In Splatoon 3, the one thing just as important as your skill with an ink weapon is how fresh your threads are. What determines that freshness, though? Is it how well you coordinate your outfit and look? You'd think, but no. Freshness is determined by the abilities bestowed by each piece of gear. How do these seemingly ordinary threads make you better at shooting ink at each other? No idea! Something to do with Super Sea Snails, probably.
The "how" of it is immaterial; the important part is the "what." Specifically, what abilities are the absolute best to pursue for your gear, whether you just level them up on your own or guzzle drinks from the Crab-n-Go to tilt the odds in your favor? If you absolutely have to have any abilities on your gear (and you do), make it these.
10 Intensify Action - Take To The Skies!
A new ability introduced in Splatoon 3, Intensify Action provides you with two benefits. Firstly, it makes the new movement skills, Squid Surge and Squid Roll, easier to perform. These tricks can be quite helpful in the heat of battle if you know how to use them right, but a little extra ease of access certainly never hurt.
In addition to that, though, Intensify Action also helps to steady your aim while you're in the air. Anyone who's been in a Turf War knows that a lot of jumping around goes on in those things, especially if you're sneak-attacking squids from on high. It's pretty embarrassing to botch a sneak attack just because your aim was off, so get Intensify Action to spare yourself the grief.
9 Quick Respawn - Back To Action
Whether in Splatoon 3 or any other shooter game, there are few things as irritating as getting splatted over and over with nothing to show for it. You get maybe ten seconds of action in before someone turns you into an inky stain on the pavement, and then you need to sit and wait to respawn.
With Quick Respawn, that frustration becomes your advantage, cutting down your respawn timer if you get splatted without splatting any opponents. This way, you can get back into the fray much faster, getting your revenge on the squid that messed with you if you're lucky. And if you're not, well, your respawn is still shorter, so just try again!
8 Run Speed Up - Run, Forrest, Run!
Inklings and Octolings both have pretty short legs. It makes sense, given that they're, y'know, children, but we're trying to play a fast-paced combat sport here! There's no room for short legs and short strides, especially when all the action is going down on the other side of the stage.
Run Speed Up solves this problem, at least to an extent, boosting your running speed while in humanoid form. Besides cutting down on travel time, you also move faster in the heat of combat, whether you're chasing down foes or running your butt away from them.
7 Ninja Squid - The Predator Hunts Its Prey
Inklings and Octolings create ripples in their ink as they swim through it in their squid/octopus forms. As cool as it looks to rooster tail ink behind you as you propel through it, the spectacle isn't exactly conducive to sneak attacks. Enter Ninja Squid, and its presence-masking powers.
This ability hides the ripples that are produced when you swim through your own ink. It does lower your swimming speed a bit, but on the bright side, you can take it as an opportunity to talk like a British nature documentary narrator. "The elusive Inkling stalks its prey under cover of ink..."
6 Stealth Jump - Less Jump-Camping, Less Pain
Here's a scientific fact for you: whenever an Inkling sees a Super Jump signal from an opponent, they will always, invariably, run right up and wait for them to land, so they can splat them. It's a fact, look it up. Super Jump campers are a big annoyance, making it dangerous for you to join your allies on the field, but with Stealth Jump, you can make it a little harder for them.
Stealth Jump automatically hides your Super Jump signal from opponents if they're far enough away from it. This way, you won't get a bunch of smart alecks running right at you whenever you try to Super Jump. They can still see it if they're close enough, but at that point, it's kind of on you for Super Jumping into the middle of a firefight.
5 Ink Saver (Sub) - You Cost How Much Ink?
Sub weapons can be a vital tool on the inky battlefield, whether they be used to deny and control areas, mark targets, or just splat fools. However, the majority of sub weapons eat up a mildly absurd amount of ink from your tank. If you don't have enough to use them, you need to sit around in your ink until you do, and if you do, they barely leave any leftover for your main weapon.
With Ink Saver (Sub), your sub weapons will consume a bit less of your tank, both making it easier to deploy them in the first place and leaving you with a few shots in the clip for your main weapon. Some sub weapons can even be used consecutively if you have this ability, though you'll be really low on ink afterward.
4 Swim Speed Up - Swim, Forrest, Swim!
While an Inkling's humanoid legs are necessary while jogging or shooting, every other moment, they'd do well to be in their swimming form. After all, while you're swimming around as a squid, you move faster, can climb up inked walls, and are a smaller target.
To give you a little extra incentive to be a squid, Swim Speed Up increases the speed at which you swim through your own ink. This is vital for quick escapes and repositioning, as well as returning to the battlefield when there's no one around to Super Jump to.
3 Ink Resistance Up - Eugh, It's On My Shoes...
The precise means by which Inklings and Octolings are splatted by each other's ink are as mysterious as abilities, but it certainly doesn't look like a pleasant experience. No one likes to get reduced to a slimy puddle, clothes and accessories left strewn across the ground. Increase the time before you get splatted with Ink Resistance Up.
This ability provides the dual benefits of increased resistance to direct ink attacks and lessened movement penalties when walking through enemy ink. The less time you have to spend wading through sticky substances, the better. Just remember to wipe your shoes when you get home.
2 Ink Recovery Up - Fill It To The Brim
In the heat of an ink shot exchange, the few moments it takes to refill an empty ink tank can feel like an eternity, more so if an opponent is already bearing down on you. Much like a desperate kid running to the hose in the middle of a summer water fight, you want that tank refilled as fast as possible so you can defend yourself.
Ink Recovery Up does exactly that, boosting the speed at which your ink tank refills while you're submerged. This way, you'll be out of the action and vulnerable for much less time, and it becomes a little easier to perform quick, active reloads.
1 Ink Saver (Main) - Oh, The Tank Was Screwed On Wrong...
Above all else, you want your main weapon to be firing as much as possible, especially if you're playing Turf War. The whole point of Splatoon, after all, is to cover everything in your ink, and you can't very well do that if your Splattershot is coughing up dust.
Ink Saver (Main) decreases the amount of ink that each shot of your main weapon draws from the tank, making your tank last longer overall before needing to be refilled. This is vital for some particularly thirsty weapons that spit up the whole tank in just a few shots. Less is more, as they say.