Puckering Blinnow

Puckering Blinnow
Appears in	Pikmin 3, Pikmin 4, Hey! Pikmin
Scientific name	Narrolingus piscatum
Family	Elips
Areas	Tropical Wilds, Garden of Hope, Serene Shores (Story Mode and Olimar's Shipwreck Tale), Foaming Lake, Serene Stream, The Shallow End, Treacherous Currents, Pollution Pool, Downpour Thicket, Below the Ice
Caves	Subzero Sauna
Mission Mode Collect Treasure! stages	Forgotten Cove, Clockwork Chasm
Mission Mode Battle Enemies! stages	Twilight River Remix, Beastly Caverns, Forgotten Cove
Side Story days	River, Tundra, Land, Sea, and Sky, First Part Found
Dandori Challenge stages	Test Tubs
Dandori Battle stages	None
Bingo Battle stages	Buried Pond
Attacks	Eat Pikmin

The Puckering Blinnow (ウオノコ^?, lit.: "Fish Child") is an aquatic minnow-like enemy found in Pikmin 3, Pikmin 4, and Hey! Pikmin. It is a small, colorful fish enemy that inhabits bodies of water. It has two large bulging yellow eyes with purple irises, which are each nearly as big as its head. It is light blue with dark blue stripes on its top and spots on its side, and has a green fin spreading from its bottom to its back. It finally has a long beak, similar to a real world dolphin. It is about three times the width and half of the height of a leader, having a quite narrow appearence. In Hey! Pikmin, they have spiky teeth.

These creatures usually swim passively around in water, usually in groups of three or more. When one spots a group of Pikmin, it approaches the nearest Pikmin, grabs it, and quickly swims away. If the player attacks the Blinnow, it will drop the Pikmin and try to jump out of the water to avoid being attacked. If not attacked in time, they will eat the caught Pikmin. They can also jump out of the water to catch any Winged Pikmin flying overhead, and go to the surface to catch any non-Blue Pikmin that is struggling. It is very swift in the water, but it can only grab one Pikmin at a time. These creatures have a tendency to cause caught Pikmin to launch high into the air after death, if they had one in their jaws.

Stats

To do: Find out its health in Hey! Pikmin by retreiving the value from the game files. Care to do so?

Game	Weight	Max. carriers	Seeds	Value	Health	Regen.
(?)	1	2 (normally)	2	× 15  × 15	74	No
	1	1	2	× 1	74	No
	N/A	N/A	N/A	× 0	Unknown	Unknown

Notes

Alph's comments

“Structural flaw: weak hide
Weight: 1

They swim in schools. Not only do they hunt prey in their own habitat, but they can jump out of the water and go for prey in the air too. I hadn't expected to see them operate in such different environments, but now that I have, I'm definitely taking notes.”

Brittany's comments

“I saw one swim at the captain and thought they were playing around. Then one came right at me, and owwww. These things don't play! You'd better act fast to call Pikmin back if one of these things catches them.”

Charlie's comments

“Be advised that you're not safe just because you're out of the water. As I know now from experience, they can jump out, catching prey that strays too close to the surface. How can lips be so sharp?!”

Louie's comments

 US version

“Slice raw and serve as sashimi. The marbled fat gives this dish a deep umami flavor.”

 European version

“Slice raw and serve as sashimi. The marbled fat gives this dish a deep umami flavour.”

Olimar's comments

“Puckering Blinnow
Narrolingus piscatum
Elips family

Many assume it's undeveloped due to its large eyes and lack of fins, but this is simply its normal, fully-grown form. Though its dorsal and ventral fins have atrophied, the long caudal fin helps to compensate for this. It can leap high enough out of water to catch low-flying prey. The scales comprising the round patches along the sides are known to turn light pink during breeding season.”

Hey! Pikmin logs

“As long as you don't approach these creatures, which travel in packs, they are no real threat. Their big eyes suggest that they have excellent vision, while the puckered lips indicate...that they're good kissers?”

Dalmo's notes

“These form a group and then swim gracefully along together as though joined in an underwater dance. Are they a family or traveling as a school? It might be enlightening to watch them with a submersible camera—very quietly so they don't notice.”

Olimar's notes (Pikmin 4)

“Many assume it's undeveloped due to its large eyes and lack of fins, but this is simply its normal, fully grown form. Though its dorsal and ventral fins have atrophied, the long caudal fin helps to compensate for this.

It can leap high enough out of water to catch low-flying prey. The scales comprising the round patches along the sides are known to turn light pink during breeding season.”

Louie's notes (Pikmin 4)

“Slice raw and serve as sashimi. The marbled fat gives this dish a deep umami flavor.”

Pikmin 3 Prima Guide

"Puckering Blinnows are small aquatic creatures that use their narrow bills to skewer unsuspecting victims. Puckering Blinnows tend to congregate; as you attack one Puckering Blinnow, there's a good chance a second enemy will attack your squad.

When you encounter a Puckering Blinnow, use a squad of Blue Pikmin to charge the creature. When a Puckering Blinnow skewers one of your Pikmin, make that enemy your primary target – if you're lucky, at least part of your squad will automatically follow the enemies as it retreats. A skewered Pikmin can survive for a few seconds. Move quickly to defeat a Puckering Blinnow before its victim succumbs to its injuries."

Pikmin Garden

Text

“大きな目と未発達に見える体の形状から、魚の子と呼ばれている。実は、ふ化後もほとんど大きさが変わらない成魚である。発達したヒレで、水上の獲物に対しても貪欲に食らいつく。

特徴 その1 水上へ跳び出す

発達した腹ビレで勢いよく跳び出して、水上にいる獲物をも捕らえる。

特徴 その2 群れで泳ぐ

獲物を狩る成功率を上げるため、群れで活動していることが多い。

特徴 その3 婚姻色

繁殖期には腹部側面が鮮やかな桜色になる。通常はバナナウオの名の通り、黄色である。”

Translation

“They are called fish children because of their large eyes and seemingly undeveloped body shape. In fact, they are adult fish that remain almost the same size even after hatching. With their well-developed fin, they feed voraciously on prey above the water.

Feature #1: Jumping out of the water

With their well-developed ventral fin, they leap vigorously to catch prey on the water.

Feature #2: Swimming in schools

To hunt prey more successfully, they often form schools.

Feature #3: Nuptial coloration

During the breeding season, the sides of the abdomen turn bright pink. Normally, as the name Banana Fish implies, it is yellow.”

Behavior

Puckering Blinnows are very fast in the water, but incredibly fragile, and will die quickly if attacked by just a few Blue Pikmin. They do not go down without a fight, however, and will go into a fury if attacked, possibly even jumping over the surface of the water, or onto land, where they will flop around helplessly like a Wolpole for a short time. They can catch one Pikmin at a time and they take quite a while to eat it.

Strategy

The following article or section contains guides. The strategies shown are just suggestions.

Though the Puckering Blinnow is a frail creature, it is best to not let your guard down; they can be quick at skewering your Pikmin, especially if they aren't flowered, and can force you to put up quite a chase to get them back. The best way to defeat one is to charge, or simply dismiss your Blue Pikmin onto the enemy. It will be unable to attack and will be easily overwhelmed. The Blinnow should perish quickly this way. If you use a small amount of Pikmin, it will try to jump out of the water to shake them off. It is also possible to get it to throw itself onto dry land where it can be killed very easily.

Another strategy is to throw a Blue Pikmin holding a bomb rock into the center of a school of Blinnows. When it detonates, most, if not all of the Blinnows should be killed by the blast.

In Hey! Pikmin it is considerably weaker meaning that you just need to throw 1 Blue Pikmin at it to kill it.

Technical information

Pikmin 3 technical information (?)
Internal name	tobiuo
HP	74
Rock Pikmin throw hits to kill	1
White Pikmin ingestions to kill	1
Bomb rock explosions to kill	1
Bomb rock ingestions to kill	0
Number of direct hits on top to kill	0
Damage to leaders	5
Territory radius	300
Mission Mode value	0

Other information

• Pikmin 4 Piklopedia number: #94

Naming

To do: Finish explaining its generator name. Care to do so?

See more: Elips family#Naming.

• Common name: "Puckering" is when somebody shapes their lips for a kiss, much like how the Puckering Blinnow's mouth normally is. "Blinnow" is a combination of "blenny" and "minnow", two types of real-life fish.
• Japanese nickname: ウオノコ^?. It translates to "Fish Child", given its tiny size. The name ends in コ^?, similar to members of the mandiblard family, possibly in reference to their similar role as weak enemies that appear in groups.
• Japanese name: クチボソバナナウオ^?, lit.: "Narrow-mouthed Banana Fish".
• Scientific name: Narrolingus piscatum. Narrolingus may come from "narrow" and lingua, Latin for "tongue", referring the creature's narrow mouth. Piscatum may come from "piscatory".
• Internal names: In Pikmin 3 it is internally known as tobiuo, which means とびうお^?, or "flying fish". In Hey! Pikmin, like all enemy internal names in the game, it is a romanization of its Japanese name with no spaces, Uonoko. However, its generator name is enemy_fish_macky. While the first part is clearly because the enemy is a fish, "macky" is the Japanese name for the Mockiwi, and also used in some "common" enemies' internal names.
• Prerelease: None.

Names in other languages

The following article or section needs help from someone who can translate Chinese text.

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	ウオノコ? Uo no Ko	Fish Child
Chinese (traditional)	尖嘴魚 Jiānzuǐyú
Chinese (simplified)	尖嘴鱼 Jiānzuǐyú
Dutch	Tuutvoorn	Pucker(ing) minnow
French	Têtasson	From "têtard" (tadpole) and "poisson" (fish)
German	Aqua-Termitentos	Water Sheargrub
Italian	Tarlo acquatico	Aquatic sheargrub
Korean	긴주둥이물고기 Gin-Judung'i-Mulgogi	Long Snout Fish
Portuguese	Botoblênio	From "boto" (Brazilian name for dolphins, also a famous character from Brazilian folklore) and "blênio" (combtooth blenny)
Spanish	Comején acuático	Aquatic sheargrub

Gallery

Pikmin 3

• 

  Artwork of the Puckering Blinnow.

• 

  Frontal view of the Puckering Blinnow.

• 

  Side view of the Puckering Blinnow.

• 

  Two Puckering Blinnows swimming in the water.

• 

  The Puckering Blinnow swimming.

• 

  The corpse of a Puckering Blinnow.

Pikmin 4

• 

  A render of a school of Puckering Blinnows.

• 

  The Puckering Blinnow's Piklopedia icon.

• 

  A group of Puckering Blinnows in the Serene Shores.

• 

  A pair of beached Blinnows.

• 

  A group of three frozen Blinnows in Subzero Sauna.

• 

  Five defeated Puckering Blinnows in the Piklopedia.

Hey! Pikmin

• 

  The Puckering Blinnow in the creature log.

• 

  Olimar fighting Puckering Blinnows underwater.

• 

  A cutscene in the Foaming Lake where a Puckering Blinnow chases some Blue Pikmin.

Trivia

• Their corpses are quite light, and leaders can push them around slowly by walking into them.
• The English version of Olimar's notes states that the Puckering Blinnow's dorsal and ventral fins have atrophied, and refers to its fin as its caudal fin. However, in the Japanese version, it is instead the pectoral and dorsal fins that are said to have atrophied, and its fin is said to be developed ventral fins that have merged with the caudal fin.

See also

• Wogpole
• Water Dumple
• Sputtlefish