Glow Pikmin

Glow Pikmin are a type of Pikmin found in. They are unlocked and mainly used during night expeditions, though they can also be summoned in caves and using a special item in Dandori Battles.

Glow Pikmin have bright lime-green, bioluminescent bodies. They have no legs; their bodies instead end in a tapered and ghost-like tail. Because of this, they have the ability to float. They have blue eyes, though one of them appears to be larger than the other and has a light blue pupil. They behave similarly to Bulbmin in that they have resistance to nearly all hazards. Their flowers are also differently shaped, with five pointed petals (resembling a star) instead of the normal rounded ones. They also appear to be slightly smaller than other Pikmin types. They also remain the only Pikmin, as of Pikmin 4, to not have an Onion or even a Candypop Bud. Rather, they cultivate in Lumiknolls.

Traits and abilities
Glow Pikmin are the only Pikmin that are mainly active at night. They can be thrown and commanded like other Pikmin; however, they have a unique "charge" mechanic. The player is able to charge up their squad of Glow Pikmin, causing them to coalesce into a single glowing ball called a Glowmob, which then charges forward when the charge is released. If this glowing ball comes into contact with an enemy, or once it travels a set distance, it will burst and all nearby enemies will be stunned; this also causes the Glow Pikmin to de-merge from the glowing ball and float to the enemies, attacking them. This also causes them to revert back to having leaves. If the player is controlling Oatchi, however, they will be unable to cause the Glow Pikmin to form a Glowmob, instead charging up a Rush like they normally would. Similar to a Rush, the Glowmob must cool down in between uses.

Glow Pikmin automatically progress through the stages of Pikmin maturity, and will not lose their flowers if they are shaken off; they cannot grow flowers by drinking nectar.

Glow Pikmin are not plucked from the ground; instead, they appear to be created by the Lumiknolls the player is tasked with protecting. Rather than using Pellet Posies or dead creatures to produce more Glow Pikmin, the player must collect glowing rocks that resemble called glow pellets. The Glow Pikmin will bring these to Lumiknolls, generating one Glow Pikmin for every three glow pellets gathered. Newly created Glow Pikmin and idle Glow Pikmin immediately join the player's squad via teleportation after a few seconds regardless of their distance from the Lumiknoll or the player. Switching from the player to Oatchi (or vice versa) will cause all Glow Pikmin in the squad to teleport to whichever one of them is active, allowing the player to focus on defending the Lumiknolls. If a Glow Pikmin extinction occurs during a night expedition, the Lumiknoll will instantly propagate 5 Glow Pikmin.

After a night expedition has been completed, Glow Pikmin will revert into Glow Seeds to hibernate once the sun rises and are rewarded to the player. These seeds can be used to summon Glow Pikmin in caves and night expeditions, but upon summoning they cannot leave the cave, similar to Bulbmin. The number of seeds earned is based on the number of Glow Pikmin in the squad upon the expedition's completion with every five Glow Pikmin making one Glow Seed.

In terms of hazards, Glow Pikmin are functionally immune to fire, electricity, water, poison, and ice. They are also immune to the Groovy Long Legs's dancing gas, ink from a Toady Bloyster or the opponent in Dandori Battles, and the Muckerskate shots' burying ability. They are however still subject to being eaten, crushed, stabbed by needles, panic, and wind. According to the Rescue Corps and the Piklopedia, Glow Pikmin transmute themselves into photons and reconstitute at the Lumiknoll upon "dying"; however, from a gameplay perspective, a Glow Pikmin is permanently gone upon "death" as with any other Pikmin. Glow Pikmin cannot become buried as sprouts, instead, they will simply be embedded into the ground before unearthing themselves after a short time, similar to Rock Pikmin that get crushed.

Despite their ability to float, they behave differently from Winged Pikmin in that they will not carry objects over gaps or other paths that only Winged Pikmin can traverse, but instead stay low to the ground and take the same path as any walking Pikmin would. They cannot die from falling or being thrown into an abyss, though, unlike Winged Pikmin, they will not stop themselves and instead disappear into the void only to reappear back with the player as if they had gone idle. They also need to be level with any object they swarm and will not fly upward to the target like Winged Pikmin (such as when fighting a Baldy Long Legs). This may have been done to encourage the use of their Glowmob ability, which gives more height to their attacks.

Discovery
Glow Pikmin are discovered once the player has rescued Yonny and embarked on their first night expedition. In their introductory cutscene, they will enter the Lumiknoll behind them and pop their heads out in different spots of the Lumiknoll. After which they will teleport out of the mound curious about the player then teleport away, demonstrating their teleporting abilities.

Glow Pikmin are the only known Pikmin type not to be discovered and named by Captain Olimar before the other characters, because he never explored the planet at night.

Trivia

 * Glow Pikmin are the only Pikmin type not to be in the Pikmin family, as their unusual characteristics make it uncertain if they can be called Pikmin or if they are even alive by any conventional definition of the term. In fact, if Olimar's speculation is correct they may actually be ghosts.
 * Interestingly, despite their unclear relation to Pikmin, Glow Pikmin can still be converted into normal Pikmin types through Candypop Buds. While it is said in Pikmin 4 that Candypop Buds can absorb small creatures other than Pikmin, it is still odd considering it is debatable whether Glow Pikmin are entirely physical.
 * Glow Pikmin do not have the usual souls, instead, without face and a bit round and the ghost tail, making it the only Pikmin type to have a unique soul in Pikmin 4.