Echo Visor

“	The last of our champion's visors used sound to target the unseen. Recover it from its place of honor and use it wisely!	„
—O-Lir, referring to the Echo Visor.

Samus targets Quadraxis' tactical control unit with the Echo Visor.

The Echo Visor is one of the two Visors exclusive to Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, the other one being the Dark Visor. It once belonged to the champion of Aether, A-Kul, but was retired to a place of honor near the end of the war. The Visor is designed to visualize sound waves to its user, allowing them to locate hidden objects and enemies.

Samus Aran recovered the Visor after she defeated Dark Samus in the Aerie of the Sanctuary Fortress, although Dark Samus was apparently unaware of its existence. The Echo Visor is based upon echolocation and allows Samus to see sound waves by replacing her HUD with a monochromatic false-color representation. It also turns the Targeting Reticule light blue, or orange if an enemy is currently being targeted. The visor must sometimes be used in the game in conjunction with the Annihilator Beam to disturb Echo Key Beam systems, making the item critical in opening Echo Gates and defeating Quadraxis. It is used in the game's third and final fight with Dark Samus to see her while she is invisible. The Echo Visor's flaws lie with the inherent limits of echolocation: it has the shortest visibility range of any Visor in Echoes and cannot distinguish colors (making enemies such as Ingsmashers potentially difficult to battle) or detect objects that sound simply passes through, such as Portals or beams of light.

Official data

The Echo visor in item form.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes manual

ECHO VISOR

"After Samus tracks down the Echo Visor, she'll be able to visualise sound waves to detect invisible enemies and objects."

Metroid Prime Trilogy manual

Echo Visor

"This visor allows you to visualize sound waves. You will be able to see and learn the locations of objects and creatures emitting sound waves."

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes acquisition message

"Echo Visor acquired!
Press [Control Pad (Down)] to activate Visor./Press [-] then point right to activate Visor.
Additional data downloaded to Inventory Screen. Press [START]/[2] to access the Inventory Screen."

Inventory data

Echo Visor

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Inventory entry

The Echo Visor uses sound to detect unseen objects and enemies.
Press / Hold and point right to select the Echo Visor.

Samus's Notes

The Echo Visor can reveal invisible items, areas, and enemies.
Use the Echo Visor to interact with sonic-based security systems.
This Visor was designed to work with a sonic-based Luminoth weapon system.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes: The Official Nintendo Player's Guide

ECHO VISOR

"The Echo Visor works much like the sonar of a dolphin or a bat, sending out an audio signal that allows you to "see" sound. Some invisible items can be seen only with the Echo Visor. The visor is also used to open Echo Doors."

Development notes

Karl Deckard came up with the Echo Visor and shared early prototypes of his idea with Clark Wen, the audio lead of Echoes. When designing the visor's audio, Wen processed sonar pings from a submarine through multiple effects to make them more science fiction-like. Because of the Nintendo GameCube's hardware limitations, the Echo Visor's sound had a strong reverb and delay. To fix this, code from a VST plug-in was licensed from a French company and Jim Gage implemented it into the game's engine.

The Echo Visor was inspired by the sonar abilities of Daredevil in the 2003 movie of the same name, which Jack Mathews described as the only good part of the film.

Looking back, Mike Wikan felt that the visual appearance of the visor could have been improved, such as by reducing the speed of enemies when it was active.

Unused Data

"What's the matter? All I said was that Komaytos look like little Metr-"

---

Non-canon warning: This article or section contains information that may not be considered an official part of the Metroid series in the overall storyline by Nintendo.

In the Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Bonus Disc the Inventory data for the Echo Visor appears slightly altered than in the final. Originally, the Echo Visor was planned to be placed on D-Pad right (even though the demo uses the final's D-pad down positioning). It also mentions that loud noises can impair the visor when in use. These loud noises mentioned may have been from the Sonic Transmitters as their loud echoing can be heard when the Visor is active but do not scramble the Visor in the final. It is unknown if such loud sounds would have disrupted the Visor in a similar fashion environment or enemy attacks do. It is also unknown if certain enemies would have had the capabilities to disrupt the Echo Visor this way.

Echo Visor

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Inventory entry

The Echo Visor uses sound to detect unseen objects and enemies.
Press to select the Echo Visor.

Samus's Notes

The Echo Visor can reveal invisible items, areas, and enemies.
Loud noises can impair the Echo Visor.
Destroy or deactivate sources of loud sounds to restore function to the Visor.

Trivia

• There is a Luminoth body in the room Mining Station B of the Agon Wastes that may have an Echo Visor of his own; when scanned, the reading says that the Luminoth was blind but had a sound-detection device that let him "see" his surroundings: "Bioscan complete. Luminoth subject expired 1.4 centicycles ago. Subject Luminoth was blind, possibly from birth. Damaged cybernetic augmentation is present; a sonic imaging device enabled the subject to "see" the world around him."
• When the Echo Visor is active, everything from firing beams to landing on any surface has a slightly increased reverberation. Even the sound of hidden items is slightly improved.
• "Echo" is from the Greek word ηχος, which means "sound".
• The Echo Visor's name may be a reference to the name of the game it's found in: Echoes.
• Strangely the Jump Guardian appears completely unseen to the Echo Visor and locking on to it properly with said visor can be somewhat difficult as well. One explanation could be that because Samus is not intended to have the Echo Visor when fighting the guardian, no Echo Visor model exists for it.
• The Echo Visor can be used in the Multiplayer mode of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes via hacking. It does not allow a user to spot an invisible player however.

Gallery

Tracking Dark Samus 3 with the Echo Visor.

Amorbis seen through the Echo Visor (via Sequence Breaking).

Player 1 using the Echo Visor (via hacking) in the Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Multiplayer mode.