Characters / Splatoon – Salmonids

Splatoon Character Index
Playable Characters | Idol Groups | Inkopolis and Splatsville | Octarians | Salmonids | Deepsea Metro | Order Sector | Bands | Manga Characters

In General

"Live deliciously."

"When smoke rises from the seven rings, the pinkfish will emerge from the sea, devouring all the creatures of the land."

— Madai 10:10, Sunken Scroll #17, Splatoon 2

Barbarian salmon residing in an isolated coastal region near Inkopolis, their eggs are prized by Inklings and Octarians alike. However, they are highly aggressive and will fight to the death to protect their Golden Eggs from Grizzco's part-time employees.

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• The All-Seeing A.I.: Even while an Inkling or Octoling is hiding in ink, the Salmonids will still know where they are and march over accordingly, unlike Octarians in the campaigns. This is explained in-game as the Salmonids having a keen sense of smell.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Unlike the Octarians, who were established as morally grey even before being Promoted to Playable, the lore makes no bones about the Salmonids being highly aggressive creatures with no compunctions about supping on delicious Inkling and Octoling flesh, making them the nearest thing the setting has to classic orcs. Even the highly intelligent Goldies can fall into a mindless, bloodthirsty frenzy under certain conditions. Though this is subverted in 3, where it's shown that the player character gets a Smallfry companion that displays no animosity toward anyone or anything.
• Ambiguously Evil: The Salmonids are aggressive, known to ally with Octarians for weapons and technology, and have been associated with signs of the apocalypse by Inkling-kind, but their attack on Grizzco employees has a rather justifiable angle in that said parties are invading their territory and stealing their Golden Eggs — made only more pronounced by the fact that, in-universe, their territories are openly known to be restricted waters and Inklings are not permitted legally to be there. Splatoon 3 showing how friendships with Inklings and Octolings may be formed under particular circumstances only throws further scrutiny on the issue.
• Apocalypse How: Before the advent of modern ink weaponry, Salmon Runs were recorded to have brought about many a Class 0. In Splatoon 3, we get to see this phenomenon firsthand with the "Big Run" events, where the Salmonids invade Inkopolis and Splatsville.
• The Apunkalypse: They have this as a theme, with their "hair" fashioned as mohawks and outfits made of leather and salvage.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • With Grizzco, who constantly invade their territories in order to steal their Golden Eggs.
  • With the Octarians no longer being antagonists, the Salmonids fill this role for Inkopolis and Splatsville. The Salmonids are now actively invading the city's territories in order to take it for themselves as a response to the recent uptick in cephalopods joining Grizzco. In fact, a mural located in Shellendorf Institute◊ strongly implies that Inklings have been harvesting Golden Eggs since ancient times.
• Badass Army: They are a warrior race with a philosophy of feeling one with the world when engaged in a fight to the death. They will overwhelm your crew eventually, whether it be from their more advanced boss Salmonids to a surge of rampaging common Chums. Fittingly, their "mohawks" resemble the helmet of a Spartan soldier.
• Beneath the Earth: Whenever they invade the cities of Inkopolis and Splatsville, they do so through the sewers.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The developers have stated that Salmonids see a kind of virtue in other races trying to "cook" them (with the Griller being the ultimate expression of this philosophy); after all, being eaten just means they've become one with the cycle of the world. At the same time, they don't take kindly to those who would steal their Golden Eggs and identify Grizzco employees as intruders in their territory.
• Color Motif: They're associated with the color green. Their "ink" color is a dark, venomous-looking green, which influences the color of the rest of their equipment. The waters they inhabit are tinted green as well, and whenever Salmonid-inhabited buildings are shown in a stage, their insides are lit up with green light.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Ever since their introduction in Splatoon 2, the Salmonids have become this to the Octarians, as a race of creatures who war against the Inklings. They contrast each other in several ways.
  • They're both races that live secluded from Inkling society. The Octarians live underground, the Inklings being largely unaware of their existence, while the Salmonids live at sea, and are public knowledge to everyone.
  • The player character invades their territories for the sake of power sources. While you do so with the Octarians to retrieve stolen Zapfish for the sake of saving Inkopolis, the Salmonids are invaded specifically to steal their Golden Eggs for Grizzco's own nefarious ends.
  • Both come off as generically antagonistic races, only for later lore entries to reveal the situation to be more complex. Octarians hold a grudge against the Inklings for their loss in the Great Turf War, but are also driven by their deteriorating living conditions to invade Inkopolis. The Salmonids have been terrorizing Inklings for centuries, but it's mostly due to Blue-and-Orange Morality, and their attacks are retaliatory in nature due to the Inklings invading their territories.
  • Octarians are an Evil Counterpart Race to the Inklings, with members of their species outright sharing the same abilities. This commonality eventually allows the hatchet to be buried, and the two races to live in peace. By contrast, the Salmonids are distinctly different from both races, and it's unlikely that there will be any widespread peace between them and the cephalopods anywhere in the future.
  • The Octarians' grudge with Inklings is a fairly recent and unusual development on the grand scope of the setting; the Great Turf War was only a century before Splatoon 1, and outside Inkadia where the war happened, the two races get along decently enough. The Salmonids have been terrorizing cephalopod-kind for at least as long as they have written history, and are known as a threat to civilization across Inkadia and the Splatlands.
• Clown-Car Base: Gushers aren't very large, but lesser Salmonids can practically flow out of them during Goldie Seeking waves. Sure, maybe they're connected to some kind of sewer that supplies them, but during Big Runs, they're capable of deploying the absolutely massive Grillers and Slammin' Lids that dwarf their size.
• Death Is Cheap: Splatoon 3 features your little buddy Smallfry, who is able to respawn after getting splatted and treats your backpack as a Respawn Point. If that extends to the rest of the Salmonids, it'd certainly explain why they can die in droves from Grizzco's numerous raids on their territory yet never seem to suffer any loss in numbers from it.
• Delinquent Hair: All the Smallfry, Chum, and Cohocks sport bright orange mohawks, as do the drivers of some of the more mechanical Boss Salmonids. In Splatoon 3, you can even customize your Smallfry companion's hairstyle.
• The Dreaded: In-universe early depictions of Salmonid sightings in the Sunken Scrolls are akin to biblical plagues.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Their Power Eggs show up in the first game, despite the species at large not being introduced until the second.
• Evil Versus Oblivion:
  • Mr. Grizz's business puts little doubt on how sketchy it is, from the unclear purpose of the job's bounty to the arbitrary means by which he pays workers, placing him on the Evil side. The Salmonids have historically destroyed multiple fledgling societies and are prophesied to cause some form of apocalypse by Splatoon 2's Sunken Scrolls, putting them on the Oblivion side.
  • Ironically, Splatoon 3 inverts their relationship seen in Splatoon 2. More details about Salmonid society are made further apparent, such as their hosting of holidays. At the end of the day, they're a society that's diametrically opposed to Inkling society, but still a culture nonetheless, which casts them as merely Evil. Revelations about Mr. Grizz, on the other hand, reveal that he plans on rewriting the genes of all beings on Earth, completely upending society in the process, making him Oblivion.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: They can be likened to certain First Nations cultures based in the American northwest coast. Their illustrations that feature on certain maps bear resemblance to the style used in NWC art, and their beliefs of existing to be eaten parallels traditional NWC beliefs that hunted animals give themselves up to be consumed.
• Fish Eyes: Pun intended, Salmonid eyeballs tend to be large and bulbous, giving them a wall-eyed, crazed expression befitting of mutant fish who have come to feast on cephalopod flesh.
• Fish People: While definitely more 'fish' than 'people', they still fall under this category.
• Fog of Doom: One of the possible Random Events. During fog waves, Salmonids use the reduced visibility to attack from all directions rather than in clumps. However, this is one of the only times the rare Goldies appear, which can drop up to ten Golden Eggs at once in fog waves.
• Foil: To the playable Inklings and Octolings. Inklings, and later Octolings, are bright and colorful, focused on having as much fun as they can and have a strong focus on individuality and self-expression. The Salmonids, while not devoid of colour, are much darker in colors and personality, uniformly focused on their species' goal of Living Deliciously and dying for their cause, and according to supplemental materials, lack individual names.
• Friendly Fireproof: Most Salmonids cannot hurt each other with their attacks, with four exceptions: a Steelhead's death-blast, a Drizzler's deflected missile, a Slammin' Lid squashing any Salmonids beneath it when it tries to flatten a player underneath, and the jaws of the Megalodontia.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: The "ink" of the Salmonids is uniformly always a venomous dark green of the sort that is a classic color for toxic or radioactive waste (with the implication that it's exactly that), while the Inkling/Octoling teams in Salmon Run typically use the classic amiibo colors to contrast — bright orange, noble blue, and hot pink.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Averted. They're a destructive force in the world, having felled many cities and devoured many creatures of the land, but it's just a side effect of their monthly migrations and the cities happening to be in the way. Their attacking of Grizzco workers is entirely justified, in fact, as you are invading their territories to steal their resources. Even the Big Runs can be interpreted as them actively retaliating against Inkling-kind by trying to take their territories for themselves in revenge for constantly stealing their Golden Eggs for five years straight.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: The only piece of clothing most Salmonids wear, whether it's the miniature Smallfry, the dolphin-shaped Flipper-Flopper, or the massively rotund Cohozuna, are suspenders in varying shades of green.
• Hidden Depths:
  • The official relationship chart from Splatoon 2 shows that they perceive Inklings and Octolings as intruders in their own territory, further showing the shadier part of Grizzco's business.
  • The developers have stated they often trade with the Octarians by exchanging Power Eggs for technology, though they refuse to trade Golden Eggs as they are far too precious.
  • Lost Outpost has what appear to be floating Salmonid homes and communities just offshore.
  • Salmonids also celebrate holidays, sometimes using their own Big Shot cannons to launch fireworks to make events more festive.
  • Many background structures in the maps are made by the Salmonids. Every map features several effigies of assorted foodstuffs built on towers scattered around the area, and Jammin' Salmon Junction takes place near an interstate bridge remade into a massive concert venue, complete with giant horns scattered around the background.
• Hillbilly Horrors: With their improvised, makeshift weapons and machines and their tendency to wear overalls-like waders, Salmonids can give off a redneck vibe, contrasting with the militant Octolings and urbanite Inklings. They're also fairly creepy beings seen by some Inklings as Signs of the End Times.
• The Horde: Described as bringing massive chaos and destruction in their Salmon Runs, especially before the Inklings had modern technology to be able to fend off their sheer numbers.
• Improvised Weapon: Their troops are primarily armed with cooking implements repurposed as melee weapons, ranging from plastic spoons to wooden ladles.
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: Most Salmonids are incapable of climbing walls or even short ledges. The only exceptions are Maws, who can swim up walls; Drizzlers and Flipper-Floppers, who can jump; and Flyfish and Slammin' Lids, who can fly. The basic Salmonid Mooks can jump, but only straight up in order to hit squids that are hiding on walls, and even that won't work if the Inkling is moving left and right repeatedly.
• Interspecies Friendship:
  • Possibly downplayed, but the Salmon Run field guide points out that some of the more advanced gear that the Salmonids use are acquired through a trade deal with the Octarians, which are exchanged in return for Salmonid eggs to use as a power supply. Of course, this doesn't stop them from trying to kill any Octoling employed under Mr. Grizz, so this business may be purely transactional.
  • By Splatoon 3, the Squid Research Lab has begun studying the newly discovered friendship between Inklings and Salmonids, or at least the Smallfry. The introduction sees the player accompanied by their "little buddy," who loyally follows them around. These same Inklings and Octolings still engage in Salmon Run, however.
• It Can Think: Though each Salmonid varies in levels of intelligence.
  • They may be aggressive mutant monsters, but even Grizzco's own manuals note that they are individually intelligent and have their own culture, as made evident by their capacity to build and maintain their own machines. There's even a reference or two to them having actual dedicated engineers. Even their simpler frying pan weapons are given a level of respect, passed down from generation to generation.
  • In addition to the detailed First Nations-inspired stencils seen in other maps, the Lost Outpost map is covered in child-like doodles of Steel Eel, Smallfry, and bizarre depictions of Inklings. This not only implies that Salmonids are capable of expressing themselves creatively, but that the wall art seen in other stages is painted by Salmonids as well.
  • Word of Nintendo is that most of the music that plays during Salmon Run is from the in-universe Salmonid band ω-3 (Omega-3). They're known enough to have their own t-shirt purchasable in the square.
  • As evidenced by your Smallfry "Little Buddy", some Salmonids can be tamed and taught to follow certain commands as a result of straying too far from their species during migration.
  • Many pieces of Salmonid equipment bear the logo of an unnamed company, implicitly the one in charge of manufacturing all Salmonid wargear.
  • Jammin' Salmon Junction is the remains of a suspension bridge upscaled into a concert venue for ω-3, and is one of the biggest constructions known to be made by Salmonids to date.
  • Bonerattle Arena is another impressive Salmonid build, being a former penal colony transformed into a massive battle arena with impressive machinery in the background. Most importantly, you can hear announcer chatter in between waves that proves the Salmonids have their own spoken language.
• Let's Meet the Meat: Salmonid culture evolved to see nothing wrong with being eaten, and in fact take pride in being seen as delicious, seeing it as just a natural part of life. Chinooks drop styrofoam boxes full of Salmonids that wouldn't be out of place in a real-life grocery store seafood department, while Stingers and Grillers get their powers by being constantly cooked alive.
• Lunacy: The guidebook indicates Salmonid aggression is tied to "gravitational shifts due to the planet's celestial course".
• Motif: Food and cookware. Salmonids view being delicious as a thing to be proud of, and adorn or design their weaponry with or after cooking implements. Salmonid mooks battle with frying pans and plastic spoons. Boss Salmonids like Scrappers and Stingers are made out of cobbled-together cookware. Grillers are giant grills piloted by Salmonids who cook themselves alive inside of it. And they also surround their territories (the Salmon Run stages) with gigantic effigies of various foodstuffs, such as french fries, sushi, and fruit.
• Non-Mammalian Hair: They have hair despite being fish, and come in a wide variety of styles and colors (most commonly in red and mohawks.) They appear to be modified dorsal fins.
• The Nose Knows: Their sense of smell is so good they can even find Inklings and Octolings hiding in their ink, and a King Salmonid can detect players by their scent many waves before they make an appearance.
• Not Afraid to Die: As if they weren't already terrifying enough, one developer interview states that Salmonids canonically do not fear death, because they believe that when other species kill and eat them, they become one with the world.
• Our Orcs Are Different: They're essentially the Splatoon series's answer to orcs, being a race of salmon who are notorious for invading cities and devouring their inhabitants. Unlike the stereotypical orc, however, they are technologically advanced (in part thanks to trading with the high-tech Octarians) and have their own societies with cultural celebrations and even hints of an established economy.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child:
  • Salmonids are perfectly fine with trading away their regular Power Eggs to be used as expendable energy sources. That's why Power Eggs show up in the various single-player campaigns in the Octarian Domes and the Deepsea Metro.
  • Boss Salmonid tech runs on the species' own Golden Eggs. How that exactly happens isn't clear, but the process at least doesn't seem to kill the skeletal embryos within, since they can still be seen moving inside their eggs.
  • What Mr. Grizz does with them, on the other hand... well, it might not be best to dwell on the fact that the egg basket looks like it's glowing with a heat lamp, and that the embryo within any Golden Egg that lands inside appears to stop moving.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Sunken Scrolls state that Salmonids take pride in being warriors and constantly keep their weapons in tip-top shape.
• Random Event: Purely by chance, unusual weather conditions, environmental changes, or special Salmonid events will occur during certain waves, often making it more difficult for any Inklings or Octolings trying to take their Golden Eggs.
  • Low or high tide changes, which respectively enlarge or shrink the arena size. Low tide makes it easier to get separated from your teammates and puts more distance between the high-traffic egg basket and dangerous Long Range Fighters such as Flyfish and Stingers; high tide packs the Salmonids together into much higher densities and the reduced space to maneuver makes Area of Effect bosses like the Steelhead or Fish Stick harder to ignore. An additional egg basket appears at low tide so you don't have to run all the way back. These changes can occur in conjunction with another event.
  • "Rush" waves (sometimes called Glowfly waves), where only Chum, Snatchers, and Goldies spawn. The Chum are much faster and appear in far greater numbers than normal (although they only have half as much health). One player at a time will be surrounded by firefly-like "Glowflies", which will cause all Salmonids to attack only them. The Golden Eggs dropped by the Goldies will also be scattered further about, making it harder to retrieve them.
  • Fog, which drastically reduces visibility. The Salmonids will change their behaviour to take advantage of this, attacking from all around rather than in groups at certain locations. Goldies will spawn during these waves and can drop far more eggs than normal, incentivizing players to find them (but it's also a really bad idea to get separated during these waves).
  • "Griller" waves, where the only Salmonids that spawn are Grillers and Smallfry. Grillers are extremely tough and fast and drop a huge amount of ink on the ground, and late into the wave, two Grillers will appear at the same time.
  • The Cohock Charge, which only occurs at low tide, where the only Lesser Salmonid to spawn are the Cohocks, and in greater numbers than usual. Since Cohocks are by far the strongest and toughest of the Lesser Salmonids, this makes these waves more challenging, but Mr. Grizz will offset these by placing Ink Cannons in the arena that can take out groups of them in one shot.
  • "Goldie Seeking" waves, where a number of Gushers will appear around the arena and Salmonids do not spawn from the shore. The Goldie is the only Boss Salmonid to appear, hiding in one of the Gushers and with far more health and Golden Egg drops than before. Attacking the Gushers will either release a group of Lesser Salmonids or the Goldie.
  • "Mothership" waves, where the flying Mothership Salmonid Boss will appear, which drops numerous payloads filled with Lesser Salmonids and will also attempt to steal Golden Eggs directly from the egg basket.
  • Mudmouth Eruptions, where the Mudmouths will spawn at Gusher points and release waves of Lesser Salmonids from their mouths. Regular Mudmouths will release Chums, while the rarer Golden Mudmouths release Cohocks.
  • Tornadoes will sometimes occur during low tide events and will cause Salmonids and boxes filled with Golden Eggs to rain down from above at random. The second egg basket that normally occurs on the shoreline at low tide is covered by a huge boulder, forcing players to go all the way back to the normal basket. To compensate, Mr. Grizz will count each egg you collect as two eggs and Snatchers will not spawn.
  • Periodically, an "Xtrawave" may occur after the third wave depending on how many shifts each member of the team has attempted. Each attempted shift gradually marks each player's "smell," (represented by the Salmometer in the Grizzco lobby), eventually summoning an incredibly powerful King Salmonid. Unlike previous waves, the purpose here is to slay the beast rather than fill the egg quota.
• Rock Beats Laser: While they haven't actually fought against one another, the general rule of thumb is that for whatever high-tech machine the Octarians employ, a janky, scrapped-together Salmonid equivalent is superior. For example, just compare the Missile Octocopter to the Flyfish: both are Flying Mook Evil Counterparts to Tenta Missiles, but the former is fairly easy to take out when confronted, while the latter is heavily armored to the point of being borderline invulnerable and can ordinarily only be defeated by precisely throwing ink-hungry Splat Bombs into its launchers. A part of this disparity might be from how the Salmonids have a monopoly on the much more powerful Golden Eggs, rather than the normal Power Eggs the Octarians use.
• Standard FPS Enemies:
  • Chum, Cohocks, and Goldies are Zombies, which do nothing but simply slowly pursue players in melee. Each one has more health than the last.
  • Smallfry are Rats, as tiny, melee-only, hard-to-hit targets that swarm players in droves.
  • Steelheads are the Heavy, as massive and armored foes. They're also Canisters, since their explosions will deal tons of damage to nearby Salmonids.
  • Flyfish are Gunships, as they fly around and launch missiles at opponents. They're also Snipers, since they hang around near the shoreline and put a ton of distance between themselves and the Egg Basket.
  • Steel Eels are Shields, bearing a long, snake-like machine that blocks shots from the front and is vulnerable in the back. They're also Pyros, since their machines' head threatens to One-Hit Kill if it crushes players against walls, flushing them out of tight spaces.
  • Drizzlers are Triggers, demanding that players deal with them a certain way — namely shooting down their Inkstorms before they launch, and allowing them to launch creates massive Area of Effect rain that deals damage and hampers movement.
  • Scrappers are Shields that chase players down in melee, and can only be defeated by hitting them in the back.
  • Maws are Ninjas, as they burrow beneath the ground and bypass traditional forms of defense to pick off allies one at a time.
  • Fish Sticks are Turrets: stationary once they install, but rather than shooting players, they shoot the ground, inking it in enemy colors and making it hard to deal with everything else.
  • Flipper-Floppers are Ninjas, capable of jumping long distances over ocean and walls to threaten a splat on allies.
  • Slammin' Lids are Shields, creating a forcefield that protects other Salmonids and is only vulnerable on the top. They're also Medics, specifically the Necromancer variety, since they spawn in Lesser Salmonids with their presence.
  • Big Shots are Snipers, taking potshots at the basket with artillery from long-range to make it hard to avoid damage.
  • Motherships are Gunship-Necromancers, being high-health, flying units that constantly summon in units.
  • Grillers are Shields, only vulnerable on a back-mounted, high-up weak spot. They're also Necromancers, spawning in a ton of Smallfry to harass players while they move in for the kill.
  • Mudmouths are Necromancers, spawning in endless hordes of lesser Salmonids from their mouth.
• Scavenged Punk: As with other denizens of the Splatoon world, even the Salmonids' most advanced equipment is more or less cobbled together from mostly cookware-related scraps like charcoal grills and coolers, with the implication being that they've been scavenging ancient human-made junk.
• Schizo Tech: Salmonid technology is pretty all over the place in terms of how advanced it is. Salmonid troops wielding frying pans and plastic spoons are often deployed from flying saucers with force-field technology. Vehicles cobbled together from garbage fight alongside flying ships with advanced missile targeting systems. Their dedicated war band plays music from a stage made out of cobbled-together speakers while the DJ uses a Salmon brand laptop◊ to sample sounds from. At least some of the more advanced technology was acquired from the Octarians (as noted in the Salmonid Field Guide), so this discrepancy is justified.
• Signs of the End Times: At least one major Inkling religion sees Salmonids as harbingers of the apocalypse, with a Splatoon 2 Sunken Scroll featuring an illustration of a religious text depicting two Inklings attempting to flee from a Salmonid horde as seven rings open up in the clouds. Splatoon 3 features this event in motion as "Big Run", seven rings included.
  Sunken Scroll 17: ""When smoke rises from the seven rings, The pinkfish will emerge from the sea, devouring all the creatures of the land." -The Book of Madai, chapter 10, verse 10"
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: If you thought they shared this weakness with Inklings and Octolings, think again, because they can and will swim through water to reach you. In fact, they seem to be one of the few marine species in the world that still live in the ocean.
• The Thunderdome: Splatoon 3's Fresh Season 2024 update introduced Bonerattle Arena, a massive battleground for salmonids built out of a prison where the Salmonids host battles to determine the toughest, most delicious among them. Salmonids are visible in the background spectating the match, as well as the voice of an announcer commentating between waves.
• Tombstone Teeth: All Salmonids have rectangular teeth, even when they're crooked and worn out. This trait is unusual for these salmon descendants as salmon teeth are sharp fangs, but it does create a very unsettling, ghoul-esque appearance.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Somehow applying to the piscine form, Salmonids tend to have noticeably small tails in proportion to the rest of their bodies, though this doesn't seem to hurt their ability to move across the ground while remaining upright. It's especially noticeable on the more rotund Salmonids, like Cohocks and the Big Shot operators.
• Weaponized Offspring: Smallfry are obviously just Salmonid babies. It's also Played With in that you're the one weaponizing their offspring right back at them if a King Salmonid appears and Mr. Grizz authorizes use of the egg cannons.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: While the designs of Splatoon's marine life society oscillates between Little Bit Beastly and Civilized Animal, Salmonids land firmly in the latter area, being animalistic creatures with a complex society and culture. Grizzco, and seemingly Inkadia overall, treat them as mindless animals that leave nothing but death and destruction in their wake, and show little restraint in invading their territories to steal their resources for themselves. Admittedly, it's not an unjustified stance given their role in causing the fall of many cities, but their trade deal with the Octarians, and New Agent Three's relationship with Little Buddy, shows that they can be reasoned with, to a degree.

Lesser Salmonids

Chum, Smallfry and Cohocks

Left to right: Chum, Smallfry, and Cohock

The basic mooks of the Salmonid hordes.

For the Smallfry that accompanies the Player Character in Splatoon 3, refer to Splatoon – Playable Characters.

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• Ancestral Weapon: The frying pans favored by Chums and Cohocks are often passed down from generation to generation.
• Artificial Brilliance: If you took their inability to go up ledges to mean they can't travel up any sort of height to splat Inklings up high, you'd be sadly mistaken when a Chum or Smallfry suddenly decides to leap up at you and take you out if you dare try to camp in a wall of ink.
• Berserk Button: Chums will go absolutely apeshit in the presence of Glowflies. They'll Zerg Rush whoever the Glowflies are swarming, ignoring everyone else unless it's to stampede over them to reach the Glowflies.
• Fork Fencing: Smallfry are each armed with a plastic spoon.
• Fragile Speedster:
  • The Smallfry are very weak, but also very fast, and also attack in large numbers, so it's easy for them to kill you if don't notice them while fighting against other Salmonids.
  • During "Rush" waves (with the Glowflies), Chum will have only half as much health as usual, but are much faster and appear in far greater numbers, making them far more difficult to fend off than normal.
• Frying Pan of Doom: Chum and Cohocks wield these as their primary weapon.
• Giant Mook: Cohocks are the biggest of the lesser Salmonids. Their bulk makes them slow and easy to hit, but they can usually One-Hit Kill any player they manage to whack with their frying pans, and can absorb a lot more damage than Chums.
• The Goomba: The Chum is the most common Salmonid type, and as such is no match individually for even a half-competent Inkling/Octoling. They make up for this by attacking in huge hordes and in conjunction with their stronger kin.
• In a Single Bound: Try to hide on a wall up high and eventually the basic Salmonids will clue into your location and leap up high to catch and splat you. They can even reach the top of a Fish Stick if you're the last worker standing.
• It's Raining Men: During Tornado Waves, Lesser Salmonids get picked up by the tornado and tossed onto land, quite literally dropping from the sky onto random parts of the shore. They are completely unaffected by the fall, and will quickly go about their cephalopod splatting duties as if nothing happened. Although the Salmonid Field Guide does mention that the tornado is responsible for a great number of Salmonid casualties, so it isn't completely safe for them to do so.
• Logical Weakness: The main threat of a Lesser Salmonid is the fact that they come in massive numbers aimed to overwhelm the player. Weapons capable of hitting multiple targets at once, like blasters, are the best weapons to use in order to cull the horde to less intense numbers.
• Meaningful Name: The Chum and Cohock are both named after different species of Salmon, the Chum and Coho Salmon. The Smallfry, meanwhile, is the term used to refer to a juvenile fish.
• Mighty Glacier: Cohocks are bigger, stronger, and tougher than Chums and Smallfry, but they're also much slower.
• Mini Mook: The Smallfry are weak and fragile, but their high speed, small size, and tendency to attack in large groups make them a real annoyance on the field. Woe betide any player with a slower weapon trying to take down a batch of them.
• Mook-Themed Level:
  • The self-explanatory "Cohock Charge" waves, where Cohocks are the only non-boss Salmonids to appear. Because Cohocks are by far the toughest and strongest of the three Mook-types Salmonid, this makes these waves especially difficult, but Mr. Grizz will activate Ink Cannon turrets in the arena to make clearing them out easier.
  • Rush waves feature only Chum and Goldies, with the latter being just a tougher version of a Chum.
  • Lesser Salmonids are the only Salmonids that appear in a Tornado wave.
• One-Hit Kill:
  • Any Roller's rolling mode can oneshot Smallfry, all except Carbon Rollers can oneshot both Smallfry and Chums, and the Dynamo roller can do it to Cohocks as well. You don't even have to move that much, the simple act of walking into the roller will splat the Salmonids out of existence. It's especially useful during a "Rush" wave, where the Chum, already weaker than normal, are more than happy to run face-first into you in their mad rush for whoever is covered in glowflies.
  • Surrounded by Chum and Smallfry while carrying a Golden Egg? The Egg Throw can help with that, as the burst of ink it emits to launch the eggs can instantly splat the surrounding Salmonids.
  • The cannons deployed during a "Cohock Charge" wave are powerful enough to splat multiple Cohocks and most Boss Salmonids in one shot, which is a necessity since they spawn in such large numbers here.
• One-Hit Polykill: Charger users can snipe through a line of lesser Salmonids to take out a small chunk in one blast. Bamboozlers lose out on this bonus due to its faster charge time, as do the Snipewriters since they get five shots on a single charge.
• A Pig Named "Porkchop": "Chum" can be used to refer to a kind of fish bait derived from chunks of fish.
• Punched Across the Room: The Chum and Cohock pan slap carry some decent knockback on them, and have a habit of punching you into uncomfortable situations like the water or their fellow Salmonids.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: While Salmonids already have red pupils by default, during Glowfly waves where only Chums and Goldies spawn, the Chums have glowing eyes and become much more dangerous.
• Vague Age: Sunken Scroll #8 in Splatoon 3 establishes that Smallfry are Salmonids in their juvenile form. The Salmonid Field Guide reinforces this, stating that the Smallfry-only Fish Stick operators can be promoted into Stingers, which exclusively consist of Chums. However, while having their young fight in the frontlines and operate advanced war machines is in and of itself perfectly in-character for the Salmonids, the fact that the ostensibly older Chums have to first serve as Snatchers before being allowed to fight makes one wonder just what age combatant Smallfry really are.
• Zerg Rush: Individually, Smallfry, Chum and Cohocks are easy to deal with. The former two are extremely fragile, while the latter is slow and a huge target. They make up for this by attacking in huge packs, aiming to overwhelm you with their numbers. Even in waves where only the weaker Smallfry or Chum spawn, they don't stop being a threat, and are just as likely to splat you as whatever war machine they happen to be fighting with. The attacks during Glowfly waves in particular can only be summed up as a "horde".

Snatchers

^{Click here to see them in Splatoon 2}

Rookie Salmonids tasked with retrieving the Golden Eggs of any fallen Boss Salmonid.

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• Airborne Mook: In Splatoon 3, they fly through the air in small drones, allowing them to snatch out-of-the-way eggs such as those left on a Fish Stick. This is explained in Splatoon 3's Salmonid Field Guide as the aircraft being brought in to improve their egg-collection rates.
• The Apprentice: They're trainee Salmonids tasked with collecting Golden Eggs. Should they show sufficient aptitude at their work, they'll be able to join the front lines.
• Bandit Mook: Their only role is to attempt to retrieve any Golden Eggs that are lying on the ground, and they will continue spawning until all the eggs are claimed. In normal waves, a single Snatcher will spawn to collect all the Golden Eggs of one killed boss; during special events, a Snatcher will spawn for each egg.
• Harmless Enemy: They are the only Salmonid type that will never attack the player.
• Helpful Mook: They can try to take Golden Eggs back into the ocean, but rarely, depending on where they decide to spawn from, their trajectory will take them on a route that happens to pass right by the egg basket. Also, if you see one and it's not already holding any Golden Eggs, it might end up pointing you in the direction of Golden Eggs that were dropped and forgotten about.
• Palette Swap: Their original models are physically identical to Chums except that their mohawks are blue instead of red.
• Signature Laugh: They'll giggle after picking up Golden Eggs one by one. If you hear them laughing, find them and splat them to get the eggs back.

Boss Salmonids

In General

Besides the endless swarm of Splattershot fodder, a Salmonid horde also includes plenty of much tougher fish; some have simply grown to great size and strength, while others instead pilot highly advanced war machines.

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• Attack Its Weak Point: Several Boss Salmonids can only be damaged by targeting one specific weak point (in the case of mechanical Boss Salmonids, this is usually the exposed operator itself).
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: The Boss Salmonids tend to have their own versions of the Inklings' special weapons. For instance, the Stinger uses the Sting Ray, the Drizzler uses the Ink Storm, and the Flyfish uses a combination of the Inkjet and Tenta Missiles.
• Boss Warning Siren: A siren is blared every time a Boss Salmonid spawns. Every. Single. Time. Be prepared to hear it a lot on the higher difficulty levels, where they spawn at a per-second rate.
• Elite Mook: Most of the machine Boss Salmonids, like the Drizzler and Slammin' Lid, are operated by elite Chums, distinguished from their lesser counterparts by different hair colors and styles. The Fish Stick and Flyfish are operated by elite Smallfry instead.
• Evil Counterpart: Most Boss Salmonids can be viewed as counterparts to certain Inkling weapons and abilities from the Turf War modes.
• Guide Dang It!: Boss Salmonids will continuously spawn throughout a wave, replacing their felled brethren as you splat them. Until the 28-second mark, that is, in which case they will cease to spawn. This is explained exactly nowhere, and is a bit hard to notice in the middle of the chaos of your average work day. Take advantage of this opening by splatting some of the more dangerous Boss Salmonids like Flyfish, as they will no longer be replaced beyond this point.
• Had to Be Sharp: Boss Salmonids are usually Salmonids that adapted accordingly to being raised in various types of harsh environments. For instance, Maws and Steelheads are conditioned to grow in size, while Scrapper and Steel Eel operators develop increased intelligence.
• Kung Fu-Proof Mook: Many of the boss Salmonids have ink-repellent armor, some notable examples being the Steelhead, the Flyfish, and Grillers; however, certain Specials such as the Sting Ray, Killer Wail 5.1, and Kraken Royale are able to pierce this armor to dispatch these bosses before they are normally vulnerable.^note  The Booyah Bomb, Triple Inkstrike, and Reefslider are the other Specials capable of piercing, although the Reefslider can only pierce during its rush forward. The rare Grizzco Slosher & Grizzco Splatana can also pierce through armor, though the Splatana needs a full-charge slash to do the job.
• Mini-Boss: Despite the name "Boss Salmonids", they're functionally more like this, with most of their threat coming from how they work in conjunction with the rest of the Salmonid horde. They're indeed more dangerous than the lesser Salmonids, but one-on-one, even a single half-competent Inkling/Octoling can still take them out pretty easily. This is particularly clear in Splatoon 3, where the far more powerful King Salmonids fill the role of a "proper" boss.
• Notice This: Several Boss Salmonids have effects like reticles, particles, and sounds to their attacks that are meant to make them identifiable in the middle of the chaos of a Salmon Run.
• One-Hit Kill:
  • Steelheads lob explosive ink pouches which naturally are a one-hit kill if you're in the center of the bomb, getting eaten by a Maws or caught in its teeth when it snaps will instantly splat you, and getting directly hit by a Flyfish's missile is an instant kill. Getting trapped by a Griller or Steel Eel won't kill you in precisely one hit, but the hits will come so fast it barely matters.
  • On the other side of the spectrum, a well-aimed Charger (except for the Bamboozler), Flingza Roller, or Dynamo Roller aimed at the Steelhead's bomb as it forms will bring it down in one go, as well as any Salmonids around it. Steel Eel drivers will fall instantly to a fully charged E-Liter 4K or a close-range horizontal swing from the Flingza or Dynamo Rollers. Blasters with wider radiuses aimed at the center of a Stinger can knock off every segment at once, as can a Splashdown if in a close enough vicinity. Maws instantly explode if they consume a Splat Bomb, and Drizzlers are one-shotted by successfully knocking their Ink Storm bomb right back at them. A well-aimed shot from a Rapid Blaster or Range Blaster at a Fish Stick that is still airborne can get all of them at once and knock the stick out of the air. Throwing a Grizzco Slosher round at the Flyfish's cockpit will kill the pilot and destroy the vessel from the inside out. A fully charged Grizzco Splatana can kill any Boss Salmonid that isn't made up of multiple targets, armor be damned.
• Rule of Three: There can never be more than three of a given Boss Salmonid type on the field at the same time.

Introduced in Splatoon 2

Steelheads

Large Salmonids covered in ink-resistant scales that toss massive bombs filled with their own inky saliva.

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• A.I. Breaker: Steelheads have trouble dealing with players sitting on Fish Sticks. Usually, if you are on higher ground, the Steelhead will maneuver around until they're at an angle where they can lob their bombs at you. There isn't any way to do that with Fish Sticks, so any Steelhead that has you targeted will uselessly walk into the Fish Stick for as long as you stay on it without ever attacking.
• Armored But Frail: Despite their size and ink-proof armor, their bombs don't require all that much damage in order to splat them — most Chargers can take them out from full health in a single fully-charged shot, while other boss Salmonids usually take two.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Target the drool bomb being filled above its head to defeat it. If it isn't inked enough, the bomb will be tossed, but any existing damage will carry over to the next one.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: How they go out if enough damage is dealt to the bomb on their head while it's still swelling up. Plus, the blast is powerful enough to even take out a nearby Cohock.
• Evil Counterpart: Their attack was originally just the rough Salmonid equivalent to the thrown sub weapon bombs, but have retroactively become a much more direct counterpart to the Booyah Bomb; both involve charging up an ink bomb (during which the wielder is vulnerable to attack) before lobbing it, with the resulting explosion only occurring after a short delay.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Steelhead can only be defeated by destroying their drool bomb before they throw it, causing it to backfire and splat them. Armor-piercing weapons like the Sting Ray and Grizzco Slosher can attack it directly, however, and the Cannons that Mr. Grizz supplies in Cohock Charge waves can instantly splat a Steelhead developing a bomb.
• Large and in Charge: Steelheads are the largest non-Maws Salmonids and are stated to act as company commanders for Salmonid troops.
• Logical Weakness: Mr. Grizz advises that longer-ranged weapons are better at taking out the Steelhead's bomb weak point. Of them, Chargers are usually the best, since careful aiming and charging ahead of time will always explode them before they can throw a single bomb.
• Mighty Glacier: They can't move fast at all, but they're large, armored, and able to unleash huge, powerful explosions.
• Punny Name: Their name both refers to their metal-like scales and the real-world fish known as the Steelhead Trout.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: According to the Salmonid Field Guide, they're the Red Oni to the Big Shots' Blue Oni.
  "Among muscle-bound Salmonids, those with belligerent personalities tend to be assigned as Steelheads, while those with calmer dispositions are assigned to Big Shots."
• Super Spit: They harvest their bombs from their saliva.

Flyfish

Smallfry-piloted hovering contraptions equipped with two missile launchers.

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• Achilles' Heel: The cockpit is mostly immune to direct attack, but it is vulnerable to certain Armor-Piercing Attacks; namely the Grizzco Slosher, the Sting Ray in Splatoon 2, and the Grizzco Splatana, Killer Wail 5.1, Booyah Bomb, Triple Inkstrike, and Kraken Royale in Splatoon 3.
• Brainy Baby: It's hard to gauge exactly how old combatant Smallfry are, but if they really are juveniles, then the ability of Flyfish pilots to smoothly operate flying missile pods becomes particularly impressive.
• Crosshair Aware: When Flyfish start launching their missiles, you'll see the same ring indicator as the Tenta Missiles' around your character's feet to indicate the direction they're coming from.
• Elite Mooks: The Salmonid Field Guide states that "only the most elite Smallfry are selected to undergo the special training to become Flyfish pilots." And it shows: they're the only Boss Salmonid that is maintained by a single Smallfry.
• Evil Counterpart: Use a version of the Inkjet to fly around, and their missile launchers are just reskinned Tenta Missiles, right down to sharing the exact same projectiles.
• Guide Dang It!: It's not explained that the rocket pods that Flyfish use are Color-Coded for Your Convenience. The red pod on its left side (viewer's right side) will always target whoever's closest, while the blue pod on the opposite side targets a random player who isn't the closest to it. If you're focusing down a Flyfish alone, there are other threats hounding you down, and you only have enough ink to destroy one pod, it's usually best to destroy the red pod first and hope the blue pod targets someone who isn't busy.
• Insert Grenade Here: The primary means to defeat them is by tossing a bomb into each of its Tenta Missile launchers when they're open. Similarly, the Inkjet Launcher, Explosher, Crab Tank, and Egg Cannon can destroy the pods in the same way.
• Kids Driving Cars: A Smallfry that's in control of a weaponized hovercraft.
• Long-Range Fighter: They can target workers regardless of the distance between them, and will generally stick near the shoreline where they spawn.
• Macross Missile Massacre: It has two missile pods that launch a barrage of bottle-shaped missiles at its enemies. The red pod will aim for the worker closest to them, while the blue one will target a random one regardless of distance.
• One-Hit Kill: While normally you need two Splat Bombs to blow up each missile pod, certain circumstances can allow you to blow up both at once:
  • For regular Splat Bombs, rolling the bomb onto a ledge where the Flyfish is parked close to will destroy both pods at once. It can also be done if a Slammin' Lid happens to be parked nearby; tossing the bomb into the shield will detonate it instantly and destroy the Flyfish.
  • For other weapons, specifically Crab Tank and Inkjet, the Explosher, and the Cohock Cannon, a well-aimed shot in between the open lids of the missile pods will knock both of them out at once. The Triple Splashdown can also be used to destroy both pods in a single go.

Steel Eels

Long eel-shaped vehicles that rain down ink throughout the length of their body.

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• A.I. Breaker: It's not able to jump onto higher ground or run off of ledges. If you do so yourself, the Steel Eel will be forced to find another path to you, which will inevitably reveal its weak tail end to you.
• Artificial Brilliance: Lesser Salmonids will stand beneath the Steel Eel's invulnerable splash wall if they can do so while pursuing their target.
• Attack the Tail: This Boss Salmonid is a large, invulnerable mechanical eel that constantly drips ink, with the "driver" Salmonid at the very tip of its tail being the vulnerable weak point.
• Barrier Warrior: Much of their danger comes from them functioning like giant, mobile Splash Walls that restrict the players' mobility and protect other threats as they approach.
• Evil Counterpart: Are essentially an infinite duration Splash Wall, right down to sharing the same shot-blocking abilities.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: The only time a Steel Eel will give up on a target is if they stand on the elevators in Marooner's Bay, as them suddenly rising with only part of the Steel Eel on them would likely break the machines.
• Last Ditch Move: When the driver of a Steel Eel is splatted, the "head" still lives for about an extra second afterward, allowing it to get one more lick in (or splat an unsuspecting victim) before it's fully demolished.
• Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: After the driver gets splatted, the rest of the machine pops segment-by-segment, with the head exploding last.
• Malevolent Masked Man: The driver wears a medical mask as protection from their machine's spray.
• Segmented Serpent: Or "Segmented Eel Machine" in this case. The Steel Eel is made of multiple segments between the driver and the head.
• Slippery as an Eel: Played with. It's not an eel itself, but the robot is intentionally meant to resemble one, and it's an ink-spewing machine that's hostile to Inklings and Octolings.

Drizzlers

Salmonids equipped with an armored umbrella, they float around to find a landing spot where they can hunker down to fire off an Ink Storm missile.

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• Anti-Frustration Features: When aiming its missile, it always aims towards a player which removes most of the effort needed to reposition yourself to shoot it back at them.
• Arbitrary Weapon Range: Enemy version rather than player version: you always want to stay a mid-range distance away from a Drizzler. Its torpedoes travel a certain horizontal distance every time, so staying that distance away from it will ensure that the torpedo is between you and it and secure an easier instant splat.
• Evil Counterpart: Their Ink Storms function nigh-identically to the Inkling version, with the missiles themselves hanging in the air before activating in a manner similar to Torpedoes. They also protect themselves underneath an iron umbrella like the Brellas being used as shields.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Doing enough damage to the Drizzler's cloud missile after it opens but before it activates will cause it to fly off in the opposite direction you hit it from and explode on impact; the Drizzler can be instantly splatted with said explosion if one's aim is good enough.
• Irony: They fight on their own terms, but they function best as supporters amidst other Salmonids.
• I Work Alone: According to the field guide, Drizzlers are renegade Salmonids who prefer to go it alone and fight on their own terms. Fittingly enough, it places no priority on working with other Salmonids and doesn't follow a set path. Ironically, its choice of weapon ends up making it more of a supporter in the long run.
• Mighty Glacier: When hunkered down inside its umbrella, the Drizzler is essentially impervious to most weapons, while its projectile creates Ink Storms that paint the ground in Salmond ink and drain the health of any player caught inside. The Salmonid operator itself also has a fairly high amount of HP.
• Support Party Member: If they wanted to work alone, the Drizzlers probably should have chosen a weapon capable of directly damaging their enemies rather than the Ink Storm, which serves more to slow down players and make them vulnerable to other Boss Salmonids.
• Tennis Boss: The easiest way to deal with a Drizzler is to shoot its balloon straight back at it, which will both stop the Ink Storm from pressuring your team and One-Hit Kill the Drizzler even if it hides under its armor again. You're encouraged to do this since it has one of the higher health pools of all Boss Salmonids, always aims in the direction of a player, and can easily take back any turf inked in your team's color.

Stingers

Salmonid snipers perched atop a tower of pots stacked over a gas burner.

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• Anime Hair: They have a green, lightning bolt-shaped mohawk.
• The Artifact: The Sting Ray special, which the Stinger wields, no longer exists in Splatoon 3... but the Stinger still appears in the third game, and still uses the same Sting Ray sound effect. It can still be seen as loosely emulating the beams of the Killer Wail 5.1.
• Breath Weapon: How Stingers use their Sting Ray. According to the Fish Stick Field Guide entry, Smallfry that exhibit impressive breath control get a chance to be promoted to Stingers.
• Cold Sniper: The Stinger is a long-range fighter, and it isn't particularly chummy.
• Death Ray: The Stingers fire a Sting Ray that pierces walls. Thankfully it does not expand out to cover a wider range like the player-operated Sting Ray.
• Evil Counterpart: Wields the Salmonid version of Splatoon 2's Sting Ray (which itself has been succeeded by Splatoon 3's Killer Wail 5.1).
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: They use gas burners to pressure cook ink for their attacks, but it's also the only thing that can splat a Stinger after knocking out all of the pots.
• Kill It with Fire: The Stinger pressure cooks its ink via an open flame at its base; shooting out the many pots will drop the Salmonid onto it, cooking it on the spot.
• Lean and Mean: The Stinger Salmonid is on the thin side, and will harass you with its Sting-Ray attack as long as it's alive.
• Logical Weakness: Weapons with a fast firing rate can knock out Stingers' tower of pots fairly quickly. The only main weapons that are better at splatting Stingers than them are Blasters and the Explosher, which can One-Hit Kill them with a carefully aimed shot that eliminates the entire tower in one hit.
• Long-Range Fighter: As snipers, Stingers prefer fighting at a distance, and indeed, they prioritize targeting the furthest Inkling or Octoling from their position. They can target any player anywhere on the stage. As a result, they can be a frustrating enemy to deal with, especially if there's a bunch of other Salmonids in the way between you and the Stinger, or if there's at least one at each end of the stage, meaning that going after the one means being blasted by the other. Inversely, this also means they're far easier to deal with during High Tide, as they're forced to set up their position much closer to the basket and are much easier pickings for players to deal with before they become a potential problem, since they're always vulnerable to normal weaponry.
• Mighty Glacier: Their Sting Ray will sear through walls to splat players in a split second if they don't get out of the way, but the Stinger itself is completely immobile once it sets up on land.
• Mook Promotion: The Field Guide entry for Fish Sticks mentions that some of the Smallfry that make up a Fish Stick squad are recruited to become Stingers.
• Oh, Crap!: They will sometimes (but not always) immediately panic if a player is knocking down their pots, especially if they're very close to the bottom. This is indicated by them making panicked alert noises while flailing about. They also stop firing when this happens.
• Segmented Serpent: Each of the pots that make up the Stinger's perch have to be taken out to defeat it. Weapons with high fire rates or that can hit multiple targets at once are your best bets for taking them out quickly.
• Stationary Enemy: Once a Stinger sets itself up and starts attacking, it will not move from its position.

Scrappers

Scrapped-together Salmonid vehicles that are immune to damage from the front.

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• The Alleged Car: Scrappers are barely held together and their engines will break down if they attempt to push through concentrated ink fire, forcing the operator to frantically conduct repairs in the middle of combat. Despite these flaws, the Scrapper vehicle is a much-desired item for Salmonids, so it's evidently quite luxurious to them.
• Attack the Tail: The Scrapper has armor from the front and sides, meaning its back and tail are the only weak spots. Blasting the front does no damage but will cause the vehicle to stall, eventually breaking down and leaving the driver vulnerable and unable to turn to block incoming fire while it tries to fix the Scrapper. A team can also attack it in multiple directions, with one player forcing the Scrapper to face them while the others focus fire on its back.
• Collision Damage: Don't think it's safe to touch when its engine is stalled. Accidentally bumping it while trying to circle to its backside will still hurt you.
• Draw Aggro: When they get shot, they stop their vehicle on the spot and pivot to face the offending Grizzco worker, and if allowed to recover will start targeting them. Savvy players can take advantage of this to point their weak spot in the direction of another player.
• Evil Counterpart: As a quick-moving, ink-spreading Salmonid that is protected by a geometrically-shaped shield, they're one to the Baller. They're also one to the Crab Tank to a lesser extent due to being a heavily armored vehicle with a weak point in the back.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Normally, Scrappers get stopped briefly when they bump into you, giving you an opportunity to escape further damage. Scrappers that are retreating at the end of a wave do not have this restriction, so be careful to not get rapidly damaged and run over by one.
• Lightning Bruiser: The Scrapper, despite how cobbled together it is, is not just tough, but moves pretty fast to boot; it outspeeds most other Salmonids and can turn on a dime to face anyone attacking it. Sustained fire on their shields will make their engines stall, however, turning them into sitting ducks.
• Recurring Riff: When their engines are forced to stall, you can briefly hear it play a variation of "Onward", in reference to their trade deal with the Octarians.
• Shield-Bearing Mook: The Scrapper is basically a motorized shield, with only its back vulnerable to ink. However, while shooting the armored parts do no damage, sustained fire can still force the engines to stall, allowing the shooter(s) to get behind the Scrapper.

Maws

Gigantic Salmonids that swim through ink to ambush their prey from below.

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• Bald of Evil: One of few Salmonids to lack hair, and a relentless predator aiming to feast on unaware Grizzco employees.
• Big Eater: Its sole method of attack is eating things, and it has to do this constantly in order to keep itself sustained.
• Eaten Alive: It attacks by lunging up from the ground and crushing your character within its jaw, killing you instantly.
• Evil Counterpart: Maws don't take after any particular sub-weapon or special from the other modes, instead being a counterpart to the Octarian's Octomaw.
• Feed It a Bomb: Can be instantly defeated if an Inkling throws an Ink Bomb onto the spot it's about to pop up from, causing it to eat the bomb and explode.
• Kevlard: It's big and bulky from what can be seen of its body, attempts to eat its victims, and it can soak up a lot of damage. You can defeat it by shooting it normally when it's out of the ground, but it's a waste of time when feeding it a Splat Bomb is easier and faster.
• Lightning Bruiser: It's the fastest of the Boss Salmonids, as its ink tunneling lets it bypass most obstacles to quickly get at your Inkling/Octoling. Getting caught in their attack is a guaranteed one-hit splat.
• Logical Weakness: It moves by burrowing through the ground. Grated platforms suspended above the ground are perfectly safe from them.
• Notice This:
  • The bobber that remains above ground as they travel underground is constantly blinking green, so any player aware of their surroundings should be able to see the Maws coming a mile away. Getting out of the way in the middle of the chaos is another question.
  • A Maws makes a sound akin to waves crashing as it swims. The sound is most audible, however, to the player it's locked onto. If you can hear it, it's coming for you.
• Psycho Pink: They're ravenous and dangerous Salmonids who will make a beeline for you in order to chomp down on you, and they're pink in color, in contrast to its grayish-colored brethren.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: According to the field manual, Maws use sonar to find their targets.
• Shout-Out: Its English name references Jaws, befitting its attack method of splatting victims after swimming below them.
• Taking You with Me: If you have no way to escape a Maws' lunge but enough ink, you can still throw a bomb at your feet or while the Maws launches you airborne and have it chomp you and swallow the bomb, resulting in its own splat immediately after yours.
• Wormsign: The only sign of an approaching Maws is a fishing lure moving across the ground. In Japan, Maws is known as "Mogura", or mole, which suggests it's actually tunneling through the ink.
• You Will Not Evade Me: Try as you might — escape to high ground, hell, escape to a Fish Stick's pole, and it'll follow you up there.

Introduced in Splatoon 3

Fish Sticks

Metallic shafts lifted and supported by eight flying and ink-spewing Smallfry.

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• Anime Hair: While not visible due to their helmets in gameplay, the Smallfry have the same hairstyle as the Stingers.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Despite its usefulness as a vantage point for Chargers and Splatlings, the pole is not fully safe from danger, as the small space can make you a perfect target for Maws, Stingers, or Flyfish.
• Cherry Tapping: Like the Sprinkler sub weapon, the Fish Stick's bullets deal very little damage, and they're very small, too, which makes it less likely for them to hit you. Under normal circumstances, this is not enough to splat you on its own, but running into it after a run-in with other Salmonids, coupled with some bad luck, can do you in if you're not careful◊.
• Critical Existence Failure: A Fish Stick doesn't count as defeated until all eight of its constituent Smallfry have been splatted. Only the last one will drop the Golden Eggs associated with the Fish Stick.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Destroying the Fish Stick in mid-air. Few weapons have the range necessary to perform such an act, and hitting all of the Smallfry before they drill the Fish Stick into the ground is difficult enough.^note  Long-ranged blasters are the best weapons for the job, as the Smallfry are clustered closely together during flight, so shooting right into the center of the group will get rid of them all Succeed, however, and you'll be able to get rid of the Fish Stick far faster than having to wait for it to plant itself and start its ink-spraying ditty.
• Evil Counterpart: Once the Fish Stick lands, it's basically a giant climbable Sprinkler (with the most direct counterpart being the Sprinkler of Doom from Splatfest Tricolor Turf Battles), with its attendant Smallfry spinning around it in a circle while spewing ink.
• Flying Mook: The eight Salmonids that support it fly around and squirt ink everywhere.
• Hat of Flight: Each Smallfry is equipped with a propeller hat.
• Hell Is That Noise: Their presence is signaled with a discordant, off-key tune seemingly sung through a kazoo that is meant to encourage their fellow Salmonids in battle. The tune sounds a lot like a distorted version of the blender theme from Octo Expansion.
• Helpful Mook: Once the Fish Stick is deployed, it doesn't disappear once the flying Salmonids are dead, meaning a Charger or Splatling can park up top and shoot their buddies all day... so long as a Stinger, Flyfish, or Maws isn't around.
• Logical Weakness: Weapons with long range are good at picking off the Smallfry without needing to climb their tower first. Blaster shots are also great at deleting multiple at a time, similar to how multiple Stinger pots can be blasted away in a single shot.
• Mook Promotion: Fish Stick Smallfry that show off excellent lung capacity have a chance at getting promoted to Stingers. Their design shows that they're well on their way to growing into them, as they have the same slit pupils and lightning bolt-shaped hairstyle under their helmets that Stingers have.
• Notice This: If you hear that discordant tune somewhere, then that means a Fish Stick is still active. Helpful since they're technically the tallest of the Boss Salmonids, and they remain active even with only one Smallfry left.
• Support Party Member: Fish Sticks don't directly attack players. They simply stick themselves in a spot on the map and behave like a Sprinkler, covering their area in ink and impeding the movement of any Grizzco workers underneath, making them easy pickings for other Salmonids who are on their tail. By itself, a Fish Stick can be even more swiftly and easily dealt with than any other Boss Salmonid, but with company, they can be quite the nuisance. They're also especially annoying during Cohock Charge, as their placement can cause them to block cannon shots should they manage to plant themselves.

Flipper-Floppers

Large, airborne Salmonids who use ink rings to trap Inklings beneath them.

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• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • If you convert a Flipper-Flopper's landing zone to your color in its entirety, any other Salmonids will be unable to paint it back to their color until the Flipper-Flopper lands and gets its mask destroyed.
  • Also, if you paint its landing zone successfully, its armored mask permanently breaks, so if you get distracted before you can splat them, you won't need to wait for it to attack again and repaint its zone: you can just attack it directly.
• Armored But Frail: Their armored masks provide them with a lot of resistance to damage, but if they break via their wearer crashing face-first into inked turf, the Salmonid underneath is quite squishy.
• Cool, but Inefficient: Their info card states that they're more concerned about looking graceful in their act than they are actually being effective in combat. You can even see this in its design, as it's actually flying sideways so that its tail looks like a dolphin's, and wears its mask so that it looks like it's on straight when in reality it's only able to see through one of the eyeholes.
• Crosshair Aware: It throws a ring of ink to trap Inklings where it's going to land. The ring will continue to glow until splashdown.
• Death from Above: Its main method of attack. Being caught underneath its fishy body is a One-Hit Kill.
• Devious Dolphins: Flipper-Floppers based their looks on an "ancient species" (dolphins), and they're antagonistic to the Inklings.
• Evil Counterpart: They attack from above like a Splashdown-using Inkling/Octoling while also vulnerable in mid-air, and the rings they use to target their foes behave like Splatzones.
• Finger Poke of Doom: Their actual attack of diving into the ink they produce has little fanfare to it; no explosions, no flashy hit sparks, nothing more than a modestly sized splash and ripple of their ink. It hardly even looks like an attack, and this makes them deceptively lethal; getting caught in its zone when it dives is a One-Hit Kill in addition to repainting over any ink you tried applying in its zone.
• Flying Seafood Special: Unique among Salmonids, Flipper-Floppers can fly through the air unaided by machines, and will still fly when stripped of their mask.
• Gas Mask Mooks: Wears a giant metal gas mask, strapped to its face by its waders.
• Logical Weakness: Flipper-Floppers are naturally weak to anything that can paint its circle really quickly. Spray shooters such as the Sploosh-o-Matic and Splattershot Jr. are adept at this.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The inside of the ink ring is the same as a Splat Zone; color the inside enough and the Flipper-Flopper will slam instead of sink, trapping it where it can be shot down.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: A giant salmon that emulates a dolphin. It wears its gas mask in such a way that its body is oriented to make its tail-fin horizontal, and one of its pectoral fins to take the role of a dorsal one.
• No Ontological Inertia: The ink ring will dissipate if the Flipper Flopper is splatted while it's in mid-air.
• Portal Slam: In effect what happens when the circle it casts gets completely inked. Instead of diving in, it'll slam nose-first into the ground, shattering its gear off and flopping helplessly until it regains its composure.

Slammin' Lids

Chums piloting flying cooking pot lids. They protect Salmonids that are underneath them, and attempt to crush Inklings who try to do the same.

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• Anime Hair: What looks like a bowl-shaped helmet is actually their hair cut in a very impressive bowl cut.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Their shields will not block a Drizzler's deflected projectile. This means if a Drizzler's projectile ends up outside the shield, it can still be shot back at them for a One-Hit Kill.
• Barrier Warrior: It provides total protection from ink to Salmonids underneath it. Any worker attempting to get inside the safe zone underneath it will get squished.
• Clown-Car Base: Capable of deploying multiple Lesser Salmonids from its thin pot-lid shape. Even the Cohock, which is way taller than the machine.
• Collateral Damage: They can be tricked into slamming down onto their fellow Salmonids, including immediately splatting bosses.
• Death from Above: It attempts to squash Inklings underneath it, leaving it open to attack.
• Effective Knockoff: The Salmonid Field Guide states that it incorporates cutting-edge Octarian technology, and it attacks in a similar manner to the Octoseeker. While the Slammin' Lid leaves its pilot far more vulnerable to damage than the Octoseeker's, it has the advantage of being able to quickly deploy troops and seems to be cheaper to produce as well (if still relatively expensive by Salmonid standards), given how much more commonly encountered it is compared to the Octoseeker.
• Evil Counterpart: The force fields they generate are similar to the Big Bubbler.
• Flying Saucer: Its design and behavior reference the stereotypical UFO, as it flies onto the field and beams down Salmonids like an alien invasion.
• Helpful Mook: Their slam attack can one-shot any Salmonid caught underneath, even the armored ones, making it worthwhile to hold off on taking them down should there be other Boss Salmonids nearby.
• Mook Maker: They will spawn lesser Salmonids directly below them.
• No Fair Cheating: If you attempt to stay on it after it rises up (a position immune to most Salmonids), the pilot will eventually pull out a large ladle and perform a 360-degree attack, knocking you off.
• Not the Intended Use: A little bit of creative play can get players to use Slammin' Lids like a makeshift elevator, using them to get past unpaintable walls or reach Fish Sticks without painting their pole.
• Oh, Crap!: The pilot will start to panic whenever you happen to mount their ships. If they stop, that means they're about to knock you off.
• One-Hit Kill: Any Salmonid, regardless of health or armor, will be instantly splatted should they be caught under the slam. The sole exceptions are the Stinger, which is too tall for the Slammin' Lid to knock off every pot properly in a single slam, the Fish Stick, which it just can't reach outright, and King Salmonids, to prevent obvious cheese-y quick kill strategies.
• Punny Name: "Slammin' Lid" sounds a lot like "Salmonid".
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: You can trick it into killing other Salmonids by making it slam down while other Salmonids are underneath it. This will even work on Boss Salmonids.

Big Shots

Stationary artillery pieces operated by chubby Salmonids which fire cannonballs that produce shockwaves wherever they land.

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• Awesome, but Impractical: You can use the Big Shot cannon for yourself to fire Golden Eggs towards the egg basket. It's so useful that it's quite tempting to just stay near it and keep feeding it eggs... but the cannon is always near the shore, making it easy to get surrounded or pushed into the water, and Golden Eggs fired from the cannon almost never land directly into the basket. Having someone stay by the cannon alone for too long usually results in them getting splatted far from the basket, and if everyone's at the cannon, then nobody's securing the eggs into the basket, leaving them open for Snatchers to take away.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: Downplayed version; for gameplay reasons, Big Shots will never spawn if the level's currently on High Tide, even though High Tide could be incredibly advantageous to them; their cannonballs would be more likely to score a hit, since everyone's forced to cram around the egg basket which it targets, and the utility of having a cannon for Grizzco employees to fire eggs long distances is negated by the playing area being tiny to start with.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: The Big Shot operators have quite a lot of HP for a regular Boss Salmonid, but don't have much in the way of defenses.
• Evil Counterpart: Their cannonballs generate shockwaves via bouncing, just like the Wave Breaker. However, they only bounce twice compared to the Wave Breaker's three bounces.
• Fat Bastard: The operator is noticeably overweight, and it's antagonistic towards Inklings.
• Helpful Mook: You can use the Big Shot to launch a Golden Egg to the vicinity of the egg basket. Notably, the operator doesn't seem to care if you do this while it's alive.
• Kevlard: The Big Shot operators are quite rotund and take the most damage to splat of the regular boss Salmonids.
• Long-Range Fighter: Big Shots spawn at the shoreline and fire their cannonballs all the way toward the egg basket. It's also a Big Shot operator's sole way to fight; it cannot defend itself if Inklings get up close.
• Metal Slime: Played With. Operators will spawn as often as any other Boss Salmonid, but the Big Shot cannon itself only has a 50% chance of spawning at all in Medium or Low Tide Waves, and never show up in High Tide Waves.
• Mundane Utility: Salmonids sometimes load the Big Shots with special fireworks on holidays and festivals, to make celebrations a little more festive.
• Non-Action Guy: Downplayed. The Big Shot cannon is still a threat, but operating it is all the operator Salmonid does. It does not defend itself at all, even if it takes fire.
• No Name Given: To the Salmonid itself. The Big Shots are the names given to their cannons, but the operators themselves go unnamed.
• Notice This: Their cannonballs leave a sparkling trail behind them when launched, which can help you see where it came from to locate the Big Shot. The Chill Season 2022 update made this effect last longer in order to make this more apparent.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: According to the Salmonid Field Guide, the Big Shot operators are the Blue Oni to the Steelheads' Red Oni. This can be seen in gameplay too, as Steelheads directly attack their enemies, while the Big Shot operators are content to simply fire their cannons and don't react to any Inklings attacking them.
  "Among muscle-bound Salmonids, those with belligerent personalities tend to be assigned as Steelheads, while those with calmer dispositions are assigned to Big Shots."
• Shockwave Stomp: The biggest danger of its cannonballs is that they'll release radiating shockwaves on the ground when they land.
• Wallbonking: Operators are rather prone to this in certain stages, as they follow a fixed path to and from the Big Shot. It's not an uncommon sight to see two operators uselessly walking into each other trying to get to their destination, an act that, when viewed from certain angles, makes it look like the two are making out.

Known Occurrence Salmonids

Goldies

Golden toga-wearing Salmonids that can drop particularly large amounts of Golden Eggs.

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• A.I. Breaker: Glowfly-enraged Goldies share the same weakness as the Grillers; jumping between ledges. The Goldies and their Chum entourage will follow a set path to reach the currently glowfly-swarmed Inkfish, so hopping between ledges will make them backtrack to reach you, buying time for your teammates to collect the Golden Eggs. It's not as effective on them as it is on Grillers, however, thanks to their massive speed, ability to approach from multiple directions, and the fact the glowflies will change targets once in a while.
• Berserk Button: Despite being more intelligent than Chums, Goldies will still go absolutely apeshit in the presence of Glowflies.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: Inverted: They fill the Boss Salmonid role of dropping Golden Eggs when killed/shot, but have no special abilities like the Boss Salmonids'; they're basically mooks in boss clothing.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: During a Goldie Seeking wave, the Goldies will have an obscene amount of health, only surpassed by the King Salmonids. But it's also very passive, with its only strategy being running away into another gusher and relying on the Lesser Salmonids to pull their weight.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: In Goldie Seeking night waves, it hides within the Gushers in the stage. Unlike in Fog and Rush waves, it doesn't try to fight, instead fleeing from Gusher to Gusher while players are tasked with firing upon the Goldie to make it drop Golden Eggs.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: It's covered in golden scales, and it's far more intelligent and long-lived than regular Salmonids. Gameplay-wise, however, they're just oversized Chums with lots of health that are easy enough to dispatch, with their sole value being how many Golden Eggs they carry. Except during Glowfly waves. Be very, very scared of them there.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: In Splatoon 3, they've gotten rid of their pans in favor of just smacking enemies with their fins.
• King Mook: Basically a fancy version of a standard Chum with a lot more health.
• Lightning Bruiser: During Rush waves, Goldies gain the same immense speed boost as the Chum, but, unlike their lesser brethren, retain their impressive HP.
• Metal Slime: Subverted. Only one in 10,000 Salmonid hatchlings can become Goldies according to the Salmonid Field Guide, but they spawn with decent frequency in their dedicated night waves. Of which there are three. Fog, Goldie Seeking, and Rush. They will also drop more Golden Eggs than regular Salmonids, except during Rush waves.
• Piñata Enemy: During Fog and Goldie Seeking waves, Goldies will be at least somewhat hidden (either within the fog itself or inside a Gusher respectively), with the reward for finding them being the huge amounts of Golden Eggs they drop (up to ten in Fog waves, and a minimum of sixteen in Goldie Seeking).
• Regenerating Health: During Goldie Seeking waves, it gains the ability to gradually heal back to full health (on top of having far more health than normal). This is actually a good thing, since it will drop a Golden Egg every time it takes 500 damage, rather than just when killed.
• Stone Wall: Downplayed. In the Fog, Goldies retain their above-average toughness, but are slower than even Cohocks.

Mothership

Flying crates which carry styrofoam coolers full of Salmonid troops.

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• Airborne Aircraft Carrier: Motherships fly high above the stage, and they hold tons of crates within them, which Chinooks airlift and deploy onto the stage en masse.
• Bandit Mook: It has the ability to vacuum up Golden Eggs from the egg basket, and flies in to do this twice during a round.
• Clown-Car Base: It's definitely large, but the amount of Chinooks and containers it deploys exceed what it would feasibly be able to hold.
• Flying Saucer: It definitely evokes the trope. There isn't anything visible on it to explain how it flies (though the Octarians they trade with do seem to have a monopoly on anti-grav technology), and it will occasionally fly in to "abduct" Golden Eggs from the egg basket.
• Informed Attribute: Apparently, the Salmonids consider the Mothership to be their last resort, but they can deploy it during the first and second waves.
• Last Ditch Move: When it's knocked back after its second attempt at going for the egg basket, it will release a large group of Chinooks before going down. Managing to splat them can net you several Golden Eggs landing close to the egg basket.
• Logical Weakness: Long-range weapons like chargers and splatlings are incredibly useful in a Mothership wave, as they are capable of splatting Chinooks from much further away, and can therefore splat them more efficiently than other weapons. With the proper elevation, they can even splat them as they come out of the Mothership when it comes down to steal from the Egg Basket, which can result in plenty of Golden Eggs landing right near it for easy collection.
• Mook Maker: The Mothership continuously spawns Chinooks carrying coolers which spawn Salmonids if you allow them to be set down; the coolers can be destroyed to explosive effect, and doing so while the Chinook is still carrying it will take it out and drop a single Golden Egg. The Mothership is also immune to damage until it comes in to steal your eggs, and downing it the second time when it comes down at the 30-second-left mark knocks it back into the water.
• We Need a Distraction: Gameplay-wise, this is what the Mothership coming for the egg basket is meant to do. The crew has to focus on the ship to remove it from the basket, which gives the Chinooks time to drop their coolers and deploy Lesser Salmonids unobstructed.

Chinooks

Flying Salmonids responsible for deploying troop containers from the Mothership to the ground.

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• Airborne Mook: They fly in from Motherships to drop coolers containing Lesser Salmonids.
• Clown-Car Base: Their coolers contain more Lesser Salmonids than they should feasibly hold. They may be outfitted with special technology to allow for this. Despite that, the coolers do eventually explode after a few Salmonids are spawned, implying that the space within is finite.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Destroying the crates causes them to explode in a small, but fairly strong burst of ink. This usually causes any cluster of coolers to be destroyed all at once, as well as damaging any Salmonids nearby.
• Developer's Foresight: Chinooks can technically damage the player like most of the other Salmonids, so they actually have a unique "Splatted by" message in the extremely rare scenario that the player dies to them. But between their passive battle strategy and them only being near the ground for a second, you would actively need to hurt yourself in order to see this.
• Harmless Enemy: Downplayed. While Chinooks themselves never directly attack, they instead deploy coolers containing Lesser Salmonids that do attack, and while they can deal damage, doing so requires a player to go out of their way to get hit.
• Hat of Flight: It flies courtesy of the propeller atop its helmet, powered by a single golden egg.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: Splitting up the Grizzco forces is generally the best way to handle Chinooks. Chinooks will move in every single direction to deploy their boxes — as opposed to most other waves having the Salmonids approach from a single shoreline at a time — so sticking together and stealing each others' kills doesn't make sense. The only time you'll want the group to reconvene is when the Mothership moves in to steal Golden Eggs.
• Meaningful Name: They reference both Chinook salmon and the Chinook helicopter.
• Turns Red: The coolers will eventually glow red after spawning a few Salmonids, signaling they are about to break.

Grillers

A giant barbeque grill showering ink from its sides, it will zero in on a player with its targeting laser and relentlessly chase them down.

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• A.I. Breaker: For as lethal as Grillers are, they have one tactic that can stall them quite easily: jumping between high and low ground using a short ledge. The Griller is unable to drive off of ledges and thus is stuck taking the long way around every single time.
• Attack the Tail: The Griller's weak point is the red salmon tail flopping behind it. Once it takes enough damage it starts to spin out of control making it trickier to hit that part, but it sprouts three more to compensate.
• Dual Boss: After a couple of seconds, players will have to deal with two Grillers at a time. Mr. Grizz will publicly announce when the second Griller appears to join the action.
• Effective Knockoff: Appear to be the Salmonid counterpart to the Octarian army's Flooders, which have a similar appearance, hardiness, lethality, and function. Unlike Flooders, these can be destroyed, but are also faster, cannot be ridden on, and are always aware of their target's position, chasing relentlessly after whoever they have in their sights.
• Flunky Boss: The Griller is always followed by a horde of Smallfry that spawn from its showers.
• Let's Meet the Meat: The logical conclusion for a race of creatures who view being delicious as something to be proud of is to have a dedicated machine that they operate by cooking themselves alive inside of it.
• Lightning Bruiser: Fast as hell, invulnerable everywhere except the tail, and will One-Hit Splat anyone it reaches.
• Mook Maker: Spits out Smallfry while it's alive.
• Retractable Appendages: Think you can block a Griller's path by stunning the one in front of it? Think again. If Grillers get in each other's way, one will simply retract its wheels to lower itself to the ground, allowing the other to pass over them.
• Stewed Alive: The Salmonids operating the Grillers are being cooked alive inside, complete with vegetables for flavor being cooked with them.◊

Glowflies

Lightbugs that will swarm your character during "Rush" nightwaves. Salmonids have a special relationship with these creatures, in that they hate them utterly and will rush to squash them in massive hordes, splatting anything that happens to be in their way.

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• Achilles' Heel:
  • While the Glowflies may make the Chum weaker and faster, one thing they don't change is their ability to climb walls. A Glowfly-tagged player can cling onto an inked wall with a Squid Surge, and the charging army will simply get stuck running uselessly into the wall, providing the perfect distraction for the rest of the workers to thin the horde or collect Golden Eggs. However, this stops being useful when either the Glowflies change their target, or the Chum decide to jump up to catch the player after four seconds.
  • Big Run stages commonly have a feature that can help deal with Rush waves: raised terrain that the Salmonids cannot access due to having no paths to take to get there. They confer the same advantages as the wall-clinging technique, with the additional benefit that the tagged player can still act and provide their firepower as well. Be wary that they can still jump at you, however.
• Apocalypse How: The Rush wave is noted to have been directly responsible in medieval times for plenty of Class 0s, felling many cities before the advent of long-range ink attacks. Given their lethality in Salmon Run, it's easy to see why.
• The Berserker: Once a glowfly wave starts, the Salmonids will not stop coming until everyone is dead.
• The Dreaded: In-Universe, they were responsible for the destruction of many cities. Out of Universe, expect even the most hardened of Profreshionals to shudder at the sight of those glowflies surrounding their characters.
• Hate Plague: Chum and Goldies go berserk in these things' presence. Chum will even gain glowing red eyes during these particular waves, making them look even more crazed than usual. The Salmonid Field Guide speculates that the source of their rage is actually tied to gravitational shifts in the planet's celestial course, but admits that no one really knows for sure.
• Light Is Not Good: They're little lightbugs that surround you when it's dark. Pray that that changes.
• Marked to Die: Their mechanic. When glowflies surround you, the entire horde will rush toward you specifically, intent on splatting you. They'll still hurt anything that's in their way, but you're the main target. This only lasts for a few seconds, though, as they will eventually change targets.
• Never Split the Party: You should almost never split the party when these things are around. Anyone who doesn't have a full team's worth of firepower in their immediate presence will get splatted if glowflies follow them, which then spells doom for everyone else who's still standing. Scrambling the team is only to be used as a last-ditch strategy when the hordes can't be fought regardless of whether you can stand your ground or not, and you only need to delay the inevitable just enough for the wave timer to count out.
• No-Sell: Glowflies induce a berserker state on all Chum. All except for Snatchers, who are completely unaffected by the sight of the lightbugs and go about their egg-collecting duties as normal.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman:
  • The rollers' rolling mode is typically only used to spread paint around and not for splatting, but it is perfect for handling Rush waves when Chums' health is reduced just enough for every roller to One-Hit Kill with crushing. The Dynamo Roller — which generally leaves players wanting in every other wave scenario — is basically tailor-made to handle Glowflies, as its insane rolling damage will weaken Goldies enough to the point of them being easy splats for an ally to finish off.
  • Brella shields are also capable of the same, if to a lesser extent. The Tenta Brella's width can catch a lot of Chum at once, while the Undercover benefits from not being deployable, meaning it can be kept up as long as the trigger is held.
• Zerg Rush: They're responsible for Chum and Goldies swarming players en-masse.

Mudmouths

Salmonids with an abnormally large mouth who emerge from below ground.

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• Developer's Foresight: They have a "Splatted by" icon, as touching their bodies deals contact damage. You'd have to go out of your way to have this happen, as they're completely immobile, and the way you deal with them usually means you won't be getting close to them anyway. That said, due to a certain bug at launch that caused them to careen across the stage unpredictably, players were made very well acquainted with this kill icon.
• Doing In the Wizard: In-Universe. In the Salmonid Field Guide, it states Mudmouths used to be considered ocean spirits, but now it's known they're just Salmonids who got stuck in a pipe and covered in mud.
• Feed It a Bomb: Its mouth is wide enough to fit Splat Bombs inside, and this is advised at the start of the wave to destroy it.
  Mr. Grizz: [If Mudmouths appear] "There's an old saying about Mudmouths... "If you see one pop up from underground, throw a bomb in its mouth." Yes, it is a VERY specific saying."
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: If you look closely as the Mudmouth dies, you can spot the true appearance of the Salmonid leaping into the air for a split second. They actually look like a disheveled Salmonid with uniquely bad dentistry underneath all of the muck.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: On occasion, a Golden Mudmouth will appear. It spawns Cohocks instead of Chums and Smallfry and gives ten Golden Eggs instead of three.
• Mook Maker: The Mudmouth will regurgitate Chum or Smallfry until it is destroyed. Golden Mudmouths ralph Cohocks instead.
• Muck Monster: Mudmouths appear to be a salmonid made of the inky muck they all trail, implied to be from somehow getting stuck in the gusher.
• Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: When it gets taken out, its head pops first, then its lower jaw, then its stump.
• Sickly Green Glow: Normal Mudmouths glow green and have an appearance that makes them look like they're made of radioactive goop.
• Shows Damage: Every time a bomb explodes in their mouth, they start looking increasingly disheveled and weary.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: The Explosher's exploding ink bullets normally don't confer many benefits in most wave types (barring dealing with Flyfish), but it makes utter mincemeat of Mudmouths. Not only is it easy to aim at the Mudmouth's weak point, as it's a static target, but the piercing properties of the bullets will let it pass through enemies unobstructed where a splat bomb could end up bouncing away from the mouth because a Chum shoved it away. Not to mention that it's far faster and far more ink-efficient to shoot three Explosher shots than to throw three splat bombs. Leave Mudmouth killing to the player with the Explosher, and the rest can focus on splatting enemies and collecting the Golden Eggs.
• Volumetric Mouth: Its mouth is stretched high, making it easy to spot, spawn Salmonids, or be fed a bomb.

King Salmonids

In General

"Got a King Salmonid coming in. That means mandatory overtime! Here's an egg cannon. Now get to work!"

— Mr. Grizz

Sometimes, at the end of the third wave, that won't be the end of your shift. On that occasion, a massive, monstrous Salmonid known as a King Salmonid will rise from the sea, and the players will be thrust into an Xtrawave to take the beast down.

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• Anti-Frustration Features: They have a massive amount of health to whittle down during the 100 seconds you have to defeat them, requiring the entire crew to work together. If someone disconnects during the Xtrawave, however, the King Salmonid will lose a chunk of health to compensate for the loss in firepower.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: They easily dwarf Inklings and Octolings, and even all of the other Boss Salmonids.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: The three currently available King Salmonids fit nicely in each category:
  • Megalodontia is the Big, a titan of a Salmonid capable of swallowing ships whole.
  • Horrorboros is the Thin, possessing an eel-like frame.
  • Cohozuna is the Short, being the (comparatively) smallest of the King Salmonids.
• Boss Warning Siren: A King Salmonid's presence is heralded by a loud klaxon interrupting a distorted version of the standard victory jingle as the word "EMERGENCY!" flashes on the screen.
• The Dreaded: Even among Salmonids, King Salmonids are so threatening that taking them out becomes the highest priority once they appear, with Mr. Grizz even authorizing the use of his precious Golden Eggs as ammunition.
• Flunky Boss: While damage sponge-y, they wouldn't be too threatening if the entire team could constantly unload their weapons on them. So you also have to manage normal Salmonid spawns while the King Salmonid is parading around the stage — with the Xtrawave spawning about three Boss Salmonids or so the moment it starts.
• Godzilla Threshold: How bad is a King Salmonid? You are given a special Egg Cannon to lob Golden Eggs at the beast to kill it faster, the same Golden Eggs that Grizzco Industries needs for its "energy" business.
• King Mook: Each King is an enhanced version of a standard Salmonid, and are dealt with in similar ways:
  • The Cohozuna is like a gargantuan Cohock in name and appearance. It doesn't have any special gimmicks other than a Splashdown style ground pound, and simply chases you down like any lesser would.
  • The Horrorboros is one to the Steelheads, at least mechanics-wise. It uses a modified version of the Steelheads' drool-bomb maker to launch gigantic Booyah Bomb-like blasts at the player. It also resembles the Steel Eels in terms of body shape, and it has the Stinger's distinct lightning bolt-shaped hair.
  • The Megalodontia is a Maws of titanic proportions. It behaves the exact same way, targeting a player to swallow them and becoming vulnerable when they surface. No bomb feeding, though, just a big sore for a weak spot. Its ability to instantly splat Boss Salmonids with its attack also brings Slammin' Lids to mind, while having a weak spot on its back is reminiscent of the Scrappers.
• Land, Sea, Sky: The first three King Salmonids fit this theme, with Cohozuna moving across the ground, Megalodontia swimming beneath the surface, and Horrorboros flying in the sky.
• Meaningful Name:
  • "Cohozuna" derives from "Cohock" and "yokozuna", the highest rank in professional Sumo Wrestling.
  • Ouroboros is the name of an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail, befitting the Horrorboros' lengthy, dragon-like body. The "horror" part should go without saying.
  • "Macrodontia" is the condition of having oversized teeth, the word also contains "megalodon", the greatest of ancient sharks — whose name itself means "big tooth".
• Monochromatic Eyes: Unlike all other Salmonids, their eyes are pale yellow orbs with no irises, the better to accentuate their monstrous nature.
• Nightmare Fuel: In-Universe version, which Mr. Grizz will mention — and promptly ask you to have nightmares on your own time, not his. invoked
  [If the crew wipes during an Xtrawave] "That must've been terrifying... If you're going to have nightmares, policy requires that you do it off the clock."
• Pre-Explosion Glow: If you manage to defeat one, the beast begins glowing in the players' ink color before exploding.
• Red Sky, Take Warning: As of update 2.0.0, the sky turns a deep crimson whenever one appears.
• Screaming Warrior: A King Salmonid is heralded by a nightmarish roar that literally makes your controller shake. And every new King Salmonid introduced gives out a roar that is more terrifying than the last.
• Shows Damage: Like most of everything else in the game, they get covered in increasing amounts of ink when they take damage. Unlike everything else, that ink doesn't start to show until the King Salmonid is on its last legs, which initially makes it seem like an undamageable juggernaut. If you see that your ink is showing damage on its body, make a last-ditch sprint to take it out before the timer expires!
• Superboss: They're insanely hard to take down, requiring special Egg Cannons to eliminate and their waves immediately establish their threat by siccing multiple Boss Salmonids on you from the get-go. Thankfully, splatting them is optional: getting wiped by them or running out of time won't count as a loss for your Salmon Run shift, and you'll always earn a couple of Fish Scales from the encounter regardless of if the King Salmonid is felled or not, with more scales given based on how much health you took out before the end of the wave.
• Super-Persistent Predator: Tackling multiple successful Salmon Run shifts will have a King Salmonid learn your "scent" and eventually get fed up with you enough to make an appearance if you complete all 3 waves.
• Time-Limit Boss: Similar to the previous waves, you're given 100 seconds when the King Salmonid appears. However, instead of collecting eggs, the task now is to kill the beast by lobbing Golden Eggs at it.
• Violation of Common Sense: An Xtrawave has started, and Mr. Grizz has authorized Egg Cannons specifically to deal with them. So you should hunt out Boss Salmonids to target the King Salmonid with, right? Well, not quite. Certain high-damage weapons (i.e., Dapple Dualies, Grizzco Stringer, Heavy Edit Splatling, Hydra Splatling, Sploosh-o-matic) would be far better served to directly unload onto the King Salmonid. You still probably want to kill any Boss Salmonids if they pose an immediate threat, but searching for Boss Salmonids just to get Golden Egg ammo can eat up time.
• Wanted Meter: An odd example. Completing Salmon Run shifts will eventually start to fill up a meter visible on your HUD in the Salmon Run Lobby. The chance of a King Salmonid showing up after the third wave is increased based on how high every player’s meter is, to the point of being guaranteed if all players have a full meter. This is justified by the beast learning your "scent".

Cohozuna

An enormous, chain-bound terror whose immense might doesn't impact its agility, and who can soak up damage like a sponge absorbs ink.

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• Acrofatic: Despite its immense girth, it's capable of leaping high into the air... and because of its immense girth, this is instant death if it lands on you.
• Belly Flop Crushing: The Cohozuna can roll forward, flattening any players in front of it.
• Boring, but Practical: Compared to its fellow Kings, one a flying dragon that lobs explosive blasts, the other a titanic fish capable of covering up entire sections of a stage while swallowing squids whole, the Cohozuna is fairly basic, but very effective. It is essentially a super-sized Lesser Salmonid that body slams and occasionally ground pounds, and it has no special strategy to it other than "shoot at it until it dies", but it remains as much of a threat as the bigger fish.
• Chained by Fashion: Has multiple chains wrapped around its giant body, not that they inhibit it at all.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: Unlike all of the story mode bosses, and its fellow kings Horrorboros and Megalodontia, there's no "weak point" to focus on here, it just has a ridiculous amount of health. Mr. Grizz will even supply you with a special weapon that does extra damage to it when the Cohozuna appears because it's otherwise nearly impossible to kill it within the timeframe.
• Evil Counterpart: Cohozuna's main method of attack is similar to Splashdown, though of course dramatically enhanced by its immense girth.
• Fat Bastard: Cohozuna is an incredibly rotund Salmonid that shares its smaller kin's ravenous hunger and animosity against intruders.
• In a Single Bound: It can leap high into the air, flattening any nearby players when it lands.
• Lightning Bruiser: It hits like a freight train, and is deceptively fast, moving about as fast as the Big Shot.
• Made of Iron: Has a huge amount of health, and takes hardly any damage from most main or sub weapons. Special weapons fair a little better, but the main sources of damage you’ll deal to them are through using the Egg Cannon and the rare weapons that can put out tons of damage.
• Not Zilla: The name, appearance, and gargantuan size of this King Salmonid certainly bring to mind a certain monster king. What's more, its mohawk resembles the big guy's dorsal spines in his 2014 film, and the Cohozuna's debut image◊ bears a striking resemblance to the theatrical poster for◊ Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019).
• One-Hit Kill: Most of its attacks deal such high damage that 1-2 hits are enough to put you down, but special mention goes to its slam attack, which has a huge range and will splat you immediately if you're anywhere near it.
• Screaming Warrior: It lets out a bellowing roar while performing its leap attack.
• Stout Strength: Despite being the fattest Salmonid, Cohozuna definitely proves its danger with its invariably lethal ground pounds.
• Unskilled, but Strong: It has only two attacks, but they're both considerably strong, as its leap attack is a guaranteed One-Hit Splat for anyone it flattens. Additionally, it has thousands of Hit Points, and no weakpoint to exploit, letting it soak up lots of punishment from Grizzco contractors.
• Vocal Dissonance: Despite otherwise making loud, bassy roars, the sound it makes when it descends from a body slam sounds more akin to squeaky dolphin-like cheering.

Horrorboros

A gargantuan, eel-like flying Salmonid that launches Booyah Bomb-like bombs from an apparatus in its mouth.

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• Anime Hair: It bears the same lighting bolt-shaped hairstyle as the Stinger's, only having them styled in two equal-length hair antennae instead of a mohawk.
• Anti-Frustration Features: It inherits the same feature the Steelheads have. If the bomb is deployed before it is destroyed, the damage dealt to it will carry over to the next bomb. It's especially useful here as Horrorboros' bombs are tankier than a Steelhead's.
• Attack Backfire: Like the Steelhead, the bomb it's charging within its mouth can be fired upon to detonate prematurely and take out a chunk of health. The issue is it's constantly circling the stage which makes it difficult to actually hit while evading or smoking other Salmonids.
• Attack Its Weakpoint: Destroying the bomb in its mouth shaves off a good chunk of health, and also keeps it from attacking. Prioritizing hitting the bomb over the rest of its body is a must if you want to take it down before time runs out.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: Subverted. Horrorboros is tankier than Cohozuna by a wide margin, with 55,000 maximum HP to the Cohozuna's 40,000. However, unlike its smaller, chubbier fellow king, Horrorboros has a weak point that can be exploited to cause massive damage, and with proper aim and teamwork, it can actually be faster to down it in practice.
• Dragons Are Demonic: Despite the resemblance to the normally-benevolent Chinese dragons, it is still a monstrous mutant fish that has the same bloodlust toward intruders as the other Salmonids.
• Evil Counterpart: It attacks by launching large bomb blasts that are akin to the Booyah Bomb.
• Flying Seafood Special: Like the Flipper-Flopper before it, the beast flies through the air unaided by machinery.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: It may be significantly more monstrous looking than any other Salmonid out there, not to mention quite long, but it still wears the same type of green suspenders the rest of its kin does at the end of its body.
• Long-Range Fighter: The Horrorboros' spends its time flying above the stage, raining down Booyah Bombs upon players wherever they may be.
• Mighty Glacier: It's significantly larger and tankier than the already large and tanky Cohozuna, but it flies around at its own pace, making it a far easier target to hit.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Its English name is Horrorboros. With horror in the name, you know this thing isn't here to host a picnic with you.
• Our Dragons Are Different: It resembles a mixture of a Salmonid and a flying Chinese dragon. It's even described as a dragon in Japanese, and a Salmonid needs to climb a waterfall in order to become one, matching the legends of dragons being created from carp making it up a waterfall.
• Ouroboros: It's named and designed after the titular symbol, and while it won't eat its own tail, it spends the Xtrawave floating around in a loop above the stage. It also meshes pretty well with the Salmonids worship of eating and being eaten.
• Punny Name: Its name is a combination of horror and ouroboros.
• Screaming Warrior: Oh, you thought Cohozuna's roars were terrifying? Horrorboros' makes it sound like a mewling kitten in comparison.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: It would be nearly impossible to kill a Horrorboros with Golden Eggs within 100 seconds if Horrorboros had simply just flown around and not generate a powerful bomb that can be destroyed by ink.
• Training from Hell: A Salmonid becoming a Horrorboros requires them to climb up a particular waterfall, with those succeeding gaining the adaptations necessary to grow into one.

Megalodontia

A gigantic King Salmonid that resembles a Maws.

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• Anti-Frustration Features: Unlike, say, the Cohozuna, Golden Eggs caught in its radius when it attacks simply get knocked somewhere nearby instead of being made inaccessible from overlapping with its model.
• Attack Its Weak Point: There's a gigantic sore on the nape of its neck. Hitting it there deals +70% more damage as opposed to anywhere else on its body, so aiming for it is a must.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Stated to be the largest King Salmonid so far, which is saying something seeing how big Cohozuna and Horrorboros are. According to Splatoon NA Twitter, its jaws alone are about 1.4 boats wide. You're gonna need a bigger boat, indeed! In battle, its body takes up huge chunks of a stage and reaches quite far up. And do note, we only ever see half of its body at all times.
• Braces of Orthodontic Overkill: Megalodontia's massive jaws are encased in equally massive braces, which emphasize its messed-up teeth.
• Cartoon Throbbing: Its weak point is a massive red bump on its back. It's marked with an obvious bandaged X just in case it wasn't that obvious.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: It's the most robust King Salmonid of all, and not just because of having 65,000 Hit Points. Even if the players focus completely on the weak point, they must deal almost as much damage to it as it takes to defeat a Cohozuna^note 65,000 / 1.7 ≈ 38,236, which is made more difficult by the spot being harder to reach and also being completely inaccessible while the beast dives beneath the surface, meaning that a team has to deal all of this damage in much shorter intervals.
• Eaten Alive: Attacks the same way as a Maws, but because of its large size, when caught in its radius, the camera zooms out to show the unfortunate Inkling/Octoling get thrown into the air before being crushed by its jaws. Not even its fellow Boss Salmonids are safe from it.
• Friendly Fireproof: Averted; its gigantic jaws can swallow up other Salmonids.
• Hiroshima as a Unit of Measure: Its jaw radius is so massive that official materials use boats to measure its size, which they proceed to lampshade. "Desperate times call for desperate measurements!"
• Marked to Die: Like a regular Maws, it targets a random player to crunch with its teeth. It is heavily telegraphed, marking you with a big [X] and showing the radius of the bite, giving the target time to lure it away from the others before it rises up for the attack.
• Monstrous Cannibalism: It will eat anything that ends up in its jaws, including other Salmonids.
• Punny Name: Its name combines "megalodon" referencing its resemblance to a Threatening Shark and "macrodontia", a dental condition of selectively oversized teeth, referenced by the braces it wears.
• Screaming Warrior: Its roar is the loudest of all the King Salmonids, an ear piercing scream of pain.
• Single Specimen Species: Unlike the other two King Salmonids, whom Mr. Grizz refers to with generic terms (ex. "a Cohozuna), Megalodontia's name is used as a proper noun, implying that there's only one of them.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: Due to the size of its mouth, the Megalodontia can unwittingly wipe out hordes of Boss Salmonids in one chomp, releasing 3 times the amount of Golden Eggs on the field. This is very useful to keep the map from being overwhelmed by Boss Salmonids and give players a lot of heavy ammunition to bring down this diving, elusive beast in record time.
• Threatening Shark: It's named after a Megalodon, the largest known predatory shark in the fossil records, and its massive jaws evoke the feeling of the great white shark from Jaws.
• Tombstone Teeth: While all Salmonids have rectangular teeth, the Megalodontia stands out by having a full set of perfect, straight tombstone teeth thanks to its massive braces.
• Unexplained Recovery: There's only supposed to be one, so how it recovers after every splat you dish out to it is unknown.
• Vocal Dissonance: For being such a titanic creature, its "roaring" is more of a grating, high-pitched shriek.

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