[GUIDE] Beginner’s Guide: In-game economy and Leveling up!

Overview

Ran out of money? Want to learn how to budget your money? This guide will teach you all about the economy of Fishing Planet. Need help leveling? This guide will also help teach you tips and tricks to leveling.

What This Guide Will Provide

This is a Beginner’s Guide. This guide can also provide information to current experienced players but will be mainly targeted at people who are new to the game.

IN-GAME ECONOMY
This guide will teach you the basics of the games economy, tips and ways on how to obtain those currencies, and tips on how to conserve those currencies.

LEVELING
This guide is a general overview. It will give you tips on leveling but it will not give you specifics on how to catch anything. If you are looking on how to fish in a certain state or catch a certain fish I suggest looking at a guide specifically for that state or fish.

1. In-Game Economy

To begin, Fishing Planet has two basic currency.

Credits – The basic currency (Shown in the Blue circle, top right)
Gold – Another available currency (Shown in the Red circle, top right)

IMPORTANT NOTE: Neither of the two currencies in the game can be traded or transferred at this time so beware of anyone who may attempt to trick you.

1.A. Credits

What are Credits?: The general currency of Fishing Planet. Credits is considered the basic currency that you will be using throughout the game. It is used to buy everything from rods, reels, baits, gear, licenses, fishing trip expenses, and much more. If you’re a new player and just finished the tutorial you should have about 600 credits.

How Do I Get Credits?: As stated before, credits are the basic currency, therefor there are plenty of ways to obtain credits.

Login Bonus: Consecutive logins will reward you with credits. Days 1, 2, 3, and 4 will grant you with credits, increasing each day, as a bonus. After day 5, the consecutive logins will reset and you will begin back at day 1.
Fishing: As a new player this will be your main source of income as well as your main focus. Normally, when you catch a fish you are given the option to “keep” it. If your stringer or hut (the item you bought in tutorial is a stringer, which allows you to keep fish that you catch; think of it as a temporary storage for fish you catch) is full or the individual fish weighs too much you will be forced to release the fish. For every fish you keep until the end of the day you will receive a payout. I will teach you some tips about keeping fish later in this guide.
Real Money Purchases: The game is F2P (free to play) but there is an option to purchase more credits, however this doesn’t give a player an advantage over others. Most items, if not all, have level restrictions so that even if you have 1,000,000 credits you can’t buy anything you want. The amount of credit you can purchase at once ranges from 500 credits to 10,000 credits.
Premium: Premium is an extra benefit that you can pay real money for. It gives you a 50% bonus to your exp gain when catching fish and one credit reward each time you purchase premium. The credit recieved differs depending on which premium you purchase, ranging from 100 credit up to 2000.
DLC’s: At the moment there are 3 available DLC’s. Purchasing any of the 3 DLC’s will reward you with credits on top of other benefits and/or content they provide.
Achievements: Some achievements will award you with credits. I don’t have a list of which do but you can test it out yourself.

1.A.1. TIPS on Saving Credits

TIPS on Saving Credits: There are many ways you can save credits, here are a few:

Don’t Buy Unnecessary Equipment – This means don’t buy every new fishing pole just because you hit the level requirement for it. Even at level 13 I used a level 3 rod to catch bass. It also means that you should restrain yourself from trying all the different baits and lures if possible. It’s fun to try new things but do it once you find a place that you can keep earning your credits back.
Save! – Save enough to buy the license you need, as well as the travel fee’s. This is a great habit to keep since you never know if you’ll suddenly take a break. This way you will ensure that you don’t end up with no more credits and get yourself stuck.
Purchase in Bulk – This applies to licenses, when you purchase licenses you have the options to purchase it for 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 1 month, or unlimited (access to it forever), Although it may seem like a small amount it is cheaper to buy longer days if you know you’re going to be there for a while. (P.S. They last for that long in real time and not in-game time)
Don’t Risk It – BUY your license(s), and don’t risk getting a fine. I’ll explain this more in the ways to lose your credit.
Stay a Few Days! – When you travel you pay a base travel fee, very expensive compared to paying for how many days your trip is. For example, it may cost you 230 credits to fly there, but to keep fishing there every day will only cost you an extra 10 credits. So instead of spending 240 each time you want to fish there, plan a long trip and stay there for a few days and earn lots of credit before returning.
Bring a Spare – If you break your reel while fishing, you won’t be able to repair it until the end of your fishing trip. That means if you made a trip for 5 days and you break your reel on the first day, you wasted 4 days of your trip. If you have room, bring a spare reel just for safety measures. This also applies to rods.
Check Your Gear – Double check your gear. You never know when you might suddenly run into a bug and have missing gear. Also, when you purchase items it may go into your “home” inventory. To acess that inventory you must leave any state you are in and return to the main map and then check your inventory. Check your gear to make sure you have all the gear you will need, otherwise it could end up costing you a lot of money to travel back.
Set Your Home – Plan on fishing somewhere for a long time? Your default home state is Missouri but you have the option to change it. If you don’t plan on returning to Missouri much I recommend setting a new home state. Note that you can only set a state as your home if you have the level to access that state. Setting a new home state will cost a large ammount of credits. However, this will significantly reduce your travel cost to that state and is a great way to save money in the long term. Also note that travel fee’s are based off the distance from your home state, meaning if your home is on the East coast, traveling to west coast states will cost more and vise versa. (Setting your home at a state that requires a higher level to access then your current state may cost alot, however if you decide you want to move your home back to any lower level state it will be free. Just remember that if you try to move back to a higher level state it will cost you credits again.)
Use the T Function In Game – The T function in game allows you to fast forward time. What this means is that if you accidentally chose only 1 day or if you stayed 5 days but want to stay longer you can extend your days. That means you won’t have to pay the travel fee (until you decide to leave and return). How do you do it? Simple, depending on your time in game, just skip it to 12 AM, this will give you a prompt to choose to extend your stay or end your trip.

1.A.2. Ways to Lose Credits

Ways to Lose Credits: Just as there a ways to save credits, there are ways to lose or waste them.

Gear – This will be a lot of your credit losses, you will need to buy better gear once you start leveling up. Just don’t waste it on pointless things. Ask around in game and people will usually point you in the direction.
Traveling – This will probably be how you lose the most credits. Each time you travel to a state you will have to pay a travel fee. This fee will add up over time but if done correctly you will always end up making more then you spend to travel there.
Broken Gear – If you break a reel you will have to return to the main Map, ending your trip (unless you have a spare reel or another rod set up with a reel). To repair your reel it also costs credits so try not to break it.
Fines – Every state requires you to have a license if you want to fish and keep fish from that state. Some states will require you to specifically have a basic or advanced license depending on what you want to keep. Some states has it set so the advanced license will grant you access to all the fish so be sure to read what each states fishing license will grant you before purchasing them. If you’re unsure what you can fish, there’s color coded fish when you go to the map and click the location. Red = No license for that fish, Yellow = You must release, and Green = You MUST keep (or risk getting a fine for releasing), or you can keep or release it.

1.A.3. Tips on Earning Your First Credits

If you’re starting off, or still a low level, follow these steps and start earning you first few credits at a good rate. Again, I won’t tell you specifics but there are plenty of guides on steam that will give you step by step if you’re lost.

You will only have the basic license for Missouri if you just finished the tutorial. You can buy the advanced license, but it won’t be necessary for now.

REMEMBER: To earn credits for a fish you must keep the fish you catch until the end of the day. Releasing a fish at any point will not grant you credits.

1. If you’re below level 3 – Start catching young large mouth bass until level 3 or 4 (use red worms as bait and throw near the cat tails on the left, if you’re unsure of where to throw your bait, check steam for a guide)
2.a. Once level 3, purchase a casting spoon #2 from the shop (Under Spoons in the lure section)
2.b. Use the casting spoon method to catch young large mouth bass & large mouth bass
3.a. Once level 4, purchase a casting spoon #1 from the shop
3.b. If you have enough gold, you have the option to purchase a Bass Jig 1/4 Oz. #2/0 instead of the casting spoon #1. The jig cost 5 gold and to purchase it you must access the shop from Missouri. (This jig will also let you catch trophy large mouth bass, awarding more credits)
4. Use the new lure to catch large mouth bass (the larger lure allows for more consistent bites from large mouth bass instead of young large mouth)
5. At this point, you should be releasing any young large mouth bass and only keeping large mouth bass
6. Keep your landing and net up to date (this is basically your storage)

I can’t EQUIP the lure/spoon!
To equip a lure you need to have a spinning reel and spinning rod. Both are available roughly at a low level. (If you buy it and you can’t find it in your inventory it usually means that you have to leave the state, if your in one, and check your home inventory.)

What does that do?
You basically want to avoid catching the panfish/crappies. Why? because they give 1 to 2 credits and take up too much of your fishing storage I told you about earlier.

Why young large mouth bass & large mouth bass?
The best thing to fish in Missouri for credits at a low level is the bass. You have to start off catching the young large mouth due to the fact that if your still below level 3 you won’t have access to the casting spoon. Large mouth bass because they give the most credits and once you learn the method it is easy to catch.

Why do I need a casting spoon #1 if I have a casting spoon #2?
Casting spoon #1 is larger, due to the game mechanics, a larger lure will allow larger fish to bite. You will still catch a few young large mouth bass but you should be catching more large mouth bass.

What color casting spoon should you buy?
According to what other players have said the general rule is: Lighter colors, silver, are for sunny days, while darker colors, gold, are for cloudy/rainy days. I say now would be the time to experiment, buy both colors and see which works best for you. For me the silver casting spoon worked better for me in both sunny and cloudy days so I just stuck to silver. You can tell what the weather by hitting “i” when you’re in Missouri and clicking the Map icon (second icon, left of inventory) then looking at the left side.

1.A.4. Fish = Credits? Which do I keep?

To reiterate, you will only get credits for a fish if you keep it until the end of the day. If you release the fish to make room, or just because you want to, it will not reward you with credits for that fish at the end of the day.

So which fish should you keep for credits?
From what I can tell each fish type such as; trout, bass, crappies, etc. will give you a different amount of credits. Generally, the larger the fish, the larger the rewards. For example, a 2Lb bass will reward you more than a 1.3Lb bass.

However, when you cross examine different types of fish and compare them to each other you will notice how some species will provide less credits. This may be due to many reasons but is still unknown to me.

The formula?
As far as I know the developers have yet to release or tell us of a formula. I don’t think any player has solved this formula either. There is a lot to consider when trying to crack the formula. Depending on what the developers decided was necessary when rewarding you it could be anything in or out of this category:

Length + Weight
Fish strength (fight)
Difficulty (of catching or finding/use of techniques needed)
Cost of possible supplies (higher cost = higher rewards?)
Level required to unlock area
Fish type/species

Who knows, it could be as simple as the average size of this fish is 5 inches with a reward of 10 credits. Thus anything bigger by X% will reward you with +1 credit, anything smaller than X% will reward you with -1 credits. You can try to crack it if you want.

Which fish type or species is better?
Honestly I don’t know every area or the average rewards of every fish. My tip for you would be to ask for help in the area you’re in. Most people will tell you which fish is best in the area. Even if you don’t have many people to help answer your questions, there are lots of helpful guides on steam for Fishing Planet. If there aren’t any guide for your specific area you can always enjoy fishing the different species to find which one will give you more credits.

1.A.5. How Much Is This Fish? How To Release Fish

How much is my fish worth?
When you catch a fish you won’t know how much credits or gold you will receive until you keep the fish. This is why having a FishingHut is useful when you’re a lower level. When you’re in a state fishing, catch a fish, and press the keep button you can see how much the fish is worth by click “i” and then pressing the 6th button (shown by a light blue circle in the image directly below) at the top.

Light Blue Circle – The button to access this screen
A – Total weight, this shows how much more fish you can carry (The game doesn’t care about how many fish, but rather how much they weigh)
B – How many fish you have currently in your inventory
C – Shows how much credits and gold you will receive at the end of the day (this does not include penalties to my knowledge)
D – How much credits or gold each individual fish will give you at the end of the day
E – Release the fish, if the “Release” is grayed out it means you must keep the fish. A reasons could be because you have a jail stringer.

1.A.6. HELP! I Can’t Release My Fishes!

HELP!
This is most likely due to your landing and fish nets. If you just started playing and finished the tutorial then you should know that during the tutorial you purchased a stringer. Stringers “hurt” the fish and aren’t fish friendly so it won’t allow you to release fish if you keep them. Hut’s however, will let you release fish because they are fish friendly. (Remember, releasing a fish will not reward you with credits)

Benefits of Jail Stringer

Larger individual fish weight

Benefits of FishHut

Larger total fish weight
Ability to release fish

Isn’t the FishHut better then?
The answer is yes and no. Yes, because it allows you to carry more fish by the end of the day and it will allow you to release a fish if you have a small one. No, because it also means you can’t carry a BIG fish. If you happen to catch a unique (large, rare fish) your hut might not be able to hold the fish. Both types of storage have downfalls as well as benefits. It’s up to your preference but once you get used to the game you will learn which fish to keep and which to release.

1.A.7. HELP! I Ran Out Of Credits!

Unfortunately it is possible to run out of credits due to how the game is set up. Since no “home state” has no travel fee and always has a day fee it is possible to be stuck if you can’t afford to travel and earn some credits by fishing.

I have yet to run into the situation, and it is easy to avoid as long as you follow the tips in this guide. However, if you did run out of credits there are a few options. If you remember how to earn credits there are some options that may help you.

Buy a DLC’s – All DLC’s will give you credits as well as useful items
Buy Premium in The Store – Any purchase of premium will also give you credits
Buy Credits – Simplest way if you want to get back into the game
Wait For Your Daily Bonus – Last resort would be to wait for your bonus
Contact the Fishing Planet Support – Again, since I have yet to run into this situation I don’t know if the support can help you. If you have no other options it wouldn’t hurt to ask for help from the Fishing Planet Support.

Unfortunately you cannot exchange, trade, or give either of the two currencies.

1.B. Gold

What Is Gold?: Gold is the second type of currency in Fishing Planet. Gold is harder to obtain due to there being less methods to obtain it, and as such, considered a higher valued currency by many players. At this moment there aren’t many uses of gold other than buying items in the shop.

How Do I Get Gold?: There are less ways to get gold currently. The methods may also seem harder for many new players.

Login Bonus: Consecutive logins will first reward you with credits, however, if you get up to 5 consecutive days logged in then the 5th day will reward you with gold instead of credits.
Fishing: Unique fish, as suggested by the name, are rare fish that you can catch while fishing. They are harder to catch and are caught less frequently then the average fish. If you catch a unique fish and keep it until your fishing day ends you will be rewarded with gold for catching the unique.
Leveling: When you level you will be awarded with a number of gold.
DLC’s: At the moment there are 3 available DLC’s. Purchasing any of the 3 DLC’s will give you gold on top of other benefits and/or content they provide.
Achievements: Completing certain achievements will also award you with gold. I currently don’t have a list of which achievements give you gold since I have yet to complete every achievement.

1.B.1. TIPS for Gold

Uses of Gold
Gold can be use to purchase better items at a lower level. For example, a FishHut for a level 12 that cost credits may be good, however a FishHut available at level 8 and cost gold could be even better, by providing a larger individual fish weight and larger total fish weight. Just remember that gold is harder to come by and thus, should be saved until you almost need to use it. Also a key thing to note is that lure’s/baits that cost gold may also provide a better bonus to catching larger fish according to what developers have “hinted.”

How to Farm Gold
There is really no way to farm gold. Since the methods to obtain gold aren’t really farm-able and the only thing that could be is catching unique’s. However, fishing is random. There are some things you can do to increase the chances but there are currently no method to guarantee you catching a unique. Here are some things that will help you when trying to catch unique’s:

Time of Day – In some states a specific unique will bite more at a certain time
Lure/Bait – Usually larger lure will allow larger fish such as trophy and unique’s
Cast Location – Just because you’re in the perfect time, if you cast in the wrong location you could end up catching nothing
Guides – Since this guide doesn’t specifically talk about a state or fish, try checking for a guide that does, it will help you immensely.

What Should I use It On?
Gear, for now that’s all you can use it on. You don’t have to spend it specifically on things but I recommend you save enough for lures. Once you become comfortable with the game there are great lures that require you to use gold to purchase them. I don’t recommend using gold on low level rods or reels.

2. Leveling

After completing the tutorial you will be sent to the map of the game. This map will be how you will travel to different places to fish. If you are a new player you will notice that there will be only one place you can fish; Mudwater River, Missouri (Home State).

EXP is represented by a star in game.

Your level as well as your EXP bar is displayed in the top left when in the main map. You can also access it while in a state by pressing the “i” button.

You can check how much EXP you need to level by pressing the 4th button (Statistics) and looking in the left hand column.

2.A. Gaining EXP/Levels

How To Gain EXP/Levels:
To begin leveling up you need to acquire EXP. As of 8/15/2015 there are only two methods of obtaining exp and leveling.

Catching Fish – Each time you successfully catch a fish you will be awarded with the EXP it provides. To gain the exp you DO NOT have to keep the fish and may release it if you want.
Achievements – Achievements is another way to earn EXP. Naturally, they will complete as you catch fish and play the game however completing achievements are not required. You can see your achievements by also clicking the 4th button (Statistics) and this time looking at the right hand column. Achievements usually have 3 tiers (levels) which get harder as you complete them. If you have yet to achieve the first level of the achievement it will be grey’ed out.

2.B. TIPS on Leveling

Fishing
One thing to note is that the more you catch a fish the less EXP you will receiving from that fish. I don’t know the specific number but it decreases up to a certain number/percentage I believe. The number of fish caught does not reset upon leaving the state or catching different fish.

Here are some tips on where to fish for your first 10 levels:

Level 1 – Tutorial / Fish in Missouri for young large mouth bass/catfish
Level 2 – Fish in Missouri for young large mouth bass
Level 3 – Fish in Missouri for young large mouth bass + large mouth bass
Level 4 – Fish in Missouri for large mouth bass
Level 5 – Fish in Missouri for large mouth bass
Level 6 – Fish in Missouri for large mouth bass or Fish in New York for Trophy Pike’s/Perch
Level 7 – Fish in New York for Trophy Pike’s/Perch
Level 8 – Fish in New York for Trophy Pike’s/Perch
Level 9 – Fish in Colorado for Rainbow Trout
Level 10 – Fish in Colorado for Rainbow Trout

General leveling tips:

1. Just because you unlock a new area doesn’t mean you need to fish there right away. It’s fun to try a new area, however, some states require you to be an even higher level to buy certain license. For example, it may only require you to be level 8 to access the state but the advanced license requires you to be level 9.
2. Practice different methods, for jigging there are many ways to jig the lure, some may work better then the others.
3. Ask for advice in-game. Most players will respond to questions unless they’re busy or afk.
4. Check other guides, especially if you’re stuck. There a lots of helpful guides on steam and they’re all free.
5. Switch it up. Exactly what it means. Fishing 1 fish can get boring if you do it day after day after day. So, try fishing other things and try fishing in a different state for a while to fight that boredom and then go back to leveling.

Again, these are just general tips. If you want actual methods or locations and how to fish them then check steam for those specific guides.

3. How Much Did I Make?

Great day fishing or a terrible day for fishing, how do I see how much I made?
Every time you finish your day you will receive a popup with your total statistics for that day. If you completed an achievement, the fishes you caught, if you got a fine, how much gold, credits, or EXP you got will be listed there. There is a lot of other information it will provide.

A – List of Fish caught during the day
B – Fines received from illegal fish/fishing
C – Number of fish caught for the day
D – Any achievements completed during the current day
E – Total EXP earned for the day (Not sure if it includes achievement EXP)
F – Total credits earned for the day
G – Total gold earned for the day
H – Escapes, Line breaks, Snags, Other breaks

Once you decide to end your fishing trip and return to the main Map you will also receive a second popup which will tell you the total of the entire trip. This is a really important screen because it will tell you if you are profiting or not. Naturally, if you aren’t profiting then something is wrong and should be be fixed otherwise you may end up running out of credits.

A – Total amount of fines received from illegal fish/fishing
B – Travel cost and day(s) cost
C – Total number of days your trip was (Note: Travel cost + (day cost x number of days) = Total trip cost)
D – Total number of fish caught for the trip; regular size, trophys, and uniques
E – Total fish that escape, line breaks, snags, and other breaks (Rod, reels, etc.)
F – Achievements completed during the entire trip
G – Total ammount of EXP earned during your trip
H – Total ammount of Credits earned during your trip
I – Total ammount of Gold earned during your trip

4. Achievements, Quest, & Tournaments

Achievements
Some achievements may give gold or credits. Majority of achievements will reward you with EXP. Remember that there is usually 3 tiers for each individual achievements. If you want to test it out yourself try completing some achievements and see what rewards you will recieve.

Quests
Quest are currently unavailable as of 8/15/2015. Hopefully they will add daily quest which will provide you with a few gold, credits, and/or exp.

Tournaments
Tournaments are currently unavailable as of 8/15/2015.

Fishing Planet Guide