Luring Slurker

The Luring Slurker is a flying creature that has an appendage that it can stretch to drink water. It is also capable of freezing the water it has drunk, which it can then use to throw chunks of ice at leaders and Pikmin, or to create a protective shield around itself. Although it is out of reach most of the time, hitting its appendage will cause it to fall to the floor, where it can be damaged.

When the battle against it in its partially-flooded arena begins, the Luring Slurker will fly above leaders and Pikmin for a few seconds, stop, and then slam its appendage through the ground and into the water below. Any leader or Pikmin in the way of this attack will merely be knocked away and onto the ground. With its appendage in the water, it will begin slurping some of it up. After some gulps, it retracts the appendage and will attempt to hover directly over a target. As soon as a leader or Pikmin are under it, it will spit out three chunks of ice that spread out as they fall. These ice chunks hurt leaders and kill Pikmin they land on. Pikmin can be thrown at them to break them, but this also kills the Pikmin. After the first volley of ice chunks, it will again follow a target and repeat the attack. When it is out of water, the cycle restarts.

When the Luring Slurker's appendage is stretched to drink water, it is vulnerable to attack. Throwing enough Pikmin at it will cause the creature to fall to the ground. The number of hits needed to take the creature down doesn't reset between attacks. Once on the ground, the Luring Slurker can be hit with Pikmin to sap away its health, and it is the only time it is vulnerable. In this prone state, it will eventually get up and start spinning. As it spins, it generates a shield of ice around it, resembling a spinning top. When the shield is ready, the creature will attempt to come crashing down on leaders or Pikmin, raise into the air while moving over a target, slam down again once it reaches the top, raise again, and slam down once more. This third slam will break the shield, and the cycle will restart. Also to note is that if the creature is right next to a wall before it decides to slam the appendage down, it will move slightly away from the wall before starting; this gives the boss enough space to fall in if it gets taken to the ground while slurping.

If it's being attacked when it decides to get up, it will shake the Pikmin off. If its health reaches two thirds while being attacked, it will get up and flail around to shake attacking Pikmin off, and also change its attack pattern. When it would normally throw the appendage into the water, it will instead slam it directly onto the ground. This attack can crush Pikmin and leaders. After this, it will move relatively far away from leaders and Pikmin, stop, and slam its appendage into the water like normal, but while drinking, it will also hover away from its attackers, making it a trickier target. Its ice attack will also be different in that it will spit nine of them at once. The attack is similar to before, except every chunk is simply followed by two more. When the appendage slams against the floor, it is vulnerable, but the creature will never fall to the ground in this state.

When its health is at the last third, it will again shake the Pikmin off, and the pattern will change once more. When the Luring Slurker begins falling in its ice shield spinning attack, it also spawns two chunks of ice that fall outward. It will fall down four times while spinning instead of three. The floor slam attack will be repeated three times consecutively, with the Luring Slurker moving slightly closer towards its attackers' position each time. After drinking, it will spit one massive chunk of ice instead of nine small ones. This large chunk of ice breaks when it hits the floor, and creates three small chunks which are flung into the air: one directly up, and the other two away in random directions. Finally, in some arenas the Luring Slurker is fought in, the water level may also raise and lower periodically during this phase, which may reduce the amount of dry land that is available.