Empress Bulblax

The Empress Bulblax is a boss in Pikmin 2 and Pikmin 4. her markings and general features are similar to those of the Bulborb, but its body is much larger and composed of five distinct segments; its comparatively tiny legs dangle above the ground.

Unlike most bosses, her behavior is different each time it's encountered. In the Hole of Beasts, she must be woken up before battling, rolling from side to side to crush any Pikmin under its weight. In the Frontier Cavern (as well as the Emperor's Realm in Challenge Mode), she will already be awake, and giving birth to Bulborb Larvae. In the Hole of Heroes, she does the same while also causing boulders to fall when it hits a wall.

Pikmin Garden
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Translation

Pikmin 2
To defeat the Empress Bulblax, throw (preferably Purple) Pikmin onto her face and call them back before she throws them off. After shaking Pikmin off, the boss rolls from side to side across the chamber in an attempt to crush her aggressors, smashing into walls, and making rocks fall from the ceiling in most encounters in the game. Although risky, the Bulblax can be petrified if the spray is released on the middle of its elongated torso.

The Empress Bulblax is one of the few bosses that can vary depending on where the player encounters it: for the Hole of Beasts fight, it is easier to throw the Pikmin on the Empress Bulblax's side to the left and retreat to the alcove in the wall between attacks. Here, it is also effective to swarm the body from the left at the start of the battle, before the boss wakes up. Doing this will deal heavy damage if many Pikmin manage to latch onto the Empress.

This is not as effective in the later two battles, as the Pikmin have less time to attack the enemy before it shakes the Pikmin off, and they have the Empress continuously giving birth to Bulborb Larvae. These are easily defeated by their own mother's rolling; alternatively, in the Frontier Cavern, since the number that can exist is finite, they can be lured away from the Empress with one leader while the other fights the boss, resulting in a fight that is about as easy as in the Hole of Beasts. For the Hole of Heroes fight, the player starts off behind the Empress, and it can make boulders fall after hitting the walls; these are most easily avoided by moving behind the exit hole, itself behind a gate. All rules apply here the same as the Frontier Cavern fight, but trapping the larvae is nearly impossible, and requires a decoy leader who is in good condition.

When defeated, four of the Empress Bulblax's front body segments explode, leaving only the segment attached to the head, which can be returned to the Research Pod and cashed in for.

During the fights with the Bulborb Larvae, it is suggested that a leader should distract the larvae, preferably at full health and with the Metal Suit Z obtained, as the larvae can deal a lot of damage otherwise.

When going for the quickest kill possible, (using a captain to bait the bulborb larvae away if necessary) swarm all Pikmin against the side. For a safer strategy, c-stick throw the Pikmin at the head and wait for the beast to roll completely. Repeat 3-5 times to win the battle with no losses.

Pikmin 4
The strategy for the Empress Bulblax are largely the same in Pikmin 4, but it should be noted that Rock Pikmin are near-flawlessly effective against the beast, as they are immune to crushing and cannot latch onto them, which makes it impossible for the Empress Bulblax to throw them off. They are also, however, only actually recommended by the game for the earliest encounter with her.

In the final cave of the game, Cavern for a King, an Empress Bulblax is encountered on one of the deeper floors, and is fought in a square arena exactly as large as the Bulblax, necessitating the constant use of Geysers to dodge her attacks, as well as having to contend with falling Rocks and Bulborb Larvae. This is the trickiest and toughest fight against her in the entire franchise if played as expected, particularly since it is unlikely that the player will have access to Rock Pikmin during the encounter. It should be noted that there is an exit located at the rear-end of the arena, which can allow for an easy escape without having to deal with the typically tricky geyser timing. The player can attack her from the rear with a rush while mounted on Oatchi, recall their Pikmin before she rolls, and simply exit the arena. This can take some time, but is considerably more reliable than other strategies.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
The Empress Bulblax appears as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

WarioWare series
The Empress Bulblax makes a cameo appearance in WarioWare: Smooth Moves, in a micro-game simply called Pikmin 2. In this micro-game, the player must tilt the Wii Remote to squish some Pikmin. This micro-game returns in WarioWare Gold.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
The Empress Bulblax appears as a Primary Spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate after enhancing a Red Bulborb spirit. her unique trait allows fighters to gain a large boost to their overall stats upon eating a food item.

Trivia

 * Empress Bulblaxes can apparently shed their skin, as there appears to be a shed skin on the floor on the last sublevel of the Hole of Beasts, right underneath the Research Pod.
 * It is impossible to wake up the Empress Bulblax in the Piklopedia in Pikmin 2, no matter how many Pikpik carrots are thrown at it. The only other enemies who will not attack in the Piklopedia are the Titan Dweevil and the Segmented Crawbster.
 * The Empress Bulblax is the only member of the Grub-dog family that cannot kill Pikmin by eating them.
 * The creature resembles a real-world pregnant queen termite
 * The Empress Bulblax gives live birth to its larval-form offspring. This is not only unique to the Pikmin franchise, but also to Earth lifeforms.
 * In Pikmin 2, the Empress Bulblax's specific epithet, matriarcha, indicates that it is considered a different species from its offspring, the Bulborb Larvae (bambinii), which is a biological impossibility. Pikmin 4 corrects this by updating the specific epithets of both the Empress Bulblax and the Bulborb Larvae to that of the Bulborb (kageyamii), establishing that they are all different forms of the same species.
 * The Japanese Louie's notes mentions cooking the ovaries of the creature instead of its liver. This was also the case for the prototype version of Pikmin 2 English script.