Drogyga is a boss in Metroid Dread. Samus encounters it while traversing the submerging Burenia on ZDR. Although it is a stationary boss, it can use its tentacles to attack and manipulate its surrounding.
Physical appearance[]
Drogyga appears to be a creature native to Burenia, possibly bio-augmented by the Mawkin tribe's experiments. It is an enormous aquatic creature with a somewhat amorphous appearance, as its biomass seems to have taken up a significant portion of its arena and the surrounding areas; Drogyga's tentacles are present in two nearby rooms, protruding from vents and gaps in the scenery.[1]
Drogyga's head resembles a flower, with two layers of fleshy "petals" that can fold over a central organ vaguely resembling a pistil. Three of its outer "petals" have pores on their outer edges that can produce strange energy projectiles, and its head is flanked by small holes that can release long tentacles for combat purposes.
Most of Drogyga's body is dark blue with a slight violet tint, but its inner ring of flesh "petals" are dull pink, and its pistil and the tips of its tentacles are bright pink. When Drogyga dies, its entire body shrivels up and becomes drained of color; this also extends to its tentacles in other rooms.[1]
Battle[]
Whilst exploring Burenia, Samus plunges into a submerged, dark room and spots Drogyga in front of her. It awakens and roars, pressing one of its tentacles to a zipline track on the ceiling, which jams its power. This tentacle is Samus's initial target.
While Samus hits the tentacle with Beams and Missiles, Drogyga will attack by releasing three swaying balls of energy. Two are always blue and can be shot for Energy Capsules and Missile Ammo, while the third is composed of fire and indestructible. The energy balls fall to the floor and disperse if they are not shot or touched by Samus. It can also unleash four additional tentacles from its sides, pressing two into the walls on either side and extending two more on whichever side of it Samus is on. It will whip them at her one-by-one, but they can be jumped over.
Once the upper tentacle has sustained enough damage, it will retract, restoring power to the zipline as Drogyga collapses briefly. As this happens, a Shootactivator to Samus's left activates with a red light. She must fire a Missile or charged shot to activate it, partially draining the water filling the room. Samus can then grapple to the zipline's blue magnetic strip, which carries her to Drogyga's other side. From there, she can fire at another red-lit Shootactivator to completely drain the room's water. Without water, Drogyga opens its maw, allowing Samus to attack its pistil. It will eventually retaliate by thrusting a tentacle at Samus, which she can jump over or parry with a Melee Counter; the latter does not lead into a Grab Sequence, but provides Samus some more time to hit Drogyga's weak point, whilst changing the camera angle to give more excitement
After it retracts its tentacle, Drogyga shields its pistil and blocks the zipline as the room floods again. Samus must repeat the same steps in reverse to continue damaging Drogyga, being cautious of the monster's new attacks. It can produce three tentacles from its side and launch them toward Samus in a helical formation; the safest way to evade this is to grapple up to the blue magnetic strip above her. Its "fireball" attack now has two orange orbs and one blue one, rendering it harder to dodge.
After hitting its pistil enough times, Drogyga collapses for good, closing its body around its pistil before shriveling up into an inert gray mass lined with dark purple veins.
Development notes[]
Drogyga's internal name is Hydrogiga,[2] which appears to be derived from "hydro" (a prefix related to water) and "giga" (a prefix denoting a massive size, i.e. billion in the metric system). It is also internally referred to as Hidrogiga,[3] which uses the Spanish hidro form of hydro.
Trivia[]
- It is unclear if Drogyga's remains are infected and/or mimicked by any X Parasites following their release from Elun, but the head of Raven Beak X is vaguely evocative of the aquatic beast (with Kraid's outer head splitting open into "petals" framing Raven Beak's head in their center), although this particular trait is also shared with Experiment No. Z-57. Returning to its room shows that its corpse has not been affected by the X outbreak, unlike Kraid's remains or Experiment No. Z-57 disappearing from their respective rooms.
- If Drogyga's room is visited after skipping the boss battle via a glitch, Drogyga will be absent and the room will still be filled with water.
- Drogyga is the first boss in the Metroid series that must be fought underwater without the Gravity Suit.
- Drogyga resembles an enormous Dredhed, with both ZDR-native creatures having tentacles and similar armored petal-shaped red-colored mouths.
Drogyga's dead tentacles nearby.
- Although the Chozo Archives image 04 features an aquatic beast that is commonly assumed to be Drogyga, this artwork portrays the creature with prominent teeth lining its jaws, while Drogyga lacks any teeth or distinct jaws in its in-game model and Metroid Mission Logs concept artwork. While this does not preclude the possibility of the Chozo Archives depicting Drogyga with artistic license or a scrapped design, it does make the creature's identity much more uncertain.
- Drogyga is one of the few bosses in the Metroid series to leave behind a corpse after its boss fight. This distinction is shared with both the Chykka and the Spore Spawn; notably, both Drogyga and the Spore Spawn's corpses shrivel up and turn discolored.
- Drogyga's tentacles extend into the room directly beneath it, and another room nearby. The tentacles wither and decay once the boss is killed.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ^ a b Looygi Bros. "14 Cool Details in Metroid Dread (Part 4)". YouTube. December 22, 2021. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
- ^ Drogyga's boss theme is internally named "s_boss_mid_hydrogiga".
- ^ The Shootactivators in Drogyga's room are internally named "shootactivatorhidrogiga".