Swiggler

Swiggler is a large, Shroob-created, bio-mechanical Wiggler that appears in Mario & Luigi Partners in Time. It is vital to the Shroob's conquest of the Mushroom Kingdom and acts as both the boss of the Toadwood Forest and the first boss in the game. Swiggler has the unique ability to transform the vim sucked from Toads into a fuel source for the Shroob's flying saucers. Swiggler resides in a special room in the Vim Factory. In the factory, Swiggler will drink vim and use special chemicals inside its body, which transforms the vim into fuel. Shroob UFOs will then attach themselves to Swiggler with special conducts, powering up the flying saucers.

During the events of Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Mario, Luigi, Baby Mario, and Baby Luigi confront Swiggler inside the Vim Factory after Baby Mario hits his Glass of Vim with his Hammer. In battle, Swiggler can shoot poisonous clouds at the brothers. These attacks can be countered with hammer hits, with some taking two hits to stop. Swiggler also has a glass of green Vim, which it will drink and power-up nearby Shroob UFOs. This allows the flying saucers to shoot energy blasts at Mario and Luigi. Fortunately, the brothers can jump over these blasts to avoid damage. The left blast will shoot at Mario and the right blast will shoot at Luigi. However, they can swap places and attack different brothers.

Attacking Swiggler proves to be relatively useless, as the monster has extremely high defense and will always counterattack the Mario quartet with several shockwaves immediately afterwards, forcing the heroes to jump to avoid them. This attack comes in addition to Swiggler's regular attacks that comes in on its turn.

During the fight, Swiggler is aided by two Dr. Shroob guards. If one is destroyed, another Dr. Shroob will appear to take its place. The Dr. Shroobs behave exactly as they always had prior to the quartet's encounter with Swiggler: they will use red and gray Shroob mushrooms to grow and shrink, respectively, attacking once they assume the new form. These Dr. Shroobs unintentionally aid in Swiggler's demise. By attacking them, the brothers can knock the Shroob mushrooms usable by the Dr. Shroobs into Swiggler's Vim drink. If a gray Shroob mushroom is knocked in, Swiggler will grow sickly and be weak upon drinking it, lowering its defense, and making it unable to attack. This presents a perfect opportunity for attack. Regardless, Swiggler will always return to normal after a few turns. On the other hand, if a red mushroom is knocked in, the solution will heal Swiggler by either 71, 41 or 21 HP.

After the battle, the Mario Bros. and their counterparts emerge victorious. Swiggler is destroyed, and a Cobalt Star shard is discovered. However, the victory ends as a partial loss. In the end, Baby Bowser arrives and steals the Cobalt Shard, which is the one the heroes got at Baby Bowser's Castle. He escapes in his Koopa Clown Car to Yoshi's Island.

Trivia

 * Swiggler's name is a portmanteau of the word "Wiggler" and the word "swig," a small sip.
 * During the battle, the four Mario Bros. will be awarded Experience Points and Coins for every Dr. Shroob that is defeated, meaning the player can delay the end of the fight to boost their stats and maximize their EXP.
 * Even though the Swiggler is a source of the Shroob UFOs' power, they continue to run even after he is defeated, meaning that he might be one of many sources for energy.