Message #1092284

[Gargravarr]

Day 23
First of all I forgot to mention in the previous day's entry that the collection of the Sud Generator, Mirrored Stage and Behemoth Jaw (along with the Flame of Tomorrow, Impediment Scourge, Time Capsule and Lip Service collected on earlier days) has completed the Modern Amenities series, so I can now read The Ship's sales pitches for each of those items.

Anyway, back to today. The Landing Site was surrounded by Pellet Posies, including a "10" one on a ledge, that were ripe for picking, but since I had more than enough Pikmin I decided to leave them and harvest them if I had time near the end of the day. So instead I took out 80 Blues and 20 Purples and led them into the large circular area near the Landing Site which seems to be positioned on top of a manhole to kill the Dwarf Red Bulborb and sleeping adult Red Bulborb hanging around there, leaving their corpses/pellets again for the end of the day. I made my way beyond the Emergence Cave and, leaving Louie and the Purples behind, entered the pool which had prevented any further exploration and forced me to move on to the Awakening Wood all the way back in the first days of the adventure. On one side was a shortcut back to the Landing Site (connected to the ledge with the "10" Pellet Posie), and on the other was a wall that blocked another section of the pond and the entire rest of the overworld (I'd only explored about 1/3 of it at this point). I set the Blues to work on it and explored the surrounding area. A nearby snowdrift set the Treasure Gauge off so I sent Louie back to the Ship to put away 10 Purples and withdraw 10 Whites. He returned shortly after the Blues broke through, and I then had them attack the rock seal on the other side of the wall so the pond would drain away and enable the Whites to cross over to the snowdrift and start digging up the Spiny Alien Treat (50 pokos).
Meanwhile, I had Olimar take the Blues over to another, smaller pond right nearby that had a pair of Water Dumples in it, killed them and headed up the slope where I was confronted by two Fiery Blowhogs, a Cloaking Burrow-nit and a pair of new enemies called Decorated Cannon Beetle Larvae! These are essentially red versions of Armoured Cannon Beetle Larvae but are potentially more dangerous, as I'll explain in a minute. Luckily I was able to dodge the enemies (the Larvae were wandering around, BTW, not half-stuck in the ground) and work my way around to a bundle of sticks that could be built into a bridge allowing other Pikmin types to ascend to this area. Not just yet, though. Intead I had Olimar leave the Blues at the safe end of the bridge/slope and return to the enemy area alone. As I was saying, Decorated Cannon Beetle Larvae are potentially very dangerous as instead of just firing rocks in a straight line, they track and home in on captains (explained in the Piklopedia as being magnetically attracted to the metal in the captains' suits). This can be used to the player's advantage however, as not only is it easier to trick the Larvae into killing other enemies than it is with their Armoured cousins, and you can even make them accidentally kill themselves with their own rocks, so I wouldn't even have to worry about risking my Pikmin to take down the one remaining Larva. I think the word is "result".
By this point the final hours of the day were rapidly approaching so I had the Blues carry back the various corpses and pellets (including those from the Bulborbs earlier), but had Louie whistle them away once they entered the Landing Site. I then put away 60 Blues and took out some Yellows and Reds to take their place and simply swarmed all my Pikmin (including the Purples & Whites) over the big pile of dropped corpses/pellets. Once they were all collected I harvested the Pellet Posies and ended the day. No sprouts to pluck as I already had 100 Pikmin in the field.

Just one more day and a little over 200 pokos to go. Let's do this thing.

Day Summary
Treasure
Spiny Alien Treat (artichoke bud) - 50
Day Total: 50 pokos
Overall Total: 9,795/10,000 pokos

Pikmin
Red Pikmin
Sprouted: 38
Killed: 0
Day Total: 38
Overall Total: 349

Purple Pikmin
Sprouted: 0
Killed: 0
Day Total: 0
Overall Total: 37

White Pikmin
Sprouted: 0
Killed: 0
Day Total: 0
Overall Total: 47

Yellow Pikmin
Sprouted: 24
Killed: 0
Day Total: 24
Overall Total: 332

Blue Pikmin
Sprouted: 43
Killed: 0
Day Total: 43
Overall Total: 377

Total Pikmin: 1,142
Total Deaths: 80

Day 24
This is it. By the end of today I would have cleared the debt. As there were no enemies or hazards today (well, actually there was one but I'll come to that later) I could feel free to take out 20 of each Pikmin type and listen to them singing a portion of "Ai no Uta" from the first game as I went about my business. Or at least, that's what it's supposed to be, but I didn't hear much resemblance. Anyway, I went through the drained pond, up the new bridge onto the area where all the enemies had been yesterday, turned left and ended up in a place that's connected to the manhole area by a ledge. On one side of this area was a high ledge with my next treasure on it: the Fossilised Ursidae (160 pokos). Trouble is it was too high for even Yellows to reach, so I had to walk up a nearby small snowdrift and throw them up onto a small path that led to the treasure. The Yellows would automatically walk along it and start trying to lift the treasure, but unfortunately it required 25 Pikmin so I was 5 short. So I had Louie take 5 Reds and put them back in their Onion, withdraw 5 more Yellows and throw them up onto the ledge. Immediately after the treasure dropped off the ledge I called the Yellows back, threw 20 of them back onto the treasure and had 5 Blues take up the slack. Louie then escorted the treasure back to the Landing site where he swapped the 5 Yellows for Reds again. Meanwhile I had Olimar go back to the drained pond, where there's a small path over a big snowdrift that comes out on another ledge by the manhole area. I waited until the treasure had been collected and Louie had returned, not wanting any interruptions, dismissed the Pikmin except the Purples and advanced. About halfway along I was ambushed by the final enemy I would have to face in this half of the game. And the reason I chose the treasure this creature was guarding as the final one of my playthrough? Because I felt a fitting way to end the game would be to take on my nemesis one last time: the Burrowing Snagret.
There was much less room to manoeuvre here than in other Snagret fights, but I was still able to stay out of its reach until I was ready to strike. This time I wasn't at all short on Bitter Sprays (and I would have nothing else to use them on for a long time), so the moment it got stuck coming out of the ground I petrified it, hit my Purples with a Spicy Spray and completely pwned the bastard. I know a lot of better players will regard a Burrowing Snagret as being small potatoes and I've probably been going about killing them the wrong way throughout this playthrough, but I don't care. I've hated this species of enemy for a long time so any victory is one I shall celebrate. Anyway, being petrified it left no remains, but it gave out two "5" pellets, four blobs of nectar and a free Spicy Spray. I set the Yellows to carry the pellets to their Onion while the Whites dug up the buried Pink Menace treasure (100 pokos) that had been under the Snagret's territory.
And that was it. As soon as the Pink Menace was picked up by The Ship I got the "You've repaid the entire debt!" fanfare and was sent straight into the ending cutscene. The Ship blasts off back to Hocotate, but upon looking back at the planet just before entering hyperspace, Olimar discovers that Louie isn't in his cockpit! He's been left behind! Whoops... Still, at least that means we get treated to a nice video of Louie exploring real-world nature environments accompanying the credits.



Day Summary
Treasure
Fossilised Ursidae (wood carving of a bear) - 160
Pink Menace (gold ring with pink heart) - 100
Day Total: 260 pokos
Overall Total: 10,055/10,000 pokos

Pikmin
Red Pikmin
Sprouted: 0
Killed: 0
Day Total: 0
Overall Total: 349

Purple Pikmin
Sprouted: 0
Killed: 0
Day Total: 0
Overall Total: 37

White Pikmin
Sprouted: 0
Killed: 0
Day Total: 0
Overall Total: 47

Yellow Pikmin
Sprouted: 8
Killed: 0
Day Total: 8
Overall Total: 340

Blue Pikmin
Sprouted: 0
Killed: 0
Day Total: 0
Overall Total: 377

Total Pikmin: 1,150
Total Deaths: 80

End of Game Data
Total Days: 24
Total Pikmin Killed By...

• Battle - 73
• Sunset - 3
• Fire - 0
• Water - 0
• Electricity - 1
• Explosion - 3
• Poison - 0

Total Pikmin Sprouted: 1,215

• Total Reds - 347 (plus 5 found)
• Total Purples - 65
• Total Whites - 50
• Total Yellows - 351 (plus 5 found)
• Total Blues - 402 (plus 5 found)

Total Play Time: 18 hours, 21 minutes (don't know how much was paused or in treasure/enemy guides)
Treasures Collected: 99/201
Species Seen: 65/81

So that's that. I do plan to play through the rest of the game at some point, but I don't know when or if I will document it. For now I'm just pleased that I finally had the guts to properly beat this game after 9 years.