Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - 15% Hypermode Playthrough

Segmented Low% playthrough of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, done on Hypermode Difficulty (i.e. Hard Mode). This playthrough was done in 23 segments, appended into one video. Segments only begin at proper saves, instead of restarting from checkpoints. Done on Wii U, using the original North American Wii version of the game.

It's always kinda bothered me how I never had a full recorded Low% playthrough of Prime 3, despite being the one to find the percent drop for 15% over a decade ago; I was always put off from doing it again due to the ridiculous amount of out of bounds in Elysia. With the leadup to Prime 4, I did "casual" Low% playthroughs of all three Prime games again, and I realized it wouldn't be quite as bad as I thought (especially since I've done speedruns of the game since then). So, I recorded this playthrough over the course of about 9 days. This isn't intended to be a speedrun, and I purposefully did my best to hold myself back from resetting for faster segments; but I did at least want the gameplay to be mostly competent. (This ranges from "I reset most segments with a hard OoB at the very start of them until I got it first try" to "I took my first completed attempt at Phaaze despite Dark Samus and AU Phase 1 being incredibly slow".)


The "intended" low percent is 25% (1 item = 1%). The 10% skipped in this playthrough:

Grapple Swing - Needed for all the ziplines in Elysia, as well as in Construction Bay. These can be bypassed with a LOT of out of bounds, including one from the first room of Elysia all the way to Boost Ball.....

Ice Missiles - Only needed on Bryyo, which is mostly skipped. The "Ice Missile" doors on Elysia can be opened with regular Missiles, and once you obtain Seekers, your Missiles function like Ice Missiles anyway.

Hyper Ball - Needed in Main Docking Access to get anywhere in Elysia, in Security Tube to reach the second half of Elysia, and for a couple of rooms on Phaaze. The first and third are skipped by going out of bounds, while the second can be skipped with in-bounds tricks (tricking the gate into staying open by bombing out of it as soon as you enter it, and clipping through it on the way back).

Ship Grapple - Needed to assemble the Theronian Bomb to start the Spire Battle sequence and unlock the Elysia Seed. However, the Spire sequence can be reached "backwards" by going (VERY far) out of bounds in Escape Pod Bay, the room you're put in after the Spire sequence is over.

Spider Ball - Intended to be used to obtain Hazard Shield, and reach/traverse the Pirate Mines. The first is skipped, and the second can be bypassed out of bounds.

Hazard Shield - Intended to be required to lower the Grapple Voltage barrier in Command Courtyard. This playthrough shows two different ways to bypass this: Either get enough height to Screw Attack over it, or stand in a specific spot very close to it where you can safely stand. After beating Omega Ridley and reaching the final corruption level (which is technically a suit upgrade), Hazard Shield is given to you without adding a percent.

4 Energy Cells - Normally, Valhalla requires a minimum of 5 Energy Cells to reach the end and obtain the Pirate Code. 2 of them can be skipped with a simple in-bounds trick in the Aurora Chamber, and 2 more can be skipped by going out of bounds. Additionally, an out of bounds is needed on Pirate Homeworld, to avoid collecting an Energy Cell in Command Courtyard on the way to X-Ray.

Additionally, the "main" Ship Missile upgrade can be replaced with any Ship Missile Expansion.


Some random notes:

When you exit Hypermode (while not Corrupted), it converts the remaining Phazon back into health. This ignores your max health cap; if while in Hypermode you collect more health drops than phazon used, you can break the cap. This isn't visually apparent, and will look like you have 100 less health than you actually do. While you lose all of this excess health at once if you take or heal any damage, it's very useful for giving you an extra Hypermode use, so this playthrough uses this glitch frequently.

I go out of bounds in Elysia a bunch of times by doing a Boost Spring Instant Unmorph Jump into doors. This is done to avoid a trigger that sets where you respawn when you fall, that only covers the bottom half of the door in a lot of rooms in Elysia. With no spawn point set, I fall out of bounds instead.

While out of bounds (especially on Elysia), I frequently enter Hypermode because it adds a lot of particles in the air that are a great visual cue for where I'm moving. It also prevents damage from terminal fall triggers.

One checkpoint is used, when obtaining Nova Beam. I collect it and immediately die, and thanks to the game thinking I'm currently in a different room, I respawn in that room and skip the fight. This was not used to begin a new segment; it's one continuous recording from the save station to the ship save.

Mashing sucks

Ship priority status alert. Hull armor taking damage.