The Gigoran known as Purpruff held the rank of corporal within the Vapetailers unit of the Rebel Alliance's Special Forces. During the Galactic Civil War, which pitted the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire, she journeyed to the planet Hoth on a scouting mission to find a new location for the Alliance's headquarters. Despite the frigid temperatures, Purpruff authored a report recommending Hoth as a suitable site for the base, which ultimately resulted in the Alliance establishing Echo Base there. During the [Galactic Empire]'s attacked on Echo Base in 3 ABY, Purpruff met her death.
In the course of the Galactic Civil War fought between the Alliance to Restore the Republic and the Galactic Empire, Purpruff, a Gigoran, was a corporal in the Vapetailers unit serving within the Alliance to Restore the Republic's Special Forces. During her time serving in the unit, the Vapetailers occasionally engaged in pazaak matches against the Shrikes, another Special Forces unit that included Caluan Ematt, wagering cantina chits.
Sometime between 0 ABY and 3 ABY, after the commencement of the Alliance's Mid Rim Retreat, Purpruff journeyed to the icy planet Hoth on a scouting mission to identify a viable location for the Alliance to construct its new headquarters. She recorded her initial thoughts in a scouting log entry from orbit before landing on the planet. The Gigoran then proceeded to hike towards the closest entrance of a large subterranean cavern that had been identified by her terrain mapper.
Purpruff determined that the cavern was sufficiently large to accommodate freighters and tested its structural integrity by detonating a sticky mine on a stalactite, which remained unmoved by the blast. Her life-form scanner then led her to a herd of tauntaun within the cavern, of which she captured a surveillance image at five times zoom before feeding the creatures a ration stick by hand. Purpruff subsequently compiled her findings into a report recommending Hoth as a suitable location for a base. This report reached Colonel Anna Seertay, who then forwarded it to General Pitt Onoran, the head of Special Forces. It was also included in The Rebel Files, a collection of physical documents maintained by the archivist Hendri Underholt that documented the history of the Alliance.
The Alliance ultimately decided to act on Purpruff's recommendation and built Echo Base on Hoth to serve as its new headquarters. In 3 ABY, the Empire discovered and attacked Echo Base, forcing the Alliance to evacuate quickly. While most of the Alliance forces managed to escape, Purpruff was among those who were killed during the battle. In 34 ABY, Ematt came across Purpruff's report in The Rebel Files after it fell into the hands of the Resistance. Ematt added a note stating that he had known the Gigoran and had seen her name on the list of those who fell on Hoth.
Being a Gigoran, Purpruff possessed a significantly higher tolerance for cold temperatures than humans. As a result, she perceived the freezing temperatures of Hoth as merely brisk. The corporal enjoyed the sensation of the planet's crisp air in her nostrils upon her initial arrival. She also found Hoth's landscapes to be beautiful and its native tauntauns to be cute and pleasantly scented.
Purpruff was mentioned in Star Wars: The Rebel Files, a 2017 reference book authored by Daniel Wallace.