Clam Blitz

"Fill the enemy's clam basket!"

Clam Blitz is one of the four Ranked Battle modes in Splatoon 2, alongside Splat Zones, Rainmaker, and Tower Control. Clam Blitz is the first ranked mode introduced in Splatoon 2 that wasn’t in Splatoon.

History
Clam Blitz was announced on November 21, 2017 when Nintendo released a video showing the updates for the coming weeks.

On December 13, 2017 at, the game update made Clam Blitz playable.

Gameplay
The objective of Clam Blitz is to pick up clams, which are scattered around the stage, and deposit them into the goal near the opposing team's base. Once a player picks up ten clams, it transforms into a power clam, which is used to destroy the barrier around the other team's goal when thrown towards it.

Holding and throwing clams
Clams and power clams can be thrown by pressing the button or  button. If a thrown clam or power clam hits another player, they will get it as if they picked it up. However, a power clam can only be picked up by players of the same team. If a player is holding a power clam, they cannot pick up any other clams. If a player receiving or picking up the power clam is holding any clams, they will be dropped upon getting the power clam. A player that gets splatted while holding clams will drop up to four of them. It is possible to Super Jump to a teammate and keep all held clams intact, but returning to spawn will immediately break whatever clams the player was holding. After using the or  specials, the player will drop all the clams or power clam they were holding.

Any clams dropped (due to being thrown and not caught, splatting their holder, using a special weapon, etc.) will open up and break after a short while if not picked up. A power clam will similarly start flashing and then disappear if not picked up by a player of the same team. After a power clam disappears or enough clams have de-spawned, new clams will appear in the stage in random locations at groups of 4 clams.

Picked-up clams follow the inkling behind them and can not be seen when swimming in squid form. Clams sitting on friendly ink will appear as pulsating circular markers on-screen (even through walls) and as dots surrounded by pulsating circles on the map. Both these markers are shown in the neutral color for the current match.

All players can see the position of both teams' power clams at all times on both the screen and the map, shown as a ranked battle symbol in white over their appropriate color. Once a player holds a power clam, it follows the player and can be seen even when in squid form. A dropped power clam (or the one that spawns when the barrier regenerates) will similarly be shown on all players' maps and screens in inverted colors (team color logo on white background).

If the player is holding a power clam, or if the opponent's goal is open and the player is holding any clams, a marker shaped like a power clam in the opponent's color will appear on screen showing the location of the opponent's goal. Any friendly players holding clams (including the player him/herself) will have a numbered marker showing how many they are holding next to their name (and even if off screen). In addition, the score board on the top of the screen shows the total number of clams currently held by each team, with power clams counted as 10 clams.

Scoring
Breaking the opponent's barrier with a power clam awards 20 points. If several power clams hit the closed basket simultaneously, these points are awarded for each one. When clams are thrown in the opposing team's open basket, 3 points are earned for each clam, while a power clam is worth 20. If a team's barrier closes with the exact same point total as the opposing team, the last team to score will lose 1 point (this is done to avoid tied scores).

The barrier stays open for 10 seconds, and throwing a clam into it extends the timer by 3 seconds, but cannot make the remaining time go over 10 seconds. Throwing a power clam into an open basket will reset the timer to 10 seconds.

If the barrier goes back up before the scoring team gets to 100 points, a penalty of half the points scored, rounded down, will be imposed on the team, similar to penalty for ceding control to the other team in Splat Zones. The total for this calculation includes the 20 points for breaking the barrier as well as any points that made up for previous penalties. If a point was deducted for the barrier closing with a tied score, the penalty will not be reduced (e.g. if the team only ended up scoring 19 points, the penalty will still be +10). In addition, a Power Clam for the team whose barrier got broken will spawn by their goal, and will not time out until picked up.

Overtime
When time runs out and at least one team has scored, overtime will begin when either:
 * The losing team is holding at least one power clam or 10 clams in total. Dropped power clams that have not yet disappeared, including the free power clam gained from the barrier coming back up, count.
 * The winning team has their barrier open.

Overtime will end when:
 * The winning team's barrier closes.
 * The losing team's barrier opens (if the losing team barrier was open at the start of overtime, it must close and re-open for this condition to be met).
 * The winning team's barrier was yet not opened during overtime and the clam total for the losing team drops below 10 (each power clam, including dropped ones, counts as 10 clams).
 * The losing team failed to open the winning team's barrier within 20 seconds of overtime.
 * The losing team takes the lead.

If time runs out and neither team has scored, a special overtime will begin. in this case, overtime will end when either:
 * One team manages to score.
 * 3 minutes of overtime pass.

Trivia

 * The power clam resembles an American football.
 * The scenario where both teams have broken the opponent's barrier once and have scored no further clams (and the last team to score loses 1 point) is the only situation where a non-zero score is less than 20 points.