Five Tips Learned from Splatoon to Help You in Splatoon 2!

It is July 21^st, 2017 and Splatoon 2 is now officially out! Nintendo’s highly anticipated sequel to their hit, 2015 shooter landed on retail shelves and the eshop this morning, much to the delight of fans all over the world. Whether you are a returning veteran from Splatoon 1 and just need to freshen up, or a new player who never got experience the original, I’m sure a lot of players are going to find themselves rusty or inexperienced when jumping into an online battle. Well don’t worry, because I have taken five tips from Splatoon 1 that still apply to Splatoon 2 in order to help us all be prepared to splat our opponents!

·        Try out different weapons

It is incredibly vital to try out every weapon type and new weapon that you unlock at least once. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to take every single weapon into an online battle with you, as traveling to the game’s shooting/practice range should suffice. Every weapon type acts very differently from one another, each having their own strengths and weaknesses that will be better for specific maps, modes, and play styles. For example, rollers are incredibly powerful and put down a lot of ink, but have short range, therefore making them good for players who like to hang back and cover a lot of turf, or players who like to play up close and personal in order to smack down a wave of ink on their opponents. Chargers, on the other hand, cover very little turf at a time and have a slow fire rate, but have great range and damage. This makes chargers great for offensive minded players who still like to hang back and stay out of the thick of things. Players who choose chargers can find high ground and take out opponents from afar, or even create a straight trail of ink for their teammates to swim through in order to infiltrate enemy territory. Play around with every weapon type and find what best suits your play style, and don’t forget to mix and match depending on the map or game mode!

·        Play through the story (Hero Mode) to sharpen your skills

Like with any good multiplayer game, there are two very important ways to sharpen your skills and improve your play. Play a lot and play through the story. Since this is a list for launch day and no one has had the chance to play a lot yet, we will cover the latter. The original Splatoon’s story campaign was designed in a way to give players an interesting and fun single-player experience, but was also intended to teach basic game mechanics, like jumping and sneaking up on enemies. However, fine-tuned skills were also taught by playing through the story, like precise and quick aiming. The same is also true for Splatoon 2’s hero mode, and to an even greater extent. Splatoon 1 locked players into using just 1 weapon for story mode. Splatoon 2, however, allows players to choose from a variety of weapon types for every level of the story mode. This allows players to not only develop their skills, but weapon specific skills as well. Therefore, players have no greater training option for Splatoon 2 than playing through the games awesome Hero Mode!

·        Clothing options are for more than just style

One of the best and most interesting mechanics in the original Splatoon was the ability to customize the apparel of your character which also granted specific abilities based on the clothing items worn. Unfortunately, there are too many different abilities to go into in this post, and Splatoon 2 adds even more of these customizable clothing/ability options. However, it is crucial to experiment with different clothing items/abilities in order to best suit your own playstyle or preferences. There are abilities for so many different things, such as roll-dodging after a super jump, conserving the amount of ink used, movement speed, etc… Experimentation is crucial in learning your ability preferences. Have a favorite outfit, but the abilities of your outfit are not what you prefer? Don’t worry, this is customizable in Splatoon 2 as well! Clothing really is key in Splatoon!

·        Don’t play every game mode the same way

When the original Splatoon launched, the game was pretty bare bones. There wasn’t much in the way of variety, especially in game modes. However, Nintendo supported Splatoon long after launch, giving the game much needed depth. All of this added depth is returning in Splatoon 2, and that includes all of the game modes. The primary game modes for online are: turf war, splat zones, rainmaker, and tower control. Each game mode is very unique, requiring very different strategies. Therefore, if you approach every game mode the same, then you are holding your team and your own potential back. For example, in turf war, you may want to use a roller to hang back and efficiently cover every inch of turf you can with ink. However, if you do this during splat zones, then you are wasting your time. In splat zones, the objective is to control a certain area of the map, therefore the turf far outside of the designated splat zone is not nearly as important as the area within and immediately around the splat zone. You have to be aware of the rules of each game mode and play to your strengths specifically designated for that mode.

·        Experiment with your control setup

In Splatoon 2, there are two very obvious control differences, motion controlled aiming, and traditional stick controls. This is the obvious decision that you have to make first. Which do you honestly prefer? Don’t be in such a hurry to throw out the idea of motion controls just because of the “casual” stigma surrounding them. On the other hand, however, don’t feel locked into motion controls just because it is the way that Nintendo intended for the game to be played. Experiment with both, and see what you prefer. I personally prefer traditional controls, but there are also very talented Splatoon players that swear by motion controls. The choice is ultimately up to you. There are also other control decisions that have to be made and fine-tuned. What controller will you use? Joy-con or pro controller? You can also adjust specific control settings, such as look sensitivity and inverted controls. Once again, experimentation is key, so feel free to mess around in your options menu and see what works best for you!

There you have it! Five simple tips to immediately help you improve your game in Splatoon 2. All of these tips were taken from what I personally found helpful from my time with the original Splatoon, but they can, and should, be applied to the sequel as well! Implement these five tips into your gameplay arsenal, and you will be sure to have the jump on many of your inexperienced, rusty, or less informed opponents! As always, most importantly, have fun!