Looking back, it’s surprising thatSplatoon 3’s Tableturf Battle minigame hadn’t been added to the series earlier.Splatoonis all about customization, self-expression, and social play, so a collectible card game is a perfect fit.
For most ofSplatoon 3’s lifespan, however, it had been missing something. Tableturf Battle offered plenty of depth and deck variety, but players could only use it against a series of NPC challengers. The lack of a PvP mode felt like a major oversight.
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Splatoon 3’s Fresh Season update has finally remedied this, adding an online mode for Tableturf Battle. Players can now test their decks against their friends.
How to Play Tableturf With Friends
Before new players start taking on challengers, they need to get their own Tableturf Battle deck and bring it up to snuff. They can do so by accessing the Tableturf Battle Dojo, located in the alley near the lobby building.
Once they’re armed and confident, they can turn the corner and head into the lobby to start finding online opponents. Instead of heading toward the elevator orSplatoon 3’s locker rooms, they should look for a set of stairs heading to an upper floor. There they’ll find a new alcove lined with Tableturf Battle stations.
Sitting at one of the tables will open the Tableturf Battle multiplayer menu, and from there, they have a few options. If they have someone on their friends list who made a room, they can join from there. If there’s no available room, they can create a room and then send invites to online friends using the Y button in the room menu. Lastly, they can join a pool.
Pools in Splatoon 3
Pools are a way for players to all quickly join and stay in the same multiplayer session. It’s not a mechanic specific to Tableturf Battle and can be used to organize matches acrossSplatoon 3’s various online modes.
When in the match menu, such as in the elevator or at a Tableturf Battle table, players can go to the notifications tab, marked with a letter icon. From there, they press the + button to join a pool and are asked to input a name, joining or making a pool. There’s no list of available pools, so the name needs to be decided beforehand elsewhere.
Once in a pool, players will see other players as holograms in the multiplayer lobby, and their notifications will show messages about players making rooms or joining matches. From there, they can look for a joinable Tableturf Battle room.
There are a couple of things players should keep in mind. First is that they might need to close and open the notification page to refresh it after joining to make the listings appear. Secondly, the game sends notifications for when a room is opened or joined but not when one is closed, so they may attempt to join a room only for the game to tell them it doesn’t exist.
Splatoon 3is available now for Nintendo Switch.
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