Hocotate ship

The Hocotate ship, usually called simply the ship, is an aging spaceship that was part of Hocotate Freight since it first opened. It sports two cockpits used by Olimar and Louie and a speaker it uses to talk. It has a pompous and quirky personality, is highly greedy, lies about treasures in its sales pitches to entice potential buyers into spending money, and has an extreme hatred for bugs. It laments that it is a machine and lacks organic bodily functions and has no friends, and regularly criticizes Olimar for failing to perform his duties properly. As stated by Olimar, the ship used to be a top-of-the-line vessel.

In, the ship is integral in collecting treasures and corpses and therefore accruing Pokos. The Hocotate ship can store Pikmin and treasures, and will house both White Pikmin and Purple Pikmin once they are found. The ship is capable of deep-space communication, sending a report each night to Hocotate and receiving mail, but must be in orbit around PNF-404 to do so. When the leaders go into a cave, the ship dispatches its nose cone, known as the Research Pod, and sends it down to support them. Anything that the Pikmin carry will be delivered to the Pod and stored in its hull. After the debt is repaid, the ship is upgraded with gold plating.

In, the ship is wrecked, presumably from the nearby Quaggled Mireclops, and is shown without its golden hull, indicating it was sold off. After returning to Hocotate from, Olimar and Louie are sent back to PNF-404 by the President to retrieve the ship. With the Pikmin's help, its parts are recovered, allowing it to be repaired and brought back to Hocotate.

In, reaching the ship is the goal of every level.

In Pikmin Forever
The Hocotate ship, specifically the research pod, provides an important role in Pikmin Forever. After Captain Olimar's rescue ship is compromised, he finds the research pod on the first day, at Daybreak Glade. With Olimar's rescue ship's damaged battery installed, it serves as a makeshift spaceship, carrying him to a low altitude each night as long as its battery is charged using two hundred fifty metal units of fuel. Eventually, Loucap shows Olimar that the remainder of the ship still exists in sixteen parts that must be collected if the Hocotate ship is to reach the Forbidding Precipice. In this area, the previously crashed KHA Lander is found, after which it becomes the primary ship. The KHA Lander's scanners need two thousand five hundred metal units of repairs to find Edward, however. With one hundred Purple Pikmin, as it weighs one thousand units, the explorers can salvage the entire Hocotate ship as a metal object called the Saluted Sourpuss for all the required metal units. It is the heaviest and most valuable metal object that can be carried. Of all metal objects, it is second in value only to the SOGNO.

In Pikmin Galaxy Adventure
In Pikmin Galaxy Adventure', the Ship is redesigned and renamed the Hocophin'. It is a combination of the Hocotate ship and the S.S. Dolphin, thus giving it its name.

In Pikmin Kart
The Ship is an item in Pikmin Kart. Upon use, the user's kart transforms into a replica of the ship and automatically navigates through the course for a limited time, though it can be slightly steered left or right, before returning to normal. Any karts hit by the ship will be flipped over. The Ship is more common for karts that are behind.

In Pikmin: Infection in Progress
The Ship appears in Pikmin: Infection in Progress as the the President's gold-plated rocket. It speaks very little, doing so only when providing hints, suggestions, or lessons. It also warns what an environmental hazard does whenever one is encountered and interacted with for the first time.

In Pikmin: The Rising Darkness
In Pikmin: The Rising Darkness, the Ship has an upgrade called the Sub, which allows it to accompany Olimar underwater.