Game Mechanics

This is an overview of the mechanics of how fish work and catching them in *Intergalactic Fishing*.

## Fish Populations

Each lake contains between two and eight species of fish. You will see all species in a given Network Lake in your Fish Journal. In Unknown Lakes, these species will populate your Fish Journal as you catch them.

Fish are a finite resource in Intergalactic Fishing. They do not re-spawn, grow, or reproduce.

Each fish is individually simulated, which means that random statistics (length and weight) are not generated at the time the fish bites. This also means when you break off that giant, you at least know that fish is in the lake. Fish do travel around lakes, so just because you hooked a particular fish in one location does not mean it will be in the same spot the next time.

There is no upper limit on how large a fish can get, it is simply less probable the larger they get. It is theorized that fish size is able to be expressed as a geometric sequence, however the exact formula is not known.

## Fish Mechanics

### How to Fish

Select a Lure design or create it. Cast your line with your left mouse button by clicking where you want it to land, it will go as close as your line length allows. If you have a buoyant lure it will say *surface* as seen on right.

You may hold down left click to reel at the speed it has been set at (with mouse wheel or q/e) or let it stay still. Once a fish nibbles you will see a *red bar* from the left side indicating tension on the line.

You need to right click to hook the fish for bringing it in. Then proceed to use left click to reel the fish in. While doing so the red bar will move, and you will lose the fish if you keep pulling too hard (red bar fills up). Letting go of left click and letting the fish swim a bit is a way of controlling this. Larger fish will put up more of a fight. For very large fish, they will slowly tire out, giving you the ability to eventually reel them in.

After a successful catch you will see it on the top right. Left click it to add it to your live well, or right click and choose to dissect or release it.

### Fish Species

Each species of fish you encounter will behave differently. There are several pieces of information that you can learn to help determine where and how to catch certain species.

You can learn the fish species' preferred location, preferred winding speed, relative full grown size, their feeding schedule, and preferred lure properties.

Each species of fish has four properties that determine which type of lure they prefer: shiny, noise, color, size. Each fish will have a factor between 1-99 that determines their affinity for each of these properties of a lure. Each lure will also have these four factors and fish will be more likely to bite a lure that more closely matches their preferred factors.

For example, a fish that has a noise factor preference of 90 will be very likely to bite a lure that has a noise factor of 90 (i.e. a lure that makes a lot of noise), less likely to bite a lure that has a noise factor of 50, and very unlikely to bite a lure with a noise factor of 10 (i.e. a lure that doesn't make much noise).

You can learn more about a fish species' lure preferences and behavior by catching and/or dissecting fish of that species. You can also talk to other people at a lake to learn information about the lake and the fish species in it.

All of this information will appear in the Fish Journal panel.

### Lure Preferences

Fish prefer certain types of Lure design ranging from the shiny, noise, size, and color factor. In the Lure Designer, you can see the percentage bonus you gain by closely matching a fish's preference. Fish do not require a certain lure to be caught, but the closer you are to their preference the more easily you will attract these fish.

### Habitats

*Vegetation*: Patches of vegetation found in the shallow areas near land.

*Shallow Water*: Anywhere in the lake where it isn't deep, usually best near the shore.

*Near Surface*: Near the very surface of the water. Topwater lures work well for fish which live here.

*Deep Water*: Anywhere in the lake that is deep relative to the rest of the lake. Toggle your minimap to show depth with the second button on the minimap to help you find the deepest areas.

Just because a fish prefers a certain habitat does not mean that fish species *only* inhabits that area.

### Winding Speed

All fishing rods allow for five lure retrieve speeds. Some fish prefer that the lure is stationary. Matching a fish's preference helps catch that species, but there is some degree of forgiveness.

### Full Grown Size

Each fish has a Full Grown Size. The bar on the top right of the fish in your livewell is a visual indicator of the size of your fish compared to its Full Grown Size. The Full Grown Size is the size the fish would be if that bar were exactly filled. However, a fish can be much larger than its Full Grown Size, potentially even twice as big or more. Thus, to maximize your chances of catching a very big fish, it's best to fish for species with a larger Full Grown Size. Prior to Version 1.4.0, the Full Grown Size of fish were categorized as Small, Medium, Big, and Huge.

### Weight Factor

When you catch a fish, the weight of the fish is determined by two factors: the fish's Full Grown Size, and its Weight Factor, colloquially referred to as *Chonk Factor*. It is speculated that different species of fish are assigned a Population Type when generated, which determines the distribution of that species' Weight Factors. As a result, some species may be more skewed towards larger Weight Factors, while other species may skew towards lower Weight Factors. It is unknown exactly how many different Population Types there are, but there are speculated to be 3 different types.

### Feeding Activity

Fish experience periods of Normal Activity and High Activity. You can determine this by the chart located in your Fish Journal. The bright green sections of the bottom bar are periods of High Activity. The top bar indicates periods of night and day with daylight being light blue.

### Spooked Fish

After you have broken off a fish, it is unlikely to bite again for a while. A fish will get off if you let the bar fill either completely red or completely green, or if you reel the fish on top of land. How long the fish remains spooked is currently unclear. Fish are also less likely to bite when they are aware of your BOAT.

## What To Do With A Fish

You have a few options for what to do with a fish once you've caught it. You can choose to dissect it, release it, or save it to sell for credits.

### Dissection

You can dissect fish to learn information about the species' lure preferences and behavior.

By opening the Fish Journal panel, you can see the known information about each species and the progress towards the next piece of information.

This progress bar will increase for each fish of that species that you catch or dissect with dissecting fish giving significantly more progress than catching fish. The larger the fish that you dissect for its species, the more the bar will increase.

Light blue marks on the progress bar indicate a piece of information that has already been obtained, either by progressing the status bar to that threshold or by talking to other people at the lake. White marks indicate an unknown piece of information.

Dissecting a fish will destroy it.

It can be beneficial to dissect a fish to remove it from the lake permanently, even if you already have full information on that species, simply so that you don't catch that fish again.

There is an achievement for dissecting 100 fish.

### Releasing

You can also choose to release the fish back into the lake. This returns the fish back into the waters, allowing you to catch it again later. You can only release a fish back into its native lake. If you release it into a lake it is not native to, it will die.

There are two achievements for releasing fish, one for releasing one fish, and one for releasing 100 fish.

### Selling

If you want to earn more credits, one of your best options is to sell the fish you catch. Larger fish are generally worth more. Some species of fish are worth more credits than other species. Even still, there are some species of fish where smaller fish are worth more than larger ones, though this is fairly rare.

There is an achievement for selling 1,000 credits worth of fish.

1. ↑ From the in-game help section on Fish Species
2. ↑ From the in-game help section on Dissection