Powerworks

Powerworks
The main chamber of the Powerworks
Game	Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Planet/Ship	Elysia
Area	SkyTown
Notablefeatures	Chozo Statue, cog, Spider Ball Tracks, abyss
Significance	Location of Spider Ball, Missile Expansion, Databot
Inhabitants	Databot
Internal name	12_skytown_spiderball

Powerworks is a room in SkyTown, Elysia. It appears in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Description

A dead-end room housed in a remote Southern portion of Skytown. This room is separated into two sections: a tight small-sized inside room, and an outside open-sky portion next to the room's propulsion device.

Samus cannot access the inner area of the room without the Grapple Voltage and Seeker Missile. This is also where Samus acquires the Spider Ball. The Spider Ball is being contained by a metal barrier. After grappling a gear from a suitable position and blasting it into place, the metal barrier is withdrawn and the Spider Ball is revealed, being held in the hands of a Chozo Statue wearing armor similar to Samus'. This is the only occurrence of a Chozo Statue holding an item in the entire Metroid Prime series, whereas this is ubiquitous in the 2D Metroid saga.

After it is acquired, the Statue moves backwards revealing a hatch which leads to a complex Spider Ball puzzle on the base of the building. Several open segments have flames pouring out of them which will detach Samus from the Spider Ball Track and send her falling. A Missile Expansion can be collected by taking a different rail route after reaching the end of the main rail puzzle. After this, Samus can leave the area to explore the Pirate Homeworld more deeply.

Design notes

Unlockable Concept art of the Spider Ball room in Corruption.

Matt Manchester designed the powerworks pod. Here are his notes:

"This room was fun in many different ways. It was tight, and a little bit claustrophobic, which felt like old school metroid. You journeyed into the hearts of one of the skytown pods, so it was an opportunity to show off the guts of the mechanism. It also gave me a chance to put a chozo statue in. I actually created this one first, and the entryway statue second. For this one, I wanted to pose him in the traditional statue pose, but incorporate some elements of the prime style chozo, which had a thinner head. I also created the armor the statue is wearing to reflect a similar method of technology as Samus' own chozo armor. It was while searching through some reference images that I discovered that they already did this in Zero Mission."

Connecting rooms

• Powerworks Access (via Blue Door)

Inhabitants

• 1 Databot

Items

Spider Ball

See above.

Missile Expansion

See above.

Scans

Outer chamber

Energy grid

"Energy grid currently offline. Activation of surrounding nodes will restore grid power."

Entry lock

"Entry lock active. Connections to energy grid are present."

Power nodes

"Power nodes offline. hit all targets simultaneously to restore power to them."

Statue chamber

Gear

"Fallen gear appears movable. Cannot get enough leverage to pull from this angle."

Gear (movable)

"Gear can be pulled from this angle. May be possible to return the gear to its original location."

Protective barrier

"Protective barrier in place. Restore room operations to release barrier."

Defeat

"The two weeks following the Seed's impact were disastrous. Like the Aurora Unit, we too were infected with a Phazon-based virus. The spreading corruption consumed many of us, putting us under Space Pirate control. It was not long before only a handful of us remained. During this time there was but a moment that we received aid. Ghor, the Hunter dispatched by the Federation, arrived here to restore the Aurora Unit. Our hope quickly vanished as he too was corrupted by Phazon and lost his own will. He now leads the assault on the remaining survivors, taking more and more of the station over with each passing day. There is no hope left for us. Soon, we too will be among the enemy forces. The last of us now stand before the brink of history's end, silently waiting out our final hours. I am Elysian, descendant of both the Chozo and the First. I am facing the last moments of my life and transferring my memory to the data pod."

Gear system

"These gears have stopped functioning. A missing section is needed to resume operations."

Chozo Statue

"Scans indicate this Chozo Elder statue was sculpted 1013.81 years ago."

Gear system (2)

"Gear system is active and operational. Despite its age, it is functioning normally."

Tutorials

"Press and hold to attach to magnetic rails using Spider Ball."

"Use the Boost ability to rapidly propel the Spider Ball away from magnetic rails."

Development notes

The room's internal name is 12_skytown_spiderball, referencing the Spider Ball power-up stored here. The keyword skytown indicates Skytown, Elysia, and the prefix 12 indicates that this is the twelfth of 15 main rooms throughout the planet.

Trivia

• A Secret World can be found in this room: [1]
• The pod that makes up this room is the southernmost one in all of SkyTown.
• As the wall housing the Chozo Statue begins shuffling its parts around after activation, just before dispersing, the wall's shape briefly becomes a design similar to a Spider Ball Track.

Gallery

From Matt Manchester's blog: [2]

Entrance room

Glowing orbs on the walls.

Security node system.

The nodes glow to signal they have been activated.

Ledge in the lower room.

An unused gear on the floor.

The gear is put back in place. The wall briefly shuffles into a wall shape resembling a Spider Ball Track.

Chozo Statue holding the Spider Ball upgrade.

Samus obtains the Spider Ball.

The Chozo Statue glows, its upgrade taken.

The statue stops glowing and is positioned by the back wall.

Shaft leading down out of the room.

Spider Ball Track leading down the walls.

The Spider Ball Track leading to the outside of the Powerworks.

Near the base of the Powerworks pod.

Flames erupt in between Spider rails.

Rail that leads back inside the Powerworks.

Room seen on the Map.