Smash Bros Ultimate: How to Play Inkling (Moves, Strengths, Weaknesses, Strategies)

How to Play Inkling in Super Smash Bros Ultimate

Super Smash Bros Ultimate brings a staggering roster of over 70 characters, featuring every character ever included in the series. There are a host of new ones too, however, and chief among those is the adorable Inkling from Splatoon. With an entirely new character, you’ll no doubt be wondering the ins and outs of their move set, and we’re here to help give you a few tips on how to play the newest Nintendo icon. Here’s how to play Inkling in Smash Bros Ultimate.

Attacks and Special Moves

The Inkling’s entire move set is based around the concept of ink, and if you’ve played Splatoon the character will feel immediately familiar. The character’s attacks are governed by an ink meter that depletes as you use specials and smash attacks. Once depleted you can hold B to charge it up, or at any time you can pop your shield (L or R) and hold B to charge.

Most of Inkling’s moves are quick, and their speed is quite a bit higher than most characters in Smash Bros Ultimate. Of course, as you might expect this means that they’re one of the squishier characters and can take serious damage, also being easy to launch.

When playing as Inkling you’ll want to be really careful of tank characters like Bowser, Ridley, and Ike, as they can send you flying with one attack.

One of the Inkling’s most useful attacks in Smash Bros Ultimate is its simple neutral combo on A. Simply tapping the A button repeatedly will have them hit the enemy ahead and then splat them with a series of shots from their gun. This can cause absurd damage, especially if the enemy is already inked, so always keep it in mind if you need to raise an opponent’s percentage quick.

Neutral Special – Inkling fires their gun at a rapid pace, you can control where they shoot by using the control stick. Enemies that are inked will take increased damage from attacks.

Side Special – Inkling charges forward with their roller. This attack goes into a loop once you it B, and you can run back and forth with the roller. To come out of the attack you’ll need to hit B again. Enemies hit with the roller with be stuck in the ground and stunned for a few seconds.

Up Special – Inkling turns into their squid form and rockets into the air. Great for recovery and can cause damage to enemies on landing.

Down Special – Inkling throws an ink grenade that explodes in a wide radius after a few seconds. By holding down+B you can extend the range of the throw. Just tapping the button will have Inkling throw it right in front of them, while holding it down will make them throw it at high speed straight ahead.

This move is great for causing damage, especially if opponents are bunched up.

Inkling’s Strengths and Weaknesses in Smash Bros Ultimate

Strengths 

• Quick and agile
• Good aerial recovery
• Opponents that are inked will take more damage

Weaknesses

• Ink has to be managed like a resource
• Recharging ink can take a while, and attacks do less damage if ink is depleted
• Takes constant damage in the water
• Easier to launch than bigger characters

Inkling Strategies and Tips for Smash Bros Ultimate

Inkling’s greatest asset is their speed, and it’s something you’ll constantly want to take advantage of while playing as them. The character completely revolves around the ink mechanic, as you might expect, and it’s something you’ll want to learn to harness if you want to play as Inkling.

You an use the roller side special to stick an opponent in the ground, then quickly cancel out of it and start spraying them with their gun. This will set you up in a good position to really cause some damage, as they’ll take more inked.

The Inkling also has exceptional recovery ability, as they shoot straight up with their up special, allowing them to recover from almost any launch. The really neat thing about their up special is that the splash when they land can damage nearby enemies, so it’s a useful move to loop into your overall strategy outside of recovering.

Use the Inkling’s speed to help recover your ink, dashing to an open spot in the field and then holding shield (L or R) plus the B button to charge up your ink meter. Your Smash attacks especially will have reduced power with no ink, so try and keep the resource up at all times.

The Inkling’s ink will completely recharge upon respawning, however, so if you’re near death it might be a better idea to just fight your way until you die, then respawn and unleash your ink on already damaged enemies. The character’s Smash attacks also have decent range, so Inklink ends up being a medium range fighter with their specials and attacks.

Generally, with Inkling you’ll want to keep on the move, use that mobility to an advantage to dodge and dash around enemies. Always keep an eye on your ink meter and constantly use the Inklings specials to increase the amount of damage you can cause.

There’s everything you need to know about how to play Inkling in Smash Bros Ultimate. For even more tips and guides take a look at our Super Smash Bros Ultimate guide wiki. We also have more guides on how to play new characters, like Ridley.

It’s filled with guides on how to unlock all characters, what the install size is, how to play as new characters such as Ridley and Incineroar, as well as how to get spirit points, how to level up spirits and how many spirits there are.