Gear ability

Gear Abilities, or simply Abilities, are special attributes that are placed on wearable Gear in Splatoon. They provide different effects depending on the ability present and their strength is based around the number of copies if they are stackable. Each piece of gear has a specific main ability which is the same in all possessed. Certain abilities, due to how their effects work, such as Tenacity or Cold-Blooded, are only present on a specific type of gear and cannot be rolled as secondaries. All gear has slots for secondary abilities, which are weaker versions of stackable abilities.

Secondary abilities are randomly chosen whenever a gear levels up, which happens when its bar is filled through battling; the points earned in the match go towards leveling it up. Secondaries give close to half the boost of a primary ability. Higher rarity pieces of gear take longer to level up, even on the first secondary abilities. The amount of secondaries that can be present on a single piece of gear depends on the rarity (amount of stars) of the gear. The more stars there are, the more secondary abilities it comes with. Up to three secondary abilities can be present, meaning that the highest rarity is 3 stars. Although seemingly random, some Brands make getting specific abilities either more common or less common. Spyke, who can be found in an alleyway in Inkopolis, will re-roll secondary abilities or increase the gear's slots in exchange for Super Sea Snails or 30,000 Cash.

To prevent players from gaining over-powerful stats, stacked gear has diminishing returns applied to it. If the player stacks two abilities, the effect of one of the two gets decreased by half its original value. If three are stacked, two of the the abilities get their value decreased by half.

Some abilities are ineffective with certain Sub Weapons and Special Weapons, offering no noteworthy buffs to them. Examples include Ink Mines and Splash Walls, neither of which are affected by Bomb Range Up, and Inkstrikes, which is not enhanced by Special Duration Up.

Mutual exclusivity
Since some abilities are found as the main ability only on shoes, clothing, or headgear, other abilities found only on shoes, clothing or headgear are mutually exclusive with them; in other words you cannot have them together. For shoes these abilities are: Bomb Sniffer, Ink Resistance Up, and Stealth Jump. For headgear these abilities are: Tenacity, Last-Ditch Effort, Opening Gambit, and Comeback. For clothing these abilities are: Cold-Blooded, Recon, Haunt, and Ninja Squid. In addition, since wearing the Splatfest Tee is mandatory during a Splatfest, these abilities cannot be used for the duration of those events.