Thermal Ink
Thermal Ink is a gear primary ability in Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 3. It reveals the location of enemy players on the other side of obstacles as a silhouette.
Mechanics

Thermal Ink reveals the location of players that the user deals damage to with the user's main weapon as a 'direct hit' (meaning that indirect Blaster blasts or indirect hits from a Sloshing Machine or Explosher do not count in this case), for about 16 seconds.
Tagged players are revealed through opaque obstacles via a light-colored silhouette under the following conditions:
- Silhouettes are only visible to the user of the ability.
- Silhouettes are only visible starting from a certain minimum distance away (150 DU in S2).
- Silhouettes are only visible while the tagged player is not submerged in ink.
Splatoon 2
Bomb Defense Up DX increases the minimum distance required to see silhouettes.
Tactics
Thermal Ink tends to be useful with main weapons (especially long range) that tend to hit opponents but not quite splat them, such as the Jet Squelcher or the Bloblobber. Thermal Ink tends to not be useful with main weapons that splat opponents quickly, such as the Sploosh-o-matic.
Gear
Thermal Ink is the primary ability of:
Name | Brand | Availability | Ability | Star power | Added in
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Annaki Drive Tee | ![]() |
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Initial Release (1.0.0) |
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Black V-Neck Tee | ![]() |
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Initial Release (1.0.0) |
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Dakro Golden Tee | ![]() |
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3.0.0 |
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Enchanted Robe | ![]() |
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4.2.0 |
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Friend Tee | ![]() |
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3.0.0 |
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Hightide Era Band Tee | ![]() |
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Initial Release (1.0.0) |
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N-Pacer Sweat | ![]() |
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2.0.0 |
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Old-Timey Clothes | ![]() |
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3.1.0 |
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Pullover Coat | ![]() |
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Initial Release (1.0.0) |
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Silver Tentatek Vest | ![]() |
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3.0.0 |
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Slash King Tank | ![]() |
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Initial Release (1.0.0) |
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Takoroka Galactic Tie Dye | ![]() |
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2.0.0 |
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Takoroka Nylon Vintage | ![]() |
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2.0.0 |
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Tumeric Zekko Coat | ![]() |
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2.0.0 |
Version history
Version | Adjustments |
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1.4.0 |
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3.0.0 |
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4.3.0 |
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Gallery
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Thermal Ink in Shooting range. (link to file)
Splatoon 3
Thermal Ink remains broadly unchanged from Splatoon 2, but does have a new interaction: the opaque parts of the new Splattercolor Screen special count as an obstacle that silhouettes can be seen through.
Gear
Thermal Ink is the primary ability of:
Additionally, Murch or Spyke can replace the primary ability on a piece of clothing with Thermal Ink by using 15 of each of the following ability chunks:
Gallery
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A silhouette as seen through the Splattercolor Screen.
Names in other languages
Language | Name | Meaning |
---|---|---|
サーマルインク Sāmaru Inku |
Thermal Ink | |
Markeerstift | Highlighter | |
Encre thermique | Thermal ink | |
Markierfarbe | Marker paint | |
Inchiostro termico | Thermal Ink | |
Клеймо Kleymo |
Stigma | |
Tinta rastreadora | Tracker ink | |
Señuelo | Decoy | |
热力墨汁 rèlì mòzhī (Mandarin) |
Thermal Ink | |
熱力墨汁 rèlì mòzhī (Mandarin) |
Thermal Ink | |
서멀 잉크 seomeol ingkeu |
Thermal Ink |
See also
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