Metroid Dread amiibo grant permanent in-game boosts

By Eric Abent/June 17, 2021 12:12 pm EST

Metroid Dread was one of the surprise announcements of Nintendo's E3 Direct, and the new game was revealed alongside a pair of amiibo. One of the amiibo depicts Samus in her new armor with the second depicting EMMI, the robot featured in Metroid Dread's reveal trailer. These amiibo will be offered together, and today, we're learning what happens when you scan one of them while playing Metroid Dread.

Many retailers have published listings for this amiibo double pack that reveal the price ($30) and detail what the amiibo do. According to GameStop's listing, the first time the Samus amiibo is scanned in Metroid Dread, it'll grant players an extra Energy Tank, permanently increasing their health by 100. The first time the EMMI amiibo is scanned, it'll grant a Missile+ Tank, increasing the total number of missiles Samus can carry by 10.

Players can then scan the Samus and EMMI amiibo once a day to replenish health and missiles, respectively. Nintendo often locks some in-game bonuses behind amiibo – Breath of the Wild, for instance, grants random items and food when a Legend of Zelda amiibo is scanned – but this habit of pairing in-game bonuses to amiibo hasn't always gone over well with Nintendo's player base.

For instance, Nintendo recently caused a stir among Switch owners when it was revealed that a Skyward Sword HD amiibo featuring Zelda and her Loftwing would enable fast travel from anywhere on the Surface to Skyloft. In the original game, players could only return to Skyloft from the Surface by finding specific travel points, but the amiibo alleviates the need for that.

For the most part, Nintendo's amiibo bonuses seem to be centered around removing some of the tedium from games or making them slightly easier. At the end of the day, an extra Energy Tank or 10 more missiles aren't going to make a huge difference for Metroid Dread players, but we're still guessing there will be some players who aren't happy with the fact that permanent in-game boosts are locked behind a $30 pair of amiibo.