Version 5.3.1 (Splatoon 2)

Version 5.3.1 is an update for that was released on 2020-10-28 at July 27, 2024. It was announced on social media on the same day.

Changes to Ranked Battles

 * Adjusted settings for X Rank battles so that during times when there are many players online, players with high X Power will be more likely to match with each other.
 * Further changes may be made depending on how the situation develops.
 * Made it so that for X Rank battles, other players' names are not displayed on the screen while waiting for players to join.
 * Made it so that for X Rank battles, you may battle with someone even if they're blocked via console settings if that player's estimated rank is within the top 2,000.

Changes to Splatfests

 * Made it so that in Pro-mode Splatfest Battles, other players' names are not displayed on the screen while waiting for players to join when Splatfest Power is considerably high. (Above 2,200)
 * Made it so that in Pro-mode Splatfest Battles, you may battle someone even if they're blocked via the console settings if that player's Splatfest Power is considerably high.

Additional notes
In X Rank Battles and Pro-mode Splatfest Battles, X Power and Splatfest Power serve an important role in determining who you match with and your order in the ranking.

To calculate those values correctly, it's important that opponents are chosen without any deviation, and therefore we utilize a system that detects improper Power manipulation based on match data.

Suspect data is manually scrutinized, and if it is determined that improper behavior is conclusively evident, that month's records will be invalidated, and a penalty will be applied in accordance with the Nintendo Account User Agreement. Additionally, these systems are updated daily.

We are addressing this type of improper behavior, but incidents of users improperly manipulating Power by intentionally limiting their opponents are extremely few when compared to the whole, though they are occasionally detected.

Therefore, in order to allow users to play Ranked Battles and Pro-mode Splatfests without worrying about this behavior, we believe it's important to not only refine the systems to detect improper behavior but also to make it difficult to carry out this kind of behavior, and so we have prepared this update.

Please note that we will continue to make adjustments to things such as weapons after long-term analysis of the data.


 * When you download the latest update data, you will no longer be able to communicate in The Shoal with players using older update data.
 * This update also includes changes not listed here, such as improvements to the gameplay experience.
 * Sufficient space on the internal system memory or a microSD card is required to download the update.
 * Save data will still be available for use after downloading the update.

Trivia

 * The update was released less than one hour after the announcement, which is the shortest amount of time between announcement and release of any version.