Splatling Appreciation Thread

[QuagSass]

It's been on my mind a bit now, but there really isn't enough appreciation for the Splatlings on this board of squids. So, I'm fixing that by making an entire thread about the single greatest weapon class in the entire franchise ever of all time and forever!
(This post is like 50% hyperbole. I just want to gush about my precious spinny guns for a bit)

So ~Splatlings~, yeah? They got fantastic range, the fastest fire rates in the game, fantastic DPS, decent ink efficiency and good painting capabilities. All while being quite mobile! What other class can boast to have such strengths? Even Shooters, the most versatile class, lack the range and fire rate to match a Splatling's onslaught of bullets.
Splatlings are so reliable. Despite the RNG, you can always trust Splatlings to hit their shots quickly and still have bullets left to paint half the map. The RNG in fact serves the Splatlings, being the thing that allows them to have good paint. Something that is a downside for other weapons, ends up being a strength for Splatlings. Isn't that kinda insane? God, these weapons are so awesome!
Fighting with a Splatling feels so good. They have good enough mobility and ink efficiency to hold their own in close quarters combat. Not to mention the fact that they can splat opponents so quickly that the fights tend to be over before you can even blink. There are only a precious few weapons that can splat a Splatling without trading. Usually it's another Splatling.

And yet, they're not the most overpowered class in the game? Indeed, Splatlings are so amazing, that even with all these strengths they are balanced wonderfully. Never drowning out any other class, always leaving room for other weapons to shine. The ever humble Splatling's goal is to help it's teammates instead of hogging all the glory. A true team player in this team-based game.

The charge mechanic. What is a limiting factor for Chargers, becomes a fun feature for Splatlings. Do you charge all the way for the maximum amount of bullets or do you only charge halfway so you can start painting and fighting faster? Every Splatling wants to use their partial charges for different reasons. Learning the intricasies of a specific Splatling's charge can be challenging, but is quite rewarding once mastered.
The charge mechanic works not only as a chance for other weapon classes to get a leg up on Splatlings, thus preserving balance, but also as an extra mechanic for Splatling players to master. If you were overpowered with no downsides, then the game would be quite boring. And yet, with this single feature, the Splatlings have managed to keep their power without losing the fun factor.

The fact that Splatlings have a charge mechanic has also led to some interesting variations on the class. Nautilus with it's chargehold and Ballpoint with it's charge-dependant firing modes are the two obvious examples. But even Splatoon 1 gave us a Splatling with an extra charge-based mechanic, being the Hydra Splatling (<3) with it's full-charge damage boost. Each and every Splatling has something unique to bring to the table, be it something simple or complex. The sheer variety in this class is mindboggling, yet somehow not too overwhelming. How could one possibly get bored of playing Splatlings? The answer is you don't.

I have so much more to say, but I think I'll cut it short for now.

But in short; Splatlings are perfectly imperfect. And that makes them perfect

 

[OCTöHEAD]

ti's been a joy to come to this sermon!

 

[youre_a_squib_now]

I have so much more to say, but I think I'll cut it short for now.

for now.

this is my favorite part

 

[QuagSass]

this is my favorite part

I'll add more to this thread when I feel like the boards need more splatling appreciation :)

 

[QuagSass]

Surprise nerds! Bet you thought you'd seen the last of this thread. Well if you thought that then clearly I haven't been glazing Splatlings enough. Time to fix that <3

Let's talk about ~versatility~ today. I touched on it in my first post, but let's get more in depth.

Were it not for the Shooters, Splatlings would 100% be the most versatile class in the game. After all, at their core Splatlings are just Shooters with a charge gimmick. They shoot normal ink bullets that travel the exact same way a Shooter's bullets do. For this reason, Splatlings are generally considered strong painters. However, Splatlings also possess incredible fire power, shooting their bullets much faster than the Shooters. This lends them superior slaying capabilities while still possessing strong supportive potential. And while their mobility is more restricted due to their charge gimmick, Splatlings are still quite mobile. Fast strafing speed is one of the key features of the class! You can easily hold your ground and dance around enemy fire with a Splatling. And if things get really dicey? Well you can bunny hop to safety similarly to a Shooter, if not quite as fast. A good Splatling player can rival an Inkbrush in how slippery they are.

To aid with their mobility, Splatlings are also very ink-efficient all things considered. It's not often that you will run into a situation where you feel like you run out of ink at a critical moment. The only Splatling that could be considered ink-hungry is the Hydra Splatling, but that gun makes up for it by being the single most threatening weapon in the game when fully charged. The one weapon that can comfortably win a 1v4. The one weapon that can, in theory, solo an enemy team twice in one charge.

Of course with what I just said you might think that Splatlings are just a jack of all trades, master of none. But what Splatlings truly excels at is long-lasting pressure. Splatlings keep up paint control and push away anything shorter ranged than themselves while their fire lasts. And there's a lot of weapons that are short-ranged compared to Splatlings.
Even when they're not actively firing, approaching a Splatling head on is a death sentence since they can unleash their partials at any time without worry. A Splatling that is in position is always a threat. Always something that has to be treated with respect.

I haven't talked about kits yet and that is for good reason. I wanted to highlight how capable Splatlings are on their own. Really they're so amazing they don't even need a kit to be strong and adaptable!
Not that having a kit hurts...
But even when looking at kits you can see that the main is the star here. And yeah, that's technically true for all weapons, but I feel like for Splatlings especially the kits are there to highlight the main.
Heavy Splatling and Nautilus 47 are good examples of this. Sprinkler and Wavebreaker extend vHeavy's uptime drastically while also working as meatshields when used well. And Naut 47 has a cheap sub that highlights opponents and an entry special that remedies the main's middling paint with Point Sensor/Ink Storm. What more could a slayer Splatling want? a poking tool, but ah well.
Looking at the kits on their own, they might seem rather weak but when paired with something as reliable and amazing as a Splatling they become so much stronger.

And Splatlings have such unique synergy with weaker/utility based subs, it's amazing. Ballpoint doesn't want Splat Bomb, it doesn't want Fizzy Bomb. It wants Squid Beakon and Ink Mines. Similarly I will never shut up about how Angle Shooter (Angle Shooter!) would be a rich man's Burst Bomb to Hydra. It's difficult to be dissappointed with kits when bad subs are good and good subs can work because the mains are insane.

Really, I think it says a lot about how amazing these weapons are that even with some nerfs, weaker kits and a meta that favours their counters, the Splatlings are still considered high tiers and some even see consistent usage at the top. It would take multiple nerfs specifically targeted to Splatlings to take these bad boys out. And who would want that? The answer is no one, if you know what's good for you ^w^

Splatlings are so awesome and you should use them all the time

 

[Mp3]

@QuagSass LOOK AT THIS YES

 

[solz]

Whoh

 

[QuagSass]

While I wont be able to play the Splatling-challenge this time around, I figured I could write down some tips and recommendations for those who are interested.

First things first, Flounder Heights is a bad, bad, BAD Splatling map. I still wonder why they insist on having it as an option for this challenge. So before you pick a Splatling for this challenge, it's good to figure out how to play on this map.

When I did play this challenge the first time it rolled around, I saw a lot of people picking the Hydra for this. Most likely people thought most range = best option. However on these mapmodes, Hydra is probably the last Splatling I would suggest to someone who doesn't normally play the class. Unless you're already comfortable with the weapon, it's gonna be rough to play on Flounder. Indeed, when I played this challenge, nearly every Hydra I saw were Struggling.

Edit or Nautilus are probably the best option if you want to have the smoothest time in this challenge. Both of these are highly mobile and can work around the vertical terrain of Flounder. Nautilus especially has an edge due to it's chargehold mechanic letting it climb the walls unlike the other Splatlings. Edit and Naut also have enough range/other tools to not get completely bullied by the longer range Splatlings on Undertow. With Naut you want to make good use of your chargehold and flank the long-range Splatlings a lot. With Edit you're better off poking at them with bombs and painting for special. You can use the Tacticooler as a makeshift shield to approach the long-range Splatlings.
The Mini Splatling is also a good choice, being yet another Splatling that can work on Flounder. However, Mini has a rough time going againts other Splatlings and needs to play more carefully. Burst Bombs will be your best friend on Vimi. And when you pop Ultra Stamp, I highly recommend just chucking it instead of using the rush attack. Even with all the changes to the special, Splatlings can still easily shred through it, even if you activate the special close to them. It's not worth it to challenge them, unless you just saw them finish their charge. Even then it can be risky, depending on the Splatling. Zimi can fortunately use it's Bubbler to enable it's longer ranged teammates, if you want to use that kit instead. Both are about equal in this challenge though.
The Heavy Splatling is a perfectly fine Splatling to go for if you want to have the range advantage over Edit and Naut. It's mobile enough to be able to hold it's own in Flounder, though it will struggle in defence due to it's kits. It's a generally versatile Splatling that should serve you well enough either way.

But hey! If you're interested in using Hydra or Ballpoint, go ahead and use them. Just know what you're getting into if you do. Both Hydra and BP will have a good time in Undertow, being able to use their range to bully the other Splatlings. But both will struggle in Flounder. Ballpoint does have it's short-range mode to fall back on, but it can't always switch to it fast enough.
For Ballpoint, remember that the vanilla kit's Fizzy Bomb is there to help it with it's long-range paint and to give it an option for the midlines. This will be especially helpful againts the Nautilus, as that weapon relies quite heavily on it's teammates to paint for it. Use fizzies to discourage it from approaching you. With Ballpoint Nouveau identify the routes that Edit, Mini and Naut like to use and plant your mines there. Unfortunately the Nouveau's kit is going to have a rough time againts Splatlings as a whole, though it is going to be very good at shutting down Hydra. Just be careful about letting Hydra fill your Vac as Hydra's fullcharge fire duration is longer than Vac's suction duration.
For Hydra the Custom kit is probably the better one to go for. Splattercolour Screen can block the entirety of mid in Flounder and half of the mid in Undertow. Ink Mines are good at catching the short-ranged Splatlings that are trying to flank. Booyah Bomb can be useful for clearing certain areas in Flounder, but Splatlings are very good at shredding it's armor so you need to be certain you're safe before you use it. Autobomb would be mostly used to annoy other long-range Splatlings, though most of them have enough strafing speed to not be too bothered by it.

Regardless of the Splatling you pick, maybe your games be filled with Undertow Spillway and nothing else.

 

[OCTöHEAD]

tips from the pro! thanks~

 

[QuagSass]

Wakey wakey, time for more Splatling talk!

A while back, an image from the Splatoon 1 days was shared on the Discord server for Splatling users. It was a simple chart of various comps and how they stacked againts each other. A notable point on that chart was that comps based around the Heavy Splatling Deco beat Quick Respawn/Stealth Jump + Charger comps.
And isn't that an interesting thought? If you listen to any and all talk about Splatlings in comp these days, you'll hear all about how Chargers shut down Splatlings. The moment a Charger enters the field, Splatlings wither and fade away. How can it be that there was ever a time where a Splatling beat a Charger?

Of course, S1 is a completely different beast from S3.
S1 Heavy Deco had the exact same kit as S3, but S1 Kraken activated frame 1. There was no startup.
S1 also had Damage Up to make Heavy better at fighting. But no amount of Damage Up or Kraken farming gets rid of the advantages that Chargers have over Splatlings.
Dealing more damage doesn't matter when the Charger can still one-shot you before you get in range. Getting Kraken doesn't matter when you get sniped before you can pop the special. Clearly there's something more to the matchup than just "Kraken go brr".
Not that I don't think Kraken didn't have a hand in evening the matchup. It's S1 Kraken, let's be real.

Now, I can't say for sure how exactly the Heavy Deco comp worked, as I wasn't following competitive Splatoon at the time. What I can say is that people really don't give Splatlings enough credit in the Charger matchup.
Sure, on even terrain with no cover, Chargers win 100% of the time. But that's not what the stages are like.
Some stages are definitely way too open, giving Chargers the advantage, but even those stages have some cover to work with. If a Splatling can get in range without the Charger's notice, they will win the matchup 90% of the time. And it's not like getting in range is that difficult anyways since Splatlings are pretty long-ranged themselves. And also highly mobile.
The Splatling's TTK is frankly monstrous and not charge dependant. If you pop up while they're even slightly otherwise occupied, you will splat them before they can aim at you.
And to aid with all of this, you still have your teammates! Chances are you have something with little baby range running around taking the Charger's attention anyways. They're probably throwing bombs at them and chipping the pesky sniper for you as well! With all these things in the Splatling's favour, it's no surprise to me that the Heavy Deco comp of S1 could be considered a counter to QR/SJ + Charger comps.

To anyone that might've tried out Splatlings and gotten frustrated at the matchup, I implore you to try moving with your teammates. You are a mobile anchor! Not a static one! Mix up your positioning, don't stay where the Charger expects you to stay! There's strength in numbers and the beautiful thing about Splatlings is how good they are at working with their teammates. Fight together!

But perhaps that's why people make the matchup seem so lopsided. Splatlings typically can't deal with Chargers in a straightforward/self-sufficient way. But I do think it's more even than people say it is. You just need to be a bit more strategic.

Put that fleshy, wrinkly thing in your head to work :)

I had another section about a different topic all written up, but that basically doubled the length of this post. so maybe let's save that for next time. Just because it takes me a bit to update this thread doesn't mean that I've run out of things to talk about <3

 

[QuagSass]

Hi, hi! Here is the other section I mentioned in my last post!
Today we are talking about bullets!

I know I've praised the power of Splatling fire plenty, but have I done it enough? Do you truly understand how broken a Splatling's rain of ink and brimstone is? The destruction they bring? Well, you will know for sure once I'm done with you <3

At their core, a Splatling's bullet is the same as a Shooter's bullet. They're the same shape and they have the same flight trajectory. For this reason, I'll be using Shooters as a comparison point a lot in this post.

But the key difference is that Splatlings are faster. So much faster.

You know Aerospray, yeah? The silly little peashooter whose entire thing as a weapon is shooting stupidly fast at the cost of range, accuracy and power? Yeah, that thing shoots a bullet every 4 frames.
Guess what? Shooting a bullet every 4 frames is standard for Splatlings. And they don't have to sacrifice range, power or accuracy. And on top of that we have Splatlings with the gimmick of shooting bullets even faster. And the one Splatling that shoots slower than usual? Ballpoint long-range mode? Well, first of all that's only one half of Ballpoint. Second of all, it's slower mode still shoots bullets just as fast as the Sploosh-O-Matic, the other baby gun that shoots really fast.

On top of shooting many bullets quickly, the bullets themselves also fly really really fast. Granted, for most Splatlings, the bullet velocity about the same speed as a short-range Shooter's. Interestingly it's also charge-dependant, you need to charge one ring's worth of bullets for the maximum flight velocity.

But there is one exception.

The Nautilus.

Because of it's unique chargehold mechanic, the Nautilus' bullet velocity is constant and not charge-dependant. But that's not all! The Nautilus' bullet velocity is also wicked fast! Moving at a rate of 4.4333 units per frame (funny splatoon number!). The Shooter with the fastest bullets is the Jet Squelcher, whose bullets fly at a rate of 3.36 units per frame. Nautilus's bullets could run circles around Jet Squelcher's if that's how bullets worked.
To say that Nautilus's bullets are fast feels like an understatement.
Nautilus can practically teleport it's bullets inside enemy guts with how fast they are!

But if they shoot really fast then the bullets are probably pretty weak, right? Well, kinda, sorta, not really.
As a general rule, Splatlings splat in 4 shots. And that might seem like a lot, until you realise that the sheer amount of high-speed bullets means that you can hit all 4 shots before you can even blink. And for the most part, Splatlings are always a reliable 4 shot. Their damage numbers are so solidly in the 4-shot range that only a substantial amount of fall-off penalties can make them drop into 5-shot territory. The only Splatling to have a weaker 4 shot is the Heavy Edit Splatling, and that gun happens to also shoot faster than most Splatlings when fully-charged. So the lower damage doesn't even matter! Amazing!!!

But even here we have an exception.
My love.
The Hydra Splatling.

Oh, what is there to say that I haven't in the past? Honestly, I should give Hydra it's own post in this thread some day.
But first things first, I should explain Hydra's gimmick, because apparently some people didn't know about it until I mentioned it some weeks ago. You know who you are.

The Hydra Splatling, when fully charged, is the only Splatling that can splat in 3 shots.

Roll that sentence in your head for a bit.
Think about Shooters that can do that. Splattershot, Sploosh-o-matic, Jet squelcher and a couple others.
Now think about how much less range they have. How much slower they shoot.

Do you understand how insane it is that the highest ranged Splatling can splat in 3 shots.
The Hydra Splatling is the undisputed king of DPS in Splatoon and there's only 3 weapons in the game that can even kinda compete for the title. And of those 3 weapons, one is Heavy Edit. A Splatling that was based on Hydra.
Of course there is a caveat to that monstrous DPS. Hydra needs to be fully charged to get that damage boost. But even without the damage boost, it's still a Splatling. It still shoots a lot of bullets really fast. You cannot withstand it's power unless you're a Tenta Brella.

And speaking of the Tenta Brella, objects! The Splatling's ability to destroy objects is what inspired me to talk about bullets in the first place.
Splatlings are good at shredding objects. But their damage multipliers againts objects are kinda lackluster. Splatlings across the board have a 1x multiplier againts objects, only exceptions being Brella shields and Booyah Bomb armour (0.7x and 0.6x respectively). Object multipliers are the one area that all Splatlings are the same in, not one is better or worse at eating objects than the others.
Even with the addition of the gear ability Object Shredder, the damage multipliers stay consistently meh. 1x multipliers turn to 1.1x, except for Super Chumps which stay the same. The 0.6x againts Booyah Bomb turns into a 0.66x. Yippee.

But despite the nonexistant damage multipliers, Splatlings are still good at shredding objects. They just pump out so much damage in a such short amount of time that having bad modifiers doesn't matter! Being able to reliably break objects without gear investment is why Heavy Edit is seeing more use in comp lately. Splatlings are good enough at breaking objects that with a little help, they are be able to force Splatanas into a stalemate when popping the Rainmaker shield. Hydra can even win a pop against Splatanas and even Wellstring sometimes if it can get a fullcharge going.
Earlier I said that Tenta Brella can withstand Hydra's fire. But that only applies to partial charges. Even the Tenta Brella shield gets eviscerated by a fully charged Hydra. A fully charged Hydra that has a 0.7x modifier againts Tent shield!

Truly a Splatling's fire is an unstoppable force of nature <3

Honestly the more I play this game, the more I understand Mr. Heavy Weapons Guy from TF2.

 

[solz]

Idk where else to put it so: i started using Hedit and have been cooking # splaltingsX

 

[QuagSass]

RAAAAAHHH I RETURN! I HUNGER FOR MORE SPLATLINGS!!!

This post was one of my rambles for another thread that I wrote a while ago, but uhh I don't feel like digging the other thread back up again so here we are. Honestly putting it here lets me be less objective and boring anyways :)

Today's topic is kits and more specifically, designing kits for Splatlings.

If you ask me, Splatlings as a whole got lucky. A lot of Splatlings got really good kits. There's only a couple of kits that people generally think are bad, being Vimi, BPN and maybe cHydra. But even those kits arent nearly as bad as the worst kits S3 has to offer. In fact, BPN and cHydra are some of my personal favorites.
And all 3 weapons have another kit that people find very strong.

Making a kit for a Splatling is generally pretty easy. Why that is the case is partially because the mains themselves are very strong and don't have as many needs as something like a short Shooter or a Roller.
The other part is that Splatlings tend to be pretty "disconnected" from their kits. Splatling gameplay revolves almost completely around the main. Where something like the Splatana Stamper or .52 Gal might frequently use their subs to help them fight, Splatlings rely mostly on the main.

After all, using your sub makes you drop charge! The horror!!!


Sub weapons in general are a very big "whatever" for most Splatlings.
You could give all of them Line Marker or Toxic Mist and they'd probably do just fine.
Since using a sub weapon forces the Splatling to drop charge, the sub should ideally be something that gives value over a long period of time. This is why you'll often hear about Splatlings liking deployable subs.


Special Weapons are what Splatlings truly care about, and even here they don't have many requirements. In fact, there s really only one thing that's really important.
A Splatling's special is ideally a one-and-done deal.
You pop it and then immeaditely go back to being a Splatling. Because being a Splatling is just that good.
Splatlings are your long-lasting pressure, your supportive fire, the enablers of your frontlines. You want them in the game at all times!
Long-lasting transformation specials rarely have synergy with these weapons.

So let's get into some example kits!

Heavy Splatling (Sprinkler/Wave Breaker)
vHeavy has basically everything I just listed above. It has a deployable sub and a special that keeps it in the game longer. I've praised vHeavy's uptime before plenty.
Sprinkler lets it keep up paint while charging or recovering ink and also works as a weak meatshield that's honestly more useful than you might think. Clever Sprinkler placements can also keep flankers at bay. A while back I used a Sprinkler on a sign to prevent people from sneaking clams through the little block on Museum d'Alfonsino! These things are so silly and they fit the Heavy Splatling perfectly.

Wave Breaker though. Putting this thing on Heavy was quite frankly genius. For all it's faults, I will never not praise Wave on Heavy.
It's instant activation, it locates enemies, it's an ink refill, it's a pseudo-shield, it does chip damage. The only thing it doesn't do is paint, but Heavy doesn't care about that! While this is a supportive special, it's an aggressive monster on Heavy.

The one downside of this sub/special combo is that it leans so much into the Heavy itself that it can't get the main out of situations where it struggles. vHeavy's one big weakness is that it tends to have a hard time in defence. It has no way to force itself in besides the gun.

It's a really really good kit. It's not quite perfect, but it's about as close to it as you can get without Heavy's ideal sub weapon.


Heavy Edit Splatling Nouveau (Splat Bomb/Crab Tank)
So you know what I said about Splatlings preferring deployable subs? Or that long lasting transformation specials aren't that great on them?
Haha, yeah. Based on those things, you'd think this kit would be bad.

Short-ranged Splatlings (Mini, Edit, Naut) are a bit of a special case. Splatlings are very good at bullying anything shorter ranged than themselves, but can struggle if they themselves get outranged. The more range the Splatling has, the less it relies on it's kit.
Edit specifically has plenty of other weaknesses as well. It has the weakest bullets out of any Splatling and it has the second longest charge time. As a result the Edit relies heavily on it's kit.

Edit Nouveau's entire thing is fixing Edit's range issue. Splat Bomb is purely a poking and spacing tool on Edit. Any other utility the sub brings is usually done better by the main. Edit eats objects, paints and splats just fine without it. But while Edit might not use Splat Bomb to the sub's fullest potential, what the sub does get used for is so, so valuable.

And then there's Crab Tank, oh Crab Tank~
It's a long lasting transformation special, which would normally dock some points. But Edit specifically being the Splatling Crab Tank is on is what makes it work.
Crab Tank is a Splatling in crustaceous clothing. That is what the special is at it's core.
Edit activating this special essentially just gives the main a range boost at the cost of nothing. The only thing that Edit really loses out of the deal is the ability to move up during the special. You can still reposition to an extend, but you can't really move forward. And this is just a positioning issue that you can fix simply by playing better lol.
There's a reason why I like to call this kit the crEdit, Crab Tank is that big of a deal for it. It fixes the main's range issue and that is the biggest hurdle Edit has to face in regular gameplay.

I wanted to give you an example of a bad kit as well, but here's the fun thing about Splatoon 3. There is no bad Splatling kit.
A lot of the ones that are mid or kinda bad are only like that because the individual parts are underpowered.
The actual synergy though? How the different parts work with the main? There's not much to complain about. Even something like Heavy Deco with it's odd Kraken has some interesting utility for the main.
That isn't to say that Splatlings have always had good kits, both S1 and 2 had their misses. Still it's nice to see that the devs have learned from their mistakes in S3.

Playing Splatlings is great because you can always trust the kits to be fun <3
And even when the kits are bad, who cares! The main gun is the star anyways

 

[SAMICOM]

It's been on my mind a bit now, but there really isn't enough appreciation for the Splatlings on this board of squids. So, I'm fixing that by making an entire thread about the single greatest weapon class in the entire franchise ever of all time and forever!
(This post is like 50% hyperbole. I just want to gush about my precious spinny guns for a bit)

So ~Splatlings~, yeah? They got fantastic range, the fastest fire rates in the game, fantastic DPS, decent ink efficiency and good painting capabilities. All while being quite mobile! What other class can boast to have such strengths? Even Shooters, the most versatile class, lack the range and fire rate to match a Splatling's onslaught of bullets.
Splatlings are so reliable. Despite the RNG, you can always trust Splatlings to hit their shots quickly and still have bullets left to paint half the map. The RNG in fact serves the Splatlings, being the thing that allows them to have good paint. Something that is a downside for other weapons, ends up being a strength for Splatlings. Isn't that kinda insane? God, these weapons are so awesome!
Fighting with a Splatling feels so good. They have good enough mobility and ink efficiency to hold their own in close quarters combat. Not to mention the fact that they can splat opponents so quickly that the fights tend to be over before you can even blink. There are only a precious few weapons that can splat a Splatling without trading. Usually it's another Splatling.

And yet, they're not the most overpowered class in the game? Indeed, Splatlings are so amazing, that even with all these strengths they are balanced wonderfully. Never drowning out any other class, always leaving room for other weapons to shine. The ever humble Splatling's goal is to help it's teammates instead of hogging all the glory. A true team player in this team-based game.

The charge mechanic. What is a limiting factor for Chargers, becomes a fun feature for Splatlings. Do you charge all the way for the maximum amount of bullets or do you only charge halfway so you can start painting and fighting faster? Every Splatling wants to use their partial charges for different reasons. Learning the intricasies of a specific Splatling's charge can be challenging, but is quite rewarding once mastered.
The charge mechanic works not only as a chance for other weapon classes to get a leg up on Splatlings, thus preserving balance, but also as an extra mechanic for Splatling players to master. If you were overpowered with no downsides, then the game would be quite boring. And yet, with this single feature, the Splatlings have managed to keep their power without losing the fun factor.

The fact that Splatlings have a charge mechanic has also led to some interesting variations on the class. Nautilus with it's chargehold and Ballpoint with it's charge-dependant firing modes are the two obvious examples. But even Splatoon 1 gave us a Splatling with an extra charge-based mechanic, being the Hydra Splatling (<3) with it's full-charge damage boost. Each and every Splatling has something unique to bring to the table, be it something simple or complex. The sheer variety in this class is mindboggling, yet somehow not too overwhelming. How could one possibly get bored of playing Splatlings? The answer is you don't.

I have so much more to say, but I think I'll cut it short for now.

But in short; Splatlings are perfectly imperfect. And that makes them perfect

Why so charge hold?
-The nautiler

 

[miso!]

Splatlings feel underappreciated, they bring fun play styles to the table tho! Who doesn’t love playing zimi (unless it’s REALLY not your thing)?

 

[QuagSass]

Somehow this has to become a monthly thing for me. I'm not usually this scheduled with my posts.
Not that I'm complaining, here's your monthly Splatling Appreciation Posttm!!!! <3
Granted this one is a little early, but that's just how generous I am

I think it's about time I start talking about the individual Splatlings, starting with the Heavy Splatling of course!
Don't get me wrong, I still have plenty to say about the class as a whole, but I've been really enjoying Heavy after the buff so I really wanna talk about it.
Did you know that this was the first buff Heavy received in nearly 5 years? The last buff was 4 years and 11 months ago . That buff increased Heavy's grounded accuracy.
So yeah, seeing Heavy get buffed again after so long got me excited.


Ah, the Heavy Splatling~
The mother of all Splatlings. The base spinny gun all others are derived from. The Barrel Spinner herself.
And what a fantastic weapon it is! Heavy truly is one of the greatest benchmark weapons in the game, in my humble and not at all biased opinion. If you know how to play Heavy, you know how to play other Splatlings.
Except Nautilus, but being different is kinda Naut's entire thing as a weapon, so it's ok.

The Heavy Splatling truly embodies everything I love about Splatlings.
It's long-ranged, it's mobile and so, so very versatile! And this is all thanks to it having the very iconic two-ring charge system of all Splatlings.
Indeed Heavy gets a lot out of it's two charge states.
It's 1st ring lets it quickly lay down ink near itself or contest a zone. The 1st ring also stops all peashooters in their tracks, one does not simply approach the Queen of all Splatlings.
The 2nd ring of charge meanwhile is the long-lasting area control mode, the specialty of every Splatling. And with the recent buff, getting to this state doesn't even take that long! Only a measly 1.2 seconds of charging and you're golden!
And this is to say nothing of getting to the 1st ring, which takes less than a second. Heavy can pretty much freely decide how many rings of charge it wants now, adding even more versatility to the weapon!

Heavy can play in the backlines like a traditional long-ranged anchor or it can fight near the frontlines like a midline weapon. It can bounce between these two states seamlessly, and which half it prefers to lean towards is dependant on it's kits and teammates.
All Splatlings can do this to an extend, but none as smoothly and reliably as Heavy.

Fun fact: the fire duration buff Heavy just got lets it shoot 4 extra bullets at full charge, meaning that Heavy can now theoretically splat one extra inkfish <3
Death and Destruction to all!!!!

But to be able to fight so fluidly, one needs to be ink efficient. And for how powerful it is, you'd think Heavy would also be quite the ink hungry weapon.
But nope!
Especially thanks to the firing duration buff it just got, Heavy is quite ink-efficient! If you read my recent gear update post, you'd know that I put vHeavy under a rather vigorous testing process. I wont get into it here as it's quite long. But in short: with some minor Special Charge Up investment you can get vHeavy to a point of never running out of ink. Whenever you would run out, you'd have Wave Breaker ready to top you off.
I put this gear set to the test in LUTI week 2 and we at WIPIP won that set in a solid 5-2!
Granted that set was capital W Weird, but still!! Heavy felt great that set!!!

Heavy was already ink-efficient on it's own but add this on top of that and the weapon's uptime skyrockets!!!

I think it says a lot about how amazing Heavy is that everyone just kinda agrees that it's a very strong weapon only held back by it's lack of specials.
If Wave Breaker or Kraken Royale ever became meta specials, Heavy's usage would shoot through the roof. But even without that it's still incredibly strong and more importantly fun.
For all it's faults, Wave is still an incredibly synergistic special on Heavy and Kraken lets you get in some positively silly positions. And this is to say nothing of the utility Sprinkler and Point Sensor bring to the table. And to me, that's enough <3

If Hydra never existed, Heavy would probably be my main. It's just everything I like in a Splatling, minus the sheer feeling of POWER that Hydra has.
It's so simple, but with enough versatility that you can really make it's playstyle your own. You can have your own flavour of Heavy with minimal pushback from the weapon itself. The world is your oyster with Heavy by your side!!!

All of this and it's not even heavy! It's a midweight!

Oh Heavy Splatling, you silly little trickster you~

 

[Shakqy]

We all know the L-3 D is the best weapon ever. This thread is irrelevqnt

 

[QuagSass]

We all know the L-3 D is the best weapon ever. This thread is irrelevqnt

I get this is supposed to be like humorous and stuff, but it just feels kinda rude.

 

[Shakqy]

I get this is supposed to be like humorous and stuff, but it just feels kinda rude.

It was not meant to be rude

 

[miso!]

Somehow this has to become a monthly thing for me. I'm not usually this scheduled with my posts.
Not that I'm complaining, here's your monthly Splatling Appreciation Posttm!!!! <3
Granted this one is a little early, but that's just how generous I am

I think it's about time I start talking about the individual Splatlings, starting with the Heavy Splatling of course!
Don't get me wrong, I still have plenty to say about the class as a whole, but I've been really enjoying Heavy after the buff so I really wanna talk about it.
Did you know that this was the first buff Heavy received in nearly 5 years? The last buff was 4 years and 11 months ago . That buff increased Heavy's grounded accuracy.
So yeah, seeing Heavy get buffed again after so long got me excited.


Ah, the Heavy Splatling~
The mother of all Splatlings. The base spinny gun all others are derived from. The Barrel Spinner herself.
And what a fantastic weapon it is! Heavy truly is one of the greatest benchmark weapons in the game, in my humble and not at all biased opinion. If you know how to play Heavy, you know how to play other Splatlings.
Except Nautilus, but being different is kinda Naut's entire thing as a weapon, so it's ok.

The Heavy Splatling truly embodies everything I love about Splatlings.
It's long-ranged, it's mobile and so, so very versatile! And this is all thanks to it having the very iconic two-ring charge system of all Splatlings.
Indeed Heavy gets a lot out of it's two charge states.
It's 1st ring lets it quickly lay down ink near itself or contest a zone. The 1st ring also stops all peashooters in their tracks, one does not simply approach the Queen of all Splatlings.
The 2nd ring of charge meanwhile is the long-lasting area control mode, the specialty of every Splatling. And with the recent buff, getting to this state doesn't even take that long! Only a measly 1.2 seconds of charging and you're golden!
And this is to say nothing of getting to the 1st ring, which takes less than a second. Heavy can pretty much freely decide how many rings of charge it wants now, adding even more versatility to the weapon!

Heavy can play in the backlines like a traditional long-ranged anchor or it can fight near the frontlines like a midline weapon. It can bounce between these two states seamlessly, and which half it prefers to lean towards is dependant on it's kits and teammates.
All Splatlings can do this to an extend, but none as smoothly and reliably as Heavy.

Fun fact: the fire duration buff Heavy just got lets it shoot 4 extra bullets at full charge, meaning that Heavy can now theoretically splat one extra inkfish <3
Death and Destruction to all!!!!

But to be able to fight so fluidly, one needs to be ink efficient. And for how powerful it is, you'd think Heavy would also be quite the ink hungry weapon.
But nope!
Especially thanks to the firing duration buff it just got, Heavy is quite ink-efficient! If you read my recent gear update post, you'd know that I put vHeavy under a rather vigorous testing process. I wont get into it here as it's quite long. But in short: with some minor Special Charge Up investment you can get vHeavy to a point of never running out of ink. Whenever you would run out, you'd have Wave Breaker ready to top you off.
I put this gear set to the test in LUTI week 2 and we at WIPIP won that set in a solid 5-2!
Granted that set was capital W Weird, but still!! Heavy felt great that set!!!

Heavy was already ink-efficient on it's own but add this on top of that and the weapon's uptime skyrockets!!!

I think it says a lot about how amazing Heavy is that everyone just kinda agrees that it's a very strong weapon only held back by it's lack of specials.
If Wave Breaker or Kraken Royale ever became meta specials, Heavy's usage would shoot through the roof. But even without that it's still incredibly strong and more importantly fun.
For all it's faults, Wave is still an incredibly synergistic special on Heavy and Kraken lets you get in some positively silly positions. And this is to say nothing of the utility Sprinkler and Point Sensor bring to the table. And to me, that's enough <3

If Hydra never existed, Heavy would probably be my main. It's just everything I like in a Splatling, minus the sheer feeling of POWER that Hydra has.
It's so simple, but with enough versatility that you can really make it's playstyle your own. You can have your own flavour of Heavy with minimal pushback from the weapon itself. The world is your oyster with Heavy by your side!!!

All of this and it's not even heavy! It's a midweight!

Oh Heavy Splatling, you silly little trickster you~

We should not only be appreciating the art that is Heavy Splatling, but also pondering over how the weapon that was pretty much mid tier throughout S3 never got any main weapon buffs until now. Too bad they didn’t buff wave.