Splatoon 2 Clam Blitz

[Sifu]

I’m sure you all have heard by now that we’re getting a new competitive mode. When I first saw it and heard it’s a ranked mode, I was a little nervous, but I’m starting to think that it could be a good complement to the existing modes.

Having to find the shells encourages you to ink turf, stealing clams rewards good combat, and the fact that you need several clams to open the goal means that you have to make a good push to score. I’m assuming that if your goal gets open, then the enemy goal will close.

The goals seem to be closer to mid than the goals for RM and TC, which makes sense, since it would be weird to have to push all the way to the enemy base.

I’m somewhat worried about how it will be having 4 ranked modes. Will I have to wait a long time if I want to play a specific mode? We’ll see how it pans out, but it’s moments like these where I’m glad we have 2 hour rotations now.

Will everyone start at C-, or will it base your rank on your existing ranks?

Throwing the shells raises some questions too. We can throw super shells for sure, but it looks like we can’t throw the regular ones.

I’m assuming that throwing will be mapped to the R button, so we might not be able to use our sub if we have 10 shells. Could encourage you to not hoard too many shells at once. Though again, it does look like the super shell can be used as a weapon against other squids. That’ll be interesting to see. Sounds wasteful though

 

[NBSink]

Yet that are most likely speculations. The goals also appears to be pretty much on the front-line for a balanced fight. Which makes it bit hard for me to score since Im a support player and Im rarely that much in front as the goals on the reef. Yet we still don't really know that much about the mode. It's appears logical to me that the goals close again when the other goal is opened because you get penalty points when you lose the splat zones and you still have to get the tower or rainmaker back to the middle at first when you want to make a counter push to your enemies.

 

[Sifu]

Support players could have the benefit of being able to find lots of clams, since the role is to spread out and cover turf. You could always try depositing during a team wipe or similar

 

[Flopps]

Would the clams keep spawning or once someone picks one up it just disappears? Could lead to an inkbrush taking all the clams.

What happens if you use inkjet while holding clams? Do they fly? How about splashdown?

 

[Sifu]

I imagine that clams will be continuously spawning- that way you have to consistently hold control of the map to successfully stock pile them.

It would work well if a new clam spawns a sort bit (5-10 seconds) after you deposit one- you can quickly build up if you have good control, but if the other team can properly challenge you, it will take longer.

 

[Lonely_Dolphin]

This mode looks like it requires a lot of team coordination, since if your whole team just goes out looking for clams, your goal is completely undefended. The opposite is also true, if everyone's just defending then you aren't scoring. Gonna be very interesting to see how this plays out in solo queue!

 

[Sifu]

This mode looks like it requires a lot of team coordination, since if your whole team just goes out looking for clams, your goal is completely undefended. The opposite is also true, if everyone's just defending then you aren't scoring. Gonna be very interesting to see how this plays out in solo queue!

I think all modes benefit from good coordination, but this mode especially will award those who pay attention to what their team is doing, and what the team’s composition is.

 

[MindWanderer]

It'll be especially interesting, in solo or pairs, how folks deal with team composition. If your team has a Hydra or an E-Liter, you should probably let them defend, and if you have a Jr. and a Sploosh, they'll be out collecting clams, but what if you have nothing but Aerosprays? Or three snipers? Will it ever be a smart move to pass the football? How will folks manage to use their two emotes to coordinate both attacks and defense?

Certainly, more than any other mode, solo queue and quad league/tournament will play entirely differently.

 

[Mar$el]

Maybe there will be a new button to throw the football. My assumption is that once you have 10 clams you then have the option to make a football but you don't have to, and then once you do you can't use your sub maybe? It's kinda like special. Once your gauge fills it doesn't activate automatically, and subs are disabled with many specials. I also believe (from the official twitter posts) that support players will have more of a role (not over other players just that they will have an actual role) because shells show up on the map if they are in your ink, so map control plays a bigger part. One of my biggest questions is if the shells submerge into your ink with you are stay out while swimming.

 

[Sifu]

I would be very surprised if there was a new button - there are plenty of things that could have been mapped to buttons (e.g. rolling), but it’s clear the devs only want certain buttons used.

I would be very surprised if there was a new button - there are plenty of things that could have been mapped to buttons (e.g. rolling), but it’s clear the devs only want certain buttons used.

Maybe I was wrong... looking at the Japanese twitter, it says that you can use the A button and the L button (which are currently not mapped to anything), so you can use your sub even with the super clams

 

[Raxel920]

I'm pretty exited! By the looks of it, it's going to require a lot of teamwork, so I'm gonna be in trouble.

Throwing the shells raises some questions too. We can throw super shells for sure, but it looks like we can’t throw the regular ones.

Nope, look at 1:14 of the trailer.

 

[Sifu]

Nope, look at 1:14 of the trailer.

You’re right- that was also confirmed by the twitter

I'm pretty exited! By the looks of it, it's going to require a lot of teamwork, so I'm gonna be in trouble.

I think as long as everyone knows what they’re doing, you can do decently, even with no coordination. Also remember that you only need to outrun the enemy team, so solo-queue shouldn’t be that bad.

 

[Ansible]

From at I recall in the video you can pass the super clam to other players who can then throw it at the goal. That gives support and rear-line players more chances to contribute... but I'm curious how that's gonna work out in solo, league pairs, and silent leagues. @_@

Will there be some sort of indicator letting us know that a teammate is throwing a pass to us? Do we catch it automatically or is it a manual response?

 

[vanille987]

Support players could have the benefit of being able to find lots of clams, since the role is to spread out and cover turf. You could always try depositing during a team wipe or similar

Why i’m looking forward to playing this.
Though i’m afraid it may require too much strategy for randoms.

 

[Sifu]

Looks like we'll be clamming it up soon. Tuesday can't come fast enough now!

 

[Sifu]

And now we have some more info about how CB will work... I didn't expect the Power Clam to remind me so much of the rainmaker- it gives away your position, and the other team can snatch it if you die. Doesn't shoot crazy fireballs, though.

There is a timer on the basket, so you have a limited time to get your clams in before it closes again. It might be possible that you can use a conservative pace throwing the clams in to slow down the timer. There is a penalty once the timer hits 0, but it is less harsh compared to SZ (I think)

So all in all, CB looks like it takes cues from RM, TW, and SZ and rolls it all into one. Looking forward to it!

 

[Mar$el]

And now we have some more info about how CB will work... I didn't expect the Power Clam to remind me so much of the rainmaker- it gives away your position, and the other team can snatch it if you die. Doesn't shoot crazy fireballs, though.

There is a timer on the basket, so you have a limited time to get your clams in before it closes again. It might be possible that you can use a conservative pace throwing the clams in to slow down the timer. There is a penalty once the timer hits 0, but it is less harsh compared to SZ (I think)

So all in all, CB looks like it takes cues from RM, TW, and SZ and rolls it all into one. Looking forward to it!

Also breaking the barrier gets you 20 points and each clam thrown in is 3. What it seemed like to me is that once your barrier is broken you can't break the other barrier until yours is closed. This means you gotta rush to break the barrier first, and once yours is broken you gotta defend your basket hard until the timer runs out and a power clam appears at your basket so you can break theirs.

 

[MindWanderer]

It didn't look to me that Power Clams can be stolen, just normal ones. In the demo, when the "good guy" splatted the "bad guy" with the Power Clam, not only did he make no effort to pick it up, it looked like it was color-coded to the other team. The voiceover said that "if the other team doesn't pick it up, it disappears."

 

[Ansible]

If anyone gets the chance, I'd like to have confirmation on a few of the following:

• super jumping with clams/power clam
• sub-power up increasing throw/pass distance
• intercepting throws/passes
• attacking enemies with clams/power clam
• blocking clams/power clam with
  • splash wall
  • brella's canopy
  • baller
  • inkjet
  • brush/roller swings

If anyone has further questions, I'll add it to the list.

 

[Sifu]

Super jumping with either the clams or power clam will break the clam, so you don’t want to do it unless you must.