Gandrayda

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

Biography
Gandrayda is a Bounty Hunter from an unknown location. However, she possesses metamorphic abilities similarly to the inhabitants of Jovia XII. She can assume the form and abilities of most living things, including creatures and even machines differing significantly in size. Her age is unknown, though a psychological evaluation, such as her predilection for pranks, and speaking an informal tone, even in a military setting, it can be inferred she is relatively young, or at least immature in comparison to other Hunters. She considers Bounty Hunting a very enjoyable sport and considers Samus Aran her chief rival. She intends to surpass Samus as a veteran Bounty Hunter as soon as possible. She is a very capable combatant, but she is often hired for stealth and reconnaissance missions due to her ability to mimic creatures. Lore on the Pirate Homeworld suggests that she becomes a Space Pirate, referring to her as "Mistress Gandrayda" - 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 is asked by Fleet Admiral Dane of the Galactic Federation to help stop the Phazon corruption of Aurora Units. Once the Space Pirates attack 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 planet Norion to help the Federation ground troopers on the planet and protect the base.

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

Once the four Bounty Hunters reach the Control Tower to activate the cannon to destroy the approaching Leviathan, Dark Samus appears and releases a burst of Phazon at them, causing them to fall unconscious.

Two weeks later, Gandrayda awakes. Due to Dark Samus firing Phazon upon her, her body is now self-producing Phazon, though with no visible negative effects, like the other hunters. The Federation gives her a Phazon Enhancement Device to use this Phazon and send her to find the Space Pirate stronghold. She sets out to find it, but the Federation eventually loses contact with her.

More than two weeks after this, Samus Aran awakes. The Federation now know the location of the stronghold, known as the Pirate Homeworld thanks to a transmission pod from Gandrayda but don't know Gandrayda's status. Samus visits the planet and eventually receives a transmission from nearby from a Federation Marine designated NZG41. She manages to reach the marine and helps him activate an elevator. She and the marine go up the elevator, though once they reach the top, the marine begins firing at Samus. He transforms into Gandrayda, who desires a fight, saying, "You know, you should never trust strangers, Sammy... This is gonna be fun."

The Battle
When the battle starts, Gandrayda will jump, flip and run about the room, making it hard 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 into Samus, and must be shaken off with the Wii Remote.

After inflicting some damage, Gandrayda will begin to use her shapeshifting abilities to transform into different enemies. She'll then revert to normal after several moments. She will also share the weak points of these characters, so players can take the opportunity to damage her while she is transformed and not moving quickly as she normally does.


 * Berserker Knight: She will employ energy waves, Phazon Orbs and a liquid Phazon gun.
 * Aerotrooper: She will use the missile and energy-based attacks.
 * Swarmbot: 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

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


 * Rundas: She will employ his freeze wave, an ice sword and snow balls.
 * Ghor: She will employ missiles, the plasma beam, plasma shots and grab the Morph Ball.



When Gandrayda's health drops to 50%, she will transform into a duplicate of Samus, who uses the Boost Ball to bounce around the area, then pops up to fire a powerful Phazon beam.

At 25% health, Gandrayda stops transforming and begins to use Hyper Mode, in which she moves even faster and is invincible to all but Samus's own Hyper Mode attacks. 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 Samus). Unable to watch Gandrayda's death, Samus looks away with a clenched fist as a Dark Samus specter arrives and absorbs her.

Logbook Entry

 * GF Lore, Hunter Gandrayda: Subject homeworld unknown. Possesses metamorphic ability similar to the biomorphs of Jovia XII. Can assume the form and abilities of most living things, including bioforms considerably larger than the subject. Scans are unable to determine subject’s age, but psych eval suggests a high degree of youthfulness. Intel suggests that bounty hunting is akin to a sport for her, one she enjoys considerably. Subject perceives the veteran Hunter Samus Aran as her chief rival, a rival she intends to surpass as soon as possible.


 * Hunter Gandrayda: Gandrayda possesses the metamorphic ability to assume the form and abilities of other creatures. This talent has led many to seek her out for sleath and reconnaissance missions, despite her powerful combat abilities. Details on the subject's origins and age are unknown, but her unique traits have made her a sought-after Hunter for missions.


 * Gandrayda: Gandrayda’s ability to shape-shift has been greatly enhanced by Phazon exposure, allowing her to assume a number of deadly forms at will. These new forms come with a cost, as she also inherits their weaknesses. A mistress of stealth, she will employ her personal cloaking field often, setting up her next deadly attack. An advanced visor system may be able to detect her location.

Trivia

 * 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 the player properly utilizes the Screw Attack.
 * Though her log entry mentions Samus Aran as being Gandrayda 's chief rival, it is unknown as to what extent the rivalry goes to.
 * After being corrupted, Gandryda's irises turn dark blue.
 * Gandrayda's death takes longer than that of the other Hunters; she has enough time to attempt to reach out to Samus for help, unlike the other hunters who were quickly absorbed.
 * Gandryda wears her PED in the form of some sort of necklace, unlike the other hunters, who have PEDs attached to their armour.
 * 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 can transform into multiple Swarmbots, seeing as they are not a singular entity. It is possibly that they share one "mind".
 * Many of Gandrayda's lines toward Samus can be interpreted as flirtatious, or possibly mocking her, 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 create electrical sparks and interference in Samus's visor, and she also opens the mechanical roof of the battlefield at one point just by clenching her fist. This also reflects in the item she leaves Samus after being defeated, the Grapple Voltage.
 * This is the music heard when battling Gandrayda:.
 * Gandrayda is one of a few known shape shifters in the Metroid series, others including 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 from 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".
 * 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 she can be controlled, with the game thinking that she is in Morph Ball form.


 * When Gandrayda takes Samus' appearence while dying, she can copy the Hypermode of Samus' PED if Samus is in Hypermode at the end of the battle.