Crush



Crushing is a non-elemental hazard in the Pikmin series. While soft-bodied Pikmin that get crushed die right away, Rock Pikmin can withstand the weight, although Winged Pikmin also have some immunity to being crushed.

Overview
Pikmin have weak bodies that cannot resist most forms of crushing forces, except for Rock Pikmin. Once a Pikmin is crushed, it becomes flat in whatever direction it was crushed, then disappears with a soul, with no way to save it. However, Rock Pikmin merely become partially buried in the ground and unharmed, and must be left to unearth themselves automatically after some seconds. In Pikmin 3, the time it takes for them to unearth does not depend on their maturity and is random between six and eleven seconds.

Leaders are not immune to crushing either. If a leader is crushed, they will become flat for a second, and slowly return to their original size. Being crushed normally causes considerable damage, and the prolonged damage animation may allow the leader to be hit by a different attack while they are unable to react.

Interestingly however, Winged Pikmin can't get crushed by anything but the Quaggled Mireclops and the crystal cubes from the Plasm Wraith in Pikmin 3: such attacks will just push Winged Pikmin away, even if they are grounded.

Pikmin standing below a lowered elevator platform or paper bag/tin box pushed off a ledge will not be crushed by it; instead they will just be pushed out of the way.

In Pikmin and Pikmin 2, crushing can be identified by the distinct sound Pikmin make when killed. In Pikmin 3 and Pikmin 4, any attack that a Rock Pikmin can survive by becoming buried counts as a crushing attack.

In Pikmin 4, Rock Pikmin can still get crushed if they are stomped against a hard floor, of if the attack has another hazard, like the Scorchcake stomping with its flaming side.

Ways to get crushed

 *  – large rocks that fall from the sky, which can crush Pikmin.
 *  – iron balls roll down slopes, and can crush things in their path.
 *  – these large blocks can crush Pikmin, enemies, and obstacles.
 *  – if these blocks stop being lifted, they fall and can crush Pikmin.
 *  Arachnorbs – members of this spider-like family that have large feet can stamp on Pikmin and leaders, except the Man-at-Legs.
 *  Lithopods – lithopods can spit out rocks that crush everything in their path. However, the projectiles from the Arctic variants are not lethal.
 *  Amphitubers – these frog-like enemies jump into the air and later fall down, crushing prey below them.
 *  Crushblats – these enemies that can crush Pikmin with their shells.
 *  – the Emperor Bulblax's jumping attack can crush Pikmin below it.
 *  – the Sovereign Bulblax's jumping attack can crush Pikmin below it.
 *  – the Empress Bulblax's main attack involves rolling around the arena, crushing prey.
 *  – a boss with a rolling attack that can crush Pikmin.
 *  – the crystal nodules that they fling damage Pikmin via crushing.
 *  – the Waterwraith travels around on rollers, which can crush creatures.
 *  – the final boss in Pikmin 3 can spit out Elemental Plasms that shape into crystal blocks, capable of crushing Pikmin.
 *  – the final boss of Pikmin 4 can jump and crush Pikmin as one of its attacks.
 *  Shellcakes – these creatures can crush pikmin from both of their sides.
 *  – an enemy which can jump and crush Pikmin.
 *  – this enemy can crush Pikmin with its trunk.

Although the Mamuta crushes Pikmin into the ground with its hands, this does not count as a crushing hazard, as this is actually beneficial to the Pikmin. It's still harmful to leaders, however. In addition, the Quaggled Mireclops has some attacks that trample Pikmin, killing them in the process, but this is a fatal attack that Rock Pikmin are not immune to.

Rock Pikmin


The rough exterior of Rock Pikmin gives them the ability to survive crushing attacks, making them quite valuable when fighting enemies that pose a crushing hazard. However, Rock Pikmin won't completely ignore crushing attacks like other Pikmin types ignore attacks of the hazard they are invulnerable to: they become temporarily and partially buried.

Crushing glitch
There is a glitch in the first two Pikmin games where an enemy or a certain object will crush a Pikmin abnormally, when it isn't even meant to crush in the first place. Occasionally, often, or very rarely, depending on the version, an object on top of a Pikmin will make said Pikmin vanish.

Yellow Wollyhop corpse crushing
As seen in a trailer for Pikmin, it appears that in a development version of the game, Yellow Wollyhops could crush Captain Olimar's army during their death animation, where they tense up and fall to the side. In the final game, this does not happen, except unintentionally, with the aforementioned glitch.