Metroid/Norfair

Norfair

Norfair is a region of lava pools and glass bubbles. This is where you will find the Screw Attack, Wave Beam, and High Jump boots, plus extra missiles and energy tanks. Take the Ice Beam with you and freeze enemies for platforms in order to jump over high walls. In Norfair, many of the pathways which used to be clear have caved in or been filled by cooled lava. However, narrow pathways still exist inside the rubble. Never assume you've found a dead end until you've fully explored every wall, floor, and ceiling. Norfair is also along the path to Ridley's Hideout.

Points of interest

Always be suspicious of a wall like this

1) Two Missiles to the left

When you first arrive in Norfair, you are presented with a choice of doors. If you take the door to the left, you will find two Missile Packs before the path becomes a dead end. So head in that direction first. If this is your first visit to Norfair, begin to familiarize yourself with the new enemies. After a while, you will realize that many of them are simply stronger versions of the Brinstar enemies. After you collect the first Missile Pack, you will reach what appears to be a dead end, but you can tunnel through the wall as a ball, using Bombs to blast your way through. At the bottom of a vertical shaft, you'll find another door which leads to the second Missile Pack. Once you've collected it, there's nothing left to do but return to the start of Norfair.

Sometimes the floor isn't really the bottom

2) First, make your jump higher

Norfair is full of difficult jumps, as is Hideout II beyond. Therefore, it is practical to collect the High Jump boots as soon as you can. You'll want to start out by running through the right door below the elevator and crossing the lengthy lava filled hallway that leads to the right-most vertical shaft. This vertical shaft is the entry point for every other section of Norfair, including the path to Hideout II, and it is much longer than it appears. As you drop down the shaft, you may think you've hit the bottom when you reach what appears to be a floor. However, if you bomb the right hand portion of the floor, you will find a hole that you can drop through to reach more of the shaft. Once you're through the floor, enter through the first door that you find. You'll enter a lava filled chamber occupied by Dragons who spit fire at Samus (They sometimes may not spit fire which seldomly happens). Blast the red door on the other side with missiles and you will obtain the High Jump boots.

Ice Beam + High Jump = More access to Norfair

3) Then make your jump deadly

While the chamber where you obtained the High Jump boots may look like a dead-end, in fact it is not. If you bomb the floor below the Chozo statue, you can gain access to the tube that runs to the left and into a wall. Bomb your way through the wall and into an entirely new hallway. In this hallway, you will need to combine the use of your Ice Beam and newly acquired High Jump boots in order to leap over the large walls the stop short of the ceiling. Freeze an enemy and use them as a launch pad. Continue to move to the left until you enter a green chamber composed of bubbles. Once again, do not be deceived by the floor or the ceiling, as both contain secret tunnels through which you can fall or jump to reach other locations. Travel up through the ceiling of this first green chamber to reach the door that will lead you to one of the most powerful items in the whole game: the Screw Attack. By collecting the Screw Attack, Samus' whole body becomes a lethal weapon as she spin jumps through the air, decimating enemies as she slices through them.

The fake lava hides a powerful item

4) Wave goodbye to Ice

There are many more missiles and other powerful items to find in Norfair. Don't allow trick walls, floors and ceilings deter you from investigating further. From the Screw Attack room, make your way to the far left vertical shaft, and bomb through the fake floor beneath the fake lava. Fall down to the bottom and you'll find a door that will lead to many more secrets. After passing through one hallway composed of what appear to be green transparent eggs, you'll enter a green chamber with another false floor. Two Missile Packs are contained in the chambers below it. Continue on to another green egg room, where you must carefully navigate tall stacks of them so as not to fall down into the lava below and become trapped. The lava that the Dragon in the next room is sitting in is once again fake. Bomb the floor near the door to gain access to it and drop right through. The door to the left will take you to a chamber where you can collect the Ice Beam's replacement: the Wave Beam. The Wave Beam is twice as powerful as the regular beam, and it flies right through solid matter. Fighting tough enemies is much easier with the Wave Beam than it is with the Ice Beam, but you will not be able to turn enemies into platforms. Last but not least, there's a final set of missiles beyond the false lava chamber. Find your way through the wall that blocks your progress.

Risk a little damage for a great reward

5) Norfair's only Energy Tank

There's only one more item to collect in the this section, and that's the one and only Energy Tank that you'll find here. The passage to the tank begins below the first green chamber that you entered on your way to the Screw Attack. You will need to navigate your way across a series of little rocks that can be destroyed if you shoot them. You're much safer leaving them in tact and jumping from one to the next. You'll reach a wall that you can bomb-blast your way through. Continue moving to the right until you reach a door. You'll find the second chamber with fake lava on the floor. Only this time, to get beneath it, you need to bomb the floor below the door and shoot the wall to the right of the lava and drop down. You'll find another door that needs to a new chamber. At first, it may appear that the best option is to take the upper path above the lava, but the dead end will prove otherwise. Instead, brave the lava and swim beneath the platform. You will arrive on the other side where you can jump up on to the columns and collect the Energy Tank at the top. Or a less risky way to get the Energy tank is very simple, just shoot the "block" at Samus' level and it will be destroyed. Bomb jump through and go across.

At this point, you may choose to continue to drop down to the bottom of the far right vertical shaft and make your way to Hideout II, and visit points 6 and 7 on your way back to Brinstar.

Create platforms for yourself to clear the lava

6) Two more Missiles

Once you've collected the High Jump boots, you'll be able to hurdle the barrier that stands between you and the two Missile Packs on the other side. The only problem is, you'll also need the Ice Beam to use an enemy as a platform in order to clear the barrier. If you currently possess the Wave Beam, you'll need to follow point 7 in order to obtain the Ice Beam again. Once you have both the Ice Beam and the High Jump boots, you can clear the barrier on the other side of the wall. If you have the Screw Attack, the Garutas and the Gamets that you run into along the way should present little problem. After you collect the two Missile Packs, head back to the right shaft.

Accessing the shaft to the left takes a lot of work

7) A cache of Missiles and back to Ice

The High Jump boots can give you collection to a huge amount of Missile Packs as well as the second location of the Ice Beam, which you'll need to pick up before you travel to Tourian if you are currently wielding the Wave Beam. Jump to the top of the vertical shaft, and enter the door to the left where you can grab three easy Missile Packs. Return to the shaft, and stand on the highest platform. Fire up through the ceiling and find the gap that you can jump through. Climb up to the small chamber at the top of the shaft and enter the door to the left. After collecting two more Missile Packs, bomb the portion of the platform next to the wall to gain access to a hidden tunnel. Bomb out the blocks at the other end and you'll find yourself in a new chamber. Watch out for the Multiviolas bouncing around and jump into the shaft to the left. Drop down and enter the room at the bottom. You'll find yourself in a room identical to the one you just came from. Bomb the blocks in the wall next to the right platform and continue to the right. You'll end up travelling through the tunnel beneath the Chozo Statue that contains the Ice Beam. All that's left to do is continue to the right and through a wall, until you are back into the vertical shaft where you started from.

Destinations

A) Return to Brinstar

When you have completed your excavation of Norfair, you'll need to make your way back to Brinstar in order to reach Tourian (unless you haven't visited Hideout I and Hideout II yet to defeat Kraid and Ridley). With all of the power that you've accumulated, it shouldn't be nearly as hard to get out of Norfair as it was to get in.

B) Descend to Ridley's hideout

The door that sets you on your way to the second hideout, and Ridley's lair, is below the the door that lead to the High Jump boots. You'll have to cross a series of Nova-crawling platforms while Dragons breath fire at you. On the other end of the corridor is a door that leads to another shaft. The elevator to Hideout II can be found through the door at the bottom of this shaft.

Notes

You can approach the chamber from the right if you already have the Ice Beam

Accessing the Ice Beam chamber with the Ice Beam

While you have to go to the highest chamber in the right vertical shaft and approach the Ice Beam chamber from behind if you have the Wave Beam (or the normal beam), you can actually short cut directly to the Ice Beam chamber if you already possess the Ice Beam. In this manner, you can collect the five Missile Packs above you without obtaining the High Jump boots. Just approach the wall before the chamber and freeze the purple Squeept that jumps up and down in front of it. Then jump on the Squeept and bomb jump into the wall and beyond. Now you can reverse the steps in point 7 and obtain the missiles early on.