Introduction
Gear is a pretty important part of Splatoon. Not only does it allow you to stay looking fresh, but each piece comes with an ability to help you sway the tide of battle. Popular choices among these abilities have always been Defense Up, and possibly more so, Damage Up, and I can see why. It feels good to know that each shot you land is weakening your opponent just a little bit more than normal, and in a one-on-one with an enemy squid, Damage Up makes sure they're easier to splat. Right? How do you know it’s really helping with that particular weapon? This was a question I found myself asking a lot, so I did some testing to figure out how attacking enemies with various defense levels varies with different attack levels and weapons.
Weapons
The test really only applies to Shooters, as Chargers and Rollers can both kill anyone in one hit anyways, so the Shooters were the only ones I tested. I also paired all weapons with the same main gun together (.52 Gal, .52 Gal Deco, etc.) because the stats are the exact same across them. I tested all of the Blasters as well, but I realized the data doesn't work exactly same way for them. They have a lot more variables, such as blast radius, distance, burst power and so on, so for the time being, I've left their data out until I can do more testing.
Important Information
The thing with these guns is, even if it does more damage, it really doesn't help unless it decreases the number of times you have to shoot someone to kill them. Even if you bring them to just an inch of their life, if you still need one more shot to finish them off, then it will take you just as long to kill them as it would have without the Damage Up ability. Now, there are a billion different ways a battle can go. The Damage Up ability may be able to lower the number of shots it takes in a lot of different situations where your enemy is a bit weaker than normal, like if they took a few steps in enemy ink, or your buddy landed a stray shot on their back. Damage Up may just give you the extra punch you need to finish them off in one less shot, but I'm more interested in the straight up attack aspect of it, like when jumping a full health enemy from behind will let me take them out with fewer shots. I've found that most squids I attack in battles are at full health anyways, so this is really what's useful to me. No attack buff will ever be useless to you, it may give you the extra punch you need to take out a weakened squid, but for the purposes of this test, if it doesn't lower the number of shots required, it doesn't make a difference.
Testing Summary
I did the testing by first, equipping myself with gear that had no Damage Up abilities, main or sub, and counting the number of shots it took to splat the inflatable squid in the testing range. I tested every splatter gun (not including their own spin offs) on a regular squid, and each of three the ones with a defense buff. I would carefully tap the trigger, so only one shot escaped the nozzle, and counted how many shots it took to kill each of the four inflatable squid. When I finished, I swapped out a piece of gear for one with Damage Up as the main ability, and no Damage Up in the sub abilities, just to make sure all variables were eliminated. I repeated this until I had tested them all with three Damage Ups, and kept all the data recorded.
Results
Find your favorite weapon below and take a look. I called Damage Up "Attack" in this part just to make it easier to look at. For those of you interested in the raw data, take a look a this spoiler, where the number in a box is the number of shots it took to kill the inflatable squid. If the raw data looks boring to you, I summarized each weapon's data underneath the spoiler.
DISCLAIMER! All of this data involves attacking a squid at full health! When I say something won't make a difference or won't help, I'm only referring to when you are fighting a squid with full health, which is not always the case in a real battle!
Splattershot Jr.: 1 Attack will let you take out a squid with 3 Def. in one less hit. 2 and 3 Attack won't make a difference past that.
Splattershot: 1 Attack will let you take out a squid with 2 or 3 Def. in one less hit. 2 and 3 Attack won't make a difference past that.
Splattershot Pro: No amount of Attack buffs will ever help. Your opponent will always take 3 hits to kill.
Aerospray: No amount of Attack buffs will ever help. Your opponent will always take 5 hits to kill.
Jet Squelcher: No amount of Attack buffs will ever help. Your opponent will always take 4 hits to kill.
Dual Squelcher: 1 Attack will let you take out a squid with 3 Def. in one less hit. 2 and 3 Attack won't make a difference past that.
.52 Gal: 1 Attack will let you take out a squid with 1 Def. in 2 hits. 2 Attack will let you take out a squid with any defense in 2 hits. 3 Attack doesn't make a difference past that, despite my wishes to be able to kill a 0 defense squid in only one hit...
.96 Gal: No amount of Attack buffs will ever help. Your opponent will always take 2 hits to kill.
N-Zap: 1 Attack will let you take out a squid with 3 defense in one less hit. 2 and 3 Attack won't make a difference past that.
Splash-o-matic: 1 Attack will let you take out a squid with 1 Def. in one less hit. 2 Attack will let you take out a squid with any Def. in one less hit. 3 Attack won't make a difference past that.
Sploosh-o-matic: 1 Attack will let you take out a squid with 3 Def. in one less hit. 2 and 3 Attack won't make a difference past that.
L-3 Nozzlenose: No amount of Attack buffs will ever help. Your opponent will always take 4 hits to kill (two trigger pulls).
I was surprised by some of this stuff! Like the fact that having all three slots as Attack won't ever decrease the number of hits it takes to kill someone at full health. For the most part, Damage Up only seems to be to counter Defense Up, as even with three Damage Up, it never lowered the number of shots it took to kill a squid with 0 Def., and because I don't see too many people with Defense Up in all three slots, Damage Up for most of these weapons is less helpful than I thought it was. I can really only see it making a big difference for the .52 Gal and Splash-o-matic. Anyways, I learned a lot from this experiment and I hope you did too. This was my first guide so, tell me what you thought of it in a review, and don't forget to stay fresh and game on.
Gear is a pretty important part of Splatoon. Not only does it allow you to stay looking fresh, but each piece comes with an ability to help you sway the tide of battle. Popular choices among these abilities have always been Defense Up, and possibly more so, Damage Up, and I can see why. It feels good to know that each shot you land is weakening your opponent just a little bit more than normal, and in a one-on-one with an enemy squid, Damage Up makes sure they're easier to splat. Right? How do you know it’s really helping with that particular weapon? This was a question I found myself asking a lot, so I did some testing to figure out how attacking enemies with various defense levels varies with different attack levels and weapons.
Weapons
The test really only applies to Shooters, as Chargers and Rollers can both kill anyone in one hit anyways, so the Shooters were the only ones I tested. I also paired all weapons with the same main gun together (.52 Gal, .52 Gal Deco, etc.) because the stats are the exact same across them. I tested all of the Blasters as well, but I realized the data doesn't work exactly same way for them. They have a lot more variables, such as blast radius, distance, burst power and so on, so for the time being, I've left their data out until I can do more testing.
Important Information
The thing with these guns is, even if it does more damage, it really doesn't help unless it decreases the number of times you have to shoot someone to kill them. Even if you bring them to just an inch of their life, if you still need one more shot to finish them off, then it will take you just as long to kill them as it would have without the Damage Up ability. Now, there are a billion different ways a battle can go. The Damage Up ability may be able to lower the number of shots it takes in a lot of different situations where your enemy is a bit weaker than normal, like if they took a few steps in enemy ink, or your buddy landed a stray shot on their back. Damage Up may just give you the extra punch you need to finish them off in one less shot, but I'm more interested in the straight up attack aspect of it, like when jumping a full health enemy from behind will let me take them out with fewer shots. I've found that most squids I attack in battles are at full health anyways, so this is really what's useful to me. No attack buff will ever be useless to you, it may give you the extra punch you need to take out a weakened squid, but for the purposes of this test, if it doesn't lower the number of shots required, it doesn't make a difference.
Testing Summary
I did the testing by first, equipping myself with gear that had no Damage Up abilities, main or sub, and counting the number of shots it took to splat the inflatable squid in the testing range. I tested every splatter gun (not including their own spin offs) on a regular squid, and each of three the ones with a defense buff. I would carefully tap the trigger, so only one shot escaped the nozzle, and counted how many shots it took to kill each of the four inflatable squid. When I finished, I swapped out a piece of gear for one with Damage Up as the main ability, and no Damage Up in the sub abilities, just to make sure all variables were eliminated. I repeated this until I had tested them all with three Damage Ups, and kept all the data recorded.
Results
Find your favorite weapon below and take a look. I called Damage Up "Attack" in this part just to make it easier to look at. For those of you interested in the raw data, take a look a this spoiler, where the number in a box is the number of shots it took to kill the inflatable squid. If the raw data looks boring to you, I summarized each weapon's data underneath the spoiler.
DISCLAIMER! All of this data involves attacking a squid at full health! When I say something won't make a difference or won't help, I'm only referring to when you are fighting a squid with full health, which is not always the case in a real battle!
Splattershot: 1 Attack will let you take out a squid with 2 or 3 Def. in one less hit. 2 and 3 Attack won't make a difference past that.
Splattershot Pro: No amount of Attack buffs will ever help. Your opponent will always take 3 hits to kill.
Aerospray: No amount of Attack buffs will ever help. Your opponent will always take 5 hits to kill.
Jet Squelcher: No amount of Attack buffs will ever help. Your opponent will always take 4 hits to kill.
Dual Squelcher: 1 Attack will let you take out a squid with 3 Def. in one less hit. 2 and 3 Attack won't make a difference past that.
.52 Gal: 1 Attack will let you take out a squid with 1 Def. in 2 hits. 2 Attack will let you take out a squid with any defense in 2 hits. 3 Attack doesn't make a difference past that, despite my wishes to be able to kill a 0 defense squid in only one hit...
.96 Gal: No amount of Attack buffs will ever help. Your opponent will always take 2 hits to kill.
N-Zap: 1 Attack will let you take out a squid with 3 defense in one less hit. 2 and 3 Attack won't make a difference past that.
Splash-o-matic: 1 Attack will let you take out a squid with 1 Def. in one less hit. 2 Attack will let you take out a squid with any Def. in one less hit. 3 Attack won't make a difference past that.
Sploosh-o-matic: 1 Attack will let you take out a squid with 3 Def. in one less hit. 2 and 3 Attack won't make a difference past that.
L-3 Nozzlenose: No amount of Attack buffs will ever help. Your opponent will always take 4 hits to kill (two trigger pulls).
I was surprised by some of this stuff! Like the fact that having all three slots as Attack won't ever decrease the number of hits it takes to kill someone at full health. For the most part, Damage Up only seems to be to counter Defense Up, as even with three Damage Up, it never lowered the number of shots it took to kill a squid with 0 Def., and because I don't see too many people with Defense Up in all three slots, Damage Up for most of these weapons is less helpful than I thought it was. I can really only see it making a big difference for the .52 Gal and Splash-o-matic. Anyways, I learned a lot from this experiment and I hope you did too. This was my first guide so, tell me what you thought of it in a review, and don't forget to stay fresh and game on.
