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Warning: Unmarked spoilers aplenty for Splatoon 3: Side Order
Splatoon 2's Hub Level, Inkopolis Square, washed out of all color, with the tower lobby transformed into an odd structure called the Spire of Order. In reality, it is a VR simulation created by Marina that she had lost control of, and whose reclamation makes up the story Splatoon 3's Side Order DLC.
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Order Sector
General
- Artificial Human: Anyone not of the real world is this, being digital constructs created by Marina to inhabit the Spire. Whether Cipher is one of these is significantly more ambiguous.
- Brain Uploading: This can be done remotely through an exploit of the sea-cucumber phones that Marina discovered and neglected to fix. Unfortunately, this just helps supplement Order's plan to assimilate the minds of everyone.
- Game Within a Game: An unusual case were the game in the game is part of a major plotline rather than a side adventure. The Memverse (officially titled Dramatic Days in Orderland) is a VR game designed by Marina to help the sanitized regain their memories, with the steps to do so gameified to make the experience more fun for the users:
- Color Chips are meant to be Mem Cake memories converted into data that will seek out their owner, who will be able to select them and input them into a palette, AKA their soul.
- The climb through the Spire of Order and all of the enemies and challenges inside are deliberate attempts at adversity for the users, as adversity helps lock in their memories to the soul.
- When they reach the top, the process will be complete, granting them back their memories and soul, and in the process their free will in the real world.
- Inside a Computer System: Eight, Acht, Marina and Pearl find themselves sucked into the Order Sector, and are unable to leave. Their bodies aren't actually real, but their minds are.
- Not the Intended Use: The crux of the campaign's problem. The Memverse was designed as a way to help the victims of Kamabo Co. recover their lost memories in a safe, encouraging environment. Order, the Big Bad, hijacks the entire thing and tries to use it to brainwash and take away the free will of all life on the planet.
Inhabitants
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: They serve a similar role to the Denizens of the Deep from the previous game, uninteractable creatures that populate the hub area of the game. The Denizens mostly have the appearance of adults commuting by subway to get to where they need to go; the Order Sector inhabitants are all juveniles of their species wandering around purposelessly outside the Spire of Order.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: All of them are quite cute, but the jellyfish take the cake thanks to their tiny sizes and the large pants they wear.
Cipher
- Advertised Extra: Barely counting as one. Cipher appears among the very last pre-release screenshots and promotional art for Side Order, perhaps because of how late Cipher shows up in Side Order proper, which is after your first successful run, so when the main story is already over, and the prawn is basically just a shopkeeper.
- Ambiguous Gender: If you squint and look really hard, you might see some very faint and vague feminine traits (its curved chest, and that its robe sorta resembles a dress), but besides that Cipher's design is too ethereal/inhuman to assign a gender to with any level of confidence. Dialogue is no help, since everyone refers to Cipher as an "it".
- A Lizard Named "Liz": It's a Lucifer prawn
named Cipher. - Grew Beyond Their Programming: According to a Famitsu interview it's actually one of the Order Sector Zooplankton that, due to an influx of memories absorbed by the Memverse, became sapient and developed a curiosity for knickknacks.
- Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: What was once a mere programming node like the other residents of the Order Sector has suddenly gained sentience thanks to several of the Memverse's collected memories flowing into it. Marina didn't deliberately create Cipher to be this way.
- Meaningful Name: A "cipher" can mean a 'secret', which is fitting for someone with no backstory and their presence as a whole is a mystery.
- Seldom-Seen Species: Appears to be a prawn of the Luciferidae family.
Jelletons
In General
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Later (optional) dialogues reveal that Marina originally programmed the Jelletons to actually aid in the process of desanitization before Order hijacked the Memverse and turned them hostile. Marina also remarks that Order made the Jelletons look a lot more intimidating than they originally were.
- Black Eyes of Evil: Strengthened mob Jelletons have the red lights on their pupils shrunken, giving their eyes a predominant black color as they rush you down.
- Blob Monster: For the non-skeletal Jelletons, specifically those based on sea creatures that don't have them. Where the more fish-like ones look like skelletons encased in black goop, the non-fish Jelletons look like blobby creatures partially encased in a hard white shell.
- Blown Across the Room: The lighter Jelletons suffer from this pretty easily. Anything from explosions to their own fellow Jelletons can cause them to fly uncontrollably in the air. With the right color chips, you can send them flying even further, sometimes sending them off the stage in a Ring Out.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: They can be compared and contrasted with the Salmonids in several different ways.
- Both are mostly piscine creatures whose main battle strategy in defeating their opponents is overwhelming them with their numbers. The three base Jelletons (Swarming Languendo, Marching Andante and Battering Lento) are pretty clear cut counterparts of the Smallfry, Chum, and Cohocks respectively.
- On the contrary, while the Salmonids are known to have a culture and society all of their own, and are as sapient as the rest of the denizens of the world of Splatoon, the Jelletons are mindless robots that exist solely to carry out the whims of their mysterious leader.
- The Salmonids loosely represent chaos, for their technology is scrap metal cobbled into machines and their aesthetic gives off an edge of The Apunkalypse. The Jelletons on the other hand represent order, being made out of sharp, stark, factory-built materials, and overall bring to mind a Robot War.
- Salmonids do not get slowed down by Inkling/Octoling ink at all; all your ink does is help you and your coworkers make your jobs easier by moving around Salmon Run job sites easier. Jelletons, on the hand, do, and there’s quite an array of Color Chips where you can splat them (or at the very least, damage them) simply by being a diligent turf painter.
- Dem Bones: Their designs invoke this, resembling the skeletons of certain fish species wrapped in a black goop.
- Fiendish Fish: Antagonistic robots that mostly resemble various species of fish.
- Increasingly Lethal Enemy: If they stay out for too long, they'll enter an agitated state that increases all of their attributes. The "Stronger Jelletons" room effect will have all of them in this state the second they spawn.
- Mook Maker: Jelleton portals are what spawn these creatures into battle. There are two variants; destructible, bubble shaped ones that need to be destroyed as part of their stage goals, and indestructible gushers that appear in the other goal types to keep you busy.
- Muck Monster: Each Jelleton is coated with a thick membrane of black goop.
- Musical Theme Naming: Each kind of Jelleton has a name that follows the scheme of "[adjective] [musical term]."
- Ominous Obsidian Ooze: Their ink is black and they serve as antagonists.
- Punny Name: Their collective name is a combination of the words Jelly, Gelatin and Skeleton, reflecting their nature as skeletal-looking machines covered in black goop.
- Sickly Green Glow: In "Lights Out" rooms, nearby Jelletons have a faint green glow to their normally-white bones.
- Zerg Rush: Like the Salmonids, the main strategy of the Jelletons is to spawn en masse and overwhelm you with their numbers. The higher up the tower you are, the greater their numbers will become.
Swarming Languendo
- Fragile Speedster: They're the weakest of the Jelletons, but move faster. They'll usually be the first to arrive to your location as a result.
- No-Sell: They're the only non-flying Jelleton to be immune to the effects of ink, thanks in part due to floating partially off the ground through a connective string of bones. They sometimes stretch up higher to show it off.
- Support Party Member: They aren't particularly threatening to you, being easily one shot by even an unupgraded weapon. However, they're immune to your ink thanks to their own, meaning they'll be clearing a path for the other Jelletons to take and get to you faster.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: They're the Order version of the Smallfry, as the runts of the mook army that are weak but spawn in large groups to compensate.
Marching Andante
- The Goomba: They are common enemies without any special attributes.
- Meaningful Name: Andante means "at a walking pace," which fits with Marching Andante's movement speed.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: They're basically the Order Sector's answer to the Chum.
Battering Lento
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: In ∞ Ball stages and the Pinging Marcialle boss, they're programmed to go for the two objects and bump them around, which often results in them turning around and ignoring you to go hit the ball.
- Fastball Special: They can slam into allies and launch them at you. They often land behind you to create a pincer movement if you're not observant.
- Helpful Mook: In Infinity Ball levels, they're compelled to knock the ball around but they don't have any regard for the direction they aim, meaning they can sometimes hit it into the socket for you. As well, the fact they actively beeline for them means they're useful in locating the ball in case you lose track of it.
- Meaningful Name: Lento means "slow," which fits with Battering Lento's slower speed.
- Mighty Glacier: They're quite slow, but as bulky as they look.
- Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: Their usual method to bash other Jelletons in the air to land behind you can result in some of them flying off the stage and perishing. Play your cards well, and you can bait a Lento's normal attack to hit a Jelleton they weren't aiming for.
- Shoulder Teammate: On higher floors, they start to spawn carrying other Jelletons on their backs. They'll drop onto the ground and act on their own if you kill the Lento first, but you can also just shoot the piggybacking mook first.
- Smash Mook: The Battering Lento can't ink turf, can't fly, and moves rather slowly. Its only notable attributes are occasionally being used as a mount by other Jelletons, having lots of health, and hitting hard. Really hard. A single blow can put Eight in critical condition.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The Lento is essentially the Order Sector's version of a Cohock.
Portal
- Defeat Equals Explosion: When destroyed, portals will explode in a Booyah Bomb-style sphere of ink that will wipe out any nearby Jelletons. Useful as is, but it can be made even more useful thanks to them being affected by Splash Radius and Bomb Damage chips. If you're lucky with the stage, just popping one will destroy all of them in a lovely chain reaction.
- Foreshadowing: Looking closely one will notice that they're staked to the spot. Fighting against the Overlorder will involve portals that are untethered, and after the first phase they will begin moving around the arena once damaged.
- Mook Maker: They spawn in wave after wave of Jelletons if left alone.
Drizzling Capriccioso
- Airborne Mook: They float above turf with their tails, preventing your ink from slowing or damaging them.
- Evil Counterpart: They are similar in function to the player's Sprinkler sub-weapon, focusing on spraying ink in a fixed radius.
- Heli-Critter: Given that they're robotic, they spin their tails around to fly.
- Support Party Member: No combat capabilities for this Jelleton, but their ink spray can protect their fellows against your ink. They're more of a threat in Splatzones floors, where they will beeline for the zones in order to convert it to their side and undo your progress.
Panicking Alla Mambo
- Cowardly Mooks: True to their moniker of "Panicking", they try to flee when Eight draws near. However, they also try to run from Eight's bombs, which you can use to your advantage.
- Fragile Speedster: Not particularly tanky, but they move blindingly fast. You'll want to predict their routes and cover them in ink in order to get them to stay still long enough to shoot.
- Notice This: A particle effect of black pixels float of off them when they're idle, making it easy to note their locations.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Being Cowardly Mooks who race around on wheels and throw bombs at the player to attack, they're this to the Tentakooks.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: They hurl out Splat Bombs to attack.
Whirling Accelerando
- Attack Its Weak Point: Its head is its weak spot— while it isn't required to take out the Accelerando, doing so through this method will cause it to leave behind its shell, which can then be used against other Jelletons.
- Helpful Mook: The shell it leaves behind is a very powerful weapon that can one-shot most Jelletons and deal heavy damage to the rest.
- Lightning Bruiser: Once they start spinning, they move around very fast and hit very hard. You don't want to be in their trajectory should one succesfully start its spin.
- Spectacular Spinning: Their modus operandi is trying to crash into Eight while spinning rapidly. Defeating them can let you use that attack for yourself against their fellows.
Springing Spiccato
- Glass Cannon: Their health isn't anything to write home about, and their stomp attack is heavily telegraphed, but when it hits, it hits hard.
- Helpful Mook: They leave behind their pedestals on death, which can be used to jump high into the air to get to safety or reach higher ground, as well as splat or knockback any Jelletons nearby.
- Hopping Machine: Like the Octohoppers, jumping around is their only method of locomotion.
- Shockwave Stomp: Their method of attack is jumping into the air, hanging there for a second, and then dropping back down in a shockwave of ink not unlike the Splashdown. Normally, they only do so when they're close enough to Eight, but they will deploy the attack automatically if you splat a Battering Lento they're riding on.
Gushing Trionfale
- Company Cross References: They act similarly to the Ptooie Piranha Plants, with both blowing a ball-shaped projectile in the air and some adaptations have them spit the ball at the player.
- Feed It a Bomb: A self inflicted case where shooting the sphere will cause the bomb to be changed to your color and fall in their mouths.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: If you shoot the sphere while they're still holding it, the converted bomb will fall into their mouth and blow them up.
- Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: Shooting the spheres after they're tossed will convert them to your color and release the bomb inside.
- Stone Wall: Their shells are incredibly durable, so the only way to beat them quickly is to shoot their bombs to force it to fall into them.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: They attack by throwing bombs at you.
Spawning Accordo
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Pop all of the seeds on its head and the Accordo will explode in a blast of ink.
- Mix-and-Match Critter: Its body resembles a giant anglerfish, but the lure is replaced with a ping pong tree sponge where the Homing Arpeggios spawn from.
- Mook Maker: Constantly spawns Homing Arpeggios.
- Truth in Television: It and the Homing Arpeggio follow the sexual dimorphism real life anglerfish are subject to, with the Spawning Accordo being larger than the Homing Arpeggio by a good amount the way females are larger than the males.
Homing Arpeggio
- Action Bomb: They explode upon colliding with terrain or the player.
- Airborne Mook: Can fly in pursuit of the player.
- Mook-Themed Level: One of the "Danger" conditions is Arpeggio Barrage, which causes Homing Arpeggios to constantly spawn in waves.
Towering Nobilmente
- Composite Character: Combines the Octosniper's method of attacking with the Stinger's segmented tower structure.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: If you knock out the head before any of its segments, those segments will all explode individually.
- Long-Range Fighter: The snipers of the Jelleton armada.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Their faces resemble seahorses, but they puff up to resemble pufferfish.
- Segmented Serpent: Played With in this case. Knocking out its body segments is advised but not necessary to splat it, as its head is what needs to be destroyed to defeat it. Weapons with enough range can simply hit the head to get rid of it instantly.
- Stationary Enemy: They only move to find a vantage point to snipe at you from. Once that's done, they'll stay there.
Boss Jelletons
In General
On the 10th and 20th floors, you'll be faced with a boss that stands in your way of getting to the top. These Jelletons are tougher than normal, so pray you've got some good color chips before entering their floors.
- Boss Subtitles:
- "The Layered Rotator, Asynchronous Rondo".
- "The Elusive Bounder, Pinging Marciale".
- "The Intensifying Harmony, Parallel Canon".
- Enemy Summoner: They'll summon Jelletons to attack you during their fights in order to make things harder, the rate of which vary between the three.
- Hell Is That Noise: The Pinging Marciale and (especially) Asynchronous Rondo make constant, bizarre noises throughout their entire fight. They're respectively trying to sing Fly, Octo, Fly and Ebb and Flow, but at half the speed and in out of order chunks. If Marina originally designed and programmed them, then it's probable that they were meant to play the songs correctly but they were corrupted by Order.
Asynchronous Rondo
The Layered Rotator
A towering Jelleton that resembles a snail shell. As you work on cutting it down to size, it will send Jelletons your way as you knock it out one ring at a time, searching for you with rotating lights.- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Marina designed it to be a hospitality manager of sorts for the Memverse, but Order's takeover has turned it aggressive and destructive.
- Attack Its Weak Point: To defeat Rondo in a timely manner, you need to target its many faces, as these take far less damage to destroy rather than the rings. As well, you only need to target the ones that are lit up with a ring of lights. Defeat those and the entire tower collapses in an instant, provided you have the range to reach those segments.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: It is a colossal boss, so big that it’s easy to call it a building.
- Cores-and-Turrets Boss: With quite the variety of Turrets. It is capable of firing Sting Rays, a Splat Bomb barrage, Toxic Mist, Torpedos, Homing Arpeggios…
- Eek, a Mouse!!: For a lack of a better trope. Trying to slip underneath Rondo will cause it to lift itself up and, if it's not burned out, will emit Wave Breaker waves until Agent 8 is no longer underneath it.
- Meaningful Name: "Asynchronous" is a rather apt name, as all of its rings do not spin in the same time as the the others, with each ring rotating in the opposite direction as the one above it.
- Panopticon of Surveillance: Its design invokes the feel of the Panopticon, as a rotating tower constantly surveying its radius at all times, and attacking with force when it catches you in its search lights. The name of its boss theme, 0ct0pic0n, makes the inspiration even clearer. As well as the fact its arena sits on top of an actual panopticon prison.
- Segmented Serpent: It's a tower divided into multiple sections that need to be destroyed one by one. Only the lit up ones need to be destroyed, but if you don't have range on your side, you'll have to destroy the segments one by one just to get to the top.
- Stationary Boss: Natch, with this boss's sheer size.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Bears a resemblance to the Dreaded Octonozzle who has not been seen since the first game. Both are robot bosses that are stationary towers with rotating layers with exposed weak points on said layers who are fought in single player campaigns, though the way they fight and are defeated are different.
- Tactical Suicide Boss: Rondo has a tactic where it starts spinning faster and faster, signed by it retracting its myriad of faces in, then goes on the attack once it stops. Of course, once it stops, it’s a burned out sitting duck, as its faces are now totally exposed with zero ability to fight back until it cools down. As it loses more of its segments, the invisible timer gets shorter and shorter.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: One of its potential attacks when it finishes spinning is to fire out a barrage of Splat Bombs at the player. Torpedos are also one of its potential attacks it can throw when your caught in its spotlight.
Pinging Marciale
The Elusive Bounder
A giant, ball shaped Jelleton. It's affected by ∞-Ball physics, meaning it'll roll around as you shoot it, all the while summoning enemies and bombs as it bounces all over the place.- Admiring the Abomination: Marina can't help but admire this Jelleton's incredible defensive and offensive design.
- Animal Motifs: Urchins. Its arena has giant urchins sticking around in the background, and the mouths of the creature resembles a real urchin's aristotle's lantern. Its insides also taste of sea urchin.
- Attack Its Weakpoint: It has two faces on either side of its body where it will take full damage compared to hitting it in its armored shell. After one of its attacks, or if it hits a bumper, it will expose more of itself along its radius to give you more to hit.
- Evil Counterpart: It visually resembles the Octowhirl from the first game, and has a similar attack involving rolling around the stage to run you over. Unlike Octowhirl, it won't sink into your ink.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: When its radius opens up, there are eyes running along the length of it.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: Whatever time isn't spent shooting at it, dodging attacks or splatting summoned Jelletons, it will be spent chasing after it as it rolls wildly across the room.
- King Mook: To, of all things, the ∞-Ball. The crux of its boss fight is trying to control its direction in order to bounce it into the bumpers or slow it down in order to hit its weak spot, all the while it damages whatever it hits in the process, much like the regular ∞-Ball levels. Only, the ball can fight back this time.
- Matryoshka Object: Its covered in a layer of shields, with each round destroying it to reveal a smaller version of itself that is lighter and more mobile as a result.
- Pinball Zone: Its stage is littered with bumpers, with it acting as the pinball. If it bumps into them, it will bounce into the air and spawn enemies before hitting the ground, creating a Wave Breaker shockwave. However, it will also expose more of itself to hit, as well as prevent from using its more dangerous attacks, so it's worth bouncing it into a bumper once in a while.
- Ring-Out Boss: To be able to do consistent damage to Marciale, you need to hit it into a bumper. As it loses more and more layers, more bumpers will spawn.
- Rolling Attack: If it's left alone for too long, it will start to rev up before launching itself across the battlefield. It becomes immune to attack and will destroy any bumpers it runs into before capping it off with an explosion of ink. The less shell it has, the more times it will do the roll. And fighting it on the 20th floor will have it leave behind Suction Bombs for good measure.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Bears a resemblance to the Rampaging Octowhirl who has not been seen since the first game. Both are robot bosses that are giant spiked balls fought in single player campaigns, though the way they fight and are defeated are different.
- Super-Scream: It occasionally unleashes Killer Wail beams from its radius, and more of them are fired with each layer destroyed. On the one hand, they aren't aimed, but just fired outwardly in a ring pattern around the boss. However, it also can make things dicey if the boss is rolling around a lot since it basically can cause the beams to go in all directions, so it's best to stop shooting at it until it stops, or push it into the nearest bumper to halt the attack.
- Shed Armor, Gain Speed: Over the course of its fight, as you deal damage to it, the thing's outer layers break off. This improves its ability to Rolling Attack you, doing that move more rapidly and more often, as well as making it lighter.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: Hawks up Splat Bombs as one of its attacks. It throws one on a 10th Floor match, but upgrades to three on the 20th floor. It also mixes in Suction Bombs with its roll attack, and fires out Homing Arpeggio's while rolling normally.
Parallel Canon
The Intensifying Harmony
Bipedal drones with the appearance and fighting ability of Inklings - particularly that of Agent 4.- Artificial Human: They're constructs just like the other Jelletons, only designed to resemble Inklings (with one in particular resembling Agent 4). Close inspection of their models show their limbs and tentacles visibly pulse, as if the Inkling body is merely a shell covering a gelatinous inside. A Famitsu interview confirms that the leader drone is a direct copy of Agent 4, with the others being copies of it in turn.
- Bootstrapped Leitmotif: In the same vein as "Splattack!" being used to represent Agent 3 in Octo Expansion, Parallel Canon borrows a little bit of Splatoon 2's main theme for its battle fight (and, by extension, represents Agent 4 through it). Specifically, "EchΘ Θnslaught" has a part around 48 seconds in that shares a melody with the bridge of "Inkoming!".
- Breaking Old Trends: While not the first time an Inkling has been fought as a boss encounter (see Agent 3 in Octo Expansion), this is the first time you encounter groups of enemy Inklings in a single-player campaign.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Unlike the Agent 3 fights from Octo Expansion, they downplay this. The one drone who has Agent 4's hair will always deploy a Triple Splashdown upon leaving its spawn cage, just to punish players who get too cocky, which you can't really pull off yourself. Though in this case the only part that's cheating is being able to immediately deploy it, as since the drone isn't super-jumping, it can perform the full splashdown rather than the single splash only allowed by the super-jump. It's still lampshaded by Pearl this boss' entry in the Jelleton Field Guide, however:Pearl: They can do Triple Splashdowns out of nowhere?! Where'd these biters learn THAT trick?
- Dueling Player Characters: The boss was created from Agent 4's data, and the leader even uses the appearance of your Inkling character from Splatoon 2 if you have that game's save data, or the default female Inkling from that game otherwise.
- Evil Knockoff: The leader of Parallel Canon is a drone made to resemble Agent 4, down to the hairstyle used in your Splatoon 2 save data. For additional irony, Agent 4 is the only playable Agent who joined Team Chaos during the Final Fest, so it's fitting that their evil, robotic counterpart serves Order.
- Ground Pound: The leader drone always enters the fight with a Triple Splashdown, which can catch you off guard if you try to wait for it at its landing spot.
- Logical Weakness: They do everything Eight does... which means they also enter the arena the same way, through a cage before floating down with their drones. This makes their landing area very easy to predict, so something like a charger with just a little bit of homing shot can splat them before they even hit the ground. They also are no more durable than multiplayer opponents or enemy Octolings in other campaigns, so the time to splat them is fairly quick.
- Meaningful Name: Besides the obvious musical reference (namely the "Pachelbel's Canon" Progression), the name "Parallel Canon" may be a reference to the many appearances and personalities Agent 4 (and by extension the other Agents) can take on in the players' minds. It could also be a reference to the outcome of the previous game's Final Fest: in another universe, Inklings would be fighting on the side of Order, not Chaos.
- Mirror Boss: Naturally, since they fight like players, but they also have drones of their own that they use, and will copy any Color Chip upgrades you have. Unlike Octo Expansion's Agent 3 fights, however, they don't have access to anything you don't, making them easy to outfox if you know what you're doing, given a Charger or a Splatling with enough range and auto-aim and you can easily spawncamp them.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: They wear masks with unnerving red eyes, demonstrating their nature as mindless drones. You can actually purchase the mask as headgear for multiplayer use from Cipher.
- Robot Me: The drone leader is based off of Agent 4's appearance, which is far more noticeable if you imported your save file of Splatoon 2 to Splatoon 3.
- Wolfpack Boss: They come in waves, and their numbers increase if you fight them on Floor 20. Some of them will also spawn Jelletons to increase their numbers.
The Mastermind
Order (ALL SPOILERS UNMARKED)
Click here to see it as Overlorder
Click here to see it as Smollusk
The true master of the Spire of Order. Order is a consciousness born from the desires for order itself. It aims to pull everyone into the virtual world of the Memverse and "grayscale" them, turning them into mindless drones free of chaos, change, and free will.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Like Tartar before it, what was intended to be a rehabilitation program intended to provide a digital world that helped Sanitized Octolings and other victims of Kamabo Co. regained their lost selves ended up creating an AI that deciding that it would achieve its directive by forcibly pulling everyone into its world and robbing them of their free will. Before its boss fight as itself, it becomes distressed when it realizes its creator believes that it's worth having some chaos in their lives and goes berserk.
- Antepiece: The first phase of its fight (which is repeated during rematches against them) is similar to the fight against Marina being controlled by it. Both require you to destroy all of the portals to deactivate the shield protecting the boss, though in Order's case you have to repeat this process three times.
- Assimilation Plot: Its end goal is to bring everyone into the Memverse so it can grayscale them, deleting their capacity for free will in the process.
- Big Bad: Order is the main antagonist of Side Order.
- Black-and-White Insanity: Order thinks that Chaos Is Evil and immediately dismisses any arguments against its position, completely sure of its beliefs. Smollusk's notes are especially like this with the Deep Cut members.
- Boss Subtitles: Initially, Overlorder is introduced as "The Magistrate of Order", but each time you face it in a rematch, it gains a different title with an increasing number pun shoehorned in:
- The One Slight Catch
- The Second Restoration
- History Threepeats
- The Foursaken Remnant
- Pent-Up Frustration
- Back to Basix
- Acsept No Substitutes
- Increasingly Despereight
- Saturnine Squatter
- Tentacled Troublemaker
- It also gets "Last Order" for the rematch using Agent 8's Palette, and every rematch after that gives it the title "Obstructive Ordeal".
- Calling Your Attacks: Fitting for its childish personality, it is fond of calling what attacks it is using. He noticably wises up on this the more you beat him.
- Category Traitor: Smollusk holds a certain distaste for Eight and all Octolings who deserted the Octarian Army. It's something it inherited from the Octoling developers who secretly resented Marina for being part of that massive change in the status quo.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: That Color Wail Pearl put Order through really did a number on it. Oh sure it lives, but it lost its fourth phase, and is pretty much condemned to be called "Smollusk" due to its new body that Pearl inadvertently forced it into.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Mr. Grizz and Commander Tartar:
- Mr. Grizz and Commander Tartar were creations of humanity, meant to be failsafes in order to prevent things from going wrong (Grizz to preserve Earth's wildlife; Tartar to prevent future civilizations from repeating humanity's mistakes). Order is a creation of Cephalopod society, and an attempt to fix what was already lost (restoring the memories of sanitized Octolings).
- Mr. Grizz is thousands of years old and speaks in businessman jargon whenever appropriate. Tartar is likewise very old and its Totally Radical speech comes off like an out-of-touch elder trying to step down to the level of children. Order was created no less than five years before Side Order, and (as Smollusk) talks like a petulant small child.
- Mr. Grizz's motives were always sketchy, but his true intentions were hidden for his debut game, and it took the next game to show off. Once Order shows up, its ultimate goal is explained and put into action almost immediately.
- Tartar and Grizz' plans to rewrite the biology of all living beings on the planet would completely upend the world as it exists. Order wants things to stop changing forever and indefinitely preserve the status quo.
- Commander Tartar is an Absolute Xenophobe who wanted to kill off all life on the planet for petty reasons, while Mr. Grizz is ambivalent to the well-being of the sea creatures around him; he only needs them so that something can be mammalized in his ultimate plan. Order wants to create a utopia for everyone, even if its vision of that is warped.
- Commander Tartar and Mr. Grizz became evil due to wanting to fulfill their own desires. Order became evil due to wanting to fulfill the desires of others.
- Commander Tartar's telephone body vaguely resembles a stylized octopus face. Order's Overlorder form is a very realistic octopus, and as Smollusk it's physically identical to an actual octopus paralarva.
- Commander Tartar is introduced as a goofy slang-spewing ally to Agent 8 before showing its true colors as one of the most monstrous villains in the franchise. Order starts out as an intimidating and cold antagonist who is reduced to a comical hindrance to the heroes after its initial defeat, and becomes an ally after multiple subsequent defeats.
- Commander Tartar dies with its hatred of cephalopod society intact. Order survives and, as Smollusk, eventually lets go of its antagonism towards Eight and company.
- Determinator: Even after being reduced to the diminutive Smollusk, it refuses to give up the fight and continues being the final boss of the Spire for every single Palette you use... only, in a deconstruction of the trope, it starts getting worn down with each subsequent defeat to the point where it begins to question what it's even doing putting up a fight in the first place.
- Digital Abomination: A glitchy entity that was unintentionally spawned as a byproduct of Marina's Memverse and the Octoling engineers she had hired to help with the workload.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Beating Order/Smollusk with a Palette will reveal its thoughts on the Palette's owner, usually its reasoning for why that character deserves the fate Order will give them. Some cases are quite ridiculous— Order wants to inflict Death of Personality upon Big Man for being happy despite also being stressed, or upon Callie for helping Octolings come to Inkopolis.
- Dub Name Change: Its alternate forms are known by different names in Japanese. "The Magistrate of Order, Overlorder" is 秩序の守護者、オーダコ (Guardian of Order, Ordako), while "Smollusk" is simply コダコ (Kodako).
- Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Its twue speaking woice. The reason for this speaking pattern is to reflect that fact that underneath that scary, no-nonsense AI exterior is an immature program that was recently born.
- Enfant Terrible: Once Order is defeated for the first time, it turns into the childlike Smollusk, who speaks with Elmuh Fudd Syndwome and throws tantrums about how Eight beat it, and is still intent on carrying out its original plans. However, the wickedness does get whittled away little by little with each encounter, until it finally gives up on its plans upon being defeated with Agent 8's Palette.
- Graceful Loser: In later rematches against it, it takes defeat surprisingly well.
- Heel–Face Turn: When it's eventually defeated with Agent 8's Palette, Smollusk gives up on its plans and finally settles into just overseeing the Memverse, only asking for Agent 8 to keep visiting the Spire because it's come to enjoy their battles with each other.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: As a last-ditch effort, Order tries to steal away all the Palette Chips that Agent 8 used against it... except it's still keeping the Palette Chips in the arena, and not only that, its efforts only managed to supercharge the Chips. Worse still for Order, they also have Chips Agent 8 didn’t even use for the climb up!
- I Have Many Names: Just look at all the titles Overlorder has!
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: As you reconfigure the Palettes by defeating it over and over, Smollusk's bravado starts to wane, to the point of breaking into tears at one point. Even Pearl starts to feel pity for the little thing, to the point she, Marina and Acht have to tell it that it's a legitimately tough adversary to salvage its self-esteem.
- Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: Unlike the likes of Tartar and O.R.C.A, Order was not deliberately created by anyone. It's essentially a Tulpa who formed itself out of the desire of Order from the Octoling developers Marina hired, using Marina's own subconscious as a catalyst alongside the memories contained by the Memverse, and the Jelleton generation program to give itself a body.
- Knight Templar: Order genuinely believes that a world without free will is best for everyone, and intends to forcibly erase free will from everything in the world.
- Logic Bomb: Marina insisting that chaos is a necessary part of life despite the uncertainty it brings utterly baffles Order, causing it to manifest as Overlorder in a last-ditch attempt to take out her and Eight.
- Mickey Mousing: During its boss fight, it launches all of its attacks to the beat of the music.
- Not Quite Dead: Its defeat during its boss fight seems to indicate its deletion... only for it to be revealed that it was merely reduced to a miniature octopus-like creature that now talks like a petulant child.
- Obliviously Evil: Order is well aware everyone wants to stop it, but refuses on the grounds that their reasoning and logic is flawed. It argues that a world of perfect order where everyone is forced to think the same and cannot fight is an obvious best choice. It doesn't seem to understand why everyone values their individuality, and why such a system of "Order" is more akin to a prison than some utopia.
- One-Winged Angel: It takes a more solid form as Overlorder for the final battle on 30F, which resembles a gelatinous real-world octopus.
- Order Is Not Good: Order wants to create a stagnant world of pure status quo, with no opportunity for change or free will.
- Outside-Context Problem: Unlike previous Splatoon villains, who are deeply rooted in the world's history (DJ Octavio is a longtime Octarian adversary to the Inklings, Commander Tartar is an human-made AI who observed the Inklings' evolution from their inception, and Mr. Grizz is the last surviving mammal who wants to repopulate the world with its kind), Order is a brand new Digital Abomination that tries to assimilate the world to force everyone to be as orderly as itself.
- Public Hater, Private Fan: The secret notes Smollusk keeps indicates it watches all of Off The Hook's livestreams to study their every move for a potential advantage in battle. It curses Pearl in the same line that it admits that she's really cool.
- Punny Name:
- Its One-Winged Angel form is a pun on "order" and "overlord", while its true form Smollusk is one of "smol" and "mollusk". Additionally, Order's Boss Subtitles in rematches are plays on the number of times you've rematched it — "The One Slight Catch", "The Second Restoration", "History Threepeats", "The Foursaken Remnant", "Pent-Up Frustration", "Back to Basix", "Acsept No Substitutes", "Increasingly Despereight", "Saturnine Squatter" and "Tentacled Troublemaker".
- Overlorder's original Japanese name is オーダコ (Ordako), which seems to be a pun on "Order" and "Ohtako" (Big octopus). Supporting this, it becomes the tiny コダコ (Kodako), or "little octopus", when it's defeated.
- Rage Breaking Point: Befitting the boss subtitle (specifically Pent-Up Frustration), Smollusk gets so frustrated at being bested for the sixth time, it just starts crying before you head back down.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: As Smollusk. It's an absolutely tiny, absolutely adorable octopus paralarva with big eyes. Marina even squees the second she sees it.
- Robo Speak: Speaks akin to a DOS prompt in its first form, which is a big contrast to its speech as Smollusk.
- Sore Loser: The first several times you beat it, the brat insists that Eight is cheating and calls their fights unfair. Subverted in its later encounters, where it becomes a Graceful Loser.
- Tentacled Terror: As Overlorder, it's the dangerous and tyranical AI manifesting as a realistic octopus. As Smollusk, it resembles a paralarva, but a terror? Not so much.
- Time Stands Still: In the style of the previous two campaigns' "bad ending" cutscenes; Inkopolis Plaza, Splatsville, and Order's control room are turned to a blank grayness. As Order executes its program, the flow of time approaches a complete stop, even preventing Acht from desperately reaching Marina's keyboard. However, this turns into Fission Mailed, as Eight's internal beat and Pearl's voice stops the program in its tracks.
- Tulpa: By its admission, it was created from the desire for order from the Ocotling engineers that helped create the Memverse; not Marina planning on programming an overseer, but the collective thoughts of the Memverse's creators (including, to some degree, Marina herself).
- Tsundere: Smollusk acts like a brat most of the time, but after enough defeats and being praised by Pearl and the others a few times, he keeps acting bratty but it's clear he enjoys their company.
- Villain Decay: After Order is defeated for the first time and reduced to the diminutive Smollusk, it goes from a terrifying Digital Abomination to a whiny little kid who keeps squealing that Eight's a cheater for defeating it again and again. Eventually, once defeated with Agent 8's Palette, it finally gives up on its original plans, but asks for Eight to play with it again, seeing their fights as a game from then on and is content on being a Final Boss for any future Santized Octolings playing "Dramatic Days in Orderland".
- Villainous Breakdown: It doesn't take kindly to being rejected by its world's creator, Marina, taking on a solid form to destroy Agent 8. Its breakdown continues further once 8 manages to resist its grayscaling, with it incapable of processing why.
- Vocal Dissonance: While Smollusk is able to regain its Overlorder form every time you fight it, its voice remains the same whiny, childlike tone.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: What upsets Smollusk the most following his initial defeat is that he was doing exactly what Marina and the other engineers wanted him to do: Create a perfect world of order so sanitized octolings could relax without things ever changing. Even when it's explained that what he's doing is wrong, he's more upset that Marina isn't praising him for his efforts, and it's only once Pearl acknowledges how strong of an opponent Smollusk is that he stops acting like a brat and eventually warms up to the crew.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Order does mean well when it tries to create a perfect world that never changes. However, due to being a recent program literally born from people's desire for order, it has no conception that too much Order is bad and that a little bit of Chaos is needed in the world. When defeated, Order/Smollusk thinks that its overall plan is still right, but that it may have gone overboard with its initial execution.
