Very Quick Tips: Splatoon

Jelonzo is the coolest

Just because Splatoon is a light-hearted online experience, that doesn’t mean that it lacks depth.

Here are some tips to help you along the path to ranked dominance.

General tips:

• Try out every weapon in the game. Too intimidated to play online with it? Go to the shop to give it a trial run in the training course. Play whatever you want, but know that early on, there will be a lot of rollers out there to deal with.

• Talk to the cat in town every day for the occasional bit of free gold.

• Try to recharge your ammo by going into ink constantly. If you can get somewhere by way of your squid form, do it.

• There are lots of advanced tactics in this game, but one is done by inking the ground quickly below you, squid morphing, and jumping away from your opponent. Repeat as many times as necessary.

• In the campaign, you can press any level to instantly super jump to it — it’s really useful for getting around quickly, and I didn’t even realize it until the very end.

Turf War:

• This sounds self-explanatory, but when you’re playing Turf War, look for a special (grenade or super attack) that can earn you more turf. For instance, the Splash Wall is a great defensive tool, but other powers will help you actually cover more ground. You always want to be taking turf, even while taking out enemies.

• Later on in a match, look around for areas that haven’t been covered yet. It’s safe bet that the enemy team hasn’t even realized that this place exists, and likely won’t return to it as the match ends.

• Always watch the GamePad map after a death. Is your ally deep into a base with lots of uncovered ground? Tap them to super jump to them. Mash the screen (gently) in case they die — you’ll jump over there anyway if you tap in time.

• You’ll learn to see certain weapons on the map by the pattern they lay down. For instance, it’s easy to spot a roller going in a straight line, switching the territory color. Learn to spot them and stay away if necessary, and get to higher ground.

• Ambushing people on walls is a great tactic to stay alive if you’re outgunned. While running around a corner, quickly ink the wall and stick to it. Most players won’t suspect an aerial attack from behind.

• Don’t have enough time at the end of a round after a respawn? Paint objects quickly in your base. You won’t have time to super jump or get to any useful location.

Splat Zones:

• Always get to the zone immediately, but create at least one path back. If you have nothing to do and your zone is more than covered, consider ruining the other team’s path towards their spawn. It’ll significantly slow them down when returning.

• There are a lot of items here that particularly shine in Splat Zones, like Splash Walls. Use these to block off choke points and prevent enemies from rushing into your zone.