Octoling (enemy)

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

- Cap'n Cuttlefish

Octolings (Japanese: タコゾネス Takozonesu) are elite Octarian fighters, and the octopus equivalent to an Inkling. They are recurring enemies in Octo Valley and Octo Canyon, appearing both in special missions where they are the only enemies as well as in normal missions. Sanitized versions of Octolings appear in Octo Expansion, using a much wider range of weaponry.

Appearance and traits
Octolings are similar to Inklings, and are the Octarian versions of them. Unlike Inklings, they have thicker and curlier hair, have their suckers above their hair than underneath, beige underings (the section under their hair), small round ears (according to the Splatoon in-game model.), purple circled eyes with a dash on the end, pointed fingers, and have no spots at the ends of their hair.

Like Inklings, they can walk on land in humanoid form as well as swim through their own Ink in octopus form, making up a somewhat small but nonetheless dangerous portion of Octarian forces. They can use various main weapons as well as sub weapons. With no visible target, Octolings will wander alone or in small groups and Ink nearby surfaces for their convenience. Upon being engaged by the player character, they will make tactical maneuvers, quickly jumping in and out of their Ink while shooting and throwing bombs. The best way to deal with Octolings is to catch them before they can react; once found, they are difficult to escape from, as they will follow the player and shoot at their last location if they try to escape in octopus form.

All enemy Octolings encountered appear to be female, and their Japanese name, タコゾネスundefined (a portmanteau of "octopus" and "Amazons"), further supports this. Their body feature seems slightly more mature than the female Inklings', though this is a result of their clothing, as the in-game model is the same.

Octoling hair color seems unrelated to their ink, as they will have their pre-set hair color regardless of the color set for the mission.

Like Inklings, Octolings have an octopus form, which they can use to swim or hide in ink, but can sometimes be seen using it on dry land. Compared to playable Octolings, they have a different octopus form, which has curlier tentacles of the same length and Octarian eyes. Their hairstyle is also not available to playable Octolings.



Elite Octolings
Normal Octolings have red hair and are fairly easy to defeat, though later missions feature Elite Octolings instead, which are faster, more resilient, and deal more damage. Further separating them from the common Octoling are their dark hair (black with a gold tinge in Splatoon, dark maroon in Splatoon 2 or a darker shade of blue in Octo Expansion) and the two long strands of seaweed attached to their heads. In Japanese, they are called デラタコゾネスundefined (means deluxe, or decorated Takozonesu).

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

- Agent 2 They appear in the missions Octoling Invasion, Inkvisible Avenues, Octoling Assault, Propeller Lift Fortress, Spinning Spreaders, Octoling Uprising, Spongy Observatory, and Octoling Onslaught. The only weapons they use are the Octoshot and.

DJ Octavio is shown to be able to assume humanoid form in, and is the only known enemy male Octarian shown in.



Equipment
After completing Octo Valley, the player is awarded a set of replica Octoling Gear for use in online battles, including: The is given to the player by  at Level 40, completing the Octoling set.

Splatoon 2
In Splatoon 2, Octolings have a slightly different design of their armor, wearing, , and , some Octolings with colored finger tips similar to that of Marina and the Elite Octolings being a dark maroon color instead of black, but otherwise function the same as they did in Splatoon. Octolings in some stages will spawn far away from Agent 4 and Super Jump near their location to attack. Additionally, they now use Octarian versions of the Hero Roller,  Hero Slosher, and  Hero Blaster in addition to the  Octo Shot. They appear in missions Octoling Strike, Parking Garage, Octoling Assault, Propellerland, Octolings Ahoy!, and Octoling Workout.

Marina of Off the Hook is an Octoling and a former member of the Octarian army who has since defected from their forces.

Octo Expansion
The Octo Expansion introduce the Sanitized Octolings using all previous as well as new weapons, subs, and specials, including Octarian versions of the Herobrush,  Hero Dualies, and  Hero Brella. They are also able to use additonal subs including the and. They are also capable of using specials, including the, , , , , , and. The physical coloration of the Octolings are very different from the normal ones. They are shown to have pale greenish skin, dark teal colored finger tips and blue hair with neon yellow tips.

While both types of characters are called "Octolings" in English material about the expansion, the Japanese version makes a notable distinction between the player Octoling, called タコundefined, "Octopus" and the enemy Octolings, called タコゾネスundefined, "Octopus-Amazon."

Equipment
After completing Octo Expansion, the player is awarded with the and a set of the new Octoling Gear worn for use in online battles, if enough sets mem cakes are collected:
 * - 1 set of mem cakes completed
 * - 2 sets of mem cakes completed
 * - 3 sets of mem cakes completed

Audio

 * [[Media:Enemy Octoling sounds.ogg|Enemy Octoling voice clips]]

Notable Octolings

 * Marina
 * Agent 8
 * Dedf1sh

Trivia

 * When an Octoling is splatted, they will fly off in the form of a small ghost, just like Inklings. They even have their own unique octopus ghost for this.
 * Despite having dark red and black tentacles, their ink is purple like other octarians. This reason is unknown.
 * It is possible to hack a playable Octoling into both games. In, the game loads an otherwise unused Octoling alternate model supposed to be used by the player so they can change the Octoling's skintone, hair color, and see their eyes. These Octolings have purple eye markings with a dash as opposed to the black markings of the Inklings. In , the Octoling model used in Octo Canyon has black markings with a dark purplish dash instead, and the hair is affected by movement, where it remained stiff in 's models. This change could've been to avoid any confusion between Marina’s markings or that they might have more than one mask color.
 * This is possible due to the fact that, on a technical level, the "Octolings" are simply modified female Inkling models with curvier bodies plus 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 yet; their hair model clips through a significant number of hats. However, the fact that they have a model specifically meant for this purpose, their eyes are unique despite not being seen at all during the single-player game, and the Octoling hair being textured and coded to function properly with the "team ink color" system despite the clipping issues, had raised suspicion that it was likely that there were plans to make the Octolings playable in the future, together with the fact that Octoling models have been updated several times throughout updates. Early versions going back to  of  also contained different player model types for Octoling girls and boys and possible hair renders.
 * The model also shows the Octolings having small, round ears instead of pointy the ears that Inklings have. Though, this round ear model is shared between Inklings for when they wear gear that cover their ears. This could be because Octolings ears weren't supposed to be visible, thus using the existing model. Marina's model doesn't have ears as she never is shown without her headphones.
 * Dera, a prefix of DeraTakozonesu, Japanese name of Elite Octoling, is a word of Nagoya dialect.
 * At one point in Splatoon's development, Octolings' footwear looked very similar to the Moto Boots, with three straps on the side and pieces of metal on the end. This was briefly shown in a pre-release trailer for Octo Valley.
 * The Octolings' "hairstyle" bears a resemblance to one commonly seen on female Majins from Dragon Ball Online. Both consist of four tentacles, with two in the front framing the face and two in the back curling up.


 * In, none of the Octoling gear is available to wear after completing the Octo Canyon story mode. This is unlike the first game, where it was acquired after defeating DJ Octavio. The reason for this is unknown, though it is obtainable though getting Mem Cakes in Octo Expansion.
 * In the art book, they were originally going to have Inkling masks and floppy ears like a dumbo octopus. The ideas were discarded except for the curly, above suckers hair and armor.
 * However, the rounded ears may have been reintroduced in Agent 8's design and the design of the playable Octolings.
 * Concept art of Salmon Run show both Inklings and Octolings fighting together against early versions of the Salmonids, suggesting that Octolings were planned to be playable.
 * The playable female Octoling model appears to not be as curvy as the hostile Octoling model.

Names in other languages
Octopus