Empress Bulblax
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| Appears in | Pikmin 2, Pikmin 4 | ||
| Scientific name | Oculus matriarcha | ||
| Family | Grub-dog | ||
| Areas | None | ||
| Caves | Frontier Cavern, Hole of Beasts, Hole of Heroes | ||
| Challenge Mode stages | Emperor's Realm | ||
| Dandori Challenge stages | None | ||
| Dandori Battle stages | None | ||
| 2-Player Battle stages | None | ||
| Attacks | Crush Pikmin, cause boulders to fall, birth larvae | ||
The Empress Bulblax (クイーンチャッピー?, lit.: "Queen Chappy") is a boss in Pikmin 2 and Pikmin 4. Its markings and general features are similar to those of the Red Bulborb, but its body is much larger and composed of five distinct segments; its comparatively tiny legs dangle above the ground.
Unlike most bosses, its behavior is different each time it's encountered. In the Hole of Beasts, it must be woken up before battling, rolling from side to side to crush any Pikmin under its weight. In the Frontier Cavern (as well as the Emperor's Realm in Challenge Mode), it will already be awake, and giving birth to Bulborb Larvae. In the Hole of Heroes, it does the same while also causing boulders to fall when it hits a wall.
Stats
| Weight | Max. carriers |
Seeds | Value | Health | Regen. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 30 | 30[note 1] |  × 15
|
5000[note 2] | 1.5[note 3] |
Notes
Olimar's notes
Louie's notes
Pikmin 2 Nintendo Player's Guide
Strategy
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The following article or section contains guides. |
To defeat the Empress Bulblax, 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 most 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 wakes up. 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 it 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 leader 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 starts off behind the Empress, and it 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 the same as the Frontier Cavern fight, but trapping the larvae is nearly impossible, and requires a decoy leader 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.
During the fights with the Bulborb Larvae, it is suggested that a leader should distract the larvae, preferably at full health and with the Metal Suit Z obtained, as the larvae can deal a lot of damage otherwise.
In other games
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
The Empress Bulblax appears as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
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Description:
“A member of the grub-dog family, transformed by environmental factors. Due to her ridiculous size, the empress bulblax can no longer walk on her tiny legs. She just wiggles around, rolling from left to right. Although the female continues spawning bulborb larvae, she unfortunately rolls over them with her massive body.
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| How to obtain: Random appearance. | Type: Fighter Related | |
WarioWare series
The Empress Bulblax makes a cameo appearance in WarioWare: Smooth Moves, in a micro-game simply called Pikmin 2. In this micro-game, the player must tilt the Wii Remote to squish some Pikmin. This micro-game returns in WarioWare Gold.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
The Empress Bulblax appears as a Primary Spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate after enhancing a Red Bulborb spirit. Its unique trait allows fighters to gain a large boost to their overall stats upon eating a food item.
Technical information
| showPikmin 2 technical information (?) |
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Other information
- Size: Body length: 480mm, as per the e-card
- Pikmin 2 Piklopedia number: #70
- Musical theme: Common boss battle
Naming
- See also: Grub-dog family#Naming.
- Common name: Empress Bulblax. It is the female counterpart to the Emperor Bulblax, and is indeed a large Bulborb.
- Japanese nickname: クイーンチャッピー?, lit.: "Queen Chappy".
- Japanese name: デメマダラ（卵嚢肥大個体）?, lit.: "Spotted Bug-eye (specimen with enlarged egg sac)".
- Scientific name: Oculus matriarcha, with Oculus being used in the scientific name for all Bulborbs, and matriarcha being similar to the English word "matriarch", which is the female leader of a community.
- Internal names: Its internal name is simply
queen. - Prerelease: In the unused early English script inside the game's files, Olimar refers to the Empress Bulblax as "Queen Bulborb", a straightfoward translation of the Japanese nickname, and the species name is misspelled as matriarhca.[1]
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
 Japanese |
クイーンチャッピー? Kuīn Chappī |
Queen Chappy |
 French |
Reine Bulblax | Bulblax Queen |
 German |
Fürstin Knollenauge | Lady Bulb-Eye |
 Italian |
Bulbica Imperiale | Imperial Bulblax |
 Spanish |
Bulbo emperatriz | Empress bulb |
Gallery
Pikmin 2
The Empress Bulblax asleep, in the Piklopedia.
E3 2003 screenshot showing the boss being awakened.
The boss in the Hole of Beasts.
The boss with its army of Bulborb Larvae.
A close-up of the boss.
The spoils of the boss.
The creature's e-card, #14 (20th red card).
Pikmin 4
The Empress Bulblax rolling over helpless Pikmin.
The Empress Bulblax, viewed from behind.
Trivia
- The Empress Bulblax may shed its skin; on the last sublevel of the Hole of Beasts, right underneath the Research Pod, there appears to be an Empress Bulblax skin on the floor.
- It is impossible to wake up the Empress Bulblax in the Piklopedia, no matter how many Pikpik carrots are thrown at it. The only other enemies who will not attack in the Piklopedia are the Titan Dweevil and the Segmented Crawbster.
- The Empress Bulblax is the only member of the Grub-dog family that does not kill Pikmin by eating them.
- The creature resembles a real-life pregnant queen termite.
- The Empress Bulblax gives live birth to its larval-form offspring. This is not only unique to the Pikmin franchise, but also to Earth lifeforms.
- The Empress Bulblax's specific epithet, matriarcha, indicates that it is considered a different species from its offspring, the Bulborb Larvae (bambinii). How a parent of one species can bare the offspring of another is unknown, so this could actually be a mistake.
- The Japanese Louie's notes mentions cooking the ovaries of the creature instead of its liver. This was also the case for the prototype version of Pikmin 2's English script.[2]
See also
References
- ^ Pikmin 2/Early English Script on The Cutting Room Floor
- ^ Pikmin 2/Early English Script/Louie's Notes on The Cutting Room Floor
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