Dismiss

Some Pikmin after being dismissed.

Dismissing is a gameplay action wherein the current leader issues all Pikmin under their control to leave the party, becoming idle in the process, and organize themselves in packed groups, sorted by type. This can be useful to abandon all Pikmin in order to take on a solo exploration, to pick only specific types of Pikmin to add to the party, or to quickly issue all Pikmin to work on a task.

Overview

To dismiss, the player must press  / in the first two games, or  /  / in Pikmin 3 (or by tapping the icon, in stylus mode). When dismissed, the Pikmin move away from the leader, in the same direction as the party is compared to the leader, and organize themselves in circular groups so that there is enough space for the leader to move through them. Any leader in the party will also be removed.

If there is something in the way, the Pikmin will attempt to move past it for a few seconds, and if they do not find a suitable spot to fill the required dismiss distance, they will instead stay in their place. Hence, if a large group is dismissed in a tight area, there might not be enough room for the groups to be separated properly.

In Pikmin and Pikmin 3, any Pikmin carrying bomb-rocks get to keep their bombs, and are placed in a different group from empty-handed Pikmin of the same types. When whistled or touched, they will return to the group without dropping the bomb-rock. In the case of Pikmin on the GameCube, however, if they are thrown, calling them back with the whistle will cause them to drop and activate the explosive.

In Pikmin 2, after dismissing the group, the leader can lie down if the same button is held, but only after the Five-man Napsack has been obtained. A leader can also be forced to dismiss their group if grabbed by a Bumbling Snitchbug.

Nuances

This article or section needs to be cleaned up, either its format or general style. Notes: More information on this "control stick" trick should be found.

Occasionally, in Pikmin 2, when the Pikmin are dismissed, one or two of them ignore the call and remain on the group; the exact causes for this are not currently known, but it should be noted that if a Pikmin is tripping, it can't be dismissed, so it will still follow the leader after tripping. This does not happen in Pikmin because tripping Pikmin can be dismissed in that game.

In Pikmin and Pikmin 3, leaders can dismiss even when there are no Pikmin in their group. In the first two games, the leaders can move freely while whistling their dismiss order, but in Pikmin 3, they are forced to stop in place, do a simple spin-jump animation, and only then are they allowed to continue.

If the group is stretched out in Pikmin 2, the interval between sorted Pikmin will be larger.

In the first two games, if the player holds the control stick left or right, and then dismisses, the Pikmin will separate into groups, and these groups will stay further from each other than if the player separated the groups without touching the control stick.

In Pikmin 2, when the Pikmin figure out a point to go to, they will try to go to the average point of all Pikmin of that type. If that point is close to one or both leaders, the point will be moved some distance away from any nearby leader. The player is unable to bump against any Pikmin to bring them to the group for roughly 8.5 seconds after any dismiss. Once dismissed, Pikmin attempt to move towards their type's point, and will stop when they reach it, or when some time has passed; if the point is somewhere inaccessible (or even above or below ground), they will keep walking towards it until they stop. During this time where they go towards the type's point, they cannot interact with clogs or gates.

Sound samples

In Pikmin, there's only a dismiss sound. In Pikmin 2, there are now three different sounds, one per leader. In Pikmin 3, all leaders share the same sound, except for Olimar and Louie in Bingo Battle : in this mode, they will have Louie's dismiss sound from Pikmin 2.

Alph, Brittany, Charlie, Olimar, and Louie (in Mission Mode only)

Louie's dismiss sound in Pikmin 2

The President's dismiss sound in Pikmin 2

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
French	Congédier (Pikmin and Pikmin 2) Disperser (Pikmin 3)	Dismiss	Taken from the manual of each game.
French (NoA)	Diviser (New Play Control! Pikmin) Disperser (New Play Control! Pikmin 2 and Pikmin 3)	Dismiss	Taken from the manual of each game.
German	Entlassen	Dismiss
Italian	Congedare	Dismiss
Spanish	Disolver	Disolve