Metroid Prime/Impact Crater

Impact Crater

There is one last area in the game to explore; it's small, but it holds the final boss.

Crater Entry Point

This is a small, strange looking cave. Step into the orange circle on the ground to return to the Artifact Temple but there should be no reason to. There is a save station here and it's a good idea to use it since it's the last one available in the game. Even if you don't save it's handy to restore your health after the last battle. There are orange patches behind the save station, not blue like you might expect. Continue to the next room.

Crater Tunnel A

Log Book

Creatures: Lumigek

There is radioactive material covering the floor of the this passage. It's similar to Phazon only it's orange and does more damage. (Some call this Orange Phazon but it's not identified in-game.) Lumigeks, Phazon-consuming lizards, swarm into the passage ahead. You'll take damage from the orange material if you try rolling through them, so clear them from a distance. Jump over the radioactive sections of the floor to the exit.

Phazon Core

Log Book

Creatures: Fission Metroid

This is a large room with an island surrounded by the orange material. A pillar in the center connects to the ceiling. When you step into the main part of the room you'll encounter Fission Metroids. When attacked they split in two, each having a random beam weakness which you can tell by its color. They take a while to defeat and there's an unending stream of them coming from somewhere, so you're better off just trying to outrun them and only attack if they get too close. As with all Metroids, if they attach to you then drop a bomb to get free. If several swarm you at once then you might want to use a Power Bomb to destroy them, but remember that your supplies are limited.

Immediately get to the tooth-like ledges on the far wall and follow them around to the right. When you reach the end of these there are floating platforms to jump on to reach a ledge in the central pillar. Cross the bridge to a door.

Crater Missile Station

There is a Missile Station here to recover the Missiles used fighting Meta Ridley; you're going to need all the missiles you can get for the upcoming fight. Between the Save Station and the Missile Station you should be at full health and ammo except for whatever you use fighting the Fission Metroids. You might want to backtrack and save again, that way if the worst happens in the upcoming boss battle you won't have to worry about missing scans or refilling Missiles on the retry.

Phazon Core (cont.)

Follow the ledge near the missile station to another platform. Then turn around and follow more platforms to a second ledge in the central pillar. There is a bridge here as well and it leads to the exit.

Crater Tunnel B

This is a tunnel with Spider Ball tracks you can use to avoid the floor. Behind the door lies the fight that will determine the fate of Tallon IV. This is a point of no return so be as prepared as you can be before going through.

Phazon Infusion Chamber

There is a cutscene as you enter. As the door locks behind her, Samus sees what looks like a humongous head hanging from the wall. It soon unfolds into the arachnid-like Metroid Prime, the source of Phazon. After staring down Samus a few seconds, it breaks down the wall and makes off to a more suitable fighting area.

Follow the monster and there is a short cutscene of Samus jumping down to the fight.

Subchamber One

Log Book

Creatures: Metroid Prime (Only chance)

Don't forget to get a scan of the monster at some point.

Metroid Prime (part one)

This is a multi-part battle, one part each in these subchambers and a finale at the bottom. There is a separate health bar for the monster at the bottom so don't get too excited when the one you see now reaches zero. As the final boss it's the longest and most difficult in the game, but not actually that much more difficult than the Omega Pirate battle.

The key to this part of the battle is to pay attention to the color of the veins on its carapace. It will be one of the four beam colors and tells you not only to which beam the monster is vulnerable, but also the effects the monster's attacks will have on you. On this floor it sticks to yellow and purple.

Metroid Prime main attack is an energy beam. This may have side effects depending on the color: Yellow may disable the Arm Cannon, purple causes static in your visor, white freezes you, and red deals more damage and sets you on fire. There are pillars on one end where you can take cover from the beams, or you can dodge or jump over them. The monster also fires volleys of missiles; to avoid them, stay a bit to one side and move to the other side when you see the missiles.

When you see Metroid Prime rear back it means it's about to do a charge attack, jump to the side when this happens. It usually does this when it's going to change color.

It may go without saying, but keep your distance as much as possible since the monster will take swipes at you otherwise.

Meanwhile, you'll want to do as much damage as you can to it when you're not dodging attacks. Always switch your weapon to match the monster's color. Use Super Missiles/Ice Spreader for yellow and white, Charge Beam for purple and red. The Wavebuster is effective but uses up missiles quickly, and the Flamethrower has too short of a range to be very useful.

When Metroid Prime loses a quarter of its health it breaks through the floor and you chase after it into the next room.

Subchamber Two

Metroid Prime (part two)

The fight in this room is mostly the same as in Subchamber One. There are ditches in this level and the ones below where you can avoid damage from the charge attack in Morph Ball mode. Metroid Prime adds white/Ice attacks to it's color palette here.

Metroid Prime breaks out a new weapon here, slow moving orbs of energy that home in on you. Shoot them out of the air with corresponding beam weapon to get pickups which you can draw in with your Charge Beam.

Subchamber Three

Metroid Prime (part three)

There are no pillars here to hide behind so you'll have to dodge the beam attacks as best as you can. Another attack it may do now is to use a grapple-like beam to drag you towards it. When it does, immediately turn into Morph Ball and roll in the opposite direction until it lets you go. It may also shoot a stream of ice and freeze you. The monster adds red/Plasma to it's palette here.

Subchamber Four

Metroid Prime (part four)

The fight in this room is nearly the same as in Subchamber Three. One big difference is that the monster will change colors very often here. The Wavebuster is very effective here because it will paralyze the monster and keep it from changing colors.

This is the final subchamber so you need bring the monster's health down to zero here.

When Metroid Prime is defeated it will fall down a large shaft, but the kill is not yet confirmed. Take a breather then follow it. There is a short cutscene where you look down the hole the monster fell into, then jump down yourself. You see the Phazon melting out of its shell, then what was inside, the core essence, emerges.

Metroid Prime Lair

Log Book

Creatures: Metroid Prime (Only chance)

Don't forget to get a scan of this new version of the monster. This is the last scan in the game so you should get a message saying 100% scans complete.

The core essence is a blue, transparent and octopus-looking entity, but you can still see the triple lobes inside that tell you it's a Metroid.

Metroid Prime (core)

Metroid Prime's main attack here is an energy wave. You can avoid this by jumping just as you did with the Omega Pirate. This first time it does this it destroys some egg-like objects on the ground and you may be able to get pickups from them to recover a bit from the previous battle. Keep your distance to avoid physical attacks, and jump to avoid the waves, but otherwise bide you time because all your weapons are useless for the moment. Switch to Ice Beam when you have a chance.

Eventually Metroid Prime will try another move where it produces a pool of silvery ultra Phazon while it calls for Metroid reinforcements. Shoot the Ice Beam at the Metroids to cut their numbers a bit, but the main thing to do is to get to the pool of Phazon. When you step in your visor says you're in "Hyper Mode", which means that the previously unusable Phazon Beam is active.

As Metroid Prime was spilling Phazon on the floor it also changed which part of the spectrum it could be seen. It alternates between Visible, X-Ray and Infrared, so if you were watching it in Visible light then try X-Ray or Thermal to see it again. Locate the monster while in the Phazon pool, and let loose with the Phazon Beam. When the pool dries up the cycle starts again, but keep your current visor until the monster changes it's visibility again; it may do this without dropping the pool of Phazon so keep watching. All this is complicated, but other than the visibility part the battle goes the same way until the end.

When Metroid Prime's inner essence is destroyed there is an end of game cutscene. (There are several variations on the ending; we'll cover the 'best' version assuming you've done everything in this guide and have 100%.) First, in a desperate attempt to survive, the monster grabs Samus with one of its tentacles and pulls the Phazon out of Samus' suit, turning it back into the Gravity Suit. What's left of the monster explodes and causes imminent collapse of the crater.

In some never adequately explained manner, Samus returns to the Artifact Temple and calls her ship to rescue her. As the Temple burns, Samus removes her helmet and looks on with mixed emotions. Mission competed, Samus gets into the ship and rockets to her next destination.

The credits roll, but when they're over the scene returns to Tallon IV where we see a pool of Phazon, and out of it a hand emerges. An eye on the back of the hand opens and we meet an enemy which appears in the sequel.