>>33859607Both. We know the suit converts materials into energy as a matter of course.
You didn't think there were actually missile expansion packs just hidden all over the universe, did you? What you're finding is usable resources that can be turned into functional upgrades. Same reason enemies explode into usable energy and ammunition, why Crystal Flashing can convert ammunition into health, and Mother Brain's death ray drains your ammo as well as your energy. It's all the same resources, just differently partitioned and stored in different ways. Of course, she can also wholesale integrate fully functioning pieces of technology (like how you sometimes have to steal gear like the Thermal Visor in Prime), but the core functionality of the suit is energy-to-matter conversion and vice versa. That's not to say there's no mechanical functions within the suit; those big shoulder pads are actually radiators, for example, providing the Varia suit's near immunity to ambient heat. But in Prime we can even see that morph balling involves collapsing into an energy state surrounded by a floating metal shell. This is lampshaded by a pirate log about them trying to replicate it, but doing so by trying to actually have soldiers fold up inside a ball, to disastrous results.
You couldn't do the things her suit does if you only had one or the other.
