Splatoon 3: Are hits detected on the attacker’s side or the target’s?

A Twitter user by the name of @rougsmth set out on an investigation into which attacks in Splatoon 3 detect hits on the attacker’s side and which ones detect hits on the target’s side. The results can be found here (Japanese). Please note that @rougsmth stuck to just sharing the information they uncovered, so any opinions in this article are my (the original author of this article) own based on that information.

Splatoon 3 contains a variety of weapons. However, when taking a look at each one, they are actually divided between those that detect hits on the attacking side and those that detect hits on the target’s side. For those that calculate on the attacking side, no matter how it looks to the player being attacked, they’re going to take damage if the attack lands on the attacker’s screen.

On the opposite side, for weapons that calculate on the target’s side, even if it looks to the attacker like their shot landed, if the target avoids the attack on their screen, they don’t take damage. We’ve all experienced thinking we hit a shot or dodged an attack only for the damage to say otherwise. This is the reason for that.

@rougsmth looked into each weapon to figure out which side the hits are detected on. To do this, they used the pose feature in Recon private matches. This is because the feature makes the player not take damage from attacks that detect hits on the target’s side. To summarize the results, main weapons, apart from those that can separate from the player, generally detect hits on the attacker’s side.

チャージャーの各攻撃のダメージ判定が攻撃側依存か、被弾側依存かを検証した動画 pic.twitter.com/Bd9wfqI2Xl

— スムス (@rougsmth) March 5, 2023

So what kinds of weapons have hit detection on the target’s side? They tend to be the more autonomous projectiles, or more specifically, many of the game’s sub weapons.

When compared to the game’s main weapons, sub weapons often work more independently. They might move on their own before blowing up or activate after being set up. On the other hand, sub weapons like the Angle Shooter are fired directly at other players, and the hit detection is done on the attacker’s side like a main weapon.

サブウェポンの各攻撃のダメージ判定が攻撃側依存か、被弾側依存かを検証した動画 pic.twitter.com/MdTuLWT0NT

— スムス (@rougsmth) March 5, 2023

When looking at the results, there’s a trend of weapons that fire directly from the attacker being detected on the attacker’s side. If a weapon’s behavior involves separating from the attacker, it’s detected on the target’s side. There are also cases where a weapon seems to fall into both categories because its direct and splash damage are calculated separately.

However, things get a little complicated when it comes to special weapons. The Reefslider is a directly attacking weapon, but it detects hits on the target’s side. The Trizooka is another special weapon that detects hits on the target’s side despite it behaving similarly to a shooter or charger weapon.

I’ve also been frustrated in situations where it looked like I didn’t get hit by a charger but took damage anyway. While reading @rougsmth’s work still doesn’t make me happy about it, it does make it an easier pill to swallow. Having access to this kind of objective data may be handy going forward.

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-03-08 17:33 JST)