Pileated Snagret

The Pileated Snagret is the most powerful known species of the Snavian family. It has a green scaly body, and a head larger than that of the Burrowing Snagret, which is colored with red-orange feathers. It is called "pileated" because it has a crest of feathers on its head. Its eyes are also covered by some ear-like features. Compared to the Burrowing Snagret, this Snagret is definitely more powerful, has a lot more health, and is able to walk on the ground. It is also much taller.

The Pileated Snagret is found only in Pikmin 2. Furthermore, it can only be found on sublevel 7 of the Snagret Hole, sublevel 4 of the Hole of Heroes, and sublevel 2 of the Rumbling Grotto in Challenge Mode.

Strategy
This snagret's height makes it very hard to hurt it by throwing Pikmin onto it. The Pileated Snagret is also very sensitive to attacks, which means that it will burrow back into the ground before your Pikmin can do much damage. However, Purple Pikmin are the best choice, because it is still possible to throw them on the creature with good aim, but an ultra-spicy spray is strongly advised so that they can run fast enough to dodge the Snagret’s attacks, as well as cause enough damage. The reason Purple Pikmin are great here is that when the creature emerges from the ground, the Purples will make the Snavian 'bounce', like in most cases of enemies, and in the small seconds of those bounces, the Pikmin attached to the Snavian will deal damage, and then it will be more likely to return to the ground without eating any Pikmin. Rarely, it may even get stunned, making it extremely vulnerable. When this tactic is repeated, it should be easy to defeat the beast. As a side note, its cousin, the Burrowing Snagret, can't be stunned because it is attached to the ground.

Though less effective than Purple Pikmin but worthy nevertheless, one could use Yellow Pikmin. As said earlier, the Pileated Snargret's leg makes its head hard to reach. Thus, using Yellow Pikmin can eliminate this problem. Take a maneuverable group of Yellow Pikmin and spray them with ultra-spicy spray. When the enemy comes out, toss them at its head from behind. If done right, your yellows will hit its head, and it will be forced to go underground without eating anything. They won't cause as much damage at once as purples will, and this will likely need to done three to five times. But, because your Pikmin are going to be hitting their mark more easily, this could prove to be a more useful strategy.

Another, safer, yet more time-consuming strategy, is to run around and wait for the Pileated Snagret to emerge. Every now and then, the Snagret will have trouble coming out of the ground (similar to the Burrowing Snagret). Toss the Pikmin on it during this time. When it fully emerges, it'll be too weak to attack, and burrow underground again. Repeat until the creature dies. Of course, the creature can always be petrified when the head is emerging, even when it is not having trouble getting out, making it possible to attack the head easily.

When it leaps quickly out of the ground, it is possible to throw Pikmin onto it safely while it's balancing itself. Note that you have to be precise with your aim. Alternatively, you could throw a Pikmin onto it from a distance, but be wary of the fact that it will follow you, so you will need to throw quickly. Also, if you only throw one or two Pikmin on it, it will still be able to attack you once before burrowing back into the ground.

A time-consuming and risky yet hilarious method is to bring a group of 100 Pikmin in, spray them with ultra-spicy spray, and wait for the Snagret to get stuck in the ground before throwing a few Pikmin at its head and dismissing the rest. The entire squad will rush it as it gets out of the ground, forcing it back underground almost immediately. The ultra-spicy spray will let the Pikmin react fast enough to catch the Snagret the next time it pops out of the ground and attack it even if it doesn't get stuck, forcing it back underground every time. This can be done up to three times before needing to re-buff your Pikmin with more spray. Though the inflicted damage is minimal, it will force the Snagret to constantly loop between popping out and diving back underground, which will almost always guarantee your squad survives assuming you have at least four or more ultra-spicy sprays.

Glitches
On occasion, this creature and the Burrowing Snagret may still remain alive with what appears to be little or no health. There are two major ways that this can take place: firstly, if the Snagret is brought to 0 health while still in either of its emerging animations, the creature will not proceed to die until it finishes the animation. Secondly, if the Snagret is brought to zero health while in the middle of its delving animation, the creature won't die and will successfully dive into the ground. Upon re-emerging, the Snagret will be left on 1 health.

If a Pikmin stands directly where the Pileated Snagret dives into the ground, the Pikmin may be shoved through the ground collision, and will die with the sound as if it were thrown off into an abyss. Sometimes the Pikmin will make the sound, but will not die. This is most likely because it was shoved into the ground, and then knocked back up by the Snagret's foot shortly afterwards, saving it.

On occasion, while fighting the Pileated Snagret with Purple Pikmin, the game may crash. This appears to take place when a Purple Pikmin stuns the Snagret as it grabs for the third time while attacking.

It is possible for the Pileated Snagret to get stuck in the ground and be unable to emerge in the Valley of Repose version of the Piklopedia. This happens randomly and rarely, and can be very hard to reproduce. It's also possible to get the Snagret to get stuck above-ground in the same area. This happens when one lures the Snagret off of the hill it starts on via well placed Pikpik carrots, and then proceeds to leave it alone. The Snagret may attempt to go back up on the hill to re-burrow, but will get caught on a sharp wall and infinitely jump towards it.

Trivia

 * When the creature dies, its body shrinks while the head remains the same size. Unlike other enemies, this is much harder to see without camera hacks and requires precise camera positioning to see. This also happens with the Burrowing Snagret, Toady Bloyster, and Ranging Bloyster, but to a less drastic extent.
 * In Pikmin 2, this enemy and the Burrowing Snagret shake the least when damaged, i.e. their model stretches the least amount of all enemies.