Splatoon 4 Gear Abilities — What Each Ability Actually Does (Complete Guide)

Gear abilities in Splatoon are a system that looks simple on the surface but has more depth than most players realize. Each piece of gear has one main ability and up to three sub ability slots. Main abilities are unique to the gear brand or rerollable with Super Sea Snails. Sub abilities are random unless you use Ability Chunks to customize them.

Here's the ability point math that the game doesn't explain. Each main ability slot gives you 10 ability points. Each sub slot gives you 3 points. A full build with three main slots and nine sub slots gives you 57 points total (30 from mains, 27 from subs). The game applies diminishing returns after about 10 points in a single ability. The first 10 points give you full effect. Points 11 through 20 give about 60 percent effectiveness. Points 21 through 30 give about 30 percent. Past 30 points, you're in the noise.

What this means practically: stacking more than three subs of any ability is wasteful. The third sub gives you maybe half the benefit of the first sub. You're better off diversifying. A typical competitive build has 1 main of your primary ability (10 points), then 2-3 subs of secondary abilities (6-9 points), then various one-sub fillers for situational convenience.

Let's go through the actually useful abilities. Swim Speed Up increases your swim speed in ink. At 10 points (1 main), the increase is about 10 percent faster swimming. At 20 points, about 16 percent. At 30 points, about 19 percent. The diminishing returns kick hard. One main of Swim Speed Up is valuable for every weapon class. Chargers and Splatlings benefit most because they reposition frequently.

Run Speed Up increases movement speed while firing. This is situational but critical for specific weapons. Splatlings get huge value because they're stationary while charging. At 10 points, you strafe about 15 percent faster while firing. At 20 points, about 24 percent. Heavy Splatling players should run at least one main of Run Speed Up.

Ink Saver (Main) reduces the ink consumed by your main weapon. At 10 points, you save about 15 percent ink. The exact savings depends on the weapon. Shooters benefit moderately. Blasters and Sloshers benefit greatly because they consume large amounts per shot. A Luna Blaster with Ink Saver (Main) gets one extra shot per tank, which is significant in close combat.

Ink Saver (Sub) reduces sub weapon ink cost. Splat Bombs cost 70 percent of your tank by default. One main of Ink Saver (Sub) reduces that to about 55 percent. You can throw a second bomb after a brief recovery. This is essential for weapons that rely on bomb pressure.

Ink Recovery Up increases the rate at which your tank refills while in kid form. At 10 points, recovery time drops from about 100 frames to 85 frames. The benefit is marginal for most weapons but noticeable for weapons that consume large amounts of ink and then need to recover quickly, like the Hydra Splatling.

Special Charge Up increases the rate your special gauge fills. At 10 points, you charge about 12 percent faster. The actual formula is complex because specials charge from inking turf and splats. A good rule: if your weapon's special is match-defining (Tenta Missiles, Booyah Bomb), run Special Charge Up. If your special is situational, skip it.

Special Saver reduces the amount of special gauge lost when you're splatted. Without any, you lose about 40 percent of your gauge. At 10 points, you lose about 25 percent. At 20 points, about 15 percent. This ability is popular in competitive because dying and losing special progress is the biggest momentum killer.

Quick Respawn halves your respawn time when you're splatted without trading. The condition matters. If the enemy who splatted you also gets splatted within a few seconds, Quick Respawn doesn't activate. This makes it a comeback ability, useful when your team is losing fights.

Quick Super Jump cuts super jump time. At 10 points, jump time drops from about 60 frames to 45 frames. At 20 points, about 35 frames. Quick Super Jump is essential for Tower Control where you need to get back to the tower fast after respawning.

Ninja Squid hides your swimming ripples but slows swim speed by about 10 percent. The ripples are the most visible signal for lurking players. Ninja Squid is enormous for Rollers, Splatanas, and Brushes because these weapons rely on ambush. The speed penalty can be offset with Swim Speed Up subs.

Comeback is a headgear-only ability that gives you a buff after respawning. For 20 seconds you get boosted Ink Saver (Main), Ink Saver (Sub), Ink Recovery Up, Swim Speed Up, Special Charge Up, and Run Speed Up. The boost is roughly worth one main of each ability. Comeback is one of the strongest abilities in the game because it activates every time you respawn, which in an aggressive playstyle happens frequently.

The abilities I don't recommend: Bomb Defense Up DX is situational at best. It reduces damage from enemy bombs but the effect is small. Thermal Ink marks enemies you've damaged through walls, useful only for specific coordinated play. Haunt marks the enemy who splatted you if you don't retaliate, gimmicky. Respawn Punisher penalizes the enemy who splats you at the cost of penalizing you more if you're splatted. Not worth it for most players. Stealth Jump hides your super jump marker from nearby enemies but slows the jump. Useful in coordinated play.