Brawler Arsenal

Grounded Attacks

Neutral Attacks

Neutral Attacks

Inkling has a standard neutral attack combo, done by holding the Attack button down for all three hits. Squid kid starts with a jab, then follows with two kick attacks, the final one knocking foes a bit away. This neutral attack has decent speed, not among the best but not bad. It’s a totally respectable out-of-shield option on defense, especially since Inkling’s grab has below-average speed.

There’s an alternate neutral attack combo when you want to cash in some ink. Hold or tap the Attack button for the first two hits—it doesn’t matter which—then make sure you tap for the third attack. Inkling whips out the shooter and unloads at least eight quick shots up close, finishing with a launcher move that kicks the foe away. After tapping to initiate the special finisher, you can hold down the Attack button for continuous shots as long as you like, but attentive enemies will try to shuffle out, perhaps avoiding the launching blow.

If out of ink, this alternate neutral attack just spasms uselessly.

Dash Attack

A running Inkling is a beautiful thing, not so much “running” as “swimming through a trail of its own ink in squid form.” Dashing/running Inklings have a very short profile as a result, and can avoid the same kinds of threats that Wii Fit Trainer or Solid Snake do by crouch-walking, and Pichu does simply by existing.

During dash attack, Inkling rises from squid-dashing with a short-range elbow. Hit when the elbow extends for max damage and launch potential, setting up mix-ups or air hits against an opponent’s tumbling. An early hit is also usually safe when shielded, because Inkling slides through the defender.

Defensive Attacks

Tilts

Side Tilt

The squid kid swipes in front with the shooter, using the gun as a club. The shooter isn’t a part of Inkling, so it overpowers incoming enemy pokes unless they stretch all the way through the gun. This hits with shocking knockback power, blasting enemies backward even at low-damage percentages. It’s punishably laggy if shielded, but if you aim from max range, many shield grabs and neutral attacks out-of-shield will whiff.

This is sort of like a slower neutral attack combo packed into one swing in terms of results.

Up Tilt

Inkling whirls heels-over-head with a launching bicycle kick. This move hits fast, quicker than side tilt, and has little lag after, so it can combo into itself two to three times in a row in most situations. After enough up tilts to push foes too high for another one, jump and pursue the victim with an immediate air hit or footstool jump attempt.

If shielded in front, up tilt is disadvantaged enough to get Inkling into trouble, but the hopping motion of the kick might make an immediate retaliation miss. If shielded behind, Inkling is safe from reprisal except from Little Mac and Zero Suit Samus.

This is a terrific attack, with one major catch. Because the kick is aimed relatively high, even though Inkling isn’t a huge fighter, it’s common for this move to miss against smaller fighters on the ground (or crouching ones).

Down Tilt

Squid kid hits the deck and breakdances briefly, quickly kicking twice. The first kick is Inkling’s second-fastest attack (after neutral attack), while the second kick combos after the first and knocks foes a little way away. If shielded, it’s unfortunately unsafe from reprisal. However, if enemies drop shield prematurely after the first kick, anything they do loses to the second kick.

This is a great attack. The only thing to be wary of is opponents catching on to simply blocking and punishing both down tilt and neutral attack combos.

The second kick briefly has a hitbox that stretches beneath the floor, as Inkling twists a foot. This can be aimed at a stage edge when recovering foes reach for a ledge, possibly knocking them off before they become intangible.

Smashes

Side Smash

Ink during smash attacks is spent instantly upon smash start-up, and is expended even if Inkling is interrupted before hitting. If not enough ink is present, the smash attack loses power and fails to ink its victims.

Wielding a huge inkbrush, the squid kid swings fiercely in front. Side smash swings uncharged with typical side smash speed, neither quick nor sluggish for this kind of move. Damage, knockback, and ink applied to foes are all max at the brush head, which has extremely good reach. Inkling is unsafe if shielded, technically, but when tapping them with the brush’s tip, the frame disadvantage is negated by the space.

A common defensive tactic when dash-dancing to incite a reaction, or when just plain running from foes, is to pivot and grab in the other direction suddenly, snagging someone on your heels. Inkling’s grab speed isn’t special, and grab speed while pivoting is even less special. Dashing away, then side smashing back in the direction you’ve vacated is a useful play to employ on occasion.

Up Smash

The blaster emerges, briefly hitting in front as a weak launcher while Inkling raises the powerful soaker. Once it’s aimed straight up, the blaster detonates, splashing damaging ink in a wide radius centered comfortably above Inkling.

The hit in front isn’t quick enough to make up smash noteworthy as a kind of stealth forward poke or combo-starter on its own, but it’s nice to have. It lets up smash start a punish combo against extremely laggy moves after you shield them, at least.

This is definitely unsafe against a defender shielding both hits up close, but it’s possible they could drop shield too early after the forward hit and try to retaliate. The blaster blast will get them, just like if they drop shield too quickly against down tilt.

When considering this as an anti-air or juggle weapon, remember the start lag. Up tilt is over twice as fast to hit, though with less range. You need a third of a second’s lead time to nail an airborne target with up smash’s explosion. On the bright side, the damage, launch potential, and ink applied are all great.

Down Smash

Crouching low, the squid kid dumps out a slosher soaker to both sides, starting in front. The splashed ink deals decent damage (more in front) and applies plenty of ink, filling the foe’s invisible Ink Gauge by as much as half all at once if down smash hits up close in front. The delayed second hit to the back gives this attack clear-out use, and might hit foes who dodge-roll through to Inkling’s back.

Down smash is great at splashing ink around and clearing out immediate space in crowded skirmishes, but it’s not unusually fast, and end lag leaves Inkling open to counterattacks afterward if foes dodge or block.

Grabs

Grabs

Inkling’s grab speed is heavyweight-grade with short range, which is a weakness on a fighter who’s agile in other areas. You get significant bonus range (at the cost of a little extra start lag) when grabbing out of a dash or pivot.

Once a victim is in the squid kid’s clutches, front throw is noteworthy as a move that uses ink. It pastes the victim, along with anyone else directly in front, so it’s efficient in free-for-all battles. It deals low damage with comically low knockback, though, if you try to front throw without spare ink.

Back throw offers the most raw distance and damage, not counting follow-ups. Up throw hurls foes straight up for possible air pursuit, and down throw bounces them before Inkling, barely in hitstun at all. It might take enemies by surprise how quickly they can move after down throw, so rush in and go for more attacks before they adjust. At higher-damage percentages, down throw sets up guaranteed juggles in front.

Aerial Attacks

Aerials

Neutral Air Attack

Inkling strikes quickly to both sides with an upside-down spin kick. It’s a great multipurpose aerial move, fulfilling any role except for “meaty attack pulled down with fast fall.” Unlike most neutral air attack moves, it’s active very briefly, but at least it covers both sides simultaneously.

Forward Air Attack

Inkling strikes with a two-legged dropkick thrusting forward. This is Inkling’s longest-lasting air move, so it’s the best for fast-falling tactics. Other air moves hit too briefly to stick out above, then pull down into people. The damage is highest early at the sweet spot on the feet, though.

Back Air Attack

Inkling swings the shooter behind in a gun-whipping backhand. The hitbox is generous since enemies can’t interrupt this attack by hitting the shooter. It strikes backward quicker than forward air hits forward, but lasts for a shorter period of time. It’s better for precise walling attacks or pokes during short jumps than other air attacks, but less lenient.

Up Air Attack

Inkling flips upward, kicking with each leg, one after the other. This double wheeling kick is slower than most up air attacks to hit, but persists much longer than most as an upward-aimed threat. This makes it easy to hit someone above with some part of this attack, but difficult to aim and score max damage on both hits. If you score a solid hit, it launches foes upward. Even so, with longer-than-average start and end lag compared to most upward sweeps, up air isn’t great at linking up combos.

It’s pretty good at starting them near the ground, though. Aside from aiming above at airborne adversaries, this has value aimed at grounded or low-altitude foes. Fast-fall from jump height at someone and immediately start up air on the way down (flicking the C-stick just after fast-falling with the control stick is a great way to make this error-proof). Done correctly, Inkling lands just after the launching portion of the second kick, leading to an instant follow-up juggle opening.

Down Air Attack

Inkling swings the shooter straight down in a spiking swing. The start lag is long for an air move and the active hitbox is brief, making it challenging to aim. The payoff is high, though, with good damage and a meteor smash effect on a clean hit.

Special Moves

Specials

Neutral Special: Splattershot

The shooter’s full potential is deployed with this rapid-fire burst of small ink shots. The stream of fire can be aimed up or down, and can be maintained until Inkling’s ink reservoir is empty. As ink gets low, the shots’ range slowly peters out, like when Charizard or Bowser runs out of firepower for fiery breath. With any ink in reserve, the shooter fires until it’s empty. With no spare ink, a neutral input sends Inkling into the Shield+Special refilling pose.

The shortest burst possible with the merest neutral special input is four shots, spending -6 ink to paste +48 ink on a target, assuming all shots connect. It costs slightly less than a third of an ink tank to fully ink a foe using Splattershot. If you manage to quickly pelt someone with 25 shots, you spend about -40 ink to fill up enemy ink at 300. Of course, this requires about two solid seconds of concentrated fire, and people seldom sit still for that long. It’s not good directly engaging with someone who might dodge or jump over the stream, but it’s good inking distracted fighters engaged in other face-offs, and harassing involuntary fliers as they try to drift back to safety onstage.

Side Special: Splat Roller

Upon activation, Inkling produces a huge splat roller and speeds forward. This works a bit like Wario’s Wario Bike or Bowser Jr.’s Clown Car. After the initial burst of speed to get Splat Roller going, the forward-rushing Inkling is always decelerating. Push the control stick forward to accelerate, building up speed (and impact damage, and ink applied), or tap toward Inkling’s back to flip around and roll in the other direction. While turning, or once speed drops enough, Splat Roller deals no damage or pushback, though Inkling keeps pushing a harmless roller. To speed back up, simply press toward.

Hitting foes at high speed on the ground while holding forward buries them in the ground briefly, inked with a debuff and made sitting ducks! Hitting foes at slower speeds may just pop them off their feet instead of planting them.

Splat Roller can be canceled by tapping Special or Attack, but jump-canceling tends to be better. Jumping to cancel Splat Roller doesn’t count against your normal jump total. In other words, you can jump, double-jump, start Splat Roller in midair, then jump again, for what’s in effect a triple jump. This greatly enhances Inkling’s midair unpredictability and offstage recovery.

Splat Roller used in midair gets it ready for business once you connect with a surface, but it doesn’t have an active hitbox while gliding, nor does it spend any ink. It doesn’t hit airborne foes at all, so you can’t rely on it for air-to-air. Falling Splat Roller can hit foes as long as they’re standing, in which case they’re popped off their feet, briefly vulnerable to juggles. Jumping above and diving in with Splat Roller, then jump-canceling on contact scores you the chance for guaranteed hits right after the roller launches them. Otherwise, midair Splat Roller simply becomes grounded Splat Roller upon landing.

Ink diminishes rapidly while rolling, at a rate of about -45 ink per second. From full ink, you can get about three solid seconds of grounded rolling time before needing a refill. Interestingly, you can still pull out the Splat Roller with no ink in reserve. It doesn’t have a hitbox at all, but it allows for the pseudo-triple jump in midair.

Up Special: Super Jump

One of the squid kids’ most exceptional physical abilities involves being able to dive into their own puddles before rocketing out to huge heights, covering lots of space suddenly. This is illustrated in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate style with this recovery special. Up special doesn’t require ink, and inks anyone it hits even with no ink in reserve.

Initially, Inkling hops into a puddle in squid form, building tension with a very low profile. Then the squid kid explodes upward, generating a punchy hit like a pinball with the flying squid form on takeoff, followed by a weaker, splashing hitbox to both sides around the launch zone. By default Inkling launches straight up, but hold left or right after input—but before takeoff—to launch Inkling at a 60-degree diagonal angle (both to aim in a preferred direction and to make it more likely that you connect against anyone in the way with the stronger direct hit rather than the weaker splash). There’s no attack hitbox while flying.

Whether soaring straight up or at an angle, gravity takes hold eventually and Inkling begins falling back down. Drifting squid form is maneuverable, and there’s another direct-hit hitbox around Inkling just before landing, followed by a touchdown splash. Direct hits and secondary splashes deal the same damage on takeoff and touchdown.

High-flying and avoidant, with hits both launching and landing, this is a great survival-oriented up special. If anything’s wrong with it, it’s that it takes a long time, with Inkling traveling for about a second and a half between flying up and coming all the way down.

Down Special: Splat Bomb

Inkling’s Splat Bomb is basically an ink grenade for which you can alter the travel arc like Snake’s Hand Grenades. Tap the down special input as briefly as possible for a quick upward-arcing toss, resulting in a bomb that falls directly in front of Inkling before exploding.

For a faster, longer, and stronger Splat Bomb, charge the input. It doesn’t take long to produce a toss like a smash throw, flying straightaway and detonating on contact with fighter-shaped obstacles in the way.

Work Splat Bombs into edge-guarding scenarios and recovery plays. When edge-guarding, tossing a bomb ahead of someone floating back to the stage can mess with their approach. Before using the recovery sequence of Splat Roller into triple jump into Super Jump, tossing a Splat Bomb can provide a moving midair shield while letting you alter your angle of approach.

Without enough ink left for a Splat Bomb, Inkling is just confused if you input down special. With no ink left at all, down special duplicates Inkling’s unique Shield+Special refilling pose.

Final Smash: Killer Wail

Wherever you activate Inkling’s Final Smash, the kid deploys a Killer Wail special weapon. It emits a high-powered laser cutting through over a long distance straight ahead, but you can tilt it up or down using the control stick. While this is happening, Inkling can move around freely. Even if Inkling is KO’d while Killer Wail is active, you can direct its laser stream.