Rollers are one of the hallmark weapons of the Splatoon series, often seen in promotional art and images. They exemplify the whimsical aspects of the Splatoon world through basically being paint rollers that double as tools for combat.
A roller’s function is primarily to cover surfaces in wide swathes of ink by being pushed along the ground. Rollers tend to have pretty short range but they can be quite powerful when attacking in close quarters, with some being capable of immediately splatting any target they run over.
There are currently 7 different rollers available in Splatoon 3 with the potential for more to be introduced in future seasons of the game. They each have differences, some big and some small, so which ones are more advantageous for turf battling than others? This list will try to figure that out by examining the strengths and weaknesses of each roller in regard to elements like turf inking, handling, and offense.
7. Dynamo Roller
Dynamo Roller Stats:
- Range: 76/100
- Ink Speed: 25/100
- Handling: 20/100
The Dynamo Roller is a monster of a roller, being the biggest one available in Splatoon 3. It boasts the greatest reach out of any other roller with its ink-flinging vertical attacks and it can cover a lot of turf with its huge spread. Unfortunately, its weight affects speed and movement to the point that any of its pros arguably aren’t enough to make up for its cons.
This roller moves slowly and inks a large amount of ground as you roll it along. While it can deal a devastating amount of damage at the right range, it takes a long time to perform a horizontal or vertical swing attack. If an opponent starts attacking you at close range and inks the ground around you, you’re likely to get splatted before you can finish a swing to defend yourself or to create a path of ink you can escape through.
The Dynamo Roller’s loadout doesn’t do much to help you rise above its limitations and thus comes across as a bit lacking if you want to accomplish more than just inking. The Tacticooler special weapon works well as support for your team by granting temporary buffs but doesn’t necessarily help you when you’re in tight situations. Your Sprinkler sub weapon similarly isn’t the most effective as it can’t quickly deter opponents the way other subs can when you’re vulnerable.
Overall, the Dynamo Roller’s slowness can easily make you more of a liability than a threat. If you go with this weapon you’re going to need to be careful with how far away from your team’s turf you go and when you choose to try attacking with it.
What The Dynamo Roller Excels In:
- Damage: direct hits at a close range instantly splat opponents
- Spread: its massive size means it rolls over a ton of turf
- Range: ink can be flung at a greater distance than any other roller
How To Get The Dynamo Roller:
You can obtain the Dynamo Roller in the Ammo Knights shop after reaching level 12.
6. Big Swig Roller
Big Swig Roller Stats:
- Range: 56/100
- Ink Speed: 54/100
- Handling: 60/100
An entirely new roller in the Splatoon series, the Big Swig Roller is above average in terms of roller size and covers a lot of turf when pushed along the ground or swung horizontally. In fact, the spread of its horizontal flick is wider than that of the Dynamo Roller, and it doesn’t share its issues with speed. What places it at 6 out of 7, however, is its lacking damage output.
The Big Swig Roller’s overall damage is pretty low and it doesn't work well for battling as a result. Unlike most other rollers, it’s unable to instantly splat enemies when they get caught in your rolling path and it can only take out opponents in a single hit with a precisely aimed vertical attack in close range. It otherwise takes multiple hits from horizontal flings, or from long-range vertical ones, to splat anyone.
A somewhat underwhelming weapon loadout also detracts from this roller’s usefulness. Your Splash Wall sub weapon can work as a defensive cover for yourself and your Ink Vacuum special offers some potential for offense by sucking up incoming ink and throwing it back out as a charged explosive. You’re vulnerable to getting splatted from behind with this special, though, and this loadout ultimately does more to encourage you to be on the defensive rather than give you an edge when pushing out and engaging in one-on-one battles.
Despite its limited effectiveness at splatting, the Big Swig Roller actually does excel at damaging enemy objects like Big Bubbler shields. It can quickly destroy such objects, making it useful as a support. Its ability to quickly shower turf in ink with the high spread of its horizontal swings additionally makes this weapon useful for turf inking purposes.
What The Big Swig Roller Excels In:
- Object Damage: it has high damage against objects and destroys them quickly
- Speed: you can roll this roller pretty fast
- Turf Inking: horizontal flicks have great spread and quickly cover turf around you
How To Get The Big Swig Roller:
You can obtain the Big Swig Roller in the Ammo Knights shop after reaching level 16.
5. Carbon Roller
Carbon Roller Stats:
- Range: 20/100
- Ink Speed: 63/100
- Handling: 65/100
The Carbon Roller stands out among other rollers for its speed and light handling. It fares a bit better at damage compared to the Big Swig Roller, being able to splat with one quick horizontal or vertical fling, but it too is unable to instantly splat enemies while rolling. Its loadout is also a bit lacking, especially considering what the Carbon Roller’s own variant offers.
The speed of the Carbon Roller does make it great for moving around quickly and efficiently covering ground in ink. This extends to its one-shot ability–it’s actually the fastest at instantly splatting anyone with its flick (a direct hit has a very narrow range, however). Its primary strengths therefore lie in its speed and close-range swing damage.
As for the Carbon Roller’s loadout, its combination of the Autobomb sub weapon and the Zipcaster special weapon is okay at providing offense but not quite powerful enough to give it an edge over what other rollers can accomplish. Autobombs are decent at locating targets and forcing them to alter their movement while the Zipcaster enables you to reach and ink areas that are otherwise difficult to access with its grappling hook-esque movement. You’re capable of instantly splatting opponents with a well-aimed grappling shot, but these shots require careful timing and can leave you vulnerable in dangerous spots.
Overall, the Carbon Roller does well when it comes to speed yet it remains an average weapon at best because of its low damage and the limited strength of the Zipcaster special weapon. You can get a lot of turf covered quickly but it won’t always be effective at warding off enemies who try to chase you down.
What The Carbon Roller Excels In:
- Speed: you can nimbly perform flicks with this weapon
- Close-range Damage: you can quickly one-shot opponents with a well-aimed vertical fling
- Turf Inking: fast rolling means fast inking
How To Get The Carbon Roller:
You can obtain the Carbon Roller in the Ammo Knights shop after reaching level 6
4. Splat Roller
Splat Roller Stats:
- Range: 48/100
- Ink Speed: 45/100
- Handling: 55/100
The Splat Roller is the first roller you can get in Splatoon 3 and it has a pretty even balancing of stats that are neither high nor too low. While it’s not as fast as the Carbon Roller, it still offers great speed and handling while also excelling at offense on account of the different one-shots it can accomplish. Additionally, its loadout has useful applications for defense and range, helping to make the Splat Roller one of the best roller options.
This roller does well at dealing damage, being capable of instantly splatting opponents with its horizontal or vertical flick at close-range or through rolling over anyone. These attacks don’t take long to pull off given its similar speed and handling stats and this carries over to inking turf and using flicks to spread ink. The Splat Roller is therefore useful at inking while also being capable of repelling opponents who target you.
The Splat Roller’s special weapon, Big Bubbler, is a large, spherical shield that blocks ink from hitting anyone on your team inside it. This shield is not invincible as it’ll decrease in size the more it takes damage, but it affords you and your teammates some valuable defense and an opportunity to create a foothold in a battle-heavy area.
The Splat Roller isn’t as effective as shooter weapons, for instance, at damaging opponents from inside a Big Bubbler because of its range, but the Curling Bomb sub weapon presents a way to cause damage from a distance. This timed bomb slides across the ground before exploding and instantly splats any enemy too close to it. How far it goes and how long it takes to detonate depends on how long you charge your throw, and it can be quite the danger in hectic spaces that aren’t very open.
As a Curling Bomb travels, it also leaves a thin trail of ink on the ground that you can utilize as an escape route from danger or a means of moving more quickly via swimming mode.
So, considering its power at close-range, its balanced stats, and a decent loadout, the Splat Roller is a great roller to go with. It has a flaw in how the Big Bubbler special doesn’t pair the best with the Splat Roller’s short range but it still provides useful cover for your teammates.
What The Splat Roller Excels In:
- Damage: mows down opponents when rolled and eliminates anyone directly hit by close-range horizontal and vertical flicks
- Handling: being a starter weapon, it’s easy to get used to and its balanced stats don’t come with any big drawbacks
- Loadout: Big Bubbler supports your team and the Curling Bomb has uses for both offense and movement
How To Get The Splat Roller:
You can obtain the Splat Roller in the Ammo Knights shop after reaching level 2.
3. Krak-On Splat Roller
Krak-On Splat Roller Stats:
- Range: 48/100
- Ink Speed: 45/100
- Handling: 55/100
The Krak-On Splat Roller is a variant of the basic Splat Roller and is essentially identical to its precursor, sharing its same stats. The only difference between each is their loadout; the Krak-on Roller comes with the Squid Beakon sub weapon and the Kraken Royale special weapon that grants you the power to briefly transform into a giant squid or octopus. While the Splat Roller and Krak-On Roller both have solid loadouts, the power of the latter’s special weapon and its ability to disrupt or force enemy movement edges it out over the former.
As indicated, the Krak-On Roller performs the same way the Splat Roller does when it comes to roller speed, handling, and swinging damage. So it, too, is a reliable, well-rounded weapon. But what its loadout does is deeply increase your potential for damage, alongside introducing a way to give your team a strategic boost in area control.
When you use your Kraken Royale special weapon, you gain the ability to temporarily slide around and ram yourself into opponents as a powerful and invincible “Kraken.” In this form, you can crush opponents in two hits from a regular spinning attack and in just one hit from a jump attack. You take up a lot of space as a Kraken, giving you dominance in highly-contested areas and forcing enemies in your trajectory to retreat.
Now as for strategic elements…the Squid Beakon sub weapon is a small satellite object that serves as a new Super Jump spot and it can be placed anywhere you stand on a map. This presents a nice advantage over Super Jumping to a teammate, as it doesn’t require anyone to physically be in a location to jump to. However, it’s a pretty weak object your foes can easily destroy, so you have to be smart about where you place it (this also applies to not placing it in an area that’s dangerous to Super Jump to).
Super Jumping is useful because it lets you avoid having to take the time to swim from spawn point to further out on the stage after respawning. If you can hide Squid Beakons in places close to the center of a stage, you and your team can reach contested areas faster and maintain an edge over the enemy team. Your team has to notice you’ve put down Beakons on the map, though!
So based on Kraken Royale and Squid Beakons being in its loadout, the Krak-On Splat Roller just slightly surpasses the Splat Roller given how both weapons are otherwise the same. If you prefer rushing into the thick of battle rather than positioning yourself defensively with a Big Bubbler, this is a great roller to equip yourself with.
What The Krak-On Splat Roller Excels In:
- Damage: while the roller does well at damage on its own, the Kraken Royale special can quickly take out opponents and force others to get out of the way lest they be splatted too
- Loadout: Kraken Royale is a powerful special and Squid Beakons can help your team strategically Super Jump to new areas (as long as they’re paying attention to them!)
- Handling: just like its vanilla variant, this roller has balanced movement and is easy to get the hang of
How To Get The Krak-On Splat Roller:
You can obtain the Krak-On Splat Roller in the Ammo Knights shop after reaching level 7.
2. Carbon Roller Deco
Carbon Roller Deco Stats:
- Range: 20/100
- Ink Speed: 63/100
- Handling: 65/100
The Carbon Roller Deco shares the same stats as the Carbon Roller but features a loadout that propels it to 2nd place on account of how well it complements the Carbon Roller’s speed and damage.
As established in the entry for its vanilla variant, Carbon Rollers are a bit on the weaker side of things. However, the sub weapon of the Carbon Roller Deco, the Burst Bomb, helps make up for its limitations through its ability to quickly damage opponents from a range and either weaken them or deal a finishing blow. Burst Bombs instantly burst on impact and don’t take up much ink to throw out, rendering them a very useful tool for battle.
Along with Burst Bombs, you have access to the Trizooka special, a bazooka type gun which launches powerful shots of ink that can wipe out opponents from afar in one direct hit. It doesn’t take much time at all to fire shots and you’re able to throw enemies into disarray as they try to avoid getting splatted.
With a loadout that dramatically boosts offensive ability, the Carbon Roller Deco proves to be an effective roller option capable of both quickly inking turf and effectively attacking opponents. As you roll your roller and spread ink over turf you can fend off anyone circling in on you with Burst Bombs, or even change the tide of a battle by whipping out your Trizooka.
What The Carbon Roller Deco Excels In
- Loadout: Burst Bombs and Trizooka are a useful combo and they greatly assist you with splatting opponents
- Damage: Burst Bombs succeed at supplementing horizontal and vertical fling attacks, and the Trizooka special can one-shot opponents from a greater range than the main weapon
- Speed: being a Carbon Roller variant, it’s a very mobile roller that doesn’t slow you down at all
How To Get The Carbon Roller Deco:
You can obtain the Carbon Roller Deco in the Ammo Knights shop after reaching level 22.
1. Flingza Roller
Flingza Roller Stats:
- Range: 58/100
- Ink Speed: 45/100
- Handling: 45/100
Taking the number one spot is the Flingza Roller, an effective weapon that offers decent mobility and great vertical attack range and damage. And not to mention, a weapon loadout featuring the Tenta Missiles special weapon, a powerful special that unleashes airborne missiles capable of damaging enemies anywhere on the map. All these elements combined make this roller worthy of the number one spot on this list.
The Flingza Roller performs pretty well in regards to mobility despite being one of the slower roller options–while it’s not as quick to roll or maneuver as a Splat Roller or Carbon Roller, its slowed speed isn’t major enough of an issue to be a huge drawback. The high damage of its vertical flick is second only to that of the Dynamo Roller and it can similarly accomplish long-distance flings but without a wind-up time that leaves you exceedingly prone. Its long flings have good spread, too, so the Flingza Roller is capable of throwing a lot of ink around and getting turf inked efficiently.
In regards to damage, the Flingza Roller can instantly splat enemies when it rolls over them and it excels at close-range attacks like some of the other rollers covered on this list. But Tenta Missiles make a significant difference in what you can accomplish offense-wise, as they make it possible for you to attack the enemy team from a range that far exceeds that of a melee-based roller. Launched missiles automatically target opponents from the air and while there’s time for them to move out of their trajectory, avoiding them can interrupt their attempts at attacking or force them to retreat.
The Ink Mine sub weapon has much more of a subtle impact on enemies than Tenta Missiles by functioning as invisible mines that explode ink shortly after an enemy enters its range. It can eliminate foes in one hit if they don’t move away from its epicenter in time, and can function as a defense if hidden around your team’s side of the map. They also track an opponent's location if they take damage from one.
Given the Flingza Roller’s nice range, you can ink a lot of turf and continually charge your powerful special to unleash it multiple times during a match, assuming that you keep yourself alive consistently to avoid respawn penalties on your charge. So based on that and other described qualities, the Flingza Roller is a roller that can do a lot when it comes to inking and offense, and is subsequently worthy of the position of best roller.
What The Flingza Roller Excels In:
- Loadout: the Tenta Missiles special is extremely effective at disrupting opponents, causing damage or splattering ink from anywhere
- Damage: the roller itself holds up in close-range combat and Tenta Missiles special can instantly splat opponents who get caught in a barrage of missiles
- Turf Inking: flings have good spread and leave a lot ink on the ground
How To Get The Flingza Roller:
You can obtain the Flingza Roller in the Ammo Knights shop after reaching level 20.
