# Open Water _Swim out as one of your fish and meet other keepers._ ## A sea you share Open Water is a shared place where you swim as one of your own fish and meet other keepers in real time. Back home, your aquarium stays safe and keeps growing. It's still in beta, and more places will open as the reef grows. ## The ocean map The Map opens on a painted ocean map. Home marks your own aquarium, the Kelp Garden and the Shipwreck take you out to Open Water, and the [Coral Neighbourhood](https://fishies.lol/wiki/mechanics/explore) opens other keepers' homes. Places that only carry a name are still uncharted. Tap a place to open its card: how many keepers are there, what is waiting for you (a party gift, the treasure, a lost tablet, your Arena time, a fish on an expedition) and a button to swim there. The strip along the top lists what is waiting for you today. On a phone held sideways the Map has a wider chart of its own, with the places in two rows across the whole screen. Tap a place and its card opens over the map, on the side away from it; close the card to see the whole map again. The pictures over each place show what is waiting there. ## Outings Outings lists every place and activity in Open Water, grouped into Games, Adventures, Social, Market & boards and Secrets. Open it from the tool dock, or from the Outings tab beside the Map. Each row says what you do there and what is on for you right now: your Arena time, a fish away on an expedition, the next party, this week's orders, the treasure, the tablets you have found and how many keepers are there. Pearl Catch, the Arena race, both expedition stations, the wanted board, the lost tablets and the Gallery's pictures open right over your aquarium, with no swim. Swim there takes you into Open Water at the place itself, in front of its station or board, for what is only found out there: the plaza, the party stand, the treasure chest and the tablets themselves. ## Diving in Open the Map, choose a place and pick the fish you'd like to swim as. Until you've hatched a fish of your own, you swim as a Clownfish. You'll need a username before you travel. ## Places There are 9 places to swim, each with room for 12 keepers at a time. When one fills up, another copy of it opens beside it. Some places have buildings you can swim into: tap one and your fish swims to its door and goes inside, and Swim outside brings you back out in front of it. The Gallery in the Kelp Garden hangs the aquariums with the most stars; tap a picture to open its keeper's card. You can also reach it from the Map. Places you can go into or open wear a gold tag, and the Gallery points the way from the edge of the screen; a hidden treasure or tablet wears none, so you have to spot it yourself. At the Market, the wanted board asks for four fish a week, the same for everyone. Bring one of your grown fish that matches an order and it sells for its value plus a bonus, half again (or double for the gold-quality order), one fish per order each. The first keeper to fill an order gets twice the bonus, is named on the board for the week and earns the First at the Market badge. New orders go up every Monday. In the Shipwreck a treasure chest is hidden somewhere new every Monday, the same spot for everyone: swim right up to it and open it once a week for coins and XP that grow with your level. In the Lagoon, tap the oyster bed to play Pearl Catch: for a minute your fish swims along the sand catching the pearls that drift down (a golden one is worth 5) and dodging jellyfish, and 3 stings end the round early. It gets faster as it goes, and every round pays a few coins and some XP by score, as often as you like to play. In the Arena, tap the start gate to race the week's course: your fish swims forward by itself and you steer it up and down through golden rings, which speed it up, and past rocks and jellyfish, which slow it down. Every fish swims at the same speed. Your best time goes on the week's board, your first finish each week pays a few coins and some XP, and the three fastest keepers of the week win a cup for their aquarium, coins and the Arena podium badge. A new course opens every Monday. The Ice Shelf throws a party each season: Halloween in October, a winter festival over the new year, a spring festival and a summer beach party. While one is on, the place is dressed for it; tap the party stand to collect that party's free decoration for your aquarium and its badge, once per party. In the Ruins a sunken temple stands sealed. Six stone tablets are hidden across Open Water, one in the Kelp Garden, the Shipwreck, the Market, the Lagoon, the Arena and the Ice Shelf, each telling part of an old story; swim right up to one to read it, for a few coins and some XP. Tap the temple door to see which you have found and where the rest lie. With all six the door opens: inside, the altar tells the end of the story and gives you the Keeper's Lantern, coins, XP and the Lantern Keeper badge. At the Trench and the Vents, an expedition station sends a team of one to five of your grown fish away for one, four or eight hours. While they are away they are not in your aquarium and need nothing; when the time is up they swim home by themselves, fed. A one-hour trip pays a few coins and sometimes a find, as before. The four- and eight-hour trips pay no coins: every fish brings back a find instead, rolled for its rarity from common up to mythic, such as deep-sea shells and angler lamps from the Trench, or geodes and vent chimneys from the Vents. Finer fish, a better kit and a higher level all improve the odds, and a longer trip rolls more times. A team of three or more can also bring home the place's heart, found only on a depth roll: one roll for a team of three or four, two for a team of five. An expedition kit comes in four tiers: the first is free and never wears out, the others cost 1,500, 8,000 and 25,000 coins and wear out after 60 trips. Choose your team at the station to see the odds before it sets out. Up to two teams can be away at once, and adopted and legendary fish stay home. Each Market stall sells one kind of goods: tap the fish, egg or food stall to open the Stall Board on just those, and use the buttons above the board to switch kinds. In the kelp forest the Pineapple House is the reading room: tap it to open the Reef Journal, which can take you straight to this article. - Kelp Garden · a coral garden that runs into a kelp forest, several screens wide. East of the arch, the School Board lists the schools that have room, and the School Coves gate takes each member into their own school's Cove. - Shipwreck · an old ship asleep on its side in the sand, its lanterns still lit. It's a little deeper and darker than the garden, and you can swim through its ribs. - Lagoon · warm, bright shallows of seagrass and white sand, where the oyster bed opens Pearl Catch. Every 4 points make 1 coin, and every point is 1 XP. Each paid round of the day pays a little less than the one before, half by round 60 and never nothing; the count starts again every day. - Arena · an open stadium of coral stands round a start gate, where the weekly race is swum. - Ice Shelf · pale water under an ice roof, where the seasonal parties are thrown. - Ruins · a sunken temple among fallen columns, its door sealed until the six lost tablets are found. - Trench · the dark deep at the reef's edge, where fish set out from the diving bell. Its expedition station lists every find a fish can bring back from here. Long trips bring home Lantern Moss and Abyss Salt, and a team of three or more can find Abyss Glowstone. More in [Expeditions](https://fishies.lol/wiki/mechanics/expeditions). - Vents · warm volcanic chimneys glowing in the dark, where fish set out from the outpost. Its expedition station lists every find a fish can bring back from here. Long trips bring home Ember Kelp and Vent Minerals, and a team of three or more can find Ember Opal. More in [Expeditions](https://fishies.lol/wiki/mechanics/expeditions). - The Temple · Inside the sunken temple, where the first light is kept. ## Swimming place to place Out in one place, every other place is a swim away: open the Map in the corner and pick it, and you travel there with the same fish. Home on the same map swims you back. Your aquarium stays safe and keeps growing while you're out. ## Getting around On a phone, turn your device sideways to swim. - Tap or click the water to swim there. - Hold and drag to steer. - Arrow keys or WASD work too, and Esc stops. - Tap or click a building or board itself to use it, just like its gold tag. The round pictures in the bottom-right corner, over the Map, show everything the place holds, with a red mark where something is waiting for you; tap one to go straight to it. ## Saying hello Chat with everyone in the same place, or use one of 8 emotes, like a wave or a heart. If you don't move for 5 minutes, you drift back home. Tap another keeper's fish to open their card, where you can visit their aquarium, whisper or follow. Tap your own fish to see your own card. Playing Pearl Catch or racing in the Arena counts as being there, and a round you have started stays open even if you drift home, so you can still hand it in. Looking at another app for under a minute keeps your place, and if the game is updated while you are out, you swim back to the same place by yourself. When you are alone in a room, the place's wild fish drift over to keep you company. If more keepers are in another room of the same place, a note under the place's name says how many, and Swim over takes you to them; when nobody else is in your place at all, it points to the busiest place instead. Only real keepers are ever counted. ## Golden shoals Now and then a golden shoal swims through one of the places for a few minutes, and every keeper in the game hears about it, with a button to swim there. Swim into the glittering fish while it passes to catch sparkle scales, a rare crafting material, a handful each per shoal. They go to your Storeroom, and the Workshop bench can use them as a rare material. ## Foraging The Lagoon, the Shipwreck, the Kelp Garden, the Ice Shelf and the Ruins each have three spots to forage, with a twinkle on them. Swim up to one and tap it once per bite: after six to eight bites it gives its material (shells, driftwood, kelp fibre, ice crystals or stone shards) to your Storeroom and stands bare for six hours while it grows back. Your spots are your own, so nobody takes them from you. --- In the game: https://fishies.lol/wiki/mechanics/open-water · Fishies 0.8.10 This page is generated. Its text lives in [`locales/en-GB.json`](../../../locales/en-GB.json) under `wiki.topics.open-water`; correct it there.