Pikmin 2

Pikmin 2
Developer: Nintendo EAD Publisher: Nintendo Platform: GameCube Released in JP: April 29, 2004 Released in US: August 30, 2004 Released in EU: October 8, 2004 Released in AU: November 4, 2004 This game has unused areas. This game has unused playable characters. This game has unused code. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused cinematics. This game has unused items. This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a notes page

To do: Dolphin comes bundled with very juicy and very important codes, especially the EU version. Make use of them to document stuff. Discoveries from this channel. There was a demo playable / video shown at ECTS in London in August 2003.

Pikmin 2 eschews the survival aspect of the first game in favor of money, money, and money! Olimar and Louie must erase their company's debt by collecting blatant product placement ancient artifacts and throwing Pikmin at anything that moves. The game was later ported to the Wii and then the Nintendo Switch.

This article was brought to you by DURACELL®.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Notes

Early English Script What's a Psychotic Jumper?

Unused Caves These caves were simply too trecherous for our brave captain.

Unused Floor Layouts The walls are shifting.

Unused & Early Treasures Items not even a Dweevil would want.

Unused Music Totaka's leftover goodies!

Version Differences This sub-page was brought to you by National Hi-Top®

Test Map

A fully functional test map can be found on the disc at /user/Kando/map/newtest. The level can be accessed as its own proper world by following this video, or by swapping the level model and object data with The Perplexing Pool's (yakushima) on the disc with this RAR file:

Download Pikmin 2 Newtest Files File: Pikmin2YakushimaReplace.rar (8 KB) (info)

• 

  An overhead view of the entire map in a model viewer.

• 

  Another angle.

• 

  The starting position is appropriately located at 0,0.

• 

  These tiles test the environmental walking sounds.

• 

  Texture for the walking sound test tiles.

• 

  This small pool is used to test walking up slopes and carrying pellets underwater.

• 

  These walls are used to test both the player and the Pikmin's movements on sloped surfaces.

• 

  Slopes texture.

• 

  A number of enemies and hazards can be found here, like Flint Beetles, Shearwigs, Wogpoles, and falling rocks.

• 

  All environmental hazards can be found here. The Watery Blowhogs are used in place of water traps.

• 

  When the Test Map is accessed properly you can see its name displayed as the unused "Test Area" text mentioned below. The radar map is just a small white rectangle.

Alternate Version

To do: There's a lighting file and a few others to examine in the folder.

Kando\map\newtest	Kando\zukan

A slightly different version of the test map can be located in /user/Kando/zukan. This map is identical to the other version, with the exception of the footstep sound test tiles being removed, and the texture map being very, very slightly shifted.

Unused Map Units

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: way4_kusachi really IS unused, isn't it?

Caves are made up of randomly laid out map units (located on /user/Mukki/mapunits/units), specific to each sublevel. These units are unused:

Image	Name	Description
	item_way3_conc	A concrete three-way crossing, presumably with an item in the middle, judging by the name. The sand texture is different from the final game.
	item_way3_metal	A metal three-way crossing, presumably with an item in the middle, judging by the name.
Visually the same as the used dirt three-way crossing	item_way3_tsuchi	A dirt three-way crossing, presumably with an item in the middle, judging by the name.
	item_way4_conc	A concrete four-way crossing, presumably with an item in the middle, judging by the name. The sand texture is different from the final game.
	item_way4_metal	A metal four-way crossing, presumably with an item in the middle, judging by the name.
Visually the same as the used dirt four way crossing	item_way4_tsuchi	A dirt four-way crossing, presumably with an item in the middle, judging by the name.
	item_wayl_conc	A concrete turning corridor, presumably with an item in the middle, judging by the name. The sand texture is different from the final game.
	item_wayl_metal	A metal turning corridor, presumably with an item in the middle, judging by the name. Note that this has higher walls than usual. These high walls can be seen in a 2-Player Battle prerelease screenshot.
Visually the same as the used dirt turning corridor	item_wayl_tsuchi	A dirt turning corridor, presumably with an item in the middle, judging by the name.
Visually the same as the used 4-exit circular dirt room	room_cent_4_mat_tsuchi	A dirt circular room with four exits. A near-duplicate of room_cent_4_tsuchi, but differing on layout.txt.
Visually the same as the used metal zigzagging corridor room	room_nobo1_4_metal	A metal zigzagging corridor room, near duplicate of room_nobo2_4_metal, but differing on layout.txt.
	room_north4x4k_1_bomb_conc	The same as the room that sublevel 2 of the Submerged Castle ends in, but part of the tube is above ground.
	way4_kusachi	A four-way crossing used in gardens, featuring a twig with a leaf that casts a shadow. This unit is used in all garden layouts, but all garden layouts generate in such a way that unexpectedly leaves this unit unused.
	way6_tsuchi	This unit belongs on the dirt-type levels (_tsuchi), and is meant to split a single path into five different ones. This unit is only incorporated on the list of all units, but that list is referenced by no cave. Even though it looks like it contains all of the necessary map unit data, its strange floor texture is further indication of its exclusion from the game.

Unused Cinematics

Internal Name	Video	Description
g02_boot_onyonR		A short cutscene of the Red Onion booting up...but the Red Onion is always active in the final version, meaning there's no use for this cutscene. There's a dialogue box triggered, but there's no associated text in the ISO, so it just disappears.
g1E_boot_onyonY		Similar to the above, but with the Yellow Onion. This has the proper text, but no camera values (defaulting to 0,0,0). The Yellow Onion was moved in the video for demonstration purposes.
g20_boot_onyonB		It's the Blue Onion's turn. This has the right text and the right camera coordinates.
g33_camera_demo		A tutorial for the camera controls. It goes on for a while.

Unused Graphics

Alternate Title Graphics

Present in /user/Kando/develop/sysres.arc.

Japanese Title

Title.bti
This is the word "Pikmin" in blue chrome(?).

English Title

Title2.bti
A very blue and electrified "Pikmin 2" title.

Development Graphics

Graphics for two development programs are present in /user/Kando/develop.

(Source: gabrielwoj)

Map Editor

mapeditor.arc
Map editor icons, including a mouse and zoom button, as well as GameCube buttons.

mapcode_tex.arc
Graphics for every type of surface on the main fields.

Route Manager

routeMgr.arc
Arrows to indicate the Pikmin's route settings.

Miscellaneous Icons

/user/kando/texcaster/arc.szs
A random smoke texture.

rocket.00.bti
An unused early version of the ship icon is present in the world map graphics.

Unused .Blo

keyedit.blo	test.blo

keyedit.blo Textures	test.blo Textures

Found in anmedit2d.arc is keyedit.blo. Found in j2dtest.arc is test.blo.
These .blo use the format "scrnblo1" while the rest of Pikmin 2 uses "scrnblo2", meaning these are likely from an early point in development.

• Interestingly, test.blo's graphics are from Mappy, a game developed by Namco.

Map Screen Mockup

Mockup	Final

An early map screen is stored in /new_screen/jpn/worldmap.szs, texture name world_map_info_00. It is very different from the final map screen:

• The top bar is entirely occupied by a Pokos counter. 回収したお宝の金額 translates as "Number of recovered treasures".
• The day graphic was moved to the lower-right, which is occupied by the Treasure Hoard and Piklopedia buttons in the mockup.
• The buttons to access the Piklopedia and Treasure Hoard were changed from Y and X to L and R. The Treasure Hoard is called お宝図鑑, or "Treasure Encylopedia", in the mockup.
• There are four caves with the same name: 最低最悪の洞窟, or "Absolute Worst Cave". This is an early name for the Dream Den, and is referred to as such in the configuration files. The map name is のぞみの大地, or "Land of Hope", the Japanese name for the Wistful Wild.

(Source: divingkataetheweirdo (translations))

Perplexing Pool Wire-frame

This is a wire-frame image of the Perplexing Pool found in the Piklopedia. It can be faintly seen decorating the background on the Piklopedia, but only a portion of it is shown. It's also on the file selection menu's files, for whatever reason.

The wire-frame is based on the Piklopedia/Treasure Hoard version of the Perplexing Pool, where the starting area is noticeably different. But even then, it looks like it depicts an even earlier version of the Perplexing Pool. The Shower Room section is missing, and so is the pipe sticking out of the floor nearby, and there seems to be geometry for land and islands to the south and southeast of the landing site, which are missing from the in-game Piklopedia model. They're likely remnants from The Distant Spring in Pikmin.

Piklopedia Dummy Image

This dummy image is found in the Piklopedia, probably used in development for creatures that did not have a finished icon.

Waterwraith Dummy Texture

A dummy texture present in the Waterwraith's model file. Because the Waterwraith's main look is created with frame buffer shaders, this underlying texture is never normally seen, and may have been present to warn the modeler that the shader is missing.

This texture is also used in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, where it presumably had the same purpose.

Weighted Platform Test Model

Model	"down"	"on"	Texture

Found in two locations, \user\Kando\objects\downfloor\backup\downfloor.arc and \user\Kando\objects\downfloor_back\backup\downfloor.arc- A test model for the weighted platforms exist, along with three animation files; "down.bck", "on.bck", and "wait.bck" (stationairy).

Unused Roulette Wheel slots

When you collect a cherry in 2-Player Battle, you get to use one power. These 3 textures are found alongside the possible powerup textures. It seems like they would drop the corresponding enemies on the opponent's army, but they might have been removed for being too cheap. These can be found in /user/Kando/vstex/arc.szs, and there's also a duplicate of teki_otakara.bti (the Dweevil one) under the name teki_otakara_old.bti. These textures also exist upscaled in the Nintendo Switch port of the game.

Cave Title Error Icon

An error icon to be shown on a cave's loading screen. If the current font does not support a certain character, it gets replaced with this. This can be seen, for instance, by running a Japanese game and using a code to force the use of the early English text. The icon's text translates to "error", as you'd expect. Found in /newscreen/<any language>/res_floor_name_eng_pal.szs/timg/err.bti.

Game Over

Data for a game over screen exists in-game, in /new_screen/<any language>/res_gameover.szs. Most of the graphics within are the same as in other screens, but two of the textures are the words "GAME OVER" (one of them is just an alpha channel of sorts). This texture is present in all versions of the game, and in the res_gameover.szs of all region folders inside /new_screen.

Area names

When an area is loading, you're shown the area's name and behind it, you have some graphic being distorted in a flame-in-the-wind effect. You also get this on the "Today's Report" title at the end of a day. You'd expect the graphics behind the text to be exactly the same as the text itself, but since you can't really understand what it says, the developers took the lazy route and used vastly different graphics.

"Valley of Repose". This is the texture used on the Valley of Repose's loading screen, which is fair enough, but also on the Today's Report title.

"今日の成績". This translates to "Today's Results". This is the texture used on the Awakening Wood's loading screen. To note is that in Japan, the Today's Report screen actually shows the title "今日の報告" ("Today's Report").

"Challenge Cave". Not only is this name not seen anywhere else in the game, but its font is also a bit different in that it has a border. This is the texture used on the Perplexing Pool and Wistful Wild's loading screens.

Pause Map Fourth Page

An unused fourth page of the pause menu is still fully implemented in the game, and can be re-enabled with a simple flag change. It depicts the controls, and while similar to the screen in Pikmin 1, it includes how to use to sprays and other new features. It seems to have been scrapped before the other 3 menus got their final design, considering its simpler appearance. The text was all emptied out, however, so this screenshot is only assuming what the text may have been. The following codes re-enable the page without any text.

USA Final	USA Demo
$Re-enable The Unused 4th Page Of The Pause Menu [Proboscis-2] 04317408 98650018	$Re-enable The Unused 4th Page Of The Pause Menu [PikHacker] 043173e8 98650018

Return to Last Save

To do: Port code to other versions so it can be added.

In the first game, one could return to file select at any time from the pause menu. This was removed in Pikmin 2, although it seems that was not always the case. Hidden far below what's normally visible, the third option hides out of sight from the player. It can be re-enabled with a minor code edit, and is fully functional. When selected, it creates a new, completely unused option page. Here, the player can confirm their return to file select, or cancel to return to the main pause menu.

• 

  The third option, hidden way below the main page

• 

  The unused menu option to go along with it

USA Final	USA Demo
$Re-enable Continue From Last Save [Proboscis-2] 043152C4 2C030002	$Re-enable Continue From Last Save [Strong Bad as Mac Tonight] 043152a4 2c030002

Unseen Model Features

Cockpit TV Screen

If you look at the President's cockpit in the golden version of the Hocotate ship, you'll see a nice sofa and a TV. The TV's screen is actually animated, but because of the way the game renders transparency (and because of the angle of the television), you can't see this in-game. By using a free camera mode to place the camera inside of the cockpit's glass, and aiming at the television screen, you can see the animation: the screen pulsates between a dull gray and a strong cyan color.

Awakening Wood Triangle

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

A single rogue one-sided triangle is floating under the dirty plate in both the normal and Piklopedia version of the Awakening Wood. It's likely related to the modelling process of the plate, since it's situated directly under it and it has the texture of the plate itself.

Perplexing Pool Obscured Texture

This texture in the Perplexing Pool is used, but it's practically impossible to see some of its details.

The top half can be seen in the chipped parts of concrete/tile in the landing site/Shower Room entrance area, but only parts can be seen at a time. The middle part always gets covered by a metal pipe. The bottom half is under the entrance to the Shower Room cave, so it's obscured by the cave entrance proper. While this can be seen in the Piklopedia version of the Perplexing Pool, it's always underwater, seen through the Piklopedia's bloom filter, and never with a convenient camera angle.

Perplexing Pool Block

]

To the right of the landing site is a buried block with only a corner visible during gameplay, but the block is actually a bit more modeled underneath the surface. This block's odd shape suggests it was originally oriented upright on the shore, and is large enough that a treasure could fit on it if this were the case.

• This oddity is also present in the Piklopedia version of the same area.

Volatile Dweevil

The Volatile Dweevil is normally only seen with a bomb rock covering its head. But because it uses the same model data as the other Dweevils, its head is still fully present underneath, un-seeable in normal gameplay. Strangely, its texture isn't set to horizontally mirror. This causes a noticeable line going down the center of its head, which isn't present on the other Dweevils.

S.S. Dolphin

Found in /user/Kando/ufo/ufo.arc is a model for the S.S. Dolphin from Pikmin labelled ufo.bmd. This model comes with an animation ufo.bck, showing parts on the ship moving.

Model	Animation (Back)

Unused Lighting

All lighting files can be found in /user/Abe/cave.

Jyoou_light

"Jyoou" translates as "queen", meaning these lighting files were likely used for the Hole of Beasts.

• 

  jyoou_light_lv0.ini

• 

  jyoou_light_lv1.ini

• 

  jyoou_light_lv2.ini

• 

  jyoou_light_lv3.ini

• 

  jyoou_light_lv4_5.ini

• 

  jyoou_light_lv6.ini

Sirohana_light

"Sirohana" translates as "white flower", so it's a safe bet that these files were once intended for the White Flower Garden.

• 

  sirohana_light_lv0.ini

• 

  sirohana_light_lv1.ini

• 

  sirohana_light_lv2.ini

• 

  sirohana_light_lv3.ini

• 

  sirohana_light_lv4.ini

• 

  sirohana_light_lv5.ini

Other

muraon_light_lv0 and muraon_light_lv3
While "muraon_light" files 1, 2, and 4 are used, these variants are not.

key_light_lv0
A slightly brighter version of the lighting used in the Snack Pit challenge level.

light_blue and light_red
It's possible that these settings were meant for Olimar and Louie, who would light the caves with their tracking beacons. Or they could just be test files.

• These lighting files use an earlier format than the others, so the only way to get these to work right is to import the RGB and light settings into a different file.

bluefog00
This lighting file has the version code "0000" rather than "0001" which almost every cave light uses.

hiroba_light
This lighting file also has the version code "0000", and is almost the same as "bluefog00" but slightly darker.

Unused Code

Early Tutorial Leftovers?

• Despite not being able to enter it until day 2 at the earliest, if you're inside the Emergence Cave on day 1, the pause menu will have the "Give Up and Escape" option grayed out and unusable for unknown reasons.
• If you're able to reach day 2 without unlocking any entry in the Piklopedia or Treasure Hoard (achievable only through glitches, such as the day 1 extinction glitch), the game will show constant static on the monitor and write dashes in all fields.

Enemies and Other Objects

• In Game::Egg::Obj::genItem(), there is logic to override an egg's random content picking with a specific fixed outcome. All eggs in the final game will have random contents.
  • Also in Game::Egg::Obj::genItem(), there is logic for eggs to spawn random 1 pellets and to spawn random 5 pellets. These will be produced if the egg content ID variable ends up as 0 and 1, respectively.
• In Game::EnemyBase::onKill(), there is logic to decide what petrification blobs to spawn based on one of the creature's attributes. If the value is 3, the creature will spawn 3 blobs, with a 90% chance of nectar. However, no object in the game has this value set to 3.
• Enemies and objects have a few settings that work, but aren't given any real use since they always use the same values:
  • fp16 controls the chance of a latched Pikmin successfully falling off when the enemy shakes, but it is always set to 1 (100%) for objects that shake, and 0 otherwise.
  • fp35 multiplies the duration of the object's petrification, but it is always set to 1.
• There are 7 behaviors for the objects that fall from cave ceilings, 2 of which are not used: $3 (makes the object only fall if a leader is nearby; Pikmin are ignored) and $0 (not supported; triggers a cave object generation failsafe that ends up transforming it into a normal Common Glowcap).
• Gas pipes have logic to turn on and off, like fire geysers, but their "off" state is set to last for 0 seconds. Additionally, the "on" state does have a unique value of 3 seconds, which is even different from the fire geyser's 2 seconds, despite being pointless.
• The Beady Long Legs normally drops nothing upon death if it doesn't have a treasure, but it was actually programmed to spawn 25 Unmarked Spectralids. The code to make them fails because the Spectralids are not accounted for in the table for what enemies allocate other enemies.
• Unmarked Spectralids have 200 HP (as much as a Dwarf Red Bulborb), and Honeywisps have a ridiculous 99999 HP, but both values are moot since these enemies die in one hit.
• Unmarked Spectralids also have code to use a random scale between a min and max value, yet both the min and max are set to 1.0.

E3 Leftovers

• There is an unused flag in the game related to an E3 Demo in all versions, but there's currently only an Action Replay code for the Japanese version.

Turning the code on will replace all menu options with "Main Game" ( starts the "demo" ) and 2-Player Challenge Mode ( crashes Dolphin ). All Pikmin colors are near their respective Onions/Ship, caves cannot be entered, the BGM is broken, and the HUD is gone.

NKQ6-ZGTX-EZ9MN
W6H4-7RZZ-PPJXB

Other

• Some cave sublevels have the "skybox" property set to the value vrbox (Dream Den 8; Hot House 1 and 2; Collector's Room 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7), and two have it set to f010 (Green Hole 1 and 2). Both of these values are invalid, so the game defaults to having no skybox.
  • In addition, /user/Kando/map/vrbox/ also contains a meck.szs file, but it only contains an empty folder named meck.
• Pikmin has an unused feature where the longer you hold a Pikmin for, the higher its throw will be. However, the starting values and the "fully charged" values are the same, so the feature has no gameplay impact. In Pikmin 2, these parameters return, and are equally set to the same values between the normal and full-charge parameters, but the feature itself is missing.
• All sublevels of the Submerged Castle are set to play the song new_01_0.cnd (the theme from Hole of Heroes 6), but the game is hardcoded to play the Submerged Castle's theme on them all, instead.
• There are waypoints for carrying objects out of the cave unit for the Titan Dweevil's arena, but Pikmin are never seen carrying objects out of the room in-game.

A Whimsically Unused Radar Feature

• Like Pikmin, this game was originally planned to show treasures on the radar map. It was scrapped relatively late, as it still remains fully functional in the final game and can be re-enabled. It uses a yellow tinted Rubber Ugly icon for normal treasures, and a red tinted one for explorer kit items.

USA Final	USA Demo
$Re-enable Treasures Appearing On Radar Map [Proboscis-2] 04310358 2C170010	$Re-enable Treasures Appearing On Radar Map [PikHacker] 04310338 2c170010

Unused Purple Pikmin Data

Enemies and some other objects have properties that control how much damage a Purple Pikmin stomp causes (default is 50), their stun chance (default is 30%), and stun duration (default is 5 seconds). For various reasons, some of these values are unused:

• Honeywisps, Cannon Beetle rocks, and rubble have the damage setting set to 10, despite handling taking damage differently.
• Honeywisps, Cannon Beetle rocks, eggs and bomb-rocks also have a 10-second stun, but Honeywisps don't get stunned and the rest aren't enemies.
• Honeywisps, Cannon Beetle rocks, rubble, and the Waterwraith's rollers have a 5% stun chance, but paradoxically can't be stunned.
• Waterwraiths and their rollers could be stunned for a staggering 60 seconds...but the Waterwraith's stun chance is 0% and the rollers aren't technically enemies, so they can't be stunned.
• Empress Bulblaxes could be stunned for 10 seconds despite having a 0% stun chance.
• Mitites, Toady Bloysters, Ranging Bloysters, Men-at-Legs, Beady Long Legs, Volatile Dweevils, Titan Dweevils and Raging Long Legs have a 0% stun chance, but still have a stun time of 5.
• Fire geysers, gas pipes, and electrical wires have a stun time of 5, but a chance of 0%, and wouldn't be stunnable regardless since they aren't considered enemies.

Unused Corpse Values

The following enemies leave corpses and are only found in caves, leaving these seed values unused.

Enemy	Seed value
Giant Breadbug	4 Seeds
Anode Dweevil	5 Seeds
Antenna Beetle	5 Seeds
Caustic Dweevil	5 Seeds
Fiery Dweevil	5 Seeds
Munge Dweevil	5 Seeds
Bumbling Snitchbug	8 Seeds
Mamuta	8 Seeds
Bulbmin	10 Seeds
Pileated Snagret	25 Seeds
Ranging Bloyster	25 Seeds
Emperor Bulblax	30 Seeds
Empress Bulblax	30 Seeds
Segmented Crawbster	30 Seeds

There is exactly one enemy in the game with the opposite problem, only existing in overworlds, and therefore having an unused poko value. This value can be seen in the Piklopedia, despite the player having no way to actually observe it in gameplay.

Enemy	Poko value
Ravenous Whiskerpillar	1 Poko

Ignored Cave Settings

To do: Finish the list.

• Some sublevels have data to play a certain song, but end up playing a different one in-game:
  • In all sublevels of the Submerged Castle, the track that plays on Hole of Heroes sublevel 6 should play, but the cave's hardcoded logic makes the Submerged Castle's theme play instead.
  • In Dream Den sublevel 9, the same track from the Hole of Heroes should play, but the rest sublevel hardcoded logic makes the rest sublevel theme play instead.
• Some cave units are defined to be used in sublevels, but the game can never generate a sublevel that uses them:
  • In Emergence Cave sublevel 1, the list of cave units includes corridors, crossways, and dead ends, even though the sublevel only ever contains 2 circular rooms facing one another.
  • In Dream Den sublevel 14, the list of cave units includes pipe corridors, pipe crossways, and a pipe dead end, even though the sublevel is just the main room and a concrete dead end.
  • All garden-themed sublevels include the unused four-way garden cave unit with a twig, but all those sublevels generate in such a way that it can never be used.
• Some sublevels define in their data that certain objects should spawn, but the sublevel can never generate in a way that accommodates them:
  • In Cavern of Chaos sublevel 2, 1 green Glowstem is meant to spawn, but none can ever appear.
  • In Cavern of Chaos sublevel 4, 24 bomb-rocks are meant to spawn, but only 21 can appear at most.
  • In Dream Den sublevel 8, 2 Fiddleheads are meant to spawn, but none can ever appear.
  • In Cave of Snarls sublevel 2, 99 Glowstems are meant to spawn, but it is only possible for 28 to appear.
  • In Breeding Ground sublevel 1, 20 Dandelions and 60 Margarets are meant to spawn, but it is only possible for 16 Dandelions to appear and 0 Margarets.
  • In Sniper Room sublevel 1, 2 Armored Cannon Beetle Larvae are meant to spawn, each with a Tear Stone, but it is only possible for 1 Armored Cannon Beetle Larva (with its Tear Stone) to appear.
• The game files state that the skyboxes used for the 8th sublevel of the Dream Den, all sublevels of the Hot House, and Collector's Room is a skybox called "vrbox". "vrbox" is not a valid skybox, but is the name of the folder containing all the skybox models. Additionally, all levels of the Green Hole use a skybox known as "f010". Since "vrbox" and "f010" do not exist, the game uses no skybox as a result.

Waterwraith Oddities

• As mentioned above, the Waterwraith has a dummy texture.
• In the game's files, all sublevels of the Submerged Castle contain a BlackMan_fue_pullout object. This is the Waterwraith (BlackMan) holding the Professional Noisemaker (pullout). This is likely just due to it being copy-pasted on all floors, but something of note is that if Purple Pikmin are forced onto sublevels 1-4 and the player defeats the Waterwraith on those floors, it will drop the Professional Noisemaker. Odder still is that the treasure radar won't acknowledge it, and will still deactivate it if every other treasure is collected before it.
• All cave sublevels have a timer setting that makes the creature spawn when it reaches 0, if applicable. This timer is normally set to 0 everywhere except for Bully Den (60) and the Submerged Castle (300, Sublevels 1-4). Submerged Castle's final sublevel also has it set to 15 seconds, but it can't spawn until you trigger its appearance manually, leaving it unused.
• Every animation file for the Waterwraith has the name "Kagebōzu" (or "shadow monk") in it, suggesting that this was the original Japanese name. It is called "Amebōzu" (or "rain monk") in the final game.

Misc. Oddities

• The image files used in the high scores screen at the end of the game (/new_screen/cmn/result_final_image.szs/result_final_image/timg/) are called best5_<number>. The final game only keeps track of the top 3 scores for any category, which means that the limit got changed from 5 to 3 at one point.

• The Fiery Bulblax has an icon in the Piklopedia that is 80px wide, despite the fact that it is listed as a regular enemy (standard size 40px) and not a boss enemy (standard size 80px). This suggests that, early in development, the Fiery Bulblax was intended to be a boss enemy. This is further supported by its name: the name 'Bulblax' is typically given only to boss enemies.

Playable Pikpik Carrots

The Challenge Mode caves have data for the starting number of Pikmin, with a 6th unseen one for Bulbmin. There's also a number for a 7th type, and by giving yourself Pikmin of this type, you'll be given Pikpik carrots. They aren't very animated articulation-wise, and they float a bit above ground. Their stems always have a leaf on top, even if a bud, flower, or spicy glow overlaps it; it also glows green when idle, like Bulbmin. They act, react, and sound like any other non-Bulbmin Pikmin, and have no special attributes or defenses. Finally, on the HUD, their "standby Pikmin" icon doesn't exist, and they get skipped over when calculating the closest Pikmin.

The developers likely made the carrots a Pikmin type in order to reuse code in the Piklopedia (where you can throw pikpik carrots at the enemy in each entry.) Making them count as Pikmin would let the enemy AIs use their regular behavior to hunt and eat the carrots, rather than requiring additional logic.

Unused Text

Located within the English messages file message\mesRes_eng\pikmin2.bmg is a handful of unused messages.

Development Strings

This message was moved
(ID 1005)

Blank
(ID 1006)

Test Area (ID 8394)

Test Area (ID 8394_01)

Test Area (ID 8394_02)

Test Area (ID 8394_03)

Filler Log Entries

This text is stored with the Piklopedia and Treasure Log template text.

Piklopedia

Stretches its neck to look for
prey. When it finds Pikmin, it
gobbles them up instead of
chasing them.

Treasure Hoard

A hard, shiny rock.
Highly valuable.
Makes an excellent gift.

Test Messages

Test Message 9995

Test Message 9996

AquickbrownFoxJumpsoverthelazy

Under Construction (ID9999)

Treasure Log Alerts

These messages were seen in early versions of the game on the treasure collection screen.

It's been added to your Treasure Log!

You can't log this treasure until you
reach the surface.

Suit Damage

This message hints that at one point, Olimar was meant to be alone, as the day would end immediately should a single leader lose all his health.

Your space suit has sustained damage!
Excessive damage to the suit could be life-threatening.
If you sustain too much damage, I'm afraid to say the day's operations will end immediately.
I have no suit-repair facilities, so you must repair your suit yourself at the end of each day.
Your space suit power meter is the round gauge on the bottom-left.
Pay close attention to it.

Onion Cutscenes

Text for the unused Onion cutscenes.

The yellow Onion has awakened! You should pluck the seeds it released as soon as they sprout!

The blue Onion has awakened! Pluck the seeds it released as soon as they sprout!

Camera Cutscene

Text for the camera cutscene.

What are your thoughts, Captain Olimar?
Has this planet changed since your first visit?
I am certain discoveries you missed before await detection by your more-experienced eyes.
I would suggest you appraise your surroundings carefully.
For safety's sake, I shall review camera controls with you.
First, to face forward, press L.
To rotate the camera, slightly depress L and move the camera with Analog Stick.
Next, if you want to zoom the camera, press R.
Press R repeatedly to scroll through the three levels of zoom.
Finally, to adjust camera angles, press Z, which is above R.
Press Z repeatedly to switch between the two different angles.
That is my entire explanation. Olimar, you look bored. Louie... You look confused.
If you fail to learn these basic skills, you will never survive in the cutthroat corporate world.

Dutch Localization

The European version of the game has 5 languages: English, Italian, French, Spanish, and German. There is also an empty subfolder in /new_screen named hol, likely a remnant of a Dutch translation. There is also a file in /message named msgRes_hol.szs which only has the progressive scan and 50/60Hz mode screens translated. It also had the "AquickbrownFoxJumpsoverthelazy" test string from the English version.

An official Dutch translation of the game would be introduced in V1.1.0 of the Nintendo Switch port.

Development Text

Hidden in the ISO, along with some standard error messages, are these odd strings:

• 0x49903C: damedayo! (Don't do that!)
• 0x49BD1C: Oh! no!
• 0x49EFC4: MOC = Mouse on Cars!
• 0x4B6580: go to hell!

Crash Handler

If the game crashes, you can input a button sequence to make a crash handler show up: A, B, X, R, L, D-pad left, D-pad down, D-pad up, D-pad right, Z. You should input it slowly to make sure you get it.

Since the game itself is frozen due to the crash, the handler will draw directly into the framebuffer, which makes the entire thing slow and choppy. When it opens, it starts auto-scrolling line by line, and when it reaches the bottom, the player can take control. D-pad up and D-pad down scroll up and down, A goes to the end, and B goes to the start.

The first few lines contain some information about what went wrong. The rest of the report consists of information about the type of error, and the state of some important addresses. Because the map file included in the game files has been overwritten with garbage at some point during development, most of the address decoding simply returns "no information".

The following Gecko codes also make the error handler show up right away without any button sequence.

US	EU
$Automatically Show Pikmin 2 Exception Handler [UnclePunch] 0442219c 60000000	$Automatically Show Pikmin 2 Exception Handler [UnclePunch] 04422440 60000000

(Source: UnclePunch)

Early Sequenced Music Config

Present on the disc is an early version of the games music list file, which lists all of the games sequenced music files. It is located in the /AudioRes folder, while the used one is in /user/Totaka. It appears to be from relatively early in development, as it is missing several songs. Additionally, the early file has 40 set as the volume of every entry, whereas the final game uses varying volumes.

Early File	Final File
2pbattle.bms	2pbattle.bms
a_iron.bms	a_iron.bms
a_zawinul01.bms	a_zawinul01.bms
caveboss.bms	caveboss.bms
caveconc.bms	caveconc.bms
caveglass.bms	caveglass.bms
cavemetal.bms	new_00.bms
caverelax.bms	cavemetal.bms
cavesoil.bms	caverelax.bms
cavetile.bms	cavesoil.bms
cavetsumiki.bms	cavetile.bms
comp_result.bms	cavetsumiki.bms
c_menu.bms	comp_result.bms
c_result.bms	c_menu.bms
ff_annihi.bms	c_result.bms
ff_doped.bms	ff_annihi.bms
ff_doping.bms	ff_doped.bms
ff_keyget.bms	ff_doping.bms
ff_playerdown.bms	ff_keyget.bms
ff_treasureget.bms	ff_playerdown.bms
forest.bms	ff_treasureget.bms
f_result.bms	forest.bms
hiscore.bms	f_result.bms
id_test.bms	hiscore.bms
last.bms	id_test.bms
m_boss.bms	last.bms
n_tutorial.bms	m_boss.bms
result.bms	n_tutorial.bms
se.bms	result.bms
u_result.bms	se.bms
worldmap.bms	u_result.bms
yakushima.bms	worldmap.bms
	yakushima.bms
	cavekeyget.bms
	l_boss.bms
	book.bms
	battle_t.bms
	new_00.bms
	new_01.bms
	new_02.bms
	new_03.bms
	new_04.bms
	new_05.bms
	new_06.bms
	new_07.bms
	new_08.bms
	kuro_pre.bms
	kuro_post.bms
	worldmap_intro.bms
	n_tutorial_1stday.bms

Quite a few significant songs are completely missing from the early file, including the Titan Dweevil, Piklopedia, Submerged Castle, 2 Player Battle (2pbattle.bms is not used), the Key Collected theme in Challenge Mode, and all 9 "new" cave themes. This implies all of these songs were added relatively late in development.

Totaka's Song

To do: Document the unused save question (check Ralf's Disable Autosaves AR code).

Totaka's song appears in two different places in this game:

Waiting on the Treasures Salvaged screen, directly after completing that cave for the first time	Waiting while the cave transition music is playing, after preventing it from ending automatically (by removing your memory card so that the game isn't able to autosave)
(this video is clipped to play it immediately)	(wait until 3:45)

Of note is that the memory card version can also play in the unused save question screen, since it plays the same ambience.