Good day, fellow inklings! It's come to my attention that there haven't been any any really in depth guides on game strategy & teamwork in accordance to each game mode, so I'm here today to help explain as best I can - hopefully it reaches far and wide, because I've played with more than a few players who haven't yet grasped these concepts I'm about to share (I would also like to point out that as I am writing this, I have been consistently S rank, and though I have a ways to go 'til I'm able to be consistently S+, I have an understanding of the game well enough to write about these concepts, I feel). So here we go!
To break it down as simply as possible, some of us will have to start thinking a bit differently. I had to undergo a major thought change before I became S rank. The key factor is remembering that annoying phrase we've all heard if we've ever played any sport: "There's no I in team." If you haven't heard it before, I envy you. As for the rest of you who know what I'm talking about, it may be annoying but it's absolutely true. This game is about cooperation, and that's not always easy to do in every single game. In fact, sometimes the reason you got 1100+ points and still lost the battle is because you weren't helping the team. That may not make much sense to you right now, but stick with me, I'll explain in detail what I mean a bit later on. So the main focus we'll be coming back to is this: Was what I did for the good of the team?
It's not always what we think about every time we do something, especially in the heat of the moment, but keep reminding yourself and eventually it'll become second nature. For now, let's dive into team strategy for Turf War.
Once the match starts, your team roster will be shown to you, and the enemies' team as well. When you see your enemies, you typically have your first thoughts of "Okay, this team is manageable," or "Well I don't handle [insert annoying weapon here] well, so I'll go this way because I imagine they'd go the way I normally go." This is totally normal, and a good thing. Remember that your teammates will be having these thoughts as well, and will ultimately dictate who goes where. Another thing to remember is that it's okay for squids to go the same way, so long as you don't congregate in exactly the same manner the whole time. Be somewhat spread out, but sticking together can have fantastic benefits. Now to get into the meat of the topic, let's break down the parts of every match.
In Turf Wars, there are three important & influential parts of each match; The Beginning, the Mid Game, and the End Game. As with any good story, the best place to start is the Beginning, so we'll start there too.
The Beginning game is the first 30-ish seconds (about the length of the Opening Gambit ability). The reason I say this amount of time, is because it honestly takes a bit less than that for first encounters to happen, as I like to call them. A first encounter is the point at which an enemy inkling is within your range, or you are within theirs. Whether you live, get splat, or run away to squid another day, the outcomes of these encounters will have an impact on how difficult your Mid Game will be. But before we dive straight into the Mid Game, let's talk a bit of strategy for the Beginning.
For most of us, it's difficult to work flawlessly with a random group of three other squidkids, because we can't communicate in game outside our whopping two preset annoucements. So how do we work around this? The answer is we really can't effectively communicate, so we just have to do our best. For instance, let's say your weapon is the Splattershot Pro, and during the Beginning you and a roller start going the same direction. Cool. Now you get to a big area, and he starts inking the ground all over. For you, there's two plays, and while neither is inherently wrong, one strikes the group as having more impact.
1 - begin to cover ground with your buddy
2 - guard your buddy while he does his job.
In my experience, the most efficient answer is 2. Reason being that if you both start focusing on covering ground and get ambushed, then the enemy just took out half your team and now has all the turf you worked for, and has control of that area. If you've secured the area and know that nobody else is coming from the enemy team, then sure - turf to your heart's content, definitely don't remain idle (though it may be better to find another spot that an enemy has contested or nobody has even noticed). However, control is the name of the game in Turf War, and guarding a friend while he's securing your turf is an extremely efficient way to go about it.
On the flip side of this, say he goes away from the area and toward another part of the stage, seeing as you're there as well. This leaves you to your own devices, so definitely start gathering what turf you can. Remember that control is key. Once you have all the turf in an area, they can't easily fight you unless they take the area from you.
Now I'd like to further expand on what I talked about just now, and back in the introduction about losing with 1100+ points and still having it be your fault. The object of the game is to have more turf than your opponent at the end of the game, not get more points than your opponent throughout the game. With that in mind, how does one get 1100+ points and still lose a match? The reason is actually very simple - all the turf that they got throughout the match was not turf that they truly controlled or contested. Let me explain:
In this picture, let's assume you have the golden Aerospray, and you follow this path from your starting position all the way to the black dot, then launch your Inkstrike right in front of your enemies' spawn. This is a fantastic play in the End Game, because it covers a huge amount of turf, and that's what you want. So what's wrong with this in the Beginning, or even Mid Game?
The problem is that none of the turf that you cover you covered on the opponents' half of the field - including your inkstrike - is contested. That's a huge amount of points that the enemy will just take right back after somebody respawns, and you'll have barely even slowed them down because your ink is on their way back to the action, it takes almost zero conscious thought to cover it back up. This kind of play is fine mid game if you have the enemy pushed back toward their base, because there wouldn't be anywhere else to ink, but placing ink in the enemy base will rack up useless points because your team can't help you keep control of it.
Here's another picture of a different path that is more beneficial to the whole team. Assuming we're still using the golden Aerospray, your path will grab nearly the entire base for your team, and then, at the black dot, you pop your Inkstrike on the center of the stage, assuming you don't have it controlled, and boom - you've helped your team gain control of the center. Inkstrikes are extremely potent for controlling points of the map, and when used correctly they can completely change the tide of a battle. Instead of just slamming it down in front of the enemy spawn, check around the map to see if anybody on your team is blocked off, and give them some support with a massive circle of ink, then they can advance and you can keep securing turf elsewhere.
Neither of these examples are 100% accurate, because they don't account for resistance from the other team, but they explain my point, and you get the picture. Get it? The picture??
Now that the atrocious pun is out of the way, let's talk about the Mid Game. This part of the fight starts once all first encounters have been resolved, and dominance over specific areas of the map have been established. Also, there's two sides to this, as you might imagine, the winning side and losing side.
The winning side is the team who came out with superior control of the map, and has more turf, generally speaking. This part of the battle for you winners out there is all about maintaining control of what turf you have, as well as advancing as much as possible. Working together with your teammates here is crucial, because you'll absolutely need to work together to take down enemies stopping your advance. If you do this well, you'll slowly overcome your enemies and begin dominating even further.
As for the losing side, your objective will be the similar, but easier if you search for unguarded areas of the enemies' defenses. Once you do, break through and work together with your team to keep it, and slowly advance.
As far as both sides go, this is where maneuvers such as flanking come in extremely handy.
This may remind you of the first image I showed of what is a bad idea, but in this case it's a bit different. Firstly, we'll imagine you got splat. Bother, time to get back into action. Now imagining a best case scenario here, you go to the top here and circle around their big blocky area with greenery, and sneak up and splat one, maybe two of your enemies. Then your Special is charged back up by this point, and time to get that Inkstrike going! You take cover in your own ink, behind the center pillar, pop your inkstrike in front of their spawn, and you've successfully blocked them off from leaving their spawn for a good few seconds, because you just sent them there. If you're extra lucky, they won't be paying attention and waltz right into it, slowing them down further.
Again, this is a very good scenario. You'll meet resistance and have to reroute against good teams, but nobody is perfect, and as you continue to play you'll find yourself more capable of dealing with those sorts of situations. The thing to remember is what will most benefit your team, because you'll never win a match alone. And now finally we get to the End Game.
End Game is about the last 30 seconds or so of the match (about the same amount of time as Last Ditch Effort). This part, like Mid Game, has two different sides.
For the wining side, you're doing great! Do whatever you can to keep the turf you've got! Don't worry too much about expanding, unless the opportunity presents itself. Remember, you've already won with what you have now, don't get too greedy. Cooperate with the team to lock down all the turf you control.
For the losing side, this is do-or-die time. Time to pull out all the stops, and make some risky plays! Splatting your opponents here isn't going to win it for you, you need to sneak past them and take what they've got, or work together with an ally to snag a sneaky splat so both of you can advance.
And that's how Turf War goes. The important thing to remember in any case, is what will benefit your team most. One thing that has helped me immensely when I get splatted, is "what could I have done differently?" It's a helpful question that ultimately caused me to get better at the game, because I answer it honestly. "I shouldn't have gone that direction," or "I let myself get too far out of position." Little things like that will ultimately let you realize what you are and have been doing wrong, and improve at the game overall.
And with that, we're done with Turf War! Yaaaaay!
But don't get too excited, we've still got a lot more to go. Next up is the first ever introduced ranked mode, Splat Zones.
So to start this off, let's look at a picture.
I apologize for the lack of a super high-quality photo here, I don't have many tools at my disposal and this is the best I could get to work. However, it does indeed work for what I want to explain. I'm sure you're all familiar, but you're objective in Splat Zones is to control the zone(s) that are marked by the anchor symbol, until the timer hits zero. So what's the strategy here, and why is Turf War so crucial to learn in order to play this mode well? To explain, let's dive into the separate parts of the game, just like we did with Turf War.
This is an example of a group of squids pathing a way to good positions at the start of the match, hoping to secure the zone early. After getting there, this is where first encounters happen (much like Turf War, how about that!), and ultimately dictates who will keep control of the zone. However, controlling the zone itself won't be enough.
In this image, I've circled a large area beyond the zone. Why? Because this is what you want to control, because you want to make sure your opponents can't get to the zone at all, much less let them have a chance to control it themselves. This means you want to be in front of the zone, protecting it and making sure nobody on the enemy team breaks through. Another thing similar to Turf War is that the Mid Game has a winning side and losing side, and we'll talk strategy for both sides in just a minute, but there's also a couple key factors to mention before jumping right into it.
The difference in this mode is the timer isn't a guarantee of how long the match will go, and both teams can work this to their advantage. Firstly, let's talk about Knockouts. These occur when you've held the zone for 100 seconds, and your timer reaches 0. Once that happens, the team who was holding the zone wins immediately. This is obviously the best case scenario, but won't always be this easy, and the reason is because of the second factor, which is clock setbacks.
Clock setbacks occur when a team who has control of the zone loses control, and the opposing team gains control. The setback will vary, and will be bigger depending on how much time the first team had control of the zone. These are half seconds, but will not let you count down your main timer until you've removed the entire clock setback. Manipulating all these facts will be your key to victory in Splat Zones.
Now that we've got both of these out of the way, let's talk strategy for the winning and losing sides.
The winning side is the one who grabbed the zone first and kept it for more than one second. Well done, but the battle is far from over. Now you need to establish control. The image above is what you're going to go for now, and hold it strong. Your objective here is to go for the Knockout victory, and holding the area around the zone is the key to doing so. Be sure to work together with your whole team to make sure all areas are covered, and avoid being pushed back.
The losing side lost the first battle, but can definitely still win the war. Your goal now is to get back in there and fight for control of the area around the zone, as shown in the image above. You will need your whole team's cooperation to do this, so don't go in alone and expect to change the match. Build up and pop your Specials here to change the flow of the battle, and avoid the Knockout. Another factor that may help your team is to quickly grab control of the zone, if your team is close to a Knockout loss - a clock setback will buy you a bit more time to come back with, even if you lose the zone right afterwards.
To the winning team - you're almost there! only a little bit longer until you've secured the win! Be prepared for any last minute specials, maybe using your own to splat any players who might be saving theirs for a more opportune moment. Hold the zone, keep map control, and work together with your team.
The losing team needs to pull out all the stops at this point; gather your team up for one final big push, pop your specials, and push into that zone! You need to get it into overtime or you're finished here and now. Play smart and you can absolutely come out on top.
Remember what you've learned from Turf War, because 90% of it relates to what you need to do, and how to effectively work with your team to secure the victory. And with that, Splat Zones talk is finished.
So now we're finally getting onto Tower Control, which I personally believe to be the most difficult mode. It takes both a well executed strategy, and even then it's incredibly easy to make a mistake. This is my personal opinion, so for others this may be the preferred mode, but as far as my play style I have the most trouble with this. However, we need to cover it. This also will likely be the largest section of all, so buckle up.
Tower Control is, put simply, a game of Splat Zones where the zone moves. The overall strategy is to guard the area around the tower. While it's simple in wording, applying the proper technique to doing so is extremely difficult, especially when the group can't communicate. The biggest fallback is the lack of being able to tell your allies when to "stall" the tower (stalling the tower is when the player hops off the tower, but remain close by to jump back on and keep it from going back to the start position). Stalling the tower lets you use the tower itself as a wall to block incoming fire, as well as let your team catch up to gain more control instead of pushing too far and giving your enemies control of the tower.
Here's an example of the Tower Control mode, with the location of the tower marked in red. As I mentioned earlier, this mode is played similarly to Splat Zones in regards to how the players gain control of the area around the objective. The area the players initially want to gain control of is outlined in orange. The reason being, is the image below:
This level in particular has a lot of ways to get to the center from the spawn; the orange depicts the potential paths to the center. There's more potential paths than there are players. It's another reason why control is so important in this mode, as with any other mode; once you have control, you have dominance over the map.
Moving right along, this is where it gets difficult. The zone moves, as I mentioned before, so you can't just stay in control of the center of the map, unless you really want to go for that end game time out victory (which is not advised unless you've got about 20 seconds left on the clock and are winning, which will be explained in the end game section). So what do we do to accommodate for this sudden change? We move our control area. Before we take a look at the control area though, let's take a look at the threatening pathways our opponents can take again, now that the tower's moved.
The threat is more limited in terms of potential paths, but because of the positioning of the tower, it becomes extremely difficult to guard these areas well. In fact, one of these spots is almost directly above the tower, and has an extremely easy time stopping any kind of forward advance from happening, when played correctly. As you can see, threat from the lower right hand side of the stage is non-existent, so long as part of the center is still controlled, so the new area we want to try to get control of will look something like this:
The tower is clearly controlled by these sections of the map, and to compensate for this your team needs to help you gain control of this new area. Comparing the last two images to each other, we can see that the orange lines overlap - this means that, if the pushing team is working well together, the enemy will not be able to even advance to the tower, until it's at their doorstep. This scenario is extremely unlikely, because somebody needs to be on the tower, so the team defending the areas shown above are essentially a 3v4. This isn't even 100% true though, because multiple players can be on the tower at once! Because of all this, it becomes a very hectic and difficult game mode to win at. So now that the introduction to Tower Control has been done, let's get into the stages of the game.
As with Splat Zones, this will be the first 30 seconds or so that you and your team will jump into the fray and begin with your first encounters. 9 times out of 10, this dictates who has control of the objective. The key here is to fight for control of the area, and not go immediately for the tower. Without control of the area, your team cannot support you.
Here's an example - if you don't wait for your team to gain control of the area around the objective, your team will be left behind dealing with whatever players are in the area still, while you're stuck out in enemy lines (if you're lucky enough to stay on the tower as long as this image depicts).
This part of the battle starts when control has been decided and one team has control of the tower. This is also split up into two sides - the winning side and losing side.
The winning side is the one who pushed the tower toward the goal further. This means, so long as your player pushing the tower doesn't rush ahead, you and your allies dictate the flow of the battle. Keep it moving steadily along, and slowly push to victory, and hopefully the Knockout victory.
The losing side has a bit of a comeback to make here, but plenty of time to do so. Your goal is to find the spot that's unguarded by your opponents, and bring the tower under your control. Be sure to apply enough pressure to prevent the tower from advancing further into your territory.
The end game is the last 30 seconds or so of the match (unlike Splat Zones' end game, the Overtime in Tower Control is considerably shorter and easier to stop in most cases). This is the last chance to make one final push for victory.
The winning side is the team who is ahead on the scoreboard. At this point, you have two options: first, if you're already pushing the tower, keep pushing as always. The second option is, if the tower is reset or the enemy team has control, begin defending the tower and just keeping your enemies off it.
The losing side's job is to gain & keep control of the tower. Once you get control, your team needs to actively begin controlling the necessary area as tower moves. This is difficult, but remember you don't need to get a Knockout victory to win here, just to get a higher score than the enemy team (unless they have a score of 1). Unleash all your specials to clear the way here, because you won't have another chance.
And the Tower Control section is finally finished! Now onto Rainmaker.
So the sport of Rainmaker is a match that comprises of two teams of four, obviously, one goal per team, and one ball (the Rainmaker). The object of the game is to place the Rainmaker in the other team's goal within five minutes. If the time runs out before either team scores, the team that had the Rainmaker closer to the enemy goal throughout the duration of the game is the winner. There's a few points which need to be addressed before we dive into the beginning/mid/end game, and those points are regarding the rules of the game:
The Rainmaker starts in the middle, and waits for a team to gain "control" over it, by popping the protective covering it has. Once popped, the Rainmaker is vulnerable, and can be picked up by any player (it's easier to pick it up when your team pops the bubble, because it covers a considerable amount of turf nearby).
Once a player has control over the Rainmaker, they become the ball, to put it simply. While holding the Rainmaker, the closer the player gets to the goal, the higher the score you gain for your team, with an instant knockout victory when said player places the Rainmaker on the goal.
Finally, if the player with the Rainmaker is taken out, the Rainmaker resets, gains its protective coating again, and the opening plays start over again.
What's the opening play? Put simply, it's how the beginning of the game goes. This mode is different than the others, with the fact that the Rainmaker resets and stays at its current location (unless it falls off the edge of the map). Because of this, the format will be different than the others thus far - instead of beginning, mid game, and end game, we have opening plays, as well as defensive/offensive plays. The time is moreso the limit of the match, as opposed to affecting how the game should be played like Turf War and Splat Zones. So without further adieu, let's talk strategy.
One note I would like to make about this, the Opening Play is for any time the Rainmaker resets.
-The Carrier is the player who grabbed the Rainmaker (marked as the red dot). The Carrier's job is to not die, and provide supporting fire with his or her newly obtained weapon of mass inkage. The most crucial part of playing this role is do not overextend. The Rainmaker has incredible power from long distances, but is more than lackluster at close range. Once it gets to that point, unless you're extraordinarily lucky, you've dropped the ball. Stay behind your team, slowly advancing while giving supporting fire from your weapon, and abuse your range as much as possible (the only time you should not be firing is while advancing - remember, your weapon doesn't run out of ink, but you'll blow up if you wait too long). In the event of a team wipe, don't run away, just try to make a mad dash for the goal, or try to pick people off. Running away just makes it that much easier for the enemy team to get closer to your goal. One final tip: use "C'mon!" or "To me!" if you're being flanked. Swim toward a nearby ally who can take them out.
-The Screeners are the remaining three players on the team (marked as the orange dots), whose job is to protect & support the Carrier. The most important thing for Screeners is do not be standing anywhere behind the Carrier - you need to be in front of them, making sure enemies can't get close. Being behind them does absolutely no good, because of how their weapon works. They can provide incredible supporting fire from far behind you, but if they're in front the enemy will just get close and take your carrier out. Keep an eye out for your Rainmaker spamming "C'mon!" or "To me!", because if they're doing this they're likely being flanked by somebody. Remember, while your team controls the Rainmaker, you're almost fighting 3v4, because the Rainmaker can't engage directly in combat, as well as has no subs/specials available to get them out of a tight spot.
This sums up offensive play fairly well. In regards to the timer, your saving grace, should you be behind, is Overtime. In order to engage Overtime, your team must be either:
A) Carrying the Rainmaker
B) Must have splatted the opponents' carrier within ~10 seconds prior to the timer hitting 0 (I have no conclusive proof that this is the case, but it's something along these lines).
Expanding on the image used earlier, the white dots are the defenders. In this particular example, it becomes impossible to advance without your opponents taking at least two of your players out. The best way to have your team take advantage of this opportunity is to pressure somebody back, and force them to be out of position, letting your team move somebody in and quickly take out the Carrier. For example:
In this example we see the two defending players grouping up on a weak link, forcing them back. One player can pressure them from moving back up while the second runs around behind the Carrier, taking them out. This is a rough and simple example, but it shows the kind of thinking that needs to be applied. Keep in mind that if the Rainmaker were behind the player indicated as the "weak link", it's more than likely this plan would fail, and the Rainmaker would be able to push forward.
One good thing to make note of is where the Carrier is, and where not to splat him at.
If you take out the Carrier in any of these four areas marked with red dots, don't forget the only way to get up there is through the pathways that lead toward their base (there's small inkable blocks that let you climb up before you go all the way into their territory, but it's still difficult to get to with four players guarding both passages). If you're on the losing side, these are extremely difficult points to get the Rainmaker back from. Be sure to pay attention to the Rainmaker's position before trying to take them out.
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Finally have all the major updates finished - all three ranked sections have been finished! Please be sure to let me know if there's anything you're unsure of or you feel I've left out/left unclear. Thanks for sticking with it to the end, and hope this has helped!
Introduction
To start us off, let's think on what teamwork really is in Splatoon, because it's more complicated than "cover ground for your team." Teamwork is defined as the combined action of a group of people, especially when effective and efficient. The obvious thought after that is "Kodidro, what does teamwork mean then?" Well, that's what we're here to find out, so sit back and grab a drink or whatever you do when you read, because we're likely in for the long haul, because this explanation isn't possible to make short & sweet.
To break it down as simply as possible, some of us will have to start thinking a bit differently. I had to undergo a major thought change before I became S rank. The key factor is remembering that annoying phrase we've all heard if we've ever played any sport: "There's no I in team." If you haven't heard it before, I envy you. As for the rest of you who know what I'm talking about, it may be annoying but it's absolutely true. This game is about cooperation, and that's not always easy to do in every single game. In fact, sometimes the reason you got 1100+ points and still lost the battle is because you weren't helping the team. That may not make much sense to you right now, but stick with me, I'll explain in detail what I mean a bit later on. So the main focus we'll be coming back to is this: Was what I did for the good of the team?
It's not always what we think about every time we do something, especially in the heat of the moment, but keep reminding yourself and eventually it'll become second nature. For now, let's dive into team strategy for Turf War.
Turf War
Turf War is absolutely the best mode to talk about first, and I'll explain why once we hit the ranked discussion, but for now let's focus on what we've got in front of us.
Once the match starts, your team roster will be shown to you, and the enemies' team as well. When you see your enemies, you typically have your first thoughts of "Okay, this team is manageable," or "Well I don't handle [insert annoying weapon here] well, so I'll go this way because I imagine they'd go the way I normally go." This is totally normal, and a good thing. Remember that your teammates will be having these thoughts as well, and will ultimately dictate who goes where. Another thing to remember is that it's okay for squids to go the same way, so long as you don't congregate in exactly the same manner the whole time. Be somewhat spread out, but sticking together can have fantastic benefits. Now to get into the meat of the topic, let's break down the parts of every match.
In Turf Wars, there are three important & influential parts of each match; The Beginning, the Mid Game, and the End Game. As with any good story, the best place to start is the Beginning, so we'll start there too.
The Beginning
The Beginning game is the first 30-ish seconds (about the length of the Opening Gambit ability). The reason I say this amount of time, is because it honestly takes a bit less than that for first encounters to happen, as I like to call them. A first encounter is the point at which an enemy inkling is within your range, or you are within theirs. Whether you live, get splat, or run away to squid another day, the outcomes of these encounters will have an impact on how difficult your Mid Game will be. But before we dive straight into the Mid Game, let's talk a bit of strategy for the Beginning.
For most of us, it's difficult to work flawlessly with a random group of three other squidkids, because we can't communicate in game outside our whopping two preset annoucements. So how do we work around this? The answer is we really can't effectively communicate, so we just have to do our best. For instance, let's say your weapon is the Splattershot Pro, and during the Beginning you and a roller start going the same direction. Cool. Now you get to a big area, and he starts inking the ground all over. For you, there's two plays, and while neither is inherently wrong, one strikes the group as having more impact.
1 - begin to cover ground with your buddy
2 - guard your buddy while he does his job.
In my experience, the most efficient answer is 2. Reason being that if you both start focusing on covering ground and get ambushed, then the enemy just took out half your team and now has all the turf you worked for, and has control of that area. If you've secured the area and know that nobody else is coming from the enemy team, then sure - turf to your heart's content, definitely don't remain idle (though it may be better to find another spot that an enemy has contested or nobody has even noticed). However, control is the name of the game in Turf War, and guarding a friend while he's securing your turf is an extremely efficient way to go about it.
On the flip side of this, say he goes away from the area and toward another part of the stage, seeing as you're there as well. This leaves you to your own devices, so definitely start gathering what turf you can. Remember that control is key. Once you have all the turf in an area, they can't easily fight you unless they take the area from you.
Now I'd like to further expand on what I talked about just now, and back in the introduction about losing with 1100+ points and still having it be your fault. The object of the game is to have more turf than your opponent at the end of the game, not get more points than your opponent throughout the game. With that in mind, how does one get 1100+ points and still lose a match? The reason is actually very simple - all the turf that they got throughout the match was not turf that they truly controlled or contested. Let me explain:
In this picture, let's assume you have the golden Aerospray, and you follow this path from your starting position all the way to the black dot, then launch your Inkstrike right in front of your enemies' spawn. This is a fantastic play in the End Game, because it covers a huge amount of turf, and that's what you want. So what's wrong with this in the Beginning, or even Mid Game?
The problem is that none of the turf that you cover you covered on the opponents' half of the field - including your inkstrike - is contested. That's a huge amount of points that the enemy will just take right back after somebody respawns, and you'll have barely even slowed them down because your ink is on their way back to the action, it takes almost zero conscious thought to cover it back up. This kind of play is fine mid game if you have the enemy pushed back toward their base, because there wouldn't be anywhere else to ink, but placing ink in the enemy base will rack up useless points because your team can't help you keep control of it.
Here's another picture of a different path that is more beneficial to the whole team. Assuming we're still using the golden Aerospray, your path will grab nearly the entire base for your team, and then, at the black dot, you pop your Inkstrike on the center of the stage, assuming you don't have it controlled, and boom - you've helped your team gain control of the center. Inkstrikes are extremely potent for controlling points of the map, and when used correctly they can completely change the tide of a battle. Instead of just slamming it down in front of the enemy spawn, check around the map to see if anybody on your team is blocked off, and give them some support with a massive circle of ink, then they can advance and you can keep securing turf elsewhere.
Neither of these examples are 100% accurate, because they don't account for resistance from the other team, but they explain my point, and you get the picture. Get it? The picture??
Mid Game
Now that the atrocious pun is out of the way, let's talk about the Mid Game. This part of the fight starts once all first encounters have been resolved, and dominance over specific areas of the map have been established. Also, there's two sides to this, as you might imagine, the winning side and losing side.
The winning side is the team who came out with superior control of the map, and has more turf, generally speaking. This part of the battle for you winners out there is all about maintaining control of what turf you have, as well as advancing as much as possible. Working together with your teammates here is crucial, because you'll absolutely need to work together to take down enemies stopping your advance. If you do this well, you'll slowly overcome your enemies and begin dominating even further.
As for the losing side, your objective will be the similar, but easier if you search for unguarded areas of the enemies' defenses. Once you do, break through and work together with your team to keep it, and slowly advance.
As far as both sides go, this is where maneuvers such as flanking come in extremely handy.
This may remind you of the first image I showed of what is a bad idea, but in this case it's a bit different. Firstly, we'll imagine you got splat. Bother, time to get back into action. Now imagining a best case scenario here, you go to the top here and circle around their big blocky area with greenery, and sneak up and splat one, maybe two of your enemies. Then your Special is charged back up by this point, and time to get that Inkstrike going! You take cover in your own ink, behind the center pillar, pop your inkstrike in front of their spawn, and you've successfully blocked them off from leaving their spawn for a good few seconds, because you just sent them there. If you're extra lucky, they won't be paying attention and waltz right into it, slowing them down further.
Again, this is a very good scenario. You'll meet resistance and have to reroute against good teams, but nobody is perfect, and as you continue to play you'll find yourself more capable of dealing with those sorts of situations. The thing to remember is what will most benefit your team, because you'll never win a match alone. And now finally we get to the End Game.
End Game
End Game is about the last 30 seconds or so of the match (about the same amount of time as Last Ditch Effort). This part, like Mid Game, has two different sides.
For the wining side, you're doing great! Do whatever you can to keep the turf you've got! Don't worry too much about expanding, unless the opportunity presents itself. Remember, you've already won with what you have now, don't get too greedy. Cooperate with the team to lock down all the turf you control.
For the losing side, this is do-or-die time. Time to pull out all the stops, and make some risky plays! Splatting your opponents here isn't going to win it for you, you need to sneak past them and take what they've got, or work together with an ally to snag a sneaky splat so both of you can advance.
And that's how Turf War goes. The important thing to remember in any case, is what will benefit your team most. One thing that has helped me immensely when I get splatted, is "what could I have done differently?" It's a helpful question that ultimately caused me to get better at the game, because I answer it honestly. "I shouldn't have gone that direction," or "I let myself get too far out of position." Little things like that will ultimately let you realize what you are and have been doing wrong, and improve at the game overall.
And with that, we're done with Turf War! Yaaaaay!
But don't get too excited, we've still got a lot more to go. Next up is the first ever introduced ranked mode, Splat Zones.
Splat Zones
So in the very first sentence of the Turf War explanation, I said that it was the best mode to talk about first. Reason being is that every game mode hinges on the principles you learn in Turf War. And that's no exaggeration. Sure, some of the strategy changes, because the objective does, but you'll still be using the ideas you picked up from Turf War, and applying them as best you can to the objective in the current ranked battle.
So to start this off, let's look at a picture.
I apologize for the lack of a super high-quality photo here, I don't have many tools at my disposal and this is the best I could get to work. However, it does indeed work for what I want to explain. I'm sure you're all familiar, but you're objective in Splat Zones is to control the zone(s) that are marked by the anchor symbol, until the timer hits zero. So what's the strategy here, and why is Turf War so crucial to learn in order to play this mode well? To explain, let's dive into the separate parts of the game, just like we did with Turf War.
The Beginning
At the start of the game, we're starting off in a similar fashion to Turf War - start making your way to the center. The difference is now you won't be worrying about the base at all to start with, and instead make a path to the important part of the map, which is near the zone.
This is an example of a group of squids pathing a way to good positions at the start of the match, hoping to secure the zone early. After getting there, this is where first encounters happen (much like Turf War, how about that!), and ultimately dictates who will keep control of the zone. However, controlling the zone itself won't be enough.
Mid Game
In this image, I've circled a large area beyond the zone. Why? Because this is what you want to control, because you want to make sure your opponents can't get to the zone at all, much less let them have a chance to control it themselves. This means you want to be in front of the zone, protecting it and making sure nobody on the enemy team breaks through. Another thing similar to Turf War is that the Mid Game has a winning side and losing side, and we'll talk strategy for both sides in just a minute, but there's also a couple key factors to mention before jumping right into it.
The difference in this mode is the timer isn't a guarantee of how long the match will go, and both teams can work this to their advantage. Firstly, let's talk about Knockouts. These occur when you've held the zone for 100 seconds, and your timer reaches 0. Once that happens, the team who was holding the zone wins immediately. This is obviously the best case scenario, but won't always be this easy, and the reason is because of the second factor, which is clock setbacks.
Clock setbacks occur when a team who has control of the zone loses control, and the opposing team gains control. The setback will vary, and will be bigger depending on how much time the first team had control of the zone. These are half seconds, but will not let you count down your main timer until you've removed the entire clock setback. Manipulating all these facts will be your key to victory in Splat Zones.
Now that we've got both of these out of the way, let's talk strategy for the winning and losing sides.
The winning side is the one who grabbed the zone first and kept it for more than one second. Well done, but the battle is far from over. Now you need to establish control. The image above is what you're going to go for now, and hold it strong. Your objective here is to go for the Knockout victory, and holding the area around the zone is the key to doing so. Be sure to work together with your whole team to make sure all areas are covered, and avoid being pushed back.
The losing side lost the first battle, but can definitely still win the war. Your goal now is to get back in there and fight for control of the area around the zone, as shown in the image above. You will need your whole team's cooperation to do this, so don't go in alone and expect to change the match. Build up and pop your Specials here to change the flow of the battle, and avoid the Knockout. Another factor that may help your team is to quickly grab control of the zone, if your team is close to a Knockout loss - a clock setback will buy you a bit more time to come back with, even if you lose the zone right afterwards.
End Game
At this point, the match is getting pretty intense. End Games aren't always guaranteed, so this bit becomes heated. This is the last 20 or so seconds of the match, plus whatever Overtime occurs. Overtime is the final mechanic which makes all ranked modes different from Turf War; Overtime occurs whenever the losing team has control of the objective (in this case the zone(s) of whatever map you're playing on). Overtime cannot occur if the winning team has control of the zone, or control is undecided. Let's talk strategy for both sides here.
To the winning team - you're almost there! only a little bit longer until you've secured the win! Be prepared for any last minute specials, maybe using your own to splat any players who might be saving theirs for a more opportune moment. Hold the zone, keep map control, and work together with your team.
The losing team needs to pull out all the stops at this point; gather your team up for one final big push, pop your specials, and push into that zone! You need to get it into overtime or you're finished here and now. Play smart and you can absolutely come out on top.
Remember what you've learned from Turf War, because 90% of it relates to what you need to do, and how to effectively work with your team to secure the victory. And with that, Splat Zones talk is finished.
Tower Control
So now we're finally getting onto Tower Control, which I personally believe to be the most difficult mode. It takes both a well executed strategy, and even then it's incredibly easy to make a mistake. This is my personal opinion, so for others this may be the preferred mode, but as far as my play style I have the most trouble with this. However, we need to cover it. This also will likely be the largest section of all, so buckle up.
Tower Control is, put simply, a game of Splat Zones where the zone moves. The overall strategy is to guard the area around the tower. While it's simple in wording, applying the proper technique to doing so is extremely difficult, especially when the group can't communicate. The biggest fallback is the lack of being able to tell your allies when to "stall" the tower (stalling the tower is when the player hops off the tower, but remain close by to jump back on and keep it from going back to the start position). Stalling the tower lets you use the tower itself as a wall to block incoming fire, as well as let your team catch up to gain more control instead of pushing too far and giving your enemies control of the tower.
Here's an example of the Tower Control mode, with the location of the tower marked in red. As I mentioned earlier, this mode is played similarly to Splat Zones in regards to how the players gain control of the area around the objective. The area the players initially want to gain control of is outlined in orange. The reason being, is the image below:
This level in particular has a lot of ways to get to the center from the spawn; the orange depicts the potential paths to the center. There's more potential paths than there are players. It's another reason why control is so important in this mode, as with any other mode; once you have control, you have dominance over the map.
Moving right along, this is where it gets difficult. The zone moves, as I mentioned before, so you can't just stay in control of the center of the map, unless you really want to go for that end game time out victory (which is not advised unless you've got about 20 seconds left on the clock and are winning, which will be explained in the end game section). So what do we do to accommodate for this sudden change? We move our control area. Before we take a look at the control area though, let's take a look at the threatening pathways our opponents can take again, now that the tower's moved.
The threat is more limited in terms of potential paths, but because of the positioning of the tower, it becomes extremely difficult to guard these areas well. In fact, one of these spots is almost directly above the tower, and has an extremely easy time stopping any kind of forward advance from happening, when played correctly. As you can see, threat from the lower right hand side of the stage is non-existent, so long as part of the center is still controlled, so the new area we want to try to get control of will look something like this:
The tower is clearly controlled by these sections of the map, and to compensate for this your team needs to help you gain control of this new area. Comparing the last two images to each other, we can see that the orange lines overlap - this means that, if the pushing team is working well together, the enemy will not be able to even advance to the tower, until it's at their doorstep. This scenario is extremely unlikely, because somebody needs to be on the tower, so the team defending the areas shown above are essentially a 3v4. This isn't even 100% true though, because multiple players can be on the tower at once! Because of all this, it becomes a very hectic and difficult game mode to win at. So now that the introduction to Tower Control has been done, let's get into the stages of the game.
The Beginning
As with Splat Zones, this will be the first 30 seconds or so that you and your team will jump into the fray and begin with your first encounters. 9 times out of 10, this dictates who has control of the objective. The key here is to fight for control of the area, and not go immediately for the tower. Without control of the area, your team cannot support you.
Here's an example - if you don't wait for your team to gain control of the area around the objective, your team will be left behind dealing with whatever players are in the area still, while you're stuck out in enemy lines (if you're lucky enough to stay on the tower as long as this image depicts).
Mid Game
This part of the battle starts when control has been decided and one team has control of the tower. This is also split up into two sides - the winning side and losing side.
The winning side is the one who pushed the tower toward the goal further. This means, so long as your player pushing the tower doesn't rush ahead, you and your allies dictate the flow of the battle. Keep it moving steadily along, and slowly push to victory, and hopefully the Knockout victory.
The losing side has a bit of a comeback to make here, but plenty of time to do so. Your goal is to find the spot that's unguarded by your opponents, and bring the tower under your control. Be sure to apply enough pressure to prevent the tower from advancing further into your territory.
End Game
The end game is the last 30 seconds or so of the match (unlike Splat Zones' end game, the Overtime in Tower Control is considerably shorter and easier to stop in most cases). This is the last chance to make one final push for victory.
The winning side is the team who is ahead on the scoreboard. At this point, you have two options: first, if you're already pushing the tower, keep pushing as always. The second option is, if the tower is reset or the enemy team has control, begin defending the tower and just keeping your enemies off it.
The losing side's job is to gain & keep control of the tower. Once you get control, your team needs to actively begin controlling the necessary area as tower moves. This is difficult, but remember you don't need to get a Knockout victory to win here, just to get a higher score than the enemy team (unless they have a score of 1). Unleash all your specials to clear the way here, because you won't have another chance.
And the Tower Control section is finally finished! Now onto Rainmaker.
Rainmaker
Rainmaker is more complex than either Tower Control or Splat Zones, but not necessarily as difficult in terms of strategic thinking. The best way for me to explain this will be to treat it like a sport, and I'll be explaining each part of the match. This is the most hectic and active mode of the three ranked modes, and will take some getting used to. However, with solid teamwork and a bit of critical thinking, you can overpower your opponents and win.
So the sport of Rainmaker is a match that comprises of two teams of four, obviously, one goal per team, and one ball (the Rainmaker). The object of the game is to place the Rainmaker in the other team's goal within five minutes. If the time runs out before either team scores, the team that had the Rainmaker closer to the enemy goal throughout the duration of the game is the winner. There's a few points which need to be addressed before we dive into the beginning/mid/end game, and those points are regarding the rules of the game:
The Rainmaker starts in the middle, and waits for a team to gain "control" over it, by popping the protective covering it has. Once popped, the Rainmaker is vulnerable, and can be picked up by any player (it's easier to pick it up when your team pops the bubble, because it covers a considerable amount of turf nearby).
Once a player has control over the Rainmaker, they become the ball, to put it simply. While holding the Rainmaker, the closer the player gets to the goal, the higher the score you gain for your team, with an instant knockout victory when said player places the Rainmaker on the goal.
Finally, if the player with the Rainmaker is taken out, the Rainmaker resets, gains its protective coating again, and the opening plays start over again.
What's the opening play? Put simply, it's how the beginning of the game goes. This mode is different than the others, with the fact that the Rainmaker resets and stays at its current location (unless it falls off the edge of the map). Because of this, the format will be different than the others thus far - instead of beginning, mid game, and end game, we have opening plays, as well as defensive/offensive plays. The time is moreso the limit of the match, as opposed to affecting how the game should be played like Turf War and Splat Zones. So without further adieu, let's talk strategy.
Opening Plays
An opening play is how you are going to get the Rainmaker bubble to pop in your favor, so your team can get it with ease. To start out, you don't always want to go straight for popping the bubble - you need to assess the situation. Make sure your team has control before going straight for the ball. Obviously if the enemy team grabs it, take them out immediately (going straight for the Rainmaker like that often leaves the player in question exposed & easy to deal with). Control is key, as with any other mode.
One note I would like to make about this, the Opening Play is for any time the Rainmaker resets.
Offensive Plays
Now getting into the first of the main parts, the offensive plays are the ones made when somebody on your team has grabbed the Rainmaker. Once this happens, there are two key things that need to happen here from both the perspective of the Carrier and the rest of the team, called Screeners.
-The Carrier is the player who grabbed the Rainmaker (marked as the red dot). The Carrier's job is to not die, and provide supporting fire with his or her newly obtained weapon of mass inkage. The most crucial part of playing this role is do not overextend. The Rainmaker has incredible power from long distances, but is more than lackluster at close range. Once it gets to that point, unless you're extraordinarily lucky, you've dropped the ball. Stay behind your team, slowly advancing while giving supporting fire from your weapon, and abuse your range as much as possible (the only time you should not be firing is while advancing - remember, your weapon doesn't run out of ink, but you'll blow up if you wait too long). In the event of a team wipe, don't run away, just try to make a mad dash for the goal, or try to pick people off. Running away just makes it that much easier for the enemy team to get closer to your goal. One final tip: use "C'mon!" or "To me!" if you're being flanked. Swim toward a nearby ally who can take them out.
-The Screeners are the remaining three players on the team (marked as the orange dots), whose job is to protect & support the Carrier. The most important thing for Screeners is do not be standing anywhere behind the Carrier - you need to be in front of them, making sure enemies can't get close. Being behind them does absolutely no good, because of how their weapon works. They can provide incredible supporting fire from far behind you, but if they're in front the enemy will just get close and take your carrier out. Keep an eye out for your Rainmaker spamming "C'mon!" or "To me!", because if they're doing this they're likely being flanked by somebody. Remember, while your team controls the Rainmaker, you're almost fighting 3v4, because the Rainmaker can't engage directly in combat, as well as has no subs/specials available to get them out of a tight spot.
This sums up offensive play fairly well. In regards to the timer, your saving grace, should you be behind, is Overtime. In order to engage Overtime, your team must be either:
A) Carrying the Rainmaker
B) Must have splatted the opponents' carrier within ~10 seconds prior to the timer hitting 0 (I have no conclusive proof that this is the case, but it's something along these lines).
Defensive Plays
Defensive plays are when the opposing team has control of the Rainmaker. As a whole, your team's objective at this point is to take out the Carrier and completely stop your opponents' advance. However, this is not the only part of defensive plays - you're also trying to slow your enemies advance as much as possible while waiting for your team to take out the Carrier.
Expanding on the image used earlier, the white dots are the defenders. In this particular example, it becomes impossible to advance without your opponents taking at least two of your players out. The best way to have your team take advantage of this opportunity is to pressure somebody back, and force them to be out of position, letting your team move somebody in and quickly take out the Carrier. For example:
In this example we see the two defending players grouping up on a weak link, forcing them back. One player can pressure them from moving back up while the second runs around behind the Carrier, taking them out. This is a rough and simple example, but it shows the kind of thinking that needs to be applied. Keep in mind that if the Rainmaker were behind the player indicated as the "weak link", it's more than likely this plan would fail, and the Rainmaker would be able to push forward.
One good thing to make note of is where the Carrier is, and where not to splat him at.
If you take out the Carrier in any of these four areas marked with red dots, don't forget the only way to get up there is through the pathways that lead toward their base (there's small inkable blocks that let you climb up before you go all the way into their territory, but it's still difficult to get to with four players guarding both passages). If you're on the losing side, these are extremely difficult points to get the Rainmaker back from. Be sure to pay attention to the Rainmaker's position before trying to take them out.
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Finally have all the major updates finished - all three ranked sections have been finished! Please be sure to let me know if there's anything you're unsure of or you feel I've left out/left unclear. Thanks for sticking with it to the end, and hope this has helped!
