Power Suit:
Samus's basic Power Suit has decent durability feats, like how in Chapter 15 of Volume 2 of the Manga, Kraid stomps on Samus, only for her to get up after blowing him away, her Power Suit unscathed. Kraid just standing up causing his entire cavern to quake.
Varia Suit:
Of the iconic orange Varia Suit, page 24 of the Super Metroid Instruction Booklet says, "The Varia Suit cuts the damage from enemy attacks in half and allows you to explore in high-temperature zones." In other words, it doubles the Power Suit's shielding efficiency (its durability) while negating the effects of high temperatures. Unfortunately, "high-temperature" is a bit of a vague term, but we can see how that applies by how page 30 of the Super Metroid Instruction Booklet says, "The air in Norfair is unbearably hot for adventurers who are not equipped with a Varia." Norfair is the lava zone of planet Zebes, the planet Samus grew up on that is featured in both Metroid: Zero Mission and Super Metroid. Page 12 of the Metroid Zero Mission Player's Guide says,
"Maps of Zebes: Norfair
The air is warm and the pools are filled with a dangerous, gurgling brew in the planet's core region."
Thus, the Varia Suit keeps Samus safe from heat in planet Zebes's core.
As for what level this puts the Varia Suit at in durability...
In Chapter 12 of Volume 2 of the Manga, Grey Voice, a Chozo wearing an ancient suit of armor, escaped outside on a small plateau on a mountain after being impaled by Ridley. Here's a glimpse of the size of part of the plateau. Ridley, enraged that Grey Voice shot down one of the Space Pirate fighters, blasts Grey Voice with his plasma breath, and while the shot lands on top of the plateau, it also ends up crumbling the entire face of the mountain connected to that plateau.
By contrast, in Chapter 16 of Volume 2 of the Manga, after Samus obtains the Varia Suit, she faced Ridley in his lair. Surprised by her parents' killer, Samus ends up taking a complete shot of Ridley's plasma breath in her shoulder pauldron. However, the shot fails to do even cosmetic damage to the Varia Suit. Considering that the Varia Suit took much less notable damage than a mountain did by the same attack (no visible damage on the Varia Suit, as opposed to the plateau section of the mountain being pulverized), the Varia Suit's overall durability is thus at least as strong as a mountain's.
However, another clear comparison with mountain-level strength exists. Goyagma, a giant creature dwelling in the lava sector of the Bottle Ship in Metroid: Other M, is capable of supporting the sheer weight of an entire volcano's lava, as shown by how right after Samus kills Goyagma, the volcano drains extremely rapidly. Remember that lava is just the liquid state of rock, so the lava has a similar mass (thus, the density of magma and of granite are very similar). It's not like Goyagma has some sort of geokinetic ability, as during the fight in Other M's theater mode, Goyagma physically hurls lava with its hands at Samus. Despite this strength of Goyagma (holding up a mountain's worth of lava, and freely moving in the same substance, which is 100,000 times to 1.1 million times more viscous than water (according to this Live Science article), Samus in the Varia Suit is perfectly fine after Goyagma attempted to crush her. Again, the Varia Suit's total durability seems at least mountain level.
While these two feats seem to be the clearest comparisons for a mountain-level Varia Suit, throughout the series, this kind of durability is consistent with the threats that face Samus in the Varia Suit. In Metroid Prime Hunters, she faces several bounty hunters with powerful loadouts. There's Kanden, a hunter whose logbook entry states, "A disruptive electromagnetic field appears to surround the hunter KANDEN, analysis suggests voltage potential comparable to that found in lightning storms," and whose main weapon, the Volt Driver, is described in the logbook entry as, "The VOLT DRIVER draws energy from the planetary electromagnetic field and converts it into multi-terawatt bursts of HIGHVOLTAGE." Similarly, she faces Weavel, whose weapon the Battlehammer is described by the logbook as, "The BATTLEHAMMER is powered by a miniature nuclear reactor." There's also Spire, of whom the scan visor's logbook entry states, "Analysis of this creature's physiology indicates the presence of molten ferrous compounds normally found only in a planet's core," and with the Magmaul weapon described by page 7 of the Metroid Prime Hunters Nintendo Player's Guide as, "The Magmaul's hydrogen core burns at temperatures in the thousands of degrees, allowing it to expel deadly blobs of superheated magma." Finally, there's Noxus with his Judicator, of which the logbook entry states, "The JUDICATOR is powered by cold-fusion synthesis. It fires SUPERCOOLED PLASMA at temperatures approaching absolute zero."
Similarly, in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Samus with the Varia Suit and the Dark Suit (the latter of which only reduces damage from the Dark Aether toxins, and does not increase Samus's base defensive shielding) faces off against Quadraxis, whose logbook entry states, "The Quadraxis unit went rogue and entered the service of the Ing. Its primary weapon system fires destructive matter-antimatter blasts." In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Samus with the Varia Suit and the PED Suit (the PED Suit lets Samus harness the substance Phazon in a risky temporary state called hypermode for a maximum of twenty-five seconds each, but does not increase the Varia Suit's base defensive shielding when hypermode is not active) faced off against Mogenar, a Mogenar-class war golem enhanced by the Last Lord of Science's magic and a Leviathan's Phazon. Regular Mogenar-class golems, without magic nor Phazon, were described in the Bryyo Data entry Downfall (stored by Samus's scan visor in the logbook) as, "See the giant stone Mogenars do battle, destroying the land with their titanic blows."
Thus, Samus's Varia Suit has two favorable comparisons with mountains, and mountain-level durability is consistent with the magnitude and power of the foes she faces with just Varia Suit-level shielding.
The same level of damage Samus takes in the Varia Suit can also be dished out by her basic weaponry. Dark Samus 1's logbook entry notes, "She wears a version of the Varia Suit, altered and augmented by the Phazon within her," putting her at least on the same durability level as Varia Suit Samus. However, Samus still defeated her wielding the Power Beam, Charge Beam, and normal missiles, as page 27 of the Metroid Prime 2 Echoes Nintendo Player's Guide explains, "Dark Samus Battle - Phase 1...If you stand far away and fire missiles as fast as you can, many will breech the shield. It's a good way to damage your doppelganger early...Charge up your Power Beam and run to her side, then wait for her to stop glowing. The moment she does, hit her with the beam. Upon defeating Dark Samus, take an elevator to..." Thus, with the normal missiles, the Power Beam, and the Charge Beam, Samus is able to defeat Dark Samus 1, who is at least as durable as the Varia Suit.
Gravity Suit:
As described in page 24 of the Super Metroid Instruction Booklet,
"Gravity Suit
This suit reduces the damage from enemy attacks to one fourth and allows you to move freely in water-filled areas."
The one fourth refers to the Gravity Suit on top of the Varia Suit, showing that it has twice the shield efficiency as the Varia Suit. In addition, page 73 of the Super Metroid Nintendo Player's Guide states, "You can't reach Ridley's hideout by bombing through the narrow upper path. The only way in is through the lake of lava. With the Gravity Suit to protect you and the Space Jump for extra jumping power, you can spin safely up to the entrance." Thus, the Gravity Suit no-sells submersion in lava and grants Samus full mobility in liquid environments, even under lava.
Being twice as durable as the Varia Suit puts the Gravity Suit at twice the sort of mountain-level strength of just the Varia Suit. This, like with the Varia Suit, seems consistent with the sort of opponents Samus faced with the Gravity Suit. Samus was able to face the Diggernaut and win with the Varia and Gravity Suits, when the Diggernaut was used by the Chozo to dig out their colony to the center of planet SR388.
SA-X Suit on its Own:
At the beginning of Metroid Fusion, the last game in the Metroid timelines so far, Samus was infected by an X-parasite, a creature that devours its prey, then uses the absorbed material and memories to replicate it. In desperation, the Galactic Federation removed Samus's infected suit parts (including the Varia and Gravity Suits), but Samus's condition did not improve. While Samus was eventually saved by an infusion of Metroid DNA, the suit parts were shipped off to the Biologic Space Laboratories, where the X-parasite, armed with Samus's DNA, creates a copy of Samus Aran, known as the SA-X.
However, when X-parasites copy, they can also use their shapeshifting abilities and previous stores of DNA to make improvements and alterations. For instance, they make standard Hornoads into more terrifying creatures after infection and replication. Similarly, the SA-X altered Samus's suit. Whereas the Gravity Suit is twice as durable as the Varia Suit (takes half the damage the Varia Suit would otherwise take), the AI ADAM notes to Samus that the SA-X is completely immune to all attacks in her arsenal at the time, forcing her to use a penetrating weapon, like the Plasma Beam (which makes sense, given that page 24 of the Super Metroid Nintendo Player's Guide describes the Plasma Beam as "This is the most powerful Power-Up beam you can find. You instantly see that your firepower is exponentially increased when you have the Plasma Beam equipped."). Considering that the Power Beam, Charge Beam, and normal missiles could deal damage to the enhanced Varia Suit of Dark Samus 1, this puts the SA-X's defenses well above even the Gravity Suit's, which is already twice the mountain-level Varia Suit.
This level of durability is further corroborated by the official guides. The Prima Two-in-One Guide for Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion explains on page 110, "The SA-X catches up to Samus in the next room, so just keep running. You absorb a few hits, but you don't have the firepower to turn around and fight, so just keep going." Page 123 of the same guide adds, "When you reach the next room, leap over the roots and set off a Power Bomb. As you can see, the SA-X is right behind you." The Metroid Fusion Nintendo Player's Guide describes the same encounter on page 78, "Your first enemy encounter in the Sector 2 shortcut will be a terrifying SA-X battle...all you can do is freeze it with Ice Missiles and run away."
This means that the SA-X no-sells every weapon Samus had up to the time. These include the Super Missile enhancement, which triples the firepower of normal missiles, and the Wide Beam, which page 32 of the Metroid Fusion Instruction Booklet states, "Use the Wide Beam to shoot three normal beams at the same time." This means that the SA-X no-sells weapons three times more powerful than those that Samus used to defeat Dark Samus 1. In addition, the weapons the SA-X no-sells include Power Bombs, of which page 69 of the Super Metroid Nintendo Player's Guide notes, "Explode a Power Bomb beneath the floor to vaporize the blocks, then Dash from the far right," and page 78 says, "Ridley, Mother Brain's master of mayhem, returns for the second time...First use Super Missiles, then lay Power Bombs on alternate sides of the platform. Finish him with Missiles and the Charge Beam if necessary." Thus, the SA-X also no-sells Power Bombs, which vaporize rock and damage Ridley, who, as mentioned before, lives in a lair accessibly only through a lake of lava (page 31 of the Super Metroid Instruction Booklet calls him "Ridley (The Boss of Norfair)". Thus, even the ability to no-sell magma and survive in the core region of planet Zebes is insignificant in comparison to the SA-X's defenses, which is consistent with the SA-X being far more durable than even the Gravity Suit.
In terms of how Samus's firepower stacks up, as mentioned before, her ice missiles can freeze the SA-X. Considering that page 50 of the Metroid Prime Hunters Instruction Booklet says, "If Noxus uses the charge attack with the Judicator, its shots freeze the target," and how earlier I cited how the Judicator's shots already fire at near-absolute zero, it shows that even uncharged shots don't freeze the Varia Suit. Thus, the Ice Missile is of greater cold potency than the uncharged Judicator shots. This level of cold works with the Diffusion Missile enhancement, as page 85 of the Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion Two-in-One Guide states, "Diffusion Missile...Hold R until charged, then press B...One shot shot freezes everything within the blast radius. This power also translates to Samus's Ice Beam, as the Ice Missile enhancement was just a replacement for the Ice Beam (since Samus's Metroid DNA wouldn't cooperate with an Ice Beam addition), and is consistent with how page 73 notes, "The Magdollites are creatures of lava. They rise up like columns of fire, then shoot lava bombs. Fight fire with ice, freezing the Magdollite with the Ice Beam as the creature starts to emerge from the flame," and with how Samus can freeze Goyagma's arm with a charged Ice Beam shot for a time before it shatters the ice.
As mentioned before, the Plasma Beam is a piercing weapon. Page 33 of the Metroid Fusion Instruction Booklet states of the Plasma and Wave Beams:
"Plasma
This beam passes through enemies, hitting multiple targets.
Wave
Shoot through obstacles with this undulating beam."
Interestingly enough, even with this level of power and the ability to bypass defenses, Samus has to use charged shots of the beam. Page 141 of the Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion Two-in-One Guide states, "Missiles don't hurt the SA-X, so you must use charged-up Wave Beams."
Thus, the SA-X has multi-mountain levels of durability, surpassing the Gravity Suit, and Samus's charged power-wide-plasma-wave beam (shortened in the guide to just the Wave Beam) can pierce through that level of defense. This is consistent with how page 8 of the Metroid Fusion Nintendo Player's Guide states, "Samus's Wave Beam defeats enemies with the power of a tsunami," when tsunamis can hold the energy of 23,000 times the energy of a 20 kiloton explosive, which is greater than the energy of the Mount Saint Helens eruption.
Beyond the SA-X Suit:
Towards the end of Metroid Fusion, Samus has obtained another Varia and Gravity Suit to replace those stolen by the X parasite. She also acquires the Screw Attack and Speed Booster, of which page 11 of the Metroid Fusion Nintendo Player's Guide explains, "Samus's signature move is the Screw Attack, which turns her into an invincible buzz saw of a bounty hunter while she is spinning through the air...If she gets a long running start, Samus will become blurringly fast and temporarily invincible." Obviously "invincible" would be a no-limits fallacy, but it does mean that both of these items render her immune to the attacks she faces in Metroid Fusion, including the SA-X's own beam, which has a power equal to Samus's.
Furthermore, the Screw Attack's offensive aspect is more powerful than her other attacks in Metroid Fusion, including the Power Bomb, the Super-Ice-Diffusion Missiles, and the Charge-Wide-Plasma-Wave Beam. When Samus has all of her items in Metroid Fusion other than the SA-X's suit/beam and the Screw Attack, the Metroid Fusion Nintendo Player's Guide says on page 98, "The right side of the vertical passage in the unmapped area is loaded with mindless and seemingly invincible creatures that float back and forth," showing that even the firepower that damages the SA-X can't damage these. After acquiring the Screw Attack, Samus can destroy them, as page 101 says, "Those mindless, floating fiends aren't invincible after all. You can blaze through a wave of them and through several wall sections as you Space-Jump with Screw Attack power." In addition, Samus has the Space Jump, which lets her somersault repeatedly in the air, so when paired with the Screw Attack, this means that Samus can heavily discourage close-range combat while also defending herself from a range.
Even without using the Screw Attack or Speed Booster, Samus's durability is above the SA-X's. As mentioned earlier, Samus's suits stack. Thus, when at the end of Metroid Fusion, she absorbs the SA-X, she acquires its suit and its Ice Beam, making her more durable than before and, because she has her own Varia and Gravity Suits from Metroid Fusion, she is much more durable than the SA-X. This is showcased in the final fight with the Omega Metroid. As the Prima Two-in-One Guide for Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion explains on page 142, "Suddenly, the blue X floats by and morphs into the SA-X. It steps in front of Samus and attacks the Omega Metroid. It fights valiantly, but another claw swipe turns the SA-X back into X. Jump up and grab the X to restore Samus's weapons and energy...as fast as you can while staying away from its claws. The Omega Metroid advances to the left each time Samus is hit, and it is easy to be trapped in the corner..." Thus, the difference is from the SA-X being one-shotted by the Omega Metroid (X parasite creatures turn back into their original X forms when their body is destroyed) to Samus with the SA-X's suit being able to take hits from the Omega Metroid. Scaling this far above the Varia, Gravity, and SA-X Suits, Samus by the end of Metroid Fusion should be approximating a mountain range in durability.
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