Pikmin: Wide World/Battle Mode

Battle Mode is a competitive alternate game mode in Pikmin: Wide World that is permanently unlocked upon collecting the Aggression Meter upgrade in Story Mode and includes elements from  and. Up to four players can compete against one another or team up against an opposing team to win a match, although leaders controlled by artificial intelligence, henceforth called bots, can also be enabled in place of human players. As with Bottomless Abyss, Battle Mode will have more content as Story Mode is explored.

Each player can select one of the four playable leaders, who are Olimar, Shacho, Marie, and Louie, to play as during a match, each having a corresponding color: red for Olimar, purple for Shacho, orange for Marie, and blue for Louie. Players can not choose the same leader but have priority over bots if any are present so they may select the leader they desire. With two players only, each player can choose a second leader to switch between on their team. Playing alone is possible, and may be helpful to practice techniques or learn the intricacies of Battle Mode. Optionally, players may choose to spectate a match between two or more bots, up to a maximum of four as per the player limit. During a match, the screen divides to accommodate the viewpoints of competing leaders: the screen splits vertically if two teams of one leader each are present, or vertically and horizontally if two teams controlled by two players have two leaders each, or three or four teams are present. The first team occupies the left or top-left portion of the screen, the second team accompanies the right or top-right portion of the screen, and teams three and four occupy the bottom-left and bottom-right portions of the screen.

When a match begins, leaders start under their Onion, with the types of amounts of their Pikmin as specified before the match, and their Victory Trophy nearby if enabled. Each leader's default starting amount of Pikmin is five, with the minimum being zero and the maximum being fifty. The Onion acts as it does in Story Mode but can not have Pikmin deposited into or withdrawn from it and ejects seeds only if there are less than fifty of a particular leader's Pikmin on the field. Additionally, the Onion will become noticeably larger and more colorful the more leaders are on its respective team, able to sustain up to fifty Pikmin for each leader on that team on the field at once. The only way to distinguish which team a Pikmin belongs to is the color of its leaf or petals. If enabled, Pikmin sprouts can be found scattered about the field, and plucking them increases the Pikmin population for the team they belong to regardless of who plucked them. If the chosen number of starting Pikmin and the number of Pikmin sprouts already on the field exceeds the limit, the number of starting Pikmin will be adjusted accordingly.

Leaders and Pikmin alike can attack leaders and Pikmin that are on a different team than theirs; leaders deliver simple punches and kicks and can throw enemy Pikmin away from themselves, and Pikmin relentlessly pursue nearby enemy leaders and Pikmin to strike them and can latch onto leaders to pummel them more effectively. Leaders can shake Pikmin off of themselves by struggling free. If friendly fire is enabled, leaders and Pikmin can attack others in the same team, though Pikmin must be made to do so deliberately. Unless toggled off or during overtime, Pikmin that die directly from leaders or other Pikmin will automatically be reborn at their team's Onion.

Each leader can open their HocoPad to view the radar on their portion of the screen, but nothing more. It displays the location of enemies, objectives, collectibles, leaders, and Pikmin. All Onions are highlighted uniquely on the radar. The colors of the dots representing Pikmin alternate between their type and their team.

Depending on the settings, the goal of a match can be: collect four of seven yellow marbles in Marble Madness, collect enough objects to complete a line in a four-by-four bingo card in Bingo Battle, claim an enemy's Victory Trophy, maintain control over a marble for longer than the opponents in Marble Takeover, or simply eradicate opposing teams in Team Elimination. Games can consist of solo, one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-one, or free-for-all matches. Matches can be set to last anywhere from five to ten minutes or indefinitely until one team achieves victory. The match enters overtime when time runs out, and during it, leaders take double damage, Pikmin that are killed by leaders and other Pikmin are not reborn at their team's Onion, and in Marble Madness only, collecting any kind of marble will result in victory for that team. After selecting "indefinite" as the time limit before the match, overtime can be enabled by toggling its respective option.

Whenever one or more team is close to winning a match, such as by having three yellow marbles or being one space away from bingo, their Pikmin will chant the names of its leaders. Each leader has a unique victory tune, each following the same melody, with that team's Pikmin cheering the name of whoever won once the fanfare finishes. During matches against three or four teams, eliminated groups are removed from the game, their Onion flying away, and are forced to spectate the remaining teams until one wins. Although unlikely, stalemates can occur between teams, such as by suffering a Pikmin extinction at the same time.

After a match, the winning team, if any, gains a point to signify their victory in the form of a score, and the faces of the displayed leaders will change their expressions to reflect it. While one team is at least one point ahead of another, their leaders grin, and the other's frown; while three or more points ahead, the leaders of winning teams smile triumphantly while those in the losing teams scowl or appear sad. The point disparity for this to occur is incremented by one for each team present. If the score between at least two teams is tied, those teams' leaders will display a neutral expression.

Stages
Battle Mode has ten different stages to play on:

Each stage has three distinct layouts, except Mashup Mayhem, and each side of each one has positions for a team's Onion, leaders, and Pikmin that are randomly assigned at the start of a match. Only the first stage is initially available, but completing a game, whether by winning or losing or through a stalemate, will unlock the next stage in the list; this also applies to stage layouts.

Unlocked layouts are chosen from at random upon selecting a stage, but holding left, up, right, or down on /  on the loading screen after selecting a stage will respectively force loading layout one, two, or three, or load a special variant of the stage that uses cave units of matching theme. None of these inputs have any effect when Mashup Mayhem is the selected stage.

Options
Before a match begins, players are presented with various options:
 * Choose the game style;
 * Select how long the match lasts;
 * Set the number of players;
 * Establish teams, as well as which players are on which team;
 * Change how many of what type of Pikmin each player starts with, and if there should be any buried in the stage;
 * Enable the Victory Trophy and select which appearance they use;
 * Change the frequency of Cupid's Grenades, their golden variant, and Lucky Marbles;
 * Independently toggle upgrades, which players can select up to three of, and sprays, which players can select up to three doses of one of their choosing;
 * Independently toggle the presence of mundane or hazard-related obstacles;
 * Toggle the presence of the stage boss.

Cupid's Grenade
During a match, Cupid's Grenades randomly fall onto the stage from above, and when brought to an Onion, grant one spin on the corresponding leader's roulette wheel. They can be carried by as few as one Pikmin and as many as two, and are transported much faster than other objects. The frequency of Cupid's Grenades can be set to "none", "sparse", "moderate", "abundant", or "maximum" in the pre-match options.

Golden Grenade
Golden Grenades are golden variants of Cupid's Grenades. They spawn exactly as Cupid's Grenades do, with their spawn frequency able to set in the same way, but generally appear much less often. Delivering one to an Onion will fill the corresponding leader's roulette wheel spin queue to maximum capacity. Like Cupid's Grenades, they can be carried by as few as one Pikmin and as many as two, but are transported at the usual speed. They tend to appear near the Onion of struggling teams.

Lucky Marble
A Lucky Marble is a marble having a glass exterior resembling a helmet and a golden interior resembling Shacho's head. They appear in the same way as Cupid's Grenades and Golden Grenades and can have their frequency adjusted in the same way, but only appear in this manner during Marble Madness and Bingo Battle. If their frequency is set to "none", Cupid's Grenades and Golden Grenades never stop appearing during a match, although they can be set to continue appearing even when Lucky Marbles start appearing. A Lucky Marble serves as the objective of Marble Takeover, and Pikmin carrying it will follow their team's closest leader. Upon being delivered to an Onion, which is impossible in Marble Takeover, it counts as a normal marble in Marble Madness and fills a random unfilled, empty, or restricted space on that team's bingo card in Bingo Battle. As few as one Pikmin and as many as eight Pikmin can carry a Lucky Marble.

Victory Trophy
The Victory Trophy is a team-colored marble or macaroon referred to individually as the Victory Marble or Victory Marble. When enabled, it rests near its team's Onion and can be captured by an enemy team to disqualify the team the Victory Trophy belonged to from the match. In the same way, Pikmin can return their team's Victory Trophy to its Onion if it is transported elsewhere. No matter the Victory Trophy's appearance, it can be carried by as few as one Pikmin and as many as eight Pikmin.

Roulette wheel
The roulette wheel is a gameplay aspect activated for teams that collect a Cupid's Grenade or Golden Grenade. Up to five spins, including the current one, can be queued, and using a power will instantly make the roulette spin for the next one. When the roulette finishes spinning, which takes about three seconds, it will randomly land on a power that can be used at any moment by the player that has it. Enemies created by a power dissolve into plasm on defeat and automatically die after existing for sixty seconds.