2-Player Battle

2-Player Battle menu screen.

2-Player Battle is a feature of the Pikmin series, introduced in Pikmin 2. It involves, as the name implies, two players, who control Captain Olimar and Louie, in control of up to 50 of each Red Pikmin and Blue Pikmin respectively. Each player can start the match with a multiple of 5 Pikmin between 5 and 50, and cannot exceed 50 total Pikmin on the battlefield at any time. 2-Player mode takes place in underground areas, their layouts randomly generated. Each player has an appropriate Onion, near which a similarly-colored marble lies at the start of the game. There are four ways to win and ten differently-themed areas to play on, ranging in difficulty. Returning a cherry to an Onion will allow a spin of the roulette wheel. To make things even, Red Pikmin have lost their extra strength. However, both colors are still immune to their respective elements.

Ultra-bitter sprays, when used against the opponent's Pikmin, will burrow them, and revert them to leaf state. However, they'll pop out of the ground automatically after 10 seconds.

Ways to win

• Taking 4 yellow marbles to the Onion. There are 7 in total, in order to make sure only one player can collect 4 marbles.
• Taking the opponent's marble to the Onion.
• The opponent suffers a Pikmin Extinction.
• The opponent's captain is down.

Maps

To do: Upload an excerpt from the theme. Care to do so?

The players can choose one of ten maps. Every level has the same music.

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  Battle Field

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  War Path

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  Carpet Plain

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  Angle Maze

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  Colosseum

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  Rusty Gulch

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  Brawl Yard

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  Tile Lands

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  Dim Labyrinth

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  Hostile Territory

Roulette Wheel

The Roulette Wheel can be accessed when a player finds a cherry and a Pikmin successfully returns it to the Onion. Cherries in this mode spawn randomly, and only one Pikmin is needed to carry one. When the roulette finishes spinning (automatically), it'll randomly land on a power, which the player can use at any moment by pressing the Y button.

If more cherries are collected before the player uses the current power, they'll be added to a queue, represented on the top-right corner with red dots, for a maximum of 5 powers waiting to be used. Pressing Y will use the power and instantly make the roulette spin for the next one.

The player will have access to 12 different powers that benefit the player, disadvantage the opponent or both, listed below, and sorted by the order in which they're placed on the roulette:

Icon	Power	Description
	+5 Sprouts	Grants the player five Pikmin sprouts, if they have less than 50.
	+10 Sprouts	Just like the previous, but ten sprouts.
	Flower	Makes all of the player's Pikmin that are not planted in the ground bloom into flowers.
	Ghost	Makes the player's captain and Pikmin become invisible to the opponent for a limited amount of time. The opponent can still see the dust from the player's footsteps, the captain's whistle, and, if their Pikmin are affected by the Ultra-Spicy Spray, the glowing circles on their heads. Additionally, the opponent's Pikmin can still see everything, and the captain and Pikmin are fully visible on the collecting player's portion of the screen.
	Ultra-bitter spray	Grants one dose of Ultra-Bitter Spray.
	Ultra-spicy spray	Grants one dose of Ultra-Spicy Spray.
	Marble return	Makes the player's marble, if above ground, bounce all the way back to the Onion, regardless of distance.
	Withering Blowhog	Makes a Withering Blowhog appear near the opponent's Onion.
	Swooping Snitchbug	Makes a Swooping Snitchbug appear near the opponent's Onion.
	Boulders	Makes several boulders drop near the opponent.
	Volatile Dweevil	Drops a Volatile Dweevil near the opponent.
	Fiery/Watery Blowhog	Makes a Blowhog appear near the opponent's Onion. If the opponent is Louie, a Fiery Blowhog will appear. If the opponent is Olimar, a Watery Blowhog appears instead.

Enemies created upon a spin of the Roulette Wheel disappear completely on defeat, meaning their bodies cannot be returned to either Onion. They automatically die after 50 seconds have passed.

Pikmin arithmetic

Some enemies that are only found underground in single player can also be found in 2-Player mode. Below is a list of how many sprouts each creature is worth:

• Snow Bulborb: 4 sprouts
• Dwarf Orange Bulborb: 4 sprouts
• Breadbug: 4 sprouts
• Anode Beetle: 5 sprouts
• Careening Dirigibug: 8 sprouts
• Wollywog: 8 sprouts

Advisories

When the level is loading, a random advisory pops up on the bottom of the screen. These are the possible messages:

• "You can't carry your own marble."
• "Pikmin lost to opposing Pikmin will become seeds."
• "Roulette creatures vanish when you defeat them."
• "Use your sprays wisely to turn the tide of battle!"
• "You can't pluck, throw or spray while engaging enemy Pikmin."
• "Get a cherry for one roulette spin. You can store up to four." (The player can actually store 5 powers. There are 4 slots on top, but the current idling power also counts.)

Strategies

Head to head two player action.

These are basic strategies. The strategies' nature allows them to be combined and expanded upon freely, to maximize their efficiency.

Wasting the opponent's sprays

Sprays are an essential part of battle mode, as they can turn the tides in a Pikmin vs. Pikmin situation easily. Using a small squad, attacking the enemy might get the other player to use sprays prematurely. This can be repeated with the rest of the Pikmin.

Collecting marbles

With a small squad, the player can run to the opponent's base and steal the marble, assuming the other player is not there with a larger squad. Should the other player come to defend the marble, running up to them with the rest of the Pikmin can distract the enemy Pikmin from getting to the marble that is being carried away. Creatures can also be led to the enemy base as means of distraction or to kill idle Pikmin.

For yellow marbles, if the other player is likely to stop marbles from being brought back, it is advisable to collect ones that are on opposite side of each other, as it will force the other player to decide between them.

Marble guard

Leave about 3-5 Pikmin at your marble to act as an alert system. When your numbers start to change, get back to base. They can also be left in crucial bottleneck passages.

Cherry siege

This one often requires a bit of luck as it relies almost entirely on random generation. The cherries that allow you to use a roulette spin will oftentimes drop steadily in the same area of the arena over time (usually in one of the alcoves.) Take note of where cherries seem to drop more during the match, then keep Pikmin in that area to quickly transport them back to the onion. You can actually hold up to five spins at a time. Use the spins strategically or all at once in hopes that you'll drop lots of enemies and obstacles to keep your opponent busy. Large-scale distractions like this can help you steal marbles without them noticing or even a Pikmin Extinction if your opponent is careless enough.

Blockade breaking

There is a way to counter blockades set up by the opposing player. If your opponent has chased you into a narrow passage, and they have some of their Pikmin somewhere in the passage, you can use Ultra Bitter Spray on the blockade, meaning you can get through the passage without hindrance from the opponent. If the opponent has multiple blockades, make sure to get more than two of the aforementioned spray.

Pikmin rush

Focus on increasing your army above everything else. If you're faster than your opponent, you can gather quite a number advantage. Then, go for the enemy with almost all your Pikmin. You can even let one or two Pikmin carry the opponent's marble while they're busy with the battle.

Trivia

• The Angle Maze features a Raging Long Legs in one of its variations. It is the only battle map to include a boss enemy.

Victories

Facial expressions for each of the captains.

The Captains' faces on the main 2-player Battle screen change depending on the current score leader. If the leader is one point ahead, that player's captain will smile, and the other captain will frown. If the leader is three points ahead, the leader's captain will grin, and the other will be very angry. If the scores are the same for both players, both captains will have a neutral expression.

Whenever a player has 3 marbles, their Pikmin will chant the corresponding captain's name, "O-ri-ma!" or "Ru-i!", over the latter's Japanese names, Orimā (オリマー) and Rūi (ルーイ). If both players have 3 marbles and only one remains, both Pikmin groups will still chant, over one another. Amusingly, the Pikmin will still chant if they're all burrowed underground.

Each captain has his own victory tune. Though they follow the same melody, the Pikmin will call out the name of whoever won once the tune finishes. If one of the players loses through excess damage to the suit or Pikmin extinction, the themes will have a slight variation in rhythm similar to the difference in the story-mode levels. In the unlikely case of a tie, a different tune plays and both the captain's names will be called out by the Pikmin. The tune changes with each type of tie.

Excluding the variations of the Pikmin chorus, there are eight different themes that can play: one player wins, Olimar loses due to extinction, Olimar loses due to damage, Louie loses due to extinction, Louie loses due to damage, draw by simultaneous marble-collection, draw by simultaneous extinction, and draw by simultaneous damage.

Unused Roulette Wheel enemies

Within the game's files, one can find textures for 3 unused Roulette Wheel slots: an Antenna Beetle, a Spotty Bulbear, and a combination of a Fiery and Caustic Dweevil, the later having a duplicate file with the same name, but with "_old" appended. The backgrounds' colors and lines indicate that these slots were removed before the final icon textures were cleaned up. These enemies might've been removed for being either too annoying or difficult.

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  Antenna Beetle

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  Spotty Bulbear

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  Dweevil

See also

• Challenge Mode (Pikmin 2)

This article was a featured article from 23rd September 2010 to 23rd February 2011.