Octoling (enemy)

"We’ve got company, Inklings. Octolings ahead."

- Cap'n Cuttlefish

Octolings (Japanese: タコゾネス Takozonesu) are elite Octarian fighters, and the octopus equivalent to an Inkling. They are recurring enemies in Octo Valley and Octo Canyon, appearing both in special missions where they are the only enemies, as well as in normal missions. Sanitized versions of Octolings appear in Octo Expansion, using a much wider range of weaponry.

Appearance and traits
Octolings are similar to Inklings, and are the Octarian versions of them. Unlike Inklings, they have thicker and curlier hair, with four tentacles instead of six (added with their arms and legs this gives them eight "limbs", as opposed to Inklings' ten), have their suckers above their hair than underneath, beige undersides of their hair, small round ears (according to the Splatoon in-game model), purple circled eyes with a dash on the end, pointed fingers, and no spots at the ends of their hair.

Like Inklings, they can walk on land in humanoid form as well as swim through their own ink in octopus form, making up a somewhat small but nonetheless dangerous portion of Octarian forces. They can use various main weapons as well as sub weapons. With no visible target, Octolings will wander alone or in small groups and ink nearby surfaces for their convenience. Upon being engaged by the player, they will make tactical maneuvers, quickly jumping in and out of their ink while shooting and throwing bombs. The best way to deal with Octolings is to catch them before they can react; once found, they are difficult to escape from, as they will follow the player in octopus form and shoot at them in humanoid form.

All enemy Octolings encountered appear to be female, and their Japanese name, タコゾネスundefined (a portmanteau of "octopus" and "Amazons"), further supports this. Their body features seems slightly more mature than the female Inklings', though this is a result of their clothing, as the in-game model is the same. These Octolings are considered elites compared to the playable Octolings, and not every female Octoling has the capacity to become a full-fledged Octoling soldier.

Octoling hair color seems unrelated to their ink, as they will have their pre-set hair color regardless of the color set for the mission.

Like Inklings, Octolings have an octopus form, which they can use to swim or hide in ink, but can sometimes be seen using it on dry land. Compared to playable Octolings, they have a different octopus form, which has curlier tentacles of the same length and Octarian eyes. Their hairstyle is also not available to playable Octolings.



Elite Octolings
While normal Octolings have red hair and are fairly easy to defeat, later missions feature Elite Octolings instead, which are faster, more resilient, and deal more damage. Further separating them from the common Octolings are their dark hair (black with a gold tinge in Splatoon, dark maroon in Splatoon 2, or a darker shade of blue in Octo Expansion) and the two long strands of seaweed attached to their heads. In Japanese, they are called デラタコゾネスundefined (meaning deluxe, or decorated Takozonesu).

Splatoon
"The Octolings with seaweed on their heads are super tough!"

- Agent 2

They appear in the missions Octoling Invasion, Inkvisible Avenues, Octoling Assault, Propeller Lift Fortress, Spinning Spreaders, Octoling Uprising, Spongy Observatory, and Octoling Onslaught. The only weapons they use are the Octoshot and.

DJ Octavio is shown to be able to assume humanoid form in, and is the only known enemy male Octarian shown in Splatoon.



Equipment
After completing Octo Valley, the player is awarded the Octosuit, based off the gear worn by the Octolings, for use in online battles, including:

The is given to the player by  at Level 40, completing the Octoling set.

Splatoon 2


In Splatoon 2, Octolings have a slightly different design of their Octosuit, wearing, , and. Some Octolings have colored fingertips similar to that of Marina, and Elite Octolings haved dark maroon colored hair instead of black, but otherwise function the same as they did in Splatoon. Octolings in some stages will spawn far away from Agent 4 and Super Jump near their location to attack. Additionally, they now use weapons that resemble, and. These are Octarian versions of the Hero Roller,, and  in addition to the  Octo Shot. They appear in missions Octoling Strike, Parking Garage, Octoling Assault, Propellerland, Octolings Ahoy!, and Octoling Workout.

Marina of Off the Hook is an Octoling and a former member of the Octarian army who has since defected from their forces.

Octo Expansion
The Octo Expansion introduces the Sanitized Octolings, using all previous weapons, as well as new mains, subs, and specials, including Octarian versions of the, , and. They are also able to use additonal subs including the and, and can now use specials, including the , , , , , , and. The physical coloration of the Octolings is very different from normal ones. They are shown to have pale greenish skin, dark teal colored finger tips and blue hair with neon yellow tips.

While both types of characters are called "Octolings" in English material about the Expansion, the Japanese version makes a notable distinction between the player Octoling, called タコundefined "Octopus", and the enemy Octolings, called タコゾネスundefined "Octopus-Amazon."

Equipment
After completing Octo Expansion, the player is awarded with the and a set of the new Octoling Gear based off the Splatoon 2 design Octolings, worn for use in online battles, if enough sets mem cakes are collected:
 * - One set of mem cakes completed
 * - Two sets of mem cakes completed
 * - Three sets of mem cakes completed

Audio

 * [[Media:Enemy Octoling sounds.ogg|Enemy Octoling voice clips]]

Notable Octolings

 * Marina
 * Agent 8
 * Dedf1sh

Trivia

 * When an Octoling is splatted, they will fly off in the form of a small ghost, just like Inklings. They even have their own unique octopus ghost for this.
 * Despite having dark red and black tentacles, their ink is purple like other Octarians. The reason for this is unknown.
 * It is possible to hack a playable Octoling into both games. In Splatoon, the game loads an otherwise unused Octoling alternate model supposed to be used by the player, so they can change the Octoling's skin tone, hair color, and see their eyes. These Octolings have purple eye markings with a dash, as opposed to the black markings of Inklings. In Splatoon 2, the Octoling model used in Octo Canyon has black markings with a dark purplish dash instead, and the hair is affected by movement, while it remained stiff in Splatoon ' s models.
 * This is possible due to the fact that, on a technical level, the "Octolings" are simply modified female Inkling models with curvier bodies plus unique hair and travel-form models; all other model rigging and animations are shared. Moreover, the hack makes clear that in-game models of enemy Octolings are not intended to be playable, as their hair clips through a significant number of hats. However, the fact that they have a model specifically meant for this purpose, with unique eyes not seen at all during the single-player game, and their hair being textured and coded to function properly with the "team ink color" system despite the clipping issues, raised suspicion that it was likely that there were plans to make the Octolings playable at some point.
 * Splatoon ' s Octoling models had been updated several times throughout updates. Early versions going back to of Splatoon 2 also contained different player model types for Octoling girls and boys and possible hair renders.
 * The model also shows Octolings having small, round ears instead of pointy ears that Inklings have. However, this round ear model is shared between Inklings for when they wear gear that cover their ears. This could be because Octolings’ ears were not supposed to be visible, thus using the existing model. Marina's model does not have ears, as she never is shown without her headphones.
 * However, in a Twitter art post released from SplatoonJP, it is revealed that Marina has small, round ears similar to the enemy Octolings’ round ear model, but slightly bigger.
 * Because of their similarity to Inklings, if an Octoling touches a Zapfish after its shield has been destroyed, the level is completed as if the player has touched it. However, due to the logistics of this, it can only be performed during Octoling Invasion by prematurely destroying the shield with an Inkzooka.
 * Dera, a prefix of DeraTakozonesu, Japanese name of Elite Octoling, is a word of Nagoya dialect.
 * At one point in Splatoon ' s development, Octolings' footwear looked very similar to the Moto Boots, with three straps on the side and pieces of metal on the end. This was briefly shown in a pre-release trailer for Octo Valley.
 * The Octolings' "hairstyle" bears a resemblance to one commonly seen on female Majins from Dragon Ball Online. Both consist of four tentacles, with two in the front framing the face and two in the back curling up.
 * In Splatoon 2, none of the Octoling gear is available to wear after completing the Octo Canyon story mode. This is unlike the first game, where it was acquired after defeating DJ Octavio. This is due to it being obtainable through getting Mem Cakes in the Octo Expansion.
 * As seen in the art book, Octolings were originally going to have Inkling masks and floppy ears like a dumbo octopus. These ideas were mostly discarded, except for the curly, above-suckered hair and armor, and the rounded ears being reintroduced in Agent 8's design and the design of the playable Octolings.
 * Concept art of Salmon Run show both Inklings and Octolings fighting together against early versions of the Salmonids, suggesting that Octolings were planned to be playable very early on.
 * The playable female Octoling model appears to not be as curvy as the hostile Octoling model.
 * It was revealed in a Famitsu interview with the developers that enemy Octolings are slightly older than Agent 8 and the playable Octolings, and only elite female Octolings are able to be these specific Octoling soldiers.
 * In Octo Canyon, if more than one moving Octoling is on screen, one of them will disappear in the same way a player disappears in an online battle after disconnecting.

Names in other languages
Octopus