Piku

Piku is the main protagonist of Pikuniku, and is one of the two playable characters in Co-op.

Pre-Game
Before Piku wakes up after his long hibernation, the villagers had made up a legend about a "beast" living in a cave in the mountains who was fierce,not knowing that Piku was actually the "beast". A shop was made to sell "beast" merch. The story got passed on from generations until Piku wakes up. One of Mr. Sunshine's ads about taking all the useless junk away from each village and in return giving money plays.

Early-Game
When Piku wakes up, he gets met by a ghost. The ghost tells Piku to go out of the cave, but they can't exit due to it being lethal to them. When Piku exits the cave, he accidentally breaks the bridge over a river. The locals capture him and lock him in a cage, thinking that he's the beast but find out that Piku is less threatening that they thought. Piku agrees to repair the bridge so they can access the crops for Mr. Sunshine to collect. The villagers let Piku roam around the village freely. The ropeaway operator won't let Piku go to the swamp because of the birds on the cable. The villagers ask Piku to help the painter who recently lost inspiration. Piku then gets their Pencil Hat from their basement and draws a face for the scarecrow in order to scare the birds. When Piku puts the face on, all of the birds retreat but one of Mr. Sunshine's robot mechs crushes him, causing him to get knocked out unconscious. Piku wakes up, and Mr. Sunshine takes Eli, a villager, on a "tour" to Sunshine Headquarters. Piku then goes on the ropeaway to the swamp and meets Sam the slime, but Piku breaks all of his pottery, making him sad.

Piku goes to the forest but a villager on a tree log almost crushes him because one of Mr. Sunshine's robot mechs cut down the log they were stuck in.. The villager asks Piku to help the other two villagers who are stuck on trees. The three all were friends and were rebels against Mr. Sunshine due to the robots being suspicious. They agree to meet up in the club in the forest, but Piku gets denied by the club bouncer. (one of Mr. Sunshine's robots.) Piku buys Sunglasses or X-Ray Glasses and they let him in. The rebels are convinced that Piku was a spy, so they gave Piku a challenge to defeat the King of the Dancefloor (one of Mr. Sunshine's robots.) in a dance battle. After Piku wins the dance battle, they go into their secret hideout in the metro station in the forest and they plan on defeating one of Mr. Sunshine's robot mechs. Piku kicks explosive pinecones to the mech, causing it to explode.

Mid-Game
The three rebels and Piku have a party until a villager of the valley shows up uninvited. The villager tells the rebels and Piku that they have too much money, and too little corn, so they ask Piku to go to the valley and fight another mech while the rebels prepare a lightning-powered blaster. They ask Piku to lure the hostile mech to them, so they can zap and explode it. The mech starts chasing Piku across the entire valley and past two villagers before being destroyed. After celebrating in the bunker, Piku and the other four get an alert about an intruder. Despite this, they realise that it's a worm asking for help. Piku goes into the electrical room which powers the metro.

After Piku fixes the metro, he and the rebels take the metro and investigate, realising that Mr. Sunshine had made a giant dam in the lake which caused the worms under the lake to become thirsty. The worm accidentally loses the key to the mineshaft while resurfacing, so Piku tries to look for it while in a retro-style game. They find the cabin key and they go down the mineshaft. Piku and the rebels meet the mother of all the worms, and they ask the four to look for Ernie the worm, who had recently gone missing while finding water. The rebels were tired so Piku had to find Ernie himself, but finds him next to a sewage drain which belonged to Sunshine Inc. Ernie had drank all the sewage water, turning him green and chubby. Piku pushes Ernie through the cave system to his mother, in which she thanks Piku and the rebels. The rebels find out that the worms can act as balloons, so Piku and 6 worms go float above the dam and fight one of Mr. Sunshine robot mechs who is collecting water. Piku dodges all the blasts and balls spat out by the mech, but the mech runs out of water. Piku blocks the water from entering the straw the mech is sucking on, causing it to explode. Mr. Sunshine then comes and steals Piku away himself and locks him in a jail cell in Sunshine HQ.

Late-Game
Piku gets locked in a jail cell, but gets help from a worm to escape it and he takes an elevator. Piku goes through vents and toggles doors, fans, lasers and pistons. Piku then spots Sunshine robots talking to Mr. Sunshine about how the "new world"plan is not completed yet. He frees Eli and a pink leaf from cages and they told Piku and the worm that they were being used as test subjects for a new type of citizen that Mr. Sunshine would call a "sunshiner". They find a sunshiner from a cage (an amalgamation of the valley villager, a leaf and a Sunshine robot.) and Piku takes the elevator to the "construction floor" where the rebels were hiding. Piku takes another elevator to a room where Mr. Sunshine is. Mr. Sunshine then tells robots to "take care of him" and one of Mr Sunshine's robot mechs destroy platforms and shoots lasers at Piku. Fortunately, a blue valley villager in a helicopter deploys Ernie onto Mr. Sunshine to save Piku, but Mr. Sunshine orders the Sunshine robots to kill them. However, the robots get in an argument with Mr. Sunshine due to unfair payment for work. Mr. Sunshine then runs away on a paddle boat, while Piku uses Ernie as a stool and starts chasing him.

Mr. Sunshine tells Piku to stop chasing him and spits out corn which pops into popcorn when it ricochets off the lava. They both then stand on a large platform on top of a large vein of lava and Mr. Sunshine pushes a button which would spew out lava all over the island, but instead blasted both of them up into space due to it being too powerful. Piku then kicks Mr. Sunshine off the platform, sending him off into space, never to be seen again. Piku then falls into a room with the ghost, and the ghost takes the form of the room. Piku asks existential questions, but the ghost gets angry and tells Piku his score. The rebels then bring the platform back down into the volcano and Piku and the rebels go off to tell everybody what had happened that day.

Appearance
Piku is a bean-like creature with a red torso/head, two red legs, and two eyes. When he is rolling, he will lose both his legs. If he falls from a great height, wakes up from sleeping, gets hit, gets caught by a robot, gets picked up, hears rumbling, gets bounced up by a mushroom or dies, his sclera will appear. When the player dies, he will turn white and translucent. Despite having no mouth, Piku can talk normally, but only when he is replying. If Piku does not move for a certain amount of time, he will close his eyes.

Personality
Piku is a caring little bean who selflessly helps people out without expecting rewards. He is sometimes clumsy, and can be rude depending on the dialog text, but will not use anyone/anything to his personal gain. Although Piku has no mouth, he can talk exceptionally well.

Abilites

 * Kick: One of Piku's legs will extend out 3 Pikus wide, and will push anything in the way. If an NPC is in the way, the NPC will scream, tell you to stop or they will get their revenge on you. Press "C" to kick
 * Crawling: Piku will go down to the floor and crouch to make it easier to go through small jumps. Press "Down" or "Z" to crawl.
 * Rolling: Piku's legs will disappear, causing him to become a bean. It will make Piku faster, but will not allow him to jump. Press "X" to crawl.
 * Rope Swing: Piku can swing on ropes using one of his legs. Press "C" to swing.