Scornet Maestro

Scornet Maestro
Appears in	Pikmin 3
Scientific name	Spourgitis advenus
Family	Huntinpeck
Areas	Twilight River
Mission Mode Collect Treasure! stages	None
Mission Mode Battle Enemies! stages	None
Side Story days	None
Bingo Battle stages	None
Attacks	Order Scornets at Pikmin

The Scornet Maestro (タテゴトハチスズメ^?, lit.: "Harp Bee Sparrow") is the boss of the Twilight River in Pikmin 3 and the fourth major boss encountered in Story Mode. It quickly abducts Louie before the player can reach him. It resembles a queen bee of sorts, since it is able to command a swarm of Scornets using its harp-like beak. This beak will even produce harp music when each attack is happening.

The Scornet retinue is used to attack the leaders and their Pikmin. The boss relies heavily on the Scornets, as it has no way of attacking.

It cannot be attacked while its swarm is surrounding it, requiring the leaders to do so when the swarm becomes absent after one of its coordinated attacks. Once the creature is defeated, it will drop the Seed Hive and Louie, and all one hundred of the Scornets it commanded will instantly die.

Stats

Weight	Max. carriers	Seeds	Value	Health
10	20 (normally)	50	5	8000

Notes

Alph's comments

“Structural flaw: weak hide
Weight: 10

It takes real charisma to command such a large team. It's a lot like our captain that way! For instance, he... Well, there's... Hmm. Maybe not.”

Brittany's comments

“I'd like to listen to that pretty sound while I eat some fruit. It looks to be well taken care of by the surrounding little bees. I envy that. I suppose I've only got Alph and Captain. I could only do a half of what I want...”

Charlie's comments

“The maestro leads a whole swarm of scornets flying in perfect military formation. My leadership over the Pikmin might not be that tight, but we do OK. I'd put my whistle up against this gal's harp any day of the week!”

Louie's comments

“Slice thin, fry until golden brown, and serve when cool. Sprinkle the crumbs on top of a creamy clam chowder to give it a little kick!”

Olimar's comments

“Scornet Maestro
Spourgitis advenus
Huntinpeck family

Known for its striking lyriform mouth, it does not settle at a particular nest but migrates across the waters in search of food. In the spring, the maestro awakens from its hibernation. Before the advent of summer, she travels with a male partner to the cooler climate of the mainland, where food is plentiful. (The male is smaller than the maestro, with a white body and blue feet, back, and tendrils. It has no wings and thus cannot fly.) The maestro secretes a pheromone to control workers to carry out its commands, which it issues via complex musical cues. When the maestro is no more, the listless and directionless workers perish along with the rest of the colony.”

Pikmin 3 Prima Guide

“The Scornet Maestro is located in the Twilight River. As its name implies, this creature attacks by controlling a swarm of Scornets.

The Scornet Maestro is well defended by its minions. Avoid attacking while the Scornets are in the area. Each time the Scornets move into a tight formation, avoid their attack and allow them to fly out of the area. When it's safe, use your Winged Pikmin to bring the vulnerable Scornet Maestro to the ground, then have the rest of your squad charge in to attack. When the Scornets return to the area, gather your Pikmin and repeat the process.

Each time a Scornet manages to impale one of your Pikmin, defeat the enemy before your Pikmin succumbs to its injuries.”

Defeat Bosses!

In Defeat Bosses!, the player can refight the Scornet Maestro. The time limit is 10 minutes. The only exit of the arena is blocked off by a "keep out" sign. The player can use Alph (player 1's starting leader), Brittany (player 2's starting leader), and Charlie. Their order in Pikmin 3 is Alph, Brittany, Charlie, and in Pikmin 3 Deluxe the order is Brittany, Charlie, Alph. 100 Pikmin are on the field in this mission, but only 50 start in the player's squad: 30 Winged Pikmin and 20 Red Pikmin. Around the edges of the arena are groups of buried Pikmin. There are two groups of 10 Winged Pikmin, two groups of 10 Red Pikmin, and one group of 10 Rock Pikmin. The Pikmin in the squad from the start all have the leaf maturity, while the buried Pikmin have a mix of bud and flower maturities. If at any point during this fight all of the player's Winged Pikmin are lost, the game will display a message stating that it is impossible to damage the boss, and will ask if the player wants to give up or continue regardless.

The following table lists what medal the player gets according to the time they take:

Bronze	Silver	Gold	Platinum
8:00 - 6:01	6:00 - 4:01	4:00 - 3:01	3:00 - 0:00

In Pikmin 3, these are the world records for the challenge, as obtained from the in-game global rankings feature. The following scores were retrieved on December 9^th, 2015. Since the in-game leaderboards have been compromised, it is impossible to obtain more up-to-date legitimate records from the game, though players may have obtained higher scores since.

• Solo: 1:06
• Co-op: 1:33

In Pikmin 3 Deluxe, these are the world records for the challenge, as obtained from the in-game global rankings feature. The following scores were retrieved on November 15^th, 2024.

• Solo: 0:40
• Co-op: 0:41

Strategy

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

Attacks

The Scornet Maestro itself is harmless and has no direct way of damaging Pikmin. However, it commands the Scornets to attack for it with its harp-like mouth. All attacks by the Scornets have the same effect: the Pikmin caught in the attack will be held by the Scornets for a certain amount of time, and if not freed, will be killed.

• The Scornet Maestro will order the Scornets to get into a cone formation and will aim at the active leader. Simply move around a lot to dodge.
• The Scornet Maestro will order the Scornets to get into lines, and each line will proceed to aim at the active leader. Walk around the outer edge of the arena to dodge.
• The Scornet Maestro will order the Scornets to form a circle around the active leader. Have a few Pikmin kill some Scornets to escape the circle.

If any Pikmin are captured, the Scornets will form a circle around the Scornet Maestro and will eat them after a few seconds. Throw Pikmin at the Scornets to save them.

Standard strategy

A pair of Scornets.

The strategy is mainly to defend your Pikmin from the Scornets and then attack the Scornet Maestro. As the battle progresses, it will create different formations with its retinue in an attempt to destroy your swarm. Note that this boss completely relies on its own swarm to attack, possessing no offensive moves of its own besides shaking off Pikmin.

The first formation is a gigantic cone-like pattern and is the easiest to avoid. The attack is simple to dodge: just wait for the formation to strike and strafe around the swarm. If any Pikmin are captured by the swarm, it will move around the boss in a circle formation, holding the captured Pikmin. The swarm must be attacked swiftly to free the Pikmin. If the Pikmin aren't released, they will eventually die.

The second formation is an array. It will release one line after another to attack your Pikmin. This formation can be tricky to avoid, as the lines of Scornets adjust their flight if you try to run around them. However, as the Scornets are gathering in the array, they are extremely vulnerable to Pikmin attacks. Rock Pikmin seem to do well at picking off Scornets in this formation.

The third formation has the swarm forming a circle surrounding you, slowly closing in. If any Pikmin are left behind inside the circle, they will be captured. You need to use your Pikmin to create gaps in the circle to allow your group to escape. To avoid leaving Pikmin behind, use an ultra-spicy spray to create a hole quickly and get out faster.

If all the Scornet Maestro's Scornets are killed, it will use a period during which it would normally create an attack formation to summon more onto the field from the trees in the background.

Once any of the formations are complete, the swarm will temporarily leave the boss, giving you a chance to attack it. To strike it, throw Pikmin at it, preferably Winged Pikmin. Once enough Pikmin are latched onto it, it will fall to the ground, allowing any ground-based Pikmin to swarm it as well. When it dies, it will drop a large fruit, alongside Louie. Its body, alongside the corpses of its swarm, can be taken back to the Onion. As with all bosses in the game, the Scornet Maestro's corpse produces 50 Pikmin.

Due to the way the Scornets dive to attack, it is possible to avoid their primary attack, the cone formation, by simply being really close to the walls that surround the arena. When the Scornets dive in, they quickly turn back up to be able to exit the arena, and won't dive low enough to catch Pikmin. This is not fool-proof though, as the Scornets can still catch some Winged Pikmin that are flying a bit too far from the walls.

Expert strategy

The Scornet Maestro will only attempt to attack the leader that is currently active. This can be used to an advantage by having an unoccupied leader stand away from another leader who has all the Pikmin. When the Scornet Maestro begins an attack, it will lock on the current leader, and will not switch targets, meaning that at this point, you can swap from the defenseless leader to one with Pikmin, and attack it by swarming it with Winged Pikmin. Once it falls to the ground, pelt the creature with Rock Pikmin to rapidly diminish its health. The lonesome leader will receive damage from the Scornet attacks, but unless their health was low at the start of the battle, they will be able to endure the strikes without much of a problem.

Due to the scripting of this boss battle, this process must be done at least four times to take down the boss. If the Scornets are attacked before charging and several are killed without any Pikmin being captured, the time between each attack is significantly reduced. This strategy will allow for a quick defeat in under three minutes.

In Mission Mode with two players, the boss will only ever target the first player's leader. It is not known how the boss targets players during 2 player story mode in Deluxe.

Badges

In Pikmin 3 Deluxe, there is a badge the player can gain for defeating the Scornet Maestro:

• Decomposer: Defeating the Scornet Maestro.

• 

  Decomposer. The badge shows an illustration of the creature.

Technical information

Pikmin 3 technical information (?)
Internal name	mureboss
HP	8000
Rock Pikmin throw hits to kill	200
White Pikmin ingestions to kill	0
Bomb rock explosions to kill	20
Bomb rock ingestions to kill	0
Number of direct hits on top to kill	0
Damage to leaders	10
Territory radius	300
Mission Mode value	5

Other information

• Musical theme: Boss battle

Naming

See more: Scornet#Naming.

• Common name: Scornet Maestro. The name is the same as a Scornet's, but with "maestro"; a maestro is the person that conducts the music in an orchestra.
• Japanese nickname: タテゴトハチスズメ^? (lit.: "Harp Bee Sparrow"). This name is also the same as the Scornet's, but starts with the word "Harp".
• Japanese name: ワタリハチスズメ^?, lit.: "Migratory Bee Sparrow". It is shared with the regular Scornet.
• Scientific name: Spourgitis advenus. It is also shared with the regular Scornet, confirming they are the same species.
• Internal names: Finally, it shares the internal name with the Scornet, except with boss appended to the name, making it mureboss, the boss of the swarm.
• Prerelease: None.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	タテゴトハチスズメ? Tategoto Hachi Suzume	Harp Bee Sparrow
Chinese (traditional)	豎琴蜂雀
French	Maestro apidar	Portmanteau from Latin apis (bee) and French dard (sting), and Maestro.
German	Dornissenkönigin	Scornet Queen
Italian	Passerape regina	Queen Scornet
Korean	하프벌참새
Spanish (NoA)	Abejardo jefe	Boss Scornet
Spanish (NoE)	Abejardo jefe	Boss Scornet

Gallery

• 

  The first encounter of the Scornet Maestro.

• 

  The creature roaring as it first appears.

• 

  The Scornet retinue's cone formation.

• 

  The retinue's line formation.

• 

  The retinue's circle formation.

• 

  The retinue having captured some Pikmin.

• 

  The creature being weighed down by the Winged Pikmin.

• 

  Front view of the creature.

• 

  The creature defeated.

• 

  The deceased Scornet Maestro surrounded by the Seed Hive and Louie.

• 

  The corpses of the creature and its subordinates.

• 

  The data file on the creature.

• 

  Defeat Bosses! icon.

Trivia

• The Scornet Maestro is the second airborne boss to appear in the series, the first being the Vehemoth Phosbat; both appear in the same game.
• The Scornet Maestro is the smallest boss in the Pikmin series.
• The Scornet Maestro is similar to Helios from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Both Helios and the Scornet Maestro are smaller bosses (in comparison to other bosses) that use smaller minions to both protect themselves and attack the player.
• During its battle, even if the player locks-on the Scornets, it will lock-on to the Scornet Maestro instead.
• Interestingly, when the Scornet Maestro is defeated, not only will the Scornet Maestro's corpse fall, but all the Scornets as well, which can be brought back to the Onion. Normally, Scornets are not retrievable when defeated.
• The Scornet Maestro can command up to one hundred Scornets at the same time, much like the player's leaders can control up to the same amount of Pikmin.
• Although the Scornet Maestro is a queen – as stated in Olimar's reports, and in its name in certain languages – it has a hair-pencil, a furry appendage on the abdomen that releases pheromones used by male butterflies to attract mates. The Scornet Maestro instead uses those pheromones to control the Scornets, as queen bees do without hair-pencils.

See also

• Scornet
• Queen Shearwig