Octo Expansion is Splatoon 2’s challenge DLC, and I found it to be my favorite in the series… at least until I played Splatoon 3’s single player, which is a little more rounded, but Octo Expansion offers a depth of challenge still unmet.

I finished OE in less than a week of on-and-off play. It’s not as scary as some people might tell you, but it’s still pretty hard at times. Also, I’m not a great gamer but I enjoyed the likes of Cave Story, so I have a feeling my idea of an easy platforming experience might be a bit skewed.

Don’t mind all the empty space… eventually I will have notes for every level, probably whenever I feel like replaying it. Weapons listed are the ones I beat the level with, not necessarily the best choice.

Line A

• (A01) Gnarly Rails Station
• (A02) Far-Out Station: Splat Roller
• (A03/B01) Wassup 8-Ball Station
• (A04) Roll Out Station
• (A05) Fake Plastic Station
• (A06) Bounce with Me Station
• (A07) Maverick Station
• (A08) Bumpin' 8-Ball Station

Line B

• (B02/I09) Poppin' Fresh Station: Splat Charger
• (B03) Spin Docto Station: Jet Squelcher
• (B04) Rad Ride Station: This is one of the last levels I did and it was a living hell. After the last checkpoint, shit goes crazy. I swear every single one of those women shows up with every bomb they could fit in their little pockets. Just hide and pray. Hydra Splatling
• (B05/G09) Wack 8-Ball Station: Clash Blaster
• (B06) Notorious Station: No kidding, huh? Get the goal with only curling bombs. This one’s not too bad… it’s a warmup for a level in Splatoon 3 that gave me a way harder time. More advice TBA.
• (B07) Fly 8-Ball Station: It’s Breakout! No advice, this one was pure dumb luck for me.
• (B08) Righteous Rails Station: Jet Squelcher
• (B09) Grab & Go Station: Get the thang.
• (B10) Ink 'n' Slide Station: Splattershot Jr.
• (B11) Tubular 8-Ball Station
• (B12) Brute Rollup Station: Carbon Roller
• (B13) Phat Splatz Station: Flingza Roller
• (B14) Breakdance Station: Grab the armor at the furthest end of the map if dodging is too hard. Don’t you just love those teleporting Octocopters? Wait for them to move to the side, then shoot before they move again. Tri-Slosher
• (B15/D01) Ink from Above Station
• (B16) Pop Rock Station: Blaster

Line C

• (C01) Radical Rails Station: Splattershot
• (C02) Shrinky Ink Station
• (C03/A08) Bumpin' 8-Ball Station: Splattershot Pro
• (C04) Move It Move It Station
• (C05/F04) Stamped-Up Station
• (C06) Bust 'n' Move Station: Splattershot
• (C07) Totally 8-Ball Station: .52 Gal
• (C08) Right Round Station: I feel like there’s probably some obvious, non-tedious way to do this one, but I haven’t figured it out yet. Splat Charger
• (C09) Bodacious 8-Ball Station: Blaster
• (C10) McFly Station
• (C11) Abracadabra Station: Heavy Splatling
• (C12/F07) Matchmaker Station: Squeezer
• (C13) Smash & Dash Station: Just try to get the thang.
• (C14/J05) Stick 'n' Move Station: This was the first stage I skipped, and the only one other than Girl Power. I just finished it today in order to write this guide. For the second area, don’t even bother shooting any of the targets past the first one. For the third area, it’s it’s pretty simple, just shoot the middle target, but you have to wave your controller around a lot and it makes me feel like an idiot.

Line D

• (D02) One-Shot Station: E-liter 4K
• (D03/H01) Slap Bracelet Station
• (D04) Mad Props Station
• (D05) All That 8-Ball Station: I am the king of overthinking these fucking levels. Hey, before you waste as much time as I did, guess what? THERE IS AN INK REFILL. I nearly went to YouTube to figure this one out thinking it was just impossible. The angles weren’t that hard for me to figure out but e-mail me if you’d like me to make you a graphic or something. E-liter 4K
• (D07) Targetbuster Station: Octobrush
• (D09) Goose Station
• (D10) Labyrinth Station: This is a pretty cool crash course on learning the Brella. Undercover Brella
• (D11/J06) Ink & Watch Station: Man this one sucks. Rapid Blaster

(D08/J03) Girl Power Station

This one is straight bullshit so buckle in.

• Pick the weapon that you're best with IN COMBAT. This is a real distinction I had to learn after mostly playing Turf War. If your Turf and your Ranked weapon are the same, good for you. I used Dualies.
• Warp down and grab Splashdown and the armor not too far away.
• There's no chance of saving the backline boxes, so just take out the first girl once she's past them.
• You can take out the next two girls warping in with a single bomb between their spawn points.
• At the corners are two pedestals that two more waves of girls will spawn on - shoot at their spawn points, but be careful, because they'll attack you as soon as they land.
• At this point, they start coming in from the left and right sides of the map, so it's a free-for-all. Go to the Orb and hold it down. You can grab more Specials to hit the girls and heal the orb.

Line E

• (E01/I03) No Whammy Station
• (E02) Bust & Run Station: Try not to die while you get that thang.
• (E03) Don't Ralph Station
• (E04) Heinous 8-Ball Station: Mini Splatling
• (E05) Hypercolor Station: Splat Roller
• (E06) Swass 8-Ball Station
• (E07/G10) Iceman Station
• (E08) Da Bomb Station
• (E09) Squee-G Funk Station: Rapid Blaster
• (E10) Cratebuster Station: Octobrush
• (E11) Bodacious Rotation Station: Is it not bad enough that the balls are bodacious? Slosher
• (E12/F01) Drop the Bass Station: Dualie Squelchers

Line F

• (F11) Whack-Fu Station: I love this boss, so this was fun for me. Remember that you can do damage with your ball by rolling into stuff, not just stopping and exploding!

Line G

• (G02) Hasta La Vista Station: I tried the Rapid Blaster Pro first since it looked easier, but it was actually dreadful. Heavy Splatling
• (G03) House Party Station: Don’t forget your curling bombs. Toss them the opposite way that you plan on going and it’ll distract the snipers. This one isn’t really as scary as it looks. During the final wave (UFO), just hoof it, don’t even bother with hiding. E-liter 4K Scope
• (G05) Bustalicious Station: There’s way more than 20 crates onscreen and you don’t need to shoot all of them, so don’t let the visuals make you panic. Try to shoot targets closer to the side your platform has moved to, so that you don’t have to wait for the platform to move all the way back over. Splat Charger

Line H

• (H06) Break & Bounce Station: I’m not going to sugarcoat it, this will be your hardest Thang yet. You will have to defeat the legions of… um, Breaking, and… Bouncing…

Line I

• (I02) Dinky Ink Station: Take the left path first, it’s significantly easier and you can get an ink refill to have more shots for the right path. .96 Gal
• (I04) Can't Touch This Station: Listen to me… are you listening? YOU CANNOT SWIM UNDER BULLETS. Swim form is NOT FLAT. It will STILL TOUCH YOU. (audibly crying) Anyway, you can hide behind wipers and those will block bullets, so that’s… something!

Line J

• (J04) Footloose Station: You really don’t need to overthink this one as hard as I did the first five times I failed at it. First shoot out the squids’ eyes and get the armor. Then stand on the white boxes, which are tougher, and shoot the orange boxes out from underneath the enemies, which will send them into the abyss. The hardest will be the Octobombers at the end, but I promise you’ve got this.

Inner Agent 3

Here's what I've got so far:

• Ink as much surface area, as fast as possible. Agent 3 takes damage while swimming through your ink.
• Rush in and get as many shots as you can. If they hit you, try to tank it; you can heal while they're respawning.
• Watch out for autobombs.
• If you've lost armor, and Agent 3 is nowhere near being splatted, JUST RETREAT. An autobomb will kill you.
• Phase 2: The bubbles are a distraction, don't even bother. Just don't let an autobomb set them off.
• Phase 3: Ideally, you want to rush in and take Agent 3 down before they even have a chance to start spamming autobombs. In reality, I have not managed to accomplish this yet.

That's all I can say so far as I still have not beat this asshole. 8 Ball has all of their memories back, but has yet to meaningfully cope with them.