Introduction:
"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."
-Leo Tolstoy
There is an art to using the Octobrush, which is similar to the art of the Inkbrush, but is critically different in combat and approach. You must let your weapon live to its potential, by embracing its core abilities, and not trying to make it something it is not. There are many weaknesses, but if you can overcome these, and remain calm in the heat of battle, remain patient among your enemies and allies, you can master this weapon, and be able to turn the tides of any battle with enough intelligence, enough patience, and enough aggression. This is not the weapon of those who require control at all times, but those who can find control anywhere.
The Basics:
Description:
The Octobrush is at its most basic, a stronger version of the Inkbrush. It is slower to compensate, but is a very different feeling weapon. Equipped with beacons for tactical advantage, and a Kraken to get out of bad situations or push, the Octobrush allows for a variety of tactics, and strategies, which favor a more ninja or assassin like play style; a predator hiding in the ink. This is the basis of the weapon, since you will lose 90% of the standard interactions shooter weapons typically have, you must play like a roller, but track enemies like a sniper. If you do not know where your opponent is, you are probably already dead. This is the major weakness of the weapon, but its attack power allows for 2-3 swipe kills, which at close range will only be beat by a Carbon Roller swing, most weapons are too slow to do anything, and often shooters will think linearly so you can trick them.
Attacks and Movement:
A normal roller will typically be holding down the RZ button as frequently as possible. Like the inkbrush you want to minimize the usage of the RZ button. It is okay, but the ink spreading of the weapon by tapping, or flicking the brush is tremendous. Transitioning between flicking and squid form is your main mode of movement, especially since the flick creates almost circular patterns, which allows you to out maneuver shooters: which are linear. You should be flicking a lot! It takes 2-3 hits to kill your opponent. Don't stop until you are in enemy turf. Tactically, you generally want to attempt to get into enemy turf, and then hide. Using your own ink as cover is critical, in fact the best advice I can give, is that you do not have to move. If you are still, your enemy doesn't know your location, you can watch their movement and patterns, and then you can choose a far more informed option than your enemy. Think of it like the sections in LOZ games where you are trying not to get caught, you learn the patterns and move. This is similar, you find out your enemy's pattern, and you can move, but you can also attack, and they will never see it coming.
Sub and Special Usage:
Using the beacons and Kraken are important, but will always fall secondary to the main weapon. Beacons require too much ink to use regularly, so should be limited to tactical locations, where your enemy will not be, and teammates could use to escape bad situations (Although there is criminal under usage of teammates beacons!). The Kraken is your get out of jail free card, and your best friend for pushing. It also allows for distracting enemies while teammates take zones, the tower, or critical choke points. It is probably one of the best specials, even with the nerf it received. A tip for killing Aerospray, and fast weapons, is to not jump until you are right against your enemy, since you lose speed by jumping, and are pushed farther back. The Kraken is what makes this set so powerful in enemy turf, you can always kill or run, it is a versatile option.
Philosophy:
To maximize the potential of the Octobrush, you must greatly consider the philosophy behind the weapon, and understand what you truly wish to achieve when using the weapon. You cannot just play, spread ink, get some splats, you need to know everything you intend when you pick up this weapon.
"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." -Sun Tzu
Besides the sub machine gun type weapons, the Inkbrush, and Octobrush are some of the best at covering large areas quickly. In turf wars, this means swaying the tide of battle at any time, and you must realize that when playing this way, nothing is truly permanent. That Your home turf is equally valuable as the central turf, turf which is constantly changing hands, so covering your own side first is a must, unless there is a bad choke point, like in Arrowana Mall, or Saltspray Rig, this may be an exception, although good teamwork can make this obsolete.
"Wisdom comes from paying attention to wise people. Love comes from always striving for the good of others and placing others before oneself. Bravery is developed by simply gritting one’s teeth and with determination crashing through any barrier in one’s way without regard to the circumstances."
As I said before, the Octobrush is a weapon for playing patiently, and watching. But it is also the weapon of the infiltrator, the weapon for breaking through your enemy's defense, and being brave. You cannot play this weapon shyly, although you can play delicately, for each action you take is a commitment, and to win, you must only commit to what is needed. Sometimes you need wisdom, sometimes bravery, and yes, even sometimes love, for a team of members who have no regard for one another, can never win.
"In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you."
-Deepak Chopra
The true balance of the Octobrush is between movement and stillness. You must be able to move when your enemy is still, and be still when your enemy moves. To find the order within the chaos of fighting, to maintain your plan, but instantly adapt to your enemy, to keep this order. To embrace the Wabi-sabi of the Splatoon world.
Gear Abilities:
This is something that I change my mind on frequently, on what is best, but I can tell you what is almost always required!
Cold Blooded: Cold Blooded is the best ability to have, since many people, especially in the competitive scene use echolocators and point sensors to great advantage. It allows for stealth to only briefly be interrupted, it is better than ninja squid for this reason.
Ninja Squid: A straight downgrade from cold blooded, since it is one or the other at this point. You can simulate the effects of Ninja Squid by slow movement, but you cannot simulate the effects of cold blooded. A good skill, until you are located in some way, then you should probably run, or jump back to base, or an ally, since you are probably in a bad position.
Ink Saver Main: One of the best abilities, since the Octobrush tears through your ink supply. It is generally a good skill, recommended for any weapon, and is still good here.
Ink Resist Up: What can I say here, this is probably one of the best universal skills, and is extremely important for Tower Control, and infiltration, not required, but is amazing.
Special Charge Up: A useful skill in all game modes, but I just don't prefer it over over skills. A good skill, which you can get on headgear, not affecting cold blooded, or ink resist.
Damage Up: This allows for a more consistent 2-hit kill, and is okay generally, not extremely useful, since beacons and Kraken receive so benefit from this skill.
Defense Up: Another okay skill, but is often no different than no defense up, situational, only good against some weapons.
Ink Recovery Up: This is dependent on the map, some maps make this more useful, like Camp Triggerfish, others don't need it. Preference, or situational.
I personally use Ink Saver Main, Cold Blooded, and Ink Resist Up, this allows for a variety of options.
Advanced Movement/Attacking:
"You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war." -Napoleon Bonaparte
The Octobrush is limited in what approach options it has, but has many
mix-ups, and movement options since you create a lot of ink around your opponent as you fight. You truly must mix up your options regularly, since it is very easy to kill you when the enemy knows your tactic. With that being said, almost all enemies will still encounter situations that they cannot win, especially flanking, which is one of the best abilities of the Octobrush. I will go over flanking, jumping, sharking, and camera control.
Flanking:
Flanking is one of the most important skills to use the Octobrush, and there are many locations in which to flank on every map. A way to ensure a fail proof flank, is to also cover the walls, walls are often your friend, and can trick your opponent long enough, for you to get the splat. Roughly speaking, flanking is when you hide in a location that is hidden, or not accessible by your enemies, off to the side of a spot where your enemies will soon walk in front of, and you can reach for a quick splat. Usually you will encounter 1-2 opponents doing this, so usually only one will splat, so choose carefully. As soon as one has died, retreat temporarily, hide, and potentially flank again. This is crucial on some maps, especially larger maps, where enemies follow specific paths. To mix this up, flaking an enemy should be followed by a full retreat to your ink, then moving to a entirely new location. You want your enemy to be uncertain of your location as often as possible.
Flanking is one of your main options as an Octobrush user, since you cannot push certain areas, like getting up the walls of Bluefin Depot, you can do this when enemies are respawning or with a Kraken, but not frequently. On Bluefin, I often sit behind the walls at the bottom, and wait for enemies - who don't expect me to wait so long before taking action - to splat them. If I get a capture card, I will make an accompanying video, which contains flanking and hiding positions.
Jumping:
Jumping sounds basic, but a thought you have frequently is: Should I be jumping right now? Sure, jumping increases you range (Not much, only ~3.3%) but leaves you extremely disadvantaged. You have to fall back to your ink to move quickly again, or heal. So it should be considered when you jump. It does make you a harder target to hit, but I have found moving through ink can be a greater mixup than jumping in many cases. You are fully visible when jumping, so it is often a disadvantage to always jump around, but it is useful.
Sharking:
Sharking is what I call the strategy, exactly what it sounds like, moving in large areas through your own ink, to make it so your opponent has no idea where you are. You want them to be afraid, that you could come from anywhere, at anytime, and kill them. You want to think of it as in the moment flanking, using your environment actively to your advantage to provide a significant mind game. Hard to explain, but it is usually using little terrain to provide cover, and your own ink to flank enemies, which don't expect it. This requires a lot of waiting without moving. This is what makes this weapon so great, almost no one, except maybe N-Zap or .52 Gal users will be able to react fast enough; if spaced correctly no one can react fast enough.
Camera:
I recommend using motion controls, since it allows a fluid panning of the camera, allowing you to look around corners easily, and prepare flanks, or sharks easily. It is quite important, since you will need to adjust the camera properly to kill most enemies. Often the best placement is like many shooters, with the aiming reticle to be on the edge of a wall. This allows for the most options, and farthest viewing, allowing you to peek around corners. I often will hide in ink and adjust the camera looking for enemies. Because the battle can be won with just the removal of a few enemies, it is far more important to wait and plan, than to rush in and die. Although pushing is important in some losing battles, like if your spawn is being camped, getting out and going to their undefended turf is very important.
Mind Games:
"Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting."
-Joyce Meyer
If you are a Smash player, this concept is not new to you, but is critical for every weapon, but the Octobrush gets a lot from playing against the player, rather than the weapon. Because our game plan relies heavily on splatting the enemy before advancing, it is critical to play these mind games. I am going to talk about a few useful ones.
Immediate Retreat: Attacking an area, then turning into a squid, immediately retreating backwards, then to the side to set up a flank against the player looking for you.
Sitting: When advancing on an area, if you see an enemy, suddenly stop and hide. Or when in a fight with an opponent, hide in a small ink puddle, and wait to see if they look for you. They move on, and you can claim the turf the left behind. Also useful for surprise kills if you are in a weird spot, use that positional advantage.
Walls: Walls are your friend! Use walls frequently to confuse your enemy, but do not camp one wall, you will be found and killed quickly since it limits your options and camera. The little walls on the boxes in maps are great since they provide cover, and a strange spot to surprise enemies.
Super Jumping: Super Jumping is often overlooked in the current meta, which is a shame, we should all try to incorporate more super jumping in our gameplay. Deep in enemy territory, and fighting off opponents, suddenly jump to an ally. This is infuriating to the enemy, because you could just get away.
A common thread here, is using squid form equally, or greater than kid form. The squid is just so good for the Octobrush, since the goal is to be right against the enemy, while most other weapons want to space others out.
Guide Updates
I will be updating this guide as I play, and if I get a capture card, a lot of pictures and videos. I appreciate any feedback, and will be willing to update this guide whenever!
Ver 1.0: Finished initial guide
"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."
-Leo Tolstoy
There is an art to using the Octobrush, which is similar to the art of the Inkbrush, but is critically different in combat and approach. You must let your weapon live to its potential, by embracing its core abilities, and not trying to make it something it is not. There are many weaknesses, but if you can overcome these, and remain calm in the heat of battle, remain patient among your enemies and allies, you can master this weapon, and be able to turn the tides of any battle with enough intelligence, enough patience, and enough aggression. This is not the weapon of those who require control at all times, but those who can find control anywhere.
The Basics:
Description:
The Octobrush is at its most basic, a stronger version of the Inkbrush. It is slower to compensate, but is a very different feeling weapon. Equipped with beacons for tactical advantage, and a Kraken to get out of bad situations or push, the Octobrush allows for a variety of tactics, and strategies, which favor a more ninja or assassin like play style; a predator hiding in the ink. This is the basis of the weapon, since you will lose 90% of the standard interactions shooter weapons typically have, you must play like a roller, but track enemies like a sniper. If you do not know where your opponent is, you are probably already dead. This is the major weakness of the weapon, but its attack power allows for 2-3 swipe kills, which at close range will only be beat by a Carbon Roller swing, most weapons are too slow to do anything, and often shooters will think linearly so you can trick them.
Attacks and Movement:
A normal roller will typically be holding down the RZ button as frequently as possible. Like the inkbrush you want to minimize the usage of the RZ button. It is okay, but the ink spreading of the weapon by tapping, or flicking the brush is tremendous. Transitioning between flicking and squid form is your main mode of movement, especially since the flick creates almost circular patterns, which allows you to out maneuver shooters: which are linear. You should be flicking a lot! It takes 2-3 hits to kill your opponent. Don't stop until you are in enemy turf. Tactically, you generally want to attempt to get into enemy turf, and then hide. Using your own ink as cover is critical, in fact the best advice I can give, is that you do not have to move. If you are still, your enemy doesn't know your location, you can watch their movement and patterns, and then you can choose a far more informed option than your enemy. Think of it like the sections in LOZ games where you are trying not to get caught, you learn the patterns and move. This is similar, you find out your enemy's pattern, and you can move, but you can also attack, and they will never see it coming.
Sub and Special Usage:
Using the beacons and Kraken are important, but will always fall secondary to the main weapon. Beacons require too much ink to use regularly, so should be limited to tactical locations, where your enemy will not be, and teammates could use to escape bad situations (Although there is criminal under usage of teammates beacons!). The Kraken is your get out of jail free card, and your best friend for pushing. It also allows for distracting enemies while teammates take zones, the tower, or critical choke points. It is probably one of the best specials, even with the nerf it received. A tip for killing Aerospray, and fast weapons, is to not jump until you are right against your enemy, since you lose speed by jumping, and are pushed farther back. The Kraken is what makes this set so powerful in enemy turf, you can always kill or run, it is a versatile option.
Philosophy:
To maximize the potential of the Octobrush, you must greatly consider the philosophy behind the weapon, and understand what you truly wish to achieve when using the weapon. You cannot just play, spread ink, get some splats, you need to know everything you intend when you pick up this weapon.
"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." -Sun Tzu
Besides the sub machine gun type weapons, the Inkbrush, and Octobrush are some of the best at covering large areas quickly. In turf wars, this means swaying the tide of battle at any time, and you must realize that when playing this way, nothing is truly permanent. That Your home turf is equally valuable as the central turf, turf which is constantly changing hands, so covering your own side first is a must, unless there is a bad choke point, like in Arrowana Mall, or Saltspray Rig, this may be an exception, although good teamwork can make this obsolete.
"Wisdom comes from paying attention to wise people. Love comes from always striving for the good of others and placing others before oneself. Bravery is developed by simply gritting one’s teeth and with determination crashing through any barrier in one’s way without regard to the circumstances."
As I said before, the Octobrush is a weapon for playing patiently, and watching. But it is also the weapon of the infiltrator, the weapon for breaking through your enemy's defense, and being brave. You cannot play this weapon shyly, although you can play delicately, for each action you take is a commitment, and to win, you must only commit to what is needed. Sometimes you need wisdom, sometimes bravery, and yes, even sometimes love, for a team of members who have no regard for one another, can never win.
"In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you."
-Deepak Chopra
The true balance of the Octobrush is between movement and stillness. You must be able to move when your enemy is still, and be still when your enemy moves. To find the order within the chaos of fighting, to maintain your plan, but instantly adapt to your enemy, to keep this order. To embrace the Wabi-sabi of the Splatoon world.
Gear Abilities:
This is something that I change my mind on frequently, on what is best, but I can tell you what is almost always required!
Cold Blooded: Cold Blooded is the best ability to have, since many people, especially in the competitive scene use echolocators and point sensors to great advantage. It allows for stealth to only briefly be interrupted, it is better than ninja squid for this reason.
Ninja Squid: A straight downgrade from cold blooded, since it is one or the other at this point. You can simulate the effects of Ninja Squid by slow movement, but you cannot simulate the effects of cold blooded. A good skill, until you are located in some way, then you should probably run, or jump back to base, or an ally, since you are probably in a bad position.
Ink Saver Main: One of the best abilities, since the Octobrush tears through your ink supply. It is generally a good skill, recommended for any weapon, and is still good here.
Ink Resist Up: What can I say here, this is probably one of the best universal skills, and is extremely important for Tower Control, and infiltration, not required, but is amazing.
Special Charge Up: A useful skill in all game modes, but I just don't prefer it over over skills. A good skill, which you can get on headgear, not affecting cold blooded, or ink resist.
Damage Up: This allows for a more consistent 2-hit kill, and is okay generally, not extremely useful, since beacons and Kraken receive so benefit from this skill.
Defense Up: Another okay skill, but is often no different than no defense up, situational, only good against some weapons.
Ink Recovery Up: This is dependent on the map, some maps make this more useful, like Camp Triggerfish, others don't need it. Preference, or situational.
I personally use Ink Saver Main, Cold Blooded, and Ink Resist Up, this allows for a variety of options.
Advanced Movement/Attacking:
"You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war." -Napoleon Bonaparte
The Octobrush is limited in what approach options it has, but has many
mix-ups, and movement options since you create a lot of ink around your opponent as you fight. You truly must mix up your options regularly, since it is very easy to kill you when the enemy knows your tactic. With that being said, almost all enemies will still encounter situations that they cannot win, especially flanking, which is one of the best abilities of the Octobrush. I will go over flanking, jumping, sharking, and camera control.
Flanking:
Flanking is one of the most important skills to use the Octobrush, and there are many locations in which to flank on every map. A way to ensure a fail proof flank, is to also cover the walls, walls are often your friend, and can trick your opponent long enough, for you to get the splat. Roughly speaking, flanking is when you hide in a location that is hidden, or not accessible by your enemies, off to the side of a spot where your enemies will soon walk in front of, and you can reach for a quick splat. Usually you will encounter 1-2 opponents doing this, so usually only one will splat, so choose carefully. As soon as one has died, retreat temporarily, hide, and potentially flank again. This is crucial on some maps, especially larger maps, where enemies follow specific paths. To mix this up, flaking an enemy should be followed by a full retreat to your ink, then moving to a entirely new location. You want your enemy to be uncertain of your location as often as possible.
Flanking is one of your main options as an Octobrush user, since you cannot push certain areas, like getting up the walls of Bluefin Depot, you can do this when enemies are respawning or with a Kraken, but not frequently. On Bluefin, I often sit behind the walls at the bottom, and wait for enemies - who don't expect me to wait so long before taking action - to splat them. If I get a capture card, I will make an accompanying video, which contains flanking and hiding positions.
Jumping:
Jumping sounds basic, but a thought you have frequently is: Should I be jumping right now? Sure, jumping increases you range (Not much, only ~3.3%) but leaves you extremely disadvantaged. You have to fall back to your ink to move quickly again, or heal. So it should be considered when you jump. It does make you a harder target to hit, but I have found moving through ink can be a greater mixup than jumping in many cases. You are fully visible when jumping, so it is often a disadvantage to always jump around, but it is useful.
Sharking:
Sharking is what I call the strategy, exactly what it sounds like, moving in large areas through your own ink, to make it so your opponent has no idea where you are. You want them to be afraid, that you could come from anywhere, at anytime, and kill them. You want to think of it as in the moment flanking, using your environment actively to your advantage to provide a significant mind game. Hard to explain, but it is usually using little terrain to provide cover, and your own ink to flank enemies, which don't expect it. This requires a lot of waiting without moving. This is what makes this weapon so great, almost no one, except maybe N-Zap or .52 Gal users will be able to react fast enough; if spaced correctly no one can react fast enough.
Camera:
I recommend using motion controls, since it allows a fluid panning of the camera, allowing you to look around corners easily, and prepare flanks, or sharks easily. It is quite important, since you will need to adjust the camera properly to kill most enemies. Often the best placement is like many shooters, with the aiming reticle to be on the edge of a wall. This allows for the most options, and farthest viewing, allowing you to peek around corners. I often will hide in ink and adjust the camera looking for enemies. Because the battle can be won with just the removal of a few enemies, it is far more important to wait and plan, than to rush in and die. Although pushing is important in some losing battles, like if your spawn is being camped, getting out and going to their undefended turf is very important.
Mind Games:
"Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting."
-Joyce Meyer
If you are a Smash player, this concept is not new to you, but is critical for every weapon, but the Octobrush gets a lot from playing against the player, rather than the weapon. Because our game plan relies heavily on splatting the enemy before advancing, it is critical to play these mind games. I am going to talk about a few useful ones.
Immediate Retreat: Attacking an area, then turning into a squid, immediately retreating backwards, then to the side to set up a flank against the player looking for you.
Sitting: When advancing on an area, if you see an enemy, suddenly stop and hide. Or when in a fight with an opponent, hide in a small ink puddle, and wait to see if they look for you. They move on, and you can claim the turf the left behind. Also useful for surprise kills if you are in a weird spot, use that positional advantage.
Walls: Walls are your friend! Use walls frequently to confuse your enemy, but do not camp one wall, you will be found and killed quickly since it limits your options and camera. The little walls on the boxes in maps are great since they provide cover, and a strange spot to surprise enemies.
Super Jumping: Super Jumping is often overlooked in the current meta, which is a shame, we should all try to incorporate more super jumping in our gameplay. Deep in enemy territory, and fighting off opponents, suddenly jump to an ally. This is infuriating to the enemy, because you could just get away.
A common thread here, is using squid form equally, or greater than kid form. The squid is just so good for the Octobrush, since the goal is to be right against the enemy, while most other weapons want to space others out.
Guide Updates
I will be updating this guide as I play, and if I get a capture card, a lot of pictures and videos. I appreciate any feedback, and will be willing to update this guide whenever!
Ver 1.0: Finished initial guide
