Some enemies make the player, as opposed to Samus, want to curl up into a little ball.
- Metroid Prime Trilogy:
- Metroid Prime:
- Power Troopers and their palette swaps. Thankfully they get easier as you upgrade but their introduction is still a surprisingly painful endurance test.
- Wave Troopers are by far the worst. You can knock Power Troopers around with Super Missiles and the Plasma Beam is powerful enough to tear Plasma Troopers apart quickly. The Wave Beam, on the other hand, fires (and charges) slowly, so you can't just spam it, and the missile combo guzzles missiles, making it almost useless unless you're close to 100%. If you're battling more than one of them, the half-charge stun trick will effectively stunlock them, but it does so little damage it'll take a long time to kill them. Infuriatingly, these are the most common out of the four, and on Hard Mode, the outcome of the Omega Pirate fight hinges on how many of his mooks are Wave Troopers.
- A pack of Ice Troopers can also be a pain as the Ice Beam is also slow to fire. Hit 'em with a charged shot, though, and a single missile will shatter them. They gained an immunity to missiles in the Trilogy version of the game, but they retained their vulnerability to being frozen solid by a charged Ice Beam shot.
- While Mega Turrets aren't too bad on Normal, on Hard they're a nightmare. Uncannily accurate, taking six missiles each(!), screwing up your visor every time they hit you, and coming either in pairs or in batteries of four(!!!). Thankfully, when you encounter a larger battery, you can usually find a panel nearby to deactivate them.
- Fission Metroids. Oh God, Fission Metroids. At first they're about as tough as an ordinary Metroid, but then they split into two mini-Metroids... which can only be harmed by one of your four beams. Most players resort instead to just vaporizing the lot of 'em with a Power Bomb, but in the room in which they're encountered, they infinitely respawn, and Power Bombs are a rare commodity.
- The Chozo Ghosts are a nightmare to fight the first time you see them. They like to cloak, move around at high speeds, shoot you while you're distracted, and make loud shrieking noises. Especially since they appear in multiple rooms, can only be harmed by the Power Beam (probably the weakest weapon in the game), and usually come in threes. Fortunately, the X-Ray Visor lets you see them at all times, and Super Missiles count as Power Beam damage, allowing you to take them out quickly. Navigating the Chozo Ruins (until you're ready to get the Ice Beam) is not recommended during their "appearance" phases, as you only fight them after you first encounter them in the Elder Hall. Even after you have the necessary equipment to fight back, do not go to the Arboretum again. Ever. No amount of upgrades can make fighting three of those things in a tall circular tower with a spire in the middle less of a hellish endeavor.
- Metroid Prime 2: Echoes:
- Bloggs and Dark Bloggs. They have a ridiculous ability to hit you. What? You'll just side-dodge? They get you even if you attempt to side-dodge, even with the Gravity Boost to maneuver in the water, and the damage count is fairly high too. And they have only one weak spot, which isn't even vulnerable except while they're charging at you, and on Hard/Hypermode difficulty, enough health to guarantee you lose some of your own (on Normal/Veteran, both regular and Dark Bloggs only take one missile and a charged light beam shot to kill respectively). And the boss version of them is That One Boss...
- The Grenchlers. Way too much health, obscenely damaging, will chase you into the water if you accidentally fall in (very easy in some of the rooms), plus they generally come in groups of three and have frighteningly broken hit detection. Oh yeah, don't even think about escaping to higher ground. They'll jump all the way up to you. And if you are at a distance, they will use an electricity based ranged attack. Alarmingly, going into the water is an even worse idea, even with the Gravity Boost, because they'll employ physics against you and electrocute the entire body of water you're submerged in.
- The Rezbit mechanoid. Tough, agile flying with powerful attacks, an at-will instant-deploy deflector shield, a 'no lock on' mode where you can only hit it with manually aimed beam attacks and beam combos—which is the precursor to its Interface Screw attack. They stop being Demonic Spiders once you're accustomed to their pattern... but still remain an annoyance. The Screw Attack and Power Bombs can One-Hit Kill them, which makes them less of a threat once you have those two abilities. Until then, Entangler (charged Dark Beam) shots and missiles are the way to make the fight quick.
- Dark Pirate Commandos. They're fast, have powerful attacks, and spam EMP grenades that can mess up your visor for several seconds. On top of all that, they're tough, and can become invisible to your normal visor. Thankfully, the Dark Visor makes it possible to see them, but until you get that, they're hair-rippingly difficult to fight. Thankfully, if you can't kill them, they'll eventually leave the room in two or three minutes. Like with the Rezbits, the Entangler makes these guys far easier.
- The Hunter Ing. Their attacks don't hurt that much compared to some other enemies, but they can render themselves intangible at will, and can even attack you during their intangibility period. While you can hurt them with the Dark Visor, they're insanely tough as well, soaking up hits from the Light Beam like it's nothing. The easiest way to deal with them before you get the Annihilator Beam is to energize every beacon and crystal you come across with the Light Beam. Or just run.
- Ingsmashers. Obscenely high amounts of health, high damage output in the form of hard-to-dodge attacks, and they have a shield that can only be destroyed using the Light or Dark Beam... which they bring up almost constantly throughout the fight. Not to mention that you're usually forced to fight two of them whenever they show up. While they can be killed instantly with a single Power Bomb, by the time you have Power Bombs you'll be using most (if not all) of them to progress through the game and find expansions, and since Power Bomb ammo drops are rare you're forced to choose between using one on an Ingsmasher or having enough Power Bombs to progress in the game. At the very least, Ingsmashers don't respawn like some of the other Demonic Spiders in the game.
- Metroid Prime: Hunters has the Guardians, which appear whenever you enter a room where an enemy Hunter was before but isn't now. They jump around at near-lightspeed, making it insanely hard to hit them with anything let alone a zoomed-in Imperialist, all while blasting you with charged shots from their weapon, which can be any of the Hunters' specialist weapons, and you never know which one it is until they start shooting at you. Plus, if you do attempt to get an Imperialist headshot, their "head" is actually above their eye, the latter of which would be the obvious target. Your best bet is to wait until they just stand in front of you shooting at point-blank range, then go for the headshot.
- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption:
- Warp Hounds. They're ridiculously durable, shrugging off multiple missiles and charged beam shots, and Ice Missiles don't do much. And as their name suggests, they teleport. A lot. Most of the time, all you can do is shoot a charged shot or missile at them as they teleport again and again and again. Facing multiple Warp Hounds at the same time is infuriating if you don't use lots and lots of Hypermode. Just to make things worse, they love appearing in groups of three or more at a time, accompanied by the nearly as annoying (though less teleport-happy) Reptilicus Hunters. Thankfully they don't do much damage, but that makes them slightly less annoying.
- Phazon Hoppers. They have tons of health as well, taking nearly 7 missiles to the face before going down. They have powerful ranged attacks, melee you if you get close, and go into Hypermode at the slightest provocation. In this state, they have so much damage resistance they're pretty much invincible, and they produce shockwaves whenever they take a step. They always love coming in groups of three of more. Fortunately, the only time you are forced to deal with them the hard way is on the Valhalla. The next time you face them, you have permanent Hypermode. Enjoy blasting those buggers to bits.
- Pirate Commandos. They have very strong armor and attacks, and also love to go Hypermode at the slightest provocation. And after a short time in the Pirate Homeworld, they will show up everywhere. Fortunately you can shoot their weakpoints with the X-ray Visor and Nova Beam... but then they start coming in pairs. One of the two will use Hypermode as soon as they appear, which jams the X-ray Visor and forces you to either fire blind and hope you hit their weakpoint or go Hypermode and kill that one (if not both). They make destroying the Command Center's shields much harder than it needs to be.
- Metroid Prime:
- Metroid Fusion: The Ki Hunters are wasp-like creatures Samus encounters when trying to restore the power to the BSL. They come in two varieties: hopping and flying. Each is just as demonic as the other. They take multiple hits to destroy and each hit from them takes out NEARLY AN ENTIRE ENERGY TANK!! Meanwhile, when you first encounter them your movement is hindered by vines clogging up the engine room, making it hard to dodge their attacks. They become almost no problem once you get the Plasma Beam and Gravity Suit, but they can really be a bitch to deal with beforehand.
In a refreshing instance of the developers being aware of this, the room immediately after you get the Plasma Beam consists of several of these enemies in small boxes—perfectly lined up for you to test out your new weaponry on. Samus won't laugh maniacally, but you may. - The eponymous Metroids themselves. In the sidescrollers they are completely invulnerable to all weapons except the Ice Beam (if you don't have it, you're screwed). While this is rarely an issue in Super Metroid, as you can switch and combine beams, shooting through walls and freezing them at the same time while shooting diagonally, it's very possible to be without the Ice Beam in Tourian in the first game if you played without a guide, because you thought shooting through walls and dealing double damage was useful, and you didn't need the ice beam to platform any more because you had hi jump boots. After being frozen, it takes five missiles to kill them (in the first two games), it's not convenient to press the SELECT button to switch to missiles and back to the Ice Beam, and they thaw much faster than other enemies will. If one manages to grab you, the only way to get rid of it is to go into Morph Ball and drop a bunch of bombs to hopefully dislodge it (with the exception of Zero Mission, where you only need one bomb to do so)... but recovering in time to freeze them is insanely hard when they attack in groups. If you aren't very careful and quick, one will just latch right back on again. And they are very fast moving and strategically placed, and will home in at odd angles, in games where you can't shoot diagonally, letting them slip by your beam and grab you. You can advance slowly and carefully to make it easier, but that may deny you your good ending, which requires that you beat the game quickly. They are beatable, but are much more challenging than any other non boss enemy. The Prime versions lack the invulnerability, but instead obscure your vision when they latch on and still need bombs to dislodge (but thankfully only one). In Corruption, you have no Ice Beam, but Ice Missiles, which the Metroids dodge by turning intangible—you must bait them into attacking to make the shot connect!
- Metroid: Other M:
- Kyratians. Reptilian monsters with a pair of Electivire-like tails, they hop around like nobody's business while spewing powerful energy attacks in your direction. Your best bet is to nail them with multiple charged shots, but this is far from easy; they are seemingly capable of Sense Moving just like Samus, and will dodge your shots whenever possible, returning fire all the way. Making matters worse, they move too quickly to Overblast most of the time, and, once you freeze their tails, they sheath themselves in electricity and become invincible. Just touching them hurts, and the only way to stop this is to either wait it out or fire a Missile at them (rendering yourself stationary for a moment). When you get the Screw Attack and can kill them instantly, it comes as a huge relief.
- Desbrachians: large and strong beetle-like enemies that appear in the post-game every time you break a power bomb door, who can turn invisible, take a ton of damage and can only be killed while in their crouching pose—but if you don't rush in and break their face with a fully-charged beam in an action command or have a Super Missile charged up quickly, they'll retreat into a shell and regain all their health, unless you can get off a Power Bomb faster than it can get out. They get far easier once you learn that they have a brief moment of vulnerability just after they spawn, just long enough to charge up a Super Missile. Follow it up with a couple of Charge Shots and the Lethal Strike will off it. Your only hope in some situations is to use the Power Bomb, then get to the other side of the room, miles away from the spawning Desbrachian, and spam Super Missiles to easily win. As you can imagine, they are much more dangerous in smaller rooms where they will get to you quickly...
- Rhedogians can be just as bad when you first encounter them. Stupid fast and usually encountered in cramped areas. They have two different beam attacks that do ridiculous damage, and have wide-ranging claw attacks (again, cramped area, not good). Once you power up some more, though, they become laughably easy. By the time you face them in the post game, you can one shot them with the Screw Attack or Power Bombs.
- Black Pirates from Metroid: Zero Mission are immune to every single type of attack other than the Plasma Beam, rendering the Screw Attack, Missiles, and Super Missiles that make Samus so powerful useless. Oh, and a pair of them wait right outside the endpoint of the final level, forcing you to beat them first. Many people find them more difficult than the Final Boss. The only way to kill them easily is by abusing an A.I. Breaker.
- Zeta Metroids in Metroid II: Return of Samus have high health, but unlike the similarly chunky Omega Metroids, they are very difficult due to their high speed, constant movement, and tiny vulnerable section.
