Combat

In the PS undefined, Pikmin and leaders need to engage in combat against the many different enemies they encounter. Combat is a core mechanic of the series, as it is frequently required to open up paths or retrieve collectibles. The general goal of combat is to reduce an enemy's health to 0, but there are several ways of damaging enemies and many technicalities of the combat system.

Note that most of this article discusses the main series of games. Spin-off games are described in their own sections.

Slap
The main way Pikmin damage enemies is by slapping the enemies with their stems. The main way to get a Pikmin to attack an enemy is to throw it directly at the enemy; if it lands on an attackable location, it will start slapping the enemy. If a Pikmin is standing near an enemy, it will begin trying to attack the enemy, periodically jumping at it to slap it with the stem. There is also the possibility of the Pikmin eventually latching on and dealing damage at a normal rate. Some enemies, like Female Sheargrubs, are too small to be latched onto but have a small enough amount of health that they die quickly. Other enemies, like the Anode Beetle, are larger but still cannot be latched onto. Idle Pikmin will automatically begin hitting enemies, obstacles, and eggs if they are near enough. In and, swarming an enemy will cause most of the involved Pikmin to latch onto it, if possible, and begin attacking. In, Pikmin that are charged into an enemy will always immediately latch onto it if they make contact with it and if the enemy is possible to be latched onto.

In competitive modes like 2-Player Battle in Pikmin 2 and Bingo Battle in Pikmin 3, Pikmin can be commanded to harm other leaders or their Pikmin. This can be accomplished by throwing, swarming, or charging Pikmin into another player's leader or forces, although in 2-Player Battle, Pikmin merely need to be standing by the opposing leader or their Pikmin to initiate combat. In, Mushroom Pikmin can also attack Captain Olimar and his Pikmin in a similar fashion.

Each Pikmin will attack with a constant rhythm, and as a result, having more Pikmin on an enemy increases the rate of damage. Different Pikmin types deal different amounts of damage per hit in different games, as shown in the following table:

Some notes:
 * Rock Pikmin cannot latch onto enemies in most cases; see below.
 * In Pikmin 3, the first hit that a Pikmin delivers to an enemy after latching on will inflict double damage.
 * Maturity doesn't have an effect on how much damage a Pikmin does.
 * When any type of Pikmin is under the effect of ultra-spicy spray, their damage output will be different; see here.
 * In 2-Player Battle mode, Red Pikmin deal 10 damage per hit so that both teams are even.
 * Petrified enemies will remain immobile until they either die or break out. Whilst petrified, enemies may suffer more or less damage than normal; see here.

Purple Pikmin pound
In, when a Purple Pikmin is thrown onto an enemy, it will pound onto that enemy from above, dealing much more damage than a standard hit. For most enemies, this is 50 damage, but for the Segmented Crawbster, Waterwraith, and Emperor Bulblax it is 10 damage. After this pound, it will get off the enemy and hit it from the side as normal.

Each pound also has a chance of stunning an enemy. For most enemies, this chance is 30%, but some enemies have higher or lower chances. When an enemy is stunned, it is frozen and does not move, usually for 5 seconds, though a few enemies have longer stun times.

In, while the pound does exist, it does not damage enemies. Throwing a Purple Pikmin onto an enemy will result in the Pikmin going idle on top of it, before then attacking normally.

In, the pound is set to do proportional damage to the enemy, similar to how Rock Pikmin are handled in Pikmin 3. Each enemy has a set amount of Purple Pikmin thrown onto it before death.

White Pikmin poison
When a White Pikmin is digested by an enemy, the enemy will instantly take damage from the White Pikmin's internal poison. Each White Pikmin ingestion causes individual damage, even if multiple are eaten at once. Every enemy takes a different amount of damage from an ingestion, and this varies by species and by game.

Rock Pikmin
When Rock Pikmin are thrown directly at an enemy, instead of latching on and hitting it, they will bounce off it like a rock, dealing a high amount of damage. This damage varies by enemy, as every enemy has an internal value for the number of direct Rock Pikmin impacts it takes to defeat it. For example, a Bulborb normally has 1000 HP and is specified to take 25 Rock Pikmin hits to kill, so each hit does 40 damage, whereas a Medusal Slurker normally has 750 HP and is specified to take 10 Rock Pikmin hits to kill, so each hit does 75.

When charged onto an enemy or when running towards it while idle, Rock Pikmin will attack by rolling into the enemy. This normally deals 20 damage, but it happens much less frequently than slap attacks, which means calling Rock Pikmin and throwing them again usually deals more damage than letting them attack on their own. There are a few situations where Rock Pikmin can latch onto enemies, such as on the legs of the Shaggy Long Legs, and they will attack at the standard speed in these situations, dealing 20 damage per hit.

Ice Pikmin
When attacking enemies, they will progressively freeze them, as represented by a ring-shaped gauge around the enemy's health wheel. The gauge increases every time an Ice Pikmin hits the enemy or is directly eaten by them. While attacks from an Ice Pikmin only increment this gauge slightly, when one is eaten the gauge increases substantially – around 40% when fighting a Red Bulborb. Once the gauge is full, the enemy freezes entirely, and can no longer act. Defeating a frozen enemy will make it shatter into chunks of ice without leaving a corpse, instead producing a drop of nectar, similar to enemies killed while petrified by ultra-bitter spray. After a few seconds, the enemy will begin shaking and eventually break out of the ice, knocking any attached Pikmin to the ground.

Punch
When a leader doesn't have any Pikmin in their squad, they can perform a punch, or in the case of Pikmin 2 with the Rocket Fist, a series of punches. The exact damage depends on the game and the type of punch. In, a punch deals 10 damage. In, regular punches deal 7.5 damage, but after the Rocket Fist is obtained, the third punch in a series deals 18.75 points of damage. In, a punch deals 3 damage.

Bomb rock
Bomb rocks can be used in combat. Their explosions deal a variable amount of damage to objects in range, though they usually cause much more damage to an enemy that ingests it directly. Additionally, some enemies such as Bulbears will foolishly eat them, defeating themselves in the process.

Taking damage


Leaders and Pikmin, too, can be damaged during combat. As with Pikmin, leaders can be bitten, knocked back, crushed, and suffer negative consequences for touching a harmful hazard. Leaders can collect upgrades, which can help protect them from damage. On top of losing health, leaders can also suffer other consequences from attacks, as elaborated here.

Pikmin do not seem to have health that can be depleted, although this is hard to confirm, as explained here. During combat they can still be harmed. In Pikmin, Pikmin 2 and Pikmin 4, Pikmin that are knocked down by an enemy have a chance of their maturities being reduced as explained here. In Pikmin 3, Pikmin that are shaken off of an enemy or fall off of one will retain their maturities. In any Pikmin game, Pikmin that are shaken off of an enemy will briefly lie on the ground before getting up, but this is not always the case. Pikmin battling a Shaggy Long Legs that fall off one of its legs after picking the hairs off one of its joints will get up on their own, but Pikmin the creature shakes off normally will remain on the ground indefinitely until they are whistled, as bumping into them does nothing.

Flower-stage Pikmin that die in Pikmin have a chance of leaving behind a seed that becomes a sprout the following day and can be plucked. Hazards like fire, water, and poison will respectively cause all but Red Pikmin, Blue Pikmin, and White Pikmin to begin scrambling wildly with that corresponding hazard on the end of their stem. Enemies in Pikmin 2 that use electricity are arguably the deadliest, as electricity in that game can instantly kill Pikmin. Electricity in Pikmin 3, however, is harmless, only causing non-Yellow Pikmin that come in contact with it to be thrown back, onto the ground, paralyzed, until they are whistled.

Enemies have a variety of ways to harm or kill Pikmin, such as shaking them off, deflowering them, burying them, crushing them, eating them, or using another hazard against them. Most enemies have a limit on how many Pikmin they can kill or harm at once in a given attack. For example, a Spotty Bulborb in Pikmin can only gobble 3 Pikmin at most in a single chomp, but a Spotty Bulbear can capture up to 5. Some enemies can also harm other enemies or themselves; a prime example is the Decorated Cannon Beetle, a creature that spits boulders which can be led into other enemies or even the creature that launched it.

Likeliness to die
In and, some Pikmin are more likely to die than others, due to engine limitations. It boils down to how the games check which Pikmin should die for any given attack. In Pikmin 3 and ''Hey! Pikmin'', although it isn't clear, it seems that the Pikmin closest to the center of the attack are the ones that get hit by it.

The general idea is that each game keeps a list of loaded Pikmin in memory. This list can fit 100 entries, and normally, it starts off empty. When a Pikmin is loaded into memory, it fills in the next vacant slot. In the case of an empty list, this is slot 0. The second Pikmin to be called out fills slot 1, and so on. When an enemy attacks to eat, the game checks every loaded Pikmin to see if it is colliding with the mouth's hitbox, and starts checking slot 0, then slot 1, and so on.

This behavior is also used for other enemy-related actions, like a Fiery Blowhog deciding whether to change targets or to keep the current one, in Pikmin.

General case
Suppose that a day starts, 100 Pikmin are taken out from Onions, and they are all bundled together within reach of a Red Bulborb's bite hitbox, which is an attack that will only chomp 5 Pikmin. The game will check the Pikmin in slot 0, confirm that it is within reach, and add it to the list of eating victims. It would then check slot 1, confirm that that one is as well, and add it. It would check slot 2, confirm that as well, and add it. It would do the same for slots 3 and 4. At this point, since it already added 5 Pikmin to the list of eating victims, it would stop checking, and would let the Bulborb's attack finish with those 5 Pikmin captured in its mouth. In this case, the five Pikmin that fell victim to the attack were the first five ones that got pulled out of the Onions. This means that, when starting a day normally, the first Pikmin that left the Onion are more likely to get eaten.

Cases with no "first" Pikmin
Above is what happens in the most plain cases, but there are times when the player enters an area or cave with a lot of Pikmin, and the player doesn't control the order in which Pikmin load.

In Pikmin, if the player lands on an area with buried Pikmin, those Pikmin are actually not a part of the list of Pikmin, but rather, a list of seeds. A Pikmin is only created and added to the list when it is plucked.

In the case of Pikmin 2, this scenario happens when a cave sublevel is entered, when the player exits a cave and lands on an overworld area along with the Pikmin that escaped, or when the player enters an area that already has buried Pikmin. The Pikmin here are all truly loaded outside of the player's control. The game does however follow an algorithm to decide how to place Pikmin in the area and to fill in the Pikmin list slots:


 * 1) Gather information about what Pikmin should be loaded when the area/cave loads. It does not matter how it is sorted.
 * 2) For every type of Pikmin declared in the game:
 * 3) Check the compiled information to see how many Pikmin of this type must be spawned.
 * 4) Spawn that number of Pikmin.

Internally, Pikmin types are declared with Blue Pikmin first. Then comes Red, Yellow, Purple, White, Bulbmin, and Pikpik carrot. The reasons for this seemingly random order are not known for certain. However, it is possible that a discovery order of Blue→Red→Yellow was planned during development for Pikmin, due to Blue Pikmin being the primary type shown off in old trailers. So regardless, in scenarios where the game has to load multiple Pikmin of different types "at once", Blue Pikmin will be loaded first, meaning they will fill in the first Pikmin slots. If players find themselves in one of these scenarios then Blue Pikmin will be more likely to be eaten, since hitboxes that catch multiple Pikmin will pick the Blue Pikmin first.

Some players have noticed that, in Pikmin 2, Blue Pikmin seem more likely to die than other types. This is exactly why.

To note is that if the player lands in a sublevel with Bulbmin that can be collected after the parent is killed, then those Bulbmin have a higher priority than any of the Pikmin that the player had. After they are added to the player's group and the player heads to the next sublevel, the order of the group returns to the standard order stated above.

Enemy patterns
Every enemy has its own speed, timing, aggressiveness, and overall behavior, though some common patterns can be spotted. Recognizing, dealing with, and exploiting an enemy's habits is important for advanced combat tactics.

Idling and distractions
An enemy that has not noticed Pikmin or leaders will usually idle around. This involves walking aimlessly, looking around, performing some animation such as stretching, among other things. In addition, some enemies are too preoccupied with something, like sleeping, to properly pay attention.

As a general rule, an aggressive enemy will only engage in combat if it spots a Pikmin or leader, and this usually comes in the form of seeing them or having one touch them, though some enemies can take notice of Pikmin and leaders even if they aren't looking at them, like Orange Bulborbs. This means that the player is safe until this happens, and can even choose the best moment to attack based on what the enemy is doing, where they are facing, etc.

Positioning and focus
Once an enemy spots a target, it will approach them, and make an attempt to always face them. As the target moves around, so to does the creature in order to catch up. When it decides it is in the right range and angle, it will usually go for an attack. Some enemies like to be up-close, but others will want to stay back, so they can attack from afar while keeping themselves out of danger, such as the Puffy Blowhog. In general, an enemy will only focus on one Pikmin or leader at a time. Enemies will also try to stay within their territory: if they are lured too far, they will turn around and go back to their starting spot, and for a few seconds, be unable to focus on anything else.

Attacking
Every enemy has a different attack, and they usually start by winding up, going for the attack, and then returning to normal. Most enemies only have one attack, not counting shaking, but some enemies have more. The most common form of attack by far is simply lunging in to bite some Pikmin so they can eat them. After doing this, the recovery phase of the attack usually depends on whether they managed to catch any Pikmin or not, with the former commonly resulting in the creature chomping on the Pikmin and then swallowing them.

Shaking
During combat, an enemy may stop, wind up its body, and then violently shake or buck. Doing this knocks off most latched Pikmin, making them fall to the ground and stay knocked down for a few seconds. Leaders within range of the shaking will also similarly get knocked back, as well as any nearby Pikmin that are not latched on. Shaking moves cause a minor amount of damage to leaders, but are non-lethal in general, provided the knocked Pikmin or leaders don't fall into a hazard or the pit. Regardless, shaking Pikmin off will naturally lower the amount of Pikmin causing damage if not dealt with carefully, and any Pikmin or leaders on the floor are vulnerable to being attacked. Different creatures have different tolerances, wind up times, launch knockback strengths, launch damages, and launch angles.

An enemy usually shakes if it has many latched Pikmin onto it, but it can also do it just from receiving sufficient damage, even from punches. While enemies usually interrupt their pursuits and position adjustments if they feel the need to shake, they will not interrupt their main attacks, like biting, and some will not interrupt their long idling animations, like the Bearded Amprat stretching. If they reach the threshold where they want to shake in the middle of a state where they can't shake, they will simply do it directly after that state is over. A few creatures have multiple ways of shaking, like how the Armored Cannon Larva can buck Pikmin forward or bury into the ground. Some enemies may perform a special kind of shake as a reaction to a certain action, like Bulborbs in Pikmin 3 which, after reeling in pain, violently buck their body forward in response to having a Pikmin thrown in their eye.

While shaking is cumbersome for the player, it has some silver linings. The time a creature spends shaking Pikmin off is time it is not spending killing them, and after shaking the Pikmin off, the creature is left vulnerable for a few seconds as it attempts to regain its composure and continue combat. So players can make use of the shaking period and the aftermath to safely pile some damage onto the beast without fear of losing Pikmin. Shaking is especially ineffective against Rock Pikmin, which don't normally latch on, and bounce off far enough away to not be affected by any shaking move. In addition, shaking is usually not foolproof, as some Pikmin may remain latched on regardless.

Tactics


While combat can be as simple as throwing or charging Pikmin at the beast until it dies, there are a few tactics that players can make use of to minimize casualties and get the task done faster. Naturally, basic tactics include not submitting Pikmin to hazards they are vulnerable to, and not going all-out when the enemy is doing something dangerous.

As described above, most enemies tend to perform specific things at specific times. A player that is savvy of these actions is better prepared to deal with them, and is at a lower risk of losing Pikmin or leaders. On top of that, expert players can predict and even bait the enemy into performing specific actions so they can optimally punish them.

General tactics

 * Whistling Pikmin off of an enemy when it is beginning to shake, so that the Pikmin are not knocked down and can get right back to attacking as soon as the creature stops.
 * Prioritizing attacking an enemy's weak spot, if they have it. For instance, a Burrowing Snagret's head.
 * Forcing enemies into states where they can't attack, like how Bulborbs in Pikmin 3 can have Pikmin thrown at their eyes, which causes them to flinch and reel in pain.
 * Some enemies, such as the Quaggled Mireclops, are only vulnerable on certain parts of their bodies: in this case, the creature's fleshy hooves and fruit-like head are the only vulnerable parts. It is important to not waste time and Pikmin attacking in other spots.
 * Some enemies can only be attacked in specific ways. Breadbugs and their larger counterpart cannot be swarmed, but Pikmin can be thrown onto their back to inflict damage.
 * Smaller enemies, such as Dwarf Bulborbs and most mandiblards, can be killed instantly by throwing a single Pikmin onto their back.
 * Using sprays can make a fight easier.

Exploiting awareness
Since enemies won't attack until they notice the Pikmin or leaders, players can have the upper hand if they make the most out of an enemy's lack of awareness. Some tactics include:


 * Taking the time to organize and position their army as efficiently as possible before going all-out on a sleeping enemy.
 * Hiding until the perfect moment to strike.
 * Approaching from the back so the creature only notices them as late as possible.
 * Waiting until an enemy is performing an idling animation that cannot be interrupted, like the Bearded Amprat stretching.
 * Purposely alerting a creature like a Bulborb just to let it fall back asleep, and then attacking. Since the Bulborb has to follow through with the falling asleep animation and then the waking up animation, this leaves it vulnerable for some seconds.

Exploiting focus
During combat, the player can try to position themselves and their Pikmin as far away from the enemy as possible, as well as to its back as often as possible. Since enemies will usually want to get close and face a Pikmin before trying to attack it, this grants the player a few seconds of free damage while the enemy is walking, turning, and not being hostile. Continuously running around an enemy can even make it impossible for them to land an attack, which is something that idling leaders are particularly good at.

Because enemies can usually only focus on one Pikmin at a time, it is possible to leave a decoy Pikmin to distract a beast while the player attacks from another angle. This is especially effective if the decoy Pikmin is on the other side of a wall, since the enemy will spend its attention walking against the wall trying to reach it.

In addition, one possible technique is to lure an enemy far enough away that they reach the end of their territory. Once they turn around, they will only focus on returning home for a few seconds, during which the player can attack without consequence.

Exploiting attacks and shakes
It's usually a good idea to pile as many Pikmin at once onto an enemy, maximizing the damage done to it as well as causing it to focus more on shaking off its attackers rather than eating them. That said, some tactics involve purposely letting the enemy attack.

Some attacks are completely safe from certain angles, or for certain Pikmin types. In addition, some attacks or shaking moves have a lot of recovery time. The player can purposely forego attacking, and instead choose to only strike during specific attacks or during those long recovery times. To get the enemy to perform the move the player is looking for, the following approaches exist:


 * Attack:
 * The player can place a Pikmin in front of the creature and within attack range. If the strategy permits, the player can also get ready to whistle the Pikmin to safety once the attack wind-up begins.
 * Some enemies will attack directly after shaking, like the Armored Cannon Larva, provided they don't want to shake again in the meantime.
 * Shake:
 * The player can throw just a few Pikmin at the creature, onto a body part that won't get them in danger. The beast will want to shake shortly after.
 * If an enemy reaches the shaking threshold mid-attack, it will do so directly after attacking.

By using these approaches and knowing exactly when the enemy will attack and shake, the player can plan their sequence of moves. A prime example would be combat against the Fiery Blowhog, where the player can throw a few Pikmin to force a shake animation, whistle the Pikmin off right before the buck happens, swarm with their Pikmin from the back while the creature is busy spitting fire from the front, and repeat once the creature starts shaking.

Saving chomped Pikmin
Although Pikmin that are captured by an enemy will quickly be swallowed and killed, they may be able to be saved. By killing an enemy with Pikmin in its grasp before it can swallow them, the Pikmin will be released safely. In Pikmin 2, enemies can also be petrified with a dose of ultra-bitter spray to prevent them from eating any Pikmin they may have in their mouth, buying precious time for the player to finish the creature off. Some enemies may also forcefully spit out Pikmin that haven't been swallowed yet when attacked in a certain way, like if a Pikmin is thrown at a Bulborb's eyes in Pikmin 3.

In Hey! Pikmin


In, some parts of combat work differently from the main series of games. As a 2D side-scrolling game on the Nintendo 3DS, combat is less focused on maneuvering around enemies and strategizing to defeat them, and is more about quick reactions and accurate aiming. Enemies rarely require complex strategies to defeat, with the exception of bosses. Some enemies cannot be defeated at all.

The main way of defeating enemies is by throwing Pikmin at them. Small enemies usually die in 1 hit, meaning positioning the cursor accurately is the most important skill in defeating them. Leading the shot is also important, even if Pikmin don't take long to reach the cursor after being thrown. Larger enemies usually have some amount of health, represented as a bar above the creature. When a non-Rock Pikmin is thrown on top of an enemy, it will begin to rapidly jump on it, dealing damage with each jump. Any number of Pikmin can be jumping on an enemy at once. Blue Pikmin, Yellow Pikmin, and Winged Pikmin all deal the standard amount of damage each jump. Red Pikmin deal twice the standard amount of damage each jump. When any of these types is thrown directly at an enemy, the initial impact does twice the damage of a single jump for that type. Rock Pikmin deal damage differently – they do not jump on enemies, and only deal damage on a direct impact before walking back to Olimar. The amount of damage dealt by a direct impact varies by enemy, and is generally much higher than a direct impact from another type. Note that limited research has been done into combat in ''Hey! Pikmin'', and this information is unconfirmed.

Some areas are set up in ways where enemies can be defeated in other ways. Examples include Serene Stream, where a Mockiwi can be led into a pool of water where it drowns, and Barriers of Flame, where an iron block can be pushed into a pit, crushing a Fiery Blowlet.

Most enemies can attack Pikmin. If a Pikmin comes into contact with a dangerous part of an enemy, such as a Crumbug's mouth or the spore of a Spornet, it will die immediately, making it very easy to lose some Pikmin to a combat encounter. Combat in ''Hey! Pikmin'' is very fast-paced for this reason, with the goal almost always being to defeat an enemy as quickly as possible by accurately throwing large numbers of Pikmin at it. Olimar can also lose health to enemy attacks, but can regenerate health with the use of hearts scattered around areas.

Bosses in this game are by far the most complex enemies, and are fought in special areas. Each boss has various attack phases, during most of which it is invulnerable. By exploiting a weakness in a specific phase, the player can make the boss vulnerable. In these vulnerable phases, the player has a short period of time to deal as much damage as possible.

In Pikmin Bloom
does not have a true combat system as there are no enemies in the game. However, Pikmin can attack mushrooms on mushroom battles. While combat looks similar to how it does in the main series, its mechanics are very different. A Pikmin's attack power is determined by its type, its maturity, its friendship, whether it is a Decor Pikmin, and the mushroom's color. This attack power is not used for individual Pikmin attacks, but rather to calculate the overall strength of the group, and once the challenge begins, each Pikmin hit does as much damage as it needs to to make the health of the mushroom decrease at a rate proportional to the strength of the group. For more information on how damage works, see the Mushroom battle article.

In Pikmin Adventure
Combat in takes many cues from the main series games, but it differs greatly. Combat is more akin to that of a 3D dungeon crawler game, but mechanics like throwing still exist. Combat differs between Olimar and the Pikmin.

Enemies have weak points often identified by purple orbs, that are usually the only place where they can be attacked. Pikmin (both Mii and robotic) can latch on to these points to deal quick and steady damage. Besides enemies, Blocks, Question Blocks, and other players that have been rendered unable to attack by an enemy can all be attacked.


 * Combat as Olimar

Olimar commands a squad of small Pikmin that each deal a small amount of damage, just like the main series. Tapping with will throw one of these Pikmin to the location tapped. They will attack automatically if they latch on to a weak point, but will attempt to return to Olimar if they miss. They can be regathered by using. When calling Pikmin, the Mii Pikmin will also fly to Olimar and stack atop his head, where he can then throw them like the Pikmin. Powerups change how Olimar and his Pikmin attack, but the core concepts remain.


 * Combat as the Pikmin

The other players control Miis in Pikmin costumes. They can attack with, which will do a simple smack with whatever is on the end of their stem. This, in combination with to jump, makes the players able to utilize several attacks. When using powerups, some of these attacks behave differently.