Suicide strike

"Looks like a pile of rags..."

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A suicide strike is a final attack used by Flying Pirates, Aqua Pirates, and Pirate Aerotroopers during the Metroid Prime series.

Space Pirates (with one apparent exception) live by a "death-before-dishonor" mantra, and would rather die than be captured or fail in their mission. If sufficiently damaged, they will initiate a strike wherein they launch themselves in a spiral at their targets in the hopes of killing them, at the cost of killing themselves in the process. Samus Aran will receive severe damage if she is hit by a suicide strike, and must either strafe or dash out of the way, or destroy the Pirate before it contacts her.

Using ice, fire, or Phazon-based weaponry, however, will allow Samus to destroy an Aerotrooper before it can strike her. Charged Plasma Beam shots are effective in particular in that they incinerate the Pirates, causing them to dissolve into ash with a piercing shriek. Similarly, using the Wave Beam or Wavebuster will have the Aqua Pirate remain motionless and then harmlessly explode without even commencing the attack, presumably due to the complete shutdown of their equipment, whereas freezing a Flying Pirate or Aerotrooper with the Ice Beam, Ice Missiles, or the Entangler allows them to be destroyed with a regular Missile or charged shots. In Prime, a suicide strike can deliver roughly 30 units of damage (on Hard Mode, using the basic Power Suit).

In Metroid Prime: Federation Force, suicide strikes are much slower and Flying Pirates that perform this attack can be shot down with Charge Shots or Missiles before impact. The jet packs of a Flying Pirate can be targeted and destroyed, causing them to fall to the ground as a standard Pirate. Alternatively, if the jet packs are destroyed while the Pirate is above a chasm, the Pirate will then fall to its death. Both methods allow for the dispatching of Flying Pirates without them initiating a suicide strike.

Trivia

• In Echoes, when a Pirate Aerotrooper commences a suicide strike, the Pirate appears to be invulnerable until crashing. Firing weapons at it will still cause the creature to scream, despite not receiving any more damage at this point. This is easily noticeable in the Torvus Temple, due to its large open layout.
• On the Hard Mode/Hypermode difficulties of Prime and Echoes, if the Pirate is hit with a Super Missile, that Pirate will instantly commence with its suicide strike. On lower difficulty modes, the Pirate will simply explode in midair.