Splatoon 3 Everything You Need to Know About Abilities: Rerolling, Ability Chunks and More

Splatoon 3 is a game full of ways to customize the way your Squid-kid (or Octo-kid) plays during battle. This can range from how fresh and stylish they look on the field to the weapon they use. One of the most important areas of customization is to do with abilities.

Abilities are skills that can be found on various types of gear throughout the Splatlands. These give unique bonuses to players based on certain effects and conditions, and they can even stack to provide bigger boosts. Knowing what abilities compliment your build and the weapon you wield is important to stay ahead in online play.

As if knowing how to craft the perfect piece of gear. Splatoon 3 has a bunch of methods of turning your favourite threads into powerful pieces of gear that can turn the tables in Anarchy Battles. 

Here’s everything you need to know about abilities in Splatoon 3.

Want more Splatoon content and articles? You can find more here on KeenGamer:

1. Splatoon 3: How to Get More Conch Shells and All Shell-Out Machine Rewards
2. Splatoon 3 Breaks Japanese Sales Records, Beating Out Animal Crossing and Pokémon
3. All Basic Weapons from the Previous Games Return in Splatoon 3

What are Abilities? 

As previously outlined, abilities in Splatoon 3 are special buffs and bonuses that grant unique effects to your Inkling or Octoling. These benefits come from the gear and clothes you’re wearing and each piece of gear will likely have vastly different bonuses.

These abilities come in one of two types: Main Abilities and Sub Abilities. 

Main Abilities are the very first perk on an item. They are in the bigger circle and proudly display their name next to them. If an ability is on gear as a Main Ability, it should provide a bigger bonus than if it was a Sub Ability. Additionally, there are several abilities which are exclusive to the Main Ability slot and cannot be found elsewhere – these abilities are also gear specific. 

Sub Abilities can be found in the bubbles below the Main Ability. Depending on the Star Power of your piece, you can have up to 3 Sub Abilities on a piece. These provide lesser bonuses than the Main Abilities but they are still very useful and are the easiest way of stacking highly desired abilities. 

So what abilities can you get in Splatoon 3? 

Deep Dive

All Abilities in Splatoon 3

Splatoon 3 has a few brand-new abilities and a few returning ones, too. One thing to note about abilities is that some of them are exclusive to certain pieces of gear.

What this means is that if they are found under the Hat Only, Clothing Only or Shoes Only category, they can only be found as a Main Ability on those pieces. You will not find a Hat Only Main Ability on a set of Shoes, for example. These abilities do not stack and are usually far more directly potent than other abilities in the game.

Aside from these exceptions, any ability can either be a Main Ability or a Sub Ability. 

All Abilities Available

Here is every ability available in Splatoon 3:

• Ink Saver (Main): Decreases the amount of ink consumed by your main weapon.
• Ink Saver (Sub): Decreases the amount of ink consumed by your sub-weapon.
• Ink Recovery Up: Increases ink-tank refill rate.
• Run Speed Up: Increases movement speed in Inkling or Octoling form.
• Swim Speed Up: Increases movement speed in swim form.
• Special Charge Up: Increases special-gauge fill rate.
• Special Saver: Reduces special-gauge decrease after getting splatted.
• Special Power Up: Upgrades your special weapon.
• Quick Respawn: Reduces respawn time after getting splatted repeatedly without splatting any opponents. 
• Quick Super Jump: Increases Super Jump speed.
• Sub Power Up: Upgrades your sub weapon.
• Ink Resistance Up: Reduces damage taken and improves mobility when walking through enemy ink. 
• Sub Resistance Up: Reduces effects and damage from sub weapons.
• Intensify Action: Makes Squid Rolls and Squid Surges easier to do and steadies your aim when firing after jumping.

These abilities can all be found on any piece of gear as either a Main Ability or a Sub Ability.

Ability Showcase

Hat Only

The following abilities can only be found on Hats as Main Abilities. 

• Opening Gambit: Boosts your speed while moving for the first 30 seconds of battle.
• Last Ditch Effort: Boosts ink-recovery rate and weapon-ink efficiency for the last 30 seconds of battle.
• Tenacity: Fills special gauge automatically if your team has fewer active players than the team.
• Comeback: Boosts some of your abilities for a time after respawning. 

Clothing Only

The following abilities can only be found on Clothing items as Main Abilities.

• Ninja Squid: Leaves no trace when swimming in inked ground by slightly reduces swim speed.
• Haunt: Once you’ve respawned, reveals the positions of the players who splatted you. 
• Thermal Ink: Allows you to track distant players hit with shots from your main weapon.
• Respawn Punisher: Increases respawn time and special-gauge spawn penalty for you and any player you splat.

Shoes Only

The following abilities can only be found on Shoes as Main Abilities.

• Stealth Jump: Hides your Super Jump landing point from distant players.
• Object Shredder: Increases damage dealt to all nonplayer targets.
• Drop Roller: Tilting the Left Stick during a Super Jump lets you perform a roll in that direction when landing.

Gear Specific Abilities

Ways to Get New Abilities

Now that you know what you may want on your gear, how do you get it? All pieces of gear come natively with a random Main Ability and number of open, empty Sub Ability slots depending on that items Star Power. 

Aside from that, however, how do you get the abilities you want? And how do you replace Main Abilities?

Get Them Randomly

The main way to get new abilities is to just get them randomly. This can be done by completing online matches with the desired piece equipped.

You cannot change the Main Ability this way, unfortunately, as that is locked upon purchase or acquisition of the item. However, if you have open Sub Ability slots (denoted by a quest mark {?} symbol), you can get a random ability slotted in. 

When completing a match in online mode you will see a number and a bar below each of your gear pieces. When this bar fills, it will randomly select a new ability to slot into any open Sub Ability slot on that piece. If there are no slots open, then nothing happens. 

You can boost the chances of getting a certain ability by using vouchers from the Shell-Out machine. These increases the odds of getting a certain ability when your gear levels up.

While this is the most straightforward approach and the easiest to understand, it also comes with the most risk. When rolling a new stat, you are competing with every other one at the same time. The chances of getting Ink Saver (Main) are 1:13 and so you will often be disappointed with what you get. Maybe you’ll get lucky, though, and get exactly what you want.

Murch

Trade-Ins and Star Power

How about Main Abilities then? How do you get new Main Abilities on an item you like?

Currently, the only way outside of Ability Chunks to do this is through trade-ins with the respective vendors. Once you have purchased an item, the vendor in question can still bring that item back in stock. You cannot repurchase it but you do have 2 other options: Trade it in or Increase its Star Power.

If the item that the vendor is selling has a different Main Ability to your piece, you are free to trade it in and receive the new Main Ability instead. For example, if my Air Gills DX has Tenacity as the Main Ability and Gnarly Edd sells that same item but with Ink Saver (Sub) as the Main Ability, I can trade in my one for his. This costs a small amount of gold.

Trade In

The other option is raising the Star Power. This option will boost the Star Power of the item in question – taking the Air Gills DX again, if it begins at only 1 Star Power, it can only have 2 Sub Abilities. By raising its Star Power to 2, I unlock the final Sub Ability on that piece. Any Star Power past 2 will give you an increase to EXP gains on that item specifically. 

It should be noted that Murch also has a way to increase Star Power but that requires an item called a Super Sea Snail. The only way to get these is during a Splatfest, where your Clout and score determine how many you will receive when the results come in.

While this method is effective and a good way to get better Main Abilities, it is also heavily reliant on luck. If you are unlucky, the vendors may not sell what you are looking for (and perhaps they never will). There is always the chance but with this, you’re not only betting against the odds of getting the ability you want but also that it will be on the item you already have. Risky business.

Splatfest Celebration

Scrubbing

If you don’t get the abilities that you want randomly but want to keep the piece because it looks cool or you like it, you’re still in luck. There are 3 options to help streamline the process of getting better abilities that you want. These are Scrubbing, Ability Chunks and Rerolling. Each do things better than the other so choose wisely. 

The first is called Scrubbing. This is an option offered by Murch who you can find to the right of the Online Lobby entrance in the Square.

When you Scrub an item, you will get rid of all of the currently slotted Sub Abilities on said item. It will clean them out and make them empty again, able to obtain new abilities through levelling up in online matches. The cost of this method will change from item to item but it is generally pretty costly. 

While this isn’t a direct method of getting what you want, it is relatively simple and allows you to keep trying for that perfect roll. Unfortunately, you cannot Scrub just one ability – if you go through with it, every Sub Ability goes, so be careful.

Scrubbing

Ability Chunks

If you want to sidestep the RNG aspect of the game, there is a way. This is through a system called Ability Chunks.

Chunks are an item which contains the essence of a certain ability. For all of the standard, non-gear-specific abilities, there is a corresponding Chunk. You can get these Chunks in a few ways:

• Get lucky on the Shell-Out Machine (you can find the exact odds of getting Chunks here).
• Scrub a piece of gear and you will receive Chunks for the Sub Abilities you remove.

By bringing enough of these Chunks to Murch, he can slot a specific ability onto your gear. If you want to slot a new Main Ability, you’ll need to bring him 45 Ability Chunks of the ability you want. If you want a new Sub Ability, he either needs 10, 20 or 30 Chunks, depending on how many of that same ability you already have on the item.

You cannot get Ability Chunks of the gear-specific abilities such as Respawn Punisher or Tenacity. To get these abilities, you will need to combine other sets of Chunks to make that new Main Ability. For example, Main Ability Ninja Squid requires 15 Ink Recovery Up, 15 Swim Speed Up and 15 Run Speed Up Chunks to be slotted. This differs from ability to ability so if you want one of these gear-specific abilities, check it out at Murch first.

Ability Chunks

Rerolling

The final major way to have any control over your abilities is through Rerolling. This is another system and service offered by Murch. 

You will need to bring him one Super Sea Snail for him to reroll anything. When you give him a Super Sea Snail, he should reroll any Sub Ability on the piece you request, giving you new ones without having to Scrub and level them up. This saves time but is also just as random as many of the other options in Splatoon 3 so be sure you’re okay with doing abilities like this before committing. 

That is everything you need to know about abilities in Splatoon 3.