Artaria and Cataris - Obtain the Screw Attack - Metroid Dread Guide - IGN (2024)

Welcome to IGN's walkthrough for Metroid Dread. This page features information on your fourth exploration of a frozen Artaria Region, as well as the third main exploration of an equally frozen Cataris Region including how to navigate the frozen terrain, defeat the boss causing the deep freeze, and locating the Screw Attack.

Explore Frozen Artaria

Video Guide: Obtain the Screw Attack

As you enter Artaria, you’ll see firsthand what ADAM warned you about, and looking at your map confirms it: Most of this zone is now awash in a frozen landscape, which as also unfortunately frozen solid many bodies of water, as well as several doors and shutters - which will severely limit exploration in this and other regions.

Move to the right from the elevator into a freezing room and walk across the platform until it tilts to trap you on the right side.

Drop down the pit to find a Total Recharge Station, and roll along the frozen water to the left before jumping up and over the ledge to a lower tunnel leading frustratingly close to the Chozo Item Sphere beyond the frozen pool.

Since you can’t get it yet, you’ll just have to keep looking for a way to bring the heat back to Planet ZDR. Head up the chamber and through the right door, and then down a long pit leading to…

Boss Battle - Chozo Soldier

This Red Chozo Soldier armored warrior is similar to the entity you fought in Elun, but with an added shield to thwart your attacks. It will still slowly advance before doing a twirl and jab - giving you a briefer window to fire and dash past it, but you’ll need to be careful and precise with your attacks.

If you notice a brief white flash, you’ll have a quick moment to stun the boss with a counter swipe before it can launch a massive shield bash, so try to do so at every opportunity, as getting the melee attack off before the bash will destroy the Chozo Soldier’s shield, making the first half of this fight much easier.

With its shield splintered and enough damage done, the X Parasite will reveal itself, and again present new and old tactics. It will attack with faster jabs, and can either slam the middle of the arena with a stab sending shockwaves, or can target your location directly.

Another new tactic will have the infected Chozo Soldier stay on the walls and let loose a screech before firing a dark beam of energy from its mouth at your anticipated location. It can do this several times, and you may need to be quick with the dodges, Flash Shifts, and space jumps to remain airborne. If you manage to drop to the ground while it aims high, unload your missiles on it while it’s busy, and slide forward to get under its next beam to keep the damage going.

Prioritize evasive maneuvers to dodge its black beam attacks and look for a way to get under them to get off enough shots, you should eventually trigger the familiar cutscene to counter its stab and jumping slash attack to finish it off for good.

Reach the Network Station

You can now head right from the boss room to enter a familiar cave system leading to the first cold room you experienced in Artaria. If you didn’t brave that room to explore this cave earlier, you can find an Energy Part Tank on the ledge as you enter.

Continue after grabbing it and watch for the acid mist burrowing creatures as you make your way into the original cold room.

Warning: Do not use Ice Missiles on the winged icy creatures the X Parasites have infected. Hitting them with too many missiles will trigger an overload of their ice-infused body and cause them to release a massive cold explosion, dealing sustained damage even to your Varia Suit. Focus on counter attacking or using your Plasma Beam from a distance instead!

Now that you’re back in familiar territory, you’ll find that many doors, like the ones going below, are frozen solid, so you’ll instead travel the top path past the Energy and Missile Recharge Stations to reach the Network Station.

ADAM will have located the problem with the cold - the thermal control stations that pump heat in from Cataris have been interrupted, so you’ll need to make your way up to Cataris to put a stop to all this.

Locate the Boss

With most doors being frozen, you’ll only have one route to take upwards back towards the familiar region, just be sure to advance cautiously to deal with all the X-Parasite creatures lurking these frozen halls.

You won’t be able to enter the EMMI Zone in this state, so focus on getting back to the tall room leading to where you fought the first EMMI, and space jump up through a hole on the left. From this side, you can continue your ascent and stop by the Save Station if you need to.

Luckily, you’ll find that as you continue that the Sensor Doors have frozen over so you won’t need to engage the Phantom Cloak at all. Passing the room where you fought Corpius, don’t stray too far left or you’ll have to tangle with one of those giant armored insects down the long hallway.

Keep moving up into the entryway to Cataris and deal with all the winged creatures you find - and note the long tube tunnel no longer shows magma being dispersed across the region. Luckily, the elevator still works, so take it up to the region above.

Back in Cataris, you’ll find it's just as frozen as Artaria, blocking most paths for you. Take the left path down to the Network Station and a new boss door, and look for a Morph Ball Launcher nearby to send you into the large windowed chamber you’ve passed through before. This time however…

Boss Battle - Experiment No Z-57

A large mutated creature similar to the one you saw a corpse of being zapped in Dairon has been responsible for gumming up the Thermal power here, and its as big as it is angry. It can deal incredible damage as you might expect, and the key to survival will be knowing how to bypass its many attacks, before aiming your missiles directly at its head to deal damage.

The attack you should most often expect is when its grabs onto both sides of the arena and begins to emit a huge plasma beam across the length of the floor. The beam is incredibly powerful and you won’t be able to Shift Flash through it - but it does have one weakness.

It won’t be able to cover the entire room in one burst, and will pause before continuing the stream. The moment it stops, look along the floor for a section that’s not covered in damaging plasma, and jump or Flash Shift over to the safe spot before it can continue firing - and unleash a salvo of missiles.

The point where it stops, and which point of the floor is always random, but it will always leave at least one small piece of untouched floor for you to safely land on and fire back.

When Z-57 pulls its head back and leaves one arm along the center of the floor with another pulled back in the corner, run to the opposite side of the room from the raised arm and jump to the top corner to avoid its arcing swipe attack- leaving only the opposite upper corner safe for you - and then quickly space jump over to the other side before its second slash comes from the other angle.

Maintaining your space jump is key to several parts of this fight, as entire sections of the arena can become danger zones quickly, so always be ready to take a spinning jump and keep to the air to stay out of harm’s way.

There is one other important attack to watch out for - when Experiment Z-57 pulls into the bottom left corner of the room, draping one arm along the floor, before starting a long beam attack that angles upward and slowly angles to the bottom of the room. The safe spot to stand here is right next to its arm along the floor, just under its mouth.

The moment Z-57 finishes its long blast along the entire room, it will stop before reaching you, but then rear back it’s head to snap at you - only if you’ve remained under where its head was. This is your one chance to counter melee attack its face, and trigger a cutscene to unload a ton of missiles at it - and even more when it starts rampaging around the top of the machine outside.

Upon reaching a second phase of the encounter, Experiment Z-57 will hang back and launch four appendages at specific points along the walls and ceilings. It will start to siphon power and glow pink, before targeting you with a direct burst of energy. You can see when it prepares to attack by the circle that pings your location, but once it flashes the circle won’t move for a few moments before the attack hits, giving you time to get away.

During this time, hold down your missile trigger and begin the process for targeting each appendage for a Storm Missile Salvo - but remember to keep strafing as you do so to avoid getting hit by the direct blasts. Once you hit enough of its appendages with your missile tirade to knock them down, it will stop charging blasts.

The most annoying of attacks to deal with will come after, as it unleashes a wave of force to keep you pinned against the left wall. Keep running right, and watch for projectile waves to come at you like walls in some sort of demented Flappy Bird minigame. Using your space jump, you’ll need to keep moving right to jump just enough to clear the projectile waves.

Seeing what waves are coming is extremely important to your survival, as is timing your jump, as you’ll either need to stay in the air to clear multiple hurdles, or go back to running in between bursts to time single jumps over the projectiles. When you see a large wall with only a tiny hole in the middle, line up as best you can with a jump and Flash Shift through the opening to survive.

Be ready for Z-57 to follow this up with more side swipes that take up most of the room, but will be followed by a two-clawed swipe from both sides that only leave a safe spot at the top middle section of the room. Again, mastering your space jump technique is imperative to survive this fight.

As long as you look for opportunities to blast its face when dodging the plasma beams, and getting close to it to trigger a counter attack, you’ll have a lot of chances to deal damage if you are patient, and focus on dodging his attacks first, then countering.

When the battle finally ends, the experiment gone awry will crash into the magma below, and Samus will be able restart the Thermal Transfer station, bringing some heat back to the regions affected by the sudden cold climate.

You’ll now have the opportunity to do some much-needed backtracking through Cataris with your new upgrades in the restored climate, or you can seek out the Blue Teleportal to quickly get back to the upgrade that was previously out of reach.

Backtracking for Tanks

The way to the left of the room you fought the Experiment in is annoyingly sealed, but you can still visit most of the rest of Cataris to find a slew of collectibles you may have missed if you haven’t stopped by here since defeating Kraid. They include the following items:

Get the Screw Attack

Once you’re done with Cataris, head all the way right through the EMMI Zone and into the magma room to the right of the elevator to Artaria to find the Blue Teleportal on the other side of a magma pool.

This will take you right back to Artaria in a room just above the Item Sphere. Grapple Beam the block to the right and move down to the room below and fall into the pit, and you’ll find the Screw Attack.

This new ability enhances your spin jump and space jump to damage enemies and cut through Screw Attack Blocks like butter - many of which are in this room.

If you want to take even more advantage of your new ability, there are a few more secrets in Artaria to collect with your new abilities and the recently thawed rooms.

After you’ve gotten all the upgrades you need, you can explore previous regions with your newfound upgrades, or head back to Burenia and then onto Ghavoran.