7 Things To Know Before Playing Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, the latest main entry in Nintendo’s Metroid franchise, is finally here after nearly a decade of waiting. Now available on Switch and Switch 2, Prime 4 might not be the best game in the series, but it offers up plenty of great levels to explore and aliens to shoot. But before you hop into this new adventure, we have some tips to help you save the day.

Make sure you smash plenty of green crystals!

While exploring the Sol Valley desert in Metroid Prime 4, you’ll spot lots of green crystals. These can be smashed with your motorcycle and collected. The game tells you to do this, and you really, really should. Not only do you get some upgrades when you bring these crystals back to your base camp, but you’ll hopefully not have to grind much later to finish Prime 4 if you collect gems now. You need a lot before the game lets you start the final mission, and I didn’t have enough, so I had to drive around for like 30 minutes collecting more. Don’t be like me! Smash those crystals whenever you see them.

Change the morph ball jump button ASAP

©Nintendo / Kotaku

For some strange reason (and it was like this in Metroid Prime Remastered as well) Prime 4 includes two different jump buttons when you first boot it up: One for Samus in her standard human form and one for when you are in her Morph Ball form. Thankfully, after digging through some menus, you can change this to one button and I recommend doing that as soon as the game allows. Here’s a quick, handy guide on how to do that!

Mash the A button to (possibly) skip cutscenes

Metroid Prime 4 includes some fantastic cutscenes. It also contains a lot of filler-y cutscenes that you’ll see over and over again as Samus transitions to different areas. Thankfully, you can skip these. You do have to wait for the game to finish loading before you can skip these, and it doesn’t tell you when that happens. On Switch 2 at least, I found load times to be fast and got into a habit of mashing the A button during transitional cutscenes so I could end them the moment loading wrapped up.

Scan stuff and then scan more stuff!

This is a Metroid Prime game, so I probably don’t need to tell most people to scan items and enemies, but in case this is your first rodeo: Scan everything. Often, these scans can reveal clues as to how a door is open or a puzzle completed. Some enemies even contain info on how to defeat them faster.

When stuck, try everything

Prime 4 does a pretty good job of not making its puzzles too obtuse. But there were still moments where I was left scratching my head as to what to do next. When this happened, I would follow a very simple rule: Try everything, starting with the most recent ability I unlocked. Even if it seems silly to use a bomb or missile or charged blast or whatever on that lock or item, give it a shot. If you do this, you’ll likely find the solution in no time.

©Nintendo / Kotaku

Freeze enemies

While you get access to multiple elemental blasts in Prime 4, my favorite ended up being the ice shot, as it freezes most enemies in place for a few seconds, which can help a lot when you get ambushed by tough aliens. It also makes flying enemies fall out of the sky, which can be very useful in some parts of Prime 4. Oh, and make sure you use the ice shot on fire-themed enemies to quickly take them out.

Mark stuff on your map

As you explore the various levels and the desert in Prime 4, you’ll likely encounter doors you can’t open or things you can’t interact with yet until you get a specific ability. These moments aren’t a waste of time, however, as Prime 4 lets you mark these areas on your map using a few different icons. This can be very helpful when, hours later, you want to go back to that scout bot or locked door but don’t remember where it was.