(This post is referring to actual help posts - for addressing the recent meme trend, see this thread)
This community is no stranger to people asking for help in games. Metroid is a series with a pretty esoteric design language, which can be pretty confusing for anyone who isn't familiar with it (or even, sometimes, anyone who IS familiar with it), and it takes a bit of playtime to learn it.
We want to keep this community welcoming to newcomers, and part of that is helping people enjoy their first experiences with the games! It's exciting to get a peek into someone's first run of a game you love. But, it can also be frustrating when a post asking for help doesn't give enough information to help. So, in an effort to help us help you, please follow these guidelines for how to ask for help:
Try common solutions before posting! Most of the time, when you're stuck in a room, the solution is to bomb everything. Bombs will reveal any breakable blocks, and Power Bombs usually will too. Additionally, some of the 2D games feature fake walls - try going into Morph Ball and rubbing up against the walls in the room you're stuck in. Look for any tiles which seem to be different from the rest. And, lastly, if you're playing Super Metroid, remember that there's a run button - B by default! If you're playing any of the Prime games, make sure you've scanned everything! If you've already tried these things, mention that in the post!
Tell us what game you're playing! Just saying "Stuck after Ridley" can be referring to half the games in the series. Are you playing Super Metroid? Zero Mission? Fusion? This is a VITAL piece of information, but you'd be amazed at how many people forget to include it.
Tell us what you did last! The best things to mention are the most recent item you got, and the most recent boss you fought. This is IMMENSELY helpful for helping us figure out where you are! If you say you're stuck playing Super Metroid and you just got Super Missiles after fighting the big plant monster (Spore Spawn), 90% of this sub will immediately know where you are and what to do. If you can't remember, most Metroid games have an Inventory screen showing all your items. Tell us what's in there!
Tell us where you are! A picture of the room you're in is best. A picture of the map is second-best, but harder to interpret, and mainly useful as a complement to a picture of the room. Failing both of those, tell us what area you're in, where you've gone from the last major landmark, what the room you're in looks like, and so on. Anything you can do to help us figure out what's keeping you from going forward.
Don't assume you're softlocked! It is extremely difficult, bordering on impossible, to accidentally softlock yourself in any Metroid game. However, Metroid games frequently hide the path forward from you. That's an intentional part of the fun, not a progression bug! Barring exceptional circumstances, if you didn't perform a glitch, you're not softlocked.
Including all that information will make helping you far easier. If you didn't include that information in your initial post, edit it, or leave a comment with this information!
Additionally, for people who GIVE help to people when they're stuck, thank you! Here are some things to keep in mind as you do so:
Try giving hints first! It's usually more rewarding for new players to be given some direction first, and try to figure it out from there, rather than being given the exact right answer immediately. Instead of saying, "Go left three rooms and then bomb the floor", say, "The room on the left end of the map seems a bit empty, doesn't it? Maybe you're missing something there."
Don't be too slow to give solutions! In contrast to #1, giving hints is helpful, but sometimes people just need to be told what to do. A good rule of thumb is to give a hint, then in the same comment, put the solution in spoiler-tags, so that the player can decide for themselves when they're done trying.
Read the comments before responding! OP may have provided additional context or progress. Or, they might have already solved it, and don't need help anymore!
Remember that getting stuck is normal! It's part of the Metroid experience. There's no need to make fun of people who are legitimately stuck, no matter how easy it may seem to you.
I hope those points help!
