Queen Metroid

A Queen Metroid is the largest and most powerful Metroid in the species' standard strain. She is the only individual naturally capable of laying Metroid Eggs, making her solely responsible for the reproduction of the entire species.

Only two Queens have been encountered in the chronology of the Metroid series. The first was the main antagonist and final boss of Metroid II: Return of Samus and its remake, Metroid: Samus Returns. The second Queen, cloned from the previous one's last offspring, appeared near the end of Metroid: Other M, battled by Samus as one of the final bosses.

Though never confirmed in any game in the series, it is commonly believed that a Queen molts from an Omega Metroid, making her the eighth stage in the species' life cycle.

Physiology and Morphology
The overall structure of the Queen is best compared to a massive crocodile. Like the Omega form, the Queen has a cluster of four eyes on each side of the head, bringing it to a total of eight, but her mouth is far more elongated and lined with three rows of razor-sharp teeth. Her neck is extensive, highly flexible and spring-like, allowing her to not only lunge her head at great lengths but also at tremendous speeds. As a result, the Queen can either effectively use her head as a ramming weapon, or bite her targets from a distance. She has two tubular appendages on her rear end, which are likely ovipositors through which she deposits her eggs.

Similar to other Metroid forms, the Queen's main weak point is her translucent membrane containing her nucleus located on her underside. Although the Plasma Beam is capable of wounding it, a direct hit is usually impossible due to her quadrupedal posture which prevents any external attacks from reaching her membrane. The only reliable method to destroy it is to inflict damage from within via the detonation of a single Power Bomb or several Bombs (except in Other M). An alternative, but far more resilient weak point is the Queen's head; the manner in which Samus can inflict damage to this area varies between each encounter.

The Queen Metroid is by far the rarest stage in the Metroid life cycle - very few Metroids are born with the genetic potential to reach this form, and only one has ever been known to exist at a time. A Queen carries the responsibility of ensuring the survival of her species, as she is the only Metroid naturally capable of producing offspring. Thus, a Queen fiercely protects her children at all costs, and will cry out in rage if even one of them is killed. In addition, the Queen Metroid from the BOTTLE SHIP will immediately break off the ice that encases any Larva Metroids frozen with Samus' Ice Beam by conducting a minor quake.

Interestingly, Metroid Queens do not seem to require a mate in order to create descendants, making the creatures parthenogenetic.

SR388
The first known Queen Metroid thrived in the deepest confines of the entire cavern complex of SR388, in a ruined royal palace built by the Chozo. This was the final Metroid that Samus Aran destroyed on her mission to the planet, but she took the Metroid Hatchling with her as she left.

She was given a slight redesign in the remake Metroid: Samus Returns, although not to the same extent as the other Metroid stages. A notable difference is the addition of an armored carapace, additional compound eyes, additional jaw flaps on the sides of her head, and the presence of a long tail in addition to the tubes. In addition, she is shown emitting a red beam from her mouth similar to the Omega Metroid in the same game.
 * Samus Returns

BOTTLE SHIP
During the events of Metroid: Other M, Metroids were cloned from fragments of the Baby on Samus' Power Suit and propagated in Sector Zero of the BOTTLE SHIP. The first propagated Metroid quickly matured to a Queen - possibly insinuating that the Baby was an infant queen, something the scientists never predicted. Madeline Bergman would later explain that MB was the one who developed the first propagated Metroid into this beast, which treated her like its mother. They left the Queen's genetics unaltered, so she would act as a control group and produce unaltered Metroids for use in their experiments. She is the organism responsible for the demise of Ridley's clone.

The Queen Metroid was stored within Room MW. When Samus first tries to contact Madeline, the scientist panics, believing the former to be an agent sent to silence her, and hits a button which opens the Queen's chamber. When Samus investigates inside, she sees hatched Metroid Eggs, and immediately realizes the presence of the Metroid Queen.

During the battle, the Queen deploys six Metroid larvae and later grows spiked crystalline plating on her head. However, she seems nearly impossible to defeat as she grows a second set of crystalline armor. Samus remembers the tragic deaths of Adam and Anthony and refuses to give up. She then uses Concentration and prepares to fire at the charging Queen, before the ship's emergency brakes throw them onto the ground. Samus takes the opportunity to shoot directly at the Queen's unprotected membrane, seemingly hitting its nuclei, and quickly enters the creature's body through its throat before laying a Power Bomb to obliterate her.

It is eventually revealed that Anthony Higgs hit the brakes on the BOTTLE SHIP, thus saving Samus from the Queen's charge.

Metroid II: Return of Samus
The Queen Metroid, as stated, is the progenitor of the species and her destruction in Metroid II: Return of Samus halts the production of Metroids. Destroying the Queen requires at least one hundred fifty missiles. Upon Samus's arrival, the Queen will immediately attack with her huge mandibles, which can be dodged simply by a well-timed jump. When the Queen opens her mouth to attack, she can be briefly stunned in place with a Missile, leaving her open for more attacks. The Queen will also periodically launch stomach acid from her mouth that track Samus, though they can be destroyed with Missiles or with a Screw Attack. As the Queen gets more damaged, her speed lunge speed increases, not giving enough time for Samus to leap out of the way.



There is also a more efficient way to destroy the Queen. After stunning the Queen with a Missile, Samus can instead go into Morph Ball form to enter her mouth, then roll down into her stomach and plant Bombs. While inside the Queen's maw and stomach, Samus will constantly have her energy drained, requiring her to act fast. These Bombs will severely damage the Queen and Samus will be spat back out. The Bombs can also be used while inside the mouth, but does considerably less damage. It only takes about ten attacks of this method to destroy the Queen.

Should Samus become low on Energy, there is a small passage below the Queen that leads out of the nest. It can be used as an emergency escape route, though the Queen will have healed all damage when Samus returns. The escape takes Samus back to the room containing the destroyed Chozo Statue.

Once the Queen is destroyed, her corpse disintegrates while Samus' Energy is somehow fully restored. With the Queen dead, Samus has access to the last Metroid Egg and her Gunship.

Metroid: Other M
The Queen Metroid spawns three waves of Mature Larval Metroids, first releasing one, then two, then finally three. The Metroids must be destroyed with the classic tactic of freezing and shattering them with concussive weapons. If Samus stalls to kill one of the waves, the Queen will quickly produce the next one, and eventually all six Metroids will come into play. When any number of Metroids are frozen, the Queen will almost immediately attempt to free them by causing a tiny earthquake.

After all six Metroids are defeated, the Queen grows five bright purple crystals on her neck and begins charging at Samus. She will also periodically breath fire at the bounty huntress, lowering her energy to critical levels if touched. This fire breath also ignores SenseMove's invulnerability. The crystals on her neck can only be damaged by the Super Missiles (while they can be targeted by the Seeker Missile, the extra missiles will just bounce off harmlessly, due to being normal missiles). Once the crystals are destroyed, a cutscene will play, where the ship's emergency brakes activate and throw both Samus and the Queen Metroid against the floor of the BOTTLE SHIP. As the Queen attempts to get up, Samus must fire at the Metroid's belly, who momentarily gets back up and starts charging an extremely powerful variant of her fire breath. During this event, Samus grapples into the Queen's mouth, down her esophagus, and into the Queen's stomach. Samus then allows herself the use of Power Bombs and performs the secret method of killing the Queen from Metroid II, by laying one of her Power Bombs in the stomach, which causes a massive explosion that instantly kills the Queen.

If Samus fails to shoot the stomach enough times before the Queen gets up, she will lunge her head and bite, killing Samus instantly. If Samus fails to grapple the Queen while she charges her fire, she will burn Samus and kill her instantly as well. The Queen's stomach acid will drain Samus's energy while she's inside it, as in Metroid II, so she must be quick with the Power Bomb.

Inconsistencies
The Queen in Metroid II is only vulnerable in the head, lunges her head out to bite Samus and fires shrapnel that tracks her as well. Stunning her head when her mouth is open is the only way to give Samus access to her inside stomach. The Queen in Other M, however, does not retain any of her attacks from the original encounter, and instead uses several new attacks, such as throwing her head at Samus without the neck extending, releasing Metroids from her back, growing crystals on her head and neck and breathing fire, none of which she had in Metroid II. It is thought that the fire breath was possibly gained from absorbing the life energy of Ridley's clone prior to her battle with Samus; this would be another example of a Metroid stealing an ability from its prey, similar to the Baby giving Samus the Hyper Beam from which it had seemingly absorbed from Mother Brain. Alternatively, the Queen's fire breath may simply be an augmented variant of the projectiles spat out by lesser Metroids. It should also be noted that her artwork depicts her extending her neck, indicating that it was considered by the developers to be implemented. These differences may also be attributed to the Queen being exposed to stimuli that are different from those of SR388 (as seen with other Metroid adaptations throughout the series), or they are simply design, gameplay and artistic changes made by Other M 's development team.

As in Metroid II, Samus' energy is drained rapidly when she is inside the Queen's membrane. In Other M, however, the aura that is visible whenever Larval Metroids drain her energy in the same game is also present inside the Queen, indicating that Metroids continue to drain energy in their later stages of life. Unlike in Metroid II, however, Bombs cannot harm the Queen.

Nintendo Power issue 31
"The leader of the Metroid mutations is a powerful creature with strong armor. You may not have enough Missiles to destroy it."

Metroid: Other M hologram information
"Common name: Queen Metroid  Size: Height 6m / Length 11m  Classification: Final evolution of Metroid with an ovisac."

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Trophy
"Have you ever met people who thought Metroid was the name of the game's heroine? Adding Queen to the title would just make it worse. But if you show them what a Queen Metroid REALLY looks like, they won't make that mistake again in a hurry. Metroids are fearsome creatures, and the queen is the nastiest of the lot."

Nintendo of America tweet
"The mother of Metroids is a formidable foe in #Metroid: Samus Returns. Samus will need to think fast to defeat the ferocious Queen Metroid!"

Trivia

 * The Metroid Queen encountered by Samus on SR388 had nested in an ancient Chozo structure filled with many containers, giving the area the subtle appearance of a laboratory. This may suggest that not only was Metroid II 's Queen the first of her entire species created by the Chozo, but also that the building she inhabited was her birthplace.
 * Within the Restricted Lab on the BSL station, numerous tubes which presumably contain additional Metroids can be seen extending into the background of the laboratory. As a result of the computerized Adam Malkovich stating the secret breeding program only focused in growing Metroid larvae into Omega Metroids, it is unlikely that a Queen was produced by the scientists, as it would have started producing her own Metroids in addition to those created through cloning and/or exposure to gamma radiation, which might have complicated matters.
 * As the Metroid series is known to have taken inspiration from the Alien film series, it is likely that the Queen Metroid was inspired by the Queen Alien from those films. Both Aliens and Metroid II: Return of Samus depict a final battle between the queens and the female protagonist (Ellen Ripley in Aliens and Samus in Return of Samus), and in Alien Resurrection and Metroid: Other M, a Queen is created from cloned specimens. In addition, similar to the Queen Metroid, the Queen Alien was also depicted as being extremely protective of her offspring.
 * The scene where the creature emerges through blast doors is also similar to the appearance of the Queen Alien after being able to operate a lift near the end of Aliens.
 * During the fight with the Queen in Metroid II, there is a strange bar on the right wall that increases when the Queen's head nears Samus, and decreases when her head retracts. It is most likely a glitch that reacts to the Queen's sprite animations.
 * The sound that the Queen Metroid makes when hurt is the same as that of an Omega Metroid in Metroid II.
 * The Queen can seemingly create Metroids in two different manners: one involves the "normal" egg-laying method (with Infant Metroids eventually hatching from the eggs) and the other is giving birth to live Metroids (similar to mammals), as seen during the battle in Other M. With the latter method, the infant stage of a Metroid's life cycle can be skipped over, and the mature Larval Metroids "hatch" out of their mother's back, making openings on her spinal plating as fluids burst out; this seems to be a defense mechanism.
 * However, it is possible that the Queen is capable of storing Metroids in her back for protection and/or nursing. This explains how the Eggs were present with no living infant/adult stages nearby. The concept art of the Queen portray Metroids submerged in the Queen's back, but unlike the in-game depiction, the Metroids are merely attached to her and not encased inside her spinal plating.
 * Queen Metroids have two tube-like appendages on their rear. Their purposes are unknown, though they are potentially the organs responsible for laying Metroid Eggs (as there is a lack of any other protrusion on the Queen's body that could serve this purpose). Curiously, each time the Queen from Other M rams against a wall, the impact causes green fluid to squirt out of the two tube-like structures. Metroid: Other M Premiere Edition refers to the tubes as her "tail" and describes the appendages as "large cannon-like holes" that fire "poisonous projectiles" (likely referring to the fluid).
 * It is seen in Other M that the Queen's vision is blurred pink. This is seen in the cutscene where she kills Ridley and when approaching Samus. Also, an extremely faint greenish glow can be seen around Ridley and Samus during these same cutscenes. This may suggest that the Metroids, or at least the Queen, can sense their prey's life force.
 * In Other M, the Energy drained while inside the Queen's stomach is significantly reduced in Hard Mode although the difficulty increase would naturally speed up the draining process. This is most likely due to balancing purposes, as Hard Mode only gives Samus 99 Energy Points (due to the lack of expansions) and the draining process in Normal Mode can easily take away a full Energy Tank before Samus can lay a Power Bomb.
 * In Other M, the Queen's fire breath can actually hit Samus during a SenseMove even though she is supposed to be intangible during the dodge. Despite this, Samus SenseMoves over her fire breath in the cutscene preceding the second phase of the battle, where the Queen fights her directly.
 * The Queen Metroid is the only stage in the natural Metroid life cyle that is not shown metamorphosing from the previous stage.
 * Depending on how the Queen Metroid is defeated in Metroid II, her death animation varies:
 * If the player constantly used missiles on her, she simply disintegrates after being frozen in place.
 * If the player utilized bombs in her stomach, upon spitting up Samus for the last time, her head collapses down to the floor below as her body disintegrates.
 * The trophy description for the Queen Metroid jokingly references the misconception that the title of the franchise referred to Samus Aran, rather than the titular threat.