Moss
| Moss | |
|---|---|
| |
| Name | Moss |
| Gender | Female |
| Eye color | Brown |
| Hair color | Green |
| Home planet | PNF-404 |
| Known related characters | Captain Olimar, Louie |
| Height | Unknown |
| First game | Pikmin 4 |
| Latest game | Pikmin 4 |
Moss (モス?, lit.: "Moss") is a space dog in Pikmin 4. In the game's prologue she is found by Captain Olimar when he crash-lands on PNF-404 and quickly befriends her, helping him throughout his search for his ship's missing ship parts. After the prologue, Moss is seen accompanied by a leafling-transformed Olimar, and accompanies him during Dandori Battles. Much later on, she accompanies Louie in the same fashion. She is only ever seen with a leaf on the tip of her tail, much like the one atop a Pikmin's stem.
In gameplay, be it during the prologue when the player controls Captain Olimar, Olimar's Shipwreck Tale, or during a Dandori Battle, Moss functions exactly like Oatchi. An exception is how she learns new skills: after the prologue her skills improve between Dandori Battles, and in Olimar's Shipwreck Tale, instead of exchanging Pup Drive, she gains skills and gear as rewards for recovered ship parts.
Throughout the story, when she is keeping the player from their mission, she can be fought in various ways like an enemy.
Stats
| Weight | Max. carriers |
Seeds | Value | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 7000 |
Personality and appearance
Moss is fairly similar to Oatchi, with some notable differences.
- She is larger.
- Her fur is green.
- Her eyes are brown and are always squinting, instead of fully open. She will still squint if she is near an enemy.
- Her ears are perked upward and forward instead of drooping down.
- Her cheeks are not as firm and droop more.
- Her bark is deeper.
Unlike Oatchi, Moss is seen to be a native of PNF-404, with Olimar speculating that her leafy tail has actually been that way since birth, similar to the Pikmin. Despite being born light-years apart from each other, Oatchi and Moss are both stated to descend from the PNF-404 native Ancient Sirehound, which Olimar believes suggests something deeper about the nature of their universe.
Skills
Moss's possible skills and controls are identical to Oatchi's, but owing to Moss's different story role, her abilities evolve differently in each game mode.
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Prologue
Most situations in which Moss can demonstrate her abilities are not present in the opening prologue, since the story immediately ends once the Porquillon is defeated.
Dandori Battles
In earlier matches of Dandori Battle, Moss will use a limited subset of skills. For example, in Trial Run, Moss carries objects along the ground with the equivalent of Buff Lv. 3, but she has reached Super Buff Lv. 3 and learned Swallow by Leafy Showdown.
Olimar's Shipwreck Tale
In Olimar's Shipwreck Tale, Moss gains skills as bonuses for recovering set numbers of ship parts. If Olimar reaches a milestone for acquired parts before meeting Moss, the skills will be retroactively applied once she has joined him.
- 4 parts: Buff level 3
- 7 parts: Super Buff level 1
- 19 parts: Super Buff level 3
- 23 parts: Swallow
As an enemy
Hero's Hideaway
Until Olimar's vault is opened and the entrance to Leafy Showdown is discovered, Moss can be found in the Hero's Hideaway. According to the Voyage Log, she appears to be guarding Olimar's bunker. Unlike most enemies, she has a unique map icon.
She will seek out Pikmin (both idle ones and ones in the player's squad), and whistle for them to put them under her control, much like an Antenna Beetle in Pikmin 2. Upon gathering Pikmin, she will try to run off with them; if she does so, she will toss them on a fan which leads to the bunker. These Pikmin then stay lying on the ground on the bunker's table, and need to be whistled. Despite them not reacting to the Idler's Alert, they do react to the Homesick Signal. The only way to gather Pikmin under Moss's control before she brings them to the bunker is if she takes significant damage, at which point she will let them go and try to escape.
Moss takes damage like any enemy, and can even be damaged by other enemies.[1]. If she takes a lot of damage, she will run off to a corner of the house in a panic, dropping captured Pikmin along the way. Once she reaches the corner, she will fall asleep so she can heal herself. Waking her up some time after this nap will cause her to become active like normal again. Moss cannot be permanently defeated; when her health is depleted she will be incapacitated and begin regenerating her health over a period of exactly five minutes. Collin will inform the player when Moss's health is fully restored so they can plan their activities accordingly.
If Oatchi is around, she will periodically stop to bark at him, even if she's busy taking Pikmin away. Oatchi himself will also bark at her at random. If the player approaches her without Pikmin, she will just continue roaming around, with the occasional bark at Oatchi. She ignores scrummy bones, and while she will approach and prioritize pikpik carrots, she will only sniff them and bark at them.[1]
Dandori Battles
In Dandori Battles, she can be knocked out, which teleports her to her team's Onion. She can then be roused by Olimar or Louie.
Notes
Dalmo's notes
Olimar's notes
“As far as I can tell, Moss has been a leafling pup since birth, and some of her DNA resembles that of the Pikmin. This is the one point in which she differs from Oatchi.
When Oatchi transformed from a standard space dog into a leafling pup, I started to theorize that the Pikmin are, in some capacity, propagating their DNA in other organisms.
The phenomenon in which all those castaways, including myself, became leaflings was very likely caused by being absorbed into the Onion. Perhaps that process was also some sort of Pikmin-ification of the body.
Pikmin-ified organisms can't leave this planet, so the Pikmin may have been motivated to carry out this process in an effort to secure a permanent leader. Of course, this is all a theory...”Louie's notes
Other information
- Pikmin 4 Piklopedia number: #110
Naming
- Common name: Moss. It comes from her green coat of fur, which resembles moss.
- Japanese nickname: モス?, lit.: "Moss". It comes from her green coat of fur, which resembles moss.
- Japanese name: イチヨウイエイヌ?, lit.: "One-leaf Domestic Dog".
- Scientific name: "Folicanis amicaris". It is based on "foliage", the Latin for "dog", and the Latin phrase for "you are friendly".
- Internal names:
CHASER. It refers to how she chases the player and their Pikmin down to try to whistle them under her control. - Prerelease: None.
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
 Japanese |
モス? Mosu |
Moss |
 Chinese(traditional) |
莫斯 Mòsī |
Moss |
 Chinese(simplified) |
莫斯 Mòsī |
Moss |
 Dutch |
Moss | - |
 French |
Moss | - |
 German |
Moss | - |
 Italian |
Moss | - |
 Korean |
모스 Moseu |
Moss |
 Portuguese |
Moss | - |
 Spanish |
Moss | - |
Gallery
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Leafling Olimar and Moss.
Moss giving the player character a nasty stare.
Oatchi and Moss, side-by-side.
Moss's Piklopedia icon.
Moss using her whistle ability to steal Pikmin from the player.
Moss frozen.
Moss using her whistle in Olimar’s Shipwreck Tale.
Moss being shocked in the Piklopedia.
Moss as seen in the "Pikmin-Summoning Battle" comic.
The frontside of Moss.
The backside of Moss.
Moss before the Hero's Hideaway cutscene.
Moss waking up in the cutscene.
The cutscene that plays when Moss steals your pikmin for the first time.
Moss running from the player with stolen Yellow Pikmin.
Moss resting and healing after being attacked by the player.
Moss lying down before being found in Olimar's Shipwreck Tale.
The cutscene that plays when Olimar stumbles upon Moss.
Olimar throwing a Scrummy Bone towards Moss.
Moss licking Olimar after being fed.
See also
References
- ^ a b YouTube video documenting Moss's interactions, published on September 17th, 2023, retrieved on October 6th, 2023
| Characters | |
|---|---|
| Leaders | Olimar • Louie • The President • Alph • Brittany • Charlie • Rookie Rescue Officer • Oatchi • Moss |
| Rescue Corps | Collin • Shepherd • Russ • Dingo • Yonny • Bernard |
| Ships | S.S. Dolphin • Hocotate ship • S.S. Drake • S.S. Dolphin II • SPERO • S.S. Beagle • S.S. Shepherd |
| Other | Castaway • Leafling • Minor characters • Pikmin |
