Skultera (Skultetra in Japanese) is an aggressive species of fish that appears in various Metroid games.
These creatures are native to Zebes, and are mostly encountered in the planet's underground oceans of Maridia. They can also be seen in the pools of water from Crateria, near the Wrecked Ship. If Samus Aran approaches them, they will home in on her and attack her.
An untold number of Skulteras were captured and brought to the Biologic Space Laboratories, but were later infected and/or mimicked by X Parasites during the events of Metroid Fusion. Other than changing their blue color to orange, the X have made no modifications to the Skulteras' performance. But if a Skultera-X were to be near a free-floating X Parasite, the latter would immediately combine with the former to create an unnaturally larger Skultera. The small ones can be defeated by rapid fire, but the larger ones have a thick bone growth on their heads, and are only vulnerable to fully charged beams or Missiles. An X released from the remains of either Skultera variant can fuse with a nearby infected/mimicked Zebesian Pirate to form the Mermen Pirate; this is due to the X's ability to carry, modify and combine the DNA of their victims.
Curiously, the large Skulteras featured in Fusion returned in the later released prequel Zero Mission as standard, Skulteras from Zebes. Despite being larger than those seen in Super Metroid, these fish are actually quite weaker than all other variants encountered in games chronologically following Zero Mission's events.
Skulteras appear once again in Metroid: Other M, in their first 3D appearance. They were first confirmed in pages of an interview in the Japanese magazine Famitsu, which had a small screenshot of two Skultera on one page. They swim around various flooded areas of the Cryosphere and Biosphere and can latch onto Samus and gnaw on her. The concept art identifies the creature as an Aquatic Monster.
In Metroid Prime, dead and frozen fish resembling Skulteras can be seen in the Phendrana Drifts region. An unused scan image and script file indicates these inactive fish were initially planned to have a larger role.
Official data
Super Metroid manual
"These creatures are fish with bony frames and joints that rotate mechanically."
Super Metroid Nintendo Player's Guide
"These strong fish swim back-and-forth."
Metroid: Other M Art Folio
Aquatic Dangers
"Many of the Bottle Ship areas were intentionally flooded and my reconnaissance of them nearly proved to be fatal. Schools of Skulteras attacked me at every turn, and the liquid environments slowed my movements to a crawl. Fortunately, the Power Suit's air supply made breathing the one thing I didn't need to worry about."
Gallery
| Aquatic organisms | |
|---|---|
| Tallon IV | Aqua Reaper • Aqua Sac • Chomper Fish • Fish • Jelzap • Tangle Weed • Tallon Crab |
| Aether | Blogg • Bloggling • Alpha Blogg • Fish • Brizgee • Dark Blogg • Grenchler • Hydling • Krocuss • Phlogus |
| Dark Aether | Chykka • Dark Blogg • Dark Grenchler • Dark Phlogus • Dark Shredder • Flying Ing Cache • Venom Weed • Watchdrone |
| Zebes | Botwoon • Bull • Cacatac • Choot • Draygon • Evir • Gadora • Gamet • Oum • Owtch • Powamp • Puyo • Sciser • Skultera • Tatori • Tatori, Jr. • Yapping Maw • Yard • Zoa |
| BOTTLE SHIP | Fish • Skultera |
| BSL | Aqua Zebesian • Evir • Gadora • Owtch • Powamp • Sciser • Serris • Skultera • Yard |