Plasm Wraith

Plasm Wraith
Appears in	Pikmin 3
Scientific name	Unknown
Family	Unknown
Areas	Formidable Oak
Mission Mode Collect Treasure! stages	None
Mission Mode Battle Enemies! stages	None
Side Story days	None
Bingo Battle stages	None
Attacks	Crush Pikmin Electrocute Pikmin Drown Pikmin Burn Pikmin Eat Pikmin

The Plasm Wraith (アメニュウドウ"Amenyuudou") is the final boss in Pikmin 3, and is responsible for capturing Captain Olimar. It is a virtually-featureless, vaguely-humanoid Waterwraith-like being made entirely out of a cellular protoplasmic mass, which allows it to split different parts of its body off to create other semi-independent entities.

The Plasm Wraith is encountered at the Formidable Oak, having taken Olimar captive with what appears to be curiosity rather than maliciousness. Efforts to rescue Olimar cause the being to become the Mysterious Life Form and slowly ooze towards Olimar, attempting to retake him, until he reaches the outside of the oak. Once this occurs the Plasm Wraith takes its golden humanoid form, locks Olimar in its core, and begins to attack.

As with all final bosses, the path leading up to it, and/or the boss fight itself, requires the knowledge and utilization of every single Pikmin type.

Background

When Olimar first arrived at the Formidable Oak, he saw a gold, shiny substance at the top of the tower, and decided to investigate. Louie expressed discomfort and chose to stay behind, letting Olimar go on ahead without him.

At first, the creature was curious and playful towards Olimar and did no harm to him. However, when Olimar tried to leave, the creature became aggresive, triggering his suit's auto-sleep function and dragging him back to its cave. It became protective of Olimar to the point that it would attack anything that showed interest in him. The exact reason for this bizarre behavior remains unknown.

Battle

When the Mysterious Life Form transforms into the Plasm Wraith and recaptures Olimar, proceed to throw Pikmin at its stomach. This will cause small bits of its plasmic exterior to fall off, making its health deplenish. However, Pikmin must then attack the puddles of plasm on the floor to destroy them, or the Wraith will simply reabsorb the puddles and regenerate. Although it is not neccessary, you may take 20 of each Pikmin for the battle. Send the other two captains out of its reach, as this fight only requires one captain.

Be prepared to lose a lot of Pikmin during this phase of the battle. It will actively attack Pikmin, but mainly prefers to target the Captains and attack when they are close by skewering them with a rapid "needle-arm" attack. If any Pikmin aside from Rock Pikmin are in range of this attack, they will be skewered and eaten. You can seperate the captains as a distraction, with one captain handling all the Pikmin. It is unwise to attack it head-on, as it will not be fazed by attacks, and can easily kill the Pikmin. Instead, throw just a few Pikmin at it, preferably it's backside, until it tries to shake Pikmin off by twisting its body. This will cause additional plasm to fly off of its body. As it loses more and more plasm, it decreases in size, but it will frequently try to heal itself by reabsorbing any plasm left on the ground. Throw Pikmin at the plasm on the ground to minimize the amount of health that the Plasm Wraith can recover.

It can also become temporarily airborne, during which it can only be reached by Winged Pikmin. If it is hit with Winged Pikmin while flying, it may fall down, losing even more plasm as it hits the ground.

Defeating the Plasm Wraith immediately activates the game's ending.

Elemental Plasms

After a quarter of its health is depleted, the boss will attack by spewing large masses of plasm onto the arena, then spitting out a golden fractal-embroidered cube. The plasmic mass will form around this solid cube and form an Elemental Plasm. Each Elemental Plasm has a specific hazard associated with it. If the boss spits out a cube, quickly call all Pikmin away from it. Once the battle reaches its final stage, up to three different Elemental Plasms can be created at once. The less plasm in the Elemental Plasm, the less time is needed to destroy it. It has many forms, each of which can only be killed with certain Pikmin types:

1. The Elemental Plasm will protect the cube in a bubble of water. Only Blue Pikmin can break it.
2. The Elemental Plasm will turn molten and surround the floor with fire. Red Pikmin are recommended, but a skilled player a quick whistle may use Rock Pikmin to break it.
3. The Elemental Plasm will form a spike underneath the cube, setting it high up in the air. The cube will them generate an electric barrier around it and the plasm resembling a plasma globe. Only Yellow Pikmin can break it.
4. The Elemental Plasm will turn into a glass cube that slowly tumbles around the stage, crushing Pikmin. Only Rock Pikmin can break it.

Destroying Elemental Plasms will leave behind a large amount of plasm that must also be destroyed. If they are left alive for longer than 20 seconds, the Plasm Wraith will reabsorb them to heal itself.

After it's been reduced to just a quarter of its health, it will create three Elemental Plasms at once.

Trivia

• This creature, along with the Titan Dweevil, are the only creatures so far in the series to exhibit the ability to harness all elements; all other element-based enemies are only able to wield one element.
• When the Plasm Wraith is idle, its right shoulder is bigger than its left shoulder, making it the fourth asymmetric creature in the Pikmin series; the first being the Mamuta, second Segmented Crawbster and third being the Peckish Aristocrab.
• Even though the Plasm Wraith is defeated, it is revealed to still be alive in the final cutscene. One can notice this because the small trail of plasmic remains after its defeat slowly moves away from the site.
• The Plasm Wraith is currently the first and only boss in the Pikmin series to have a clearly-defined multiphased battle, with a "chase phase" and a "battle phase" separated by a cutscene.
• The Plasm Wraith bears a resemblance to some bosses in the Pikmin series: In its final form, it resembles the Waterwraith from Pikmin 2.
• In the secret data file reward video, "At the Oak", Olimar is seen surveying the area, while Louie is running away from something. Right as the video ends, the viewer can hear loud footsteps and the Plasm Wraith's roar, implying the capture of Olimar.
• Yellow Pikmin are the only Pikmin that are needed to finish the Mysterious Life Form phase, not including Data Files.
• The Plasm Wraith is the second creature and first final boss in the Pikmin series to have a unique variant of a life meter. In this case, its life meter is a beveled, gold coloration and corresponds to the amount of plasm left in its body. The only other creature with a unique life meter is the Waterwraith, which has 2 separate life meters. One being its own health and the other being for the health of its rollers. Intrestingly, both of these creatures have the "Wraith" suffix in their names.
• Strangely, when fighting the Plasm Wraith, the Koppad map can reveal an enemy marker off the map of the Formidable Oak. It is still, however, unknown if there is an actual enemy off the map or if it's just a glitch.
• The Plasm Wraith's Japanese name is "Amenyuudou", which can be a portmanteau of  "amoeba" (written in katakana like "ameba"), an unicellular organism usually found in water, or "ame", which means "rain", and "nyuudou" which means "priest" or "monk". Its name could also be an allusion to Wanyūdō, the guardian of the gates of Hell in Japanese mythology.

Gallery

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  The Plasm Wraith and Olimar, notice how it seems to take care of him.

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  The Plasm Wraith

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  The Plasm Wraith floating

• ZlCfzRFkNf89-j2J r.jpg

  The Plasm Wraith in the process of reabsorbing used plasm.

• ZlCfzRFkL-UfxCXIVz.jpg

  Fire Elemental Plasm.

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  Electrical Elemental Plasm.

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  Water Elemental Plasm.

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  Crystal Elemantal Plasm.

• ZlCfzRFkNyoOhnWt0p.jpg

  The Plasm Wraith flying.

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  The Plasm Wraith defeated.

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  The Plasm Wraith at the end of the game.

• 500px-Pikmin3 AmenyuudouNeedleAttack.jpeg

  The Plasm Wraith about to use its stabbing attack.

• BorkedPW.jpeg

  An odd second enemy bubble off the map in the Oak while fighting the Plasm Wraith.