Pikmin limit

In Pikmin, the on-field bubble on the HUD turns red when the Pikmin limit is reached.

In the Pikmin games, there is a gameplay rule that limits the number of Pikmin on the area or cave's sublevel to one hundred at most. Only Pikmin that are out count for this limit, meaning that Pikmin inside an Onion do not count. To note is that when entering a cave, all Pikmin that are in the area, but do not follow the leaders inside, are instantly sent to their Onions. Wild Pikmin that have yet to be discovered count towards the total as well.

With this limit, the player cannot withdraw Pikmin from Onions such that the on-area total surpasses 100; the Onion's menu stops them from selecting any more after that point. When an object is delivered to an Onion, Pikmin seeds come out, which count towards the on-area total. The moment the limit is reached, any new Pikmin are instead created inside the Onion. This can be used to the player's advantage, given that filling out the 100-Pikmin cap and delivering the object is a faster way to obtain ready Pikmin, when compared to letting the seeds come out and plucking them.

This limit applies to all game modes. In the case of 2-Player Battle and Bingo Battle, each player is also limited to having 50 Pikmin of their team on the area at once, and when a Pikmin dies without another Pikmin killing it, the Onion automatically ejects a new seed, if it has any. Notably, the limit does not apply on the Pikmin Short Movies, as more than one hundred Pikmin can be seen at once under Captain Olimar's control in Occupational Hazards. In Pikmin, the on-area counter on the HUD gently pulsates red when the limit is reached.

Reasons

The mechanic exists for a few reasons:

• With it, players must rely on more than just having a large number of Pikmin in order to complete a task.
• The limit stops the player from having a hard time managing a large army.
• Because each Pikmin is an independent game entity, having the game process too many of them at once could result in the game slowing down.

In addition to the reasons stated above, the 100-Pikmin mechanic is also used as a minor puzzle element due to Purple Pikmin. Because they have the carrying strength and weight of 10 Pikmin, and because some treasures and obstacles require more than 100 Pikmin in strength or weight, the player is forced to use Purples.

Collision cases

To do: Find out how the game chooses what type of Pikmin to return if 100 Pikmin of different types are in the area when a new Onion is discovered in Pikmin and Pikmin 3. Find out why the game behaves differently in the case of buried Pikmin. Care to do so?

There are times where Pikmin have to be added to the area without the player requesting it directly, such as when discovering a new Onion in Pikmin, which causes the Onion to spit a seed. If the count is already at 100 when this happens, the game will take some action to stop the limit from being passed.

Onion discovery

When new types of Onion are discovered in Pikmin and Pikmin 3 (with the exception of the Red, Rock, and Yellow Onions in Pikmin 3), they will eject one Pikmin seed. If there are 100 Pikmin already in the field, one of those will be automatically returned to its respective Onion. It is currently unknown what process decides which Pikmin type to return in this scenario. In Pikmin, if 100 Pikmin are buried, two Pikmin will be returned to the Onion.

Queen Candypop Buds

Queen Candypop Buds receive one Pikmin of any type and spit out 9 seeds of the color it displayed at the time. Any new seeds whose creation would make the total go over 100 will simply not be spat out. The flower will wilt regardless of how many Pikmin come out. If buried Pikmin exist on the surface, and 100 Pikmin are procured underground using Queen Candypop Buds, then the excess Pikmin in the leader's group will be automatically returned to the Onion when the cave is exited. The type of Pikmin returned matches the Pikmin sprouts on the surface.

Bulbmin

When entering a sublevel with Bulbmin on it, the game attempts to spawn 10 juveniles per every adult Bulbmin. Any juvenile Bulbmin that would make the total (player's Pikmin + new Bulbmin) surpass 100 will not spawn. This means that it is possible for a sublevel to have mature Bulbmin without any young Bulbmin following behind. As such, if the player intends to obtain Bulbmin, they should enter the sublevel with less than 100 Pikmin on their party. Interestingly, the on-area counter only counts the Bulbmin when they're whistled to the group.

Pikmin extinction

In Pikmin, when a partial Pikmin extinction occurs, the Onion generates and ejects a new seed of the extinct type at the start of the following day. If there are already 100 Pikmin on the field, the seed is instead kept inside the Onion. This can only happen if the player lands on an area with 100 buried Pikmin.

History

Super Mario 128 was a tech demo made for the GameCube that showed how the console could handle over a hundred independent entities. This demo is part of what inspired the creation of Pikmin, but while 128 was picked in the demo for being twice as much as 64 and a power-of-two, the limit in the Pikmin games is 100 possibly because it is a "rounder" number. Despite this, in an earlier version of Pikmin showcased at E3 2001, the counter can be seen reading 110 on-area Pikmin at multiple times. It is unknown if this is the limit, if it is actually higher, or if a limit even existed at this point.

See also

• Scornet Maestro – a boss that can command no more than 100 Scornets
• Pikmin extinction
• Onion
• Pluck