Competitive:Fresh Squiffer

Unofficial

Gear abilities
Gear abilities provide different effects in battle that benefit the player with their equipped weapon. This is a guide to gear abilities in relation to the weapon. Strategy, synergy, viability, and purpose may be written here.

Splatoon 2
The Fresh Squiffer, as well as its Vanilla and Dolphin variants, lack range, but have a quick charge time and can still splat an opponent in one fully charged shot. Compared to its other variants, the Fresh Squiffer's kit leans much farther into its aggressive capabilities.

Use
Despite it being a charger, the Fresh Squiffer can be a slayer's weapon: Suction Bombs can be used in a similar fashion to Splat Bombs, with a few differences: If piloted properly, the Inkjet can pressure opponents – particularly anchors – more directly than most other slayer's special weapons, such as Tenta Missiles:
 * Like all other chargers, the Fresh Squiffer can fire tap shots, partially charged shots, and fully charged shots.
 * It requires .75 seconds, or 45 frames, to fully charge - three-quarters of the time of the Splat Charger. This enables a player to charge their shots quicker, which can come in handy when an opponent is rushing the player.
 * The charging rate slows down to 25% its usual charging speed (for a charge time of 180 frames, or 3 seconds), but the charge rate stays the same when airborne.
 * Unlike other chargers, its range (167.65 DU) is lacking, barely having a range advantage over other mid-ranged weapons such as the Custom Dualie Squelchers and Kensa Splattershot Pro (both 160.396 DU). This, combined with a dependency shared by all chargers on hitting shots, makes the Fresh Squiffer a difficult weapon to play.
 * They can attach to surfaces, which both allows more room for error when aiming and enables the planting of craftier traps, such as underneath a grate.
 * They take two seconds after attaching to a surface to detonate, as opposed to one second for a Splat Bomb, so plant Suction Bombs earlier than usual.
 * They inflict more damage from a direct hit (220 HP) and have a larger overall radius of damage (80 DU).
 * They can be thrown to lead a push into a Splat Zone or any other important area of the stage, such as the opponents' street or platform.
 * They can also flush out opposing anchors from perches and clear other critical areas, such as the Tower.
 * They can also be used to poke at and zone out opponents during the neutral phase, stall an opponent's push, or provide space to escape.
 * A Suction Bomb can damage or destroy an opponent's brella shield, Splash Wall, or Baller or the Rainmaker shield, while detonating on contact.
 * Any opponents caught within the Suction Bomb's explosion will get damaged or splatted.
 * It will also inflate or pop a teammate's bubbles but deflate or diffuse an opponent's bubbles, while still detonating on contact.
 * An opponent's Splashdown or Booyah Bomb will defuse any Suction Bombs it touches, so hold off throwing them until after the special weapon finishes.
 * Upon activation, its launching point is marked for all players – teammates and opponents – to see and, as of Version 3.2.0, also indicates when its user will return via super jump, allowing an opponent to camp or shark there. Therefore, it is advised to launch the Inkjet from a less visible and better-protected area.
 * Drop Roller allows its user to better dodge either a potential Inkjet punish or a simple super jump punish, providing a safer landing.
 * Specials are also free ink reloads, allowing the Fresh Squiffer user to drop a Suction Bomb upon landing after the special ends.
 * Its movement speed is determined by both the Fresh Squiffer's strafing speed and the number of Run Speed Up ability points equipped.
 * It is also possible to morph into squid/octopus form and swim (in friendly ink) while the special is active. This provides some key benefits:
 * Morphing will halt the jets to enable the pilot to descend, making them a less predictable target.
 * Swimming is faster than flying, enabling an Inkjet pilot to activate the special at a farther distance from opponents and more quickly pursue them.
 * Its altitude depends on the elevation of the surface it is hovering above, enabling it to either fly very high over an elevated structure, such as the glass roof in Shellendorf Institute, or hover high enough to challenge an opponent on a perch.
 * However, the Inkjet cannot achieve thrust off of grates or mesh, causing its pilot to merely walk on them. Avoid hovering over them to maintain altitude.
 * Pressing the button will provide a temporary extra thrust. Mastery of both boosting and descending (see above) is necessary for Inkjet pilots to become less predictable for long-ranged opponents to track and pick off.
 * Its mobility enables it to reach areas that are otherwise not easily accessible — or even inaccessible, such as over the glass enclosures in Kelp Dome.
 * The Inkjet's cannon fires long-ranged, Rainmaker-like bursts of ink that splat opponents in one direct hit or two to four indirect hits:
 * Lead the Inkjet's shots to compensate for their slightly slower travel speed, especially when positioned farther from an intended target.
 * Its splash damage can splat opponents positioned behind obstacles, varying from 30 to 50 damage; the closer the shot to the opponent, the more damage it deals.
 * If an Inkjet falls out of bounds, such as into the water, its pilot will land back onto the location of launch — or the most previous point of solid ground. Therefore, the Inkjet can save a player from an out-of-bounds splat in a pinch. You can also use this to your advantage. When being pressured by the enemy team, going into water can save you from being splatted.

Synergy
Because of its higher range compared to most other slayers, the Fresh Squiffer is best paired with a short to medium-ranged Slayer or Support weapon, such as the Aerospray PG or the Kensa Splattershot.

Gear abilities
A Fresh Squiffer user in a slayer role generally gets close enough to the opponent and their bombs. Ever since its introduction in Version, Bomb Defense Up DX will not only reduce the damage taken from opposing sub and special weapons that are not one-hit-splat but will also reduce the duration of the tracking effects of certain opponent's sub and special weapons, such as Point Sensors and Ink Mines, allowing the user of this ability to evade detection more easily. Just three ability points, or one sub, offer plenty of utility:
 * The splash damage of most bombs is reduced from 30 HP to 28.6 HP. This reduction in damage provides two benefits:
 * It prevents its user from being exposed on their opponents' map by the splash damage of most single bombs.
 * Ink Armor will not break due to splash damage from a single bomb whose splash damage normally inflicts 30 HP of damage.
 * The splash damage of near-misses from either Tenta Missiles or Inkjet, the minimum splash damage of bubbles, and the collision damage from Baller are all reduced from 50 HP to 48.3 HP, enabling one to survive two hits from any of these specific means of special weapon damage.

Any good slayer like a Fresh Squiffer user is expected to come in contact with the opponent's ink on various surfaces, which can both be damaging and reduce mobility. Ink Resistance Up not only partially offsets the reduction in mobility but also delays the damage taken from contact with opposing ink.
 * Just three ability points, or one sub,…
 * …delays the damage taken from opposing ink by 10 frames.
 * …reduces the damage taken from 0.3 HP/f (health points per frame) to 0.2 HP/f.
 * …lowers the limit on the amount of damage opposing ink on surfaces can inflict from 40 HP to 38 HP.
 * …increases the normal running speed in opposing ink from 0.24 DU/f to 0.33 DU/f.
 * …increases the jumping height in opposing ink from 0.8 to 0.854.
 * Six ability points, or two subs,…
 * …delays the damage taken from opposing ink by 15 frames.
 * …reduces the damage taken to 0.2 HP/f.
 * …lowers the damage limit of opposing ink to 36.2 HP.
 * …increases the normal running speed in opposing ink to 0.39 DU/f.
 * …increases the jumping height in opposing ink to 0.888.

Main Power Up increases the range and turfing ability for the Fresh Squiffer (up to 8.9% and 24%, respectively), mitigating some of its weaknesses.
 * 25 ability points, or one main and 5 subs, increases the range to 177.49 DU and improves turfing by 15.75%.

Quick Super Jump decreases both the "charge" time before and the travel time of a Super Jump. Both aggressive and supportive Fresh Squiffer users will benefit since Quick Super Jump allows them to both return to the front lines more quickly and escape unfavorable situations more easily to preserve special gauge progress.
 * One sub, or 3 ability points, of Quick Super Jump decreases the "charge" time by 22 frames, or 0.36 seconds.

Super Jumping to a teammate after respawning carries the risk of getting splatted upon landing, due to the appearance of a Super Jump indicator. When equipped, Stealth Jump better covers this indicator from long-distance opponents, allowing its user to more safely return to the front lines and maintain pressure on the opponent.

A self-explanatory ability, Swim Speed Up enables an already mobile Splattershot user to more rapidly close the distance towards an opponent, more quickly respond to an opponents' push, or even escape unfavorable situations.
 * 16 ability points – one main and two subs – increase the swim speed from 1.92 to 2.14 units per frame.