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Pikmin 4: how long does it take to beat the main story and postgame

Giovanni Colantonio
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If you’re new to the Pikmin series, Pikmin 4 is a perfect starting point. Nintendo’s latest Switch exclusive is a total reinvention of its winning formula, one that streamlines a once complicated game into something more relaxing. With that change, you might be worried that the experience is much shorter as a result. Thankfully, that’s not the case at all.

Pikmin 4 is the most robust package in the series’ history, complete with a sizable main campaign and meaningful postgame content that doubles the amount of time you can spend with it. That’s not to mention a wealth of sidequests to complete and upgrades to buy along the way. If you’re looking to carve out enough time to see it all, here’s a breakdown of how long it’ll take you to get through Pikmin 4.

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How long is Pikmin 4?

An astronaut summons red Pikmin in Pikmin 4.
Nintendo

If you’re simply looking to play Pikmin 4 up to its end credits, your final play time could vary wildly. The main scenario’s basic structure has you exploring an area until you gain enough treasure to unlock the next one. Because of that, you can zip straight to the end pretty quickly if you leave each map as soon as the next one becomes available.

In our playthrough, we completed the main story at 15 hours. That’s how long it took us to reach 100% completion in all four of its main areas, collecting every single treasure and clearing each dungeon. The only thing we didn’t do in that time is finish every single possible sidequest. If you’re not planning to do that, you can expect something more in the eight-hour range, bringing it in line with the average among mainline Pikmin games.

How long is Pikmin 4’s postgame content?

Pikmin run from a giant spider in Pikmin 4.
Nintendo

Once you’ve finished the main story, you actually have a lot more to do. After the credits roll, you’ll unlock a second story scenario that directly picks up where the main one ended. Considering that it ties up several loose ends, it’s more a continuation of the narrative than it is a side story. You should plan on playing through it.

So how long will that take you? It’s a surprisingly sizable campaign that introduces two extra areas and some of the game’s largest dungeons. If you’re looking to 100% it, it’ll add another 10 hours onto your playing time (halve that if you’re only trying to hit its ending).

That’s not all, though. There’s an extra mode that remixes the main campaign, a list of sidequests to complete, gear and upgrades to unlock, and collections to finish. If you’re looking to complete the game at 100%, you’ll spend at least 30 hours finishing every last task. That makes it the longest Pikmin game to date, though it’s about on par with Pikmin 3.

If you want to see it all before the barrage of holiday releases begins, you’ll want to practice some good Dandori and spend your time in it efficiently.

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Giovanni Colantonio
Giovanni Colantonio
Section Editor, Gaming
Giovanni is a writer and video producer focusing on happenings in the video game industry. He has contributed stories to…
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