Pikmin 3 Deluxe

Pikmin 3 Deluxe
North American game cover.
Japanese name	ピクミン３ デラックス?
Rating
Console	Nintendo Switch
Developer	Nintendo EAD
Publisher	Nintendo
Genre	Real-time strategy
Players	1 or 2 players (Story Mode and Mission Mode) 2 players (Bingo Battle)
Release date
Japan	October 30th, 2020
North America	October 30th, 2020
Europe	October 30th, 2020
Australia	October 30th, 2020
South Korea	October 30th, 2020
Related games
Predecessor	Pikmin 2
Re-release of	Pikmin 3

This article or section is about an upcoming or recently released game. The content here is subject to change as more information is discovered. All information added here must be verifiable and not speculative.

Pikmin 3 Deluxe is the title of the newest entry in the Pikmin series. It is an enhanced port of Pikmin 3, set to release for the Nintendo Switch on October 30^th, 2020.

Changes from Pikmin 3

The following differences between Pikmin 3 and the Deluxe version are known:

Gameplay

2-player gameplay in Story Mode.

Lock-on

The lock-on system has been substantially changed.

• Arrow icons appear above objects that can be locked-on to, and the cursor can lock to them by pressing . If the player does not lock-on after a while, a prompt will appear above said icon, indicating what button they can press to lock-on.
• When locked-on, the arrow icon moves to a different item that can be locked-on, if there are any. Pressing the lock-on button again will instead lock on that one, and this repeats until there are no new objects to lock-on to in the scene. The lock-on process can be cancelled with .
• When locked-on to an object that can be carried, the carrying number displays as "0" if there are no carriers.
• The player can lock-on to more things than before, like the point at which Brittany must be thrown in the two-leader tutorial.
• Holding down the throw button while locked-on will make the leader keep the Pikmin held for a moment, before throwing Pikmin automatically, one by one.

Charge

Charging has been changed.

• Charging can be used at any moment by pressing . Holding will make the charge arrow appear and will get the leader to pose, whereas releasing the button actually commands the move.
• Charging Pikmin go in the direction of the cursor and work on whatever is nearby, or if the player is locked-on, they go to work on that object. If there is nothing work on, they pile on that spot for a second and then return to the group.
• When a charge is ordered, all Pikmin of the currently selected type go there, while the others remain. To get the others to go too, the charge button must be pressed again.
• Provided there are enough Pikmin, when charging towards an object to be carried, only the minimum necessary amount will grab on, and the rest will return to the group. By ordering again, they will fill up all carrying slots, and the rest will return to the group again.
• If the player has a leader selected, charging won't have an effect, and will play a clown horn sound effect to indicate this. The same happens if there are no Pikmin to charge with.

Radar

Some aspects about the radar have changed.

• The radar can be zoomed in and out, and at the top, the current Story Mode objective will be shown.
• The entire area is visible, though transparent; visited portions become normal.
• There is no way to view the area from a top-down view, since that was limited to the television screen with Off-TV Play off.
• There is no way to unpause the gameplay while keeping the radar in-view.

KopPad camera

The KopPad's camera app has changed.

• It now has different focus levels, instead of allowing the player to tap the GamePad to indicate what part they want in focus. An "auto focus" mode also exists, that simply focuses on whatever is at the center of the scene. The name of the current mode will also appear on the center-point reticle, and opening the app or switching modes will show a quick description of the mode.
• Taking a photo will also take a Switch system capture, without the camera HUD.
• It is now impossible to make the camera rotate via roll, and rotation via horizontal panning is limited.
• Selecting the camera app in the KopPad will show the player a screen prompting them to press in order to enter the camera mode, instead of entering the mode outright. Quitting out of the mode will return the player to that same prompt.
• Oddly, the decorative meters do not move, except if the player moves the Pro Controller, or moves the left Joy-Con, regardless of gyro control settings. To note is that the right Joy-Con is the one responsible for controlling the cursor when gyro controls are enabled.

Other

• Pikmin control tweaks:
  • The player can change the standby Pikmin type both to the previous one and to the next one. The HUD is also changed to reflect this: the three Pikmin standby type bubbles now have a focus on the central one as opposed to the leftmost one.
  • When the player changes to a leader, all nearby idle Pikmin within a radius will be called over.
  • The whistle expands quicker, can reach farther, and can cover a much larger area.
  • If Pikmin that are performing a task get whistled, they will stop in place momentarily, and if they are carrying something solo, will turn to the leader that whistled. After some seconds, they will resume their task. In order to get them to stop and join the group, they must be whistled for a long period of time, or they must be whistled again after the initial one freezes them.
• Some controls have been moved into a mini menu, accessible by holding . There are always four options present, and players pick one by tilting to the corresponding direction. This menu is how the player can swap to a different leader, use a spray, dismiss, use a Bingo Battle roulette wheel power, or group up when playing in co-op mode. It appears that the leaders available in this menu are sorted by priority left to right – Alph will always take the left spot, Captain Charlie will always take the right one, and Brittany will always be in the remaining spot. This menu is the only way to dismiss, and it dismisses all Pikmin types but the current one. When there is only one type of Pikmin, the option dismisses that type too.
• Enemies have been re-balanced.
• The title screen shows the logo for Pikmin 3 Deluxe rather than Pikmin 3, naturally, but to open the main menu, the player must press two shoulder buttons on the controller together instead of pressing a face button.
  • It also contains a new button, for the Side Stories, as well as a box of text explaining the currently highlighted mode.
• Different cursor control modes:
  • With stick-only controls, moving lightly controls the cursor, and moving fully controls both the leader and cursor. By tilting the stick lightly, the cursor can go past its standard range; when it does, it turns cyan. Pikmin can be thrown farther than normal this way, but only roughly until the midway point between the maximum standard range and the maximum "light tilt" range. The whistle always comes from where the cursor is. Moving the stick fully if the cursor was past the standard range will return it to standard range. In this mode, rotating the camera will keep the cursor in place.
  • With stick and gyro controls, controls the leader when fully held, but also controls the cursor regardless of how much it is tilted. Tilting the controller will also move the cursor. In reality, there is an imaginary "anchor" that is controlled by , and tilting the controller allows the cursor to offset around this point, up to a fixed radius around the point. For unknown reasons, the cursor may behave erratically – if the gyro offset is at a given angle, and the anchor moves to that same side compared to the leader, the offset will cursor will very quickly jump to the leader. and both reset the cursor's position and gyro offset. With this mode, locking-on will place the cursor on the target, but it can then be offset by tilting the controller. In this mode, rotating the camera will keep the cursor in place, but any gyro offset will change to match the camera's orientation, albeit with erratic results as the camera rotates.
  • With gyro-only controls, only controls the leader, and only when fully held. Instead, tilting the controller moves the cursor around the screen. It can move to any position on-screen, and cannot go past it. Pressing in this mode changes it to centering the cursor instead of changing the standby Pikmin to the next one reverting pressing to make it change to the next standby Pikmin. In this mode, rotating the camera will keep the cursor in the same screen location.
• Minor details:
  • When a leader collects a data file, they almost never jump and spin in place before reading the data file.
  • When an inactive leader plucks Pikmin by their own accord, they will now do so at the same speed as active leaders, instead of using the long animation for every single pluck.
  • In Bingo Battle, either player can open up the radar on their side of the screen; doing this does not pause the game. This radar cannot be controlled, and shows the whole scene at once.
  • Pressing in the Onion menu will highlight the next Pikmin type, or the OK button, instead of confirming the changes outright. Pressing will go to the previous type, instead of cancelling right away.
  • It is now impossible to control menus with a gyro-controlled cursor pointer. There are also no touchscreen controls.
  • Trying to end a day from the pause menu when there are Pikmin in danger of being left behind will now state in the warning how many Pikmin will perish.

New content

Co-op Story Mode

Players can play through story mode cooperatively.

• The screen is split vertically, with the first player on the left, and the second on the right. If one of the players activates a cutscene, that player's view will fill up the screen. The split returns to normal when the cutscene is over.
• If the two players are close, one can use the menu to get the other player's leader into their group, which will make the trailing leader forced to remain within a certain distance of the main one, although they can still be controlled and play freely. During this state, the leading player's view takes up the whole screen. Throwing the trailing leader or dismissing will return to normal co-op mode. This feature does not exist in Mission Mode.
• When there is only one leader available due to story reasons, the second player will control a copy of that same leader. On each player's screen, the other leader will appear as a solid-color transparent version of the character. In this way, it is impossible for one leader to group with or throw the other. Both players' captains are also immune to damage in this state, to avoid complications with one of them falling. Player 1 can continue to take damage if the game is set back to being played solo.
• If one captain remains by the others falling, the player controlling the remaining captain will be in charge of the rest of the day and the split-screen is removed.
• Either player can open the radar, the hints screen, or the Onion menu, which will pause gameplay for both, and take up the whole screen. Only that player can control the menu. Some menus will have the widget highlighters colored after the player's leader. If the leaders are grouped together, then the secondary leader cannot open the Onion menu.

Side Stories

There are new Side Stories to play through.

• The first side story is set before the main story and is called "Olimar's Assignment", while the second is set after the main story. They star Captain Olimar and Louie, who are both playable in Olimar's Assignment. Like the main story, these can be played in single-player or cooperatively with two players.
• Olimar's Assignment consists of small missions, each one taking place in a day. Much like Mission Mode, some involve getting the highest number of Pokos in the area, and the high score is recorded, rank medal included. When a day is started, a Secret File video plays.
• The mini radar is not available during these side modes.
• Both the Onion and the SPERO are present; the Onion allows the player to grow more Pikmin, while the SPERO takes in recovered fruit and treasures.

Piklopedia

The Piklopedia originating from Pikmin 2 has been added. It can be found in the KopPad menu.

• Each entry contains a comment by each of the five leaders, a small looping video clip of the creature, a general list of habitats, and the amount killed throughout the adventure.
• A menu contains all viewable entries for the player to choose from, and also indicates how many creatures have been analyzed, as well as the total. However, this total can appear as a question mark.
• Some examples:
  • Alph's comment for the Dwarf Bulborb reads: “Structural flaw: back / Weight: 3 / Despite its compact form, it has a Brittany-sized appetite. You can avoid getting swarmed by drawing them out one by one to be dealt with.”
  • Brittany's comment for the Dwarf Bulborb reads: “It's big enough to ride, if only we could tame one. Imagine exploring an alien world from atop its native fauna! Sure beats having to walk everywhere.”

New music

There is new music:

• A theme for after hours in Mission Mode.
• A theme for the Side Stories selection screen.
• A theme for the video logs in Olimar's Assignment.
• A theme for Garden of Hope and Tropical Wilds in Olimar's Assignment.
• A theme for Twilight River and Distant Tundra in Olimar's Assignment.
• A cue for miniboss battles in Olimar's Assignment.

Other

• There are multiple difficulty modes to choose from.
  • Normal difficulty is the easiest available. Days last 18 minutes in this difficulty – the mid-day chime plays after 9:00 minutes. 15:50 minutes after the day starts, the sunset warning begins. 17:27 minutes after the day start, the sunset countdown begins. Enemy health is the same as in the Wii U original.
  • Hard difficulty is the intermediate one. Days last 13 minutes in this difficulty – the mid-day chime plays after 6:30 minutes. 10:50 minutes after the day starts, the sunset warning begins. 12:27 minutes after the day start, the sunset countdown begins. Enemies have twice as much as health as in the Wii U original.
  • Ultra-spicy spray is the hardest difficulty. It can only be obtained by completing the demo or by completing Story Mode on hard, and limits the number of Pikmin on the field to 60 at one time.
• All the downloadable content from Pikmin 3 is included in the base game.
• Players can collect badges by meeting certain conditions.
• Several help and assistance features exist.
  • From the pause menu, players can access basic info, an extensive manual on the way the game works, and control guide, a series of diagrams showing the control schemes.
• Hints can be enabled.
  • When the hint button is pressed, a screenshot and some text will explain to the player what to do at the current point of the story. There can be multiple pages of hints, which can be cycled through. After the hints are closed, arrows will appear on the ground to guide the player to the next destination.
  • The Bingo Battle battle preparation menu and Mission Mode mission preparation menu have a button that reads "Pikmin Types". It simply opens the basic information section on Pikmin types.
• Story Mode has three saved game slots to choose from.
• There is a mini-map on-screen.
  • The style of the mini-map differs from the Wii U game's radar, in that it uses solid colors instead of textures -- terrain is dark blue, water is a lighter blue, out of bounds locations are black, and walls are cyan. Leaders and the S.S. Drake also have stylized icons with minimalist drawings, instead of smaller versions of their portraits.
• The pause menu contains the following new buttons: "Play Co-op" (or "Play Solo"), "Hints", "Basic Info", Control Guide", "Other Settings", and "Badges".
  • The "Other Settings" menu contains three tabs: "Radar", "Gyro", and "More".
    • The "Radar" tab contains an option to toggle the mini radar display between "On" and "Off", an option to toggle its orientation between "Travel Direction" and "Fix North", and an option to toggle the main radar's orientation between "Travel Direction" and "Fix North".
    • The "Gyro" tab contains an option to toggle gyro controls between "Off" and "On". When set to off, the other three options become unavailable. The other options include a toggle of the cursor control between "Stick" and "Pointer", a toggle for the up and down orientation between "Normal" and "Reverse", and a toggle for the left and right orientation, also between "Normal" and "Reverse". If the cursor is set to "Pointer", the other three options become unavailable.
    • The "More" tab contains an option to toggle the horizontal manual camera movement between "Normal" and "Reverse", and an option to toggle the hint display "On" and "Off".
• The S.S. Drake can be interacted with to command all Pikmin in the field to travel back to the Onion. This feature becomes available when the first sunset of Story Mode happens.

Aesthetics

A new HUD and stripes on the dirt wall.

• The introduction cutscene displays Pikmin 3 Deluxe instead of Pikmin 3.
• The day counter is gone from the HUD, and the juice counter takes its place.
• Two on-screen prompts exist, informing the player that toggles the KopPad, and, if hints are enabled, "up" on activates hints. If a new hint is available, the button will sparkle and glow, and receive a pulsating exclamation mark icon.
• Lighting and shading have been changed, with sharper shadows and clearer water.
• Locking onto an object adds a blue overlay, similar to prerelease versions of Pikmin 3.
• Highlighting a level in Mission Mode's mission selection screen displays its name and time limit at the bottom of the screen.
• The borders of Mission Mode levels are gray before they're played, and all stages are available from the start.
• The Puffy Blowhog's wind particles are much more dense.
• Different gates in an area have different appearances, so players can distinguish between them.
  • Dirt walls have different variants of stripes on their pillars, including horizontal, vertical, wave-shaped, X-shaped, spotted, diagonal, and none at all.
  • Crystal walls have different variants of metal, including normal, rusted, and silver.
  • Electric gates have different variants of stripes on their pillars, including no stripes, two stripes, and stripes on top.
• When there are two players playing, the HUD icon for player one's leader will have the text "P1" near it, and the icon for player 2's will have "P2".
• The cave that houses the Rock Onion in Garden of Hope has improved audio reverb.
• Several more features make the controller rumble, and do so using the HD Rumble capabilities.
• Text in dialog boxes in cutscenes is aligned to the center of the box instead of the left.
• The font for numbers in the Onion menu is not monospaced, so as the numbers change, they jitter left and right.

Area differences

To do: Document all new eggs in the Garden of Hope. Care to do so?

This map shows new grass in the Twilight River, as well as giving the player tips on the locations of fragments.

• The ground of the shore to the north of the landing site in Twilight River has grass, instead of decayed leaves and dirt.
• The area around the Swooping Snitchbug in the Distant Tundra has been made wider, an ice trail was added, and the nearby ramp was changed from a snow texture to a dirt one.
• The two data files in the Armored Mawdad arena are out in the open, rather than inside mushrooms.
• The ground texture under the water in the pond where Alph lands is simpler.
• Some decal textures, like pebbles or petals on the floor, have been slightly readjusted.
• The ground near the dirt wall next to the landing site in the Tropical Wilds is grass, instead of sand.
• Nectar eggs can be found behind the cinder block that blocks the Blue Onion in the Garden of Hope.
• The southern half of Garden of Hope is comprised of dark mud and wet dirt, rather than the dry, lighter surface of the original.

Other information

• Game size: 6.5 GB.
• Supported play modes: TV (1 or 2 players), tabletop (1 or 2 players), and handheld (1 player).
• Supported controllers: two Joy-Cons, one sideways Joy-Con (only in multiplayer modes), and Nintendo Switch Pro Controller.
• Supports cloud save data.
• A Nintendo Switch Online subscription is necessary in order to submit high scores in Story Mode, Mission Mode, and the Side Stories.

Demo

On October 8^th, 2020, a demo for the game was released. In it, players can play part of Story Mode, as well the Collect treasure! version of Tropical Forest. Either mode can be played with one or two players, and badges can be unlocked like normal. When the player reaches the limit of the current game mode, they are shown a notification telling them of the end of the demo, and then taken to a screen advertising the final game, with a button to return to the title screen, and another to access the eShop. This happens when any of the following happens:

• The Armored Mawdad is defeated and the day ends.
• The player attempts to enter the area on the day after the Armored Mawdad's defeat.
• The player attempts to enter the area on day 6.
• The player leaves the mission from the pause menu.
• The mission is finished and the results screen is closed.

The title screen naturally includes the word "Demo" under the logo, and has an extra button, "Nintendo eShop", that when pressed, prompts the player to open the eShop's page for Pikmin 3 Deluxe, or to cancel. The button for Story Mode has a small "Recommended" banner next to it. The Side Stories and Bingo Battle buttons exist, but choosing them will simply inform the player of their availability in the full version. Likewise, the Battle enemies! and Defeat bosses! options exist in the Mission Mode menu, but are equally inaccessible.

Any progress made in the demo can carry over to the final game. Defeating the Armored Mawdad in this demo gives the player some bonuses: some of the missions and ultra-spicy difficulty will be unlocked right away.

Glitches

Some glitches can be performed in this demo.

• With stick-only cursor controls, the player can enter Alph's throwing tutorial, aim down and to the right, whistle, and obtain the fourth Pikmin hiding behind the pot. By then whistling the other three Pikmin together, the tutorial will not advance to the lock-on stage, requiring the game to be reset.
• If the player is in a section where they have no cursor, like before a throwing tutorial, and has stick and gyro cursor controls, they can change the setting to stick-only cursor controls and play the tutorial. From here on, the cursor will visibly be far away, and the line connecting to it will lead there. The real cursor will be invisible (though it can be seen if there's a prompt above it), though it will temporarily return to normal by holding a Pikmin. It will be fixed by locking on.
• Much like the previous glitch, if the player picks stick and gyro cursor controls, resets the camera, doesn't tilt the controller, uses to aim in any direction from the leader, and then tilts the controller such that the cursor ends in the opposite direction from the leader, they can then pause, change to stick-only cursor controls, and the same behavior will happen. It persists through leader changes, and entering a different section of the area will keep the effect, but move the cursor position elsewhere.
• Sometimes, Pikmin that are thrown at a Pellet Posy will remain in their spinning animation up until the point where they grab onto the pellet.
• It is possible for the controller to drift on its own in the Rock Pikmin tutorial.
• It is possible for Pikmin to turn around mid-carry.
• The mini radar sometimes jumps a bit and quickly returns to position when the player walks on the built blue bridge of the Garden of Hope, leading to the Armored Mawdad's arena.

History

Pikmin 3 Deluxe was first announced in a tweet by Nintendo of America on August 5^th, 2020. The announcement came with a promotional trailer, and a relaunch of the official website with limited information. The Japanese announcement came in the form of a news article on the Nintendo website. The game was also listed on the Nintendo eShop on this date, and could be pre-downloaded.

On the day of the announcement, the product page in Nintendo of America's website listed that the supported features were save data cloud and online play, in that order. Throughout the following days, this listing would get changed periodically. Around August 9^th, the order was reversed, and around August 14^th, online play was removed. On August 19^th, it was noticed that the online play blurb had returned, but on August 22^nd, it was nowhere to be seen again.

On August 28^th, 2020, the official Japanese website was launched, with subpages on backstory, basic gameplay, Pikmin types, combat, and structure. These pages had several images and short videos that showed some changed mechanics. The new website also came with a trailer, which showcased the different types of Pikmin and their abilities. The website at this point had 3 header and footer links with a 'coming soon' message, with titles that implied that they were about the new difficulty modes, the Side Stories and Piklopedia, and the additional game modes of Mission Mode and Bingo Battle.

Throughout September, nothing was announced directly about the game, but Nintendo's European Twitter accounts continued to promote the game with images and short videos. The only new thing presented by these videos was a piece of music. The previously Japanese-only trailer was released in English on October 2^nd, 2020.

On October 6^th, 2020, the official English website was updated with new pages on story and gameplay. A Nintendo Treehouse event featuring Pikmin 3 Deluxe and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was announced at the same time. The event, which happened the next day, featured 2 presenters playing through day 2 of Story Mode in the Garden of Hope, day 4 of the Olimar's Assignment side story (the first gameplay shown of this mode), and a game of Bingo Battle. Also revealed were the difficulty modes, how 2-player gameplay worked, the pause menu and control options, and various other differences. A demo of the game was announced at the end of the presentation, and was released about 7 hours later.

Following this, the game began to be more heavily promoted. A trailer for the demo was released on October 8^th, and a gameplay demo of a Side Story level was released the next day. The Japanese website was also updated on October 8^th with its remaining 3 pages about difficulty options, the content new to Pikmin 3 Deluxe, and the alternative game modes.

Gallery

Artwork

• 

  English logo.

• 

  Japanese game cover.

• 

  Banner art.

• 

  Japanese banner art.

• 

  Japanese banner art.

• 

  A badge from the back of the game's box. It features all five Pikmin types next to each other, excluding Purple Pikmin and White Pikmin.

See more: Pikmin 3#Promotional artwork.

Screenshots

• 

  Alph leading a group of Pikmin.

• 

  Several Pikmin carrying a Face Wrinkler.

• 

  Multiplayer gameplay in the Twilight River.

• 

  A player targeting a Dwarf Bulborb.

• 

  Arrows on the ground leading to the next destination.

• 

  2 new textures for crystal walls.

• 

  The new groundcover in the southern section of the Garden of Hope.

• 

  The new interface for switching leaders.

• 

  Charging with one type at a time.

• 

  The title screen.

• 

  The Bulborb's page in the new Piklopedia.

• 

  The new Piklopedia in Japanese. Note the 5 leader icons.

• 

  One of the new badges that can be collected.

• 

  Another badge.

• 

  The menu of the Side Stories game mode.

• 

  Olimar, Louie, and a SPERO in the Garden of Hope, in one of the Side Stories. A cinder block is where a crystal wall normally sits.

• 

  Screenshot from the back of the game's box. It features Olimar and Louie with Yellow Pikmin and Red Pikmin in Twilight River, standing next to some Dawn Pustules.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	ピクミン３ デラックス? Pikumin 3 Derakkusu	Pikmin 3 Deluxe
Chinese	皮克敏3 豪華版 (traditional) 皮克敏3 豪华版 (simplified)	Pikmin 3 Deluxe
French	Pikmin 3 Deluxe	-
German	Pikmin 3 Deluxe	-
Italian	Pikmin 3 Deluxe	-
Korean	피크민 3 디럭스 pikeumin 3 dileogseu	Pikmin 3
Spanish	Pikmin 3 Deluxe	-

Pikmin 3 Deluxe Demo

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	ピクミン３ デラックス 体験版? Pikumin 3 Derakkusu Taikenhan	Pikmin 3 Deluxe test version
Chinese	皮克敏3 豪華版 體驗版 (traditional) 皮克敏3 豪华版 体验版 (simplified)	Pikmin 3 Deluxe Demo
French	Pikmin 3 Deluxe Démo	-
German	Pikmin 3 Deluxe Demo	-
Italian	Pikmin 3 Deluxe Demo	-
Korean	피크민 3 디럭스 체험판 pikeumin 3 dileogseu cheheompan	Pikmin 3 Deluxe test version
Spanish	Pikmin 3 Deluxe Demo	-

Trivia

• Pikmin 3 Deluxe is the first Pikmin game to be available in Chinese.
• This game is the second time characters from the Pikmin series have been playable on the Nintendo Switch, with the first being Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

See also

• Pikmin 3
• New Play Control!
• Update

External links

• Official English website
• Japanese official announcement topic
• Reveal tweet
• Announcement trailer, August 5^th, 2020
• Nintendo of America product page
• Japanese promotional trailer, August 28^th, 2020
• Official Japanese website
• Japanese official additional detail topic
• Nintendo Treehouse Live event, October 7^th, 2020