How to spawn King Salmonid Cohozuna in Splatoon 3 Salmon Run

The King is here.

Screengrab via Nintendo

Salmon Run is back in Splatoon 3, and this time, the developers have gone all out to make it a bigger and better mode.

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On top of a bunch of new random events and enemies to fight, as well as new costumes and a 24/7 cycle, Salmon Run adds Cohozuna, the King Salmonid, into the mix, which will spawn sometimes after you complete all three waves in the mode to unlock some exclusive bronze, silver, and gold scales to get new items and collectibles.

Here’s how you can find and fight him.

How to find King Salmonid in Salmon Run

Screengrab via Nintendo

At first glance, Cohozuna can feel like a random spawn since he seems to appear at the end of the third wave only sometimes when playing. This is not the case, though.

In the top right menu when you are in the Salmon Run lobby, there is a bar under your rank and EXP that shows how close you are to the King Salmonid spawning.

Screengrab via Nintendo

The bar is locked to the party you are playing with, so if you play with randoms and stay in the same lobby, the meter will go up. Thus, it pays to play with friends to raise the chances of one spawning. When you see the icon get a bubble effect, it’ll likely spawn on your next successful Salmon Run, so prepare yourself.

The King will only spawn after you complete three rounds of the game mode. So if you only finish two rounds when you were meant to finally get him to spawn, you might need to raise the meter all over again.

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Adam Newell
Assigning Editor. In 2015, Adam graduated from the University of Aberystwyth with a bachelor's in Media and Communications. Working in the industry for over ten years. If it has anything to do with Nintendo and Pokémon chances are you will see me talking about it, covering, and likely not sleeping while playing it.