Emperor Ing

Emperor Ing is the eldest and strongest of the Ing Horde. He resides in the Sky Temple, with the main Dark Aether energy controller. Samus Aran's battle with this evil monstrosity is depicted in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Being the very first Ing born from Dark Aether's creation, Emperor Ing has been mutated and strengthened by Phazon energy and the stolen Light of Aether. He has the capability of manipulating both dark and light energy to create attacks that can eat away Energy Tanks of Samus' health in seconds.

First phase


In his first form, Emperor Ing resembles an Inglet with hunter tentacles. Samus can scan Emperor Ing's Body, Head, and Eye separately. To defeat the Emperor's first form, Samus must find a way to expose the creature's eye, which is his only vulnerable weakpoint. In order to bring down the Emperor's defenses, Samus must first tackle his tentacles, which he uses to attack Samus in various ways. The Emperor will try to whip Samus into the Phazon that lines the arena where he is fought, by swinging his tentacles around. He can use his tentacles to charge up and launch powerful energy spheres at Samus. He can also create miniature portals, through which he jabs his tentacles in an attempt to impale her. On the bright side, defeating a tentacle often leaves behind a power-up.

After Samus causes the Emperor to retract all of his tentacles, his Eye, which can be scanned separately from the rest of his body, will be temporarily exposed. The Eye has two protective hemispheres rotating around it, and Samus must fire through the narrow break between them. Samus must lock onto and maneuver around the Eye, as the protective hemispheres rotate around it constantly, alternating their direction erratically. While his Eye is exposed, the Emperor can fire a powerful laser from it, which can stun Samus and prevent her from shooting. This particular part of the battle is reminiscent of Spore Spawn from Super Metroid, where the boss's weakpoint is exposed for only a brief period of time. Eventually, Emperor Ing will regenerate a protective covering for the Eye, and sprout new tentacles. Throughout the battle, Emperor Ing regrows his tenticles in varying numbers, until Samus finally deals enough damage to the Emperor's exposed Eye. Any weapon can damage the eye, though the Annihilator Beam seems to deal the most damage.

Second phase
In his second phase, the Emperor encases himself in an impermeable, magnetically-charged shell. This cocoon-like incarnation of the Emperor is surrounded by vents that expel poisonous gas, and Samus has no choice but to use her Spider Ball to attach to the cocoon to escape the gas that quickly fills the room. In this stage, the Emperor is undergoing metamorphosis, and Samus, unable to cause any real damage to the pupating Emperor inside, must wait the process out. This isn't easy to do, as tentacles emerge from the gas-emitting vents, trying to knock her away. To make matters worse, Inglets also emerge from the chrysallis, following Samus around. Samus must employ the use of her bombs to destroy the tentacles that emerge, and fight off the Inglets that don't stop coming.

The Inglets and tentacles are a blessing in disguise, as destroying these yields bountiful health and ammunition. Samus can use this time to fill up on much-needed health; she can use Power Bombs to destroy multiple nuissances at once. It is possible to delay or speed up the Emperor's pupating process, by stategically choosing when to bomb the vents from where tentacles emerge. As Samus destroys more tentacles, the vents begin to release more gas into the room, and the gas levels rise to such a level that the damage taken from it is unavoidable. It also becomes harder to see, and Samus must maneuver through the thick poisonous mist that surrounds her, all while avoiding Inglet attacks, and getting knocked off by tentacles.

Before long, the shell of the chrysalis breaks open, and Emperor Ing emerges in his true form.

Final phase
In his final form, Emperor Ing's heart, which has become unstable due to increased exposure to Phazon and the Light of Aether, is exposed to Samus. He has become more mobile than his previous forms; in this form, he is more insect/arachnid-like in appearance, bearing resemblance to Warrior Ing and Metroid Prime. The final form of the Emperor is the easiest to damage, but has the most devastating attacks. With a new health bar, the Emperor Ing's only weak spot is its very large heart, located inside a mouth-like opening which he can open and close at will.

When he closes his maw, Emperor Ing can change his heart's polarity to project a variety of beam attacks. While his Heart is orange, it cannot project any attacks, but when it is purple, it can create a powerful beam of shadow energy that freezes on contact and causes heavy damage, and when it is white, it can generate "light holes" that project devastating lasers of pure white energy. To recover health, it can spawn Nightbarbs or a previously un-encountered light-based creature, opposite to Nightbarbs, to consume as fodder. These can be destroyed by a mass area-affecting attack, such as the Sonicboom, for plenty of pickups.

Emperor Ing can't be damaged when his heart is orange; Samus must find a way to make the Emperor change his heart's polarity, thereby making him vulnerable to one of her weapons. To do this, Samus can attack the Emperor's orange heart with any combination of beams. As direct hits are necessary, however, beams can deplete light and dark energy rather quickly. Super missiles are the most effective way to force Emperor Ing to change his heart's polarity.

Once the Emperor's heart changes polarity, he becomes vulnerable to a beam of the opposite polarity. When the Emperor's heart is white, he is vulnerable to the Dark Beam, and when his heart is purple, he is vulnerable to the Light Beam. His attacks include beam attacks reminiscent of Warrior Ing, and a shockwave-inducing jump move similar to the Jump Guardian encountered in Dark Agon. As Emperor Ing's energy is depleted, it will begin to use a ramming attack, similar to Metroid Prime's. While the ram attack is hard to avoid, it is possible, and if Samus can manage to dodge it, the Emperor will run into a wall; he will stand stunned for a short time, revealing a small hole in its back, which is another viable exposure to his heart. When Emperor Ing's energy is depleted, he dies, yielding the energy from the final Energy Controller. When Samus absorbs it, the countdown sequence for the destruction of Dark Aether is initiated.

Trivia

 * Emperor Ing is the only boss in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes guarding the Light of Aether that does not reward Samus with a power-up after its defeat.
 * Strangely, it is possible to inflict severe damage to the Emperor Ing's final form by colliding into a certain location on its body when using the Screw Attack. This is best done when Emperor Ing jumps up, in which case Samus can Screw Attack under him if near enough to him.
 * Interestingly, if Samus deals the final blow while the heart is purple, the resulting cutscene will show him dying with a white heart. This is likely because in an optimal battle, when you can deal maximum damage every time his hearts shifts, the final blow would be to a white-hearted Emperor Ing.
 * The first scan that indicates he is the Ing's Alpha and Omega, and due to these being the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, can be taken literally as the Emperor being the Beginning and the End of the Ing. This is very fitting, considering he was the first of the Ing to exist and his defeat at the hands of Samus causes the destruction of his world and the entire race. This could also imply that he is a deity of the Ing, as the God in the Christian Bible calls himself the "Alpha and Omega".
 * This is the music heard when battling the first and second forms of Emperor Ing:, and this is the music heard when battling the final form of Emperor Ing:.