Gear ability

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

Primary abilities
All pieces of gear have 1 primary ability (also called main); in, it cannot be changed; in , it can sometimes be changed.

Some pieces of gear can appear on the SplatNet 2 shop with different primary abilities than their defaults. Gear obtained through does not have a default primary ability and is randomly assigned from all abilities that are able to 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). This is thought to be done to make acquiring gear with all 4 slots having the same ability (colloquially called 'pure' gear) 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, they cannot also equip 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 take more points to unlock slots, and each progressive slot on the same gear usually requires more points to unlock than the previous slot.

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 (RNG).)

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

Stacking


In general, the more a specific ability is used (stacked), the less the rate at which the effect it has is accumulated. The degree at which this occurs depends on the ability.

Splatoon
, 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 have no effect for certain things. For example:
 * has no effect for the following sub weapons:, , , ,.
 * has no effect on the run speed while rolling a roller.

Splatoon 2
, 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/replaced:

Version 4.3.0
In Version, the following replacements took place:


 * All existing gear slots and ability chunks for and  were replaced with.
 * Gear items available in shops that had as the main ability now offer  as the main ability instead.
 * The following exclusive gear items had as the main ability and now offer  instead: