Arguably the greatest question a person can ever ask is: “What are the best abilities in Splatoon 2?” Today, I will provide the answers to that question. I have ascended from the trenches of Inkopolis to provide great knowledge for winning battles with speed and style.

Abilities have allowed me to pull ahead and fall behind in Splatoon 2 matches. I am going to highlight the best of the best. I won’t be ranking them in any particular order, because as everyone knows, attempting to rank Splatoon 2 abilities is like trying to choose between one’s own children.

That said, on with the list:

Honorable Mentions: Opening Gambit/Last-Ditch Effort

Exactly 28 words ago, I said that ranking these things is like choosing between your own children. That still holds true, but these two are in timeout due to the significant restrictions on them.  On the plus side, these abilities provide an extra edge that can help establish a lead or turn the tide near the end of a match. Also, as I’ll say many times throughout this list, any ability that makes you bulkier is a solid one.

However, both of these abilities have their fair share of problems. For one, the fact that they can’t be sub abilities makes them that much harder to gain access to. On top of that, you’d have to keep cycling through gear with other abilities, main and sub to find them, so you’d probably have to sacrifice some good stuff. That, and other abilities on this list can more than make up for the absence of these two without all the hang-ups.

With that out of the way, now for the proper list:

10. Ink Resistance Up

Picture if you will, the following scenario: You are engaged in a heated match and you come face to face with another Inkling (or Octoling, whatever floats your boat). Having nowhere to run, you both charge each other with everything you’ve got. Despite your best efforts, your opponent splats you and continues on his merry way. Why’s that, little Timmy? Why, it’s because you don’t have enough ink resistance!

This ability comes in real handy for standoff scenarios, as well as breaking through a wall of opponents. It also allows you to spread more ink and splat more opponents without interruption. Now there are also scenarios where you deal with multiple opponents, or they happen to have even more resistance than you.

For that, there’s…

9. Run Speed Up

Do I honestly need to explain why being faster in a video game is a plus? This is a good ability for some much needed out-of-Dodge-getting, as well as getting further into enemy territory more quickly. Run Speed up is also quite good for spreading ink in turf war battles.

This ability also allows you to make better use of one precious commodity: time. There’s only so much time in a given match and it’s important to spread your inkfluence as widely as possible during that period. Being able to do so faster certainly helps. Speaking of which, there’s another ability that allows you to maximize the amount of time you can have…

8. Quick Respawn

It’s no secret: getting splatted sucks. Respawning is cool and all, but sometimes it just takes. Too. Long. Splashing and splatting with glee, and then suddenly taken out for eight painful seconds, including the respawning animation itself. Quick Respawn allows you to shave 2.5 seconds off of that.

That may not sound like much, but given the number of times splatting happens, those few seconds start to add up. That’s around another 10-20 seconds of splatting, and about another hour saved from going to and from the store to get a new controller after you smashed the old one in frustration.

Speaking of frustration…

7. Swim Speed Up

A good litmus test for determining the quality of a Splatoon tactic is to gauge your reaction when you are on the receiving end of it. If rage and infernal fury are your reactions, then it’s probably a strong tactic. Case in point: getting sneak attacked by a hiding swimmer. I’ve been frustrated a few more than a few times by this move and I’ve also learned to use it to my own advantage.

Swim Speed Up allows you to use this move faster, and helps you better use the precious time I’ve harped on. It also helps make for a clean getaway from a bad situation. If that isn’t an option, there’s a particular ability that can help out in certain bad situations…

6. Bomb Defense Up

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again— Bulkier is better, especially when hit with a barrage of explosives. In the chaos of a match, bombs can be easy to miss. Until, you know, you’ve been splatted by one. Either way, it’s a good idea to have a built in defense mechanism against those pesky explosives. That way you don’t have to worry about them, or at least not as much.

Bombs themselves tend to be used as an ace in the hole to tip the scales in a given matchup. Or they’re just thrown at random. However, it is important to have a plan in place for turning things around and there’s an ability to help you do so…

5. Special Power Up

The exact utility of this one depends on what your special gauge move is and how good you are at using it but being able to use it more is helpful. Think of it this way— is it better to eat chicken nuggets once a day, or to eat them multiple times a day? You do the math.

Like I said earlier, it’s good to have an ace in the hole when the odds are stacked against you. Having Special Power Up lets you fill up your special gauge faster, and bad situations tend to arise quite often during a match. This ability basically helps you gather ammo faster.

Speaking of which…

4. Ink Recovery Up

Running out of ink and having to swim to refuel can kill the momentum of a good fight. It can also ruin any well-executed attack plan and leave you open to being splatted. Long story short, it’s like you’re ordering a delicious meatball sandwich and they tell you they’re out of meatballs, so you have to scramble to find another place in the area that has them.

Luckily, this ability basically puts an extra shipment of meatballs in every store (okay, I think I’m losing the metaphor here). The point is, reloading on ink takes less time, a commodity whose preciousness I’ve harped on before. It also leaves you vulnerable for a shorter amount of time, which allows you to quickly get back to the business of splatting. As for decreasing the time before ink runs out…

3/2. Ink Saver (Main/Sub)

As demonstrated in the meatball example from earlier, getting stocked up is important. With these two abilities, you get more ink for your metaphorical buck. You get to keep the excitement going, as well as splat more enemies and turf in one go. This basically means you get more meatballs on your sandwich.

The Ink Saver abilities let you use less ink per shot/sub use. The best way to win is to spread more ink around. These help you do that for both main and sub weapons.

Speaking of sub weapons…

1. Sub Power Up

Bombs away! Rounding out the list is another good-in-a-bind ability. It makes your sub weapon stronger, so you can hit hard when the need arises, or just whenever you feel like it. It’s Splatoon. Chaos reigns supreme.

This ability would also help in those standoff situations I mentioned earlier, where you’re backed into a corner and have to face off against one or more opponents. A good strong sub would be a nice controller-smashingly frustrating surprise for unwary enemies.

You May Also Be Interested In:

• Top 10 Best Splatoon 2 Weapons
• Splatoon 2 Weapons List (Splatoon 2 Weapons Ranked Best To Worst)