Splatoon 3 Is Getting A Fresh New Update, Here Are The Full Patch Notes

Nintendo has already been quite active this week, rolling out a new Switch 2 firmware update and "Handheld Mode Boost" option, and adding to this it's now announced a new update for Splatoon 3.

According to Nintendo of America's official support page, this is scheduled to be released locally in this region on 18th March 2026 (so very soon). It bumps the game up to Version 11.1.0 and includes balance adjustments to the game's matchmaking and multiplayer.

The development team has also shared some details about the next update after this one - revealing it will focus on "changes to the balance of battles". For now, here are the full details about the latest update due out this week:

Splatoon 3 - Version 11.1.0 (Releasing March 18, 2026)

All changes apply to both Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch.

Changes to Multiplayer

• Specifications for some main weapons have changed.

  Weapon	Change Details
  Splattershot Nova Annaki Splattershot Nova	Increased the speed of shots by approximately 25% without changing the flight distance.
  Flingza Roller Foil Flingza Roller	Adjusted the damage-falloff rate based on distance for vertical swings, allowing them to deal 50.0 damage/100 damage farther than they did before.
  Octobrush Octobrush Nouveau Cometz Octobrush Orderbrush Replica	Reduced the amount of ink consumed when swinging the brush by approximately 10%.
  Bamboozler 14 Mk I Bamboozler 14 Mk II	Increased movement speed while charging or firing by approximately 13%.
  Bloblobber Bloblobber Deco	Increased damage from 30.0 to 32.0.
  Douser Dualies FF Custom Douser Dualies FF	Reduced the time between doing a Dodge Roll and being able to take another action by approximately 1/30th of a second.
  Tenta Brella Tenta Sorella Brella Tenta Brella CRE-M	Reduced the amount of ink consumed by launching the canopy by approximately 23%.
  Dynamo Roller Gold Dynamo Roller Starz Dynamo Roller	Lessened the effect of the ink-consumption reduction when equipping the Ink Saver (Main) ability.

• Specifications for some special weapons have changed.

  Special Weapon	Change Details
  Ultra Stamp	Decreased the radius of the 220.0 damage area of the explosion at the point of impact when throwing the stamp by approximately 10%.

• Points required for some special weapons have been changed.

  Weapon	Before	After
  Splattershot Hero Shot Replica Order Shot Replica	210	200
  Sploosh-o-matic	180	190
  Splash-o-matic	200	210
  Luna Blaster Neo	180	190
  Blaster	180	190
  Custom Blaster	180	190
  Rapid Blaster Pro Deco	190	200
  Dynamo Roller	190	200
  Inkbrush Nouveau	180	190
  Heavy Splatling Order Splatling Replica	200	210
  Dapple Dualies	170	180
  Splat Dualies Order Dualie Replicas	190	200

Changes to X Battles

• Changed the system for matchmaking so that, rather than having players with similar X Power at that time battle each other, now players whose final X Power will likely become similar after accumulating matches will be paired for battles.
• Changed the systems for matchmaking and team division to make it less likely to result in skill disparity between teams, even in time zones or regions where there are not many players.
• In the Tentatek Division, players with X Power less than 2000.0 and players with X Power of 2000.0 or higher may now be matched together.
• Changed the matchmaking system to allow battles against more different weapons than before.

This update focuses on making changes to matchmaking and multiplayer balance.

For X Battles, we have changed the systems for matchmaking and team division.

First of all, rather than simply gathering players with similar X Powers at that point in time, we have made it so that it will instead gather players whose final X Power will likely become similar after accumulating matches.

With this change, extreme matches will be less likely, even immediately after the start of the season or immediately after finishing calculation.

Also, when matchmaking is taking a long time, it will gradually soften the criteria for determining a “similar level of ability,” but we have changed these criteria and the system for team division to ensure that the level of ability of players on both teams will be symmetrical, even in time zones and regions with fewer players.

Additionally, we have changed the pairing system for the weapons that players may battle against.

Up until now, weapons have been divided into several groups, and the system more frequently paired weapons belonging to the same group for battles.

We have changed this system to make it so that players more frequently battle with weapons of similar preferred ranges, regardless of group, in order to reduce the likelihood of a player’s weapon always being pitted against weapons with a longer (or shorter) preferred range.

As for multiplayer balance, we made changes based on the battle data from version 11.0.0.

Among the weapons that were upgraded in version 11.0.0 or were greatly affected by changes to the battle system, we made changes to slightly reduce the performance of some weapons that the battle data showed have become highly impactful.

For some of the weapons that did not receive much benefit from the battle-system changes, we have made changes to slightly raise their performance and make them easier to wield.

The next update will focus on changes to the balance of battles.

If you haven't already tried out Splatoon 3 on the Switch 2, it actually received some updates for this platform last year, enhancing the experience. This included smoother animations and much more.

You can find out about the existing updates for Splatoon 3 in our previous coverage here on Nintendo Life:

What do you think of the latest update for Splatoon 3? Let us know in the comments.