Fishing Tips and Tricks

Many of you reading this have already done a fisher event, or two, or several. However, if you haven’t, check out Atlas Earth’s YouTube short. It’s quite useful!

This post is on tips and tricks to improve your odds at winning.

Select a topic, below.

Preparation
Starting The Event
Playing The Lag
Tap Vs. Hold And Release Method
Immediate Vs. Delayed Catching
Fish Spawn Locations
First Fish
Second and Third Fish
3 O’clock and 4 O’Clock Glitch (depreciated)
17th Fish
Tiebreaking
Changing Cursor Position
Sniping
Exiting Fishing
Mulligan
2 Hour Event Recording
Ranking
Other Tips
Closing Thoughts

Preparation

I know these are obvious things, but it doesn’t hurt to remind you: make sure you eat, drink, and use the bathroom before fishing starts. Minimize interruptions as much as possible. About 10-15 minutes before the event starts, close/force close any other apps you’re using and restart your phone.

If you plan on participating the entire time, save around 125-150 Atlas Bucks (AB) per hour. Fishing day will vary from week to week and time to time.

Make sure you maximize your boost before the event begins. You won’t want to run booster ads when you could be fishing! Some people don’t run 2 AB ads while they fish.

Most importantly, make sure you have an excellent connection. Lag is one of the biggest factors that decide who wins ties during fishing matches. There will be matches that you lose because of lag. It happens even to top-tier fishers. Do as much as possible to reduce lag so that your catches will register correctly.

Each match costs 2 AB. From the 4 AB deposited, Atlas Reality will add 2 to 3 AB to the total prize pool. It is unknown if 2 or 3 is added until after fishing starts. The best way to tell is to look for the total prize pool. If it’s odd at some point, then it is 3. If it is never odd, then it is 2.

Starting The Event

Fishing officially starts when you see the fishing icon follow you. It looks like this:

If you tap this icon, this takes you into the fishing event. Tap the button at the bottom to pay 2 AB. The system will randomly assign you a fisher. It will do its best to match you with someone who has a similar number of wins as you do, though sometimes it matches you against a top fisher, even if you only have a few wins.

Playing The Lag

To those who haven’t played before, you’ll notice within your first few matches that there is a delay between tapping the “catch” button and when the game registers your input. This will take some getting used to.

Tap Vs. Hold And Release Method

While many players will catch fish by pressing the “catch” button, others prefer to hold the “catch” button and release it when their icon is over the fish. While not universally true, such players believe that holding and releasing gives them greater accuracy than tapping.

Immediate Vs. Delayed Catching

In the beginning stages of the match, it is important to catch fish as soon as you can. Your icon may not have enough time to go around a second time to catch the fish. As the match progresses, the icon will move around faster, which gives you more time to catch the fish. Aside from avoiding a miss in the early stages and catching the final fish first (more on tiebreaking later), there is no advantage to catching a fish early.

Fish Spawn Locations

Fish spawn between 1/4 and 1/3 of a circle from each other. The direction can either be clockwise or counter-clockwise. You’ll know after the second fish where to anticipate each fish during the match based on its direction.

Clockwise:

Counter-clockwise:

First Fish

On some matches, the first fish will come up almost immediately next to your icon. If you have quick reflexes, you can catch this fish and get one fish ahead of your opponent! However, it’s possible sometimes to catch it the second time around, if you try for it before it disappears.

Catching first time around:

Barely catching second time around:

Second and Third Fish

Ensure that you catch your second and third first on the first cycle. You may not get an opportunity to catch these on the second cycle.

An example of an opponent missing the second fish on their first cycle:

3 O’clock and 4 O’Clock Glitch (depreciated)

There used to be a 3 O’clock and 4 O’clock glitch where not catching the fish really early would make you miss the fish. This was “fixed” then the glitch happened if you didn’t catch it late. This has finally been fixed.

An example of the 3 o’clock glitch:

17th Fish

On some occasions, it is possible to catch a 17th fish during your match!

An example of catching the 17th fish:

Tiebreaking

Ties are broken based on who received the score first. For example:

1. The first is at 15 and the other is at 14. The first person misses their 16th fish and the 2nd person catches it. Both are at 15. Even though the 2nd person caught the 16th fish first, the first person got to 15 points first. Therefore…the first person wins the match
2. Both are tied at 16. The first person was ahead catching the 16th fish, however, the second person sniped the 17th fish slightly before the first person could catch it. Since the second person got to 17 first, they win the tie. Therefore, the second person wins the match.
3. Both are tied at 15. Both people seemingly catch the 16th fish at the same time. Connection and input determines who got to there first. If it looks identical, in my experience, my oppponent wins the match.

This is the most controversial and hotly debated topic on fishing.

Changing Cursor Position

You can manipulate your cursor positioning vs. your opponent by doing the following:

1. After the fifth fish, catch a fish within the first icon rotation. It is important to do this on the first cycle and not the second so that you don’t run out of time to catch the next fish.
2. Immediately attempt to catch a fish. You’ll get delayed by 1 second. This changes your cursor position.
3. On the next fish, catch it on the second rotation, NOT the first rotation. If you try to catch on the first one, you’ll more than likely miss the fish.

You can do this multiple times during a match. However, there is a higher chance at missing a fish if you attempt to change your cursor position as opposed to playing normally. Missing a fish will almost assuredly cost you the game against top players.

Changing your cursor position is a double-edged sword. While it could potentially put you ahead of your opponent to break the tie in your favor, it could also put you further behind due to earlier fish spawn, costing you the game. If you want to attempt this, I highly recommend using this strategy on opponents who consistently beat you, or you can practice if you are several fish ahead of your opponent.

Below is a video explaining how to change position. This person did it on their fourth fish, but also recommends waiting for the fifth to attempt. Thanks to /u/dylcoll for providing the footage!

Sniping

Given that spawn locations are predictable after viewing the second fish, it is also possible to snipe the 16th and 17th fish before the fish animation appears. However, you can also miss the fish if attempting too early. The first video shows how to snipe. The second video is me missing my 16th fish snipe, catching it, and sniping the 17th fish before it appears.

An example of a 16th and 17th fish snipe:

An example of sniping too early and pre-animation snipe:

Exiting Fishing

You can skip part of the “results” animation if you keep tapping the bottom of your screen where the “OK” button exists. This will save you a few seconds each match, allowing you to do a few extra matches.

Below is example of me quickly exiting and re-entering a match. Although the event is different, the concept is the same.

Mulligan

If you lose a match and want a chance to get some of your AB back, you can run an ad to get 1, 2, or 3 AB. There’s a bit of a delay between stopping the needle and when the needle actually stops. Just like in racing, lag is a major factor that determines your result. However, lag tends to clear up after the first hour.

Bear in mind that if two people play each other trying to purposefully lose, the app will just assign one of you as the winner.

Below is an example of running the Mulligan. Although the event is different, the concept is the same.

2 Hour Event Recording

To those interested, I recorded myself during the May 25th, 2024 fishing event, which lasted 2 hours. I stopped playing early because I felt like I could’t advance to 2nd place and had 3rd secure.

Ranking

Your rank in fishing depends on the number of matches you win. If there is a win tie between fishers, the fisher who got their first will rank higher.

If you want to win the top prize, you’ll need to play the entire time. However, sometimes you can’t do that. If you are a proficient fisher, consider going for bottom 500 for a small payout. This will help you minimize AB cost and earn you a decent payout while you practice your skills to take one of the top 100 spots. People in ranks 101-400 usually lose AB. However, with the Mulligan feature, the 101-400 people can make a profit.

There is also ranking payouts available for your state/territory. This will vary considerably, depending on which state you are in. Atlas Earth will assign you to a state/territory based on your location when you first open fishing during the event.

Finally, if you want to minimize the number of matches you do, aim for the bottom of your target tier. However, the number of wins you will need depends on the number of participants. The more people there are, the more times you will need to win. However, more participants also mean a larger prize pool. Obviously, if a fishing event exceeds one or two hours, more wins will be required to keep your rank.

Other Tips

1. The biggest thing you can do is not panic, and just play your best game. If you concentrate on your catching and stop worrying about the other player, you will fare better.
2. The biggest issue isn’t lag, it is lag spikes. If you had consistently bad lag, you can compensate for that. What you can’t compensate for is when it is all over the place. So if you have a lot of lag spikes, this might not be the game for you.
3. Because of lag, it is better to be a little conservative over missing. However. If you find that you are consistently losing to someone, then it is best to be a little more courageous on your last fish. So against someone you often win against, be last fish conservative. If you are losing a lot to someone, be last fish aggressive.
4. You can also break the cycle of facing the same player over and over again by waiting about 10 seconds before starting another match. This is useful if you keep losing to the same player over and over again. It’s a good time to check the leaderboard!
5. If you find that you are losing a lot, consider taking a break and target a lower rank with Mulligans. Or…perhaps this just isn’t the minigame for you.
6. If this is your first time, consider pushing for top 500 on your first go and Mulligan every time you lose a match. If you think you are decent at the game and have time, push hard for a typical 2 to 2.5 hour event. This will help you figure out your overall rank and will help you figure out which rank you should target and how often you should Mulligan your losses.
7. Ask yourself what your goal is. Look at how long the event is through Reddit, then ask what you aim for. If you want T100, most times you’re going to need to play for most of the window. T50 or above, unless you’re RainbowUltra, Arn, me, etc. You’re playing the full 2 1/2 hrs or about 4-5 hours on weekends. If you can’t manage to play that long, consider shooting for top T500 and relax. It’s a minigame, it’s supposed to be fun!
8. If there is 30 minutes to an hour left of the game and you’re on the edge of a higher bracket, consider sacrificing Mulligans to push for the higher bracket. You are risking a little bit of AB for a potentially bigger payoff.
9. If you think you have your ranking secure and have time to continue playing, consider Mulliganing your losses intentionally to squeeze a few more ads for a few more AB. This will also help raise the pot and could potentially raise your payout. However, bear in mind that other people might also be Mulliganing their losses, which could lead you to unintentionally winning a match and wasting 2 AB.

Closing Thoughts

I hope you found this guide helpful.

If you have any questions, feel free to DM me on Reddit or Discord. If you don’t know where the Atlas Earth Reddit and Discord servers are, select Resources.

For those who haven’t yet downloaded Atlas Earth or want to learn more about it, check out my Beginner’s Guide.

Updates:

10/17/2024 – Updated 3 O’clock and 4 O’clock glitch section to state that this has been fixed.

06/03/2024 – Updated personal recording of fishing event. Sound quality is better.

05/20/2024 – Added a section for my 2 hour fishing event recording.

05/17/2024 – Added table of contents, “four o’clock” to the “three o’clock” glitch section, and suggested that you should catch at the end of the spawn.

03/15/2024 – Added captions to comply with Google Adsense’s policies.

03/08/2024 – Added videos for quickly exiting/rematching and running the Mulligan.

02/21/2024 – Added tips 6-9 in “Other Tips”, which was inspired by this post by u/princesky_. Also added a sniping video that shows a failed snipe and pre-fish animation snipe.

02/09/2024 – Added additional information about tiebreaking. My commentary was unclear. Thanks to /u/subillusion for correcting me! Also, made a slight correction to the 3’oclock glitch (catch early only, not early or late) and added a bunch of videos recorded during the BMN Discord server bingo fishing event on January 25th, 2024.

01/29/2024 – Added a section for the 3 O’clock glitch.

01/09/2024 – Added sections for the second and third fish and sniping.

12/21/2023 – Updated section Spawn Locations to state that fish spawn between 1/4 and 1/3 of the way around.

12/20/2023 – Added an accompanying video

12/18/2023 – Added a section regarding changing your cursor position vs. your opponent.

11/10/2023 – Arn964 revealed in this post information that is now section “spawn locations”.

10/17/2023 – Fixed a few grammatical errors discovered by the Atlas Earth Calculator founder himself: KC_FAN on Discord.