Emperor Ing

The Emperor Ing is the eldest and strongest Ing in the Horde, their Alpha and Omega. He resides in the Sky Temple, with the main Ing 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, the Emperor Ing has been mutated and strengthened by Phazon energy and from the stolen Light of Aether.

It is speculated that the Emperor, the first of the Ing race, was originally a Phaz-Ing chosen and mutated by the Leviathan which impacted Aether to serve as its guardian, and further altered by Dark Aether's poisonous, corrosive atmosphere. This is supported by the fact that its first form resembles an Inglet, a Phaz-Ing changed by dark energy. According to its scan, the Emperor Ing seems to be the only Ing to have absorbed Phazon, which the creature is constantly exposed to; this explains its key physical differences from other Ing.

First phase
In the first stage of battle, Samus can scan the Body, Head, and Eye as separate creatures. To defeat this form, Samus must attack the tentacles the Emperor sprouts. The Emperor will use its tentacles to try and whip Samus into the Phazon that surrounds the arena where it is fought. It is apparently not possible to avoid all of the Emperor Ing's tentacle attacks, making it imperative to defeat this phase of the creature quickly. It can also create miniature portals, through which it shoves any remaining tentacles in an attempt to impale Samus.

After all tentacles are burnt, the eyelid on the Eye that is the Head will retract, revealing the shielded Eye, which can be scanned separately from the other parts. The Eye has two half-spheres around it, and Samus must fire her weapon through the weak point, a narrow slit between the two half-spheres. Samus must maneuver around the Eye, as it rotates constantly. In this stage, the Eye can fire a powerful laser that affects aim and prevents Samus from aim-locking into the Eye. This battle is reminiscent of Spore Spawn from Super Metroid. Eventually, the Emperor Ing will return the covering to the Eye, and regrow his tentacles; as the battle goes on, more and more tentacles are grown, until Samus finally deals enough damage to the unshielded Eye. This form is similar to an Inglet with hunter tentacles.

Second phase
In the second stage of battle, the Emperor's head swallows the rest of his body to become encased in a magnetically-charged chrysalis, similar to an Ingclaw. This cocoon also expels poisonous gas throughout the room. Samus must then use her Spider Ball to attach to the cocoon and Bomb the tentacles that emerge from the eleven yellow spots dotting the chrysalis, with the bonus of avoiding the gas along the floor. Power Bombs can also destroy multiple tentacles at once if exposed. Inglets are also generated by the chrysallis, which yeild health if destroyed. Everytime a tentacle is destroyed, the hole in which it emerged releases more toxic gas into the room.

After a while, the poison gas levels rise and Inglets are no longer respawned, leaving Samus on top of the Emperor with no way to harm the tentacles without taking damage. After a short while, though, the levels will go back down again, allowing Samus to resume her attack.

If Samus takes too long to destroy all of the weak spots, the poison gas will fill the entire area, leaving her with no safe places to stay. After the chrysalis breaks, the true Emperor will emerge, mutated by Phazon exposure inside the chrysallis.

Final phase
In its final form, the Emperor Ing's heart has became unstable due to increased Phazon exposure. To protect its heart, it has became more mobile than its previous forms; this form is more insect/arachnid-like in appearance, making it look similar to the Warrior Ing. The final form of the Emperor is apparently 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 it can close at will. After closing the maw, the Emperor Ing can change the heart's polarity to project a variety of beam attacks. While the 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.

The Emperor can only be damaged when its heart is light or dark by an opposite-polarity beam or the Annihilator Beam. Its orange heart stage is vulnerable to normal weapons fire and Super Missiles, but damaging it will not do damage to the Emperor; the only purpose to attacking the orange heart is to cause it to change to the vulnerable purple or white colors. The Annihilator Beam hurts all the Emperor's heart shades, but can quickly cut through ammo. As an alternative strategy, Samus can use Super Missile for the orange eye, the Dark Beam for the white heart, and the Light Beam for the purple heart color. His attacks in this stage include beam attacks reminiscent of Warrior Ing, and a shockwave-inducing jump move similar to the Jump Guardian encountered in Dark Agon. Once its health begins lowering, it will also start using a ramming attack. While hard to avoid, if Samus can dodge it and cause the Emperor runs into the wall, it will stand stunned for a short time, revealing a small hole in its back, another weak entrance to its heart. When the Emperor Ing's energy is depleted, it dies, yielding the energy from the final Energy Controller and initiating the countdown sequence for the destruction of Dark Aether.

Logbook entries

 * Emperor Ing Body: "Bioscans indicate that this is the eldest, strongest Ing in the Horde, the alpha and the omega. It has absorbed enormous amounts of Phazon energy into its body, mutating itself in the process. Apparently this power is not enough for the creature, as it is now siphoning energy from the final Energy Controller."


 * Emperor Ing Head: "Like its brethren, the Emperor Ing is a metamorph. It has molded itself around the precious Energy Controller, and will defend it to the death, using its own body as a shield and weapon. Destroy the tentacles it generates to weaken the creature and its defenses."


 * Emperor Ing Eye: "The Emperor Ing has exposed its main eye, from which it can fire powerful energy beams. It is protected by an energy shield, although not completely. The eye can be locked onto, but only direct shots will get past the shield."


 * Emperor Ing Chrysalis: "The heavily damaged Emperor Ing has entered a regenerative state inside a durable healing shell. Tactical scans have detected eleven weak points on the magnetically charged shell: Spider Ball travel is possible on the shell surface. Damage the weak spots with explosives to crack the shell and expose the enemy within."


 * Mutated Emperor Ing: "Further exposure to Phazon has mutated the Emperor Ing. It is now capable of shielding its vulnerable areas with energy barriers. Beams of opposite polarity can damage these barriers, however. Heavy damage to these barriers will cause them to drop, exposing the creatures weak spots. Target the weak spots to immobilize and damage the enemy."

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 is the music heard when battling the first and second forms of the Emperor Ing:, and this is the music heard when battling the final form of the Emperor Ing:.