Pirate Mines

The Pirate Mines, or Mining Site is a facility on the Pirate Homeworld designed to extract Phazon from under the crust of the planet. The Leviathan's impact has caused the planet to become changing into an entirely Phazon planet. This is useful for the Pirates, as are able to use the Phazon to fuel their weapons, ships and forge armor out of it. Any unusual strains of Phazon or anomalies found while boring into the planet are reported to the Pirate Research sector for examination. The Mines are a product of the greed of the Pirates for Phazon, and the lengths they will go to obtain more. The Nova Beam was developed for use here, as seen by the many high-frequency green beams used to cut through Phazite for harvesting. Samus steals this technology later on in her infiltration on the Homeworld.

Features
The Mines is a small complex, consisting of only 10 rooms. They are mostly underground, and the deeper rooms have large deposits of raw Phazon to be extracted. There are four main rooms and six connecting corridors. Much of the facility is crude and makshift as the mining operations advance too quickly to build permanent and stable structures. Assault Troopers are the most common variety, and patrol the larger rooms. Phazon seems to be in abundance deeper in the complex, and several new varieties have been discovered, including Phazite and a new ore infused with Phazon.

Room List

 * Transit Station 4-B (Leads to Command Center)
 * Save Station (Pirate Mines)


 * Phazon Quarry
 * Mine Lift
 * Phazon Harvesting
 * Drill Shaft 1
 * Main Cavern
 * Drill Shaft 2
 * Phazon Mine Entry
 * Landing Site Charlie

Space Pirates

 * Pirate Trooper
 * Pirate Commando
 * Pirate Cargo Drone
 * Pirate Surveillance Drone

Other Natives

 * ULF 15

Metroids

 * Phazon Metroid

Bosses

 * Mining Cannon

Optional

 * Missile Expansion x 2
 * Energy Cell x 1

Mandatory

 * Nova Beam

Samus' arrival
Samus travels to the Mines sector by tram to investigate Pirate operations. She enters the Phazon Quarry and is quickly detected by Assault Troopers. Samus uses three large Phazon crates as cover and disposes of them. She uses a nearby terminal to carve a Half Pipe out of some Phazon ore and uses it to escape the room. Samus enters the Mine Lift, and uses two Spinners to release the jammed lift which falls to the bottom of the shaft.

She jumps down and continues. Samus next enters a room called Phazon Harvesting, where she encounters a large Phazon Harvester Drone. Samus stuns the unit and quickly ascends the platforms to the next room. Samus proceeds into Drill Shaft 1 and quickly makes it to he next room. Samus enters the Main Cavern. There are no enemies in sight, so Samus overlooks the basement through a window. She spots a powerup trapped in a small container linked up to a large cannon. She activates a Hand Scanner round the corner and descends an Elevator.

Samus is greeted by three Pirate Troopers, who set off the alarm. She manages to defeat all but one and then the Mining Cannon lanches a tractor beam that pulls Samus and the remaining Trooper into the cannon. Samus fires at the Trooper and he looses his grip on a safety handrail, sending him into the Mining Cannon. The Cannon appears damaged, so Samus repeats this process. Finally, the cannon is destroyed and the canister falls to the floor, revealing the Nova Beam. Samus uses her X-Ray Visor and the beam to escape the basement and back up the lift. Now she has the Nova Beam, Samus opens a new corridor that leads her back to the Phazon Quarry. This time, she has entered on a small enclosed balcony, and she removes an Energy Cell from the wall to her right. Samus returns to the Main Cavern and opens up a new room using her X-Ray Visor and Nova Beam. Samus goes through Drill Shaft 2 and picking up a Missile Expansion along the way. She reaches the final room, Landing Site Charlie. Several broken circuit boards and other obstacles block the Landing Pad so Samus rids the room of them and calls in her Gunship. Samus flies to the Command Center to open new doors with the Nova Beam.