Gear ability

Gear abilities, or simply abilities, are special attributes that are placed on wearable gear in Splatoon and Splatoon 2. 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 Splatoon, it cannot be changed; in Splatoon 2, 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:

Game	Headgear	Clothing	Shoes
File:Splatoonlogo.png	Comeback Last-Ditch Effort Opening Gambit Tenacity	Cold Blooded Haunt Ninja Squid Recon (ability)	Bomb Sniffer Ink Resistance Up Stealth Jump
	Comeback Last-Ditch Effort Opening Gambit Tenacity	Ability Doubler Haunt Ninja Squid Respawn Punisher Thermal Ink	Drop Roller Object Shredder Stealth Jump

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 Splatoon, there are 13 possible secondary abilities; in Splatoon 2, 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.

Probability of rolling multiple abilities of the same kind in a row in Splatoon

Amount in a row	Favoring brand			Non-favoring brand
	Favored ability	Unfavored ability	Neutral ability	Any ability
1	30.303…%	3.030…%	6.060…%	7.692…%
2	9.182…%	0.091…%	0.367…%	0.591…%
3	2.782…%	0.002…%	0.022…%	0.045…%

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%.

Probability of rolling multiple abilities of the same kind in a row in Splatoon 2

Favoring brand
Amount in a row	Favored ability	Unfavored ability	Neutral ability
No drink ticket
1	28.571…%	2.857…%	5.714…%
2	8.163…%	0.0816…%	0.326…%
3	2.332…%	0.00233…%	0.0186…%
With drink ticket (favored ability)
1	30%	2.8%	5.6%
2	9%	0.0784%	0.3136%
3	2.7%	0.00219…%	0.0175…%
With drink ticket (unfavored ability)
1	20.588…%	30%	4.117…%
2	4.238…%	9%	0.169…%
3	0.872…%	2.7%	0.00698…%
With drink ticket (neutral ability)
1	21.212…%	2.121…%	30%
2	4.499…%	0.0449…%	9%
3	0.954…%	0.000954…%	2.7%
Non-favoring brand
Amount in a row	No drink ticket	Matching drink ticket	Mismatched drink ticket
1	7.142…%	30%	5.384…%
2	0.510…%	9%	0.289…%
3	0.0364…%	2.7%	0.0156…%

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

  Splatoon

• 

  Splatoon 2

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  30,000 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.

List of abilities

Name	Description	Gear	Favored by	Unfavored by
Bomb Range Up	Makes thrown sub weapons travel farther.	Any
Bomb Sniffer	Enemy sub weapons appear on-screen as skull icons and non-lethal damage from them is reduced.	Shoes
Cold Blooded	Shortens the duration of position trackers.	Clothing
Comeback	Improves ink usage and recovery, swim and run speed, and special weapon charge rate for 20 seconds after respawning.	Headgear
Damage Up	Increases damage dealt with all weapons.	Any	SquidForce	Inkline
Defense Up	Decreases damage taken from all attacks.	Any	Inkline	Krak-On
Haunt	Tracks the enemy that splats the user and increases damage, defense, and run speed when the user themselves is tracked.	Clothing
Ink Recovery Up	Increases ink tank refill rate while in squid form.	Any	Tentatek	Firefin
Ink Resistance Up	Decreases damage, speed, and jump penalties when standing in enemy ink.	Shoes
Ink Saver (Main)	Decreases main weapon ink usage.	Any	Splash Mob	SquidForce
Ink Saver (Sub)	Decreases sub weapon ink usage.	Any	Firefin	Forge
Last-Ditch Effort	Improves ink usage and recovery as well as respawn time towards the end of a battle.	Headgear
Ninja Squid	The user is less visible while swimming, but reduces swim speed.	Clothing
Opening Gambit	Increases swim and run speed for the first 30 seconds of a battle.	Headgear
Quick Respawn	Decreases respawn delay.	Any	Skalop	Zink
Quick Super Jump	Increases Super Jump speed.	Any	Zink	Tentatek
Recon (ability)	Opponents and their weapons are seen on while at the spawn point.	Clothing
Run Speed Up	Increases movement speed in humanoid form.	Any	Rockenberg	Splash Mob
Special Charge Up	Increases the rate at which the special gauge fills.	Any	Takoroka	Zekko
Special Duration Up	Increases the duration of special weapons and gives the Inkstrike and Killer Wail shorter cooldown times.	Any	Forge	Takoroka
Special Saver	Mitigates special gauge loss after being splatted.	Any	Zekko	Skalop
Stealth Jump	Hides the Super Jump landing marker, but decreases the speed of the jump.	Shoes
Swim Speed Up	Increases movement speed while swimming in squid form.	Any	Krak-On	Rockenberg
Tenacity	Slowly fills the user's special gauge when their team has fewer active players than the opposing team.	Headgear

Splatoon 2

Murch, who can be found in Inkopolis Square, has multiple services that can affect a gear item's secondary abilities:

Service	Effect	Cost
Increase Slots	Adds another slot to a or item.	1
Reroll	Reroll happens only if all 3 slots exist on the item. It rerolls all the filled slots on a piece of gear and provides one ability chunk for each removed ability.	1
Scrub Slots	Resets all the gear slots to and provides one ability chunk for each removed ability.	Default	20,000
			2,000
Use Ability Chunks	Places a specific ability in a specific slot. If an occupied slot is overwritten, one ability chunk of the overwritten ability will be provided. The number of secondery abilities already on the gear that match the ability chunk's ability is used to determine the cost.	Slots Filled	Cost
		0	10
		1	20
		2	30

List of abilities

Name	Description	Gear	Favored by	Unfavored by
Ability Doubler	Doubles the effect of other abilities attached to the gear piece.	Clothing
Bomb Defense Up DX	Reduces damage taken from sub weapons and special weapons, and shortens the duration of position trackers.	Any	Inkline	Krak-On
Comeback	Improves ink usage and recovery, swim and run speed, and special weapon charge rate for 20 seconds after respawning.	Headgear
Drop Roller	Tilting during a Super Jump allows the player to perform a directional roll upon landing.	Shoes
Haunt	Tracks the enemy that splats the user with thermal ink.	Clothing
Ink Recovery Up	Increases ink tank refill rate.	Any	Tentatek	Firefin
Ink Resistance Up	Decreases damage, speed, and jump penalties when standing in enemy ink.	Any	SquidForce	Enperry
Ink Saver (Main)	Decreases main weapon ink usage.	Any	Splash Mob	SquidForce
Ink Saver (Sub)	Decreases sub weapon ink usage.	Any	Firefin	Forge
Last-Ditch Effort	Improves ink usage and recovery towards the end of a battle.	Headgear
Main Power Up	Raises performance of main weapons.	Any	Annaki Toni Kensa	Inkline
Ninja Squid	The user is less visible while swimming, but has reduced swim speed.	Clothing
Object Shredder	Increases damage dealt to non-player targets.	Shoes
Opening Gambit	Increases ink resistance, swim and run speed for the first 30 seconds of a battle.	Headgear
Quick Respawn	Decreases respawn delay if splatted repeatedly without splatting an opponent.	Any	Skalop	Zink
Quick Super Jump	Increases Super Jump speed.	Any	Zink	Tentatek
Respawn Punisher	Increases respawn time and special gauge spawn penalty for the player and any enemy they splat.	Clothing
Run Speed Up	Increases movement speed in humanoid form.	Any	Rockenberg	Splash Mob
Special Charge Up	Increases the rate at which the special gauge fills.	Any	Takoroka	Zekko
Special Power Up	Raises performance of special weapons.	Any	Forge	Takoroka
Special Saver	Mitigates special gauge loss after being splatted.	Any	Zekko	Annaki Skalop
Stealth Jump	Hides the Super Jump landing marker from a certain distance away.	Shoes
Sub Power Up	Increases performance of sub weapons.	Any	Enperry	Toni Kensa
Swim Speed Up	Increases movement speed while swimming in squid/octo form.	Any	Krak-On	Rockenberg
Tenacity	Slowly fills the user's special gauge when their team has fewer active players than the opposing team.	Headgear
Thermal Ink	Allows the player to track distant players hit with shots from their main weapon.	Clothing

Retired abilities

The following abilities were once present in the game but were later removed/replaced:

Name	Version Removed On	Description	Gear	Favored by	Unfavored by
Bomb Defense Up	4.3.0	Reduces damage taken by sub weapons and special weapons.	Any	Inkline	Krak-On
Cold-Blooded	4.3.0	Shortens the duration of position trackers.	Any	Annaki Toni Kensa	Inkline

Version 4.3.0

In Version 4.3.0, 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:
  • Fringed Loafers
  • Gray FA-11 Bomber
  • Pearlescent Crown

Gallery

• Diagram of abilities and brands in Splatoon, which brand favors and not favors each ability.

  Diagram of abilities and brands in Splatoon, which brand favors and not favors each ability.

• Promo image of the abilities in Splatoon 2.

  Promo image of the abilities in Splatoon 2.

Names in other languages

Ability	Primary ability	Secondary ability
Template:Foreignname	Template:Foreignname	Template:Foreignname

External links

• Splatoon ability calculator
• Splatoon 2 ability calculator
• Splatoon 2 ability effect tool
• Splatoon 2 popular abilities and gear loadouts. Data is pulled from stat.ink, which generates data from a small sample of the Splatoon 2 player base.
• Splatoon 2 gear loadouts and ability effect caculator. Anyone can submit loadouts. The loadout featuring the top 500 crown appear first, then the premiere league players' builds, then the rest. The most recent saved appears around the top within each group.