5 day run

A 5 day run is where a player completes in 5 days by collecting all 201 treasures. This is achieved by using various exploits and glitches to unlock most Pikmin types earlier than intended, and completing the Awakening Wood, Perplexing Pool, and Wistful Wild in a single day each.

A 5 day run is probably impossible on the New Play Control! and the Nintendo Switch version of Pikmin 2. Because the Blue Pikmin don't respond to the leader's whistle on day 2, getting Blue Pikmin early is a lot more time consuming, and since the player starts the day with few Pikmin, there's not enough time in the day to do all the required tasks.

Route outline
The following is a brief outline of a 5 day run. The order of some days can be moved around – for example, after the Awakening Wood, the player can either finish the Valley of Repose or tackle the Perplexing Pool. What matters is that the debt is repaid at the end of the third day.

Setup
Before the run can even start properly, some glitches must be performed. Start a new file and perform the day 1 extinction glitch to end the first day. Do not save the game. On day 2, use the Pikmin to kill the Dwarf Red Bulborb at the landing site, and while the enemy's soul is in the air, open the pause menu and end the day. Doing this will set up a glitch called cutscene timer storage, which is essential for the actual day 1. At the end of the day, select "Start over from last save" to start the game from day 1 again.

Day 1

 * Valley of Repose:
 * When the cutscene for it activates, switch to Louie and grow Red Pikmin.
 * Weigh down the bag without defeating the Dwarf Red Bulborb.
 * Throw the Pikmin on top of the ledge near the ship, and use the Dwarf Red Bulborb to push a leader to the top of the ledge. This trick is incredibly precise and will likely take thousands of attempts.
 * Enter the Emergence Cave and convert all your Red Pikmin to Purple Pikmin.
 * Use the Purple Pikmin to open the path back to the cave.
 * Go through the cave multiple times, converting your last Red Pikmin to a Purple Pikmin each time, in order to increase Pikmin numbers through Pikmin extinctions. Collect the cave's treasures and the Spherical Atlas on the same cave entry as a Pikmin extinction to stop the day from ending when you exit the cave.
 * Increase Pikmin numbers as high as possible, then end the day by collecting the Courage Reactor.

Day 2

 * Awakening Wood:
 * Complete the Hole of Beasts and White Flower Garden.
 * Find the White Pikmin.
 * Collect the Geographic Projection.
 * Complete the remaining caves and get all remaining overground treasures.
 * Use the seesaw block glitch to find and raise Blue Pikmin. Then, use the carrying charge glitch to carry the Decorative Goo over the gate.

Day 3
Note: All overground treasures must be collected before completing the final caves so that you can clear out the area before the day ends. This is because the debt clearing cutscene (which can only happen while above-ground) instantly ends the day.
 * Perplexing Pool:
 * Find the Yellow Pikmin.
 * Collect all overground treasures.
 * Complete all caves.

Day 4

 * Valley of Repose:
 * Collect all overground treasures.
 * Complete the Subterranean Complex and Frontier Cavern.

Day 5

 * Wistful Wild:
 * Collect all overground treasures.
 * Complete all caves.

8 days
The first few recorded low day runs collect all treasures in 8 days. These runs have few major glitches, and simply go through all eight milestones in the order intended by the developers:
 * 1) The mandatory Valley of Repose tutorial. All players must do this on day 1.
 * 2) Purple Pikmin are obtained in the Valley of Repose, and used to unlock the Awakening Wood. Runners do this on day 2.
 * 3) White Pikmin are discovered in the Awakening Wood, and used to unlock the Perplexing Pool. Runners do this on day 3, as well as clear most parts of the area.
 * 4) Yellow Pikmin are obtained in the Perplexing Pool. Runners take one day to do this and clear dry parts of the area.
 * 5) Blue Pikmin are unlocked in the Awakening Wood with the help of Yellow Pikmin. Runners take one day to do this and collect all remaining treasure in the area.
 * 6) The parts of the Perplexing Pool that require Blue Pikmin are conquered. Runners take one day to do this.
 * 7) The Valley of Repose needs to be returned to and completed. Runners take one day to do this.
 * 8) The Wistful Wild needs to be completed. Runners take one day to do this.

Though smaller glitches and tricks were found in the meantime, the lowest number of days required to collect all treasures was kept at 8 for several years.

7 days
On 30, "Claris" discovered the seesaw block glitch (then called the "scale glitch"), which allowed for Blue Pikmin to be unlocked in the first visit to the Awakening Wood. This removed one day from the total, since players can use the Blue Pikmin to complete the Perplexing Pool in a single day. It was still necessary to return to the Awakening Wood in a different day, since one needed to use Yellow Pikmin to open up the electric gate and retrieve the Decorative Goo.

On 2, the first 7 day run was completed, also by "Claris".

6 days
On 24, "muratsubo" discovered a glitch that allows Pikmin to carry an object at much faster speeds than normal. Over the next days, speedrunners attempted to find time-saving uses for the glitch, and the idea of using it to get the Decorative Goo over the gate was instantly brought up. Several experiments were made to get it to work. Eventually, it was proven to be possible to bring the Decorative Goo outside of the Blue Pikmin den without needing Yellow Pikmin, provided the treasure is "charged" with enough speed or luck.

On 2, "HSS0136" used that same glitch and completed the entirety of the area in the same day. This knocked the day total from seven to six.

5 days
At this point, all areas took a single day to complete, except the Valley of Repose which took 3. Efforts shifted towards finding a way to access the Emergence Cave on day 1, as that would allow unlocking Purple Pikmin to collect the Spherical Atlas to unlock the Awakening Wood early. In January 2021, "HSS0136" discovered that by using the Cutscene Timer Storage glitch, the player could switch to Louie on day 1 before defeating the Dwarf Red Bulborb in the landing site, and then "依代 九朔_Vtuber" found that it was possible to use that same Dwarf Red Bulborb to clip up a ledge, allowing the Emergence Cave to be accessed on day 1. This made it possible to complete the game in 5 days. Using the new strategy, "TRR" completed a tool-assisted demonstration of the route on 2, but the extreme difficulty of the clip up the ledge made the run difficult to do perform in real time. On 4, "HSS0136" became the first person to complete a full 5-day run, combining it with a low Pikmin count of 102, and with no Yellow Pikmin.