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 on Zebes.
The Draygon's defeat allows access to the room that holds the Space Jump ability, and it 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, except 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 to Samus, slowing her movements and allowing Draygon to grab onto her and deal massive damage with its claws and tail.
Throughout the battle, the Draygon's stomach will gradually change from a pale yellow color 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 the 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 Wall Cannons. The Power Suit will act as an electricity conductor, transferring an intense electrical charge into the Draygon's body. After a few moments of intense shocking, the Draygon's health will rapidly deplete to nothing, and end the battle rather quickly. Note that the electrocution of the 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 the Draygon to perform its arcs, and then fire the Plasma Beam at the Draygon's stomach and use the X-Ray Scope. Because of this, the Beam will continue inflicting damage on the Draygon, causing its stomach to explode much quicker.
Official data[]
Artwork of Draygon
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[]
Unused scans for the Parasite Queen in Metroid Prime
A pair of unused, presumably placeholder scan images in the demo of Metroid Prime suggest that the 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.
The 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 the Draygon's original codename during 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[]
Image of Draygon seen when scanning the Parasite Queen in the Metroid Prime Demo.
- Human skull-like shapes can be seen on the 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 the Draygon, but rather the act of grappling onto an object. If Samus grapples onto a regular Grapple Point added to the chamber, the 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 the Draygon also provides an opportunity to exploit the blue suit glitch. Though difficult, this glitch allows Samus to permanently retain the properties of the Speed Booster, even when walking at a normal speed. The glitch is activated by repeatedly using the Draygon's mucus attack to charge the Shinespark, and hitting the Draygon with a hyper jump. When the Draygon dies by this, the blue suit is activated, until certain actions (such as dashing or shinesparking) cancel it.
- Deceased bioforms can be seen in tje Draygon's room; most of these are Scisers, implying that they are sustenance for the Draygon and/or the Evirs.
- Super Metroid Nintendo Player's Guide refers to the Draygon as both a mutant and reptile.
- Super Metroid Players' Guide refers to it with male pronouns, like both Torizos.
The silhouetted creature in Dairon.
- The secret electrocution method of killing the Draygon is mirrored in another boss fight in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, the Grapple Guardian.
- Several cube-like structures, which resemble Space Pirate Crates from Echoes, can be seen floating in the Draygon's room. Their purpose is unknown.
- As of Metroid Dread, the Draygon is the only one of the five Space Pirate commanders (Mother Brain included) to be fought in only one game.
- In Metroid Dread, a silhouetted creature heavily resembling the Draygon appears in a tank in the upper-left section of Dairon, during the blackout. After Samus turns on the power, the tank freezes over with the rest of its room, rendering 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 |