Metroid Prime/Space Pirate Frigate

In Brief:

Following the explanation as to why Samus is touring the space around Tallon IV, Samus descends onto the deck of a desolate and abandoned cruiser.

As with all Metroid games, the initial level is actually an introductory stage, designed to familiarise the player with the controls, the methods, and basics of gameplay in the metroid world.

Although self-explanatory, frequent messages pop up to explain what needs to be done, you should also take the liberty to mess around and explore. There are interesting articles to scan, and a space pirate data entry unique to the frigate.

The enemies you face are reasonably simpel to dispatch and should not challenge even a new player. Parasites make up the bulk of the foes, and these can be killed with one or two shots from the power beam. Injured space pirates are also common, but most are already heavily injured so are not very tough and their aim is impaired. There are several which are uninjured and hence much more dangerous but these can be identified by the commando roll they use to get into combat. sentry turrets are also positioned in some rooms and the best method to kill these is to dash out from round a corner and fire a missile to kill them in one shot.

Towards the end of the mission you face the first boss: The Parasite Queen, a giant mutated parasite. Upon beginning the fight, you should scan the queen straight away. This reveals that the parasite queen has a weakness in the mouth and as such your auto aim readjusts to target from the belly to the mouth, and increases the amount of damage you deal. To kill her you must simply shoot her enough, with charged shots being the most effective method of harming her. You should only use missiles when you have a clean shot.

The Parasite Queen attacks by firing a stream of green energy at you, which,-if she scores a direct hit-can do between 10 and 20 units of damage. Her main defense is a blue shield which covers two sides of the boss and stops all attacks. Occasionally, the shield will suddenly spin rapidly and block almost all incoming shots but single power beam blasts can still get through, or you can simply run round avoiding the incoming attacks which you can do by dashing as the shield quickly settles.

After beating the parasite queen, you are informed that the auto destruct sequence has been started and you have 7 minutes to get out. This part of the frigate is very linear so there is no difficulty in simply following the path to your ship. Clearing the halls of the vast swarms of parasites is not necessary and simply wastes time, so just run through them.