Any tricks for the salmon race?

[Grakor]

And before anyone says anything, this is after getting a permanent salmon, not using the rental.

I've read other people say that this is apparently easy once you get the violin, but I've grinded out a dozen attempts so far and very best I've ever been able to achieve is 4th. My old man reflexes are apparently simply incapable of getting better without sinking a ton of time into this, and I have little motivation to do so as I despise minigames of this type. Really want a way to cheese through it.

[LumberJak]

I've not spent much time in the races, and haven't tried it at all since getting the violin, but something I noticed when trying it with the rental a few times is that you get a huge speed boost by jumping on top of the other competitors.

The only other thing I found important was timing your jumps properly at the waterfall sections, I always tried to stay at the surface of the water so I was able to jump sooner when I wanted to.

(This isn't something I have tried, but I would guess there are some corners you can slightly cut with well timed jumps, especially as you get into the actual salmon river area at the end)

[River Running Games]

I made a video a while back to help a tester. I think it should still be helpful since I don't think the race has changed since. Please have a look, I hope this helps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkRxN0odZTU

[Grakor]

I've seen the video, it taught me nothing new. I am still physically unable to get first place.

This is seriously the most infuriating part of the game so far. I've tried around forty times, no exaggeration, and I simply cannot get it.

[LumberJak]

I went back and did the race again today now that I have the permanent salmon, I found the most important thing to be timing my jumps so I don't waste any time on the waterfalls.

I seemed to always get behind at the start, but then overtook most of them while going through the caves. Similar to in the video I caught up to the white salmon after the last cave, and then it's just about not bumping into anything.

I tried to always be slightly off the line that the other competitors take, because being jumped on by them slows you down a lot, especially when you are trying to jump yourself.

I didn't find any real way to cheese it, but I did always try to pay attention to how far away from obstacles I was before jumping to work out which timing gave me the best outcome, and then try to line that up with landmarks such as trees or logs.

[Phillippus]

If you think this is infuriating, you're gonna hate quintar races, as they are million times worse. Anyway... I'm also terrible at racing and managed to win the salmon race so i think you should just try to get used to the course and you'll eventually win... Or just give up and forget about the Royal Salmon if you're not having fun(The royal salmon is faster but that's all)...

[Grakor]

Yeah. Nothing was as soul-crushing as learning that there are quintar races in this game, too.

Nearly threw my controller, so it's definitely time for me to shelve this. Not only is this race extremely un-fun for me, it's sapping my will to play the rest of the game. Perhaps I'll be able to come back to this later and pretend that these races simply don't exist.

My advice to the dev: please add some way to simply buy out the rewards. Even if it takes a lot of gold grinding, I'd happily do it if I never have to play a racing minigame.

[Admiral Billy]

I'm not sure if it'll help or not, but my biggest tip is making sure to jump at every waterfall so you get a head start, and to cut corners if you can, since the fish doesn't care about landing on land/going over it at all. You can also always run the track and purposefully wait a bit to start so that you can practice the layout if you need to, since it can definitely be a bit confusing at times with split paths/waterfalls.

Regarding Quintar races, if it helps you feel better they're only really necessary for one specific piece of endgame content (although another piece requires some fancy moves to skip it). You can beat the entire game as early as getting a quintar flute, so don't let the side content stop you from enjoying the game!

The biggest thing the salmon race gives you is a sea map at 2nd place, and while the faster fish is nice for a 1st place finish, you definitely don't need it.

[Ro9ge]

I managed to beat it on my 3rd try. I found it best to not try and do anything fancy like jumping on-top of other salmons, and to avoid jumping as much as possible unless it was needed to get up a waterfall fast. That let me focus more on avoiding obstacles and getting a fast time. Jumping unnecessarily ended up just wasting time by being more likely to bump into things.

[Dogi ( ﾟ ヮﾟ)]

Hope you aren't trying it with the rental, it's not as fast as the one you can get for yourself.

[Grakor]

Originally posted by Dogi ( ﾟ ヮﾟ):

Hope you aren't trying it with the rental, it's not as fast as the one you can get for yourself.

Addressed in literally the very first sentence of my post.

[Dogi ( ﾟ ヮﾟ)]

I may have been too tired when I replied, didn't even notice that sentence. I got first place on my 2nd try with the permanent one, and 3rd place with my first try. I had previously gotten 6th place with the rental but didn't try much.

You really want to avoid getting caught on any geometry or the other fish and jumping a bit early for the waterfalls to launch through them faster. You get a bit of a speed bonus when breaking the water's surface so jumping into the corner of a waterfall tends to let you go past it without stopping. the last stretch with the enemies and logs is the easiest to get caught up on something, but I suggest trying to go under it all where you can.

That said, i think the main rewards were just a faster fish, and a map so you aren't missing anything if you skip it.

[EclipsedHusky]

Most important thing, Jump so you are jumping out of the top of water falls. Like The start of a jump gives you a huge boost of speed so if you time it just so you get a big push forward. Like I got 2nd with the rental.

[KingofApples]

I beat the salmon race my first attempt after getting the violin. Don't spam jump, your base speed is already better than other salmon. Just jump before waterfalls and don't get stuck on them. If you don't get stuck on objects, you win

[pseudo]

I think the biggest tip I can give is to remember that you can descend into the water to avoid the log section, just be careful not to go too far down. Hopefully this helps?

[d-horse's ass]

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, I had thought the game hit bottom but I just got to this part.

I salute the developer on being genuinely brain dead and pray he doesn't achieve fiscal success from releasing this half-baked pile of garbage.