We Just Figured Out How These Medals Work

[@arcdj]

Damage internally being a whole number with 1000 being lethal, instead of what the training room shows, actually makes a whole lot of sense from a programming standpoint. If you'd want more precision than whole numbers, you'd need to use a float, which can be buggy and is not worth it if you only keep track of one number after the point. Like this, it can just be a simple 16-bit integer, giving you a range of any whole number between 0 and 65535, or, max 6553.5 damage. Floats also take a lot longer than ints to do any math or other operations on, so it's more efficient like this too!

[@keiyakins]

Yeah, recording stuff in tenths or hundredths is a *really* common trick to get sufficient precision without dealing with floats. Money in the US is almost always recorded as tenths of a penny, for instance.

[@TheFrantastic]

I had the suspicion it was something like this, but I didn't know the specific terms for it, you deserve top comment :)

[@TsuchinokoIsARealAnimal]

Oh, that's probably how Side Order lets you get such high damage numbers. It's just displaying the raw damage numbers, which is also why nothing deals decimal damage in side order

[@OneWeekGirl]

This also explains why the damage in Side Order is so much higher, they simply don't display the decimal point there.

[@OneWeekGirl]

@@TsuchinokoIsARealAnimal Oops, posted at the same time. ^^;

[@TroyVan6654]

Wait, the Side Order hit point scale is the actual scale? Plot twist

[@ShadowSkyX]

Makes sense to use the existing point system than making a completely brand new one.

[@aradraugfea6755]

Weird seeing you outside of a you know who stream. Figures it'd be here.

[@Magic_Mango]

THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE WITH THE DIGITAL AESTHETIC

[@SomeFreakingCactus]

Mind-blowing. And taps into the “game’s code” vibe of stuff.

[@SimoneBellomonte]

@@aradraugfea6755Who?

[@MyDancingShoes]

The super chump one is interesting. So like, you get a metal if you force players to stop what they're doing and interact with it. That makes sense to me.

[@SimoneBellomonte]

Pfp (Profile picture) and / or Banner Sauce (Source [Artist])? 🗿

[@Chocomint_Queen]

So basically, there's three categories of special: Kills, Damage Dealt, and Damage Taken And then there's Cooler

[@roykooper902]

Ever since I saw Side Order damage I said to myself "oh so that's how the damage is calculated, it's just simplified for the player in normal modes" glad to hear I was correct.

[@holyelephantmg8838]

Intro sequence has returned! Hail the intro

[@VGBrothers]

This honesty makes perfect sense to me now that it's laid out like this. The game is placing weight on the value the special got for its use. It does feel kinda odd for Tristrike to be measured by damage instead of splats, until you consider that TriStrike and Booyah do constant accumulating damage when in their AOE, while ones like Stamp and Slider do set damage immediately with the ability to OHKO. As an '89 user that loves using and abusing Super Chump, their criteria also makes a lot of sense when you think about it. You're firing dummies onto the field that can easily disrupt and punish opponents that ignore them, so placing the Special's value in "number destroyed by the opposing team" shows that your use(s) are effective in distracting the opponents and take their eyes off of the battle, even for a short moment.

[@squiddu]

I don't think this system is all that complicated, as some may believe. This all makes sense to me, that those special medals are based on your *performance* with the special, not just how many times you use it. That would be pretty silly for a medal, wouldn't it? It is still very weird they don't make this clear at all, but honestly thank god it's this way.

[@Breeze926]

I think it's just kinda common to "perform" better if you activate the special more. So since it is very common for the player that activated the special the most to get the #1 medal we just assumed that's how it worked.

[@ShadowSkyX]

​@Breeze926 but if you pop the special and don't hit hardly anyone, it's not indicative you're performing well. 4 opposing players are still there and while it's important to move them where they don't want to go, the game is likely looking for damage numbers. The game believes you're did a poor job because your special never connected.

[@Breeze926]

Ye, but it is also very likely that the person that got more specials is a better technical player so they would deal more damage. I'm just saying that factors like this made it so we just assumed it was number of specials popped and not a more specific metric.

[@MysteriousStranger50]

Yes but, chumps performance is measured in how many of your chumps were intercepted, which is... weird. I guess it confirms the intention of the devs, that chumps are meant to be a distraction.

[@Boooo]

so, the ultimate counter to super chump users getting the medal is to just not shoot the chumps? hehehehe

[@vibecatwastaken]

kinda weird that it works like that. i mean, why is someone getting awarded for their defenses being broken??

[@FROSTALI]

@@vibecatwastaken i would assume it's because of the utility of the chumps (especially in ranked). super chumps are especially good as a diversion tactic - if you use it on a splat zone, it can easily make the enemy team lose control or even capture the point right? so, if someone is busy trying to destroy all super chumps, they could easily be ambushed or... say if your team was splatted, you could buy your teammates time to regroup while the enemy team is distracted by the chumps. imagine the same with all other modes and how it can be used to essentially keep people away from an objective. Basically, measuring how many were destroyed means you used your super chumps in a way that successfully put pressure on the enemy team. Otherwise, you could spam super chumps without rhyme or reason in a way that wouldn't actually do much and get a medal. that'd be rewarding the player for lack of meaningful participation

[@wutadam]

@@vibecatwastaken I've always thought that Super Chump was supposed to be a distraction tool and not a splatting tool.

[@vibecatwastaken]

@@FROSTALI what you guys say makes sense. I've been staying away from ranked and only as of last season have been getting into it. thanks for your insight :)

[@SimoneBellomonte]

@@FROSTALIYeah thats a good way to put it, if your Chumps positioning was so bad that the opponents can just ignore it, then it makes perfect sense for how the medal is awarded.

[@lorettabes4553]

This is pretty wild, not gonna lie. Like in a game like Splatoon, it's a little insane that Nintendo never properly explained how the in-game mini-achievements worked. Thanks Gem and Lean (and others who worked to find this out), without people like you people like me would never know these things!

[@Achamelo]

Almost everything in splatoon has terrible explanation, specifically the abilities. For intensify action it doesnt even mention how it reduces shooter jump rng

[@satannstuff]

I think Nintendo is under the impression that not actually explaining the systems prevents players from exploiting them. This is of course completely wrong.

[@MrKrisby]

That's just how Nintendo tends to operate

[@Syger]

@@Achamelo tbh I *still* don't quite know what IA does exactly. All I know is that at launch a handful of people on reddit/the discord claimed it increased accuracy and damage when jumping which made me absolutely BURN IN the muscle memory to jump anytime I start firing. It is such a hard habit to fight against now, I hate it so much.

[@WashedHands223]

For as long as I can remember, the data that’s helped players in games has all come from the hard work of the community and not Nintendo.

[@rinrin-uk4fk]

finally some clarification abt these medals lol idk why the system is so complicated

[@romanaww]

Well, it's so complicated bc just putting out the most specials is not necessarily the most effective way of using them, nor the most desirable metric of utilising a special. The reward shouldn't go to the biggest special spammer, but the most effective one :) ofc, it might have been better to make this knowledge more public

[@wutadam]

I mean, it's not like the #1 special user medals do much. They only give you 1 point in Series, so you're better off going for gold medals.

[@elnchou]

​​@@wutadam it doesn't matter much how valuable the medal is in this conversation, after all even if it's worth nothing, it's still important that it measures things correctly

[@wutadam]

@@elnchou I think I replied to the wrong person (and in the wrong thread lmao oops), I meant that it's not really necessary for it to be documented by Nintendo since it's not that important in the long run

[@elnchou]

@@wutadam Oh I see, the comment you replied to did say that at the end so it was probably fine, I misunderstood haha But yeah, my guess is they would have documented it if they actually had some place to do it, but I don't think an indepth manual or anything exists, so many of those details just go unmentioned

[@bdk336]

It IS a very nice intro sequence. Great to learn more about how these mechanics work. It always annoys me when games provide feedback that only gives you partial information because they didn't explain what the feedback means.

[@goatedmenta]

0:58 dont forget they also trigger fist-bumps!🤓☝️

[@CyborusYT]

the most important thing they do of course!

[@marbeardontknow2870]

Dopamine boost!

[@mtzuul7401]

Having conditions other than just "time special is used" for getting their medals makes total sense: imagine if you had one "Monsieur Rigolo" farmig specials and wasting them in one isolated corner of the map and still getting the medal while contributing nothing to the match :'v

[@Kay-ql2wl]

Ahhh thats very interesting to know! The amazing power of community curiousity and dedicated dataminers

[@TheLaXandro]

imagine doing so poorly that the only medal you get is #2 reefslider user on a team with no other reefslider users

[@_SereneMango]

Recently I learned a bit more in depth about floating points (a way to represent numbers with decimals in coding), and they can get a bit too messy if you want a certain level of precision in numbers... Splatoon's HP (at least for online multiplayer, as expressed in the training rooms) use integers instead (whole numbers). Because for the player it's a number represented with four digits, and one of them being a decimal, internally it's entirely handled as integers, and they just "add a dot" for the UI. Also integers take less time to calculate than floats, but I think that doesn't matter much (if at all) with nowadays hardware... If anything I THINK the N64 was one of the first consoles handling floats...?

[@fernandobignardi6716]

Unreal 5 and Unity Coder here to nerd you out with int vs float. Yes both are stored as the same in memory, but when working with damage calculations as a programmer, it is easier to have integers in mind rather than floats. Xenoblade 2 when hitting enemies you can see that only integers show up when dealing damage and not 10.50 or 100.50; I have been told it is not pleasing to the eye Oh actually one more thing, doing math with integers is much better than doing float math performance wise

[@LiliumOrientalis]

Plus ints are perfectly precise, unlike floats

[@placeholder2937]

But what is a float?

[@fernandobignardi6716]

@@placeholder2937 0.3 1.5 1000000000.5 32423.49587349857 1.000 Basically a number that you want to be able to express as not an integer

[@Stephen-Fox]

@@placeholder2937 A float is how computers deal with numbers that aren't integers (outside of programming tricks such as 'an integer that gets displayed with a decimal between the tens place and the units place') - They consist of two parts, an integer, and an exponent (In most cases, computers use base 2 for this). So, for the example on Wikipedia example, if you're working in base 10, 12.345 would be stored as an integer - 12345 - and an exponent -3. It's called 'float' as an abbreviation of 'floating point' because the decimal can shift anywhere from the left to the right It has issues because it's more computationally expensive, they're usually huge compared to ints, and there are some weird rounding properties (particularly since humans - At least those who use the arabic number system (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) - tend to think in base 10, while computers naturally deal in base 2 so usually computer implementations of floating point use base 2 as their base) - They only have so much precision, dictated by the size of them, and that can cause... Oddities... To occur.

[@colecube8251]

​@@placeholder2937 it's a variable type that can store numbers with decimals. due to how it's implemented, it can be very buggy to use sometimes (for instance, float 2 + float 1 = 3.0000000000002) plus it is much slower to do calculations on. Anyways, so the game uses an integer and just converts it to a float by dividing by 10.

[@hippie1252]

Interesting! Thanks Gem! Now I have some morning motivation to go get some splats

[@JordynPi]

...I found out months ago that the "#1 special user" can go to someone who didn't use it the most. I thought that was common knowledge, and I figured it was just for the player who got the most splats with it - which makes sense, since I most commonly use ultra stamp, a special where that is the case. I've noticed that in games where I use it but get no splats, I'm still not eligible for the medal, even if I'm the only ultra stamp user on the team.

[@MysteriousStranger50]

This reminds me a LOT of Dark Souls 1. I know I know, the everything is dark souls meme, but really. DS1 is FULL of funny little quirks of coding, things no one would even notice or find without some rigorous testing or mining. Things that make you wonder... "why do it like that, though?" when there seems to be an even simpler, easier solution to whatever problem they were working on. Id recommend 'illusory walls' series on dark souls quirks if you are interested in such hidden video game coding stuffs.

[@lilacocto9103]

So THAT"S how the Special Medals work! I'm often very confused how these medals are actually determined, so this is super helpful!

[@Nakeraa]

its always nice to get more medal info

[@MAXYIGA441]

Btw im trying to spread this discovery i found. You can use splash wall,when you hear the trizooka sound to block one of the shots letting you get enough time to go to cover. Splash wall only lasts 1 tri zooka shot.

[@C_Arson]

Looking at the medal list in the video, I feel a lot better about receiving the #1 Damage Taker medal knowing that it comes from damage recovered and not damage taken (despite that literally being what the medal is called). Before, it just seemed like the game was insulting me, but this new info implies that receivers of the medal are at least surviving the hits they take.

[@jaredparks4713]

Honestly most of these make way more sense than the initially assumption that it tracked most uses. If Player #1 pops 3 Zookas but only gets 1 kill out of those 3 uses, whereas Player #2 pops only 1 Zooka but gets 3 kills with just that one activation, it makes more sense to give the medal to Player #2.

[@callumc2284]

I think the requirements in sone of those specials especially the chumps very interesting to where the devs want it to be used for

[@melimsah]

It makes total sense once it's explained

[@dragon_nammi]

It's wild that this needed to be data mined at all and that the game doesn't just explain what the medals even mean.

[@maikerunezumi]

Sounds a lot like the #1 [Special Weapon] User medal is awarded based on interactions with the special, which would explain how the Super Chump and Tacticooler awards are given.

[@izzmann.]

Very cool breakdown!

[@nonameyoutubenomad2918]

I wonder how they prioritize medals. In most matches, I am the only one of a certain special, yet I rarely see me get the medals for number one user, so there must be a priority chart that shows what medals you will get over others, seeing as you can only get three.

[@kitsovereign4127]

That's exactly what they do, and the order is in Lean's database linked in the description. They look at every medal to see if you're eligible going top down, starting with the golds. If they have three actually good medals to give you, you don't start getting the real dregs and consolation prizes like #2 Belly-Button-Lint Picker.

[@ShadowSkyX]

Probably the highest points out of minimum of three categories. If you did well on more than 3 categories, then it probably chooses the catagory at random. If anarchy, it might be pulling data from multiple games and averaging them out.

[@Makithe2nd]

It's very interesting how we keep finding new stuff and will keep finding new stuff even after the last update

[@Nachiebree]

To answer the question in the thumbnail before the video starts: The other three players got medals with higher priority than #1 Tristrike user. Gold medals have priority over silver, and each set of medals has its own priority list (it also uses these for the order to display medals in) Edit: Huh, i was completely off

[@gfjmember]

I'm wondering, do medals that are reliant on damage dealt only count player damage, or also object damage? And how are they affected by armour?

[@johnalexanderaylward]

I always assumed it was most kills with the special when I saw that I had the least uses but the #1 Reefslider User medal a few months ago. I never really thought about Bubbler though, it doesn't do damage so it can't splat.

[@WypsotorNyloff]

Huge thanks to lean 💊🍇🍷

[@melody3741]

NO WONDER THEY GET UPSET THATS A GREAT INTRO

[@ernesthack4747]

That intro sequence is what gets me out of bed in the morning.

[@heatherr646]

I've always wondered how the medals work, thanks for sharing!

[@ezpom]

We love the intro sequence!!!!

[@CCL13CN]

Intro sequence - check!

[@timeimp]

Well this explains a fair bit.

[@connormcnulty6377]

Now that I hear how it works… that makes perfect sense

[@Hydra008]

My beloved intro sequence is here again!!! 🙃

[@Foun_D_OnePiece]

Meanwhile I'm trying to get 333 gold scales.

[@catzplay42]

Do the internal values that the game keeps track of to grant medals also relate to how the game tracks special usage for the gold or regular special badges? I heard that for a win to count for a badge, you must use at least one special during the game, but I'm now wondering if the internal values also play a role in determining if the win counts towards the badge

[@Abe_Putnam]

It is a nice intro sequence

[@Rose-df4ep]

these medal calculations can be quite silly. the super chump one especially

[@LuckyOwI777]

why? It makes perfect sense. Having the number 1 user be the person who did the most with thier specials, instead of the person who fired off the most makes sense

[@Rose-df4ep]

@@LuckyOwI777 then i think they should change the medal name or something. the calcution for #1 special user implies that they used it the most.

[@LuckyOwI777]

@@Rose-df4ep Not really. Nothing about the name says anything about quantity. It literally says this person was the best at using whatever special the medal is for

[@Rose-df4ep]

@@LuckyOwI777 I'm not sure why you're trying to argue the point...to me in my mind, it sounds like who used it the most. the language is vague, it can be interpreted multiple ways. gem made this video because the language confused him too, and he wanted to clarify it for everyone. if it was as simple as you claim it is, or if nintendo explained it themselves, i don't think this video would exist.

[@LuckyOwI777]

@@Rose-df4ep As Gem explained in the video. the reaosn lots of people thought it was based on numebrs, is because the vast majority of the time, the person who fired the special off the most will have done the most work with the special. That's why it was confusing, and people just assumed and took it for granted. Again, there is nothing in the name that says anythign about quantity

[@HyperLuigi37]

noticed something: tristrike does 112.5 damage to dummies in the lobby, so it would log one kill as 1125. so when devy got 1125, that was just one kill, not one and an eighth. most of the time it's hard to take any damage from tristrike without dying nowadays isn't it? so i feel like most likely devy either tied for kill counts and it got randomly assigned (or maybe first kill wins), or nobody else got any kills with it

[@arttukettunen5757]

A couple things I'm still wondering about: Are any of the medals mutually exclusive? And do some silver medals take priority over some gold medals? Or what is the priority order in general?

[@meganekk0]

I’m not sure about any medals being mutually exclusive, can’t think of any that could conflict like that. As for priority, the game will always look to give you any possible gold medals before a silver. The exact order can be found in Lean’s database

[@ShurikanBlade]

Wait, does that mean the mystery of the order in which the players are presented in the result screen was also solved? In turf war its based off paint. But in the other mode that seems based objective, but there's no concrete evidence yet.

[@N7Dante]

Secrets revealed!

[@coltencorbett3032]

I love Splatoon series but I have never understood the Splatana class weapon class. Are the short range or medium ranged weapons? I tend to play both. I do want to get really good with those weapons. I mainly do turf wars. I would like some insight before I do Anarchy mode so I don’t slow down the teammates I get. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[@eeveemaster243]

INTRO SEQUENCEEEE!!! 🗣🗣🗣

[@lilharm]

so it’s based on how effectively you used the special, not just how many times you used it

[@king0fspades36]

ive got a question- in my recent games ive been getting '#1 enemy splatter' or 'overall splatter' medals even though i only get 1 or 2 splats whereas my teammates will have more splats than me. why???

[@claireclearwater-gs9zc]

I saw a video of someone playing out of their MIND, like almost 20 kills and zero deaths, and somehow get the popular target medal. I guess it is because they were attacked the most, despite not dying from it?

[@SquidSchool]

Popular target is a measure of how long the enemy team's cameras are oriented toward you, whether you're next to them or the entire map away

[@RegularSammykid2]

Please do a video about the upcoming May’s Splatfest

[@TM-45.]

Now bages are farmable

[@hunterguy1779]

But what about wavebreaker

[@seymourflux747]

most damage dealt via waves.

[@hallaloth3112]

I just really want to know why Nintendo doesn't publish these stats in game. My only guess is: Its a kids game, and they don't want to make it appear so complicated it scares off players. There is definitely an arguement to be made for the fact too much data upfront can be off putting to players. But there are somethings that just SHOULD be known knowledge.

[@keiyakins]

"That's not a number of times anyone has used a special in a game of splatoon 3." Wow no. I'm ptetty sure the longest possible match is a clam blitz double lockout, at 8 minutes... which would still mean you'd need like 2.5 specials per second

[@rbarua3368]

The health actually being 1,000 instead of 100.0 is just a distinction without a functional difference, but unless something about 1,000 is easier to code, I would see no reason for Nintendo to record data that has to be converted into a different number to show the player.

[@729MendicantTide]

For what it's worth, integers are much easier for computers to handle than _float_ values in terms of resource allocation.

[@rbarua3368]

@@729MendicantTide Okay, that’s understandable.

[@whiteboardexplained3081]

Dmg is .0 in the training room though as in a shot from a fall off of a 52 gal being 45.3dmg etc

[@ThisFis]

I looooove lean 🥴💜

[@Sanseru2702]

Why data mine the game? Just go ask the developers how they programmed the game! (hehe... /s)

[@cinnamonsugarcourtney6073]

Interesting~

[@pheldsparr]

Neat

[@MugenCannon97]

To balance it out, I'll make sure to get upset every time you use the intro instead, just to mix it up a bit.

[@Seacle14]

I am not really attached to the intro sequence.

[@popsicIes]

dude we don't deserve lean

[@UmbraVivens94]

we love lean!! 🗣️

[@cordax63]

3 views 28 seconds fell off

[@jaewho]

The super chumps one is very interesting. It seems to imply that they are judging better use of the special by how much it gets the enemy's attention.