Phendrana Drifts

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Phendrana Drifts
The Phendrana Shorelines, the first large room of the Phendrana Drifts.
Planet	Tallon IV
Environment	Ice / Snow / Mountain / Ruins
Sub-Areas	3 Sub-areas: Shoreline Area Glacier One Phendrana's Edge
Bosses	Sheegoth, Thardus
Upgrades	Boost Ball, Wave Beam, Super Missile, Thermal Visor, Spider Ball, Gravity Suit
Key Items	3 Chozo Artifacts
Connected areas	By elevators: Magmoor Caverns
Distinctfeatures	Center of Metroid research, as it is cold and relatively easy to contain Metroids.
Map	[1]

Phendrana Drifts (known as Ice Valley in the Japanese release and Ice World in concept art) is an area on Tallon IV, explored by Samus in Metroid Prime. It is the fourth area that Samus must explore on Tallon IV.

Geography

Located far at the western and southwestern edge of the explorable Tallon IV areas, the Phendrana Drifts are snowy and icy, with some parts filled with water. Major geographical features are a canyon, a lake, and several caves. The Phendrana Drifts are relatively isolated, and can (ironically) only be accessed from the lava-filled Magmoor Caverns. Despite ostensibly being located in the mountains of Tallon IV, the World Map shows that this area is almost no higher than the aforementioned Magmoor Caverns in altitude.

Areas and main rooms

There are three main subareas in the Phendrana Drifts:

Phendrana Canyon, the area Samus obtains the Boost Ball.

Shorelines

This is the first subarea explored by Samus in the region. As its name suggests, a number of the shorelines areas feature bodies of water, or did at one point. The ruins of Chozo villages can be found here, as well as the Chapel of the Elders atop a cliff. The shorelines area is notable for being home to a wide variety of cold-adapted wildlife, most notably the Crystallite and Sheegoth.

Main rooms

• Phendrana Canyon
• Phendrana Shorelines
• Ruined Courtyard

Glacier One (Space Pirate research facility)

On the opposite side of the Phendrana Drifts, a Space Pirate research facility can be found, housing Metroids as well as Space Pirate personnel - relatively small in comparison to those found in the Phazon Mines. The Space Pirates chose this location to build their base because the Metroids have a vulnerability to cold, which made them much easier to contain. This research proves fruitful for the Space Pirates, who manage to develop the Thermal Visor and Thardus, a fusion of Tallon IV minerals and Phazon.

Research Lab Aether

Main rooms

• Research Lab Hydra
• Research Lab Aether
• Observatory
• Research Core

Phendrana's Edge

This area is located, as the name suggests, in the depths of the Phendrana Drifts. It contains no ruins and some Space Pirate activity. Most of the rooms are flooded with water beneath a certain point. Most puzzles here focus on the Gravity Suit, and the area, while retaining the general "snow" theme of the entire Phendrana Drifts, is also oriented towards water and aquatic creatures.

Main rooms

• Frozen Pike
• Gravity Chamber
• Phendrana's Edge

Inhabitants

Samus faces Thardus, the boss of the area.

Cold-adapted variations of other species, such as the Ice Shriekbat, Ice Burrower, and Ice Beetle, can be found in this region, as well as some more unique species, such as the Sheegoth, Flickerbat, Pulse Bombu, and Scatter Bombu, creating a rather diverse range of inhabitants. Two bosses are found in the area: an adult Sheegoth and Thardus. Adult Sheegoths later take up residence in other rooms in the Phendrana Drifts.

Meta Ridley can also be seen briefly, soaring above the Phendrana Shorelines.

Tallon Metroids can be found inside the Space Pirate research facilities in the Phendrana Drifts and Pirate Data implies that the Space Pirates take advantage of its cold climate to render Metroids sluggish. In the original NTSC and Wii versions, a Hunter Metroid can be found in the Frost Cave. While the area is cold, it is apparently not cold enough to actually kill Tallon Metroids and Hunter Metroids outright like Sector 2 / Cryosphere in Other M (as Samus dismisses the idea of Metroids being able to survive in the cold climate of the Cryosphere, though she is unaware that the Galactic Federation has developed Unfreezable Metroids), or Phazon mutation has made them more resistant to cold climates. This fits with the cold, snowy areas of the Chozo laboratory of Area 7 in Metroid: Samus Returns, which the natural Infant Metroid baby is capable of surviving in and traveling through without the exposure being fatal to it much like the Tallon Metroids and Hunter Metroids can in the Phendrana Drifts. As that laboratory is implied to be where the Metroids were created by the Chozo, it suggests that the Chozo similarly used cold temperatures to contain and render the Metroids sluggish like the Space Pirate Science Team.

Items

Samus gets the Boost Ball in Phendrana Canyon.

Six suit upgrades can be found in the Phendrana Drifts. The Boost Ball is found on the first visit. On the second visit, Samus obtains the Wave Beam after defeating the Sheegoth, the Super Missile, and Thermal Visor in the Space Pirate research area, and the Spider Ball after defeating Thardus. Later, the Gravity Suit can be tracked down here. Also found in the area are multiple Energy Tanks, Missile Expansions, and Power Bomb Expansions. Three Chozo Artifacts can be found here, which are the Artifact of Spirit, the Artifact of Elder, and the Artifact of Sun.

Energy Tank, Missile Expansion, and Power Bomb Expansion Locations

• Energy Tank: Ruined Courtyard, flood the room with water, jump to the end of the room opposite the Bomb Slot, and go down the Morph Ball tunnel.
• Energy Tank: Contained inside one of the glass tubes in Research Lab Aether. Use a Nissile to shatter the glass.
• Energy Tank: In Transport Access, use the Plasma Beam to melt the ice and expose a tunnel containing the tank.
• Missile Expansion: In Research Lab Aether, jump on top of the narrow path near the top of the room, then roll across it with the Morph Ball.
• Missile Expansion: In Phendrana Shorelines, destroy the Cordite next to the door leading to Temple Entryway, scan what it was covering, then use the Spider Ball Track.
• Missile Expansion: In Research Lab Hydra, destroy the Cordite tank on the top floor to reveal the expansion.
• Missile Expansion: In Quarantine Cave, use the Grapple Points to get to Quarantine Monitor, where the expansion is held.
• Missile Expansion: In Frost Cave, use the Glider to swing to one of the ledges and blast down the stalactite to reveal the expansion.
• Missile Expansion: In Gravity Chamber, melt a patch of ice with the Plasma Beam to reveal a Grapple Point, which is used to swing to the ledge holding the expansion.
• Power Bomb Expnasion: In Ice Ruins West, melt some ice on top of one of the buildings with the Plasma Beam to enter the chamber holding the expansion.
• Power Bomb Expansion: Swing across Phendrana's Edge with the Grapple Beam and use the Morph Ball tunnel to access Security Cave. The expansion is in the center of the room.

Music

There are multiple themes that play through the area:

• Ice Connect
• Phendrana Drifts
• Ice Chapel
• Energy Core (Observatory version)
• Pirate Yoin
• Space Pirates (Laboratory Gate)
• Phendrana Battle
• Phendrana Drifts Beta: [2]

A remix of the main theme appears in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, playing in the Bryyo Ice region. Another remix plays on Arcterra in Metroid Prime Hunters.

Etymology

"Phendrana" may derive from the Greek prefix, φαίνω, meaning "to bring to light, make to appear", from which the English word "phenology" comes. Phenology is the study of the influence of climate on recurring natural phenomena.

Development notes

The falling snow present in the Phendrana Drifts, particularly the Phendrana Shorelines, was achieved via a particle system with a random number generator.

See also

• List of rooms in Metroid Prime/Phendrana Drifts
• Arcterra
• Bryyo Ice
• Sector 5 (ARC)

Trivia

• The area's introductory cutscene plays in the Phendrana Shorelines room.
• After Thardus is destroyed, many rooms in the Phendrana Drifts will contain fully grown Sheegoths, though they are noticeably smaller in size compared to the first. A fully grown Sheegoth will appear on return visits to the Quarantine Cave.
• The heat of the Magmoor Caverns has seemingly no climatic effect on the wintry Phendrana Drifts, not even any smoke from the mountains.
• The subzero temperatures do not damage Samus without the Varia Suit (seen using Sequence Breaking), unlike in Metroid Fusion, where Sector 5 (ARC)'s low temperature is harmful to Samus until she acquires the Varia Suit. However, this could be attributed to Samus wearing the Fusion Suit in the latter game, which contains Metroid DNA, and makes Samus weak to cold temperatures. Because the Fusion Suit is an unlockable alternate costume in Prime with no gameplay elements, Samus is unaffected by the cold while wearing it.
• The area's name is misspelled as Pehndrana Drifts on page 40 of Nintendo Power issue #162.

Gallery

The entire Phendrana Drifts region seen on the Map.

Samus arrives in the Drifts via Transport to Magmoor Caverns West.

Samus enters Phendrana.

Samus overlooks the Phendrana Shorelines, a major room.

Water in the Shorelines.

Ridley flies over Phendrana Shorelines.

Ice Ruins East

Ice Ruins West

A Baby Sheegoth in Phendrana Canyon.

Samus battles an adult Sheegoth in the Chapel of the Elders.

The Observatory in Phendrana Labs.

A Space Pirate in the Control Tower.

An underwater section of Phendrana Drifts.