Every fight against the Salmonids on the Spirhalite Islands runs on your weapon. In Splatoon Raiders there are eleven core weapon types and more than 100 variations to collect, all cobbled together from washed-up junk instead of Sheldon’s clean hardware. The type you carry sets your range, fire rate, and how fast you clear a crowd, while rarity and levels decide how hard it hits.
Quick answer: Weapons drop randomly from defeated Salmonids and breakable crates, come in five star-rarity tiers, and are leveled up with Spirhalite Shards and enemy drops at Frye’s Weapon Stash on the Hideout Ship.
All 11 weapon types in Splatoon Raiders
There are no brand-new weapon categories here. Every family returns from earlier games, with Splatanas carried over from Splatoon 3. Each type sprays ink from your refillable tank and holds several named variants that tweak stats like range or ink efficiency.
| Type | Role | Variants to find |
|---|---|---|
| Shooter | Fast fire, easy coverage; includes Splattershot, Splattershot Jr., and Squelcher models | 18 |
| Roller | Wide coverage and crowd control; flick to fling a line of ink | 12 |
| Charger | Snipers that charge for heavy shots; includes 4K and Charger models | 12 |
| Slosher | Buckets that dump lots of ink at once for strong coverage | 12 |
| Splatling | Charge, then unleash a barrage; vulnerable while spinning up | 12 |
| Dualies | Twin guns with dodge rolls that boost damage; includes Twincan models | 12 |
| Brella | Umbrellas that block attacks; some launch the canopy | 12 |
| Blaster | Slow fire, hefty area damage from big ink bursts | 12 |
| Brush | Paint flat on the ground or swipe at foes with ZR | 6 |
| Stringer | Bows that fire five ink shots; charge for more range and damage | 6 |
| Splatana | Swipe like a brush or charge a heavy long-range slash | 6 |
How the weapon families play
Shooters are the most straightforward pick. They fire like a submachine gun with easy ammo management, so covering ground and picking off single Salmonids is simple. The trade-off is a small reticle, which means large waves can overwhelm you if you try to fight them one at a time. Squelcher variants sit in the same family and reach a little farther.
Rollers and Brushes trade range for coverage. A Roller can plow straight into an incoming line and paint huge areas, while Brushes let you dash and swipe. The Shrimp Roller is one of the most versatile picks in the game, comfortable painting ground or breaking a Salmonid line head-on.
Dualies give you two guns and dodge rolls, with damage climbing after each roll, which keeps aggressive brutes in check. Splatlings are the advanced, Gatling-style answer to swarms. Their very high fire rate lays down heavy ink from a safer distance, but you have to charge before firing, so you are exposed during the spin-up.
Blasters fire slowly but deal hefty area damage with big ink bursts, and the ink they leave along the way adds decent coverage. Sloshers work similarly for crowds, dumping a wave of ink in one motion. Both types are strong when Salmonids bunch up.
Stringers fire five ink shots at once and reward charging with more range and damage, while Brellas double as a shield that blocks attacks and, on some models, launches the canopy forward. These are the more defensive, positional options.
Splatanas hit hard up close and turn a charged slash into several times normal damage, which chews through both hordes and Boss Salmonids. The catch is that you must be right on top of enemies, so mobility and health management carry the build. Chargers cover the opposite end, picking off single targets from range with a charged sniper shot that also lays ink forward.
Weapon rarities and star levels
Weapons now come in rarities marked by stars. The colors climb from grey up to gold, and a handful of prismatic, shiny options appear in the late game. Rare weapons can also carry special powers on top of their base stats.
| Rarity | Color | Upgrade levels |
|---|---|---|
| One-star | Grey | 5 |
| Two-star | Blue | 5 |
| Three-star | Purple | 5 |
| Four-star | Yellow / gold | 5 |
| Five-star (Primo, prismatic) | Shiny | 10 |
The five-star weapons are the “Primo” variants in your inventory. They can be upgraded ten times instead of five, so they scale far higher than standard weapons once you invest in them.
How to get more weapons
There are two reliable ways to add weapons while raiding, and neither is tied to a specific rarity roll. Defeated Salmonids may drop a weapon, and those drops are random, so keep fighting if you are hunting for a particular one. Weapons also spill out of breakable crates scattered through each raid, so smash every crate you pass.
On solo raids you keep everything you pick up even if the raid ends in defeat, so there is no penalty for pushing deeper to grab more loot before you go down.
How to upgrade and scrap weapons at the Weapon Stash
Frye runs the weapon side of the Hideout Ship at the Weapon Stash. Visit her to level up a weapon, and once you progress far enough in the story you can also scrap options you do not want and swap abilities around.
Note: standard weapons cap at five upgrade levels, while Primo five-star weapons go all the way to ten, so those are the ones worth committing your best materials to.
Best weapons to start with
What matters most is how much damage a weapon puts out in a short window, since Salmonid Dens run on a tight per-floor timer. Weapons that delete crowds quickly are worth far more than slow, high-accuracy options.
- Blasters are the strongest early pick for their area damage, firepower, and easy ammo management, with the Steam Blaster and Oil Blaster leading the pack.
- Shooters like the Soap-Bottle Splattershot are the easiest to learn and let you dive to safety at any moment.
- Splatlings such as the Gas-Can Splatling shred swarms once you learn to charge mid-air with a Bot Hop.
- For raw damage, a charged Splatana carries most fights, while the Shrimp Roller, Sippy-Cup Dualies, and Unleaded 4K give versatile, safer fallbacks.
Whichever direction you go, favor damage and crowd control over precision. Pick one main weapon to pour Spirhalite Shards into, keep a fast ranged option in reserve for when the Salmonid count climbs, and recycle everything else through Frye to keep the upgrades flowing.
