When thinking of games that Garena Free Fire could draw inspiration from, Splatoon probably wouldn’t have been high on our list. Yet in its latest update, Gloo Nova, that’s exactly what Team Garena has done.
As the story goes, Mr Waggor has been experimenting with ‘Gloo’, and it’s all gone horribly wrong. The Factory, arsenals, and airdrops have all been covered in the stuff, so Mr Waggor has designed four ‘Gloo Gadgets’ and tasked you with cleaning up his mess. That’s pretty rude.

What Does Gloo Nova Include?
It does shake up the Battle Royale and Clash Squad formulas though. You can equip one of four new gadgets in battle, which work like so:
Gadget | Effect | Cooldown |
Lavish | Gain EP, in-match currency, or consumables when deploying a Gloo Wall. There’s a small chance to get Active Skill Cards or Horizalines. | 10 seconds |
Wrecking | Deal an additional 50% damage to Gloo Walls, and trigger an explosion for 30 damage to all players in range. | 20 seconds |
Scanner | Deployed Gloo Walls scan for enemies within 35m for six seconds, and marks those within 10m for two seconds. | 25 seconds |
Defender | Deployed Gloo Walls gain 250 more durability. If you’re knocked down during a match, a 150 durability Gloo Wall will be deployed in the direction of the shot. | 25 seconds |
In Battle Royale, all arsenals and airdrops are covered in Gloo, so you have to shoot that off first to interact with them. The upside is that you don’t need an arsenal key to open them while the event is running. You also earn additional FF coins by opening airdrops.
There are also special events within the special event! Gloo Overload increases your Gloo Wall carrying limit by 2, and the speed with which you can generate them by 30%. Gloo Voyager provides you with additional Gloo Maker XP whenever you travel.
How Does the Garena Free Fire Update Affect Clash Squad?
Over in Clash Squad, parts of the Factory map are covered in Gloo, Gloo Airdrops drop in rounds 1, 2, 6, and 7, and there’s a special event: Gloo Surge. This provides you with an additional Gloo Wall at the beginning of each round after the first one.

To celebrate the Gloo-themed update, Garena Free Fire has a new character, Lila. She’s a street artist who loves using Gloo in her work. Because, of course she is. Her special ability, Gloo Strike, slows enemies and vehicles when hitting them with rifles.
There’s a wealth of additional adjustments, balance changes, and improvements in this patch, which you can read about on the official site. You can also grab Garena Free Fire on the App Store or Google Play.