Empress Bulblax

Empress Bulblax
Appears in	Pikmin 2
Scientific name	Oculus matriarcha
Family	Grub-dog
Areas	None
Caves	Frontier Cavern, Hole of Beasts, Hole of Heroes
Challenge Mode stages	None
2-Player Battle stages	None
Attacks	Crushes Pikmin, causes boulders to fall, births larvae

The Empress Bulblax is a boss in Pikmin 2. It is possible to surmise that this creature can mate with the Emperor Bulblax. The Empress Bulblax most closely resembles a regular Red Bulborb that has swollen beyond regular proportions. In the Piklopedia, this creature sleeps and cannot be woken up. It is pink with white spots.

The Empress Bulblax makes few appearances in the game: it is located on the last sublevel (5) of Hole of Beasts, last sublevel 8 of Frontier Cavern, sublevel 11 of Hole of Heroes, and sublevel 4 of Emperor's Realm in Challenge Mode.

Strategy

To defeat this enemy, throw (preferably Purple) Pikmin onto its face and call them back before it throws them off. After shaking Pikmin off, the boss rolls from side to side across the chamber in an attempt to crush its aggressors, smashing into walls, and making rocks fall from the ceiling in a few encounters in the game. Although risky, the Bulblax can be petrified if the spray is released on the middle of its elongated torso.

The Empress Bulblax is one of the few bosses that can vary depending on where the player encounters it: for the Hole of Beasts fight, it is easier to throw the Pikmin on the Empress Bulblax's side to the left and retreat to the alcove in the wall between attacks. Here, it is also effective to swarm the body from the left at the start of the battle, before the boss awakes. Doing this will deal heavy damage if many Pikmin manage to latch onto the Empress.

This is not as effective in the later two battles, as the Pikmin have less time to attack the enemy before she shakes the Pikmin off, and they have the Empress continuously giving birth to Bulborb Larvae. These are easily defeated by their own mother's rolling; alternatively, in the Frontier Cavern, since the number that can exist is finite, they can be lured away from the Empress with one captain while the other fights the boss, resulting in a fight that is about as easy as in the Hole of Beasts. For the Hole of Heroes fight, the player start off behind the Empress, and she can make boulders fall after hitting the walls; these are most easily avoided by moving behind the exit hole, itself behind a gate. All rules apply here as the same as the Frontier Cavern fight, but trapping the larvae is near impossible, and requires a decoy captain who is in good condition.

When defeated, four of the Empress Bulblax's front body segments explode, leaving only the segment attached to the head, which can be returned to the Research Pod and cashed in for 15 pokos.

Gallery

• Empressblublax.jpg

  Concept artwork of the Empress Bulblax.

• Empress Bulblax beta.jpg

  The Empress Bulblax being awakened.

• 112.jpg

  The Empress being attacked by Purple Pikmin in the Hole of Beasts.

Trivia

• The Empress Bulblax may shed its skin; on the last sublevel on the Hole of Beasts, right underneath the Research Pod, there appears to be an Empress Bulblax skin on the floor.
• The Empress Bulblax also makes a cameo appearance in the game WarioWare: Smooth Moves where the player must tilt the Wii-Remote to squish the Pikmin.
• The Empress Bulblax is the only enemy in the Piklopedia which can't be activated.
• The Empress Bulblax is the only member of the Grub-dog family that does not kill Pikmin by eating them.
• It resembles a pregnant queen termite
• Though the Emperor Bulblax is called the largest of the Grub-dog family in the Piklopedia the Empress Bulbax is bigger while pregnant as seen here.
• It gives live birth, which is unusual, being a bug.
• Its scientific name, Oculus matriarcha, translates into 'Eye Matriarch'. Oculus translates into eye, and matriarcha is similar to matriarch.