Pikmin

GameFAQs archives

These are the full, expanded threads from the preserved GameFAQs threads. I had to exercise some wicked Perl voodoo to extract the actual text, bad HTML and all, from the archives provided by RockMFR 5 (and DistantSpring54), and patch up the code so it's valid. We couldn't preserve the links to the author name or message detail because they don't seem to work anymore.

Archive: [1] · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5

Posted by yoshifan18 - 1/1/2002 12:09:50 AM

A bad 120 on The Impact Site, third try...

Snap, you're always saying that you aren't trying for high scores seriously...yet you're always maxing everything out. I think you ARE pretty hardcore ;)

Still, Snap = God of Videogames

Posted by yoshifan18 - 1/1/2002 1:03:29 PM

Forest of Hope - approx. 230 (first try...)
Forest Navel - 198

Posted by rpgs kick - 1/1/2002 1:43:13 PM

I had two messages just up if anybody read them please do not get mad at my I completely forgot to add pearls. If anybody could tell me the number of pearls in that challange I would be truely grateful.
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I find it fun to beat little things over the head with a hammer... So thats what I did to my friend's xbox.

Posted by yoshifan18 - 1/2/2002 10:53:37 PM

Impact Site - 185
Forest of Hope - 301

Posted by SnapDragon - 1/6/2002 12:25:01 AM

I just finished capturing my 5 videos. Instead of my usual DivX, I used WMV 7 and the quality turned out great. They're smooth, and fairly close to TV quality.

Impact Site 238 is 59 MB.
Forest of Hope 438 is 103 MB.
Forest Navel 314 is 88 MB.
Distant Spring 380 is 102 MB.
Final Trial 290 is 73 MB.

I'm still waiting on a couple of leads on movie sites to store them. If anyone has or knows of a place for me to put these online, PLEASE let me know! :)

Incidentally, watching my Impact Site again made me realize it's still a bit sloppy. I'm beginning to think getting all the pellets in the level is possible. Maybe I'll give it a shot.

Posted by Nathan Ian Bowers - 1/6/2002 12:41:37 AM

My friend Dave (GameFaq handle JimiThingR) have been engaged in hardcore competition on the Impact Site for a week now (I bought Pikmin exactly one week ago). Our top five looks like this:
1. 241 (Me)
2. 238 (Dave)
3. 238 (Dave)
4. 232 (Me)
5. 226 (Dave)

If you don't believe me, you will soon as I will be putting a screen shot on my website as soon as I can. Who run it? DAVE RUN IT!

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Nathan Ian Bowers is a freelance writer for your mom. He lives among the llamas and enjoys any sporting competition that involves watermelons.

Posted by Nathan Ian Bowers - 1/6/2002 12:47:25 AM

There is a nasty little typo in the first line of my above post and I wish to sincerely apologize for it - being that I'm an English major and all.

Posted by Jimithingr - 1/6/2002 12:58:25 AM

Yeah the funny thing is, we haven't even felt the need to play the other levels yet, that first one takes so much systematic thinking, its ludicrous to even go on till you master each one. You have to be able to, and we are getting closer with every game. This is the most innovative game Ninetendo has come out in a while. Lets hope that they keep this quality. In one week our average is 235. We'll keep you posted.

Its called and Art, and if you don't get the Art, then you ain't no good.

Posted by Vincents - 1/6/2002 3:11:57 AM

Im new to pikmin and this is my first try ever

Impact site: 117 Good for a beginner, first try?
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Wind master

Posted by winklefield13 - 1/6/2002 3:58:26 AM

Any one else here think that snap Dragon doesn't have a life...
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"I don't feel so good, I guess I shouldn't have eaten that packet of powdered gravy I found in the parking lot." Homer Simpson

Posted by mecha shadow - 1/6/2002 8:07:40 AM

Mine are (sadly):

Impact Site: 102

Thats all, I'm working on Distant Spring now.
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Sonikku's original moves from Japan.
Sonic Wave Diamond Cutter Sonic Warper...

Posted by TomatoMan - 1/6/2002 10:42:50 AM

Impact site!

I haven't even played the others, really... I'm so focused on the impact site right now. My best is still 188; I'm trying to imagine how on earth I could harvest 50 more to be in the range of the best reliably-reported scores.

This is roughly what I do (comments welcome!):

First, pull up two red pikmins and leave the others in the ground while I go get the breadbug. I used to have two yellows do the drag-it-to-the-ship thing twice until I learned that chucking one at him hurts him enough that the first drag-to-the-ship thing can kill him. So bonk him, then throw two reds at him to wrestle him and his red pill back to the red onion. Get the reward later.

Pull up the blues and chuck them at the blue 1s near the onion.

Pull up the yellows and get the breadbug with two of them and a red one; grab the other yellow 1 near the red onion with the other.

Then get the three 5s near the yellow onion, get the flowers near each onion, collect all the 1s in the immediate area, and move the box.

I've tried various strategies for the 10s, including skipping them altogether (which obviously isn't an option for a high score). Sometimes I grow 30 yellows as fast as possible and throw them up from the side and bring them all down at once, but there's so much management involved in having groups of reds and blues ready to get them once they're down and moving the yellows, and sometimes a group carrying a 10 will run into a bigger group, which gets absorbed and changes the 10's destination. I've also tried standing near the jet and flinging up 10-12 of each color, and jumping quickly on the jet and waking them up before they slide down too far, but this has always seemed problematic - although it seems a better solution because they'll find their own ways to the onions without further maintenance.

Then go get the red 20; bring a mixed crowd to take the flowers down which are sometimes in the way. If enough yellows are ready, bring them along and fling them up on the ramp so they'll be out of the way of the reds bringing the 20 back. If it's all going smoothly so far, get the yellows working on their 20 and run back.

Grab blues and whatever stragglers are around, including at least two yellows; avoid the red 20 still working its way back, and sleep them all by the ramp; grab some yellows and go for bombs; run up to the gate, usually going back for pikmins that have fallen off the box while following me the first time. Blow up the wall, send the blues after the blue 20, and clean up whatever you can with the leftovers. I never have enough pikmins or time to grab everything.

If I manage to squeeze all this out, I wind up in the 180 range, although it's rare that I get all three 10s and all three 20s. And things that never get touched if I do all these things: the red cluster behind the flame jet near the landing site, and the area on the left side with the multicolored flowers and the big ramp; the area way back behind the blue 20 with its flowers, and the yellow 5 on the island; there are always 1s left in the middle area by the yellow 20.

I really wish there were a way to turn the time limit off, and have a mode where you have all the time you need, and the goal is to see how fast you can do a perfect score, rather than how much you can gather in a set time.

Comments? I'm especially wondering how people handle the 10s, and how many trips to the center area by the yellow 20 are possible; is there time for two? Can you do all the 20s in one trip?

Posted by yoshifan18 - 1/6/2002 1:46:39 PM

In the Impact Site, one time I got all the 20s, but I was so excited that I didn't think of going for the 10s while the blue 20 pellet was being carried back. Around 200 will probably be my limit...

To get the 10s, since there is no stick for the Pikmin to climb up, you have to use all yellow Pikmin to carry the pellets down, since they can be thrown farther. Throw 30 yellow Pikmin up there, then use the geyser to get up there yourself. Command your Pikmin to carry all the stuff. When they carry the blue or red pellet down, call them back and let some Pikmin of the corresponding color take over.

Posted by The Champ - 1/6/2002 3:31:48 PM

Can anyone beat my 253 score on impact? I am trying to keep up with those other scores but the other levels actually have enemies which makes a little more difficult.
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If i could be any chess piece . . . I think I'd be the cow.

Posted by SnapDragon - 1/6/2002 6:57:31 PM

Yeah, even Impact Site is tons of fun to play in Challenge Mode. I'm a little skeptical that you have 253, Champ, but as a matter of fact, I HAVE just beaten it.

Impact Site - 256!

That's right! I think I only missed one or possibly two pellets in the level! (not counting the Beetle's) And here I thought my 238 was near-maxed. :) Sadly, the VCR was in use, so this run is NOT on tape. I may get another 250+ run on tape sometime, though.

To get the tens, I usually throw about 20 Yellows and 10 Blues and Reds up to them as quickly as possible. That usually gives me 30-35 Pikmin by the time I get up there. Then I just have to be careful to set the proper proportions to each pellet so they'll go to the right Onions.

And I only take one trip past the matchbox, with 100 flower Pikmin, roughly evenly distributed (weighted slightly towards blues). That's sufficient to grab almost everything, though I may not have exactly the right colours carrying pellets. And I never really have time for sorting, so it's a bit problematic. Oh well. I could perhaps refine my strategy a bit more to get a few final points.

Posted by TomatoMan - 1/6/2002 7:53:53 PM

Snap,

Jeez - that's just unbelievable. I mean, I believe you, but it's unbelievable. :)

C'mon man, digitize one of those 230+ runs. I'm dying to see one!

Posted by yoshifan18 - 1/6/2002 9:01:41 PM

Snap owns all. He is unbeatable...

Distant Spring - 237 (first completion)

Posted by The Champ - 1/7/2002 12:25:32 AM

That's awesome Snap! But I will beat that . . . soon.
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If i could be any chess piece . . . I think I'd be the cow.

Posted by Skullkid - 1/7/2002 7:46:39 AM

Forest of Hope:154
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None of ur business!!!

Posted by yoshifan18 - 1/7/2002 8:26:19 PM

Distant Spring - 286

I noticed a pearl somewhere, but I had too few Pikmin with me, and there wasn't quite enough time left in the day to go back and get more Pikmin, kill the clam, and bring the pearl back...aka 300 coming soon.

Posted by TomatoMan - 1/8/2002 11:05:20 AM

Managed a 200 on the Impact Site... starting to see how more is possible, but you really have to nail everything.

One thing I vastly underestimated is the importance of flower pikmins. Also, it appears that if one early pikmin finds his way to a nectar drop, he'll suck the whole thing up himself if he's alone. Is this right? If so, then you want to avoid the nectar/grass areas until you have a good-sized crowd so they can all benefit from it. Anybody know?

Also, does anybody have a trick for getting 100 pikmin (or more than 25 or so) up the ramp and over the matchbox without half of them falling off the sides? I usually have to make at least one trip back to gather the stragglers and get them up, sometimes two trips. That can't be good. I try steering them with the C-stick and getting them bunched ahead of me, but I can never get them all up it together. Seems like throwing them up takes too much time.

Posted by shortyschlosser08 - 1/8/2002 12:14:36 PM

WHere can I look At your video game feats snap??
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"I WILL RULE YOU ALL WITH AN IRON FIST!!!!!"

Posted by Vortyx - 1/8/2002 12:21:36 PM

TomatoMan - that is correct. One drop of nectar will create as many flower pikmin as can fit around it at once. If only one drinks, he'll drink it all himself; however, many pikmin can drink from the same drop and share its benefits. If you steer your army around well, you can get 100 pikmin from leaves to flowers with about 3 drops of nectar.
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PAY ME FOR THE DOOR REPAIR CHARGE.

Posted by Vortyx - 1/8/2002 12:25:17 PM

Oh, and I've only got one high score, 169 on The Impact Site. Yeah, I haven't been practicing much. Been too busy with Super Monkey Ball. (Ran through Expert last night, used four continues. Blah.)
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PAY ME FOR THE DOOR REPAIR CHARGE.

Posted by yoshifan18 - 1/8/2002 6:43:10 PM

Forest Navel - 259

Posted by SnapDragon - 1/8/2002 10:01:59 PM

No, I never make it up the incline with 100 Pikmin. I always have to make a second trip back. It's quite annoying. If you could see my video (sigh), it might help you... I don't know. Dammit, I need a server, and my e-mail address is screwed, so I don't even know if one has become available. Life is sucking.

Posted by TomatoMan - 1/8/2002 10:11:30 PM

Snap, do you need a place to put the vid? I run a server, I could host it for a little while. My bandwidth is on the pricey side, so I can't have zillions of people downloading it, but depending on how big it is, I could keep it up for a bit.

From sheer luck, I made it up the ramp with about 80 pikmins in one run tonight - it took my breath away! :P I'm still maxxed at 200 though.

Posted by piccolo87 - 1/8/2002 10:14:24 PM

216 on forest of hope
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If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards.

Posted by yoshifan18 - 1/9/2002 6:27:42 PM

Impact Site - 196...God, I suck at this level...coulda got a 10-pellet again :( At least I wasn't waiting around for the big blue ones though...

Um, I'll post my (sucky) strategy in this level, in case anyone wanted to know for some reason: first kill the breadbug, raise some red Pikmin at the beginning (while I'm waiting for them, I get some blues/yellows as well), and when I've gotten most of the red pellets around the area (aka all but the 10), I send 22 red Pikmin to the box. Then I just grow blues and yellows and all, and when I have nothing to do, I go over to the reds and get rid of the two flowers nearest to the ramp and sent 2 Pikmin to them regardless of their color, then march the rest of my Pikmin toward the red 20. Then I get the rest of the non-10 pellets around the Onions, then I take 10 reds, 30 blues, and 25 yellows to the box. Then I toss 2 yellow Pikmin at the opening of the box so they can get bombs, then I make sure I have all my Pikmin (I don't need to worry about them getting distracted by the flowers/their pellets because they're gone). Using the C Stick, I march them in tight circles to make them bunch up, then march my 65 Pikmin quickly over the ramp and box, usually not making any drop. Then, I blow up the gate, then throw 20 yellows up at the yellow 20 pellet, then handle the blue 20 and 5. I then go back to the area where the yellow 20 is and throw Pikmin at the 1-pellets there, matching colors. Then, I finally go back and try in vain to get any 10-pellets that I can...if I could get them all, I could get a pretty nice score...

There's probably a lot of stupid and unnecessary stuff in this "strat", so if I'm doing anything wrong (which I'm sure I am), can anyone who knows what they're doing point it out? Thanks.

Posted by TomatoMan - 1/9/2002 9:21:18 PM

My strategy has yielded a single 200 and a 191, so it clearly needs some tweaking, but I'm getting 180s pretty consistently now, so I might be on the verge of getting something.

My first thing is also to kill the breadbug, which I've tried various methods of; currently I pull three reds, pull one blue and chuck it immediately at the nearby blue 1, then run up to the spaceship pad where the blue 5 is to bonk the breadbug dragging a red 1. I hit him once and then let 2 reds drag him back to the ship, flinging the other red at the red 1 just past the firespout.

Then I pull the yellows and have them grab the breadbug, and get the 1s in the immediate central area (not the flowers). I also get the three 5s near the yellow onion.

Then it falls apart a bit and I find myself winging it. Recently I've been going for the 10s after that, throwing yellows up the side and reds and blues up the middle, sometimes needing two trips up to get enough reds and blues, so they can all carry their own pellets. This is a slow process, though.

I make a special trip to the box with just reds, mow down the flowers near the ramp and grab reds if I have enough, and then release the reds near the 20 so they start it back. Then I'm picking yellows and blues, and try to time it so I finish up around when the reds are back; then I sic them all on the nectar and try to flower as many as I can.

Recently I've been heading back up for a quick run through the red-ramp area past the flame, the flowers and the ramp on the other side, but that costs a fair amount of time and sometimes I can't land the blue 20 if I do that. Then I run like hell back to the box, wrestle 100 pikmins up the ramp (making 2 or 3 trips), grab too many bombs because I don't have time to just get exactly two yellows, go up and blow the wall, blow the extra bombs, get the yellows going at their 20, run the blues over to theirs, and usually time is about running out. I speed the crowd that's left over the multicolored 1s in the central area without trying to sort, run the rest after the blue 20, pick up whatever I can, and usually time runs out before most of them get back. If the blue 20 makes it in, I'm in the 180s or so.

So. Lots of room for improvement. I wish Snap would post his 238 somewhere we could see it. :)

Posted by Arch 0wl - 1/10/2002 11:04:26 AM

snap you could always upload them to morpheus

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KHERRUPTSHUN

Posted by SnapDragon - 1/11/2002 8:54:54 PM

Ok, on Arch Owl's advice, I'm going to TRY providing these videos on Morpheus. I'll stay logged in as SnapDragon64 for the next few days. The movie filenames are:
Pikmin-ImpactSite-238.wmv
Pikmin-ForestOfHope-438.wmv
Pikmin-ForestNavel-314.wmv
Pikmin-DistantSpring-380.wmv
Pikmin-FinalTrial-290.wmv
Note that Morpheus does not recognize these as movie files... so don't search only for movie files. Hopefully you'll be able to find them.

This is only a test, though, and hopefully a temporary measure until I find a good server. I'm not going to answer a bunch of silly "How do I use Morpheus?" questions (it's at download.com), and if I find that I'm having to upload 20 files at once and nobody else is sharing the movies themselves, then I'm shutting the whole thing down.

Posted by cubehead100 - 1/11/2002 11:05:09 PM

Well I got
187 on the forest of hope and 204 in the distant springs.

Posted by TomatoMan - 1/12/2002 1:00:18 AM

Morpheus: windows only. :( .wmv is also a proprietary windows format tough to play outside of windows (no linux viewer AFAIK, and MS keeps the mac version a few versions behind). Snap, any chance you could encode it as mpeg or mov so the rest of us can see it?

Again, if you need space, I'd be willing to host them on my server for a little while as long as the traffic isn't too crushing, but I'd like to be able to view them myself if I'm going to do that, which means a neutral format like mpeg or divx.

Posted by SnapDragon - 1/12/2002 1:40:45 AM

Yeah, I know... <sigh> All my other movies use DivX. The problem is, DivX doesn't come close to the quality of the WMV encoding. If only M$ didn't make their format proprietary. Grr.

I'm really torn. I don't really want to exclude Mac users (Linux users, however, reap what they sow). But my WMV Pikmin movies just look sooo nice... I don't know what to do.

Posted by Ferret Druid - 1/12/2002 3:26:50 AM

You could send me the WMP version of your Impact Site movie if you want (ferretcoconut@aol.com) *praying*

On a sidenote, I didn't think your task would be that tough because I'm generally very good at games, but after barely hitting 160 on my best run of the Impact Site... Well, I'm back here for advice so, you figure out the rest :)

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"I only take tea with friends!" -Alice

Posted by TomatoMan - 1/12/2002 10:19:31 AM

Well, it'd be worth a try playing the .wmv's on the mac just to see if they work; we on the mac side are stuck with 6.3, as that's what's required (currently) to use the divx player. If it's a format that needs 7.x or whatever it's up to on the PC side now, we might be screwed, but it's worth a try.

We can't get them off morpheus, though, coz that's windows-only too. *sigh* We're used to this dance, but it's still frustrating. How big are the vids, Snap? I don't run ftp on my server for security reasons, but I could set up a temporary web folder you could drag-n-drop them into, then post them somewhere so the folks on this board can get them.

Posted by SnapDragon - 1/12/2002 6:18:26 PM

Er, if you'd just read a bit earlier in the topic, you'd have seen that I already posted the file sizes. :)
Impact Site 238 is 59 MB.
Forest of Hope 438 is 103 MB.
Forest Navel 314 is 88 MB.
Distant Spring 380 is 102 MB.
Final Trial 290 is 73 MB.
The encoding I used was WMV 7, but I'm not exactly sure if that corresponds to the player version. Hopefully you will be able to play the movies. And if not, well, you'll at least be able to play them eventually. :)

Posted by SnapDragon - 1/12/2002 6:18:59 PM

It seems nobody can find my videos on Morpheus, anyway, so you're not missing out on anything. So much for that idea.

Posted by Ferret Druid - 1/12/2002 6:22:59 PM

What about WinMX? Any possibility of setting up access through that? (Unfortunately, all media sharing programs crash my computer COMPLETELY. Except for WinMX.)

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"I only take tea with friends!" -Alice

Posted by FlyingPastry - 1/13/2002 6:05:42 PM

I got 375 on the forest of hope, snapdragon will never be beat.

Posted by tgeek12 - 1/14/2002 3:05:00 AM

You guys, if you want them, you can get them off my "server". Just AIM me at tessera198 and go to File -> Get File... I have Impact Site, FoH, and Final Trial. (Although I'll get the others from Snap eventually.) I leave it on all the time, so just get them whenever you want.

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"The day after tomorrow belongs to me. Some are born posthumously." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Posted by SnapDragon - 1/14/2002 3:52:02 AM

But tgeek, I sent all 5 files to you...? Well, I hope you find the other 2. Thanks for providing this service for us. Now perhaps people can see how I do Impact Site (and thereby demolish my score... naturally... <sigh>).

Posted by tgeek12 - 1/14/2002 7:57:21 AM

Yeah, I got 'em. You must have sent them when I wasn't here, and so I never saw them. They're all up on the "server" now. (Just had to move them from one folder to the next one... ^_^)

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"The day after tomorrow belongs to me. Some are born posthumously." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Posted by Ferret5317 - 1/15/2002 10:08:48 AM

Should keep this bumped, you know.

BTW, there seems to be one missing, the Final Trial

They are some awesome videos, that's for sure! :)

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AIM/AOL: Ferret Coconut - IM me if you want to talk gaming!

Posted by MEMPHIS - 1/15/2002 10:43:05 AM

i have 122 on Impact Site
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"Wouldnt it be good if everyone just died?"
"Then what are you doing here?" -EoE

Posted by TomatoMan - 1/15/2002 1:44:33 PM

Managed a 209 on Impact Site the other night, which surprised the (skip censored word) out of me. My previous best had been 200, and before that 193, so I don't get into that range very often (although I'm almost always in the 180s at this point).

I haven't managed to get my hands on Snap's vids yet; I'm almost feeling like looking at them would be cheating!

Getting flowers really is key, and it's starting to seem to me that there need to be two sets of doing that: the first when you've got 40-50 and are going for the 10s, and the second when you've got 100 and are heading out for the 20s. I think with some fine-tuning to timing, my current pattern/method should be able to yield in the 210s/220s.

Still can't imagine Snap's 238, or his absurd 256!

Posted by wckowalski - 1/15/2002 8:56:55 PM

I counted the pellets and it is only possible to get somewhere around 260 on the impact site (I'm not sure because I accidentally burned up a few yellows).

Posted by yoshifan18 - 1/16/2002 1:23:03 AM

I got a horrible 186 on the Final Trial...will definitely be improved soon. I still don't feel like I know what I'm doing in that level yet :(

Posted by Ferret5317 - 1/16/2002 2:18:54 AM

Also, many may overlook this, but in Challenge Mode, there is a hidden Flint Beetle in the weeds by the Giant Red Pellet. It will give one, or maybe more additional 5-Point Pellets... But those things.. sheesh, lame to hunt them down... But maybe something to do while harvesting those three 10-Point Pellets?

Also, SnapDragon - I have made your videos available on WinMX for those who use it. I will keep it logged in as much as possible and my username is Ferret79 on that.

Actually, if you don't want me to host those let me know and I'll gladly remove them. They are currently in my shared directory for now

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AIM/AOL: Ferret Coconut - IM me if you want to talk gaming!

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