Purple Pikmin

Purple Pikmin
Resistance	Knockback Panic
Attack strength	Stronger (20 Damage, 50 on impact)
Mobility	Slow
Throw	Low
Digging speed	Unknown
Carrying capacity	10 units

Purple Pikmin are the second Pikmin type found in Pikmin 2 and are confirmed to appear in Pikmin 3 though they have just been seen in Challenge and Mission mode. They are first found in the Emergence Cave. These Pikmin are very strong due to their weight and are the most durable out of all the Pikmin. They are specifically required to obtain a number of treasures, two of which are needed to gain access to new areas, making them necessary to complete the game. While it is possible to clear the debt in the first area, this takes a substantial amount of time to finish, as eventually the only form of income that remains are enemy corpses. Purple Pikmin share a number of similarities with White Pikmin. Firstly, they can only be obtained via certain Candypop Buds, in this case Violet Candypop Buds, and have magenta flowers rather than white, due to the variety of Sutera Cordata. In addition, at the end of each day, they are stored in the ship; as opposed to an Onion. Purple Pikmin are the heaviest Pikmin known, as well as the slowest and strongest.

Abilities

Purple Pikmin can lift ten times as much as other Pikmin types and weigh ten times more. Due to their weight, they cannot be knocked back by windy attacks from Blowhogs, or explosions from Gatling Groinks (they still may die from the latter, however.) Purples are not affected by the roars of Emperor Bulblaxes or the odors of Mitites, either. Their weight, however, slows them down a lot; even with flowers. Purples can run only half as quickly as Red, Blue and Yellow Pikmin, and one-fifth as fast as whites; furthermore, they move even slower when carrying items. This can result in a player accidentally leaving a Purple Pikmin behind, especially with a leaf, while crossing an area. Also due to their weight, their throw arcs are very low, and they stop mid-throw to perform a ground pound. In addition, unlike the other Pikmin species found in the game, Purple Pikmin do not have an immunity to any hazards, possibly due to their advantage of being able to deal more damage and lift more than other Pikmin; however, they also have increased resistance to wind.

To compensate, Purple Pikmin are notorious for their effectiveness on the battleground, as when thrown, they will land with a resounding thump, stunning and seriously injuring beasts. This strong landing destroys eggs immediately, defeats Mitites in a wide radius, and can instantly deactivate fire geysers and electrical nodes. Grounded enemies are unable to be stunned. In fights, Purple Pikmin are undoubtedly the strongest, with 2 times the attack power of yellow, blue, and white Pikmin.

It should be noted, however, that when a stun is in effect, enemies will not take any impact damage. Instead, that impact damage is stored, and the next time the enemy takes damage (either a basic attack, or impact damage when unstunned), all of the stored damage is added to the hit. When an enemy is affected by the thud of a Purple Pikmin, their stun will disable for a split second.

Also concerning the throwing of Purple Pikmin, they have a limited ability to home in to targets. If thrown such that they are not greatly horizontally displaced from an enemy below, they will move towards that enemy and land on it. This is particularly useful in defeating large numbers of Dwarf Bulborbs; it does not apply to very large creatures.

Purple Pikmin are strangely not affected by the hormones that Mitites release, making them the perfect way to extinguish them. Another interesting ability of the Purples is that they rarely stumble while traveling. Other Pikmin will occasionally trip and continue moving in one direction for a little bit before returning to the rest of the pack, but Purples rarely stumble, and when they do, they move about half as far as any other species. This may be due to their intense weight preventing them from falling easily.

These Pikmin possess the strange ability to anchor extra-dimensional entities such as the Waterwraith to this dimension for a brief period, and although this has never been explained in detail, it is likely another effect of their heavy weight.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Purple Pikmin have the shortest throw distance and the smallest grab range. When thrown at an enemy, rather than latching on, purples will deliver a blow with knockback, stopping the opponent in his or her tracks. They are the most durable Pikmin of all and deliver the highest amount of knockback in Olimar's smashes and aerial attacks. Purple Pikmin are also the only Pikmin that will be plucked by Olimar in the Home-Run Contest.

In Pikmin 3, Purple Pikmin maintain most of their abilities, but due to the use of the Wii MotionPlus as the game's main controls which allows for easier targeting, Purple Pikmin no longer home in on enemies when thrown.

Obtaining Purple Pikmin

Retrieval of the Doomsday Apparatus treasure in Pikmin 2 requires the use of one-hundred Purple Pikmin. The best place to get so many would be the Subterranean Complex. Take a single Pikmin into that cave and skip sublevels until you reach the eighth one, with an exit geyser, Candypop Buds and some eggs. Use the Queen Candypop Buds first and the Violet Candypop Buds after to produce fifteen Purple Pikmin and two Red, Blue or Yellow Pikmin. Or, if you are also going for White Pikmin, bring sixteen Pikmin and throw fifteen of them into the three Ivory Candypop Buds to gain fifteen. When you reach the seventh floor, throw the last non-white Pikmin into a Queen Candypop Bud first and the Violet Candypop Buds after to produce fifteen Purple Pikmin and two Red, Blue or Yellow Pikmin.

Trophy description in Super Smash Bros. Brawl

File:SSBBPurpPikTrophy.jpg

Trophy for Purple Pikmin.

"A type of Pikmin, much heavier and slower than other Pikmin. When thrown, they impact with such force that they may kill or stun enemies. They're also incredibly strong--one of them can carry an item that normally would require ten Pikmin. While they're more powerful fighters than their red cousins, their slow speed hampers their effectiveness."

Trivia

• In the beta version of the game, you can see that Purple Pikmin can still do their ground pound move, but deal less damage to enemies. They also do not have their ability to lift ten times as much weight as normal Pikmin in the beta game.
• Even though Purple Pikmin are naturally purple, Mushroom Pikmin, or Puffmin, are also purple, ableit a different shade.
• Reggie Fils-Aime (the COO of Nintendo of America), after the announcement of Pikmin 3 in E3 2012, said "I feel just like a Purple Pikmin." The phrase went viral shortly after.
• On the official Pikmin 2 website that was released shortly after the game's original release, there was a page that had Pikmin sprouts that, when moused over, would pop out of the ground and display info on that Pikmin type. When the Purple Pikmin sprout was chosen, it would pop out of the ground and for a single frame, reveal it has a mouth that resemblies a Blue Pikmin's gills.

Gallery

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  A Purple Pikmin carrying a red berry.

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  Purple Pikmin when first discovered in the Emergence Cave.

• Brawl Purple.PNG

  A Purple Pikmin in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

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  A Purple Pikmin.

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  The Purple Pikmin as it appears in the trailer

• Purple white.jpg
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  A high quality picture of a Purple Pikmin as seen in Pikmin 2.

• PPikminPik3.PNG

  A Purple Pikmin shown on the expanded box art for Pikmin 3.