Splatoon 2’s 5.1.0 update is arriving on Jan. 8, and below we have the full patch notes available for you. There are a lot of weapon rebalancing going on, along wuith specials with different point requirements, so make sure you know the new values for each one.

Splatoon 2 Update 5.1.0 Patch Notes

• Splattershot Tentatek Splattershot Kensa Splattershot Hero Shot Replica Octo Shot Replica	Decreased ink consumption by roughly 8%.
  Luna Blaster Luna Blaster Neo Kensa Luna Blaster	Decreased amount of time after firing before being able to take further actions by roughly 4/60 of a second. Decreased ink consumption by roughly 17%.
  L-3 Nozzlenose L-3 Nozzlenose D Kensa L-3 Nozzlenose	Increased ink consumption by roughly 15%. Reduced the effect of the Main Power Up gear ability. Changed the amount of gear ability required to deal up to 33.3 damage from 1.8 times to 2.4 times the amount of the primary gear ability. Each secondary gear ability is worth 0.3 of the primary gear ability.
  Splat Charger FIrefin Splat Charger Kensa Charger Hero Charger Replica	Slightly narrowed the area covered by ink droplets from fired shots.
  Bamboozler 14 Mk I Bamboozler 14 Mk II Bamboozler 14 Mk III	Reduced the effect of the Main Power Up gear ability. Changed the amount of gear ability required to deal up to 99.9 damage from 4.1 times to 4.4 times the amount of the primary gear ability. Each secondary gear ability is worth 0.3 of the primary gear ability.

• Specifications for the following special weapons have been changed.
  

  Special Weapon	Change
  Splashdown	Extended the area within which damage is dealt upward. This change makes it easier to deal damage to mid-air opponents from even a moderate distance. There is no change to the damage area for opponents standing near but lower than the epicenter of the blast. Increased damage dealt to opponent Ballers by roughly 21%.
  Baller	Decreased duration of active time from roughly 7 to roughly 6 seconds.

Points required for using specials have been changed for certain main weapons

Downloading the latest update will prevent matching with players at the Shoal that are using previous update data.

With this update, we have made adjustments to the abilities of certain weapons to effectively hold the line of battle or to ink turf from afar. However, we have limited these adjustments in such a way that they should not affect weapon selection for players experienced with using these weapons.

Following this update, we plan to consider similar adjustments for many other weapons going forward. Additionally, we will continue to watch for and analyze weapons that appear to have few or no drawbacks, and that also perform well against all other weapons.

We plan to distribute the next update in late April 2020.

About the author

Aidan O'Brien

Aidan O'Brien has been playing games for over three decades and has been writing about them for five years. When not getting stomped on by the creations of Hidetaka Miyazaki, he enjoys spending too much time in Warframe, Destiny 2 and any other ARPG with a solid grind. When not writing, he is doing inexplicable behind-the-scenes magic for GAMURS Group.

More Stories by Aidan O'Brien

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qK3Mnqeuql6YvK57xq6gnZ2jZMCxuMCtpqimXWd6trzDmqueZWVifm58jKmYrZuYYruwwMSs