H-3 Nozzlenose VIP-R

Nozzlenoses · Sub: Suction Bomb · Special: Triple Inkstrike

A Shooter that fires a 3-round burst with each pull of the trigger. It has great range, accuracy and painting, and landing all three shots splats instantly, but every burst has end lag, so a miss leaves you wide open. The base version has Point Sensor + Tacticooler and suits supporting your team; the other kits switch to Splash Wall + Big Bubbler and Suction Bomb + Triple Inkstrike.

Role: Midline support (backs up the team with painting, scouting and buffs, while looking for one-burst ambush splats) · Difficulty: hard

Strength by modeTier and score (win-rate points vs. an average weapon).

Mode	C–A	S–S+2	S+3 and up	X Battle	Regular
Splat Zones	Few games +0.1	Few games +0.4	Few games +0.6	Few games -0.7	—
Tower Control	B -1.5	B -1.6	C -1.8	C -2.6	—
Rainmaker	Few games -1.9	Few games -2.5	Few games -2.3	Few games -2.5	—
Clam Blitz	Few games -2.5	Few games -2.5	Few games -2.5	Few games -3.2	—
Turf War	—	—	—	—	Few games +2.1

Best stages / Worst stages

Splat Zones

No clear standouts

Tower Control

No clear standouts

Rainmaker

No clear standouts

Clam Blitz

No clear standouts

Turf War

No clear standouts

Strengths

Shots barely spread, and accuracy doesn't drop even on jump shots
Long range with dense painting, so you can cover wide areas quickly
Land all 3 shots of one burst and you splat very quickly, making it easy to ambush and finish off Chargers on high ground
The base version scouts with Point Sensor and buffs teammates with Tacticooler, so it racks up assists easily

Watch out for

About 0.35 seconds of end lag after every burst, so a miss gets punished
It can't fire continuously, so sustained damage is low and it's bad at breaking Splash Walls and Big Bubblers
Hard to keep landing all 3 shots on moving targets, so it's not great at head-on fights
Almost helpless when a Sploosh-o-matic, Roller or Undercover Brella gets in close
Rated low in the current meta; the whole family is unranked in every mode on GameWith's tier list

Tips

Line up your aim on the enemy before pulling the trigger, and keep tracking them until all 3 shots are out
If you don't think you can finish the fight, don't force it; paint an escape route and fall back to your teammates
Playing for assists, joining your teammates' fights from the side a bit behind the front line, is the steady approach
Throw Point Sensors where enemies might be hiding to shut down ambushes from lurkers or Ninja Squid users

Common gear

Special Charge Up, Special Power Up, Swim Speed Up, Ink Resistance Up, Ink Saver (Main), Sub Power Up, Comeback, Stealth Jump

This kit

A paint-focused kit: Suction Bomb adds painting and zoning, and Triple Inkstrike lets you affect a wide area of the map.

Recent changes

11.0.0: System change for all weapons: main weapons get bigger hitboxes against players (the shorter the range, the bigger the boost), squid form gets a smaller hurtbox, and the game adds "Flow Aura" (a temporary power-up when you keep performing well) plus a remaining-health display (source 11)
11.0.0: Main weapon: max damage 44→45 (source 11)
11.0.0 reaction: Even with max damage up to 45, the whole family stayed unranked on GameWith's late-August tier list, and some GameWith commenters call it the weakest, so the buff isn't seen as enough to change its standing (sources 2, 6)