Challenge Mode (Pikmin 2)

The Challenge Mode level select screen.

For the challenge mode in the first game, see Challenge Mode (Pikmin).

The Challenge Mode in Pikmin 2 is very different from the one in the first game. To unlock it, the player needs to collect The Key from the final floor of the Citadel of Spiders in the Perplexing Pool. Challenge Mode takes place in many cave areas and the player will need to collect The Key in each to advance through sublevels, and so complete the level. Challenge mode starts with 5 levels unlocked, and for every level completed, another level is unlocked. There are 30 levels in all, each with a specific amount of starting Pikmin, sprays, time limits, etc.

All levels have a time limit (in units that do not represent seconds), within which one must advance to the next sublevel or fail the challenge. Every sublevel, some more units of time are added to the existing amount. Being awarded a white flower upon completion means that one or more Pikmin have died, while a no-death completion earns a pink flower. A widely held misconception is that in order to beat Challenge Mode, one must collect all the treasures and have no Pikmin losses, but only the key on each level is required. To unlock a special cutscene with Louie, the player must complete the Challenge Mode with all pink flowers.

The final score the player receives depends on the amount of Pokos gathered, the amount of Pikmin that survived at the end, and the amount of time left on the timer before leaving. If the run is ended because a leader lost all his health or because the timer ran out, then the number of Pikmin and time remaining will be set to 0 when tallying up the score. The final score value is obtained by summing the three factors, but the number of Pokos and number of remaining Pikmin are multiplied by 10, as detailed in the following formula:

Co-op

Co-op is a variation of Challenge Mode with two players, as the name implies. As with 2-Player Battle, player one controls Olimar on the top screen, and player two controls Louie on the bottom one. The spray counter on the HUD shows the same value for both screens, seeing as the sprays are shared, i.e. if one player uses a spray, it'll be depleted on the counter of both players' screens. Other than this, Co-op is completely identical to regular Challenge Mode.

Because the multitasking in co-op mode increases efficiency, scores between single-player mode and co-op mode are kept separately.

Levels

Explorer's Cave Novice Training Lost Toy Box Creator's Garden Green Hole Hot House Brawny Abyss Red Chasm Trampled Garden Twilight Garden Cryptic Cavern Concrete Maze Collector's Room Dweevil Nest Cavernous Abyss

Snack Pit Three Color Training Hazard Training Cave of Snarls The Giant's Bath Rumbling Grotto Subterranean Lair Hidden Garden Abduction Den Secret Testing Range Breeding Ground Cave of Pain Bully Den Sniper Room Emperor's Realm

Trivia

File:Challenge Mode missing banner.jpg

Screenshot of the manual, showing the "Complete!" banner.

• There is a minor glitch in which a leader will remain on the ground, when the player gives up.
• The game's files can be edited to change the number of starting Pikmin on any given level. There are settings for seven Pikmin types, and setting the "seventh" type's number to non-zero makes pikpik carrots join the player's party, and act as Pikmin.
• Page 33 of the instruction manual for Pikmin 2 contains a screenshot of the screen after a Challenge Mode level is over, except it shows a "Complete!" banner. In the final game, the only existing banner is one that says "Perfect!", hinting that in previous versions, two different banners were meant to appear.

See also

• Challenge Mode in Pikmin
• 2-Player Battle