Hey, so I'm new to Splatoon. I'm having a good time with the game so far, but I still feel pretty aimless throughout matches. I was hoping you guys with more Splatoon experience from the original game could help.

What's generally considered the most effective way to cover the most ground? Sometimes I feel like I'm hanging out by my spawn for a little too long just trying to cover all of the ground instead of pushing toward the middle and taking some of that ground early. At the same time, that ground around spawn needs to be covered eventually. I just want to make sure I'm not the guy that everyone is yelling at internally for constantly doing the wrong thing.

What's your general mindset going into a match? Also which weapons do you all prefer?

@jjweatherman: this is exactly what I've been doing so far and it's and I'm wondering the same thing.

It has been working out pretty well though as I've only lost 2 games so far.

I'm new to the game and I felt aimless until a few levels in when I could get new weapons beyond the shitty splat junior. My playstyle fits more along the lines of wanting to cover the map in ink so the first weapon I bought was an ink roller. Each match I immediately cover my spawn unless my teammates are doing the same.

If you're teammates are doing their job right they're covering everywhere they walk which means you go where they don't for the most coverage. I try to push as far as I can once my side of the map is covered unless the other team is pushing back hard which the match turns into holding your ground.

When you respawn travel as much as you can as a squid to the frontline. When you coat a wide area in your ink turn back into a squid to quickly move to where your ink isn't. I personally like using this technique for sneak attacks with the roller by jumping out in front of people and smacking them with the roller.

Yeah I kind of agree.

I usually try to make my way to the middle as fast as possible while painting along the way to build up the special meter. Then I use the special to get an idea of where the enemy team is. I'll usually go back and fill in the gaps in our territory sometime during the middle of the match as well.

That's what has been working for me usually, but don't I think that there is really a wrong to play.

It is pretty open to how you prefer to play. I personally like to rush to the middle as quick as possible and get some ink down so I have enough room to move around and try and pin the other team down. I find that usually works best if at least 2 people make that center dash.

From then if/when I get killed I'll cover a little ground near the spawn point as I go back, and usually by the end it is pretty covered. If anything you may want to cover ground near your spawn point until you build up a special and then head to the middle to use it? That might make things feel a bit more active without it seeming like you are just ignoring easy to cover ground.

@colourful_hippie: I actually looked at my stats over my first 10 or so matches and noticed I was scoring the most points with the splattershot Jr., so I decided to go back to that. I find it's not too accurate, but pretty good for just laying down ink everywhere you look. The armor special ability actually seems pretty good, too. I'm still trying to find my ideal weapon, though. I thought I'd love the roller, but I spent quite a bit of money on the carbon roller and just don't like it very much at all. I just find it's tough to cover as much ground as I can waving around the guns. Maybe I'll get better with it.

It depends on the map and what weapon I'm using, but mostly I rush the side pathways that aren't used as much (like the upper right grating on Starfish Mainstage) to try to catch the enemy team from behind. This only works if your team is pushing middle, though. With a roller or brush I think it's really important to get up in the enemy team's spawn and try to split their attention. Rollers move so fast now that you can make them chase you for a long time.

@jjweatherman: This is more likely an effect of playing against super new players. The Tentatek Splattershot is basically a straight upgrade over the Splattershot Jr. I do agree that Ink Armor is a great special, though.

@quid_pro_bono: Okay cool. I guess I'll go back to the better weapons in that case, haha. Thanks for the thoughts.

I usually start with just making ink lines as far forward as possible. Connecting my teammates lines to mine when possible. This gives your team avenues to swim in. After a run or two of that I'll start filling in the rest of the map on my way towards the center.

ive only played a few hours so far but these are my 2 strategic thoughts:

1. covering the other team's paint is always more valuable than covering empty ground. so getting to the middle early is better than covering your home turf. i think

2. splatting fools is valuable because it takes them out of the game for so long

also: this game is fun and i don't wanna think too much about it

I started rushing the center of the map and i feel like its more effective. I rush center kill a guy and then unleash the curling balls. After a few deaths i'll clean up the starting area if none have done it yet. but unless the opponents can't reach it its likely to end up the other colour at some point in the match so you might as well wait till then to paint it the other colour. If you restrict their movement from their spawn to the center they are so much more vulnerable!

I generally try to time my home base ink coverage so that I arrive at mid with my special ready, with the hope that I can make a play. Admittedly, the specials in this game are more about control and support than they are about slaying (which was kind of the case in the first game), but being able to launch off tenta missiles or activate ink armor can help you make a major play. This advice applies to ranked battles as well, but you might want to get to mid sooner, challenge the opponents, then use your special. Also, if you're the guy inking home base, unless you're going for every single spot on the map, no one should hate you, you're a saint.

Its totally different for ever weapon ( which is great! )

I got my hands on the splatling cannon which felt useless at first but I've found it has amazing range and covers large amount of ground really quickly. What I found works best is hanging back and just firing in to the middle while keeping an eye out for anyone making a try for our spawn.

Generally, I try to apply ink to the spawn very little in the early game, as that area will not be hard to cover once the game is nearing a close. If you can have your team establish dominance over the middle of the map early then you can possibly(depending on the map) push further up the map into the entrance of their spawn at least to ink the choke points they'll be taking to get out. Likewise it's important not to over extend and focus too much on inking into their spawn, because then they can probably find a way around you and they'll have a chance to take the middle. Once the match is wrapping up, your team can ink the area around your spawn and the people in the mid simply have to hold their ground and continue to ink the middle of the map to hold on for the win. Hope this helps! I'm somewhat new as well to the series but have played around 20-25 hours since it's release and have found a ton of success with this type of strategy.

For guns, I would say I like using guns that can ink the best first with ability to splat players coming second. I had a ton of success with the dualies and T Splattershot for a while but unlocked the Zapper and haven't really looked back since. I would say stay away from chargers and splatlings for turf war, and lean more toward splattershots or other guns with that type of fire mode. Good luck!

Walls don't count towards any score so unless you are trying to create a travel path, leave them alone!

Also ink your spawn :P

I never played 1 and here are a few things I have figured out that I wish I had known going in:

• Super Jump: Looking at videos before buying I thought the way this worked was you just pick a spot on the map that is your color and go but you're actually warping to a team-member. The part that was confusing is that it takes a couple seconds after spawning before the jump activates so sometimes its better to just squid-swim to a spot instead of waiting for the jump.
• Unless you have the stealth jump ability, your super jump destination will show a circle icon on the ground for everyone including enemies to see where you are going to land. This means if you're jumping someplace spicy and the team-member you're jumping to dies then the bad guys will be waiting to splat you on touchdown. Similarly, you can camp these arrows from the enemy jumps and kill them instantly which is great fun.
• If you're rolling (with an ink roller)Don't forget to fling! Just trying to roll over the top of people will result in them running backwards and killing you a lot. Tapping the trigger while in air does a far fling as well. If I see any enemy while using the carbon roller, I just squid swim backwards through the path I was making instead of meeting them head-on. I circle around behind the guy I saw and OHKO them with a fling to the back. Really effective!

Hopefully these #HOTSTRATS arents too obvious :P

Not at all! Thanks for the input! I've been having a hard time remembering I can jump to my team when I spawn. Definitely need to use that more.