Splatoon 2 Version 5.2.0 Update Patch Notes

Nintendo has revealed that Splatoon 2's next update will arrive next week, with changes set to go live from 22nd April.

The update, which was seemingly accidentally mentioned by Nintendo on social media ahead of time last week, will be distributed at 10am on 22nd April in Japan (so that's 2am BST / 3am CEST in Europe, and 6pm PDT / 9pm EDT the day before in North America).

Patch notes for this update have now been released in English. You can find them here:

Ver. 5.2.0 (Released April 15, 2020)

• Specifications for some of the main weapons have been changed.

  Weapon	Change
  .52 Gal .52 Gal Deco Kensa .52 Gal	Increased the likelihood the turf around your feet will be inked when firing.
  Splat Roller Krak-On Splat Roller Kensa Splat Roller Hero Roller Replica	Slightly extended the splash of ink from swinging sideways.
  Flingza Roller Foil Flingza Roller	Reduced the time required to swing the weapon overhead in a vertical swing by 3/60 of a second.
  Tri-Slosher Tri-Slosher Nouveau	Reduced the interval at which you can repeatedly swing by roughly 2/60 of a second.
  Heavy Splatling Heavy Splatling Deco Heavy Splatling Remix Hero Splatling Replica	Decreased variance of shot spread when firing while on the ground by roughly 6%.
  Splat Dualies Enperry Splat Dualies Kensa Splat Dualies Hero Dualie Replicas	Slightly widened the spread of ink created by shots.
  Glooga Dualies Glooga Dualies Deco Kensa Glooga Dualies	Decreased ink consumption from shots fired by roughly 7%.
  Classic Squiffer New Squiffer Fresh Squiffer	Reduced the time from releasing a charge shot to being ready to shoot by roughly 1/60 of a second.
  Splat Charger Firefin Splat Charger Kensa Charger Hero Charger Replica	Reduced the time from releasing a charge shot to being ready to shoot by roughly 2/60 of a second.
  Splatterscope Firefin Splatterscope Kensa Splatterscope	Very slightly narrowed the width of the area inked by a fully charged shot. The area inked remains unchanged for models without scopes (listed below). Splat Charger Firefin Splat Charger Kensa Charger Hero Charger Replica The area inked remains unchanged for all shots that are not fully charged.
  E-liter 4K Custom E-liter 4K	Reduced the time from releasing a charged shot to being ready to shoot by roughly 2/60 of a second.
  E-liter 4K Scope Custom E-liter 4K Scope	Very slightly narrowed the width of the area inked by a fully charged shot. The area inked remains unchanged for models without scopes (listed below). E-liter 4K Custom E-liter 4K The area inked remains unchanged for all shots that are not fully charged.
  Ballpoint Splatling Ballpoint Splatling Nouveau	Reduced the velocity of ink over long distances by 4%, and reduced the range. Reduced movement speed by roughly 10% when charging and firing from a close range.
  Tenta Brella Tenta Sorella Brella Tenta Camo Brella	Extended the time it takes to restore the umbrella portion after launching it or it being destroyed by roughly 40/60 seconds. Increased ink consumption for spread shots by roughly 10%.

• Specifications for some of the sub weapons have been changed.

  Sub Weapon	Change
  Toxic Mist	This will now effect opponent’s Ballers.

• Specifications for the following special weapons have been changed.

  Special Weapon	Change
  Baller	Extended the time you have to hold down the ZR Button to trigger this by roughly 16/60 of a second. When you have a weapon equipped that has a fast walking speed when not firing or a fast squid-form swimming speed, increased acceleration on the ground to allow you to move more quickly. This applies to the following weapons that can use a Baller. Aerospray RG Luna Blaster Inkbrush Nouveau Undercover Sorella Brella When you have a weapon equipped that has a fast walking speed when not firing or a fast squid-form swimming speed, reduced maximum speed by roughly 14%. This applies to the following weapons that can use a Baller. Custom Explosher
  Bubble Blower	Extended the time until a bubble pops naturally by roughly 2 seconds. Reduced the size of the first and second bubbles. The first bubble is the smallest, the second is slightly larger, and the third bubble onward will be the same size as before. The area over which damage is dealt and the area which is inked by an exploding bubble depends on the size of the bubble.

• Points required for using specials have been changed for certain main weapons.

  Weapon	Before	After
  N-ZAP83	180	170
  Custom Range Blaster	180	170
  L-3 Nozzlenose	210	220
  Foil Squeezer	180	190
  Inkbrush Nouveau	160	180

The changes in this update are designed to lower the abilities of a portion of all weapons and specials that, based on analysis of statistical data, had obtained an advantage in results.

Our intention is that this will entice players to explore these weapons, while retaining their individual strengths of the weapons in scenarios where they are advantageous.

We reference various sorts of statistical data for these adjustments, but in particular for those which lower the abilities of certain weapons, we've focused on data from matches between players of high Rank.

We will issue future updates after looking carefully at changes resulting from this update, as well as the overall state of statistical data over the long term.

Other Changes

• Changed the unlock conditions for Tracks #20 through #26 in Squid Beatz 2 so that anyone can play them.
• Extended the time limit to play your next game after you repeatedly disconnect within a short period of time.
  • This change will affect only those with frequent disconnects, less than 1% of all active players worldwide.
  • The more frequent your disconnects over a short period of time, the longer the time limit to play your next game will be.
• When you download the latest update data, you will no longer be able to connect with players in The Shoal who have older update data.

Do you still find time to play regular matches of Splatoon 2? Tell us below.