[Overfishing] Guide to Goldie Seeking waves

Hi everyone! In my quest to bring Splatoon info formerly locked behind Discord, I bring you this guide to Goldie mechanics and techniques when attempting to overfish. The majority of this guide was originally created by マー (Marty) on the Overfishing Discord server.


Goldie Seeking has received changes in its transition to Splatoon 3. Notably, lesser Salmonids no longer consistently spawn from open gushers, but instead mostly from the shore, along with the gusher that the Goldie spawns from. As such, players now tend to open most gushers quickly (usually far ones).
In addition, due to the removal of nodes, Goldies no longer follow straight paths consistently when moving from one gusher to another, meaning they can hug walls. This can be exploited with Wave Breaker. (edited)


Gushers provide information on Goldie location when opened. “Low” gushers indicate that the Goldie is in a far, “unconnected” gusher, while “high gushers” indicate that the Goldie is in a nearby, connected gusher.

Players should communicate gusher height to find the Goldie quickly. Long-range weapons are also faster at opening far gushers.


On Goldie Seeking, a Goldie’s total HP is 6,500. As the Goldie is attacked, its size shrinks after damage dealt has reached specific thresholds.

-Big Goldie: from 6,500 to 4,000 HP (total: 2,500 HP). The Goldie drops 1 egg for every 500 damage dealt to it.
-Medium Goldie: from 4,000 to 2,000 HP (total: 2,000 HP). 1 egg is dropped for every 400 damage.
-Small Goldie: from 2,000 to 0 HP (total: 2,000 HP). 1 egg is dropped for every ~333.33 damage.

As the Goldie shrinks to a smaller size, it moves faster. In some cases, such as the start of the wave or when no other task has to be done, it may be a good idea to damage the Goldie early and drop 5 eggs so that it can reach its medium size, allowing it to move faster.


Long-range weapons can open far gushers quickly.
Weapons that excel at killing lesser Salmonids should focus on them after each Goldie kill, as lesser Salmonids can quickly overwhelm players.
Players should remember to collect eggs, and use egg throwing when ink efficiency is not an issue.

If needed, some specials can reach far gushers easily, such as Triple Inkstrike, as shown here. Wave Breaker also has the ability to block a Goldie by trapping it between a wall and itself, like this. In some cases, it can be used to make the Goldie fall and retake its path, resulting in a loop that will end when the special weapon does as well. Here's an example.

As on most wave types, Snatcher optimisation can be performed on Goldie Seeking. Players who are not busy should be mindful of Snatchers carrying eggs.


Now for a short definition of Overdamaging, provided by @MartyBubbler on Twitter. This was made during Splat 2, but everything still applies.

"Some important things to know first. The damage required for an egg drop is dependent on the Goldie's size:
Big Goldie: from 6,500 to 4,000 HP (total: 2,500 HP). The Goldie drops 1 egg for every 500 damage dealt to it.
Medium Goldie: from 4,000 to 2,000 HP (total: 2,000 HP). 1 egg is dropped for every 400 damage.
Small Goldie: from 2,000 to 0 HP (total: 2,000 HP). 1 egg is dropped for every ~333.33 damage.

When dealing more damage than needed to the Goldie to get an egg (which, again, depends on its size), the additional damage does not add to the next egg drop.

[For example, say you shoot 2 full-charge E-Liter shots at a small goldie. When the Goldie is small, an egg is dropped for every 333.33 damage dealt to the Goldie. E-liter full charges deal 600 damage in Salmon Run. If overdamaging didn't exist, 3 eggs should drop after using 2 full charges. Instead, only 2 eggs dropped.

This essentially means that if E-liter is paired with high DPS weapons, it can be best to use tapshots when the Goldie is small, to avoid wasting ink on extra damage that does nothing.]

So basically, if a shot will deal more damage than the goldie's total health, the extra damage won't carry over. This means that sometimes it's better to save your ink and just tap shot a small goldie, rather than waste a full shot's worth of ink when that ink would be better used on the next big goldie.

Similarly, Splashdown (Not in S3 Salmon Run, but Reefslider is basically the same thing), outside of lesser Salmonid killing purposes, can be more valuable when the Goldie is big rather than small, since more damage is needed for an egg. Weapons with high DPS/firerate have less damage per bullet, therefore nothing changes much when using them.

That's all, Folks!

If I find anymore information I think would be good here, I'll make sure to update the article.
I'm also eventually going to download the Twitter vids and add them directly here, so that they'll still be there even if those tweets get deleted.
Also, I didn't realize this was in the wrong category until just now. Once I figure out how to move it, I will.
Finally, feel free to message me if there's any incorrect info, you need a guide for something specific, or you want to add something new to it!
Have a great day, everyone!