Groovy Long Legs

The Groovy Long Legs is a member of the Arachnorb family and only appears once as a boss in. It is one of two bio-mechanical enemies seen in the game, with its carapace suggested to have been completely replaced with a spinning disco ball, with its numerous eyes serving as both photoelectric sensors and lights. The beast's four bony white legs are wrapped with strands that look similar to electrical wire and the second set of joints on all of its limbs have sets of four holes containing exocrine glands. The torso contains a speaker that plays all of the audio heard from the creature in-game.

Like most Arachnorbs, the Groovy Long Legs attacks by stomping its four large feet around. This is where shared qualities end though, as the rest of its strategy involves spewing neurologically manipulating gasses below itself, which, when coming into contact with Pikmin, hypnotizes them to dance uncontrollably. It then switches the color of its eyes before speeding up the rhythm of its stomping in an attempt to squash anything afflicted by the chemicals underneath it.

In both size and mechanics, it resembles the Raging Long Legs, being an Arachnorb with a larger-than-average torso and an attack pattern that starts slow, but can speed up tremendously.

Behavior
The Groovy Long Legs will be passive upon first being encountered, hanging from a web on the ceiling with its main body close to the ground. In this state, its eyes shine a cyan light and a flickering speaker hum can be heard when standing close.

When attacked, the Groovy Long Legs will quickly descend from its web, breakdancing as it slams its body into the floor by swinging its legs into place, knocking back the player character, Pikmin, or Oatchi. At this point, the music plays the opening boss battle theme before being replaced with the creature's own electronic music.

During the battle, the Groovy Long Legs stomps to the beat of its own theme, with these stomps being its method of killing Pikmin. At times during the fight, it will stop to spray pink gas beneath it from holes in the lower joints of its legs; this is preceded by four smaller clouds of gas as it preps its attack, acting as a warning. Pikmin sprayed by this gas will fall under the control of the beast, a process referred to by Olimar as the "Endless Dance," and will stay frolicking beneath the creature aimlessly. Unlike other hazards in the game, such as fire and ice, attempting to whistle your Pikmin does not free them from the effects of the gas (similar to the spores released by the Puffstool found in Primordial Thicket).

The only way for Pikmin to be freed from the effects of the gas is to wait for the Groovy Long Legs to calm down and return to its base tempo stomping (where its eyes are cyan). However, after sustaining heavy damage or if the Pikmin under its effects have been dancing for a while, the Groovy Long Legs may raise up two of its legs to slam them back down, freeing Pikmin from the gas in the process. While this move cannot kill Pikmin, it can launch them, the main character, and Oatchi back rather far. However, if the slam misses or doesn't shake off any Pikmin, the Groovy Long Legs may trip and become stunned for a moment. If it takes damage, but not too much, it will instead simply shake its body horizontally.

As has been mentioned, the Groovy Long Legs can change the tempo of its song during the battle, which controls the speed of its stomping and can be identified by the color of its eyes.


 * Cyan eyes:
 * During this stage, it plays an intimidating yet funky song, which it stomps to at a slow speed (forty four beats per minutes).
 * After some seconds, the creature will decide what to do based on whether there is any prey near it. If not, it will pause to catch a breather and then continue. If the leader, Oatchi, or Pikmin are under it, it will instead stop to spray its gas. After spraying, it will blare an airhorn and change the color of its eyes to yellow.


 * Yellow eyes:
 * During this stage, it plays a more upbeat and striking tune, which it stomps to at a moderate speed (seventy beats per minutes).
 * After being in this state for a while, it will stop to rest and then continue. Eventually, it will decide its next action based on whether Pikmin are dancing beneath it. If there are none, it will revert back to having cyan eyes. If there are any, it will once again stop to spray the area beneath it, followed by blaring another airhorn and changing to red eyes.


 * Red eyes:
 * During this stage, it plays a more frantic and higher-pitched version of the previous song, which it stomps to at a fast speed (eighty-five beats per minutes). Any Pikmin that are dancing will now begin to dance in a circle around its feet, making it more likely that they will be crushed.
 * After a brief dance, it will stomp with two legs and revert back to cyan eyes. Any dancing Pikmin will return to normal.

Once defeated, the Groovy Long Legs cycles rapidly between tempos and associated colors of its song and then collapses; it floods the arena with a bright white light before blaring an airhorn as its torso explodes into confetti, dropping the Amplified Amplifier (if it hasn't been collected already) as the rest of its body disintegrates.

Locations

 * Below-Grade Discotheque, sublevel 5

Strategy
It is recommended to gather all of your Pikmin onto Oatchi's back for the entirety of the fight, as this will make avoiding its stomps fairly easy. Be sure to call Pikmin off of its bulb when it begins to shake them off, as the Groovy Long Legs always tries to do so if there's anything stuck on it after positioning all four of its legs, and always be on the lookout for an opportunity to use Oatchi's rush when it stops stomping and lowers its body very close to the ground.

It is possible to damage the Groovy Long Legs while it remains hanging from the ceiling, but doing so is almost futile due to the extreme damage reduction of approximately 1/8 damage taken. It is possible to reduce its HP to zero while it hangs, but doing so requires a few Lightning Shocks and many Spicy Sprays. An additional time-consuming strategy it to have Oatchi attack one of its two exposed feet. While this method would take an exceedingly long amount of time, it is a possible method of attack.

When the Groovy Long Legs signals that it is about to expel its mind-controlling gas, get out from underneath and stand away from it. It stops stomping when it begins to expel gas, so you can flee from underneath it without needing much caution. Any Pikmin under the effects of the gas will become uncontrollable until the Groovy Long Legs ends its red light cycle and tries to stomp on them, after which they die or survive through the cycle, so there isn't much use trying to call any afflicted Pikmin back. If you feel brave, you can go up to it in this state and toss a bunch of Pikmin onto its body, as they can't get shaken off until the Groovy Long Legs ends the cycle by slamming into the ground. You may experience a few hiccups in your Pikmin tossing as you or Oatchi get some airtime from the stomps of the red cycle though.

Using a smaller group of Pikmin (30-50) is recommended, as there is less to keep track of. If you want, you can use Glow Pikmin, since they are immune to its gas.

If you are especially worried about losing Pikmin, or have struggling with this fight, it is possible to use all Rock Pikmin against this boss. The ground in the Below-Grade Discotheque is considered soft, despite being partly metal, so Rock Pikmin are entirely immune to the Groovy Long Legs’ main form of attack. However, despite being an exceedingly safe strategy, care must still be taken to not let any Pikmin fall into the abyss.

Trivia

 * The music most likely comes from the boss itself as ; background music that characters hear and react to in-universe. There is much evidence to support this: the creature is biomechanical, it moves to the beat of the song, it pauses its music when it stops moving to shake off Pikmin, it plays a quavering tune when it stumbles after stomping, and the treasure it drops is a speaker. The music itself can also be heard in a muted form while the boss is still inactive, and the lead instruments stop playing when the game is paused. This is presumably why it is the only creature to keep their battle music within the Piklopedia.
 * When the Groovy Long Legs trips, the music plays a melody reminiscent of the Pikmin motif, signifying it's their chance to attack.
 * The Groovy Long Legs marks the first time an Arachnorb's webbing has been seen up close, not as a shadow.
 * The Groovy Long Legs can be damaged by Oatchi on its exposed feet.