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 to last boss in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Biography
Meta Ridley seemingly survived and was regenerated through Phazon exposure after his severe loss against Samus during the failed invasion of Norion. 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. However, he has an injury from his fall on Norion that has not yet fully healed, which is his only weak point (similar to the one in Metroid Prime). 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 midair 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 weak point 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, Omega Ridley's 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 co-operation 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 is 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.

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

Attacks
After being infused with Phazon, Omega Ridley's abilities have been greatly augmented. His attacks include:


 * A massive line of plasma and flame from his Kinetic Breath Weapon, and 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 (note that shooting Ridley in the mouth when he jumps will send him to the ground, stunned),


 * Another shockwave which produces an electrical cage-like structure via (destructible) Phazon orbs during the second phase.


 * Pounding Samus with one hand.


 * Biting Samus if she is too close. This can cost her an entire energy tank on higher difficulties.


 * Meson Bomb Launcher: Carpet bombing the entire area.


 * Shooting a spread of homing fireballs from his mouth.

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.

Trivia

 * It seems that the battle inside the Pirate Homeworld Leviathan Core was originally going to use the same model of Meta Ridley from Norion, as seen in this unused footage at 2:08 . For reasons unknown, the developers created Omega Ridley to replace it.
 * 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, unlike Mogenar and Helios, 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.


 * There is a glitch that makes Omega Ridley get stuck in the wall when he does his tackle attack that makes him unable to move. If this happens, the battle cannot continue and the game must be rebooted.
 * 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 around the battlefield when he is at about a quarter health, whereas he is airborne for the first three quarters of his health in Metroid Prime.
 * Despite this form being named Omega, he is relatively sluggish compared to his Meta Ridley form back in Tallon IV. Several attacks, such as the tail swing and tackles, are actually performed at a much slower speed in Metroid Prime 3 despite Omega Ridley using his arms and legs simultaneously to initiate said attacks compared to when he simply used his hind legs in the first Metroid Prime 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).
 * It is unknown how or why Omega Ridley transformed back into his natural, uncorrupted organic form seen in Super Metroid. It is known however that Phazon has healing properties and that following the destruction of both Dark Samus and Phaaze, the mutagenic substance vanished from Samus' body and elsewhere on the galaxy; these two facts may have played a role in Omega Ridley's regression back to regular Ridley.
 * 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 the true, resurrected Meta Ridley, and Omega Ridley is Meta Ridley enhanced with Phazon.


 * 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 is one of Samus' most diverse enemies, being a zombie, dragon-like cyborg Space Pirate infused with Phazon.
 * Omega Ridley seems to possess an ability similar to Samus's Sense Move, as he tries to side jump from an incoming Screw Attack.


 * Omega Ridley's facial structure is similar to Neo-Ridley's.

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