Golden Egg

Golden Eggs are a type of collectible in the Salmon Run modes of Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 3, 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 Splatoon 3'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.

If a Golden Egg is thrown into water, it will bounce back towards the ground position the player last touched. Notably, before version 7.2.0 this does not consider any inkrails, allowing it to be exploited on Bonerattle Arena during a Giant Tornado wave.^[1] This was changed in version 7.2.0 such that the Golden Egg will return to the base of the last inkrail ridden.

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 certain Boss Salmonids. The egg basket does not appear during the Xtrawave, so all Golden Eggs collected can be used to attack the King Salmonid.

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

Gallery

The icon used for Golden Eggs in-game.
SVG version of the icon used in SplatNet 3
Closeup of a Golden Egg in a net.
A Golden Egg in a Lifesaver.
Some Inklings carrying Golden Eggs to the egg basket.
An exhibit of a model of a Golden Egg in the Shellendorf Institute.
An exhibit in the Shellendorf Institute, featuring an ancient piece of art depicting Inklings surrounding a Golden Egg.
A Golden Egg seen on the Japanese Splatoon 3 website.
Mr Grizz and some Golden Eggs.
2D artwork of three Golden Eggs in the Salmon Run Next Wave logo.
2D artwork of the lower-left Golden Egg from the Next Wave logo.
2D art of the upper-right two Golden Eggs from the same logo.
Alternative version.
Base Golden Egg locker decoration.
Bronze Golden Egg locker decoration.
Silver Golden Egg locker decoration.
Gold Golden Egg locker decoration.
A keychain of a Golden Egg and a Lifesaver.

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.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	金イクラ Kin Ikura	Golden Salmon Roe
Dutch	Gouden ei	Golden Egg
French	Œuf doré	Gold egg
German	Gold-Fischei	Golden Fish Egg
Italian	Uovo d'oro	Golden Egg
Russian	Золотая икринка Zolataya ikrinka	Golden fish egg
Spanish (NOA)	Huevecillo dorado	Golden egg
Spanish (NOE)	Alevín dorado	Golden fish spawn
Chinese (Simplified)	金鲑鱼卵 Jīn guīyú luǎn	Golden Salmon Egg
Chinese (Traditional)	金鮭魚卵 Jīn guīyú luǎn	Golden Salmon Egg
Czech	Zlatý vejce	Golden egg
Hungarian	Aranytojás	Golden egg
Korean	황금 연어알 Hwang-geum-yeon-eoal	Golden Salmon Egg =
Norwegian	Gullegg	Golden egg
Polish	Złoty Ikra	Golden Roe