Cave

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The hole used to go down to the next sublevel. These look the same as entrances to caves above ground.

Caves are the underground areas in Pikmin 2, of which 14 exist in all. Although there is a large overworld, most treasures are found in these caves, so most of the time playing the game is spent down them. All enemies, including bosses, respawn between visits - the only exceptions to this are Violet Candypop Buds and Ivory Candypop Buds, which, in some caves such as Frontier Cavern and Hole of Beasts, do not appear once the player has 20 or more Purple Pikmin or White Pikmin already; this is to stop the player from gathering large numbers of Purples and Whites with too much ease.

The time of day does not pass while the player is in a cave, and their floors are generated randomly each time, but follow a specific layout scheme. According to earlier versions of the game, this is because the space-time continuum was warped due to the cave's geomagnetic radiation field. The final version's instruction manual simplifies this and simply calls it "a powerful magnetic field".

The holes through which the player enters the caves are round, rocky mounds, with a small hole in them with wisps of steam coming out. To enter one, the player must simply press A / A. If the other leader is alive, it'll instantly join the party, regardless of distance. Any Pikmin under the current leader's control will jump down with them, and any that are idle or working will return safely to their Onions. Once the player enters a cave, there is no way to increase Pikmin population save for Bulbmin and/or Queen Candypop Buds. It is not possible to enter a cave without Pikmin.

Inside a cave, if both leaders lose all their health or all Pikmin die, the research pod will cancel the expedition, losing the collected treasures in the process, and then bring them to the overworld. A mission can also be aborted manually by using the pause menu.

A sample of common underground music

Sublevels

The caves are split into several sublevels. The shortest cave has two sublevels and the longest has fifteen. Each sublevel usually has at least one treasure for the player to find, and almost always one or more enemies. To enter a new sublevel, A / A must be pressed near a hole; all Pikmin and live leaders will fall down the hole, and planted Pikmin will remain. This is also true for the exit geysers that allow exiting the cave safely.

Every time a sublevel is entered, the game is saved, so if the player turns the game off and then back on, they'll start over in the same sublevel, but with a different layout, if it's not fixed. Sublevels can be roughly categorized into three types:

Normal levels usually have a few harmful enemies, and sometimes don't have any treasure.

Rest levels either lack enemies or only have harmless enemies (exceptions being Doodlebugs and Bulbmin). Rest levels have Pikmin-supporting items, such as nectar, Ultra-Bitter Spray, Ultra-spicy spray, or Candypop Buds. These levels usually lack treasures.

Boss levels are usually the final level of a cave. The only cave without a boss level is the Emergence Cave, and the one with the most is the Hole of Heroes. They hold one large boss enemy (although in some rare circumstances there may be up to three) and maybe a few normal enemies, and the boss, when defeated, often drops an item which upgrades the leaders' space suits or ship.

Floor designs

Each cave floor is comprised of several units, organized in a random fashion, but commonly following a theme. The following is a list of existing themes.

Concrete walls

Concrete Maze.

This design features plants, sandy floors, and concrete walls. Eggs and Bomb-rocks will occasionally fall from the cave ceiling.

Garden

Three Color Training.

This type of design appears as if the party is outside. These type of designs always have harmful enemies in them, save Mitites, and can be found in caves such as the Snagret Hole and in Challenge Mode. The second to last level in Challenge mode, the Sniper Room, is the only nighttime garden level.

Metal

Dream Den.

This design has metal floors and low walls, making it possible to throw Pikmin and ward some enemies out of bounds. It frequently contains Careening Dirigibugs, Gatling Groinks, or Lithopods, with bomb-rocks appearing on occasion. The first area with a floor like this is the first sublevel of the White Flower Garden.

Snow

Cave of Pain.

A common sublevel design in the Valley of Repose, these sublevels are blanketed with snow, and have stone – and occasionally brick – walls. The floors are commonly littered with dying Figworts. Hairy Bulborbs and Snow Bulborbs are often present here.

Soil

Emperor's Realm.

This theme represents a very basic type of cave, with soil floors and stone walls.

Toybox

File:Lost Toy Box.png

Lost Toy Box.

These cave designs are in caves such as Glutton's Kitchen and the Dream Den. These levels are often filled with giant toys and treasures that are used for food, entertainment, and office supplies. The borders of the sublevels are smaller toys that Pikmin and enemies can cross, but not captains. They sometimes can be covered with a large carpet that stretch for the entirety of the floor.

Tiles

The Giant's Bath.

Tiles cover nearly the whole sub-level and many hazards are found on these types of design. Wogpoles will sometimes fall from the cave ceiling.

List of caves

Valley of Repose

• Emergence Cave
• Frontier Cavern
• Subterranean Complex

Awakening Wood

• Hole of Beasts
• White Flower Garden
• Bulblax Kingdom
• Snagret Hole

Perplexing Pool

• Citadel of Spiders
• Glutton's Kitchen
• Shower Room
• Submerged Castle

Wistful Wild

• Cavern of Chaos
• Hole of Heroes
• Dream Den

Technical discrepancies

Even though the cave and sublevel information is present in human-readable format within the game's files, some of their settings appear to make no sense, as the values in the files don't match up to what happens in-game. The following assumed discrepancies exist:

• Property {f002} (敵最大数, meaning "Maximum number of enemies") of a sublevel indicates the maximum number of enemies (plants, hazards and other things included) that can appear. This value, however, doesn't always seem to make sense. The same applies to property {f014} (キャップ最大数, meaning "Maximum number of dead ends").
• The objects in a cave's sublevel are specified in a list, with the number of instances after the object's name. This number is quite erratic, often deviating from any sort of pattern. This can even lead to numbers that appear to indicate the existence of at least some objects of a certain type, when in fact, none appear. An example of this would be the first floor of Hazard Training, which claims to have "11" eggs, but has none. There is another property, connected to all objects, named "type", but even that property's values don't follow any pattern. Examples of erratic numbers include:
  • "2" small dying Figworts actually means 2 (sublevel 1 of the Twilight Garden, line 62 of ch_MUKI_damagumo.txt)
  • "20" small dying Figworts actually means 2 (sublevel 1 of the Twilight Garden, line 48 of ch_MUKI_damagumo.txt)
  • "20" Fiery Blowhogs actually means 2 (sublevel 2 of the White Flower Garden, line 78 of forest_2.txt)
  • "12" Common Glowcaps actually means 12 (sublevel 1 of the Red Chasm, line 43 of ch_MAT_limited_time.txt)
• Property {f013} (隠し床, meaning "Hidden floor") of a sublevel indicates whether there's ground under the cave units or if it should be simulated. This is due to the fact that toybox and garden levels' units do not contain ground. However, sublevel 4 of Snagret Hole has this value set to 1 as well, despite the fact that soil-type units always have a ground.
• Sublevel 8 of the Dream Den, sublevels 1 and 2 of the Hot House and sublevels 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the Collector's Room all have their property {f00A} (VRBOX, the "skybox" model) set to "vrbox". Both sublevels of the Green Hole have that property set to "f010". Both of these values are invalid, and the game defaults to having no "skybox".
• The final sublevels of the Subterranean Complex, the Hole of Beasts and the Bulblax Kingdom all have property {f010} (階段を壊す岩で隠す(0=オフ 1=オン)) set to 1. This property decides whether the hole to the next sublevel should be clogged or not. The oddity here is that the final sublevel does not have a hole.
• The final sublevels in the Cave of Pain, Red Chasm, Collector's Room and the Breeding Ground all have property {f007} (帰還噴水(1=あり)) set to 0. This property decides whether a level contains an escape geyser or not. Naturally, all final sublevels contain one in-game, so the fact that these sublevels have that property set to 0 is a mystery.

Glitches

To do: Confirm the glitch where the Pikmin don't jump down and remain idle. If confirmed, add it to the glitches page. Care to do so?

• Cave hole glitch: It is possible for a leader to end up inside the cave hole's geometry, if he's placed on the hole's spawning point before it spawns.
• Cave death count glitch: If a Pikmin is suffering from a hazard and the player chooses to go to the next sublevel, the Pikmin will still have the suffering animation when jumping down the hole. If they made that last cry, they will nevertheless be alive on the next sublevel, but the total Pikmin lost count will increase.
• Instant Pikmin extinction: By entering a cave and dismissing at the same time, the game will let the player enter the cave with no Pikmin.
• There is a glitch that can happen when proceeding to the next sublevel. In the animation where you jump into the hole, some pikmin may appear idle and won't jump in with you. Thankfully, these Pikmin that don't jump in will appear on the next sublevel.

Trivia

To do: Get source for this claim about keeping the treasures when leaving via pause. Care to do so?

• In an earlier version of Pikmin 2, the player could leave caves with half of the collected treasure if they leave through the pause menu. However, all Pikmin would be lost in doing so.
• Although not acknowledged by the games as a cave, The Forest Navel is technically the first cave explored by Olimar on the planet.
• For some reason, when entering the first sublevel of a cave, the game automatically switches to a specific leader. If the player has Olimar and Louie, Olimar will always become the active leader upon entering. If it's Olimar and The President, then the President will. This does not happen in New Play Control! Pikmin 2.
• When entering a cave or sublevel hole, each leader grunts as he jumps. However, the first leader to jump will always make Olimar's sound effect, and the one behind will always make Louie's, regardless of the existing leaders and their order. The only exception is if the second leader is fallen, at which point only the first leader will grunt, still with Olimar's voice.
• The fanfare that plays when jumping into the first sublevel of a cave is similar to – but different from – the one that plays when the next sublevel is entered from within a cave.