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[ShockingAlberto]

No. It is even stated on the tutorial note.

I am pretty sure it outright tells you on the first day's sunset that Pikmin with a captain are fine, even without the tutorial chip.

When the "Sunset is coming" message comes up, there's a big addition to the HUD showing you which Pikmin are "in the wild" and need to be collected. That number doesn't include any Pikmin with a captain.

At some point it's sort of not the game's fault you (general you) can't put all this information together.

 

[D-e-f-]

I am pretty sure it outright tells you on the first day's sunset that Pikmin with a captain are fine, even without the tutorial chip.

When the "Sunset is coming" message comes up, there's a big addition to the HUD showing you which Pikmin are "in the wild" and need to be collected. That number doesn't include any Pikmin with a captain.

At some point it's sort of not the game's fault you (general you) can't put all this information together.

The GamePad map even displays a number next to each Pikmin type telling you how many of each are unattended.

 

[PapaEmeritus]

Just a quick question all, been trying to go without spoilers but I'm on my like 11th day I believe, in the tundra there is what appears to be a bamboo fence sort of, how do I take that down? None of my current batch of critters work. Yellow, Red, Rock.

 

[Tathanen]

Yeah, I knew that.

Thanks for the tips, guys. I do try to read all the notes, but since the majority of them is about stuff I already know from the previous game, I've been skipping them.

Well, then it's even odder that you didn't know that. Pikmin in your group have been safe at the end of the day since Pikmin 1.

Just a quick question all, been trying to go without spoilers but I'm on my like 11th day I believe, in the tundra there is what appears to be a bamboo fence sort of, how do I take that down? None of my current batch of critters work. Yellow, Red, Rock.

Your next color will be able to handle it.

 

[Calamari41]

Just a quick question all, been trying to go without spoilers but I'm on my like 11th day I believe, in the tundra there is what appears to be a bamboo fence sort of, how do I take that down? None of my current batch of critters work. Yellow, Red, Rock.

You need a new type of Pikmin. Inspection of the fence will give you a hint as to which type it is.

 

[Rehynn]

Well, then it's even odder that you didn't know that. Pikmin in your group have been safe at the end of the day since Pikmin 1.

Yeah, it's weird, but I actually beat Pikmin 2 without ever leaving any Pikmin behind. I got all of them back to the onions and the ship in time.

 

[PapaEmeritus]

You need a new type of Pikmin. Inspection of the fence will give you a hint as to which type it is.

Do you mean literal in the game inspection or just my observation, I dont think theres a wood type pikmin, though I may be wrong. Probably a dumb question.

 

[Calamari41]

Do you mean literal in the game inspection or just my observation, I dont think theres a wood type pikmin, though I may be wrong. Probably a dumb question.

Just your own observation. It's not important that you figure it out now, though. The game won't let you miss it when you can/need to actually get past one.

 

[Tathanen]

Yeah, it's weird, but I actually beat Pikmin 2 without ever leaving any Pikmin behind. I got all of them back to the onions and the ship in time.

I've heard a lot of people say stuff like this, it's crazy to me. I dunno how I would've ever managed to play these games if I was worrying about getting every single group back to the onion at the end of the day. I'm always off doin something somewhere, calling my Pikmin back to me as the clock hits 0.

 

[Alpha_eX]

To throw flying pikmin from water, lock onto the target and shake the nunchuck or dismiss the group using B on gamepad.

Only learnt this after finishing the game, would have been SO useful for me during my run.

 

[D-e-f-]

Do you mean literal in the game inspection or just my observation, I dont think theres a wood type pikmin, though I may be wrong. Probably a dumb question.

Look at the box. Look at the fence.

 

[Vintage_Creep]

Also why this game doesn't feature

Spoiler

purple and white Pikmins

at all?
I kinda understand the first type since it was replaced basically, but they could have implemented them somehow.

 

[Rehynn]

I've heard a lot of people say stuff like this, it's crazy to me. I dunno how I would've ever managed to play these games if I was worrying about getting every single group back to the onion at the end of the day. I'm always off doin something somewhere, calling my Pikmin back to me as the clock hits 0.

Yeah, I kinda wish I could get over this compulsion of mine, but that's just the way I play.

It used to be a lot worse though, when I was playing Half-Life 1 for the first time I quick loaded every time I lost health.

 

[D-e-f-]

Also why this game doesn't feature

Spoiler

purple and white Pikmins

at all?
I kinda understand the first type since it was replaced basically, but they could have implemented them somehow.

Wrong. They're in multiplayer.

They don't make sense in this game's singleplayer. There are various posts in here explaining why that is.

 

[Tathanen]

Also why this game doesn't feature

Spoiler

purple and white Pikmins

at all?
I kinda understand the first type since it was replaced basically, but they could have implemented them somehow.

They're in mission mode. Paring the selection down to 5 for the main game allowed them to each have more meaningful abilities that are valuable in the world design, and kept the number of colors you could cycle through with the C button to a manageable amount. The white/purple abilities in Mission Mode are excellent for improving your efficiency, but serve little purpose in terms of puzzles or combat. Excellent support units for speeding up your mission completion time, but would've been pretty useless in the main campaign.

 

[Oidisco]

Man I have so many things I would love to see done with DLC, like new game types for Mission mode, Night-time missions (I have a tonne of ideas that I think would work great for night-time missions), brand new areas added to the game, and maybe even expansions of older areas in the game to add more fruit.

But in all honestly, right now I just want them to add a photo album where all your pictures are stored. It'd just be nice.

 

[Effect]

This is such a weird game for me. It's the first time I've played Pikmin outside of the Nintendo Land game. What I'm finding is I don't normally have a desire to play the game. Where I'm looking forward to playing more of it when I sit down to do something. I have that with Animal Crossing, SMTIV and several others. There is this weird feeling of indifference toward it now that I have it. Even when it arrived in the mail I didn't really open it until 10pm that night. Perhaps that feeling was always there. I guess you could say I wasn't so much as looking forward to the game (even when it was finally announced at E3) because it was called Pikmin 3 but because it was finally a new Nintendo made game for the Wii U and I had already put Game & Wario on the ignore pile.

Perhaps that's the reason. Now when I play the game I really enjoy it. My average session for the game is at least 2 hours. I finally got the blue pikmin and I'm sitting at either 29 or 30 fruit. I think the game looks great and controls well with the Wii remote. However it's not leaving a lasting impression on me to the point where I'm thinking about the game after I'm done. Other games I've really enjoyed even to this day invoked that in me. I can be sitting at work wondering how I'm going to tackle a boss fight I lost the night before or thinking about a location I visited or an event that took place. Nothing like that with Pikmin 3.

 

[ArchangelWest]

This is such a weird game for me. It's the first time I've played Pikmin outside of the Nintendo Land game. What I'm finding is I don't normally have a desire to play the game. Where I'm looking forward to playing more of it when I sit down to do something. I have that with Animal Crossing, SMTIV and several others. There is this weird feeling of indifference toward it now that I have it. Even when it arrived in the mail I didn't really open it until 10pm that night. Perhaps that feeling was always there. I guess you could say I wasn't so much as looking forward to the game (even when it was finally announced at E3) because it was called Pikmin 3 but because it was finally a new Nintendo made game for the Wii U and I had already put Game & Wario on the ignore pile.

Perhaps that's the reason. Now when I play the game I really enjoy it. My average session for the game is at least 2 hours. I finally got the blue pikmin and I'm sitting at either 29 or 30 fruit. I think the game looks great and controls well with the Wii remote. However it's not leaving a lasting impression on me to the point where I'm thinking about the game after I'm done. Other games I've really enjoyed even to this day invoked that in me. I can be sitting at work wondering how I'm going to tackle a boss fight I lost the night before or thinking about a location I visited or an event that took place. Nothing like that with Pikmin 3.

Well, not everyone is going to love it. Sounds like you like it though. Glad you're enjoying it.

 

[Kurtofan]

What happens if you run out of food?

 

[Linkstrikesback]

What happens if you run out of food?

Game over.

 

[Kurtofan]

Game over.

Oh.

 

[seady]

Just played several hours of Bingo Battle with friend, such an awesome experience.

 

[jacksrb]

There are only two tips you really need. The first is to take your time. Go back later if you want to speed run, but there's no need to stress out as long as you take advantage of the second tip: wherever you are, look for a route that will let you go in a big loop. Use the "Go To Location" feature to send Brittany in circles while the rest of the squad explores and figures out what to do. You can ignore Brittany until someone says "Oh no!" or a variant thereof. There will be plenty of time to switch to her and tell her to go around to the other side of the loop. You might want to even keep her at the first loop the entire time; this keeps your main squad out of harm's way, and you won't accidentally lose any Pikmin.

The only difficulty I had was figuring out what exactly I was supposed to be doing in the first area, but on the second day of attempting I realized that it actually tells you what you need to accomplish right at the start when you enter the tree.

Awesome non-spoiler-y tip. Many thanks. Should I go get the fruit from all the other areas first or can I complete the last area and then go back?

 

[Calamari41]

Awesome non-spoiler-y tip. Many thanks. Should I go get the fruit from all the other areas first or can I complete the last area and then go back?

You can finish the last area, watch the ending, and then go back to a previous day and gather up all the fruit from there. I'm pretty sure it will save over everything you did from the day you went back to onwards, though.

 

[zroid]

So some reviews told me that this is just like that new Platinum game. Can't wait to dive into the fruity, fast-paced score attack action.

 

[Vintage_Creep]

They're in mission mode. Paring the selection down to 5 for the main game allowed them to each have more meaningful abilities that are valuable in the world design, and kept the number of colors you could cycle through with the C button to a manageable amount. The white/purple abilities in Mission Mode are excellent for improving your efficiency, but serve little purpose in terms of puzzles or combat. Excellent support units for speeding up your mission completion time, but would've been pretty useless in the main campaign.

I'll try that maybe, since I just finished it. Amazing game, really. Surprise of the year for me since I wasn't expecting much from it.

What happens if you run out of food?

It's game over but it's basically impossible for that to happen, the only strict part is a little bit before the end of the game where

Spoiler

you lose all the juice you collected so far, but you find a decent amount of fruit all in one place and you can easily collect two or three fruits a day, and anyway you retrieve everything after while.

Anyway I'm absolutely in love with this game, today before finishing it I completed it by taking all the fruit. I hope there's gonna be a new DLC map sometime in the future, it deserves it. I don't understand why it required so much time for this game to come out (it's not exactly massive to be honest) but it was worth the wait.

In a few days it's time for the Wonderful 101, I hope the stream of WiiU games will be awesome like this till Christmas.

 

[KennyLinder]

What on earth is going on in the last area? It's ridiculous! I don't get it, what are supposed to do?! Is it possible to do it in a day?

I just... What the fuck!

 

[Dr.Hadji]

Man, Pikmin3's boss design philosophy is SO much better than the first two games. I like fighting fauna that ,even though they're clearly higher up on the food chain, haven't evolved with Pikmin as their primary food source. Pikmin 1, and 2 bosses are like anteaters (way too capable of whipping out your crew) while Pikmin3's bosses are more like small lizards ( they clearly outclass you but fumble around in getting all those small buggers).

 

[Frodo]

So some reviews told me that this is just like that new Platinum game. Can't wait to dive into the fruity, fast-paced score attack action.

You can even earn medals on your missions! Same game, different packing. SAME. GAME.

 

[Timeaisis]

What on earth is going on in the last area? It's ridiculous! I don't get it, what are supposed to do?! Is it possible to do it in a day?

I just... What the fuck!

It's possible, but extremely difficult. I recommend taking your time, granted you have enough juice reserves. Basically, you need to

Spoiler

rescue Olimar by taking him back to your ship.

In order to do this, you have to open up paths so you can circle back to the beginning while

Spoiler

avoiding the gold goop guy.

It's a lot scary if you think you need to hurry. Take your time and complete it.

Spoiler

And yes, you can leave Olimar behind in order to come back to him on a later day. He'll re-appear in the same spot you first found him

 

[KennyLinder]

Ohhhh...

Spoiler

So I can take him as far as I can, but if time is getting tight I can dump him, go back to the ship with my crew and Pikmin and goto the next day? And where will the golden blob be?
Not sure which route to take yet to get him back, can't I just go in a big circle back to the start point where you first see the blob? Or do I need to build the bridge etc?

Not sure which Pikmin is best to take yet either. Any pointers?

Cheers!

 

[Timeaisis]

Ohhhh...

Spoiler

So I can take him as far as I can, but if time is getting tight I can dump him, go back to the ship with my crew and Pikmin and goto the next day? And where will the golden blob be?
Not sure which route to take yet to get him back, can't I just go in a big circle back to the start point where you first see the blob? Or do I need to build the bridge etc?

Not sure which Pikmin is best to take yet either. Any pointers?

Cheers!

For the first couple of days, you should focus on opening up paths.

Spoiler

Olimar

will respawn on that first location where you found him (near the beginning of the level). But if you open up enough paths, it shouldn't be an issue to get him back to where you were.

Spoiler

You'll eventually open shortcuts and stuff, I mean.

. As for Pikmin to take, I don't really remember what I did, but I'm pretty sure I had something close to a 20/20/20/20/20 split. Maybe less blues, as I don't remember using them too much.

 

[Tathanen]

Ohhhh...

Spoiler

So I can take him as far as I can, but if time is getting tight I can dump him, go back to the ship with my crew and Pikmin and goto the next day? And where will the golden blob be?
Not sure which route to take yet to get him back, can't I just go in a big circle back to the start point where you first see the blob? Or do I need to build the bridge etc?

Not sure which Pikmin is best to take yet either. Any pointers?

Cheers!

Spoiler

Probably good to take 20 of each color, you run into a lot of different things (you'll want that mix for the fight at the end, too). Use 10 pinks on Olimar. Just have Brittany run in "go here" circles in the second area while you slowly but surely explore the rest of the map with your other dudes. There's a lot to work your way through, really, more than just the first screen. You can just try to clear it out as much as you can, then when the day's about to end, have Brittany call those 10 pinks back to her, no need to go back to the ship. Rinse, repeat. Eventually you'll have a path to the end cleared, and you can tell Brittany to walk to the end.

 

[KennyLinder]

Thanks guys. So...

Spoiler

It's still the case that as long as the Pikmin are with the crew at the end of the day, they will safely take them back to the ship?

I find it quite tricky to look after characters doing multiple tasks, I didn't really do that too much, despite having all the fruit!

So the area where you build the bridge, you just run Brittany around in there, keep going back to her constantly doing "go here" commands? And in the mean time set the rest of the level up? It's good that the crew don't have to be back by the time the day ends! Keep forgetting that!

I'll try it tomorrow!

 

[Freezie KO]

I can't even imagine how people do that last level in a day...

 

[Vintage_Creep]

Lol basically half of all the Pikmins that died in my run died in that last level.
I just wanted to finish the game so I didn't even care to return to my ship in time for the sunset, I just pushed as far as I can for three/four days and then finished the boss in another one. That last part was genuinely creepy though, I liked it.

 

[:Motorbass]

Ohhhh...

Spoiler

So I can take him as far as I can, but if time is getting tight I can dump him, go back to the ship with my crew and Pikmin and goto the next day? And where will the golden blob be?
Not sure which route to take yet to get him back, can't I just go in a big circle back to the start point where you first see the blob? Or do I need to build the bridge etc?

Not sure which Pikmin is best to take yet either. Any pointers?

Cheers!

Lol basically half of all the Pikmins that died in my run died in that last level.
I just wanted to finish the game so I didn't even care to return to my ship in time for the sunset, I just pushed as far as I can for three/four days and then finished the boss in another one. That last part was genuinely creepy though, I liked it.

Again. You DON'T ever need to go back to your ship at the end of the day in any of the Pikmin games. Pikmin that are with any captain will survive.

 

[Himself]

Finished gathering all the fruit and haven't stepped into the final area yet. Such a great game!

I'm trying to collect all the secret files. It's kinda hard, though. I think I have 6 of the 8 or something. I revisited each area, wandered around, used the overhead camera to scope the whole area...nothing. I know I can just look up the code online, but that defeats the purpose in my opinion. Just how cool is what gets revealed anyway?

 

[Hobbestetrician]

Finished gathering all the fruit and haven't stepped into the final area yet. Such a great game!

I'm trying to collect all the secret files. It's kinda hard, though. I think I have 6 of the 8 or something. I revisited each area, wandered around, used the overhead camera to scope the whole area...nothing. I know I can just look up the code online, but that defeats the purpose in my opinion. Just how cool is what gets revealed anyway?

It's nothing too special but kinda neat.

Spoiler

You will get one of 4 or 5 different video diaries of Olimar saying something

. Hardly mindblowing but a little something if you want to keep searching.

There are

Spoiler

2

secret files in the final area.

 

[Himself]

It's nothing too special but kinda neat.

Spoiler

You will get one of 4 or 5 different video diaries of Olimar saying something

. Hardly mindblowing but a little something if you want to keep searching.

There are

Spoiler

2

secret files in the final area.

Whoa! So then I should be able to do it. Coooooooool.

 

[Haines]

Just played several hours of Bingo Battle with friend, such an awesome experience.

I concur. Played some yesterday and was amazed how at how in depth and well made the MP is in this game. Very solid.

Played some more of the SP tonight (collecting all fruit before finishing the last level) and i just cant get over how great this game looks/feels/etc etc.

The menu screen hypnotizes me every damn time.

 

[bart64]

This is such a weird game for me. It's the first time I've played Pikmin outside of the Nintendo Land game. What I'm finding is I don't normally have a desire to play the game. Where I'm looking forward to playing more of it when I sit down to do something. I have that with Animal Crossing, SMTIV and several others. There is this weird feeling of indifference toward it now that I have it. Even when it arrived in the mail I didn't really open it until 10pm that night. Perhaps that feeling was always there. I guess you could say I wasn't so much as looking forward to the game (even when it was finally announced at E3) because it was called Pikmin 3 but because it was finally a new Nintendo made game for the Wii U and I had already put Game & Wario on the ignore pile.

Perhaps that's the reason. Now when I play the game I really enjoy it. My average session for the game is at least 2 hours. I finally got the blue pikmin and I'm sitting at either 29 or 30 fruit. I think the game looks great and controls well with the Wii remote. However it's not leaving a lasting impression on me to the point where I'm thinking about the game after I'm done. Other games I've really enjoyed even to this day invoked that in me. I can be sitting at work wondering how I'm going to tackle a boss fight I lost the night before or thinking about a location I visited or an event that took place. Nothing like that with Pikmin 3.

I've played all three games but I had a similar feeling about the original. I played through it and thought the concept seemed novel and it created unique and exciting situations, like the awesome bosses, but it felt like something was missing. The genius of that game was that it was judged so that you couldn't "really" beat it on your first attempt and were forced to replay the whole thing to finish. In the replay you see just how much more efficient you can be and all kinds of strategies open up and you uncover this whole new game, like you were playing chess with checker rules before.

If you end up finishing and replaying the game or get into the missions I would be curious to see if something like that clicks for you. It seems the rigidity of the first game's design prevented lots of people from giving it that extra replay and I'm curious if this one is better at keeping the attention of newcomers.

 

[Defect]

I can't even imagine how people do that last level in a day...

Once you beat it once, it's easy to do it in a day.

 

[BorkBork]

The treasure hunt in mission mode is amazingly addictive. From trying to get a medal to wanting a gold medal to wanting a platinum medal to wanting a better score, all the while learning the layout of the map and how best to organize your group.

Incredible.

 

[D-e-f-]

Finished gathering all the fruit and haven't stepped into the final area yet. Such a great game!

I'm trying to collect all the secret files. It's kinda hard, though. I think I have 6 of the 8 or something. I revisited each area, wandered around, used the overhead camera to scope the whole area...nothing. I know I can just look up the code online, but that defeats the purpose in my opinion. Just how cool is what gets revealed anyway?

There's 2 in every area (hence the total being 10). Sadly it doesn't note anywhere which ones you found. There's one in Twilight River that's off your regular path. I had to look that up since I was missing just one and found all the others naturally. Some are also hidden in destructible objects or holes.

 

[Metroid Killer]

Jesus christ at the amount of people not figuring out that you don't need to return to the ship at day's end to save pikmin, even more so with people who played like this in all 3 pikmin games... wtf?

 

[D-e-f-]

To all of you crazy people trying to make people believe that Pikmin 3 is "lacking content" or "short" ...

Just finished the game:

Checked playtime in the Activity Log: 6:27h in July, 18h flat in August. Totals in 24:27h but I would subtract roughly 3 hours for idling in menus and Miiverse which brings it down to about 21h+.

So yea, 20h game (all fruits, all memos) if you don't speedrun it. Of course you can shave a few hours off if you find quicker solutions the first time through but that's true for any game. Haven't even touched Mission Mode or Bingo Battle once. So I think it's time to stop trying to sell this as short or lacking in content.

Final stats:

I think those losses are tolerable.

 

[zroid]

Jesus christ at the amount of people not figuring out that you don't need to return to the ship at day's end to save pikmin, even more so with people who played like this in all 3 pikmin games... wtf?

This image needs to be posted more recklessly

 

[D-e-f-]

This image needs to be posted more recklessly

Note that the color does not represent the ones in the field.

I jumped into the game and took some shots to explain what's going on in the HUD:

This is your safe zone around the onion. All Pikmin in this circle are SAFE. Even if you haven't plucked them (or especially if you haven't plucked them as buried Pikmin are safe ANYWHERE as they cannot be eaten when buried).

This is your End-of-Day-HUD. As Zeer0id mentioned, the indicator in the top right appears during the "Hurry Up!"-part of the day to show you how many Pikmin you will lose if you don't find them. The indicator is always a Red Pikmin, no matter which type is left out in the field. As you can see, there are currently 11 Pikmin Nintendoomed to die.

Now this is your map screen during the End-of-Day phase and it has been updated with an additional HUD-element: the very important "alright WHO is missing?" indicator, telling you exactly how many Pikmin of each type are out in the field unattended.

If you compare the last two shots, you can see that there are currently zero Yellow Pikmin unaccounted for even though Alph is player controlled right now, Brittany is in the safe zone and Charlie is just standing there. But Charlie does have the Yellow Pikmin behind him dancing to his whistle. Thus, they are counted as SAFE, no matter where Charlie is.

Only the singular Rock Pikmin, the three Blue Pikmin, four Winged Pikmin and three Red Pikmin will find themselves in a big ol' Bulborb sandwich bar as "special" dinner guests.

 

[Kurtofan]

Finished the main story

Going to go back to it another time to get all the fruits.