Improving Splatoon 3 Big Run
The first Big Run has come and gone in Splatoon 3.
It …sure happened!
As someone who already enjoys the mode (despite its need for better balancing), I played Big Run a good bit and mostly had a blast. And I got the impression that people who hadn't played much Salmon Run gave this a try and had fun, too. But by the event's end it was clear to me that Big Run in its current form comes off as a bare-bones affair – mostly a special invitation to try Salmon Run – and nothing more. And it could be so much more – especially given that it appears to be replacing half of Splatoon 3′s Splatfests.
I couldn't help but try to articulate for myself why Big Run fell flat and how the Splatoon dev team could improve it for the future.
No Stakes: It doesn't matter if you participate or not
In Splatfest, your participation directly benefits your chosen team, both in how much and how well you play. If you're at all invested in having your team win (and if you’re playing Splatoon, you likely are), there's plenty of incentive to continue showing up at the event and giving it your best.
In Big Run, everyone is on the same team, which in itself doesn't seem to be a problem. What does seem problematic is that technically none of us need to participate in order to influence the event's outcome. No matter what, at the end of Big Run the salmonids go home. As it stands, the event carries no real weight for the world of Splatoon or its players.
I don't know much about Splatoon lore, but I get the impression that Big Run is supposed to be a big deal from a world-building perspective. It has a direct connection to this bit of Splatoon 2 sunken scroll lore, which basically equates salmonids creeping onto land as a sign of the apocalypse (if not the apocalypse). So then, why doesn't it matter if we participate or play well in Big Run? From a lore perspective, Big Run is a much bigger deal than Splatfest, and yet in practice it's the total opposite.
Even if the devs wanted to keep Splatfest as the most important recurring event in Splatoon 3, Big Run could stand to see some changes to make it feel more impactful to players. Some ideas:
At the start of each Big Run event, all players get an announcement from either Grizzco or a local Coast Guard stand-in: We're in a state of emergency and need a certain significant number of power eggs to ward off the salmonids by the end of Big Run. (The power eggs …power some sort of funky device that reverses the salmonid water flow or something and sends them back to sea.) The total number of eggs needed could be millions, hundreds of millions, or even billions, and it's up to all players globally (or regionally) to collect the total number by the deadline. Grizzco can still collect golden eggs as usual, but the Coast Guard takes the power eggs, which Mr. Grizz would of course treat like some major altruistic act on his part.
Similar to Splatfest, halfway through the weekend players get an update from Deep Cut and the Coast Guard on how things are going. Shortly after the event ends, there's another update with a final tabulation. If players collected enough power eggs, the salmonids are sent away and everything returns to normal. (And next Big Run, the required power egg total increases.)
But if they didn't hit the goal, there are actual (though purely aesthetic) changes to the world that players are stuck with until the next Big Run, changes that reflect how the salmonids are still on land. Maybe there are streams of green salmonid ink flowing through the streets and (non-harmful) salmonids and boss salmonids roaming about. They could be hanging around in the backgrounds of regular battle stages making a mess.
Ultimately the impact of a failed Big Run would be just for show, which when you think about it isn’t really so different from Splatfest. But at least this way, the framing of Big Run would better reflect whatever lore the devs are trying to build and hopefully create a stronger sense of shared investment and camaraderie among all players against the salmonids.
Few Rewards: There's little to show for your participation
On top of it not making a difference whether you participate in Big Run, just showing up for the event nets at all you half of all available spoils: a trophy for your locker. Performing in the top 50% or above of all players also gets you a badge. The color of these items changes based on your top score compared to all other players. Oh, and doing runs during the event also nets 1.2x catalog experience. It's not nothing, but it's not very much either.
Compared to Splatfest, which offers 1.2x experience, regular shells for the gacha machine, special shells for tweaking gear, and potentially multiple badges (and maybe other things I'm forgetting?), Big Run rewards don’t come close to equal standing.
Surely there could be other event-specific rewards, maybe based on the total number of power eggs you earn over the weekend. A few ideas:
A Salmon Run 3-piece slopsuit for use in modes outside of Salmon Run, with each Big Run offering a different color
Special color variations of the gear you can earn through regular Salmon Run
Variant lifesavers to equip during Big and normal Runs
A unique banner for each Big Run
For those who are struggling to succeed in Big Run or don't care about the lore, extra rewards like these could create more compelling reasons to stick with the event longer. Splatfest already does this well, so why not use a similar model for Big Run?
More of the Same: It's… basically just Salmon Run
While your participation in Big Run doesn't matter and the rewards are skimpy, the event does mix up the standard Salmon Run formula a little – but only a little. Big Run takes place on a map that's normally only available for non-Salmon Run play. This definitely adds novelty, as any new map would. Additionally, available weapons are randomized, but this already happens once or twice a month in regular Salmon Run. That's… about it.
Again, compare this to Splatfest, where there's special ink colors, 10x, 100x, and 333x battles, and of course tricolor turf wars. Ultimately, once the dust settles on the novelty of the new Big Run map, there's not much to differentiate the event from regular Salmon Run. It seems like another wasted opportunity.
I'm not sure how many gameplay changes the mode could accommodate before losing what makes it Salmon Run. That said, here are some ideas:
Updates to the Square: emergency vehicles and officials in slop / hazmat suits roam the Square in a panic.
Cinematic flair: a few key cutscenes throughout the event that featured Cohozuna and boss salmonids terrorizing the Splatlands would add to the sense of drama and in-world stakes. The kaiju reference is right there just begging to be tapped.
Lots more Cohozuna: speaking of king salmonid, have the Cohozuna gauge fill up much faster than normal, to help highlight the other big addition to Splatoon 3's Salmon Run. This would give another incentive for scale-hunting Salmon Run players to play as much Big Run as possible.
Variant boss salmonids: devs could get creative (and devious) here, devising unique takes on the existing bosses with different colors and a new spin on how they operate or are defeated. Either swap the variants in 100% for their normal counterparts, mix them in here and there, or make their appearance a special wave like mudmouths or mothership.
Players bring their own weapons: Big Run is cast as a desperate all-hands-on-deck affair where you don't have to be at level 4+ to participate like in regular Salmon Run. It would make sense, then, if players were allowed to bring weapons from their existing inventory. If devs wanted to limit this, players could be restricted to one chosen weapon per day or one set of four that would be randomly shuffled for the player each run.
Players bring their own gear: similar rationale as above, though I'd be more inclined to see this brought over to regular Salmon Run as a weekly / monthly "casual Friday" thing.
That's a wrap!
Even just seeing a subset of these changes added to future Big Runs would make me (and I suspect plenty of other Splatoon 3 and Salmon Run fans) much more excited to return to the event. As it is I'm feeling decidedly meh about the next one.
My pessimistic theory / concern is that the dev team doesn't actually want to divert players from turf wars / anarchy / X battles and so has intentionally put minimal focus and effort behind Salmon Run, beyond getting it up and running in the first place and addressing only the most essential kinds of upkeep.
Then again, Big Run does exist as a recurring event, a new stage and weapons have already shown up in regular Salmon Run, and there has been at least some balancing. So maybe it's not totally hopeless. We'll have to wait and see!