GAMES · STORY NOTES

Metroid Dread

Metroid Dread is a 2021 action-adventure game developed by MercurySteam and Nintendo EPD and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. Players control the bounty hunter Samus Aran as she investigates the source of a mysterious transmission on the planet ZDR.

Description adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Metroid Dread · CC BY-SA 4.0. Text adapted for this entry.

FULL SPOILERS AHEAD

The story, including the ending.

These write-ups discuss major events and outcomes for this listed work. Each source and its coverage are identified below.

Source plot synopsis — includes the ending

The Galactic Federation receives evidence that the X, a dangerous species of parasite that can mimic any creature it infects, survives on the remote planet ZDR. They dispatch seven E.M.M.I. (Extraplanetary Multiform Mobile Identifier) robots to ZDR to investigate, but lose contact. The Federation sends Samus Aran to ZDR to investigate.
Underground, Samus encounters a mysterious Chozo warrior who destroys the exit, defeats her in combat, and strips her suit of most of its abilities. Her ship's computer, Adam, instructs her to find another path to the surface and return to her ship. Samus is attacked by the E.M.M.I., which have been reprogrammed. She escapes and absorbs a mysterious energy from one of the planet's central units. The energy temporarily enables the Omega Blaster, with which she destroys the E.M.M.I. and regains some of her abilities. In the process, she finds that her old foe Kraid survived the destruction of the planet Zebes and slays him in combat.
In Ferenia, Samus is captured by another E.M.M.I., but is saved by a Chozo named Quiet Robe, who deactivates it. Quiet Robe explains that long ago, two Chozo tribes, the scientific Thoha and the warrior Mawkin, banded together to trap the Metroids on the planet SR388. The Thoha intended to destroy SR388, but the Mawkin leader Raven Beak, the Chozo warrior Samus encountered earlier, wanted to use the Metroids as a bioweapon to conquer the galaxy. He slaughtered the Thoha tribe and spared Quiet Robe so the Metroids could be controlled with his Thoha DNA. He planned to use ZDR to house Metroids, but was forced to pause his plans when an infestation of the X broke out. While he fought to contain the outbreak, Samus eradicated the Metroids from SR388. Raven Beak reprogrammed the E.M.M.I.s and lured Samus to ZDR to extract the Metroid DNA implanted in her, which would allow him to revive the Metroids.
Quiet Robe opens a barrier to allow Samus to progress before he is assassinated by one of Raven Beak's robotic soldiers. Adam encourages Samus to defeat Raven Beak and destroy ZDR. In Elun, Samus encounters the X parasites and inadvertently releases them into the rest of the planet. One of the X infects Quiet Robe's corpse and reactivates the remaining E.M.M.I. robots. Samus arrives on the surface, where she is attacked by the last of the E.M.M.I. She destroys it by sapping its energy with her hand, a power that her Metroid DNA has granted her. As a side-effect, Samus is slowly becoming a Metroid.
On the floating fortress of Itorash, Samus confronts Raven Beak, who has been masquerading as Adam. Raven Beak reveals that he spared her before so that she would awaken her Metroid powers, at which point he would clone her to create an army of the most powerful Metroid of all. Samus battles Raven Beak and is nearly killed, but the Metroid abilities within her grant her incredible power. Samus attacks Raven Beak, draining energy from Itorash and causing it to crash into ZDR. Raven Beak is infected by an X that had possessed Kraid's corpse earlier, and Samus uses her new-found powers to destroy the X. Samus reaches her ship as ZDR begins to self-destruct, but is warned by Adam not to use it due to her energy-draining Metroid powers. The X mimicking Quiet Robe appears and allows itself to be absorbed into Samus to neutralize her Metroid abilities, allowing her to escape the planet before it explodes.
Sources and content license

Source and revision history ↗ · Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Metroid Dread. Section headings and formatting adjusted. · Content license