salmon run egg-running tips - by Marty (?)

Basics (for max diff or high diff only, low diff is low diff)

Learning how to substrafe is, for me, something you should do as soon as possible to run eggs more efficiently. In the long run it might save you a few seconds, which can be crucial if you need one more egg. Substrafing is not only used for egg running, but also for survival.
Surviving while running eggs is a different matter and you will need to use your own judgement to see if you need to die for an egg or not. I rarely want to die for an egg unless I have teammates like spox who can revive me quickly but need someone to run eggs. In Freelance I will never want to die for an egg, same when I play with the vast majority of people.

Using bombs to run eggs quickly and mitigate risks is also something you can implement but it requires some thinking. If you think nothing is going to threaten you in the next seconds, you can use a bomb to run an egg without taking time to kill the lessers around it and paint the floor. Here's a very simple example: https://twitter.com/MartyBubbler/status/991368800057491457

If you're host and you run the eggs around the basket, you can survive more easily by constantly watching the area around you. The basket area is a spot with high traffic so you will be threatened more often, especially when playing in squads. You will need to watch for Flyfish missiles, Stingers and lessers. You can use bombs to clear lessers and lose no time as shown above but sometimes, I'm willing to take some (indirect) damage from a Flyfish missile if I know nothing will kill me within the next seconds. Throw a bomb where the Flyfish missile will land so that the ground will immediately be painted with your ink, so you don't get slowed down (of course don't get directed by the missile). If you have no ink for a bomb always ink your feet (splatterhop).

Another less obvious trick, which I need at max diff when running eggs, is not using the same path twice in a row unless I am absolutely sure it's safe. https://twitter.com/MartyBubbler/status/991374065267965952

Often, a teammate will use your path and might be targeted by missiles or might've drawn too much enemy aggro. You can take time killing the lessers so that they don't clog up the map but if you need an egg ASAP a bomb will not be enough to punch through. Another path can be used, even if it seems longer than the path you were going to take. I also use walls very rarely when I'm being targeted by Flyfish missiles myself, and they always force me to take another path (so I avoid getting directed by them).

Finally, you need to learn what eggs are good or bad to run. Flyfish/Stinger eggs in particular are usually bad to run because of how far they are from the basket (the matter is entirely different in Freelance, I'll explain later). It's alright if you run a few from time to time but it's usually not advised unless you know what you're doing, because the time you need for that egg could be better spent doing something else or running more (closer) eggs.

Freelance
Running eggs in Freelance is an entirely different matter, I believe, especially on Bay. Because luring is often not possible in Freelance, you will have to run bad eggs constantly while doing other things. For example, on Bay, it's common for me to be forced to run eggs on the sides. Because your teammates die often you're the only person who has potential to meet the quota for your team as long as you know how to survival well. It's not too hard to run bad eggs in Freelance. Pay attention to where your teammates are and where the eggs are. Because they don't know about luring they will often draw most enemies to a specific spot (and die there).  Try to check the map for eggs that are in different spots so you can run them without getting slowed down by enemies. Because your teammates are mobile they might draw the aggro elsewhere so you might find new eggs that you couldn't run quickly previously. Since the mode is Freelance you are still forced to kill things. When you have no eggs to run, you spend your time killing the lessers and killing huge threats. Bosses like Scrappers and Steelheads can be left to your teammates. If they die and you killed the main threats, it's just a bonus since you will be able to lure them and nothing else should hinder you.

Even if you're host, try to leave the basket eggs to the randoms. If they're all near the basket it's good because they lure enemies slightly closer.

If time is running out and your teammates are dying, you might need to leave them dead for a few seconds to lure an enemy and get eggs. The risk is higher but if it's your last chance, you might as well try. If the last enemies are Flyfish/Stingers just revive your teammates ASAP and try to run the eggs while spamming This Way so they might follow you.

I also recently started implementing Snatcher optimization in Freelance (and I would like to implement it in squads as well) when my teammates don't notice specific eggs so they can be moved closer to the basket. It's not something I think particularly helps a lot but I guess it can save you a few seconds if you're productive while the Snatcher moves the eggs.
In the future I'll try to get more clips because there are some things that I do but cannot really explain, or things that cannot be really be taught. My capture card got a problem recently so I might be forced to use clips until I find another one or a solution.

https://twitter.com/MartyBubbler/status/991369937015922688

Squads (max diff)

Running eggs in squads is different because usually you have people with better knowledge, so they know about luring (if not, adopt a Freelance playstyle). If you're host, most of the eggs you run will be around the basket to make up for the other players' egg lag. If you're not host, try to see what eggs you can run without losing time (when you have egg lag, when swimming into an egg it will usually take time to pick it up. if you haven't reached the basket within that time that means you can run the egg because the egg lag will have no real consequence).

When you're host, secure the area around the basket a bit so you can run eggs efficiently. That might means killing lessers with your main weapons. Once they're weak enough or they aren't many of them, a bomb will surely finish them off while you run the eggs. Usually I throw the bomb the moment I substrafe to combine both and reduce time loss as much as possible. You can also draw Scrapper aggro to you so you can kill them on your own. There are specific situations that require you to run fewer eggs even as host, though. If you have a high DPS weapon and the comp needs it to win, you have to use it. You can actually play host while doing so because luring means drawing enemy aggro to the basket so you can literally kill everything by yourself. Remember that bosses stop spawning at 26 seconds or so, so after that you can run eggs as host while using bomb tricks to kill lessers.

Good awareness also allows you to know if you can run a particular egg around the basket or you need to run another one. If you think you're going to die don't run it, otherwise you'll lose time. A few seconds later you might be able to run the egg again so it would be a shame to die beforehand (sometimes it can't be prevented, though). In the event that you die and get revived, use your i-frames efficiently to run dangerous eggs without losing time (especially if things have snowballed).