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Strategy Guide

by huynh13

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Fish Tycoon Strategy and Guide for the Nintendo DS System  

By Huynh13 at [email protected] 
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This strategy guide is to help gamers that are having a hard time
with the game Fish Tycoon made for the DS version.  I know it is
a boring game where you feed your fish and wait forever to make
any decent amount of money but this is one of those rare games that
allow someone to raise their fish in real time as a simulation for
the DS system.  This guide will consist of 3 parts:  The hints &
tips, the walk thru, and the background of the game.  The goal of
this guide is to gather all the tips that I've gathered over the
net from several sources into one place. 
  
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QUICK PLAY TIPS: 
(So that you can quickly get to the playing part and do a decent
 job). 

*At the start of the game, always breed the same type of fishes.
 Their chance of staying alive is higher. 

*Do not try to find magical fishes early in the game.  Your tank
 upgrades is not high enough to keep them alive. 

*Do not cure your sick fish and waste money, just sell them before
 they die.  (Nintendo DS version allows you to do this on easy,
 medium and hard) 

*At the start of the game you have 2 tanks and not just 1.  The
 two tanks are Tank1 and the Sale Tank.   

*Your magical fish can still die and act just like a normal fish 
 but they offer special bonuses to other fishes. 

*You can have multiple magical fishes of the same type in
 different tanks. 

*Fishes can not die of old age but the longer they stay alive the
 more likely they will die of other reasons.  My oldest fish was 
 around 400 years and there was never any reason to keep them 
 longer then that. 

* Always feed your fish when you start up the game, before the 
 Store Screen, and right before you shut down the program. 

*Always quit the game from the main menu so that your progress
 is saved. 

***************************************************************  
WALK THRU STRATEGY 

TUTURIAL 

The game will let you play through a short little tutorial to
introduce the interface and the layout of the shop as well as
other tanks.  Go ahead and finish the walk thru just to be
familiar with the game and play around with the fishes and the
options for about 15-30 minutes.  Once you get a good 
understanding of everything then start the game over only this
time do not cure your sick fish from the tutorial.  Just drag 
him to the Sales Tank and sell him off because at the start of
the game you'll need every bit of money that you can get.
Remember that in this game money is time.  In order to get
money you'll need to sell fishes and in order to have fishes
you'll need to mass produce them and that takes a lot of waiting.
I would say that your first week is spent just to breed, waiting
till your fishes are old enough and then selling them just to
repeat the process.  The shell that the game asks you to
purchase is optional as well.  If you wish to purchase it then
go ahead but it is not important and can be purchased at any
point in the game.  The shell will just allow you to sell your
fishes at a high cost, I would estimate $1-$3 higher per fish.
The difference between hard, medium, and easy during the start
of your game is how quickly your fish gets hungry.  
This translates to how often you'll need to check back on them
to make sure they do not die of hunger.  If checking 4-6 times
a day isn't a problem for you then go ahead and select the hard
mode.  You also have the option of decreasing the game speed
during play if you wish before each shut down to slow down the
real time progression of the game. 

Early Start of the Game 

Once you restart the game and sold your sick fish for money then
start breeding your fish.  Just drag a fish labeled as "normal"
into your mini view and combine it with another fish.  Repeat the
process until all your fishes are labeled "pregnant".  Be aware
that you can combine pregnant fishes with normal fishes to get
both fishes in a pregnant state.  
Now this is very important:  Mate the fish with the same species.
If that is not possible then use a fish that looks similar with
the same fin or the same color.  The closer alike they are, the
more likely the babies will be able to survive past their 
childhood.   

At this time notice that the magical fish that the game starts
you out with has pixie dust coming out of it.  We want to make 
sure that we don't accidentally sell this fish so drag it into 
your miniview and then go to the "Menu" option and select "Species".
This will open a screen giving detail stats for that particular
fish.  Jot down the parent fish so that you can produce another
fish like this one later on if you wish.  The bonus will still be
present but you'll only need 1 magical fish type per tank.  The
real purpose however is to make sure that this fish for now isn't
accidentally sold so raise the selling price to a high number like
$999.  If you ever fall asleep during the store phase when the
fishes are sold and this particular fish gets purchased then
another $999 for your bank won't be so bad.  This is also a good
trick for any type of fish you wish to keep because once your tank
becomes full with 20 fishes you may sometimes drag or select the
wrong fish when they are so close together. 

Once you have made all your fishes pregnant then feed your fish
one last time.  Exit to the main menu so that your progress is
saved and shut the game down.  Yes, that is what makes this game
so unique, the game progress in real time so there is no point in
watching your fishes grow.  Just shut your DS down and check back 
in 1-2 hours.  This off time will let your pregnant fish give birth
and allow for your baby fishes to mature. 

1st Generation 

Welcome back.  The moment the game loads up then go into Tank1
and feed your fishes.  Look for any sick fishes and drag them to
the Sale Tank and sell them right away.  Again no need to waste
money on medicine since it is not worth curing them.  The medicine
is too expensive and early fishes are too cheap to make a profit.
At this point, you'll also see a lot of dead fishes.  Fishes
normally die around 6 years of age (and under) if the condition
on the tank doesn't meet their requirements.  This can include
temperature and the research level of the tank.  No worries just
drag the dead fish to the trash can and move on.  If you've followed
my advice and mated the same species then you should have a sizable
number of fishes that are still alive at this point.  Look at the
level gauges on your fish to tell you what their health and hungry
levels are.  The top bar represents how healthy they are while the
bottom display how hungry they are.  If the top bar goes empty then
they die.  Unfortunately there is very little that you can do to
control the top bar since their health depends on how much money
you have to purchase what they need.  However you can easily feed
your fishes so feed them all the time.  They will not die of over
eating so it doesn't hurt to feed a fish that is full.  When they
stop gathering at the point where the food is dropped is when they
no longer require eating.  A full tank can contain 20 fishes but 
it's not advisable to keep a full tank for too long or the fishes
will get sick and the tank becomes dirty.  Drag most of your fishes
to the Sale tank leaving about 9 in Tank1.   

At this point let's pause and talk about the Store phase.  This
phase sells any fishes that are of adult age (20 years or older)
and the only way for players to obtain money.  The prices of the
fishes are a hassle to manage using the DS interface since you'll
need to drag each fish into the miniviewer and click "species".  
This becomes a problem if your tank has a diverse number of fishes.
The store phase will be in real time, meaning you'll have to keep
the DS on and wait for customers to come in and purchase your fish.
If the price is cheap then they will buy it instantly.  If it is
too high then they will never buy it.  Players can gauge their
prices based on how long it takes to sell their fish.  The suggested
price will sell your fish within the first minute but players can
get a few dollars more raising their prices a few dollars higher.
This price is dependant on how many ornaments players purchase for
their tank as well as how high their Advertisement research is.
There is only 3 research levels for the Tank Upgrades, the Sale
Advertisement Upgrades, and the Food Upgrades. 

Only adult fishes over 20 can be sold so young fishes can live in
the Sales Tank without any harm and won't get sold.  Keep about 9
in each tank and sell the rest.  If your 1st generation doesn't have
enough to fill up the tank then breed your fishes again until there
are a sufficient number of fishes to split up the group.  Keep 
the fishes in both tanks pregnant and then feed your fish again
before exiting back to the main menu and shutting down the game.
Give it another 1-2 hours and check back again for the 2nd
generation. 

2nd Generation 

Feed your fish from Tank1 and the Sales Tank.  Players should have
a high number of fishes by now so check and see if you can find a
high cost fish that would give the most profit.  Our goal for this
generation is to mass produce this particular fish.  Don't worry 
diseases never kill off a whole species, just individual fishes.
Now would also be a good idea to set the prices for your other
species.  Make the sell price a bit higher then the suggested price.
Sell all fishes until the number is back to around 8 fishes
(per tank) again and make them all pregnant.  Sell off any adult
fishes but leave a few in case the babies don't survive.  Feed your
fish and get back to the main menu.  From now on the process is
self-explanatory.  Repeat this cycle until you mass enough money
to purchase all the goods that you'll need to increase the 
survivability of your fishes.  Always make sure that there 
is an adult batch coming along or enough money to start again in 
case all your fishes are dead.  I would say $100 is a good minimum 
to have in the bank but you'll only need to have enough to purchase
1 more batch of eggs to continue on. 

3rd generation and above 

Once you start amassing your wealth, starting buy the things that will
keep your fishes alive.  The suggested order is to get a temperature 
gauge first to reduce the number of deaths.  Most of the deaths come
from exotic species that needs an updated tank to survive but the
first research for a tank upgrade is $500 and the upgrade doesn't
become noticeable until level 2 which cost $1000.  Here is the order
that I would suggest to make the game easier: 

Temperature gauge  ($170) 

Aeration System (70) 

Snail to clean the tank (only useful when tank is at max
  of 20 fishes) 

Tank 2  ($450) 

Plants to help with their health and reproduction 

Other swimming animals that adds to their health
 (eels, stingray, seahorse, Puffer Fish) 

Research level 1  ($500) 
Food level 1 ($200) 
Advertisement level 1  ($350) 
Cheap ornaments (Shell, Pagoda, Diver and Coral) 
Expensive ornaments (Columns and Sunken Ship) 
Finish with all your research and the other items
 that was forgotten 

Things to avoid or use very sparingly: 
Medicine 
Growth hormones 
Strange vial   
Fish Eggs 
Unknown strange vial 

Some of these items like the plants and the snail will appear on
all tanks with just one purchase.  Other things like ornaments help
your fish sell faster so place it into the Sale Tank.  The annoying
things about these ornaments are that they get in the way and block
the view to your fish.  It becomes a problem later on when there are
so many ornaments that players constantly drag it around trying to
catch a fish.  Purchasing an Eel, stingray, or a seahorse is a one
time purchase that only give players 1 creature but players can drag
it to different tanks.  I suggest making sure that each tank have a
friendly creature swimming with your fish.  Their effects are
passive and there is no indication that it works but you'll notice
that your fishes have better health and tend to get sick less often. 
   
In regard to the strange vial: 

This vial was experimented several times and there doesn't seem to
be an obvious use for it.  It doesn't make babies grow faster nor
does it turn your fish into mutated species.  The use for this
right now is unknown and if you know what it is used for then
send me an email and this guide will be updated.
 [email protected] 

Getting Magical Fishes 

Once all upgrades are completed and you've saved about $5000 in
your bank then it's time to start winning the game and experiment
with the different breeds.  Make sure that all display and ornaments
are purchased too since this is the phase where you'll decrease your
income and start spending money on eggs.  There are multiple guides
on the net that will give you the exact cross species to get all your
magical fishes but this guide won't have them.  This guide is only
to give players an idea of how to get a good standing within the game
to start the cross breeding.  With all of your research levels up,
players can now pick any random fish within their tank and cross
breed it with another without having the off springs die. Using
random luck and trial and error, you'll be able to find around 4
magical fishes.  The difference between the cheapest egg and the
most expensive one is that the expensive ones will auto skip a few
generations and give players that particular specie right away. 

History and Background for the Game 

This game first originally appeared for the PC version.  If you
notice, the DS interface has a lot of icons that are very close 
to each other and some icons are very familiar to each other just
like a PC.  That hints that the company hardly made an effort to
make sure that the interface was ideal for the DS unit.  Because of
this, many icons are very small and require precise selection with 
the Stylus.  The food icon is way in the corner right next to your 
expensive growth hormone and medicine which are only good for 3 
drops and because of this, there is a high chance you'll select the 
wrong icon.  Strangely, there are some menu navigation that are
redundant.  For example a diverse tank with many species can't have
a list of all the fishes in it so that you can set the prices for all
of them in an organized manner.  Instead you'll need to go find the
fish, drag it into the miniview, click menu, click species, and then
change the price.  That was just for 1 fish, having a tank of 20
different fishes requires repeating those steps 20 times.  Both
versions however excel at certain aspects depending on what the
player wants.  The PC version has a better interface and better
graphics with a more precise interface.  The Nintendo DS version
however allows people to play it anywhere and check their fishes
on a regular basis with a quick boot.  The DS version also has a
screensaver mode to show your DS off and let players keep tabs on
their fishes in passive mode. 

BASIC GAME MANUAL 

The game has mainly 3 phases:  The tank simulation, the store
purchase, and the real time store simulation. 

The Fish Tank Simulation 

The index buttons on the DS are used to cycle through the different
fishes.  Right index button goes to the next one while the left one
cycle back to the previous.  Most of the commands are done using
the stylus.  The directional buttons are used for more detailed
movements or when players do not wish to loose the fish selection
when they are using the stylus.  The buttons are hardly used if at
all.  There is a mini-view at the bottom right which acts like a
magnifying glass.  It only works for fishes that are of adult age
20 years or older and shows the fish details and their parent
association.  Most likely you'll be using this tool to move fishes
from one tank to the other or to set their prices by going to
"menu" and clicking "species". 

The Store Purchase Screen 

This menu is self explanatory.  Just select the items you wish and
click "buy" at the bottom.  Be careful, a mistake is costly and
there is no undoing a decision.  Arrows are located on the right
side to go to the next screen with the research upgrade at the
last screen. 

The Real Time Store Simulation 

This screen requires just waiting and not doing much.  It's an
observer mode allowing players to see the store and watch customers
go into the store.  Research Advertisement Technology to get
customers into the store.  From there decorations and ornaments
inside the tank will get them to commit to a purchase.  These
ornaments will also allow players to sell their fish at a higher
price with less wait time.  When the fishes stop selling and 
customers in the store are not buying anything then that means the
price is too high.  A store with no customers means that the
Advertisement level is too low.  The stylus can select each customer
and see what sort of fishes they like when their bubble comes up.
A heart bubble indicates what they love to have and a broken heart
icon is what they do not want to purchase.  This is rather useless
and beyond anyone�s control so just ignore it and enjoy the
simulation in observer mode.  There is always a random selection
of customers so raising the wrong type of fish can still sell.