Emotes are a new way to show off your Inkling or Octoling style in Splatoon 3.
When you log into the game for the first time and open your equip menu, you will notice you have one emote and that’s it: the basic emote everyone uses. So where exactly can you find others?
Trust us, we get it. We spent the first few hours looking around every store, story mode, and more trying to understand where we needed to go and what to do before we just randomly unlocked an emote and everything clicked. So to save you those few hours of trouble, here is where you can find additional emotes in-game.
Where to find additional emotes
Emotes are mainly unlocked via catalog upgrades. These are levels that can be awarded and leveled up by players by either participating in multiplayer missions or Salmon Run. At the end of any multiplayer match, you will see your catalog level go up slowly as its own separate EXP bar. This will give you an idea of how close you are to unlocking new stuff, including emotes.
After a certain number of levels, emotes will be available to pick up by going into the general store for the game to update your level. These emotes and items will then show up briefly before being placed straight into your inventory.
It is then a case of just equipping the one you want and showing it off in your next matches to whoever your team or opponent might be.