Octoling

**Octolings** are the elite Octarian fighters and the octopus equivalent of an Inkling. They are recurring enemies in Octo Valley and Octo Canyon, appearing both in special missions where they are the only enemies, as well as in normal missions. They later serves as playable characters in *Splatoon 2*, as part of the *Octo Expansion* pack.

## Background

The playable Octolings were once fighters in the Octarian military, brainwashed by the music of DJ Octavio, but when they heard the *Calamari Inkantation*, it nullified the brainwashing effect, freeing their souls from the oppression. Many (but not all) of them escaped to Inkling society in Inkopolis afterwards, hoping to start anew. This happened during the "Enter the Octobot King!" mission of the first game.

## Appearance

Octolings are the Octarian equivalents to Inklings. Unlike Inklings, they have thicker and curlier hair, with four tentacles instead of six (added with their arms and legs this gives them eight "limbs", as opposed to Inklings' ten), have their suckers above their hair than underneath, beige undersides of their hair, small round ears (according to the *Splatoon* in-game model), purple circled eyes with a dash on the end, pointed fingers, and no spots at the ends of their hair.

Like Inklings, they can walk on land in humanoid form as well as swim through their own ink in octopus form, making up a somewhat small but nonetheless dangerous portion of Octarian forces. They can use various main weapons as well as sub weapons. With no visible target, Octolings will wander alone or in small groups and ink nearby surfaces for their convenience. Upon being engaged by the player, they will make tactical maneuvers, quickly jumping in and out of their ink while shooting and throwing bombs. The best way to deal with Octolings is to catch them before they can react; once found, they are difficult to escape from, as they will follow the player in octopus form and shoot at them in humanoid form.

All enemy Octolings encountered appear to be female, and their Japanese name, タコゾネス (a portmanteau of "octopus" and "Amazons"), further supports this. Their body features seem slightly more mature than the female Inklings', though this is a result of their clothing, as the in-game model is the same. These Octolings are considered elites compared to the playable Octolings, and not every female Octoling has the capacity to become a full-fledged Octoling soldier.

Octoling hair color seems unrelated to their ink, as they will have their pre-set hair color regardless of the color set for the mission.

Like Inklings, Octolings have an octopus form, which they can use to swim or hide in ink, but can sometimes be seen using it on dry land. Compared to playable Octolings, they have a different octopus form, which has curlier tentacles of the same length and Octarian eyes. Their hairstyle is also not available to playable Octolings.

### Elite Octolings

While normal Octolings have red hair and are fairly easy to defeat, later missions feature Elite Octolings instead, which are faster, more resilient, and deal more damage. Further separating them from the common Octolings are their dark hair (black with a gold tinge in *Splatoon*, dark maroon in *Splatoon 2*, or a darker shade of blue in the *Octo Expansion*) and the two long strands of seaweed attached to their heads. In Japanese, they are called デラタコゾネス (meaning deluxe, or decorated *Takozonesu*).

### Playable Octolings

Like Inklings, Octolings can switch between a humanoid form and an octopus form.

Their octopus form is widely different to the Octarian ones, with two long tentacles in the middle that helps them move, two smaller ones in front that resembles a mustache, and four smaller ones on the underside, along with a pair of eyes that are separated and resemble an Inkling squid's eyes. The suction cups are located on the underside of their tentacles, as opposed to their humanoid form having suckers on the top side. The tip of their tentacles, as well as the head, have a ring pattern on them. They have a total of eight tentacles.

The humanoid form has black markings around their eyes, with both genders having two sharp edges and a thicker underline, where the female Octoling has an added dash to their markings. Octolings do not have their markings connect over the middle, having it seperated compared to Inklings. Their teeth are also different, having one sharp end tooth on their left side on the top, and another sharp tooth on the right side on the bottom. Their ears are round and asymmetrical, with the right side being flat and the left side being indented, each respectively resembling the fin and siphon on an octopus. Similar to enemy Octolings, the end of their fingers are semi-sharp, but the playable Octolings do not have these ends being tinted in their ink color. Their eyebrows are also different from Inklings, with males having a half oval shape and females having a curved droplet shape.

Just like Inklings, Octolings are able to choose from a variety of skin tones, hairstyles, and eye colors. The choices of eye color and skin tone are identical to the Inklings. Both the male and female Octolings possess two different choices in hairstyle. The female Octoling's first hairstyle either has two thinner tentacles in front reaching past their shoulders with thicker, shorter tentacles in the back both with curled tips, or one with two tentacles tied back into a ponytail, with the other two as sideburns. The male Octoling's first hairstyle features a mostly shaved style with a single tentacle acting as a mohawk and three smaller tentacles are lined up in the back of his head (The mohawk design might be a reference to the Octotrooper tentacle). His second hairstyle is an afro reminiscent of an Octopus' mantle. This hairstyle notably molds while wearing headgear.

## Notable Octolings

* Marina
* Agent 8
* Dedf1sh

### Original characters

*Main article: List of original Inklings and Octolings*
## Trivia

### General

* When an Octoling is splatted, they will fly off in the form of a small ghost, just like Inklings. They even have their own unique octopus ghost for this.

### Enemy Octolings

* Despite having dark red and black tentacles, their ink is purple like other Octarians. The reason for this is unknown.

### Playable Octolings

* Playable Octolings are represented by pink ink in the Player Settings menu, while Inklings use green ink. Before being added, Inkling boys were green and Inkling girls were pink.
	+ After Octolings are unlocked, the Player Settings screen has octopuses swimming up with the squids in the background.
	+ Unlike Inklings, the Octolings' genders have different animations in the Player Settings.

## External links

* Octoling (Enemy) on Splatoon Wiki
* Octoling (Playable) on Splatoon Wiki