Omega Ridley

Omega Ridley is Meta Ridley infused with Phazon. This infusion has increased his incredible power to far greater heights. He is the longest lived of the Leviathan Cores' Guardians encountered in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and is the antepenultimate (third from last) boss in the game.

Biography
Meta Ridley was revived and regenerated through Phazon exposure after the botched invasion of Norion. His severe loss against Samus sent him tumbling the rest of the way down the energy shaft. Due to this, he has been energized to a new combat threat level. He has a very durable, Phazon-enhanced armorskin and protective armored plating. He has an injury that has not yet fully healed, which is his only weak point (similar to the one in Metroid Prime during his ground phase). He will try to protect this injury, requiring Samus Aran to stun him and leave the injury open for strong attacks. Samus encounters him on the Pirate Homeworld protecting the planet's Leviathan.

The Battle
Samus must stun Omega Ridley by shooting inside his mouth while it is flashing. Samus must then use the Grapple Beam to rip off Omega Ridley's armor and overload the wound with Phazon. After this process has been repeated a number of times, Omega Ridley will generate Phazite armor. The X-Ray Visor must be used in cooperation with the Nova Beam to penetrate the Phazite armor, either by striking his wound directly or by weakening the armor's hinges and destroying it (the latter method is preferred, since the wound takes very little damage at this point). After this phase, Omega Ridley will continually fly around the room with his wound exposed. Curiously, Omega Ridley starts flying when he is at about one-fourth health, whereas he is airborne for the first three-fourths of his health in Metroid Prime. However, his aerial form is much harder this time as he constantly flies in and out of the Leviathan, reappearing randomly from one of four different entrances, briefly attacks, then disappears again. While difficult to target, the wound has no more protection and Samus is free to fire at will with Phazon attacks. It is recommended to exit Hypermode when Ridley leaves the arena in order to conserve health. The Screw Attack is one of Samus's most helpful items in this battle. Screw Attacking toward Ridley will cancel whatever move he is attempting to execute. Since several of his attacks are either difficult to dodge or simply waste time by making him invincible, the ability to control his movement pattern can be a great boon in this battle. His abilities include a massive line of plasma and flame, an equally large blast of Phazon from his tail, homing fireballs (reminiscent of the fireballs he spits in all of his 2-D appearances), an incredibly fast charge, a claw slash (later replaced by a Phazon blade swipe identical to the Omega Pirate's), a shockwave attack, a tail sweep attack (later replaced by a tail Phazon blast/flamethrower combination), biting, and an upgraded version of his old Meson Bomb Launcher which carpet bombs the entire area in a rain of destruction.

Samus receives the Hyper Grapple after defeating Omega Ridley, who explodes in a massive flash of Phazon after the battle.

Logbook Entry

 * Omega Ridley: "Revived and regenerated through Phazon exposure, Omega Ridley has been energized to a new combat threat level. Target retains extremely durable, Phazon-enhanced armorskin, as well as protective armored plating. Scans indicate that a recent injury has not fully healed: expose and target wound to inflict damage. Target will act to protect this vulnerability: seek ways to stun the enemy and leave it open for deadly attacks."

Trivia



 * Unlike the other Prime series battles with Ridley, his body completely disintegrated, and yet he reappears in Super Metroid. This mystery shouldn't be taken too seriously, however, since in the past he has survived close to complete destruction as seen in the battle in Metroid: Zero Mission, in which his combusting body sinks into a pool of lava before finally exploding.
 * There is a glitch that makes Omega Ridley get stuck in the wall when he does his tackle attack.
 * This battle is similar to the Meta-Ridley Battle in Metroid Prime, as he uses many of the same moves and he even looks similar to the form he took in that game.
 * Interestingly enough, Ridley's mechanical implants are more visible in this form rather than his Meta form nearly at the beginning of the game where he appears to be more organic.
 * Omega Ridley is the only enemy in the Prime series to be displayed in the HUD radar as a full-scale silhouette. All other enemies (even Meta Ridley, both in the first Prime and the beginning of Corruption) merely appear as blips.
 * Omega Ridley's weak point is similar to the weak point of the Ridley Robot in Metroid: Zero Mission.

Other
This is the music heard when battling Omega Ridley:.