Thang

The four thangs are collectibles in the Octo Expansion, claimed by the Telephone to be necessary for Agent 8 and Cap'n Cuttlefish's escape from the Deepsea Metro, and into the "Promised Land".

Description


The four thangs resemble pieces of a giant blender, which the Telephone promises will produce a doorway to the "promised land". In reality, it intends to use the blender to blend Agent 8 and Cap'n Cuttlefish into a "primordial ooze", which it plans on using to wipe out all life on Earth. The thangs are as follows:


 * The foundational thang, the blender's base and motor (found in Grab & Go Station).
 * The surrounding thang, the blender's jug (found in Bust & Run Station).
 * The precision thang, the blender's blade (found in Smash & Dash Station).
 * The sealing thang, the blender's cap (found in Break & Bounce Station).

Whenever the player unlocks a line containing a thang, the station that contains it is marked on the Deepsea Metro map. Each of the thangs' stations are empty railway terminals with the same layout which do not cost anything to enter. #19 bless plays in those stations, unless if the thang is already collected, in which case no music is played. Agent 8 can only choose the Splattershot, with no objectives other than popping the protective bubble around the thang, similar to a Rainmaker shield, albeit much more durable - requiring almost the entire ink tank's capacity to break. These stations are all named after synonyms of 'breaking' and 'leaving' and their subtitles are all "Here lies the [name] thang..." After breaking the shield, Agent 8 takes a selfie with the thang before carrying it back to the metro on a trolley. The loading screen that appears afterwards also shows each thang being carried back to Central Station as well as the normal imagery.

Trivia

 * The thangs are similar to a feature in Don't Starve, a game in which the player can optionally collect and assemble five "things" to enter the adventure mode. They are named in a similar fashion: the Crank Thing, the Ring Thing, the Box Thing, the Wooden Thing, and the Metal Potato Thing.
 * If the player revisits the stations originally containing the thangs, music no longer plays in the station and there are no collectibles present, as opposed to Octo Canyon having substitutes replacing the Zapfish once collected.
 * According to the Splatoon 2 Anniversary Famitsu interview, every time a previous test subject collected the four thangs and 'entered' the promised land, the thangs were repositioned back to their original stations for the next subject.
 * There seem to be thangs on the NILS Statue.
 * The device made from the four thangs seen in the cutscene looks larger than the individual pieces from the levels.

Etymology

 * "Thang" is a slang term synonymous with the word "thing".