Metroid Prime 2: Echoes/Spider Ball

Great Temple
It's time to explore the next and last new area of the game. It's larger and more complex than the previous area, so getting around will take longer in general now.

Temple Sanctuary
Scan the door with the Emerald hologram and go through. This is actually the door you first used to enter the sanctuary near the start of the game, but it closed behind you then and was locked until you got the Emerald translation module in Torvus.

Transport A Access
The floor under the Save Station is slightly transparent and you might notice a Missile Expansion below. To reach it, use a Morph Ball Bomb to clear the Talloric rock to the right, then go down the ramp behind it.

Sacred Bridge
Continue back to the Sacred Bridge following the same route you took to the Great Temple near the start of the game. This is where you would get stuck if you tried to go this way earlier. There is a portal in the Sacred Path on the way, but it's a dead end for now.

There is a drawbridge blocking the way forward. To unlock it, switch to the Dark Visor and locate the five spots above the door to the left and right. Use the Seeker Launcher to target all five spots and fire, just as you would do to open a Purple door. When you hit all five, the drawbridge lowers; this not only opens the passage, but creates a convenient way of hopping over the pit below.

GFMC Compound
This is the your first time back to visit the GF landing site in a while, and there are Space Pirates infesting the place now. so clear them out so you can explore again. If you check inside the ship you may hear a pickup nearby, but it's pretty well hidden. Get to the ledge with the Yellow Door and stand near the tunnel that leads to the next ledge. Do a running jump from there to land on nose of the ship; this may take a few tries since you have to time the jump just right. Once on the nose of of ship, walk along the top to find the Missile Expansion on the other end.

When you're done with that, scan the Emerald hologram and go through. The remaining exit, Trooper Security Station, is still a dead end for now.

Fortress Transport Access
You are attacked by a new type of turret, so get a scan and shoot it with Missiles until it's destroyed. Continue through to fight another turret, then get the history scan near the exit.

Transport to Sanctuary Fortress
Scan the control panel to activate the lift.

Transport to Temple Grounds
Continue to the next room.

Temple Transport Access
Defeat more turrets and scan the control panel to open the doorway. In the next section there are Serenity Drones crawling on the wall; these are harmless but you may want to harvest some refills from them. At the end is a Spinner which opens a second doorway so you can reach the exit.

Sanctuary Entrance
This is a long bridge serving as a gateway to the main part of the area; you get a short overview when you enter.

When you're about half-way across the bridge, a number of Pirate Commandos materialize and you have to battle it out with them. Don't fire when they pull out their shields since your shot will just bounce off. With a bit of luck you can take some of them out by firing Missiles at the Phazon containers on the bridge, they have to be close to the container for this to work though. The doors unlock when you've won the battle.

Power Junction
There are small drones guarding the passage here; get a scan and either defeat them or step around them. If you shoot them with the Dark beam a whole group will immediately blow up without a trace.

Reactor Access
Switch to Dark Visor here and look for the spots to aim the Seeker Launcher as at the Sacred Bridge. This opens the gate to the next room, but also releases a new drone called the Rezbit. This has an attack where it fires at you, another where it hacks your suit so you're forced to do a system reboot (follow the directions on the screen), and when it's not attacking it usually puts up a shield which prevents you from hitting it. A Super Missile with a few regular Missile will take it out if you shoot when the shield is down, but if you have the ammo it's better to freeze it with the charged Dark beam and finish it with a Missile.

Jump up to the gate, which is now a ledge, and continue.

Reactor Core
At this point the path diverges and this room serves as a kind of hub for the area. When you enter, you see a new type of drone, but it's actually two drones in one so there are two scans. The best way to take it out is to first fire a Super Missile at the head. When that's gone, wait from the body to start spinning and ram it using the Boost Ball. This stuns it for a bit and you can then bomb its vulnerable underside.

The main path forward is through the central part of the room, but first blast open the Red door on the right.

Save Station A
By now you may have realized that Save Station usually lurk behind red doors. This is a good place to save since it's been a while.

Reactor Core (cont.)
Go into the central part of the room and start scaling the ledges around the wall, defeating more Rezbits as you go. Go through the Blue door when you reach the top ledge.

Minigyro Chamber
Scan the device with the holographic rings to get a code key needed to get through; a good mnemonic is "aMber cObalt cRimson Emerald". Continue into the Morph Ball tunnel on the left and activate the bomb slots in the same order (yellow blue red green for people who are used to the usual color names). Wait for each of the gyroscopic rings to lock into place before activating the next bomb slot. When they're all locked you can roll through the enter to reach the exit.

Hall of Combat Mastery
There are more Quad pairs here; it's an especially good idea to get the heads first now since if you get the bodies first the heads can escape and come back with spares.

There is more going on here but you can't do anything about it quite yet, so continue to the portal and use it.

Culling Chamber
There are three ways out of this room, but the far exit is pretty much a dead end for now. Start by getting a scan of one of the spherical containers, then make a sharp right to the door nearest the portal to get a quick upgrade before returning.

Hazing Cliff
Start by defeating the Dark Tallon Metroid lurking here; a few Missiles should do the trick. Follow the ledge on the left to a tunnel and use charged Light blasts to defeat the drones inside. Then go in and collect a Missile Expansion. That's all you can do here so go back.

Culling Chamber (cont.)
Follow the hall for a bit and go through the Black door on the right.

Central Hive East Transport
Scan the control panel to activate the lift and use it.

Hive Dynamo Works
The ledge here is a point of no return, in other words once you jump off you won't be able to get back without the Spider Ball. There is a chasm ahead and you can use the grapple beam to get across, but first clear the Nightbarbs so they don't knock you down.

The White door here turns out to be a dead end for now, but there's a portal here too. It's behind a force field though and to get through you need to turn around, switch to the Dark Visor, and shoot the red targets on the opposite wall using the Seeker Launcher. If some of the Nightbarbs have respawned already then clear them out first so they don't get caught in the launcher's targeting. When the force field is gone, go ahead and use the portal.

Dynamo Works
Don't head back toward the lift unless you want to fight more quads; you won't be able to use it anyway. Instead, continue through the Black door.

Dynamo Access
The Light version of the Diligence Drone is here; you can take it out with a single Dark beam shot. Then move forward to a spot where you must roll under the floor in Morph Ball form. This section is guarded by Mechlops, this game's version of the Triclops. In case you don't remember from Metroid Prime (or never played it), you need to drop a bomb in front of one so it will swallow it. It's easy enough to just dodge them though. When you get through there is another drone and the exit.

Main Gyro Chamber
This is a large room, but you can already see what you're heading for, the White door visible through the green wall in front of you. Ignore the lift on the left and start through the Morph Ball path on the right. Follow this to a second section, then follow another Morph Ball path to a third section. Blast open the Red door here.

Save Station B
You might want to save now, but it's not needed much since soon you'll want to come back again to save anyway.

Main Gyro Chamber (cont.)
Activate the bomb slot to make a puzzle appear. It takes the form of three colored beams of light crossing from left to right passing through a grid of colored beads. Each beam is blocked by a bead of a different color and the idea is to unblock all three beams. In other words, you need to arrange the beads into a row of three red at the top, a row of three green in the middle, and a row of three blue at the bottom. You move the beads in 2 by 2 squares by shooting a target in the center. The idea of moving colors around to make a pattern makes the puzzle like a extremely simplified Rubik's cube.

The solution shouldn't be to hard to find; start with a corner, expand that to a row, and then do a different corner. But if you get stuck then can reset the puzzle by going back two rooms, then starting at the beginning, one solution is:
 * Upper left, Upper right, Lower left, Lower right.

When the pieces are in place, a second bomb slot appears and activating it causes the outermost gyroscopic ring in the center of the room to stop turning. Go back to the second section were you can now use the ring as a walkway to get around to a fourth section on the other side; if you fall off then go through the tunnel and locate the lift that carries you back up to the start. From the fourth room you can follow another Morph Ball path back to the first room, but now you're on the other side of the green wall.

Use the Spinner to open a doorway through the wall and create a shortcut, go through to save your game, then come back, ignore the White door, but scan the control panel near it to activate the lift. Step in, but if the lift takes you to a lower floor then it's the wrong one and you'll need to go back and take the one going up. Take the exit on the upper floor.

Temple Access
You start on a balcony with a locked door below. There are a few things you can do now and you may save a bit of trouble if you do them in the right order. First, from the balcony, switch to the Dark Visor and use the Seeker Launcher on the four red spots on the door (four instead of the usual five). This activates an Orb Cannon on the floor below. Hop down, switch to Morph Ball and roll into the cannon, then with a bit of luck you'll shoot the quad which appears then, using yourself as a bullet, destroying the quad in one fell swoop. If you miss the quad then defeat it the usual way, but the door remains locked until it's gone.

Sanctuary Temple
The ledge here is another point of no return until you get the Spider Ball. Drop down and get scans of the Dark versions of the quad mechanoids. Start scaling the platforms, then use the Grapple Beam to get to the door opposite the one you came in.

Controller Access
Use the Morph Ball slot to turn the gate as in the earlier versions of this room.

Sanctuary Energy Controller
Scan the blue hologram. As you will have guessed, you hear the last message of another dead Luminoth, O-Lir this time. The Luminoth redundantly informs you that the mechanoids here are hostile, then your energy is restored and you are given the Cobalt translation module so you can start translating the Cobalt holograms. Scan the history hologram and head back.

Sanctuary Temple (cont.)
Get a scan of the mechanoids dangling under the ledges. You don't have to tangle with them, but if you do then the only way to defeat them is by firing the Seeker Missile at their legs to knock them down.

Grapple over to the door with the holographic key and scan to open it.

Workers Path
You need to navigate some platforms here but it's easy to miss just how to do it. Hop over to the last platform on the right, turn around, and scan a glowing spot on the edge of the previous platform. This activates an Orb Cannon which fires you across the gap to the platforms near the exit. As long as you're here you might as well activate the other Orb Cannon the same way, then continue to the exit.

Dynamo Works (cont.)
There is a Morph Ball tunnel here, but before going in be sure to get the scan of the creature rolling around the tunnel entrance. This is only time you can get this scan and you have to do it before entering the tunnel or not at all.

Follow the guardian to pick up the Spider Ball, then come back to the maze to find it infested with Pillbugs. Use the Spider Ball to escape the previous section, then hop up to the top path which leads to a Missile Expansion. Follow the path behind the Missile Expansion to avoid the other Pillbugs and land in the hallway with the portal. From there you can go back to the Gyro Chamber to save if you want.

Expansions (Sanctuary Fortress)
There are still some expansions and a key to get before heading off to get the next upgrade. That's way back in Torvus so there's some backtracking involved, but we'll get some of the expansions on the way so it's not that bad.

Dynamo Works (cont.)
Get a scan of the Spider Ball Track and the Luminoth corpse above it, then continue to the exit. This seems to be the only place to get a Pillbug scan after activating the portal gate in Agon; they're visible through the wall. Note, you may have to go to another room before you can scan the Spider Ball Track.

Use the lift in Dynamo Works to return to Central Area Transport East, specifically to get to the Hall of Combat Mastery.

Central Area Transport East
Scan the control panel to activate the lift.

Hall of Combat Mastery
You're in a small section of the room that wasn't reachable earlier. Scan the history hologram and use the Spider Ball track to get to the main area. There's a expansion to get here, but first there's a key to get in the Dark side. But on the way to the portal you'll be attacked by Ingsmashers, large and powerful robots. Keep your distance to avoid the power waves, dodge the missiles, and counter the energy shields with beams of the opposite type. Otherwise just fire Missiles at them.

To reach your destination, head southeast and use the Portal to reach the Dark version of this area: the "Culling Chamber".

Culling Chamber (Dark side)
To the right, where the lift entrance is on Light Aether, there's a Spider Ball track going up the wall, across the ceiling, and down into a wall segment. You must take this path to acquire the next Key.

You drop into a chamber with Phazon, and must use the Spider Ball track around the top & sides of the area to avoid it.

Climbing the track and following across the ceiling and down again, drop a Morph Ball bomb and quickly retreat away from it so as not to drop into the Phazon. If you do fall, just go to the right side and Spider Ball back up. The bomb destroys the barrier and you can reach the next Dark Temple Key. Return left, using the path you came from to return.

Use the portal to get back, but the next task may be a bit tricky so you might want to heal in the safe zone a bit first.

Hall of Combat Mastery (cont.)
Now to get the expansion; it's in a similar spot but harder to get to. (Note: if you run past the Ingsmasher without destroying it, it will continue to attack you while you're in the Morph Ball maze, dealing a lot of damage)

First Spider Ball up the end of the wall separating the two halves of the room. You'll drop down to a conveyor belt which takes you the wrong direction, but then if you activate the Bomb Slot at the end of the conveyor belt, it belt reverses and you can continue. Once you reverse the belt's direction, you cannot go back! There are four vertical flames you must time your way past. Then watch for the lasers which move left/right on each level. Note that if you hit one of these laser obstacles, it flings you backward in addition to doing damage. Avoiding the lasers, hop your way back up to the top level in the next section while staying away from the lasers. Follow the path to next part of the maze.

This is the trickiest part to deal with; there are three platforms moving back and forth and you must hop from one to the other to get up to the top again. It would be hard enough to time these jumps, but on top of that there are lasers above the first and second platforms which knock you down and do damage if they hit you. Be patient here because it's better to take a long time than to lose health; this part is why you shouldn't attempt this starting with low health. When you reach the top, wait for the platform to move all the way to the left, then roll left down the adjacent shaft.

For the next part you need to cross over some Phazon. Hop onto the the first platform, then ride it to the next which you hang on from below using Spider Ball. Drop to the next platform to reach the next Spider Ball track.

Be careful on this last part; if you roll too far to the right, you may drop out the bottom and have to restart all of the maze from the beginning! To get to the next part you need to Spider Ball across the ceiling. Drop a bomb under the Missile Expansion to get it, then continue to roll out of the maze.

When ready to continue, head west through the Minigyro Chamber to the Reactor Core.

Reactor Core
Get to the bottom and roll into the Orb Cannon; this was here the whole time but it's not useful until now. When you hit the sphere in the center of the room, use the Spider Ball to cling to it. Spider up the pole here, timing so you don't get zapped by the electricity which sometimes runs along it. When you get to the top sphere, look for a red spot and maneuver yourself onto it. Now comes a move that wasn't in the Metroid Prime; hold down the Boost button while hanging on with the Spider Ball, then let go of the Boost to jump directly away from the track (or sphere in this case). You will be shot to the next sphere where you need to find another red spot and repeat the performance. Some of the spheres have electricity on them, so you need to stay on the previous safe one and time your jump so you can get to the next safe sphere before you get zapped. Starting with the sphere at the top of the pole, the spheres are:
 * Safe, Safe, Hot, Safe, Hot, Safe.

When you reach the sphere, another jump takes you to a Spider Ball maze which should be relatively easy to navigate, there's just one more jump half-way, with an Energy Tank at the end.

Drop down and scan the Cobalt hologram to open the door opposite the save station.

Sanctuary Map Station
Step into the hologram to get a map for the area. Continue backtracking to toward the Temple Grounds via Reactor Core -> Reactor Access -> Power Junction.

Sanctuary Entrance
When you walk toward the bridge there is a cut scene where Dark Samus appears and blows up the bridge. Not really a big deal through since you can just Spider Ball over the chasm with a couple of jumps. This is where the game teaches you the Spider & Boost combination, but we've already done it in the Reactor Core.

Head left from where you entered and turn around to find a Spider track path. Use the Boost to leap from one side to the other halfway through, then return through Temple Transport Access straight ahead to Transport to return to Temple Grounds.

When you get back to the Temple Grounds, you need to go through the Great Temple to reach any of the other areas. We'll cover the Torvus expansions second since we're going there for the next upgrade, but in the meantime there are some expansions to get in Agon. There will be more Agon expansions a bit later too though, so you might want to wait until then.

Junction Site (Dark side)
Get to the Portal Terminal go to the Dark side, then to the Junction Site. In the middle of the Morph Ball tunnel, Spider Ball up to a bomb slot and activate it. The tunnel spins around so that now there is only a path down, but there just happens to be a Missile Expansion there. When you have the expansion, Spider up to the bomb slot again to turn the tunnel back and get out.

Main Reactor
Now for a loop around the Space Pirate part of the area. Go back to the light world via the Portal Terminal and head for the Main Reactor; the fastest route is probably via the Command Center. Drop to the lower level and look for two Spider Ball tracks on the corner near Ventilation Area A. The track on the left is a shortcut to that exit, but use the one on the right now. This leads to a series of tracks on moving structures, and you have to do a series on well timed jumps to get from one to the next. The last jump takes you inside a small chamber where you can drop a bomb to collect a Missile Expansion.

Bioenergy Production
Continue around clockwise to Bioenergy Production; Metroids have found their way here by now so deal with them first. Reactivate the storage racks to raise them to the ceiling, then locate the Spider Ball track near switch Gamma and use it to reach an overhead tunnel. Follow the tunnels and tracks, then do exactly four jumps to reach a spot where there is a jump to the side, in other words toward the middle of the room. If you miss the side jump then just backtrack until you find it. From the side path you can jump to the top of one of the storage racks, and from there to a ledge on the other side of the room. Blast open the Green door there.

Storage C
Just pull the expansion out of the flames.

Biostorage Station
Since we're in the neighborhood, continue around clockwise to collect some scans. When you get to the Biostorage Station you'll find Metroid Cocoons hanging from the ceiling and infant Metroids pop out of them. Get a scan of both; if you decide to stay and fight them, go after the cocoons as much as possible to reduce the number of Metroids they spawn. The infants can be defeated with a single Dark beam shot, but if they find their way to the Phazon that's lying around they instantly mature into adult Metroids.

Service Access
Head back to Torvus, but as long as we're getting additional scans there's another one that's not too far out of the way. Get back to Temple Grounds and start heading to the Torvus Transport via the Landing Site. When you get to Service Access you'll find that the Lumites that were there before have now gone. They've been replaced by War Wasps, but these are Dark War Wasps which count as a new scan.

Plaza Access
When you get to Torvus, head for Plaza Access via the Forgotten Bridge. This time continue through to a new room.

Torvus Plaza
First deal with the Space Pirates here, then notice that this room is mostly a big half-pipe. Start boosting until you reach the Spider Ball track on one side and grab onto it. Now make your way along the obstacle course. This is complicated but it should be easy to figure out what to do. There is a Sporb that attacks about a third of the way through, but instead of trying to avoid it, it's probably better just to drop to the ground and shoot it with Missiles. When you reach the end of the course, roll into the Orb Cannon to be shot to an Energy Tank.

The next stop is the underwater section of Torvus.