Corpius

This is a featured article.

Corpius
Corpius roaring.
Featured in	Metroid Dread
Location	"Corpius' room", Artaria
Attacks	Tail, green saliva blobs, Phantom Cloak, gas breath, ramming
Weakness	Missiles and Charge Beam shots to face and tail bulb
Battle Music	Boss Scorpius
Reward(s)	Phantom Cloak

Corpius is a large creature and the first boss in Metroid Dread.

Physical appearance

Corpius is a large, rather hideous creature. Since it has no legs, it crawls along the ground with its muscular arms and its upper body is slouched over. It has eight yellow eyes on the front of its face, which resembles tendrils forming a maw. Its main body is a turquoise color with claws for fingers, and a red backside which resembles exposed muscle. Its long tail has a ridged length and can be extended, similar to the Queen Metroid's long-necked attack in Metroid II: Return of Samus. Near the end of the tail is a bulb and a sharp point; the latter resembles that of Ridley and his adolescent form. Before Corpius spits projectiles, its chin will inflate much like a toad's.

According to the secret Chozo Archives, Corpius was a wild creature native to Ghavoran, where it was hunted by Chozo Soldiers of the Mawkin tribe.

Battle

The beast recoils in pain after being hit by a Missile.

Before the battle, Corpius' invisible form can be seen roaming in the background of several cavernous rooms in Artaria. This includes a water-filled corridor with background creatures, and a vertical shaft with a Presence door, the latter of which directly precedes the location of its fight.

Samus enters a large chamber with a massive statue of a Chozo wearing a cloak which seemed to hold an item that is missing. As she is walking, Corpius materializes behind and approaches her. It has a protuberance in its tail suspiciously similar to the item the statue was holding. Samus fires a Missile at Corpius' face, causing it to recoil in pain. She takes the opportunity to Slide under it behind the beast and prepares to fight.

First phase

Corpius' tail stuck in the ground.

Corpius crawls back and forth along the floor during the battle. Its main attack is its expanding tail, which it thrusts forward in an arc in an attempt to impale Samus. If it misses her, the tail will embed into the floor and Corpius will attempt to pull it out for two seconds. Should Samus be between the stuck tail and Corpius, she will have a small window of opportunity to inflict damage to the creature's face, its weak spot, with Missiles or Charge Shots. After it performs its impaling attack, Corpius will spit a green blob at Samus, which can be shot for energy or Missile Ammo, and swipe at Samus with its tail. The latter attack is telegraphed by Corpius swinging its tail back, before quickly whipping it forward. The green blobs deal 40 units of damage to Samus if they hit her.

Second phase

Once Corpius has sustained enough damage, it roars and turns invisible in a short cutscene. While its form can still be faintly seen, the large bulb on its tail gives its position away as it glows bright yellow. Samus must switch to targeting the bulb on Corpius' tail, which turns red as it takes damage. After it takes enough, it begins to beep and flash visibly even through Corpius skin, and Corpius grows more aggressive, destroying part of the room and exposing blue magnetic strips on the left and right walls.

Despite being invisible, Corpius's head can still be damaged, albeit difficult to target. Depleting the boss's health while it is invisible will bypass subsequent phases of the fight.

Corpius, having turned invisible.

Once the tail bulb has been damaged, Corpius turns completely invisible, before reappearing visibly with its back turned to Samus. Seemingly cornered, she notices the creature's spikes extending from its sides to act as "legs". It will now sink into the ground rapidly and slam its tail down on Samus like a whip, which is telegraphed by it flapping back and forth for a few seconds, dealing 10 units of damage. To avoid this, Samus must Slide underneath its body to its face and quickly use the Melee Counter (in this case a backward flip kick) to stun the boss. She can then fire at its face, which begins a Grab Sequence wherein she jumps onto the creature and grabs it by its face, allowing her to fire at point-blank until it knocks her off its face. It then slams her with its tail, but she grabs it and stands her ground, firing more rounds at its face until she is thrown off.

Third phase

Corpius breathing gas.

In the next phase, Corpius will now expand its mouth and crawl towards Samus before breathing a toxic gas on the ground. To avoid this, Samus must jump to a blue magnetic strip on the wall with her Spider Magnet and wait for the gas to dissipate. She can target Corpius' face while it does this. It will attempt to impale her and spit poison globs while she is attached to the wall. As it approaches the wall, it will slam into it, knocking Samus down, and turn invisible again, forcing Samus to continue targeting its bulb. After the bulb is damaged, Corpius will again turn its back to Samus, allowing her to repeat the cinematic sequence. From there, Samus must continue to shoot it in the face.

When Corpius is defeated, it rears its head one last time before collapsing to the ground. It struggles to stand back up. Samus, watching from a distance, begins charging her beam and moves to the side. The creature recovers and lunges for her, but Samus slowly raises her Arm Cannon, fires a charged blast into its face and Spin Jumps through its curled tail as it runs into the massive Chozo statue, destroying it. Corpius collapses dead and its body disintegrates, but not before Samus picks up its tail, finally revealing the item Corpius had eaten from the statue, and she receives the Phantom Cloak.

Official data

Nintendo of America tweets

"Countering boss attacks with precision timing sometimes allows Samus to deploy a devastating barrage of missiles in #MetroidDread.

#NintendoTreehouseLive"

"Another triumph for the legendary bounty hunter, Samus Aran.

#MetroidDread #NintendoTreehouseLive"

"There’s no sneaking up on Samus.

#MetroidDread is out this Friday! Pre-order today: http://ninten.do/6013XlR8T

Trivia

Corpius' unused mask

• Corpius has unused internal resources, such as a model and sound effects, for a protective mask that Samus would presumably destroy in their battle.
• Corpius's name seems to be derived from scorpius, the Latin root of the word "scorpion", as evidenced by its prominent stinger tail and its name in the internal data, Scorpius.
• A later boss in Dread, Experiment No. Z-57, has a face highly resembling Corpius. This implies that Quiet Robe created the Experiment using Corpius's DNA as a basis.
• It's implied that Corpius ate or stole the Phantom Cloak from the hands of the Chozo statue located in its room, as later Aeion abilities are obtained from the hands of similar statues.
• After a free update to the Metroid Dread Demo on February 9, 2022, it became possible to fight Corpius in it. Before the update, Corpius could be fought by performing Sequence Breaking when the demo was meant to end after defeating E.M.M.I.-02SM. If Corpius was fought in the demo before the update, the boss music would not play, audio would be missing from cutscenes, and the demo would crash upon Corpius's defeat.
• Corpius was animated by Leandro Adeodato De Albuquerque, who considered it his "most loyal partner".

Gallery

Corpius materializes behind Samus.

Corpius confronts Samus.

Samus slides under Corpious after stunning it.

Corpius' underside viewed through the Combat Visor.

One of Corpius' green blob projectiles.

Tail swipe

Closeup of tail bulb and spear.

The creature's backside.

Samus behind Corpius in its second form.

Slamming down.

Samus slides under Corpius as it prepares to attack, which she can counter.

Samus initiates a Grab Sequence on Corpius.

Corpius' ramming attack.

Samus charges a shot to finish Corpius off.

Samus jumps through Corpius' tail, which forms a "hoop" as it dies.

Samus picks up Corpius' tail before its body disintegrates.

Corpius hunted by Chozo Soldiers in Ghavoran

External links

• Corpius boss battle gameplay by Dr. Coker's Gaming Channel