Nightbarb



Nightbarbs are small, airborne Darklings with three wings. Nightbarbs are primarily found in Dark Agon on Dark Aether, although they can be found in other sectors as well. Nightbarbs travel in packs to scare off their primary predators, the Hunter Ing. Nightbarbs can be easily destroyed by projectile weapons, but can still be a nuisance at times. They can be more of a utility than an enemy sometimes; they make easy targets for the most basic weapons and shooting a mass of them can yield many powerups. This is a great way to restock on Missile ammo, and a decent way to restore energy.

In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption there are Nightbarbs on Bryyo that aren't Darklings. They also travel in packs. Also on the planet are Phazon Nightbarbs, Nightbarbs that are charged by Phazon.

These types of Nightbarbs are more threatening; they gather in groups then charge up energy to fire at Samus. The normal ones have a relatively weak attack, although it has a lot of pushing power; it has a large potential to knock Samus off a cliff. Normal Nightbarbs can be killed by having their energy attack overloaded while they're charging it. This can be achieved by shooting into their energy gathering. Phazon Nightbarbs possess a powerful attack and can launch smaller energy attacks individually when their group becomes too small to use a collective energy attack. However, they are constantly vulnerable to Hypermode attack.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption ' s Nightbarbs are invulnerable to attack unless charging in a group (Phazon Nightbarbs are vulnerable even when not charging, but they're not the same creature), while Metroid Prime 2: Echoes ' Nightbarbs are only capable of causing damage on contact.

Logbook entry
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption: "Nightbarbs are predators, traveling in packs to search for prey. They have the ability to generate a protective field of energy around their bodies. The ability is unstable, however. If the field makes contact with another life force, it will overload. This also consumes the life force of the Nightbarb, much like a bee's sting ends its life."

Trivia

 * Nightbarbs were possibly inspired by Nightgaunts from the Cthulhu Mythos by HP Lovecraft as both creatures are small, airborne nuisances which haunt both HP Lovecraft and Samus Aran on Dark Aether.