Phantoon's Room can once again be in any area, including Crateria.
  • A new "-config.json" file is added to the returned ZIP, containing details about the version, random seed, and difficulty config used to generate the ROM.

Version 9 (2022-12-21):

  • Spread out the distribution of Save Room and Refill Rooms more evenly.
  • Add special behavior for the Wrecked Ship area:
    • Phantoon's Room will always be in Wrecked Ship.
    • The Wrecked Ship Map Station will always be in Wrecked Ship.
    • Wrecked Ship will tend to be smaller than the other areas.
  • Various corrections to the logic used for item placement (diff).

Version 8 (2022-12-19):

  • Add blue door in Tourian Eye Door Room, removing Gadora graphics.
  • Remove explosions & shaking in Tourian Escape rooms when not in escape sequence.
  • Restore sandfall layouts to be more similar to vanilla game, with only minimal changes to ensure safe transitions.
  • Remove the wall that spawned when entering Tourian Escape Room 1 from the right.
  • Set up door-specific FX correctly (applicable when entering rooms through a certain door):
    • Rising Tide left door: lava rises
    • Volcano Room left door: lava rises and room is heated
    • Speed Booster Hall right door: lava rises if Speed Booster is collected (Note: only happens until completed once, and the lava will never rise or be high when entering from the left.)
    • Acid Statue Room bottom-right door: acid is lowered
    • Amphitheatre right door: acid is raised
    • Climb bottom-left door: disable door-specific FX from the vanilla game, to prevent the lava from rising when entering from Tourian Escape Room 4 (except during the escape).

Version 7 (2022-12-18):

  • Map station tiles are visible from the start of the game.
  • Spoiler log is simplified; areas and a summary section are added.
  • Fixed bug in West Ocean that caused Tripper graphics to be messed up and G4 statues sounds to play.
  • Fix Wrecked Ship Save Room, which had a broken map instead of a usable save station (bug introduced in version 6).
  • Minor graphical fixes to map: fix external wall in Lower Norfair Firefleas Room, and remove an item dot from Big Pink that wasn't supposed to be there.

Version 6 (2022-12-17):

  • Upper Tourian Save Room is replaced with a map station.
  • Entering Tourian First Room no longer gives the area map.
  • Each area gets exactly one map station.
  • Cross-region arrow markers are added, becoming visible after getting the area map.
  • Fixed a problem where the new tiles (e.g., the concentric square map tile) overwrote water graphics.

Version 5 (2022-12-16):

  • Fixed graphics after leaving Kraid.
  • Unlocked camera in Spore Spawn Room so that entering from the right with Spore Spawn alive does not glitch the graphics.
  • Fixed graphics when entering Shaktool Room from the right (before Shaktool finishes digging).
  • Changes to make the in-game map more informative (more to come soon):
    • Refill stations (and the Ship) are marked by "+"-shaped tiles.
    • Map stations are marked by concentric square-shaped tiles.
    • G4 bosses and Mother Brain are marked by "X"-shaped tiles.
    • Items are consistently marked by a dot (and only tiles with an item have a dot).
    • Walls within a room are now consistently one pixel wide on the map.
    • Walls between rooms are now consistently two pixels wide on the map.
  • Added a description of Open/Closed item placement, and a link to the new Discord server.

Version 4 (2022-12-14):

  • Mother Brain rainbow beam no longer drains ammo (in case ammo is needed in the escape).
  • Mother Brain is marked defeated after the Mother Brain fight, so that if the player re-enters Mother Brain room Mother Brain will not spawn again.

Version 3 (2022-12-14):

  • Stop Crateria map from getting messed up when save station is used.
  • Skip map screens in file select. This was originally a temporary change for debugging the save map problem, but seemed worth keeping as a tiny quality-of-life change, making it faster to restart after resetting.

Version 2 (2022-12-13):

  • Fixed left door entrance to Crocomire Room and Mother Brain room.
  • Disabled demo (which was broken).

Version 1 (2022-12-11):

  • Initial release
1 If "Streamlined escape" is enabled, then Mother Brain rainbow beam does not drain ammo (only energy), all movement items are collected at the same time as Hyper Beam, and enemies do not spawn during the escape.