Topic: Pikmin NPC Tactics

Hey everyone,

Having bought Pikmin NPC for dirt cheap I have finally got around to playing it. I have found the control style a little unruly, as in I have trouble getting the yellow pikmin to pick up the bombs.

Also, does anyone have any tactics they can suggest for me? I'm pretty bad at these kind of games, and all my guys get eaten whilst I kill them. Then to make matters worse I need to spend two days of game time to get myself a good squad again.

I am really enjoying it, I'm just wanting to know a way so that in future after 8 days I will only have 2 pieces of spaceship.

I haven't played the NPC version, but remember to call your Pikmin back after sending them in. A good strategy is to let them get in a few hits, but call them back before the enemy has time to counter. This is especially important on bosses, as many of them can wipe out a mess of Pikmin with a single attack.

Also, attack from the rear when possible, and toss Pikmin directly onto the creature, rather than on the ground. They usually do more damage attacking the body than the legs.

But really the most important thing is to call them back. It's better to call them back early than to let them get devoured.

Thanks for the advice man, those strategies are working a treat. I am finally getting a few spaceship pieces. What I like is that it is for a set time and then once it is all done you have to start again... means that it is a game that you can't afford to grind away on... you always need to be on the move.

Enjoy it, Pikmin is a great game. It might not make my top 10, but I'm pretty sure it'd be in my top 20.

I actually preferred Pikmin to Pikmin 2, specifically because of what you pointed out: the time limit means you have to be more strategic about what you do. You always have to move, and if you're not collecting a space ship part each day, you'd darn well better be paving the way to collect two or three the next. And losing Pikmin can be a real setback, as you then have to take time out the next day to grow them back.

Pikmin 2's unlimited timespan was welcome, in a way, but it also kind of made the game feel less urgent to me. You could raise 100 Pikmin, get them all killed via stupidity, and then just raise another 100. There was no real sense of loss, and no setback you'd then have to work harder to overcome. Which is cool if people enjoy that sort of thing, but there's nothing like the sense of panic you get when you near the end of Pikmin's calendar and realize you still have so much left to do. It never got frustrating for me...it just gave me incentive to push harder. I loved it.

A strategy I always found helpful for ground enemies was to attack them with Olimar to keep them away from your squad of Pikmin. Like say your group has a ship part and you can see that they are about to stupidly walk right into a giant enemy. Just charge the enemy with Olimar and lead it away from the Pikmin. As long as Olimar is the closest target to the enemy, it will go for him.