Best Gadget Combos in Splatoon Raiders
Three loadouts, one per tank, built on the Ultra slot that lets a tank borrow from exactly one other pool.
By the SplatAtlas editorial team · Last updated: 2026-08-05
The Third Slot Is the Build
A tank carries two gadgets. The third slot arrives with the Ultra grade, and it is not simply one more button: it opens exactly one other tank's gadget pool to you. Which pool you get is fixed per tank, and the three pairings run in a cycle.
| Ultra tank | Gains access to | What that actually buys you |
|---|---|---|
| Power Tank | Speed gadgets | Blast Boot: a gap-closer that freezes on arrival. Power has burst but no clean approach; this is the missing half. |
| Speed Tank | Tactical gadgets | A placement, either Tether Wail or Shot Pot, that keeps damage on the field. Speed's real weakness is raw damage, and this is the fix both Game8 editions reach for. |
| Tactical Tank | Power gadgets | Splatellites, orbiting you with ground ink and chip damage while your placements sit on cooldown. |
This is why published "best combos" look like errors. Game8 Japan's Power Tank page lists カチコミシューズ (Blast Boot), a Speed gadget, and footnotes it: it unlocks once the Power Tank is fully upgraded. Game8 English builds the same Power trio without explaining why it is legal. Read either page cold and it looks like a mistake; it is the Ultra slot doing its job.
Slot counting, stated conservatively: sources agree Ultra adds one gadget slot and one relic power slot, and that the new slot may be drawn from the linked pool. One Japanese wiki's phrasing could also be read as two separate gadget additions. We print the conservative reading, three gadgets total with one of them possibly borrowed, because that is the reading every source supports.
Getting to Ultra
Grade is separate from the skill-point upgrades you buy at the Hideout Ship. Skill points raise health, weapon attack, gadget attack and the gadget parts cost limit, and those apply to all three tanks at once. Grade does not: it is earned per tank, with Power Eggs.
- Super grade: collect 50,000 Power Eggs with that tank equipped. This unlocks the tank's Super ability.
- Ultra grade: a further 30,000 Power Eggs collected while a different tank is equipped.
- Ultra adds the third gadget slot, which may be filled from the linked pool, plus one relic power slot.
- The limiter release is a third, separate track: Japanese wikis put the first release at 9 skill points spent and the second at 20.
The 30,000 is the requirement people miss, and it is deliberate. You cannot reach Ultra by maining one tank; the game makes you play a second one. If you are sitting at Super on Power and want the Blast Boot slot, the fastest route is to switch tanks for one farming block and come back, rather than grinding another 30,000 on Power and discovering it did not count.
| Tank | Japanese name | English name | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power Tank | タンクマッスル | Tank Surge | Damage increases by 20% after an extended time in swim form. |
| Speed Tank | タンクストリーム | Tank Torrent | Exiting swim form creates a torrent around you: swim and run speed up, plus damage to nearby enemies. |
| Tactical Tank | タンクテリトリー | Tank Vortex | Exiting swim form spawns a vortex that damages enemies and can Ferment Salmonids. |
Note the English names rename rather than translate: Muscle becomes Surge, Territory becomes Vortex. That is the same pattern we documented across Nintendo's own developer interview, where the English edition rewrites Japanese wordplay instead of carrying it over. Do not back-translate one from the other to guess a name.
The Three Combos
One per tank: what you run before Ultra, and what the third slot changes. Gadget names use our verified English/Japanese pairings. Part names are given as the sources give them. Game8's English and Japanese editions name parts separately, and we do not pair part names across languages.
Power Tank
Get in, freeze, delete. The highest single-target burst in the game.
Before Ultra (two slots)
Shellacker (ウズマキバスター) · Splatellites (ヌリヌリサテライト) · Splatchet (ズバットスラッシャー)
Key parts: Shellacker: Charge Speed Up, Rapid Fire. Splatellites: Duration Up, Scorch, Auto Trigger on Hit. Splatchet: Double Slash, Freeze, Reduce Damage Taken.
At Ultra (three slots)
Splatellites (ヌリヌリサテライト) · Blast Boot (カチコミシューズ) · Splatchet (ズバットスラッシャー)
Key parts: Splatellites: Duration Up, Scorch. Blast Boot: Weapon Boost, Freeze. Splatchet: Double Slash, Freeze, Reduce Damage Taken.
Borrowed gadget: Blast Boot, from the Speed pool.
The loop
Drop Splatellites first: they ink the floor under you and chip whatever wanders in. Blast Boot closes the gap and freezes on arrival. Splatchet's Double Slash then spends that freeze at the multiplier. Shellacker leaves the build when Blast Boot arrives, because the boot does the approach better than a charge-up does.
The strongest agreement on this page: both Game8 editions publish this trio independently, Japanese as the close-range weapon combo, English as the close-range combo, with the same three gadgets. The Japanese page is the one that explains the Speed gadget.
Speed Tank
Hit and away, on two six-second cooldowns. Carries the freeze meta.
Before Ultra (two slots)
Blast Boot (カチコミシューズ) · Jump Bomb (ジャンプボム) · Dash Bomb (ダッシュボム)
Key parts: Blast Boot: Freeze, Explosion Damage Up, Explosion Area Up. Jump Bomb: Freeze, Double Trouble, Airborne Damage Up. Dash Bomb: Gadget Recharge, Stock Up. Game8 Japan also points to parts that add invincibility frames here.
At Ultra (three slots)
Blast Boot · Jump Bomb · Tether Wail (ヒッパレーザー) or Shot Pot (スケットポット)
Key parts: Tether Wail: Multi Laser, Ferment, Duration Up. Shot Pot: Shot Damage Up, Fire Rate Up, Range Up. Game8 English fills the same slot with Flywire (Ferment) or Torqscrew instead.
Borrowed gadget: One Tactical placement, either Tether Wail or Shot Pot.
The loop
Blast Boot in and freeze the cluster, spend the window with your weapon, then leave on Jump Bomb or Dash Bomb. Both bombs sit on 6-second cooldowns, so the exit is nearly always up, and that is the whole tank. At Ultra the third slot stops being a second escape and becomes standing damage.
Read carefully, because the sources overpack this slot. Game8 Japan names Tether Wail and Shot Pot together for the post-Ultra build, and Game8 English offers "Flywire or Torqscrew". The Ultra slot is one gadget, so we read all of these as alternatives for the same slot rather than reproducing a loadout the slot rules forbid.
Tactical Tank
Build the room, then let the room fight. The safest crowd control.
Before Ultra (two slots)
Bombloons (ツナガルバルーン) · Shot Pot (スケットポット) · Hi-Fiver (ゴレンライナー)
Key parts: Bombloons: Chain Bonus Up, Explosion Damage Up, Explosion Area Up. Shot Pot: the scent part, plus Shot Damage Up and Fire Rate Up. Hi-Fiver: Direct-Hit Damage Up early, swapped to Freeze once you have it.
At Ultra (three slots)
Hi-Fiver (ゴレンライナー) · Splatellites (ヌリヌリサテライト) · Shot Pot (スケットポット)
Key parts: Hi-Fiver: Freeze, Direct-Hit Damage Up, Lines Up. Splatellites: Scorch, Splatellite Damage Up, More Splatellites. Shot Pot: Shot Damage Up, Fire Rate Up, Range Up.
Borrowed gadget: Splatellites, from the Power pool.
The loop
Place first, fight second. Bombloons chain into each other for burst; Shot Pot's scent part, which Game8 English lists as Lingering Smell and Game8 Japan as ニオイまとい, pulls Salmonids toward the gadget instead of toward you, which is the single reason this tank feels safe. Hi-Fiver covers the approach and, with the Freeze part, sets up your weapon. The Ultra swap trades Bombloons' burst for Splatellites orbiting you with Scorch, so damage stays on the field while your placements are down.
Game8 Japan's Tactical page keeps all three gadgets in-pool; the cross-tank Splatellites build comes from Game8 English. Both are printed because the pre-Ultra and post-Ultra answers genuinely differ here. This is the one tank where the borrowed gadget replaces a top-ranked in-pool gadget.
Which Gadgets Actually Rank
Game8 Japan ranks all fifteen gadgets within their tanks. Their overall top four are all Speed gadgets, on the stated reasoning that Speed gadgets extend weapon damage the most, which is exactly what freeze does for Ice Breaker.
| Rank | Power Tank | Speed Tank | Tactical Tank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shellacker (ウズマキバスター) | Blast Boot (カチコミシューズ) | Bombloons (ツナガルバルーン) |
| 2 | Splatchet (ズバットスラッシャー) | Jump Bomb (ジャンプボム) | Shot Pot (スケットポット) |
| 3 | Meteor Mitt (メテオグローブ) | Dash Bomb (ダッシュボム) | Tether Wail (ヒッパレーザー) |
| 4 | Splatellites (ヌリヌリサテライト) | Flywire (ニンジャワイヤー) | Hi-Fiver (ゴレンライナー) |
| 5 | Spinwheel (スピンホイール) | Booyarang (ジェットブーメラン) | Torqscrew (マキアゲスクリュー) |
One disagreement worth naming rather than smoothing: Game8 Japan ranks Torqscrew last of the five Tactical gadgets, while GameWith lists it as a top Tactical pick for its Ferment damage, and Nintendo's own tips column pairs Torqscrew with the Charger. When the publisher's own recommendation sits at the bottom of a community ranking, the two are measuring different things: the ranking is measuring endgame throughput, and Nintendo is teaching the mechanic to a player who just started.
The Freeze Numbers, Stated Once
Every combo above is ultimately a delivery system for one weapon power, so it is worth being exact about the numbers, because build guides generally are not.
- Freeze comes from gadgets, not from the Freeze weapon power. Blast Boot, Jump Bomb and Meteor Mitt apply it at 100%; Hi-Fiver up to 60%. The Freeze weapon power itself is 2–4% on hit, 8–10% at ★2.
- Ice Breaker (冷凍カチワリ) multiplies your hit on a frozen Salmonid. The in-game text says 3x, rising to 4x at ★2. Build guides including Game8's routinely print "3–5x", so we flag that gap wherever it appears rather than inherit it.
- The hit consumes the freeze. One freeze, one multiplied hit, which is why high single-hit weapons carry these builds and rapid-fire classes waste them.
- Our reading, not a source's: two of the three 100% freeze appliers are Speed gadgets. That is the mechanical reason Game8 Japan's overall ranking comes out Speed-heavy, and the reason the Power Tank's Ultra slot, the one that opens the Speed pool, is worth the detour to earn.
Full proc rates, tiers and the ★2 behaviour are in the Weapon Powers guide; what each status does to a Salmonid is in Status Effects.
Gadget Combo FAQ
Can you equip gadgets from another tank in Splatoon Raiders?
Yes, but only one, and only after that tank reaches Ultra grade. The pool you gain is fixed: Power opens Speed, Speed opens Tactical, Tactical opens Power. Before Ultra you carry two gadgets and there is no cross-equipping at all.
What is the best gadget combo in Splatoon Raiders?
For raw single-target damage, the Power Tank running Splatellites, Blast Boot and Splatchet. Both Game8 editions publish that trio independently, which makes it the best-corroborated build on the page. For safety, the Tactical Tank's placement build. For clear speed, the Speed Tank's hit-and-away on two six-second bombs.
How do you unlock the third gadget slot?
Reach Ultra grade: 50,000 Power Eggs collected with that tank to hit Super, then a further 30,000 collected with a different tank equipped. The second requirement is the one people miss: you cannot reach Ultra without playing another tank.
Is Blast Boot a Power Tank gadget?
No. It belongs to the Speed pool, and it appears in Power builds only because a fully upgraded Power Tank can borrow one Speed gadget. Game8 Japan states this in a footnote on its Power combo page; Game8 English prints the same combo without the explanation, which is why the build reads as a typo when you meet it cold.
Which gadget parts matter most?
The status parts. Put Freeze on whatever you open with, then damage parts on whatever spends the freeze. Scorch and Ferment are the alternatives when you are not building around Ice Breaker. Everything else competes for the same slot budget, which starts at 10 and rises only through tank upgrades.
Related guides
Sources
- Best Power Tank Gadget Combinations, Game8
- Best Speed Tank Gadget Combinations, Game8
- Best Tactical Tank Gadget Combinations, Game8
- パワータンクのおすすめガジェット組み合わせ, Game8 (Japan)
- スピードタンクのおすすめガジェット組み合わせ, Game8 (Japan)
- テクニカルタンクのおすすめガジェット組み合わせ, Game8 (Japan)
- 最強ガジェットランキング, Game8 (Japan)
- おすすめ最強ガジェット, GameWith
- タンクのおすすめと強化方法, GameWith
- All tank upgrades and what to upgrade first, Nintendo Life
- タンク強化｜リミッター解除とグレードアップ, サーモンラン攻略Wiki
Cross-checked. The cross-tank slot rule is confirmed by GameWith Japan (タンクのおすすめと強化方法), Game8 Japan's Power combo footnote, a Japanese Salmon Run wiki, and Nintendo Life's tank upgrade guide in English, and it independently predicts which out-of-pool gadget appears on each of Game8 English's three combo pages. Combos are cross-checked across Game8 Japan (Power/Speed/Tactical combo pages), Game8 English (Power/Speed/Tactical combo pages) and GameWith Japan, all fetched 2026-08-05; disagreements are printed rather than resolved. Part names are reproduced per language and never paired across editions. Gadget names come from our own verified 15-gadget database. The Ice Breaker multiplier follows our July 29 correction from in-game text (3x, 4x at ★2), not the "3–5x" that build guides repeat.