Muckerskate

The Muckerskate is an enemy in. It appears and behaves similarly to the Skeeterskate, but rather than shooting water, it shoots mud at pikmin. However, it is still very fragile and can be defeated in only a single hit, though doing so is dangerous when on top of unfrozen mud.

Behavior
Muckerskates are seen swimming on the tops of mud puddles in The Primordial Thicket and The Mud Pit, waiting for the Pikmin and the Captains to walk past them. If spotted, the Muckerskate will shoot mud at what it spots up to 3 times before having to recharge. This mud deals damage and can bury any Pikmin on the ground. The Muckerskate usually swims away after shooting as to not get hit by any pikmin.

Locations

 * Primordial Thicket
 * The Mud Pit

Strategy
The Muckerskate can be tricky to beat, due to them teetering over the mud in groups. The easiest method is to use either Ice Pikmin or an Ice Blast to freeze the mud the Muckerskates reside upon, leaving them defenseless while letting you traverse the mud, just remember that a Ice Blast doesn't freeze forever. Should one get close enough to the shore, you can charge Winged Pikmin at it. Sometimes, the Muckerskate will skate about as the Winged Pikmin chase it, which could lead to another Muckerskate hitting your Winged Pikmin while they're too far away to get back to shore in time. However this won't happen unless you're charging a few Winged Pikmin, around 10 is enough to defeat a Muckerskate with no problems. If a Winged Pikmin gets too far away as a result of the chase, use an Idler's Alert to bring it back to you. If you can throw a Pikmin at the Muckerskate, it'll instantly die, and since you have to be close to hit it in the first place, the Pikmin has little risk of drowning.

Trivia

 * As with the Skeeterskate and Quaggled Mireclops from Pikmin 3, it is among the few tripedal creatures in the series.
 * It is the only enemy in Pikmin 4 to use mud-based attacks