Dark Energon
From Transformers Wiki
As energon is the emanation of Primus, from which all Transformer life and power is formed, Dark Energon (also known as the Sparks of Unicron, the Blood of Unicron, and the Anti-Spark) is the polar opposite of energon and the emanation of Unicron, released after his first battle with the thirteen original Transformers. In sufficient quantities, Dark Energon can corrupt quantities of regular energon (though it own effects can likewise be neutralized by sufficient quantities of energon). Dark Energon can be used for a number of deadly uses such as increasing one's power, reviving the dead, corrupting Transformers and even having an ambient weakening effect on them.
Effects
The violet-glowing Dark Energon supercharges any Transformer who ingests it, making them stronger, faster, more powerful... and more aggressive. It turns pain into pleasure, rendering any blows inflicted on a user futile and heals their wounds as well. However, it also acts as a powerful narcotic, filling the user with thrilling, dark sensations and causing addiction. Dark Energon withdrawal turns the user into a raving brute desperate to do anything for more. If the craving is not satisfied, the user devolves to a beast-like state and eventually dies.
Those who imbibe Dark Energon have been seen to project it from their bodies for various destructive purposes, such as attacking enemies, overloading computers, and bringing machines under their control. When a user is killed, the energy acts like a sentient thing (a worrying aspect for a force originating from Unicron) and flies from their corpse to empower any other user nearby.
Pieces of Cybertron infected by Dark Energon tend to turn purple and explode upward into twisted, sharp spikes and growths of metal. Some Dark Energon wielders have even shown the ability to detonate a cluster of these spikes in order to produce a group of mechanical spider-like creatures, which swarm anything nearby.
A Cybertronian corpse injected with Dark Energon will reanimate itself as a feral zombie, intent on destroying all in its path. They are mostly mindless berserkers, but can be commanded by a living Cybertronian who has also been corrupted by the evil energy. If part of a reanimated Cybertronian corpse is cut off from the main body it loses its ability to move with two exceptions: Cliffjumper's corpse still moving even after being cut in half and Skyquake's arm moving on its own after falling off the body. (Though it should be noted that both of these were revived by a single shard plunged directly into their corpses.)
In Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Megatron was revived through Dark Energon without apparent ill effect, but Predacons Rising would later reveal that his overuse of the stuff prevented him from joining the Allspark after dying, instead being confined to a limbo existence. Unicron was then able to use his connection to Dark Energon to easily revive and possess Megatron. Whether the same effects can be expected for all users or just for Megatron, who was kept alive by the substance for a prolonged amount of time, is unknown.
Fiction
Aligned continuity family
Aligned novels
The gathering and storage of Dark Energon aboard the-then newly constructed Trypticon was organized by an early assembly of the High Council that included Sentinel Prime. The station was guarded by Seekers who were mostly unaware of the nature of Dark Energon. During the civil war, Starscream claimed the station for the Decepticons, but of fear he did not let Megatron know about Trypticon's significance, and despite his allies' attempts they could not find much of the information about Trypticon on the DataNet had been censored (by Alpha Trion, who knew that knowledge of Dark Energon was dangerous).
During the last days of the war Soundwave found forgotten corners of the DataNet referring to "Sparks of Unicron". Megatron forgave Starscream, acknowledging his fears about Dark Energon's overly destructive use on the battlefield, and because the Air Commander had not tried to use it against him. Shockwave forced two of Starscream's scientists to ingest Dark Energon and the explosive result led to the Darkening of all of Megatron's soldiers. Megatron and Starscream both found the substance invigorating, but a deprivation study of the first two subjects showed they had become rabid, and Megatron vowed he would kill all his soldiers before he was deprived. The Darkened Decepticons attacked the remaining Autobot outposts on Cybertron, but to the Autobots' advantage, whenever a battle was prolonged, the Decepticons would have to flee or risk having the Dark Energon run out.
Soundwave learned of the Geosynchronous Energon Bridge, which could transport vast amounts of energon from Cybertron to Trypticon to be corrupted. Starscream activated it, but it proved futile in quenching the Decepticons' thirst. Soundwave recalled the Plasma Energy Chamber within Teletraan-1 and the Code Keys required to activate it. The Chamber would enable Megatron to corrupt Cybertron's core and flood the planet with Dark Energon. During the ensuing battle with Omega Supreme for the Chamber, the more the Autobots killed the Decepticons, the more Dark Energon left their corpses to empower Megatron, who was able to knock Omega down and tear the Chamber from his chest.
After Megatron Darkened the core, Optimus Prime, Jazz and Prowl launched a rescue of Sentinel Prime in Kaon. They were met with little resistance, aside from two gibbering guards. Optimus recognized the Dark Energon had taken its toll on Decepticon competence. Afterwards, he, Bumblebee and Jetfire ventured to the core to rid it of the poisonous Chamber. The Dark Energon briefly tempted Jetfire to try some, while it distressed Bumblebee to the point he physically tore out the corruption spikes on the core, though it allowed Optimus to remove the Chamber. The core told Optimus the Autobots would have to leave Cybertron while it healed the planet, and gave him the Matrix of Leadership, which would one day act in concert with the core to restore their world. While leaving, Optimus chastised Megatron for turning his soldiers into addicts just to win the war while Starscream vowed never to use the substance again. Exodus
After Shockwave discovered Vector Sigma, he captured Alpha Trion for use as a substitute to the Key to Vector Sigma. Having anticipated this, the Prime had scrambled his neural net to deny Shockwave access to the computer. Undeterred, Shockwave, over Trion's warnings, pumped Dark Energon into Vector Sigma to try and override its security. Though the computer managed to hold off the infection until the Wreckers rescued Trion, the process had allowed the Quintessons to lock onto Cybertron's location. Retribution
Prime cartoon
The blood of Unicron himself, Darkness Rising, Part 2 Dark Energon was so rare on Cybertron that it was practically non-existent. Darkness Rising, Part 3 During the Great War, Megatron poisoned Cybertron's core with the substance. One Shall Rise, Part 3
When Megatron returned to Earth after three years in deep space, he brought with him a new supply of Dark Energon using a crystal of it to reanimate Cliffjumper's corpse, turning the dead Autobot into a Terrorcon. A liquid sample was capable of sapping a Cybertronian's strength and animating machinery into animalistic robots. Megatron, being Megatron, thought it'd be a jolly good idea to shove some into his own spark. Darkness Rising, Part 2 He survived and began to gibber and rant about the power and how it was like he could hear Unicron's thoughts...
Optimus Prime recognised what Dark Energon was, surprising Ratchet that the substance had found its way to Earth. Suspecting Megatron's endgame, Optimus led Ratchet to the site of an old Transformer battle. When Megatron arrived, he confirmed his enemy's suspicions by using a Dark Energon crystal to revive the fallen warriors. Darkness Rising, Part 3 Using the substance to control the undead, Megatron sent the Terrorcons against the two Autobots, the Dark Energon sapping their strength, before he revealed that this was not his endgame. Upon discovering that the Decepticons had built a space bridge, they realized Megatron intended to reawaken Cybertron's fallen soldiers, and bring them to Earth to conquer the planet. Darkness Rising, Part 4 While Megatron was able to throw his store of Dark Energon crystals into the space bridge and reanimate the Terrorcons, the Autobots sabotaged the space bridge, causing it to collapse on itself, taking Megatron and the Terrorcons with it before they could cross the event horizon. Darkness Rising, Part 5
The Dark Energon infusion sustained Megatron beyond the explosion, long enough for Starscream to find him floating in space. Discovering the cause of his survival, Starscream ripped the Dark Energon crystal out and prepared to leave Megatron to die, only to have to take Megatron back to the ship when Laserbeak discovered them. Masters & Students
After a cortical psychic patch, Sick Mind Megatron escaped from his own body into Bumblebee's, using the scout to recover the Dark Energon crystal he had used to create his test batch of Terrorcons, using it to repair his own body. Out of His Head
While Megatron had revived himself, he had forgotten that Starscream possessed the original shard of Dark Energon ripped from him. Now back in a subordinate position, Starscream's previous opposition to using Dark Energon to raise an undead army vanished when he tried to raise Skyquake from the dead. Starscream broke the shard in half, one to raise Skyquake, the other to achieve symbiosis. While it managed to raise Skyquake, the new Terrorcon became trapped in the Shadowzone, depriving Starscream of his new warrior. Shadowzone
As a prophesied planetary alignment neared, the Dark Energon in Megatron's spark, all that remained of his stockpile, began plaguing the tyrant with visions of a volcano erupting Dark Energon. The visions led Megatron to believe that he could harvest a new supply Dark Energon from the volcano and reanimate a new army with which to conquer the galaxy. The Dark Energon also affected Megatron's weapon systems causing them to now fire Dark Energon rounds, one such blast infecting Raf Esquivel with the substance forcing Ratchet to expel it by using normal Energon to counteract its effect.
Traveling alone to the volcano, Megatron believed it to be the site where he should place his new space bridge before he confronted by Optimus Prime. Challenged to a final battle, Megatron was ultimately defeated before the planetary alignment struck leading to a surge in Dark Energon levels, the power-boost allowing Megatron to turn the tide seconds before he could be executed. Before Megatron could himself execute Optimus, the volcano erupted Dark Energon. One Shall Fall The miners were quickly tasked to mine the substance, filling the hold of the Nemesis with it. As chaos continued to mount on Earth, it was discovered that the Dark Energon had come directly from Unicron himself, the physical remains of the Chaos Bringer being Earth's core. One Shall Rise, Part 1 When the Autobots infiltrated Unicron's body to unleash the Matrix of Leadership on him, the Dark Energon began to disorient Bulkhead. One Shall Rise, Part 3
After the Nemesis crashed, Armada Megatron inserted a Dark Energon cube into the ship's power core, quickly repairing it but also reawakening the ship's intelligence, leading it to mutiny against the crew. The intelligence only returned to dormancy when the Dark Energon was extracted from the power core. Flying Mind
Megatron used a chunk of Dark Energon to forge the Dark Star Saber, a counterpart to the Star Saber. The dark version of the Saber ultimately proved stronger than the original, shattering Prima's weapon in their first duel. Alpha/Omega
During Knock Out's experiments with Synthetic Energon, Starscream had the bright idea of adding some Dark Energon into the mix, so that Megatron would be able to control the resulting troopers. Unfortunately the mix instead altered those it was infused into, causing them to burn through their energon reserves and turning them into energon-sucking zombies. Thirst
A revived Unicron, possessing Megatron's corpse, was able to create numerous weapons out of his own Dark Energon powers such as cannons, hammers, spears and hooks, the cannons of which were capable of forcing even a Predacon into stasis lock with just a few hits. Unicron would later use his own Dark Energon powers to create a Terrorcon legion from Predacon remains and use them to attack the Autobots, Decepticons and Predacons before having them go for Primus himself, only to be destroyed when Unicron was sealed away. Predacons Rising
Yokohama Decepticon Secret Base
Ask Vector Prime
In Aurex 503.21 Gamma, Alpha Q's universe was lit by a Super Energon/Dark Energon star. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/06/03
In Primax 509.28 Epsilon, a hyper-intelligent Grimlock used the Dark Energon in Unicron's head to grant life to the Technobots, a feat that should have been thousands of years ahead of its time. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/07/23
One universe's Thunderwing was addicted to dark energon. Thunderwing became a Herald of Unicron after the Lord of Chaos offered an endless supply of his own lifeblood to quench Thunderwing's thirst for angolmois energy. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/09/19
Transformers vs. G.I. Joe
Disillusioned with Cybertron under Megatron's control, the Junkion Wreck-Gar took a self-destructive path, ingesting substances such as Dark Energon and Nucleon Nails, before a resurgent Optimus Prime inspired him back into action. Pax Megatronus
Beast Wars: Uprising
The G-Virus utilized Dark Energon to replicate the process which Unicron used to remake Megatron into Galvatron. Micro-Aggressions
Transformers I.Q.
When explaining Angolmois Energy, I-QUEUE compared it to Dark Energon. Transformers I.Q. #7
War for Cybertron Trilogy marketing material
Dark Energon was one of Galvatron's powers and weapons. Kingdom webpage[1]
Games
Transformers: War for Cybertron
Dark Energon was discovered over ten thousand years ago. When the Transformer race learned of its powerful yet volatile nature, it was sealed away in an orbital space station and placed under the watchful eye of the Seekers, including the scientific Jetfire and the former Sky Commander, Starscream. At some point, experimentation on Dark Energon began, and a small quantity of the substance became unstable. The resulting explosion ripped apart an entire section of the space station; a level of destruction beyond any weapon known to the Cybertronians. The horrors of Dark Energon were noted by many, such as Jetfire, and it was deemed that it must remain sealed for the rest of time. This continued to be the case for centuries, causing the existence of Dark Energon to become a myth that few believed.
After learning the existence of this substance, Megatron took a fleet of cruisers to lay siege to the station, crashing his own ship into it to gain entrance. Once inside, he had to battle the forces of Starscream and Jetfire, both of whom attempted to dissuade him, claiming that Dark Energon was impossible to control. As Megatron drew closer to the storage chamber, Starscream attempted to destroy the last remnants of Dark Energon, but Megatron was able to breach the core before the Sky Commander could complete the destruction. When the dark substance was finally revealed, Megatron, believing himself to be worthy of such a weapon, confidently immersed himself in it.
Despite Starscream's insistence that Dark Energon destroyed everything it touched, the Decepticon leader managed to control it, emerging more powerful than ever. His first act was to infuse Brawl and Barricade with Dark Energon; claiming it was their birthright. His second act was to cut through the final defenses between himself and the Seekers in a matter of seconds, thanks to his new power. Seeing Dark Energon being tamed, Starscream offered his services to Megatron, claiming he knew of an Energon Bridge that could produce more of the substance. Seeing this as an act of betrayal, Jetfire escaped the station in order to inform Zeta Prime of this treachery.
Shortly after this, Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker travelled into the depths of Cybertron in order to reactivate the Energon Bridge. Facing many defenses and enemy Autobots, they managed to corrupt the central generator of the Energon Bridge. Fending off the initial infection, the core attempted to defend itself and purge the Seekers, but the evil planes quickly brought it down. This allowed the Energon Bridge to activate and beam its contents to the orbital station, allowing mass production of Dark Energon.
With mass quantities of Dark Energon in his possession, Megatron sought to corrupt the whole of Cybertron by infesting the Core itself. To do so, he needed the Omega Key in order to get past the Omega Gate that barred entry to the centre of the Transformer homeworld. Thus, he assaulted Iacon in order to claim it from the Stellar Galleries. However, Zeta Prime learnt of this and spirited the key to his Vaults. During his journey to claim the Key, Megatron used his personal store of Dark Energon to corrupt doorways that blocked his entry, and his army made use of bombers carrying payloads tainted with the stuff. By this time, the Autobots had developed defenses against the Dark Energon (including auto-purging turrets and doors resistant to the energy), but the Decepticons were able to cut through them in short order.
Megatron eventually claimed the Omega Key, but this simply activated Omega Supreme: the true key to the Core of Cybertron. During the battle with the giant Autobot, Megatron made liberal use of Dark Energon to corrupt the Guardian of Iacon: first by tainting the Energon batteries he used to repair himself, and then by blasting a huge beam of Dark Energon straight into his damaged chest. Using him to open the Omega Gate, the Decepticons placed Corruptors into position and infected the Core itself, spreading Dark Energon all across the planet.
The effects were immediate as Dark Energon crystals began sprouting all around the planet. Megatron made frequent announcements to the remaining Cybertronian population, urging them to accept the "gift" of Dark Energon. Cybertron itself began to fighting back against the corruption, spawning repair arrays to try and shatter the crystals while the space slugs ate away at the underground corruption but the spread proved too rapid to counter. In fact, the Dark Energon even corrupted one such beast, transforming it into a ghastly abomination that spread Dark Energon and fed on the corrupted Core.
Upon his appointment to the position of Prime, Optimus led the Autobots to free Omega Supreme from the Decepticons, curing him of his Dark Energon infection. Gaining entry past the Omega Gate, they went into the depths of Cybertron in order to reach the Core, where they aided the space slugs in clearing Dark Energon crystals and Decepticons alike. Eventually, they reached the Core and killed the corrupted slug, but the corruption had already taken its toll on the Core. In order to preserve itself, it had to enter into a hibernation mode that would last for millions of years, rendering the planet uninhabitable. War for Cybertron
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
The Dark Energon infection on Cybertron caused the planet's production of life-giving Energon to shut down, forcing the Autobots and Decepticons to stock pile every last drop they had. Megatron blamed Optimus Prime's interference for this turn of events. The infection of Cybertron's core also forced the Insecticons who lived near Cybertron's core to rise further to the surface to search for Energon. This allowed Shockwave to recruit them into the Decepticon ranks. After Shockwave had found an ancient space bridge tower in the Sea of Rust, he used it to harvest energy from other worlds. The conversion of these resources into energon caused a toxic by-product to be released, which some Autobot scouts initially suspected was Dark Energon. When rebuilding Megatron after his defeat at the hands of Metroplex, Soundwave used Dark Energon to revive the Decepticon leader. The infusion made him stronger, faster and a much deadlier foe than he was before. Fall of Cybertron
Transformers Prime: Terrorcon Defense
Dark Energon was the main point of struggle in the game as the selected Autobot had to keep away Vehicon forces from retrieving them and returning with Terrorcon reinforcements. Transformers Prime: Terrorcon Defense
Transformers Prime: Battle For Energon
Bulkhead infiltrated the Decepticons' Dark Energon mines to snatch away several Dark Energon shards before the Decepticons could use them to raise an army of Terrorcons. Transformers Prime: Battle For Energon
Transformers: Prime - The Game
When a gigantic asteroid composed entirely of Dark Energon hurtled towards Earth, the Nemesis intercepted it and towed it into Earth's orbit. Once the Autobots became aware of this development, Ratchet sent Optimus Prime, Arcee, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead onto the surface of the Nemesis via GroundBridge to stop them. As the other Autobots take care of incoming Vehicon Jets, Optimus fought his way to the flight deck and severed the anchor. Having planned for this, a backup towing system, this one on the warship's underbelly, switched on. Unable to target the anchor points, the Autobots leapt to the asteroid, being able to destroy the anchors before a battle with Megatron and several drones caused the asteroid to become unstable, splintering into several pieces, falling to Earth along with the Autobots, unable to fly off and to safety as the Decepticons could. When Megatron touched down on the Nemesis, he ordered Starscream to recover as many of the meteorites as possible.
When Ratchet located Optimus, he found him under the claw of the monstrously huge robot half-buried in the Dark Energon meteorite, whom Optimus horrifyingly recognized as Thunderwing, the herald of Unicron. Though the Prime and the herald fought, Thunderwing was downed by the artillery of the Nemesis, being brought aboard the warship for examination. Aboard ship, it was found that a good chunk of Thunderwing's internals were missing, likely embedded within the Dark Energon chunks of the meteor, before he was reactivated. Thunderwing bargained with the Decepticons to repair him, with the group indeed finding his missing parts within the Dark Energon, with the captive Ratchet fixing him. When Thunderwing was well enough however, he escaped on his own, raining down a trail of Dark Energon induced destruction to lure out Optimus Prime. When the Prime finally emerged, the herald attacked him with various Dark Energon weapons before Ratchet, who'd had a good look at Thunderwing's internal hardware, constructed an energon bomb that, if detonated internally, would disrupt Thunderwing's internal Dark Energon flow. While the device weakened the giant, Optimus finished him off with the power of the Matrix of Leadership, causing him to fall into a magma pit, triggering an eruption of Dark Energon. Transformers: Prime - The Game
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark
After Megatron had lured Optimus into a trap, he used a chunk of Dark Energon crystals to reanimate several fallen Autobot warriors. Hinting at some truth to the theory that the Dark Spark was connected to Unicron, the relic was not only able to control the Terrorcons but use Dark Energon to refuel itself. Despite this, its raw power proved insufficient to counter Optimus's mastery and skill over the Matrix of Leadership's abilities. Rise of the Dark Spark
Transformers: Forged to Fight
When the Quintessons dosed Windblade with Dark Energon, she began to have hallucinations that the titans [sic] were demanding her to destroy her comrades. Voices
Transformers Beyond Reality
Transformers Roleplaying Game
Dark Energon was said to have been created by Unicron. While powerful, Cybertronians who imbibed the substance quickly grew addicted and ran the risk of losing all compunctions and lashing out in a berserker rage. Decepticon Directive
Transformers: Earth Wars
Toys
Prime
- Rust In Peace Terrorcon Cliffjumper (Deluxe, 2012)
- A San Diego Comic-Con 2012 exclusive, "Rust In Peace" Terrorcon Cliffjumper comes with two Dark Energon accessories; a long shard of the stuff, and a shorter, more rubbery one ending in an "energy splash" that can grasp around the edges of his chest to represent, well, him being stabbed with Dark Energon to bring him back to "life."
R.E.D. [Robot Enhanced Design]
- Arcee (March 2021)
- Transformers R.E.D. Arcee includes a cuboid Dark Energon crystal accessory.
Notes
- Dark Energon shares several aspects of its nature with Angolmois Energy; both are powerful, corrupting energies described as the life force of Unicron and buried in Earth. At BotCon 2011, the Prime staff stated the similarity was a coincidence brought about by the staff having simply been unaware of Angolmois Energy, lacking any real knowledge or familiarity with the Japanese side of Transformers fiction. Ask Vector Prime had once upon a time equated the two terms before the Generations Selects comic expanded on the nature of Angolmois Energy
- Dark Energon was one proposal to explain the red markings on both Optimus Prime and Megatron's faces in The Last Knight, due to its mind-control abilities and the presence of Unicron in the film.[2]
- Wanting to add red markings to their faces, Director Michael Bay asked the animators at ILM to come up with an explanation for it. A related idea that visual effects artist Chris Zammit came up with was that a canister of normal Energon would be tossed onto Optimus/Nemesis Prime to free him from Quintessa's control.[2] The idea was scrapped, leaving the red markings as some kind of "paint" and Bumblebee's voice used as the device to restore Optimus Prime.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Dark Energon (ダークエネルゴン Dāku Enerugon)
- French: L'Énergon Noire ("Black Energon")
- Italian: Energon Oscuro
- Mandarin: Hēi'àn Néngliàng Jīngtǐ (黑暗能量晶体, "Dark Energy Crystal")
- Polish: Mroczny Energon
- Russian: Tjomnyy Energon (Темный Энергон)
- Spanish: Energon Oscuro
- Turkish: Kara Energon ("Dark Energon")
