Metroid: Samus Returns – amiibo Unlocks and Guide
UPDATE (16/09/17) – Added more details on the concept art galleries and sound test now that all embargoes are up.
Samus returns to the spotlight in, uh, Samus Returns – a 3DS remake of Metroid II. The game is compatible with the two Samus amiibo from the Smash Bros. line of figures as well as two new Metroid series amiibo that will launch alongside the game. Each of these amiibo gives Samus a different in-game bonus and also unlocks additional content once you’ve finished the game. You’ll unlock the ability to scan amiibo a few minutes into the game – an onscreen message will alert you to the fact and explain that amiibo can be used by selecting the amiibo option from the pause screen or in the Options menu on the save select screen. Here’s what you’ll get with each amiibo.
Samus (Smash Bros. series)
This Samus amiibo will equip Samus with a Reserve Missile Tank. When Samus runs out of either regular missiles or super missiles this tank will kick in and give her a refill of that ammo type. She will receive 50 missiles or 10 super missiles depending on which ran out. Once it has been used you’ll need to head to an ammo recharge station to give it another charge. This ability isn’t all that useful at first since missiles are so easy to come by, but it’s an entirely different matter when you unlock Super Missiles. You can’t hold many of these at once and they’re really effective at taking down bosses so being able to refill your supply is very handy.
Scanning this amiibo once you’ve beaten the game will unlock a gallery of concept art for you to view. There are 35 pieces of art in this gallery, and while we won’t share all of them here for several reasons here’s a sample of what you’ll unlock:
Zero Suit Samus (Smash Bros. series)
The Zero Suit Samus amiibo will unlock a Reserve Energy Tank for Samus. When you run out of health, this tank will refill up to three energy tanks (or fully heal you if you have less than three tanks). Once you’ve had your health refilled you’ll need to head to an energy recharge station to refill your reserve tank.
When you’ve beaten the game you can scan this amiibo to unlock a Sound Test mode. This mode lets you listen to the following tracks from the soundtrack. These are all given plain names but you might still want to refrain from reading them until you’ve beaten the game if you don’t want an idea of how many areas and bosses there are in the game.
- Prologue
- Menu
- Surface 1
- Boss Battle 1
- Area 1
- Area 2
- Boss Battle 2
- Boss Battle 3
- Area 3
- Area 4
- Boss Battle 4
- Area 5
- Area 6
- Boss Battle 5
- Boss Battle 6
- Area 7
- Area 8
- Boss Battle 7
- Surface 2
- Boss Battle 8
- Result
Samus (Metroid series)
The brand new Samus amiibo will give Samus a Reserve Aeion Tank. Aeion is a new mechanic introduced in Samus Returns, and is a power source used to activate four new special abilities. When you run out of Aeion this tank will refill a portion of your Aeion supply. Not enough to allow you to run around with a near-permanent shield, but it’s enough to help you finish off an Aeion-focused puzzle if you’re running low. To recharge the reserve tank you’ll need to collect an orb of Aeion from an Aeion recharge point.
Once you’ve beaten the game you can scan this amiibo to unlock a gallery of artwork from the original Metroid II. There are 37 pieces of art in this gallery, and while we won’t share all of them here for several reasons here’s a sample of what you’ll unlock:
Metroid (Metroid series)
The beautiful Metroid amiibo unlocks the Metroid Marker feature that shows you the location of the nearest Metroid on your map. This isn’t super useful a lot of the time since there’s already in-game hints available as to the locations of Metroids, and they’re vague enough to make you still think things through and investigate. However, there’s some later-game Metroids that don’t have such hints available, and so this amiibo can be handy to find those if you’re really stuck. You have to tap the amiibo every time you want to reveal a Metroid location though, so it would become a nuisance if you’re doing this for every Metroid (which I wouldn’t recommend because the sense of discovery is a big draw of the game).
Scanning this amiibo once you’ve finished the game will unlock Fusion Mode. This mode raises the difficulty of the game and equips Samus with the Fusion Suit. This is different from the regular Hard Mode that you unlock from beating the game which doesn’t require amiibo to unlock. In Hard Mode, all enemies will deal double the damage that they deal in Normal mode. In Fusion Mode, enemies deal four times the damage that they do in Normal mode, and Samus will be wearing the Fusion Suit from Metroid Fusion. To put this in perspective, the basic Hornoads that you encounter at the beginning of the game can deal a whopping 80 damage to you – almost a one-hit KO!
But the most important function of this amiibo is that it is squishy. Look at it.:
Metroid: Samus Returns launches September 16th for the Nintendo 3DS alongside the Samus Aran and Metroid amiibo figures. If you’re still on the fence then you can read our review here.
