There’s a lot to uncover in Metroid Dread, and your completion time can vary wildly depending on whether or not you’re looking to collect every Energy Tank, Missile Expansion, and Power Tank – those are the game’s most common collectibles, boosting Samus Aran’s health and ammo. The Metroid games also have a long history of speedrunning, and there are lots of sequence breaks (opportunities to skip parts of the game’s critical path) that can greatly cut down your time. Here’s a breakdown of the three main completion styles – you’ll likely fall into one of these.
First, the average playtime. If you’re just looking to enjoy the game, grab a few shiny things without going out of your way, and kill all the EMMI as the game requires, then your completion time likely will fall into the 8 to 9 hour range. This is at a leisurely pace.
Now if you’re looking to collect each and every pick-me-up, you’re going to be spending a lot more time backtracking. If you find everything in Artaria, Cataris, Ferenia, Burenia, Ghavoran, Elun, and Hanubia before the Raven Beak fight, then you’ll probably clock in at 10 to 12 hours. Picking up everything requires multiple visits to just about every zone, since you’ll need different power-ups to explore new sectors.
Finally, there are speedrunning completion times. By sequence breaking, you can get several abilities earlier than intended, including the Gravity Suit, Cross Bombs, Screw Attack, and many more. You can even skip the first EMMI altogether with a special glitch. This type of run ought to take you 4 to 5 hours the first time, and that can of course be reduced with practice. In fact, finishing Normal and Hard mode in under four hours each will get you special ending rewards, so aiming for a sub-four-hour run is a great goal.
