The journey from S to S+

[DawnDinosaur]

Last night I reached S rank for my very first time (yay!) and then I went to bed straight after haha.

My next goal is to reach S+ but I get the impression it's near impossible. I've heard the gameplay is very different in the S ranks i.e. the skill level increases dramatically, things are very, very fast. I follow Thatsrb2dude on Youtube/Twitch and I am always amazed at his gameplay, I don't think I'll ever be that good!

There's only one way to find out if my skills are good enough, but I'd appreciate some tips on getting up to S+. Are teammates in the S rank a bit more reliable? Even in the A ranks I noticed people not contributing by not going on the tower, not picking up the rainmaker in fear of being splatted etc.

Any advice appreciated. :)

 

[Jugglec]

The key to winning in solo is learning to play many different roles. Figure out what the gap is on your team and fill it. After about a minute of play you have to think to yourself why are we losing? Is the sniper shutting us out? Are we constantly getting flanked? Find the problem and be the one to fix it. That is how you carry a team. If you are winning DO NOT let your guard down, DO NOT be contented with simply holding the splat zone or trying to keep the tower or rainmaker from getting past a crucial point. While you are letting up they are building specials. You need to push forward and keep splatting them before they get that bubble refilled. There is so much more that could be said but I'll leave that to the rest of the community. Good luck!

 

[SquiliamTentacles]

S rank is pretty large and inconsistent, there are great people, they are weak people. The fact is, S is both the dropoff for squads (mediocre players can be carried by good squads) and is much harder to escape as they halved the win/lose points in S rank. Be prepared to have to carry teams, and be prepared to have godly teams.

Since you can not control your teammates, the best way to advance is to better yourself. Think about the game more strategically and focus on surviving. Analyze your matches to see what you did wrong/right, and use that to improve yourself.

 

[DawnDinosaur]

S rank is pretty large and inconsistent, there are great people, they are weak people. The fact is, S is both the dropoff for squads (mediocre players can be carried by good squads) and is much harder to escape as they halved the win/lose points in S rank. Be prepared to have to carry teams, and be prepared to have godly teams.

Since you can not control your teammates, the best way to advance is to better yourself. Think about the game more strategically and focus on surviving. Analyze your matches to see what you did wrong/right, and use that to improve yourself.

Thanks for the reply, seems not much different to being in A rank. What do you mean by S rank is the dropoff for squads?

 

[SquiliamTentacles]

Thanks for the reply, seems not much different to being in A rank. What do you mean by S rank is the dropoff for squads?

If you play squad battles below S, you gain rank points normally. In S and S+, squad battles have no impact on ranked points.

 

[Gooling]

One thing I've noticed a lot in Ranked Battles is most players completely drop the fact that the more turf covered in your ink gives you a huge advantage. I got to S+ a lot faster when I began playing semi-aggressively, like not always trying to get the most splats and trying to cover the area where it's needed the most.
...not sure if I really helped...

 

[Skoodge]

The game numerically stacks it against you not to get from S to S+, you have to win approximately 2/3 of your games to rank up after about S 70, and more than 1/2 for the rest of the rank before that. Besides that, map control and awareness is significantly more important than splats, and I've lost about 10% of my Splat Zones S+ matches, by just focusing on the zone, and controlling the area, and the enemies near it, I only splat them when absolutely needed.

 

[Gooling]

The game numerically stacks it against you not to get from S to S+, you have to win approximately 2/3 of your games to rank up after about S 70, and more than 1/2 for the rest of the rank before that. Besides that, map control and awareness is significantly more important than splats, and I've lost about 10% of my Splat Zones S+ matches, by just focusing on the zone, and controlling the area, and the enemies near it, I only splat them when absolutely needed.

There's a guy on youtube who's going from s to s+ fairly quickly! I dont even think he's lost a game, yet.

 

[Skoodge]

There's a guy on youtube who's going from s to s+ fairly quickly! I dont even think he's lost a game, yet.

Well if you win you can, but unlike the other ranks, you get only 4 points for winning at the end of S, and 6 lost when you lose, which means a losing streak makes it so that you will not rank up soon. I mean personally today I have gone from like S+ 32, to S+ 73, so its not impossible, S+ especially, depending on ranks on your team, I usually only get 2-3 from a win, and 5-6 for a loss.

 

[Ryuji]

One thing I've noticed a lot in Ranked Battles is most players completely drop the fact that the more turf covered in your ink gives you a huge advantage. I got to S+ a lot faster when I began playing semi-aggressively, like not always trying to get the most splats and trying to cover the area where it's needed the most.
...not sure if I really helped...

I do this too, dont think of it as something you would only do in turf war. If I can see that my team is struggling to advance/get the objective, it's because there's enemy ink everywhere impeding our progress.

Answering the OP's question, I recommend using weapons based on the map and rotation. For example, if it's Triggerfish Splatzones, I like to use the custom Dual Squelcher and NZAP. Dual squelcher because Killer Wail is great for splatting people on the long path leading to the zone, and it's also easy to get the zone in control because of it's long range. NZAP is also good because of inkstrike and sprinkler. Sprinkler is a great way to harass and get the zone with since you can throw it on the wall. Inkstrike ensures you can easily get the zone or at least stop the timer if it's in the enemy's control.
But other than that, I do recommend trying to get as many kills as possible, preferably at least two of the other team because that is half of the enemy team not in your hair anymore.

 

[Lil_Gonz]

I'm not the type of person that has good advise, but being in S and S+ is a struggle. Personally it didn't take too long for me to get to S rank, but how I usually play defensive in terms of playing rainmaker for example, protecting a teammate from others, same goes for tower control. Other times I will play offensive and go out for blood, but honestly its up to you and how you wanna use your play style in game to carry your team to victory. And also just learn from your mistakes from every time you get killed, and how you can make a better play.

 

[Kupo]

I'm on my way to the transition from S to S+ myself, and I think something that really helps is that once you reach S, wait for a little while and practice in Squad Battles until you feel comfortable trying Solo Ranked again and surviving in it. I personally prefer to keep practicing in squads until I can make it all the way to S+ in only a few sessions. But, it seems that's just me.

 

[jsilva]

Just to add something different to what people have already said ...

Don't be too worried or concerned if you drop back down to A+, or even A. If you keep working at your own game you'll get back up :)

 

[chubbypickle]

i find once i concentrated more on having ink for a team to have options on moving vs killing in general my game became more consistant in s ranked

 

[Ink. Champ]

I'm S 4 rank and I'm struggling to keep my rank :( I mostly lost my rank due to disconnects. I'm just trying to improve and play as a good teammate... Hopefully I get to S+.
Also, since most people are S here... I'm starting a Kik chat Splatoon squad and it'd be great if anyone S rank could join!
Please be active though! Kik me at Nonotho if you're interested.

 

[stitchedwithlove]

One thing I've noticed a lot in Ranked Battles is most players completely drop the fact that the more turf covered in your ink gives you a huge advantage. I got to S+ a lot faster when I began playing semi-aggressively, like not always trying to get the most splats and trying to cover the area where it's needed the most.
...not sure if I really helped...

This, absolutely. Covering turf in ranked seems more disregarded for some reason. It's important because 1. you're creating pathways and escape routes for not only you but your team 2. you're charging your special up 3. you're preventing the enemy from progressing further.

I had absolutely no shooter experience before purchasing Splatoon, but now look at me - I've achieved an S+ rank. Please don't think it's near impossible, even if it may seem so. Just keep at it and don't take your losses to heart. Losses are an important part of the learning experience as they allow us to evaluate our mistakes and understand how we can improve. I certainly had my fair share of losses before I reached S+, and I'm sure a few other people had their fair share too. :)

 

[HypernovaSoul]

I've yo-yoed between S and A+ for quite awhile now. I've successfully avoided dropping back below A, but after all this time I have yet to ever reach S+. The way the points system works once you reach S is a bit wonky, but it can work both for and against you. You won't lose many points between matches, but you won't gain many either, so it's a real grind. When I hit S for the first time, one nice thing I noticed was that you're unlikelier to come across troll players and people who have no idea what they're doing. But on the flip side of that, as someone else mentioned, there are definitely batches of folks who just got lucky in squad battles and come off as unprepared for the S rank.

From my experience, higher tier matches tend to be either very intense, evenly-matched fights or total one-sided domination (most often just because one team has better synergy/is more willing to take the right risks in the right moments). I also agree less focus needs to be put on just seeking out splats, and inking large amounts of turf is more valuable than you'd think in competitive modes. A team with an ordinary advancement is one thing, but a team with a tower/Rainmaker advantage and a massive amount of inked turf in their wake can put seriously overwhelming pressure on the opposing team. Despite my comment about splats, taking out the opposing team quickly and early on has still been critical in every match I've seen. The best timing to focus on splats is the very beginning of the match. After that you could be putting your win potential at risk if you focus more on splats than actual advancement. That one guy you're frantically chasing down could be a distraction from multiple teammates closing in on the tower. Again, these are just my opinions/experience, hehe.

As for finally making it from S to S+, sadly that's something I have yet to unlock the secret to, which is frustrating because I've gotten so close. I start to feel as though my mains (Gold Dynamo, Octobrush Nouveau, Tri-Slosher) have a lot of poor matchups in upper tier ranked. The higher I get, the more Luna Blasters, E-Liters and Tentateks I see. Admittedly though I should learn to rework my weapon and gear choices depending on the mode and stage combo.

 

[Shalnark]

I got to S+ twice last week, although I lost it a second time. My main advice is to have good awareness, which includes making assumptions about where the enemy team is at any time, occasionally checking for flanks, and always knowing the state of the objective. I've lost countless matches by forgetting about the rainmaker for only 10 seconds or spending too much time flanking. Other advice I have is to try to avoid trade kills, ink a lot of turf when no enemies are nearby, and save your special during the last 30 seconds in case overtime happens. If your team ever gets shut down by one player on the enemy team, you should target that player for the rest of the match to keep that player away from your teammates as much as possible. The final thing I want to say is that you shouldn't think chargers are defenseless at close range. This is a mistake that so many players make. Chargers are usually at a disadvantage if you get close with a non charger weapon, but they can still get a quick snipe if they accurately predict your movement.

 

[Tuff]

It's real tricky. You can be great as a player but still lose a lot of matches due to not-good teams, which is the problem I always have (then again, I'm not the *best player* but I think i'm at least good). I'd say a big help is just learning not to stress about losing rank even if you dip back down to A, cuz otherwise you can get flustered and go on losing streaks real easy (happens to me all the time). Be a dynamic player in terms of which role you can fill. Help out teammates if you can, learn to prioritize correctly, know what you need to do at any given time, have good movement. Also if you're getting locked down it honestly does help to try and find ways to cover more turf and work your way around the lockdown. Space control is way more important than Splats a lot of the time so if you can, covering opponents space and making choke points is really handy if you're not pressuring them directly. Running away can be a good option if Splatting your opponent will not help your team progress in their goal, so keep that in mind too. Plenty of times I'll run away from an opponent in Tower Control or Splat Zones cuz they'll try to Splat me, and they're too caught up in trying to get me that they disregard the tower/zone and my team can take leads.

But yeah, it's hard. I've had S-rank matches either be really really close and intense, or really one-sided. But either way you just gotta keep at it and not get discouraged and just have fun, really.

 

[sammich]

i just started pushing into S recently, so i'm also checking out these tips seriously.

sometimes i lead a team and other times i feel like i'm bringing my team down, but after easily kicking back up to S after a long losing streak the other day, i've realized i deserve to be as high as i am.

what tends to get me is getting arrogant after a splat, trying too hard to get a splat i should give up on, or ignoring my intuition. by "ignoring my intuition" i mean that sometimes i get a feeling about enemy ink or notice some movement but then a huge, dramatic fight in front of me i feel like i'm needed more immediately there -- then that oddness turns out to be a flanker who gets a multi-splat.