Cave

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A cave, from the surface. Holes to go down to the next sublevel look the same.

The screen that appears before you enter a cave.

Caves are places in Pikmin 2 that offer a slightly different play style than normal gameplay. Each level in Pikmin 2 has 3 or 4 caves, and each cave has several sublevels, ranging from just 2 to up to 15! Caves appear as large, raised holes in the ground, with warm, steamy air rising out of their mouths. To enter one, walk up to one and press the A button. You will be brought to a small info screen that shows how many treasures you have retrieved from the cave, how many there are total, and how many Pikmin you are bringing with you. There are also four danger icons, indicating the 4 Hazards of fire, water, electricity, and poison. It is always a good idea to bring pikmin that have resistances to the hazards that are indicated to appear in a cave, or else you may find yourself not being able to advance or collect all of the treasure.

Once you have collected all of the treasure that you can, move on to the next sublevel by entering another hole. Some sublevels also have geysers, or jets of water that you and your pikmin can ride on to return to the surface with all of your treasure. Alternatively, you can choose to escape to the surface via the pause menu, but you will lose any treasure you have collected. Most caves also have a Boss on the final sublevel, and the treasure you earn for defeating it is often a practical item from the Explorer's Friend Series.

[edit] Challenge Mode

The Challenge Mode in Pikmin 2 is made up entirely of caves. These caves usually have a very small number of sublevels compared to the caves in normal gameplay, with most of them only being 1 or 2 sublevels deep! The sublevels are, of course, very challenging and full of treasure though. To make the hole to the next sublevel or exit geyser appear, The Key must be found. This is tough though, because it is often found inside the bellies of fearsome beasts.