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Phazon

In General

The Great Poison

Debut: Metroid Prime

"…Darkness coming."

—Aurora Unit 313

Initially thought to be a strange yet exploitable energy source, Phazon is really a lifeform in itself. It spawns as living meteors known as Leviathans from its parent planet, called Phaaze, slowly swallowing all life and corrupting the planet so the cycle can repeat. It is the antagonistic force driving the plot of the Prime trilogy.

Applied Phlebotinum: It's a mutagenic substance that the Space Pirates exploit for a power-up. Samus herself gets to experience its potential during the final battle against Metroid Prime in the eponymous game then goes whole-hog and uses it for her own power source by 3 (not by choice but it has its upsides).
Artistic License – Nuclear Physics: Phazon, a highly radioactive, nearly uncontrollable substance that may possibly be alive, originating from a supposedly sentient planet, is attempting to spread everywhere and it's supposedly stable.
Big Eater: It usually kills most organisms then absorbs the body, turning the corpse into Phazon. Fitting, considering its status as The Corruption.
Cradle: "It eats relentlessly, worming out life wherever it blooms and corrupting what it cannot kill."
The Corruption: Phazon usually prefers to kill and absorb weaker beings, but if the victim is strong enough, it is instead mutated and becomes an agent of Phazon.
Digital Abomination: Shortly before the events of Prime 3, the Pirates used the corrupted AU 313 to somehow create a Phazon computer virus and infected the Aurora network.
Fungus Humongous: There are some giant mushrooms that seem very heavily saturated with Phazon.
Green Rocks: Phazon has quite a diverse range of uses: mutating plants and wildlife, being weaponized, driving creatures and several major characters insane, etc.
Law of Chromatic Superiority: Though most Phazon encountered in the game is blue, there are strains of "Red Phazon" found occasionally, stated to be far more potent and dangerous than the blue stuff. A batch with an orange tint serves as a hazard in the Impact Crater in the first game, and in the third game the Pirate Commander is outfitted in Red Phazite armor, which proves much more durable than the standard blue Phazite.
Killed Off for Real: A very definitive example, all Phazon died with Dark Samus and Phaaze.
Nonstandard Game Over: When Samus spends too much time in Hypermode, the Phazon will corrupt her and turn her into a replica of Dark Samus.
No Ontological Inertia: Due to the fact that Dark Samus (and later Aurora Unit 313) hijacked Phaaze and all Phazon, once Samus defeats the two in a final duel, all Phazon died with it.
Psycho Serum: Phazon tends to drive its infectees insane if it does not kill them.
Scenery Gorn/Scenery Porn: In the midst of Phazon twisting environments into strange forms, it does make things very pleasant to look at.
Sentient Phlebotinum: It seems to be more self aware than grass, but does not seem to be particularly intelligent.
Takes One to Kill One: Even the toughest of Phazon structures and mutations can still be hurt by Phazon-based weapons.
Toxic Phlebotinum:
- Everything it doesn't kill, it turns into a violent killing machine, usually with a shortened lifespan. The space pirates discovered a strain that could be integrated into an organism's DNA via retrovirus, to give it a higher tolerance to the substance, but it still only worked in one case. Three if you count Samus and Metroid Prime.
- If you break canisters of Phazon around Ing, they die. The Ing and the toxic alternate dimension they live in are a byproduct of Phazon hitting the original planet, and they still can't take it! The only being on all of Aether that does survive it is the Emperor Ing, who proceeds to hoard it, but still ends up losing its mind. It's possible this is why the Ing are so violent.
Uniqueness Decay: Phazon is a new substance in the first two games, with the Space Pirates going to great lengths to secure sources; in the third game, you can't walk two feet without bumping into Phazon or something that runs on it (and that's not even counting yourself). Justified in that the stuff is actively trying to spread itself.
The Virus: Long term exposure that does not result in death changes organisms for the worst, driving them completely insane. It becomes even more so when the Space Pirates start using an actual virus to infuse a strand of it into a creature's DNA. Ironically, the literal viral Phazon has a much lower fatality rate. Once Phaaze produces a mature Leviathan, it travels to a suitable planet to infect, then it starts to spread Phazon until the planet itself becomes another Phaaze.

Metroid Prime/Dark Samus

Metroid Prime

See Metroid - The Metroids for both Prime and Dark Samus.

Flaahgra

That which fouls the waters seeks the sun.

Debut: Metroid Prime

"Flaahgra's growth cycle has been radically accelerated. As a result, it requires near-constant exposure to solar energy to remain active. This exposure has made Flaahgra's outer shell thick and durable. Concentrated weapon fire can daze it for short periods, but its lower root system is unprotected and vulnerable, however. Exploit this flaw when possible."

—Scan Data

A massive mutated plant that poisoned the waters of Tallon IV's Chozo Temple.

Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: It is huge, though fire makes it shrivel and shrink.
Breath Weapon: It can shoot energy balls from its mouth.
Combat Tentacles: It has turned the plant's roots and tendrils into tentacles.
Green Thumb: It can spawn thorny growths in attempts to impede Samus's movements and create tiny short lived plants.
Kill It with Fire: How it goes out courtesy of multiple Bomb detonations in its base.
King Mook: It's likely a Bloodflower mutated by Phazon
Mix-and-Match Critters: It has traits from insects, plants, and whatever its face is.
Nightmare Face: Its floral features have been twisted to resemble a drooling arthropod like face.
Plant Aliens: It was a more like a minimally-moving, not-savagely-slice-you-apart-while-killing-the-local-ecosystem plant turned into what we see by Phazon. Flaahgra is really just a hostile cancerous outgrowth though, once it is burned away the flower it sprouted from will remain alive and harmless.
Planimal: It has a central nervous system until you burn it out.
Poisonous Person: In addition to utilizing its own toxins in battle against Samus, it passively leaks out poison into the Chozo Temple's water system, contaminating the whole temple.
Power of the Sun: It needs constant sunlight or it will quickly weaken into helplessness.
Puzzle Boss: You have to make it retract its roots to damage its sensitive areas at its base. To make it do that, you need to blast the shield arrays concentrating sunlight on it away so that it becomes weakened and unable to move. Each successive attack on its base will cause more arrays to fall into place that need to be knocked away to weaken it again, and it can and will knock the arrays back into place if it you don't shoot it with Charge Beam shots or missiles to briefly stun it.
Red Herring: You'll have the chance to read scans about a great poison before encountering it. While Flaahgra is the source of the poisonous water in the Chozo Temple (which disappears once it's defeated), it is not the great poison referenced in these scans; Phazon is.
Super Spit: Spews poisonous fluid that spawn acidic plants.
Sinister Scythe: It has these as hands.
Wake-Up Call Boss: For anyone who neglected to find the Charge Beam before approaching it or does not think to use it.
You Will Not Evade Me: The first thing it does is seal off the exit with vines.

Parasite Queen

A massive insectoid creature mutated from the common Parasite. Its tropes can be found here.

Thardus

A collection of Phazon-infused boulders that formed a rough consciousness, grouping together into a crude body. Its tropes can be found here.

Metroid Hatchers

Advanced Metroid mutations with durable phazite armor and the ability to spawn new metroids. For their tropes, see here.

Leviathans

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/phaaze_leviathan.jpg

Debut: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

The larvae of Phaaze, Leviathans are living ships that crash into other worlds to implant them with a Phazon seed.

Colony Drop: To a degree normally, where they target planets but otherwise don't much care where they land. Played straight when Dark Samus takes control of Phaaze and begins aiming them at specific targets.
Kill It Through Its Stomach: After landing on a world, killing one requires entering it and destroying its core.
Kraken and Leviathan: They have the name of one and a tentacle form for the other, but otherwise aren't much like a kraken and even less like a Leviathan unless you're fond of the Space Is an Ocean trope.
Living Ship: Usually they're just giant spaceborne organisms, but Dark Samus has one converted into a personal flagship.
Nigh-Invulnerable: Reentry and planetary impact doesn't even scratch them, and their carapace is nearly invulnerable. It took a massive planetary defense laser to kill one and a dimension-shattering reaction to kill another.
Thinking Up Portals: They can create portals to travel through, as well as keep them open to allow other ships through.
Uncertain Doom: The Tallon IV and Aether Leviathans seem to have died between their landing and the events of their respective games. While the Aether Leviathan could be presumed to have died in the cataclysm that split Dark and Light Aether, there's no apparent explanation for why the Tallon IV Leviathan doesn't appear in the impact crater (unless it became all Phazon on the planet as a part of its natural life cycle, or the Metroid Prime ate it. The Womb Level nature of the impact crater suggests that it is slowly dying but Metroid Prime does have a voracious appetite...).
Villain Teleportation: They can open wormholes to travel massive distances in seconds. This proves to be a plot point, as traditional methods of spaceship travel can't get to Phaaze in a reasonable amount of time, forcing the Federation to seize Dark Samus's Leviathan flagship.

Phaazoids

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blue_phaazoid_2.png

A blue phaazoid

Debut: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Floating beings of pure Phazon energy.

Asteroids Monster: The blue ones split into two smaller versions upon their destruction.
Law of Chromatic Superiority: The red ones do more damage and attack more quickly.
No-Sell: Anything but Phazon based attacks are as effective as a gentle breeze against them.
Takes One to Kill One: Creatures made of phazon, hurt only by phazon-energized attacks.

Phaaze

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_1670.jpeg

"Sentient planet which is the source of all Phazon…"

Debut: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

"Phaaze is an organism of gigantic proportions, which consists entirely of Phazon. Phaaze orbits a small star 361 lightyears away from Federation space. Intelligence suggests that Phaaze itself is intelligent to a degree; the so-called "Phazon Seeds" are created and fired by it as part of its reproductive cycle."

— Scan Data

A sentient planet and the true source of Phazon, Phaaze is an abomination that seeks to spread itself throughout the cosmos.

Almighty Idiot: Phaaze is incredibly powerful, dangerous, toxic, and responsible for everything in the Prime trilogy… but it doesn't seem all that intelligent or have any goal except 'spread some of myself every so often.' It isn't until Dark Samus hijacks it that it has any agency beyond that.
Always Someone Better: While Phaaze is sentient and incredibly powerful, Dark Samus proves to be even more dangerous. When she comes to visit Phaaze, she manages to hijack the collective consciousness of phazon and bend it to her will.
Ambiguously Evil: Phaaze is very much a sentient being, but whether it's actually sapient or simply spreading itself because it's in its nature to do so is unclear.
Boring, but Practical: Firing off a few leviathans every century at whatever planet seems the best fit at the moment? Not flashy and not the fastest way to spread, but it works. When Dark Samus takes over and starts using a more Awesome, but Impractical plan involving using leviathans as weapons to target her enemies, it ends up drawing the attention Phaaze had avoided until then, and leads to its destruction.
The Corrupter: It creates Leviathans and sends them out to corrupt other planets with its Phazon. When Samus physically arrives on Phaaze, its sheer radioactivity locks her in Hypermode and begins corrupting her into a new Dark Samus.
Eldritch Abomination: It's revealed to be a huge transdimensional being with a heart the size of a planet. The Chozo's whole ascending to a "higher" dimension thing? That actually reduced their ability to fight against its influence.
Evil Is Bigger: It's the source of Phazon and by far the largest character in the Metroid franchise.
Genius Loci: It is a huge, sentient planet that spreads its influence throughout the universe.
Greater-Scope Villain: Of the entire Prime trilogy. As the source of all Phazon, it is the source of all conflict, yet is never directly involved until the final entry. The trilogy is kicked off by Ridley attempting to use its power to expand the Space Pirates, and the Big Bad, Dark Samus, is created from a Metroid mutated by Phazon and merged with Samus' DNA from, of course, a pool of Phazon.
Hostile Terraforming: How it reproduces. Tallon IV, Dark Aether, Bryyo, Elysia and the Pirate Homeworld are all in the early stages of Phaaze's terraforming process when Samus arrives.
Monster Progenitor: Every Phazon-infected creature that Samus faces originates from Phaaze and its Leviathans.
Non-Standard Game Over: While on Phaaze, Samus will become stuck in Hypermode, slowly killing her until she's transformed into another Dark Samus.
Take Over the World: It corrupts, wipes out, and ultimately assimilates entire planets to continue spreading itself.
The Worf Effect: It's established to be the source of Phazon and one of the most powerful entities in the Metroid series, yet Dark Samus manages to hijack it to further her plans.

Ing

In General

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ing_3.png

'Ing' means terror

Debut: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

"It was the end of peace on Aether, for a new race was born that day on the dark world... one filled with hate and terrible power. They are the Ing."

—U-Mos

Creatures of darkness created when a Phazon meteor interacted with the Luminoth's planetary energy system. They seek to escape their pocket dimension and spread throughout the galaxy in a campaign of extermination.

Always Chaotic Evil: Their society promotes the hunting, killing and enslaving of everything that is not an Ing.
Artificial Brilliance: The Ing have no problem with bumrushing you out of a safe zone if they have lots of health left, and the ones that don't will snipe you with energy beams. Also, if you kill enough Ing with a supercharged safe zone (by using the Light Beam on it), they'll just stop approaching them entirely and always fire the beams.
Back from the Brink: All that time between Samus making planetfall and getting the Energy Transfer Module? She could very well have gotten possessed by an Ing had she not been extremely lucky. And they would've succeeded in killing the few remaining Luminoth and stealing the last of the Light of Aether had Samus arrived at the Great Temple any later than when she did. The light world would've been destroyed as theirs became the default one, and they would've likely expanded beyond Aether, as warned by U-Mos. The only two known species that they probably wouldn't completely screw over are the Phazon beings, which they descend from, and the X, both of which possess similar qualities to the Ing.
Barrier Change Boss: Quad heads and Ing Smashers are essentially barrier change enemies, and possession by Ing does not remove their ability to generate light based barriers. The Emperor Ing after metamorphosis, which requires changing weapons to suit his weakness.
Beam Spam: Warrior Ing can channel energy from other dimensions through small portals, which functions basically the same as a laser beam. They primarily use this tactic to push targets out of safe zones.
Bee People: They behave like them. Fortunately only one of them has managed to survive their "royal jelly" but phazon-induced madness on the part of their emperor might just be the cause of their xenophobic society.
Casting a Shadow: The species as a whole can do this, to an extent, being amorphous blobs of what is essentially darkness.
Dark Is Evil: Not every species on Dark Aether is necessarily evil but these guys are by far the dominant force on the planet and are very evil.
Deader than Dead: The Ing of Dark Aether were wiped out after their dimension imploded on itself when Samus reclaimed the remaining planetary energy from Emperor Ing.
Demonic Possession: What they're good at.
Demonic Invaders: They are aliens, but read the lore that describes how they were discovered; it reeks of the trope. They emerge from a less pleasant mirror of a world already altered for the worse if you're a pacifistic creature thanks to a meteor impact. They are made of a previously undiscovered form of matter, run on previously undiscovered sources of energy, emerge in a less than solid state, possess and turn the populace against each other, usually making the turned more powerful as a result but they are repelled by a "sacred" light.
Elite Mooks: Hunter Ing, capable of flight and intangibility, and are allowed to possess strong creatures like Pirate Commandoes.
Endangered Species: The only Ing still alive are the ones who managed to possess another creature, as they can't live on Aether by themselves. The Space Pirates have a darkling Metroid on display at one of their bases, as revealed in a Prime 3 scan.
Eviler than Thou: The Pirates seek domination over the other races of the galaxy. The Ing want to be the only race in the galaxy.
Evil Minions: They breed worms to guard areas they can't be bothered to stay in. These are the only creatures Ing don't use as hosts or food sources and most of them don't even fight, just block the way.
Feral Villain: The Ing have their own society and are intelligent enough to turn the Luminoth's technology against them. However none of them display any personality beyond violent hatred for anything that is not a fellow Ing and their behavior is more akin to a wild animal.
The Goomba: Inglets, the most numerous and expendable combat-capable Ing. Many boss battles throw them at you simply so they can provide health and ammo refreshments.
The Heartless: "The Ing are creatures of shadow and darkness, knowing nothing of peace or mercy."
Humanoid Abomination: They possess the deceased Galactic Federation troopers on Aether to use against Samus, but have trouble achieving full parasitic fusion with dead bodies; the furthest they ever got was increased stamina with the Missile Trooper, though all have very low agility and response time.
Intangible Man: Hunter Ing; they still can't handle the light of Aether, but Samus's light beam is trivial to them.
Invisibility: Some Ing have methods of this, to the point they can hide from echolocation and sonar. Most notoriously their flying caches.
It Can Think: They don't ever speak and appear to have the behavior of large aggressive insects, but they were intelligent enough to turn the Luminoth's weapons against them and know how to fire the Federation troopers' guns while possessing their corpses.
King Mook: The Ing seem to have a fondness for giant versions of normal enemies as bosses:
- Dark Alpha Splinter (Alpha Splinter)
- Sub-Guardians: Bomb Guardian (Alpha Sanddigger), Jump and Boost Guardians (Warrior Ing), Grapple Guardian (Grenchler), Spider Guardian (Pillbug), and Power Bomb Guardian (Sporb)
- Guardians: Amorbis (Sanddigger), Chykka (War Wasp), and Quadraxis (Quad)
- Emperor Ing (recognizable as a Warrior Ing in his third form; possibly an Inglet in his first).
Light 'em Up: They are extremely vulnerable to this. At least if it's light made from Aether's planetary energy.
Made of Evil: Unlike almost every other creature in the Metroid Prime Trilogy that is a preexisting animal mutated and driven mad by Phazon, the Ing are implied to have come into existence the moment impact split Aether in two. The presence in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption of the "Phaz-Ing," a creature resembling the Inglet made of blue liquid Phazon and seemingly native to Phaaze, leads some to suggest that Ing are in fact shadowy variant of phazon; that the Emperor Ing started off as a Phaz-Ing from Phaaze that got carried to Aether in a Leviathan and eventually grew into a giant monster on Dark Aether. The lack of tolerance for phazon among the other Ing put this into question, however.
Mecha-Mooks: They quickly learn how to possess machines created by the Luminoth, and promptly turn them against their creators.
Mighty Glacier: Ingsmashers, corrupted Mecha-Mooks, serve as the heavies of the Ing empire...when possessed by the Ing. Left to their own devices Ing Smashers simply want to end all life. Luckily for you they can barely keep up with an unboosted rolling morphball, unless they break into a highly telegraphed run with minimal directional changing. Get cornered by an ing smasher and especially a dark ing smasher and your energy tanks will empty quickly. Easier to get cornered than you'd think thanks to their use of deployable shields to increase their already high durability.
Mini Mook: Ing Larva and Ingstorms.
Mook Carryover: They make a point to possess Pirate Troopers, as they are already used to following orders.
Near-Villain Victory: The Ing were on the cusp of victory over the interdimensional war with the Luminoth. They had possession of three of the four planetary energy converters and were literally one room away from storming the last's chamber, when Samus showed up out of nowhere and ruined their plans.
Night of the Living Mooks: When they use the dead marines to attack Samus.
No Range Like Point-Blank Range: Hunter Ing's Intangible Man ability activates a fraction of a second after Samus fires, making them vulnerable at extremely close range. Combining that with a charged Light Beam makes them very easy to kill.
Omnicidal Maniac: Their goal is to collect all the planetary energy so Dark Aether can replace Light Aether in our world. Using it as a stepping stone, they would expand and exterminate all other life.
Our Demons Are Different: While clearly alien, they hit just about every demonic trait in the book.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: The Emperor Ing is described as the most powerful of them by U-Mos. It is also the only Ing who can survive exposure to Phazon without using a Metroid host.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Ing color schemes tend to include lots of red and black.
Rite of Passage: Ing are forced to fend for themselves as larva, then fight dangerous opponents after maturing. The idea is to make the young ones rely on each other and hate all other lifeforms, and it seems to work.
Starfish Aliens: Unfriendly ones at that. The most promoted Ing type, the Warrior Ing, looks like an 8-foot tall spider with five legs, and other Ing types look even weirder.
Stealth Pun: In Echoes, the Sub-Guardians are Ing-possessed creatures with a "Boost Guardian, Grapple Guardian, etc" naming convention. Boost Ing, Grapple Ing...
The Swarm: Some areas in the Sky Temple Grounds and Ing Hive have clouds of tiny Ing called Ingstorms. Stepping into them without the Light Suit will kill you in mere seconds. Don't do it.
Taking You with Me: After their world begins to die, several Warrior Ing attempt to prevent Samus's escape from Dark Aether so she'll die with them, but she just jumps over them and continues going.
Wall Crawl: All of them that are mobile but don't fly can seemingly do this. Usually by flattening themselves into puddles
Weakened by the Light: Aether's atmosphere is just as dangerous to the Ing as Dark Aether is to Aether creatures, and light energy produced from it is brutally effective against them. They mitigate this via Demonic Possession of any living or mechanical being, though if their host dies, so do they.
You Will Be Assimilated: They seem to take a page from the X Parasites, in that both mutate other creatures into new forms. The Ing possess live hosts, however; their attempts to bring back dead bodies were pretty pathetic (though freaky). All X need is DNA; they eat the prey first, then start making copies. Before you write the Ing off as less dangerous, know that they can possess Metroids, which X cannot work with at all. To make things even worse, they're also capable of possessing mechanical beings and artificial intelligence. As seen with the Security Robot B.O.X., X require organic components to work with. Not only that, the possessed troopers Samus fights early on indicate that even if the results are not ideal they're not above possessing corpses.

The Emperor Ing

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/emperoring_1stform_1.png

^{Click here to see its cocoon form}

^{Click here to see its mutated form.}

Debut: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

"Bioscans indicate that this is the eldest, strongest Ing in the Horde, the alpha and the omega. It has absorbed enormous amounts of Phazon energy into its body, mutating itself in the process. Apparently this power is not enough for the creature, as it is now siphoning energy from the final Energy Controller."

—Scan Data

The supreme ruler of the Ing Horde, mutated into a massive beast through Phazon exposure.

Arc Villain: Of Echoes.
Attack Its Weak Point: The tentacles followed by the eye in the first form, the tentacles in the gaps of its cocoon, and its mouth/eye in the final form.
Barrier Change Boss: In its final form it has two barrier types, one dark and one light, that must be struck with the opposite energy to damage it. It also has a third neutral type, during which attacks cannot harm it but only force it to switch to one of its polarized barriers, particularly if you're quick with a super missile.
Beam Spam: It can pull the same beam trick lesser Ing can, but with greater speed and volume.
Big Bad: As the leader of the Ing, it is the main antagonist of Echoes.
Born Winner: Like the Omega Pirate in the first Prime, the Emperor Ing has a super-high Phazon tolerance and thus gains a lot of power from it. And also like the Omega Pirate, this comes at a price: it loses its mind.
Boss-Arena Idiocy: Inverted. The walls of its arena are covered in Phazon, which it's immune to but Samus isn't. One wrong step, one miscalculation about a jump, one knock-back attack, and suddenly you're pressed right against a wall of solid pain.
Casting a Shadow: As with lesser Ing, it can hurtle blasts of pure darkness. In its final form it can channel this into a beam that entraps targets in a cocoon of darkness, just like the Dark Beam's Entangler.
Climax Boss: The battle against it wraps up the main plot, as it is both the leader of the Ing and the guardian of the final Light of Aether. However it isn't the Final Boss, Dark Samus is.
Combat Tentacles: In its initial form it has four at first, increasing the number as the fight goes on. Its chrysalis form also has several that will knock Samus off its shell and into the toxic fog.
Deadly Gas: It vents this to protect itself while it's in its cocoon.
Enemy Mine: In a humorous case, the biggest baddest beast of the Ing has nightbarbs, the natural prey of Ing, in its lair, and swarms of them will occasionally attack it while Samus fights it. They can't actually hurt the emperor however. Really they're sacrificing themselves for Samus to restore her ammunition.
Eye Beams: Quite formidable, considering the size of its eye.
Final Boss Preview: A minor example. A few rooms before you fight it you find the energy you're meant to be collecting, only for its tentacles to grab it and melt away.
Flunky Boss: Its cocoon form spawns Inglets while its mutated form attracts swarms of nightbarbs and some unidentified flying thing. The latter are a subversion, as while the Inglets do hinder Samus, the other creatures are giving their lives to help her.
Horns of Villainy: Three large horns in its final form that resemble the front of a crown.
In a Single Bound: He can out jump the Jump Guardian. Luckily for you the room has a ceiling.
Interface Screw: Not to the degree of the Rezbits, but the beam it fires in its eye form cancels Samus's beam charge and prevents her from firing for a short time.
King Mook: Its final form resembles a giant warrior Ing, while its first is rather like a titanic Inglet.
Large and in Charge: It's only slightly smaller than Quadraxis.
Light 'em Up: The Emperor Ing is unusual for an Ing in that it is not particularly weak to the Light Beam (It's considered "neutral", like the Chykka's first form), and in fact is capable of using light-based attacks right alongside the standard Ing dark-based ones. This is probably because it has ingested the last portion of the Light of Aether. Given that that's usually the best way to kill an Ing but this one took it in without using the energy transfer module, it's a testament to the Emperor's toughness.
Lightning Bruiser: Deceptively fast and able to leap across the room in its final form.
Load-Bearing Boss: Not technically, but Samus absorbs the last of the planetary energy in the same cutscene where it dies, which puts all of Dark Aether on a countdown to destruction.
Orcus on His Throne: It's unclear if it's actually capable of leaving the sky Temple in its un-mutated form, and until Samus is at its doorstep it's not desperate enough to try merging with the final Energy Controller to attain its highly-mobile final form. Which is good, because if it tried to attack Samus before she got the Light Suit she likely wouldn't have been able to survive.
Omnicidal Maniac: As with all Ing. As the leader it may be the only true example, with the rest of the species following its lead.
Ramming Always Works: In its final form it can slide forward across the ground, using its bladed legs like skates.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: When its eye is red it is hard to hurt.
Riddle for the Ages: While not officially confirmed, fan speculation posits the Emperor Ing as the guardian for Aether's Leviathan, (with the Sky Temple as the location of the husk).
Shockwave Stomp: In the final form.
Spectacular Spinning: In its initial form one of its attacks is to spin in place, sticking its tentacles out to swipe Samus.
Spikes of Villainy: Its final form has spikes and barbs on it legs and body.
Stationary Boss: In its first form it just swivels to face you, while its chrysalis form has all the mobility of, well, a chrysalis. Averted with its final mutated form.
Super-Toughness: The Ing are normally extremely weak to light. The Emperor is able to absorb the Sky Temple's Light of Aether, the concentrated form of Aether's light energy, to go One-Winged Angel while still being a highly resilient foe. It is also the only Ing to survive exposure to Phazon, the mutations from which probably account for this feat.
Thinking Up Portals: It its initial form it will sometimes stick its tentacles through portals to attack Samus from all angles.

Amorbis

The three Amorbis worms in their dark form

Debut: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

"The enormous Amorbis can move through solid rock and earth with ease, and can sense the location of surface-level prey deep within the ground. They will attempt to ram any target they can find in their domain. They are vulnerable to all forms of weapons fire, but are incredibly strong and resistant to pain."

—Scan Data

A trio of gargantuan worm-like creatures kept as guards by the Ing in the Dark Agon Wastes temple.

Attack Animal: The Ing were said to breed and raise worms for various tasks; these were, if not their guard dogs, then at least something they left in the general area to ensure nobody got the dark suit or stolen planetary energy.
Casting a Shadow: Not on their own, but once attached to the dark sphere, they will be capable of flinging safe zone-neutralizing shots of darkness or channel thick purple energy beams. The dark attacks seem to take on a different characteristic around the dark sphere, which prevents you from clearing away beacons the way you normally do.
Fast Tunneling: An explicit ability of theirs, and they are not even moving through hardened earth and rock where you find them but sand, making them faster than usual. Energy shielding or not they make quick work of the Varia Suit if not evaded.
Feed It a Bomb: The only way to damage them is to let them inhale you and then lay a bomb in their mouths. Rather than really letting them inhale you, you're hitting them hard enough to make them fall over and gasp for air... at which point you give them a metal ball laying bombs. Damage to their hides will only slow them down till you directly hit the internal organs it seems.
Gate Guardian: For the Dark Agon Temple.
King Mook: They're giant Sandiggers.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If it hadn't shattered the area sphere in its thrashings, Samus would never have obtained the Dark Suit and would have almost certainly died in the safe-zone scare later areas before she got a chance to get the Light Suit.
Sand Worm: While not to Dune levels, they are close. Very large sand worms Amorbis are. It's implied that when not put up to temple duty in sandy areas the species are actually stone worms.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Kill one and the others will flee, never bothering Samus again.
Stationary Boss: The Dark Amorbis state is attached to a fixed point on the Dark Orb and flails around. At first only one of them takes it on and it escalates to all three attaching themselves to the dark sphere as the fight wears on.
Third Eye: That makes nine between them.
Wave-Motion Gun: They can fire three huge, sweeping dark beams when attached to the dark sphere.
Wolf Pack Boss: What's that? You've beaten giant worms before, not too long ago in this very game you say? Fine, here's three of them bigger than any we threw at you before!
Wormsign: The sand above where they're about to emerge will begin to flow outward as if being pushed up from below. If the sand you're directly standing on is doing this, move.

Chykka

^{Click here to see its dark form}

Debut: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

"The Chykka has rapidly aged to its adult form. It will attack by firing high-powered bursts of dark water at rapid speed. If frustrated, it will attempt to dive and ram you."

—Scan Data

At first a large cocoon obstructing passage into the Dark Torvus Bog temple, it hatches into a vicious aquatic larva before evolving into its adult form.

Barrier Change Boss: While any weapons will damage it, during the second phase it switches between being weak to light and dark.
Big Creepy-Crawlies: Chykka is a big dragonfly thing.
Cognizant Limbs: You usually can't lock on to individual parts of an enemy, but your seeker missiles can.
Deader than Dead: You can scan Chykka's corpse after the battle is over (nearly every other boss either fades away or explodes), which basically goes to assure you, in no uncertain terms, that the creature is finally dead:
"Bioscan complete. Target Chykka has been terminated. Lifesigns are at flatline. No regenerative ability in effect. No evidence of symbiotic corpse possession. Resurrection does not appear likely."
Enemy Mine: The larva sometimes collides with dormant ing-possessed creatures. Rather than attack it for disturbing them they instead make a beeline for Samus.
Eyeless Face: The larval form. It has no trouble finding you, suggesting eyes may be underneath it or some other organ is compensating.
Gate Guardian: It guards the Dark Torvus Temple.
Giant Flyer: Once an adult. Much larger than Samus but hovering around just fine.
Grimy Water: It lives in and shoots it at you.
Hermaphrodite: Self-impregnating, no less.
King Mook: Its adult form is a super-sized War Wasp. In other ways, it has a strong resemblance to both Shredders and Shriekers—though both of those are plants, not insects.
Making a Splash: In all forms really but in the most literal way during the larva sequence. That's when you shoot it.
Marathon Boss: Due to having two forms, limited opportunities to do real damage to it, and being difficult to hit due to its speed, it is one of the longest bosses in the series. The game even acknowledges this by letting you scan its corpse (when most other bosses don't leave a corpse) where the scan log tells you, on no uncertain terms, that it is Deader than Dead.
Rapid Aging: It started out as an egg. Within a few minutes, it's a fully mature adult.
Sequential Boss: The first phase is against its larval form, which for all intents and purposes behaves like a fish in the dark waters. After being defeated, it retreats and rapidly metamorphs into its adult stage, which is a massive wasp-like insect that alternates between light and dark forms.
Super Spit: Its larval form spits digestive juices on you.
Waterfront Boss Battle: The larva swims around in toxic water while you stand on a platform. You can attack it while it's swimming, though it's very hard to hit. It does occasionally jump out of the water, and occasionally jumps onto the platform to try to eat you.
Weaponized Offspring: As Dark Chykka, it often births swarms of Chykklings to harass you (and provide easy health/ammo refills).

Quadraxis

A colossal Luminoth war machine stolen by the Ing to guard the Ing Hive temple. See Metroid - Others.

The Sub-Guardians

Debut: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

The Ing who stole and used Samus's upgrades.

In General

King Mook: All of them are for various other enemies. Given that most of the mooks they're the kings of are light creatures that the Ing tend to possess and transform into larger, more powerful versions of themselves, it's to be expected.
- The Bomb Guardian is the exception, as the alpha sanddigger was already a king mook.
- The Space and Boost Guardians are both warrior Ing.
- The Grapple Guardian is a grenchler.
- The Spider Guardian is a pillbug.
- The Power Bomb Guardian is a sporb.
Mega Manning: They all use the abilities they stole from Samus to fight against her.
Mini-Boss: They're all minor bosses Samus beats to get upgrades so she can progress through other areas.

Bomb Guardian

An Ing infected Alpha Sanddigger that holds the morph ball bombs.

A Head at Each End: Averted. Unlike normal sanddiggers, and the alpha itself before infection, the bomb guardian only has one head.
Spikes of Villainy: Quite a few, cresting its head and lining its back.
Throw Down the Bomblet: It trails bombs almost constantly, will occasionally shake clusters of them around the arena and will sometimes just lob one at you

Jump Guardian

A powerful warrior Ing that stole and uses the space jump boots.

Horns of Villainy: It has a large blade-like horn over its eye.
In a Single Bound: Fitting of its name, it can leap incredibly far.
Reused Character Design: The Boost Guardian fought later is identical to the Jump Guardian.
Shockwave Stomp: Its landings send out shockwaves of dark energy.

Boost Guardian

A warrior Ing that stole the boost ball.

Be the Ball: It's limited to sitting in place and "boosting" but it's boost lasts much longer than yours and can prove quite hazardous to your health
Boss Arena Recovery: Their are pillars in the arena that the boost guardian may accidentally shatter, that result in you being showered with energy recovery. Since the atmosphere of Dark Aether is continuously draining your energy shielding, you'll have a hard time if the Boost Guardian knocks out all the pillars at once, especially if it's on its first boost.
Collision Damage: Most Ing use their puddle form to get within shooting range of Samus or to escape to a more advantageous position. Attacking them in puddle form will cause them to crawl faster in an effort to get away. Boost guardian on the otherhand can damage you simply by touch in this state and will ignore the pain of your shots and bombs as it attempts to collide with you.
Horns of Villainy: It has a large, blade-like horn over its eye.
Flunky Boss: This is where you'd better get used to inglet assistance
Ramming Always Works: Its most common move is to use the boost ball to ricochet around the arena, slamming into Samus in the process.
Reused Character Design: It's identical to the Jump Guardian that you fight earlier in the game.
Victory by Endurance: A very real possibility for the Boost Guardian, as there are no safe zones for Samus in the arena, which means the damage racks up very quickly.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: It can transform into the morph ball to utilize the boost ball, despite not having the morph ball upgrade itself.

Grapple Guardian

The Ing that stole the grapple beam and subsequently possessed a grenchler.

Armless Biped: Due to its host creature.
Attack Its Weak Point: Its back, which requires stunning it to make it drop the shield covering it. Doing that requires shooting it in the eye, a secondary weak point that doesn't actually hurt it.
Body Horror: The presence of the grapple beam seems to have caused the grenchler to mutate more drastically than the dark grenchlers (which still mostly resembles the unpossessed specimens aside from pigmentation and some of its eyes being moved to the jaw joints). One of the more unusual mutations (and potentially endangering if not for the grapple beam) that the Grapple Guardian received after possession is a big hole in its lower jaw.
Deflector Shields: The grapple beam is modified to provide an energy shield for its weak point, requiring Samus to stun it so it drops the shield.
Evil Is Bigger: It's noticeably bigger than normal and dark grenchlers, which means it is also bigger than Samus.
High-Voltage Death: In the first part of the fight it must be tricked into using the grapple beam on the electrified pillars in the room in order to stun and immobilize it.
Horns of Villainy: It has a rhino-like horn it uses to fire the grapple beam.
In the Back: Where its weak point is.
Turns Red: Partway through the fight it shorts out the pillars in the room and starts moving faster, making it harder to stun it.
You Will Not Evade Me: If it hits Samus with the grapple beam, it drags her into biting range.

Spider Guardian

An Ing possessed pillbug that holds the spider ball.

Collision Damage: It harms Samus this way even without its electrical field.
High-Voltage Death: Both ways, it's surrounded by an electrical field that harms Samus and is killed by tricking it into ramming electrical pylons.
Puzzle Boss: It doesn't attack Samus directly and none of her attacks can hurt it, forcing her to use a series of bomb slots and electrified pylons to kill it.

Power Bomb Guardian

An Ing possessed sporb that holds the power bomb.

Flunky Boss: Inglets are not limited by spider ball tracks like you are and so can easily ambush you even when not acting in conjunction with the Guardian's bombs.
Puzzle Boss: Samus's weapons can't penetrate its armor, so she spends the boss fight avoiding its attacks while she destabilizes the ceiling to fall and crush it.
Stationary Boss: That's what happens when you possess a plant.
Throw Down the Bomblet: It throws power bombs.
Unique Enemy: Because the Dark Sporb is an enemy that was Dummied Out, the Power Bomb Guardian is the only Sporb that is ever possessed by an Ing.

Dark Alpha Splinter

Debut: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

The first boss of Echoes, an Ing-possessed alpha splinter.

Fangs Are Evil: In the game it has no mouth, but the manga gives it a mouth bristling with pointed teeth.
Four-Legged Insect: Thanks to its host body.
King Mook: It was a bigger, stronger splinter even before being possessed.
The Pawns Go First: A pack of dark splinters attack Samus before it shows up.
Ramming Always Works: More of a leap than most examples, but its main attack it to hurl itself at Samus.
Warm-Up Boss: It's the first boss of Echoes.
Super Spit: It spits globs of purple liquid at Samus from a distance.
Villain of Another Story: It was the Ing entrusted with siphoning the last of Aether's energy and sealing the Ing's victory. Given the Ing's war-based society, that's not the kind of honor one is randomly assigned.
Zerg Rush: They wipe out both teams of the Federation troopers sent to Aether through sheer numbers.

Dark Missile Trooper

Debut: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

The corpse of a Federation trooper possessed by an Ing.

Ambiguous Gender: The gender of the trooper is unknown, as the Federation employs both men and women as combat troops. Though at the point Samus fights this creature, it's really just a convenient meat suit for an Ing, so its gender is rather irrelevant.
Ambiguous Situation: Was the trooper corpse carrying a missile weapon or is this the host of the Ing that stole Samus's missile launcher? Scans indicate the former, but the dangling plot thread of the missile launcher leaves it open to interpretation.
Boom, Headshot!: It's clear that the trooper was killed by a blow to the head. Not only is its helmet significantly more broken open than the other dark troopers, a fragment of something is still embedded in its exposed skull.
He Was Right There All Along: Justified example, its corpse was laying right on the ground in front of Samus when she arrived in the room the first time, before she encounterd the Ing. It's only when she returns later that the Ing possesses the corpse and attacks her.
King Mook: Little more than a particularly tough dark trooper with a better weapon.
Mini-Boss: It's a minor boss even by the standards of the other minibosses in Echoes.
Nightmare Face: Looking at its model reveals glowing red eyes set into withered, blackened flesh that peels back to reveal teeth and bone.
Our Zombies Are Different: Like the normal dark troopers, it's a corpse possessed by an Ing.
Skippable Boss: It's an out of the way fight that only grants a missile tank upon defeating it, so it's easy to miss.

Assorted Wildlife

Zoomers and Geemers

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zoomer.png

Debut: Metroid

Spiky-backed insects that are common pests on multiple worlds.

The Goomba: The most basic and common Metroid enemy.
Inconsistent Dub: In Metroid and Zero Mission, they are called Zoomers. In Super Metroid and Other M, they are called Geemers. This is reconciled by Metroid Prime, which treats Zoomers and Geemers as separate species. For added inconsistency, the Zoomer artwork from Zero Mission is used for the Geemer spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Related in the Adaptation: Played with. In Japanese, Zoomers and Geemers are the same species (at least, in the 2D games). In the English translation, they are given different names due to an Inconsistent Dub, which would later be established as separate but related species in Metroid Prime.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: There are other enemies such as the Moheeks and the Green Kralees that have the exact same behavior as the Zoomers. The Owtch enemies were also turned into substitutes for the Zoomers/Geemers in Fusion despite previously having their own unique behavior in Super.
Took a Level in Badass: A downplayed example, as they are still among the weakest enemies in the game. In the 2D and Prime games, Zoomers and Geemers ignore Samus and can only hurt her if she happens to make contact with them. In Other M, Geemers actively lunge at Samus.
Typhoid Mary: The logbook in Hunters reveals that Zoomers are carriers of flesh-eating bacteria, which has caused the extinction of many Zebesian species. Likewise, the Corruption logbook says that Geemers carry other diseases due to their diet of other species' waste.
Unique Enemy: In Super Metroid, there is a single Geemer (internally named "Hzoomer") that has a unique color scheme and will actively follow Samus's movements (whereas most Geemers completely ignore her). It can be found in Crateria near the Wrecked Ship.

Hornoads

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/metroid_hornoad.png

Debut: Metroid II: Return of Samus

Two-legged toad-like creatures native to SR388.

Amphibian Assault: They can be quite aggressive against other lifeforms, especially when they get infected by the X.
Amphibian at Large: They're big enough to reach Samus' waist.
The Goomba: The most basic enemy in the SR388-related games, as well as in Sector 1 (SRX) of Fusion.
Killer Rabbit: The main creatures the X infect to attack the Chozo in the Chozo Memories are lowly Hornoads, rather than any of the more dangerous natives of SR388. They seem to be giving the Chozo a rough time anyway.
Purple Is Powerful: The more dangerous X-infected Hornoads get purple skin to distinguish them from regular Hornoads.
Scary Teeth: The X-infected Hornoads in Fusion have fearsome chompers to show that they're more dangerous than regular specimens. Samus Returns redesigns regular Hornoads to have carnivorous teeth — and gives X-infected Hornoads even scarier teeth than before.
Small Role, Big Impact: Despite merely being The Goomba of Return of Samus/Samus Returns and Fusion, Hornoads are indirectly responsible for almost everything in the main story arc. In the Metroid manga and Samus Returns's Chozo Memories, it was the discovery of X-infected Hornoads that forced the Chozo of the Thoha Tribe to cross the Godzilla Threshold and create the Metroids in the first place, which would later cause several more problems down the road such as the Metroids mutating into more deadly forms, and Raven Beak having the Mawkin Tribe massacre all Thoha Chozo expect for Quiet Robe just because they suggested to blow SR388 to hell to prevent the Metroids, as well as any surviving X Parasites, from being a threat to the galaxy. In Fusion, a single X-infected Hornoad was responsible for Samus's own X infection, both necessitating the Metroid DNA vaccine and leading to an X outbreak on the B.S.L. Station.
Spikes of Villainy: While natural Hornoads have small spines on their back, the redesign of the X-infected Hornoads in Samus Returns has very prominent spikes to indicate its evil nature.
Super Spit: Stronger Hornoads and X-infected Hornoads can spit acid at Samus, giving them a longer-ranged attack than their weaker kin.
Underground Monkey: Stronger Hornoads have red/orange coloration, more health, and an acid-spitting attack. Other than that, they're identical to normal Hornoads.

Arachnus

^{Click here to see an X parasite imitation of Arachnus.}

Debut: Metroid II: Return of Samus

"A native life-form that swallowed the Spring Ball Item Sphere and inadvertently absorbed its power, Arachnus is an armadillo-like beast that spins and spits projectiles to attack its enemies. The Spring Ball gives it the ability to jump in the air while curled into its shell. Defeating it shakes the Item Sphere loose, giving you the opportunity to take it for yourself."

— Metroid: Samus Returns Official Guide

An armadillo-like creature native to SR388. Its form was mimicked by an X parasite aboard the BSL Station.

Adaptational Badass: In Return of Samus, Arachnus was originally an easy Puzzle Boss that could only curl into a ball and jump around or stand still and spit fireballs. In the Video Game Remake Samus Returns, Arachnus is bigger, much faster, and much more powerful and resilient, even retaining some abilities from the X-infected Arachnus in Metroid: Fusion.
Breath Weapon: Arachnus can spit fireballs.
Chest Monster: In Return of Samus and Samus Returns, Arachnus is found curled up in its shell, resting in the hands of a Chozo statue in such a way that mimics the appearance of an item sphere, only to spring up and attack when Samus tries to obtain the item. Additionally, the official guide to Samus Returns claims that Arachnus swallowed the Spring Ball, suggesting that Arachnus not only mimics a fake item sphere but actually replaced a real item sphere.
Depending on the Artist: The in-game Fusion sprite for Arachnus closely resembles the Return of Samus artwork for Arachnus, although its head and neck are colored purple instead of red. However, the Fusion boxart depicts Arachnus with dark red skin, along with bright green fur on its neck, shoulders, and hips; this is the only time Arachnus (natural or X parasite) is depicted with hair.
Glass Cannon: The X-infected Arachnus is this when compared to the natural Arachnus (as originally depicted in Return of Samus). On one hand, it is bigger, has sharper claws, and has more projectile attacks that are longer range and more damaging. On the other hand, it is vulnerable to all of Samus's weapons (while the natural Arachnus was originally only vulnerable to Morph Bombs) and can't jump.
Ground Pound: In Samus Returns, Arachnus has a new move that lets it spin in mid-air and slam into the ground in ball form.
He Was Right There All Along: In Return of Samus and Samus Returns, Arachnus is found in a room containing only a Chozo statue holding what appears to be an item sphere. Arachnus does not engage Samus until she tries to obtain the item, at which point it will reveal its true form.
Lamprey Mouth: Similar to the post-larval Metroid stages, Arachnus has a radial mouth with three prominent fangs.
Lone Wolf Boss: In Return of Samus, Arachnus is the only non-Metroid boss in the entire game.
Non-Indicative Name: Despite its name, Arachnus does not have any arachnid features, more closely resembling an armadillo than a spider.
Puzzle Boss: In Return of Samus. While it's a pushover of a fight, it's up to the player to figure out that you can only damage Arachnus with the Morph Ball Bombs. The game gives a vague clue to it due to the Arachnus curling up and bouncing around like a Morph Ball.
Rolling Attack: In Fusion, Arachnus can curl into a ball and then roll quickly to ram into a wall. This was also retconned into the normal Arachnus's moveset in Samus Returns.
Sword Beam: In Fusion, when Arachnus slashes with its claws, it generates an energy wave that greatly extends the melee attack's range. This was also retconned into the normal Arachnus's moveset in Samus Returns.

Gadora

Debut: Super Metroid

One-eyed creatures that cover the doors leading to important rooms on Zebes.

Adaptational Early Appearance: They first appeared in Super Metroid, but they're also present in the remake of the first game, Zero Mission, where they guard the doors to Kraid and Ridley's rooms.
Alien Kudzu: The original Super Metroid Gadoras spread spiky growths around the areas where they nest. Destroy the Gadora, and the growths also disappear.
Evil Is Visceral: While the original Zebes creature is mostly made up of spiky, chitinous skin, the X Parasite copies in Fusion seem to consist of exposed muscle tissue.
Five-Second Foreshadowing: If you see a Gadora blocking a door, it means you are right outside a boss room.
Giant Eye of Doom: They're pretty much nothing but a big eye, and they can also fire beams from said eye at Samus.
Meaningful Name: It's a portmanteau of the Japanese transliterations of "guard" and "door", and they guard doors from Samus' encroachments.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Several other creatures across the series fill the niche of "one-eyed creature that blocks door hatches" on other planets, with the most common difference being that they don't necessarily block boss rooms:
- Metroid Prime 2: Echoes has the Webling and Ing Webtrap creatures; both have single eyes, but only the former can be directly killed by beam attacks to its eye, while the latter can only be cleared by defeating all the enemies in a room.
- The "EyeballBlocker" from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption only leaves its eye vulnerable once its five antennae are attacked first.
- Metroid: Samus Returns has hatch-blocking creatures that are only vulnerable to specific beam upgrades: the Gigadora (weak to Spazer Beam), the Taramarga (weak to Wave Beam), and the Gryncore (weak to Plasma Beam).
- The Gobbler from Metroid Dread is another one-eyed creature covering the hatches leading to boss rooms, but it is a wormlike creature that can extend to attack Samus.

Crocomire

Debut: Super Metroid

A large creature Samus fights in the depths of Norfair.

Advancing Boss of Doom: It slowly advances on Samus, driving her back into a spike-covered wall if it gets too far.
Barrier-Busting Blow: It smashes down the spiked wall in its final moments.
Berserk Button: Do not use a Power Bomb against it. Failing to heed this warning will cause it to charge forward much further than usual.
Breath Weapon: It fires projectiles from its mouth a multiple angles, which serve to stop Samus's own shots from hitting it in the face. If you can shoot more while jumping to its eye level enough it will be pushed back.
The Cameo: In Donkey Kong Country Returns, of all places, where its skull can be seen in the background of the Foggy Fumes level. Considering the game was developed by Retro Studios, the developers of the Prime games, it doubles as a Development Gag.
Cruel and Unusual Death: It falls into a pool of acid and the flesh melts off its bones. You get a graphic view of this process as it desperately tries to climb out before sinking out of view.
Extra Eyes: It has eight eyes.
A Molten Date with Death: Defeating it involves backing it onto an unstable bridge, with it then falling into a corrosive bubbling liquid (it's not quite clear if the substance in that part of Norfair is supposed to be lava or acid, but otherwise fits within the spirit of the trope) and getting its skin melted off.
Mini-Boss: Referred to as "the Mini-Boss of Norfair" in the manual, with Ridley being the main boss of the area.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If it hadn't knocked down that wall of spikes, Samus would have been stuck.
Nigh-Invulnerability: None of Samus's attacks actually damage it, they just hurt it enough to make it retreat.
Nothing but Skulls: All of its bones but its skull vanish after it dies.
Not Quite Dead: After falling into the lava/acid, it bursts through the wall for one last try at Samus. Given that the acid has already reduced it to a skeleton, it dies almost immediately after.
Ring-Out Boss: You have to knock it backwards onto a bridge too weak to support its weight to defeat it.

Botwoon

Debut: Super Metroid

An eel-like creature encountered in Maridia.

Attack Its Weak Point: Its head is the only vulnerable part of its body.
Mini-Boss: Referred to as a mini-boss in the NTSC guidebook and in the Japanese soundtrack, with Draygon being the main boss of Maridia.
Sea Serpents: A realistically sized one, although an Earth reptile would still have some trouble at the depth Botwoon is encountered at. The official art downplays this, making it look equal parts sea snake and eel.
Segmented Serpent: Although it appears much more natural and smooth in artwork, the Botwoon's in-game sprite is comprised of many segments.
Super Spit: It spits green projectiles when it emerges from a hole in the wall.
Turns Red: As it takes more damage, the Botwoon becomes faster and faster. It also literally turns red when low on health.
Underwater Boss Battle: Botwoon is fought in the underwater section of Maridia, although the Gravity Suit should negate any effects of fighting underwater.
Whack-a-Monster: Botwoon pops up from holes in the wall. To damage it, Samus must shoot it in the head when it peeks out of one of the holes to spit projectiles.

Namihe and Fune

Namihe (top) and Fune (bottom)

Debut: Super Metroid

Two closely-related types of worm-like creatures that reside in Norfair. Specimens are also found on the BOTTLE SHIP and BSL Station, with the former featuring a Namihe and Fune together as a Dual Boss.

Dual Boss: In Other M, a Namihe and Fune appear together in a boss fight. They both attack Samus at once, and when she defeats one, the other becomes tougher to kill.
Eyeless Face: The Fune, which heightens its Xenomorph Xerox features.
Invincible Minor Minion: The Namihe in Super Metroid cannot be killed, although it can still be frozen by the Ice Beam.
Kill One, Others Get Stronger: During the Dual Boss fight in Other M, when Samus kills one of them, the other one becomes much faster and harder to kill.
Metamorphosis Monster: In Fusion, most Fune are replaced by Namihe after a certain point in the game. This implies that Namihe is the mature form of Fune, much like how Kihunter is revealed to be the mature form of Zero in the same game.
Mook Promotion: While Namihe and Fune were regular enemies in Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, they were promoted to a Dual Boss in Metroid: Other M.
Shock and Awe: The projectiles they shoot are depicted as electric in Other M.
Swallowed Whole: In Other M, after fully emerging from the walls, a Namihe or Fune can swallow Samus whole and then spit her out.
Took a Level in Badass: The natural Namihe and Fune in Norfair are fairly passive creatures that reside in walls and occasionally spit fireballs. In contrast, the specimens encountered later on the BOTTLE SHIP and BSL Station are much more aggressive. In the former, they can even fully emerge from the walls and no longer need to hide.
Whack-a-Monster: Similar to Botwoon. In Other M, the Fune and Namihe hide in the walls and ceiling and occasionally emerge from holes to spit an electric projectile at Samus. When they emerge, that is Samus's opportunity to shoot them with missiles.
Xenomorph Xerox: The Fune is yet another H. R. Giger-esque design of an eyeless creature in the Metroid series. In particular, it resembles the Xenomorph's tongue, especially in the later games where it can extend its neck and emerge from the wall.

Plated Beetle

Debut: Metroid Prime

A large species of beetle Samus fights in the Chozo Ruins.

Artificial Brilliance: If Samus stands somewhere it can't reach it burrows back underground rather than continue to try and chase her, preventing her from simply getting to a higher vantage point and shooting it in the weakpoint without risk.
Attack Its Weak Point: The front plating of its carapace is invulnerable to all of Samus's weapons, but its abdomen is not.
Bizarre Alien Biology: It lacks any visible mouth or sensory organs and its front carapace seems to be made of metal.
Degraded Boss: Later in the game, a plated beetle replaces the normal beetles in the main plaza of the ruins and will respawn just like any other common enemy.
King Mook: For the regular beetles. In the fight for the Morph Ball, the first one only shows up after a swarm of beetles fight and die to Samus.
Ramming Always Works: Its only attack is to charge Samus.

Sheegoth

Debut: Metroid Prime

An apex artic predator encountered by Samus in the Phendrana Drifts.

Armless Biped: Should be obvious at a first glance, but it's one of these. Its young even provide the current page image.
Artificial Brilliance: If you try to gain the high ground over an adult sheegoth, it will stomp so hard that the ground shakes in an attempt to make you fall off of it.
Attack Its Weak Point: After using its breath weapon the sheegoth hyperventilates, leaving its mouth vulnerable. Alternatively, careful morphball rolling can allow you to attack a sheegoth's belly. For the young, it's the icy shells covering their vulnerable backs, and it only takes one shot to said back after the armor breaks to kill them.
Breath Weapon: It can spray a mist in an arc that freezes Samus solid.
Degraded Boss: The more progress made in the game after beating the first adult sheegoth, the more adult sheegoths replace babies in rooms where the baby sheegoths were found. After getting the plasma beam, adult sheegoths can even be found where baby sheegoths weren't. They're fairly easy to avoid until you have to unlock the impact crater to progress.
Energy Absorption: All beams but the plasma beam will be drawn into the crystals on its back, absorbed, and spat back out as orbs of energy.
Extra Eyes: As adults, sheegoths have six eyes. Scans also show what seems to be yet another set of eyes that aren't visible on the creature itself, though those may be some other form of sensory organ.
Eyeless Face: Younger sheegoths have shells of ice that cover most of their heads, including their eyes.
Mighty Glacier: As adults they can pack a mean punch but they don't move very fast, besides for the occasional quick burst. Babies are a little more agile but all sheegoths are poor jumpers. Retreating to higher ground will cause adults to stomp the ground, creating tremors that gradually draw prey towards the edge.
No-Sell: Any beam weapon but the plasma beam will just be absorbed by the crystals on its back.
Spikes of Villainy: Adults have crystalline spikes growing from their backs. The scan images show these are actually the outer layer of the bony spikes that eventually grow from the nubs found on the backs of the young sheegoths.
Super Drowning Skills: They do not do well in water.
Super Spit: It can launch ice balls if you stay out of range for its frigid breath and it does not feel like charging after you.
Weak to Fire: Fitting for an apex ice-environment predator, it can't handle intense heat well at all, to the point it can't absorb the plasma beam shots like the other beam weapons.

Charge Beam Beast

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/diorumu.png

Debut: Metroid: Zero Mission

A burrowing creature that holds the charge beam.

All There in the Manual: Its English name is derived from the official Nintendo Power guide for Zero Mission, while its Japanese name (Diorumu) is from the Zero Mission website.
Cowardly Boss: It flees the battle if Samus doesn't kill it quickly, and then she needs to track it down again.
Creepy Centipedes: Definitely evocative of one.
He Was Right There All Along: When Samus first enters Corridor No. 5, the room is shaking due to the Charge Beam Beast's presence, but it will not emerge to attack until Samus grabs the Missile Tank and attempts to leave the room.
Go for the Eye: It can only be damaged with missiles aimed at its open eye.
Recurring Boss: It reappears several times if the player doesn't kill it and it retreats.
Skippable Boss: Since the Charge Beam is not required to beat the game (unless going for 100%) and the Charge Beam Beast will end the battle early by fleeing, it's entirely possible to beat the game without defeating the Charge Beam Beast.
Spike Shooter: Fires off a sharp something while it's eye is closed. Accuracy is about as poor as you'd expect.
Super-Persistent Predator: It attacks Samus many times if she doesn't kill it, but it's more like a super persistent harrasser since it always flees.
Tactical Suicide Boss: It would be invincible if only it wouldn't open its eye.
Tunnel King: It's capable of burrowing through the ground extremely rapidly.

Acid Worm

Debut: Metroid: Zero Mission

A massive worm that lives in an Acid Pool in Kraid's Lair. Samus encounters this beast shortly after activating the area's zipline system.

All There in the Manual: Its English name is derived from the official Nintendo Power guide for Zero Mission, while its Japanese name (Mua) is from the Zero Mission website.
Attack Its Weak Point: The bulbous sacs below its mouth are its only vulnerable spots.
Big Creepy-Crawlies: It resembles a large worm.
Bullfight Boss: After snapping its jaws, it lunges out of the acid pool to attack Samus. Therefore, an effective strategy is to jump out of the way just before it lunges, and then Attack Its Weak Point before it retreats again.
Informed Attribute: Its title on the Japanese website translates to "Lava's Corruption", but the Acid Worm itself is not associated with lava (a separate substance from acid) in the game itself.
Personal Space Invader: Its primary attack is grabbing Samus with its jaws and then pulling her into the Acid Pool.
Super Spit: One of its attacks is spitting globs of acid at Samus. It will perform this attack if she is too far away for it to lunge at.

Imago

Debut: Metroid: Zero Mission

A bee-like monster fought in Ridley's lair.

Androcles' Lion: Subverted. Samus saves it from being consumed by tangle vines as a larva, but it's out for her blood as an adult.
Bee Afraid: It looks like a giant alien bee.
Beware My Stingertail: It is functionally a subterrainian bee, and will sometimes attempt to sting you while flying low to the tunnel's ground.
Extra Eyes: It has eyes running the length of its body.
Lightning Bruiser: It can fly roughly as fast as the speed booster and shine spark, can take a beating and is more than capable of smacking you around.
Mama Bear: It attacks Samus when she crushes its eggs underfoot.
Monster Is a Mommy: It has several eggs in the chamber it fights Samus in.
Purple Is Powerful: It's an apex predator with a purple carapace.
Ramming Always Works: Its most common attack it to strafe the ground and try to ram Samus.
Spike Shooter: Later in the fight, it fires stingers at Samus.

Alpha Blogg

Debut: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

A dangerous aquatic predator Samus fights in the Torvus Bog.

Attack Its Weak Point: The inside of its mouth, vulnerable only when its charging at you.
Interface Screw: It has a sonic attack that breaks lock-on, dismisses Samus's weapon charge, and turns her views briefly into static.
King Mook: It's a more dangerous blogg with some extra tricks.
Lone Wolf Boss: It's the only boss fought in Echoes that isn't used by Ing in some way besides Dark Samus and the caretaker droid. And even the latter at least belongs to a faction.
Make Me Wanna Shout: It fires projectiles that the scan data says are sonic disruption blasts.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: It has three jaws and they're all packed with jagged teeth.
Ramming Always Works: Its most common attack it for to swim straight for Samus, jaws wide open, to try and ram her.
Sequence Breaking: By utilizing a jump trick, players can escape the battle without actually beating it.
Turns Red: When it gets low on health the time between its charges becomes much shorter and it doesn't open its jaws until the last second, making it much harder to hit and avoid.
Underwater Boss Battle: The only one in the whole Prime series, in fact.

Spawn

Artic on top, Fire on bottom

Debut: Metroid Prime: Hunters

Silicon-based predators that live in extreme environments found in the Alimbic System. Two are fought over the course of the game, a fire spawn on Alinos and an artic spawn on Arcterra.

Elemental Powers: They launch projectiles of fire or ice that deal additional effects. The fire spawn's projectiles light Samus on fire and damage her over time, while the artic spawn's freeze her solid and leave her helpless.
Eyeless Face: Neither spawn has eyes.
Flower Mouth: Pretty much their entire heads.
Logical Weakness: They're weak to weapons utilizing temperature extremes they aren't used to. The fire spawn is weak to the cold-based Judicator, while the artic spawn is weak to the high-temperature Magmaul.
Magma Man: The fire spawn's appearance gives this impression, as well as the fact that it lives in a pool of lava.
Silicon-Based Life: The fire spawn's scan says it is particularly unfriendly towards carbon based life forms, which could be a joke but its molten lava dwelling is a common indicator for "silicon based organism". The rationale behind the arctic spawn is not as clear.
Tunnel King: The artic spawn can quickly burrow into the ground and reemerge.

Brug Mass

Debut: Metroid: Other M

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_20211029_104451_youtube.jpg

^{Click here to see the Emperor Brug}

A mass of insectoid creatures gathered around a king brug to form a composite body.

Attack Its Weakpoint: The eye, actually the king brug.
Combat Tentacles: It has these for arms.
Decapitated Army: After Samus kills the king, the rest scuttle away harmlessly.
Eyes Do Not Belong There: The king brug has a large eyeball on its back.
Four-Legged Insect: The brugs that make up its body have four legs. Justified, as they're alien creatures and never actually referred to as insects.
Goomba Stomp: After its arms are destroyed, it hops around and tries to crush its enemies underfoot.
King Mook: The king brug, which forms the creature's eye.
The Only One: If you wait long enough while the brug mass is frozen, the marines will try to overblast it. It easily shakes them off, leaving the task up to Samus.
Worm That Walks: It's a towering creature composed of a swarm of smaller bugs.

Goyagma

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ulf_39_2.jpg

Debut: Metroid: Other M

A creature dwelling in a volcano caldera in Sector 3.

Attack Its Weak Point: A glowing spot on its throat.
Boom, Headshot!: Samus can leap onto its head and blast it point blank with missiles.
Combat Tentacles: Its arms have hands but don't seem to have bones, giving this impression.
Eye on a Stalk: Its eyes are on short stalks.
Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: Living in a literal pit of lava doesn't seem to bother it that much.
Noodle People: Its arms and neck are long and seemingly boneless.
Stationary Boss: It sits still in the lava as it attacks.

Vorash

Debut: Metroid: Other M

A large creature that lives in lava that Samus fights in Sector 3 of the Bottle Ship.

Attack Its Weak Point: A number of purple nodules on its stomach serve as its weakpoint.
Extra Eyes: It has eight eyes. How it uses them considering it lives in lava, which isn't exactly transparent, isn't quite clear.
Fish out of Water: A literal example. Samus can sue the grapple point stuck in its teeth to drag it out of the lava and leave it flopping helplessly on land.
Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: It swims through lava like a shark swims through water, without being hindered by density or temperature.
Super-Persistent Predator: It really does not like Samus. In her first moments in the sector it bites through a passageway to get at her and doesn't stop hunting her until she finally puts it down.
Throw Down the Bomblet: It drops fiery bombs as it leaps over the platforms Samus stands on.

Sawken

Debut: Metroid Prime: Federation Force

Large aquatic creatures fought by the Federation Force on Excelcion.

Expy: Seaserpent-like creatures with an armored segmented appearance? You sure that isn't Serris?
Fusion Dance: When damaged enough, the two sawken will combine into a single larger creature.
Make My Monster Grow: They're not usually that big, the Space Pirates experimented on them to make them much larger.

Rohkor Beetle

Debut: Metroid Prime: Federation Force

An absolutely gigantic creature that threatens a Federation data probe on Bion.

Advancing Boss of Doom: The longer the fight goes on, the closer it gets to the probe.
Attack Its Weakpoint: The inside of its mouth is the only place that can hurt it.
Breath Weapon: A laser it sweeps across the area in front of it.
Eye on a Stalk: Its eyes are on short stalks.
Four-Legged Insect: It has four legs, yet it's called a beetle.
Kaiju: Even compared to the Golem troopers, who are already much larger than usual due to their mech suits, this thing is huge.
Knee Capping: Its knees are weakpoints. Destroying all of them will temporarily immobilize it and cause it to keep its mouth open.
Mook Maker: It spawns and summons various other creatures to aid it.
Not Quite Dead: After the Federation Force severely wounds it and it collapses, it tries to get back up. It takes a Gunship Rescue from Samus to finally put it down.

Corpius

Debut: Metroid Dread

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_20211022_203632_youtube.jpg

A monster from Planet ZDR that attacks Samus in Artaria.

Attack Its Weak Point: The Corpius has two: its head when it's visible and a bulbous section of its tail partway down from the stinger when it's invisible.
Beware My Stinger Tail: Its primary method of attack is through swipes, stabs, and slams with its stinger-tipped tail.
Boss Arena Recovery: Shooting down its acid spit globs or the tail core when it's vulnerable will release missile ammo and health for Samus.
Breath Weapon: Initially in the form of Super Spit globs of toxin, the Corpius releases a low to the ground cloud of gas in later parts of the fight that Samus needs to use the Spider Magnet to wall cling and avoid.
Cyborg: Somehow, the Phantom Cloak ended up embedded in its tail, allowing the beast to make use of its power.
Death from Above: The victim of it, as assuming Samus' final attack didn't finish it off, it definitely died when it slammed into a nearby Chozo statue afterwards and the stone construct came crashing down on its head.
Meaningful Name: Very similar to scorpius, fitting for a creature whose primary physical feature is its scorpion-like tail.
Stealthy Colossus: Thanks to the Phantom Cloak, the Corpius can render itself invisible. Not only does this allow it to sneak up on and ambush unwitting prey, it makes its moves in combat harder to read, though fortunately a few shots to its secondary weak point returns it to visibility.
Wake-Up Call Boss: The Corpius tests both your mastery of free-aiming as well as being able to time attack tells, as it will shift its head up and down on occasion as well as constantly move its tail to make hitting its bulb harder, and its attacks hit hard enough at this early point of the game it will punish reckless offensives.

Drogyga

Debut: Metroid Dread

A tentacled creature that attacks Samus in Burenia.

Armored But Frail: It can't be damaged when it's closed up, but as soon as Samus manages to drain the water and force it to expose its weakpoint, it becomes one of the flimsiest bosses in the game. If Samus succeeds at countering its tentacle, it's possible to damage it enough that it dies within one sequence.
Boss Arena Recovery: Shooting down its fireballs will drop missile ammo and health for Samus.
Fed to the Beast: A picture in the Chozo Archives shows that Mawkin prisoners were shoved into Drogyga's maw.
Fireballs: One of its attacks appears to shoot three fireballs underwater that slowly rain down on Samus' side of the field. The blue ones can be destroyed for ammo and health.
Logical Weakness: A creature that is fully adapted to living in the water would be left vulnerable if the water is drained.
Puzzle Boss: In order to damage the boss, Samus has to attack the tentacle blocking the magnetic strip on top until it retracts, shoot the generator button on her side, make her way to the other generator via the unblocked magnetic strip, and shoot it. Only then will the water drain and cause Drogyga to expose its weakpoint.
Tentacled Terror: It's a huge sea creature resembling a mix between an octopus and a sea anemone that strikes at Samus with its tentacles.
Underwater Boss Battle: The battle takes place underwater before Samus gets the Gravity Suit, hindering her mobility. To deal with the boss, Samus needs to turn both generators on, which will temporarily drain the water from the arena and render Drogyga vulnerable.

Other

Gorea

"THE SECRET TO ULTIMATE POWER RESIDES IN THE ALIMBIC CLUSTER."

Debut: Metroid Prime: Hunters

"Without warning, our doom fell from the sky. From whence it came we do not know. The horror shrieked its name: GOREA. Gorea is power beyond reckoning and evil unrelenting. The universe has not known terror such as this. At first we thought Gorea was a comet. It crashed upon our planet and emerged as a vapour, it mimicked our cellular structure and replicated itself in solid form. We have seen Gorea alter its atomic structure between polarizing states. Our scientists believe it may also possess other SHAPE-CHANGING abilities. We deployed our deadliest weapons to defeat the beast. To our horror, every weapon was somehow used against us. The war only lasted a few standard galactic months. Even with the galaxy's most powerful technology at our disposal, we fell like dry grass beneath the blade. For Gorea was immune to even our most sophisticated weaponry, while we were defenseless against its relentless attacks. It devoured our people's life energy and grew even more powerful from such sustenance. Death swept across our worlds, and we despaired. We feared not only for the extinction of our race and our galaxy, but the possibility that the evil would sweep across the entire universe, annihilating all in its path. We gave our lives to confine the foul monstrosity known as Gorea. Do not seek this creature unless you have the means to DESTROY it."

— The Alimbic Order of Elders

A mysterious being that arrived in the Alimbic System and began laying waste to all it found. The Alimbic managed to seal it away in a pocket dimension called the Oubliette, from which it managed to send a message intended to incite others into inadvertently freeing it.

Alien Geometries: It can throw rocks through walls and through floors while leaving them intact.
Arc Villain: Of Hunters.
Arm Cannon: Both arms of its first form are type 1s.
Barrier Change Boss: For most of the first phase.
Batman Gambit: It sent the distress signal to all of the Hunters in the galaxy so that they would find the Octoliths and set it free. It even managed to get Hunters with weapons equivalent to the now gone Alimbics, to make assimilating them that much easier.
The Chessmaster: It engineers its escape with a single sentence.
Cognizant Limbs: While Hunters has no lock-on feature, Gorea's arms have their own health bars. As does the seal sphere.
Combat Tentacles: Either this or a Tractor Beam, depending on how you interpret it. Either way, Gorea can drain Life Energy with them and assimilate weapon systems this way. Can't get Samus's power beam, which unfortunately won't do any meaningful damage anyway.
Curbstomp Battle: The fight between it and the other antagonists of the game sees Gorea win pretty easily, the other antagonists being all six of the other hunters at once.
Damage-Sponge Boss: Standard for the Prime series, Gorea takes a lot of damage before its first form goes down. The second form, being weak to the Omega Cannon, is an aversion.
Despair Event Horizon: The survivors of its initial assault were said to seem lifeless, even if they weren't injured.
Dishing Out Dirt: Its second phase does this with rocks.
Eldritch Abomination: Was originally this, but became a Humanoid Abomination after stealing that form from the Alimbics. It degenerates a little as you fight it, though.
Final Boss: It is the final opponent that Samus faces off against in Hunters.
Floating Limbs: Its head, much like Trace.
"Get Back Here!" Boss: The only way to defeat its final phase is to let it run, track it down and then repeat the process. It will immediately appear when you can't hurt it but as soon as you can it will vanish before any damage can be done, forcing you to find it the hard way.
Guide Dang It!: How to unlock its final phase. More specifically, you have to shoot a number of colored panels on the walls of its arena in a certain order with the proper weapons corresponding to the color of the panel. This is actually hinted at in several of the logbook scans, but it's so vague that most people needed a guide to figure it out anyway.
Homing Boulders: Samus is perfectly capable of dodging them, or simply shooting them before they reach her, but that doesn't change the fact the boulders launched by Gorea travel in trajectories that should be impossible.
Improvised Weapon: It likes throwing the frozen colonies of cyanobacteria that float around in its prison.
Know When to Fold 'Em: Once Gorea realizes the Omega Cannon can hurt it, it will immediately start fleeing while the Omega Cannon is active, requiring you to chase after it.
Mega Manning: Its first phase sees it steal and use weaponry. Oh, and most of the weapons it employs are much more dangerous when in Gorea's possession, except possibly the shock coil. Also, it ends up using the seal sphere meant to seal off its powers as a battery to siphon energy off of and continue on with.
One-Winged Angel: In its second form it trades its versatile weaponry for flight, teleportation, and Reality Warping attacks.
Only a Flesh Wound: Blowing off its arms doesn't bother it much in fact, the limbs are the only thing Samus's weapons can damage. The final stage is against a flying torso! If you're not quick, it will grow its arms back too.
Outside-Context Problem: There's a reason Gorea is by its lonesome in this page. It's an originally gaseous being of unknown origin that holds no association with any known faction (Space Pirates, Phaaze, etc.) in the series. It simply exists and landed on the Alimbic Cluster without prior warning, wiping out the resident dominant race across multiple planets solely for sustenance.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Apparently no one thought to gag it though, since it can still talk or otherwise send messages.
Sealed Good in a Can: One of these acts as its Restraining Bolt.
Soiled City on a Hill: The Alimbics got invaded by aliens. They built a lot of weapons, chased out the aliens, declared themselves invincible, and told everyone to stay away. Gorea then came and wrecked everything.
Starfish Aliens: Don't let that picture fool you. That's just a familiar form it took on to make the Alimbics uncomfortable.
Tailor-Made Prison: It resides inside one, inside a void outside of local space time, with a Restraining Bolt attached to it. And it could still send telepathic messages across at least galactic, possibly extra galactic distances, from it.
Telepathy: How it communicates.
Tripod Terror: Its initial form has three legs. Unlike Metroid Prime it's as slow going forwards as you'd expect, although it pivots very well
Verbal Tic Name: The Alimbics call it the first thing it said.
Villain Teleportation: Once you unlock its final stage, though it mainly just uses this to stay out of Samus's crosshairs.

Characters / Metroid - Other Antagonists

Phazon

Metroid Prime