Inkling (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)
Inkling is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and the sole playable representative of the Splatoon series. She was the first new character confirmed for the game during its teaser trailer in the March 2018 Nintendo Direct and was explicitly confirmed during the game's official reveal at E3 2018 on 12 June 2018. Additionally, she has a unique ability among the cast to attack with ink, providing exclusive gameplay features.
Design
Inkling's default appearance is that of an orange, light-skinned, female Inkling with the default Hippie haircut, wearing the 
Gameplay
Inkling is a fittingly fast and slippery character to play as and is characterized by being able to cover ground effectively and attack quickly. As a middleweight, she has mostly decent mobility stats with noticeably fast running, air movement, and attack speed. This allows her to chain her moves together well and can rush down an opponent with quick combos before they can react. Her recovery is also impressive and she performs well off-stage, being able to use her fast speed and attacks to prevent opponents from recovering. Additionally, Inkling's ability to ink opponents is unique and allows her to deal additional damage and slow opponents down in a way that no other character can, at the cost of giving her a slight learning curve.
However, Inkling has some downsides as well. Despite being effective at dealing damage, she has difficulty getting KOs due to her most effective attacks being her slowest or most situational. Her grounded attacks are also less effective than her aerial ones, forcing her to grab opponents to start dealing more damage—something at odds with her ranged special attacks. Additionally, her recovery, although useful, is quite predictable and easy to defend against, while her ink needs to be constantly managed and refilled at key moments or else some of her best attacks drastically lose effectiveness or even become completely ineffective. Despite this, Inkling has no glaring weaknesses. Her generally middling stats with above-average speed and ink ability allow her to rack up damage incredibly well, even if she has some difficulty getting KOs. Overall, Inkling is viewed as a high-ranking character.
Moves
- By holding alongside or , Inkling hides in a puddle of ink and begins refilling her ink tank, which is displayed next to her damage information. This leaves her immobile but crouching very low.
- Unlike most playable characters, Inkling can crawl and wall jump.
- Ink coated on opponents increases their damage received by up to 50% and takes up to twenty seconds to wear off. Opponents walking through ink are slowed down.
| Move | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Standard attacks | ||
| Neutral attack | A chop, followed by a right then left kick. If is mashed, the third hit is replaced by shots from the Splattershot, covering the opponent in ink, with a finishing hit when released. Without ink, this flurry becomes ineffective. | |
| Forward tilt | Swings the Splattershot forwards and down. | |
| Up tilt | Kicks overhead. Quick and good for combos. | |
| Down tilt | Windmills her legs on the floor, hitting twice. Also crouches under some attacks. | |
| Dash attack | Hits with her elbow. Does average damage but poor knockback. | |
| Neutral aerial | Spins upside-down with her legs out. Only hits once, despite the animation. | |
| Forward aerial | Kicks both legs forwards, doing extra damage on the feet. | |
| Back aerial | Swings the Splattershot backwards. Very fast and wide, making it good for defending. | |
| Up aerial | Kicks upwards twice, spinning one and a half times. | |
| Down aerial | Swings the Splattershot downwards. Very slow but deals extra damage at the nozzle, smashing opponents directly downwards if so. | |
| Floor attack | Shoots the Splattershot on either side of her while getting to her feet, hitting on both sides but without using ink. Deals slightly less damage if performed after tripping. | |
| Edge attack | Swings the Splattershot forwards while returning to the stage. | |
| Grabs and throws | ||
| Grab pummel | While holding the opponent with her left hand, stomps on their foot, leading into a throw. | |
| Forward throw | Shoots the Splattershot into the opponent, forcing them forwards. Hits twice and ends by covering the opponent in ink. Without ink, the first hit is ineffective and the second does not ink the opponent. Can never KO. | |
| Back throw | In squid form, grabs the opponent with her tentacles, spins around and throws the opponent backwards. Surprisingly powerful. | |
| Up throw | Throws the opponent upwards, hitting them once, then headbutts them in squid form, hitting a second time. | |
| Down throw | Throws the opponent into the ground, bouncing them forwards slightly. | |
| Smash attacks | ||
| Forward smash |  Inkbrush
|
Swings the Inkbrush forwards, covering opponents in ink. Surprisingly powerful at the tip. Without ink, does significantly lower damage. |
| Up smash |  Blaster
|
Prepares the Blaster, knocking opponents into the air, then shoots directly upwards, covering opponents in ink. Without ink, does significantly lower damage. |
| Down smash |  Slosher
|
Attacks with the Slosher forwards, then backwards, covering opponents in ink. Deals less damage from behind and is more powerful closer to Inkling. Without ink, does significantly lower damage. |
| Special attacks | ||
| Neutral special | Splattershot
|
Fires the Splattershot forwards while is held, similarly to her neutral attack finisher, dealing extremely low damage per hit but hitting very fast. Can be angled but only causes opponents to flinch when close, being pushed back if otherwise. Deals less damage and has less range with low ink. If used without ink, begins refilling ink instead. |
| Side special |  Splat Roller
|
Rolls the Splat Roller forwards, inking the ground. If the opponent is grounded, they become buried and covered in ink; otherwise, they are only knocked back. Does not affect opponents in midair. Must be manually cancelled with a jump or else it slows down to a stop. If used without ink, it barely moves and becomes ineffective. If the ink runs out mid-use, it deals very low damage without burying or inking the opponent. |
| Up special | Super Jump | Super Jumps very high upwards and can be angled slightly while moving. Deals low damage at launch and landing, but not during the jump. |
| Down special |  Splat Bomb
|
Throws a Splat Bomb forward which explodes after a couple of seconds, covering opponents in ink. If is held, the Splat Bomb is thrown further, deals more damage, and applies more ink. If used without enough ink, Inkling does not attack and simply looks around. If used with no ink, begins refilling ink instead. |
| Final Smash |  Killer Wail
|
Appears in her special weapon charged appearance, then fires the Killer Wail across the stage, dealing a very fast stream of weak hits that also inks opponents. A very large and powerful attack that can also be angled up and down but Inkling can still be freely controlled. |
Taunts
- Up taunt: Pumps the Splattershot in the air twice. Based on the standard up signal, "This way!"
- Side taunt: Fires the Splattershot one-handed into the air behind her.
- Down taunt: Jumps on the spot twice while waving her arms. Based on the down signal, "Booyah!"
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Up Taunt
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Side Taunt
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Down Taunt
Victory poses
Inkling's victory poses are based off of their Shooter, Roller and Slosher victory animations from Splatoon. Both the male and female Inkling's have different animations for each one.
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Pose 1 (Female)
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Pose 1 (Male)
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Pose 2 (Female)
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Pose 2 (Male)
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Pose 3 (Female)
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Pose 3 (Male)
Palutena's Guidance
While playing as Pit on the standard form of the Palutena's Temple stage, performing a down taunt for a split second allows him to have a conversation with fellow Kid Icarus characters Palutena and Viridi about one of the other characters in the battle. This Easter egg, referencing the style of Kid Icarus: Uprising, features one conversation for each base game fighter, plus Piranha Plant. However, if Pit is hit during the taunting animation, the sequence will not work again for the rest of the match.
The Palutena's Guidance conversation for Inkling is listed below.
- Pit: Uh, are you guys seeing this? This girl/guy can turn herself/himself into an octopus!
- Palutena: A squid, actually. This curious lifeform is an Inkling. They're squids who evolved to shapeshift into human form.
- Viridi: Inklings rose to power 12,000 years after mammals went extinct.
- Pit: EXTINCT?!
- Viridi: Yep. The monkeys were eradicated! BOOYAH!
- Pit: Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait a second! If I'm fighting against an Inkling, then... WHAT YEAR IS IT RIGHT NOW?!
- Palutena: Don't think about it too hard, Pit. It'll just make your brain sweat.
- Pit: Twelve thousand years of missed meals? Aw man...
- Palutena: Focus, Pit. If an Inkling hits you with an ink attack, you'll take extra damage until the ink evaporates. However, Inklings can't use ink attacks if their Ink Tank is empty. That's the time to strike!
Notes
- Pit mistaking Inkling for an octopus may be a reference to Octolings, which only appear in the game as spirits and a DLC Mii Fighter wig.
- Viridi's joy over the extinction of humans is based on her role in Kid Icarus: Uprising. As the Goddess of Nature, she had developed a hatred of humanity and attempted to humanely eradicate them to restore the balance of nature to Earth before she became an uneasy ally of Pit and Palutena.
- Her use of "booyah" is a reference to the signal from the Splatoon games.
Gallery
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Costume 2
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Costume 3, based on Agent 3
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Costume 4
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Costume 5
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Costume 6
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Costume 7
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Costume 8
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Inkling's default Fighter Spirit
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Inkling's male Fighter Spirit
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Main 2D artwork of Inkling
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Two Inklings in-game
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Trivia
- To adjust for the Super Smash Bros. gameplay, Inkling uses a wider variety of weapons at once than is possible normally.
- Additionally, her Splattershot does not use Burst Bombs and the Bomb Rush like in Splatoon, but instead uses Splat Bombs and the Killer Wail—a combination that does not exist on any weapon in the game.
- Although potentially difficult to notice during active gameplay, Inkling's ink tank displays the same information as it does in the Splatoon series. The ink always matches its usable level, a red LED lights up when Splat Bombs can be used, and a red line indicates how much ink is required to use Splat Bombs.
- Inkling's Splat Bombs use 20% of the ink tank rather than 70% as in the Splatoon games, and the ink tank is changed to reflect this.
- Splat Roller is the only move that inks the ground, despite all represented weapons doing so in the Splatoon games. This may be for game balancing purposes.
- However, shooting the Splattershot neutral special in the normal form of Moray Towers will cause the ground to be briefly covered in ink, albeit only as an aesthetic effect.
- Unlike in the Splatoon series, Inkling can swim in water like all fighters in the game can. However, like the few other fighters who cannot swim or are weak to water in their own games, she has a more panicked animation and takes slight damage over time while swimming.
- Inkling's sixth costume bears a slight resemblance to Specs from the Splatoon manga.
