#splatling collection

[ss-hikaru]

Squid Fashion Exhibit #14

Fashion Theme: Grey and Sparkly Pink. In my head, the sunglasses are cos the outfit plus weapon is too bright 🤣

Emote: Bashful Brag, it's pretty cute. Feels like it matches the shoes in terms of vibe.

Gear Intent: I had to put quite a lot into SpPU because I'm bad at Kraken so need time to head back to a safer position when using it offensively 😅 ISS because I guess I liked the marking capabilities of the vanilla Heavy Splatling with Wavebreaker.

Overall Thoughts: I don't like this kit. It overlaps with the Nautilus with the Point Sensor and I don't think Kraken really synergises with it. Sure I could just save it for defensive purposes, but that feels like a boring way to play and besides the game is super stall-y already. It makes me so sad. Two not-fun kits for what I would've liked to be my main 😭

[ss-hikaru]

Squid Fashion Exhibit #13

Fashion Theme: Snazzily Silver. If only you could remove the bear paws. But no matter. I really like the Squink Wingtips. It's the kinda shoe I like to look at but would never wear myself.

Emote: Introduced in Splatoon 2 so Square Show-off.

Gear Intent: The usual splatling RSU but some SSU for the charge hold. SuPU to track people for longer and SCU to get more rain.

Overall Thoughts: I really like the main weapon. I just think that the kit doesn't really synergise in practice... Sure Point Sensor can be cool with charge hold, but you really need to have ink down to make the most of it. And Ink Storm doesn't really help you get in because you can't swim through it that easily. While I feel like I could play decently with this weapon, it felt like a really stall-y type of play because I had no tools to take on any of the backlines. When you don't have ink control and have to ink your own path to be aggressive with the charge hold, you're really just telegraphing your moves. So it ended up feeling very frustrating, just trying to hold the line until my team could try to make a coordinated play (unlikely in solo queue...)

[ss-hikaru]

Squid Fashion Exhibit #12

Fashion Theme: Minty Bubbles 😊 This was originally my Nautilus 47 gear because I thought it went well with the whole charge-hold aspect, but I wasn't happy with my first Zink Mini outfit cos it very much clashed with the colours of the weapon itself 😅 After the Nautilus 79 was released, I did a big Splatling Outfit Switcheroo with this result. I'm very happy now that the colours are cohesive 🤣

Emote: Mini Splatling feels like a happy weapon so enthusiastic waves it is.

Gear Intent: Mostly RSU because Splatling. LDE because this was before they undid the Splatoon 2 ink efficiency nerfs. And 1 main ISS because Toxic Mist is so ink hungry 😣

Overall Thoughts: This weapon is hard to justify playing outside of Tower Control because it hasn't got a sub that can poke or a special that is useful unless you manage to get close enough to the enemy, which can be hard on the corridor maps. But I like this over the vanilla Mini because I don't like Ultra Stamp 😅

[ss-hikaru]

Squid Fashion Exhibit #9

Fashion Theme: A Riot of Colours! Originally I was trying not to be so blatant in terms of colour matching and had the Anarchy Tigers instead, but thought screw it. It's more fun this way. Besides I'm not fashionable, I'm fashionaablaagh.

Emote: Introduced in Splatoon 2 so gets The Square Show-off 😊

Gear Intent: RSU because splatling (Hydra being the exception). Drop Roller and SPU because Jetpack. In hindsight, I'm surprised no IR. I guess Fizzy Bomb just too valuable.

Overall Thoughts: So I was late to play this. I didn't really play much of it in Splatoon 3 so it was essentially a brand new weapon for me. But since it was meta in the early days, I held off trying it out. Part of it was because I didn't want to be "the bad ballpoint" but also cos I knew it would get nerfed and didn't want to get used to a superior version of the weapon.

I don't use this much which is probably due to me liking the Nouveau more. Plus I am pretty bad at Jetpack and kinda dislike specials where you can pop it and get absolutely zero value (this applies to Stamp and Reefslider too...)

I mostly used it in the early days of pair Anarchy Open to 'counter' chargers. In inverted commas because I would usually just get shot down immediately. I think in order to enjoy this weapon I would have to actually practice Jetpack and already know I won't 🙃

[ss-hikaru]

Squid Fashion Exhibit #8

Fashion Theme: Blue and Orange. My favourite splatoon colour combination 😊 I have loved the Orange Arrows since the Splatoon 1 days. And usually I'm not very into denim jackets, but the cobbled together orange and grey leather highlights makes it pretty visually interesting. The blue-ish tint on the glasses kinda just rounds the theme.

Emote: I like the idea of an inkling spinning around an absurdly heavy-looking weapon LOL

Gear Intent: Hmm this was before I started using Sendou.ink to see exactly how many extra charges each ability would get me, so I guess it just felt good to have 2 mains of ISM. I always need a main of SSU with hydra or it just feels too sluggish for me 😅 The rest comes from a feeling of well it would be nice to be able to throw more autobombs/booyahs/ink a bit further.

Overall Thoughts: I like this weapon but it is very slow in a fast game. It's fine in turf but I struggle getting triple-teamed in Anarchy. Maybe I should have invested in QSJ instead but back then my mentality (based on semi-maining Heavy Splatling) was to try and hold the line until my teammates respawned and backed me up (yeah it didn't work out for me).

But I have some pretty good memories of early day S+, hanging in there with my e-liter teammates. Double backline can be strong in solo queue if you both look out for each other 😊

[ss-hikaru]

Squid Fashion Exhibit #2

Fashion Theme: I wanted to try something that wasn't colour coordination. This particular combination seems to be popular though (the bolero plus Rockenberg boots). I guess this means it's not that hipster despite the glasses?

Gear Intent: The 2 mains of sub power up is probably pretty weird, but I wanted it to help harass backliners on these stupid corridor maps. On the up side, the increased burst bomb range makes for some pretty fun overtime Rainmaker stops right out of base LOL. Poor carrier probably so confused as to how they died.

Overall Thoughts: This weapon has suffered collateral damage from a bunch of nerfs aimed more at other weapons, but more recently has been getting some small buffs. Not enough to overcome the fact that this has Ultra Stamp. I hate Ultra Stamp on this weapon. Shame cos I think burst bomb goes well with the main weapon. I used to play this a little bit for Rainmaker only, praying that there would be no backline on the opposing team cos this weapon doesn't have many options to deal with them, but now I've pretty much abandoned it 😔

I guess in summary, if I wanted to play an Ultra Stamp weapon, it wouldn't be this one. If I wanted a weapon with burst bomb, there are better weapons that synergise more with the sub. And if I were to play a mini splatling, I would choose the Zimi...

[ss-hikaru]

Squid Fashion Exhibit #1

My favourite main weapon ❤️

Fashion Theme: The shirt says it all. I thought the kendama-ish special weapon felt circus-y and the fact that the glasses colour changes with ink colour multiplied the 'riot of colours' look.

Gear Intent: sub weapon is lacklustre and not worth sinking abilities into. Honestly neither is the special weapon but at least it is a free ink tank refill with potential bonus of marking and/or annoying the opponents. Given I play this as an anchor, this set up gives me the ability to hold my own and stall-out until my comrades can rejoin the fray.

Overall Thoughts: So, as much as I love the main weapon, the kit is ineffective enough that I barely play this anymore. Plus, the addition of more weapons/special weapons and the kamikaze style of play I often see from my teammates in Anarchy means it's gotten harder and harder to survive until back-up arrives. The main killer though is it's very hard to take on a charger (or other backlines) with this weapon. I know it's probably not this weapon's role, but the map design of this game often means you really have to remove the enemy backline in order to push objective and I can't do that with this weapon ☹️ I occasionally take it into turf just to remember how good the main weapon feels, but otherwise this is kinda a relic from the first couple of seasons of Splatoon 3.

At least I have the memory of winning a legit 3 v 4 in Anarchy Open. It was like concrete proof that the weapon can fulfill that anchor role given the right teammates ❤️