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Grizzco Roller was the MVP of big run for me and my friend, that thing just annihilates Lesser Salmonids. My friend also really loves using the Grizzco Charger, he's a charger main at heart.
Ranking all the Grizzco weapons
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youre_a_squib_now
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OnePotWonder
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You're supposed to aim all nine arrows at the nearest Drizzler's face and aim slightly to the left to deal with Cohocks and Steelheads.
Forma
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Instead of a tier list, I've opted for a graph - it feels more appropriate since the whole lineup is tailor made to be great.
(Note that this isn't an attack on anyone who likes to plays these - I love the low skill weapons too!)
As demonstrated, I think we can generally categorize each weapon by where it lands on a risk/reward scale - more accurately, ease of use/efficiency. Normally, maps and team composition come into play, too, and while team composition is still a factor I feel like Grizzco weapons are designed to be map ambivalent.
Now, for some deeper explanations ordered roughly by efficiency:
Grizzco Slosher - if you've used it, you know why it's placed here. GSlosher requires a LOT to play well - positioning, shot counting, turf management, prefiring and good aim are all unavoidable parts of playing the weapon at all, let alone effectively. Some might argue that the other weapons are higher on the reward scale than it, but GSlosher's armor piercing shots put it above all other Grizzco weapons as the only one capable of splatting every Boss Salmonid type. These shots go through more than you'd think, too - splitting your team up on high tide is much less risky when you have the ability to shoot right through Slammin' Lid barriers and Steel Eel bodies. It is not the best option for fighting every single boss type, but it's easily the most versatile in that regard, with its armor piercing attribute only shared by one other weapon. As a result, a good player can be very self-sufficient; that's not to say teammates aren't appreciated because any other weapon will certainly make a GSlosher's job easier, but someone who knows what they're doing can shred bosses and move efficiently on their own. The learning curve is very difficult, but once you get the hang of it, it feels like you can tackle any situation the game throws at you.
Ideal matchups: Flyfish, Drizzlers, Steelheads, Steel Eels
Grizzco Splatana - The other piercer follows close behind, and it's not difficult to see why. 200 damage per swing with relatively quick swings, armor piercing and a crazy 1200 damage charge attack with a long lunge range? That's crazy powerful! It comes at a cost, however; this thing cannot paint to save its life. In the majority of cases, it will typically have the team support it needs to do well, but its extreme weaknesses require just as high of a degree of player skill to make up for it. You're surprisingly mobile and ink efficient, but poor use of that ink efficiency, poor spacing and not using your charged slash efficiently can do you in quickly. Play well, though, and you're nigh unparalleled at cleaning up trash and tearing through bosses in times other weapons can only dream of. More than any other weapon because of its unique painting weakness, GSplatana greatly appreciates team support - Steelhead bombs, Flipper-Flopper rings and Fish Sticks (its worst matchup by far) covering the ground beneath it can make the GSplatana's position precarious in an instant. If you have a GSplatana on your team, the best thing you can do for them is cover everything, but especially cover walls! A GSplatana can't make a retreat up walls on its own and will appreciate them as an escape option when things get dicey.
Ideal matchups: Armored enemies, lessers, Cohozuna, Megalodontia, Maws
Grizzco Charger - many players' pick for favorite Grizzco weapon in 2 that remains a consistent favorite for a reason. 200 damage per shot, E-Liter range, piercing and instant charge speed is crazy strong. However, it requires good aim and shot counting to reach its full potential - those 7 shots per tank really count, and it struggles to get around without a full tank. In peak condition you can shred bosses and lessers, but you'll be out of ink just as quickly. It's nowhere near as punishing as some other Grizzco weapons are - 1.5 seconds for a charge on a full tank in a pinch isn't that bad in the scheme of things - but to use it effectively does require you to use it thoughtfully. Team support isn't necessary for this one, but is obviously appreciated.
Ideal matchups: Anything with a big fleshy weak spot
Grizzco Dualies - having an explosive property is a huge boon in general and no weapon makes that more apparent than these. GDualies' incredible 9 explosive dodge rolls and surprisingly efficient ink use make it incredibly mobile, second only to the Grizzco Roller and about as lethal. Those explosive dodge rolls can even break Flyfish baskets if positioned correctly, which is the main reason it's above the Roller. Its major drawbacks come in its range and the learning curve around dodge rolling - roll carelessly and you'll take a tumble into the water or the body of a Steel Eel. Its usual firing range is pathetic, but its range after rolling isn't too bad and helps to deal with Steelheads. Because of this, I would say it requires a bit of skill to get used to, but is mostly an autopilot weapon after that. Since it has ways to deal with basically anything, it doesn't need team support but obviously appreciates it all the same.
Ideal matchups: Flipper Floppers, Fish Sticks, other grounded enemies
Grizzco Roller - The fastest steamroller in town absolutely dominates anything that dares to get in its way on the ground. Quicker than an inkbrush with the flick and control of a Carbon, and the trail and power of a Dynamo Roller - that's a recipe for a weapon that handily deals with anything grounded and makes way for your team to clean up the rest. It's not effortless to learn, but it's easy to get down - the biggest thing worth practicing is ink management, since an empty tank with a roller is often a death sentence. Its jumping flick feels more like a last resort option than something you're meant to use frequently due to its lengthy startup and surprisingly - as such, Steelheads and Fish Sticks are better left to your other teammates. As such, a team of these is a bit of a worrying proposition, but is still rather doable. Worth noting is that it shares the trick with Maws the Dynamo has that allows it to one-shot one without using a bomb.
Ideal matchups: Maws, Anything on the ground
Grizzco Blaster/Grizzco Brella - The first two Grizzco weapons introduced, they play a similar enough role to group them together. These are very simple one-size-fits-all powerhouses with quick firing speeds and good ink efficiency. The Blaster leans towards damage, and the Brella leans towards coverage. What else can I say, really? They're simple, they're not the best, but they're versatile work in any situation you can throw at them.
Ideal matchups: Anything squishy
Grizzco Stringer - The first to exceed risk without much reward, unfortunately, but not a bad weapon by any stretch. 10 explosive darts that are fairly quick to charge is nothing to sneeze at, and you won't find yourself wanting for range very often either. It has the highest burst damage in the game at an absolutely incredible 1500 damage on a full charge - hug something with this, and it'll be annihilated. The biggest weakness of the Grizzco Stringer, and the reason I rank it on the lower end of the efficiency scale, is its unwieldy shot pattern. It can be used from long ranges, but isn't very accurate past a certain distance, which can't be said about any other long-range Grizzco option. The deviation in its shot pattern plus its time to charge also makes it difficult for the weapon to escape on its own in a way similar to a GSlosher that's out of ink. A jump shot can help you get away, but requires a full jump, else you get a diagonal shot pattern that is rarely ideal. This weapon wants team support - paradoxically, 3-4 Stringers typically ends up okay, but any other weapon that can do ground coverage better is a nice thing to have. It really comes into its own as a King Salmonid slayer, however - that 1500 isn't too tough to land on the big guys.
Ideal matchups: Cohozuna, Megalodontia, anything it can get very close to
I'm interested in your thoughts as well - anything I missed? Any arguments one way or another towards any of the weapons?
(Note that this isn't an attack on anyone who likes to plays these - I love the low skill weapons too!)
As demonstrated, I think we can generally categorize each weapon by where it lands on a risk/reward scale - more accurately, ease of use/efficiency. Normally, maps and team composition come into play, too, and while team composition is still a factor I feel like Grizzco weapons are designed to be map ambivalent.
Now, for some deeper explanations ordered roughly by efficiency:
Grizzco Slosher - if you've used it, you know why it's placed here. GSlosher requires a LOT to play well - positioning, shot counting, turf management, prefiring and good aim are all unavoidable parts of playing the weapon at all, let alone effectively. Some might argue that the other weapons are higher on the reward scale than it, but GSlosher's armor piercing shots put it above all other Grizzco weapons as the only one capable of splatting every Boss Salmonid type. These shots go through more than you'd think, too - splitting your team up on high tide is much less risky when you have the ability to shoot right through Slammin' Lid barriers and Steel Eel bodies. It is not the best option for fighting every single boss type, but it's easily the most versatile in that regard, with its armor piercing attribute only shared by one other weapon. As a result, a good player can be very self-sufficient; that's not to say teammates aren't appreciated because any other weapon will certainly make a GSlosher's job easier, but someone who knows what they're doing can shred bosses and move efficiently on their own. The learning curve is very difficult, but once you get the hang of it, it feels like you can tackle any situation the game throws at you.
Ideal matchups: Flyfish, Drizzlers, Steelheads, Steel Eels
Grizzco Splatana - The other piercer follows close behind, and it's not difficult to see why. 200 damage per swing with relatively quick swings, armor piercing and a crazy 1200 damage charge attack with a long lunge range? That's crazy powerful! It comes at a cost, however; this thing cannot paint to save its life. In the majority of cases, it will typically have the team support it needs to do well, but its extreme weaknesses require just as high of a degree of player skill to make up for it. You're surprisingly mobile and ink efficient, but poor use of that ink efficiency, poor spacing and not using your charged slash efficiently can do you in quickly. Play well, though, and you're nigh unparalleled at cleaning up trash and tearing through bosses in times other weapons can only dream of. More than any other weapon because of its unique painting weakness, GSplatana greatly appreciates team support - Steelhead bombs, Flipper-Flopper rings and Fish Sticks (its worst matchup by far) covering the ground beneath it can make the GSplatana's position precarious in an instant. If you have a GSplatana on your team, the best thing you can do for them is cover everything, but especially cover walls! A GSplatana can't make a retreat up walls on its own and will appreciate them as an escape option when things get dicey.
Ideal matchups: Armored enemies, lessers, Cohozuna, Megalodontia, Maws
Grizzco Charger - many players' pick for favorite Grizzco weapon in 2 that remains a consistent favorite for a reason. 200 damage per shot, E-Liter range, piercing and instant charge speed is crazy strong. However, it requires good aim and shot counting to reach its full potential - those 7 shots per tank really count, and it struggles to get around without a full tank. In peak condition you can shred bosses and lessers, but you'll be out of ink just as quickly. It's nowhere near as punishing as some other Grizzco weapons are - 1.5 seconds for a charge on a full tank in a pinch isn't that bad in the scheme of things - but to use it effectively does require you to use it thoughtfully. Team support isn't necessary for this one, but is obviously appreciated.
Ideal matchups: Anything with a big fleshy weak spot
Grizzco Dualies - having an explosive property is a huge boon in general and no weapon makes that more apparent than these. GDualies' incredible 9 explosive dodge rolls and surprisingly efficient ink use make it incredibly mobile, second only to the Grizzco Roller and about as lethal. Those explosive dodge rolls can even break Flyfish baskets if positioned correctly, which is the main reason it's above the Roller. Its major drawbacks come in its range and the learning curve around dodge rolling - roll carelessly and you'll take a tumble into the water or the body of a Steel Eel. Its usual firing range is pathetic, but its range after rolling isn't too bad and helps to deal with Steelheads. Because of this, I would say it requires a bit of skill to get used to, but is mostly an autopilot weapon after that. Since it has ways to deal with basically anything, it doesn't need team support but obviously appreciates it all the same.
Ideal matchups: Flipper Floppers, Fish Sticks, other grounded enemies
Grizzco Roller - The fastest steamroller in town absolutely dominates anything that dares to get in its way on the ground. Quicker than an inkbrush with the flick and control of a Carbon, and the trail and power of a Dynamo Roller - that's a recipe for a weapon that handily deals with anything grounded and makes way for your team to clean up the rest. It's not effortless to learn, but it's easy to get down - the biggest thing worth practicing is ink management, since an empty tank with a roller is often a death sentence. Its jumping flick feels more like a last resort option than something you're meant to use frequently due to its lengthy startup and surprisingly - as such, Steelheads and Fish Sticks are better left to your other teammates. As such, a team of these is a bit of a worrying proposition, but is still rather doable. Worth noting is that it shares the trick with Maws the Dynamo has that allows it to one-shot one without using a bomb.
Ideal matchups: Maws, Anything on the ground
Grizzco Blaster/Grizzco Brella - The first two Grizzco weapons introduced, they play a similar enough role to group them together. These are very simple one-size-fits-all powerhouses with quick firing speeds and good ink efficiency. The Blaster leans towards damage, and the Brella leans towards coverage. What else can I say, really? They're simple, they're not the best, but they're versatile work in any situation you can throw at them.
Ideal matchups: Anything squishy
Grizzco Stringer - The first to exceed risk without much reward, unfortunately, but not a bad weapon by any stretch. 10 explosive darts that are fairly quick to charge is nothing to sneeze at, and you won't find yourself wanting for range very often either. It has the highest burst damage in the game at an absolutely incredible 1500 damage on a full charge - hug something with this, and it'll be annihilated. The biggest weakness of the Grizzco Stringer, and the reason I rank it on the lower end of the efficiency scale, is its unwieldy shot pattern. It can be used from long ranges, but isn't very accurate past a certain distance, which can't be said about any other long-range Grizzco option. The deviation in its shot pattern plus its time to charge also makes it difficult for the weapon to escape on its own in a way similar to a GSlosher that's out of ink. A jump shot can help you get away, but requires a full jump, else you get a diagonal shot pattern that is rarely ideal. This weapon wants team support - paradoxically, 3-4 Stringers typically ends up okay, but any other weapon that can do ground coverage better is a nice thing to have. It really comes into its own as a King Salmonid slayer, however - that 1500 isn't too tough to land on the big guys.
Ideal matchups: Cohozuna, Megalodontia, anything it can get very close to
I'm interested in your thoughts as well - anything I missed? Any arguments one way or another towards any of the weapons?
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Vidknight
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Roller and dualies are just fun in everyway a weapon that can basically go anywhere it wants to without no resistance is always a treat it only really get bad when the majority of enemies on the map is not on the ground which in my experience found to be rare
grizzco slosher while hard once learned is fun everything else in the fun tier is self explanatory imo
Stringer is strange I know what to do with it, it just that in my opinion it doesn't really feel all that impactful compared to the other grizzco weapons, but it can absolutely just shread kings so it got that
I don't hate the grizzco splatana but the speed and range make it my least favorite of the grizzco weapons still enjoyable to play with though.
I slapped this together in like 10 minutes so yea not all that deep.
youre_a_squib_now
Inkling Fleet Admiral
I agree with pretty much all of this, except with gslosher and gstamper swapped. Almost all of what you said about each of them is exactly what I would have said about the other one. In fact, since I feel like it, I'm going to rewrite those two paragraphs with the weapons swapped. All of the following is my actual opinion.
I don't think you're giving the splatana's horizontal slash nearly enough credit; this thing absolutely shreds cohocks and chum, and even smallfry aren't very annoying for it despite the weapon's apparent slowness. If there is more than one lesser salmonid, a dash slash will usually get you killed, but with horizontal slashes I can literally walk right up to a horde of cohocks and kill them before any of them get a single attack in. No walking backwards to stay out of range, just walking up to them and swinging the sword. It takes practice to get the spacing right, but once you have that down, lessers essentially aren't a threat at all until they're on both sides of you because the wide hitbox and ability to hit several enemies at once means that the salmonids can't really do anything to you except walk up to you and die.
Yes, the lack of paint is a huge weakness, and it's the main thing that makes positioning so important, but it's not nearly the deal breaker you're making it out to be because it doesn't inhibit its mobility much. gsplatana paints its feet easily (even if it paints nothing else), has good strafe speed, and is very powerful at close range, so it doesn't need to urgently swim away from hordes of lessers because it can just move around and kill them. The charged slash may be slow, but otherwise it's not as slow of a weapon as most people seem to think.
I'd love to hear a similar explanation for why you put gslosher so high.
OnePotWonder
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Both Grizzco Slosher and Grizzco Splatana are good.
Grizzco Slosher, I'd argue, is the better of the two, since it's able to compensate for its weak matchup against lessers with its AoE and effective ink tank management, whereas Grizzco Splatana simply cannot increase its range. However, the sword is much better at clearing space and its ability to one-shot anything with a charged slash makes it feel incredibly powerful. Meanwhile Grizzco Slosher's ability to splat any boss salmonid, with special techs for Fish Sticks and Stingers, no less, is even more awesome.
They both belong in the top corner of peak skill and peak reward.
Grizzco Slosher, I'd argue, is the better of the two, since it's able to compensate for its weak matchup against lessers with its AoE and effective ink tank management, whereas Grizzco Splatana simply cannot increase its range. However, the sword is much better at clearing space and its ability to one-shot anything with a charged slash makes it feel incredibly powerful. Meanwhile Grizzco Slosher's ability to splat any boss salmonid, with special techs for Fish Sticks and Stingers, no less, is even more awesome.
They both belong in the top corner of peak skill and peak reward.
youre_a_squib_now
Inkling Fleet Admiral
Gslosher doesn't compensate for it's slow endlag by having less endlag. It compensates with aoe and ink management like you said.
In the same way, gstamper doesn't compensate for it's lack of range buy just having more range. It compensates with its insane damage and long dashes, meaning it's perfectly fine with being right up next to things.
OnePotWonder
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True, but I myself am not fine with having to be right up next to things. I do have a bit of bias in favour of gSlosher due to it fitting more closely with how I like to play. The two are pretty much completely equal from a more objective standpoint.
QuagSass
Inkling Commander
gSlosher and gSplatana are two sides of the same coin if you ask me.
The former has range with no ink efficiency and little mobility.
The latter has decent ink efficiency and decent mobility but no range.
They're the same weapon, tailored to fit different playstyles. Do not separate.
The former has range with no ink efficiency and little mobility.
The latter has decent ink efficiency and decent mobility but no range.
They're the same weapon, tailored to fit different playstyles. Do not separate.
Forma
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I'll be revising that post to make it a better standalone post, but for the sake of future viewers of the thread: I screwed up and dramatically underplayed the Grizzco Splatana in the original version. I really didn't try to make it sound appealing whatsoever when it DOES have big strengths, and I knew that. Get proper sleep, kids!
A bias I was really trying to cull got its way into the GSplatana section. I tried to make the list applicable to SR as a mode in its entirety but we've spent the last few days in a big all-golds rotation, which is the main reason I ranked it so low (aside from failing another sanity check with a third party on that graph - that's entirely my bad). Under most circumstances you'll likely have the team support you need to see a high return on average - I stand by that affecting its ranking during gold rotations but under most circumstances it should be much closer to the GSlosher.
As is irritatingly often the case I found more points I wanted to bring up after I finished that writeup. GSplatana played well is definitely in the same ballpark as GSlosher played well, but I would still rank it lower because of one critical detail (at least, one detail I can verify for sure): GSplatana's inability to paint anything out of its range also makes it the only weapon totally incapable of team support in that way. Even other weapons notorious for being short-ranged like Sploosh, Inkbrush and Dapples cover turf passively just by moving and firing without relying on the coverage gained from defeated enemies. Unlike every other weapon, each swing is an active choice between fighting an enemy and covering turf. Other weapon classes, primarily Chargers and Stringers, have to make this choice as well, but in choosing to take aim at an enemy, both get passive coverage on the ground as well.
That unique weakness is a big reason I would rank GSlosher over GSplatana and is my big sticking point during gold rotations - it's especially noticeable since passive coverage is something the other Grizzco weapons are all quite adept at. It's admittedly rare even within gold rotations for the nightmare scenario I posited to occur, but if you're unlucky enough to get stuck with 3-4 GSplatanas on wave 1, that lack of passive coverage punishes mistakes much more harshly by dramatically reducing unintended safe spots to recharge or escape that we all take for granted when playing literally anything else. Even in the (almost comically) likely scenario in a 3-4 GSlosher team where every slosher runs out of ink at once, it only takes one recharging just enough to sling at a teammate to get at least you and one ally going again.
I've been writing this reply on and off for a while so I'm just going to call it "finished" here and reply again if I need to. I do appreciate the thoughtful rebuttal!
A bias I was really trying to cull got its way into the GSplatana section. I tried to make the list applicable to SR as a mode in its entirety but we've spent the last few days in a big all-golds rotation, which is the main reason I ranked it so low (aside from failing another sanity check with a third party on that graph - that's entirely my bad). Under most circumstances you'll likely have the team support you need to see a high return on average - I stand by that affecting its ranking during gold rotations but under most circumstances it should be much closer to the GSlosher.
I don't think I emphasized how well it performs in combat in general, honestly. When I revise that post I'm definitely going to remedy that because you're absolutely right: if something is in front of it, it dies.
This hasn't been my experience, but I do believe you on this one. I wish I could test a lot of this stuff to sanity check it myself, but alas, I have to go off memory and details on the wiki (no way I would've found the Maws detail otherwise).
As is irritatingly often the case I found more points I wanted to bring up after I finished that writeup. GSplatana played well is definitely in the same ballpark as GSlosher played well, but I would still rank it lower because of one critical detail (at least, one detail I can verify for sure): GSplatana's inability to paint anything out of its range also makes it the only weapon totally incapable of team support in that way. Even other weapons notorious for being short-ranged like Sploosh, Inkbrush and Dapples cover turf passively just by moving and firing without relying on the coverage gained from defeated enemies. Unlike every other weapon, each swing is an active choice between fighting an enemy and covering turf. Other weapon classes, primarily Chargers and Stringers, have to make this choice as well, but in choosing to take aim at an enemy, both get passive coverage on the ground as well.
That unique weakness is a big reason I would rank GSlosher over GSplatana and is my big sticking point during gold rotations - it's especially noticeable since passive coverage is something the other Grizzco weapons are all quite adept at. It's admittedly rare even within gold rotations for the nightmare scenario I posited to occur, but if you're unlucky enough to get stuck with 3-4 GSplatanas on wave 1, that lack of passive coverage punishes mistakes much more harshly by dramatically reducing unintended safe spots to recharge or escape that we all take for granted when playing literally anything else. Even in the (almost comically) likely scenario in a 3-4 GSlosher team where every slosher runs out of ink at once, it only takes one recharging just enough to sling at a teammate to get at least you and one ally going again.
I've been writing this reply on and off for a while so I'm just going to call it "finished" here and reply again if I need to. I do appreciate the thoughtful rebuttal!