Stinger

Stingers are Boss Salmonids that appear in Salmon Run in Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 3.

Description
The Stinger uses a weapon similar to the Sting Ray to splat players from across the stage and through walls. Stingers will aim for the player furthest away from them when they begin firing. Stingers typically appear close to the shorelines but can move around rather slowly. Stingers always appear on a stack of seven cooking pots placed on top of a gas burner. To defeat them, players must shoot the pots to knock them off of the stack until the Stinger lands on the burner. Their attacks are much more accurate than a player-controlled Sting Ray and can take out an Inkling or Octoling within a few seconds if they cannot dodge it, so players should focus their attention on this Salmonid in particular.

Quotes
The following text is quoted from the Salmonid Field Guide.


 * Basic Information
 * A Salmonid sniper atop a stack of pots and pans.
 * Not known to move from the beach.
 * The Salmonid on top can't be harmed with ink-based attacks.


 * Attack Behavior
 * Attacks from a distance with powerful jets of ink that can pass through walls and other obstacles.


 * Elimination
 * Use your ink to knock pots away one at a time until the Salmonid lands on the flame below.


 * Supporting Information
 * Boils ink in its pots to generate the pressure required for its long-range attacks.
 * The pots are stacked high on top of a gas burner to allow the Stinger to effectively sight and attack enemies from a distance.
 * The Salmonid on top wears protective equipment to absorb the shock from the jet of ink.

Tips

 * Weapons that have fast attack speeds or deal area damage are best suited to defeat Stingers quickly. Shooters, blasters, and splatlings are all excellent options. On the contrary, weapons such as rollers, shorter-ranged sloshers, and chargers that only take out one pot at a time are left vulnerable while lowering Stingers and should focus on other targets.
 * An exception to this is the Sloshing Machine, which can hit multiple pots with its splash damage. The Grizzco Slosher, being a modified Sloshing Machine, can do the same and even take out an entire Stinger in one slosh by aiming such that the projectile falls down through the stack of pots.
 * Additionally, the Dynamo Roller can roll over the pots and is fairly effective at killing Stingers
 * Stingers prefer to attack whichever player is furthest from their current position when they begin to fire.
 * Using a Splashdown will eliminate all of the stacked pots of the Stinger. The same applies to the explosion from a Reefslider. It is best to use these specials if there are multiple Stingers close together or if you are cornered and/or surrounded.
 * Using a Sting Ray to eliminate Stingers from a distance works well unless the user is their target. The Killer Wail 5.1 can be used to similar effect while leaving the user less vulnerable, although it can be more difficult to aim.
 * Using an Inkjet is also highly effective given that it provides the user safety from most Salmonids, it can kill a Stinger in one shot, and it can pick up an egg with a free Super Jump back to the basket. It can also defeat any Flyfish in the area, which are equally high-priority targets.

Badges
Splatting Stingers 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

 * Its design appears to be based on the real-life pipefish, a relative to seahorses and sea dragons.
 * The Stinger sits on top of seven pots. As each one is knocked away, the tone of the sound effect rises according to the intervals of the major scale.
 * Additionally, as the pots are knocked away, the player can hear a mechanical sound coming from the Stinger if they are close enough to it.
 * In the Salmonid Field Guide, it is revealed that some Smallfry that make up Fish Sticks are recruited to become Stingers due to their lung capacity training.
 * Rarely, a Stinger can desync from the rest of its tower during its spawn animation if there is a lag in communication.