Power Beam
From Wikitroid, the Metroid wiki
Samus Aran's Power Beam is her basic weapon, and it comes with her Power Suit. The Power Beam does little damage to enemies, although it can easily kill earlier, weaker enemies. It is Chozo technology that has probably been sent by the Chozo to other alien species. It is possible that the Power Beam is an ancient weapon, as when Samus first used an up-to-date version on Mother Brain, the shields were immune to it, but when Grey Voice attacked with a Century Old Weapon, it was able to penetrate the shields, as Samus's Beam does when she fights Mother Brain. It is a form of weaponry that replaced guns by having a good rate of fire and much more power. Over the course of the Metroid games, Samus has received various upgrades to her beam:
- Long Beam
- Spazer Beam
- Wide Beam
- Wave Beam
- Ice Beam
- Plasma Beam
- Charge Beam
- Dark Beam
- Light Beam
- Annihilator Beam
- Nova Beam
Also, depending on the suit she wears and the situation she is in, she can sometimes absorb things in her environment and transfer the power to her beam. This ability is demonstrated in Super Metroid, when she gains the powerful Hyper Beam to defeat Mother Brain, in Metroid Prime when she acquires the Phazon Beam to defeat the Metroid Prime, and in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, when she draws in shards of pure Phazon shot at her by Dark Samus and fired them back at her dark nemesis.
In Metroid Prime Hunters, Samus's beam has a rapid-fire effect. It fires four shots at once, a fifth beam a second later, then begins to charge.
On a side note, in Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt the Power Beam used an ammunition system. This is the only game where it has done so. If the player ran out of ammo they would no longer be able to fire the Power Beam fully automatically, and would be unable to use Missiles. This may have been a product of the training hologram, however.
[edit] Glitch Beams
There are also three semi-functional glitch beams in Super Metroid. These can be accessed by collecting the required beams and using a glitch to activate Spazer and Plasma simultaneously.
- Spacetime Beam, a combination of Ice, Spazer, and Plasma
- Murder Beam, a combination of all beams available: Charge, Wave, Ice, Spazer, and Plasma
- Chainsaw Beam, a combination of Wave, Spazer, and Plasma
- Strange Beam, a combination of Wave, Ice, and Spazer.
[edit] Trivia
- In the Prime trilogy the beams affected the Arm Cannon in their own unique way when charging. In the case of the Power Beam, beams of light would appear from the sides of the Arm Cannon. In the New Play Control! and Metroid Prime Trilogy versions of Metroid Prime this effect is absent. However, this graphical effect is retained in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
[edit] Appearances
| Beams |
|---|
| Power Beam | Long Beam | Wave Beam | Ice Beam | Plasma Beam Charge Beam | Spazer Beam | Hyper Beam | Wide Beam Phazon Beam | Dark Beam | Light Beam | Annihilator Beam Volt Driver | Battlehammer | Magmaul | Shock Coil | Judicator | Imperialist Omega Cannon | Nova Beam | Paralyzer |
