Underground Bunker

The Underground Bunker is a cave in Pikmin 5: Apex Predator. It is the only cave in Olimar City, and the first cave explored overall.

Sublevel 1
The sublevel consists of a massive torus with a gaping hole in the ceiling and a lower elevation in the middle. No treasure is present. Upon landing, the player character's transceiver will go off, and Rhea, a fellow member of the rescue team, will provide a description of the bunker taken from Olimar. The people are in the center of the donut on the second sublevel, with stairs right next to the landing point. The character looks where the stairs should be and sees a wall. Unfortunately, the tremors from the hormone-riddled beast shook a portion of the roof down, creating a major obstruction and forcing the player character to take the long way around. Upon explaining the situation to Rhea, she says to be careful about other falling objects and that the ceiling hole has created a potential entry point for creatures to sneak into the bunker. Rhea wishes the player character good luck, the walkie-talkie shuts off, and the cutscene ends.

The first obstacle is three Dwarf Bulborbs. A quarter of the way around the torus, a Dwarf Bulborb falls from the sky. This is the final warning to consider being careful about falling objects. After killing the Dwarf Bulborb, continue walking and there will be a trail of them to kill. Once halfway around the sublevel, the shadow of a falling rock will appear overhead upon walking through a certain area. Quickly dodge out of the way to avoid catastrophe. Press on and the ground will split into two rows of tiles. One will have a Dwarf Bulborb, the other a rock ready to fall. This pattern continues until three-quarters of the way into the torus. The last quarter will have Dwarfs and falling rocks on both tiles, culminating in a breakable wall.

In a second cutscene, Rhea curses the rescue crew's luck as now the stairs are blocked on both sides. Olimar pipes in on the transceiver and tells the player to try tearing down the weaker wall with Pikmin. Afterward, direct every Pikmin to the breakable wall and wait some moments for the Pikmin to tear it down. Upon doing so, the stairs are revealed to have collapsed into a hole. The player is given the option to jump in, and without any other choice, continues to the second and final sublevel.

Sublevel 2
The map is again a massive torus with a wall blocking the way forward. No treasure is present. Upon landing, another cutscene begins.

The citizens are in the hole of the torus, but the door is directly behind the fallen wall, forcing the player character to walk all the way around again. They are screaming as a bulborb is gnawing at the door, attempting to force its way inside. They call for help and Rhea says to hurry to save them. The cutscene ends.

On this sublevel, there are Fiery Dweevils as well as more Dwarf Bulborbs. Kill the Dwarfs to prevent them from eating Pikmin and either fight or ignore the Dweevils. What escalates the difficulty is the Bumbling Snitchbugs present past the first quarter around the torus. If a Bumbling Snitchbug catches the player character, the Pikmin will disband, making them vulnerable to Dwarf Bulborbs. Isolate the Snitchbugs and kill them, then continue the same method the rest of the way around the torus. The "boss" of the underground bunker is an adult Bulborb and two Bumbling Snitchbugs. Carefully approach one Bumbling Snitchbug until it swoops down, making sure not to gain the attention of the other Snitchbug or the Bulborb. Throw Pikmin at it when it swoops, and swarm it once it falls from the weight of the Pikmin. Repeat with the other Bumbling Snitchug. Finally, bum-rush the Bulborb. Unfortunately, this one will never fall asleep, being too insistent on reaching the townspeople, so casualties are likely.

After killing the Bulborb, the final cutscene begins, with everyone inside the bunker calling the player character their hero and the rescue crew creating a set of stairs to leave the Underground Bunker.