First Impressions on Splatoon “Testfire” Weapons

The Splatoon Global Testfire play event(s) transpired over the last two days, giving players enough time to hopefully find a set of weapons that they most prefer to use in the game. There were four sets of weapons to choose from and each set contained a main, sub, and special weapon:

After playing several Turf War matches online, here are my opinions on how each of the Global Testfire demo’s four weapons handle.

Splattershot –

This all-around weapon is pretty good for users of all levels of experience, and is also the default weapon of the single-player mode in Splatoon. It has a decent rate of fire, but less than its son, the Splattershot Jr.

I enjoyed using the Splattershot and noticed that it would provide more ink coverage per shot compared to the Splattershot Jr. I think it would be a pretty good weapon to give to a player who is just beginning to play Splatoon. It actually can be an effective weapon against players using a Roller, as long as you are either quick on your feet or at a decent distance away. Granted, if a Roller Inkling is getting too close to you, one of your best defenses is to just back-pedal and fire at them from even a close, non-melee range, transforming into the squid to back up as needed.

Splattershot Jr. –

Somewhat of an all-around type weapon, with less range than its father, the Splattershot. But Jr. makes up for less range with a faster rate of fire and of course, comes with a different set of sub and special weapons in the demo (this article will only detail main weapons, not sub and special). I personally did not have much success with the Jr., but I still had fun using it!

Obviously, Splattershot and Splattershot Jr. will not cover as much ground (as quickly) as the Splat Roller weapon does, but it can fire at a much faster rate than the Splat Charger. Imagine the same principles with the Splattershot Jr. that I mentioned above when you’re facing off with an Inkling who has a Roller. The Splattershot and the Jr. both are decent at taking down someone who is perched on a level of ground above you, too. Lastly, something I found useful was blasting at players below a grate while I had the Splattershot Jr. equipped. It allowed me to stay safe but drop the ink down through the grate’s holes and rain ink atop an unsuspecting player’s head.

Splat Charger –

An effective weapon in the hands of someone with great aim and a decent steady shot. Think of this weapon like a sniper rifle, although there is no real zoom feature. Fully charged shots will obviously deal the most damage and/or spread the most amount of ink, but quick charges can also be fired faster to get you out of a bind at times.

As is probably evident, there’s a long line emerging from the Splat Charger, which I noticed can help the player using it, while also sometimes hindering them. The laser-sight-esque line that comes from the gun might make your aim better, but will make you more noticeable to other players. This is one of the reasons I saw many Inklings with the Splat Charger equipped were up on higher ground; even if they were detected by the laser-sight, they’d still have the height advantage. It also provides a much clearer view of the land below, which is imperative with this weapon, because I found that I have terrible aim when I would use it at ground-level.

I’m worse than useless with this weapon, unfortunately, so you won’t see me doing many matches with the Splat Charger. It’s probably safe to assume that this weapon is better-suited for someone who is more comfortable with Splatoon. Just be sure, if you’ve got it equipped, to watch for Inklings below you either trying to bomb you, or blasting upwards at you. I also overcame some Splat Charger Inklings by simply sneaking up behind them while they were perched up high, and giving them a nice ink-drenched defeat.

The Splat Roller –

Already being called OP by some (although there are plenty of Redditors who dispute that), the Splat Roller is very effective at spreading your team’s ink coverage with its ability to ink the ground in a quick, wide sweep while on the move. While it can squish other inklings at a melee range, it also has an ink spattering maneuver where the user can basically fling ink in front of them at a very short range.

The Splat Roller is definitely my favorite of the four weapons available in the Splatoon Testfire demo. I got a great satisfaction from not only covering a large amount of ground very quickly, but also from the wonder of mowing other players down beneath my Godly Splat Roller. Even though it wasn’t fun to face off against someone with any of the other ranged weapons, you can still be a ninja-like Inkling with your Roller by sneaking up behind them and rolling them to their death. Also, consider when you’re a Roller Inkling pitted against another Roller Inkling, just jump right before you butt heads with them and you’ll come out on top – literally and metaphorically.

The Splat Roller’s a good weapon in the hands of any Splatoon player, expert or beginner. It’s easy to pick up and play with, but harder to master all the different strategies possible with it.

Don’t just take my word for it. Enjoy upgrading and finding strategies for more weapons when the full version of Splatoon comes out worldwide this May 29th and May 28th for Japan.