Builds and Preface
I AM NOT A DREAD WRINGER ONE TRICK IN FACT I ARGUE HEAVILY AGAINST ONE TRICKING THIS WEAPON, EITHER TWO TRICK WITH SLOSHER OR TRI, OR DONT PLAY IT AT ALL IF YOU AREN'T WANTING TO LEARN SOMETHING ELSE
Its optimal to play this weapon also once only getting a firm understanding of zones as a gamemode because slidering without a real goal is kinda silly and many of you don't understand that even though it may “get you kills” or whatever
Generally though, if you are going to one trick slider I fundamentally dislike that and want you to stop reading this doc. You should actually put effort into your gameplay aside from learning just how to use the strategies shown in this document to carry you to wins.
Contents:
Every sliderable map with graph and visual on how to slider them, some will be with video some will be without
Viable Builds:
(will caption when 2 pures is strongly recommended although almost never required for the zone to be capped)
Discussion on why slidering works, and how to actually abuse it:
Using a reefslider on the zone is a strategy that is far from guaranteed and oftentimes very corny, some of you sick people like it because of that. As for me, I play it because I really mesh with the main weapon of dread wringer and just want to play it as optimally as possible. This is why I stick to strategies that work, I copy my homework from the best dread wringer player @Grand_Roll on twitter aka がらんどう on youtube.
Slidering works because when you use it to cap the zone you do two primary things:
- Giving your opponent penalty points (stalling for time)
- Creating space for your teammates (and if you get lucky yourself as well)
A third thing you can do with it is:
- Holding the zone vs multiple specials and opponents (useful when just a few ticks away from lead or KO)
If you are using reefslider onto the zone without one of these goals in mind you are throwing and might as well be playing something more brainless (hop on goni)
Things You Should Know
Counters to cheese:
Most commonly you will see your opponents use: triple inkstrike, splash wall, and ink vac to stop your slider/bomb, other things can destroy the bomb if it's required for the cheese also, like brella shields and triple splashdown but they are much less common.
Example of cheese prevention:
https://youtu.be/UW7_9SMY6jA?si=hGF_9J1ql_TwKp-n
When you go for cheese you should always tell your teammates to start painting or throwing bombs in the zone to make it more consistent.
Also, keep in mind one really weird interaction that can happen anytime you slider and bomb is desync. This can create a lot of weird effects, such as a secondary slider explosion, the zone not capping, your slider dealing no damage, etc.
One really unfortunate one is if your opponents cap the zone on the same exact frame slider explodes the zone will not get painted by the slider.
More counters are the risks of dying in startup to e liter and one shot weapons, or just weapons with fast enough kill times to prevent you from getting it out. Don’t try to go for it if your opponents are prefiring you instead call out to a teammate for them to take attention for you to slider safely.
Single Zones
ALMOST every single zone map in Splatoon 3 can be capped with a reefslider, HOWEVER, several of them cannot be and are also inconsistent.
The single zones maps that aren’t sliderable are:
Scorch Gorge, Eeltail Alley, Hammerhead Bridge, Museum d’Alfonsino, Inkblot Art Academy, Sturgeon Shipyard, and Barnacle & Dime
For stages that can be capped, I will give them a star ranking (1-3) based on inconsistency from my own personal assessment
Free ⭐
Mostly Consistent ⭐⭐
Very Precise⭐⭐⭐
Full Video Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdKvZQjKCQU4&si=--CHTlq5hYNIYQxN
For any map you cannot cap I recommend playing a different weapon but certain maps that cannot be capped with slider can still be very good for the main weapon of dread wringer
For me I like to use dread on these maps even though they are not solo cappable:
(and lemuria)
Every other map I play slosher with the catch of these matchups
Hagglefish
Youtube video: https://youtu.be/-1oe1dkTXVA
Difficulty: ⭐ Free | More difficult with stealth*
This cheese is very simple and straightforward and you can do the setup for it very easily, the main idea of this one is having a bomb on one side of zone and sliding the other, only inconsistency with this one is that you have to be careful where you position your slider on the tent otherwise the rail will get stuck on the wall on the bottom I recommend you start your slider anywhere within the blue box:
Mincemeat
Youtube video:
Difficulty: ⭐ Free | More difficult with stealth*
Start your slider here:
Mahi Mahi
Youtube video:
Difficulty: ⭐ Free | More difficult with stealth*
Alignment: Aligning your explosion and bomb near the center pillar of the zone is more important than aligning the startup for this slider so just aim for one of the middle pockets either here or here:
Reminder: whenever you slider a side bomb the opposite side you slide
Mako Mart
Youtube video:
Difficulty: ⭐ Free | More difficult with stealth*
Alignment: just aim the slider towards the center but opposite side of where you throw the bomb
Wahoo World
Youtube video:
Difficulty: Mostly Consistent ⭐⭐ | Way more difficult with stealth*
This one is only slightly inconsistent because the wahoo pole is jank and sometimes it just eats your paint for some reason.
Brinewater
Youtube video: https://youtu.be/kpAWmtRA62k
Difficulty: Mostly Consistent ⭐⭐ | Way more difficult with stealth*
It's a bit precise but the zone is small so you can prepaint a bit for added consistency
Humpback
Youtube video:
Difficulty: Mostly Consistent ⭐⭐ | REQUIRES TEAMMATE PAINT with stealth*
This one is also just jank sometimes because of the hump but usually hitting the center with a bomb anywhere but mid will cap most of the time with 2 pures SPU
Crableg
Youtube video:
Difficulty: Mostly Consistent ⭐⭐ | REQUIRES TEAMMATE PAINT with stealth*
Recommended slider and bomb positioning:
Shipshape
Youtube video:
Difficulty: Very Precise⭐⭐⭐ | Try to get your team to prepaint if you can but its a really long distance cheese that requires a really well timed bomb explosion
Tips:
Try to start close to the block and aim for the back middle side of the zone.
Rom-en
Youtube video:
Difficulty: Very Precise⭐⭐⭐ | Try to get your team to prepaint if you can but its a really long distance cheese that requires a really well timed bomb explosion < copy pasted from shipshape but the exact same principles apply, make sure not to accidentally stick your bomb to the glass wall that will ruin the entire play
Bluefin
Youtube video:
Difficulty: Very Precise⭐⭐⭐ | Easily the hardest cheese in the game its incredibly difficult to land consistently due to the distance of the zone from the plat and the placement of the slider and bomb, if you do not have near perfect explosion timing the zone will probably fail to cap
Highly Highly recommend 2.6 SPU
Marlin
Youtube video:
Difficulty: ⭐ Free | More difficult with stealth*
Pretty straightforward cheese, timing can be tricky because of the flat ground but still very possible.
Urchin
Youtube video:
Difficulty: ⭐ Free | The actually easiest cheese in the game, this zone is ridiculously small. I always use stealth here unless I have high nerves in a tournament and want to be certain that my cheese will work.
For the front side cheese you wanna stand here or close by, throw the bomb onto the left side and slider the right which is just enough reach to land in the zone
How to play the main gun
TBD, depends on how much traction this document gets but I may or may not make this >
This document was reposted and shared a ton so thank you for the engagement!
This section of the document will be now used as a dread wringer weapon guide
Ok so here's the rundown:
5 Parts-
Dread Role Discussion
Dread Comps
How to fight with Dread
How to Win with Dread
Matchup Dissection
Role Discussion
Dread Wringer is a main weapon in splatoon 3 known for its immense amount of range, aoe, and paint.
These are incredibly important categories to excel in when it comes to splatoon because they are very important in exuding pressure over the enemy team within a game.
For that reason I personally classify Dread Wringer as a frontline.
It may not seem like it at first glance due to it's weak mobility and high paint but those are parts of the weapon that actually force it to lean into frontlining even more.
When it comes to splatoon roles you can identify this by categorizing weapons using several factors these factors are not rigid however and can still cause certain weapons to be played in ways that defy their traditional role.
For example: 96 Gal.
96 Gal Deco is seen and pictured as a frontline fighter with kraken and splash wall to help it fight.
96 Gal Vanilla with ink vacuum and sprinkler however is seen as a mid range support who isn't primarily doing the fighting.
These same attributes apply to dread wringer, it's a weapon with a fighting special (reefslider) and combo sub that allows the main weapon to exert incredible frontline pressure through chip damage and mid range paint.
Dread Wringer for this reason is a weapon that really likes to fight forward and move up around cover to take space and do damage for its team to follow up on.
The only problem that really plagues dread in this regard is its overall speed, having lots of endlag and a slow kill time is a small issue you have to worry about and keep in mind when playing the weapon.
Thankfully however I will do my best to teach you how to mitigate the weapons weaknesses to let the killing machine it can be shine at full potential.