Annihilator Beam

The Annihilator Beam is one of Samus Aran's beam upgrades, found only in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. It is a secret Luminoth weapon that was installed on Quadraxis when it was built: therefore, upon defeating Quadraxis on Dark Aether, Samus acquired the beam.

Description
The Annihilator Beam is not as powerful as its name might indicate, although it has a super-fast rate of fire, on par with that of the Power Beam. Normal shots have a homing effect, allowing the aiming in the general direction of an enemy to shoot it, the attack automatically homing in and damaging/destroying the target; this makes this beam extremely useful for taking down large hordes of small enemies, or firing barrages at more powerful foes while being able to dodge their attacks more easily. It is similar in function to the Wave Beam in Metroid Prime in many ways, and the arm cannon takes on the same shape as the Plasma Beam from Metroid Prime.

Uses
When fired at a Light Beacon or Light Crystal, the Annihilator Beam temporarily turns it into a Super Beacon or Super Crystal, respectively. These versions of Beacons and Crystals share their Energized (powered by a shot from the Light Beam) counterparts' ability to damage Ing and other Dark-based creatures. However, the Super Beacons and Crystals have an additional feature that makes them even more effective: Ing are attracted to the Beacon or Crystal due to the dark energy surrounding it, and willingly run into the lethal field of energy.

The Annihilator Beam requires both Light and Dark Ammunition to function properly: it uses one of each per normal shot. Its charge beam technique is called the Disruptor, which does not home in on targets, but offers a large blast radius and stuns enemies. It is interesting to note that the charged shot will destroy a War Wasp Hive, but will not dispatch the shell of a Brizgee; under normal circumstances, both are defeated by the use of a Missile. The Annihilator Beam can activate any rift.

The Annihilator Beam is particularly useful in defeating the final form of the Emperor Ing, as it damages all of his "modes", except his orange one, which is immune to all forms of damage except Super Missiles fired from the normal Power Beam.

The Lightbringer, a crystal lifeform that wanders the shadows of Dark Aether, is also vulnerable to this "matter/antimatter" combo. If done with a glitch, it is possible to eliminate a Lightbringer with the Annihilator Beam.

Charge Combo
Main Article: Sonic Boom

The Annihilator Charge Combo is the Sonic Boom, an exceedingly powerful shot that creates a rift in space and damages any enemies near the target. When activated, it instantaneously creates a rift at the closest target in your line of fire, making for a very fast and powerful attack. Interestingly enough, even though it is named the "sonic boom" it cannot be seen when using the echo visor which allows the user to "see" sound.

Real Life Danger
The Annihilator Beam fires a mix of light and dark energy. This "matter/antimatter" combination has basis in the real world. When matter comes in contact with its anti-material form, the two will "annihilate" each other in through a massive explosion, from which extremely high levels of X-rays and gamma radiation is emitted. It is highly likely that this process actually happens when the Annihilator beam strikes a foe, giving it elevated power over the other beams. However, even the small amount of matter/antimatter that is shot from the beam to come in contact with each other, would be more than enough to trigger a nuclear sized explosion with a magnitude of close to 20 kilotons (the same as the fission bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945). Making this weapon (with all due respects) a pure work of fiction.