User:Espyo/The Final Trial Challenge Mode guide

This guide will provide a strategy on how to reach the world record on The Final Trial, on Pikmin's Challenge Mode. The maximum possible number of Pikmin for this area is 299.

The strategy was based off of a video from Rouge7, but with some aspects tweaked.

The compass directions North, South, West and East are used here. You can use the map at the bottom of the page to base yourself on what each direction is. North = Up, South = Down, West = Left, East = Right. Alternately, know that the starting area is at the North, and the Emperor Bulblax / Beady Long Legs arena is at the bottom. In-game, the map is rotated 180 degrees (the Beady Long Legs arena is at the North, for instance), though, but when I wrote this guide, I didn't realize it, so use the compass directions in the way I just listed instead of the in-game way.

Common sense is a requisite to use this guide. Obviously, if you're aiming for a perfect score, you can't issue Red Pikmin to deliver a blue pellet to a Red Onion, not to mention that there should be 0 deaths.

The first bridge

 * As the start of day cutscene is playing, hold Up on the Analog Stick. Once you start moving, you'll go straight to the Blue Pikmin.
 * Pluck out 1 Blue. Throw it at the nearby blue pellet at the East.
 * While that one's carrying it, pluck all remaining Blues.
 * Kill the nearby Dwarf Red Bulborb, at the South, by throwing some Pikmin at its back, in hopes of squashing it.
 * Gather all Blue Pikmin, including the carrier one.
 * If you're fast enough, the carrier Blue won't have delivered the pellet yet. It's fine if you call it to you, it'll drop the pellet, and it'll just be taken into the Onion when the next party of Blues deliver something, no worries.
 * Pluck all the Blues on the Blues + Yellows island, towards the Southwest.
 * Use the nearby geyser and pluck the Blues on the upper ledge.
 * You should have 23 on your party by this point.
 * Issue all Pikmin to work on the Northern bridge on the central island (the bridge that leads to the landing site).
 * Pluck all Reds on that island and make them work on that bridge as well.
 * Pluck all Blues on the island and have them carry the 5-pellet on the water.
 * Make your way to the Blues + Yellows island again. Let the Yellow Wollywog jump close to the carrying Pikmin. In fact, on your way to the island, go through the water just to make sure the Wollywog jumps.
 * On your way to the island, try to zoom in to the closest setting, and set the camera to overhead view. I find that this makes the Wollywog not jump more than it has to. Even if you hear it jump, it's normally not reason to worry. Just zoom in to be safe.
 * Pluck all Yellows on the island and throw them through the river onto the landing site area.
 * Call the Yellows you threw, and have 3 of them carry the Dwarf Bulborb the Blues killed at the start. Issue 2 to carry the Yellow pellet near the plants.
 * Pluck all Yellows and Reds on the landing site.
 * If you're fast enough, the burrowed Reds and Yellows won't be turning into buds, and you'll pluck all of them as Leaf Pikmin.
 * Have 2 Reds carry the red pellet, and use the Yellows and Reds to squish the Dwarf Red Bulborb nearby. The bridge should be done about now.
 * Gather all Yellows, Blues (that should have delivered their things by now) and Reds on the landing site.
 * Go to the bridge and gather all Pikmin there. There should be 55 Pikmin on your party.
 * Go back to the landing site, and use the patch of grass and nectar on the Northeast. Go back towards the bridge once most Pikmin are flowered up (2-3 blobs of nectar). If you're having bad luck and some Pikmin just can't get a sip, keep trying a bit, but don't spend too much time here.
 * On the center island, lure the Wollywog onto land. Kill it with Pikmin, and make sure none die.

The second bridge

 * Once the Wollywog is dead, issue exactly 10 Red Pikmin to take its corpse.
 * Issue all remaining Pikmin to work on the second bridge.
 * Go back to the landing site, and on the Eastern side of the sand area, there are some Sheargrubs. Kill them using your punches. Remember each one takes 5 hits.
 * One strategy that works for me is to bring up and kill the Male Sheargrubs first, without disturbing the females. After those are done, then I go kill the females. The males are located on the Southern bit of the sand area, near the burrowed Yellows on an upper ledge.
 * If the first bell rings (1/4 of the day done) during your fight, that means you're doing good so far. You should have 123 Pikmin in total, after the Reds deliver the Wollywog.
 * Grab the Red Pikmin that carried the Wollywog, after your fight.
 * If you were fast enough, you'll be going towards the Red Pikmin just as the Onion is sucking in the Wollywog.
 * Bring the Reds over to the rusty pathway with the geysers, to the East of the center island.
 * Make them transverse the path, much like you would in story mode, and have them push the cardboard box. The second bridge should be done around the time the Reds start pushing the box.
 * Grab the Pikmin that built the bridge and the ones that pushed the box, but make sure the box is pushed all the way before you call them (you should hear the chime when the box is finally pushed). You should have 55 Pikmin with you.
 * Issue all your Pikmin to take down the gate on the entrance to the Beady Long Legs arena.
 * Climb the ramp near the cardboard box to get on top of it, and pluck all 5 Reds and 5 Yellows on this ledge. They should be in flower state.
 * Take these 10 Pikmin to the inside of the cardboard box, so that the Yellows get the bomb-rocks.
 * Once all 5 Yellows have bomb-rocks, throw three of them at the stone gate right next to the cardboard box, so that that gate is taken down.
 * Only two would be necessary, but you'll only really need 4 bomb-rocks in total, and you won't want any Pikmin to have any bomb-rock later on.
 * Call the Pikmin at the entrance of the arena, and go towards the burrowed Red Pikmin inside the actual arena. Be careful not to go near the center, as that'll trigger the Beady Long Legs fight!
 * Pluck the Reds and do the same to the Blues nearby, again, making sure you don't go near the center.
 * Keep circling the arena clockwise until you reach the stone gate. Dismiss all your Pikmin to the right of this gate, close to the burrowed Yellows. Try to dismiss them as close to the wall of the arena as possible.
 * Grab the two remaining bomb-rock Yellow Pikmin and use them to take down the gate.
 * Pluck the Yellows on the arena, and gather a number of Pikmin you're comfortable with to fight the Beady Long Legs, so that none die.
 * I use 10 Pikmin.

The boss battles

 * Step on the center of the arena with your Yellows, and try to aim the cursor at the exact center. Try to keep your Pikmin from standing too far from the center using the C-stick.
 * Once the Beady Long Legs falls, fight it! You should use the strategy section if you need help, but I'll provide a simple strategy here.
 * Switch to the top-down camera. Throw all Pikmin unto the boss' core. Count 4 steps from its feet. Once it does 4 steps, it'll attempt to shake Pikmin off, so call them.
 * Quickly throw the Pikmin back when the boss is almost done shaking. While throwing, make sure your cursor is always aiming towards the core. If you don't really need to move the cursor, then use the C-stick to make the Pikmin throwing faster.
 * Repeat after every cicle. All throughout, remember to position yourself and the camera so that you can clearly see how you're throwing your Pikmin, and so that you don't get stomped yourself. The best way is to always try to be under the core, as well as keeping the cursor right under it.
 * Once the boss is dead, call the Yellow Pikmin used on this fight as well as everyone else. If you don't have 80 Pikmin with you, something went wrong, so restart, as you can't get a perfect score.
 * If the second bell rings (1/2 of the day done) about the time you finish the fight, then you're doing good so far. You should have 123 Pikmin in total.
 * Go through the last gate that was opened and travel through the outside of the Beady Long Legs arena, clockwise. A bit to the North of the gate is a Burrowing Snagret. You must defeat this boss as well, and again, you should use the strategy section for this. I'll still provide a strategy, regardless.
 * While the Snagret is burrowed, keep your Pikmin close to you and in a tight circle, using the C-stick.
 * Once it surfaces, quickly swarm it, making sure as many Pikmin as possible latch on to it.
 * When the Snagret stops its third shake while being attacked, call the Pikmin to you side and take them far away from the boss, so that it doesn't eat them. If it got stuck and a lot of Pikmin are on its head, then you don't really need to call them, as the boss will not attack.
 * When you have a lot of Pikmin and they're almost all flower, the Snagret will never attempt to eat them, because they cause too much damage for it to be willing to retaliate, choosing instead to go underground (regardless of it getting stuck or not). I've had a few runs where the Snagret never attacked because of this. But use this strategy at your own risk.
 * Repeat for each cycle until the boss is dead.

Carrying pellets

 * While the Snagret is dying, take a more thorough look at the spoils that Beady Long Legs dropped.When the Snagret unleashes its spoils, examine the 5-pellets' colors as well.
 * There is also a Red 10-pellet to the North of the Snagret battle site, a Red 5-pellet near the gate used to get to the Snagret, a Yellow 10-pellet on the Eastern side of the Beady Long Legs arena (you can throw Yellow Pikmin while running to long throw, use this to grab the pellet from the arena; otherwise, take the long way around through the Snagret gate), a Yellow 10-pellet to the West of the arena gate, a Red one to the east, and a Red 5-pellet to the East of that one. Keep these pellets in mind as well.
 * Figure out which color is less needed, taking all these pellets into account.
 * Issue 1 Pikmin for each 1-pellet (of the corresponding color, of course). Issue Pikmin to carry the bigger pellets, balancing it so that 3 Pikmin of the pellet's color and 2 Pikmin of the less-needed color carry 5-pellets, and 6/4 carry 10-pellets. In other words, make it so that most pellets are delivered to the correct Onion, making the color that's less needed help them. Try to balance it as best as you can, but don't worry too much about it, as you will need to come here again.
 * Make sure that all Pikmin are carrying something and that you are alone.
 * Kill the Dwarf Bulborbs to the East of the second bridge, near the Eastern edge of The Final Trial, by punching them.
 * Once that's done, go North through the tight passageway. Pluck the Yellow Pikmin at the end of this path.
 * If you hear the 3rd bell (3/4 of the day done) while fighting against the Dwarf Bulborbs, then you're doing good so far.
 * Use these Yellow Pikmin to bring the Sheargrub carcasses.
 * It's best to throw them onto the carcasses, rather than swarming.
 * Gather a few Pikmin that delivered stuff and are idle.
 * Issue some of them to take care of the Dwarf Red Bulborb corpse on the Northernmost part of the area.
 * You should have over 30 Pikmin with you, so swarm the Dwarf Bulbear and bring it to an Onion.
 * Gather all Pikmin once they're done delivering their things and go to central island. You should have 90 on your party.
 * Issue 5 Pikmin to take care of the pellet that was left behind by the Wollywog.
 * Go to the arena again.
 * Leave 20 to 30 Blue Pikmin to the side somewhere.
 * Gather all remaining pellets around the arena (South of The Final Trial), using the balancing trick mentioned above if you're a bit low on Pikmin.
 * Have some Pikmin carry the 2 Dwarf Bulborbs you killed by hand earlier.
 * While everyone's taking their spoils, gather the Blue Pikmin you set aside and go through the first stone gate that you destroyed, the one right next to the cardboard box.
 * Go through the path and use the C-stick to make your Pikmin stick to the wall. Angle the camera so that you can see the fire geyser that's closest to the wall individually.
 * Once the geyser stops spewing fire, quickly go through, making sure everyone is as close to the wall as possible. If all went well, no Pikmin would've caught on fire.
 * Throw all Blues to the Blue 20-pellet. Sometimes they have a hard time gathering around the pellet, and that's why you could've brought more than 20, to speed up the process. If you only have 20, try aiming at different spots, so the Pikmin try to grab different parts of the pellet.

And... That's it. Just sit back and wait. You can issue some loose Pikmin to help some carriers who are still a bit behind, if the day is almost over, but if everything went right, you don't need to press anything.