Gear

Gear is the combined form of Headgear, Clothing and Shoes that Inklings can wear. Gear comes with various abilities that provide effects for the player in battle. Gear can be acquired in shops, through SplatNet 2, through amiibo, ordered through Spyke or Murch, or by other means depending on the item.

Each piece of gear has a brand and a rarity that affect its abilities. Most brands have an increased likelihood of rolling a particular ability when a slot is unlocked, as well as a decreased likelihood of a different ability. The rarity affects how many ability slots a piece of gear has by default and the amount of experience required to unlock those slots.

"Dress your Inkling in sweet gear, complete with bonus abilities that boost your stats."

- Splatoon's official website: Inklings

In Splatoon
The following gear is available in Splatoon:
 * List of Headgear in Splatoon
 * List of Clothing in Splatoon
 * List of Shoes in Splatoon

In Splatoon 2
The following gear is available in Splatoon 2:
 * List of Headgear in Splatoon 2
 * List of Clothing in Splatoon 2
 * List of Shoes in Splatoon 2

Shops
The primary source for gear is in shops. Shops include Booyah Base in Splatoon and the Galleria in Splatoon 2, both of which contain stores for Headgear, Clothing and Shoes. Items purchased from shops will always have their default main ability and number of ability slots, but shops offer the lowest prices on gear items.

Shops sell gear for cash. On any given calendar day, a shop will have a selection of items for sale. The items available will be selected at random from the pool of items that the player is eligible to buy. The items available in the shop cycle out at midnight according to the system clock. The exact items a player is eligible to buy depends on their level.

Items that are already owned cannot be purchased again from shops.

In Splatoon
The following gear shops are found in the Plaza:

In Splatoon 2
The following gear shops are found in Inkopolis Square:

Spyke and Murch
Gear can be ordered through Spyke and Murch. While interacting with other Inklings in the Plaza (Splatoon) or Inkopolis Square (Splatoon 2), players can order gear. After midnight according to the system clock, Spyke or Murch will have the next ordered item available for purchase.

Players can have up to three gear items ordered at a time, but only one order will be fulfilled each calendar day. The first item ordered will be the first order fulfilled. The items offered for purchase by Spyke or Murch may not have the same abilities as the ordered gear item, and the price will be significantly more than the item would cost in its respective shop.

Any gear item with the following brands cannot be ordered:

SplatNet 2
In Splatoon 2, players can use SplatNet 2 to order gear with main abilities not otherwise available for any given item. Gear ordered this way can immediately be purchased through Murch in-game.

Six gear items are available for order at a time. Every two hours, a new gear item is made available and the oldest gear item is removed from the list. Only one gear item can be ordered from SplatNet 2 at a time: ordering a second item will cancel the order for the first one.

7-Eleven Promotional Gear
In 2017, 7-Eleven sold exclusive Splatoon 2 merchandise in Japan through their website. Purchased items were also accompanied by a download code for exclusive in-game gear. 7-Eleven exclusive gear items cannot be ordered through Murch.

The following gear items were available for purchasing any eligible item:

The following gear items were only available for purchasing the game:

In the press release, it was mentioned that these items may eventually become rewards available through My Nintendo.

Abilities
Each piece of gear has a main ability and up to three secondary abilities. Items ordered from SplatNet 2 will always have their main ability be different from the ability that ordinarily appears on that gear item.

The default number of secondary ability slots is determined by the rarity of the gear item: a 1-star item will have one secondary ability slot and so-on for 2- and 3-star. If fewer than three secondary ability slots are present on a gear item, additional slots can be added by Spyke or Murch.

By default, secondary ability slots are locked and have no ability. Through online battles, gear will gain experience and ability slots will be unlocked. The gear item's rarity determines the amount of experience required for each slot.

When a secondary ability slot is unlocked, a random ability is rolled for it. For most gear brands, a specific ability is five times as likely to be rolled while another specific ability is only half as likely to be rolled.



In Splatoon
The following chart shows the amount of experience required to unlock a secondary ability slot on a gear item with a given rarity. Numbers in italics represent ability slots that must be added by Spyke.



!Rarity||Slot 1||Slot 2||Slot 3 !Total
 * rowspan="4" style="width: 8px;"|
 * - style="text-align: right"
 * 1,000||3,000||5,000||9,000
 * - style="text-align: right"
 * 2,000||6,000||10,000||18,000
 * - style="text-align: right"
 * 3,000||9,000||15,000||27,000
 * - style="text-align: right"
 * }

In Splatoon 2
The following chart shows the amount of experience required to unlock a secondary ability slot on a gear item with a given rarity. Numbers in italics represent ability slots that must be added by Murch.



!Rarity||Slot 1||Slot 2||Slot 3 !Total
 * rowspan="4" style="width: 8px;"|
 * - style="text-align: right"
 * 2,000||6,000||10,000||18,000
 * - style="text-align: right"
 * 3,000||7,000||11,000||21,000
 * - style="text-align: right"
 * 4,000||8,000||12,000||24,000
 * - style="text-align: right"
 * }