Games - Items in the Metroid series

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	Games - Items in the Metroid series

The items in the Metroid series
are the driving force behind its gameplay. Descriptions of these items can be found below.

For the way some of these items function, see Physics of the Metroid Series.

Power Suit

The Power Suit is the most basic item in the Metroid series. It was created for the protagonist, Samus Aran, by the mystic Chozo as a modification of their own seldom-used weaponry. It was created to be modular and adaptable.

Most of the Metroid games involve an introduction wherein Samus' suit is somehow damaged or she is grievously injured, resulting in the loss of all of the suit's latent abilities. In the earlier games, no explanation is given. Regardless, all that remains is the Power Beam, the life support system, the suit's ability to increase Samus' jump height, and its protective armor, which always starts out at its lowest strength. An exception to this is in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, because Samus keeps the Varia Suit upgrade the entire game, and never loses it.

In order to restore her suit, Samus usually must locate Chozo relics and temples that contain replicas of the original modules that give her abilities. Sometimes the corpses of defeated alien bosses yield equipment as well.

In Metroid Fusion, Samus' suit becomes infected with the X parasite and she becomes critically ill. She is saved when a scientist makes a vaccine using the DNA from a frozen Metroid cell culture and injects Samus with it to eradicate the virus. Samus' suit is integrated so well with her body that in cannot be removed while she is unconscious: parts of it have to be surgically removed and are sent to the BSL Station for testing. Due to the removal, her suit appears radically different from those of previous games throughout Fusion. This new outfit, with the aid of the Metroid Vaccine, appears to grant Smaus some extra mobility in the ability to grab edges. However, it also gives her a few Metroid morphological attributes, such as vulnerability to low temperatures, and the ability to absorb X parasites in their gelatinous form into her body, repairing damage to her suit. Samus regains abilities in Fusion either by downloading weapon data sent by the Galactic Federation, or by aborbing the DNA of larger Core-X parasites.

In Metroid: Zero Mission, Samus's suit is destroyed completely by the space pirates towards the end and she is forced to pass a test in a Chozo temple to obtain a new one.

Throughout the series, Samus obtains various upgrades to, or different versions of, her Power Suit. These include:

Varia Suit
Gravity Suit
Phazon Suit (Metroid Prime only)
Dark Suit (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes only)
Light Suit (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes only)
Fusion Suit (Metroid Fusion & Metroid Prime bonus only)

Varia Suit

The Varia Suit changes Samus' appearance, reduces damage, and provides other benefits that vary between games. The Varia Suit, although the second suit, is the one Samus is most often pictured in. It can also be noted that Varia was initially a mistranslation of the romanized BARIA. Much like the interchangability of s's and th's (resulting in the use of 'Zebes' and 'Zebeth'), a v was used over a b in what would appear to be a meaningless science fiction word. It was intended to be 'Barrier' due to the increased shielding power; the rest of the games have used Varia for continuity's sake. However, in English, the word 'Varia' can be seen as short for "various"/"variable", giving it the also correct new meaning that it is usable in more situations then the Power Suit alone. Although the Varia suit appears in the original Metroid (And the remake Metroid: Zero Mission in turn), its distinct look with the larger shoulder armor and orange colored additional armor pieces didn't appear until the second game, Metroid II: The Return of Samus. This difference in appearance is explained in Zero Mission.

Gravity Suit

The Gravity Suit retains the same physical shape as the regular Power Suit, but certain parts of the suit are colored blue or purple. When combined with the Varia Suit, the Gravity Suit features the same large globes on the shoulders. It provides an additional armor bonus (usually 25%), and allows Samus to travel through water unhindered, as if traveling on land. In Metroid Fusion, and Metroid: Zero Mission, it also completely nullifies damage from lava pits. In Super Metroid, it only nullifies damage from the light colored lava found in the upper reaches of Norfair. The only lava it does not protect against is the lava found in the deepest parts of Norfair and in Tourian. In Metroid Prime the Gravity Suit also upgrades Samus' visor, significantly improving vision underwater. The suit is not available in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, but is replaced by the Gravity Booster.

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