The X-Ray Visor is a visor upgrade that can be collected in Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. It uses x-rays to see where the visible spectrum of light may prove inadequate.
In Metroid Prime
The X-Ray Visor in New Play Control! Metroid Prime.
It can be used to spot invisible enemies, even those that don't appear to the Thermal Visor, and allows Samus to see through human flesh (when she lifts her arm in front of the visor, her hand's skeleton can be seen), Bendezium, Cordite, and Sandstone. The disadvantages to the visor are that it produces a monochrome image, which can make it difficult to differentiate between several objects or enemies, and that it's very short ranged. Enemies that can be tracked with the X-Ray Visor include Flickerbats and the Chozo Ghosts.
Samus obtains the X-Ray Visor in the Life Grove, in a secret part of Tallon Overworld.
The official website states: "The X-Ray Visor upgrades Samus Aran's Heads Up Display with the ability to see through certain types of materials. Samus uses the X-Ray visor to reveal invisible enemies, areas and items. Caution is used around robotic enemies, which can jam the X-Ray Visor's frequency."
In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
The X-Ray Visor in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
The X-Ray visor appears in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption with a revamped look. While most objects are seen with a pale-blue color scheme using it, the heat signatures of some objects appear to be visible, much like the Thermal Visor. If a near-by enemy uses Hyper Mode while Samus is using the X-Ray Visor, the HUD is filled with static.
The material Phazite is also seen to be penetrable by X-rays, allowing users of the visor to see through it; this is of greatest use in combination with the Nova Beam, a beam weapon that can pass through Phazite. If this visor is used in conjunction with the Nova Beam one can target the weak spots of certain enemies (such as the brains of Pirate Commandos and Berserker Knights and the internal nuclei of Phazon Metroids and Metroid Hatchers) for a one hit kill. Collecting the visor makes certain devices usable as well. The only noticeable disadavantage of usinbg the visor in a combat situation is that it turns the colours of everything except for enemy weak points (if any) either grey or black, which means that it can be difficult to distinguish enemy weapons and attacks from their bodies or from the background while the visor is activated. Enemies without weak points will also become harder to see with the visor active.
Samus acquires the new X-Ray Visor on the Pirate Command sector of the Pirate Homeworld. She needs to deactivate a Multi-Lock Blast Shield with the Seeker Missiles to obtain it.
Notes
There is an X-Ray Scope in Super Metroid, an item that allows Samus to see through false walls and water, and see invisible walls, special blocks and hidden items. The Dark Visor in Echoes is also very similar to the X-Ray Visor and even more so to how it is presented in Corruption.
Trivia
- In Corruption, there appears to be an in game joke (pictured right). When the X-Ray Visor is collected, Samus stares right at the screen as though she could see through it and watch the player play, seeming to break the fourth wall.
- Also in Corruption, due to the increasing levels of Phazon within Samus causing sections of the Power Suit to gradually turn more and more blue each time a Leviathan Guardian is killed, many fans tend to mistake her visor's color change from green to blue is from the X-Ray Visor upgrade when the actual cause is the high amount of Phazon within Samus at the time she found it.
- In Metroid Prime, the X-Ray Visor reveals that Samus changes her Arm Cannon's beam types by changing her hand's formation. Although, to see this the background must be an area mostly void of machinery (such as the root tower in the Tallon Overworld), since machinery appears white like Samus's bones while organic material appears mostly dark. The configurations of her beams are fingers close together with thumb and pinkie apart for the Power Beam, fingers spread apart for the Wave Beam, middle and ring retracted with index and pinkie erect for the Ice Beam, and fingers close together and slightly curled for the Plasma Beam: she positions her fingers into a shape resembling the symbol of the weapon in question.
- It is easier to see Samus's hand in the Arm Cannon using the X-Ray Visor in Corruption, because in the game living objects glow red on the X-Ray Visor and thus Samus's hand is instantly recognisable from the Arm Cannon material surrounding it. However, since this game uses a beam-stacking system, Samus does not change the position of her hand. It is also possible see the way Samus fires the Arm Cannon, by pulling some sort of trigger within the Arm Cannon.
- In Corruption, it would appear that all, or several Space Pirates also possess an X-Ray Visor or some alternative as several random code terminals on their Homeworld require the Visor to be used at all, though it is also possible that Space Pirates are able to see slightly further into the needed spectrums of light than the human eye without a Visor.
- When playing Corruption in Hypermode difficulty, Samus will be unable to use the X-Ray Visor on Pirate Commandos with their Hypermode activated, for all she will get is static interference. This makes it very difficult to quickly kill the Commandos with Nova Beam Head Shots. However there is a way to work around this problem: Samus can lock on the Commandos with the Combat Visor and then switch to the X-Ray Visor without releasing the lock-on. The visor will still have static but the zoom will lock on to the weak spot.
Gallery
| Visors |
|---|
| Combat Visor | Scan Visor | Thermal Visor | X-Ray Visor Dark Visor | Echo Visor | Command Visor Hacker Mode | X-Ray Scope | Search View |