I'm Ictinia, a ranked inkbrush player who has been using the weapon since its launch. I advocate the weapon a lot for plenty of things, but it is also plagued with drawbacks. In this guide I'll go through the inkbrush's main uses and how you can master the inkbrush in no time.
Summary
The inkbrush is a roller grade weapon. It has a sprinkler as its sub weapon and an inkstrike for its special. The weapon is inherently fast, allowing the user to be able to reach the middle of the map in a very quick time. It can also potentially beat the roller in ink output, but forces the user to have a quick trigger finger. The reason for this is because every click of the ZR button equates to one swipe of the paintbrush, forcing the user to click around 3 times to complete the area in front of him/her. The inkbrush is also very weak in 1v1 engages, using 4 paint flicks to splat the enemy. (Nobody in their right mind would try to run into the enemy with the brush, that's not how it works folks.)
General Pros and Cons
Pros
First and foremost, the ink brush is a support weapon. Regardless of people saying it can be used offensively (which it can, but I'll get into that later), its main purpose is to act in a support function. There's a couple of reasons I say this. It can cover a MASSIVE amount of ground in a short time, but it has very weak 1v1 potential. Yes, you can splat tons of squids with the inkbrush if played properly, but you generally won't have a fun time against aerosprays and chargers if you're new with the brush. The sub weapon and special are also inherently support weapons since their functions are to cover large amounts of ground.
So how do you use the inkbrush as a support weapon? Simple. There are a few key strategies to follow as an inkbrush, all of which I'll be covering in this overview section. Keep in mind, these are not perfect ways to play the inkbrush, but rather strategies that I have picked up game after game with it.
Take a look at your team when you first spawn in a map. Look at what it's composed of and decide your course of action. I included some basic things I look for and what strategy I take in said scenario.
A) The hyper-offensive crew. Usually composed of two or more shooters and/or a charger or roller. Variable crews will look like
B) The mildly-offensive crew. Usually composed of one shooter with two ore more rollers. Variable crews will look like
C) The less-offensive crew or the crew that plain just doesn't work.
I mentioned three strategies in the above (for simplicity sake, I'll abreviate each one) : Homebase strategy, Frontline Fighter strategy, and Assassin Brush strategy. While these are strategies I recommend, there are many alternatives you can take in each scenario.
Homebase strategy : In the homebase strategy, you want to stay back and let your friends fight the war in front of you. A LOT of people have problems with this strategy, but I feel this works best in a game where you have a hyper offensive threat. Here, you can cover a majority of the ground missed by the other players and charge up your special. This will help your team, as they can get an inkstrike which will grab a lot of turf for your team. Of course, you shouldn't stay in base the whole game. After you cover a lot of ground and/or get an inkstrike, you can head out and help your team cover ground or go into the assasin brush strategy. The key thing about this strategy is that you're not covering every single nook and cranny of your base. You're trying to cover the important parts, the visible parts. Don't paint the walls, don't paint little holes in the ink. Ink the large gaping holes, ink the main paths.
Frontline Fighter strategy : It's as the name implies -- you'll be fighting on the frontlines with your offensive threats. In this scenario, one or two rollers will usually be covering the base, so you can rush ahead and try to cover the area that your team will be fighting for a majority of the time. You'll end up in a lot more fights than you bargained for, but by playing smart and using your sub to your advantage, you can effectively 1v2, 1v3, or even 1v4. If you find yourself struggling, the rollers will usually catch up in a minutes time. One or two will usually have a kraken ready to go, so offensive threats can be dealt with. The shooters will be splatted and you can brush your way to their charger and deal with their whole team in a easy couple of steps.
Assassin Brush strategy : This strategy is harder to pull off, but it's extremely fun. You'll be acting as an assassin, splatting the enemy threats when they least expect it. Though I only said that this strategy can work with option C, you can also use it in conjunction with any of the other strategies I mentioned. There are a couple of ways you can splat enemies with the inkbrush. One method I find to work almost 100% of the time is to travel on ink set by my teammates to wall travel to somebody on a higher ledge. They usually don't have a fast enough reaction time to see me jump from the wall into them and I end up winning the trade. There are many other ways to play an assassin brush, but I can't go over all of them in this segment
A good InkBrush user in SplatZones should be very heavily focused on support, but should also try to adapt to a play-style to make it seem as if the user doesn't exist.
What I mean by this is, you need to have a good sense of espionage in how you move around the battlefield. The InkBrush can spread a lot of ink at a good distance and build it's special at an incredible speed, but it uses a lot of ink and it's attack power is not all that good...So you need to be careful when participating in such a heated environment and plan your attach and strategy around its weaknesses.
(And you'd best get your trigger finger ready!)
If your sprinkler can do a job for you, let it.
The sprinkler sub-weapon can cover a lot more ground and cause a lot more chaos than people give it credit for. If you see an open area littered with enemy ink or just plain unattended, toss a sprinkler over there! The ground it can cover is amazing and it'll help you fill your special meter quicker. Also try to toss it in areas where your enemies are going to need to go out of their way to deal with it. Sprinklers are annoying as they are efficient, and if not dealt with can cause lot's of trouble for the enemy team, it may even splat someone! (Try to stick it on ceilings as well if possible)
Don't try to tackle a foe head-on
As I mentioned earlier: This weapon is not that strong. You're going to need to be a sneak more than a tank with this weapon, and patience and timing are key here. You're going to want to outsmart your enemies and lay low a lot. Spread your ink, get moving, hide a little, assess your surroundings and repeat! Try to find a perch, set up a sprinkler, fling ink every once in a while to avoid the zone from being taken if your team misses a spot, and "get the drop on foes" when you have the chance! Most important, don't get noticed...And if you do, MOVE!
Don't be modest with the specials
The InkBrush fills the special meter at a blazing speed, so with all the ink the Brush and Sprinklers spread combined, you should build Ink-Strike after Ink-Strike! When you get these, use them! ...But where you position them is key... You could use it to re-gain control of a Zone, make a path in the ink for you and your team, trap/stall your enemies....It's all about what's going on in the fight. And since using a special re-fills your ink, you can get right back to flinging ink everywhere. Keep up the momentum.
Don't be afraid to be a coward
Running away is something the InkBrush let's you do best, so take advantage of that!
Your sprint speed is even a tad faster than squiding away, and since you leave behind a line of ink it may be trickier for people to give chase. If you are face to face with a foe, try to circle around them somehow and take the element of surprise! Jumping whilst you brush swipe them is also a good tactic as it makes you harder to hit and slightly increases your range.
Lead the charge, or aid in the escape!
The InkBrush (much like the roller) leaves a path of ink behind you that your teammates can follow, and since you move so fast you should be able to get everyone to the zone for defending before the other team and gain the upper-hand with the turf. On the flip-side: If a teammate is struggling for survival, fling your ink and make a path for them to swim away from their impending doom then rush in and quickly finish the enemy off, then get back to your hiding. Helping your allies escape is truly something you're going to need to do at times...So learning how to make good paths to safety is a must.
That about wraps up my basic advice on the important stuff, the rest is up to the player and how they go about using these strategies! The InkBrush (while hard to use) is a blast and is incredibly rewarding if you can master it! - PixL
The sprinkler is capable of filling turf that would normally be considered monotonous or places out of reach / out of your way. The sprinkler can be used offensively, but it's best suited for spreading ink on the ground. Instead of going in-depth in this guide, there's an excellent guide on sprinkler placement by the Inkbrush Brushers Squad.
The inkstrike is an excellent special weapon and it accompanies the inkbrush perfectly with its support role. The inkstrike is a missile that you can shoot out once fully charged to hit any part of the map in a radius. It can be used at any moment of the game (even in the last three seconds, making it impossible for the enemy to cover that ground!) Much like the sprinkler, there is an excellent external guide written by the user Lancelot.
The inkbrush has a lot of neat tricks to make other weapons seem subpar. I'll be going through several tips and tricks that I've encountered while playing with the inkbrush.
Summary
- An introduction to the inkbrush
- Pros and cons
- Overview : Must know strategies
- Turf Wars
- Ranked
- A look into the sprinkler
- Inkstrikes : Making the most use out of them
- Tips and tricks
A case for the inkbrush
The inkbrush is a roller grade weapon. It has a sprinkler as its sub weapon and an inkstrike for its special. The weapon is inherently fast, allowing the user to be able to reach the middle of the map in a very quick time. It can also potentially beat the roller in ink output, but forces the user to have a quick trigger finger. The reason for this is because every click of the ZR button equates to one swipe of the paintbrush, forcing the user to click around 3 times to complete the area in front of him/her. The inkbrush is also very weak in 1v1 engages, using 4 paint flicks to splat the enemy. (Nobody in their right mind would try to run into the enemy with the brush, that's not how it works folks.)
General Pros and Cons
Pros
- Very quick at covering the ground
- A fast attack speed if the user can output enough clicks
- A superb support weapon
- Ambush potential
- Great at forcing the enemy team's hand by backdooring
- Two excellent support sub weapons (the sprinkler and the inkstrike)
- Will lose in a 1v1 against any ranged weapon if not played properly
- Its short range can be a downfall
- Forces the user to have a trigger finger (Paint flicks are the only real way to cover a lot of ground. Feel free to run around the map with just the basic run, but you won't cover much.)
- Harder to master and get the hang of
First and foremost, the ink brush is a support weapon. Regardless of people saying it can be used offensively (which it can, but I'll get into that later), its main purpose is to act in a support function. There's a couple of reasons I say this. It can cover a MASSIVE amount of ground in a short time, but it has very weak 1v1 potential. Yes, you can splat tons of squids with the inkbrush if played properly, but you generally won't have a fun time against aerosprays and chargers if you're new with the brush. The sub weapon and special are also inherently support weapons since their functions are to cover large amounts of ground.
So how do you use the inkbrush as a support weapon? Simple. There are a few key strategies to follow as an inkbrush, all of which I'll be covering in this overview section. Keep in mind, these are not perfect ways to play the inkbrush, but rather strategies that I have picked up game after game with it.
Turf Wars
Take a look at your team when you first spawn in a map. Look at what it's composed of and decide your course of action. I included some basic things I look for and what strategy I take in said scenario.
A) The hyper-offensive crew. Usually composed of two or more shooters and/or a charger or roller. Variable crews will look like
- Three shooters
- Two shooters -- One charger
- Two shooters -- One roller
- Two chargers -- One roller
- One shooter -- Two chargers
B) The mildly-offensive crew. Usually composed of one shooter with two ore more rollers. Variable crews will look like
- One shooter -- One charger
- One shooter -- Two rollers
- One charger -- Two rollers
C) The less-offensive crew or the crew that plain just doesn't work.
- Three chargers
- Three rollers
- Three inkbrushes
- Two rollers - One inkbrush
- Two inkbrushes -- One charger
I mentioned three strategies in the above (for simplicity sake, I'll abreviate each one) : Homebase strategy, Frontline Fighter strategy, and Assassin Brush strategy. While these are strategies I recommend, there are many alternatives you can take in each scenario.
Homebase strategy : In the homebase strategy, you want to stay back and let your friends fight the war in front of you. A LOT of people have problems with this strategy, but I feel this works best in a game where you have a hyper offensive threat. Here, you can cover a majority of the ground missed by the other players and charge up your special. This will help your team, as they can get an inkstrike which will grab a lot of turf for your team. Of course, you shouldn't stay in base the whole game. After you cover a lot of ground and/or get an inkstrike, you can head out and help your team cover ground or go into the assasin brush strategy. The key thing about this strategy is that you're not covering every single nook and cranny of your base. You're trying to cover the important parts, the visible parts. Don't paint the walls, don't paint little holes in the ink. Ink the large gaping holes, ink the main paths.
Frontline Fighter strategy : It's as the name implies -- you'll be fighting on the frontlines with your offensive threats. In this scenario, one or two rollers will usually be covering the base, so you can rush ahead and try to cover the area that your team will be fighting for a majority of the time. You'll end up in a lot more fights than you bargained for, but by playing smart and using your sub to your advantage, you can effectively 1v2, 1v3, or even 1v4. If you find yourself struggling, the rollers will usually catch up in a minutes time. One or two will usually have a kraken ready to go, so offensive threats can be dealt with. The shooters will be splatted and you can brush your way to their charger and deal with their whole team in a easy couple of steps.
Assassin Brush strategy : This strategy is harder to pull off, but it's extremely fun. You'll be acting as an assassin, splatting the enemy threats when they least expect it. Though I only said that this strategy can work with option C, you can also use it in conjunction with any of the other strategies I mentioned. There are a couple of ways you can splat enemies with the inkbrush. One method I find to work almost 100% of the time is to travel on ink set by my teammates to wall travel to somebody on a higher ledge. They usually don't have a fast enough reaction time to see me jump from the wall into them and I end up winning the trade. There are many other ways to play an assassin brush, but I can't go over all of them in this segment
Ranked Gameplay (This section was written by the user PixL. Thanks again!)
A good InkBrush user in SplatZones should be very heavily focused on support, but should also try to adapt to a play-style to make it seem as if the user doesn't exist.
What I mean by this is, you need to have a good sense of espionage in how you move around the battlefield. The InkBrush can spread a lot of ink at a good distance and build it's special at an incredible speed, but it uses a lot of ink and it's attack power is not all that good...So you need to be careful when participating in such a heated environment and plan your attach and strategy around its weaknesses.
(And you'd best get your trigger finger ready!)
If your sprinkler can do a job for you, let it.
The sprinkler sub-weapon can cover a lot more ground and cause a lot more chaos than people give it credit for. If you see an open area littered with enemy ink or just plain unattended, toss a sprinkler over there! The ground it can cover is amazing and it'll help you fill your special meter quicker. Also try to toss it in areas where your enemies are going to need to go out of their way to deal with it. Sprinklers are annoying as they are efficient, and if not dealt with can cause lot's of trouble for the enemy team, it may even splat someone! (Try to stick it on ceilings as well if possible)
Don't try to tackle a foe head-on
As I mentioned earlier: This weapon is not that strong. You're going to need to be a sneak more than a tank with this weapon, and patience and timing are key here. You're going to want to outsmart your enemies and lay low a lot. Spread your ink, get moving, hide a little, assess your surroundings and repeat! Try to find a perch, set up a sprinkler, fling ink every once in a while to avoid the zone from being taken if your team misses a spot, and "get the drop on foes" when you have the chance! Most important, don't get noticed...And if you do, MOVE!
Don't be modest with the specials
The InkBrush fills the special meter at a blazing speed, so with all the ink the Brush and Sprinklers spread combined, you should build Ink-Strike after Ink-Strike! When you get these, use them! ...But where you position them is key... You could use it to re-gain control of a Zone, make a path in the ink for you and your team, trap/stall your enemies....It's all about what's going on in the fight. And since using a special re-fills your ink, you can get right back to flinging ink everywhere. Keep up the momentum.
Don't be afraid to be a coward
Running away is something the InkBrush let's you do best, so take advantage of that!
Your sprint speed is even a tad faster than squiding away, and since you leave behind a line of ink it may be trickier for people to give chase. If you are face to face with a foe, try to circle around them somehow and take the element of surprise! Jumping whilst you brush swipe them is also a good tactic as it makes you harder to hit and slightly increases your range.
Lead the charge, or aid in the escape!
The InkBrush (much like the roller) leaves a path of ink behind you that your teammates can follow, and since you move so fast you should be able to get everyone to the zone for defending before the other team and gain the upper-hand with the turf. On the flip-side: If a teammate is struggling for survival, fling your ink and make a path for them to swim away from their impending doom then rush in and quickly finish the enemy off, then get back to your hiding. Helping your allies escape is truly something you're going to need to do at times...So learning how to make good paths to safety is a must.
That about wraps up my basic advice on the important stuff, the rest is up to the player and how they go about using these strategies! The InkBrush (while hard to use) is a blast and is incredibly rewarding if you can master it! - PixL
Sub-Weaponry
The sprinkler is capable of filling turf that would normally be considered monotonous or places out of reach / out of your way. The sprinkler can be used offensively, but it's best suited for spreading ink on the ground. Instead of going in-depth in this guide, there's an excellent guide on sprinkler placement by the Inkbrush Brushers Squad.
The inkstrike is an excellent special weapon and it accompanies the inkbrush perfectly with its support role. The inkstrike is a missile that you can shoot out once fully charged to hit any part of the map in a radius. It can be used at any moment of the game (even in the last three seconds, making it impossible for the enemy to cover that ground!) Much like the sprinkler, there is an excellent external guide written by the user Lancelot.
Tips and tricks
The inkbrush has a lot of neat tricks to make other weapons seem subpar. I'll be going through several tips and tricks that I've encountered while playing with the inkbrush.
- You'll find yourself in situations where a person is shooting at you from above. If you're with a team member and you can't reach the enemy, you're going to be at a disadvantage. To help your team mate, you can hide behind something and paint the ground underneath him as he tries to fight the enemy. This provides them an escape route if the stituation gets inky and let's them recover to go back out.
- Backdooring is very easily accomplished with the brush. You'll find it very easy to cover enemy ground and mass points for your special.
- This section will be updated through time as more strategies and tips are discovered about the ink brush
