Trying the Custom Dual Squelcher in Turf War

6th February 2016 – 5.58 pm

I'm giving another weapon new to me a go. This time, it's the Custom Dual Squelcher, a shooter that has perhaps the longest range that isn't a charger. I should probably use that to my advantage, although the habits from playing so long with short-range weapons will probably take a while to shake. Instead of heading straight in to Ranked battles, I'm taking my own advice and trying the Dual Squelcher in Turf Wars first. It looks like we have a healthy bunch of new players after Christmas, with this battle being from 27th December 2015. That makes it easier to play with new weapons.

The battle is on Museum d'Alfonsino, one of the newer maps. I think I have a handle on it, but playing it mostly in Ranked battles, where extra blocks are added to increase movement options. Generally, crossing to the opponents' side is restricted, or just impossible after a certain point, just to prevent spawn camping to an extent, giving inklings more options for getting out of their base than there are to get in to it. But these restrictions cause bigger choke points in Ranked battles, and so extra blocks are added. Moving back to Turf War and playing the same map can be confusing initially, as you look for a block that should get you somewhere, but end up looking at an ink-resistant wall.

Once I remember that there is only one path, I cross to the opponents' half using the central column, and pressing forwards sees me get a good opportunity to Splat on a Roller. He can barely reach past his tentacles, I can hit from a mile away. But I run out of ink, and an emergency recharge then sees me run in to the Roller and not backing away whilst shooting. That's my old tendencies at work.

The Custom Dual Squelcher has the Killer Wail special, which has been used to great effect against me on many occasions. I get at least one splat with it in this battle, which isn't great, but the Museum has so much open space that the Killer Wail is fairly easy to dodge. Even so, I quite like the Custom Dual Squelcher. It doesn't run out of ink as quickly as I suspected it might, for its range. If I can unlock its potential, it could become another favourite.

The last half of the battle is spent trying to work out how to get to the opponents' base. I know it can be done, and I'm sure I saw a gif posted to reddit showing how to do it. But it's not obvious, and I flounder a few times. I finally work it out, with seconds left in the battle, but I doubt I'll forget it again now. And at least I wasn't neglecting my ink-turfing duties, as a healthy 1308p score shows. It was against mostly new players using Rollers, but at least I wasn't concentrating on splatting them.

Sorry, comments for this entry are closed.