AM2R/Golden Temple

Reaching the temple
After you return to the save point beyond the first fork in the road, continue on to the room marked room A on the map above. You'll encounter a new bird-like enemy. When you reach the end of the path to the right, you'll now be able to descend below, thanks to the earthquake that drained the lava to a lower level. Follow the path as it drops and heads to the left, and then drops again and continues to the right. You'll encounter two new enemies, one which clings to whatever ground it's moving along, and another which drops straight down out of hatches in the ceiling.

Continue to room B, where you must carefully hop across a series of platforms which lie just above where the lava has come to a rest. If you happen to fall in the lava, don't panic, but make every effort to jump and climb out of it as soon as possible. Note that you can move faster through lava, and all liquids, in Morph Ball form. Continue on to room C, where you must continue to carefully jump over more lava. Two more new enemies appear, one which leaps into the air and wafts back and forth as it drops down, and another insect-like creature which bears a strange resemblance to Samus' helmet. When you reach the far right side, begin climbing up to the top. Walk through the small empty room on the right, and you will have arrived.

Goals
When you first arrive in the Golden Temple, you will have the choice to drop down to the bottom of Room A, or head to the top. If you do investigate below, you will find that you can't proceed through room M in your current state, so your only real option is to head up. Run through the corridor in room B, shooting any enemies that rise from the pipes if they get in your way.
 * Obtaining Bombs (A → E)

Once you reach room C, you will be at the foot of a long expanse that stretches to the temple. Room C is actually a very large cavern that encompasses the temple. There's actually more space than physical platforms. Run straight across the bridge, and through the door on the right to reach the next save station. Save your game, and continue right.

You'll enter the top of room D, which is a long vertical room containing no enemies, only platforms. Some of the platforms are more of an orange than a yellow. They can be shot and destroyed with your gun. Drop down to the very bottom, and pass through the door on the left. The next room, room E, contains a number of fire-breathing security statues attached to the walls. Destroy them from a safe location, and continue to the left. When you reach a solid wall, you can shoot the upper bricks to remove them.

The door beyond the bricks is red, so you must shoot it with a missile to open it. Beyond the door, you will find a Chozo statue offering an item. Shoot the orb to reveal the item, and you will discover the Bombs. Collect them in order to give your Morph Ball form a lot more offensive power. While you're in the room, you'll probably notice the Missiles below the floor. See Missile Tank A below to learn how to obtain it.

Note that once you obtain the Bombs, you can use it to reveal a shortcut beneath the floor of room E. Just bomb the orange block on the floor to discover the pathway, and roll to the right to bypass the security statues. Leave room E and return to room D. You won't be able to jump up and climb off the floor without bombing the orange blocks to the right. Use a bomb to clear them away, and climb up to the right door in the middle of the room. Head through the door to reach room F.
 * Obtaining the Charge Beam (E → H)

Above the security statue is a broken block which can be removed with Bombs. Then roll through the passage behind the block, bombing any blocks that get in your way as you proceed to the right. The map will indicate that there's an item in the room on the right side of the passage. See Energy Tank A below to learn more about it.

Continue to the right. Room G is a vertical room like room D, only longer and containing security statues. Once again, drop to the bottom. You will notice an interesting object on the floor, but no matter what you do, you won't be able to interact with it at this time. Likewise, if you bomb the blocks on the right, they will reveal a gray inactive door, and nothing will open it. Both the object and the door will remain a mystery for later in the game. Instead, head through the door on the left to room H.

When you enter, you will be forced to shoot the orange block at the top, which will have a chain reaction and expose a hidden passage above the ceiling which you can take to bypass the security statues. Use a missile to open the red door on the left, and step inside to discover another Chozo statue. This one holds the Charge Beam in its hands. With the Charge Beam enabled, a few things become possible.
 * 1) You can hold down the fire button and release it to fire a more powerful charged shot.
 * 2) If you hold down the fire button and shrink into a Morph Ball, you will simultaneously release five bombs.  These bombs have a longer detonation time than normal.
 * 3) You can hold down the fire button and somersault jump through the air to inflict damage to one enemy.  (Note that this won't necessarily kill the enemy if it would normally take several shots to defeat.)
 * 4) Carried over from the Metroid Prime series, while the fire button is held down, any items such as energy or missile refills that are close enough to you will be drawn to you like a magnet.

Exiting from room H, you'll return to vertical room G, and begin climbing up. The first passage to the right leads to room I. There are a series of Missile expansions that you can collect here. See below for more information about them. Room I will ultimately dead-end, and you will be forced to return to room G and continue your climb up to the next door.
 * Obtaining the Spider Ball (H → K)

The next door that leads to the right will return you to the cavernous room C. You must cross another bridge to the right. You'll see a shed Metroid skin on the ledge above the entrance to room K. Enter the room and you'll find a Save Station. Continue to the right, and use the Morph Ball to squeeze through the narrow gap. Use bombs to propel you through if necessary. Proceed to the hole in the floor and fall in.

Once you reach the bottom, navigate the narrow passages as a Morph Ball until you can reach the floor below. Avoiding the energy-sapping thorns on the ground, collect the glowing green item to obtain the Spider Ball power-up. With the Spider Ball, you can cling to any surface in Morph Ball form. You move considerably slower, but you can investigate areas that are otherwise unreachable. To activate it, you must press the Aim Up or Aim Down buttons while in Morph Ball form.

Now that you have the Spider Ball, you can use it to escape your location and climb back out of the hole to return to the Save Station above. (Alternatively, you can use Samus' wall-jumping abilities instead). Save your game, and exit back out to room C. Power grab the ledge by the shed Metroid skin, and pull yourself up.
 * Finding the first Metroid (K → L)

From here, shrink down to Morph Ball form and activate the Spider Ball. Use it to cling to the wall and climb all the way up to a ledge above. Once you reach the ledge, deactivate Spider Ball, and stand up to enter room L. Avoid the spikes and proceed to the right to encounter your second Alpha Metroid. Fighting this one will be identical to fighting the first; aim your missiles at the green underbelly, and leap into the air to lure the Metroid higher to get a better shot at him. If you get pushed to the ground, be sure to get out of the damaging spikes as quickly as possible.

With one Metroid defeated, you must locate the remaining three in order to proceed. To do that, you must exit room C and return to the vertical corridor in room A. On the way, it's worth visiting a few more locations to collect some items. One can be found if you Spider Ball your way along the ceiling of cavernous room C (see Missile Tank F below). The rest can be found in room J, which is worth paying a visit to before you make your way back to A.
 * Invading the Metroid nest (C → N)

Once you make it back to room A, drop all the way down to the bottom, and head through the door. After saving your game at the Save Station, proceed to the right to room M. Not far into the room, you will find the passage along the floor blocked by some rocks. You can use bombs to blast your way past them. From there, you must continue right. You can either fight your way past the circling enemies, or Spider Ball up to the passage in the ceiling to bypass them.

Either way, make your way to the next room on the right, room N. From here, you have access to three more rooms, and you will see a few shed Metroid skins and thorns along the ground. All three rooms, O, P and Q, are pretty much the same. They are long corridors featuring thorns on the floor, and Alpha Metroids waiting for you at the far ends. You must defeat all three of them to trigger an earthquake that will allow you to proceed. The strategy to defeat each Alpha Metroid remains unchanged. You must simply make sure that you're standing on solid ground, and not on any damaging thorns throughout the fight.

Once you trigger the earthquake, that is your cue to exit from the Golden Temple and make your way back to the surface tunnels which lead you there. Climb back up to the top of room N, head left through room M, and save your game. Then return to room A, and climb up to reach the door to room R on the left.
 * One more thing before you leave... (N → R)

You'll begin running through what still appears to be an empty room. However, before you make it all the way through, blocks will drop down and block your exit on either side. The ceiling will open up and spikes will appear along both sets of blocks. Then the Ancient Guardian will descend and hover above you. The guardian floats left and right above the floor. It is normally yellow and vulnerable to attack, but when it stops, it turns gray and is invincible. While gray, its eyes will glow one of four different colors, indicating the attack it is about to perform.

Blue eyes indicate lasers that fire straight down. Green eyes indicate a series of six fireballs that fan out to the left and right, but not directly below the guardian. Yellow eyes indicate a single fireball that drops straight down, and then fans out along the ground in either direction. And purple eyes indicate six purple fireballs which fan out from the center, but never reach the ground (so you're safe if you morph).

To escape, you must damage the guardian will any attack available. Use your missiles first, and only use your regular gun if you run out of missile ammunition. As you damage the guardian, the walls will close in, giving you less and less room to get away from the guardian's attacks. However, you will destroy the guardian before the walls close in on you completely. Once the guardian is destroyed, the blocks will disappear, and it will leave a large cache of items behind for you to collect before you move on. Although you can in theory investigate the area above the ceiling, you won't be able to collect every item contained there without power-ups that are collected later. Return to the left to start making your way to the Hydro Station.

Item Gathering

 * Missile Tank A (room E):The first missile tank can be found in the same room as where you obtained the Bombs. Bomb a portion of the floor to the left of the door to find a way through to the bottom.  Collect the missiles, and return to the floor above.


 * Missile Tank B (room I):Approach the first block on the floor from the right side, and walk into it. The block will disappear to reveal the missile tank inside.


 * Missile Tank C (room I):You can see the next Missile Tank on the floor. Shoot the orange blocks above the tank to gain access to the tank.


 * Missile Tank D (room I):This tank is directly above Missile Tank C. Shoot the orange block near the right side of the platform that the tank rests on to gain access to it, and power grab your way up into the narrow ledge to collect the tank.


 * Missile Tank E (room I):This fourth tank is easy to miss. Room I doesn't end at the wall.  There is a narrow passage that you can climb into and roll down as a Morph Ball.  You will come to a complex set of pockets in the wall above the passage.  You must use bombs to break open holes in the walls along the left side until you can climb up to the ceiling and roll over to the Missile Tank.  Use the spaces along the way to stay up and bomb the higher blocks.  Once you collect the tank, you will drop through the floor to the bottom.


 * Missile Tank F (room C):After defeating the lone Alpha Metroid in room L, return to room C, but don't drop down to the floor. Instead, latch yourself to the wall above the entrance (this can be done several ways including bombing yourself up in Morph Ball form and attaching, or jumping up against the wall, pressing the Morph Ball button and attaching.)  From here, simply follow the wall all the way until you are in the middle of the ceiling.  You have to watch out for a few enemies who fly in circles.  If you get hit by them, the Spider Ball will deactivate, and you will drop to the floor.  Once you encounter the ledge with the Missiles, drop down to collect them.


 * Missile Tank G (room J):On the far right side of the room, the Missile Tank is in a low narrow passage along the floor guarded by two orange blocks. Destroy either one to gain access to the missiles.


 * Missile Tank H (room J):On the left side of the room, the Missile Tank can be seen on the floor. Shoot the large orange block to the left of the tank to gain access to the missiles.


 * Energy Tank A (room F):After you bomb the brick that blocks the small narrow passage through the room, you have to bomb another damaged block along the way. There happen to be a few more damaged blocks lining the top of the passage, which you can bomb as well.  It will reveal an opening to a small room above with a mechanism on the ceiling.  If you shoot the mechanism, it will cause a block to rise off a platform, revealing the Energy Tank beneath it.


 * Energy Tank B (room J):You can see the Energy Tank near the middle of the room, but access to it appears to be prevented by a large gray block. On the left side of the room, above Missile Tank H are three mechanisms on the ceiling.  Shooting them causes a blue energy field to appear for different lengths of time.  The left one lights up for about two seconds, the middle one for less than a second, and the right one for about three seconds.  The goal is to get all three of them lit at once.  To do this, you must shoot the right one first, then the left one, and the middle one last.  If performed correctly, the gray block will move out of the way, and actually create a platform for you to use to reach the energy tank.