The key to consistent victory in Splatoon 3 isn’t just in the kind of weapon that you use. It’s also a matter of the gear you’re wearing and the abilities said gear bestows. Different gear brands offer up abilities with varying frequency, but there’s a way to take a more active role in the kind of abilities you’re running. Here’s an explanation of Ability Chunks in Splatoon 3.
Splatoon 3 Ability Chunks Explained
Ability Chunks are, well, chunks of abilities! By chatting with Murch outside of the lobby entrance in Splatsville, he can use Ability Chunks to impart specific abilities onto your gear. It’s a much more efficient system than just leveling your gear up and crossing your fingers, but it also takes a considerable amount of grinding. They can’t just let you have your favorite abilities for free, after all.
Related: How to Order Gear from Murch in Splatoon 3
Ability Chunks can be sourced from a variety of locations and methods, both deliberately and in passing. You can get Ability Chunks from:
- Rolling on the Shell-Out Machine
- Leveling up gear with full ability slots
- Rewards from Grizzco shifts
- Trading in gear rewards from Grizzco
- Scrubbing or rerolling full ability slots with Murch
- Catalog rewards
Using Ability Chunks
Once you’ve got a big stockpile of Ability Chunks, go talk to Murch and choose his Add Abilities service. He can use your Ability Chunks to either swap out a gear piece’s primary or secondary abilities or add entirely new abilities to unfilled secondary ability slots. The number of Ability Chunks Murch needs for this depends on whether you’re messing with primary or secondary abilities and whether or not that gear piece already has an instance of that ability.
Here’s a price list for Murch’s services:
- Swapping a primary ability: 45 Ability Chunks
- Swapping in or adding a new secondary ability: 10 Ability Chunks
- Swapping in or adding a secondary ability you already have one of: 20 Ability Chunks
- Swapping in or adding a secondary ability you already have two of: 30 Ability Chunks
- Any swapped abilities will refund 6 Ability Chunks from the ability you replaced
So, for example, if you wanted to add or swap in an instance of Ink Saver (Sub) onto a piece of gear that already has two instances of Ink Saver (Sub), that’d run you 30 Ability Chunks.
Additionally, there are certain abilities that can only be slotted in as primaries. Rather than their own Ability Chunks, these abilities require 15 Ability Chunks from three different component abilities. When you swap in one of these abilities, you’ll get 2 Ability Chunks from the components as a refund. Some of these abilities can also only be applied to certain types of gear.
The primary-specific abilities and their requirements are as follows:
- Opening Gambit: Headgear only, requires Run Speed Up, Swim Speed Up, and Ink Resistance Up
- Last-Ditch Effort: Headgear only, requires Ink Saver (Main), Ink Saver (Sub), and Ink Recovery Up
- Tenacity: Headgear only, requires Special Charge Up, Special Saver, and Special Power Up
- Comeback: Headgear only, requires Run Speed Up, Swim Speed Up, and Special Charge Up
- Ninja Squid: Clothing only, requires Ink Recovery Up, Run Speed Up, and Swim Speed Up
- Haunt: Clothing only, requires Quick Respawn, Sub Power Up, and Ink Resistance Up
- Thermal Ink: Clothing only, requires Ink Saver (Main), Ink Saver (Sub), and Intensify Action
- Respawn Punisher: Clothing only, requires Special Saver, Quick Respawn, and Sub Resistance Up
- Stealth Jump: Shoes only, requires Quick Super Jump, Sub Resistance Up, and Intensify Action
- Object Shredder: Shoes only, requires Ink Recovery Up, Special Power Up, and Sub Power Up
- Drop Roller: Shoes only, requires Quick Super Jump, Ink Resistance Up, and Intensify Action
One last aside: during Splatfests, Murch offers a special discount. You can scrub your Splatfest Tee for a discounted price, and slotting in abilities only costs 6 Ability Chunks. You can even replace its primary ability, the Splatfest Tee-exclusive Ability Doubler, at the same discounted rate. If you do, though, you won’t be able to get it back on that Splatfest Tee, as Ability Doubler doesn’t drop Ability Chunks when scrubbed.
With a bit of grinding (or a lot of grinding), you can use Ability Chunks to create the perfect gear loadouts for any of Splatoon 3’s game modes. You don’t know true terror until you see a squid bearing down on you with an Ultra Stamp and twelve instances of Special Power Up.
