Raven Beak represents the pinnacle of challenge in Metroid Dread. As ADAM has surely told you by now, Samus is no match for Raven Beak, even at her full power. You’ll have to rely on skill and chance for this fight, and you should be prepared to die a few times. With that all said, however, there are a few key tips towards getting you through Raven Beak’s three phases.
How to Beat Raven Beak in Metroid Dread
Focus on evasion alone through phase one
In Raven Beak’s first phase, he’ll be protected by an Aeion ability similar to the Lightning Armor from Samus Returns. None of your attacks will do damage to him in this stage, so just stay far away from him and try to keep yourself from being harmed. If Raven Beak fires off a “black hole”, as seen in the above screenshot, hit it with 4 missiles to recover health and ammo. Do not use Storm Missiles on the black hole, as they’ll waste more ammo for less damage overall.
Counter when the time is right
After a while of dodging Raven Beak, he should wind up for a punch and send himself careening towards Samus. This is your only opportunity to damage Raven Beak, and an opportunity to recover some more health. Wait until Raven Beak begins moving towards you, around the time he generates the sonic boom seen in the above image. Once this happens, press the melee counter button to stop him in his tracks. You’ll enter a cinematic where Raven Beak’s Lightning Armor drops, allowing you to do damage through its duration.
This one cinematic likely won’t bring all of his health down, so you’ll need to do this more than once. Stay evasive and keep your eyes peeled for another melee counter. Remember, shooting Raven Beak while his armor is active only pushes him towards using the supersonic rush once more. It does not actually damage him.
Use Storm Missiles while playing keep away in his second phase
After countering Raven Beak enough times, a cinematic should play wherein he sprouts wings. At this time, his Lightning Armor will be permanently deactivated, allowing free damage.
With Raven Beak’s new form, he’ll gain access to a few new attacks. Each of these has its own counter, listed below.
- Hyper Beam: When Raven Beak points towards one portion of the ground and doesn’t change aim, this means he’s charging the Hyper Beam. In order to avoid this, Flash Shift towards him until he’s backed against a wall. This will allow you a few free Storm Missile shots while he fires elsewhere.
- Machine-Gun: When Raven Beak aims specifically at Samus, as seen in the screenshot above, this means he’s getting ready to fire a continuous machine-gun barrage at the player. Screw Attack up, over, and around Raven Beak while staying just ahead of his aim until he runs out of ammo. This won’t offer you many opportunities to attack back, but you can still pin him with a Storm Missile while dodging if you’re quick.
- Flying Tackle: When Raven Beak positions himself against a wall, he’ll briefly flash before flying across the screen to the other wall at high speed. This attack can be avoided by jumping, but doing so is slow and cumbersome. Instead, opt to slide beneath Raven Beak just as he passes Samus.
In addition to the above three, Raven Beak also possesses a downwards slam similar to the one Chozo Soldiers use. This can be avoided simply by running or using the Flash Shift. After a few minutes of dodging these attacks and hitting Raven Beak with everything you’ve got, a short cinematic should play that recovers a bit of your health and ammo. This triggers the start of Raven Beak’s third phase.
Keep with your phase one strategies while looking for a counter
After entering his third phase, Raven Beak will return to using many of his powers from his first phase, but this time without his Lightning Armor to protect him. In addition, he gains three new abilities that you’ll have to learn to dodge in order to survive.
- Shinespark: Much like Samus, Raven Beak can fly across the room at high speed after charging up a Shinespark. You’ll notice this attack through the Shinespark’s tell-tale startup sound, along with Raven Beak appearing to “power-up”. Simply dodge this move by jumping over Raven Beak, there’s no damage you can do to him during his flight.
- The Sun: Raven Beak can charge up a miniature sun, as seen in the image above. This ball of fire will hang in the sky and fire out waves of plasma at Samus. In order to deal with this, drop a Power Bomb as soon as you see the sun warming up. This will destroy it and provide you with some much-needed health and ammo.
- Hyper Beam: Much like in phase two, Raven Beak’s Hyper Beam returns, and now he’s better at aiming. Raven Beak will stand in one section of the room and free aim directly at Samus. Jump into the air and bait him into locking on to your airborne location before dropping down beneath the beam. This will allow you to damage Raven Beak while the beam is firing.
Raven Beak’s behavior very much mimics his behavior in phase one for the rest of this phase. Just stand back and pelt him with Storm Missiles from afar, but keep your eyes peeled for a moment to counter him in melee. Finishing off Raven Beak requires you to engage in a melee counter sequence much like the one seen in the Chozo Soldiers. Failing this means a failure to win the fight. Watch out for the flashing lights telling you when to counter and Samus will deflect and dodge Raven Beak’s blows several times in a row for her finishing counter.
After defeating Raven Beak, get ready for one last cinematic Omega Blaster section and start your trip to escape the planet. After this, you’ve beaten Metroid Dread.
This guide covers everything you need to cleanly make your way through Metroid Dread’s toughest enemy. If you’re looking for other tips to get through Dread, including a primer on what to expect from Hard Mode, you can click here to find other guides for the game.
Metroid Dread is available now on the Nintendo Switch.
