Ninja squid ability

[DawnDinosaur]

Hey guys,

Does anyone use this ability? It doesn't seem very popular as I haven't heard much discussion around it. I'm practising with brushes and I find the ninja squid helps quite a bit with ambushing people, which is what brushes are perfect for. Ninja squid makes your swim speed slower but I've put on a swim speed up ability to counteract that and I think it is normal swim speed now. I might just be imagining it- can anyone confirm this?

What would you say is better at ambushing people- lots of swim speed or the ninja squid?

 

[Airi]

When I'm using my Carbon Roller or Octobrush Nouveau, I am often rotating between using Ninja Squid and Cold-Blooded. I'm always using Ink Resistance/Swim Speed on my shoes to counteract Ninja Squid or give a boost to Cold-Blooded. I think that the use of Ninja Squid is heavily dependent upon someone's play style. There are some people who don't find much use in Ninja Squid while there are others who do find a lot of use in it. Personally, I like using Ninja Squid and the slower swim speed doesn't bother me. You have to learn to work around it but once you learn, Ninja Squid is quite useful.

I don't think either one is necessarily better than the other. Both abilities are dependent upon play style and both abilities share the same problem... They need ink. If you don't have ink to work with, Ninja Squid and Swim Speed will be useless to you since you have no room to work. However, if you do have room to work, either ability can be useful and it depends on how you like ambushing people.

 

[SomeRandomSplatoonPlayer]

I don't see anyone particularly using the stealth swim perk because you can actually do this without it to begin with.

If you lighlty tilt your control stick while swimming in the ink you won't make the usual splashing trail while swimming. So you basically do the stealth swim without equipping it.

How far you tilt the control stick before going all the way varies the swim speed as well. This result in being ninja with near/same swimming speed as normal if you tilt it the right way.

But I can think of people that could use it because that don't want to bother with the tilting gimmick.

Hope this helps!

 

[sammich]

I don't see anyone particularly using the stealth swim perk because you can actually do this without it to begin with.

If you lighlty tilt your control stick while swimming in the ink you won't make the usual splashing trail while swimming. So you basically do the stealth swim without equipping it.

How far you tilt the control stick before going all the way varies the swim speed as well. This result in being ninja with near/same swimming speed as normal if you tilt it the right way.

But I can think of people that could use it because that don't want to bother with the tilting gimmick.

Hope this helps!

the alternative is to tap quickly+repeatedly in very short bursts.

tilt/tap-swimming is slower than ninja squid, but if you need to you can still go full speed at a moment's notice (much faster than ninja squid) and you can also save that ability slot for something else.

 

[Shalnark]

I think you should use 3 swim speeds if possible. You need two to counteract ninja squid, and the third will help your mobility.

 

[warghoul]

I feel like I do better running ninja squid. Have a few swim speeds up with my gear also. I main the octoshot and I like to get close and personal when I need to splat someone.

 

[Deleted Member]

Ninja Squid is still very viable with Swim Speed Ups attached. Very underrated ability that is slept on.

 

[_horiizon_]

I tend to use comeback and ninja squid together during ranked since the boosts from comeback generally negate the swim speed from ninja squid and I have been having some very good success with it so far, but you shouldnt rely on it too much for all of your weapons, its best to mix it up

 

[Spiderface]

I usually play role of assassin as a carbon roller and I seem to do just fine without ninja squid. I'd much prefer to have my swim speed up, cause then it's easier to zip around in ink. I used to use ninja squid before I read that it effects how fast you swim. Going fast is one of my main tactics so ninja squid just doesn't work for me because I don't want to have to counter it with even more swim speed. I'd prefer to use other abilities.

 

[NotAPerso]

Ninja squid is an ability that requires turf advantage (of the immediate area) to be effective. Quick time to kill is also nice to make it more effective. This is because ninja squid only works when you can swim around your ink in a pattern that will confuse your enemy into aiming incorrectly and once you have the upper hand you surprise them from behind and splat (but do it quick because you're losing turf as they fire and popping up to gain turf gives away your position). Straight lines of ink won't help as your position is easily guessed.

It's not "assassin squid" and won't help in an ambush (if you're not moving then you have no ripples and if you surprise from behind they wouldn't see your ripples anyways.) even though many people incorrectly treat it as such. If that's what you're looking for then cold-blooded will suit that need more.

Overall it's a decent ability if you have the turf coverage and tactical maneuverability to pull it off. It has a niche and it's up to the player if that niche comes up often enough within gameplay to warrant the swim speed nerf (or large swim speed investment).

 

[Elecmaw]

After it got nerfed a long time ago i don't find it useful esp. now that it has to compete with Cold-Blooded. It slows you down which makes it harder to navigate around the map outside combat, and if you get tracked the slowdown becomes more of a liability as it takes longer to retreat to a safe location. It also slows you down when you use Kraken/Rainmaker while providing no benefit in said situation.

You could add swim-speed ups to counter it but then you've practically used up half of your loadout on getting Ninja Squid effectively. It does have some utility however, as you can still move faster undetected than moving slowly without the NS ability. But ultimately i still find CB better out of the two when you want to stay stealthy, not really a big fault of NS itself but because CB is just that good.

 

[SupaTim]

I haven't used it much after the swim speed nerf. I used to use it all the time with just about any weapon, but now I find myself wanting different perks that compliment the weapon instead of a general perk.

I still use it sometimes, but with 1 main and 3-4 subs of swim speed (depending on which ninja squid shirt I'm using) to counter the nerf. I also feel ink resistance is really helpful here because it makes it so you don't stay out of our ink very long if you step in a enemy puddle. Honestly, it still performs pretty well, especially if you are good at swim strafing (which you should get good at, regardless). I've noticed that people have become much better at tracking the ripples and they get pretty confused if you don't make any.

I usually use short or mid range weapons because they have better ink efficiency and I don't need to run ink saver main/ink recovery up (although I do have a perfect shrimp pink polo). This topic brings back some good memories and makes me want to play some ninja squid...

 

[Dreamy Luigi]

Cold Blooded + squid trotting outclasses Ninja Squid imo, and as a bonus I always stack swim speed for faster movement. I used to use it but makes ninja squid completely useless so Cold Blooded itself is just a much better ability if you want to stay undetected.

 

[SupaTim]

So I just played for awhile with ninja squid for the nostalgia, and it was noticeably easier to escape people and swim strafe. Sure, echolocator ruins your day, but do you ONLY run builds with cold-blooded? I hardly use that ability anyway, as I favor damage, ink saver, or movement buffs on my shirt. Ninja squid does its job, which is to give you a slight edge in normal 1v1 situations where you can swim strafe, and to let you ambush people close to your turf.

Maybe not be competitive because most squads have at least one echo, but in solo queue or turf war, it is a fine ability (I realize this is the competitive forum...).

 

[SquiliamTentacles]

I find it less useful for ambushes, and more for retreating. Ninja Squid makes it near impossible for opponents to track you, allowing you to escape unfavorable conformations easier.

 

[karl childers]

I use it on the octobrush nouveau with stacked swim speed (1 main & 9 subs) and its one of my favorite load-outs for that weapon. As others have said, the ability helps with allowing you to strafe from side to side without the opponent seeing you which allows you to pounce on enemies from unexpected angles. This type of fighting is most effective with weapons that have wide ink spread (i.e. brushes, rollers, tri-slosher) and surrounding yourself with your ink. So this niche ability melds perfectly with weapons that are good for establishing stage control (brushes). It's also a great for sneaking up on opponents in the middle of cross-fire between them & your teammates and for sneaking up on chargers who are not as conscientious about a trail of enemy ink being near them. Its great for retreating too. You have the ability to practically vanish into your ink once an opponent begins to fire at you. And it is a very hard counter to krakens. Not only can you easily swim out of the way of krakens but, with enough swim speed ups, you can swim right up along side them without them having a clue! There is a lot of great things you can get away with when using ninja squid but you must always read the situation in advance. If you see enemy blobs of ink in your way and you can't swim around them, you should know in advance that the sneaky swimming thing aint gonna work. But for those moments where it does work, it's highly satisfying.

Aside from the enormous speed reduction (which can be amended with swim speed up), the biggest problem of ninja squid are echolocators. Echolocators are not really a death sentence for mid to long-range weapons, but they can be very problematic for short-range weapons. Echolocators are not just bad for ninja squid. They're bad for virtually ANY load-out for a short-range weapon that doesn't have cold-blooded. The best you can probably do is try to save your specials for when you get located. If you don't have one ready then focus on playing defensively and spam bombs as best as you can if you have them or alternatively race over to an uninked area to charge up your special. It is definitely going to be an uphill struggle, but you can probably get through a match if it's just one enemy using it. But if there's 2 enemies spamming echolocators then it's pretty much over. You might as well just put the controller down. However if there was one short-range weapon that I think could really pull off ninja squid in the face of echolocators it would be the carbon roller. And that's largely by virtue of having burst bombs which are easy to spam.

 

[Elecmaw]

So I just played for awhile with ninja squid for the nostalgia, and it was noticeably easier to escape people and swim strafe. Sure, echolocator ruins your day, but do you ONLY run builds with cold-blooded?

Sadly, yes. While not every match will have echo/sensors/haunt, getting tracked for 14 seconds is disastrous and makes pushing/defending far too dangerous, while CB effectively shortens it to a mealy 4 seconds. It's so much worse when an E-Liter pops it and can pin you down for 14 seconds.

 

[karl childers]

Sadly, yes. While not every match will have echo/sensors/haunt, getting tracked for 14 seconds is disastrous and makes pushing/defending far too dangerous, while CB effectively shortens it to a mealy 4 seconds. It's so much worse when an E-Liter pops it and can pin you down for 14 seconds.

I kind of agree. As great as NS is, it's nearly impossible to get consistently good results with it and it's all because of one damn special. So from a competitive stand point, CB is probably the best way to go. It's really disappointing that the weapons that could benefit the most from NS are simultaneously punished the hardest from echolocator. This is just one of the many design flaws of an otherwise great game. Until at least one of the 2 abilities is available on headgear and/or shoes NS will never truely shine in the competitive scene.

 

[SupaTim]

Most sploosh and tentatek builds that I've seen don't run cold-blooded. Granted, they don't run ninja squid either, but I just don't see every player on a competitive team running cold-blooded EVERY match. I mean, a lot do, but it certainly isn't considered mandatory.

 

[atom8bit]

I make excellent use of this in Turf War. It's not as viable in ranked, I think, but could come into use.
I do use 3 swim speed ups on my gear, as well.

For the record, I'm a brush player, too, if that matters, so some level of sneaking when I want a kill is desirable.