Flipper-Flopper


 * Not to be confused with the Flipper Floppers.

Flipper-Floppers are Boss Salmonids that appear in Salmon Run Next Wave in Splatoon 3.

Description
The Flipper-Flopper is an armored Boss Salmonid that resembles a dolphin. It attacks by throwing a ring of ink into the air, targeting a nearby player. Once the ring lands on the ground, it completely inks the ground it covers and the Flipper-Flopper will hover directly above it; after a short delay, it will dive into the circled area, instantly splatting any player that cannot escape in time.

Players can attack a Flipper-Flopper at any time while it is not submerged, though it has a large amount of health (comparable to that of a Big Shot). However, if they paint over a Flipper-Flopper's ring before it can perform its usual dive attack, it will crash into the ground. (Similarly to Splat Zones, players' ink will immediately fill the ring's area after covering enough of it.) This leaves it flopping helplessly on the ground for a while as well as breaking its armor, which greatly reduces its health. Flipper-Floppers can dive back into their ink if not defeated while vulnerable, but they never regenerate their armor and will retain any damage dealt to them, making them easily splatted by follow-up attacks.

If a Flipper-Flopper's crash to the ground would deal enough damage to reduce its HP to 0, they will still stay alive until a player damages it directly or indirectly (by Steelhead explosion or Slammin' Lid slam) in order to credit a player with the splat.

Quotes
"Another new creature, known as a "Flipper-Flopper," has been observed creating a ring of ink before diving magnificently into said ring. While beautiful, this is a dangerous attack! Inklings will need to cooperate to prevent Flipper-Floppers from flipping and/or flopping."

- @SplatoonNA on Twitter

The following text is quoted from the Salmonid Field Guide.

Basic Information Attack Behavior Elimination Supporting Information
 * It swims deep below the ink, then launches high into the air before diving back down.
 * It'll place a ring of ink as it jumps, showing where it will dive.
 * It will ink the ground within the thrown ring, then attack anyone inside the ring as it dives in.
 * It's exposed while it's in the air getting ready to attack. That's your chance!
 * If you ink the ground within its ring, it won't be able to dive back under, letting you make quick work of it.
 * It seems to idolize an animal said to have flourished in ancient times, which may explain why it wears a mask to make itself look more like this creature.
 * It clearly attaches more importance to the beauty of its dives than its combat effectiveness.

Tips

 * The Flipper-Flopper can be damaged and splatted before it dives into its ink ring. However, this can only be done in one cycle with a high DPS weapon such as the, the 's turret mode, or two fully-charged shots.
 * When a Flipper-Flopper has been damaged, ink begins to cover the Flipper-Flopper's body. The more inked it appears, or if it has already lost its armor, it may be easier to shoot it out of the sky as opposed to inking its ring.

Badges
Splatting Flipper-Floppers a specific number of times in Salmon Run: Next Wave will reward the player with special badges that they can use on their Splashtag.

Trivia

 * The "ancient animal" the Flipper-Flopper is mentioned as idolizing in the Salmonid Field Guide seems to be the dolphin. Its mask resembles a dolphin's nose, and its main mode of attack creates a ring of ink resembling the air bubble rings that real-life dolphins create seemingly for their own amusement. The Flipper-Flopper then jumps through the ring like dolphins are sometimes trained to do with hula hoops in performances at marine animal shows.
 * It is also worth noting that the Flipper-Flopper wears its mask in a way that makes it resemble a dolphin even further. Being in giving its tail fin the illusion of being horizontal, and making its right flipper and mohawk replicate the dorsal fin and left flipper respectively.
 * Interestingly, dolphins are classified as mammals rather than fish, so this suggests that they may have died out alongside many of the other mammals on earth.

Etymology
The name comes from "flip-flop", which can mean that one alternates back and forth between two polar opposite opinions, ideas or similar. The "Flipper" part of its name comes from both a part of dolphin anatomy, and could also come from the titular bottlenose dolphin of the film and TV series Flipper.