Smoky Progg

The Smoky Progg is a boss found in  and. In Pikmin, it is an optional boss fight and is often considered to be one of the hardest encounters in the series; the only way to encounter it is to visit its egg in The Distant Spring on or before the fifteenth day. In Pikmin 4, its status is somewhat downgraded, now being a boss encountered multiple times throughout the game. Most of its appearances are in night expeditions, being first encountered in the Feasting Center in the Hero's Hideaway; it also appears on the 10th floor of Cavern for a King. The creature is initially found inside an egg and will break out after some time. If the egg is destroyed before that, the beast is killed, though in Pikmin no reward will be produced.

The beast itself is a dark green creature with glowing eyes. It is roughly the size of a Bulborb, and constantly emits a cloud of gloom behind it that is harmful to both the Pikmin and leaders. When killed in Pikmin, it drops a golden pearl-like orb which, if carried to an Onion, will produce one hundred Pikmin. In Pikmin 4 it also gains a red circular mouth it uses to spit out gloom.

It is implied in Pikmin 4 Piklopedia notes that glow sap exposure is what causes Mamuta eggs to become malformed. This may also explain their urge to destroy Lumiknolls upon hatching.

Stats
The HP of the Malformed Egg that it spawns from is unknown as of current.

Behavior
As soon as the egg is approached by leaders or Pikmin, the Smoky Progg will emerge out of it after four to eight seconds. Its first goal is to go to the landing site, ignoring any prey. Once it is there, it will perform a gesture that uproots any Pikmin sprouts, even if there are none. After this, it will begin chasing after Olimar and the Pikmin. By merely moving towards them, it can kill them or damage Olimar simply by having the gloom come into contact with its target. Once defeated, it explodes and leaves behind a pearl.

In Pikmin 4, the egg takes a varying time to hatch, depending on the location. Its main method of attack is to throw up a gloom projectile, which creates a ring of gloom when it lands that slowly expands until it dissipates. Upon shaking off Pikmin, it lets out a deafening roar that causes them to panic. In night expeditions, it will lumber towards the nearest Lumiknoll if its egg is allowed to hatch. Upon reaching the Lumiknoll, it will attack it with the aforementioned gloom projectiles. In a cave, it will instead focus its attacks on the leader and their Pikmin, similar to how it behaves when engaged in combat at night.

Appearance
The creature is fully green, with bright red eyes in Pikmin and red eyes in Pikmin 4. Its frontal body is mostly circular, and its backside is constantly deteriorating. It is held up by two small hands that it uses to move around. In Pikmin 4, it also has a small mouth, and the eyes are now built into the body.

Pearl
In Pikmin, the Smoky Progg is unique in that it will not simply leave a corpse of itself (or even a pellet), but instead a golden orb similar to the pearls dropped by the Pearly Clamclamps. When brought to an Onion, it will create 100 Pikmin seeds, which is the highest amount of seeds for any object that can be brought. In Pikmin 4 it will sink into its cloud of smoke, which then dissipates, leaving no reward.

Locations

 * Pikmin
 * The Distant Spring: It resides in the large watery area located to the south of the landing site in the center of a small group of islands.
 * Pikmin 4
 * Hero's Hideaway: During the Feasting Center night expedition, an egg appears under the step ladder in the kitchen. During the Foot of the Stairs night expedition, one egg will be in front of the large couch and another will be in front of the kitchen island (both directions relative to the Lumiknoll).
 * Primordial Thicket: During the The Sylvan Gate night expedition, an egg will be found near the climbing wall you would use to find the Golden Vaulting Table during the day. Also during the Autumnal Gully night expedition, one egg will be where the Golden Vaulting Table is found in the day and a second will be next to the Final Battle cave lid.
 * Cavern for a King: Encountered in the center of the 10th sublevel. This one drops a Wayward Moon upon death.

Pikmin
There are many different ways to defeat the Smoky Progg; each has different pros and cons. Captain Olimar cannot defeat this enemy using punches.

Pikmin damage
Swarming is utterly useless and will only result in all the Pikmin dying to the gloom. Throwing Pikmin at its head is the only way to go. It's preferred to use Red Pikmin, as they're the strongest, and to use the swarm trick to allow faster throws.

One method is to get a lot of Pikmin, wait until it uses its uprooting ability and becomes still, then throw Pikmin onto its face as fast as possible. Precise aiming is required so that the Pikmin do not hit an Onion or its cloud of gloom. If done correctly, the Smoky Progg will be constantly shaking off Pikmin and will not be able to move, until it dies. If there are only a few Pikmin available, throw them and whistle them back just as the beast is shaking them off. Care should be taken when whistling, so that they do not go through the gas cloud.

It should also be noted that the Smoky Progg regenerates its health gradually, regardless of whether it is chasing Olimar or Pikmin, or merely idling at the landing site.

It is possible to take advantage of the fact that the creature can get stuck behind an Onion's leg in battling it. After it completes its uprooting move, it can get stuck in this way from a few seconds up to several minutes. Pikmin can be tossed on its head without the enemy even being able to shake them off, and with luck, it can be killed before it frees itself from the glitch.

There is another exploit that can be used to your advantage. If the bridge that leads to the Massage Machine has not been built yet, lead the Smoky Progg behind the unbuilt bridge and then run away. It will be stuck by the bridge, and will endlessly turn around in circles. You can then bring 100 Blue Pikmin out and attack the beast.

Bomb-rocks
An alternate way to hurt it would be to use Yellow Pikmin with bomb-rocks, aiming well and not hitting the Progg on the rear with the Yellow Pikmin that is thrown. Any Pikmin left walking in its trail will succumb to the gloom. A focused attack is also effective: by leaving 10 or more bomb-rocks near the landing site, one can throw a bomb-carrying Yellow Pikmin near the Smoky Progg when it is passing over the bomb-rocks. The Pikmin will toss its own explosive, which should make all of the other ones explode as well. The bomb-rocks used for the attack can be held by Yellow Pikmin (which will kill the Pikmin) or not – by issuing bomb-rock carriers inside the Yellow Onion, they will leave their rocks by the base of the Onion.

Pikmin 4
In this game, the Smoky Progg has gained some new attacks. It may spit a glowing red projectile that creates a gloom wave upon landing, which has the same instant-kill properties as the smoke surrounding the creature. It may also roar loudly to send the Pikmin and Oatchi into a panic, possibly causing them to run directly into its gloom.

In night expeditions, the Smoky Progg's egg can and should be destroyed before it hatches, with some expeditions even containing two eggs. Glow pellets will be awarded no matter how the creature is defeated, and fighting it after it hatches on its own runs the risk of allowing other creatures an opportunity to attack an undefended Lumiknoll, as it has quite a lot of health. In Cavern for a King, the egg will begin to crack and hatch in a cutscene a few seconds after landing in the sublevel. By immediately running towards the egg and charging a rush while riding Oatchi, you can break it before the cutscene begins. This is made much easier by immediately spraying ultra-spicy spray, which increases Oatchi's speed and decreases the time it takes to charge a rush, making the timing more lenient. On return trips, it is much easier to destroy the egg since the cutscene will not play. Defeating it again after obtaining the Wayward Moon — either before or after it hatches — will yield 20 raw materials.

The fight is fairly straightforward when the Smoky Progg is isolated or is focused on attacking a Lumiknoll. Throw Pikmin at its front, and prepare to call them back once they have been shaken off. Riding on Oatchi is an effective way to avoid the wave attack, as he can jump over it. However, if the creature roars, Oatchi will throw the leader off his back, making it hard to gather the panicking Pikmin quickly. For this reason, dismounting just before it does this attack is a good strategy, as is running out of the range of the panic effect or simply not using Oatchi at all. It is safe to rush the front of this creature, which can be used to deal a large amount of damage quickly so long as the Pikmin are called back before it roars. As with most enemies, bomb rocks are an effective way to deal with this creature safely, but it has enough health to allow it to survive several bomb rock explosions before dying.

If there is a ring of gloom on the floor when the creature dies, that ring will no longer be able to cause harm.

Glitches
In a rare case, if Olimar walks up to the egg with no Pikmin, circles the egg and tries to attack it, the egg won't take any damage, yet if he goes back to an Onion to get some Pikmin and return to the cluster of islands, the egg will be gone. The only way to reset the egg is to reset the entire day. Going to sunset and continuing to the next day will not bring the egg back.

In another rare case, there is a glitch where a Pikmin that is thrown at the egg right when it hatches will float in mid-air while doing its "hitting" sequence, damaging the Progg. After about ten seconds the Pikmin will start vibrating faster and faster and eventually fall off.

Rarely, the Smoky Progg may be near a Yellow Wollywog when the Wollywog jumps. The jump will propel the Progg in to the air where it will hover for a short time until it begins to slowly return to ground level.

The Progg is also especially likely to glitch the Pikmin counter for unknown reasons.

In Pikmin 4, due to the odd way the egg functions, it can continue to drop Wayward Moons even after it has already been collected, allowing for the cave (and, by extension, the Primordial Thicket) to achieve an over 100% completion.

In Pikmin 4, hitting a Smoky Progg with a glowmob just as it is about to drop down from a ledge might make it fall through the floor and die when it touches the pit. However, it's hard to pull off.

In the Super Smash Bros. series
The Smoky Progg appears as one of the spirits in 's Spirits mode.

As the first spirit the player encounters in Adventure Mode: World of Light, Smoky Progg appears as a puppet clone of Mario in his black alternate costume. He will occasionally turn metal, making him harder to launch. Defeating him will give the player the Smoky Progg spirit, which equips the player with an Unira at the start of the match.

Trivia

 * The Smoky Progg is the rarest enemy in Pikmin, with only one of them existing, and only for the first 15 days.
 * The Smoky Progg's body appears to be hollow, or transparent. If viewed from behind, one can see a glowing light suspended inside with chunks of gas falling around it.
 * The Smoky Progg is capable of uprooting Pikmin seeds spawned by an Onion before they reach the ground.