• Welcome to SquidBoards, the largest forum dedicated to Splatoon! Over 25,000 Splatoon fans from around the world have come to discuss this fantastic game with over 250,000 posts!

    Start on your journey in the Splatoon community!

  • Hey Guest, the Side Order expansion is now available!

    If you're playing the new DLC, please remember to keep your thread titles spoiler free, and use [spoiler] tags for any relevant spoilers in your posts.

Weapons Ultramus's Splatoon Guide(WIP)

Ultramus

Pro Squid
Joined
May 29, 2015
Messages
103
I was planning on finishing this a bit more, but at this point I'd like to just get the content out there. Feel free to discuss my points and I'll add more to my rationale behind them. My tier list is a bit outdated now but more or less the rationale still stands. I simply don't have as much time to work on this at the moment as I'd like, I'll try and post more as I finish adding things to it, I still have a lot more points to add but again, I wanted to get the information I already had out into the open. ENjoy.

Introduction:
I am Ultramus/Mullin/GiantPanther, former competitive FPS player in Halo(CE and 2 mainly), Hawken(R.I.P),CoD2&4, and RTS in Starcraft 2(Zerg). Currently I'm a competitive player for Cyberbullies. My results in Splatoon thus far have been as follows: Ink or sink top half(Magic Squids), Booyah Battle top 8(SS-Jokers) SCL1 champion(SS-Jokers) and SCL2 champion(SS-Clubs), in addition to more recent results. I main shooter type weapons and occasionally splatterscope and slosher. I'm also one of the mods of R/SplatoonMeta and host of the SplatTalk podcast. I think at this point I've played enough of this game to share at least my thoughts on the matter, take it or leave it, argue with me or don't to your hearts content, but my goal is to throw these ideas out here and hopefully someone benefits from them.
I'm going to loosely group everything into categories based on how they associate naturally in my mind, I get that it may not be the most organized grouping but hopefully it isn't too difficult to follow.

Weapons: Weapons to me are defined into 3 classes: Frontline, Support, and Flex.

Frontline:
These are the meat and potatoes of any composition, and the recommended amount is generally at least 2, and can go as high as 4. Frontline weapons excel at applying pressure, maneuvering, taking and holding objectives, spreading ink and making pathways, and are generally competent killing machines. These are the midfielders and forwards of Splatoon, and I’m more or less convinced that a team without any would get face rolled.

Support:
Supports are as important in Splatoon as they are in MOBAs or MMORPGs, load-outs that fall into the support class are essential for maintaining map control, information gathering, suppression and intimidation through absolute kill range and generally act as a forward operating base to stage the rest of your team. Almost all teams include at least 1 support, many run 2, few, or at least few in my experience, run 3 or more. Supports are characterized by being extremely potent under ideal conditions, occasionally they may not be the best to get into that position or play from behind.

Flex:
For all those weapons that either don’t cleanly fit into one category or the other, can be played as either frontline or support based on build, or have specific niche uses on certain maps or circumstances. For many of us, Flex includes our “meme” weapons, those pocket load-outs that you keep up your sleeve for just the right situation. Flex weapons generally either excel at a specific task, or are jack of all trade/master of none weapons that may require inordinately difficult gear to complement. The variance here is enormous as is their quantities in teams, but conventionally I would say I see no more than 2 in any given composition, at least in tournament play.

Frontline Tier List:
S:

0.96 Gal Deco:
This should be obvious to most players, so I won’t talk much on it here, splash wall and kraken, combined with solid midrange and consistent 2HKO, the 0.96 Deco is a weapon that honestly feels a little too good in the current meta. I know of very few top tier teams that don’t run at least one of these if not consistently 2.

Tentatek/Octoshot:
Despite the nerf to Inkzooka, the Tenta/Octo still maintain a very strong kit, excellent mobility, DPS and coverage make this weapon a mainstay still in almost every team at the highest level. We no longer see entire teams of them but it almost always pays off to have one to press forward and secure those game-changing multi-kills with Inkzooka.

0.52 Gal:
The highest pure DPS and lowest TTK in the entire game(Albeit mitigated by heavy Defense build), average mobility, splash wall and the buffed Killer Wail make the 0.52 an effective weapon in all situations. This is my go to for tournament play in almost all modes. It has no maps that it particularly struggles on or any matchups that are abysmal for it.

A:
Carbon Roller:
Possibly one of the more underutilized weapons, many players are beginning to realize it has the potential to be incredibly potent. Burst bombs(especially with range ups) cover the space outside your roller range, Inkzooka is not only still potent, the Carbon charges it much quicker than other weapons outside the Aerospray MG, and as far as the weapon itself, it’s immediate kill range though short is incredibly quick and reliable.

Custom Blaster:
I’ll admit, it may be a stretch here to place this in A for frontline weapons, but I feel like it deserves it, the Blaster has enough range to manipulate the map in it’s favor, high damage, point sensors to assist your teammates while you are in the front, and Bubbler to secure multi-kills and keep pushes alive. Custom blaster specced with quick respawn is something to be feared, especially when you still retain the OHKO to capitalize on flanks in similar fashion to the Carbon Roller.

Krak-On Splat Roller:
Lately, people have been disrespecting this weapon and I’m not entirely sure why, it has excellent OHKO range, an incredible special in the Kraken which incidentally synergizes well with the weapon itself, and unlike most frontline weapons it has Beacons to maintain pressure on its own. With how prevalent Krakens are in the current Meta, it pays to have not only the ability to counter Kraken, but the finishing power of the Splat Roller when the Kraken ends. I still consistently see Krak-on rollers perform well, once people can counter them 100% this may fall out of favor, but right now it is definitely still an effective tool for taking objectives and securing kills.

Note:
The main difference you’ll find between the S tier and A tier frontline weapons is mobility and reliance on your team, all the weapons in S can quickly break past defensive lines or slowly press into them behind the security of a splash wall or special. The A tier weapons have a heavier reliance on your team either having map control or giving you pathways and jump points to maximize your kits potential. I am not going to talk about absolute skill ceiling or theoretical use, just going off what I have seen in my own games and those of other teams that are equally competitive.

Support Tier List:
S:

E-Liter 3k Scope:
I don’t think there is much argument with this one, the E-liters enormous range, OHKO ability, burst bombs covering its only weakness, having it’s primary and secondary benefit from damage stacking, and having Echo-locator to not only identify potential targets for you and your team, sniffing out flanks and any enemies trying to displace you, but also to refill your ink to continue laying down fire. There is a reason this weapon is thought to break certain maps(Moray, mackerel, arowana). It is a weapon that demands attention and is always a high priority target. If that doesn’t make a weapon worthy of S tier I don’t know what does.

Custom Jet Squelcher:
Along with E-Liter scope, one of the weapons that get tossed around as potential “Best weapon in the game” and that praise isn’t undeserved. The C. Jet is incredibly dangerous from its terminal range in, thanks to burst bombs and Kraken. It can make quick inroads past defensive lines for teammates to swim through, can take zones from far outside the range of opposing players, and has consistent accuracy to minimize the shot RNG that you can experience with other weapons. Couple that with range that exceeds all other shooter type weapons. This is the weapon that will suck if you do, but will play as well as you can just the same.
Splatterscope:
Trading range for mobility and charge speed, the Splatterscope excels at being the designated marksman of a team and forward operating base, while retaining splat bombs to cover retreat paths, spook people out of cover, and the splat bomb rush can quickly take zones, secure kills, and gain back map control. With stacked damage ups, the splatterscope can mitigate it’s close range shortcomings and maximize its periscope ability to counter snipe those pesky e-liters. The splatterscope demands much higher map awareness compared to E-liter and the decreased range means you will have to place yourself in riskier situations to control space, however those are all things that can be done, and the advantage is the ability to quickly pick apart whole teams.

A:
Dual Squelcher:
The Dual Squelcher is in many ways the most balanced kit for players coming from shooters that have an emphasis on midrange play, if the analogue of the splattershot is an mp5 the dual squelch is the m4 carbine. Medium mobility, average DPS, above average accuracy and medium-long range, the Dual Squelcher is the definitive jack of all trades. The versatility of the weapon itself combined with splat bombs and the powerful Echo-locator make this an excellent addition to most compositions. Often best utilized to control space, the weapon is just as capable of pressing into enemies or setting up and performing flanks. Depending on composition, you may find yourself in the fray more than you’d like, and while you can get away with it, against good players you will be out DPSed or countered by walls or specials, relegating this weapon being best utilized to support.

Heavy Splatling:
If this weapon had any other special besides inkstrike it would be S tier support. As it stands though, it is still one of the best suppression and control weapons in the game, however with the glaring flaw of being literally terrible at CQC. As a support though, with good positioning and good team call outs and map awareness, you shouldn’t find yourself being in knife-fighting range very often. The Heavy splatling is one of the few weapons that effectively tears down splash walls while being able to threaten the weapons behind them safely out of their range. It also has its own splash wall which not only can be used like normal to position and block out, but covers for the Splatlings charge time. This weapon much like the Jet Squelcher can make nice inroads and bully shorter range weapons out of lanes, and can easily dispatch enemies that are trying to press into your position. Overall, this weapon gets somewhat outshined by sharing a role with the chargers and Jet Squelcher, while lacking the better specials and instant(or nigh-instant with damage ups) hit potential of those weapons. That said, I have started to see more and more high level players use this and I foresee it gaining popularity and becoming something used in addition to another support as a complement instead of a primary.

Dynamo Roller:
The Dynamo roller is an area denial weapon with incredible OHKO range that demands attention and necessitates priority targeting by a team. A dynamo can often times easily get into OHKO range via swimming, and unless you have a bubbler or Kraken ready you are most probably dead. In most cases the best you can do is trade kills, and again, if caught by surprise, granted this happens with all rollers, you are just another casualty. It’s ink spreading ability combined with sprinkler makes this weapon excellent at both taking and holding objectives, especially splat zones, it also assists in charging the Echo-locator very quickly. There are not very many teams running dynamos, and maybe again this has to do with overlap with chargers, but I feel like this is more due to the Dynamo being a specialized weapon that few people use as a main weapon. A good chunk of players also feel this weapon is unfairly advantaged by latency and may fall flat on LAN, I’m not too convinced.

Honorable Mention: Custom Splattershot Jr.:
This is a weapon that is so underutilized and often overlooked, or simply not effectively used when it does get play, that it would be highly presumptuous of me to place it in either S or A tier as a support. However it should be noted that it is easily capable of being the ultimate team-assist machine, the caveat that I don’t necessarily feel that dedicating 25% of your squad to a kit that has nothing to improve its absolute kill range gives a better chance of victory over…to be honest…more or less any other weapon. That said, moving forward there may be a place for someone to stack bomb range and focus on disrupting enemies and building up Echo-locator, which builds quickly with the Jr, can have a place in competition, particularly on maps that are more close quarters such as Hammerhead Bridge or Warehouse(kinda). I look forward to seeing the first person to pull this off well making other teams throw their gamepads into a wall with frustration.
Note: The difference between an S and A tier support in my eyes is the range at which they can control space and their overall lack of exploitable weaknesses. A tier weapons are ones that again are more reliant on teammates and require more awareness and fewer mistakes.

Flex tier List:
S:

Splattershot:
The splattershot is a plenty capable weapon in its own right, highly mobile, decent range and DPS, and good ink spread and efficiency, definitely a weapon geared towards frontline combat. So why is the default splattershot considered a Flex in my eyes instead of a frontline like its tentatek brethren? Burst Bombs and Burst Bomb Rush. At max range, burst bombs are very close to E-liter range, and burst bomb rush is 6 seconds of high range, AoE damage that is capable of applying pressure, outright killing, and taking control of zones and areas on a weapon that can charge specials quickly. Bomb range isn’t the only way to build this weapon, however the fact that you can secure kills from extremely far in addition to using burst bombs for all the other reasons they excel, and having the bomb rush available for maximum burst output, plus a highly versatile weapon, makes the default splattershot the pinnacle of flexibility and deservedly S tier.

L-3 Nozzlenose D:
If we are solely basing our tiers on tournament performance, the Nozzlenose D would still be S tier based on the combined 3 tournament wins Wolf and I have gotten while using it. However I have not really encountered it on opposing teams much. The L-3 nozzlenose is, when specced right, one of the most mobile weapons in the game. It owes this to the peculiar function that you are technically running between bursts. Couple that fact with the short shooting impulse of the burst, and you gain what is essentially the highest movement speed while shooting in the game. Add in the fact that the nozzlenose has just enough range to best all the short range weapons in the game, and you can press into enemies or retreat step with impunity. The D has the advantage of being able to animation cancel with burst bombs and have the versatility of Kraken. I fully expect that many more people will pick up this weapon in competitive play moving forward, it may not be a huge frontline killing machine, but it is effective in a variety of situations and roles, coupled with incredibly survivability.

Forge Splattershot Pro:
Despite being hit particularly hard by the Inkzooka nerf, and possibly being the worst midrange weapon to deal with splash walls, the Forge Pro still remains a go to pick for a lot of very good players, and we’ll get into the reason for that. The Splattershot Pro has high damage, high accuracy, good range, and is cut short by it’s incredibly poor ink efficiency, as a weapon it isn’t unlike the K7 avenger from Perfect Dark, highly deadly with a small magazine. Point sensors are your best friend on this weapon, spam them indiscriminately to mark enemies for your teammates and to avoid walking into traps. Inkzooka is still as potent a weapon as ever and can allow you to target snipers or secure multiple kills on an objective. Once a frontline weapon, the prevalence of splash walls has made this more effective in a hybrid role, focusing more on information gathering with point sensors and waiting for your Inkzooka before you press in. I do expect this to fall out of favor if we see some other Splattershot Pro kits with better combinations, and there are fewer and fewer people running this in tournaments compared to the 0.96 Gal Deco, but I do still think it will have its place in the hands of those of us that want to play smart and utilize the point sensors and Inkzooka effectively, all the while retaining a weapon that as long as you have ink, can out-shoot most others.

A:
Sploosh-o-matic:
The ultimate CQC weapon, the sploosh has high DPS, high mobility, and comically short range, and occasionally terrible shot RNG. That said, this weapon spreads ink well, is excellent for flanking, can support with the beacon and Killer Wail, and can be deadly in the right hands. Again, keep in mind that the Flex weapons don’t get a lot of play, but can be game-changing in the right circumstance, and the Sploosh fits that bill. It has limits that make it hard to justify most of the time, but it can absolutely wreck the unprepared. It is really limited in usefulness by its kit at the moment, one with bombs or disruptor would be more useful in more situations. That said, the sploosh is the knife fighters weapon, and as long as you understand the limitations it won’t let you down in that regard.

Mini-Splatling:
This is one where I’m not quite sure if it is purely a frontline weapon, but I feel like it does enough at standoff range to be used in a more supportive role behind your frontline and before your main support. The mini-splatling is right now underutilized, it may be considered a stretch here as an A-tier, even in a nebulously defined category. It is a weapon that negates most of the issues with charge time the heavy splatling has, has the same range as a nozzlenose(which means it edges out Splattershot, Roller, .52, etc.), high DPS, and decent accuracy. It also has incredibly high run speed while shooting, which like the nozzlenose gives it an excellent strafe, while being slightly easier to aim in comparison. It has surprisingly great ink efficiency compared to the heavy splatling(You can get a full charge after throwing a suction bomb or vice-versa) which is a useful perk, and it spreads ink superbly, charging the Inkzooka quickly. I’ve played this weapon as a dispensary of Zookas with Special charge up, and as a run-speed pressure build, and it performs very well in both. It doesn’t require anything in particular so you can mold it however you want and likely still perform well. That is of course if you can tolerate the mechanics of the splatlings.
 
Last edited:

Ultramus

Pro Squid
Joined
May 29, 2015
Messages
103
General Info:
Before we get into the intricate details of specific situations, I’d like to paint with a broad brush some general strategy and information that is beneficial to everyone, and doesn’t necessarily just apply to splatoon.

Gauging a match and resource management:
In most games, decision making is intrinsically linked with information gathering and processing, a failure on one front almost always ensures failure on the other, and generally won’t lead to many victories. In many games you have finite resources that you can allocate only so many ways, normally this is more pronounced in RTS/MOBA/RPG games but it occurs in FPS too, and that resource doesn’t necessarily have to be some quantifiable unit in game. Your attention, FOV, and map placement are some resources that are often overlooked but play a huge part in many games, and in this case Splatoon is no different.

You only ever have so much attention to give, so that is a finite resource, you can only ever be looking at a fixed space at a given time, and you can only ever be present on the map in one location. It is essential that you consider these things when you play, as inadequate resource management is oftentimes lethal. If you’ve ever been flanked because you weren’t paying attention to someone sneaking up on you, shot from behind by someone who you didn’t see, or lost an objective because you weren’t close enough to contest it, those are all things that can be improved by always allocating those nebulous resources more effectively.

Splatoon specifically has various quantifiable resources that you also have to be aware of at all times. The most obvious is your ink tank, in Splatoon your ink tank is a communal resource between your main and sub weapons, and so you necessarily have to keep track of it or risk running out of ink at an inopportune time, especially costly if you are not near any allied ink to refill quickly. Your special meter is also a resource, how much you have and how long until it is charged are definitely things you should pay attention to, on the flip side, it is also essential you notice and call-out when enemy specials are charged so that you and your team can plan accordingly. Gear abilities can impact the balance of resources between teams, one team if using ink saver main or ink recovery up could have an advantage in amount of ink available in a teamfight, or could have a higher overall ink uptime over their opponents. Teams with special charge up and special saver will create a mismatch wherein they are getting more specials for any given amount of turf, and requiring less turf to gain their special back upon respawn. Creating resource advantages is subtle and may not feel particularly impactful, however I suspect this will change as people are more aware of ideal play and compositions and simply overall better at the game in their technical abilities.

Circling back to our opening here, information is also a resource, good teams gather, share, and process more information than bad teams overall. In many games, Splatoon included, you are operating with limited information, as opposed to games like checkers and chess where the entirety of the game board, and subsequently every possible move of both players is visible at any time. Teams with more information can subsequently make the decisions to use their resources more efficiently. A good example of this is waiting for a teammates Echolocator before using an Inkzooka or Killer Wail, you are able to get more out of something than if you had just used your specials without knowing where anyone was. Echolocators, point sensors, haunt, and recon are all information gathering abilities, cold-blooded, ninja squid, and stealth jump are all abilities that limit information. It is almost always the case that having better map awareness, better call-outs, and better information gathering potential will drastically improve your chance of winning.

We should also now talk about some peculiarities of Splatoon when it comes to this. First off, the gamepad minimap is
always a real-time complete map of turf inked or being inked, it will also show marked enemies. This means that you can see exactly where an enemy is by seeing them spreading ink, it also means you can see any enemies that are in your allied ink. It does not show enemies walking through neutral turf, and some people are beginning to use this to attempt covert ingresses into areas. When you are operating without knowing where the enemy is, Splatoon unlike many FPS allows you to rule out any turf you have inked, after all, if an enemy is there they will show up, not to mention it is nearly suicide. Ergo, the more turf you have inked, the smaller the area that potentially houses bogeys is. It also allows you to see when an enemy is cutting an ink path through your allied color. That said, you may be thinking that inking all available turf as quickly as possible is the ideal situation, which is not necessarily a bad idea. However once we consider earlier how we were talking about our special meters being a resource, neutral turf, and turf in general is a resource. If you have fully charged your super, spreading ink won’t charge it further, it may prevent a teammate from having enough turf to ink, and it could potentially be giving easy to ink turf to enemies with which to charge their specials.

Gauging a match can almost always be quickly done by looking at which team has either better information(teammates marked, greater ink coverage, ideal positioning, covering points of ingress), more resources(charged supers, higher uptime, winning in points, more beacons, available turf to ink) or a combination thereof.
Decision Making:
It isn’t surprising at all that decision making is, ultimately, what every single game ever boils down to, Splatoon is no
different, and yet I rarely see people put a huge amount of forethought into the choices and decisions they are making in game, I’m guilty of it myself, we just go on autopilot and play, hoping that we instinctively make the correct decisions as we go. This isn’t necessarily wrong, because it is through rigorous gameplay and countless hours of playing that we determine which decisions end up paying off for us most of the time. The trick then, is to know when and why a decision that you ordinarily make that is good can be terrible, or when some normally terrible decisions might be a decent idea.

The more we have positive reinforcement of those commonplace choices that generally work out, the more
problematic it can become when those choices start to put us behind. For me, this is when I see players go on tilt(Becoming frustrated and playing bad because of it), when what you are conditioned to do that normally wins you matches doesn’t work, or is in fact detrimental, it can be a huge blow to your confidence in your own play, and if you don’t have sufficient back-up plans, may completely rule you out of a match. We’ve all had those matches where it felt like you were doing what you normally do, what you thought was good play, but for whatever reason you just can’t get anything done. These are moments where it is essential to be able to quickly grasp what the opposing team is doing and react accordingly.

Something important to note here that sounds obvious but may be overlooked in the heat of battle: if a play is normally safe vs competent opponents, and they are playing to make this “safe” choice unsafe, they fundamentally lack whatever it is that causes other teams to allow that choice/play to be safe. Again, as above, you can only allocate resources so many ways. Sometimes you allow your opponent to do something because you are prioritizing something else entirely, and shutting down whatever they are doing would be a detriment to your primary objective. To give an example, on Warehouse, it is fairly common to have someone on your left box looking both into mid and into opposing team closed, normally this allows some freedom of the opposing team to access some part of their closed, and their upper and crate, if you move up their closed in order to get shots off on their upper, you have foregone your control of left box. It may not always be something you can capitalize on, but always be aware that in 90% of cases, you must give up control in one area to gain it in another, assuming a single person. And to that end, if something is safe 90% of the time vs competent teams, if it is unsafe vs team B, they have likely forgone some sort of advantage that the other 90% of teams felt wasn’t worth sacrificing. Identifying these things can be tricky, and I cannot possibly cover when and how to make the best decision at all times, but I can explain that occasionally you have to look past the initial move, to the moves far past that. They say the best Go players can see some comical number of moves ahead, and granted Go is a turn based game, we should all strive to be considering multiple outcomes and circumstances that could occur during a match.

In soccer, there is a large focus on what is considered, “Play off the ball”, essentially how you are positioning yourself in relation to where the play is happening, this could be when you have possession: preparing to receive a pass, setting up to take a shot, or covering a position for another player who is participating in the play. On defense this normally entails marking a man to defend, rotating to cover someone attacking the ball, or trying to block passing lanes. What I want to emphasis is that movement in relation to your teammates, dynamic, responsive movement, is absolutely essential to strong play.

In MOBAs, you oftentimes see heroes rotating lanes or trying to create mismatches and 2v1s as much as possible, and similarly the ability to rotate your personnel efficiently is a huge asset in Splatoon. When someone is being pressured hard by multiple players, it demands attention from teammates, in some capacity you should always be responding to a push or assault by multiple enemies with the same number of people. Conversely, if you can find situations in which one person can easily defend against 2 people, then you can allocate that extra man and create a power play elsewhere. If someone is defending a side dies, it is up to his teammates to cover for him while he is respawning in order to not allow a large flank or foothold that will be hard to break later.

You should also be rotating in order to have favorable matchups based on the weapons players are using. If the Krak-on roller likes to go a certain path, place a 96 Gal deco or something similar to shut him down. These again may seem like obvious things but it is so easy to overlook them in the midst of a match and especially with how short and hectic Splatoon matches can be, responding too late can mean defeat in an instant.

Looking at it in more obvious ways, decision making can pertain to playing too aggressive, super-jumping or pressing into bad situations and throwing lives away at an objective without gaining decent area control first. Sometimes, risks can pay off, and they can pay off big, but know when a risk is worth it and when it could have less to be gained than lost. Even if you have quick respawn, if you are dying all the time you are robbing your team of the potential of a 4 man push, or just 4 man strategies in general. Don’t feel pressured at any stage in the game to “make up” for previous deaths, only think about doing whatever will win the game at that moment. If you are always making your decisions based around trying to win the game, it won’t be long until you see improvements. Again, obvious stuff here, but don’t just think, “I’m going to flank them through tree on kelp dome” think about why you are doing that, what you will gain, what in your eyes will make that decision a “victory”, is it getting one kill? Is it drawing the enemy’s attention away from the splat-zone so your teammates can paint it? Are you trying to set up a beacon for future use or calling for a teammate to jump on you and approach them from behind.

In the frenetic action of the game, it may be difficult to discern the “worthiness” of an action, games like Starcraft or Chess have unit values assigned to the pieces, generally whoever lost more units of pieces in an engagement was behind. Translate that to Splatoon, perhaps your team prioritizes the opposing team’s sniper so that they can have carte blanche on the area they were covering. In that case it is perfectly fine to force a trade in order to accomplish that. Sometimes a death can be worth it if you pushed the tower from 40-30 on a map where 40 is normally the bottleneck. Maybe sometimes you eat a death instead of using a Kraken, knowing that it is near the end of the game and you want to ensure you have it for their final push(especially a consideration for players running special saver) it may seem like a poor play in the short term, but it can certainly pay off. Always try and weigh the benefits of a particular choice made in the game, if not during the game, but before it, try and designate what your team is going to focus on in a match, which areas are most important to control, which enemy members should always be focused down. As the meta progresses more and more, and as our technical capability and unforced errors goes down, all that will be left to distinguish the great from the good will be the decisions that each team makes in a match.
Engagements:
Though Splatoon doesn’t overtly emphasize it, like most shooters, killing opponents is always the primary concern. The game revolves around the conflicts between players, the outcome of which almost always has a huge impact on the game state. Getting kills allows you to gain map control, secure and push objectives, and gain better positions for future engagements. Something I feel is unsurprisingly overlooked in this game is that kills aren’t very useful on their own. In fact, if a kill is not leveraged to gain an advantage, then it isn’t always beneficial. If team A is behind in rainmaker for instance, no amount of kills is going to win them the game, they must push the rainmaker and gain the lead.

In theory, getting more kills and subsequently having a numerical advantage makes it easier to gain the lead. However quite often I see teams win games with overall negative K/D ratios, and that is normally caused when one team can leverage their power-plays into points on the board better than their opponents, despite overall being less skilled at getting kills themselves. It is also possible that one team has a more effective plan to win from a given situation, however they are being killed numerous times trying to get them into the situation to execute it, but once they can, it is a play that achieves a high score and gives a large chance of victory. For Rainmaker and Tower Control, a sub 20 score is a victory the majority of the time, and a team only needs to get it there once, they can be getting shredded the rest of the match, however they will win as long as they can hold that lead. With this in mind, the best play is almost always simply killing your opponent and pushing the objective while they respawn and attempt to get back.
 
Last edited:

1o2

Inkling Cadet
Joined
Jun 15, 2015
Messages
164
Please, I beg of you use the spoilers tag. Also shouldn't this be under guides? I'll read it after the spoilers, with such huge walls of text it actually hurts my eyes to read this. If you don't know how to use spoiler tags look here: http://squidboards.com/help/bb-codes
 

Ultramus

Pro Squid
Joined
May 29, 2015
Messages
103
Was there a guides section, whoops. I just always post in this forum for strategy related discussion so wasn't aware.
 

Fightersword

Good TOs are Capitalists
Super Moderator
Joined
May 20, 2015
Messages
384
NNID
Fightersword
yeah you can post guides separatel. there's also a forum section for it too where it shows your updates to it and stuff when you update it.

Guides section is Here. Alternatively just click guides on the bar. look for the create guide button, whack it with the force of a thousand inkzookas, and drop it there.
 

SupaTim

Prodigal Squid
Joined
Aug 18, 2015
Messages
681
Location
NC, USA
NNID
SupaTim101
Spoiler tags or at the very least paragraph breaks are your friend.

Good stuff though. In your opinion what are the best team loadouts?
 

Ultramus

Pro Squid
Joined
May 29, 2015
Messages
103
Best team loadouts depends predominantly on the map, but it's normally around 1-2 frontline, 1 support and 1 flex, or 3 frontline 1 support. We are kinda weird and run a lot of 1 frontline, 2 support and 1 flex, but I don't think that is common at all.
 

Momo

Inkling
Joined
Jun 1, 2015
Messages
12
Location
USA
NNID
cyan-greene
This was a very insightful brain drain! It will be interesting seeing how this evolves with the meta.
 

Ultramus

Pro Squid
Joined
May 29, 2015
Messages
103
Edited for formatting, somewhat at least, I didn't realize when I posted this it had removed all the formatting I had done pre-copypasta. I mean I probably should have realized that but I did not. Also if someone could explain to me how to indent a paragraph without messing everything up I'd appreciate it, as it stands I just used page breaks, better than nothing but not ideal.
 

SupaTim

Prodigal Squid
Joined
Aug 18, 2015
Messages
681
Location
NC, USA
NNID
SupaTim101
Can you do a section on useful abilities? Or is that too weapon specific?
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1o2

Ultramus

Pro Squid
Joined
May 29, 2015
Messages
103
I have a physical notepad with a lot more points I want to cover, I'll try getting another section done today at work and upload it when I get home. I did want to talk about BIS abilities and styles, especially as it relates to particular compositions, maybe I might include some specific weapon+ability builds that I think are either "standard" or "optimal"
 

Ultramus

Pro Squid
Joined
May 29, 2015
Messages
103
Engagements cont.:

What this essentially boils down to is that in Splatoon kills and deaths have relative weight depending on when and how they occur, counterintuitively, it is actually possible that a kill can be worth less than a death, depending on game state. Generally speaking, players will position themselves or take routes that are more or less “ideal” determined by countless numbers of games, normally this takes into account either force projection(IE snipe on moray) or quickly getting to the opposing team(going enemy tree on kelp dome) or getting to an objective quickly(ramp on saltspray, mid on blackbelly). All of these positioning schemes have very good reasons to use them and why they work, however, it is important to understand how forcing an opponent to either abandon their position, divert attention away from where they would ordinarily look, or outright killing them, can justify taking a more uncommon course. The reason why opposing sneaky is strong on moray is not only on SZ that it places you near their zone, but it makes a charger sitting on snipe put YOUR zone/sneaky 90-110 degrees to his left. If a sniper is looking at their zone, someone else can rush snipe wall without alerting him, because he fundamentally cannot look at both areas. This is also why survival matters more when you are in a position that compromises the opposing team, the longer you force them into having to encompass an area that exceeds their FOV, you are creating opportunities for teammates and vice versa. In the same way that if you are too predictable in your hitting in baseball teams will stack the field where you are likely to hit, you want to always be stretching the field, you want the opposing team to have to consider the largest area possible that needs to be covered, taking the same routes every time, even playing the same weapons in the same way every time can lead teams to game plan against you and try and prevent your ideal play.

With all that in mind, we can specify that how we approach engagements needs to factor in a lot of different things. Because Splatoon doesn’t factor kills into scoring in anyway, it actually isn’t always ideal to kill someone as quickly as possible, it’s actually not necessarily always ideal to kill someone in general. Time is ultimately the most important currency in Splatoon, and so, if your team is behind, you want engagements, or oftentimes want engagements to be quick so that you can go about the objective or other things, whereas if you are in the lead, especially if an engagement is what I would say is inconsequential(ie not directly contributing towards the objective) you want to waste as much time as possible, because wasting the opposing players time puts you closer to victory. Obviously if you are pushing an objective, say your team is riding the tower, you are behind, and you find yourself engaging an enemy in open field, that could be when you want to drag out the engagement, but that is dependent on your team not needing your assistance in another area. We are of course accustomed to trying to get as many kills as quickly as possible, by and large doing so will lead to victories, however I am always of the opinion that we should understand the reasons behind something instead of just assuming it is the most ideal option, and I would largely say that a team that cannot at all compete for kills is simply at too high a skill deficit for the game to have been a contest anyways.
 

Inyo

Inkling Cadet
Joined
Apr 23, 2015
Messages
235
Location
Many parts of Canada
NNID
SurfGreenGibby
Good point about the Nozzlenose D, though I would say that the regular L-3 has a place due to being so mobile combined with the crippling power of Disruptors
 

VideoGameVirtuoso

Pro Squid
Joined
Feb 18, 2012
Messages
143
NNID
ExtremeTechPro
This is just an incredible thread. Please update it whenever possible. Putting it in the Guides section would also be benefical to our community. Thank you so much for sharing this with us :)
 

Trieste Sp

Super Moderator
Super Moderator
Joined
Apr 24, 2015
Messages
1,011
Location
遠東
There you go. I've moved it over to the Guides forums.

Sorry it took so long.
 

AidanC97

Senior Squid
Joined
Jun 4, 2015
Messages
73
Location
New Westminster, BC
NNID
aidancalhoun
I very much like your guide. It makes me now wanna tryout the .96 Gal Deco! Thanks for the incredible info. I'll look back to this often

~AC97
 

shani

Semi-Pro Squid
Joined
Nov 26, 2015
Messages
98
Location
Germany
NNID
shani_ace
Thanks for that detailed guide! And I don't mind walls of text.
Some parts of it I already knew and some were new, but I was glad to see the Nozzlenoise D mentioned as it's one of the weapons that I like to play around with, but haven't mastered yet. :)

What this essentially boils down to is that in Splatoon kills and deaths have relative weight depending on when and how they occur, counterintuitively, it is actually possible that a kill can be worth less than a death, depending on game state.
That's exactly what I experienced during games, many great matches were won with negative team K/D because the players in the winning team actually understood this and made the right decisions. Making the right decisions at the right time is key and this includes thinking about when to kill and when to focus on something more important.
With all that in mind, we can specify that how we approach engagements needs to factor in a lot of different things. Because Splatoon doesn’t factor kills into scoring in anyway, it actually isn’t always ideal to kill someone as quickly as possible, it’s actually not necessarily always ideal to kill someone in general. Time is ultimately the most important currency in Splatoon, and so, if your team is behind, you want engagements, or oftentimes want engagements to be quick so that you can go about the objective or other things, whereas if you are in the lead, especially if an engagement is what I would say is inconsequential(ie not directly contributing towards the objective) you want to waste as much time as possible, because wasting the opposing players time puts you closer to victory. Obviously if you are pushing an objective, say your team is riding the tower, you are behind, and you find yourself engaging an enemy in open field, that could be when you want to drag out the engagement, but that is dependent on your team not needing your assistance in another area. We are of course accustomed to trying to get as many kills as quickly as possible, by and large doing so will lead to victories, however I am always of the opinion that we should understand the reasons behind something instead of just assuming it is the most ideal option, and I would largely say that a team that cannot at all compete for kills is simply at too high a skill deficit for the game to have been a contest anyways.
Couldn't agree more!
 

ぇぃぇ

Inkling
Joined
May 12, 2016
Messages
11
NNID
LowKey123
obviously the best guide on this site - no competition. amazing all around, especially for a wip. it shows your understanding of this game and your experience.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom