With bothSplatoon 3Chill Season and Fresh Season comes all sorts of new content, such as new maps, modes, hub features, and most excitingly, weapon kits. Each new kit promises a new possible sub and special combination, possibly making your favorite main weapon viable in the current meta.
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The sub that a weapon comes with can completely make or break how effective its main weapon can be in the field, like how Burst Bombs perfectly complimented the vanilla Splash-O-Matic where the vanilla Splattershot Pro floundered with the Angle Shooter. It’s good to see, at least, that the newer seasons have brought new weapon pairings that are sure to bring to life to the competitive scene.
10Krak-On Splat Roller And Squid Beakon
Rollers were completely maligned at launch, being generally outclassed by nearly every other weapon in the game due tolinear map design, as well as subs that gave them very few options that suited a stealthy playstyle. With the Carbon Roller Deco in Chill Season, we saw the Burst Bomb elevate its movement and combo potential, but Fresh Season’s Krak-On Roller is the first weapon in its class to be completely suited for stealth.
The Krak-On has been given the Squid Beakon, which allows it to approach through the chaos, drop a Beakon, and surprise enemies from behind. Since rollers typically have very poor defense against long-range options, this is the perfect way to get in close and spring the perfect sneak attack.
9Z+F Splat Charger And Splash Wall
It’s a surprise that the Splatoon 3 team waited until Fresh Season to give a charger Splash Wall for a sub, considering that, unless you’re an E-liter player, chargers can be punished by spamming bombs or sneaking up to them from the front. Up until now, the Splat Charger didn’t really do enough to be useful over the staggering range that the E-liter could provide.
The Splash Wall gives the Splat Charger its purpose back — now, you can stay closer to the action without getting punished as easily from the front. As players toss bomb after bomb, you can focus on picking off your target as they pop against the front of your wall.
8Tentatek Splattershot And Splat Bomb
The vanilla Splattershot was already a workhorse weapon that did more than its fair share, so the question became how a new kit for it could do better than its synergy with the Suction Bomb; thankfully, rather than pair the Tentatek with a sub that would leave its kit unused, we got its stellar partnership with the Splat Bomb.
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Both the vanilla and Tentakek variants of this weapon do well, but the Splat Bomb gives the Tentatek a more aggressive role in team play since it explodes more quickly and costs less ink to use. This new style doesn’t invalidate the vanilla Splattershot’s more methodical and defensive playstyle, but does wonders in a meta dominated by the aggressive Splash-O-Matic.
7L-3 Nozzlenose D And Burst Bomb
The H-3 and L-3 Nozzlenoses were hung out to dry at launch, both having support kits that held them back from reaching their full potential. The vanilla L-3, specifically, had the stellar Crab Tank special, but didn’t get the same play as the Splat Dualies or Splash-O-Matic due to its lackluster Curling Bomb — it needed something that could either hold space with lethal damage or help it paint to get special even faster, and it got neither.
Thankfully, the L-3 Nozzlenose D comes with the Burst Bomb, which gives it a level of mobility and painting power that makes it worth playing in the competitive scene again. Since it can now paint full-time, combo with teammates, and get special faster than ever, it’s not a bad idea to try this weapon out in your newest team composition.
6Rapid Blaster Deco And Torpedo
Blasters are notoriously bad at both painting and dealing constant damage; while generally considered a weapon class that takes little skill, it actually requires you to be very intentional about when and where you fire your shots due to the enormous end lag and low painting power of the main weapon. Without a good sub, a blaster can be overwhelmed by the turf-painting juggernauts that make up the meta.
The original Rapid Blaster was given the Ink Mine, which left it in a terrible place — thankfully, Fresh Season gave the Rapid Blaster Deco an aggressive, low cheap sub in the Torpedo, which has good paint when bounced off the ground and good combo damage when thrown towards enemies.
5Neo Splash-O-Matic And Suction Bomb
There was no need for another Splash-O-Matic kit since the vanilla Splash-O-Matic is currently dominating the competitive scene, but the Splatoon 3 developers decided that one fantastic kit wasn’t enough — Fresh Season gave the Neo Splash-O-Matic the Suction Bomb to make it a dangerous defensive menace.
Suction Bomb does great when you need to occupy a space that you can’t physically get to, such as the Splat Zone or tower — it has a long fuse and large lethal range, giving it a lot of value for stalling a point. The Splash-O-Matic is a quick-hitting, short-range killer that plays off of that and kills anyone unlucky enough to be running out of your bomb’s range.
4Custom Jet Squelcher And Toxic Mist
Jet Squelcher gets slept on a decent amount due to its less powerful shots — a Charger or Splatling gets the job done in short bursts, making them more immediately intimidating, but the Squelcher does well at building up chip damage from afar. Consequently, it flourishes less with a lethal bomb and does better with something that can help it set up kills.
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The Custom Jet Squelcher dropped in Fresh Season with Toxic Mist, which gives it more opportunities to land its shots at a distance by slowing down enemies and draining their ink tanks — even if the Jet Squelcher doesn’t get kills, it threatens enough that it gets value from the placement of its Toxic Mist. It’s not unlike the Tri-Stringer’s use of the sub, creating areas that become impossible to occupy.
3Dapple Dualies Nouveau And Torpedoes
While Fresh Season’s Dapple Dualies Nouveau don’t benefit from getting Reefslider as a special, Torpedoes manage to takethe very support-heavy vanilla Dapple Dualiesand turn them into a pair of aggressive monsters. What is already an incredibly mobile weapon has gotten a sub that makes it a blur on the field.
A Torpedo, unlike the Tetra Dualies' Autobomb, poses a much greater threat when thrown during an approach — the enemy has to choose whether to shoot at you or the cluster bomb that can completely take away their ink advantage in the space. Even if they choose you, the Torpedo can block shots, allowing you to overwhelm an opponent with constant dodging.
2Neo Sploosh-O-Matic And Squid Beakon
Funnily enough, the Sploosh-O-Matic has had the same issue as the Roller class, being a stealthy weapon that hasn’t gotten kits that play into that role nearly enough — there aren’t a lot of sneaky plays you can make with the Curling Bomb, since it paints a fairly straight line that you’ll likely be caught swimming through. Before the Neo,all the Sploosh-O-Matic seemed to be good for was Salmon Run.
The Squid Beakon gives the Neo Sploosh-O-Matic the menacing new power to establish paint control and get all sorts of sneak-attacks that play well with its short range; and since it’s good at painting, it makes for the perfect support weapon to get your team on the field as soon as possible.
1Tri-Slosher Nouveau And Fizzy Bomb
Vanilla Tri-Slosher has been somewhat underplayed since Toxic Mist doesn’t really do too much for its aggressive, short-range playstyle; it’s particularly unfortunate since it can be a complete menace to short-range Shooters that currently fill the meta.
The Fizzy Bomb, on the other hand, gives the Tri-Slosher Nouveau a ton of paint control for use in getting into range and executing opponents ruthlessly. Plus, Unlike some other weapons that have Fizzy Bombs, the Tri-Slosher is semi-automatic and can actually get opportunities to shake up the sub to full power.
