Hello!
I'm Quag, one of Squidboards's resident Splatling enjoyers and the loudest of the spinners. It's been a long time coming, but I'm finally here to talk about the Hydra Splatling and how to play this big beautiful spinny gun.
For some more context on me, I am a Splatling flex for a div 9 team and have been playing Splatoon competitively for well over a year now. I have been playing since Splatoon 1, though I did skip Splatoon 2. I have played the Hydra Splatling near-obsessively for pretty much the entire lifespan of Splatoon 3. While I am most certainly not the best Hydra player around, I am definitely knowledgeable enough on the weapon to help any aspiring spinners get started.
Though regardless of my competitive experience, I am writing this guide from the perspective of using Hydra in soloq. A lot of this does still carry over to competitive due to the nature of the weapon.
Basics
The Hydra Splatling is the slow heavyweight of the Splatling class. It has the slowest strafing speed of any Splatling both while charging and firing. On top of that it needs to charge for 2 seconds to reach its maximum range and 2.5 seconds total to finish charging. With half a charge, the Hydra Splatling fires for 2.1 seconds, roughly, with each bullet doing 32 damage. Very standard for Splatlings, however the full charge is where the magic happens. Fully charging the Hydra allows one to fire for a whopping 4.33 seconds with each bullet doing 40 damage. This turns the Hydra Splatling from a 4-shot-splat weapon to a 3-shot. In fact, the Hydra is the only Splatling in the game capable of splatting an opponent in 3 bullets. This damage boost gives Hydra the highest DPS in the game at 600 per second.
For reference, the Heavy Splatling needs to charge for 1.25 seconds for a full charge which only lasts for 2.4 seconds. A fully-charged Hydra can fire for nearly twice as long as a Heavy.
Besides its firing time and damage, the Hydra Splatling is also defined by its range. It is the longest-ranged Splatling, barely outranging the Ballpoint Splatling's long-ranged mode. Hydra is also one of the longest-ranged weapons in the game, period. We'll get into the weapons that outrange Hydra later on.
However, it's important to note that the Hydra Splatling only reaches it's maximum range after the weapon is charged halfway aka to the first ring. From this point on when I mention partials, I am specifically talking about charging to the first ring.
Of course, no weapon is without its downsides and the Hydra Splatling has perhaps the most extreme downsides in the game. As mentioned earlier, Hydra is the slowest of the Splatlings. While not charging, the Hydra moves at a rate of 0.06 units per frame. This is the same as the .52 Gal's strafing speed. While charging, Hydra's strafing speed drops to just 0.044 units, well below even the slowest of Shooters.
All of this is without even mentioning the fact that unlike the Shooters, Hydra is a heavyweight weapon, meaning that it also has impaired swimming speed. This is not a weapon you can use to physically chase people down with. You must use your range to your advantage at all times.
Besides mobility, Hydra is also tied with the Snipewriter for the most ink-hungry weapon in the game. Each fullcharge takes a hefty 35% bite out of your ink tank. Without any gear investment, you can only fully charge twice, so you must make each charge count. This combined with the value of each charge also means that you don't end up using your sub weapon very often. The Hydra Splatling is a very main-focused weapon, so making sure to master juggling the upsides with the downsides is key to getting good with this behemoth.
Gameplay
An important thing to know before picking up the Hydra Splatling is that the weapon is very team-dependent. For this reason it might be a little challenging to use in soloq. However there is a lot you can do to make games smoother.
With the Hydra Splatling you are the team's anchor. You should always be the last one standing if you can at all help it as your team will rely on you for safe jumps. Besides staying alive, your other objective is to take out any opponents in your range. Ideally you'll have teammates that herd opponents out of hiding by either engaging in fights with them or poking them with bombs. Even if this doesn't happen, Hydra's full charge lasts long enough for you to flush them out yourself and then finish them off.
While the Hydra Splatling is good at painting and can keep up paint pressure for a long time, you should not pick this weapon for its paint. Hydra paints in bursts with a lot of time between them. Often you'll have your turf painted over by the time you get a second charge going. Painting with your charge should always be a byproduct of your slaying. At most you want to make sure the area around you and the teammates in your range is painted your colour, but even this is only a secondary objective.
If you can get a fullcharge going, you can also work as a pseudo-entry tool for your team. Always remember that the Hydra Splatling can reliably win 1v4s when fully charged. Sometimes it's better to hold your ground and shoot when you're at a disadvantage.
Because of its long range, the Hydra Splatling is considered a backline weapon. The key component to any backline's gameplan is positioning and Hydra is no different. You want to be just far enough away that you can safely charge the Splatling, but close enough that you can easily affect the game with your charge. However it's a bit more complicated than that with Hydra.
An important thing about Hydra's positioning to keep in mind is the main's inherent slowness. Because it lacks the Charger class's chargehold or the fast strafing speed of its Splatling siblings, the Hydra needs to take positions that are easy to move in and into. That is to say, positions that dont require it to drop charge when repositioning. The grates on Crableg Capital are a good example. While the Snipe is the most common backline position on Crableg, repositioning from there almost always requires you to climb a wall, forcing you to drop your charge. However if you go to the left and sit on the platform between the grate bridges instead, you can simply walk across the middle grates or drop down when you need to move. This lets you charge as you reposition, mitigating your downtime.
As a general rule of thumb, all the Hydra Splatling really needs is a block to hide behind and a clear line of sight to do its job. For this reason, you can take more unusual positions with it and be more forward than the average backline. In fact, being flexible with your positioning is key as it's very common for the usual perches to get flooded with bombs and specials, especially if the enemy team is particularly short-ranged. Not to say that the common backline positions are bad, just that a predictable Hydra is very easy to counter. Mix up your positioning, keep your enemies guessing!
To help with holding more vulnerable positions, do not get attached to the idea of a fully charged Hydra! The Hydra Splatling's partial charge is quite comparable to the Heavy Splatling's fullcharge and is just as deadly. Use partials to set up your safe zone and ward away any short-ranged weapons that think they can rush you down. The Hydra's full charge is like a reward for good positioning. Once you've "set up shop" you can start walling people out with your 600 DPS laser of death and destruction. During this rain of bullets, your teammates should then hopefully swoop in to claim the turf you've opened up, letting you move up and repeat the process. If not then simply charge and try again. Patience is key as you do not want to move up on your own with Hydra if you can at all help it.
A very simplified Hydra Splatling gameplan goes like this:
The kits
The Hydra Splatling's two kits are about as different as you can get and offer very different options for the main. In short the vanilla kit's Autobomb/Booyah Bomb combo gives Hydra tools that lets it be more supportive and team-focused, while the Custom kit's Ink Mine/Splattercolor Screen allows the main to be more aggressive and self-sufficient.
So to start off strong, the Autobomb is the star of the vanilla kit. It is a cheap lethal bomb with the ability to locate enemies. The location tool is quite valuable when repositioning, letting you know for sure if doing so is safe or not. The fact that Auto is lethal also makes it very useful in clearing ledges, something that Hydra struggles to do on its own. These are the Autobomb's primary utilities for Hydra.
The downside to Autobomb is that you can't really use it alongside the Hydra itself. You can't have the Autobomb chasing people while you're shooting at them, the Hydra doesn't charge fast enough for that. While the sub does do things for Hydra, it's at it's most useful when used alongside your teammates. Whenever you're in a position where you can't get a charge going fast enough to help your teammates, you can chuck an Autobomb into their fight instead. The Autobomb can often splat someone when they're too busy fighting someone else. The Autobomb in a sense is a way to extend your uptime, which is especially important with this kit because your special takes the Hydra away from the game for a moment.
Booyah Bomb is funnily enough the weakest part of the kit due to the above reason. You want the Hydra itself to be in the game as much as possible, so the charge time of Booyah Bomb alongside it rooting you to one spot is a little iffy to work with. All of this and the actual Booyah Bomb itself also expands too fast for Hydra to get a charge going during it.
And that's the thing; like with Autobomb, the Booyah Bomb is not something you use alongside the main. It's something to help your teammates. Much like how Hydra's fullcharge can give your teammates an opening to push, Booyah Bomb does the same without the having to wait as long to charge (assuming your teammates help you out). Booyah Bomb can also stall an enemy's push when you're in a disadvantaged position, forcing them away from a certain area and giving you a smokescreen for retreating.
The vanilla kit is the more passive and team-dependent one. I highly recommend using this kit in a team setting where you can communicate your Booyah Bomb placements and when you have a charge going etc. This kit still works fine in soloq, but you can really feel the need for teammates that know how to capitalise on Hydra's strengths with it.
If you want to be more independant and really dominate the battlefield on your own, then the Custom kit has you covered. The Ink Mine is like an inverse of the vanilla kit's Autobomb. Instead of making sure the path ahead of you is safe, the Mines make sure your back is secure. Place it on flank routes to make sure no one sneaks up on you! If the Mines go off, that's your cue to flick your aim there and fire. The indirect damage from even a single Ink Mine turns Hydra's partial charge into a 3-shot. Few weapons can take you out without trading in that situation. You should also place Ink Mines as you move up since they can help secure your retreat, keeping it painted and discouraging people from giving chase. Make sure to keep the Mines relatively far away from yourself though so you do have enough time to react to them going off.
What really unlocks the Hydra's aggressive potential is the Splattercolor Screen. While it's not exactly a protective wall, it does provide Hydra with a smokescreen to hide its approach. You can either stick close to the Screen and move forward or stay further back and reposition sideways. Either way, the Screen serves as a way to mix up your positioning and threaten an aggressive push. It also works twice as well if you have an aggressive frontline to move alongside your wall, making it even more difficult for the enemy team to pin you down. When you walk behind your Screen, remember that it speeds up near the end of its duration! Have a destination in mind when you pop your special.
Another more niche use for the Splattercolour Screen is as a way to "chase" an enemy. Did you unleash a partial charge on an enemy that managed to just barely run away? No worries, chuck a Splattercolour Screen on them! The Screen itself does a solid 40 points of damage, more than enough to finish off anyone that was hit by just 2 of your many, many bullets.
Even with all this said, you can still use Screen as a way to support your teammates and hang back. Either way works. This is a very versatile special.
In my humble opinion Hydra is perhaps the most difficult weapon to use with the Screen. It doesn't have active location tools or poking tools like the other Screen weapons, but in exchange it has one of the most threatening main weapons in the game. Still, effectively using Screen with Hydra requires a lot of awareness of your enemies positioning and knowledge of how they'd react to Screen activating.
Effectively using the Custom Hydra Splatling involves playing it more like a midline than a backline, always keeping the pressure up with the main and using a combination of Ink Mines and Splattercolour Screen to keep pushes going. This kit is technically easier to use in soloq, but it is generally more difficult to learn than the vanilla kit.
Matchups
Much like the main itself, Hydra's matchups are pretty extreme. It all boils down to one question: Does the Hydra outrange them?
If Hydra does outrange the enemy, then it's a favourable matchup. The Hydra Splatling easily bullies anything shorter-ranged than itself. This includes Shooters, Sloshers, Rollers, Brushes, other Splatlings and so on. The more Hydra outranges it, the more lopsided the matchup. That being said, there are a couple weapons I want to highlight here.
Ballpoint Splatling. While Hydra does outrange the Ballpoint, it is not by much. Ballpoint vs Hydra is probably one of the more even matchups in the game. Ballpoint has better mobility and ink efficiency, but it shoots much slower and does less damage. Hydra shoots faster and does more damage, but is slower and more ink-hungry. Often the fight between the two is decided by who saw who first. Always keep the enemy Ballpoint's position in the back of your head.
Explosher. Hydra outranges Explo quite comfortably. However, the Explosher is very good at painting Hydra's feet, making it easier for the weapon's teammates and the Explo itself to deal with Hydra. Make sure to exploit its endlag with partials.
Blasters. Hydra can easily wall these weapons out, but if one manages to slip past your defenses then they can quickly take you out. One-shot Blasters of course only need the one-shot to deal with Hydra, but even the other Blasters like the Rapids can trap Hydra by painting its feet. Always be vigilant around a Blaster.
Tenta Brella. This is not a weapon that Hydra struggles against. However, it is a weapon that can very easily pressure your short-ranged teammates. Taking down the Tenta Brella shield is time-consuming, but if you can get a full charge going, that shield will melt. Try to deal with the shield whenever you can, as that will make your teammates' job easier, which in turn will make your job easier.
Dealing with short-ranged weapons is all fine and good, but what about weapons that outrange Hydra? Well first, let's list all the weapons that outrange Hydra in the first place:
Splat Charger/Splatterscope
E-Liter 4K/E-liter 4K Scope
Snipewriter
Tri-Stringer
While it's not a long list, these weapons are still fairly common and can all splat in 1-2 shots. These weapons can easily take out Hydra in a 1-on-1 fight. That's the key here, you should never take these weapons on alone. Splatoon is a team-based game and Hydra especially is a team-reliant weapon. While your teammates are poking at the enemy sniper, move forward using any cover to your advantage and shoot them down. The Chargers and Tri-Stringer need to be very precise with their aim and if they're already dealing with your teammate then they likely wont have enough time to aim at you before going down.
But in the case of your teammates not poking the snipers, then it's a matter of waiting. The Chargers and Stringer have to let loose their charge at some point. As long as you stay patiently behind cover and wait for them to slip up, victory is yours. Move in while they're not looking and only let go of your own charge when you're certain you're in range.
Alternatively, you could try to use the vanilla Hydra's Autobombs to signal to your team where the enemy sniper is and that your chicken is distracting them. Note that the Autobomb likely will not displace them for long due to how easy it is for the enemy to manipulate its detonation time.
Another common way people might try to deal with a Hydra is with specials. While a lot of the time the answer is to simply "Dodge, lmao. Just react." There are some that the Hydra can directly deal with.
Inkjet is perhaps the easiest special to deal with. Just shoot lol. Inkjet needs to be quite close to you in order to reliably hit its target, so shoot at it with your partials and you can often take it out or at the very least trade. Still, try to hover around cover to minimize the chances that it'll get a direct hit on you.
Booyah Bomb can be dealt with easily if you have a full charge. Its armour melts beneath Hydra's fire and the inkfish under it will disintegrate afterwards. However, getting a full charge in time can be tricky. You can often still break the Booyah Bomb armour with just partials, so most of the time it's worth it to just break the armour and retreat. In an ideal situation, you'll have a teammate that can capitalize on the now vulnerable enemy.
Big Bubbler can be an annoying special for your teammates to deal with, but its weak spot is very easy for Hydra to exploit. You don't even need a full charge to break a Bubble a lot of the time! This special is definitely something you should deal with as soon as possible whenever it pops up.
Ultra Stamp. Even with all of the fixes and buffs it has gotten, the special is a piece of cake for Hydra to deal with. Remember to aim for the lower half of the Stamp user. Not at their face and not at the floor, but right inbetween. It can be tricky to figure out at first, but becomes second nature as soon as you get it.
These are perhaps the most notable of the specials Hydra can deal with, but there are plenty of other specials you can also end early though it's not always worth it. Specials like Crab Tank, Ink Vac and Triple Splashdown can be broken, but it's risky. You're better off trying that if you know you're safe from it and/or you know that they're unaware of your presence.
Other
For all of its strength and uptime, there are situations where Hydra will struggle regardless of its charge level. Being a line-of-sight weapon, the Hydra has issues dealing with weapons hiding under ledges. Rollers and especially Splatanas can prove to be a problem. The vanilla Hydra can flush them out using the Autobomb, but this still does not solve the issue as Hydra cannot follow up on it. The Custom kit will struggle even more due to the lack of a throwable bomb or a lethal special. In this situation you have to try and get your teammates to help out. The This Way! command the game gives you is the best way to try and get their attention. Of course, soloq teammates won't always listen to it or even notice it. In that situation, the best thing you can do is to arc your shots and hit the enemies with fall-off. Hydra's fall-off penalty isn't too bad and it shoots so many bullets that it's risky even for Splatanas to stay hidden.
Learning how the Splatling bullets arc in general can be very handy for flushing enemies out of a variety of hiding spots.
A sad reality of every soloq backline player is the fact that Splatoon 3 likes pairing them with other backlines. Learning how to play in a double backline setting is thus a very very important skill. Always be ready to play more aggressively as more often than not you're better equipped to go aggro than the other backline. Never stay in the same area as the other backline. You will step on each other's toes. In some maps like Museum d'Alfonsino and Um'ami Ruins that can be difficult, but even those maps have a wide enough snipe or some other area for you to maintain a solid gap between you and your teammate. The Hydra Splatling is a perfectly capable midline weapon as well, so you can often take a position further up.
There are only a couple of backlines that can play the midline role better/more reliably than you, which are:
- Heavy Splatling
- Custom explosher (is generally more flexible)
- Jet Squelcher
If one of these is your backline teammate, you can almost certainly keep playing as you usually would. Being flexible will be important regardless as in a double backline setting, having an impenetrable defence is vital. Going down even once can have fatal consequences.
Gear
Like its fellow Splatlings, there are some abilities that the Hydra Splatling must have. However, this weapon does have quite a bit of gear freedom and there are a couple of ways you could build it.
To start things off, two of the must-have abilities for Hydra are of course Run Speed Up and Ink Resistance Up. The standard for any Splatling. 1 main and 3 subs of RSU as well as 1 sub of IRU is the minimum amount that I recommend. Besides those two abilities, I also highly recommend putting 1 sub of Ink Saver Main on any Hydra build as that one sub will let you fully charge the Hydra 3 times as opposed to just 2. The amount of value this one sub alone gives cannot be overstated.
Besides these abilities, the rest of your gear slots could be whatever, but here are two build types I want to get more in-depth with.
Mobility builds
This type of build focuses on minimizing Hydra's movement penalties and is thus the most popular Hydra build type. Mobility builds usually add a main of Swim Speed Up alongside extra Run Speed Up subs to help even out the heavyweight penalties. Besides Swim Speed, mobility builds also add extra subs of Ink Resistance Up, though usually no more than 1. 2 subs of Quick Super Jump and Intensify Action are also very common in these builds. QSJ works as a safety net of sorts, letting Hydra jump out when it has pushed up too quickly, while IA helps with pushing through patches of enemy ink.
If you're unsure of how you like to play Hydra, this is a good build type to start with and then customize as you get more used to the weapon.
Object Shredder builds
OS Hydra is an interesting build archetype in that its popularity depends entirely on what else is currently popular. If objects are common, so is OS Hydra. Hydra on its own can melt through objects even without Object Shredder, but it can struggle againts multiple high-HP objects at the same time like Big Bubbler + Tenta Brella shield. This is especially true if it cannot get a full charge going. Object Shredder helps lessen the need for a full charge, though it's good to note that Hydra's OS multipliers are bad. For example, with OS, Hydra's multiplier againts Big Bubbler goes from x1 to x1.1. Object Shredder also does not affect Brella shields.
OS can be a good option if you find objects overbearing and Hydra can run plenty of other abilities alongside it. However, it is not something that will completely turn the tide againts objects.
Other notable abilities for Hydra include:
Last-Ditch Effort: Hydra is perfectly ink-efficient considering what it likes to do, so LDE isn't usually needed. However, for Zones it's not too uncommon to see vanilla Hydra run this in order to more effectively use its Autobombs.
Opening Gambit: This seemingly odd ability has been gaining a fair bit of popularity among Hydra players. This ability boosts Hydra's mobility and is an especially good fit for aggressive playstyles. Custom Hydra is the primary user of this ability since it can use it's kit to better defend itself. However both kits can work with OG.
Before we close out this section, I'd like to mention one ability that is immensely popular despite being pretty bad for Hydra:
Respawn Punisher
Regardless of your opinion on the ability, there's no doubt that it's perhaps the most popular main-exclusive ability for soloq Hydras. Hydra's goal is to take out enemies, so an ability that keeps it's enemies out of the game for longer might seem tempting. Respawn Punisher's downsides far outweight the positives though because if Hydra gets taken out then its team will be left without an anchor for long periods of time.
Of course one might say "just dont get splatted, lol", but then Hydra's own downsides come into play. There are many ways to displace a Hydra in Splatoon 3 and even ways to suddenly explode out of nowhere (Zooka, Chargers, etc.). The downsides of Respawn Punisher are simply unavoidable.
A lot of times using RP with Hydra leads to passive play that makes pushing more difficult and punishable. RP Hydra ends up being even more team-reliant than non-RP Hydra with even more extreme downsides and slightly higher upsides. In soloq especially you want to be as independent as possible, which makes RP clash with Hydra that much more.
Closing
The Hydra Splatling is definitely one of the more unique weapons in the game. It's relatively easy to pick up, if you're already familiar with backlines and/or Splatlings. The feeling of power it gives when mastered is matched by nothing else and learning how to reach those highs is quite fun in my humble opinion. A beginner's weapon this isn't and if you're not already familiar with backlines, it might feel a little rough.
But even if reading this didn't get you interested in playing the weapon, I hope that you at least understand your Hydra teammates better! Proper teamwork with a Hydra will elevate your gameplay to the next level, regardless of the weapon you play.
I'm Quag, one of Squidboards's resident Splatling enjoyers and the loudest of the spinners. It's been a long time coming, but I'm finally here to talk about the Hydra Splatling and how to play this big beautiful spinny gun.
For some more context on me, I am a Splatling flex for a div 9 team and have been playing Splatoon competitively for well over a year now. I have been playing since Splatoon 1, though I did skip Splatoon 2. I have played the Hydra Splatling near-obsessively for pretty much the entire lifespan of Splatoon 3. While I am most certainly not the best Hydra player around, I am definitely knowledgeable enough on the weapon to help any aspiring spinners get started.
Though regardless of my competitive experience, I am writing this guide from the perspective of using Hydra in soloq. A lot of this does still carry over to competitive due to the nature of the weapon.
Basics
The Hydra Splatling is the slow heavyweight of the Splatling class. It has the slowest strafing speed of any Splatling both while charging and firing. On top of that it needs to charge for 2 seconds to reach its maximum range and 2.5 seconds total to finish charging. With half a charge, the Hydra Splatling fires for 2.1 seconds, roughly, with each bullet doing 32 damage. Very standard for Splatlings, however the full charge is where the magic happens. Fully charging the Hydra allows one to fire for a whopping 4.33 seconds with each bullet doing 40 damage. This turns the Hydra Splatling from a 4-shot-splat weapon to a 3-shot. In fact, the Hydra is the only Splatling in the game capable of splatting an opponent in 3 bullets. This damage boost gives Hydra the highest DPS in the game at 600 per second.
For reference, the Heavy Splatling needs to charge for 1.25 seconds for a full charge which only lasts for 2.4 seconds. A fully-charged Hydra can fire for nearly twice as long as a Heavy.
Besides its firing time and damage, the Hydra Splatling is also defined by its range. It is the longest-ranged Splatling, barely outranging the Ballpoint Splatling's long-ranged mode. Hydra is also one of the longest-ranged weapons in the game, period. We'll get into the weapons that outrange Hydra later on.
However, it's important to note that the Hydra Splatling only reaches it's maximum range after the weapon is charged halfway aka to the first ring. From this point on when I mention partials, I am specifically talking about charging to the first ring.
Of course, no weapon is without its downsides and the Hydra Splatling has perhaps the most extreme downsides in the game. As mentioned earlier, Hydra is the slowest of the Splatlings. While not charging, the Hydra moves at a rate of 0.06 units per frame. This is the same as the .52 Gal's strafing speed. While charging, Hydra's strafing speed drops to just 0.044 units, well below even the slowest of Shooters.
All of this is without even mentioning the fact that unlike the Shooters, Hydra is a heavyweight weapon, meaning that it also has impaired swimming speed. This is not a weapon you can use to physically chase people down with. You must use your range to your advantage at all times.
Besides mobility, Hydra is also tied with the Snipewriter for the most ink-hungry weapon in the game. Each fullcharge takes a hefty 35% bite out of your ink tank. Without any gear investment, you can only fully charge twice, so you must make each charge count. This combined with the value of each charge also means that you don't end up using your sub weapon very often. The Hydra Splatling is a very main-focused weapon, so making sure to master juggling the upsides with the downsides is key to getting good with this behemoth.
Gameplay
An important thing to know before picking up the Hydra Splatling is that the weapon is very team-dependent. For this reason it might be a little challenging to use in soloq. However there is a lot you can do to make games smoother.
With the Hydra Splatling you are the team's anchor. You should always be the last one standing if you can at all help it as your team will rely on you for safe jumps. Besides staying alive, your other objective is to take out any opponents in your range. Ideally you'll have teammates that herd opponents out of hiding by either engaging in fights with them or poking them with bombs. Even if this doesn't happen, Hydra's full charge lasts long enough for you to flush them out yourself and then finish them off.
While the Hydra Splatling is good at painting and can keep up paint pressure for a long time, you should not pick this weapon for its paint. Hydra paints in bursts with a lot of time between them. Often you'll have your turf painted over by the time you get a second charge going. Painting with your charge should always be a byproduct of your slaying. At most you want to make sure the area around you and the teammates in your range is painted your colour, but even this is only a secondary objective.
If you can get a fullcharge going, you can also work as a pseudo-entry tool for your team. Always remember that the Hydra Splatling can reliably win 1v4s when fully charged. Sometimes it's better to hold your ground and shoot when you're at a disadvantage.
Because of its long range, the Hydra Splatling is considered a backline weapon. The key component to any backline's gameplan is positioning and Hydra is no different. You want to be just far enough away that you can safely charge the Splatling, but close enough that you can easily affect the game with your charge. However it's a bit more complicated than that with Hydra.
An important thing about Hydra's positioning to keep in mind is the main's inherent slowness. Because it lacks the Charger class's chargehold or the fast strafing speed of its Splatling siblings, the Hydra needs to take positions that are easy to move in and into. That is to say, positions that dont require it to drop charge when repositioning. The grates on Crableg Capital are a good example. While the Snipe is the most common backline position on Crableg, repositioning from there almost always requires you to climb a wall, forcing you to drop your charge. However if you go to the left and sit on the platform between the grate bridges instead, you can simply walk across the middle grates or drop down when you need to move. This lets you charge as you reposition, mitigating your downtime.
As a general rule of thumb, all the Hydra Splatling really needs is a block to hide behind and a clear line of sight to do its job. For this reason, you can take more unusual positions with it and be more forward than the average backline. In fact, being flexible with your positioning is key as it's very common for the usual perches to get flooded with bombs and specials, especially if the enemy team is particularly short-ranged. Not to say that the common backline positions are bad, just that a predictable Hydra is very easy to counter. Mix up your positioning, keep your enemies guessing!
To help with holding more vulnerable positions, do not get attached to the idea of a fully charged Hydra! The Hydra Splatling's partial charge is quite comparable to the Heavy Splatling's fullcharge and is just as deadly. Use partials to set up your safe zone and ward away any short-ranged weapons that think they can rush you down. The Hydra's full charge is like a reward for good positioning. Once you've "set up shop" you can start walling people out with your 600 DPS laser of death and destruction. During this rain of bullets, your teammates should then hopefully swoop in to claim the turf you've opened up, letting you move up and repeat the process. If not then simply charge and try again. Patience is key as you do not want to move up on your own with Hydra if you can at all help it.
A very simplified Hydra Splatling gameplan goes like this:
- Get into position with partials
- Get fullcharge and make space
- Get into position with partials
- Get fullcharge and make space
- etc.
The kits
The Hydra Splatling's two kits are about as different as you can get and offer very different options for the main. In short the vanilla kit's Autobomb/Booyah Bomb combo gives Hydra tools that lets it be more supportive and team-focused, while the Custom kit's Ink Mine/Splattercolor Screen allows the main to be more aggressive and self-sufficient.
So to start off strong, the Autobomb is the star of the vanilla kit. It is a cheap lethal bomb with the ability to locate enemies. The location tool is quite valuable when repositioning, letting you know for sure if doing so is safe or not. The fact that Auto is lethal also makes it very useful in clearing ledges, something that Hydra struggles to do on its own. These are the Autobomb's primary utilities for Hydra.
The downside to Autobomb is that you can't really use it alongside the Hydra itself. You can't have the Autobomb chasing people while you're shooting at them, the Hydra doesn't charge fast enough for that. While the sub does do things for Hydra, it's at it's most useful when used alongside your teammates. Whenever you're in a position where you can't get a charge going fast enough to help your teammates, you can chuck an Autobomb into their fight instead. The Autobomb can often splat someone when they're too busy fighting someone else. The Autobomb in a sense is a way to extend your uptime, which is especially important with this kit because your special takes the Hydra away from the game for a moment.
Booyah Bomb is funnily enough the weakest part of the kit due to the above reason. You want the Hydra itself to be in the game as much as possible, so the charge time of Booyah Bomb alongside it rooting you to one spot is a little iffy to work with. All of this and the actual Booyah Bomb itself also expands too fast for Hydra to get a charge going during it.
And that's the thing; like with Autobomb, the Booyah Bomb is not something you use alongside the main. It's something to help your teammates. Much like how Hydra's fullcharge can give your teammates an opening to push, Booyah Bomb does the same without the having to wait as long to charge (assuming your teammates help you out). Booyah Bomb can also stall an enemy's push when you're in a disadvantaged position, forcing them away from a certain area and giving you a smokescreen for retreating.
The vanilla kit is the more passive and team-dependent one. I highly recommend using this kit in a team setting where you can communicate your Booyah Bomb placements and when you have a charge going etc. This kit still works fine in soloq, but you can really feel the need for teammates that know how to capitalise on Hydra's strengths with it.
If you want to be more independant and really dominate the battlefield on your own, then the Custom kit has you covered. The Ink Mine is like an inverse of the vanilla kit's Autobomb. Instead of making sure the path ahead of you is safe, the Mines make sure your back is secure. Place it on flank routes to make sure no one sneaks up on you! If the Mines go off, that's your cue to flick your aim there and fire. The indirect damage from even a single Ink Mine turns Hydra's partial charge into a 3-shot. Few weapons can take you out without trading in that situation. You should also place Ink Mines as you move up since they can help secure your retreat, keeping it painted and discouraging people from giving chase. Make sure to keep the Mines relatively far away from yourself though so you do have enough time to react to them going off.
What really unlocks the Hydra's aggressive potential is the Splattercolor Screen. While it's not exactly a protective wall, it does provide Hydra with a smokescreen to hide its approach. You can either stick close to the Screen and move forward or stay further back and reposition sideways. Either way, the Screen serves as a way to mix up your positioning and threaten an aggressive push. It also works twice as well if you have an aggressive frontline to move alongside your wall, making it even more difficult for the enemy team to pin you down. When you walk behind your Screen, remember that it speeds up near the end of its duration! Have a destination in mind when you pop your special.
Another more niche use for the Splattercolour Screen is as a way to "chase" an enemy. Did you unleash a partial charge on an enemy that managed to just barely run away? No worries, chuck a Splattercolour Screen on them! The Screen itself does a solid 40 points of damage, more than enough to finish off anyone that was hit by just 2 of your many, many bullets.
Even with all this said, you can still use Screen as a way to support your teammates and hang back. Either way works. This is a very versatile special.
In my humble opinion Hydra is perhaps the most difficult weapon to use with the Screen. It doesn't have active location tools or poking tools like the other Screen weapons, but in exchange it has one of the most threatening main weapons in the game. Still, effectively using Screen with Hydra requires a lot of awareness of your enemies positioning and knowledge of how they'd react to Screen activating.
Effectively using the Custom Hydra Splatling involves playing it more like a midline than a backline, always keeping the pressure up with the main and using a combination of Ink Mines and Splattercolour Screen to keep pushes going. This kit is technically easier to use in soloq, but it is generally more difficult to learn than the vanilla kit.
Matchups
Much like the main itself, Hydra's matchups are pretty extreme. It all boils down to one question: Does the Hydra outrange them?
If Hydra does outrange the enemy, then it's a favourable matchup. The Hydra Splatling easily bullies anything shorter-ranged than itself. This includes Shooters, Sloshers, Rollers, Brushes, other Splatlings and so on. The more Hydra outranges it, the more lopsided the matchup. That being said, there are a couple weapons I want to highlight here.
Ballpoint Splatling. While Hydra does outrange the Ballpoint, it is not by much. Ballpoint vs Hydra is probably one of the more even matchups in the game. Ballpoint has better mobility and ink efficiency, but it shoots much slower and does less damage. Hydra shoots faster and does more damage, but is slower and more ink-hungry. Often the fight between the two is decided by who saw who first. Always keep the enemy Ballpoint's position in the back of your head.
Explosher. Hydra outranges Explo quite comfortably. However, the Explosher is very good at painting Hydra's feet, making it easier for the weapon's teammates and the Explo itself to deal with Hydra. Make sure to exploit its endlag with partials.
Blasters. Hydra can easily wall these weapons out, but if one manages to slip past your defenses then they can quickly take you out. One-shot Blasters of course only need the one-shot to deal with Hydra, but even the other Blasters like the Rapids can trap Hydra by painting its feet. Always be vigilant around a Blaster.
Tenta Brella. This is not a weapon that Hydra struggles against. However, it is a weapon that can very easily pressure your short-ranged teammates. Taking down the Tenta Brella shield is time-consuming, but if you can get a full charge going, that shield will melt. Try to deal with the shield whenever you can, as that will make your teammates' job easier, which in turn will make your job easier.
Dealing with short-ranged weapons is all fine and good, but what about weapons that outrange Hydra? Well first, let's list all the weapons that outrange Hydra in the first place:
Splat Charger/Splatterscope
E-Liter 4K/E-liter 4K Scope
Snipewriter
Tri-Stringer
While it's not a long list, these weapons are still fairly common and can all splat in 1-2 shots. These weapons can easily take out Hydra in a 1-on-1 fight. That's the key here, you should never take these weapons on alone. Splatoon is a team-based game and Hydra especially is a team-reliant weapon. While your teammates are poking at the enemy sniper, move forward using any cover to your advantage and shoot them down. The Chargers and Tri-Stringer need to be very precise with their aim and if they're already dealing with your teammate then they likely wont have enough time to aim at you before going down.
But in the case of your teammates not poking the snipers, then it's a matter of waiting. The Chargers and Stringer have to let loose their charge at some point. As long as you stay patiently behind cover and wait for them to slip up, victory is yours. Move in while they're not looking and only let go of your own charge when you're certain you're in range.
Alternatively, you could try to use the vanilla Hydra's Autobombs to signal to your team where the enemy sniper is and that your chicken is distracting them. Note that the Autobomb likely will not displace them for long due to how easy it is for the enemy to manipulate its detonation time.
Another common way people might try to deal with a Hydra is with specials. While a lot of the time the answer is to simply "Dodge, lmao. Just react." There are some that the Hydra can directly deal with.
Inkjet is perhaps the easiest special to deal with. Just shoot lol. Inkjet needs to be quite close to you in order to reliably hit its target, so shoot at it with your partials and you can often take it out or at the very least trade. Still, try to hover around cover to minimize the chances that it'll get a direct hit on you.
Booyah Bomb can be dealt with easily if you have a full charge. Its armour melts beneath Hydra's fire and the inkfish under it will disintegrate afterwards. However, getting a full charge in time can be tricky. You can often still break the Booyah Bomb armour with just partials, so most of the time it's worth it to just break the armour and retreat. In an ideal situation, you'll have a teammate that can capitalize on the now vulnerable enemy.
Big Bubbler can be an annoying special for your teammates to deal with, but its weak spot is very easy for Hydra to exploit. You don't even need a full charge to break a Bubble a lot of the time! This special is definitely something you should deal with as soon as possible whenever it pops up.
Ultra Stamp. Even with all of the fixes and buffs it has gotten, the special is a piece of cake for Hydra to deal with. Remember to aim for the lower half of the Stamp user. Not at their face and not at the floor, but right inbetween. It can be tricky to figure out at first, but becomes second nature as soon as you get it.
These are perhaps the most notable of the specials Hydra can deal with, but there are plenty of other specials you can also end early though it's not always worth it. Specials like Crab Tank, Ink Vac and Triple Splashdown can be broken, but it's risky. You're better off trying that if you know you're safe from it and/or you know that they're unaware of your presence.
Other
For all of its strength and uptime, there are situations where Hydra will struggle regardless of its charge level. Being a line-of-sight weapon, the Hydra has issues dealing with weapons hiding under ledges. Rollers and especially Splatanas can prove to be a problem. The vanilla Hydra can flush them out using the Autobomb, but this still does not solve the issue as Hydra cannot follow up on it. The Custom kit will struggle even more due to the lack of a throwable bomb or a lethal special. In this situation you have to try and get your teammates to help out. The This Way! command the game gives you is the best way to try and get their attention. Of course, soloq teammates won't always listen to it or even notice it. In that situation, the best thing you can do is to arc your shots and hit the enemies with fall-off. Hydra's fall-off penalty isn't too bad and it shoots so many bullets that it's risky even for Splatanas to stay hidden.
Learning how the Splatling bullets arc in general can be very handy for flushing enemies out of a variety of hiding spots.
A sad reality of every soloq backline player is the fact that Splatoon 3 likes pairing them with other backlines. Learning how to play in a double backline setting is thus a very very important skill. Always be ready to play more aggressively as more often than not you're better equipped to go aggro than the other backline. Never stay in the same area as the other backline. You will step on each other's toes. In some maps like Museum d'Alfonsino and Um'ami Ruins that can be difficult, but even those maps have a wide enough snipe or some other area for you to maintain a solid gap between you and your teammate. The Hydra Splatling is a perfectly capable midline weapon as well, so you can often take a position further up.
There are only a couple of backlines that can play the midline role better/more reliably than you, which are:
- Heavy Splatling
- Custom explosher (is generally more flexible)
- Jet Squelcher
If one of these is your backline teammate, you can almost certainly keep playing as you usually would. Being flexible will be important regardless as in a double backline setting, having an impenetrable defence is vital. Going down even once can have fatal consequences.
Gear
Like its fellow Splatlings, there are some abilities that the Hydra Splatling must have. However, this weapon does have quite a bit of gear freedom and there are a couple of ways you could build it.
To start things off, two of the must-have abilities for Hydra are of course Run Speed Up and Ink Resistance Up. The standard for any Splatling. 1 main and 3 subs of RSU as well as 1 sub of IRU is the minimum amount that I recommend. Besides those two abilities, I also highly recommend putting 1 sub of Ink Saver Main on any Hydra build as that one sub will let you fully charge the Hydra 3 times as opposed to just 2. The amount of value this one sub alone gives cannot be overstated.
Besides these abilities, the rest of your gear slots could be whatever, but here are two build types I want to get more in-depth with.
Mobility builds
This type of build focuses on minimizing Hydra's movement penalties and is thus the most popular Hydra build type. Mobility builds usually add a main of Swim Speed Up alongside extra Run Speed Up subs to help even out the heavyweight penalties. Besides Swim Speed, mobility builds also add extra subs of Ink Resistance Up, though usually no more than 1. 2 subs of Quick Super Jump and Intensify Action are also very common in these builds. QSJ works as a safety net of sorts, letting Hydra jump out when it has pushed up too quickly, while IA helps with pushing through patches of enemy ink.
If you're unsure of how you like to play Hydra, this is a good build type to start with and then customize as you get more used to the weapon.
Object Shredder builds
OS Hydra is an interesting build archetype in that its popularity depends entirely on what else is currently popular. If objects are common, so is OS Hydra. Hydra on its own can melt through objects even without Object Shredder, but it can struggle againts multiple high-HP objects at the same time like Big Bubbler + Tenta Brella shield. This is especially true if it cannot get a full charge going. Object Shredder helps lessen the need for a full charge, though it's good to note that Hydra's OS multipliers are bad. For example, with OS, Hydra's multiplier againts Big Bubbler goes from x1 to x1.1. Object Shredder also does not affect Brella shields.
OS can be a good option if you find objects overbearing and Hydra can run plenty of other abilities alongside it. However, it is not something that will completely turn the tide againts objects.
Other notable abilities for Hydra include:
Last-Ditch Effort: Hydra is perfectly ink-efficient considering what it likes to do, so LDE isn't usually needed. However, for Zones it's not too uncommon to see vanilla Hydra run this in order to more effectively use its Autobombs.
Opening Gambit: This seemingly odd ability has been gaining a fair bit of popularity among Hydra players. This ability boosts Hydra's mobility and is an especially good fit for aggressive playstyles. Custom Hydra is the primary user of this ability since it can use it's kit to better defend itself. However both kits can work with OG.
Before we close out this section, I'd like to mention one ability that is immensely popular despite being pretty bad for Hydra:
Respawn Punisher
Regardless of your opinion on the ability, there's no doubt that it's perhaps the most popular main-exclusive ability for soloq Hydras. Hydra's goal is to take out enemies, so an ability that keeps it's enemies out of the game for longer might seem tempting. Respawn Punisher's downsides far outweight the positives though because if Hydra gets taken out then its team will be left without an anchor for long periods of time.
Of course one might say "just dont get splatted, lol", but then Hydra's own downsides come into play. There are many ways to displace a Hydra in Splatoon 3 and even ways to suddenly explode out of nowhere (Zooka, Chargers, etc.). The downsides of Respawn Punisher are simply unavoidable.
A lot of times using RP with Hydra leads to passive play that makes pushing more difficult and punishable. RP Hydra ends up being even more team-reliant than non-RP Hydra with even more extreme downsides and slightly higher upsides. In soloq especially you want to be as independent as possible, which makes RP clash with Hydra that much more.
Closing
The Hydra Splatling is definitely one of the more unique weapons in the game. It's relatively easy to pick up, if you're already familiar with backlines and/or Splatlings. The feeling of power it gives when mastered is matched by nothing else and learning how to reach those highs is quite fun in my humble opinion. A beginner's weapon this isn't and if you're not already familiar with backlines, it might feel a little rough.
But even if reading this didn't get you interested in playing the weapon, I hope that you at least understand your Hydra teammates better! Proper teamwork with a Hydra will elevate your gameplay to the next level, regardless of the weapon you play.
