SplatAtlas
Cross-checked

Splatoon Raiders Beginner Guide

Tips, controls, and everything new players need to get started.

By the SplatAtlas editorial team · Last updated: 2026-08-05

The Splatoon Raiders difficulty settings screen, where the Tourist, Raider and Survivalist options are chosen
Image © Nintendo.

Getting Started

Splatoon Raiders is a single-player and up-to-4-player co-op looter-shooter for Nintendo Switch 2. You play as the Mechanic, a quiet handy tinkerer who crash-lands on the remote, fog-shrouded Spirhalite Islands together with Deep Cut: Shiver, Frye, and Big Man from Splatoon 3. To pay off Splatsville’s debt, you raid the islands for treasure, piloting ink-powered tanks against a new, highly aggressive breed of Salmonid, with Deep Cut fighting at your side. Every run follows the same loop: pick a destination, gear up, raid, haul the loot back, then craft and upgrade.

Official Overview Trailer

Controls Overview

Motion aiming is on by default at a sensitivity of -1, and full stick control is supported. If you played Splatoon 3, your aim carries straight over. Four buttons do most of the work: ZL dives into your own ink, ZR fires, B jumps, and Y snaps the camera back behind you. Your three gadgets sit on L, A and R. One thing worth knowing on day one: you cannot remap buttons inside the game; that has to be done in the Switch 2 system settings.

Two moves the tutorial never teaches you, and both are free: flick the stick against your direction of travel and press B while swimming for a Squid Roll, which gives you armour mid-dodge; hold B against an inked wall and release for a Squid Surge, which launches you straight up and out of trouble. Full button map, the advanced techniques, and the sensitivity settings worth changing: Controls & Techniques

Tank Types

You bring one of three tanks into each raid. They aren’t a power ranking: each is built around a different family of gadgets. Nintendo has said all three are equally viable, so ignore day-one "best tank" tier lists and pick the one that fits your style. You can swap tanks between missions, so it’s worth trying all three.

TankFocusGadget style
Speed TankMobilityGadgets that boost movement and repositioning
Power TankRaw forceHeavy hitters like the crushing Meteor Mitt
Tactical TankBattlefield controlGadgets that shape and control the fight

Early Weapon Recommendations

Grab a Blaster when one drops: explosive AoE clears the packed early-island waves fastest, and the Steam Blaster shows up early. Shooters are the forgiving fallback while you learn the loop, and they are also the class that can do the Raijin Step, which matters more than it sounds when half of a run is crossing unpainted ground. What does not matter yet: chasing a specific weapon. There are 120 in the game and rarity plus upgrades outweigh the choice itself for most of the story. Pick what drops, and save your commitment for the 5-star you take into the endgame.

For the full breakdown, see: Weapons · Tier List

Your First Missions

The early islands ease you into the core loop before the harder raids open up: learn ink and tank movement, get comfortable riding wind currents, and take your first salvage back to base, where you turn it into better weapons and gadgets between runs.

One rule that saves new players the most grief: difficulty changes enemy level and nothing else. Your loot is identical on Tourist and on Survivor, so dropping the difficulty to get past a wall costs you nothing at all. If a dungeon keeps beating you, the intended answer is to go back to a cleared one, come out with better gear, and return. Once you are through the opening islands, the walkthrough covers how progression actually works: quest lines, region unlocks, and the tutorial Past Adventures missions.

Setting Up Co-op

Raiders supports up to 4 players, and difficulty scales with your party size. Co-op is drop-in/drop-out, closer to Monster Hunter than a fixed lobby: jump into another player’s raid to help, or call for backup in your own. Assisting someone earns a Help Bonus (weapons, gadget parts, or materials).

  • Online co-op: Up to 4 players; requires Nintendo Switch Online.
  • Local wireless: Up to 4 players, but each needs their own Switch 2 and copy of the game.
  • No split-screen: There is no single-console couch co-op: every player brings their own system.

For the full co-op guide, see: Co-op

Related guides

Sources