Editing Samus (section)

===Non-Standard Arm Cannon Loadout===
Similarly to the specialized, one-off suits Samus acquires, there are select beams that only ever see one, maybe two incarnations.

'''Phazon Beam:''' While some variant of this exists in all 3 Prime games, they're all situational, specialized beams that rely on either an external factor or risk in order to use. Even though they differ drastically, each is an extremely powerful weapon that does ludicrous amounts of damage to a given target, with most of said targets being impervious or highly resistant to all other weaponry Samus has access too. As stated though, the circumstances that Phazon can be used as a weapon are severely limited and either require an external source of Phazon, or the usage of Samus' own energy to access. (All 3 Prime games). The Phazon beam is quite different in all three games, in the first it only activates when Samus stands in pools of pure Phazon produced by the Metroid Prime and only has an automatic firing mode that spits out a spray of blue laser beams of death that are the only thing that can hurt the true form of the metroid prime, while also one shotting the metroids it spawns (even the nasty Fission Metroids that can normally only be damaged by the beam corresponding to their color). In metroid prime 2 it is gained by using the charge beam to suck up phazon particles Dark Samus vents in her final, phazon overloaded form to cause her hurt and if you hack the game to fire it at anything else it basically one shots them. In Prime 3 it's basically a standard beam whose charge shot function is to very rapidly fire a lot of bursts, the damage is toned down since it's not a final battle supermode, but it is necessary to beat phazon based enemies or enemies engaging hypermode in anything resembling a timely manner. It still packs a hell of punch so even against the enemies it's not required to kill it's a useful weapon.

'''Dark Beam:''' Unusual in that it is a beam that utilizes ammo, the Dark Beam concentrates the energies native to Dark Aether into a relatively slow moving projectile that, when charged, immobilizes targets with tendrils of darkness that sear their bound targets with its malevolent energies. Additionally, the Super-Missile variant [[rape| rips open a portal to an alternate dimension and drags hapless, nearby creatures and humanoids into what is effectively a miniature black hole that tears them apart on the molecular level]]. Unsurprisingly, using this beam on the denizens of Dark Aether is like trying to kill a shark with a water gun, so it is largely useless in that dimension. Also behaves like a pseudo-Ice Beam, in that dark blobs immobilize targets (including Metroids) for easy missile kills. (Prime 2).

'''Light Beam:''' Like all the other beams in Prime 2 (Power Beam exempted), the Light Beam relies on ammunition to remain effective. Similar to the (Prime) Plasma Beam, the Light Beam fires off rapid fire, short range bursts of focused light energies that burn through Ing and things possessed by them like a hot knife through butter. The charged shot functions like a shotgun, firing a spread of individual shots that ignite targets indiscriminately. Contrarily to the Dark Beam, the Super-Missile variant of the light beam creates what is basically a miniature sun which slowly drifts forward immolating all in its path. Upon striking an enemy or surface, it then explodes in a burst of fire. Overall serves as a pseudo-Plasma beam, with charged attacks giving it the firepower of the BFG 9000 but coloured white instead of green. (Prime 2)

'''Annihilator Beam:''' A combination of both the Light and Dark beams, using both of their ammo reserves to function, the Annihilator beam is among the most lethal of all Samus' rather diverse selection of weaponry (seeing as how she had to rip it out of an Ing-possessed robot roughly half-again taller than an Imperial Knight, one would hope it would be respectively powerful). The lore says it slams dark ammo and light ammo into each other to create [[awesome|antimatter]], which in turn slams into regular matter for a big bang. While shot-for-shot not as powerful as using the Light Beam vs. Ing or Dark Beam vs. Non-Ing, its rapid rate of fire, range, generous tracking capabilities and with no enemy resisting it make this beam a potent all around force to be reckoned with. The Super Missile variant of the Annihilator beam, upon firing, instantaneously strikes the first target or surface it was pointed at and creates a sizable rift in space that rips apart everything unfortunate enough to be in the area. This power comes at a heavy price though, consuming both a number of Samus' missiles and a sizable portion of both her Dark and Light beam ammo reserves. (Prime 2)

'''Metroid Prime Hunters Beams:''' Each of the Bounty Hunters introduced in Metroid Prime Hunters had a unique beam that Samus was able to acquire for her personal use over the course of the game. Each of these beams utilized ammo in order to fire, much like the Dark and Light beams from Echoes. While Samus was able to utilize these weapons effectively, they had more powerful effects in the hands of their original hunters.
*''BattleHammer'': Weavel's signature weapon, this rapid-fire beam lobs a steady stream of explosive rounds at medium ranges. This beam has no charged variation and each shot detonates upon contact with any surface. When Weavel uses it, the rate of fire decreases, but the damage and explosion radius of each round increases significantly. Additionally, when Weavel cuts himself in half (his "morph ball"), his legs transform into a stationary turret that lobs BattleHammer shots at nearby foes. The BattleHammer is notably a nuclear weapon, not in the sense that it fires nuclear warheads, but that its shells apparently are so heavy they need a nuclear reaction to launch. Okay then.
*''Imperialist'': Trace's signature weapon is the only instance of a sniper-type weapon introduced in any Metroid game and fires a big red hitscan laser, which unfortunately makes it really easy to track where the shot came from. While it has no charge ability and an incredibly low rate of fire, it has the single longest range of any other weapon available to the hunters (to the degree that it actually has a scope functionality) and can kill any of the Hunters with a headshot. While the weapon itself doesn't change in the hands of Trace, it does cloak him while he stands still with it equipped. 
*''Judicator'': Noxus's signature weapon has a slow rate of fire as it shoots forth shards of supercooled plasma chilled to just a smidgen above absolute zero, but deals respectable damage at mid range with the shots ricocheting off of surfaces. When Samus or any other hunter charges the beam, it fires three shots at once in a manner quite similar to a shotgun. Noxus, however, converts it into a short-ranged sheet that instantly freezes any enemies engulfed by it.
*''Magmaul'': Spire's signature weapon is functionally a grenade, launching short-ranged chunks of superheated magma waiting for an excuse to explode into rock vapour that can bounce off surfaces until they either detonate a few seconds later, or on contact with hostile forces. Charging the shot results in a much larger blast radius that does significantly more damage, with Spire's Magmaul igniting enemies engulfed by it for additional damage.
*''Shock Coil'': Sylux's signature weapon is the only sustained fire beam available, launching a short-range arc of "high density neutrinos" (even though the amount of neutrinos you'd need to cause harm to a living being would need so much energy you're better off just using your "lance bombardment ain't shit" levels of energy instead to kill the guy) that latches onto nearby targets automatically and rapidly drains their health. As time progresses, the damage done per second increases to absurd levels and can slaughter enemy hunters in mere moments. Unlike anyone else who uses it, Sylux absorbs all damage done point for point, making him extraordinarily hard to kill in close quarters.
*''Volt Driver'': Kanden's signature weapon operates like a hybrid of the power beam and wave beam (prime 1). Basic shots are for all intents and purposes, just the power beam. Charged shots, however, transform into a slow moving explosive that does significant damage to enemies caught in its blast. Kanden's charge blast homes in on nearby targets and disrupts their visors in a burst of electricity. Said to have "terawatts" of energy in every shot, meaning each impact is comparable to a tactical nuclear warhead or greater than the entirety of the world's energy demands. It is also said to draw this from the planet's magnetosphere which is even sillier as powering even one of these shots would drain an entire thunderstorm dry.
*''Omega Cannon'': The super weapon of the Hunters game, the Omega Cannon is a single shot beam that does massive damage to everything within a massive radius, including the user in the multiplayer mode where it kills literally anyone who can see the blast. In the single player it doesn't do anywhere near as much self damage but you can fire it more than once. Due to the unique nature of this beam, it is only available during the fight against Gorea in the Single Player, or only on one stage in the Multiplayer as a power up.

'''Nova Beam:''' Both an upgrade to the ''Prime 3'' Plasma Beam and a new take on the the traditional Wave beam, the Nova beam has the capacity to ignore and simply pass through surfaces and armor comprised of a material known as Phazite. When used in conjunction with the X-Ray visor, Samus can use it to identify vital organs of certain enemies like Metroids and Space Pirates, and snipe them with a single shot. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YyBtMxZgQs This allows Samus to kill formerly formidable Space Pirate Commandos like they were some backwater Conscript fresh out of boot.] (Prime 3)

'''Hyper Beam:''' An extremely potent weapon (in game stats show it does enough damage to kill most anything in one hit, even a number of bosses), Samus only obtains this weapon from the Sacrifice of the Baby Metroid she rescued. It makes extremely short work of the recently resurrected Mother Brain, and aids in Samus' hasty escape from Zebes as it begins to explode following MB's death. It's not explained if this beam was simply a temporary effect of the Metroid's energy infusion, or if it's a permanent weapon upgrade Samus shelved following the mission. Regardless, it is safe to say Samus no longer possesses it.
* A new version of this appears at the end of Dread. Samus taking energy from Raven Beak allows her gun fire a '''giant''' continous red energy stream of pure death. Samus first using it on Raven Beak after he's infected by an X-Parasite and blasts him to tiny parasite. She then uses the beam to finish off the X-Parasite, not even needing to absorb it like the others. The player gets to play around with this for the escape sequence. Everything shot by this beam is killed instantly, enemies, obstactles that are immune to beams, '''everything'''.

'''Diffusion Beam:''' A pretty forgettable beam originating from Other M that is rather uniquely; for Other M that is; acquired the conventional metroid way by destroying a drone miniboss that has the requisite technology that Samus then acquires after defeating it. It doesn't really seem to affect the base beam all that much, but it gives the charge shot a big sparkly area of effect to wipe out large numbers of enemies at a time. It's pretty boring overall though the SFXes it produces are kind of pretty.