A pellet is a crystallized chunk of nectar that contains vitamins and other nutrition. Pellets are used to produce Pikmin, by bringing them to the Onion, and are the main source of seeds at the start of the games, as large creatures require many Pikmin to kill safely.
Pellets come in four sizes, and each one produces a different amount of Pikmin. An Arabic numeral can be seen atop each one, reflecting its weight. Pellets with the numbers 1, 5, 10, and 20 exist. If the color of the pellet matches the color of the Onion it is brought to, that same number of Pikmin is produced (the exception being the number 1, which creates two Pikmin). If not, only half the number on the pellet, rounded up, will appear.
They are found on the top of Pellet Posies, and sometimes on the ground. Certain creatures of PNF-404 also leave pellets as spoils at times; they have presumably eaten pellets, which could indicate the possibility that the same creatures are herbivores, if not omnivores.
Sizes
- 1 pellet
- The most common size of pellet and the only kind found on Pellet Posies in Pikmin. If they are brought to the same colored Onion, they produce 2 Pikmin, if not, they produce just 1 Pikmin.
- 5 pellet
- A fairly rare pellet; these are found on the ground or dropped by enemies in Pikmin, but pellet-bearing Pellet Posies debuted with this pellet in Pikmin 2. If they are brought to the same colored Onion, they produce 5 Pikmin, if not, they produce only 3 Pikmin. The Pellet Posies for this plant are only found in the Valley of Repose in Pikmin 2, but are more common in the other games. They can be found in some fixed placed in Pikmin 3, but two of them grow atop the defeated Quaggled Mireclops.
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The following article or section is in need of assistance from someone who plays Pikmin 3. |
- 10 pellet
- These are even rarer, as these are only in significant places in Pikmin, and only four reappearing Pellet Posies with pellets of weight 10 are found in Pikmin 2: three in the Awakening Wood, and one in the Valley of Repose. If they are brought to the same colored Onion, they produce 10 Pikmin, if not, they produce 5 Pikmin in Pikmin and Pikmin 2, or 6 in Pikmin 3. They are also dropped by the Toady Bloyster and the Spotty Bulbear (day 30) in the Perplexing Pool. Finally, it is also dropped by the Fiery Bulblax in the Valley of Repose – the one that holds the Temporal Mechanism – after its treasure has been salvaged. In Pikmin 3, a 10 Pellet Posy in is located on the Tropical Wilds, next to the Pyroclasmic Slooches and the Lesser Mock Bottom; it is always red. On the same area, one is found near the Swooping Snitchbug. A blue 10 pellet can also be found in Twilight River, in a pond in the cave with three Juicy Gaggles. There is also a pink 10 pellet in Twilight River, near the Burrowing Snagret.
- 20 pellet
- The rarest of all, these are very large and very difficult to find; in Pikmin 2, there is actually a Pellet Posy for this pellet that regrows, located near the Snagret Hole in the Awakening Wood, which bears the only 20 pellet in the game. In Pikmin, a yellow 20 pellet is found on top of a tree stump, where only Yellow Pikmin can reach it, in The Forest of Hope. There are also 20 pellets of all 3 colors lying around in the back area where the Pearly Clamclamps are at The Impact Site. There are many 20 pellets lying around everywhere throughout Challenge Mode as well. 50 Pikmin maximum can carry a 20 pellet, instead of the normal of exactly twice its weight. If they are brought to the same colored Onion, they produce 20 Pikmin; if not, they produce 10 Pikmin. These pellet types are absent from Pikmin 3.
Chart
The following chart lists information about the different sizes of pellet.
| Pellet | Weight | Max. carriers |
Number of seeds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Color match | Color mismatch | |||
| 1 pellet | 1 | 2[note 1] | 2 | 1 |
| 5 pellet | 5 | 10 | 5 | 3 |
| 10 pellet | 10 | 20 | 10 | 5 or 6[note 2] |
| 20 pellet | 20 | 50 | 20 | 10 |
- ^ See the Three Pikmin carrying a 1 pellet section below.
- ^ 5 in Pikmin and Pikmin 2, 6 in Pikmin 3.
Availability
At the start of any Pikmin game, all the Pellet Posies are red. Specific-colored pellets can be found lying around in some places, while the rest are inside enemies or atop Pellet Posies.
Some Pellet Posies have pellets with fixed colors. These are normally found next to the Onion where the respective Pikmin type is discovered, although they can exist in other places as well. All other Posies' pellets constantly change color, once every few seconds, between the colors of the Pikmin that have so far been collected, in the following order: red, yellow, blue. Pellets cannot ever be purple or white, or aid in producing Purple or White Pikmin directly. In Pikmin 3, the addition of new Onions adds two more colors to the cycle, now making the order go red, gray, yellow, pink, blue.
To understand what rules determine which Pikmin type out of the carriers gets the pellet, please read the carrying article.
Other colors
In Pikmin 3, once the day starts, the player can pan the radar around to where some specific multi-colored Pellet Posies are, and by looking at the TV screen, they will be able to see the pellets with weird colors. This is likely the result of a lighting glitch, similar to some spray drop glitches in Pikmin 2, but it could also be a secret allusion to other Pikmin types purposely added into the game. This behavior applies to the following:
- Some of the Pellet Posies that grow on the Quaggled Mireclops, on the days after its defeat.
- Some of the Pellet Posies at the section of the Tropical Wilds explored on day 1.
- The 5-pellet at the section where Captain Charlie crash-lands on the Distant Tundra.
These pellet colors can only be seen in sections of the area that are not the landing site, since having a leader go into the same section as the mysterious pellets will make them turn into normal ones for the rest of the day. In addition, if the player presses the "unpause gameplay" button on the top-right corner of the radar, the pellets will also instantly turn to normal. Some color-changing Pellet Posies are in sync with one another, so depending on the color of the pellets that use the same cycle, it is possible to know what the color of the "glitched" pellet will be, and what color it will turn into if the gameplay is unpaused while on the overhead view:
| Cycle color | On-screen color | Color after unpausing |
|---|---|---|
| Red | Olive | Yellow |
| Gray | Purple | Red |
| Blue | ||
| Yellow | Pale red | Gray |
| Pink |
Three Pikmin carrying a 1 pellet
The maximum number of Pikmin that can carry a 1 pellet is two – one on each side. There is however, a bit of a mystery surrounding the ability for three Pikmin to carry a single 1 pellet in the first Pikmin game.
There have been reports of a rare glitch that allows a trio of grounded carriers to handle a single pellet. This glitch is currently unconfirmed, and the documented steps to reproduce it include having a Pikmin attack the top of a Pellet Posy while two others attack it from the bottom, timing it so the top Pikmin knocks down the pellet at the same time as the plant gets knocked out by the grounded Pikmin.
Besides the alleged glitch, there are some other clips and images related to this riddle. On the page that details the Onions and pellets in Pikmin's instruction manual, there is a picture of three Blue Pikmin carrying a 1 pellet, with the carrying numbers confirming this. It is not known whether this was a normal thing in a previous version of the game or if the screenshot is actually demonstrating the supposed glitch. On the enemy reel's Breadbug clip, a Breadbug can be seen trying to carry away a yellow 1 pellet, but is overpowered by some Pikmin tugging on the other side. It is very hard to see how many Pikmin are holding on to the pellet, both because they can't be seen from the angle the clip was shot at, and because there are no carrying numbers. But when the Breadbug is beamed up by the Onion, three Pikmin can be seen behind it. It is unknown if all three of these were grabbing the pellet, or if some were idling.
All of these factors make it unclear if the ability for three Pikmin to carry a 1 pellet exists in the final game, and if so, whether it is intended or not.
In the Super Smash Bros. series
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This article or section is a short summary on the pellets in the Super Smash Bros. series. |
Pellets appear as items and trophies in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, and just as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. As items, they are only available on the Distant Planet stage, where they can be gathered from Pellet Posies that appear on the stage, and be grabbed and then chucked at other fighters or into Onions.
Stickers for a blue pellet and a yellow pellet also exist in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Brawl trophy
| File:PelletsTrophy.jpg | Description:
“Items that contain concentrated essence of the Pikmin's home world. This essence is the keystone to all life on the planet. Harvested from pellet grass or flowers, Pikmin can take pellets back to Onions to produce more Pikmin. If the Onion and the pellet are the same color, it produces more Pikmin. The number on the top of a pellet tells how many Pikmin must carry it.
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| How to obtain: Complete Target Smash level 2 with 10 characters. | Type: Stage | |
The "pellet flowers" referred to in the description are Pellet Posies, yet "pellet grass" is not mentioned in Pikmin or Pikmin 2, making it a mistake on the description writer's part. This could refer to nectar weed, which does not contain pellets, but rather, raw nectar. Flukeweed were introduced to the Pikmin series after Brawl, but these plants often drops pellets and resemble grass. Finally, it could be referring to the Japanese name, ペレット草?, which does translate to "Pellet Grass", but the fact that there's a distinction in the sentence between the "flowers" and the "grass" does not support this.
Smash 4 trophy
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 US description:
“A crystallized nectar that contains the essence of the Pikmin's home world, these pellets are most often harvested from the plant life of the planet. Each pellet displays a number on its surface, and this number may increase over time. The Onion generates more Pikmin with bigger numbers.”
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 EU description:
“The crystallised essence of the Pikmin's home planet. You'll need these things if you want more Pikmin, so harvest them by attacking the Pellet Posy they come from. By the way, keep an eye on the number on the front – it goes up little by little, and the higher it goes, the more items you'll get when you lob the pellet at an Onion!”
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| How to obtain: Random appearance. | Type: Series Related | |
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US description:
“A crystallized nectar that contains the essence of the Pikmin's home world, these pellets are most often harvested from the plant life of the planet. Each pellet displays a number on its surface, and this number may increase over time. The Onion generates more Pikmin with bigger numbers.
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| EU description:
“The crystallised essence of the Pikmin's home planet. You'll need these things if you want more Pikmin, so harvest them by attacking the Pellet Posy they come from. By the way, keep an eye on the number on the front – it goes up little by little, and the higher it goes, the more items you'll get when you lob the pellet at an Onion!
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| How to obtain: Random appearance. | Type: Series Related | Trophy Box: None | |
Gallery
- PikCarryPellet.jpg
Artwork of a Blue Pikmin and a Red Pikmin carrying a pellet, from Pikmin.
- Pellet NPC1.jpg
Artwork of a Red Pikmin carrying a pellet.
Clay artwork of a Blue Pikmin with a blue pellet, from Pikmin 2.
Clay artwork of two Pikmin carrying a pellet.
Clay artwork of three pellets from Pikmin 2.
Artwork of a 10 pellet from Pikmin 3.
A 5 pellet in Pikmin.
A 5 pellet in Pikmin 2.
A 5 pellet in Pikmin 3.
Some 10 pellets in Pikmin.
Some 10 pellets in Pikmin 2.
A pellet being dug out in Pikmin 3.
A 5 pellet in Pikmin 3. Notice that the digit on it is not exactly written into the pellet but stands out a little.
A 20 pellet in Pikmin.
A 20 pellet in Pikmin 2.
A pink 10 pellet in Pikmin 3.
Trivia
- If one gets a pellet off a high ledge, it can flip over and show the reverse of whatever number the pellet had on it. This is only true for the first two games.
- It was revealed through a trailer of an earlier version of Pikmin that all enemies that died would turn into pellets with a small sparkle of blue light, meaning that enemy corpses may have not been an idea at the time.
- This trailer also showed that 40 pellets were going to be included, but were taken out.
- In Pikmin, pellets that fall from a height (normally while being carried) make a "spring" sound, same as the Gravity Jumper.
- If a non-Winged Pikmin tries to take a pink pellet from near the pink Onion, they will be unable to return home, and behave the exact same way as if an obstacle in their way needs clearing. This is to prevent players from accidentally taking away pellets that are useful to help grow a Winged Pikmin army, and stops being true on the day after the pink Onion merges with the Master Onion.
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 French |
Palet | Pellet | |
 French (NoA) |
Galette | Pellet | |
 German |
Blütennarbe | Blossom Scar | |
 Italian |
Gettone | Pellet | |
 Portuguese (NoE) |
Comprimido / Drageia | Pill | First translation taken from the Pikmin instruction manual, second from the Super Smash Bros. for 3DS trophy. |
 Spanish (NoA) |
Píldora | Pill | |
 Spanish (NoE) |
Píldora (Pikmin and Pikmin 2) Píldora 1 / 5 / 10 (Pikmin 3) |
Pill |