What No One Tells You About EVP 999 in Salmon Run - Splatoon 3 

Since there seems to be a lot of comments about checkpoints and time. The whole point I am trying to make is that instead of bashing your head against the wall for 11 hours which is unhealthy - it's much better to instead train and try to get better on whatever rank so when you are actually ready to go for EVP it will take only 3 - 3 hours for 2 days instead of 6 - 6 hours and lots of suffering. The reason I don't support checkpoints is that as harsh as it sounds, most players are not yet ready for EVP as Nintendo designed it as of now. Which is fine - the game is only 3 months old and it's hard, even though a lot don't want to admit how hard it is. So changing the difficulty with checkpoints to the current level of experience the community has is simply a rushed bandaid fix that will only reduce the long-term quality of Salmon Run in order to help people reach EVP 999 early - which is pretty pointless anyway, it has no real meaning. Instead implementing better tutorials and ways to actually practice Waves such as Grillers of Glowflies that help people train and practice will overall improve the experience and skill of everyone AND THEN it's a good time to evaluate if and how many checkpoints should be added.

Yeah, I realized quickly that time is the biggest problem with getting to 999. Not to mention that fact that a bad comm error can count as a loss dropping you down 20 points. The fact that there's no checkpoints at all and it resets to 40 every shift is just frankly absurd, kudos to anyone who manages to actually pull it off

I feel like a small change they could do would be having it so that if you defeat a king salmon you rank up by 30-40 points instead of just 20. It would make it so that your rewarded for doing well against it and offsets the time it takes away from rounds that would allow you to rank up

I became one of the first 4 or 5 NA people to get all 3 Gold map badges and I gotta say, SR Is a whole lot of fun. It’s pretty much just mode awareness and weapon experience to reach such a high rank. Understand the rotation and what weapons are better for Shredding enemies fast, which ones are painters, or which ones are Boss killers etc. I feel like understanding your role is one of the most important tips to getting 999. Regards to taking bosses down, I personally only think 3 of them are the biggest threats. Big Shots, Stingers, and Fly Fish. Take them down as soon as you can if you see one. Be smart about it, don’t just throw yourself into taking one down hahah As well as that, only try to meet the Quota and survive. Do not put more eggs in because that puts you and your teamates to die. You don’t gain any more rank points if you overfill the quota. And the most important tip I have, is to PAINT 90% OF EVERY WALL YOU SEE. Trust me, it will make surviving so much more easier and or escaping. Around 850 is pretty much boss after boss and you need the walls painted to have more movement. And please, lure your bosses to the basket. Stop kiling Maws by the shore, thank you. Hope this helps !

I don't think I could disagree more strongly about EVP being worse for having checkpoints. I work a full-time job, and it is just outright impossible for me to even try for EVP 999 because of the absurd time requirements. The worst part about every shift is that until I manage to get up to about EVP 150, I am constantly matched with terrible players (unless I stay up super late, past around midnight EST, where the player quality dramatically increases). By the time I'm at EVP 200ish, it becomes significantly easier to win, and I stop having teams of three players who have less than 500 Power Eggs in three rounds (or my recent game where we lost in round 2 with two players under 100 Power Eggs). Just making the checkpoints farther apart than what you get naturally getting both superbonuses is probably enough to deter most of the bad players.

The biggest problem I've had for EVP 999 is time. I know I can reach it. I've reached 800 playing solo multiple times. I've beaten rounds cleanly on up to 320% (just barely missed max hazard, rip) But, because I have a 9-5, the only time I can try is on a weekend, and I need to wait for a weekend that has a strong rotation, and I need to pour the entire weekend into the attempt. And not only that, but the attempt itself is just exhausting. By the time you're getting close to the high ranks, you've been playing for so long that you start to play worse due to fatigue.

"Salmon run has always been a fun mode" Famous last words.

On the topic of checkpoints, Splatoon 2 had checkpoints in the old Profreshional ranks: 0-95 reset to 40 100 - 195 reset to 100 200 - 295 reset to 200 3xx to 300 and 400+ to 400 Doesn't sound unreasonable for VP to have similar checkpoints. The X-factor is the badges. Since you earn a badge at 200, then can't have a checkpoint until you at least have the base badge, but once you have it, then you should be allowed to reset to 200 when rotating into that stage instead of 40. Gives you a little bit of a buffer for a stage you already earned the base badge for. Difficulty aside, however, the biggest problem I have with Salmon Run (the mode I played Splatoon 2 for) is that Splatoon 3 really doesn't have any rewards for playing. You can't get cash anymore and chunks aren't exactly all that exciting to get. Further, it's hard to get a GrizzCo item with 3 slots on it now as they only have as many slots as they have chunks now. Further, they created a grind with Cohozuna and the scales, for which they are extremely stingy giving out anything over bronze. On top of that, spawn the damn boss. I've had 10 straight fails in a row, a full meter for now 5 full shifts, why the fxxx did he not spawn on my next clear? That's what pisses me off more than anything.

I get your point that the overarching issue is that ranking up is too easy- but I hate that when I get up to Exec Vp 200,400 etc people actually know how to play and it becomes fun again- but every 2 days I’m thrusted back into the hellscape of new players who managed to grind their way up and do not even vaguely belong there. I shoukdnt have to grind back to my skill level every new rotation. I should just be there.

I feel there should at least be one checkpoint at 500 given almost no one has 11 hours of free time, that way it’s high enough bad players can’t easily get into it, and gives a halfway mark giving plenty extra time save

By the way, getting a disconnection error, even on Wave 3, makes you lose 40 points not 20. I can confirm because my team literally won the third wave and then it disconnected and I lost 40 points.

one thing that's a huge issue that you hadn't ended up considering is that a lot of players are on tabletop mode, so every 2 hours of grinding is followed by 3 hours of charging. thus it becomes over 24 hours, and accounting for a normal sleep pattern that is literally impossible. thus I think some form of checkpoint system is fully needed since the idea of being skill capped based on the device you use is a bit awful

I personally think the checkpoint should work like Profresh did in Splat 2. You get checkpoints every 100 and 400 is the max that you will checkpoint at, so every rotation people need to earn 600 to make it to 999, instead of 960 points. That would still make 999 be a prestigious achievement, but not a massive time sink that many people don't have in their day to day lives, particularly because it's not just about having the time in your life, it's also about the fact that playing Salmon Run for so many hours on end will drain your stamina fast and you will likely need to take a break, lest you start playing worse because of exhaustion. For example, my max so far has been 300 while Freelancing and it took a while to get there. I kept trying to play to reach 400 but I was so mentally exhausted at that point that I started being an anchor to my team and dropped back to 220 in just a few matches. There's also another reason I wish EVP had checkpoints: I consider my skill level to comfortably be able to take me to 200 on any map, but many people on EVP that I freelance with on every rotation reset clearly don't go that high. When I reach 150-200 I start getting matched with people who feel like they're at my level, but before that, Freelance at 40 VP is a massive crapshoot that can easily put me back into Pro+3 depending on what teammates I get. I want freelancing to feel more fair. VP rank needs checkpoints because people playing at 40 rank are much more likely to not play SR as well as people who reach 200 or 400.

Checkpoints are definitely needed to make the badges more realistic for a normal player without 40 hours to kill, it was much better having them in splatoon 2. But I think the best way to go about it would be to save your scores for each map instead. That way the badges do mean something, but instead of showing you have no life they will show that you are good enough to get to 999, considering that in itself is a very difficult task even without the time crunch.

In my honest opinion, you are probably THE MOST helpful channel I’ve seen when it comes to Salmon Run. Your guides & tips have helped me out the most. Watching your channel has made me actually have fun in Salmon Run. Whereas before, I would get too panicked and stressed and never play it. The more I watch your videos, the more I want to play it. Keep up the excellent work!!

I think a good solution would be adding something like a win streak feature to SR, making it much quicker to gain points if you can win rounds consistently, maybe +5 pts per consecutive win. Probably lock the feature behind EVP 99 as well to prevent people being carried with streaks so easily

I just did 999 on hydroplant yesterday, I can say that you should try to stay with good coworkers and leave when your coworkers are not that good, I think that the wildcard rotations are more fun since you’re not always playing the same weapons and the grizzco weapons are extremely useful later on. Also having coworkers on lower points than you to reduce the hazard level is a good option as well. Also taking breaks is something that helped me.

I think both rank up exams and checkpoints at those exams is a good idea. It would allow a test of knowledge for those who are prepared, and prevent those who aren't ready from getting into higher ranks. It kind of sucks when you get a Glowflies wave and you die in 5 seconds because someone just got into VP and doesn't know any strats

I reached P3 and now back to ProFresh. The amount of people that didn't know what to do was shocking. I am starting to understand those complaints.

I'm super glad they added checkpoints in the newest update. I grinded to 999 before checkpoints were added, and can confirm it SUCKS. Having a checkpoint at 400 relieves a lot of the annoying time sink while retaining the challenge.

Yeah, I get where you're coming from with not wanting checkpoints but honestly I think the time commitment alone is enough of a reason to justify them. Most people don't have that amount of free time over a couple of days despite being actually skilled enough to get there if they did.

God 1 wave glowflies on 333% hazard sounds teryfying

Defeating Cohozuna it should give you a +30 on the paygrade instead of the usual +20.... I guess the scales are more rewarding

My main issue with reaching 999 is that at some point it stops being fun and starts being a chore, and that's indicative of bad game design on the devs' part imo. 48 wins in a row being the minimum time investment is ridiculous with only 40 hours given to actually play (not to mention actually having to take care of yourself irl) which means that to even attempt it as a normal player you need to dedicate 2 whole days to just SR. Furthermore, even having a high enough win rate to make any decent progress is also very hard if you don't have an organized team, thus further impeding freelance players from actually getting up in rank. I also don't really agree with the take on checkpoints if they were spaced out at intervals like the regular, bronze and silver badges, as they would allow people to be able to actually feasibly get to HLM without messing up the balance, because ultimately, what's keeping the balance here is the Hazard Level itself, i.e. if a player is not experienced enough, they will not be able to progress a lot before the rotation changes thus they will be kept at a level they can succeed at so that they can improve, while removing the ridiculous time barrier for it.

I'm definitely not good enough to reach 999 (at least through solo play) but I still think there should be checkpoints. I feel having it be at 200, 400, 600 would make sense since it'd correlate with the badges you can unlock. Or 100, 300 and 500 so you still need to rank up to get the stage specific badges. Splatoon 2 had the checkpoints max out at 400 and I rarely got past 700, I don't think it'd actually cause that many problems to introduce a checkpoint system. I get it being frustrating to play with people who don't know what they're doing but I'd rather deal with players who don't know what they're doing while having a safety net for my rank, then to know that it's going to drop back down to 40 regardless of what I do. I work full time, I don't have an entire day to dedicate to the game to reach 999 from 40 but 600 to 999 would be far more feasible... you know, if I was actually skilled enough to do that. XD

I think checkpoints could work, if it was more limited than what some people may want. I think that it could be good if it checkpointed per map, specifically So like, if someone got to 480 in Spawning Grounds, they'll come back to maybe, 290 or something, it should still be a large drop, but just not all the way to 40 But, when it does drop, it's only for once you get back to Spawning Grounds. You've got the Plant, Sockeye, and the upcoming returning stage, to work at between To continue pushing the players, even if they make it to say, 600 on a rotation, if they don't play the next time that map is in rotation, it should drop again, functioning as a small punishment for not keeping your score up, while not just being a constant 40 But I'm not someone who'll likely even make it to EVP anyway, so take what I say with that knowledge

Yea, Rotation changes are utterly brutal. Especially for people like me who cant just throw in tons of time even with breaks. I dont know if I can even reach 999 EVP, I tried in this random rotation and got to 250. Some sort of checkpoint would be cool.

As someone who has EVP, thank you for this info. As much as I want too I don’t currently have the time to attempt this. Also I feel the weapon types in each rotation can play a huge role in influencing how much success there is.

I wish there were mandatory tutorials for all of the night time waves. Like only one tutorial per event to get people used to how to play it efficiently.

tip: using splat brella melee can work similarly to splatana melee, if you get close to an enemy and hold the trigger slightly longer than usual, then you can increase your damage from 180 to 280, allowing you to 2-shot a cohock(1 melee and 2 times firing) with a trade-off of slightly lower attack speed. you can also 2-shot a steel eel(2 melee and 2 times firing) or anything else with 500 hp(most bosses)

I just reached VP999 and Hazard Max two rotations ago and I can easily say that getting out of that VP 200 to 400ish range is hell because thats where the majority of players skill seems to cap. I had an easier time playing 500 to 999 since it seems players at that range have the skills to go all the way

Got to EVP 999 with the Golden Rotation at Sockeye Station. So happy.

I’ve heard that it’s a good idea that, if someone doesn’t care about getting the badge (maybe they already have it or just don’t care), they can reset halfway through to keep the hazard levels from getting too high.

While I do appreciate all the information, I think it is important to make note of some of the things you say. For instance, it is a good idea to mention that by jumping in the water during Cohozunas, you can speed up the process to get to 999. However, you should note that not everyone will be willing to do so. Many are more than happy to play said Cohozuna waves because they like them, or because they like the scales. With the amount of influence you hold, I do believe it can cause people to start throwing Cohozuna waves during Freelance in their attempt to reach 999. This can be rather unpleasant for the other three people. Either way, wonderful and informative video as always.

I feel like the best counterbalance is to accomplish both ideas at once. Checkpoints at EVP once every 150 points (150, 300, 450, 600, 750, 900, 999), BUT, for every checkpoint you have a randomly assigned "Rank-Up" wave for that specific thing (whether that be all Glowflies, all Grillers, all low-tide (Cohock Charge, Giant Tornado, or regular), etc.). If you fail that checkpoint you go back to 50 points below the checkpoint mark and can try it again once you reach that mark. That way, it simultaneously balances the necessary difficulty spikes, learning curves of what to do with each wave, and keeps people with far less time on their hands able to be in the loop.

I was thinking about pushing to rank 999 so thank you for letting me know the commitment I will have to do for it. Side note I didn’t play mush salmon run in splatoon 2 but I think splatoon 3 is far easier making the ranks more unbalanced I think a simple solution is more harder ranks. Either way great video!

A little experience tip: When a new (2 day) rotation begins, try to aim for at least EVP400-500 on the 1st day. Afterwards, put Salmon Run on hold until the next day. Then, aim for 999. It helps to have a good head start grinding for EVP 999. It is unhealthy to start from EVP40 trying to aim towards the end goal in one sitting. A few breaks can help you mentally, considering the game modes harsh difficulty. I, myself have just picked up Salmon Run in 3 and I never knew how it's different than 2. It is tough, but with the right weapons, teammates, and boss RNG, EVP999 is achievable.

I appreciate the genuinely positive note you end this on ❤ thank you for encouraging us to put community first

Oh man that would take so much work lol! I don't think I'd ever have the time or patience to climb that high! 😅 Just getting to EVP is my main goal really, I've been struggling in profreshional for a while now! But these vids have been a huge help! 💖

thank you for talking about this! i spent 15 hours straight grinding out on hydroplant the other day and made it to a peak of EVP 990 before the rotation ended, and i started that session at 520! the timesink it takes is seriously no joke and i really hope something is done to improve it for some people who just dont have that kind of time (work, school, general life responsibilities, etc.)

I think a good compromise so that salmon run maintains its difficulty but isn't an intense (basically waste of time) time sink to reach 999 is if you got to maintain rank for each individual stage, for two rotations. So, you got to EVP 370 on Spawning Grounds? Next time Spawning grounds shows up, you start at EVP 370! You get a second rotation to try and make it the rest of th way to 999! And after that, your rank resets back to EVP 40 regardless of how far you made it. Additionally, if you don't play that rotation, you lose your points and get sent back to EVP 40 as well, like normal. This way a person doesn't have to devote so much TIME, if they have the skill. Most normal people just don't have that much free time to devote to one thing like that. Or if you do, it's not often, and better hope you can make it to 999 or else you'll be waiting for the next time you can kill a weekend. A system like this would reward returning players for their effort while also not being a crutch or punish players for not having enough time. My 2 cents.

Well, it's been real. I appreciate all the splatoon tips you put out! Looks like the new content for other games is is seeing more success, so good luck!

I think another part of it is the weapons, not everyone knows how to use every weapon. I can admit that I have a tough time with using rollers and specific weapons like the bamboozler and H-3 in salmon run, while my friends all hate using splattlings in it, unless it's the mini. While I still try with my bad weapons because I see it as practice and helping myself learn how to use them, they feel rotations with splatling are lost causes. Anyways I can tell you I ain't aiming for 999, but I do hope to get good enough to atleast clear max hazard once.

We need checkpoints every 200 points in EVP, it would make 999 possible for a normal player

What if there’s checkpoints that lasts for a week or after only so many rotation, _then_ it gets reset back down to 40? Would that be a good compromise?

A friend of mine that has Splatoon 3 as their very first game is really loving Salmon Run and its chaos. However we're still short some team compatibility as a result of his newness (and he's still uncomfortable with some weapon types and roles), so I've been intentionally demoting myself back to Profresh +1 in order to keep the Hazard Level down for him at Profresh Part-Time/ Overachiever. It's then that I realized that I also am not entirely ready for +3 and EVP due to the general increase in wave difficulty since Spla2n.

Sometimes i was thinking to decrease my rank (this is possible in the Menu, without playing) just to have some easier ways to get Scales. If it comes to 999 (my max was only 135 right now, because of time and always playing with random ppl) i think it's stupid to get forced to play that long in one sitting. The difficutly should to beat the stages, not to reach them(by running out of real time). And even in some other games with larger "Dungeon Crawl" Mechanics, to reach floor 100 there are checkpoints, so you don't need to sit hours to beat it. For me, skill should be gameplay based and not time based.

I agree with you 100%! As someone who play freelance, I never trash talk my teammate but I do get somewhat frustrated when they don’t use their special. I feel like a lot of people can improve if there was a voice communication in salmon run and even rank! I can give them tips along the way. I’ve seen a lot of people camp the big shot cannon when there’s a lot of eggs next to it but no one is next to the basket to put them in so I decided I’m going to be the one next to the basket when that happens! Keep up the great work! I learned a lot by watching your videos

This is so ironic! Nintendo, who previously encouraged you to take breaks and not play too long is now all but encouraging players to binge their game by giving them and special badge for their unhealthy habits.

They should absotely add checkpoints in EVP, maybe istead of every 100 points like in S2 they can add them every 200 or 300 points, that way it's way more unlikely for people to reach checkpoints that are way too hard for them. Without checkpoints an huge portions of the player base will simply never reach EVP 9s even if they do have the skill and dedication required just because they lack time. And before people say "this would devalue the 999 badges", remember that right now people can get these badges by playing with a really low rank friend and reach EVP 999 without even having to play a game that has an hazard level higher than 150%. The fact that even with this exploit you can barely see people with 999 badges should really tell you how many people simply can't afford to play 10+ hours of salmon run in less than 2 days. And yes, this exploit would be easier with checkpoints, but Nintendo can easily fix it in the same update that add checkpoints. My idea is: checkpoints at 200, 400 and 600. Even starting at 600, it requires 3 hours to reach 999 lossless and because this is when the game gets REALLY hard, it's very very very unlikely that it will only take 3 hours. It's not even easier than before because starting at evp 600 cuts only the easiest games, you still have to win 20 games in the hardest points of the climb to reach 999. If you think that this makes the game "easier", then you should really reconsider your definition of easier, as it's not actually easier in the sense that it requires less skills, you just cut all the useless games between EVP40 and EVP 600 which is just a huge waste of time if you can already reach EVP 600.

cool vid!! i didnt know nextwave was harder than splat2 salmon run, that helps me feel a bit better for being stuck between profresh 3 and the middle of eggsecutive vp, i love salmon run and i know i will get better over time ^^

No one is probably going to go to Executive VP MAX without losing a shift. I wish that that is possible but it ain’t. No one is perfect though, so please don’t pressure yourself! That will make you burn out, and I am not trying to burn myself out anytime soon.

I thought you had to win a bunch on the maps to get the badges not reach a certain VP score!? I’m so glad I found this out sooner rather than later

I imagined EVP was grindy, but this... is pure madness. Thanks! 🍣

The prestige of the badge is already ruined by the game mechanics as they currently are. Eggsecutive VP can get points by playing with players as low as Profreshional Part-Timer which means if you have one buddy willing to demote and stay part timer for a whole shift with you you can easily get a 999 badge without playing a single game above hazard level 250%. This is with just one person. If you can't handle 250 you can drive it even lower if you have 2 or 3 friends all willing to do it. That's how I got my 999 badge, and 2 badges for a friend of mine, and queueing up for games after is how I got my max hazard badge. It's because of this that I think checkpoints are a welcome QoL. Expecting people dedicate 1/4th of their time in a 40 hour period to salmon run is ridiculous when most people will need to dedicate at least 3/4th of that time to school/work/sleep/childcare/personal hygiene.

I love your idea of having an almost rank-up battle for salmon run. I imagine like a specialized solo salmon run that forces you to kinda learn the ropes on your own.

I do agree it's too easy to rank up. I have seen in EVP. People who panic at griller or glow fly immediately even with a roller in hand. Or people just fail to kill simple bosses one on one. Multiple cycles of their attacks

Executive VP 40 is only slightly harder than professional 400 in Splatoon 2, but it's also easier for inexperienced players to reach and maintain b/c your checkpoint is 40 above the threshold instead of 0 I think they should bring back the checkpoints every 100 points like in Splatoon 2, so EVP 100, 200, 300, 400, and maybe 500. then, if you are good enough, there will eventually be a point where you don't get really bad players anymore, like it was at professional 200 or 300 in Splatoon 2.

Wow, sounds crazy, specially for people like myself playing with random teammates. By the way, not sure if you are the player on the video: you can actually throw an egg while close to a chum, and cause 100 damage (instead of shooting the chum, and then throwing the egg), enough to get rid of small fries and 1 chum, inking the ground at the same time as a bonus ; ) Have a Good Day.

my ideal sr system is one where it adopts a kind of “knockout” system like from cohozuna but for normal waves. for instance completing your quota would end the wave early instead of sitting through a 5+ minute autoscroller every round for no reward to help rank up even a bit quicker. for me seeing such an awesome mode being stuck with a terrible ranking system is such a shame.

An idea to help reduce the time grind for EVP 999 would be to give players more rank points for having reached higher ranks in the past, preferably in recent memory. So if you climbed to EVP 400 last rotation, maybe then you’d get 25 points per win instead of 20. That way, you’d still have to climb the difficulty ladder all the way up from EVP 40, and you wouldn’t have directly saved progress from lucky runs, but it would be an acknowledgment of your prior achievements as a way for players to make some amount of overarching progress given that not everyone has the time or fortitude to take on this climb over one rotation.

Definitely the biggest time sink for me is the approximately TEN communication errors I get per two hours of gameplay, including super annoying ones that literally cause the game to crash and have to be restarted

I think instead of EVP checkpoints we should get like 2 or 3 rotations to do it, I just think rather amount of time to get to it is too small so having more than one rotation to get to the highest rank will help people who are moderately good at sr get to evp because losing rounds will not hurt as much if the length of time to do it was longer

I don't know if this is just me but who wants salmon rush to allow you to pick custom bombs, like curling, seekers, fizzybombs, disruptors,sticking bombs, splat bombs, etc... The variety will allow new play styles like curling for better movement but harder for to take out the fly fish and the disruptor is easier to take out the fly fish by causing it's rockets to malfunction and it blows itself up but only slows enemies down. This is just an idea for me but it could be soo cool

It’d be nice to see the Grizzco special weapon rotations from Splatoon 2 make a return. Those were the only sets I could grind to 999 in Splatoon 2 and I’d love to have that to make freelance a little better overall!

The hardest wave isn't any of the special waves, no, it is the combined arms of Salmonids of a regular wave that is the most difficult. You might disagree, but once you learn a special wave they are easy to beat, what is difficult is allowing a hard regular wave take the LZ. Also what are you talking about, you can't smack talk ANYONE in Splatoon unless you get a voice chat going with people on your friends list. Discord, youtube comments, and forums do not count. The tutorial section of Salmon Run is actually very good, I did the whole thing when I started and it helped alot. The only thing it doesn't have, i believe, are the special waves. The only way to tutorial them is if they had 3 Bots that could do the job.

I’d say do checkpoints on that certain map so if you got 200 in sockeye station you’d be at 200 when it comes back or that you lose rank when it comes back so you lose like 100 rank at a minimum of 40 if the rotation comes back

id say they should have a checkpoint where you get the badge atleast for that specific map. also real tired of dealing with freelance sometimes, taking hours to hit near that rank up because of constand issues weather its lost rounds or comm errors, and then when the rotation shifts im back at 40 again.

8:07 for some reason, I was under the impression that every 100p milestone, there's a checkpoint like Splatoon 2

A huge issue as well is the fact that matches lost with a disconnected player still counts for other players.

..... this is insane. If I see anyone with that badge, I will both be impressed and concerned about their life.

I'm in a finnicky place where i stick around eggsecutive vp 95 ish and do well, and suddenly it's just loss after loss after loss until I rank back down. I don't really care about reaching max hazard level, although that would be cool one day, I'd just like to stay in EVP;-; i feel like the only way to stay in EVP without ranking down is if you are good enough to carry when u get unlucky waves or inexperienced team mates, but im just not able to carry 😭 I know all the tips and tricks for all the maps and weapons and the roles... but I just can't do everything well enough to get out of this rank up rank down cycle, I don't think I'm a terrible player but maybe I'm just not experienced enough yet to truly be EVP :') maybe one day

Two things I’d like to say here: 1. I think we will never get a form of checkpoint for EVP because I believe that having top players mixed with noobs is intentional game design. Good players can help alleviate the difficulty noobs encounter, and Nintendo is 100% willing to sacrifice the overall freelance experience of good players because they’re too invested to quit over it. Personally I’m begrudgingly okay with it. Freelancing lets good players have a meaningful challenge because youre often forced to play out of your weapons role, and you can still improve as a player in freelance. Eventually you reach a point where its a bit unreasonable to ask for teammates your skill level due to the dedication it demands anyways. 2. I dont think the overall freelancing experience will get better unfortunately. A lot of people hit skill plateaus and never get better no matter how much they play, so dont get your hopes up lol.

I play exclusively with Randos, and all things considered, we sometimes do pretty dang well despite it. That being said, I honestly can't realistically see myself ever getting to 999, let alone Max Hazard Level or even EVP 400 (maaaybe 200, just barely...), with or without a time limit (of which I was not aware), when we are hardly getting by with the skin of our teeth as it is and I am generally one of the better if not the best player in most of my matchups (definitely not bragging) and yet I still feel utterly pushed to the limit almost the entire time. I've been playing SR since the day Spla2n came out. I finally reached EVP 100 for the first time yesterday in Splat 3 (I never even reached EVP in 2), and I was hoping to get a badge for that lol... Now my only hope is to reach EVP 200, and because of the time limit I will almost certainly be starting from EVP 40 anyway. Between the randomness of the Weapons, the Waves, the Maps, and especially of my Teammates, it is QUITE a tall order, so reaching 999 or even 400 seems truly virtually unachievable (and insane) with Randos. 😵

With how long it takes without breaks or food that is remarkably unhealthy and i'll PRAY nintendo will do something like making the checkpoint system nicer for 200, 400, and 600. Because wow, i will never reach it, without breaks or food i get unfocused and lose more..

they could add checkpoints every badge but maybe to actually unlock the checkpoint you would have to get the rank badge on every map so you would still to play a lot and be really experienced in the game. for example, if somebody gets to 200 points in every map, unlocking the badge for every map, they also would unlock a checkpoint at 200 points but they still would have to know the maps well and everything to even get there

something nintendo could do is in the tutorial section they can teach you the profreshional tricks like luring in bosses and teach you how to beat glowflies

I just got to 9s and beat HLM for the first time earlier today bc of amazing teammates and new friends I've met there :'3

It's almost like Grizzco expects real hard labor.

thank god they added checkpoints oh my god

Looks like I'm making a salmon run tips playlist now

Would be cool if the badges themselves were the checkpoints for each map

Not sure if anyone mentioned it, the cost of losing it calculated too high. If we go by the 7 hour grind assumption, than a loss on wave 1 shouldn't increase the time by around 2 shifts. It only takes 1 match to recover and the extra time cost is ALREADY included in the base time cost. So, for all loss calculations, take 6 min away from the cost to get the true losing cost.

I guess to fix the rank up/skill issue is to make the points to rank up 200 or even 300 instead of the 100 that it takes. Making it still an effort to rank up, but no where near as long at 999. Idk what do you think?

Honestly splatoon 3 SR has been easier for me. Where in 2 my best was profresh +2, I have been able to touch EVP 100 in 3. Egg throw and squid rolls are huge movement boosts. There are more bosses, but that just means less of them are flyfish! And about the maps, 3's SR is pretty straight-forward (except for spawning grounds high tide) where in 2 there was interesting but hard to deal with maps such as ark polaris. But glowflies and flyfish are still the bane of my existence. And why is the boss meter reset between shifts, I just can't always play the 7-10 required matches for a bosswave :(

For Splatoon 2 Salmon Run players, we used to climb up 600 profreshional points to get 999. 600 EVP unlocks the silver badge for that stage and there is plenty of proof that you are good at the game. Good job!

I personally think that the final checkpoint of Splatoon 2 (400 if memory serves) was perfect. Still had to grind for each rotation, but not so much that it gets unhealthy.

Basically I'm never going to reach 999, I don't time sink and there's so much com errors in freelance. I think once you reach EVP, they should give us checkpoints by 200-400-600 and separate it by maps (so that the badge requirements will still make sense). Still a lot of skill and time sink for 600-999 but at least its a little more reasonable. And if you end under 200 before the reset, you go back to 40. Still very rough ranking but I think its better than the current system.

Requiring rank up battles would only make the early ranks of salmon run even more hellish. Oftentimes below profreshional or even in profreshional random teammates will not lure bosses, will not use their specials, will not splat lessers, will not properly fill their weapon’s role etc. That makes it extremely difficult to rank up when you are lower levels normally as having a rotation with an e litre or something like that can completely ruin your chances, if you roll it you now have to deal with carting golden eggs from the shore to the basket with swarms of lessers in your way because the rest of your team won’t support you in the slightest. Lower ranks are simply not fun to play, because the people there don’t know how to play, at least in higher ranks people are somewhat competent, even if they’ll do some really dumb things they generally know how to support a team and it doesn’t feel like pure rng whether you win or lose and being more skilled actually feels like it matters.

I consider myself a very good player but I grinded this recent rotation with the grizzco brella and it took over 15 hours to get to 999

I think that they could have the EVP reset less frequently to allow players to have some more time to earn the badge, while still requiring that they play very well over a short period of time. Maybe the EVP can reset every week or every 2-3 rotations? That way you don't have to play perfectly for 7ish hours in one day and can spread out that time more equally. I do think maybe a week could be too lenient, as that would just be 1 hour a day, but consistently handling yourself with a bunch of different weapons and maps can be a good measure of skill too. But NIntendo redoing the rank up system and having rank-up matches would be a good idea to gate keep some of the higher ranks too.

Salmon Runs was my favourite mode in S2 and is my favourite mode in S3. After playing for a while and getting all the 200P badges for the stages, during the current ???? shift I thought "yeah, you know what, I'll go for the gold badge!" ...to my horror, reaching 400p resulted in a *bronze* badge, not a silver badge. Which meant that, contrary to my expectation, the gold badge was *not* going to be at 600p, but probably at 800p or something. Then I looked up the actual number, and, realizing the required time to reach that, decided to not go for any of those badges until nintendo changes the requirements to be less ridiculously time intensive. My kneejerk reaction was that there really should be checkpoints, but this video brought up some interesting points against that idea. I will need to think about that for a bit

He’s right I’ve seen too many wipeouts on what should be easy rounds and It like what just happened. I mean at the end of the day I just get my rank back NP, but it can seriously frustrating.

I think that there should be a penalty for dying too much during a job, so for every 4 deaths (xtrawave not included), 10 points would be subtracted from how many points you would have gained. So if your team clears the job, but you died 4 times, you would only go up 10 points instead of 20. And if you died 8 times, you wouldn't move up at all. Players who didn't die at all should also get a bonus of 10 points. Someone in another comment mentioned you should get a bonus for killing the king salmonid. I agree with this! So +10 for no deaths, +10 for killing the king salmoid means a potential +20 bonus. This keeps players from being carried into ranks where they do not belong, because the biggest sign that you are not prepared for the current hazard level is a high death count.

my changes would be this add a tutorial to special waves such as grillers and glowflies and add a tutorial on weapon propties such as the bomb propeties on explosior

Random fun fact: Big Shots and Steelheads are the same kind of Salmonid, just with different roles.

The worst part is that sometimes in the salmon run discord. I basically get kicked out because I don't have like 2-3 max badges on me. Litteraly that isn't even my fault because I can't drain my time during the night and get no sleep before school.

It's been a year and I'm still waiting for the evp400 checkpoint..

I'll keep this short, but they need a more variable rank point distribution method. Rote 20 for a win and -10 or -20 for a loss is way too simple and catch-all. Award 20 points, but deduct 2 pts. per rescue need - a minimum 2 point reward if you win but got splatted tons. And award a bonus +10 for perfect survival. On the flipside, the normal -10/-20 points for a loss, but you lose 2 more points per rescue need. But you can buffer the penalty by 1 point for each teammate you rescue. This may help separate players a bit better and keep people from ranking up so fast.

One thing though is I am pretty sure you can cheat the badge assuming you have 1-3 friends willing to help you for 6 hours. If a evp player plays with a part time profeshional friend they both still level up so the friends could continously derank to stay in part time profeshional making the gold badge much easier... still time consuming though.