Splatoon 4 Specials Part 1 - Returning

[OnePotWonder]

As it turns out, it's a fool's errand to try and come up with a new game's worth of special weapons all at once. This will be the first thread in a series of threads detailing my ideas for Splatoon 4's special weapon roster. Starting simple, we have the special weapons that would be returning with too few changes to constitute a re-name. Without further ado:

Crab Tank, Zipcaster, Inkjet
No changes.

These two specials would both return in Splatoon 4 with no changes. While they may have minor flaws, neither of them are worth me putting in the effort to come up with ways to fix them. I looked up Zipcaster's armor and it's actually fairly intuitive; it reduces incoming damage by 100, making the user only vulnerable to heavy attacks. When the armor doesn't work, it's almost always due to lag, which is a separate issue. I would have liked like to replace Inkjet, but it's impossible to come up with something better than it.
I would bring back Inkjet, but due to its similarities to Zipcaster, I would rather replace it. I may have an idea for something as good as Inkjet, but bringing the special back may just end up being the best choice.

Wave Breaker
Now produces up to five waves.
Waves are 50% larger and reach slightly higher.

Wave Breaker receives a couple of important buffs in order to have more of an impact, and over a longer period of time. Wave Breaker is one of the best special designs in the series that ended up being unfortunately underpowered, and it deserves another chance.

Super Chump
An extra-large chump always lands at the center of the targeted area.
The "super duper chump" has 150 HP, double the blast radius of a normal chump, and deals 180 direct damage, 70 indirect.

Super Chump is a fun special, and this buff makes it even more fun. Does the enemy team focus on the lesser chumps and leave the big one, or do they spend time breaking the super duper chump and let more of the others detonate? It can also now be used as a way to disrupt backline weapons, with its new actually precise targeting. I love this idea and have been waiting months to share it.

Kraken Royale
Now has 800 HP of armor; the special ends early if the armor is broken.
Movement, turning, and jumping speed all increased by 10%.

You're kidding yourself if you think Kraken Royale isn't an awesome special. Is it balanced? No, but that's not a death sentence. With a hefty-but-not-unbreakable amount of armor and faster movement speed, the newly rebalanced special gives both the user and the enemy team more options.

Kraken Royale will not be returning because I have a better idea that recycles some of its mechanics. Stay tuned.

Bubble Blower
The user can no longer use sub weapons while using the special.
Maximum bubble duration decreased to 9 seconds (from 14).

A brilliant special weapon from Splatoon 2 that balances offense and defense by creating three explosive shields. It got a bad reputation from an instant explosion combo allowing it to be used as a short-range nuclear bomb. I fixed that part of it, mostly. The special would fit much better in a different environment from Splatoon 2, hence why I suggest it return.


Thanks for your time, thanks for reading.
If you have any comments, feel free to share them. Criticism will be taken, as long as it's constructive.
The next instalment of this series will cover a few ideas for new and reworked displacement specials.
In the meantime, have a wonderful day.

 

[Algae]

Heh, that Kraken's now a Baller with squid movement. And without Reefslider's explosion. (Eh, can do either way.)

Could Wave Breaker do with pairs of waves at different speeds? Think it's still too simple to jump over them otherwise?

As for Super Chump... it fails to confuse Super Jump campers, and it doesn't hold any real control of space like inkstrike-esque displacement specials do. As for disrupting the backline weapon... you can do the same with Zooka or Tristrike or Crab or Zipcaster, maybe a mere Torpedo if your cards are placed right. The super duper chump mitigates the issue of chumps appearing in unimportant spaces, but I don't understand what makes this special's design interesting or engaging. Besides, many weapons could break the big one in half a second; the frontline might not be enough to deny that little downtime.

 

[Catloafman]

Something I would like to add to chumps is a lock on feature to teammates so if you press a different button (say L) it will lock onto the closest teammate you are aiming at and it will automatically make you super jump to that teammate at the same time of the chumps (launching chumps with ZR remains unchanged)
That way chumps are much easier to use as decoys but I like your change too

 

[OnePotWonder]

Could Wave Breaker do with pairs of waves at different speeds? Think it's still too simple to jump over them otherwise?

I did debate making its last two waves come out at the same time. It could definitely be interesting.

As for Super Chump... it fails to confuse Super Jump campers, and it doesn't hold any real control of space like inkstrike-esque displacement specials do. As for disrupting the backline weapon... you can do the same with Zooka or Tristrike or Crab or Zipcaster, maybe a mere Torpedo if your cards are placed right. The super duper chump mitigates the issue of chumps appearing in unimportant spaces, but I don't understand what makes this special's design interesting or engaging. Besides, many weapons could break the big one in half a second; the frontline might not be enough to deny that little downtime.

The thing that makes Super Chump more interesting than other displacement specials is that it's specifically built to work best when your team is actively fighting in the area they're launched. The chumps provide cover to the user's team, who then distract the enemies to stop them from being able to freely break the chumps. Sure, the chumps rarely make for effective landing marker decoys, but they're excellent at hiding an actual super jump.

And just because you can displace backlines more easily with other specials doesn't mean the ability isn't useful for Super Chump.

Something I would like to add to chumps is a lock on feature to teammates so if you press a different button (say L) it will lock onto the closest teammate you are aiming at and it will automatically make you super jump to that teammate at the same time of the chumps (launching chumps with ZR remains unchanged)
That way chumps are much easier to use as decoys but I like your change too

I mean, you can already do this manually by jumping to a teammate within the special's radius right after firing it. It wouldn't really hurt to add this, but it also doesn't seem at all necessary.

 

[QuagSass]

The not able to use sub while using the Bubble Blower part. Does that mean while you're actually spawning the bubbles? Or is it like while the bubbles are actively in the game?

 

[Algae]

The not able to use sub while using the Bubble Blower part. ...

I think while you still have the wand out (still spawning bubbles). This is meant to make any bubble combo way slower, but I would've just gave the bubble-throwing more endlag. (Also special power and stuff should have more prominently diminishing returns but that's for later)

 

[SAMICOM]

As it turns out, it's a fool's errand to try and come up with a new game's worth of special weapons all at once. This will be the first thread in a series of threads detailing my ideas for Splatoon 4's special weapon roster. Starting simple, we have the special weapons that would be returning with too few changes to constitute a re-name. Without further ado:

Crab Tank, Zipcaster, Inkjet
No changes.

These three specials would all return in Splatoon 4 with no changes. While they may have minor flaws, none of them are worth me putting in the effort to come up with ways to fix them. I looked up Zipcaster's armor and it's actually fairly intuitive; when it doesn't work, it's almost always due to lag. I would have liked to replace Inkjet, but it's impossible to come up with something better than it.

Wave Breaker
Now produces up to five waves.
Waves are 50% larger and reach slightly higher.

Wave Breaker receives a couple of important buffs in order to have more of an impact, and over a longer period of time. Wave Breaker is one of the best special designs in the series that ended up being unfortunately underpowered, and it deserves another chance.

Super Chump
An extra-large chump always lands at the center of the targeted area.
The "super duper chump" has 150 HP, double the blast radius of a normal chump, and deals 180 direct damage, 70 indirect.

Super Chump is a fun special, and this buff makes it even more fun. Does the enemy team focus on the lesser chumps and leave the big one, or do they spend time breaking the super duper chump and let more of the others detonate? It can also now be used as a way to disrupt backline weapons, with its new actually precise targeting. I love this idea and have been waiting months to share it.

Kraken Royale
Now has 800 HP of armor; the special ends early if the armor is broken.
Movement, turning, and jumping speed all increased by 10%.

You're kidding yourself if you think Kraken Royale isn't an awesome special. Is it balanced? No, but that's not a death sentence. With a hefty-but-not-unbreakable amount of armor and faster movement speed, the newly rebalanced special gives both the user and the enemy team more options.

Bubble Blower
The user can no longer use sub weapons while using the special.
Maximum bubble duration decreased to 9 seconds (from 14).

A brilliant special weapon from Splatoon 2 that balances offense and defense by creating three explosive shields. It got a bad reputation from an instant explosion combo allowing it to be used as a short-range nuclear bomb. I fixed that part of it, mostly. The special would fit much better in a different environment from Splatoon 2, hence why I suggest it return.


Thanks for your time, thanks for reading.
If you have any comments, feel free to share them. Criticism will be taken, as long as it's constructive.
The next instalment of this series will cover a few ideas for new and reworked displacement specials.
In the meantime, have a wonderful day.

BRO COOKED! I absolutely love these ideas! However, i feel like the kraken could be easily killed by sploosh, and like every splatling. do you have any ideas?

 

[OnePotWonder]

BRO COOKED! I absolutely love these ideas! However, i feel like the kraken could be easily killed by sploosh, and like every splatling. do you have any ideas?

Object damage multipliers and/or an idea for a Kraken replacement that I forgot about while writing this.

 

[isaac4]

While I do like the idea you've proposed for Kraken, I think it'd be better to use that concept for a new special.
The series should be moving further away from S1 in the next entry, though I wouldn't complain if Kraken did end up returning anyway considering how few kits it got to be on.

 

[OnePotWonder]

While I do like the idea you've proposed for Kraken, I think it'd be better to use that concept for a new special.
The series should be moving further away from S1 in the next entry, though I wouldn't complain if Kraken did end up returning anyway considering how few kits it got to be on.

I forgot when I posted this that I had an idea for a new Kraken-like special, expect to see it replaced in the next thread or so.