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. A Sanitized version of Octolings will appear in Octo Expansion, and they are shown in the expansion trailer using new weapons.

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 don’t have 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 s. 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 (Agent 3 or Agent 4), they will make tactical maneuvers, quickly jumping in and out of their Ink while shooting and throwing Splat 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 squid 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.

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 or dark maroon in Splatoon 2 ) and the two long strands of seaweed attached to their heads. They also have the same body shape as female inklings. 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 main weapon they use is the Octoshot.

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



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 Hypno-shades instead of 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 Rollers, Sloshers, and Blasters in addition to Shooters. They appear in missions Octoling Strike, Octoling Assault, Octolings Ahoy!, and Octoling Workout.

Marina of Off the Hook is an Octoling, although implied to have once been affiliated with the Octarian forces, she does not appear to be as of the present day.

Octo Expansion
Octo Expansion introduces the mysterious Octoling character Agent 8, and will allow players to use Octolings in multiplayer upon completing its story mode. The male version of Agent 8 is also the first appearance of a character which is clearly shown to be a male Octoling in-game.

The expansion trailer also shows Sanitized Octolings using new weapons and specials, including the, an Octarian version of the , and. A promotional image also shows one of them holding an Octoshot, signalling this weapon's return to the series. The physical coloration of the octolings are very different from the normal ones. They are shown to have pale greenish skin and blue hair with neon yellow tips.

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

Audio

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

Notable Octolings

 * Marina
 * Agent 8

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 the game. By doing this, 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.
 * This is possible due to the fact that, on a technical level, the "Octolings" are simply modified female Inkling models with the same eyebrows, curvy bodies, 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 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, has raised suspicion that it is very likely that there are plans to make the Octolings playable in the future. Plus, the fact that models have been updated several times throughout updates practically confirms this.
 * The model also shows the octolings having human-like, round ears instead of pointy, elf-like ears that Inklings have. It makes biological sense since octopuses don't have fins that squids have in real life besides the dumbo octopus. This has since been reflected in the official playable Octoling models shown in the Octo Expansion.
 * 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 Splatoon 2, none of the 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 might be unlocked by completing the 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.