New Splatoon 3 Update Revealed, Patch Notes Released

A new update is coming to Splatoon 3, and it will bring the Nintendo Switch game up to version 2.1.0. Players shouldn’t expect anything new in terms of content, but Nintendo has made a lot of adjustments to the game’s weapons, as well as a plethora of bug fixes. Notably, the patch notes also reveal that the next update is slated to arrive in March, prior to the start of Splatoon 3‘s next season. The following update will focus on new features, as well as weapon balance. Full patch notes from Nintendo’s official website can be found below:

Ver 2.1.0 (Releasing January 17, 2023)

Changes to Multiplayer

• Specifications for some main weapons have changed.

Aerospray MG/Aerospray RG– The size of terrain area inked by falling spray has been increased by about 10%.

Jet Squelcher– Reduced blur when firing on land by 17%.

Splattershot Nova– The size of terrain area inked by shots has been increased by about 19%.

Dynamo Roller– The damage-rate reduction caused by distance has been adjusted. You cannow cause 50.0 damage / 100.0 damage from farther away than before.

Big Swig Roller– The minimum damage from horizontal slashes has increased from 30.0 to 35.0.

Bamboozler 14 Mk l– Reduced ink consumption by about 17%.

Nautilus 47– Increased firing duration by about 15%.

Sloshing Machine– Increased ink consumption by about 10%.

• Specifications for some sub weapons have changed.

Angle Shooter– Damage has been increased from 30.0 to 35.0. The radius of ink coverage when striking terrain or opponents has been roughly doubled.

• Specifications for some special weapons have changed.

Tacticooler– Tacticooler’s Quick Respawn and Special Saver will no longer be negated by gear abilities Respawn Punisher and Haunt.Respawn Punisher and Haunt effects (increase in respawn time and increase in amount of special gauge lost) will still occur.

Reefslider– Adjusted the amount of time for the invulnerability window, which occursafter exploding until you are able to move, to about 28/60 of a second.

Triple Inkstrike– Increased the radius of the area damaged by about 10%. Increased damage inflicted by about 50%.

Crab Tank– Shortened the duration of the Crab Tank when not using the Special PowerUp gear ability from about 9 seconds to about 8 seconds. Increased the extension rate of the duration of the Crab Tank when using the Special Power Up gear ability.As a result of these changes, the duration of the Crab Tank whenmaximizing use of the Special Power Up gear ability remains the same asbefore.

• Points required for some weapon specials have been changed.

SplattershotHero Shot Replica– Before: 200, After: 190

.52 Gal– Before: 200, After: 190

.96 Gal– Before: 200, After: 190

Splattershot Pro– Before: 190, After: 180

Splattershot Nova– Before: 200, After: 190

Splat Dualies– Before: 200, After: 190

Custom Splattershot Jr.– Before: 180, After: 190

Sloshing Machine– Before: 210, After: 220

Splatana Wiper– Before: 180, After: 190

• The performance of some gear abilities has been changed.
  

Ninja Squid– Ink splash will no longer be invisible for 30/60 of a second immediately after transforming into kid form. Using the gear ability Swim Speed Up at the same time will no longer result in one of these abilities being cancelled.While using Ninja Squid, swim speed will continue to be reduced by a fixed amount.

This update focuses on adjustments related to battles.

A lot of the adjustments to main weapons were made to lessen theimpact on some of the weapons from Splatoon 2 where the increasedperformance of the gear ability was negated in Splatoon 3.

Regarding changes to Ninja Squid, while mitigating the issue whereplayers would lose sight of each other when shooting at each other from arelatively short distance, we’re also intentionally maintaining the wayto approach opponents with longer ranges.

We reduced the amount needed to fill special gauges for some weaponsand within that group strengthened some frequently used short-rangeweapons to increase player options.

We increased the amount needed to fill special gauges for someweapons and within that group curtailed somewhat the tactic of using subweapons and special weapons to attack from a distance.

We also made some adjustments to increase the manifestation of special weapons.

The next update will focus on new features and weapon balance forthe start of the new season in March. The update is planned for the endof the current season.

Bug Fixes

Fixes to Player Controls

• Fixed an issue that allows players to climb through unclimbable walls when using Squid Surge and Squid Roll at the same time.
• Fixed an issue where if you are submerged in ink on a wall andmove to any ground of a certain angle and continue to move whilesubmerged, your movement speed is reduced.
• Fixed an issue where shots fired from a Bloblobber at a tower orother moving terrain features would hit and disappear rather than hitand rebound.
• Fixed an issue where when a player is moving or jumping with anopen umbrella, the area being protected from incoming ink is about 1/60of a second behind where it appears to be.
• Fixed an issue where when a player lands with an open umbrella, they are stunned and the umbrella seems to sink into the ground.
• Fixed an issue where the area being protected from incoming ink byan open umbrella is slightly to the left or right of where it appearsto be.
• Fixed an issue where the animation of opening an umbrella toprotect from attacks happens slower than the actual defensive effectbegins.
• Fixed an issue where the animation of closing an umbrella during the umbrella-opening animation was not displaying smoothly.
• Fixed an issue where attacks to the rear of the Crab Tank, likeInk Storm, bounce off when the tank is in walking mode even whendirectly striking the player.
• Fixed an issue where after having used the Inkjet or Zipcasterwithout once touching the ground, the player lands in an unintendedlocation.
• Fixed an issue where the Wave Breaker immediately vanishes fromother players’ screens if the elevation of its placement is close to thewaterline.
• Fixed an issue where if the Wave Breaker is placed at a specificelevation, its waves do not display in adjacent lower spaces within thearea of effect.
• Fixed an issue where if the Wave Breaker is placed at a specificelevation, adjacent lower spaces may or may not come within the area ofeffect due to slight differences in position by slightly increasing thearea of effect in the lower area.

Changes to Multiplayer

• Fixed an issue where if you ink certain parts of the terrain in Eeltail Alley with a roller, it causes a slowdown in the game.
• Fixed an issue when playing Rainmaker mode in Hagglefish Market that caused the score to not change smoothly in certain areas.
• Fixed an issue when playing Splat Zones/TowerControl/Rainmaker/Clam Blitz modes in Undertow Spillway that preventedyou from being able to submerge in ink in certain areas, regardless ofwhether they were inked or not.
• Fixed an issue when playing Rainmaker mode in Museum d’Alfonsino that caused the score to not change smoothly in certain areas.
• Fixed an issue that allowed you to climb unintended walls in Inkblot Art Academy.
• Fixed an issue when playing Splat Zones mode in Mahi-Mahi Resortthat prevented players from properly placing a Tacticooler in certainareas and prevented the player who tried to place it from being able toproperly stand on the stage’s terrain.
• Fixed an issue when playing Rainmaker mode in Sturgeon Shipyard that caused the score to not change smoothly in certain areas.
• Fixed an issue when playing Rainmaker mode in MakoMart that caused the score to not change smoothly in certain areas.
• Fixed an issue that allowed you to climb unintended walls in Wahoo World.
• Fixed an issue in Wahoo World that allowed you to jump from an inkrail onto a spotlight.
• Fixed an issue in Brinewater Springs that caused trees in front of you to not display as transparent.
• Fixed an issue when playing Splat Zones/TowerControl/Rainmaker/Clam Blitz modes in Brinewater Springs that caused thescore to not change smoothly in certain areas and “DON’T RETREAT!” tobe displayed even if you weren’t retreating very much.
• Fixed an issue in Brinewater Springs and Flounder Heights thatcaused ink fired from up high to disappear before hitting the ground.
• Fixed an issue when playing Splat Zones/TowerControl/Rainmaker/Clam Blitz modes in Flounder Heights that allowed youto jump from an inkrail onto a water tank.

Changes to Salmon Run

• Fixed an issue where if a communication error occurred at acertain time while the Big Run results were being announced, you wouldbe able to get a decoration but not the corresponding badge.
  • If you were affected by this issue, you will be able to obtainyour badge after applying this update data and restarting the game.
• Fixed an issue that caused ammo stocked up in the Snipewriter 5Hto vanish after depositing Golden Eggs or shooting them from a Big Shotlauncher.
• Fixed an issue that prevented bombs launched by a Steelhead todisappear properly when the Steelhead was defeated by dealing damage toits torso.
• Fixed an issue in Marooner’s Bay during low tide that made itdifficult to ink over a Flipper-Flopper’s area of attack if it tried todive close to the water’s surface.
• Fixed an issue in Marooner’s Bay that caused a slowdown to occurif players or Salmonids came into contact with certain terrain.
• Fixed an issue where if you saved a job scenario with Grizzcoweapons and played it again as a Private Job, different Grizzco weaponswould be supplied instead.

Changes to Story Mode

• Fixed an issue where when selecting weapons on a stage andswitching from a brella to another weapon, the brella will not workproperly. It may not launch, or it may not protect from enemy attacks.

Other Changes

• Fixed an issue in recon where game controls would not work aftertrying to start Turf War and Photo Mode at the same time when playingwith multiple people.
• Fixed an issue in recon where when playing with a timer and theplayer was splatted, the photo pose would remain as the player pose ifspecific procedures were performed.
• Fixed an issue in recon where when playing with a timer and the player was splatted, the countdown number would not display.
• Fixed an issue where after having failed to save job history atthe Grizzco terminal, the list of completed jobs would not properlydisplay.
• Fixed an issue in shops where after pressing certain buttons at the same time, some controls would not work.

It will be interesting to see how these changes impact the game, and if they make it more enjoyable overall. Splatoon 3 has a passionate player base, and fans are bound to have strong opinions on some of these changes; hopefully, they’ll prove to be for the better! While fans are waiting to see how that plays out, they can check out all of ourprevious coverage of Splatoon 3 right here.

What do you think of these changes? Are you looking forward to the game’s next season?Let us know in the comments or share directly onTwitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!