Salmon Run

Salmon Run is a mode in. It can be played via local multiplayer (local wireless or LAN) at The Shoal, or online via Grizzco Industries during certain time slots.

Description
Players must collect Power Eggs and Golden Eggs by defeating Salmonids in order to complete waves. Players must bring enough Golden Eggs to the egg basket to reach their quota in order to complete the wave, and move on to the next wave. If the Golden Eggs are not collected within a certain amount of time, they will be taken away by a Snatcher. Each game is 3 waves long; surviving until the end will increase the player's pay grade, which also determines the difficulty of the mode. Players are still paid if they fail, but their pay grade may be reduced.

Inklings in this mode are equipped with special gear. Inklings that get splatted will return on a Lifesaver. Players should attack this to revive the inkling. Each player is provided a different main weapon for each wave, and two uses of a special weapon (either the Inkjet, Sting Ray, Splashdown or Splat Bomb Launcher) for the whole game. There are also various special waves called Known Occurrences, like Fog and Rush.

Ink level and special weapon stock are visible on the Inkling. The Ink Tank is obscured by the lifesaver, but the lifesaver also displays the ink level. The special weapon stock appears as silver packets strapped to the head.

Rotations
Salmon Run is not always playable online, as the Grizzco Industries building is sometimes closed. In opens in an irregular pattern, but as a rule of thumb can be expected to be available every other day. Each Salmon Run rotation features one random stage and four random weapons to be assigned to players.

The stages menu shows the opening times of the next five Salmon Run rotations, with the stages and weapons shown for the next two. Due to the rotations being laid out in advance, newly-added stages and weapons may not appear for some time.

Weapons
All main weapons can show up in a Salmon Run rotation, not including their variants.

Based on the special weapon a player is loaned, they will not get one of the four main weapons in the rotation. In the order that main weapons show on the Salmon Run schedule:
 * The player with Sting Ray will not get the 1st weapon.
 * The player with Inkjet will not get the 2nd weapon.
 * The player with Splashdown will not get the 3rd weapon.
 * The player with Bomb Launcher will not get the 4th weapon.

Stages
There are currently three stages available for Salmon Run:
 * Spawning Grounds
 * Marooner's Bay
 * Lost Outpost

Events
There are currently 7 different events in Salmon Run, with some having variants.
 * Water Levels (high and low tides)
 * Rush
 * Fog
 * Goldie Seeking
 * Griller
 * Cohock Charge
 * Mothership

Rewards
Completion of a round of Salmon Run grants players Grizzco Points, which they can redeem for bonus prizes at the window outside Grizzco. The reward amount is based on the number of Golden Eggs and Power Eggs collected and the player's current pay grade. The player's Job Score is equal to one point per Golden Egg plus one point for every 200 Power Eggs (rounded down), and the final reward is the Job Score times the player's Pay Grade (rounded down).

Pay Grade goes up by 20 points (not 20%) when a player makes quota for all three waves. Pay Grade goes down by 20 points if the first wave is failed, or by 10 points if the second wave is failed. As Pay Grade increases, players are awarded titles. Titles are retained across hiring periods, but pay grades are reset to the 40-point mark within the player's current title. Titles are: Intern (during the tutorials only), Apprentice, Part-Timer, Go-Getter, Overachiever, and Profreshional.

Every 100 Grizzco Points (200 after reaching 1200 points in a rotation) earns the player one bonus "capsule," which come in different colors representing the type of the contents, or a piece of Gear. The gear is selected from a list of items available only through Salmon Run, and is rotated every calendar month. The main ability of this item is randomly determined when the bonus is redeemed. It usually has three blank slots for sub abilities, but there is a random chance that the sub ability slots may come already filled. The pink capsule can contain any Grizzco gear that has been released, including gear from previous months. If the player receives gear they already have, they can either replace the old gear with the new version, or receive cash (if the new gear has no slots filled) or ability chunks (equal to the filled slots) instead.

Bonus capsules can contain cash, meal or drink tickets, ability chunks, or Grizzco gear.

At 600 and 1200 points the player will earn a superbonus, which always contains the 10% chance reward. The type of superbonus capsule is fixed for the length of a rotation. After 1200 points the player will only earn gear, alternating between the current monthly gear and gear from previous months, until the rotation ends.