Zero IX presents the one and only . . .
::META RIDLEY FAQ::
::CONTENTS::
Disclaimer
Battle Preparation
Battle Plans
Miscellaneous Info
Special Thanks
Contact Me
Disclaimer
Last updated on 4/9/03. =P
By far the coolest boss in Metroid Prime, Meta Ridley is also one of the
toughest. He can be quite troublesome on normal, to say nothing of hard. This
FAQ is for those of you who shrivel at a glance from this monstrosity. If Meta
Ridley still bugs you after you read this, you just might be a lost cause. :p
::DISCLAIMER::
This FAQ is for personal use only. It may not be used for personal gain
in any way, shape, or form. You may spread it wherever you want without
bothering to tell me (although that would be nice) so long as it remains
UNALTERED and UNEDITED.
::BATTLE PREPARATION::
Ridley has returned with a vengence, so before you attempt to tackle the
beast, there are a few things you might want. I had 100 missiles and all but 1
energy tanks when I first fought him and I still lost. So, if you plan to win,
you'll want at least 50 missiles (the more the merrier, especially if you plan
on using super missiles) and 10 or so energy tanks.
Ridley will confront you at the Artifact Temple if you have all twelve
Chozo artifacts. So, once you have all twelve, make sure you are prepared
before you go there.
I'd think you'd want more than 50 missiles, though. Having 150+ missiles
would increase your chances of success greatly. If you want more missiles, jog
through the Chozo Ruins again. You should be able to pick up a more than a few
easy missile expansions there. Poke around while you listen carefully for that
low humming sound that the missile expansions make. Some rooms that you might
want to check is the Ruined Nursery, Ruined Gallery, Ruined Fountain, Ruined
Shrine, Vault, Watery Hall Access, Watery Hall, Dynamo, and Furnace. If you
don't know where to look, whip out the scan visor and have a look around. If
you can hear the missile expansion but can't seem to find it, and if you don't
see anything out of the ordinary with the scan visor, give the X-ray visor a
shot (in the Ruined Gallery and the Watery Hall Access). Otherwise, most of
these missiles are painfully obvious, and can all be picked up in few minutes.
With the Phazon suit, the damage the Chozo Ghosts inflict on you is laughable.
You could ignore them, but that is boring. It only takes six or seven charged
power shots to kill them (again) on normal, but on hard you'll want to use a
super missile or two to quicken things up. If you still want more missiles, I
would head first to Magmoor (there are only three missile expansions there,
though. 2 in the Triclops Pit and 1 in the Fiery Shores room), then to the
Phazon Mines.
Hunting for stuff in the Phazon Mines can get a bit hectic on hard (and
normal if you are reckless . . . you careless person, you) though, so I'd be
especially cautious here. You can kill the normal and shadow Pirates easily
with the plasma beam (use charged shots), and the beam Pirates shouldn't pose
too much of a problem. The ice (freeze them with a charged ice beam shot then
kill them with a single missile, or use the ice spreader for a costly but easy
kill) and plasma Pirates (just shoot them with the plasma beam) are easy, just
make sure you start shooting before they do. The wave Pirates can be mildly
irritating but are nothing to get excited about. A super missile or two will
send the power Pirates to Pirate hell on a greased pole. Do not use the evil,
evil flamethrower or wavebuster, they both are way too missile-hungry for
their own good. If the Metroids bug you, just freeze them with the ice beam
then kill them with a missile. Do the same to the small smattering of Hunter
Metroids lurking in the deeper parts of the mines. Easy. If you really suck,
you can use power bombs, but you should save them for Bendezium walls (like
the one in the Phazon Processing Center) that hide missiles. Other than that,
it's rather entertaining to let a Metroid suck your energy until they explode.
They get almost as big as Samus before splattering their innards all over the
walls. ^_^;;
As for energy tanks . . . If you are seriously paranoid, go ahead and
get them all, otherwise you probably have enough. The ones I tend to miss is
the one in the Hydro Access Tunnel of the Wrecked Frigate (found in the Tallon
Overworld, of course) and the one in the Transport Tunnel A in Magmoor Caverns
(I tend to fall in the magma a lot, so I usually save it for so long I forget
about it :p).
You already have the other necessary stuff (super missiles, plasma beam,
space jump, etc.), so if your missiles and energy are both looking good, you
are probably ready. Save at your ship before heading to the Artifact Temple
(if you don't know, it's through the door on the west in the Landing Site).
This brings us to the meat of this FAQ . . .
::BATTLE PLAN::
Meta Ridley is definitely the toughest boss so far. If you thought the
Omega Pirate was bad . . . this monster's much worse.
Ridley is only vulnerable in the chest, obviously. For the majority of
this battle, I heavily suggest you use charged plasma beam shots. They do just
as much (if not more) damage as missiles do, and though they don't home, you
will need your missiles later. Charged plasma shots will also stun him for a
moment, stopping any attack he might have been doing and giving you a little
more time to react to his next one. You could use super missiles to bring him
down a little faster, but if you do, you will have to time your shots more
carefully (even though super missiles kinda home too), and because you need to
save your missiles unless you have a VERY tough time later, I can't recommend
them. The ice spreader is too many missiles for too little damage. You can
just forget about the flamethrower, it is WORTHLESS in this fight (obviously).
The wavebuster is okay because of its strength and good homing ability but it
still eats up too many missiles, though if you have lots of missiles (150+)
you could beat him much easier with it and not endanger yourself later.
Missiles alone are okay (they home and do good enough damage), but they don't
stun him like charged plasma beam shots do, and like I said, you need to save
them.
So just go with the plasma beam, m'kay? -_-
Anyway, for the easy part of the fight, Ridley will fly around the edges
of the arena and launch several attacks. He will often sweep the arena with
his kinetic breath weapon. His aim sucks, though. Just run forward as you
charge your plasma beam to avoid it if you think it might hit you, then nail
him with the charged shot (lock on to him first, of course), as he is wide
open and just asking to be blasted. Try to stay close, but not too close to
the edge, as it is easiest to hit him there. Ridley also likes to abuse his
multi-missile system, especially if you get far away. He will shield himself
and launch a swarm fast-moving missiles that can do nasty damage if enough of
them hit you. They aren't very accurate either, though, and you can usually
dodge them easily by dashing to the side (hold the control stick to the left
or right and tap B LIGHTLY twice). Now would be a good time to blast him with
a charged plasma shot.
Just stay nearby and unload a charged shot whenever you get the chance.
After a bit of this, Ridley will circle the arena from a distance before
swooping over the arena and dropping a load of bombs. Don't try to shoot him
(he moves to fast; you'll mis every time, even with homing weapons), just hug
the edge and you probably won't get hit. The bombs don't do too much damage to
you anyway. He might try this once or twice more, then he will fly in close
again and use his kinetic breath weapon and multi-missiles some more before
trying to bomb you again. Charge your plasma beam or power beam (if you want
to use the super missiles) when he's flying around and bombing, and shoot him
with a charged plasma shot or a super missile. If he does his multi-missile
attack, be sure not to shoot him while his wings are shielding him, because
you'll just be wasting your shots. Don't rush your shots, and you should be
fine. On normal you really don't have anything to worry about, it's not hard
to survive.
After a bit more of this easy stuff, he will begin to land on the arena
and sometimes try to slash you. When you see him getting ready to land (he
flies up high before he does, so it's easy to tell when he is about to do it),
space jump backwards, or you'll get hit. When he's on the arena, he will slash
at you for a good bit of damage if you are close, or just scream if you are
keeping your distance like you should be. You can peg him with a charged shot
or a super missile here easily before he takes off. Also, when he lands, any
of the Chozo totems unfortunate enough to get in the way of him and the ground
will be destroyed, leaving behind energy and missile refills. You probably
don't need either, but get them if you want.
Continue avoiding his kinetic breath weapon, multi-missiles, bombs, and
melee attacks and hit him with charged plasma beam shots whenever he's flying
close by or has landed on the platform. When he reaches about half energy, he
ups the ante a bit, and will begin to use his kinetic breath weapon while he's
on his bombing runs, so you'll have to run a little or just jump to the side
to avoid it easily. He also seems to have a higher tendency to use the multi-
missiles. It's still a very easy fight, though. Just keep shooting, and when
he's down to about a fourth of his energy, he loses the use of his wings and
will land in the arena to fight in melee mode.
You're probably thinking this is going to be an easy fight. After all,
he doesn't have much health left, and you've only taken a few scratches of
damage. Well, you're wrong. THIS is where the real battle is. After he lands,
switch to your power beam, you’ll see why in a minute.
Ridley will now rear up and charge right at you at high speed. If you
get hit, you will take big damage. But that's not all. After his charge, if
you are still close, he will snap at you while swinging his tail or try to
slash you, then turn around abruptly to face you with his tail swinging low.
If he manages to hit with most of that, you're looking at a tank or more worth
of damage, and even more if you are on hard. To dodge this, lock-on and get
your finger on the B button as soon as you see him rear up, then break out the
dash maneuver as soon as you see him start moving (like I said before, hold
left or right and tap B twice LIGHTLY). Jump twice to the side AWAY from
Ridley immediately after dashing, and jump again if necessary to get away from
that long, long, evil tail of his. Now lock-on to face him and get ready to do
it again if necessary. :)
If you mess up or mis-time your dash and jump instead or something, you
will get hit; immediately jump away from Ridley before he hits you some more.
You may lose a few tanks initially, but it’s not too hard to get the timing
down after a few tries. Don’t bother charging your beams, since we’re going to
be using missiles alone to kill him.
Speaking of killing him, Ridley now hugs the ground, preventing you from
hitting his chest, his only weak point. Well, after several charges, he will
scream a bit. When he’s screaming (and his mouth is open), shoot him with a
missile in the mouth. He will jerk back, exposing his chest. You could hit him
with a couple missiles here, but if you want to get more damage than that,
make sure you have your power beam out, and quickly alternate between Y and A
to fire a missile then the power beam in turn. What’s the use of this? Well,
it gets rid of the painful delay between missiles, so you can fire missiles
about twice as fast. You can get five or so missiles in this way if you’re
good. More missiles means more damage which means less time for Ridley to live
which means less chance of him killing you. :)
The only other thing you have to watch out for is his kinetic breath
weapon. Sometimes when he opens his mouth, he’ll use it instead of screaming.
If he does, space jump over it. Easy as pie. Also, after you stun and hit him
with a few missiles, he will often scream again briefly, so quickly stun him
while his mouth is open and get some more easy hits. Sometimes, he’ll do this
as many as three or so times IN A ROW. That’s about 15 missiles worth of
damage. Also, the totems will be destroyed very soon after he lands, so you
can usually recover from any damage he might have inflicted on you during
round one.
As his energy gets lower, he screams less and becomes more aggressive.
He will charge you many times before giving you a chance to stun him, but when
he does, he will often give you another chance after that to get some more
missiles in on him, so it won’t be long until he bites the dust. It may take
you two tries, but that’s only if you are really bad or don’t have enough
tanks. If you do happen to run out of missiles, you’re in trouble. Use charged
plasma beam shots to stun him then hit him with one charged shot if you can
charge fast enough of just shoot him with the plasma beam a few times. If he
is weak enough, you still should be able to take him out.
Sadly, once he’s dead, we don’t get to hear any more of that snazzy music
or admire his shiny armor. Oh well. I guess every silver lining has its cloud.
UPDATE: During round two, if you have the missiles necessary, the wavebuster
can actually be fairly useful. Lock-on to Ridley, charge up the wave beam,
then fire up the wavebuster as soon as he rears up to charge you. He opens his
mouth for a brief moment before charging, and the wavebuster will target it,
stun him, then target his chest and eat away at his energy. Personally, I
think this strategy is overrated, as you will waste lots of missiles and if
you don't manage stun him with the wavebuster, you will take big damage from
his charge, and have to waste another ten missiles plus use the wavebuster
again. I'd rather play it safe, especially if you don't have much missiles.
Some people have suggested fighting him with charged plasma beam shots during
round two until he is very weak, then using the wavebuster to make sure you
don't run out, but there really is no point as you will beat him faster and
safer using missiles or super missiles, and you do not have to use the
wavebuster. It's doesn't do much damage for the amount of missiles it uses,
anyway. But if it works for you, that's great. I prefer to rapid-fire missiles
or super missiles, if you like to use something else, good for you. Do not
email me anymore about how you beat Ridley and only "lost about 1 etank usign
teh wavebuster," please?
Also, if you want to beat Ridley faster, when he's rearing up to charge,
dash to get to his side and unload a charged shot to his mouth when he opens
it for a second or so just before he charges to stun him. I like to use the
power beam because of its speed, but you can use whatever you want. If you are
good, you can quickly beat Ridley without having to worry about his charges!
If you don't manage to stun him, just dash quickly to the same side to avoid
him and run and/or jump away from his tail. Note that you will have to get a
little close to work on your timing a bit to pull this off consistently.
I received the following email from Selakha:
Hi, just wanted to point out some things regarding your Meta-Ridley FAQ for
Metroid Prime. I've a savefile just before fighting Ridley in hard mode, and
I've been experimenting quite a lot with him.
First of all, regarding
Ridley's first phase, I've found that the quickest
and easiest way of getting
rid of his wings is to use super missiles. As you
may already know, Ridley
will fly across the area 2 or 3 times bombing you,
and then he will stick up
in the sky attacking you with his breath weapon or
with the homing grenades.
You can hit him with 3 super missiles during this
time, which translates into
a lot of damage for him.
The Plasma Beam would be the second best alternative
to ground him. If you
are good with it, you can knock Ridley out of the sky in
just a little bit
more time than it takes to do so with the super missiles.
However, this
requires much more effort. Missiles are out of the equation
here, mainly
because 1 supper missile is much more powerful than 5 individual
missiles,
so you would be wasting missiles if you use regular ones instead of
super.
Regarding his second phase, where he's grounded and he starts charging
at
you, the Wavebuster can do the trick fairly well if you are having problems
dodging his charge. In Hard mode you need pretty much all 250 missiles to
kill him with the Wavebuster, so you'll have to stick with the Plasma Beam
during the first phase of the fight. Now, a lot of people waste precious
missiles when they use the Wavebuster against Ridley. Basically, what you
have to do is let loose with the Wavebuster and stop firing when he leans
back in pain. At this point, if you keep on firing the Wavebuster you'll
waste missiles because you won't be doing any damage to Ridley for 4 or 5
seconds. Just wait until he stabilizes and let loose with the Wavebuster
again. If you learn how to save your missiles, you can kill him in Hard with
around 240 of them using the Wavebuster.
Personally, though, I don't like to
use the Wavebuster at all. I preffer to
wait until he opens his mouth (either
to scream or to use his breath weapon)
to let him eat a missile, and then use
a super missile in his chest.
You can also stun Ridley when he's getting ready
to do the charge attack. If
you've noticed, when Ridley is about to do his
charge he opens his mouth for
a split second. The idea here is to strafe to
the right of him and fire a
regular missile just before he opens his mouth. If
you did this right, the
missile will fly past his hands and will land directly
in his mouth just as
he's getting ready to do the charge. He will be stunned
and now you have a
free hit against him. This tactic is a bit difficult to
master, though, so
it may not be a good strategy for someone who is fighting
Ridley for the
first time.
Well, that's all I wanted to say. Keep up the good
work.
- Selakha
Thanks, big time. :)
Also, from Katsare2phat, on dodging Ridley's bombing run/kinetic breath weapon:
"Hello. You have a great FAQ, but I noticed that a strategy that I used A LOT
in this fight was not in it at all (or so I could tell). It's minor, but it's
easy and saves you about 1 energy tank at the most.
Anyway, the strategy is that while Meta-Ridley does a bombing run, what you
should do is:
1. When he flies away, move to the center of the arena but don't let go of your
lock-on.
2. He should now be flying back-- don't move yet.
3. When he is about one arena-length from the edge of the arena, do a
double-dash to the left
(or right; it doesn't matter).
4. He should now have passed you.
5. Continue dashing-- but go the other way from the first time.
6. Because Meta-Ridley is behind you, you turned around, so this should take
you even further away from the center of the arena.
7. Laugh madly at Meta-Ridley and how he could not get you no matter how hard
he tried.
NOTES:
-I have not tried this on Hard mode yet (I'm only getting the Thermal Visor at
the moment).
-When he uses his breath attack on a bombing run, the technique above usually
works but I can't guarantee it.
-I realize this is very minor, so I don't expect it to be put up on your FAQ.
But it would be nice if it got on there. =)
-Thanks for looking at this!"
Another thank-you. ^_^
::MISCELLANEOUS INFO::
-The wavebuster will bring Ridley down super fast if you have missiles to
blow. It just wastes missiles in round two, though, as you will hardly be able
to hit him with it after stunning him and charging to fire it, and, being a
sustained-fire weapon, it will hardly do any damage at all.
-You fight Meta Ridley BEFORE the Omega Pirate?! You can collect all but the
Artifact of Newborn with ease before fighting Omega. The Artifact of Newborn
is in the Phazon-coated Maintenance Tunnel (I think, correct me if I’m wrong)
in the Phazon Mines. Obviously, since you haven’t beaten the Omega Pirate you
don’t have the Phazon suit, so the blue gloop will hurt you. I’m not sure
about hard, but it doesn’t do too much damage on normal I’m guessing if you
collect all the energy tanks possible before fighting the Omega Pirate (that’d
be all but one, so you will have a lot of energy) and get in there with close
to full energy, you could nab the Artifact and get outta there without too
much trouble. I have yet to check this out though, so if you can verify it,
please email me at
[email protected]. It’s odd, I know. O_o
UPDATE: Several people have confirmed this. So I guess it's possible to beat
the game without ever beating the Omega Pirate and obtaining the Phazon suit.
Oh wait, you need the Phazon Beam to kill Metroid Prime. Nevermind . . .
-If you are battling Meta Ridley on a low percentage game (below 35%), you
will have to rely heavily on charged plasma shots. Save what few missiles you
have for round two. Stun him with a charged power beam shot instead of a
missile, then use the missiles on him. The rapid-fire missiles trick is even
more important here. Other than maybe Metroid Prime itself, Ridley is
definitely the toughest boss here, especially if you are insane enough to try
this on hard. ^_^;;
From G A B B A:
"Hey Zero IX,
I read your FAQ about beating Meta Ridley and i notcied that you/nobody
mentioned a simple tactic about avoiding Ridley when he dives.
-Using the morph ball+holding B to Boost out of the way.
what i did was stay to the left (or right) of the arena and when he came
close (from a dive) i would boost right and his beem/bombs would easily
avoid me.
i know it's not really hard to avoid him anyway just thought i'd bring it to
your attention"
That should help as well, too.
From Farmboy:
"Hiya,
Nice FAQ, but there's a tactic you can use against this tough boss that I
found to be missing in your guide. It's darned useful, so I hope you'll put
it in.
It's also very simple: DO NOT use the Plasma Beam when fighting Ripley's
first form (ie. when he's still winged.) The reason is, most attacks of the
first form are reasonably easy to avoid and Ripley's still more easily
hit -- but using Plasma will burn off his wings much earlier on, forcing you
to face his second, much harder form when he still has lots of energy left.
My advice is to use the Power Beam and (Super) Missiles instead.
If you refrain from using the Plasma beam until the second form, Ridley's
wings will burn off much later, when he has less than 15% of his energy
left. The final form will still be tough as nails (you can use Plasma now,
of course, once your missiles start running out), but the fight will be far
shorter. I can reach this phase every time with 2 tanks of damage at the
very most (on normal.)"
Well, there's another way to do it if you have problems with round two.
If you have anything you want to add, email me.
::SPECIAL THANKS::
CjayC: For GameFAQs, of course. It’s only my favorite site on the net . . .
Retro Studios and Nintendo: For the wonder that is Metroid Prime.
GameFAQs Metroid Prime Message Board: For many helpful tips.
marshmallow: For his many helpful FAQs, for this game and others.
Bryan Cohen: For some useful tips and corrections. I needed those. :)
Selakha: For several very useful suggestions. Big thanks. ^_^
Katsare2phat: For an extra strat.
G A B B A: A tip on avoiding Ridley's dives.
pidey and Farmboy: An alternate weapon suggestion.
God: Take a good guess. :p
You could be added if you send me any interesting or useful tips as well. :)
::CONTACT ME::
Email me at
[email protected] or
[email protected],
minus the NOSPAM, of course. My AIM name is NeoRidley X, but I will NOT chat
with you or get social, so use that as a last resort only, if you can’t
seem to contact me normally or something.
::DISCLAIMER::
Just in case you missed it the first time around:
This FAQ is for personal use only. It may not be used for personal gain
in any way, shape, or form. You may spread it wherever you want without
bothering to tell me (although that would be nice) so long as it remains
UNALTERED and UNEDITED.
