This is a list of easter eggs and other interesting scenarios that can be made to happen, or happen of their own accord, in the Pikmin series of games.
This is a highly useful glitch that allows you to alter the type of Pikmin you have (convert reds to yellows, blues to reds, etc.) without using Candypop Buds. This glitch works in both Challenge mode and story mode. In order to do this glitch, have a Puffstool transform the Pikmin you want to alter into Puffmin, and then use the Puffmin Helper Glitch so that they can follow you. Now, take them back to the onions and go to the color onion you want to alter your Pikmin to. Stand under the light of that onion, and it will allow you to put your Puffmin into it, so do so. The Puffmin will crawl up the leg of the onion, and go inside like any other Pikmin. Call them back out, and they be the color Pikmin of that onion, even if they were not that color before they became Puffmin. This is easy to do.
In the Distant Spring, if a bridge is built over a dead Yellow Wollywog. The Yellow Wollywog will be partly above and, partly under the bridge, and will constantly twich. When you carry the Gluon Drive across the bridge the Yellow Wollywog will fall into the floor and will appear back up a few seconds later.
There is a rare and dangerous glitch that causes Beady Long Legs to leave its arena. This glitch is most likely to happen when you leave the arena without killing it. Pikmin and/or Olimar have to be left at the gate to the small arena. The creature will then try to attack these, possibly leaving the arena. Once outside of the barriers, it will continue to pursue you. If you now run to the island where the Libra is, the enemy may fall into the abyss bellow, causing the game to crash (the game will also crash if you do not kill it after it leaves the arena after a certain amount of time). This glitch can basically happen with any boss that is fought in an arena.
If one wishes to attempt this glitch, the best place to do it without receiving any consequences is the Final Trial in Challenge Mode. Go to the arena in the back of the level and try this glitch on the Beady Long Legs in the arena.
Sometimes, if a Yellow Pikmin is thrown at a bomb-rock, the Pikmin will get stuck while trying to pick up the bomb-rock, and will repeat the picking up bomb-rock animation over and over until the Pikmin is whistled back.
Another glitch can happen with some bomb-rocks in the Forest Navel. Go to the pipe with bomb-rocks in it by the place where the Gravity Jumper is found. If you see a bomb-rock that is lying apart from the others, have Olimar lay down by it. The Sliding Olimar glitch might occur, and Olimar will slide towards the water, pushing the bomb-rock in front of him. If the bomb-rock is pushed into the water, it will shrink and disappear.
The invisible bomb rock glitch (sometimes) happens when a Yellow picks up a bomb rock, but somehow the rock is not there! Zooming in on it shows the Pikmin with its head tilted slightly backwards and arms extended in front of it, just like a Pikmin that is carrying a bomb rock, but there is not one there. When dismissed the pikmin with the invisible bomb rock will form a bomb rock group or join the others with bomb rocks. When thrown at a wall (other things like enemies are not confirmed yet) the Pikmin will drop its bomb rock (which loses life and explodes while it is still invisible) and return to Olimar. Rarity of this glitch is not confirmed yet, it did not happen on the NPC version.
If you command your Pikmin to swarm a large enemy and it dies, sometimes a few Pikmin will be "crushed" by the creature's falling body, and will die without a spirit rising into the air or a sound. This glitch happens the most with Spotty Bulbears, Bulborbs, Puffstools, Wollywogs, and Yellow Wollywogs. it might also happen when walking under a bridge. It happens in both Pikmin and Pikmin 2.
This is very similar to the way you can strategically kill enemies in Pikmin 2, but is slightly entertaining to some, and there is only one species of enemy this is possible to do with: Shearwigs. Find some Shearwigs in The Forest Navel region, likely near the area where the Automatic Gear is. Lure some or all of them to the area along the edge of the world where you find the Libra and the Analog Computer near the area with fiery geysers. You can lure them into the small lake and they'll lose health, or you can punch them. When they have lost enough health, they begin to fly. Wait for a few seconds while they recover in the air, and if they do, they may fall into to the abyssal depths of the hole. They won't come back out, but they'll still respawn in their original habitat in a few days.
If an Olimar manages to make a Yellow Wollywog land right on top of a creature, it might fall through the ground and disappear. It is unknown whether this glitch works with Wollywogs as well, or if Yellow Wollywogs can make creatures other than Dwarf Red Bulborbs can be killed in this fashion.
Sometimes, for no real reason, if Olimar whistles some Pikmin, they will become active and then immediately turn idle again. If Olimar calls them again they will come to his side like normal.
(This is not a glitch, but more of an unannounced feature. In an interview about Pikmin, Shigeru Miyamoto said that he wanted to implement a small chance where the Pikmin would not listen, to make them seem like they had more free will.)
In order for this glitch to work, you need to go to the Distant Spring in Challenge Mode. Go to the Pearly Clamclamp by the area where the Chronos Reactor is found. Rotate the camera so you can only see Olimar's red shadow and lay down. The Yellow Wollywog should try to jump on you. Olimar cannot be hurt when he is lying down. Right after the Yellow Wollywog lands, Olimar's shadow will jump towards the Pearly Clamclamp for a moment. When this happens, move Olimar towards the direction that the shadow moves, and Olimar will be inside of the Pearly Clamclamp. You can attack the Pearly Clamclamp from inside, and if the Yellow Wollywog is inside the Pearly Clamclamp when it snaps shut, the Wollywog will either glitch out of the Pearly Clamclamp or fall through the ground and disappear. This strategy can also be used to go out-of-bounds.
If Goolix is near the right of the tree-stump arena and the yellow, brain-like nucleus is hit by a Blue Pikmin, that Pikmin, or the other Blues that are attacking the smaller, blue nucleus may be knocked into the out-of-bounds, forest like terrain. Many things can happen when this occurs, either the Pikmin will slide around (throwing Pikmin onto this ledge reveals that it's slippery, as the Pikmin will slide off) and then fall off the ledge and into the area with the Pearly Clamclamps or where the Main Engine was, or they will slide too far for Olimar to call back (some will even continue sliding until they are off-screen and then will die). These Pikmin will be left behind unless you reset the day.
Very rarely, if Pikmin are directed to carry an object and quickly called back after they have carried the object a few steps, you can hear the sound of Pikmin carrying the object, although there are no Pikmin working and the object does not move. This glitch will stop when Pikmin start to carry the object again.
If a bridge is being built and Olimar lies down where the end of the bridge would be when the bridge is completed, sometimes Olimar will get pushed down into the ground and will appear to be falling. After he travels through some black and blue expanses, he will drop from the sky on to the area that he was before. This glitch has no affect on the game.
Another glitch can happen with the Pellet Posies by the Nova Blaster. For this to happen, one of the Pellet Posies must be killed. The pellet will disappear for a few seconds, and then will glitch on to the small ledge above the place where the Pellet Posy used to be.
If a lot of Pikmin are lost at the same time, the Pikmin Counter might say that you have more Pikmin than the number of Pikmin in the field (for example, 80 Pikmin out of 73 Pikmin in the field). This glitch happens often when battling the Smoky Progg or the Pearly Clamclamp.
If you direct some Pikmin behind an empty can in the Forest of Hope, you will be able to see the Pikmin through the back of the can trying to get back to Olimar. However, the Pikmin will not be able to go through the can.
If two or three Bomb-Rocks go off at once, the area that the explosion covers will be larger and the explosion noise will be louder. If a really large amount of bomb-rocks (about eight to ten) go off all at once, one of two things will happen. Either an extremely loud exploding noise will occur for about a split second and the explosion distance will be bigger than ever, or the explosion will be silent.
Rarely, when you throw a Pikmin, it will fly through the air for an abnormally long time, and go a lot farther than it should have. Other times, a Pikmin will do the exact opposite and land closer to Olimar than normal.
If the Puffy Blowhog in the Distant Spring near the landing site is weighed down with Pikmin over the skull with bomb-rocks, it will get stuck on top of the ledge and repeat its sinking animation until it is killed.
Sometimes, when your Pikmin are carrying a large pellet down a ledge, the pellet's sides will point up and the Pikmin carrying it will appear to be standing in mid-air while holding it. This glitch seems to look like the Pikmin are actually 'rolling' the pellet. They'll bring it back to the Onion normally. If you call back the Pikmin and then throw them back on to it, most will hold on to the edges by the ground, while some will jump up and down in an attempt to reach the side in the air. If you leave the pellet for a while, it will slowly slide into the position it normally is in. This happens with some parts such as the Libra, Whimsical Radar, and the Automatic Gear.
This glitch usually only works in the Distant Spring. What happens is: if you are fighting a Yellow Wollywog in the water, a Pikmin will sometimes fall through the ground and kill themselves. Fortunately, It is very rare.
Going to the next sublevel while Pikmin are afflicted with hazards + False Pikmin deaths.Edit
In some caves if there are Fire, Water, or Poison hazards/attacks present and you let your Pikmin get afflicted with said hazard they will start to panic and run around the area. After awhile they will make a noise which means that it's too late to save them and they will disppear after a few seconds, but if you enter the next sublevel before the Pikmin disappear the Pikmin that were supposed to be killed will be in the cutscene with said hazards on their head. Once you arrive to the next sublevel you may find your Pikmin still with you unless you were too late entering the next sublevel.
While this may seem like a harmless glitch as none of your Pikmin were actually killed, the game still thinks that the Pikmin did get killed and if you repeat this on more sublevels... if possible, the death counter can become very high, such as having 200+ deaths once you leave the cave. An example of this is if you bring 100 Pikmin with you and 80 of them got burned/poisoned and you did the glitch, then on the next sublevel you got 60 Pikmin burned/poisoned and did the glitch again. You will still have 100 Pikmin if you weren't too late but when you leave the cave the game will say that you lost 140 Pikmin even though none of them were actually killed as you still have 100 with you.
This glitch works best in the Perplexing Pool, where it can be used to access treasures without breaking down certain barriers. If a Pikmin is carrying one of the captains via the Napsack, objects, or small ledges in the way of his route to the Onion, can cause him to hop slightly. When a Pikmin carries the captain in a certain spot right next to the Glutton's Kitchen, the Pikmin will hop up and over the small ledge that juts out of the stump. If the captain regains mobility at the right time, he can get on top of that ledge and access the Glutton's Kitchen, Submerged Castle, and Massage Girdle without breaking down any barriers with Pikmin. Another application of this glitch allows the player to access the Yellow Onion without breaking down the poison wall. There is also a shortcut in the Valley of Repose utilizing this glitch that lets the player get to the Subterranean Complex without breaking down the poison wall, and two in the Awakening Wood that let the player bypass a barrier and a bridge.
Dead Pikmin?
In all the metallic caves like Subterranean Complex, it is possible for your Pikmin to fall off the stage. Sometimes when in, the Pikmin don't die and other times they can. It's just best to avoid the dead zone spots.
Whenever a spray pops out of an egg or a frozen enemy this is a glitch to get two sprays instead of just one. Simply have the second captain run into the spray and switch to the other captain.* The first captain will use his momentum to run into the spray and drink it. Before it runs out, use the other captain to drink it as well.
Alternatively, put one captain near the spray, then switch to the other captain and push the first one into the spray, then quickly drink it with the one you are controlling. However, sometimes the captain you're pushing will jump up in the air and you will run under him and collect the spray prematurely. ...Watch out for this.
You can also whistle them into the spray. Have one captain disbanded, go on the opposite side and whistle to them. The first captain will run towards you. When the captain tries to run through the spray, disband him and touch the spray before it disappears. Very reliable.
Whenever a treasure is evaluated sometimes a miniature of the treasure can be seen in the top right in the background. Though this glitch will not always occur it can be a little interesting.
Sometimes on the second Sublevel in Submerged Castle, when you retrieve the Confection Hoop from the weird area near the pipes where you have to throw Pikmin to it from a sledge (a slanted edge). When the Pikmin take the hoop from the little area (Olimar and Louie can't get in), they could get stuck in the elevated entrance to the hoop, and will vibrate and shake. This will not normally affect the game as the Pikmin will get the treasure out. However, they could really get stuck, and you'll have to reset because the Pikmin won't be able to get the hoop and/or themselves out.
Go into 2-player mode. Have a Pikmin grab a cherry near a dead enemy's carcass. The Pikmin will grab the cherry and start to take it right through the carcass. The Pikmin will get stuck in front of the carcass, walking endlessly until the cherry enters the Onion. Meanwhile, the Cherry will continue to move without any Pikmin carrying it.
This can be performed in any cave in the game, except two-player caves. It's simply done by pressing X and A together at the right time. Keep in mind that you need to press X instantly before A, next to any random cave you please. The cave chart will say you have all of your Pikmin, but make sure your Pikmin are idle. Press yes and Olimar, Louie, or the President will go in the cave with no Pikmin. During the landing scene, they will fall on the ground and have a ring of smoke around them. After that, the game will announce a Pikmin extinction. In the treasure chart it will say no Pikmin had died, and saving won't harm the player in any way. (P.S)He will come back to the surface and will find all Pikmin in his onions/ship. This doesn't work on New Play Control! for Pikmin 2. It'll give you the message that it's too dangerous to enter caves without Pikmin.
If one of your captains die in any sublevel in a cave, then his body is invisible but he is still there. Wollywogs are most preferable for this. The active captain must attack it where the invisible captain is. When it leaps in the air after being hit enough times, the invisible captain will be hit showing his body suit being damaged. Of course, try to yield after attacking and do not save after you've done that sublevel.
If one of your captains is knocked over by an enemy just as you are going in a hole, he will jump while lying down. This will not work if he lies down by himself.
If you are in a sublevel that looks like an outside area (such as the second sublevel of the Snagret Hole or the Brawl Yard), have an enemy push you close to the boundary. If done right, you will be flung to the outside of the walls and can explore the outside. If you go far enough away from the main part of the level, you will hit a massive wall with blurry images of trees and foliage painted on it, or in other cases an invisible barrier.
Scale glitch
It is possible to get inside the scale platforms found in the Awakening Wood and the Perplexing Pool, and use this advantage to warp to certain areas. To get inside one of the scale platforms, the captain must be on a moving scale during a cutscene. This causes the scale to move during the cutscene, and the captain will get inside it. Most often this is done by having a captain throw a Pikmin on the scale right as a treasure rolls into the ship. This glitch can be used in the Awakening Wood to access blue Pikmin on Day 3, and to get to the Bulblax Kingdom without yellows. It can also be used in the Perplexing Pool to access both the Onion Replica treasure and the Shower Room cave.
Make Captains fall into the abyss
In caves like the Snagret Hole, there are solid walls. Behind these walls you see nothing but black. If a Bumbling Snitchbug grabs one of the captains, there is a chance that they will drop them into the void the walls are blocking out. If you fall in, you will magically reappear at the Research Pod.
Also, if you use the Napsack ability to make a captain fall asleep, a Dweevil (excluding titan and Volatile Dweevils) may pick you up as an item. If this happens, there is a chance it could walk off an edge and take you with it. For more info, go here: Frozen Captain glitch.
In the Area Selection screen, press the L or R buttons and view the Piklopedia. Go to the archive of the Waterwraith, if you have it unlocked. Right when you open it, immediately press or repeatedly press the "Z" button to petrify it. The rollers will become petrified, and then the Waterwraith's body. The rollers will break free first. When they do, immediately re-petrify them. The Waterwraith will then break free, and appear to have a very difficult time trying to lift its petrified boulders. This can easily be repeated indefinitely as long as you keep the rollers and the Waterwraith petrified at the right times.
If you're on the fifth sublevel and you've destroyed the Waterwraith's rollers, if you repeatedly switch between captains when they are far enough away from each other, the Waterwraith will freeze, but still be moving.
In 2-Player Mode, if the Onion is on a ledge and if a Swooping Snitchbug throws a Pikmin at the very edge of the ledge, the Pikmin seed underground will be visible (it looks like it does when it pops out, only with a longer stem). If you try to pull it out, the bottom will "magically" form a Pikmin body, and the Pikmin will fall off of the ledge.
Sometimes when a bridge is being constructed if you throw any Pikmin onto the bridge front the front where the bridge is extending to the Pikmin will fall right through the bridge and will be instantly killed.
Easter Eggs are specially hidden secrets that have been put on purpose. Normally, these do not affect gameplay and are just for entertainment. This section will also include smaller secrets that do not qualify as Easter Eggs.
A commonly recognized bonus. Simply hold down on the D-pad (or 2 if you have New Play Control! for Pikmin). The Pikmin will pick you up, and take you to one of the Onions. When you are put in, you will hit the bottom of the Onion, and a light will appear from the large flower on the ship. It will rise into the air, and explode into a burst of light, similar to fireworks. Nothing else happens. This was removed in Pikmin 2, but you can still allow Pikmin to carry you.
Every time the game is turned on, the word "Nintendo" will appear on a completely black screen, and a Pikmin will be heard saying "Pikmin!". However, the Pikmin can make different sounds, like "Whoo!" or a sigh. The cause for this is unknown, but it seems to happen randomly, despite being rumored that it changes according to the buttons pressed.
Once you uncover all five colors of Pikmin, take out twenty of each color (you may walk around, just don't make the Pikmin idle/work). The Pikmin will sing (or hum) the theme song that was used in the Japanese commercials for the first game, Pikmin, Ai No Uta. This song became very popular in Japan, and was released as a single. It even outsold the game for a while. You can also listen to the song in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
A fairly obvious Easter Egg. At the Title Screen, the following can be done:
Press the L button to make the Pikmin forming the title disperse and reform the letters "PIKMIN 2". This is possible even if "PIKMIN 2" is already spelled out.
Press the R button to make the Pikmin forming the title disperse and reform to spell out "Nintendo". This is possible even if it already says "Nintendo". Note that there are no White Pikmin or Purple Pikmin in this formation (identifiable by their pink flowers).
Press and hold the Y button to make an Iridescent Flint Beetle appear on the screen. The Pikmin will chase after it, but nothing happens to it. If you press R or L, it will leave with the Pikmin. If you tilt the C-stick in any direction, you can control it. Tilt left and right (not clockwise and counterclockwise) to turn, and push forward to move straight. (Backwards movement is impossible.) You can only go as far as the border of the screen.
Press the X button, and a Red Bulborb will appear on the screen. It will make the Pikmin on the screen run around in a panic. The Bulborb will attempt to make two bites and then go away, whether or not it misses with its attacks. You can control it if you tilt the C-stick. Control it the same way as you would the Iridescent Flint Beetle. Press the Z button to make it eat the Pikmin: you can bite as many times as you want when controlling it. Note that any Pikmin eaten will not reappear until the Title Screen is refreshed.
Enter a cave you have not completed yet. Then, collect all the treasure to complete it. Next, wait on the treasure salvaged screen for exactly three minutes, fifty seconds, and you will hear Totaka's song. This song has been hidden in many Nintendo games ever since it was found in the SNES game, Mario Paint.
When on the area select screen, if the player switches area with a certain timing, the ship will go in circles or make crazy paths in order to catch up to the cursor. Additionally, if the player enters an area accidentally, even after the confirmation, (s)he can still press B to cancel.
In some caves, there may be a level with a metallic layout. When fighting enemies you can lure them to fall into the void around the sublevel. This also works with Shearwigs in 2-Player Mode. It can be useful for getting rid of some enemies. This trick can work with Swooping Snitchbugs, Careening Dirigibugs, Withering Blowhogs, Red Bulborbs, Munge Dweevils, Gatling Groinks, Fiery Dweevils, Spotty Bulbears, Fiery Bulblaxes, and Shearwigs. It can also be achieved by throwing a Purple Pikmin onto an airborne enemy that is floating above the void, both of which will fall does if correctly timed. This works in the second, sixth, and seventh sublevel in the Subterranean Complex and the third and fifth sublevels in the Dream Den. For Shearwigs, you'll need to dig up a marble in 2-Player Mode in Hostile Territory or the Rusty Gulch. If an enemy containing a treasure happens to fall down into an abyss, the treasure will magically reappear in midair a few seconds later. This is obviously to allow the treasure to be collected regardless (as opposed to the Libra glitch in Pikmin). Also,if a Dweevil falls while it is holding a treasure, the Dweevil will die and the treasure will reappear in its usual spot.
On the Area Select screen, moving the ship back and forth between two adjacent areas (e.g. Wistful Wild and Awakening Wood; Perplexing Pool and the Valley of Repose) will cause the ship to go off-screen. Switching between the Awakening Woods and the Valley of Repose will often make it go off the bottom, then shoot back up to the top. In 2-player battle mode during selecting the level, you can press B as the red and blue onions are flying into the level before they get into the level thumbnail and cancel your selection.
Start up the Piklopedia. Then go to the Volatile Dweevil archive. First petrify it, then wait. Right before the second you think it will break free, petrify it as quick as you can. If you do it correctly, which can be pretty hard, only the Bomb Rock on the Dweevil's back should be turned into stone. You can throw Pikpik Carrots at it, and if they hit it, it will wake up, but the bomb rock won't activate. Before the rock breaks free, petrify the Dweevil, and only the body will be petrified, but the bomb rock will activate. The bomb rock may even explode and kill the petrified Dweevil.
Activate the Piklopedia. Select the archive for the Decorated Cannon Beetle. Throw Pikpik Carrots at the Beetle, making sure that they land in front and to the side of it. The Beetle will then spit out a rock, which will roll around to hit the Beetle if you have done it correctly. When the rock crashes on the Beetle, the Beetle doesn't die, no matter how many times you do this.
Once you have seen at least one Red Bulborb, Orange Bulborb, and Unmarked Spectralids, you can see this interesting sight. Once you open up the Piklopedia, go to either the red or orange Bulborb log. You should see the Spectralids hovering around the Bulborb's bodies. Sometimes they may (surprisingly) shove the Bulborbs around, and even bump them a good distance away without waking them.
Begin by ending a day in either Wistful Wild or Valley of Repose. If a Gatling Groink appears it will fire mortars at your ship. If there is an enemy near your ship when it lifts off, the mortars may kill the enemy. An Armored Cannon Beetle Larva or Decorated Cannon Beetle may harm the enemies surrounding the landing site with a boulder. Also, if you end a day in either Awakening Wood or Wistful Wild and a Dwarf Red Bulborb and a Yellow Wollywog appear, it is possible that, if the Bulborb and the Wollywog are attacking Hocotate Ship at the same time, as the Bulborb runs into the ship, the Wollywog might crush it as it (the Wollywog) lands from jumping. It is, of course, not possible to retrieve the carcasses of enemies that die at this time. This can also be done with White Pikmin: take out as many White Pikmin as available and end the day; all creatures that eat will most likely be killed, as not many can withstand so much poison. However, it is not recommended to save that day.
As a side note, because the enemies use their actual AI, it is possible for Pikmin that have been left behind to avoid being detected by them altogether, and thus never being attacked as the ship blasts off. The Pikmin can be seen trying to escape from the landing spot for that area; however, an invisible wall seems to keep it from leaving. The Pikmin is, of course, gone when you return on the next day.
In several Pikmin 3 videos, especially during fights with the Armored Mawdad, Rock Pikmin have been seen jumping incredibly high into the air. This is because Rock Pikmin cannot latch onto their targets, and instead will charge into them repeatedly. However, due to the individual collision fields of the Armored Mawdad's carapace segments, combined with the fact that Rock Pikmin are so tiny, the Rock Pikmin will dramatically launch themselves high into the air, even disappearing off the top of the screen shortly, and then fall down onto the Mawdad to damage it.
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