Purple Pikmin

Purple Pikmin
Resistance	Panic, Wind, Certain Knockbacks
Attack strength	Strong (20)
Mobility	Low
Throw	Low
Digging speed	Unknown
Carrying capacity	10

Purple Pikmin are the second type of Pikmin found in Pikmin 2 and are first found in the Emergence Cave. They are specifically required to obtain a number of treasures, two of which are needed to gain access to new areas, making them necessary to complete the game. In the Wistful Wild area, there is a treasure that requires 100 purples; it is the Doomsday Apparatus. While it is, in fact, possible to clear the debt in the first area, this takes a substantial amount of time to finish, as eventually the only form of income that remains are enemy corpses. Purple Pikmin share a number of similarities with white Pikmin. Firstly, they can only be obtained via certain Candypop Buds, in this case Violet Candypop Buds, and have pink flowers rather than white. In addition, at the end of each day, they are stored in the ship; and they are not found in Pikmin, and are only found in multiplayer modes in Pikmin 3.

Abilities

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Purple Pikmin showing off their strength.

Purple Pikmin can lift ten times as much as other Pikmin types and weigh ten times more; this, it should be noted, renders the windy attacks of the Puffy Blowhog ineffective. The same applies to the fact that purples are not affected by Mitites or the roar of Emperor Bulblaxes. Their weight, however, slows them down a lot; even with flowers. Purples cannot move as quickly as other Pikmin types, and move even slower when carrying items. This can result in a player accidentally leaving a purple Pikmin behind, especially with a leaf, while crossing an area. Also due to their weight, their throw arcs are very low, and they stop mid-throw to perform a ground pound.

To compensate, purple Pikmin are notorious for their effectiveness on the battleground, as when thrown, they will land with a resounding thump, stunning and seriously injuring larger beasts, and fatally injuring smaller, more fragile creatures such as Shearwigs and Dwarf Bulborbs. Bosses are harder to stun, and require several direct hits to do so. This strong landing destroys eggs immediately, defeats Mitites in a wide radius, and can instantly deactivate fire geysers and electrical nodes. In fights, purple Pikmin are undoubtedly the strongest. It would also seem that when throwing a purple Pikmin, as compared to others, it moves substantially faster through the air to its target, at least twice as fast.

Also concerning the throwing of purple Pikmin, they have a limited ability to home in to targets. If thrown such that they are not greatly horizontally displaced from an enemy below, they will move towards that enemy and land on it. This is particularly useful in defeating large numbers of Dwarf Bulborbs; it does not apply to very large creatures. Another odd feature of Purples is that the rarely stumble or trip. While other types will occasionally trip, Purples rarely do, and when they do, it is usually a short distance.

These Pikmin possess the strange ability to anchor extra-dimensional entities such as the Waterwraith to this dimension for a brief period, and although this has never been explained in detail, it is likely another effect of their heavy weight.

In Pikmin 3, however, many of their iconic traits are no longer prevalent. They no longer have any attack buffs, nor do they stun enemies on impact. Despite this, they still stop to preform a pound move even though it does no damage. In addition, they have a slight delay when thrown to latch onto enemies after their "ground pound", as if they are waiting for a non-existant stun. These changes turned what once were great fighters into more of a nuisance. Since, in Mission Mode, they never appear in a level with a Puffy Blowhog, it is unknown if they are still immune to their attacks. Also, because no enemies are able to scatter Pikmin like the Mitites, we do not know if they are still immune to such attacks.

Discovery

Purple Pikmin when first discovered in the Emergence Cave.

Purples are only truly "discovered" in Pikmin 2. Olimar and Louie have ventured into the Emergence Cave, and have gathered a fair amount of treasure. They see what we know is the top half of a globe, but it requires more than 100 Pikmin to lift, needing 101. Even with the max of 100, they would not have been able to carry it. They venture further through the cave, and find 2 Violet Candypop Buds. After throwing some red Pikmin in them, they discover the Purple Pikmin, which they then learn are fierce fighters and can carry 10 times their weight, allowing them to retrieve the otherwise "unliftable" treasure.

Although purple Pikmin do not appear in Pikmin 3's main story, they do occasionally appear in Mission Mode. For whatever reason, many of their iconic traits, aside from the 10 times the strength, are no longer prevalent. The most notable stage with Purple Pikmin is Thirsty Desert Remix, which features nothing but the species.

Obtaining Purple Pikmin

Retrieval of the Doomsday Apparatus treasure in Pikmin 2 requires the use of 100 purple Pikmin. The best place to get so many would be the Subterranean Complex. Take a single Pikmin into that cave and skip sublevels until you reach the eighth one, with an exit geyser, Candypop Buds and some eggs. Use the Queen Candypop Buds first and the Violet Candypop Buds after to produce 15 purple Pikmin and 2 red, blue or yellow Pikmin. Or, if you are also going for white Pikmin, bring 21 Pikmin and throw 20 of them into the Ivory Candypop Buds on floors 3 and 4 to gain 20. When you reach the 7th floor, throw the last non-white Pikmin into the Queen Candypop Buds first and the Violet Candypop Buds after to produce 15 purple Pikmin and 2 red, blue or yellow Pikmin.

Technical information

Inside the text files in Pikmin 2 are some settings that specify some of the purple Pikmin's behavior towards enemies and vice-versa.

Most enemies and objects suffer 50 points of damage whenever a purple Pikmin lands vertically on top of them, from a throw. There are a few enemies and objects that only suffer 10 points of damage, however: Segmented Crawbsters, Waterwraiths (as well as their rollers), Emperor Bulblaxes, and bomb-rocks.

Enemies have a 30% chance of becoming stunned when a purple Pikmin lands on them, with the following exceptions:

• 100% chance: Fiery, Caustic, Anode and Munge Dweevils.
• 10% chance: Burrowing Snagrets.
• 5% chance: Emperor Bulblaxes.
• 1% chance: Pileated Snagrets.
• 0% chance: Waterwraiths, Empress Bulblaxes, Toady Bloysters, Ranging Bloysters, Mitites, Men-at-Legs, Beady Long Legs, Volatile Dweevils, Titan Dweevil, Raging Long Legs, Breadbugs, Giant Breadbugs and Segmented Crawbsters.

Enemies become stunned for 5 seconds, with the following exceptions, who get stunned for 10: Watery and Fiery Blowhogs, Male and Female Sheargrubs, Shearwigs, Skitter Leaves, Dwarf Red Bulborbs and Emperor Bulblaxes. Segmented Crawbsters, Breadbugs and Giant Breadbugs have a specific 0 second stun period on top of their 0% stun chance.

The following unused values also exist:

• Honeywisps, Lithopod rocks and rubble do not receive damage like normal, but still have the purple Pikmin stomp damage setting set to 10.
• Honeywisps, Lithopod rocks, rubble, and the Waterwraith's rollers have their stun chance set to 5%, even though they cannot be stunned.
• Waterwraiths and the rollers have their stun time set to 60 seconds, even though the former has a 0% chance of being stunned, and the latter is not an enemy.
• Empress Bulblaxes have the stun time set to 10, even though they have a 0% chance of being stunned.
• Honeywisps, rubble, Lithopod rocks, eggs and bomb-rocks also have the stun time set to 10, even though the first faints after a single attack and the rest are not enemies.
• Mitites, Toady Bloysters, Ranging Bloysters, Men-at-Legs, Beady Long Legs, Volatile Dweevils, Titan Dweevils and Raging Long Legs have a 0% stun chance, but still have their stun time value set to 5.
• Fire geysers, gas pipes and electrical cables have their stun chance set to 0%, but the stun time set to 5, even though they are not enemies.

In Super Smash Bros. series

Purple Pikmin fight alongside Olimar in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Here, they have the shortest throw distance and the smallest grab range. When thrown at an enemy, rather than latching on, purples will deliver a blow with knockback, stopping the opponent in his or her tracks. They are the most durable Pikmin of all and deliver the highest amount of knockback in Olimar's smashes and aerial attacks. Purple Pikmin are also the only Pikmin that will be plucked by Olimar in the Home-Run Contest. Purple Pikmin are also present in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U, and function mostly the same as they do in Brawl.

Trophy descriptions

Brawl

"A type of Pikmin, much heavier and slower than other Pikmin. When thrown, they impact with such force that they may kill or stun enemies. They're also incredibly strong–one of them can carry an item that normally would require ten Pikmin. While they're more powerful fighters than their red cousins, their slow speed hampers their effectiveness."

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Brawl Trophy.	Smash 3DS Trophy.

Gallery

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  A purple Pikmin carrying a red berry.

• Brawl Purple.PNG

  A purple Pikmin in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

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  Clay artwork of a purple, and white Pikmin from Pikmin 2.

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  A high quality picture of a Purple Pikmin as seen in Pikmin 2.

• PPikminPik3.PNG

  A Purple Pikmin shown on the expanded box art for Pikmin 3.

• Jpweb5.png

  A promotional picture of Alph finding some purple Pikmin.

• Pikmin 2 box.jpg

  A close-up of a Purple Pikmin as seen on the original Pikmin 2 box art.

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  Pikmin 3 artwork.

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  Pikmin 3 artwork.

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  Pikmin 3 artwork.

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  Pikmin 3 artwork.

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  Pikmin 3 artwork.

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  Pikmin 3 artwork.

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  Pikmin 3 artwork.

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  Pikmin 3 artwork.

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  Pikmin 3 artwork.

Trivia

• Among the many Onions seen in the 100% ending of Pikmin is also a purple one.

This article was a featured article from 23rd February 2011 to 12th April 2011.