Metroid/Hideout I

'This hideout is home to the Mini-Boss known only as Kraid, a reptilian monstrosity which fires spikes from his belly. The entrance to his hideout is very close to the starting position of the game, but you won't be able to gain access to it until you obtain the power to lay bombs. If you plan to fight Kraid with missiles, you'll need quite a few of them. A number of extra Missile Packs can be found throughout his hideout.'

Points of Interest

 * 1) Go no further: Right from the start, blow up the first red door that you find with five missile. Enter inside and proceed just far enough to reach the first Missile Pack.  Beyond this point, there is in fact little to no reason to investigate any further other than your own curiosity.  No items can be obtained, so you might as well turn back around.


 * 2) Hideout I's Energy Tank: Below the first red door, you will come to another red door. Blast it open and step inside. You may be surprised to find a rather small room with a wall to the right.  But this wall happens to be rather porous.  From the tiny ledge against the wall, you can shoot the wall and destroy one of the bricks.  Roll into a ball, and lay a bomb that can boost you up and into the hole.  Start traveling through the narrow passage, laying bombs whenever you are stopped by another block.  Eventually you will arrive at a new chamber with an Energy Tank laying tantalizingly out of reach.  If you jump on the first column in front of you, you can roll into a ball and fall to the right and land on the platform beneath the tank.  Just watch out for the Zeela.  From the platform, you can jump up and collect the tank, but it will take a little more work to escape.  Jump on the right platform and up to the platform above it.  Roll into a ball and bomb blast yourself through the narrow gap to the left.  The easiest way to return is to roll off the left column on to the single block below, bounce off of the block to the left, and into the tunnel of the wall.  The lower tunnel that is even with the floor leads to a dead end.


 * 3) Pass through another wall: Return to the first blue door that you saw when you entered the hideout. It too leads to a rather small room, but once again, you can pass through the wall on the far side.  Stand next to the wall and bomb blast your self into the tunnel.  Bomb any blocks that get in your way as you travel to the left.  When you are on the other side, you will only travel a short distance before finding your next goal: another Missile Pack.  If you are playing to collect every item, then proceed to point 4.  If you are really playing for time, skip 4 and move on to 5.


 * 4) The underground tunnel: The only reason to head this far out of your way is to collect the one Missile Pack down here. From the Missile Pack at point 3, keep running to the left, and through the door at the end of the hallway.  In the next vertical shaft that you come to, there aren't a lot of footholds to land on or jump from, but that's fine because your goal is to fall all the way to the bottom of the shaft, even through the acid lake illusion.  Once you're at the bottom, shoot the door to the right and head through.  Deal with the Side Hopper that occupies the tunnel, and run through the next door.  After dealing with a second Side Hopper, blast the red door open.  On the other side of the door, you will find the remote Missile Pack you were hunting for.  You'll have a long trek to the right to get out of this corridor, and into the vertical shaft that will enable you to climb up and double back around to the original central column of the hideout.


 * 5) On your way to Kraid…: Reaching Kraid's chamber takes a little bit of work. The way to reach him is through the lowest red door in the hideout's central column.  The problem is, you can't simply fall down to it, or jump up to it.  In order to reach it, you're going to need the help of your Ice Beam and the Rippers that float nearby.  From the bottom of the shaft, begin by freezing the three Rippers in order to create platforms for you to jump on.  As you jump up to the third Ripper, a fourth Ripper will come into view.  This one floats close enough to the red door that you can use it as a platform to reach the ledge in front of the door.  Blast the door open and run all the way to the right until you reach a new vertical shaft.  When you enter this shaft, cling to the left wall as you fall down in order to reach a door that leads to the last Missile Pack in the hideout.


 * 6) A mini-boss battle: From that last Missile Pack, return to the shaft and fall all the way to the bottom. Jump up to the door near the bottom and head left through the next chamber.  Eventually you will come to a bridge that leads to a red door.  Kraid's chamber is on the other side.  Before you blow the door open, take some time to destroy the Geegas that spawn from the lake below in order to replenish your supply of energy and missiles.  Head through the red door whenever you're ready.  You will come face to face with Kraid.  There are two basic approaches to fighting him.  One is slow and strategic, designed to minimize energy loss, and the other is a lot more blunt.  The slow method involves freezes his stomach spikes as he launches them at you.  Don't freeze them while they are still in his stomach, or they will block the missiles that you fire at him.  Once enough spikes are frozen, jump between Kraid and the spikes and pump him full of Missiles until the spikes thaw out and return to his stomach.  The more direct approach is to roll into a ball and lay Bombs as fast and as close to Kraid as possible, even if it means passing through him and getting hurt.  If you lay bombs down fast enough, you should be able to kill him before you lose 200 units of energy (or 100 with the Varia Suit), so make sure you have enough before you try this strategy.  Either way, if you manage to kill him, you will be rewarded with an expanded capacity of 75 missiles.

Destinations

 * A) Back the way you came: Once Kraid is finished, you need to return to the elevator that leads back to Brinstar, as there is no where else to go from Hideout I. Typically, this involves returning to the vertical shaft that you fell down to reach Kraid and using the destructible column of blocks to rise back to the top of the shaft, and out.  Be sure to stand ond the very edge of the left hand side of the blocks facing right so you can still fire on the blocks.  This should prevent most reappearing blocks from knocking you off. If one does, you may be able to land on one of the solid blocks to your left rather than falling all the way back down if you get knocked off on the right side.  Other players prefer to use the Quick-Quit technique of pausing the game, and pressing  on the second controller in order to get to the password screen, then pressing  to continue.  This will place you on top of the very elevator you need to ride in order to return to Brinstar.