Sequence Breaking

A Sequence Break is an act that breaks the standard sequence of events in a game ("taking another way through the game than a player is likely to use on the first play-through"). This may amount to collecting an item earlier than intended or skipping a segment entirely. Sequence breaks often rely on glitches, but sometimes creative thinking is enough. Efficient sequence breaking is the key to many time improvements in speedrunning. For example, in Metroid: Zero Mission, it is possible to kill Ridley before killing Kraid, and also to obtain the Varia Suit before the Ice Beam.
Sequence breaks are ubiquitous in the Metroid games. In fact, many sequence breaks seem to have been known to the developers. For instance, the secret Wall Jumping and Bomb Jumping techniques in Super Metroid directly lead to several sequence breaks, but the latter lacks practical use otherwise. Further, it is nearly impossible to get stuck or cause crashes in Super Metroid when entering areas without the supposedly required equipment, indicating that the designers were aware of the possibility that players would do so.
Most re-releases of games, most notably Metroid Prime Trilogy, correct speedrunning techniques to prevent sequence breaks from occurring.
==Main series==
This article also lists some unintended techniques that do not have any discovered use to break a sequence.
===Metroid===
*A "Bomb Boost Jump" can be performed by laying a bomb and unmorphing before it detonates. Samus will be sent into the air by the bomb, and she can jump higher than normal.
*If Samus rolls off a ledge in Morph Ball form and unmorphs, she will be in her standing sprite, and she is able to jump. This is similar to the Jump Boots, and can also be performed in Metroid II: Return of Samus.
**With this technique, it is possible to reach Kraid in his lair through one of the two possible paths without freezing any of the Rippers below the door eventually leading to him.
*The Varia Suit can be collected without the Ice Beam by Door Jumping up to the Varia Suit's room in the shaft that is two rooms from the Varia's location.
*The Varia can also be collected without the High Jump Boots but with the Ice Beam. Samus must abuse a Waver by freezing it over and over to get to the Varia. The Waver may not always line up correctly, and if this is the case, Samus should use the Ice Beam-less method. This trick was acknowledged in 2018 by Nintendo of America. Nintendo of America (NintendoAmerica). "Use this handy trick to get the powerful Varia Suit upgrade early (no High Jump Boots required). Just make sure to bring at least 5 missiles to break open the item room door! Try it out for yourself with a #NintendoSwitchOnline membership. #NES" 19 Nov 2018 12:00 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1064548866471706625?s=19
*Ridley's Lair and the area leading to the High Jump Boots can be reached without the Bombs by using the Door Jump in the "green bubble" section of Norfair.
*The Ice Beam can be collected without the Bombs by using the Door Jump.
*Kraid and Ridley do not have to be defeated to get into Tourian. If Samus lures a Reo from Corridor Number Two into the room with the Stone Statues and freezes it above the acid, she can freeze it and perform a difficult Bomb Jump to reach the other ledge.
===Metroid II: Return of Samus===
*As stated above, Samus can roll off a ledge in Morph Ball form and unmorph, and then jump in midair, as in Metroid.
*If Samus jumps into an enemy, she will be knocked back, and can jump higher than normal in the air. This has particular use when she is trying to climb the wall of Autracks in Phase 4. Further, if Samus is damaged while she is in midair, the game will allow the player to jump again off nothing.
*Though it does not seem to be the case, Samus can make an indefinite Bomb Jump. She must lay a Bomb, and before it explodes, lay another one, and so forth.
*If Samus has sufficient Energy Tanks, she can go through the purple liquid without having to drain it by defeating all Metroids in an area. Thus, this can be used to move to new areas without having to kill any resident Metroids.
**This does not work between the final areas Phase 8 and Phase 9, as there is instead a spiked structure in the final purple liquid tunnel sealing off Phase 9 until all three remaining Omega Metroids are defeated.
*Samus can rapidly fire her weapons when in an enemy-filled room to slow their movement down.
===Super Metroid===
*It is possible to skip the first Torizo via Arm pumping in the PAL version.
*A Missile Tank in upper Brinstar that normally requires the Grappling Beam can instead be reached via precise Wall Jumping.
*A glitch commonly known as the "Green Gate Glitch" involves a Shutter with a green light that is on the left of the machine. Samus must jump and fire in a certain area of the Shutter to make it lift from the wrong side.
*Samus can jump higher and farther underwater, or under Lava if she turns off the Gravity Suit immediately after jumping. This technique is commonly known by the speedrunning community as the "Gravity Jump."
*The Mockball allows for Early Super Missiles or the Ice Beam.
*infinite bomb jumping can be used to reach many heights without other equipment. Examples being using Infinite Bomb Jumps to reach the Varia Suit without High Jump Boots or collect an early Power Bomb Expansion in the room North-East of the Landing Site without the Speed Booster or Space Jump. 
*The Energy Tank in the blue part of Brinstar can be reached by using a "Damage Jump".
*By using a quick Speed Booster charge, Samus can collect the Energy Tank in the pink portion of Brinstar much earlier and without the Gravity Suit.
*A well placed Shinespark can be used to bypass the Interior Lake and reach the west entrance to the Wrecked Ship without the Grapple Beam.
*The Wall Jump can be used to collect the Wave Beam, Spazer Beam, X-Ray Scope, reach Kraid early, and get into the Wrecked Ship without the Grapple and thus collect an early Gravity Suit.
*Getting to Draygon without the Grapple Beam via getting the Gravity Suit early (see above) and the wall-jumping technique.
*The Speed Booster, High Jump Boots and Power Bombs can be collected later than usual if other sequence breaks are performed, although the High Jump can also be skipped altogether.
**The Speed Booster can also be skipped altogether by using the Ice Beam to freeze a Puyo or a Mochtroid to clip through a Pit Block in the room before Botwoon, causing them to crumble, and allowing Samus to skip the Speed Booster Blocks normally needed to reach the rooms.
*The Baby Metroid can be avoided in Tourian through dodging with the Space Jump, or with the usage of a Shinespark.
*Escaping the small Bomb power-up cavern at the beginning by using the Wall jump to jump up the left side then quickly using the Morphing ball (Usually for randomizers/speedruns).
===Metroid Fusion===
*Using quick maneuvers, Wall Jumps and Shinesparks, numerous Energy, Missile and Power Bomb Tanks can be obtained without the otherwise required equipment.
*There is a secret conversation that can be seen by using a series of tricky Shinesparks in Sector 4. This almost allows the player to skip the Diffusion Missiles; the developers thought to lock the door to the Main Deck. It is also possible to access this secret conversation through the use of a difficult, pixel perfect ice missile in the room before the diffusion missile data room shot in a downward-diagonal direction to freeze one of the Powamps before they puff up and block Samus's path. This method is only present in NTSC releases, however.
*It is also possible to fight Nettori and Yakuza early by performing bomb and wall jumps in succession.
===Metroid: Zero Mission===
 As with Super Metroid, wall jumping and Infinite Bomb Jumping can lead to various skips and sequence breaks into rooms and areas earlier than intended.
*The Screw Attack can be acquired early. First, Samus must take a secret route in the blue-bubble shaft of Norfair. A well-executed Bomb Jump or Wall Jumping and destruction of Missile Blocks will bring Samus to the Screw Attack.
*The Varia Suit can be collected by freezing Wavers, or by using several Bomb Jumps to reach the Varia's room. This also means it can be collected without the Power Grip. Collecting the Varia Suit before the first Elevator ride to Norfair will display Samus in the following cutscene wearing the Varia suit. 
*The secret Missile Tank in the first long shaft of Brinstar can be collected using Wall Jumps and Bombs.
*A Super Missile Tank near the Brinstar shaft can be reached using several Ballsparks. Another Super Missile Tank in the Chozo Ruins portion of Crateria can also be reached using several Wall Jumps and Shinesparks as well.
*As in Metroid, the Long Beam can be skipped by taking an alternate route of Fake Blocks. Skipping the Long Beam forces Samus to use Missiles in order to hit objects at long range.
*The Wave Beam can be collected early via skipping the Ice Beam.
*The Imago can be skipped by taking an alternate route through Ridley's Lair, or by getting early Super Missiles (above).
*It is possible to completely skip the Varia Suit, but when the Ruins Test is completed and Samus collects the Fully Powered Suit, which activates the three Unknown Items revealed to be the Gravity Suit, Space Jump, and Plasma Beam, Samus gains the Varia Suit anyway as the new suit provides it.
*It is possible to enter Tourian without obtaining the Ice Beam. If she goes into a room with Metroids in it, however, she will be trapped with no way to kill them.
*It is possible to defeat Mother Brain and exit Tourian without the Speed Booster, by wall jumping or bomb jumping up the wall near the west entrance to the ship.
*It is possible to obtain early Super Missiles without the Ice Beam by entering a secret route to the lower areas of Norfair. However, this makes the fight with Kiru Giru much more difficult, as it now requires the use of Wall Jumps to attack the Tangle Vine.
===Metroid: Other M===
*An Energy Tank can be obtained earlier than usual in an area that would normally require the Speed Booster to reach in the Cryosphere by utilizing a break in an overhead Morph Ball passage and repeatedly interrupting Samus's spin jump by shooting.
===Metroid: Samus Returns===
*The Scan Pulse Aeion Ability Artifact and the item itself can be avoided via an out-of-bounds glitch.
**If the player does this, Surface 1 will never start to play.
*The acquisitions of the Spider Ball, Grapple Beam, and Space Jump can all be delayed via Bomb Jumping.
*In Area 2, it is possible to skip the Spring Ball puzzle by deploying a Bomb as close to the fans as possible without it getting absorbed by them. Then, Samus must also stay as far away from them as possible in Morph Ball mode for the impact to send the Ball flying diagonally and very briefly above the fans, making it possible for her to place another Bomb above them and break the Bomb Blocks, allowing her to proceed.
*In the same area, it is also possible to skip the High Jump Boots puzzle by jumping above the fan and at the highest point, quickly going into Morph Ball mode and placing a Bomb over the aforementioned fan. Then, Samus can repeat the first two steps in the previous maneuver and use the Bomb placed during the previous jump to gain additional height, un-morph, grab onto the ledge, and reach the top without the High Jump.
*The Gravity Suit can be skipped through underwater Bomb Jumping and out-of-bounds glitches at the respective places in Area 5 where it is normally required.
**This can be done at both required places through a different method of underwater Bomb Jumping, making it possible to skip the Gravity Suit entirely in-bounds.テラわさび (tera_wasabi) on Twitter: "グラビティスキップ" (Japanese). November 7, 2017. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
*Like in Metroid Fusion, there are several item expansions that can be obtained early through unintended maneuvers.
===Metroid Dread===
The designers clearly meant for multiple sequence breaks in Metroid Dread, which is more open-ended than previous entries. Frequently, the normal path can be bypassed through areas normally unusable with the current power-ups, or a recovery station is conspicuously placed in the next room after losing a lot of health.
*By using the Pseudo Wave Beam technique, it is possible to destroy certain Breakable Organic Blocks earlier than intended. This allows Samus to skip E.M.M.I.-01P and the water puzzle in Artaria. Alternate pseudo-wave beam techniques can be used to skip the Drogyga battle and to break the Grapple Beam block in Hanubia from the wrong side, and to get Space Jump early. 
*By damage boosting yourself in eastern Artaria and Wall Jumping, it is possible to temporarily skip the Spider Magnet and reach Cataris.
*By doing a Wall Jump in Dairon, it is possible to get the Grapple Beam, Bombs, and Flash Shift before fighting Kraid. The Bombs and Flash Shift have special hidden uses during Kraid's second phase, indicating that the developers were fully aware of this sequence break.
*The Super Missile can be acquired early by performing a Speed Booster maneuver through a frozen section of Dairon to reach the Shuttle to Ghavoran. This method can be pulled off with as little as no extra Energy Tanks, unless the Gravity Suit is obtained early to mitigate damage.
*The Pulse Radar is usually obtained while the player is traveling through Ghavoran and after obtaining the Ice Missile. However, the upgrade can be obtained early if the player is able to travel to the orange Teleportal located in western Cataris. This method requires either the Varia Suit to protect from the intense heat of the area, or enough Energy Tanks to survive the environment; in addition, a method to reach a magnet wall on the ceiling is needed, such as Space Jump or Grapple Beam. Once in Ghavoran, the Morph Ball and Bombs will be needed to reach the Pulse Radar room nearby.
*The Gravity Suit can be acquired before the Space Jump by using a Shinespark to clear an underwater gap in Ghavoran leading to the green Teleportal, followed by a chain of Shinesparks and a Wall Jump in Burenia to reach the Gravity Suit.
==Prime series==
===Metroid Prime===
Note: Some of these glitches present in the North American GameCube version have been fixed in later versions, including Japanese New Play Control! and Metroid Prime Trilogy versions for the Wii.
*Using the Scan Dash glitch allows for the Space Jump Boots to be acquired before any other upgrades.Zoid Kirsch (ZoidCTF). "Metroid Prime Dev Stories #13: Strafe jumping, i.e. getting the Space Jump early. When you are locked onto a target in Metroid Prime, pressing the jump button does a sideways dash. This lets the player easily strafe around a target and dodge incoming fire. 1/4 This sideways strafe jump sets a horizontal velocity on the player that continues to circle around the target while locked on. But if you unlock the target just as the strafe jump starts, Samus keeps the horizontal momentum without the lock on pull. 2/4 This allows a larger horizontal distance traversal than a normal jump. Using this momentum lets Samus catch the edge of the cliff beside her ship and get the Space Jump early upon landing. 3/4 Creative use of the game physics and movement that results in acquiring items out of order allows creative exploration of the game world. Sequence breaks like this are very much part of Metroid. 4/4" 14 November 2022 10:12 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/ZoidCTF/status/1592354759868313602 The Scan Dash was removed in later versions of Prime, so Samus must perform an alternate, but difficult method by locking on to one of the Seedlings in the Temple Hall and heading backwards to the Gunship in Landing Site, before doing the rest like the NTSC version. There is also two alternate methods to obtaining Space Jumps Boots early via the use of Bomb jumping. 
*Samus can get into the Furnace room without the Spider Ball by using a clipping glitch, or a Slope Jump. When she reaches the Hall of the Elders, she can jump on a Radiation collector to reach the room's Bomb Slot, and then practice several other jumps to get to the Reflecting Pool. Once there, she can simply stand on a Stone Toad and reach the Antechamber and Ice Beam early.Another method to Ice Beam early is to use an out of bounds technique in a certain room, which is usually performed to have the Ice Beam before encountering Flaahgra. (see here)
**In the Japanese New Play Control! version, it is possible to do this in the Furnace using a Spring Bomb Jump. In the Trilogy version, however, an invisible wall was added to the upper entrance of Furnace's Morph Ball tunnel until Samus collects the Spider Ball.
** When standing on a Stone Toad in both New Play Control! and Trilogy versions, Samus temporarily loses her ability to jump. In Metroid Prime Remastered, it is once again possible to jump on top of a Stone Toad.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xS6tpo63Vg&t=498s Slope Jumping on a Stone Toad in Remastered.
*The Plasma Beam can be reached without the Spider Ball by either successfully performing two jumps in the Twin Fires Tunnel, or by exploiting the scan dash glitch on the Spider Ball Track in the room. Then in the Geothermal Core, several jumps can be exploited to reach Plasma Processing.
**In the Player's Choice version, the door to Plasma Processing is locked until the Grapple Beam is obtained.
**In Trilogy, a pile of Bendezium rubble blocks the door, requiring the use of Power Bombs to access Plasma Processing.
*The Power Bomb Expansion in Security Cave can be reached using several difficult jumps. This will give Samus early Power Bombs and also enable early access to the Artifact of Spirit and other such items. Notably, this trick can be performed in the Metroid Prime Trilogy version of the game, despite the changes made to jumping. 
**The Power Bomb Expansion in the Magma Pool can also be obtained early by using the infinite speed glitch. In the GameCube version, this requires the Boost Ball.
*Early Morph Ball via Space Jump.
*In the original NTSC version, it is possible to enter the Sunchamber without scanning the Runic Symbols in Arboretum.
*Early Phendrana Drifts without Varia Suit.
*Early Gravity Suit via part of the "Early Plasma Beam" (namely passing the Twin Fires Tunnel without the Spider Ball.)
* The Hive Mecha can be skipped via an L-Lock Spring Space Jump. This allows for Missiles to be acquired without having a battle. Alternatively, a scan dash can also be used to escape the Hive Totem, and if Samus returns, the Hive Mecha is gone, replaced by the Missile Launcher.
*The Missile Expansion in Main Plaza's half-pipe can be reached using a Slope Jump, as another means of early Missiles.
*The Gravity Suit and crashed Frigate Orpheon can be skipped via Bomb Jumping over the bars in Great Tree Hall.
*Technically a Sequence Break for early Logbook scans, using the Space Jump Boots allows the Grapple Point scan in Main Plaza to be obtained early. This glitch was fixed in Metroid Prime Remastered.
===Metroid Prime 2: Echoes===
Note: Most of these glitches present in the GameCube version of Echoes have been fixed in the Japanese New Play Control! and Trilogy versions for the Wii.
* Using the infinite boost glitch, Samus can avoid losing the starting items that would normally be stolen by the Ing. However, if Samus gains several items and then re-enters the room where she first sees Dark Samus, she will not only lose the items stated she lost, but also any upgrades (i.e., Dark Suit, Light Beam, etc.) she acquires. Also, although Samus appears to have the Grapple Beam and Power Bombs stolen, she does not have them at the start of the game. This also lets the player gain access to Torvus through the Half-Pipe located in the Agon.
**A much faster (though somewhat harder) option is to jump onto the monitors in Hive Chamber A and jump out of bounds, then navigate around the item-loss area. This is possible in all versions of the game GameCube, Trilogy.
*Early Missiles and an Energy Tank in Temple Assembly Site. If items were lost, an early Missile Expansion can be obtained by using a Slope Jump to reach a pillar near the Red Hatch.
*Early Power Bombs via a series of difficult jumps in the Temple Grounds. When used on bosses not designed for it, the effects can range from a one-hit kill (Boost Guardian) to no effect at all (Amorbis).
*Using a Slope Jump to skip the Marine death cutscene in GFMC Compound. Doing so allows Samus to obtain Missiles early as well as early access to Sanctuary Fortress. Samus can only make it up to Temple Transport Access, unless item loss was skipped in which case Samus can go as far as up to Reactor Access.
*In the NTSC version, a Bomb Space Jump can activate the solar lens in Portal Terminal early, after activating the Bomb Slot
*A series of well placed jumps and Bomb jumps can allow Samus to reach the Jump Guardian earlier than intended.
*It is possible to enter Central Mining Station without the Space Jump.
*Using a Bomb Space Jump in Central Mining Station allows for a Beam Ammo Expansion to be obtained early, before any Beams have been collected. Ammo count is not shown until Samus obtains a beam, though the additional ammo is automatically counted.
*By Slope Jumping in the Abandoned Base, the player can enter the Torvus Bog and clear most of the game without the Dark Suit. This can still be performed in the Metroid Prime Trilogy.
*An out of bounds Space Jump in Forgotten Bridge can skip obtaining the Super Missiles.
*Using an Underwater Dash to skip multiple rooms and gain early access to the Gravity Boost. An Underwater Dash can also be used to skip the Gravity Boost and obtain the Grapple Beam early, but unless the gate in front of the Portal in Gathering Hall was lowered or early Power Bombs was obtained, Samus will become stuck without escape, forcing a restart of the game unless hacking is utilized.
*After obtaining the Gravity Boost, a Bomb Space Jump can be used to skip the Alpha Blogg battle.
*In the NTSC version, it is possible to obtain Dark Torvus Temple Key 3 without the Grapple Beam by jumping on top of an Ingsphere Cache and performing a well placed Space Jump.
*Early Energy Tank in Meditation Vista using a floaty jump glitch performed during the battle with Chykka.
*In Watch Station Access, on the side connecting to the Main Gyro Chamber, the player can reach the other side of the room without the Grapple Beam by morphing off of the platform and subsequently unmorphing while Samus is blocked by the platform, then space jumping to the other half of the pit. This will confuse the game and respawn Samus on the far side of the pit, allowing her to get the Energy Tank early, and if combined with the trick below, can let the player acquire the Screw Attack without the Grapple Beam. A Scan Dash method across is also possible.
*An incredibly difficult trick involving scan dashing can be performed in the Grand Abyss. By locking on to one of the drones on the right side of the room, the player can scan dash to land on top of one of the other drones on the left side of the room, which will carry Samus across the room and allow her to skip using the portals. When she enters the Vault, she can scan dash again onto the right platform with a spinner and continue to obtain the Screw Attack without entering the Dark World, and if the Grapple Beam is not acquired at this point, it will be skipped entirely.
**Note that if the player fails to make the scan jump onto the drone on the first try, the game must be reset, as the drone will never stop moving and the trick will become impossible.
**Alternately, a wallcrawl can be used to obtain the Screw Attack, though this is much slower.
*Using Scan Dashes in Vault allows for the Screw Attack to be obtained without having to enter the Vault Attack Portal.
*Using a carefully executed Bomb Space Jump and Screw Attack, Samus is able to completely bypass getting the keys to the Hive Temple.
*The Echo Visor can be skipped entirely using the above Sequence Breaking techniques. It is also possible to skip the Light Beam entirely.
===Metroid Prime Hunters===
*Samus can reach the end of the Piston Cave (and skip the entire sections of it) by unmorphing at the Morph Ball tunnel in the Processor Core and performing "Missile Pushes" to blast herself into the tunnel.
*The battle with the Barbed War Wasps in the Ice Hive can be skipped via Missile Jumping to reach the ledge where the Missile Expansion is located.
*Samus can get the Imperialist and escape Arcterra through a Portal if she has the Magmaul. This can be done by defeating trace on the Sic Transit on the first escape of arcterra, this will leave you open the Orange Blast Shield and leave you fight the Arctic Spawn while escaping, after defeating it, you will be able to get the imperialist and leave you complete the puzzle to leave you use the portal. This portal can be activated even though that you're escaping
===Metroid Prime 3: Corruption===
Note: Most of these glitches have been fixed in the Trilogy re-release of Corruption.
*Early access to Skytown before exploring Bryyo.
*Early Spider Ball via series of glitches.
*Early Hazard Shield via early Spider Ball; this leads to an endgame.
*The Hazard Shield can also be skipped, though it will still appear in Samus's inventory once she obtains the highest level of corruption for her PED Suit. Having the Hazard Shield this way will not increase the item percentage.
*Early Missile Expansion plus Seeker Missiles before Ship Grapple via BSJ in Skytown East.
*Using out of bounds wall-crawling and then walking in a certain direction out of bounds, it is possible to trigger the Spire Dock bomb event without collecting the Theronian Bomb components, thus allowing access to the Elysian Leviathan Seed early.
*Early access to Metroid Creche using an out of bounds Boosting glitch in Lift Hub.
==Development notes==
The reason some Sequence Breaks were removed in later versions of Prime is because of the technical issues they could cause. Zoid Kirsch pointed to the layer system in an interview, wherein for example Flaahgra is encountered in the Sunchamber, and later a trio of Chozo Ghosts are. Sequence Breaking had the potential to "confuse" the layers and result in undesirable effects on the game or crashing. To resolve crashing in later versions of Prime, Kirsch added door locking for certain rooms.Kiwi Talkz. "#121 - Zoid Interview (Metroid Prime, Cameras, Scripting, Sequence Breaking , Programming etc.)" YouTube. January 22, 2022. Retrieved July 25, 2022. (starts at 34:53)
==External links==
*"Philosophy of Sequence Breaking". Metroid2002.com forum discussion.
*Metroid.2002- A video of how to skip the turrets
*- A video on how to see the Secret Message in Metroid Fusion.
*- An alternate strategy on seeing the Secret Message in Metroid Fusion. (Note that the European version of Metroid Fusion fixed this bug.)
==References==
ru:Нарушение последовательности
Category:Special Actions