Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion: Inner Agent 3 Guide
By matdemo159

Introduction:


This guide is purely focused on how to defeat Inner Agent 3, the secret final
boss of Splatoon 2’s Octo Expansion DLC. The fight is sadistically difficult,
and will require a LOT of skill, patience, and swearing if you plan to emerge
victorious. The expansion is fairly new, (3 days at the time of writing this)
so I don’t have a lot of hard data. However, I’ll do my best to share what I’ve
learned and hopefully ease your suffering a little bit. I haven’t seen any
guides on how to beat this boss around the web yet, heck, I’ve barely seen it
acknowledged at all, so hopefully this will be a good resource.


How to Unlock the fight:


Unlocking the fight is simple. All you need to do is clear all 80 stages and
collect the corresponding mem cakes for doing so. Once you do, you’ll receive a
message about hearing a door opening, and the game will prompt you to head back
to station A00. Go there, then head over to bright glowing locker. Inspect it
to start the fight.


The Fight Itself:


Alright, playtime’s over. Like stated previously, this fight is HARD, and not
for the faint of heart. You have been warned.


First of all, it’d be good to know exactly WHY this fight is so difficult in
the first place. Simply put, Agent 3 is overpowered. It’s like fighting 1v1
against a hacker. They’re basically just a computer-controlled player, with a
few “enhancements”:


-Roughly 3 times normal health
-Infinite ink supply
-Access to almost every special
-Unlimited specials
-Autobombs with near-infinite detection range
-A Splattershot with increased range
-A dodge roll, despite using a Splattershot
-Godlike aim and dodging skillz


Lastly, you have to kill them not just once, not thrice, but FIVE times. And
you have to use the Octoshot to do it which, frankly, sucks. You may be
thinking “This sounds just like the Agent 3 fight in the elevator! That fight
wasn’t so bad. What’s so hard about this one?” Well, here’s the thing. YOU
DON’T GET CHECKPOINTS. If you die, you start right back at the beginning. You
can’t win a round through pure luck and move on, you have to do it all in one
go.


There are 5 distinct rounds to the fight, each ending after you land 10 or so
shots. After each round, you’ll get a few seconds of rest to refill your ink
and wait for your armor to repair before the next round begins. All of the
rounds are pretty similar, with the exception of round 4.


Round 1:


Each round will start with Agent 3 dropping in via super jump, but instead of
landing normally, they’ll land with a Splashdown. Don’t bother trying to throw
a Splat Bomb before or during their landing, as the Splashdown will just eat
it. All rounds (except 4) will consist of Agent 3 alternating between barraging
you with their Splattershot and Autobombs, and using a different special
weapon. In round 1, their special will be the Inkjet.


Round 2:


Round 2 is mostly identical to round 1, with Agent 3’s special of choice being
the Bubble Blower.


Round 3:


Just like the last 2 rounds, except that they will be using the Autobomb
launcher. A minor difference to note is that is the other rounds, the location
of initial Splashdown is same every time, whereas in this round, they seem to
aim for any bubbles leftover from round 2.


Round 4:


Like mentioned previously, this round is a bit different. Agent 3 rides the
floating platform around the edges of the stage, and then continues with the
usual pattern of alternating between Splattershot and Autobombs, and their
special, which this time is the Tenta Missiles. This round also seems to have
another difference. Unlike other round, where Agent 3 retains any damage dealt,
in this round, they will recover if you don’t attack them again quickly enough.


Round 5:


Round 5 goes back to the regular format seen in rounds 1-3, with the special
this time around being the Splashdown. It’s not just a regular Splashdown,
however. Agent 3 will super jump and Splashdown directly on top of you, 3 times
in a row.


The Strats:


Each round is similar, so the general idea is the same: tag Agent 3 with ten
clean hits. This is, of course, easier said than done. To start with, rushing
straight in won’t work. Not only does Agent 3 have three times as much health
as you do, but their weapon has longer range, so you’ll die before you even
reach them. Stealth won’t help you either, as Agent 3 knows where you are
whether you’re hiding in ink or not. Agent 3 throws an Autobombs at the start
of every round without fail, and likes to replace it when it explodes, so you
have be constantly aware of your surroundings. Unlike regular Autobombs, Agent
3’s bombs will lock on to you from just about anywhere in the arena, only when
Agent 3 is in a corner opposite of you will you be too far away for the
Autobombs to lock on, but you’ll rarely have that much distance.


Going for quick kills, especially in the early is what you want. The secret to
doing this: Play Turf Wars. I’m serious. Not literally, mind you, but I mean
it. The best way to beat Agent 3 is to ink as much ground as you can. Not only
will this prevent you from getting stuck in their ink (thusly killing you,
because that’s how this fight goes) but it’s also how you set up kills. Agent 3
is a very tricky dodger, and has that dodge roll to boot. In their own ink,
they’re incredibly difficult to hit, so you want to trap them in your own ink
to lock them down and make them an easy target. That said, they’ll never step
in your ink on their own, so how do you get them to? The answer lies in turning
their dodge roll against them. Their roll works like a normal Dualies roll, but
they can only roll once instead of twice. They’ll only ever roll if they’ve
been hit, and you can get about 2-3 shots in before they roll to safety. The
thing is that they’ll only ever roll right or left (relative to you) so if you
surround them with ink and nail them with a few shots, they’ll roll away, and
right into a pool of your ink! From there, you want to repeat the process of
hitting them and trapping them in your ink (which will be much easier when
they’re stuck in your ink) until the round is over. This strat is the same in
all rounds (except 4), since they’re mostly the same. You pretty much just want
to keep using this same strat again and again, dying and retrying until you’re
really consistent at it. You will lose most of your attempts (all except the
last one, really. Unless you’re insane enough to to this again). You’ll lose
for every reason, from a tiny mistake to just plain bad luck, but just keep
trying and you’ll get it down. Here’s some round-specific advice:


Round 1:


At the beginning of every attempt (except the first one), Agent 3 won’t jump
down until you move or shoot. You can move the camera without repercussion, so
use that to preemptively aim your first shot. It’s best not to move until after
Agent 3 splashes down, since you spawn exactly far enough away not to take any
damage from the splashdown. Don’t bother inking the ground where Agent 3 will
land, either, since it’ll just get covered by the Splashdown. Instead, use this
brief time, as well as the time you have in between rounds, to ink as much
ground as you can. This is Turf Wars: the more area you control, the easier
it’ll be to trap Agent 3 and deliver the killer combo. Don’t get too focused on
covering the ground, though. Agent 3 can cover was more ground than you can, so
if you try to ignore them you’ll end up losing what turf you already have. If
you’re lucky, you can kill Agent 3 before they even have time to launch their
Inkjet. You won’t get lucky, every time though, so when they do, rather than
run away, it’s actually better to get aggressive. Agent 3 is a wicked
sharpshooter, so running or trying to hide will just get you killed. Instead,
aggressively attack. The Inkjet leaves them pretty vulnerable, giving you a
chance to close out the round. Agent 3 has a hard time hitting you when you’re
up close and will try to back away, so keep pursuing them. This aggressive
strategy is by no means safe, but it’s ok because the first round doesn’t
really have a penalty for dying. If you still don’t manage to kill them in the
air, the Inkjet has the landing icon just like in multiplayer, so keep track of
when the Inkjet is about to run out and use the marker to land some free hits.


Round 2:


In between rounds, you want to refill your ink tank if it’s empty and then get
to work inking as much ground as you can before the next round starts. If your
armor broke at the end of the last round, don’t sit in ink waiting for it to
recover. The wait time in between rounds is exactly long enough to recover your
armor regardless and there’s no threat of getting (aside from stray Auto Bombs,
watch out for those), so spend this time to cover some ground. You want to
memorize where Agent 3 will be dropping in, so you don’t waste time inking that
section of the ground and you aren’t directly below it when it hits. The
bubbles of the Bubble Blower are fairly safe to ignore, as long as you don’t
touch them. Either way, you don’t really have time to waste shooting at them.
You may think that the period when Agent 3 is using the Bubble Blower is when
you have a chance for free hits, and that is partially true, you still need to
be careful. Firstly, you can’t hit Agent 3 from the front, since the bubbles
they blow will act as shields. Secondly, Agent 3 will immediately switch back
to their Splattershot as soon as they finish blowing bubbles on the third
swing, and if you right up next to them when that happens, you’re a fried
Octopus. It’s best to play it safe and stick with the standard strategy.
Actually, I’ll say it here: DON’T BE AGGRESSIVE. While it’s ok in round 1,
since there’s no real penalty for dying, round 2 and onwards is when you really
want to focus on staying alive more than anything. Don’t try to go for a trade
with Agent 3 because you will die, for sure. Even your armor breaks at the same
time, if there’s an Autobomb somewhere in the arena (let’s be real, there is),
you’re almost certainly dead, since you can’t swim fast enough with broken
armor to completely avoid its damage, and taking any damage will kill you. If
your armor gets broken in the middle of a round, just turn in to an octopus and
run in circles around the edge of the ring. You may also be tempted to jump at
random in an attempt to dodge incoming shots, but that will just get you
killed. Just keep on swimming, and laying ink to swim in. If you have some
distance and you’re lucky, you should be able to recover. Just hope that there
aren’t any Autobombs after you.


Round 3:


Just like last round, take this one slow and wait for openings. Again, the
period when they’re using the launcher may seem like an opportune time to
strike, especially without those bubbles shielding them, but once again,
getting aggressive will get you killed. This is the point where you’ll start to
notice whether or not you did a good job in the last two rounds maintaining
turf control. Like I said before, the quicker you kill Agent 3 each round the
better, since you lose less turf. Don’t forget to ink turf between rounds, as
the ink you lay during that time will be the primary snare in your trap.


Round 4:


Get ready to throw everything you’ve learned out the window, since none of it
matters during this round. This is actually the easiest round, since most of
the incoming threats are easy to avoid. You can’t really hit Agent 3 up on the
platform with your Octoshot, so get your Bombs ready, it’s the only time
they’re really useful in this fight. Unlike previous rounds, Agent 3 seems to
recover damage dealt, and rather quickly at that. You need to nail them with
2-3 Splat bombs in pretty quick succession. You actually need to be pretty
close in order to make the throw, and the bombs have a tendency to fall off or
fall short if your aim is off, so hold down the throw button to make use of the
targeting arc. Agent 3 also covers the ground with ink WAY more than the other
rounds, so just forget about maintaining turf control.


Round 5:


This is the final round, and it’s appropriately the hardest. The mere thought
of a triple Splashdown is downright terrifying, and on top of that you’ve
probably lost most of the turf control thanks to round 4. As soon as round 4
ends, claim as much turf as you can in broad strokes, and then get to the edge
of the ring and make sure there’s plenty of ink in front of you in a straight
line. As soon as the Splashdown approaches, just swim away. As long you just
swim straight, you’ll get away unscathed. After that just repeat twice more.
Not so scary now, huh? You may be tempted to jump away as you’re swimming away,
right before it hits. Don’t. This will get you killed. If your armor breaks and
there’s another Splashdown incoming, then you’re dead and there’s nothing you
can do about it. The regular battle with Agent 3 will be a lot harder too,
since three Splashdowns is bound to cover a lot of ground. Don’t get tempted to
go for broke right at the end, either. Like I said before, this will get you
killed. Just patiently wait for and opening and hopefully you’ll emerge
victorious.


Final Advice:


The only other thing I can say is this: get good. As much as I hate to say it,
if you can’t aim well, then nothing I say can help you. That said, hopefully
I’ve given you at least a little bit of advice that will help you overcome this
monstrosity of a boss. (Notice how many times I’ve repeated the phrase “This
will get you killed.”)
Good luck.


The Reward:


Ah, of course I wouldn’t forget! All challenges must yield some kind of prize,
and this is no exception. Defeating Inner Agent 3 will grant you the Golden
Toothpick, a hairpin shaped like a takoyaki with a toothpick stuck through it,
all made of solid gold. It has Special Charge up and 3 sub slots, so it’s not a
bad piece of gear. More than that, though, it serves as a trophy of your
struggles. It’s not nearly worth the trouble it take to get, but then again,
not many things would be.


TL:DL THIS BOSS IS THE DARK SOULS OF SPLATOON :p