FunkyLobster
Inkling Commander
this gif has been floating around for a while, demonstrating the technique. it's called a splatterhop. in theory, it should be a useful movement technique that gets you from point a to point b faster. but how effective is it?
with the now-over first round of the global testfire, i took it upon myself to test it out. i only had an hour to do it and it was just an afterthought, so forgive me if i'm wrong about something! we have 3 weeks until the game is out and we can all test it for ourselves.
it's actually very easy. you can do it up and down slopes just fine, and around corners pretty easily. i managed to do it on the sharp 90 degree corner on saltspray rig on the straightaway alley infront of your spawn. it takes some practice, but you can do this almost anywhere.
the amount of time you save doing this differs depending on how you do it. if you do hops very low to the ground, with just enough time to shoot and go into squid form, you'll only be saving a few seconds (which still makes a difference.)
however, if you do long jumps with bigger ink puddles on the ground, you'll gain more momentum and jump farther, saving even more time. it takes practice doing it, since shooting the right puddle size while you're falling may be difficult, but it's a worthwhile endeavor practicing doing so because of the importance of getting from point a to point b as fast as possible, because of the small team sizes and short time limit. being in the right time and place in this game is life or death.
it's easy to do with the splattershot and jr, however the splat roller takes much too long to flick to splatterhop. because of this, in competitive play, the roller user will take longer to get from one area to the next im addition to being more vulnerable because of the lack of range. competitive teams will probably have one roller user at a time, with one player vaguely near them for security
i only tried it once with a splat charger, but i don't think it's possible. it makes too small of a puddle unless you charge it, which you don't have time for. it might be possible if you optimize your jumps perfectly: getting the exact right distance and height each time, but i don't know if you can actually pull it off. charger users won't really want to get too close to the front lines anyway.
even though you can only really do this with a shooter type weapon, don't think of it as a disadvantage to the technique. think of it like an advantage to using those weapons. they're already very versatile and effective, but if they give you access to a technique that lets you build momentum and travel the map faster, they're even better than they were before! it's not cheap or broken at all; the splatterhop has no impact on the combat of the game. all it does is let you navigate the map faster. splat rollers, who make the biggest difference when it comes to ink coverage, can't do it, and snipers with deadly aim (likely) cannot do this either. you stand just as good of a chance against a player utilizing this as you do against a player who isn't.
the splatterhop, more or less, is this game's rocketjump. a skillful technique that asks you to use a specific weapon and, in return, gives you great mobility. use it, and use it wisely.
note: since this info is based off a pre-release demo of the game, it might change coming may 29th. i don't think this is going to be patched out since it's not really a glitch or an exploit; it's just utilizing the momentum you gain in the air. however, it could definitely be easier or possible to do with other weapons, such as if uncharged puddles from the charger are larger and quicker to fire. hence why this is a forum thread, and not a guide. i will definitely be writing a more professional guide once the game is out, though!
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