Hey! Pikmin Gets Very Existential About Your amiibo – Hey! Pikmin amiibo Guide

Hey! Pikmin is the latest game to feature amiibo support, and it’s surprisingly substantial given that it hasn’t been a major selling point of the game. There’s a few key amiibo that offer more in-depth functions (like the Captain Olimar amiibo and the upcoming Pikmin amiibo, as you’d expect) but you can also scan any amiibo you have in order to get some more minor bonuses.

Collectible Statues

Aside from the normal levels that you’ll see on the world map, there’ll also be Secret Spots that will appear in each Sector. While some can be accessed through normal gameplay, others will need amiibo in order to be unlocked. Scanning one of the compatible amiibo listed further down the page will not only open up these secret spots, but also drop in the amiibo figure as a collectible item. Collecting the amiibo in-game will reward you with Sparklium which is the fuel that Olimar’s ship, the SS Dolphin II, requires to get Olimar back to safety.

Normally Secret Spots contain pellets to gather up extra amiibo for the Pikmin Park side mode, but once an amiibo figure is displayed on the map they become your goal instead.Secret Spots that aren’t explicitly set aside for amiibo (such as Secret Spot 6) can also function with the amiibo.

As you can see in the video below, Secret Spots are small puzzle-like sections that require Olimar & his Pikmin to gather the treasure. amiibo figures contain 200 Sparklium, and it is possible to grind the same Secret Spots to scan in all 42 compatible amiibo – especially seeing as there’s no daily limit to scanning. This will gather you a total of 8400 Sparklium, which isn’t enough to beat the game solely with amiibo, as the game’s goal is to gather up 30,000 Sparklium to fully repair your ship.

Part of the charm of the Pikmin series is the names & descriptions of everyday items Olimar gathers up. Hey! Pikmin is compatible with real, colourful statues that hold a lot of sentimental value, so when they show up in the game the writing has some pretty interesting takes on them. My personal favourite is the Business Pet Statue. You can find a list of all 42 compatible amiibo below, as well as the unique descriptions and names that the game assigns to them. Scanning in any other amiibo that’s not listed here will give you 10 Sparklium once a day.

Super Mario Brothers Series

Smash Bros. variants of these characters are not compatible, they must be from the Super Mario series

Mario

Gold Mario

Silver Mario

Luigi

Peach

Yoshi

Rosalina

Bowser

Wario

Donkey Kong

Diddy Kong

Toad

Daisy

Waluigi

Boo

Animal Crossing Series

These must be the figures, amiibo cards of these characters will not work

K.K.

Isabelle (Summer Outfit)

Isabelle (Winter Outfit)

Tom Nook

Timmy & Tommy

Mabel

Reese

Cyrus

Digby

Rover

Resetti

Blathers

Celeste

Kicks

Kapp’n

Lottie

Splatoon Series

These must be the Splatoon 1 amiibo, not the newly released Splatoon 2 Inkling amiibo

Orange Inkling Girl

Green Inkling Girl

Blue Inkling Boy

Purple Inkling Boy

Green Squid

Orange Squid

Callie

Marie

Others

Captain Olimar

Pikmin

Summoning Pikmin

While not only being used as an Oversized Replica, the Olimar amiibo (and the Pikmin amiibo!) can be used in levels to call for extra Pikmin when needed.

While Pikmin are normally found hiding in bushes, Olimar can use temporal portals to summon extra Pikmin via amiibo. The Olimar amiibo from the Smash Bros. line can gather you up a maximum of 4 Pikmin allies. Each level has a maximum of 20 Pikmin to find, and some treasures will need many Pikmin to get to, so if you lost a few in battle it’s handy to not have to restart the entire level over. If you have 17 or more Pikmin however, the amiibo will summon only just enough to not go over the 20 Pikmin cap.

The Pikmin amiibo works the same way, but can be leveled up to summon in more Pikmin at a time using the Pikmin Park side mode. When the Pikmin aren’t helping Olimar traverse through each level to gather up Sparklium, they are put to work in Pikmin Park, a safe haven away from monsters. Naturally, Pikmin are never really free to relax, so they are helping out Olimar by exploring the area to find any more Sparklium!

At its base level, the Pikmin amiibo will summon 4 Pikmin in a level just like Olimar’s amiibo does. Having 100 Pikmin in the park ups this to 8, 200 to 12, 300 to 16 and 500 to 20. 20 is the maximum amount of Pikmin you can have following you in a level, so that’s quite a bonus to have. Normally this amiibo can only be tapped once per level, but once you’ve maxed it out by getting 1,000 Pikmin in your park you can tap it as many times as you want during a level to ensure you have the maximum number of Pikmin following you at all times.

You can add more Pikmin to your Pikmin Park by completing levels in the game with Pikmin left alive. All the surviving Pikmin will travel over to Pikmin Park for a nice vacation/work trip. If you complete a Secret Spot level that doesn’t have an amiibo in it you’ll get pellets as a reward instead of an amiibo statue, which translates to 8 new Pikmin friends in your Pikmin Park. If you’re feeling a bit… morally dubious, then there’s another easy way to fill your park – start a level, scan your Olimar or Pikmin amiibo, and then quit the level. Those Pikmin you summoned will be added to your park and you can do it over and over again.

Hey! Pikmin launches on July 29th for the 3DS family of systems, alongside the Pikmin amiibo.