"Ghost Pikmin" Glitch - Olimar can't throw Pkmin

[-Philip Coast Philip-]

Video:

Yeah this is what happened to me. I recorded it for those who want to see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXgBVg2Lunk

***

As you can see in the video, Olimar can't do any attacks that require Pikmin to do, save for his Up+B. He has a "Ghost Pikmin." That means Olimar:

Can't pull more than 5 Pikmin out at a time. The Ghost Pikmin takes up the spot of a real Pikmin, but can't be used like a normal Pikmin.
Can't do any aerials.
Can't throw any Pikmin.
Can't grab
Can't Fsmash, Usmash, or Dsmash (only one pikmin comes out on the dsmash, and it goes forward).


^^^For all of those, Olimar does the animation for the attack, but he's not able to grab/throw the pikmin, even if they are right next to him.
^^^

Sensai's post detailing things:

Going to bump this so that it can come back to the top...I just had another encounter with this and we were able to look at it in detail.

Like you said, you lose a Pikmin and are unable to pull one back out, so you're stuck with the 5 Pikmin. What we didn't notice, or I didn't and I don't think anyone else did either, was that there's an actual spot in the line for him. Jeah, that's right. You have a spot in line reserved for the Ghost Pikmin.

So, like in any Pikmin line, when the Ghost Pikmin comes to the front of the line, it's his turn....which is why you can't throw or smash correctly, 'cause you're 'throwing' the Ghost Pikmin.

I was right, kind of; a whistle will fix it by bringing the next Pikmin to the front.

It seems that the Ghost Pikmin DOES retain a color and isn't put in the line randomly. Mine was between blue and yellow.

I was Olimar, duh, playing against a Lucario, on PS2 and then Lylat, which is where I tested it.

Let's figure this out guys.

Alright guys...let's figure out what causes it.

[Edit:]

It's not always a yellow Pikmin. I had it be a purple one a few matches ago. It is INCREDIBLY annoying to have, because everytime you come around to that color, you have to whistle (sometimes a few times) or you really can't do anything.

I have yet to find a way out of it...

So basically, you can still recall them still, and what that does is re-order the Pikmin so that the Ghost Pikmin is not first in line - Olimar is unable to attack and whatnot only when the GP is first in line, so recall your Pikmin to reorder them if you have a GP. This also means that the GP can have different colors, so it's not always the same color, nor it is colorless.

So how do you get rid of a Ghost Pikmin?

1. Die. When you die, everything will be reset. This is the only way we know so far.
2. Someone posted this interesting idea of getting GP:

Yeah, this is honestly annoying, but it never happened to me while I was playing seriously. I've actually figured an easy way to get "Ghost Pikmen." Simply use the Pikmen chain off the ledge, grab it, pull yourself up to the ledge, fall off, and repeat. Eventually a few of your Pikmen will just disappear, and your ^ B will be gimped. If you time it right you can get back on the stage and your other Pikmen will be non-existent. However, try SDing off the stage and all of a sudden they will all appear near the ledge they disappeared in the dieing animation, and die.

Perhaps the same method could be used to get rid of them as well?


Factors/possible variables:

Not stage-specific
Not item-specific
Not character-specific
Not percentage-specific

 

[wa-kingdom]

maybe your game dosent like you...thats my only explination

 

[Kashakunaki]

How odd... and how happy I will be if Wolf's reflector causes this odd effect, for I will never have to worry about fighting the gayness of Olimar.

 

[Awex]

This happened to me once as well..

 

[-Philip Coast Philip-]

This happened to me once as well..

Sweet. Remember any details about when it happened? Just looking for some information...

 

[Awex]

I really don't. I was just in the middle of a game, and suddenly I couldn't grab a pikmin. It was teams, so it was pretty frantic. Couldn't say what triggered it.

 

[perezo]

yeah

That happened to me too, but i was on port town aero and there was a huge gap in my line, i think its that your pikmin died but it didn't count it, but it resets after you die.

 

[LavisFiend]

It happened to me.

Then I realized I wasn't pressing the joystick hard enough.

 

[-Philip Coast Philip-]

That happened to me too, but i was on port town aero and there was a huge gap in my line, i think its that your pikmin died but it didn't count it, but it resets after you die.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking.

It happened to me.

Then I realized I wasn't pressing the joystick hard enough.

Nah, Olimar was actually doing the throwing animations, but he just was incapable of throwing the pikmin.

Anyway, I was just throwing this out there as a possible glitch/thing to watch out for while playing Olimar. If we can pinpoint how this works, there could be possible uses for it, or just, things to look out for in the future. If anything, you could use it against Olimar players... though that would be... uh... really.... bad... O_o

 

[Sensai]

This happens frequently to me, and not just against Wolf.

The way to fix it, or the way I fixed it, was to use the whistle.

 

[Sensai]

Going to bump this so that it can come back to the top...I just had another encounter with this and we were able to look at it in detail.

Like you said, you lose a Pikmin and are unable to pull one back out, so you're stuck with the 5 Pikmin. What we didn't notice, or I didn't and I don't think anyone else did either, was that there's an actual spot in the line for him. Jeah, that's right. You have a spot in line reserved for the Ghost Pikmin.

So, like in any Pikmin line, when the Ghost Pikmin comes to the front of the line, it's his turn....which is why you can't throw or smash correctly, 'cause you're 'throwing' the Ghost Pikmin.

I was right, kind of; a whistle will fix it by bringing the next Pikmin to the front.

It seems that the Ghost Pikmin DOES retain a color and isn't put in the line randomly. Mine was between blue and yellow.

I was Olimar, duh, playing against a Lucario, on PS2 and then Lylat, which is where I tested it.

Let's figure this out guys.

Alright guys...let's figure out what causes it.

[Edit:]

It's not always a yellow Pikmin. I had it be a purple one a few matches ago. It is INCREDIBLY annoying to have, because everytime you come around to that color, you have to whistle (sometimes a few times) or you really can't do anything.

I have yet to find a way out of it...

 

[Crossfiyah]

This happened to me against Pit on Bridge of Eldin. Even a Whistle couldn't fix it. The Pikmin just stood in one place on the level, didn't follow, and I couldn't do any Pikmin-related attacks. Only thing that could fix it was me self-destructing.

 

[keeper]

I have a slight glitch to mention, though it isn't a big deal.

I was playing SSE yesterday and I threw a white pikmin and it hit some of those destroyable blocks and instead of returning, it just stayed there spinning and only came back once it would have been technically the next pikmin to use. It was mostly just funny.

 

[Florida]

This actually happened to me while I was in an online tourney. The way to fix it is to just use your whistle multiple times, if you have to. Just keep on using the whistle and eventually the pikmin should start following orders again.

Also, so every one is clear on this and so no one creates a thread about it: if you use the pikmin chain more than three times to grab the edge without touching ground in between then your fourth attempt will fail, no matter how close you are to the ledge. Grab the ledge, get on ground, be safe.

 

[Fiz]

it happened to me once so I filmed it... I will ask I.T.P to upload it

 

[-Philip Coast Philip-]

Going to bump this so that it can come back to the top...I just had another encounter with this and we were able to look at it in detail.

Like you said, you lose a Pikmin and are unable to pull one back out, so you're stuck with the 5 Pikmin. What we didn't notice, or I didn't and I don't think anyone else did either, was that there's an actual spot in the line for him. Jeah, that's right. You have a spot in line reserved for the Ghost Pikmin.

So, like in any Pikmin line, when the Ghost Pikmin comes to the front of the line, it's his turn....which is why you can't throw or smash correctly, 'cause you're 'throwing' the Ghost Pikmin.

I was right, kind of; a whistle will fix it by bringing the next Pikmin to the front.

It seems that the Ghost Pikmin DOES retain a color and isn't put in the line randomly. Mine was between blue and yellow.

I was Olimar, duh, playing against a Lucario, on PS2 and then Lylat, which is where I tested it.

Let's figure this out guys.

Alright guys...let's figure out what causes it.

[Edit:]

It's not always a yellow Pikmin. I had it be a purple one a few matches ago. It is INCREDIBLY annoying to have, because everytime you come around to that color, you have to whistle (sometimes a few times) or you really can't do anything.

I have yet to find a way out of it...

Cool, thanks for that. I'll add it into the first post.

It seems like this guy had the same problem.

Also, I'm going to test to see if this 'glitch' causes the same situation. That is, once the pikmin vanishes... does it become a 'ghost pikmin?'

 

[Snake King 1]

How odd... and how happy I will be if Wolf's reflector causes this odd effect, for I will never have to worry about fighting the gayness of Olimar.

never say that about the good captain, how dare you?

btw, how would you lose a pikmin if you don't throw it in the beginning? does it just happen every so often when you attack with one? or does the environments sometimes cause this. this seems like an annoying glitch(

 

[Mitsuko]

That's very... odd, i'll look into that

 

[UobteX]

Yeah this is what happened to me. I recorded it for those who want to see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXgBVg2Lunk

 

[chumlord]

just here to say it happend to me as well.....i was on a custom stage playing snake and sheik.... olimar just wouldnt throw his pikmin and i couldnt pull any out even though i only had 4....