Nintendo just debuted maybe the hardest boss in its 136-year history - Polygon.com

What the report says

Polygon reported that Splatoon Raiders has an unexpectedly punishing late-campaign encounter built around one of the game’s smallest enemies: a Smallfry in Pudyin Den. According to the article, the fight appears in one of the final Salmonid Dens players can unlock, where the objective is unusually simple on paper: defeat a single foe and collect 10 Power Eggs within a short time limit.

The challenge, Polygon said, comes from the Smallfry’s extreme durability, erratic movement and heavy damage output. On the Ultra Spicy setting, listed in the article as Salmonid Level 76, players have 50 seconds to win the fight. The writer described being at level 50 + 41 after more than 40 hours of play and still failing to clear the encounter, saying the most they had managed was six Power Eggs.

Polygon also noted that normal strategies can backfire. Too many active gadgets may clutter the screen and make the tiny enemy harder to track, while multiplayer can increase the Smallfry’s health enough to make the fight even more difficult. The article compared the enemy’s role to Final Fantasy’s Tonberry: small in size, but dangerous enough to punish overconfident players.

The report said the Splatoon community has embraced the boss as both a frustration and a meme, with some fans calling it “John Smallfry.” Beyond the joke, Polygon framed the encounter as an example of Splatoon Raiders rewarding careful builds and creative tactics, including status-effect combinations, rather than simple grinding or brute force.