The Zipcaster is a special weapon in Splatoon 3. It temporarily allows the user to stretch their arm to quickly grapple to walls, causing damaging explosions on impact. While the player is grappling, they are given a small amount of armor temporarily.
Activating the Zipcaster coats the user in team-colored ink. It also gives the user a "helmet" resembling their squid or octopus form and a "scarf" resembling their tentacle, both of which depend on the user's species. The user can also stretch their arms while in this form.
While active, the user can stretch their right arm with to grab and fly quickly to the targeted spot, creating a small explosion of ink upon impact.
The player is only given armor while being pulled by the arm and flying quickly (grappling), which has 100 HP and breaks upon taking 100 HP, seemingly having damage multipliers against different weapons and specials. The armor refills to the full 100 HP at the start of the next grapple process, yet the player's HP is not restored unless healed naturally with time, in air or in ink.
If the player hits a wall, they will stick to it even if it cannot be inked. While stuck to a wall, the player can throw out another tentacle without letting go, or jump off the wall to gain extra height. Going into swim form or using a main weapon will unstick the player. The Zipcaster cannot stick to ceilings or floors.
The player can still use their main weapon, though sub weapons cannot be used as it is replaced by the Zipcaster's grapple. When the special gauge runs out, the player will jump back to where the special was activated, ending the special. This return spot is visible to all players.
▲ Ink consumption when using a main weapon while the Zipcaster is active has been decreased to about 67% of previous.
— Fixed an issue where a player who activated the Zipcaster while holding and then immediately releasing would result in a sub weapon being used despite the Zipcaster being in use, making the time of the Zipcaster's continuous use shorter.
— Fixed an issue where a player's jump height was lower than normal when they extended a Zipcaster arm to attach to a wall while their feet were in enemy ink and then jumped immediately afterward.
— Fixed an issue in Mahi-Mahi Resort that caused players to clip into terrain by using the Zipcaster from certain locations when the water level changed.
— Fixed an issue in Crableg Capital that made it so that the Zipcaster could only be used to cling to the steel beams around the outer edge of the stage on one team's side.
— Fixed an issue in Shipshape Cargo Co. where the Zipcaster could be used to get inside terrain from beneath certain obstacles.
Quotes
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Transform into an ink-cloaked acrobat, and sling your stretchy arm to zip around the battlefield! Use to aim and stick to walls. You can still use your main weapon like normal with . When your ink runs out, your transformation will end, and you'll Super Jump back to your starting location.
When the special has almost run out, grappling again, then the special running out will cause the player to go to the grapple destination, but on the way and while super jumping back to the activation spot, the player's ink tank will run out, and 'low ink' will flash next to the player. However, once the player returns to the activation spot, they will have full ink.
When jumping down from the spawn drone a player can jump to an ineligible surface for the recall point. If they activate the Zipcaster, the first eligible surface they stand on will have the recall point placed there. This allows the player to reach spots only possible with the Zipcaster while it not being active.
As the special runs out the ink that covers the player will slowly fade away.
If the player falls out-of-bounds while the Zipcaster special is activated, they will simply Super Jump back to their recall point—or the player's last eligible surface if activated out-of-bounds—similar to the Inkjet.
A character under the effect of the Zipcaster bears a strong resemblance to Greninja, likely as a nod to it.