Features#

This page explains every system of Koja Fishing from the player's side, so you know what your players will see and can explain it on your server. Every value mentioned here is configurable — see Configuration.

Fishing guide#

New anglers see a marker above Kuba, the guide on the Del Perro pier and on Chumash Pier. The first time a player walks up to him, the camera turns to Kuba for a few seconds while he waves and calls out — once per client (kf_intro_reset replays it).

Talking to Kuba starts the guide:

1. Watch the tour#

   A short camera tour of the pier with captions: the shop, the licence exam, quests, illegal fishing, tournaments, diving, digging, boat rental and the fishing spot. Press Space for the next shot or Backspace to skip.

2. Get the starter kit#

   Once per character Kuba hands out a rod, a reel, two lines and worm bait.

3. Follow the objectives#

   Each objective has a map waypoint: visit the shop, equip your gear, walk to the water, cast, land a fish and unlock your first skill.

4. Collect the reward#

   XP once, and the Fishpedia — a book you can use from the inventory to read the angler's handbook. Lost it? Kuba gives you a new one.

Talk to Kuba again to stop the guide. When the guide is done, the other peds get role icons above their heads.

Fishing#

1. Equip your gear#

   Tap Q (or hold Q and press TAB) to open the hotbar and put a rod, reel, line and bait in its four slots. Equipment comes from your inventory — the hotbar only lists items you actually carry.

2. Go to a spot#

   Fishing works only inside a fishing spot, facing water — on foot or from a boat, never while swimming. Entering a spot shows its name, description and level. Some spots are locked — see Fishing spots.

3. Cast#

   When you stand still on a fishing spot facing water, a prompt appears at the bottom of the screen, with shortcuts for cast, gear and stop. Press E to cast; if your gear is incomplete the prompt tells you to open the hotbar instead. One bait is used per cast. Press X at any time to stop.

4. Strike#

   Wait for a bite — a better reel, the Fast bite skill and the spot's modifier shorten the wait. When Bite! appears, click left mouse before the ring runs out, or the fish escapes. The notification does not tell you which fish is on the line.

5. Fight the fish#

   An indicator above your head shows the fight, and a second marker on the water follows the fish:
   • Reeling — how far the fish still is. Hold left mouse to reel in.
   • Line tension — reeling raises it, letting go lowers it. At 100% the line snaps; release the mouse when the bar turns red.
   • Side pull — the fish pulls left or right. Hold the key that lights up (A or D, against the pull) to keep it centred. A warning shows just before it switches sides. If it drifts too far, the line snaps.
   • Runs — sometimes the fish thrashes. Release the mouse until it calms down.
   The fish escapes when it swims too far away, or when you move or leave the spot. A fish heavier than your line's maxFishWeight snaps it straight away. A snapped line is lost, and after any lost fight the rod may break too (Config.ChanceToRodDamage).

6. Keep or release#

   When the fish is landed you choose:
   • Keep — the fish goes to your inventory, to sell or use.
   • Release — you get XP instead.

Which fish you can hook depends on your level and gear tier: rare fish need a stronger rod, line and bait, and a minimum angler level per rarity (common 1, uncommon 5, rare 15, legendary 24). Rarer fish also fight harder. A luck necklace in your inventory improves the odds of rarer fish.

Fishing from a boat works the same; a moving boat scares the fish unless it is anchored. Press G (or use the target menu) to drop and raise the anchor of the boat you are on.

Fishing spots#

A spot can be locked in several ways, all checked when you cast:

Some blips only appear on the map from a certain level.

The default spots:

Boosted zones#

At any time one bubble zone is active somewhere on the map, marked by mist on the water. Fishing inside it raises the odds of rare and legendary fish and of the spot's highlighted species. The zone moves after a few minutes.

Levels and progression#

Releasing fish, finishing quests, the tutorials, contracts, hermit quests and party goals give XP. Each level gives skill points, spent in the Skills tab at the quest ped (Angelo).

Rods, reels, lines, baits and necklaces have a required level: the shop sells them only from that level.

When you level up, a short cutscene plays: the camera turns to you, flies over the spots you just unlocked, and a summary lists the new gear, fish rarities, boats and skill points. Press Backspace to skip it.

Shop#

Talk to a shop ped to buy equipment and sell fish, gear and treasures, paying by cash or bank. The shop has a category rail, quality chips, a price range, sorting, a grid or list view and an "only my level" filter. When selling, you can select all fish of a rarity at once.

A few items are on sale at any time; the sale rotates every two hours by default. Trader skills raise what you get for fish.

Shop peds can have their own prices. Hank, the village shop on the Alamo Sea, sells gear cheaper and pays more than the pier shops.

Redeem codes are entered in the shop. A code gives a temporary luck bonus and each player can use it once.

Quests#

The quest ped shows quest boards, split into main and side pages. Quests in a board are done in order. Chained boards unlock one after another; independent boards are open from the start, in parallel. Many boards have a story shown on the board. Follow a board to see its current quest on screen.

Objectives count real actions — catching fish (of a species, rarity, spot or time of day), selling fish, digging and diving. Quests reward XP, cash and items — for example, "Angler's Path" ends with a Master Rod.

Hermits#

Two hermits live away from the piers, without map blips:

• Tom, on the coast next to a cave, wants golden carp and rare eels. In return he gives XP, legendary bait and shows you Hermit's Cave, a spot with old, strange fish.
• Gustaw, at the secret pond, wants an ancient fish and golden trout. He pays with XP, cash, a gold luck necklace and a legendary line.

Talk to a hermit to read his story and see what he needs. Bring the items and hand them over; each hermit's quest can be done once per character.

Tournaments#

The tournament ped lists running tournaments. Join one by paying the entry fee; from then on every fish you land scores points.

• Fixed tournaments score points per species.
• Automatic tournaments repeat every few hours and score by the weight of your heaviest fish (or total weight).

The window shows a featured tournament, the podium rewards and a live leaderboard. When a tournament ends, prizes are paid to the top places automatically — even to players who were offline at the time, as soon as they join.

Fishing licence#

At the exam ped players take a timed multiple-choice test. Before the exam, the Study screen offers short lessons that cover every exam question. Passing grants a fishing licence. Failing too many times starts a cooldown. Depending on your settings, the licence is required to fish, to fish at some spots, to search diving caches and to talk to some peds.

Poaching and fines#

Fishing in a protected spot such as the Zancudo Marshes, and electric fishing, leave evidence for 30 minutes. Catching a fish in a protected spot can alert the police: officers get a notification and a blip on the map. Protected species (the four swamp fish) count as evidence as long as you carry them.

Police officers get an Inspect catch option on players through the target menu. It opens a report with the evidence, the protected fish found and the licence status, and a fine window:

1. Pick the offences#

   Protected zone, protected species (per fish), no licence, electric fishing or littering. The report suggests the offences that match the evidence. The server refuses protected zone, protected species, no licence and electric fishing when the evidence is missing.

2. Issue the fine#

   The total is capped, and the same angler cannot be fined again for a short time. Depending on your settings the money is taken directly, a bill is created, or your billing script handles it.

3. Confiscation#

   Fining for protected species removes those fish from the angler.

Party#

Press F7 to open the party window. Create a party and invite nearby players (by default only the leader invites); they accept with Y or decline with N. A party has up to four members and a leader, who can kick members, promote another leader and toggle the shared wallet.

• Shared wallet — money from shop sales is split equally between the seller and members nearby.
• XP bonus — released fish give extra XP while another member is nearby.
• Group goals — the leader picks a goal (catch fish, catch rare fish, sell fish for a value, open dive crates, dig up caches). Every member who helps gets the cash and XP reward when it is done.

A HUD shows the party totals, member cards and the active goal.

Boat rental#

At the rental ped players rent a boat for a refundable cash deposit, and higher-tier boats require a higher level. The boat appears at the free parking spot nearest to you — on the Del Perro pier or at Chumash Pier. Return the boat to its parking spot to get the deposit back. While aboard you can drop and raise the anchor with G or through the target menu, and fish from the boat.

Diving#

Marek, the diving instructor, runs the dive centre.

1. First dive#

   The first talk offers a short tutorial: suit up, get into the water, open a practice crate and surface. It gives the basic scuba gear for free and XP once.

2. Gear up#

   Upgrade the tank (more air), fins (faster swimming), head lamp and scanner (marker range, and at the top level the loot tier). Refill the tank at Marek; the price depends on the missing air.

3. Take a contract#

   Marek offers generated contracts — salvage, recovery and treasure — on reefs and wrecks. Higher tiers need a better tank and scanner. Crates within scanner range get a marker; open them all to collect cash, XP and items such as pearls, ancient coins, sunken compasses and ship bells.

Underwater an air gauge counts down, warns you when air runs low, and you start drowning when the tank is empty. The dive centre window also shows your stats.

Besides contracts, underwater caches off the Del Perro coast are marked with an outline when you swim close. Search one to get loot — bait, line, cable, fish, coins, pearls, sometimes a luck necklace. A searched cache respawns after a few minutes, and the same cache is shared by all players.

Digging#

Stefan runs the dig site.

1. First dig#

   The first talk starts a short tutorial: get the bike, ride to the beach and dig once. It gives one shovel per character and XP once. Stefan lends a bike at any time afterwards.

2. Dig for bait#

   Use a shovel on open ground (not in water, on a road or in a vehicle) to dig for bait and small loot, sometimes a treasure. Stay in place until the progress bar finishes. Digging has a short cooldown.

3. Upgrade and take contracts#

   Better shovels dig faster and find rarer loot, a metal detector finds buried caches, and a bigger bag shortens the cooldown. Contracts send you to a beach to dig up buried caches — bait, relics or a pirate chest. Without a detector (and on tier 1 contracts) the caches show as mounds in the sand; with one, pings mark them and the detector beeps faster as you get closer.

Electric fishing#

The illegal method, for the Poacher branch:

1. Place the battery#

   Use a battery item near the shore.

2. Connect the cable#

   Carry the cable to the water through the target menu. This uses one cable item.

3. Start it#

   Pass the built-in skill check. The battery runs one cycle.

4. Grab the fish#

   Stunned fish surface one after another. Grab them through the target menu while the cycle runs — not every grab succeeds, and a missed fish is gone.

5. Pick it up#

   Take the battery back when you are done.

One battery per player can be placed at a time, and only its owner can operate it. Every fish grabbed this way is evidence for the police.

Admin panel#

Admins open the panel with /fishingadmin. It edits the config live for the server and every player — fish, items, spots, peds, quests, tournaments, the exam, diving, digging and more — and manages players' licences, levels, XP and skill points. See Configuration.