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The Pointdexter[1] (ポイントデクスター[2],Pointodekusutā?), later known in Japan as Puff (パフ[3],Pafu?), is an enemy that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is a mass-produced, pufferfish-based Badnik model created by Dr. Eggman.
In gameplay, they swim around slowly, periodically drawing out and retracting their spikes. However, they make no effort to attack the player. Pointdexters can easily be destroyed with a Spin Jump when their spikes are retracted, but they will damage the player when their spikes are out. They can also be hard to notice, if the player quickly falls down underwater.
In Sonic Mania, and its expansion Sonic Mania Plus, the Pointdexters appear as enemies. In terms of design, they are unchanged from their debut game. In these games, they only appear in the underwater sections of Hydrocity Zone.
In gameplay, the Pointdexters behave just like in their debut game: they swim around slowly while periodically protruding spikes. Also, upon destroying a Pointdexter, it will release an Animal.
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The Pointdexters are adapt swimmers and can protrude metal spikes from their bodies, the latter of which makes a direct attack on them very painful.
Pointdexters have also appeared in several issues of the British publication Sonic the Comic, after Dr. Robotnik's discovery of the Floating Island. In this continuity, they are able to float through the air. In their first appearance in the comic, a Pointdexter appeared in Marble Garden Zone.
The Pointdexters are also similar to Bubbles, a Badnik from the same game, in both appearance and attack method.
When it draws out its spikes, the Pointdexter is virtually indestructible, as neither invincibility or even Hyper Sonic's Hyper Flash can destroy it. Bubbles shares a similar feature.
In the original Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the graphics for the Pointdexter's partially inflated torso were squeezed into a 3×3 square in order to consume as little VRAM as possible. However, the head and rear pieces were aligned to the top of the torso graphics rather than aligned to the center, making their sprites appear broken. The Sonic Origins remaster of Sonic 3 & Knuckles fixes this error by realigning the head and fin to the center.
