D
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I admire splatlings, but I need tips on using them! I would like tips on using them in Turf Wars, Tower Control, and Rainmaker.
Of Moose & Men
Inkling Fleet Admiral
A good way to get an idea of what you're looking for is knowing what splatling you're talking about. All the Splatlings actually play quite a bit differently than one another.
D
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The splatlings I admire most is the mini splatling and the regular-sized splatling.
chrisblass1
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- Chrisblass1
All i can say is to be observant.
ϛ(°³°)/`
Inkling Commander
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Considering the replies so far haven't been particularly enlightening, maybe I can elaborate a bit (a lot). What @Oxenfree said is most certainly correct, however - all three classes DO play very differently. Here's my rough usage so far:
Firstly, there's some important points that apply to all splatlings:
- Like charger weapons, splatlings charge slower while in the air, i.e. jumping or falling.
- The barrel of splatlings is at your kneecaps, meaning your bullets will travel from a lower position than a standard shooter weapon. If you're standing atop a ledge and aiming downward, you'll find that your shots frequently smack into the edge instead of hitting your target below - you may have to bunnyhop after charging sufficiently to hit people hiding under you, but standing along grated pathways like Hammerhead and Kelp Dome is such a blessing. The same goes for walking up hills - you'll often have to bounce around to make bullets fire over the crest.
- All splatlings benefit from run speed perks. This allows you to retain mobility while charging, as you can't hide in squid form while doing so and are terribly vulnerable.
- While charging, you'll notice rings appear around your reticle. Between 0 charge and 1 ring, your range progressively increases. Between 1 and 2 rings, you get no additional range but this ring charges faster, providing you with a bit of time efficiency, as both rings unload at the same rate.
- You do NOT need a full ring charged to splat someone; you should figure out how much is necessary to unload 4-6 bullets just in case an enemy gets up in your face. With the mini it's a split second and with the heavy it's like 1/4 of a ring.
- Going into squid form cancels your charge instantly. It also interrupts your firing if you've already began unloading your shots.
- While charging, you'll notice some form of white mesh appear on the inside of your ink tank - this indicates how much ink is dedicated towards your current charge. This is NOT a capital investment; if you go into squid form before unloading your charge, you will not lose that ink. If you begin firing and have to cancel your shot by going into squid form, the unused ink goes back into your tank immediately. This is particularly important to remember for the Hydra, as each shot consumes around 1/3 of your entire tank and you should never feel pressured to continue firing if it means avoiding a death.
- Splatling bullets all deal 28 damage, securing a 4-hit kill on all enemies not using sufficient defence up (be very cautious about falloff damage at your max range, as you can hit lower, around 12 damage per bullet). The Hydra splatlings deal 35 damage per bullet if they're launched from a full 2 rings of charge, securing a 3-hit kill on most people.
- The Mini and Heavy splatlings are very mobile and benefit greatly from ink resistance to maintain proper movement. The Hydra has a more perch-oriented role, and you won't need to waltz around in the muck too often.
- When bullets are fired (from any gun), splotches of ink appear under it as it travels through the air. All splatlings seem to drop splotches at the same time interval, but because the heavy and hydra splatlings fire bullets at a higher velocity, there will be a greater distance between splotches. From this we can see that the mini is the best at spreading a consistent patch of ink, while the heavy is worse and the hydra worse still.
Mini Series:
The Mini Splatlings charge incredibly quickly, so much so that most of your charges will wind up being a full two rings inadvertently. This weapon fires further than most short range weapons including the Splattershots, N-Zaps, and Splash-o-Matics, and is more closely comparable to the range of an L-3 Nozzlenose. It excels at spreading ink and claiming turf, and because of its fast charge it'll find a home on the front lines. Pair together this weapon's strong points and work towards expanding the front line towards the opponents while splatting anyone within your range. Avoid overextending, as you do still have a charge mechanic and it can be the death of you. -Unless you're using the Zink Mini and have a bubble ready, then you can go full Leeroy Jenkins and nab a few kills with the assistance of your disruptor.
Heavy Series:
The Heavy Splatlings take longer to charge than the Minis, but their range is extended to roughly that of a Jet Squelcher. Because of its fast rate of fire, however, it has significantly more kill potential than the aforementioned Jet. People will often describe the Heavies as a "defensive weapon", if not the ultimate defensive weapon; you'll want to keep back and fire vollies of ink to ensure your front line has room to move and to discourage enemies from approaching. You'll also be their defender, and you'll want to watch any and all flanks that you have direct access to.
As an example of splatling strategy and gameplay, consider the following anecdote. We recently had Kelp Dome and Camp Triggerfish in a Splat Zone rotation, and this was the first time I was able to achieve S rank using only Splat Zone games. Naturally I used Heavy Splatlings, specifically the Remix, because I knew of their strengths on those two maps. In Triggerfish, I made my way to mid immediately and loaded a single ring of charge, then launched it at all enemies that were coming up their ramp. Almost every time, I secured a double if not a triple kill. From there, I stayed in mid and focused on killing anyone that came up the same ramp or tried to jump over their sniper wall, placing sprinklers liberally into their zone whenever I had spare ink. I also kept a close eye on anyone that made it past my shots, as they were then able to cross over the rope bridge to our side. If they tried, I shot through the underside and either discouraged them from proceeding or outright splatted them. I also kept an eye on anyone that took the side route directly to our base, through the water gates near their spawn. I didn't have enough range to splat them as they rounded the corner, but I did fire vollies towards them to discourage them from coming closer, and also to alert my teammates to the fact that someone was over there for them to deal with.
In Kelp dome, I usually made my way directly to the bridge ramp, as this puts me in a position to shoot over and discourage people from entering the flank area. Anyone that used this bridge to approach mid usually got shot down pretty quickly. It also let me fire onto the middle pillar in case a carbon roller tried to use it to get the drop on a teammate. The nice thing about this spot is that it's safely out of reach from Splatterscopes on their sniper perch, though I had to be more cautious with E-litres on the enemy team. Refilling your tank is kind of a pain, but luckily there's a few small boxes placed around that you can ink and sit on if you need to.
If my teammates had a bit of trouble pushing the enemies back, I'd usually drop down and stay near the middle pillar and fire towards their main entrance while keeping an eye on the flanks from before. Be sure to keep close to a wall to protect yourself while charging a shot. If enough of the enemies get splatted, I move forward and instead I watch their sniper perch, their main entrance, and their bridge for anyone that pops up. A good alternative is to simply stand atop the middle pillar, as it allows you to watch both bridges, their sniper perch, their initial metal ramp near snipe, and one of the two flanks that I mentioned before.
Hydra Series:
I haven't had too much experience with the Hydra Splatings, so take this with an extra grain of salt. The Hydras have a bit of extra range, closer to that of a Splatterscope, but the extra charge time required and significantly decreased mobility is an incredible hindrance. In addition, the weapon consumes an absurd amount of ink, so Ink Saver Main is an absolute must. You also receive a 10% decrease in swim speed purely for using such a heavy weapon, so keep that in mind. As I mentioned above, this weapon plays more like a campy charger than the other two splatlings, and you should generally avoid prancing around on the battlefield. I found that the drawbacks of using this weapon significantly outweighed the benefits of an increased range and shot duration. The 3-hit kill wasn't even particularly appealing, as all splatlings fire incredibly fast and the time difference between 3 hits connecting and 4 hits connecting is almost unnoticeable (definitely not worth the huge 2-ring chargeup time). Because this weapon's bullets travel extremely fast, there isn't much time for droplets to fall to the floor as they fly past. This makes the Hydra fairly ineffective at covering large areas of turf despite the great range.
Up until now this description has been fairly negative, so I'd like to bring it back a bit and say that there ARE several instances in which the Hydra outperforms the Heavy. I found that the Hydra is excellent at guarding your side's zone in Moray Tower Splat Zones, as you can easily stand atop the overlook and shoot along the zone and hit any close range weapons (Tentatek, Jr., Sploosh, etc.) trying to crawl up the wall from the sidestreet and paint your zone. You can also hit anyone trying to flank you by climbing the large wall overlooking the zone. If you scoot your way down to the sniper perch, you can hit most people going through mid or coming from their zone. Anyone taking the main ramp into your turf is also a good target, and rollers tend to use this path often - their predictable movements and full exposure make them easy targets. Be sure to watch out for enemy E-litres as you will always be their first target, what with your long chargeup time. Also be wary of people that make their way up the wall from mid, or the small side platform; Tentateks and Splooshes will endlessly flank you from here.
Hopefully this's given you a bit of a better idea how to use Splatlings, as they're a tremendous asset to any team and crazy fun to play as. Once you get a good understanding of partially charging your shots, you'll easily be able to take out people that get too close, or pressure people endlessly from a distance.
Firstly, there's some important points that apply to all splatlings:
- Like charger weapons, splatlings charge slower while in the air, i.e. jumping or falling.
- The barrel of splatlings is at your kneecaps, meaning your bullets will travel from a lower position than a standard shooter weapon. If you're standing atop a ledge and aiming downward, you'll find that your shots frequently smack into the edge instead of hitting your target below - you may have to bunnyhop after charging sufficiently to hit people hiding under you, but standing along grated pathways like Hammerhead and Kelp Dome is such a blessing. The same goes for walking up hills - you'll often have to bounce around to make bullets fire over the crest.
- All splatlings benefit from run speed perks. This allows you to retain mobility while charging, as you can't hide in squid form while doing so and are terribly vulnerable.
- While charging, you'll notice rings appear around your reticle. Between 0 charge and 1 ring, your range progressively increases. Between 1 and 2 rings, you get no additional range but this ring charges faster, providing you with a bit of time efficiency, as both rings unload at the same rate.
- You do NOT need a full ring charged to splat someone; you should figure out how much is necessary to unload 4-6 bullets just in case an enemy gets up in your face. With the mini it's a split second and with the heavy it's like 1/4 of a ring.
- Going into squid form cancels your charge instantly. It also interrupts your firing if you've already began unloading your shots.
- While charging, you'll notice some form of white mesh appear on the inside of your ink tank - this indicates how much ink is dedicated towards your current charge. This is NOT a capital investment; if you go into squid form before unloading your charge, you will not lose that ink. If you begin firing and have to cancel your shot by going into squid form, the unused ink goes back into your tank immediately. This is particularly important to remember for the Hydra, as each shot consumes around 1/3 of your entire tank and you should never feel pressured to continue firing if it means avoiding a death.
- Splatling bullets all deal 28 damage, securing a 4-hit kill on all enemies not using sufficient defence up (be very cautious about falloff damage at your max range, as you can hit lower, around 12 damage per bullet). The Hydra splatlings deal 35 damage per bullet if they're launched from a full 2 rings of charge, securing a 3-hit kill on most people.
- The Mini and Heavy splatlings are very mobile and benefit greatly from ink resistance to maintain proper movement. The Hydra has a more perch-oriented role, and you won't need to waltz around in the muck too often.
- When bullets are fired (from any gun), splotches of ink appear under it as it travels through the air. All splatlings seem to drop splotches at the same time interval, but because the heavy and hydra splatlings fire bullets at a higher velocity, there will be a greater distance between splotches. From this we can see that the mini is the best at spreading a consistent patch of ink, while the heavy is worse and the hydra worse still.
Mini Series:
The Mini Splatlings charge incredibly quickly, so much so that most of your charges will wind up being a full two rings inadvertently. This weapon fires further than most short range weapons including the Splattershots, N-Zaps, and Splash-o-Matics, and is more closely comparable to the range of an L-3 Nozzlenose. It excels at spreading ink and claiming turf, and because of its fast charge it'll find a home on the front lines. Pair together this weapon's strong points and work towards expanding the front line towards the opponents while splatting anyone within your range. Avoid overextending, as you do still have a charge mechanic and it can be the death of you. -Unless you're using the Zink Mini and have a bubble ready, then you can go full Leeroy Jenkins and nab a few kills with the assistance of your disruptor.
Heavy Series:
The Heavy Splatlings take longer to charge than the Minis, but their range is extended to roughly that of a Jet Squelcher. Because of its fast rate of fire, however, it has significantly more kill potential than the aforementioned Jet. People will often describe the Heavies as a "defensive weapon", if not the ultimate defensive weapon; you'll want to keep back and fire vollies of ink to ensure your front line has room to move and to discourage enemies from approaching. You'll also be their defender, and you'll want to watch any and all flanks that you have direct access to.
As an example of splatling strategy and gameplay, consider the following anecdote. We recently had Kelp Dome and Camp Triggerfish in a Splat Zone rotation, and this was the first time I was able to achieve S rank using only Splat Zone games. Naturally I used Heavy Splatlings, specifically the Remix, because I knew of their strengths on those two maps. In Triggerfish, I made my way to mid immediately and loaded a single ring of charge, then launched it at all enemies that were coming up their ramp. Almost every time, I secured a double if not a triple kill. From there, I stayed in mid and focused on killing anyone that came up the same ramp or tried to jump over their sniper wall, placing sprinklers liberally into their zone whenever I had spare ink. I also kept a close eye on anyone that made it past my shots, as they were then able to cross over the rope bridge to our side. If they tried, I shot through the underside and either discouraged them from proceeding or outright splatted them. I also kept an eye on anyone that took the side route directly to our base, through the water gates near their spawn. I didn't have enough range to splat them as they rounded the corner, but I did fire vollies towards them to discourage them from coming closer, and also to alert my teammates to the fact that someone was over there for them to deal with.
In Kelp dome, I usually made my way directly to the bridge ramp, as this puts me in a position to shoot over and discourage people from entering the flank area. Anyone that used this bridge to approach mid usually got shot down pretty quickly. It also let me fire onto the middle pillar in case a carbon roller tried to use it to get the drop on a teammate. The nice thing about this spot is that it's safely out of reach from Splatterscopes on their sniper perch, though I had to be more cautious with E-litres on the enemy team. Refilling your tank is kind of a pain, but luckily there's a few small boxes placed around that you can ink and sit on if you need to.
If my teammates had a bit of trouble pushing the enemies back, I'd usually drop down and stay near the middle pillar and fire towards their main entrance while keeping an eye on the flanks from before. Be sure to keep close to a wall to protect yourself while charging a shot. If enough of the enemies get splatted, I move forward and instead I watch their sniper perch, their main entrance, and their bridge for anyone that pops up. A good alternative is to simply stand atop the middle pillar, as it allows you to watch both bridges, their sniper perch, their initial metal ramp near snipe, and one of the two flanks that I mentioned before.
Hydra Series:
I haven't had too much experience with the Hydra Splatings, so take this with an extra grain of salt. The Hydras have a bit of extra range, closer to that of a Splatterscope, but the extra charge time required and significantly decreased mobility is an incredible hindrance. In addition, the weapon consumes an absurd amount of ink, so Ink Saver Main is an absolute must. You also receive a 10% decrease in swim speed purely for using such a heavy weapon, so keep that in mind. As I mentioned above, this weapon plays more like a campy charger than the other two splatlings, and you should generally avoid prancing around on the battlefield. I found that the drawbacks of using this weapon significantly outweighed the benefits of an increased range and shot duration. The 3-hit kill wasn't even particularly appealing, as all splatlings fire incredibly fast and the time difference between 3 hits connecting and 4 hits connecting is almost unnoticeable (definitely not worth the huge 2-ring chargeup time). Because this weapon's bullets travel extremely fast, there isn't much time for droplets to fall to the floor as they fly past. This makes the Hydra fairly ineffective at covering large areas of turf despite the great range.
Up until now this description has been fairly negative, so I'd like to bring it back a bit and say that there ARE several instances in which the Hydra outperforms the Heavy. I found that the Hydra is excellent at guarding your side's zone in Moray Tower Splat Zones, as you can easily stand atop the overlook and shoot along the zone and hit any close range weapons (Tentatek, Jr., Sploosh, etc.) trying to crawl up the wall from the sidestreet and paint your zone. You can also hit anyone trying to flank you by climbing the large wall overlooking the zone. If you scoot your way down to the sniper perch, you can hit most people going through mid or coming from their zone. Anyone taking the main ramp into your turf is also a good target, and rollers tend to use this path often - their predictable movements and full exposure make them easy targets. Be sure to watch out for enemy E-litres as you will always be their first target, what with your long chargeup time. Also be wary of people that make their way up the wall from mid, or the small side platform; Tentateks and Splooshes will endlessly flank you from here.
Hopefully this's given you a bit of a better idea how to use Splatlings, as they're a tremendous asset to any team and crazy fun to play as. Once you get a good understanding of partially charging your shots, you'll easily be able to take out people that get too close, or pressure people endlessly from a distance.
Last edited:
Green Waffles
Inkling Fleet Admiral
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2016
- Messages
- 813
I felt obliged to write a nice, (kinda) thorough reply to this for the sake of splatlings and the mighty hydra, until =D
Hi there, Proffessor Green "Buttz" Waffles, S rank in all things(EXCEPT H3 >=/ ) here to help!
I walked into a killer wail yesterday because I wasn't paying attention, so I think I'm the most qualified to help you in your splatling endeavor.
While I like to think of myself as a kind of "jack of all trades" when it comes to splatoon weapons, I'd be lying if I said I didn't tend to gravitate towards (mostly hydra) splatlings. So I want to chime in on a couple of points this fellow brought up =p
Keeping as much of my hydra bias in check as I can, I'd respectfully disagree with the main saver suggestion.
Its no aerospray in terms of ink efficiency, but the amount of bullets you get from 1 full charge(1/3 your tank) of the hydra is quite a lot! (its very spotty turf coverage though)
Cram those abilities into run speed, so you can have the strafe speed equivalent of a hippopotamus trying to escape a ball pit instead of a sloth trying to swim through cold maple syrup.
I will strongly agree with the last point of you being sniper bait.
To an enemy e-liter, the hydra splatling is a big bright pink target with the words "PLEASE SHOOT ME ALL GAME" written on it. This is why I recommend at least (the equivalent of) 2 run speed mains, in order to better dodge sniper shots.
I hope that doesn't dissuade you too much, as with a bit of practice and at least decent connection (can't dodge a lag sniper AMIRTELOL) you can reliably juke out e-liters long enough to get them in your range and splat 'em.
And lastly my own original tidbit, since you say you prefer Tower control to teh sporlt zorms.
The custom hydra is AMAZING for riding the tower, especially on maps with wide open spaces around the tower's path(arowana and museum immediately come to mind)
Sprinklers make for a serviceable, pseudo splash wall =p
Just don't blindly blitz for the tower like an inkn'' luna and think you can wipe the whole enemy team (the enemy team will dance on the festering ink pile that was your corpse). Make sure a .96's range around the tower is safe/unoccupied before constructing your tower throne.
Thats all I feel like writing for now. I hope it didn't help you in any way, bye!
A vera nice post.
Hi there, Proffessor Green "Buttz" Waffles, S rank in all things(EXCEPT H3 >=/ ) here to help!
I walked into a killer wail yesterday because I wasn't paying attention, so I think I'm the most qualified to help you in your splatling endeavor.
While I like to think of myself as a kind of "jack of all trades" when it comes to splatoon weapons, I'd be lying if I said I didn't tend to gravitate towards (mostly hydra) splatlings. So I want to chime in on a couple of points this fellow brought up =p
Keeping as much of my hydra bias in check as I can, I'd respectfully disagree with the main saver suggestion.
Its no aerospray in terms of ink efficiency, but the amount of bullets you get from 1 full charge(1/3 your tank) of the hydra is quite a lot! (its very spotty turf coverage though)
Cram those abilities into run speed, so you can have the strafe speed equivalent of a hippopotamus trying to escape a ball pit instead of a sloth trying to swim through cold maple syrup.
I will strongly agree with the last point of you being sniper bait.
To an enemy e-liter, the hydra splatling is a big bright pink target with the words "PLEASE SHOOT ME ALL GAME" written on it. This is why I recommend at least (the equivalent of) 2 run speed mains, in order to better dodge sniper shots.
I hope that doesn't dissuade you too much, as with a bit of practice and at least decent connection (can't dodge a lag sniper AMIRTELOL) you can reliably juke out e-liters long enough to get them in your range and splat 'em.
And lastly my own original tidbit, since you say you prefer Tower control to teh sporlt zorms.
The custom hydra is AMAZING for riding the tower, especially on maps with wide open spaces around the tower's path(arowana and museum immediately come to mind)
Sprinklers make for a serviceable, pseudo splash wall =p
Just don't blindly blitz for the tower like an inkn'' luna and think you can wipe the whole enemy team (the enemy team will dance on the festering ink pile that was your corpse). Make sure a .96's range around the tower is safe/unoccupied before constructing your tower throne.
Thats all I feel like writing for now. I hope it didn't help you in any way, bye!