Squid Inkling Moveset Data (Preliminary) Updated: Added Some Ink-formation

[Skitrel]

Ok, here something interesting I found! The splattershot doesn’t cover ground in the e3 demo, but it does in the trailer. I wonder why they took it out? It doesn’t seem that broken.

Nice find.

I've noticed some bugs with ink in a few sets. I've seen the ink flicker, go completely invisible/reappear and while I can't find examples of that right now you can see how unpolished/bad it looks on the stage below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca_Dq0hdNWA

Best guess? It's buggy and limiting it would help reduce issues when displaying the game to a large audience. I think the logical intention of the finished version is probably for all moves that use ink to produce ink.

 

[Reila]

Unlikely, but they could have made the trailer using a newer build than the demo played by people so far. So Splattershot might ink the ground in the final release.

 

[IsmaR]

I feel as they felt obligated/rushed to include at least the 2 newcomers that have been revealed thus far in the playable demos (IIRC, Ridley wasn't even available in the Nintendo NY store). Even if they likely are among some of the most complex in terms of animations and gameplay elements vs any returning newcomers. So a couple of rough/in progress builds are expected.

 

[Makai Wars]

Good catch! I was super bothered as to why Inkling didn't paint the ground, it must be because it's an early build. Splattershot does no knockback and next to no damage so I was curious as why the move even existed, but knowing Inkling will probably have another way to cover turf without using the Roller is good news.

Anyway' here's a spicy bit, apparently Inkling's Up B has a hitbox on startup

It doesn't do that much damage or knockback but maybe you can go for cheeky offstage gimps with it.

 

[Scicky]

I might be wrong but it almost looks like it didn't have any hitstun, meaning it could be used like Greninja's Up-B for gimps. Either way it's a nice detail.

 

[Shuriblur]

I feel as they felt obligated/rushed to include at least the 2 newcomers that have been revealed thus far in the playable demos (IIRC, Ridley wasn't even available in the Nintendo NY store). Even if they likely are among some of the most complex in terms of animations and gameplay elements vs any returning newcomers. So a couple of rough/in progress builds are expected.

Not meaning to derail a bit, but I was under the impression that Ridley was left out of that build so he couldn’t be leaked. They got the build a couple of days before so they could be ready immediately after the direct.

The videos could also be taken from an earlier build and the ink had to be removed because it was causing problems? I don’t know how this works because we got trailers for characters that weren’t available to us. I’m hoping that all moves that use ink would help spread ink as well, like Splat Bombs. Aside from the problems that come from implementing this as a mechanic, could anyone see this as a problem balancing wise?

 

[BigMac1304]

Can Inklings turn into a squid/recover ink on uninked surfaces?

 

[Splotim]

Can Inklings turn into a squid/recover ink on uninked surfaces?

Yes they can.

 

[BigMac1304]

Yes they can.

Holy carp I'm absolutely dying of thirst wanting to play as inklings

 

[Reila]

If they couldn't, it would break them. Imagine running out of inking and not having any inked surfaces available. No ink for the rest of the match.

 

[meleebrawler]

If they couldn't, it would break them. Imagine running out of inking and not having any inked surfaces available. No ink for the rest of the match.

They get all their ink back when they die. Unless you're talking about a Splatoon match?

 

[Reila]

They get all their ink back when they die. Unless you're talking about a Splatoon match?

I am talking about Smash Bros.

Having to die to refill the Ink tank would be the stupidest design decision. Thankfully it doesn't work that way.

 

[Shuriblur]

If their Ink Tanks refilled naturally like the game then they could go the route of only being able to refill on inked surfaces. But they'd also need to add more moves that put down ink, which from the current build only the Splat Roller does. This would probably be way more complicated though.

Going back a bit, I was listening to a video and they brought up something that gave me a idea as to why Inkling's don't cover ground at the moment with their Splattershot. Kirby uses the same color ink as the standard Inkling which if Kirby copied the neutral B then he would also be able to paint the ground. And that could create complications with knowing which ink is yours when you playing.

 

[Splotim]

Going back a bit, I was listening to a video and they brought up something that gave me a idea as to why Inkling's don't cover ground at the moment with their Splattershot. Kirby uses the same color ink as the standard Inkling which if Kirby copied the neutral B then he would also be able to paint the ground. And that could create complications with knowing which ink is yours when you playing.

Good point, but they could just fix that by having the buff apply to both of them or by giving him a color of one of the alts that isn't in the match. I just feel like it would be weird that Inklings would have such an important (and pre-programmed) feature axed because the devs want Kirby to be the same color as the inkling he copies.

Also, there's the possibility that the trailer was a newer version than the e3 build. They could have broken off from the main build a while ago and focused on stability and bugfixes while developing a sister build with the stages and (ink mechanics) that we see in the trailers. Also, Kirby doesn't spread ink in the direct even though Inkling does, and I feel like it would be weird if that difference had made it so far in development unless they were planning for Kirby to have inking powers too.

 

[Alexis357]

So I was wondering, I'm not sure if it has been mentionned before and if it's really revelant, but it seems like being covered of ink makes your character playing a short animation (At least if you're playing an Inkling), probably if you're idle while receiving it and maybe giving a small opportunity for the opponnent to deal damage.
Do you think it will be the case for all the fighters ? It would be awesome to see all their reactions to this.

I post the trailer here with that part, generally they don't contain special things like that to showcase the game, but maybe it's something we will not see on the final release ? What do you think about it ?

 

[IsmaR]

Inkling does that animation when they are running low on Ink and try to use a Splat Bomb.

You can tell by them looking directly at their Ink Tank. It was done for cinematic purposes.

 

[BigMac1304]

Guys, this is it. If you can go to Best Buy to play the demo, do it. Take careful notes and we can fully understand Inkling's moveset,, weaknesses, playstyle, highs, lows, powers, strategies, to further help each other out of kindness as each of us follow the path to making ourselves better Inkling mains.

 

[Shatterbird | Trip]

Thank you so much for putting in the work in getting this together!

Helping fill in piece of the puzzle, you can see in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Obve6APtY @ 1:29 the inkling girl does an upsmash after landing, it seems that the usmash came out in 9 frames after soft landing lag.

 

[Pillsbury_Soyboy]

Does anyone know if the damage outputs from the E3 invitational are outdated? I've written down percentages for a few attacks already, but I don't want to provide inaccurate numbers

 

[Makai Wars]

Does anyone know if the damage outputs from the E3 invitational are outdated? I've written down percentages for a few attacks already, but I don't want to provide inaccurate numbers

I don't think there's an updated version of Ultimate playable so we have yet to see any number changes.

 

[Pillsbury_Soyboy]

I don't think there's an updated version of Ultimate playable so we have yet to see any number changes.

Ah, okay. I just need to double check everything I wrote down, and maybe watch a few more videos, just in case

Edit: Sorry, didn't mean to double post. New here

-----------

These are all with items and 1v1

Throws
- Back: 8.3-9.4%
- Forward: ?
- Up: 6.2-6.3%
- Down: 7.0%
- Pummel: 1.4%

Aerials
- Back: 7.2% stale and/or sour-spot > 8.9-9.2% normally > 10.5% sweet-spot
- Forward: 5.3% sour-spot > 9.3-9.8% normally > 10.5% sweet-spot
- Up: ?
- Down: 12.6% sweet-spot, and I saw 9.4% at one point (can't remember when)
- Neutral: 6.8-7.3%

Smashes
- Side: ?
- Up: 15.8%
- Down: ?

Specials (haven't looked yet)
- Side: ?
- Up: ?
- Down: ?
- Neutral: ?

That's all I have for now, but I'll be editing this as I get more info. I'm not familiar with counting frames, unfortunately, so I don't think I'll try to include those

 

[pikazz]

we should add a list on what moves inks the opponent.

here is the list from what I found out which move inks the opponent.

• Rapid Jab and Jab Finisher
• FSmash
• DSmash
• USmash?
• Neutral B
• Side B
• Down B
• Up B?
• F-Throw
• Final Smash

UpB might ink but I never noticed if it does ink during the startup or landing (or both)
USmash most likely inks, but I never really paid attention to that either

 

[-Xeroskia.]

Going back a bit, I was listening to a video and they brought up something that gave me a idea as to why Inkling's don't cover ground at the moment with their Splattershot. Kirby uses the same color ink as the standard Inkling which if Kirby copied the neutral B then he would also be able to paint the ground. And that could create complications with knowing which ink is yours when you playing.

That makes a good deal of sense, and is likely the reason the mechanic is disabled on Splattershot during the demo playtests; to prevent unnecessary gameplay issues they already know they need to solve. The reason I say this is because the function is, in my opinion, definitely off, rather than removed, and I finally found footage that displayed it clearly enough.

https://youtu.be/AwRNI8DDF7c

In this video, @0:54 the blue Inkling fires Splattershot for a second and it doesn't paint the ground. No big deal. This is what we've grown accustomed to in the demo.
..Sorry in advance for the screenshots. It's a phone screenshot of a paused Youtube video of lackluster camera recorded gameplay of the Ultimate demo. This is some next level, high functioning quality loss, lol.

After shooting the Splattershot for that short moment, they retreated to the edge of the stage and used the Splat Roller across basically the entire stage, laying down a path of ink the whole way.

What happened next threw me for a loop and had me analyzing the video for the next several minutes until I realized what it meant. Right after rolling off the stage, I noticed that some of the ink had disappeared already and it was visually noticeable, and struck me as odd in its inconsistency.

Notice the tiny patch of blue still visible on the right side of the gap. I knew ink stayed on the ground for somewhere around 7 seconds before fading away, so the fact that it was gone meant something had happened that I thought I missed. At first, I thought ink disappeared when the enemy was slowed by it and wasn't paying attention for the past couple months lol, but that definitely wasn't the case. It was only a certain area too, and it still appeared patchy as they went back on stage and rolled across again. This 2nd rolling application, along with re-watching the overall moment is what led me to my conclusion: Splattershot still inks the ground. Well, at least the game still thinks Splattershot inks the ground, but the functionality of that ink, both visually and mechanically are disabled.

When you use the Splat Roller and roll an area, ink stays for about 7 seconds. If you turn around and re-roll that area, the ink is not refreshed. It will still disappear ~7 seconds from the time it was laid down by the first roll. You can only apply ink to that area again after it has faded away to normal.
Knowing this, I hypothesized that the Splattershot had "technically" laid invisible ink there and since it was laid there before the area was rolled, it disappeared quicker. After reviewing the footage to confirm this, the area affected and the time delay lined up and I felt kinda proud of myself, kek.

I can only assume that it's turned off for the sake of the demo and its inclusion of Kirby, while they find a solid solution to ink colors in respect to Kirby/online clone palette dittos. It could be an inclusion of a 9th ink color and a way to randomize Kirby's splattershot ink color to be a color that is not represented by any inkling/Kirby character in the match being currently played, idk, I'm not a developer. But I can only hope they figure it out, because I'd definitely like that mechanic to return to the Splattershot.

Sorry for the huge post. Or if this has been explained elsewhere.

 

[Splotim]

That makes a good deal of sense, and is likely the reason the mechanic is disabled on Splattershot during the demo playtests; to prevent unnecessary gameplay issues they already know they need to solve. The reason I say this is because the function is, in my opinion, definitely off, rather than removed, and I finally found footage that displayed it clearly enough.

https://youtu.be/AwRNI8DDF7c

In this video, @0:54 the blue Inkling fires Splattershot for a second and it doesn't paint the ground. No big deal. This is what we've grown accustomed to in the demo.
..Sorry in advance for the screenshots. It's a phone screenshot of a paused Youtube video of lackluster camera recorded gameplay of the Ultimate demo. This is some next level, high functioning quality loss, lol.

After shooting the Splattershot for that short moment, they retreated to the edge of the stage and used the Splat Roller across basically the entire stage, laying down a path of ink the whole way.

What happened next threw me for a loop and had me analyzing the video for the next several minutes until I realized what it meant. Right after rolling off the stage, I noticed that some of the ink had disappeared already and it was visually noticeable, and struck me as odd in its inconsistency.

Notice the tiny patch of blue still visible on the right side of the gap. I knew ink stayed on the ground for somewhere around 7 seconds before fading away, so the fact that it was gone meant something had happened that I thought I missed. At first, I thought ink disappeared when the enemy was slowed by it and wasn't paying attention for the past couple months lol, but that definitely wasn't the case. It was only a certain area too, and it still appeared patchy as they went back on stage and rolled across again. This 2nd rolling application, along with re-watching the overall moment is what led me to my conclusion: Splattershot still inks the ground. Well, at least the game still thinks Splattershot inks the ground, but the functionality of that ink, both visually and mechanically are disabled.

When you use the Splat Roller and roll an area, ink stays for about 7 seconds. If you turn around and re-roll that area, the ink is not refreshed. It will still disappear ~7 seconds from the time it was laid down by the first roll. You can only apply ink to that area again after it has faded away to normal.
Knowing this, I hypothesized that the Splattershot had laid ink there and since it was laid there before the area was rolled, it disappeared quicker. After reviewing the footage to confirm this, the area affected and the time delay lined up and I felt kinda proud of myself, kek.

I can only assume that it's turned off for the sake of the demo and its inclusion of Kirby, while they find a solid solution to ink colors in respect to Kirby/online clone palette dittos. It could be an inclusion of a 9th ink color and a way to randomize Kirby's splattershot ink color to be a color that is not represented by any inkling/Kirby character in the match being currently played, idk, I'm not a developer. But I can only hope they figure it out, because I'd definitely like that mechanic to return to the Splattershot.

Sorry for the huge post. Or if this has been explained elsewhere.

Wow, great find! I noticed weird stuff with the ink before, but I just chalked it up to a glitch. This is definitely a huge buff for Inkling since now it’s possible to lay ink in front of you without commitmenting to a roller.

I feel bad for Little Mac. Inkling is going to hard counter his ground game.

 

[Shuriblur]

Fantastic catch! I remember watching that video and thinking ‘you must have a limit to the amount of ink you can have on the stage’. Great observation!

 

[Swamp Sensei]

So, Inkling is a newcomer that most of us have not played.

Still, we got a lot of videos of demo footage showing them off so I think we could figure out what their top ten most used moves will be.

So, make a list an explain why you think those moves will be used so much.

 

[Splotim]

Ok let me try

10. F throw.

It’s a throw. It inks people. None of Inklings throws are combo or kill throws, but this one will make follow ups more rewarding.

9. D tilt

It looks cool and it’s double hit makes it harder to parry. It’s reach might make it good on ink, since the opponent can’t dash grab you as fast on whiff.

8. Uair

A pretty cool two-hit kill move, but I’m more interested in that first hit box than in the second. In smash 4 Wii Fit could use the first hit of nair to pop up grounded opponents into usmash. It will need some testing, but inkling could do the same thing in ultimate, especially with the reduced landing lag.

7. Dair

I’m not completely if this will work, but it’s likely that you can pop opponents out of the ground with a bomb and true combo that into an offstage down air.

6. Usmash

Another possible grounded combo, with the first hit popping them out and the second hit launching. I have a feeling that won’t work because it’s too powerful, but we’ll see.

5. Splattershot

Sort of like fox’s lasers but you can angle them. Some extra damage here and there, but not a lot. It’s this high because of the fact that it lays down ink without the huge commitment of the roller.


4. Splat Bomb

Used for edgegaurding and against legdeguarding. I never got into brawls meta, but it looks similar to Snake’s grenade and I here a lot of good things about that.

3. Jab

It’s super fast and fully ink the opponent. Nuff said.

2. Roller

Inks the floor, inks enemies, speed boost, triple jump AND buries? I’d be surprised if this wasn’t Inklings most famous move. Just hope that it comes out fast enough to actually hit.

1. Shield + B

You need this to use your special moves and to ink opponents, so it’s kind of required to use this. Nobody ever uses it in the demo and it stresses me out! It will come more naturally to Splatoon players i hope.

 

[Alsyght]

Ok let me try

10. F throw.

It’s a throw. It inks people. None of Inklings throws are combo or kill throws, but this one will make follow ups more rewarding.

9. D tilt

It looks cool and it’s double hit makes it harder to parry. It’s reach might make it good on ink, since the opponent can’t dash grab you as fast on whiff.

8. Uair

A pretty cool two-hit kill move, but I’m more interested in that first hit box than in the second. In smash 4 Wii Fit could use the first hit of nair to pop up grounded opponents into usmash. It will need some testing, but inkling could do the same thing in ultimate, especially with the reduced landing lag.

7. Dair

I’m not completely if this will work, but it’s likely that you can pop opponents out of the ground with a bomb and true combo that into an offstage down air.

6. Usmash

Another possible grounded combo, with the first hit popping them out and the second hit launching. I have a feeling that won’t work because it’s too powerful, but we’ll see.

5. Splattershot

Sort of like fox’s lasers but you can angle them. Some extra damage here and there, but not a lot. It’s this high because of the fact that it lays down ink without the huge commitment of the roller.


4. Splat Bomb

Used for edgegaurding and against legdeguarding. I never got into brawls meta, but it looks similar to Snake’s grenade and I here a lot of good things about that.

3. Jab

It’s super fast and fully ink the opponent. Nuff said.

2. Roller

Inks the floor, inks enemies, speed boost, triple jump AND buries? I’d be surprised if this wasn’t Inklings most famous move. Just hope that it comes out fast enough to actually hit.

1. Shield + B

You need this to use your special moves and to ink opponents, so it’s kind of required to use this. Nobody ever uses it in the demo and it stresses me out! It will come more naturally to Splatoon players i hope.

Literally said everything.

Inkling for best newcomer

 

[Splotim]

So apparently sourspotted back air has a chance to trip. (55 seconds in).

That means it’s possible that Bair -> Roller -> Splatbomb -> Usmash is a true combo or at least a string.

 

[Shuriblur]

Edit: Gonna move this to the general discussion.

 

[pikazz]

My take on the moves I think is gonna be used the most. (based from my own experience and what I have seen)

1. Ink Recovery (Shield+B), literally self-explainatory. only way to refill your ink.
   • The hurtbox from you while doing it is really low to the ground! it will be somewhat safe against (high) grabs and projectiles like Archthunder and Falcos Lasers
     • Was able to dodge Snakes Grab while Recovering ink
2. Splat Bomb (DownB)
   • One of the best Projectile in the game. you can angle it to be close or sniping really far. excellent as "poke" tool and edgeguarding tool.
   • Inks opponent on hit
3. FAir
   • Literally Diddys Fair but for Inkling. Fast, long lasting hitbox and ends quick. decent power
4. UAir
   • great Juggling, 2 hitboxes, KO move at higher procents.
5. Jab1, 2 and Loop
   • Fast start up on jab, reliable way to get ink and hard to escape the loop from. you are guaranteed to get the Finisher to connect with one loop
6. USmash
   • working as same way as ROBs UpSmash, 2 smaller hitboxes around inkling to send them to the main blast above Inkling. a good fast kill option thats also an anti air. also will make the buried enemies take full knockback since it hits twice.
7. FThrow/DThrow
   • Couldnt choose so these 2 moves are on same plane. FThrow gains you reward with ink which will help you kill earlier and set them in an terrible position. DThrow doesnt really combo but since it sends you close you can do mixups with it.
8. FSmash&DSmash
   • With how good Inklings Dash Dance and "Dash into anything" is, you could do a retreating Dash to turnaround FSmash. or Approaching Dash to FSmash at ledge for a good surprise, while Approaching Dash to Turnaround DSmash to kill them earlier with the backhit if they spotdodge
9. NAir
   • A good "get off me" move and good at edge guarding. since you can approach with NAir Shorthop it will disrupt aerial attempts. could be a combo starter for FAir or something else
10. Splat Roller (SideB)
    • on paper it sounds great; but due how unsafe it is on shield, you will get punish by overusing it. it will mainly be used for the third jump in recovery, ink ground and situational mixups. (my prediction but I hope it will get more usage and better in general)

Moves that didnt make it to my list but I wanna share my thoughs of.

• Super Jump (UpB)
  • Our best way to recover, but doesnt really have any other use in the neutral except for a risky "poke to hope to finish them off real up in the sky" after a Juggle or a suprise landing with the hitbox on the ground
• Splattershot (Neutral B)
  • A good way to ink the opponent, but in its current state its gonna be a more of a "poke for extra damage" after a launch (like Fox Laser is) or a surprise attempt to block approaches (like Dash Attacks and Grab) with the flinching hitbox infront.
    • If it also inks the ground like in the trailer, it would be more used more and be in my list
• DTilt/UTilt
  • Potential Combo starter, DTilt hits Twice and is hard to punish while UTilt is the same but for anti air.
    • was not able to experiment with these 2 that much, but I have seen the potential with those 2
• DAir
  • a surprisingly strong spike, but with how small the sweetspot it, its going to be hard to get it consistent.
    • will most likely be used as a "Style point" move if you predict the opponent

Feel free to argue or share your thought about mine

 

[Splotim]

I found some more ink weirdness. The ink disappears almost instantly in this video, even when inkling doesn’t use splattershot beforehand. Is it a glitch, or some unknown feature of ink? (2:44:20 in this video)

 

[Makai Wars]

So, going off of this video (0:10)

It doesn't seem like the Splattershot inks the ground at all, note this is the public build which will most likely carry over into the main game. I'm pretty sad, I wanted to literally play Splatoon in Smash but it seems the only way to cover the ground is via the roller.
Also looking at other videos shows that the Splattershot isn't even that good at covering people in ink, so like...it doesn't turf the ground, it can't ink opponents well....what is this move for?

 

[meleebrawler]

So, going off of this video (0:10)

It doesn't seem like the Splattershot inks the ground at all, note this is the public build which will most likely carry over into the main game. I'm pretty sad, I wanted to literally play Splatoon in Smash but it seems the only way to cover the ground is via the roller.
Also looking at other videos shows that the Splattershot isn't even that good at covering people in ink, so like...it doesn't turf the ground, it can't ink opponents well....what is this move for?

What Fox's Blaster does. Telling people that just trying to stay away all the time won't protect them. More seriously, pausing the auto-cleanup opponents go through when not getting inked for a while.

 

[BigMac1304]

There is a chance that it didn't ink the floor because it was ice, but maybe not...

 

[meleebrawler]

There is a chance that it didn't ink the floor because it was ice, but maybe not...

You guys don't think a move with that range and speed covering the ground with speed-lowering ink might be a little cheap?

 

[Splotim]

You guys don't think a move with that range and speed covering the ground with speed-lowering ink might be a little cheap?

It’s not about balance, people thought it could ink the ground in the final build because it could in one of the trailers.

 

[S_B]

Sorry if this has been mentioned already, but can Ink be reflected back at Inkling (like by Fox, Zelda, etc.)?

 

[Luigifan18]

Sorry if this has been mentioned already, but can Ink be reflected back at Inkling (like by Fox, Zelda, etc.)?

I’d presume the neutral special, down special, and maybe the rapid jab can be reflected.

 

[S_B]

I’d presume the neutral special, down special, and maybe the rapid jab can be reflected.

That would make sense. Wondering if Inkling becomes inked and does it have the same effect for the player who reflected it?

It would be even cooler if the color of the ink became the player port color (eg. First player's reflected ink becomes red, 2nd player blue, etc.).