Splatoon Raiders
About
Overview
Splatoon Raiders is an action role-playing third-person shooter and the first spinoff of the Splatoon series. It is the fourth installment overall and is primarily single-player and story-focused, unlike the multiplayer-centric mainline entries. The player chooses an Inkling or Octoling avatar who takes on the role of a mechanic, with physical appearance and clothing options that can be manually adjusted. Alongside the single-player mode, Raiders also includes a cooperative mode for up to four players locally or online, with difficulty adjusted based on the number of players.
Gameplay
Raiders revolves around ink as both ammunition and a navigation tool. Players replenish ink by submerging into it, swim through their own colored ink, and are slowed by enemy ink. The game has more than 100 weapons across eleven returning classes, including weapons based on paint rollers, paint brushes, water guns, and bows. Weapons differ by level and rarity, and defeating Salmonids rewards random weapons in a looter shooter style.
Players also equip gadgets, secondary armaments tied to three ink tanks: Speed Tank, Power Tank, and Tactical Tank. These focus on mobility, aggressive abilities, and strategic fighting options respectively. The player is joined by the Exploration Bot, piloted by Shiver, Frye, or Big Man, which assists by shooting enemies, providing a special ability, and helping the player gain vertical height.
Levels are called dungeons and include linear goal-based stages, explorable islands, timed multi-floor dungeons, enemy-spawning arenas, and gadget tutorial gauntlets.
Setting
Splatoon Raiders takes place in the far-future world of Splatoon, where evolved marine animals such as Inklings and Octolings live after the extinction of humans and most mammals. The story begins in the Splatlands, where the mechanic is a resident of Splatsville. The remote Spirhalite Islands are distant from the mainland, have their own climate, and require helicopter travel. The mechanic explores the islands with Deep Cut members Shiver, Frye, and Big Man in search of treasure, while facing the local Salmonids.
Release
Splatoon Raiders was released on July 23, 2026 for Nintendo Switch 2. It was developed by Nintendo EPD and published by Nintendo.