Radar

The radar as it appears in Pikmin 2.

The radar is a mechanic present in all Pikmin games. It can be unlocked in Pikmin by collecting the Whimsical Radar, is available from the start in Pikmin 2, and is unlocked when the KopPad is found in Pikmin 3. This tool allows the player to view the area's layout, as well as the location of several important objects, such as the Pikmin, the Onion(s), and collectible objects.

The buttons needed to access the radar, pan it and zoom it vary from game to game:

Game	Open	Pan	Zoom
Pikmin	Y	Stick	C
Pikmin 2	Start	Stick	C
New Play Control! Pikmin and Pikmin 2			Padupdown

In the first two games and their remakes, the screen that contains the radar also enumerates how many Pikmin are with the current captain, of each type, how many Pikmin there are in the Onions, of each type, and how many Pikmin are roaming through the area, of all types. In addition, the screen also shows the total number of ship parts obtained, in Pikmin.

The radar is disabled during Challenge Mode, but not Mission Mode, and is completely disabled from any 2-player game mode.

Appearance

In the first two games, the radar shows a monochromatic representation of the area's terrain, only really highlighting the walls and water. Some icons point out the location of ship parts, treasures, Onions, and a few other things. In Pikmin 3, it provides a map of the area, stylized so that water, terrain, structures, and boundary walls are high-contrast and easy to distinguish. It has a static level of zoom, and by default, the map is centered on the active leader.

In Pikmin 3

The radar is the default app on the KopPad. If Off-TV Play is off, the map will follow the current leader as they move.

Touching the GamePad in this state will pause gameplay, if it is not already paused. With Off-TV Play disabled, the camera on the TV screen will also move upwards and point down in a birds-eye view. The player can drag their finger or stylus on the touchscreen in order to pan around; the TV screen camera will also pan accordingly. Effectively, this feature allows the player to view all around the area from a birds-eye view, either with the stylized KopPad map, or from the actual in-game camera.

The map is not fully rendered from the get-go. A fog of war effect makes it so that the map only renders places visited by the leaders. The TV screen's camera will not show unexplored sections. Once a zone of the map is rendered, it stays that way forever, even if the player returns to a previous day after saving. Uncharted areas merely show the background of the KopPad – a blue and cyan grid. This method of charting is not divided in cells or predefined zones, but is rather quite smooth, with nearly each pixel of the map having an individual "charted" or "uncharted" state. The map is automatically charted as the gameplay takes place, and approximately one camera-width of content can be revealed from any one position.

Two buttons exist on the top left and top right corners of the map app. The icon on the top-left allows the player to toggle the map orientation between always having the north point up (an "N" icon with a triangle pointing upwards), or the same orientation as the camera (a compass icon). Changing this will also change the TV screen's overhead camera. The button on the top-right shows Alph's silhouette, and is used to toggle the gameplay pause. If the icon is stopped, the gameplay is paused, but if the icon shows a walking animation, the gameplay continues taking place while the player is examining the map. In this mode, all of the map app's functionalities continue to work as normal, but switching apps will forcefully pause the gameplay. It should be noted that the top-right button does not work with Off-TV Play enabled.

When sunset is approaching, the top of the map app will periodically switch between the message "Pikmin in Danger", and the current amount of Pikmin of each type that will be left behind during the sunset, unless they're gathered in time.

If Off-TV Play is on and the player has the screen showing the KopPad, attempting to disable Off-TV Play with will merely show a message saying that it is impossible to switch.

Legend

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The radar can show the following icons:

Meaning	Pikmin icon	Pikmin 2 icon	Pikmin 3 icon	Description
Leader			File:LeaderIcons.png	Position and facing direction of each leader. In Pikmin 2, red represents Olimar, and blue, the other leader. In Pikmin 3, tapping a different leader's bubble will switch to that leader without unpausing the gameplay.
Collectible		N/A		Shows the location of a ship part or fruit, even if inside an enemy. The Pikmin 3 icon shows a yellow star if the object hasn't been seen yet, and the fruit's icon otherwise.
Pikmin				The location of the regular Pikmin.
Burrowed Pikmin				The location of buried Pikmin, of any type.
Bulbmin	N/A		N/A	The location of Bulbmin.
Onions				Position of each Onion.
Ship	File:Pikmin radar ship.png	File:Pikmin 2 radar ship.png		Location of the main ship: the S.S. Dolphin, Hocotate ship, or S.S. Drake
Research Pod / SPERO	N/A			Location of the treasure-collecting floating vessel.
Cave entrance / Sublevel hole	N/A	File:Pikmin 2 radar cave.png	N/A	Hole used to enter a cave or the next sublevel in a cave.
Completed cave entrance	N/A	File:Pikmin 2 radar completed cave.png	N/A	If a cave has no more treasure left to collect, it will be represented with this icon.
Exit geyser	N/A		N/A	Location of a cave's exit geyser.
Section entrance/exit	N/A	N/A		Entrance or exit point between sections, pointing to the exit. When a leader enters one of these areas, a quick fade takes place, and they are placed on the new section of the map. Clicking on one of these icons will center the map on the matching exit icon.
Signal	N/A	N/A		The location of the current signal. This icon also emits large circular yellow waves from time to time.

Besides those, the radar also illustrates the following:

North, with a pink arrow in a fixed location pointing in that direction.
Water, with stripes that alternate between dark and light, in the first two games, or blue color in Pikmin 3.
Obstacles, in Pikmin 3, with an icon for each. Some of these icons have more than one version that signify how much more of the obstacle is left to clear.

In Pikmin 3, multi-part fruits also have different icons, and grapes have icons that represent different levels of individual grape collection. Upon collecting 10 different fruits, the Fruit Finder will be unlocked. Fruits will be then shown on the KopPad whether the area has been discovered yet or not.

Go Here!

In order to use the Go Here! functionality, the player must first collect the Data File located on the other side of the Crystal Wall at the Garden of Hope's landing site.

With the gameplay paused, a appears on the center of the map app. When the map is panned, the pyramid stays on the center, and hence, follows the panning. As the shape moves, a set of arrows originating from the current leader mark a trail from the leader's icon on the map to the spot the pointer is at. After a small delay, a button with the leader's icon and the words "Go Here!" will appear in a non-obstructive location of the screen. Tapping this button will make the leader take the path shown towards the target location. With the Go Here! functionality, players can make leaders (and their army of Pikmin) automatically move to a location, while they focus on doing something else with another leader.

The planned path is always the shortest one required in order to reach the destination. This path-finding system also takes into account insurmountable obstacles and water, disallowing the travel if the player tries to enter a body of water with non-Blue or non-Winged Pikmin in their party. Hazards and enemies are ignored when deciding the path, but uncharted terrain is considered and not allowed. If the player places the destination point in an uncharted or invalid location (like a body of water, as stated above), the pyramid marker will turn pink, and the "Go Here!" button will be grayed out. If the path to a certain location is blocked off by an uncleared obstacle or any other feature that can't be overcome, the shown path will still trace to the point of the obstacle, where it then displays a pink ❌ sign, and the rest of the path with pink arrows, meaning the leader can only reach the point marked by the ❌ sign.

If the leader reaches their destination successfully, a dialog message will appear on-screen with their icon, and a message stating that they reached their target spot. If not, they'll explain why the path didn't work. They'll also give up if they get stuck on something for a few seconds, like a wall or enemy carcass. If the leader is damaged during their walk, they will cancel their task altogether.

The player can use leaders under the Go Here! function, but most action inputs will not work, and the leaders will continue moving by themselves. The exception is the whistle button, which will make the current leader stop in their place and cancel the Go Here! walk, and the ability to use the KopPad, most notably, the camera feature. A small bubble appears near the leader's head notifying the player that it is possible to cancel.

Leaders under the Go Here! function move as slowly as a leaf Pikmin. This has the pro of allowing any Pikmin to follow the leader without fear of lagging behind, but also the con of being slower than if the player were to go there manually. If a leader's destination ends in a buried Pikmin, they will automatically begin plucking just after saying the arrival message.

Map textures

These are the textures for the maps of each area as they're stored in-game (although cropped for convenience). They have a naturally low resolution, and, in-game, they are applied a purple tint. In all textures up corresponds to the North, except for The Final Trial one, in which the opposite is true.