TODO: Damage values and add more addresses
The purpose of this page is to document all of the relevant Metroid Prime Hunters mechanics, tricks, and glitches.
Note that the game runs at 30FPS usually (the game does lag at points), so you will see frames used in reference to frames where the game accepts input typically.
In this game, each hunter has two forms: A Bipedal form in which they can shoot the Power Beam, Missiles, or collectable Sub-Weapons and Jump; and an Alt Form that has the ability to go through smaller spaces and has varying special attacks depending on the hunter. Each hunter has an affinity weapon that changes the properties of that weapon.
In the Single Player, the only hunter that is playable is Samus so she will be the only hunter discussed in great detail. Her affinity weapon is missiles and they home in on enemies when charged. Her alt form is the Morph Ball.
Movement is controlled by the dpad, jumping is done by pressing any face button (A,B,X,Y) or by double tapping the touch screen, shooting is performed with the L-Button and aiming, switching weapons (including sub-weapons), and entering alt form is done through touch screen. In single player, switching to the scan visor also uses the touch screen. The Imperialist is able to zoom in by double tapping its icon when it is the selected weapon or by pressing r.
Aiming
Aiming is complicated. Starting from no touch screen input, it takes 6 frames of touch screen input before the game changes your camera and/or targeting reticule. The second frame of touch screen input and the 6th frames are the only frames among the first 6 frames that actually affect where you aim: the rest can be pretty much anything else (though the first must not switch weapons or cause you to enter Morph Ball). The distance and direction between the two touch screen inputs determines how you turn and/or move the targetting reticle. If there are no additional touch screen inputs, you will stop turning/moving the targetting reticule immediately. If there are additional touch screen inputs, there is sort of a momentum effect where your previous touch screen inputs affect how you turn/aim on later frames.
If you switch weapons there is a period that lasts 6 frames in which your touch screen inputs will not count towards aiming and you must wait to be able to start the 6 first frames of touch screen input for aiming.
Jump
You have the ability to jump once: It can either be from the air or from the ground. You cannot jump again until the game has detected you landed.
If you are on the edge of a platform or on a very steep slope the game might not think you have "landed" and you will not regain your jump.
If in morph ball, the game still keeps track of whether or not you have a jump. Entering the air in morph causes you to lose your jump.
Determining whether or not you have a jump can be done by looking at whether or not a particular address is odd or even. If even, you have a jump. If odd, you do not have a jump.
Weapons
Most weapons in this game can either be fired by tapping the L-Button or charged by holding the L-Button then releasing it. Some weapons cause additional damage if they hit a target in the head (headshot).
- Power Beam: Uses no ammo. There is a 3 frame delay after firing a regular shot before you can fire another one. If held down, fires a few additional shots (with incrementing delays between each shot) before beginning to charge. The charge shot has a slight homing effect. Power beam is able to headshot.
- Missiles: Uses missile ammo. Direct hits deal more damage then indirect hits. Charged missiles used by Samus home in to an extent on targets. Missiles cannot be used for headshots. The explosion will hit Samus if she is close enough and cause knockback.
- Sub-Weapons: Use Universal Ammo
- Volt Driver: There is a 4 frame delay in between each regular shot. The regular shots move fast but charged shots move slightly slower. Spamming regular shots allows for dealing large amounts of damage very quickly. Can be used for headshots.
- Shock Coil: A unique weapon that fires a lightning stream that drains the enemy's health. The rate of damage increases over time. The Shock Coil cannot Headshot.
- Judicator: The Judicator is able to bounce off walls. The charged shot fires 3 judicator shots. Is able to headshot.
- Magmaul: Regular shots can bounce off of walls but charged shots explode on contact. The Magmaul is a grenade like weapon. Is not able to headshot. Is able to self-inflict damage and cause knockback.
- Imperialist: Can zoom in with the r-button or by double tapping it's symbol. It's power increases when zoomed in. It does a large amount of damage, especially with headshots, but it has a slow recharge period in between shots. Cannot charge.
- Battlehammer: Lobs explosives with a 9 frame delay in between shots. Cannot charge or headshot. Deals self-inflicting damage.
Morph Ball
Morph Ball decreases the size of the hitbox, allows for slightly faster movement, and allows Samus to Boost with the boost ball and lay bombs. Movement can be controlled through either dpad or touch screen inputs (or both), boosting is done through holding down the r-button and then releasing it, or through large rapid strokes on the touch screen (this will be described in more detail later) and bombs are laid by pressing L.
Bombs
There is a limit of 3 bombs that can be placed at a time in this game. If a bomb is laid, a countdown to refill the bombs starts. If a second bomb is laid, that countdown gets reset, but if a third bomb is laid, it is NOT reset.
If Samus is close enough to the radius, she will be launched into the air (without taking any damage). This mechanic is referred to as bomb jumping.
If an enemy is close enough to a bomb, the bomb will detonate sooner. This can be used to quickly finish off enemies or to setup faster bomb jumps.
Boosting
There are two methods of boosting in this game.
The first involves holding down the r-button and releasing it. This is referred to as R-Boosting. The longer you hold it down, the stronger the boost. Holding it for 15 frames fully charges the boost.
The second involves using the touch screen to make rapid large strokes. With TAS this can effectively be done in two frames. Maintaining touch screen input and using the dpad in coordination allows you to keep more speed from the touch boost. However, in order to touch boost again, you must have no touch screen input for at least one frame and the game must detect that you slow down in some fashion.
Note that if that samus is in a state where she could touch boost, and there is touch screen input, she will not be able to charge an r-boost until either you touch boost, or you stop having touch screen input.
Using both kinds of boosts allows for faster movement.
Boost also does damage. Fully charged boosts deal 29 damage. Hurting an enemy with a boost cancels the boost, allowing you to immediately perform another touch boost, making boost the most effective way of dealing damage. Not every enemy is vulnerable to boost however.
Loading rooms/segments of rooms/out of bounds movement
Metroid Prime Hunters runs on a different engine from the console primes. This means that loading rooms works a little bit differently from them. In Metroid Prime Hunters, there are rooms and there are loading hallways.
Room segments
Rooms are divided up into individual segments and only one segment is active at a time. When a segment is active, it is fully visible from all angles and you can scan everything in it. Inactive segments are only visible from certain angles and you cannot scan everything in them. Notably you cannot activate portals when the segment is inactive. In the RTA community active segments were referred to as "visibly/graphically loaded". In really old metroid threads, inactive segments were referred to as "secretized" referring to the "secret world" terminology used to described out of bounds back then. To make a segment active, you must pass through an invisible trigger between the active segment and the inactive segment you want to make active. You can't skip between segments: if the segment you want to make active is on the other side of the room, you need to make each segment before that segment active in turn.
Loading Hallways
Between every room not connected by portal is a loading hallway. These rooms are unnamed on the map. When in a room, shooting the door (with the appropriate weapon if it has a colored shield) and being within proximity of the door will cause the hallway to immediately load. This also unloads the previous hallway you were in.
When in the loading hallway, shooting the door to the next room and getting close to it will start loading the next room if the loading hallway is the active segment. If it is not the active segment, the game crashes instead. When it is finished, the new room will actually be in the position of the old room and your position and the position of any projectiles/bombs are shifted by an offset and placed in a new hallway that looks identical to the previous hallway, creating the illusion that your position is unchanged.
Pausing while a room is loading allows for rooms to load faster, probably due to lag reduction.
Oubliette does not have loading hallways, most of the area is loaded all at once; only a few rooms are loaded separately.
Out of bounds
Unlike the console primes, there is no "Aether" out of bounds. There are death triggers below the rooms that extend infinitely. Sometimes there is a floor that extends out of bounds from the room in which case movement may be relatively simple. Most of the time however there is not.
In the case where there is no floor extending out of bounds, in order to move out of bounds, you must stay on the floors within the walls. If you move too far towards the inside of the room, you get pushed back inbounds. If you move too far away from the wall you will fall. Additionally, on the edge you will not regain your jump. Regaining your jump requires landing on the floor and can be rather tricky to do without getting pushed back inbounds. Carefully planned movements are key.
Most triggers extend out of bounds, allowing you to control what segment is active while out of bounds. It is possible to move between various rooms while out of bounds. However, if a loading hallway has a colored shield, you cannot load that loading hallway without the appropriate weapon even with out of bounds.
Glitches and techniques
Height Techniques
There are 3 basic height techniques in this game, each with advantages and disadvantages.
Missile Jumping
By firing a missile at the floor below Samus, she will get a bit of height without using her jump. Jumping at the peak of the missile jump allows for the most height without bombs. Regular missiles give less height but deal less damage than charged missiles. Charged magmaul gives the same amount of height and deals less damage than charged missiles, but is not available immediately and is not always convenient to switch to.
Double Bomb Jump
Through careful placement of bombs, you are able to get hit by bombs in midair allowing for higher jumps. Combining boost with bomb jumps allows for even higher jumps. Double bomb jumps are relatively slow to setup however.
Bomb Unmorph Jump
By unmorphing the frame before the bomb goes off, Samus keeps her jump upon entering the air. If you jump at the exact height of the jump however, your vertical speed will rapidly decrease while jumping. You want to jump after 2 frames of negative Z-Speed. This is faster than dbjs but gives slightly less height.
Clips
There are several different kinds of clips in this game that allow you to get out of bounds.
Missile Push
By hitting yourself with a missile while holding back or a diagonal against collision, you're able get sent through collision. You're also able to enter morph ball tunnels in biped form this way. Charged missiles or magmaul is required for most missile push clips but some may work with regular missiles. This frequently works in corners or where two sources of collision meet.
Boost Clip
Similarly to missile pushing, this usually works in corners. Boosts may be able to send you through collision. Typically, touch boosting allows you to retain the most speed against the work of the opposing collision. Following up with an r-boost while maintaining touch screen input may allow for you to pass through the collision entirely. Experimentation with touch screen inputs is important in finding these.
Unmorph Clip
By unmorphing at certain spots with low ceilings, Samus will clip through. It's noticeably easier to do this at higher speeds. Is notably used for Volt Driver Early.
Jump Clip
Jumping at certain angles with angled collision on the ceiling may allow you to go out of bounds. Notably used for doing Vespher Defense Outpost in one trip and for skipping finishing the fuel stack countdown sequence.
Ramp Corner Clip
By slowly moving into the corner of two sloped surfaces, you're able to move into the corner without ending up on top of it. Morphing will allow you to go out of bounds. Is used to skip Spire 2 and is used to skip the artifact keys in Stasis Bunker.
Useful Memory Addresses
General
| 020DCA99 | 1-Byte | Jump and morph status
|
| 020DC5F8 | 4-Byte | X? Position
|
| 020DC5F0 | 4-Byte | Y? Position
|
| 020DC5F4 | 4-Byte | Z Position
|
| 020DC610 | 4-Byte | X? Speed
|
| 020DC608 | 4-Byte | Y? Speed
|
| 020DC60C | 4-Byte | Z Speed
|
| 020DC6AE | 2-Byte | Health
|
| 020DC722 | 2-Byte | Missile Count
|
| 020DC720 | 2-Byte | Universal Ammo Count
|
| 020DC71C | 1-Byte | R-Boost Charge
|
| 020DCA9B | 1-Byte | Touch Boost
|
| 020DCB11 | 1-Byte | Bomb count
|
| 020DCB10 | 1-Byte | Bomb refill countdown
|