Glitches in Pikmin 3

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This is a collection of glitches possible in Pikmin 3.

Please read the glitch notes before attempting any of these glitches or before adding your own.

To do: List the "game-breaking" glitches, like Winged early, and bridge skips. Care to do so?

Main

Remote-controlled Pikmin

Reproducibility	Consequences
High	{{{consequences}}}

• Effects: Control Pikmin without being exactly where they are.
• Prerequisites: Obtain the Dodge Whistle
• How to: Throw Pikmin up a ledge or over a gap, and call them and repetitively use the Dodge Whistle, and the Pikmin should roll, going farther than possible to throw. If you dismiss your Pikmin after they have rolled close to an object, such as the Hay north of the landing site in the Distant Tundra, they will interact with it, allowing access to some areas that shouldn't be accessable.
• Notes: None.
• Possible explanation: When dodging, the Pikmin are programmed to roll with the captain, but if the captain's roll path is blocked, and the Pikmin's is not, then they will still roll.

Yellow Onion skip

Reproducibility	Consequences
Medium	{{{consequences}}}

• Effects: Allows the player to skip the Yellow Onion and continue the game without it.
• Prerequisites: Have access to the Distant Tundra, and have not gone there before.
• How to: In the cave where the yellow Pikmin are found, go between the Iron Ball and the slide and walk against the wall. If done correctly, Brittany should walk against the edge of the slide, rather than sliding down. Continue pushing against the wall while going down the slide to get out of bounds; from there, walk above the blocked entrance, and the game will treat it as you have exited the cave. Use the five yellow Pikmin and the Golden Candypop Buds to reunite Alph and Brittany. The day after, the Yellow Onion will be missing from the cave, and Yellow Pikmin produced by Candypop Buds will bring their loot to the master onion and produce more Yellow Pikmin, although it is impossible to deposit or withdraw any into the onion, and any Yellow Pikmin will vanish at the end of the day, even if they are in your squad or close to the landing site. Once you gain access to the Twilight River and rescue the Winged Pikmin, it is possible to withdraw Yellow Pikmin by using the "take out all types" feature; every one Red and Rock pikmin taken out with this feature takes out one yellow as well. To deposit Yellow Pikmin, take out Winged Pikmin and begin depositing them, but then hold the button that allows you to take out all the types, and Yellow Pikmin should be put in, instead.
• Notes: None.
• Possible explanation: The programming for the Master Onion is both partially made to allow you to get the Pikmin in any order, and made to force you to get them in one order, creating very strange results if one Onion is skipped.

Early Shaggy Long Legs

Reproducibility	Consequences
Medium	{{{consequences}}}

• Effects: Makes the player fight against Shaggy Long Legs earlier than normal, and with unlimited time.
• Prerequisites: Have access to the Distant Tundra, and have not gone there before.
• How to: In the cave were the Yellow Pikmin are found, after breaking down the exit's blockade, go out of bounds using the same method as in the Yellow Onion skip glitch, only, rather than going above the entrance, go behind it and walk around to the Shaggy Long Legs' arena. The battle will proceed as normal, only there will be an unlimited day length, and Brittany will have infinite health.
• Notes: When battling the Shaggy Long Legs before breaking the blockade, if enough Pikmin die, it will be impossible to gain enough Pikmin to push the Iron Ball; and if all the Pikmin die, the Yellow Onion will not eject another seed. Additionally, any Red Pikmin (obtained via the Crimson Candypop Bud) will be invisible during the cutscene where the weight is pushed.
• Possible explanation: When Brittany is in the cave, the day is set to be in a "tutorial" state, where the captains have unlimited HP and the day lasts forever, as with Day 1. When exiting the main entrance of the cave, it is set to end the "tutorial" state and begin the day as normal; but if you exit via the other entrance, it will not.

Brittany's pseudo-reunion

Reproducibility	Consequences
High	{{{consequences}}}

• Effects: Reunite Brittany and Alph in the Distant Tundra before constructing the double bridge.
• Prerequisites: Have Brittany and Alph separated at the Distant Tundra without having built the double bridge, and have obtained the Dodge Whistle with Alph
• How to: At the Distant Tundra, with Brittany, go to the top of the slide near the Whiptongue Bulborb and use the Dodge Whistle to hit the west side of the slide's edge, then walk against it. If done correctly, Brittany should not slide down, but rather be walking against the wall. Continue walking down the wall and it should be possible to get up the wall and out of bounds. Once Brittany is out of bounds, she can jump off over at the side of the river where Alph is. However, it will be impossible to call Alph (or Brittany, after switching) and they will not react to being pushed, either. After the day ends, Brittany will automatically be sent back into the cave, unless the double bridge is finished.
• Notes: If Pikmin are brought out of bounds with Brittany, they can be thrown on the partially-submerged Dirt Wall and it can be broken, allowing easy access between the two sides of the river.
• Possible explanation: The game considers Alph and Brittany separated untill the double bridge is finished, even if they are in the same area.

Early Winged Pikmin

Reproducibility	Consequences	Demonstration
Low	{{{consequences}}}	YouTube video

• Effects: Allows the player to get to the Winged Pikmin's Onion without building the long blue bridge across the river.
• Prerequisites: Have the Twilight River unlocked and have 2 captains.
• How to: At the Twilight River have one captain walk across the river with no Pikmin in the area with the Water Dumple. Once near the lily pad, have the captain walk in the corner of the rock to the left of it and the lily pad. If done correctly, the captain will begin to phase through the rock. Walk onto the brown land area, and the captain will fall down into an abyss. They will later respawn on the side of the river with the Winged Pikmin's Onion. From there, switch to the other captain, and have them throw across some Pikmin, preferably Rock Pikmin, to free the Onion from the Arachnode's web. Throw some in the water, and then switch to the other captain so that they can call them to the other shore.
• Notes: In version 1.0, the captain takes no damage if they fall in. However, in version 1.3, they take damage equal to 1/3 of their total health. This is because version 1.4 introduced actual bottomless pits in the Clockwork Chasm stage. The out of bounds area used in this trick counts as out of bounds, and whenever a captain fall into one, they lose health. Even though the bridge is skipped, it is recommended to build it eventually to allow easy retrieval of items.
• Possible explanation: Between two objects is a little bit of "dead space." This space is used to prevent the player from accidentally phasing through the rocks. However, this dead space can still be accessed if done intentionally. The captain's walking animation will eventually run into the space, allowing them to freely explore inside the rocks and whatnot.

Tremendous Sniffer without bomb rocks

Demonstration of the glitch.

Reproducibility	Consequences
High	{{{consequences}}}

• Effects: Obtaining the Tremendous Sniffer in the Twilight River without bomb rocks.
• Prerequisites: Keep the Reinforced Wall up.
• How to: At the Twilight River, approach the Tremendous Sniffer. Throw Yellow Pikmin at the pear, having them carry it into the wall. Call them back and end the day. The next day, the Tremendous Sniffer will be outside of its alcove.
• Notes: Pikmin will become idle quickly, so end the day immediately after calling them back.
• Possible explanation: The Tremendous Sniffer gets lodged into the wall, something that should not occur. As such, the game will move the pear out of the wall, but cannot return it to its original location. Therefore, it moves it to the other side of the wall.

Floating fruit

File:Floatingfruit.jpeg

An example of the glitch on The Rustyard.

Reproducibility	Consequences
Medium	{{{consequences}}}

• Effects: Fruits will hover in the air and Pikmin will not grab onto it.
• Prerequisites: Find a fruit that is located on a ledge that is oddly shaped, like the one in the picture.
• How to: Just as the object is about to fall onto the lower ground, call back all Pikmin carrying the object. It is possible that the object will be stuck in the air beyond the ledge.
• Notes: The object will most likely remain unretrievable afterwards, so attempt the glitch where it is not harmful, like Mission Mode.
• Possible explanation: There is a certain small area located at the end of the ledge when an object is being carried back to base, acting like a sort of ramp so that the Pikmin do not fall straight down. Since Pikmin cannot actually walk on this "ramp" of sorts, the Pikmin will try to attempt to carry the fruit but won't actually be able to. Winged Pikmin, of course, will be able to free the object.

Mission Mode

Plasm Push Out

Reproducibility	Consequences
Low	{{{consequences}}}

• Effects: Enter the Formidable Oak during the Plasm Wraith boss fight
• Prerequisites: get a large amount of plasm to fall out (easiest to destroy an elemental plasm or to ground it (attack it with a large amount of winged or yellow pikmin) when it levitates)
• How to: Fight the Plasm Wraith as normal until it's health is down 1/3 of the way. When it starts to send out the elemental plasms, destroy them and stand in the puddles until he reabsorbs it. Very rarely, the plasm should push the player through the floor and out of the level; the player will lose 1/3 of their health, but will respawn in the final puzzle room of the Formidable Oak's dungeon.
• Notes: The room will appear like it does in story mode with the exception of no water, enemies, or Glowcaps, leaving it totally dark. As the game is still in Mission Mode, the exists are blocked and the room becomes effectively inescapable. The battle outside will be completely paused until the player switches captains.
• Possible explanation: Normally, a small amount of plasm knocks a captain back and gets him to hop a little bit like in this glitch so a large amount of plasm should make a slightly bigger hop, but in this glitch, it sends him flying into the air and then out of bounds, but that still doesn't explain how you can fall through the floor if it was coded right. Maybe the developers didn't hardcode this enough (it's a mission mode stage, so it has less priority over story mode) because a strong enough push triggers this glitch. The game recognizes that the player is out of bounds and spawns him into the last room he was in, but why not the arena? Maybe the arena doesn't count as a "room" and is a part of the area map and because the rest of the map is locked, it sends you to the last room you entered (in story mode), the Bloominous Stemple room. The game then reverts to its normal state (after rescuing you from out of bounds) and relocks everything, trapping you until time runs out (or you switch to another captain and get killed by the Plasm Wraith).