Omega Ridley

Omega Ridley is Meta Ridley infused with Phazon. This infusion has increased his incredible power to far greater heights. He acts as the Guardian for the Leviathan Seed on the Pirate Homeworld and is the third from last boss in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Biography
Meta Ridley seemingly survived and was regenerated through Phazon exposure after the botched invasion of Norion. His severe loss against Samus sent him tumbling the rest of the way down the energy shaft. Due to this, he has been energized to a new combat threat level. He has a very durable, Phazon-enhanced armorskin and protective armored plating. He has an injury from his fall that has not yet fully healed, which is his only weak point (similar to the one in Metroid Prime during his ground phase). He will try to protect this injury, requiring Samus Aran to stun him and leave the injury open for strong attacks. Samus encounters him on the Pirate Homeworld protecting the planet's Leviathan.

Battle
Initially, Samus must stun Omega Ridley by shooting at his mouth while it is open and glowing (in mid-air or ground level, the former resulting in him falling to the ground). She can then use the Grapple Lasso to rip off Omega Ridley's armor and overload the wound with Phazon. Alternatively, she can drain Ridley's own energy using the Grapple Voltage, which turns out to be to her advantage, as it allows her to replenish energy used up by attacking with Hypermode attacks. When his weakpoint is being damaged, Omega Ridley attempts to turn and move away from Samus, but will renew his offensive when his armor inevitably reseals itself.

After this process has been repeated a number of times, the boss' armor will be completely destroyed. In response, Omega Ridley will back up and generate a new piece of Phazite armor. This time, the X-Ray Visor must be used in cooperation with the Nova Beam to penetrate the Phazite armor, either by striking his wound directly or by weakening the armor's hinges and destroying it (the latter method is preferred, since the wound takes very little damage at this point). Apart from the change in targets, the method of attack is unchanged: stun the boss and attack the weak spots.

After this phase, Omega Ridley will give up on protecting his weakness,taking to the air with his wound exposed. He constantly flies in and out of the Leviathan, reappearing randomly from one of four different entrances, launching an attack before fleeing once more. At this stage, the wound difficult to target (although watching the Motion Tracker may help predict where Ridley will approach from), but Samus is free to fire at will with Phazon attacks. It is recommended to enter and exit Hypermode when Ridley appears and leaves the arena in order to conserve health. After a few hit-and-runs, Omega Ridley may choose to resume his ground assault for a time, which gives Samus a prime opportunity to finish him off

The Screw Attack is one of Samus's most helpful items in this battle. Screw Attacking toward Ridley will cancel whatever move he is attempting to execute, as he will instead jump out of the way to avoid being rammed by the attack. Since several of his attacks are either difficult to dodge or simply waste time by making him temporarily invincible, the ability to control his movement pattern can be a great boon in this battle.

Omega Ridley's abilities include a massive line of plasma and flame from his Kinetic Breath Weapon, an equally large blast of Phazon from his tail (used in conjunction with his breath weapon or when Samus is relatively close to his rear), large or small homing fireballs previously used in the Norion battle (reminiscent of his fireball attacks in 2-D Metroid games), a relatively fast charge, a claw slash covered with a Phazon blade (identical to the Omega Pirate's), a shockwave attack similar to the Ultrathermal Flamestrike Projector, another shockwave which produces an electrical cage-like structure via (destructible) Phazon orbs during the second phase, an electrical Phazon pound from his hand, biting, and an upgraded version of his old Meson Bomb Launcher which carpet bombs the entire area in a rain of destruction. Also in the third phase, he will be noticeably more aggressive and will constantly attempt to close in on Samus by running and/or leaping towards her. While he can be stunned in the final phase of the battle, he will now clumsily walk and make small jumps to reach Samus and proceed to swipe his claws at her, making it fairly difficult to aim for his chest.

Samus receives the Hyper Grapple after defeating Omega Ridley, who disappears in a massive flash of Phazon after the battle.

Trivia



 * Unlike the other Prime series battles with Ridley, his body seemingly disintegrated, and yet he reappears in Super Metroid. This mystery shouldn't be taken too seriously, however, since in the past he has survived close to complete destruction on several occasions.
 * Also, the actual disintegration is not seen: Ridley is only seen wrapping his wings around himself and sinking to the ground. The scene then cuts to the resulting Phazon hitting Samus.
 * Interestingly, as if in confirmation of Ridley's survival after his defeat in the Pirate Homeworld Seed, Samus' Gunship does not list him as being killed in its statistics log despite the fact that all other Leviathan Guardians are recorded as such.


 * There is a glitch that makes Omega Ridley get stuck in the wall when he does his tackle attack.
 * This battle is similar to the Meta Ridley Battle in Metroid Prime, as he uses many of the same moves and he even looks similar to the form he had in that game. Curiously, Omega Ridley starts flying when he is at about one-fourth health, whereas he is airborne for the first three-fourths of his health in Metroid Prime.


 * Despite this form being named Omega, he is relatively easier to battle than in the first Metroid Prime game. Several attacks, such as the tail swing and tackles, are actually performed at a much slower speed in Metroid Prime 3, despite the fact that Omega Ridley uses his four limbs to initiate said attacks compared to when he simply used his back legs in the first game.


 * Interestingly enough, Ridley's mechanical implants are more visible in this form, rather than his Meta form on Norion near the beginning of the game, where he appears to be more organic. Also, Omega Ridley's organic purple body is more evident as well (when compared to his previous Meta forms).
 * Omega Ridley is the only enemy in the Prime series to be displayed in the HUD radar as a full-scale silhouette. All other enemies (even Meta Ridley, both in the first Prime and the beginning of Corruption) merely appear as blips.
 * Omega Ridley's weak point is similar to the weak point of the Ridley Robot in Metroid: Zero Mission. The latter may be a prototype/precursor to Meta Ridley, possibly making Omega a further enhanced version of the Zero Mission boss.


 * The fireballs that he shoots out in both battles in Metroid Prime 3 can be destroyed with Samus Aran's weapons, specifically reminiscent of the fireballs he used in Zero Mission.
 * Omega Ridley seems to possess an ability similar to Samus's Sense Move, as he tries to side jump from an incoming Screw Attack.


 * Interestingly, Omega Ridley seems to somewhat share the same facial structure as Neo-Ridley. This could seemingly reveal why the Core-X Ridley took on the form that it did, instead of its original form.

Other
This is the music heard when battling Omega Ridley:.