Splatoon 2’s newest update, 4.3.1, is available to download now, and it brings a whole lot of changes to the table. Weapons, including the Sploosh-O-Matic, Octobrush, Splat Roller, and Tri Slosher, have been tweaked and rebalanced, glitches have been addressed, and several changes have been made to Salmon Run and Ranked Battles.
Ranked Battle changes are essentially all aimed at how team composition is determined during matchmaking, with more emphasis being placed on each individual weapon in a player’s loadouts stats, rather than on the type of weapon it is. Salmon Run changes, meanwhile, are more minor (and address a wider range of problems, including matchmaking options when playing with friends, and some issues with players clipping through the map). There is also a solitary fix added for the Octo Expansion for the game, that launched earlier this year, aimed at addressing unintended behaviour when you use an ink rail.
So, as Nintendo promised, no new maps have been added with this update, but it still seems to be pretty substantial. If your console has automatic updates enabled, and was in sleep mode, it will have downloaded the update by itself. Otherwise, you will have to download it manually. Splatoon 2 is out exclusively on Nintendo Switch. You can check out a selection of the comprehensive patch notes below, or view them in their entirety here.
Multiplayer Changes
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- Fixed an issue causing Torpedos to disappear instead of exploding if they touched a piece of moving terrain while following a player.
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- Fixed an issue in which players dealing contact damage to an opponent using a Booyah Bomb with their roller or brush weapon wouldn’t be thrown backward if they failed to splat the Booyah Bomb user with a single attack.
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- Fixed an issue in Clam Blitz where readying a clam while being tracked by an opponent’s torpedo would cause the aiming reticle to react, even if the torpedo passed through the clam.
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- Fixed an issue occurring on the Walleye Warehouse stage, related to taking damage from an opponent’s Ink Storm. While standing on the crates beneath the lights near the center of the stage, players would previously take damage from an opponent’s Ink Storm while standing on one crate but not the other, but will now take damage while standing on either crate.
- Fixed an issue occurring on the Shellendorf Institute stage, where certain animations did not display correctly when viewed through specific panes of glass.
Changes to Ranked Battle
- Weapon specifications are taken into account when splitting an assembled group of eight players into teams for Ranked Battle, but this feature has been changed in the following ways:
- The number of players with crown icons in X Rank will no longer have a significant impact on team breakdown.
- The number of players using weapons from different categories such as “shooter” or “roller” won’t have a significant impact on team breakdown. Instead, the specifications for each specific weapon will be given more weight when splitting up teams.
Changes to Salmon Run
- Fixed an issue occurring after creating a “With Friends” room where taking too long before selecting “Recruit more players” would cause other players not to join the room.
- Fixed an issue causing players to occasionally pass through stage terrain after touching and getting knocked back by a Scrapper or Flyfish while standing near a wall.
- Fixed an issue causing Scrappers to mistakenly not take damage when hit from behind with a direct shot from a Cannon.
Changes to the Octo Expansion
- Fixed an issue causing an unintended reaction when touching an ink rail while getting pulled to a Grapplink after attacking the Grapplink.
Other Changes
- When using the Kensa Splattershot Jr., the sticker on the player’s ink tank was previously the same as the one when using the Splattershot Jr., but is now unique.
- Fixed an issue in spectator mode that caused the “Turf Inked” stat for each weapon to increase incorrectly.
