Sendou.ink's planning page for Splatoon 3 came out so I drew a few things to illustrate some rainmaker carrying routes dos and don'ts for a few maps
Starting out with the Hagglefish straight line, there isn't much to explain here, just that from the rainmaker spawn in mid you can carry the rainmaker through the podium and jump from the podium up with the rainmaker without having to take the ramp, other weapons can take advantage of that to help defend the rainmaker
In Mako Mart you can jump from the podium to the right into the snipe spot(might be unable to if the podium retracted? I don't remember), not very useful for the rainmaker specifically but useful for other weapons
From the left checkpoint you can jump to the top of the freezer, to the grates and into the checkpoint for a safer pathing, it's kind of difficult so it may require practice
When I drew this I forgot to add but right before the left podium there is a block, you can wall jump from the back of that block up for a safer ascent
In Mincemeat you can ink the backside of the wall below the grate to the checkpoint(the clamblitz goal is over there as well) and walljump over the grate for a faster path with a bit of armor
I already talked about this before but since this one is more specific to rainmaker: Do not go through the ink rail in inkblot with the rainmaker! It is incredibly easy for the defending team to kill you over there! It is a pain for your team to get the rainmaker back! It takes a while to even give you any points!
Most of the time I'd recommend going through the wall to the right, especially if you just got the checkpoint since it will be inked by pop and immediately give you a lot of points you are going to take a bit more to get through the uninkable ramp(though that path is a lot safer and still useful!)
There is a path that takes some preparation, confidence, and practicing through recon though that, while extremely risky, gives a big hefty points reward that is hard to contest, if you ink the front, side and backside of the block near the weird sculpture you can carry the rainmaker through the wall and then swim on the block to the other side, the big benefit is that you have cover through most of the travel, the big risk is that, even if you prepared the wall ahead of time, if you fall, you will fall down to mid, costing a lot of time and probably your whole push
In undertow the path through the grates is generally safer than the one through the uninkable ramp, through both paths you're going to have to walk through it, however the grates pass through farther away from their spawn, has a bit of cover and your teammates can clear the path ahead of you with a lot more inkable ground to work with, and if you pass through it all you get to jump straight into the goal without having to climb it!
Lastly, Scorch Gorge, there's something I keep seeing people do in that they try to go through the grates to the checkpoint nearby, that is generally a bad idea unless the opposing team just wiped, it's an extremely vulnerable area you cannot swim through, you can be attacked from all sides including right below you, you might be able to get cheeky checkpoints at lower levels where the opposing team is unaware but at higher levels people will be paying attention to that spot(sometimes too much attention, to the point where they ignore the easier checkpoint through the ramp and the opposing team scores)
Also! If you have the lead! Sometimes it's a better idea to just put the rainmaker in an easy to defend spot and defend it there until the match is over! In scorch gorge the pit near your grate checkpoint is pretty much THE spot you want to use for that, the opposing team will have to drop down to get it, depending on your positioning they might take longer(since they cannot walk through the rainmaker shield) and it's near your spawn so you can keep the shield your ink
One extremely important thing to do while defending the rainmaker in this kind of situation, do not let the barrier pop! If the barrier pops the timer for it to reset will start and it will go from a very advantageous and easy to defend position back to mid, keep the barrier your color but do not let it pop!
Hope this is useful
