Splatoon 3 gear and ability guide for beginners

Splatoon 3Gear is everything. Whether you like a fit because it’s meta or because you just like the look of it, there are ways to beef it up to make it suit your play style.

Upgrades can seem overwhelming for players who are just starting out. Check out our Splatoon 3 beginner’s guide will explain how to upgrade your gear using Chops Murch.

Table of Contents

How gear functions in Splatoon 3

Every gear is a Main ability slotUp to three Subslots. The more, the better Star powerA piece of gear will have more subslots the more stars it has. The amount of XP that you receive for every star your gear earns after it’s second star is increased by each additional star.

Matches can be played at Turf WarOr Anarchy BattleTo gain XP, your gear will be able to acquire random abilities or Ability Chunks. To avoid random elements, Ability Chunks can be used to choose which abilities to add to your gear.

Depending on the gear’s brand, specific abilities will appear on it more often, and others will appear less often. Below are the details.

How to Upgrade Gear and Use Ability Chunks

Murch, the sea-urchin who lives right outside of the lobby, can offer a range of valuable services. He’ll scrub all the sub-abilities off your gear and give you an Ability Chunk per ability for 20,000 gold. You can give him 20,000 gold. Super Sea SnailsYou have the option to increase star power and reroll your ability subslots.

Image: Nintendo via Polygon

He can also use Ability Chunks for specific abilities. You will need 45 Ability Chunks for the main ability. 10 Ability Chunks are required to place the first sub-ability on your gear. If you wish to put multiple instances of the exact same ability on the same piece of gear, however, your Ability Chunks cost will increase to 20 to set two and 30 to set three. If I needed three, for example Swim Speed UpIt would take me 60 Swim Speed Up Ability Chounks to get the ability on my shoes.

Buy duplicates of similar gear at regular shops to increase star power. Each upgrade is more expensive though. Although you can reset your gear’s abilities by exchanging it for one in the shop, this will result in no Ability Chunks.

Image: Nintendo via Polygon

How to quickly farm Ability Chunks

You have two options to raise Ability Chunks. Salmon Run Splatfests.

Salmon Run is a great way to grow chunks of meat

Salmon Run rewards you repeatedly with randomly selected reward capsules as well as one particular piece of equipment. As of this writing, the Bream Brim Cap is the gear. You can only have one copy of the gear, so the other one will be scrapped and you’ll get Ability Chunks for the abilities. You can quickly get Ability Chunks just by spamming Salmon Run or chunking your gear.

Salmon Run’s Bonus Meter does reset every 40 hours, so you’ll have to earn around 1,200 points before you start getting only gear as a reward each time it resets.

Image: Nintendo via Polygon

Splatfests are a great way to grow chunks

It Splatfest TeeThree sub-slots are available for the Splatfest (which can be gotten a week prior to any Splatfest). To scrub, it costs only 2,000 gold. You can play regular matches using the Splatfest Tee.

You can also use an ability drink to get chunks of a particular ability. Ability drinks can be purchased from The Shell-out Machine randomly.)

Image: Nintendo via Polygon

Your gear will be more efficient if you drink an ability drink. Players using this strategy recommend scrubbing your Splatfest Tee after it gets its first ability to minmax the use of the drink, since it’s only active for 20 matches.

Are there any special abilities that are better than others in Splatoon 3

It is clear that there are certain abilities that people tend to use most often, such as Swim Speed Up or Ink Saver. However, the specific abilities of your gear will depend on how you play and what weapon you choose.

You might like to rush in and throw bombs at people, so Swim Speed Up and Ink Saver (Sub) are worth adding to your equipment. You might love to fire off Tenta Missiles. Special Power Up is your best sub-ability.