Electric Cottonade

The Electric Cottonade is a large airborne creature that utilizes electricity and works alongside Foraging Cottonades to ward off attackers. It looks similar to gray cotton candy with bulbous eyes on stalks. It can shoot balls of electricity at the floor as well as suck up Pikmin and leaders through its tube-like mouth. Although Foraging Cottonades are normally harmless, the mere presence of an Electric Cottonade can allow them to discharge electricity.

When the creature begins its assault on intruders, it surrounds itself with Foraging Cottonades, making it almost completely invulnerable since Pikmin thrown at them will fall off. The Electric Cottonade then chases leaders and Pikmin, and when it passes above them, it floats in place and orders the bottommost Foraging Cottonades to shoot electricity to the ground directly below. After this attack, it resumes chasing its prey and goes for a second shot of electricity. Should the Electric Cottonade not be able to reach any leaders or Pikmin, it may also decide to have the Foraging Cottonades below it produce electricity. After having shot electricity twice, the Electric Cottonade will fly around for some seconds, lower a bit to the ground, and disperse the group of Foraging Cottonades. There will be two directly in front, in back, to the left, and the right of the parent. The Cottonades closest to the leaders or Pikmin will each shoot electricity to the floor below. After some seconds of this, the electrical attacks stop, the Foraging Cottonades hug the Electric Cottonade again, and the cycle restarts.

While the Foraging Cottonades are away from the Electric Cottonade, it is vulnerable to attack. When the Foraging Cottonades close in to protect it again, any Pikmin that were latched onto it will be knocked to the ground. If it managed to knock any Pikmin onto the ground, it will follow up by sucking them into its tube-like mouth. The suction is too weak to do anything for the first few seconds, but after a while, approximately when the creature starts moving, it will be able to suck up Pikmin as well as leaders. If it does inhale a leader, it will spit them back out onto the ground, and the leader will take damage upon landing. Eventually, it stops sucking and the cycle restarts. It will also instantly stop sucking the instant a leader is caught in its mouth.

When the boss's health reaches two thirds, it will stop the attack and knock the Pikmin down instantly. From this point onward, its attack pattern will be different. When it finishes the two electricity strikes, it will move to the center of its arena and stay there for the rest of the battle. There, it will shoot out balls of electricity onto the ground below it that each split into two and travel in opposite directions until reaching one end of its arena. The Electric Cottonade launches a volley of five balls and aims towards Pikmin and leaders, so they must always be on the move. When it disperses the Foraging Cottonades, it will also do so in a different pattern: three in front, one on each side, and three behind. Additionally, the three in front continuously attack with their electricity, and after some seconds, the two on the sides attack as well, but only with a quick burst.

When the boss's health reaches one-third, it will once again regroup with the Foraging Cottonades and knock the Pikmin attacking it to the ground. While its health is at lower than one third, the pattern changes once more: when the Foraging Cottonades are dispersed, they use the same formation as when the Electric Cottonade's health is at two thirds or less, but the side Cottonades zap the floor once, move further outward, and zap again before they regroup.