Grubchucker

Grubchucker
Appears in	Pikmin 4
Scientific name	Carabea vescora
Family	Crablipps
Areas	Serene Shores (Olimar's Shipwreck Tale), Primordial Thicket
Caves	Subterranean Swarm
Dandori Challenge stages	None
Dandori Battle stages	None
Attacks	Seizing pikmin and throwing them into its head

The Grubchucker (ナゲクライ^?, lit.: "Throwing Devourer") is an enemy in Pikmin 4. It is a particularly tall enemy compared to most, with even Yellow Pikmin struggling to reach its height. It hunts Pikmin by seizing them with its claws and placing them into the fleshy mouth on top of its body, swallowing and killing them after a few seconds if not interrupted. It typically inhabits, and is encountered within, shallow waters and pools of mud.

Stats

Weight	Max. carriers	Seeds	Value	Health
12	24	15	× 12	5000

Behavior

The Grubchucker does not demonstrate any agression towards lone captains, but will attack Pikmin within reach. The Grubchucker attacks with a double swipe, grabbing at most a single Pikmin per claw and two Pikmin per attacking cycle. Any seized Pikmin are thrown into the mouth on top of its head, and the Grubchucker needs to be knocked down in order to free the trapped Pikmin.

Grubchuckers become aggressive towards Pikmin in a radius approximately twice their width. They pursue Pikmin slowly, but the range within which they continue pursuit is much larger than the initial aggro radius.

Pikmin sent to attack the Grubchucker will climb their legs if they can't reach the body on the initial throw. Yellow Pikmin have a high enough arc when thrown to latch directly on to the Grubchucker, and Winged Pikmin will fly towards and latch on to the enemy if thrown towards it as well. The front and sides of the Grubchucker are immune to direct damage and stunning from Oatchi's charge, but the back of their legs/ankles are vulnerable to a charge and will bowl the creature over.

The Grubchucker will fall to the ground and become entirely vulnerable to attack if enough Pikmin latch on to it or if Oatchi charges it from behind. This will release any Pikmin that are currently in its mouth.

Appearance

The Grubchucker is a large, tall and lanky bipedal arthropod. Its legs have a knock-kneed posture and bend backwards compared to a traditional biped, and its feet have three toes (two in the front and one in the back). It has a soft, round body and a fleshy mouth running front to back on top of it. It has small compound eyes on the bottom of its body and four antennae.

The Grubchucker's appearance is evocative of decapod crustaceans. Its eyes are similar in shape and presentation to fiddler crabs or hermit crabs. Its arms resemble those of freshwater prawn, and its forearms are sparsely covered in beige Seta setae. Although its limbs have a rigid exoskeleton, its thorax does not, and appears fleshy and soft like a freshly-molted crab.

The Grubchucker's body is mostly deep blue. The bottom of its thorax and the undersides of its limbs are beige. Its claws and toes are proximally blue and distally pink. The lips of its mouth are a light blue and the interior is a deep red.

Its bell-shaped body is subtly segmented radially, and has a large, fleshy mouth running front to back on it somewhat similar in appearance to the mouth of a giant clam. Grubchuckers have and use typical crustacean mouthparts earlier in their life cycle, and the pseudo-mouth stays closed until adulthood. Adult Grubchuckers no longer use the mouthparts below their body and feed entirely with the large mouth-basket.

It makes little noise when idle, but growls and bellows when being attacked by Pikmin.

Locations

Two are found in Serene Shores during Olimar's Shipwreck Tale. One is found in the drainable water section with Pricklepuffs in the main game, west from the Water's Edge landing site. This one holds a Ship part. The other appears north from the Water's Edge landing site behind the breakable pots, where the Giant's Fossil is located in the main game. Both of these Grubchuckers are stood with their feet in water.

Strategy

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

The Grubchucker is not particularly dangerous. They cannot immediately kill Pikmin, cannot grab a particularly large amount of Pikmin at a time and need a few uninterrupted seconds to swallow and kill them. However, its high health and the way that you fight it can make killing it a time-consuming task.

Charging the Grubchucker with Oatchi and a squad of Pikmin will launch the Pikmin either directly onto its body or send them climbing up its legs. Take care to hit the enemy's legs instead of its claws with your charge, as if the charge hits the legs the Grubchucker will immediately fall over, but if you hit the claws the Grubchucker will not flinch at all and can potentially grab your Pikmin during your brief moment of recoil from the charge.

If charging with the dog isn't an option, send Pikmin up its legs like you would a Baldy Long Legs. Yellow Pikmin and Winged Pikmin are both good choices as they can bypass the climbing process, but Winged Pikmin in particular shine here as they will fly directly onto its weak point if sent with the Charging Horn. This is one of the encounters that is made much simpler with a good group of Winged Pikmin and Ultra-spicy spray, as 30 Winged Pikmin and a spray can knock it down and kill it before it can get back up.

Once the creature is down, it is not completely helpless, it should be noted its arms, legs and mouth (the large, frilly opening on its head) are entirely invulnerable to attack, making the soft body in the centre the point your squadron should focus on. Charging a squad can still prove effective, but many Pikmin will get stuck on the invulnerable armour which makes it not as great an option (The Lineup Trumpet, if you have it, is more effective if you use it to filter pikmin in-between the claws.) instead, position yourself to the beast's side and throw Pikmin, preferably high-damaging ones such as Red, Rock and especially Purple Pikmin who can particularly take out this creature in a single cycle. Oatchi or Moss can also help, whistle your pikmin onto the back of the dog and then ram the centre of the creature, this can defeat the beast in one cycle, especially if the rush is upgraded to provide a stunning effect. Ultra-spicy spray is as always a potent option if you want to deal with it quickly. Ice Pikmin can extend the time you have to deal damage to the beast and turn its invulnerable armour into ice, making it succeptable to a charge.

It should be noted that as little as 15 Winged Pikmin can defeat this creature entirely on their own without assistance from the player, as they effectively stunlock the Grubchucker due to their swift flying and homing abilities. They take an extremely long time to accomplish this, so you could use it as an oppurtunity to multitask.

Around half of the Grubchuckers in the game don't carry any treasures (for example, the two in Subterranean Swarm and the one on the rock ramp in the Olimar's Shipwreck Tale version of Serene Shores), and as such you may also have the option of bypassing them entirely, saving precious time. If Pikmin are carrying a treasure back to the base and a live Grubchucker is in the way, you can time when it falls over so that any carriers move past unharmed, ideally with Oatchi's charge. The key to dealing with this enemy is not necessarily to fight it head-on to reduce Pikmin death but to reduce the amount of time spent on dealing with it.

Notes

Dalmo's notes

“The mouth on top of its head is somehow chic and ostentatious at the same time. Combined with the way it carries its claws like it's ready to give you a trim, this cutie looks like the charismatic beautician of the creature world. Though the way it tosses its food in the air shows rather poor etiquette.”

Olimar's notes

“This bipedal creature walks upright, so its motion is noticeably slow, but the long reach of its pincers is useful for catching prey and tossing it into the wide mouth on top of its head.

When young, this mouth stays closed, and the Grubchucker lives on things like shellfish, nuts, and fruits, eating using the small trophi located behind the feelers below its eyes. As it grows, its sincipital mouth opens, and it can start eating larger quantities of food.

It has few natural enemies, primarily due to its height. However, it's often found in dimmer wetlands or underground to protect the soft top of its shell from the sun's rays.”

Louie's notes

“Pluck off the lips, and serve with lemon and salt as an appetizer. Coat the arms and legs with plenty of miso for a full-course dinner in a shell!”

Other information

Pikmin 4 Piklopedia number: #99
This enemy triggers the Auto Target Lock note in the Rescue Journal

Naming

See more: Crablipps family#Naming.

Common name: Grubchucker. Its name describes its primary action of "chucking" its "grub" (food) into the large mouth on the top of its head.
Japanese nickname: ナゲクライ^?, lit.: "Throwing Devourer". 投げ^? means "throw", referring to how the Grubchucker throws its food into the mouth on its head. 喰らう^? means "devour", and it turns into 喰らい^? for person who devours.
Japanese name: タカアシガマグチガニ^?, lit.: "Long-legged Coin Purse Crab". It is also a play on タカアシガニ^?, the Japanese name of the Japanese spider crab.
Scientific name: Carabea vescora. "Vescor" is Latin for eating or feeding upon.
Internal names: THROWEATER. It refers to how it throws Pikmin into its mouth to eat them.
Prerelease: None.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	ナゲクライ^? Nage Kurai	Throwing Devourer
Dutch	Losklauwige krablipper	Looseclawed crablipper
French	Jongloproie	From "jongler" (juggle) and "proie" (prey)
German	Scherenschmetter	Scissor Smash
Italian	Predoliere	From "preda" (prey) and "giocoliere" (juggler)
Korean	던져먹기 Deonjyeo-Meokgi	Throwing Devourer
Portuguese	Pinça-caçador	Claw-hunter
Spanish	Pinzaronte lanzador	From "pinza" (claw) and possibly "bifronte" (something that is two-faced), and lanzador (thrower)