[90% Complete] I started 3 ☆'ing every weapon! Here are my thoughts on each

[DVDo]

Regarding the "idk if Hydra is faster?" question under the Heavy Edit Splatling Review: It's actually not! ^^

All Splatlings actually share the exact same fire rate of having a 4-frame delay between each shot (15 shots per second). The only two exceptions to this are Heavy Edit Splatling when it is fully charged (at which point it drops to a 3-frame delay between shots, so 20 shots per second) and Ballpoint's Long Range mode which is the opposite: 5-frame delay between shots resulting in 12 shots per second. (Technically its Short Range mode is 3-frames per shot just like Edit's Full Charge but you don't want to rely on that in combat too much)

Funny enough, if you compare all the Splatlings' fire rate and damage, you'll realise that -besides Hydra's and Edit's full charge bonuses/Ballpoint's Fire Rate Reduction- everything takes the exact same time to splat someone: 4 shots with 4 frames of delay between each one, resulting in a 12-frame splat (not counting bullet travel time which fluctuates wildly between the different Splatlings). This is actually the exact same kill time as Splattershot (which requires only 3 shots to splat but has a 6-frame delay between each, resulting again in 12-frame splats without accounting for misses or bullet travel time).

Oh wow, thanks for such an in-depth explanation. I really like all the color coding, it actually makes it easier to read especially since the colors are consistent with what they are assigned to.

I always assumed Hydra and Nautilus in particular had faster fire rates, but now after looking into it I realize that it's actually the shot travel speed that contributes to them feeling faster than other splatlings for me. Naut especially, it has an initial shot velocity of 4.43 units per frame whereas most other splatlings are between 1-2 units per frame, that's an insane difference.

 

[lesbianseagull]

Clash Blaster
I expected to like this one despite it being pretty bad, especially considering I'm such a short range AOE fan. It's fine I guess, but it definitely struggles with its long kill times. It's ok if you manage to hit 2 directs, but that's still much slower than just hitting a direct with Luna for example. The large hitbox does mean you'll always at least hit indirects, and it makes it hard for people to run behind cover. So as long as people forget to look at you for 4 seconds, they will die. The main weapon is mid, but it got a cracked kit of Splat Bomb/Zooka. This is THE stupidly large hitbox kit. Both tools help with poking at range, which Clash desperately needs. I ran a main of Sub Power Up and was surprised with just how far you can actually chuck that thing. The kit nearly saves this weapon, but I'd still rather play Luna.

Every time I have a good match with vanilla Clash I have to remind myself that at least half of the kills are directly or indirectly because of its kit. The Clash fails while the Luna succeeds because the reaction time you have to avoid getting hit by three more Clash indirects is greater than the time you have to avoid getting hit by one more Luna indirect. The element of surprise works to the advantage of the Luna more so than the Clash. Moreover, there isn't enough gear slots for all the ability stacking needed to reach a truly viable state (you need a lot of Ink Saver/Recovery to enable heavy Splat Bomb usage which you need for approach, a lot of Run Speed Up to facilitate mobility & secure kills, a lot of Intensify Action to get the jump shot accuracy needed for close-up encounters, Stealth Jump because it's a frontliner that trades a lot). And since the Clash is overpowered against bad players and underpowered against good players it's probably doomed to being a meme weapon that never gets proper retooling.

EDIT: I guess its worth mentioning things they could do to improve it like giving it the Splash-o-matic treatment (removing jump RNG), increasing the ink spread, and/or slightly increasing fire rate.

 

[DVDo]

Update #8
Fastest turnaround yet in a while for another batch! Let's get right to it then.

Spoiler: Batch 8

Z+F Splat Charger / Z+F Splatterscope
I actually had a really good time on these! My aim honestly felt pretty good for the most part, and I did well even though I was only playing Clams and Rainmaker, my weaker modes. And the kit is almost like the definitional backline kit. Wall really helps holding your ground on an open snipe, and it can cover teammates' jumps which synergizes with the charger's responsibility as an anchor. And it's the perfect sub for Strikes since it protects you during what is normally a very vulnerable special. And the positions you want to play from as charger work really well for strike too! All around this kit feels very natural to play, everything synergizes and it's very satisfying to do well on, especially since sniping people is always fun. Scoped variant felt good enough to me too, I only had a slightly worse winrate. I don't feel the scope visual really helps much. The extra range does, but it's not worth missing out on charge holds and peripheral vision, so I personally prefer non-scoped.

Enperry Splat Dualies
I was like "ah yeah I get to play dualies again. Time for peak!" And then lost several games immediately. It's still fun but it's clear to me that the vanilla kit enables the main much better. This one's not bad, there is a certain flow to curling in and then roll to fight, but I think it just made me feed more than I should've. Same goes for curling into Splashdown, it feels really easy to go for sometimes but it doesn't always work out. You kind of have to play with this wreckless playstyle because otherwise you don't have any tools for just playing it safe.

Krak-On Splat Roller
Beakons felt a bit weird to me here, like I would rather be pushing in with the weapon than running around placing them. Plus they don't really synergize with Kraken since it can't superjump. They're not bad and are useful, but they leave the roller with only Kraken to get in. Might as well make this a Kraken review, given that's the kit's main identity. I really don't have a feel for controlling it well, it's surprisingly hard to get kills since everyone knows to run away. But at least it is also hard to die while in the special, so it feels good for stabilizing fights / stalling / saving yourself, even if you don't get kills from it. I do like that being good at the special requires getting reads on people's movement, there's a good dynamic there from players on both sides. The Kraken does work well with the Roller ambush playstyle so in that sense the kit is still really fun, even if the vanilla kit is likely stronger.

Tentatek Splattershot
One of the most stylish alt kit designs in the game, I must say. Gameplay wise it feels very standard, just like vshot. Splat Bomb feels better, Tristrike feels worse. But the Shot itself feels as good as ever. IDK there isn't ever anything interesting to say about Shot and it's variants, they're like the white bread of Splatoon weapons. They're good but boring. (I love white bread just to be clear, just as I do actually like these weapons)

Rapid Blaster Deco
Had this half done since I tried it out during the Inkjet challenge. Took me a bit to get warmed up again, but wow this is such an improvement over the vanilla kit which felt awkward to use. Torp is perfect here, it has the exact kinds of utility Rapid wants: location, paint, and combo damage. It's really good at pressuring people behind cover in a way that makes up for the small AOE of the main. And Inkjet is nice as a get-off-me tool when people get too close. Funnily enough the main itself also counters Inkjets pretty well too.

Splatana Stamper Nouveau
Still kinda tricky, but the kit does a lot to make it more accessible. Crab is much safer to use than Zip, and easier to get value from while still feeling fun to use. Mist isn't amazing, but it's better here than an other weapons since it slows down weapons that can be too fast to handle. The sub being non-lethal means you are forced to practice the main weapon itself, similarly to Wiper Deco's kit. I like that, it's an easier to pick option that trains you so you can pick the better one later. Stamper is fun, but at this point I've already tasted the forbidden fruit of the Decavitator, so it's not the same anymore.

Tri-Slosher Nouveau
Hehe funni big hitbox. I really liked Tri when I first tried it out, so no surprise that I like it now too. It's a cooler weapon, but feels different to most in that it is the most aggressive / frontline one. Zap is similar, but it paints for cooler faster so it would rather stay back and farm it safely. It's a lot of work to get cooler early on Tri, so it felt more worth it to me to go and get kills first, then use the cooler once we gained control to help lockout the other team. Fizzy is good entry, good paint, and good damage so it really supports the aggressive first, supportive later style. 210p really holds the kit back, I know the overall paint output of the kit is high but even with charge up getting cooler early was unreliable. And the aggressive playstyle is risky of course, since dying early means your team misses out on cooler (though the same can be said for Zap). But when it pays off it's really easy to steamroll the other team. Definitely want to play this more, it's probably my best pick if I want to play cooler.

Inkline Tri-Stringer
From one Tri to another! If only there was a third Tri weapon to complete the trifecta. I had a surprising amount of success with this on Rainmaker. It deals good damage to the Rainmaker shield, so it's good at stalling pushes, and the kit of Sprinkler/Chumps has so much paint coverage and damage sources that make it hard for the enemy Rainmaker to move through. I didn't expect to be such a fan of the kit, but the Chumps really do put in the work. The bow itself can paint a lot with the right combination of partial/full charges and tap shots, so it's also great at Zones of course. This time around I felt improved on the bow, I even managed to get a few oneshots by shooting over cover. It's wishful thinking but I really hope that playing all these weapons is finally paying off in terms of general skill lol.

Heavy Splatling Deco
Okay I had too much fun this batch so there had to be a stinker. It's not really the kit's fault tho, I'm just bad at Kraken. Again, people are really good at avoiding it, so it's hard to get value unless you pop it very close to someone who doesn't have time to get away. This was fine for me on Roller since it plays up close and personal anyway, but on Heavy it gave me a bit of a positioning crisis. I wanted to play forward for Kraken, but then I was too forward for Heavy and died more often than I should as a backline. Got to the point that I just ignored the special when I had it unless I really needed to use it, which certainly isn't ideal.

Once again, thanks for reading! The kits where real fun this time around, likely since they were mostly the base weapons of their classes. We've got some weirder picks coming up next time so we'll see how that goes.

 

[DVDo]

Update #9
...into one of the largest gaps between posts, sorry lol. Y'all know how it is. Here's the latest set of weapons I've 3 starred!

Spoiler: Batch 9

.52 Gal Deco
Just as I finished this one I thought "Why did I enjoy that so much?" Remembering how it went with vanilla 52, I figured this one would play well but I wouldn't be too into it. But I ended up feeling much more in tune with this kit than I expected. Biggest reason is Curling Bomb instead of Wall. Most might see that as a downgrade, but I really don't know what I'm doing with Wall half the time, and I'm very familiar with Curling at this point. This is also the first Screen weapon I've played, but it's very easy to use. I found myself just using it like Ink Storm, it deploys the same way and has a similar effect of discouraging being in an area. So this kit overall just made me feel at home :)

Custom E-liter 4K / Custom E-liter 4K Scope
Alright, one last pair of long changers. Wasn't too worried about taking too long to finish these this time, and I'm proud to say that I did about as well on these as with any other average weapon. Yay, skills retained! And I really felt like I was actually playing the game this time around, not cheesing it like before. I think the kit is the same as Krakon, but it plays differently here. Unlike with Roller you NEED to back up as Kraken ends, and having Beakons already on snipe positions makes it convenient to get back in play quickly. Aside from the occasional aggressive play, Kraken is more of a survival tool on liter, and that works fine. I like this kit a bit better than vanilla, but man am I glad to be done with these. I still don't like scoped btw.

Dapple Dualies Nouveau
I'd like to like these. I like vdapples a lot, but these don't hit the same. I don't even think the kit is that bad, it's very aggressive and in line with what Dapples want to do, even if slider is weak. I just had a bad loss streak out of the gate that tainted my view of this one. Felt shorter ranged than I remembered (though I guess going from the longest ranged weapon in the game to one of the shortest ones will do that to ya). Did better as I readjusted playstyles, but it never felt right.

Luna Blaster Neo
Ah I forgot to write about luna neo when I finished it! So my memory won't be as fresh, but there really wasn't much to say about it. It has one of those solid mid tier kits, thanks to hammer (which can be good when it does stuff but is inconsistent). It's still fun to play, I didn't go as crazy as I did on the vanilla kit but still did well. I'll likely end up playing this some more eventually along with vluna.

~ INTERMISSION ~ (Ended up taking a long break here. Weapons after here were played much more recently)

Tenta Sorella Brella
My long awaited return to the Tent. Since it took me a while to get it last time, I was wondering if this go around would be any better, and it was! Got into a groove pretty much on the 2nd game. Something I noticed that I was surprised I didn't notice before was just how much ink recovery lag there is after launching the shield, it feels like a whole second and a half. But anyway the kit is sooo good, this is the most synergistic that Ink Mine has felt on any weapon ever. You can do all the usual stuff, but also place mines as you go in behind the shield! Combined with the Zooka-inator 5000 this kit is just really strong. It's less of a "survive to get your team back in" kind of weapon and more of the "make plays to push up, and hold mid once you do" kind.

Gold Dynamo Roller
It was much anticipated before it released, though I don't see too many play it nowadays. It's not all that bad, Splat bomb helps you cover an even wider area all in one burst, giving more reliable kills. And it paints a lot, you do splat bomb + chumps + splat bomb + horizontal swings, and you end up covering a lot of ground. But idk it does kinda lack something that makes it pop. It's fun enough anyway, and the skin is cool as hell.

Aerospray RG
My god I forgot to write about this one too, even forgot to include it in this post originally. Anyway, it played about as I expected. Just paint an unholy amount and spam booyah bombs. That is pretty much it's only strength. But honestly I did pretty well on it. You can still use an aggressive play style like Sploosh where you pretty much just go right up to someone and shoot, which mitigates the effect of your shot spread. It has a good fire rate so it's not bad at this playstyle, tho of course Sploosh is better at it and still paints well.

Sloshing Machine Neo
Another one where it took me a bit to get used to when I played the 1st kit, but felt familiar right away when I played this one. And once again it's a real good kit: Zooka is good, sensor is very useful for both the main and special. It both looks strong on paper and is strong in practice, just really easy to play since everything you have has a large hitbox that doesn't require precision. The only thing you have to focus your aim for is directs, and they are still very satisfying to hit. I honestly prefer this kit to the vanilla one. The pace just feels a bit faster, since both fizzy and booyah slow you down a bit in the original.

H-3 Nozzlenose D
Ugh, did not enjoy this one. And yeah, it's because I didn't play well on it unfortunately. Once again I really find myself questioning the design, like why sacrifice fully-automatic fire when the weapon doesn't have any strengths elsewhere? It's range and kill time are comparable to Splattershot Pro and Squeezer, and those get to be firing continuously. The only redeeming quality of H3 in my eyes is the oneshot sound effect, because yay dopamine. But the endlag + no AOE combo feels awful, I kept getting easily rushed down by rollers/brushes and short range shooters. The kit helps here, it's very defensive, but it sucks because it sorta keeps you locked in one position, while also making your presence extremely obvious and attracting attention. And I still don't know what I'm doing with wall lol. Not my worst performance tho, that was L3D. Hmm.

And there we have it. Actually a lot of stuff I enjoyed this time around, and I'm happy that I'm able to play some of the harder weapons more easily now. Next time is looking to have a lot of Custom brand weapons, so look forward to that!

 

[DVDo]

I forgot Aerospray RG! Edited the previous post to include it. Man this has been the most scuffed update so far, my bad lol

 

[DVDo]

Update #10
Y'all know what time it is! I managed to finish 3 starring another set of weapons, so here are my thoughts on them!

Spoiler: Batch 10

Charcoal Decavitator
I was a bit worried I'd do worse on this one, since I'm bad with Splash Wall and I'm not the best on Inkjet, but turned out none of that mattered at all. The main weapon is plenty good on its own and doesn't need to rely too heavily on its kit. Outside of temporarily "covering" an area I didn't use Wall much. Though for Inkjet there were a few times I needed to farm it to get the game moving along. Otherwise it was mostly doing the same ol' dashin and slashin that I did on Mint. I like that both decav kits have a very defensive tool, and then something explodey. I prefer the Mint kit more, but I did just fine here so both kits really are winners. Plus the color scheme is great, this is the best 2nd kit design in the game.

Custom Hydra Splatling
You can't chuck Auto or Booyah Bombs at people anymore, so suddenly this weapon has a hard time hitting people outside of its line of sight (unless you're cracked and can hit falloff shots). That's a big downside to this kit, making it a bit weaker in my eyes. Ink Mines are fine, it's a backline after all, but Screen does feel pretty good here. The softened enemies feel easier to kill (I think they go from a 4 to a 2 shot, makes a big difference). The kit seems focused on setting traps and restricting movement, and while I like the idea I find it tricky to execute with how slow Hydra is overall. It can't always match the pace of the game.

Custom Range Blaster
Honestly this one doesn't feel all that different to the vanilla kit. The biggest difference is the special being Kraken, which is both good for survival and being aggressive. I didn't always have a plan when popping it, but it usually worked out anyway. But Suction and Splat Bomb feel so similar and do a lot of the same things. And in either case, both kits really hinge on doing well on the main weapon. So yeah, this kit is fun because Range Blaster is fun.

Custom Jet Squelcher
Had a star on this already. I actually really like this gun, and I think I've said as much before. I love how flexible it is with it's positioning and it's overall speed (pretty much the opposite of Hydra, huh). I found out this time around just how effective painting over someone can be even if you can't hit them directly behind cover. You just make them a sitting duck for someone else to handle. I like this kit better than vjet. Ink Storm feels consistent, and Mist at least does something unlike Angle Shooter. Was very successful on this so I'm really gonna have to consider playing this in X Rank Zones, depending on the maps.

Bamboozler 14 Mk II
Ain't gonna sugarcoat it. Fizzy -> Chumps -> Fizzy. Joking aside, while the paint spam of this kit (not so much from bamboo itself) is insane, you won't win off that alone. Had plenty of games where I had to clutch up and get some pew-pew's in order to actually hold zone, otherwise we get overwhelmed. But thankfully the kit provides a lot of chip damage so it's common enough to get one-shots. The kit feels synergistic and always gives you something to do. Nice!

Custom Dualie Squelchers
Had a bit of a playstyle crisis on this one. It's easy to get disillusioned by the fact that its damage is so low, so instead of fighting you might be more inclined to play a purely support painting playstyle. The kit is good at that, but no, once again if you aren't getting picks you're squandering the potential of the weapon. Ended up trading a lot, but at least Beakons can kind of mitigate that downtime. I didn't enjoy fighting with it as much as with other dualies though.

Undercover Sorella Brella
My experience with this can be summarized by It's so over / We're so back. I had an awful 10 game losing streak at the start and was ready to accept that this weapon would take a long time to finish. But by the end I had a 7 game KO streak that brought the total number of games back to a reasonable amount. I think the early loss streak can somewhat be attributed to bad teammates, judging by the results screens. On other weapons I could simply carry harder to make up for bad teammates, but the Undercover Sorella Brella is not a weapon that has that kind of power. It's kill times are so bad. The only way to kill fast is rolled Torp into 1-2 hits from the main, but that's ink hungry and unreliable. Ideally you are never alone in fights and instead support team fights with Torp spam, ableism (screen), and random pellet shots. For all those reasons, as well as it's shield being good for tanking charger hits, it's actually a pretty good tower rider, which is how I was able to get that KO streak. So by the end I had a good time, but I'd hesitate to pick this weapon again.

Custom Explosher
Hehe cexplo. Normally this weapon is very annoying for me to fight, as a shortrange weapon that hides behind cover often. Everytime I manage to get close, Triple Splashdown. Urgh, very annoying. So playing this weapon was fun almost entirely because NOW IT WAS MY TURN. And yeah it felt pretty good to be mostly safe from short range stuff, though midlines and chargers become the real problem instead. Not too much else to say here other than it's fun.

Foil Flingza
This one brings me back to my Octobrush roots. This kit actually changes Flingza's playstyle significantly when compared to the missiles paint bot the vanilla kit is. I found myself using horizontal flicks much more, and doing regular roller sharking stuff. Got plenty of triples (no quads unfortunately). Screen doesn't feel that strong but helps with sneaking in for sure. And the suction bomb once again makes this feel like Octobrush to me. Overall this is a not lame version of Flingza that can make some strong plays.

I made sure I got all the weapons in this time, nothing was forgotten lol. And I'm glad I was able to get this done just in time for Grand Fest! Pretty excited for that. For next time, I'll be doing the remaining 2nd kits for most of the Splatoon 1 and 2 main weapons!

 

[DVDo]

Update #11
Man, Grand Fest was awesome. Splatoon 3 may be over, but this series still ain't! It's time for more 3-starred weapons!

Spoiler: Batch 11

.96 Gal Deco
Alright, I know I really disliked vanilla .96 when I first played it, but having appropriate expectations going in really did wonders. It wasn't all that bad this time, and I ended up with a good win rate overall. As much as I still dislike the low mobility and spotty accuracy, winning feels pretty good, so it's kinda hard for me to hate this weapon the same way. I even got a lot of mileage out of Kraken, it can work well on Rainmaker.
(Also I played a few games on this back when Kraken first came out and got like 2 wins, which is almost enough to 1 star now, that's kinda silly)

Custom Wellstring V
When I got done playing it I sorta forgot I played I new kit. Not that it's all that similar to the vanilla kit, this one's not as aggressive. But everything here feels very natural, to the extent that it feels like I've played it before. Maybe it's just a standard backline kit, as standard as it gets. Sensor in combination with Wellstring makes this feel a lot like Explo, and they synergize for all the same reasons. And Wavebreaker is like another Point Sensor lol, but the damage is nice. Wellstring as a weapon is pretty fun, and either kit is a good pick. Sounds a bit like my Decav review, huh.

Rapid Blaster Pro Deco
I love when the weapon suffixes keep piling on top of each other, this one has 3!!! This kit is all long range pressure: the blaster shots, infinitely long Killer Wail, and... line marker. It feels a bit more useless here than it usually does, but it's fine I suppose. It does nothing to solve RBP's inability to hit below ledges, but Wail solves that perfectly, so who cares. Wail carries this kit pretty hard honestly.

Ballpoint Splatling Nouveau
What a rare weapon, I don't think anyone actually plays this. Ballpoint players are probably just picking the vanilla kit most of the time, and with Fizzy/Jet who can blame them? Mine/Vac is fine. Not super exciting by comparison. Vac's not bad, you can use Run Speed Up for extra mobility during the special, which you're likely already using on splatlings anyway. Ink Mine is forgettable tho. It's not bad, but maybe it just doesn't really synergize? Ballpoint is already good at defending itself up close, so they're not as useful as on other backlines.

Custom Goo Tuber
Feels pretty good! As long as you're hitting your shots of course. I started off well, but started to lose accuracy at some point and then had a rough time. I won't hold that against the weapon or kit tho. I like the kit, feels more interactive than the missiles kit, since Ultra Stamp makes you go all aggro, and feels like it has a more immediate impact. It's harder to do well by sitting back, so you have to make plays.

Glooga Dualies Deco
Wanna hear a cool trick I learned? If you're on Crableg Zones, and your team is struggling to retake, charge up special than drop into the pit on the right side. All the neurons on the other team will activate at the sight of your foolish drop. Then you pop Zooka and Uno reverse them! That'll show them for trying to contest a special with 5 frames of startup!
Uh yeah so this kit is pretty good but I still don't vibe with the Gloogas themselves unfortunately.

N-ZAP '89
Had 2 stars on this one already. I was actually trying this weapon out not too long before I came up with the idea for this challenge. Ended up putting this on hold till I got to it later, but since then there have been multiple times (say, during Splatfests) where I wanted to pick it up again. I suppose I could've just played it if I really wanted too. The order I'm playing these in is entirely self imposed and arbitrary so who cares. But I waited anyway. It's fun, both because you don't have the responsibility of Tacticooler but also because you can spam Autobombs and Super Chumps very fast. It does kind of struggle to fight with the range it has though, so you do rely a lot on the kit anyway.

Foil Squeezer
The last semi-auto. And well, if I'm gonna be mashing with a shooter, I'd rather it be this one. I don't like any of the nozzlenoses, and I'd rather not play vanilla Squeezer thanks to the Wall, so this wins by default. And the kit is actually kinda cool, Autobomb and Screen work very well together to both obscure vision but still be able to find people. Squeezer is also such a great main weapon (even after the nerf) that it doesn't matter too much if Screen isn't as strong. So yeah this one's actually a bit interesting, though by the end my playstyle devolved into spamming Autobombs with two mains of Sub Saver. I think I may be the worst.

Bloblobber Deco
The unthinkable has happened. I found a weapon where Angle Shooter is not useless on! To be fair, I remember it working well on another weapon too, I think it was Recycle? But yeah I actually think line marker makes sense on Blob, and can do things that Blob itself can't do very well. A couple of examples are hitting people on grates or in high positions, as well as dealing damage faster than the slow-traveling blobs. It also likes some of the same map layouts as Blob, mainly narrow corridors surrounded by walls, where both the blobs and dart have the best chance to ricochet and hit people. And location effects are always appreciated by sloshers. It's unfortunate that marker is still not good, but it does have a lot of synergy with Blob so I can see the vision. It's also cool that they finally gave Kraken to a weapon that didn't have it in S1. Pretty good picks on this one, I think it turned out to be a pretty distinctive kit.

We're in the final stretches now. Next time, I finish the 10 remaining 2nd kits in the game. Exciting, isn't it?

 

[DVDo]

Update #12
Once again, I'm back having 3-starred even more weapons!

Spoiler: Batch 12

Recycled Brella 24 Mk II
Man, I really like Recycle, but this was just one of the worst performances I've ever had on any of these weapons. Didn't take the longest but definitely had the least total wins (not sure how that works out). I don't even think I was playing all that poorly, though I went back to check and Mk I also took longer than average to complete. So either I'm bad at Recycle (unlikely ) or I think Recycle needs more buffs. The shield is too flimsy, give it more HP or let it cycle it even faster. Imagine having 2 shields out at once, that'd be kinda funny. Anyway, kit-wise Mist+Splashdown have some synergy, but Recycle+Mist don't. Mist is so expensive that you barely get any shots after using it, so you can't capitalize on it as much. I had to either ignore Mist or use it almost exclusively to support the team. So to me this kit is weaker than Mk I, that one at least has the fast kill combo with marker.

Clash Blaster Neo
Woooo I actually had fun with Clash this time! Which is funny because it's pretty clear the vanilla kit is stronger. Curling bomb isn't as good as Splat Bomb, but Clash does appreciate the movement tool. Chumps aren't beating Zooka, but they can also make it easier to move in, plus they provide damage to combo off of. So it's actually a pretty good kit for Clash's needs. I'm glad it was easy to finish, especially coming off of Recycle.

Big Swig Roller Express
I am officially a part of Swig Nation! I did stupidly well on this weapon, one of the fastest to finish (I did have a negligible amount of freshness on it previously, no wins tho). I only ever lost 7 games. Part of the success is likely because I found the perfect map mode rotation to play in: Zones on Flounder and Manta. Both have very small split zones that Swig can take very easily, and from a relatively safe high ground position. But also, this kit is just good. Ink Storm is the perfect special for Swig, it increases the already good paint but also gives valuable damage since it can take 2-3 hits to kill normally. Marker is ok, mostly useful to mark troublesome flankers for your team. It keeps the kit from being strong, but Swig itself is a great main weapon. Will be playing it more.

Neo Splash-o-matic
It's pretty weird to still have an S1 gun this late in the lineup, but when there's that many shooters it was bound to happen. Here's another instance where I don't really have much to say about it. It's been fairly common lately so everyone already knows its deal, plus it's one of many similar short range shooter options so it doesn't play all that distinctly either. It paints for strikes well, and it has a bomb to help it poke and such. Fairly standard stuff.

Heavy Edit Splatling Nouveau
I think this is the first time in this series where I've come back to a weapon post-nerf and actually felt the difference. Surprising since the Edit paint nerf wasn't substantial, but I had lower paint numbers than I expected on the results screens. Maybe I wasn't deliberately farming for special as often? But this is a great kit. Crab feels very natural on it, it's essentially a temporary range upgrade for the main. And Splat Bomb is nice for fast damage, especially since charging up for Edit's fast fire rate is pretty slow. Feels overall good, but enemy backlines can make your life rough, especially if you can't get your Crab ready and in position.

Snipewriter 5B
I'd been having a good time with the chargers lately, but I had to have one more painful charger run for the road. I think I had a hard time finding places to position where I wouldn't be bothered by shortrange stuff like blasters, dualies, or brushes since I had no way of dealing with them (5H at least has a Sprinkler to pressure them out a bit). It definitely was a skill issue tho, if I just locked in they wouldn't be able to get close enough. The kit's good, but maybe a bit boring.

Custom Douser Dualies FF
Yooo Burst Bomb is fire on this. Really helps with the long range mode to cut kill times in half. Strikes can do so much more than Wail can, so in the end this is just a much better kit. Main issue is that it doesn't paint quickly enough. It has a lot of painting range but it's very spotty. Since it has a dodge roll it doesn't really need its own paint as much to move, but for helping frontlines get in or painting zone it's a problem. Strikes help tho. Very fun.

Dread Wringer D
Yay the funny kit with all the "little structures". I figured this kit would be bad, but honestly it's not, it's just mid. You don't have a real sub weapon, but Dread is good for Beakons because it can claim and secure the area around them quickly, so jumps aren't as risky. Wavebreaker is underpowered but the location is nice, and more importantly it refills your ink so you can keep sloshing immediately. And it takes 1 hit off of people, so you only need 2 hits (or one slosh) to kill. Yeah, the kit is lacking power-wise, but if you just paint a lot and put Wave in annoying spots it actually works, somehow. Not the worst kit in the game (and I realize I can have a real opinion on that now).

S-BLAST '91
I had like 3 wins on this (enough for 1 star nowadays, but not before, so I didn't have it yet). Kinda funny that 2 burst bomb weapons got put so close together at the end, and wow it really helps a lot here too. The combos are fairly lenient, so it can kill much more easily, especially with the long range shots that really need the help. It's a bit difficult to charge for special, and Booyah Bomb can be a bit tricky to use effectively, but there's no doubt that it's better than Reefslider on vanilla S-BLAST. Burst and Booyah can both paint well too, so even if '92 isn't bad in Zones, '91 still has comparable paint. I had fun on this one too.

Annaki Splattershot Nova
Ok I came out of this with a different perspective on how Nova should be played. I previously just thought of it as "long aerospray", so you should just provide paint support and play it safe in fights by shooting at a distance. The problem is that second part doesn't work, the damage is too weak and the RNG too bad, so you'll either get run down or not survive long enough to kill. Instead, I now think it should be played something more like Sploosh, where you try to ambush people who aren't aware you've gotten close to them. This mitigates the bad RNG since its spread isn't actually that bad at shorter ranges compared to other short range shooters. It has nowhere near Sploosh's DPS, but it's serviceable, and instead you have ranged paint to help both yourself and teammates get in, as well as the ability to pressure with stray hits at a distance. Plus this kit can spam Jetpack pretty well, so combined with this playstyle it can get a decent KA. I still wouldn't call this kit strong, the damage is still too weak and means you sometimes lack impact, but it's pretty good IMO. At least I had fun playing it that way.

And with that, all of the 2nd kits are done. So I've officially 3-starred every unique kit in the game! I could call it here, but there are still the Side Order Replicas, and well, I did 3-star Hero Shot Replica didn't I? But since it's all just vanilla kits again, I won't really have "first impressions" for them anymore. It'll be a bit different, but I do have a fun idea for what to write about for them, so you'll have to wait until the next (and final!) update in this series. Thanks for reading!