This is a collection of glitches possible in Pikmin 2 and the New Play Control! remake. Some glitches are exclusive to one of the two versions; said exclusivity will be pointed out on the respective glitches' notes section.
Please read the glitch notes before attempting any of these glitches or before adding your own.
Main
Double sprays
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
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| Medium |
Helpful |
Missing
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- Effects: Duplicates the amount of sprays gained by absorbing a spray drop.
- Prerequisites: Have sprays unlocked.
- How to: Petrify and kill an enemy. This will make it drop a droplet of spray, the color is irrelevant for the glitch. Alternately, you can break an egg and hope it drops a drop of spray. Dismiss all your Pikmin. Place one of your captains very close to the spray drop, without touching it. Then, switch to the other captain and slowly push the idle one towards the spray. The second the idle captain starts absorbing the spray, quickly run for the spray with the current captain. If you did it right, both captains will have absorbed the spray, and the game will increase the number of sprays by 2. An alternate way to do this glitch is to make one captain run at full speed towards a spray, and just as he's about to touch it, switch to the other captain (and absorb the spray using this captain as well, of course). The first captain's momentum will have made him touch the spray while you keep control of the second captain.
- Notes: It is not possible to perform this glitch if the other captain is in your party.
- Possible explanation: The game is programmed to ignore all input from a captain that's absorbing a spray. That's why it's not normally possible to switch to another captain while absorbing. However, if a captain touches a drop without being the current captain, he'll still absorb it (but only if he's not on the other captain's group). The game increases the number of sprays whenever a captain finishes his absorbing animation. So if both captains do it, the game increases it two times.
Extended swimming
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| Low |
Helpful |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes a non-Blue Pikmin swim for however long the glitch is done.
- Prerequisites: Have Blue Pikmin.
- How to: Non-Blue Pikmin drown after swimming for a while. If you have an idle Blue Pikmin grab the swimming Pikmin, the latter's swimming time will reset. You can call the Blue Pikmin to you in order to avoid having it throw the swimming Pikmin onto land, and you can continue doing this to cross any body of water.
- Notes: It's also possible to indefinitely extend the swimming period of a non-Blue Pikmin in Pikmin, but the method is different.
- Possible explanation: To make sure that a Blue Pikmin's rescue attempt is successful, as to prevent the player from being robbed out of a life save that seemed guaranteed, and in order to avoid having to deal with the Blue Pikmin dying a Pikmin that's dying, the game resets the time the swimming Pikmin has left the second the Blue Pikmin grabs it. This prevents the swimming Pikmin from dying. If the throw is canceled, the Blue Pikmin will not throw the swimming Pikmin, but the latter's swimming time will still have been reset.
High ledge trick
- Effects: Makes it possible to throw a non-Yellow Pikmin onto a high ledge.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: Using the "long throw" technique (throw a Pikmin while running), it's possible to make non-Yellow Pikmin reach a ledge that only Yellows are meant to. The Pikmin must scrape the wall a bit during the ascending part of their jump in order to make it. The exact amount of contact with the wall depends, and some surfaces (specially when they aren't perfectly vertical) work better than others. If you need help, check some speedrunning and challenge videos, as this trick is commonly used in such runs.
- Notes: This glitch can also happen in Pikmin.
- Possible explanation: Some energy from the throw cannot be transfered horizontally, as there's a wall, so instead it gets transferred vertically. It also helps that some tilted surfaces make thrown Pikmin slide up, given their incline.
Instant bridge
- Effects: Makes a bridge's 2nd+ sections be constructed instantly.
- Prerequisites: You should have visited this area before.
- How to: Start by making some Pikmin build the first section of the bridge. Then call all Pikmin to stop them from working on the bridge. Finally, proceed to issue them to work on the bridge again.
- Notes: When you're on an area for the first time, bridges are constructed like normal, no matter what. However, if you're coming back to the area, be it because you ended the day and came back or because you came out from a cave, it's possible to have the bridge unfurl quickly.
- Possible explanation: None.
Off-camera limbo
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| High |
Helpful |
Missing
|
- Effects: All off-screen activity will be severely reduced.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: Have Pikmin carry something from far away, through a path that has several fatal dangers. When they start carrying, quickly switch to the other captain, who should be far away, or just walk away from the Pikmin. Basically, you need to place the Pikmin and their path off-camera. You should notice the Pikmin will deliver the object safe and sound, whereas if you were to see them on their journey, they would likely get killed. You can help by zooming in and making the camera face the opposite way.
- Notes: This glitch can also happen in Pikmin.
- Possible explanation: In order to minimize CPU usage, most interactions that happen off-camera aren't accounted for, or at least minimized. For instance, enemies don't move while off-screen and far away. It could also be this way to prevent Pikmin from getting hurt without the player being able to understand why, nor being able to help right away.
Scale glitch
- Effects: Makes a captain able to go out of bounds, and teleport into a helpful spot, allowing shortcuts.
- Prerequisites: Have uncollected treasure.
- How to: Send Pikmin to carry a treasure to the Ship. While they're going, head for a scale. The timing is very hard, but you have to try to make it so that the scale your captain is on raises at the same time the treasure collection cutscene begins. After the cutscene is over, you will be inside the scale. You can now go out of bounds or fall through the terrain, at which point you'll respawn somewhere near the ship.
- Notes: This trick can be used on the Perplexing Pool to go out of bounds and access the Shower Room without taking down the electric gates. This glitch also works in the New Play Control! version.
- Possible explanation: During the treasure collection cutscene, captains and non-treasure-related Pikmin are frozen in place (enemies are not). This is to prevent disasters from happening while the player is unable to take action. Some objects continue to move though, such as the scales. Because the captain's position doesn't move, but the scale does, the scale's block engulfs the captain, and when the player takes control, they can fall out of bounds, as there are no walls in the small area in which the captain was left in. Captains that fall out of bounds respawn in hardcoded places, specifically added for the scenario of a captain somehow falling off. Maybe the places weren't assigned with much attention, or maybe they made sense in earlier versions of the maps, as it's unlikely that Nintendo would want the default respawn places to be set up in such a way that players can easily take shortcuts.
Sped up punching
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| High |
Helpful |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes a captain punch twice as fast.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: Simply punch while moving. You should attack roughly twice as fast as if you were standing still.
- Notes: None.
- Possible explanation: Olimar's running animation speed depends on how fast he's moving. The punching animations get affected by this as well.
Cosmetic
Boulder jump glitch
- Effects: Makes the leader jump quite high in the air.
- Prerequisites: Have the Napsack.
- How to: When X is held, the leader makes a small bounce before lying down. If this bounce happens just as a boulder lands on the leader, there's a chance he might jump quite high in the air. The easiest way to pull it off is to enter the Cave of Pain. You should hold X around one full second after the shadow of the boulder appears. If you get hurt, that means you have to press it sooner. If you didn't, that means you pressed it too late.
- Notes: The further away from the center of the boulder, the farther the distance of the jump.
- Possible explanation: The small bounce a captain makes must be programmed as an actual, physics-abiding jump, instead of a simple animation. This would explain why when something that's meant to cause knockback interferes with a jump makes a glitchy jump happen, as the game wasn't ready to handle that particular scenario. Alternately, it has to do with how the captain should've been knocked back, but the Napsack partially stops that, and blocks all damage, again, causing confusion in the physics engine.
Cave hole glitch
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
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| Medium |
Harmless |
Missing
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- Effects: Makes a leader be inside the hole/geyser model.
- Prerequisites: Have The Key to the current Challenge Mode level uncollected.
- How to: Place a leader in the center of the spot where the hole to the next sublevel will appear (or the exit geyser). Then, have the Pikmin deliver the Key. If you placed him in the correct spot, he should be inside the hole (or geyser).
- Notes: It's possible to walk out of the hole or geyser, but it's not possible to go back in. You can also place objects and Pikmin on the spot where the hole will spawn. Treasures and enemies disappear and fall back down to the sublevel on top of the structure, and Pikmin are pushed out of the way.
- Possible explanation: When the hole or geyser appear, they push away anything inside, away from its center. If, however, the object is inside the exact center, it has no place to push to, so it doesn't.
Floating cherry
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
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| Low |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes a cherry float and go to an Onion by itself.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: Go into 2-Player mode. Have a Pikmin grab a cherry near a dead enemy's carcass. The Pikmin will grab the cherry and start to take it right through the carcass. The Pikmin will get stuck in front of the carcass, walking endlessly until the cherry enters the Onion. Meanwhile, the cherry will continue to move without any Pikmin carrying it.
- Notes: None.
- Possible explanation: None.
Floating treasure
- Effects: Makes treasures float in mid-air, and smaller in size.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: In Challenge mode, have some Pikmin carry a treasure, and just as it is being beamed into the Research Pod, quit the level. The cutscene will initiate with the treasure still floating, smaller than its original size.
- Notes: The glitch can also be performed with cutscene-triggering treasures, but the timing involved makes it much harder.
- Possible explanation: While getting sucked up and decreased in size, the treasure must still count as being a normal treasure object, only with some special "sucking in" properties applied to it. On the quitting cutscene, all animations are paused, and all normal treasures remain visible.
Half petrified Volatile Dweevil
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
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| High |
Harmless |
Missing
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- Effects: Petrifies only half of the Volatile Dweevil.
- Prerequisites: Have the Volatile Dweevil on the Piklopedia.
- How to: Petrify the Volatile Dweevil on the Piklopedia. Right before it breaks free, petrify it again. If you did it correctly, only the bomb-rock on its back should've been petrified. An easy way to ensure the correct timing is to mash the Z button when the creature is about to break free, and quickly stop the second it does. If you petrify it in this state, the creature itself will be turned into stone, but the bomb-rock will break free.
- Notes: None.
- Possible explanation: The bomb-rock and the creature must count as two different objects. They also react to the petrification at different times. With the right timing, their petrifications can be desynchronized.
Invisible captain
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
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| Low |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes interaction with a dead captain possible.
- Prerequisites: Be in a cave with a Wollywog, and have both captains alive.
- How to: If one of your captains dies in any sublevel in a cave, he will be taken into the Research Pod. His body will still be in the same spot, though, except invisible and uninteractable with most things. Lure a Wollywog to its death place, and make it jump onto the same spot. When it lands, it won't do anything, but every time it jumps up, you'll see sparks coming out from the floor, and you'll hear the dead captain grunt.
- Notes: The original editor who added this glitch, currently unreachable, pointed out that strange things can happen to the game. Attempts to recreate the glitch have yielded no adverse side effects, bar the death of the captain necessary to trigger the glitch, but Pikipedia urges you to be careful when attempting it, regardless.
- Possible explanation: When a captain is taken away by the Research Pod, its object still exists in the same spot, but is rendered invisible, untouchable, and paused. This is a lot easier than removing the object from the area entirely. However, for some unknown reason, when a Wollywog jumps up, it actually manages to interact with the "ghost" captain.
Invisible treasures
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| High |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes a treasure turn invisible temporarily.
- Prerequisites: Have at least two treasures that trigger cutscenes uncollected, in the same area.
- How to: This commonly happens by accident. During a treasure collection cutscene, the game focuses on the Research Pod or Ship, and part of the area nearby can be seen as it was before the cutscene. There is one difference though: all other treasures being carried by Pikmin will be missing. This can be done on purpose by having two groups of Pikmin bringing two treasures at once, and really close to one another.
- Notes: This glitch can also happen in Pikmin.
- Possible explanation: It's possible that while playtesting the game, players got confused when they saw a treasure really close to the ship not being taken in, just because it wasn't the treasure corresponding to the current cutscene. The developers must've made the remaining treasures invisible to avoid confusion.
Jumping while laying down
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| Low |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes a captain jump down a hole whilst lying down.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: If one of your captains is knocked over by an enemy just as you are going in a hole, he will jump while lying down. This will not work if he lies down by himself.
- Notes: This glitch does not seem to work on the PAL version. More confirmation is necessary.
- Possible explanation: When falling down the hole, the game sets the captains' animation to be the "jump down hole" animation. However, if they're knocked down by an enemy after the animation's been set, the animation will be overwritten with the "fall down" animation. The jumping movement will still be correct, but the animation will not.
Sliding Waterwraith
- Effects: Makes the Waterwraith slide around instead of walking.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: After destroying the Waterwraith's rollers, separate your captains so that they're far apart from another. One of them should be close to the running Waterwraith. Then, switch to the captain farther away and switch back to the captain closest to the Waterwraith. It should work right the first time.
- Notes: It's also possible to do the glitch with both captains close to one another, but other, harder to find circumstances must be met. There have been reports of the creature becoming invulnerable and sliding permanently. It's stated that this likely happens if the Waterwraith's head collides with the Research Pod, and the amount of health it has decides whether or not it can be damaged.
- Possible explanation: Similarly to the way objects off the screen are less active, the Waterwraith's animations are frozen by being off-camera as well. They return to normal once they're in the scene again, but maybe some piece of unique code on the camera management for switching characters and a unique piece of code for the Waterwraith's animations pass through normal "off-camera" routines, and as such aren't managed correctly. This makes the Waterwraith's animations not continue when it's on-camera again.
Struggling Waterwraith
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
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| High |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes the Waterwraith's rollers petrified, leaving the creature struggling to break free.
- Prerequisites: Have the Waterwraith on the Piklopedia.
- How to: Open the Piklopedia, and go to the Waterwraith's archive. Right when you open it, repeatedly press Z to petrify it. The rollers will become petrified, followed by the Waterwraith's body. The rollers will break free first. When they do, immediately re-petrify them. The Waterwraith will then break free, and appear to have a very difficult time trying to lift its petrified boulders.
- Notes: None.
- Possible explanation: Like with the half petrified Volatile Dweevil glitch, the rollers and the creature must count as two different objects, and their petrifications might be able to be desynchronized.
Stuck Pileated Snagret
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
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| Low |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes the Pileated Snagret become stuck on the Piklopedia.
- Prerequisites: Have the Pileated Snagret on the Piklopedia.
- How to: On the area selection screen, place the ship over the Valley of Repose. Enter the Piklopedia and open the Pileated Snagret's file. The creature spawns on top of a snowy hill, but there's a chance that it will be unable to emerge from the ground, instead becoming stuck inside the patch of snow. If it doesn't happen, try making it burrow and emerge more often. Another way to make it stuck is to lure it towards the part with grass by using Pikpik carrots. It might be unable to go back to its original place, all the while hopping endlessly while trying to go up the hill.
- Notes: None.
- Possible explanation: None.
Treasure in the background
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
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| Low |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Creates a miniature of a treasure on the top right of the screen.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: It only happens rarely, but when you deliver a treasure, during the evaluation cutscene, a miniature of the same treasure might appear on the top right corner, in the background.
- Notes: None.
- Possible explanation: None.
Undead Ranging Bloyster
- Effects: Makes a Ranging Bloyster's antenna flash and emit waves even after death.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: Fight the Ranging Bloyster, and make it die by being poisoned. It might not work sometimes.
- Notes: None.
- Possible explanation: The code to handle dying by White Pikmin poison passes around some normal death handling code, specially when certain circumstances are met. This makes the destruction of the Ranging Bloyster be incomplete, and makes its antenna still active.
Visible seeds and magic growth
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| Low |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes the bottom part of a seed visible, and shows the process behind the transformation from a seed to a Pikmin.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: In 2-Player Mode, if the Onion is on a ledge and if a Swooping Snitchbug throws a Pikmin at the very edge of the ledge, the Pikmin seed underground will be visible (it looks like it does when it pops out, only with a longer stem). If you try to pull it out, the bottom will "magically" form a Pikmin body, and the Pikmin will fall off of the ledge.
- Notes: None.
- Possible explanation: The model for a Pikmin sprout doesn't need to be the same as a full Pikmin, as its lower half is never shown. To make sure that a captain can stretch out a Pikmin's stem without showing the Pikmin, for aesthetic purposes, a Pikmin's stem while underground is modeled as being much taller than normal.
Pikmin-related
Cave death count glitch
- Effects: Increases the number of Pikmin deaths without killing the corresponding Pikmin.
- Prerequisites: Be in a cave that has water, poison or fire hazards, and have Pikmin that are not immune to those hazards.
- How to: When your Pikmin are choking or burning due to a water, poison or fire hazard, their deaths are accounted for exactly when they make their last scream. While they are too far gone to save by the whistle at this point, they aren't exactly dead yet. If you go into a geyser or hole, you can see them jump into it with the bubbles, gas, or flames on them, albeit alive. On the next sublevel, they'll be perfectly normal. However, when you complete the cave, you'll notice that their deaths were accounted for in the number of total deaths. If you do it several times throughout the sublevels, you can even have over 100 deaths in a single cave run.
- Notes: This glitched number of deaths in the cave will also add to your Pikmin death save file total. It's also possible for a Pikmin to catch on fire during the cutscene, if there's a geyser nearby. But this will neither kill the Pikmin or change the death count.
- Possible explanation: The game counts a death when a Pikmin makes its last cry, even though the creature's object still exists on the map. Normally, it's impossible to save it when it's doing its last cry, though. But when entering a hole or a geyser, the game forces all Pikmin objects to jump in, regardless of their state. When loading the next sublevel, the game creates new Pikmin objects, basing itself on the previous objects' maturity, color, etc., but not their state (choking/burning).
Crushing glitch
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| Low |
Harmful |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes a Pikmin vanish instantly by being crushed.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: When an enemy is defeated and falls to the ground, there is a chance that a nearby Pikmin will mysteriously vanish without leaving a spirit or making a sound. There are several enemies that have this happen more frequently than others, and it also happens with more regularity when swarming enemies rather than throwing Pikmin at them. It can also happen with pellets.
- Notes: This glitch can also happen in Pikmin.
- Possible explanation: When falling down, enemies will push any nearby Pikmin downwards and to the side. If the collision is just right, there's a chance that the downward push is too strong and the Pikmin falls to the ground, where it instantly dies shortly after.
Dead Pikmin?
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| Low |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes a Pikmin fall off the level but not die.
- Prerequisites: Be in a metallic cave, like the Subterranean Complex.
- How to: In all of the metallic caves it is possible for your Pikmin to fall off the stage. This usually kills the Pikmin, but for unknown reasons, it sometimes does not.
- Notes: It's just best to avoid the dead zone spots.
- Possible explanation: Bottomless pit deaths are something the game isn't fully ready to handle, as those deaths are far less common than being eaten by an enemy. Given the right circumstances, the game mightn't execute the normal death handling code, and fails to kill off the Pikmin exactly.
Instant Pikmin extinction
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| Medium |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes the game announce a Pikmin extinction, without any single Pikmin death.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: Go near the entrance of a cave with Pikmin on your party. When you're ready, press X and A at the same time, preferably X slightly before A. The cave chart will say you have all your Pikmin with you, but they should be idle. Confirm that you wish to enter the cave. After the falling cutscene, the game should announce a Pikmin extinction.
- Notes: Because no Pikmin died, it will not affect the total number of Pikmin deaths. When you return to the overworld, all your Pikmin will be inside the Onions and Ship.
- Possible explanation: For each frame, the code to dismiss the Pikmin comes after the code that updates their counter. As such, when the game is paused by the cave entering confirmation dialog box, it processes only what happened on that frame. And on that frame, the game tried to update the counter: all Pikmin are still in the party, so the counter indicates over 0 Pikmin (and the message box uses this value as well). However, after the counter updater code comes the dismiss code. Because X was pressed on that frame as well, the game runs the code that dismisses all Pikmin and turns them pale. Normally, the game would update the counter on the next frame, but because the game is paused by the message box, the counter is only updated when the game returns to normal, i.e. when the cave exploration starts. When this happens, the game realizes there are 0 Pikmin and the player is inside a cave, so it triggers a Pikmin extinction.
Lifeguards through the bridge
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| High |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes a Blue Pikmin save a drowning non-Blue, through a bridge.
- Prerequisites: Have a built bridge and Blue Pikmin.
- How to: Leave some Blue Pikmin idle on top of a bridge. Then, throw some non-Blues under the Blue Pikmin. After a bit, the Blues will grab the drowning Pikmin through the bridge, and throw them to safety.
- Notes: This glitch does not work in Pikmin.
- Possible explanation: Normally, lifeguard Blue Pikmin that are close to drowning Pikmin don't have anything in between. As such, the check for whether a Blue Pikmin should rescue a drowning one doesn't take into account walls, objects or bridges. All that's needed is for the Blue and the drowning Pikmin to be close enough to one another.
Pikmin stuck under bridge
- Effects: Makes a Pikmin become stuck under a bridge, without dying.
- Prerequisites: Have a partially built bridge that's close to the water, such as the one in the Awakening Wood near the Unmarked Spectralids and the one in the Perplexing Pool, near the Citadel of Spiders.
- How to: There are two ways for the glitch to happen. One way is to throw Purple Pikmin on top of Sheargrubs (Awakening Wood) or a Cloaking Burrow-nit (Wistful Wild) that are chewing at a bridge that is not fully constructed. If you did it right, the Pikmin and carcass will fall through the bridge and onto the water, sometimes the former will stand on top of the latter, and not drown. Something similar can also happen with a Yellow Wollywog, on the Perplexing Pool, though the creature will remain on top of the bridge. The second way to pull off the glitch is when a non-Blue Pikmin "swims" underneath a bridge, or if the bridge is constructed on top of them.
- Notes: To release the stuck Pikmin, you should push them with your Captain, as they cannot be whistled. Wollywogs and Yellow Wollywogs can also get stuck under bridges in the same way; this too is rare.
- Possible explanation: Deconstructed bridge sections have collision data that's sub-optimal, because they're meant to be temporary things. As such, collisions that involve bridge sections sometimes fail. Pikmin can survive drowning because, again, the bridge section's poor collision makes the game consider them as being out of the water.
Pikmin vanish through the bridge
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| Low |
Harmful |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes a Pikmin vanish, but not die, by going through a bridge.
- Prerequisites: Have a built bridge being eaten by Sheargrubs.
- How to: Throw a Pikmin onto a bridge that's being deconstructed by Sheargrubs. If you're lucky, it might mysteriously disappear from the screen.
- Notes: The Pikmin will still be counted on the counter and appear on the map screen as their respective colors, but will not appear above or below the bridge. Corpses and pellets, however, will still be on the bridge.
- Possible explanation: As with other bridge-related glitches, bridges are objects, not level geometry, so their collision detection is inferior. In addition, by having the Sheargrubs eat the bridge, it's possible for ground that used to be under the Pikmin to suddenly stop existing, which makes the game behave erratically.
Enemy-related
Floating enemies
- Effects: Makes an enemy float in mid-air.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: This glitch happens randomly. When you are close to an area where an enemy will fall down, it may fall on a dead enemy or treasure. This will make the enemy float in mid air, but it counts as being on the ground.
- Notes: If this happens with a Cannon Beetle Larva, the boulder it shoots will fall down like if it was a cliff.
- Possible explanation: For collision purposes, enemies have long vertical hitboxes, probably a universal height. Normally, it's not possible to have an enemy fall on top of another, and the tall hitboxes is to make sure the enemy that's falling from above slides out of the way at a comfortable distance. If, however, the falling enemy is spot-on on the grounded enemy's center, it will have no direction to slide into, so it takes the collision as landing on solid ground.
Invincible Wollywog
- Effects: Makes a Wollywog be stuck in the ground, and invincible. Helpful for those who want to avoid the creature, harmful for those who want the Pokos it yields.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: Enter the Shower Room. On the first floor, a Wollywog will fall from the ceiling. Quickly mob it with Purple Pikmin just as it's falling. If done correctly, it should get trapped underground and unable to move, as well as become invincible. Wollywogs can also become stuck for a variety of reasons, specially if their jumps make them land on top of other objects or oddly-shaped structures.
- Notes: None.
- Possible explanation: Purple Pikmin latch on to enemies differently (e.g. a Swooping Snitchbug can never shake off a Purple Pikmin), so the code for it mustn't be like normal attack code. In addition, a Wollywog that's falling is not in a "ready" state, so if it receives interaction that was only meant to happen if it were ready, like being attacked, the game will not handle it properly, and leave its state as not ready, making it unattackable. The fact that it burrows to the ground must be because its unreadiness state stops it from handling collisions with the ground correctly, and given its fall velocity, it becomes embedded with the ground, instead of snapping on top of it.
Petrified Volatile Dweevil suicide
- Effects: Makes a petrified Volatile Dweevil kill itself, yielding normal petrification death spoils.
- Prerequisites: Have at least one ultra-bitter spray.
- How to: Approach a Volatile Dweevil. Just as it's about to die, petrify it, the timing isn't too strict. If you did it correctly, the creature will have exploded, but the game will still have recognized your petrification, giving out a nectar or some sprays as a result. This removes the need to use Pikmin in order to kill a petrified Volatile Dweevil, but carries some danger, seeing as the explosion might cause damage.
- Notes: This cannot be done on the Piklopedia, as no nectars can ever come out.
- Possible explanation: There's a point on the bomb-rock's explosion where it can no longer be petrified and has to explode; this happens a few frames before a normal explosion. During this point, petrification attempts will only turn the Dweevil into stone, but not the bomb-rock. Seeing as the explosive destroys the Dweevil, and seeing as the Dweevil is considered to be petrified, even if its petrification animation has just barely started, the game gives out nectars or sprays.
Sped up Dwarf Bulborb
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| Medium |
Harmful |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes a Dwarf Bulborb's animations temporarily speed up to roughly twice its normal speed, giving the player less time to react.
- Prerequisites: Have the Brute Knuckles.
- How to: Combo a Dwarf Bulborb using the Brute Knuckles. Occasionally, the Bulborb's shaking, biting and dying animations might be sped up.
- Notes: This can also happen with similar enemies, such as Dwarf Orange Bulborbs.
- Possible explanation: None.
Stuck Waterwraith
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| High |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes the Waterwraith's rollers unable to move, though the creature itself will still move.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: Go on sublevel 4 of the Submerged Castle. Lure the Waterwraith into entering the large pipe area. It should get stuck fairly easily.
- Notes: None.
- Possible explanation: None.
Zombie Dweevil
- Effects: Keeps a Dweevil alive, but with 0 health remaining.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: You have to try to make a Dweevil run out of health just when it picks up an object. If successful, the creature will be alive and carry the object around, while supposedly dead.
- Notes: To stop the glitch, make the Dweevil drop the object.
- Possible explanation: When the Dweevil is in the "carrying object" state, the game assumes it's alive, regardless of its health. Normally, it can only enter this state if it's alive, and while on this state, it cannot be hurt. However, with precise timing, it can pick up an object at the same time it loses its last bit of health. If so, the game doesn't kill it, because it's entering the "carrying object" state (it's crouching down to pick it up).
Misc.
Bridge corner glitch
- Effects: Makes Pikmin or a captain go through a bridge, and occasionally, through the ground surrounding the bridge. Captains that fall off the level can teleport to helpful locations, but Pikmin die.
- Prerequisites: Have one of the bridges where the glitch works fully built.
- How to: In the corners of some bridges, like the South corner of the bridge at the West of the landing site, in the Awakening Wood, if you or a Pikmin goes under the bridge and tries to press against the wall on the corner, they might pass through the bridge and be placed on top of it. In addition, throwing Pikmin while below the bridge, while near the glitchy wall, will instantly place them on top of it. Finally, there are reports of captains and Pikmin falling through the floor when attempting to pass through the corner; this seems to be a lot rarer.
- Notes: None.
- Possible explanation: The corner caused between the slanted edge of the pool and the bridge can cause the collision detection to fail, allowing passing through to the other side. Bridges are known to have poor collision detection to begin with.
Carrying Louie during a cutscene
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| Medium |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes Louie be carried during a cutscene.
- Prerequisites: Have the King of Bugs uncollected.
- How to: Kill the Titan Dweevil for the first time. When you do, Louie will fall to the ground and a cutscene will start. At this point, the C-stick or X-button can be used to swarm or dismiss the Pikmin underneath Louie when he lands, and the Pikmin will carry him off the screen when the cutscene starts.
- Notes: Once the ship start speaking, the Pikmin will pause though. This makes the King of Bugs the only treasure that can be carried during a cutscene.
- Possible explanation: None.
Double gate
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| Low |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Causes two gates to appear in the same spot. If one gate is destroyed and Pikmin are thrown on the side where the other gate is, they will mysteriously land on the wall, and the other gate will come down.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: Rarely, sublevel 7 of the Hole of Heroes, where the Ranging Bloyster is, will have two gates inside one another. If it doesn't happen, you can keep resetting until it does, since reloading the save file takes you to the same sublevel, but with a different layout.
- Notes: None.
- Possible explanation: Damage is caused to both gates at once, seeing as they're in the same position. However, because the Pikmin are actually "attached" to only one of the gates, only that gate falls down. When certain activities happen on the other gate, it gets updated, and when an update realizes the gate has 0 "health" remaining, it makes the gate drop down all in one go.
Embed glitch
|
To do: Find a video or image from Pikmin 2.
Care to do so?
|
- Effects: Some objects can get embedded inside walls and other objects, making retrieving them impossible in some cases.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: Occasionally, a treasure or a pellet can become partially embedded inside a wall or another object. It can be possible to move the object against the spot it's stuck in, though that can either set it free or burrow it deeper. Issuing Pikmin around these objects is sometimes pointless, as they'll be unable to distribute themselves correctly over it, and thus, be unable to carry it. In addition, if a Pikmin is latched on to or grabbing an object as it becomes embedded with a wall, if the Pikmin is whistled, it'll fall through and die.
- Notes: This glitch can also happen in Pikmin.
- Possible explanation: Objects may become embedded for a variety of reasons, but mostly, it's due to them being pushed inside walls by other objects. This is because the game attempts to avoid having objects overlapping one another, and as a last resort, an object is embedded against a wall.
Frozen captain glitch
|
To do: Try using the scale glitch with some Pikmin, and have them carry the lying captain out of the square below the scale, out of bounds, and see if the frozen captain glitch happens. Regardless of whether it works or not, add the results to the notes section.
Care to do so?
|
- Effects: Makes a captain frozen or unusable.
- Prerequisites: Have the Napsack. Be on an area with Dweevils.
- How to: Lay on the ground using the Napsack and have a Dweevil carry you off the stage. This requires luck, and it works better in metallic caves, as they have very low boundaries. Alternately, in Challenge Mode, make a captain lie down where the hole to the next sublevel will appear (or the exit geyser). The captain might fall off the stage's boundaries when the hole appears.
- Notes:
- After falling, the camera moves to the Research Pod or the Ship; the captain's helmet beacon light can be seen above this. Sometimes, the camera stays there and nothing further happens. Pressing any button causes the captain to reappear at that spot, as normal. In this case, it is also possible to switch captains; if the player whistles the other captain's beacon light, the captain who fell appears at the Ship or Research Pod. Otherwise, if the player moves around and performs actions such as throwing Pikmin, the beacon light fades and the glitch progresses.
- If this happens, the captain reappears somewhere near the edge of the level where he fell off. He will be lying down with his beacon light gone, and he cannot be whistled or switched to, only carried by Pikmin (or Dweevils or Bumbling Snitchbugs). After having been returned to the Ship or Research Pod, he cannot be moved again.
- On the other hand, if the beacon light fades near-instantly, the player still plays from the point of view of the now-frozen captain. Switching captains makes it impossible to switch back. Pressing A makes the captain stand up and lower his head; now, no more actions can be performed, and the game must be reset, or the day ended or the cave left.
- Possible explanation: Whenever a captain falls off the level, it respawns in another place. When lying down, some of its attributes are a bit different, probably the fact that it's considered a carryable object while lying down. Treasures that fall down also respawn, but their code must be different, and most set some attributes on the treasures that one set to captains make them freeze or behave erratically.
Leave boundaries
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| Low |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes you go out of bounds on some caves.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: Go to a sublevel that looks like an outside area (such as Sublevel 2 of the Snagret Hole or the Brawl Yard), and have an enemy push you close to the boundary. If done right, you will be flung to the outside of the walls and can explore out of bounds.
- Notes: If you go far enough away from the main part of the level, you will hit a massive wall with blurry images of trees and foliage painted on it, or in other cases an invisible barrier.
- Possible explanation: Same reason as the embed glitch happens.
Make captains fall into the abyss
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| Low |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes a captain fall into the abyss, outside of a cave's boundaries.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: In caves like the Snagret Hole, there are solid walls. Behind these walls, you see nothing but black. If a Bumbling Snitchbug grabs one of the captains, there is a chance that they will drop them into the void the walls are blocking out. If you fall in, you will magically reappear at the Research Pod.
- Notes: If you go out of bounds thanks to a Dweevil, another glitch might occur.
- Possible explanation: Bumbling Snitchbugs fly a bit higher than the cave's walls. This allows them to fly out of bounds, and occasionally, they can drop a captain there.
Protruding gate
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| Low |
Harmless |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes a gate able to be destroyed from the other side of a wall.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: Occasionally, one of the posts that holds up a gate might protrude from an adjacent wall. You can issue your Pikmin to destroy the gate from the opposite side of the wall.
- Notes: None.
- Possible explanation: The randomly generated mazes have complex algorithms, in order to create lively and balanced labyrinths. This complexity can sometimes cause minor problems, like having a gate protrude from a wall. Because from the other side of the wall, the gate is still itself, it can also be targeted and hit by Pikmin.
Stuck paper bag
|
To do: What happens the next day? Does the bag stay up and can be squished, or does it go down? Also, is the bag tangible?
Care to do so?
|
| Reproducibility |
Danger |
Demonstration
|
| Low |
Harmful |
Missing
|
- Effects: Makes the first paper bag in the Valley of Repose stuck until the day is over.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: Start a new save file and work your way until you have enough Pikmin to put down the first paper bag. Throw the required number of Pikmin but one onto the bag. When you throw the last one, call the Pikmin to either captain's side just as the Pikmin lands on the bag. Until you get the exact timing, it's better to whistle too early rather than too late, because if you whistle too late, the cutscene will start and the glitch won't be reproducible, whereas whistling too early makes the Pikmin come to you, and you can try again right away. If you timed it right, there's a chance the Pikmin will move out of the bag, and it'll stay in place, but the reunion cutscene will still occur. Olimar and Louie will pass through the paper bag, and it'll be stuck in this state until the day ends.
- Notes: None.
- Possible explanation: Just like the Cardboard box softlock glitch in Pikmin, if the Pikmin are brought back into the party just as the cutscene starts, there will be no Pikmin to actually perform the actions required by the cutscene, in this case, deflating the bag. Because it was never assumed that this could or would happen, the game is programmed to move Olimar and Louie to the place where the squashed bag was, regardless of its state.
Tilted objects
|
To do: Find an image from Pikmin 2.
Care to do so?
|
- Effects: Makes some objects become tilted.
- Prerequisites: None.
- How to: Have Pikmin carry an object from a high ledge. Given the object's physics, it may fall down at an angle, and the Pikmin will proceed to carry it in said angle. Some Pikmin might even be holding it in mid-air, while other times, the Pikmin may let the object fall.
- Notes: This glitch can also happen in Pikmin.
- Possible explanation: Because of the game's physics and enforcement of gravity on objects, if Pikmin carrying the front of an object fall from an edge before the ones at the back do, the piece will be tilted. This is normal, but given that pieces falling from high places isn't common, the game doesn't handle it too well. Occasionally, it'll leave the piece tilted as the Pikmin are carrying it.
