The Ultimate Pikmin Tier List

[@silokhawk]

I just uploaded a sequel with Pikmin 4's Pikmin! kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJmVooKdZdummLMsi=u8I-itN_Wsg7UaC2 I've also uploaded the assets from this video to TierMaker so you can make your own tier list! tiermaker.com/create/pikmin-types-1-4-labeled-15756439

[@AnanimatorTheChannel]

Bulbmin are the best pikmin and nobody can disagree. If only they weren't so Geyser-phobic they could be taken out of caves... Also the reason people think Winged Pikmin do extra damage to flying enemies is because there is a data file that says "Winged Pikmin are better at Aerial combat!"

[@ArshadZahid_nohandleideas]

Only 12 videos until you reach 100 on this channel! Better not rush it though, definitely not worth it _just_ for that

[@tiredjay3000]

Can you please leave links to every song used in this video?

[@fredericodesousaferreira5020]

Now when the demo(or full release)of pikmin 4 release you put them there

[@JasonSmith-wv5lz]

The only thing I would change is pikmen 3 purple pikmen in low b tier

[@realkingofantarctica]

Blue Pikmin are undoubtedly the best type for one main reason. They're blue. In Pikmin 3 specifically, they're one of the best shades of blue. Marvelous.

[@Kyree5042]

Still preaching the beauty of blue I see

[@ridgenyan-botxv367]

My man gets it. Blue is just such a good color

[@zigzoinks5493]

Oh hello, again! Still talking facts, I see.

[@mickeydix8062]

I remember you

[@kinnickburkart9621]

Ik

[@ayamamotohaha5235]

I think people who thought reds were the worst ones in Pikmin one never realized that they had the attack buff.

[@Skullhawk13]

Or perhaps they played 2 first, where reds were just fodder to turn into purple pikmin

[@ninaicerider]

Memento Mori my friend

[@nettalie4435]

I think the "You dont even need yellows in 1" arguement is a good showcase for why often times online communities are fairly flawed when talking about certain aspects of games, at least imo. People will sometimes legitimately suggest that because some very obscure exploit [or in some cases a point in progression most players dont even know about] exists there's no reason to use whatever it is theyre arguing is useless. I've seen that sort of arguement so often when I look at discussions of certain items, mechanics, etc in a bunch of different games its honestly a bit staggering.

[@ArshadZahid_nohandleideas]

“This shouldn't exist because something else that actually shouldn’t have existed exists”

[@dustymcwari4468]

Yeah, to me it’s not about if it’s “necessary” or not, but about how much you can do with them, and Yellows in 1, thanks to the Bomb Rocks they’re definitely not weak, even their increased throw height can come in handy at times for more than just gathering ship parts That’s why I personally think Blues need buffs the most, because once you’re done with everything water, they can’t offer much else besides being Red Pikmins without any of the benefits Red Pikmin have, and most water enemies worth killing are easier to defeat with every other Pikmin type than Blues, and adding more Blue Pikmin-only levels isn’t the answer, because once you’re done with those levels or even just the water stuff in there, Blues are back to being weak as heck, and it’s not fun that because of their lacking abilities, they’re forced to be unlocked last, so by the time you’re done with everything water, the game is almost over

[@lukcdk]

gen 1 of pokemon

[@justaperson4656]

People like me who play legit are just sort of sat on the sidelines

[@weebcraft6829]

And it also leads to ruining a game if the devs get the wrong idea. For example, in another game, Earth Defence Force 4.1, there was the Fencer class, which was supposed to be the slow tank class. However, people found an exploit where you could animation cancel his dash, making it the fastest class. People then started kicking anyone who used any other class for mobility reasons out of multiplayer lobbies. Fencer was then nerfed hard in EDF5

[@TwitterVS]

You've convinced me to change my mind on Pikmin 1 Blues VS Yellows. The small key argument was great. But using bombs to kill enemies in Pikmin 1 can be finicky and glitchy, which is why I never use them for that. If Pikmin 1 gets a remake, I believe yellows will be a lot more useful working as intended

[@QuantumCharger]

If a remake of Pikmin 1 is made, do you think they will keep yellows as the only ones who can pick up bombs? Every type can in both of the future games so I would think that they would remove it in a remake too.

[@Xenorvya]

@@QuantumCharger That would make yellows even more useless, unless they add electricity from 2 into 1, which I don't want to happen as remakes of games should stay faithful with a few differences and additions here and there, like Dead Space and RE4. I'd argue 3's the problem here, nerfing Whites and Purples, while also making any type of Pikmin able to carry rocks, which works for the game itself, but it confuses fans like us. Also, you are right, it's kind of stupid that only yellows can hold them in 1 when other types can hold them in 3. It does feel like they desperately wanted to make the yellows a bit more useful by adding the bomb rocks, must've been a last-minute thing they added.

[@dustymcwari4468]

@@Xenorvya there’s sprites showing that Blues and Reds were originally gonna be able to carry Bomb Rocks like Yellows in 1, so Yellows being the only ones allowed to do that is most likely a balancing thing so Yellows could do more other than just flying higher, which thanks to the electricity immunity Yellows have more uses, so the Bomb Rocks don’t need to be exclusive to them anymore to make them stand out

[@Xenorvya]

@@dustymcwari4468 That's kind of what I said. Yellows were practically useless without bomb rocks, jumping higher wasn't that unique to em'. And the electricity in 3 is a joke so I'd argue they're even more useless in that game than in 1. In 1 you need them for most ship parts. In 3 well, a few gates and some enemies.

[@dustymcwari4468]

@@Xenorvya yeah, electricity took a major nerf in 3, like many things in 3, though its still there to a degree, it was scary in 2 with how it was the only elemental hazard that could one shot pikmin, which gave Yellows more value, especially for the final boss

[@lasercraft32]

Actually, I do believe that the Big Bulbmin are NOT their mother, but rather the "Alpha" so to speak. Its simply the oldest and biggest of the pack. In the Piklopedia it says that the little ones follow the eldest bigger one due to the instincts of the parasitic Pikmin, essentially treating the largest as their captain. It also says that the bigger ones eat other Pikmin and Bulbmin because once to Bulborb they're controlling reaches a certain age, the insatiable hunger of the Bulborb overpowers all the instincts of the parasitic Pikmin, causing them to have an uncontrollable desire to devour things.

[@WhitePikm1n]

The dwarf bulbmin are the mimics, thats why

[@DewMan31]

So you are technically saving the small bulbmin by killing the alpha.

[@DingusTheArtist]

@@WhitePikm1n Not sure what you mean by that because I think it was implied that Bulbmin are normal bulborbs that were malnourished in their larva form due to the parasitic Pikmin so they never really grew up. I could just be spouting bs, who knows.

[@psychronia]

​@@DewMan31Not really. You leave them behind at the end to continue growing. You do save the ones you convert though.

[@poseidon9702]

Alpha = mother/parent in the wild

[@qOnyx]

7:19 I believe theres actually 2 cases in the game that Blue Pikmin will specifically route through water, being when carrying something past the small puddle next to the UV Lamp they will cut through it, and a bit more notably when carrying the Geiger Counter they will drop down from the ledge instead of going the long route around.

[@GAMEFREAK333]

Thank you. It's so much easier and faster to fight just the one snagret and have the blues haul the Geiger counter out the back door rather than deal with all 3 and take the long way home. That's the optimal way

[@cowboyluigi5275]

@@GAMEFREAK333also a much better option if you’re doing a deathless playthrough. i couldn’t tell you how many times i reset the day because the other two snagrets ate just _one_ of my reds on the way back.

[@vincenthaynes3603]

Well, 2 intended ones. People have also fudged the Gluon Drive into water

[@nyon7209]

I never knew about the Geiger Counter routing. That's going to save me so much pain in the future.

[@lugi5318]

While it clearly doesn't make them good in Pikmin 2 in any way, I do like that they made the Submerged Castle exclusive for Blue Pikmin from a challenge-type perspective. It's like a test of skill, ya know? You're forced to be even more careful around hazards, since even with Bulbmin around you get so little of them and the Waterwraith could easily wipe them out that you have to tackle the cave differently. It's a great use of Blue Pikmin and it's ironically only because they're SO bad during that cave.

[@Victorion_The_Gacha_Fairy]

I iust ran so the water wraith wouldnt spawn and just used oatchi

[@Cashspoon]

As someone who's never been much of a fan of how blue Pikmin are handled in any of the Pikmin games, this is the most competent and well put together discussion of the Pikmin types I've ever seen. Great work.

[@GoldenGrenadier]

The pikmin shorts imply that blue pikmin have a hydrophobic coating. Maybe they could be made slippery and immune to grabbing

[@papersonic9941]

Wasn't tripping removed in Pikmin 3?

[@papersonic9941]

@Wafflest Waffle I absolutely did. Somehow read "immune to tripping"

[@appelofdoom8211]

That's just another niche use though. That would still make them fall under the small key problem of blues not being useful unless a moment is specifically designed around them. Even if you make that use broader and less of a nerf to other pikmin What blues need is a passive benefit that is useful in standard situations. After all you're not fighting a grappling enemy or dealing with water why would you use blues? Reds, rocks, purples and yellows (in 1 and 3) are better at combat, yellows and pinks can be used to navigate terrain easier and get an early start on carrying back treasure, pinks, purples and whites are better at carrying back objects and whites are speedy. Maybe take a page out of their old lifeguarding duties and make them more proactive and better at teamwork? Like say if you send a group of blues to carry something back and then send some reds to carry something else back the blues having finished earlier would automatically got out and help the reds? It's a bit finnicky and might be more annoying than helpful but that's all I really got for a good passive that isn't a retread of the buff blues video

[@malimaui2802]

Giving them a second immunity isn’t a great replacement. Either just make water the worse hazard to deal with Or Actually give them a some new ability. Someone mentioned giving them a longer latch on time for enemies, maybe giving them faster recovery speed too

[@ArshadZahid_nohandleideas]

20:03 I'm getting a very slight, uncertain, but possible feeling that Silok proving his point for Purple Pikmin with nothing more than this example clip is a favourite reoccurring gag of these videos -And I don't even know how many times he used it in total- Scratch that, I figured it out: Every time Silok uses the same clip of Purple Pikmin decimating a large Bulborb in THIS video: 12:49, 16:38 (no game audio), 20:03, 33:30 (no game audio) Total: 4 (3 if the clip without game audio doesn't really count, therefore the two “half-uses” add up to one) If the number of times this clip is used in both of Silok’s back-to-back Pikmin videos (this and the last) are added up, the combined total is 8, or 6.5 if the clip doesn't fully count without game audio

[@lightgivemepower6425]

Okay and... So what's your point?🤨

[@ArshadZahid_nohandleideas]

@@lightgivemepower6425 idk

[@th1v5]

@@lightgivemepower6425 its funny

[@lightgivemepower6425]

@@th1v5 if only that were true, oh well

[@personguy2262]

I was just thinking, take a shot every time he shows the same clip of Purple Pikmin being able to do THIS:

[@sopranogame]

Thank you for letting the wiki editors know that White Pikmin deal more poison damage in Pikmin 3 Deluxe compared to Pikmin 3! However, we still can't document it, because it will take more research to know how exactly it changed and how it varies by difficulty setting. (We still haven't investigated the effect that difficulty has on enemy stats.)

[@tnzwelk]

The proof he used to show them dealing more damage isn't actually the case. Mission mode in deluxe is done using normal difficulty stats which gives enemies far less health than on hard (the base 3 stats). If you tried the same test with rocks the enemy would die in less throws in deluxe as well. I can't say whether or not they do more poison damage as it would require a lot of math to figure out exact health and damage numbers of different types of pikmin and enemies since you can't use whites in story, but the footage used definitely doesn't show that. It's just showing how mission mode uses normal difficulty in deluxe.

[@dabdude2451]

@@tnzwelk true

[@tnzwelk]

@Wafflest Waffle Oh I agree completely. And using normal for mission mode completely throwing off the balance was a garbage choice too. The dumbest thing though is how every mode is easier than base 3. Normal is obvious with how much less health enemies have, hard is the same stats, but you get WAY more nectar so even that's a bit easier, and ultra spicy doesn't actually up the difficulty, instead it just makes it EASIER to reach maximum efficiency due to there being less you can do at once resulting in it being the EASIEST mode for old players. They talked about it having shorter days which would have been good since you'd at least need new strategies, but that was just a straight up lie.

[@tnzwelk]

@Wafflest Waffle I played base right before deluxe came out to compare. Base 3 has basically no eggs, there's maybe like 10 in the whole game, you really rely on sprays for flowers. Deluxe there's 3 eggs every 10 steps it's insane.

[@BlueBerry20071]

What? White pikmin are in pikmin 3? Where?

[@dabdude2451]

I think the reason that white pikmin do more damage in 3 deluxe is because the enemies have half health outside of the story mode. Rock pikmin also do more charge damage in deluxe than in the original.

[@jonathansolorzano1981]

Remember how Wii U’s Pikmin 3 is technically 3DX’s Hard mode, making 3DX’s Normal mode essentially just an easy mode? Since mission stages in 3DX are set on this “Normal” mode, they all actually have all the enemies’ health reduced. So while it’s true that it wasn’t really the white’s posion damage that was buffed, since they’re not available in story mode anyways, it can still be considered a sort of indirect buff.

[@pokshimin]

I like youve given a name "small key argument" because there's a lot of things you get in games that are just glorified keys to put in glorified doors. I hope that becomes a common phrase so i can use it more often lol

[@lankymaccrazyhair264]

I agree One of my few complaints against hollow knight is it's lackluster upgrade setting. In a game with very few abilities: one of them is a fruit-shaped key to pool-of-acid-shaped doors, one of them is a niche-movement-option-shaped key that's mostly used for niche platforming puzzles, one is an upgrade-to-the-dream-nail-shped key to one of the areas you need to go to for the true ending, and one of them is literally just a key to a different area you need to go to for the true ending. And these are big, important items, locked behind a boss, a big platforming section, half a game worth of essence gathering, and another boss respectively. It's a bit underwhelming.

[@latlequin1]

@@lankymaccrazyhair264 What's the second one? I don't recall any of the movement options in Hollow Knight being that bad/niche

[@lankymaccrazyhair264]

@@latlequin1 crystal dash.

[@hasanplaster1510]

​@@lankymaccrazyhair264crystal dash is really useful you can make alot of skips and time save cause of it All tho i see it as bad for a base player that wont try making some skips and all it use for him will be basically this place want me to use it so im gonna use it this place will be faster if i used it so im gonna use it But in high lvl it making you stuck on the wall and not falling give you a lot of good stuff Maybe as a buff i would make you able to go through enemy with it like how cuacamelle have it and it having less cooldown to activate or just giving you the ability to cancel it to another spichal like dive

[@tigertoxins584]

I believe that’s called a mcguffin

[@chao3948]

the graphic design on these tier list icons are actually sublime, like holy shit, good job

[@melofelo4484]

Regarding purples and the doomsday apparatus: There’s a video I saw regarding how that treasure specifically breaks the balancing of pikmin 2. It basically argued that by forcing you to save up so many purples, the moment you do finally get the treasure and can move on, you’ve basically got more purples than you know what to do with. Not to mention, nobody likes grinding. And if you don’t know it’s coming, you’re GOING to have to grind.

[@jacksonlovesnintendo]

Man finding your channel a year ago was a blessing. You’re fr one of the top-tier Nintendo channels with insanely high-quality. Great list!!

[@monopolyrubix1875]

Hey Pikmin: S: 1. Yellow - High throw is super useful in a 2D game A: 2. Blue - High mobility in water levels lets them quickly kill things in any direction, and the game mixes them with other types and has you use them to help the others progress B: 3. Rock - Come back to you so fast after a throw that latching is unnecessary. Crystals exist 4. Red - Basically just the filler type when they have to give you something. Occasionally have to clear fire for other types. Enemy health is low enough that high attack is unnecessary C: 5. Winged - Only do anything in levels dedicated to them, which are rare. Never mixed with other types in a meaningful way Hey! Pikmin is not a bad game. Just different and not amazing.

[@1stCallipostle]

It's like a 5/10 game, which I think might be worse than being terrible? I can laugh at terrible, Hey Pikmin! Was just mildly disappointing enough I often forget it even came out. I didn't disenjoy it, I just felt nothing.

[@kathrineici9811]

I 100%d the game, I give it a solid 7/10 tbh That said I honestly felt like every single pikmin was made out of tissue paper so I’d put them all on the tissue paper rank xD

[@zabeerfarid7687]

They did not just make blue the most useful in hey pikmin of all games 😭😭

[@lasercraft32]

13:22 "But clearly Pikmin are more than what they are required for." Wow... that's... that's surprisingly deep. Especially if you swap out the word "Pikmin" for "people."

[@ArshadZahid_nohandleideas]

🔥🔥🔥

[@KopperNeoman]

Secret anti-socialism? Bah, don't be secretly anti-pinko.

[@M00se0nTheLoose]

I just wanted to say thank you SilokHawk for making the videos you do! I don't play pikmin, I never have, but I still absolutely love watching your videos! There's a lot of videos on your channel that cover things I'm not familiar with but I think you do a great job with making them and I find them really entertaining. One of the few people I watch almost everything that they put out.

[@SpaceLobster21]

Rock Pikmin feel like a more balanced version of Purple pikmin imo. Personally I feel like both Rock and Winged pikmin feel like great additions to the series from a game design perspective. I haven't played much of pikmin 2 (or pikmin 3's side modes) but the white pikmin seem really interesting, sad that they got nerfed so bad. Hopefully if they make a return they'll still be good, or maybe have one of their abilities such as speed or something transferred to the blues. Cool tier list! Really interesting to hear your thoughts on each pikmin type. I'm still surprised that people didn't know about red's strength multiplier, I'm pretty sure pikmin 3 explicitly says that they are good fighters (not sure if the other games say anything like this). Then again, Pikmin 3 also says that flying pikmin are the best at fighting flying enemies, which is probably the source of people thinking they were stronger against them.

[@Topdoggie7]

​@Wafflest Waffle THIS. Love the games but they tell you nothing.

[@1stCallipostle]

I always knew about the 1.5x because of like, 2005 GameFAQs guides to beating the game when you're a dumb 5 year old. But also granted, I did not play 3 for many years, and still rank it the lowest, so I'd be hard pressed to remember anything it told me

[@peeface2963]

​@WallyWafflest I only knew they had the buff from the prima strategy guide

[@RexLink]

You know how in various games where certain items, areas, or quests are completely unavailable unless you obtain a certain key item, in which after you obtain said item you backtrack to the location where the item can be used? That's what blue pikmin feel like, they feel less like a unique unit in an army and more like key items for unexplored locations.

[@kryzethx]

I would argue that yellows are the same way though.. you see a rock wall, you know you'll have to come back with yellows and bombs to clear it.

[@pikminman13]

@WallyWafflest i wish there were more unique ways of using pikmin, like using blues to fight a fiery bulblax because of water nearby. perhaps yellows could be like a 1min charge battery that stuns an enemy, but have to be charged at a source.

[@ismaeelbaig1762]

You basically just described a Metroidvania 😂. But I do agree that it’s a problem, ESPECIALLY if your not 100%ing, cause you might just not go back.

[@youtube-kit9450]

@@kryzethx In one aspect, yes. But again, bomb rocks are super useful in combat, hence why yellows aren't only a "small key".

[@pikmin_79]

I love pikmin :D I never thought of making a tier list about them though, neat!

[@kryzethx]

It's been done before, actually! Check out Heff, a Pikmin youtuber who has soo much pikmin content under their belt, including romhacks and everything!

[@Nunyeahbusiness]

the solution for making blues better is already sitting right in front of the developers faces. Just make blue pikmin the rescue pikmin. Pikmin that can will actively rescue others from status elements, free them from getting stuck like with webs or gelatinous enemies. Stuck in a jellyfloat? throw some blues and they'll pull them out. pikmin stuck in bubbles? blues will actively jump to pop them out. They were almost on the right track with blue pikmin pulling others out of water. they just needed to expand on it.

[@youtube-kit9450]

That's basically what Overlord did. Browns were the all-rounders, immune to nothing, but can fight. Reds were the flame throwers, ranged attackers, can set things on fire, immune to fire, can extinguish fire. Greens were assassins, extra strong if they attacked an enemy from behind, immune to poison, can take out poisonous pods. They also iirc became nearly invisible when stationed somewhere (or was it in foliage, don't remember) and thus were very good at ambushes. Blues could swim, were immune to water, could extinguish water fountains, and *resurrect minions that died very recently.* Imo, they all had such different properties that it always was worth having all kinds around for different situations.

[@SillyGoofyMode]

just got to the part talking about pikmin 2's blue pikmin, and the way you talked about the submerged castle cave made me unreasonably upset. It wasn't made to make blues seem better, it uses blues only *because* they're not good. They can only go through water, so you have to figure out other ways to deal with the problems inside. And even if that cave was meant to make a pikmin look better, it was definitely meant to make bulbmin look better >:[

[@nettalie4435]

I mean... Yeah that is probably the most likely possibility. Doesn't really make them any better though in my eyes.

[@Camo-xf7yc]

I agree the Submerged Castle is mostly hard because you can only use Blues and they aren't particularly helpful even in the Submerged Castle. It also acts as a test for the player because it's the only cave in the game you cannot use Purples in until the final floor, meaning you have to think a lot harder for combat. Blues are also the most middle ground Pikmin because their speed, damage, and throw height are all basic

[@OriginalGameteer]

Not really sure how it's meant to make blues seem better, when it very much doesn't make them better whatsoever It's designed around you being restricted, and them deliberately having obstacles you can't easily get past. You've lost something you could otherwise easily rely on. Which I think is a really cool concept here It'd be like having a dungeon with only whites, but every elemental hazard except poison.

[@hypotheticaltapeworm]

He has a weird hate boner for Blues, and this video among others is just trying to smear them for some reason. Like what did they do to you.

[@SillyGoofyMode]

coming back to specify, i do not give a FUCK about blue pikmin. talk all the shit you want. i just love the submerged castle

[@jonlevidalkvistagustsson6134]

Ok so I wanna share how I would balance the roster more! Reds, Rocks, wings, ice and glow pikmin, I would keep unchanged as they are all fairly balanced. Yellows: Stay the same and gain a even higher throw ark, and like people think wings do, gain a 2x damage to levitating / flying foes. Blues: They are harder to shake off, and after being in water for a bit they will be overall buffed until their water power is drained. Also give them back the lifeguard ability and make pikmin drown faster. Purples: Give them a very small chance to stun, the downward / impact damage is minor and only aplies, while locked on to something, and make them ever so slightly faster. Whites: Make them much faster again, and make their poison a lot stronger again, and make them champion diggers alongside yellows and rocks. And that is how I would balance all of them and I am honestly proud of my balancing! (And purples were hard to balance fairly while still giving them their previous justice)

[@sortagoodish8491]

It may be helpful to think of blues as "vanilla" pikmin with no special abilities, and water-covered areas as "vanilla-only zones". The purpose of water may be less as a hazard, and more as a condition: in these places, you have no extra powers, you only have basic pikmin abilities. In this view, I suppose, blue pikmin are good game design because a relative lack of power is a feature, not a bug -- this still puts them at the bottom tier by your small key argument, but I feel it was still worth bringing up.

[@youtube-kit9450]

Which makes it even funnier that they're always unlocked last - you only get the vanilla guys without a real special ability that suck last for zones that require that sucky useless thing.

[@alexshafer7374]

I somewhat expected this after the previous video, but I never knew I REALLY wanted this, that's the best kind of video.

[@Brawnstorm]

Its a pretty reasonable tier list, and I begin to better understand your points regarding Blues. I personally think a Pikmin's usefulness comes from a mix of utility and required use-cases. What matters to me is "Which Pikmin type shall I bring for optimal play," and in that case you want to bring a squad that can adapt to as many scenarios as possible. Its why I think Red Pikmin in 2 become near worthless after a certain point. Having them around means less Whites, Blues or even Yellows for better scenarios to deal with, and you only need around 15 Purples for combat, so keeping Purples alive for the Doomsday Aparatus isn't that big of a deal.

[@hi-i-am-atan]

do you mean optimal _blind_ play? because if optimization alone is your goal, then you're losing out a lot by not routing out your days ahead of time and thus already having your composition of yellows, blues, and whites for each day planned out i mean, it ain't like adaptability is irrelevant in that context, but it moreso comes into play to adapting on the fly _when things go wrong_ and quickly pivoting to contingencies when your plan a falls apart. keeping a balanced pikmin composition as a matter of habit is just flat-out suboptimal, and only really shows value if you're still learning ( or relearning ) the particular game

[@Brawnstorm]

@@hi-i-am-atan I mean "optimal play" as in future runs. When you start to dwelve on X Day Runs or Speedruns, you need a Pikmin squad that can kill enemies and carry each object as quickly as possible. In 2, since every Pikmin type can get rid of Fire and Electricity, I rarely use Reds or Yellows in favor of Whites because their speed is so useful for bringing treasure back to the ship, while being the only ones that can reliably get rid of poison hazards.

[@Moostelle]

I think the submerged castle feels more like an acknowledgement that blues suck than an attempt to make them good. It's one of the hardest caves in the game, which feels intentional given the pomp and circumstance of the water wraith, and the way it achieves that difficulty is by forcing you to go through the whole thing with just one pikmin type that has no advantages beyond its small key status. Then again, I tend to give Pikmin devs the benefit of the doubt, especially when Pikmin 2 is concerned.

[@hypotheticaltapeworm]

It's not that they suck, it's that things are placed there to intentionally place them at a disadvantage.

[@tacokitten]

I beat pikmin 1 for the first time very recently, and my take on blue pikmin is that, factually, I agree with your take, but emotionally, I got the most attached to blue pikmin. They always FELT like the most helpful, I felt like I should have them on me all the time. My Olimar grew more attached to the blues than anyone else. But that is a very subjective take, so it doesn’t really count for why they are better.

[@Renigade68]

your "small key argument" section makes me very happy, I've had a lot of Fire Emblem tier list discussions that end up with similar contention points, I tend to lean on the side that thinks whether or not something is required should be largely ignored for such discussions, but there are many who disagree :p

[@1stCallipostle]

Ah yes, Roy the top tier because he has to click seize. Who cares if he's otherwise a dead weight that makes Revelation Nyx look viable

[@cliffy9874]

Something I noticed in the Pikmin 4 trailer is how there are at least three ways to cross seemingly any body of water; swimming over it with Oatchi, freezing it with ice pikmin, or just using blues. I can see pros and cons with all three of these, for example, you probably can’t carry things back easily when swimming over water and ice pikmin don’t seem to be usable while freezing water. This would seemly make blues the best choice, but they would be less useful in other circumstances (ice pikmin seem like they will be VERY good in combat, being able to freeze enemies) you have to decided whether you want to deal with water easily, or if you want to try a riskier method in order to make room for other types. I REALLY like the idea of multiple strategies of dealing with the same hazard; it would add an insane level of replayability and open-endeness to a game that might already be open-world. There’s a lot of potential here and I really hope we see more stuff like this in the final game.

[@OriginalGameteer]

By the looks of things the way it'll probably work is: -Freezing water over is for when you need to throw pikmin onto a ledge you can reach underwater, and tasks that need to be done right at the waters edge, since they carry stuff underwater or reach their destination if there's no slope -Blues, similar to in 3, are likely exclusive to things underwater, since the other 2 options only deal with the surface -ans Oatchi swimming across the water just seems to be an easy way to get from one shore to another

[@1stCallipostle]

Ice also has a drawback too if I recall: Frozen enemies shatter and don't leave a corpse.

[@teaoftraffic]

11:16 i like that you put an “aww” sound for the third comment

[@PokeMaster22222]

Now that 4's out...my opinion. I've played through most of Pikmin 1, completed 3 several times, and am currently going through 4 - and Reds have always been very reliable. Their damage is good, and their fire immunity is great against the most common Blowhog variant, so I always like to have a decent number on-hand. Blue Pikmin are underrated, I'd say; their water immunity is fantastic, allowing them shortcuts and passageways inaccessible to all others (except for Winged), and while yeah they're useless when there's no water, and they don't hit as hard as Reds, most maps _do_ have at least some aquatic spaces, so they're not left high-and-dry. Yellows have had a rather...chaotic history, throughout the series, since electricity wasn't a thing in 1, and their Bomb Rock-carrying capabilities have been given to all Pikmin variants in 3 (before becoming a captain item in 4), but their higher throwing access has allowed me to skip some more tedious puzzles in 3. Granted, even this was usurped by Wingeds, and 3 doesn't have all that many electric enemies (the main thing being electrified gates), but I have noticed myself using Yellows more in 4 due to it bringing back older zappy foes, so...eh, they're decent. Below the first two, for sure. Rock Pikmin seem to have been nerfed in 4 - they were excellent at killing Wollywogs in 3, as they were flat-out immune to the belly-flop squishing (all it did was plant them into the ground, requiring the player to pluck them again), but in 4 I tried to use them against Wollywogs only for the squishing to kill them. Kind of stupid, that. Still, they're very reliable damage dealers; compared to Reds, which have quick and powerful strikes, Rocks deal a large amount of damage when thrown, but much less attacking by themselves. Reds are still better for bosses, I'd say, since they can cling on and do more damage over time, but for the weaker 'mobs', Rocks are quite effective. Winged Pikmin are amazing at carrying stuff back to base, since they can fly over most obstacles and even some walls. To compensate, they're slower at carrying things back, but the shortcut potential can make up for that. Combat-wise...yeah, no, they suck, since most creatures are grounded and thus are resistant to Winged attacks. As mentioned before, however, they can be used to circumvent puzzles by locking onto a treasure (or, in 3, fruit) and charging - if aimed well, they can fly up and snag items that would've been a pain to get otherwise. I'd consider Wingeds to be well-balanced, and quite good. Ice Pikmin can be used to freeze water, granting paths to non-Blues that otherwise wouldn't exist, and to freeze enemies, locking them in place and thus giving the player a chance to deal heavy damage. Unlike most games with status effects, most enemies can be easily frozen in Pikmin 4, so this is quite a reliable strategy. The main drawback is that the larger the body of water, the more Ice Pikmin need to be present to freeze it (and thus fewer other Pikmin types can be present), making it impractical at times - and freezing enemies does take time, so it's not a perfect tactic. Still, I've come to like Ice Pikmin, as freezing an enemy gives me the opportunity to charge up an Oatchi dash. Glow Pikmin are outstanding. Immune to all elements (fire, water, electric, poison, ice - nothing bothers them), and they warp back to the player when done with tasks (instead of staying at base or at a finished bridge or broken wall - all balanced by only being available in caves, and not being traditionally replenishable (for each 3 or so borne during nighttime exploration, one Glow seed is obtained at daybreak, so sprouting a lot at night gives you a decent handful of seeds - whereas not having many Glow Pikmin left at dawn means fewer seeds). They were instrumental during the Waterwraith dungeon, tackling the fire hazards present, in my experience. Purple Pikmin hit _really_ hard, and each one has the carrying capacity of ten other Pikmin, but they're slow as molasses and even in 4 they don't have the overpowered stun they did in 2 - and they're still not easily replenishable for the vast majority of the adventure. As a result, I'd rather use the far more common and still strong Reds or Rocks, when it comes to fighting stuff, and since Oatchi can be trained to be Super Buff (having a maximum carry capacity of 100 Pikmin - of ten Purples) while being faster and always present...yeah, in 4 they've been somewhat overshadowed, funnily enough. White Pikmin...hm. Really don't like these; they're very rare, as they're also not easily replenishable, yet unlike Purples they deal pathetic damage. Poison traps and enemies aren't common, so their toxic immunity is rather niche, and why would anyone purposefully waste a rare White by letting them get eaten? Granted, getting eaten does deal significant damage to the eater, since toxic and all, but yeah - not something anyone would do on purpose. Their fast speed isn't too relevant either, since the other Pikmin aren't really 'too slow' or anything. Bottom tier, for sure.

[@LavaCaptain-yf6iu]

One small correction: for every 5 glow Pikmin sprouted, one receive one glow seed

[@Wingsaber]

I've been using the "next time/last time on Dragonball Z" reference with my friends for YEARS to very middling reception so I had a huge smile on my face hearing you say it at the beginning of this video ❤

[@ElyParrot]

I would like to say, as it seems like you didn't go into this for Winged Pikmin in 3, but they share the Rock Pikmin's immunity to being crushed. There's a Mission Mode stage where you have to deal with a Baldy Long Legs, and if you just sick any number of Winged Pikmin at it, it'll die at some point. Definitely my favorite Piks

[@pillowpilloww]

32:00 white pikmin poison damage wasn't buffed directly, mission mode is set to normal difficulty in the switch version, which halves all enemy health

[@justaperson4656]

Ngl I do kinda like the idea of a goo pikmin, it's kinda cute. Like blue pikmin, it can be built in quite a bit. Goo pikmin can make water thicker, so other pikmin can walk on it. Goo pikmin don't need nectar, they can get nutrients from the ground. That sort of thing

[@Thecooldudenoob]

Around 11:32 yea. Like if you have to cut something down and it's required to use specifically a butter knife it doesn't make butter knives the best. It just makes them necessary. Unlike something like macaroni where you use a fork or a spoon depending on which you like more. Imagine if you always had to pick a fork. It doesn't make forks better. It just makes forks more used

[@Fungo4]

The whole big discussion about Blue pikmin seems to me to just be centered around one thing: How often do you CHOOSE to break out a particular pikmin type?

[@dunkadillo]

7:20 This is mostly correct, but blues will pathfind through the puddles in distant spring. But that’s it from my research. And yeah the Zirconium Rotor has some disappointing routing…

[@collinherrin4596]

I would've personally put wings in s as personally I think multitasking with them coupled with how they break some puzzles makes them worthy of s but overall I agree with a lot of the points you made

[@jaxonblair8440]

Love how this video talks about my favorite games (Pikmin) while playing music from my second favorite games (Donkey Kong Country)

[@psychronia]

It would be cool if Blue Pikmin were given the ability to dampen bomb rocks or smother fire geysers or something. Maybe let them carry droplets of fluid around, like nectar, sprays, or even plain normal water to do what you suggested.

[@nootnoot3846]

Your use of bomb rocks against yellow wallywogs genuinely had me sitting here despondent for a couple mins due to the simple genius of it.

[@manquail2361]

I always saw the submerged castle as a challenge area that gate kept pikmin type used by forcing blues rather than trying to make them feel more useful

[@PenCatStudio]

Hey Silok! This list is fantastic. I agree with everything on this list EXEPT for yellows in 1. Sure yellow’s bomb abilities are useful but in most areas the bombs are placed either A: in small amounts or B in large amounts that are off the beaten path. Sure it’s useful to have bombs but when I’m trying to go fast and manage my time to the fullest, and I’ve blown up all the walls, I don’t have time to grab bombs. Bombs in pikmin 1 are also really finicky. They don’t always work as intended and are just generally awkward to use properly since pikmin Ai is awful in 1. Pikmin 1’s yellows have the same issue 2 and 3’s blues have. Their situational and once you clear out their necessary obstacles u rarely would want to use them due to bombs being janky as hell. Also sorry if this is poorly worded. I’m walking my dog rn

[@bealorboy2181]

Never did I think that I would see a Pikmin tier list. Glad to see someone so passionate about Pikmin, which for a long time in my view was a super niche series. Great video!

[@laurendagostini2748]

Yellow Pikmin are my favorite Pikmin type even if they’re not that good they will always be my favorite.

[@darienb1127]

Personally when it comes to buffing Blues, I think an interesting way to do so would be to improve their digging and building speed. Basically making them the "worker" Pikmin while types likes Reds could be considered more of the "soldiers". This would give them their own niche while not overshadowing other types while forcing you to really think your group composition. Do you want more blue Pikmin for better and more efficient exploration, or do you want more Pikmin that can take care of enemies easier? By posing this question, it would force the player to consider what they really need at the moment the most.

[@ltsACroissant]

this is a very clear, well-made, and very entertaining video! I'd be shocked to see any comments disagreeing at least in a harsh way, since all of your points are really well backed up. I haven't even seen the original video where people were backing up blue pikmin, gonna have to watch right now! thanks for the awesome content :D

[@ModBros8434]

I think rock Pikmin are a pretty good alternative to purple ones. Being a little less powerful and having more tradeoffs is good in my opinion. Perhaps some improvements to their intelligence and multitasking usefulness are in order, though.

[@ItsMangoTape]

Lets be real here, purple pikmin are not pikmin, THEY ARE GODS. 1: they can paralyze enemies which like… HOW- 2: they do a fuck ton of damage 3: WHEN THEY GET RUN OVER BY THE WATER WRAITH THEY PRODUCE A NOISE SO DISTORTED THAT IT MAKES THE WATER WRAITH SWITCH DIMENSIONS

[@EBMaster9000]

Overall...I think this is a good tier list. You've made valid points on each Pikmin's strengths and weaknesses, and I concur! This does make me wonder how the iconic three and upcoming new Pikmin will be like in Pikmin 4 though? Hopefully, Rock, Winged, Purple and White Pikmin come back and are used in the story too.

[@kryzethx]

They're all on the cover of the game, so I really hope they all come back in the story, especially if caves make a return, giving logical access to whites and purples again!

[@SilentRuth10]

Love your pikmin content!! I actually forget about blues in Pikmin 3 because they're introduced so late in the game. By that time, all you're doing is 100%-ing the game. There was no love for these guys, just the satisfaction that I could use them as tools. Let's hope they're more appreciated in Pikmin 4!

[@bandanan-zthatbandanaweari1121]

So many Pikmin videos lately. I am ready for that Hey Pikmin idea you had on your Patreon Poll that sadly lost to the Mario Party 1, 2, and 3 Retrospective if I am correct.

[@MegumiMary]

incredibly solid list that taught me a few things about the pros/cons of some I didn't know!

[@ProCreeper]

My only issue with this video is that white Pikmin in mission mode are AMAZING for gold and small fruits. If I put one white on a gold pile I’m gonna have the gold come back faster than if I put two reds.

[@Topdoggie7]

They even tell you in game they dig the fastest yet purples and reds are faster so, I don't know.

[@ProCreeper]

@@Topdoggie7 yeah in 3 but in 2 it’s a no contest

[@OriginalGameteer]

​@@Topdoggie7iirc certain digging stuff has its speed determined by the pikmins attack strength? So Red/Purple/Rock dig faster with some things as a result

[@Crimson-Hat]

Blue Pikmin are clearly the best because they are blue. Case closed. I want to like Purples because purple is a better color but they're too slow so I pretty much never use them. Whites are pretty Chad though. Fast, and cool red eyes.

[@kaplisisdx8651]

Those were some great points, good video! I like blue pikmin but it's difficult to defend them when taking into account winged, and possibly ice pikmin in the future, yikes... I actually used to think blue pikmin were the best in pikmin 1, in the sense that not only are they the only ones that can explore the whole map, but you can technically use them for any spaceship part involving the reds...Its more dangerous but it can work. By the time you get to the distant spring, you need yellows for like 2 parts and a few walls, and then its all blues for the rest of the map, and red's superior strenght did not help me much as they can take enemies down just fine.

[@KopperNeoman]

Every two Reds is worth three Blues/Yellows/Hocotatians though. (At least in 1, in 2, Hocotatians attack insanely fast if you're moving, and the rocket fist exists) The extra strength of Reds adds up. With 100 Blues + Olimar, you do 1010 damage per team attack. With Reds, that leaps up to 1510.

[@nanazsan7536]

​@@KopperNeoman that's just for a strictly combat scenerio, you usually have to go through different places and get different things first so you tend to take some of each, the combat you can deal with with any color as long as you are careful or use spicy juices.

[@heyzeus4797]

I think you're right about blues being the worst but having a type of pikmin that you're forced to use in a lot of situations that has no real advantages is a legitimate way to make some parts of the game harder.

[@sentienttwig7043]

My two cents on blues in Pikmin 1 is that A I think it’s kind of silly to say certain exploits render blues irrelevant when that’s kind of like being presented with a chest and the key next to it, and choosing to lock pick the chest. It’s much easier and faster to just use the key And B blues provide a safety net for you to freely explore with your Pikmin without having to worry about one taking a headfirst dive into a pool of water and wasting everyone’s time If I want to scout an area out I’m taking blues with me Though I do see your point on how they don’t have a use outside of their designated use case scenarios So what if they played a more active support role? Like how they toss Pikmin out of water, what if they just protected Pikmin in general? Pulling them out of enemy jaws and jumping to cure Pikmin of any statuses they may acquire (assuming that doesn’t put the blue Pikmin in danger itself) Also I personally dislike yellows because bombs are a pain to get large amounts of, you can’t keep them between days so you have to constantly harvest them, and one tiny slip up, sneaky enemy or just funky Pikmin AI can lead to your entire squad being bombed into dust, or just the bomb being destroyed in water because that happens

[@mitchcane2352]

Hilariously in 4 it's now flying Pikmin that are at the bottom. Blues have been given more obstacles that require them while Purples are even more busted than they were in 2.

[@ThundagaT2]

Im surprised you didnt mention the fact that Flying Pikmin can break some puzzles, namely that one that requires 3 captains in Garden of Hope.

[@pageclayton6850]

Yea, wings in 3 are actually ridiculous for puzzles, and while it's true they aren't great at fighting, the fact is that there is a single enemy in the game, that can't move, that can attack wings while they're carrying things back to base, is something I feel breaks pikmin 3 possibly more than how purples break pikmin 2

[@toon10001two]

Here's my ranking. S Tier: The best Pikmin. Extremely useful not only in required areas but in everyday use. S (1): Purples, for reasons that don't need explained. S (2): Wings, again, the sheer versatility of flying is unbelievable. 90% of high treasures can be gotten by Wings. Wings break so many puzzles it's unbelievable. Even their damage penalty is negligent because their ability to charge enemies in the air and high up means they can be attacking far more frequently than other types. Case and point, Mireclops, Shaggy Long Legs, Snagret, Crawmad, all best fought with Wings. Especially since spicy sprays remove a large chunk of that penalty. S (3): Bulbmin, extremely versatile even if only for a few caves. Not much else to it. A Tier: Pikmin that have many uses out of their required ones, and are useful in many ways in their games, and almost always belong on the team. A (1): Rocks. Purple Pikmin but actually balanced. They are the best for killing pretty much every enemy save for a select few due to crushing resistance and enemies where rolling off can leave them vulnerable. This is brought down by the fact a squad of even 50 Pikmin can just murder anything they come across regardless of type, but still. Their hazard also comes up frequently while having use outside of it. A (2): Whites in 2. Their speed alone is just insane, not to mention the fact they destroy so many walls. If your floor doesn't have water, bring along whites to carry everything, sometimes so fast that enemies cannot attack them. Poison immunity is really just a bonus, but speed alone and their requirement for so many dungeons places them here. A (3): Yellows in 2. Resist the instakill super dangerous hazard, several hazards and caves that take use of that ability, more spots where higher throwing range is useful while not being negated by the existance of Wings. Also useful against the final boss. A (4): Reds in 1. Just really useful due to the damage bonus they give. Not much else to it, if you don't actively need to travel through water just fill the party with Reds and call it a day.e existance of Winged Pikmin, and best for the final boss. Kind of dip into that "when required" only niche though. B Tier: Pikmin who have limited or no use cases out of required ones, but are extremely useful in those situations. B (1): Yellows in 1. Probably higher than most would rank them but they do have uses because of bomb rocks. Because rocks can be used in a variety of ways their abilities really shine. Downside is bombs are so finicky using them at any point for combat is insane unless you are in some challenge run or fighting the Bulblax. B (2): Blues in 1. By far their most useful outing, but they still only exist to traverse water hazards. That being said you'll still have like 90 of them for the entire Distant Spring anyway so there's that. B (3): Yellows in 3. They are a bit more versatile but still fall into the "only when you need them" category, cause most of their use comes from electricity hazards, which bumps them down significantly. They still have uses there, but their height advantage almost doesn't exist as 90% of treasures that require high throws can be cheesed with Winged Pikmin, giving them less utility overall. The fact that they are the fastest diggers is also not too relevant: Rocks share the same digging speed as Yellows. They are up here because there are a lot of hazards that have electricity in them and little way to avoid them. C Tier: PIkmin who are only useful for whatever ability they have, and those use cases are middling. C (1): Reds in 3. Reds are more useful than in 2, but still struggle to find relevancy. Their damage bonus seems important again as Rocks cannot cling and Purples are gone, but any decently sized Pikmin group in 3 will wipe the floor with most enemies anyway. Fire is more dangerous as it cannot be destroyed now, but there is less Fire in the game than water, electric or crystal hazards and Fire geysers are still on/off, and the only really dangerous Fire enemy is the Pyroclastic Slooch. Since Reds do not have any special abilities, they are only useful for a select few treasures where Fire is an issue. C (2): Blues in 2. Same deal as 2 where they are only required when forced upon you, but even worse as water can be drained and only some caves have water. Would be lower if not for the Submerged Castle. C (3): Whites in 3. In Mission Mode, their speed is useful for collecting nuggets and Grapes, but other than that they are pretty dang useless. However, that speed still gives them good utility. D Tier: Pikmin who are useful for only a tiny amount of items, or are completely useless. D (1): Blues in 3. Again, only useful in Water, but with even less fucking use cases. Only required for one build for story progression and a few optional fruits. Anything across water that isn't submerged should just be gotten by Wings. They still are REQUIRED, unlike the Pikmin below them, but their use cases are so shit it's barely worth considering. D (2): Purples in 3. Literally for carrying heavy objects, and they only really see use in stages with larger fruits in specific situations. D (2): Reds in 2. Literally useless aside from Fiery Bulblaxes. Purples do better damage, and unless you are new or extremely careless you are never going to run out of Purples. If you do, you can make more since their flowers are so common in caves. Fire means nothing in Pikmin 2 as not only are fire geysers on/off but the burn time is so fucking slow that you can save any pikmin easily, and any colour can destroy them. Any fire enemy that is not a Fiery Bulblax will just get stunned and die by Purples before they can attack. Even the Fiery Bulblax, the one situation where Reds have a use, can be killed in water or by using Purples. Once you get them, Reds exist solely to be bait for Candypop Buds and literally nothing else.

[@micahfurlow2624]

Honestly, if I did a Pikmin tier list, it wouldn't be very different from this

[@Bytezor8]

Honestly the only thing I’d swap is yellow and blue in Pikmin 1 because even with the small key argument I found myself appreciating blue Pikmin way more for the sake of being able to complete an objective as I saw meanwhile with yellows it usually either required multiple Pikmin types or was something that required bomb rocks, which it might have been just me but were a pain to find and gather in Pikmin 1

[@hypotheticaltapeworm]

Bomb rocks also turn Yellows into small keys, as do anything with fire for Reds. The analogy falls apart when your objective is to do anything other than shit on Blues.

[@egon3705]

@@hypotheticaltapeworm reds and yellows do other things not required for progression

[@hypotheticaltapeworm]

@@egon3705 Yellows don't. The high throw is elective in combat scenarios but is required for a number of treasures. There are very few reasons to use anything but Reds for fights. Blues and Yellows have the same problem of being underwhelming outside of their "small key" functionality.

[@egon3705]

@@hypotheticaltapeworm bombs are useful in combat

[@hypotheticaltapeworm]

@@egon3705 In 1? In 1?? That's a good joke.

[@phantomlantern9169]

adding more to Purple utility in pikmin 2, they have a slight homing factor when thrown at enemies. if you throw them a little off center, they will be sure to center themselves on whatever you throw them at, instakilling any dwarf bulborbs

[@MischiefTheBandit]

honestly i love rock pikmin because they completely change how you play combat in the game.

[@Yanhime97]

Definitely won over by the "Small Key Argument" (and love the name) but it does feel a little weird to discredit blues where they're required, and still give credit to other Pikmin types where they're not required but very heavily incentivised.

[@BoulderWraith]

The notion of the Doomsday Apparatus being one of the only things that makes reds still viable is true To an extent At a certain skill level, you can kill almost everything in the game with just purples and without any problems, heck, there very few things in general that stops purples in their tracks. That with the fact that no matter what, you will HAVE to grind for purples to get the treasure, it isn't the most sound argument. Also fun fact: you can beat almost the entire game with just purples, with luck of course, even most elemental gates can be ignored thanks to a bunch of skips with the five man napsack!

[@msgameandcake628]

Silok didn't explicitly mention this, but I feel like the anxiety of losing purples doesn't necessarily come from potentially losing them in combat, but instead losing them because the game decided to randomly drop a bomb onto your group. Even with near-perfect play, that'll probably take out at least a couple pikmin, and with purples' slower speed they're more vulnerable to such a trap. Then when factoring in their higher value due to the difficulty obtaining them and the need for 100 at some point, carrying around too many at once can quickly make them a liability that could warrant either floor resets or scouting the area with a captain first to trigger such traps on their own, neither strategy being particularly fun. Of course, this is really more a problem related to the random traps themselves, but I feel like purples are hit by their existence the hardest due to the combination of their low speed and high value.

[@kzkultra8948]

I literally was thinking "hmm I feel like Silok's going to upload soon. And here we are

[@lukeblack8146]

The poison walls above ground in wistful wild can be destroyed by the Gatling groink's mortars, allowing 23 more treasures to be collected without white pikmin

[@isaacthepikminleader.5481]

22 because one of the treasures in dream is buried.

[@evanlikescats6761]

one of your key arguments for yellow pikmin was the usefulness of bombrocks which i feel relate more to the "small key argument" then the blue pikmin in water

[@marioluigibros.8176]

but he says bomb rocks are good to kill enemies, he isnt talking about required bomb rock walls

[@youtube-kit9450]

No, because bomb rocks are useful outside of breaking walls. Chuck a bomb rock at an enemy, it likely dies, or against Emperor Bulblax, it stuns and damages him heavily. The whole small key argument is that the ability basically never matters aside from when you absolutely have to use it, like how in twilight princess, the spinner and dominion rod are basically only useful in their own dungeons and otherwise solely to do something only specifically made so you can't go there without that item yet. The dominion rod e.g. would've become less a "small key" type of item if there were a lot of automaton-type enemies in the game that you could take over to wreak havoc on other enemies, or if the spinner was super fast to traverse the overworld and didn't lose spin strength so quickly.

[@flamsey]

Actually ALL TYPES HAVE THE ABILITY TO DIG UP BURIED TREASURES IN 3!! They did the same thing they did to Yellows with bomb rocks

[@samkeiser9776]

The small key argument reminds me of Fire Emblem unit discussion, in some games the protagonist is the only character that can seize, which is required to complete maps, but what that means in FE is that those units have a required task to complete it means that they’re worse because of it, because the game forces you to drag them around, and some of the weaker protagonists are liabilities. Being forced by the game to use something bad doesn’t make that thing better, it means the game is harder. Restricting available tools or adding additional success requirements is one of the most common ways players challenge themselves. So by the game forcing you to use pikimin that are otherwise useless just because a body of water gates off other kinds, the game is simply challenging you.

[@nettalie4435]

Well I'd personally actually argue that this doesn't add difficulty perse, so much as it just adds either inconvenience or serves soley to give something basic/underpowered a purpose. Which in my eyes is perfectly fine for small progression gates like key doors in zelda games, but very underwhelming for things like pikmin or characters in certain games. Even if this can lead to challenging players by restricting them, I don't think personally that it's very fun to specifically force players to use things that have almost no purpose otherwise for the sake of a challenge. Having instances of that sort of design can be okay if the thing the game limits you to using is unique or fun in how it is used, but if it isn't you just end up being forced to use something very basic or underpowered for the sake of challenge. Provided it even is challenging, because most of the time a game does something like this I find it's more of an inconvenience and annoyance than a challenge. In the case of fire emblem i can definitely see how this adds challenge, but for pikmin its moreso just kind of annoying because youll find something in water that youll go back for on a later day with blues. The only example of blues being used for a "challenge" would be pikmin 2's submerged castle, but that was challenging not because youre limited to blues, but rather because you were pressed for time with a harsh penalty if you get squanched

[@samkeiser9776]

@@nettalie4435 that’s just getting to specifics, inconvenience and things being mandatory are ways games can be made more difficult, even if they are to varying degrees of impact, if you removed the need small keys to open doors in zelda, a lot of rooms in dungeons would become a lot more pointless, you’d need the dungeon item and a way to the boss, and everything else you could ignore, including puzzles and entire rooms that are just for keys. But it probably wouldn’t stop a first time player from exploring every room and fighting most of the enemies, And maybe the challenge collecting key’s requires is minimal and isn’t something everyone would call “difficult.” It’s still the game asking you to do something. This isn’t to say that the way blue pikimin are designed is particularly good, the game is simply asking if you have blue pikimin, and if you do, you can get the things they’re needed for, if you don’t, you can’t, the thing I was trying to highlight is that blue pikimin aren’t *good* for being required, they’re a challenge, where the way to succeed is just… to have them.

[@mrcwillis6970]

Don’t know if I can say I’ve seen a Pikmin tier list. Cool ❤💛💙

[@kryzethx]

Check out the Pikmin youtuber, Heff; he's already done one for the pikmin types, as well as for enemies, bosses, etc

[@xian2themax]

Winged Pikmin should be S because of all of the cheese they can do, and because when spicy sprayed, all Pikmin do the same damage so lower attack doesn’t matter

[@CirqueDuSomni]

I feel like a purple pikmin

[@potatolife3694]

10:38 That red pikmin that ran into the armor cannon beetle is a god damn trooper and is why reds are the best pikmin in pikmin 1

[@Ryan14947]

White pikmin have always been my favorites, even back before I'd gotten the chance to use them It makes me so sad to see how bastardized they were in 3...

[@jasonreed7522]

White's speed is incredibly useful, they can outrun basically all enemies which is especially important in the Subterranean Complex. (The hole with the lightbulb, more famous for all the bombs on the way down to the man-at-legs)

[@Topdoggie7]

Well they're barely in it so it makes sense to nerf them so they can't just kill everyone in the timed fight levels.

[@benjaminoechsli1941]

6:11 I had no idea that Blue Pikmin had a lifeguard certification! That's cool! :o

[@xx_ranboo_fan_xx9928]

i like yellow pikmin they have weird ears and i like it

[@laurendagostini2748]

Me too.😊❤

[@chopperbrosadvance9760]

Something important to remember too is the poison gate to the subterranean complex can be broken by the nearby cannon beetle so that one doesn't require white pikmin

[@chrissymania1612]

Whites the worst Pikmin in Pikmin 3??? They are like 2x as fast at carrying things back than other Pikmin. So they are super useful in the Mission mode for getting good times and Bingo battle.

[@quinttwo]

they're only 1.5x as fast and since winged routes exist the nerf was enough for them to be usually outclassed they SHOULD be 2x like pikmin 2 idk why they changed it

[@Maxwell_Twist]

I don't know about what tier I'd actually put them in, but I'd say that Yellows in 1 are the ones I dislike the most. If it wasn't for them, the devs wouldn't have thought that Yellows were so worthless that they should remove a feature from the rest of the pikmin just to give it to them so they could be useful. The bombrock argument only works because they were so bad that they had to give it only to the Yellows to give them a use aside from being thrown high. Originally, Reds and Blues could pick them up as well, which we know because their sprites were left in the game. Edit: Red pikmin are easily the best in 1, though.

[@IncognitoPancak3]

3:49-I’m sorry but this is literally a federal crime

[@silokhawk]

LOL

[@eforaffort]

Great, now you gave me an idea for a Goo Pikmin. I'll still keep the tape thing because funny but tape is not everywhere. Their main mechanic would be shapeshifting. They could become the shape and color of the Pikmin you have the most (that isn't goo) except with a gooey texture and effect, and they would get the abilities that Pikmin has. If they are thrown on surfaces other Pikmin can normally not walk on, they will make a mini platform that all Pikmin can walk on. They will stick on enemies poisoning them until the enemies die.

[@Alej_andr016]

Bruh I though there were like 4 pikmin

[@loganthompson7110]

Fun fact Rocks can grab onto one thing in PK3 and that's the Shaggy Long Legs making them extremally useful in killing said boss. thought It does take more time for kills as they fall off after its gone bald but not losing any rocks is still nice plus you can still have them climb back up during the fight.

[@Megaleg]

I hope I’m high on the list Edit: I agree with both placements

[@pkstarstorm5548]

Have yet to watch video but this thumbnail made me smile. I remember playing pikmin 2 with a friend in high school and we referred to the purple pikmin as Spartans and would yell out GO MY SPARTANS and such things when using them. Good times lol.

[@hawkeye611]

In defense of Blue Pikmin in Pikmin 1 specifically. Having only the one captain means swapping out to the perfect tool for each situation is more time consuming than in other games. As a result, if a pikmin is required for a certain objective, the minor "generic" objectives around it will also more than likely be delegated to them. Blue Pikmin might not do as much damage as Reds, but they're still easily able to get wollywog and bulbear kills without casualties, and if you end up saving a trip back to the onion, then I think it's only reasonable to be credited for it. Again, later games make this aspect much weaker, as a second captain can do things like stay by the base to swap out returning Pikmin, cutting out a lot of time wasted running.

[@Gabe_DJL]

I have an idea for blue pikmin, they could make their mouth drink a little water and spit it at enemies so they get distracted

[@Shiny_goomy_real]

Yes. Of course. Bulbmin in S tier. I agree with your choice. Very nice choice.

[@CaptainShrimply]

Great video kept me entertained all the way through. Love the pikmin content

[@ALittleBitCheesy]

Idk why but a new silok hawk upload makes me so happy

[@murmirr]

the small key argument was such an intelligent metaphor

[@pommybomber]

Wow, didn't realize white pikmin were knee caped so hard. I guess I was too distracted with the Purple nerfs. Also thanks for popping the bubble I had on thinking rock pikmin were the best in all combat situations, that explains why some fights ere a bit rougher than I thought.

[@BlobstoF]

This was amazing I'm liking more this series thanks to you