Booyah! Is Significant. Booyah! Back In Splatoon 2

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Booyah! is a sociopositive signal of mindfulness. Not doing it is sociopathic.

Studies show that starting a Splatoon 2 match or Salmon Run shift with a Booyah!, and then having your teammates Booyah! back, improves team cohesion and performance. On average, non-Booyah! participants perform worse in team-based settings.

Why is the Booyah! button so powerful, and what is its significance in Splatoon 2 play? I'll explore that in detail in this article.

You might wonder why I'm writing about Booyah! now, in 2019, when the game supposedly is on its way out because it's not getting any more content updates. (Which was FAKE NEWS, as revealed by this morning's reveal of an upcoming content update.) It's still a highly relevant topic, as seen by this FRESH! statement in Inkopolis Square this morning:

“Pls Booyah Back” says Faith:3c.
(I swear I marked it as Fresh! after the screenshot.)

The Multi-Functional Meaning Of Booyah! in Splatoon

Much like Shalom in Hebrew, Aloha in Hawaiian, and Alola in the Alola region, the phrase Booyah! has many meanings that go deep into the culture that holds Inkling and Octoling societies together. It's more than just the name of a shopping mall complex in Inkopolis Plaza.

Booyah! can be used as...

• a greeting (“Hello!” “Happy to be here!”)
• an expression of goodwill (“Thanks for having me on your team!” “Good luck, guys!”)
• schadenfreude (“Hahaha, look at this sucker jumping into the EPA-polluted water after shooting at me!”)
• a good-bye (“Last game, guys, was nice playing with you.”)
• a success receipt (“I just blew up the enemy Stinger in the corner of the map that was harassing you!”)
• an expression of gratitude (“Thank you for blowing up that enemy Stinger.” “I see you sniped that jerk who was squidbagging me on the player cam! Thanks!”)
• a signal you're having a good time (“Operation Spawn Camping is going swell. Don't worry about me!”)
• and more, including being key to unlocking the power of the Booyah Bomb

Booyah! is central to civilisation and cultural communication, and since Inklings and Octolings are very social creatures, you hear a lot of Booyah!. Which leads me to my next point...

No Booyah!; No Success

...If you encounter an Inkling or Octoling who isn't saying Booyah!, they either have no one to talk to (and haven't noticed that you encountered them), or they're anti-social and inevitably a poor teammate, like KoopaTV's own Rawk. As I wrote in my Salmon Run experiences/tips article,

“If they don't BOOYAH! at the start of a round, don't trust them.

...If YOU don't BOOYAH! at the start of a round, they shouldn't trust YOU.”

And it's true. Right after seeing Faith:3c's Inkopolis Square post, I did Salmon Run shifts. I always started every wave with a Booyah! I kept track of who yelled it back and who stayed quiet.

The Inklings (and some Octolings) who returned my Booyah! died less often and saved more people... usually saving the people who didn't yell Booyah!. Sometimes those people don't even yell for Help! No Booyah! is a big red flag that I need to be concerned about, because if a teammate won't Booyah! back and acknowledge my attempt at communicating with them in a no-threat tranquil environment, will they have my back when there are masses of Salmonids or enemy Octolings approaching my position?

Probably not.

At the start of this shift, I said Booyah! and that funnily-written Deklar guy said Booyah! back.
Guess who did the best? Me and Deklar. Booyah!-less Trickster and John just died a bunch.

Regarding the picture above, Deklar and I, or any pairing or a whole team that responds and uses Booyah!, were mindful of what's going on for the whole shift. That mindfulness is critical. Here's what mindfulness will do:

1. You are aware of what your teammates are doing and will orient your actions to take this awareness into account
2. You can see things beyond yourself—you can understand your teammate's motivations and thought process
3. Doing activities for the benefit of others so the entire team can succeed

Mindfulness allows us to find and rescue people who get splatted, despite their lack of Help!. It gives us the knowledge that shouting THIS WAY! from the middle of the map, even though we're heading in the east direction, doesn't give our teammates the knowledge that they should also be heading east — since THIS WAY! only tells you your current location, not your direction or eventual destination. It provides knowledge that shouting THIS WAY! from the corner of the map because you just killed a Goldie that exploded into ten Golden Eggs — and standing there for a long time continually shouting THIS WAY! — isn't a great team move.

It also means that you might not make collecting eggs the top-most priority. You might let your teammates get the eggs if it means that you'll be keeping the map clear of threats and nuisances—especially if your weapon supports that role. But maybe you're in the event with the cannons on the shore, and you see your teammates aren't collecting enough eggs for some reason while you're shooting away at the cannon. You'll be mindful to get off of it and help achieve the objective.

There are many uses for mindfulness in Ranked matches or Turf War, a lot of which can be observed by just checking your map, discussed in this article about how the most recent Splatfest was unfair due to the ink colours.

Communication is key for helping remind people what's going on. Since Booyah! can mean so many things, you need to be aware of the context that each teammate is in. You need to constantly be in-tune with them. Booyah! encourages this mindset.

It's rather telling, and demonstrative of how central it is to civilisation, that after being splatted, THIS WAY! turns into HELP! or OUCH! but Booyah! will always remain Booyah! regardless of the circumstance. Booyah! is always there. Booyah! is in both Splatoon and Splatoon 2, unlike the ill-fated C'mon!.

There's nothing stopping you from saying Booyah! back.

Do it.

Pearl, the best Off the Hook idol, screaming Booyah!
If she does, you should too.

It's a special article for Sunday! No article for Monday, though. This article exists for one of KoopaTV's background patrons who has donated to the site before. It's her birthday today, and she wanted something written for today and about Splatoon, so this exists. She also happens to say Booyah! back, so it's a request worth doing.


In the same spirit of this article, Ludwig wrote Battle Arena etiquette rules for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
This Booyah! article won the Best Gaming Commentary Article award of 2019, as well as the overall Best KoopaTV Article award of 2019.
The background patron hates Ludwig by 2021, when he writes about why he doesn't drink alcohol.