Ruins Test

The Ruins TestMetroid: Zero Mission: The Official Nintendo Player's Guide pg. 78, also referred to as the Metroid: Zero Mission ミッション・コンプリートブック and , is a boss that appears in the Chozodia Chozo Ruins in Metroid: Zero Mission.
==Description==
Before the battle, a cinematic shows what appears to be a younger Samus Aran viewing the same wall paintings shown during the boss battle, revealing that she has visited the room while living with Old Bird and the Chozo. As a child, Samus made a small engraving on the base of the mural, depicting herself and two Chozo (most likely Old Bird and Gray Voice). Samus later revisits the Ruins Test as an adult during her Zero Mission, after infiltrating the Space Pirate Mother Ship in her Zero Suit.
The Ruins Test appears as a ghost-like entity representing a Chozo warrior wearing a variant of the Varia Suit. The wall engraving depicts a Human wearing a Power Suit resembling Samus's future iconic Varia Suit. Over time, a spirit is revealed from the engraving. This spirit resembles the engraving in shape, but instead has a Chozo head with two side tubes attached to the helmet leading to the mouth and a thin visor forming around the eyes. The Spirit's color appears as a ghastly cyan/white, with the Chozo's visible head and hands a darker shade of blue and the Suit's highlights appearing a neon lime green with cyan lining on portions of the arms. The entity holds a floating outward pulsating orb containing alternating images of either Samus mirrored or a hieroglyphic-like symbol resembling the Ruins Test's body shape. The Ruins Test can only be damaged while its sphere is showing the symbol, and only by charged Paralyzer shots; if Samus hits her reflection with any Paralyzer rounds, she will take damage instead, being minutely frozen in place. Being hit this way also delays the symbol spawning time. Touching the mirror at anytime will also harm Samus, though the spirit itself does not inflict contact damage.
As Samus begins the battle, the orb can be seen being energized and active. The Ruins Test begins by simply staying idle on the wall, while displaying a shootable symbol over time. Shooting the symbol once will cause the room to darken and force the spiritual Chozo-like entity to appear, where it will move around the room in a circular clockwise or counter-clockwise fashion around the center of the room and attack with lightning above Samus's head from her last position. Its body motion is randomly chosen and cannot be change mid-battle. After shooting it a second time, the entity will move along the walls of the room in a motion opposite of its body motion chosen (if it started the battle moving clockwise, it moves along the walls in a counter-clockwise fashion, and vice versa) while still maintaining its original chosen body motion. When shot three times, it can summon lightning at the direct center of the room that travels along the ground and walls. Because it can still fire off normal bolts of lightning, this phase of the fight proves the most difficult to endure. The entity will move faster with each successive shot, and the window to shoot the symbol gets smaller. All of its attacks inflict 50 units of energy loss, resulting in an easy loss for Samus if Energy Tanks were skipped. Shooting the orb symbol a fourth time will immediately end the fight, returning the spirit back into the wall from which it spawned from. Interestingly, if the first symbol is never shot at, the spirit will eventually move in circles and around the room all on its own as time passes (it will never conduct lighting until the first symbol is hit).
After its defeat, the spirit returns into the wall, displaying the "human" face once more, and lift its veil of darkness upon the room. As Samus stands in the center below her reflection, said reflection changes into a Legendary Power Suit. A cutscene plays and Samus obtains her Fully Powered Suit, regaining her Power Suit and any items acquired during her exploration on Zebes, along with the three Unknown Items collected throughout the game being revealed to be upgrades; specifically the Gravity Suit, Plasma Beam, and Space Jump. Upon leaving the room, it becomes sealed off and cannot be accessed again for the rest of the game.
==Official data==
===Metroid: Zero Mission: The Official Nintendo Player's Guide===
;Chozo Power
:"When you advance to the extreme edges of the Chozo Ruins, you'll take a test that will reveal Samus's connection to the Chozo and give you the Fully Powered Suit, which turns all three unknown items into functional upgrades."
===Metroid Zero Mission Official Site Development Room===
Yoshio Sakamoto: "For Samus to remain connected with the Power Suit requires mental energy unfathomable to an ordinary person. In situations like this when she is under pressure, indeed, even Samus is unable to concentrate her mental energy. However, when Samus completes the trial of the spirit of the mural (God of War), she regains her strong force of will and can successfully integrate with the Legendary Power Suit."
==Development data==
Within the Event Viewer of Metroid: Zero Mission lists a flag pertaining to the Ruins Test. 67 POWSUITGET activates upon the acquisition of the Legendary Power Suit, and this flag when active loads the post-Ruins Test version of Chozodia. When active, it also cancels out the Space Pirate alert music and allows the Wall eyes in the Ruins to be destructible. 
Another flag named 68 VARIATYOKU ﾊﾞﾘｱ ﾁｮｸﾄﾞﾘﾃﾞﾅｲ immediately activates at the same time as POWSUITGET. This flag forces Samus to obtain the Varia Suit when activated during this time, which consequently will also activate flags VARIA and VARIACHO as a result of the Varia Suit's acquisition. VARIATYOKU was likely added for gameplay purposes, as Samus will always retain the Varia Suit coloration on the Legendary Power Suit even if the Varia Suit item itself was never obtained (which may lead to gameplay confusion). Further so, Samus will automatically receive the Gravity Suit after the Ruins Test battle even if the item itself is skipped. Doing so gives her the Gravity Suit's visuals and properties but the item itself is not displayed in the Status Screen. VARIATYOKU when translated from its full Kanji text in the data reads "Varia no longer available", which references its role in removing the Varia Suit's item form from the game (seen when the suit itself is skipped). The flag's Kanji text in the Event Viewer is partially cut off.
==Trivia==
*The mural may be a god to the Chozo, as suggested by the Japanese name in an interview, God of War. This could be supported by the fact that it looks like the other Chozo carvings are giving it offerings.
*If the Varia Suit was not collected previously, it is automatically applied along with the additional 1% for completion.
*The Ruins Test served as inspiration for Dark Samus, another mirror image of Samus in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.(archived link)
*The Ruins Test has its own battle theme, which prominently features a pipe organ to presumably further evoke religious imagery.
*The Ruins Test is the only boss in the entire Metroid series that is fought in the Zero Suit.
**The boss is also programmed to display the Power Suit and Fully Powered Suit in its reflection, resembling the patent/concept art, although the Arm Cannon is cropped off when facing left or right. Samus does not receive any damage when firing her Arm Cannon at her mirror image. Interestingly, the glowing symbols can be hit by any Beam or Bombs, the glowing symbol deflects Missiles and Super Missiles and is immune to Power Bombs.
*Although artwork depicts the spirit as having a silver body with green highlights, the in-game sprite's body color appears more cyan.
**The colors of the armor the spirit wears in-game bear a slight resemblance to Sylux's default palette. The artwork coloration bears a resemblance to the Player 2 (Silver Samus) armor from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Multiplayer.
*The Spirit of the Ruins Test bears a strong resemblance to Chozo Ghosts from Metroid Prime. Both creatures are phantasmal spirits of Chozo origin. Canonically, the Ruins Test would be the first Chozo spirit Samus "battled" against.
==Gallery==
Mzmgbasp.PNG|A rare Japanese GBA SP has Samus's drawing inked onto it.
ZM patent 4.png|Image from a US patent ((US Pat. 11046707) filed by Yoshio Sakamoto and Katsuya Yamano concerning the Ruins Test fight. Samus is seen wearing the Power Suit in these drawings.
ZM_patent_5.png|US Pat. 11046707
ZM patent 6.png|US Pat. 11046707
ZM patent 7.png|US Pat. 11046707
MZM Ruins Test Flashback.png|Old Bird and Samus visiting the Ruins Test
MZM Ruins Test Flashback in-game.png|In-game flashback version of Old Bird and Samus visiting the Ruins Test
Samusremember .gif
Mzm3.JPG|Zero Suit Samus battling the Ruins Test
Metroid Zero Mission Ruins Test As Standard Fully Powered Suit Lightning Strike.jpg|The Ruins Test performing a Lightning strike on a standard Fully Powered Suit Samus.
Zero Mission Ruins Test Chozo Ghost.png|Sprite of the Ruins Test spirit.
Zero Mission Ruins Test Symbol (Wall).png|The Ruins Test symbol affixed to the wall.
Top of the ruins full view.png|Full room view where the Ruins Test is encountered, displaying its "human" form engraved on the wall. 
==References==
ru:Испытание Руин
Category:Characters
Category:Bosses
Category:Chozo
Category:Chozodia
Category:Ghost