SMZ3 Low%

Notes on the concept of somewhat low% runs of Super Metroid and A Link to the Past Combo Randomizer (SMZ3).

General considerations

Every randomizer seed requires a unique set of tasks to complete; some of them more, some of them less. The first task for a low% run of any shape will be therefore to roll a seed with a good placement of items.

Much depends on if one seeks to minimize the number of collected progression items, or the in-game collection counter. The former depends above all on their placement: firstly, on if any are placed behind fetchquests that provide no other progression than access to a specific location. Secondly, progression items and dungeons should be available in an order that does not require extra items for access (e.g. we would prefer access to Misery Mire, if needed, to be through Lower Norfair and not by the Flute). Thirdly, the set of required dungeons / bosses also affects which, and how many, progression items are required. See closer notes in the section on 7/7/4 seeds, specifically.

The four typical fetchquests in Z3 are the Bottle (unlocking a check on Sick Kid), Shovel (u.a.c. at Flute Spot), Mushroom (u.a.c. at Magic Shop or, with Somaria, at Magic Bat) and Magic Powder (u.a.c. at Magic Bat). SM has no strict fetchquests, but Grapple (u.a.c. at Spring Ball) and Space Jump (u.a.c. at GTz Missiles) can be replaced in all other common uses, and thus come the closest. Speed Booster can also act as a fetchquest, uniquely unlocking checks at Crateria Supers, Waterway, Wrecked Ship Reserve and Main Street; but this will be innocuous if it is also needed for other uses.

The in-game counter is also affected by three extra variables:

1. Keys collected in dungeons from chests or as a bonk item. Those that require no such keys (SW, IP, possibly ToH) are thus preferrable to complete over those that require one (EP, SP, TT, MM) or more (2–3 in PoD, 4 in TR, possibly 2 in DP).
   • Note that keys found in pots, under rocks or from enemies do not contribute to the check counter. This is already taken advantage of by the standard routes thru SW, IP, MM and TR and comes relevant for the finer-grained routing of GT.
   • Several keys (small keys of DP, ToH, PoD, TT; big keys of ToH, SP, SW, IP) can effectively act as fetchquests.
2. Crystals / pendants / boss tokens collected. All collected in SM add a constant +1 to the collection rate. Crystals and pendants collected in Z3 are, however, not counted (as they are also not in the plain Z3 randomizer), only SM boss tokens are. Thus, it is preferrable for a seed to have its crystals (and, if required, pendants) in Z3, boss tokens in SM.
3. Bossdrops: items dropped by Z3 bosses upon defeat (Heart Containers in vanilla but, of course, randomized to be something else), which must be collected regardless of their usability.
   • Dungeon items (maps, compasses, keys) are common and completely useless. Rupees and Pieces of Heart are also numerous and nearly useless. Several other items provide at least some immediate convenience despite not being progression.
   • The most likely progression found here are ammo and energy for Super Metroid, though it may not be possible to reach all Z3 bosses without having already collected ammo for movement around SM. This is particularly likely for Power Bombs, as optimally only one pack is collected.

The highest possible reduction on collection rate comes from the last. A seed could have as many as 10 beneficial bossdrops, though given other item requirements, bossdrops in several dungeons are not preferrable to the ability to skip them entirely. The optimal case would involve seven. Even after rolling hundreds of low% seed candidates, I have however yet to run into a seed with more than 5 progression bossdrops, and the few overall best seeds I have rolled have no more than 2 or 3.

General difficulty level

SMZ3 may require relatively high ability in both games. To compensate for this, it maintains even in its Hard logic settings a lower absolute difficulty ceiling than the bare Super Metroid and bare A Link to the Past randomizers call for at their highest level settings. It may be reasonable to not demand extreme difficulty or esoteric techniques of a "low%" run of the combo randomizer either. Yet, in the randomizer context, guaranteed earlygame items may also not be forced upon the player or even easily available, creating altogether harder challenges than in typical vanilla low% runs. Moreover, presently even rolling a seed with lucky item placement could improve collection rates more than high-end performance, also showing little reason to push a particular seed as hard as possible.

I suggest here a general rule of leniency on three points in Super Metroid and two in A Link to the Past on what constitutes a "low%" run. In the best case, this adds only a single additional item in both games.

Super Metroid soft requirements

Verticality

Bombs are not guaranteed to be found anytime soon in a randomizer run, especially in SMZ3, where Power Bombs are always available somewhere in the earlygame. This means that Infinite Bomb Jump is usually not an option for accessing high up areas.

However, few rooms are commonly required to visit that pose more trouble than can be easily circumvented with walljumps. None of them strictly require extra items, but even Hard logic in SMZ3 still calls for some helpful items to be available:

• Pre-Cathedral can be climbed by a very difficult damage boost. More reasonable options are Ice Beam, Speed Booster, Hi-Jump, Space Jump and Spring Ball.
• WRITG can be climbed by a very tight walljump. More reasonable options are Ice Beam (+Charge Beam), Hi-Jump, Space Jump and Spring Ball.
• Lava Dive can be climbed by quick walljumps with good timing of i-frames. More reasonable options are Gravity and Hi-Jump.

These rooms might moreover prove optional if Ridley is not a required boss, and skipping them might be not ineffective if a verticality item can be substituted by access to DP and/or MM by the Flute. (Note that Varia Suit however likely cannot be skipped even in seeds where Lower Norfair is not required, as this would increase by 3 the number of required Energy Tanks to survive Mother Brain.)

Bombs, Space Jump or Speed Booster could be also required to access the checks at Crateria Power Bomb Room, Crocomire Escape and Pantry (the latter two also accessible by Grapple), but these are almost always not required and they can be treated as a multi-access fetchquest locations. If a suitable verticality item is not otherwise available, consider progression at these locations a point in favor of rerolling.

Red Kihunter Shaft does not strictly speaking require extra items, but making one's way back up from Ridley without Bombs and on a maximum of 5 PBs requires somewhat tedious prior farming of Dessgeegas in Wasteland for a PB drop. Out of other verticality items, Speed Booster and Spring Ball also work for this task, as do Screw Attack and X-Ray Scope. Sadly the otherwise versatile Ice Beam does not. This can be technically required by the randomizer itself even on Normal difficulty, and makes more of a consideration between different verticality options than a challenge for which an extra item might be reasonably collected.

The cross-game portal at Business Center means that ascending lower Red Tower is basically never required in SMZ3 (the only corner case is when Morph or progression towards it is at Alpha PBs). Likewise, the cross-game portal at Golden Torizo Energy Recharge means that ascending Screw Attack Room is rarely required. In a good low% seed some means to enter Lower Norfair will be available, thereby allowing skipping the Flute; and if progression is found at Screw Attack or Golden Torizo super missiles, it can be collected by exiting into Z3 and restarting at Samus' ship.

Moat

Moat might hold an unwanted item that would preferrably be skipped. This will require one of Gravity Suit, Space Jump, Grapple Beam, or a well-timed shinespark with Speed Booster (or, as a much more difficult option, a multiple Horizontal Bomb Jump).

As Grapple has few other uses, in the absense of other means, it may be faster and equally collection-rate effective to simply collect the junk item and cross Moat by Continuous Wall Jump, or also with the aid of Spring Ball or Bombs if already collected as a verticality item.

Metroids

While one pack of Power Bombs, and resetting until excellent drop luck has provided 7 more, is theoretically sufficient for making it through the Metroid rooms of upper Tourian (done in 14% xGrapple), this is extremely tedious and one other item should probably be allowed for this task.

• Gravity Suit allows backtracking to refill. Usually a required item anyway for Maridia.
• Ice Beam is the intended item for defeating Metroids and also a verticality item.
• A 2nd pack of Power Bombs cuts drop luck requirements down massively, and may be required for accessing progression items in the back of Gauntlet (in the absense of any of Bombs, Speed Booster or Screw Attack).
• Hi-Jump also allows backtracking from Tourian by underwater walljumping (cf. 14% xBoots), which may be however too challenging for the ethos of this pseudo-category. In combination with Spring Ball escape will be however relatively easy. Both are sufficient verticality items by themself. Their combination however also allows other checks, such as substantial item collection at Maridia without Gravity Suit.

Tourian

Charge Beam and 10/10 ammo suffice to defeat Mother Brain. Getting thru Mother Brain Room on this equipment requires however the 10 Missile Zebetite Kill, or one other item: either an additional ammo pack, Ice Beam, or Speed Booster. The latter two have several other applications (as noted above) and should probably be preferred.

Summary

Task	Helpful items
Pre-Cathedral
Lava Dive			★				★
Worst Room
Metroids					+ ( ★ )
Zebetites		( ★ )	( ★ )						/
Moat skip							★
canFly checks
no-farming Ridley escape

★ = Possible but not required in SMZ3 even by Hard logic.

Assuming Gravity is collected for completing Maridia, the one extra item that solves all other soft-requirements is Ice Beam. Occasionally, boss drops will force collecting a 3rd Missile pack; this solves the soft-requirement for Zebetites, in which case all of Space Jump, Hi-Jump and Spring Ball are also viable options. (In a hypothetical case of boss drops forcing instead 3 Super Missile packs, also 5/15 ammo is however itself sufficient for Mother Brain, and here a different Zebetites item could be also collected.)

In case Draygon is not a required boss and Gravity is not collected, Hi-Jump will be soft-required for accessing Ridley; this again suggests collecting Ice Beam for Tourian.

Beam rule

The adjustments above bring the general difficulty of a "low%" run to be in a ballpark below ordinary low% runs. To round things out, I follow a principle of allowing moreover one additional item for proof of concept runs: one of Plasma Beam, Wave Beam or Spazer for faster / more consistent bossfights. Allowing for Gate Glitches, none of the three are required progression items (outside of a single corner case: progression at Plasma Room prior to access to Charge Beam).

A Link to the Past soft requirements

Ganon's Tower must be climbed in all SMZ3 runs before fighting Ganon, unless this requirement is specifically disabled by the Fast Ganon setting. This is also the only dungeon in the game that has any soft requirements in progression items:

• Hookshot can be soft-required to access Stalfos Room, which can be circumvented easily by bombjumps; and is soft-required to pass Moldorm II, which can be with much more difficulty circumvented by hovering (if Boots are required) or Moldorm Bounce.
• Bow is soft-required by Mimic rooms, but this can be circumvented by mimic clip.
• Fire Rod can be soft-required to access Compass Room, which can be circumvented by a tricky bombjump. It is not required for the climb, as by alternative, Lamp has enough reach to light torches even across a 1-tile wide gap.

Only the first case comes up commonly, as Bow is hard-required by EP and/or PoD, and Fire Rod by SW, IP and/or TR. Hookshot, too, can be hard-required for SP or accessing West Dark World without overworld glitches (Hookshot Cave and accessing Misery Mire or East Death Mountain, however, can be hovered).

In terms of overall collection rate, the Herapot clip uses the Hookshot to skip the Big Key in Tower of Hera, and makes it therefore usually a free pickup (especially since, given its otherwise low requirements, ToH is one of the optimal dungeons to finish).

The absolute minimal Ganon fight equipment is nothing but Master Sword + Fire Rod, but this is an abstrusely hard fight in its last section (requiring one-shot Torch Glitch and basically perfect timing of silverless hits). Probably at least one item of lenience should be granted here. Any one of the following items works, ranging from the greatest aid to the least:

• Silver Arrows trivializes the last leg of the Ganon fight and also a number of bosses.
• Lamp adds 4× leniency to the fight and is available in ~all vanilla runs. Aids also greatly in making it thru the dark rooms of PoD and MM on low hearts, helpful also in EP and TR. May be required in a seed, e.g. if DP must be completed before access to Fire Rod.
• Tempered Sword adds about 2× leniency to the fight and speeds up the early parts. Aids also greatly on almost all boss fights and enemy gauntlets.
• Bottle adds 2× leniency to the fight and also allows healing one firebat hit. May be required in a seed as a fetchquest. Generally helpful thruout the game.
• Half Magic adds 2× leniency to the fight. Helpful also on harder bosses vulnerable to magic.

All goals

The following 15 items are required already for defeating Ganon, and accessing and defeating Mother Brain. Without recourse to major glitches, they must be always collected:

• Fighter's Sword, Master Sword, Moon Pearl, and one of {Fire Rod, Lamp} (a firesource).
• Morph, Varia Suit, Charge Beam; 3 energy+reserve tanks, 2 Missile packs, 2 Super packs; and one of {Ice Beam, Power Bombs}.

If Power Bombs are collected for killing Metroids, also Kraid, Phantoon and Ridley can be defeated. (This will constitute the basic 11-item core of typical SM low% categories.)

Accessing the Dark World without major glitches will require at least two additional pickups, the simplest kits being:

• Power Glove + one of {Titan's Mitt, Hammer}. — This grants the ability to complete TT and, if Fire Rod is collected as the firesource, SW.
• The two Agahnim's Tower keys. — The lowest progression items option, but unhelpful towards completing any dungeons.
• Gravity, Power Bombs and one of {Ice Beam, Speed Booster}. — This grants the ability to defeat Draygon, as well as provides a Zebetite skip option and a Lava Dive convenience option. (The kit contains a Metroid item and is thus two extra pickups, not three.)

7/7/4

The standard SMZ3 mode requires collecting 7 crystals and 4 boss tokens, but not necessarily the 3 pendants, and ascending Ganon's Tower.

The following 18 items must be always collected:

• Fighter's Sword, Master Sword, Power Glove, Titan's Mitt, Moon Pearl
• One of {Mirror, Hookshot}.
• One of {Fire Rod, Lamp}. The latter is an option only if SW and TR are pendants, and either IP also is, or Bombos is required.
• Morph, Varia Suit, Charge Beam; 3 energy+reserve tanks, 10/10/5 ammo.

Six dungeons / bosses can be defeated by some form of this kit alone (ToH, SW, TT; Kraid, Phantoon, Ridley). Others require further items, sorted here by increasing requirements, separated into progression items and keys:

• (+1) Draygon: Gravity Suit. (Other low% SM options will not be considered here for the time being.)
• (+1) IP: Hammer, (Fire Rod).
• (+1 + 1) EP: Bow; Big Key
• (+0-2 + 1-2) DP: Mirror or Book of Mudora; Big Key. Possibly Boots and/or small key
• (+2 + 1) SP: Flippers, Mirror and Hookshot; small key
• (+2 + 2–4) PoD: Hammer, Bow; ≥1 small key, Big Key
• (+2–3 + 1) MM: Medallion, Somaria, Hookshot or Boots; Big Key
• (+4 + 4) TR: Hammer, Medallion, Somaria, Ice Rod, (Fire Rod); 3 small keys, Big Key

Since the Bow and Hammer will be used in multiple dungeons, the optimal pendant layout by progression item count is {SP MM TR}, calling for perhaps as few as 18+3 progression items, if GT can be climbed without Hookshot. By collection rate the layout {PoD MM TR} is almost as good (18+5 in progression items); however almost any layout with pendant TR and at least one pendant among the seven others listed here could have chances at a good collection rate if other variables align.

All Dungeons

The following 26 items must be always collected:

• Fighter's Sword, Master Sword, Power Glove, Titan's Mitt, Zora's Flippers, Moon Pearl.
• Bow, Hookshot, Fire Rod, Ice Rod, Magic Hammer, Cane of Somaria, Magic Mirror.
• At least one of the medallions.
• Morph, Varia Suit, Gravity Suit, Charge Beam; 3 energy+reserve tanks, 10/10/5 ammo.

For a low progression item count, the only real considerations are thus the random medallion requirements for MM and TR (i.e. preferrably the same one), and the accessibility of progression items. Book of Mudora is demoted to strictly a fetchquest item; though such a fetchquest could include, besides the tablets, now also Mirror or Varia in or locked by DP.

7/5/3 Fast Ganon

The usual Community Seed fast format guarantees the possibility of skipping GT, and allows skipping up to 6 bosses / dungeons (the 3 pendants + 2 crystals + 1 SM boss token). The following appear to be promising sets of skippable bosses / dungeons to look for:

• {DP, PoD, SP, IP, MM, TR}
  • 5 required extra items, 2 keys required, 4 bossdrops in Z3 max. Best option in overall pickups.
  • Requires: Bow, Hookshot, Power Bombs, Gravity. All of Hammer, Glove and Mitts skipped, with DW access thru Maridia.
  • Requires one of: {Ice Beam, Speed Booster}. Will soft-require a WRITG item if the latter is taken.
  • Substituting Bow by Mirror allows doing DP gloveless and skipping EP instead.
  • Substituting Hookshot by Mirror does not work: it is needed here also for accessing SW/TT!
• {Ridley, DP, SP, IP, MM, TR}
  • 6 required extra items, ≥4 keys required, 5 bossdrops in Z3 max.
  • Requires: Bow, Hookshot, Hammer, Power Bombs, Gravity, Ice Beam. Glove and Mitts skipped, with DW access thru Maridia.
  • Almost strictly worse than the previous, but perhaps easier, with Lower Norfair not required.
• {Ridley, EP, PoD, SP, MM, TR}
  • 7 required extra items, ≥3 keys required, 5 bossdrops in Z3 max.
  • Requires: Hammer, Mirror, Glove, Mitts, Power Bombs, Gravity, Ice Beam. Both Bow dungeons skipped.
  • DP may prove to be bootslocked.
  • A keys → progression items tradeoff compared to the previous. A 8+2 option would swap ToH Big Key for Hookshot.
• {Phantoon, Draygon, Ridley, SP, MM, TR}
  • 7 required extra items, 7 bossdrops in Z3 max. Theoretical best option in count of progression items, but very unlikely to roll.
  • Requires: Bow, Hammer, Glove, Mitts, Mudora, Hookshot(/Mirror), Power Bombs. Gravity Suit skipped.
  • Would soft-require a Zebetites item and a Metroids convenience item.

Abbreviations

Given my choice of wiki to write this on, for the benefit of the Super Metroid players less familiar with A Link to the Past.

Dungeons

Light World HC: Hyrule Castle EP: Eastern Palace DP: Desert Palace ToH: Tower of Hera AT: Agahnim's Tower

Dark World   – before Mitts PoD: Palace of Darkness SP: Swamp Palace SW: Skull Woods TT: Thieves' Town

Dark World   – after Mitts IP: Ice Palace MM: Misery Mire TR: Turtle Rock GT: Ganon's Tower

Bolded are the crystal / pendant dungeons most affected in discussion above.

Note that "GT" does not refer to Golden Torizo, an initialism collision known to cause minor confusion in the SMZ3 player community. I prefer amending the abbreviation for the latter to "GTz". (Other options have been suggested, e.g. "BB", short for "Big Bird".)