In Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, you’ll come across plenty of enemies both familiar and brand-new, from the iconic Dartwings to the unsettling Grievers. But like in previous games, enemies aren’t just obstacles in your way. They’re as much as part of the worldbuilding as anything else.
And they’re also something of a puzzle. The Metroid Prime games aren’t strictly shooters, so it’s less about stylishly taking down enemies, and more figuring out all the different ways in which you can efficiently take them down instead. And with some many enemies and tools at Samus’ disposal, there are more than a few ways to take them down.
How Many Enemy Types Are There?
Every region in the game has its own unique enemies, such as Fury Green’s Bristlewort or Flare Pool’s Leaping Spitter. Though there are also quite a few enemies shared across all areas, such as the Maintenance Tanks and Grievers. In the case of Grievers, they are also elemental ad regional variants that looks a little different from each other, but ultimately act all but the same.
There are also some enemies in the game that are more of a stage hazard than actual enemies, more wanting you to be careful with you foot and take the time to look around, rather than just charging through every room and head first into an electrified enemy.
So to that end, we’ve excluded the likes of those, and are focusing only on those enemies that are fully distinct from one another, and have tactics that you can employ against them, giving you a total of 20 different enemies. If you count all of them though, including elemental and regional variants, that number is much larger.
We’ve also excluded bosses since they’re worthy of full guides in their own right, which we have for all of them if you’re interested.
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How To Defeat Every Type of Enemy
As with previous Metroid Prime games, enemies are as much a tense firefight as they are a bit of a mini puzzle. Here are all of the major enemies in the game, and how to take each of them down.
Unless otherwise specified, elemental and regional variants of enemies are excluded as they are functionally identical to their regular counterparts.
|
Enemy |
How To Beat Them |
|---|---|
|
Griever |
The standard enemy across the game. They are fast and evasive, so sometimes free-aiming can help you land shots more consistently than lock-on. |
|
Mauler Griever |
Found in the Great Mines. Like regular Grievers, but can also spit acid. There are also explosive variants that will rush you and detonate, summoning more Grievers. Freeze these ones anddestroy them to prevent the explosion. |
|
Ghaspore |
Summon homing spores, which can be taken down normally. Fire when the spore is open, or fire missiles to destroy whenever. |
|
Goura Ghaspore |
Ghaspore variant found in the Great Mines. Summons homing spores that cannot be destroyed normally, nor can the Ghaspore itself. Instead, you must shoot the spore back into the Goura Ghaspore, causing both to explode. |
|
Shren |
Small flying enemies that flying attack in swarms. Will spawn as longas their nests are active. Take out the nest with missiles or Thunder Shots.Fire Shots will destroy the nest, but cause multiple more Shren to spawn from it before it burns away. |
|
Bristlewort |
Relatively passive enemies,though, will fire needles at you if provoked. Can be attacked only when firing missiles and their back opens. |
|
Snow Wolf |
Only encountered once when entering Ice Belt for the first time. Can be taken out quickly with Fire Shots. |
|
Dartwing |
Typically hang from the ceiling in a group, darting at Samu as she approaches. Can be taken down in just a hit or two from the Beam Cannon, just rapidly lock-on to them and fire. |
|
Leaping Spitter |
Found only around the lava of Flare Pool. Just freeze them, or take them out with Vi-O-La’s homing attack. |
|
Pyremite |
Found in Flare Pool, and will rush you in groups and attempt to explode. Freeze them with Ice Shots and defeat them this way to prevent the explosion. |
|
Behemoth |
A one-off enemy found in Flare Pool. Can only be damaged by shooting at its eyes. |
|
Maintenance Tank |
Copious throughout the game. For all versions, locking on and then aiming slightly upwards at the head will deal additional damage, so use Charged Shots. |
|
Lamorn Turret |
Can be fairly easily taken down with a single Charged Shot, though stronger ones may take two. Alternatively, fire a Thunder Shot to stun them and then defeat them instantly with the Psychic Lasso. |
|
Psy-bot Soldier |
Copious throughout Volt Forge. Thunder Shot is useful for extra damage, though using Ice Shot when they’re flying will cause them to plummet to the ground, taking massive damage. |
|
Psy-bot Shield |
Dodge behind them as they charge at you. Once you get the Psychic Lasso, just yank the shield away entirely. |
|
Psy-bot Shocker |
These guys are a bit slower and will unleash constant shockwaves. Just keep jumping and unleash your strongest attacks against them. |
|
Psy-bot Teleporter |
They fire a powerful X attack at you and teleport around constantly. Track them with the radar to see where they stop and use Ice Shot to freeze them, giving you more time to dish out damage. |
|
Psy-bot Gunner |
They summon orbs that assist in their attacks. Always take these down first to slow the Gunner, and otherwise use your strongest attacks against them. |
|
Aeronaut |
Found in Sol Valley, they chase Samus and drop bombs on the ground that deal high damage. Use a homing attack with Vi-O-La to take them out of the sky, and then use a sliding boost to take them out instantly. They’ll sometimes drop a distance away from you, so keep hitting them with the homing attacks as you approach to keep them down. |
|
Maurader |
The rolling wheels that chase Samus across Sol Valley, typically in a group of two or three. After being hit, you might be able to just out-speed them, but otherwise do a sliding boost to defeat them. |
There are a few other enemies in the game, but they’re fairly passive and don’t really have attack patterns, so there’s not really any technique for taking them out.
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