Splatoon 3 beginner’s guide, tips, and tricks

Splatoon 3This is the second installment in the series, available for Nintendo Switch. It also includes new weapons and quality-of life features.

There is a platformer mode that features fun bosses, great music and boss fights. But the real meat of the game lies in the multiplayer Turf War mode. Four-on-four players compete to cover the most area with colored ink. With all the different types of weapons and customization options, it’s chaos every single time.

If you’ve never played a Splatoon game before, or maybe if you’re rusty from the last release five years ago, we’ve provided some tips to help you win your Turf War games.

Do you feel stuck? You feel stuck or stale?

Whether you’re stuck on a story mode level or on a losing streak in Turf Wars, switching your weapon up can help get you out of your slump.

While lots of story mode levels will require you to use the basic hero gun, some let you pick between specific weapons — and the “recommended” weapon isn’t always the easiest one to beat the level with.

Image: Nintendo via Polygon

The shops are reset at 8:20 p.m. ET

Our experience has shown that all shops will receive new loot starting at 8 PM EDT. In addition to new stock in the shops, you’re able to do one discounted gachapon draw per day at the “Shell-out Machine” in the lobby, which also reset at this time. We’re unsure if this is a local time or global time reset, though, and we’ll update this post when we figure it out.

It’s about painting the horizontal, not the vertical

Painting walls is important for climbing, but doing so doesn’t contribute to your score. Focus on painting the floors, as that’s what counts in Turf Wars.

Your ultimate talents can be used to replenish your ink tanks.

Your gauge should not fill up so you are able to take advantage of your final ability as soon possible. You can use the gauge to refill your ink tanks, which will help you avoid sticky situations.

Make sure to ink the base

You don’t have to ink it all right away at the start of the map, but each time you respawn and pass through the base, you should ink it a little bit more until it’s fairly covered. There are times where you’ll beat out the other team just because their base isn’t properly painted, and you don’t want to be on the losing end of that.

Image: Nintendo via Polygon

The most important aspect of the game is learning the maps

Knowing the Turf War maps you’re playing on will give you a huge advantage. It’ll help a ton to know where to infiltrate the enemy base and where common choke points are. You’ll also want to know several routes to go when choke points are being contested and where you can go to flank your enemies.