Splatoon Raiders
Splatoon Raiders drops its loadout screen on you before a single Salmonid shows up, and that upfront build decision matters more here than in any other Splatoon game, since this one is built entirely around raiding, not turf control.
| Genre | PvE looter-shooter |
|---|---|
| Setting | Spirhalite Islands |
| Core loop | Raid locations, fight Salmonids, loot and upgrade gear |
Splatoon Raiders' Loadout-First Approach
Splatoon Raiders hands you gadgets, relic powers, a custom tank, and a bot buddy, and expects you to assemble these into a build before heading into any given raid location, rather than adjusting on the fly mid-mission. Gadgets, the game's new paint-filled items, are specifically built around this raid structure and don't carry over from the turf-war format older Splatoon games use.
Salmonids scattered across the Spirhalite Islands come in distinct sizes and threat levels, and a loadout tuned for one raid location can struggle badly in another if the build leans too hard into a single Gadget type. Players who keep a flexible mix of relic powers instead of maxing one path tend to handle the island-to-island variety in Splatoon Raiders more consistently.
Loot, XP, and Deep Cut
Defeating Salmonids feeds both character XP and a loot pool that includes weapons, Gadget parts, materials, and Spirhalite Shards, giving Splatoon Raiders a progression curve closer to a looter-shooter than a traditional Nintendo shooter. Working alongside Deep Cut, the trio of musicians tied to the game's story, frames this loot grind inside an actual narrative rather than leaving it as a disconnected side system.
- Weapons: swap out your primary raid loadout
- Gadget parts: build toward new paint-based tools
- Spirhalite Shards: the island's specific raid currency
Do turf-war skills from other Splatoon games carry over to Splatoon Raiders?
Aiming and ink management still matter, but the loadout-and-Gadget system built around raiding the Spirhalite Islands means a Splatoon Raiders build has to be assembled with Salmonid fights in mind specifically, not repurposed turf-war habits.
Splatoon Raiders turns the series' usual ink-slinging reflexes into something closer to a build-crafting exercise, and figuring out which relic power actually covers your Gadget's weakness is what separates a clean Spirhalite Islands raid from a wipe.