Sunday, December 27, 2009

FishVille Changes; Strategy Guide

Over the past week or so, some various balance changes were made to FishVille:

1) A few weeks ago, tanks no longer required neighbors to purchase and became purchasable on slightly different levels. This was simply a response to the Facebook policy where applications couldn't tie game features to amount of "friends" on the application.

2) Within the past week, tanks capacity was lowered. Tanks now go from 15 to 25 to 40 fish throughout their lifespan (previous was 15-30-50). I think this was simply due to the ease of leveling involved in playing FishVille compared to the other titles.

3) Small gifts now only sell for 29 coins (previously they sold for 1250!) coins. I'm guessing quite a few people made a few hundred thousand coins simply collecting and selling gifts!

The question is - what's in the gifts? If other Zynga games are to be an example, then we can expect a few new items and a lot of already available decorations & plants along with some of the FishVille dollar fish and some free gifts as well.

We'll find out for sure on January 5th!
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Friday, December 25, 2009

FishVille Awards; Strategy Guide

FishVille Awards are now available in game! Awards are FishVille's achievement system. By completing various tasks in game, you are rewarded with an award of experience points and coins. There are 4 levels of each award: bronze, silver, gold, and diamond, each one being successively harder and offering a bigger reward.

Here is the reward list:

Liquid Assets: Awarded for having coins.

Bronze -
Silver -
Gold - Have 900,000 coins in your inventory.
Diamond - Have 1,100,000 coins in your inventory.


SpendVille: Awarded for spending coins.


Bronze - Spend 15,000 total coins at the market.
Silver
Gold
Diamond


FishVille Farmer: Awarded for selling fish at the market.


Bronze - Sell 365 fish.
Silver
Gold
Diamond


Decollector: Awarded for having decorations in your tank.


Bronze - Collect 25 decorations.
Silver
Gold
Diamond


Pond Gardener: Awarded for having plants in your tank.

Bronze - Collect 25 plants.
Silver
Gold
Diamond


Fish Lover: Awarded for loving your fish.

Bronze - Love your fish 7 times.
Silver
Gold
Diamond


Spotless: Awarded for scrubbing algae.

Bronze - Clean 32 algae spots. Reward: 100 coins.
Silver - Scrub 109 algae spots. Reward: 400 XP.
Gold - Scrub 240 algae spots. Reward:
Diamond


The Hand that Feeds: Awarded for feeding hungry fish.

Bronze - Feed 1452 hungry fish.
Silver
Gold
Diamond


Builder of Tanks: Awarded for building fish tanks.

Bronze - Build 2 tanks.
Silver
Gold
Diamond


Tanks a Lot: Awarded for helping your friends' tanks.

Bronze - Help 50 of your friend's tanks.
Silver
Gold
Diamond
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Monday, December 21, 2009

FishVille Pufferfish and Annularis Angelfish; Strategy Guide

There are two fish that are now available exclusively as free gifts: the Pufferish and the Annularis Angelfish.

You can not buy these fish in the market; the only way to get them is to receive them as gifts. Here are their stats:

Pufferfish

Grows in: 24 hours
Cost: Free gift only
Experience points for buying egg: None
Coins gained per level: 50 coins
Experience points gained per level: 30 experience points
Coins per hour: 2.08 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 1.25 experience points per hour


Annularis Angelfish

Grows in: 24 hours
Cost: Free Gift
Experience points for laying egg: None
Coins gained per level: 100 coins
Experience points gained per level: 50 experience points
Coins per hour: 4.17 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 2.08 experience points per hour


As you can see by comparing to the full fish guide, these fish are worthless. Do not bother with them unless you plan to keep them in your tank permanently.
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Sunday, December 20, 2009

FishVille Fish Levels; Strategy Guide

Here is a list of each fish available in FishVille along with how many experience points each fish offers, how many coins it will make, and the rate at which each fish produces experience points and coins.

Below the list, I will interpret the data for the player, make a short list of the best fish for leveling up and making money, and talk a little about the calculations and their relevance to the player.

Experience points per hour, or the rate at which each fish produces experience points (XP), is the most important variable in FishVille when it comes to raising the "best" fish. If you want, you can have whatever type of fish you like! However, even if your only aim is to make a nice looking tank, simply by getting levels, you will have access to more tanks, fish, and decorations. As a result, the best fish are the ones that give the most XP per hour.

If you sell Mini Dart Gobis (fast fish) after the first growth versus the fourth growth, they will produce about 18 more experience points per hour due to the significance of the experience points for planting the egg (substantial difference). However, if you sell Golden Pufferfish after the first growth versus the fourth growth, these fish will only about .4 experience points per hour (not significant).

As a result, I will supply two different calculations for different types of fish. For fish that take 1 hour or less to grow, there is a significant difference in the experience produced per hour if you sell the fish as soon as the fish levels up to level 1 versus selling it at level 4. The reason for this is because you get experience points simply for planting eggs - if you sell the eggs after the first level, you will be able to buy more eggs and to increase this XP further. This adds up if you are laying fast growing fish. The formula I will use is (XP for buying egg + XP for 1 growth) / grows in time for the first value and (XP for buying egg + XP for 4 growths) / (grows in time * 4) for the second value.

For slower fish (more than 1 hour grow time) this does not make nearly such a big difference. For these fish, I will simply divide XP gained per level by the "Grows in" time. Note that this isn't a 100% true representation, since it does not take into account the XP for placing each egg. This will result in very minor deviations in value - so small it is really not worth mentioning. In reality, the experience points for planting slower fish will be slightly higher than as listed in the fish list. Below the fish list, I will post more details about this and what it means to the player.


Other variables of interest:

Grows in: This tells us how long it takes the fish to level up. This number is important because fish need to be fed every 2 grow periods. In other words, if a fish "grows in" 4 hours, it needs to be fed before the 8 hour mark from its last feeding.

Coins per hour: This tells us how much profit each fish produces per hour spent in your tank. This number is important if you are already a high level and are simply saving for new decorations.

To calculate coins per hour, I will take the level 4 (adult) value of the fish, subtract the initial cost, and divide by (grow time * 4). This will be the true profit per hour of each fish, assuming you are letting it grow to the final stage (more info on that below the fish list).

A Note About Fish Levels

Each fish gets a standard coins and experience points bonus for level up to the adult phase. For example, let's say fish X gains 50 coins and 100 xp of value with each level.

Baby to level 1: Fish now worth 50 coins and 100 xp
Level 1 to 2: Fish now worth 100 coins and 200 xp
Level 2 to 3: Fish now worth 150 coins and 300 xp
Level 3 to 4 (4 is adult): Fish now worth 200 coins and 400 xp


Beyond level 4, your fish will no longer gain value.

With that said, on with the guide!


Format:

Fish Name (level req)

Grows in:
(hours)
Cost: (coins)
Experience Points for buying egg:
(+xp)
Coins gained per level: (coins [per level])
Experience gained per level:
(xp [per level])
Coins per hour [fish spends in tank]: (coins per hour)
Experience points gained per hour [fish spends in tank]:
(xp per hour)


Mini Dart Gobi: (level 1)

Grows in: .083 hours (5 minutes)
Cost: 7 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 2 experience points
Coins gained per level: 18 coins
Experience points gained per level: 6 experience points
Coins per hour: 195.2 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: If sold after first growth, 96.38 experience points per hour. If sold after fourth growth, 78 experience points per hour.

Shy Hamlet: (level 1)

Grows in: 4 hours
Cost: 35 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 15 experience points
Coins gained per level: 89 coins
Experience points gained per level: 60 experience points
Coins per hour: 20 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 15 experience points per hour


Hawaiian Hogfish: (level 1)

Grows in: 12 hours
Cost: 48 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 17 experience points
Coins gained per level: 120 coins
Experience points gained per level: 153 experience points
Coins per hour: 9 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 12.75 experience points per hour


Scooter Blenny: (level 1)

Grows in: 24 hours
Cost: 88 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 29 experience points
Coins gained per level: 221 coins
Experience points gained per level: 261 experience points
Coins per hour: 8.291 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 10.875


Red Spot Cardinal: (level 2)

Grows in: .25 hours (15 minutes)
Cost: 15 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 4 experience points
Coins gained per level: 38 coins
Experience points gained per level: 12 experience points
Coins per hour: 137 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: If sold after first growth, 64 experience points per hour. If sold after fourth growth, 52 experience points per hour.


Moorish Idol: (level 1)

Grows in: 18 hours
Cost: 1 FishVille dollar
Experience points for buying egg: 47 experience points
Coins gained per level: 346 coins
Experience points gained per level: 423 experience points
Coins per hour: 19.2 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 23.5 experience points per hour


Percula Clownfish: (level 6)

Grows in: 8 hours
Cost: 49 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 26 experience points
Coins gained per level: 129 coins
Experience points gained per level: 104 experience points
Coins per hour: 16.13 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 13 experience points per hour


Blue Mandarin: (level 1)

Grows in: 20 hours
Cost: 75 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 30 experience points
Coins gained per level: 200 coins
Experience points gained per level: 100 experience points
Coins per hour: 9.0625 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 5 experience points per hour


Longnose Bluefish: (level 7)

Grows in: 31.2 hours (1.3 days)
Cost: 99 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 35 experience points
Coins gained per level: 264 coins
Experience points gained per level: 315 experience points
Coins per hour: 8.46 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 10.1 experience points per hour


Sardine: (level 8)

Grows in: .05 hours (3 minutes)
Cost: 4 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 1 experience points
Coins gained per level: 12 coins
Experience points gained per level: 3 experience points
Coins per hour: 220 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: If sold after first growth, 80 experience points per hour. If sold after fourth growth, 65 experience points per hour.


Blue Green Chromis: (level 9)

Grows in: 3 hours
Cost: 26 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 12 experience points
Coins gained per level: 72 coins
Experience points gained per level: 48 experience points
Coins per hour: 21.83 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 16 experience points per hour


Clown Triggerfish: (level 1)

Grows in: 3 hours
Cost: 1 FishVille dollar
Experience points for buying egg: 23 experience points
Coins gained per level: 143 coins
Experience points gained per level: 92 experience points
Coins per hour: 47.67 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 30.67 experience points per hour


Royal Dottyback: (level 10)

Grows in: 16 hours
Cost: 57 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 22 experience points
Coins gained per level: 156 coins
Experience points gained per level: 198 experience points
Coins per hour: 9.75 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 12.375 experience points per hour


Swissguard Basslet: (level 11)

Grows in: 1 hour
Cost: 10 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 4 experience points
Coins gained per level: 30 coins
Experience points gained per level: 16 experience points
Coins per hour: 30 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: If sold after first growth, 20 experience points per hour. If sold after fourth growth, 17 experience points per hour.


Blue Damsel: (level 12)

Grows in: 36 hours
Cost: 107 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 39 experience points
Coins gained per level: 302 coins
Experience points gained per level: 351 experience points
Coins per hour: 8.39 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 9.75 experience points per hour


Inland Silverslide: (level 14)

Grows in: .5 hours (30 minutes)
Cost: 9 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 4 experience points
Coins gained per level: 25 coins
Experience points gained per level: 12 experience points
Coins per hour: 45.5 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: If sold after first growth, 32 experience points per hour. If sold after fourth growth, 26 experience points per hour.


Pajama Cardinal: (level 16)

Grows in: 2 hours
Cost: 17 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 8 experience points
Coins gained per level: 51 coins
Experience points gained per level: 32 experience points
Coins per hour: 23.38 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 16 experience points per hour


Longnose Hawkfish: (level 18)

Grows in: 6 hours
Cost: 38 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 22 experience points
Coins gained per level: 116 coins
Experience points gained per level: 88 experience points
Coins per hour: 17.75 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 14.67 experience points per hour


Orbiculate Batfish (level 1)

Grows in: 6 hours
Cost: 2 FishVille dollars
Experience points for buying egg: 66 experience points
Coins gained per level: 347 coins
Experience points gained per level: 264 experience points
Coins per hour: 57.83 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 44 experience points per hour


Parrotfish: (level 1)

Grows in: 24 hours
Cost: 2 FishVille dollars
Experience points for buying egg: 88 experience points
Coins gained per level: 662 coins
Experience points gained per level: 792 experience points
Coins per hour: 27.58 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 33 experience points per hour


Flame Angelfish: (level 21)

Grows in: 10 hours
Cost: 42 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 16 experience points
Coins gained per level: 131 coins
Experience points gained per level: 144 experience points
Coins per hour: 39.3 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 14.4 experience points per hour


Blue Spot Grouper: (level 24)

Grows in: 48 hours
Cost: 112 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 45 experience points
Coins gained per level: 365 coins
Experience points gained per level: 405 experience points
Coins per hour: 7.02 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 8.44 experience points per hour


Purple Firefish: (level 1)

Grows in: 48 hours
Cost: 3 FishVille dollars
Experience points for buying egg: 181 experience points
Coins gained per level: 1459 coins
Experience points gained per level: 1629 experience points
Coins per hour: 30.4 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 33.9 experience points per hour


Blue Hippo Tang: (level 30)

Grows in: 18 hours
Cost: 49 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 26 experience points
Coins gained per level: 173 coins
Experience points gained per level: 234 experience points
Coins per hour: 8.93 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 13 experience points per hour


Blackfoot Lionfish: (level 1)

Grows in: 18 hours
Cost: 2 FishVille dollars
Experience points for buying egg: 79 experience points
Coins gained per level: 518 coins
Experience points gained per level: 711 experience points
Coins per hour: 28.78 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 39.5 experience points per hour


Bartlett Anthias: (level 33)

Grows in: .75 hours (45 minutes)
Cost: 8 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 4 experience points
Coins gained per level: 29 coins
Experience points gained per level: 16 experience points
Coins per hour: 36 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: If sold after first growth, 26.67 experience points per hour. If sold after fourth growth, 22.67 experience points per hour.


Klunzinger Wrasse: (level 36)

Grows in: .5 hours (30 minutes)
Cost: 9 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 5 experience points
Coins gained per level: 35 coins
Experience points gained per level: 15 experience points
Coins per hour: 65.5 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: If sold after first growth, 40 experience points per hour. If sold after fourth growth, 32.5 experience points per hour.


Golden Puffer: (level 39)

Grows in: 72 hours
Cost: 106 coins
Experience points for buying egg: 42 experience points
Coins gained per level: 432 coins
Experience points gained per level: 378 experience points
Coins per hour: 5.63 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 5.25 experience points per hour


Bluedot Jawfish: (level 42)

Grows in: 3 hours
Cost: 49 coins
Experience points for buying egg: experience points
Coins gained per level: 211 coins
Experience points gained per level: 52 experience points
Coins per hour: 66.25 coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour: 17.33 experience points per hour


Blue Line Trigger: (level 48) - unknown

Grows in: hours
Cost: 22 coins
Experience points for buying egg: experience points
Coins gained per level: coins
Experience points gained per level: experience points
Coins per hour: coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour:


Blue Line Trigger: (level 49) - unknown

Grows in: hours
Cost: 106 coins
Experience points for buying egg: experience points
Coins gained per level: coins
Experience points gained per level: experience points
Coins per hour: coins per hour
Experience points gained per hour:


Top 3 Fish for XP Per Hour:

1. Mini-Dart Gobi (96 xp/hour)

2. Sardine (80 xp/hour)

3. Red Spot Cardinal (64 xp/hour)


Top 3 Fish for Coins Per Hour:

1. Sardine (220 coins/hour)

2. Mini Dart Gobi (195.2 coins/hour)

3. Red Spot Cardinal (137 coins/hour)


Strategy

Taking a look at the top 3 list above is really not very enlightening. Turns out the "top" fish in game are all available at a really early level.

However, there are things to consider before jumping to any final conclusions. First off, even though the Mini-Dart Gobi is an all around great fish, it needs to be fed and collected and re-bought every 5 minutes to nail down the "96 experience points". In reality, especially by the higher levels, jumping between 5 or 6 tanks, buying, feed, and replacing 50 fish is going to take up quite a bit of time!

In practice, buying and selling these fish can take up enoguh time that 1) you aren't going to be as high as the 96 XP per hour (if you spend 1 minute harvesting and re-buying fish - your XP/hour will drop by 20% - if it takes 2 minutes, make that 40%) and 2) it is going to seriously wear on your patience.

If you are interested in speed leveling, for the first 10 levels the Mini-Dart Gobi works just fine. As soon as you get a second or third tank, I would recommend buying the Red Spot Cardinal and selling it right after the first growth. This still yields 64 XP/hour and only requires 1/3 the clicks.

When it comes to the slower fish - it doesn't matter too much. There are certain fish to avoid (like the Blue Mandarin), but in most cases you should pick a fish that matches up with how long you need to be away from your tank. The fastest the fish time, generally the higher the XP per hour.

Note that in the calculations above, I didn't include the XP for buying each egg in the slower growing fish' XP per hour numbers. For these fish, selling the egg after the first growth results in a 5-15% XP growth. However, at the end of the day, this is still many times slower than the faster fish.

The conclusion is if you want to level up very quickly - harvest fast fish. If you want to level up at a decent rate but don't have much time to play - just make sure that a fish is always growing and your tanks are always maximally expanded. That will make a much bigger difference than worrying about harvesting slow growing fish after the first or the fourth growth.

Finally, note that there are some special fish which cost FishVille dollars. Buying a couple of these to grow and then sell is not a good use of FishVille dollars, unless you are actually going to keep the fish. If you are trying to level up and want to use FishVille dollars, you should buy extra tanks.
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Saturday, December 12, 2009

Fishville Strategy: Getting FishVille Dollars with Mystery Boxes

Only took me about 20 boxes, but I finally got one:


So in case you were wondering, yes, you can indeed get FishVille dollars with the free mystery boxes, it just is not all that common!
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Wednesday, December 2, 2009

FishVille Strategy: Mystery Gifts and Boxes

With the introduction of the new daily gift, a new type of gift has been added - the mystery box.

Each day when you log in to FishVille, your two daily gift options change. You have a chance for your daily gift to be a "mystery box". You can send these to friends who can then open these for experience points, coins, or potentially even FishVille dollars.


The xp and coin rewards are pretty modest - I opened 5 boxes and the highest XP bonus I saw was in the low twenties and the highest coin bonus I saw was in the high 100s.

It would appear (and rightfully so) that FishVille dollars are a pretty rare reward from the mystery box. Even so, with the option to get some for free, I will definitely be accepting every mystery box that I get.
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Sunday, November 29, 2009

FishVille Not Loading or Working; Strategy Guide

Many of you at this point may have difficulties connecting to FishVille on Facebook. A lot of people have been getting stuck at the loading screen when trying to play FishVille.

The truth is, FishVille is not down and you can easily connect with one of two changes to your internet browser:

First off, try clearing your browser's cache AND cookies. While the developers have been recommending clearing your cache, I was not able to get FishVille to load until I cleared both my browser's cache and cookies.

To clear your cache and cookies in Firefox:

Click Tools >> Clear Private Data >> Make sure "Cache" and "Cookies" are checked off >> Click OK.

To clear your cache and cookies in Internet Explorer:

Click Tools >> Internet Options >> "Delete Cookies" (if that does not work, click "Delete Files" then click "Delete all Offline Content"

After doing this, open up FishVille and you should be able to connect just fine. If this does not work, try connecting with another browser. When Firefox did not work for me, I was able to play FishVille just fine via Internet Explorer.

If you are having difficulties connecting to FishVille, make sure you clear your browser's cache and delete your cookies. If this does not work, connect with a different browser.
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