Thermal Ink

Thermal Ink is an ability in Splatoon 2. The ability is exclusive to clothing, and cannot be rolled as a sub ability.

Thermal Ink shows the location of opponents to the player for 12 seconds after directly damaging them with their primary weapon, but only while the opponent and the player are not closer to each other than a certain distance. The location of these enemies is only shown to the player who damaged them. Enemies are located with a white silhouette, similar to how the Sting Ray shows opponents. Tagged enemies are not visible while swimming, but are visible in squid form outside their ink. The further away the enemy is, the brighter the silhouette will be.

Mutual exclusivity
This ability is found as the main ability only on clothing, so other abilities found only on clothing are mutually exclusive with it; in other words players cannot have them together. These abilities are, , , and. In addition, since wearing the is mandatory during a Splatfest, these abilities cannot be used for the duration of those events.

Use
Damage must be dealt directly, so indirect Blaster blasts or indirect hits with the Sloshing Machine or Explosher will not trigger the ability. A direct hit from a Rapid Blaster will trigger it, however, as will damage reduced by falloff.

The minimum range at which a Thermal Ink-marked enemy is highlighted is roughly the same range as the Dapple Dualies painting range. Damaging an enemy at close range and then moving further away will cause the enemy to be highlighted as long as the 12-second duration of Thermal Ink has not already expired.