Annihilator Beam
The Annihilator Beam.
Featured in	Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Damage	Very High
Effect(s)	Has a highly effective homing function, can open grey doors, supercharges light beacons and crystals.
Special uses	Can activate sonic locks and switches.
Obtained	By destroying Quadraxis in the Ing Hive.

The Annihilator Beam is a secret Luminoth weapon, once wielded by the champion of Aether, A-Kul. The Annihilator is powered by both light and dark energy, firing a "matter-antimatter" shot that homes in on enemy targets. The weapon was taken from Luminoth hands by the Ing at some point during the war, most likely as the spoils of A-Kul's defeat in the Sky Temple Grounds. The Ing installed it on the machine guarding the Ing Hive, Quadraxis. When Samus Aran traveled to the Hive on her mission to recover Aether's planetary energy, she engaged and destroyed Quadraxis and claimed the Annihilator Beam as her prize.

DescriptionEdit

The Annihilator Beam's strength comes from its super-fast rate of fire, on par with that of the Power Beam, rather than its actual power level. Normal shots have a homing effect: even without a lock-on, the attack will automatically home in on a nearby target. According to Echoes multiplayer, it does around 5 damage per shot. This makes this beam extremely useful for taking down large hordes of small enemies, or firing barrages at more powerful foes while being able to dodge their attacks more easily. It uses a combination of both light and dark energy, and is similar in function to the Wave Beam in Metroid Prime in many ways, and the arm cannon takes on the same shape as the Plasma Beam from Metroid Prime. It is able to open the Gray Door (as colored on the in-game map) scattered around Aether, which are often shortcuts leading to certain expansions.

UsesEdit

When fired at a Light Beacon or Light Crystal, the Annihilator Beam temporarily turns it into a Super Beacon or Super Crystal, respectively. These versions of Beacons and Crystals share their Energized (powered by a shot from the Light Beam) counterparts' ability to damage Ing and other Dark-based creatures, while Attracting them (powered by a shot from the Dark Beam). This capability is incredibly useful for making long fights against difficult Ing much shorter.

The Annihilator Beam requires both Light and Dark Ammunition to function properly, and uses one of each per normal shot. The Annihilator Beam can activate any rift, but cannot open the Purple Hatch or the White Hatch. The lacking part of the Annihilator Beam is that it's not as powerful as the Light Beam against Dark enemies nor the Dark Beam against normal/light enemies.

Combined with the Echo Visor, it can interact with Echo Key Beam systems to open Echo Gates, another functionally shared with the Wave Beam.

The Annihilator Beam is particularly useful in defeating the Emperor Ing, as it damages it in all of its phases.

DisruptorEdit

Its charge beam technique is called the Disruptor, which does not home in on targets, but offers a large blast radius and stuns enemies. It is interesting to note that the charged shot will destroy a War Wasp Hive, but will not dispatch the shell of a Brizgee; under normal circumstances, both are destroyed by the use of a Missile. Upon contact, the Disruptor Shot will stun enemies for a few moments with an electrical field, very similar to that of the Wave Beam in Metroid Prime. Space Pirates are especially vulnerable to the Disruptor Shot. The Disruptor requires 5 Light and Dark Ammo in order to function correctly.

Charge ComboEdit

Main Article: Sonic Boom

The Annihilator Charge Combo is the Sonic Boom, an exceedingly powerful shot that creates a rift in space and damages any enemies near the projectile. When activated, it instantaneously creates a rift at the closest target in the line of fire, making for a very fast and powerful attack. Interestingly enough, even though it is named the "Sonic Boom", it cannot be seen when using the echo visor, which allows the user to "see" sound. A likely functional reason may be that an object which creates a Sonic Boom, which by definiton travels faster than the speed of sound, could not be detected by a sound-based sensor if the Sonic Boom's direction of travel is oriented away from the sensor, as the initial SONAR pulse, traveling at the speed of sound, would be unable to catch up to the Sonic Boom.

Official dataEdit

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes manualEdit

"Fire streams of energy that seek multiple targets and emit sonic waves that can be used on sonic-powered devices. Its shots are effective against light and dark enemies. Charge it to fire a Disruptor shot that stuns enemies."

Sentinel comment (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes)Edit

O-Lir

"The strongest weapon of our champion is in the hands of the enemy.
It fires a blast of light and dark energy, and has no equal. Find it soon!"

TriviaEdit

• In physics, the word "Annihilation" is used to denote the process that occurs when a subatomic particle collides with its respective anti-particle. Since light and dark can be seen as anti-particles (or opposites of each other) the weapon's name may come from more than its destructive tendencies alone.
• In the New Play Control version of Echoes, when Samus charges the Annihilator Beam and aims up, openings can be seen at both ends of the shock-absorber rings. This also happens with the Plasma Beam in Prime.
• Despite having both Light and Dark qualities, it cannot open pure-colored doors (namely Purple Hatch or White Hatch). However, it can activate both colors of Portals. This could be due to the fact that both the Purple Hatches and White Hatches may require a pure blast of energy (purely dark energy or light energy) rather than a hybrid of both types, whereas portals seem to only need to be charged by their respective energy, pure or not.
• The Annihilator Beam is the last beam in the Metroid Prime Trilogy to have both the "extended" Arm Cannon configuration and a Charge Combo as neither appeared in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

GalleryEdit

A render of the Annihilator Beam from Echoes.

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