Splatoon: changelog and filesize for Ver. 2.6.0

During the Nintendo Direct, yesterday, Nintendo announced that Splatoon would get two updates in the near future: one on March 9th (March 8th in North America), and another one in April. Both will come with various balance fixes, the first one focusing on gear abilities. It will also include adjustments to ranked battle matchmaking, and add new elements for Splatfests.

The first update will bring the game to Ver. 2.6.0., and will be released on March 9th (March 8th in North America). We will have the exact time next week, when Nintendo announces the maintenance period for Splatoon (which will start a few minutes before the update is ready).

Here’s the official changelog for Ver. 2.6.0. of Splatoon:

Stage Adjustments:

• Arowana Mall – The map layout in Turf War is changed as follows:
  • The layout will be based on the stage layout in Splat Zones, but the grates that connect between the high platforms in each team’s area will be removed.
• Moray Towers – Changes to the layout in Turf War to match the layout in Splat Zones.

Matchmaking and Team Assignment Adjustments:

• Until now, team assignments in Ranked Battle were completely random, but some consideration will now be given to equipped weapons when assigning teams.
• Ranked Battle Matchmaking will be changed so that players of the following ranks are not matched together.
  • S+ and S
  • S and A+
  • A- and B+
  • B- and C+
  • This change may be subject to further adjustment depending on changes to matchmaking times that occur as a result.

Changes to Rank Points:

• During Ranked Battles, when a team plays at a disadvantage due to unavoidable issues such as teammates being disconnected, and then loses, the winning team’s points will be decreased by an amount proportional to the time they benefited from the above conditions.

Gear Ability Adjustments:

• Adjustments have been made to the efficacy of certain Gear Abilities.

Splatfest Changes:

• During Splatfests what was previously the Vibe Meter will now display your Splatfest Power.
  • Initial Splatfest Power level depends upon your current Ranked Battle rank.
  • Splatfest Power level will change depending on wins or losses during Splatfest Battles.
  • The player with the highest Splatfest Power on the winning team will receive a slightly larger boost to their Splatfest Power than their teammates after the match.
• Until now, Splatfest matchmaking favored grouping players with similar play styles. Players will now be more likely to play with those of similar Splatfest Power level.
• The higher a team’s average Splatfest Power level, the more Splatfest Points they will earn after winning.

This update requires 233MB of free space on your Wii U or external HDD if you already have Ver. 2.5.0 installed. If not, you will need 763MB of free space. To download this update, you have two options:

• let the Wii U do its thing if you have automatic downloads activated. You should have the latest version downloaded and installed the next time you turn on your console;
• if not, you can launch Splatoon from the Home Menu (not the Quick Start Menu), in order to trigger the update download manually.

To check that you have the latest version installed (which is required to play online), simply launch the game. You should see ‘Ver. 2.6.0.’ at the top right corner of the TV screen.

Source: Nintendo