Pikmin is a game all about throwing the cute little Pikmin at enemies, objects, and obstacles, but what’s the fewest number of throws needed to actually beat the game? Turns out, it’s just three, but you’ll have to do some truly heinous things to the adorable critters to make it happen.
YouTuber Press A! has attempted this challenge before, completing the game in just 35 throws, so doing it in three is a staggering improvement. They break the game down into ship segments, detailing the minimum number of throws required to get each part back to the frame of Olimar’s rocket.
The main engine and eternal fuel dynamo require no throws at all, lovely stuff. Just walk up and grab them. In total, 12 out of 30 parts don’t need a single throw, but the other 18 require some form of throwing. How it’s done without Olimar himself doing the throws is where things get both interesting and disturbing.
The first part that used to require a throw and no longer does is the positron generator held within a clam out on the water. Before, you’d have to throw blue Pikmin onto it to hit the part out, but you can instead simply drown your red Pikmin and shove the survivors’ bodies up into the clam without a single throw.
The next parts are the extraordinary bolt and nova blaster. These need walls to be blown up and usually that requires yellow Pikmin being thrown while holding bomb rocks. Instead, you can simply leave some Pikmin in front of the walls as bait and run a Bulborb into them. While chomping down on the tasty Pikmin, the Bulborb activates the bomb rocks, blowing up itself, the Pikmin, and the wall. I did say this was disturbing.
“I love how anytime there’s a problem in Pikmin 1, the solution is 90% of the time ‘take a nap’ or ‘Multiple war crimes against the Pikmin species'”, writes wafwaf485.
You should watch the rest of the video for yourself, as the tricks get more and more interesting and it’s incredibly impressive seeing the game be beaten by bypassing its most core mechanic.
In the meantime, check out our list of the best Nintendo Switch games you can play right now.