Splatoon 3: What is Weapon Freshness and How to Raise It

gamerant.com:

There are numerous forms of progression in Splatoon 3, and weapon freshness is one of them. Players can view the freshness of a particular weapon by highlighting it from within the equipment menu and pressing ZL twice, and they will see that there are a series of stars and a bar connected to it. For those fans that may be confused by some aspect of weapon freshness in Splatoon 3, this guide is here to provide clarity on this gameplay system.

In essence, a weapon's freshness represents the total amount of turf that a player has inked with it. Indeed, as fans ink turf in Splatoon 3's Turf War and Anarchy Battle game modes, they will see their used weapon's freshness bar begin to fill. When that bar is completely full, the weapon will gain a star and an empty bar will appear. Players can then work on gaining another star by filling this new bar, and the process repeats until the weapon has reached 5-star freshness.

Splatoon 3: How to Farm Ability Chunks

To note, the amount of points that are required to fill the freshness bar increases every time that a star is obtained. In fact, that increase is considerable, and Splatoon 3 players will need to earn over 1 million points to go from four stars to five stars. Without question, that is quite a monumental undertaking, requiring that an astronomical amount of turf be inked, and fans will need to decide for themselves if it is justified by the rewards.

With respect to the specifics of the rewards that can be earned by increasing a weapon's freshness, a Sheldon License, which can be exchanged for a new weapon at Ammo Knights, is awarded at one star. Upon reaching two and three stars, players will receive stickers that depict the weapon, and those can be applied to their lockers in