Jack Fennimore
The 2.0.0 update for Splatoon 2 rolled out recently, adding a feature we’ve been asking for since the original Splatoon on the Wii U.
You can now change your gear in between matches while matched with the same group.
Previously, if you wanted to switch your gear you needed to exit the group of people you were matched with and then reenter the matchmaking process. That means if you were matched with a good group of players, you’d have to say goodbye to them if you got sick of using a weapon or wanted to build up experience points for another piece of gear. You also had nothing to do in between matches.
In our review of Splatoon 2, the reporter said that this was also a problem in the original game. In fact, Splatoon 2 made it even worse. While in the first game you could play a Doodle Jump-like minigame on the Wii U Gamepad while waiting for players to join your lobby, in Splatoon 2 all you had to do was change the pitch and melody of the boring lobby music. They could program that but not an ability to switch your gear in between matches!?
Well finally we have an option to switch your gear. All you have to do is select “Change gear and continue” instead of “Yeah” after completing a match. Then you have 30 seconds to change your gear. Meanwhile the matchmaking process is happening in the background meaning you finally have something interesting to do other than glance at your phone. If the timer runs out, you’re just booted into the lobby with whatever gear you have equipped.
Sure it should have been there from the start especially with it being a problem in the first game, but it’s better late than never. Hopefully Nintendo will continue to make useful changes like this. I would also love for them to give me more communication options in game than just “This Way” or “Booyah” as well as the ability to skip the spiel of Pearl and Maria every time you boot up the game. Also, gear loadouts are still locked to Amiibo figures.
That’s not the only change coming with the 2.0 update. New gear was added as well as the ability to buy and replace gear purchased on SplatNet with identical gear in the shops. Two new hairstyles and two new legwear for both character genders each were added. Five music tracks were added and you can now take photos with Amiibo on competitive stages while carrying weapons with new filters to accompany them. Level cap was increased from 50 to 99 with the option to speak to Judd and reset to level 1 from 99 while adding a star next to the level. If a player is idle and a communications error occurs because of it, the match will be judged not from the time after the error but from when the player became idle. New food options and corresponding food tickets were added to Crusty Sean’s Food Truck which grants players 2.5 times the battle cash or experience points.
A long list of multiplayer changes were added as well, which includes reducing the amount of time between taking damage and recovering from 1.5 seconds to one, slightly increasing jump height when standing on opponent ink, delaying how long it takes for opponent ink to reduce movement speed and jumping, darkening the color of low areas on Turf Maps to make it easier to distinguish them from areas outside the maps, and much, much more.
The update also added the Salmonid Smokeyard stage as well as 10 new weapon types for Salmon Run. The multiplayer changes affecting recovery timing and opponent ink effect also apply to Salmon Run.
You can read all of the patch notes here.
According to Nintendo’s UK website, new maps are coming to the game over the weeks including the MakoMart stage on November 24. Other maps include the new Shellendorf Institute as well as two returning fan favorites Arowana Mall and Walleye Warehouse. 140 new pieces of gear are coming to the game. In mid-December, a new ranked mode known as Clam Blitz is coming where players collect clams scattered around the stage and throw them into the basket near the opponent’s stage.
A datamine of the game in September found evidence of a new ranked mode coming to the game, but the data involved players equipping a sort of rocket nozzle weapon like the Rainmaker instead of collecting clams. The datamine also found evidence of a possible scrapped soccer-like gamemode.
The champagne bottle weapon featured in the announcement video for the holiday update was discovered in a datamine of the game in August. According to dialogue found for in-game weapon shop owner Sheldon, the weapon known as The Squeezer is a semi-automatic shooter where one trigger pull equals one ink shot.
