Getting Through Maridia Without Losing Your Mind
Maridia is the worst area in Super Metroid. It is long, it is waterlogged, and the layout will absolutely waste your time if you go in blind. I spent six hours the first time around because I kept running into walls that weren't meant to be run into. Here is how I actually get through it. Start from Kraid's lair after you get the Gravity Suit. Head south from the elevator, past the first stretch of aqua fish enemies, and don't bother trying to memorize the whole map. Just focus on where the key items are. The Spazer beam is your first real goal, sitting behind a wall that requires Missiles to break. You will need about 20 Missiles just for that section alone, so stock up at the Save Station before you enter. Once you have the Spazer, head east toward the Mother Brain corridor. The area between Spazer and the Wave Beam is where most people die. There is a long open stretch with Reo fish patrolling, and the camera angle makes it nearly impossible to judge their timing. I learned to run through this section with a single Super Missile loaded, firing it only when a Reo fish aligns perfectly with Samus's sprite. Miss one shot and you are restarting from the Save Station. This took me four attempts across two days.
The Wave Beam itself is guarded by a sequence break opportunity. You can actually bypass a significant portion of Maridia by bombing into a specific wall near the Kraid entrance after getting the Space Jump. This cuts roughly 40 minutes off your run, but it requires precise positioning. Bomb, jump, repeat until you clip through. If you miss the timing, you just fall back into the main path and keep going normally. After the Wave Beam, head to the upper area where the Etecoons live. There is a hidden passage behind the ceiling bricks that leads to the Spring Ball. I wasted an entire evening looking for this because the game never warns you it exists. The trick is to shoot the brick near the leftmost Etecoon while jumping. It opens a small gap that looks like it goes nowhere, but if you Spring Ball through it, you land in a secret room with the upgrade. The final stretch toward Mother Brain goes through a gauntlet of Waver enemies. These are the fish that shoot lasers while swimming through walls. The pattern is consistent: they always fire two shots, pause for half a second, then move. I found that standing still and shooting back while they reload works better than dodging. Your Speed Booster will save your life here if you have it. If you do not have Speed Booster yet, use the Grapple Beam to kite them from a distance. This is honestly the easiest way through that section.
One thing nobody tells you: the save station right before Mother Brain is also the point where you should manually save and quit. I ran through this area without saving once and got soft-locked into a warship room because of a misfire. Had to restart from the very beginning of Maridia. It happens. If you are speedrunning, skip the Etecoon room entirely. The path through is longer but the enemies there are dead, and you lose maybe thirty seconds by ignoring the Spring Ball. It is not worth the detour. There is no easy way to describe Maridia. It is what it is. Good luck.
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