The Splatoon 3 Ink Vac looks like it’ll draw a lot of new weapon mains

It seems to have a high skill ceiling

The Splatoon 3 Ink Vac weapon has been revealed, and it’s one of the more interesting series designs overall.

The gist is that it works like a defensive/reactive weapon, capable of sucking up enemy ink and then launching it back at the opposing team. The more ink it takes in, the stronger it is. Nintendo even gives us a demo of the weapon with some in-game footage below, alongside of the official description:

“Witness this rare footage of the Ink Vac in action. The more attacks it inhales, the more powerful the Ink Vac becomes. This is the sort of weapon that could provide security for an entire squad! Rest assured that our excitement is tempered by academic rigor.”

This is definitely a loadout that will value coordination. You don’t want everyone on the team grabbing this, but if one person hangs back and uses it, they can potentially defend against one or two players by themselves if they wield the Ink Vac with skill. The benefit of a defensive-minded weapon like this is that in Splatoon, everyone is encouraged to constantly shoot to fill the arena up with ink: so if you can gather it all up strategically, you won’t have any shortage of ink to launch back.

It’ll be fun to see the counterplay and strategies that evolve out of the Ink Vac, like not feeding someone wielding it. And on the other side: stomping public games when they keep feeding you.

The Splatoon 3 Ink Vac reveal and footage:

Chris Carter

Reviews Director, Co-EIC – Chris has been enjoying Destructoid avidly since 2008. He finally decided to take the next step, make an account, and start blogging in January of 2009. Now, he’s staff!