Special weapon

A variety of special weapons from the original Splatoon.

“	Lay down enough ink and your special meter will fill up. Then you can use one of these (like the Inkzooka) to do major damage.	”
— Splatoon's official website, ^[1]

The special weapon is a powerful type of weapon in Splatoon and Splatoon 2. There are several different kinds of special weapons, but they can all turn the tide of a battle when in the right hands.

Description

Along with the main weapon and sub weapon, every set of weapons comes with a special weapon. These weapons are designed to be very powerful and table-turning, and may only be utilized for a short time once players have filled their special gauge.

When a player has a special weapon ready, it creates a unique effect: they will give off sparks, the tentacles on their head will become very brightly colored and glowing, bubbles will form at the top of their head as if from boiling water, and they will appear to be caught in a strong wind even when completely still.

Activating a special weapon makes the player's Inkling do a frontflip and completely refills the Ink Tank.

Usage

Special weapons are available by filling the special gauge by inking the ground in matchmaking modes, obtaining a canned special in the Battle Dojo and singleplayer modes such as Octo Valley, starting a Salmon Run session where players have access to two specials, or starting specific missions in Octo Expansion where the special is obtained via the Equipper. Once a special weapon is ready, clicking will activate it. Different special weapons need different amounts of turf inked to fully charge, for balancing purposes; for instance, the Inkzooka requires 220 points to charge as of version 2.0.0, whereas the Killer Wail requires only 160.^[2]

The rate at which the special gauge depletes after being activated depends on which particular Special Weapon is in use. If the player is splatted before the gauge is completely depleted, they will respawn with a portion of the remaining gauge filled (how much depends upon the special depletion class of the main weapon; see special depletion below). This can be increased by equipping gear with Special Saver.

List of special weapons

Weapon	Description	Games
Weapon	Description
Bomb Rush	The Bomb Rush allows the player to use their sub weapon repeatedly, with no ink restriction.	Template:Ya
Bubbler	The Bubbler is a spherical force field that protects the user from all damage. It can be spread to teammates.	Template:Ya
Echolocator	The Echolocator reveals the locations of all enemies for teammates to see on the field and on the map.	Template:Ya
Inkstrike	The Inkstrike causes a large, swirling vortex of ink to appear where the user fires it.	Template:Ya
Inkzooka	The Inkzooka shoots tall, narrow twisters of ink in rapid succession, allowing its user to quickly splat enemies at long-range.	Template:Ya
Killer Wail	The Killer Wail blasts a large sound wave in a the desired direction that obliterates all enemies in its path and travels through walls.	Template:Ya
Kraken	Upon activation of this special, the user transforms into the large, invincible Kraken. The user can travel quickly through enemy ink and splat opponents instantly with its melee attack.	Template:Ya
Tenta Missiles	When activated, the Tenta Missiles first allows users to lock on to opponents. After pressing the trigger, the weapon will a minimum of ten missiles and a maximum of twenty missiles dispersed among the locked on targets.		Template:Ya
Sting Ray	The Sting Ray fires a continuous laser that can go through walls. When not firing, users can see the silhouettes of any opponents that are not hiding in ink. Mobility is impaired while activated.		Template:Ya
Inkjet	The Inkjet gives its user the ability to hover in the air and shoot powerful blaster-like projectiles. Once it expires, the user automatically Super Jumps back to where they first activated it.		Template:Ya
Splashdown	The Splashdown causes its user to jump up and strike the ground with heavy force, causing an ink explosion around them. Its effectiveness increases when activated from great heights, including activation while Super Jumping.		Template:Ya
Ink Armor	Activating Ink Armor protects the user and all teammates from one or two attacks, depending on the strength of the attack.		Template:Ya
Bomb Launcher	The Bomb Launcher allows the player to throw a pre-selected bomb repeatedly, with no ink restriction. The distance that bombs are thrown is adjustable by holding the trigger.		Template:Ya
Ink Storm	When thrown, the Ink Storm creates a rain cloud of ink. The rain cloud gradually drifts above the map, inking the ground and damaging any enemies beneath it.		Template:Ya
Baller	A protective sphere that allows the player to advance safely. It explodes in a blast of ink that is lethal to opponents when a timer expires or when the user triggers it.		Template:Ya
Bubble Blower	The Bubble Blower creates up to three bubbles. The bubbles will block large areas to opponents, and will explode in a deadly blast of ink if fired at.		Template:Ya
Booyah Bomb	When activated, the user holds up a glowing ball of ink that charges up over time and can be thrown to make an ink explosion, which is made larger by charging up more. The user and their teammates can use the "Booyah!" signal to charge up the special faster.		Template:Ya
Ultra Stamp	The Ultra Stamp is a large hammer which can be slammed repeatedly while advancing forwards - and also has a jump attack. The weapon can also be thrown as a final attack.		Template:Ya

Abilities

Abilities on a player's gear can affect special weapons. The following abilities have effects that directly affect the performance of special weapons.

Ability	Effect	Games
Ability	Effect
Special Duration Up	Improves the duration of special weapons.	Template:Ya
Special Power Up	Improves the performance of special weapons.		Template:Ya

Trivia

Special weapons were originally called "Super Weapons." ^[3]
The in-universe reason that no Splatoon special weapons return in Splatoon 2 is attributed to new regulations as revealed on a Sunken Scroll, where protest signs are also shown.
During both fights with Agent 3 in Octo Expansion, Agent 3 is able to use different special weapons despite only using one main weapon, and is even able to use them consecutively. This is explained by Marina in the Spinal Phase fight, saying that Agent 3 had removed their limiter, which implies that Inklings (and Octolings) can normally use many specials and have to put on something that restricts this ability.