Spire

Not much is known about Spire, a rock-cored Bounty Hunter who appears in Metroid Prime Hunters. His alt form is the Dialanche.

Biography
Spire is the last of his kind, the Diamonts, an extremely strong race composed of silicon-based organic rock that hail from the planet Mondreus. He wearily searches for the fate and location of the rest of his people, if any. When Spire hears of a source of ultimate power in the Alimbic System, he is drawn by the possiblity of information about his lost race.

''"Spire is the sole remaining member of the Diamonts, an ancient silicon-based life-form. He hopes that finding the Alimbics' source of ultimate power and solving the mystery of their lost race will help him solve the mystery of his own." -Spire, Metroid Prime Hunters Instruction Booklet''

Logbook Entry
''"Analysis of this creature's physiology indicates the presence of molten ferrous compounds normally found only in a planet's core. SPIRE is armed with the MAGMAUL, a weapon that lobs cohesive bursts of SUPERHEATED MAGMA." -Spire enemy scan''

''"SPIRE's alternative form is the DIALANCHE, a hypercondensed ferrous orb able to roll at high speeds. The DIALANCHE is equipped with two retractable titanium limbs used to batter adversaries." -Dialanche enemy scan''

Cancelled GC Game
Spire appears to be based on an enemy from the cancelled Nintendo GameCube game, Raven Blade, which can be seen in a trailer in a similar setting to Spire's intro video. This game, which was dropped to free up resources for Metroid Prime, was designed by Retro Studios, who also did the Hunters' designs according to interviews. The sudden disappearance of the Diamonts may be a reference to the title as well. In one scene of the trailer for Raven Blade, the creature, who is larger and more simple in design, is shown to lob a ball of lava towards the screen much like Spire's Magmaul.

Gameplay
His Affinity Weapon is the Magmaul, a powerful weapon that fires cohesive exploding lava. When charged, the Magmaul, in addition to causing powerful initial impact and explosive damage, gives an effect over time that ultimately amounts to 30 extra damage to anything within its blast radius, including its user. Spire can also walk through fields of lava without recieving any damage.

Multiplayer Strategies
It should be noted that 1 uncharged magmaul shot and 1 fully charged magmaul shot will do 100 damage.

Mag Lag
In the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection there is often a noticeable lag, so to improve accuracy it is useful to shoot the Magmaul ahead of enemies, causing them to run into your line of fire.

Alternate Form
Spire's alternate form is the Dialanche, in which he turns into what resembles a large, rolling volcanic rock. The Dialanche attacks by throwing out and rotating its sides (revealing a spiky yellow core) around itself rapidly. This is a very effective close-range attack, as it attacks a full 360 degrees around itself while rapidly dealing damage. The power of each hit is not notable, but at its rate and the fact that a single attack can hit twice (with each extending half of the Dialanche), it makes more than up for this at close range. The Dialanche maneuvers like a boulder, its movement at high speed is a little bouncy and rough, but it gains momentum quickly and handles with ease. Its top speed is a bit faster than that of the Stinglarva, though it can be outrun by a boosting Morph Ball, the Vhoscythe, and the Lockjaw. It can also be sort of artificially outrun by the Triskelion's rapid lunge attack. It is the only alternate form capable of sticking to walls. However, when stuck to a wall it climbs slowly, has a tendency to often fall off, and will automatically detach from the wall when attacking(not always). This can be used as an effective ambush tactic. Unfortunately, it cannot climb a vertical wall and then on top of it, it must drop to a platform below. Because of this, its usefulness in reaching items is rather limited.

Brawl Trophy
"Another hunter seeking the ultimate power, and the last of the silicon-based Diamont race. By finding the secrets of the Alimbics, he hopes to uncover the secret of why his race went extinct. Spire uses the Magmaul, a weapon passed down through Diamont generations, to launch burning magma at opponents."

DS Metroid Prime: Hunters

Trivia

 * Spire's affinity with the Magmaul is very similar to the effects of the fiery Plasma Beam that appears in Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
 * Spire's race, the Diamonts, simply disappearing could connect the bounty hunter to the Alimbic situation, where they also disappeared.
 * This is the music heard when battling Spire.
 * Spire's motivations leads to suspect that he has no evil intentions, and is merely trying to obtain the ultimate power to bring back his people.

Appearances

 * Metroid Prime Hunters
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Appears as a trophy)
 * Metroid Prime Hunters Official Nintendo Player's Guide