Golden Egg

Golden Eggs are a type of collectible in the Salmon Run modes of and, in which collecting them is the main objective.

Splatoon 2
Golden Eggs spawn when a Boss Salmonid is defeated. Most Boss Salmonids drop three Golden Eggs. During the Mothership occurrence, only one is dropped. A hiding Goldie drops one Golden Egg after a certain number of hits until it is splatted and drops three. During the fog, a Goldie can drop one, five, or ten Golden Eggs. Running or swimming into a Golden Egg picks it up, and only one Golden Egg can be held at a time. Once a Golden Egg has been obtained, it must be placed in the egg basket by pressing when nearby. Golden Eggs are retained if splatted while carrying one, but cannot be placed in the Egg Basket. A specified number of Golden Eggs must be returned to the Egg Basket in order to pass the wave.

If Golden Eggs are dropped and not picked up after a certain amount of time, a Snatcher comes to pick them up. Snatchers can pick up three Golden Eggs at a time. If the Snatcher is splatted before it makes it to the water, the Golden Eggs drop. If there are still Golden Eggs left after a wave has ended, the outer egg disappears and the fish skeleton on the inside falls, sinking into the ground.

Appearance
Golden Eggs look like the Power Eggs that are collected from defeating lesser Salmonids, but they are larger, golden-colored and have a fish skeleton inside them.

Splatoon 3
In 's Salmon Run, Golden Eggs function mostly the same as in Splatoon 2. However, they can now be thrown to pass them to another player or put directly into the egg basket. Doing so requires the same amount of ink as throwing a bomb, but actually consumes less. Throwing an egg also causes a small explosion around the player, doing 100 damage, which can clear Chum and Smallfry swarming around the player. If an egg has been thrown at the end of a round, the round will not end until the egg lands on the ground or in the egg basket.

During an Xtrawave, a special egg cannon is provided to each player to attack the King Salmonid. The egg cannon launches eggs farther than normal and at no ink cost, and the eggs do large amounts of damage, potentially one-shotting lesser Boss Salmonids. The egg basket does not appear during the Xtrawave, so all Golden Eggs collected can be used to attack the King Salmonid.

Golden Eggs also appear in the battle against Mr. Grizz in Return of the Mammalians. They are scattered around his rocket, and Agent 3 has to collect them and use them in the place of Power Eggs on Smallfry to clear the Fuzzy Ooze on the rocket in order to approach Mr. Grizz, as well as having Smallfry destroy the Fuzzballs on Mr. Grizz's body. The Golden Eggs in this battle are noticeably larger than the ones in Salmon Run.

The final Alterna Log reveals that the Golden Eggs acquired by Grizzco Industries were used by Mr. Grizz in the creation of Fuzzy Ooze.

Trivia

 * During the drowning animation, it is possible to see that, when submerged, Golden Eggs glow in a color similar to Salmonid ink.
 * In Mr. Grizz's character description it is mentioned that the Golden Eggs can be used as a high-performance energy source.
 * When multiple Golden Eggs overlap, most commonly seen in Goldie Seeking if enough damage is dealt to the Goldie while it is on top of its Gusher, the Golden Eggs turn dark gray until there is only one left in the pile.