Gandrayda

Gandrayda is a Bounty Hunter who debuted in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. She was voiced by Claire Hamilton.

Biography
Gandrayda was a Bounty Hunter from an unknown location. However, she possessed metamorphic abilities similar to the inhabitants of Jovia XII. She could assume the form and abilities of most living things, including creatures and even machines differing significantly in size. Her age was unknown, though a psychological evaluation, her predilection for pranks, and her informal speech patterns in even military settings all indictate that she was relatively young, or at least immature in comparison to the other Hunters. She viewed Bounty Hunting as a very enjoyable sport and considered the veteran hunter Samus Aran her chief rival. She intended to surpass Samus as a veteran Bounty Hunter as soon as possible. Gandrayda was a very capable combatant, but was often hired for stealth and reconnaissance missions due to her ability to mimic creatures. Lore on the Pirate Homeworld referring to her as "Mistress Gandrayda" suggests that she became a Space Pirate -- it is likely that she fell under the influence of Dark Samus after being corrupted by Phazon.

Aiding the Galactic Federation


Along with Ghor, Rundas, and Samus Aran, Gandrayda was asked by Fleet Admiral Dane of the Galactic Federation to help stop the Phazon corruption of the Aurora Units. Once the Space Pirates attacked the G.F.S. Olympus, the GF ship they are currently aboard, Gandrayda helps defend the ship by confronting the infiltrating Space Pirates. She then goes to Norion to help the Federation ground troopers and protect the base.

When Samus arrives at Norion's Generator C, she finds a group of Space Pirates waiting for her. Just as she is about to fight them, one of them assaults his comrades. Once the other pirates are dead, it transforms into Gandrayda, who leaves "Sammy" behind to do the work of activating the generator.

Once the four Bounty Hunters reached the Control Tower to activate the cannon that would destroy the approaching Leviathan, Dark Samus appeared and fired a burst of Phazon at them, causing them to fall unconscious.

Corruption
Two weeks later, Gandrayda awakened. Because of the Phazon blast fired by Dark Samus, her body was self-producing Phazon like the other hunters, though with no visible negative effects. The Federation gave her a Phazon Enhancement Device to use this Phazon and sent her to find the Space Pirate stronghold. She set out to find it, but the Federation eventually lost contact with her. Unknown to the organization, Gandrayda had fallen victim to her internal Phazon seven days after she left.

After an additional two weeks, Samus Aran awoke, and some time later the Federation found the location of the Pirate Homeworld thanks to an emergency GF communication capsule from Gandrayda, but didn't know her current status; it is safe to assume this transmission pod was used by Gandrayda prior to her corruption. Samus infiltrated the planet and eventually received a transmission from a nearby Federation Marine designated NZG41. She managed to reach the Marine and helped him activate an elevator. She and the Marine went up the elevator, though once they reached the top, the Marine suddenly began firing at Samus, forcing her to dodge the shots in Morph Ball form. He transformed into Gandrayda, who was now maniacal due to her Phazon corruption and desired to battle Samus, saying, "You know, you should never trust strangers, Sammy... This is gonna be fun."

Battle
During the fight, Gandrayda will jump, flip, and run about the room, making it intensively difficult to shoot her. She can create throwing blades that will lock onto and "seek" Samus, though they can be shot down for power-ups. Gandrayda will also use a ground-based impact wave that streaks directly towards Samus. At close range, Gandrayda will attempt to strangle and claw at Samus and must be shaken off with the Wii Remote. If successfully shot with a fully charged beam, she will trip onto the ground, leaving her vulnerable for three short seconds.

After taking some damage, Gandrayda will begin to use her shapeshifting abilities to transform into different enemies. She'll revert to normal after several moments. She will also share the weak points of these forms, so Samus can damage her in the same way as she did those enemies. The following is a list of the forms Gandrayda will take at this time:


 * Berserker-G: She will employ energy waves, Phazon Orbs and a liquid Phazon gun.


 * Aerotrooper-G: She will use the missile and energy-based attacks.


 * Swarmbot-G: She will attack in a manner similar to a tornado. If Samus wanders too close, her energy will be drained. Shooting down the individual Swarmbots can reveal power-ups. However, using the Screw Attack is even more efficient.

At 75% health, Gandrayda opens part of the roof, covering the outer portion of the battlefield in deadly acid rain. She'll then continue her attack, and will also begin using new transformations.


 * Rundas-G: She will employ his freeze wave, an ice sword, flight ability, Ice Missiles.


 * Ghor-G (2nd Phase): She will employ missiles, the plasma beam, plasma shots, and she will also attempt to grab the Morph Ball.

When Gandrayda's health drops to 50%, she will transform into Samus-G in the Varia; while mimicking Samus, she will use the Boost Ball to bounce around the area and then pop up to fire a powerful Phazon beam.

At 25% health, Gandrayda stops transforming and begins to use Hyper Mode, where she moves even faster and all weapons used against her outside of Samus' own Hyper Mode attacks cause insignificant damage. When her Hyper Mode wears off, Gandrayda turns invisible. Samus must use the X-Ray Visor to keep track of Gandrayda and attack her until she uses Hyper Mode again.

Once defeated, Gandrayda screams in agony as she rapidly cycles through different forms (a Space Pirate, Rundas, Ghor, a Berserker Knight, and finally Samus in the PED) as she reaches out to Samus. Samus is unable to watch Gandrayda's death and looks away with a clenched fist as the wraith-like figure of Dark Samus arrives and absorbs her.

Gandrayda makes one last appearance in the special ending of the game, in which Samus takes a moment to mourn her fallen comrades on planet Elysia.

Powers and abilities
Gandrayda possesses powerful shapeshifting abilities. This allows her to assume the forms of various creatures and assume their powers. Their seems to be no limit to her shapeshifting powers as she is able to assume the form of creatures significantly larger than herself such as Beserker Knights and Ghor, as well as transform herself into machines such as swarmbots. She is also shown to be extremely agile, able to make high and graceful jumps, flips, and cartwheels in the air. Gandrayda also appears to have some power over electricity. When she is not using her shapeshifting powers, she attacks from a distance by throwing electric orbs, and electric blades that home in on opponents. She can also turn invisible to elude opponents.

Weaknesses
Though her shapeshifting powers allow her to infiltrate places with ease and help her in battle, Her shapeshifting can also be a double-edged sword as she also gains the creature's weaknesses as well as strengths.

Trivia

 * This is the music heard when battling Gandrayda: . Gandrayda's theme music seems to be similar to the Chykka theme from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.
 * Dark Samus utilizes Gandrayda's small, shockwave attack during the battle against Samus on Phaaze, as well as other attacks belonging to the other bounty hunters. Dark Samus most likely acquired the hunters' attacks from absorbing them with her ghost-like form.
 * Gandrayda is surprisingly vulnerable to Samus's Screw Attack, though her evasive movements make it very difficult to hit her with it. It can be possible to defeat Gandrayda in under forty seconds if Samus properly utilizes the Screw Attack. This vulnerability was reduced in Metroid Prime Trilogy.
 * During the attack on the G.F.S. Olympus, Gandrayda can be seen fighting Space Pirates in Repair Bay Shaft before the blast doors close. She is gone by the time they reopen.
 * Gandrayda's death takes longer than that of the other Hunters; she has enough time to attempt to reach out for Samus' help, unlike the other hunters who were either killed prior to absorption, or where simply absorbed quickly.
 * Gandrayda wears her PED in the form of some sort of necklace, unlike the other hunters, who have PEDs attached to their armour.
 * Strangely, Gandrayda is able to use the mechanical battle systems in some of the forms she uses (Ghor's armour, Swarmbots, NZG41's gun, etc.) even though these require power sources and a large amount of knowledge of the internal mechanisms of the devices in question.
 * Unlike her fellow Bounty Hunters in Corruption, it is unknown if Gandrayda has her own Gunship, since it is never seen or alluded to. It may be possible that Gandrayda's powers allow her to morph into a form capable of space travel.
 * It is unknown how Gandrayda is capable of transforming into multiple Swarmbots, seeing as they are not a singular entity. It is possibly that they share one "mind". It should be noted however that Phazon corruption had, at the time of her battle against Samus, increased her metamorphic capabilities to unknown levels, as hinted in her Logbook entry.
 * Many of Gandrayda's lines toward Samus can be interpreted as either flirtatious or mocking since she sees Samus as her rival.
 * In keeping with the elemental themes of the Hunters in Corruption, Gandrayda seems to have power over electricity. Many of her attacks, including those resulting from her mimickery, create electrical sparks and interference in Samus's visor (an example is her Rundas mimic's ice giving off electricity), and she also opens the mechanical roof of the battlefield at one point just by clenching her fist. This is also reflected in the item she leaves Samus after being defeated, the Grapple Voltage. Ironically, when Samus meets her at Generator C on Norion, she leaves Samus to turn the generator on, saying that 'machines aren't [her] thing'. It is possible she just wanted Samus to do all the work for her.
 * Gandrayda herself also seems to be some sort of energy being.
 * Gandrayda is one of three shape shifters in the Metroid series; the others being the X Parasites and the Mimic.
 * Samus can scan each of the forms Gandrayda goes into during the battle. However, if she reads the Logbook entry, the only change in Gandrayda's entry will be the images of the form and the name, which is the normal name of the creature followed by "-G" (i.e. "Rundas-G"). However, the preview text shown when scanning will be different and instead tells Samus what Gandrayda can do in a specific form (for example, the scan of Rundas-G will say she now has 'limited cryokinesis'). Interestingly enough, the only time "-G" is not present is when Samus scans Gandrayda when she is Federation Marine NZG41, though there is still a noticeable "G".
 * According to Space Pirate Data, Gandrayda planned to give Samus's bloody helmet to Dark Samus after killing her. If Samus receives a Game Over then it can be assumed that this happened.
 * A glitch sometimes occurs when fighting Gandrayda (more specifically when she is fighting the player as a Pirate Aerotrooper after the rain shields are down) where Gandrayda descends down the edge, disappearing for good during the fight.
 * Another glitch can be exploited if, when fighting Gandrayda as Ghor, she grabs a Screw Attacking Samus with her whip and then slams her into the ground. Samus will be stuck in her unmorph animation and can be controlled with the game thinking that she is in Morph Ball form. This glitch is no longer present in the Metroid Prime Trilogy version of the game.
 * When fighting Ghor-G, it is possible to make him engage his "Phase 3" fight, though Gandrayda will usually change back before combat.
 * For reasons unknown, throughout the course of the battle, Gandrayda never turned into a Samus-G equipped with the PED, along with many other upgrades Samus possessed at the time of their reunion on the Pirate Homeworld. Instead, Samus-G was simply equipped with the Varia Suit, the Boost Ball and a variation of her beam. It is only near the final moments of her life where Gandrayda takes the shape of Samus in her PED. It's possible that Gandrayda only had limited information about Samus that she could use in combat, since very few individuals know sufficient information regarding Samus's combat capabilities, and Gandrayda had no way of finding out what upgrades Samus had acquired before she met her on the Pirate Homeworld. It's also possible that her powers weren't great enough to copy all of her target's abilities (for example, she didn't seem capable of using all of Rundas-G's attacks).
 * When Gandrayda takes Samus' appearance while dying, she can copy the Hypermode of Samus' PED if Samus is in Hypermode at the end of the battle.


 * Samus, and Gandrayda are the only two known female bounty hunters in the Metroid series (after the death of Gandrayda, Samus is the only known female bounty hunter).
 * When Gandrayda is in her "Samus-G" form, she fires a beam strikingly similar to the Zero Laser from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Though she becomes exhausted after using the beam, it does not cause her to become a "Zero Suit Samus-G".
 * Gandrayda has bags under her eyes when Samus meets her on the Pirate Homeworld, which may indicate she was stressed or unable to sleep because of the corruption.
 * Hacking of Corruption 's code had revealed an unused temporary scan for a "Reptilicus-G" form, in which Gandrayda is able to become invisible to the naked eye. In the final game, she is able to do so without the need to shapeshift.
 * The only form Gandrayda mimics to not have a known official name is of a Pirate Militia. She uses this to surprise the Pirates in Generator C and morphs into this form as she is dying. Space Pirate Data also states that she walks among Pirates in their form, killing those who show the slightest bit of fear.