Squid Bumper



Squid Bumpers are a mechanic in the Splatoon series. They are used as target dummies for testing weapons.

Description
Squid Bumpers count as enemies for purposes of the game, and can be affected by anything an enemy can, such as suffering damage, being marked by Point Sensors, triggering Ink Mines, etc.

When a Squid Bumper is damaged, it will gradually become covered in the player's ink. After a few seconds of not being damaged, it will emit a squeaking sound, jiggle, and will be healed of all the damage it suffered. If it suffers enough damage it will pop and reveal a circular base under it. After a few seconds, a new bumper will emerge from the base with the same squeaking sound followed by a ding.

The basic Squid Bumper can be found in the Shooting Range, can suffer 100 points of damage before exploding, and will display the damage it has suffered as a number above it. There are variations such as Squid Bumpers that can suffer more damage, ones that move at various speeds, and ones with Defense Up stickers that are affected by that many primary ability slots of defense. introduced another variant of them - large, grey, shiny bumpers with a double "X" design on them as opposed to the stripes on the normal ones, that can suffer up to 999.9 points of damage, but do not pop when they reach that amount. This double "X" design is shared with the 500 damage bumpers in, but these do not have the same special properties and appear in the current neutral ink color.

Splatoon

 * Shooting Range - Stationary, (100 damage, 500 damage, and 100 damage with one, two, or three Defense Up stickers)

Splatoon 2

 * Shooting Range - Stationary and moving
 * Octo Canyon (Tentakeel Outpost) - Stationary, each with a sketch of an Octarian enemy, and able to suffer as much damage as that enemy (Octotrooper, Twintacle Octotrooper, Shielded Octotrooper)

Octo Expansion

 * A similar object is placed at the entrance to each Deepsea Metro test station (including stations with no weapons provided). It is more round and has eight legs at the base. It bears the Kamabo Corporation logo.
 * For completing Targetbuster Station, Agent 8 is awarded with the Squid Bumper mem cake.

Splatoon 3
Bumpers in Splatoon 3 that can take a maximum of 999.9 damage are the variant that also do not pop upon reaching that threshold.
 * Ammo Knights Test Range - Stationary (100 and 999.9 damage), and moving (100 damage)
 * Battle Lobby Test Range - Stationary (100 and 999.9 damage), and moving (100 damage)
 * The Shoal Test Range - Stationary (100 and 999.9 damage), and moving (100 damage)
 * Grizzco Industries Test Range - Stationary (40, 100, 300, 400, and 500 damage), and moving (100 damage)
 * The maximum damage values for these fish-shaped bumpers reflect the health of various Salmonids, in addition to their placement and size somewhat mimicking them, and some have stickers depicting the corresponding Boss Salmonid(s).

Trivia

 * In the Shooting Range of, if the player destroys all three moving Squid Bumpers at the same time (such as by using a charger's penetrating shot, Splashdown, Baller or Booyah Bomb), their Inkling or Octoling will cheer by saying one of the "Booyah!" sound clips.
 * The Squid Bumpers in the Shooting Range are colored in the player's current ink's opposing color (100-damage bumpers in, stationary bumpers in Splatoon 2) and neutral color (500 damage bumpers in Splatoon, moving bumpers in Splatoon 2). This is the only way to see the neutral color of some color sets, such as the Salmon Run color sets.
 * If the color set does not have a second neutral color, the color used instead is a 180 degree hue shift of the first neutral color.
 * Until the release of the Octo Expansion and the unlockable mem cake, Squid Bumpers did not have an official name and were often referred to as dummies.
 * Although Squid Bumpers can be affected by anything, Toxic Mist does not reduce the speed of moving Squid Bumpers in Splatoon 2.