| “ | Boss Salmonid: Steelhead. This overgrown appetizer has armor all over its giant, slimy body. It also lobs giant, smelly bombs. Shoot the bomb on its head as it expands to pop it early and cook the Steelhead in its own juices. | „ |
| ~ Mr. Grizz describing the Steelhead |
The Steelheads are supporting antagonists in the Splatoon franchise. They are the hulking commanders of the Salmonid troops who specialise in wielding bombs which they lob at Grizzco workers. Thanks to their arduous training, Steelheads can carry protective armor and have metallic scales that shield them from almost all forms of ink damage, but are vulnerable to explosions caused by their own explosive saliva.
Appearance[]
Steelheads are large, muscular Salmonids that tower over most of their kin. They wear a sort of metallic armor of rubber tires on their backs with a pan-like contraption on their heads which generates the bombs, which saliva is pumped into via a black and green respirator Steelheads hold in their mouths. They wear dark green pants with metal straps and have yellow eyes with pink pupils. Most notably, Steelheads are covered in silvery, metallic scales that render them near invulnerable to all attacks. The bombs they generate are green plastic bags with the Salmonid emblem on them.
Gameplay and strategy[]
Behaviour[]
As Boss Salmonids, Steelheads will appear at random when Boss Salmonids appear each wave. They are slow moving and have a single attack: lobbing a bomb that explodes after a short delay which instantly splats any too close to it. Steelheads are completely immune to most ink attacks, sans piercing Specials or weapons such as the Sting Ray and Grizzco Slosher, with their only weak point being the bombs they inflate on their heads.
Strategy[]
Thanks to their slow movement speed, it's advised for players to ignore Steelheads for most of the wave and instead focus on other Boss Salmonids such as Flyfish or Drizzlers. However, during high tide when space becomes scarce, Steelheads can ink huge amounts of turf and decrease mobility greatly, making them targets of high priority. Players with short ranged weapons such as dualies should avoid the Steelhead altogether, while players with long and medium ranged weapons such as chargers and shooters should immediately find a vantage point to take out the bomb as soon as possible. As splatting a Steelhead will cause a damaging explosion, it's recommended to keep them alive for as long as possible in order to use their deaths to take out other Salmonids. One can enhance this effect by splatting a Slammin' Lid right above a Steelhead, causing the Slammin' Lid to splat the Steelhead as it falls and cause an even bigger explosion.
A major weakness of Steelheads is that they're unable to attack underneath them, allowing players to hid under or next to Steelheads in a pinch. If your team is struggling with a Steelhead, specials such as the Booyah Bomb and Triple Inkstrike can pierce its armor, though they're more likely to destroy its bomb earlier than deplete its actual health bar.
Trivia[]
- While their bombs have a HP of 300, Steelheads themselves actually have 1,100 HP, making attacking them with piercing attacks significantly less efficient than just targeting their bombs.
- Despite being based off salmon, the namesake of the Steelhead are actually a kind of trout.
- It's stated in the Salmonid manual that Steelheads and Big Shots are counterparts, both being muscle-bound Boss Salmonids. However, it's said more belligerent Salmonids train to become Steelheads while the more calm ones become Big Shots.
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