The Draygon (ドレイゴン Doreigon ) is a major boss from Super Metroid. It is a sort of waterborne crustacean, with a hard outer shell and soft underbelly. It seems to be a fully developed Evir and even has a few hatchlings, which are present in the chamber that it dwells in. It is found in its own chamber, one of the last accessible rooms of Maridia.
Its defeat allows access to the room which holds the Space Jump ability, and is one of the four bosses necessary to defeat in order to enter Tourian as it is depicted on the Golden Statues. This heavily implies that the Draygon and Phantoon are high-ranking Space Pirates in the same way Kraid and Ridley are, indicating that the former two are not mindless creatures, but intelligent beings despite their monstrous appearances.
Battle[]
Once Samus enters the chamber, three Wall Cannons will begin shooting electrical spheres in her direction, and will continue to do so for the entire upcoming battle, providing support for the boss unless she destroys them with missiles. Also present in the room is a small group of dark green Evirs which are swimming around near the seafloor, gradually moving to the right until they are out of sight moments later. Their highly protective "parent" will swim in with great haste in mere seconds. The Draygon will quickly jet back and forth in the chamber, disappearing past the walls, swimming in swift arcs in an attempt to tackle Samus. Its body is nearly completely covered in a tough impenetrable shell, save for its soft underbelly, which is susceptible to Super Missiles.
Occasionally, between the swift swimming arcs, the Draygon will slow down and release several dozen globs of gummy spit from its mouth as it emerges from either side of the room. The mucus can attach themselves to Samus, slowing her movement and allowing Draygon to grab onto her and deal massive damage with its claws and tail.
Throughout the battle, Draygon's stomach will gradually change from a pale yellow to a very bright crimson, depending on how much damage Samus has inflicted. Once defeated, its stomach bursts, and the creature will fall while its eyes convulse in every direction, releasing its final cries and floating down to the seafloor. As its eyes close, its children will slowly reappear and burrow into the ground with the body in complete silence.
Samus can defeat Draygon easily by destroying the Wall Cannons on the walls. By allowing the Draygon to grab her, she can then fire the Grappling Beam at the sparking wreckage of the cannons. The Power Suit will act as an electricity conductor, transferring an intense electrical charge into Draygon's body. After a few moments of intense shocking, Draygon's health will rapidly deplete to nothing, and end the battle rather quickly. Note that the electrocution of Draygon will also cause a noticeable amount of damage to Samus as well.
There is also the "Draygon X Plasma Trick", where Samus needs the X-Ray Scope and the Plasma Beam to do this. Samus must wait for Draygon to do its arcs and then fire the Plasma Beam at Draygon's stomach and use the X-Ray Scope. Because of this, the beam will continue inflicting damage on Draygon, causing its stomach to explode much quicker.
Official data[]
Super Metroid manual[]
- DRAYGON
- "(The Boss of Maridia)
The Draygon has an armor-like hard shell which gives it a lot of defensive strength."
Super Metroid Players' Guide[]
- Draygon (page 63)
- "You'll need all the skills and tricks you've learnt up to now if you're to leave Draygon's chamber alive."
- Know Your Nasties (page 68)
- "The fishy guardian of Maridia comes in the form of the gigantic, lobster-like Draygon. When you first arrive in his cavern, he will not be there, but there's no time to waste. The wall houses guns which need to be taken out with missiles. If you fail to do this before Draygon arrives, defeating him will be considerably harder. And it's already tough enough as it is!
Once he makes his appearance, the only way to hurt the all-powerful piscine is to hit him in the stomach. Use the most powerful weapons at your disposal to finish him off as quickly as possible.
Of course, Draygon won't sit back and let you blow him apart without a fight. When he tries to crush you under his blubbery body, morph into a ball since this minimises the damage.
He will also spit gooey sputum which, if it touches you, paralyses you, he'll then grab you in his claws. If this happens, you have the opportunity to electrocute the beast, although it's tricky to do. Once he's got you, fire a grappling beam into the remains of the gun ports, hold it there and a massive voltage of electricity will be conducted through it and straight into Draygon, turning him into instant deep fry."
Nintendo Power Volume 95[]
- DRAYGON
- "Once you enter the chamber, blast the four wall cannons so that they're sparking. Use the Grappling Beam when Draygon grabs you, shooting it into one of the sparking cannon holes. The current will zap Draygon in less than a minute."
Development notes[]
A pair of unused, presumably placeholder scan images in the demo of Metroid Prime suggest that Draygon was a source of inspiration to the Parasite Queen. The rightmost set can be seen on the Parasite Queen's scan within the Metroid Prime Demo.
Draygon's roars are those of Anguirus, a daikaiju of the Godzilla series. He shares the same vocalization source as Ridley in that game.
Yasuhiko Fujii commentary[]
“ | Actually, before the fight with Draygon, the boss of Maridia, there’s a group of Evir enemies that do a little “dance”. Their movements actually trace out the letters of a phrase in English, “Keiko Love”! Keiko was the name of a girl I was dating at the time. I was busy with work all the time and couldn’t see her much, so at night while everyone at the office sleeping, I stole a moment and snuck that code in!
That little Evir dance wasn’t written in the planning documents anywhere, so I remember my heart beating fast as I coded it, with the worry of it being discovered… but in the end, no one ever found it out. Now isn’t that a romantic story? (laughs) Originally, Draygon was much more grotesque. He actually looked too gross and realistic, so the director made us revise him, and that’s where he ended up. Even then, I was surprised how far they were allowed to take it. The programming for Draygon, of course, was done by me. (laughs) The ability to kill Draygon with the Grapple Beam (by firing at a turret and electrocuting him), was part of our overall design philosophy for the bosses: that they all needed to have a weakness somewhere. With that in mind, we wanted to add something surprising for players. It was also done for people who keep dying to that annoying “W” swoop attack of his… we wanted it to be this eye-opening moment, like “whoa, you can do that?” |
„ |
—Yasuhiko Fujii |
Fujii further explained that Draygon's original codename in development was Dankoon. He laughed as he explained this; because the kanji used in the interview where he gave this information is the same used for the word "phallus".[1]
Trivia[]
- Human skull-like shapes can be seen on Draygon's head. These shapes greatly resemble a Covern's overall appearance.
- ROM hacks have revealed that it is not the electricity itself that kills Draygon, but rather the act of grappling to an object. If Samus grapples a regular Grapple Point added to the chamber, Draygon can still be killed using the technique, although it will not cause any damage to Samus. (See here for the trick).
- The battle with Draygon also provides an opportunity to exploit the blue suit glitch. Though difficult, this glitch allows Samus to permanently retain the properties of speed boosting, even when walking at a normal speed. The glitch is activated by repeatedly using Draygon's mucus attack to charge a shinespark, and hitting Draygon with a hyper jump. When Draygon dies by this, the blue suit is activated, until certain actions (dashing, shinesparking) cancel it.
- Deceased bioforms can be seen in Draygon's room; most of these are Scisers, implying that they are sustenance for Draygon and/or the Evirs.
- Super Metroid Nintendo Player's Guide refers to Draygon as both a mutant and reptile.
- Super Metroid Players' Guide refers to it with male pronouns, like both Torizos.
- The secret electrocution method of killing Draygon is mirrored in another boss fight in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, for the Grapple Guardian.
- Several cube-like structures, which resemble Space Pirate Crates from Echoes, can be seen floating in Draygon's room. Their purpose is unknown.
- As of Metroid Dread, Draygon is the only one of the 5 Space Pirate commanders (Mother Brain included) to be fought in only one game.
- In Metroid Dread, a silhouetted creature heavily resembling Draygon appears in a tank in upper-left Dairon, during the blackout. After Samus turns on the power, the tank freezes over with the rest of its room, making the creature difficult to see.
Gallery[]
References[]
Aquatic organisms | |
---|---|
Tallon IV | Aqua Reaper • Aqua Sac • Chomper Fish • Fish • Jelzap • Tangle Weed • Tallon Crab |
Aether | Blogg • Bloggling • Alpha Blogg • Fish • Brizgee • Dark Blogg • Grenchler • Hydling • Krocuss • Phlogus |
Dark Aether | Chykka • Dark Blogg • Dark Grenchler • Dark Phlogus • Dark Shredder • Flying Ing Cache • Venom Weed • Watchdrone |
Zebes | Botwoon • Bull • Cacatac • Choot • Draygon • Evir • Gadora • Gamet • Oum • Owtch • Powamp • Puyo • Sciser • Skultera • Tatori • Tatori, Jr. • Yapping Maw • Yard • Zoa |
BOTTLE SHIP | Fish • Skultera |
BSL | Aqua Zebesian • Evir • Gadora • Owtch • Powamp • Sciser • Serris • Skultera • Yard • Zeela |