72 New Challenges in Pikmin 4 on Switch 2, But Only 6 Per Month: How the Dandori Academy Schedule Works
Following its launch on Thursday, November 12, 2026 for $69.99 / €69.99 as a standalone bundle (or as a $9.99 / £7.99 Upgrade Pack for owners of the original 2023 release), Pikmin 4: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Dandori Academy has just made its debut on the November 15 Nintendo Switch 2 eShop best-sellers chart. While the headline attraction of the upgrade is the addition of 72 brand-new timed challenge stages inside the Dandori Academy mode, players booting up the expansion this weekend have discovered that the full lineup is not unlocked upfront: Nintendo is distributing the stages on a monthly schedule stretching across a full year.
Six Stages Per Month for a Year: How the Dandori Academy Schedule Works
Selected directly from the main menu of the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, Dandori Academy is hosted by the Sage Leaf, who tests explorers on the art of routing, multitasking, and time management. Upon entering the mode for the first time, players generate a Student ID (either by importing their Story Mode avatar or customizing a new rescue officer), which acts as a personal stamp card displaying earned medals, and must clear three mandatory Training levels before unlocking the main curriculum.
Rather than dropping all 72 challenges on day one, Nintendo has structured the mode into 12 monthly exam periods featuring 6 courses each across three difficulty tiers. Following the opening batch of six stages released at launch on November 12, a new set of six stages rolls out online on the first Monday of each month, extending the game's content calendar through fall 2027.
Before starting any course, a stage briefing outlines the exact objective (such as collecting every item on the map or focusing strictly on treasures and gold nuggets while ignoring enemies), the available Pikmin types, and Oatchi's Pup Strength. Displayed in the lower-left corner of the briefing screen, Pup Strength is set to 5, 10, 30, or 100 depending on the stage: when set to 100, Oatchi can swallow and carry back an object weighing 100 units all by himself, matching the hauling power of one hundred regular Pikmin.
Weekday Practice, Weekend Exams, and Redo Passes Explained
To keep the community competing on the same six monthly courses at the same time, Dandori Academy operates on a two-part weekly loop, expanding on the structure first outlined during Shigeru Miyamoto's Pikmin Day Direct presentation:
- Unlimited Weekday Practice: Players can enter Practice mode on any day of the week to rehearse the current month's six courses as many times as they like, memorize hazard placements, locate yellow nectar to flower their squad, and practice splitting tasks between Oatchi and their Pikmin.
- Official Weekend Exams (Friday to Sunday): Every weekend across all territories (with the launch exam window specially extended to four days, from Thursday, November 12 through Sunday, November 15, 2026), the Exam option unlocks. By default, players get only one official attempt per course to lock in their score on the global leaderboards, earn a medal stamp, and score up to 125 Dandori Points per stage (capping each six-course monthly batch at 750 points).
- The Redo Pass Safety Net: If a single mistake ruins an official exam run, players are not permanently locked out. Playing the Practice mode awards special Redo Passes (up to 6 passes can be held at once), which can be spent to retry a completed exam. Furthermore, anyone who misses a monthly window can still take previous months' exams during subsequent weekend periods.
Dandori Point Milestones, Pikmin Bloom Rewards, and Switch 2 Features
The staggered monthly schedule is also tied directly to the reward progression curve. Beyond in-game stamps, frames, status titles, and user icons unlocked via the built-in Reward List on Switch 2, players can use the "+" button menu ("Send Dandori Academy Data") to transfer cross-game bonuses to mobile title Pikmin Bloom, as detailed on the official Pikmin Bloom campaign page:
- At 600 Dandori Points: unlocks a special Cave Map ready for use when the Secret Caves update launches in Pikmin Bloom this winter.
- At 1,400 Dandori Points: lets players pick 1 of 5 color variants for the Pikmin 4 Oatchi-Rider Mii costume (alongside the red variant granted for checking Day 2 Story results or clearing the demo).
- At 2,500 Dandori Points: unlocks the top-tier mastery reward, a threshold that mathematically requires participating across at least four monthly batches given the 750-point monthly ceiling.
Alongside the Academy rollout, the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition boosts visuals up to native 4K resolution in docked TV mode and 1080p in handheld mode (while maintaining the original 30 FPS frame rate). It also adds single-copy two-player Dandori Battles via GameShare (local wireless, including with original Switch consoles) and GameChat, plus 9 "Howl-Out" voice commands using the Switch 2's built-in microphone. Disabled by default and toggled on in the Settings menu, the voice control includes a "Come Back" call that summons only Oatchi out of a crowd without interrupting nearby Pikmin while they haul treasures.
My Perspective
On paper, getting 72 specialized challenge stages for a $9.99 upgrade pack is fantastic value for anyone who loved chasing platinum medals in the 2023 original. Still, I completely understand why solo players booting up Dandori Academy this weekend felt caught off guard: finding only six stages unlocked at launch and having to wait until the first Monday of each month for the next batch turns a single-player strategy expansion into a year-long live-service calendar.
That said, once you step into the weekend Exam window, the one-attempt rule creates a genuine rush that standard time trials rarely match. Knowing your Friday-to-Sunday run is for keeps makes every second count, while earning up to six Redo Passes in Practice mode is a smart compromise that keeps a single stray Bulborb bite from ruining your entire weekend.
Based on the outskirts of New York City, Chaya 'Chayane' spent five years studying software engineering in Montreal before returning to her home state. A Full-Stack developer and Deep Learning AI architecture researcher, she explores neural networks and algorithmic optimization while engineering data pipelines for Retrocharting and Gamescharting alongside Grimtag. A gamer for over 20 years and an avid collector of Nintendo history and The Legend of Zelda, she explored World of Warcraft's Azeroth before bringing her deep technical background to video game analysis.
