Understanding Gear

Think of the clothing, shoes, and headgear worn by your Inkling as armor. Each equipped piece of gear grants your Inkling one main ability and as many as three sub abilities. If completely outfitted with clothing, shoes, and headgear, your character can potentially go into Ink Battles benefitting from three main abilities and nine sub abilities. This array of abilities, all working together, improves your performance in various ways. When shopping for gear, instead of seeking the best-looking outfit, pay close attention to the main ability and rarity—these should be the two major criteria you consider when purchasing and equipping gear.

Main Ability: Each piece of gear has one main ability. The main ability is three times as potent as a sub ability. Main abilities are static and cannot be changed.

Rarity: The rarity of the gear ranges from one to three stars, with one star being the most common and three stars being the rarest. The rarity of gear directly correlates with the number of unlocked sub ability slots it starts with: one-star gear gets only one sub ability slot, two-star gear gets two slots, and three-star gear gets three slots. The rarity also determines the amount of BP needed to unlock each new sub ability—the higher the rarity, the more BP is required to level up the gear.

Brand: An item’s brand can influence which sub abilities are assigned. Read up on brands in the following section for more information.

Sub Abilities: Gear can have up to three sub abilities (number determined by rarity), which are randomly assigned by accruing BP. BP is awarded at the end of each match. If enough BP is earned to unlock a sub ability, the ability is randomized and added to the gear. These abilities are far less powerful than the main ability, but every little bit helps, right? Plus, you can have up to nine of these sub abilities.