Competitive:Forge Splattershot Pro

Unofficial

Splatoon 2
The Forge Splattershot Pro is often seen as a beginner's Foil Squeezer, or for those who are unable to mash buttons. While it has less range, turfing, and accuracy than the Foil Squeezer, it does not require continuous presses of. Due to its kit, the Forge Splattershot Pro has a more supportive playstyle than its pure slayer variant, the Kensa Splattershot Pro.

Use
Suction Bombs can be used in a similar fashion to Splat Bombs, with a few differences: Bubbles launched from the Bubble Blower can turf surfaces and splat opponents when popped, but they are even better at providing protection:
 * The Forge Splattershot Pro is a medium ranged slayer weapon, similar to the Splattershot but with a longer range, better accuracy, and higher damage output.
 * The extra range and higher damage output, at just a slight cost to fire rate, make it very effective at splatting a wide variety of opponents.
 * Main Power Up further increases this damage output, maxing out to 49.9 points of damage at 42 ability points.
 * Also like the Splattershot and its variants, the Forge Splattershot Pro is great at sharking, making it effective on defense as well.
 * The reduced ink efficiency and slower fire rate make the Forge Splattershot Pro a less effective turfing weapon than most other slayer/support weapons. Avoid getting surrounded by opposing ink and have an exit lane in case of a retreat.
 * Reduced turfing ability hinders its ability to either maintain map control or capture a Splat Zone. In general, focus on splatting opponents and rely on teammates with better turfing weapons to maintain zone or map control.
 * While the added range and Suction Bombs allow this weapon to potentially play a supportive role, the slower turfing rate combined with the high special gauge requirement for the Forge Splattershot Pro make it harder to build up its special weapon compared to most conventional support weapons.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Suction Bombs can be a bit more reliable than other bombs with the Bubble Blower.
 * The main benefit is that Suction Bombs attach to surfaces providing a guaranteed spot to shoot the bubbles to. Splat Bombs may skip through the ground and go too far for the bubbles to make contact with.
 * Compared to Splat Bombs, Suction Bombs take longer to explode than Splat Bombs. The extra time can be used to get the bubbles to the bomb and not waste ink.
 * Create some distance from the opponents before activating Bubble Blower, as a Bubble Blower user is vulnerable at close range.
 * Blowing bubbles in front of a push (e.g. Tower, Rainmaker, or Power Clam) can protect its user and any teammates from incoming opposing fire. However, just like with a Splash Wall, any bombs that hit a bubble will instantly explode, so remain behind any bubbles to avoid getting splatted by opponents' bombs.
 * Bubbles will grow when hit with friendly ink and shrink when hit by opposing ink. Equipping Special Power Up will produce larger bubbles from the start.
 * Object Shredder increases damage dealt to bubbles – both friendly and opposing – by 30%, allowing for quicker growing and popping of bubbles.
 * Combining Object Shredder with Suction Bombs, the Forge Splattershot Pro can use Bubble Blower offensively to push into any key areas of the stage :
 * Place a Suction Bomb toward the opponent or area in question.
 * Activate Bubble Blower and launch a bubble or two toward the Suction Bomb, which will detonate and enlarge the bubble(s).
 * Remembering that activating any special instantly reloads the ink tank, throw a second Suction Bomb towards the bubble(s) to pop it/them.
 * Launch any remaining bubbles to push the opponent further back.

Synergy
The Forge Splattershot Pro's long range and high damage allow it to provide support fire and help maintain spatial control, despite its lack of turfing compared to most of the other weapons of a team's composition. Therefore, it is generally redundant to have more than one long-ranged weapon on a team for a few reasons: Because the Forge Splattershot Pro is inefficient at turfing, its user will have to rely on their teammates to maintain map control. Not having enough turfing ability – usually from having too many blasters and chargers – presents its own set of problems: Bubble Blower is great for either initiating a push into contested territory or repelling the opponents' push. However, it is neither a very reliable means of turfing territory – such as a Splat Zone – nor always a dependable means to splat opponents — particularly ones with longer-ranged weapons. Therefore, it would be redundant to have two Bubble Blower users in a team composition: Besides providing protection while pushing the objective, the Bubble Blower works well in conjunction with other special weapons: Remember, teammates of a Bubble Blower user can assist by either keeping the bubbles inflated or bursting them, thanks to their 20% bonus damage inflicted on them:
 * A team with too many long-ranged weapons will have fewer mobile weapons that can more quickly capture turf and wrest control of the objective, hindering its ability to begin an effective push into the opponents' territory. Such a team will also have difficulty breaking out of an opponent's spawn camp.
 * A team whose composition lacks enough turfing ability can be rendered immobile if the other team dominates map control.
 * A lack of turfing also makes it difficult to alter the course of a game, even after wiping out the other team.
 * Bomb Launcher and Booyah Bomb are more reliable means of turfing territory.
 * Other special weapons, such as Inkjet or Sting Ray, are intended for splatting opponents and more capable at this than is Bubble Blower.
 * During a push or counter-push, bubbles provide an extra layer of protection for a team already using Ink Armor.
 * Bubbles can provide cover for a teammate using certain mobile special weapons, such as a Baller.
 * Players who have Bubble Blower but no bombs in their kit will likely need more help sustaining their bubbles than those who have both Bubble Blower and a bomb.
 * A well-placed Ink Storm can help sustain bubbles before eventually bursting them in an explosion of ink, pushing the opponents back.

Countermeasures

 * The Forge Splattershot Pro is a formidable foe for most other weapons, due to its range and damage output. Therefore, most other weapons cannot easily defeat it in a straight one-on-one matchup and must use other means to defeat it.
 * A matchup between two opposing Forge Splattershot Pro wielders will depend on skill, positioning, turf control, and the presence of any supporting players.
 * To engage a Forge Splattershot Pro with a shorter range weapon, try to catch it off guard through either careful flanking or sharking, better positioning, or wise use of bombs. Do not forget that the Forge Splattershot Pro also has Suction Bombs as well.
 * Both variants of the Splat Brella can decently counter the Forge Splattershot Pro due to the durability of their shields. Variants of the Tenta Brella are more damaging and provide more protection, provided that their shields are opened early enough. Variants of the Undercover Brella, however, are too weak to match the Forge Splattershot Pro's damage, and their shields are not sturdy enough to provide sufficient protection.
 * Throwing a Suction Bomb at the Shield may destroy the shield but be careful not to waste too much ink. The Suction Bomb and the Forge Splattershot Pro both use high amounts of ink and it can leave the player's ink tank dry.
 * Try to take advantage of the Forge Splattershot Pro's relative inability to turf by containing it with ink. This might require the use of sub weapons and teammates.
 * A few weapons that either match or exceed the range of the Forge Splattershot Pro without sacrificing mobility can defeat one head-on. For example, both variants of the .96 Gal overpower and slightly outrange the Forge Splattershot Pro, while both variants of the Squeezer's burst fire mode outrange it. Both variants of the Dualie Squelchers match the Forge Splattershot Pro's range and can outmaneuver it with dodge rolling.
 * As with versus the Splattershot, long-ranged weapons, such as chargers and most splatlings, can fire upon Forge Splattershot Pro with impunity, but they must remain wary of it getting too close.
 * To prevent sharking, keep track of all four opponents – particularly which ones have neither been splatted nor super jumped to their spawn point – and turf suspicious puddles of opposing ink, preferably with a sub weapon. Point Sensors, while unable to turf, can expose any sharking opponents.
 * If the Forge Splattershot Pro user activates a Bubble Blower in an unsafe position, try attacking them, particularly with bombs and chargers.
 * Tenta Missiles can damage the bubbles severely, leaving the bubbles almost popped.
 * A Splashdown within range can severely damage the bubbles if not destroy it outright.

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. 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. Being a slayer weapon, its user risks damage from both bombs and special weapons and can greatly benefit from reducing the damage taken from them. 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.

A Forge Splattershot Pro user can expect to come in contact with the opponent's ink on various surfaces, which can both be damaging and reduce mobility - especially since this weapon has poor turfing ability. 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.

Last-Ditch Effort is a Headgear-exclusive ability that, under specific conditions, grants its user 1 to 24 ability points each of the following abilities: These abilities only begin to take effect under either of the following conditions: The Forge Splattershot Pro consumes ink rapidly and Suction Bombs are more often relied upon. A Forge Splattershot user can greatly benefit from both the overall reduced ink consumption and increased ink recovery.
 * There are at most 30 seconds remaining on the game clock, or Overtime has begun in a Ranked Battle, at which the maximum 24 ability points will be granted for each of the above abilities.
 * In a Ranked Battle, the opposing team's countdown has at most 50 points remaining. The effects of Last-Ditch Effort increase as the opposing team's countdown decreases from 50 to 30 points remaining, starting with 1 ability point for each ability and maxing out to 24 ability points.

An ability exclusive to shoes, Object Shredder provides a Forge Splattershot Pro user three specific benefits:
 * It increases their damage dealt to bubbles – both friendly and opposing – by 30%, allowing for quicker growing and popping of bubbles.
 * It triples the amount of damage inflicted onto armored opponents, allowing a Forge Splattershot Pro to break an opponent's Ink Armor in one hit.
 * It enables them to pop the Rainmaker shield more quickly with either their main weapon or Suction Bombs, allowing their team to start or restart a push more quickly while gaining a large amount of turf control in the immediate area.

Special Power Up increases bubbles' size upon launching as well as their blast radius. The former trait enables bubbles to withstand more damage from the opponents before defusing, providing their user and their teammates a longer duration of protection.
 * 19 ability points – one main and three subs – increases the bubbles' size by 18.78% and their explosion hitboxes by 39.71%.

Main Power Up increases damage for the main weapon. If enough is used, the damage can reach to 49.9, making it close to a two hit splat. If an opponent touches enemy ink for more than one frame, then the Forge Splattershot Pro will be able to splat the opponent in two hits. However, due to the major commitment in gear space required for this ability so the weapon does 49.9 damage in addition to the abilities required for a typical weapon with Bubble Blower, Main Power Up is not recommended for this weapon. A gearset with Main Power Up is more suited for the Kensa Splattershot Pro due to it being more combat-oriented.
 * Three mains and four subs will get the maximum damage to 49.9 if 3 mains and 4 subs are used, or if 2 mains and 7 subs are used.

In competitive play
The Forge Splattershot Pro upon realease would be used quite often because it had the Bubble Blower. At the time, the Bubbles were massive and the Forge was the best weapon with it. The Forge would be used often until version 2.2.0, which changed its special gauge requirement from 180 to 200. Afterwards, the Forge would be used less and less often in the meta.

At version 3.3.0, while still not the best, the Forge would be ranked as moderate, with competitive players such as Sorin ranking it moderately on his tier list. Thoughts on the weapon throughout version 4.0.0 would stay the same with Sorin placing it near the same place. The Forge at version 4.0.0 would be one of the few times it was superior to the Foil Squeezer. From version 4.6.0 to version 4.8.0 the weapon would still stay near the same place, with Chara placing it at similar places. Because the weapon had to either devote gear space to either Main Power Up or Special Power Up and Object Shredder, the weapon would be missing out on one advantage, which made the weapon inferior as the other variants, which could devote gear space to Main Power Up without problems.

Around version 5.0.0 the ability to instapop bubbles discovered. Because of it's gear devotion problem, the Forge would not be used often around here and would be bested by the Foil Squeezer, which does not need a potential two shot in order to be effective. Chara would put the Forge at version 5.3.0 slightly lower than before with the same gear problem and because of the Foil Squeezer. . At version 5.5.0 the weapon would stay the same with the same problems as before. Here, the Forge would be placed higher than its vanilla variant.

Splatoon 3
The Forge has carried over the suction bomb from, but has exchanged the Bubble Blower for a Booyah Bomb. The Suction Bomb gives the Forge a certain versatility not possessed by the base Pro Kit, and the Booyah Bomb is a great zone control tool. While this comes at the cost of higher ink consumption, and a costlier special, the Forge is an excellent kit, and an attractive choice for any prospective Pro user

Use
The Forge retains most of the base kit's defining traits and thus much of what applies to the Pro applies to the Forge Pro.
 * First off, the three primary strengths of the main weapon are good range, good damage, and good accuracy.
 * At 3 hits to splat and an ok fire rate, the Forge Pro puts out some surprisingly decent damage. While beat out by many weapons in terms of time to kill, it is still really good when combined with...
 * Its excellent range. Particularly for the shooter class it's one of the best. You'll be out ranging a lot of close to mid range weapons (many of which just so happen to out-damage you) like the regular Splattershot, the .52 Gal, Splat Dualies, the Blaster, etc.
 * That being said the Splattershot Pro is not helpless at close range, and can hold its own up close if the situation calls for it.
 * The Forge has great accuracy as well. It's not perfect, but it can kill consistently even at its maximum effective range.
 * The Splattershot Pro is a better turfer than the base kit due to the Suction and Booyah Bomb. It's not the best, but it's not bad either, and is pretty good at covering a Splat Zone for example.
 * A Pro vs Pro matchup will usually come down to skill, and whoever gets the initiative on the other. Remember, if another pro (or any other weapon for that matter) gets the jump on you, retreat is always an option. Just be sure to not get gunned down while running away.
 * When confronting a Pro and other similarly ranged weapons, flanking and ambushing are good tools for safely picking them off.
 * Remember that shooting gives away your position. Sometimes it's better to simply hide in ink and wait for the enemies to come to you before picking them off, so try not to shoot willy nilly.
 * Focus fire, as in go after one enemy at a time. If you're going down, better to take one enemy down with you than partially damage two.
 * The Suction Bomb is an excellent sub, if rather costly. It retains much of its utility from Splatoon 2, but to demonstrate the differences between it and the base kit in here's a general rundown:
 * The Suction Bomb can apply easy pressure to the enemy team, forcing them out of critical positions. Choke points, sniper perches, and the tower from Tower Control are some examples.
 * It is excellent at destroying objects, like a Splash Wall or a rainmaker shield. Notably, it makes the Forge Pro much better at this than the base Pro.
 * The Suction Bomb can be used to quickly cover up errant patches of bare ground while you're traveling towards the action.
 * When it comes to traps, there are few better subs then the Suction Bomb. Forcing your opponent into an exploding Suction Bomb, intentionally or otherwise, is always satisfying.
 * While not a flashy use, throwing a Suction Bomb down will generally deter the enemy from moving towards the area where the Bomb is located until after it has exploded. Use this to manipulate enemy movement, or to force them back for a few seconds.
 * Don't ignore the Suction Bomb's high ink consumption. It's especially bad when the main weapon by default guzzles ink like an M1 Abrams tank guzzles fuel.
 * As a side note, the loss of the Bubble Blower means the Suction Bomb arguably no longer synergizes as well with the special weapon.