When underground in caves, the Hocotate Ship dispatches its nose cone, known as the Research Pod, and sends it down to support Olimar and Louie/The President on their underground expedition. Anything that the Pikmin pick up will be carried to the Pod and stored in its hull until the player exits the cavern. The Pod will dispose of all treasures and creatures that were collected and return above ground with the captains and the Pikmin when the player wishes to leave the cave without the help of a geyser. This can be done by selecting the option in the pause-menu. If all Pikmin die in the cave or both of the captain suffer too much damage, the Pod will also get rid of its load and escape the cave. This happens automatically and cannot be prevented unless the game is reset, losing data on the current sublevel. The discarded treasures will be returned to the sublevels they were found in if no reset is made.
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File:Research Pod.jpg The Research Pod after having paid the debt. |
