Thang

The four thangs are collectibles in the Octo Expansion, claimed by the Telephone to be necessary for Agent 8 and Cap'n Cuttlefish's escape from the Deepsea Metro, and into the "Promised Land".

Description


The four thangs resemble pieces of a giant blender, which the Telephone promises will produce a doorway to the "promised land". In reality, it intends to use the blender to blend Agent 8 and Cap'n Cuttlefish into a "primordial ooze", which it plans on using to wipe out all life on Earth and replace it with a new species of its own liking. The thangs are as follows:


 * The foundational thang, the blender's base and motor (found in Grab & Go Station).
 * The surrounding thang, the blender's jug (found in Bust & Run Station).
 * The precision thang, the blender's blade (found in Smash & Dash Station).
 * The sealing thang, the blender's cap (found in Break & Bounce Station).

Whenever the player unlocks a line containing a thang, the station that contains it is marked on the Deepsea Metro map. Each of the thangs' stations are empty railway terminals with the same layout and do not cost anything to enter. #19 bless plays in these stations, unless the thang is already collected, in which case no music is played. Agent 8 can only choose the Splattershot, with no objectives other than popping the protective bubble around the thang and collecting it. The protective bubble is similar to the Rainmaker's shield, albeit much more durable, requiring almost the entire ink tank's capacity to break. These stations are all named after synonyms of 'break' and 'leave' and their subtitles are all "Here lies the [name] thang..." After breaking the shield, Agent 8 takes a selfie with the thang using the CQ-80 before taking it back to the train on a trolley. The loading screen that appears afterwards shows the thang being carried back to Central Station as well as the normal imagery. The Telephone then congratulates the player on finding the thang.

Trivia

 * The thangs are similar to a feature in Don't Starve, a game in which the player can optionally collect and assemble five "things" to enter the adventure mode. They are named in a similar fashion: the Crank Thing, the Ring Thing, the Box Thing, the Wooden Thing, and the Metal Potato Thing.
 * If the player revisits the stations originally containing the thangs after collecting them, music no longer plays in the station and there are no collectibles present, unlike Octo Canyon having substitutes replacing the Zapfish once they are collected.
 * According to the Splatoon 2 anniversary Famitsu interview, every time a previous test subject collected the four thangs and 'entered the promised land', the thangs were repositioned back to their original stations for the next subject.
 * There seem to be thangs on the NILS Statue.
 * The device made from the four thangs seen in the cutscene looks larger than the individual pieces from the levels.
 * The chants that can be heard as the thangs are assembled into a blender is actually people shouting "Happy New Year" then counting from one to ten in English, but played in reverse.
 * In real world biology, biomass is often placed in a blender as a preliminary step for DNA extraction, much like how Tartar blends the test subjects and extracts their DNA.

Etymology

 * "Thang" is a slang term synonymous with the word "thing".