Navigation menu

Phantoon

From Metroid Wiki
Phantoon
Phantoon in Other M

The mysterious spectral organism, Phantoon, in Other M

Game(s)
Attacks
  • Phantom Eyes
  • Eye Lasers
  • Vortexes
  • Summons Rage Hands
Vulnerable Area(s)

Eye

Location(s)
Rewards

Phantoon[1][2] is an otherworldly ghost immune to any attack; anything will simply pass through its intangible body. Its only weakness is hidden away in its mouth, an eye that serves as its connection to the physical realm. From four meters tall to the size of a small space station, Phantoon loosely resembles a giant squid with a single eye inside a large mouth.

Phantoon, unlike conventional ghosts, feeds off electrical energy[3][4] without directly connecting to any wires or equipment, severely inhibiting activities on the Wrecked Ship and the Bottle Ship. The specter also taps into Mother Brain's "vicious brainwaves,"[1] indicating that Mother Brain may have some control over it, or Phantoon feeds off of her negative energy as well. Nevertheless, based on its portrayal among the bosses in the Golden Statue, Phantoon is a high ranked Space Pirate.

Super Metroid

"The Wrecked Ship has been shut down by the floating ghost, Phantoon."[5] It drains the power from everything throughout the ship, from the lights to the independent Work Robots,[6] leaving everything dark and inoperable. It does this in order to fuel its strength and satiate its gluttony.[3] As a side effect, Coverns have joined Phantoon's presence in the dark ship, condemned to roam their former mode of transportation.

Shortly after Samus enters the boss room of the Wrecked Ship, several blue flames will begin to ignite, floating in the center of the room. They'll form a circle and start rotating around before closing in on each other. As they fade away, Phantoon begins to materialize into existence.

Battle

Phantoon has two attacks: the creation of phantom eyes (eyeballs shrouded in blue flames) and ramming against Samus. It uses these two attacks in conjunction with its two abilities: becoming intangible and invisible.

It uses its phantom eyes in two ways: shedding a few from its mouth like tears that bounce along the ground and creating waves of different patterns (circular burst, stalagtite style, crescent). However, phantom eyes can either be destroyed for ammunition or simply jumped through using the Charge Attack, making even the faster phantom eyes easy to dodge.

Phantoon's first ability, intangibility, will be the entire theme of his fight. With its eye closed, it detaches itself from the physical realm, and only when its eye is open can Phantoon be hurt. Whenever the creature gains a physical presence, it can harm Samus on contact. It will float around with intangibility and drop phantom eyes that bounce along the ground. When Phantoon finally opens its eye, it will create a circular wave of phantom eyes. It may return to this pattern or suddenly vanish from sight.

Its invisibility is used often as well. After opening its eye, it will disappear, damaged or not giving Samus little time to damage it. It may either float around while invisible to spawn bouncing phantom eyes or suddenly appear with its eye open and create a wave of stalagtite phantom eyes. While unnecessary, Phantoon can be tracked with the X-Ray Scope.

When damaged by Missiles or a charged shot from the Ice Beam, Phantoon will behave normally. However, disabling the Ice Beam will not make the ghost disappear but instead cause it to return to floating around erratically with its eye wide open and its gaze locked on Samus, attempting to ram her. On the opposite spectrum, Super Missiles will send Phantoon into a fury. It will vanish and re-appear at the top of the screen and remain intangible for eight crescent waves of phantom eyes at very high speeds. These waves can be dodged by Samus in two different manners: by using the previously mentioned Charge Attack or by using the Morph Ball and sticking to the bottom corners of the room, though she'll need to be switching from left to right with each corresponding wave.

As Phantoon takes more and more damage, its color will gradually shift from green to a hot red-orange. Upon its defeat, its eye will remain looking in the same direction as it begins to fade in and out rapidly, before a series of small explosions erupt across its body. Finally, Phantoon will begin waving around like its entrance, except wider and more violent until it stretches across the entire screen and dissipates.

With Phantoon's presence no longer dominating the energy crystals, power immediately returns to the ship. Lights turn on, both map and save stations begin working, conveyor belts start moving, Metal Doors release, Work Robots return to life, and severed wires start sparking dangerously.

Coverns also vanish from the Wrecked Ship, either from the light or from being freed of Phantoon's malevolent control. However, the return of the craft's energy releases a variety of creatures that were seemingly dormant or locked away in the ship.

Finally, once the doors become unlocked, water from the lakes surrounding the crashed vessel flood several rooms inside.

Metroid: Other M

Phantoon returns as the final boss of Metroid: Other M and has grown in size exponentially since its previous appearance.

When Samus returns to the Bottle Ship and reaches the ascent to the Control Bridge, enemies will begin to spawn from dark, swirling vortexes to hamper her progress. These vortexes are created by Phantoon, who has assumed control of the creatures of the Bottle Ship and has its eye set on Samus' defeat.

As she finally enters the Control Bridge, a massive tentacle suddenly smashes against the reinforced glass and smashes into it again, creating thousands of cracks throughout one spot and breaking off an overhead screen from its support. A gigantic bulbous head rises into view, pulsating visibly and audibly. Its double jaw opens, and a piercing red eye leers at Samus.

Battle

Phantoon wastes no time in raising its bottom half and creating more dark vortexes, summoning its Rage Hands to deal with Samus. It will continue to wail onto the cracked window panes with both tentacles and summon more in between until it finally smashes through. Alarms start sounding off, oxygen is violently drained from the room, and Samus remains unaffected, her Gravity Feature keeping her feet steady.

Phantoon now re-introduces Samus to its improved phantom eyes. Still like blue eyes in a spiritual flame, they spread minimally and now focus on homing directly in on Samus. While these and Rage Hands distract her, Phantoon moves left to right, tearing more windowpanes open with its massive jaws.

After the top three window panes are shattered, Phantoon's eye becomes obscured by one of its swirling vortexes, only to suddenly peak through it for a moment by extending its eye out on a pherensile eyestalk. It hides its eye again and reaches right, smashing through the lower windows with its tentacle, repeating the process on the left side. The vortex hiding Phantoon's eye fades, and it unveils the rest of its attacks.

With the windows completely gone, Phantoon sweeps one of its tentacles at a time across the floor in an attempt to hit Samus aside. It will also begin spawning swirling red vortexes on the ground that when stepped in burst into a pillar of agony. Finally, it will now shoot lasers from its pupil towards Samus in short bursts with little motion.

When Phantoon becomes weak enough, its eye will collapse into the room and become primed for a Lethal Strike, though it is possible for this not to happen at all. By performing a Lethal Strike, Samus will grab onto Phantoon's eye and hold on as she's flung around on it, until she finally performs some severe laser eye surgery courtesy of a charged Plasma Beam shot. She jumps off, and Phantoon floats away into space before bursting in a piercing white light and a loud bang.

However, if a Lethal Strike isn't performed, Phantoon will begin to lose control, smashing his own eye into the floor over and over, eventually holding it up and simply bursting into orange goo. Phantoon will still float away in this scenario but without its eye.

Either way, a Grapple Point floats into the room so Samus can leave.

Data

Trophy Info

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Sprites

Game Phantoon
Super Metroid Phantoon


Trivia

  • Even though Samus fights Phantoon in a vacuum in Metroid: Other M, sound effects are still played regularly, although sound cannot travel through a vacuum.
  • Phantoon's appearance in Other M is much more organic than its Super Metroid appearance.
  • It is unknown why Phantoon's appearance differs so drastically between games.
  • It may be that its size is directly proportionate to how much energy its absorbed from the ship it leeches off of. The Wrecked Ship would obviously only provide so much, but the Bottle Ship is gigantic, fully operational, and teeming with energy.
  • It might grow larger as it physically matures.
  • It may also have simply been an artistic change.
  • Or it is simply a different Phantoon creature than the one fought in Super Metroid.
  • Phantoon's upper body pulsates visibly and audibly like a heart. It may be where it "processes" the energy it absorbs.
  • Concept art from Metroid: Other M depicts Phantoon as the head atop a vaporous humanoid body, with two larger Rage Hands as its hands. It also depicts Phantoon in its Super Metroid appearance despite it having a different design.
  • The concept art also does not depict Phantoon as massive as he is in game.
  • Furthermore, in the top right, Samus is seen battling Phantoon as if it were Andross from Star Fox.
  • Phantoon cannot be fought on Metroid: Other M 's Hard Mode, as the game ends after the Queen Metroid is destroyed.
  • Metroid: Other M has made Phantoon one of the largest bosses Samus has encountered.
  • Phantoon's physical structure is heavily similar to Powamps from Maridia. However, no connection exists between them.
  • Phantoon bears a resemblance to a boss of the Legend of Zelda game, Phantom Hourglass: Bellum. Most notably, both creatures have an eye surrounded by teeth.
  • Phantoon's eye in Other M greatly resembles the Eye of Sauron from Lord of the Rings.

Etymology

Phantoon's name appears to be a corruption of the word "phantom". Phantoon's ghostly appearances and blue fire reflect phantom traits.

Gallery

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "PHANTOON/(The Boss of the Wrecked Ship)/The ghost of the ship taps in to the vicious brainwaves of the Mother Brain and attacks adventurers with deadly plasma." Super Metroid Instruction Booklet, Pg. 33
  2. "Phantoon and Phantoon's Rage Hands/This mysterious space monster dwells in space and has a nasty tempter. When angered it attacks using phantom eyes and its Rage Hands. If it gets its Rage Hands on you, it will crush the life out of you. Use your Screw Attack to cut through the Rage Hands and Sense Move out of the way of the phantom eyes. Use a combination of Charge Beam and Super Missiles to wear down the Phantoon's main eye. If it shoots a laser with its eye, avoid the radiating circle the laser creates before the circle erupts near you. Either bring Phantoon's main eye crashing down and terminate the monster with a Lethal Strike, or continue blasting it with Super Missiles until it's dead." Metroid: Other M Prima Strategy Guide, Pg. 20
  3. 3.0 3.1 "PHANTOON/The ship, even though it's wrecked, is still producing power. However, none of that power is being directed where it should be. Something is diverting power just after the source. That something is Phantoon." Super Metroid Player's Guide, Pg. 9
  4. "C) GET THE MAP DATA/Phantoon is sucking up all the power that the ship's energy-producing crystals can make. Therefore, none of the systems are operational. This includes the Map Computer. Hook up with the Computer after Phantoon gives up the ghost." Super Metroid Player's Guide, Pg. 84
  5. "The Wrecked Ship has been shut down by the floating ghost, Phantoon." Super Metroid Instruction Booklet, Pg. 33
  6. "D) MOVE THAT ROBOT!/The robots, while internally powered, are not functioning either as a result of Phantoon's gluttony." Super Metroid Guide, Pg. 85