Spire


 * This article is about the Diamont bounty hunter, for the MP2: Echoes Multiplayer stage, see Spires. For the SkyTown room, see Spire Dock.

Spire is a rock-cored Bounty Hunter who appears in Metroid Prime Hunters. His alt form is the Dialanche, a large ball of rock with spikes protruding from within.

Biography
Spire is the last of his kind, the Diamonts, an extremely strong race composed of silicon-based organic rock that hail from the planet Mondreus. Not much is known about him. He wearily searches for the fate and location of the rest of his people, if any. When Spire hears of a source of ultimate power in the Alimbic System, he is drawn by the possiblity of information about his lost race.

Metroid.com
"Spire is thought to be the sole remaining diamont, an ancient race of silicon-based lifeforms whose bodies are formed of organic rock. Spire travels the galaxy as a bounty hunter searching for infomation on the location, or fate, of the rest of his people."

Metroid Prime Hunters manual
"Spire is the sole remaining member of the Diamonts, an ancient silicon-based life-form. He hopes that finding the Alimbics' source of ultimate power and solving the mystery of their lost race will help him solve the mystery of his own."

Metroid Prime Hunters promotional pamphlet
"The last member of a race whose bodies are formed entirely of rock, Spire will stop at nothing to avenge the attempted extinction of his people."

Nintendo Power March 2006
"Spire is the last of a race of people made from solid rock. The bounty hunter chose the profession so it could search for information regarding the fate of the rock people. Spire can roll up into a high speed boulder and bash through enemies who stand in the way."

Brawl Trophy
"Another hunter seeking the ultimate power, and the last of the silicon-based Diamont race. By finding the secrets of the Alimbics, he hopes to uncover the secret of why his race went extinct. Spire uses the Magmaul, a weapon passed down through Diamont generations, to launch burning magma at opponents."

DS Metroid Prime: Hunters

Gameplay
His Affinity Weapon is the Magmaul, a powerful weapon that fires cohesive exploding lava. When charged, the Magmaul, in addition to causing powerful initial impact and explosive damage, gives an effect over time that ultimately amounts to 30 extra damage to anything within its blast radius, including its user. Spire can also walk through fields of lava without receiving any damage.

Mag Lag
When using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, there is often a noticeable lag, so to improve accuracy, it is useful to shoot the Magmaul ahead of enemies, causing them to run into Spire's line of fire.

Alternate Form
Spire's alternate form is the Dialanche, in which he turns into what resembles a large, rolling volcanic rock. The Dialanche attacks by throwing out and rotating its sides (revealing a spiky yellow core) around itself rapidly. This is a very effective close-range attack, as it attacks a full 360 degrees around itself while rapidly dealing damage. The power of each hit is not notable, but at its rate and the fact that a single attack can hit twice (with each extending half of the Dialanche), it makes more than up for this at close range. The Dialanche maneuvers like a boulder, its movement at high speed is a little bouncy and rough, but it gains momentum quickly and handles with ease. Its top speed is a bit faster than that of the Stinglarva, though it can be outrun by a boosting Morph Ball, the Vhoscythe, and the Lockjaw. It can also be sort of artificially outrun by the Triskelion's rapid lunge attack. It is the only alternate form capable of sticking to walls. However, when stuck to a wall it climbs slowly, has a tendency to often fall off, and will automatically detach from the wall when attacking (though not always). This can be used as an effective ambush tactic. Unfortunately, it cannot climb up and over a vertical wall, it must drop to a platform below. Because of this, its usefulness in reaching items is rather limited.

Trivia

 * Spire's affinity with the Magmaul is very similar to the effects of the fiery Plasma Beam that appears in Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
 * Spire's race, the Diamonts, simply disappearing could connect the bounty hunter to the Alimbic situation, where they also disappeared.
 * This is the music heard when battling Spire.
 * Spire's motivations leads to suspect that he has no evil intentions, and is merely trying to obtain the ultimate power to bring back his people.
 * Spire is also slightly similar to the Gorons of the Legend of Zelda series. They both are made of rocks, can roll up into a ball, and they both seem to be very resistant to molten rock.
 * Spire appears to be based on an enemy from the cancelled Nintendo GameCube game, Raven Blade, which can be seen in a trailer in a similar setting to Spire's intro video. This game, which was dropped to free up resources for Metroid Prime, was designed by Retro Studios, who also did the Hunters' designs according to interviews. The sudden disappearance of the Diamonts may be a reference to the title as well. In one scene of the trailer for Raven Blade, the creature, who is larger and more simple in design, is shown to lob a ball of lava towards the screen much like Spire's Magmaul.
 * When seen in his full appearance, Spire's Magmaul is shown stationed on his left arm. However, during multiplayer gameplay when actually playing as Spire, he appears to have the Magmaul stationed on his right arm, which seems to be the firing arm of all playable characters in the game.

Appearances

 * Metroid Prime Hunters
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Appears as a trophy)
 * Metroid Prime Hunters Official Nintendo Player's Guide