Boost Guardian

The Boost Guardian is a Warrior Ing that had absorbed Samus's Boost Ball and subsequently mutated in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. It is found in the Dark Torvus Arena and fought as a boss.
==Battle==
The Boost Guardian has several different attacks. It has the typical abilities expected of a Warrior Ing—slashing, possession, energy beams, and amorphous transformation. Its main attack is unleashed a few moments into the battle; it can boost around the room in the form of a spherical ball. In this latter attack, it can destroy any of the four pillars within the arena. If a pillar is destroyed, an Ultra Energy orb and an Inglet will appear in its place. Inglets otherwise spawn throughout the battle, which also succumb to the Guardian's boost attack should it come into contact with them.
This is the first boss battle on Dark Aether that has no Safe Zones, causing Samus to constantly take damage. The Ultra Energy from the pillars and Energy pickups from the Inglets can offset the damage, but this essentially puts the battle under a time limit, with Samus's Energy acting as the timer.
There are two phases to the fight: The first involves fighting the creature as a regular Ing and inflicting damage, while the second has it utilize its Boost Ball form. Phase one is straightforward, but after a while it will transform and begin the second phase by boosting around at various speeds. While preparing to transform, the creature is immune to any attack. After three consecutive boosts, it will revert into a puddle and move about. During this time, the Boost Guardian is only vulnerable to Morph Ball Bombs. While boosting around, should the creature hit a pillar, or should Samus strike it with a Bomb, it will also transform into its puddle form. Eventually, it will return to phase one; a cutscene will play and Samus will be forced out of Morph Ball. The creature can become amorphous during this time as well, where it can still be damaged, but cannot be defeated until it becomes solid again.
==Logbook entry==
==Difficulty==
The Boost Guardian is widely considered to be one of the most difficult bosses in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, due to several factors. First, Samus will only have a few Energy Tanks at the time of the battle, even if she has acquired every possible tank up to that point. Second, the Boost Guardian is fought in a small room with the only available cover - the four pillars - being easily destroyed by the boss's Boost Ball, and the puddle forms of the Boost Guardian and its summoned Inglets take up a large amount of floor space. Third, the lack of Safe Zones forces Samus to take constant damage throughout the battle, and health recovery is difficult; the pillars are destroyed erratically, and taking the time to defeat Inglets can leave Samus vulnerable to other attacks. Finally, the Boost Guardian's Morph Ball form is invulnerable and capable of dealing heavy damage with its Boost Ball (approximately 45 units on Hard/Hypermode). Although it can be forced out of the form with a Bomb, its speed and power can make this a difficult task. Additionally, in the GameCube versions, touching the Guardian in its puddle form was unusually deadly (60 units of damage on Hard mode). This was dropped to 40 units on Hypermode in the New Play Control! Metroid Prime 2: Dark Echoes and Metroid Prime Trilogy versions.
According to Mike Wikan, the difficulty level of the Spider and Boost Guardian battles was a last minute change, three days before Echoes went gold. Kensuke Tanabe, the game's producer, felt that the battles were not challenging enough and asked that they be made harder, but as a result they became extremely difficult.KIWI TALKZ - #105 - Mike Wikan Interview (Metroid Prime Trilogy, Game Design, Crunch, Booz Allen Hamilton etc.) September 6, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2021. Heard starting at 11:07 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlbeRLmfCHk Both battles' difficulty levels were reduced for the Wii rereleases of Echoes. Wikan informed Tanabe that the development team of Trilogy was reducing the difficulty, and Tanabe conceded it was the right decision.
Bryan Walker, senior director of development at Retro Studios, claimed in an interview with IGN that he was never able to defeat the Boost Guardian without going into debug mode."This was the topic of a lot of discussion during and even after we shipped, but the boost ball guardian was brutal. I confess here and now that I was never able to beat it without going into debug mode." "A Space Bounty Hunter in Texas" IGN. August 28, 2009. Retrieved on October 4, 2021. https://www.ign.com/articles/2009/08/29/a-space-bounty-hunter-in-texas?page=6 He subsequently admitted that this statement was made out of irritation with the fight, and he has been able to defeat the Guardian without enabling developer control.Reilly, Reece. "#109 - Bryan Walker Interview (Metroid Prime Trilogy, Donkey Kong, Mario Kart 7, Project Management)" (starts at 10:07). KIWI TALKZ. October 2, 2021. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
==Development data==
Unused Scan text of the Boost Guardian is present within the Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Bonus Disc, with its Logbook entry being viewable via hacking. Here, the Boost Guardian is named the Boostlet, with the entry using the Bonus Disc model of an Inglet. This shows that the Boost Guardian was originally a powerful Inglet before being changed to a Warrior Ing in the final. In the Bonus Disc, the entry describes what could have been a very different fight from the final. The four pillars would have been active Light Crystals which would have damaged the Boostlet directly. It is unclear why these changes were made. In the final, the towers can still be destroyed though they provide no light and drop an Ultra Energy upon its destruction, as well as releasing a source for Inglet spawning.
==Trivia==
*The Boost Guardian is physically identical to the Jump Guardian, the only other Guardian Ing to be fought in its natural state. Despite this, there are a few differences between the two:
**Although both creatures are weak against the Light Beam, the Boost Guardian cannot be burned to death.
**The Boost Guardian demonstrates its puddle form(s) much more often than (if at all) the Jump Guardian.
**The Boost Guardian takes massive damage (only while in solid form) from Power Bombs (via Sequence Breaking), whereas the Jump Guardian is completely immune.
*The Boost Guardian is the first Ing boss that Samus fights without any accessible Light Crystals or Beacons. Quadraxis is the second and the Emperor Ing is the third, although by that point Samus has the Light Suit, so Safe Zones are not as imperative. Dark Samus' third battle is also fought without any Safe Zones, though she is not related to the Ing.
*When the Boost Guardian transforms into puddle form after using the Boost Ball, its puddle form, unlike all other such Ing transformations (including its own during the phases of the battle when it battles like a standard Warrior Ing), has an orange-black tint similar to its colors when charging up an attack in Boost Ball form. It also actively chases Samus in this puddle form instead of simply moving about.
==Gallery==
Boost_Guardian.png|Logbook
Ing_concept3.png|Concept art
Boost_Guardian_swipe.png|The Boost Guardian slashes at Samus
Boost_Guardian_light_beams.png|Energy beam attack
Boost_Guardian_possession.png|An attempt at possession
Boost_Guardian_boosting.png|Utilizing the Boost Ball
Boost_Guardian_puddle.png|Liquid form
Echoes Boost Guardian defeated.png|Defeated. The creature soon turns into a puddle, while Black fog is released from the creature's body in order to drop its stolen item.
==References==
ru:Хранитель Разгона
Category:Dimensional
Category:Ing
Category:Bosses
Category:Dark Aether
Category:Dark Torvus Bog
Category:Sub Guardians
Category:Deceased