Pikmin: Elemental Speciation

Pikmin: Elemental Speciation is a fangame based around expanding and building upon the creatures and abilities across the first three games, and melding them into one cohesive experience, as well as including interpretations of some of the cut content from those three games and some from. It includes many behaviorally different variations of enemies, as well as some new game mechanics. All the Pikmin from previous titles return, and a few more are introduced.

=Plot= A while after Olimar and Louie's return to Hocotate Freight, Shacho notifies them that he purchased the legal rights to the Pikmin Planet, after being informed that he could not legally procure treasures from the planet without such a license. But, in buying it, he has racked up another debt of ten thousand Pokos. They use the Hocotate ship, which makes a return as an onboard computing assistant, and as the research pod, inside the new-and-improved S.S. Dolphin 2.0, possessing shiny golden highlights and three cockpits, to fly back to the planet to collect enough money to repay the debt. Olimar remarks that Louie seems strangely enthusiastic to return to the planet.

The introduction cinematic shows a suspicious asteroid moving as if it was trying to hit Olimar's ship, which it does. On crashlanding, Olimar and the ship land in Mossbed Gardens and Louie in a different part of it, and Shacho lands in Rusted Reefside. Upon first crashlanding, the ship is caught in a mass of tangled vines suspended from a broken tomato cage, and twenty Pikmin are needed to free it and be able to leave by sunset.

On day two, the ship requests that Olimar return to Mossbed Gardens to rescue Louie. While exploring the area, Olimar enters Flourishing Crevasse, a cave situated within the root system of a tree rich with plant life, and finds him on its second sublevel, alongside some Ivory Candypop Buds, from which White Pikmin are discovered. After returning to the surface, the Dolphin 2.0 says that there is only enough space in its hull for White Pikmin due to its different design. After rescuing Louie, the ship allows Olimar to travel to the second area, Rusted Reefside, on the following day. There, Yellow Pikmin are found in the wreck of a ship's hull. The day after, Olimar and Louie return to Mossbed Gardens to use their newfound Yellow Pikmin to take down an electric gate, and find Orange Pikmin behind it. This convinces the ship to allow them to visit a new area, explaining that it wasn’t entirely looking forward to rescuing the President.

Upon going to this area, the Snowslope of Memories, so named for the fond memories it elicits from Olimar, Olimar and Louie find Rock Pikmin in an exterior cave blocked off by a reinforced gate, and enter another cave that has a Purple Onion inside the Lightweight Holding Cell. Due to its malnourished state, is smaller and unable to naturally produce Purple Pikmin, but does allow the ship to store Purple Pikmin found in Violet Candypop Buds instead of leaving them in caves. After finding Rock Pikmin, Rusted Reefside can finally be accessed.

After landing in Rusted Reefside, Olimar and Louie use their newly-acquired Rock Pikmin to fight off, but not yet defeat, the Encrusted Blinnow that ate the President. Shacho, after the blinnow spits him out when its armor breaks, explains that he approached the creature while it was sleeping, mistaking its shining armor for treasure, and was eaten. He reprimands Olimar and Louie for not rescuing him sooner and tells the ship to let them go to the next area as “I know there’s no time to dilly-dally about, unlike you two. There’s always new frontiers to colonize!”

The next day, Olimar, Louie, and Shacho visit the Umbral Bog, where they discover the Blue Pikmin, and the day after that, they return to Rusted Reefside to finish off the Encrusted Blinnow with their Blue Pikmin. They then use their Blue Pikmin and Purple Pikmin to crush a paper bag in their way. Beyond it is the White Onion, as well as the Foliath Skutterleaf, which, after its defeat, spits up a valuable treasure, convincing the ship to allow Olimar, Louie, and Shacho to visit the final main area, the Sandy Vastness, a large inhospitable desert.

After landing at the Sandy Vastness, the Hocotatian trio discovers Winged Pikmin and their Onion. Olimar, Louie, and Shacho eventually reach the area's farthest reaches, find and overcome the gauntlet that is the Hieroglyphic Courtroom, and acquire an item that grants access to the Towering Conifer.

At the top of the tree sits the Green Pikmin's Onion. Like the Purple Onion, it is malnourished, smaller than normal, and unable to produce more Pikmin of its kind, acting more as a safe place to store the parasitic Green Pikmin and also granting the ability to find Jade Candypop Buds. After obtaining Green Pikmin, their resistance to several hazards allows exploration of several locations that previously were inaccessible. Content at this point is essentially post-game, and the difficulty of these caves is scaled around Green Pikmin, although they can be beaten with other Pikmin.

Ending
After fully repaying the debt, Shacho congratulates his employees but asks if they want to stay on the planet to get more treasure. All three agree wholeheartedly. After recovering all treasures, a second ending occurs where they leave the planet with all their treasure, as well as a plan to return to capture specimens for research and sale.

=Gameplay= The gameplay is very similar to the other Pikmin games, except for some key differences. One notable dissimilarity is that most Pikmin can't carry bomb rocks, as only Orange Pikmin can.

Game modes
There are multiple different game modes in the game, which can be accessed from the main menu. All but story mode can be accessed through the extras menu, which appears in the main menu after any side mode is unlocked.

Story Mode
Story mode is the main mode of the game and initially the only mode. It can be played alone, or with multiple people cooperatively. The co-op mode works similar to 's, with each player taking an available captain, with alternatively colored variants of unlocked leaders. Up to four players can play this mode at a time, either locally or online.

Infinite Pit
The Infinite Pit is a game mode unlocked after collecting the Eternal Tunneler. It involves descending an endless pit made from completely randomly generated sublevels, which contain random enemies, obstacles, and treasures. The way these sublevels are generated follows a similar logic to the Chambers of Chaos, with each sublevel having a theme. But in this cave, they are only chosen around environment types, with much more variance in enemies and hazards. The only treasures that appear are those that have been collected in an existing savegame. Bosses, which follow the same logic as treasures, and rest sublevels appear infrequently as well, with rest sublevels being the only way to replenish Pikmin amounts, and the best way to acquire nectars and sprays.

As the cave is explored, the difficulty climbs, spawning more difficult enemies and hazards and in greater quantities. After a certain point, it begins spawning minibosses and bosses on regular sublevels, also increasing the base health and movement and attack speeds of enemies. As this is done, however, the game avoids placing leaders and Pikmin in the immediate vicinity of enemies and hazards in densely populated sublevels. Technically, the cave continues infinitely, but progress very far into the cave is damped by anti-spawnkilling rules on later stages.

Upon the death of every Pikmin or the downing of every leader, or quitting the game from the pause menu, the current statistics are recorded and saved on a personal leaderboard. These statistics are Pokos collected, enemies killed, and floors traversed. If every treasure and boss is unlocked for use in this game mode by respectively collecting or encountering them, which does not necessarily need to be all on one save file since such is tracked cumulatively across multiple saves, the recorded scores can be uploaded online to compete with other players across the world. Reaching sublevel thirty unlocks an alternative mode called Dash Mode, wherein the goal is to progress through as many sublevels as quickly as possible without treasures spawning. Weekly online Dash Mode competitions are held with differing sublevel targets and with fixed layouts; these break the content spoiler restriction rule, allowing for the spawning of bosses yet unseen in story mode.

Challenge Mode
This game's Challenge Mode is unlocked by collecting the Ambitious Amphora, a real-world golden trophy cup, and is comprised of five categories, which are Enemy Gauntlet, Treasure Trek, Pikmin Pluckers, Boss Arena, and Special Operations. Enemy Gauntlet contains levels where the goal is to eliminate either a certain number of enemies as quickly as possible, or kill as many enemies as possible in a given time, with harder enemies rewarding more points, varying based on the level they're in. The same applies to Treasure Trek and Pikmin Pluckers, but respectively with gathering treasure and growing Pikmin, although treasures are assigned Poko values instead of points. Boss Arena is a gamemode where bosses encountered in story mode are refought. Special Operations is a game mode where most things that don't fit with other sections go; tasks could be retrieving a certain single treasure as fast as possible, doing an objective without killing enemies, collecting a certain number of sprays or berries, and some multiplayer-only challenges.

There are two modes, Explorer Mode and Commander Mode, both with different difficulty scaling and with easy, medium, and hard difficulty. Explorer Mode tasks players with defeating a boss with a limited number of Pikmin that are often unfavorably against it, little to no sprays, and sometimes limited captains. This mode's difficulty scales with decreasing the number of sprays, captains, or Pikmin received, or changing the Pikmin's types. Commander Mode tasks players with defeating the boss with a Pikmin squad mostly of their choosing, allowing them to pick up to one hundred Pikmin of any normal type except in some circumstances, and some Green Pikmin hosts in some cases. Players are also almost always provided with every leader and a decent-to-large number of sprays. This mode's difficulty scales with making the boss fight harder overall by changing the arena, giving the boss more health, faster and more powerful attacks, or even adding new attacks altogether. If a difficulty is completed in either mode without losing any Pikmin or captains, a small gem appears in the middle of the award, corresponding to difficulty beaten: blue for easy, green for medium, and red for hard. Special Operations doesn't have difficulty awards for most levels, and all levels are unlocked at once.

=Content=

Pikmin
All Pikmin types from previous games return in Pikmin: Elemental Speciation, but some are slightly different. Two new usable types also appear: explosion-resistant Orange Pikmin and parasitic Green Pikmin. These two new Pikmin types have petals when matured above the leaf stage.

The combat abilities of Purple Pikmin are a compromise between their powerful incarnation and much weaker  incarnation, lacking homing abilities but still being able to latch onto and stun enemies. However, the stun chance, and time to a lesser extent, increases proportionally to the number of Purple Pikmin on the enemy already, so, in order for Purple Pikmin to be powerful, more must be brought in place of Pikmin with resistances to hazards more common than panic and wind.

White Pikmin, now having an Onion, allow them to be more easily amassed, potentially making them much more powerful due to their overall good utility, combined with their combat prowess in their poisonous bodies. However, in this game, their poison has a unique mechanic where it initially does little damage, but, similarly to Purple Pikmin, the more White Pikmin are eaten, the more damage each one inflicts. Most overworld bosses, as well as some cave bosses, have a resistance to poison, making it do less damage the lower their health is, quickly outpacing the white's scaling poison.

Orange Pikmin
Orange Pikmin are slightly shorter than other Pikmin and have larger arms and hands. They are the only Pikmin to be able to carry bomb rocks, dig faster than usual, and can keep from being shaken off the first time they are shaken off by an enemy, but they have a shorter throw distance. Their candypop buds are called Tigerseye Candypop Buds.

Green Pikmin
Green Pikmin are a special rare type of Pikmin that can plant themselves in enemies and partially take control over their minds. In their base forms, they are much smaller, do much less damage than other Pikmin types, and have no special resistances. They were once called Bulbmin, but now that they can control other enemies, they are simply called Green or Parasite Pikmin. They have characteristics based on the enemies that they control. They don’t sprout from their Onions, but from Jade Candypop Buds. Their Onion instead serves as a place for storage, and as a way to change what creature the parasite Pikmin are lodged in. When a corpse is brought to the Green Onion, up to three idle Green Pikmin can transform into parasitic forms of that enemy. They have traits associated with that enemy and look like that enemy, but smaller, and with a sprout coming from its back. The flowers of these hosted forms of Green Pikmin mostly have blue flowers, except for members of the grub-dog and breadbug families, to pay homage to the Bulbmin's white petals. For example, a parasite Swooping Snitchbug would be able to fly like a Winged Pikmin and would be able to carry objects, as many parasite hosts can not carry treasures or corpses. Boss enemies can not be taken to the Green Onion. Green Pikmin cannot wear armor. The Green Onion is found in an optional area available late into the game, but various parasite Pikmin hosts can be found in caves that won’t follow leaders up to the surface. Once Green Pikmin are unlocked, one corpse retrieved from a cave can be taken back to the surface to be used as a host for Green Pikmin. This corpse doesn't provide any Pokos.

Areas
In Pikmin: Elemental Speciation, there are five main areas, and one smaller bonus area.

Mossbed Gardens
Mossbed Gardens is the first area explored after crashlanding onto the planet. It is an area based on a backyard garden covered in moss. There are multiple wooden garden beds, ceramic pots, tomato cages, and other garden paraphernalia. This is where Red Pikmin, as well as Orange Pikmin later on, are found.

Rusted Reefside
Rusted Reefside is the second area. Most of the area is a tropical beach area with some metal debris scattered about, and the remainder is the interior of a rusted ship where Yellow Pikmin are found. Leaders and Blue Pikmin can swim out to the ocean up to a certain point, after which a warning will be displayed, and if it is ignored, they and all accompanying Pikmin will be eaten, the leader being spit out and washed ashore at a random place on the beach.

Snowslope of Memories
Snowslope of Memories is the third area discovered. It is a large area on the slopes of a snowy mountain. Many caves are located here, and Rock Pikmin are found in one of them. If Pikmin or enemies fall down the mountainside, they die as if it were a pit. If a treasure falls down, it reappears the next day in its initial spot.

Umbral Bog
Umbral Bog is the fourth area. An area with large amounts of mud and rotten logs, as well as pools of stagnant water often topped with lily pads or pondweed. The sky above this area is always gray and cloudy, and it sometimes rains. On rainy days, some areas with water become more flooded, the behaviors of creatures that live here can change, and some new creatures can appear. The lily pads here are still, larger, and sometimes have enemies, treasure, or other things on them. Some of the ponds are too murky and inhospitable for Blue Pikmin, the type found here, to swim in, and so will cause even them to start drowning once they fall in.

Sandy Vastness
Sandy Vastness is the final main game area. It is a large desert area with a river flowing through it. This is where Winged Pikmin are found. Days here are one-and-a-half times longer due to the increased sunlight. Small palm plants, cacti, and succulents grow around the river, and distant from the river area are dead bushes.

Towering Conifer
Towering Conifer is an area unlocked post-game. It is a snowy, horizontally small area consisting of a small patch of land surrounded by shrubbery with a single conifer tree in its center. This tree is circled by branches, mushrooms, and ice outcrops, all of which make a path to the top of the tree. These paths have enemies, and sometimes hazards, on them. At the top of the tree is where the Green Onion is found.

Caves
There are many caves in Pikmin: Elemental Speciation. They are very similar to those in but include several new environmental themes such as garbage pile, untarnished factory, and coral reef. Also, there are some caves that are completely submerged in water, which use underwater mechanics. Upon obtaining the Mole Watchdog, a stud detector, some caves can be explored past their normal final sublevel by digging up an extra hole. Time does pass while in caves, but at a slower rate. If a cave is gone through quickly relative to its length, not much time will have been spent upon returning to the surface. Spending enough time in a cave may result in the day being at its end by the time it is exited, with a minimum of the ten-second warning allowed.

Upgrades
Pikmin: Elemental Speciation has upgrades like in, each gathered from different special treasures. It contains every upgrade appearing in Pikmin 2 as well as Pikmin 3 Dodge Whistle.

Encyclopedias
This game has two main encyclopedias, as well as one extra one. The Piklopedia and Treasure Hoard return, showing all killed enemies and collected treasure. There is also the Green PikLog, a catalog of all documented Green Pikmin parasite forms and their abilities.

Piklopedia
This game's Piklopedia includes a count of how many enemies of that type have been killed and how many Pikmin that enemy has killed, and displays a short description or comment from Olimar, who comments about the creature's evolution and biology, Louie, who comments about how to cook and eat the creature, and Shacho, who comments on how the creature could be used or sold if taken back to Hocotate.

Treasure Hoard
This game's Treasure Hoard contains a description of every treasure by Olimar, a scientific, and often humorous, analysis of the treasure's composition and properties by the S.S. Dolphin 2.0's main computer, and a sales pitch by the Hocotate ship's CPU in the research pod.

Green PikLog
The Green PikLog is only unlocked after collecting Green Pikmin for the first time. It catalogs the stats of the parasite forms of Green Pikmin, including relative speed, carry strength, attack, and resistances.

Achievements
There are achievements in Pikmin: Elemental Speciation that are unlocked through gameplay. They include objectives such as filling out entries in the Piklopedia, sprouting Pikmin, completing caves and defeating bosses with no Pikmin lost, and even killing a certain number of Dwarf Red Bulborbs.