Hint: Difference between revisions

[[File:P3D Menu Default Hint.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The default hint, telling the player to keep moving ahead.]]

[[File:P3D Distant Tundra Bridge Building.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A screenshot with the "Hints" button sparkling.]]

Hints are designed to guide the player towards advancing through the story. Some are about where to go next, some are about how to defeat [[boss]]es, and some are about other things. Many hints have associated locations in an [[area]] that they refer to. Due to the structure of {{p3}}, there is a linear progression of story hints. Only one hint can be active at a time. Each new hint will appear in response to some threshold being reached, and when another hint threshold is reached, it will replace the current hint (even if the new threshold is not the intended next hint).

The way hints are shown depends on a setting in the [[pause menu]], called "Hint Display". If it is on (which is the default setting), a bubble with the text "Hints" will appear in the [[HUD]], and if it is off, this bubble will not appear. In both cases, a Hint bubble will be present in the pause menu. During gameplay, pressing {{button|switch|faceu}} will show the current hint (even if Hint Display is off). Selecting the bubble in the pause menu will also show the current hint. If a new hint becomes available, the bubble will sparkle, and an exclamation mark icon will appear over the HUD bubble, indicating a new hint is available. Once the new hint has been viewed, the bubbles will no longer sparkle until another new hint is available.

When a hint is shown, the game is paused and a special hint window takes up most of the screen. It contains an image, which may be a screenshot or a map, and some text below. There may be multiple pages in a hint, and if there are, these can be advanced to the right with {{button|switch|zr}}, {{button|switch|facer}}, or right on {{button|switch|lstick}}, and to the left with {{button|switch|zl}}, {{button|switch|facel}}, or left on {{button|switch|lstick}}. (The face buttons or the stick can be held to quickly advance through pages in a loop, but the same does not happen for {{button|switch|zr}} or {{button|switch|zl}}.) {{button|switch|b}} can be pressed to close the hint window and return to gameplay (or the pause menu, if the hint was opened from there).

[[File:P3DX Prerelease Twilight River Arrows 2.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A trail of arrows in the Twilight River.]]

If Hint Display is on, hints will not only consist of pages of information, but in arrows on the ground. These large blue arrows will point towards that hint's associated location, forming a path in front of the player using the same waypoint system as [[Go Here!]]. Since not all hints have an associated location, not all hints have arrows. The arrows will only appear near the active leader, and up to 5 arrows can be on the ground at a time. Arrows are 3D objects and can clip into the ground and illuminate their surroundings, but they do not have any collision. They do not appear on the [[radar]] or the KopPad camera view. After appearing, arrows will not stop pointing towards their associated location until the player reaches that location, though they will briefly disappear after the [[KopPad]] or [[Onion menu]] is closed (except the camera app on the KopPad). Arrows can be made to disappear by turning Hint Display off; after turning it back on the arrows will not reappear unless the hint is opened again.

The associated locations of hints can vary in size. For some hints, the arrows point to a certain point and once the player gets near enough, the arrows will disappear. They will not reappear unless the player walks away and opens the hint again. For some hints, the arrows point to a specific room of an area, and once the room is reached, they will turn off. (Opening the hint again while in the room will do nothing, but opening it from another room will point towards the room again.) When the associated location is a [[fragment]] pile, the arrows can disappear either when the player gets close or when all the fragments have been taken from the pile. However, calling Pikmin to stop them carrying fragments from a pile will cause the arrows to reappear and point towards the pile again.

Hints can have multiple associated locations. For some hints, these are in a set order, and reaching the first location will change the destination to the next location. For hints about building a [[bridge]] or turning on lights, the associated locations are the fragment piles or [[electrode]]s, and these can be visited in any order. The arrows will point towards the pile closest to the player. When all fragments are taken from a pile, the arrows will not point to another pile unless the hint is opened again, and the Hint button will not sparkle.

These hints are directly related to the game's [[Story Mode|story]]. They are listed in the order they are intended to be seen. Some hints appear multiple times in the story; these are listed in the [[#Default hints|Default hints]] section below.

| [[File:Hint DT1 P1.jpg|200px]]

 

[[File:Hint DT1 P2.jpg|200px]]

| {{transcript|If you get stuck in Story mode, press {{button|switch|faceu}} to view a strategy hint. You can hide them by going to More in Other Settings and setting Hint Display to Off.}}

 

After the throwing tutorial: Vehemoth Phosbat arena. (Note: The arrows point past the trigger point for the cutscene that ends the Distant Tundra section of day 1, so it is not possible to see where the arrows point to.)

| Tropical Wilds || Rescue the Red [[Onion]]. || Initially: The 2 light brown fragment piles.

| || [[#Default hints|Keep moving ahead]] || Tropical Wilds || Complete the brown bridge. || The [[KopPad]].

| || [[#Default hints|Keep moving ahead]] || Tropical Wilds || Push the cardboard box. || The western exit of the cave. (Note: It is not possible to see if the arrows initially stop at the [[dirt wall]] before pointing to the exit of the cave.)

| || [[#Default hints|Keep moving ahead]] || Garden of Hope || Complete the brown [[bridge]]. || Initially: None.

| || [[#Default hints|Keep moving ahead]] || Garden of Hope || Complete the blue bridge. || The Armored Mawdad arena.

| || [[#Default hints|End day]] || Garden of Hope || Collect the [[Data Glutton]]. || None.

| || [[#Default hints|Keep moving ahead]] || [[Distant Tundra]] || First landing in the Distant Tundra. || None.

| || [[#Default hints|Keep moving ahead]] || Distant Tundra || Push the iron ball in the cave. || The door to the outside.

| || [[#Default hints|Keep moving ahead]] || Distant Tundra || Push the iron ball outside. || Initially: The cave where the Vehemoth Phosbat is first seen.

| Distant Tundra || The Vehemoth Phosbat does its [[Phosbat Pod]] activation cutscene. || The 2 [[fragment]] piles in the Vehemoth Phosbat arena.

| || [[#Default hints|End day]] || Distant Tundra || Defeat the Vehemoth Phosbat. || None.

| [[Tropical Wilds]] || Land in the Tropical Wilds after rescuing [[Charlie]]. || The 2 light brown [[fragment]] piles.

| Tropical Wilds || Complete the light brown bridge. || The [[paper bag]].

| || [[#Default hints|Keep moving ahead]] || Tropical Wilds || Push the paper bag. || The Sandbelching Meerslug arena.

| || [[#Default hints|End day]] || Tropical Wilds || Collect the [[Folded Data Glutton]]. || None.

| || [[#Default hints|Keep moving ahead]] || [[Twilight River]] || First landing in the Twilight River. || None.

| Twilight River || See the Winged [[Onion]]. || The 3 light blue fragment piles.

| || [[#Default hints|Keep moving ahead]] || Twilight River || Complete the light blue bridge. || The Winged Onion.

{{transcript|Toss allies on a Bouncy Mushroom to bounce them to the opposite shore.}}

| || [[#Default hints|Keep moving ahead]] || Twilight River || Complete the red bridge. || The Scornet Maestro arena.

| || [[#Default hints|End day]] || Twilight River || Collect the Hocotatian. || None.

| || [[#Default hints|Keep moving ahead]] || Garden of Hope || Lift the [[Flukeweed]] with the Blue [[Onion]]. || None.

| || [[#Default hints|Keep moving ahead]] || Garden of Hope || Complete the pot bridge. || The Quaggled Mireclops arena.

| || [[#Default hints|End day]] || Garden of Hope || Collect [[Louie]]. || None.

| || [[#Default hints|Keep moving ahead]] || [[Formidable Oak]] || Land in the Formidable Oak. || None.

| || [[#Default hints|Keep moving ahead]] || Formidable Oak || Complete the red bridge. || The dark section of the cave.

===Default hints===

These hints appear many times throughout the story, so to simplify the list above, their images and text are listed below, along with the abbreviation used in the main list to represent the hint.

! Image !! Text !! Abbreviation

These hints are not tied to a specific story position, and can be triggered at any time. They disappear immediately after being closed, and are replaced with the current story hint.

{{game help|p3d|Document the special hints.}}

P3D Hint arrows down the slide.jpg|Arrows pointing down a slide

*[[Badge]]