Pikmin/Walkthrough

The game follows Captain Olimar, a family-man spaceman, from the planet Hocotate, who crashes onto an unknown world and meets the Pikmin, a humanoid-vegetable species that can assist Olimar in retrieving all 30 of his ship parts before he succumbs the the poisonous oxygen on the planet.

The beginning

From the manual:

Olimar's Crash

My name is Captain Olimar. On my homeworld of Hocotate, I am a well-known navigator of the stars. I use my faithful ship, the Dolphin, to carry small freight and deep-space minerals from planet to planet. It is a job of no small importance, and I take it seriously. For a long time I had been working too hard, a tendency of mine, so I decided to take some time off by myself to recuperate. The night before I left, my wife prepared my favorite soup. This soup is a famous dish on my planet, made with three large onions and hundreds of miniature red, yellow, and blue carrots. Once I had my fill of this delicious dinner, I climbed into my warm bed and began to think of the leisurely vacation that would start the next morning. I finally fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.

The journey began well. With no set destination in mind, I simply allowed the sleek Dolphin to make its own efficient way through the vast reaches of space. A strange feeling came over me... I then felt a premonition that my short trip would soon be<sic> become an epic adventure. I dismissed the thought as foolishness from my overactive brain, then switched the Dolphin to autopilot and stood up from the central seat to make a hot cup of tea. Just then, a massive jolt shook the Dolphin! For a brief moment, my mind reeled with the possibilities of what might have happened, but I had little time to react. I was thrown against the control panel, and I blacked out.

When I came to, I found that the Dolphin had crashed on a strange planet, in a place whose name and location I could not guess. I thanked the laws of chaos that I was at least, for the time being, safe. After some inspection, I noticed that the Dolphin was so shaken during reentry that several of her pieces had been jarred loose, probably scattered around the planet. To make matters worse, my space suit's sensors indicated that the planet's atmosphere contained oxygen, an element incredibly deadly to my people. Fortunately, the life-support system built into my suit seemed unharmed, but I knew that it had only enough remaining battery power to function for another 30 days. If only I could find the engine, then at least I could fly within this planet's atmosphere to search for the other parts... Will I be able to find the missing parts from my spaceship? Will I be able to return safely to my home and family? I must steel myself against fear and loneliness if I am ever to see them again.

Olimar's Crash

I have decided to record all of my observations and experiences in my journal until I am able to leave this forbidding planet. My only hope lies in the promise of two strange encounters that I had today. The first was the discovery of a large object, similar to the onions on my planet. But it was enormous, and it rested on three legs. The other was the appearance of a small life-form eerily similar in appearance to my planet's miniature carrots. I have decided to name this small life-form... Pikmin...

Overview

As soon as the opening cutscene finishes, where Olimar is sent crashing down onto the planet, gameplay will commence in the first area, which acts as a sort of tutorial area. Whilst this game can be completed in as few as 6 days, it will likely take you much more than that. This guide is written so that a minimum of 9 days can be completed to collect all 30 ship parts, though you shouldn't worry if it takes you multiple days to carry out one section of this guide.