One of the trickiest and most unique missions in Splatoon 3 is The Ink-Conservation Project. In this mission, you’re tasked with reaching the goal without ever depleting the whole of your ink reserves. This would be easy enough, except that you aren’t able to recharge ink in this mission.  

We’ll walk you through how to complete this difficult assignment with our Splatoon 3 guide. 

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You aren’t allowed to choose a custom loadout for this mission, and to compound your ink-conserving worries, you’re equipped with the Range Blaster by default. This weapon consumes a hefty amount of ink with every use, so you really have to make your shots count. 

Once the mission begins, resist every instinct to ink up the wall ahead of you. Instead, move around to the right of the blocks to find a slope to progress up. At the top, you’re met with three turret Octarians and a cluster of ink rollers. Aim a shot into the center of the rollers to send them speeding ahead, destroying the Octarians all at once. 

Don’t waste time after shooting the rollers. Quickly transform into squid mode and swim up the ink trail left by the rollers. They will have activated an ink geyser, which will soon need another shot to re-activate if you aren’t swift in climbing it in Splatoon 3. 

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Get to the top of the geyser and proceed on into a room full of splat switches. It would take your entire tank just to shoot all these switches, but thankfully there are a number of rollers around to help. With careful preparation, it’s possible to activate every switch by just shooting two rollers. 

First, shoot the roller in the bottom-right corner, as it will activate many other rollers and cover the majority of the switches. Then, shoot the roller in the top right. This will take care of the rest. 

Move through the newly opened entrance and onto a ledge, from which you can see a whole group of turret Octarians. Shoot the expanding puffer fish when it rotates next to the orange crate to take out all the Octarians and activate an Inkrail.  

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Ride the Inkrail up, and then wait for the moving platform beyond to form a bridge. Quickly shoot the ink roller once the moving platform is in position to send it forward and destroy the Octosniper, clearing a path for you to reach the goal. Use your final shot to activate the goal and complete Splatoon 3’s The Ink-Conservation Project.