Tower Control

Tower Control is a one of the three Ranked Battle modes in Splatoon and Splatoon 2, alongside Splat Zones and Rainmaker. It was added to the original game on July 1st 2015.

Gameplay
In Tower Control, two teams of four Inklings fight to control a central Tower. The Tower is a large blue cube with a stake on top, and a grate that creates an overhang surrounding the entire top surface. Its walls and ground can be inked, but the post and, naturally, the grate cannot.

The Tower moves through a map along a predetermined path that starts and ends at "goal spots" that are located in the same, mirrored spots near each of the team's bases. The Tower starts at the center of the path, and when a player rides on top of it, it begins moving on a rail toward enemy territory. If the player standing on the Tower falls off the platform or gets killed, after a short amount of time, the Tower will begin moving rapidly back to its initial position. Because of this gameplay element, the player on the Tower is a constant target and must be defended by teammates on the ground. The match will end when one team rides the Tower all the way to the opponent's goal spot, or when five minutes are up and overtime is done. Overtime in this mode begins if the current losing team has control of the tower when time ends and finishes once that team loses control of the tower or takes the lead.

The Tower only moves when Inklings are on on top of it, and although roughly unnoticeable, the more Inklings are riding, the faster it goes. The changes in speed are as follows:

Splatoon 2
Tower Control received a few tweaks in Splatoon 2. Checkpoints have been added along the path the Tower takes. When the Tower reaches a checkpoint, it will stop for a brief period of time before continuing on as normal. Once beaten, checkpoints will not stop the tower if the tower is to ever reach the checkpoint again.

The tower no longer gains a general speed boost from having multiple Inklings ride it. Instead, the number of Inklings only affects the speed that checkpoints are beaten.

Victory
Score is measured by how far into enemy territory a team has rode the tower.

If a team manages to get the tower to the enemy goal spot, then that team will win the match, and achieve a Knockout score. The other team will get 0 points.

If the game timer runs out with the tower in a neutral state, the team that managed to reach the closest to their goal at any point during the match will win. If the game timer runs out and the tower is controlled by the losing team, then the game will go into overtime until that team manages to takes the lead, or until the tower returns to a neutral state.

Visuals
To help identify the Tower's current position, a pillar made of rings of light shines from the tower's position into the sky. Players can then simply look up and around in order to locate the tower. The two goal spots are also identified with a column on light, but they aren't visible from every point on the map.

While the tower is moving, its path will be shown around the stage, letting players know where the tower will go. The path will lightly glow with the ink of the team that is currently in possession and the glow will follow the path that the tower is taking.

The tower is also visible on the Wii U GamePad which is made visible by the Ranked Battle icon on the map. The tower's path and goal is not shown.

Overtime Rules
Overtime will begin if the losing team currently has control of the tower. At this point, Overtime will end when:

Tower Control is considered to have the hardest Overtime for the losing team, as control of the tower can be very quickly lost.
 * The losing team reaches a farther distance with the tower than the winning team, thereby giving the losing team the victory.
 * The winning team regains control of the Tower.
 * It should be noted that all the winning team needs to do to retake control of the tower is to have more of their team on the tower than the losing team, or have one of the winning team's players on the tower if none of the losing players are on it.
 * The losing team loses control of the tower.
 * This is marked by the indicator turning from the losing team's color to the neutral Ranked Battle symbol, and happens some seconds after the tower being empty.

Strategy
→ StrategyWiki

In-game info
"The objective of tower control is to ride the tower into the enemy's base. So when the match begins, make a beeline for the tower! The tower will start moving automatically once you climb aboard. Riding the tower makes you an easy target, though, so watch out! If the tower sits idle for too long without anyone riding it, it'll return to its starting position. As the tower approaches the goal, your goal distance will decrease. If the battle ends without either team reaching the goal, the team with the lowest goal distance will win! In this ranked battle, Battle Points are awarded based on goal distance. Riding the tower by yourself is pretty tough, so be sure to work as a team. Knowing when to bail off the tower, using each stage's features to your advantage, and supporting your teammates are the keys to victory!"

- In-game info

Trivia

 * When riding the tower, it will play gentle music similar to an ice cream truck's tones.
 * A modified version of this music can be heard under a platform after the final checkpoint of the Octo Valley mission Inkrail Skyscape.
 * Tower Control was unveiled during the May 7, 2015 Splatoon-themed Nintendo Direct.
 * The release date of Tower Control was revealed on June 30th, 2015.
 * Tower Control bears a strong resemblance to Team Fortress 2's Payload and Payload Race modes, where a team pushes a cart to the enemy base in order to win the match. Some maps include a custom-version that functions identically to Tower Control, with a cart that can be pushed by both sides.