In this video, I go over the details about what happens when you press X to dismiss your Pikmin. This is handy to know for people who play the game, especially for speedrunners and challenge runners. There are some intricacies about dismissing that can get you into trouble. In a nutshell, here's what happens. Each Pikmin has a point they must travel to when dismissed. Pikmin of the same type share the same point, so all reds are dismissed towards the same point, for example (and it doesn't matter whether these reds are leaf, bud, flower, or spicy). In general, this point will be the average of the positions of the Pikmin before they were dismissed (in other words, if the Pikmin were standing on a disc suspended in air, then the point would be where you could balance the disk in midair). However, this point will change location based on a few conditions. The point must be a certain distance from both leaders (whether active or inactive), and the point must be a certain distance from each point that the other Pikmin types travel towards upon dismissal. This should match what you've experienced in regular gameplay, as Pikmin tend to be spread out and far away from your leaders when dismissed.
Now let's discuss a few details I glossed over. Pikmin will spend a few seconds traveling towards their dismissal point in a straight line before becoming still and then idle. They will not always reach this point for the following reason. The point that Pikmin can dismiss towards can be anywhere, including in water, behind walls, and even above or under ground! When this happens, you'll notice that Pikmin jiggle in place for some time when dismissed, as they can't travel vertically. Most importantly, if the player is not careful, Pikmin may get dismissed towards a point inside a clog or behind a breakable wall. When this happens, these Pikmin will waste valuable seconds trying to walk towards this unreachable point before becoming idle and attacking the clog or wall.
There's one other interesting thing that happens when you dismiss Pikmin. For a few seconds, the player is unable to bump into any Pikmin. This is a sensible feature by the Pikmin developers, as when you dismiss, Pikmin will often bump into you as they travel to their dismissal points. Nobody wants the Pikmin they just dismissed to start following them again. This feature allows me to move wild Pikmin around by bumping into them. I've used this technique many times, my favorite example is obtaining 20/19 Pikmin on day 1 here:
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