Ultra-bitter spray

A petrified Beady Long Legs.

Ultra-bitter spray is the purple colored spray in Pikmin 2 that the player can get from ten purple Burgeoning Spiderwort berries, or by finding a concentrated dose. When used, it temporarily turns any nearby enemy or bomb-rock into stone, rendering them unable to do anything.

There are fewer ultra-bitter berry carrying Burgeoning Spiderworts, which makes the spray harder to obtain in comparison to ultra-spicy sprays. In addition, this spray is normally discovered after the ultra-spicy spray, because while ultra-spicy spray is found on the required path in the Awakening Wood, ultra-bitter spray is not found until after the acquisition of White Pikmin, near the Bulblax Kingdom. Unlike the ultra-spicy spray, this spray type does not return in Pikmin 3 or Pikmin 4, with its function essentially replaced by Ice Pikmin in the latter game.

Petrification

This spray can be deployed by pressing  /  / . Any enemy or bomb-rock in the direction of the cursor instantly becomes immobilized and slowly turns into stone. In the case of New Play Control! Pikmin 2, the leader will spray in front of them, but the cursor's direction is still what matters. The enemy is only temporarily immobilized and will eventually break free. Before reaching this point, the enemy begins shaking, as an indication that the petrification is wearing off. In total, this effect lasts for nine seconds – one second for the stones to form, and eight seconds of complete encasement.

Any enemy that becomes petrified will have its defense changed in some way, such that all Pikmin standard attacks and leader punches cause more or less damage. Purple Pikmin stomps and bomb-rock damage is not changed either way. The following table explains how much damage attacks will cause when the enemy is petrified:

Enemy	Damage multiplier	Notes
All enemies not listed	1.50×
Beady Long Legs	0.25×
Burrowing Snagret	0.25×
Empress Bulblax	0.25×	Stacks on top of the attack multiplier some of its animations have.
Man-at-Legs	0.25×
Pileated Snagret	0.25×
Raging Long Legs	0.25×
Ranging Bloyster	0.03×
Segmented Crawbster	0.20×
Titan Dweevil	0.50×	Can only be damaged when unarmed.
Toady Bloyster	0.03×
Waterwraith	N/A	Uses specific rules.

Petrifying enemies that are in the process of eating any Pikmin will make it possible to save those Pikmin from dying. Likewise, bomb-rocks that were in the middle of their countdown will freeze, allowing the leaders and Pikmin a chance of reaching safety. It should also be noted that a petrified dormant bomb-rock will become active after the petrification ends, even if it wasn't attacked during.

If there are no enemies nearby, the leader will still spray it in the air, wasting one dosage. In the Piklopedia, the player can deploy ultra-bitter spray by pressing  /  / . This does not affect the ultra-bitter spray quantity in the main story mode, and can be used before the sprays are even discovered during the adventure.

Petrified enemy spoils

When an enemy is defeated while petrified, it will crumble to dust and leave behind some drops of liquid – each one can either be nectar, or either type of spray drop. It still relinquishes whichever treasures or pellets it would normally drop. The amount of blobs, and the chances of what type they will be depend on the petrified entity, as explained in the following table, although it is possible the chances could be different in practice.

Category	Drops	Chances
		Nectar	Spicy spray	Bitter spray
Normal Everything else	1	90%	5%	5%
Empty  Bomb rock  Breadbug  Doodlebug  Giant Breadbug  Iridescent Flint Beetle  Iridescent Glint Beetle Waterwraith's rollers	0
Weak  Bulborb Larva  Female Sheargrub  Male Sheargrub  Mitite  Ravenous Whiskerpillar  Shearwig  Skitter Leaf  Wogpole	1	99%	0.5%	0.5%
Strong  Beady Long Legs  Burrowing Snagret  Emperor Bulblax  Empress Bulblax  Man-at-Legs  Pileated Snagret  Raging Long Legs  Ranging Bloyster  Segmented Crawbster  Waterwraith	5	85%	7.5%	7.5%
Final boss  Titan Dweevil	10	0%	50%	50%
Spectralids  Unmarked Spectralids	1	See below

Unmarked Spectralids internally belong to the "empty" group, but they are forced to run the drop generation code on death regardless of how they die. When underground, this code has an 80% chance of quitting out without the Spectralid dropping anything, but in the overworld, they will always successfully drop their blob. Their drop will always match their color.

Special interactions

Some objects have unique behavior when petrified.

•  Unmarked Spectralids will stop flying and will fall to the ground. The second they land, they shatter and instantly die.
•  Greater Spotted Jellyfloats that have a leader inside can be instantly killed if the player takes control of the leader inside and starts button mashing in order to escape.
•  Bumbling Snitchbugs will instantly drop whatever leader they are holding.

Other interesting behaviors can be seen in the glitches section.

Other uses

In 2-Player Battle, this spray can also be used to disarm the opponent's Pikmin by planting them in the ground, and reverting all flower and bud Pikmin to leaves. Although the Pikmin will automatically jump back out of the ground after ten seconds, they will not regain their buds or flowers.

For some reason, hitting spicy Pikmin with the ultra-bitter spray will reset their spicy timer. This can be used to extend the duration of one spicy frenzy, at the cost of using up bitter sprays.

Glitches

• Spray nectar swap: if a bitter spray nectar drop is absorbed while a nectar or a spicy spray drop show up, the game will count the spray nectar as if it were spicy nectar. Although rarer, the opposite can also happen, if a bitter spray drop appears.
• Hermit Crawmads that are petrified will receive damage simply by being walked against.
• If the player petrifies a Hermit Crawmad while it is performing its lunge out of water, and then pushes the creature into the water, it will generate the splash effect even though it's not moving. If the enemy dies, the effect will stay there forever.
• Volatile Dweevils can be petrified just as they are blowing up in order to have them die inside the petrification by themselves, due to a glitch.
  • Likewise, bomb rocks can be petrified just as they are about to blow up to make them disappear without harm.
• Emperor Bulblaxes, if petrified as they are jumping, can then be killed in mid-air. This will cause the body to vanish, the health wheel to stay there, and a sound to repeat over and over.
  • Similarly, petrifying a Female Sheargrub as it is unearthing and killing it will cause the same effect.
• Because Volatile Dweevils and Waterwraiths are composed of multiple parts (the creature is one part, the bomb or rollers are another), it is possible to only petrify one part but not the other, as explained here and here.

Notes

Pikmin 2 Japanese website

Text

“今回の探検で新たに発見された植物「ピキノツユクサ」の実から採取されるエキスは、驚くべき苦さの物質であることが分析の結果明らかになった。甘党のホコタテ星人にとってはほんの１ 滴で致死量となる苦さのこのエキスだが、これを敵対生物に振りかけると、あまりの苦さに一瞬にして硬直してしまうことが分かった。幸い、売れ残りのガラクタの中に、空になったビンがもう１ つあったので、せっせと集めてはこれに詰めていくことにする。”

Translation

“Analysis revealed that the essence obtained from the berries of the "Burgeoning Spiderwort" plant, which was newly discovered during this expedition, is a surprisingly bitter substance. For the sweet-toothed Hocotatians, just one drop of this bitter essence is lethal, but when sprinkled on hostile creatures, it turns out to be so bitter that they are instantly petrified. Fortunately, there was another empty bottle among the unsold junk, so it was decided to diligently fill it.”

Gallery

• 

  2D artwork of a bottle of Ultra-Bitter Spray.

• 

  Clay art of a Red Pikmin carrying a purple Burgeoning Spiderwort berry.

• 

  A drop of ultra-bitter spray.

• 

  A Ranging Bloyster being petrified.

• 

  The same creature completely petrified.

• 

  A Yellow Wollywog breaking out of petrification.

• 

  The same creature defeated while petrified.

• 

  The pause menu item for the spray and berry count.

Trivia

• Each enemy type has an individual multiplier setting for how long the petrification should last, but it is never given any use, as all of them have this value set to 1.0.
  • Likewise, there is code for enemies with a "petrification type" of 3, that would make them drop 3 drops (90% nectar chance, 5% for either spray type), but nothing in the final game has this value.

Names in other languages

Ultra-bitter spray Language Name Meaning Notes  French (NoA) Brume amère Bitter mist Taken from the manual of New Play Control! Pikmin 2.  French (NoE) Spray amer Bitter spray  German Ultra-Bitter-Spray -  Italian Spray ultra-amaro Ultra-bitter spray  Spanish (NoA) Atomizador superamargo Super-bitter atomizer  Spanish (NoE) Spray superamargo Super-bitter spray

Ultra-bitter essence Language Name Meaning  Spanish (NoA) Esencia superamarga Super-bitter essence

See also

• Ultra-spicy spray
• Spray
• Nectar
• Ice Pikmin

References

This article was a featured article from April 2nd, 2021 to June 1st, 2021.