<|||Metroid Prime 2 – ECHOES|||> The In-Depth Guide To: ARM CANNON BEAMS By: Dimcity *** Please send some more suggestions everyone! These are the only ideas I have in mind for Beam Usage, so please send in some more ideas. As for the errors, you can notify me on that but I would prefer suggestions. The Table of Contents 1a. Legal Stuff 1b. Contact Information 1c. Simple Description of the FAQ 1d. Version History 2a. Beam Descriptions 2b. Effective Beam Strategies (In General) 2c. Ammo Consumption Help 3a. Power Beam Strategies 3b. Dark Beam Strategies 3c. Light Beam Strategies 3d. Annihilator Beam Strategies 3e. Best Uses of Each Beam 4a. Charge Combo Description 4b. Super-Missile Strategies 4c. Darkburst Strategies 4d. Sunburst Strategies 4e. Sonicboom Strategies 5. Which Beam for Which Boss? 6a. Missiles Information 6b. Seeker Missiles 6c. Best Uses of Missiles 7a. Thanks 7b. Crediting Information ~ 1a. The Legal Stuff ~ Now, I know that this is just a small FAQ on Beam Usage for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, but even if anyone happens to want to use any of its information, PLEASE CONTACT ME ANYWAYS. Remember, these are all personal strategies, and all information comes from methods I utilise in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes’ game play. Just E-mail me: theliver_isevil@hotmail.com. If you have MSN Messenger, you can add me and talk to me. Make sure if you are contacting me that you put your subject as ‘FAQ’ or ‘MP2 FAQ’, or anything along the lines of those. ~ 1b. Contact Information ~ E-mail: theliver_isevil@hotmail.com. I also have MSN Messenger. If you have a question, just E-mail or talk to me through the messenger. And if you have a better way of using the beam’s, if it’s an effective way, I’ll add your method and add you to the crediting information. I also accept criticism, as long as it’s constructive enough to empower this FAQ! ~ 1c. Description ~ This Beam FAQ will show the best ways to use your four beam weapons, the best places to use them, and when to use their super-power Charge Combos. I’ve also included a section that includes which boss they are most effective against and why. There’s also a short section on missiles. ~ 1d. Version History ~ 1.0 > The birth of my guide. 1.1 > Fixed a few typos, added a variation to Freeze and Destroy in the Dark Beam strategies section. Also added a few explanations on Section 5: ‘Which Beam for Which Boss?’ 1.2 > Fixed a stupid Missile mistake. Also added a few explanations on Section 5: ‘Which Beam for Which Boss?’ ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~ 2a. Beam Descriptions THE POWER BEAM Classic Samus-Aran alien ass-kicker since the beginnings of her bounty-hunting. For each and every game it’s been in, it’s always been that last resort extremely high rate of fire beam that never goes wrong! The Power Beam has unlimited ammo, and a charged shot will fire a big burst of energy. It’s a quick charge which is very effective and does a bit of damage. Damage – Very Low Rate of Fire – 6 to 7 Power Beam shots per second (or Very High) Opens – Only Blue Doors. Dark/Light Attributes – Works effectively in both worlds but does not provide extra damage. Destroyed Boxes/Stationary Life-providing Organisms – Drop out energy units. Ammo – N/A THE DARK BEAM For such a heavy-duty gun the Dark Beam shoots quite swiftly with a nice little swish sound every time you shoot, releasing a flying purple unit, shaped like 3 waves connected at their ends. For the MP1 players this beam is pretty much a beefed up version of the Ice Beam – purple looks better and the rate of fire is faster. A more reliable weapon when it comes to ammunition. If you run out of Dark Ammunition, you may charge the Dark Beam to fire a standard shot. A charged Dark Beam (while you have ammunition) will fire a small ball of dark energy that will entangle all enemies near it or hit by it and freeze them for a certain amount of time. This is very effective against speedy enemies, even though it may be hard to hit them. Damage – Very High (Low against Dark Creatures) Rate of Fire – 1.5 to 3 Dark Beam shots per second (or Slow).* Opens – Blue Doors and Black Doors (according to the map). Dark/Light Attributes – Many people think the Dark Beam actually does extra damage to normal Aether creatures but in fact it’s not very significant. It does do less damage to Dark Aether creatures however. The Dark Beam also nullifies Safe Zone crystals and beacons (I don’t know why you would really want to, but it looks pretty cool). Destroyed Boxes/Stationary Life-providing Organisms – Drop out Light Beam ammunition. Ammo – Dark Beam ammunition (obtained through Light Beam/Annihilator Beam destroyed objects) *The reason why the amount of shots/second is so varied is because the Dark Beam has a very bizarre metronome feature. If you happen to press A consistently the Dark Beam will fire at least 3 shots per second, but if you bash A, you can end up with a slow rate of fire. It is quite hard to explain, but you will get it if you test bashing A and pressing A consistently. THE LIGHT BEAM If anyone remembers Metroid Prime, the Light Beam is very much like a Plasma Beam that looks like the Wave Beam. The Light Beam shoots a stream of short- ranged light energy that travels in one direction, piercing through any enemies it may hit. The thing about the Light Beam is that if you really want to use it for non-Dark Aether uses such as hitting multiple enemies in a line, it takes a lot of practice and skill. It is worth it though. The Light Beam uses Light ammunition, and like the Dark and Annihilator Beams can charge a shot if you run out to shoot a standard stream of light energy. It can also burn enemies on some rare occasions. A charged Light Beam will shoot five super-powered units of light, which is very powerful. Against large enemies, all five of these units can hit at once. Damage – Moderately High Rate of Fire – 1.5 to 2 Light Beam shots per second (or Very Slow). Opens – Blue Doors and White Doors (according to the map). Dark/Light Attributes – The Light Beam deals extra damage to Darkling creatures and Ing creatures, which makes it very effective in Dark Aether. It can also lighten up nullified Safe Zone crystals or beacons, and can energize them so that Dark Aether creature will be damaged when they touch the Safe Zone. Destroyed Boxes/Stationary Life-providing Organisms – Drop out Dark Beam ammunition. Ammo – Light Beam ammunition (obtained through Dark Beam/Annihilator Beam destroyed objects) THE ANNIHILATOR BEAM The most unique beam ever added to a Metroid game. The Annihilator beam has a rate of fire as fast as the Power Beam, and is _almost_ as powerful as a Light or Dark Beam. It also has a homing attribute, which means for non-lockable enemies (such as an ‘about-to-mess-up-your-system’ Aezbit) it’s very useful. Many people think the Annihilator Beam (I’ll call it the Anni beam) is as powerful as both beams, but really the damage is not that incredibly high. And even though it fires very quickly it certainly won’t last long, even with 250 Ammo. The Annihilator Beam uses both Light and Dark Ammo, which means it costs one of both for each shot. If you run out of one type of ammo (let’s say 50 Light/0 Dark) then you MAY NOT FIRE without charging for a standard shot. Fortunately destroyed objects will drop out tons of light AND dark ammo, which is incredibly useful. The Anni Beam can also super-energize Safe Zone crystals and beacons, making them not only destroy Dark creatures, but actually lure them into the Safe Zone. A charged Anni Beam will fire out a Sonic Blast. This is basically just a large blast which damages all enemies in the area with massive damage. Damage – Average Rate of Fire – 5.5 to 6.5 shots per second (or Fast) Opens – Blue Doors and Gray Doors (according to the map). Dark/Light Attributes – Works perfectly well versus both types of creatures. Dispatches the weaker enemies in Light Aether quickly and lights up Safe Zone crystals in Dark Aether to aid you in your battles. Destroyed Boxes/Stationary Life-providing Organisms – Drop Light and Dark ammunition. *The Annihilator Beam is also used for some Sonic Door puzzles (using the Echo Visor to correspond the correct sounds according to what the door’s sequence is) ~ 2b. Effective Beam Strategies (In General) ~ Here are some strategies you can use with any beam, depending on their rate of fire and their power. STRAFING When Strafing, obviously you are going to have a locked target, right? So remember to check around you first to see if there are any other threats, and then you can focus on your locked target, regardless of any incoming smaller minions. Always strafe, even if the space is small, you’re pretty much dead, or if you’re in Dark Aether without the Dark Suit. It will save your life multiple times. If you are aware of your surroundings and the geography of the area, you can even strafe but defensively side-jump to a platform that can lead to the next room you need to go through. BUTTON-MASHING For the Power Beam, this and strafing is the only method you should be doing. This is also very effective with the Dark and Light beams. Even though they require ammo, they have a slow rate of fire which allows you to sort of pay attention to your ammo. For the Anni Beam, DO NOT BUTTON MASH. Look at your enemy, see if it has a guard, and see if firing Anni shots one after the other is effective against your enemy or not. You can end up wasting over 20 Light and Dark ammo if you are not careful, and believe me, you will be in a tricky situation if you end up with zero ammo. Especially against the last few bosses! In conclusion, the Light and Dark beams shouldn’t worry about button-mashing. But with the Anni beam, be logical. Please. If you’re fighting the Emperor Ing or something then fine, you might be in a bit of an ‘OH MY GOSH’ state and end up using too much ammo. But if you know what you’re doing, button-mashing is for different situations. NO MORE AMMO! Run out of ammo? The best strategy is to either fire charged Anni shots at boxes or stationary objects, or in a boss’s case fire them at the minions. When you’ve run out of ammo, the game seems to know that you have run out of ammo which means destroyed objects will release over 40 or 50 units of Light and Dark ammunition. If you’re fighting a tough enemy, don’t be afraid to release your auto-lock on them and quickly run off to get some more ammo. It’ll be worth it when you do. ~ 2c. Ammo Consumption Help ~ Until you get the Anni beam, obtaining ammunition is difficult. Especially the fact that it’s hard to find the expansions. So obviously the first thing you’ll think of is to get one type of ammo by using the opposite beam, and then using the new ammo you got to retain the ammo for the beam you used before (confusing, eh?). This way is sort of effective, but trust me it will really get on your nerves. You could find an ammo station in the Dark Aether areas. But seriously, who has the time (or who wants to for that matter) to backtrack all the way to an ammo station when you’re just going to use it again? This is a question asked by many MP2 players. YOU SHOULD! If you managed to reach there with ease anyways, then why can’t you save some ammo going back to where you initially were? If you can save your ammo until you reach where you were, it is definitely worth it. Check the Beam Strategies section if you want to know how to battle and use ammo effectively. ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~ ~ 3a. Power Beam Strategies ~ QUICK SWEEP Quick sweeping is to destroy a cluster of weak enemies quickly. The Power Beam is obviously the best to use versus War Wasps or Crawlings. To execute, obviously keep bashing A, but also keep bashing L so you can quickly lock-on to different targets quickly. In some cases enemies such as Sandbats will fly in a certain pattern (such as orbiting a certain object). It’s best to fire in one spot rather than auto-lock, as when you start bashing A all the enemies flying through the target you are firing at (blindly) will be destroyed. FIRE AND CHARGE This is a strategy most often used versus the tougher enemies. The deal is to fire like crazy at an enemy (such as a Warrior Ing) and then release a charged shot. This strategy requires a lot of strafing, as you want to get the charged shot in as quickly as possible. LAST RESORT/PANIC FIRE If you’re in a sticky situation (ex. You’ve got no ammo and there’s no way to re-supply fast enough) then this is basically when you switch to the power beam and bash A in panic. This may sound quite stupid, but it’s not a joke! Naturally you’ll want to dispatch your enemies as soon as possible, so the Power Beam will probably be the first idea to reach your head. ~ 3b. Dark Beam Strategies ~ DARK PUMMELLING Pummelling, or constantly hitting, enemies with this strategy is a lot like button-bashing, but is more effective if you’re against the faster enemies. Note that this depletes your ammo very quickly. This strategy is very useful, however, if you have a very low maximum ammo capacity and don’t want to entrap the enemy. It’s quite effective against Space Pirates and the Chykka boss, too. FREEZE AND DESTROY A simple charged Dark Beam shot and then mashing A like there’s no tomorrow. It’s effective but very costly. Unless you have light beam ammo to back you up when you need Dark ammo or an Anni beam, then be careful that you don’t run out too quickly. This is extremely useful against speedy or flying enemies as it gives you time to fire accurate shots. “The thing I do differently is after blasting an enemy with an Entangler shot, I blast them with missiles. That'll shatter them but good.” ~ Pauldhobby This was an idea of Pauldhobby – and believe me it’s effective and great fun! Hehe... I reckon it’s actually a lot better than destroying with your Dark Beam, and I bet it fairs well against Pirate Commandos. Thanks! FREEZE AND RUN A charged Dark Beam shot on a quick or strong enemy then running. Not recommended if you want to have fun. ~ 3c. Light Beam Strategies ~ HEATWAVE Never mind the cheesy name I like to call it! This is shooting enemies with your Light Beam until they’re engulfed with flames. This is more of a strategy used versus the tough enemies, such Dark Pirate Commandos, Ing Hunters, or Warrior Ing. After they’re on fire, you can either wait till they die. If you’re fighting Pirate Commandos then keep shooting as the fire won’t exactly kill them. This has low ammo consumption and is easy to execute. PIERCING SWEEP You know how the Light Beam pierces? Well this is basically getting your enemies up in a line to pierce them. As it’s a sweep, this is obviously more of a strategy versus weaker enemies. This takes a lot of practice to master as it is quite difficult to line up enemies (War Wasps for example). If you can master it, it saves a lot of time and ammo. See, if you can’t sweep with the Light Beam, then you’re making use of its slow rate of fire disadvantage. CRITICAL SWEEP This strategy should be used either against clusters of small enemies or packs of Dark Aether enemies. Just fire a charged shot BLINDLY at a group of enemies. It would be a better idea to get used to firing Light Beam charged shots first so you can get an idea of the area the five shots cover. FINISHING BLOW This technique should be used against large enemies, no matter their toughness. This is basically when you fire a charged shot from the Light Beam onto a large enemy so that all five shots will strike them. ~ 3d. Annihilator Beam Strategies ~ SAFE SHOTS This is a strategy used to dispatch of any smaller targets that get in your way. If you run into Shriekbats (the hanging dive-bombers) and you don’t want to aim directly with your Power Beam, then this is when you fire nowhere and the homing shots will kill them. Safe shots are also used against any incoming threats coming your way. Some examples are boss minions – the second phase of the Ing Emperor will shoot small particles at you which you may want to get rid of by firing the Anni beam. The homing will target them instead of the emperor, which means you will be safe again after they’re gone. REPEATED FIRE (NO MERCY) This is actually button bashing, but what you mainly want on your mind is to get rid of the target as soon as possible. Targets such as Pirates are easily killed with repeated fire and even though it consumes a lot of ammo, it gets the job done. Repeated fire into a large pack of enemies is extremely effective also (blindly). You may think this is related to Safe Shooting, but it’s not as this is more direct and offensive. GEDDON SWEEP Geddon is short for Armageddon, but it feels too superior and glorious to put such a name. Geddon Sweep’s are against multiple tough enemies, or spread out packs of medium-strength enemies. The strategy consists of either blindly firing like crazy OR constantly shooting charged blasts blindly. Both of these take up a TREMENDOUS amount of ammo, but will easily destroy anything that gets in your way. It is the Annihilator Beam, right? MOVE! A silly little strategy I added here. Whenever you need to reach somewhere but some enemies are in your way, this is when you fire like mad and don’t care who it hits or where it hits as long as you can reach where you want to go. :: Extra Notes On The Beams :: - Never ever fire the Light Beam at (Dark) Frozen enemies. It will unfreeze them (I’m sure you’ve sort of figured that out anyways) - Even though you may be tempted to use an Anni Beam against small packs to kill quickly, use the Power Beam as it takes up much less ammo. - Make sure you have your targets set up when using an Anni Beam strategy as the homing can be re-directed to a random target far away, and the target in front of you can harm you. - Try and get used to firing blindly with the Light Beam. It’s piercing abilities and charged shot are very useful if you can manually kill the enemies (without auto-lock). - If you personally prefer to use the Anni Beam almost all the time, you should adapt to the other beams. You can easily be more effective with a Light Beam for example if you take the time to look at it. ~ 3e. Best Uses of Each Beam ~ Power Beam: - Eliminating small enemies quickly. - Endless supply of shots so charged shots are strong and useful against the tougher enemies. - Charged shots can stun enemies sometimes. Dark Beam: - Eliminating any type of enemy (except fast ones) - Freezing fast enemies. - Secure yourself with freezing. - High damage and low ammo consumption means less to worry about. Light Beam: - Very high damage over time. - The piercing and ember abilities that come with it do heavy damage to large packs and are killed quickly. - Dark Aether creatures are killed with ease. - Charged shots do heavy damage to a large area. Annihilator Beam: - The homing requires less auto-lock. - Average damage and extremely high rate of fire deals a tremendous amount of damage. - Generates both types of ammo to re-supply quickly when destroying objects. - The charged shot excluding Beam Combo’s is the most powerful in the game. ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~ ~ 4a. Charge Combo Description ~ Charge Combo’s are the combination of five missiles and a charged-up beam shot after pressing the button Y. They take up a huge amount of ammunition but are very effective against large packs of enemies and tough enemies. They’re slow to execute, however, and usually not that effective against many bosses. Also, two of the four charge combos are slow travelling which renders them useless vs. flying enemies or fast enemies. ~ 4b. Super-Missile Strategies ~ The Super-Missile is a combination of a charged up Power Beam shot and five missiles after pressing Y. It releases a homing missile which does a huge amount of damage against single targets. Super-Missiles can also open up Green Doors. ANTI-AIR Since the Super-Missile is homing, it can easily get rid of air enemies. It travels super fast in air also, which means it usually won’t miss your target. BOSS BASHER The Super-Missile is quick to execute with little ammo needed, so whenever a boss is vulnerable to damage for a short amount of time, the Super-Missile is a great choice. ~ 4c. Darkburst Strategies ~ The Darkburst is a combination of a charged up Dark Beam shot and five missiles after pressing Y. The Darkburst however, costs 30 Dark Ammo to execute also. It fires a large ball of darkness which travels slowly to its target, eventually sucking them into the ball dealing insane damage to it and its surroundings. TERRAINS AID Firing the Darkburst at the ground in the middle of a pack of enemies is very effective. It’ll deal damage to all enemies and in most cases will destroy them unless they have high hit points or defence. Make sure you know they won’t run out of it otherwise you’ll be wasting too much ammo. SURPRISE BURST For such a slow-moving shot, the Darkburst is hard to use against auto-locked enemies due to its sluggish speed. A good idea would be to fire it from afar; assuring you that it will hit the target you fired it at and send them into oblivion! It can also suck in any enemies near your target that you may have not seen. SUSPICION If you can’t see your targets and they start harming you, you could find any evidence of it being around you (invisibility for example) and fire a Darkburst near the area you saw their evidence. ~ 4c. Sunburst Strategies ~ The Sunburst consists of a charged up Light Beam shot and five missiles after pressing the button Y, but also costs 30 Light Ammo. The Sunburst is basically a light version of the Darkburst, but is more of an area of effect attack rather than the ‘suck you into oblivion’ feature the Darkburst has. TERRAINS AID Basically the same as the Darkburst’s Terrain Aid. The large area of effect can hit enemies in a cluster or multiple enemies. DARK HUNTING The Sunburst will easily destroy Ing creatures with ease. I suggest you use the Sunburst against Warrior Ing and Hunter Ing. Surprisingly, the Sunburst will actually damage invisible Hunter Ing! It will also harm Bloggs (the triple- mouthed water creatures) if fired in front of there face, too. If you ever happen to get stuck in an area with three or four Warrior Ing, try and lure them into one spot and Sunburst them! Sometimes I super-energise crystals, wait till the Warrior Ing reaches the crystal, de-energise it, and then Sunburst. It’s more satisfying to Sunburst enemies to death rather than Safe Zone them to death *evil laugh*. ~ 4e. Sonicboom Strategies ~ The Sonicboom consists of a charged Annihilator Beam shot and five missiles after pressing Y, but costs 30 Dark and Light Ammo. ANNIHILATING The Sonicboom has huge damage, a huge area of effect, and fires so quickly. Basically it should be used against anything that’s tough and powerful, even fast moving flyers. It is only ever so useful against bosses. TERRAINS AID Same as the Sunburst and Darkburst, but mainly for creatures near a wall I would say. It’s a bit hard to fire an area of effect combo on the ground at a distance. MOVE! 2 If an enemy is ‘in your face’ or has surprised you, Sonicboom can quickly eliminate them and make you safe again. Use with caution though. Don’t end up using this against some Crawling! It costs a lot of ammunition and you’re going to need as much ammo as you need to Sonicboom later on. ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~ ~ 5. Which Beam For Which Boss? ~ Here’s a quick list of which beam(s) are most effective against each boss, guardian, and mini boss. If there’s a combination of Beam/Other Beam, then the first one would be suggested. For example, a Light Beam/Power Beam against a dark enemy would mean that a Light Beam would be great, but a Power Beam is sufficient too. If the boss has N/A, then that means that it’s a Morph Ball boss. DARK ALPHA SPLINTER Power Beam (only beam available) MORPH BALL BOMB GUARDIAN Power Beam (only beam available) JUMP GUARDIAN Power Beam (only beam available) DARK SAMUS 1 Power Beam (only beam available) AMORBIS Light Beam Amorbis is a dark guardian, so the Light Beam will get rid of their horn shields (on their heads) in no time or will get them to attach themselves to the sphere in the middle faster. BOOST GUARDIAN Light Beam This is another dark guardian. Charged Light Beam shots works wonders on this guy. I suggest you don’t constantly fire at him as he will quickly retreat into boost ball mode again. ALPHA BLOGG Power Beam/Dark Beam I personally would use the Power Beam, as I prefer safety over dispatching enemies quickly. Super-missiles are great against this sea abomination – practice the timing a few times first, however, as the Alpha Blogg is quite powerful and is not easy to dodge after you fire a Super Missile. The Dark Beam works too but you can only get around one or two shots in, and they do a bit less damage than Super-Missiles. GRAPPLE GUARDIAN Light Beam/Power Beam The Light Beam works perfectly well at the start when he doesn’t turn around as much (ever since 3D games were made there’s always been those annoying bosses that have vulnerable back points and never turn around), but the Power Beam is much better later on if you have trouble getting his Grapple to touch a pillar. CHYKKA LARVAE Light Beam/Dark Beam The Chykka Larvae is actually a Dark and Light creature, but I find that the Light Beam works best because of its charged shot (when the Chykka surfaces onto the edge of the platform). It does massive damage and can get his tongue off you (if it caught you) very quickly. CHYKKA ADULT Dark Beam The Chykka Adult is a Light creature, so obviously the Dark Beam will do more damage. It takes a LOT of ammo to bring it down, unfortunately, so please be very careful with your ammo consumption and make sure that you don’t end up using it all. DARK CHYKKA ADULT Light Beam This Chykka Adult is Dark, so obviously a Light Beam will do the trick. Charged shots will destroy it in no time as no matter how far you are all 5 will hit the huge egg sac. SPIDER GUARDIAN N/A POWER BOMB GUARDIAN N/A DARK SAMUS 2 Light Beam The Light Beam works very well against Dark Samus 2, especially charged shots, as it can do extra damage to her much faster overtime. On paper it may look like the Dark Beam is more effective, but theoretically the Light Beam is. More damage and less ammo consumption is more effective for those short 3 or 4 second chances to damage her. QUADRAXIS Power Beam The Power Beam works best mainly because of the Super Missiles – it’ll knock down his kneepads quickly and will also dispatch of the antennae on the side of his head when he’s in the head form. ING EMPEROR Annihilator Beam/Power Beam The Annihilator Beam is the best to use here as the tentacles are constantly moving all around the place, and it’s not easy to hit them with slow beams such as the Dark or Light Beam’s. The Power Beam is mainly a secondary choice if you don’t feel like using ammo and can risk losing an extra half of an energy tank. ING EMPEROR PHASE 2 N/A ING EMPEROR PHASE 3 Annihilator Beam Yes, you may be wondering why it is not more effective to use the opposite-beam polarity stuff, but technically (and I mean technically) it is easier to use the annihilator beam. The fact that the other two beams are so slow, and that the chance to damage the emperor is so small is a low amount of time, and that switching to them is slow, shows that the Anni beam is much more effective. You’re prepared, it’s fast, and you know what you can do next. DARK SAMUS 3 Dark Beam/Light Beam I will have to re-elaborate on this as there have been some debates on this actually... Send me your opinion through e-mail. In fact, I’ll make this part a mini-debate. Remember to take personal preference into account. If there are two beams listed, this means to choose whichever one you prefer. ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~ ~ 6a. Missile Information ~ Missiles are shot with a simple Y, homing in on enemies with the power of a charged Power Beam shot. It has a slow rate of fire, but can be combined with charged up Beams to fire Combo’s or can be fired at multiple targets simultaneously with Seeker Missiles. Missiles are great for last-resort situations or when you do not want to use ammunition. You can also search for Missile Expansions. They’re simple expansions which will increase your maximum missile capacity by 5. ~ 6b. Seeker Missiles ~ Seeker missiles are used to shoot multiple targets at once. They’re used to open secret pathways or doors in puzzles, or open purple doors by shooting all five purple spots around the door with five missiles at once. You can also fire two to five missiles on one target, also! This is very effective and very powerful. Missile ammo is easy to expand and obtain so it the ammo shouldn’t be a problem. The only problem is that you have to wait a few seconds till all five dots will appear on your target. They are also used against bosses (such as the Adult Chykka). Seeker missiles are also used to kill the monkey-like enemies in Sanctuary Fortress, in the Sanctuary Temple Entrance area (Quadraxis’ lair in the Dark World). ~ Magnus ~ 6c. Best Uses of Missiles ~ - Effective against every enemy. - Does not have Dark/Light attributes, so Dark Aether creatures will not take more damage, but won’t take less either. - Is homing so it will track down your target. - Ammo is easy to expand and obtain. - The rate of fire is quite fast for something as powerful as charged Power Beam shots. - Destroys large objects easily. - Good last-resort weapon when you have no ammo and you need to dish out heavy damage quickly. - Seeker missiles provide crowd control and huge damage to single targets. - A sleek trick can be executed by pressing A after each missile you fire – you can fire missiles much faster this way. ‘In case you didn’t notice, Retro had removed this trick now’ (not the exact words) – Matt. Thanks! ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~ ~ 7a. Thanks ~ Well, that’s my simple Beam FAQ for ye. I’d like to thank a few people for this... CJayC first for posting this up! And an excellent site! My friend Magnus, for long MP2 discussions which gave me a few of these ideas. My mother, for letting me buy Metroid Prime 2: Echoes in the first place. And finally my brain, for letting me use some hours of my life to toy around with these beams and finish MP2 in three days. ~ 7b. Crediting Information ~ Crediting goes to me, Dimcity. Pauldhobby, who gave the idea of shooting missiles after entangling enemies with the Dark Beam. Matt (by e-mail) who corrected me on my silly A and Y trick :) And some Darkburst and Sunburst strategies. Magnus for some typo’s and some Seeker Missile info. Read the legal terms if you’re going to use this guide. **I had received a few emails from people who put suggestions, but if they are not shown here my E-mail must’ve deleted them. Please re-send them if I have not added you and I’ll add any suggestions you were going to say.**