Exploration Day 1: Rescue the Rescue Corps

Welcome to IGN's Pikmin 4 Wiki Guide! This step-by-step walkthrough will take you through each day to 100% completion. On this page, you can find information on how to complete the first Emergency Mission: Rescue the Rescue Corps including details on finding crucial Treasures, missing crew members, and more.

Rescues, Treasures, and Sublevel Caves: Day 1

Below is a quick summary of all the treasures and rescues you'll be able to find on this day. Click on the links in the table below to jump to the relevant section of the Walkthrough.

Create your ID Badge and Deploy

After wrapping up the Prologue, the rescue of the Rescue Corps falls into your hands. But before you can head out on your first assignment, you'll need to create your ID Badge, giving you the chance to create your character.

When you're all set, the game will begin, and you'll be deployed to save Olimar and the Rescue Corps.

Search for the Missing Rescue Officers

Head forward towards the mound of dirt and the little yellow pup that sits just before it. This is Oatchi, and as soon as you approach him, he'll join you.

Found Oatchi

With the Rescue Pup in tow, you'll now be able to use Oatchi to perform tasks for you. He'll run over to the knocked-down plant, trying to tell you something. Whistle to take control of Oatchi by pressing B, then press A to send him towards it.

He'll slowly pull the plant away, revealing one of the Rescue Officers behind. Approach the Rescue Officer once the dirt has been removed to meet the Communications Officer, Collin.

Found Collin

After finding out more information on the missing officers from Collin, he'll hand you a Tablet. This is where you'll be able to check your missions, as well as your Radar Map, ID Badges, and History and Stats for now. But you'll be able to do much more with the Tablet once more apps are installed later on.

Once you have your tablet and you've spoken to Collin, continue along the path. Go all the way to the end, to see some flowers and a hole in the ground. Unfortunately, you can't reach it because there's a ledge blocking the pathway.

Turn around and you'll see a mound of dirt covering another hole in the ground. Send Oatchi over to dig the dirt up and reveal an entrance to the cave below. Jump down and enter the Burrow of Beginnings.

Burrow of Beginnings

Go forward and take the slope up to the left. If you go right, you'll just reach a dead end so you can ignore it. At the top of the slope, you'll come to a section with broken pots and someone hiding up the top of a pole, with creatures circling below.

Walk over to find out that it's Captain Shepherd hiding above the creatures. Send Oatchi over to wipe out the circling creatures and rescue Captain Shepherd.

Found Captain Shepherd

After a discussion with the Captain, get Oatchi to rush and break the pots to reveal a path you can follow towards the exit of the Burrow of Beginnings. Interact with the grate on the floor and a gust of wind will carry you up and out of the burrow, towards the S.S. Shepherd. That's all you need to do to get 100% on this sublevel, so a flag will be planted to mark it as done.

Go Over to the S.S. Shepherd

As you approach the ship, the Captain will note that smoke is pouring from it. The engine has unfortunately overheated, and you'll need to repair it. What's more, its energy has completely run out, so you'll need to find Sparklium to convert it into energy. Sparklium can be extracted from Treasure, so it's time to go hunting!

Main Mission: Secury Energy Source - Find 300 Sparklium

This will unlock the main mission: Secure Energy Source, where you'll be tasked with finding 300 Sparklium. The S.S. Beagle will be brought over, where Treasure can be deposited and transferred into energy. It will land at the two pink stone circles, which will be used to indicate where you can place a base throughout the game.

Go north as you take control of your character, and head towards the sparkling object in the mound of dirt. Send Oatchi over to extract it, and he'll also drag the item toward the S.S. Beagle. This fork in the ground is the Noble Bident and will be transformed into 50 Sparklium.

Noble Bident

Now turn west and look for the sparkling object on top of the blue pot. Use Oatchi's Rush to hit the blue pot and knock down the sparkling object.

If you try to send Oatchi over to pick up the Game Boy Advanced, he won't be able to move it by himself. So Whistle and call him back, and we'll head off to find another object, before returning to this one.

Look just to the left of the Game Boy, and you'll see a flower in a mound of dirt, with its white petals moving. Go over to this and use Oatchi to dig it up. He'll drag it over to the S.S. Beagle, where you'll learn this is an Onion, where Pikmin will spawn.

Go over to the sprout and pluck it from the ground to get your very first Red Pikmin. The flowers in the area will now bloom, showing red discs with numbers on them.

The red discs are Pellets. Bringing them to the Onion will create more Pikmin. You can now use Oatchi and the Red Pikmin to attack the plants in the surrounding area, feeding the onion all of the pellets and spawning more Pikmin.

You need 10 Pikmin to pick up the Gameboy and drag it over to the S.S. Beagle, so run around and collect as many pellets as you can and pluck all the Pikmin from the ground. Once you have 10, set them onto the object and drag it over. This Gameboy Advanced is actually the Stone of Advancement and will give you 150 Sparklium.

Stone of Advancement

Once you've got this treasure, you'll have 200 out of 300 Sparklium and there's just one more to collect. The final treasure can be found behind the ship, in the east. Use L or R to select your Pikmin instead of Oatchi and throw 5 at the shiny object to drag it back to the Beagle.

This shiny bell, or Path Creator as it's known in the game, will give you the last 100 Sparklium you need to get the ship back online.

Path Creator

With the energy source delivered, the S.S. Shepherd can be booted up but it won't be able to fly anywhere. It can at least pick up signals of the lost crew members, helping progress the rescue mission.

The S.S. Shepherd is Running!

Once the S.S. Shepherd is back up and running, Exploration Day 1 will draw to a close and you'll receive your results. There will also be some mission updates. Secure Energy Source will change from collecting 300 Sparklium to asking you to obtain 1500 Sparklium. And after a night of rest, you'll also unlock the main mission Rescue Olimar and begin Exploration Day 2.