Inkling is a character that excels greatly in many areas but is typically defined by quick, slippery movement and fast attack speed. As a result, most attributes are overall consistent with combo-heavy middleweights, with a focus on a fast-approach "footsies" playstyle: she has fast overall mobility due to her high initial dash (16th highest) and running speeds (22nd highest), alongside high air speed (12-16th fastest, tied with Sonic, Mario, Little Mac and Donkey Kong). However, the rest of Inkling's traits are mostly average, with middling air acceleration, fall speed, walk speed, and weight, and low traction. As a result, she can easily traverse large distances very quickly, but can have issues changing directions in midair; additionally, the combination of middling weight and fast fall speed do not give much of an advantage when escaping combos.
Inkling's greatest strength is, fittingly, fast general movement and attack speed. Inkling's dash is notable for shifting her entire hurtbox during movement, which in some cases allows her to low-profile through certain attacks, and its obscure animation - which shares a visual similarity with her spot dodge animation - as well as her strong initial dash gives the character one of the strongest and most deceptive dash-dances in the entire game. While the range on many of her attacks is rather lacking, this is made up for by decently fast frame data (although many of her moves have noticeable lag), which allows Inkling to put her fast mobility to good use and rush opponents down in a flurry of moves. Additionally, Inkling boasts a strong ground and aerial offense, with many moves being capable of stringing together, particularly when coupled with an up throw, which is an effective combo initiator until high percents and can even KO through its setups. As a result, opponents can have a tough time finding openings in her offense, since her high speed and low landing lag allow her to weave around any foe very easily, and an extremely potent combo ability easily turns any mistake on their end into a potential combo starter.
The character's damage racking potential is further enhanced by the unique ink mechanic, lifted from their game of origin, Splatoon. Select moves - such as Splattershot - will cover opponents in ink, which increases damage dealt to them up to a maximum of 1.5x, though this will wear off over time. When an opponent is fully inked, many combos are capable of effectively dishing out surprising amounts of damage over a short period on careless opponents. Because of these traits, alongside aforementioned ones, Inkling sports what is commonly believed by many to be the best neutral attack in the game; although its startup isn't the fastest at frame 3, it sports good range and has a rapid finisher that applies enough ink to the opponent to meet the full multiplier, which sets up the opponent for massive damage strings. As a downside, this ink mechanic also affects the power of certain moves such as the aforementioned neutral attack infinite, forward throw, special moves and smash attacks, which lose significant KO power or damage on an empty Ink Tank (with some moves being rendered completely unusable). Due to this, Inkling has to recharge the Ink Tank by going into a "charging" stance once the Ink Tank is completely depleted. As this leaves Inkling wide open to attacks with no escape options till the charge animation ends, managing the ink supply with care is crucial, and it is important to keep a safe distance from the opponent when recharging.
Inkling also has powerful offstage capability due to her attributes. Despite having a relatively linear recovery, Inkling is able to vary it by double jumping out of Splat Roller in combination with the very long-reaching Super Jump, allowing the recovery to be less predictable and allowing her to stay airborne for extended periods. Inkling's Super Jump also has a very generous edge sweetspot range, making it hard for certain characters to two-frame them, and due to its deceptive startup hitbox, it can be used to gimp off-stage opponents, in some cases even stage-spiking them. Coupled with the sheer speed of the moves, this makes it difficult to challenge Inkling with an offstage edgeguard. Inkling also has one of the best air speeds to supplement this and likewise can edgeguard very proficiently through strong usage of aerials. Among the most notable is her back aerial, which is one of her safest moves not only offstage but also in the neutral game, as it sports a notable disjoint - making it one of Inkling's safest moves on shield if properly spaced - and is able to combo into itself at mid-percents, which can lead to a wall of pain in certain situations. Her forward aerial exchanges the disjoint and overall versatility for strength, having stronger knockback when sweetspotted which can lead to guaranteed off-stage KOs at mid-to-high percents, and its sourspot can make for a decent gimping tool on select characters. Inkling's Splat Bombs are a crucial tool both in neutral and when covering the ledge; while the bomb can be thrown off-stage to intercept the opponent, the angle and awkward timer of the bomb also makes for a powerful frame trapping tool, particularly on opponents that are recovering on the ledge.
Even with a fantastic set of strengths, the character is not without several weaknesses. Despite having high damage racking potential, most of Inkling's strongest KO moves are all comparatively unsafe - particularly Splat Roller and several smash attacks - often forcing the character to rely on reads, edgeguarding, and immaculate spacing in order to guarantee a KO at earlier percents. While this issue is partially alleviated by Inkling being one of the few characters in the game to have a kill confirm off of a grab, the percentage windows vary from character to character - with the confirm being borderline impossible on a select few characters - and it is also affected by rage. The ink mechanic also forces Inkling to be resourceful with many of her moves, as without ink, she loses access to several crucial attacks such as Splat Roller, and Splat Bomb. Despite Inkling's strong aerial combo game, it is highly centralized around grabs due to her lacking a reliable grounded combo starter. This is further compounded by Inkling's mediocre regular ground attacks; despite sporting disjointed hitboxes on her forward tilt and down tilt, they possess little utility outside of spacing due to neither leading into any follow-ups or being able to KO. Finally, Inkling occasionally suffers from dubious hitbox placements, notably in her up tilt which lacks horizontal coverage, as well as her neutral aerial, meaning that, despite her good aerial speed, she possesses neither the most reliable landing options at a disadvantage, nor the best out of shield options.
Overall, Inkling is a rounded character with solid mobility stats and damage racking capability overall. Her deceptive traits and a strong set of attacks make her a versatile fighter that excels both at defensive and offensive play. However, her lack of easy KO options relative to the upper-tier cast forces the character to maintain strong consistency in her play, as she can occasionally struggle to score KOs and makeup stock deficits, particularly against opponents who have a much easier time KOing or stymieing her movement options. Inkling has seen strong tournament representation, with players such as Armada, Abadango, and Space using Inkling as their mains to large degrees of success, with Cosmos being considered the best Inkling player in the world, having had the most consecutive Top 8 appearances at PGR events during its first season. Inkling's potential in doubles was noted by Masahiro Sakurai himself as being one of the character's strengths, allowing teammates to rack up damage even faster. Due to her traits and consistent representation, many top players have speculated early on that Inkling is a solid top-tier candidate.
Final Smash: Killer Wail
The Inkling pulls out a large megaphone-like machine and places it on the ground. The machine then emits large damaging sound waves which can be angled. Then, Killer Wail replaces the sound waves with a blast of ink, covering other fighters in it. While somewhat similar to Zero Laser in function, it differs in allowing the Inkling to act normally while the Killer Wail is active.