Metroid Database Bestiary

Ridley began construction of a robotic version of himself to be used as an additional weapon, but it wasn’t fully completed when Samus discovered it on board of the Space Pirate Mother Ship. While the primary weapon systems were in place and functional, the locomotive mechanisms and flight units hadn’t been fully installed, and only allowed the robot to crawl a limited distance across the floor.

At the beginning of the battle, Mecha Ridley’s first attack will be with its right claw. Stay at the far left side of the room and dodge the claw attacks by jumping into the air. When the robot extends its neck upward, repeatedly hop into the air and fire Missiles and Super Missiles at the glowing region on its chest until the casing and core is destroyed. When the robot’s right arm is completely lowered, it will be much easier to hit.

Mecha Ridley will also attack by spitting a barrage of fireballs, shooting laser beams out of its eyes, and firing three missiles from a launcher on its back. The missiles can be easily destroyed with the Screw Attack and can be used to restock health and ammo. The diagonally aimed fireballs can be avoided by somersaulting at a medium height, but the laser beams are more difficult to avoid. Mecha Ridley’s eyes will momentarily flash before firing, so use that as an indicator of when to jump.

Instead of creating another robotic version after the events of Zero Mission, it was alluded that Ridley was revived and underwent cybernetic enhancement to become "Meta Ridley" in Metroid Prime, which occurred three years later.

After the explosion of the Zebes research facilities and Mother Ship, the pirate logs in Prime confirm that a significant portion of the Zebesian fleet survived, including the research frigates: Orpheon, Siriacus, and Vol Paragon. Samus would eventually locate the Orpheon frigate docked above Tallon IV, and encounter Meta Ridley.