Inkbrush
An ultra-mobile Brush. Its range is among the shortest of any weapon, but it has brush-dashing as fast as swimming and high painting power. Its job is to run around the enemy side painting everything, flank and harass to keep enemies off balance, and cover its short range with bombs and specials. You need to mash very fast to get its full damage out.
Strength by modeTier and score (win-rate points vs. an average weapon).
| Mode | C–A | S–S+2 | S+3 and up | X Battle | Regular |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Splat Zones | B +0.1 | B +0.5 | B +0.0 | B +0.5 | — |
| Tower Control | B +0.4 | A +1.1 | B +0.7 | A +1.3 | — |
| Rainmaker | B -1.2 | B -0.5 | B -0.8 | B -0.8 | — |
| Clam Blitz | B +1.0 | B -0.2 | B -1.0 | B +0.4 | — |
| Turf War | — | — | — | — | A +3.5 |
Best stages / Worst stages
Tower Control
Rainmaker
Turf War
Strengths
- Brush-dashing is about as fast as swimming and doesn't get slowed by enemy ink or grates, so you're quick at flanking, escaping and getting there first at the start
- Top-tier burst painting; in Turf War it's great at wrecking the enemy's turf
- Surprisingly high object damage, so it quickly breaks Wave Breakers, Booyah Bombs, Squid Beakons, Sprinklers and more
- The base version's bomb → Killer Wail (full ink refill) → bomb combo lets you pressure a wide area, even enemies your main can't reach
Watch out for
- Extremely short range and fast damage falloff, so it loses most head-on fights
- Getting a fast TTK takes super-fast mashing, and your damage drops when your fingers get tired
- You move slowly while swinging, so you can't catch enemies who back up while shooting
- Head-on, it's at a disadvantage against Brushes with more range or damage like the Octobrush, plus Brellas and Shooters. Blasters on the Tower and Big Bubblers are also hard to break with the main alone
Tips
- Don't charge in from the front. Brush-dash around to the side or behind, then ambush
- Brush-dashing uses more ink than you'd think, so swim normally and brush-dash only over enemy ink, on grates, or when it really counts
- Throw a bomb, refill ink with Killer Wail, then throw another bomb to move enemies who are out of your range
- If mashing is tiring, remap buttons in the system settings so you swing with an easier button. When you're just painting the ground, ease off a bit to rest your fingers
Common gear
Quick Respawn, Stealth Jump, Comeback, Swim Speed Up, Ink Saver (Sub), Quick Super Jump, Special Saver, Ninja SquidThis kit
A harassment kit: Splat Bomb handles zoning out of range and finishing off enemies, and chaining bombs around Killer Wail 5.1's ink refill pressures a wide area.Recent changes
- 11.0.0: System change for all weapons: main weapons get bigger hitboxes against players (the shorter the range, the bigger the boost), squid form gets a smaller hurtbox, and the game adds "Flow Aura" (a temporary power-up when you keep performing well) plus a remaining-health display (source 9)
- 11.1.0: Special points 180→190 (Inkbrush Nouveau) (source 10)
- 11.1.0: Special change, Ultra Stamp: 220-damage radius of the throw about 10% smaller (Inkbrush Nouveau) (source 10)