Cataris - Reach the Dairon Shuttle - Metroid Dread Guide - IGN (2024)

Welcome to IGN's walkthrough for Metroid Dread. This page features information on exploring the second region, Cataris, including how to find the Network Stations, and redirecting all the Thermal Flow vents, and finding a shuttle to the next region, Dairon.

Find the Cataris Network Station

Video Guide: Reaching the Dairon Shuttle

Entering Cataris from Artaria, you start to get Norfair vibes -- this will be a hot zone, and that means plenty of rooms that will boil you alive.

Taking the door to the right of the elevator will lead to a large tunnel with various enemies - including a new type of robot that rolls back and forth until it senses your presence, before slamming the ground to create jets of magma you’ll need to dodge. It’s better to shoot them at a distance with your Missiles or Charged Shots.

Both doors up here lead to extreme heat rooms with pools of magma -- effectively stopping your progress. Luckily, you can head back to the elevator room to check the left wall, and spot more passageways beyond. Shoot the wall to reveal the fake walls and keep moving left -- while countering anything that jumps out at you.

Down below, there are jets of flame shooting out from two spider rails, so time your descent carefully. There’s more jets below, and on the platform under that, another robot you’ll want to aim at from the ledge next to the flame jets.

Work your way slowly down until you spot a door on the left, and you’ll find the Network Station to update your progress to ADAM. While your objective is still to get topside, you’ll need to find a way around the hot zones without getting cooked, and avoid any more EMMI you run into.

Redirect the First Thermal Flow

Exiting to the left, you’ll see a small tunnel above you can’t reach, so make your way down instead and bypass the first door on the right. Watch out for the strange tentacle creature on the wall as you drop down - it’ll lunge at you quickly and only give a short window to counter and destroy it.

Off to the right, you may notice another thermal tube device waiting for you, and it seems to be routed to open the bottom right door while keeping the bottom left locked.

Head right into the next room, and watch for the creature above. Go through the higher door to redirect the flow of thermal fuel to the other side - but doing so will lock the door you came through earlier.

Find the Cataris EMMI Zone

In order to get out of here, fire at the bottom right section of the wall in the next room, and slide over to reach the Total Recharge Station. You won’t be able to reach the Missile Tank in the next room, but you can fire upwards to hit the pulsing mass to explode the ceiling and get back into the room on the left.

Now you’ll be able to head down to the bottom and through a long corridor to the left that puts you in a large windowed room with three winged creatures you’ll want to counter in succession. Over on the far left, a button has been activated to send a small Spider Rail line upwards, so take it up to the next area.

Watch for the patrolling robots and stay at a distance to unload missiles on them. Even the one that patrols the ceiling can send plumes all the way down, and is best attacked from the lower platform. Once you reach the top, you’ll find another moving Spider Rail line to take up a long slope - either get ready to quickly blast or counter the flying creatures, or take initiative and destroy the robot below in case you fall down.

At the top of the ride, there’s a door leading to a lava room - ignore it for now and head left, watching for the fast moving tentacle creatures flying out of the walls. The door at the end here also leads to a large lava room, so instead look under the doorway for a pulsing mass you can explode to slide through a hole into a lower room.

Slide through the next hole on the left and through a long tunnel as you enjoy the sights below. You’ll end up in a long shaft with a strange blue locked door in front of you, so move upwards instead and carefully deal with these new volcano-like creatures that run along the walls spewing orbs of magma.

When you reach the top, you’ll find an entrance to the EMMI Zone for Cataris, and we all know what waits beyond those doors. Before heading in, climb down to a lower level and look for a pulsing mass along the right wall to shoot and reveal another door to a magma room, but save that place for later.

Redirect the Second Thermal Flow

Entering the EMMI Zone, you’ll come face to face with the green E.M.M.I. 03MB (EMMI 3), which will leave via a small vent - showing unlike previous EMMI’s, it can move through certain small corridors.

You’ll want to be very careful here, and remember your Phantom Cloak basics to use at the right time:

You’ll hear the EMMI before you see it, with its little chirping noise. When your minimap starts pinging and your controller vibrates, it will soon start to sense your movement, and move towards your last known location. If you cloak before it can spot and target you, things will get easier - just be sure to stay out of its patrol route.

Moving into the next room, it will start to come back, so try and stay low and use the Spider Rails on the ceiling to stay out of its way, tiling up to hug the ceiling when it moves below you. Once it starts to head into a vent, dash up stairs and move right into the next area.

Quickly drop down and wait for it to move into the previous room before going to the bottom floor, and open the door on the left to get a quick path back if you need it, then continue right.

In the next room, walking through the shutter will seal it behind you for a few moments, giving you temporary respite if you’re being chased. Use the Spider Rails to stay out of detection along the ceiling as you make your way up - but a sealed Thermal Door blocks your route out of the EMMI Zone.

Head left instead and follow the inert pipeline before moving up - being wary of the vents nearby that the EMMI can pop out of. Climb up to the top, and exit the EMMI Zone on the right.

There’s another device here that will redirect the Thermal Flow to the first sealed door you found in the EMMI Zone, but it’s only one of two locked Thermal Doors you’ve encountered recently, so you’ll need to do some more exploring.

Before heading back, keep going right to find a Save Station, and check the next room for an Energy Recharge Station and a long path upwards leading to a sealed door, and a Spider Magnet Rail leading up to a ceiling you can shoot out to a door leading to a magma room.

Redirect the Third Thermal Flow

Head back into the EMMI Zone and carefully make your way back towards the first Thermal Door by following the glowing pipeline. Keep an ear out for the chirping EMMI 3, and be ready to jump to a spider rail and cloak if needed.

Escaping the EMMI Zone again through the newly opened gate, you’ll find another tunnel with centipede-like creatures leading to two doors - the one the thermal vent leads to a hot zone you can’t get far into, so take the door above.

Quickly move forward to use the Spider Rails to take out the robot moving around the ground from above - but you’ll find the rails don’t help you move upwards, as they seem unpowered. Instead, keep moving right into the next room, where you’ll find a Sensor Door leading into a small room with the interactive switch you can use.

With the Spider Magnet Rails active, return to the tall shaft room and take the rails upwards. There will be a fork in the shaft, and riding up on the right will take you to a wall you can destroy to find a blue locked door, while the left leads to a shortcut back to the Save Station, and an upper Sensor door.

Keep moving up to the next room on the left, and you’ll find the next Thermal Flow valve to redirect. This will unlock the other thermal gate back in the EMMI Zone nearby.

Reach the Next Network Station

Head back down and use the Save Station before re-entering the EMMI Zone, where the thermal gate on the left side will now open for you. There’s a door nearby that will lead back out again to a room with inactive Magnet Rails, so you’ll need to find a way to power them up so you can proceed.

Return to the EMMI Zone and head lower to a bottom left door. Slide through the hole, and you’ll find a rectangular room that can be used to give EMMI the slip if needed. As you enter the next room on the left, a pressure plate will lock you in, at least for a moment until you stand away or jump to the ceiling. Wait until the EMMI isn’t close enough to track you, and start shooting the walls to keep moving left until you can reach a larger room, and carefully make your way down to a Sensor Door.

Before going through the door, check the right side of the room for a slope leading down to a small alcove, and shoot a pulsing mass in the bottom right corner to create a shortcut down to the lower EMMI Zone door, then ride the magnet rail from the right side back to the Sensor Door.

Head through the corridors until you reach a door with a pressure plate on the other side, and carefully make your way up the shaft - making sure the EMMI isn’t present above you when doing so. Hop over to the other side and use the magnet rails along the wall and ceiling to keep out of the EMMI’s way until you can drop down to exit the EMMI Zone.

You’ll come out into a large area with a strange looking creature statue looking straight at you. There are small holes under it and above the EMMI Zone door, but as you can’t fit through them, hop over the statue and head into the narrow corridor, watching out for tunneling worms in the next room.

In the next large area, ignore the station below you and move upwards, taking out winged creatures until you spot two moving magnet rails above. Be sure to hit the right wall where a pulsing mass is to create a hole - but don’t enter it yet, since it’s a very large magma-filled cavern.

Take the top magnet rail to the left and then jump down to hit the other magnet against the left wall and ride it upwards. Then, carefully move up the sloping cavern taking out the centipede creatures until you reach the door to another Network Station.

You’ll learn from ADAM that while your initial objectives called for the investigation of this planet, you should take the opportunity to destroy every EMMI you come across, but even with all of your upgrades, you’ll still only be able to get rid of them using the Omega Cannon.

Find the Cataris Map Room

Leaving the Network Station behind, you can fight off the rocky creature in the room below using quick missile bursts whenever it stops to fire its magma blast. There’s a small pulsating mass in the wall nearby you can shoot out to reveal a room, but you won’t be able to survive in there long enough to get at the Missile Tank.

Instead, head once more into the EMMI Zone, and carefully use the ceiling magnets to avoid goins near any of the vents and valves the EMMI can appear from. You’ll need to move carefully and slowly, waiting for the telltale chip of the approaching robot to know when to hold still, and when to cloak if it gets too close.

Just keep moving to the right until you can get some distance on the robot, and dash over to the Map Room. Judging by the map, you’re getting pretty close to the Central Unit for this EMMI Zone, which is what you’ll need to get rid of this region’s robot for good.

Redirect the Fourth Thermal Flow

Exit the Map Room to the right to find the other side of the tall room with the unpowered magnet rails, but luckily you’ll be on the side you need to be. Head up the other opening closest to the door and take a left to re-enter the EMMI Zone.

You’ll be in a very tall room, with a tunnel at the bottom the EMMI will likely appear from, so use the magnet rail on the right to stay out of the way before it moves on. Make sure it goes back in the tunnel before moving up to the nearest door - which has three locking mechanisms you can’t seem to break, and take the moving magnet rail above to rocket up to the door above, leaving the EMMI Zone behind for the moment.

The next room features a robot guarding another three-pronged door, so you’ll need to slide along the bottom and dodge flame vents to keep moving onwards to the end of the room. You’ll end up in a hall between fiery rooms, where an Energy Part and Energy Tank are waiting just out of reach. Head downwards instead to slide under flame vents and activate the magnet rails in the room below - which will also drain the magma around you!

To reach the now cooled rooms around you, you’ll have to do a bit of backtracking up and all the way left back into the EMMI Zone, down the tall room and right into the now powered up magnet rail room. Take the rails up and over to the right, and then dip through the EMMI Zone to get to the Save Station room.

Head up to the top of the next room and blast through the beam block ceiling to enter through the Charge Beam Door.

At the beginning of the cooled down room formerly full of magma, look above you for a magnet rail attached to a block next to the Thermal Power platform you used to redirect power earlier, and hang onto the magnet to lower the block.

Now you can backtrack a bit more by heading right, and up to the Sensor Door, and reach the Thermal Power device you already used, which now has a new path forward.

Moving on past another rock creature, you’ll find a room with a Total Recharge Station on the right, and a path to the next Thermal Power station to redirect the flow onwards, creating a new path to your left.

Exit Cataris Via the Shuttle

The room beyond leads back to the large facility room with the three-pronged door you can’t use, but now you can jump above it and find a new room going up. This large room is full of winged creatures and stinkbugs tossing goop at you, and you’ll have to take the long looping path to the right.

When you reach the top, there’s a secret along the ceiling you can’t break through just yet, so keep moving left at this point and watch for the tentacle creatures along the walls that will quickly jump out at you. Once you reach the other end of the room, you can drop down to find the exit (and a secret one way shortcut back by blasting the block along the bottom right wall).

You’ll now find yourself at the Cataris Shuttle, which will take you out of this region and onto the next, Dairon, where there's a brand new ability to locate.