Puffstool

The Puffstool is an enemy in Pikmin 1 that appears to be a huge walking fungus. It has a red capped mushroom head and a tender yellow torso which is vulnerable to swarming. Not much is scientifically known of it, but minimal details are supplied.

The Puffstool will try to run when attacked, but its legs are clearly not made for sprinting and it trips easily, landing on its head with feet in the air. Since the cap is invulnerable to attack, Pikmin must be thrown onto its undersection once it's on the ground. After a few seconds, the Puffstool will right itself up and blow out a purplish cloud of spores which cause a strange change in nearby Pikmin, which the Puffstool acts as a Captain for. Affected Pikmin turn purple and grow small brown mushroom caps on their stalks. These Pikmin are known infamously as Mushroom Pikmin, Zombie pikmin, or Toadmin.

How to Kill
Mushroom Pikmin will attack Captain Olimar and any unaffected Pikmin. The effect will wear off in a short time, but more instantaneous remedies can also be used. Tossing a single Pikmin next to a Mushroom Pikmin will result in a small scuffle between the two, after which the enslaved Pikmin is knocked back to its senses and rejoins your army; using more Pikmin than necessary will more than likely kill the creature, counting towards your total number of Pikmin lost. A much safer strategy is attract the attention of multiple Mushroom Pikmin with your captain, then shake them off when they attack, instantly curing them without the risk of killing them. You can also get rid of the mushroom effect by killing the Puffstool.

To minimize the risk of losing Pikmin, it is recommended to attack only with the captain. Furthermore, the Puffstool has no attacks that could harm Olimar. Note, however, that this may consume a fair amount of time, and as the sporing habits of the puffstool are fully predictable, having pikmin turned into toadmin is usually not a problem for competent players.



How To Kill(In PR)
This is tougher than you think it is. For starter, this puffstool is inside a cave so you can't only attack it with the captains.

Locations
A single Puffstool can be found in The Forest Navel, where it holds the Omega Stabilizer. Once defeated, its cap can be returned to an Onion where it will produce a whopping 30 Pikmin seeds. Two Puffstools can also be found in The Distant Spring in Challenge Mode, allowing a player to make more Pikmin. When defeated, the Puffstool can cause the Crushing Glitch.

Appearances in other games
In "The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap" for the Gameboy Advance, Puffstools are enemies that are encountered in a dungeon known as the Deepwood Shrine. If the player does not kill the Puffstools, they will leave clouds of gold spores everywhere, which must be disposed of with an item known as the 'gust jar'. Their appearance has been slightly altered. They now have eyes, a white ring around the cap of the mushroom, are taller, and have bigger feet. They are about the same size as they are in Pikmin, since the player fights them only when the game's protagonist is shrunk to the size of a quarter.

Pikmin:Redemption
In Redemption the puffstool is actually a boss and is quite hard. The how to kill section is above. Your reward, however, is a special egg that allows you to store 100 pikmin inside of it. The best part is that it is portable so you can take 200 pikmin with you to places without them being on the field. Cool, huh?

Pikmin: Secret of the Earth
The Puffstool is confirmed as an important character in the plot, presumably antagonistic as the story is a tribute to the Pikmin fanfic, "Spored."