Parasite

!	This is a rare creature/object. It may only be scanned in one or few encounters.

Parasite
Featured in	Metroid Prime Metroid Prime Pinball Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Knownlocales	Frigate Orpheon, Tallon IV, Xenoresearch on Elysia (Possible sighting of deceased Queens)
Known worlds	Tallon IV

A Parasite or Parasite Larva (called "Parasitic larva" in the beta demo [1]) is a hardy creature native to Tallon IV, selected for Phazon mutation by the Space Pirates for its species' resistance. Parasites do almost no damage. At the beginning of Metroid Prime they are encountered in swarms, and explode upon contact, splattering their green blood on Samus' visor. They can impede vision because of this, but little else.

Oddly, though they are repeatedly stated to be indigenous to Tallon IV, the normal variant are never found once Samus makes planetfall in Metroid Prime. Parasites also appear in Metroid Prime Pinball (where they appear on the Tallon Overworld pinball stage), albeit heavily redesigned for an unknown reason, along with the mini-game Parasite Purge.

Parasite Queens are the largest known variant, seen on Frigate Orpheon in Metroid Prime and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. These creatures were created by the Pirates with Phazon. Similar-looking corpses can be seen on Elysia's Xenoresearch, suggesting that the Pirates were still attempting to make use of them after the Frigate Orpheon incident.

Parasites hatch from eggs.

Locations

• Air Lock (dead)
• Emergency Evacuation Area
• Cargo Freight Lift to Deck Gamma
• Map Facility
• Biohazard Containment (dead)
• Subventilation Shaft Section A
• Subventilation Shaft Section B
• Main Ventilation Shaft Section A
• Main Ventilation Shaft Section C

Official data

Logbook entry

Parasite

Temporary scan

Morphology: Parasite
Interstellar vermin. Travel in swarms.

Logbook entry

The Parasite is an interstellar vermin that travels in swarms and is indigenous to Tallon IV. A single Parasite is harmless to larger life forms. However, they tend to travel in large groups, swarming over potential prey.

Metroid Prime Pinball manual

Metroid Prime Pinball variant

"A new strain of parasitic creature that are dangerous in numbers"

Trivia

• The deceased parasite specimens encountered in stasis on the Frigate Orpheon are noticeably larger than the escaped living ones.
• Interestingly, the Parasites on board the Frigate Orpheon are what allow Samus to escape the ship with her life. Parasite swarms that had infested the ventilation shafts prior to Samus' arrival cause the ventilation caps to overheat and finally blow off while Samus is evacuating. This opens a new route through the ventilation shafts that must be taken since the old route is inaccessible.
• Parasites must have DNA that is naturally very prone to mutating. This would account for the statement in the Ice Parasite's logbook scan saying that Parasites can adapt to any environment within three generations. This is an impressive feat from an evolutionary standpoint. This possibly could have appealed to the Space Pirates as they began experimenting with Phazon on the creatures.
• Another species of parasitic organism is present on Zebes.
• According to Jack Mathews, the tech lead for Prime, it was notably challenging to render large swarms of Parasites on the GameCube without impacting performance.[2]

Gallery

Parasites in a beta version of Prime.

Floating Parasite corpses in the Air Lock.

The Parasite Queen

A swarm of Parasites.

Plated Parasite.jpg

Plated Parasite

Ice Parasite

Metroid Prime commercial

Placeholder images viewable in a glitch.

Unused orange variant present in the game's data.

Corpse model seen in Biohazard Containment, which has only 4 eyes and a much fleshier body than standard parasites.