Breadbug

Breadbugs are enemies in,  and. These creatures remarkably resemble bread rolls, and are the namesake of the Breadbug family. They cannot harm leaders or Pikmin directly, but they can drag small objects (in Pikmin) or both small and rather large objects (in Pikmin 2) into their dwellings. If Pikmin are holding onto something when a Breadbug pulls it into its nest, they will die. In Pikmin 4, their segments now resemble cuts in bread more than fat rolls.

A boss variant of the Breadbug, the Giant Breadbug, appears in Pikmin 2 and Pikmin 4.

Behavior
Each Breadbug owns a den from which it emerges at the beginning of the day or the sublevel. Normally it trots freely around the area, ignoring Pikmin and other creatures. Once it comes across something it can drag, it will begin heading straight for it. If it reaches such an object, it will grab it with its mouth and drag it back to its den. In Pikmin 2, Breadbugs heal themselves completely when they successfully retrieve an object. If Pikmin are already carrying an object, Breadbugs will ignore it.

Breadbugs have a large amount of tough blubber, making them immune to swarming. In Pikmin, Olimar can punch them to damage them, but they will attempt to shake him off if damaged too much. When they are defeated in Pikmin 2, their dens release all the treasures they captured. Corpses and pellets that Breadbugs successfullly pull into their dens will permanently disappear and cannot be retrieved.

In Pikmin 4, the Breadbug behaves a little different. It will still bumble around and take whatever it comes across, but it now lacks a den; instead, it will bringing object to predetermined dirt mounts to bury them, as well as leaving them in plant growth, the same growths the player can hide in. Because of this, it cannot heal itself nor kill Pikmin. It has also has a smaller limit on what it can take. If no hiding spots are available, it will still grab the object, but it will wander aimlessly with them. It has strength of 10. If it's pulling something with Pikmin on it, it will shake the object to get the Pikmin off; it cannot do this if it is being dragged. If both forces equal 10, the object will not move until the Breadbug shakes off some Pikmin. It will still hit its head when being carried into the tractor beam of the S.S. Beagle, but it will not flip over.

It can still be hit directly with a Pikmin; doing so will squish the creature and cause it to run around in a panic, yelping. Once done running, it will catch its breath and return to normal. If hit by a Purple Pikmin's shockwave, it will behave the same way, but instead of being squished, it will roll backwards.

Carrying power
Breadbugs in Pikmin will only drag objects with a weight of 1, all of which require two Pikmin to overpower. In Pikmin 2, objects dragged by Breadbugs vary in how much strength is needed to overpower them, depending on the weight of the object and its maximum carriers. The exact formula is unknown and it's possible that one does not exist, as the game may use a lookup table instead. However, a formula that works in every case is:

$$

So in other words: the object's weight, plus one-half of the carrying support slots, plus 1, rounded down equals the amount of Pikmin needed to overpower a Breadbug.

Breadbugs will ignore objects with a weight heavier than 10, as well as all treasures in the Explorer's Friend Series. They are also unable to drag very small or flat treasures such as the Science Project or Luck Wafer. Giant Breadbugs are no stronger than regular ones and all the same rules apply. The following table lists all possible combinations of weights and max carriers with their respective amounts needed to overpower. Most of these results cannot be observed without hacking.

In Pikmin 4 the breadbug’s carrying power is simplified. The Breadbug always has a carrying strength of 10. Once the pikmins' total carrying strength exceeds 10 the breadbug will be dragged across the floor. Dandori Battle rules apply, and the Breadbug can shake Pikmin off an object if the Breadbug has the advantage or there is a tie. The Giant Breadbug has a carry power of 30.

Pikmin
The easiest way to kill a Breadbug is to wait until it takes hold of an object, then swarm Pikmin onto that object and return it to any Onion or the Ship's pod. The Onion or the Ship receives the object and the Breadbug takes damage by banging its head on the Onion/Ship. This method usually has to be done twice, though the first hit is so strong, it may just take one Pikmin thrown on its back to finish it off. So to better multitask, the best strategy would be to throw Pikmin on top of it once or twice and then have it drag an object and use Pikmin to carry it the opposite way. The Pikmin should deliver the object, and more often than not, get the now-dead Breadbug and deliver it as well.

It is also possible to defeat a Breadbug by throwing Pikmin on top of it, but this is slow as there is a period of immunity after each successful throw. Luckily, after being hit with a Pikmin, and finishing its pain animation, it will look left and right for some brief seconds, and during this time, it is vulnerable. By carefully timing, or by throwing a small barrage of Pikmin during this time, it is possible to hit the Breadbug again without having to move the cursor or the leader. The members of this species encountered in Pikmin move more swiftly than those in Pikmin 2, making them even more difficult to kill via this method. Using Purple Pikmin makes this method faster since their heavy weight will hurt the Breadbug, and they also try to home in as they land. With good enough timing, whistling Pikmin off of a tug of war with a Breadbug will stun the creature for a brief moment, possibly allowing an attack.

Another quick way to kill it in Pikmin 2 is to use an ultra-bitter spray to petrify it, which will make it vulnerable to swarming.

Leaders
Strangely, Olimar can damage the Breadbug by punching it in Pikmin even though the Pikmin cannot. In Pikmin 2, neither Olimar nor Louie are capable of punching the Breadbug. However, with its high amount of HP due to the unorthodox damaging methods normally used, attacking with Olimar is a severe waste of time. Interestingly, the Breadbug can attempt to shake off Olimar when harassed.

Trivia

 * The Breadbug is one of few enemies to have a figurine modeled after them.
 * Its nest is very similar in appearance to the Hermit Crawmad's hole in Pikmin 2.
 * Breadbugs seem to have cannibalistic tendencies: in Pikmin 2, they will carry dead Breadbugs into their nests and eat them.
 * In Pikmin, if a Breadbug gets stuck, it will burrow into the ground after about 8 seconds and respawn out of its hole.
 * Breadbugs exhibit behavior typical of real world s, which are known to take random items and drag them into burrows or other enclosed areas.
 * A roughly exact copy of the Breadbug in Pikmin 2 exists unused inside Pikmin 3's files.
 * The Breadbug's enemy mix in Pikmin 4 references the Giant Breadbug's theme from Pikmin 2. A synthesizer that plays a melody similar to that of the baritone saxophone is added, and the same drum machine samples are also reused.