Gear ability

Gear abilities, or simply abilities, are special attributes that are placed on wearable gear in and. Each provides different effects, whose effectiveness is usually based on the amount of the specific ability the player has.

Primary abilities
All pieces of gear come with one specific primary ability (also called main). In both and, it cannot be changed after obtaining the piece of gear it comes with, but the latter allows obtaining the same piece of gear with a different primary ability.

In Splatoon 2, all pieces of gear that can be ordered from Murch (which mostly consist of ones that can be purchased from in-game shops) can also appear on the SplatNet 2 shop with a different primary ability than their default ones. Gear obtained through Salmon Run does not have a default primary ability and is randomly assigned from all abilities that can also appear as secondary abilities.

All pieces of gear do not have primary abilities that match the gear's brand's 'favored' ability; (except for a few, which were originally sold through SplatNet 2). As a result, achieving all slots on a piece of gear to be the same ability (colloquially called 'pure' gear) is more difficult.

Primary-only abilities and mutual exclusivity
Some abilities can only appear as primary abilities. These abilities are also tied to a certain type of gear (head, clothes, or shoes), which prevents the user from having more than one of those abilities. As a result, if a player equips Tenacity, they cannot also equip Comeback because both abilities are only available in the primary ability slot of headgear items.

The groups of mutually exclusive abilities are as follows:

Secondary abilities
All pieces of gear have 1, 2, or 3 slots for secondary abilities (also called subs), which are ×0.3 as effective as if they were primary abilities. The number of secondary abilities that are present by default is equal to the number of stars (rarity) on the gear. Secondary ability slots on a piece of gear are unlocked by getting points by playing battles (except for Private Battles) while that gear is equipped. Higher rarity gear usually takes more points to unlock slots, and each progressive slot on the same gear usually requires more points to unlock than the previous slot.

Rolling probability
In, there are 13 possible secondary abilities; in , there are 14. Brands that affect roll probability have a ×5 chance of rolling its favored ability, and a ×0.5 chance of rolling its unfavored ability. Secondary abilities are assigned using random number generation.

In Splatoon 2, when unlocking slots, the probability of receiving a specific ability can be influenced with a drink ticket.

Examples
Here are some examples to help with interpreting the table: The Aloha Shirt has the Forge brand. Forge is a favoring brand, as it favors Special Power Up, unfavors Ink Saver (Sub), and is neutral towards all other abilities.
 * With no drink ticket: The Aloha Shirt has a 2.332…% chance of rolling Special Power Up at least 3 times in a row, a 0.00233…% chance of rolling Ink Saver (Sub) at least 3 times in a row, and a 0.0186…% chance of rolling any other specific ability at least 3 times in a row.
 * With a 'Special-Up Smoothie' drink ticket: The Aloha Shirt has a 9% chance of rolling Special Power Up at least 2 times in a row, a 0.0784% chance of rolling Ink Saver (Sub) at least 2 times in a row, and a 0.3136% chance of rolling any other specific ability at least 2 times in a row.
 * With a 'Sub-Saver Berry' drink ticket: The Aloha Shirt has a 20.588…% chance of rolling Special Power Up, a 30% chance of rolling Ink Saver (Sub), and a 4.117…% chance of rolling any other specific ability.
 * With all drink tickets except for 'Special-Up Smoothie' and 'Sub-Saver Berry': The Aloha Shirt has a 21.212…% chance of rolling Special Power Up, a 0.0449…% chance of rolling Ink Saver (Sub) at least 2 times in a row, and a 2.7% chance of rolling any other specific ability at least 3 times in a row.

Gear with a non-favoring brand has an equal probability of rolling any specific rollable ability. For example, the Armor Jacket Replica has the Cuttlegear brand, which does not favor any ability.
 * With no drink ticket: The Armor Jacket Replica has a 7.142…% chance of rolling Swim Speed Up.
 * With a 'Swim-Speed Apple' drink ticket: The Armor Jacket Replica has a 9% chance of rolling Swim Speed Up at least 2 times in a row.
 * With all drink tickets except for 'Swim-Speed Apple': The Armor Jacket Replica has a 0.0156…% chance of rolling Swim Speed Up at least 3 times in a row.

Stacking
Players can use more of an ability (stacking an ability) to achieve stronger effects. For exact details on the effects of stacking each gear ability, see the ability's article.

In general, the more a specific ability is stacked, the less additional effect is accumulated. The degree to which this occurs depends on the ability. To demonstrate this concept, the following charts show the stacking effects for some abilities. Note the diminishing returns as more of the same ability is used.

Splatoon
Spyke, who can be found in an alleyway in Inkopolis Plaza, will offer to re-roll secondary abilities or increase the number of gear slots in exchange for a Super Sea Snail or cash.

Some abilities do not affect certain things, and in-game descriptions do not inform players of these exceptions. For example, Bomb Range Up does not affect some bombs. Another notable example is that Run Speed Up does not affect the run speed while pushing a roller.

Splatoon 2
Murch, who can be found in Inkopolis Square, has multiple services that can affect a gear item's secondary abilities:

Retired abilities
The following abilities were once present in the game but were later removed or replaced:

Version 4.3.0
In Version, the following ability replacements took place:
 * All existing gear slots and ability chunks for Bomb Defense Up and Cold-Blooded were replaced with Bomb Defense Up DX.
 * Gear items available in shops that had Cold-Blooded as the main ability changed to Main Power Up.
 * The following exclusive gear items that had Cold-Blooded as the main ability changed to Bomb Defense Up DX: