Take a deep dive into the latest Splatoon patch notes, detailing any changes to stages, weapons, subs, and more that can affect gameplay – or make it that bit easier. There’s no set schedule for when Nintendo releases these updates, so keep this page bookmarked if you’re interested in getting the news as soon as possible.
While you’re here, why not refresh your squiddy memory with our guides on each of the Splatoon characters, which Splatoon amiibo you can get, and when the next Splatoon 3 Splatfest is?
Splatoon patch notes version 8.1.0
Changes to Player Controls
- Made it so that when a player opens a brella’s canopy, the canopy opens on other players’ screens quicker than before
- This is to decrease the delay between the canopy opening on the user’s screen and the canopy opening on other players’ screens as much as possible
- Made it easier to place Squid Beakons and Big Bubblers close to elevation differences
- Made it so that the scattered weapon and gear of a defeated player vanishes quicker than before
- Made it so that, when a swimming player returns to Inkling form and uses a weapon right away, the ink on their body vanishes quicker than before
- This is to alleviate the decreased visibility when the player is the same color as the ink on the ground even when in Inkling form
- Made it so that when a player is moving at the edge of an elevation difference, the phenomenon where that player moves back and forth between the higher and lower elevations in a short period of time on other players’ screens will occur less often
- Made it easier than before to jump while moving along the edge of terrain
- Made it so that, when equipping the Mint Decavitator and the Charcoal Decavitator and holding the ZR Button, the sight that indicates where the attack will impact or terminate displays just like when not holding the ZR Button
Changes to multiplayer
- Specifications for some main weapons have changed.
| Weapon | Change Details |
| Aerospray MG Aerospray RG |
Increased the radius of the ink splatter at the point of impact by approximately 3% |
| Blaster Custom Blaster |
Reduced the amount of time it takes to begin recovering ink after firing by about 1/20th of a second |
| Clash Blaster Clash Blaster Neo |
Movement speed while firing is now about 4% faster |
| S-BLAST ’92 S-BLAST ’91 |
Reduced the continuous fire interval by about 1/12th of a second |
| Carbon Roller Carbon Roller Deco |
Adjusted the damage-falloff rate based on distance for horizontal swings, allowing it to deal 50.0 damage/100 damage farther than it did before. Slightly expanded vertical swings’ collision detection with players to make it easier to hit opponents |
| Dynamo Roller Gold Dynamo Roller |
Adjusted how horizontal swings fling ink to leave fewer gaps in inking or attacks than before |
| Big Swig Roller Big Swig Roller Express |
Increased the damage horizontal swings deal to distant opponents from 35.0 to 40.0. There is no change to the damage at distances that deal 50.0 damage or higher |
| Inkbrush Inkbrush Nouveau |
Slightly expanded the collision detection with players for the ink flung when swinging the brush to make it easier to hit opponents |
| Octobrush Octobrush Nouveau Orderbrush Replica |
Slightly expanded the collision detection with players for the ink flung when swinging the brush to make it easier to hit opponents |
| Douser Dualies FF Custom Douser Dualies FF |
Reduced the amount of ink consumed when firing by approximately 14%. Reduced the amount of ink consumed by Dodge Rolls from 12% of the ink tank to 10% |
| Recycled Brella 24 Mk I Recycled Brella 24 Mk II |
Reduced the time required for canopies lost by being launched or broken by an opponent to recover by about 1/3rd of a second |
- Specifications for some special weapons have changed.
| Special weapon | Change details |
| Reefslider | Increased the radius of the explosion area that deals 70.0 damage by about 10% Decreased the radius of the ink splatter from an explosion by about 5% |
| Ink Vac | Made it so that when the ink shot impacts a wall, the explosion will also ink nearby ground. Made it so that when the ink shot impacts the ground, the explosion will also ink nearby walls |
| Super Chump | Reduced the time between decoys falling and exploding from about 4.0 seconds to about 3.5 seconds |
| Trizooka | Decreased the damage dealt to the Big Bubbler to about 67% of what it was before |
| Inkjet | Decreased the damage dealt to the Big Bubbler by direct shots and explosions to about 67% of what it was before |
| Kraken Royale | Increased the amount of time to finish charging up a charge attack by about 1/12th of a second |
- Points required for some special weapons have been changed.
| Weapon | Before | After |
| Krak-On Splat Roller | 180 | 170 |
| Bloblobber Deco | 200 | 190 |
- In X Battles, changed the conditions for players’ current tentative rankings during a season to display on-screen from within rank 3,000 to within rank 50,000.
- In Clam Blitz mode, made it so that when a player throws a clam or power clam into the goal right before it closed on their screen, the count will progress and the goal will open up again even if at that point the goal was already closed on other players’ screens, so long as it is within a certain amount of time since the goal closed.
Other changes
- Made it possible to continue pressing the A Button to fast-forward the animations on the screen where XP and Grizzco Points acquired are calculated after returning to the lobby or Grizzco.
- In battles, made it so that pressing Down will not send the Booyah! signal for a short period immediately after a player is defeated.
- This change is to prevent unintended signals from being sent in the event that a player is defeated while trying to Super Jump to the spawn point.
- When a teammate is using a Booyah Bomb, players can send a Booyah! regardless of this change.
- In Salmon Run, made it so that pressing Up will not send the This way! signal for a short period immediately after a player is revived from being in a life ring.
- This change is to prevent unintended signals from being sent in the event that a player is helped by a teammate while trying to send a Help! signal.
- Made several changes to make it easier to use Photo Mode in Private Battles.
- Players can now start recon even when there are only players on one of the teams.
- During recon, This way! and Booyah! sent by players on the other team will now display too.
- During recon, when another player repeatedly uses This way! or Booyah! in a short period of time, it will now be shown without omission.
- Shortened the time until a match is deemed no contest when another player is disconnected immediately after starting a match.
- Made adjustments to make it harder to cause camera shake due to motion controls when pressing the ZR Button to zoom the screen in Splatsville, Inkopolis Plaza, Inkopolis Square, and Order Sector.
- Adjusted the player’s position when leaving Grizzco in Splatsville to make it harder to accidentally reenter Grizzco by keeping the Left Stick tilted.
- Made it so that players you battled with in X Battles do not display in the Users You Have Played With system feature.
This update focuses on making changes to multiplayer balance and comfort of gameplay.
For brellas we have made changes to alleviate a phenomenon where, despite enough time passing since opening the canopy on the player’s screen, they would sometimes still be hit by their opponents’ shots and be defeated.
For most main-weapon attacks, including those made with brellas, whether damage is actually dealt is determined based on whether the attack hits on the screen of the player who made the attack. For that reason, whether or not the canopy is open on the other player’s screen is important when blocking opponents’ attacks with a canopy.
Due to the time it takes for communication via the internet, it takes longer for a brella’s canopy to actually open on an opponent’s screen than it does on the player’s own screen. Additionally, due to the fix in version 2.1.0 for an issue where the animation of opening a brella’s canopy to protect from attacks happened slower than the actual defensive effect began, the timing for opening the canopy appeared quicker on the player’s own screen. As a result, this made a phenomenon occur more frequently where, despite enough time appearing to have passed since opening the canopy on the player’s own screen, they would sometimes still be hit by their opponents’ shots and be defeated.
In order to resolve this problem without changing the specifications of brellas, we considered restoring the animation to how it was before version 2.1.0, but we determined that damaging the feeling of the current controls is the greater problem.
After thorough consideration, we decided to fix this by reducing the difference in timing for when the player opens their canopy by speeding up the time it takes for the canopy to appear open on the opponent’s screen.
For other main weapons, we have made changes that bring out their strengths and make them easier to use for players who regularly use them.
Among the special weapons, while we have made changes to increase the reliability of the damage-dealing effects of Reefslider, we have slightly decreased the impact of the inking due to its explosion. For that reason, this is an upgrade when used to defeat enemies, but it will make it slightly more difficult to use it to instantly ink territory again and again.
For the Ink Vac, we have made it easier to use by alleviating a phenomenon where the ground or walls were not inked depending on the impact position for the ink shot.
For Super Chump, we have made it easier to combine with follow-up attacks using main weapons by shortening the time for opponents to deal with the decoys.
For Kraken Royale, by slightly extending the time required to charge, we have created differentiation between the use of charge attacks and jump attacks.
For the Trizooka and Inkjet, we made changes to get the damage efficiency toward the Big Bubbler closer to that of other special weapons.
Beyond that, we have made other changes to improve gameplay comfort, including changes to prevent unintended signals from being sent in certain situations, changes to alleviate the issue of scattered weapons and gear blocking sight, and changes to stabilize the display when an opponent is at the edge of a height difference.
We plan on releasing the next update at the end of the current season. In that update, we will make changes to multiplayer balance, including lowering the abilities of select weapons.
There you have it – the latest updates in the ink-slinging multiplayer game. Some other important information to note are the newest Fortnite patch notes, Apex Legends patch notes, and everything you need to know about the recent Genshin Impact update, too.