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After a long journey through ice and pitch-black corridors, you’re nearly done with thePhendrana Drifts region. As you enter the Quarantine Cave, you’ll see a big pile of rocks in the center. Meet Thardus, the final boss of Phendrana Drifts. This is one ofMetroid Prime’sfull-scale boss battles and will be no easy feat.
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You’ll want to use the most recenttools and upgradesyou’ve earned in this region: the thermal visor, the wave beam, and super missiles. You’re going to test them out by blowing Thardus apart piece by piece. Here’s how to do it and unlock the next upgrade.
How To Damage Thardus
Once he stands up and starts attacking, you may notice you can’t seem to lock on to him.Scan him with your visor, and it’ll tell you it can’t get a lock on with the current visor but that there is radiation coming off of him, and “another visor” may work that way. That’s your clue toswitch to the thermal visor to lock on.
Use the thermal visor tofind the radiating rock, lock on, and start shooting. When the outer shell explodes,your thermal visor will be overloaded with radiation,and you’ll need toswitch back to your combat visor.Do it quickly because exposing the core doesn’t do much to slow him down.
Now that the core is exposed, you canlock on with your combat visor,switch to your power beam, andobliterate it with a super missile.That’s one rock down. Switch back to your thermal visor so you’re able to find the next rock to lock on to and repeat the process. You won’t have to smash every single boulder that makes up Thardus, but you willliterally take him down boulder by boulderuntil his huge chest boulder is vulnerable. Use the same tactic for that one, and he’s down for good.
Although you don’t specifically have to use the wave beam and super missile for those purposes, they do help. The wave beam is more powerful and has some homing capabilities, and the super missile can blow up one of those rocks in a single shot, so it’s recommended. That said, if switching beams with the modern controls is giving you trouble, it may be easier tokeep hitting it with the wave beam or even the power beam if you’re big on rapid-fire.
Attacks To Watch For
Next, he’ll pull boulders from the ground and throw them at you. Apart fromdodging themto survive, you’re able to lock on andblast them quickly to get health and missile refills.
When Thardus starts rolling around, it’s difficult to keep the weak spot in lock, but you can still hit it. Justmake sure you’re not getting rolled over,or you’ll take a lot of damage.
Jumping can make it harder to get out of the way, and an unreliable lock-on means even the dodge is hampered in this form, sofocus on maneuvering around him.With classic controls, it helps to move backward and keep him in view. With modern controls, it’s much easier because you can strafe out of the way.
When he returns to a stationary posture,keep an eye on his fistsbecause he’ll bring them down hard and cause a freezing wave.Dodge at the right time, or you’ll end up frozen, your charged beam negated, and you’ll have tohammer the jump buttonto get out as quickly as possible.
When you see him stand up and roar at the sky, that’s your sign that he’s going tobring a barrage of lightning down, so keep your distance. When he starts attacking again,the air will get foggyand hard to see through. However,the thermal visor sees right through it, so switch it on to dodge his rolling attacks more easily.
Reap The Rewards
Defeat him, and youunlock the Spider Ball,which allows you to cling to those tracks all over the room and leave the area. Spider-rollaround the Quarantine Cave ceiling to a doorway you couldn’t access before,and you’ll find the elevator to Magmoor Caverns South. If you take the elevator, you can cross through theTwin Fires Tunnelusing the spider ball track that runs the length of the room.
You can alsobacktrack and grab several missile expansionsin rooms that you can now have access to.
