Spawning Grounds

Legend

Salmon Run takes place at the Spawning Grounds. This assemblage of concrete and metal grates is surrounded on all sides by hazardous water. At high tide, there’s not even any beach to walk on. Familiarize yourself with the map as soon as you reach the island. Focus on inking the vertical surfaces and solid paths that surround the center of the map so as to give yourself plenty of escape routes. Remember, you’re not inking for turf. You’re inking for safety!

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The narrow paths and ramps that make up the docks are all that can keep you from being completely surrounded by Salmonids during your shift. Learn the lay of the map, and lure Cohock and Boss Salmonids along these narrow paths to avoid being surrounded by Smallfry and Chum. Leap across the gaps and swim up the walls to slip away unscathed. The Salmonids can pack a punch at close range—unless you’re wielding a Splat Roller or Octobrush, keep your distance.

The action is fast once a wave begins, so stick close to your teammates for safety and always be aware of your surroundings. This is especially important when on the porous metal walkways during high tide. You don’t want to inadvertently squid right through the grate and into the hazardous water below.

Egg Basket Location: Use the signals to alert your team to the egg basket’s location. It’s typically in the center of the Spawning Grounds island, on a mid-level path. During extreme low tide, the egg basket shifts to the beach.

Swim Paths: Try to maintain a continuous path of ink leading to the egg basket at all times. Not only does this help your team deliver Golden Eggs faster, but it also makes for a reliable resupplying path.

Ink the Walls: Maintain an elevated position during normal and high tides to force the Salmonids to funnel along narrow paths as they try to reach you. Leap down and circle around behind them using pre-inked walls to swim up.

Build Teamwork: There’s no substitute for building a cohesive team. Practice with the same players as often as you can to stand a better chance on higher difficulty levels. Salmon Run can get very difficult, so it pays to have allies you can trust.

Voice Chat: Whether you’re playing with the smartphone app or in the same room, voice chat can be instrumental in Salmon Run. But you still need to be clear and concise when calling for help. Let your team know if you need help on the beach, on the grates, or on the docks. After all, telling your team that you need help “over here” isn’t very helpful.

Known Events

There are six random events that take place at the Spawning Grounds. The higher the difficulty you select, the greater the odds are of encountering the more dangerous hazards.

Changing Tides

The water level at the Spawning Grounds isn’t constant. Sometimes the tide goes out, revealing a large amount of land that’s normally underwater. The egg basket shifts to the exposed beach during low tide. Be careful, as enemies use the exposed ground to stage coordinated attacks. Push forward to the outreaches of sand as soon as you see the egg basket down on the beach!

As tricky as low-tide situations can be, high tide poses the greater threat. The hazardous water floods in, covering all of the ground and forcing Grizzco employees onto the metal walkways. Be extra careful on the grated paths, as squid-swimming through the grate drops you into the water, thus leaving you in a life ring. Fend off those Salmonids as best you can.

Rush

Beware the Glowflies, as they’re your clue that a massive swarm of Salmonids is about to attack at lightning speed. The furious wave of Salmonids has a Goldie hidden among its ranks. Take out the Golden Salmonid to get the Golden Eggs to drop. The only way to fend off a rush is to concentrate your ink alongside your fellow Grizzco employees. Stock up on ink as soon as the Glowflies appear, and stand your ground together. The rushing Salmonids can easily overwhelm isolated Inklings. Your only hope of survival is to have your teammates work to fend off the rush while the player targeted with the Glowflies works to draw near the egg basket. This is because Goldies also spawn and attack the targeted player. Coordinate firepower with teammates so that there’s always someone shooting ink, even while others are replenishing theirs.

Fog

The Spawning Grounds are susceptible to massive fog banks that reduce visibility and make it difficult to track enemies. Stick close to your allies—never go off alone in the fog!—and be on the lookout for Salmonids coming from all directions. It’s common for Salmonids to use the fog to their advantage to launch sneak attacks from unsuspected directions. Fog can materialize at any tide level. It’s particularly difficult to deal with at low tide, because merely finding your teammates can become a challenge.

Though made more difficult by the fog, the wave can be completed as normal. The extremely rare Goldie Salmonids may appear during the fog. How rare are they? Only one in every 10,000 hatchlings is a Goldie!

Griller

These large armored vehicles are equipped with a laser-like targeting system. They emerge from the water, lock on to a target, and pursue it without wavering. Any Inkling targeted by a Griller should focus on running away. Let your teammates do the fighting while you keep ahead of the Griller and the swarming Smallfry that ride along with it. Since the Griller uses a laser to target a single enemy, turn this to your advantage and flank it accordingly. Multiple Grillers can spawn simultaneously, so work fast!

The Griller’s one weak spot is the fish tail on its back. Target the weak spot with ink to stun it. Once it’s stunned, additional weak points appear. Target each weak point to destroy it. Grillers drop Golden Eggs once neutralized. Keep in mind that, at this point, those Smallfry are still present. Don’t forget to dispatch them before focusing too much on the Golden Eggs or the Griller. Consider having a player with the Splat Roller or Octobrush on hand to beat back the Smallfry.

Cohock Charge

What’s worse that fending off a frenzy of Chum and Smallfry? A school of Cohock! Cohock attack en masse from the exposed sandbars in effort to distract you from tackling the Boss Salmonids. Fortunately, Mr. Grizz has deployed cannons (located where the Gusher ports are) for you to use against the Cohock. Clear away the Cohock with the cannon while your allies focus on Boss Salmonids. Ideally, you have at least three players manning cannons while another is available to collect Golden Eggs. The cannons can take down every Boss Salmonid, if you aim for their weaknesses—even the armored ones! Cannons do consume ink, so be mindful of your ink reserves.

Goldie Seeking

In this rare event, a large number of Gushers appear at the Spawning Grounds (you’ll see the ports for the Gushers during normal play). Shoot the Gushers with ink to make them erupt. Most Gushers, once triggered, deploy lesser Salmonid such as Cohock and Chum, but one contains a Goldie. Target the Goldie with ink to force it to drop numerous Golden Eggs. Goldies move faster the more they’re hit, so don’t expect them to always be easy targets. If you hit the Goldie, it retreats and moves to a different Gusher. Target another Gusher to find it quickly.

The Goldie can drop upwards of six or more Golden Eggs at a time, but a Snatcher appears for every Golden Egg dropped, so be ready to protect those eggs! If the Goldie drops eight eggs, eight Snatchers appear at once to try and nab them.

Mr. Grizz’s advice is sound! Spread out to find the correct Gusher fast, before Boss Salmonids appear. Locate the Goldie, then gather your team to attack it with all of your inking capabilities. Each Gusher emits light when hit. The brighter the light, the nearer the Goldie.

The Mothership

A Mothership appears, enabling scores of troops to join the battle via flying Chinook. These Chinook carry containers of lesser Salmonids (Chum and Smallfry, in particular) into the battle. Shoot the containers to make them explode before the Chum and Smallfry are deployed. The enemies spawn when the container hits the ground. After a few seconds, a red ring appears around the container, signaling that it’s about to self-destruct. Chinook defeated by the exploding container drop Golden Eggs.

The Mothership attempts to get close to the egg basket and reclaim Golden Eggs. Target the Mothership as a team and hit it with everything you’ve got to repel it from the egg basket. You need to cover it with enough ink to make it retreat. Golden Eggs sucked out of the egg basket by the Mothership do not count toward the quota. Use long-range weapons to target the Mothership as soon as it appears.