Dark Troopers are the bodies of Galactic Federation troopers that have been possessed by the Ing. When Samus Aran traveled to Aether in search of the missing GFMC Task Force Herakles, she found all of the troopers deceased. Shortly after this discovery, the Ing possessed many of the corpses, "reanimating" them to attack her. For whatever reason, the Ing were unable to fully complete the possession, leaving the resulting Darklings with slow reaction times and poor coordination. They are capable of using the troopers' rifles and bayonets, but do not use the latter frequently. They are relatively weak, possessing only 25HP (Herd/Hypermode). Any weapon can be used to kill them, though a single, charged Power Beam shot from Samus' Arm Cannon is sufficient enough.
When Samus returned to the Splinter Hive after acquiring the Morph Ball Bombs, she encountered a Dark Missile Trooper. It was also incompletely possessed, but had greater stamina than its fellow Darkling Marines.
Locations
Logbook entry
Dark Trooper
Morphology: Dark Trooper
Deceased GF soldier. Bioscans indicate terminated lifesigns in this trooper, and the presence of an unknown biomass.
Bioscans indicate terminated lifesigns in this trooper, and the presence of an unknown biomass with parasitic tendencies. Though the trooper's armor has been compromised, the bulk of it remains intact. Weapon systems remain online as well. Full parasitic fusion has yet to be obtained, resulting in low agility and response time.
Trivia
Federation Troopers are reanimated through Ing possession in the Command Chamber.
- The Dark Troopers' battle theme was slightly modified for Metroid Prime Trilogy. Both versions can be found here.
- The Ing are able to complete their parasitic fusion in an instant with every other bioform in the game except for the Troopers and Missile Trooper; this is most likely due to the latter bioforms having been dead long before Darkling possession.
- The visors of certain Troopers' visors that are unbroken will shatter on the right side and fade completely black to match the uniform model of Dark Troopers; their eyes can also be seen glowing red through their broken visors.
- Any Trooper corpse that possesses a Logbook entry will not be possessed. This is so players do not encounter problems finding one-time entries the first time around, especially if they aren't looking for them.
- The Dark Trooper's slow and shambling gait, as well as the fact that they are dead bodies that rise and attack to begin with, seems to be based on that of a typical zombie in popular culture.
- This also makes them similar to the X-infected zombie researchers encountered in Metroid Fusion.
- In Metroid Prime: Episode of Aether, the appearance of the Dark Troopers is drastically different. All of their faces can be seen, and when possessed their eyes lose the pupils and veins pop up all over the face.
Gallery
| Darklings | |
|---|---|
| Guardians | Amorbis • Chykka • Quadraxis |
| Sub-Guardians |
Bomb Guardian • Grapple Guardian • Spider Guardian • Power Bomb Guardian |
| Darklings | Chykling • Corrupted Sentreye • Dark Alpha Splinter • Dark Blogg • Dark Diligence Drone • Dark Grenchler • Dark Ingsmasher • Dark Missile Trooper • Dark Phlogus • Dark Pirate Commando • Dark Pirate Trooper • Dark Preed • Dark Quad MB/CM • Dark Shredder • Dark Splinter • Dark Tallon Metroid • Darkling Tentacle • Dark Trooper • Dark War Wasp • Nightbarb • Dark Luminoth |
| Unused |
Dark Luminoth • Dark Metaree • Dark Pirate Aerotrooper • Dark Shriekbat • Dark Sporb • Dark Triclops |