Pikmin Forever/Unused content

This article contains all the early/prototype/unused information about Pikmin Forever.

Original Plot
The initial plot of Pikmin Forever was much different from its current form.

Original Synopsis (collapsible transcript)
This is the very earliest synopsis of the plot. The following section summarizes the many changes this underwent.

Years pass since Koppai’s expedition returned a success. Seeds from PNF-404 are successfully cultivated into life-sustaining orchards of food. Life flourishes on Koppai through sustainable practices, and fruit becomes their top interplanetary export. Their biggest investor is Hocotate; the two planets exchange so much business that eventually the leaders of Hocotate Freight propose to combine the agriculture of Koppai with the freight system and space program of Hocotate. The Koppai-Hocotate Alliance (KHA) is born, and soon their primary directive becomes to colonize PNF-404, the planet that had bestowed on the two worlds so much success. The KHA sends a specialized probe called a SOGNO to PNF-404, to collect all the information needed to discern whether the planet is habitable. The SOGNO reports back that it reached PNF-404, and that it found some odd phenomena causing its course to be disrupted. But after that its signal mysteriously goes dark. So a research team, consisting of the commissioned Captain Olimar and the Koppaites Alph, Brittany, and Charlie; chart a course for PNF-404 in their KHA Lander, to find what went wrong with the SOGNO probe and to retrieve its crucial information manually, finding if there actually is a potential colony spot on the planet. They are also told to collect as much metal as they can, to use a local resource to construct buildings once the probe approves the location. The explorers set out on another 279,000 light-year voyage at warp speed to PNF-404. However, as the explorers approach PNF-404’s atmosphere, their course is compromised by a sudden radical gravitational attraction, coming from the planet itself. The KHA Lander careens into a tree, ejecting most of its main fuel tank, but manages to correct its flight and land safely, leaving the explorers stranded in an uncharted area (the Glade of Sunlight).

Fearing the coming of night, the explorers desperately search for metals to convert into powdered combustion fuel (all Hocotate ships run on metal powders). They soon find a Red Onion instead, its legs oddly rooted in the ground, and five Red Pikmin, idling as though they had been waiting for the explorers to arrive. Olimar, a seasoned veteran explorer, is quickly able to refresh his crew on organizing Pikmin, and they soon build a team of Pikmin that conquers a new obstacle, plastic mesh fence. After they cross this obstacle, they come across something nickel-silver, the Gleaming Staff (a house key). Upon returning it, they find it can be converted into 50 metal units, pushing the Lander’s fuel to the 1000 metal units it needs to ignite its engines safely for the night. Overnight, they decide their best course of action is to continue research and resource collection until they can find signs of the probe.

They spend a few more days in this area, collecting more metal and data; the mission runs smoothly. With the KHA research pod, they explore their first cave, the Reticulate Garden, in which they discover White Pikmin and their White Onion, and unearth their first fossil. At the leaders’ presence, the White Onion melts through its roots into the ground, and merges with the rooted Red Onion; the explorers make a note that even these separate Onions may still be connected in a way. After defeating a Burnished Cannon Beetle, the explorers recover the Ignition Courier (a remote car key), which, instead of being salvaged as metal, can be reverse-engineered to give the KHA Lander a better reception of KHA signals.

Once the receiver technology is installed, a signal does appear in a new area, the Scalding Thicket. In order to reach the signal, they discover Yellow Pikmin, and Purple Pikmin in the Buried Bole. In another cave, the Acoustic Crevasse, they also discover how to convert Pikmin into Rock Pikmin. Eventually they see that the signal they found is coming from a formidable creature, the Emperor Bulblax, at the top of a tall tree only accessible by geyser (the Emperor’s Crown). After a fierce battle, the beast is defeated, and coughs up the source of the signal: Olimar’s former partner Louie. Apparently he had climbed the tree to send out an SOS signal, but had been incapacitated and swallowed whole by the Bulblax. He is taken back to the KHA Lander along with the spoils. After sunset, the explorers find in his exploration log that he saw the SOGNO crash-land in an area “beyond the great pond, the same place the Hocotate pod went when it left me.”

They chart a course for a new area, the Luxuriant Littoral beyond the pond they observe. There they discover Blue Pikmin, and begin searching the area for the probe. At the end of their first day there, however, unexpected disaster occurs. Louie awakens and attempts to escape by piloting the KHA Lander himself. The Lander takes off without its crew, and flies a considerable height before the computer recognizes the pilot is not a crew member. The Lander and Louie both try to override the controls, hurtling the ship into a distant area. The terrified explorers are left stranded in the Luxuriant Littoral just as the sun is setting. However, the crew is reassured by the Pikmin, who calmly enter the Onion as normal. The Onion does not take off like normal, but instead appears to welcome the explorers inside it. It beams them inside and then melts into the ground, in a similar fashion to merging Onions. The Onion rematerializes far underground, in the Mycelial Burrow. Taking refuge in this cave, the explorers notice something giving off substantial light. Further in the cave, they discover wild Mushroom Pikmin, with an Onion-like mother ship with a very complex network of roots. The mushrooms on the heads of these Pikmin are bioluminescent, allowing them to light up the area. Deciding to venture deeper in the cave, the Mushroom Onion merges with the Master Onion, growing little mushrooms and gills on its sides. At the final floor of the cave they encounter another formidable creature, the Angling Rhizomander. Upon defeating it, it coughs up the research pod to the old Hocotate ship, left dilapidated and damaged. Its cargo hold can hold all four explorers, but its electric generators only have enough metal powder to return the explorers above ground and hover at low altitude for the rest of the night.

The explorers decide that the mission should be put on hold so that they can get back to the Lander. On its own, the Hocotate research pod cannot reach where the Lander went (the actual area is a tall frosty crag). To fix this, explorers have to find the Hocotate ship’s hull in any one of the three areas they have already visited, collecting 500 metal parts each day to power the research pod’s generators at night. The ship’s hull is actually in 10 pieces, spread throughout the various sections and caves of areas that were previously inaccessible because Blue Pikmin were not a part of the group. Lichen Pikmin are also discovered in whichever area is visited first in this scenario; they can aid with rebuilding the Hocotate ship by breaking down rock and pollutant obstacles. Once all pieces of the hull are recovered, the Hocotate ship has enough power to reach the Lander, in an area the explorers name the Forbidding Precipice.

The Lander and Louie are nowhere to be found when they land. They must use their seven types of Pikmin plus the Winged Pikmin they discover to traverse the complicated rock-metal landscape. Eventually they find a shelter with a cave in it, the Quinzhee Chasm, with 8 sublevels that lead to a opening, with a snow-covered arena outside. Here they find yet another formidable creature, the Helmeted Iceweaver. Upon defeating it, the Beetle releases an ice-encased Louie, and the force of the Beetle’s fall ruptures the snow bank, partially revealing the KHA Lander buried underneath. The Pikmin dig it up, and it collects the Hocotate research pod, combining the strength of their receivers. The Lander suddenly starts picking up a fainted, fragmented signal from an area just beyond the Luxuriant Littoral, coming from the SOGNO! Strangely, the signal details that the SOGNO hasn’t contacted the planet’s surface yet. The explorers collect the hull of the Hocotate ship, giving the Lander 6000 metal units, and head for that area, the Canyon of Moonlight.

Immediately the area explains the gravitational oddities that caused their SOGNO and the Lander to fly off-course: the canyon contains several round moons floating just above the ground, connected to the ground by thick roots that resemble those on the Onions. Dormant Onions also rest on some of the moons; they are smaller than most Onions and cannot be activated. Most of the area’s terrain has been eroded by the gravity of the moons; the explorers and Pikmin must hunt down the probe’s signal by carrying items and battling enemies between moons. There is no metal in the area; every day spent there cannot be earned back. Eventually the explorers traverse the puzzling environment, switching between gravities and using the skills of all eight Pikmin types as well as their own teamwork. After the final bridge is completed, they discover the SOGNO, heavily damaged, orbiting a larger moon without a root. The moon’s gravity attracts them, and they attempt to reach the probe, but suddenly, four gigantic legs erupt from the surface of the moon. The Lunar Long Legs attacks! The climactic battle ensues between the Pikmin and the Lunar Long Legs, for the SOGNO still orbiting around it.

When the Lunar Long Legs is defeated, its head explodes, leaving only its disintegrating particles, a large metal shovel head it ingested, and the SOGNO, battered and barely functional. The Pikmin return both objects. Alph manually prints a data file from the probe’s brain, detailing all the information it gathered while it was in orbit. The SOGNO described that the Lunar Long Legs was camouflaged as a satellite to coexist with the other moons. Those moons are fledgling PNF-404s, young planets, that would one day separate from PNF-404 and become planets with life of their own. The Onions are composites of all types of life, and their roots connect all the life of PNF-404 in one big network. All of this falls on Captain Olimar, the one to first activate an Onion. Pikmin were the first step of Onion evolution: plant-animal creatures that could feed nutrients to the Onion. These moons are the last step of Onion evolution: young planets that will propagate not only the Pikmin species but all life on PNF-404. Olimar must have been the catalyst for the whole process; that is why the Onions followed Olimar wherever he went, but never left the planet to which they were tied. And so, he decides PNF-404 is not suitable for colonization; Hocotate and Koppai have tampered with Onions enough, and the resulting evolution of life-forms is far too dangerous to live with. Solemnly and sincerely, they say goodbye to the Pikmin and blast off in the KHA Lander using the metal the Lunar Long Legs dropped. The crew warps away, never to return to PNF-404 and its planetary sprouts.

Based on the amount of metal units brought back to Hocotate and Koppai, the player receives a rank.

Differences from current plot

 * The SOGNO, more like the SPEROs in Pikmin 3, is a probe, rather than a space rover. It is also the object of the plot, rather than Edward, and does not help or hurt the Pikmin directly in any way. This was changed to Edward before the story was released.
 * The story features Olimar, Alph, Brittany and Charlie as the four playable leaders and protagonists in the game. This was changed to Olimar, DELTA and Loucap before the story was released.
 * The KHA Lander does not collide with a cloud of Onions, and instead suffers an anomalous gravitational pull that crashes it into a tree. However it does become the first ship available during the game. This was changed so that it crashes, and Olimar arrives in a different ship that crashes. The Hocotate ship pod became the first available ship in the game before the story was released.
 * Area name changes:
 * "Glade of Sunlight" becomes "Glade of Daylight" becomes Daybreak Glade.
 * Scalding Thicket remains the same, although it was originally intended to be called the "Steaming Boscage".
 * "Luxuriant Littoral" becomes Luxuriant Lakeside.
 * Forbidding Precipice remains the same, but the "Quinzhee Chasm" becomes the Flurry Shelter.
 * See Canyon of Moonlight.
 * The "Gleaming Staff" becomes the Beacon Staff, and it is no longer necessarily the first metal object to be found.
 * All Pikmin have Onions in this version, including White, Purple, and Winged.
 * Louie is held by the Emperor Bulblax rather than DELTA, and the early story evidences that he and the Hocotate research pod still interacted with each other after they were both stranded, until eventually the pod left and travelled across the pond that would become the crater lake of Sunset Islet.
 * At the end of the first day in the Luxuriant Littoral, Louie tries to escape by piloting the KHA Lander, but crashes it into the Forbidding Precipice. The remaining crew take refuge in their master Onion which dematerializes underground and rematerializes in the Mycelial Burrow, making it a required cave with no time limit. This was immensely changed to have Louie become a playable character, and for the Mycelial Burrow to be a normal cave in which Mushroom Pikmin happen to be discovered. The ship functionality is never compromised, and the crew no longer takes refuge in an Onion at this night.
 * The Angling Rhizomander holds the Hocotate research pod instead of Loucap. Since the Hocotate pod becomes available at the beginning of the game, this change is obvious. But this moment in the story still marks the beginning of the search for Hocotate ship parts.
 * Although Lichen Pikmin are still discovered in whichever area the crew visits after discovering Blue Pikmin, it was for a time made so that Lichen Pikmin were not discovered until the Forbidding Precipice.
 * The "Helmeted Iceweaver" becomes the Helmeted Iceweavil.
 * The battle with the Helmeted Iceweaver still yields the KHA Lander, but in the final version such is the first time you see the KHA Lander, and it is not heavily damaged. Between this early version and the final version, the story had DELTA kidnapped by the Iceweavil, forcing Olimar and Loucap to work together to rescue her.
 * There is nothing that needs to be done between recovering the KHA Lander and heading for the final area. After this version, when DELTA was introduced, the story said she would suffer critical damage from being kidnapped by the Iceweavil, and would require 10000 metal units of repairs. The crew would not venture to the Canyon of Moonlight merely because Olimar did not think it safe to venture there without DELTA repaired. In the current version of the story, it is the KHA Lander's scanners that need repairs, equal to 2500 metal units, in order to locate Edward. In both cases of repair debts, the Hocotate ship was changed to be worth the entire amount of the debt, with a weight of 1000 (for 100 Purple Pikmin). In the current version, it then becomes a metal object called the Saluted Sourpuss.
 * For the changes to the final area and ending, see Canyon of Moonlight.

Canyon of Moonlight
The story's ending and final boss got the most revision of any facet of the game.

Original conception
In the earliest version of the game, the fifth and final area was called the "Canyon of Moonlight", contrasting with the Glade of Sunlight/Daylight. It was a relatively barren canyon-like area close to the summit of a mountain by the Luxuriant Littoral/Lakeside. The area would be populated with "Onion moons," round satellites with foliage, animals, and dormant Onions all over them. They were connected by roots to the ground, allowing leaders and Pikmin to traverse them to progress through the area. Eventually they would reach one large satellite with the SOGNO probe orbiting it (or, later on, holding Edward inside it). Climbing on it would reveal that it is not a satellite, but a tremendous creature called the Lunar Long Legs, which the team would battle for the SOGNO or Edward. After defeating the boss, either the SOGNO or Edward would reveal information about the true nature of Pikmin and Onions. Onions are composites of all life, and their final stage of evolution is to form these moons that grow like life-forms from a rooted connection with PNF-404. Eventually the moons would detach from PNF-404 and continue growing into new PNF-404s, to spread life and continue its evolution. Olimar would have realized he catalyzed this process when he first crash landed in , and that the Onions await him as a leader. This would be the realization that causes Olimar to opt against colonizing PNF-404, and the crew would leave using the metal from the final metal object, the Nucleic Vault, a metal shovel head (this would become the Immutable Tongue, which is not the final metal object). Before the story was released, it was added that a cloud of Onions would float high above the Canyon of Moonlight, protecting the area and awaiting a leader's return. When Edward and DELTA were introduced, they would collide with this cloud and plummet to PNF-404's surface, as would Olimar when he comes to rescue them. This ending had several problems that, even in a Pikmin universe, disrupted suspension of disbelief. Thus, Onion moons were removed from the story. The idea still remained that Onions were extremely intelligent, and had a deep connection to PNF-404. Eventually the idea became that Onions are fruits of which Pikmin are seeds, and the final area would be the tree that fruits Onions. In order to create a crash landing for the ships, the Onion cloud above the area would be kept. The area was changed from the summit of a mountain to the middle of a crater lake, and eventually into an island called the Sunset Islet. Edward would land in the lake and swim to this location, only to be captured by the final boss.
 * Onion moons could not exist physically: either their gravity would be too little to create spherical planetoids and attract Pikmin/leaders, or their gravity would be too strong not to cause serious damage to PNF-404. Considering that their gravity caused the KHA Lander to crash in the earliest version, their gravity was indeed far too strong to exist as they did.
 * Moons could not grow like organisms do, or at least not to such a tremendous size as a new PNF-404. It is also highly unlikely that life, including Onions, would survive if the moons left PNF-404. There would be no resources in space except occasional foreign collisions to accrete material on these moons.
 * Having Onions and Pikmin be completely dependent on alien bodies like Olimar would make them parasitic, and their life cycle makes little sense with regards to their natural selection. The mood of the ending was more spiritual than scientifically accountable, which was not the theme of the Pikmin series.

Lunar Long Legs
The Lunar Long Legs was the original final boss of Pikmin Forever, a planet-sized Arachnorb with its own gravity. It camouflaged as an Onion moon to capture prey, and it would have either captured the SOGNO probe in its orbit or ingested Edward. Before it was discarded as a boss, several phases were added to its boss battle (with Edward as the objective). First, the player would climb its legs and try to dig up its weak points to attack. When its health had been sufficiently reduced, a hole would appear into which the leaders and Pikmin would jump, entering essentially a cave in the Lunar Long Legs. The cave would feature several difficult enemies leading up to the final phase, a fight with the Arachnode-like core of the Lunar Long Legs, called the Arachlord. Defeating the Arachlord and escaping the cave would cause the whole creature to explode, leaving behind Edward and the Nucleic Vault/Immutable Tongue. This boss was also considered physically impossible, and its boss battle generally too confusing to suffice for a Pikmin game. It would be far too difficult to keep track of stray Pikmin in a complex gravitational environment such as this, for example. The Lunar Long Legs was removed from the Piklopedia as the Canyon of Moonlight became the Pikmin tree. Deciding a new final boss was based on what would occupy a tree and capture Edward. At first it was a vague Snavian creature, referred to as a "Snattle," then a multi-faceted fungal growth connected with the roots of the tree, called the "Bucephalous Mongret." Finally, as the final area became the Sunset Islet, the final boss was entirely changed to the SOGNO space rover, which would be sent before Edward and DELTA to begin terraforming the planet. After seeing the pernicious methods of terraforming, the Edward (who lands there by coincidence) decides to confront the SOGNO. He gets absorbed into the rover's internal chamber for analysis. Eventually after warding off several Onions trying to defend the Pikmin tree, the SOGNO grows hostile toward Pikmin, and thus attacks the other leaders when they arrive on the Islet.

Other changes
The game underwent other changes. They will all be listed here as the game is built.
 * In order to balance gameplay and decrease the daily demand for metal, the daily metal limit was decreased from 1000 to 250. Thus, the repairs that needed to be made on DELTA (eventually changed to the KHA Lander) changed from 10000 to 2500.
 * Several values related to metal objects and enemies were changed as the versions progressed. For example, the value of the Immutable Tongue was drastically reduced from 10000 to 250, since it is no longer the final metal object in the game. Another example: the Lunar Long Legs had its health increased from 10000 to 30000; this value stuck with the SOGNO.
 * The Auger Sprawn was originally called the "Chambered Sprawn."
 * The Man-at-Legs was originally going to be present as a boss in Pikmin Forever, but it was removed because it possesses similar features and attacks to the SOGNO.
 * The Piklopedia began with fewer family names: for instance, the Skeeterskate was in the Puckermouth family (early Ossolip family) with the Puckering Blinnow and Sputtlefish, and the Medusal Slurker was in the Goolix family. More family names were added to increase uniqueness of the enemies.