Salmon Run Scales and Rewards Explained! - Splatoon 3 Salmon Run 

===HUGE CORRECTION TO HAZARD LEVELS IN THE VIDEO=== The Image shown on the video is for Paygrade and not Hazard Level and I made a boo-boo. Apprentice is actually on 3% Hazard Level meaning chance for gold is : Apprentice 19 - 0.1802% Profreshional+3 50 - 1.3514% Eggsecutive VP 50 - 1.5315% Eggsecutive VP 200 - 1.8018% Hazard Level 150% is Actually Profreshional+3! Which I think is a good middle ground but lowering your Rank is not a good idea! Overall everything in the video stands but the Rank Rewards are even lower than I stated! More Info about Hazard Level here : splatoonwiki.org/wiki/Salmon_Run_Next_Wave_data

Nintendo should have added a system where you can convert your current scales into better ones, like for example: 5 bronze scales = 1 Silver scale

I'm glad there isn't many rewards that require gold scales, that's a ridiculous amount of grinding.

ughh i have 617 bronze scales, 500 from big run-i’ve been saving for octoleet armor-its still so much

As a solo queue player, I guess I'm sorta glad the chances are low no matter what? I mean it sucks in general but at least I don't have to feel like I'm missing out on rewards just because I don't have a premade all set to raid Molten Core.

Sadly the hurdle I have to take is the fact that I get bad team members all the time

I just want the blue outfit..

This is wild lol I think it’s compounded by the fact that you need multiple scales for rewards, from 10s to 100s. If it was just a single gold scale for a high tier item it’d be more acceptable and you could get excited just from one drop. But with a low drop rate AND needing so many just for a suit or banner - it’s not worth the time investment.

I think we’re missing a key component of this system: the Big Rush or whatever it is called. I have a hunch that those, being more of a limited time event, might yield significantly greater rewards. Also being able to trade scales up or down (eg 10 bronze for 1 silver and vice versa) would mitigate a lot of the frustration from this system

I love fighting the cohozuna itself, it's a great challenge that's just the right amount of difficulty for a bonus wave, but the rewards are just too scarce to make it feel worth your time. Like, it takes a minimum of 5 runs to have your meter full, then you have to somehow win a round, which itself is hard on high difficulties, and then he's still not guaranteed to appear, but if he does then you might do terribly and get nothing, then you have to grind to make him appear again just for another go. Or you could beat him and get just bronze, which is garbage. Hopefully big run is more rewarding.

I think we're probably getting increased scale rewards with the big run events. But at the same time beating Cohozuna just doesn't feel as rewarding as it should be, I feel like you should be almost guaranteed to get a gold scale if you beat him at high danger levels at least

I imagine gold scales are intended to be obtained mainly in big wave, a resource akin to the super sea snails. But like the snails, you can get it very sparsely outside of the events. Although that remains to be seen

Hopefully the Big Run will change something. But in the meantime, remember this: You can kill a Flyfish by launching a golden egg at it during an extra wave, meaning you can lose one egg to get three eggs _and_ get rid of the most annoying threat in the game!

honestly it's nice to know that those "just barely lost" xtra waves aren't a huge loss of scales. i was getting mad thinking i was missing out on huge rewards

I love the idea of long-term rewards that take a while to save up, but instead of high variance gold scales, it would be better if the rewards were more expensive but getting golds is more consistent. If it’s a 2% chance of gold, getting something may take on average 50 tries but it feels much more rewarding if you get a gold >50% of the time (especially on the highest rank), even if you need 100 to buy it

I love Salmon Run, really I do! And I love the fact that you can get different coloured suits now! (Personally, i'm saving up for a pink suit) But... man I do not like Cohozuna one bit. It's aggravating to fight and the rewards are so inconsistent. I'm glad there's hard data to back up my bitterness, and while I hope Nintendo tweaks something about the fight or the rewards, I honestly doubt they will.

I think what’s weird about this is the SR rewards are so stingy, but otherwise the game gives out rewards like crazy. The one mode that’s always been about grinding for bonuses is suddenly stingy about bonuses.

I feel like they will give out better rewards for big run. Probably higher chance for gold scales. Maybe even some scales at the end for how much you contributed during big run (like with Splatfest a the super snails). Otherwise I do like the system. It's satisfying to just kill the King Salmonid by itself. And I do kinda feel like they might add different King Salmonids later. Always felt like giving it the name Cohozuna feels like there will be others with other names. Who knows.

dude i didnt even know you could kill the bosses with the eggs. you made it a total game changer for my friend group because we kept getting wiped by the missile launcher one the most. thanks!

Thank you so much HaZ! I was doing some intense grinding to acquire silver scales, and getting very upset when I would only get bronze. Now I can just relax, get my 1200p every new weapon rotation, and slowly build up my scales.

I also understand it has to be a grind but I really don't know what they were thinking by making it this harsh, not all of their players are teenagers with forever free time. THOUGH maybe it's this harsh because we're still early in Splatoon 3's life and they have plans to make it better in the future with the various Salmun Run updates we know are coming.

At the very least, it's nice to know that even a mediocre extra wave still gives decent rewards, but yeah I feel like thresholds of performance should increase the rarity, not just the number of scales

Since getting to professional 2+ I haven’t been able to beat the emergency wave once. Still got no gold scales 😕

Gold scales need a "pity" meter that goes up based on your cohozuna performance and hazard level, and when it fills, your guaranteed one on your next cohozuna COMPLETION, you still keep building towards the next "pity" in the mean time, but it gives a more tangible reward to beat cohozuna

The hardest part of fighting cohozuna is not getting disconnected mid game

My biggest problem with Salmon Run scales is that this is a grind that is very much like an overly grindy MMO endgame. And considering this is all just for cosmetic coolness you can get as extra in SR, it's definitely way too much even IF you were to grind like crazy for months - which is a pretty standard issue for MMORPGs. Let alone 999 silver scales or 100 gold scales for two of the rewards. You could literally double the chances of silvers/golds dropping and it'd be just be a BIT more reasonable. I for one would like to see both consistency to drops and/or a greatly increased drop rate to make even the most expensive rewards doable over several months of some grinding.

I hope that they update this eventually and make it just a little more possible to get silver and gold. I've never gotten gold and I really want the other suit colors also so I need more silver. I could see it being fine to not have a chance of getting any silver or gold if you don't win but if you do win making it a little more likely to actually get good rewards for it

2:36 these are the paygrades, not the hazard level. These determine the number of points you get at the end of the round. You can see the hazard level of a match by looking at the match summary from the app or by pressing L when in the salmon run lobby (the menu to start a new job) and switching the menu across. Iirc it was about 200% for Exec VP 200 for me, 230% just below Exec VP 400, and 130 at Prof +2. Its def not 150% at apprentice haha. I might be misremembering the exact numbers, but the point stands. It also worth noting thats its not fixed for a given rank, it fluctuates a lot.

I have not gotten a single gold scale since launch, really hoping the chances are upped at least a little bit

After seeing this, the craziest thing I saw was the player launch a golden egg at a boss salmonoid and that one-tapped it. Didn't know that. That's actually a good technique because yeah, one might think of it as a waste at first but you get 3 more, well 2 since you used one but still that's more egg per attempt! example at 4:45.

Something that I think would help is the ability to Trade Up: Pay however many Bronze Scales for a Silver one, and however many Silver for a Gold. Then it would still be grindy, as seems intentional, but not COMPLETELY up to random chance. You'd be able to get rewards that cost Gold Scales eventually even if none drop for you.

This video confirmed my fears. I’ve stopped trying to get scales now

I really have no idea what they were thinking with this reward system. Well said!

I love getting 10 bronze scale in egg level when we beat the king

The more visible reward is a badge for defeating him

That actually takes a huge load off my chest. It’s so relieving to know that only beating 1/10 Cohozunas if that will still give you pretty good rewards, and even if felling the beast only gives you one extra scale, doing it is something I can be proud of in of itself. Maybe one day in the future they’ll add something special for beating them (I always thought it’d be cool to give you something for beating x amount of boss Salmonid, maybe something like that), but this is gonna make it so much more enjoyable for me

Crazy the percentages :/ but yeah guess like you say apart of the grind but a fair percentage would be 1-15% Gold, 16-40% Silver and 41-99% Bronze at least you would gain them perhaps more often and if so they could add more items to the rewards screen to balance out the shells to what we receive them as?

Salmon Run is a shitty mode. The game design is atrocious, the reward system is atrocious. This mode would better if we can have custom loadouts and playing with strangers absolutely suck.

tbh Cohozuna encounters are really hard to get by in first place, you have to fill a meter (that doesn't rewards you with wins, always fills in 1/5 of the meter each match), AND also winning an eggsecutive match (which isn't easy). This system is the worst one in the entire game. Maybe it's better in big runs but we know little to no information about this mode...

You know what would patch at least the majority of this hole? Having a cash in system. 10 bronze scales for 1 silver scale. 10 silver scales for 1 gold scale. Maybe not these exact numbers but at least have an exchange rate so people can cash in tons of bronze for some silvers and so on.

For a little thing to say: one time I played the XtraWave and I lost BUT the thing I want to say is… I SOMEHOW GOT A GOLDEN SCALE

Hopefully big run event will give more scales. I just do the 12 capsules every salmon run rotation then stop. The grind is not worth it for me

Ok so lemme get this straight You have a lower chance to yellow scale in splatoon But in tf2 you have a higher chance of getting a aussie weapon that can go for good prices and has a 4% chance of dropping.

I remember when I got 10 bronze scales, 2 silver and 1 gold on xtrawave as apprentice and i didn’t even know what they were 😅

they definitely need to up the rare scale drops at least for a successful final wave, but i feel there might be more chances to get rare scales during the rumors of the big runs

This would be perfectly fine if certain items weren't restricted from being purchased with certain scales. As it currently is, that's just bad design

I honestly feel the king salmonid is such a failed execution so far. It’s not fun, it’s just frustrating and the rewards for bothering just aren’t worth the effort

I had a run where my friend got a gold scale and I didn't want I was *pissed*

They really need to tweak the extra wave and it’s rewards, and this confirms it. After getting to Profreshional rank, I haven’t been able to kill King Salmonid once, only getting just close every time due to timeout.

I’m in the minority here but I like how Salmon is rn. It gives me a reason to keep playing when the rewards are like that and the people who get the top rewards get that much more satisfaction. I love fighting Cohozuna and to me that’s a reward by itself because I think it’s fun and don’t need the rewards to enjoy myself. I wish we could fight him more though. I’d love if the meter is a chance Cohozuna appears with it guaranteeing at max average meter. They’d probably have to tune down the scales in that cases but that’s what I would want since the gameplay of Cohozuna is fun to me and would be more satisfying if he was less predictable in his appearance.

After playing with friends that are so much lower ranked than me, I found their Xtra Waves are so much easier (they're not successful, but it's another story). I agree that the system is so harsh, max 13 scales for all ranks and the "better" odds aren't enough to justify the harder difficulty to beat Cohazuna. Which is another reason to not stay at higher ranks: the Cohazuna badges are easier to obtain if I'd derank me to Profreshional. Anyway there're some inaccuracies. At 3:18 you wrote 150% hazard level for apprentice, but this is wrong. That 150% is the paygrade of apprentice (0-49), in other words the multiplier of your points (x1.5). The same for eggsecutive VP at 3:56, that 230% is the x2.3 of the points multiplier. Generally profreshional +1 has around 110%, hazard eggsecutive depends highly on the team, usually I have ~175% hazard. Nice video regardless! P.S. about the damage depending on body part hit to Cohazuna, I'm not so sure anymore that it has relevance. When I was the only one alive, I had a moment to experiment without other's damage and I didn't see any difference. Probably it's better to keep aiming on easier parts of the body. And as always, remember to use some eggs to shot down other bosses' weak spots to save time.

Now I understand why I didn't get my first silver scale until I was on the highest Go-getter rank and my first gold scale when I was on Profreshional rank, and even when I am on Profreshional +3 sometimes I got only bronze scales, even if we beat Cohozuna, that's just stupid.

If this data is correct, THEN HOW THE HECK DID I GET 4 BRONZE, 2 SILVER AND 2 GOLD WITHOUT DEFEATING THE KING SAMMY? (my friend and i freaked when we saw that)

My problem is there's not really a point pushing further than Profreshional 1 considering how hard it ends up becoming to clear waves. Increased pay grade doesn't mean a lot considering it's fairly quick to get the first 12 bobbles on any rank, and the scales you get barely changes on increased levels. The only thing you get pushing to Eggsecutive are a few new titles and that's about it. If you're playing Salmon Run (especially with randoms) I recommend you play on either Profreshional Part-timer or Profreshional and demote yourself if you get a higher rank. Atleast you'll be able to get to wave 3 and actually battle Cohozuna

my splatoon 2 fit was the worker's cap and juice parka, both of those now cost 30 gold scales... grizzco stole the clothes off my back and is trying to sell them back to me for more gold scales than i've ever seen lol

I don’t think the scale drops are the problem, but the frequency of king salmonid battles combined with the difficulty. On average, you get a King Salmonid battle on, like, every 5th or 6th shift - that’s 30 minutes of gameplay. Then depending on your skill level or your teammate’s skill, you defeat the king salmonid or get wiped out instantly. With how hard the battle is and how rare it happens, 10 scales just aren’t enough. I’m not sure how much the later Suit colors cost, but I think it’s around 100 silver scales? Let’s do some math, assuming you always fight Chonzua perfectly and get Chonzua as Eggsecutive VP very 5th shift, that’s 13 scales in around 25 minutes of gameplay. Of these 13 scales, 15% will be silver scales, making it ~2 silver scales per fight on average. This who,e process must be repeated 50 times to get 100 silver scales - making it 1250 minutes of salmon run gameplay. To that we add the Extra Wave time (1 minute and 40 seconds times 50: around 1 hour and 24 minutes) - that’s 21 hours of salmon run gameplay - but that’s just assuming you actually defeat Chonzua with 30 seconds left and you are Eggsecutive VP.

Thanks for telling me this, now can you tell me how I can get different color slip suits, other than the orange green and yellow ones?

Okay, but...whatare they FOR??? Like, can someone explain for those of us who don't have the game yet? With how rare these seem to be, whatever you get for them must be crazy valuable

And all of this is compounded _even further_ because when maps rotate, you LOSE all of your meter towards spawning an Xtra Wave. What a pointlessly abhorrent grindfest Nintendo has created 😡 Like real talk. I really wanted to love this game, but everywhere I look, there's another tedious system designed to keep players grinding away forever. -Getting chunks for gear is slow -The number of chunks needed is high -There's a battle pass 😒 -Gear upgrades appear randomly in the shop -Gear upgrades are a huge money sink -Murch is a money sink -Murch only has like 0.5% chance to bring you a full set of ordered gear -The Shel-drone & Shell Out machine are once-per-day loot box mechanics that mostly give junk. -Salmon Run rewards have diminishing returns per map rotation. -Opportunities to earn SR scales are infrequent -Annnd per this video, gold SR scales have about 1-2% drop rates The bottom line is that this game is seriously testing my patience on literally every front. And that's the opposite of how we as players should be treated. It has quickly reached the point where any time I have downtime and might sit down to play a game, I have to genuinely ask "Am I *actually* having fun? Or is this a toxic gameplay loop designed to instill habitual behavior?" Don't get me wrong, sometimes it's still the former, this is a fun game and all. But not fun enough to warrant planning to grind for literal years. Anyways, thanks random internet stranger for hearing me out. I don't have much to offer you except for this tenta-cookie: 🦑🍪

The rewards for beating Cohozuna are shitty, but he’s the first king Salmonid we’ve ever gotten and he’s (I’m guessing) the “easiest” boss. Horrorboros should give better rewards. As more and more king salmonids are introduced with each Big Run, the rewards should get better and better. (Hopefully)

The way I saw Eggsecutive VP JP players beat Cohozuna at 333% hazard level and only get 2 silver scales consecutively 😢 Meanwhile I got zero silver or gold scales for beating it in Profresh+3 but I remember getting gold scales in Overachiever haha My theory is that it's also to reflect the unfair pay and grind in a toxic, exploitative workplace, since Salmon Run is supposed to represent that. I enjoy playing Salmon Run and the Cohozuna fight anyway, and after I got my pink suit I'm not in a rush to get anything else so all other scales are fun bonuses for me.

I played freelance on apprentice, we all defeated cohozuna in less than 30 secs. Tip: USE YOUR GODDAMN EGG CANNON.

A normal person is only rarely going to see cohozuna like once in a couple days of play, why is so unrewarding and grindy? Just 13 scales? Honestly I feel like they need to DRASTICALLY increase scales, not the type, just the amount, like just make it 30ish on average, so those who eanna grind out scales can, and normal people can actually get rewards

So basically Higher rank = Higher Hazard Level Higher Hazard Level = More scales/better scales

I've gotten very lucky with my king salmonid drops, had no idea golds were that rare. I've won a single king salmonid and played in total around maybe 20 or 25 at best, and have gotten 3 golds. I'm pretty lacking in silvers, though...

I was VP and decided to bump down to Profeshional and now never go beyond +2 simply because it allows me to fight him more often, and simply having more attempts is a way larger improvement over those abysmal odds. Also this just makes that playing at higher levels is pointless, because even taking into account the higher point multiplier, it doesn't matter since most runs at those levels (with randos) just failed on the 2nd-3rd wave. So my suggestion is, just stay in the Partimer range and you should be better off by all accounts.

This is absolutely ridiculous. How on earth did they think this was ok? At this point I've completely given up on caring about earning the shells. I just play Salmon Run for the prize capsules in each new rotation, and also because I just find it very fun.

This is why i stay at part time professional rank, getting the higher rank gives such a small increase to the chance of getting scales

Big run is our only hope for golden scales

I feel like we should get a bonus for splatting the Cohozuna. Would make splatting it feel a lot less anti-climactic. Maybe 5 extra scales? Not sure if that's too much.

My team and I have gotten 1 gold scale since the game came out. We're all different lvls of Profreshional and celebrated so hard when we got that scale. Cohozuna was 1 shot, we were so close!!

I would prefer if the rewards weren’t grindy and instead changed out every season. Thinking I won’t be able to get rewards from salmon run just makes it less enjoyable for me to play 😢

Ridiculous. Not worth. I'll only be playing Salmon Run to get the gear, so once a month, then back to Anarchy battles.

Wait so your telling me the gold scale I got in profreshional +2 is extremely rare? 🥺

So basically it's the rng of monster hunter combined with the crushing reality of minimum wage. Nice 🤣

ive beaten so many cohozuna's but have only EVER gotten either 1 silver or no silver at all. i bought the yellow suit and have 8 left over now so 18 coho's with nothing else good Edit: (and i also got about 10 bronze pretty much every time)

Ain’t no fucking WAY I’m wasting years on this gamemode for a locker trophy.

Splatoon when you want to get other rewards: “No worries, use these consumable items to increase the amount you get.” Splatoon when you want to get rewards after defeating an extremely difficult challenge: “Just be in the top 500 of all players and pray to the fortune deity of your choice”

Ok at this point I'm sure your reading my mind I was literally just thinking about this!!!😮🤔😁👍

Woof, yeah, that is… bleak. My hope is that there’s increased chances for silvers and golds during big run events 🤞

What I'm getting out of this and Splatoon 3 in general. It seems to hate adults with full time jobs and very little free time like myself as this game is very grindy and rng

In my eyes if u get a kill on cohozuna u get 1 gold garented if u don’t kill but he’s got only 1/3 of his health left 2 silvers at least the bronzes are what ever to me I just want more suits

With all that being said, how is possible that there are player that have already got more than 300 Golden Scales?

I did expect this to be honest. Not the rates being better than what I thought (since the scales I got have a worse correlation than what the odds should be) but as long as people know that killing Cohozuna is not necessary to get gold scales, that should relieve the stress of some people who still believe it but never got the kill (only to eventually kill it and be disappointed when they got nothing but bronze).

Salmon Godzilla looks like nikocado avocado green when mad in the thumbnail 😂😂😂

Gotten 2 gold scales now, but never on a kill (only had 1 kill so far). stuck at professional and +1 keeps going up and down depending on weapons. it seems to get a bit better now that people have had the game for a while, but still think a lot should learn about to downrank option sometimes.

The rewards are so bad it isn't worth wasting a couple hours trying to get extra wave on Eggsecutive when in the same time I can get three to four Cohozunas on Part-time Profreshional.

Bronze should be for finding a king salmonid, silver for damaging it and surviving long enough, gold for splatting it

Petition to Nintendo to add a way to exchange bronze scales for silver/gold scales.

Actually I was running to the opposite I’d get gold and bronze but almost no silver

I personally like the weird scale reward system. I like the grind and it's always fun and awesome when you actually get silver and especially a gold scale. Just beating the Cohozuna is a reward for me, it's satisfying :D

I honestly wish there was some extra rewards behind cohozuna like an extra pay raise or smth

I Got 5 Bronze And 2 Silver From Losing Better Than I Got For Winning!

This game is bonkers man, the time you need to grind is infinite, just have fun and leave it as is.

I think you got it wrong. It’s not “3 percent to get a gold scale” but 3% for each scale to be a gold scale. That means that the chance overall is not only higher but also increases when you beat the boss (since getting more scales means more “rolls” to potentially get a golden one)

This is like a actually like a job working all day long then getting almost nothing

Fun fact. The salmometer is internally referred to as your smell in game.

One time, me and my friend got 2 gold scales from an undefeated king.

Here’s hoping that Big Run gives better rewards then.

I feel like this is the sort of thing that will only encourage hacking.