Dark Water

“	The waters of Dark Aether are foul and venomous. Avoid them if you can.	„
—A-Voq

Dark Water in the Dark Torvus Temple.

Dark Water is a substance encountered on Dark Aether in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

Properties

As the name implies, it is that world's equivalent of conventional water, and usually (although not always) exists where water is present on Light Aether. It is highly corrosive and severely damaging to unprotected matter from the light dimension, although many dark creatures such as the Hunter Ing, Flying Ing Cache, Dark Phlogus, Chykka, Dark Shredder, and Dark Grenchler can and do spend much of their lives immersed within it without any ill effects. In fact, one of the Darkling Guardians will mutate and gain additional abilities when in contact with Dark Water. However, for reasons unknown, this substance is lethal to some Darklings, such as Dark Pirate Troopers, which incinerate when in contact with it.

In this regard, Dark Water is similar to Dark Aether's atmosphere, although its destructive effects are not alleviated by the fields of Light Beacons and Light Crystals. The incredible amount of damage caused by contact with this substance has led many of the creatures that are immune to its effects to spit or splash Dark Water at their opponents as an offensive weapon. Physically, the substance seems to be a nearly opaque purple liquid with an abnormally high viscosity—before acquiring the Light Suit, Samus Aran is able to walk across its surface without sinking into the fluid. Following the Light Suit's acquisition, she is able to maneuver within it exactly as she would in regular water, as well as gaining complete immunity from Dark Water's corrosive effects.

It is unknown whether Dark Water is chemically identical to conventional water and gained its unusual properties from another material dissolved or suspended within it, whether its properties stem from the nature of the dark dimension itself, or whether it is an entirely different substance altogether.

Development notes

Kensuke Tanabe wanted a visual effect where Dark Water would gel up around Samus when she entered a body of it, but it was not added to Echoes. Jack Mathews explained to Tanabe that it would negatively affect the framerate and was infeasible since Dark Water cannot be explored until the endgame.

Trivia

• Dark Water is also present on the Shooting Gallery stage in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Multiplayer.
• Purple liquid on SR388 resembles Dark Water, but is a lighter shade of purple and is not as viscous.
• Interestingly, Sequence Breaking reveals that Samus only needs the Light Suit to move freely within Dark Water and not the Gravity Boost (she is unable to perform a Gravity Boost, however, for obvious reasons). It is not clear if this is due to Dark Water being significantly different from normal water or if this is merely an oversight.
• All deep pools of Dark Water possess a layer that prevents Samus from sinking to the bottom of the pool without the Light Suit. Out-of-bounds reveals that it is possible for Samus to enter inside Dark Water without the Light Suit and move around in it as with normal water. She will continue to receive damage while inside the hazardous liquid.
  • In some aspects, Dark Water seems to partially mimic toxic water's role from Metroid Prime. Both types of water may share coding.
  • Curiously, a barrier is always present on the Dark Water inside the Dark Torvus Temple, preventing sinking even with the Light Suit.

Gallery

Samus submerged in Dark Water.