Dark Beam

The Dark Beam is a weapon of Luminoth origin that mimics the dark energy type of Dark Aether. This weapon is compatible with Samus Aran's arm cannon, and was integrated into her suit during the events of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. So far it has only made an appearance in that game.

Description
The Dark Beam fires strange energy similar to the native energy of Dark Aether. The beam's main composition seems to be some sort of "Dark Energy" of which is apparently more efficient and more powerful than electricity; firing a globular mass of dark energy that clings to walls and objects, most importantly targets, which dissipates after a short time. Normal shots resemble swirling flattened disks of this dark energy, trailed by a dark streak and globular emanations. Larger concentrations cling to objects, hardening into a brittle shell on contact (see Entangler below). Large quantities of this energy charge and open highly hazardous dimensional rifts (see Darkburst).

The Dark Beam has the ability to activate many types of crystalline technology throughout the surfaces of the mirror planets. Firing the Dark Beam at Light-charged crystals can have many effects, ranging from lifting a platform, to moving machinery. The Dark Beam cancels the functioning of Light Crystals and Light Beacons, causing protective umbrellas of light energy to disappear from the surface of Dark Aether. Fortunately, this effect is only temporary, and can be reversed at any time with an application of the Light Beam, or several Power Beam shots. Furthermore, the Dark Beam opens Dark Portals to the surface of Dark Aether, and is used to open purple and black colored doors (Two colors, same door.).

Just as with the other Luminoth-designed projectile weapons, the Dark Beam has a limited amount of ammunition. Destroying targets and containers with the Light Beam will give ammunition for the Dark Beam, and the inverse is also true. The Dark Beam's base ammunition capacity is 50, but ammo expansions can be obtained, increasing the maximum ammunition capacity by increments of 50. A maximum ammunition capacity of 250 is possible. If Samus is out of ammo, she can charge the beam to fire an uncharged shot. This prevents Samus from becoming stuck if she runs out of both Light and Dark ammo. There is an ample supply of similarities between the Dark Beam and the Ice Beam. One obvious similarity is that the Dark Beam uses the same "raised" Arm Cannon configuration as the Ice Beam. Second, the Dark Beam has a similar purpose, as it is mainly used for slowing down and immobilizing targets, just as the Ice Beam was. However, the Dark Beam has several advantages, such as a higher rate of fire, a much more destructive Charge Combo, and an overall higher capability to cause damage, as how it is able to heavily damage anything within the "Light Universe".

The Luminoth originally designed the Dark Beam as a means to combat the Ing Horde, by the theory that the energy of the Dark Beam would overload the creatures of Dark Aether, and in effect destroy them. Once finally tested, this weapon was discovered to be of only average effect against the Ing, causing little damage. With further trial and error, the Light and Annihilator beams were created, which proved to be much more efficient in the battle against Ing.

Ironically, the Dark Beam can only be found on Light Aether, while its Light counterpart can only be found on the dark world of Aether. The rooms where the beams are found are also polar opposites of each other.

Entangler
A charged mass of dark energy has the strange ability to encase targets, and harden into a brittle shell. The Entangler, the Charge Beam technique for the Dark Beam, exploits this quality. Firing the Entangler will encase most creatures within a certain radius completely, immobilizing and providing the perfect opportunity to shatter the target with a single Missile. This technique is highly effective for use against the troublesome Dark Pirate Commandos, and also effective when used in tandem with the charged Light Beam against Dark Grenchlers. It is not necessary to directly hit a target with the Entangler, as it will attract to any possible targets within a short radius. Targets hit with the Entangler will be "sticky" for a short time, and cause any other creatures that come into contact with this target to freeze as well, but this will only occur before the dark matter has hardened around the original target. The Entangler seems to possess 'cold' attributes, as it is capable of rendering Metroids extremely fragile to concussive weaponry, a result given by the Ice Beam as well.

Darkburst
Main Article: Darkburst

Once acquired from the Mining Station B, Agon Wastes, Samus can use the Darkburst, the Charge Combo for the Dark Beam. Though it uses up 30 Dark Ammo, as well as 5 missiles, it creates a large sphere from the arm cannon, moving on a fairly fast, straight trajectory.

This particular charged combo is of great use against aerial foes, or large numbers of enemies, ripping apart its molecular structure and drawing it into a "dark dimension, pulling enemies to oblivion."



Metroid Prime 2: Echoes manual
"The Dark Beam can hinder enemies, extinguish Light Crystals, and is effective against Light Aether enemies. Charge it to fire the Entangler, which enshrouds enemies in shadow. The Dark Beam can open purple hatches."

Behind the scenes
The "dark energy" fired by this weapon is known to current terrestrial science, if only hypothetically: cosmologists believe that this "negative gravity" permeates the vacuum of space and repels all matter, driving the expansion of the universe. If significant amounts of the field could somehow by concentrated and fired, the massive yet localized expansive force would likely be quite damaging, tearing the target apart from within.

Trivia

 * The Dark Beam was given its name by Science Team.
 * This weapon is one of two pieces of Luminoth technology to make use of dark energy, the other being the Dark Sentinel Crystal.
 * A possible reason why the Dark Beam has little to no effect on the Ing may be contributed to the fact that they're both composed of Dark Energy, and are thus resistant. Possibly similar to the effect of magnetism between the same poles.
 * Ironicaly, Dark Samus is vunerably to the dark beam because she was "born" in the normal/light universe.