Splatoon 3 update announced (version 3.1.0), patch notes

Nintendo just announced a new version 3.1.0 update for Splatoon 3, and this is another big one. It will go live tomorrow, March 30.

Various changes have been made to Splatfests, weapons, and more. A ton of bug fixes have been implemented as well. The next big update is planned for the end of the current season, which “will focus primarily on balance adjustments and adding features for the new season starting in June.”

The full patch notes for the Splatoon 3 version 3.1.0 update are as follows:

Changes to DLC

• Added some data relating to Inkopolis during Splatfests.

Changes to Splatfests

• Added a song that will play during Splatfest Battles and Tricolor Turf Wars.
  • This song will play whether or not the player has downloaded the DLC.
• Adjusted the points awarded for each category during the Splatfest Final Results.
  

  Category	Before	After
  Splatfest Sneak Peek	+8p	+7p
  % of Votes	+10p	+8p
  Splatfest Battle (Open)	+12p	+12p
  Splatfest Battle (Pro)	+12p	+12p
  Tricolor Battle	+15p	+18p
  Total	57p	57p

Changes to Multiplayer

• Specifications for some main weapons have changed.
  

  Weapon	Change Details
  Splattershot Nova	Movement speed while firing is now about 10% faster. Ink splatter will now fall around the player’s feet more easily.
  Luna Blaster Luna Blaster Neo	Increased the radius of the explosion area that deals 70.0 damage by about 50%. No changes to the radius of the area that deals 50/0 damage.
  Big Swig Roller	Adjusted the damage-falloff rate based on vertical-swing distance, making the amount of damage fall off more gradually than before. Due to this change, the distance where 100.0+ damage can be dealt was extended by roughly 15%, and the distance where 50.0+ damage can be dealt was extended by roughly 49%.
  Snipewriter 5H	Maximum damage has been increased from 60.0 to 68.0.
  Slosher Slosher Deco	Adjusted the damage-falloff rate when a player attacks someone vertically lower than them, making it more difficult for damage to decrease. Due to this change, the minimum amount of damage dealt to an opponent will be 50.0.
  Mini Splatling Zink Mini Splatling	Increased firing duration by roughly 17%.
  Dapple Dualies Dapple Dualies Nouveau	Shortened the amount of time it takes for a player to be able to act after a Dodge Roll by roughly .06 seconds.
  Splat Dualies	Increased the Dodge Roll movement speed, shortening the amount of time it takes to move by roughly .06 seconds.
  REEF-LUX 450	Made the angle of diffusion narrower depending on the amount of charge, making it easier to focus on attacking a single area. Movement speed while charging is now about 10% faster.

• Specifications for some sub weapons have changed.
  

  Sub Weapon	Change Details
  Angle Shooter	Roughly doubled the radius of the ink splatter that occurs when it hits terrain.
  Burst Bomb	Increased the amount of ink consumed from a standard ink tank from 40% to 45% if the player doesn’t have the “Ink Saver (Sub)” ability equipped. The amount of ink consumed when the maximum number of abilities are equipped will not change.

• Specifications for some special weapons have changed.
  

  Special Weapon	Change Details
  Ink Vac	Increased the radius of the outer perimeter when vacuuming up ink by roughly 10% to cover a larger area than before.
  Tacticooler	Increased the initial setup speed when throwing the Tacticooler by roughly 33% to enable it to be set up farther than before. Roughly doubled the horizontal radius of the area where players can drink a beverage.
  Reefslider	Increased the amount of damage dealt from 60.0 to 70.0 when getting caught in an explosion at long range, and increased the radius of that area by roughly 17%. Increased the radius of the ink splatter from an explosion by roughly 21%.
  Inkjet	Increased the radius of the explosion area that deals 50.0 damage by roughly 43%. No changes to the radius of the area that deals 30.0 damage. Strengthened the jet of ink that comes out when pressing B, enabling players to jump higher than before.
  Ultra Stamp	Increased the radius of the area where a player can be damaged from the shock waves of continuous stamp attacks by roughly 43%. Improved the turning performance when doing continuous stamp attacks, making it easier to change direction. When doing continuous stamp attacks, the stamp will now be displayed as translucent on the user’s screen, making it easier for them to see where they’re going.
  Crab Tank	Introduced an interval where players cannot attack for roughly 0.33 seconds after returning to attack mode from mobile mode. Increased the amount of time it takes for players to act again after the special ends.
  Kraken Royale	Made it easier for a player to be pushed back by an enemy attack in Tower Control mode when the player is on the tower. Made it so that a player will drop all their clams and power clams wherever they are when they use this special in Clam Blitz mode.

• Specifications for some gear abilities have changed.
  

  Gear Ability	Change Details
  Sub Resistance Up	Damage from Burst Bombs and Fizzy Bombs will be reduced more than before, even with just a few gear abilities. The damage reduction from equipping the maximum gear abilities will not change.
  Opening Gambit	If a player splats or assists in splatting an enemy while this gear ability is in effect, the effect will now be extended by roughly 15.0 seconds instead of roughly 7.5 seconds. Made it so that the Intensify Action gear ability will also occur when this gear ability is in effect. The effect is equivalent to 3.0 primary gear abilities.

• Points required for some special weapons have been changed.
  

  Weapon	Before	After
  Carbon Roller Deco	200	190
  .96 Gal Deco	200	210

• The sound effects for an opponent’s Kraken Royale are now easier to hear from a distance.

Changes to Salmon Run

• Made the interval between touching a Golden Egg and being able to use it roughly the same for all players.
  • By adjusting the animation speed when a Golden Egg goes into a non-host-player’s life ring, the interval between touching a Golden Egg and being able to use it is now roughly the same for the host and non-host players.
  • However, if communication delays exceed a certain level, the timing may not be the same as the host player.

This update focuses on adding Splatfest data, adjusting Splatfest Points, and making tweaks to online multiplayer.

For Splatfest Points, adjustments to the Halftime Report should make it feel less like the winning team has already been decided.

For main weapons, the changes should highlight the unique traits of weapons and strengthen certain combinations of sub and special weapons.

For sub weapons, the changes should create more ways to use certain sub weapons, as well as curtail strategies that employed repetitive use of certain sub weapons.

For special weapons, we have reviewed and made adjustments to the performance of each special weapon now that the usage of special weapons new to Splatoon 3 is better established.

For the new special weapon Kraken Royale, its basic abilities are unchanged, but it has been adjusted in certain modes to reduce unfavorable circumstances.

For Salmon Run, the changes should ensure that lag will be minimal no matter which system is the host. It’s possible that selection of the host system for wireless play in any or all game modes may change, either by adding a feature or improving communication efficiency. Therefore, we are taking steps to minimize lag regardless of which system is the host.

We plan on releasing the next update at the end of the current season. It will focus primarily on balance adjustments and adding features for the new season starting in June.

Bug Fixes

Fixes to Player Controls

• Fixed an issue with collision-detection speed that slightly lowered the accuracy of ink fired by shaking a brush at distant, nonmoving enemies.
• Fixed an issue that caused some bombs of a certain type to not explode when three or more were used at the same time.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused sub weapons thrown on certain terrain to not travel according to the predicted trajectory line shown by pressing the R Button.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused Autobombs thrown into gaps on certain terrain to pass through the terrain.
• Fixed an issue that allowed Crab Tank users who held down the ZR Button before changing from mobile mode to attack mode to start rapid firing slightly faster than usual.
• Fixed an issue where if a player using Ink Vac while moving forward was attacked from behind, the attack would sometimes be blocked.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused Tacticoolers to rebound more forcefully than intended and fly far away when thrown while the player is in close contact with terrain or other objects.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes allowed players to jump farther than intended when jumping right after a charge attack with the Kraken Royale.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes allowed players to jump farther than intended when doing a Squid Roll off of a wall with the Kraken Royale.
• Fixed an issue that enabled players to do a Squid Surge or Squid Roll during the period when player actions were supposed to be disabled after the effects from the Kraken Royale wore off.
• Fixed an issue where the animation indicating that a player splatted an enemy with a direct hit from the Rainmaker didn’t display.

Fixes to Multiplayer

• Fixed an issue that caused a player to not take blast damage from an Inkjet shot if it looked like the shot landed on their screen but not on the screen of the Inkjet user.
• Fixed an issue where it wasn’t defined which player’s screen would be used as the standard if an Ultra Stamp user attacked an opponent and a communication delay caused the shot to land differently between the two players’ screens.
• Fixed an issue in Scorch Gorge in Clam Blitz mode where clams were not placed symmetrically at the start of a battle.
• Fixed an issue in Hagglefish Market where some terrain unintentionally appeared translucent, depending on the position of the player and the camera.
• Fixed an issue in Hammerhead Bridge in Rainmaker mode that allowed players to get into certain unintended narrow spaces.
• Fixed an issue in Mahi-Mahi Resort in Clam Blitz mode where clams were not placed symmetrically at the start of a battle.
• Fixed an issue in certain areas of Wahoo World that would not allow players to swim even if those areas looked like they had been inked.
• Fixed an issue in certain areas of Wahoo World that would allow players to swim even if those areas couldn’t be inked.
• Fixed an issue in Brinewater Springs in Tower Control mode that sometimes caused players at the top of the slope to get caught between the tower and the terrain.
• Adjusted part of the terrain in Flounder Heights to fix an issue that enabled players to use unintended methods to invade the enemy base with the Kraken Royale.
• Fixed an issue when using Super Chump in Flounder Heights that sometimes caused decoys to fall into trees and telephone poles.
• Fixed an issue on Manta Maria that caused sub weapons to get buried within the terrain when used on certain walls.
• Fixed an issue in Manta Maria in Turf War/Splat Zones/Clam Blitz modes that caused the pillar in the center of the stage to get painted unnaturally.

Fixes to Salmon Run

• Fixed an issue in Big Run that prevented players from receiving a badge according to their high score, even if they received the corresponding decoration.
  • Players who are in this situation will be able to receive their badges once they have applied this update data and restarted the game software.
• Fixed an issue that made it look like special-ability activations didn’t get replenished for an Xtrawave if the player had used up their special abilities already and were wearing the “Gloopsuit” series of work suits.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused player controls to stop working if the player was standing in certain areas while the wave was changing.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Flyfish from being splatted when the Flyfish’s cockpit got smashed by a Slammin’ Lid.
• Fixed an issue in the Goldie Seeking event where the state of the gushers would differ for each player, preventing them from damaging Goldies.
• Fixed an issue in the Mothership event that prevented boxes being carried by Chinooks from exploding even when they were destroyed.
• Fixed an issue in the Mothership event where if a Chinook was defeated right before letting go of its box, whether or not the box remained would differ on some players’ screens.

Other Fixes

• Fixed an issue that made certain stickers hard to see against the background when a player got them.
• Fixed an issue on the confirmation screen when joining friends in a group with a password that caused the group’s voice chat to appear to be off even when it was set to on.
• Fixed a rare issue where doing certain actions on the Freshest Fits page of the Equip screen would cause the game to crash.
• Fixed an issue where if the player pressed the ZR Button while in Hotlantis to change the product display, then went to another shop before returning to Hotlantis, the product display would not revert to its original state.
• Fixed an issue in the lobby that prevented players from being able to set an alias after entering the password to join a Private Battle.