Splatoon 3 (Switch, Switch 2): all the updates (latest: Ver. 11.0.0)

On this page, you will find all there is to know about the various updates for Splatoon 3 on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.

Archives: launch to September 2025

Click here for more games and consoles updates! For details about Splatfest, check out this page.

Splatoon 3 – Ver. 11.0.0

• Release date: January 28th/29th 2026 at 5PM PT / 8PM ET / 1AM GMT / 2AM CET / 10AM JST
• Maintenance: Yes (more details)
• Patch notes (highlights):

---

This update brings the following to the game:

• adds new battle features
  • Flow Aura
    • Inklings and Octolings who splat multiple opponents in quick succession will enter a new state called Flow Aura. As this state is activated, a burst of ink will paint the ground around the player.
    • Flow Aura lasts for about 30 seconds, during which time players will get a boost to their Run Speed, Swim Speed, Ink Resistance and Intensify Action. But if you make use of those boosts to splat more opponents – or assist your teammates in doing so – then you can extend the duration of Flow Aura even further.
    • Each successive splat in Flow Aura will also reactivate the ink overflow, painting the ground around your feet once again. So there’s even more incentive to splat as many opponents as you can!
    • Inking the ground and helping your teammates get splats will make it easier for you to enter Flow Aura when defeating multiple opponents in a row. Splatting opponents who themselves are in Flow Aura will help too. So, work with your teammates to take advantage and give your counterattacks some added punch!
  • Health Bar
    • With version 11.0.0, it’s now possible to see an opponent’s remaining health when they’ve been hit. Previously, you could only see how damaged an enemy was by looking closely at how much ink they were covered in – not so easy to do in the heat of battle!
    • Now, their remaining health will be shown in a bar above their head for a few seconds, provided they’ve not ducked behind cover or dived into their ink. Though if the opponent is visible via abilities such as Thermal Ink or has been marked by things like a Point Sensor or Wave Breaker you’ll be able to see it even then!
    • You’ll also be able to see the health bars of your teammates if they’ve taken damage. Keeping an eye on these health bars is a great way to support your allies or chase down weakened foes – even if you’ve teamed up with Inklings and Octolings you’re not familiar with.
  • Hit Detection
    • From version 11.0.0, there are also some changes to how easy (or difficult) it is to hit opponents. The area around an opponent – known as a ‘hit box’ – has been made slightly smaller when in swim form. Since the original Splatoon on Wii U, a little leeway was built into the size of the hit box as players got used to aiming with motion controls. As players have become more adept with this playstyle, this has become less important. The adjustment in version 11.0.0. makes the hit box similar to that of the hit box in kid form, and should stop Inklings and Octolings in swim form from being hit when they’re hiding behind walls or around corners.
    • However, it would be no fun if it’s too difficult to hit opponents. So, some changes have also been made to the hit boxes of player’s shots. Shorter-range main weapons now have much bigger hit boxes, while longer-range main weapons have only had their hit boxes slightly increased. It’s always more dangerous to get up close and personal with an opponent, but now players with shorter-range weapons have an incentive to go and take the fight to players with weapons that would traditionally outrange them. To illustrate, here are some examples of how hit detection has changed for some weapons:
      • Splattershot Jr.
        • Attacks on opponents in swim form are a little bit harder to hit.
        • Attacks on opponents in kid form are much easier to hit.
      • Splattershot
        • Attacks on opponents in swim form are a bit harder to hit.
        • Attacks on opponents in kid form are a bit easier to hit.
      • E-liter 4K Scope
        • Attacks on opponents in swim form are much harder to hit.
        • Attacks on opponents in kid form are a little bit easier to hit.
  • Stealth Jump
    • The Stealth Jump gear ability allows players to jump to their teammates without the opposing team necessarily seeing where they will land. To prevent this from allowing teams to overwhelm opponents too easily, the flight time for Super Jumps is increased depending on the distance – but only when gear with Stealth Jump is equipped.
    • So, if you’re jumping all the way across the Stage with Stealth Jump equipped, it will now take a little longer to get there than before. It’s only the flight time that has been increased though, the time taken to actually launch is still the same as before.
• makes game balance adjustments

---

• Patch notes:

---

Changes to Multiplayer

• Players will now gain a Flow Aura when they do well in battle, such as when they defeat opponents consecutively within a short period of time.
  • The Flow Aura lasts for a short amount of time.
  • While a player’s Flow Aura persists, its duration will be extended slightly whenever they defeat an opponent or their teammates defeat an opponent they damaged.
  • When a player gains a Flow Aura or extends the duration of their Flow Aura, the ground at that player’s feet will be inked with their colour.
  • While a Flow Aura persists, the Run Speed Up, Swim Speed Up, Ink Resistance Up and Intensify Action abilities will be applied.
  • Continuously getting assists with your allies or inking territory during battles will make it more likely to gain a Flow Aura when defeating opponents.
• When an ally or opponent has taken damage, that player’s approximate remaining health will now be displayed.
  • Opponents’ remaining health will display for approximately three seconds immediately after taking damage.
  • When the main part of an opponent’s body is not visible, such as when they are behind terrain or swimming in ink, their remaining health will not display.
    • When things like Thermal Ink or the Point Sensor are revealing an opponent’s position, their remaining health will display even if the player cannot see them.
• Slightly decreased the collision detection size for players in swim form to make it harder for opponents’ attacks to hit.
• Expanded the collision detection size for each main weapon’s attacks to make it easier to hit opponents with attacks. Also made it so that the shorter the weapon’s shot flight distance, the greater the increase to the collision detection size will be.
• When attempting to jump a long distance with Super Jump while the Stealth Jump ability is equipped, increased the time required to make the jump by up to one second depending on the distance.
  • When jumping from near the player’s base to parts farther in, or vice versa, this will increase the jump time based on the distance.
  • The increase is applied to the time spent flying through the air. This will not change the time spent on the ground preparing for the Super Jump.
• Adjusted the size of the circle indicating the explosion radius for the Reefslider to the radius of the area that deals 220.0 damage instead of to the radius inked.
• Specifications for some main weapons have changed.

  Weapon	Change Details
  L-3 Nozzlenose L-3 Nozzlenose D Glitterz L-3 Nozzlenose	Increased the speed of shots by approximately 24% without changing the flight distance. Decreased the radius of the ink splatter at the point of impact by approximately 15%.
  Dynamo Roller Gold Dynamo Roller Starz Dynamo Roller	Increased the inking of spray droplets from horizontal and vertical swings. Adjusted the damage falloff rate due to distance to make it possible to deal damage of 100.0 or higher at greater distances than before. Increased the amount of ink consumed by horizontal and vertical swings by approximately 17%.
  Blaster Custom Blaster Gleamz Blaster	Reduced the time when movement is restricted after firing by approximately 1/30th of a second.
  H-3 Nozzlenose H-3 Nozzlenose D H-3 Nozzlenose VIP-R	Increased maximum damage from 44.0 to 45.0.
  Splat Roller Krak-On Splat Roller Order Roller Replica	Reduced the amount of time it takes for ink to begin recovering after a horizontal or vertical swing by about 1/30th of a second.
  Heavy Splatling Heavy Splatling Deco Order Splatling Replica	Increased the radius inked by spray droplets from shots by approximately 12%. Increased the radius of the ink splatter at the point of impact by approximately 12%.
  Dark Tetra Dualies Light Tetra Dualies	Increased the speed of shots by approximately 19% without changing the flight distance.
  Splat Brella Sorella Brella Order Brella Replica	Reduced the amount of ink consumed when firing a shot by approximately 9%.
  S-BLAST ’92 S-BLAST ’91	Decreased the radius of the explosive damage for short flight distance shots by approximately 11%.

• Specifications for some special weapons have changed.

  Special Weapon

  Change Details

  Reefslider

  Increased the radius of the explosion that deals 220.0 damage by approximately 20%. There are no changes to the radius of the area that deals 70.0 damage. Slightly raised the centre point of the explosion to make it harder for opponents to avoid it using a small height difference. Decreased the radius inked by the explosion by approximately 7%. Decreased the maximum distance of the charge by approximately 19%.

• Points required for some special weapons have been changed.

  Weapon	Before	After
  New Squiffer	200	190
  Z+F Splat Charger	210	200
  Z+F Splatterscope	210	200
  Tri-Slosher Nouveau	210	200
  Sloshing Machine	220	210
  Splattershot Pro	180	190
  S-BLAST ’91	200	210
  Mini Splatling	190	200

Changes to SplatNet 3

• Changed the used weapon display under X Rankings to show the most frequently used weapon in X Battles for that mode during a certain period instead of the last used weapon.
  • Due to this change, the weapon used to determine the top players for weapons will be changed in the same way.

Bug Fixes

• Fixes to Player Controls
  • Fixed an issue where, when the Undercover Brella’s canopy broke at the same time as the player switching equipment to their special weapon or the Rainmaker and defeating an opponent, sometimes the brella would enter a state where the canopy recovered immediately no matter how many times it was broken.
  • Fixed an issue where, when a player in an unstable wireless environment performed a dualie Dodge Roll from swimming on a wall, sometimes the player who performed the Dodge Roll would disappear on other players’ screens.
• Fixes to Multiplayer
  • Fixed an issue where, when landing things like ink or bombs on certain positions, sometimes the inking on the player’s screen was drastically different from the inking on other players’ screens.
  • Fixed an issue in MakoMart in Clam Blitz mode where it was possible for players to linger on top of the goal.
  • Fixed an issue in Bluefin Depot in Splat Zones mode and Clam Blitz mode where it was possible to climb on top of certain terrain using unintended methods.
  • Fixed an issue in Urchin Underpass where the electronic bulletin board in the centre of the stage and its supporting pillars blocked things like Ink Storm and Tenta Missiles.
  • Fixed an issue in Urchin Underpass where, when certain walls were hit with great momentum, the player was sometimes treated as if they had left the stage and were defeated.

---

• Developers comments:

---

This update focuses on making changes to battle-related systems and multiplayer balance.

For information about battle system changes like the Flow Aura, displaying remaining health, collision detection adjustments and extended jump duration for Super Jumps with Stealth Jump, please see the news article.

Among the balance changes, the updates for the L-3 Nozzlenose and Dynamo Roller are not simple upgrades. Rather, they are performance changes to help those weapons’ unique properties stand out.

For the L-3 Nozzlenose, we raised the speed of shots to make it easier to utilise the weapon’s unique property: its ability to maximise power by successfully hitting opponents with its three shots. On the other hand, we lowered its inking ability to make it more difficult to fight by lying in wait without proactively approaching opponents or fighting in ways that rely on the rate of turnover for special weapons.

For the Dynamo Roller, in order to make each of its swings even heavier and more powerful than before, we expanded the area of inking and the area that allows players to defeat opponents with one swing and also increased the amount of ink consumed.

As for the other main weapons, we have made changes to make them easier to use or to emphasise unique traits among weapons with similar properties.

For the Reefslider special weapon, we improved its ability to defeat opponents by expanding the area of the explosion capable of defeating opponents in one hit, as well as making it harder to avoid the explosion using a small height difference. On the other hand, we reduced the maximum distance of the charge and decreased the area inked to make it harder to rely on the strategy of taking back Splat Zones using the ink from the explosion by pointing it toward a Splat Zone from a safe area and then charging.

Because this update includes changes to the multiplayer system that go beyond simple multiplayer balance changes, we anticipate that it will have a bigger impact on gameplay than the average update. For that reason, the next update will be sooner than normal and will focus on changes to multiplayer balance.

---

• Additional notes: no new weapons will be added in this update. Also, Battle Replays from Ver. 10.1.0 and earlier are not compatible with this version.
• Source: Nintendo / Nintendo