Pikmin: Elemental Speciation is a fangame based around expanding and building upon the creatures and abilities across the first 3 games, and melding them into one cohesive experience, as well as including my best interpretation of some of the cut content from all 3 games, as well as some from Hey! Pikmin. It includes many behaviorally different variations of enemies, as well as some new game mechanics. All the pikmin from previous titles return, as well as a couple others.

Plot

'
Rating	E 10+
Genre	Semi-Casual Real-Time Strategy
Platforms	N/A
Media
Prequel	Pikmin 3
Creator	FrostFlame

A while after Olimar and Louie's return to Hocotate Freight, Shacho notifies them that he purchased the legal rights to the pikmin planet, after being informed that he could not legally procure treasures from the planet without such a license. But, in buying it, he has racked up another 10,000 Poko debt. They all then fly back to the planet to collect enough money to repay the debt. Olimar remarks that Louie seems strangely enthusiastic to return to the planet. The intro cinematic shows a suspiciously-moving asteroid, as if it was trying to hit Olimar's ship. The Hocotate ship makes a return as an onboard computing assistant and as the research pod inside the new-and-improved Dolphin 2.0, possessing shiny golden highlights and 3 cockpits. . On crash-landing, Olimar and the ship land in Mossbed Gardens, Louie in a different area of Mossbed Gardens, Shacho lands in an area in Rusted Reefside where he must be rescued from an aboveground Encrusted Blinnow once Rock Pikmin are collected. When you first crash-land, the ship gets trapped in tangled vines suspended from a broken tomato cage, and you need 20 pikmin to pull it down from the vines and leave. After the first day consisting of collecting 20 Red pikmin, the ship requests you return to the Mossbed Gardens to rescue Louie. Entering the Flourishing Crevasse, a cave situated within the root system of a tree filled with plantlife, you find Louie in the second sublevel, and you also discover the White Pikmin from Ivory Candypop Buds. After recovering Louie, the ship will allow you to travel to the second area, the Rusted Reefside. This is where you find the Yellow Pikmin, inside a mostly destroyed ship’s hull. You return to the Mossbed Garden to bash down an Electric gate and find the Orange Pikmin. This convinces the ship to allow them to go to another area, explaining that it wasn’t entirely looking forward to rescuing the president. Upon going to this area, the Snowslope of Memories, so named for the fond memories it elicits from Olimar, you find the Rock Pikmin in an above ground cave blocked in by a bombable Reinforced gate, and can enter another cave where you find the Purple Onion inside the Lightweight Holding Cell, which, due to its malnourished state, is smaller and cannot naturally produce Purple Pikmin, but does allow you to find Purple Candypop Buds in caves once collected. Then, you can rescue Shacho with your newly-acquired rock pikmin. The blinnow spits Shacho out after its armor breaks, and Shacho explains he approached it while it was sleeping, mistaking its shining armor for treasure, and was eaten. He reprimands you for not rescuing him sooner, and tells the ship to let them go to the next area as “I know there’s not time to dilly-dally about, unlike you two. There’s always new frontiers to colonize!” You are then granted access to the Umbral Bog, where you discover the Blue Pikmin. At this point you go back to the Rusted Reefside and re-fight and finally defeat the Encrusted Blinnow with your Blue Pikmin, granting access to a 200 weight crushable bag. This leads to the White Onion and an arena to fight the Foliath Skutterleaf, which drops a treasure, convincing the ship to allow you to go to the final main area, the Sandy Vastness, a large inhospitable desert area where you discover the [[Onion|Winged Onion] and the pikmin that go with it. After venturing to the end of the Sandy Vastness and beating the boss gauntlet that is the Hieroglyphic Courtroom cave, you acquire an item that grants access to the Towering Conifer area. At the top of the tree sits the Green Pikmin onion, also smaller than usual, like the purple onion,and unable to produce more pikmin, instead acting as a place to store them, and unlocking their candypop bud, the Jade Candypop Bud. After obtaining the parasitic Green Pikmin, their multi-resistance properties allows you to explore areas you normally couldn't, as they are barred behind multiple hazards. This is essentially the post-game, and the difficulty of these caves are scaled around Green Pikmin, although they can be beaten with the other pikmin

Ending

After fully repaying the debt, Shacho congratulates the captains, but asks if they want to stay on the planet to get more treasure. All three agree wholeheartedly. After recovering all treasures, a second ending occurs where the captains leave the planet with all their treasure, as well as a plan to return to capture specimens for research and sale.

Gameplay

The gameplay is very similar to the other Pikmin games, except for some key differences. One notable dissimilarity is that most pikmin can't carry Bomb Rocks, only Orange Pikmin can carry them.

Pikmin

All pikmin types from previous games return in Pikmin: Elemental Speciation, including 2 new usable types. These types are the Orange Pikmin and parasitic Green Pikmin. Orange Pikmin are slightly shorter than other pikmin, and have larger arms and hands. They are the only pikmin to be able to carry Bomb Rocks, can dig, and can keep from being shaken off the first time they are shaken off by an enemy, but they have a shorter throw distance. Their candypop buds are called Tigerseye Candypop Buds. Green Pikmin are a special rare type of pikmin that can plant themselves in enemies and partially take over their minds. In their base forms, they are much smaller, and do much less damage and have no resistances. Were once called Bulbmin, but now that they can control other enemies, they are simply called Green or Parasite Pikmin. They have characteristics based on the enemies that they control. They don’t sprout from their onions, but from Jade Candypop Buds. Their onion instead serves as a place for storage, and as a way to change what creature the parasite pikmin are lodged in. When a corpse is brought to the Green Onion, you are able to make up to 3 of your unassigned Green Pikmin parasite forms of that enemy. They have traits associated with that enemy, and look like that enemy, but smaller, and a sprout coming from its head. For example, a parasite Swooping Snitchbug would be able to fly like a winged pikmin, and would be able to carry, as many parasite hosts can’t carry treasures or corpses. Boss enemies cannot be taken to the Green Onion. Green Pikmin cannot wear armor. The green onion is found in an optional area available late into the game, but various parasite pikmin hosts can be found in caves that won’t follow you up to the surface.

Areas

In Pikmin: Elemental Speciation, there are 5 main areas, and one smaller bonus area.

Mossbed Gardens

Main article: Mossbed Gardens

Mossbed Gardens is the first area you land in after crashing into the planet. It is an area based off of a backyard garden covered in moss. There are multiple wooden garden beds, ceramic pots, tomato cages, and other garden implements. This is where the Red Pikmin are found, as well as the Orange Pikmin later into the game.

Rusted Reefside

Main article: Rusted Reefside Rusted Reefside is the second area you land in. It is a tropical beach area with some metal debris around the area, as well as part of the area taking place in a rusted ship. This is where you find Yellow Pikmin.

Snowslope of Memories

Main article: Snowslope of Memories Snowslope of Memories is the third area discovered. It is a large area on the slopes of a snowy mountain. There are portions of the level inside caves, and portions inside. This is where you discover the Rock pikmin. If your pikmin fall down the mountainside, they die like falling down a pit. If a treasure falls down, it respawns the next day in its spawn place.

Umbral Bog

Main article: Umbral Bog Umbral Bog is the fourth area. An area with large amounts of mud and rotten logs, as well as pools of stagnant water, often topped with lily pads or pondweed. It is always gray and cloudy in the sky above this area, and sometimes rains. On rainy days, some areas with water become more water filled, and the behaviors of creatures can change, and some new creatures can appear. Differently from the lily pads in the Twilight Forest in Pikmin 3, these lily pads don’t move around, but stay in the same place, are larger, and sometimes have enemies, treasure, or other things on them. Some of the ponds are too murky and inhospitable for blue pikmin to swim in, and so will cause any pikmin who falls in to start drowning. This is where you get the Blue Pikmin

Sandy Vastness

Main article: Sandy Vastness Sandy Vastness is the final main game area. It is a large desert area with a river flowing through it. This is where you acquire the Winged Pikmin. Days there are 1.5 times longer due to the increased sunlight. Small palm plants, cacti, and succulents grow around the river, and distant from the river area are dead bushes.

Towering Conifer

Main article: Towering Conifer Towering Conifer is an area unlocked post-game. It is a snowy area. It is a horizontally small area , consisting of a small patch of land surrounded by shrubbery with a single conifer tree in its center. This tree is circled by branches, mushrooms, and ice outcrops, all of which make a path to the top of the tree. These paths have enemies on them, and sometimes hazards. At the top of the tree is where the Green Onion is found.

Caves

There are many caves in Pikmin: Elemental Speciation. They are very similar to Pikmin 2 caves, but include several new environments, like garbage pile, unrusted factory, and coral reef. Also, there are some caves that are completely submerged in water, which use the pikmin 3 underwater mechanics. Once you obtain the Mole Watchdog treasure (A stud detector in real life) some caves can be explored past their normal "final" sublevel by digging up an extra hole. Time does pass while in caves, but at a slower rate. If you go quickly through a cave relative to its length, you won't use much if any time. But, if you take a long time, the day may be over when you leave, with a minimum of the 10 second warning allowed.

Upgrades

Pikmin: Elemental Speciation has upgrades like in Pikmin 2, each gathered from different special treasures. It contains all the upgrades of pikmin 2, as well as the pikmin 3 Dodge Whistle.

Encyclopedias

This game has two main encyclopedias, as well as one extra one. The Piklopedia and Treasure Hoard return, showing all killed enemies and collected treasure. But, there is also the Green PikLog, a catalogue of all your collected Green Pikmin parasite forms, and their abilities.

Piklopedia

Main article: Pikmin: Elemental Speciation/PiklopediaThis game's Piklopedia includes a count of how many enemies of that type you've killed, how many pikmin that enemy has killed of yours, as well as a short description or comment from Olimar(who comments about the creature's evolution and biology), Louie(who comments about how to cook and eat the creature) and Shacho(who comments on how the creature could be used or sold if taken back to Hocotate).

Treasure Hoard

Main article: Pikmin: Elemental Speciation/Treasure HoardThis game's treasure hoard contains a description of the treasure by Olimar, a scientific(and often humorous) analysis of the treasure's composition and properties by the Dolphin 2.0's main computer, and a sales pitch by the Hocotate ship's CPU in the research pod.

Green PikLog

Main article: Green PikLogThe Green PikLog is only unlocked after collecting Green pikmin for the first time. It catalogues the stats of the parasite forms of Green Pikmin, including relative speed, carry strength, attack, and resistances.

Achievements

Main article: Pikmin: Elemental Speciation/AchievementsThere are achievements in Pikmin: Elemental Speciation that are unlocked through gameplay. They include things like filling out entries in the Piklopedia, sprouting pikmin, completing bosses and caves with no pikmin lost, and even things like killing a certain number of Bulborb.