The Beginner’s Guide to Training the Inkling amiibo in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

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by Olirik – Guest Contributor

English is Olirik’s second language: as a result, the English in this guide may be a little choppy. That’s okay – this just means you’re getting the best information in the world!

Hello there, my name is Olirik and I’m the author of this Inkling Amiibo guide! Since the time that this guide is published, I’ve labbed the Inkling Amiibo for more than 2 years, and trained over 40 different bin files of Inkling Amiibo.
I own 10 different Inkling Figurines, but my 2 most notables Inklings are Jade and Agent Léa.
Jade got me my first win in an Amiibo tournament, something we usually don’t see for an Inkling
amiibo since we all know that Inkling is a Low Tier amiibo. Now that I’ve introduced myself, let’s jump right into the guide.

If you’re interested in training the Inkling amiibo but don’t know where to look, this Amazon Affiliates link can help you! We get a cut from sales made through this link.

AI Issues

The Major AI issue, that gives Inkling her low placement in the Tier List, has a big hit in Inkling’s
moveset : The Ink system. The AI is terrible at handling it. It knows that it has to refill at some point but does it rarely. The AI mainly tries to refill ink in small chunks, which leaves her vulnerable.
After a few attempts, I’ve found out that the Inkling amiibo tends to recharge ink more often when
it’s near an opponent, or near the center of the stage after killing her opponent. However that AI issue, even as massive as it is, is curable.
Refilling Ink has to be your #1 priority. I’ll touch on it a bit later.

Next, as we all know, Inkling is a combo fighter. They can do insane combos in the air, and grind up damage easily. But we usually see that in human battles, not amiibo amiibo battles.

I’ve heard that whole hateful speech about “Inkling needs a nerf” over social media, these are
crybabies. Being a combo fighter also means struggling to kill.

And of course, we have that issue with Inkling’s AI: it can do decent stuff, but usually ends up dying
first from a stronger attack unless it has a giant lead.

There’s one last issue I need to point out, it’s the Roller Recovery.
What I mean by roller recovery is that the AI knows that it benefits from a small jump after leaving
the roller.

That definitely helps her horizontal recovery, but it has a problem that I’ve noticed.
If you use it too often to recover, the AI will also do it too often, and sometimes, hold on to it and
goes into an SD, especially if she uses it when there’s no more ink in the tank.

Overall Playstyle

Inkling is better when she doesn’t jump a lot and mainly uses the smash attacks despite the fact that she can run out of Ink.

You can teach your Inkling Amiibo to go offstage or edgeguard, both options are viable for her. The Smash attacks are the most important ones to train into the Inkling.

You also want your Inkling to be able to parry often. Shield also works, but Parry is so much better
for Inkling.

How to Train the Inkling amiibo

So, I’m going to tell you what I recommend or don’t recommend on Inkling Amiibo. But before I explain the moves, there’s a #1 priority you have to maintain for the best chances to improve
the Ink system (one which I rigorously tested for). There’s only one way that will work in order to
fix this AI issue.
You have to make sure that you use the refill option very often during the training, even if your tank is not even halfway empty! This will tell the AI to refill more often after launching an opponent away.

Now to cure the juggle part, you have to hold the refill animation for its full duration which is
around 4-5 seconds. Even with that, the issue will still be there or not if you’re lucky. If the issue is still there, it’ll at least help her/him into handling the Ink System properly.

Now that the #1 priority is out of the way, we can move ahead to the method to train your Inkling
Amiibo.

The Main Moves

The main moves you want your Inkling Amiibo to learn are the Smash Attacks.
Forward Smash (The Inkbrush) must be used more often than the two others. It doesn’t cost too
much in terms of Ink, and therefore can be spammed. It’s the best kill option for Inkling without a
doubt.
If at any instance you run out of Ink (which should never happen), you don’t have to worry much, the
Inkbrush still has a decent knockback, less than with Ink, but still okay.
However, if won’t kill from the other side of an Omega stage at 150% if there’s no ink in the tank
left, so careful about it. Don’t forget to tell your squid to refill often.
The other two smash attacks, Up Smash (The Blaster) and Down Smash (The Slosher) must have
the same ratio between each other but way less than Forward Smash.
The Blaster deals more damage than Forward Smash with Ink for both. It also covers a lot above
your squid and therefore is a great anti-air. However it costs more ink than Forward Smash. So keep it for anti-air opponents.
The Slosher is a move that the closer the opponent is from Inkling, the stronger this move is, but it’s the most expensive move in terms of Ink between the 3 smash attacks.
However, Down Smash has a longer range than Forward Smash, and it covers both sides which
cannot be ignored. So try to keep this move for any rushing opponent or to edgeguard.
Tilt Attacks are so-so of a choice. Forward Tilt can be mixed up with Forward Smash as a main
move, Down Tilt only to edgeguard, Up Tilt to avoid.

Edgeguarding

For the Edgeguard style, you want your Inkling Amiibo to stay focused on the Smash Attacks, so
avoid the Air Attacks, unless it’s a follow up for a 2-move combo.
Avoid Playing with the Special Attacks, let the AI decide when to use it or not, focus on the Smash
Attacks and the refill part. The ONLY Special Attack you can think of using is the Roller (Side
Special), but RARELY use it.

The AI also knows how to punish any opponent that got burried by this move. But there’s one
problem : this move is the most expensive in terms of ink. If this move is held too long, it can
empty out the tank quickly. You can choose to either use this move or to avoid it.
I don’t recommend using Down Special (Ink Bomb) to edgeguard, because it’s better to use Down
Smash or Down Tilt. So, unless your Inkling Amiibo aim perfectly at her/his opponent, don’t use
this move.

Offstage

The Offstage style is the style I use the most. This style is similar to the edeguard style with the
focus on Smash Attacks and the refill part.
But instead of edgeguarding, you go offstage with a Down Air to go for a spike or a gimp. With that style, Down Special and Down Tilt are to avoid at any cost.
If you don’t want Down Air because doesn’t connect proprely, you can still go for a gimp with a
Neutral Air or Forward Air.
Back Air must be used only for reverse kills to any opponent that dares trying to mess with an
Inkling offstage.

Spirits

This guide is made originally for Vanilla Inkling Amiibo, however, it also works if you want to
make your Inkling a Raid Boss or for Spirit amiibo Battles.
If you want to have a Spirited Inkling Amiibo, my suggestion is to have stats between 2100-2100 to
2300-1900 and any of the following supports in terms of legal spirits :
Remember to always give your Amiibo spirits BEFORE training (This goes for any Amiibo in general)

• Air Attack
• Weapon Attack (Must Have)
• Physical Attack (Foot Attack works as well)
• Toss & Meteor
• Move Speed UP
• Landing Lag Down
  If you want to put a banned spirit, and therefore making your Inkling Amiibo only for Raid Boss
  battles, not competitive, you can pick either Auto-Heal paired up with Weapon Attack or you can go
  for AKS (Armor Knight + Move Speed UP).

During the level up of the spirited Inkling, start using no spirits from level 1 to lvl 30 when facing
your amiibo. Being too strong at the start will scare your Inkling Amiibo, causing it to roll more and
you don’t want that.
Passing level 30, use the Primal Spirit “Goomba” and keep learning on until you see your Inkling
Amiibo destroying you even with the spirit.
The AI will gain more confidence as it have the upper hand on you.
Keep being spiritless after level 30, and you’ll realize that your spirited squid will struggle to kill
more than usual.

Conclusion

You’ve now the knowledge of how to make your squid an upcoming star!
I hope this guide was able to help you discover the mystery Inkling can be sometimes. For training
the Inkling Amiibo over 2 years, it’s a bit obvious that Inkling is my favourite character.
Some people that use higher tiers more often think that Inkling is just a low tier Amiibo, and some
people even doubt that she’s worse than Bayonetta sometimes.
To those kind of people, I answer “Don’t underestimate Low Tiers”. Now, ladies and gentlemen,
pick up your Inkling Amiibo and give her/him a shot with the help of this guide.
Let’s win the turf war against the top tiers!