Zipcaster
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.
Appearance
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.
Splatoon 3
While active, the user can stretch their right arm with to grab a wall, ceiling, or floor up to 35 units away. Upon grabbing a location, the user will quickly fly towards that spot, dealing 60 damage on contact with opponents and creating a small explosion of ink that deals between 35 and 45 damage upon landing[1]. Grates cannot be grabbed, and the user will fly right through them if they grab something on the other side. The user can still use their main weapon while they are not using the hook, though sub weapons cannot be used as they are replaced by the Zipcaster's hook.
The speed of the grapple's flight starts out slow with a short acceleration period, after which the user will move at 0.54 units per frame. Once the user has moved at least 6 units, they begin to accelerate again until they have traveled for 15 units, at which point their speed will be 1.08 units per frame[1]. When landing a grapple before reaching full speed, the damage and radius of the landing explosion are reduced by up to 28.6%, while the contact damage stays unaffected. This can prevent the player from getting a splat with one hook that combines both damages if their targeted spot is too close to where they start the hook.
The player's ink tank, which is 50% larger than usual but cannot recover ink, functions as the special's duration, with the special gauge also showing the amount of ink the player has left. Once the player runs out of ink, they will jump back to where the special was activated, ending the special. This return spot is visible to all players.
While grappling, the player is given armor that breaks after taking at least 30 damage but can negate up to 100 damage from a single hit. Any extra damage above 100 is dealt to the player, with this extra damage being capped at 80. This effect is identical to Ink Armor. The armor refreshes every time the user grapples a surface.
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.
It appears in six Return of the Mammalians missions:
- 0000 After Alterna
- 0106 Zip, Splat, and Jump
- 0405 Amusing a Bemused Muse
- 0506 Zipping over the Neighborhood
- 0511 Simply Zipcastic!
- Rocket 05 The Spirit Lifter: First Class
Special Power Up
- Main article: Special Power Up
Equipping Special Power Up with Zipcaster decreases the rate in which the ink tank drains passively from 10% per second to as low as 8% per second, and decreases the ink consumption for using the hook from 4% to as low as 1.5%. Since the special ends when the player runs out of ink, this effectively increases the duration of the special.[1]
Version history
| Version | Adjustments |
|---|---|
| 1.2.0 |
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| 2.0.0 |
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| 2.1.0 |
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| 3.1.1 |
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| 5.0.0 |
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| 5.1.0 |
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| 6.0.0 |
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Quotes
| “ | 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. | ” | — In-game description
| ||
| “ | Zip and stick to distant walls with . | ” |
— O.R.C.A.'s description.
| ||
Sets
Badges
- Main article: Badge#Special weapon wins
Wining a certain number of battles with the Zipcaster will reward the player with special badges that they can use on their Splashtag.
| Zipcaster badges | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
30 wins with Zipcaster | |
 |
180 wins with Zipcaster | |
 |
1,200 wins with Zipcaster | |
Gallery
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An Inkling using the Zipcaster
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Zipcaster in use, with landing icon visible
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Icon in the special gauge (when used with the Octobrush)
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An earlier version of the Zipcaster icon.
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2D icon
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The Tableturf Battle card icon of the Zipcaster.
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Uncropped version of the Tableturf card icon.
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The Zipcaster Recall Point.
Strategy
For competitive tips about the Zipcaster
|
View the strategy page. |
Trivia
- 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.
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
 Japanese |
ショクワンダー shokuwandā |
Tentacler[a] |
 Dutch |
Tentakabel | Tentacable |
 French |
Super Mollusque | Super Mollusk[b] |
 German |
Haftsprung | From haften ("to adhere") and Sprung ("jump") |
 Italian |
Molluscatto | From mollusco ("mollusk") and scatto ("dash") |
 Russian |
Краскотрос Kraskotros |
Ink cable |
 Spanish |
Gancho tentacular | From gancho ("[grappling] hook"), tentáculo ("tentacle"), and espectacular ("spectacular") |
 Chinese (Simplified) |
触手喷射 chùshǒu pēnshè (Mandarin) |
Tentacle spray |
 Chinese (Traditional) |
觸手噴射 chùshǒu pēnshè (Mandarin) |
Tentacle spray |
 Korean |
쇼크 원더 syokeu wondeo |
Tentacler |
 Internal |
SpSuperHook[2] | Sp for special weapon and SuperHook is in reference to the superhero grappling hook |
