Metroid Prime Remastered Phendrana Drifts Part 2 | How to beat Thardus, and get the Ice Beam
It's time to come face to face with the rock boss.
Your time with Metroid Prime Remastered is well under way, and we’re now slowly approaching pirate territory. Amidst all this, Samus has collected the first of the twelve artifacts, and is a stone's throw away from finding some more!
During Part 2 of Phendrana Drifts, Samus will retrieve the Thermal Visor, face off with Thardus, and grab the Spider Ball before eventually moving onto Phazon Mines. So, without further ado, here’s our guide to making your way through Part 2 of Phendrana Mines, and how to beat Thardus in Metroid Prime Remastered.
Metroid Prime Remastered Phendrana Drifts Part 2
If you’ve just come from our guide to Part 1 of Phendrana Drifts, you’ll have just exited the Ruined Courtyard via the purple door, landing you in Specimen Storage.
We’re in Space Pirate territory now, so prepare to face plenty of these guys. In the next room, Research Entrance, clear the turrets and kill the pirates for the doors to be unlocked.
A map station can be found through the door at ground level, and then you can go up into Hydra Lab Entryway.
Head through the Entryway into Research Lab Hydra. Scan the panel here to deactivate the force field.
Again, clear the turret and kill the pirates in here. Then, retrieve all the pirate data in the room and head up the elevator to Observatory Access.
There’ll be more turrets, but continue on as best you can until you reach the Observatory. Again, there are more pirates to take care of.
Once in the Observatory, scan the panel, and then activate the two Morph Ball slots in this room.
After using a Morph Ball Bomb in both slots, return to the ground level, where you’ll find four spinning slots to roll in and Morph Ball Boost. This will produce a hologram of all the planets in this solar system.
Once that’s done, climb to the top of the room to find the Missile Beam Combo, and a Save Station. Then, go through the purple door.
Head through the next Entrance and scan the panel, then go up the West Tower elevator. Prepare to face off against more space pirates in the upcoming room, the Control Tower, then proceed to the East Tower. Take the elevator down again.
In Research Lab Aether, scan the pirate data in the room and the small creature in the tube. Kill the creature and the incoming space pirates, and keep advancing down into the Research Core. You’ll need to shoot some crates to reveal the door.
Once in the Research Core, prepare for enemies. Then, scan the three red panels on your way down to ground level to unlock the Thermal Visor containment unit.
Keep the Thermal Visor equipped so that you can see, and escape. Go back the way you came, through both East and West Towers, until you ultimately reach the Ruined Courtyard again.
You’ll need to power doors along the way; at the top of the Research Core, use your Wave Beam on the power source to power it. The next few doors will require that you take on enemies before the doors unlock.
Once you reach the Ruined Courtyard, the third door here that we won’t have used yet currently has no power. However, with the Thermal Visor equipped, you’ll see that the power source is blocked by a wall.
Use a Super Missile on the wall (hold ZR till fully charged, then press R). Then, hit the power source using your recently-unlocked Wave Beam. The door will now have power, so head on through.
When you reach the North Quarantine Tunnel, change into the Morph Ball and roll through into the Quarantine Cave. Then, jump down below, and have fun taking on Thardus.
How to beat Thardus in Metroid Prime Remastered
I never thought I’d say it, but I miss when Samus was fighting big insects and drones. These monsters with tough exteriors are testing me. That said, taking on Thardus is a piece of cake, if you’ve the patience.
Thardus is capable of a few moves. Firstly, it can curl up into a ball and roll at you. Secondly, it can freeze you in place with an ice beam attack. Finally, it can hurl rocks at you from around the arena.
With this fight, equip your Thermal Visor. You’ll see a red weak spot on Thardus; fire at this relentlessly. When your Thermal Visor is overwhelmed, change back to your usual Combat Visor. You’ll notice a blue weak spot on Thardus now; fire away at this. I recommend using a mixture of missiles and charged attacks with the Power Beam for this.
Pop your Thermal Visor back on and repeat this process until you’ve destroyed enough weak spots for Thardus to eventually keel over. With that done, grab the Spider Ball.
Where to go after beating Thardus in Metroid Prime Remastered
After beating Thardus and finally retrieving the Spider Ball, we want to head back to Chozo Ruins again. Head back via Transport to Magmoor Caverns West.
Once at Chozo Ruins, we can now grab a third artifact from the Sun Tower. Head over to the tower, where you’ll find four more runes that need scanning (pictured below).
Two of these runes are atop the pillars in the room. The other two can be found by lasting away the Cordite wall structures in the room using a super missile.
After scanning the four runes, use your Spider Ball to climb up the tower, using Morph Ball Bombs to keep you going.
At the top, continue on into the Sunchamber and kill the three ghosts using your Power Beam. With that done, you can grab the artifact in here.
Now, let’s head on over to the Ruined Shrine. Use the Morph Ball Boost on the half-pipe here to reach the upper level, and then use the Spider Ball track to reach the purple door.
Once in the Tower of Light, platform up as far as you can go. You’ll notice four pillars in this room that have weakened bricks in them; fire missiles at all four of these for the towers' height to drop a tad.
Hop up another platform and do it again, then hop up another platform and do it again.
Jump up once more, and grab the Wavebuster Beam Combo finally.
Next, make your way to the Furnace. Advance through the Furnace and Crossway Access West until you reach Crossway.
Now, there’s only one other way we can exit this room, so head into Elder Hall Access.
Once in the Hall of the Elders again, take care of the ghost. Change into the Morph Ball and then approach the statue's hands to be thrown into a Spider Ball track.
Activate the bomb slot up here and things will get colourful! Clamber on up to the pretty lights, and shoot the purple one using the Wave Beam. Jump on up and use a Morph Ball Bomb again.
Drop back down into the statue’s hands to be thrown up again. Roll to the end of this track and and head straight through into the Reflecting Pool. Scan the panel here.
Change into the Morph Ball and drop into the pool; you can use a bomb on the plug in the middle of the room to have the water drained.
Boost Ball up the half-pipe, taking care to not be eaten by any Stone Toads.
Here, go through the door on the left to retrieve the Ice Beam. Then, through the door on the right is a Save Station. Save here, then use the Morph Ball tunnel behind the station to reach Transport to Tallon Overworld East. Head on up!
That’s it for Part 2 of Phendrana Drifts, and you’ve now finally tackled Thardus in Metroid Prime Remastered. We'll be heading to Frigate Crash Site next.
For more on Metroid Prime Remastered, take a look at the rest of our walkthrough: