How do you deal with splashdowns?

[Bluejay]

Hello! I'd like to hear more about people's experience playing against weapons that have splashdown. I'm having a hard time countering/surviving the special, for instance if backing up isn’t an option I would either:
1) try to swim past the fists but often isn't fast enough to get out of its radius - I already run 1-2 swim speed
2) give up and wait for the fists to slam down on me :’ )

I have a feeling the main thing is to avoid backing myself into a corner while fighting someone with their sp charged, but it's hard to put in practice. What should I do differently? For context I play the vshot (around S+10) and I have no experience dealing with its S2 counterpart. Oh and splashdown users/enjoyers/believers are more than welcomed to share how they maximize the value they get from it (so I can learn and counter >: ) ) As much as it gives me pain I think it's a cool special!

 

[Linneus]

Look up and shoot them.

Now, what will happen afterwards? You'll miss or you'll be a little jittery or you won't have full confidence and they'll kill you.
The next time, though? You do it again.

Every time, you must resolve to look up shoot at least a fist of theirs. It will take many, many attempts, but eventually you'll find "hey, at least 50% of the time I trade with them!" and long after that, it may even be second nature...

If there's anything Splashdown has taught me, it's that you have to be willing to try and fail before you come out of the other side trying and succeeding. Unfortunately, there's just no other way! It took me maybe a week of always resolving to stand my ground against them before I had an idea of where I was aiming, and after about a month I feel a lot more confident.

(That said, though if you've got friends to do it with, you might be able to get a headstart on practice with some private matches! Just have 'em grab a weapon and try to Splashdown you over and over)

 

[Bluejay]

Look up and shoot them.

Now, what will happen afterwards? You'll miss or you'll be a little jittery or you won't have full confidence and they'll kill you.
The next time, though? You do it again.

Every time, you must resolve to look up shoot at least a fist of theirs. It will take many, many attempts, but eventually you'll find "hey, at least 50% of the time I trade with them!" and long after that, it may even be second nature...

If there's anything Splashdown has taught me, it's that you have to be willing to try and fail before you come out of the other side trying and succeeding. Unfortunately, there's just no other way! It took me maybe a week of always resolving to stand my ground against them before I had an idea of where I was aiming, and after about a month I feel a lot more confident.

(That said, though if you've got friends to do it with, you might be able to get a headstart on practice with some private matches! Just have 'em grab a weapon and try to Splashdown you over and over)

Thank you for this answer! It filled me with determination (x
Just to be clear, can you manage to kill the user and survive, or is it a trade at best?

 

[AKArien]

(please note i'm not that great take that as questions okay sry)
you can try to shoot them down, but i'd say the best resort is always proactive and what is needed to be worked on first. Just like trizooka, you more so have to recognise if you are in a situation where you would be a prime target.
As a blaster main, been playing the splashdown kit since it dropped, I find it's best use is to lock down a target that's isolated, namely as you said unable to retreat, be it by being into a corner or by ally pressure/control, and for that one, the proactive route is simply to... not be in a vulnerable position ever. Not very helpful advice, i admit.
For more... "random" uses of the special, your priority should be to back into your team, maybe practicing backing away in emergency ?
Do note that if you would get hit by only one of the fists, you can squid roll to shield yourself, so if you find yourself often splatted by shots following up, you could try that
If you find yourself in a situation that has the retreat impossible, then yes you should try to trade with them, working on your vertical aim should then probably be your priority. Although i do still think that your priority work should be to not find yourself in such a situation.

 

[zyf_]

in order of preference/optimality, imo:

1) predict that they're gonna run at you and splashdown and hit all your shots before they can react/before they're in range to actually be a threat. this takes a lot of awareness but is a super useful skill in general
2) kill the user as they splashdown and run through so that you end up behind the fists. this gives you the best survival chance, but also requires that you're good enough to flick up at them pretty instantly so that you have enough time to run
3) hide behind cover that isn't hit by any of the fists or the user. this ensures you take zero chip damage and can try and punish them after the splashdown
4) shoot up at the user as they splashdown and take the trade (if your aim is good enough and you're confident you can hit them)
5) run forward past the fists as they splashdown and try and only take the chip damage from the main user. it's less damage overall and at least they have to turn around to shoot at you/may not expect it, but it's risky because you have to run toward the enemy control and you'll be weak when they land, so you're automatically at a disadvantage when they fight. in other words, this is worse than (4) because the expected outcome is probably that you lose the fight rather than trade
6) run backwards away from the fists -- same downsides as 5 except you take even more damage (2 explosions instead of 1), they're already looking at you, and you're encouraging them to carry forward their momentum
7) die in it lol

 

[isaac4]

I personally have already made it a habit to check for specials whenever there's time, usually if I'm respawning and swimming back from base. I also make a mental note when I see a weapon with triple splashdown because its very likely that they'll be sharking with their special charged or will try to chase me down and use it when they're close enough. I also use the stage geometry to try and bait them into using it in spots where I can make sure I'll survive but when it comes to actually having to trade with them if they have you trapped, you just need to make it a habit to notice it and shoot them from above fast enough. At least, that's just what I've been doing. It's worked out so far and I do feel more confident in dealing with the special than how I did when it was first added.

 

[vitellary]

i've only successfully actually cancelled someone's main splashdown (not counting the fists) a couple times, but it's pretty rare that i actually die to it, since you do usually have enough time to just back up instantly, from my experience. maybe that's just dualie movement making me biased about how easy it is to dodge, but i'd think a shooter should have enough time to back up too if their feet are already painted. nearby cover makes it very easy to only take damage from one of the outer radiuses, which is pretty manageable to deal with

 

[Shayreep]

The biggest thing is watching the hud and noticing when user has splashdown (9/10 in Open, its dualies lol) "Ok this person has splashdown, where are they right now" is my thought process a lot

 

[Bluejay]

Waooow thanks a lot for replying y'all!! So many good advices

(please note i'm not that great take that as questions okay sry)
you can try to shoot them down, but i'd say the best resort is always proactive and what is needed to be worked on first. Just like trizooka, you more so have to recognise if you are in a situation where you would be a prime target.
As a blaster main, been playing the splashdown kit since it dropped, I find it's best use is to lock down a target that's isolated, namely as you said unable to retreat, be it by being into a corner or by ally pressure/control, and for that one, the proactive route is simply to... not be in a vulnerable position ever. Not very helpful advice, i admit.
For more... "random" uses of the special, your priority should be to back into your team, maybe practicing backing away in emergency ?
Do note that if you would get hit by only one of the fists, you can squid roll to shield yourself, so if you find yourself often splatted by shots following up, you could try that
If you find yourself in a situation that has the retreat impossible, then yes you should try to trade with them, working on your vertical aim should then probably be your priority. Although i do still think that your priority work should be to not find yourself in such a situation.

I didn't know you can parry one fist ooh! Thank you

The biggest thing is watching the hud and noticing when user has splashdown (9/10 in Open, its dualies lol) "Ok this person has splashdown, where are they right now" is my thought process a lot

I personally have already made it a habit to check for specials whenever there's time, usually if I'm respawning and swimming back from base. I also make a mental note when I see a weapon with triple splashdown because its very likely that they'll be sharking with their special charged or will try to chase me down and use it when they're close enough. I also use the stage geometry to try and bait them into using it in spots where I can make sure I'll survive but when it comes to actually having to trade with them if they have you trapped, you just need to make it a habit to notice it and shoot them from above fast enough. At least, that's just what I've been doing. It's worked out so far and I do feel more confident in dealing with the special than how I did when it was first added.

I agree, being proactive is a big thing.. :’ )

in order of preference/optimality, imo:

1) predict that they're gonna run at you and splashdown and hit all your shots before they can react/before they're in range to actually be a threat. this takes a lot of awareness but is a super useful skill in general
2) kill the user as they splashdown and run through so that you end up behind the fists. this gives you the best survival chance, but also requires that you're good enough to flick up at them pretty instantly so that you have enough time to run
3) hide behind cover that isn't hit by any of the fists or the user. this ensures you take zero chip damage and can try and punish them after the splashdown
4) shoot up at the user as they splashdown and take the trade (if your aim is good enough and you're confident you can hit them)
5) run forward past the fists as they splashdown and try and only take the chip damage from the main user. it's less damage overall and at least they have to turn around to shoot at you/may not expect it, but it's risky because you have to run toward the enemy control and you'll be weak when they land, so you're automatically at a disadvantage when they fight. in other words, this is worse than (4) because the expected outcome is probably that you lose the fight rather than trade
6) run backwards away from the fists -- same downsides as 5 except you take even more damage (2 explosions instead of 1), they're already looking at you, and you're encouraging them to carry forward their momentum
7) die in it lol

Woww thanks so much for this! I never thought of it this way (trade>run forward>run backward) :0

i've only successfully actually cancelled someone's main splashdown (not counting the fists) a couple times, but it's pretty rare that i actually die to it, since you do usually have enough time to just back up instantly, from my experience. maybe that's just dualie movement making me biased about how easy it is to dodge, but i'd think a shooter should have enough time to back up too if their feet are already painted. nearby cover makes it very easy to only take damage from one of the outer radiuses, which is pretty manageable to deal with

Haha, the times I get caught are usually when I'm in the middle of swimming towards them or have nowhere to back up to (x I agree it's not that bad if I can just swim away

 

[Yosi Spring]

The big difference between S2 and S3's splashdown is that in S3 they can almost 100% guarantee you die if you're stuck in a corner. When that happens, you just want to do everything to splat the user so they only get a trade.

 

[MMOToaster]

If I'm under the influence of Tacticooler or mid swing(I'm a Dynamo main): Cancel it and trade. If I'm not either of those: Move away