Pellet

A red 5 pellet from Pikmin 3.

A pellet (ペレット^?, lit.: "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 a variety of 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, 8, 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 that number, 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.

8 pellet

These pellets are exclusive to Hey! Pikmin and are the only kind present in that game. They are obtained as a reward for completing Secret Spots from the area selection screen, and automatically add 8 Pikmin of the corresponding type to Pikmin Park.

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 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 on Twilight River, in a pond in the cave with three Juicy Gaggles. There is also a winged 10 pellet on Twilight River, near the Burrowing Snagret. Finally, on The Rustyard (Battle Enemies! version), a rock 10 pellet can be found near a Toady Bloyster.

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 and Pikmin 4.

Stats

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	2	1
5 pellet	5	10	5	3
10 pellet	10	20	10	5 or 6
20 pellet	20	50	20	10

Colors

There is one color of pellet per main Pikmin type, with the exception of Glow Pikmin and Bulbmin, since those do not have an Onion.

•  Red pellet: Among the most common types of pellets. These are associated with Red Pikmin.
•  Yellow pellet: These pellets are associated with Yellow Pikmin.
•  Blue pellet: Blue pellets are associated with Blue Pikmin.
•  Rock pellet: Rock pellets are associated with Rock Pikmin, and until Hey! Pikmin, they used to be unnamed.
•  Winged pellet: These are associated with Winged Pikmin, and just like rock pellets, they used to be unnamed until Hey! Pikmin.
•  Ice pellet: These pellets are associated with Ice Pikmin.
•  Purple pellet: These pellets are associated with Purple Pikmin.
•  White pellet: These pellets are associated with White Pikmin.

Availability

Olimar and some Pikmin carrying a pellet.

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. In Pikmin 3, the addition of new Onions adds two more colors to the cycle, now making the order go red, rock, yellow, winged, blue.

To understand what rules determine which Pikmin type out of the carriers gets the pellet, please read the carry article.

Color transitions

An oddly colored pellet on the back of the Quaggled Mireclops.

To do: Find out what happens if a Pellet Posy is broken while its pellet is changing color. Care to do so?

In Pikmin 3, when a pellet on a Pellet Posy changes color, it will change in a quick gradient rather than instantaneously. The pellet spends 2 frames showing colors in-between its previous color and the color it's changing to, before arriving at the new color. It is possible to take photos of these transitional colors with the KopPad camera, which can produce images with pellets that appear orange, purple, brown, and other colors.

Strangely, in the original Pikmin 3, it is possible to view pellets in the middle of a color transition on the radar at the start of the day. By panning to the radar to certain sections of areas (such as the Quaggled Mireclops arena after that boss has been defeated), and looking at the TV screen, the pellet will show one of these transitional colors until the gameplay is unpaused or the segment is visited.

Three Pikmin carrying a 1 pellet

The instruction manual shows 3 Pikmin carrying the same 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.

It is very likely that in during development of Pikmin, it was possible for three Pikmin to grab onto the same 1 pellet. This is evidenced by a few things:

• The file /dataDir/objects/ufoparts/pelMgr.bin is unused by the game, and contains outdated data about how objects are carried. This file specifies that 1 pellets can be carried by 3 Pikmin at most.
• In 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.
• 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.

That said, 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. So far, there has been no evidence of this glitch being executed.

Besides the first Pikmin game on the GameCube, the Pikmin AR Card in AR Games is also related to this phenomenon, since it has a pose with three Pikmin carrying a 1 pellet. Though the Pikmin look like the ones from Pikmin, they don't exactly come from any particular game. In addition, in Pikmin 3, if a varied group of Pikmin is told to charge at a 1 pellet, some Winged Pikmin may lift it while grounded Pikmin are holding it, and the grounded Pikmin will stay latched on for some seconds. Because of the unique carrying mechanics with Winged Pikmin, this can technically make the number of carriers 3 or even 4.

In the Super Smash Bros. series

This article or section is a short summary on the pellets in the Super Smash Bros. series. SmashWiki features more in-depth content.

Pellets appear as items and trophies in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 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

	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. Pikmin Pikmin 2”
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

	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.”
	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!”
How to obtain: Random appearance.		Type: Series Related

	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. Appears in: Pikmin (12/2001) Pikmin 2 (08/2004)”
	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! Related Games Pikmin (06/2002) Pikmin 2 (10/2004)”
How to obtain: Random appearance.		Type: Series Related	Trophy Box: None

Gallery

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  Artwork of a Blue Pikmin and a Red Pikmin carrying a pellet, from Pikmin.

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  Artwork of a Red Pikmin carrying a pellet in Pikmin.

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  Clay artwork of a Blue Pikmin with a blue pellet, from Pikmin 2.

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  Clay artwork of two Pikmin carrying a pellet.

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  Clay artwork of three pellets from Pikmin 2.

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  Artwork of a 10 pellet from Pikmin 3.

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  A 5 pellet in Pikmin.

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  A 5 pellet in Pikmin 2.

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  A 5 pellet in Pikmin 3.

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  Some 10 pellets in Pikmin.

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  Some 10 pellets in Pikmin 2.

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  A Red Pikmin returns a red pellet to its Onion.

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  A pellet being dug out in Pikmin 3.

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  A 5 pellet in Pikmin 3. Notice that the digit on it is not exactly written into the pellet but stands out a little.

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  A 20 pellet in Pikmin.

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  A 20 pellet in Pikmin 2.

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  A winged 10 pellet in Pikmin 3.

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  A red 8 pellet in Hey! Pikmin.

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. A 40 pellet could also be seen in this trailer.
  • The idea of enemies turning into pellets upon death would later be used in Pikmin 4 during Night expeditions, albeit with glow pellets rather than regular pellets.
• 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 winged pellet from near the winged 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 winged Onion merges with the Master Onion.
• According to director Shigefumi Hino, the reason enemies drop pellets when they die is because the pellets formed naturally in their stomach from what they ate.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	ペレット? Peretto	Pellet
Chinese (traditional)	沛蕾特	Pellet
Chinese (simplified)	沛蕾特	Pellet
Dutch	Capsule	Capsule
French (NoA)	Galette	Pellet
French (NoE)	Palet	Pellet
German	Knopf (Pikmin 3, Hey! Pikmin) Blütennarbe	Button Blossom Scar
Italian	Gettone	Pellet
Korean	펠렛 Pellet	Pellet
Portuguese (NoA)	Grânulo	Granule
Portuguese (NoE)	Comprimido Drageia	Pill	Translation taken from the Pikmin instruction manual Translation taken from the Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS trophy.
Spanish	Píldora	Pill

<number> pellet

Language	Name	Meaning
French (NoE)	Palet <number>	Pellet <number>
German	<number>er-Knopf	<number>-Button
Italian	Gettone da <number>	Pellet of <number>
Spanish	Píldora <number>	Pill <number>

[[it:Gettone da <number>]]

Hey! Pikmin

English	Dutch	French (NoA)	French (NoE)	German	Italian	Korean	Spanish
Red pellet	Rode capsule	Galette rouge	Palet rouge	Roter Knopf	Gettone rosso	빨강펠렛	Píldora roja
Yellow pellet	Gele capsule	Galette jaune	Palet jaune	Gelber Knopf	Gettone giallo	노랑펠렛	Píldora amarilla
Blue pellet	Blauwe capsule	Galette bleu	Palet bleu	Blauer Knopf	Gettone blu	파랑펠렛	Píldora azul
Rock pellet	Rotscapsule	Galette roc	Palet roc	Fels-Knopf	Gettone roccioso	바위펠렛	Píldora pétrea
Winged pellet	Vleugelcapsule	Galette ailé	Palet ailé	Flügel-Knopf	Gettone alato	날개펠렛	Píldora alada

See also

• Pellet Posy
• Seedling
• Nectar

References

This article was a featured article from August 1st, 2016 to October 1st, 2016.