Summary and Location
The Submerged Castle can be arguably one of the most agitating or hardest caves found in Pikmin 2. You are only able to bring Blue Pikmin with you, even if you figure out you can use Blue Pikmin's water patroling ability to carry non-blues onto land where you can get them under your command and enter the cave; this will never work. It has been programmed into the game, whether somehow you got them under your command or not, that they cannot enter the cave whatsoever. All hazards are found here, making it imperative that you command your Blue Pikmin carefully, though you can get Bulbmin. The worse is yet to come however, for the boss appears on every level, making it crucial that you devise movements to secure the cave's sublevels quickly. To get to the cave, you need to defeat many Yellow Wollywogs and tear down the black gate near Glutton's Kitchen. After the gate is gone, you need to defeat two Hermit Crawmads, Water Dumples and a Withering Blowhog. The cave's entrance is surrounded by undrainable water, which is exactly why non-blue Pikmin can't enter, it was programmed so that the situation would make sense.
Cave Information
- Name: Submerged Castle
- Location: Perplexing Pool
- Sublevels: 5
- Treasures: 13
- Hazards: Fire, Electricity, Water, Poison, and Explosions
- Amount of pikmin you need: 60 Blue Pikmin (this level contains a total of 40 Bulbmin so you get 100 pikmin in the end anyway plus you need them.)
List of Treasures
Enemies
Strategy
Submerged Castle
Sublevels/Treasure: 5 / 13
Hazards: Fire, Water, Electricity, Poison
Difficulty: * * * * (you most likely will lose many pikmin)
This place is home to the very scary and frog-like Waterwraith. The reason that it is the "scariest and most nightmarish cave in the game" is because it ALWAYS drops down. It even drops during the regular sublevels! For this reason, a key part of the Submerged Castle is speed. It is even recommended to ignoring enemies. It always drops down within 1-5 minutes of being in the cave. Don't worry, for the ship will warn you if it will fall on all floors after the first. You will hear two loud stones dropping, then a roar, then the sound of stones smacking the floor.
Also, it may puzzle you how all 4 hazards are in a cave that can only let blue pikmin in. Well, there are Bulbmin in this cave, though you might not need them at first, thanks to entering with 100 pikmin!
====Sublevel 1==== You think you are ready to test out this nightmare hideout? Well, to say a few words before you begin, this area is filled with fire hazards, so have your whistle ready! To kill the Fiery Blowhog, swarm it and when it shakes, blow your whistle, then swarm again to kill it. Also, don't throw pikmin at the Blowhog, for it will only waste time, so SWARM it!! Now, for killing the Fiery Bulblax. We are about to try a new strategy, so first you should find the Bulblax, and once you do, throw a pikmin onto its body. Blow your whistle once the pikmin touches the flaming body so it doesn't burn, but the Bulblax will wake up. Lead it into a nearby pool of water, and the second it stops flaming, use an Ultra-Bitter Spray and go through the talk that the ship gives you about it (this only happens if you've never used the spray on an enemy before). I hate that because it wastes 1/2 of the time, so you only have 4 seconds to swarm and kill it! If you fail, then fire another, but then you may run out, and that ISN'T good. Once it dies, it will spit out the fish snack (Bug Bait, 5 Weight, 15 Poko). Look for the other 2 treasures, a strawberry chocolate (Diet Doomer, 5 Weight, 25 Poko) is usually in the open, as is the frosted donut (Pastry Wheel, 10 weight, 35 Poko). Look for the hole and LEAVE AS QUICKly AS YOU CAN!!'
====Sublevel 2==== So you got past the sublevel perfectly unharmed? Well, great job! This area is home to Careening Dirigibugs, Fiery Dweevils, and Bulbmin! To ensure safety, kill the Careening Dirigibug by throwing at it rapidly. There are walls in here unlike the Subterrain Complex, so you are safe. For the Fiery Dweevils, ignore them unless they grab a treasure you are carrying, and then kill it, blowing your whistle once it casts flames around it. The Fiery Dweevils are usually in an open, rusty pipe that is near the exit of a long pipe. You see, look around for an entrance of a pipe. Walk inside of it to be in the pipe (PS, this is a great place to hide in from the evil Waterwraith). Follow the pipe to a slide-like part, where you will go down quickly and will shoot out of the pipe, landing you near the chocolate donut (Chocolate Cushion, 10 Weight, 40 Poko). Once we have finished hat part of the level, the other part of the level is the part with the Bulbmin. The mother can be killed by getting close, and then throwing pikmin onto its back. If you would to have...let's see...swarm it, the Mother Bulbmin will most likely get a few bites of pikmin. Once they see their leader/mother is dead, the smaller Bulbmin will panic and begin running around. Blow your whistle at them to gain control of the Bulbmin. Also, something I forgot to mention: if you start out the cave with 100 pikmin and lose pikmin to the mother, you still don't get more Bulbmin. You see, the game decides the amount of Bulbmin at the beginning of the sublevel, so keep that important note in mind. A checkered chocolate cookie (Comfort Cookie, 4 Weight, 10 Poko) will come out of the mother once it is dead, so take the body and the tasty cookie. Finally, the [[Dwarf orange Bulborb]]s can be killed by just swarming them the old fashioned way. Ignore the bodies, though. The final treasure, a plain donut (Confection Hoop, 20 Weight, 60 Poko), can be found on a ledge guarded by some DOB. To get there, walk to the opposite ledge and throw pikmin over the gap and to the treasure. Throw more pikmin over, since it is surrounded by DOB. You may lose a few pikmin, but ignore it for the time being. Finally, the exit is sealed, so you will have to use pikmin to smash the rock and open the exit. Now leave INSTANTLY!! If you are lucky (like me), you could've avoided the Waterwraith from falling!
====Sublevel 3==== This place is home to the ELECTRICITY element, so you better be careful! For the electric generators, swarm them the SECOND THEY TURN OFF. Otherwise, you could find 50 dead blues in a flash. To destroy the Anode Beetles make sure the one you are attacking isn't sparking, and throw pikmin at the top, and then the flesh. The Withering Blowhog dies the same way as always: throw pikmin on it, and do the same with the Bulbmin. The Withering Blowhog holds the lid (Activity Arouser, 15 Weight, 100 Poko), but the Bulbmin holds nothing. For Anode Dweevils, just throw Bulbmin on them, as Bulbmin are immune to all hazards. For the Wollywog, same way as the Yellow Wollywog. To end this short sublevel, take note that the last 2 treasures, the large chocolate checkered cookie (Succulent Mattress, 8 Weight, 50 Poko) and the swirl cookie (Compelling Cookie, 4 Weight, 10 Poko) are anywhere in the open, but usually behind a gate. There is a good chance the Waterwraith is down by now, so try to ignore it and break the exit, which is yet again covered in rocks. Dive on down before the Waterwraith makes this a bad day (this is a bad day, I've already lost 19 pikmin in this cave)!
====Sublevel 4==== Finally, one of the last floors! If you've lost over 10 pikmin, don't take it too lightly, for this is a TOUGH cave! Anyway, this floor is a nightmare, thanks to the 50,000 bomb rocks and 5,000 Volatile Dweevils. This place is swarming with explosive things, from bomb rocks to the Dweevils to the Careening Dirigibugs! Take careful steps in this sublevel, and hunt for the ham container(Drone Supplies, 15 Weight, 130 Poko) and the Double-A Battery (Proton AA, 6 Weight, 90 Poko). Finally, there is an Iridescent Glint Beetle running around the place. Throw a pikmin at it to make it to drop the white chocolate (Pale Passion, 5 Weight, 25 Poko). Finish by breaking the hole, and then diving on down to the Final Floor!
====Sublevel 5 (Final Floor)==== This must feel like heaven, ey? The Waterwraith will appear in the arena after you enter; however, Waterwraith will appear in the arena by itself if you wait to long. The good news: the boss is easy, and the bad news: you are probably down to 60 Blue Pikmin, not including the Bulbmin. However, Bulbmin don't exit with you, so you should have PLENTY of Bulbmin with you. Start out by smashing the 3 gates in the starting area. Since you can't take them with you, use your Bulbmin to make 10 purples with the 2 Violet Candypop Buds. Since the Waterwraith will appear like normal if you wait to long, use nectar from the eggs instead of waiting for your purples to mature to flowers. Now, smash the 3 eggs and stampede the nectar with your Pikmin, so you should have nothing but flower pikmin in no time! To end this, smash the final black gate, blocking the boss arena, and throw all of your Bulbmin back, for they are useless. Press X to disband your Pikmin, then call all your purple Pikmin, since blues and Bulbmin are useless. Now, prepare for the fnil encounter with the WaterWraith!
BOSS BATTLE
NAME Waterwraith
REQUIRED PIKMIN COLOR Purple
DIFFICULTY: * * (it is easy to avoid, but you might be unlucky and lose a pik.) POKOS: None, it melts away
WEIGHT: None, it melts away
STRATEGY:
This boss is fun, and it is time to get our revenge on this monster! First take note that you NEED purples to harm it. The Purple Pikmin have some sort of chemical on them that turns the WaterWraith solid and purple. Anyhow, this boss will start out by falling and lifting its front steamroller. Get to the side of it as it lifts it and once it drops it, throw a purple at it and it will turn solid and purple. When it's purple you can damage it; if it doesn't become purple then call your pikmin back and wait for your chance to throw more purples at it. Throw pikmin rapidly at its purple body, doing nothing else. Soon, it will roar a few times and turn clear again, sending pikmin flying. If this happens and pikmin don't hit again fast enough, then it will roar again, so gather your pikmin as it smashes its rocks and starts to roll around. Be sure not to get squished with the rock rollers, or those rocks could flatten your pikmin. After repeating several times until its health circle falls to zero, you will see the rock steamrollers shatter, beginning stage 2. Now, it runs like a coward away from you, revealing its true nature! Chase it until it bends down and starts panting. There is no way you can get hurt by it, so don't hold back - unleash all your Pikmin on it! It will shake a lot still, but continue to hurt it. If you wait too long again, it will start running some more. After it dies, prepare for a very dramatic death! First, it looks like it was shot, for it tilts its body and bubbles start popping out. After it does that, it will shatter into many bubbles, being fully vaporized.
After it has been horribly murdered, it will drop the head of a microphone (Professional Noisemaker, 15 Weight, 100 Poko ***POWER-UP***). This gives you the cool device called the "Pluckaphone", and it will allow you to pluck pikmin from the ground simply by whistling at them! This is very useful - when you have 100 sprouts, when you get a lot of sprouts from a Mamuta, etc. Now that you've finished this evil cave, leave going up the geyser. CAVE COMPLETE!!