Omega Ridley

Omega Ridley is Meta Ridley infused with Phazon; this infusion has increased his incredible power to far greater heights. He serves as the guardian of the Leviathan Seed on the Pirate Homeworld and is the antepenultimate boss in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Biography

Following his severe loss against Samus Aran during the failed invasion of Norion, Meta Ridley manages to arrive at the Pirate Homeworld (either on his own or with the aid of his fellow Space Pirates), where he is exposed to the present Leviathan's Phazon Core. The process energizes him to a new combat threat level.

Omega Ridley has a very durable Phazon-enhanced armorskin and protective armored plating. However, he has an injury from his fall on Norion that has yet to fully heal; it is located in his chest, similar to the weak point he possessed as Meta Ridley in the first Metroid Prime game. He will try to protect this injury, requiring Samus to stun him and leave the injury open for strong attacks.^[1] After an extensive battle, the Bounty Hunter defeats Omega Ridley, causing him to release a cloud of Phazon as he mysteriously vanishes from the Leviathan core.

Compared to his previous form, Omega Ridley has noticeably fewer mechanical components, with the remaining machinery seemingly being pushed outward by his regenerative, organic body; this may be attributed to the healing properties of Phazon. Sometime after his encounter with Samus on the Pirate Homeworld, he regenerates enough tissue to shed additional cybernetic implants and becomes Proteus Ridley.

Battle

Initially, Samus must stun Omega Ridley by firing at his mouth while it is open and glowing (in midair or ground level, the former resulting in him falling to the ground). She can then use the Grapple Lasso to rip open Omega Ridley's armor and overload his heart with Phazon energy. Alternatively, she can drain Omega Ridley's energy using the Grapple Voltage, which turns out to be to her advantage, as it allows her to replenish energy expended by attacking with Hypermode attacks. When his weak point is being damaged, Omega Ridley attempts to turn and move away from Samus, but will renew his offensive when his armor inevitably reseals itself.

After this process has been repeated a number of times, Omega Ridley's armor will be completely destroyed. In response, Omega Ridley will back up and generate a new piece of Phazite armor. This time, the X-Ray Visor must be used in conjunction with the Nova Beam to penetrate the Phazite armor, either by striking his wound directly or by weakening the armor's hinges and destroying it (the latter method is preferred, since the wound receives very little damage at this point). Apart from the change in targets, the method of attack is unaltered: stun the boss and attack the weak points.

After this phase, Omega Ridley will give up on protecting his weakness, taking to the air with his wound exposed. He constantly flies in and out of the Leviathan, reappearing randomly from one of four different entrances, and launching an attack before fleeing once more. At this stage, the injury is difficult to target (although watching the radar may help predict where Ridley will approach from), but Samus is free to fire at will with Phazon attacks. It is recommended to enter and exit Hypermode when Ridley appears and leaves the arena in order to conserve energy. After a few hit-and-run tactics, Omega Ridley may decide to resume his ground-based assault for a time, which provides Samus a prime opportunity to finish him off.

The Screw Attack is one of Samus's most helpful abilities in this battle. Performing the Screw Attack toward Omega Ridley will cancel whatever move he is attempting to execute, as he will instead jump out of the way to avoid being rammed by the attack, even if Samus is nowhere near him. Since several of his attacks are either difficult to dodge or simply waste time by rendering him temporarily invincible, the ability to control his movement pattern can be a great boon in this battle. Omega Ridley may still counterattack, however, by using his stomping shockwave or by trying to bite Samus if she is too close, so it may be advisable to only use the Screw Attack without performing any additional jumps to regain control over Samus's movement as quickly as possible.

Samus receives the Hyper Grapple after defeating Omega Ridley, who disappears in a massive flash of Phazon after the battle. Much of the gaseous Phazon is absorbed in to Samus's PED Suit, causing her corruption level to rise to 75%.

Attacks

After being infused with Phazon, Omega Ridley's abilities have been greatly augmented. His attacks include:

• A massive line of plasma and flame from his Kinetic Breath Weapon, sweeping from one side to the other. During the third phase, Ridley may sweep the stream from side-to-side and then back again.
• A large blast of Phazon from his tail (this is used when Samus is relatively close to his rear).
• Spinning in place while firing both of the above attacks at once.
• Large and small fireballs. The large fireballs travel in a straight line at high speed and cannot be destroyed, while the small ones are slow, but can home in on Samus. The latter are also shot out in groups and can be destroyed, similar to Ridley's fireballs in Metroid: Zero Mission. During the third phase, Omega Ridley can shoot massive quantities of small homing fireballs at once and can shoot two or three large fireballs in succession.
• A relatively fast charge while engulfed in purple aura. This is telegraphed by Omega Ridley opening his wings and turning his head to one side. It is similar to the Wing Blitz. In the third phase of the battle, he will perform this three times in succession if not interrupted.
• A claw slash covered with a Phazon blade (identical to one of the Omega Pirate's attacks).
• A shockwave attack similar to the Ultrathermal Flamestrike Projector, telegraphed by Omega Ridley jumping and hovering over the center of the room for a moment. Shooting Omega Ridley in the mouth when he jumps will instantly send him to the ground in a stunned state.
• Another shockwave that produces an electrical cage-like structure via destructible Phazon orbs during the second phase. Destroying one orb will remove several parts of this electrical cage, providing openings for Samus to slip in and avoid damage. Destroying both orbs will instantly stun Omega Ridley.
• Pounding Samus with one hand.
• Biting Samus if she is too close. This can cost her an entire Energy Tank on higher difficulty modes.
• Meson Bomb Launcher: Carpet-bombing the entire area. This attack is only done in flight.

Initially, Omega Ridley will mainly attack with his fireballs and Kinetic Breath Weapon, using his shockwave and charge attacks periodically. When the second phase begins, he adds the spinning breath/tail attack and the Phazon orb shockwave to his repertoire, in addition to using his charge and shockwave attacks more frequently. After losing his second set of armor, the Space Pirate commander will alternate between flight and ground phases. By then, Omega Ridley will be noticeably more aggressive and will constantly attempt to close in on Samus by running and/or leaping towards her. While he can still be stunned in the final phase of the battle, he will now clumsily walk and perform small jumps to reach Samus and proceed to swipe his claws at her, rendering it more difficult to aim for his heart.

Official data

Logbook entry

Omega Ridley

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Temporary scan

Morphology: Omega Ridley
Armored plating protects body.
Fires plasma attacks from mouth.

Logbook entry

Revived and regenerated through Phazon exposure, Omega Ridley has been energized to a new combat threat level. Target retains extremely durable, Phazon-enhanced armorskin, as well as protective armored plating. Scans indicate that a recent injury has not fully healed: expose and target wound to inflict damage. Target will act to protect this vulnerability: seek ways to stun the enemy and leave it open for deadly attacks.

Omega Ridley (stunned)

"Target is temporarily stunned. Protective chest armor appears as if it could be pulled open."

Omega Ridley (chest armor open)

"Armor has been pulled open. Cardiac region is now exposed. Vulnerable to Phazon energy."

Omega Ridley (armored)

"Phazite armor is now covering cardiac region. Armor is invulnerable, but internal joints seem weak."

Omega Ridley (armor destroyed)

"Armor has been destroyed. Cardiac region is now exposed. Vulnerable to Phazon energy."

Other appearances

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

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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.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Omega Ridley appears as a Legend class Primary Spirit. He is an Attack type, which gives him advantage against Grab types and disadvantage against Shield types, and provides two support slots. Additionally, Omega Ridley comes with the Weight ↑ trait, which decreases the user's movement speed while making them more difficult to launch.

In World of Light, Omega Ridley can be found in the Dark Realm, specifically in the giant clockworks area near Dracula's Castle. He can also be randomly encountered on the Spirit Board. As a Spirit, Omega Ridley uses Meta Ridley as a Puppet Fighter. For the entire Spirit Battle, Meta Ridley has the Metal and Spicy Curry effects, making him incredibly durable while constantly breathing fire. He is fought on the Norfair stage, with Vs. Meta Ridley as the background music. Meta Ridley must be defeated in a stamina battle, where he has 180 units of health.

In addition, the Aparoid spirit, found on the Light Realm in the space map, utilizes Ridley in his Metal form as its puppet fighter, which aside from referencing Aparoidetation from Star Fox Assault was most likely an indirect reference to Omega Ridley and his being made into a guardian for the Leviathan Core on the Pirate Homeworld.

Omega Ridley appeared more frequently on the Spirit Board during the "Kings & Queens of the Sky" event. As a Legend-class Spirit, Omega Ridley would appear at 08:00 and 20:00 each day of the event, in addition to randomly appearing throughout the weekend. During this event, defeating Omega Ridley in Spirit Battles would reward extra Spirit Points.^[2]

Additionally, Omega Ridley is briefly mentioned by Palutena while discussing Ridley's various forms in Palutena's Guidance.

Development notes

Omega Ridley's concept art much more closely resembles Meta Ridley's appearance in Corruption (with organic blue armor and glowing veins), while his final in-game model has more in common with Meta Ridley's original appearance in Metroid Prime (with distinct silver cybernetic components and some exposed purple flesh). Furthermore, beta footage of the introduction cutscene to Omega Ridley's boss battle features the model of Meta Ridley (as seen during the battle on Norion) in his place, fighting Samus equipped with her standard Varia Suit instead of the corrupted PED Suit with the Hazard Shield. Similarly, a Corruption promotional render for Meta Ridley depicts his original Metroid Prime design rather than his Corruption redesign.

While unconfirmed, it is possible that the Corruption designs of Meta Ridley and Omega Ridley were switched for unknown reasons during the game's development, and the use of the final Meta Ridley model in this beta footage may support this hypothesis. However, in the final game, Omega Ridley's boss battle revolves around his chestplate animations and model groups (Phazite armor and Phazon fungus) that do not exist on Meta Ridley's model, suggesting significant modifications during the development of the boss fight if these designs were indeed switched.

Meta Ridley and Omega Ridley's respective sizes are scaled differently in Corruption, making Omega Ridley appear smaller than Meta Ridley.

The cutscene of Omega Ridley's defeat was animated by Vince Joly.

Trivia

• Omega Ridley is the only enemy in the Prime series to be displayed in the Heads-Up Display's Radar as a full-scale silhouette. His silhouette is composed of several blips. All other enemies (even Meta Ridley, both in the first Prime and the beginning of Corruption) merely appear as one blip.
• There is a glitch that causes Omega Ridley to become stuck in the wall when he performs his tackle attack, rendering him unable to move. If this happens, the battle cannot continue and the game must be reloaded.
• This battle is similar to that of Meta Ridley in Metroid Prime, as he uses many of the same moves and even shares the same weak point. In an inversion of the original battle, Omega Ridley starts flying around the battlefield when he is at about a quarter of his health, whereas he is airborne for the first three quarters of his health in Prime. However, despite this form being treated in-universe as more powerful than Meta Ridley, he is relatively sluggish compared to his previous Meta Ridley battle.
• Omega Ridley's fate is a source of debate, due to Ridley's returns in future games in the Metroid timeline. In the cutscene upon his defeat, Omega Ridley glows intensely and curls up before being consumed in an explosion of Phazon. Further alluding to his death is the appearance of the Hyper Grapple, as previousbossesthatcarriedpower-ups died in order to yield their prize. However, unlike his fellow Leviathan Seed guardians, Omega Ridley is not explicitly seen disintegrating onscreen; as his model appears to collapse, the scene cuts to Samus reeling from the explosion. If Omega Ridley's defeat is meant to be interpreted as him perishing, then the circumstances of his returns in Metroid: Samus Returns and Super Metroid would be perplexing.
  • One argument is that Ridley has already been depicted exploding in Metroid: Zero Mission, the remake of the first game. His survival through such destruction may be attributed to his ability to regenerate, a trait primarily demonstrated in the prequel manga. The full extent and limits of his regeneration are unknown.
  • The Japanese version of Metroid Prime 3 offers another explanation: the scan data for Meta Ridley on Norion describes him as a separate individual from the Ridley fought on Tallon IV in Metroid Prime, who is also revived by the Space Pirates,^[3] and the scan data for Omega Ridley describes him as the same individual from Norion. However, since this information is only present in the Japanese version, it is unknown if it is actually canon to the series.
  • Another argument is that the enemies defeated counter in Samus Gunship does not increase once she defeats Meta Ridley and Omega Ridley, unlike it does with any other enemy defeated in the game.

Gallery

Concept art

Concept art

Concept art

Concept art

Omega Ridley roars at Samus

Omega Ridley

Omega Ridley's model

Omega Ridley's model

References