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 Salmon Run 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 four 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 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 one, two, or three 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.

In Splatoon 2, when unlocking slots, the probability of receiving a specific ability can be influenced with a drink ticket. Drink tickets set the chance of rolling their ability to 30%.

Here is an example 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 other abilities.
 * With no drink ticket, the Aloha Shirt has a 2.332% chance of rolling three Special Power Up, a 0.00233% chance of rolling three Ink Saver (Sub), and a 0.0186% chance of rolling three of the same of other abilities.
 * With a Special-Up Smoothie, the Aloha Shirt has a 2.7% chance of rolling three Special Power Up, a 0.00219% chance of rolling three Ink Saver (Sub), and a 0.0175% chance of rolling three of the same of other abilities.
 * With a Sub-Saver Berry, the Aloha Shirt has a 0.872% chance of rolling three Special Power Up, a 2.7% chance of rolling three Ink Saver (Sub), and a 0.00698% chance of rolling three of the same of other abilities.
 * With a drink ticket for other abilities, the Aloha Shirt has a 0.954% chance of rolling three Special Power Up, a 0.000954% chance of rolling three Ink Saver (Sub), and a 2.7% chance of rolling three of the same of other abilities.

A non-favoring brand is a brand that does not alter rolls for abilities. For example, the Armor Jacket Replica has the Cuttlegear brand, which does not favor any ability. In this example, assume that three Swim Speed Up abilities is preferred.
 * With no drink ticket, the Armor Jacket Replica has a 0.0364% chance of rolling three Swim Speed Up.
 * With a Swim-Speed Apple, the Armor Jacket Replica has a 2.7% chance of rolling three Swim Speed Up.
 * With a different drink ticket that is not Swim Speed Up, the Armor Jacket Replica has a 0.0156% chance of rolling three Swim Speed Up.

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 at which this occurs depends on the ability. To demonstrate this concept, the stacking effects of some abilities are shown in the charts below. 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 have no effect for certain things. For example:
 * Bomb Range Up has no effect on Ink Mines, Seekers, Splash Walls, Squid Beakons, or Sprinklers.
 * Run Speed Up has no effect on the run speed while rolling 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/replaced:

Version 4.3.0
In Version, the following 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 offered Main Power Up as the main ability instead.
 * The following exclusive gear items had Cold-Blooded as the main ability offered Bomb Defense Up DX instead: