Remember that red door near the west-most Brinstar elevator that we've been avoiding? (It's at the bottom of the shaft with green Space Pirates.) Now is the time to pay it a visit.
You'll find yourself in a misty hallway that is completely deserted. Go all the way right and through the door at the end. Eerie music is playing in this small room, which is dominated by a large golden statue of the four bosses you fought. One by one, the glowing eyes go out and each boss turns gray. When all four are gray, the statue will start to sink into the floor. As soon as the commotion stops, fall through the false floor to reach an elevator. Take it down.
It's eerily quiet down here. Don't fall into the lava—it may look like weak lava, but it's as strong as the boiling kind. There are two doors; the one on the right is a Save Room. This is the last place you can save your game and still go back up to look for items (or explore, or whatever). Save, then go through the other door.
Be on your guard, and make sure your Ice Beam is equipped—this place is full of Metroids! Unlike the Mochtroids you saw in Maridia, if one of these gets a hold of you, the only way to free yourself is with Power Bombs—not one or two, but three of them! To kill the Metroids, freeze them with the Ice Beam and quickly follow with a Super Missile or 5 Missiles. Take it slow and steady!
Anyhow, in the first room, eliminate each Metroid as you make your way left to the other end of this room; when all the Metroids are gone, go through the now-flashing door. In the next room, watch out below for more Metroids; you can shoot down through the platforms to freeze them, then hop down and take them out. Go through the door at the bottom.
Watch out for the Rinkas (those fiery rings) in this room, as you head right. Take out the Metroid, and continue carefully hopping from platform to platform, looking out for two more Metroids. After they've all been destroyed, go through the flashing door. In the next room, freeze the Metroid below you and missile it, then proceed carefully down the platforms, taking out each of the Metroids and doing your best to avoid the Rinkas. Once the last Metroid is gone, you can rest easy, as that is the last of them. Go through the door in the floor.
In this room, you may as well ignore the giant blue Sidehoppers; the only way to kill them is with Missiles or Super Missiles, and they seldom leave refills. Just Screw Attack past them and go through the door on the left. The door turns metal behind you; the only thing in here is an odd-looking Chozo Statue… but if you touch or shoot it, it turns to dust, as if the life has been drained out of it! Go through the next door; this door also turns metal, and this room appears as deserted as the last one. There are more creatures in here, drained as dry as the Chozo. Eventually you'll find a living creature (another of those blue Sidehoppers), except this one looks to be in bad shape.
Suddenly an enormous Metroid flies in from offscreen and proceeds to drain the life out of the Sidehopper. The screen has stopped scrolling and there's nowhere for you to run. You can try to fight the Metroid, but none of your weapons have any effect on it, and it will eventually latch on to you. It drains nearly all of your energy in less than a minute! Just when Samus is about to die, at 1 unit of energy the Metroid suddenly stops and lets go of Samus. Those sounds… that sounds like the Metroid larva! There must have been an enormous amount of energy down here for the little fella to get so darn big! It recognized Samus only at the last second…
Confused, the giant Metroid flies off to the left; follow it, and you'll encounter some sort of cobweb-like stuff blocking the way. Shoot it, and make your way down this short shaft, then go through the door on the left. Waste no time in refilling your energy (and your Missiles if you need them), then go back out and blast the red door open. This next room is devoid of anything except an Eye Door at the other end; blast it with 3 Missiles and go through.
This shaft has the last Save Room you'll ever see through the middle door on the left. However, if you do save here (and if you think you'll have trouble with the final boss and escape, you probably should), you won't be able to return to anyplace else in the game at a later time. It's up to you. Anyway, when you're ready for the showdown, blast open the red door at the bottom and go through.
This room resembles the old Mother Brain room we saw before; gun turrets and Rinkas are all over the place, as well as Zebetites, a sort of red substance in glass tubes, which can only be destroyed with Missiles or Super Missiles. Since you want to save your Supers for the big fight, use Missiles; it takes 10-15 depending on how fast you are (the Zebetites regenerate fairly quickly). After it's gone, jump through; the next Zebetite is in 2 parts, but if you shoot one, you damage both. After destroying it, bomb-jump through the hole it left. The next two Zebetites are similar to the first two. All the while, watch out for the turret-fire and Rinkas; you may not be able to avoid all of them, but you can avoid some. Finally, you should reach the tank containing the Space Pirate leader, Mother Brain.
MOTHER BRAIN
HP: 3000
Attacks: glass 15.
Missiles – 100 (30)
Super Missiles – 300 (10)
Glass requires 6 Missiles to break.
This battle is easy… too easy. However, the Rinkas and turret-fire in the room will not stop, so you still need to watch out for that. Otherwise, simply stand a safe distance away (as the glass can hurt you), and blast the glass with 6 Missiles to make a hole in it. Switch to Super Missiles and fire in the hole; it takes 10 direct hits with Supers to finish the brain off.
The container holding the brain explodes, and the brain falls to the floor, apparently dead. The screen has locked again, though—you can't leave! Not good at all. Suddenly, the brain starts to rise up… on a huge biomechanical body that towers over Samus! Mother Brain survived after all. Time for the REAL fight!
MOTHER BRAIN
HP: 18000
Attacks: eye beam 30, body 30, blue rings 20 each, bomb
40,
bomb explosion 20, fire beam 200 (under 4500HP),
Laser Brain 300 and paralysis (0 HP)
Missiles – 100 (180)
Super Missiles – 300 (max 50)
Charged Plasma/Ice/Wave – 900 (30)
Mother Brain has a number of damaging attacks, which get more dangerous the longer you last. To start out, angle up and unload the remainder of your Super Missiles at Mother Brain's head (you should have 30 to 40 left). When you run out of Supers, you have a choice of using Missiles or charged Plasma shots. While the charged Plasma does more damage, it also takes more time; whereas you can fire 3-4 Missiles rapid-fire in the same amount of time it would take to charge your Beam. It's your call; I personally prefer using the charged Beam.
When Mother Brain gets to 4500 HP, she starts using a terrible fiery beam that makes the room shake with each hit, and if it hits you, you lose 200 units of energy! It's tough to avoid, but you can usually jump or dodge it and keep firing at Mother Brain. At this point, it shouldn't take more than a half-dozen or so hits from the charged Plasma Beam to bring her energy down to 0.
But Mother Brain isn't through with you yet. At 0 HP, she will bend her head forward, her brain will start glowing, and she'll let loose with her final attack: the Laser Brain. This devastating attack cannot be avoided, and in addition to the 300 units of energy it takes away, it drains 75 Missiles and all of your remaining Super Missiles and Power Bombs, as well as paralyzing you.
Now, if you have over 300 units of energy left after that horrible attack (not including reserves), you can get back up (mash the Control Pad a bit) and continue fighting, but there is little point in doing so; it won't be long before Mother Brain unleashes another Laser Brain attack. Sooner or later, you will have insufficient energy to withstand another attack, and will be unable to get up. Mother Brain will use her standard attacks to bring Samus's energy down below 100, then she'll cry in triumph, lean forward, and charge up another Laser Brain attack. It looks hopeless.
Just before Mother Brain lets loose with the killing blow, the giant Metroid flies in and latches on to Mother Brain's brain, draining the Laser Brain energy, and then some. It's obvious that the Metroid does not intend to let go until Mother Brain is drained dry. And indeed, it appears that way—she crouches down like a Chozo Statue and fades to the same color as those other drained creatures. Good ol' Metroid! The Metroid is sympathetic, and grabs on to Samus, feeding her the energy it took from Mother Brain.
Even as the Metroid is topping off Samus's Energy Tanks, Mother Brain is STILL not dead! Purple smoke and drool starts to seep from her mouth, and she comes back to life! NO! That's not the way it's supposed to end… Mother Brain promptly hobbles over to the Metroid, retaliating with with her blue ring attack, even as the Metroid is feeding Samus energy. After about 10 of these attacks, the Metroid takes off, before realizing that it left Samus still paralyzed and defenseless on the floor.
The Metroid flies back into the room, and Mother Brain fires one last round of blue rings at the Metroid, killing it. With a cry, the Metroid disintegrates before your eyes… and the remains fall on Samus, making her glow brightly. The reason for that? Whatever was left of the Metroid (the Laser Brain energy from Mother Brain, perhaps?) was absorbed by the Power Suit, causing it to fuse all of the Beams into one all-powerful HYPER BEAM. This weapon can do a serious amount of damage to Mother Brain, and kills everything else with one shot. Samus leaps up, ready to finish the job and avenge the Metroid.
MOTHER BRAIN
HP: 36000
Attacks: same as before, except no fire
beam or Laser Brain
Hyper Beam – 1000 (36)
Because the Metroid just topped off Samus's energy, and because Samus now has a weapon of unbelievable power, there is really no way that you can lose this fight now. Simply angle up and hold down the Fire button, letting loose with the Hyper Beam and ignoring Mother Brain's futile attacks. After 20 shots or so, Mother Brain starts to change color; 36 shots will destroy her for good.
Mother Brain's body will collapse, and the brain falls to the floor once again, where it finally disintegrates. But the party's not over—as soon as Mother Brain dies, a time bomb is set, and a countdown begins. You have 3 minutes to get off the planet before it blows!
A path to the left will blow open as the 3 minute countdown begins. Head that way, blasting any shutters that get in the way with the Hyper Beam. There is no turning back; all the doors you go through will turn metal behind you. Go through the door in the floor, and fall to the bottom of the next room, going through the next door.
In this large room filled with Space Pirates, you have two options:
Either way, go through the door in the upper-right. This next room is tricky to navigate under duress; start by holding right when you come in, so you don't fall, and then make your way up to the top. Head right, then down and left, then drop down the narrow shaft to the bottom (to make things a little easier, shoot the Pirates on your right on the way down). You need to make your way to the top, outrunning the lava that is now starting to fill the room. The opening to the way out of here will be on the left, so start jumping up in that direction, blasting or Screw Attacking any Pirates that get in the way. When you reach the top, blast the Pirate and the door, take a few paces back, and DASH through the door.
Come out the door FIRING (important!); you should reach super-speed, blasting right through the bendezium wall. Super-charge NOW! Position Samus right next to the left wall and Super-Jump straight up. If you do this correctly, you'll zip alllll the way up to the top of the shaft, saving you almost a whole minute of escape time!! (A BIG thanks to Marshmallow for this trick!)
Insectoid's Tip:
However you get to the top, go through the door in the ceiling, and make your way up to the top of this room. As you go, the planet is clearly showing signs of falling apart. Now, you can go straight to the ship from here, but if you pulled off that mighty Super-Jump, you should have plenty of time to rescue some old friends.
Morph, go through the narrow passage, and head for the room where you got the Bombs near the beginning of the game. When you get there, you'll find that the Dachola and Etecoons are trapped! Simply blast the far wall with the Hyper Beam and they'll be freed. NOW you can go to the ship (I assume you know the way), and press Down once you're on it as if you're saving. Samus will take off.
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