Big Fish Slots is a multiplayer team game with team bonuses, three completely different rounds, and even trivia. Each of its three rounds is played a little differently. With a little practice and our game tips, you’ll be scoring in the top ten in no time!
Round One – Go Fish
In this round you are looking for four creatures per game board: the starfish, a school of little fish, a seahorse, and an eel.
Since you’ll get bonus points for finding all four (and a new set of bubbles and fish to find), it makes sense to focus on finding fish as efficiently as possible. Memorize the four fish you’ll need to find (school, starfish, seahorse, and eel) so that if you’ve only got a certain type left, you can strategize your pops, multipops, and blowfish to find it. For example, if you only have an eel left to find, you only need to remove one bubble out of every three horizontal bubbles in a row to find a part of his body.
Each creature has a different shape and is hidden underneath a different number/shape of bubbles. While you’re popping bubbles take a close look at the left, right, and top edges of the bubbles that remain.
Sometimes (but not always) part of the school of fish can be seen on the left side:
or the right side:
or the top:
The starfish can be seen on the left:
The seahorse can be seen on the left, top and bottom:
The eel pokes out from the top of its middle bubble and on the right side:
If you get a yellow pufferfish, you might try placing him near the middle of the game board. He’ll deflate and pop bubbles on his way off the screen. This will maximize the bubbles he pops before he deflates completely.
Our friend b3achy has pointed out that there is a ‘glitch’ with the shark in this round:
When you get the shark in Round 1, in the old game, he would reset the board completely. In other words, you’d get a completely new board and have to start over to find the four critters (and they’d be in different locations).
Currently, in this new version of the game, if you get the shark in Round 1, he just replaces the missing bubbles of the board you are currently playing. To clear this board, you only have to find the remaining critters, and they seem to stay in the same location as prior to getting the shark. So, if you saw some of the critters poking out from behind the bubbles, they are still in that same location. If you only needed to find one critter prior to getting the shark, then that is all you will need to find to ‘clear’ the board after he fills in the missing bubbles.
When she wrote to Big Sea about this, they responded that it was working as intended. This will be something you’ll want to pay attention to as it makes recovering from a shark round that much easier.
Round Two – Fishfood
This round is most like a match-3 game (like Unwell Mel). Your goal is to match (at least) three of the same type of fish to remove them from the game board, but when you do more fish will fall into their places. Pay attention to which way the fish are facing — wherever you place them, they will eat any smaller fish in the direction they are pointed. Red fish are obviously your best chompers as they can eat up both green and blue fish.
Look for patterns of fish in the shape of an L, a T or a +. It takes a little practice but if you start looking for patterns of three or more you can also start seeing where, if you get a larger fish to chomp away other fish below, a pattern will form from the remaining falling fish.
To maximize your points in this round, you’ll want to focus on getting chains. If you can remove a set of three or more of a specific type of fish so that it sets off a chain reaction of other types of fish falling into place and matching up with other like fish. Tokens add up quickly if you can get a long chain reaction.
Round Three – Fishinko
Watch the launch lane — you can launch a pearl (or pearls) as soon as it is loaded. It’s easy to get caught up in watching pearls fall, but you need to stay on top of the launch lane, because time runs out quickly (especially if you get five launches in your spin).
The golden pearls seem to be ‘heavier’ than the regular, single ones. You will have to launch them harder to make it to the farthest oysters.
The multi-pearls seem to be ‘lighter’ than the regular, single ones. If you launch them too hard, you’ll lose all of them along the left side of the tank (and that’s no good)!
If you have a closed clam next to an open one, aim for the slope of the closed clam nearest to the open one. A pearl can easily get a good bounce off the slope and land right in the open clam next door!
The right wall’s bump-out (from the plunger button) can be used to ‘bounce’ pearls into the rightmost clam shell. This seems to work best with either the golden pearl or a set of multiples falling close together.
Pliers can be used to remove pegs from the game board. When you remove certain pegs, they may fall into an open clam shell. In addition, if you have a peg that is constantly knocking pearls away from an open clam shell, you can use the pliers to remove the peg to make future rounds easier.
If all else fails and you have a hard time getting your pearls into the clam shells, try aiming just for the other items in the tank. They’ll net you 50 points a piece and will help you learn to launch and aim more accurately. The golden pearls also have a point bonus with them — 150 points for hitting a critter/object (up from 50 for regular pearls) and 75 for landing in a clam (up from 25).
Should I take the Chance?
It’s up to you! If you enjoy the team aspect, everyone in the room will be thrilled at a few extra points if you win the team bonus. However, be aware that you may lose points (and if you have received more than one ? in your spin, the number of tokens you lose will be multiplied). The chance of getting at least 200 points is higher than the chance of losing tokens, so we always choose the Chance. And don’t forget, earning team bonuses, answering trivial questions correctly all earn you progress towards the new awards, so go for it! If you need help answering the trivia questions, we’ve compiled a list here.
Earning Awards
If you’re into earning awards, the ones for this game can be earned just by playing normally (and sometimes getting very lucky). To get Teamed Clams and Straight A Sturgeon faster, you’ll want to always take the chance. You might find it easier to earn a place in the top ten or win (Goin’ Topside and The Big Fish) if you play in a lesser-populated hall.
Related Posts:
- Big Fish Slots Trivia
- Big Fish Slots Ranks & Awards
Filed under: Big Fish Slots, Game Tips
{ 22 comments }
I was playing this afternoon and in two games the top scorer had 30,000 and 28,00o point while the next scorer had under 10,000. These two players always scored really high on theold version and won every game they were in. Is it possible to cheat inthis game, because if it is they are doing it and it spoils the game for the rest of us.
sjbee: I don’t think there’s a way to cheat at this game (I could easily be wrong), but I am of the belief that jackpot spins add to your total score, therefore skewing the high scores if players get a jackpot spin.
Sjbee – Are you sure that you are not seeing the bonuses added at the very end of the game? These bonuses, I believe, are usually 20,000 to 50,000 points, I may be wrong on the amount though.
What you say about jackpot spins is correct Lure BUT in this version the jackpot is now just 500 so doesnt have that much effect – three questions marks affect it more one way or the other + 600 or – 600
charlie: ohhh, you’re right! So when you see someone with like 8k in the first round, it’s probably that ‘leftover scoreboard’ bug thing? Because I always (wrongly) chalked it up to a jackpot spin.
The scores were before the bonuses were added and it was not at the begining so it wasn’t the ” left over score ” thing. This happens with these players all the time, not just once. They would have to get several ? every round to get that kind of score.
I just saw another score like that and it looks like they add in the bonus for the first place before they add in the other ones. So i guess you were right that the score is correct. But it sure looks funny.
On your examples, I honestly do not see the “eel” or the “seahorse” in the bubbles where you said to look. Am I blind? :)
Robin: you have to look pretty closely. The screenshots show little variations in the very edges of the bubbles, which is the eel and seahorse poking out. The seahorse is probably the easiest one to see, if you look along the left edge you can see a bit of his yellow color between the two bubbles, and on the top you can see the rough edges of his head directly under the bubble.
I’m also trying to get screenshots of the starfish (left side) and the school of fish (right side) poking out from under the bubbles, but my patience is limited and I seem to keep hitting them dead-on instead of uncovering little bits of them under an adjacent bubble. :)
How much is the bonus for filling all the clams?
I was wondering if you could post the pics with the starfish and school of fish parts sticking out. THANKS! :)
Michelle: I believe it’s 150.
ellemenope: Read the comment two above yours. :)
Taking screenshots of the school of fish is also complicated somewhat by the fact that they don’t have a fixed formation, or even a fixed appearance – as far as I can tell, there are two different images, and it’s random which one the game uses for each “cell”. Even if you might see the top of the fish in one case, you might not in another.
Great writeup Lure!
Good point Pidgeot!
Per looking for the critters…I look for the darker line on the edge of the boxes, but the bubble lightens it somewhat and makes it pretty hard to see. Eventually you get used to it, but they are still tough to spot during the game with the time limit.
Another thing to notice on round two is that the more fish you match at a time, the higher the points you get for each match…so matching three fish gives you 2×3 points for each fish = 6 x 3 or 18 points for the match. Matching 5 fish (in a + or a T or L) will give you 2×5 points for each fish = 10 x 5 or 50 points for the match. When you can swim fish and drop them into place to make a match of a say 10 different fish, you’ll get 2×10 for each fish = 20 x10 or 200 points for the match (plus 5 points for each fish eaten). Then when you get cascades off this, it can really add up fast!
Lure makes a really good case for playing the chance at any time, especially with the new awards. I tend to be a bit more conservative. I rarely play a single question mark (while I know the odds are it will be positive, I somehow tend to attract the negative ones). I have to make a decision based on the other wheels on if I’ll pay with 2 question marks. I typically always play if 3 or more question marks…there is no way I can make 600 or more in a round, so it’s worth the risk.
Thanks again for posting such great tips/hints Lure!!!
Thanks to snowsim1, I have added a screenshot of the starfish. :)
FYI: She also included a report of a bug she found in one of the awards. “A point was added to 20 Leaks Under the Sea award even when I was in the top 10.”
This information is AMAZING!
I have always thought that the hint “look around the bubbles” was a
myth, or I was blind, but I see the creatures in your screen shots. Yesterday I played and actually caught the elusive star fish because I saw him “peeking”- of course I had almost no bubbles left – lol – but at least I know what I am looking for now.
The blow fish makes me nuts :-)
Thanks Lure for the fantastic information and thanks to snowswim1 for the starfish screen shot. Thanks also to the Big Sea Gamers who contribute great information regarding the games. b3achy and Pideot are wonderful friendly gamers.
snowsim1 comes through again! She gave us a screenshot of the tail of the school of fish which sometimes pokes out from the right side of the bubble! Yay, and huuuge thanks and hugs to snowsim1!
I dont think the bits sticking out are completely uniform Lure – I saw a bit of the school of fish sticking out on the left today,
Bit of the school of fish definitely sticking out on LEFT again today. It looks as if it depends which of the 4 set-ups of the school you have where the bit sticks out. Something for us to watch for!
Duly noted. I’ll accept screenshots of the LEFT too :)
I was hoping the bit sticking out would help with the shape of the school – like it was always the corner, always the top, leg, bottom etc but it seems that it is totally random. I carefully watched each time I uncovered them today and the bit sticking out has appeared in all three positions on the same shape.
Will try for a screenshot next time I play and see it.
How cool is this? Snowsim1 sent in even more screenshots, completing our school views: top and left to add to right! Yay!
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