Splatoon Raiders, the series' first spin-off, launches July 23 on Switch 2 as a single-player loot hunt

Nintendo gave Splatoon Raiders a full Direct on June 30, and the takeaway is blunt: the series that built its name on 4v4 turf wars is shipping a single-player loot game. It arrives on Switch 2 on July 23, as a console exclusive, and it is the first spin-off Splatoon has ever had.

You play a mechanic, either an Inkling or an Octoling, working alongside Deep Cut, the Shiver, Frye and Big Man trio from Splatoon 3. The job is treasure hunting across the Spirhalite Islands, a new stretch of the Splatoon world stocked with crystal deposits to mine, facilities that only let you carry certain gear, and dungeons that burrow underground, some of them apparently bottomless. A member of Deep Cut tags along in an Exploration Bot that sniffs out treasure while you fight.

It plays like a raid, not a turf war

The enemies here are Salmonids, the same waterlogged nuisances from Splatoon 3's Salmon Run mode, and they come in tiers. Lesser Salmonids swarm you in numbers. Boss Salmonids hit harder and drop a Mega Power Egg to feed the Bot. Then there are Seasoned Salmonids, which Nintendo describes, straight-faced, as ones that are "well-seasoned (with salt)" and get tougher the saltier they are. Make of that what you will.

To deal with them you spray ink from a refillable tank, and Nintendo says there are more than 100 weapon variations to find, some dropped by Salmonids and a few rare ones with special powers. Loot sticks with you even when a raid goes badly. Get splatted mid-run and you keep the weapons and salvage you picked up, then spend it upgrading your tank at the Mechanic's Shack.

Three tanks and a lot of gadgets

Your loadout is built around one of three tanks, each with its own gadget pool. You start with two gadget slots and can eventually run three the more you use a tank.

Gadgets are where the depth is supposed to live. You collect parts on raids and slot them in to bump damage, fire rate or duration, or bolt on effects like ink explosions and knockback gas. Deep Cut handles the crafting bench: Shiver builds new gadgets in the Gadget Workshop, Frye upgrades weapons or breaks them down for materials, and Big Man keeps the catalog. Credit where it is due, this is Nintendo EPD, the same internal group that has made every Splatoon game.

Co-op, amiibo, and picking your pain level

There are three difficulty settings you can flip at any time from the hideout ship. Tourist is the casual pass, Raider is the standard run, and Survivalist is the one for people who want to suffer. The loot is the same across all three, so higher difficulty is about the fight, not better drops.

It is built to play solo, but up to four players can team up online or over local wireless, with the difficulty scaling to the group. Even solo players can fire off a Call for Help to pull in temporary backup, then pay it forward by answering someone else's request for rewards. There is amiibo support too, including a new line of Splatoon Raiders figures that unlock outfits.

Worth a flag

This was a Direct, which means everything above is Nintendo showing you its own game the way it wants you to see it, not hands-on impressions. A PvE loot loop lives or dies on whether the grind stays fun past the first few hours, and a slick presentation cannot answer that. What the Direct does tell you is that Nintendo is comfortable letting Splatoon be something other than a competitive shooter, and that is the more interesting part. We will know how the loop actually holds up on July 23.