Varia Suit

Background

The Varia Suit, alternatively referred to as Barrier Suit and Varia Feature, is a Power Suit upgrade. Samus is most commonly depicted wearing this suit, but like many of her other upgrades, it is lost at or prior to the beginning of most games, requiring her to track the upgrade down at a later point in time. It is acquired by picking up an item, which is called the Varia in Metroid and Return of Samus.

In general, the Varia Suit reduces damage taken and protects Samus Aran from extreme heat. The maximum temperature that the Varia Suit can protect against is unknown, but the Gravity Suit is generally required for some of the higher temperature liquids. The name "Varia" is a mistranslation of the word "barrier" (although the Return of Samus manual uses the correct translation), which describes its shielding properties; coincidentally, it also resembles the English words "variety" or "variable", referring to how the suit can handle a variety of temperatures, a trait demonstrated in Metroid Fusion.

This dropdown contains the synopsis of the Varia Suit. Read at your own risk as you may be spoiled otherwise!

Traditionally, the Varia upgrade adds stronger, orange-colored armor plates onto the arms and legs of the basic Power Suit. The Varia Suit’s ridged shoulders are round and bulky, while the red chestplate becomes thicker with dual lights. In the original Metroid, the Varia Suit would turn Samus' armor pink, but a design change was made in Metroid II, as the Game Boy used a monochrome system. During Metroid: Zero Mission it just turns the flat-shouldered Power Suit orange; the Varia Suit with the iconic bulky shoulder pads is obtained after Samus' Power Suit is destroyed in her Starship's crash-landing. It is referred to as the Fully Powered Suit. She retains this suit for future use, which explains the jump from the sleek orange Power Suit in Zero Mission to the large-shouldered Varia in Metroid Prime. Gandrayda is able to morph into a copy of Samus, named "Samus-G", and wears the Varia Suit in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. In Fusion, the Varia upgrade (like much of Samus’s other equipment) is sent via Data Room. Unlike other upgrades, it is intercepted by a Core-X before Samus can reach it, necessitating the defeat of the Barrier Core-X and absorption of the X Parasite. Restoration of Varia functionality to the Fusion Suit changes its color scheme from blue over bright yellow to a yellow-green over a rich magenta, but does not alter its dimensions. For its appearance in Fusion Mode in Metroid: Samus Returns, the magenta and yellow green colors are changed to a darker green and pink, now resembling the color scheme of a Metroid. In Metroid Prime, she starts out with the Varia Suit, although after she was caught in a massive energy surge while activating an elevator to escape the doomed Frigate Orpheon, she lost most of her upgrades, including the Varia Suit, thus forcing her to adopt the comparably weaker Power Suit instead. She eventually regained the suit after defeating Flaahgra. In the later Prime entries, she retains her Varia Suit until getting further upgrades. In Metroid: Other M, the Varia Feature is noticeably different, and is not a starting item. The ridges on the shoulders appear to have been removed, along with the shoulders being slightly smaller, the top of the visor is more flat, and the lights on the chest plate have been altered, so that they curve from the side of the plate to the bottom. The lights on the legs have moved to the back of the legs and are less visible and the line pattern is also different. In-game, Adam authorizes Samus to use it shortly before the fight with the Goyagma. It features damage reduction again, like in the 2-D titles and Metroid Prime. When activated, while not changing the shape, it will turn the usual areas into a light orange.

Powers and Stats

Key: Standard Chozo Created Varia Suit | Tallon Chozo Created Varia Suit

Tier: 5-B to High 5-B | 2-A

Name: Varia Suit

Origin: Metroid 2: Return of Samus

Age: Unknown (The Legendary Varia suit is an ancient suit existing far before Samus' time)

Classification: Chozo Battle Suit, Samus Aran’s armor

Wielders: Samus Aran

Dimensionality: 3-D

Attack Potency: Planet level (Superior to the Power Suit which earlier versions of the power suit should be comparable to Grey who could break through Mother Brain’s shields which Mother Brain stated were the same shields protecting the planet] that required planetary tech from Ridley to penetrate a small part of it through. Mother Brain could also transform the entire planet of Zebe into a fortress. Equipped with an ice beam, which at a maximized range could freeze the surface of a star. Could theoretically make a super power bomb, which had enough power to destroy the planet) to Large Planet level (Later versions of the power suit are used by a Samus Aran who during her battle with Integras her battle power increases to where she is able to defeat the Integras when beforehand she couldn’t even dent him with her attacks, it is also noted that the Integras is 500 times more powerful than the prototype Samus fought equally with initially. Can later on fight an army of Integras. Can erupt an underwater volcano with a regular beam) | Hyper Multiverse level (Can fight and kill the Chozo Ghost, who exist in a higher hierarchical layer beyond the standard reality of the multiverse, with the Chozo Ghost viewing the regular reality as “temporal and fragile” within a single dimension)

Durability: Can absorb up to Planetary to Large Planetary levels of energy (The suits are noted to be equipment that passively absorb energy attacking Samus allowing her to survive hits from Mother Brain. Absorbed an attack from Ridley) | Can absorb up to Hyper Multiversal levels of energy (Can take attacks from the Chozo Ghost, Meta-Ridley and Metroid Prime)

Travel Speed: It is equipped with speed boosters that grant Supersonic travel (Is stated that Samus moves at supersonic speeds with the speed booster) | It is equipped with speed boosters that grant Supersonic travel

Range: Kilometers with Energy Beams (Samus can fire her arm cannon at Meta Ridley while he is far out in the sky) & Ice Manipulation (Ice Beam froze the ruins site), Higher with the Imperialist (The Imperialist fires a thin and lethal laser beam with high accuracy over long distances), Can find beings a Hyper Multiversal distance away with X-Ray Visors (Can find Chozo Ghost going outside of existence with the X-Ray Visor)

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Powers and Abilities

Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Enhanced Senses (Samus’ suit is built with an infrared ray scope allowing her to see even in the dark. Can detect the Shadow Pirates who use invisibility cloaks to sneak attack. The Thermal Visor uses thermography, allowing Samus Aran to locate enemies or objects by their heat signatures. It can be used to see Shadow Pirates and is also useful in total darkness, extreme cold, and in poor weather conditions, like those in Phendrana Drifts; though it functions poorly in superheated areas, such as the Magmoor Caverns. The X-Ray Visor can be used to spot invisible enemies and enemies that move outside of existence, even those that don't appear to the Thermal Visor, and it also allows Samus to see through flesh (when she lifts her arm in front of the visor, the bones in her arm can be seen), Bendezium, Cordite, and Sandstone. It can also detect illusions), Cosmic Awareness (The suit’s visors can translate telepathic messages from spectral beings. Samus’ suit can pick up on transdimensional activity), Self-Sustenance & Aquatic Breathing (Type 1. Has an oxygen tank inside the suit allowing Samus to breathe in space and underwater. Her power suit allows her to breathe in space and underwater without additional equipment), Homing Attack, Extrasensory Perception & Information Analysis (With the combat visor, gives her the basic feedback she needs to survive. It monitors her energy levels, all ammunition remaining, danger levels, and gives her feedback from the environment to pinpoint any anomalies to send her in the right direction. When enemies appear, they are surrounded by a reticle However, the Combat Visor only sees things in this dimension; therefore objects outside the visible spectrum or interdimensional objects cannot be seen. The scan visor, Samus can scan certain objects to learn more about them or perform a function. When a scan has finished, the game action freezes to allow Samus to read its contents. If Samus scans a creature, enemy or boss, Samus will gain useful hints on how to beat them, such as weak spots and behavioral patterns. Her morph ball bombs can home and attack themselves onto an enemy), Data Manipulation, Information Manipulation, & Transmutation (If Samus has weapon and ammunition stored as data in her suit she can transform the data of weapons into tangible forms. With Crystal Flash, Samus’ power suit can transform all of her weapons into health. Can convert data into her suit to gain further information about areas, such as getting an entire map, though she can do this even without her suit. Can download data of areas to get maps. Can hack into areas and oversurge them), Power Absorption (With Crystal Flash, Samus can absorb all of her weapons in order to heal herself completely), Regeneration & Restoration (Mid-Low passively. The suit passively repairs broken parts and small injuries. Low-Mid with concentration. With concentration, Samus can restore her missile supply and health), Technology Manipulation (The power suit reacts to Samus' thoughts, thus allowing her to be protected from damage in her zero suit state by automatically coming in an area she’s about to be attacked in), Body Control (The power suit is described as a “sort of second skin” for Samus protecting her zero suit from any form of harm. With the morph ball can change her suit into the shape of a ball to access smaller areas), Energy Absorption (Samus’ suit absorbs all the energy from attacks allowing Samus to withstand various attacks, absorbed an attack from Ridley), Reactive Adaptation (Her suit will at times adapt in situations that are fatal to Samus, for example in Metroid Prime Samus is susceptible and can take damage from the smallest amount of phazon, after defeating the Omega Pirate who is filled with Phazon and the enemy falls on her filling her with phazon the suit adapts to this protecting her by creating the phazon suit which resists the affects of phazon and can fire blasts of phazon), Energy Manipulation & Power Nullification (The power suit can shoot out charged energy blast, that can disrupt energy shields. With the charge beam, can charge in the energy to fire a more powerful blast. With the grapple beam, creates a beam of energy to swing around), Passive Attack Reflection (Her suit seems to passively reflect back beams shot at her. Can deflect projectiles by swinging her arm), Status Effect Inducement (Can stun enemies with counter), Explosion Manipulation (Can set explosions down with bombs), Durability Negation (Wave Beam can travel through objects hitting one's internal body), Ice Manipulation (Can freeze with the ice beam. With the ice beam can freeze beings in mid air, this extends to it being capable of freezing pure energy. The Ice Spreader is a Charge Combo for the Ice Beam in Metroid Prime. It uses a charged Ice Beam shot and 10 Missiles to create a powerful, homing blast of ice that can travel up to 20 meters until reaching a target. When this occurs, the shot explodes and creates a fast-spreading layer of ice over the target and surrounding area. The target and nearby enemies will either die or be frozen), Statistics Amplification (The range of her beam increases with the long beam. The speed booster boosts her speed while running. The hi-jump increases her maximum jump height. The morph ball increases one’s attack and defense everytime it bounces), Explosion Manipulation (With missile launcher, can fire out explosive missiles, and bombs, can fire out highly explosive bombs), Surface Scaling (Can grab and hang on to ledges with the power grip), Electricity Manipulation (Samus’ suit can reboot the technology and electricity of old broken down machines. Wave Beams are electrical energy that can kill Pulse Bombus and Scatter Bombu), Multiple Jumps & Flight (With the space jump, can jump continually into the air infinitely), Hacking (Can hack into areas to open locked doors), Magma Manipulation, Heat Manipulation, & Deconstruction (The plasma beam’s molten energy can turn enemies to ash), Fire Manipulation (The Flamethrower is the Beam Combo for the Plasma Beam. When this beam combo is unleashed, it emits a three-meter range continuous beam of fiery plasma. With Magmamaul, her weapon is powered by a hyperstatic hydrogen core, and fires cohesive projectiles of superheated magma), Vibration Manipulation (Plasma causes seismic activity), Momentum Manipulation (With boost ball, Samus stores up momentum before releasing it all in one instant to propel herself in a specific direction), Limited Physics Manipulation & Acrobatics (Can double jump with the space boots), Magnetism Manipulation (Can pull in beings and objects with a charged shot), Non-Physical Interaction, Soul Manipulation, & Immortality Negation (Type 7. Can kill the Chozo Ghost who are completely immaterial and can phase in and out of existence), Radiation Manipulation (With the Omega Cannon, a weapon with massive gamma radiation), Cold Manipulation (Using a sub-zero energy core, the Judicator is capable of firing thin blasts of freezing ice. The projectiles can bounce off a limited number of objects when fired, and can either freeze or destroy most targets with a few hits. Using a charged shot unloads three ice projectiles simultaneously, the temperature of the projectile almost reaches absolute zero), Electromagnetic Manipulation (With the Volt Driver, draws energy from the planetary electromagnetic field and converts it into multi tera-watt bursts of high voltage), Matter Manipulation & Life Manipulation (Shoots a contreated beam of high density neutrinos with the shock coiler which drains the target’s health), Absorption (Can absorb the energies of the light and dark aether), Aura (With the scan pulse, Samus is enveloped in a blue orb which releases outward in a pulse, revealing Map data over a 9x9 square range around her, and breakable walls, floors or blocks within that range will begin flashing and beeping for 10 seconds), Forcefield Creation & Statistics Amplification (With the Lightning Armor, Samus has a lightning forcefield around her that absorbs all attacks from enemies Aeion is consumed anytime it prevents physical damage and it strengthens Melee Counters), Can damage enemies with somersaults with the screw attack, Resistance to Acid Manipulation (Unaffected by the acid rain of Zebes), Ice Manipulation (Can break out of ice potent enough to freeze the surface of the sun. Can break out of being frozen), Absorption (None of the Megatroids could life absorb Samus), Gravity Manipulation (Could resist gravitational crushing, along with her morph ball naturally resisting it), Matter Manipulation (Can resist her atoms disintegrating), Acid Manipulation & Heat Manipulation (The Varia suit protects from acid and heat, the gravity suit stops lava damage), Lifeforce Draining (Can break out of the metroid’s lifeforce drain), Extreme Colds (The Varia suit protects Samus from sub-zero temperatures and freezing that’s done from within), Absorption (None of the Megatroids could life absorb Samus), Poison Manipulation (Can take hits from War Wasp who have venomous stingers that can even penetrate steel), Technology Mimicry (Samus’ tech cannot be properly mimic’d even by highly intelligent beings in verse who can work with phazon)

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Other

Weaknesses: The power suit is based on the user's emotions and thoughts, thus anything done to their emotions could weaken the power suit, for example, when Samus gets hit with PTSD.

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