Fish Flingers

Fish Flingers is a members only Distraction and Diversion (D&D) that was released on 23 March 2010 that is based on the Fishing skill. There are no level or quest requirements to play Fish Flingers, and no required items as they are all provided. Having a low or a high Fishing level does not bring any advantages or disadvantages to the activity itself.

To the north of the Fishing Guild is a peaceful island named Isla Anglerine, which many species of rare fish inhabit. Why they do so is unknown, but it makes the island a paradise for budding fishermen. Discovering this, representatives of the Fishing Guild have arranged for regular fishing competitions to be held there, in which those with a love of willy can prove their skill in a race to land the most and the heaviest catches.

Introduction
While fishing at one of several of the major fishing spots around RuneScape, you may notice a fisherman wandering around. They are identifiable by their dungarees. They are not always around, but if one appears and you speak to him, you will discover a fishing contest may be about to start! If it is within 5 minutes of the start, the fishermen will offer to transport you to the competition.

Fish Flingers takes place on Isla Anglerine, where during a 15 minute competition, players select different baits, tackles and weights to catch a variety of fish. Based on the player's ability to efficiently catch the most and heaviest of fish, points are awarded to the player. Sometimes the player even obtains medals and awards. After the competition ends, players are rewarded with a hefty amount of fishing experience and tokens to buy raw fish from the fisherman's wife.

It is important to note that the player's fishing level has no impact on the competition. All players, regardless of fishing ability compete equally. However, once a score has been awarded, the fishing experience you earn does vary according to your fishing level. The experience awarded is very good - usually significantly exceeding the amount of experience you would have earned fishing normally for the same time period.

Requirements
Players need an entry ticket to enter a game of Fish Flingers. The fishermen keep count meaning players do not hold or keep the tickets. Fishermen award the player 2 new tickets each day and players may find additional tickets at random during a competition. Players may claim the next set of 2 tickets the following day if the player currently has no tickets. Therefore the maximum number of competitions a player can compete in on a regular basis is 10 per week plus the number of tickets found. It is possible to have an initial ten tickets and claim another ten in a single week while still meeting the requirements.

Other than entry tickets, there are no requirements. There is no fishing level requirement and no required items. Players may bring or wear whatever items they like. Familiars are allowed to enter, but because there is no access to the inventory interface, players should be careful when interacting with their familiars.



Aim of the Activity
There are two main aims of Fish Flingers. Players can compete against each other for the highest score, or simply play for maximum fishing experience. At the end of a competition, players earn a score, experience based on that score, tokens to spend (not to be confused with entry tickets) and possibly awards and medals.

Those who play for experience do so because it is fairly easy to gain the maximum amount of experience per game. Depending on the player's fishing level, roughly 20,000 fishing experience will be awarded as long as the player achieves a score of 40,000. This goal is popular because this amount of fishing experience is often more than what a player can receive by fishing for 15 minutes.

The goal of getting the highest score is popular because the top five scoring players stand on a podium at the end. For the really competitive fishermen, there are unofficial competition worlds where, if you stand on the podium at the end, you have beaten some of the best Fish Flingers in RuneScape.

For either purpose of playing, players can use their earned medals and tokens to pay for the rewards from the fisherman's wife. See the rewards section below for more details. Since the rewards are not particularly useful, players normally don't play Fish Flingers for the purpose of buying the rewards.

Note that strategies for each of the purposes is slightly different. In addition, to play for more experience, medals, and rewards, players are better off in large groups or even with a clan. That way players can help each other and share information. However, it is easier to get on the first place podium in a competition with fewer players.



Official Worlds
There is currently no official world for Fish Flingers. However, World 71 and 89 are deemed the unofficial worlds.

Competition Times
Competitions run about every 20 minutes, but over time this may change due to lag on a world for example. The timer resets as soon as a new game starts. The event starts at approximately the same time on every world, but may differ by a few minutes due to, as mentioned above, one world being laggier than another. If the start of the game is missed, players usually must wait the full time for the next start.

To determine the time until the next competition and the fisherman is not around, talk to the Fisherman's wife outside the Fishing guild. Another option is if the player has a Tackle box. There is a right click option that will tell the player the time until the next game.<!-- Commented out until someone can really fix the timer - do NOT simply reset the time and re-enable. The time seems to work for less than a day before it breaks.

The rough times for competitions, both AM and PM, are listed as below (plus or minus 5 minutes across the different worlds. However, the schedule changes each system update so that a game starts at the time of the update. Therefore the schedule below may be out of date and require [ updating] if there has been a recent system update. Up to date competition times can also be found on the official RuneScape Forums. Players can also operate their Tackle box to get the correct time until the next game. Note that the starting time varies by a few minutes on different worlds.

A timer counting down the rough time until the next competition starts can also be found at the top of this page.

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Entering the Competition
In order to enter the competition, players need to talk to one of the fishermen who can teleport there. Players can be teleported to the waiting area on Isla Anglerine by talking to any of them. The fishermen are located in six specific places near popular fishing spots. However, they only appear five minutes before a game is about to begin. They leave again approximately ten minutes into the game. The gallery at the bottom of the page shows the six fisherman locations.

Asking for Clues
The Fisherman can give every player one clue per game. A player must ask for one before being teleported to the game lobby. Asking for a clue is the second option in the dialogue box, underneath the option to be teleported. These clues are used to find the 100% rating for a fish. A good strategy is to share clues with a group of friends in order to maximise each player's chances of discovering a perfect combination. The fisherman will give a clue consisting of three pieces of information: the type of fish, the place to find the fish, and either the bait, hook, or distance of the fish. Examples of how to interpret the clues can be found below.

Hook clues

 * You’ll find drift herring at the docks. That species is fairly normal and doesn’t need a special hook. A normal hook should catch them just fine.
 * Explanation: Use a standard hook to catch herring at the docks.


 * You'll find thunder trout at the river. That species has a small mouth, so you'll need to take that into account when choosing your hook.
 * Explanation: Use a slim hook to catch trout at the river.


 * You'll find drift herring at the docks. That species tends to nibble its food, so a double hook will help to catch them.
 * Explanation: Use a double hook to catch herring at the docks.


 * You'll find jubilant salmon at the lake. That species has a wide mouth, so you'll need to take that into account when choosing your hook.
 * Explanation: Use a large hook to catch salmon at the lake.


 * You'll find spined herring at the river. They're clever and can spot metal a mile off. You´d better think carefully about what type of hook you use.
 * Explanation: Use a wooden or bone hook to catch herring at the river.

Distance clues

 * You'll find skipping cod at the lake. They've been spotted close to the shore, so you won't need much weight on your line to reach them.
 * Explanation: Range 1 or 2


 * You'll find crested cod at the docks. They've been seen a fair distance from the shore, but not too far. You'll need to attach a few weights to your line to reach them.
 * Explanation: Range 3 or 4


 * You'll find gentle trout at the lake. They've been sighted far from the shore, so attach lots of weights to your line to reach them.
 * Explanation: Range 5, 6, or 7

Begin Fishing
When the game begins, run from the boardwalk lobby to any of the four locations, select a bait, hook and weight on the control panel and hit "Cast". The locations and player controls are described below.

Places to Fish
When you are transported to the island, you arrive in the waiting area (the square in the map). When the game begins, you run to one of the four locations (lake, beach, river or dock - there are two docks which are identical) and start fishing. There are six type of fish that can be caught:


 * Bass
 * Cod
 * Herring
 * Pike
 * Salmon
 * Trout

The types of fish rotate to different locations each competition. Two locations will have one type of fish, while the other two locations will each have two types of fish. Players will have to fish at each location in order to catch one fish from each type.

Status Panel
When the competition begins, a status panel will appear at the top of the screen. The status panel shows the history of all the catches from that game including the tackle used for each, and the resultant % efficiency. Player can choose to hide all but the most recent catch.

Player Controls
When the competition begins, a control panel will appear in place of your inventory. To compete, you should aim to fish with 100% efficiency by mixing and matching bait, hooks, and weights for the particular fish you are catching at that location. You need to find the correct bait out of 8 choices, the correct hook out of 6 choices, and the correct combinations of weight to control the range out of seven choices. To do this, players select options from the control panel by clicking on the pictures.

Playing for 100% Rating
Each of the choices (bait, hooks, and weights) accounts for one third of the total rating when chosen correctly. An incorrect choice scores 0%, but close matches score 16%. A correct choice scores 33%. The simplest strategy to follow is to start fishing with the first bait, hook and weight and then work through all baits until you find the highest score, then the hooks, then the weights. When you have the correct bait your score must be 33%, but may be higher because you have hooks and weights that are already close or correct. After finding the first correct combination, finding the optimum tackle for the next fish becomes much easier because each bait, each hook, and each range is only used once. Many players keep note of what baits/hooks/ranges were used in order to better choose the next combination.

Tips and strategies for finding the optimum tackles quickly are discussed in greater detail below.



End of the Game


After 15 minutes of gameplay, each player is given a score based on the number of fish caught, total weight caught and several other factors. Based on this score, players receive fishing experience, reward tokens and medals. If a player did well enough, it might even be lucky enough to finish by standing on one of the five podiums in the game lobby. The interface at the end of the competition allows players to see the breakdown of their score and see the correct tackle combinations for each of the six fish.

Tactics
Because it is important to get the rating to 100% as fast as possible, there are a few tactics players can use to speed up the search process.

For the first fishing spot, players have no information about the correct bait, hook or weight so they have to start with a random choice. For the weight players can best start with one large weight, because it only requires one click and permits to build up from range 2 to range 3, 4, 6 and 7 easily by adding extra large weights. Range 1 and 5 can be reached by respectively using only one medium weight, or a combination of three large weights and one medium weight. Small weights can be used to reach the necessary range but may also result in unnecessary complexity and delays.

Bait Tactics


If players use the correct tactics, it is possible to determine the correct bait in three tries, although this is a little more difficult than finding the correct hook. Players can represent the eight different bait types as corners of an octagon where bait types on adjacent corners have a similarity (colour or shape). The fastest way to look for the correct bait is to change the first bait type to a bait type three or four corners away.

There are five possible changes:

Hook Tactics
The first part of the tackle players have to find is the hook because they can find the correct one in a maximum of three tries. Players have 3 sets (standard - slim, large - double, wood - bone), and start with one of the hooks out of these sets. First players are going to change their hook into a hook from another set. For example, if they chose standard they change their hook to anything except slim. Players also get hints and tips to get the right hook.

There are five possible changes each with a different conclusion:

Weights and Ranges
1 x Small = 1 kg 1 x Medium = 2 kg 1 x Large = 5 kg

Weight Tactics
When players have found the correct hook and the correct bait, their rating should be at 66%, 83% or 100%. If their rating is not 100%, they still have to find the correct weight. Weights 1 above or below the correct weight will add 16% to the rating and the correct weight will add 33% to the rating

Players can get five of the seven ranges with only adding extra large weights. To get the other two ranges (1 and 5m) players need to add a single medium weight or 3 large weights and one medium weight. The easiest way to get through all the weights is to build up from one large weight up until 5 large weights. When players still have not found the correct weight, remove two large weights and add a medium weight. If it is still not 100%, remove all remaining large weights.

83% Tactics
At any point if players get a rating of 83% they do not have to do the whole procedure described above. Two of the three are already correct and the last is similar to the correct type.

Change bait and then hook to similar:

After doing this only the range can be wrong.

Finding more 100% fish
When players have their first fish at 100%, they can then continue to look for other locations fish. No characteristics (bait/hook/weight) are correct for any of the other five fish. This makes the search for more 100%'s faster than the first one. After doing all spots for one fish, players will have to look for spots where there are two types of fish. This can be either of the four spots (beach, dock, lake or river). For the fifth region there are only four possible bait types, two possible hooks and three possible weight combinations left. This makes it much easier to find the correct bait for the second fish.

Maximizing catch

 * Players attempting to maximise catch typically do not move from location to location getting multiple perfect catches.


 * Do not operate the "Clear Line" control to remove weights. This stops fishing while a set of tackle is reselected. Weights can be removed by clicking the weight text in the control panel.


 * Do not continually click "Cast". When the game was first released constantly clicking this would speed up fishing, but after a silent update it now stops fishing until the clicking stops.

Heaviest fish
Once players have found the perfect tackle for a fish (100%), the ones digit for the weight in the fish they catch will always be the same. This is helpful in determining which fish type is the heaviest in the competition.

If a fish's weight ends in a 9, it can be the heaviest (which has a maximum weight of 199) or the lightest (which has a maximum weight of 179).


 * The heaviest species does not have a chance getting 29 or 39 (at 100% rating); while the lightest species does not have a chance getting 189 and 199.

Score Formula
To calculate the player's score, several criteria are taken into account:


 * Total Fish Caught: x
 * Total Weight: y
 * Heaviest fish: z
 * Number of Awards: A
 * Number of Medals: B
 * Perfect Tackle Found: C (see table)
 * Bonus for Performance: D (Average Weight Rating)

$$Score = (10x + y + 10z + 2000A + 1000B + C) * (1 + \frac{D}{100})$$

The maximum theoretical achievable score in a solo Flingers game is about 75,000 points, and the maximum achievable score in a team (leeched) Flingers game about 90,000, provided the player achieves the 199 fish at 100% right on the start, uses friends' information to catch all other fish within 1 try, and the 199 fish is located in the River area. However, few players ever exceed the 70,000 mark, even on team games, and the highest documented solo score to date is 73,577. The highest documented team score to date is 89,110. Given that these scores are achievable, this makes the maximum experience score of 40,000 relatively easy to achieve, provided the player is aware of what needs to be done.

Fishing experience
Players automatically gain some Fishing experience after the competition is over. The amount of fishing experience is maximised at level 62. The cap of the experience is just under 20,000.

* Scoring more than 40,000 points will not yield any extra experience.

Maximum fishing experience
For 40,000 score or greater.

Awards
Awards are given for the following achievements:
 * Heaviest fish caught
 * Most fish caught
 * Heaviest catch total

If multiple people achieve the same score for an achievement (for example, multiple people have a heaviest catch of 199), they will all be given the award. The score board will show that you were the winner for that award, even if you tied for it.

Medals
Medals are given for the following achievements:
 * 1) Junior Angler - Find the perfect tackle for three species
 * 2) Master Angler - Find the perfect tackle for all six species
 * 3) Heavy Catch - At least 80% of fish caught being of the heaviest species
 * 4) Efficient Fisher - Obtain an average catch rating of 80% or higher for each of the six fish species

Medals offer bonus points to your total score. Certain numbers of medals are also required to buy tackle boxes.

Tokens
For every four fish caught in the competition, one Fishing Token is awarded. In exchange for tokens players can buy either raw fish or a tackle box from the Fisherman's Wife. She offers lobsters, swordfish, and sharks as a reward, even though her table only has bass and cod on it. The type of fish that can be bought appears to be related to the fishing level of the player. A tackle box is used to store fishing equipment (Fishing rod, harpoon, etc.), fishing bait (fishing bait, feathers, etc.) and other items (Fist of Guthix Fishing gloves, cooking gauntlets). Tackle boxes can be upgraded using medals and tokens to hold more items.

Players can only have 2000 tokens maximum at a time.

Winning Podium
The winner and the four players with the next highest scores are placed on the podium at the end of the game. They can stay until they decide to get down. Be careful with dropping items on the podium as it is impossible to get back up, but Telekinetic Grab can be used.

Losing connection or logging out
If a player loses their connection or logs out while the competition is still running, when their connection is re-established or they log in again, they appear inside the game with the catches window clear, but the tackles, catches, etc. are valid. However, logging out and attempting to change worlds during a competition that has already started will result in the player being removed from the competition without the return of their entry ticket.

Fish Names
The names of the six fish all have different prefixes in front of their names depending on the locations in which they are found. The prefixes given are as follows in the table. Note the names have no effect on the gameplay.

Music
Some music tracks will be unlocked during this D&D, all of which are on the island.


 * Stillwater, in the waiting area.
 * Saltwater, on the docks, west and east of the waiting area.
 * Freshwater, anywhere north of the waiting area, river, lake and beach.

Trivia

 * On the day of release, the Fishing Guild received a graphics update.
 * The Fossegrimen's altar can be seen from the north end of the beach.
 * Part of the track that the coal trucks run on can be seen from the southern end of the eastern docks.
 * The name of the D&D is a play on the words "fish fingers", also known as fishsticks. The "Flingers" in Fish Flingers refers to the way the fish in this D&D are "flung" out of the water. There is a way to fling fish forward if the player stands in the right spot on the docks. This is the second time in a fishing activity where players can see the fish come out of the water, preceded by Barbarian Fishing.
 * Clicking 'cast' when the number of total catches changes will skip the extra animation and you will be able to get more fish.
 * It is impossible to get all 4 medals on a solo game without extraordinary luck, as achieving an average of 80% given an average catch rating of 50% on the tries prior to the 100% (averaging at 3 per non-199 fish for an expert flinger) will require 8 catches in total per non 199 fish, bringing the total number to 40. This would mean a total of 200 fish caught will be required, and the absolute theoretical limit of fish caught on a solo game with all 6 perfect tackles found is only 205. The conditions leading to these are so highly unlikely, and the number of players even capable of catching 180 fish within the time limit so small, that solo players can practically consider the Efficient Fisher medal to be unachievable, and concentrate their efforts on maximising the number of fish caught on the 199 type, which would both earn the Heavy Catch medal and maximise their overall point score.

Glitches

 * On the day of the release, if a player was resting or performing an emote while the lobby closed then they would stay in the lobby.
 * There is a glitch whilst wearing mudskipper hat and talking to a fisherman/fisherman's wife.
 * Fishflingfail.jpg is a glitch that your normal inventory will come up instead of the Tackle Box Menu if you try and withdraw from a familiar. It can be fixed by logging out and back in. This glitch has not been fixed.
 * There is a glitch that occurs when you enter the lobby right as a game starts. You are left in the lobby, unable to play, while the game continues.
 * There was a glitch that occurred when Pike and Salmon were paired together at the same fishing spot. When that happened, Salmon would be uncatchable. Only Pike could be caught. If the correct combination of bait, hook, and weight for Salmon were used in the spot, Pike would be caught with a 0% rating. This was stated to be fixed on 9 June 2010, but was not actually fixed until a few weeks later.
 * There was a glitch in the hints that reversed red and brown wriggling creatures between worms and maggots. It was fixed on 6 October 2010.
 * Sometimes at the end of a round, a mass logout occurs for all players who took part in the game, skipping the end-game lobby. This seems to have come with the Egg-streme Management update of 29 March 2010, when the ability to recolour dark bows was introduced.
 * When calling your pet from the podium after a game of Fish Flingers, it will have the blue flame effect of familiars and will wander around on its own until it is called again. The call button on the Follower Details interface does not work, you must use the right-click option "Call follower". The wandering glitch does not work with cats.