Why Big Bubbler Will NEVER Work 

The biggest problem with the big bubbler is its name. JP players get to call this thing the 'Great Barrier' and that doesn't get carried over? One of the best oceanic puns left completely in the dust

An idea i had was applying a toxic mist effect to enemies inde the bubble. Which probably isnt much but it would make shredding it with your main weapon harder with your ink tank being drained

Seeing the old Eeeltail alley and how that works for Bubbler makes me think that the best way to balance this game is a mass overall of the maps... Which is a massive ask. I hope that at least the worst (such as Mahi) will get changed like the old Splatoon 2 "renovation's" did after Side Order is finished, because i think that'd change the game a lot, and for the better

Potential changes for big bubbler hurts enemies when the go through it so it makes a higher trade off for attacking people inside the bubble. Put something like a sprinkler on top so it helps make the area around the bubble a your team zone and allows options for escape.

It would work a lot better if the maps had flank routes but oh well

I wish big bubbler worked in this game bc it's such a cool concept

As someone who plays Tenta Sorella Brella often, have you *seen* how much Tent can shred Big Bubbler if you aim for its weak point?? I also play stuff like Hydra, so it feels like no matter what weapon I choose it’s just never really a problem.

Hot take: new radius buff to bubbler is actually a nerf. Makes it easier for enemies to enter, especially hard for you to deploy in fights since theyd be inside and ignore the special all together.

I agree with your thesis that map design is the main limitations for bubble, but I do think some changes could be applied to focus on making a stronger "base" for teammates. Giving the inside a mist effect, defaulting the beakon to have max sub power jump speed to it, and maybe giving a sting ray thermal ink like effect to nearby opponents to make them visible behind walls would help get more people closer to bubble and able to help pick off enemies trying to deal with it

I remember the day the patch came out, I played a zones game on hagglefish. The other team had an H-3 deco. I was nervous that kraken wouldn’t cut it anymore due the sheer size of the shield, but I destroyed it with it’s user in 3 charges, exactly the same as before😮Made me realize just how underpowered this poor special is

Here's my suggestions to adjust the bubbler special. As somebody who means the vanilla splat roller I think the best thing for bubble would be to get its radius reduced but in compensation when you pop the special it instantly pants everything under it to your color. I think this small change would do amazing things for the special and could be used in a lot of creative and strategic ways.

Big Bubbler should give armor to teammates inside the bubble to make it harder to walk through safely. That wouldn't fix the problem with it being shreddable, but that could still be a nice change.

I'm not really sure what they can do with this special other than making it paint on deployment. One of its issues is even if you get in somewhere to deploy it, you still need to paint to move around in it.

I think the the big bubbler could work as a throwable special. It could have a short range (like splash wall) and I feel like it could be slightly easier to position it

I minor addition like a sprinkler on the flying portion of the bubble that steadily inks inside the bubble could be nice!

I have a small idea for a buff against Kraken, Reef and Hammer, make it like the rainmaker shield, so they don't immediately kill the special.

Imagine if cooler acted as a jump spot too. Probably very cracked but hey, just an idea. And maybe for bubbler, it would last longer and have more health if more teammates were in the shield.

It's really a shame, I've been thinking about bubbler a lot seeing as it's one of my absolute favorite specials. I really hope a lot of the changes from your maps video come to pass and God do I want the reef back unchanged

i personally think the best way to improve bubbler would be its power against certain specials. when the patch notes first dropped, dude was saying that it if it were really strong against inkjet or crab, that could create a rock paper scissors special meta. you activate jet or crab, enemy bubblers to defend, then you get a strike or booyah to counter the bubble. i thought that was a cool idea

Here me out. We start using Big Bubbler less as a shield and additional get in tool and more as a 15 second Squid Beakon or a fake out placed off from the main action to catch opponents' attention and push a teammate or two onto the offensive.

My ideas for Big Bubbler: 1 - make it so it reflects tri strike's projectiles so it hits only the outer layer and only one side of it. 2 - booyah bombs now can't get through it. 3 - everyone inside it gains some effect (idk, it could be like a toxic mist for the enemy team or a buff for your teammates) 4 - make it throwable (maybe ?) 5 -

Fortnite had a really cool item a while back called the shield bubble that was completely invincible for everyone on both sides and it made for some super fun fights where you had to play around both sides of the shields dipping in and out to stay safe. Idk how well something like that would work in splatoon, but it was always one of my favorite items in the game and big bubble has always reminded me of that

My biggest problem with big bubbler is that the enemy team can just swim through it and splat whoever is inside, defeating the entire point. So i think to fix big bubbler they could have it paint the ground under it. This not only prevents the previously mentioned example, but also makes it easier for the user to move around in it, and give paint for things like turf or zones, so that you could safely secure and area for a small amount of time before the bubbler gets inevitably shredded.🤷‍♀️

I only got excited for big bubbler cause of the name, little did i know i would never use it!

as a squiffer main i feel this so hard, i really hate the squiffer's kit and they haven't added any new ones 😭

I think a potentially interesting bubbler buff would be being able to heal it with your own ink but only from the inside, this could promote people to use it more for their teams.

this was probably one of my favorite specials in the game as it promoted somewhat tactical play when you’re just playing with random people, so it took more thought than armor from the previous games but you were rewarded with being able to hold a part of the map for a really good bit of time with several people, now every time i try to use it booyah bombs and triple inkstrikes just instantly counter it so ironically you get kind of punished for trying to use it strategically now, i’m kind of hoping they make it almost hard counter those two specials because i think the bubble already has enough other problems to worry about

An interesting buff would be to make the special have a toxic mist affair inside the radius of the bubble.

Maybe making it so the opponent can’t get in the bubble would make it better as you can make it into a more safe area for you to have for example putting this on a splatling would make this pretty good

Can’t wait to log on to rank and see no big bubblers now

This goes back to what I was saying about this game clearly needing more time in the oven from a conceptual standpoint. If they had supported New Horizons for an extra year & saved Splatoon 3 for the first year of the Switch 2, EPD 5 could’ve had more time to fully iron out the weapons, subs, & specials to better jell with the changes made to the maps so things wouldn’t feel so mismatched.

I think it would be neat to add some depth to bubbler by paying some homage to the bubble blower, and make the beacon able to detonate like the bubble blower bubbles. This would be a huge overhaul and probably won't happen, but I think it would make it more interesting as it adds a lot more strategy and risk to being inside of an enemy bubble, or getting close in general without altering how the bubble interacts with other specials.

Great video, would love to see a similar one for other specials, especially Ink Vac

Video 153 of commenting on Chara videos till brella gets fixed [properly]

This is a topic very dear to me. I’ve been an anchor in my team for a few months now playing Ballpoint and Hydra, but then suddenly our Ballpoint one-trick came back to the team and he plays really well with it, and so I had to try and find ways to maintain my relevance in the team. I gravitated towards Zimi and I ended up really liking it. The main weapon feels really good to my Splatling-oriented brain. Big bubbler also feels really good, especially on tower, but I’m not really sure if I can say if it is. It’s just hard to make it have a lasting impact compared to the other specials. It’s good for assisting with our tetras, but there’s always part of me that thinks that I’m making our team worse by not playing machine or something. I hope big bubbler gets to a more viable place so I can use it more in comp.

One thing they could adjust that I think might help is to shorten the time it takes to super jump to it. If it comes with a big, special Squid Beakon, it would make sense for that beakon to be better than the sub version, and giving a safe way to get your whole team into position quickly is something no other special really does.

Imagine the bubbler breaks violently damageing everyone around or inside it. Or imagine the shield is atached to you and you can walk around with it but its smaller and has less helath

i think they could add more effects to it, like enemy toxic mist or location not working in the bubble or fizzling out, like a emp effect to it to counter other active gear in the area

a change that popped in my head while chara was talking and that he immediatly disapproved in the video is the ability to throw the bubble a short distance. for example sploosh range

2:42 shoutout to the guy who predicted kraken’s return

I think that when an enemy steps in the bubble, it gives a toxic mistake affect, and so tri strikes bounce off like tacticooler. For crab just decrease the damage by 10%

I think it would be better if you could throw the special, probably a longer range than tacticooler but not as far as an ink bomb to allow you to actually push with it easier

An idea I had was the Rocket Sprinkler (look up name for reference): The sprinkler that has the hose wrapped around it with a rocket sitting atop of it, the player can choose to tap it making the ink launch it into the air where it sprinkles ink around its area along with a protective barrier. Or hold it for a charge where the player can crack the hose like a whip launching the sprinkler into its direction they were looking it at deploying it from afar and of course with the hose being in a line makes a ink trail

I think something they could do is have it give a bonus to your allies special charge while there in the bubble allowing for more aggressive play since you could potentially chain more specials off it

I agree, i feel like every time I use this special it just gets completely shredded within seconds. But then again I've had times where big bubbler clutched up an entire rainmaker match.

I totally agree. A few months ago I joined a new team, and we used Big bubbler a lot. We still use it for certain maps and modes, but the higher or more skilled teams we play against, the less useful it becomes. Sometimes we use it to give our backliner some protection against flanks, and it works, but most of the time we go for a other booyah special or even ink strikes, which are more versatile for pushing or defending certain areas of the map.

I have seen a lot of changes in the comments that would be amazing for bubler but something i havent seen yet that i think could make a huge difference is the initial size of the big bubler since all the weapons on it could use the slight extra range and control which as a junior player myself i think would make a huge impact for zones , and a bit for other modes

What if they further referenced Splatoon 2’s Bubble Blower and made it so your team can heal the bubble by shooting the beakon? It already blocks your team’s shots, so it’s not like it’ll made fighting in there any harder.

You know what could be a solution? Uncoupling a couple or all of it's currently interlinked mechanics. Even if we keep Size used as a visual aid for it's HP bar, just unlinking the HP and duration aspects of it could help it a lot.

As someone who have big swig express to secondary main, more health just means one more vertical to pop it

Bit late but I think an interesting buff would be to make anyone that walks into the bubble take damage. It wouldn't fix all the issues, but it would help weapons that struggle once the enemy closes the gap to deal with opponents that walk into their bubble. If walking through the bubble is a damage penalty of 30hp, you're shaving off a shot for jr, zimmy and H3, gives squiffer a chance of landing mid charges (or 2 tap shots as desperation), roller becomes a menace to approach and blaster will 1 shot you if it gets the 70 damage hitbox. It probably won't happen because they clearly designed the special to have no way of directly hurting the opponent, just enable you to, but maybe a different approach could help

Here’s how to fix it: don’t give it HP decay. What I mean is, allow it to be destroyed, but don’t make its health go down in addition to any enemy damage. Also, in a similar vein, make the bubbler stay the same size for its entire duration

I think a cool buff to bubbler that would reduce the counterplay of just swimming into it and splatting ppl is to have enemies be slowed down by the bubble shield before popping inside, kinda like toxic mist. this would apply to kraken & maybe for reefslider the shield would make the slider blow up on impact

Yeah, improving this special's gonna require some creative approaches that won't divert from its identity. Tossing out some ideas: > Big Bubbler interior now also blocks shots from enemies inside the shield, making it riskier to act aggressively. > Super Jumps to Bubbler Beakon grant maximum travel speed akin to 57 AP of Sub Power Up. > Can now shoot the Big Bubbler device to gradually restore the shield's HP! (Spending resource to resist breakage from other special weapons is healthier than just buffing the HP or decreasing object damage multipliers) BTW, didn't want to add stuff like sprinkler/toxic mist effects as that would impact the special's identity.

7:50 honestly I would love to play the wider version at least once.

More sub weapons implemented into the bubble itself could make it better. Throw a supercharged sprinkler on top that paints inside and outside the bubble. Have it deploy with a couple of splat bombs. Give it a mist effect. Theres a bunch of extra bells and whistles they could throw on to try and buff it.

I really think that instead of big bubbler, they should have just brought back a tweaked bubble blower. It helps you and your team get in, it provides a suitable threat, and you have 3 to really help you move into a key position. I think with the specials in S3, bubble blower would seat itself in nicely with the rest of them being both a selfish and selfless special.

When I mained Splat Roller, one of my biggest gripes was that I'd never knew how much time the shield had once I died or retreated. It would be nice to have a visual timer you would see on the map-- for both sides to see so it's not like Splat1 Stealth Jump-- and split the HP from the time. For example. if an enemy dealt 2000 damage within ten seconds but the Big Bubble user stops them, then the shield wouldn't implode for another five seconds despite being super tiny and dangerous to stay in. The downside of getting nuked by specials and being easy to access/destroyed by aggressive players would still exist, but it would (Hopefully) buff it's beacon/recon potential without feeling broken.

you could make so it takes reduced special damage, because as you said you could shred without a special so if you make it survive most specials it could be an anti special but still be countered by regular weapons (if that is not enough you could buff the regular weapon damage)

I would try making it ink the ground it's over and adding a few seconds of buffs when you enter or exit it.

So I have an idea to maybe make it better but healthier too Maybe it could follow you around a little. It would be slow about the speed of an autobomb, but it won't move too much either. It's not like ink armor where anywhere you go you are op but it gives it a little more playability too

Ive noticed while playing roller with this special is that it either is a great help or in an absolute waste.

a tweak i would love to see on big bubbler that i think wouldnt be to broken would being able to refill its HP. Maybe it still slowly looses hp overtime still but if you ink the ground that refills its slightly

my idea would be making it so that it works how i thought it dod when it was revealed. its a force field, so shooting that part should do nothing, and you should only be able to damage it by shooting the top or the inside. this wouldnt change much against specials that shred it, but hopefully it could stop people from just shooting it down if the placement was good.

I used to use blaster with bubbler, and one technique I would do is I would go aggressive and pop bubbler probably die early, but the duration was long enough for me to potentially jump back and be protected from chargers, especially if there is a distraction like another player attacking, I am a new player and that was only working is C-B rank but it did work.

I think that buffing it against certain specials is a great idea. If it's strong against like, missiles and crab, then that opens it up for other specials like tristrike and reefslider to counter it because they go through the shield. Getting us closer to the rock paper scissors we all want this game to be

After this video, I'm more convicted that ink armor will back along with splashdown, mark my words ahshgagsg

As an avid zini main heres some ideas i have for the big bubble for maybe being more into this games meta - when deploying bubble make it have an animation where it pops out from the inside making it bigger, its able to let the caster of the bubble gain extra protection from the start and rewards the player for positioning - have it like winstons sheild in OW (Enemies arent able to shoot outside of the bubble while inside of it) this makes it more defensive as it can definantly block off choke hols from projectiles - *being able to not let bomb and specials explode instantly around the bubble and actually protect the teamates inside* (This is a main nitpick for me, but itll be nice for the bubble to just absorb util having more of defensive counter, and if something like a inkstrike pops in the sheild will be able to take the hits of the bubble first then everyone inside second) Overall imo having a defensive special as a concept is good, but the map design is really what bugs it, if the devs choose to keep the map design like this: one unique way they could think of something like a throwable bubble, like holding down on the right stick to gain distance and space, this idea could also introduce alot more tech within other specials like pressing the right stick again on super chum to make them be lined vertically. *God this is long*

I think a good solution could be to make it throwable like the tacticooler with a limited distance or maybe only when you jump. I don't know how doable it is and if it would good but that's a quick fix that could potentientially changes things significantly. Or not.

Make big bubbler a short range boomerang that bounces off walls/the ground. If it hits an ally, then it spawns under them. If it hits no allies, it will bounce back to you and set up there. Throwing it at the gound makes it bounce back to you immediately and sets up underneath you. This adds more skill expression and doesnt allow any weird boundary breaks since an ally has to be grounded for the special's beacon to be placed

Maybe big bubbler can have a sprinkler attached on top? It would paint within and slightly around the bubbler range. Might be an interesting change

I kinda wonder what would happen if bubbler could be given a inkstorm effect where it could slowly over time creep foward I feel like ifthat though it would replace or beto similar to other specials it shard to say whats needed.

I think a really cool buff would make the big bubbler have a splat zone type of mechanic where fully deploying will complete and instantly ink the ground inside the bubble. But it isn’t sustained, just when it’s first deployed and it can be inked over agin if an enemy gets inside I think this would let all big bubbler weapons have an easier time defending their bubble

I feel like one of the best ideas I’ve seen was to make it smaller, but have sleep more HP or make that a choice so if they held down the button it would have more HP, but we smaller. Up to. 3200, and it being 2/3 the size.

Heres an idea to tweak the big bubbler. Return it to the pre 4.0.1 size and slap it on your back. Now you're a moving protective aura. Of course, you can still shoot and throw bombs with the bubbler, but there have to be negatives to this buff. Reducing the swim speed and running speed seem like the logical thing begause i mean would a young kid really be able to carry something so heavy and big? Maybe reduce the speed close to the rainmaker, I don't know if it should be faster or slower. pls give ur thoughts. One more thing, the inkling or octoling would activate the special they would pull out a backpack that would shoot the bubbler out, and when in swim mode, you can see the backpack sticking out of the ink. If you're going to share this idea, please credit me. Thank you.

as someone who’s been hatching eggs in HGSS the goldenrod city theme in this video made me anxious

Hmm, what if we made it so that instead of placing it down immediately, it instead spawns in the player's hands like a Tacticooler? However, you can also swim with the special and it'll function similarily to Bubbler from Splatoon 1 until you place it down, at which point it'll act the same way it does now.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the enemy is in the Big Bubbler, then where they shoot doesn't matter, shots will go outside the barrier and all that? If that's the case, what I'd probably suggest is either enemy bullets can't go in or out of the barrier, or if someone is hit while in the barrier, the damage is severely nerfed, or both. I'm not sure if this would really solve any issues, but I've always found it strange that a solution to bypassing the barrier was going inside.

I have an idea to re-work it- you have 3 smaller ones, (splatoon 3 really loves the number 3) so that you place 1, fight, push up more, place a second one. or just have a small row to push up without having to leave the protection of the one before. maybe you could also throw them, but not tacticooler range, just a few paces away? Of course, these would have to be shorter and less HP, but as you said, it would add more knobs to tweek. Having 3 you can place in the span of 15sec or so sounds really fun.

What do we think of making it move with the user? It would mimic the effect of the original bubbler in that you and your teammates need to pass close to each other to take full advantage, but it wouldn't have as many of the annoying little issues that came with bubbler and ink armor.

i mean honestly it might still be good if they give it more hp or more duration to hold while having 1 or 2 entry specials plus the bubbler to hold stuff

It's funny how people thought on lauch that special like Big bubbler, ink vac or tacticooler were solid and now 2 of these are bottom tier and tac is mid.

I think I have a creative solution for Big bubbler: Have you activate the special(like tenta missiles or ink strike) and have a backpack on in which the spinner on top of the special pops out - you are able to use your main weapon weapon, but not your sub weapon - you have a 40% nerfed walking speed and a 30% nerfed swim speed - size of bubble is nerfed by 15%, the health is reduced to 1900, and the duration nerfed to 10 seconds - the inkling is covered by the bubble down to their knees - Upon hitting the L button, you take the backpack off, and hold it like a tacticooler in which you can no longer use squid form or your main weapon until you throw the big bubbler(has a max throwing range of 80% of tacticooler) - once thrown, add 4 seconds onto the duration

The 2 buffs I'd like to see are 1) being able to deploy bubbler in squid form and 2) make the bubble protect from both sides of it, like Winston in Overwatch. Letting you dance around the bubble would make it a lot more fun to use in a 1v1

hear me out pseudo S2 ink armor when your team presses a button (probably A) near the center of the bubble, you take 200 hp off of the bubble and gain a personal bubble around yourself worth 100 hp (or adjust numbers if that’s too much/little) gets rid of a problem of just throwing a free shield on all your allies by forcing them to move to where you placed it (a back line can’t just farm it and give the frontline armor without the frontline moving back first)

Maybe being able to throw it like taticooler and when it lands it sends 1 wave breaker wave that does 40 dmg not 35. Or simply give it toxic mist affects

Let us throw it like Tacticooler! You can make clutch saves or throw it forward to engage!

Maybe it could linger for ~2 seconds after losing all of its HP. Then it could at least act as a 'no u' to displacement specials by protecting anyone inside from them before it breaks without making it impossible to destroy. Kind of how it works with missiles right now except it also defends against tri-strike, booyah bomb, crab, etc. before breaking straight after

One change could be to pick up the bubble after a short cooldown (2-3 seconds) by pressing R inside the bubble, paying an ink tank cost (maybe 75%, same as a beacon), and doing a small animation. Picking bubble up would then refund a portion of the bubbles health as special charge. This would encourage people to babysit the bubble, but allow them to bait out specials that could shred it without having to fully commit every time. It would make the special more mobile over all and up the skill cap of using the big bubble, but shooting it would still have an effect of increasing the time it takes for the bubble to come back online. This would also let the bubble, "inch itself forward," by picking up and placing after a little paint, allowing it to slowly approach if it isn't being focused down. This would probably require the special to be reworked with more self damage over time, less total health, and/or larger initial points for special to make up for the added spam-ability. But most importantly this change would add a lot more, "knobs to tweak," for the special to help the devs balance it without removing it's original play style. If that's not enough it would even open up the option for the bubble to leave lingering value when picked up, like a beacon or toxic mist.

There's plenty of things they could do if they're willing to reinvent bubbler. Like make the inside area automatically paint over the area, stop enemy ink from painting the inside, have the interior as toxic mist, have the barrier fully absorb the damage from a special even if it's destroyed, etc. Map designs are a problem, but I'm sure they could balance it if they really wanted to.

The only thing I’d want changed is that ink strike can’t just pierce it, I don’t even know if that’s reasonable to code but I think if possible it would help. Booyah bomb I think is fine piercing since it’d be a one-one trade, while inkstrike can do so with extra strikes to spare

I think it would be cool if you could press the special button again while within the Big Bubbler to pick it up/carry it. This would lower its radius and hp drastically but would let you move with it, I'm thinking maybe a quarter of its maximum radius and about 200 hp, without changing any damage multipliers. Basically, this would let you move with the bubbler at the cost of it becoming much weaker (It could be a good survivability or escape tool).

I mainly use Big Bubbler on clam blitz, so my teammates have a quick safe zone next to the enemy basket to score some points. it only lasts about 3 seconds, but those 10 points really matter sometimes.

Bubbler being throwable like soda would be interesting. especially as a beakon

There are some things that could be tweaked about it if the devs were willing to rework it a little bit. I see 2 ways that it could be modified to be an entry tool, the first and easiest would be to make it deploy like Wavebreaker or tacticooler, the second could be something similar to how it worked in 1 let it stick to the player who uses it but keep the qualities that it currently has like being able to enter and attack the player directly. I don't know which of these would be better and healthier for the game tho.

An idea i had that's kinda stupid and may make the special a little broken was what if you could heal the sheild? Think like the orb in girl power station where you shooting it brings some of it's health back but at a significantly slower rate than what the enimies can break it at. It could allow the special to last even longer and hold an area but it could still be destroyed and if you're holding 1 bubbler down, you couldn't charge up a new one, meaning you'd be kinda stuck in that spot till it ran out

Bubbler rework idea: 2400hp --> 1800hp Off Tower Duration 15s --> Max 15, min 7.5s (Unbreakable until 7.5s passed) On Tower Duration 7.5s --> Max 7.5, min 4s (Unbreakable until 4s passed) No longer loses HP and size as it degrades, but instead makes purely visual cracks. This change is aimed at making it easier to get value while making it easier to mitigate as a tradeoff. Pls rate the change, ty.

Fun idea: Big Bubbler deflects thrown objects away from it like bombs, tri strike markers, tenta missiles, booyah bombs, etc. Serves as the ultimate counter to GG specials.

I guess they can do one of two things: 1) unhook the health with the duration so that it doesn’t shrink over time giving it more effective hp 2) give it resistance to all damage unless it’s being damaged by multiple sources to encourage team play to get rid of it.

a big change to it would have it be a backpack, more like bubbler but it would only be on the person it activates it. it would make you a big target, but you can hold a space better.