Octobot King L3.Gs

"The Eight-Armed Archfiend Returns!"

- Pause screen

The Octobot King L3.Gs is the fifth level of Splatoon 3 story mode, Return of the Mammalians, and the first boss level.

Access
To access the boss arena, the player must clear away the Fuzzy Ooze at the end of the path, triggering the intro cutscene. The Fuzzball is located on top of a pillar to the player's right when facing the end of the walkway and requires 1000 Power Eggs to clear. Of note is that this Fuzzball only spawns once all four previous kettles are complete.

Appearance
The boss is DJ Octavio, who operates his new Octobot King, the Octobot King L3.Gs. The DJ himself remains in his red-violet octopus form as seen in the previous games and still wields his pair of wasabi stalks. This time, however, he wears a hard hat that resembles a kabuto and has a camera attached to the front, along with a black-rimmed pair of safety glasses.

The Octobot King L3.Gs is mainly off-white with some parts being gray and metallic. DJ Octavio sits in a half-dome in the center of the Octobot. Said dome contains his turntables and wasabi and has five speakers surrounding the outside that later turn into his Ink Vac-style machine, and attached to it are the arms, legs, and thrusters. The legs are simple cylinders that swap between having feet and a second pair of thrusters protruding from the bottom. The arms mainly consist of black joints and can launch the Octobot's hands at the player. The thrusters are again just cylinders.

The Octobot's hands are gray metal fists with black palms and joints. At first, they are only launched at the player in the form of fists, but later on in the fight, they can also be launched either in a drill shape or with an open palm. If the player does not deal enough damage to the launched hand quickly, it will shove its palm off the ground and return to the Octobot King L3.Gs. The Ink Vac-like machine that the Octobot sprouts in the second phase of the fight mainly consists of a long, off-white, rectangular tube that cuts off with a slant. On either side of it are two thick disks with angular, rectangular holes in them that resemble angry eyes. The tube and 'eyes' are rimmed in purple, and the eyes' holes are filled with purple as well. When the Vac is being plugged up by Smallfry, all the purple turns red.

Phase 1
DJ Octavio will begin by shooting his mech's fists at Agent 3. Said fists can be shot at until the fist is entirely coated in yellow, at which point the fist will backfire and hit Octavio instead. DJ Octavio will also use a drill hand attack which cannot be shot back at the mech while it is in the air, and instead must be dodged and then attacked once it gets stuck in the ground.

Phase 2
DJ Octavio will now try to use an Ink Vac attack with a new device that comes out of the front of his mech. Shooting into the Ink Vac's vortex while it's vacuuming will cause Agent 3's ink to be absorbed, preventing them from attacking its fists and allowing Octavio to retaliate with an ink blast that grows larger based on the amount of ink it has vacuumed. Agent 3 will have to throw Smallfry into the Ink Vac while it's active, which clogs it and renders it unusable for a short time. When the Ink Vac is clogged, DJ Octavio will continue to use his regular fist and drill attacks. However, Smallfry will be knocked out of the vacuum occasionally, forcing Agent 3 to re-throw it.

Phase 3
In addition to the attacks from the previous two phases, DJ Octavio will now use an attack similar to the Wave Breaker. He will shoot one of the mech's hands at Agent 3. It will land palm down on the battle arena, causing a shockwave to spread out from where the hand lands. The player will need to jump over this shockwave to avoid taking damage from it. Agent 3 can ink the hand to shoot it back at Octavio when it is on the ground as it will remain where it landed for a short period of time.

Trivia

 * The Octobot King L3.Gs' spinning fist attack was originally featured in Splatoon 2.
 * The version name of the boss, L3.Gs, resembles the word LEGS and is a reference to the fact that this Octobot King has legs while the prior versions do not, as well as the recurring theme of the number three in.
 * This is the first time DJ Octavio is fought as a boss that is not the final boss. Instead, he serves as the first boss.
 * He is also the only boss in Splatoon 3 to not feature a title.
 * Unlike the other bosses in Return of the Mammalians, DJ Octavio won't begin attacking the player until they move from the starting position, jump or perform a Splashdown.