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Helios is the guardian of Elysia's Leviathan. This mechanoid looks like a small round sphere with four tentacle-arm like appendages. He is the prime robot of a group of Swarmbots, also inhabiting the Leviathan. Helios has seven forms. All but the final form are invulnerable, and he only takes this form after being hit in his other forms many times.

Battle[]

The first form he appears in is his neutral form. He has a large sphere of Swarmbots that surround him and act as a shield. He will just float in the middle of the arena. He will change into any of these:

  • Sphere: After arranging the Swarmbots into a large sphere, he will fall to the ground and try to roll at Samus, who can strafe out of the way and fire at the core in between the Swarmbots. "Helios is using the Swarmbots to form a fast-moving ball of energy. Avoid contact with the sphere."
Helios battle

Helios' disc form.

  • Disc: He will arrange the Swarmbots into a large disc which has five weak points, which must be shot all at once with the Seeker Missiles. If he remains in this form for an extended period of time, the disc will increase in size, making it harder to dodge. The disc can also charge up and fire a large beam of Phazon. "Helios is using five separate bots to maintain his form. Destroy them simultaneously to stop his attack."
  • Beam Array: He will arrange the Swarmbots into many small groups that will in turn charge up and fire at Samus. The glowing groups can be destroyed before they fire. "Helios is charging each group of Swarmbots for a powerful attack. Overload their energy to damage them."
  • Tornado: He will arrange the Swarmbots into a large tornado with him at the base and start spinning toward Samus, sucking her towards it to deal contact damage. Morph Ball Bombs and the Hyper Ball can attack this form. “Helios is creating strong currents of air to deflect attacks, but can still be damaged by ground-based explosions.
Helios swarmbots humanoid formation

Helios uses the swarmbots to make a humanoid form.

  • Humanoid: Helios will split the Swarmbots into four groups which will become "arms" and "legs". These will sometimes fire giant orbs (that create a small, horizontal explosion) at Samus. The legs also can make a strong shockwave. The joints at which the limbs are connected can only be damaged when the corresponding limb is preparing to strike; once Samus destroys each of these joints, Helios will collapse. "Helios's bots have assumed a humanoid form, but the arm and leg joints appear to be weak."
  • Exposed: Once he's been hit enough in the previous forms, he will open his core and dispel his Swarmbot backup. His mechanical arms will extend blades and he will charge repeatedly at Samus, who must go into Hypermode and fire her Hyper Beam into the front of his core to deal damage to the mechanoid. Note that coming into contact with the blades can disrupt Samus' visor, leaving her open to more attacks. "Helios's outer shell is open. Core is exposed and vulnerable to Phazon-based attacks."

As Helios dies, he explodes and leaves the Hyper Missile upgrade behind. The explosion releases a large amount of gaseous Phazon which Samus's PED Suit then absorbs, causing her corruption level to rise to 50%.

Logbook entry[]

HeliosScan
HeliosScan

Helios

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Temporary scan

Mechanoid: Helios
Phazon-enhanced core can be exposed by damaging outer shell.

Logbook entry

Helios's exterior armor is well shielded, but still vulnerable to Beam weaponry. Inflicting enough damage will cause him to overheat and expose his Phazon-enhanced core. This core can be overloaded with Phazon-based energy. Destruction of the core unit should prove fatal, but is difficult to achieve. Target is the prime bot of a large group of Swarmbots, all of which have been energized by Phazon. Helios will use the Swarmbots for both offensive and defensive measures. Assuming different formations will allow for various forms of attack.

Development notes[]

Ian Olsen modeled and skinned Helios.

Helios was created by Paul Tozour, who also engineered its attacks and artificial intelligence. Tozour wanted a boss that consisted of a swarm of small bird-like mechanisms. He had a Retro Studios artist (possibly Olsen, see below) create a very basic mockup, and developed and tested its attacks before showing it to Mike Wikan.[1] He discussed the design of Helios in an interview with the defunct website AIGameDev.com. This interview was never released to non-premium subscribers and is no longer available.

In this interview, Paul Tozour discusses his work on the AI of Metroid Prime 3, most notably the boss called Helios. He discusses the swarms in the game as the inspiration for Helios, and the various stages of the prototype. Paul also discusses the various levels of intelligence that goes into this multi-agent system, including the various forms of Helios: creature, shapes, swarm, multiple swarms, and particles system. You'll also learn about the various obstacles encountered, such as performance in collision or avoidance, and how they were resolved in practice.

AIGameDev

Paul Tozour[]

I'm very proud of the work I did on Helios for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption; it's easily my favorite boss character (though this video really doesn't do it justice as the individual bots are almost invisible at this resolution). It was also a great opportunity to further develop my design skills, as I proposed the boss encounter and did all of the prototyping and the majority of the design work in addition to the engineering.

I wanted Helios to defy easy understanding by continually morphing and changing in ways that deny the player any easy categorization of its identity.

During various parts of the encounter, Helios freely transitions between a loosely-coordinated group of separate flying robots, a set of separate clusters that have tight coordination among themselves, or single highly coordinated creature that acts more like a single entity than a swarm. The swarm becomes a sphere, a tornado, a massive ring, a set of smaller rings, a giant humanoid creature, a loose flock of creatures swirling around the main Prime Bot who controls the swarm, or the Prime Bot acting all alone ... continually and gradually transforming between its many different stages and doing everything it can to defy any simple definition the player might try to put it into.

If you look closely, you'll notice that the swarm doesn't change state all at once; in most cases, the bots smoothly and gradually transition between the various forms, underscoring the idea that the intelligence is shared among multiple levels of the hierarchy (the swarm as a whole, the individual forms, and the bots themselves).

—Paul Tozour[2]

Trivia[]

Storyboard12

Storyboard concept art of the encounter with Helios.

  • Interestingly, Helios' Logbook entry uses male pronouns despite the boss appearing to be a mechanoid.
  • Since Helios is the commander of so many Swarmbots and seems to connect with them, it is possible Helios is either a corrupted Swarmbot or a corrupted version of a sort of Swarmbot commander, similar to the Steamlord in comparison to the Steambots.
  • He appears to be partially organic, as evidenced when his interior is exposed.
  • This is the music heard when battling Helios: [1].

Etymology[]

In Greek mythology the sun was personified as Helios (pronounced /ˈhiːliəs/ or /ˈhiliˌɑs/) (Greek: Ἥλιος, Latinized as Helius). Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion, while Hesiod (Theogony 371) and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia (Hesiod) or Euryphaessa (Homeric Hymn) and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn. The names of these three were also the common Greek words for sun, moon and dawn. The best known story involving Helios is that of his son Phaëton, who attempted to drive his father's chariot but lost control and set the earth on fire.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. ^ Kiwi Talkz. "#138 - Paul Tozour Interview (Metroid Prime 2 & 3, Boss Design, A.I., Leadership, Four Swords etc.)". YouTube. June 25, 2022. Retrieved July 6, 2022. (starts at 1:44 and 47:30)
  2. ^ Tozour, Paul. "Helios (MP3:C)". Archived from the original on May 14, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2022.


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