Swiggler

Not to be confused with Squiggler.

Swiggler
Species	Wiggler
First appearance	Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (2005)

Swiggler is a large, Shroob-created, bio-mechanical green Wiggler with yellow spots that appears in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, who acts as the boss of the Vim Factory in Toadwood Forest and is found on the bottom floor of the factory. Its name is a portmanteau of "Wiggler" and "swig". Swiggler has the unique ability to transform the vim sucked from Toads into a fuel source for the Shroobs' Shroob saucers. It drinks vim from a glass and then transfers it into the saucers via tubes in its body to which they connect. It is the first boss to be fought by all four Mario brothers.

Design

Swiggler, as with other Wigglers, resembles a giant caterpillar with a segmented, yellow-spotted body made up of spheres and with a pair of legs with shoes on each segment. However, unlike its normal counterpart, it sports a tubular mouth, glowing eyes with black sclerae, antenna-like structures on top of its head and tail, and pointed shoes with yellow tips. Normally, Swiggler has a green body with red eyes and head antenna, but when angered, its body turns red and its eyes and antenna yellow. When ill, its body turns seafoam green with beige spots and its eyes and both its antennae turn red and, in the latter's case, droop. Its tail antenna is also capable of extending and turning into a white, forked pair of plugs used to charge Shroob saucers.

History

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

Mario, Luigi and their baby counterparts battling Swiggler.

Swiggler before battle.

During the events of Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Mario, Luigi, Baby Mario, and Baby Luigi confront Swiggler deep inside the Vim Factory, who is drinking glasses of vim to power Shroob saucers. After Baby Mario knocks over one of its glasses with his hammer, Swiggler becomes angry and attacks the quartet.

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, and might poison the brothers if not countered. Swiggler also has a glass of green vim, which it drinks and uses to power-up nearby Shroob saucers. This allows them to shoot energy blasts at Mario and Luigi. 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.

Attacking Swiggler proves to be relatively useless, as it has extremely high defense and will always counterattack the brothers with several shockwaves immediately afterwards, forcing them to jump to avoid them. This attack comes in addition to Swiggler's regular attacks.

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 do in earlier encounters: they use red and gray Mushrooms to grow and shrink, respectively, attacking once they assume the new form. By attacking them, the brothers can knock the Mushrooms into Swiggler's vim drink. If a gray Mushroom is knocked in, Swiggler will become sick upon drinking it, lowering its defense and making it unable to attack for a few turns. On the other hand, if a red Mushroom is knocked in, the solution will heal Swiggler by either 21, 41, 71, or 86 HP.

After the battle, Swiggler is destroyed and drops the second Cobalt Star shard. However, Baby Bowser arrives and steals both shards in their possession (the first one was acquired in Baby Bowser's Castle), jumps in his Koopa Clown Car, and flies to Yoshi's Island with Kamek.

Official profiles and statistics

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time enemy
Swiggler
	HP	250 (200)	POW	36	Defense	100
	Experience	160	Coins	120	Speed	23
	Location(s)	Vim Factory	Role	Boss	Item drop	1-Up Super – 50% None – 0%
	Level	8	Battled by	Everyone
Notice: Stats in parentheses are from the Japanese and European versions (if they differ from the original American release).

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time enemy
Swiggler (sick)
	HP	250 (200)	POW	36	Defense	36
	Experience	160	Coins	120	Speed	19
	Location(s)	Vim Factory	Role	Boss	Item drop	1-Up Super – 50% None – 0%
	Level	8	Battled by	Everyone
Notice: Stats in parentheses are from the Japanese and European versions (if they differ from the original American release).

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	ゲナちゃん Genachan	Combination of「ゲドンコ」(Gedonko, "Shroob") and「ハナちゃん」(Hanachan, "Wiggler")
French	Xhwiggler	Combination of Xhampi ("Shroob") and "Wiggler"
German	Swiggler	-
Italian	Storcibruco	S-Wiggler, the "S" stands for "Shroob"
Korean	게돈꽃충이 Gedonkkotchung'i	Combination of "게돈코" (Gedonko, "Shroob") and "꽃충이" (Kkotchung'i, "Wiggler")
Spanish	Trompiruga	From trompa ("trunk") and Floruga ("Wiggler")

Trivia

• 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.
• The energy blasts that the Shroob saucers shoot during one of Swiggler's attacks, if looked at closely, are actually purple Bullet Bills coated in fire.