Spawning Grounds

The Spawning Grounds is the first cave in Lover's Spring and second cave in Pikmin 5: Apex Predator. There are 675 Pokos worth of treasure here. Blue Pikmin are found here, but the Blue Onion is not. It is recommended to bring 80 or less Pikmin to the cave, so you have plenty of room for the wild Blue Pikmin to join your squad. When first approached, a cutscene begins. Rhea notes that to get to the cave, the all-red squad had to dodge many puddles of water. She recommends due to the difficulty of navigating the puddles, perhaps a smaller squad of 80 Pikmin would be better for the cave. After the cutscene ends, the character can adjust their Pikmin as needed and jump in!

Sublevel 1
Strategy: This room is very simple. It is T shaped with the player starting on the top right with the hole to the next floor at the bottom of the T. At the top left will be three eggs. On the way to the top center of the T, the six Female Sheargrubs will rise out of the ground. Kill them and advance to the top center. Be careful around these eggs. Though two have the nectar, one has the Mitites which will scatter your Pikmin! Additionally, the six Male Sheargrubs are nearby down the vertical hall, creating a risk that a poor Pikmin stranded by the panic is eaten by them. To maximize safety, ignore the eggs and swarm the Male Sheargrubs first, killing all of them. Then, your prize can be enjoyed in safety. Then, enter the hole to the next Floor!
 * Theme: Fire
 * Treasures:
 * None
 * Enemies:
 * Obstacles:
 * None
 * Vegetation:
 * None
 * None
 * Vegetation:
 * None

Sublevel 2

 * Theme: Water
 * Treasures:
 * Phony Blowhog
 * Enemies:
 * Obstacles:
 * Water Puddles, Fire Geysers
 * Vegetation:
 * Obstacles:
 * Water Puddles, Fire Geysers
 * Vegetation:

Strategy: Upon landing on this floor, Rhea will comment that she hears cries of some kind, but none resembling those of castaways. The screen moves to a corner of the room where Blue Pikmin are cowering in the clovers. They're walled in by fire geysers and one of the Puffy Blowhogs is threatening to blow the Blue Pikmin into them! Quickly head over to the corner, disable the geysers with your Red Pikmin, and take out the flying menace. Whistle in the clovers, and ten Blue Pikmin have joined your team! Since there are only five of them, take them to the saftey of where you landed and use your Red Pikmin to take out the Shearwigs and Yellow Wollywogs. Only one enemy should be left, which is the other Puffy Blowhog. It hangs perilously close to a large water puddle, so throw Pikmin with caution. After killing this final enemy, the blowhog corpse and the Phony Blowhog will land in the puddle. Rhea will curse their luck again but Olimar will remind the player that Blue Pikmin can get in the water. Take the Phony Blowhog back to where you started for 50 Pokos and enter the next floor!

Sublevel 3

 * Theme: None
 * Treasures:
 * Enemies:
 * Obstacles:
 * Fire Geysers
 * Vegetation:
 * Obstacles:
 * Fire Geysers
 * Vegetation:

Strategy: The layout of the third sublevel is a giant circle. There are 10 bulborbs and one treasure assigned to one at random. The vast quantities of clovers provide cover to the player if they accidentally wake up a Bulborb before swarming it and want to wait for it to go back to sleep. Isolate and kill the Puffy Blowhogs so they don't blow your Pikmin into the Bulborbs, waking them up. Next, take down the fire geysers around the Bulborbs to avoid the risk of getting stunned by one while fighting a Bulborb. Finally, start killing Bulborbs until the Strife Monolith falls out of one of them. Take it to base and choose to advance to the next sublevel or fight the remaining Bulborbs for extra Pokos.

Sublevel 4

 * Theme: Water
 * Treasures:
 * Red Alpha Emblem
 * Blue Alpha Emblem
 * Enemies:
 * Obstacles:
 * Fire Geysers, Water Puddles
 * Vegetation:
 * Obstacles:
 * Fire Geysers, Water Puddles
 * Vegetation:

Strategy: The fourth sublevel is a giant square split into two sections, with the squad landing in the bottom right corner. The right half of the square is land with water puddles, and the left half is a giant puddle with islands. Wogpoles will only be on the left half of the room, the Emperor Bulblax will only be on the right half of the room, and the Dwarf Albino Bulborbs will be scattered everywhere except the bottom left quadrant. Keep the Blue Pikmin safely tucked in the corner and take the reds along the land half. Kill the Dwarf Albino Bulborbs and disable the fire geysers to make it easier for the Blue Pikmin to bring the Blue Alpha Emblem from the water side of the sublevel. Once complete, confront the Emperor Bulblax at the top right corner. Make sure to consider the puddles when fighting it, because backing your Red Pikmin into them in the middle of the fight would be a disaster. Killing the Emperor Bulblax results in it spitting out the Red Alpha Emblem, a Coca-Cola Bottlecap. Take it back immediately or send a few Blue Pikmin if the Bulblax spat the Red Alpha Emblem into the water. After collecting the Red Alpha Emblem, take the five Blue Pikmin and head to the bottom left corner of the big room. 10 Blue Pikmin will be chasing wogpoles. Whistle them to your side and add them to your team. Enter the top left quadrant and take on the remaining Dwarf Albino Bulborbs, making sure to whistle the Pikmin to you immediately after throwing them to avoid the Blues getting distracted by the remaining wogpoles and leaving your squad. Take the Blue Alpha Emblem, a Pepsi Bottlecap, from the random Dwarf Albino Bulborb who has it and return it to the starting area. Then, enter the final floor!

Sublevel 5

 * Theme: Boss
 * Treasures:
 * Bot of Burden
 * Enemies:
 * Obstacles:
 * None
 * Vegetation:
 * None
 * None
 * Vegetation:
 * None

Strategy: The final sublevel is shaped like a gear with six teeth distributed like the sides of a hexagon, with the starting area being the bottom tooth. The exit is on the top tooth, the Empress Bulblax Sits in the middle of the room facing you and giving birth, and the bulborbs reside in the other four teeth. Immediately summon your Red Pikmin and attack the Empress Bulblax, calling your Pikmin back before she does her roll attack. Her roll move should kill every bulborb larva she gives birth to. If one or two survive, kill them with your captain. Repeat as many cycles as the selected difficulty calls for and the Empress Bulblax should die, releasing the Bot of Burden. It looks like a large metal Skutterchuck and requires the strength of 20 Pikmin to carry. Then, kill every Bulborb hiding in the other four gear teeth, with one dropping the Citrus Lump. The player can choose to drink nectar from any eggs next to the Bulborbs or ignore them. Finally, take the treasures to the starting area. Once the Bot of Burden is taken by the ship, a cutscene begins. A crew member analyzes the Bot and says they can reactivate it, turning it into a machine that lifts with the strength of 100 Pikmin, though can only be used once a day. It is very important to take this treasure due to the larger creatures easily needing more than the strength of 100 Pikmin. Finally, take your team to the geyser at the top tooth and the Spawning Grounds is done!