Luring Slurker

The Luring Slurker is the boss of the Snowfall Field. This flying creature has an appendage that can stretch all the way below the arena and drink some of the water down there. It is also capable of freezing the water it has drunk, which it can then use to throw chunks of ice at Captain Olimar, or to create a protective shield around it. Although it is out of reach most of the time, hitting its appendage will cause it to fall down to the floor, where it can be damaged. Once defeated it will drop the Beneficial Intelligence or the Rainbow Sparklium Seed.

Behavior
Throughout the fight, the creature stays mostly airborne, too high to reach. When the battle starts, it will fly above Olimar for a few seconds, stop, and then slam its appendage into the water below. Olimar or any Pikmin caught by this slam will merely be knocked away onto the floor. With its appendage in the water, it will begin slurping some of it up. After some gulps, it retracts the appendage, and begins chasing above Olimar. As soon as the captain is under it, it will spit out three chunks of ice that spread out as they fall. These chunks hurt Olimar, and kill Pikmin they land on. Pikmin can be thrown at them to break them, but this also kills the Pikmin. After the first volley of ice chunks, it will again follow Olimar in the air, and repeat the attack. Now that it is out of water (or ice) to spit, the cycle restarts.

When its appendage is stretched to drink water, it is vulnerable to attack. The player can throw Pikmin at it, and after enough have been thrown, the creature falls to the ground. The number of hits needed to take the creature down doesn't reset between attacks, meaning that if the player failed to cause it to fall during a drink attack, they can launch more Pikmin the next times the appendage is vulnerable. Once on the ground, the Slurker can be hit with Pikmin to sap away its health, and it is the only time it is vulnerable. In this prone state, it will eventually get up and start spinning. As it spins, it generates a shield of ice around it, resembling a spinning top. When the shield is ready, the creature will come crashing down, tip first, raise into the air diagonally, slam down again once it reaches the top, raise diagonally again, and slam down once more. This third slam will break the shield, and the cycle will restart. The direction it will start moving in is the direction Olimar is, but once the ice shield sequence starts, it will not change direction, unless it hits a wall or the edge of the screen, where it will start going the opposite way horizontally. Also to note is that when it slams down in the ice shield state, it will also move horizontally slightly, and that if the creature is right next to a wall before it decides to slam the appendage down, it will actually move slightly away from the wall before starting – this gives it enough space to fall in if the boss gets taken to the ground while slurping.

If it's being attacked when it decides to get up, it will shake the Pikmin off. If its health reaches two thirds while being attacked, it will get up right away, similarly flail around to shake the Pikmin off, and will also change its attack pattern from here on out. When it would normally throw the appendage into the water, it will instead slam it directly onto the floor. This attack can kill Pikmin and hurt Olimar. After this, it will move close to the wall farthest away, stop, slam the appendage into the water like normal, but while drinking, it will also hover left or right away from Olimar, making it a trickier target. Its ice chunk attack will also be different, in that it will spit 9 of them at once. The attack is similar to before, except every chunk is simply followed by two more. When the appendage slams against the floor, it is vulnerable, but the creature will never fall to the ground in this state.

When its health is at the last third, it will again shake the Pikmin off, and the pattern will change once more. When the Luring Slurker begins falling in its ice shield spinning attack, it also spawns two chunks of ice that fall outward. It will fall down while spinning four times, instead of three. The board slam attack will be repeated three times, with the Slurker moving slightly towards Olimar's position each time. When drinking, it will drift into Olimar, and then drift in the opposite direction. It will also spit one massive chunk of ice, instead of 9 small ones. This block of ice breaks when it hits the floor, and creates three small chunks which fling into the air: one directly up, and the other two away. Finally, in this stage of the battle, the water level will also rise and lower periodically.

Locations

 * Snowfall Field
 * Cold-Hearted Guardian: This boss can only be found here.

Strategy
As soon as the battle starts, run right to pick up all 20 Pikmin. The creature should start getting ready to throw the appendage into the water. As soon as you see it stop, and the cold air effect around its appendage end, get near where the appendage will land. As soon as it's in reach, start throwing Pikmin as quickly as possible. The lower you throw, the less time the Pikmin take to land and come back to the group to be ready to be re-thrown. It should have landed on the floor. If so, just continue throwing Pikmin to cause damage.

If you failed to cause it to fall down, give yourself some running space, and run under the boss, towards the other end of the arena. This will cause the boss to drop ice chunks while you are running away from it. Repeat the process, but going in the opposite direction. While it's being attacked by Pikmin, if hear the Pikmin squealing, that means they're about to be shaken off, so whistle them. After being attacked, the Slurker will get up and start its spinning attack. Run away, but if you get close to a wall, keep in mind that the boss will turn the opposite way when it reaches the wall, so make sure you don't end up running into its next landing.

After its health reaches two thirds, when it throws its appendage down, it will slam on the board, which can kill Pikmin. Be sure you're not under the boss when it is getting ready to slam. After this slam, it will move near one of the walls, whichever wall is farthest from it, so get ready to chase it down. Like before, stand close to where the appendage will be, and when it is down to drink, attack it. Keep in mind that the Slurker will drift away from you, so be ready to chase it. If you let the drinking end, you will have to avoid 9 ice chunks instead of 3. These work the same as the the previous ice chunk attack, so keep the same strategies.

When its health reaches the last third, the attack pattern changes once more. Its spinning attack will hit the floor four times, and each time it touches the ceiling, it will drop two chunks of ice. On top of that, the water level will rise and lower. Take all of this into account when you dodge the spinning attack. After that, it will slam its appendage on the floor three times. As long as you are quite far away from the boss when it begins, you will be safe. Like before, it will then fly to near the farthest wall, so get ready to chase it once again. This time, don't stay close to where the appendage will end up, since the Slurker will drift in your direction after it starts drinking, and if you get bumped, which is hard to avoid if you're too close, then your time will be wasted. Stay considerably far away when you throw, but as soon as the boss turns around, start chasing it while throwing. If the creature drinks water all the way through, it will spit out one massive chunk, which splits into three chunks that get flung away when it gets destroyed. The water level will still rise and lower, so be careful. There is a long pause between ice chunk shots, so use this time to avoid deaths.

To note is that you can only cause so much damage at a time when it's prone. If you have caused too much damage, the game will make it impossible to hurt the boss until the next time it is vulnerable. But if you cause the maximum amount of damage each time it is vulnerable, you can defeat it in the standard three strikes.