Hazard Shield

The Hazard Shield is a suit enhancement that protects Samus Aran from the environmental hazards of Fuel Gel and the Acid Rain of the Pirate Homeworld.

Description
In Metroid Prime 3, the Hazard Shield replaces the role of the Phazon Suit and Light Suit as a suit that reduces overall damage in addition to allowing Samus to move through harsh environments that she would normally not be able to travel through. It is of Space Pirate technology, designed so that they may operate safely in their Homeworld's constant acidic rainfall.

The suit's appearance, at first, is rather unimposing when compared to other, more notable suit upgrades such as the Varia Suit or Gravity Suit. As opposed to changing the overall color, design, or shape of the suit, the Hazard Shield simply adds glowing hexagonal plating to her already existing shoulder pads and adds an extra plate just below the back of her neck. However, when coupled with the fact that she gains blue vein-like stripes on the suit as the game progresses, it starts to become similar in appearance to Dark Samus.

Unlike past suit upgrades, which were remnants of ancient Chozo technology and therefore designed to integrate with Samus' Power Suit, the Hazard Shield is a piece of technology designed by the Space Pirates to enable them to exist on their own planet, and therefore may not integrate as flawlessly with the Power Suit as other upgrades can. It may also be because the Hazard Shield upgrade only enhances the defensive shield on the power suit instead of adding another layer of armor.

The Hazard Shield is found on the Space Pirate homeworld, and provides an orange visual 'force field' effect on Samus' armor and arm cannon when she enters hazardous environments that the suit protects her from. Also, interesting to note is that when Samus enters a pool of phazon after getting this shield, it will also create the orange shield, even though Samus was immune to the negative effects of Phazon when she obtained the PED.

While it turns darker along with the rest of her suit during the rest of game, after Samus defeats Dark Samus and is freed of corruption, the hazard shield is shown to be completely purple, a similar shade to the Gravity Suit.

It is possible to skip the Hazard Shield altogether.