Nectar

Artwork of Pikmin drinking nectar in Pikmin.

Nectar (大地のエキスを^?, lit.: "Earth extract") is a substance that increases the maturity of Pikmin, usually to the flower stage. It comes in the form of large drops of liquid that Pikmin can drink. It works quite differently in the main series and Pikmin Bloom.

In the main series

Usage

A screenshot of a drop of nectar in Pikmin 2.

Any leaf or bud Pikmin that pass by a drop of nectar on the ground will crouch down and begin to slurp it for roughly two seconds, regardless of whether it is idle or has been directed to it. At the end of the slurp, it will jump up and the leaf or bud on its head will turn into a flower.

In Pikmin and Pikmin 2, a single drop of nectar can be shared by any number of Pikmin, but as soon as one Pikmin starts to drink it, the drop will shrink until it disappears when the first Pikmin is done. This means that only Pikmin which start drinking the nectar within this time window will be flowered. The time window is quite strict in Pikmin, but lasts longer in Pikmin 2. The most effective way to get a large number of Pikmin drinking the same nectar drop is by swarming them in a tight group.

In Pikmin 3, a single drop of nectar can flower 10 Pikmin. When a single Pikmin drinks from a drop of nectar, it will drink one tenth of the drop. Thus it is not possible for an entire large squad to be flowered from a single drop, but is it also not possible to waste a drop on a single Pikmin.

Obtaining

There are numerous places where nectar can be found. Most of these sources will produce a single drop of nectar most of the time, but can sometimes produce more.

Notes

Prima Guide

"This golden liquid causes immature Pikmin to instantly blossom. Pikmin move much faster once they've matured, so try to make use of any nectar you find."

Glitch

Main article: Floating nectar.

In Pikmin Bloom

In Pikmin Bloom, unlike the usual blobs seen in other games in the series that can feed multiple Pikmin, nectar takes the appearance of translucent colored balls, similar to the orb that a Honeywisp carries, that are fed to Pikmin individually in the Pikmin garden screen. A large ball of nectar appears at the bottom of the screen and can be swiped up to throw a small ball towards the Pikmin. Pikmin run towards the ball and whichever one picks it up gets to drink it, blooming in the process. If no Pikmin picks it up after a few seconds, it will disappear and return to the player's supply. Alternatively, nectar can be fed directly to Pikmin by holding down on the large ball and dragging the finger around the screen to give small balls to whatever Pikmin the finger passes over. This process works the same way for any type of nectar. The player can also tap a Pikmin to focus on them, and while in this state only the Pikmin that is focused on will be fed nectar.

The most common, standard nectar type comes in four colors – in order of rarity, nectar, yellow nectar, red nectar, and blue nectar. These different nectars make Pikmin bloom standard flowers in different colors. Regular nectar produces white flowers and does not bloom leaf Pikmin straight to the flower stage, instead blooming them from leaf to bud and bud to flower in two steps. Yellow, red, and blue nectars produce flowers of those colors, respectively, and bloom Pikmin straight to the flower stage.

Two rarer types of nectar, rose and pansy nectar, can also come in any of the four colors and are obtained through completing challenges and blooming Big Flowers. They take the appearance of a transparent orb tinged with their respective color and with an icon of the type of flower inside. When fed to a Pikmin, these will bloom that Pikmin straight to the flower stage, like the colored nectar, and the flower atop the Pikmin's head will be the type of flower that the nectar represented instead of the standard Chaenostoma cordatum.

A final, extremely rare type of nectar, special nectar, displays as a faceted translucent magenta heart shape, and feeding it to a Pikmin raises its friendship by 1 heart, much more than the small fraction of a heart other nectar types increase it by.

When a Pikmin is bloomed into the flower stage with any nectar type, its flower will glow. Tapping on the glowing flower will add petals of that color and type to the player's petal supply, making using nectar the main way of getting petals. Feeding a Pikmin also raises that Pikmin's friendship. If a Pikmin is fed enough times, its flower will disappear and the Pikmin will be unable to be fed for some time.

An example of the glowing effect on a Purple Pikmin.

On rare occasions after a player fed nectar to their Pikmin squad, one or more Pikmin may continue emitting a glow with an additional blue tint and small lens flare effect. If a player attempts to collect petals from this Pikmin, it will keep giving unlimited petals of the nectar type it was fed last until the glowing stops. This lasts for approximately 10 seconds.

Nectar is found primarily through collecting fruits, both from expeditions and from walking around. When a fruit is collected, it will add some amount of some type of nectar to the player's supply. The different types of nectar all have separate, limited storage capacities; this limit starts at 200 but can be increased with in-app purchases.

In Pikmin Adventure

Nectar spread all over the ground in Pikmin Adventure.

Nectar makes an appearance in Nintendo Land's attraction Pikmin Adventure. Nectar is a common item that can be found inside "?" blocks, and appears as leftovers from destroyed enemies. Every three blobs, a player will level up. It takes level 5 to get a bud, and level 10 to get a flower. Players will also drop a few drops of nectar when hurt.

If the player isn't doing very well on a specific stage, the game will eventually spawn a rainbow "!" block near the starting point. Once this block is broken, a large drop of nectar appears that, when collected, instantly evolves all players to level 50.

Monita's Notes

"Nectar is a condensed, highly nutritional food source that has been scientifically proven to encourage a Pikmin's growth. Also, it looks delicious."

Gallery

A Purple Pikmin at full bloom after drinking nectar.
Nectar on the ground in Pikmin 3.
A Nectarous Dandelfly from Pikmin 3.
Honeywisp.png

A Honeywisp.
The data file explaining nectar.
A screenshot of an early version of Pikmin showing a blue drop of nectar.

Pikmin Bloom

Nectar (white nectar)
Red nectar
Blue nectar
Yellow nectar

Trivia

Swarming Sheargrubs can also drink nectar, and will grow bigger if they do.
There is a pre-made WarioWare: D.I.Y. microgame called Pikmin. In the game, the throwing cursor moves back and forth. When the player taps the screen, Olimar will throw a Red Pikmin to the cursor. It must land on the rock where nectar is in order to win the game. If the player misses, the Pikmin will land in the pond and drown.
In Pikmin 2, if the first Pikmin that drinks nectar is a Bulbmin, the cutscene will trigger but the sound of a normal Pikmin will play. Since Bulbmin have a different voice, this is likely a mistake.
In Pikmin 3, if a leaf Pikmin drinks nectar, it back flips in happiness, but if a bud Pikmin drinks nectar, it will stretch its arms out and shake them.
In a certain check in conversation in Pikmin 3, Brittany reveals that she tasted nectar, and describes it as bitter.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	大地のエキスを^? Daichi no ekisu o	Earth extract
Chinese (traditional)	大地精華	Essence of the Earth
Chinese (simplified)	大地精华	Essence of the Earth
Dutch	Nectar	Nectar	Name taken from official websites
French	Nectar	Nectar
German	Nektar	Nectar
Italian	Nettare	Nectar
Korean	대지의 정수 Daegiui jeongsu	Marrow of Earth
Portuguese (NoE)	Néctar	Nectar	Names taken from official websites
Spanish	Néctar	Nectar
Russian	Нектар Nektar	Nectar	Name taken from official websites