Splatoon has a wide variety of weapons to choose from, but although the games have intricate methods of Competitive Balance, some weapons wound up with power found to be despicably detrimental to gameplay.
For a list of weapons and kits that are too underpowered, see here.
Main Weapons
Multiple Games
- In much of Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 3's life cycles, the Shooter weapon class is the epitome of Boring, but Practical:
- They're well-rounded and tend to lack the glaring weaknesses of other weapon types.
- Their hold-to-fire-small-bullets mechanic makes most of their users very agile, which is important in the direct combat that many maps funnel players into.
- The class is home to many High-Tier Scrappies like Splatoon 3's Aerospray RG and Splash-o-Matic.
- Much of the bile the class gets comes from the devs seeming to give this particular class more love than others, as Shooters have received many notable buffs in patches and make up the lion's share of added weapon kits in new seasons.
- The Tentatek Splattershot
and its reskin Octoshot Replica. The idea behind it was a Jack of All Stats shooter weapon with decent flexibility that doesn't excel in any particular field. However, in practice, it's a weapon with very little drawbacks to it, having good range, fire rate, and power across the board. The first game's kit has Suction Bomb and Inkzooka, Splatoon 2's has Splat Bomb and Inkjet, and Splatoon 3's has Splat Bomb and Triple Inkstrike, fitting for the frontline main weapon in question. With each one often being seen as a better version of the respective game's vanilla Splattershotnote , it's by far one of the most commonly used weapons online for most of the modes, and also one of the most despised for "Stop Having Fun" Guys and Scrubs alike. - The Squeezer is another exemplary case in the Shooter arsenal.
- Despite its ability to switch to a short-range paint mode, its tap-shot mode has a maximum fire rate and three-shot kill time identical to the (full-auto-firing) Splattershot Pro's, but with even more range and precision. What makes this weapon's presence in the metagame unfortunate is its lack of accessibility to physically impaired players: the semi-automatic nature of firing the weapon makes its accuracy dependent on controller stability and puts users at risk of carpal tunnel syndrome.
- The kits proper don't alleviate this issue. Both vanilla kits have Splash Wall to turn the user into a shielded turret, along with Sting Ray and Trizooka, respectivelynote . Splatoon 2's Foil kit has Splat Bomb and Bubble Blower, making it the single best kit for the "instapop" technique. Splatoon 3's Foil kit has Autobomb, disrupting opponents around cover to alleviate the main weapon's restriction as a ranged line-of-sight shooter; and Splattercolor Screen, which normally can't blow the other kits out of the water, but infamously inflicts sensory overload on players with certain disabilities.
- The E-Liter, the slow, extra-long-range weapon of the Charger class, is hated in competitive Splatoon 1 and casual Splatoon 3:
- In Splatoon 1, the E-Liter 3K's slow charge time could be offset by the Damage Up ability — utterly bypassing the balance between attack speed and range — and its Burst Bomb greatly helps backline weapons in scramble situations. These allowed the weapon to play significantly more aggressively than intended, and the Echolocator special revealed all opponents' locations; like a primitive, overtuned version of Splatoon 3's Wave Breaker.
- The E-Liter 4K is known in Splatoon 3 for exacerbating issues players have with map design. Its long range means that it can camp a midpoint area safely, making it nigh-impossible for enemies to move through without being instantly splatted. And it can do so on nearly every stage that came with the initial release, with most of the new ones having little midpoint cover to hide from them. Using Ninja Squid to move through chokepoints isn't even that viable against it: the normal kit comes with Ink Mines and Wave Breaker to locate enemies trying to sneak past.
- The Tri-Slosher, and by extension anyone who used the Tri-Slosher, quickly grew to be widely hated since its buffs at Splatoon 2's launch:
- This short-range slosher splats in two hits, it has a fast sloshing rate, its longest ink blob borders on the Splattershot's non-falloff range, and it has a wide ink spread which makes it great at controlling objective space and painting nearby turf alike.
- Splatoon 2's vanilla kit made matters the worst. Its sub, the Burst Bomb, provides a near instantaneous burst of damage, which can be followed up by a couple of quick sloshes for the splat. Its special weapon, Ink Armor, is widely considered one of the best specials in the game, which grants the slosher player and their team a temporary shield against enemy damage and makes the Tri-Slosher's short range less of a bane. It eventually received a series of nerfs that made it it much more balanced to play against.
- Even months after being Nerfed to be a more reasonable weapon to fight against, it's still not uncommon to hear people complain about back when it was first introduced to the game.
- Soon after its release, the Bloblobber quickly became hated by a large number of players. It wasn't uncommon to see "Delete the toilet" and similar posts in Splatoon 2's Inkopolis Square:
- Though similar to other sloshers, the Bloblobber has massively increased range and lobs several ink bubbles that bounce in a straight line. If all four of these bubbles connect with an opponent, they'll be splatted in one slosh.
- Given that the majority of stages have at least a few areas of high ground over the central area or objective, a Bloblobber player can sit on an elevated platform and lob bubbles down nonstop, locking down an area completely while being nigh-unapproachable with its range as well as the Splatoon 2 vanilla kit's Splash Wall sub, plus its special Ink Storm being a reliable special for both turf coverage and pressuring enemy teams away from an area.
- Although Version 4.0.0 of Splatoon 2 severely nerfed its ink efficiency and damage to certain barriers, and it's thus agreed by pro players to be nowhere near top-tier even among its weapon class in Splatoon 3, either; it's a prominent Skill Gate Weapon in Turf War and the lower ranks of Anarchy Battle.
Splatoon 3
- The Sloshing Machine was one of the most hated weapons at launch. While it was always considered a good slaying weapon for its high-damage, longer-range direct shots, its vanilla kit has the Fizzy Bombnote while replacing the Sting Ray with the Booyah Bomb, one of the premier displacement specials of the game. The removal of Ink Armor also benefits the Sloshing Machine greatly, letting it shred through teams with little opposition. To make matters worse, a bug in early versions enabled the Sloshing Machine to splat enemies through floors and walls. Fortunately, its fire rate was decreased in Fresh Season 2023 to return it to its roots as a Blaster-like poking weapon.
- The Splash-o-Matic was a terrifyingly powerful weapon at launch. Its near-perfect accuracy and above-average range make it a very competent weapon at splatting foes, and it even retains its accuracy while airborne, negating the need to run multiple Intensify Action slots. It also comes with a great kit, with Burst Bombs being an aggressive weapon's best friend and the infamous Crab Tank giving it monstrous offensive and defensive pressure. Running multiple Splash-o-Matics was a viable strategy, and the 79th Area Cup, a Japanese tournament, had multiple teams doing exactly that.
- The REEF-LUX 450 was one of the most infamous weapons among the player base because its incredible ink coverage allows it to charge up the kit's special at an insane rate. This wouldn't be so bad if the special in question wasn't Tenta Missiles, a series of homing shots that can kill from anywhere on the map if you don't stay constantly on the move. A halfway decent player can reliably charge and spam the Tenta Missiles up to eight times in a single matchnote . Seeing a REEF-LUX on the other team will elict a groan from most players, as it means they're probably going to be spending most of the match dodging missiles. It isn't quite as dangerous as the Tri-Slosher or Bloblobber were at their heightsnote , but it has a reputation for making matches incredibly annoying, especially if there's more than one of them in play.
- Starting around late December 2023/early January 2024, the Snipewriter 5H started receiving hatred. While it's a boon for all its teammates for its rapid painting and Tacticooler output enabling so many diverse close-range options, top-level competitive started to despise the thing because anyone who wanted to play a support weapon would be strongly encouraged to pick it, and triply so if they wanted a long-range weapon. This must-pick nature combined with its incredibly passive "stand at a distance and paint" playstyle has left top-level backline players frustrated that the only viable strategy they could use was incredibly boring and samey.
Special Weapons
- The Kraken special:
- The weapon was hated in Splatoon 1 before being Nerfed in the 1.3.0 patch. While it can only attack in melee, that weakness was diminished greatly by a combination of passively inking the ground it travels over, its attack being a One-Hit KO, and being completely unfazed by any and all attacks, meaning that when anyone used it, there was very little the opposition could do in response except hope that there's enough room to stay out of its way until the user changes back. For this reason, the nerf given in 1.3.0 made it so attacks can force it back at an increased rate, much like the Bubbler. The 2.2.0 update nerfed it even further, increasing its point requirement from 180 to 200, giving it end lag that leaves the user more vulnerable when the special ends, and making it easier for enemies to hit it.
- When Splatoon 3's Fresh Season 2023 dropped, many players predicted that the Kraken Royale would snap the game in two as its ancestor did to the first game. It was invincible, had a One-Hit Kill Dash Attack to plow through unaware players, and all but forced opponents to run away and respect it. Above all else though, it was a Tower Control monster until 3.1.0 specifically nerfed its ability to capture the tower. Until then, many players saw it as a nightmare to fight an opponent who could constantly hog the objective while invulnerable. However after that if found a new mode to cheese: Clam Blitz. Because teammates could Super Jump to a Kraken user it became common for people to spend the entire match farming for specials, pop the Kraken, then roll up to the enemy basket and let their team score points with no way for the enemy to stop them. This too was eventually nerfed in the 7.2.0 update where teammates would now jump to the point where the Kraken was activated rather than the Kraken's current position. While it's still possible to perform the trick the Kraken user now must work their way to the basket normally and risk getting splatted rather than getting to waltz in freely.
- Upon Splatoon 2's initial release, the Sting Ray was considered the worst special by a wide margin due to its incredibly slow aim and lack of killing power. As a result, almost every weapon set with a Sting Ray special was passed over by most players, due to its weakness being seen as a liability. It was eventually Rescued from the Scrappy Heap when it received a buff in 1.3 that greatly widened the beam upon firing for long enough. However, this buff vaulted the weapon to the high tier end of this trope, where it became massively hated due to how strong and oppressive it was, as the special could kill any member of the enemy team anywhere on the map, or simply allow one person to stop a team push all by themselves for 8 seconds in Tower Control and Rainmaker by simply aiming at the tower or Rainmaker. Despite receiving nothing but nerf after nerf in patches, it is still the most hated special in the game, and Nintendo eventually stopped making new weapons with it as the special.
- In the launch period for both Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 3, Tenta Missiles were as annoying as ever in ranked modes. While directly nerfed between games via alterations to their homing capabilities (the missiles no longer track the target, instead aiming for wherever they were when they launched), this did nothing to address the perfect global range that made them hated in Splatoon 2. This allows the user to jump back to home base to both stay out of harm and increase their chances of locking onto the entire opposing team. Furthermore, stages exemplify Splatoon 3's love of tight hallways and cramped mids, making targeting all the easier on maps like Undertow Spillway and giving opponents little room to flee. Even if the missiles and splash damage don't get them, they'll all be scattered, displaced, and distracted from the objective in their attempts to avoid the onslaught, leaving it open for you and/or your teammates to take control and follow up with additional attacks. Even after the 2.0.0 update nerfed how frequently they could be launched, many pro players still considered it the best Special in the game thanks to its team-wide global range.
- At Splatoon 3's launch, the Crab Tank was one of the best Specials in the game competitively. The insane amount of armor granted by the special combined with its long-range, high-damage firepower allows a single player using it to completely lock down an area and stop any opponent attempting to get in dead in their tracks, often forcing them to take a suboptimal route, wait for the special's duration to expire or use their own Special to trade with it; the tank's weakness of low mobility and Back Stab-vulnerability was mostly irrelevant in the hallway maps with few routes to take to flank it. Early in the game's lifespan, high-level competitive was oriented around chaining repeated Crab Tanks to keep space, or using weapons that specifically countered it.note Its spot as the strongest special in the game petered out when subsequent patches gave it some nerfs while increasing the power of other Specials like Inkjet and Tacticooler, but many still begrudge the Special for the months it spent untouched balance-wise despite dominating the meta.
- A mid-season balance patch for Sizzle Season gave a buff to Trizooka, increasing its damage on the outside explosion radius from 40 to 60. The Trizooka was already decent for being a One-Hit Kill long-range weapon that could hit over cover, but this buff pushed its ease of use past a tipping point: it still could one-hit kill at long range over cover, but could now very reliably kill enemies with two shots from its massive explosion radius, if not easily combo with a second player to finish a weakened opponent off. This, combined with how quickly the Splattershot and Squeezer could paint to obtain their Trizookas and that it had a near-instant activation that could turn the tides of a battle has led to many frustrations from competitive players who aren't enjoying how it became too overcentralizing in the meta, culling weapon diversity and making fights overly reliant on getting a Trizooka.
- The Splashdown was considered a Low-Tier Letdown in Splatoon 2's meta for its predictable nature and heavy startup and ending lag, so hopes weren't high when a rework was announced for Splatoon 3. Then the Triple Splashdown actually came out. Its buildup is slow enough to be palatable to sluggish players, but it creates two fists that slam down alongside it, increasing its range. This combines with the overall smaller, more compact stage design of the third game to turn it from a mild nuisance into an incredibly potent form of area denial. The intended drawback is that players can destroy the fists to reduce the attack's range, but in practice this is really only useful for long-range weapons with twitch reaction times — otherwise, if you're close enough to hit the fists, you're also close enough to get splatted. It also received a hefty damage buff from Splatoon 2, allowing a direct hit to splat through the armor attained via Squid Roll. You're not safe if you shoot down the user either; since the special meter isn't drained at all until the player lands, splatting the user of a Triple Splashdown causes them to respawn with a partially filled special gauge, meaning they're free to fill it back up faster if they botch the first attempt.
