Splatoon Veterans: Give some tips for new players!

[Hero of Lime]

There's a lot of great advice in this thread, pay attention any and all who may not be well versed in the game yet!

-In ranked battles, don't be a hero, if you are all alone in the center waiting for your team to return from being splatted, don't run in and try to take on the whole other team, wait till your allies are back in the fight to make a stronger push.

-If you find yourself in enemy ink, get out of it as soon as possible by inking the ground around you to escape. In the early days of Splatoon 1 and the Splatfest demo, I saw plenty of people stuck in enemy ink trying to walk out of it as opposed to shooting their own ink to free themselves. Try and stay only in your ink as much as possible.

-Keep an eye on the squids on the top of the screen. It's very important to know how many people are in play on both teams. If you are the only one left alive, play accordingly and try not to also get splatted. Your team may want to jump back to you, or you can at least keep the enemy team at bay while your team is returning.

-Don't overexert your ink supply, especially when using subs. If you throw a splatbomb for example, know when to charge in and get the kill, or when to retreat and get some ink back so you are not suddenly being fired upon with no ink left to defend yourself or escape with. Just in general, try to be aware of how much ink you have left.

-If an enemy comes up to you harmlessly and is flopping a lot between squid and human form, it means they want to start a squid party. It's up to you if you want to part with them or let the battle continue as planned. Be sure to see what your teammates are doing in this situation. If someone does the flopping right after killing you? Then they are jerks trying to get you riled up. Don't let them get to you.

-If you find your team is locking the other team in their spawn, and they are all there trying to rack up kills, stay towards the center. Not only would I like to not promote spawn camping, but if your whole team gets wiped out near enemy spawn, which is very possible, you being in the middle can act as a deterrent to the other team making a comeback, and your allies can jump to you if it's safe. This mostly applies to Turf War, as having the whole team down can literally win the battle if it's in the last minute or so.

-This is a bit of a weird, slightly long winded tip, but it has been effective for me a lot in the past. Sometimes, sneaking around in battle can really save you and your team, especially in a turf battle that is not going well. If you can get behind the enemy team into their side of the map, and they are all distracted, it's not a bad idea to let them stick to the middle, and cut off their roads back to the center, and inking a ton of turf. If your team can hold out long enough, you can then hit them from behind for some surprise attacks, and so long as your team isn't completely ruined, you can change the tides very well.
The short version, apply some strategy to turf war when things are not going well. You will find that even by yourself, you can really change the battle's flow if you play your cards right.

 

[ZEROrevive]

-This is a bit of a weird, slightly long winded tip, but it has been effective for me a lot in the past. Sometimes, sneaking around in battle can really save you and your team, especially in a turf battle that is not going well. If you can get behind the enemy team into their side of the map, and they are all distracted, it's not a bad idea to let them stick to the middle, and cut off their roads back to the center, and inking a ton of turf. If your team can hold out long enough, you can then hit them from behind for some surprise attacks, and so long as your team isn't completely ruined, you can change the tides very well.
The short version, apply some strategy to turf war when things are not going well. You will find that even by yourself, you can really change the battle's flow if you play your cards right.

I cant tell you HOW important this is, as I've turned the tides of battle so many times this way. This is by no means a weird tip- id say it's very important infact.

Be smart, be clever, be cunning...and most of all, don't be afraid to play sneaky. It pays off.

 

[Saber]

Beware of sharking, most rollers and some shooters will occasionally do this.
Sharking is where enemy will wait near ledges, corners or in their own ink to attack you, when you gain experience or have more range you can challenge them.
But the best thing to do is keep the area around you covered so it is harder to shark, give callout if you do get splatted and look for a better route if all else fails

 

[ThatOneGuy]

Even though there don't seem to be any "newbies" looking for advice in this sea of information, I guess I'll just say some more info I think is important. I've been playing since August 2015, and I played some competitive play. And I must say:

• Do not run for extended periods of time. (if you can help it) Just plain old walking is slow and makes you extremely noticeable for enemy players to splat you. Swimming in your own ink is much faster and only leaves behind ripples in the ink, rather than a body walking around.
• When you get a kill, make it count. Because the time you took to get a kill should be more justified than why you didn't push the objective for that time. And if your team didn't get anything out of that kill, then there was no point in wasting your time to get that kill.
• Try not to overextend into enemy turf. (I see so many players do this). Basically, do not set yourself up in a location where your ink is a tiny island compared to the sea of enemy ink. It makes you extremely obvious to find, and even if you get a kill, your escape will be rather difficult to pull off.

 

[the]

This is all great info!

I'd also like to remind players that superjumping isn't just useful for getting back into battle. If you find yourself outmatched or fighting multiple opponents, sometimes it's best to retreat as much as you can and superjump either to a safe teammate or to your spawn (not ideal, but superjumping to your base will be faster than dying and respawning). I honestly need to remember this sometimes myself, as I've gotten into hopeless situations and been chased around the map quite a few times.

And again, make sure to retreat before trying to superjump. You'll have to charge up for a second before your jump, so it can't save you if you're already being shot at.

 

[Danku]

I think this is a good thread just for general advice, and not just for noobies. We all forget this stuff from time to time. Well, I know I do.

STOP JUMPING! It can make you VERY predictable AND your bullets spread out even more, this is especially disastrous with Blasters. I tried playing with a blaster yesterday and i had a bad habit of jumping, and i missed ALL my shots cos they curved right around the enemies. lol.

a useful technique i found out for Splatoon 2 is getting Splashdown, then super jumping to an overextending teammate(shame on them!), and when an enemy comes to camp your super jump, they'll suddenly be caught in the radius of your Splashdown.

Also, don't be afraid to use your special to save your skin or just to duel somebody in Splatoon 2. the specials in Splatoon 2 are much less influential and game changing than the specials in Splatoon. Gone are the days where a match snowballs into an unstoppable defeat because some dude got a multisplat with the Inkzooka. Yeah, the specials in this game still have potential to do big things, but theyre much more useful in niche situations.

Also try not to hold on to your special for too long. A wasted special is better than a special you never used. I just had a match today where i had my special the whole time, but kept forgetting to use it, kept getting splatted (which took out half of the special meter), and never used my special once the entire match.

 

[ArrrCee]

I have a video with some tips for Salmon Run! Should help some new players. :)

 

[nintendomaster28]

Give gyro controls a decent shot before you write them off. I have seen a lot of people default to sticks right away, and then they later try learning gyro after they are used to sticks, which makes things more difficult to learn later on. At least try to make them work in the beginning. If you are still not comfortable, then go to sticks.

Oh, and mess around with different sensitivities, find that sweet spot that lets you aim and be accurate with no issues.

When I played Splatoon 1 I immediately turned off motion controls thinking they would be wonky. I decided to actually give them a try in Splatoon 2 and now I actually prefer them. Wish I had given them a fair chance when I played Splatoon 1.

 

[Spraylan]

Nearly every weapon in the game covers turf with w + m1 (or rather, L stick and ZR).

Everything except chargers. Your methodology is different, you paint in columns. As such, the fastest way to cover territory is fire/sidestep/fire/sidestep.

And yes, you are as responsible for inking turf as your teammates, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

 

[RealGSam]

If you are in the ranked battles and playing Rainmaker (and you are the one using the rainmaker) DO NOT GO BACK TOWARD YOUR BASE!! Try to push forward as much as possible even if it's only an inch or two. The closer you get it to your base the easier it is for the opposing team to win!!
Bunch of newbies don't understand this, and it is crucial to winning the game!!
Try to clear a path for your teammate that is holding the rain maker, that way it is easier for them to make it to the post!

You don't have to play every ranked stage (only if you want to) all you need is a B- on one of them to get to league battles! So pick your favorite ranked mode and go to town on it!

Dont waste your time painting walls, they are good to have painted but you only need a small sliver of it for you to go up. Don't forget that you can paint walls though, because if an opponent is near you all you have to do to get away is slide up!

IF YOU ARE SWIMMING IN YOUR INK FAST THEY CAN SEE YOU, IF YOU ARE GOING SLOWLY THEY CANNOT!!

I used to play on my husbands Wii U account, and beat the whole game very quickly lol
I'm a level 20 or 21 right now on Splatoon 2, if you have any questions I can help!

Also snipers are the worst- especially for turf wars, the game is to PAINT THE GROUND not kill people!! Lol

Happy splatting friends!

 

[TigerLilly]

I have been playing splatoon since August of 2015 and one thing I since playing splatoon 2 is how nobody follows the rainmarker. If someone on your team has it follow them and protect them don’t just assume there safe because they have it.

 

[Danku]

Also snipers are the worst- especially for turf wars, the game is to PAINT THE GROUND not kill people!! Lol

I'm gonna have to disagree.
a good charger user absolutely shuts down a team. A good charger is genuinely the scariest type of enemy i could be up against. If you get good with a charger, youll be a force to be reckoned with.

 

[Dessgeega]

I'm gonna have to disagree.
a good charger user absolutely shuts down a team. A good charger is genuinely the scariest type of enemy i could be up against. If you get good with a charger, youll be a force to be reckoned with.

This can go for ranged shooters as well. If there's a guy on the other team that some or all of your team has a hard time approaching, that's a serious obstacle for your team to overcome.

 

[Ansible]

Warms my heart to see that there are other duelist floating about. *wipes away single tear*

Good tips? I won't infodump in a single post, so I'll at least say this: "You'll only get better at the game by playing the game."

All the advice, tutorials, book learning and what-not you're given will be wasted if you don't go out there and put in the effort to use it!

 

[the]

I'm adding to this thread again because I've recently started using the heavy splatling (barely touched it in splatoon 1, but love it in this game). And I've noticed a lot of my kills come from people charging at me head on, giving me an easy target for a partially-charged barrage.

So my advice is:
Splatlings =/= Chargers

Splatlings can still kill with a partially charged attack, and can adjust their aim in the middle of it. They are not as helpless at close range as chargers can be.

Be sneaky, or use bombs to bully the splatling out of its position/give it something else to focus on before trying to run it down.

If anyone else has tips on dealing with or playing long range weapons I'd also be glad to hear them! Because like I said, I am pretty new to playing the splatling.

 

[Saber]

Actually here's a tip for those playing the duelies squelcher variant, you will want to dodge diagonally toward the left of the enemy.
Due to it becoming 1 whole dual squelcher you aim will be shifted to the right, so you want to make it so that is where you position yourself
You can also roll so you don't have to adjust (or y reset), but it is just easier to be in position ahead of time

 

[Danku]

I'm actually god awful with the Heavy Splatling in this game, i need to get used to it again. However, i USED to be a heavy splatling main back in splatoon 1 and i spent looooooooooooads of time with it. Let me tell you, I've gotten hundreds of splats from people charging me head on it's ridiculous. running straight towards a Splatling is a no go. Sneak behind them and ink their potential escape paths before going to splat them. Catching a splatling by surprise will make them panic and it doesnt give them many escape options as they cant quickly ink the ground at their feet.


Things like the heavy splatling are perfect for the current splatoon 2 environment, because you can range bully loads of people atm. a lot of new players too afraid to leave their aerospray/splat dualie comfort zones, and the heavy splatling has more range than it seems.


This is more of a personal thing but...god, i h a t e the Sting Ray, and I usually abstain from ever using it unless the control of the map is entirely ours. Too many times do i get rushed and splatted when I activate the dang thing.


I typically run lots of Run Speed Up on any Splatling, as the mobility makes playing any Splatling 200% more pleasant, and the extra movement speed really comes in handy when strafing or just covering turf, as you spend quite a bit more time in kid form than squid form at times.

tl;dr, dont rush a splatling, flank them. abuse long range weapons while you can because people still have trouble leaving short range weapon comfort zone atm cos the game is still young. The Sting Ray sucks. :p Run speed up and lots of it on a Splatling is a very good idea!

 

[Danku]

Actually here's a tip for those playing the duelies squelcher variant, you will want to dodge diagonally toward the left of the enemy.
Due to it becoming 1 whole dual squelcher you aim will be shifted to the right, so you want to make it so that is where you position yourself
You can also roll so you don't have to adjust (or y reset), but it is just easier to be in position ahead of time

okay, that's a pretty awesome tip, thank you for that. it wouldve taken me so long to figure that out. Im having loads of fun with the Dualie Squelchers but something felt off, Im going to try this out.

 

[Green Waffles]

If anyone else has tips on dealing with or playing long range weapons I'd also be glad to hear them! Because like I said, I am pretty new to playing the splatling.

Regarding attacking a heavy splatling:
Inking their feet is a great way to keep them from shooting you. Just be sure not not expose yourself too much as they can choose to be content with standing in your ink for a few seconds while they mow you down.

And for getting better with long range chargers:
Just as splatling's practice includes practicing those quick close quarter splats using partial charges a lot,
so to should the charger's practice include landing short range tap-shots/partial charges.

Nothing says "get better aim, squid ;) " quite like splatting a would-be ambusher with tapshots.
And they'll probably think twice before trying to rush you down next time(so be prepared for their or their teammates' subs/specials).

 

[Ansible]

If you're not shooting at anyone, it's okay to spray your splatling charge everywhere. With any weapon for that matter. It helps give you a wide berth of ink around you instead of a single line or lane that someone can use against you. Also, this is clunky to do, but you can sort of perform a splatdash with tap shots or mini-partial charges to get around quicker. And if you ever need to, you can cancel your stream just by tapping swim when you don't want to wait for the charge to finish unloading.

Regarding attacking a heavy splatling:
Inking their feet is a great way to keep them from shooting you. Just be sure not not expose yourself too much as they can choose to be content with standing in your ink for a few seconds while they mow you down.

Me: "Oh no~ my feet. Guess I better stand here and keep shooting you from outside your range. Oh and your teammate wants some too? Oh and look, after splatting both of you I'm using the rest of my charge to re-ink my feet and calmly stroll away. Doody~doot~doo♫"

And for getting better with long range chargers:
Just as splatling's practice includes practicing those quick close quarter splats using partial charges a lot,
so to should the charger's practice include landing short range tap-shots/partial charges.

Standing amid the moving targets can be quite useful in mildly approximating someone approaching you from different directions at different speeds.