Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Walkthrough – Bosses

Here you’ll find a detailed list of strategies, information, and tips in fighting the many bosses of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Navigate to any specific boss below.

 

 

Dark Alpha Splinter 

 

Your first boss battle of the game! Make sure that you stop and scan the Alpha Splinter, and then scan it AGAIN when it turns into the Dark Alpha Splinter. As a general rule, Metroid Prime 2 has a ton of different bosses with light and dark forms, as well as other phases, so anytime you see a boss do something different or change shapes even a bit, check to see if you’ve scanned it, since these are one time only scans.

The Alpha Splinter will line you up, wait for a second, shriek, and then charge at you. Strafe to the side to avoid it. Worth noting, you’ll lose your target lock on the Splinter, but don’t worry. Just strafe out of the way, and keep looking forward because the Alpha Splinter will jump back to its original position quickly after. Blast it with another couple of missiles and then it will transform.

The Dark Alpha Splinter is similar, but with a few differences. Instead of charging at you right away, it will split some dark acid at you. Strafe to avoid that, and then get ready to Strafe again as it charges towards you. This time, you WILL be able to keep your target locked on! A few missiles or charged shots later, and this boss will fall.

 

Bomb Guardian 

 

The gross bug is hoarding one of your most valuable items, so let’s take it out. Before dishing out the punishment, however, make sure you scan the Bomb Guardian.

This Guardian resembles a big Worm, with the head steering its body and the tail dropping bombs every couple of seconds. The Bomb Guardian has no problem ramming, charging, and slashing you if you get too close, so be sure to watch your steps. Obviously, you’ll have to be cognizant of where the Bomb Guardian is dropping those bombs too.

The Bomb Guardian’s tail is its weak spot, so aim charged shots at it, getting as close as you can without being bombed. After a few shots, you’ll stun the Bomb Guardian, which causes it to drop its guard just for a quick minute. This is your chance to strike! Blast some missiles right at its head! After a shot or two, the Bomb Guardian will snap out of it, and get ready, because you’re in for a blitz.

The Bomb Guardian will start hurling what seems like hundreds of bombs all once all over the arena. This actually sounds worse than it is being honest, as they’re pretty easy to avoid, but still! No getting careless. The Bomb Guardian will start to throw bombs at you rather than lay them as it takes more damage. It will only be one bomb at first, and then gradually pick up in intensity.

Keep shooting the tail to stun the big worm, and unload on its head with either missiles or charged shots, and this Guardian will fall shortly.

 

Jump Guardian

 

It’s time to strike back at another thieving Ing! This time, you’re squaring off against the Jump Guardian, a rather slippery and mobile opponent. Make sure to scan this enemy, as this is your only chance to do so.

As you’re no doubt aware, this is your first boss encounter in Dark Aether, and while you have a Light Crystal beside you, you’ll want to pay attention to your surroundings, because I don’t need to tell you that if you step outside the comfort of the light zone, your health will start to deplete faster than you can say “game over”. However, because of said Light Crystal, you will constantly be regenerating health, so it’s not all bad news here.

The Jump Guardian itself is fairly basic in terms of its attacks, but like I said, this thing is slippery. This Ing’s go-to attack is an old fashioned ground pound that will send shockwaves trembling through the ground, and you will almost certainly lose your lock on when it jumps, so be aware of that. Additionally, the Jump Guardian will have a protective barrier of dark energy around it as it prepares to jump, so don’t waste missiles trying to damage it then.

The Jump Guardian will also shoot a series of three light beams at you, so just strafe when you see them about to fire. This is actually your best opportunity to throw a little firepower back at the Ing, so strafe, shoot, strafe, repeat. As it takes more damage, it will start to move faster and jump more erratically, so stay frosty.

Damaging the Jump Guardian isn’t that much different from damaging a regular Warrior Ing, so just avoid its attacks, aim true, and blast away when you get an opening and this creature should fall in short order.

 

Dark Samus

 

Samus! Dark Samus! The fight is on! As always, don’t forget to scan your dark doppelganger.

First and foremost, let’s take a second to appreciate the absolute banger that plays during this fight. Truly a thing of beauty. Speaking of beauty, there’s something so graceful about the way that Dark Samus moves, as you will no doubt get acquainted with as the battle progresses.

Damaging Dark Samus is simple enough; there’s no weak spot to speak of, you simply need to target her and land charged shots. The trick will be actually hitting her. Dark Samusmoves around a lot, and quickly, so you’ll need to stay moving and on your toes to keep up with her. There’s also cover in the room, adding to the challenge.

Since Dark Samus is you, there are a lot of attacks that should look a bit familiar. The Dark Hunter will fire off missiles at you, which are easy enough to avoid; another trick up her sleeve is a sort of charged shot that shoots out multiple tiny particles of Phazon, so keep your distance. Dark Samus will also create a Phazon aura around her if you try to fire off your own missiles at her, and needless to say, this aura does nothing for your health, so stick to charged shots.

Once Dark Samus gets to half health, she will really start going wild. After taunting you, Dark Samus will summon a protective shielding around her, making her invulnerable; that’s not all, though. The attack comes next, as she’ll start floating in the air and then Shinesparking starlight at you! Whatever you do, get out of the way!

If the Shinesparking wasn’t bad enough, the Dark Hunter also will start to bust out the super missile, which will hit for major damage (and, fwiw, destroy some tanks in the room, which will allow you to target her a bit easier).

With stuff blowing up everywhere, an opponent who moves like the wind, and some pretty formidable attacks at her disposal, Dark Samus will be by far your toughest challenge yet, but it you can keep avoiding the attacks and pelting her with charged shots, you should put her down before she does the same to you.

 

Amorbis

 

The Guardian of the Dark Agon Wastes is your final obstacle to restoring the light to this part of Aether, so let’s take it down!

Amorbis is a ginormous slug, albeit surprisingly agile and swift. In the center of the battlefield is a giant sphere that powers the Amorbis with dark energy, but is impervious to weaponry. Meanwhile, the Amorbis itself is capable of moving in and out of the ground, and likes to burst out of a hole and go flying in the air, generally trying to land right on top of you. Obviously, that would be bad, so keep yourself moving from one Light Crystal to another.

The Amorbis has plating around its body, which you can shoot off, but heads up – once all the plating is gone, it will latch onto the sphere in the middle and start attacking you, as well as recharging its armor. Worth noting – the creature now scans as Dark Amorbis, so make sure you scan it! Blast away the plating on the DA’s head before it recharges and it will start to inhale. Quickly Morph down and allow it such you up; lay some bombs and you’ll damage both the Amorbis and the sphere.

Once you’ve damaged the sphere for the first time, a second Amorbis (or are they one creature? I’m not really sure) will enter the fray and start jumping around. Repeat the same processes as before until the Amorbis are latching onto the sphere again.

This time, the two creatures will latch on and form a ball of dark energy that will shoot some pretty heavy hitting beams at you, so do your best to avoid them whole damaging the heads. You’ll need to let both Amorbis heads suck you up and bomb both slugs to damage the sphere.

Once that’s finished – you guessed it! – a third Amorbis will join the fray. Take out their plating as quickly as you can. Once all three are latched onto the sphere, destroy their heads with Light Beams, bomb their slimy throats one last time, and the Amorbis will be destroyed.

 

Boost Guardian

 

Ah, the Boost Guardian. One of the most infamous bosses in the entire Metroid series. This boss has long had a reputation as one of the most difficult and unfair bosses in the franchise, but hopefully with the right strategies, we can get out of this without pulling our hair out. As always, scan the boss to start.

Now, there’s a few reasons why this boss is regarded as so difficult, and the primary one is that you will constantly be taking damage as this fight progresses. There are no Light Crystals anywhere to provide you protection against Dark Aether’s atmosphere. Making matters worse, the last Save Station was miles away.

On top of this, the Boost Guardian itself is incredibly hard to hit. Since this Ing has made off with your Morph Ball Booster, that makes this creature incredibly fast and impervious to weaponry when it’s boosting, and the Boost Guardian will use its boost. A lot. It’s so fast that there’s also not really much of a strategy to avoid it, other than just try to keep jumping and get out of the way. Furthermore, the Boost Guardian will also spawn other Inglets to attack you. And this is before you potentially even land one hit.

So when does the good news come in, right? Well, there are a few bright spots, but truth be told, this will be a heck of a fight. The Inglets when defeated will almost always drop at least 20 units of health, and there are several pillars across the battlefield. If the Boost Guardian destroys them while it’s zipping around, there will be a full tank’s worth of energy there.

Also fortuitous is that, like the other Guardians, the Boost Guardian is just a souped up regular Warrior Ing, and will take some decent damage if you nail it in the face with a charged Light Beam shot. Don’t bother with missiles, as they’ll just bounce right off the Boost Guardian’s face.

After boosting around the arena a few times, the Boost Guardian will revert back to its soupy dark oozy form, and slowly crawl along the ground following you. This is your chance to drop some bombs and stun it. After enough hits, the Boost Guardian will reveal itself. This is your chance to strike! Unload with a charged Light Beam shot as quickly as you can, and steel yourself, because the Boost Guardian almost always rams you right after you hit it. Destroy the Inglets with your Dark Beam if you start running low on Light Ammo.

Keep up the attack and try to dodge its boost attack as best as you can. Let the Boost Guardian destroy the Inglets, and quickly pick up any health that they drop. This will be a tough battle, and it may require a bit of luck, but after a half dozen charged shots or so, the Guardian will fall.

 

Alpha Blogg

 

All I can say is thank God we got the Gravity Boost before this fight instead of after. Get ready to face off against the apex predator of the Torvus Bog depths! As always, scan this enemy right away.

The good news is that the Alpha Blogg functions in a very similar way to the regular Bloggs you’ve already encountered in Torvus. The Alpha Blogg will swim around the arena, shoot three water blasts at you if nothing is happening, and charge straight at you if you hit it with a charged shot. This is a great opportunity to blast it with a Super Missile. You might take a hit doing so, but the damage will be worth it as one Super Missile shot takes away about 25% of the Alpha Blogg’s health.

The charging attack is the primary move of choice from this aquatic creature, and it definitely hurts if it lands, but honestly, the Alpha Blogg is a one trick pony. Your Gravity Booster should make it easier than ever to out-maneuver your foe, so after a couple of Super Missile shots, the Alpha Blogg will be destroyed.

 

 

Grapple Guardian

 

Time to reclaim your Grapple Beam! Your next opponent is the Grapple Guardian, who is one mean-looking Ing. As always, start the battle off by scanning your enemy. As always, be sure to scan this Guardian before engaging in battle.

This will definitely be more of a slugfest than what you’d call a technical match-up, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few tricks that you can use to get the upper hand. First off, the Grapple Guardian’s attacks. This Ing likes to get right up in your face, ramming, charging, and headbutting you to inflict damage. Not only that, but it will use your Grapple Beam against you and try to ensnare you. If it latches on, either get into Morph Ball form or try to just fire enough charged shots to make the Grapple Guardian break its hold.

You’ll notice the big glowing eye on the Grapple Guardian’s head. This is its weak spot, but don’t waste any ammo on shooting there; hitting this spot won’t inflict direct damage, but it will stun the Grapple Guardian and force it to bust out its Grapple Beam. This is where our trap comes in.

As soon as the Grapple Guardian starts throwing his Grapple Beam around, get behind one of the two electrified pillars in the battlefield. If you’ve positioned yourself right, instead of snaring you, the Grapple Guardian will have grappled the pillar instead, causing it to get stuck and slowly pulled towards the pillar.This is your chance to ruuun as quickly as you can to the Grapple Guardian’s backside and blast it with a Super Missile. You’ll have better luck if you get the Grapple Guardian to latch onto the pillar that’s further away since it ties up the creature longer, giving you more time to shoot it right in the butt. It’s also worth mentioning that the Grapple Guardian will eventually hit the pillar, which causes health to fall. Yay!

Keep this strategy up for a while, and eventually, the Grapple Guardian will summon Grapple energy (whatever that means) around itself and transform. This is your queue to scan the Grapple Guardian once again.

This will now become just a straight up brawl, no gimmicks, no tricks. Blast away at the Grapple Guardian’s eye until it’s stunned. There’s no more pillars to trap the creature, so you’ll need to quickly hit its eye again once it’s stunned, doing so before the Grapple energy surrounds it again. Keep pelting it and soon enough, the Grapple Guardian will fall.

 

Chykka 

 

The Guardian of the Dark Torvus Bog awaits, and trust me when I say, but this creature is going to make you work to get that energy back to Light Aether.

You’ll start the battle off against Chykka’s Larva form, so make sure to scan it. It will also summon up some Dark Shredders, which is a scan you’ll want to grab as well since these enemies only appear in this battle. Onto the actual battle itself.

The arena is a singular platform with a sea of toxic sludge around it, which Chykka will be swimming around in. In addition to calling in Dark Shredders, Chykka will also use a splash attack, where it will jump up and dive bomb into the sludge, causing it to spill on the platform, damaging you and sending you flying back. Chykka is also fond of throwing sludge bombs at you, which are easy enough to dodge, but something to watch out for.

Luckily for us, Chykka’s biggest attack is also our biggest opportunity. When the Larva jumps out of the sludge to prepare to cannonball down, it will expose its belly for the briefest of moments. This is your queue to strike! I would recommend using charged Light Beam shots, but regular charged shots will also work. Don’t forget, if you’re running low on Ammo, destroy some Shredders with your Dark Beam. Shooting Chykka will still cause the giant beast to fall into the sludge, so be careful to jump over the sludge tidal wave.

Eventually after taking a few hits, Chykka will jump on the middle platform like a big beached whale and attempt to eat you. Yes, that is a real sentence. Chykka will jump up and latch onto you with its tongue, pulling you closer towards its mouth. Needless to say, this attack hurts, so instead of letting it eat a Samus-burger, instead throw a charged Light shot at its face, and once Chykka recoils in pain, shoot it again in the belly. It will retreat back into the sludge, and you can repeat the process.

Keep this up for the entire duration of the boss battle, sneaking in as many charged shots as possible when Chykka jumps up, and the Larva form will be destroyed.

Oh wait, you thought we were done? Na, we’re just getting started.

The Larva was just an appetizer. After being defeated, the center platform will split into three parts, which you’ll need to Grapple to and from, and Chykka is now its full adult self: a big nasty flying bug. Scan the Dark insect and let’s get to it!

You’ll notice right away that locking on to Chykka is a challenge. It moves quickly and sporadically, attacking by shooting large amounts of toxins at you. This not only hurts, but will push you back and more than likely into the sludge, so try and avoid this as best as you can by strafing, dodging, or simply going to another platform.

The name of the game will be shooting Chykka’s head. While this won’t do damage, if you hit it enough times, Chykka will become stunned. This will allow you to quickly Grapple and get on a platform behind it and shoot Chykka in the back, either with charged shots or a Super Missile. Its wings will have four glowing orbs, which is where you’ll want to target.

Keep up the attack, dodging Chykka’s toxic bombs, and eventually, all four wings on Chykka’s back will be destroyed. We’re still not done yet, though.

Chykka will fall into the sludge and re-emerge as Dark Chykka. Scan the creature one last time and continue the battle. You’ll see that Chykka’s egg sac is massive now, which makes sense since Chykka will be summoning little Chyklings all over the battlefield. This is both good and bad; good, because these little baby creatures are defenseless and can easily be destroyed for health and ammo; bad, because destroying them will enrage Mama.

In this case, the good outweighs the bad, so restock on Light Ammo, missiles, health, and send as many charged Light shots towards Chykka’s big sac as you can. Eventually, the Dark energy surrounding the insect will disappear and it will revert back to regular Chykka, complete with four new wings. You know what to do.

Keep up the attack, using the same strategy as before. Watch out though, because now Chykka will fly directly at you and ram you on occasion. Be ready to move.

Destroy Chykka’s four wings again and watch as it turns into Dark Chykka. Hit its sac with everything you’ve got, and Chykka will finally, mercifully be destroyed.

 

Spider Guardian

 

Get ready for an entirely different type of boss battle! First and foremost though, make sure that before you enter the Morph Ball tunnel, you scan the Spider Guardian! It will be scurrying back and forth next to the tunnel, and this is literally your only chance to grab it since we’ll be in Morph Ball form the entire battle, so make sure you get it now!

When you’re ready, roll inside. Right away, I’m going to tell you that, depending on which version of Metroid Prime 2 you’re playing, this battle is either going to be really fun or potentially very frustrating. The original Echoes for the GameCube had no Spring Ball jump for the Morph Ball, which will make things way harder since double jumping is key here. Fortunately, from Prime Trilogy and on, that feature has been added, which makes everything much easier. Hopefully you’re playing a later version. Let’s get to it.

Now, this battle is really more of a puzzle than a fight, and a lot of it is really based on your ability to perform, so beyond telling you what to do – which is easier said than done – there’s really not a whole lot of guidance I can give. Nevertheless, let’s break down what we can.

The Spider Guardian will follow a set path. It won’t actively try to hurt you, but unfortunately, where we need to go is right in its way, and if you make contact with the Spider Guardian and all the energy around it, that’s gonna hurt. You’ll notice the Spider Guardian is blue to begin the battle; you’ll want to lay a few bombs to stun it. It will turn red at first, going even faster, but with enough damage, it will turn green. This is your queue to get yourself over to the Morph Ball bomb slot and activate it. Doing so will activate a new pathway to open up, and the Spider Guardian will barge straight into an electrical conduit which will damage it. It’s worth mentioning too that while the Spider Guardian is stunned, you can boost right through it while taking no damage.

The first phase is fairly straightforward; you shouldn’t have any problems there. The second phase is a bit trickier, since there’s now a half pipe and you’ll need to use your Boost Ball to get to the top platform so you can fall, drop bombs on your way down, and stun the Spider Guardian. Do so and activate the second bomb slot.

The third phase has another half pipe and more platforms. A decent, if slow, strategy would be to boost up to the right side of the room and leave bombs at the apex of your Boost, which the Spider Guardian  should run into. Otherwise get to the top left corner and bomb it from the platforms there. After it hits the conduit, you’ll be able to follow it and get some health from the boxes.

The fourth phase is where we separate the pretenders from the contenders.

There are three conduits and bomb slots here and essentially nowhere that acts as a safe zone. To start, bomb the Spider Guardian until it’s green and then activate the bomb slot on the lower left; easy enough. After that, bomb it again until green and then make your way up to the middle bomb slot. The Spider Guardian will be hard to avoid, and this bomb slot is on a slope, which makes slipping and losing your place tricky. This is where the Spring Jump really comes in handy. That’s not all though – you’ll also need to activate the lower bomb slot in order to send the Spider Guardian crashing into the second conduit. Act quickly and get them done!

As you’ve no doubt guessed by now, the kill shot is going to require you to activate all three bomb slots, so do your thing! Stun the Spider Guardian, and haul butt to the lower, middle, and finally upper bomb slots. You’ll have to move fast in order to hit all three before the Spider Guardian turns blue again, and the third slot is also on a slope, which doesn’t help.

With a little luck, you should be able to hit all three bomb slots and send the Spider Guardian straight towards its doom. Claim back your Spider Ball as your well earned prize.

 

Power Bomb Guardian

 

As always, start the battle off by scanning your adversary. Thankfully, this battle is somewhat straightforward and probably shouldn’t pose too much of a challenge, but still, no reason to get careless.

The Power Bomb Guardian will be stationary, sitting atop a pillar in the middle of the room. As its name would suggest, it likes to hurl Power Bombs at you, which isn’t actually completely awful since they take a second or two to actually detonate once they land, giving you time to get away.

At the very top of the room are four Morph Ball Bomb slots, and a whole lot of Spider Tracks against the wall. You’ll need to climb up and activate all four while avoiding the Power Bombs. This isn’t as simple as it sounds, as there are Inglets to contend with, and you’ll need to bomb jump up to reach different, unconnected Spider Tracks, all the while avoiding the Power Bombs being thrown at you, but truth be told, it’s not the absolute most difficult, either.

If you’re having trouble, try to slow down on the tracks a little bit and lure the Power Bomb Guardian into throwing a Power Bomb where you don’t want to go. As soon as it releases the bomb, start rolling in the direction you want to be in and hustle. Remember too – the Power Bombs don’t detonate right away, so worse comes to worse, if you get stuck, just let go and fall down towards the floor and try again. There will also be Inglets on the floor should you need health.

Just avoid all the debris and weaponry being thrown at you and you should activate the four switches in no time.

 

Dark Samus Returns

 

Guess who’s back for a rematch? As always, scan Dark Samus as soon as the battle starts, and get ready for an opponent with a whole slew of new tricks up her sleeve.

The setting of this battle will be even more close quarters than our last encounter with the Dark Hunter, and this time, Dark Samus is even more dangerous. You’ll be on an elevator ascending upwards to the top of Sanctuary Fortress with minimal obstacles blocking you and Dark Samus. There are two pillars in the middle of the elevator, which will come in handy, but not much else for cover. This is important, since as mentioned, Dark Samus has learned a few new tricks.

Dark Samus is still an incredibly agile and hard to hit opponent that will still fire the same scattershot charged beam at you. Now however, the Dark Samus will also shoot just a direct charged Phazon blast at you, which if it hits, will freeze you in place in addition to doing a ton of damage. Same as before, if you get too close to the Dark Hunter, she’ll create a small Phazon blast zone around her where Phazon energy will be summoned.

New to her arsenal is her ability to Morph down and start Boost Balling all around the arena. Much like the Boost Guardian, she will be impervious to damage when boosting and will be incredibly hard to avoid. Jumping continuously is your best strategy here. The silver lining is that chances are Dark Samus will destroy some crates while boosting, which should all have health inside of them.

Dark Samus has also added a more refined laser-like Phazon Beam attack, so make sure to avoid that. You’ll want to just pound her with charged Light shots as much as you can during this first phase. Eventually, the elevator will reach the top and Dark Samus will taunt you before rushing to attack once again.

This phase will continue much like the first. Dark Samus will sometimes pause to laugh at you, so make sure to bring the hammer down when she does this. She’ll also start firing missiles at you, rapid fire style, so make sure to dodge.

Eventually, Dark Samus will disappear from your sight. Equip your Dark Visor and continue the attack! Be careful – Phazon doppelganger is fond of using her Super Missile attack from the first battle while invisible to the naked eye.

After taking enough damage, Dark Samus will revert back to her regular appearance in the visible spectrum and pick up her attack. She’ll be surrounded by Phazon energy now, and is unleashing her full arsenal. She will Boost Ball you, she’ll fire charged Phazon shots, and she’ll bring back her charging Shinespark attack from the first battle. Be very careful here and avoid her attacks as best you can. Strafing will be key here.

Chances are you’ve probably run out of Light Ammo by this point, so switch to charged shots and Super Missiles when you get a clear shot. Try and finish off Dark Samus as quickly as you can, because her onslaught of attacks is brutal. She’ll also switch back into Dark Visor mode, so be ready to switch visors on a whim.

Keep the pressure up, attack at every opportunity, and eventually, you’ll send this Dark creature falling to her doom.

 

Quadraxis

 

Oh boy. Get ready for an absolute marathon of a boss battle against the hulking defense sentry known as Quadraxis. Pay very close attention, because Quadraxis has FIVE separate scans associated with it, and all are missable. I’ll point them out as we go along, but make sure to scan every time you even think Quads might have changed form.

Let’s get into the battle. Quadraxis is a behemoth, the pinnacle of Luminoth technology that the Ing have corrupted. First off – there’s no Light beacons, so you will constantly be taking damage from Dark Aether’s atmosphere. Greeeat. Keep that in mind.

Right away, you’ll notice some flashing orbs under each of Quadraxis’s legs; you’ll also see that you can target the “knee” of each leg. Keep that in mind as we formulate our attack plan.

Speaking of attacks, Quadraxis has plenty and they all hurt. It will switch between shooting straight up bullets at you, sending Annihilator beams at you, and literally jumping up and down, which as you might imagine, will cause a huge shockwave. Strafe and jump, strafe and jump, strafe and…

Start attacking the knees. Lock on and when you see the kneecaps flashing blue, launch a Super Missile. It will take about two Super Missiles, but you’ll destroy the kneecap. Pay real close attention, as destroying these parts usually causes either health or missiles to drop, both of which you’ll desperately want. You’ll need to take out all four kneecaps, but beware – after you break even one, the attacks start to ramp up in terms of intensity.

Quadraxis will start to fire homing missiles at you, constantly try and step on you, and perhaps it’s most devastating and hard to avoid attack – it will curl up and start spinning, much like regular MD enemies. The difference is that Quadraxis is so big that it will suck you in, like a vortex, and if you hit the eye of the storm, it hurts big time. Your best bet is to quickly Morph down and boost away as fast as you can, but I’m not gonna lie: this is a difficult to avoid attack that I often struggle with.

When Quadraxis gets down to just one kneecap left, it will lock on to you with a big red reticle and launch an Annihilator missile at you. If it hits, it will blur your Visor; furthermore, this attack is almost always followed by the spinning attack, so your best bet is to boost away and keep rolling as soon as you see that red reticle.

Once you finally break the four kneecaps, a cutscene will play and Quadraxis will detach its head from its body. Scan both the head and body and continue the fight.

Quadraxis will still have many of the same attacks without its body, and in particular, the Annihilator missile attack is much worse now, since it not only blurs your visor, but it makes it so you can’t pull out your Arm Cannon for what feels like forever. Rolling away is still probably your best bet when you see that reticle.

Although Quadraxis’s body may look like a mess, it’s actually providing a critical function: shielding the head with its sonar force field. Switch over to your Echo Visor and target the center sonar control unit in the middle of Quadraxis’s body. Destroy it with a Super Missile and get ready – now’s your chance!

First and foremost, after you’ve destroyed the center, the head will be stunned now; scan it for your fourth Quadraxis scan and then get ready! Quadraxis will summon some Dark Quad units to help it out, but you can destroy them for health and ammo if you need. More importantly, if you keep your Echo Visor equipped, you’ll see that Quadraxis’s head has three sonic sensors on it. Pound these with Super Missiles and destroy them!

For each one you break, you’ll get more health and ammo. The sonic shielding unit will regenerate on Quadraxis’s body in short time, so act fast! I would probably just ignore the Quad sentries that Quadraxis summons and focus on the middle unit and the sonic sensors on the head. Once all three are destroyed, another cutscene will play.

Quadraxis will go nuts, its head smashing apart its legs, rendering its body completely non-functional (to it, anyways!). It will also shatter a glass casing around its head, exposing magnetic Spider Tracks that will come in handy in a second. Scan Quadraxis’s head for the final time to get all of the scans in this battle!

We’re now in the home stretch. The Final Head Module will keep up the same method of attacking you, specifically spamming its target lock attack. This is the worst if you get hit, so roll away every time you see it pop up.

Keep attacking the head with Super Missiles and charged shots. After a few hits, you’ll stun the head and it will just kind of float lackadaisically around the arena. This is your chance to strike!

You’ll notice now that on each of Quadraxis’s legs, there are Spider Tracks. Quickly roll up and climb the tracks. When Quadraxis’s head is nearby, Boost yourself into the air and, with any luck, you’ll land on top of its head. For the love of God, make sure you’re holding down the Spider Ball button! Once you’re there, lay a bomb in the slot and the head will be severely damaged.

Pick up any health that drops – keep in mind, we’re in Dark Aether still – and repeat the process. Hit the second bomb slot of Quadraxis’s head, and it will be fully destroyed, giving you the Annihilator Beam as your much earned reward.

 

Emperor Ing

 

This is it. The fight for all the marbles. Once you grab that last bit of energy and bring it back to Light Aether, Dark Aether will cease to exist. Everything you’ve done, all the expansions collected, all the upgrades acquired, everything has led to this. If you though the Ing were gonna go down without a fight, though, you got another thing coming. We’re now face-to-face with the deadliest darkling of them all: Emperor Ing!

As always, start the battle by scanning this monstrosity and surveying the landscape. You’ll find that there is loads of Phazon around the room, which is hazardous to the touch. You’ll also see that Emperor Ing has a body and a separate head sitting on top; attached to the head are several tentacles that are going to be going nuts, swinging around and attacking you.

You can try your best to jump over the tentacles if they are sweeping the arena low to the ground, but it’s hard. The tentacles will also come together to form an orb of dark energy to hurl at you, which definitely hurts, but also means that all the tentacles are within range of each other. This would be a good time to take them out, potentially even using the Sunburst to take them out all in one go.

You can take a lot of damage in a very short time here, so it’s important to get on the offensive right away. Target the tentacles and start firing charged shots at them (Power Beam will do). It’s worth noting – while Power Beam charges shots will be fine, if you use your Light Beam, typically, if you hit the tentacles, you’ll get some ammo back, so feel free to do so.

One by one, the tentacles will be destroyed, forcing the Emperor Ing into a more vulnerable position. It will expose its eye (which is a separate scan, btw), most of which is covered by a shield. Not all of it though! Wait for an opening and fire a Super Missile right at the exposed eyeball and you’ll deal some damage. Don’t get careless, though – the eye will shoot a laser at you, which will cause you to stutter, losing precious time. I can’t overstate how annoying this laser is, and it will almost always fire as the exposed part of the eye is turning towards you. Do your best to strafe and avoid it. A good strategy would be to use the Sunburst here – it will do a ton of damage if you hit it, and at the beginning of this phase, Emperor Ing moves a bit more slowly.

After a bit, the tentacles will respawn and you’ll need to repeat the process. The tentacles will eventually start forming wormholes and start attacking you from every direction, so be careful. Move as quickly as you can to destroy the tentacles again, as they will be dealing an insane amount of damage if left unchecked. Get Emperor Ing back to eye state and fire away with everything you got. Sunburst is recommended for maximum damage.

After you deplete the big Ing of its health, it will decode to shield itself and flip over (this is yet another new scan), covering the arena with toxic gas. This gas will damage you, so don’t just stand there: Morph down and use your Spider Ball to cling to the shell of Emperor Ing!

There are several points that you’ll need to destroy, but hold on a minute. You’ll notice that there are Inglets swarming all over the Emperor’s shell. This is good! Destroy them with Bombs to gain health, ammo, missiles, whatever! Take your time and restock. Seriously, take as long as you need. As long as you’re rolling around the top portion of the shell, the rising gas won’t be able to reach you and the smaller tentacles won’t be able to hit you either. You’ll probably get knocked around a little, but compared to the health you’re grabbing, this is well worth it.

Once you’re ready, lay bombs at all the spots on the shell; use Power Bombs if you want. This is the final battle, after all. When there are only a few spots left to bomb, the gas will rise and you won’t be able to avoid it. Act fast, use Power Bombs, and use the tentacles as a guide post to what spots are still open. Destroy them and the shell will explode, revealing Emperor Ing’s final form.

The Mutated Emperor Ing, a vile being corrupted by Phazon, will emerge and the final stage of the fight will begin. Scan Emperor Ing one last time.

The Lord of the Ing is vulnerable, but won’t go down without a fight. Emperor Ing will charge at you, swipe at you, and summon portals of Light and Dark energy to shoot damaging beams at you. This is easy enough to avoid, but be on guard.

Pay special attention to the creature’s mouth; this is its weak spot, and you’ll need to fire either Light or Dark Beam shots into it, depending on what color its tendrils are. When they’re light, you’ll want to fire Dark shots, and vice versa. I’ve found you’ll usually need to stun Emperor Ing, particularly with Light Ammo, before you can actually damage it, so try and be calculated with your ammo so you don’t run out.

That being said, every now and then, the Ing will do this weird pose and summon these small energy orbs that you can shoot at and health, ammo, and more will pop out, so take advantage of that.as the fight progresses, the Mutated leader of the Ing will start adding some new attacks into its repertoire, so be ready.

Emperor Ing will start jumping up and down, sending shockwaves throughout the arena, and it will be much more aggressive with its charging. It will also create a giant pillar of light energy, which, if it touches you, will stun you and make it so your arm cannon can’t be used for a couple of seconds. This is actually a good opportunity to hit the creature with a Darkburst shot, since this attack will correlate with its light form.

Be relentless with your attacks, and after a while, the Emperor will fall, securing your victory over Dark Aether… or so we thought.

 

Dark Samus Reborn

 

This is the final battle. Light vs Dark. Samus vs Dark Samus. Let’s do this, one last time!

Scan Dark Samus to begin the battle. You’ll have to operate quickly, as you’ll have a little under eight minutes left to destroy your evil doppelganger once and for all.

Dark Samus will operate in a similar way to her previous iterations: sporadic movements, shifting in and out of visibility, and Phazon attacks. She will start the battle by summoning bolts of Phazon energy to damage you. Strafe or jump to avoid this. She will also have a battery of Phazon energy surrounding her, making her impervious to your weaponry while in this state.

Dark Samus will also disappear from sight; no problem. Equip your Echo Visor and you should be able to lock onto her. This is actually your best opportunity to do damage, so let some Super Missiles fly.

That’s actually all that there is to this battle, more or less, so keep on firing until Dark Samus is at about half of her health. At that point, she will surround herself in a ball of Dark Phazon energy; scan her one last time (this should hopefully fully complete your logbook!).

Dark Samus will stay in this form, firing orbs of energy at you. Strafe and avoid these, but keep locked onto her. The only thing that can damage the Dark Hunter now is Phazon, so let’s fight fire with fire. Charge up your Power Beam and sidestep the orbs that Dark Samus fires at you. After her orb attack, she will fire off little tiny Phazon particles at you. You’ll want to “catch” these with your charged Power Beam! Basically, just try and put your arm cannon right in the way (you’ll have an easier time not target locking). Your charged shot will turn blue, signifying that you have the Phazon energy charged up. You know what to do.

Fire your charged Phazon shot at Dark Samus and it will deal some pretty big damage. The Dark Hunter will re-emerge from her protecting aura and start battling you normally again, so pop off another Super Missile if you can, but this battle will be primarily won by blasting her with Phazon shots.

She will spend more and more time with her final form, throwing orbs at you, to the point where she will basically just get back inside of her Phazon aura as soon as she leaves it. Keep catching the tiny Phazon particles and firing them back at her and you will finally be rid of Dark Samus – and Dark Aether – for good.

 

Congratulations! You beat Metroid Prime 2: Echoes!