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.

Notes

Judd's Advice

Meow! (Each piece of gear has a main ability and some unlockable abilities. The diffurence in purrformance can be pawsitively huge! When choosing your gear, consider the main ability first... and then take any additional abilities into account. Peace meowt!)

List of Abilities

Icon	Ability	Buff	Main 1 (2, 3)	Sub 1 (2, 3)
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Bomb Range Up.png	Bomb Range Up	Makes Bombs, Point Sensors, and Disruptors travel farther when thrown.		style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Bomb Sniffer.png	Bomb Sniffer	Ink Mines and Bombs within a certain distance appear as skull icons on your screen.		style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|N/A
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Cold Blooded.png	Cold Blooded	Decreases the effect of position-tracking attacks substantially.	-75% duration	style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|N/A
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Comeback.png	Comeback	Increases Ink Saver, Ink Recovery, Run Speed, and Swim Speed for 20 seconds after respawning.		style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|N/A
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Damage Up.png	Damage Up	Increases damage of your main, sub, and special weapons by up to 30%.		style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Defense Up.png	Defense Up	Decreases damage taken from all attacks by up to 20%.		style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Haunt.png	Haunt	Marks the opponent that defeated you for 12 seconds on your and teammates' maps.	12 sec.	style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|N/A
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Ink Recovery Up.png	Ink Recovery Up	Increases your Ink Tank's refill rate by up to 40% while in squid form.	~15% (~7.5%)	style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|~7.5% (~3.75%)
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Ink Resistance Up.png	Ink Resistance Up	Decreases damage, speed and jump penalties when standing in enemy ink.	~20%	style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|N/A
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Ink Saver (Main).png	Ink Saver (Main)	Decreases ink usage of your main weapon up to 60% of its normal usage.	~12%	style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|~6%
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Ink Saver (Sub).png	Ink Saver (Sub)	Decreases ink usage of your sub weapon up to 75% of its normal usage.		style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Last-Ditch Effort.png	Last-Ditch Effort	Increases ink recovery rate and weapon ink efficiency for the last 30 seconds of battle.		style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|N/A
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Ninja Squid.png	Ninja Squid	Leaves no trace while swimming on horizontal surfaces and ramps.	-5% Swim Speed	style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|N/A
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Opening Gambit.png	Opening Gambit	Increases run speed and swim speed for the first 30 seconds of the match.		style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|N/A
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Quick Respawn.png	Quick Respawn	Decreases the respawn delay by up to 66%.		style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Quick Super Jump.png	Quick Super Jump	Increases Super Jump speed by up to double.		style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Recon.png	Recon	See the opposing team on the GamePad's map while standing on your spawn point.		style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|N/A
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Run Speed Up.png	Run Speed Up	Increases movement speed in Inkling form by up to 50%.	15% (7.5%)	style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"| 7.5% (3.75%)
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Special Charge Up.png	Special Charge Up	Increases the rate at which the Special Gauge fills by up to 30%.	6.6%	style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|2.2%
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Special Duration Up.png	Special Duration Up	Increases the duration of Special Weapons.		style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Special Saver.png	Special Saver	Decreases Special Gauge loss after death by up to 100%.	12.5%	style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|6.25%
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Stealth Jump.png	Stealth Jump	Hides the Super Jump point indicator.	Increases Jump Time	style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|N/A
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Swim Speed Up.png	Swim Speed Up	Increases movement speed while swimming in squid form by up to 25%.	10% (5%)	style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"| 5% (2.5%)
style="background:#ffffff; width:50px; height:50px; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyleft"| File:Ability Tenacity.png	Tenacity	Special Gauge automatically fills any time your team has fewer active players than the enemy team.		style="background:#ffffff; border-top: 4px solid #a9de00; Template:Roundyright"|N/A

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 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.
For headgear these abilities are: tenacity, Last-Ditch Effort, Opening Gambit, and comeback.

Names in other languages

This article or section is incomplete or is missing information.

You can help the wiki by filling in the blanks.