Pikmin extinction occurs when every single Pikmin, including those planted in the ground and stored in the Onions, is lost. The day ends immediately, and each Onion produces a single seed at the beginning of the following day.
In Pikmin, the following is Olimar's Journal entry on the first day extinction occurs:
- The Pikmin have all perished because of my own carelessness. I am an utter disgrace as a leader... How can I continue to collect parts without them? Still the Onions join me in low orbit, as if this Pikmin extinction had never happened. I shan't sleep tonight...
After extinction, the player must regrow all of their armies from scratch. If players do not treat the 1-3 Pikmin given to them with care, they will be easy prey to all manner of enemies and could quickly lead to another Extinction. To prevent this from happening, the safest place to grow Pikmin after an Extinction is The Impact Site in the first Pikmin game, and in Pikmin 2 the Awakening Wood is safe so long as one does not stray too far from the landing site.
Oddly, in 2-Player Mode a Pikmin extinction occurs if one player has one Pikmin left and it is killed by the opposing player's Pikmin, despite the fact a Pikmin will be reborn at the player's Onion if it is killed by another Pikmin.