King Salmonid

King Salmonids are enormous Salmonids that appear as bosses in the Xtrawave of Salmon Run Next Wave in.

Description
One King Salmonid appears in an Xtrawave after the shift finishes, depending on how full the team's Salmometers are. The crew will need to defeat the King Salmonid within the time limit while fighting other Boss Salmonids. It can be defeated by using the player's main, sub, and special weapons. Additionally, any Golden Eggs collected during the Xtrawave can be thrown at the King Salmonid to deal massive damage to it.

Only one type of King Salmonid, Cohozuna, has been revealed so far. However, a lot of hints appear in Splatoon 3 and SplatNet 3 that there will be more King Salmonids.

Salmometer
 Each player has a Salmometer (called "smell" in the game's files) that increases by 1 after every shift without encountering a King Salmonid, no matter the outcome of the shift (win or loss at any wave). This meter can be seen in the top right of the screen while in the Grizzco building. It starts out empty until it becomes full after 5 shifts, or an encounter happens, resetting it back to zero.

The sum of every team member's Salmometer gives the probability of a King Salmonid appearing at the end of wave 3. When all four meters are full, the encounter is guaranteed.

Note that the visual representation below is only for easier readability, not the exact meters needed. For example, four meters at 1 would be equal to one meter at 4.

The second table shows a simplified version for 4-person teams playing together with their meters synced — mainly, if a King is encountered and the team keeps playing together afterwards.





Quotes
"Squid Research Lab is excited and more than a little scared to reveal the existence of a King Salmonid. This unfathomably terrifying creature can be scientifically described as "ginormous." We hope to release more details soon."

- @SplatoonNA on Twitter

"Sadly, it's not all break rooms and promotions in the working world. Sometimes you have a tough day at the office and get attacked by a King Salmonid. HR recommends fighting it off with an egg cannon (you could earn bonus fish scales) and then taking a personal day."

- @SplatoonNA on Twitter

Trivia

 * After Wave 3 ends, if an Xtrawave is activated, the success jingle will be distorted, indicating a King Salmonid will spawn.
 * Beating the Xtrawave changes the success jingle to a triumphant fanfare.

Etymology
The English name is derived from "king salmon" and "Salmonid".