Rank



Rank (Japanese: ウデマエ udemae) is a progress indicator in Splatoon and Splatoon 2 alongside Level.

The higher the player's rank, the more competitive their Ranked Battles are and the higher amount of cash they can earn from said battles.

Ranks in Splatoon
Players begin at rank C-. Winning in Ranked Battles grants Battle Points based on the player's current rank and what their odds of winning were. Getting 100 points or more in any rank will promote the player to the next one, starting them off at 30 points into the new rank. Conversely, dropping below (but not exactly to) 0 points on a rank will demote the player to the next one down. However, they only need 30 points to get back up, since they start at 70 after dropping a rank. Players cannot go below C-.

When the match ends, players receive cash depends on how much they gained from the objective from the scale of 0 to 500p, the victorious team earns the bonus of knockout or non-knockout. The higher you rank is the bigger your bonus of victory is. Once a team won by knockout, the losing team earns 0 cash upon defeat.

Normally, matches award a base amount of points per win and loss (±10 above B-). These numbers change depending on the average rank of each team in a match. A team with a higher average rank than their opponents will be given a smaller reward if they win and a larger punishment if they lose, and vice versa; a team with a lower average rank gets a larger reward for winning and a smaller punishment for losing. The values are ±10±2 or ±10±4 depending on the magnitude of the difference. For example, a team of 4 A+'s vs an A+ and 3 A-'s, or 4 B+s vs an A+ and 3 B+s, will receive scores of ±10±2.

When a team starts with three players or fewer and loses, they will each lose only 1 point.

Prior to Version 2.0.0, the maximum rank was A+ with 99 points, at which point the text would change from white to yellow. The update added S and S+ rank to the ranking system (though no S-). The current maximum is rank S+ with 99 points. S and S+ rank players cannot lose or gain points in Squad Battles. Upon getting to S+ with 99 points, the S+ turns yellow like A+ did before Version 2.0.0. The amount of Base Points and Base Penalty was adjusted in Version 2.2.0.

Prior to Version 2.6.0, players could battle against other rank players and get different amount of base points per win or base penalty per loss depends on the teams matchup. Latter to Version 2.6.0, the following ranks were not allowed to be matched together:
 * Different letter grades (such as B and C)
 * S and S+

This allows the players to get much more accurate base points per win or base penalty per loss.

Ranks in Splatoon 2
Like in the original game, ranks start at C- and go to S+, and players only play against players with the same letter grade- so C- players can play with C+, but not B-, with the exeption of S and S+ players, who can only be matched with players of the same rank. However, each player now has four seperate ranks, one for each mode of ranked battle (Splat Zones, Tower Control, Rainmaker, Clam Blitz). This means that players will need to rank up in each mode individually, and will play against players at their skill level for each mode.

S+ now contains additional ranks that are numbered from 0 to 10. (0 to 50 prior to .)

It is possible for players to skip ranks between C- and A+ depending on their performance. In the S+ ranks, players are able to skip between the different numbered S+ ranks, meaning an S+ 0 player can skip to S+ 9 based on their performance.

The mechanism by which players move between ranks has been significantly rehauled. Players now start with an empty meter, and as they win games, their meter will fill up, depending on their performance in each game. However, as they lose games, their meter will start to get cracks in it, getting 1 crack for every 1-3 games lost, depending on various factors that may include the team's score, the enemy team's power, a player's position on their team, how many enemies they splatted, and how much turf they inked.

If a player successfully fills their meter, they will rise to the next rank and cracks are healed. The player can move up multiple ranks should they perform well in that rank.

If the player gains 4 cracks (equal to roughly 8 games lost), their meter will shatter. If the player is above the "OK" line, their meter drops by the amount needed to reach the line plus roughly 1/3rd of the amount the player had above the line. If the player is below the "OK" line, they are sent down to the previous rank, keeping the filled portion of the meter. In C- there isn't any line present, as it isn't possible to derank further than C-. The line's placement is the same at approximately 40% for ranks between C and S, while it's in the middle of the in the S+ ranks, requiring players to fill up 50% of the rank meter to maintain rank. In S+ 2 through S+ 5, depending on performance, the player drop all the way down to S+ 0 at once for failing to reach the line before getting 4 cracks, while in S+ 6 through S+ 9, the player can drop up to 5 ranks at a time.

Prior to, in S+ 50 the "OK" line appeared at the end of the meter, meaning that the meter would have to be full to reach it.

Prior to, in S+ the "OK" line was placed in the same position as previous ranks, but players could drop more ranks at once for failing to reach the line before getting 4 cracks.

The amount of cash awarded for a victory in Ranked is based on the player's rank and the team's score at the end of the round. The formula is '(P * 5) + B', where P is the team's score, and B is the bonus received based on your rank and if the match was a knockout (see table below). So for example, if an A- player wins with a score of 84, their score is multiplied by 5 to get 420 points, with a +2000 win bonus, for a total 2,420 cash.

Losing a ranked battle without being knocked out will still award cash based on your team's score multiplied by five, just without the significant amount awarded by the win bonus. A knocked out team, however, is always awarded 0 cash.

Experience awarded depends on who won, whether it was a knockout or a timeout, and the progress your team made. The winning team always gets a 1,500 XP win bonus. In the case of a knockout, the losing side gets 100 XP per minute the match lasted, rounded down to the nearest minute, while the winning side gets a 1,000 XP knockout bonus, for a total of 2,500 XP. In the case of a timeout, both teams get a 500 XP time bonus, plus 5 XP for every percentage of progress made - so if a team brings the rainmaker or tower 83 percent to their goal, they get 83*5 = 415 XP.

Rank X
A new rank, Rank X, was introduced in the update in April. It replaced ranks S+ 10 through S+50, and players who already are S+ 10 or above started in Rank X when the update rolled out. At Rank X, the meter is replaced with an "X Power" score similar to that of Splatfest Power, which is used to ensure players of similar skill within the rank are matched together (±500 your current power). Once a month, for each of the 4 different Ranked Battle modes, 500 players with the highest X Power will be announced on SplatNet 2, as well as the players with the highest X Power for each weapon. At this point, the X Power of all players will be reset to "Calculating". The calculation period, lasting 10 matches, determines the players power level going into X rank. When a player loses a match while their power is below 1900 or if their power is below 2000 at the end of the calculation period they will drop back to S+9. In addition to having enhanced matchmaking, Rank X players have the option to pose in the lobby. Pressing both sticks on the controller will make a player spin around and cross their arms like an "X" while a letter "X" flashes on the Rank Meter then fills the screen. The music will also fade out while a "whoosh" sound is played.

Data
Datamines reveal further how certain rank mechanics work.

Rank meter
The rank meter is internally represented as a number between 0 and 100. The numbers that tracks the filling of the rank meter and cracks are two seperate systems, where wins adds points to the number system that fills the ranks meter and losses adds points to a different number system that eventually cracks the meter.

The rank meter is full when the "fill" number reaches 100, causing the player to rank up. The rank meter breaks when the "crack" number reaches 100, where every 25 points is equivalent to one crack on the rank meter.

How the player gains points that affects these numbers and how they are calculated depends on how the game determines the probability of the player winning a match in Ranked. Winning a match that the game determined was likely, the number of points gained for the "fill" number will be low compared to a match deemed less probable of winning. Conversely, loosing a match that the game deemed had a high probability of winning has the player gain a high number if points for the "crack" number, compared to a match deemed less probable of winning.

The amount of points gained are kept the same for both number systems. In ranks under S+, players can earn between 10 - 20 points from a match, while this number is between 9 - 20 in S+. These parameters are seperated across regions, but are kept identical as of 8 August 2018 and can be changed without having to update the game.

Power and rank skipping
The Power rating used in Ranked Battles is a Glicko-2 rating system. Only wins and losses are considered when measuring performance in battles, meaning that splats, deaths, turf coverage and playing the objective don't count towards the Power rating. The opponents Power rating are put together to a single value and used when calculating a new value for the player.

Rank skipping is tied into the Power rating. There is a target Power level for each rank, and if the player's Power level exceeds this threshold while ranking up the player will skip the corresponding rank. These target Power levels are different across regions. As of 8 August 2018, European and North American/Oceania regions have a lower threshold than Japan in certain ranks, being S and S+, meaning that it's easier to skip ranks in those regions.

A list of these target Power levels are detailed in the following table:

This means that a player in C+ who skips into B+ has to have a Power level of at least 1550 when they rank up. Thereby it isn't required to win every match to skip a rank, but winning against a team with a higher average Power level yields a higher rise in the player's own rating, while losing against a team with a high Power rating subtracts less Power from the player than against a team with a lower Power level.

Trivia

 * In preparation for the release of Rank X, the SplatoonJP Twitter and  SplatoonUS tumblr released statistical information about the rank breakdown of the players that were active in that region's Ranked Battle the previous week: