Special gauge

The special gauge is an indicator during a battle of how close an Inkling player is to getting their special weapon. When the indicator is full, a noise will be heard, the gauge will show a prompt, and the head of the player will begin to sparkle, indicating that the player can use their special by pressing the right analog stick. The special gauge can be filled up by: inking turf, having control over the objective in Ranked Battle, and (if the player's current headgear has Tenacity as a main ability) having not as many team members alive as the enemy team; the latter two fill up the gauge a lot slower than inking turf.

Description
The special gauge fills up in a clockwise fashion with the Inkling's current ink color. During use, it depletes in a counter-clockwise fashion until empty.

Splatoon
Prior to the update, when a player was splatted before the special gauge was depleted, the player would respawn with half of the remaining gauge filled (barring the use of Special Saver-equipped gear). With the 2.7.0 update, all main weapons fall into one of three special depletion classes: light, medium and heavy. Light-class weapons will lose 40% of the special gauge when the player is splatted, medium-class weapons lose 60%, and heavy-class weapons lose 75%.

A table showing the depletion class of all weapons can be found at List of special weapon sets in Splatoon.

Splatoon 2
After being splatted, the player loses 50% of their special gauge.

Singleplayer
The special gauge is not activated in Octo Valley, Octo Canyon, the Octo Expansion, and the Battle Dojo. Instead, the player must collect their special weapons from Canned Specials.

Other
In Multiplayer Turf Wars and Ranked Battles, as well as in the Shooting Range, the Inkling's special gauge fills as the player covers turf in ink. The turf must be turf that would normally earn the player points in Turf War, such as the floor. When the player is splatted, their special gauge will be less filled upon their respawn. If a player using splashdown is splatted mid-air, they will only lose 25 percent of their special gauge.

Abilities
Abilities on a player's gear can affect the special gauge: