The Emperor Ing is the controlling force behind the Ing Horde in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. It is the eldest and most powerful Ing and resides in the Sanctum within the Sky Temple, guarding its Energy Controller, from which it siphons energy. Like other Ing, it is a metamorph, and Samus Aran must battle it in multiple forms. When it is defeated, Samus takes the last of Dark Aether's planetary energy, initiating a countdown to Dark Aether's destruction.
Forms[]
Emperor Ing[]
The Emperor Ing's first form is stationary, with tentacles protruding from its head. In this form, it uses several melee attacks with its tentacles. It also fires bursts of dark energy, but these can be easily dodged in Morph Ball form. Samus can damage the tentacles with a variety of weapons.
Once each tentacle is destroyed, the head will retract, revealing its eye. In this form it fires a sustained energy beam that travels slowly and has limited range near its body; these crimson beams are quite potent and will impede Samus's ability to aim briefly if they make contact. The eye is covered with a rotating shield that is impervious to weapons, but that has two vulnerable gaps on a single axis that Samus can fire through.
After enough damage has been dealt to the eye, the head returns and generates more tentacles than before. It continues to use its melee attacks and the dark energy attack, but it gains two new attacks: it will now pound on the ground with its tentacles, leaving them quite vulnerable to Power Bombs, and will begin using transdimensional teleportation to send its tentacles throughout the room in an attempt to attack Samus.
The cycle repeats until the eye has been seriously damaged, beginning the next phase.
Emperor Ing Chrysalis[]
After it has taken enough damage to its eye, the Emperor Ing's head swallows the body, forming a nearly impervious regenerative shell in which to shield itself while it heals. Poisonous gas fills the room, but the shell is magnetically charged, allowing Samus to cling to the shell using her Spider Ball.
The shell has 11 weak points on its surface that can be damaged with Morph Ball weaponry. The Emperor Ing will generate tentacles in these weak points if Samus comes near to knock her away. Samus can either drop Morph Ball Bombs near the tentacles to destroy them or use Power Bombs to destroy multiple tentacles at once.
Inglets appear during this phase, allowing Samus to regain health easily by destroying them. After all weak points are damaged, the Emperor Ing emerges from its shell and the next phase begins.
Mutated Emperor Ing[]
After the shell is destroyed, the Emperor Ing, now further mutated by Phazon, will emerge in a form similar in appearance to a Warrior Ing. Like Warrior Ing, it can fire trans-dimensional energy beams, but unlike them, it can fire multiple beams simultaneously. It is also capable of firing a sustained blast of light or dark energy, with Lightblast- and Entangler-like effects. It uses physical attacks, such as ramming and jumping at Samus, but also attacks by creating swarms of Nightbarbs or of an unnamed flying white creature.
In this form, the Emperor Ing's vulnerable core can render itself impervious to certain types of energy. In its neutral state, the core can be weakened by Samus's full arsenal of Arm Cannon weaponry, including beam, concussion, and combination weapons. Once it has been sufficiently weakened, the core will erect a barrier that can only be damaged by a beam of opposite polarity or the Annihilator Beam, indicated by a change in the color of the core. After a long and gruelling battle, Samus defeats the mutated monstrosity and claims the last of Dark Aether's energy.