Custom Hydra Splatling Guide

Very nice guide! I really can tell you put a lot effort into it. Before I read this guide I was terrible with this weapon and I highly disliked it, but after reading this I started doing much better. I really like how much you put in abilities. It's nice to find such a comprehensive guide on a weapon that's fairly underused. The only thing I think it could use is map setups. Aside from that it's amazing!

What's written here is vera vera good, but it's lacking in ranked tips, leaving it feeling a bit too general. Was checking to see if we had a hydra guide before thinking further into writing one m'self, and I guess I could do one for both/just vanilla hydra, but you have the custom fairly well covered.

ONE tidbit I want to yammer on about is a few of ability suggestions.(so feel free to throw this out the window if you so choose xD).

First, swim speed. I run it specifically for the reason you stated, to beat the nerfs, but I think you are down playing how good that really is. Squiding is omni-important(ez dat important brotha' =p) when I need to swim away from aggressive squids I don't think I can take on, when I am the only one in position to grab and advance the rainmaker, and even silly times where I try to out-maneuver an in-my-face tentatek(50% success rate, I actually don't recommend it unless you are crazy/bored). The nerf was basically a drop kick to the groin for my play style, the weight of this friggin' gun is acting as a literal ball and chain, and has deepened the chasm that is my hatred of mahi mahi. WHY DO SQUID DIE IN WATER NINTENDO?!? WHY?!??? HNNNNNNNNNNNNNN-

Second, and less fact/more opinionated would be I rarely use charge up( I like the sunny day shirt tho...) The amount of turf this behemoth covers is already quite adequate for getting the bubbler up the few times I tend to use bubbler in a match, combine that with the power of president sprinkler and I can get bubbler up in... less than 30 seconds? I haven't timed it, but it feels really fast. I get by without it, but thats purely my opinion/preference.

Speaking of opinion, numba three. Ink-efficiency/recovery.
I never touch the stuff(well, maybe sub saver once a blue moon).
My reasoning is it already covers crazy amounts of turf with three full charges(thus no main saver), if I don't kill my attackers with 1 and 1/2 charge I'm probably already dead(thus no ink recovery), and I like to stay out of scenarios where I have to clutch throw a sprinkler(almost never sub saver). THAT BEING SAID, I definately tried out all of these in many matches back before the custom came out, and I like to think they helped me learn the nuances of hydra's ink consumtion. Also, your point about getting a full charge after a clutch sprinkler is VERY true.

TLDR for the gear:
I like to make due with hydra's un-altered ink consumption and bubbler charge, and try my hardest to be sanic, ie: all the swim/run speed and ink resistance. Dodge moar bullet, kill with less bullet.

Hope you come back to write in ranked stuff! ~Green Waffles

I am rating this a 3 mostly because you did not touch on some of the different strategies or play styles for the Hydra. On the other hand, you presented me with well thought gear sets and giving reasoning to there different uses depending on how you may want to play.

Overall it was a good effort to cover such an underrated and difficult weapon to use but there is still some missing detail you could've had in regards to it's strategies and play styles and also the dismissal of damage up all together. I hope you take this criticism into use and update your thread to a higher level of quality :)

I am rating this a 4, but it is really close to a 3 for me, I can see you put time into this, so I am giving you the benefit of the doubt.

My biggest issue is that it does not address many strategies, or in depth tactics. I also disagree heavily that damage up is useless, since splatlings have a heavy damage drop off at their maximum range, and defense ups cancel out the 3 shot at full charge, and 1 damage up main, will ensure 3 shots with opponents up to 2 defense mains.

If you can update this guide with tactics,more strategies, and consider damage up, then I would rate this a solid 4-5 stars. Sorry for the criticism, but I have played a lot of Hydra, and the dismissal of damage up is spreading misinformation as far as I am concerned.