Smoky Progg
| Smoky Progg | |
|---|---|
| |
| Appears in | N/A |
| Scientific name | Unknown |
| Family | Unknown |
| Areas | The Distant Spring |
| Attacks | Suffocates Pikmin, uproots sprouts |
The Smoky Progg is a hidden boss found only in the first Pikmin game, and is possibly one of the toughest. It is somtimes know as the 'zombie frog' due to its appearance. The only way to encounter it is to go into The Distant Spring area before day 15. It resides in the massive lake area, on a later useless mound of small islands. These, interestingly enough, appear to be an imprint in the ground left by a plastic bottle. However, it would have to be an enormous bottle, as the Progg itself is nearly as big as a bottle (noticable by viewing the one submerged in the Forest Navel). The Progg resides in an egg and if you touch the egg by any means, even with Olimar, it will break out. If you crowd the egg with a lot of Pikmin, you can easily defeat the Progg, but you won't get anything from it. The Progg, (when released from the egg), is a dark green and black creature, that sports glowing white eyes. The Progg also emits gases that are poisons to Pikmin. It can also uproot Pikmin sprouts. The Smoky Progg will follow you back to the landing site, so it's necessary to kill it. It has an incredibly high defense, so it takes a while to kill.
However, when killed it drops a small sphere, which, if carried to an Onion, will make 100 Pikmin seeds. Olimar's belief that it is a malformed Mamuta larva is most likely based upon the fact that both creatures effect Pikmin on a different end of the same spectrum; the Mamuta plants the Pikmin, (which enables them to become flower Pikmin), while the Progg uproots Pikmin and thereafter kills them. It could be possible that the Progg decomposes killed Pikmin and ingests them. However, Pikmin disappear without entering the Progg body; also, the Progg doesn't show any slowdown in speed, so this process would have to occur quickly. As the Mamuta doesn't feed on Pikmin, it is doubtful that its larval form would.
Strategies to Defeat the Smoky Progg
Large masses of Pikmin are not recommended to fight it; it is best to use a small number of reds. Around 20 should work well; swarming is utterly useless and will only result in all your pikmin dying. Wait until it uses the uprooting move, and then throw the reds onto its face. After the reds are shaken off, repeat the process. The only way to hurt it is to throw Pikmin onto its large head. Any Pikmin left walking in its trail will succumb to the poison. Occasionally, it will chase you around and not give up until your Pikmin die or you get far enough away, at which point it will forget it ever happened and you can attack it again.
Note: If you look at it from the back, you can see the small sphere it drops suspended inside of it. This is believed by some to be its heart.
Egg Glitch
In a rare case, if you walk up to the egg as Olimar with no Pikmin, circle the egg and press A to try to attack it, the egg won't take any damage, yet if you go back to an onion to get your blue Pikmin and return to the cluster of islands, the egg will be gone. The only way to reset the egg is to reset your game. Going to sunset and continuing to the next day will not bring the egg back.