Gildemander

The Gildemander is an enemy in. It is a brown salamander-like creature with a glowing antenna like an, and many gold stones stuck to its back. It uses the detached gold stones on its back to lure Pikmin so it can gobble them up.

Stats
The HP for each of the coagulated Sparklium chunks on its back is equal to 2,500 or 3 Bomb Rocks. There are 6 on every Gildemander.

Behavior
The Gildemander will either wander about or lie and wait until the leader and their Pikmin enter. Once they do, it will begin crawling toward them and will attempt to eat the Pikmin using its large, sticky tongue. Unlike other creatures which typically have a limit to how many Pikmin the creature can eat at once, the Gildemander can eat as many Pikmin as it can catch with a swipe of its tongue, which makes frontal attacks inadvisable due to the possibility of eating most, if not all, of the Pikmin in the player's squad in one fell swoop. When the creature cannot find any leaders or Pikmin, it will look about and then begin wandering again.

When the false gold on the creature's back is knocked off by attacking Pikmin, reattaching it will become the Gildemander's main priority. If knocking a piece off exposed one of the weak points on its back, the Gildemander will be stunned for approximately four seconds. When this fake gold is knocked off, any Pikmin in your squad that are not on Oatchi or Moss, or are not attacking the creature's weak spots will automatically begin to attack the fallen nuggets automatically. This further endangers Pikmin from being eaten by the Gildemander, due to the previously mentioned lack of a cap to its eating capacity. It will pursue the gold one piece at a time and grab it with its tongue, ensnaring all Pikmin currently attacking the gold as well. It will then toss the gold piece onto its back, covering its gemstone-like weak spots and knocking any Pikmin attacking it off.

If many Pikmin are attacking the creature at once, it will shake its body to scatter them. When one of the weak spots on its back shatters, it is briefly stunned. Once all three weak spots are destroyed, the creature is defeated.

If a Gildemander is active in the current area or sublevel, your Treasure Gauge will be disrupted and will not be able to accurately show you where treasure is, though this usually isn't an issue due to its boss status limiting it to areas where no treasures that are particularly difficult to find.

Appearance
As the adult form of the Gildemandwee, it has many similarities to it. However, it is considerably larger than its juvenile and has more golden rocks and red, crystalline weak spots on its back.

Locations

 * Doppelgänger's Den
 * Hero's Hideaway (Olimar's Shipwreck Tale)
 * Cavern for a King

Strategy
The Gildemander has 3 weak spots on its back which are the only spots that are capable of taking damage. On top of this they have the false gold nuggets protecting them that require picking off before attacking. With a mixed squad of Pikmin, it would be preferable to use Oatchi's rush attack against this creature's back, since the trajectory of the attack allows Pikmin to latch onto the nuggets and weak spots. It would also be preferable to upgrade Oatchi's rush to a level where it can stun to prevent the Gildemander from reacting to your attacks, this also helps chain with the Gildemander's stagger animation to immobilise it if your Pikmin are fast enough to remove the nuggets. Alternatively, throwing Pikmin can be a more precise way of hitting nuggets and weak spots, in which case Purple Pikmin are the best candidates for throwing due to their high impact damage and ability to latch on. Care must be taken to manage your squad, if any Pikmin are attacking nuggets while the Gildemander retrieves them, those Pikmin will perish. Be sure to periodically whistle any straggling members of your squad before going in to attack again. Alternatively, you can destroy the dropped nuggets each time they fall to prevent them distracting any Pikmin. In terms of items, Mines prove especially useful for their ability to latch onto the Gildemander's back.

A much quicker way of defeating the Gildemander is to use a somewhat large squad of Winged Pikmin, more than 40 units being preferable. Before engaging the enemy, use an Ultra-Spicy Spray and circle towards its back while riding Oatchi, then rush the gildemander with all of your Winged Pikmin. Because Winged Pikmin have the ability to home in on and repeatedly attack both nuggets and weak spots, they will quickly take care of most of them within seconds. Winged Pikmin sometimes will not home in on the top weak spot in the middle of the Gildemander's back, in this case, whistle your squad and rush again towards this spot from the side of the beast. If all goes well, this should mean a swift end of the Gildemander fight.

Trivia

 * The Gildemander and it's juvenile counterpart have the glow removed from their lanterns when all the fake gold is destroyed. The interesting part is, when using a Lightning Shock (which normally disables most animations) and destroying the fake gold while it's stunned, the lantern will dim immediately rather than waiting for the stun to end.