Samus Aran has encountered many ferocious enemies throughout her travels in the Metroid franchise, but few are as intimidating as the mechanical enemies in Metroid: Samus Returns.
The Diggernaut is quite possibly the most terrifying, which is surprising considering the game is filled with numerous Metroids and yet another version of Ridley. This guide will show you how to beat the Diggernaut in battle on Planet SR388.
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Your First Diggernaut Encounter
Your first encounter with the Diggernaut involves Samus accidentally freeing it from a pile of rubble in Area 3. Instead of being grateful about it, the mechanoid decides to be grouchy about the whole thing and runs away into the background.
Your Second Diggernaut Encounter
Your second encounter with the Diggernaut is quite a bit more violent than the first. As you drop down beneath the destroyed Chozo Statue and Save Station in Area 4, the Diggernaut will start drilling from the left side of the screen, forcing you to run for your life through the next set of rooms.
This may take several attempts, but being quick on the draw with destroying blocks and grappling across gaps will help you survive the ordeal. The chase ends when you climb into a small Morph ball-sized hole in the wall on the far right side of a long tunnel. The Diggernaut will roar at you in anger, but thankfully it spits out the Space Jump upgrade to make your life a little easier.
Your Third Diggernaut Encounter
The third time you encounter the Diggernaut, it's in the process of destroying another Chozo Statue in Area 6 (it really doesn't want you to get any stronger).
How To Beat Diggernaut
Your fourth and final encounter with the Diggernaut is at the tail end of Area 6 after fighting your first Omega Metroid. This time, Diggernaut decides to fight you directly, instead of messing with you by stealing your upgrade when it is just within reach.
The battle has multiple phases and requires some dexterity on your part, so get ready for a tough one.
Diggernaut Boss Fight – Phase One
The Diggernaut boss fight begins with it extending its drill arms in one of two patterns.
In one of them, it will extend both drills in front of itself to create two vertical pillars in the center of the screen. It will spread both drills outward, then back inward several times. To avoid this, just Space Jump over the arms repeatedly until it ends the attack.
The other pattern will extend the drills at two points staggered from each other on one side of the screen, then move them both in a sweeping motion across the arena while alternating each drill up and down in a wavelength pattern. Time your jumps over the lower drill to avoid the attack.
After you avoid both attacks, Diggernaut will extend its head toward the screen and emit a red laser from its eye in a rotating pattern. Avoid the laser and shoot at its head with Super Missiles to do the most damage.
This will be the only chance in this phase to damage the head!
After finishing its eye laser attack, Diggernaut will occasionally stab both drills into the ceiling, dropping large purple orbs. This is actually a good thing because destroying these with your Plasma Beam will replenish some of your lost energy and missiles.
Once you've done enough damage, Diggernaut will recoil and rest its drills on either side of the screen. Focus on the left drill and wait for the segments to rotate into position so the flat surface faces you.
Spider Ball up the surface to the top segment and slowly roll down the center once the path to the drill core lines up. Drop down to the pink drill core and drop bombs to destroy it.
Diggernaut Boss Fight – Phase Two
The Diggernaut will now begin to add some new attacks after you've damaged its core. It will start a large vacuum and sweep from one side of the screen to the other. Switch to Morph Ball mode, and drop bombs in the vacuum's path, causing Diggernaut to inhale them and damage itself.
Once the vacuum attack begins to corner you, space jump over it and repeat the bombing run. If it sucks you in it will do a lot of damage, so avoid it at all costs.
Diggernaut will also begin shooting a tracking laser while it drops the purple orbs from the ceiling. Just avoid the laser while you refill your lost energy, nothing fancy here.
The eye laser attack has now added a third laser during this phase, effectively restricting your movement to a smaller space than before. Continue to Space Jump around the head while firing Super Missiles at it to damage it.
Once you've done enough damage to Diggernaut, it will recoil and rest on its drills again. This time, focus your attention on the drill to the right and wait for the surface panels to align again.
The timing on this side is a bit trickier than the left so it's best to use your Phase Drift ability to give yourself time to focus on the movements. Just like before, drop to the pink drill core and bomb it to destroy it.
Diggernaut Boss Fight – Phase Three
Immediately after destroying the right side drill, Diggernaut will emit red lasers on either side of the screen. Pay attention to where they are lined up, and jump over and between them to avoid the attack.
Diggernaut will follow up the eye lasers with a ground pound, alternating smashing down in the center of the room and the sides of the room. It lifts the drills up pretty high, so run underneath them as they go by, then jump over the shockwave on the floor.
When it extends its head toward the screen in this phase, Diggernaut will electrify itself, so wait until the electricity dissipates before using your Spider Ball to attach to its head.
Your objective is to bomb the three pink nodes that are now exposed since the armor is destroyed.
Be mindful of where the blue lights are as they rotate around the head because the central core will only be damaged when there is a direct path to it from the pink nodes on the outside.
Upon destroying the central core, Diggernaut collapses and drops the Power Bomb upgrade before Samus finishes it off.
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