In which Splatoon 3 mode will your squid or octoling have to work the hardest to win?
Splatoon 3 is a lot of fun for both squids and kids. The game is easy to pick up and play at almost any time of day. But some splatters want more excitement and challenge in their lives. The different competitive game modes in Splatoon 3 are meant for these brave squids and octolings.
Technically, there is no “best” competitive mode because what you think is “best” depends on how you like to play and what weapons you like to use. Still, we can give our opinions on which modes are the most interesting to play and work best for high-level players.
Turf War
All of the other game modes in Splatoon 3 are built on top of Turf War. Two teams race to see which one can cover more of the stage floor with their color of ink in a certain amount of time. It’s more for casual play, which is why it’s the only mode in regular matches. However, you can also play higher-level versions of it, usually at Splatfests.
Still, Turf War isn’t very good for high-level play because it is easy to learn. Turf War doesn’t have much strategy besides “spray your ink all over everything and everyone until someone tells you to stop.” Turf War is more fun as a pick-up game where you don’t have to plan ahead than as a competitive game where you have to work together.
Splat Zones
In Splat Zones, you try to take control of different spots on the stage by splattering ink on them. Once one side has a majority, the timer starts to count down. And when it hits zero, the majority team wins. If neither team can run out the clock, the winner is the team that held the most space for the longest time when the clock ran out.
It does take a little more coordination than in Turf War to grab and control certain spots, like in King of the Hill. Someone needs to patrol and defend the spots that have been claimed, or else they will quickly taken over by the enemy. In Turf War, there is still a lot of patrolling and grabbing territory, but it happens over a larger area. Splat Zones is basically Turf War with more steps. It’s a lot of fun, but not that interesting.
Tower Control
In Tower Control, two teams try to take control of a tower that moves around. When one team has control of the tower, it starts to move along a set path to checkpoints. One team wins if they can move the tower all the way to the other side of the map. If neither team gets to the end before time runs out. The winner is the team that made the most progress overall.
Tower Control similar to the Team Fortress 2 game Payload. But the tower can still moved backwards even after it reaches a checkpoint. This makes it so that you have to be more creative when you play. Since it doesn’t always work to just sit on the tower and shoot people. You can send teammates ahead to scout and clear the way, place snipers to defend your perch or knock someone else off it, and put Sub-Weapons in the path of the tower for nasty surprises. The set path of the tower helps to focus the action on certain parts of the map, which makes firefights even more chaotic.
Rainmaker
In Rainmaker, two teams fight to use and take control of the Rainmaker, a slow but powerful gun that shoots huge ink shots that explode. A team wins if they can bring the Rainmaker to each of the other team’s checkpoints and slam it down. If neither team gets to every checkpoint before time runs out. The winner is the team that moved the most overall.
Rainmaker is like a version of “Capture the Flag” where you can hit people over the head with the flag. Even though the Rainmaker is strong, it leaves the person who has it wide open to attacks. So the attacking team has to work as a team. Players need to work together to protect the carrier while they move forward or charge the Rainmaker’s shot. They also need to ready to pop the Rainmaker’s bubble and reclaim it if the carrier gets splatted. At this point, there needs to be some basic meta-coordination. Which can be done through a lot of in-game signals or voice chat.
Clam Blitz
In Clam Blitz, each team has a safe bin, and there are lots of clams all over the map. If a player collects eight regular clams, they get a Power Clam. Which can be used to temporarily break the other team’s shield and let regular clams be thrown into their bin. The winner is the team that gets to 100 points first or has the most points when time is up.
Clam Blitz is probably the most complicated of the competitive Slope Game modes because it doesn’t rely as much on inking turf as the main way to play. There are only 30 clams on the map at once. And a broken bin shield only stays broken for about ten seconds. Coordination is a must in this mode. Players can throw clams to each other to make Power Clams at the right time and be ready to throw their own clams in the bin when the shield goes down. One player can’t carry a team on their own in this mode. It takes all four players to win, so it’s the best way to really scratch that competitive high-level itch.
