Spore Spawn

Spore Spawn is a miniboss in Super Metroid. Reached from the top of the large pink room in upper Brinstar, it guards the game's first set of super missiles.

Spore Spawn is a gigantic plant that was genetically engineered by the space pirates. When Samus enters the room, spores begin to fill the air and the creature's main body descends from the ceiling to swing back and forth in perpetual figure eights. Its shell is impenetrable to all of Samus' weapons: Spore Spawn can only be damaged when it stops to open its mouth to reveal its glowing core. This opportunity initially appears once every three cycles. When dealt some damage, Spore Spawn turns darker, moves twice as fast, and reveals its core once every six cycles.

It takes 5 charge beam shots to reach Spore Spawn's second stage, and an additional 3 to kill it. With missiles, the respective numbers are 6 and 4. Neither the charge beam nor a large supply of missiles is needed, as missiles can be refilled by shooting the falling spores. Touching Spore Spawn does 12 points damage to Samus; the spores do 4 points. Damage to Samus can be avoided by staying in a corner in morphing ball mode.

It is possible to skip Spore Spawn using the early super missiles trick. This is quite convenient, as the Spore Spawn battle is time consuming. An amusing consequence is that Spore Spawn can be played later on, with more powerful weapons such as the plasma beam which kills it instantly. If super missiles are collected in advance, it is also possible to escape the room and start over again (the only such boss battle in the game).

The dead Spore Spawn head is one of a few objects in the game that will shake when wall jumped onto.