(Updated) I started 3 ☆'ing every weapon! Here are my thoughts on each

[DVDo]

Hello! For my first post on this forum I decided to talk about what I've been doing in the game lately: trying to get every weapon to three stars. I figured I'd share my thoughts on some of the weapons I've tried out for the first time only just now after playing.... looks like 1005 hours lol.

For context, here's a list of the weapons I already played enough to 3 star before starting this journey:

I made a list of every other weapon and ordered it so that I'd be playing different classes with roughly even distribution throughout. For 3 starring weapons I understand that Turf War is the fastest way to get XP, but I don't want to play a ton of Turf so I'll be playing mostly Anarchy Open or Series, depending on rotation and my skill on the weapon. I've got 92 weapon kits to get through, and I've gotten 8 of them down so far! Here are my thoughts on what I played.

Spoiler: Batch 1

Splattershot Jr.
Felt really funny to go back to playing "baby's first shooter". Obviously I'd played this one before so finishing up the 3 stars was decently quick. Honestly this weapon still felt solid despite the pitiful range. I really leaned in to the bomb spam aspect and used some sub saver gear, and went "Wow, splat bombs are really neat aren't they?" I had pretty good success with this in Clams on Humpback. The hills provide a lot of cover to sneak around and be a rat, while the bubbler was great for scoring. Pretty easy one.

Blaster
Played this one before too, after getting it during a Sheldon Sampler challenge. Did well with it in the challenge, but not when I tried it after. This time it wasn't so bad, although I still wasn't the best at hitting directs. Even so, the AOE was really nice and I got a lot of sneaky kills on people behind cover (this happened a lot on Wahoo Zones). The kit ain't anything special but at least autobombs are cheap.

Slosher
I remember playing like 3 games on this when the game launched. Didn't think it was for me. This time around I understand that it's because I cannot get a good feel for the aim. Like I can hit people straight on fine enough, but it kinda feels slow. And then when I try to hit people behind cover it feels like I need to be really close to the wall. Idk, skill issue I guess. The actual act of sloshing is pretty fun at least. Also this is the first weapon I played with strikes, I died a lot using them as a panic button lol. Gotta work on that whenever that special shows up again.

Splat Roller
Once again I've played it before, very early on. This one's pretty fun. For me it feels somewhat like Painbrush, they have similar strengths and both have curling bomb as movement options. Though while Painbrush is better at painting and outputting damage over time, Roller is better at locking down an area and SPLATTING THE GUY IN FRONT OF ME RIGHT NOW. Felt good, I think I wanna get better at it later on and see if it makes sense to main as well.

Splatterscope
I've played it's non-scoped twin, but not this one. And uh, unfortunately I did not have fun. I could pretty easily tell that my aim was not up to par on this one. The scope helped visually sure, and the extra range over non-scope is really nice, but something about the zoom-in from full-view to ADS really throws me off, especially when I die while scoped and it suddenly zooms out when I don't expect it. I managed to have a few games where I did well, even got a clip where I sniped 3 people one after the other and felt really good about that. But some games my aim was just not there. This one took me the most games to 3 star (52, whereas the others have been around 30-40). I dread having to play liter eventually.

Hero Shot Replica
This one counts I guess. Slotted it in where Splattershot would be if that needed to be 3 starred. Not much to say about this one, it's the same ol' Splattershot, Nogami's precious child. Did so well on this one that I even took it into X-Rank to bump up some of my scores. Carried weapon.

Splat Dualies
I'm surprised at how much I like these, THEY'RE SO FUN! I think I even like them more than Tetras?! I played around with comparing them in the lobby afterward to see what felt so good about them, and came to the conclusion that it's the faster rolls/shots. You just get to be so nimble and your shots don't feel like foam Nerf darts, it's awesome! Also, uh, Crab Tank. It's kinda crazy how good that special is. I worried I wouldn't be great at it since I've tried it before on Vanilla Pro. But here you get it much faster and it's easier to get into position, and it Just Works. This whole kit is really good, really made me go "wow, this is what a meta weapon is like, cool". But really, this one was a lot of fun and the best time I had out of this bunch.

Heavy Splatling
The final weapon I have to write about for now! This one was great too, though I made the mistake of trying it out on Rainmaker (my worst mode) at first. Played mostly Clams and Tower after and did really well! I'm definitely not used to the long charge time since I play ZiMi all the time, but I got the hang of it alright. I really like how good this one is at holding control of a large area. I got to play some more with the new Wavebreaker buff too, found it helps more here than with Painbrush because you can act on the information more quickly. Also got a lot of matches where I was paired with other backlines for some reason, sometimes even 3 (and one time with two Tri-Stringers). Whenever this happened I switched to playing a lot more aggressively like I was a Nautilus or something, and it seemed to work out. Really versatile weapon.

And that's it for now! Let me know what you think about these weapons, or if something I said was interesting. I may make another thread once I get another 8 weapons done, if people are interested.

Update 2/11/2024
I'm back with the second round of 3 starring all weapons! I decided to just edit the main post of this thread instead of making a new one every time so I can keep it all in one place. Also, from now on I plan to do 9 weapons per set since it divides the weapons a bit nicer, so in order to make up for last time being only 8 I did 10 this time. Without further ado, the weapons!

Spoiler: Batch 2

Rapid Blaster
This one was a little hard at first. Not Splatterscope hard of course, but certainly difficult. You really need to keep your ideal spacing to enemies as much as possible, since your range is good but your AOE not as much. I had to rely on the not so stellar kit to make up for being bad on the weapon. It was my first time really using ink mines, so I got to experiment with what kind of placements make sense or are useful. They worked, but often times I'd rather have something to throw than something to drop behind me while I run away. I got better at strikes this time, especially since the weapon naturally makes me stand further back. At some point I started hitting directs more consistently and was able to go more aggro, that was fun.

Splat Brella
First brella I've ever tried in multiplayer! And I have a lot to say. This one was also pretty hard to play. I had a little luck at first, but fell into a bad losing streak. The big issue I had with this weapon was that it felt like I was less capable of having an impact on the match by myself. Brella's whole thing is survival, skirmishing, and stalling fights. That's cool and all, but why would I use Brella to distract someone when I could just pick a different weapon and kill them instead? Obviously Brella has some good matchups and team play, but that's all I could think about playing this in solo queue. It's really dependent on its teammates to help it win fights. Anyway, I knew the kit on this was bad, but yikes it's really bad. Sprinkler does nothing for a weapon that really struggles to kill and could use a bomb. I managed with it by just throwing it to hinder movement in certain areas but it's not too effective (got a few kills and assists with it tho lol). And while I got the hang of strikes at this point, they still leave you really vulnerable so they're not ideal. At the very least I had some success in Rainmaker and Zones, both Sprinkler and Tri-strikes work a bit better there.

.52 Gal
Nice change of pace after two rather difficult weapons. Still requires a good bit of aim (that shot RNG isn't great) but man is it nice to kill things, especially after Brella. The 52 damage is stupid good lol. I fumbled a bit with my Splash Wall placements, and it took me a bit to learn you can't just stand with a wall wherever for free, especially with a whole team looking at you. Started playing to angles and flanking a bit more. This weapon is good, but I didn't finish 3 stars any faster than average so I don't think it's too carried. .52 doesn't deserve the hate that it gets so often IMO.

Tri-Slosher
On paper, this is just a decent weapon, not top tier but pretty good. I ended up doing really well on this. I do play Octobrush and this is fairly similar in both hitbox size and range, so it's not too surprising. It's not as quick about moving around but it paints a bit better, and having a jetpack is a huge plus. In some games I got unlucky with bad teammates but was able to force a win anyway by going for some wild flanks. I really wanna try the other kit now (but it will take me a while to get to it lol).

L3-Nozzlenose
The first weird shooter! (When ordering the weapons in this challenge, I treated the "semi-autos" as a separate class from shooters since that did better things to weapon variety among the shooters as a whole). Imma be honest, I always forget which nozzlenose has what kit, so hopefully this challenge makes them stick. This one has Crab Tank and it gets it quick enough, which is nice, and Curling Bomb which is just ok on it. Whenever I first played the nozzlenoses in Salmon Run I immediately hated the semi-auto fire. I'm playing a shooter, I just want to hold down the funny ZR button forever. If I want to mash, that's what brushes are for. Playing L-3 now, it just plays like a decent enough shooter, especially if you get the timing down to fire somewhat continuously. It's fine... not too standout.

Tri-Stringer
Tried this one a few months ago, already had some progress, neat! The range is really nice of course. I didn't get many kills on the main weapon but I got more on Killer Wail. Honestly, even when I wasn't being super aim accurate I felt like I was getting good value anyway from pushing people around, staying alive, and being a solid backline to jump to. Mist isn't as great, by the time someone's close enough to use it you should probably back up anyway. It's only really useful to slow down choke points or maybe clutch in an up-close fight. Played this in Bluefin Zones and it was really fun there. As the poster child of this game I think this weapon holds up and is fun even if it's not super strong.

Dynamo Roller
I'm not normally a fan of big heavy type weapons/characters in games, and Dynamo is one of the most extreme weapons in that sense, but I still had a good time playing this one. It was pretty volatile at times: games that started well tended to steamroll into victory, but a bad start could also immediately doom a match. But again, my win rates where fairly normal so I wasn't doing too bad. Used a lot of Special Charge Up to get faster coolers, though sometimes I died the moment I got it lol. Ended up paired with another cooler teammate every now and then, and that seemed to work really well. Don't play Dynamo in Rainmaker, worst mistake of my squid life.

Aerospray MG
I do not understand. This is a bad weapon, but I somehow started it off with a 9-win streak on Tower Control?! The best I've played on any of these weapons so far, and it took the fewest total games to 3 star (outside of weapons that already had progress). My playstyle was mostly just get Reefslider fast and be annoying with Fizzies if I can't do anything else. Had a good bit of Quick Respawn since I figured I'd die a lot. But somehow I was having games where I was #1 Enemy Splatter? As AEROSPRAY?! I'm just shocked, and uh, .52 doesn't deserve the hate that it gets LMAO.

Luna Blaster
Okay this is gonna be a bit repetitive, but once again I did better on this weapon than any weapon before. Only 31 games to 3 star, with 16 KOs and 24 total wins! Only this time it actually makes sense. Luna is a very short range but large AOE weapon, similar to Octobrush (my main) and Tri-Slosher which I did well on. Plus it has Splat Bomb and Zipcaster, so it feels VERY similar to Octobrush's kit, to the point that I used most of the same gear on it. I never realized it but this is a good alternative to that kit (even tho I think brush is better), especially for Rainmaker where I think it's more consistent. I isn't as good at getting value out of Zip, but it's more reliable damage than Octobrush. I guess I'll have to pick up this weapon, I did really well and had a lot of fun with it.

E-liter 4K / E-liter 4K Scope
Did I say 10 weapons? I meant 11. Yeah, in addition to doing two more weapons than last time, another thing I needed to do to have 9 weapons per update is to bring the 92 weapon kits down to 90. And it just made sense to group the scoped chargers with their non-scoped versions, since they share kits anyway and at least by playing them right after another I stay warmed up.

I was not looking forward to either of these, but it turned out okay. I did much better than with Splatterscope, even on scoped liter for some reason. Maybe I just knew what to expect this time? I started on Zones in Series because I wouldn't dare try it in any other mode, but I got bad results. I figured if I was gonna be losing, may as well do it in Open, which happened to be Clam Blitz. And I did pretty well! I was able to hit some shots, and learned to set up these really funny double Ink Mine traps in the main path to the basket whenever I could. The mine setups legitimately helped win games sometimes. I kept an eye on teammates' positions and super-jumped in clams whenever I could. Basically I carried my results on liter with Clam Blitz cheese . I did the same thing for the Scope, just rely on the kit and stick to Clams. Went much better than I could have hoped, now to never play liter again (until the second kit comes out).

And there we have it! Thanks for reading about my suffering. I'll be back with the next batch of weapons sometime, though it'll probably take longer because Side Order comes out soon.

Update 2/27/2024
Apparently there's a 20000 character limit on posts, so from now on I'll just be adding updates as comments to this thread and linking them here so they are still somewhat together and accessible.
Batch #3

Update 3/19/2024: Batch #4

Update 4/25/2024: Batch #5

 

[vitellary]

i can't even be bothered to go for 1 star on every weapon, so going for 3 is super admirable and very daunting haha. i've had a similar experience with the splatterscope, was pretty good with the non-scoped version at one point but could never figure out how people used scoped chargers. reducing motion sensitivity helps a bit but only so much...

 

[Show-]

best of luck man im sure its gonna be awful

 

[DVDo]

i can't even be bothered to go for 1 star on every weapon, so going for 3 is super admirable and very daunting haha. i've had a similar experience with the splatterscope, was pretty good with the non-scoped version at one point but could never figure out how people used scoped chargers. reducing motion sensitivity helps a bit but only so much...

Yeah the sensitivity is interesting for sure. I don't ever mess with it and just play on default sens, it's been just fine so far. But going from scope to Hero Shot was the only time I ever felt like I had to adjust to different sensitivity in aim. Like I had to make much bigger movements on shot. Readjusted quickly though.

Also 1 starring is pretty quick! Takes at most 10 games if you win a few of them. Definitely a lot more achievable.

best of luck man im sure its gonna be awful

Thanks, I hope not! Though with how many shooters there are in the game it shouldn't be so bad.

 

[Shayreep]

"Also got a lot of matches where I was paired with other backlines for some reason" yeah this checks out IDK what goes on with Nintendos matchmaking. But i cannot play heavy without also having a random eliter or explosher on my team to pvp our snipe with

 

[Lemonquack]

I had the patience to go for 2* everything, but I can’t imagine the dedication for 3*. I get super bored of a weapon if I play it for too many games in a row so that didn’t bode well for me lol best of luck to you

 

[DVDo]

I wrote some stuff for the next batch of weapons, check the main post! I decided to do it this way instead of making a new thread every time to keep it all in one place.

 

[Dianacie]

Oh this is super interesting! Love the writeup on each weapon. I'm still making my way to 1 star on everything, this is nuts

 

[Aiko.Octo]

You've got some endurance; when I 1-starred everything it was quite an enlightening experience but 3 starring everything is another level. Best of luck!

 

[DVDo]

Update #3
So apparently there's a 20000 character limit on posts, so updates will now just be new comments instead of added to the main post.

Hello fellow squids and octos, I am back with another update. I hope everyone has been enjoying Side Order so far! It's been really fun to grind runs. Unfortunately I may have played too many too quickly and my switch has developed a swollen battery . No big deal, I have ordered a replacement battery and will be repairing it myself (hopefully it arrives before next season starts). I'm glad I caught it when I did, as I don't think my back panel has suffered any damage.

Seeing as I can no longer grind Side Order, I figured I'd post the incomplete batch of weapons that I got through before Side Order released. I had to redo the weapon order distribution because my previous one did not consider that new weapons would be coming out. Now it accounts for all new and unreleased 2nd kits, as well as the 4 kits for the new stringer and splatana we should be seeing in the final season, so unless content is extended I should be good for now. Anyway, here are the 7 weapons I finished.

Spoiler: Batch 3

Dapple Dualies
Another weapon enters The Hall of "I Did Great!", among the likes of Tri-Slosher, Luna Blaster, and... Aerospray. This one flew by (not surprising considering I just got done playing the liters) and I had enjoyed it so much I almost wanted to keep playing once I finished! It's definitely super supportive, but it has enough fighting ability that it feels like it has multiple different playstyles! Focus on beacons, paint for cooler, go for aggressive flanks and cause distractions, etc. The only thing it lacks is a bomb to throw, so you really need to keep your team alive and in the fight to handle the stuff you can't reach. I'm serious about it's ability to fight up close though, it's a very fast 3 shot. I found myself not even using the roll mode to fight sometimes, having the 2 cursors spread your shots into a sort of discount AOE makes them easier to hit and doesn't affect the kill time too much since it's so fast.

Mini Splatling
Finally time to give the vanilla kit a go! Apparently I've played a few games on it before but not many. I'm pretty familiar with the main weapon so I don't have first impressions, but I love it's strafe speed and fast charge. As for the kit, I got attached to the burst bombs pretty quickly when I realized you can finish off people if your last few shots miss. Hammer is the weak part of the kit, but I got good use out of it to clear out people under ledges where the main doesn't hit as easily. In the end, I definitely prefer ZiMi, but this kit has some use cases.
Side Order note: I had a bad experience on Manta Maria Zones, not sure if it was a skill issue or that map is just kinda bad for the weapon? There's a lot of cover for frontlines to work with and Mini doesn't have the same range other splatlings can abuse from high ground. Lost a lot of games on specifically that map mode lol.

Sloshing Machine
Really quick one to finish since I already had almost 2 stars on it. I like it much more than regular Slosher, its projectile arc makes more sense to me and the direct hitbox is fairly generous. It never felt OP to me, but definitely solid overall. Obviously this is one of the best kits in the game, every single piece is great so it feels pretty good to play. Funnily enough I ended up on Manta Zones again, only this time it felt like I was the one with the advantage, it's like good karma or something.

Jet Squelcher
The shooters in this game always feel so solid (guess I shouldn't be surprised). This plays like a real backline but gets all the movement benefits that the shorter shooters get anyway. I didn't find many uses for Angle Shooter but it didn't really matter since I was standing so far back. Trying to make plays with Ink Vac usually fell flat, especially in Rainmaker where I thought it would be useful. It worked best when I popped it reactively instead of trying to get teammates to play with it. Also really nice during Tower pushes, similar to what Bubble does. I had this funny thing where I would KO that way on Undertow but then immediately lose on Humpback, multiple times. This weapon does not like maps with a lot of ledges, corners, and cover to hide in. Last note on Jet: I really like its shooting sounds. There's a weight and an echoeyness to them that sounds satisfying.

Tenta Brella
This is the hardest weapon that I've enjoyed the most. Seriously, took me more games than Splatterscope, but I didn't have nearly as bad of a time. Tent is so cool and unique, it plays like nothing else in this game and it has a lot of depth to it. Yet, its insane utility is also probably the reason it's so hard to play. There's A LOT you need to know about the weapon's mechanics in order to bring out its full potential. Took me a while before something clicked and it felt like I finally "unlocked" the weapon. But by then I was almost done with 3 stars, so I didn't feel like I had much time with it in the end.

A bit of an aside here, but the reason I chose specifically 3 stars as my goal is in part because I find it is a good middle ground between something achievable for every weapon in the game, but still long enough that I get to know every weapon decently well. I think that has been mostly the case so far. Tent is the first weapon to really make me feel like I only scratched the surface with it. Mad props to anyone who mains this weapon and masters its ways. Maybe when I get around to the second kit I'll be more prepared to do it justice.

Dualie Squelchers
First off I gotta say, I love the concept of these. Turning the original Dual Squelcher from Splatoon 1 that already had two drill bits on its model into a dualies weapon, while still being able to reform the original weapon while in turret mode is genius. Anyway, these have the unique ability to walk out of dodge rolls much faster. I know you can do an advanced jump tech with these, but uh no I'm not gonna figure out how to apply that in game on my own. In terms of how it compares to the regular Jet Squelcher, it of course doesn't have the insane range, but it's still deceptively long sometimes. The slow kill time is workable, but hey it has a splat bomb! Honestly had no idea, I don't really see this kit often. Wavebreaker is ok, just as it is on other weapons. I thought I did bad on this weapon, but apparently I did about as good as Dapples and the others so I'm surprised.

Range Blaster
Was playing this one the day Side Order came out! It's unsurprisingly really fun. It has a large AOE at a good range with good damage, all around a good combination. I find it funny how consistently I ended up being highest splatter of the team. Obviously blasters don't paint as well, but this is the first time I really felt it being a drawback. I guess this is the slowest blaster in the game (tied with S-BLAST I think). Despite not having paint, I somehow ended up doing better on Zones than Tower, which I figure blasters are better at. I guess I was getting rushed down a bit too much. By the way, while playing this I ran into someone named vitellary, a name I recognize from the comments in this thread! If that was you, I'm sorry we lost those games lol.

And that's all, a good bit less weapons this time. I will report back when I've fixed my switch, played more Side Order, and finished 10 more weapons to talk about. See ya.

 

[Grushi]

This is pretty neat, I really enjoy reading what people think when trying out weapons I'm used to playing.
Good luck with your battery replacement, hope it goes well!

 

[DVDo]

Update #4

Hey everyone, I'm back with great news: my switch battery replacement went very well! It was my first time ever opening and repairing a console so I'm glad I didn't mess it up (and happy I can keep playing games on it of course). I still have to dispose of the old battery properly...

After finishing my hackless run of Side Order it was time to get back to the 3 grind! Keep in mind that whenever I talk about a 2nd kit, it's because I've already 3 'd the vanilla kit before this challenge.

Spoiler: Batch 4

New Squiffer
I would've played Squiffer before E-liter, but the 2nd kit wasn't out at the time. But once the new season dropped I knew I had to try this weapon on day one! This is a main I'm fairly familiar with, like Mini Splatling before, so I'll be mostly talking about the kit since that's what's really exciting.
In my draft writeup for this weapon that I wrote immediately after playing it I wrote A LOT about Zipcaster and how it works on various weapons. In the interest of not yapping too much, I'll do my best to summarize. It's one of the harder specials in the game, not only because you need to master the controls but also because it plays differently for every weapon it's on. They all have unique spacings in which they work best depending on their range and speed. Depending on the situation, you can get close to fight with your main, zip around to cause distractions, or get one shots with the zip arm. Each weapon does them all, but may favor one style more. New Squiffer is able to do what Stamper does, spacing for long-ranged hits, but it's fairly difficult (definitely fun tho, and great for clips of course!). But I also found that just using it to get into aggressive sniping positions was really good, since you can reach areas where people don't expect to be shot from. And of course, you can always just use the zip arm.
I noticed this kit parallels the vanilla in an interesting way. The location utility from Point Sensor is still there in the Autobomb, only now it's also lethal! And while Bubble in the original kit helps to secure an area, giving you a chance to use your main, Zipcaster allows you to reposition safely, also giving you a chance to use your main. The first kit feels a lot more defensive in style compared to the new, aggressive one, but they both revolve around you doing well on the main, which I like. I do like the new kit better though, and I think it has a lot of potential.
It took me a bit more games than Tenta Brella to finish, so it's certainly very hard, even when I already have good experience on both the main and special. But it's very fun and I love it!

Hydra Splatling
I wasn't sure what to expect going into this one. Would it be a difficult backline like the chargers, or would it still be similar enough to the other Splatlings I've played? In the end it went well enough, I didn't feel like I was too overwhelmed at all. I don't have a strong opinion on this weapon, other than it just feels like a really slow Heavy. The full charge takes forever and the strafe speed is still just mediocre after stacking two mains of Run Speed. At least getting the full charge does reward you with an absurdly long fire duration, that's fun. The range is nice too, it somehow feels further than it really is, and you can correct your aim unlike with chargers. More than with other weapons, I found it important to always have a painted escape route to back up with. While Hydra does have its redeeming qualities, I prefer the flexibility you get with Heavy.

Splatana Stamper
Figured this would be quick because I already had it at 2 stars, but no unfortunately I am bad on this weapon. It's actually not too hard to hit shots with even with the longer travel time, but the problem is that landing a shot isn't enough, you NEED to combo. Burst bombs are great for this, but fairly ink hungry if you rely on them too much. Hitting 3 horizontals is too slow, so your most reliable combo is charge slash into a horizontal. The charge melee hitbox is nice, it feels like it has a much bigger hitbox than wiper. Didn't go for too many spaced slashes during zipcaster, instead just using the arm more like with Squiffer. Another weapon with a high skill floor and ceiling. The kit is really fun anyway (honestly any kit with Zipcaster is fun by default).

H-3 Nozzlenose
Feels more different from L3 than I expected, especially because it has Endlag™. But at least you can kill with one burst-fire tap now, and it's really satisfying thanks to that click sound (that the bows also reused lol). If your aim is on point, this thing is a beast. It just deletes people. But if you miss, it's pretty bad at fighting up close, it's like a blaster without the AOE. It has good range and doesn't make much noise, so I had fun surprising the backlines. The kit is great at farming assists (sensor, cooler, shots from main) so I tried Opening Gambit for a bit. It didn't end up worth it since you can't get cooler before the first fight. But running Special Saver/Charge really helps, this is an underrated cooler weapon. It's more interesting than L3 so I like it better.

Explosher
Among the MANY weapons in this game, a select few stand out for having a really strong identity, and Explosher is one of them. It's aesthetics go hard, and also (like Tent) has unique gameplay that no other weapon replicates. Sloshers as a whole get fairly experimental with their projectiles, but c'mon, explosions?! They're so good too: big hitboxes, long range, good paint, decent chance to 2 shot. It's very satisfying to get faraway kills, and feels very different from charger snipes. It invalidates cover, so you can make it incredibly difficult for people to approach you. Though if someone does you're kinda helpless, the best you can do is throw a sensor to alert others and try your best to trade. But that didn't happen to me often, and I didn't really die all that much. It also doesn't bother me that this weapon is ink hungry, but it DOES bother me that the ink recovery lag is sooo long! Anyway, my final impression is that they keep this weapon a bit weak because if it was any better it would be too easy.

.96 Gal
I finally found a shooter I actively dislike to play. I didn't even do poorly on this one, I just don't like the way it feels. Sorry to be so negative right off the bat. I'll start with the positives: you get more range over .52 Gal and slightly more damage. A 2 shot at that range is insane, we're approaching Trizooka levels of unreactability. But the tradeoffs are in strafe speed, fire rate, and shot spread. The strafing being noticeably slower caught me off guard. I don't like how it feels, but it's fair given how strong the shots are and it makes the weapon feel like a turret of sorts. But compounded with the slow fire rate and awful shot RNG this can be miserable to play. It feels like the weapon just choses not to work sometimes, and missing just one shot makes your kill time much longer. I do think it's balanced fairly. A buff to any of its weaknesses would probably make this thing really annoying to play against, but probably not much better to play as.

Carbon Roller Deco
I know, it's a little weird I've 3 starred the vanilla Carbon but not this one. In my defense, most of my vcarbon playtime was before the 2nd kit released, and I did already have Deco halfway to 3 stars before now. Anyway the kit here is obviously much better. Carbon and Burst Bombs go hand in hand more than any other main and sub combo in the game, to the point that everyone considers this the "default" carbon kit over the vanilla. And those combos definitely feel good, especially when you get multiple people one after another. Though like with Stamper, if you go for nothing but burst combos you'll have to spend a lot of time recovering ink. Zooka is broken, and to have it on an already amazing main and sub combo makes this another candidate for best kit in the game.

Undercover Brella
You know, I didn't do so well on this weapon, but I didn't hate it? Like I actually enjoyed this one. It's definitely as weak as everyone says it is, but idk at least it's fairly easy to control. The shield is weaker but somehow more reliable than regular Brella. It also has a faster fire rate with longer range. A bit unintuitive that the "small" brella gets more range than the medium one, but it needs it. It has decent paint that kind of reminds me of Wiper's, and a good strafe speed that stacks really well with Run Speed. It feels easier to play to it's survivability, which you want to do because you definitely can't kill on your own as easily. The kit is... there. It's not the worst in the game anymore, but Undercover has little synergy with mines and almost none with slider. But I managed to play to each piece well enough to get by. Weirdly enough it reminds me of silver Aerospray: weak fighting capabilities but decent paint, mobility, and Reefslider zones cheese.

Rapid Blaster Pro
Wow this feels a lot like Rapid Blaster. I'm sure there are some other stat changes but it really feels likes it's just longer and slower, that's it. Admittedly the range does make Pro play much more like a true backline. It's long enough to contest other backlines fairly easily, but you have to survive being in their sight long enough to hit 2-3 shots. If you hit someone and they run for cover, the AOE is just enough to squeeze another hit or two in, which is nice. You really can't let anyone get close to you because you are helpless, but that doesn't mean you can't play aggressively. With the right vantage points you can threaten people while still being relatively safe and hard to reach. All that is easier said than done though. I once again broke the "most games to 3 star" record I just set on New Squiffer. While I think this weapon is fine, I just wish they did more to make it feel unique from Rapid. With how many blasters there are, do we really need two Rapids? One's gotta go, but I'm not sure which.

Bamboozler 14 Mk I
Wrapping things up with the goofiest charger in the game. The game design on this is pretty funny. Most of its stats are designed around its "pew pew" combo. The fast charge time, longer range than Squiffer(?!?!), fast tap shots that have the same range as full charges, and larger hit radius. It's all meant to be fairly forgiving with your aim. Also the kit is really great, it builds on the chip damage idea by letting you combo with Wail damage and Autobombs, making you really effective at flushing out an area. I ran Sub Saver to spam bombs and be generally annoying. I loved being able to throw one, pop wail, and use the ink tank refill to throw another. Realized afterwards that I could have stacked more SS and actually had 2 bombs per tank, meaning I could throw out 4 bombs with my special and recreate the Autobomb Launcher. I swear I actually hit people with this gun, I didn't just bomb spam the entire time lol. Anyway this one was fun and relaxing after having some fairly difficult (for me) weapons during this batch.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Still a lot more weapons to get through so I'll be back with another 10 later.

 

[Grushi]

A 2 shot at that range is insane, we're approaching Trizooka levels of unreactability.

Love that haha

 

[vitellary]

Splatana Stamper
Figured this would be quick because I already had it at 2 stars, but no unfortunately I am bad on this weapon.

yeah it's crazy how long it takes to feel comfortable with stamper, i kept throwing myself at it because i really liked its playstyle and felt like i barely started getting used to it at 3 stars. i've got 4 stars on it now and i Still feel kinda weak with it sometimes

 

[youre_a_squib_now]

A 2 shot at that range is insane, we're approaching Trizooka levels of unreactability.

Who's gonna tell him about chargers

 

[DVDo]

Update #5

It's been a while this time, but I'm back again with more 3 starred weapons. I'm gonna be honest, I took a break from this challenge midway through this batch to grind X battles a bit. I missed playing Octo and Painbrush too much. Anyway, let's get to it!

Spoiler: Batch 5

Glooga Dualies
Every time I play a dualies weapon I leave with the impression that I should just be playing more dualies. I've heard comparisons of Gloogas to .52 Gal, and that's warranted. Similar fire rate and range, both have walls and use them pretty well. The damage isn't as broken (it's "only" a 3 shot), but the really cool thing is that you can roll to get more range and get 52.5 damage! It turns you into a better 52 Gal for a moment, which is terrifying. The tradeoff is that the rolls are slow and committal, which I don't like the feeling of as much. Especially how long it takes to start firing, it feels vulnerable for a decent chunk of time. That's why the wall is there I suppose, and together with Booyah Bomb it has a solid kit. It works out to be a very healthy alternative version of 52 Gal.

N'ZAP '85
Feels kind of funny to go back to such a simple shooter after playing all those weirder long range ones. It's fire rate is very fast by comparison, even more than Splattershot. It's lower damage (4 shot), but still has similar range. It paints quickly and gets cooler from it which is incredibly valuable. Y'all already know that though, this weapon has been meta relevant for nearly the entire game's lifespan. I'll just say it's fun due to being flexible between fighting and playing support.

Ballpoint Splatling
Time to finally try out Ballpoint! I kind of miss seeing it everywhere. There's definitely a bit of a learning curve with the two firing modes. You have to get a feel for how long the short range mode lasts before it switches to long range, and how recharging mid-fire affects that. But once I got the hang of it, it played pretty nice. You have more survivability up close but can still do backline stuff just fine. Felt similar enough to Heavy that I actually thought "wait, what's the downside supposed to be?" I guess it's just that you have to wait a bit for your long range mode to start? Or maybe the fire rate's a tad slower? The kit is really good too (though Fizzy/Jet would be good on pretty much any weapon).

REEF-LUX 450 Deco
Flux is satisfying to play in the same way Squiffer is, mostly due to having quick-charging one shots at similar ranges. But Flux also has a lot of variation with how it does damage with its horizontal and vertical shots and different charge levels, so it feels pretty distinct. After balance changes it's ok at fighting now and still the best painter in the game. But uh, this kit is laughably bad lol, a contender for worst in the game, no synergy at all. I got lucky enough to find the perfect rotation to play it in: Zones on Hammerhead and ROM-en. Wall is great for closing off chokepoints like the main entry to the zone on Romen (and like the entire width of Hammerhead). Slider similarly works well when people have nowhere to run. This meant that it was much easier to lockout the other team if we ever took control, though I couldn't help much if we lost control and needed to retake. Still had fun here since I like the main already, but man the vanilla kit is much better. Maybe this kit should've just gotten a normal Splat Bomb, that'd help it have aggressive power alongside it's slider and in contrast to the main weapon's requirement for precision.

Bloblobber
This one was oddly relaxing to play? It's more laidback than other weapons due to how its unusual shots work. The trail of bubbles is good for painting and chipping at people from a distance. It rewards you for finding good angles to attack from. You can't fight people directly as much because the bubbles are slow moving and you need to hit all 4, but you can make it hell for people to exist by swarming them with bubbles that paint over and weaken them. Sprinkler/Rain solidify this weapon as paint support, and honestly the main weapon has ok ink efficiency so you can easily contest the zone yourself if you have a safe spot to do so from. It's a great support but really lacks in fighting power, though I suppose dedicated Blob mains could get really good at leading their shots and bouncing off of walls to make up for it.

Clash Blaster
I expected to like this one despite it being pretty bad, especially considering I'm such a short range AOE fan. It's fine I guess, but it definitely struggles with its long kill times. It's ok if you manage to hit 2 directs, but that's still much slower than just hitting a direct with Luna for example. The large hitbox does mean you'll always at least hit indirects, and it makes it hard for people to run behind cover. So as long as people forget to look at you for 4 seconds, they will die. The main weapon is mid, but it got a cracked kit of Splat Bomb/Zooka. This is THE stupidly large hitbox kit. Both tools help with poking at range, which Clash desperately needs. I ran a main of Sub Power Up and was surprised with just how far you can actually chuck that thing. The kit nearly saves this weapon, but I'd still rather play Luna.

Splash-o-matic
The last of the really vanilla shooters. Feels a lot like N-ZAP (3 shots again, but shorter range, still good paint). Main difference is that it has insane accuracy and it doesn't get worse when you jump. Makes the gun feel very reliable, and being able to jump freely both helps with its range and feels unique to other shooters. The kit is also godlike of course. Burst can combo with 2-3 shots and gives that extra bit of range. It has good shooter movement that you can use to get into position and suddenly you're a Crab Tank on the Eeltail bridge looking into the enemy spawn. The kit does it all, can't really go wrong with picking it.

Flingza Roller
I think it's funny that Flingza is supposed to be this "multipurpose" weapon when in reality it's kind of just a vertical-flick bot. The vertical is just so much better than the horizontal that you really want to be using it as much as possible. It paints a lot and has good range with ok damage to fight safely from some distances. The only reason to use horizontal is for quick up close kills, where it does its job. Considering the kit's focus on outputting tons of Tenta Missiles, it ended up being a bit of a training exercise on getting the most value out of every special use, especially since the time you spend painting for it takes you away from team fights. I tried to target whoever was giving the other team the most value: an oppressive backline, a skilled slayer, or anyone who was just in a really annoying position. Targeting fewer, more important players instead of the whole team in order to not spread out the missiles too much made them a lot more effective (who'da thunk?). I think I had fun? I don't care for the playstyle as much but it was kind of satisfying when it worked.

Goo Tuber
Wasn't expecting it but this one is surprisingly fun to use. The reticle tells you when a partial charge can kill, and that really helps you get a sense of what you can pull off. Killing with partials doesn't do the usual loud charger pierce sound and instead sounds like an MLG hitmarker which I think is really funny. The slow charge time is a bit annoying but not intrusive at all, and it's nice not to have to worry about charge holds running out. If you love charge holds this is the weapon for you, it even has tech that works like sub strafing for even more movement flexibility. The range isn't great in terms of being a backline but it is serviceable. The paint is good, at least up close. The amount of tapshot painting you do makes Goo Tuber the most button-mashy charger weirdly enough. Oh and the kit is really good, both Torpedo and Missiles help locate people, deal with blind spots you can't hit with the main, and are very spammable. It's funny to come off of the first missiles weapon in this challenge and get another one right away. It'll be the last one too, unless they add it to a future weapon.

Light Tetra Dualies
Wrapping up with a quick one, since I've already played and loved Dark Tetras and had a smidge of progress on this one. If you recall, when I tried out Splat Dualies for the first time I thought I might like them more. I'm not sure about which I like more now, because trying out this kit reminded me that Tetras are still very fun and play differently. Tetras get to fight and slide around constantly. Even if the kill time is slower, you are a lot harder to hit so you can survive longer. Being able to shoot during the rolls also makes certain kills look very flashy. Sprinkler is a shame here, but you can just chuck it in annoying spots to add pressure. It helps charge the special too, and kind of frees up your gear dependency a good bit. But Zipcaster is really good here. Unlike most Zip weapons you don't want to fight in the air much. Instead it's better to use it to get onto enemy platforms and fight with the main directly. I really like playing both Tetras kits, it just sucks that half of each kit is weak.

That does it for now, thankfully this round didn't have many difficult to play weapons. Next batch should wrap up most of the main weapons, and then we start returning to weapons for their 2nd kits after that. See ya then!