Pikmin Forever/Metal Index

In Pikmin Forever, metal objects play a very important role. In order to charge the Hocotate ship or KHA Lander for blasting off at sunset and orbiting through the night, their batteries must be charged using metal powder as particulate fuel. Thus metal objects must constantly be collected to convert into metal units; getting to explore for another day requires 250 metal units. Since metal objects are so important to collect, they often are only presented after particular challenges, such as an environmental puzzle or an enemy or enemies.

Generally, the greater or better the metal content of the object, the more metal units it is worth. However, not all metal objects are salvaged for units. The members of the Terraformer's Friend Series give upgrades to the leaders' ship, Piktop, or spacesuits; these are listed in bold. One "metal" object, the Peculiar Gemstone, unlocks Pikmin Forever ' s Challenge Mode.

All metal objects can be found in the real world; Captain Olimar gives them ridiculous names because he is extraterrestrial and does not know the objects' origins. Each metal object has a file in the Metal Index, the sister index to the Piklopedia. With each metal object file comes reflective notes and a doodle or sketch of the object by Olimar.

Listing
There are 201 metal objects in the game.

Other sources of metal
Metal objects are the primary, but not the only means of collecting metal. Nuggets of gold and other metals appear in all areas except the Sunset Islet, and function just like. Every day in each area, nuggets of metal respawn in a new part of the area, so that the area is never emptied of metal.

Enemies also have some metal in them; a few enemies have a great deal of metal due to their size or metal composition. Using the Piktop, Pikmin can be told to take a fallen enemy back to the ship instead of the Onion, to salvage it for metal rather than Pikmin seeds. For metallic enemies, there is often an advantage in salvaging them for metal rather than propagating Pikmin with them.

Although the SOGNO is technically the most valuable metal object in the game at 10000 metal units, it is only collected during the final cutscene; its value has no effect on gameplay.