Inkling

For fighter info, see Inkling (SSBU).

Inkling
Official artwork of an Inkling from Splatoon.
Universe	Splatoon
Debut	Splatoon (2015)
Smash Bros. appearances	SSB4 Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance	Splatoon 3 (2022)
Console/platform of origin	Wii U
Species	Inkling
Gender	Varies
Place of origin	Earth Inkopolis (surrogate home) Splatlands (surrogate home)
Created by	Shintaro Sato Hisashi Nogami Tsubasa Sakaguchi Yusuke Amano
Designed by	Seita Inoue
Voice actor	Yuki Tsuji
Article on Inkipedia	Inkling

The Inkling (インクリング, Inkling) is the species of player characters from the Splatoon universe.

After making cameos in Super Smash Bros. 4 as a downloadable trophy and Mii Costume, Inkling transitioned into a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Origin

A green Inkling in squid form in Splatoon.

Inklings are creatures that can transform between a squid form and a humanoid form. They act as the players' avatars in the Splatoon series, although players can also choose to play as Octolings in Splatoon 2 if they have purchased and completed the Octo Expansion and from the start in Splatoon 3. Newborn Inklings initially only have access to their squid form and slowly go through a metamorphosis into their humanoid form, reaching maturity after about fourteen years.

Turf War battles between teams of Inklings involve using a variety of weapons to cover the map with their team's colored ink—which they can swim in while in squid form—while disrupting the other team's attempt to do the same within the time limit of three minutes. Inklings are also very fashionable, as they can be seen wearing different outfits as well as sporting different hairstyles (though alternate hairstyle options are introduced in Splatoon 2). Inklings are also colored based on the color of their team in battles.

The Inkling outfits and headgear for Mii Fighters resemble the most prominent Inklings featured in promotional art, which are also used for their amiibo designs.

• An orange Inkling girl with the Hippie hairstyle wearing the White Tee and Pink Trainers, introduced in Splatoon.
• A blue Inkling boy with the Topknot hairstyle wearing the Zink Layered LS and Purple Hi-Horses, introduced in Splatoon.
• A green Inkling squid, introduced in Splatoon.
• A pink Inkling girl with the Haircut hairstyle wearing the King Flip Mesh, White King Tank, and Mint Dakroniks, introduced in Splatoon 2.
• A green Inkling boy with the Slick hairstyle wearing the Squidfin Hook Cans, Black V-Neck Tee, and Yellow-Mesh Sneakers, introduced in Splatoon 2.

In Super Smash Bros. 4

As a costume

The Inkling Outfit and wigs in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

The Inklings are shown in the original promotional art for Splatoon are the basis for two paid downloadable content costumes: the Inkling Outfit for Mii Gunners (with matching Inkling Wig headgear) and a standalone piece of headgear, the Inkling Squid Hat. Two QR codes were also released for those who wish to have the exact Miis used in the Inkling Outfit's advertising – one for the male Inkling and one for the female one.

These outfits could be obtained for free with copies of Splatoon purchased from GameStop in North America before June 13th, 2015. Otherwise, they were made purchasable on the eShop beginning on June 14th, 2015.

Trophy

The Inkling trophy was automatically unlocked after purchasing the Inkling Outfit.

Inkling's trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS

Inkling's trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Inkling

Meet the Inklings, a mysterious race of beings that can transform into squid at will! They like to octopi their time with frantic, multicolored turf wars, and they won't miss out on any oppor-tuna-ty to get to the top. And we wouldn't go so far as to call them cod's gift to fashion, but check out that fresh style!

: Splatoon (05/2015)

Meet the Inklings, a mysterious race of squid that can take a humanoid form at will. They like to octopi their time with frantic, multi-coloured turf wars between rivals, and they won't miss out on any oppor-tuna-ty to get to the top! And we wouldn't go so far as to call them cod's gift to fashion, but check out that style!

: Splatoon (06/2015)

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

As a playable character

The default female Inkling, as they appear in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Both male and female Inklings appear as unlockable newcomers in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The initial teaser trailer for the then-untitled Ultimate featured an orange Inkling and a blue one from Splatoon's original promotional art, although they were not explicitly confirmed to be fighters until Nintendo's E3 2018 presentation, where the orange one was confirmed to be the default. Inkling can potentially be the first fighter unlocked due to being the first fighter in Samus' Classic Mode unlock tree.

In Ultimate, Inkling incorporates ink as a key component of their moveset and can apply it via a number of attacks. Inkling can also transform into their squid form via their dash, spot dodge, air dodge, roll, up throw, back throw and Super Jump, as well as while refilling their Ink Tank. Although Inkling dissolves in water in the Splatoon series, this trait is not carried over into Ultimate; instead, it is referenced by Inkling receiving continuous damage while swimming.

As a costume

The Splatoon 2 costume set in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

In addition to the returning Splatoon costumes from Super Smash Bros. 4, Splatoon 2 costumes for the Mii Gunner are available. The Splatoon 2 costumes are based on the pink Inkling girl and the green Inkling boy featured in that game's promotional art.

Spirits

Fighter spirits

• 

  1,025. Inkling (Girl)

• 

  1,026. Inkling (Boy)

Support spirit

No.	Image	Name	Class	Cost	Ability	Series
1,027		Inkling Squid	★★★	1	Up Special ↑	Splatoon Series

Gallery

• 

  The Inkling Squid Hat headgear.

• 

  Inkling costume for a female Mii Gunner.

• 

  Inkling costume for a male Mii Gunner.

• 

  Inkling Squid Hat for a Mii Fighter.

• 

  The default male Inkling as they appear in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

In other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	インクリング, Inkling	—
English	Inkling	—
French	Fille inkling ♀ Garçon inkling ♂	Inkling girl Inkling boy
German	Inkling	—
Spanish	Inkling chica♀ Inkling chico ♂	Inkling girl Inkling boy
Italian	Ragazza Inkling♀ Ragazzo Inkling ♂	Inkling girl Inkling boy
Chinese	Inkling	—
Korean	잉클링, Inkling	—
Dutch	Inkling	—
Russian	Инклинг	—
Portuguese	Inkling	—

Trivia

• The skin color of most Inkling headgear and outfits for Mii Fighters in Smash 4 and Ultimate changes to match the skin color of the Mii wearing them, mirroring the ability to customize the playable Inkling's skin color in Splatoon games.
• Oddly, the European version of SSB4 doesn't change the spelling of "colored" to "coloured" in the Inkling's trophy description.
• Inkling and Wii Fit Trainer are the only fighters with male and female variants where the female is the default variant.
  • Inkling is also the only fighter to have male and female variants where both genders have the same voice actor.
• Inkling and Alph are the only fighters whose console of origin is the Wii U. Unlike Alph, however, Inkling Girl is a standard fighter in her own right (having her own character selection screen slot, being acknowledged by various battle records in-game, etc.), whereas Alph, like Inkling Boy, is an alternate costume character that shares a character slot with Captain Olimar.
  • Due to Alph being an alternate costume character to Olimar (who debuted on the Nintendo GameCube), Inkling is the only standard fighter to debut on the Wii U. By extension, Splatoon is the only franchise to have debuted on the Wii U.
• As with the other fighters with male and female variants, the default male and female Inklings have been established as separate entities. This has been shown in cinematics that promote Ultimate, such as the opening movie of World of Light.
• In some languages, Inkling has two different names to refer to the female and male variants. Villager, Wii Fit Trainer, Pokémon Trainer, Byleth, and the Mii Fighters also share this trait. While "Inkling Girl" and "Inkling Boy" have been officially used in English as well as Japanese, German and Dutch in the Splatoon series and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the English, Japanese, German and Dutch versions of Ultimate do not make this name distinction.
  • The French localizations are the only ones not to capitalize "inkling", treating it as a species name instead of a character name.
• Inkling appears as a playable guest character in Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun!, alongside Kirby, with "Splatoon 2 Medley" also being one of the game's songs.