Professor Pester

Professor Pester
Professor Pester
I'm not sure what Pester is actually a professor of. I don't know where he studied either. I do know he likes to make 'evil' plans, and he hangs around with a lot of Ruffians, so I don't really want to get close enough to ask him.
Role	Main Villain
Relationships	Jardiniero (Enemies) Langston Lickatoad (Enemies) Ruffians (Minions) Dastardos (Corrupted)
Voiced by	David Brimmer

Professor Pester (also known under the false identity Lester) is the villain of Viva Piñata, and the only human character to appear consistently across all forms of VP media. He frequently hatches plots to derail islanders' activities to varying degrees of success. He often shouts his catchphrase, "Victory is mine!". Despite his title and accompanying Oxford cap, Pester's academic credentials are nebulous and largely unknown.

Biography

Appearance

Professor Pester is a relatively short and squat human (though not as short as his Ruffian minions). His mask is tall and red, with triangular green "angry eyes", matching the designs of Ruffians and sours. He wears a graduation cap, reflecting his professorial title. He has a red shirt with geometric patterns around the sleeves and neck, with a darker red stripe running down the middle. His shirt also exposes the skin of his forearms and chest, showing patterns reminiscent of tribal tattoos or possibly chest hair (again, similar to the patterns on Ruffians and sours). He wears a dark red belt with a yellow zig-zag pattern and a golden buckle in the center. His pants are adorned with alternating red and dark red stripes, as are his pointed shoes, which are reminiscent of medieval winklepickers.

Personality

Professor Pester is a mischief maker and revels in derailing others' plans. He has no stated goal other than causing chaos for all those he encounters (particularly Piñata Central and the player). However, his schemes are often blunted by his comical ineptitude, leading to poorly-thought-out plans and frequent mistakes. Though his schemes do not always succeed, he is never discouraged by failure, as seen in Trouble in Paradise, when he attempts to steal Piñata Central's files, accidentally deletes them, and claims victory anyway.

Lore

Lester as seen in the Storybook

Many years ago, Jardiniero hired a Helper named Lester. Lester’s job was to help with the more menial tasks around the garden, while Jardiniero raised and trained his young son, Stardos.

Lester was a lackluster employee in Jardiniero’s eyes, spending more time taking notes and making plans than actually doing what the gardener asked of him. He would often try to take shortcuts, trying to pack as many piñatas into a crate as he could.

One day, Lester would be working on his latest scheme, attempting to meddle with piñata candy and create a new red and black sweet. Unfortunately, Jardiniero would stumble upon Lester in the midst of stirring the sour liquid.

Horrified by the idea of meddling with piñata candy, Jardiniero fired Lester on the spot. Lester would become furious by this, only more so upon discovering that the young Stardos would come to replace him. With nothing but revenge on his mind, Lester would leave the garden, and disappear from the family’s mind for many years.

Eventually, Lester would finally return to Jardiniero’s garden. He claimed he had found an old map, one that would lead to an island where an old man lived. This old man was said to be the last person to have ever laid eyes upon the legendary Dragonache. The Dragonache was the only piñata that Jardiniero was yet to attract to his garden, and eagerly accepted Lester’s offer. Joined by his wife, Jardiniero would leave Piñata Island, leaving Stardos in charge of his garden while he was away.

With the children’s parents gone, Lester would take the opportunity to approach Stardos. He’d offer to help him, like he had helped his father. He told the boy he had created a new red and black sweet, one that could attract any piñata to the garden. Intrigued, Stardos would agree to his offer, and follow Lester into the jungle…

As soon as Stardos was out of sight of the garden, Ruffians would attack. They would smash up the garden, tearing up the Journal and stealing all the piñatas to bring to Lester. The remaining children would scatter in the chaos, leaving only Leafos to tell her father the news when he finally returned.

Furious, Jardiniero would be the first to call Lester “Pester”. Lester would end up adopting the name, now being known across Piñata Island as Professor Pester. He and his Ruffian lackeys would take to terrorizing gardens, smashing piñatas and generally just causing trouble.

Some time later, Pester and his Ruffians would attempt to break into Piñata Central. Hoping to steal the files on every piñata species, Pester would break down the door to Langston’s office, and attempt to hack into his computer. Unfortunately, the Ruffians would instead end up deleting all of the piñata files, leading to the events of Trouble in Paradise.

Gameplay

Professor Pester will begin threatening your garden starting from level 20 (Classic)/16 (TIP). He will march into your garden whenever he feels like, though the more valuable your garden the better (or worse, in this case). He can destroy anything in his way; however, his primary goal is to find the most valuable piñata in your garden and smash it.

Once he has his sights set on a piñata (marked with his icon), there is nothing you can do to stop him. You will need to send him packing before he has found a target, so act fast. Once he has destroyed his selected target, he will shout his catchphrase "Victory is mine!" while taunting the player with a loser L, and promptly flee the garden.

While still a threat in Viva Piñata, Pester is much more prevalent in the sequel, Trouble in Paradise. Not only will he visit the garden much more regularly, sometimes even appearing daily, but he has done many other things to make the player's life difficult. In addition to valuable piñatas, he can also now smash expensive garden objects, such as houses and even the Captain's Cutlass. Prior to the events of the game, he deleted all of Piñata Central's Computer Records and blocked many species from entering the garden, requiring the player to satisfy specific criteria to free them. Sours and Ruffians will cause the player trouble like usual, and methods used to keep him at bay in the previous game will no longer work.

Tips

There are multiple ways to deal with Professor Pester. Unlike his minions or even Dastardos, even the highest upgraded shovel will have no effect on him.

Like the Ruffians, Pester can be bribed to leave. He is much greedier than them, and will demand at least 500 chocolate coins before he will leave.

In Viva Piñata, Pester will never enter a garden with the Captain's Cutlass in it. In Trouble in Paradise however, the Cutlass will no longer keep him at bay.

If you manage to obtain a Dragonache, the legendary beast will attack Pester, lighting him on fire and causing him to leave in fear. Pester will run around in panic while on fire, however, which can lead to him destroying things in your garden.

In Trouble in Paradise, a tamed Limeoceros can also keep Pester out. Unlike the Dragonache, it will ram Pester with it's horn, immediately launching him out of the garden. This makes Limeoceros a good alternative for those unlucky in the search for a Dragonache, or those annoyed by Pester destroying their stuff.

Also in Trouble in Paradise, Decoy Piñatas can be purchased from Costolot. Pester will prioritize destroying these over any other items or real piñatas in the garden, allowing the player to spare their most valuable piñatas and items even if they don't deal with Pester in time.

Bugs and Exploits

NOTE: The following tip is technically an exploit. If you do not wish to utilize any bugs or exploits in your playthrough, feel free to ignore the following.

Available only in Trouble in Paradise, you can permanently block Pester from ever entering your garden as soon as you have unlocked the maximum garden size. Go to Costolot's Store, and select fences. Any fence will work, however the stronger the better to prevent other characters from destroying it. Go to your garden border, and find the right side of the Tower of Sour. Build 2 fences into your garden, then build right. 6 pieces will do, but 8 is recommended to be sure it works. Finally, close the other end of the fence. You should end with a fence in a U shape, facing the outside of your garden.

As long as this fence remains in-tact, Pester can never enter your garden. He will get stuck on the fence, unable to pathfind his way around it. He can be quite noisy in there, but he will eventually leave. Note that if any other characters get inside the fence, such as piñatas or Ruffians, they may allow Pester to figure his way out and into your garden.

Leafos Gossip

• "It might not be very nice when Professor Pester arrives in the garden, but it does mean your garden is very valuable."

Trivia

• Professor Pester was given a larger role in Trouble in Paradise-- appearing in the opening cutscene-- because the team at Rare enjoyed voice actor David Brimmer's performance of the character.