The Shaman Invokes the Rain Gods - a general guide to the Dynamo Roller (ver. 0.5)

Hey Inklings and Inklettes! Here's a guide to one of the most underutilized, but brutal weapon in the game, and my favorite weapon in the game overall. Since I like to be encompassing, this is going to be a long one since the Dynamo Roller is a fairly intricate weapon and I like building learning materials from the ground up. If you already got a basic handling on the weapon, you can also skip the first couple of sections. This will at first be WIP as I add more sections later during the coming days (including strategies, roles, gear, what weaknesses to look out for etc.). Please note that this is an advanced guide and having a good understanding of the game's mechanics and setup is important before even attempting to read this. If you don't feel too confident in that, go play more Splatoon and don't worry, and have fun!

• In the following text, when I mention the "Dynamo Roller" (or short: "dynamo"), unless further specified, I mean the general "mechanistical" weapon type and not the specific weapon set including the Sprinkler and Echolocator. I will refer to the specific weapon set as the "normal Dynamo Roller" (or "normal Dynamo"). This guide covers both sets and gives a few pointers on what the nuances between the 2 are.
• English is not my first language. I'm generally coherent enough to be communicable, but feel VERY free to correct me on typos, grammar and syntax or if you'd like me to rewrite specific portions to be better comprehendable. I want this guide to be the best it can be. This is your chance, release your inner grammar nazi!
• Since a lot of my knowledge about the Dynamo comes from personal experience and experimentation, I try to make a divide between "objective" descriptions and the strategies I personally employ and that work for me - in the shape of dedicated text boxes ("Graf Notes"). Other Dynamo users who know their trade and who agree or disagree and got a good idea about what they are actually doing, I'd like to collect your opinions as well!
• If there are more points you'd like covered in this guide, if there are questions open, if you don't like the structure and got better ideas, I am open towards criticism and curiosity.
• I didn't find any actual terms for most of the techs and strats I'm about to discuss here, so I just invented names. If there's a consensus on different names or if there's actually different terminology used, let me know!
• CREDITS: The entirety of the text was written by Grafkarpador based on own experience and experimentation with the weapon as well as community suggestions. All of the still screenshots were taken by Grafkarpador via the Internet Browser screenshot uploading feature of the Wii U from the original game as well. All of the animated showcases were recorded, uploaded and provided by Reddit user /u/Fluppy (Thanks a lot!).

With that out of the way, let's get to the meat!





The group of the Dynamo Rollers is a group of weapons derived from the Roller family (consisting of the Ink Brush, the Octobrush, the Carbon Roller, the Splat Roller and the Dynamo Roller, each of which has 2 discrete weapon sets). Two sets of weapons currently comprise the Dynamo Rollers, the (normal) Dynamo Roller and the Gold Dynamo Roller. Both weapons are identical in handling and utility, but have seperate sub weapons and special weapons. For an analytical weighing on the strategical implications of the different sets, see 4.3 "Set Specific Strategy".

• Appeareance: huge iron/steel roller with a Dynamo attached to it.
• Sub weapon: Sprinkler (shoots sprays of ink in a rotatory fashion from a stationary point until a) the Sprinkler is destroyed or b) the Inkling who set the Sprinkler is splatted)
• Special weapon: Echolocator (discloses the positions of all of your enemies on the screen and on the Gamepad map for yourself and for your teammates)
• Unlock condition: Find the Sunken Scroll in the last boss fight of Hero Mode and reach level 15.
• Price: 10,000 C
• Quote: "Using the blueprints as a starting point, Sheldon rigged up a motor to the roller base. Cumbersome to use, but delivers a powerful burst of ink when swung."

• Appeareance: same as normal Dynamo, but gold covered.
• Sub weapon: Splat Bomb (grenade-like tetraeder shaped bomb that can be thrown and that explodes a second after touching the ground)
• Special weapon: Inkstrike (tornado-like missile attack that covers a large round area that is manually chosen on the map on the Gamepad; splats enemies who are caught in the tornado)
• Unlock condition: Find the Sunken Scroll in the last boss fight of Hero Mode and reach level 20.
• Price: 25,000 C
• Quote: "A Dynamo Roller with rearranged sub and special weapons. Lure the enemy out of hiding with the sub weapon,then unleash the full force of your powerful roller."

• Range: 73 / 100
• Ink/Painting Speed: 33 / 100
• Weight/Lightness: 20 / 100

The Dynamo Rollers (and by extent other rollers) are different from other predominantly shooting weapons in the game in that they have a distinctive rhythm of action instead of straightforward shooting. This section dissects the singular moves and their respective properties, which is important for the techs we need to utilize later on. A lot of the stuff I introduce here is fairly technical. It's best if you have the guide open on your laptop, smartphone, tablet etc. and experiment in the weapon testing area!


Showcase

The Flick is the basic attack of the Dynamo Roller. Upon pressing the shooting button (ZR), the Flick is initiated and executed, due to which a burst of ink (the ink spray containing several drops of ink) is shot in a random pattern in a specific range box in front of you, covering a large amount of area and instantly splatting any enemy directly caught under it. Additionally, the ink shot by the Flick deflects flying enemy ink. This attack is comparable (although not identical) to a shotgun attack in more traditional shooters.

Process/Phases: The Flick consists of 2 distinct phases: the wind up and the swing. The entirety of the Flick from initiation and execution takes 1 second. During the wind up animation, the Inkling raises the Dynamo Roller above their head, while during the swing animation, the Inkling swings and shoots the spray followed by a recovery animation. The wind up is 0.75 s long (three quarters of a second), the swing with subsequent recovery is 0.25 s long (a quarter of a second). Thus, the Flick consists of 75% wind up and 25% swing, and the actual damaging portion of the Flick, the spray, is fired after 0.75 seconds. You can move during the Flick animation. If the Inkling is on the ground, walk speed is quickly decelerated to drastically small speeds, rendering the Inkling practically stationary for the duration. If the Inkling is in mid-air (and this has important implications), they retain all their inertia and mobility during the entirety of the Flick and can be steered in any direction until the Inkling is grounded again.

Aiming and Inking: You can aim the spray during any point of the Flick animation, the point of aim during the swing animation is what eventually counts. Before Flicking, an arrow arch is shown in front of your character indicating the arch you would be currently flicking at. Aiming low (almost or actually below you) will shoot the spray directly in front of you in a low arch and high speed, the ink is concentrated in a small area. Enemies caught in this area will always be splatted. Aiming mid-high (looking straight in front of you to looking in a 45° angle into the air) will shoot the spray in a wide area in a mid-high arch and mediocre speed, with different ink drop densities in the center and border zones. Enemies will almost always reliably get splat in the concentrated center zone, while it's a coin toss if they even get hit or not in the border zone (and sometimes they get hit and don't get splat). Aiming high (above a 45° angle into the air) will shoot the spray in a high arch with slow speed into the air until it rains down in a more dense, but still wide area (wider than low aim, but more dense than mid-high aim). Additionally, the height difference between yourself and your target surface (e.g. through vantage points or by being midair) has an influence on the width of your spread.

Here a couple of screenshots showing the area covered by singular and multiple overlayed flicks from one position. (the singular flicks are more like examples, as the exact pattern can vary between different flicks)

• Low aim: one Flick vs multiple Flicks
• Mid-high aim: one Flick vs multiple Flicks
• High aim: one Flick vs multiple Flicks

Spray properties: For visualisation, see the "one Flick" pictures above in "Aiming and Inking". The spray shot from the Flick consists of 10 drops of ink, each of which covers a seperate portion of turf and each of which independently does damage (for damage breakdown, see below). The ink drops can (and mostly will) overlap with each other mid-air and on the ground. Upon hitting the ground, one drop leaves a linear ink trace whose length and direction depends on the momentum and angle relative to the ground with which it connects, or (if you can work with mathematical concepts) the vector of momentum of the drop. For example, a spray horizontally shot by aiming mid-high (horizontal arch) will leave elongated drop traces that stretch away from you, a spray vertically shot by aiming high (vertical arch) will leave short point-like drop traces that only slightly elongate, and by aiming low the drops are indistinguishable from each other anyway because of the large drop density/overlap. In general, the elongated traced impacted drops cover more turf than those which leave round traces, but the former are more likely to overlap. If one ink drop touches the enemy while it is still flying, it counts as a shot and will not leave a trace on the ground and will not cover turf (although this is insignificant because splatted enemies leave a large circumference of your own team's ink when being splat anyway).

Damage: If your spray hits the enemy from the closest distance possible and neither of you have any damage or defense modifiers, one drop of the spray will do exactly 125.0 points of damage (for reference, an Inkling has 100 HP), which renders the flick a one-hit-splat if aimed low or mid-high and the enemy is in close vicinity. The spray of the Flick can damage in 2 different ways: the ink drops either hit the enemy in a frontal fashion directly from the swing fully accelerated (which will always result in maximum damage output) or rain down on the opponent from above if your shot is arched. In the former case, every single drop of the spray, if central or periphery, has exactly the damage output of 125.0 points. In the latter case, the amount of damage of each ink drop is decreased by a yet unknown formula, depending on the current momentum and/or point in the spray arch and/or time spent mid-air. The minimum damage one ink drop of the spray can deal is 25.0 points, which means that in unideal circumstances, 4 ink drops of the spray need to hit an enemy if neither of you have any modifiers; the actual damage of each drop exists on a continuum between 25 and 125 hit points though. If the enemy has one defense modifier on their main gear slots, the maximum damage is decreased to 118.6 points. If the enemy has two defense modifiers on their main gear slots, the maximum damage is decreased to 113.4 points. If the enemy has three defense modifiers on their main gear slots, the maximum damage is decreased to 109.4 points. All in all, this means that a maximum damage shot with a single ink drop of the spray will always splat an enemy regardless of their defense buffs. For minimum damage, 1 defense modifier on a main gear slot of the enemy amounts to 23.7 points of damage; 2 defense modifiers on the enemy equal 22.6 points of damage; 3 defense modifiers on the enemy equal 21.8 points of damage per ink drop. This means that if the enemy has even 1 defense modifier (or has 2 defense modifiers against 1 of your own damage modifiers etc.), a minimum 4-hit-splat can become a 5-hit-splat.

Ink Consumption: Without any modifications, the amount of times you can Flick before depleting your ink tank is 6 times. With one gear carrying ink saving (main) on its main slot, this number increases to 7 times. After your tank is depleted, you can still spray ink because a small amount of your tank gets refilled during the winding up, the load and size of your spray drops will be reduced though. These drops still follow the previously described damage behaviours, thus a frontal shot of ink from a depleted tank is still capable of one-hit-splatting (but a delayed spray shot might have reduced damage output).



Showcase

Rolling is what the Inkling transitions into after performing the Flick by pressing and consequently holding ZR, thus holding the Roller to the ground and covering turf while walking forward. Any enemy touching your roller while you are walking will be instantly splatted (Rolling deals 160.0 points of damage without modifiers involved, and 151.9 points, 145.2 points and 140.0 points for 1, 2 and 3 defense buffs on the enemy's gear respectively), identical to other Roller weapons. Note that your walking speed is significantly slowed compared to normal walking speed, but not as drastic as the slow-down during the Flick [needs measured data of walking speeds]. The width of the ink trail is about 1.2 lanes in the weapon testing area (1 lane is the space between 2 "yard lines") and decreases if you walk slower (by only lightly pressing the left stick).


Flicking alone will probably get you splatted more than you'd like. Derived from the properties of the Flick, a number of important techs should belong to the arsenal of every good Dynamo player. Since they somewhat rely on muscle memory and cognitive automatism, practice them in the weapon testing area and then force yourself using them in Turf Wars or Ranked Battle until it becomes second nature. As with the previous section, try this out in the weapon testing area while having this guide open.


Showcase

After pressing the ZR button for the Flick and during the wind-up animation, press the jump button (X). You want it just slightly delayed half a second after initiating the Flick, so that you spray your ink in the apex of your jump. Press the X button all the way through (Splatoon has a Mario-esque jumping mechanic where the height of the jump is proportional to the amount of time you press the jump button). What this does is give the ink of your flick a higher arch and a wider overall spread of ink. This will, however, not (or only very slightly) increase your frontal range, only your vertical range.



Showcase

Ever played a Zelda game? You'll feel right at home with this one, very similar to Link's jump attack. Remember, if you are mid-air during the initiation of the Flick, you will retain all of your momentum and you can steer yourself away until you hit the ground. Coincidentally, the amount of time from jumping to landing on the same level and the amount of time the Flick takes from winding up to swinging is about the same. Walking forward (up on left stick if camera faces forward), jump (X button) and simultanously initiate the Flick (ZR button). Hold both the left stick and the X button for the entire duration. You will swing right as you land, and for the duration of the Flick animation, you move forward mid-air. You can also stop your forward momentum by pushing any other direction of the left stick. Doing the Jumping Flick out of a jump after swimming as a squid (ZL button in your team's ink) will also retain your squid momentum, giving you even more mobility. The difference to the previous tech is that you don't swing in the apex of your jump and the arch and spread of your ink is unaltered, but it enables movement for the duration of a Flick.



Showcase

Similar to the Jumping Flick, but push back/down on your left stick. You will thus spray ink while moving backwards. All of the properties from the previous tech (walking vs swimming momentum, arch, spread) are retained.



Showcase 1, Showcase 2

Similar to the Jumping Flick and Backup Flick, but there's an interesting mechanism that's not necessarily unique to the Dynamo and that I didn't cover previously because it's kind of only important for this one. Anyway, if you are not firing anything (do not press the ZR button), you can face and walk in all kinds of directions independently of the camera. However, when you start shooting any weapon (press ZR), you reorient and realign yourself with the camera. This animation demonstrates this mechanism. If you walk or swim to the side relative to the camera, then jump (X button) and initiate the Flick (ZR button), you will still maintain your lateral momentum, but will Flick facing to the front.



Showcase 1, Showcase 2

Yet another derivative of the momentum based jump techs previously discussed, but this one also makes use of the fact that you can actually steer yourself while midair instead of being locked inside inertia. While pressing the shooting button (ZR) and the jump button (X), press a direction on the left stick that corresponds with what would be tactically appropriate right now (i.e. perform a Jumping Flick, Backup Flick or Corner Flick as usual). In midair in the middle of the swing animation (not too early and not too late), change the direction you are pressing on the left stick to one perpendicular to the initial direction. For example, start out moving laterally and then change it towards frontal momentum, or start out moving frontally and then change it towards lateral momentum. Any combination goes really, as long as the directions are perpendicular to each other; if the directions are opposite of each other, the momentum cancels out and you will briefly keep still in mid-air.



Showcase

A mix of the previous techs and Splatter Jumping. Perform Jumping Flicks right out of swimming as a squid (ZL + movement in ink). Align your Jumping Flicks so that your ink spray creates a coherent path of ink you can swim through. As a rule of thumb, if you Flick in the beginning of your puddle and aim mid-high, the new puddle will connect to and extend the previous one. Flick in the beginning of the first puddle and create the second puddle. Swim through the first puddle until you meet the border of the first and second puddle, Jump Flick and create a third puddle, swim to the border of the second and third puddle etc. If you have no ink below you in the initiation of this, you can Flick and create the first puddle, shortly Roll out of the Flick and use the little trail to Squid swim jump to the first puddle.



Showcase

Not sure if this is tech-worthy, but I'll include it here because I have no other place for that. Anyway, as said in the previous section, You can readjust your aim during the winding up animation of the Flick in any direction until you swing by either using the right control stick or twitching your wrist for gyro control. This also works in mid-air.



Showcase 1, Showcase 2

This only applies in one situation, which is that you are in a close combat situation, you were just trying to Flick an enemy in a mid-high or high angle and the enemy dodged the spray by swimming into your blind spot right in front of you, and attempts to attack you from there. Instead of initiating another Flick which will take a second to wind up (which is ample time for an enemy to make short work of you), transition into a Roll and approach the enemy for the one-hit Splat.




After covering the technical handling of the weapon, this portion will introduce ways of utilization of what we just learned. I discuss this from 2 different perspectives: general strategies for the Dynamo weapon as a whole, and weapon set specific strategies (normal vs. gold Dynamo). This section also borrows terminology from Line Theory and Position Theory, so a basic understanding of these 2 would be good. Be sure to check out the upcoming section 5 as well in order to get a general guideline about field behavior!


With the huge range of the spray of the Flick, the overall spread and the size of the area claimed after only a couple of Flicks, the Dynamo Roller excels at two thing the most: territory control and overwhelming power. Your work as a Dynamo revolves around giving yourself and your team the advantage of claiming a large field of operation from which you can stall or ambush the enemy and overwhelm the enemy with your pure power. Excellent at claiming turf in Turf Wars, this weapon also very quickly takes zones in Splat Zones, and works well in denying the opponent entrance to crucial parts of the map. Creating distance between an opponent and you/your team and reveling in the enemy's risk aversion is the job of the Dynamo, and it's also a good tool in punishing the opponent's technical or strategical mistakes or just straight tear through them like a hungry wolf killing its prey.

Role here is meant as a set of strategies and attitudes a player can assume for the duration of the match and in specific situations. For a weapon so seemingly niche and technical, the Dynamo Roller can fill a lot of roles, all of which can be used interchangably depending on the situation and overlapped how you like. This is not an exhaustive list, but an example collection of attitudes you can take towards tackling the task at hand, and what I found to be the most effective in my personal play and from what I could observe from other players.

Most straightforward strategy and the one that probably is the quickest to wrap one's head around, and overall the Dynamo's most unique strategy (probably its signature role). Basically, you stay either on the back of the field or on a vantage point, perform Rain Dances (see 3.1) and cover a huge area reachable from your space with ink. You are the shaman casting the perpetual spell on the field. This is more of a support role that can do a multitude of things: first, enemies have a hard time getting past your barrage because running under your rain is dangerous and you can (and should) easily target people from up there, creating an effective denial of access. Second, you quickly erase all of the inking your opponent lays down in order to get into the area you're protecting, creating a stall of progression. Third, the ink you lay down becomes the groundwork for your team to push through and eventually break the enemy lines. Fourth (Splat Zones only), you can effectively claim and maintain a Splat Zone as long as you are available, with the opponent trying to reclaim it in vain. Ultimately, this role is also fit to punish and splat players who do try to get into the area.
One thing to note though is that while Rain Dancing from a vantage point, you are extremely vulnerable towards enemies who see it as a necessity to take you out if they actually want to get anywhere, especially because most vantage points have some kind of back entrance. Always be EXTREMELY cautious if someone's trying to dethrone you, look around your adjacent corner between every Flick, and look down if someone's trying to invade from the front. Choose your fights and know when to fight back or when to retreat, and know your maps and the entrances to everything. This is probably the easiest role to fill and good for beginners, but you're underselling your weapon's potential if you're only purely playing defensively (doesn't net you a lot of splats or turf points). Also, it invites the player to just brainlessly jump and Flick around, not pay attention to their surroundings and get surprised by the enemy from the side, from behind or from below. Rain Dancing is useful, but if the enemy is pushed back, move on.

Line here is meant as a concept of a collection of opposite players defending a specific portion of the map, for example their home base in Turf Wars or the Splat Zone in Ranked Battles. Playing bold, aggressive and confrontational can pay off really well for the Dynamo if you are able to foresee enemy strategies and their steps way ahead. Remember: you have HUGE offensive power with a lot of range and high amount of damage. You either force your enemy to retreat or defeat them one by one or sometimes even simultanously (all via any variation of the advanced Flicking detailed in section 3). Using your own laid down ink to swim and flank enemies also helps in combat. One important prerequisite is taking out any opposite Inklings who are actively denying access to the zone first - this goes especially for Chargers. Once you destroyed their guard, invade every possible space they were protecting, give yourself a huge areal advantage and either assume a defensive position or go out and aggressively take out more enemies who are trying to approach.

An extension of the Line Breaker. Kind of cheesy thing to do, but incredibly effective and kind of fun. After breaking through their line, get all the way back to their home base close to the spawn point. Ink their entire backfield, pince off all of their alternative escape paths and take them out as they try to rush you down by Flicking them all over the place. As you take the area around their spawn point, they have a lot of less opportunities to approach and flank you and need to rush you head-first, which you can very effectively deny and punish. Depending on the map, the opposite team's competence, their choice of weapon and on the support you get from your team mates, this can either end in a disaster or in a complete wipe-out. This doesn't work on all maps - Obviously it doesn't work for example on Saltspray Rig and Kelp Dome, and it's harder to pull off on Port Mackerel and on Arowana Mall. Also, this is generally a strategy not suited for Ranked Battle because you've got your zone to worry about. Kind of risky thing to do, but it severely stalls your opponent's intrusion into the map center and gives your team ample time to ink the rest of the map undisturbed or against minimal forces. This strategy is basically a mix of hyper-aggressive confrontationalism and distraction as a tool of team support, so it's the right option if you'd like to combine these two aspects.

Kind of like the Bully where you break or sneak through the line and get into their home base, but you don't stick around to camp them, only to give them a nasty little surprise they have to work through before getting back into the zone. Remember: one Flick covers a lot of area, and with multiple Flicks and a bit of movement, you can claim an entire field in pretty much no time. You want to do this if there are more focal points in the map and you quickly need to create a distraction before the enemy puts you into danger. Oftentimes the enemy quickly gets onto your game, due to which the focal point of the match shifts to their own base for the time being and giving you and your team a chance of recovering while you stall the opponent. If one enemy wants to take you out, you should rather take it directly offensively (depending on their weapon), while if they gang up on you, try to retreat onto an advantagous spot from which you can take them out more easily or return into another spot of the map. The Decorateur smoothly transitions into the Bully and oftentimes precedes it, but the difference to the Bully is that you don't really concentrate on splatting enemies and avoid conflict if possible, but rather quickly take the base and run off while they deal with the fallout. Generally, in Splat Zones enemies don't care if their base is inked as long as they have an access path to the splat zone, so this strategy has limited use there.

Trace down enemy activity by either watching your enemy's ink progression on your Gamepad map or by using Echolocation on the normal Dynamo Roller set, analyze the battle field and your enemy's weaknesses in their defense, and collectively take them out on a splatting spree. Anyone who's trying to assert dominance in the middle field (Turf Wars) or the splat zone (Ranked Battles) will be taken out by the sheer overwhelming power of the Flick spray. Focus your endeavour towards anyone who benefits from using vantage points, especially any variation of the Charger weapon, but also other conventional long-ranged shooters. The thing with the Dynamo is that almost all vantage points can be hit from below by a Rain Dance (see 3.1) if you stand close enough (but not too close) and aim high, so the spray rains down from above in the highest arch possible and the spray rains perfectly onto the edge of the vantage point. Approaching your target can be dangerous if faced against long-ranged foes, so know when and where to approach, if necessary assassinate from behind by sneeking through the secondary entrances of the vantage points. One thing to keep in mind is to tackle this task aggressively, but not stupidly. Be smart aggressive. Don't just race to your enemy while they fully well know what you're about to do and give them enough time to plot a counter-action, try to surprise them from every side, sneak around or be so quick and pushing that they panic and play too defensively. Be unpredictable and fearsome. This role is functionally a mix of an offensive and a supportive role (support for your teammates that have weaknesses against specific types of weapons) and can be played from both an offensive or supportive perspective. This is all about punishing any advantage the opponent tries to take over your team.




As outlined in 1. Overview, there are 2 different sets of the Dynamo Roller, both of which fill different tasks and different playstyles due to their different sub and special weapon loadouts. While the normal Dynamo Roller is rather support focussed, the Gold Dynamo Roller gives the user a more aggressive edge. That doesn't mean that a normal Dynamo can't be aggressive or a Gold Dynamo can't be support focussed, those are just general tendencies. For a more in-depth analysis of the sub and special weapons, check their respective guides.



Both the Sprinkler and the Echolocator fulfill assist roles for yourself and the team, and can also be utilized to plot your offensive approach more thoroughly or be able to more thoroughly predict and stop the enemy's approach.

Sub Weapon:
In essence, the Sprinkler allows you to consistently reclaim turf with our without your presence, which makes it useful for either practically multitasking multiple spots on the map or assisting you in the one spot of the map you are concentrating on. They can also splat inattentive enemies who get hit by one of the drops, which do quite a lot of damage (you shouldn't rely on that too much though because it happens so infrequently). The combination of the facts that the Sprinkler works as an annoyance to the enemy and that Sprinklers are typically fairly easy to damage and destroy means that enemies will oftentimes dedicate a moment to take out Sprinklers. This moment of distraction can be used as a surprising ambush attack on the enemy.

True and tested for different weapons such as the sneaky close-combat Ink Brush or the intelligent Charger, the Sprinkler distraction tactic is harder to execute on the Dynamo Roller because the one second of wind up can give the enemy enough time to see you emerging, realize they're being attacked and flee if they have an escape route. You thus have to either pince out their escape route first or splat them completely blind-sided. Additionally, the Sprinkler consumes an awful lot of ink and takes quite a lot of time (about 10 seconds) to actually claim turf; the same amount of turf or more can be covered in 1 or 2 Flicks in maybe 2 or 3 seconds, and that doesn't leave your ink tank almost empty, so in terms of pure ink coverage the Sprinkler doesn't accomplish a lot for you. Speaking of which, the fact that it almost completely empties your tank also means that you can get maybe one more Flick out before you deplete and become vulnerable. So make sure you're safe first and get your Sprinkler out as soon as possible when you arrive somewhere so you can recharge your ink, then use the Sprinkler as an assist tool and later abandon it for the multitasking aspect. Do not attempt to throw a Sprinkler and then immediately take out an enemy who's trying to destroy it, as you have only one Flick left to execute that properly. Sprinkler positioning depends on the map, there are a lot of resources and guides on Squidboards, Reddit and probably other communities out there detailing the most advantagous spots for the task.

Special Weapon:

Echolocator is a very good option for tracking down enemies and their current activities. The fact that your entire team benefits from this is huge and takes one of the biggest advantages a player can have over you: stealth. Considering that you ink a lot of area in a short amount of time, you can charge up this special very quickly, meaning that in ideal circumstances, you can steadily keep up Echolocation for almost the entire game. This gives you a huge edge if you're very perseverant about playing the Exterminator, helps you preventing enemies sneaking through your lines and generally helps in reducing nasty surprises from behind. For team building (in the upcoming August update), a normal Dynamo can fill the role of enemy intelligence. Another thing is that Echolocator has absolutely no animation in which it can lock you in. No starting animation and no finishing animation. Press the button and you're done. Additionally, using a special weapon refills your ink tank. With Echolocator, if you find yourself in a tricky spot and you just ran out of ink because Flicking consumes a huge amount, you can have an emergency refill that takes no effort with the added benefit that you can now see where to splat your enemy.

However, how good and advantagous Echolocation can be for you is inversely proportional to how you personally can use the information, how your team uses the information, how much the enemy cares about stealth and how many of them use Cold Blooded on their shirt gear (reduces Echolocation duration from 12.5 seconds to 2 seconds). In higher-level play (where your team mates and hopefully you are not ignorant), the last one is probably the most crucial point, and means that if Cold Blooded is currently a popular choice in the meta, Echolocator becomes more useless apart from the refill. That makes Echolocator circumstantially unreliable.





Both Splat Bombs and Inkstrikes apply pressure to where exactly you locate them, making them both tools in your offensive or invading approach.

Sub Weapon:

Splat Bombs are a complement to the Flick attack, and closes the offensive gaps the Flick has in terms of vulnerability. The most important attribute of the Splat Bomb is that you throw it in a very short amount of time and you have an almost negligible recovery animation following compared to the Flick. A Splat Bomb reliably splats in a long range that a Dynamo technically can reach, but doesn't splat reliably there. Useful for forcing down opponents from vantage points if Rain Dancing from below is not an option (enemy can out-shoot you or securely flee during the 1 second wind up), or even splat them if they ignore the little present you got them prepared or didn't have enough time to flee. You can either use Splat Bombs in a throw-and-run fashion (make sure you have an escape path prepared for yourself) or use them as a pressure tool to make enemies flee from a spot you are trying to establish yourself in. In the latter case, after throwing the Splat Bomb make sure to actually move into the spot and catch enemies off-guard that are still preoccupied with fleeing from the bomb. You can also play around with the aiming arch - a low arch makes sure the bomb explodes as fast as possible, which is what you want if you intend to splat an enemy; or arch high if you want the bomb to be delayed in their explosion, so the bomb can persist as a pressure tool on the field.

Splat Bombs are hard to aim, so they take a lot of practice to apply efficiently (which includes playing all the maps in recon mode and find optimal spots for throwing Splat Bombs into designated positions). Splat Bombs are easily foreseen and make a very characteristic sound - oftentimes, enemies are capable of fleeing a bomb if you throw it in a way too obvious fashion, and the fact that they have a pretty small explosion radius compared to your Flick doesn't help. Make sure to keep an air of surprise around them. You can be dumb or smart about your Splat Bombs, and the enemy can be dumb or smart about your Splat Bombs. Since they also eat quite a lot of ink (not as dramatic as the Sprinkler, but still a lot) and only cover a small area, you need to be economical about using Splat Bombs over the entirety of the match.


Special Weapon:

Inkstrike can be effectively utilized in multiple ways. Not only is it good for covering a large amount of area (for example in a splat zone), it also helps as a tool to force enemies from important points of the map, for example from fortified choke points, from the middle/hold of the map, from vantage points or from entrances. As it stands, nothing can interfere with an Inkstrike except an opponent splatting you before you can set it down, so wherever an Inkstrike lands, an opponent either has to move out of the way or get one-hit splatted. This is extremely helpful if you are following Line Breaking strategies and the enemy is in a way too advantagous situation. Additionally, an Inkstrike can be used as a smokescreen to invade a critical point of the map and attack the enemies that fled from the tornado right after it disperses. As a team support option, if your team is getting attacked in another part of the map that you can't quickly reach right now, you can send an Inkstrike to their position (or the position the enemy is currently contesting) so you give them a boost that they can work with to strike back. Generally, compared to the Echolocator which has depenency on the enemies not using Cold-Blooded, Inkstrike is as good as you personally can use them. Nothing more and nothing less. There are no abilities to prevent them, and they will always do exactly what you tell them. It's as simple as that.

The fact that an Inkstrike is as good as you personally can use them is double-sided though. Getting a feeling for when it's appropriate to use one and where needs experience and quite a bit of critical/logical thinking. For example, putting down an Inkstrike in the middle of the enemy base where none of your teammates are is pretty much a waste of a charge because the territory is reclaimed by your enemy in a shorter time than you needed to fire the rocket, unless you do that in the very end of a Turf Wars match (or the very end of a knockout Splat Zones match, in which case you place it directly on top of their spawn point to establish your alpha dominance and ridicule their puny efforts). Otherwise, an Inkstrike needs setup and has a pretty long recovery animation before you can properly move again. If you stand in the middle of the battlefield and use an Inkstrike, you are going to get splatted without exception. Use a little common sense and retreat into a hidden spot without anyone noticing you, or if an opponent is tailing you take them out first. All in all, having to take yourself out of the game for a moment in order to gain an advantage, then wait for the long animation to finish, only to rush back into the game means that you really have to dedicate yourself towards using that special weapon. Also, because of the long animation you don't really benefit from the ink tank recovery, because in the same time you set up an Inkstrike, you could have refilled your tank normally.





Knowing how to handle and how to strategically apply the Dynamo are one thing, but the most important substance a good Dynamo main (or any good weapon main) needs to internalize, is what the weapon can NOT achieve and what behavior needs to be applied to cope with the technical weaknesses inherent to the weapon in order to still be successful. This section is not only interesting for people trying to learn the Dynamo, but also for people who wish to evolve a counter strategy against Dynamos.


To start, let's consider a measure I have not talked at all in this guide about before: the Time-To-Kill, or TTK. The TTK is a measure indicating the amount of time it takes until the final shot of a weapon connects with an opponent before he gets splatted, under the condition that every shot connects. Have a look at the ranked weapon list provided in this thread.

As we can see, the Dynamo Roller has a TTK of "47/x/47". What does that mean? It means that it takes 47 frames for a spray from the Flick to splat an opponent from the initiation on in ideal range, or effective range. since the game runs at 60 frames per second, this amounts to about a little more than 0.75 seconds (or basically the entire amount of time the wind up takes as detailed in section 2.1 and an additional 2 frames or 1/30 of a second for the ink to actually connect with the opponent). Since damage in the farthest reach of the spray is hard to determine and practically randomized on the Dynamo, the second measure in the list, the TTK at the maximum range of the weapon, is not able to be listed. Finally, the third number of 47 indicates that missing a shot presents a large penalty because the Flick is (ideally) a one-shot splat and needs to be reinitiated again. Now compare the TTK to the other weapons listed in the linked thread. In order to illustrate the point, I will model a hypothetical situation. Consider 2 Inklings facing each other in immediate range. One Inkling uses a Dynamo, the other Inkling uses any other weapon. The game is completely lag free. Both Inklings start firing at exactly the same time (exactly the same frame) and every single one of their shots connect. The outcome is that the Inkling with the larger TTK will get splatted and the Inkling with the smaller TTK survives. This means that in this hypothetical situation, every weapon above the Dynamo in the list will outcompete the Dynamo, while the Dynamo outcompetes every weapon below it. As you can see, because the wind up of the Dynamo takes such a long time, the majority of weapons (more specifically shooters, blasters and the rest of the rollers) have a lower (better) TTK than the Dynamo by a long shot, while only chargers have a higher (worse) TTK.

Of course, the game doesn't exist in a vacuum and we have other variables to consider, namely effective range, shot speed (and speed dropoff over distance), damage dropoff over distance, accuracy/shot dispersity and strafing speed. We also need to consider player positioning, player attention, player reaction time and general lag. There's not a lot of data readily available for all of these variables for analysis (yet) and completely breaking it all down is quite a bit expansive (and probably pretty boring), but it functionally boils down to the fact that the Dynamo Flick a) is incredibly powerful and effective over a large stretch of range, but b) is absolutely atrocious in a close combat situation because virtually anything beats the Dynamo by a long stretch in close combat just by pure TTK and the best case scenario here can only be trading, c) enemies have a lot of time fleeing from you or approaching you if you wind up in their field of vision and/or even miss and d) you are an easy target because of your slow movement speed, your overreliance on compensation by jumping and the fact that once you initiate a Flick, you are locked in it for the entire duration. To make matters worse, since the spray of the Flick disperses in a half cone-shaped arch from short to long range, Flicks in short range have a smaller damaging area overall, making it harder to aim a Flick. This doesn't even take into account the fact that the Dynamo very often gets depleted of ink, which is actually a very severe problem if you're suddenly engaged in combat and you can not fight back.

Now this isn't to mean that the Dynamo is offensively bad or can't be effectively played in a combat situation - that is far from being true. What this does mean though is that the Dynamo straight does not work as a frontal assault weapon against higher-level players who have a good estimate on your and their own range, unless you exactly know your opponent is outranged and you got them cornered so they can't flee. Every weapon which does have a decent range and accuracy and is sufficiently close to you will be able to counter you in this situation if their full attention is directed towards you, and you have a hard time countering them if they succeed in approaching you and you notice them too late. A Dynamo player will therefore suffer if they fail in exerting high alertness to their surroundings, and a Dynamo will suffer if they brainlessly engage with enemy players by announcing themselves in advance. Also derived from this, Dynamos excel in wide open spaces, but are disadvantaged in narrow corridors if they happen to see an opponent player.


This of course applies for every other weapon as well, but even more so for the Dynamo: a Dynamo can only be successful if they manage to outsmart the strategy of their opponent. Offensively, the Dynamo is a tool for punishing the field misbehavior of the opponent by using an advantagous position and abusing their inability to predict you, combined with the fact that the Flick (apart from a short audio cue) has little in the way of foreboding (compared to other weapons which need to connect multiple times, thus from the first shot somebody gets hit with or even see passing them they know they are getting attacked from behind and need to get into a better position). Another offensive aspect of the Dynamo is that because of the aforementioned territory control and raw (pushing) power (see section 4), a Dynamo can and should force the opponent players into committing mistakes out of fear that will get them punished either by the Dynamo or other teammates, or in other words the Dynamo creates the weakness in the enemy's defense that they are trying to exploit. Mind games and influencing the field composition are tremendously important to the Dynamo, and a Dynamo player needs to be patient, predicting and aware of the situations where their aggression can be successfully applied with little drawback. The sub and special weapons of each type of Dynamo Roller should be utilized to their full effect to accomplish this goal. Don't be discouraged from playing aggressively/offensively, but get your head into the game before you try anything outrageous and be strategic about your approach.

Opposing Chargers present a special case of the relations I have just explained. Of course Chargers outrange the Dynamo by a long shot (except Squiffers which have about the same range as Dynamos) and Dynamos present easy Charger fodder if they are directly visible and move too predictably (which can be prevented to a limited degree, for the record). If a Dynamo though succeeds in constructing an access path towards the Charger and approaches the Charger in the Dynamo's effective range, and if the Charger doesn't have a charge already fully loaded, the Dynamo will be able to outcompete the Charger just by mere TTK. The Charger might attempt to flee in order to get a better position, this behavior is only in vain though because that gives the Dynamo ample opportunity to chase and catch up to the Charger, corner the Charger and finally splat the Charger (or worst case trade with them). The Charger would be able to prevent this situation by preemptively shooting the Dynamo while they're trying to construct the access path, which is easier said than done if the Charger is preoccupied with shooting other Inklings of your team first. To sum it up, Chargers shut down Dynamos if they're at long range, but Dynamos beat Chargers if they're at short range, unless the Charger stays absolutely calm without panicking and manages to hit a crucial shot.

Defensively, you want to keep your enemies away from you yet again by controlling the field's ink. You are in severe risk if the enemy does manage to flank and approach you from a blind spot, and your only safe bet is to either retreat by Backup Flicking (which creates space between you and the enemy), or Bulldozing (which handles enemies that are way too close to you, but is slow and unreliable nonetheless). Make sure to cover all your sides and surround yourself with a protective shield of ink, and be aware of every vantage point they could be trying to take you on. In a lot of situations, the best defense is offense (so that you take out opponents before they pose a risk to you), so take out enemies that are actively setting themselves up on advantagous positions before they establish themselves, or at least put enough pressure on them so that they abandon that position. Watching the map and the enemy's ink progression to predict their moves is helpful as well, and might even enable you to take enemies by surprise that are trying to push through (alleged) blind spots.


For this I won't go through every ability, but rather what's specifically the most beneficial or notable for a Dynamo player and what gives them the best chances for the style of play the Dynamo usually alludes to. The rest of the abilites are generally neutral, too unnoticable or don't really fit the Dynamo's playstyle. As you probably know, there are 2 types of abilities: generic quantitative effects that you can find on any type of gear and that can also be acquired as sub abilities, and qualitative effects that are unique to specific types of gear and are unavailable as abilities on sub slots. This is also how I structure this section. Also keep in mind that 3 sub abilities are worth about as much as 1 main ability (1 sub ability is worth a half of a main ability; from diminishing returns subsequent sub abilities beyond that are worth a quarter of a main ability), and remember that brands dramatically influence the occurence of sub abilities upon being rolled. Here is a list of all abilities and their effects overall, and here is a guide listing every piece of gear in the game sorted by gear type. I won't suggest the exact clothing you should wear, just the abilities you should consider so that you can scratch together your own favorite set.


6.1.1 Ink Saver (Main)
Pretty straightforward I think. The Dynamo Roller is a dramatic ink eater in every regard - 6 Flicks from a full ink tank are enough to deplete your tank (one Flick takes 1 second - you're empty in about 6-8 seconds if you string your Flicks together), And you will find yourself in a LOT of situations where you get your tank empty. The Ink Saver (Main) sub makes it so that you can Flick a seventh time from a full tank. Doesn't sound like a lot, until you realize just how much this adds up in one match! You can try it for yourself and get used to an Ink Saver (Main), then play again with no Ink Saver (Main) whatsoever. It definitely helps a lot! You'll be wondering how many damn times your tank gets empty again. You don't need to go overboard with it though, one main ability or even 2 sub abilities are generally enough (strangely enough because of the lack of diminishing returns on this one, 2 sub abilities equal one main ability for Ink Saver (Main)). As Kanye West put it: Having Ink Savers is not everything, not having them is!

6.1.2 Ink Recovery Up
For the same reasons as the previous one. The effect is pretty small for 1 refill, so it's not necessarily the best thing to have in emergency situations where you run out of ink while you're getting attacked, but this one as well adds up over a match very nicely. I wouldn't prioritize this one as much, but it's a worthwhile consideration.

6.1.3 Ink Saver (Sub)
This one's a choice if you use a lot of sub weapons and find valuable strategic purpose in Sprinklers or Splat Bombs. What this does for you is basically that you can throw the respective Sub from a full tank and then have more juice left for a couple more Flicks than what you'd usually have without an Ink Saver (Sub). Definitely don't dedicate a valuable main slot for that though, sub slots at most.

6.1.4 Damage Up
Okay, hear me out, this is important. There's a (partially right) preconception that Damage Ups are worthless because they are specifically coded so they can't decrease the amount of shots it takes to splat an enemy unless the amount is increased to begin with with a defense up. This is true for point-blank shots (shots where a cross-hair appears on the enemy), but shots that are not point blank, but randomly hit the enemy from an arch (due to which the damage decreases), the damage can be boosted to be more lethal and reapproach the values of point-blank shots. This is generally irrelevant for most shooter weapons because you will almost always hit enemies point blank (the exception are the shooters that have a long range and whose bullets still travel quite a bit of distance after the technical point-blank range, and Blasters benefit as well if they don't hit point-blank, but with the periphery of their shot). However, let's call back to the damage breakdown from section 2.1: a point blank hit from a singular ink drop from a Dynamo Flick (no cross-hair, but same effect) will always do 125 points of damage, rendering it a potent one-hit-splat. As soon as they decelerate and arch though, which happens relatively early after the Flick, their damage will decrease on a continuum up to a minimum of 25 points of damage per ink drop, due to which it can take multiple ink drops to hit an enemy until they get splatted. If the enemy carries defense ups, this effect can be even more magnified. If you try to hit an enemy from an arch, it's pretty much up to RNG whether you can splat them in one or several hits depending on where the drops of the spray land exactly and how their damage formula works out.
A Damage Up counteracts this phenomenon and works so that if you are trying to splat an enemy from a distance, you can way more reliably take them out. You can directly increase your lethal force, and the effect is actually very noticable even with 1 damage on a main slot. The Rollers are pretty much almost the only weapons who clearly benefit from this effect (Chargers can use Damage Ups as well, but for different reasons; other weapons show similar behavior, but as said they will almost always hit point-blank). Make sure you get either at least a main effect or 3 sub effects though, one singular sub effect is too negligible and a waste of space! All in all, Damage Ups are an important tool for Dynamo Rollers if you like taking the offensive approach and need more reliability.

6.1.5 Swim Speed Up
Since it's hard to stay mobile as a Dynamo unless you've got the technique down, a boost in swimming speed can be pretty cool, and is really useful if you like using Flick Dashing a lot. It's not one of the biggest priorities because the effect is rather small-ish so using a main slot on it is kind of a waste, but as a sub ability, even if you just got 2 of them, they have a good effect on the great scheme of things. Using a main or 2-3 sub slots for Swim Speed Up is also a necessity if you decide to run the Ninja Squid ability in order to keep your mobility.

6.1.6 Special Charge Up
Inkstrikes and Echolocators are extremely helpful on the field not only for you, but also your entire team for the reasons I already listed in section 4.3, so having a reliable way of getting more of them is considerable. Whether or not Special Charge Up is better than Tenacity is still up in the air, but it's at least available as a sub ability!

6.1.7 Special Saver
The thought of building your gear around the expectation of failure is weird, but this ability is better than you'd think. Basically, if you play offensively, you will probably get splatted a lot. It happens, you are not a perfect player (or you will meet players who can make pretty good counter plays). At the same time, it is a severe drawback that your special meter decreases after being splat despite the special weapons of the Dynamo being really advantagous, and makes it harder for you to efficiently rubberband from a potential loss. Even with a low amount of sub abilities the effect is noticable on this one, especially because this is one of the only abilities that shows no diminishing returns whatsoever when stacked. it's not one of the most important abilities to have, but if you've got a cool piece of gear you really like to wear aesthetically with Special Saver(s) on them, it's not a bad choice!

6.1.8 Defense Up
This one has exactly one main purpose: make .52 Gals a 3 shot instead of a 2 shot. If there is one weapon that could put you at a grievance, it's this one, because it has a relatively large range and gets you splatted before you even get into the swing of the Flick. Also good for preventing Chargers to get a semi-charged splat on you, but not a lot of Chargers can even pull that off effectively. Makes you also more immune to long ranged shots from certain shooter weapons that don't hit point-blank (e.g. Squelchers, Splattershot Pros etc.), as well as the periphery of the Blaster shot. If you fear the Flick of fellow Dynamos it's also a nice option, but they're too rare anyway. For effective protection, dedicate one main slot or 3 sub slots, but much more is too overkill.

6.1.9 Running Speed Up
This is an awkward one. There are multiple sides to this: even if you have few main or sub slots carrying this ability, the effect is really significant. On the other hand, conventionally you want to spend as little time as possible running on your feet, but rather swim in your own ink. On the third hand, there are quite a lot of situations where you can only run, like uninkable surfaces, catwalks and enemy ink. The last one has implications for fleeing from enemy attacks if you got enemy ink stuck below you, but whether it's that helpful in this specific situation, I don't know. This one's a cautious recommendation. Also please note that this ability will not compensate for the slow rolling speed, and does neither increase the speed/momentum of your Jumping Flick, nor does it change the distance you can jump!




6.2.1 Head: Comeback
As said, an offensive playstyle means that you will probably get splatted a lot. 20 seconds of 5 of the most important abilities boosted as if they were on a main slot is a very dramatic benefit for a comparatively long duration of the match (1/9 of a Turf Warfs match) and can make or break a rubberband effort. Don't waste your time daddling around though and use those 20 seconds!
6.2.2 Head: Opening Gambit
The opening of the match is probably the second most important time of the match in Turf Wars (only to be followed by the end of the match), and the most important time of the match in Splat Zones. It's very, very important to quickly get to the center of the map as fast as possible. This ability will greatly increase the efficiency of your Flick Dashing in the opening to declare early dominance over the middle (or even the enemy base if you're bold). The drawback is that it's not active for the entire match, so if you were to run Opening Gambit you should maybe just take Swim Speed Up anyway because the Walking Speed Up aspect of it is just kind of pointless (at least in this stage of the match) and Swim Speed Up is at least active for the entire match. However, the bonus you get from Opening Gambit is slightly greater than just getting the bonus from a "pure" main ability. Also, some of the gear for Opening Gambit have pretty good brands, so it's still worthwhile if you need to fill some generic ability through sub abilities.
(I wouldn't recommend Last-Ditch-Effort though unless you want to wear the deal with it sun shades, it doesn't even come to effect most of the times in Splat Zones and there are better options for Ink Recovery or Ink Savers with good brands.)

6.2.3 Head: Tenacity
This one's kind of weird because you rely on your teammates to get splatted all the time, so this is one of those abilities with failing in mind, just from a different angle. The thing though is that your teammates will still never get not splatted. Whether or not this will statistically give you more Special charges than Special Charge Up is still unknown. It's still an effective ability from a subjective perspective, so if you think specials are more crucial to your game and you like to squeek out more, and you really really want to wear that damn gas mask, you can run this ability without a bad conscience!

6.2.4 Shirt: Ninja Squid
One of my favorite abilities in the game just by its sheer utility and possibilities it opens up for strategical plots, mind games and surprising ambushes. A Dynamo dramatically profits from this if he is pitted against enemies that outrange them and he needs a safe approach. it's a double edged sword though: it becomes absolutely useless if your enemy uses a lot of Echolocators, so depending on how popular weapon loadouts with Echolocator as a special weapon currently are, this ability can become unusable, sadly. You also technically don't need to be too reliant on Ninja Squid because you can effectively take out enemies without reliance on stealth, but it's still probably one of the most important abilities any Roller can have, Dynamos included. Note though that the ability comes with a drastic swim speed downgrade and needs to be compensated with 1 main or 3 sub slots of Swim Speed Up.

6.2.5 Shirt: Cold-Blooded
If you like stealthily approaching enemies or hiding to ambush, and you feel like Echolocators are way too popular right now, or if you're generally not fond of people ever having a chance of using them, this one's a very good counter option. That's all there is to say about it. Still a great ability though, and more reliable than Ninja Squid!

6.2.6 Shirt: Recon
Only in combination with the normal Dynamo Roller set because of the Echolocator special. Quite handy for trying your new approach or finding out where to defend, and when the August update hits also very nice for updating your teammates on current enemy positions. Generally though you can roughly track enemy activity by watching the live ink progression on your Gamepad map, so with a good eye Recon loses some of its utility. But still if you prefer defensive and team oriented play and don't really have a need for stealth options, feel free to use this one.

6.2.7 Shoes: Ink Resistance Up
A pretty good ability if you oftentimes find yourself in open combat, which you probably will if you predominantly play an aggressive Dynamo style. This is especially important because enemy ink doesn't only dramatically slow you down, but also make your jumps practically useless... which is absolutely detrimental for a weapon that relies on jumping so much unless you want to become target practice for your enemies. However, if you are in enemy ink, your jumping is still slightly inhibited, so you should still avoid enemy ink if possible. It's still one of the best abilities in the game!

6.2.8 Shoes: Stealth Jump
Being able to jump wherever you want is pretty cool in its own right, but it doesn't protect you from becoming target fodder for your enemies if they take out your ally and cover your landing spot in ink... and you can't take this ability in conjunction with the Ink Resistance Up. Generally you will find less use for this ability the more you critically and strategically think about your jumps, but it's still a pretty nice beginner's ability or if you really insist on jumping into the middle of the battle field all the time instead of first securing yourself an advantagous spot. Also it's damn satisfying to backstab some enemy after you stealth jump to your now splatted team mate with a Flick you already wound up midair, so I guess Stealth Jump is pretty good if you like the rush of endorphins. Note though that this ability will dramatically increase the time it takes to execute the jump, and that can only be partially compensated with Jump Speed Ups, so using this ability you can't super jump all too often or else you waste too much time.

6.2.9 Shoes: Bomb Sniffer
Overshadowed by Ink Resistance Up, but if you run a support set with Recon, having an additional option to recognize enemy activity and enemy traps is a worthwhile thought, especially if you can communicate it to your team mates. Plus, we can all pretty much agree that the Pro Trail Boots are the best aesthetically designed shoes in the game. Nintendo, Why'd you not put Ink Resistance Up on that one?



To be continued