Salmon Run Next Wave is here inSplatoon 3, and there’s a lot to love about this iteration ofthe fan-favoriteco-op mode. One big change is that Salmon Run is always available. That’s right! You and your friends can anytime enjoy Salmon Run to earn rewards and collect eggs whenever you want to suit up for Grizzco.
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The modehas also been enhancedwith new bosses and encounters like the fearsome King Salmonid. And that’s not all! There are plenty of new rewards to claim with fish scales from the kaiju-sized Salmonid. Old and new players will love Salmon Run Next Wave, so much so that it feels like less of a side activity and more of main activity, just like Turf War.
10Play With Friends
Salmon Run Next Wave is a four-player-co-op survival mode. Plenty of scenarios benefit from having good team coordination and tight communication. While there are some in-game ways to ping for “help” or “this way” or the beloved “booyah,” it can be helpful to have a little more than that.
If you have friends who play Splatoon 3 or are interested in seeking out an online community to play with, you’ll find some big advantages to entering Salmon Run with a pre-made team and some voice chat.
9Use The Motion Controls
If you’re used to an average third-person shooter, you might be tempted to turn off Splatoon 3’s motion controls as soon as you start up the game. Don’t do that. Splatoon 3 is one of those special games with truly refined motion controls. The game has been built from the ground up to include finely-tuned controls that will enhance your aiming techniques, allowing you to respond faster and more accurately to threats.
It might take a little while to overcome the learning curve, but afterward, you’ll find a lot of benefits in both Salmon Run and Turf War.
8Paint Everything
Your team is given a few seconds before and between the start of each wave. Use that time wisely by painting everything in sight. As you make your way from one side of the map to the next, stop to throw down globs of paint. If there’s a lull in the action, use that time to paint.
You’ll always find that painted floors and walls make it easier to refill your ink and get out of tight spots by swimming. If there are splotches and drips of green paint everywhere, then you won’t be going anywhere fast. Getting caught in enemy paint like this can result in an instant splat if you have opponents chasing you down.
7Communicate
If you have the privilege to be in voice chat with your team, it goes without saying that you should be communicating with one another. It’s extremely helpful to know where the next bosses are coming from and what kind of threat they pose. However, if you’re not in voice chat, it’s even more essential that you communicate via “help” and “this way” to keep your team in the loop.
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Signaling for help will not only let your teammates know that you’ve been splatted, but it will also ping your direction, so they can get you back on your feet. Signaling “this way” can let everyone else know where the next boss wave is coming from.
6Don’t Huddle Up
When things get hectic in Salmon Run, it can be tempting to go back-to-back with your crew to try and fight off the waves of Salmonids. Unfortunately, this will often result in a team wipe. If all bosses are targeting the same spot, your team will be overwhelmed by all kinds of projectiles and paint coming in too quickly to stave off.
Also, many bosses are chasing a specific crew member. If everyone is huddled up together, it can make a bad situation worse by bringing things like Steel Eels down on the whole group with no way of exposing their weak spot.
5Don’t Go Rogue
Since you shouldn’t huddle up, you might think that staying very far apart is the key to victory; not quite. While you should keep a healthy distance from your teammates, you don’t really want them to be out of sight and out of mind. Your character isn’t very helpful, and if you get splatted, you won’t be moving around very quickly.
The further away you find yourself, the longer it’s going to take for you and a teammate to reach one another. All of that traveling is time you better spend splatting and inking all over the map.
4Protect Your Eggs
As you and your crew become more proficient at taking down bosses, you’ll find that it can be a challenge to get all the golden eggs into the basket. Grizzco needs those eggs, and it’s up to you to get as many as you may. The biggest thing you need to watch out for are Salmonids, who will expressly fly in, scoop up eggs, and begin to fly away. You can splat them and have them drop the eggs, but it’s best to avoid this altogether if possible.
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You can try juggling the eggs, tossing them around, or just leaving someone to guard them while the others work to turn in eggs. No matter what, you always want to get in any many eggs as possible. Also, watch out for the special mothership event, as it will attempt to suck eggs right out of your basket.
3Kite Enemies
One of the great things about Salmonids is that they can be fairly predictable. Unlike fighting against other players in Turf War, Salmonids generally follow a specific person and will continue to do so. This means that if you have a horde of Salmonids on you, you’re able to run them through a tight corridor before unloading a bunch of paint on them.
If you have a tough Steel Eel on you, then consider running near a teammate who can attack its tail while you’re running distraction.
2Help Teammates
Sometimes the most valuable player is the one helping out everyone else. If you see one of your teammates about to go off on their own, maybe follow them and be their buddy for a little while. You have strength in numbers as long as you don’t try to turtle up together.
If you see a teammate pinging for help, it means they’ve been splatted, and you should make it your priority to get them back on their feet. Playing medic should often come before fighting off more Salmonids because it helps everyone in the long run.
1Throw Those Eggs
This is a new feature in Salmon Run Next Wave, and it feels so natural that you almost can’t imagine the mode without it. You’ll find all kinds of scenarios where you might want to throw eggs. Sometimes you might have to toss them closer to the basket to stop a Salmonid from stealing them. you’re able to also set up a chain with your crew where you toss eggs to one another in a line to put them in the basket quickly.
There might even be a time when you only have a few seconds left. In that case, you have to throw the egg into the basket itself to beat the buzzer. If you think you have a reason to throw an egg, then toss it as hard as you can. You’ll also find that you can throw golden eggs at the King Salmonid to damage him more.
