Gilled Mawdad

The Gilled Mawdad is an boss in Pikmin 10, encountered only underwater, as such, it can only by fought with Blue Pikmin. It is encountered twice, once in an area, and once in a cave. It has an appearance similer to the Armored Mawdad, without a shell. It is blue-skinned like its land-dwelling cousin, but its skin is a paler blue and smoother. It has a white underbelly, red tongue, and green eyes. It has 2 pairs of red colored gills, much like a salamanders, each right behind and below its eyes, having 4 gills in total. Similer to its Armored cousin, it has 2 Mandibles, but these mandibles can't be broken off, only hurt temporarily, to rescue the trapped pikmin. Each mandible has its own health bar, which when drawined, will make the Mawdad flinch and throw any captured pikmin everywhere. It can be attacked in the eyes, but this will aggitate it alot, making it walk erratically around the arena, throwing any pikmin or leaders in its way off balance, until the offending pikmin is off it's eye. It will ram its head into the wall to get the pikmin off, like its cousin. It has considerably more health, and more attacks, that it will use at random. It also has thicker skin on its tail and face than the rest of its body.

First Encounter
When you first encounter the Gilled Mawdad, it will be asleep at the Entrance of the Forest Valley's Cave. When you walk near it(It is impossible to sneak around it), it will wake up and roar loudly. It will then proceed to bash into a cave wall. Once the player goes to the next sector of the Cave, they will see the aquatic centipede smash through another wall and into the arena. The player can now go confront the boss now, and enemies don't appear in the cave until the day after that. The Gilled Mawdad Respawns here every 30 days. It will not do its screech on days after that, you will jussst find the cave empty and quite until you either look around with the KopPad or you wait(10 seconds) for it to come down and initiate the fight. It will drop 1 Pocked Airhead when defeated the first time, and 2 Sunseed Berries or 6 Juicy Gaggles afterwards.

Strategy
Normal Strategy(Underwater)

This strategy requires you to have gotten the Ultra-Spicy Spray.

Once you enter the arena, the boss will rear up and roar like the Armored Mawdad(Without it smashing its mandibles). It will then begin to circle the border of the arena, and then it will utter a roar and dive towards your pikmin. You can use the Dodge whistle to get out of the way, but you will most likely not make it without it. If you are trapped in its mandibles, throw your Blue Pikmin at its mandibles to free yourself. You can also throw them at its eye or gills, but this will agitate it. On the other hand, it will spit out any pikmin in its mouth. Once you are free or dodge the attack, throw or charge your pikmin at its middle-most segment(Usually the biggest segment in the middle), since it does more damage there. keep repeaating until a quarter of its health is drained, then call back your pikmin. It will start to circle the arena in an increasingly faster pace, trapping any pikmin near it in a whirlpool. It will then quickly charge at any trapped pikmin in the middle, trapping them. Just whistle your pikmin back from the whirlpool and you should be fine. Leaders can free themselves by rotating the control stick a lot. Once it stops this attack, it will go up on the ceiling and then surprise attack you. It will sometimes fake attacking and go back up if there isn't a clear shot. One way to make it attack is throwing a single pikmin near the middle of the arena, and as soon as it is attacking call it back. The pikmin should swim towards you and avoid being eaten. Attack its middle again until it is at about half health. If you go past it, it will initiate its whirlpool attack again. When It climbs up a wall, tempt it out again by doing the single Pikmin trick. As soon as it stops, Spicy Spray your Pikmin and charge them at the middle. It won't be able to shake them off if there is enough on it, so it will thrash around the arena, throwing a few pikmin off. It should be dead before it shakes them all off, just call back your pikmin and throw them on it if they get shaken off.

Normal Strategy(Shallow Water)

This strategy requires Purple Pikmin

Once you have acquired Purple Pikmin, go into the Flooded Abyss and you will find it near the end of the linear cave. Once you approach it, it will roar and start moving around the arena quickly. Pikmin thrown on the mawdad will get shaken off and the Pikmin will most likely get sucked into the abyss below. Wait for a while and it will then swim above you and start to go through the hole in the ceiling(aka, the entrance). Exit via geyser, and you will find it circling the shallow lake above the cave. When it approaches you, it will roar and attempt to crush you and your squad by smashing the ground in front of it with its head. If it hits solid ground, like the cement surrounding the area, it will get dizzy for 2 seconds, then it will shake its head and go back to circling the area. Take your Purple Pikmin and throw them onto it, and if they stomp on it successfully, they will max out its dizzy time to 8 seconds(It can't go past 8 seconds of stunned; any more purples thrown on it will just do damage). Quickly charge it with your Blue Pikmin, and it's health will go down rather quickly. It should shake some Pikmin off at quarter health, and the rest will keep attacking. Be careful though, because it will attempt to trap and eat any Blue Pikmin found in water or any Pikmin near the shore. It will even go up to the landing site if you lead it there, although it will quickly retreat to the lake. Keep repeating the strategy and it should go down in 4 minutes or more.

Olimars Notes
This Mawdad has evolved to survive underwater, without a carapace to weigh it down. As a result, this Mawdad is faster than most Mawdads, and takes advantage of this ability by creating whirlpools to trap small prey. It also has thicker skin to make up for its carapace. Instead of having crystal mandibles, it has grown two resistant, fleshy mandibles that come with advantages and disadvantages.

Trivia

 * The Gilled Mawdad that appears above water has more health than it has underwater.
 * When a Pikmin latches onto it's eye, it will thrash around the arena, smashing it's head into the walls and rolling around in attempt to get the offending Pikmin off.
 * It will sometimes spew water at nearby enemies when left alone, waking up Bulborbs, annoying Bulbears, killing Spectralids, extingishing Fiery Bulblaxes, and causing all sorts of reactions.
 * If Winged Pikmin are carrying something or are directed to cross an area inhabited by the Gilled Mawdad, it(Gilled Mawdad) will leap out of the water, eating some Winged Pikmin, drowning others, and throwing their spoils far. It will not interact with the dropped spoils, unless they are pellets or small fruit, which it will then drop when killed(It will retain its eaten spoils for 3 days).
 * The Gilled Mawdad will react negatively to electricity, staying away from Electric Gates, Bearded Amprats, and what not; It will even stay away from Yellow Pikmin. Unfortunately, if Yellow Pikmin grab onto it, it will swim extremely swiftly to deeper water and attempt to drown them by dragging them underwater. They are very hard to save, as most likely the Yellow Pikmin will drown(They drown in 3 seconds, as opposed to the above water drowning's 8 seconds) very quickly.