Some Pikmin jumping in theEmergence Cave inPikmin 2.

Caves (洞窟^?, lit.: "Cave") are underground locations inPikmin 2 andPikmin 4. Exploring them is important since they containtreasures,castaways,Flarlic, and wildPikmin inside. Each cave consists of a series of crampedsublevels that limit the player's possibilities, with the gameplay and ambiance inside reflecting that fact:

• There are usually only one or two possible paths the player can follow to explore a given sublevel.
• Since there is no access toOnions, it is impossible to retrieve more Pikmin, and getting new Pikmin can only be done withCandypop Buds,Bulbmin, or wild Pikmin.
• The currentday cannot be ended until the cave is exited.
• Themusic in caves is significantly more minimal than the music in outsideareas, and inPikmin 2 is partially randomly generated following specific parameters, like the terrain.

Caves in both games are composed differently, with sublevels inPikmin 2 beinggenerated randomly each time, but following a specific layout scheme, while sublevels inPikmin 4 are fixed and focus more on puzzle-solving. The two games also have other minute differences in the way caves work.

Caves are entered throughholes in the areas. Similarly, somewhere in the cave is a way toexit it, allowing the player to safely return to the surface with all of their collected objects.

InPikmin 2, stages inChallenge Mode and2-Player Battle also take place in caves, but this article focuses on the caves inStory Mode, which includesDandori Challenge andDandori Battle stages. The otherPikmin games do not have caves per se, but have underground locations regardless.Pikmin hasThe Forest Navel,Pikmin 3 has underground sections within its main areas, andHey! Pikmin has some cave-themed levels.

List of caves[edit]

Pikmin 2[edit]

Pikmin 4[edit]

Dandori caves[edit]

Sublevel[edit]

Each cave is divided into a number of sublevels. Each sublevel consists of a small isolated location, and will usually have at least onetreasure orcastaway and a few enemies. The player can only play on one sublevel at a time, and there can't be any Pikmin activity outside the current sublevel or cave. The shortest cave inPikmin 2 –Emergence Cave – has two sublevels and the longest –Hole of Heroes – has fifteen.

When a cave is entered, the player will land in its first sublevel, and will be able to proceed through that cave's sublevels in order through the use ofholes. Some sublevels havea way to exit safely while keeping all collected objects.

Every time a sublevel is entered the game issaved, so if the player turns the game off and then back on again, they will start in the same sublevel. In the case ofPikmin 2, the sublevel will be generated randomly again.

Sublevels inPikmin 2 can generally be categorized into 3 types, those being:

• Normal levels usually have a few harmful enemies, and sometimes don't have any treasure.
• Rest levels either lack enemies or only have harmless enemies (exceptions beingDoodlebugs andBulbmin). Rest levels have Pikmin-supporting items, such asnectar,ultra-bitter spray,ultra-spicy spray, orCandypop Buds. These levels usually lack treasures, and featurespecial ambient music. Most rest levels also have ageyser available, so the player can return to the surface if they have a low number of Pikmin.
• Boss levels contain one or more largebosses, are usually the final level of a cave. The only cave without a boss level is theEmergence Cave, and the one with the most is theHole of Heroes. When the boss is defeated, it often drops anupgrade for theleaders' space suits or ship.

Pikmin 4 has a greater emphasis on puzzles and exploration, with all sublevels having fixed layouts, compared toPikmin 2's random generation on most of its sublevels. Some sections of some layouts are references to or outright reworkings ofcave units originally fromPikmin 2, such asroom_hitode4x4_3_metal androom_dan4x4i_3_conc.

Final floor[edit]

The cutscene that plays when a final level is reached in theEuropeanNew Play Control! version. In all other versions of the game, the text says "FINAL FLOOR!" instead.

Since at the final sublevel of a cave there is nowhere else to go, all final floors contain ageyser or air vent for the player toreturn to the surface and end their cave mission.

Typically, final sublevels have something grand to them. InPikmin 2, the final floor of all caves except theEmergence Cave is a boss level, and inPikmin 4, most caves have acastaway to rescue at the final sublevel.

InPikmin 2, the deepest sublevel of every cave receives special attention by the game and is known as thefinal floor, or thefinal level in theEuropeanNew Play Control! version. As the player drops into it, the game announces this by playing a distinct jingle, along with displaying the words "FINAL FLOOR!" or "FINAL LEVEL!" in large, yellow letters, before the player regains control. Additionally, on theHUD, the word "SUBLEVEL" in the top-right corner is replaced with the words "FINAL FLOOR" or "FINAL LEVEL" in yellow.

InPikmin 4, there is far less attention drawn, simply displaying "FINAL SUBLEVEL" in place of the number as it fades away. For caves with only 1 sublevel (Burrow of Beginnings,Last-Frost Cavern,Dream Home,Sightless Passage), the distinction does not appear at all.

Hole[edit]

The exit of a cave that has not been completed yet inPikmin 4, lacking a lid.

To enter a cave, the player must get close to a hole and press thethrow button. To go from one sublevel to the next, the same must be done to a similar hole within the sublevel.

InPikmin 2, the holes are round, rocky mounds, with a small hole in them. On the cave entrance hole, if the cave has not beencompleted, wisps of steam will come out, and the screen will become foggy when the hole is approached. In contrast, if it has been completed, a simple red flag will be placed near the entrance. Inside a cave, the hole to a next sublevel will always contain steam, but will not fog the screen.

InPikmin 4, the holes are black tubes with colored lids – cyan for normal caves, gray forDandori Challenges, and orange forDandori Battles. They are actually Japanesecurb boxes, which are plastic tubes that house valves. After completing that cave, a flag appears in the color of the player's spacesuit with theRescue Corps logo. When completingBurrow of Beginnings for the first time,Collin can be seen placing one such flag down in a cutscene. In addition, some caves have 2 holes, where the player will enter in one side and exit on the other such as theAquiferous Summit , theFrozen Inferno and theEngulfed Castle. Entering the "Exit" side of the cave (which has no cyan lid) from the surface will slightly change the layout to allow the sublevels to be cleared in reverse order, with an air vent that takes the player back to the "entrance" hole on the first sublevel. Exiting a cave from thepause menu will take the player back to the hole they entered from. Caves cannot be entered duringnight expeditions.

Mechanics[edit]

Passage of time[edit]

InPikmin 2, the time ofday does not pass while the player is in a cave. According to earlier versions of the game, this is because the space-time continuum was warped due to the cave's geomagnetic radiation field.^[1] The final version's instruction manual simplifies this and simply calls it "a powerful magnetic field".^[2][3]

InPikmin 4, time does pass while underground, but only at a sixth of its normal speed. If the overworld time reaches thesunset countdown while the player is exploring a cave, nothing will happen and the player will be free to continue inside the cave for as long as they want, but as soon as they leave the cave the sunset countdown will begin. Caves also cannot be entered during the sunset countdown.

Object spawning[edit]

Some objects respawn between visits to the same cave, includingenemies. The rules are as follows:

Treasures will not reappear once collected, unless the way the playerexits the cave puts them back (escape with theHocotate ship inPikmin 2 or failure). Some Candypop Buds that have amaximum Pikmin requirement will also not show up.

InPikmin 4, wild Pikmin, enemy corpses, treasures, and so on will remain in the same state the player left the cave in for a few days, position included, until the cave is completed, at which point the standard rules for respawning everything from scratch described above apply. Candypop Buds can also respawn between visits even if the cave has not been completed.

Entering caves[edit]

Once the player chooses to enter a cave from ahole, a confirmation menu appears with some information about the cave. InPikmin 2, it shows the kinds ofhazards inside, and inPikmin 4, the first page lets the player pick a sublevel to land on from previously visited sublevels, and the second page shows theOnion menu so the player can pick which Pikmin join them inside.

If the player accepts, the current leader, the other leader orOatchi, and thesquad ofPikmin will all jump inside in a briefcutscene. ForDandori Challenge andDandori Battle caves, the Pikmin will refuse to go inside, however. The other leader or Oatchi will join in regardless of distance, and inPikmin 4, the player's character and Oatchi will also join in even if they are knocked out, despite the entering cutscene not showing it.

When entering a cave, any Pikmin that do not go in will be safely returned to theirOnions. InPikmin 2, Pikmin in an idle leader's group will not be a part of the Pikmin that go in, even if the idle leader enters.

Any leader and Oatchi will regain fullhealth when entering a cave. InPikmin 2, it is impossible to explore a cave without Pikmin, and while it is possible inPikmin 4, the game shows a confirmation dialog stating that it's hard to explore without any.

Some cave entrances have ahazard surrounding them, and require the player to be able to combat that to get in. TheSubmerged Castle inPikmin 2 and theEngulfed Castle inPikmin 4 can only be entered with Blue Pikmin due to the entrance being underwater. TheFrozen Inferno inPikmin 4 can only be entered with Red Pikmin due to the entrance being surrounded by fire, and additionally, therookie Rescue Officer andOatchi must both have theScorch Guard equipped to enter.

Entering sublevels[edit]

To go to the next sublevel in the cave, the player must find a hole similar to the one used to get in the cave in the first place.

Unlike entering a cave, leaders and Oatchi will not regain anyhealth when a deeper sublevel is entered. InPikmin 4, certain sublevels will force Oatchi to fall in a spot far away from the rest of the crew, which usually results in the player having to solve some problem in the sublevel to reunite everyone.

Exiting sublevels[edit]

When the player chooses to exit the current sublevel, all non-sprout Pikmin, all conscious leaders, and Oatchi will automatically join the group and jump together, regardless of distance.

As explainedbelow, when a sublevel is exited, if there are any unplucked sprouts, the game will notify the player about this and ask them if they wish to continue. The same happens if there are any uncollectedFlarlic,Treasures orcastaways.

Exiting caves[edit]

Like when entering a cave, the process of exiting a cave in any way restores thehealth of any leader or Oatchi, unless otherwise specified.

Safe exit[edit]

The standard way of exiting a cave is by finding ageyser inPikmin 2 or an air vent inPikmin 4. Either one will shoot leaders, Oatchi, and Pikmin back up to the surface. InPikmin 2, the player is returned to the landing site while inPikmin 4 they come out from a hole – usually the hole they went in from, but some caves have a different hole from which they are exited.

Failure[edit]

If the player is no longer able to explore due to a serious problem, the expedition will be cancelled, collected treasures will be lost in the process, and then any leaders or Oatchi will be brought to the overworld, a process which leaves the Pikmin behind if any were alive. InPikmin 4, the game gives the player the option torewind time instead of letting this happen. A cave's exploration can be cancelled for the following reasons:

• InPikmin 2, both leaders lose all theirhealth. This also results in the day ending immediately afterwards.
• InPikmin 2, the player loses all Pikmin.
• InPikmin 4, the player's character and Oatchi lose all their health.

Losing all Pikmin (or all Pikmin of a single type) inPikmin 4 simply results in a cutscene, a reminder to rewind time, and the possibility of continuing exploration regardless.

Manual abortion[edit]

In either game, a cave expedition can also be aborted manually in a controlled manner by using thepause menu. This will result in the leaders, Oatchi, and the Pikmin to hop inside theresearch pod or theS.S. Beagle and fly out. Doing this inPikmin 2 will result in the treasures being left behind, but not inPikmin 4.

Pikmin management[edit]

InPikmin 2, thePikmin limit is respected even inside caves, while inPikmin 4 the player can have as many Pikmin as they want inside the cave, and even from more than 3 types, though the Pikmin they can bring in from the surface must still respect those two limits. Also inPikmin 4, if the cave is exited with surplus Pikmin, any extras will simply be brought to the Onion when the player chooses what Pikmin types to take with them once they land.

Any Pikmin that are currentlyburied cannot be brought along to the next sublevel or outside the cave, and attempting to leave a sublevel like this will prompt the game to display a warning about abandoning the sprouts, showing a confirmation dialogue. This also happens for any Pikmin insideJellyfloats inPikmin 4. What happens when a sprout is left behind works differently in the two games: While sprouts left behind are permanently lost in both games, they are only considered to be actual deaths inPikmin 2; inPikmin 4, they will not be considered as casualties in theStatus Report screen.

Completion[edit]

A cave is considered "complete" if all major treasures within it have been collected. A cave that has achieved completed status will stop emitting mist, and a flag will be placed next to it. This is a small red flag with no symbol inPikmin 2, and a larger flag with theRescue Corps symbol and colour inPikmin 4. A flag icon will also appear on the symbol used to mark the cave on theradar.

InPikmin 4,obstacles will be permanently destroyed, andraw material piles will be permanently collected. However, these are not considered for cave completion.

Cave generation[edit]

See:Pikmin 2 cave generation

InPikmin 4, caves are not generated randomly and always appear the same if entered from the same hole of the cave.

Oddities[edit]

Cave entrance leader mixup[edit]

Main article:Glitches in Pikmin 2#Cave entrance leader mixup.

When entering the first sublevel of a cave, the game may or may not switch the player's active leader. It depends on the last leader the player used to jump to a non-first sublevel.

Hole entrance grunt mixup[edit]

When entering a cave or sublevel hole inPikmin 2, each leader grunts as he jumps. However, the first leader to jump will always make Olimar's sound effect, and the one behind will always make Louie's, regardless of the existing leaders and their order. The only exception is if the second leader is fallen, at which point only the first leader will grunt, still with Olimar's voice.

Glitches[edit]

Pikmin 2[edit]

• Cave hole glitch: It is possible for a leader to end up inside the cave hole's geometry, if he's placed on the hole's spawning point before it spawns.
• Cave death count glitch: If a Pikmin is suffering from a hazard and the player chooses to go to the next sublevel, the Pikmin will still have the suffering animation when jumping down the hole. If they made that last cry, they will nevertheless be alive on the next sublevel, but the total Pikmin lost count will increase.
• Fake Pikmin extinction: By entering a cave anddismissing at the same time, the game will let the player enter the cave with no Pikmin. It then instantly announces a Pikmin extinction.
• There is a glitch that can happen when proceeding to the next sublevel. In the animation where everybody jumps into the hole, some Pikmin may appearidle and won't jump in. Thankfully, these Pikmin that don't jump in will appear on the next sublevel.

Gallery[edit]

• 

  Artwork of a cave entrance.

• 

  A completed cave.

• 

  The entrances to caves above ground. These look the same as the holes used to go down to the next sublevel inPikmin 2.

Trivia[edit]

If the hole to the next sublevel spawns right next to the edge, leaders and Pikmin can climb it and fall off.

• Leaving a cave will always make the game switch to Captain Olimar (if Olimar hasn't run out of health yet), regardless of whatever leader the player had active before leaving.
• In an earlier version ofPikmin 2, the player could leave caves with half of the collected treasure if they leave through thepause menu. However, all Pikmin would be lost in doing so.^[4]
• Thefanfare that plays when jumping into the first sublevel of a cave is played again on organ during thefanfare that plays when a deeper sublevel is entered.
• On certain metal sublevels, it is possible for the level's hole or geyser to spawn on a corner. Due to hole and geyser only being able to spawn in the middle of corridor and dead end cave units, it will be right up against the units' barriers, making it possible for leaders and Pikmin to climb up the hole and into thevoid below.^[5]
• Some caves in Pikmin 2 are shown to have hints towards their general environment through details in the surrounding terrain by the cave entrance. Caves with these distinctions include:
  • All of the caves in theValley of Repose, due to snow being nearby (all of these caves have snowy sublevels).
  • TheWhite Flower Garden, which is located on a rusty metal plate, hinting that the cave is metal-themed.
  • TheSnagret Hole, whose entrance is located directly under a tree, hinting that the first sublevel contains tree roots. TheBurrowing Snagrets near the cave's entrance in conjunction with the cave being entered through a tree may be a hint towards the presence of the birdhouse in the first sublevel as well.
  • TheCitadel of Spiders's entrance is located inside a tree stump. The first sublevel has roots sprawling through it from above, which are likely meant to be from that same tree stump.
  • TheGlutton's Kitchen's entrance is situated on wood, and has some wooden scaffolding surrounding it, hinting towards that cave's wooden toybox sublevels.
  • TheShower Room's entrance is situated in a tiled basin, hinting towards that cave's tiled sublevels.
  • TheSubmerged Castle's entrance is on a concrete tile, probably hinting towards that cave's concrete sublevels.

• In "dirt"-styled sublevels, it is possible to seeburied treasure through the floor, in some angles.^[6]
• If the player somehow gets to an exit hole before the cave is completed, it can't be entered^{[source needed]}
• InPikmin 2, the farther the sublevel number, the more synthetic "insect" noises will be heard, with the sounds of later sublevels being deeper and more unusual. In Challenge Mode, all of the available sounds can play simultaneously, and how many play is instead dictated by the size of the generated sublevel.^[7]

Names in other languages[edit]

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	洞窟? Dōkutsu	Cave
French	Grotte	Cave
German	Höhle	Cave
Italian	Caverna (Pikmin 2) Cava (Pikmin 4)	Cave
Korean	동굴 Dong-gul	Cave
Spanish	Cueva	Cave

Hole

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	たて穴あな? Tate ana	Vertical hole	It is the same name asdirt-mounds

Sublevel Language Name Meaning  Japanese 地下? Chika Underground  French Sous-niveau Sublevel  German Sublevel -  Italian Livello Level  Korean 층 Cheung Floor  Spanish Nivel/Sub Nivel Level/Sub Level

Final floor Language Name Meaning  Japanese 最終階? Saishū-kai Last Floor  French Dernier Niveau Last Level  German Letzter Level Last Level  Italian Livello Finale Final Level  Spanish (NoA) Último Nivel Last Level  Spanish (NoE) Nivel Final Último Nivel (GameCube version's "Final floor" warning) Final Level Last Level

See also[edit]

• Area
• The Forest Navel
• Challenge Mode (Pikmin 2)
• Dandori Challenge
• Dandori Battle

References[edit]

• Pikmin 2
• Pikmin 4
• Caves

• Articles with things to do
• Articles in need of Pikmin 2 help
• Articles in need of sources