Octoling (enemy)

"We’ve got company, bucko. Octolings ahead."

- Cap'n Cuttlefish

"The Octolings with seaweed on their heads are super tough!"

- Agent 2

Octolings (Japanese: タコゾネス Takozonesu) are elite Octarian fighters, and are the octopus equivalent to an Inkling. They are semi-common enemies that appear in Octo Valley. They appear in missions Octoling Invasion, Inkvisible Avenues, Octoling Assault, Propeller Lift Fortress, Spinning Spreaders, Octoling Uprising, Spongy Observatory, and Octoling Onslaught.

Personality and traits
Much like the Inkling, the Octoling is capable of walking on land in a humanoid form as well as swimming through their own ink in an octopus form. They make up an elite corps of the Octarian forces, and are heavily armed with bombs and Ink guns. When there is no target nearby, Octolings will wander, sometimes in small groups, and spread their ink onto surfaces for their convenience. Once a player is within range, they will begin to make tactical manuevers, such as dipping in and out of their ink rapidly while shooting at the player, or throwing splat bombs at them. The best way to deal with Octolings is to catch them before they notice the presence of players. It is rather difficult to cut them off once they find players, as they will follow them and even shoot at their last location if they try to escape in Octopus form.

According to their original Japanese name, takozonesu (From octopus and amazons), it seems that they all are female. Actually, the Octolings that the player encounters appear to be female.

However, male Octolings may exist, as the unlockable Octoling armor changes its appearance when equipped by male Inklings. In one of the Sunken Scrolls, a humanoid form Male Octarian, who appears to be DJ Octavio, is talking to a younger Cap'n Cuttlefish.

Gear
After beating Octo Valley, Octoling gear may be obtained for use in online play and customization. Players can unlock Octoling boots, armor, and goggles. Each of these pieces have three powerup slots. The Octoshot Replica, the weapon the Octolings use, can also be unlocked by talking to Judd at level 40.

Variations
Normal Octolings are red-tinted, with pinkish skin and dark red tentacles which make up their "hair". Later in the game, "Elite" Octolings will start to show up in place of the originals. These Octolings have a gold and brown color pallet and have two strands of seaweed flowing from their heads. These Octolings have much more health, deal more damage, and have higher mobility than normal Octolings. They are named デラタコゾネス DeraTakozonesu (deluxe, or decorated Takozonesu) in Japanese.

Trivia

 * It is possible to hack a playable Octoling into the game. By doing this, the player can change the Octoling's skintone, hair color, and see their eyes.
 * This is possible due to the fact that, on a technical level, the "Octolings" are simply modified Inkling models with a unique hair and travel-form models; all other model rigging and animations are shared. Moreover, the hack makes clear that the current in-game models of Octolings are not intended to be playable; their hair model clips through a significant number of hats. However, the fact that their eyes are unique despite not being seen at all during the single-player game, as well as the Octoling hair being textured and coded to function properly with the "team ink color" system despite the clipping issues, has raised suspicion that there may be plans to make the Octolings playable in the future.