Muckerskate

Muckerskate
Appears in	Pikmin 4
Scientific name	Gerridus terraprojecta
Family	Spitterspatter
Areas	Primordial Thicket
Caves	The Mud Pit
Dandori Challenge stages	None
Dandori Battle stages	None
Attacks	Spit mud at Pikmin

The Muckerskate (ドロンボウ^?, lit.: "Muddy Pond Skater") is an enemy in Pikmin 4. It appears and behaves similarly to the Skeeterskate, but rather than shooting water, it shoots mud at Pikmin. However, it is still very fragile and can be defeated in only a single hit, though doing so is dangerous when on top of unfrozen mud.

Stats

Weight	Max. carriers	Seeds	Value	Health
2	4	3	× 2	45

Behavior

Muckerskates are seen swimming on the tops of mud puddles in The Primordial Thicket and The Mud Pit, waiting for Pikmin or leaders to walk past them. If they spot one, the Muckerskate will shoot mud at what it spots up to 3 times before having to recharge. This mud deals damage and can bury any Pikmin on the ground. The Muckerskate usually swims away after shooting.

Appearance

The Muckerskate looks like the Skeeterskate, but instead of containing water, it contains mud.

Locations

• Primordial Thicket
• The Mud Pit

Strategy

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

The Muckerskate can be tricky to beat, due to them teetering over the mud in groups. The easiest method is to use either Ice Pikmin or an Ice Blast to freeze the mud the Muckerskates reside upon, leaving them defenseless while letting you traverse the mud, just remember that a Ice Blast doesn't freeze forever. Should one get close enough to the shore, you can charge Winged Pikmin at it. Sometimes, the Muckerskate will skate about as the Winged Pikmin chase it, which could lead to another Muckerskate hitting your Winged Pikmin while they're too far away to get back to shore in time. However this won't happen unless you're charging a few Winged Pikmin, around 10 is enough to defeat a Muckerskate with no problems. If a Winged Pikmin gets too far away as a result of the chase, use an Idler's Alert to bring it back to you. If you can throw a Pikmin at the Muckerskate, it'll instantly die, and since you have to be close to hit it in the first place, the Pikmin has little risk of drowning.

Notes

Dalmo's Notes

“This cautious critter moves in fits and starts. When it does, the muddy liquid In its transparent orb sloshes around. Splish! Splash! Sploosh! If I could observe this unique anatomy up close, I'd have no regrets, even if I got spattered with mud!”

Olimar's Notes

“A subspecies of the Skeeterskate that's adapted to live in muddy wetlands. It uses its straw-like proboscis with densely grown hair to capture any plankton living in the muddy water and filter out everything else.

When an enemy approaches, it will threaten them by shooting out a murky substance. This combination of muddy water and gastric juices has a higher viscosity, so it can essentially bury Pikmin—and a lot of other stuff—in dirt.”

Louie's Notes

“Even after draining the mud, its texture remains gritty. Chew it for long enough, and your teeth will get a good scrubbing.”

Other information

• Pikmin 4 Piklopedia number: #53

Naming

See more: Spitterspatter#Naming.

• Common name: Muckerskate. It replaces the "skeeter" in Skeeterskate with "mucker" to emphasize its relation to mud.
• Japanese nickname: ドロンボウ^?, lit.: "Muddy Pond Skater". ドロン is a pun on ドロン, "slipping away", and 泥んこ, "mud". ドロン is combined with 水んボウ, "pond skater" to create ドロンボウ.
• Japanese name: タテジマミズンボウ 泥吐型^?, lit.: "Vertical Stripes Watery Pond Skater (mud spitter type)". It is the Japanese name of the Skeeterskate with the added clarification that it spits mud instead of water.
• Scientific name: Gerridus terraprojecta. Terra is Latin for Earth, and projecta is similar to "projectile".
• Internal names: DOROMBOU. It is based off of its Japanese common name.
• Prerelease: None.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	ドロンボウ? Doronbō	Mud Pond Skater	From 泥? (lit.: "mud") and アメンボウ? (lit.: "pond skater")
Chinese (traditional)	吐泥水黽 Tǔ Ní Shuǐmǐn	Spit Mud Pond Skater
Chinese (simplified)	吐泥水黾 Tǔ Ní Shuǐmǐn	Spit Mud Pond Skater
Dutch	Modderschieter	Mud shooter
French	Ragnée de boue	Mud pider	From "boue" (mud) and Ragnée d'eau, which itself is from "araignée d'eau" (pond skater, lit.: "water spider")
German	Schlammflitzer	Mud Dasher
Italian	Sputafagno	Mudspitter	From "sputare" (to spit) and "fango" (mud). Fagno instead of fango is probably a typo.
Korean	진흙쟁이 Jinheulg-Jaengi	Mud Pond Skater	From 진흙 (mud) and 소금쟁이 (pond skater)
Portuguese	Lamasquito	Mudsquito	Portmanteau of "lama" (mud) and "mosquito"
Spanish	Fangotirador	Mudshooter	From "fango" (mud) and "tirador" (shooter)

Gallery

• 

  A pair of Muckerskate, as found in their Piklopedia page.

• 

  A Muckerskate with only 1 shot left (left) and one that has used all its shots (right).

• 

  A recharging Muckerskate.

• 

  A pair of frozen Muckerskates.

• 

  A defeated Muckerskate.

• 

  A defeated Muckerskate from a different angle.

• 

  A Muckerskate in the Primordial Thicket.

• 

  A Muckerskate recharging in shallow mud.

• 

  A Muckerskate in front of two Red Pikmin it has buried.

• 

  A Muckerskate in The Mud Pit in front of a buried a Blue Pikmin and its mud splatter.

Trivia

• As with the Skeeterskate and Quaggled Mireclops, it is among the few tripedal creatures in the series.
• The Muckerskate is identical to the Skeeterskate save the fact that it has mud in its upper compartment whereas the other has water.
• It is the only enemy in Pikmin 4 to use mud-based attacks.

See also

• Skeeterskate
• Bogswallow