Combat: Difference between revisions

{{game icons|p=y|p2=y|p3=y|p4=y|hp=y|pa=y}}

[[File:Pikmin 4 Reveal Fight.png|thumb|250px|The player and a group of Pikmin combating a [[Bulborb]] in {{p4}}.]]

In the {{ps}}, [[Pikmin family|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 [[:Category:Collectibles|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.

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 Sheargrub]]s, 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, [[obstacle]]s, and [[egg]]s if they are near enough. In {{p1}} and {{p2}}, [[swarm]]ing an enemy will cause most of the involved Pikmin to latch onto it, if possible, and begin attacking. In {{p3}}, Pikmin that are [[charge]]d 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 [[leader]]s 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 {{p1}}, [[Mushroom Pikmin]] can also attack [[Captain Olimar]] and his Pikmin in a similar fashion.

! colspan="4" | Damage

| [[Red Pikmin]] || 15 || 15 || 15 || 15

| [[Yellow Pikmin]] || 10 || 10 || 10 || 10

| [[Blue Pikmin]] || 10 || 10 || 10 || 10

| [[Purple Pikmin]] || N/A || 20 || 15 || 15

| [[White Pikmin]] || N/A || 10 || 5 || 5

| [[Bulbmin]] || N/A || 10 || N/A || N/A

| [[Rock Pikmin]] || N/A || N/A || 20 || 40

| [[Winged Pikmin]] || N/A || N/A || 5 || 5

| [[Ice Pikmin]] || N/A || N/A || N/A || 5

{{see more|Purple Pikmin}}

In {{p2}}, when a Purple Pikmin is [[throw]]n 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 {{p3}}, 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 {{p4}}, 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.

{{see more|White Pikmin}}

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.

{{see more|Rock Pikmin}}

When Rock Pikmin are [[throw]]n 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 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.

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 {{p1}}, a punch deals 10 damage. In {{p2}}, 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 {{p3}}, a punch deals 3 damage.

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 [[Spotty Bulbear|Bulbears]] will foolishly eat them, defeating themselves in the process.

[[File:P2 Combat High Scores Artwork.png|thumb|The drawing used to represent combat in the [[high scores menu]] of ''Pikmin 2''.]]

Pikmin do not seem to have health that can be depleted, although this is hard to confirm, as explained [[Health#Pikmin|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 [[Maturity#Decreasing|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 [[whistle]]d, as bumping into them does nothing.

Enemies have a variety of ways to harm or kill Pikmin, such as [[#Shaking|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 [[#Attacking|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 ===

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.

==== General case ====

Suppose that a day starts, 100 Pikmin are taken out from Onions, and they are all bundled together within reach of a [[Bulborb|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 ====

Internally, Pikmin types are declared with [[Blue Pikmin]] first. Then comes [[Red Pikmin|Red]], [[Yellow Pikmin|Yellow]], [[Purple Pikmin|Purple]], [[White Pikmin|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 [[Pikmin prerelease information|development for ''Pikmin'']], due to Blue Pikmin being the primary type shown off in old trailers.{{cite youtube|7x245evHAhQ|of a prerelease trailer of ''Pikmin'' from 2000}} 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.{{cite web|http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/why-do-blue-pikmin-get-eaten-the-most.172402083/|Why do blue pikmin get eaten the most???|IGN Boards|published={{date|18|October|2008}}|retrieved={{date|15|August|2017}}}}{{cite web|https://www.pikminwiki.com/Forum:Blue_pikmin_get_eaten...alot|Blue pikmin get eaten...alot|Pikipedia|published={{date|9|February|2008}}|retrieved={{date|15|August|2017}}}} This is exactly why.