How to play
The rules, the moves, the weapons, the maps and every control: keyboard, controller and touch.
Play free nowThe rules in ten seconds
- Your paint is safe. Enemy paint hurts. From where you stand, your team's paint is always green and enemy paint is always red.
- Hitting a player with paint takes their health. Missing still paints the floor, walls or ceiling.
- Touching red paint hurts, however you touch it: walking, landing, wall-running or hanging from a grapple.
- Paint over red to make it yours again. If someone is splatted by a floor you painted, the elimination is yours.
- Health comes back if you stay out of trouble for a moment. You get a few seconds of protection when you respawn.
Modes
- Team Deathmatch: two teams. Splat the other side and paint the arena your colour.
- Free-for-All: everyone against everyone. All paint that isn't yours is red.
In the lobby, walk onto a match pad (2 v 2, 3 v 3, 4 v 4 or free-for-all), or press Quick Play to drop into a match that's already running. Bots fill empty seats and hand over to real players as they join.
Movement
- Sprint to cover ground fast.
- Wall-run along long walls and wall-jump off them to keep going.
- Grapple: hold to fire a rope, swing, and winch yourself up. Let go with Jump.
- Chain them: jump, wall-run, jump, grapple, attack from above, land on green.
Weapons
| Weapon | Best at | Paint |
|---|---|---|
| Splat Pistol | Quick, accurate duels | A little |
| Streak Rifle | A bit of everything | Steady lines |
| Spray Hose | Covering ground fast | Thin, wide streams |
| Bucket Launcher | Turning a landing spot into a trap | Huge, slow splashes |
| Paint Bomb | Locking down an area | A wide burst after a bounce |
| Big Brush | Close range | A big swipe around you |
Controls
| Action | Keyboard and mouse | Controller | Touch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire / brush swipe | Left mouse | RT / R2 | FIRE (hold, drag to aim) |
| Reload | R | X / Square | RELOAD |
| Paint bomb | G | B / Circle | BOMB |
| Grapple | E (hold) | LT / L2 (hold) | HOOK (tap on, tap off) |
| Sprint | Shift (hold) | Click left stick | RUN |
| Jump / wall-jump / let go | Space | A / Cross | Jump |
| Switch weapon | 1 to 5 | LB / RB | SWAP or the hotbar |
| Emote | B | Y / Triangle | ☺ |
| Scoreboard | Tab (hold) | D-pad left | Scores |
| Party and private lobby | P | D-pad right | Party |
| Quick Play (in the lobby) | Q | X / Square | Quick Play |
| Locker | L | D-pad down | Locker |
Light aim assist helps on controller and touch. You can turn it off, and switch on colour-blind paint, in the Locker.
Maps
Three of the ten maps go on the ballot before every match, never the one you just played.
- Canvas Yard: the all-rounder. Wall-run lanes, a central tower, a sky bridge.
- Skyline: rooftops over a long drop. Cranes and lanterns to hook.
- The Gallery: indoor halls, low paintable ceilings, a tall atrium.
- Mural Alley: three narrow streets of tall mural walls to run.
- Pigment Works: a paint factory with a catwalk ring and gantries.
- Chalk Canyon: two mesas, plank bridges and a deep canyon.
- Dockside: stacked containers, gantry cranes and a pier.
- Twin Spires: two towers, bridges at three heights.
- Sculpture Park: the biggest map, with long sightlines.
- The Playroom: toy-sized fights in a giant bedroom.
Five tips for your first match
- Look down before you land. If it's red, grapple somewhere green.
- Paint your escape routes early. A green wall is a safe lane home.
- Paint the walls they like to run along. Red walls stop wall-runners.
- The Bucket Launcher is a trap-maker: aim at where they're going, not where they are.
- Losing a fight? Repaint the floor under you and fight on your own ground.