The Effect of Infinite Grenades

[DNE]

A lot of people have been getting hyped about all the cool sub weapons, from the splash wall to the squid beakons, but in doing so we've overlooked the most basic of all: the Splat Bombs; your classic timed grenade. Splat Bombs have a lot of ink coverage and can damage/kill things caught in the blast. To top it off, you can have as many as you want, which in any other game would be completely broken.

Standard usage for this style of grenade isn't for direct combat. Generally you would be better off just shooting someone if you can see them. The strength of grenades is the ability to circumvent cover and force players to either make risky pushes forward or retreats backward that yield to you the better position.

In other games, your standard grenade if placed properly would always hit; player characters were simply not fast enough to escape from the blast. Granted you could move so that it wouldn't kill you, but being damaged and forced from wherever you stood was a game changer. Having infinite grenades in these games would be a mess. No one would ever have to take risks; just lob grenades at anyone using cover until they try pushing instead of retreating and you win. Of course, that doesn't mean your opponent wouldn't do the same to you, so now it's grenade spam everywhere.

Splatoon however has squid form, which assuming you have good ink coverage, will make actually dodging the blasts themselves less of an issue.

Splatoon also does a really good job of preventing spam tactics by making the cost of spamming any sub weapon fairly high in terms of ink. It isn't high to the point you can't use 1 or 2 (depending) in combat, but going beyond a certain number will definitely drain your reserves too greatly to be reasonable.

What Splatoon instead encourages is an extremely aggressive form of combat; everyone constantly has the capacity to push and jockey for positions without fear of running out of the sub weapons that allow you to do so very quickly.

And Splat Bombs carry another property compared to other games. They work as longer term area of denial. Enemies can't enter spots that you splat bomb until they shoot at it. Suddenly if they want to get back into their favorable cover, they have to spend a few seconds shooting at it, which is precious time for the other player to zoom up and get into an even more favorable spot. An even more potentially deadly play is throwing it slightly behind wherever the cover is; damaging them while cutting off some of or all of their retreat vectors.

With multiple potential throw plays, you can probably see how constantly having to concern yourself with them, plus ink consumption, and ink coverage, will create very interesting high level firefights.

All of the various sub weapons can have some serious impact on the battlefield, but something should still be said for what may very well be the most useful/versatile.

 

[SpecialtySake]

Agreed! The game has a lot going for it in terms of quick strategy. Let's not forget the special weapons, either!

 

[Trieste Sp]

Interesting overview of the Splat Bombs and it's potential in the game. The side and special weapons in the game opens up a lot of options for strategy.

 

[Gsnap]

Good observation. Splatoon is actually solving a lot of the problems I have with online shooters in general. Like how stealth in Splatoon is actually useful. And the subweapons are more useful without being overpowered. And you can get into actual battles with people.

The whole game strikes a really good balance (so far).

 

[Flammie]

What weapon you carry and what sub weapons you carry as well can balance and unbalance a turf war pretty fast or very easy depending on which stage is playing.
Having the ability of throwing junk over obstacles is an easy way to ambush an opponent, the amount of strategy invested into this game is definetely not gonna be mere weeks or months at least.

 

[Lyn]

I'm not surprised grenades are infinite, it makes sense. I think it makes them a lot more useful in competitive, yes. :D

 

[Astral]

I wonder how the Ink saving effects you can put on gear will affect the amount of Ink consumption there will be when a grenade is thrown, is it possible you could throw more than 1 without reloading ink?

 

[Pivi]

I wonder how the Ink saving effects you can put on gear will affect the amount of Ink consumption there will be when a grenade is thrown, is it possible you could throw more than 1 without reloading ink?

I think the max you can do is 2 grenades and still have a sliver of ink left, Bombs at least 3, but with an Ink Saver Sub perk and its stacks, the possibilities are endless.

 

[OrenjiBoy135]

Man, people are eventually going to create guidelines of the best weapon sets for each type.....

 

[StormPhrax]

You can see here that ranked battles are very close quarters so infinite grenades would just add to the fun/chaos really.

 

[RespawningJesus]

Man, people are eventually going to create guidelines of the best weapon sets for each type.....

Welcome to any game ever. There will always be a "best thing to go to."

 

[Hi_C]

I think the beauty of this game is that it's design kind of deals with a lot of the classic tactics that many shooters struggle with. Being able to go in Squid Form really makes rushing not that good at all, and you can hardly rush in this because the map is also a hazard at times. Grenade spam isn't as bad either since not every class has them. Each weapon has inherent strengths and weaknesses. This game has a deceptive amount of depth to it. Pretty ironic that a game targeted for younger children has more depth than a game that is apparently targeted for an older audience *cough* Call of Duty *cough*

 

[Flammie]

I think the beauty of this game is that it's design kind of deals with a lot of the classic tactics that many shooters struggle with. Being able to go in Squid Form really makes rushing not that good at all, and you can hardly rush in this because the map is also a hazard at times. Grenade spam isn't as bad either since not every class has them. Each weapon has inherent strengths and weaknesses. This game has a deceptive amount of depth to it. Pretty ironic that a game targeted for younger children has more depth than a game that is apparently targeted for an older audience *cough* Call of Duty *cough*

I Think that's the main reason why such games are considered bad, the only concept those games had was "run around and be the person that shots first, not being shot first", classic games like Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament provided a lot more than just run and gun, much more diversity, Team Fortress 2 is an obvious example of how Arena-like Shooting Games should be.

I've done all the testfires so far, and i crave more.

 

[Fightersword]

I love splat bombs in this game. While I feel they're generally less useful in turf war due to the nature of the game mode (they're not bad, just way better in other modes, I'd theorize), their ability to put immense pressure on a point immediately will always force opponents to either back up or circumvent them somehow otherwise. the opportunity cost they pay to have to back up is quite a lot in any gamemode with a basis on time. Just the ability to hold people back from a side or an alley or whatever for a few seconds using a bomb makes it easier to deal with other inklings and can make defending a bit more... systematic.

I'd say getting kills with them is less important, more like a bonus, but the ability to throw it over things as mentioned is great for doing so. You'll generally have to take them by surprise to kill them this or any other way with the bomb, so best not to rely on it. Plus, you can throw them right under someone's super jump to kill them as they land if you time it right, though you can do that with some other sub weapons too. That can help you get kills off of super jumpers you wouldn't ordinarily get, but if they're stranded anyway or you have another method to do so for less ink just as easily, there's usually not too-too much point, other than safety and style

 

[N7Kopper]

That can help you get kills off of super jumpers you wouldn't ordinarily get, but if they're stranded anyway or you have another method to do so for less ink just as easily, there's usually not too-too much point, other than safety and style

Toss the Splat Bomb at the right moment, then go bugger off and do something else. Suddenly, not only do you have a splat bomb, but some poor lummox on the other team basically has to wait 10+ seconds to respawn, rather than the usual 3. Safety, style, and efficiency! Work on your aim and speed, and this'll work at long range, too. Shooting them wastes time if you're there to see the jump indicator appear.

 

[Fightersword]

Toss the Splat Bomb at the right moment, then go bugger off and do something else. Suddenly, not only do you have a splat bomb, but some poor lummox on the other team basically has to wait 10+ seconds to respawn, rather than the usual 3. Safety, style, and efficiency! Work on your aim and speed, and this'll work at long range, too. Shooting them wastes time if you're there to see the jump indicator appear.

in splat zones that won't matter as much if you already have control (it still could depending on other forms of pressure), but still should usually be better. But in turf war it's pretty much always an objective plus, unless you then find yourself without enough ink to do something else you need to do.